Experimental Study of Sinkhole Propagation Induced by a Leaking Pipe Using Fibre Bragg Grating Sensors.

Sinkhole formation caused by leaking pipes in karst soluble rocks is a significant concern, leading to infrastructure damage and safety risks. In this paper, an experiment was conducted to investigate sinkhole formation in dense sand induced by a leaking pipe. Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors were used to record the strain.

The conserved ATPase PCH-2 controls the number and distribution of crossovers by antagonizing their formation in .

Meiotic crossover recombination is essential for both accurate chromosome segregation and the generation of new haplotypes for natural selection to act upon. This requirement is known as crossover assurance and is one example of crossover control. While the conserved role of the ATPase, PCH-2, during meiotic prophase has been enigmatic, a universal phenotype when or its orthologs are mutated is a change in the number and distribution of meiotic crossovers.

Access Control, Key Management, and Trust for Emerging Wireless Body Area Networks.

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are an emerging industrial technology for monitoring physiological data. These networks employ medical wearable and implanted biomedical sensors aimed at improving quality of life by providing body-oriented services through a variety of industrial sensing gadgets. The sensors collect vital data from the body and forward this information to other nodes for further services using short-range wireless communication technology.

Resource allocation in public sector programmes: does the value of a life differ between governmental departments?

Background: The value of a life is regularly monetised by government departments for informing resource allocation. Guidance documents indicate how economic evaluation should be conducted, often specifying precise values for different impacts. However, we find different values of life and health are used in analyses by departments within the same government despite commonality in desired outcomes.

Generating Semantic Adversarial Examples via Feature Manipulation in Latent Space.

The susceptibility of deep neural networks (DNNs) to adversarial intrusions, exemplified by adversarial examples, is well-documented. Conventional attacks implement unstructured, pixel-wise perturbations to mislead classifiers, which often results in a noticeable departure from natural samples and lacks human-perceptible interpretability. In this work, we present an adversarial attack strategy that implements fine-granularity, semantic-meaning-oriented structural perturbations.

Chromosomal fusions, but not chromosomal inversions, activate a PCH-2 dependent checkpoint that promotes crossover formation in .

Meiotic crossovers promote accurate chromosome segregation during gametogenesis. In , a highly conserved AAA ATPase, PCH-2, ensures that homologous chromosomes have at least one crossover, preventing meiotic defects. PCH-2 localizes to meiotic chromosomes and this localization is extended when there are defects in meiotic recombination, suggesting a role in responding to defects.

User, Usage and Usability: Redefining Human Centric Cyber Security.

The effectiveness of cyber security measures are often questioned in the wake of hard hitting security events. Despite much work being done in the field of cyber security, most of the focus seems to be concentrated on system usage. In this paper, we survey advancements made in the development and design of the human centric cyber security domain.

Safety and efficacy of inactivated African horse sickness (AHS) vaccine formulated with different adjuvants.

African horse sickness virus (AHSV) is a virus species in the genus Orbivirus of the family Reoviridae causing African Horse Sickness (AHS) in equids with a mortality of about 95% in naïve horses. AHS causes serious losses in developing countries where horses play a central role in draft power and transportation. There are nine AHSV serotypes inducing no or low cross-neutralizing antibodies.

Towards Intelligent, Multidimensional Context-Aware Personalised Healthcare and Wellness Support Services.

Healthcare and wellness support that consider context within different dimensions can lead to intelligent, personalised recommendations that will more likely be accepted and acted upon by consumers. In this paper, we look at the main components of traditional personalised healthcare and wellness support services, and identify some of the challenges that should be addressed in creating a more intelligent and efficient solution. Our contribution lies in defining away forward in terms of designing such a solution.

The Impact of Recent Generic Drug Price Policies on Pharmaceutical Innovation: A Theoretical Rationale and Proposal of a Method Supporting Innovation in Areas of Unmet Medical Need.

