Albumin concentrations are primarily determined by the body cell mass and the systemic inflammatory response in cancer patients with weight loss

The association between hypoalbuminemia and poor prognosis in patients with cancer is well recognized. However, the factors that contribute to the fall in albumin concentrations are not well understood. In the present study, we examined the relationship between circulating albumin concentrations, weight loss, the body cell mass (measured using total body potassium), and the presence of an inflammatory response (measured using C- reactive protein) in male patients (n=40) with advanced lung or gastrointestinal cancer. Albumin concentrations were significantly correlated with the percent ideal body weight (r=0.390, p lt 0.05), extent of reported weight loss (r=-0.492, p lt 0.01), percent predicted total body potassium (adjusted for age, height, and weight, r=0.686, p lt 0.001), and logo C-reactive protein concentrations (r=-0.545, p lt 0.001). On multiple regression analysis, the percent predicted total body potassium and log(10) C-reactive protein concentrations accounted for 63% of the variation in albumin concentrations (r(2) = 0.626, p lt 0.001). The interrelationship between albumin, body cell mass, and the inflammatory response is consistent with the concept that the presence of an ongoing inflammatory response contributes to the progressive loss of these vital protein components of the body and the subsequent death of patients with advanced cancer

Do topical repellents divert mosquitoes within a community? Health equity implications of topical repellents as a mosquito bite prevention tool.

OBJECTIVES: Repellents do not kill mosquitoes--they simply reduce human-vector contact. Thus it is possible that individuals who do not use repellents but dwell close to repellent users experience more bites than otherwise. The objective of this study was to measure if diversion occurs from households that use repellents to those that do not use repellents. METHODS: The study was performed in three Tanzanian villages using 15%-DEET and placebo lotions. All households were given LLINs. Three coverage scenarios were investigated: complete coverage (all households were given 15%-DEET), incomplete coverage (80% of households were given 15%-DEET and 20% placebo) and no coverage (all households were given placebo). A crossover study design was used and coverage scenarios were rotated weekly over a period of ten weeks. The placebo lotion was randomly allocated to households in the incomplete coverage scenario. The level of compliance was reported to be close to 100%. Mosquito densities were measured through aspiration of resting mosquitoes. Data were analysed using negative binomial regression models. FINDINGS: Repellent-users had consistently fewer mosquitoes in their dwellings. In villages where everybody had been given 15%-DEET, resting mosquito densities were fewer than half that of households in the no coverage scenario (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR]=0.39 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.25-0.60); p<0.001). Placebo-users living in a village where 80% of the households used 15%-DEET were likely to have over four-times more mosquitoes (IRR=4.17; 95% CI: 3.08-5.65; p<0.001) resting in their dwellings in comparison to households in a village where nobody uses repellent. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence that high coverage of repellent use could significantly reduce man-vector contact but with incomplete coverage evidence suggests that mosquitoes are diverted from households that use repellent to those that do not. Therefore, if repellents are to be considered for vector control, strategies to maximise coverage are required

An examination of chemistry and transport processes in the tropical lower stratosphere using observations of long-lived and short-lived compounds obtained during STRAT and POLARIS

