Using digital and hand printing techniques to compensate for loss: re-establishing colour and texture in historic textiles

Conservators use a range of 'gap filling' techniques to improve the structural stability and presentation of objects. Textile conservators often use fabric supports to provide reinforcement for weak areas of a textile and to provide a visual infill in missing areas. The most common technique is to use dyed fabrics of a single colour but while a plain dyed support provides good reinforcement, it can be visually obtrusive when used with patterned or textured textiles. Two recent postgraduate dissertation projects at the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) have experimented with hand printing and digital imaging techniques to alter the appearance of support fabrics so that they are less visually obtrusive and blend well with the colour and texture of the textile being supported. Case studies demonstrate the successful use of these techniques on a painted hessian rocking horse and a knitted glove from an archaeological context

Small bowel MR enterography: problem solving in Crohn’s disease

Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) is fast becoming the first-line radiological investigation to evaluate the small bowel in patients with Crohn’s disease. It can demonstrate both mural and extramural complications. The lack of ionizing radiation, together with high-contrast resolution, multiplanar capability and cine-imaging make it an attractive imaging modality in such patients who need prolonged follow-up. A key question in the management of such patients is the assessment of disease activity. Clinical indices, endoscopic and histological findings have traditionally been used as surrogate markers but all have limitations. MRE can help address this question. The purpose of this pictorial review is to (1) detail the MRE protocol used at our institution; (2) describe the rationale for the MR sequences used and their limitations; (3) compare MRE with other small bowel imaging techniques; (4) discuss how MRE can help distinguish between inflammatory, stricturing and penetrating disease, and thus facilitate management of this difficult condition

Australia IBD Microbiome (AIM) Study: protocol for a multicentre longitudinal prospective cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are common chronic idiopathic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which cause considerable morbidity. Although the precise mechanisms of disease remain unclear, evidence implicates a strong multidirectional interplay between diet, environmental factors, genetic determinants/immune perturbations and the gut microbiota. IBD can be brought into remission using a number of medications, which act by suppressing the immune response. However, none of the available medications address any of the underlying potential mechanisms. As we understand more about how the microbiota drives inflammation, much interest has focused on identifying microbial signals/triggers in the search for effective therapeutic targets. We describe the establishment of the Australian IBD Microbiota (AIM) Study, Australia's first longitudinal IBD bioresource, which will identify and correlate longitudinal microbial and metagenomics signals to disease activity as evaluated by validated clinical instruments, patient-reported surveys, as well as biomarkers. The AIM Study will also gather extensive demographic, clinical, lifestyle and dietary data known to influence microbial composition in order to generate a more complete understanding of the interplay between patients with IBD and their microbiota. METHODS: The AIM Study is an Australian multicentre longitudinal prospective cohort study, which will enrol 1000 participants; 500 patients with IBD and 500 healthy controls over a 5-year period. Assessment occurs at 3 monthly intervals over a 24-month period. At each assessment oral and faecal samples are self-collected along with patient-reported outcome measures, with clinical data also collected at baseline, 12 and 24 months. Intestinal tissue will be sampled whenever a colonoscopy is performed. Dietary intake, general health and psychological state will be assessed using validated self-report questionnaires. Samples will undergo metagenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic and culturomic analyses. Omics data will be integrated with clinical data to identify predictive biomarkers of response to therapy, disease behaviour and environmental factors in patients with IBD. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval for this study has been obtained from the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Research Ethics Committee (HREC 2019/ETH11443). Findings will be reported at national and international gastroenterology meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ACTRN12619000911190

Entangling Dipole-Dipole Interactions and Quantum Logic in Optical Lattices

We study a means of creating multiparticle entanglement of neutral atoms using pairwise controlled dipole-dipole interactions in a three dimensional optical lattice. For tightly trapped atoms the dipolar interaction energy can be much larger than the photon scattering rate, and substantial coherent evolution of the two-atom state can be achieved before decoherence occurs. Excitation of the dipoles can be made conditional on the atomic states, allowing for deterministic generation of entanglement. We derive selection rules and a figure-of-merit for the dipole-dipole interaction matrix elements, for alkali atoms with hyperfine structure and trapped in well localized center of mass states. Different protocols are presented for implementing two-qubits quantum logic gates such as the controlled-phase and swap gate. We analyze the fidelity of our gate designs, imperfect due to decoherence from cooperative spontaneous emission and coherent couplings outside the logical basis. Outlines for extending our model to include the full molecular interactions potentials are discussed.Comment: 53 pages, 7 figure

Expression and Characterization of Drosophila Signal Peptide Peptidase-Like (sppL), a Gene That Encodes an Intramembrane Protease

Intramembrane proteases of the Signal Peptide Peptidase (SPP) family play important roles in developmental, metabolic and signaling pathways. Although vertebrates have one SPP and four SPP-like (SPPL) genes, we found that insect genomes encode one Spp and one SppL. Characterization of the Drosophila sppL gene revealed that the predicted SppL protein is a highly conserved structural homolog of the vertebrate SPPL3 proteases, with a predicted nine-transmembrane topology, an active site containing aspartyl residues within a transmembrane region, and a carboxy-terminal PAL domain. SppL protein localized to both the Golgi and ER. Whereas spp is an essential gene that is required during early larval stages and whereas spp loss-of-function reduced the unfolded protein response (UPR), sppL loss of function had no apparent phenotype. This was unexpected given that genetic knockdown phenotypes in other organisms suggested significant roles for Spp-related proteases

18F-FDG PET/CT for diagnosing infectious complications in patients with severe neutropenia after intensive chemotherapy for haematological malignancy or stem cell transplantation

Item does not contain fulltextPURPOSE: Between 30 and 50% of febrile neutropenic episodes are accounted for by infection. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a nonspecific parameter for infection and inflammation but might be employed as a trigger for diagnosis. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT can be used to detect inflammatory foci in neutropenic patients with elevated CRP and whether it helps to direct treatment. METHODS: Twenty-eight consecutive patients with neutropenia as a result of intensive chemotherapy for haematological malignancies or myeloablative therapy for haematopoietic stem cell transplantation were prospectively included. (18)F-FDG PET/CT was added to the regular diagnostic workup once the CRP level rose above 50 mg/l. RESULTS: Pathological FDG uptake was found in 26 of 28 cases despite peripheral neutrophil counts less than 0.1 x 10(-9)/l in 26 patients: in the digestive tract in 18 cases, around the tract of the central venous catheter (CVC) in 9 and in the lungs in 7 cases. FDG uptake in the CVC tract was associated with coagulase-negative staphylococcal bacteraemia (p < 0.001) and deep venous thrombosis (p = 0.002). The number of patients having Streptococcus mitis bacteraemia appeared to be higher in patients with grade 3 oesophageal FDG uptake (p = 0.08). Pulmonary FDG uptake was associated with the presence of invasive fungal disease (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: (18)F-FDG PET/CT scanning during chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia and increased CRP is able to detect localized foci of infection and inflammation despite the absence of circulating neutrophils. Besides its potential role in detecting CVC-related infection during febrile neutropenia, the high negative predictive value of (18)F-FDG PET/CT is important for avoiding unnecessary diagnostic tests and therapy.1 januari 201