Total and Differential Phylloquinone (Vitamin K1) Intakes of Preterm Infants from All Sources during the Neonatal Period.

All newborns require phylloquinone after birth to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding. Babies born prematurely may be at particular risk of deficiency without adequate supplementation during infancy. The main sources of phylloquinone in preterm babies during the neonatal period are the prophylactic dose of phylloquinone given at birth, and that derived from parenteral and/or enteral feeding. This observational study formed part of a prospective, multicentre, randomised, controlled trial that examined the vitamin K status of preterm infants after random allocation to one of three phylloquinone prophylactic regimens at birth (0.5 or 0.2 mg intramuscularly or 0.2 mg intravenously). In this nutritional sub-study we quantified the proportional and total phylloquinone intakes of preterm infants within the neonatal period from all sources. Almost all infants had average daily phylloquinone intakes that were in excess of the currently recommended amounts. In infants who did not receive parenteral nutrition, the bolus dose of phylloquinone given at birth was the major source of phylloquinone intake, whereas in infants who received parenteral nutrition, the intake from the parenteral preparation exceeded that from the bolus dose by a ratio of approximately 3:1. Our study supports the concern of others that preterm infants who receive current parenteral nutrition formulations may be receiving excessive vitamin K

Inhibitory feedback control of NF-κB signalling in health and disease.

Cells must adapt to changes in their environment to maintain cell, tissue and organismal integrity in the face of mechanical, chemical or microbiological stress. Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is one of the most important transcription factors that controls inducible gene expression as cells attempt to restore homeostasis. It plays critical roles in the immune system, from acute inflammation to the development of secondary lymphoid organs, and also has roles in cell survival, proliferation and differentiation. Given its role in such critical processes, NF-κB signalling must be subject to strict spatiotemporal control to ensure measured and context-specific cellular responses. Indeed, deregulation of NF-κB signalling can result in debilitating and even lethal inflammation and also underpins some forms of cancer. In this review, we describe the homeostatic feedback mechanisms that limit and 're-set' inducible activation of NF-κB. We first describe the key components of the signalling pathways leading to activation of NF-κB, including the prominent role of protein phosphorylation and protein ubiquitylation, before briefly introducing the key features of feedback control mechanisms. We then describe the array of negative feedback loops targeting different components of the NF-κB signalling cascade including controls at the receptor level, post-receptor signalosome complexes, direct regulation of the critical 'inhibitor of κB kinases' (IKKs) and inhibitory feedforward regulation of NF-κB-dependent transcriptional responses. We also review post-transcriptional feedback controls affecting RNA stability and translation. Finally, we describe the deregulation of these feedback controls in human disease and consider how feedback may be a challenge to the efficacy of inhibitors

Compositional Explanation of Types and Algorithmic Debugging of Type Errors

The type systems of most typed functional programming languages are based on the Hindley-Milner type system. A practical problem with these type systems is that it is often hard to understand why a program is not type correct or a function does not have the intended type. We suggest that at the core of this problem is the difficulty of explaining why a given expression has a certain type. The type system is not defined compositionally. We propose to explain types using a variant of the Hindley-Milner type system that defines a compositional type explanation graph of principal typings. We describe how the programmer understands types by interactive navigation through the explanation graph. Furthermore, the explanation graph can be the foundation for algorithmic debugging of type errors, that is, semi-automatic localisation of the source of a type error without even having to understand the type inference steps. We implemented a prototype of a tool to explore the usefulness of the proposed methods

Charge order at the frontier between the molecular and solid states in Ba3NaRu2O9

We show that the valence electrons of Ba3NaRu2O9, which has a quasi-molecular structure, completely crystallize below 210 K. Using an extended Hubbard model, we show that the charge ordering instability results from long-range Coulomb interactions. However, orbital ordering, metal-metal bonding and formation of a partial spin gap enforce the magnitude of the charge separation. The striped charge order and frustrated hcp lattice of Ru2O9 dimers lead to competition with a quasi-degenerate charge-melted phase under photo-excitation at low temperature. Our results establish a broad class of simple metal oxides as models for emergent phenomena at the border between the molecular and solid states.Comment: Minor changes, with supporting information. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, 2

With over 84 % of Australians living in urban areas (populations over 30,000), the outcome of the current debate on water use in cities and how to match water demand to supply under both current and future climates, has the potential to affect many Australians. Lacking in this debate is a sound quantitative basis for assessing the environmental and economic benefits of water use in urban areas. As an example, while water sensitive urban design (WSUD) is widely accepted as a tool to manage the impacts of urbanisation by careful design at the house and street scale, its focus has largely been on managing and re-using the runoff (stormwater and wastewater) component of the water balance. Much less attention has been paid to the role of urban evapotranspiration (ET) by urban hydrologists, even though this it is often the biggest output in the water balance. Evapotranspiration is the process that links the movement of water through a landscape with the local climate, with the process using energy that would otherwise contribute to elevated air temperatures. This passive control of the local climate via urban vegetation and ET has a direct influence on quantities of energy used in space heating and cooling through the role of urban ET and also because trees provide shade and shelter. This link between the urban water and energy balances, and microclimate, is demonstrated by considering the following simplified expressions for i) the urban water balance: P+ I = ET + D+ΔS (1) where the inputs are: P = precipitation; I = piped water supply (for external and internal uses); and the outputs are: ET = urban evapotranspiration; D = stormwater and wastewater; ΔS = change in stored water on and within the surface materials; and ii) the urban energy balance: Q + QF = QH + QE +ΔQ

Detailed Mapping of the Local Ir⁴⁺ Dimers through the Metal-Insulator Transitions of CuIr₂S₄ Thiospinel by X-ray Atomic Pair Distribution Function Measurements

The evolution of the short-range structural signature of the Ir 4+ dimer state in CuIr2S4 thiospinel has been studied across the metal-insulator phase transitions as the metallic state is induced by temperature, Cr doping, and x-ray fluence. An atomic pair distribution function (PDF) approach reveals that there are no local dimers that survive into the metallic phase when this is invoked by temperature and doping. The PDF shows Ir4+ dimers when they exist, regardless of whether or not they are long-range ordered. At 100 K, exposure to a 98 keV x-ray beam melts the long-range dimer order within a few seconds, though the local dimers remain intact. This shows that the metallic state accessed on warming and doping is qualitatively different from the state obtained under x-ray irradiation