Efficient nonlinear analysis of elasto-plastic 3D R/C frames using adaptive techniques

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A re-examination of Dithyridium cynocephali Ransom 1905, a metacestode parasite from the thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus

Re-examination of Dithyridium cynocephali Ransom 1905, a metacestode parasite from the thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus, has revealed it to be morphologically indistinguishable from metacestodes of the tapeworm Anoplotaenia dasyuri found in the eastern quoll Dasyurus viverrinus and the spotted-tailed quoll D. maculatus, in Bennett's wallaby Macropus rufogriseus rufogriseus and in the Tasmanian pademelon Thylogale billardierii. The Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii is the predominant definitive host for A. dasyuri, but the two quoll species can also serve as definitive hosts. It is considered likely that quolls may act as intermediate hosts through the occasional consumption of Tasmanian devil faeces containing infective A. dasyuri eggs. The thylacine may have become infected with A. dasyuri in a similar manner, by engaging in coprophagy in the wild or in captivity

SIRT1 Activity Is Linked to Its Brain Region-Specific Phosphorylation and Is Impaired in Huntington’s Disease Mice

Huntingtons disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder for which there are no disease-modifying treatments. SIRT1 is a NAD+-dependent protein deacetylase that is implicated in maintaining neuronal health during development, differentiation and ageing. Previous studies suggested that the modulation of SIRT1 activity is neuroprotective in HD mouse models, however, the mechanisms controlling SIRT1 activity are unknown. We have identified a striatum-specific phosphorylation-dependent regulatory mechanism of SIRT1 induction under normal physiological conditions, which is impaired in HD. We demonstrate that SIRT1 activity is down-regulated in the brains of two complementary HD mouse models, which correlated with altered SIRT1 phosphorylation levels. This SIRT1 impairment could not be rescued by the ablation of DBC1, a negative regulator of SIRT1, but was linked to changes in the sub-cellular distribution of AMPK-α1, a positive regulator of SIRT1 function. This work provides insights into the regulation of SIRT1 activity with the potential for the development of novel therapeutic strategies

Travel risk, malaria importation and malaria transmission in Zanzibar

The prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Zanzibar has reached historic lows. Improving control requires quantifying malaria importation rates, identifying high-risk travelers, and assessing onwards transmission

Successful smallpox eradication: what can we learn to control COVID-19?

The public health community needs to learn from history and needs to regain its ability to do shoe-leather public health. If we come together collectively and use the public health tools that we have at hand, we will be successful in containing COVID-19 despite geopolitical tensions, just as we were successful in eradicating smallpox despite the Cold War at the time.</jats:p

Integrated electronic prescribing and robotic dispensing: a case study

INTRODUCTION: To quantify the benefits of electronic prescribing directly linked to a robotic dispensing machine. CASE DESCRIPTION: Quantitative case study analysis is used on a single case. Hospital A (1,000 beds) has used an integrated electronic prescribing system for 10 years, and in 2009 linked two robotic dispensing machines to the system. The impact on dispensing error rates (quality) and efficiency (costs) were assessed. EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION: The implementation delivered staff efficiencies above expectation. For the out-patient department, this was 16% more than the business case had suggested. For the in-patients dispensary, four staff were released for re-deployment. Additionally, £500,000 in stockholding efficiency above that suggested by the business case was identified. Overall dispensing error rates were not adversely affected and products dispensed by the electronic prescribing - robot system produced zero dispensing errors. The speed of dispensing increased also, as the electronic prescribing - robot combination permitted almost instantaneous dispensing from the point of a doctor entering a prescription. CONCLUSION: It was significant that the combination of electronic prescribing and a robot eliminated dispensing errors. Any errors that did occur were not as a result of the electronic prescribing - robotic system (i.e. the product was not stocked within the robot). The direct linking of electronic prescribing and robots as a dispensing system together produces efficiencies and improves the quality of the dispensing process

Peer review and citation data in predicting university rankings, a large-scale analysis

Most Performance-based Research Funding Systems (PRFS) draw on peer review and bibliometric indicators, two different method- ologies which are sometimes combined. A common argument against the use of indicators in such research evaluation exercises is their low corre- lation at the article level with peer review judgments. In this study, we analyse 191,000 papers from 154 higher education institutes which were peer reviewed in a national research evaluation exercise. We combine these data with 6.95 million citations to the original papers. We show that when citation-based indicators are applied at the institutional or departmental level, rather than at the level of individual papers, surpris- ingly large correlations with peer review judgments can be observed, up to r <= 0.802, n = 37, p < 0.001 for some disciplines. In our evaluation of ranking prediction performance based on citation data, we show we can reduce the mean rank prediction error by 25% compared to previous work. This suggests that citation-based indicators are sufficiently aligned with peer review results at the institutional level to be used to lessen the overall burden of peer review on national evaluation exercises leading to considerable cost savings

Marine Ecosystem Research at the Weddell Sea Ice Edge: The AMERIEZ Program

The explorers and naturalists who first visited Antarctica were struck by the large numbers of whales, seals and seabirds in such a harsh environment (summarized in Everson, 1977). Scientific expeditions in the twentieth century confirmed these observations, and also established that an even greater abundance of many different trophic levels occurred at the ice edge. Hart (1942) noted that phytoplankton were more abundant near the ice edge mad suggested that there was a distinct ice-edge flora, and Marr (1962) noted that krill (Euphausia superba) were concentrated at the interface between pack ice and open water. Routh (1949) observed that seabirds were very abundant at the ice edge and suggested that the enhancement was due to the high plankton concentrations found in the area. All of these observations suggested that the ice edge played a potentially important role in the ecology of the southern ocean

Activity in the human superior colliculus relating to endogenous saccade preparation and execution

In recent years a small number of studies have applied functional imaging techniques to investigate visual responses in the human superior colliculus (SC), but few have investigated its oculomotor functions. Here, in two experiments, we examined activity associated with endogenous saccade preparation. We used 3-T fMRI to record the hemodynamic activity in the SC while participants were either preparing or executing saccadic eye movements. Our results showed that not only executing a saccade (as previously shown) but also preparing a saccade produced an increase in the SC hemodynamic activity. The saccade-related activity was observed in the contralateral and to a lesser extent the ipsilateral SC. A second experiment further examined the contralateral mapping of saccade-related activity with a larger range of saccade amplitudes. Increased activity was again observed in both the contralateral and ipsilateral SC that was evident for large as well as small saccades. This suggests that the ipsilateral component of the increase in BOLD is not due simply to small-amplitude saccades producing bilateral activity in the foveal fixation zone. These studies provide the first evidence of presaccadic preparatory activity in the human SC and reveal that fMRI can detect activity consistent with that of buildup neurons found in the deeper layers of the SC in studies of nonhuman primates