Metal–organic fireworks: MOFs as integrated structural scaffolds for pyrotechnic materials

A new approach to formulating pyrotechnic materials is presented whereby constituent ingredients are bound together in a solid-state lattice. This reduces the batch inconsistencies arising from the traditional approach of combining powders by ensuring the key ingredients are ‘mixed’ in appropriate quantities and are in intimate contact. Further benefits of these types of material are increased safety levels as well as simpler logistics, storage and manufacture. A systematic series of new frameworks comprising fuel and oxidiser agents (group 1 and 2 metal nodes & terephthalic acid derivatives as linkers) has been synthesised and structurally characterised. These new materials have been assessed for pyrotechnic effect by calorimetry and burn tests. Results indicate that these materials exhibit the desired pyrotechnic material properties and the effect can be correlated to the dimensionality of the structure. A new approach to formulating pyrotechnic materials is proposed whereby constituent ingredients are bound together in a solid-state lattice. A series of Metal–organic framework frameworks comprising fuel and oxidiser agents exhibits the desired properties of a pyrotechnic material and this effect is correlated to the dimensionality of the structure

Efectos adversos neuropsiquiátricos de dolutegravir en la práctica clínica real

Introducción Los inhibidores de la integrasa, y especialmente dolutegravir (DTG), son el tratamiento de primera línea antirretroviral por su eficacia y seguridad. Aunque en los ensayos pivotales la tasa de efectos adversos (EA) era baja (2-3%), en los estudios de vida real parece ser mayor, especialmente los EA neuropsiquiátricos. El objetivo fue determinar el porcentaje de EA e interrupción de DTG en nuestro centro y la relación con los antecedentes psiquiátricos. Métodos Estudio descriptivo retrospectivo de pacientes que iniciaron DTG entre 2015-2017. Se registraron: interrupción del tratamiento, EA y enfermedad psiquiátrica. Se realizó seguimiento desde el inicio del del tratamiento con DTG y se registraron las hospitalizaciones y las visitas a urgencias y atención primaria. Fue autorizado por el Comité Ético de Investigación Clínica de Aragón. Resultados Se incluyeron 283 pacientes, entre 11-87 años, 70% varones. El 21% naive. Interrumpieron el tratamiento con DTG el 24%, un 10% por EA. Se detectó un 5% de EA neuropsiquiátricos. Este grupo tenía más antecedentes psiquiátricos (62 vs. 41%; p = 0, 002) que el de pacientes que continuaron el tratamiento, y precisaron más visitas en atención primaria (18, 8 vs. 8, 4%; p = 0, 016) y urgencias (8, 7 vs. 3, 3%; p = 0, 061). Conclusión Los pacientes que interrumpieron el tratamiento con DTG tenían más antecedentes psiquiátricos. Por ello, aunque se precisan más estudios, sería necesario valorar este antecedente previamente al tratamiento con inhibidores de la integrasa. Síntomas como ansiedad, insomnio o depresión pueden ser EA de DTG con una frecuencia mayor de la esperada. Ser identificados por los médicos de atención primaria y urgencias podría evitar una cascada de prescripción innecesaria. Introduction: Integrase inhibitors and especially dolutegravir (DTG) are placed as a first-line antiretroviral treatment for their efficacy and safety. Although in the pivotal trials the rate of adverse effects (AEs) was low (2-3%), in real-life studies it appears to be higher, especially neuropsychiatric AEs. The objective is to determine the percentage of AEs and discontinuation of DTG in our site and the relationship with the psychiatric background. Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of patients starting DTG from 2015 to 2017. Discontinuation of treatment, AEs and previous psychiatric pathology were recorded. Follow-up is carried out since the beginning of the treatment, and hospitalizations and emergency room and primary care visits were registered. The study was authorized by the Ethics Committee for Clinical Research of Aragon. Results: Two hundred and eighty-three patients were included, between 11 and 87 years old, 70% male. 21% were naive. 24% of the patients discontinued treatment with DTG, 10% due to AEs. Neuropsychiatric AEs were detected in 5%. This group of patients had a more frequent previous psychiatric history (62 vs. 41%; P =.002) than the ongoing treatment group and they needed more visits to primary care (18.8 vs. 8.4%; P =.016) and emergency room (8, 7 vs. 3.3%; P =.061). Conclusion: Patients who discontinued treatment with DTG had more psychiatric history. Although more studies are required, it is necessary to assess this background before starting treatment with integrase inhibitors. Symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia or depression can be DTG AEs more frequently than expected. Being identified by primary care and emergency physicians could avoid the unnecessary prescription of other medications

