Two New Gravitationally Lensed Double Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We report the discoveries of the two-image gravitationally lensed quasars, SDSS J0746+4403 and SDSS J1406+6126, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). SDSS J0746+4403, which will be included in our lens sample for statistics and cosmology, has a source redshift of z_s=2.00, an estimated lens redshift of z_l~0.3, and an image separation of 1.08". SDSS J1406+6126 has a source redshift of z_s=2.13, a spectroscopically measured lens redshift of z_l=0.27, and an image separation of 1.98". We find that the two quasar images of SDSS J1406+6126 have different intervening MgII absorption strengths, which are suggestive of large variations of absorbers on kpc scales. The positions and fluxes of both the lensed quasar systems are easily reproduced by simple mass models with reasonable parameter values. These objects bring to 18 the number of lensed quasars that have been discovered from the SDSS data.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, The Astronomical Journal accepte

Markov Chain Ontology Analysis (MCOA)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Biomedical ontologies have become an increasingly critical lens through which researchers analyze the genomic, clinical and bibliographic data that fuels scientific research. Of particular relevance are methods, such as enrichment analysis, that quantify the importance of ontology classes relative to a collection of domain data. Current analytical techniques, however, remain limited in their ability to handle many important types of structural complexity encountered in real biological systems including class overlaps, continuously valued data, inter-instance relationships, non-hierarchical relationships between classes, semantic distance and sparse data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we describe a methodology called Markov Chain Ontology Analysis (MCOA) and illustrate its use through a MCOA-based enrichment analysis application based on a generative model of gene activation. MCOA models the classes in an ontology, the instances from an associated dataset and all directional inter-class, class-to-instance and inter-instance relationships as a single finite ergodic Markov chain. The adjusted transition probability matrix for this Markov chain enables the calculation of eigenvector values that quantify the importance of each ontology class relative to other classes and the associated data set members. On both controlled Gene Ontology (GO) data sets created with Escherichia coli, Drosophila melanogaster and Homo sapiens annotations and real gene expression data extracted from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), the MCOA enrichment analysis approach provides the best performance of comparable state-of-the-art methods.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A methodology based on Markov chain models and network analytic metrics can help detect the relevant signal within large, highly interdependent and noisy data sets and, for applications such as enrichment analysis, has been shown to generate superior performance on both real and simulated data relative to existing state-of-the-art approaches.</p

Social and health epidemiology of immigrants in Germany: past, present and future

Razum O, Wenner J. Social and health epidemiology of immigrants in Germany: past, present and future. Public Health Reviews. 2016;37(1): 4.Germany has experienced different forms of immigration for many decades. At the end of and after the Second World War, refugees, displaced persons and German resettlers constituted the largest immigrant group. In the 1950s, labor migration started, followed by family reunification. There has been a constant migration of refugees and asylum seekers reaching peaks in the early 1990s as well as today. Epidemiological research has increasingly considered the health, and the access to health care, of immigrants and people with migration background. In this narrative review we discuss the current knowledge on health of immigrants in Germany. The paper is based on a selective literature research with a focus on studies using representative data from the health reporting system. Our review shows that immigrants in Germany do not suffer from different diseases than non-immigrants, but they differ in their risk for certain diseases, in the resources to cope with theses risk and regarding access to treatment. We also identified the need for differentiation within the immigrant population, considering among others social and legal status, country of origin and duration of stay. Though most of the studies acknowledge the need for differentiation, the lack of data currently rules out analyses accounting for the existing diversity and thus a full understanding of health inequalities related to migration to Germany

Pla2g2a Attenuates Colon Tumorigenesis in Azoxymethane-Treated C57BL/6 Mice; Expression Studies Reveal Pla2g2a Target Genes and Pathways

Background: The group IIA secretory phospholipase A2 gene, Pla2g2a, confers resistance to intestinal tumorigenesis in the ApcMin/+ mouse model. However, it is unclear how Pla2g2a exerts its tumor-suppressive effects and whether its mode of action depends on Apc-germline mutations

Markers of Differential Response to Inhaled Corticosteroid Treatment Among Children with Mild Persistent Asthma

BACKGROUND: Inhaled corticosteroids are recommended as first-line therapy for children with mild persistent asthma; however, specific patient characteristics may modify the treatment response. OBJECTIVE: Identify demographic, clinical, and atopic characteristics that may modify the inhaled corticosteroid treatment response among children enrolled in the Treating Children to Prevent Exacerbations of Asthma trial. METHODS: Children aged 6 to 18 years with mild persistent asthma were randomized to 44 weeks of combined, daily, rescue, or placebo treatment. Daily treatment consisted of 40 μg of beclomethasone twice daily. Rescue treatment consisted of 40 μg of beclomethasone accompanying each symptom-driven albuterol actuation. Combined treatment consisted of both. Outcomes included time to first exacerbation and proportion of asthma control days. Fourteen baseline characteristics were selected for interaction testing on the basis of their clinical relevance. RESULTS: Two hundred eighty-eight children were randomized. Seventy-five percent were white, and 55% were male. As measured by time to first exacerbation, 4 characteristics identified children who received greater benefit from treatment: non-Hispanic ethnicity, positive aeroallergen skin test result, serum immunoglobulin E level of 350 K/μL or more, and history of oral corticosteroid use in the year before enrollment. As measured by asthma control days, 4 characteristics identified children who received greater benefit from treatment: male sex, positive aeroallergen skin test result, serum immunoglobulin E level of 350 K/μL or more, and incomplete run-in asthma control. CONCLUSIONS: Children with mild persistent asthma who have markers of atopic asthma or who have greater asthma burden may obtain greater benefit from beclomethasone therapy. Additional study is needed to confirm whether these markers can guide individualized therapy