The range of axial rotation of the glenohumeral joint.

Accepted versio

Patient-Reported Side Effects of Intradetrusor Botulinum Toxin Type A for Idiopathic Overactive Bladder Syndrome

Objective: The aim of the study was a prospective assessment of patient-reported side effects in an open-label study after intradetrusor botulinum toxin injections for idiopathic overactive bladder (OAB). Patients and Methods: Botulinum toxin A injection was performed in 56 patients with idiopathic OAB. Patients were followed up for 6 months concerning side effects and patients' satisfaction. Results: Different types of side effects were assessed such as dry mouth (19.6%), arm weakness (8.9%), eyelid weakness (8.9%), leg weakness (7.1%), torso weakness (5.4%), impaired vision (5.4%) and dysphagia (5.4%). In all cases, symptoms were mild and transient. Urological complications such as gross hematuria (17.9%), acute urinary retention (8.9%) and acute urinary tract infection (7.1%) were noticed. In all cases, acute urinary retention was transient and treated with temporary intermittent self-catheterization. There was no statistically significant correlation between dosage and observed side effects. Patients' satisfaction rate was high (71.4%). Conclusion: Intradetrusor injection of botulinum toxin was associated with a high rate of neurourological side effects. In general, side effects were transient, mild and did not require special treatment. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base

Fluid Particle Accelerations in Fully Developed Turbulence

The motion of fluid particles as they are pushed along erratic trajectories by fluctuating pressure gradients is fundamental to transport and mixing in turbulence. It is essential in cloud formation and atmospheric transport, processes in stirred chemical reactors and combustion systems, and in the industrial production of nanoparticles. The perspective of particle trajectories has been used successfully to describe mixing and transport in turbulence, but issues of fundamental importance remain unresolved. One such issue is the Heisenberg-Yaglom prediction of fluid particle accelerations, based on the 1941 scaling theory of Kolmogorov (K41). Here we report acceleration measurements using a detector adapted from high-energy physics to track particles in a laboratory water flow at Reynolds numbers up to 63,000. We find that universal K41 scaling of the acceleration variance is attained at high Reynolds numbers. Our data show strong intermittency---particles are observed with accelerations of up to 1,500 times the acceleration of gravity (40 times the root mean square value). Finally, we find that accelerations manifest the anisotropy of the large scale flow at all Reynolds numbers studied.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Orientation cues for high-flying nocturnal insect migrants: do turbulence-induced temperature and velocity fluctuations indicate the mean wind flow?

Migratory insects flying at high altitude at night often show a degree of common alignment, sometimes with quite small angular dispersions around the mean. The observed orientation directions are often close to the downwind direction and this would seemingly be adaptive in that large insects could add their self-propelled speed to the wind speed, thus maximising their displacement in a given time. There are increasing indications that high-altitude orientation may be maintained by some intrinsic property of the wind rather than by visual perception of relative ground movement. Therefore, we first examined whether migrating insects could deduce the mean wind direction from the turbulent fluctuations in temperature. Within the atmospheric boundary-layer, temperature records show characteristic ramp-cliff structures, and insects flying downwind would move through these ramps whilst those flying crosswind would not. However, analysis of vertical-looking radar data on the common orientations of nocturnally migrating insects in the UK produced no evidence that the migrants actually use temperature ramps as orientation cues. This suggests that insects rely on turbulent velocity and acceleration cues, and refocuses attention on how these can be detected, especially as small-scale turbulence is usually held to be directionally invariant (isotropic). In the second part of the paper we present a theoretical analysis and simulations showing that velocity fluctuations and accelerations felt by an insect are predicted to be anisotropic even when the small-scale turbulence (measured at a fixed point or along the trajectory of a fluid-particle) is isotropic. Our results thus provide further evidence that insects do indeed use turbulent velocity and acceleration cues as indicators of the mean wind direction

Quantum optical coherence can survive photon losses: a continuous-variable quantum erasure correcting code

A fundamental requirement for enabling fault-tolerant quantum information processing is an efficient quantum error-correcting code (QECC) that robustly protects the involved fragile quantum states from their environment. Just as classical error-correcting codes are indispensible in today's information technologies, it is believed that QECC will play a similarly crucial role in tomorrow's quantum information systems. Here, we report on the first experimental demonstration of a quantum erasure-correcting code that overcomes the devastating effect of photon losses. Whereas {\it errors} translate, in an information theoretic language, the noise affecting a transmission line, {\it erasures} correspond to the in-line probabilistic loss of photons. Our quantum code protects a four-mode entangled mesoscopic state of light against erasures, and its associated encoding and decoding operations only require linear optics and Gaussian resources. Since in-line attenuation is generally the strongest limitation to quantum communication, much more than noise, such an erasure-correcting code provides a new tool for establishing quantum optical coherence over longer distances. We investigate two approaches for circumventing in-line losses using this code, and demonstrate that both approaches exhibit transmission fidelities beyond what is possible by classical means.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

MultiMetEval: comparative and multi-objective analysis of genome-scale metabolic models