Megabank found? Flanks record sea level

On Leg 101, the first international voyage for the Ocean Drilling Program, the deep-sea drilling ship JOIOES Resolution (SEDCO/BP 471) left Miami, Fla., on Jan. 31 to investigate the geology of the Bahamas. (Leg 100 tested the Resolution's readiness. See July Geotimes.) Before returning to Miami on March 14, the crew had drilled 19 holes al 11 sites and recovered 46.2% of the cored section (about 1.5 of 3.1 km cored). The scientific party wanted to test conflicting hypotheses about the development of the modern shallow water carbonate banks and intervening deep -water throughs in the Bahamas, and to study the growth patterns of carbonate slopes and their response to sea-level fluctuations. Those objectives (the 'deep ' and the 'shallow') were selected beause recent advances in interpreting the micropaleontology of shallow-water carbonate platforms, coupled with data from previous sedimentological investigations and regional and site-specific seismic surveys, now permit consistent stratigraphic comparisons in the Bahamas

CUDASW++2.0: enhanced Smith-Waterman protein database search on CUDA-enabled GPUs based on SIMT and virtualized SIMD abstractions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to its high sensitivity, the Smith-Waterman algorithm is widely used for biological database searches. Unfortunately, the quadratic time complexity of this algorithm makes it highly time-consuming. The exponential growth of biological databases further deteriorates the situation. To accelerate this algorithm, many efforts have been made to develop techniques in high performance architectures, especially the recently emerging many-core architectures and their associated programming models.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>This paper describes the latest release of the CUDASW++ software, CUDASW++ 2.0, which makes new contributions to Smith-Waterman protein database searches using compute unified device architecture (CUDA). A parallel Smith-Waterman algorithm is proposed to further optimize the performance of CUDASW++ 1.0 based on the single instruction, multiple thread (SIMT) abstraction. For the first time, we have investigated a partitioned vectorized Smith-Waterman algorithm using CUDA based on the virtualized single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) abstraction. The optimized SIMT and the partitioned vectorized algorithms were benchmarked, and remarkably, have similar performance characteristics. CUDASW++ 2.0 achieves performance improvement over CUDASW++ 1.0 as much as 1.74 (1.72) times using the optimized SIMT algorithm and up to 1.77 (1.66) times using the partitioned vectorized algorithm, with a performance of up to 17 (30) billion cells update per second (GCUPS) on a single-GPU GeForce GTX 280 (dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295) graphics card.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CUDASW++ 2.0 is publicly available open-source software, written in CUDA and C++ programming languages. It obtains significant performance improvement over CUDASW++ 1.0 using either the optimized SIMT algorithm or the partitioned vectorized algorithm for Smith-Waterman protein database searches by fully exploiting the compute capability of commonly used CUDA-enabled low-cost GPUs.</p

The systemic lupus erythematosus IRF5 risk haplotype is associated with systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a fibrotic autoimmune disease in which the genetic component plays an important role. One of the strongest SSc association signals outside the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region corresponds to interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 5 (IRF5), a major regulator of the type I IFN pathway. In this study we aimed to evaluate whether three different haplotypic blocks within this locus, which have been shown to alter the protein function influencing systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility, are involved in SSc susceptibility and clinical phenotypes. For that purpose, we genotyped one representative single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of each block (rs10488631, rs2004640, and rs4728142) in a total of 3,361 SSc patients and 4,012 unaffected controls of Caucasian origin from Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom. A meta-analysis of the allele frequencies was performed to analyse the overall effect of these IRF5 genetic variants on SSc. Allelic combination and dependency tests were also carried out. The three SNPs showed strong associations with the global disease (rs4728142: P = 1.34×10&lt;sup&gt;−8&lt;/sup&gt;, OR = 1.22, CI 95% = 1.14–1.30; rs2004640: P = 4.60×10&lt;sup&gt;−7&lt;/sup&gt;, OR = 0.84, CI 95% = 0.78–0.90; rs10488631: P = 7.53×10&lt;sup&gt;−20&lt;/sup&gt;, OR = 1.63, CI 95% = 1.47–1.81). However, the association of rs2004640 with SSc was not independent of rs4728142 (conditioned P = 0.598). The haplotype containing the risk alleles (rs4728142*A-rs2004640*T-rs10488631*C: P = 9.04×10&lt;sup&gt;−22&lt;/sup&gt;, OR = 1.75, CI 95% = 1.56–1.97) better explained the observed association (likelihood P-value = 1.48×10&lt;sup&gt;−4&lt;/sup&gt;), suggesting an additive effect of the three haplotypic blocks. No statistical significance was observed in the comparisons amongst SSc patients with and without the main clinical characteristics. Our data clearly indicate that the SLE risk haplotype also influences SSc predisposition, and that this association is not sub-phenotype-specific

Boolean dynamics revisited through feedback interconnections

Boolean models of physical or biological systems describe the global dynamics of the system and their attractors typically represent asymptotic behaviors. In the case of large networks composed of several modules, it may be difficult to identify all the attractors. To explore Boolean dynamics from a novel viewpoint, we will analyse the dynamics emerging from the composition of two known Boolean modules. The state transition graphs and attractors for each of the modules can be combined to construct a new asymptotic graph which will (1) provide a reliable method for attractor computation with partial information; (2) illustrate the differences in dynamical behavior induced by the updating strategy (asynchronous, synchronous, or mixed); and (3) show the inherited organization/structure of the original network’s state transition graph.publishe

