Monitoring of the vertical movements of rail sleepers with the passage of trains

Due to an ever increasing demand for more frequent and higher volume of train service, the physical conditions of tracks in modem railways are deteriorating more quickly when compared to tracks built decades ago. There are incidences in both the UK and Hong Kong indicating there are needs for a more stringent checks on the rail conditions using suitable and effective non-invasive and nondestructive condition monitoring system

Effect of nipple shield use on milk removal: A mechanistic study

Background Concerns about reduced milk transfer with nipple shield (NS) use are based on evidence from studies with methodological flaws. Milk removal during breastfeeding can be impacted by infant and maternal factors other than NS use. The aim of this study was to control electric breast pump vacuum strength, pattern and duration across multiple study sessions to determine if NS use reduces milk removal from the breast. Methods A within-subject study with two groups of breastfeeding mothers (infants < 6 months) were recruited; Control Group (CG): no breastfeeding difficulties; Pain Group (PG) used NS for persistent nipple pain. Mothers completed three randomised 15 min pumping sessions using the Symphony vacuum curve (Medela AG); no NS, fitted NS, and a small NS. Sessions were considered valid where the applied vacuum was within 20 mmHg of the set vacuum. Milk removal was considered as pumped milk volume, and also percentage of available milk removed (PAMR), which is calculated as the pumped volume divided by the estimated milk volume stored in the breast immediately prior to pumping. Results Of 62 sessions (all: n = 31 paired sessions) a total of 11 paired sessions from both PG (n = 03) and CG (n = 08) were valid (subset) with and without a fitted NS. Only 2 small shield sessions were valid and so all small shield measurements were excluded. Both pumped volumes and PAMR were significantly lower with NS use for all data but not for subset data. (All: Volume and PAMR median: no NS: 76.5 mL, 69%, Fitted NS: 32.1 mL, 41% respectively (volume p = 0.002, PAMR p = 0.002); Subset: Volume and PAMR median: no NS: 83.8 mL, 72%; Fitted NS: 35.2 mL, 40% (volume p = 0.111 and PAMR p = 0.045). The difference in PAMR, but not volume, was statistically significant when analysed by linear mixed modelling. A decrease of 10 mmHg was associated with a 4.4% increase in PAMR (p = 0.017). Conclusions This experimental data suggests that nipple shield use may reduce milk removal. Close clinical monitoring of breastfeeding mothers using nipple shields is warranted

Development, Characterization and Cross-species Transferability of Expressed Sequence Tag-simple Sequence Repeat (EST-SSR) Markers Derived from Kelampayan Tree Transcriptome

Neolamarckia cadamba (or locally known as kelampayan) is an important fast growing plantation tree species that confers various advantages for timber industry as a strategy for reducing the logging pressure on natural forests for wood production to an acceptable level. Hence, attempts were made to develop a set of EST-SSR markers for kelampayan trees based on the EST sequences of kelampayan (NcdbEST) and further assessed the polymorphisms and transferability of the markers to other species. In this study, 155 (2.34%) out of 6,622 EST sequences which contain 232 SSRs were mined from NcdbEST. Of these, 97 ESTs were assigned with putative functions and gene ontology terms. Eighteen EST-SSR markers were developed according to the criteria, and further characterized and validated by using 50 individuals of kelampayan from two selected mother trees. The markers exhibited a considerable high level of polymorphism in kelampayan trees with an average of 4.17 and 4.11 alleles per locus, and PIC values of 0.465 and 0.537, respectively for mother trees T1 and T2. Parentage assignment analysis suggests a high probability for kelampayan trees to be predominantly outcrossed. The transferability rate was ranging from 16.7-94.4% among the five cross-genera species of kelampayan. The present study is the first report of the development of EST-SSR markers in kelampayan. These markers will be valuable genomic resources that could pave the way for exploiting the genotype data for comparative genome mapping, association genetics, population genetics studies and molecular breeding of kelampayan and other indigenous tropical tree species in future

Human milk macronutrients and bioactive molecules and development of regional fat depots in Western Australian infants during the first 12 months of lactation

We investigated associations between intakes of human milk (HM) components (macronutrients and biologically active molecules) and regional fat depots development in healthy term infants (n = 20) across the first year of lactation. Infant limb (mid-arm and mid-thigh) lean and fat areas were assessed by ultrasound imaging at 2, 5, 9 and 12 months of age. Concentrations of HM total protein, whey protein, casein, adiponectin, leptin, lysozyme, lactoferrin, secretory IGA, total carbohydrates, lactose, HM oligosaccharides (total HMO, calculated) and infant 24-h milk intake were measured, and infant calculated daily intakes (CDI) of HM components were determined. This pilot study shows higher 24-h milk intake was associated with a larger mid-arm fat area (p = 0.024), higher breastfeeding frequency was associated with larger mid-arm (p = 0.008) and mid-thigh (p < 0.001) fat areas. Lysozyme (p = 0.001) and HMO CDI (p = 0.004) were time-dependently associated with the mid-arm fat area. Intakes of HM components and breastfeeding parameters may modulate infant limb fat depots development during the first year of age and potentially promote favorable developmental programming of infant body composition; however, further studies are needed to confirm these findings

Glial activation involvement in neuronal death by Japanese encephalitis virus infection

