Stillbirth should be given greater priority on the global health agenda

Stillbirths are largely excluded from international measures of mortality and morbidity. Zeshan Qureshi and colleagues argue that stillbirth should be higher on the global health agenda

Open-Label Phase I Clinical Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Cilostazol in Patients Undergoing Internal Carotid Artery Stent Placement

BACKGROUND: One-month dual antiplatelet treatment, with aspirin and clopidogrel, following internal carotid artery stent placement is the current standard of care to prevent in-stent thrombosis. Cilostazol, an antiplatelet drug, has been demonstrated to have a safety profile comparable to aspirin and clopidogrel. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and clinical efficacy of cilostazol and aspirin therapy following internal carotid artery stent placement up to 1 month postprocedure. METHODS: A phase I open-label, nonrandomized two-center prospective study was conducted. All subjects received aspirin (325 mg/day) and cilostazol (200 mg/day) 3 days before extracranial stent placement. Two antiplatelet agents were continued for 1 month postprocedure followed by aspirin daily monotherapy. The primary efficacy end point was the 30-day composite occurrence of death, cerebral infarction, transient ischemic attack, and in-stent thrombosis. The primary safety end point was bleeding. RESULTS: Twelve subjects (mean age ± SD, 66 ± 12 years; 9 males) were enrolled and underwent internal carotid artery angioplasty and stent placement. None of the subjects who successfully followed the study protocol experienced any complications at the 1- and 3-month follow-ups. One patient had a protocol deviation due to concurrent use of enoxaparin (1 mg/kg twice daily) in addition to aspirin and cilostazol, resulting in a fatal symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage following successful stent placement on postprocedure day 1. One patient discontinued cilostazol after the first dose secondary to dizziness. CONCLUSION: The use of cilostazol and aspirin for internal carotid artery stent placement appears to be safe, but protocol compliance needs to be emphasize

Discrete-time rewards model-checked

This paper presents a model-checking approach for analyzing discrete-time Markov reward models. For this purpose, the temporal logic probabilistic CTL is extended with reward constraints. This allows to formulate complex measures – involving expected as well as accumulated rewards – in a precise and succinct way. Algorithms to efficiently analyze such formulae are introduced. The approach is illustrated by model-checking a probabilistic cost model of the IPv4 zeroconf protocol for distributed address assignment in ad-hoc networks

Dispersal of Adult \u3ci\u3eDiatraea grandiosella\u3c/i\u3e (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) and Its Implications for Corn Borer Resistance Management in \u3ci\u3eBacillus thuringiensis\u3c/i\u3e Maize

Dispersal of the southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella Dyar, was examined by release and recapture of dye-marked adults and by capture of feral adults in and around 50-ha center pivot irrigated fields of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize. Pheromone and blacklight traps were used to capture the adults. In 1999, 2000, and 2001, a total of 177, 602, and 1,292 marked males, and 87, 231, and 1,045 marked females were released in four irrigated Bt maize fields, respectively. Recapture beyond release point was 2.13, 6.17, 3.16, and 17.91% for males and 0, 0, 2.23, and 4.18% for females in the four fields, respectively. One male was recaptured over native vegetation outside the field perimeter, and one was caught in a neighboring maize field, 457 m from the release point. An exponential decay function explained recapture of marked adults across the dispersal distance. More than 90% of adults were recaptured within 300 m of the release point. Large numbers of feral adults were captured throughout the study fields and over native vegetation between fields. The feral adult dispersal could be described with a linear model. Virgin females (38% marked and 14% feral) were captured throughout the study fields. The recapture of marked insects suggests that the dispersal was limited. However, capture of feral adults throughout Bt maize fields indicates that the actual dispersal may be more extensive than indicated by recapture of marked adults. Potential refuge sources for the feral adults were 587-1,387 m from the edge of the fields. There seems to be some dispersal of D. grandiosella from the nontransgenic “refuge” fields into the transgenic fields, which may allow for some genetic mixing of the Bt-resistant and -susceptible insects to help suppress potential evolution of pest resistance to transgenic maize. However, it is not clear whether the dispersal recorded in this study is sufficient to support the current resistance management strategy for corn borers

