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Phlebotomine sand flies are of global significance as important vectors of human disease, transmitting bacterial, viral, and protozoan pathogens, including the kinetoplastid parasites of the genus Leishmania, the causative agents of devastating diseases collectively termed leishmaniasis. More than 40 pathogenic Leishmania species are transmitted to humans by approximately 35 sand fly species in 98 countries with hundreds of millions of people at risk around the world. No approved efficacious vaccine exists for leishmaniasis and available therapeutic drugs are either toxic and/or expensive, or the parasites are becoming resistant to the more recently developed drugs. Therefore, sand fly and/or reservoir control are currently the most effective strategies to break transmission. To better understand the biology of sand flies, including the mechanisms involved in their vectorial capacity, insecticide resistance, and population structures we sequenced the genomes of two geographically widespread and important sand fly vector species: Phlebotomus papatasi, a vector of Leishmania parasites that cause cutaneous leishmaniasis, (distributed in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa) and Lutzomyia longipalpis, a vector of Leishmania parasites that cause visceral leishmaniasis (distributed across Central and South America). We categorized and curated genes involved in processes important to their roles as disease vectors, including chemosensation, blood feeding, circadian rhythm, immunity, and detoxification, as well as mobile genetic elements. We also defined gene orthology and observed micro-synteny among the genomes. Finally, we present the genetic diversity and population structure of these species in their respective geographical areas. These genomes will be a foundation on which to base future efforts to prevent vector-borne transmission of Leishmania parasites.

The aim of the work is to study the prevalence of alcohol consumption and features of alcoholic behavior among working urban women with different professional and social status. The situation with the involvement of various groups of women in alcohol consumption is analyzed on the basis of quantitative and qualitative long – term studies conducted by the team of Sector of Sociology of Deviant Behavior of ISRAS – FCTAS RAS. The article analyzes the features of alcoholic behavior – the regularity and intensity of alcohol consumption, the structure of consumed alcoholic beverages – among women leaders, specialists with higher education without subordinates, women employees and workers of various qualifications. The main motives of alcohol consumption in these groups were revealed. It is shown that, despite the recorded positive trend of recent years towards a decrease in alcoholism among women in large cities, the nature of alcohol consumption in some socio-professional groups of women has changed significantly. Business women with a high social status who drink alcohol have a heavier alcohol habits. The article considered the influence of the epidemic of coronavirus infection and the self-isolation regimeintroduced by the government of the Russian Federation in spring of 2020 on alcoholic behavior of women with different socio-professional status. It was found that according to many indicators of alcoholic behavior, business women represent a high-risk group. The factors contributing to the alcoholization of business women are identified, the role of alcohol in their life, the motives of consumption are considered. It is shown that significant factors of alcoholization of business women and women-leaders are the need to follow the business culture with its inherent practice of alcohol consumption, the desirability of a woman’s compliance with opposing social norms, as well as work stress. In an effort to adapt to the current difficult conditions, business women resort to alcohol.&nbsp

