Iron deficiency anemia following prenatal nutrition interventions.

PURPOSE: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) during pregnancy and infancy is still common in developed countries, especially in low-income groups. We examined the prevalence of anemia and IDA in healthy low-income pregnant women participating in the Early Childhood Initiatives (ECI) program, and in their infants when they reached six months of age. METHODS: Pregnant women were recruited by nutritionists. In mothers, hemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular volume, and serum ferritin (SF) were measured at 36 +/- 2 weeks of gestation. In infants, Hb, mean corpuscular volume, SF, serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), and transferrin saturation (TS) were measured at six months of age. Thirty-one mother-infant pairs participated. RESULTS: Among the 31 pregnant women participating in the ECI program, six (19.4%) were anemic (Hb <110 g/L) and five (16.1%) suffered from IDA (Hb <110 g/L and SF <10 microg/L). Among infants, seven of 23 (30.4%) were anemic (Hb <110 g/L) and five of 23 (21.7%) suffered from IDA (Hb <110 g/L plus two of the following: TIBC >60 micromol/L, SF <10 microg/L, serum iron <5.3 micromol/L, TS < or = 15%). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of anemia in this group of low-income pregnant women is comparable to that in privileged women. The prevalence of IDA in infants is comparable to that observed in other high-risk groups. Effective strategies are needed to prevent IDA in vulnerable groups.     

Glyconanoparticle-DNA interactions: an atomic force microscopy study.

Glyconanoparticles which present carbohydrate and amino groups motifs at their surface were produced. These particles were highly stable and soluble in aqueous solutions. The presence of the carbohydrate groups also allowed the inclusion of more strongly binding groups, without affecting solubility. The binding of a model DNA, plasmid by these nanoparticles was studied by atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and gel electrophoresis. Significant differences between the nanoparticles based on their affinities for the DNA were found, with implications for their potential use as nonviral gene delivery agents.     

Test of the deterministic conjecture for the instantaneous time phase fluctuations of an oscillator

The fluctuations observed by recording the picosecond pulses of a mode-locked laser with a synchroscan streak camera are due to the laser jitter and to the variations of the zero crossing of the synchronization. By means of a simple model, it is shown that the dispersions measured when the synchronization is generated from the mode-locker oscillator reflect the instantaneous time phase fluctuations of this oscillator. From the study of the experimental recordings with methods of time series analysis it results that the phase noise of the electronic oscillator is consistent with an underlying low-dimensional strange attractor.     

Does a regional accent perturb speech processing?

The processing costs involved in regional accent normalization were evaluated by measuring differences in lexical decision latencies for targets placed at the end of sentences with different French regional accents. Over a series of 6 experiments, the authors examined the time course of comprehension disruption by manipulating the duration and presentation conditions of accented speech. Taken together, the findings of these experiments indicate that regional accent normalization involves a short-term adjustment mechanism that develops as a certain amount of accented signal is available, resulting in a temporary perturbation in speech processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motion synthesis and editing for the generation of new sign language content

Machine Translation - Existing work on the animation of signing avatars often relies on pure procedural techniques or on the playback of Motion Capture (MoCap) data. While the first solution...     

Decomposition of solid explosives by laser irradiation: A mass spectrometric study

Experimental investigations have been made in which single crystals of solid explosives such as cyclotrimethylene trinitramine, RDX, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, PETN, AgN₃ and Pb(N₃)₂, were irradiated with a focused laser beam of wavelength 266 nm and duration 5 nsec in an ultra high vacuum system housing a fast and sensitive time-of-flight mass spectrometer. From the mass spectra (both +ve and -ve ions) of the chemical species obtained, possible decomposition schemes of RDX and PETN have been proposed. For silver and lead azides, the laser irradiation did not cause explosions if the power density was sufficiently low, but micrometre size craters were formed. In the mass spectra of AgN₃ products N₃ ^– and silver cluster ions, Ag _n ⁺, have been found for the first time. It has been suggested that such investigations may possibly throw some light on our understanding of the reactions taking place in a deflagration/detonation wave.     

Hemi- and Homozygous Loss-of-Function Mutations in DSG2 (Desmoglein-2) Cause Recessive Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy with an Early Onset

About 50% of patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) carry a pathogenic or likely pathogenic mutation in the desmosomal genes. However, there is a significant number of patients without positive familial anamnesis. Therefore, the molecular reasons for ACM in these patients are frequently unknown and a genetic contribution might be underestimated. Here, we used a next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach and in addition single nucleotide polymor-phism (SNP) arrays for the genetic analysis of two independent index patients without familial medical history. Of note, this genetic strategy revealed a homozygous splice site mutation (DSG2–c.378+1G>T) in the first patient and a nonsense mutation (DSG2–p.L772X) in combination with a large deletion in DSG2 in the second one. In conclusion, a recessive inheritance pattern is likely for both cases, which might contribute to the hidden medical history in both families. This is the first report about these novel loss-of-function mutations in DSG2 that have not been previously identi-fied. Therefore, we suggest performing deep genetic analyses using NGS in combination with SNP arrays also for ACM index patients without obvious familial medical history. In the future, this finding might has relevance for the genetic counseling of similar cases.     

Multicomponent Bioluminescence Imaging with Naphthylamino Luciferins

Bioluminescent tools have been used for decades to image processes in complex tissues and preclinical models. However, few distinct probes are available to probe multicellular interactions. We and others are addressing this limitation by engineering new luciferases that can selectively process synthetic luciferin analogues. In this work, we explored naphthylamino luciferins as orthogonal bioluminescent probes. Three analogues were prepared using an optimized synthetic route. The luciferins were found to be robust emitters with native luciferase in vitro and in cellulo. We further screened the analogues against libraries of luciferase mutants to identify unique enzyme-substrate pairs. The new probes can be used in conjunction with existing bioluminescent tools for multi-component imaging.