It is cited results of investigation of amino acid composition of blood serum of harp seal pups in the first days after catch adaptation in conditions of oceanarium. It is shown that changes of amino acid composition are most expressed in the first ten-day period of observation and manifest itself by increase of free amino acid concentration at the expense of their endogenous entrance in blood. At the same time it was detected amino acid imbalance which is conditioned by stress of animals. Results of investigation witness intensification of protein catabolism under conditions of stress. Because of it it is necessary to correlate protein metabolism for prophylaxis of hypotrophy seal pups.

Harmonic phase (HARP) tracking is one of the most commonly used techniques for estimating the myocardium regional function from tagged cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging sequences. Nevertheless, tag fading and phase distortion can severely limit the tracking accuracy of the technique. In this work, we propose to modify the HARP tracking algorithm to impose a constraint of locally uniform displacement field while tracking the different myocardium points. A numerical contracting phantom and a dataset of 11 patients are used to study the performance of the proposed technique at the different cardiac phases, slices, and regions. The results show that the proposed method improves the tracking accuracy and the reliability of the conventional HARP technique.

Accurate tracking of the myocardium tissues in tagged Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) is essential for evaluating the cardiac function. Current tracking methods utilize either the image intensity or the image phase as landmarks that can be tracked. In either case, the performance is vulnerable to the image quality and the fading of the tag lines. In this work, we propose a hybrid optical flow tracking method that combines both the intensity and the phase features of the image. The method is validated using numerical cardiac phantom as well as real MRI data experiments. Both experiments showed that the proposed method outperforms current intensity-based optical flow tracking and the phase-based HARP method with maximum error of 1 pixel at extreme conditions of tag fading.

String instruments are usually composed of a set of strings, a soundboard, and a soundbox with sound holes, which is generally designed to increase the sound level by using the acoustic resonances of the cavity. In the case of the harp, the soundbox and especially the sound holes are primarily designed to allow access to the strings for their mounting. An experimental modal analysis, associated to measurements of the acoustic velocity in the holes, shows the importance of two particular modes labeled A0 and T1 as it was done for the guitar and the violin. Their mode shapes involve coupled motions of the soundboard's bending and of the oscillations of the air pistons located in the sound holes. The A0 mode is found above the frequency of the lowest acoustically significant structural mode T1. Thus, the instrument does not really take advantage of the soundbox resonance to increase its radiated sound in low frequencies. However, contribution of mode A0 is clearly visible in the response of the instrument, confirming the importance of the coupling between the soundboard and the cavity.

OBJECTIVE

We present the first prototype Scintillator High-Gain Avalanche Rushing Photoconductor Active Matrix Flat Panel Imager (SHARP-AMFPI). This detector includes a layer of avalanche amorphous Selenium (a-Se) (HARP) as the photoconductor in an indirect detector to amplify the signal and reduce the effects of electronic noise to obtain quantum noise-limited images for low-dose applications. It is the first time avalanche a-Se has been used in a solid-state imaging device and poses as a possible solution to eliminate the effects of electronic noise, which is crucial for low-dose imaging performance of AMFPI.

METHODS

We successfully deposited a solid-state HARP structure onto a 24 × 30 cm2 array of thin-film transistors (TFT array) with a pixel pitch of 85 μm. The HARP layer consists of 16 μm of a-Se with a hole-blocking and electron-blocking layer to prevent charge injection from the high-voltage bias and pixel electrodes, respectively. An electric field (ESe ) up to 105 V μm-1 was applied across the a-Se layer without breakdown. A 150 μm thick-structured CsI:Tl scintillator was used to form SHARP-AMFPI. The x-ray imaging performance is characterized using a 30 kVp Mo/Mo beam. We evaluate the spatial resolution, noise power, and detective quantum efficiency at zero frequency of the system with and without avalanche gain. The results are analyzed using cascaded linear system model (CLSM).

