Primed Infusion with Delayed Equilibrium of Gd.DTPA for Enhanced Imaging of Small Pulmonary Metastases.

To use primed infusions of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent Gd.DTPA (Magnevist), to achieve an equilibrium between blood and tissue (eqMRI). This may increase tumor Gd concentrations as a novel cancer imaging methodology for the enhancement of small tumor nodules within the low signal-to-noise background of the lung

Ice nucleation by fertile soil dusts: Relative importance of mineral and biogenic components

Agricultural dust emissions have been estimated to contribute around 20% to the global dust burden. In contrast to dusts from arid source regions, the ice-nucleating abilities of which have been relatively well studied, soil dusts from fertile sources often contain a substantial fraction of organic matter. Using an experimental methodology which is sensitive to a wide range of ice nucleation efficiencies, we have characterised the immersion mode ice-nucleating activities of dusts (d<11 μ m) extracted from fertile soils collected at four locations around England. By controlling droplet sizes, which ranged in volume from 10 to 10 L (concentration=0.02 to 0.1 wt% dust), we have been able to determine the ice nucleation behaviour of soil dust particles at temperatures ranging from 267K (-6°C) down to the homogeneous limit of freezing at about 237K (-36°C). At temperatures above 258K (-15°C) we find that the ice-nucleating activity of soil dusts is diminished by heat treatment or digestion with hydrogen peroxide, suggesting that a major fraction of the ice nuclei stems from biogenic components in the soil. However, below 258 K, we find that the ice active site densities tend towards those expected from the mineral components in the soils, suggesting that the inorganic fraction of soil dusts, in particular the K-feldspar fraction, becomes increasingly important in the initiation of the ice phase at lower temperatures. We conclude that dusts from agricultural activities could contribute significantly to atmospheric IN concentrations, if such dusts exhibit similar activities to those observed in the current laboratory study

Cost-effectiveness of initiating extrafine- or standard size-particle inhaled corticosteroid for asthma in two health-care systems: a retrospective matched cohort study

Data acquisition and analyses were funded by Teva Pharmaceuticals

Eliminating Malaria Vectors.

Malaria vectors which predominantly feed indoors upon humans have been locally eliminated from several settings with insecticide treated nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying or larval source management. Recent dramatic declines of An. gambiae in east Africa with imperfect ITN coverage suggest mosquito populations can rapidly collapse when forced below realistically achievable, non-zero thresholds of density and supporting resource availability. Here we explain why insecticide-based mosquito elimination strategies are feasible, desirable and can be extended to a wider variety of species by expanding the vector control arsenal to cover a broader spectrum of the resources they need to survive. The greatest advantage of eliminating mosquitoes, rather than merely controlling them, is that this precludes local selection for behavioural or physiological resistance traits. The greatest challenges are therefore to achieve high biological coverage of targeted resources rapidly enough to prevent local emergence of resistance and to then continually exclude, monitor for and respond to re-invasion from external populations

Entomological Surveillance of Behavioural Resilience and Resistance in Residual Malaria Vector Populations.

The most potent malaria vectors rely heavily upon human blood so they are vulnerable to attack with insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) within houses. Mosquito taxa that can avoid feeding or resting indoors, or by obtaining blood from animals, mediate a growing proportion of the dwindling transmission that persists as ITNs and IRS are scaled up. Increasing frequency of behavioural evasion traits within persisting residual vector systems usually reflect the successful suppression of the most potent and vulnerable vector taxa by IRS or ITNs, rather than their failure. Many of the commonly observed changes in mosquito behavioural patterns following intervention scale-up may well be explained by modified taxonomic composition and expression of phenotypically plastic behavioural preferences, rather than altered innate preferences of individuals or populations. Detailed review of the contemporary evidence base does not yet provide any clear-cut example of true behavioural resistance and is, therefore, consistent with the hypothesis presented. Caution should be exercised before over-interpreting most existing reports of increased frequency of behavioural traits which enable mosquitoes to evade fatal contact with insecticides: this may simply be the result of suppressing the most behaviourally vulnerable of the vector taxa that constituted the original transmission system. Mosquito taxa which have always exhibited such evasive traits may be more accurately described as behaviourally resilient, rather than resistant. Ongoing national or regional entomological monitoring surveys of physiological susceptibility to insecticides should be supplemented with biologically and epidemiologically meaningfully estimates of malaria vector population dynamics and the behavioural phenotypes that determine intervention impact, in order to design, select, evaluate and optimize the implementation of vector control measures

Using fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) to diagnose steroid-responsive disease and guide asthma management in routine care

Acknowledgements We thank Robin Taylor for his informative thinking and publications on FeNO, which have helped to influence and direct the thinking of the authors. Funding Extraction of the real-life dataset was funded by Research in Real Life Limited, the analysis of the dataset and the writing of this manuscript were co-funded (50:50) by Research in Real Life Limited and Aerocrine.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The impact of low erythrocyte density in human blood on the fitness and energetic reserves of the African malaria vector Anopheles gambiae

