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Protocol for the Foot in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis trial (FiJIA): a randomised controlled trial of an integrated foot care programme for foot problems in JIA

<b>Background</b>: Foot and ankle problems are a common but relatively neglected manifestation of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Studies of medical and non-medical interventions have shown that clinical outcome measures can be improved. However existing data has been drawn from small non-randomised clinical studies of single interventions that appear to under-represent the adult population suffering from juvenile idiopathic arthritis. To date, no evidence of combined therapies or integrated care for juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients with foot and ankle problems exists. <b>Methods/design</b>: An exploratory phase II non-pharmacological randomised controlled trial where patients including young children, adolescents and adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and associated foot/ankle problems will be randomised to receive integrated podiatric care via a new foot care programme, or to receive standard podiatry care. Sixty patients (30 in each arm) including children, adolescents and adults diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis who satisfy the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be recruited from 2 outpatient centres of paediatric and adult rheumatology respectively. Participants will be randomised by process of minimisation using the Minim software package. The primary outcome measure is the foot related impairment measured by the Juvenile Arthritis Disability Index questionnaire's impairment domain at 6 and 12 months, with secondary outcomes including disease activity score, foot deformity score, active/limited foot joint counts, spatio-temporal and plantar-pressure gait parameters, health related quality of life and semi-quantitative ultrasonography score for inflammatory foot lesions. The new foot care programme will comprise rapid assessment and investigation, targeted treatment, with detailed outcome assessment and follow-up at minimum intervals of 3 months. Data will be collected at baseline, 6 months and 12 months from baseline. Intention to treat data analysis will be conducted. A full health economic evaluation will be conducted alongside the trial and will evaluate the cost effectiveness of the intervention. This will consider the cost per improvement in Juvenile Arthritis Disability Index, and cost per quality adjusted life year gained. In addition, a discrete choice experiment will elicit willingness to pay values and a cost benefit analysis will also be undertaken

The inflammatory microenvironment in colorectal neoplasia

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Specialized interfaces of Smc5/6 control hinge stability and DNA association

The Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complexes: cohesin, condensin and Smc5/6 are involved in the organization of higher-order chromosome structure—which is essential for accurate chromosome duplication and segregation. Each complex is scaffolded by a specific SMC protein dimer (heterodimer in eukaryotes) held together via their hinge domains. Here we show that the Smc5/6-hinge, like those of cohesin and condensin, also forms a toroidal structure but with distinctive subunit interfaces absent from the other SMC complexes; an unusual ‘molecular latch’ and a functional ‘hub’. Defined mutations in these interfaces cause severe phenotypic effects with sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents in fission yeast and reduced viability in human cells. We show that the Smc5/6-hinge complex binds preferentially to ssDNA and that this interaction is affected by both ‘latch’ and ‘hub’ mutations, suggesting a key role for these unique features in controlling DNA association by the Smc5/6 complex

Study of deposition parameters for the fabrication of ZnO thin films using femtosecond laser

Femtosecond (fs) pulsed laser deposition (fs-PLD) of ZnO thin film on borosilicate glass substrates is reported in this work. The effect of important fs-PLD parameters such as target–substrate distance, laser pulse energy and substrate temperature on structure, morphology, optical transparency and luminescence of as-deposited films is discussed. XRD analysis reveals that all the films grown using the laser energy range 120–230 μJ are polycrystalline when they are deposited at room temperature in a ~10−5 Torr vacuum. Introducing 0.7 mTorr oxygen pressure, the films show preferred c-axis growth and transform into a single-crystal-like film when the substrate temperature is increased to 100 °C. The scanning electron micrographs show the presence of small nano-size grains at 25 °C, which grow in size to the regular hexagonal shape particles at 100 °C. Optical transmission of the ZnO film is found to increase with an increase in crystal quality. Maximum transmittance of 95 % in the wavelength range 400–1400 nm is achieved for films deposited at 100 °C employing a laser pulse energy of 180 μJ. The luminescence spectra show a strong UV emission band peaked at 377 nm close to the ZnO band gap. The shallow donor defects increase at higher pulse energies and higher substrate temperatures, which give rise to violet-blue luminescence. The results indicate that nano-crystalline ZnO thin films with high crystalline quality and optical transparency can be fabricated by using pulses from fs lasers

Side Chain Hydrophobicity Modulates Therapeutic Activity and Membrane Selectivity of Antimicrobial Peptide Mastoparan-X

The discovery of new anti-infective compounds is stagnating and multi-resistant bacteria continue to emerge, threatening to end the "antibiotic era". Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and lipo-peptides such as daptomycin offer themselves as a new potential class of antibiotics; however, further optimization is needed if AMPs are to find broad use as antibiotics. In the present work, eight analogues of mastoparan-X (MPX) were investigated, having side chain modifications in position 1, 8 and 14 to modulate peptide hydrophobicity. The self-association properties of the peptides were characterized, and the peptide-membrane interactions in model membranes were compared with the bactericidal and haemolytic properties. Alanine substitution at position 1 and 14 resulted in higher target selectivity (red blood cells versus bacteria), but also decreased bactericidal potency. For these analogues, the gain in target selectivity correlated to biophysical parameters showing an increased effective charge and reduction in the partitioning coefficient for membrane insertion. Introduction of an unnatural amino acid, with an octyl side chain by amino acid substitution, at positions 1, 8 and 14 resulted in increased bactericidal potency at the expense of radically reduced membrane target selectivity. Overall, optimized membrane selectivity or bactericidal potency was achieved by changes in side chain hydrophobicity of MPX. However, enhanced potency was achieved at the expense of selectivity and vice versa in all cases

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO