Study of the ternary system Al–H– RE ( RE = Er, La and Y) in liquid state

International audienc

Myths and lessons of liberal intervention: The British campaign for the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade to Brazil

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 Martinus NijhoffThis article takes issue with recent references to the British nineteenth century campaign for the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to Brazil that serve to bolster interventionist or imperialist agendas. In particular, such accounts reproduce two and a half myths about the campaign: that it can serve as a model for the present age; that the success of the campaign can be explained through the actions of the intervening party alone (with a corresponding neglect of those of the ‘target’ state); and the half-myth that the campaign’s success was due to military action (at the expense of institutional (legal) and normative factors and the capacity of the target state). I argue instead that this case – and interventions more generally – would benefit from an analysis that considers the role of force in relation to a series of residual institutional and cultural constraints within the liberal state and to political conditions in the target state. In light of the complexities and contingencies that these factors present the underlying lesson is that military force should be used sparingly, if at all

Evaluation of butorphanol, medetomidine and midazolam as a reversible narcotic combination in free-ranging African lions (Panthera leo)

Objective To evaluate the effects of the combination butorphanol, medetomidine and midazolam (BMM) and its reversibility in lions. Study design Prospective clinical trial. Animals Thirty free-ranging lions, 10 male and 20 female, weighing 81–210 kg. Methods Lions were immobilised with butorphanol mean 0.31 ± SD 0.034 mg kg-1, medetomidine 0.052 ± 0.006 mg kg-1, midazolam 0.21 ± 0.024 mg kg-1 and hyaluronidase 1250 IU administered intramuscularly with a dart gun. Upon recumbency, physiological parameters and anaesthetic depth were monitored 10–15 minutes after darting (T1) and repeated every 10 minutes for a further 30 minutes (T2, T3, T4). Arterial blood gas analyses were performed at T1 and T4. At the end of the procedure, 45–60 minutes after initial darting, immobilisation was reversed with naltrexone 0.68 ± 0.082 mg kg-1, atipamezole 0.26 ± 0.031 mg kg-1, and flumazenil 0.0032 ± 0.0007 mg kg-1 administered intravenously and subcutaneously. Results The BMM combination rapidly induced immobilisation and lateral recumbency was reached within 7.25 ± 2.3 minutes. Median induction score [scored 1 (excellent) to 4 (poor)] was 1.4 (range 1–2). Cardio-respiratory parameters were stable. Heart rate varied from 32 to 72 beats per minute, respiratory rate from 14 to 32 breaths minute-1 and rectal temperature from 36.6 to 40.3 C. No sudden arousals were observed. Arterial blood gas analyses revealed a mean pH of 7.33, PaCO2 of 33 mmHg and PaO2 of 87 mmHg. Mild to moderate hypoxemia was seen in four lions. Recovery was smooth and lions were walking within 4.4 ± 4.25 minutes. Median recovery score [scored 1 (excellent) to 4 (poor)] was 1.3 (range 1–2). Conclusion and clinical relevance The drug combination proved to be effective in immobilising freeranging healthy lions of both sexes with minimal cardio-respiratory changes

Prioritization of candidate causal genes for asthma in susceptibility loci derived from UK Biobank

Kim Valette et al. perform a genomic study on asthma integrating genome-wide association study, functional mapping using lung and blood transcriptome-wide profiles, as well as Mendelian randomization. They show candidate causal genes expressed in lung and blood tissues that are putative therapeutic targets for asthma

Parkin Deficiency Delays Motor Decline and Disease Manifestation in a Mouse Model of Synucleinopathy

In synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease, partially ubiquitylated α-synuclein species phosphorylated on serine 129 (PS129-α-synuclein) accumulate abnormally. Parkin, an ubiquitin-protein ligase that is dysfunctional in autosomal recessive parkinsonism, protects against α-synuclein-mediated toxicity in various models

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Awareness of mother-to-child transmission of human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) type I through breastfeeding in a small group of HTLV-positive women in Maripasoula and Papaïchton, French Guiana.

International audienceThe aim of this study was to assess the awareness of human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) transmission, especially through breastfeeding, in a small group of 40 HTLV-seropositive women in French Guiana and to examine the public health policies in place to reduce transmission. The results show that the majority of HTLV-positive women were aware of having a blood virus, diagnosed antenatally, and were advised to avoid breastfeeding. This advice was followed in the majority of cases despite financial difficulty. Participants were largely unaware of other modes of transmission. Public awareness was low, leading to increased stigmatising of people with HTLV, more so than HIV. Health policies in place to reduce transmission of HTLV are focused on vertical transmission, with women being routinely tested antenatally and advised to avoid breastfeeding. There was no further advice routinely given on other modes of transmission. There was no routine follow-up of HTLV-positive women. Suggestions include public education programmes such as those that are in place for HIV, education of healthcare workers, and setting up a network for systematic follow-up and support of HTLV patients

Study of the ternary system Al-H-RE (RE = Er, La and Y) in liquid state

Hydrogen is the only gas able to dissolve in aluminum. The solubility S of hydrogen in Al obeys the Sieverts’ law and S is much larger in the liquid phase (above 660.4°C) than in the solid one. This might lead to the formation of porosity during aluminum casting. In the present work, the ternary system Al-H-RE (RE= Er, La, Y) is investigated. The equilibria between the different phases are determined in the presence of liquid Al, RE and H2 gas by both experimental measurements and phase diagram calculations. The possible formation of metallic hydrides and the change in the hydrogen solubility S are discussed regarding pressure and temperature determining the thermodynamics of the system

Study of the ternary system Al-H-RE (RE = Er, La and Y) in liquid state

Hydrogen is the only gas able to dissolve in aluminum. The solubility S of hydrogen in Al obeys the Sieverts’ law and S is much larger in the liquid phase (above 660.4°C) than in the solid one. This might lead to the formation of porosity during aluminum casting. In the present work, the ternary system Al-H-RE (RE= Er, La, Y) is investigated. The equilibria between the different phases are determined in the presence of liquid Al, RE and H2 gas by both experimental measurements and phase diagram calculations. The possible formation of metallic hydrides and the change in the hydrogen solubility S are discussed regarding pressure and temperature determining the thermodynamics of the system