Injection Locked Lasers as Surface Displacement Sensors

In an age where engineered materials are becoming common place in the competitive world market, the manufacturer using engineered materials can not afford to waste material in the manufacturing process. The quality control techniques must become real time and on-line to reduce material waste and to reject unacceptable components before complex processing is performed on them. Once the quality control techniques become real time and on-line, the techniques can be incorporated into a feedback loop. The feedback loop can then be used to monitor and adjust the relevant parameters during the manufacturing process to assure component compliance to the desired specifications. To help usher in the era of “smart” manufacturing processes, new reliable and non-contacting NDE systems must be developed

HLA-DR genotyping and mitochondrial DNA analysis reveal the presence of family burials in a fourth century Romano-British Christian cemetery

In Colchester, Britain's oldest recorded town, during the Roman period there were areas which were clearly used solely as cemeteries. One o f the most significant is at Butt Road, which includes a late Roman probable Christian cemetery with an associated building, apparently a church, that overlies and developed from a pagan inhumation cemetery. DNA was extracted from the long bones (femurs) of 29 individuals, mostly from a large complex of burials centered on two timber vaults. These were thought to comprise a number of family groupings, deduced from osteological analysis, stratigraphical and other considerations. The use of a modified version of the silica-based purification method recovered nanogram quantities of DNA/gram of bone. Two-stage amplification, incorporating primer-extension preamplification-polymerase chain reaction, permitted simultaneous amplification of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. Sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes yielded human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR typing of seven samples, with four revealing the infrequent HLA-DR10 genotype. Examination of the control region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) by direct sequencing revealed polymorphisms yet to be reported in the modern population. HLA-DRB typing and mtDNA analysis affirmatively supported kinship among some, if not all, individuals in the "vault complex" and demonstrate a continental European origin of the individuals investigated

Sex differences in mathematics and reading achievement are inversely related: within- and across-nation assessment of 10 years of PISA data

We analyzed one decade of data collected by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), including the mathematics and reading performance of nearly 1.5 million 15 year olds in 75 countries. Across nations, boys scored higher than girls in mathematics, but lower than girls in reading. The sex difference in reading was three times as large as in mathematics. There was considerable variation in the extent of the sex differences between nations. There are countries without a sex difference in mathematics performance, and in some countries girls scored higher than boys. Boys scored lower in reading in all nations in all four PISA assessments (2000, 2003, 2006, 2009). Contrary to several previous studies, we found no evidence that the sex differences were related to nations’ gender equality indicators. Further, paradoxically, sex differences in mathematics were consistently and strongly inversely correlated with sex differences in reading: Countries with a smaller sex difference in mathematics had a larger sex difference in reading and vice versa. We demonstrate that this was not merely a between-nation, but also a within-nation effect. This effect is related to relative changes in these sex differences across the performance continuum: We did not find a sex difference in mathematics among the lowest performing students, but this is where the sex difference in reading was largest. In contrast, the sex difference in mathematics was largest among the higher performing students, and this is where the sex difference in reading was smallest. The implication is that if policy makers decide that changes in these sex differences are desired, different approaches will be needed to achieve this for reading and mathematics. Interventions that focus on high-achieving girls in mathematics and on low achieving boys in reading are likely to yield the strongest educational benefits

The Ecological Impacts of Contaminated Sediment from Abandoned Metal Mines

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The OGL requires that users acknowledge the information provider and/or source of the information with an attribution statement.Pollution from abandoned non-coal (i.e. metal) mines is a serious impediment to rivers meeting the water quality targets set out in River Basin Management Plans. Recent work has identified the mines most likely to be causing a significant environmental impact and hence where efforts to prevent pollution need to be focussed. Yet, it is not clear to what extent rivers, and the animal and plant life they support, are impacted by the legacy of past pollution still bound up in river sediments. Work will be undertaken to reduce toxic metals in mine waters before they enter the river. However, if riverbed sediments are already contaminated and affecting life in rivers, the planned clean-up of mine water sources may not result in recovery of ecological condition. A controlled laboratory experiment was undertaken where river invertebrates (mayfly larvae) from an uncontaminated site were incubated with contaminated riverbed sediment collected downstream of an abandoned metal mine. Concentrations of metals in the tissues of the mayflies increased over the duration of the incubation, particularly those metals that were in high concentrations in the sediment, i.e. cadmium, copper and zinc. As the sediment was the only substantial source of metals in the experiment, it is apparent that the contaminated riverbed sediment was acting as a source of bioavailable metals. It is likely that contaminated sediments, including riverbed sediment, will act as a source of bioavailable metals, at least to benthic organisms, even where mine drainage water is treated to reduce metal concentrations. Metal toxicity occurs when the rate of metal uptake into an organism exceeds the combined rates of excretion and physiological detoxification. Current tests of metal toxicity on biota typically do not match in scale (temporal, spatial and taxonomic range) with assessments of ecological quality undertaken for management, which raises questions regarding the adequacy of environmental limits based on laboratory testing. Existing data were compiled describing geochemistry of riverbed sediment and the Biological Quality Elements invertebrates, diatoms, macrophytes and fish, collected by the regulatory authorities to assess the condition of rivers. As toxic effects of trace metals were not expected at low concentrations, the biological response to sediment metal concentration was determined using a threshold model. Thresholds were found for biotic metrics based on species richness, but other metrics (diatom EQR, macrophyte EQR and invertebrate ASPT) displayed implausible positive relationships with sediment metal concentrations and should not be relied upon for classification of ecological status in waterbodies affected by mining. New data were collected from 20 spatially-independent river catchments in areas affected by metal mine facilities, including samples of the macroinvertebrate community, bioavailability of metals (assessed as metal concentrations in the body tissue of tolerant taxa), and sediment metal concentrations. There were strong correlations between sediment metal concentrations and measured bioavailability, particularly for copper and lead. Measurements of bioavailable metals were related to changes in taxon richness in the invertebrate samples. The data were used to develop a new biotic index (MetTol), which can be used to assess the extent of ecological damage from metal contamination using standard invertebrate monitoring data, and to construct dose response curves based on species sensitivities. A number of approaches were used to establish tolerable limits for sediment metal concentrations based on ecological data, and the results compared with existing Canadian sediment quality guidelines. The limits for copper derived from ecological data were most consistent with existing sediment guidelines. The limits for other metals (silver, arsenic, cadmium, nickel, lead and zinc) derived from ecological data were up to an order of magnitude above the Canadian interim sediment quality guidelines. These existing guidelines, based on toxicological data, may be too precautionary, and we suggest that guideline sediment concentrations based on ecological data may provide a more appropriate level of protection for the environment

