Place vs. Node transit: Planning policies revisited

A core contemporary planning approach is the promotion of transit-oriented developments (TODs) and in recent times cities have committed substantial financial investment to encourage sustainable precincts around public transport. Evaluation of the success of TODs is key for continuing the planning efforts. A frequently applied framework for characterizing TODs draws on Bertolini's Node-Place (N-P) model, enriched through application in various contexts. We offer here an extension to the N-P model, using a case study in a low-density city, Perth,Western Australia. A typology of railway stations is developed using 43 indicators and then linear models are applied to ascertain the association between patronage and station precinct features. The results show that various types of measures are required to increase public transport ridership for the four clusters that emerged from the analysis. Density alone does not lead to increased use of public transport; it must be associated with city-wide accessibility, as well as access/egress to and from the station

Severe anemia of unexpected cause in a female teenager

University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania, The 6th International Medical Congress for Students and Young Doctors, May 12-14, 2016Introduction: In pediatric practice topiramate is used alone or with other medicines to treat certain types of seizures and to prevent migraine headaches in adolescents 12 years and older. Clinical case: A14 years-old female was admitted into the ER Unit after voluntary ingestion of 30 capsules (3000 mg) of topiramate. The drug was prescribed by her neurologist for migraines; the suicidal attempt was determined by a conflict with her mother. At admission she had dizziness, drowsiness, speech disturbances,abnormal coordination, vomiting and abdominal pain. Laboratory data showed severe anemia (Hb=4,3 g/dl), normochrome and normocytic, severe metabolic acidosis(HCO3 - = 6,6 mEq/L), hypoglycemia (37 mg/dl), hypercloremia(Cl-=121,7 mEq/L), hypernatremia (Na+= 150 mEq/L),hypokalemia (K+ =1,71 mEq/L). The treatment included gastric lavage, activated charcoal, intravenous fluids, bicarbonate and blood transfusions. The clinical status improved within 24 hours, Hb level raise to 13,8 g/dl and no other laboratory abnormalities were found. The medical records of the patient showed she has no anemia previously. A CT scan performed in order to exclude an organic cause for her headaches was normal. The patient was dismissed after 10 days in good general condition; she presented mild epigastric pain and leave the hospital with proton-pump inhibitor and pshychologic counceling recommendations. Subsequently she had several hospitalisations for depression and suicidary thoughts treated with sertraline and she is followed by a pediatric psychiatrist. Conclusions: This is a particular case of voluntary topiramate intoxication with particular side effects as severe anemia and metabolic disturbances, followed by long-term behavioral consequences

Regulation of Peripheral Myelination through Transcriptional Buffering of Egr2 by an Antisense Long Non-coding RNA

Precise regulation of Egr2 transcription is fundamentally important to the control of peripheral myelination. Here, we describe a long non-coding RNA antisense to the promoter of Egr2 (Egr2-AS-RNA). During peripheral nerve injury, the expression of Egr2-AS-RNA is increased and correlates with decreased Egr2 transcript and protein levels. Ectopic expression of Egr2-AS-RNA in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cultures inhibits the expression of Egr2 mRNA and induces demyelination. In vivo inhibition of Egr2-AS-RNA using oligonucleotide GapMers released from a biodegradable hydrogel following sciatic nerve injury reverts the EGR2-mediated gene expression profile and significantly delays demyelination. Egr2-AS-RNA gradually recruits H3K27ME3, AGO1, AGO2, and EZH2 on the Egr2 promoter following sciatic nerve injury. Furthermore, expression of Egr2-AS-RNA is regulated through ERK1/2 signaling to YY1, while loss of Ser184 of YY1 regulates binding to Egr2-AS-RNA. In conclusion, we describe functional exploration of an antisense long non-coding RNA in peripheral nervous system (PNS) biology. Keywords: nerve injury response; transcription; RNA epigenetics; antisense RNA; Egr2; myelination; YY1; neureguli

Identification of the De-synchronization, Synchronization and Forced Oscillation Phenomenon of a Nonlinear System

Abstract-The phenomena of de-synchronization, synchronization, and forced oscillation has been investigation using describing function theory for a two input and two output nonlinear system containing saturation-type nonlinearities and subjected to high-frequency deterministic signal for the purpose of limit cycle quenching. The analytical results have been compared with the results of digital simulation Matlab-Simulink for a typical example varying the nonlinear element

Interventions to prevent neonatal healthcare-associated infections in low-resource settings: a systematic review

