Association of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with de novo major depression

Background: Although there is cross-sectional evidence that changes in the immune system contribute to the pathophysiology of depression, longitudinal data capable of elucidating cause and effect relationships are lacking.

Aims: We aimed to determine whether subclinical systemic inflammation, as measured by serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration, is associated with an increased risk of de novo major depressive disorder.

Method: Major depressive disorder was diagnosed using a clinical interview (SCID-I/NP). This is a retrospective cohort study; from a population-based sample of 1494 randomly selected women recruited at baseline during the period 1994-7, 822 were followed for a decade and provided measures of both exposure and outcome. Of these women, 644 (aged 20-84 years) had no prior history of depression at baseline and were eligible for analysis.

Results: During 5827 person-years of follow-up, 48 cases of de novo major depressive disorder were identified. The hazard ratio (HR) for depression increased by 44% for each standard deviation increase in log-transformed hsCRP (ln-hsCRP) (HR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.04-1.99), after adjusting for weight, smoking and use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Further adjustment for other lifestyle factors, medications and comorbidity failed to explain the observed increased risk for depression.

Conclusions: Serum hsCRP is an independent risk marker for de novo major depressive disorder in women. This supports an aetiological role for inflammatory activity in the pathophysiology of depression.

Navigation of four-wheel-steering mobile robots using robust fault-tolerant sliding mode control

This paper addresses the leader-follower tracking problem of a four-wheel-steering robot subjected to nonlinear uncertainties. Two control laws have been developed, based on the adaptive sliding mode method and the adaptive input-output feedback linearization method. The proposed control schemes have been tested by means of simulations.

Reactive block copolymer modified thermosets : highly ordered nanostructures and improved properties

A highly ordered poly(dimethyl siloxane)-poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PDMS-PGMA) reactive diblock copolymer was synthesized and used to modify bisphenol A-type epoxy resin (ER). The PDMS-PGMA block copolymer consisted of epoxy-miscible PGMA blocks and an epoxy-immiscible PDMS block. The PGMA reactive block of the block copolymer formed covalent bonds with cured epoxy and was involved in the network formation, and the PDMS block phase separated to give different ordered and disordered nanostructures at different blend compositions. The solvent cast PDMS-PGMA diblock copolymer showed ordered hexagonal cylindrical morphology. A highly ordered morphology consisting of hexagonal cylinders inside the lamellar morphology was observed in the cured PDMS-PGMA block copolymer. In the cured ER/PDMS-PGMA blends, a variety of morphologies including lamellar, cubic and worm-like and spherical nanostructures were detected depending on the blend composition. Moreover, the addition of this reactive diblock copolymer significantly increases the hydrophobicity and the glass transition temperature. It also improves the tensile strength and tensile ductility of the nanostructured thermosets at low diblock copolymer contents.

Reclaiming spent liquor from cotton reactive dyebaths using nanofiltration membrane for possible reuse of water and salt

During dyeing, salts are placed in a dyebath to aid the fixation of various dyes on to the fabric while bases are added to raise the pH from around neutral to pH 11. Afterwards, the used dyebath solution, called dyebath spent liquor, is discharged with almost all the salts and bases added as well as unfixed dyes. Consequently, a lot of raw materials are lost in the waste stream ending up in the environment as pollutants. In this study, possibilities of reusing water and salts of dyebathes were investigated, using a nanofiltration membrane. When the salt concentration in the spent liquor was increased from 10 to 80 g/L, the salt rejection by membrane was found to decrease initially; however, the salt rejection increased over the time, which was not expected. The aggregation of dye was also studied and found to decrease in the concentrate when the salt concentration was increased. This may be due to the aggregation of salt in the concentrate, which explains the increase in salt rejection. This information is useful for the textile industry in evaluating the treated water quality for the purpose of reuse.