RESULTS

An avalanche gain of 76 ± 5 was measured at ESe = 105 V μm-1 . We demonstrate that avalanche gain can amplify the signal to overcome electronic noise. As avalanche gain is increased, image quality improves for a constant (0.76 mR) exposure until electronic noise is overcome. Our system is currently limited by poor optical transparency of our high-voltage electrode and long integrating time which results in dark current noise. These two effects cause high-spatial frequency noise to dominate imaging performance.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrate the feasibility of a solid-state HARP x-ray imager and have fabricated the largest active area HARP sensor to date. Procedures to reduce secondary quantum and dark noise are outlined. Future work will improve optical coupling and charge transport which will allow for frequency DQE and temporal metrics to be obtained.

The introduction of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy caused a shift toward' left donor nephrectomy. Some centers report a significantly low rate of endoscopic right donor nephrectomy. Hand assisted retroperitoneoscopic donor nephrectomy (HARP-DN) was introduced as a novel surgical technique, which aims to avoid intraabdominal complications. It was also reported to provide technical advantages for right-sided DN. In this retrospective single-center study, we evaluated the impact of HARP-DN technique on utilization of right-sided DNs. After the implementation of HARP-DN on February 2009, a total of 565 DNs were performed until December 2015. The introduction of HARP-DN technique resulted in an immediate increase in the utilization of right kidneys from 6.1% to an average of 19.6% annually. The donors 'outcome was similar to the left-sided and right-sided DN groups, excluding the increased incidence of incisional hernias in left kidney donors. None of the donors developed intraabdominal complications. In conclusion, the implementation of HARP technique significantly increased the use of right sided DNs, which enables a more liberal use of donors in LDKT.

Keywords: Donor nephrectomy; hand assisted retroperitoneoscopic donor nephrectomy; kidney transplantation.

Investing in clinical research and evidence-based medicine has helped to improve the care for women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). However, several important questions remain unanswered on the optimal prevention and management strategies for PCOS. Addressing this uncertainty is often hindered by suboptimal research conduct leading to inefficient evidence synthesis and research wastage. PCOS research is often practised by varied specialized teams in silo leading to disharmonious and fragmented efforts neglecting the lifelong impact of PCOS on women's wellbeing. Poor engagement among key stakeholders and lay consumers continues to limit the impact and benefits of research to society. Selective reporting on surrogate outcomes with a 'significant' P-value is a common malpractice in PCOS outputs. Effective adoption of the harmonizing research outcomes for PCOS (HARP) core outcome set is needed to minimize heterogeneity in reporting and promote research excellence. Small single-centre studies offer limited value to assess the varied PCOS phenotypes. Efficient large scale data-sharing is needed to address complex research questions and glean the benefits of big data research. We propose a roadmap to address these challenges and remedy future research need by promoting patient and public involvement in PCOS research to guide research efforts and address real patients' needs; engaging all key stakeholder groups to promote a multi-disciplinary lifelong approach to new research; continuously refining research needs and priorities to revise the knowledge gap and allocate resources judiciously; standardizing outcomes definitions and measurement tools to harmonize reporting and promote excellence in research; and by investing in large data-sharing infrastructure to facilitate big data research and govern ethical data sharing.

Keywords: big data; core outcomes; polycystic ovary syndrome; public involvement; reporting; stakeholder.

A HDTV camera having a direct-sensing x-ray high-gain avalanche rushing amorphous photoconductor (HARP) tube was used, for the first time, to acquire x-ray phase maps. The tube can achieve a high sensitivity as a result of the avalanche multiplication process in the HARP target. A beryllium plate, rather than a glass plate, was used as the face plate of the tube to minimize the loss of x-rays due to absorption, and a 15 microm thick HARP target was directly formed on it. In the experiment, the x-ray phase shifts produced by a rat liver were measured using synchrotron x-rays (lambda = 0.0766 nm) and a triple Laue-case (LLL) x-ray interferometer. Interference patterns produced by the sample were observed with the direct-sensing x-ray HARP tube camera. A voltage of 1300 V was applied to the HARP target to give an output signal gain of two. The camera was operated in 1125 scanning-line mode, and real-time images were stored on a workstation at a rate of 30 images/s with an image format of 960 (H) x 1100 (V) pixels. A phase-map image of the sample was successfully obtained using the fringe scanning method and phase unwrapping. The observed phase shifts ranged from 50 degrees to 200 degrees . Trees of blood vessels in the rat liver were clearly depicted without using a contrast agent. The spatial resolution of the x-ray camera was estimated to be better than 35 microm in the vertical direction and 100 microm in the horizontal direction.

BACKGROUND

Postoperative pain management in living kidney donor nephrectomy plays a key role in donor comfort and is important for the further acceptance of living kidney donation in times of organ shortage. Standard pain treatment (SPT) based on opioids is limited due to related side effects. Continuous infusion of local anesthesia (CILA) into the operative field is a promising alternative. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether CILA could reduce the dose of opioids in living kidney donors operated with hand-assisted retroperitoneoscopic donor nephrectomy (HARP).

METHODS

An observational study on 30 living donors was performed. The primary outcome was the difference of morphine equivalents (MEQ) administered between CILA and SPT.

RESULTS

On day 0 and 1, living donors with CILA received significant less MEQ compared to the SPT group, although on day 1 this effect was not statistically significant (day 0: 6.3 mg, interquartile range [IR] 4.2-11.2 vs 16.8 mg, IR 10.5-22.1, P = .009; day 1: 5.25 mg, IR 2.1-13.3 vs 13.3 mg, IR 6.7-23.8, P = .150). On days 2 and 3 there was no difference (day 2: 13.3 mg, IR 0.0-20.0 vs 13.3 mg, IR 6.7-13.3, P = .708; day 3: 13.3 mg, IR 0.0-26.7 vs 13.3 mg, IR 6.7-20, P = .825). Overall (days 0 to3) MEQ was also less for CILA without reaching statistical significance (39.6 mg, IR 10.9-70.5 vs 59.6 mg, IR 42.4-72.9, P = .187).

CONCLUSIONS

CILA seems to be an effective instrument for donor pain management in the first 24 hours after HARP. Its effect abates by 48 hours after surgery, especially if highly potent nonopioids are given.

Tagged Magnetic Resonance (tMR) imaging is a powerful technique for determining cardiovascular abnormalities. One of the reasons for tMR not being used in routine clinical practice is the lack of easy-to-use tools for image analysis and strain mapping. In this paper, we introduce a novel interdisciplinary method based on correlation image velocimetry (CIV) to estimate cardiac deformation and strain maps from tMR images.

CIV, a cross-correlation based pattern matching algorithm, analyses a pair of images to obtain the displacement field at sub-pixel accuracy with any desired spatial resolution. This first time application of CIV to tMR image analysis is implemented using an existing open source Matlab-based software called UVMAT. The method, which requires two main input parameters namely correlation box size (C B ) and search box size (S B ), is first validated using a synthetic grid image with grid sizes representative of typical tMR images. Phantom and patient images obtained from a Medical Imaging grand challenge dataset ( http://stacom.cardiacatlas.org/motion-tracking-challenge/ ) were then analysed to obtain cardiac displacement fields and strain maps. The results were then compared with estimates from Harmonic Phase analysis (HARP) technique.

For a known displacement field imposed on both the synthetic grid image and the phantom image, CIV is accurate for 3-pixel and larger displacements on a 512 × 512 image with (C B ,S B )=(25,55) pixels. Further validation of our method is achieved by showing that our estimated landmark positions on patient images fall within the inter-observer variability in the ground truth. The effectiveness of our approach to analyse patient images is then established by calculating dense displacement fields throughout a cardiac cycle, and were found to be physiologically consistent. Circumferential strains were estimated at the apical, mid and basal slices of the heart, and were shown to compare favorably with those of HARP over the entire cardiac cycle, except in a few (∼4) of the segments in the 17-segment AHA model. The radial strains, however, are underestimated by our method in most segments when compared with HARP.

In summary, we have demonstrated the capability of CIV to accurately and efficiently quantify cardiac deformation from tMR images. Furthermore, physiologically consistent displacement fields and circumferential strain curves in most regions of the heart indicate that our approach, upon automating some pre-processing steps and testing in clinical trials, can potentially be implemented in a clinical setting.

