Bactericidal action of positive and negative ions in air

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the use of air ionisers to control of the spread of airborne infection. One characteristic of air ions which has been widely reported is their apparent biocidal action. However, whilst the body of evidence suggests a biocidal effect in the presence of air ions the physical and biological mechanisms involved remain unclear. In particular, it is not clear which of several possible mechanisms of electrical origin (i.e. the action of the ions, the production of ozone, or the action of the electric field) are responsible for cell death. A study was therefore undertaken to clarify this issue and to determine the physical mechanisms associated with microbial cell death. In the study seven bacterial species (Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium parafortuitum, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumanii, Burkholderia cenocepacia, Bacillus subtilis and Serratia marcescens) were exposed to both positive and negative ions in the presence of air. In order to distinguish between effects arising from: (i) the action of the air ions; (ii) the action of the electric field, and (iii) the action of ozone, two interventions were made. The first intervention involved placing a thin mica sheet between the ionisation source and the bacteria, directly over the agar plates. This intervention, while leaving the electric field unaltered, prevented the air ions from reaching the microbial samples. In addition, the mica plate prevented ozone produced from reaching the bacteria. The second intervention involved placing an earthed wire mesh directly above the agar plates. This prevented both the electric field and the air ions from impacting on the bacteria, while allowing any ozone present to reach the agar plate. With the exception of Mycobacterium parafortuitum, the principal cause of cell death amongst the bacteria studied was exposure to ozone, with electroporation playing a secondary role. However in the case of Mycobacterium parafortuitum, electroporation resulting from exposure to the electric field appears to have been the principal cause of cell inactivation. The results of the study suggest that the bactericidal action attributed to negative air ions by previous researchers may have been overestimated

CONSUMER INITIATED HIGH-VALUE PAYMENTS

The present disclosure relates to a method and a system for facilitating a consumer to initiate a secure, high-value payment transfer. The present disclosure suggests sending, by a payment initiator, an inquiry about a payment receiver account along with the payment receiver’s details to a payment network via an originating financial institution. Thereafter, the payment network validates the payment receiver details and provides a validation code using the payment data to uniquely identify the transaction. Subsequently, the payment network confirms the validity of the payment receiver details to the payment initiator via the originating financial institution and requests confirmation from the payment initiator to continue with a money transfer. Based on the confirmation, the money transfer request, including the validation code and a Transaction ID (Tran ID), is sent from the payment initiator via the originating financial institution to the payment network. The payment network re-validates both the validation code as well as the Tran ID before sending the money transfer request to a receiving financial institution. Upon receiving the money transfer request, the receiving financial institution completes the request and sends the response back to the originating financial institution. Subsequently, the payment recipient receives the fund from the recipient financial institution. As a result, the payment initiator may transfer an adequate amount of money to the payment receiver account without having to physically visit a bank branch

The evolution of dance.

Evidence from multiple sources reveals a surprising link between imitation and dance. As in the classical correspondence problem central to imitation research, dance requires mapping across sensory modalities and the integration of visual and auditory inputs with motor outputs. Recent research in comparative psychology supports this association, in that entrainment to a musical beat is almost exclusively observed in animals capable of vocal or motor imitation. Dance has representational properties that rely on the dancers' ability to imitate particular people, animals or events, as well as the audience's ability to recognize these correspondences. Imitation also plays a central role in learning to dance and the acquisition of the long sequences of choreographed movements are dependent on social learning. These and other lines of evidence suggest that dancing may only be possible for humans because its performance exploits existing neural circuitry employed in imitation.Research supported in part by ERC Advanced (EVOCULTURE, ref: 232823) and John Templeton Foundation grants to KNL. We are indebted to Mark Baldwin, Nadia Stern and the dancers and rehearsal directors of Rambert for helpful discussion.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cell Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.03

Cost Analysis of Outpatient Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Autograft versus Allograft

Prior studies suggest the cost of allograft anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is less than that for autograft reconstruction. Charges in these studies were influenced by patients requiring inpatient hospitalization. We therefore determined if allograft ACL reconstruction would still be less costly if all procedures were performed in a completely outpatient setting. We retrospectively reviewed 155 patients who underwent ACL reconstruction in an ambulatory surgery center between 2001 and 2004; 105 had an autograft and 50 had an allograft. Charges were extracted from itemized billing records, standardized to eliminate cost increases, and categorized for comparison. Surgeon and anesthesiologist fees were not included in the analysis. Groups were compared for age, gender, mean total cost, mean cost of implants, and several other cost categories. The mean total cost was $5465 for allograft ACL reconstruction and$4872 for autograft ACL reconstruction. There were no differences in complications between the two groups. Allograft ACL reconstruction was more costly than autograft ACL reconstruction in the outpatient setting. The cost of the allograft outweighs the increased surgical time needed for harvesting an autograft. Level II, economic and decision analyses. See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence

Dopamine transporter endocytic trafficking in striatal dopaminergic neurons: differential dependence on dynamin and the actin cytoskeleton

Dopaminergic signaling profoundly impacts rewarding behaviors, movement, and executive function. The presynaptic dopamine (DA) transporter (DAT) recaptures released DA, thereby limiting synaptic DA availability and maintaining dopaminergic tone. DAT constitutively internalizes and PKC activation rapidly accelerates DAT endocytosis, resulting in DAT surface loss. Longstanding evidence supports PKC-stimulated DAT trafficking in heterologous expression studies. However, PKC-stimulated DAT internalization is not readily observed in cultured dopaminergic neurons. Moreover, conflicting reports implicate both classic and nonclassic endocytic mechanisms mediating DAT trafficking. Prior DAT trafficking studies relied primarily upon chronic gene disruption and dominant-negative protein expression, or were performed in cell lines and cultured neurons, yielding results difficult to translate to adult dopaminergic neurons. Here, we use newly described dynamin inhibitors to test whether constitutive and PKC-stimulated DAT internalization are dynamin-dependent in adult dopaminergic neurons. Ex vivo biotinylation studies in mouse striatal slices demonstrate that acute PKC activation drives native DAT surface loss, and that surface DAT surprisingly partitions between endocytic-willing and endocytic-resistant populations. Acute dynamin inhibition reveals that constitutive DAT internalization is dynamin-independent, whereas PKC-stimulated DAT internalization is dynamin-dependent. Moreover, total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy experiments demonstrate that constitutive DAT internalization occurs equivalently from lipid raft and nonraft microdomains, whereas PKC-stimulated DAT internalization arises exclusively from lipid rafts. Finally, DAT endocytic recycling relies on a dynamin-dependent mechanism that acts in concert with the actin cytoskeleton. These studies are the first comprehensive investigation of native DAT trafficking in ex vivo adult neurons, and reveal that DAT surface dynamics are governed by complex multimodal mechanisms

The need for increased protection of Antarctica's inland waters

Protection of Antarctica's biodiversity and ecosystem values is enshrined in the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, which provides for the designation of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) to areas with outstanding values. Concern has been raised that existing ASPAs fail to prioritize areas to maximize the likelihood of ensuring the long-term conservation of Antarctic ecosystems and biodiversity. The absence of systematic and representative protection is particularly acute for inland aquatic ecosystems, which support a disproportionate amount of inland biodiversity. This paper promotes the case for overt inclusion of inland waters as a critical component of a representative protected area framework for Antarctica, thereby addressing their current underrepresentation. We set out a structured approach to enable the selection of representative freshwater systems for inclusion in the ASPA framework that, with modification, could also be applied across other Antarctic habitats. We acknowledge an overall lack of information on the biogeography of inland aquatic diversity and recommend increased use of remote data collection along with classification tools to mitigate this, as well as the need for the consideration of catchment-scale processes. Changes that accompany contemporary and anticipated climate change make the need for the conservation of representative biodiversity increasingly urgen

Identifying Talent in Youth Sport: A Novel Methodology Using Higher-Dimensional Analysis.

Prediction of adult performance from early age talent identification in sport remains difficult. Talent identification research has generally been performed using univariate analysis, which ignores multivariate relationships. To address this issue, this study used a novel higher-dimensional model to orthogonalize multivariate anthropometric and fitness data from junior rugby league players, with the aim of differentiating future career attainment. Anthropometric and fitness data from 257 Under-15 rugby league players was collected. Players were grouped retrospectively according to their future career attainment (i.e., amateur, academy, professional). Players were blindly and randomly divided into an exploratory (n = 165) and validation dataset (n = 92). The exploratory dataset was used to develop and optimize a novel higher-dimensional model, which combined singular value decomposition (SVD) with receiver operating characteristic analysis. Once optimized, the model was tested using the validation dataset. SVD analysis revealed 60 m sprint and agility 505 performance were the most influential characteristics in distinguishing future professional players from amateur and academy players. The exploratory dataset model was able to distinguish between future amateur and professional players with a high degree of accuracy (sensitivity = 85.7%, specificity = 71.1%; p<0.001), although it could not distinguish between future professional and academy players. The validation dataset model was able to distinguish future professionals from the rest with reasonable accuracy (sensitivity = 83.3%, specificity = 63.8%; p = 0.003). Through the use of SVD analysis it was possible to objectively identify criteria to distinguish future career attainment with a sensitivity over 80% using anthropometric and fitness data alone. As such, this suggests that SVD analysis may be a useful analysis tool for research and practice within talent identification