Withdrawal of inhaled corticosteroids in people with COPD in primary care: a randomised controlled trial

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Circular Permutation in Proteins

This is a ‘‘Topic Page’ ’ article for PLoS Computational Biology. Circular permutation describes a type of relationship between proteins, whereby the proteins have a changed order of amino acids in their protein sequence, such that the sequence of the first portion of one protein (adjacent to the N-terminus) is related to that of the second portion of the other protein (near its C-terminus), and vice versa (see Figure 1). This is directly analogous to the mathematical notion of a cyclic permutation over the set of residues in a protein. Circular permutation can be the result of evolutionary events, post-translational modifications, or artificially engineered mutations. The result is a protein structure with different connectivity, but overall similar three-dimensional (3D) shape. The homology between portions of the proteins can be established by observing similar sequences between N- and C-terminal portions of the tw

Hippocampal Desynchronization of Functional Connectivity Prior to the Onset of Status Epilepticus in Pilocarpine-Treated Rats

Status epilepticus (SE), a pro-epileptogenic brain insult in rodent models of temporal lobe epilepsy, is successfully induced by pilocarpine in some, but not all, rats. This study aimed to identify characteristic alterations within the hippocampal neural network prior to the onset of SE. Sixteen microwire electrodes were implanted into the left hippocampus of male Sprague-Dawley rats. After a 7-day recovery period, animal behavior, hippocampal neuronal ensemble activities, and local field potentials (LFP) were recorded before and after an intra-peritoneal injection of pilocarpine (350 mg/kg). The single-neuron firing, population neuronal correlation, and coincident firing between neurons were compared between SE (n = 9) and nonSE rats (n = 12). A significant decrease in the strength of functional connectivity prior to the onset of SE, as measured by changes in coincident spike timing between pairs of hippocampal neurons, was exclusively found in SE rats. However, single-neuron firing and LFP profiles did not show a significant difference between SE and nonSE rats. These results suggest that desynchronization in the functional circuitry of the hippocampus, likely associated with a change in synaptic strength, may serve as an electrophysiological marker prior to SE in pilocarpine-treated rats

An efficacy trial of brief lifestyle intervention delivered by generalist community nurses (CN SNAP trial)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lifestyle risk factors, in particular smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption and physical inactivity (SNAP) are the main behavioural risk factors for chronic disease. Primary health care (PHC) has been shown to be an effective setting to address lifestyle risk factors at the individual level. However much of the focus of research to date has been in general practice. Relatively little attention has been paid to the role of nurses working in the PHC setting. Community health nurses are well placed to provide lifestyle intervention as they often see clients in their own homes over an extended period of time, providing the opportunity to offer intervention and enhance motivation through repeated contacts. The overall aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of a brief lifestyle intervention delivered by community nurses in routine practice on changes in clients' SNAP risk factors.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The trial uses a quasi-experimental design involving four generalist community nursing services in NSW Australia. Services have been randomly allocated to an 'early intervention' group or 'late intervention' (comparison) group. 'Early intervention' sites are provided with training and support for nurses in identifying and offering brief lifestyle intervention for clients during routine consultations. 'Late intervention site' provide usual care and will be offered the study intervention following the final data collection point. A total of 720 generalist community nursing clients will be recruited at the time of referral from participating sites. Data collection consists of 1) telephone surveys with clients at baseline, three months and six months to examine change in SNAP risk factors and readiness to change 2) nurse survey at baseline, six and 12 months to examine changes in nurse confidence, attitudes and practices in the assessment and management of SNAP risk factors 3) semi-structured interviews/focus with nurses, managers and clients in 'early intervention' sites to explore the feasibility, acceptability and sustainability of the intervention.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The study will provide evidence about the effectiveness and feasibility of brief lifestyle interventions delivered by generalist community nurses as part of routine practice. This will inform future community nursing practice and PHC policy.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ACTRN12609001081202</p