New discoveries are a critical priority for the pharmaceutical industry. However, the use of fixed incremental cost-effectiveness (ICER) thresholds for health technology assessment (HTA) may compromise incentives to innovate and affect future treatment options. This paper highlights the impact of generic drug price policies on pharmaceutical innovation in the context of fixed ICER thresholds and proposes a new consideration for the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA).

Double-labelling immunohistochemistry for MGMT and a "cocktail" of non-tumourous elements is a reliable, quick and easy technique for inferring methylation status in glioblastomas and other primary brain tumours.

Background: Our aim was to develop a new protocol for MGMT immunohistochemistry with good agreement between observers and good correlation with molecular genetic tests of tumour methylation. We examined 40 primary brain tumours (30 glioblastomas and 10 oligodendroglial tumours) with our new technique, namely double-labelling immunohistochemistry for MGMT and a "cocktail" of non-tumour antigens (CD34, CD45 and CD68). We compared the results with single-labelling immunohistochemistry for MGMT and methylation-specific multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MS-MLPA, a recognised molecular genetic technique which we applied as the gold-standard for the methylation status).

The relationship between reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by statins and reduction in risk of cardiovascular outcomes: an updated meta-analysis.

Background: In 2005, the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' Collaboration (CTTC) quantified the relationship between reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) achieved by statin treatment and reduction in cardiovascular risk. Since this publication, several large statin trials have been reported.

Objective: The objective of our analysis was to extend the CTTC results by including active-controlled trials and other trials published since 2005.

A dose-specific meta-analysis of lipid changes in randomized controlled trials of atorvastatin and simvastatin.

Background: The available statins exhibit differences in the potency with which they alter serum lipid levels.

Objective: Meta-analyses were conducted to assess the relative potency of atorvastatin and simvastatin (the 2 most commonly prescribed statins) across all possible dose combinations in terms of changes in total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C).

Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, National Health Service (NHS) Centre for Reviews and Dissemination database, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects were searched for randomized, head-to-head trials of atorvastatin and simvastatin in patients aged >or=18 years with elevated levels of serum TC and LDL-C.

Risk of serious NSAID-related gastrointestinal events during long-term exposure: a systematic review.

Objective: Exposure to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is associated with increased risk of serious gastrointestinal (GI) events compared with non-exposure. We investigated whether that risk is sustained over time.

Data Sources: Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (to 2002); MEDLINE, EMBASE, Derwent Drug File and Current Contents (1999-2002); manual searching of reviews (1999-2002).

Development of a quality use of medicines coding system to rate clinical pharmacists' medication review recommendations.

Objective: To develop a 'quality use of medicines' coding system for the assessment of pharmacists' medication reviews and to apply it to an appropriate cohort.

Method: A 'quality use of medicines' coding system was developed based on findings in the literature. These codes were then applied to 216 (111 intervention, 105 control) veterans' medication profiles by an independent clinical pharmacist who was supported by a clinical pharmacologist with the aim to assess the appropriateness of pharmacy interventions.

Effect of a 72 hour fast on physiological stress indicators in feedlot cattle.

Feedlot oxen (n = 15) were herded and subjected to venepuncture on a daily basis for 2 weeks. Plasma glucose, lactate, free fatty acids, total lipids, total protein, cortisol, catecholamines, osmolarity and haematocrit were compared between Days 1 and 14. Plasma glucose concentration and haematocrit decreased significantly while total plasma lipid and free fatty acid concentrations increased significantly over the 14 d.

Tiletamine hydrochloride in combination with zolazepam hydrochloride as an anaesthetic agent in sheep.

The anaesthetic effects of Zoletil, a 1:1 combination of tiletamine and zolazepam, was evaluated in 10 sheep. The optimum dose of this preparation was found to be 12 mg kg-1. It produced rapid induction, cataleptoid anaesthesia and smooth recovery with a minimal effect on blood pressure.