Plagiarism : proactive prevention instead of reactive punishment

Purpose - This study investigated whether providing university students with extra feedback regarding their referencing improves their referencing confidence and reduces their propensity to plagiarise. The study also sought to increase our understanding of what factors underlie student plagiarism.

Design/methodology/approach - Undergraduate and post-graduate accounting students were surveyed regarding their experience when completing a formative essay designed to give feedback on their referencing ability. All students in one undergraduate and one postgraduate accounting course were invited to participate in a post-assessment, electronically administered survey consisting of sixteen question.

Findings - The results indicate that a considerable number of the students perceived the formative assessment to be of benefit with respect to improving their referencing confidence. A significant proportion of the students indicated that their understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and their confidence in avoiding plagiarism improved as a result of the assessment and its associated feedback.

Research limitations/implications - This study supports the provision of assessment designed to assist students with improving their ability to both recognise and avoid plagiarism in their written work. However, this research has not investigated whether these types of exercises lead to an actual reduction in the incidence of plagiarism in tertiary student cohorts. This is an area for future research.

The effect of cocoa supplementation on hepatic steatosis, reactive oxygen species and LFABP in a rat model of NASH

Background: Non alcoholic steatohepatitis is hypothesised to develop via a mechanism involving fat accumulation and oxidative stress. The current study aimed to investigate if an increase in oxidative stress was associated with changes in the expression of liver fatty acid binding protein in a rat model of non alcoholic steatohepatitis and whether cocoa supplementation attenuated those changes.

Methods: Female Sprague Dawley rats were fed a high fat control diet, a high fat methionine choline deficient diet, or one of four 12.5% cocoa supplementation regimes in combination with the high fat methionine choline deficient diet.

Results: Liver fatty acid binding protein mRNA and protein levels were reduced in the liver of animals with fatty liver disease when compared to controls. Increased hepatic fat content was accompanied by higher levels of oxidative stress in animals with fatty liver disease when compared to controls. An inverse association was found between the levels of hepatic liver fatty acid binding protein and the level of hepatic oxidative stress in fatty liver disease. Elevated NADPH oxidase protein levels were detected in the liver of animals with increased severity in inflammation and fibrosis. Cocoa supplementation was associated with partial attenuation of these pathological changes, although the severity of liver disease induced by the methionine choline deficient diet prevented complete reversal of any disease associated changes. Red blood cell glutathione was increased by cocoa supplementation, whereas liver glutathione was reduced by cocoa compared to methionine choline deficient diet fed animals.

Conclusion: These findings suggest a potential role for liver fatty acid binding protein and NADPH oxidase in the development of non alcoholic steatohepatitis. Furthermore, cocoa supplementation may have be of therapeutic benefit in less sever forms of NASH.

Contextual navigation in a multimedia journal

This work presents a framework for multimedia journaling,maintaining strong relationships between the document and embedded media. This enables media archives that are robust to changes in software environments, such as changes in web-sharing services, proprietary file formats and enables portability across operating system. We develop a journaling application using an existing multimedia framework, and show the power of the paradigm with specific case studies.

A unified formalism for landmark based representation of maps and navigation plans

We present a unified formalism for representing maps and using them for constructing plans of navigation for an autonomous agent. The foundation of this work lies in addressing key questions that an agent is confronted with when navigating. That is, besides the main task of how to reach the intended destination from the current position, the agent faces other questions like: where am I? what landmarks can I see? where is my destination relative to me and the landmarks I am seeing? Fundamental to this representation is the use of visual landmarks, which are used as pivotal points in the landscape being described. Further, in the representation of spatial information and navigation there are three different viewpoints: first, the localized representation from the viewpoint of a sighted, mobile agent; second, the static representation seen by the map-maker; and third, the view of an external agent giving directions on the basis of his own experience/knowledge. The major contribution of this map model and the associated navigation method lies in the framework which unifies these three different points of view. This unification enables the agent to make no distinction in terms of following implicit instructions contained in a map and the directions given by external agents.