Empedoclean epic: how far can you go?

This paper attempts to take one step further the argument of P.R. Hardie’s 1995 article in Classical Quarterly, entitled ‘The Speech of Pythagoras in Ovid Metamorphoses 15: Empedoclean Epos’, by showing that Lucan can be fitted easily into a version of Latin literary history that privileges the presence of recurring Empedoclean influence

Empedoclean epic: how far can you go?

This paper attempts to take one step further the argument of P.R. Hardie’s 1995 article in Classical Quarterly, entitled ‘The Speech of Pythagoras in Ovid Metamorphoses 15: Empedoclean Epos’, by showing that Lucan can be fitted easily into a version of Latin literary history that privileges the presence of recurring Empedoclean influence

MONEY DEMAND, FINANCIAL DISTRESS, AND EXCHANGE-RATE UNCERTAINTY IN INDONESIA

This paper examines the demand for currency and quasi-money in Indonesia with linear and neural network models. The goal is to predict better the recent financial distress, reflected by the flight into currency and decline of quasi-money. The results show that neural network approaches, much more than linear models, are capable of accurate out-of-sample predictions for both monetary aggregates. However, for the very turbulent period of November and December of 1997, even the neural network models show large out-of-sample forecast errors.  When a proxy for exchange-rate uncertainty supplements the network models, the out-of-sample currency demand becomes quite accurate, even for the last month of 1997. The quasi-money demand forecast also improve, although not as dramatically as those of currency demand.  The analysis shows that a credible program, which reduces uncertainty in exchange-rate expectations, may mitigate the flight into currency from broad money, and the ensuing demonetization of the financial sector

The Tuber Extract and Flour of Dioscorea Alatanormalize the Blood Lipid Profile of Rabbits Treated with High Cholesterol Diets

Background: Dioscorea alata(DA) tuber has potential to prevent the condition of hyperlipidemia due to the bioactive compound, such as anthocyanins, diosgenin, and dietary fiber that beneficial in normalizing blood lipid profiles. In this research, the effect of water extract and flour of DA tuber administration was examined on rabbits treated with high cholesterol diets.Methods:DA tuber extract and flour were administrated to the rabbits for 60 days using completely randomised design. The ration treatment are as follows: 1) Basal ration as negative control (K0), 2) Basal ration + 0.5% cholesterol, as positive control (K1), 3) Basal ration + 0.5% cholesterol + DA extract 1.8 g/100 g (KE1), 4) Basal ration + cholesterol 0.5% + DA extract 3.6 g/100 g (KE2), 5) Basal ration with 15% DA flour + 0.5% cholesterol (KT1) and 6) Basal ration with 30% DA flour + 0.5% cholesterol (KT2). The Total cholesterol, HDL, LDL cholesterol in serum were analysed at baseline, days 28, days 56 and at the end of study.Results:The administration of high cholesterol (1%) ration increased blood lipid levels by 16 fold compared to that of control. The administration of 15% and 30% of DA flour could maintain blood lipid profile to normal condition, in particular at 30% substitution DA flour. However the water extract of DA can not maintain a normal blood lipids of high cholesterol treated rabbitsConclusion: Dioscorea alata flour has suggested to have anti-hyperlipidemia effect. (Health Science Indones 2014;1:23-9

Safe food through better labelling: A robust method for the rapid determination of caprine and bovine milk allergens

Accidental milk cross-contamination is one of the most common causes for costly food recalls. Yet, quantifying trace-levels of allergen is time-consuming and current methods are not adapted for routine analyses making quality control for trace-level allergen content impractical. This perpetuates voluntary “may-contain” statements that are unhelpful for people suffering from food allergies. Here, we developed a rapid LC-MS method enabling milk allergen quantification by comparing all tryptic-peptides of major milk allergens. The bovine-specific αS-2 casein peptide and allergen-epitope NAVPITPTLNR provided excellent performance in sensitivity (LOD 1 mg.kg − 1; LOQ 2 mg.kg − 1) across various dairy products, good recovery rates in baked croissants (77 % with a 10 % inter-day RSD) and a linear range of 2 – 2,000 mg.kg − 1. The method can be used for routine determination of trace-contamination with bovine milk allergen and the adulteration of high-value caprine dairy products with lower-value bovine milk products, protecting consumer trust and the growing population suffering from food allergies

Genetic Classification of Populations using Supervised Learning

There are many instances in genetics in which we wish to determine whether two candidate populations are distinguishable on the basis of their genetic structure. Examples include populations which are geographically separated, case--control studies and quality control (when participants in a study have been genotyped at different laboratories). This latter application is of particular importance in the era of large scale genome wide association studies, when collections of individuals genotyped at different locations are being merged to provide increased power. The traditional method for detecting structure within a population is some form of exploratory technique such as principal components analysis. Such methods, which do not utilise our prior knowledge of the membership of the candidate populations. are termed \emph{unsupervised}. Supervised methods, on the other hand are able to utilise this prior knowledge when it is available. In this paper we demonstrate that in such cases modern supervised approaches are a more appropriate tool for detecting genetic differences between populations. We apply two such methods, (neural networks and support vector machines) to the classification of three populations (two from Scotland and one from Bulgaria). The sensitivity exhibited by both these methods is considerably higher than that attained by principal components analysis and in fact comfortably exceeds a recently conjectured theoretical limit on the sensitivity of unsupervised methods. In particular, our methods can distinguish between the two Scottish populations, where principal components analysis cannot. We suggest, on the basis of our results that a supervised learning approach should be the method of choice when classifying individuals into pre-defined populations, particularly in quality control for large scale genome wide association studies.Comment: Accepted PLOS On

