Vitamin D deficiency is associated with tuberculosis disease in British children

Background53Basic science, epidemiological and interventional research supports a link between vitamin D and 54tuberculosis immunity, infection and disease. We evaluated the association between vitamin D 55levels and tuberculosis (TB) infection and disease in UK children recruited to the NIHR IGRA Kids 56Study (NIKS).57Methods58Children presenting between 2011-2014 were eligible if they had history of exposure to an adult 59case with sputum smear/culture-positive TB, or were referred and diagnosed with TB disease. 60Children were assessed at baseline and 6-8 weeks for immunological evidence of TB infection (IGRA 61and/or tuberculin skin test) and evidence of TB disease. Some centres routinely measured total 25-62hydroxy vitamin D levels.63Results64166 children were included. Median 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels were higher in uninfected children 65(45.5 nmol/l) compared to those with infection (36.2 nmol/l) and disease (20.0 nmol/l). The 66difference between TB infection and disease was statistically significant (p<0.001). By logistic 67regression, lower vitamin D levels were associated with TB disease among participants with 68infection/disease, with no evidence of confounding by age, sex, BCG status, ethnicity, non-contact 69referral, season or centre.70Conclusion71Children with TB disease had lower vitamin D levels than children with infection. Implications for 72prevention and treatment remain to be established

rs5888 Variant of SCARB1 Gene Is a Possible Susceptibility Factor for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Major genetic factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have recently been identified as susceptibility risk factors, including variants in the CFH gene and the ARMS2 LOC387715/HTRA1locus. Our purpose was to perform a case-control study in two populations among individuals who did not carry risk variants for CFHY402H and LOC387715 A69S (ARMS2), called “study” individuals, in order to identify new genetic risk factors. Based on a candidate gene approach, we analyzed SNP rs5888 of the SCARB1 gene, coding for SRBI, which is involved in the lipid and lutein pathways. This study was conducted in a French series of 1241 AMD patients and 297 controls, and in a North American series of 1257 patients with advanced AMD and 1732 controls. Among these individuals, we identified 61 French patients, 77 French controls, 85 North American patients and 338 North American controls who did not carry the CFH nor ARMS2 polymorphisms. An association between AMD and the SCARB1 gene was seen among the study subjects. The genotypic distribution of the rs5888 polymorphism was significantly different between cases and controls in the French population (p<0.006). Heterozygosity at the rs5888 SNP increased risk of AMD compared to the CC genotypes in the French study population (odds ratio (OR) = 3.5, CI95%: 1.4–8.9, p<0.01) and after pooling the 2 populations (OR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.6–5.3, p<0.002). Subgroup analysis in exudative forms of AMD revealed a pooled OR of 3.6 for individuals heterozygous for rs5888 (95% CI: 1.7–7.6, p<0.0015). These results suggest the possible contribution of SCARB1, a new genetic factor in AMD, and implicate a role for cholesterol and antioxidant micronutrient (lutein and vitamin E) metabolism in AMD

Numerical modeling of lathanide-ion doped fibre lasers operating within mid-infrared wavelength region

We discuss the numerical modelling of lanthanide-ion doped chalcogenide glass fibre lasers for operation in the mid-infrared wavelength region. We extract the modelling parameters from emission and absorption measurements using Judd-Ofelt and McCumber theory. Numerical algorithms are developed based on the experimentally extracted fibre parameters. The simulation results predict lasing with slope efficiency of at least 20 % provided, that the fibre loss can be kept at the level of 1 dB/m or less

Cannabis use is associated with increased psychotic symptoms and poorer psycho-social functioning in first-episode psychosis: A report from the UK National EDEN study

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Schizophrenia Bulletin following peer review. The version of record Seddon, J. L., et al. (2016). Cannabis Use Is Associated With Increased Psychotic Symptoms and Poorer Psychosocial Functioning in First-Episode Psychosis: A Report From the UK National EDEN Study. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 42(3), 619-625. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbv154 is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article/42/3/619/2413898#39400533Background: The use of cannabis during the early stage of psychosis has been linked with increased psychotic symptoms. This study aimed to examine the use of cannabis in the 12 months following a first-episode psychosis (FEP) and the link with symptomatic course and outcome over one year post psychosis onset. Method: 1027 FEP patients were recruited upon inception to specialised early intervention services for psychosis in the UK. Participants completed assessments at baseline, six and twelve months. Results: The results indicate that the use of cannabis was significantly associated with increased severity of psychotic symptoms, mania, depression and poorer psycho-social functioning. Continued use of cannabis following the first episode of psychosis was prognostic of outcome at one year. These associations were significant after adjusting for age, gender, DUP, age of psychosis onset, ethnicity and other drug use. Conclusion: This is the largest cohort study of first-episode psychosis patients receiving care within early intervention services. Cannabis use, in particular continued use, is associated with poorer symptomatic and functional outcome during the first-episode of psychosis. The results highlight the need for effective and early intervention for cannabis use in FEP

