Indian Ocean dipole mode events in a simple mixed layer ocean model

A precise knowledge of sea surface temperature (SST) is very essential for climate and oceanographic studies. In this paper a simple two dimensional mixed layer ocean model and its numerical code have been developed and used to simulate the SST fields over the north Indian Ocean (20°S-25°N and 35°E-115°Î) for a period of 10 years (1992-2001). The model simulated the SST variability reasonably well. The simple model could simulate the observed dipole of 1997 and 1994 very well, especially the eastern cooling. The model study showed that the interannual SST variability in the western equatorial Indian Ocean is not only due to the variability in the surface heat fluxes, but also due to the variability in wind and sea surface height (SSH). The OLR anomaly also shows positive (negative) anomaly over the negative (positive) anomalous SST region. The variability in the latent heat flux is found to be greatly influencing the SST variability in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean

Effect of Crop Establishment Methods on Crop Yield, Weed Dynamics, Profitability and Nutrient Uptake Under Rice-Wheat Cropping System of Indo-Gangetic Plains of Eastern India

The rice–wheat cropping system covering 13.5 million ha in the Indo-Gangetic Plains in South-Asia is vital for food security. Water, energy and labour scarcity, increasing cost of production, diminishing farm profit and the changing climate are major challenges faced by the farmers under intensive tillage based conventional practices. In a field study, we evaluated productivity, weed dynamics, nutrient uptake and economical profitability of four wheat establishment methods during two years. The wheat establishment methods included zero-till wheat (ZTW), happy seeder planted wheat (HSW), bed planted wheat (BPW) and conventional till wheat (CTW). The treatments were completely randomized and replicated five times. Wheat grain yield under HSW was 3.4% and 4.1% higher than BPW, 8.3% and 11.0% higher than ZTW and 20.8% and 24.5% higher than CTW in 2012-13 and 2013-14, respectively. Nutrient (N, P and K) uptake in wheat grain was also higher in HSW than in the other treatments. Weed density and biomass was the lowest under HSW followed by BPT, and the highest in CTW. The weed pressure was reduced in the second growing season compared to the first. Net profit and benefit cost ratio was highest under HSW and the lowest under CTW. This record was migrated from the OpenDepot repository service in June, 2017 before shutting down

Premenopausal cardiovascular disease and age at natural menopause: a pooled analysis of over 170,000 women

Early menopause is associated with an increased risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease (CVD). Few studies have investigated the converse. We examined whether premenopausal CVD events are associated with early age at menopause. We pooled the individual data of 177,131 women from nine studies. We used multinomial logistic regression models to estimate multivariable relative risk ratios (RRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the associations between age at onset of premenopausal CVD events-including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke-and age at natural menopause. Altogether 1561 (0.9%) premenopausal participants reported CVD events (including 1130 CHD and 469 stroke) at a mean age of 41.3 years. Compared with women without any premenopausal CVD events, women who experienced a first CVD event before age 35 years had a twofold risk of menopause before age 45 years (early menopause); adjusted RRR (95% CI) of 1.92 (1.17, 3.14) for any CVD, 1.86 (1.01, 3.43) for CHD and 2.17 (1.43, 3.30) for stroke. Women who experienced a first premenopausal CVD event after age 40 years underwent a natural menopause at the expected age (around 51 years). These associations were robust to adjustment for smoking status, BMI, educational level, race/ethnicity, age at menarche, parity, hypertension and family history of CVD. For premenopausal women, a first CVD event before age 35 years is associated with a doubling of the risk of an early menopause, while a first CVD event occurred after 35 years indicates a normal menopause at around 51 years. Shared genetic and environmental factors (such as smoking), as well as compromised vasculature following CVD events, may contribute to this outcome