The objectives of the following research were to evaluate the utility of a deformable image registration technique known as hyperelastic warping for the measurement of local strains in the left ventricle through the analysis of clinical, gated PET image datasets. Two normal human male subjects were sequentially imaged with PET and tagged MRI imaging. Strain predictions were made for systolic contraction using warping analyses of the PET images and HARP based strain analyses of the MRI images. Coefficient of determination R (2) values were computed for the comparison of circumferential and radial strain predictions produced by each methodology. There was good correspondence between the methodologies, with R (2) values of 0.78 for the radial strains of both hearts and from an R (2) = 0.81 and R (2) = 0.83 for the circumferential strains. The strain predictions were not statistically different (P ≤ 0.01). A series of sensitivity results indicated that the methodology was relatively insensitive to alterations in image intensity, random image noise, and alterations in fiber structure. This study demonstrated that warping was able to provide strain predictions of systolic contraction of the LV consistent with those provided by tagged MRI Warping.

The aim of this study was to monitor seasonal changes in stable isotopes of pool freshwater and harp seal (Phoca groenlandica) body water, and to study whether these potential seasonal changes might bias results obtained using the doubly labelled water (DLW) method when measuring energy expenditure in animals with access to freshwater. Seasonal changes in the background levels of deuterium and oxygen-18 in the body water of four captive harp seals and in the freshwater pool in which they were kept were measured over a time period of 1 year. The seals were offered daily amounts of capelin and kept under a seasonal photoperiod of 69°N. Large seasonal variations of deuterium and oxygen-18 in the pool water were measured, and the isotope abundance in the body water showed similar seasonal changes to the pool water. This shows that the seals were continuously equilibrating with the surrounding water as a result of significant daily water drinking. Variations in background levels of deuterium and oxygen-18 in freshwater sources may be due to seasonal changes in physical processes such as precipitation and evaporation that cause fractionation of isotopes. Rapid and abrupt changes in the background levels of deuterium and oxygen-18 may complicate calculation of energy expenditure by use of the DLW method. It is therefore strongly recommended that analysis of seasonal changes in background levels of isotopes is performed before the DLW method is applied on (free-ranging) animals, and to use a control group in order to correct for changes in background levels.

Extension of known ecological niches of Brucella has included the description of two novel species from marine mammals. Brucella pinnipedialis is associated predominantly with seals, while two major Brucella ceti clades, most commonly associated with porpoises or dolphins respectively, have been identified. To date there has been limited characterisation of Brucella isolates obtained from marine mammals outside Northern European waters, including North American waters. To address this gap, and extend knowledge of the global population structure and host associations of these Brucella species, 61 isolates from marine mammals inhabiting North American waters were subject to molecular and phenotypic characterisation enabling comparison with existing European isolates. The majority of isolates represent genotypes previously described in Europe although novel genotypes were identified in both B. ceti clades. Harp seals were found to carry B. pinnipedialis genotypes previously confined to hooded seals among a diverse repertoire of sequence types (STs) associated with this species. For the first time Brucella isolates were characterised from beluga whales and found to represent a number of distinct B. pinnipedialis genotypes. In addition the known host range of ST27 was extended with the identification of this ST from California sea lion samples. Finally the performance of the frequently used diagnostic tool Bruce-ladder, in differentiating B. ceti and B. pinnipedialis, was critically assessed based on improved knowledge of the global population structure of Brucella associated with marine mammals.

OBJECTIVE

A new concept of indirect conversion flat-panel imager with avalanche gain and field emitter array (FEA) readout is being investigated. It is referred to as scintillator avalanche photoconductor with high resolution emitter readout (SAPHIRE). The present work investigates the temporal performance, i.e., lag, of SAPHIRE.

METHODS

Since the temporal performance of the x-ray detection materials, i.e., the structured scintillator and avalanche amorphous selenium (a-Se) photoconductor, has been studied previously, the investigation is focused on lag due to the FEA readout method. The principle of FEA readout is similar to that of scanning electron beam readout used in camera tubes, where the dominant source of lag is the energy spread of electrons. Since the principles of emission and beam focusing methods for FEA are different from thermionic emission used in camera tubes, its electron beam energy spread and hence lag is expected to be different. In the present work, the energy spread of the electrons emitted from a FEA was investigated theoretically by analyzing different contributing factors due to the FEA design and operations: The inherent energy spread of field emission, the FEA driving pulse delay, and the angular distribution of emitted electrons. The electron energy spread determined the beam acceptance characteristic curve of the photoconductive target, i.e., the accepted beam current (I(a)) as a function of target potential (V(t)), from which lag could be calculated numerically. Lag calculation was performed using FEA parameters of two prototype HARP-FEA image sensors, and the results were compared with experimental measurements. Strategies for reducing lag in SAPHIRE were proposed and analyzed.

