Non-cholesteatomatous suppurative otitis media: facial nerve palsy in an immunocompromised patient

A 47-year-old man developed a complete facial nerve palsy secondary to non-cholesteatomatous suppurative otitis media. At operation, this was seen to be due to destruction of the nerve from halfway along the horizontal segment to a point just distal to the second genu. The history of recent renal transplantation and subsequent immunosuppression was judged to be significant in the pathogenesis of the palsy

MRL1: Emory Warren Ross Papers, 1877-1971

Treasurer of Disciples of Christ Congo Mission (1908); Secretary/Treasurer of Union Mission House (1909); Disciples of Christ missionary (1912-1916); Secretary of Conseil Protestant du Congo (1925-1933); Secretary of African Welfare Committee of the Federal Council of Churches and American Committee of Work in the Congo (1933-1936); Executive Secretary of African Committee of the National Council of Churches of Christ U.S.A. (1936-1953); Collection contains publications, articles, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, reports, minutes, maps, photos, and personal correspondence

Adaptive constraints for feature tracking

In this paper extensions to an existing tracking algorithm are described. These extensions implement adaptive tracking constraints in the form of regional upper-bound displacements and an adaptive track smoothness constraint. Together, these constraints make the tracking algorithm more flexible than the original algorithm (which used fixed tracking parameters) and provide greater confidence in the tracking results. The result of applying the new algorithm to high-resolution ECMWF reanalysis data is shown as an example of its effectiveness

Understanding Urban Demand for Wild Meat in Vietnam: Implications for Conservation Actions

Vietnam is a significant consumer of wildlife, particularly wild meat, in urban restaurant settings. To meet this demand, poaching of wildlife is widespread, threatening regional and international biodiversity. Previous interventions to tackle illegal and potentially unsustainable consumption of wild meat in Vietnam have generally focused on limiting supply. While critical, they have been impeded by a lack of resources, the presence of increasingly organised criminal networks and corruption. Attention is, therefore, turning to the consumer, but a paucity of research investigating consumer demand for wild meat will impede the creation of effective consumer-centred interventions. Here we used a mixed-methods research approach comprising a hypothetical choice modelling survey and qualitative interviews to explore the drivers of wild meat consumption and consumer preferences among residents of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Our findings indicate that demand for wild meat is heterogeneous and highly context specific. Wild-sourced, rare, and expensive wild meat-types are eaten by those situated towards the top of the societal hierarchy to convey wealth and status and are commonly consumed in lucrative business contexts. Cheaper, legal and farmed substitutes for wild-sourced meats are also consumed, but typically in more casual consumption or social drinking settings. We explore the implications of our results for current conservation interventions in Vietnam that attempt to tackle illegal and potentially unsustainable trade in and consumption of wild meat and detail how our research informs future consumer-centric conservation actions

IL-4-secreting CD4+ T cells are crucial to the development of CD8+ T-cell responses against malaria liver stages.

CD4+ T cells are crucial to the development of CD8+ T cell responses against hepatocytes infected with malaria parasites. In the absence of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells initiate a seemingly normal differentiation and proliferation during the first few days after immunization. However, this response fails to develop further and is reduced by more than 90%, compared to that observed in the presence of CD4+ T cells. We report here that interleukin-4 (IL-4) secreted by CD4+ T cells is essential to the full development of this CD8+ T cell response. This is the first demonstration that IL-4 is a mediator of CD4/CD8 cross-talk leading to the development of immunity against an infectious pathogen

Photoelectrochemical properties of mesoporous NiOx deposited on technical FTO via nanopowder sintering in conventional and plasma atmospheres

Nanoporous nickel oxide (NiO x ) has been deposited with two different procedures of sintering (CS and RDS). Both samples display solid state oxidation at about 3.1 V vs Li+/Li. Upon sensitization of CS/RDS NiO x with erythrosine b (ERY), nickel oxide oxidation occurs at the same potential. Impedance spectroscopy revealed a higher charge transfer resistance for ERY-sensitized RDS NiO x with respect to sensitized CS NiO x . This was due to the chemisorption of a larger amount of ERY on RDS with respect to CS NiO x . Upon illumination the photoinduced charge transfer between ERY layer and NiO x could be observed only with oxidized CS. Photoelectrochemical effects of sensitized RDS NiO x were evidenced upon oxide reduction. With the addition of iodine RDS NiOx electrodes could give the reduction iodine → iodide in addition to the reduction of RDS NiO x . p-type dye sensitized solar cells were assembled with RDS NiO x photocathodes sensitized either by ERY or Fast Green. Resulting overall efficiencies ranged between 0.02 and 0.04 % upon irradiation with solar spectrum simulator (Iin : 0.1 W cm −2 )

