‘Nickel Allergy’ arising from decorative nickel plated and alloyed articles: prevention at source

This work builds on papers published in Transactions during 2015 and 2018 reporting research into low-cost commercial methods for the prevention of nickel release from decorative nickel plated articles, rendering them suitable for placement on the European market in accordance with the requirements of REACH. ‘Nickel Allergy’ sometimes occurs when nickel-containing articles are in direct and prolonged contact with the skin, leading to corrosion of elemental nickel by sweat, liberating sufficient nickel ions to be absorbed through the skin and initiate an allergenic effect. The EU ‘Nickel Restrictions’ impose limits on the amount of nickel released from articles intended for use in this application, but permits a non-nickel surface coating that can ensure the rate of nickel release does not exceed 0.5?µg?cm^?2 week^?1 after 2 years of normal use. The official tests for coated items are simulated wear and corrosion under EN 12472 followed by determination of nickel release under EN 1811. Earlier work concluded that suitable barrier coatings over bright electrodeposited nickel are regular chromium deposited from a hexavalent electrolyte, microporous trivalent chromium from a chloride electrolyte and UV cured PU electrophoretic coatings. Further tests reported here focused on nickel release from examples of wearable articles such as costume jewellery and watch cases. A typical flash coating of gold over bright nickel is thin and porous and being more noble, causes the rate of nickel release to be accelerated; but this can be prevented by an intermediate barrier coating of electrodeposited palladium. To round out the relevance of this study on wearable articles, nickel release tests were also conducted on nickel-containing Grades 304 (UNS S30400) and 316 (UNS S31600) austenitic stainless steels, plus a typical gold alloy containing nickel. All passed the nickel release tests satisfactorily.     

Chemical Biology Tools To Investigate Malaria Parasites

Parasitic diseases like malaria tropica have been shaping human evolution and history since the beginning of mankind. After infection, the response of the human host ranges from asymptomatic to severe and may culminate in death. Therefore, proper examination of the parasite's biology is pivotal to deciphering unique molecular, biochemical and cell biological processes, which in turn ensure the identification of treatment strategies, such as potent drug targets and vaccine candidates. However, implementing molecular biology methods for genetic manipulation proves to be difficult for many parasite model organisms. The development of fast and straightforward applicable alternatives, for instance small-molecule probes from the field of chemical biology, is essential. In this review, we will recapitulate the highlights of previous molecular and chemical biology approaches that have already created insight and understanding of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. We discuss current developments from the field of chemical biology and explore how their application could advance research into this parasite in the future. We anticipate that the described approaches will help to close knowledge gaps in the biology of P. falciparum and we hope that researchers will be inspired to use these methods to gain knowledge – with the aim of ending this devastating disease.     

Dietary strategies may influence human nerves and emotions by regulating intestinal microbiota: an interesting hypothesis

The human body hosts enormous diversity of microbiota. Recently, the importance of microbial communities to host physiology has been recognised. Evidence is now emerging that the bidirectional communication between the central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract may affect human nerves, cognition and behaviour through the gut-brain axis (GBA). Although the connection between enteropathy and neurological diseases has been found, it now seems intestinal microorganisms represent the direct mediator of psychopathology. The interactions between host neurological function and intestinal microbiota suggested dietary is a possible way to alleviate psychopathological and neurodegenerative diseases. This review discusses the possible effect of intestinal microbiota on the changes of nerves and emotions in human brain. Maintaining healthy diet strategies should be an important part of preventing neurological diseases and psychopathologies caused by systemic metabolic changes. We hope to provide a novel insight for the design of dietary therapies from the perspective of GBA.     

Example of open-source OPS (Open Patent Services) for patent education and information using the computational tool Patent2Net

This paper discusses the use of Patent2Net, an open source software for extracting and making available information on patents related to dengue fever, a neglected disease of high interest to Brazil. Only ten of 1427 dengue-related patents retrieved in the European worldwide database were filed by Brazilian institutions, showing low contribution of technological research in Brazil regarding this disease. The results enable the creation of new indicators, promoting social responsibility in research, since it is expected that scientific research will produce not only high-impact bibliographic production, but also technological products that can effectively further the search for solutions to problems.     

A comparative study on the antioxidative and anti‐allergic activities of fresh and aged black garlic extracts

The antioxidative and anti‐allergic activities of fresh and aged black garlic extracts were investigated. The garlic samples were extracted with 70% ethanol (v/v) and the total phenolic content was measured. The antioxidant capacity of extracts was assessed by determining the scavenging activities on 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐picrylhydrazyl and hydroxyl radicals, ferricyanide reducing power, ferrous ion‐chelating ability and inhibitory effect on linoleic acid peroxidation. The anti‐allergic activity of extracts was analysed by measuring their inhibitory effects against β‐hexosaminidase release. The aged black garlic exhibited significantly higher phenolic content and greater antioxidative activity than fresh garlic. Both garlic extracts showed strong antioxidant capacity in a dose‐dependent manner. On the other hand, a considerably higher suppression of β‐hexosaminidase release was found in fresh garlic extract at lower concentration compared with that of the black garlic. Results of this study illustrate that ageing of garlic could enhance its antioxidant capacity, but could decrease its anti‐allergic activity.     