RESULTS

The theoretical analysis shows that the dominant factor for lag is the angular distribution of electrons emitted from the FEA. The first frame lags for two prototype sensors with 4 and 25 microm HARP layer thicknesses were 62.1% and 9.1%, respectively. A lag clearance procedure can be implemented by turning on all the FEA pixels simultaneously between subsequent frames without negative impact of readout speed. For large-area SAPHIRE, the bias electrode for the HARP needs to be divided into strips to allow parallel readout. With typical cardiac detector parameters, SAPHIRE with 128 parallel strips can provide real-time readout (30 frames/s) with first frame lag of -4%.

CONCLUSIONS

The investigation of lag in SAPHIRE shows that the angular distribution of emitted electrons from FEA can result in substantial lag if the readout was performed pixel by pixel. Effective strategies for reducing lag include dividing the bias electrode into multiple strips to allow parallel readout and the incorporation of rapid charge clearance procedure between subsequent frames or rows.

Mercury and selenium concentrations (wet weight) have been determined in samples of liver, kidney and brain of grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), harbour seal (Phoca vitulina), harp seal (Phoca groenlandica) and ringed seal (Phoca hispida) caught along the Norwegian coast, 114 individuals in all. Significant differences have been found in mercury contamination between the 4 species caught in the same coastal area, Jarfjord, located at the north-east of the Norwegian coast close to the Russian border. Very low hepatic mercury levels were found in the arctic species, ringed and harp seals, ranging from 0.20 to 0.67 and 0.04 to 1.0 microg g(-1), respectively, while in the coastal seal species the concentrations were 10 to 40 times higher. The corresponding ranges were 0.7 to 48.3 microg g(-1) in grey seals and 0.2 to 19.0 microg g(-1) in harbour seals. The median values were 13.5 and 0.7 microg g(-1), respectively. The highest levels were found in grey seals, indicating that particularly the stock frequenting the waters of the north-east coast of Norway and north-west coast of Russia had received a substantial mercury exposure. Fifty-five percent of these grey seals from Jarfjord had hepatic mercury levels above 10 microg g(-1) and 21% had levels above 20 microg g(-1). By a one-way analysis of covariance, sex and age were found to explain 28 and 30%, respectively, of the total variability in the mercury concentration in grey seal from Jarfjord. Significant differences in mercury concentrations were also found between stocks of harbour seals caught at different sites along the Norwegian coast, and decreasing concentration from the south to the north-east coast of Norway was revealed. The renal mercury levels in the arctic seals ranged from 0.08 to 0.45 microg g(-1), and about five times higher levels were found in grey seals and harbour seals. The mercury levels in the brain ranged from the detection level (0.01 microg g(-1)) to about 0.1 microg g(-1). The hepatic selenium levels in the arctic seal species ranged from 0.8 to 3.7 microg g(-1). The corresponding ranges in grey seals and harbour seals were 1.0 to 23.3 microg g(-1). The renal selenium levels were lower, and the levels in the brain were below the detection level (0.01 microg g(-1)). The mercury/selenium ratio was close to unity for mercury concentrations greater than 15 microg g(-1), and a nonlinear, concave relationship was found between the ratio of the hepatic mol concentrations of mercury and selenium and the hepatic mol concentrations of mercury.

The combination of aldehydes with newly designed HARP (halogen amine radical protocol) reagents gives access to α-substituted tetrahydronaphthyridines. By using different HARP reagents, various regioisomeric structures can be prepared in a single operation. These products, which are of high value in medicinal chemistry, are formed in a predictable manner via a formal Pictet-Spengler reaction of electron-poor pyridines that would not participate in the corresponding polar reactions.

