Systematic and taxonomic issues concerning some East African bird species, notably those where treatment varies between authors

The taxonomy of various East African bird species is discussed. Fourteen of the non-passerines and forty-eight of the passerines listed in Britton (1980) are considered, with reference to treatments by various subsequent authors. Twenty-three species splits are recommended from the treatment in Britton (op. cit.), and one lump, the inclusion of Jackson’s Hornbill Tockus jacksoni as a race of T. deckeni

Genome sequences of 12 isolates of the EU1 lineage of Phytophthora ramorum, a fungus-like pathogen that causes extensive damage and mortality to a wide range of trees and other plants

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Here we present genome sequences for twelve isolates of the invasive pathogen Phytophthora ramorum EU1. The assembled genome sequences and raw sequence data are available via BioProject accession number PRJNA177509. These data will be useful in developing molecular tools for specific detection and identification of this pathogen.This work was supported in part by a grant funded jointly by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Forestry Commission, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Scottish Government, under the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Initiative (BB/L012499/1). PAO was supported by a joint studentship from the Fera seedcorn programme and from the Defra Future-proofing Plant Health project (PH0441). We acknowledge funding for the joint studentship from the Fera seedcorn programme and from the Defra Future-proofing Plant Health project (PH0441)

When the heart rules the head: ischaemic stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage complicating infective endocarditis

Sir William Osler meticulously described the clinical manifestations of infective endocarditis in 1885, concluding that: 'few diseases present greater difficulties in the way of diagnosis … which in many cases are practically insurmountable'. Even with modern investigation techniques, diagnosing infective endocarditis can be hugely challenging, yet is critically important in patients presenting with stroke (both cerebral infarction and intracranial haemorrhage), its commonest neurological complication. In ischaemic stroke, intravenous thrombolysis carries an unacceptably high risk of intracranial haemorrhage, while in intracerebral haemorrhage, mycotic aneurysms require urgent treatment to avoid rebleeding, and in all cases, prompt treatment with antibiotics and valve surgery may be life-saving. Here, we describe typical presentations of ischaemic stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage caused by infective endocarditis. We review the diagnostic challenges, the importance of rapid diagnosis, treatment options and controversies

Additional Queen Square (QS) screening items improve the test accuracy of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) after acute stroke

BACKGROUND The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a popular cognitive screening tool used in stroke, but lacks sensitivity for detecting impairment in stroke-relevant domains of processing speed, non-verbal memory and executive functions. Our aim was to assess whether the test accuracy of the MoCA can be improved with additional tailored screening items targeting these three domains. METHODS We included 196 patients admitted to an acute stroke unit at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square (QS), London. Participants completed the MoCA as well as a series of additional QS-screening items designed to assess speed of processing, non-verbal memory and executive functions. Performance on the MoCA and QS screening items was compared with performance on “gold standard” neuropsychological assessment. RESULTS In our sample, 22% of patients were classified as “cognitively intact” on the traditional MoCA alone (≥ 25). However, when tested on the QS-screening items, 40% of these patients failed on speed of processing, 56% failed on non-verbal memory and 26% failed on executive functions. Compared with neuropsychological assessment, the QS-screening items had good sensitivity (QS-Speed: 0.85; QS-Vis: 0.71; QS-EF: 0.73) and modest specificity (QS-Speed: 0.59; QS-Vis: 0.39; QS-EF: 0.54), regardless of stroke lateralisation. CONCLUSION Additional screening items detected impairments in speed of processing, non-verbal memory and executive functions over and above those captured using the standard MoCA. The use of these QS-screening items improves the detection of post-stroke cognitive deficits in domains not adequately covered by the standard MoCA

