Accelerated HIV testing for PMTCT in maternity and labour wards is vital to capture mothers at a critical point in the programme at district level

TORONTO AIDS Conference 200

Spa treatment for primary fibromyalgia syndrome: a combination of thalassotherapy, exercise and patient education improves symptoms and quality of life

Objectives: To study the effect of a combination of thalassotherapy, exercise and patient education in people with fibromyalgia. -\ud Methods: Patients with fibromyalgia, selected from a rheumatology out-patient department and from members of the Dutch fibromyalgia patient association, were pre-randomized to receive either 2 weeks of treatment in a Tunisian spa resort, including thalassotherapy, supervised exercise and group education (active treatment) or treatment as usual (control treatment). Primary outcome measure was health-related quality of life, measured with the RAND-36 questionnaire. Secondary measures included the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, the McGill Pain Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, tender point score and a 6-min treadmill walk test. -\ud Results: Fifty-eight participants receiving the active treatment reported significant improvement on RAND-36 physical and mental component summary scales. For physical health, differences from the 76 controls were statistically significant after 3 months, but not after 6 and 12 months. A similar pattern of temporary improvement was seen in the self-reported secondary measures. Tender point scores and treadmill walk tests improved more after active treatment, but did not reach significant between-group differences, except for walk tests after 12 months. -\ud Conclusions: A combination of thalassotherapy, exercise and patient education may temporarily improve fibromyalgia symptoms and health-related quality of life

Predation rates and prey selectivity in two predacious estuarine nematodes

Enoploides longispiculosus and Adoncholaimus fuscus are representatives of nematode genera prominent in sediments of the North Sea and adjacent estuaries. Both are predatory nematodes, although predation is facultative in the latter. The present study investigates functional responses and prey selectivity in both species through the use of controlled laboratory experiments. Both predators had strongly prey density-dependent predation rates. A maximal predation rate of 4 monhysterid prey nematodes per predator per 24 h was found inE. longispiculosus at prey densities of 200 ind. per petri dish and higher; no such maximal predation rate was found for A. fuscus, indicating that this species was prey-limited at all prey densities tested. Predation rates were strongly affected by temperature, with a Q10 close to 2 between 10 and 20 °C. Incubation in the light resulted in a similar decrease in predation rate compared to dark incubations, as did a temperature decrease from 20 to 10 °C. E. longispiculosus exhibited a clear preference for some nematode prey over others. An encounter probability model indicated that preferences could not be explained by encounter rates. Strike rates were low (E. longispiculosus, and exceptionally low (A. fuscus, indicating that many encounters did not result in attack, or that a portion of the attacks did not result in prey capture. The observed predation rates cannot be supported by prey nematode standing stock and production at the 2 sampling sites used in this study, where E. longispiculosus dominates the nematode community in abundance and, especially, biomass. A. fuscus may mainly derive food from feeding modes other than predation; E. longispiculosus may be prey-limited in its natural habitat. Since this nematode also feeds on other metazoans, it may also impact temporary meiofauna. The high predation rates and prey selectivity of predacious nematodes may be important structuring factors to meiofaunal communities

Selective attraction of marine bacterivorous nematodes to their bacterial food

This paper explores the role of selective attraction to food in determining the spatial (micro)distribution of closely related nematode species. The attractiveness of 3 different bacterial strains to 4 species of Monhysteridae, Diplolaimelloides meyli, Diplolaimella dievengatensis, Monhystera sp. and Geomonhystera disjuncta, was studied in a multiple choice design. In our study area, the 4 nematode species considered are associated with Spartina anglica detritus decay and have partially overlapping microhabitat preferences. As they all belong to the same feeding guild, they are potential competitors for food. Each of the 4 nematode species was attracted to the bacterial strain B1, but important interspecific differences were noted in the nematodes' response to live or heat-killed bacteria, to bacteria at different tell densities or of different age, and to the filtered supernatant of B1 culture. While the responses of D. meyli to the Gram-positive bacteria Halobacillus trueperi and to the Gramnegative Escherichia coli were similar, D. dievengatensis and Monhystera sp, were preferentially attracted to H. trueperi and E. coli, respectively. This opposite preference influenced both the numbers and their relative abundances of D. dievengatensis and Monhystera sp, inside bacterial patches in experiments with a mixed 2-species nematode inoculum. Bacterial cell density strongly influenced the nematode response, with D. meyli invariably preferring the highest cell densities offered, while D. dievengatensis and Monhystera sp. had a peak response at lower cell densities. Though chemotaxis is suggested as an underlying mechanism, the nature of the nematodes' response remains unproved. The present results strongly support the importance of food patchiness in determining the heterogeneous distribution of nematodes, and extend the concept in such a way as to allow for small differences in microhabitat choice between closely related species. They also support the view that nematodes are specialist feeders, though they probably select spots where suitable food is plentiful rather than individual food particles. Finally, the present study offers a baseline for an understanding and further study of patterns of succession among nematode species associated with decaying Spartina anglica detritus in terms of highly specific relationships with different strains, growth stages, and densities of bacteria involved in the mineralization of Spartina anglica-derived organic matter

Mechanism of Hydrogen Formation in Solar Paraboic Trough Receivers

Technical report that provides an overview of the chemical literature dealing with the thermal decomposition of diphenyl oxide and biphenyl, the two constituents of Therminol VP-1