Japanese encephalitis is characterized by profound neuronal destruction/dysfunction and concomitant microgliosis/astrogliosis. Although substantial activation of glia is observed in Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)-induced Japanese encephalitis, the inflammatory responses and consequences of astrocytes and microglial activation after JEV infection are not fully understood. In this study, infection of cultured neurons/glia with JEV caused neuronal death and glial activation, as evidenced by morphological transformation, increased cell proliferation and elevated tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6 and RANTES (regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed and secreted) production. Replication-competent JEV caused all glial responses and neurotoxicity. However, replication-incompetent JEV lost these abilities, except for the ability to change microglial morphology. The bystander damage caused by activated glia also contributed to JEV-associated neurotoxicity. Microglia underwent morphological changes, increased cell proliferation and elevated TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6 and RANTES expression in response to JEV infection. In contrast, IL-6 and RANTES expression, but no apparent morphological changes, proliferation or TNF-alpha/IL-1 beta expression, was demonstrated in JEV-infected astrocytes. Supernatants of JEV-infected microglia, but not JEV-infected astrocytes, induced glial activation and triggered neuronal death. Antibody neutralization studies revealed that TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta, but not RANTES or IL-6, released by activated microglia appeared to play roles in JEV-associated neurotoxicity. In conclusion, following JEV infection, neuronal death was accompanied by concomitant microgliosis and astrogliosis, and neurotoxic mediators released by JEV-activated microglia, rather than by JEV-activated astrocytes, had the ability to amplify the microglial response and cause neuronal death

Post-Newtonian SPH calculations of binary neutron star coalescence. I. Method and first results

We present the first results from our Post-Newtonian (PN) Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code, which has been used to study the coalescence of binary neutron star (NS) systems. The Lagrangian particle-based code incorporates consistently all lowest-order (1PN) relativistic effects, as well as gravitational radiation reaction, the lowest-order dissipative term in general relativity. We test our code on sequences of single NS models of varying compactness, and we discuss ways to make PN simulations more relevant to realistic NS models. We also present a PN SPH relaxation procedure for constructing equilibrium models of synchronized binaries, and we use these equilibrium models as initial conditions for our dynamical calculations of binary coalescence. Though unphysical, since tidal synchronization is not expected in NS binaries, these initial conditions allow us to compare our PN work with previous Newtonian results. We compare calculations with and without 1PN effects, for NS with stiff equations of state, modeled as polytropes with $\Gamma=3$. We find that 1PN effects can play a major role in the coalescence, accelerating the final inspiral and causing a significant misalignment in the binary just prior to final merging. In addition, the character of the gravitational wave signal is altered dramatically, showing strong modulation of the exponentially decaying waveform near the end of the merger. We also discuss briefly the implications of our results for models of gamma-ray bursts at cosmological distances.Comment: RevTeX, 37 pages, 17 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. D, minor corrections onl

HOPX functions as a tumour suppressor in head and neck cancer.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is generalized term that encompasses a diverse group of cancers that includes tumours of the oral cavity (OSCC), oropharynx (OPSCC) and nasopharynx (NPC). Genetic alterations that are common to all HNSCC types are likely to be important for squamous carcinogenesis. In this study, we have investigated the role of the homeodomain-only homeobox gene, HOPX, in the pathogenesis of HNSCC. We show that HOPX mRNA levels are reduced in OSCC and NPC cell lines and tissues and there is a general reduction of HOPX protein expression in these tumours and OPSCCs. HOPX promoter methylation was observed in a subset of HNSCCs and was associated with a worse overall survival in HPV negative tumours. RNAseq analysis of OSCC cells transfected with HOPX revealed a widespread deregulation of the transcription of genes related to epithelial homeostasis and ectopic over-expression of HOPX in OSCC and NPC cells inhibited cell proliferation, plating efficiency and migration, and enhanced sensitivity to UVA-induced apoptosis. Our results demonstrate that HOPX functions as a tumour suppressor in HNSCC and suggest a central role for HOPX in suppressing epithelial carcinogenesis

Associated production of charged Higgs bosons and top quarks with POWHEG

The associated production of charged Higgs bosons and top quarks at hadron colliders is an important discovery channel to establish the existence of a non-minimal Higgs sector. Here, we present details of a next-to-leading order (NLO) calculation of this process using the Catani-Seymour dipole formalism and describe its implementation in POWHEG, which allows to match NLO calculations to parton showers. Numerical predictions are presented using the PYTHIA parton shower and are compared to those obtained previously at fixed order, to a leading order calculation matched to the PYTHIA parton shower, and to a different NLO calculation matched to the HERWIG parton shower with MC@NLO. We also present numerical predictions and theoretical uncertainties for various Two Higgs Doublet Models at the Tevatron and LHC.Comment: 36 page

Pair Production of the Lightest Chargino via Gluon-Gluon Collisions

The production of the lightest chargino pair from gluon-gluon fusion is studied in the minimal supersymmetric model(MSSM) at proton-proton colliders. We find that with the chosen parameters, the production rate of the subprocess can be over 2.7 femto barn when the chargino is higgsino-like, and the corresponding total cross section in proton-proton collider can reach 56 femto barn at the LHC in the CP-conserving MSSM. It shows that this loop mediated subprocess can be competitive with the standard Drell-Yan subprocess in proton-proton colliders, especially at the LHC. Furthermore, our calculation shows it would be possible to extract information about some CP-violating phase parameters, if we collected enough chargino pair events.Comment: 39 pages, LaTex, 8 figure