Background Anaemia is a common health problem in the developing world. This condition is characterized by a reduction in erythrocyte density, primarily from malnutrition and/or infectious diseases such as malaria. As red blood cells are the primary source of protein for haematophagous mosquitoes, any reduction could impede the ability of mosquito vectors to transmit malaria by influencing their fitness or that of the parasites they transmit. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of differences in the density of red blood cells in human blood on malaria vector (Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto) fitness. The hypotheses tested are that mosquito vector energetic reserves and fitness are negatively influenced by reductions in the red cell density of host human blood meals commensurate with those expected from severe anaemia. Methods Mosquitoes (An. gambiae s.s.) were offered blood meals of different packed cell volume(PCV) of human blood consistent with those arising from severe anaemia (15%) and normalPCV (50%). Associations between mosquito energetic reserves (lipid, glucose and glycogen)and fitness measures (reproduction and survival) and blood meal PCV were investigated. Results The amount of protein that malaria vectors acquired from blood feeding (indexed by haematin excretion) was significantly reduced at low blood PCV. However, mosquitoes feeding on blood of low PCV had the same oviposition rates as those feeding on blood of normal PCV, and showed an increase in egg production of around 15%. The long-term survival of An. gambiae s.s was reduced after feeding on low PCV blood, but PCV had no significant impact on the proportion of mosquitoes surviving through the minimal period required to develop and transmit malaria parasites (estimated as 14 days post-blood feeding). The impact of blood PCV on the energetic reserves of mosquitoes was relatively minor. Conclusions These results suggest that feeding on human hosts whose PCV has been depleted due to severe anaemia does not significantly reduce the fitness or transmission potential of malaria vectors, and indicates that mosquitoes may be able exploit resources for reproduction more efficiently from blood of low rather than normal PCV

Differences in the signaling pathways of α1A- and α1B-adrenoceptors are related to different endosomal targeting

Aims: To compare the constitutive and agonist-dependent endosomal trafficking of α1A- and α1B-adrenoceptors (ARs) and to establish if the internalization pattern determines the signaling pathways of each subtype. Methods: Using CypHer5 technology and VSV-G epitope tagged α1A- and α1B-ARs stably and transiently expressed in HEK 293 cells, we analyzed by confocal microscopy the constitutive and agonist-induced internalization of each subtype, and the temporal relationship between agonist induced internalization and the increase in intracellular calcium (determined by FLUO-3 flouorescence), or the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAP kinases (determined by Western blot). Results and Conclusions: Constitutive as well as agonist-induced trafficking of α1A and α1B ARs maintain two different endosomal pools of receptors: one located close to the plasma membrane and the other deeper into the cytosol. Each subtype exhibited specific characteristics of internalization and distribution between these pools that determines their signaling pathways: α1A-ARs, when located in the plasma membrane, signal through calcium and ERK1/2 pathways but, when translocated to deeper endosomes, through a mechanism sensitive to β-arrestin and concanavalin A, continue signaling through ERK1/2 and also activate the p38 pathway. α1B-ARs signal through calcium and ERK1/2 only when located in the membrane and the signals disappear after endocytosis and by disruption of the membrane lipid rafts by methyl-β-cyclodextrin

Pre-cooling for endurance exercise performance in the heat: a systematic review.

PMCID: PMC3568721The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/166. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Endurance exercise capacity diminishes under hot environmental conditions. Time to exhaustion can be increased by lowering body temperature prior to exercise (pre-cooling). This systematic literature review synthesizes the current findings of the effects of pre-cooling on endurance exercise performance, providing guidance for clinical practice and further research

Discriminative motif discovery in DNA and protein sequences using the DEME algorithm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Motif discovery aims to detect short, highly conserved patterns in a collection of unaligned DNA or protein sequences. Discriminative motif finding algorithms aim to increase the sensitivity and selectivity of motif discovery by utilizing a second set of sequences, and searching only for patterns that can differentiate the two sets of sequences. Potential applications of discriminative motif discovery include discovering transcription factor binding site motifs in ChIP-chip data and finding protein motifs involved in thermal stability using sets of orthologous proteins from thermophilic and mesophilic organisms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We describe DEME, a discriminative motif discovery algorithm for use with protein and DNA sequences. Input to DEME is two sets of sequences; a "positive" set and a "negative" set. DEME represents motifs using a probabilistic model, and uses a novel combination of global and local search to find the motif that optimally discriminates between the two sets of sequences. DEME is unique among discriminative motif finders in that it uses an informative Bayesian prior on protein motif columns, allowing it to incorporate prior knowledge of residue characteristics. We also introduce four, synthetic, discriminative motif discovery problems that are designed for evaluating discriminative motif finders in various biologically motivated contexts. We test DEME using these synthetic problems and on two biological problems: finding yeast transcription factor binding motifs in ChIP-chip data, and finding motifs that discriminate between groups of thermophilic and mesophilic orthologous proteins.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Using artificial data, we show that DEME is more effective than a non-discriminative approach when there are "decoy" motifs or when a variant of the motif is present in the "negative" sequences. With real data, we show that DEME is as good, but not better than non-discriminative algorithms at discovering yeast transcription factor binding motifs. We also show that DEME can find highly informative thermal-stability protein motifs. Binaries for the stand-alone program DEME is free for academic use and is available at <url>http://bioinformatics.org.au/deme/</url></p