Local authority responses to people with NRPF during the pandemic: research report

Migrants with ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) are at high risk of destitution due to their exclusion from most welfare benefits and statutory housing support. This is a longstanding issue that has been highlighted by campaigners, academics and the migration sector. This report examines how local authorities in England responded to people with NRPF during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights systemic issues with access to support for people with NRPF and shows how provision varied considerably across England (most notably in the case of single adults with NRPF who would not normally be eligible for support but were included in the COVID-19 homelessness response) and even within individual local authorities. The COVID-19 pandemic has made life significantly more difficult and precarious for people with NRPF. Many have lost income, employment and accommodation, while non-statutory support services have been forced to close. The number of people with NRPF in need of assistance to meet their basic needs has increased. Our research indicates that people with NRPF are more likely to become seriously ill or die if they contract COVID-19. Despite this, it has been difficult for many people with NRPF to access the help they need, including adequate food, shelter and subsistence support, during this public health crisis. Local authorities have statutory duties towards two categories of people with NRPF: families with ‘children in need’; and adults with care needs. There are, however, significant variations in how these duties are implemented, with many migrants in need of support unable to access their entitlements under normal (pre-pandemic) circumstances. A key problem in this area is that local authorities are not funded by central government to provide support to people with NRPF - an issue that has been consistently raised by rights advocates. This issue became more urgent during the pandemic as local authorities were called upon by central government to provide support to a third group of people with NRPF who would not normally be eligible for assistance: single homeless adults without care needs. Our research shows that, while some councils put in place effective emergency support for this group, the England-wide response of local authorities was frequently characterised by confusion, a lack of information about support options, the ‘gatekeeping’ of access to accommodation, and gaps in essential provision (e.g. food). Our research focuses on the period during which the UK was in ‘lockdown’. But the problems we highlight in this report have by no means come to an end. Local authorities continue to be underfunded and the destitution experienced by people with NRPF has not abated. It is unclear what will happen to homeless adults with NRPF who have no statutory entitlement to support as public- health concerns subside. Our research indicates that while some local authorities are trying to respond to this issue in a way that respects people’s rights and dignity, others do not want to continue to support people with NRPF, with a number planning to resort to so-called ‘voluntary returns’ or ‘reconnection’. In the view of many of our research participants, only an urgent end to the NRPF system can adequately address the problems that have been highlighted by COVID-19

EDDEEC: Enhanced Developed Distributed Energy-Efficient Clustering for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of large number of randomly deployed energy constrained sensor nodes. Sensor nodes have ability to sense and send sensed data to Base Station (BS). Sensing as well as transmitting data towards BS require high energy. In WSNs, saving energy and extending network lifetime are great challenges. Clustering is a key technique used to optimize energy consumption in WSNs. In this paper, we propose a novel clustering based routing technique: Enhanced Developed Distributed Energy Efficient Clustering scheme (EDDEEC) for heterogeneous WSNs. Our technique is based on changing dynamically and with more efficiency the Cluster Head (CH) election probability. Simulation results show that our proposed protocol achieves longer lifetime, stability period and more effective messages to BS than Distributed Energy Efficient Clustering (DEEC), Developed DEEC (DDEEC) and Enhanced DEEC (EDEEC) in heterogeneous environments

Oil-Soluble Dyes Incorporated in Meridic Diet of \u3ci\u3eDiatraea grandiosella\u3c/i\u3e (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) as Markers for Adult Dispersal Studies

