Indoor Social Networks in a South African Township: Potential Contribution of Location to Tuberculosis Transmission

CITATION: Wood, R. et al. 2012. Indoor social networks in a South African township : potential contribution of location to tuberculosis transmission. PLoS ONE, 7(6): e39246, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039246.The original publication is available at http://journals.plos.org/plosoneBackground We hypothesized that in South Africa, with a generalized tuberculosis (TB) epidemic, TB infection is predominantly acquired indoors and transmission potential is determined by the number and duration of social contacts made in locations that are conducive to TB transmission. We therefore quantified time spent and contacts met in indoor locations and public transport by residents of a South African township with a very high TB burden. Methods A diary-based community social mixing survey was performed in 2010. Randomly selected participants (n = 571) prospectively recorded numbers of contacts and time spent in specified locations over 24-hour periods. To better characterize age-related social networks, participants were stratified into ten 5-year age strata and locations were classified into 11 types. Results Five location types (own-household, other-households, transport, crèche/school, and work) contributed 97.2% of total indoor time and 80.4% of total indoor contacts. Median time spent indoors was 19.1 hours/day (IQR:14.3–22.7), which was consistent across age strata. Median daily contacts increased from 16 (IQR:9–40) in 0–4 year-olds to 40 (IQR:18–60) in 15–19 year-olds and declined to 18 (IQR:10–41) in ≥45 year-olds. Mean daily own-household contacts was 8.8 (95%CI:8.2–9.4), which decreased with increasing age. Mean crèche/school contacts increased from 6.2/day (95%CI:2.7–9.7) in 0–4 year-olds to 28.1/day (95%CI:8.1–48.1) in 15–19 year-olds. Mean transport contacts increased from 4.9/day (95%CI:1.6–8.2) in 0–4 year-olds to 25.5/day (95%CI:12.1–38.9) in 25–29 year-olds. Conclusions A limited number of location types contributed the majority of indoor social contacts in this community. Increasing numbers of social contacts occurred throughout childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, predominantly in school and public transport. This rapid increase in non-home socialization parallels the increasing TB infection rates during childhood and young adulthood reported in this community. Further studies of the environmental conditions in schools and public transport, as potentially important locations for ongoing TB infection, are indicated.http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0039246Publisher's versio

Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications

Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the Einstein-Langevin equation, which has in addition sources due to the noise kernel.In the first part, we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. In the second part, we describe three applications of stochastic gravity theory. First, we consider metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime: we compute the two-point correlation functions for the linearized Einstein tensor and for the metric perturbations. Second, we discuss structure formation from the stochastic gravity viewpoint. Third, we discuss the backreaction of Hawking radiation in the gravitational background of a quasi-static black hole.Comment: 75 pages, no figures, submitted to Living Reviews in Relativit

Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications

Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the Einstein-Langevin equation, which has in addition sources due to the noise kernel. In the first part, we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. In the second part, we describe three applications of stochastic gravity theory. First, we consider metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime, compute the two-point correlation functions of these perturbations and prove that Minkowski spacetime is a stable solution of semiclassical gravity. Second, we discuss structure formation from the stochastic gravity viewpoint. Third, we discuss the backreaction of Hawking radiation in the gravitational background of a black hole and describe the metric fluctuations near the event horizon of an evaporating black holeComment: 100 pages, no figures; an update of the 2003 review in Living Reviews in Relativity gr-qc/0307032 ; it includes new sections on the Validity of Semiclassical Gravity, the Stability of Minkowski Spacetime, and the Metric Fluctuations of an Evaporating Black Hol

Restarted Q-Arnoldi-type methods exploiting symmetry in quadratic eigenvalue problems