Continuous 14 Day Infusional Ifosfamide for Management of Soft-Tissue and Bone Sarcoma: A Single Centre Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Ifosfamide is used to treat soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) and bone sarcoma (BS), with improved efficacy at doses above 9 g/m2/cycle. To mitigate treatment-associated toxicity with higher doses, continuous infusional ifosfamide is increasingly used. However, clinical outcome data remain limited. Single-centre retrospective analysis of patients treated with four-weekly infusional ifosfamide (14 g/m^{2}/14 days) between August 2012 and February 2019 was conducted. Radiological response, progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and toxicity were evaluated. Eighty patients were treated-46 with STS and 34 with BS. Patients received a median of three cycles of infusional ifosfamide (1-24). Overall disease control rate (DCR) in STS was 50% (23 of 46 patients), with a median PFS of 3.8 months, and median OS of 13.0 months. In synovial sarcoma (SS), DCR was 80% (12/15), median PFS 8.1 months and median OS 20.9 months. Overall DCR in BS (34 patients) was 30%, with a median PFS of 2.5 months and median OS of 6.2 months. Five patients (6%) stopped treatment due to toxicity alone within the first two cycles. A further 10 patients stopped treatment due to toxicity during later treatment cycles (12%) and 18 patients (23%) required dose modification. Forty-five patients (56%) experienced grade (G) 3/4 haematological toxicity, with 12 episodes of febrile neutropenia and one treatment-related death. Twenty-seven patients (34%) experienced G3/4 non-haematological toxicity, most commonly nausea and vomiting (10, 13%). In summary, infusional ifosfamide has efficacy in STS, most notable in SS. Benefit appears limited in BS. Treatment is associated with toxicity that requires specialist supportive care

Physicochemical Characterization of Ionic Liquid Binary Mixtures Containing 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium as the Common Cation

FCT/MEC (Portugal), through "Investigador FCT 2014" (IF/00190/2014 to A.B.P and IF/00210/2014 to J.M.M.A.),; Projects PTD C/EQU-EQU/29737/2017; PTDC/QEQFTT/32,89/2014; IF/00210/2014/CP1244/CT0003. This work was also supported by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry LAQV (financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES (UID/QUI/50006/2019)) and cofinanced by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007265).Mixing ionic liquids (as well as mixing an inorganic salt in an ionic liquid) constitutes an easy, elegant methodology for obtaining new ionic materials. In this study, 3 ionic liquids (ILs) sharing a common cation were synthesized and mixed in 9 different proportions giving rise to 27 binary mixtures. Specifically, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate, [C4C1Im][NO3], 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C4C1Im]Cl, and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate, [C4C1Im][CH3SO3], were synthesized and characterized. They all share 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium as the common archetypal cation. None of them (or any of their binary mixtures) is liquid at room temperature (T = 298.15 K), and two of them are only in the liquid state above temperatures of 343-353 K. Despite belonging to commonly used families of ILs, their handling and the study of their liquid properties (neat and mixtures) have become particularly difficult, mainly because of their tendency to solidify and their high viscosity (caused by hydrogen-bonded networks). The main goal of this work is to evaluate the thermal, dynamic, and volumetric properties of these compounds and their mixtures as well as the solid-liquid equilibria of their binary mixtures. Thermal properties, such as melting and glass-transition temperatures, were determined or calculated. Therefore, both density and viscosity have been measured and were used for the calculation of the isobaric thermal expansion coefficient, molar volumes, excess molar volumes, and viscosity deviations to linearity.authorsversionpublishe

Optimising computer aided detection to identify intra-thoracic tuberculosis on chest x-ray in South African children

