Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) may influence malaria transmission but the early changes in parasite populations have not been frequently evaluated. The changes in Plasmodium falciparum asexual and sexual populations in the first 16 h following treatment with artemether-lumefantrine (AL) or artesunate-amodiaquine (AA) were evaluated in 443 children with acute infections. The effe...

Maize stalk rot is a major fungal disease worldwide, and is difficult to control by chemical methods. Therefore, in maize breeding, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) conferring resistance are important for controlling the disease. Next-generation sequencing technologies are considered a rapid and efficient method to establish the association of agronomic traits with molecular markers or candidate ...

Digital personal lifelogs (PLs) enable many artifacts from a person’s life to be automatically stored in a digital archive. These data sets can contain a wealth of potentially valuable information describing events from an individual’s life. A key challenge for lifelog technologies is how to develop scenarios and applications which enable people to interact with these vast heterogeneous data so...

BACKGROUND Behavioral problems may affect individuals with dementia, increasing the cost and burden of care. Pet therapy has been known to be emotionally beneficial for many years. Robotic pets have been shown to have similar positive effects without the negative aspects of traditional pets. Robotic pet therapy offers an alternative to traditional pet therapy. OBJECTIVE The study rigorously a...

BACKGROUND Ireland is at 53°N, and its population risk of vitamin D deficiency is high. Previous Irish studies suggested a significant seasonality of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and a beneficial effect of supplementation in raising 25(OH)D levels. However, in Irish older people, little is known about the magnitude of the supplementation effect and whether supplementation affects 25(OH)D...

Current interest in the influence exerted by the brain stem reticular formation upon somatomotor and autonomic functions has resulted in the publication of numerous papers.As far as autonomic functions are concerned, however,only a few attempts have been made to investigate the mechanism whereby the observed actions of this integrative center are effected. Recently,it has been demonstrated by W...

Physiological measures were recorded during repeated psychophysiological detection of deception (PDD) tests to determine if reaction levels change with test repetition. Two groups of 22 healthy male subjects completed six peak of tension PDD tests on each of two test days. A minimum between test day interval of six days was maintained. The treatment group was programmed to respond deceptively t...

In Alphaproteobacteria, the general stress response (GSR) is controlled by a conserved partner switch composed of the sigma factor σ(EcfG), its anti-sigma factor NepR and the anti-sigma factor antagonist PhyR. Many species possess paralogues of one or several components of the system, but their roles remain largely elusive. Among Alphaproteobacteria that have been genome-sequenced so far, the g...

The blue-light photoreceptor YtvA activates the general stress response (GSR) of Bacillus subtilis by activating a large protein complex (the stressosome). We have constructed a model for the YtvA's photocycle, and derived an equation for the fraction of YtvA in the light-induced signaling state at a given light intensity. The model was verified experimentally in vitro on wild type YtvA and on ...

Current methods of gunshot residue (GSR) analysis concentrate on identification of the inorganic components of ammunition primer. Single particles with morphology indicative of formation in a high heat environment and containing the elements lead, barium, and antimony are considered characteristic of GSR. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive xray spectrometry (SEM-EDS) is the wid...