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/s10543-016-0601-5.We investigate how to adapt the Q-Arnoldi method for the case of symmetric quadratic eigenvalue problems, that is, we are interested in computing a few eigenpairs of with M, C, K symmetric matrices. This problem has no particular structure, in the sense that eigenvalues can be complex or even defective. Still, symmetry of the matrices can be exploited to some extent. For this, we perform a symmetric linearization , where A, B are symmetric matrices but the pair (A, B) is indefinite and hence standard Lanczos methods are not applicable. We implement a symmetric-indefinite Lanczos method and enrich it with a thick-restart technique. This method uses pseudo inner products induced by matrix B for the orthogonalization of vectors (indefinite Gram-Schmidt). The projected problem is also an indefinite matrix pair. The next step is to write a specialized, memory-efficient version that exploits the block structure of A and B, referring only to the original problem matrices M, C, K as in the Q-Arnoldi method. This results in what we have called the Q-Lanczos method. Furthermore, we define a stabilized variant analog of the TOAR method. We show results obtained with parallel implementations in SLEPc.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant TIN2013-41049-P. Carmen Campos was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport through an FPU Grant with reference AP2012-0608.Campos, C.; Román Moltó, JE. (2016). Restarted Q-Arnoldi-type methods exploiting symmetry in quadratic eigenvalue problems. BIT Numerical Mathematics. 56(4):1213-1236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10543-016-0601-5S12131236564Bai, Z., Su, Y.: SOAR: a second-order Arnoldi method for the solution of the quadratic eigenvalue problem. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 26(3), 640–659 (2005)Bai, Z., Day, D., Ye, Q.: ABLE: an adaptive block Lanczos method for non-Hermitian eigenvalue problems. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 20(4), 1060–1082 (1999)Bai, Z., Ericsson, T., Kowalski, T.: Symmetric indefinite Lanczos method. In: Bai, Z., Demmel, J., Dongarra, J., Ruhe, A., van der Vorst, H. (eds.) Templates for the solution of algebraic eigenvalue problems: a practical guide, pp. 249–260. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia (2000)Balay, S., Abhyankar, S., Adams, M., Brown, J., Brune, P., Buschelman, K., Dalcin, L., Eijkhout, V., Gropp, W., Kaushik, D., Knepley, M., McInnes, L.C., Rupp, K., Smith, B., Zampini, S., Zhang, H.: PETSc users manual. Tech. Rep. ANL-95/11 - Revision 3.6, Argonne National Laboratory (2015)Benner, P., Faßbender, H., Stoll, M.: Solving large-scale quadratic eigenvalue problems with Hamiltonian eigenstructure using a structure-preserving Krylov subspace method. Electron. Trans. Numer. Anal. 29, 212–229 (2008)Betcke, T., Higham, N.J., Mehrmann, V., Schröder, C., Tisseur, F.: NLEVP: a collection of nonlinear eigenvalue problems. ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 39(2), 7:1–7:28 (2013)Campos, C., Roman, J.E.: Parallel Krylov solvers for the polynomial eigenvalue problem in SLEPc (2015, submitted)Day, D.: An efficient implementation of the nonsymmetric Lanczos algorithm. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 18(3), 566–589 (1997)Hernandez, V., Roman, J.E., Vidal, V.: SLEPc: a scalable and flexible toolkit for the solution of eigenvalue problems. ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 31(3), 351–362 (2005)Hernandez, V., Roman, J.E., Tomas, A.: Parallel Arnoldi eigensolvers with enhanced scalability via global communications rearrangement. Parallel Comput. 33(7–8), 521–540 (2007)Jia, Z., Sun, Y.: A refined variant of SHIRA for the skew-Hamiltonian/Hamiltonian (SHH) pencil eigenvalue problem. Taiwan J. Math. 17(1), 259–274 (2013)Kressner, D., Roman, J.E.: Memory-efficient Arnoldi algorithms for linearizations of matrix polynomials in Chebyshev basis. Numer. Linear Algebra Appl. 21(4), 569–588 (2014)Kressner, D., Pandur, M.M., Shao, M.: An indefinite variant of LOBPCG for definite matrix pencils. Numer. Algorithms 66(4), 681–703 (2014)Lancaster, P.: Linearization of regular matrix polynomials. Electron. J. Linear Algebra 17, 21–27 (2008)Lancaster, P., Ye, Q.: Rayleigh-Ritz and Lanczos methods for symmetric matrix pencils. Linear Algebra Appl. 185, 173–201 (1993)Lu, D., Su, Y.: Two-level orthogonal Arnoldi process for the solution of quadratic eigenvalue problems (2012, manuscript)Meerbergen, K.: The Lanczos method with semi-definite inner product. BIT 41(5), 1069–1078 (2001)Meerbergen, K.: The Quadratic Arnoldi method for the solution of the quadratic eigenvalue problem. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 30(4), 1463–1482 (2008)Mehrmann, V., Watkins, D.: Structure-preserving methods for computing eigenpairs of large sparse skew-Hamiltonian/Hamiltonian pencils. SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 22(6), 1905–1925 (2001)Parlett, B.N.: The symmetric Eigenvalue problem. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1980) (reissued with revisions by SIAM, Philadelphia)Parlett, B.N., Chen, H.C.: Use of indefinite pencils for computing damped natural modes. Linear Algebra Appl. 140(1), 53–88 (1990)Parlett, B.N., Taylor, D.R., Liu, Z.A.: A look-ahead Lánczos algorithm for unsymmetric matrices. Math. Comput. 44(169), 105–124 (1985)de Samblanx, G., Bultheel, A.: Nested Lanczos: implicitly restarting an unsymmetric Lanczos algorithm. Numer. Algorithms 18(1), 31–50 (1998)Sleijpen, G.L.G., Booten, A.G.L., Fokkema, D.R., van der Vorst, H.A.: Jacobi-Davidson type methods for generalized eigenproblems and polynomial eigenproblems. BIT 36(3), 595–633 (1996)Stewart, G.W.: A Krylov-Schur algorithm for large eigenproblems. 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Salivary Glucose Oxidase from Caterpillars Mediates the Induction of Rapid and Delayed-Induced Defenses in the Tomato Plant

