Rapid automated measurement of body fat distribution from whole-body MRI

The accurate determination of a person’s total body fat is an important issue in medical analysis because obesity is a significant contributing factor to a variety of serious health problems. The medical literature identifies a wide range of diseases that are closely linked to obesity. Current methods of fat assessment are largely inaccurate, and most current methods of fat determination cannot show regional fat distribution, which is important in defining disease risk. We introduce a method that combines computer-aided techniques with whole-body MRI techniques and enables accurate quantification and visualization of total body fat burden and regional fat distribution. This technique may be important in identifying and treating at-risk populations

Axonal Preservation in Deep Subcortical White Matter Lesions in the Ageing Brain

Cerebral white matters lesions (WML) are seen in 94% of the population aged 64 and over and are associated with cognitive decline and depression. We used immunohistochemistry and stereological methods on post mortem brain samples derived from the Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (MRC-CFAS) cohort to investigate the axonal density within deep subcortical lesions. There was no significant difference between the lesional and control white matter, therefore, we conclude that there is axonal preservation within these lesions that are characterized by demyelination

Growth of nanocrystalline thin films of metal sulfides [CdS, ZnS, CuS and PbS] at the water–oil interface

Simple one pot reactions between thiobiuret complexes [M(SON(CNiPr2)2)2], (M = Cd, Zn, Pb or Cu) in toluene and aqueous Na2S lead to well-defined assemblies of nanocrystals. High quality thin films of CdS, ZnS, CuS and PbS nanoparticulates adhered to the interface are produced and are transferable to glass and other substrates. The effect of reaction parameters on the nature and properties of the deposits are examined. The films are characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transport property measurements, X-ray photoelectron and absorption spectroscopy. The ability to obtain thin films of several nanocrystalline semiconductors from a single precursor set significantly expands the scope of a reaction scheme that is still in its infancy

Measurement of Pion Enhancement at Low Transverse Momentum and of the Delta-Resonance Abundance in Si-Nucleus Collisions at AGS Energy

We present measurements of the pion transverse momentum (p_t) spectra in central Si-nucleus collisions in the rapidity range 2.0<y<5.0 for p_t down to and including p_t=0. The data exhibit an enhanced pion yield at low p_t compared to what is expected for a purely thermal spectral shape. This enhancement is used to determine the Delta-resonance abundance at freeze-out. The results are consistent with a direct measurement of the Delta-resonance yield by reconstruction of proton-pion pairs and imply a temperature of the system at freeze-out close to 140 MeV.Comment: 12 pages + 4 figures (uuencoded at end-of-file

Review article: the future of microbiome-based therapeutics

Published online 24 May 2022Background: From consumption of fermented foods and probiotics to emerging applications of faecal microbiota transplantation, the health benefit of manipulating the human microbiota has been exploited for millennia. Despite this history, recent technological advances are unlocking the capacity for targeted microbial manipulation as a novel therapeutic.Aim: This review summarises the current developments in microbiome- based medicines and provides insight into the next steps required for therapeutic development.Methods: Here we review current and emerging approaches and assess the capabilities and weaknesses of these technologies to provide safe and effective clinical inter-ventions. Key literature was identified through Pubmed searches with the following key words, ‘microbiome’, ‘microbiome biomarkers’, ‘probiotics’, ‘prebiotics’, ‘synbiotics’, ‘faecal microbiota transplant’, ‘live biotherapeutics’, ‘microbiome mimetics’ and ‘postbiotics’.Results: Improved understanding of the human microbiome and recent technological advances provide an opportunity to develop a new generation of therapies. These therapies will range from dietary interventions, prebiotic supplementations, single probiotic bacterial strains, human donor-derived faecal microbiota transplants, ra-tionally selected combinations of bacterial strains as live biotherapeutics, and the beneficial products or effects produced by bacterial strains, termed microbiome mimetics.Conclusions: Although methods to identify and refine these therapeutics are continually advancing, the rapid emergence of these new approaches necessitates accepted technological and ethical frameworks for measurement, testing, laboratory practices and clinical translation.Emily L. Gulliver, Remy B. Young, Michelle Chonwerawong, Gemma L. D'Adamo, Tamblyn Thomason, James T. Widdop, Emily L. Rutten, Vanessa Rossetto Marcelino, Robert V. Bryant, Samuel P. Costello, Claire L. O'Brien, Georgina L. Hold, Edward M. Giles, Samuel C. Forste

Observation of exclusive DVCS in polarized electron beam asymmetry measurements

We report the first results of the beam spin asymmetry measured in the reaction e + p -> e + p + gamma at a beam energy of 4.25 GeV. A large asymmetry with a sin(phi) modulation is observed, as predicted for the interference term of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering and the Bethe-Heitler process. The amplitude of this modulation is alpha = 0.202 +/- 0.028. In leading-order and leading-twist pQCD, the alpha is directly proportional to the imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure