Endoscopic Treatment of a Bile Duct Stone Containing a Surgical Staple

We report a case of a pigmented gallstone which formed around a surgical staple in the bile duct. The stone was removed and retrieved endoscopically. A brief review of bile duct foreign bodies and gallstones is presented

The jet of Markarian 501 from millions of Schwarzschild radii down to a few hundreds

Aims: The TeV BL Lac object Markarian 501 is a complex, core dominated radio source, with a one sided, twisting jet on parsec scales. In the present work, we attempt to extend our understanding of the source physics to regions of the radio jet which have not been accessed before. Methods: We present new observations of Mrk 501 at 1.4 and 86 GHz. The 1.4 GHz data were obtained using the Very Large Array (VLA) and High Sensitivity Array (HSA) in November 2004, in full polarization, with a final r.m.s. noise of 25 microJy/beam in the HSA total intensity image; the 86 GHz observations were performed in October 2005 with the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA), providing an angular resolution as good as 110 x 40 microarcseconds. Results: The sensitivity and resolution provided by the HSA make it possible to detect the jet up to ~700 milliarcseconds (corresponding to a projected linear size of ~500 pc) from its base, while the superior resolution of the 86 GHz GMVA observations probes the innermost regions of the jet down to ~200 Schwarzschild radii. The brightness temperature at the jet base is in excess of 6e10 K. We find evidence of limb brightening on physical scales from <1 pc to ~40 pc. Polarization images and fits to the trend of jet width and brightness vs. distance from the core reveal a magnetic field parallel to the jet axis.Comment: 10 pages, accepted by A&

A View through Faraday's Fog 2: Parsec Scale Rotation Measures in 40 AGN

Results from a survey of the parsec scale Faraday rotation measure properties for 40 quasars, radio galaxies and BL Lac objects are presented. Core rotation measures for quasars vary from approximately 500 to several thousand radians per meter squared. Quasar jets have rotation measures which are typically 500 radians per meter squared or less. The cores and jets of the BL Lac objects have rotation measures similar to those found in quasar jets. The jets of radio galaxies exhibit a range of rotation measures from a few hundred radians per meter squared to almost 10,000 radians per meter squared for the jet of M87. Radio galaxy cores are generally depolarized, and only one of four radio galaxies (3C-120) has a detectable rotation measure in the core. Several potential identities for the foreground Faraday screen are considered and we believe the most promising candidate for all the AGN types considered is a screen in close proximity to the jet. This constrains the path length to approximately 10 parsecs, and magnetic field strengths of approximately 1 microGauss can account for the observed rotation measures. For 27 out of 34 quasars and BL Lacs their optically thick cores have good agreement to a lambda squared law. This requires the different tau = 1 surfaces to have the same intrinsic polarization angle independent of frequency and distance from the black hole.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal: 71 pages, 40 figure

Reduced efficacy of praziquantel against Schistosoma mansoni associated with multiple-rounds of mass drug administration

The efficacy of praziquantel against Schistosoma mansoni was significantly lower in Ugandan schools that had received more prior rounds of mass drug administration, as determined by fitting a statistical model to parasite egg counts before and after treatment

VariVis: a visualisation toolkit for variation databases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With the completion of the Human Genome Project and recent advancements in mutation detection technologies, the volume of data available on genetic variations has risen considerably. These data are stored in online variation databases and provide important clues to the cause of diseases and potential side effects or resistance to drugs. However, the data presentation techniques employed by most of these databases make them difficult to use and understand.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present a visualisation toolkit that can be employed by online variation databases to generate graphical models of gene sequence with corresponding variations and their consequences. The VariVis software package can run on any web server capable of executing Perl CGI scripts and can interface with numerous Database Management Systems and "flat-file" data files. VariVis produces two easily understandable graphical depictions of any gene sequence and matches these with variant data. While developed with the goal of improving the utility of human variation databases, the VariVis package can be used in any variation database to enhance utilisation of, and access to, critical information.</p

Mapping EU support for sanitation in Africa

This study addresses a number of key concerns of AMCOW, the European Union (EU) and other donors around the need to increase support to sanitation in order to accelerate the progress of national plans, Africawide goals, and the attainment of the MDG target on sanitation. The purpose of the study is to obtain an overview of the status of the involvement of EU Member States and the European Commission in sanitation-related activities in Africa. It is anticipated that the findings of this work will have the potential to be used for both arguing for greater priority for sanitation within the international architecture and also for individual donors to use in discussing their own Official Development Assistance (ODA). The work is complementary to the report from 2008 on mapping EU development assistance to the water sector in Africa. This earlier report had a much wider remit and as such, the Sanitation Mapping report can be considered as being supplementary to it

