We present the discovery and preliminary characterization of a gravitationally lensed quasar with a source redshift zs = 2.74 and image separation of 2.9 arcsec lensed by a foreground zl = 0.40 ...elliptical galaxy. Since optical observations of gravitationally lensed quasars show the lens system as a superposition of multiple point sources and a foreground lensing galaxy, we have developed a morphology-independent multi-wavelength approach to the photometric selection of lensed quasar candidates based on Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) supervised machine learning. Using this technique and gi multicolour photometric observations from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), near-IR JK photometry from the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and WISE mid-IR photometry, we have identified a candidate system with two catalogue components with iAB = 18.61 and iAB = 20.44 comprising an elliptical galaxy and two blue point sources. Spectroscopic follow-up with NTT and the use of an archival AAT spectrum show that the point sources can be identified as a lensed quasar with an emission line redshift of z = 2.739 ± 0.003 and a foreground early-type galaxy with z = 0.400 ± 0.002. We model the system as a single isothermal ellipsoid and find the Einstein radius θE ~ 1.47 arcsec, enclosed mass Menc ~ 4 × 1011 M⊙ and a time delay of ~52 d. The relatively wide separation, month scale time delay duration and high redshift make this an ideal system for constraining the expansion rate beyond a redshift of 1.
Cadaveric kidneys from brain-stem-dead donors continue to be limited because the number of donors has reached a plateau. Wide recruitment of non-heart-beating donors (NHBD) could significantly ...increase the donor pool. NHBD renal transplants are underused because of the concern of poor quality graft function from such donors. In response to this perception, we reviewed 46 NHBD renal transplants performed in our center since 1998.
All NHBD kidneys were machine-perfused using the Newcastle continuous-hypothermic pulsatile preservation system before transplantation. A control heart-beating-donor (HBD) group was taken as the next consecutive HBD renal transplant to the NHBD transplant. The outcome and quality of function of the groups of renal transplants were analyzed for short-term and long-term performance.
The renal transplant patients were matched for donor and recipient factors. Survival rates for allografts and patients were similar for 1 to 3 years. There was an increased incidence of delayed graft function in the NHBD renal transplants in the perioperative period. The creatinine clearance was 22.8+/-2.3 mL/minute for NHBD patients and 44.4+/-2.9 mL/minute for HBD patients at the time of discharge from hospital. This difference equalized after 3 months and the creatinine clearance for NHBD was 44.2+/-2.4 mL/minute and for HBD 49.2+/-3.4 mL/minute.
Our results for NHBD renal transplants confirm that such grafts suffer primary warm ischemic injury, shown by the increased incidence of acute tubular necrosis and consequent delayed graft function. This produced poor renal function at the time of hospital discharge. After 3 months, the renal function of NHBD cases improved to the level seen in HBD patients.
The adverse effects of maternal alcohol use during pregnancy represent a spectrum of growth restriction, facial dysmorphology, and neurocognitive challenges in the offspring. The continuum of ...diagnoses is referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Short palpebral fissures, a smooth philtrum, and a thin vermilion border of the upper lip comprise the three cardinal facial features of FASD. Early attempts to define a smooth philtrum and thin vermilion border of the upper lip were subjective. Astley and colleagues introduced a 5-point Likert-scaled lip/philtrum guide based on Caucasian North American subjects as an objective tool for the evaluation of the facial dysmorphology in FASD. This Caucasian guide has been incorporated into all current diagnostic schemes for FASD. However, broad international clinical experience with FASD indicates racial and ethnic differences with respect to the facial morphology. Because of the substantial number of children with FASD in South Africa among the Cape Coloured (mixed race) population in the Western Cape Province, we developed a specific lip/philtrum guide for that population. The guide incorporates a 45-degree view of the philtrum that enables an enhanced 3-dimensional evaluation of philtral height not possible with a frontal view alone. The guide has proven to be a more specific and sensitive tool for evaluation of the facial dysmorphology of FASD in the Cape Coloured population than the use of the previous North American Caucasian guide and points to the utility of racial and ethnic-specific dysmorphology tools in the evaluation of children with suspected FASD.
To assess visual function more than 10 years after an episode of optic neuritis in patients enrolled in the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial.
Longitudinal follow-up of a randomized clinical trial.
...Vision testing included measures of visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and visual field. Quality of life was assessed with the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire.
Examinations were completed on 319 patients. In most patients, visual function test results in the eyes that experienced optic neuritis at study entry (“affected eyes”) were normal or only slightly abnormal after 9.9 to 13.7 years. Visual acuity in the affected eyes was ≥20/20 in 74%, 20/25 to 20/40 in 18%, <20/40 to 20/200 in 5%, and <20/200 in 3%. On average, visual function was worse in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) than in those without MS. Recurrent optic neuritis in either eye occurred in 35% of patients. Such attacks were more frequent in patients with MS (
P < .001). The National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire scores were lower when visual acuity was abnormal and when MS was present.