A suite of compounds with a wide range of photochemical lifetimes (3 months to several decades) was measured in the tropical and midlatitude upper troposphere and lower stratosphere during the Stratospheric Tracers of Atmospheric Transport (STRAT) experiment (fall 1995 and winter, summer, and fall 1996) and the Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer (POLARIS) deployment in late summer 1997. These species include various chlorofluorocarbons, hydrocarbons, halocarbons, and halons measured in whole air samples and CO measured in situ by tunable diode laser spectroscopy. Mixing ratio profiles of long-lived species in the tropical lower stratosphere are examined using a one-dimensional (1-D) photochemical model that includes entrainment from the extratropical stratosphere and is constrained by measured concentrations of OH. Profiles of tracers found using the 1-D model agree well with all the observed tropical profiles for an entrainment time scale of 8.5-4+6 months, independent of altitude between potential temperatures of 370 and 500 K. The tropical profile of CO is used to show that the annually averaged ascent rate profile, on the basis of a set of radiative heating calculations, is accurate to approximately ±44%, a smaller uncertainty than found by considering the uncertainties in the radiative model and its inputs. Tropical profiles of ethane and C2Cl4 reveal that the concentration of Cl is higher than expected on the basis of photochemical model simulations using standard gas phase kinetics and established relationships between total inorganic chlorine and CFC-11. Our observations suggest that short-lived organic chlorinated compounds and HCl carried across the tropical tropopause may provide an important source of inorganic chlorine to the tropical lower stratosphere that has been largely unappreciated in previous studies. The entrainment timescale found here is considerably less than the value found by a similar study that focused on observations obtained in the lower stratosphere during 1994. Several possible explanations for this difference are discussed. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union

On acceleration of Krylov-subspace-based Newton and Arnoldi iterations for incompressible CFD: replacing time steppers and generation of initial guess

We propose two techniques aimed at improving the convergence rate of steady state and eigenvalue solvers preconditioned by the inverse Stokes operator and realized via time-stepping. First, we suggest a generalization of the Stokes operator so that the resulting preconditioner operator depends on several parameters and whose action preserves zero divergence and boundary conditions. The parameters can be tuned for each problem to speed up the convergence of a Krylov-subspace-based linear algebra solver. This operator can be inverted by the Uzawa-like algorithm, and does not need a time-stepping. Second, we propose to generate an initial guess of steady flow, leading eigenvalue and eigenvector using orthogonal projection on a divergence-free basis satisfying all boundary conditions. The approach, including the two proposed techniques, is illustrated on the solution of the linear stability problem for laterally heated square and cubic cavities

Australian Sphingidae – DNA Barcodes Challenge Current Species Boundaries and Distributions

© 2014 Rougerie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Clinical presentation, auscultation recordings, ultrasonographic findings and treatment response of 12 adult cattle with chronic suppurative pneumonia: case study

Auscultation is considered the critical component of the veterinary clinical examination for the diagnosis of bovine respiratory disease but the accuracy with which adventitious sounds reflect underlying lung pathology remains largely unproven. Modern portable ultrasound machines provide the veterinary practitioner with an inexpensive, non-invasive tool with which to examine the pleural surfaces and superficial lung parenchyma. Simultaneous recording of sounds overlying normal lung and defined pathology allows critical assessment of auscultated sounds in the same animal removing confounding factors such as respiratory rate and thickness of the chest wall (body condition). Twelve cows, referred to the University of Edinburgh Veterinary School, were diagnosed with chronic suppurative pneumonia and enrolled into this prospective study to record and monitor lung sounds, ultrasonographic findings, and response to a standardised antibiotic treatment regimen. Most cows (8/12) had a normal rectal temperature on presentation but all cows had received antibiotic therapy at some time in the previous two weeks and six animals were receiving antibiotic treatment upon admission. All cattle were tachypnoeic (>40 breaths per minute) with frequent and productive coughing, halitosis, and a purulent nasal discharge most noticeable when the head was lowered. Ultrasonographic examination of the chest readily identified pathological changes consistent with severe lung pathology subsequently confirmed as chronic suppurative pneumonia in four cows at necropsy; eight cows recovered well after antibiotic treatment and were discharged two to six weeks after admission. It proved difficult to differentiate increased audibility of normal lung sounds due to tachypnoea from wheezes; coarse crackles were not commonly heard. In general, sounds were reduced in volume over consolidated lung relative to normal lung tissue situated dorsally. Rumen contraction sounds were commonly transmitted over areas of lung pathology. Trueperella (formerly Arcanobacterium) pyogenes was isolated from three of four lung tissue samples at necrospy. Treatment with procaine penicillin for 42 consecutive days resulted in marked improvement with return to normal appetite and improvement in body condition in 8 of 12 cows (67%) where lesions did not extend more than 10-15 cm above the level of the olecranon on both sides of the chest