Cure of Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with reflux oesophagitis treated with long term omeprazole reverses gastritis without exacerbation of reflux disease: results of a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori gastritis may progress to glandular atrophy and intestinal metaplasia, conditions that predispose to gastric cancer. Profound suppression of gastric acid is associated with increased severity of H pylori gastritis. This prospective randomised study aimed to investigate whether H pylori eradication can influence gastritis and its sequelae during long term omeprazole therapy for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD). METHODS: A total of 231 H pylori positive GORD patients who had been treated for > or =12 months with omeprazole maintenance therapy (OM) were randomised to either continuation of OM (OM only; n = 120) or OM plus a one week course of omeprazole, amoxycillin, and clarithromycin (OM triple; n = 111). Endoscopy with standardised biopsy sampling as well as symptom evaluation were performed at baseline and after one and two years. Gastritis was assessed according to the Sydney classification system for activity, inflammation, atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, and H pylori density. RESULTS: Corpus gastritis activity at entry was moderate or severe in 50% and 55% of the OM only and OM triple groups, respectively. In the OM triple group, H pylori was eradicated in 90 (88%) patients, and activity and inflammation decreased substantially in both the antrum and corpus (p<0.001, baseline v two years). Atrophic gastritis also improved in the corpus (p<0.001) but not in the antrum. In the 83 OM only patients with continuing infection, there was no change in antral and corpus gastritis activity or atrophy, but inflammation increased (p<0.01). H pylori eradication did not alter the dose of omeprazole required, or reflux symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Most H pylori positive GORD patients have a corpus predominant pangastritis during omeprazole maintenance therapy. Eradication of H pylori eliminates gastric mucosal inflammation and induces regression of corpus glandular atrophy. H pylori eradication did not worsen reflux disease or lead to a need for increased omeprazole maintenance dose. We therefore recommend eradication of H pylori in GORD patients receiving long term acid suppression

Neandertal introgression partitions the genetic landscape of neuropsychiatric disorders and associated behavioral phenotypes

Despite advances in identifying the genetic basis of psychiatric and neurological disorders, fundamental questions about their evolutionary origins remain elusive. Here, introgressed variants from archaic humans such as Neandertals can serve as an intriguing research paradigm. We compared the number of associations for Neandertal variants to the number of associations of frequency-matched non-archaic variants with regard to human CNS disorders (neurological and psychiatric), nervous system drug prescriptions (as a proxy for disease), and related, non-disease phenotypes in the UK biobank (UKBB). While no enrichment for Neandertal genetic variants were observed in the UKBB for psychiatric or neurological disease categories, we found significant associations with certain behavioral phenotypes including pain, chronotype/sleep, smoking and alcohol consumption. In some instances, the enrichment signal was driven by Neandertal variants that represented the strongest association genome-wide. SNPs within a Neandertal haplotype that was associated with smoking in the UKBB could be replicated in four independent genomics datasets

Genetic spectrum of hereditary neuropathies with onset in the first year of life

Early onset hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies are rare disorders encompassing congenital hypomyelinating neuropathy with disease onset in the direct post-natal period and Dejerine–Sottas neuropathy starting in infancy. The clinical spectrum, however, reaches beyond the boundaries of these two historically defined disease entities. De novo dominant mutations in PMP22, MPZ and EGR2 are known to be a typical cause of very early onset hereditary neuropathies. In addition, mutations in several other dominant and recessive genes for Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease may lead to similar phenotypes. To estimate mutation frequencies and to gain detailed insights into the genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity of early onset hereditary neuropathies, we selected a heterogeneous cohort of 77 unrelated patients who presented with symptoms of peripheral neuropathy within the first year of life. The majority of these patients were isolated in their family. We performed systematic mutation screening by means of direct sequencing of the coding regions of 11 genes: MFN2, PMP22, MPZ, EGR2, GDAP1, NEFL, FGD4, MTMR2, PRX, SBF2 and SH3TC2. In addition, screening for the Charcot–Marie–Tooth type 1A duplication on chromosome 17p11.2-12 was performed. In 35 patients (45%), mutations were identified. Mutations in MPZ, PMP22 and EGR2 were found most frequently in patients presenting with early hypotonia and breathing difficulties. The recessive genes FGD4, PRX, MTMR2, SBF2, SH3TC2 and GDAP1 were mutated in patients presenting with early foot deformities and variable delay in motor milestones after an uneventful neonatal period. Several patients displaying congenital foot deformities but an otherwise normal early development carried the Charcot–Marie–Tooth type 1A duplication. This study clearly illustrates the genetic heterogeneity underlying hereditary neuropathies with infantile onset

Theoretical Formulation of Principal Components Analysis to Detect and Correct for Population Stratification

The Eigenstrat method, based on principal components analysis (PCA), is commonly used both to quantify population relationships in population genetics and to correct for population stratification in genome-wide association studies. However, it can be difficult to make appropriate inference about population relationships from the principal component (PC) scatter plot. Here, to better understand the working mechanism of the Eigenstrat method, we consider its theoretical or “population” formulation. The eigen-equation for samples from an arbitrary number () of populations is reduced to that of a matrix of dimension , the elements of which are determined by the variance-covariance matrix for the random vector of the allele frequencies. Solving the reduced eigen-equation is numerically trivial and yields eigenvectors that are the axes of variation required for differentiating the populations. Using the reduced eigen-equation, we investigate the within-population fluctuations around the axes of variation on the PC scatter plot for simulated datasets. Specifically, we show that there exists an asymptotically stable pattern of the PC plot for large sample size. Our results provide theoretical guidance for interpreting the pattern of PC plot in terms of population relationships. For applications in genetic association tests, we demonstrate that, as a method of correcting for population stratification, regressing out the theoretical PCs corresponding to the axes of variation is equivalent to simply removing the population mean of allele counts and works as well as or better than the Eigenstrat method