The RESPITE trial: remifentanil intravenously administered patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) versus pethidine intramuscular injection for pain relief in labour: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background The commonest opioid used for pain relief in labour is pethidine (meperidine); however, its effectiveness has long been challenged and the drug has known side effects including maternal sedation, nausea and potential transfer across the placenta to the foetus. Over a third of women receiving pethidine require an epidural due to inadequate pain relief. Epidural analgesia increases the risk of an instrumental vaginal delivery and its associated effects. Therefore, there is a clear need for a safe, effective, alternative analgesic to pethidine. Evidence suggests that remifentanil patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) reduces epidural conversion rates compared to pethidine; however, no trial has yet investigated this as a primary endpoint. We are, therefore, comparing pethidine intramuscular injection to remifentanil PCA in a randomised controlled trial. Methods/design Women in established labour, requesting systemic opioid pain relief, will be randomised to either intravenously administered remifentanil PCA (intervention) or pethidine intramuscular injection (control) in an unblinded, 1:1 individual randomised trial. Following informed consent, 400 women in established labour, who request systemic opioid pain relief, from NHS Trusts across England will undergo a minimised randomisation by a computer or automated telephone system to either pethidine or remifentanil. In order to balance the groups this minimisation is based on four parameters; parity (nulliparous versus multiparous), maternal age (<20, 20 < 30, 30 < 40, 40+ years), ethnicity (South Asian (Pakistani/Indian/Bangladeshi) versus Other) and induced versus spontaneous labour. The effectiveness of pain relief provided by each technique will be recorded every 30 min after time zero, until epidural placement, delivery or transfer to theatre, quantified by Visual Analogue Scale. Incidence of maternal side effects including sedation, delivery mode, foetal distress requiring delivery, neonatal status at delivery and rate of initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of birth will also be recorded. Maternal satisfaction with her childbirth experience will be determined by a postpartum questionnaire prior to discharge from the delivery ward. Discussion The RESPITE trial’s primary outcome is the proportion of women who have an epidural placed for pain relief in labour in each arm. Trial Registration Current Controlled Trials registration number: ISRCTN29654603. Registered on 23 July 2013

A genome-wide association study follow-up suggests a possible role for PPARG in systemic sclerosis susceptibility

Introduction: A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) comprising a French cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) reported several non-HLA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showing a nominal association in the discovery phase. We aimed to identify previously overlooked susceptibility variants by using a follow-up strategy.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: Sixty-six non-HLA SNPs showing a P value &#60;10-4 in the discovery phase of the French SSc GWAS were analyzed in the first step of this study, performing a meta-analysis that combined data from the two published SSc GWASs. A total of 2,921 SSc patients and 6,963 healthy controls were included in this first phase. Two SNPs, PPARG rs310746 and CHRNA9 rs6832151, were selected for genotyping in the replication cohort (1,068 SSc patients and 6,762 healthy controls) based on the results of the first step. Genotyping was performed by using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. Results: We observed nominal associations for both PPARG rs310746 (PMH = 1.90 × 10-6, OR, 1.28) and CHRNA9 rs6832151 (PMH = 4.30 × 10-6, OR, 1.17) genetic variants with SSc in the first step of our study. In the replication phase, we observed a trend of association for PPARG rs310746 (P value = 0.066; OR, 1.17). The combined overall Mantel-Haenszel meta-analysis of all the cohorts included in the present study revealed that PPARG rs310746 remained associated with SSc with a nominal non-genome-wide significant P value (PMH = 5.00 × 10-7; OR, 1.25). No evidence of association was observed for CHRNA9 rs6832151 either in the replication phase or in the overall pooled analysis.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusion: Our results suggest a role of PPARG gene in the development of SSc

Exceptional preservation of palaeozoic steroids in a diagenetic continuum

The occurrence of intact sterols has been restricted to immature Cretaceous (~125 Ma) sediments with one report from the Late Jurassic (~165 Ma). Here we report the oldest occurrence of intact sterols in a Crustacean fossil preserved for ca. 380 Ma within a Devonian concretion. The exceptional preservation of the biomass is attributed to microbially induced carbonate encapsulation, preventing full decomposition and transformation thus extending sterol occurrences in the geosphere by 250 Ma. A suite of diagenetic transformation products of sterols was also identified in the concretion, demonstrating the remarkable coexistence of biomolecules and geomolecules in the same sample. Most importantly the original biolipids were found to be the most abundant steroids in the sample. We attribute the coexistence of steroids in a diagenetic continuum-ranging from stenols to triaromatic steroids-to microbially mediated eogenetic processes