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Objectives: To identify the prevalence and factors associated with psychiatric disorders in Chinese cervical cancer survivors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2011 to April 2012 at the specialist gynaecology outpatient clinic at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong. All cervical cancer patients who had completed treatment were consecutively recruited. They were interviewed using the Chinese-Bilingual Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, Patient Research version. Socio-demographic data and clinical information were collected from the patients and their hospital records were reviewed. Results: A total of 113 patients were recruited into the study. The point prevalence of psychiatric disorders as a group in cervical cancer survivors was 37%. The point prevalence of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia were 31%, 16%, and 2%, respectively. Major depressive disorder was the most common mood disorder and generalised anxiety disorder the most common anxiety disorder. Younger age, a history of psychiatric illness, fatigue, menopausal symptoms, and pain were independent predictors of current psychiatric disorders. Conclusion: Psychiatric disorders, predominantly depressive and anxiety disorders, are common in Chinese cervical cancer survivors. Identification of independent predictors can help gynaecologists detect these disorders earlier and arrange appropriate interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Changes in the roles of the contemporary pharmacist has seen a decline in the number and variety of extemporaneously compounded dosage forms. Pharmacy curricula reflect this change with a reduction in the emphasis on extemporaneous compounding practice. Aim: To elicit information about extemporaneously compounded dosage forms and perceptions of compounding practice from pharmacists and pharmacy students. Method: Self-administered surveys were mailed to 1063 pharmacists and offered online to 896 pharmacy undergraduates across the 4 years of a Bachelor of Pharmacy program in Queensland. Results: 382 (36%) pharmacists and 455 (51%) students completed the survey. Most pharmacists (96%) reported compounding a product in the 12 months prior to the survey, particularly semi-solids (89%) and liquids (64%) for external use. Most pharmacies (> 96%) owned basic compounding equipment, such as a slab and spatula, mortar and pestle, and cylindrical/conical measures. Half of the pharmacies used mechanical rather than electronic balances. Students expressed greater confidence in their ability to use basic compounding equipment and to perform basic compounding tasks as they progressed through the 4-year degree course. Pharmacists' views on students' ability to compound basic products at the end of their degree were generally similar to the proportion of final-year students who reported they could confidently complete the task. Conclusion: Despite a decline in extemporaneously compounded products in community pharmacy, pharmacy graduates need to be competent in compounding techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structured-light illumination (SLI) means projecting a series of structured or striped patterns from a projector onto an object and then using a camera, placed at an angle from the projector, to record the target’s 3-D shape. For multiplexing these structured patterns in time, traditional SLI systems require the target object to remain still during the scanning process. Thus, the technique of composite-pattern design was introduced as a means of combining multiple SLI patterns, using principles of frequency modulation, into a single pattern that can be continuously projected and from which 3-D surface can be reconstructed from a single image, thereby enabling the recording of 3-D video. But the associated process of modulation and demodulation is limited by the spatial bandwidth of the projector-camera pair, which introduces distortion near surface or albedo discontinuities. Therefore, this paper introduces a postprocessing step to refine the reconstructed depth surface. Simulated experiments show an 78% reduction in depth error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative co-stimulatory signaling mediated via cell surface programmed death (PD)-1 expression modulates T and B cell activation and is involved in maintaining peripheral tolerance. In this study, we examined the effects of a fully human PD-1-abrogating antibody on the in vitro expansion and function of human vaccine-induced CD8+ T cells (CTLs) specific for the melanoma-associated antigens glycoprotein 100 (gp100) and melanoma antigen recognized by T cells (MART)-1. PD-1 blockade during peptide stimulation augmented the absolute numbers of CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and gp100/MART-1 MHC:peptide tetramer+ CTLs. This correlated with increased frequencies of IFN-γ-secreting antigen-specific cells and augmented lysis of gp100+/MART-1+ melanoma targets. PD-1 blockade also increased the fraction of antigen-specific CTLs that recognized melanoma targets by degranulation, suggesting increased recognition efficiency for cognate peptide. The increased frequencies and absolute numbers of antigen-specific CTLs by PD-1 blockade resulted from augmented proliferation, not decreased apoptosis. Kinetic analysis of cytokine secretion demonstrated that PD-1 blockade increased both type-1 and type-2 cytokine accumulation in culture without any apparent skewing of the