European Union support for sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa: aid flows and effectiveness

Within sub-Saharan Africa, 569 million people, amounting to 69% of the population, do not use improved sanitation. This study presents an overview of European Union (EU) donor support to sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa and proposes a method for investigating the effectiveness of national sanitation programmes through linking aid flows to sanitation outcomes in terms of trends in open defecation; this can be used to locate the relative performance of different countries. The work addresses key concerns of the African Ministers' Council on Water and the European donors around the need to increase support to sanitation. Results show that EU donors are the major source of external finance for sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa. Case studies from Mozambique, Uganda and Burkina Faso show that the majority of national planned expenditure on sanitation comes from donor sources, with EU donors being the substantive contributors. National policies on subsidy for sanitation and expenditure allocations vary extremely widely and do not necessarily align with sanitation outcomes. EU member states' donor policies on sanitation are consistent and well-aligned with those of the African Union; this is a major achievement for Europe and Africa. Inadequate national monitoring of sanitation expenditure remains a constraint to determining programme effectiveness

The Bologna Complete Sample of Nearby Radio Sources

We present a new, complete, sample of 95 radio sources selected from the B2 and 3CR catalogues, with z < 0.1. Since no selection effect on the core radio power, jet velocity, or source orientation is present, this sample is well suited for statistical studies. In this first paper we present the observational status of all sources on the parsec (mas) and kiloparsec (arcsec) scale; we give new parsec-scale data for 28 sources and discuss their parsec-scale properties. Combining these data with those in the literature, information on the parsec-scale morphology is available for a total of 53 radio sources with different radio power and kpc-scale morphology. We investigate their properties. We find a dramatically higher fraction of two-sided sources in comparison to previous flux limited VLBI surveys.Comment: 29 pages, 21 figures - ApJ in press (10 Jan 2005 issue

Implications of a High Angular Resolution Image of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect in RXJ1347-1145

The most X-ray luminous cluster known, RXJ1347-1145 (z=0.45), has been the object of extensive study across the electromagnetic spectrum. We have imaged the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) at 90 GHz (3.3 mm) in RXJ1347-1145 at 10" resolution with the 64-pixel MUSTANG bolometer array on the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), confirming a previously reported strong, localized enhancement of the SZE 20" to the South-East of the center of X-ray emission. This enhancement of the SZE has been interpreted as shock-heated (> 20 keV) gas caused by an ongoing major (low mass-ratio) merger event. Our data support this interpretation. We also detect a pronounced asymmetry in the projected cluster pressure profile, with the pressure just east of the cluster core ~1.6 times higher than just to the west. This is the highest resolution image of the SZE made to date.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

90GHz and 150GHz observations of the Orion M42 region. A sub-millimeter to radio analysis

We have used the new 90GHz MUSTANG camera on the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to map the bright Huygens region of the star-forming region M42 with a resolution of 9" and a sensitivity of 2.8mJy/beam. 90GHz is an interesting transition frequency, as MUSTANG detects both the free-free emission characteristic of the HII region created by the Trapezium stars, normally seen at lower frequencies, and thermal dust emission from the background OMC1 molecular cloud, normally mapped at higher frequencies. We also present similar data from the 150GHz GISMO camera taken on the IRAM telescope. This map has 15" resolution. By combining the MUSTANG data with 1.4, 8, and 21GHz radio data from the VLA and GBT, we derive a new estimate of the emission measure (EM) averaged electron temperature of Te = 11376K by an original method relating free-free emission intensities at optically thin and optically thick frequencies. Combining ISO-LWS data with our data, we derive a new estimate of the dust temperature and spectral emissivity index within the 80" ISO-LWS beam toward OrionKL/BN, Td = 42K and Beta=1.3. We show that both Td and Beta decrease when going from the HII region and excited OMC1 interface to the denser UV shielded part of OMC1 (OrionKL/BN, Orion S). With a model consisting of only free-free and thermal dust emission we are able to fit data taken at frequencies from 1.5GHz to 854GHz.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journa