What makes you not a Sikh? : a preliminary mapping of values

This study sets out to establish which Sikh values contrasted with or were shared by non-Sikh adolescents. A survey of attitude toward a variety of Sikh values was fielded in a sample of 364 non-Sikh schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15 in London. Values where attitudes were least positive concerned Sikh duties/code of conduct, festivals, rituals, prayer Gurdwara attendance, listening to scripture recitation, the amrit initiation. Sikh values empathized with by non-Sikhs concerned family pride, charity, easy access to ordination and Gurdwaras, maintaining the five Ks, seeing God in all things, abstaining from meat and alcohol and belief in the stories of Guru Nanak. Further significant differences of attitude toward Sikhism were found in comparisons by sex, age and religious affiliation. Findings are applied to teaching Sikhism to pupils of no faith adherence. The study recommends the extension of values mapping to specifically Sikh populations

Validation of Twelve Small Kepler Transiting Planets in the Habitable Zone

We present an investigation of twelve candidate transiting planets from Kepler with orbital periods ranging from 34 to 207 days, selected from initial indications that they are small and potentially in the habitable zone (HZ) of their parent stars. Few of these objects are known. The expected Doppler signals are too small to confirm them by demonstrating that their masses are in the planetary regime. Here we verify their planetary nature by validating them statistically using the BLENDER technique, which simulates large numbers of false positives and compares the resulting light curves with the Kepler photometry. This analysis was supplemented with new follow-up observations (high-resolution optical and near-infrared spectroscopy, adaptive optics imaging, and speckle interferometry), as well as an analysis of the flux centroids. For eleven of them (KOI-0571.05, 1422.04, 1422.05, 2529.02, 3255.01, 3284.01, 4005.01, 4087.01, 4622.01, 4742.01, and 4745.01) we show that the likelihood they are true planets is far greater than that of a false positive, to a confidence level of 99.73% (3 sigma) or higher. For KOI-4427.01 the confidence level is about 99.2% (2.6 sigma). With our accurate characterization of the GKM host stars, the derived planetary radii range from 1.1 to 2.7 R_Earth. All twelve objects are confirmed to be in the HZ, and nine are small enough to be rocky. Excluding three of them that have been previously validated by others, our study doubles the number of known rocky planets in the HZ. KOI-3284.01 (Kepler-438b) and KOI-4742.01 (Kepler-442b) are the planets most similar to the Earth discovered to date when considering their size and incident flux jointly.Comment: 27 pages in emulateapj format, including tables and figures. To appear in The Astrophysical Journa

Masses, radii, and orbits of small Kepler planets : The transition from gaseous to rocky planets

We report on the masses, sizes, and orbits of the planets orbiting 22 Kepler stars. There are 49 planet candidates around these stars, including 42 detected through transits and 7 revealed by precise Doppler measurements of the host stars. Based on an analysis of the Kepler brightness measurements, along with high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, Doppler spectroscopy, and (for 11 stars) asteroseismology, we establish low false-positive probabilities (FPPs) for all of the transiting planets (41 of 42 have an FPP under 1%), and we constrain their sizes and masses. Most of the transiting planets are smaller than three times the size of Earth. For 16 planets, the Doppler signal was securely detected, providing a direct measurement of the planet's mass. For the other 26 planets we provide either marginal mass measurements or upper limits to their masses and densities; in many cases we can rule out a rocky composition. We identify six planets with densities above 5 g cm-3, suggesting a mostly rocky interior for them. Indeed, the only planets that are compatible with a purely rocky composition are smaller than 2 R ⊕. Larger planets evidently contain a larger fraction of low-density material (H, He, and H2O).Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Acute ingestion of a novel whey-derived peptide improves vascular endothelial responses in healthy individuals: a randomized, placebo controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Whey protein is a potential source of bioactive peptides. Based on findings from <it>in vitro </it>experiments indicating a novel whey derived peptide (NOP-47) increased endothelial nitric oxide synthesis, we tested its effects on vascular function in humans.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study design was used. Healthy men (n = 10) and women (n = 10) (25 ± 5 y, BMI = 24.3 ± 2.3 kg/m²) participated in two vascular testing days each preceded by 2 wk of supplementation with a single dose of 5 g/day of a novel whey-derived peptide (NOP-47) or placebo. There was a 2 wk washout period between trials. After 2 wk of supplementation, vascular function in the forearm and circulating oxidative stress and inflammatory related biomarkers were measured serially for 2 h after ingestion of 5 g of NOP-47 or placebo. Macrovascular and microvascular function were assessed using brachial artery flow mediated dilation (FMD) and venous occlusion strain gauge plethysmography.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Baseline peak FMD was not different for Placebo (7.7%) and NOP-47 (7.8%). Placebo had no effect on FMD at 30, 60, and 90 min post-ingestion (7.5%, 7.2%, and 7.6%, respectively) whereas NOP-47 significantly improved FMD responses at these respective postprandial time points compared to baseline (8.9%, 9.9%, and 9.0%; <it>P </it>< 0.0001 for time × trial interaction). Baseline reactive hyperemia forearm blood flow was not different for placebo (27.2 ± 7.2%/min) and NOP-47 (27.3 ± 7.6%/min). Hyperemia blood flow measured 120 min post-ingestion (27.2 ± 7.8%/min) was unaffected by placebo whereas NOP-47 significantly increased hyperemia compared to baseline (29.9 ± 7.8%/min; <it>P </it>= 0.008 for time × trial interaction). Plasma myeloperoxidase was increased transiently by both NOP-47 and placebo, but there were no changes in markers inflammation. Plasma total nitrites/nitrates significantly decreased over the 2 hr post-ingestion period and were lower at 120 min after placebo (-25%) compared to NOP-47 (-18%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings indicate that supplementation with a novel whey-derived peptide in healthy individuals improves vascular function.</p