In marine mammals, muscular development has been identified as a rate-limiting factor in achieving adult dive capacities. This study investigates the rate that myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition matures in a postural and locomotor skeletal muscle for four pinniped species with different lactation lengths: hooded seals, Cystophora cristata; harp seals, Pagophilus groenlandicus; northern fur seals, Callorhinus ursinus, and Steller sea lions, Eumetopias jubatus. The ontogeny of MHC isoform expression was compared with developmental rates of myoglobin concentrations, and aerobic (citrate synthase, β-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase) and anaerobic (lactate dehydrogenase) enzyme activities. Within taxonomic families, species with shorter lactation periods had more mature muscles biochemically at birth, and fiber types differentiated earlier during ontogeny (Phocidae: hooded > harp seals, Otariidae: northern fur seals > Steller sea lions). Northern fur seal neonates had the most phenotypically-mature muscles in this study, with no immature MHC isoforms. The relationship between muscle biochemistry and MHC composition became more pronounced with age, and developed to reflect swimming mode and activity levels. In adults, phocids had more slow-twitch oxidative protein in their primary locomotor muscle, the Longissimus dorsi (LD), than otariids which likely reflects oxygen-sparing strategies for the phocids' longer dives. Conversely, northern fur seal muscles had higher proportions of fast-twitch MHCs in the Pectoralis and LD, likely indicative of this species' smaller size and higher mass-specific metabolic rates. Thus, muscle phenotype is linked with species life history, and a mismatch between muscle biochemistry and MHC composition at weaning has important implications for the first year of independent foraging in pinniped pups.

In adult marine mammals, muscles can sustain aerobic metabolism during dives in part because they contain large oxygen (O2) stores and metabolic rates are low. However, young pups have significantly lower tissue O2 stores and much higher mass-specific metabolic rates. To investigate how these differences may influence muscle function during dives, we measured the activities of enzymes involved in aerobic and anaerobic metabolic pathways (citrate synthase [CS], β-hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase [HOAD], lactate dehydrogenase [LDH]) and the LDH isoform profile in six muscles from 41 harp (Pagophilus groenlandicus) and 30 hooded (Cystophora cristata) seals ranging in age from fetal to adult. All neonatal muscles had significantly higher absolute but lower metabolically scaled CS and HOAD activities than adults (∼ 70% and ∼ 85% lower, respectively). Developmental increases in LDH activity lagged that of aerobic enzymes and were not accompanied by changes in isozyme profile, suggesting that changes in enzyme concentration rather than structure determine activity levels. Biochemical maturation proceeded faster in the major locomotory muscles. In combination, findings suggest that pup muscles are unable to support strenuous aerobic exercise or rely heavily on anaerobic metabolism during early diving activities and that pups' high mass-specific metabolic rates may play a key role in limiting the ability of their muscles to support underwater foraging.

Concentrations of the essential trace elements, iron, copper, zinc and selenium and the non-essential elements arsenic, cadmium, total mercury and lead, were measured in the meat, liver and kidney of two species of seals, harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) and hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) collected in the Greenland Sea. The spread among the individual seals was considerable. However, multivariate statistics simplified the evaluation of the data. The muscle tissue contained lower levels of the elements than kidney and liver. The kidney and liver tissue were also different, in particular with higher levels of iron in the liver and higher levels of cadmium in the kidney. Species differences were clear in both liver and kidney tissue, with higher levels of most of the elements in the hooded seals, while the harp seals had a higher burden of arsenic in the two tissues. Male hooded seals had higher levels of mercury and selenium than the females in all tissues. For harp seal there was a slight difference between the sexes in the muscle tissue, while no difference was observed in the liver and kidney tissues. The juvenile seals generally had lower levels of the elements in their tissues than the adults, although copper and zinc were higher in the muscles and livers of the juveniles as was iron in the muscles. No correlation between age and trace element levels in the tissues of the adult seals was observed.