Diagnostic tools for paediatric tuberculosis remain limited, with heavy reliance on clinical algorithms which include chest x-ray. Computer aided detection (CAD) for tuberculosis on chest x-ray has shown promise in adults. We aimed to measure and optimise the performance of an adult CAD system, CAD4TB, to identify tuberculosis on chest x-rays from children with presumptive tuberculosis. Chest x-rays from 620 children <13 years enrolled in a prospective observational diagnostic study in South Africa, were evaluated. All chest x-rays were read by a panel of expert readers who attributed each with a radiological reference of either 'tuberculosis' or 'not tuberculosis'. Of the 525 chest x-rays included in this analysis, 80 (40 with a reference of 'tuberculosis' and 40 with 'not tuberculosis') were allocated to an independent test set. The remainder made up the training set. The performance of CAD4TB to identify 'tuberculosis' versus 'not tuberculosis' on chest x-ray against the radiological reference read was calculated. The CAD4TB software was then fine-tuned using the paediatric training set. We compared the performance of the fine-tuned model to the original model. Our findings were that the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the original CAD4TB model, prior to fine-tuning, was 0.58. After fine-tuning there was an improvement in the AUC to 0.72 (p = 0.0016). In this first-ever description of the use of CAD to identify tuberculosis on chest x-ray in children, we demonstrate a significant improvement in the performance of CAD4TB after fine-tuning with a set of well-characterised paediatric chest x-rays. CAD has the potential to be a useful additional diagnostic tool for paediatric tuberculosis. We recommend replicating the methods we describe using a larger chest x-ray dataset from a more diverse population and evaluating the potential role of CAD to replace a human-read chest x-ray within treatment-decision algorithms for paediatric tuberculosis

Comparative modeling of infrared fiber lasers

The modeling and design of fiber lasers facilitate the process of their practical realization. Of particular interest during the last few years is the development of lanthanide ion-doped fiber lasers that operate at wavelengths exceeding 2000 nm. There are two main host glass materials considered for this purpose, namely fluoride and chalcogenide glasses. Therefore, this study concerned comparative modeling of fiber lasers operating within the infrared wavelength region beyond 2000 nm. In particular, the convergence properties of selected algorithms, implemented within various software environments, were studied with a specific focus on the central processing unit (CPU) time and calculation residual. Two representative fiber laser cavities were considered: One was based on a chalcogenide-selenide glass step-index fiber doped with trivalent dysprosium ions, whereas the other was a fluoride step-index fiber doped with trivalent erbium ions. The practical calculation accuracy was also assessed by comparing directly the results obtained from the different models

Effect of sport-tinted contact lenses for contrast enhancement on retinal straylight measurements

PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of two tinted contact lenses (CL) designed for outdoor sports activity on the psychometric determination of retinal straylight using the compensation comparison method. METHODS: Thirteen emmetropic subjects were randomly fitted with two different tinted Nike Maxsight (Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, NY, USA) CL in one eye, while the contralateral eye was fitted with a clear lens made of the same material (Optima 38, Bausch & Lomb). Three valid straylight measurements were taken on each eye before and a few minutes after lens insertion, when lens stabilization had occurred. RESULTS: The subjects' mean straylight values were 0.90 +/- 0.09 at baseline and 0.95 +/- 0.10 with the clear Optima 38 CL. Straylight values were 0.97 +/- 0.10 and 1.0 +/- 0.10 log units with the amber and grey-green tinted CL, respectively. Differences in straylight between baseline (without CL) and with the clear CL in place were neither statistically significant (p = 0.066) nor was there a significant difference between baseline and the amber CL (p = 0.052). However, the grey-green CL showed a statistically significant difference from baseline (p = 0.006). Differences in straylight with the clear CL compared with the grey-green CL were also statistically different from zero (p = 0.002) showing an increased straylight value for the tinted CL. These differences were variable, but consistent for each subject, thus those showing higher or lower changes with one tinted lens tended to show the same trend with the second lens (r(2) = 0.736). CONCLUSIONS: Despite increases having been found in straylight values with tinted contact lenses, those changes are not likely to induce clinically significant changes in visual function under photopic conditions, even for the grey-green CL, which seems to increase straylight values more significantly than the amber CL. This difference between the tinted CL could suggest a wavelength dependence of straylight values, although this should be investigated further by controlling for pupil size and subjects' pigmentation, as well as by using neutral density filters

Effect of soil conditions and landscape factors on macro-snail communities in newly created grasslands of restored landfill sites in the UK

Though restored landfill sites provide habitat for a number of taxa, their potential for land snail remains unexplored. In this study, large-sized land snails (> 5 mm) were surveyed using transect sampling on nine restored landfill sites and nine corresponding nature sites in the East Midlands region of the UK during 2008. The effect of restoration was investigated by examining land snail species composition, richness, and diversity (Shannon Weiner index) in relation to habitat and landscape structure. Thirteen macro-snail species were found in total and rarefied species richness and diversity on restored landfill sites was not found to be statistically different to that of reference sites. One third of the snail species, comprising 30% of total abundance, found in the restored landfill sites were non-native species introduced to the UK. Soil electrical conductivity was the strongest predictor for richness and diversity of land snails. Road density was found to have a positive influence on snail species diversity. Given the high percentage of introduced species detected further research is needed in terms of the management implications of restored landfill sites and the dynamics of native versus non-native species