2 me Valse

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/2128/thumbnail.jp

High dose multiple micronutrient supplementation improves villous morphology in environmental enteropathy without HIV enteropathy: results from a double-blind randomised placebo controlled trial in Zambian adults

PMCID: PMC3897937This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated

Towards an Eternity: Celebrating The Association of Black Psychologists’ 50th Anniversary

In response to the American Psychological Association’s practice of excluding Black students and marginalizing Black professionals, the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) was formed. ABPsi is an organization essentially designed to help remedy the effects of racism and oppression on Black communities in America and throughout the diaspora. Through a tradition of anti-racist and Afrikan-centered research, activism, and teaching, ABPsi has significantly contributed to the advancement of the field of psychology and to the well-being of Black people in the 50 years since its inception. This article highlights the formation, work, and legacy of this organization

Voronoi Diagrams in the Hilbert Metric

The Hilbert metric is a distance function defined for points lying within a convex body. It generalizes the Cayley-Klein model of hyperbolic geometry to any convex set, and it has numerous applications in the analysis and processing of convex bodies. In this paper, we study the geometric and combinatorial properties of the Voronoi diagram of a set of point sites under the Hilbert metric. Given any m-sided convex polygon ? in the plane, we present two randomized incremental algorithms and one deterministic algorithm. The first randomized algorithm and the deterministic algorithm compute the Voronoi diagram of a set of n point sites. The second randomized algorithm extends this to compute the Voronoi diagram of the set of n sites, each of which may be a point or a line segment. Our algorithms all run in expected time O(m n log n). The algorithms use O(m n) storage, which matches the worst-case combinatorial complexity of the Voronoi diagram in the Hilbert metric

How do pharmaceutical companies model survival of cancer patients? A review of NICE Single Technology Appraisals in 2017

Objectives Before an intervention is publicly funded within the United Kingdom, the cost-effectiveness is assessed by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The efficacy of an intervention across the patients’ lifetime is often influential of the cost-effectiveness analyses, but is associated with large uncertainties. We reviewed committee documents containing company submissions and evidence review group (ERG) reports to establish the methods used when extrapolating survival data, whether these adhered to NICE Technical Support Document (TSD) 14, and how uncertainty was addressed. Methods A systematic search was completed on the NHS Evidence Search webpage limited to single technology appraisals of cancer interventions published in 2017, with information obtained from the NICE Web site. Results Twenty-eight appraisals were identified, covering twenty-two interventions across eighteen diseases. Every economic model used parametric curves to model survival. All submissions used goodness-of-fit statistics and plausibility of extrapolations when selecting a parametric curve. Twenty-five submissions considered alternate parametric curves in scenario analyses. Six submissions reported including the parameters of the survival curves in the probabilistic sensitivity analysis. ERGs agreed with the company's choice of parametric curve in nine appraisals, and agreed with all major survival-related assumptions in two appraisals. Conclusions TSD 14 on survival extrapolation was followed in all appraisals. Despite this, the choice of parametric curve remains subjective. Recent developments in Bayesian approaches to extrapolation are not implemented. More precise guidance on the selection of curves and modelling of uncertainty may reduce subjectivity, accelerating the appraisal process

Nouvelles Diverses

Transcript of NOUVELLES DIVERSES by Auguste Morel signed A. M., appearing in LE MÉNESTREL, 21 mars 1880, pp. 126-127

Aluminum containing dendrimeric silica nanoparticles as promising metallocene catalyst supports for ethylene polymerization

Several aluminum containing dendrimeric silica nanospheres, DSAl materials, were prepared using different synthesis and post-synthetic procedures. These materials were used for the immobilization of Cp2ZrCl2 via direct impregnation. The support materials were rigorously characterized by TEM, N2 adsorption, FTIR (using pyridine as probe molecule) and SS-NMR to assess their morphological, textural and surface acidic properties. Supported catalysts were tested in ethylene homopolymerization using methylaluminoxane (MAO) as co-catalyst and scavenger. The relationships between the types and strength of acid sites, as well as the textural and morphological parameters of DSAl materials with the behavior of catalytic systems are explored in this work. The results analyzed in this paper confirm the importance that support surface acidity plays in the formation of the active species for ethylene polymerization and in its activity without neglecting the contribution of support textural properties as well.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterizing the metabolic phenotype of intestinal villus blunting in Zambian children with severe acute malnutrition and persistent diarrhea

Background: Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is widespread throughout the tropics and in children is associated with stunting and other adverse health outcomes. One of the hallmarks of EED is villus damage. In children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) the severity of enteropathy is greater and short term mortality is high, but the metabolic consequences of enteropathy are unknown. Here, we characterize the urinary metabolic alterations associated with villus health, classic enteropathy biomarkers and anthropometric measurements in severely malnourished children in Zambia. Methods/Principal findings: We analysed 20 hospitalised children with acute malnutrition aged 6 to 23 months in Zambia. Small intestinal biopsies were assessed histologically (n = 15), anthropometric and gut function measurements were collected and the metabolic phenotypes were characterized by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Endoscopy could not be performed on community controls children. Growth parameters were inversely correlated with enteropathy biomarkers (p = 0.011) and parameters of villus health were inversely correlated with translocation and permeability biomarkers (p = 0.000 and p = 0.015). Shorter villus height was associated with reduced abundance of metabolites related to gut microbial metabolism, energy and muscle metabolism (p = 0.034). Villus blunting was also related to increased sucrose excretion (p = 0.013). Conclusions/Significance: Intestinal villus blunting is associated with several metabolic perturbations in hospitalized children with severe undernutrition. Such alterations include altered muscle metabolism, reinforcing the link between EED and growth faltering, and a disruption in the biochemical exchange between the gut microbiota and host. These findings extend our understanding on the downstream consequences of villus blunting and provide novel non-invasive biomarkers of enteropathy dysfunction. The major limitations of this study are the lack of comparative control group and gut microbiota characterization

The effect of heterobifunctional crosslinkers on HEMA hydrogel modulus and toughness

The use of hydrogels in load bearing applications is often limited by insufficient toughness. 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) based hydrogels are appealing for translational work, as they are affordable and the use of HEMA is FDA approved. Furthermore, HEMA is photopolymerizable, providing spatiotemporal control over mechanical properties. We evaluated the ability of vinyl methacrylate (VM), allyl methacrylate (AM), and 3-(Acryloyloxy)-2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (AHPM) to tune hydrogel toughness and Young’s modulus. The crosslinkers were selected due to their heterobifunctionality (vinyl and methacrylate) and similar size and structure to EGDMA, which was shown previously to increase toughness as compared to longer crosslinkers. Vinyl methacrylate incorporation into HEMA hydrogels gave rise to hydrogels with Young’s moduli spanning ranges for ligament to cartilage, with a peak toughness of 519 ± 70 kJ/m3 under physiological conditions. We report toughness (work of extension) as a function of modulus and equilibrium water content for all formulations. The hydrogels exhibited 80%-100% cell viability, which suggests they could be used in tissue engineering applications