Crystallization of SHARPIN using an automated two-dimensional grid screen for optimization

An N-terminal fragment of human SHARPIN was recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli, purified and crystallized. Crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction were obtained by a one-step optimization of seed dilution and protein concentration using a two-dimensional grid screen. The crystals belonged to the primitive tetragonal space group P4(3)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 61.55, c = 222.81 Å. Complete data sets were collected from native and selenomethionine-substituted protein crystals at 100 K to 2.6 and 2.0 Å resolution, respectively

Multilevel correlates of household anthropometric typologies in Colombian mothers and their infants

Background. The aim of this study was to establish the association of maternal, family, and contextual correlates of anthropometric typologies at the household level in Colombia using 2005 Demographic Health Survey (DHS/ENDS) data.Methods. Household-level information from mothers 18-49 years old and their children less than 5 years old was included. Stunting and overweight were assessed for each child. Mothers were classified according to their body mass index. Four anthropometric typologies at the household level were constructed: normal, underweight, overweight, and dual burden. Four three-level [households (n = 8598) nested within municipalities (n = 226), nested within states (n = 32)] hierarchical polytomous logistic models were developed. Household log-odds of belonging to one of the four anthropometric categories, holding 'normal' as the reference group, were obtained.Results. This study found that anthropometric typologies were associated with maternal and family characteristics of maternal age, parity, maternal education, and wealth index. Higher municipal living conditions index was associated with a lower likelihood of underweight typology and a higher likelihood of overweight typology. Higher population density was associated with a lower likelihood of overweight typology.Conclusion. Distal and proximal determinants of the various anthropometric typologies at the household level should be taken into account when framing policies and designing interventions to reduce malnutrition in Colombia. Copyright © The Author(s) 2018

Developing priorities to achieve health equity through diabetes translation research: A concept mapping study

Introduction: The goal of diabetes translation research is to advance research into practice and ensure equitable benefit from scientific evidence. This study uses concept mapping to inform and refine future directions of diabetes translation research with the goal of achieving health equity in diabetes prevention and control. Research design and methods: This study used concept mapping and input from a national network of diabetes researchers and public health practitioners. Concept mapping is a mixed-method, participant-based process. First, participants generated statements by responding to a focus prompt ( Results: Ten clusters were identified containing between 6 and 12 statements from 95 total generated statements. The ranges of average importance and feasibility ratings for clusters were fairly high and narrow (3.62-4.09; 3.10-3.93, respectively). Clusters with the most statements in the go-zone quadrant (above average importance/feasibility) were Conclusions: This study created a framework of 10 priority areas to guide current and future efforts in diabetes translation research to achieve health equity. Themes rated as highly important and feasible provide the basis to evaluate current research support. Future efforts should explore how to best support innovative-targets, those rated highly important but less feasible

A High Pressure Distorted a-Uranium (Pnma) Structure in Plutonium

Under pressure many rare earths and actinide metals transform to a-U structure or its lower symmetry distorted forms. We have reinterpreted the diffraction data of Dabos et al for Pu (reference 4) and find that a Am IV type distorted a-U structure in Pnma space group can explain this for its high pressure phase. The structures of this phase and a-Pu are both shown to have a distorted hcp topology. The upturn in the atomic volume of Pu at 0.1 MPa can also be rationalized on the basis of this proposalComment: 10pages,3 figure

Ship hull inspection using a swarm of autonomous underwater robots: a Search algorithm

Emergency ship hull repair is a vital damage control procedure that makes the difference between reaching the next port and losing a ship. For repairs to be made, ship hull breaches must be quickly located and patched. In this paper, we propose a searching algorithm to be used by a homogeneous swarm of autonomous underwater robots to inspect a ship hull and identify breaches. Inspired by methods tested in 2D environments, we combine aspects of previous studies and implement them in a 3D environment. We compare two approaches designed to achieve complete area coverage of a large section of ship hull and identify the approach that yields the shortest discovery time and highest accuracy. Our system is verified within the Webots software simulated environment and shows that the system is resilient to sensor noise and failure of a fraction of the robot population

Electromagnetic Polarizabilities and Charge Radii of the Nucleons in the Diquark-model

The diquark model is used to calculate the electromagnetic polarizabilities and charge radii of the nucleons for three different potentials. Making the scalar diquark lower in mass introduces a mixing angle $\theta$ between the $\left| 56\right\rangle$ and $\left| 70\right\rangle$ states ,which allows an improvement in value of all 6 properties. Generalizing the Gamov-Teller matrix and the magnetic moment operator to the diquark model gives constraints on this mixing. We obtain for the Richardson potential $\theta =23.2^{\circ },$ $\overline{\alpha }_p=7.9_{-0.9}^{+1.0}\times 10^{-4}fm^3,$ $\overline{\alpha }_n=7.7_{-0.6}^{+0.3}\times 10^{-4}fm^3,$ $\overline{\beta }_p=5.4_{-0.4}^{+1.6}\times 10^{-4}fm^3,$ $\overline{\beta }_n=6.7_{-0.7}^{+1.3}\times 10^{-4}fm^3,$ $\left\langle r^2\right\rangle _p=0.37_{-0.03}^{+0.02}fm^2,$ $\left\langle r^2\right\rangle _n=-0.07_{-0.02}^{+0.03}fm^2.$ Additional pion cloud contributions could improve on all six results.Comment: 15 Pages, Latex, Figs on request, to be published Phys.Lett.B. Minor errors corrected and eqn 5,6,8,9 correcte

The Health Care Consequences Of Australian Immigration Policies

Deborah Zion and colleagues discuss the “dual loyalty” conflict affecting Australian health care providers involved in the care of asylum seekers

Research priorities during infectious disease emergencies in West Africa.

OBJECTIVES: This paper presents the results of the consultations conducted with various stakeholders in Africa and other experts to document community perspectives on the types of research to be prioritised in outbreak conditions. The Delphi method was used to distill consensus. RESULTS: Our consultations highlighted as key, the notion that in an infectious disease outbreak situation, the need to establish an evidence base on how to reduce morbidity and mortality in real time takes precedence over the production of generalizable knowledge. Research studies that foster understanding of how disease transmission could be prevented in the future remain important, implementation research that explores how to mitigate the impact of outbreaks in the present should be prioritized. Clinical trials aiming to establish the safety profile of therapeutic interventions should be limited during the acute phase of an epidemic with high fatality-and should preferably use adaptive designs. We concluded that community members have valuable perspectives to share about research priorities during infectious disease emergencies. Well designed consultative processes could help identify these opinions