Reduction of low- and high-grade cervical abnormalities associated with high uptake of the HPV bivalent vaccine in Scotland

In Scotland, a national HPV immunisation programme began in 2008 for 12-13 year olds, with a catch-up campaign from 2008-2011 for those under the age of 18. To monitor the impact of HPV immunisation on cervical disease at the population level, a programme of national surveillance was established.  We analysed colposcopy data from a cohort of women born between 1988-1992 who entered the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme (SCSP) and were aged 20-21 in 2008-2012.  By linking datasets from the SCSP and colposcopy services, we observed a significant reduction in diagnoses of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 1 (CIN 1) (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.87, p=0.0008), CIN 2 (RR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4, 0.63, p<0.0001) and CIN 3 (RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.58, p< 0.0001) for women who received 3 doses of vaccine compared with unvaccinated women.  To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to show a reduction of low and high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia associated with high uptake of the HPV bivalent vaccine at the population level. These data are very encouraging for countries that have achieved high HPV vaccine uptake

Determining the availability of earthworms for visually hunting predators

Studies of interactions among earthworms as prey for visually foraging predators required a field method that measures earthworm availability (i.e., the density of surfacing earthworms). We present such a method by counting surfacing earthworms at night by an observer lying prone on a cart propelled by an observer across measured distances at constant low speed. The method was applied in dairy farmland grasslands in The Netherlands during October and November 2011. We quantified the numbers of surfacing earthworms as well as those measured during standard hand-sorting sampling (i.e., total abundance based on soil counts), distinguishing clay or peat soils and grasslands with either monocultures or species-rich vegetation. Managed grasslands with different soil types showed opposing correlations between surface availability and total abundance of earthworms. This emphasizes the importance of direct measurements of earthworm availability if the goal of the study is to explain the behavior of either visual earthworm predators or earthworms themselves. (c) 2019 The Wildlife Society

Potential conservation of circadian clock proteins in the phylum Nematoda as revealed by bioinformatic searches

Although several circadian rhythms have been described in C. elegans, its molecular clock remains elusive. In this work we employed a novel bioinformatic approach, applying probabilistic methodologies, to search for circadian clock proteins of several of the best studied circadian model organisms of different taxa (Mus musculus, Drosophila melanogaster, Neurospora crassa, Arabidopsis thaliana and Synechoccocus elongatus) in the proteomes of C. elegans and other members of the phylum Nematoda. With this approach we found that the Nematoda contain proteins most related to the core and accessory proteins of the insect and mammalian clocks, which provide new insights into the nematode clock and the evolution of the circadian system.Fil: Romanowski, Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Cronobiología; ArgentinaFil: Garavaglia, Matías Javier. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Ing.genética y Biolog.molecular y Celular. Area Virus de Insectos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Goya, María Eugenia. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Cronobiología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ghiringhelli, Pablo Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Ing.genética y Biolog.molecular y Celular. Area Virus de Insectos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Golombek, Diego Andres. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Cronobiología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Association of human cytomegalovirus proteins IRS1 and TRS1 with the viral DNA polymerase accessory subunit UL44

Multiple proteins interacting with DNA polymerases orchestrate DNA replication. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encodes a DNA polymerase that includes the presumptive processivity factor UL44. UL44 is structurally homologous to the eukaryotic DNA polymerase processivity factor proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), which interacts with numerous proteins. Previous proteomic analysis has identified the HCMV protein IRS1 as a candidate protein interacting with UL44. Nuclease-resistant reciprocal co-immunoprecipitation of UL44 with IRS1 and with TRS1, which has an amino terminus identical to that of IRS1, was observed from lysate of cells infected with viruses expressing epitope-tagged UL44, epitope-tagged IRS1 or epitope-tagged TRS1. Western blotting of protein immunoprecipitated from infected cell lysate indicated that epitope-tagged IRS1 and TRS1 do not associate simultaneously with UL44. Glutathione S-transferase pull-down experiments indicated that IRS1 and TRS1 interact with UL44 via a region that is identical in both proteins. Taken together, these data suggest that IRS1 and TRS1 may compete for association with UL44 and may affect UL44 function differentially

Pressure-induced structural transformations in Si:V and Si:V, Mn

Semiconductors doped with magnetically active atoms are expected to find application in spintronics. Si samples implanted with Mn⁺ (Si:Mn) or with V⁺ (Si:V) can order magnetically after processing at high temperature (HT) and also under enhanced hydrostatic pressure (HP). This work presents new results on structure-related properties of single crystalline Si implanted at 200 keV with V⁺ as well as that co-implanted additionally with Mn⁺ ions (Si:V, Mn), with dosages DV⁺ ≤ 5·10¹⁵ cm⁻² and DMn⁺ = 1·10¹⁵ cm⁻². The samples were processed for 1–5 h at HT ≤ 1270 K under HP ≤ 1.1 GPa. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, Transmission Electron Microscopy, X-ray and related methods were applied for sample characterization. The HT- (HP) treatment affects, among others, solid phase epitaxial re-growth (SPER) of amorphous silicon created at implantation and distribution of implanted species

Limits on neutrino oscillations from ν̄e appearance

A 20-ton neutrino detector located near the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility beam stop is used search for ν̄e generated via neutrino oscillations from any of the three neutrino types, νμ, ν̄μ, and νe, which radiate from the beam stop. The analysis of three years of data provides limits on the oscillation modes ν̄μ→ν̄e, νe→ν̄e, and νμ→ν̄e, and the lepton-number-violating decay process μ+→e++ν̄e+νμ. The 90%-confidence-level limits for ν̄μ→ν̄e oscillations are δm2≤0.14 eV2 for maximal mixing, and sin22θ≤0.024 for large δm2. © 1993 The American Physical Society

Antibiotic Resistance Profiling of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Clinical Specimens in a Tertiary Hospital from 2010 to 2012

MRSA infection can affect a wide array of individuals that may lead to treatment failure. Also, the infection has the potential to spread from one area to another particularly health care facilities or communities eventually causing minor outbreaks. With this premise, the study aimed to describe MRSA infections using the hospital-based data of a tertiary hospital in Bacolod City, Philippines, from 2010 to 2012. Specifically, this study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial resistance of S. aureus isolated from clinical specimens and to put emphasis on the prevalence of MRSA and Inducible Clindamycin Resistance. A total of 94 cases from 2010 to 2012 were diagnosed to have S. aureus infection using conventional bacteriologic methods. From these cases, 38 (40.6%) were identified as MRSA and 37 (39.4%) were inducible clindamycin resistant. Wounds and abscesses were considered to be the most common specimens with MRSA infections having 71.05% while blood was the least with 5.3%. For drug susceptibility, out of the 94 S. aureus cases, including MRSA, 100% were susceptible to linezolid making it the drug of choice for this study. It was then followed by tetracycline having a mean susceptibility of 95%;, while penicillin G was ineffective with 94 cases having 0% susceptibility

Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure

Measurement of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of \xpom, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to \xpom, and of $Q^2$. The \xpom dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a~=~1.30~\pm~0.08~(stat)~^{+~0.08}_{-~0.14}~(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q^2$. In the measured $Q^2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q^2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.Comment: 36 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil