Formative evaluation of the usability and acceptability of myfood24 among adolescents: a UK online dietary assessments tool

BackgroundMyfood24 is a new online 24 h dietary assessment tool developed for use among the UK population. Limited information is available on the usability and acceptability of such tools. Hence this study aims to determine the usability and acceptability of myfood24 among British adolescents (11-18y) before and after making the improvements.MethodsA total of 84 adolescents were involved in two stages. In stage-I (beta-version of myfood24), 14 adolescents were recruited, 7 of whom (group-1) were asked to enter standardized tasks in a testing room with screen capture software. The remaining 7-adolescents (group-2) were asked to report their previous food intake using myfood24 at home. All participants then completed a usability and acceptability questionnaire. Stage-II was carried out after making amendments to the live-version of myfood24 in which 70 adolescents were asked to enter their food intake for two days and then complete the same questionnaire. Thematic analysis was conducted of observer comments and open-ended questions.ResultsNavigation, presentation errors and failure to find functions were the main usability issues identified in the beta-version. Significant improvements were found in the usability and acceptability of most functions after implementing certain features like a spell checker, auto-fill option, and adding ‘mouse hover’ to help with the use of some functions. Adolescents’ perceptions of searching food items, selecting food portion sizes and making a list function were significantly improved in the live-version. The mean completion time of myfood24 reduced from 31 (SD?=?6) minutes in the beta-version to 16 (SD?=?5) minutes in the live-version. The mean system usability score (SUS) of myfood24 improved from 66/100 (95 % CI 60, 73) in the beta-version to 74/100 (95 % CI 71, 77) in the live-version, which is considered as ‘good’. Of the adolescents in stage-II, 41 % preferred using myfood24 to the interviewer-administered 24 h recall because myfood24 was quicker, easier to use and provided the adolescents with privacy when reporting dietary intake.ConclusionConsidering adolescents’ feedback has helped in improving the usability and acceptability of the final-version of myfood24. myfood24 appears to support adolescents’ need in reporting their dietary intake, which may potentially improve the overall quality of adolescents’ self-reported dietary information

An anti-ICAM-2 (CD102) monoclonal antibody induces immune-mediated regressions of transplanted ICAM-2-negative colon carcinomas

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can mediate antitumor effects by indirect mechanisms involving antiangiogenesis and up-regulation of the cellular immune response rather than by direct tumor cell destruction. From mAbs raised by immunization of rats with transformed murine endothelial cells, a mAb (EOL4G8) was selected for its ability to eradicate a fraction of established colon carcinomas that did not express the EOL4G8-recognized antigen. The antigen was found to be ICAM-2 (CD102). Antitumor effects of EOL4G8, which required a functional T-cell compartment, were abrogated by depletion of CD8(+) cells and correlated with antitumor CTL activity, whereas only a mild inhibition of angiogenesis was observed. Interestingly, we found that EOL4G8 acting on endothelial ICAM-2 markedly enhances leukotactic factor activity-1-independent adhesion of immature dendritic cells to endothelium-an effect that is at least in part mediated by DC-SIGN (CD209)

Lattice-matched epitaxial graphene grown on boron nitride

Lattice-matched graphene on hexagonal boron nitride is expected to lead to the formation of a band-gap but requires the formation of highly strained material and has not hitherto been realised. We demonstrate that aligned, lattice-matched graphene can be grown by molecular beam epitaxy using substrate temperatures in the range 1600-1710 °C and co-exists with a topologically-modified moiré pattern, and with regions of strained graphene which have giant moiré periods up to ~80 nm. Raman spectra reveal narrow red-shifted peaks due to isotropic strain, while the giant moiré patterns result in complex splitting of Raman peaks due to strain variations across the moiré unit cell. The lattice-matched graphene has a lower conductance than both the Frenkel-Kontorova-type domain walls, and also the topological defects where they terminate. We relate these results to theoretical models of band-gap formation in graphene/boron nitride heterostructures

iAnn: an event sharing platform for the life sciences

Summary: We present iAnn, an open source community-driven platform for dissemination of life science events, such as courses, conferences and workshops. iAnn allows automatic visualisation and integration of customised event reports. A central repository lies at the core of the platform: curators add submitted events, and these are subsequently accessed via web services. Thus, once an iAnn widget is incorporated into a website, it permanently shows timely relevant information as if it were native to the remote site. At the same time, announcements submitted to the repository are automatically disseminated to all portals that query the system. To facilitate the visualization of announcements, iAnn provides powerful filtering options and views, integrated in Google Maps and Google Calendar. All iAnn widgets are freely available. Availability: http://iann.pro/iannviewer Contact: [email protected]

Evolving Military Broadband Wireless Communication Systems: WiMAX, LTE and WLAN

Emerging technologies for mobile broadband wireless are being considered as a Commercial Off-The-Shelf solution to cover the operational requirements of the future warfare. The capabilities of these technologies are being enhanced to meet the growing market demands on performance. In this context, several standards such as WiMAX, LTE or WLAN are introducing themselves as strong candidates to fulfill these requirements. This paper presents an innovative scenario-based approach to develop a Military Broadband Wireless Communication System (MBWCS). Its main objective is to analyze how similar a military MBWCS can be to the identified civil standards, taking operational and high level technical requirements into account. This specification will be used for analyzing the applicability and the modifications of each of the standards layers individually. Proving the feasibility and aptitude of each standard provides strong foundations to address a MBWCS in the most efficient way.Comment: This is an ACCEPTED VERSION of the following published document Proc. of 2016 International Conference on Military Communications and Information Systems (ICMCIS), Brussels, Belgium, 2016, pp. 1-

A DERL3-associated defect in the degradation of SLC2A1 mediates the Warburg effect

Cancer cells possess aberrant proteomes that can arise by the disruption of genes involved in physiological protein degradation. Here we demonstrate the presence of promoter CpG island hypermethylation-linked inactivation of DERL3 (Derlin-3), a key gene in the endoplasmic reticulum-associated protein degradation pathway, in human tumours. The restoration of in vitro and in vivo DERL3 activity highlights the tumour suppressor features of the gene. Using the stable isotopic labelling of amino acids in cell culture workflow for differential proteome analysis, we identify SLC2A1 (glucose transporter 1, GLUT1) as a downstream target of DERL3. Most importantly, SLC2A1 overexpression mediated by DERL3 epigenetic loss contributes to the Warburg effect in the studied cells and pinpoints a subset of human tumours with greater vulnerability to drugs targeting glycolysis.Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (Grant HEALTH-F5-2010-258236-SYSCOL)Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (Grant HEALTH-F2-2011-259015-COLTHERES)Cellex FoundationOlga Torres FoundationEuropean Research Council (EPINORC Project Grant Agreement 268626)Spain. Ministerio de Economia y Competividad (MINECO Project SAF2011-22803)Institute of Health Carlos III (RTICC Grant RD12/0036/0039