Phlebotomine sand flies are of global significance as important vectors of human disease, transmitting bacterial, viral, and protozoan pathogens, including the devastating kinetoplastid parasites of the genusLeishmania, the causative agents of diseases collectively termed leishmaniasis. More than 40 pathogenicLeishmaniaspecies are transmitted to humans by approximately 35 sand fly species in 98 countries with hundreds of millions of people at risk around the world. As no approved efficacious vaccine exists, available drugs are expensive and/or toxic, and resistance is emerging, management of sand fly populations to break transmission is currently the most effective disease control strategy. To better understand the biology of sand flies, including the mechanisms involved in their vectorial capacity, insecticide resistance, and population structures we sequenced the genomes of two of the most important sand fly species:Phlebotomus papatasi, a cutaneous leishmaniasis vector, (distributed in the Middle East and North Africa) andLutzomyia longipalpis,a visceral leishmaniasis vector (distributed across Central and South America). We categorized and curated genes involved in processes important to their roles as disease vectors, including chemosensation, blood feeding, circadian rhythm, immunity, and detoxification, as well as mobile genetic elements. We also defined gene orthology and observed micro-synteny among the genomes. Finally, we present the genetic diversity and population structure of these species in their respective geographical areas. These genomes will be a foundation on which to base future efforts to prevent vector-borne transmission ofLeishmaniaparasites.Author SummaryThe leishmaniases are a group of neglected tropical diseases caused by protist parasites from the GenusLeishmania. DifferentLeishmaniaspecies present a wide clinical profile, ranging from mild, often self-resolving cutaneous lesions that can lead to protective immunity, to severe metastatic mucosal disease, to visceral disease that is ultimately fatal.Leishmaniaparasites are transmitted by the bites of sand flies, and as no approved vaccine exists, available drugs are toxic and/or expensive and resistance is emerging, new dual control strategies to combat these diseases must be developed, combining interventions on human infections and integrated sand fly population management. Effective vector control requires a good understanding of the biology of sand flies. To this end, we sequenced and annotated the genomes of two sand fly species that are important leishmaniasis vectors from the Old and New Worlds. These genomes allow us to better understand, at the genetic level, processes important in the vector biology of these species, such as finding hosts, blood-feeding, immunity, and detoxification. These genomic resources highlight the driving forces of evolution of two majorLeishmaniavectors and provide foundations for future research on how to better prevent leishmaniasis by control of the sand fly vectors.

ITER will operate with a tungsten divertor, a material featuring surface morphology changes when exposed to helium plasmas, in particular the formation of the so called tungsten fuzz under specific conditions. Investigating interactions between tungsten plasma facing components and helium plasmas in a tokamak environment is therefore a key point to consolidate predictions for the ITER divertor performance and lifetime. To this end, a dedicated helium campaign was performed in the full tungsten WEST tokamak, cumulating ∼2000 s of repetitive L mode discharges. It is shown that conditions for tungsten fuzz formation, as derived from linear devices experiments (incident helium energy E inc > 20 eV, helium fluence >1024 He/m2, surface temperature T surf > 700 °C), were met in the outer strike point (OSP) area of the inertially cooled tungsten divertor elements of WEST. Preliminary inspection of the components after the campaign did not show visible signs of surface modification, but points to significant net erosion in the OSP area. An extensive post mortem analysis is now ongoing to confirm these first indications. These results underline that the complex balance between erosion/redeposition (in particular linked to impurities) and tungsten fuzz formation needs to be taken into account in tokamak conditions.

The aim of the work is to consider the features of alcoholic behavior of a modern woman. The situation with the involvement of various groups of women in alcohol consumption is analyzed on the basis of quantitative and qualitative long – term studies conducted by the team of Sector of Sociology of Deviant Behavior of ISRAS – FCTAS RAS at the end of the 20th century, at the turn of the century – in the “zero” years and in modern times. The results of comparative studies conducted by the authors, allowed us to reveal and identify the mechanism of cause-and-effect relationships that led to new models of women’s alcohol behavior. These new patterns of alcohol behavior should be considered as one of the forms of strategic adaptation to changing living conditions. The revealed patterns indicate a significant influence of gender and age on the frequency, intensity and type of alcohol consumption. These new patterns of alcohol behavior represent a form of strategic adaptation to changed living conditions. In this sense, alcohol acts as a universal and most accessible means, satisfying, on the one hand, the need for state of intoxication, for changing one’s state of consciousness, fixed in modern society, and on the other hand, it is a fashionable and exemplary standard of behavior, a socio-cultural norm or ritual. This attitude allows and justifies the “quiet” alcoholization of women managers, housewives, drunkenness in the workplace, holidays in the team, “relaxation” on the way home, including driving, or in the evening at home, after work. In other words, alcohol in moderate doses takes its place in labor, business, leisure, and communication activities of modern women.