Caterpillars produce oral secretions that may serve as cues to elicit plant defenses, but in other cases these secretions have been shown to suppress plant defenses. Ongoing work in our laboratory has focused on the salivary secretions of the tomato fruitworm, Helicoverpa zea. In previous studies we have shown that saliva and its principal component glucose oxidase acts as an effector by suppressing defenses in tobacco. In this current study, we report that saliva elicits a burst of jasmonic acid (JA) and the induction of late responding defense genes such as proteinase inhibitor 2 (Pin2). Transcripts encoding early response genes associated with the JA pathway were not affected by saliva. We also observed a delayed response to saliva with increased densities of Type VI glandular trichomes in newly emerged leaves. Proteomic analysis of saliva revealed glucose oxidase (GOX) was the most abundant protein identified and we confirmed that it plays a primary role in the induction of defenses in tomato. These results suggest that the recognition of GOX in tomato may represent a case for effector-triggered immunity. Examination of saliva from other caterpillar species indicates that saliva from the noctuids Spodoptera exigua and Heliothis virescens also induced Pin2 transcripts

Comprehensive prediction of chromosome dimer resolution sites in bacterial genomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During the replication process of bacteria with circular chromosomes, an odd number of homologous recombination events results in concatenated dimer chromosomes that cannot be partitioned into daughter cells. However, many bacteria harbor a conserved dimer resolution machinery consisting of one or two tyrosine recombinases, XerC and XerD, and their 28-bp target site, <it>dif</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To study the evolution of the <it>dif/</it>XerCD system and its relationship with replication termination, we report the comprehensive prediction of <it>dif </it>sequences <it>in silico </it>using a phylogenetic prediction approach based on iterated hidden Markov modeling. Using this method, <it>dif </it>sites were identified in 641 organisms among 16 phyla, with a 97.64% identification rate for single-chromosome strains. The <it>dif </it>sequence positions were shown to be strongly correlated with the GC skew shift-point that is induced by replicational mutation/selection pressures, but the difference in the positions of the predicted <it>dif </it>sites and the GC skew shift-points did not correlate with the degree of replicational mutation/selection pressures.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The sequence of <it>dif </it>sites is widely conserved among many bacterial phyla, and they can be computationally identified using our method. The lack of correlation between <it>dif </it>position and the degree of GC skew suggests that replication termination does not occur strictly at <it>dif </it>sites.</p

Brane-World Gravity

The observable universe could be a 1+3-surface (the "brane") embedded in a 1+3+\textit{d}-dimensional spacetime (the "bulk"), with Standard Model particles and fields trapped on the brane while gravity is free to access the bulk. At least one of the \textit{d} extra spatial dimensions could be very large relative to the Planck scale, which lowers the fundamental gravity scale, possibly even down to the electroweak ($\sim$ TeV) level. This revolutionary picture arises in the framework of recent developments in M theory. The 1+10-dimensional M theory encompasses the known 1+9-dimensional superstring theories, and is widely considered to be a promising potential route to quantum gravity. At low energies, gravity is localized at the brane and general relativity is recovered, but at high energies gravity "leaks" into the bulk, behaving in a truly higher-dimensional way. This introduces significant changes to gravitational dynamics and perturbations, with interesting and potentially testable implications for high-energy astrophysics, black holes, and cosmology. Brane-world models offer a phenomenological way to test some of the novel predictions and corrections to general relativity that are implied by M theory. This review analyzes the geometry, dynamics and perturbations of simple brane-world models for cosmology and astrophysics, mainly focusing on warped 5-dimensional brane-worlds based on the Randall--Sundrum models. We also cover the simplest brane-world models in which 4-dimensional gravity on the brane is modified at \emph{low} energies -- the 5-dimensional Dvali--Gabadadze--Porrati models. Then we discuss co-dimension two branes in 6-dimensional models.Comment: A major update of Living Reviews in Relativity 7:7 (2004) "Brane-World Gravity", 119 pages, 28 figures, the update contains new material on RS perturbations, including full numerical solutions of gravitational waves and scalar perturbations, on DGP models, and also on 6D models. A published version in Living Reviews in Relativit