主动防护网在铁路崩塌落石病害整治中的运用

结合边坡崩塌落石病害整治实例,对GQS型主动防护网的概念、施工技术要求以及施工安全要求等进行了论述,并介绍了GQS型主动防护网在铁路崩塌、落石病害整治中所取得的成功经验,为以后类似工程提供借鉴。     

Comparison of an effect-model-law-based method versus traditional clinical practice guidelines for optimal treatment decision-making: application to statin treatment in the French population

Healthcare authorities make difficult decisions about how to spend limited budgets for interventions that guarantee the best cost-efficacy ratio. We propose a novel approach for treatment decision-making, OMES—in French: Objectif thérapeutique Modèle Effet Seuil (in English: Therapeutic Objective–Threshold–Effect Model; TOTEM). This approach takes into consideration results from clinical trials, adjusted for the patients'' characteristics in treatment decision-making. We compared OMES with the French clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the management of dyslipidemia with statin in a computer-generated realistic virtual population, representing the adult French population, in terms of the number of all-cause deaths avoided (number of avoided events: NAEs) under treatment and the individual absolute benefit. The total budget was fixed at the annual amount reimbursed by the French social security for statins. With the CPGs, the NAEs was 292 for an annual cost of 122.54 M€ compared with 443 with OMES. For a fixed NAEs, OMES reduced costs by 50% (60.53 M€ yr⁻¹). The results demonstrate that OMES is at least as good as, and even better than, the standard CPGs when applied to the same population. Hence the OMES approach is a practical, useful alternative which will help to overcome the limitations of treatment decision-making based uniquely on CPGs.     

In search of computer-aided social support in non-communicable diseases care

Non-communicable diseases burden is well-known and care for these diseases goes beyond patients’ engagement, extending to their family, friends, and acquaintances. The ability of social relations in alleviating the harmful effects of health risks is known as social support. Computing can be used to promote social support to enhance the care of non-communicable diseases. However, it is unclear how computing obtains such enhancement. This paper presents a systematic review, in the form of a mapping study, aiming to answer how computing enhances non-communicable diseases care by using social data and by promoting social support. It also looks for available computing models focused on social support promotion in non-communicable diseases care. The study was guided by a two-phase process review, resulting in 38 reviewed papers from journals, conferences, and chapters in the period from 2010 to 2016. In general, the reviewed papers focus on controlled trials, frameworks and systems, knowledge discovery, simulation models or social media usage analysis. Knowledge discovery was the predominant subject, followed by social media usage analysis, and frameworks and systems.     

Bacterial communities in commercial aircraft high‐efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters assessed by PhyloChip analysis

Abstract  Air travel can rapidly transport infectious diseases globally. To facilitate the design of biosensors for infectious organisms in commercial aircraft, we characterized bacterial diversity in aircraft air. Samples from 61 aircraft high‐efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters were analyzed with a custom microarray of 16S rRNA gene sequences (PhyloChip), representing bacterial lineages. A total of 606 subfamilies from 41 phyla were detected. The most abundant bacterial subfamilies included bacteria associated with humans, especially skin, gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, and with water and soil habitats. Operational taxonomic units that contain important human pathogens as well as their close, more benign relatives were detected. When compared to 43 samples of urban outdoor air, aircraft samples differed in composition, with higher relative abundance of Firmicutes and Gammaproteobacteria lineages in aircraft samples, and higher relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Betaproteobacteria lineages in outdoor air samples. In addition, aircraft and outdoor air samples differed in the incidence of taxa containing human pathogens. Overall, these results demonstrate that HEPA filter samples can be used to deeply characterize bacterial diversity in aircraft air and suggest that the presence of close relatives of certain pathogens must be taken into account in probe design for aircraft biosensors.

Practical Implications

A biosensor that could be deployed in commercial aircraft would be required to function at an extremely low false alarm rate, making an understanding of microbial background important. This study reveals a diverse bacterial background present on aircraft, including bacteria closely related to pathogens of public health concern. Furthermore, this aircraft background is different from outdoor air, suggesting different probes may be needed to detect airborne contaminants to achieve minimal false alarm rates. This study also indicates that aircraft HEPA filters could be used with other molecular techniques to further characterize background bacteria and in investigations in the wake of a disease outbreak.