This work is a continuation of the article devoted to the spread of drug use among the working population and in various professional groups. The second part of the article, based on the materials of quantitative and qualitative studies conducted by the sector of sociology of deviant behavior (ISRAS – FCTAS RAS), as well as reviews of different studies, discusses the features of substance use in the Armed forces of the Russian Federation. The main latency factors of drug use were identified. It is noted that the structure of drug use among military almost completely reflects the structure of their distribution among population in in the country. It is shown that, despite the steadily decreasing number of people exempted from military service due to drug use and the military involved in drug consumption, the lack of detection of drug users in Russian army remains.

The article is devoted to the study of the spread of drug use among the working population. On the basis of materials of quantitative and qualitative research of the deviant behavior sector of sociology from the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and also reviews of domestic and foreign research, the situation with involvement of workers of various professional groups in drug addiction is analyzed. In the first part of the article, the features of the use of psychoactive substances among workers of hazardous industry-related enterprises, the construction industry, medical workers and lawyers are considered, and the main risk factors influencing the use of psychoactive substances are revealed. It is demonstrated that among the workers of hazardous industry-related enterprises and builders, the introduction to drug use is the chosen adaptation strategy of overcoming difficulties and hard working conditions. The main risk factors for health care providers are the availability of psychoactive substances and a high level of readiness to experiment with them. Among the professional group of lawyers, a high level of stigmatization of substance use disorders has been identified, which significantly underestimates the actual rates of consumption.

The circadian clock of mosquitoes can influence physiological and behavioral processes linked to disease transmission. Currently, we know how clock genes are expressed in the head of the

En esta memoria se presenta un estudio experimental de un sistema granular, con el que se investiga el fenómeno de desatasco inducido por vibraciones de baja intensidad: un silo de salida angosta que puede ser vibrado globalmente. Nuestro silo es un contenedor rectangular (en el que los granos forman una monocapa vertical), con una abertura central en su base, que apenas supera en pocas unidades al diámetro de las partículas. Un silo con estas características es propenso a sufrir atascos durante la descarga, por la formación de arcos que obstruyen la salida e interrumpen el flujo. Para dilucidar la sensibilidad de estos arcos ante una vibración vertical constante (por debajo del límite de fluidización), se analizó la resistencia y morfología de los arcos. La estabilidad de los arcos se determina mediante el análisis de supervivencia de los tiempos de ruptura. La morfología se caracteriza en términos de dos variables, relacionadas con el ángulo entre esferas consecutivas. En particular, se encontró que la desviación estándar de estos ángulos es una variable escalar que captura la evolución morfológica del arco. El análisis de las configuraciones inicial y final confirma que los arcos más irregulares tienden a ser más inestables. Sin embargo, el estado inicial no dictamina la resistencia y evolución de un arco particular. El arco sigue un movimiento irregular, tipo stick-slip, a lo largo del tiempo: deformaciones plásticas repentinas y aperiódicas, intercaladas por periodos de inactividad. De esta manera, el arco explora distintas estructuras, hasta que supera un umbral de estabilidad (que no depende de la intensidad de vibración) y se produce la ruptura. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que la dinámica observada es la misma tanto para los arcos que se rompen como para aquellos que no y que las configuraciones se exploran de forma casual. La evolución observada puede ser racionalizada en términos de una descripción estocástica, y modelada como un caminante aleatorio de tiempo continuo. Estudiando la difusividad de 𝜎, se comprueba la relajación lenta y el envejecimiento inherente al fenómeno de desatasco. Por último, se demuestra la ruptura de ergodicidad en la dinámica, la cual ocurre de igual forma tanto para los arcos se rompen como para aquellos que resisten la vibración.

