Haploinsufficiency of the Myc regulator Mtbp extends survival and delays tumor development in aging mice.

Alterations of specific genes can modulate aging. Myc, a transcription factor that regulates the expression of many genes involved in critical cellular functions was shown to have a role in controlling longevity. Decreased expression of Myc inhibited many of the deleterious effects of aging and increased lifespan in mice. Without altering Myc expression, reduced levels of Mtbp, a recently identified regulator of Myc, limit Myc transcriptional activity and proliferation, while increased levels promote Myc-mediated effects. To determine the contribution of Mtbp to the effects of Myc on aging, we studied a large cohort of Mtbp heterozygous mice and littermate matched wild-type controls. Mtbp haploinsufficiency significantly increased longevity and maximal survival in mice. Reduced levels of Mtbp did not alter locomotor activity, litter size, or body size, but Mtbp heterozygous mice did exhibit elevated markers of metabolism, particularly in the liver. Mtbp(+/-) mice also had a significant delay in spontaneous cancer development, which was most prominent in the hematopoietic system, and an altered tumor spectrum compared to Mtbp(+/+) mice. Therefore, the data suggest Mtbp is a regulator of longevity in mice that mimics some, but not all, of the properties of Myc in aging

Landmines in Eritrea: The Socio-Economic Impact, Prioritisation and Integration on the Basis of Community Visits

The PricewaterhouseCoopers Ulysses leadership program led to this study. It discusses the socio-economic impact of landmines, the benefits of mine action, the prioritisation and integration of mine action within national development priorities. It was carried out so as to understand how landmine contamination has affected the lives of people living in the landmine impacted communities of Eritrea, and focuses purely on an economic cost-benefit analysis

A Concise Review Based on Analytical Method Development and Validation of Apremilast in Bulk and Marketed Dosage Form

Apremilast is used for treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. It may also be beneficial for other inflammatory diseases relevant to the immune system. The drug functions as a selective enzyme phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor and avoids the spontaneous development of TNF-alpha from human synovial rheumatoid cells. The present review assesses the different approaches for evaluation of apremilast in bulk material as well as different formulations. A concise review consists of compile and discuss about over 30 methods for analysing apremilast in the biological matrices, the samples of bulk and in different dosage formulations including HPLC, HPTLC, UPLC, LC-MS and UV-spectrophotometry. A concise review represents the compilation and discussion of about more than 30 analytical methods which includes HPLC, HPTLC, UPLC, LC-MS and UV-Spectrophotometry methods implemented for investigation of apremilast in biological matrices, bulk samples and in different dosage formulations. This detailed review will be of great help to the researcher who is working on apremilast. Keywords: Apremilast; Analytical Profile; HPLC; HPTLC; Bioanalytical; Stability indicatin

Schedule of Factors Influencing Adherence (SOFIA) to Psychiatric Treatment in Persons with Schizophrenia: Validity and Pilot Testing

Qualitative research has highlighted the complex interplay of multiple factors that preclude persons with schizophrenia in rural Indian settings for discontinued psychiatric treatment. In this context, this paper aims to establish the face and content validities of an interview schedule titled „Schedule of Factors Influencing Adherence (SOFIA) to Psychiatric Treatment in Persons with Schizophrenia‟ which comprehensively assesses factors for discontinued psychiatric treatment and the feasibility of its administration of the schedule. SOFIA contains 16 factors. This schedule involves three phases of interviewing patients and family members. This was given to twelve experts who used likert scales to rate each items wells as the dimensions of the schedule. Later on, fifteen persons with schizophrenia were interviewed with SOFIA to test the feasibility of administration. The results showed that Fourteen items were rated as either satisfactory (score=4) or very much satisfactory (score=5) by all twelve experts; remaining two were rated as 4 or 5 by 11 experts. Regarding comprehensiveness of the factors, scoring methods and general instructions given to the interviewers, all provided scores > 4; regarding method of interviewing, 11 provided score of > 4; with regard to overall interview schedule, all experts provided scores > 4. Pilot testing revealed that it took 60 minutes to administer SOFIA

Quality control and beam test of GEM detectors for future upgrades of the CMS muon high rate region at the LHC

Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) are a proven position sensitive gas detector technology which nowadays is becoming more widely used in High Energy Physics. GEMs offer an excellent spatial resolution and a high particle rate capability, with a close to 100% detection efficiency. In view of the high luminosity phase of the CERN Large Hadron Collider, these aforementioned features make GEMs suitable candidates for the future upgrades of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector. In particular, the CMS GEM Collaboration proposes to cover the high-eta region of the muon system with large-area triple-GEM detectors, which have the ability to provide robust and redundant tracking and triggering functions. In this contribution, after a general introduction and overview of the project, the construction of full-size trapezoidal triple-GEM prototypes will be described in more detail. The procedures for the quality control of the GEM foils, including gain uniformity measurements with an x-ray source will be presented. In the past few years, several CMS triple-GEM prototype detectors were operated with test beams at the CERN SPS. The results of these test beam campaigns will be summarised

Performance of a Large-Area GEM Detector Prototype for the Upgrade of the CMS Muon Endcap System

Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) technology is being considered for the forward muon upgrade of the CMS experiment in Phase 2 of the CERN LHC. Its first implementation is planned for the GE1/1 system in the $1.5 < \mid\eta\mid < 2.2$ region of the muon endcap mainly to control muon level-1 trigger rates after the second long LHC shutdown. A GE1/1 triple-GEM detector is read out by 3,072 radial strips with 455 $\mu$rad pitch arranged in eight $\eta$-sectors. We assembled a full-size GE1/1 prototype of 1m length at Florida Tech and tested it in 20-120 GeV hadron beams at Fermilab using Ar/CO$_{2}$ 70:30 and the RD51 scalable readout system. Four small GEM detectors with 2-D readout and an average measured azimuthal resolution of 36 $\mu$rad provided precise reference tracks. Construction of this largest GEM detector built to-date is described. Strip cluster parameters, detection efficiency, and spatial resolution are studied with position and high voltage scans. The plateau detection efficiency is [97.1 $\pm$ 0.2 (stat)]\%. The azimuthal resolution is found to be [123.5 $\pm$ 1.6 (stat)] $\mu$rad when operating in the center of the efficiency plateau and using full pulse height information. The resolution can be slightly improved by $\sim$ 10 $\mu$rad when correcting for the bias due to discrete readout strips. The CMS upgrade design calls for readout electronics with binary hit output. When strip clusters are formed correspondingly without charge-weighting and with fixed hit thresholds, a position resolution of [136.8 $\pm$ 2.5 stat] $\mu$rad is measured, consistent with the expected resolution of strip-pitch/$\sqrt{12}$ = 131.3 $\mu$rad. Other $\eta$-sectors of the detector show similar response and performance.Comment: 8 pages, 32 figures, submitted to Proc. 2014 IEEE Nucl. Sci. Symposium, Seattle, WA, reference adde

Schedule of Factors Influencing Adherence (SOFIA) to Psychiatric Treatment in Persons with Schizophrenia: Validity and Pilot Testing

Qualitative research has highlighted the complexinterplay of multiple factors that preclude persons withschizophrenia in rural Indian settings for discontinuedpsychiatric treatment. In this context, this paper aims toestablish the face and content validities of an interviewschedule titled „Schedule of Factors InfluencingAdherence (SOFIA) to Psychiatric Treatment in Personswith Schizophrenia‟ which comprehensively assessesfactors for discontinued  psychiatric treatment and   thefeasibility of its administration of the schedule. SOFIAcontains 16 factors. This schedule involves three phases of interviewing patients and family members.  This wasgiven to twelve experts who used likert scales to rate eachitems wells as the dimensions of the schedule. Later on,fifteen persons with schizophrenia were interviewed withSOFIA to test the feasibility of administration. The resultsshowed that Fourteen items were rated as eithersatisfactory (score=4) or very much satisfactory (score=5)by all twelve experts; remaining two were rated as 4 or 5by 11 experts. Regarding comprehensiveness of thefactors, scoring methods and general instructions given tothe interviewers, all provided scores &gt; 4; regardingmethod of interviewing, 11 provided score of &gt; 4; withregard to overall interview schedule, all experts providedscores &gt; 4. Pilot testing revealed that it took 60 minutes to administer SOFIA