cytokine repertoire. These findings have implications for developing new cancer immunotherapy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epoxidation of methyl (9Z, 11E)-octadecadienoate (1) with various epoxidizing agents viz. m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid, dimethyl dioxirane, methyltrioxorhenium/hydrogen peroxide, potassium peroxomonosulfate (Oxone, 2KHSO5 · KHSO4 · K2SO4)/tetrahydrothiopyran-4-one, and Novozyme 435/hydrogen peroxide is described. The reactions furnished the corresponding mono-epoxy [methyl (11, 12E)-epoxy-(9Z)-octadecenoate (2) and methyl (9, 10Z)-epoxy-(11E)-octadecenoate (3)] and a mixture of diastereomers of syn- and anti-diepoxy-stearate [methyl (9, 10Z;11, 12E)-diepoxystearate (4a-4d)], which were identified by a combination of spectroscopic and spectrometric analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human visual system (HVS) modeling has become a critical component in the design of digital halftoning algorithms. Methods that exploit the characteristics of the HVS include the direct binary search (DBS) and optimized tone-dependent halftoning approaches. The spatial sensitivity of the HVS is low-pass in nature, reflecting the physiological characteristics of the eye. Several HVS models have been proposed in the literature, among them, the broadly used Na¨sa¨nen’s exponential model, which was later shown to be constrained in shape. Richer models are needed to attain better halftone attributes and to control the appearance of undesired patterns. As an alternative, models based on the mixture of bivariate Gaussian density functions have been proposed. The mathematical characteristics of the HVS model thus play a key role in the synthesis of model-based halftoning. In this work, alpha stable functions, an elegant class of functions richer than mixed Gaussians, are exploited to design HVS models to be used in two different contexts: monochrome halftoning over rectangular and hexagonal sampling grids. In the two scenarios, alpha stable models prove to be more efficient than Gaussian mixtures, as they use less parameters to characterize the tails and bandwidth of the model. It is shown that a decrease in the model’s bandwidth leads to homogeneous halftone patterns, and conversely, models with heavier tails yield smoother textures. These characteristics, added to their simplicity, make alpha stable models a powerful tool for HVS characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We postulate that patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) having recurrent infections are more likely to have poorer disease outcome. The aim of this study is to describe the pattern of infections and disease damage that occurred in a cohort of patients with juvenile-onset SLE, and to find out whether cumulative disease damage was associated with recurrent infections in these patients. Method. We retrospectively reviewed (1988–2004) the clinical characteristics, infective complications, and disease damage as measured by the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology (SLICC/ACR) Damage Index (SDI) in 47 juvenile-onset SLE patients. Potential risk factors for disease damage were evaluated by univariate analysis and logistic regression. The correlation between number of major infections and disease damage was determined. Results. Thirty-two (68.1%) patients had lupus nephropathy and 16 patients (34%) had neuropsychiatric lupus. Sixty-one episodes of major infections, defined as infections requiring more than 1 week of antimicrobial agents, occurred in 27 patients (57.4%), and 18 patients (31.4%) had recurrent major infections (≥ 2 episodes). Organ damage (SDI ≥ 1) was documented in 21 subjects (44.7%). By logistic regression, occurrence of major infections (P P Conclusion. Infections and disease damage are common co-morbidities in juvenile-onset SLE. Recurrent infections could predict poorer disease outcome and associated organ damage in SLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cysteine proteases falcipain-2 and falcipain-3 are hemoglobinases and potential targets for chemotherapy directed against Plasmodium falciparum, the most important human malaria parasite. Most in vivo evaluations of candidate antimalarials are conducted in murine malaria models, and falcipain homologs from rodent malaria parasites differ importantly from falcipain-2 and falcipain-3. We expressed berghepain-2, the single homolog of falcipain-2 and falcipain-3 of the rodent parasite P. berghei, in Escherichia coli, and characterized the refolded active enzyme. Berghepain-2 was biochemically very similar to the previously characterized rodent plasmodial protease vinckepain-2, but differed from falcipain-2 and falcipain-3 in its fine substrate and inhibitor specificity. We then used homology modeling and evolutionary trace analysis to predict key amino acids that mediate functional differences between falcipain-2 and berghepain-2. Thirteen amino acids were sequentially altered to replace berghepain-2 residues with those in falcipain-2. Mutant enzymes varied in activity and sensitivity to inhibitors. A berghepain-2 mutant with eight substitutions retained good activity and demonstrated fine substrate and inhibitor sensitivity more similar to that of falcipain-2 than berghepain-2. These results suggest that, to facilitate drug discovery, we can produce mutant animal model malaria parasites with biochemical properties more like those of the key drug target, P. falciparum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]