Residual allergenicity of amino acid-based and extensively hydrolysed cow’s milk formulas

Background. Criteria for labelling infant feeds as suitable for the dietary management of cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA) rely on proving the hypoallergenicity of such feeds or clinical studies showing that the feeds are tolerated by 90% of children with proven CMPA. South African (SA) labelling legislation does not indicate what testing is necessary to prove hypoallergenicity.Objectives. To evaluate all extensively hydrolysed cow’s milk formulas and amino acid-based formulas available in SA for residual allergen content, protein size and amino-acid content.Results. All amino-acid and extensively hydrolysed formulas were found to be similar in composition, with no residual cow’s milk allergens detectable by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Furthermore, proteins were absent and only small molecules in the size range of amino acids and possibly of very small oligopeptides were detected.Conclusions. These findings indicate that the formulas are extremely likely to be compliant with the definition of hypoallergenicity as tolerance in 90% of proven sufferers from cow’s milk allergy. The formulas may therefore be labelled as suitable for the dietary management of infants with CMPA

The natural history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA, and it remains one of the few diseases that continues to increase its numbers. The development and progression of COPD can vary dramatically between individuals. A low level of lung function remains the cornerstone of COPD diagnosis and is a key predictor of prognosis. Lung function, however, is not the only factor in determining morbidity and mortality related to COPD, with factors such as body mass index, exercise capability and comorbid disease being important predictors of poor outcomes. Exacerbations of COPD are additional important indicators of both quality of life and outcomes in COPD patients. Definitions of exacerbations can vary, ranging from an increase in symptoms to COPD-related hospitalisations and death. COPD exacerbations are more common in patients with lower levels of lung function and may lead to more rapid declines in lung function. Better understanding of the natural history of COPD may lead to better definitions of specific COPD phenotypes, better interventions and improved outcomes

Roentgen cephalometric analysis of ridge resorption and changes in jaw and occlusal relationships in immediate complete denture wearers

In eighteen subjects assigned for immediate complete upper and lower dentures, roentgen cephalometric recordings were made before extraction of the residual anterior dentition and 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after denture insertion. The cephalometric analysis was based on electronic measurements of linear and angular morphological variables and computer head plots generated from 177 reference points (Walker, 1967), derived for each subject for each of the five observation stages. The reduction of the alveolar ridges was most rapid during the first 3 months of denture wear and particularly during the post-extraction period of 3 weeks. The reduction in anterior height of the lower ridge was on average twice as great as that of the upper ridge. The ridge resorption and the accompanying settling of the dentures on the basal seats, measured from lead shots inserted in the dentures, brought about an upward rotation of the mandible with a resulting decrease in occlusal vertical dimension and reduction in overjet of the dentures. In accordance with the amount of ridge reduction, these changes showed great individual variation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73577/1/j.1365-2842.1980.tb01466.x.pd

The magmatic and eruptive evolution of the 1883 caldera-forming eruption of Krakatau: Integrating field- to crystal-scale observations

Explosive, caldera-forming eruptions are exceptional and hazardous volcanic phenomena. The 1883 eruption of Krakatau is the largest such event for which there are detailed contemporary written accounts, allowing information on the eruptive progression to be integrated with the stratigraphy and geochemistry of its products. Freshly exposed sequences of the 1883 eruptive deposits of Krakatau, stripped of vegetation by a tsunami generated by the flank collapse of Anak Krakatau in 2018, shed new light on the eruptive sequence. Matrix glass from the base of the stratigraphy is chemically distinct and more evolved than the overlying sequence indicating the presence of a shallow, silicic, melt-rich region that was evacuated during the early eruptive activity from May 1883 onwards. Disruption of the shallow, silicic magma may have led to the coalescence and mixing of chemically similar melts representative of a range of magmatic conditions, as evidenced by complex and varied plagioclase phenocryst zoning profiles. This mixing, over a period of two to three months, culminated in the onset of the climactic phase of the eruption on 26th August 1883. Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) emplaced during this phase of the eruption show a change in transport direction from north east to south west, coinciding with the deposition of a lithic lag breccia unit. This may be attributed to partial collapse of an elevated portion of the island, resulting in the removal of a topographic barrier. Edifice destruction potentially further reduced the overburden on the underlying magmatic system, leading to the most explosive and energetic phase of the eruption in the morning of 27th August 1883. This phase of the eruption culminated in a final period of caldera collapse, which is recorded in the stratigraphy as a second lithic lag breccia. The massive PDC deposits emplaced during this final phase contain glassy blocks up to 8 m in size, observed for the first time in 2019, which are chemically similar to the pyroclastic sequence. These blocks are interpreted as representing stagnant, shallow portions of the magma reservoir disrupted during the final stages of caldera formation. This study provides new evidence for the role that precursory eruptions and amalgamation of shallow crustal magma bodies potentially play in the months leading up to caldera-forming eruptions