Mark-release-recapture experiments to study insect dispersal require the release of marked insects that can be easily identified among feral conspecifics. Oil-soluble dyes have been used successfully to mark various insect species. Two oil-soluble dyes, Sudan Red 7B (C.I. 26050) and Sudan Blue 670 (C.I. 61554), were added to diet of the southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella Dyar, and evaluated against an untreated control diet. Survival, diet consumption, larval and pupal weight, development time, fecundity, longevity, and dry weight of the adults were measured. Adults reared on the three diets were also tested for mating success. Some minor effects were observed for southwestern corn borers reared on the marked diets. Eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults were all reliably marked and readily identifiable. Adults retained color for their entire life span. Adults from each diet mated successfully with adults from the other diets. F1 progeny from the different mating combinations survived to the second instar but tended to lose the marker after 3-4 d on untreated diet. Both Sudan Red 7B and Sudan Blue 670 can be used to mark southwestern corn borer adults and thus should be useful for mark-release-recapture dispersal studies. The dyes will also be useful for short-term studies with marked larvae and oviposition behavior

Association between Cutaneous Nevi and Breast Cancer in the Nurses' Health Study: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Cutaneous nevi are suggested to be hormone-related. We hypothesized that the number of cutaneous nevi might be a phenotypic marker of plasma hormone levels and predict subsequent breast cancer risk. Methods and Findings: We followed 74,523 female nurses for 24 y (1986–2010) in the Nurses' Health Study and estimate the relative risk of breast cancer according to the number of cutaneous nevi. We adjusted for the known breast cancer risk factors in the models. During follow-up, a total of 5,483 invasive breast cancer cases were diagnosed. Compared to women with no nevi, women with more cutaneous nevi had higher risks of breast cancer (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio, 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98–1.10 for 1–5 nevi; 1.15, 95% CI, 1.00–1.31 for 6–14 nevi, and 1.35, 95% CI, 1.04–1.74 for 15 or more nevi; p for continuous trend = 0.003). Over 24 y of follow-up, the absolute risk of developing breast cancer increased from 8.48% for women without cutaneous nevi to 8.82% (95% CI, 8.31%–9.33%) for women with 1–5 nevi, 9.75% (95% CI, 8.48%–11.11%) for women with 6–14 nevi, and 11.4% (95% CI, 8.82%–14.76%) for women with 15 or more nevi. The number of cutaneous nevi was associated with increased risk of breast cancer only among estrogen receptor (ER)–positive tumors (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio per five nevi, 1.09, 95% CI, 1.02–1.16 for ER+/progesterone receptor [PR]–positive tumors; 1.08, 95% CI, 0.94–1.24 for ER+/PR− tumors; and 0.99, 95% CI, 0.86–1.15 for ER−/PR− tumors). Additionally, we tested plasma hormone levels according to the number of cutaneous nevi among a subgroup of postmenopausal women without postmenopausal hormone use (n = 611). Postmenopausal women with six or more nevi had a 45.5% higher level of free estradiol and a 47.4% higher level of free testosterone compared to those with no nevi (p for trend = 0.001 for both). Among a subgroup of 362 breast cancer cases and 611 matched controls with plasma hormone measurements, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio for every five nevi attenuated from 1.25 (95% CI, 0.89–1.74) to 1.16 (95% CI, 0.83–1.64) after adjusting for plasma hormone levels. Key limitations in this study are that cutaneous nevi were self-counted in our cohort and that the study was conducted in white individuals, and thus the findings do not necessarily apply to other populations. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the number of cutaneous nevi may reflect plasma hormone levels and predict breast cancer risk independently of previously known factors. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summar

Cosmological Aspects of Rolling Tachyon

We examine the possibility of rolling tachyon to play the dual roll of inflaton at early epochs and dark matter at late times. We argue that enough inflation can be generated with the rolling tachyon either by invoking the large number of branes or brane world assisted inflation. However, reheating is problematic in this model.Comment: RevTeX 4 pages, Talk delivered in PASCOS held at TIFR (Mumbai) from 3rd Jan to 9th Jan. To appear in the proceedings of PASCOS to be published in a special issue of Praman