High-iron bustamite and apatite occur as subhedral large crystals up to 1 to 2 cm wide and 10 cm long in close association with spessartine in the disseminated sphalerite- and galena-bearing diopside-roepperite-calcite skarn at the New Broken Hill Consolidated mine (N.B.H.S.), New South Wales, Australia. Complete chemical analyses of the minerals have been made, together with physical, optical, and X-ray studies.

Introduction: In order to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients requiring resuscitation (PRRs) in the emergency department (ED), health care providers (HCPs) must provide an efficient, multi-disciplinary and coordinated response. A quality improvement (QI) project was undertaken to improve HCP response to PRRs at two tertiary care hospital EDs in Toronto. Methods: We conducted a before-and-after mixed-method survey to evaluate the perception of the adequacy of HCP response and clarity of HCP role when responding to PRRs. The results were compared using the Chi-square test. Qualitative responses to the first survey were also used to inform the development of the QI project. Through interviews of key stakeholders and with continuous input from front-line ED HCPs, a multi-disciplinary team modified the ED resuscitation protocol. This included standardized pre-hospital communication form with paramedics, ED-wide overhead announcement of ‘Code Resus’, dedicated HCPs assigned to respond to PRRs, and specific duties assigned to each responder. Change initiatives were reinforced through education and posters in the ED. Six months after implementation, a second survey was conducted to evaluate the sustained effects of the intervention. Results: Baseline measures indicated that 16 of 52 (30.8%) nurses surveyed believed their role was often or always apparent to themselves and others when they attended to a PRR (on a 5-point rating scale). This proportion increased to 35 of 55 (63.6%) nurses in the post-implementation survey (p < 0.001). Regarding adequacy of the number of HCPs responding to PRRs, 17 of 39 (43.6%) physicians and 23 of 53 (43.4%) nurses surveyed thought the appropriate number of HCPs responded to PRRs; the remainder thought that there were too few or too many HCPs. In the post-implementation survey, 34 of 41 (82.9%) physicians (p < 0.001) and 36 of 56 (64.3%) nurses (p = 0.029) surveyed felt that the appropriate number of HCPs attended to PRRs. Conclusion: Using a quality improvement approach, we identified and quantified perceived deficiencies in HCP response to PRRs in the ED. Through feedback-based modifications of the ED resuscitation protocol and by engaging HCP stakeholders, change initiatives were implemented to improve HCP response. As a result, this project achieved significant and sustained improvements in HCPs’ perceived response to PRRs.

The effects of TiCl4 post-treatment on the physicochemical properties of porous TiO2 (pTiO2) layers fabricated at 300 °C and 400 °C (denoted as pTiO2(300) and pTiO2(400), respectively) in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite photovoltaic cells were investigated. Water contents (physisorbed water and water derived from surface hydroxyl groups) of pTiO2(300) and pTiO2(400) before and after TiCl4 post-treatment were measured by using temperature desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Moreover, structural analysis of the CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite part was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). In the case of pTiO2(300), the content of water was increased by the TiCl4 post-treatment due to the removal of residual organic compounds that existed before the treatment. It then caused a change in the surface activity of pTiO2(300) and enhancement of solar cell performance and photocurrent density, though suppression of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite formation occurred. In comparison, contents of water were decreased for pTiO2(400), leading to enhancement of the conversion of PbI2 to CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite. As a result, there were significant increases in short circuit current density (Jscs) and PCEs. The results showed that TiCl4 post-treatment is an effective approach to prepare high-performance CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells without heat treatment at a very high temperature.

Using the IRAM 30 m telescope, we perform a molecular line survey of the 3 and 2 mm wavelength ranges towards 5 selected positions in the Galactic center region, sampling shocked regions, ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray pervaded regions, and positions with rich organic chemistry. These surveys have the potential to be used as chemical templates for different types of activity, such as photodissociated regions (PDRs), shocks and X-ray dominated regions (XDRs). Complementary, molecular surveys done towards extragalactic nuclei, that are also dominated by these physical activities, were carried by our group.

A neutron powder diffraction study on the crystal structure of the title compound (p-Br–C6D4–CD2–OD) confirmed that a first-order phase transition at Tt1=229 K accompanied a drastic change in the molecular conformation caused by a discontinuous rotational shift of the hydroxyl hydrogen atom around the C(D2)–O(D) bond. At T<Tt1, a contraction of the unit cell volume of ∼1% was found when compared to that of the normal compound (p-Br–C6H4–CH2–OH).

The aim was to estimate the incidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection in health-care workers (HCWs) in Japan. We repeated cross-sectional surveys of HCWs with QuantiFERON®-TB Gold (QFT-G) in 2003, 2005 and 2007 at a hospital with tuberculosis (TB) wards, and 311 HCWs who underwent QFT-G testing two or three times were included in the study. Five HCWs (1·8%) converted from negative to positive. Incidence of new TB infection was estimated to be 0·6/100 person-years by the CDC's definition. Thirteen positive persons (41%) reverted from positive to negative. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified a significant association between QFT-G conversion and working in TB wards. The IFN-γ levels of all but two subjects with reverting or converting QFT-G results were close to the test's cut-off. The incidence of Mtb infection in HCWs at our hospital was higher than that estimated for the general population in Japan. Criteria for defining QFT-G conversion and reversion need further investigation considering the high proportion of reversion, as the incidence of infection would have changed if we had applied other definitions.

An experimental method is proposed for detecting the effects of positive natural selection on DNA polymorphisms. Since beneficial mutations are expected to increase in frequency faster than neutral mutations, variants which have reached high frequencies in a relatively short period could be linked to some beneficial mutation. D. melanogaster has a cosmopolitan polymorphic inversion -In(2L)t - whose age in some local populations has been estimated. Setting the age of In(2L)t as the upper limit for the age of variants, we searched for variants whose frequencies were possibly influenced by positive natural selection. We detected a single candidate whose frequency and distribution met the requirements imposed by our method.

The specific activities of α-amylase were measured for two sets of mutation accumulation lines, each set having originated from a different lethal-carrying second chromosome and SM1(Cy) chromosome and having been maintained by a balanced lethal system for about 300 generations. Significant variation was found to have accumulated among lines of both sets. Because of dysgenic crosses in the early generations of mutation accumulation, insertions or deletions of transposable elements in the Amy gene region were suspected of being the cause of this variation. In order to test this possibility, the structural changes in the 14 kb region of these chromosomes that includes the structural genes for α-amylase were investigated by restriction map analysis. We found that most part of the activity variation is due to replacements of a chromosomal region of SM1(Cy), including the structural genes for α-amylase, by the corresponding regions of the lethal chromosomes. One line also contained an insertion in this region but this line has an intermediate activity value. Thus, insertions of transposable elements into the Amy gene region were not found to be responsible for the new variation observed in α-amylase activity. If we remove those lines with structural changes from the analysis, the genetic variance of α-amylase specific activity among lines becomes non-significant in both sets of chromosomes.

Newly developed interferon-gamma release assays have become commercially available to detect tuberculosis (TB) infection in adults. However, little is known about their performance in children. We compared test results between the QuantiFERON-TB® Gold test (QFT) and tuberculin skin test (TST) in young children living with pulmonary TB patients in Cambodia. Of 195 children tested with both QFT and TST, the TST-positive rate of 24% was significantly higher than the QFT-positive rate of 17%. The agreement between the test results was considerable (κ-coefficient 0·63). Positive rates increased from 6% to 32% for QFT and from 15% to 43% for TST, according to the sputum smear grades of the index cases. The presence of Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) scars did not significantly affect the results of TST or QFT in a logistic regression analysis. In conclusion, QFT can be a substitute for TST in detecting latent TB infection in childhood contacts aged ⩽5 years, especially in those who may have a false-positive TST due to BCG vaccination or non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection.

The Japanese quarantine system monitors incoming passengers to detect imported pathogens at international airports. At one airport, we found that 74% of 13315 travellers returning with diarrhoea had visited only one country before entering Japan. On the basis of our results, we hypothesized that the international distribution and potential source of bacterial strains could be inferred by analysing strains isolated from travellers returning to Japan. In order to demonstrate the potential for this system, we randomly selected five Shigella sonnei strains and examined their restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns. One set of strains appeared to be closely related, while three sets, isolated from travellers who visited different countries were possibly related. These results suggest that international distributions and potential sources of S. sonnei may be inferred by monitoring isolates from passengers arriving at a Japanese quarantine station.

Characterization by reciprocal space mapping of x-ray diffraction (XRD) intensity was carried out for epitaxial layers of GaN-based laser structures on two GaN substrates: GaN substrate and GaN template on sapphire substrate. The difference between these two substrates was shown clearly. The distribution of XRD intensity of the epitaxial layers on GaN substrate was smaller than that of the epitaxial layers on GaN template on sapphire substrate. In the lasers with the epitaxial structure on GaN substrate, the light output power was as high as 200 mW under continuous-wave operation at room temperature. Excellent noise characteristics with relative intensity noise of -132 dB/Hz were also obtained at a low light output power of 3 mW without any high-frequency modulation. These results support that GaN substrates are promising for realizing GaN-based lasers with high performance.