We present a tool that provides automated feedback to students studying Spanish writing. The feedback is given for four categories: topic development, coherence, writing conventions, and essay organization. The tool is made freely available via a Google Docs add-on. A small user study with third-level students in Mexico shows that students found the tool generally helpful and that most of them plan to continue using it as they work to improve their writing skills.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:47:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-01-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) In canine visceral leishmaniasis, coinfections can aggravate the disease. Our aim was to investigate Brucella canis in dogs infected with Leishmania infantum. One hundred and six L. infantum-seropositive dogs were submitted to serology for B. canis, PCR for B. canis and L. infantum, and histopathological analysis of the genital tract. Anti-B. canis antibodies were detected in seven dogs whose clinical signs, L. infantum load and histological alterations were similar to those of seronegative animals. The circulation of anti-B. canis antibodies was low but demonstrates the exposure of dogs to this bacterium in a visceral leishmaniasis-endemic area. Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Av. Brasil, 4365 Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho Departamento de Higiene Veterinária e Saúde Pública, Rua Professor Doutor Walter Mauricio Correa, s/n Instituto de Pesquisas Veterinárias Desidério Finamor Laboratório de Brucelose, Estrada Municipal do Conde, 6000 Instituto Carlos Chagas Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rua Professor Algacyr Munhoz Mader, 3775 Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Av. Brasil, 4365 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Entomologia Molecular, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho Departamento de Higiene Veterinária e Saúde Pública, Rua Professor Doutor Walter Mauricio Correa, s/n FAPERJ: -26/201. 032/2021 FAPERJ: -26/202.561/2017 CAPES: 001 FAPERJ: E-26/203.069/2016

Improving knowledge about HIV/AIDS among young people is crucial for preventing new infections. The aim of the study was to investigate knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding HIV infection among students attending university courses related to the healthcare professions, in order to better target future preventive and informative HIV campaigns tailored for young people.A knowledge, attitude and practices study was conducted among university students attending the following university courses in Bari (Southern Italy): Medicine and Surgery (MS), Dentistry and Dental Prostheses, Health Assistance, Motor Activities and Sports Sciences, Sciences and Technology of Herbal and Health Products, Nursing, Biomedical Laboratory Techniques, and Dietetics.Students completed a self-administered questionnaire designed to assess their knowledge/attitudes re/ HIV and their own sexual practices. The general part of the questionnaire requested information about age, gender, nationality, religion and marital status. The second part included questions asking about knowledge, attitude and practices with respect to HIV, which required true/false answers or graduated answers (reported as agree, quite agree, quite disagree, and disagree).Four hundred students were invited to fill in the questionnaire. The response rate was 91.2% (n=365). Almost all students were aware that HIV is transmitted through sexual intercourse and blood, but only 34% knew that breastfeeding is a route of transmission. Of the respondents, 86.8% referred to previous sexual intercourse (25.8% reported using a condom in all cases of sexual intercourse, 43.5% in most cases, 18.6% rarely and 12.1 never). Sexual intercourse with casual partners was reported by 37.5% of these students and 63.9% of them did not always use a condom.The results of the study show that knowledge about some aspects of HIV is insufficient even though the students participating in the present study are students attending university courses related to the healthcare professions. Moreover, high-risk behaviors as the lack of the use of condom during sexual intercourse with casual partners are also common among interviewed students. Programs aimed at providing information that can prevent/reduce transmission of HIV in young people and new strategies to improve knowledge should be stressed as a public health priority.

The article is devoted to the consideration of risky sexual behavior of adolescents and young people. The first part of the article presents an overview of statistical data from Rosstat and the Ministry of Health on the problem of the incidence of adolescents with sexually transmitted infections and HIV. It has been shown that despite a noticeable decrease in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections among children and adolescents in recent years, this age population is a vulnerable risk group. The main trend – against the general decrease in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections, an increase in the incidence of viral sexual infections and their hidden forms is observed. It has been revealed that the age structure among newly diagnosed HIV patients has changed: over the past two decades, there has been a decrease in the incidence of HIV infection among adolescents, and the epidemic is migrating to older age groups. Based on a review of various studies, as well as the results of our own surveys of high school students and college students, the peculiarities of adolescent sexual activity were considered: the prevalence of early sexual intercourse, the use of contraception, awareness of sexual hygiene and sexually transmitted infections. It was revealed that the rate of decline in the average age of sexual debut that has lasted over the last decades has slowed down, but the proportion of sexually active minors is quite large, while many adolescents do not use means of protection, having certain prejudices about their use, and awareness of infections is not satisfactory.