Combination of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry and Single-Baseline Polarimetric Coherence Optimisation to Estimate Deformation Rates with Application to Tehran Basin

This study reports on the monitoring of land subsidence in a rural area located in the southwest of the Tehran basin, Iran, by combining a persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) method with a single-baseline polarimetric coherence optimisation. Owing to vegetation coverage in this rural area, coherence level experiences a decline and the performance and coverage of conventional interferometry to estimate deformation rate reduces concomitantly. Since the launch of satellites with polarimetric information, the polarimetric InSAR (PolInSAR) technique, which is vector interferometry with different polarimetric channels, has been introduced to optimise the coherence level. One of the most common criteria to select PS pixels is coherence and maximising the coherence can lead to an increased number of selected PS pixels and enhanced PSI performance. The single-baseline polarimetric coherence optimisation method assumes equal polarisation states at the end of each baseline. In order to apply this technique in our study, two different multi-look windows for coherence calculation and also two TerraSAR-X data sets with different numbers of images are used to assess their effect on the polarimetric PSI. Combination of the single-baseline coherence optimisation method with PSI shows significant improvements (more than 50%) in terms of the number of selected PS pixels in the case study even using a data set with a small number of images. A 15 × 15 multi-look window selects a greater number of PS pixels compared to a 9×9 multi-look window, although this entails reducing spatial resolution. The most effective PSI approach in terms of the density of the selected PS turned out to be polarimetric PSI using a data set with a large number of images and a selection of a 15 × 15 multi-look window. Validation of the PSI methods using a large number of images with 9×9 and 15 × 15 multi-look windows via levelling measurements confirms the accuracy and reliability of the results obtained

A large animal model of RDH5-associated retinopathy recapitulates important features of the human phenotype

Pathogenic variants in retinol dehydrogenase 5 (RDH5) attenuate supply of 11-cis-retinal to photoreceptors leading to a range of clinical phenotypes including night blindness due to markedly slowed rod dark adaptation and in some patients, macular atrophy. Current animal models (such as Rdh5-/- mice) fail to recapitulate the functional or degenerative phenotype. Addressing this need for a relevant animal model we present a new domestic cat model with a loss-of-function missense mutation in RDH5 (c.542G > T; p.Gly181Val). As with patients, affected cats have a marked delay in recovery of dark adaptation. Additionally, the cats develop a degeneration of the area centralis (equivalent to the human macula). This recapitulates the development of macular atrophy that is reported in a subset of patients with RDH5 mutations and is shown in this paper in 7 patients with biallelic RDH5 mutations. There is notable variability in the age at onset of the area centralis changes in the cat, with most developing changes as juveniles but some not showing changes over the first few years of age. There is similar variability in development of macular atrophy in patients and while age is a risk factor, it is hypothesized that genetic modifying loci influence disease severity, and we suspect the same is true in the cat model. This novel cat model provides opportunities to improve molecular understanding of macular atrophy and test therapeutic interventions for RDH5-associated retinopathies

Hepatitis C virus infects and perturbs liver stem cells

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause of death from liver disease. How HCV infection causes lasting liver damage and increases cancer risk remains unclear. Here, we identify bipotent liver stem cells as novel targets for HCV infection, and their erroneous differentiation as the potential cause of impaired liver regeneration and cancer development. We show 3D organoids generated from liver stem cells from actively HCV-infected individuals carry replicating virus and maintain low-grade infection over months. Organoids can be infected with a primary HCV isolate. Virus-inclusive single-cell RNA sequencing uncovered transcriptional reprogramming in HCV+ cells supporting hepatocytic differentiation, cancer stem cell development, and viral replication while stem cell proliferation and interferon signaling are disrupted. Our data add a new pathogenesis mechanism—infection of liver stem cells—to the biology of HCV infection that may explain progressive liver damage and enhanced cancer risk through an altered stem cell state