Cost-Effectiveness of Magnetic Resonance Imaging with a New Contrast Agent for the Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Background: Used as contrast agents for brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), markers for beta-amyloid deposits might allow early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of such a diagnostic test, MRI+CLP (contrastophore-linker-pharmacophore), should it become clinically available. Methodology/Principal Findings: We compared the cost-effectiveness of MRI+CLP to that of standard diagnosis using currently available cognition tests and of standard MRI, and investigated the impact of a hypothetical treatment efficient in early AD. The primary analysis was based on the current French context for 70-year-old patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). In alternative ‘‘screen and treat’ ’ scenarios, we analyzed the consequences of systematic screenings of over-60 individuals (either population-wide or restricted to the ApoE4 genotype population). We used a Markov model of AD progression; model parameters, as well as incurred costs and quality-of-life weights in France were taken from the literature. We performed univariate and probabilistic multivariate sensitivity analyses. The base-case preferred strategy was the standard MRI diagnosis strategy. In the primary analysis however, MRI+CLP could become the preferred strategy under a wide array of scenarios involving lower cost and/or higher sensitivity or specificity. By contrast, in the ‘‘screen and treat’’ analyses, the probability of MRI+CLP becoming the preferred strategy remained lower than 5%. Conclusions/Significance: It is thought that anti-beta-amyloid compounds might halt the development of dementia i

Antitrypanosomal activity of 5-nitro-2-aminothiazole-based compounds

A small series of 5-nitro-2-aminothiazole-based amides containing arylpiperazine-, biphenyl- or aryloxyphenyl groups in their core were synthesized and evaluated as anti-trypanosomatid agents. All tested compounds were active or moderately active against Trypanosoma cruzi amastigotes in infected L6 cells and Trypanosoma brucei brucei, four were moderately active against Leishmania donovani axenic parasites while none were deemed active against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. For the most active/moderately active compounds a moderate selectivity against the human infectious parasites was observed. There was a good correlation between lipophilicity (clogP value) versus antileishmanial activity and mammalian cell toxicity with a similar correlation also noted between clogP values and IC50 values against T. cruzi in structurally related subgroups of compounds. Three compounds were more potent as antichagasic agents than benznidazole.This work was supported in part by internal funds of the Radiation Medicine Department at NorthShore University HealthSystem. In addition, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) received financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to perform the in vitro screenings against parasites

A Multicentre Molecular Analysis of Hepatitis B and Blood-Borne Virus Coinfections in Viet Nam

Hepatitis B (HBV) infection is endemic in Viet Nam, with up to 8.4 million individuals estimated to be chronically infected. We describe results of a large, multicentre seroepidemiological and molecular study of the prevalence of HBV infection and blood-borne viral coinfections in Viet Nam. Individuals with varying risk factors for infection (n = 8654) were recruited from five centres; Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa and Can Tho. A mean prevalence rate of 10.7% was observed and levels of HBsAg were significantly higher in injecting drug users (IDUs) (17.4%, n = 174/1000) and dialysis patients (14.3%, n = 82/575) than in lower-risk groups (9.4%; p<0.001). Coinfection with HIV was seen in 28% of HBV-infected IDUs (n = 49/174) and 15.2% of commercial sex workers (CSWs; n = 15/99). HCV infection was present in 89.8% of the HBV-HIV coinfected IDUs (n = 44/49) and 40% of HBV-HIV coinfected CSWs (n = 16/40). Anti-HDV was detected in 10.7% (n = 34/318) of HBsAg positive individuals. Phylogenetic analysis of HBV S gene (n = 187) showed a predominance of genotype B4 (82.6%); genotypes C1 (14.6%), B2 (2.7%) and C5 (0.5%) were also identified. The precore mutation G1896A was identified in 35% of all specimens, and was more frequently observed in genotype B (41%) than genotype C (3%; p<0.0001). In the immunodominant ‘a’ region of the surface gene, point mutations were identified in 31% (n = 58/187) of sequences, and 2.2% (n = 4/187) and 5.3% (n = 10/187) specimens contained the major vaccine escape mutations G145A/R and P120L/Q/S/T, respectively. 368 HBsAg positive individuals were genotyped for the IL28B SNP rs12979860 and no significant association between the IL28B SNP and clearance of HBsAg, HBV viral load or HBeAg was observed. This study confirms the high prevalence of HBV infection in Viet Nam and also highlights the significant levels of blood-borne virus coinfections, which have important implications for hepatitis-related morbidity and development of effective management strategies