This publication reports high resolution mass spectral data for copper chlorophyll and copper chlorophyll degradation products extracted from bright green table olives. These data support analyte identifications made in "Quantitation of copper chlorophylls in green table olives by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma isotope dilution mass spectrometry" in the Journal of Chromatography A (Petigara Harp et al., 2020 [1]). Table olive pigments, divided into lipophilic and hydrophilic fractions by liquid-liquid repartition, were separated by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and detected by visible wavelength absorbance and high resolution mass spectrometry, using an Orbitrap HF with positive electrospray ionization. Full-scan mass spectra were acquired to assign pigment chemical formulae. Fragment-rich higher-energy collisional dissociation tandem mass spectra were acquired to facilitate structural assignments. Extracted ion chromatograms, full-scan, and tandem mass spectra obtained from representative lipophilic and hydrophilic green table olive extracts are presented in Figures 1-6. Annotated mass spectra comparing experimental and calculated isotope distributions, .raw mass spectral data files, and experimental details linking .raw data files to annotated spectra are provided as Supplementary Material. Spectra extracted from these native data files can be added to mass spectral libraries for use in other studies. Access to native data files uniquely enables rigorous data examination (e.g., molecular ion isotopic distribution, effective mass resolution, presence of overlapping ion series) and use in ways that are not possible when spectra are otherwise reported in simple tables listing mono-isotopic peaks and mass errors. Mass spectra reported here can be used to design multiple-reaction monitoring methods to detect these bright green pigments in agricultural food commodities and finished products.

Objective: To evaluate the performance of the Swede score to detect cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in women with HIV-1 in Johannesburg, South Africa METHODS: A cross-sectional study using secondary data analysis from the HPV in Africa Research Partnership (HARP) study that compared the performance of three different screening tests to detect CIN. Colposcopy was performed on any woman who screened positive and findings were recorded using the Swede score. A biopsy of any lesion and a four-quadrant biopsy was taken. The score was evaluated against a histological diagnosis of >CIN1. The sensistivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for each score was calculated.

Results: Median age and CD4+ count of the 576 women eligible from the Johannesburg cohort was 34 years (IQR, 30-39) and 427 cells/mm³ (IQR, 323-579), respectively. Almost two-thirds (64%) were on ART and about 21% had CIN 2+ on histology. A Swede score of 5 or greater had the best combination of sensitivity and specificity for CIN 2+ with an AUC of 0.72 (95% CI, 0.68-0.76) corresponding to a sensitivity of 72.1 (95% CI, 63.5-79.6) and specificity of 71.8 (95% CI, 67.4-75.9).

Conclusion: The Swede score can assist in determining whether women with HIV/AIDS should have treatment at the first colposcopy visit versus those who may be followed up, thereby individualizing treatment.

Keywords: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN); Colposcopy; HIV-1; Sensitivity; South Africa; Specificity; Swede score.

OBJECTIVE

To detect metastatic lung tumors of less than 1 mm in size by focusing on the clearance of contrast material using synchrotron radiation (SR) angiography characterized by high spatial resolution and high-sensitivity receiver.

METHODS

C6 cells, derived from rat glioma cells, were injected to the rat tail vein. Two weeks after injection, the rats underwent SR angiography using a high-gain avalanche rushing amorphous photoconductor (HARP) receiver of extra-high sensitivity with high contrast resolution. The 256-grayscale value was employed in the analysis of images.

RESULTS

19 nodules were identified in images. The tumors were confirmed histopathologically. The average tumor size was 621±193 µm. The clearance curve of the densities was expressed as a logarithm function. Tumors showed delayed clearance of contrast material, taking up to 28 s, compared with arteries, which cleared rapidly at 8 s. In 256 grayscale, the distance was 50. This gap in density clearance made it possible to identify tumors.

CONCLUSIONS

SR angiography with a HARP receiver provides high sensitivity and spatial resolution and makes it possible to diagnose metastatic lung tumors of less than 1 mm in size by focusing on differences in the clearance times of contrast material.

A cDNA clone derived from Pneumocystis carinii contained an unusual sequence (GTGATG)2(ATGGTG)4(ATG)4 and many GAT repeats. It was found to encode a histidine and aspartic acid-rich protein (HARP). The complete cDNA contained an 888-bp open reading frame encoding a putative protein of 32.6 kDa. The deduced HARP protein contained 39 aspartic acid and 22 histidine residues. The genomic copy of the HARP gene (1203 bp in length) was found to contain 3 small introns of 46, 44, and 38 bp, respectively. HARP was predicted by computer programs to be a plasma membrane protein with nickel-binding activity.