Internet-based search of randomised trials relevant to mental health originating in the Arab world

BACKGROUND: The internet is becoming a widely used source of accessing medical research through various on-line databases. This instant access to information is of benefit to busy clinicians and service users around the world. The population of the Arab World is comparable to that of the United States, yet it is widely believed to have a greatly contrasting output of randomised controlled trials related to mental health. This study was designed to investigate the existence of such research in the Arab World and also to investigate the availability of this research on-line. METHODS: Survey of findings from three internet-based potential sources of randomised trials originating from the Arab world and relevant to mental health care. RESULTS: A manual search of an Arabic online current contents service identified 3 studies, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO searches identified only 1 study, and a manual search of a specifically indexed, study-based mental health database, PsiTri, revealed 27 trials. CONCLUSION: There genuinely seem to be few trials from the Arab world and accessing these on-line was problematic. Replication of some studies that guide psychiatric/psychological practice in the Arab world would seem prudent

Hierarchical Optimization and Grid Scheduling Model for Energy Internet: A Genetic Algorithm-Based Layered Approach

The old economic and social growth model, characterized by centralized fossil energy consumption, is progressively shifting, and the third industrial revolution, represented by new energy and Internet technology, is gaining traction. Energy Internet, as a core technology of the third industrial revolution, aims to combine renewable energy and Internet technology to promote the large-scale use and sharing of distributed renewable energy as well as the integration of multiple complex network systems, such as electricity, transportation, and natural gas. This novel technology enables power networks to save energy. However, multienergy synchronization optimization poses a significant problem. As a solution, this study proposed an optimized approach based on the concept of layered control–collaborate optimization. The proposed method allows the distributed device to plan the heat, cold, gas, and electricity in the regional system in the most efficient way possible. Moreover, the proposed optimization model is simulated using a real-number genetic algorithm. It improved the optimal scheduling between different regions and the independence of distributed equipment with minimal cost. Furthermore, the inverse system and energy and cost saving rate of the proposed method are better than those of existing methods, which prove its effectiveness

Image Texture Characterization Using the Discrete Orthonormal S-Transform

We present a new efficient approach for characterizing image texture based on a recently published discrete, orthonormal space-frequency transform known as the DOST. We develop a frequency-domain implementation of the DOST in two dimensions for the case of dyadic frequency sampling. Then, we describe a rapid and efficient approach to obtain local spatial frequency information for an image and show that this information can be used to characterize the horizontal and vertical frequency patterns in synthetic images. Finally, we demonstrate that DOST components can be combined to obtain a rotationally invariant set of texture features that can accurately classify a series of texture patterns. The DOST provides the computational efficiency and multi-scale information of wavelet transforms, while providing texture features in terms of Fourier frequencies. It outperforms leading wavelet-based texture analysis methods

Cyclin A and cyclin D1 as significant prognostic markers in colorectal cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer is a common cancer all over the world. Aberrations in the cell cycle checkpoints have been shown to be of prognostic significance in colorectal cancer. METHODS: The expression of cyclin D1, cyclin A, histone H3 and Ki-67 was examined in 60 colorectal cancer cases for co-regulation and impact on overall survival using immunohistochemistry, southern blot and in situ hybridization techniques. Immunoreactivity was evaluated semi quantitatively by determining the staining index of the studied proteins. RESULTS: There was a significant correlation between cyclin D1 gene amplification and protein overexpression (concordance = 63.6%) and between Ki-67 and the other studied proteins. The staining index for Ki-67, cyclin A and D1 was higher in large, poorly differentiated tumors. The staining index of cyclin D1 was significantly higher in cases with deeply invasive tumors and nodal metastasis. Overexpression of cyclin A and D1 and amplification of cyclin D1 were associated with reduced overall survival. Multivariate analysis shows that cyclin D1 and A are two independent prognostic factors in colorectal cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: Loss of cell cycle checkpoints control is common in colorectal cancer. Cyclin A and D1 are superior independent indicators of poor prognosis in colorectal cancer patients. Therefore, they may help in predicting the clinical outcome of those patients on an individual basis and could be considered important therapeutic targets

Specialized Peptidoglycan Hydrolases Sculpt the Intra-bacterial Niche of Predatory Bdellovibrio and Increase Population Fitness

Bdellovibrio are predatory bacteria that have evolved to invade virtually all Gram-negative bacteria, including many prominent pathogens. Upon invasion, prey bacteria become rounded up into an osmotically stable niche for the Bdellovibrio, preventing further superinfection and allowing Bdellovibrio to replicate inside without competition, killing the prey bacterium and degrading its contents. Historically, prey rounding was hypothesized to be associated with peptidoglycan (PG) metabolism; we found two Bdellovibrio genes, bd0816 and bd3459, expressed at prey entry and encoding proteins with limited homologies to conventional dacB/PBP4 DD-endo/carboxypeptidases (responsible for peptidoglycan maintenance during growth and division). We tested possible links between Bd0816/3459 activity and predation. Bd3459, but not an active site serine mutant protein, bound β-lactam, exhibited DD-endo/carboxypeptidase activity against purified peptidoglycan and, importantly, rounded up E. coli cells upon periplasmic expression. A ΔBd0816 ΔBd3459 double mutant invaded prey more slowly than the wild type (with negligible prey cell rounding) and double invasions of single prey by more than one Bdellovibrio became more frequent. We solved the crystal structure of Bd3459 to 1.45 Å and this revealed predation-associated domain differences to conventional PBP4 housekeeping enzymes (loss of the regulatory domain III, alteration of domain II and a more exposed active site). The Bd3459 active site (and by similarity the Bd0816 active site) can thus accommodate and remodel the various bacterial PGs that Bdellovibrio may encounter across its diverse prey range, compared to the more closed active site that “regular” PBP4s have for self cell wall maintenance. Therefore, during evolution, Bdellovibrio peptidoglycan endopeptidases have adapted into secreted predation-specific proteins, preventing wasteful double invasion, and allowing activity upon the diverse prey peptidoglycan structures to sculpt the prey cell into a stable intracellular niche for replication

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Search for direct pair production of the top squark in all-hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for direct pair production of the scalar partner to the top quark using an integrated luminosity of 20.1fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. The top squark is assumed to decay via t˜→tχ˜01 or t˜→ bχ˜±1 →bW(∗)χ˜01 , where χ˜01 (χ˜±1 ) denotes the lightest neutralino (chargino) in supersymmetric models. The search targets a fully-hadronic final state in events with four or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits are reported in terms of the top squark and neutralino masses and as a function of the branching fraction of t˜ → tχ˜01 . For a branching fraction of 100%, top squark masses in the range 270–645 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 30 GeV. For a branching fraction of 50% to either t˜ → tχ˜01 or t˜ → bχ˜±1 , and assuming the χ˜±1 mass to be twice the χ˜01 mass, top squark masses in the range 250–550 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 60 GeV