Performance and application of an open source automated magnetic optical density meter for analyzing magnetotactic bacteria

We present a spectrophotometer (optical density meter) combined with electromagnets dedicated to the analysis of magnetotactic bacteria. We have ensured that our system, called MagOD, can be easily reproduced by providing the source of the 3D prints for the housing, electronic designs, circuit board layouts, and microcontroller software. We compare the performance of this novel system to existing adapted commercial spectrophotometers. In addition, we demonstrate its use by analyzing the absorbance of magnetotactic bacteria as a function of their orientation with respect to the light path and their speed of reorientation after the field has been rotated by 90o. We continuously monitored the development of a culture of magnetotactic bacteria over a period of five days, and measured the development of their velocity distribution over a period of one hour. Even though this dedicated spectrophotometer is relatively simple to construct and cost-effective, a range of magnetic field-dependent parameters can be extracted from suspensions of magnetotactic bacteria. Therefore, this instrument will help the magnetotactic research community to understand and apply this intriguing micro-organism

How Mistimed and Unwanted Pregnancies Affect Timing of Antenatal Care Initiation in three Districts in Tanzania

Early antenatal care (ANC) initiation is a doorway to early detection and management of potential complications associated with pregnancy. Although the literature reports various factors associated with ANC initiation such as parity and age, pregnancy intentions is yet to be recognized as a possible predictor of timing of ANC initiation. Data originate from a cross-sectional household survey on health behaviour and service utilization patterns. The survey was conducted in 2011 in Rufiji, Kilombero and Ulanga districts in Tanzania on 910 women of reproductive age who had given birth in the past two years. ANC initiation was considered to be early only if it occurred in the first trimester of pregnancy gestation. A recently completed pregnancy was defined as mistimed if a woman wanted it later, and if she did not want it at all the pregnancy was termed as unwanted. Chisquare was used to test for associations and multinomial logistic regression was conducted to examine how mistimed and unwanted pregnancies affect timing of ANC initiation. Although 49.3% of the women intended to become pregnant, 50.7% (34.9% mistimed and 15.8% unwanted) became pregnant unintentionally. While ANC initiation in the 1st trimester was 18.5%, so was 71.7% and 9.9% in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that ANC initiation in the 2nd trimester was 1.68 (95% CI 1.10‒2.58) and 2.00 (95% CI 1.05‒3.82) times more likely for mistimed and unwanted pregnancies respectively compared to intended pregnancies. These estimates rose to 2.81 (95% CI 1.41‒5.59) and 4.10 (95% CI 1.68‒10.00) respectively in the 3rd trimester. We controlled for gravidity, age, education, household wealth, marital status, religion, district of residence and travel time to a health facility. Late ANC initiation is a significant maternal and child health consequence of mistimed and unwanted pregnancies in Tanzania. Women should be empowered to delay or avoid pregnancies whenever they need to do so. Appropriate counseling to women, especially those who happen to conceive unintentionally is needed to minimize the possibility of delaying ANC initiation.\u

Association of Vitamin B12 Deficiency with Fatigue and Depression after Lacunar Stroke

Background: In lacunar stroke patients vitamin B12 deficiency is often found and a relationship with the degree of periventricular white matter lesions (pWMLs) is suggested. Given the known relationships between WMLs and depression and between depression and fatigue after stroke, we studied both depression and fatigue in lacunar stroke patients with and without vitamin B12 deficiency. Methods: In 40 first-ever lacunar stroke patients vitamin B12 levels were determined and self-report questionnaires for fatigue and depression were completed three months after stroke. Results: Lacunar stroke patients with vitamin B12 deficiency (N = 13) reported significantly more fatigue (90.7 versus 59.4; p =.001) and depressive symptoms (6.62 versus 3.89; p,.05) than those without (N = 27). In regression analyses, vitamin B12 deficiency was significantly and independently associated with the presence of severe fatigue and clinically significant depression. Conclusions: Our preliminary results suggest a relationship between vitamin B12 deficiency and increased levels of fatigue and depression in lacunar stroke patients. If these findings could be replicated in a larger and general stroke sample, thi

Promoci?n de microempresas gastron?micas con responsabilidad social en 6 regiones del Per?

