Infectious disease and health systems modelling for local decision making to control neglected tropical diseases

Most neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have complex life cycles and are challenging to control. The “2020 goals” of control and elimination as a public health programme for a number of NTDs are the subject of significant international efforts and investments. Beyond 2020 there will be a drive to maintain these gains and to push for true local elimination of transmission. However, these diseases are affected by variations in vectors, human demography, access to water and sanitation, access to interventions and local health systems. We therefore argue that there will be a need to develop local quantitative expertise to support elimination efforts. If available now, quantitative analyses would provide updated estimates of the burden of disease, assist in the design of locally appropriate control programmes, estimate the effectiveness of current interventions and support ‘real-time’ updates to local operations. Such quantitative tools are increasingly available at an international scale for NTDs, but are rarely tailored to local scenarios. Localised expertise not only provides an opportunity for more relevant analyses, but also has a greater chance of developing positive feedback between data collection and analysis by demonstrating the value of data. This is essential as rational program design relies on good quality data collection. It is also likely that if such infrastructure is provided for NTDs there will be an additional impact on the health system more broadly. Locally tailored quantitative analyses can help achieve sustainable and effective control of NTDs, but also underpin the development of local health care systems

Positron-molecule interactions: resonant attachment, annihilation, and bound states

This article presents an overview of current understanding of the interaction of low-energy positrons with molecules with emphasis on resonances, positron attachment and annihilation. Annihilation rates measured as a function of positron energy reveal the presence of vibrational Feshbach resonances (VFR) for many polyatomic molecules. These resonances lead to strong enhancement of the annihilation rates. They also provide evidence that positrons bind to many molecular species. A quantitative theory of VFR-mediated attachment to small molecules is presented. It is tested successfully for selected molecules (e.g., methyl halides and methanol) where all modes couple to the positron continuum. Combination and overtone resonances are observed and their role is elucidated. In larger molecules, annihilation rates from VFR far exceed those explicable on the basis of single-mode resonances. These enhancements increase rapidly with the number of vibrational degrees of freedom. While the details are as yet unclear, intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution to states that do not couple directly to the positron continuum appears to be responsible for these enhanced annihilation rates. Downshifts of the VFR from the vibrational mode energies have provided binding energies for thirty species. Their dependence upon molecular parameters and their relationship to positron-atom and positron-molecule binding energy calculations are discussed. Feshbach resonances and positron binding to molecules are compared with the analogous electron-molecule (negative ion) cases. The relationship of VFR-mediated annihilation to other phenomena such as Doppler-broadening of the gamma-ray annihilation spectra, annihilation of thermalized positrons in gases, and annihilation-induced fragmentation of molecules is discussed.Comment: 50 pages, 40 figure

Dynamically controlled deposition of colloidal nanoparticles suspension in evaporating drops using laser radiation

Dynamic control of the distribution of polystyrene suspended nanoparticles in evaporating droplets is investigated using a 2.9 μm high power laser. Under laser radiation a droplet is locally heated and fluid flows are induced that overcome the capillary flow, and thus a reversal of the coffee-stain effect is observed. Suspension particles are accumulated in a localised area, one order of magnitude smaller than the original droplet size. By scanning the laser beam over the droplet, particles can be deposited in an arbitrary pattern. This finding raises the possibility for direct laser writing of suspended particles through a liquid layer. Furthermore, a highly uniform coating is possible by manipulating the laser beam diameter and exposure time. The effect is expected to be universally applicable to aqueous solutions independent of solutes (either particles or molecules) and deposited substrates

Neptune to the Common-wealth of England (1652): the republican Britannia and the continuity of interests

In the seventeenth century, John Kerrigan reminds us, “models of empire did not always turn on monarchy”. In this essay, I trace a vision of “Neptune’s empire” shared by royalists and republicans, binding English national interest to British overseas expansion. I take as my text a poem entitled “Neptune to the Common-wealth of England”, prefixed to Marchamont Nedham’s 1652 English translation of Mare Clausum (1635), John Selden’s response to Mare Liberum (1609) by Hugo Grotius. This minor work is read alongside some equally obscure and more familiar texts in order to point up the ways in which it speaks to persistent cultural and political interests. I trace the afterlife of this verse, its critical reception and its unique status as a fragment that exemplifies the crossover between colonial republic and imperial monarchy at a crucial moment in British history, a moment that, with Brexit, remains resonant

LipIDens : simulation assisted interpretation of lipid densities in cryo-EM structures of membrane proteins

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) enables the determination of membrane protein structures in native-like environments. Characterising how membrane proteins interact with the surrounding membrane lipid environment is assisted by resolution of lipid-like densities visible in cryo-EM maps. Nevertheless, establishing the molecular identity of putative lipid and/or detergent densities remains challenging. Here we present LipIDens, a pipeline for molecular dynamics (MD) simulation-assisted interpretation of lipid and lipid-like densities in cryo-EM structures. The pipeline integrates the implementation and analysis of multi-scale MD simulations for identification, ranking and refinement of lipid binding poses which superpose onto cryo-EM map densities. Thus, LipIDens enables direct integration of experimental and computational structural approaches to facilitate the interpretation of lipid-like cryo-EM densities and to reveal the molecular identities of protein-lipid interactions within a bilayer environment. We demonstrate this by application of our open-source LipIDens code to ten diverse membrane protein structures which exhibit lipid-like densities

Ab initio molecular dynamics of liquid water using embedded-fragment second-order many-body perturbation theory towards its accurate property prediction

A direct, simultaneous calculation of properties of a liquid using an ab initio electron-correlated theory has long been unthinkable. Here we present structural, dynamical, and response properties of liquid water calculated by ab initio molecular dynamics using the embedded-fragment spin-component-scaled second-order many-body perturbation method with the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set. This level of theory is chosen as it accurately and inexpensively reproduces the water dimer potential energy surface from the coupled-cluster singles, doubles, and noniterative triples with the augcc-pVQZ basis set, which is nearly exact. The calculated radial distribution function, self-diffusion coefficient, coordinate number, and dipole moment, as well as the infrared and Raman spectra are in excellent agreement with experimental results. The shapes and widths of the OH stretching bands in the infrared and Raman spectra and their isotropic-anisotropic Raman noncoincidence, which reflect the diverse local hydrogen-bond environment, are also reproduced computationally. The simulation also reveals intriguing dynamic features of the environment, which are difficult to probe experimentally, such as a surprisingly large fluctuation in the coordination number and the detailed mechanism by which the hydrogen donating water molecules move across the first and second shells, thereby causing this fluctuationopen