Sentinel lymph node biopsy using dye alone method is reliable and accurate even after neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced breast cancer - a prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is now considered a standard of care in early breast cancers with N0 axillae; however, its role in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) after neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is still being debated. The present study assessed the feasibility, efficacy and accuracy of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) using "dye alone" (methylene blue) method in patients with LABC following NACT.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>Thirty, biopsy proven cases of LABC that had received three cycles of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, 5-fluorouracil) were subjected to SLNB (using methylene blue dye) followed by complete axillary lymph node dissection (levels I-III). The sentinel node(s) was/were and the axilla were individually assessed histologically. The SLN accuracy parameters were calculated employing standard definitions. The SLN identification rate in the present study was 100%. The sensitivity of SLNB was 86.6% while the accuracy was 93.3%, which were comparable with other studies done using dual lymphatic mapping method. The SLN was found at level I in all cases and no untoward reaction to methylene blue dye was observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study confirms that SLNB using methylene blue dye as a sole mapping agent is reasonably safe and almost as accurate as dual agent mapping method. It is likely that in the near future, SLNB may become the standard of care and provide a less morbid alternative to routine axillary lymph node dissection even in patients with LABC that have received NACT.</p

Agent based modelling helps in understanding the rules by which fibroblasts support keratinocyte colony formation

Background: Autologous keratincoytes are routinely expanded using irradiated mouse fibroblasts and bovine serum for clinical use. With growing concerns about the safety of these xenobiotic materials, it is desirable to culture keratinocytes in media without animal derived products. An improved understanding of epithelial/mesenchymal interactions could assist in this. Methodology/Principal Findings: A keratincyte/fibroblast o-culture model was developed by extending an agent-based keratinocyte colony formation model to include the response of keratinocytes to both fibroblasts and serum. The model was validated by comparison of the in virtuo and in vitro multicellular behaviour of keratinocytes and fibroblasts in single and co-culture in Greens medium. To test the robustness of the model, several properties of the fibroblasts were changed to investigate their influence on the multicellular morphogenesis of keratinocyes and fibroblasts. The model was then used to generate hypotheses to explore the interactions of both proliferative and growth arrested fibroblasts with keratinocytes. The key predictions arising from the model which were confirmed by in vitro experiments were that 1) the ratio of fibroblasts to keratinocytes would critically influence keratinocyte colony expansion, 2) this ratio needed to be optimum at the beginning of the co-culture, 3) proliferative fibroblasts would be more effective than irradiated cells in expanding keratinocytes and 4) in the presence of an adequate number of fibroblasts, keratinocyte expansion would be independent of serum. Conclusions: A closely associated computational and biological approach is a powerful tool for understanding complex biological systems such as the interactions between keratinocytes and fibroblasts. The key outcome of this study is the finding that the early addition of a critical ratio of proliferative fibroblasts can give rapid keratinocyte expansion without the use of irradiated mouse fibroblasts and bovine serum

Do social inequalities in health widen or converge with age? Longitudinal evidence from three cohorts in the West of Scotland

Background: Existing studies are divided as to whether social inequalities in health widen or converge as people age. In part this is due to reliance on cross-sectional data, but also among longitudinal studies to differences in the measurement of both socioeconomic status (SES) and health and in the treatment of survival effects. The aim of this paper is to examine social inequalities in health as people age using longitudinal data from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study to investigate the effect of selective mortality, the timing of the SES measure and cohort on the inequality patterns. Methods. The Twenty-07 Study has followed three cohorts, born around 1932, 1952 and 1972, from 1987/8 to 2007/8; 4,510 respondents were interviewed at baseline and, at the most recent follow-up, 2,604 were interviewed and 674 had died. Hierarchical repeated-measures models were estimated for self-assessed health status, with and without mortality, with baseline or time-varying social class, sex and cohort. Results: Social inequalities in health emerge around the age of 30 after which they widen until the early 60s and then begin to narrow, converging around the age of 75. This pattern is a result of those in manual classes reporting poor health at younger ages, with the gap narrowing as the health of those in non-manual classes declines at older ages. However, employing a more proximal measure of SES reduces inequalities in middle age so that convergence of inequalities is not apparent in old age. Including death in the health outcome steepens the health trajectories at older ages, especially for manual classes, eliminating the convergence in health inequalities, suggesting that healthy survival effects are important. Cohort effects do not appear to affect the pattern of inequalities in health as people age in this study. Conclusions: There is a general belief that social inequalities in health appear to narrow at older ages; however, taking account of selective mortality and employing more proximal measures of SES removes this convergence, suggesting inequalities in health continue into old age. © 2011 Benzeval et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Interventions to improve exercise behaviour in sedentary people living with and beyond cancer: a systematic review