The consequences of tungsten (W) melting on divertor lifetime and plasma operation are high priority issues for ITER. Sustained and controlled W-melting experiment has been achieved for the first time in WEST on a poloidal sharp leading edge of an actively cooled ITER-like plasma facing unit (PFU). A series of dedicated high power steady state plasma discharges were performed to reach the melting point of tungsten. The leading edge was exposed to a parallel heat flux of about 100 MW.m−2 for up to 5 s providing a melt phase of about 2 s without noticeable impact of melting on plasma operation (radiated power and tungsten impurity content remained stable at constant input power) and no melt ejection were observed. The surface temperature of the MB was monitored by a high spatial resolution (0.1 mm/pixel) infrared camera viewing the melt zone from the top of the machine. The melting discharge was repeated three times resulting in about 6 s accumulated melting duration leading to material displacement from three similar pools. Cumulated on the overall sustained melting periods, this leads to excavation depth of about 230 μm followed by a re-solidified tungsten bump of 200 μm in the JxB direction.

BACKGROUND Defective complement inhibition can lead to the formation of membrane attack complexes (MAC; C5b-9) on the plasma membranes of vascular endothelial cells, resulting in injury that drives the progression of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA), a key pathology in kidney disease. OBJECTIVE/METHODS We examined the response of human endothelial cells to complement-mediated damage using blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOECs) derived from healthy donors. BOECs were sensitized to complement factors present in normal human serum to induce the formation of C5b-9 on their plasma membranes. RESULTS This triggered an expected abrupt rise in intracellular Ca2+ reflecting membrane leakage. Remarkably, while intracellular Ca2+ remained elevated, membrane leakage ceased within 30 minutes, and cells did not show significant death. Extensive mobilization of Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs) was observed along with secretion of von Willebrand factor (VWF). The potential role of WPBs and VWF in mitigating complement-mediated damage was examined by comparing the effects of C5b-9 on BOECs derived from von Willebrand disease (VWD) patients expressing reduced amounts of VWF, lacking expression of functional VWF, or lacking both VWF and WPBs. BOECs lacking WPBs were not resistant to complement-mediated damage, but became resistant when transfected to express VWF (and thus WPBs). CONCLUSION We conclude that BOECs exposed to C5b-9 attack respond by mobilizing WPBs, which mitigate and repair damage by fusing with the plasma membrane. We propose that a similar cell-specific response may protect the vascular endothelium from complement-mediated damage in vivo.

To analyse the clinical findings, complementary examinations and prognosis of patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) treated in our institution, comparing populations with and without associated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).A retrospective study of the medical records of patients with probable or definite PML was carried out. Clinical variables, complementary studies (cerebrospinal fluid, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain) and prognostic variables were analysed. Non-parametric statistical tests were used to compare HIV-positive and HIV non-positive populations.Fourteen patients with definite and one probable diagnosis of PML were included. Nine patients had PML associated with HIV; five had other immunosuppressive conditions (two, chronic lymphatic leukaemia; one, multiple sclerosis; one, neuromyelitis optica; and one, neurosarcoidosis); and one, no obvious immunosuppressive condition. The population with HIV presented heterogeneous dirty-appearing white matter lesions more frequently (77.7% versus 16.67%; p = 0.0247) in the cerebral MRI. No other significant differences were identified in the remaining variables analysed.HIV/AIDS is the pathology most frequently associated with PML. With the use of immunomodulator drugs its appearance is reported in a variety of other diseases. Heterogeneous dirty-appearing white matter lesions were significantly more common in HIV patients.Espectro clinico de la leucoencefalopatia multifocal progresiva: diferencias y similitudes en pacientes con y sin virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana.Objetivo. Analizar los hallazgos clinicos, examenes complementarios y pronostico de los pacientes con leucoencefalopatia multifocal progresiva (LMP) atendidos en nuestra institucion, comparando las poblaciones con y sin virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH) asociado. Pacientes y metodos. Estudio retrospectivo de historias clinicas de pacientes con LMP probable o definitiva. Se analizaron variables clinicas, estudios complementarios (liquido cefalorraquideo, resonancia magnetica cerebral) y variables pronosticas. Mediante pruebas estadisticas no parametricas se realizo la comparacion entre las poblaciones con y sin VIH. Resultados. Se incluyo a 14 pacientes con diagnostico de LMP definitiva y uno probable. Nueve pacientes presentaron LMP asociada a VIH; cinco, otras condiciones de inmunoafectacion (dos, leucemia linfatica cronica; uno, esclerosis multiple; uno, neuromielitis optica; y uno, neurosarcoidosis); y uno, sin condicion inmunosupresora evidente. La poblacion con VIH presento con mayor frecuencia lesiones de la sustancia blanca heterogeneas de aspecto «sucio» (77,7% frente a 16,67%; p = 0,0247) en la resonancia magnetica cerebral. No se identificaron otras diferencias significativas en las restantes variables analizadas. Conclusion. El VIH/sida es la patologia mas frecuente asociada a LMP. Con el uso de farmacos inmunomoduladores se describe su aparicion en una variedad de otras enfermedades. Las lesiones de la sustancia blanca heterogeneas de aspecto «sucio» fueron significativamente mas frecuentes en pacientes con VIH.