An Integrated-Photonics Optical-Frequency Synthesizer

Integrated-photonics microchips now enable a range of advanced functionalities for high-coherence applications such as data transmission, highly optimized physical sensors, and harnessing quantum states, but with cost, efficiency, and portability much beyond tabletop experiments. Through high-volume semiconductor processing built around advanced materials there exists an opportunity for integrated devices to impact applications cutting across disciplines of basic science and technology. Here we show how to synthesize the absolute frequency of a lightwave signal, using integrated photonics to implement lasers, system interconnects, and nonlinear frequency comb generation. The laser frequency output of our synthesizer is programmed by a microwave clock across 4 THz near 1550 nm with 1 Hz resolution and traceability to the SI second. This is accomplished with a heterogeneously integrated III/V-Si tunable laser, which is guided by dual dissipative-Kerr-soliton frequency combs fabricated on silicon chips. Through out-of-loop measurements of the phase-coherent, microwave-to-optical link, we verify that the fractional-frequency instability of the integrated photonics synthesizer matches the $7.0*10^{-13}$ reference-clock instability for a 1 second acquisition, and constrain any synthesis error to $7.7*10^{-15}$ while stepping the synthesizer across the telecommunication C band. Any application of an optical frequency source would be enabled by the precision optical synthesis presented here. Building on the ubiquitous capability in the microwave domain, our results demonstrate a first path to synthesis with integrated photonics, leveraging low-cost, low-power, and compact features that will be critical for its widespread use.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Distinguishing Asthma Phenotypes Using Machine Learning Approaches.

Asthma is not a single disease, but an umbrella term for a number of distinct diseases, each of which are caused by a distinct underlying pathophysiological mechanism. These discrete disease entities are often labelled as asthma endotypes. The discovery of different asthma subtypes has moved from subjective approaches in which putative phenotypes are assigned by experts to data-driven ones which incorporate machine learning. This review focuses on the methodological developments of one such machine learning technique-latent class analysis-and how it has contributed to distinguishing asthma and wheezing subtypes in childhood. It also gives a clinical perspective, presenting the findings of studies from the past 5 years that used this approach. The identification of true asthma endotypes may be a crucial step towards understanding their distinct pathophysiological mechanisms, which could ultimately lead to more precise prevention strategies, identification of novel therapeutic targets and the development of effective personalized therapies

Tylosis with oesophageal cancer: Diagnosis, management and molecular mechanisms

Research on iRHOM2 in the Kelsell group is funded by an MRC project grant, a MRC Clinical Fellowship (to TM) and a Cancer Research UK program grant

Appointing Women to Boards: Is There a Cultural Bias?

Companies that are serious about corporate governance and business ethics are turning their attention to gender diversity at the most senior levels of business (Institute of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Briefing 21:1, 2011). Board gender diversity has been the subject of several studies carried out by international organizations such as Catalyst (Increasing gender diversity on boards: Current index of formal approaches, 2012), the World Economic Forum (Hausmann et al., The global gender gap report, 2010), and the European Board Diversity Analysis (Is it getting easier to find women on European boards? 2010). They all lead to reports confirming the overall relatively low proportion of women on boards and the slow pace at which more women are being appointed. Furthermore, the proportion of women on corporate boards varies much across countries. Based on institutional theory, this study hypothesizes and tests whether this variation can be attributed to differences in cultural settings across countries. Our analysis of the representation of women on boards for 32 countries during 2010 reveals that two cultural characteristics are indeed associated with the observed differences. We use the cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede (Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values, 1980) to measure this construct. Results show that countries which have the greatest tolerance for inequalities in the distribution of power and those that tend to value the role of men generally exhibit lower representations of women on boards