The Sunrise Mission

The first science flight of the balloon-borne \Sunrise telescope took place in June 2009 from ESRANGE (near Kiruna/Sweden) to Somerset Island in northern Canada. We describe the scientific aims and mission concept of the project and give an overview and a description of the various hardware components: the 1-m main telescope with its postfocus science instruments (the UV filter imager SuFI and the imaging vector magnetograph IMaX) and support instruments (image stabilizing and light distribution system ISLiD and correlating wavefront sensor CWS), the optomechanical support structure and the instrument mounting concept, the gondola structure and the power, pointing, and telemetry systems, and the general electronics architecture. We also explain the optimization of the structural and thermal design of the complete payload. The preparations for the science flight are described, including AIV and ground calibration of the instruments. The course of events during the science flight is outlined, up to the recovery activities. Finally, the in-flight performance of the instrumentation is briefly summarized.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figure

Classification of temporomandibular joint sounds based upon their reduced interference distribution

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) sounds were recorded in 98 orthodontic retention patients, mean age 19 ± 8–6 (s.d.) years, by interview, auscultation and electronic recording. Sounds were found by auscultation in 41% and by interview in 32% of the subjects, more often in females than in males (P ≤ 0.05). A new method for time-frequency analysis, the reduced interference distribution (RID), was used to classify the electronic sound recordings into five subclasses, RID types 1–5, based upon location and number of their energy peaks. RID types 1–3 had a few energy peaks close in time. RID types 4–5, typical of subjects with crepitation, had multiple energy peaks occurring close in time for a period of 20–300 ms. RID type 1, found in 45% of the subjects, typical of patients with clicking, had its dominant energy peak located in a frequency range ≤600 Hz and was significantly more common in the female than in the male subjects (P≤ 0.01). RID type 2, found in 68% of the subjects, with the dominant peak in the range 600–1200 Hz, and RID type 3, found in 38% of the subjects, with the peak in the frequency range >1200 Hz, were found to have a similar gender distribution. RID type 4, found in 49% of the subjects, had the energy peaks distributed in the frequency range ≤600 Hz. RID type 5, found in 43% of the subjects, more often in females than in males (P≤ 0.05), had the peaks distributed over the whole frequency range from about 30 Hz up to about 3000 Hz. In conclusion, a more detailed classification could be made of the TMJ sounds by displaying the RIDs than by auscultation. This suggests that RID classification methods may provide a means for differentiating sounds indicating different types of pathology.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74694/1/j.1365-2842.1996.tb00809.x.pd

Image Quality Assessment Using Spatial Frequency Component

Image quality assessment (IQA) is a crucial technique in perceptual image/video coding, because it is not only a ruler for performance evaluation of coding algorithms but also a metric for ratio-distortion optimization in coding. In this paper, inspired by the fact that distortions of both global and local information influence the perceptual image quality, we propose a novel IQA method that inspects these information in the spatial frequency components of the image. The distortion of the global information mostly existing in low spatial frequency is measured by a rectified mean absolute difference metric, and the distortion of the local information mostly existing in high spatial frequency is measured by SSIM. These two measurements are combined using a newly proposed abruptness weighting that describes the uniformity of the residual image. Experimental results on LIVE database show that the proposed metric outperforms the SSIM and achieves performance competitive with the state-of-the-art metrics. ? 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.EI