We report an experiment on the unclogging dynamics in a two-dimensional silo submitted to a sustained gentle vibration. We find that arches present a jerking motion where rearrangements in the positions of their beads are interspersed with quiescent periods. This behavior occurs for both arches that break down and those that withstand the external perturbation: Arches evolve until they either collapse or get trapped in a stable configuration. This evolution is described in terms of a scalar variable characterizing the arch shape that can be modeled as a continuous-time random walk. By studying the diffusivity of this variable, we show that the unclogging is a weakly nonergodic process. Remarkably, arches that do not collapse explore different configurations before settling in one of them and break ergodicity much in the same way than arches that break down.

This study aims to model the discourse structure of spontaneous spoken responses within the context of an assessment of English speaking proficiency for non-native speakers. Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) has been commonly used in the analysis of discourse organization of written texts; however, limited research has been conducted to date on RST annotation and parsing of spoken language, in particular, non-native spontaneous speech. Due to the fact that the measurement of discourse coherence is typically a key metric in human scoring rubrics for assessments of spoken language, we conducted research to obtain RST annotations on non-native spoken responses from a standardized assessment of academic English proficiency. Subsequently, automatic parsers were trained on these annotations to process non-native spontaneous speech. Finally, a set of features were extracted from automatically generated RST trees to evaluate the discourse structure of non-native spontaneous speech, which were then employed to further improve the validity of an automated speech scoring system.

This study aims to build an automatic system for the detection of plagiarized spoken responses in the context of an assessment of English speaking proficiency for non-native speakers. Classification models were trained to distinguish between plagiarized and non-plagiarized responses with two different types of features: text-to-text content similarity measures, which are commonly used in the task of plagiarism detection for written documents, and speaking proficiency measures, which were specifically designed for spontaneous speech and extracted using an automated speech scoring system. The experiments were first conducted on a large data set drawn from an operational English proficiency assessment across multiple years, and the best classifier on this heavily imbalanced data set resulted in an F1-score of 0.761 on the plagiarized class. This system was then validated on operational responses collected from a single administration of the assessment and achieved a recall of 0.897. The results indicate that the proposed system can potentially be used to improve the validity of both human and automated assessment of non-native spoken English.