Comparative metabolic modelling is emerging as a novel field, supported by the development of reliable and standardized approaches for constructing genome-scale metabolic models in high throughput. New software solutions are needed to allow efficient comparative analysis of multiple models in the context of multiple cellular objectives. Here, we present the user-friendly software framework Multi-Metabolic Evaluator (MultiMetEval), built upon SurreyFBA, which allows the user to compose collections of metabolic models that together can be subjected to flux balance analysis. Additionally, MultiMetEval implements functionalities for multi-objective analysis by calculating the Pareto front between two cellular objectives. Using a previously generated dataset of 38 actinobacterial genome-scale metabolic models, we show how these approaches can lead to exciting novel insights. Firstly, after incorporating several pathways for the biosynthesis of natural products into each of these models, comparative flux balance analysis predicted that species like Streptomyces that harbour the highest diversity of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in their genomes do not necessarily have the metabolic network topology most suitable for compound overproduction. Secondly, multi-objective analysis of biomass production and natural product biosynthesis in these actinobacteria shows that the well-studied occurrence of discrete metabolic switches during the change of cellular objectives is inherent to their metabolic network architecture. Comparative and multi-objective modelling can lead to insights that could not be obtained by normal flux balance analyses. MultiMetEval provides a powerful platform that makes these analyses straightforward for biologists. Sources and binaries of MultiMetEval are freely available from https://github.com/PiotrZakrzewski/MetEv​al/downloads

Eaten alive: cannibalism is enhanced by parasites

Cannibalism is ubiquitous in nature and especially pervasive in consumers with stage-specific resource utilization in resource-limited environments. Cannibalism is thus influential in the structure and functioning of biological communities. Parasites are also pervasive in nature and, we hypothesize, might affect cannibalism since infection can alter host foraging behaviour. We investigated the effects of a common parasite, the microsporidian Pleistophora mulleri, on the cannibalism rate of its host, the freshwater amphipod Gammarus duebeni celticus. Parasitic infection increased the rate of cannibalism by adults towards uninfected juvenile conspecifics, as measured by adult functional responses, that is, the rate of resource uptake as a function of resource density. This may reflect the increased metabolic requirements of the host as driven by the parasite. Furthermore, when presented with a choice, uninfected adults preferred to cannibalize uninfected rather than infected juvenile conspecifics, probably reflecting selection pressure to avoid the risk of parasite acquisition. By contrast, infected adults were indiscriminate with respect to infection status of their victims, probably owing to metabolic costs of infection and the lack of risk as the cannibals were already infected. Thus parasitism, by enhancing cannibalism rates, may have previously unrecognized effects on stage structure and population dynamics for cannibalistic species and may also act as a selective pressure leading to changes in resource use

A Compensatory Mutation Provides Resistance to Disparate HIV Fusion Inhibitor Peptides and Enhances Membrane Fusion

Fusion inhibitors are a class of antiretroviral drugs used to prevent entry of HIV into host cells. Many of the fusion inhibitors being developed, including the drug enfuvirtide, are peptides designed to competitively inhibit the viral fusion protein gp41. With the emergence of drug resistance, there is an increased need for effective and unique alternatives within this class of antivirals. One such alternative is a class of cyclic, cationic, antimicrobial peptides known as θ-defensins, which are produced by many non-human primates and exhibit broad-spectrum antiviral and antibacterial activity. Currently, the θ-defensin analog RC-101 is being developed as a microbicide due to its specific antiviral activity, lack of toxicity to cells and tissues, and safety in animals. Understanding potential RC-101 resistance, and how resistance to other fusion inhibitors affects RC-101 susceptibility, is critical for future development. In previous studies, we identified a mutant, R5-tropic virus that had evolved partial resistance to RC-101 during in vitro selection. Here, we report that a secondary mutation in gp41 was found to restore replicative fitness, membrane fusion, and the rate of viral entry, which were compromised by an initial mutation providing partial RC-101 resistance. Interestingly, we show that RC-101 is effective against two enfuvirtide-resistant mutants, demonstrating the clinical importance of RC-101 as a unique fusion inhibitor. These findings both expand our understanding of HIV drug-resistance to diverse peptide fusion inhibitors and emphasize the significance of compensatory gp41 mutations. © 2013 Wood et al

Designing hollow nano gold golf balls.

Hollow/porous nanoparticles, including nanocarriers, nanoshells, and mesoporous materials have applications in catalysis, photonics, biosensing, and delivery of theranostic agents. Using a hierarchical template synthesis scheme, we have synthesized a nanocarrier mimicking a golf ball, consisting of (i) solid silica core with a pitted gold surface and (ii) a hollow/porous gold shell without silica. The template consisted of 100 nm polystyrene beads attached to a larger silica core. Selective gold plating of the core followed by removal of the polystyrene beads produced a golf ball-like nanostructure with 100 nm pits. Dissolution of the silica core produced a hollow/porous golf ball-like nanostructure

The contribution of diet and genotype to iron status in women:a classical twin study

This is the first published report examining the combined effect of diet and genotype on body iron content using a classical twin study design. The aim of this study was to determine the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors in determining iron status. The population was comprised of 200 BMI- and age-matched pairs of MZ and DZ healthy twins, characterised for habitual diet and 15 iron-related candidate genetic markers. Variance components analysis demonstrated that the heritability of serum ferritin (SF) and soluble transferrin receptor was 44% and 54% respectively. Measured single nucleotide polymorphisms explained 5% and selected dietary factors 6% of the variance in iron status; there was a negative association between calcium intake and body iron (p = 0.02) and SF (p = 0.04)