Background: Clinically suspected and laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infections are frequent causes of morbidity and mortality during neonatal care. The most effective infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions for neonates in low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC) are unknown. Aim: To identify effective interventions in the prevention of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections in LMIC neonatal units. Methods: Medline, PUBMED, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, and PsychInfo (January 2003 – October 2020) were searched to identify studies reporting single or bundled interventions for prevention of bloodstream infections in LMIC neonatal units. Results: Our initial search identified 5206 articles; following application of filters, 27 publications met the inclusion and ICROMS assessment criteria and were summarised in the final analysis. No studies were carried out in low-income countries, only one in sub-Saharan Africa and just two in multiple countries. Of the 18 single intervention studies, most targeted skin (n=4) and gastrointestinal mucosal integrity (n=5). Whereas emollient therapy and lactoferrin achieved significant reductions in proven neonatal infection, glutamine and mixed probiotics showed no benefit. Chlorhexidine gluconate for cord care and kangaroo mother care reduced infection in individual single-centre studies. Of the nine studies evaluating bundles, most focused on prevention of device-associated infections and achieved significant reductions in catheter- and ventilator-associated infections. Conclusion: There is a limited evidence-base for the effectiveness of IPC interventions in LMIC neonatal units; bundled interventions targeting device-associated infections were most effective. More multi-site studies with robust study designs are needed to inform IPC intervention strategies in low-resource neonatal units

Life lessons from and for distributed MPC – Part 1: Dynamics of cooperation

This paper and a second accompanying paper (Olaru et al., 2018) explore the potential of Distributed Predictive Control (DMPC) literature to provide valuable insights into social behaviour. In particular this first paper focuses on the mechanisms of group regulation in social systems. It will be noted that there are major differences between the way in which DMPC algorithms and Social Human Participants (SHPs) form decisions. DMPC can make optimal decisions but these are only optimal with respect to a given objective and model, both of which must be explicit. SHPs operate, by and large, with only vague, implicit objectives and models – which can be surprisingly accurate – but often make sub-optimal decisions both individually (because of irrationality or poor anticipation and due to a short horizon, bad model or misjudgement of objectives) and in a group sense (for the previous reasons plus selfishness). Thus while SHPs’ decisions would typically be suboptimal, with respect to their desired goals, for the aforementioned reasons, it can be expected that SHPs’ decision making would evolve towards an optimal solution as groups of SHPs develop more experience within the system they’re operating in

53BP1 is required for class switch recombination

53BP1 participates early in the DNA damage response and is involved in cell cycle checkpoint control. Moreover, the phenotype of mice and cells deficient in 53BP1 suggests a defect in DNA repair (Ward et al., 2003b). Therefore, we asked whether or not 53BP1 would be required for the efficient repair of DNA double strand breaks. Our data indicate that homologous recombination by gene conversion does not depend on 53BP1. Moreover, 53BP1-deficient mice support normal V(D)J recombination, indicating that 53BP1 is not required for “classic” nonhomologous end joining. However, class switch recombination is severely impaired in the absence of 53BP1, suggesting that 53BP1 facilitates DNA end joining in a way that is not required or redundant for the efficient closing of RAG-induced strand breaks. These findings are similar to those observed in mice or cells deficient in the tumor suppressors ATM and H2AX, further suggesting that the functions of ATM, H2AX, and 53BP1 are closely linked

Evaluation of OMNIgene®•SPUTUM reagent for mycobacterial culture.

SETTING: National Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory, Borstel, Germany. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of OMNIgene®•SPUTUM (OM-S) reagent in comparison with a method using N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide (NALC-NaOH) with regard to mycobacterial recovery and contamination of broth and solid cultures. DESIGN: Sputum samples from patients with tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases underwent decontamination with NALC-NaOH-based (MycoDDR™) or OM-S reagent. The decontamination procedure was assigned by block randomisation. Samples were inoculated on Löwenstein-Jensen, Stonebrink and MGIT™ (Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tubes). Mycobacterial recovery from samples spiked with Mycobacterium tuberculosis following decontamination was determined. RESULTS: Eighty-five samples were randomised to NALC-NaOH and 84 to OM-S reagent. Mycobacterial recovery was significantly lower for samples processed with OM-S reagent compared with the NALC-NaOH method across all media types. Culture contamination was lower with NALC-NaOH reagent on solid media (9.4-12.9% vs. 28.6-29.8%). Growth was not observed in MGIT among samples spiked with 10 600-16 800 colony-forming units of M. tuberculosis following decontamination with OM-S reagent. CONCLUSION: Low mycobacterial recovery, especially in MGIT, observed in the present study suggests that OM-S reagent might not be compatible with the MGIT system. More extensive field evaluations of the OM-S reagent are warranted to demonstrate a significant benefit over currently used methods