Most patients retained good to excellent vision more than 10 years after an attack of optic neuritis. Recurrences were more frequent in patients with MS.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper was to identify examples of management lore currently in the organizational sciences.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors deliberated and developed a series ...of examples of management lore in the organizational sciences and surveyed management practitioners concerning their beliefs in the lore hypothesized.
Findings
– Pervasive beliefs that conflict with academic research exist in management practices. Although many of these ideas are commonly accepted as immutable facts, they may be based upon faulty logic, insufficient understanding of academic research, anecdotal evidence and an overdependence upon common sense. Buckley and Eder (1988) called these as examples of management lore. In this conceptual paper, we identify and discuss 12 examples of management lore that persist in day-to-day management practices. Topics we explore include personality, emotional intelligence, teams, compensation, goals, performance, work ethic, creativity and organizational citizenship behaviors.
Originality/value
– A number of areas in which academic research gainsays what we believe to be an immutable fact.
Using data from the Complete Nearby (\(z_{host}<0.02\)) sample of Type Ia Supernovae (CNIa0.02), we discover a linear relation between two parameters derived from the \(B-V\) color curves of Type Ia ...supernovae: the "color stretch" \(s_{BV}\) and the rising color slope \(s_0^*(B-V)\) after the peak, and this relation applies to the full range of \(s_{BV}\). The \(s_{BV}\) parameter is known to be tightly correlated with the peak luminosity, and especially for "fast decliners" (dim Type Ia supernovae), and the luminosity correlation with \(s_{BV}\) is markedly better than with the classic light-curve width parameters such as \(\Delta{m_{15}(B)}\). Thus our new linear relation can be used to infer peak luminosity from \(s_0^*\). Unlike \(s_{BV}\) (or \(\Delta{m_{15}}\)), the measurement of \(s_0^*(B-V)\) does not rely on the well-determined time of light-curve peak or color maximum, making it less demanding on the light-curve coverage than past approaches.
Tumor necrosis factor-α converting enzyme (TACE) is a membrane-anchored, Zn-dependent metalloprotease, which belongs to the ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloprotease) family. TACE functions as a ...membrane sheddase to release the ectodomain portions of many transmembrane proteins, including the precursors of TNFα, TGFα, several other cytokines, as well as the receptors for TNFα, and neuregulin (ErbB4). Mice with TACE
ΔZn/ΔZn null mutation die at birth with phenotypic changes, including failure of eyelid fusion, hair and skin defects, and abnormalities of lung development. Abnormal fetal heart development was not previously described. Herein, we report that TACE
ΔZn/ΔZn null mutant mice by late gestation exhibit markedly enlarged fetal hearts with increased myocardial trabeculation and reduced cell compaction, mimicking the pathological changes of noncompaction of ventricular myocardium. In addition, larger cardiomyocyte cell size and increased cell proliferation were observed in ventricles of TACE
ΔZn/ΔZn knockout mouse hearts. At the molecular level, reduced expression of epidermal growth factor receptor, attenuated protein cleavage of ErbB4, and changes in MAPK activation were also detected in TACE
ΔZn/ΔZn knockout heart tissues. The data suggest that TACE-mediated cell surface protein ectodomain shedding plays an essential and a novel regulatory role during cardiac development and modeling.
Background: Clostridium difficile ribotype-027, ribotype-078, and ribotype-017 are virulent and epidemic lineages. Trehalose metabolism variants in these ribotypes, combined with increased human ...trehalose consumption, have been hypothesised to have contributed to their emergence and virulence. Methods: 5232 previously whole-genome sequenced C. difficile isolates were analysed. Clinical isolates were used to investigate the impact of trehalose metabolism variants on mortality. Import data were used to estimate changes in dietary trehalose. Ribotype-027 virulence was investigated in a clinically reflective gut model. Findings: Trehalose metabolism variants found in ribotype-027 and ribotype-017 were widely distributed throughout C. difficile clade-2 and clade-4 in 24/29 (83%) and 10/11 (91%) of sequence types (STs), respectively. The four-gene trehalose metabolism cluster described in ribotype-078 was common in genomes from all five clinically-important C. difficile clades (40/167 24% STs).The four-gene cluster was variably present in 208 ribotype-015 infections (98 47%); 27/208 (13%) of these patients died within 30-days of diagnosis. Adjusting for age, sex, and infecting ST, there was no association between 30-day all-cause mortality and the four-gene cluster (OR 0.36 95%CI 0.09–1.34, p = 0.13).Synthetic trehalose imports in the USA, UK, Germany and the EU were < 1 g/capita/year during 2000–2006, and < 9 g/capita/year 2007–2012, compared with dietary trehalose from natural sources of ~100 g/capita/year.Trehalose supplementation did not increase ribotype-027 virulence in a clinically-validated gut model. Interpretation: Trehalose metabolism variants are common in C. difficile. Increases in total dietary trehalose during the early-mid 2000s C. difficile epidemic were likely relatively minimal. Alternative explanations are required to explain why ribotype-027, ribotype-078 and ribotype-017 have been successful. Funding: National Institute for Health Research. Gut model experiments only: Hayashibara Co. Ltd. Keywords: Clostridium difficile, Whole-genome sequencing, Trehalose, Epidemiology
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