A Microsoft-Excel-based tool for running and critically appraising network meta-analyses--an overview and application of NetMetaXL.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.BACKGROUND: The use of network meta-analysis has increased dramatically in recent years. WinBUGS, a freely available Bayesian software package, has been the most widely used software package to conduct network meta-analyses. However, the learning curve for WinBUGS can be daunting, especially for new users. Furthermore, critical appraisal of network meta-analyses conducted in WinBUGS can be challenging given its limited data manipulation capabilities and the fact that generation of graphical output from network meta-analyses often relies on different software packages than the analyses themselves. METHODS: We developed a freely available Microsoft-Excel-based tool called NetMetaXL, programmed in Visual Basic for Applications, which provides an interface for conducting a Bayesian network meta-analysis using WinBUGS from within Microsoft Excel. . This tool allows the user to easily prepare and enter data, set model assumptions, and run the network meta-analysis, with results being automatically displayed in an Excel spreadsheet. It also contains macros that use NetMetaXL's interface to generate evidence network diagrams, forest plots, league tables of pairwise comparisons, probability plots (rankograms), and inconsistency plots within Microsoft Excel. All figures generated are publication quality, thereby increasing the efficiency of knowledge transfer and manuscript preparation. RESULTS: We demonstrate the application of NetMetaXL using data from a network meta-analysis published previously which compares combined resynchronization and implantable defibrillator therapy in left ventricular dysfunction. We replicate results from the previous publication while demonstrating result summaries generated by the software. CONCLUSIONS: Use of the freely available NetMetaXL successfully demonstrated its ability to make running network meta-analyses more accessible to novice WinBUGS users by allowing analyses to be conducted entirely within Microsoft Excel. NetMetaXL also allows for more efficient and transparent critical appraisal of network meta-analyses, enhanced standardization of reporting, and integration with health economic evaluations which are frequently Excel-based.CC is a recipient of a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (funding reference number—CGV 121171) and is a trainee on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network team grant (funding reference number—116573). BH is funded by a New Investigator award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network. This research was partly supported by funding from CADTH as part of a project to develop Excel-based tools to support the conduct of health technology assessments. This research was also supported by Cornerstone Research Group

Characterising hyperinsulinaemia induced insulin resistance in human skeletal muscle cells

Hyperinsulinaemia potentially contributes to insulin resistance in metabolic tissues, such as skeletal muscle. The purpose of these experiments was to characterise glucose uptake, insulin signalling and relevant gene expression in primary human skeletal muscle-derived cells (HMDCs), in response to prolonged insulin exposure (PIE) as a model of hyperinsulinaemia-induced insulin resistance. Differentiated HMDCs from healthy human donors were cultured with or without insulin (100 nM) for 3 days followed by an acute insulin stimulation. HMDCs exposed to PIE were characterised by impaired insulin-stimulated glucose uptake, blunted IRS-1 phosphorylation (Tyr612) and Akt (Ser473) phosphorylation in response to an acute insulin stimulation. Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), but not GLUT4, mRNA and protein increased following PIE. The mRNA expression of metabolic (PDK4) and inflammatory markers (TNF-α) was reduced by PIE but did not change lipid (SREBP1 and CD36) or mitochondrial (UCP3) markers. These experiments provide further characterisation of the effects of PIE as a model of hyperinsulinaemia-induced insulin resistance in HMDCs

Corrigendum: Solar cycles or random processes? Evaluating solar variability in Holocene climate records

This is the final version of the article. Available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.The article to which this is the corrigendum is in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/21766A coding error in the Monte Carlo procedure for the determination of critical values in running correlation analysis (presented in Supplementary Data S8) has been brought to the attention of the authors.[...

Bias modelling in evidence synthesis

Policy decisions often require synthesis of evidence from multiple sources, and the source studies typically vary in rigour and in relevance to the target question. We present simple methods of allowing for differences in rigour (or lack of internal bias) and relevance (or lack of external bias) in evidence synthesis. The methods are developed in the context of reanalysing a UK National Institute for Clinical Excellence technology appraisal in antenatal care, which includes eight comparative studies. Many were historically controlled, only one was a randomized trial and doses, populations and outcomes varied between studies and differed from the target UK setting. Using elicited opinion, we construct prior distributions to represent the biases in each study and perform a bias‐adjusted meta‐analysis. Adjustment had the effect of shifting the combined estimate away from the null by approximately 10%, and the variance of the combined estimate was almost tripled. Our generic bias modelling approach allows decisions to be based on all available evidence, with less rigorous or less relevant studies downweighted by using computationally simple methods

Islands of conformational stability for Filopodia

Filopodia are long, thin protrusions formed when bundles of fibers grow outwardly from a cell surface while remaining closed in a membrane tube. We study the subtle issue of the mechanical stability of such filopodia and how this depends on the deformation of the membrane that arises when the fiber bundle adopts a helical configuration. We calculate the ground state conformation of such filopodia, taking into account the steric interaction between the membrane and the enclosed semiflexible fiber bundle. For typical filopodia we find that a minimum number of fibers is required for filopodium stability. Our calculation elucidates how experimentally observed filopodia can obviate the classical Euler buckling condition and remain stable up to several tens of . We briefly discuss how experimental observation of the results obtained in this work for the helical-like deformations of enclosing membrane tubes in filopodia could possibly be observed in the acrosomal reactions of the sea cucumber Thyone, and the horseshoe crab Limulus. Any realistic future theories for filopodium stability are likely to rely on an accurate treatment of such steric effects, as analysed in this work