A Seamless Convergence of the Digital and Physical Factory Aiming in Personalized Product Emergence Process (PPEP) for Smart Products within ESB Logistics Learning Factory at Reutlingen University

AbstractA seamless convergence of the digital and physical factory aiming in personalized Product Emergence Process (PPEP) for smart products within ESB Logistics Learning Factory at Reutlingen University.A completely new business model with reference to Industrie4.0 and facilitated by 3D Experience Software in today's networked society in which customers expect immediate responses, delightful experience and simple solutions is one of the mission scenarios in the ESB Logistics Learning Factory at ESB Business School (Reutlingen University).The business experience platform provides software solutions for every organization in the company respectively in the factory. An interface with dashboards, project management apps, 3D - design and construction apps with high end visualization, manufacturing and simulation apps as well as intelligence and social network apps in a collaborative interactive environment help the user to learn the creation of a value end to end process for a personalized virtual and later real produced product.Instead of traditional ways of working and a conventional operating factory real workers and robots work semi-intuitive together. Centerpiece in the self-planned interim factory is the smart personalized product, uniquely identifiable and locatable at all times during the production process – a scooter with an individual colored mobile phone – holder for any smart phone produced with a 3D printer in lot size one. Smart products have in the future solutions incorporated internet based services – designed and manufactured - at the costs of mass products. Additionally the scooter is equipped with a retrievable declarative product memory. Monitoring and control is handled by sensor tags and a raspberry positioned on the product. The engineering design and implementation of a changeable production system is guided by a self-execution system that independently find amongst others esplanade workplaces.The imparted competences to students and professionals are project management method SCRUM, customization of workflows by Industrie4.0 principles, the enhancements of products with new personalized intelligent parts, electrical and electronic self-programmed components and the control of access of the product memory information, to plan in a digital engineering environment and set up of the physical factory to produce customer orders. The gained action-orientated experience refers to the chances and requirements for holistic digital and physical systems

Classical symmetric functions in superspace

We present the basic elements of a generalization of symmetric function theory involving functions of commuting and anticommuting (Grassmannian) variables. These new functions, called symmetric functions in superspace, are invariant under the diagonal action of the symmetric group on the sets of commuting and anticommuting variables. In this work, we present the superspace extension of the classical bases, namely, the monomial symmetric functions, the elementary symmetric functions, the completely symmetric functions, and the power sums. Various basic results, such as the generating functions for the multiplicative bases, Cauchy formulas, involution operations as well as the combinatorial scalar product are also generalized.Comment: 21 pages, this supersedes the first part of math.CO/041230

Taxonomic study of entomopathogenic nematodes (Nematoda : Steinernematidae, Heterorhabditidae) from Benin

A study on the biodiversity of entomopathogenic nematodes was conducted during 2010 and 2011 in South Benin. Soil samples from eight sites production of annual and perennial crops were analysed. We obtained 13.21 % of positive soil samples out of 280. We here report on the identification of six of these isolates. Molecular, morphometrical and morphological observations classified the isolates within the genus Heterorhabditis ; one isolate was conspecific with H. indica and two other isolates with H. sonorensis. More information is needed for effective identification of the remaining three isolates. Phylogenic analysis based on sequences of ITS regions of rDNA grouped our isolates with H. sonorensis and H. taysearae with bootstrap support values of 94 and 99 % in Maximum Parsimony and Neighbour Joining trees, respectively. Morphological characters of the infective juveniles and males did not correspond to those of H. taysearae, but were close to H. sonorensis. In contrast, the female of the H. sonorensis populations did show some minor differences with the originally described one. No progeny was obtained from the crossbreeding of Beninese isolates and H. taysearae. Crossing with an isolate of H. sonorensis would have been more conclusive, but no isolates were available even for specimen’s morphological comparison.Keywords : Survey, identification, Molecular, cross-hybridization, Heterorhabditis.Etude taxonomique desnematodes entomopathogenes (Nematoda : Steinernematidae, Heterorhabditidae) du BeninUne étude diagnostique réalisée sur les nématodes entomopathogènes (NEP) en 2010 et 2011 dans le Sud- Bénin sur huit sites de production de cultures annuelles et pérennes a conduit à 13,21 % d’échantillons de sols positifs sur 280. Le présent travail a porté sur l’identification de six des isolats de NEP extraits. Les études moléculaires, morphologiques, morphométriques et d’hybridation effectuées utilisant les stades développementaux des nématodes ont révélé un isolat d’H. indica, deux d’H. sonorensis. Pour les autres isolats, des informations complémentaires sont nécessaires pour une identification complète. Le séquençage et l’analyse phylogénétique de la région interspécifique de l’ADN ribosomal ont groupé nos isolats avec H. sonorensis et H. Taysearae dans les arbres de parcimonie maximale et de Neighbour Joining avec les supports respectifs 94 et 99 %. Les caractères morphologiques des juvéniles infectieux et des mâles ne correspondent pas à ceux de la première description d’H. taysearae, mais sont proches d’H. sonorensis. Cependant, certaines femelles avec bouchon copulatoire ne correspondent pas à H. sonorensis. Nos isolats n’ont pas été féconds avec H. taysearae. Un croisement avec H. sonorensis population type serait plus concluant, mais il n’y avait aucun isolat disponible dans la base de gènes.Mots-clés : Etude, identification, moléculaire, hybridation-croisée, Heterorhabditis