Background: To systematically review the effects of interventions to improve exercise behaviour in sedentary people living with and beyond cancer. Methods: Only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared an exercise intervention to a usual care comparison in sedentary people with a homogeneous primary cancer diagnosis, over the age of 18 years were eligible. The following electronic databases were searched: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials MEDLINE; EMBASE; AMED; CINAHL; PsycINFO; SportDiscus; PEDro from inception to August 2012. Results: Fourteen trials were included in this review, involving a total of 648 participants. Just six trials incorporated prescriptions that would meet current recommendations for aerobic exercise. However, none of the trials included in this review reported intervention adherence of 75% or more for a set prescription that would meet current aerobic exercise guidelines. Despite uncertainty around adherence in many of the included trials, the interventions caused improvements in aerobic exercise tolerance at 8–12 weeks (SMD=0.73, 95% CI=0.51–0.95) in intervention participants compared with controls. At 6 months, aerobic exercise tolerance is also improved (SMD=0.70, 95% CI=0.45–0.94), although four of the five trials had a high risk of bias; hence, caution is warranted in its interpretation. Conclusion: Expecting the majority of sedentary survivors to achieve the current exercise guidelines is likely to be unrealistic. As with all well-designed exercise programmes, prescriptions should be designed around individual capabilities and frequency, duration and intensity or sets, repetitions, intensity of resistance training should be generated on this basis

Is Context-aware Reasoning = Case-based Reasoning?

The purpose of this paper is to explore the similarities and differences and then argue for the potential synergies between two methodologies, namely Context-aware Reasoning and Case-based Reasoning, that are amongst the tools which can be used for intelligent environment (IE) system development. Through a case study supported by a review of the literature, we argue that context awareness and case based reasoning are not equal and are complementary methodologies to solve a domain specific problem, rather, the IE development paradigm must build a cooperation between these two approaches to overcome the individual drawbacks and to maximise the success of the IE systems

HemeBIND: a novel method for heme binding residue prediction by combining structural and sequence information

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Accurate prediction of binding residues involved in the interactions between proteins and small ligands is one of the major challenges in structural bioinformatics. Heme is an essential and commonly used ligand that plays critical roles in electron transfer, catalysis, signal transduction and gene expression. Although much effort has been devoted to the development of various generic algorithms for ligand binding site prediction over the last decade, no algorithm has been specifically designed to complement experimental techniques for identification of heme binding residues. Consequently, an urgent need is to develop a computational method for recognizing these important residues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we introduced an efficient algorithm HemeBIND for predicting heme binding residues by integrating structural and sequence information. We systematically investigated the characteristics of binding interfaces based on a non-redundant dataset of heme-protein complexes. It was found that several sequence and structural attributes such as evolutionary conservation, solvent accessibility, depth and protrusion clearly illustrate the differences between heme binding and non-binding residues. These features can then be separately used or combined to build the structure-based classifiers using support vector machine (SVM). The results showed that the information contained in these features is largely complementary and their combination achieved the best performance. To further improve the performance, an attempt has been made to develop a post-processing procedure to reduce the number of false positives. In addition, we built a sequence-based classifier based on SVM and sequence profile as an alternative when only sequence information can be used. Finally, we employed a voting method to combine the outputs of structure-based and sequence-based classifiers, which demonstrated remarkably better performance than the individual classifier alone.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>HemeBIND is the first specialized algorithm used to predict binding residues in protein structures for heme ligands. Extensive experiments indicated that both the structure-based and sequence-based methods have effectively identified heme binding residues while the complementary relationship between them can result in a significant improvement in prediction performance. The value of our method is highlighted through the development of HemeBIND web server that is freely accessible at <url>http://mleg.cse.sc.edu/hemeBIND/</url>.</p