El Programa de Apoyo Nutricional basado en Soya (PanSoy) es una instituci?n privada de responsabilidad social sin fines de lucro que opera en el Per? promoviendo la formaci?n de microempresas gastron?micas autosostenibles y socialmente responsables en comunidades en estado de necesidad. Para lograr su visi?n y objetivos de intervenci?n social, cuenta con un portafolio de proyectos con alcances y presupuestos similares los cuales se ejecutan en diversas regiones del Per?. Los beneficiarios de estos proyectos se denominan microempresas del rubro gastron?mico. El objetivo principal de este proyecto de tesis es desarrollar el plan de gesti?n del Proyecto ?Promoci?n de microempresas gastron?micas con responsabilidad social en 6 regiones del Per?? utilizando las mejores pr?cticas del PMI indicados en la Gu?a del PMBOK? ? sexta edici?n. El modelo de intervenci?n PanSoy permite la entrega en comodato de un capital inicial de trabajo (equipamiento y granos de soya) a los microempresarios admitidos que tienen la oportunidad de llevar a cabo sus propios emprendimientos en las siguientes l?neas de negocio: pasteler?a, catering y buffet, restaurante y fuente de soda. Estas microempresas deben cumplir con entregar raciones diarias basadas en soya a las personas en estado de necesidad de su comunidad

Comparison of long-term mortality risk following normal exercise vs adenosine myocardial perfusion SPECT

A higher frequency of clinical events has been observed in patients undergoing pharmacological vs exercise myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). While this difference is attributed to greater age and co-morbidities, it is not known whether these tests also differ in prognostic ability among patients with similar clinical profiles. We assessed all-cause mortality rates in 6,069 patients, followed for 10.2 ± 1.7 years after undergoing exercise or adenosine SPECT. We employed propensity analysis to match exercise and adenosine subgroups by age, gender, symptoms, and coronary risk factors. Within our propensity-matched cohorts, adenosine patients had an annualized mortality rate event rates that was more than twice that of exercise patients (3.9% vs 1.6%, P < .0001). Differences in mortality persisted among age groups, including those <55 years old. In the exercise cohort, mortality was inversely related to exercise duration, with comparable mortality noted for patients exercising <3 min and those undergoing adenosine testing. Among patients with normal stress SPECT tests, those undergoing adenosine testing manifest a mortality rate that is substantially higher than that observed among adequately exercising patients, but comparable to that observed among very poorly exercising patients. This elevated risk underscores an important challenge for managing patients undergoing pharmacological stress testing

Symmetry, Reference Frames, and Relational Quantities in Quantum Mechanics

We propose that observables in quantum theory are properly understood as representatives of symmetry-invariant quantities relating one system to another, the latter to be called a reference system. We provide a rigorous mathematical language to introduce and study quantum reference systems, showing that the orthodox "absolute" quantities are good representatives of observable relative quantities if the reference state is suitably localised. We use this relational formalism to critique the literature on the relationship between reference frames and superselection rules, settling a long-standing debate on the subject

Plasma triglyceride concentrations are rapidly reduced following individual bouts of endurance exercise in women

It is known that chronic endurance training leads to improvements in the lipoprotein profile, but less is known about changes that occur during postexercise recovery acutely. We analyzed triglyceride (TG), cholesterol classes and apolipoproteins in samples collected before, during and after individual moderate- and hard-intensity exercise sessions in men and women that were isoenergetic between intensities. Young healthy men (n = 9) and young healthy women (n = 9) were studied under three different conditions with diet unchanged between trials: (1) before, during and 3 h after 90 min of exercise at 45% VO2peak (E45); (2) before, during and 3 h after 60 min of exercise at 65% VO2peak (E65), and (3) in a time-matched sedentary control trial (C). At baseline, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was higher in women than men (P < 0.05). In men and in women, total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), HDL-C, apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), apolipoprotein B (apoB), and LDL peak particle size were unaltered by exercise either during exertion or after 3 h of recovery. In women, but not in men, average plasma TG was significantly reduced below C at 3 h postexercise by approximately 15% in E45 and 25% in E65 (P < 0.05) with no significant difference between exercise intensities. In summary, plasma TG concentration rapidly declines following exercise in women, but not in men. These results demonstrate an important mechanism by which each individual exercise session may incrementally reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women