Within the complex aggregation process of Aβ-peptides into fibrils, oligomeric species, play a central role and reveal fundamental properties of the underlying mechanism of aggregation. In particular, low molecular weight aggregates have attracted increasing interest because of their role in cytotoxicity and neuronal apoptosis, typical of aggregation related diseases. One of the main techniques used to characterize such early stages of aggregation is fluorescence spectroscopy. To this end, Aβ-peptide chains are functionalized with fluorescent tags, often covalently bound to the disordered N-terminus region of the peptide, with the assumption that functionalization and presence of the fluorophore will not modify the process of self-assembly nor the final fibrillar structure. Up to date, experimental findings reveal size distributions of thermodynamically stable oligomers ranging from very narrow distributions of dimers to octamers, to very broad distributions up to 50-mers. In the present investigation we systematically study the effects of five of the most commonly used fluorophores on the aggregation of Aβ(1-40)-peptides. Time-resolved and single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy have been chosen to monitor the oligomer populations at different fibrillation times, TEM, AFM and X-ray diffraction to investigate the structure of mature fibrils. While the structures of the mature fibrils were only slightly affected by the fluorescent tags, the sizes of the detected oligomeric species varied significantly depending on the chosen fluorophore. In particular, we relate the presence of high molecular weight oligomers (as found for the fluorophores HiLyte 647, Atto 647N and Atto 655) to net-attractive, hydrophobic fluorophore-peptide interactions, which are weak in the case of HiLyte 488, and Atto 488. The latter form low molecular weight oligomers only. Our findings reveal the potentially high impact of the properties of fluorophores on transient aggregates which needs to be included in the interpretation of experimental data of oligomers of fluorescently labeled peptides.

EAST Articulated Inspection Arm (AIA) robot is being mutually developed by ASIPP and CEA-IRFM for remote handling maintenance. It will permit remote visual inspection and to pick up small fragments inside the EAST tokamak vacuum vessel during experiments. Considering storage and support for EAST AIA, a sealed cask system has been designed and manufactured, which can be connected to EAST device through a ϕ250 mm connection port with two flashboard valves. The system consists of a 10 m long vacuum vessel with a linear guide rail for storage, guiding and conditioning, two mobile wagons for support and some auxiliary systems for keeping suitable work conditions and measurement. Besides, a stainless steel shuttle has been developed to support AIA robot and assemble with the linear guide. It can push the robot into tokamak vessel and back to the storage cask with a gear-rack driving mechanism. This paper mainly presents the overall description of the system design and some obtained implementation progress.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The increasing incidence of celiac disease (CD) suggests that common infections before the onset of autoimmune diseases could be an important factor in switching the immune response. We aimed to explore the relationship between early clinical events and the development of CD in genetically predisposed infants. METHODS: In this study, 373 newborns from families with at least 1 relative with CD were recruited, and human leukocyte antigen DQ2- or DQ8-positive infants were followed up with clinical and serological evaluations. Cross tabulation and odds ratios were used to explore the risk associated with single variables, and logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the variables that contributed to the risk of developing CD. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to determine which variables could distinguish case patients from controls before diagnosis. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of CD in this cohort was 6% at 3 years and 13.5% at 5 years of age, and l34 children (14%) developed CD before the sixth year of life. An analysis of adverse events showed a higher frequency of respiratory tract infections among CD patients during the first 24 months of life. In a stepwise discriminant analysis, which included sex and human leukocyte antigen risk class, only respiratory infections in the second and first years of life significantly contributed to discrimination of case patients versus controls. CONCLUSIONS: A multivariate model of discriminant analysis showed that the frequency of respiratory infections in the first 2 years of life could distinguish children who developed CD from those who did not.

The availability of the Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) Discourse Treebank has spurred substantial research into discourse analysis of written texts; however, limited research has been conducted to date on RST annotation and parsing of spoken language, in particular, non-native spontaneous speech. Considering that the measurement of discourse coherence is typically a key metric in human scoring rubrics for assessments of spoken language, we initiated a research effort to obtain RST annotations of a large number of non-native spoken responses from a standardized assessment of academic English proficiency. The resulting inter-annotator kappa agreements on the three different levels of Span, Nuclearity, and Relation are 0.848, 0.766, and 0.653, respectively. Furthermore, a set of features was explored to evaluate the discourse structure of non-native spontaneous speech based on these annotations; the highest performing feature resulted in a correlation of 0.612 with scores of discourse coherence provided by expert human raters.