A Universal Model of Global Civil Unrest

Civil unrest is a powerful form of collective human dynamics, which has led to major transitions of societies in modern history. The study of collective human dynamics, including collective aggression, has been the focus of much discussion in the context of modeling and identification of universal patterns of behavior. In contrast, the possibility that civil unrest activities, across countries and over long time periods, are governed by universal mechanisms has not been explored. Here, we analyze records of civil unrest of 170 countries during the period 1919-2008. We demonstrate that the distributions of the number of unrest events per year are robustly reproduced by a nonlinear, spatially extended dynamical model, which reflects the spread of civil disorder between geographic regions connected through social and communication networks. The results also expose the similarity between global social instability and the dynamics of natural hazards and epidemics.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Etiology of Severe Non-malaria Febrile Illness in Northern Tanzania: A Prospective Cohort Study.

The syndrome of fever is a commonly presenting complaint among persons seeking healthcare in low-resource areas, yet the public health community has not approached fever in a comprehensive manner. In many areas, malaria is over-diagnosed, and patients without malaria have poor outcomes. We prospectively studied a cohort of 870 pediatric and adult febrile admissions to two hospitals in northern Tanzania over the period of one year using conventional standard diagnostic tests to establish fever etiology. Malaria was the clinical diagnosis for 528 (60.7%), but was the actual cause of fever in only 14 (1.6%). By contrast, bacterial, mycobacterial, and fungal bloodstream infections accounted for 85 (9.8%), 14 (1.6%), and 25 (2.9%) febrile admissions, respectively. Acute bacterial zoonoses were identified among 118 (26.2%) of febrile admissions; 16 (13.6%) had brucellosis, 40 (33.9%) leptospirosis, 24 (20.3%) had Q fever, 36 (30.5%) had spotted fever group rickettsioses, and 2 (1.8%) had typhus group rickettsioses. In addition, 55 (7.9%) participants had a confirmed acute arbovirus infection, all due to chikungunya. No patient had a bacterial zoonosis or an arbovirus infection included in the admission differential diagnosis. Malaria was uncommon and over-diagnosed, whereas invasive infections were underappreciated. Bacterial zoonoses and arbovirus infections were highly prevalent yet overlooked. An integrated approach to the syndrome of fever in resource-limited areas is needed to improve patient outcomes and to rationally target disease control efforts

Binary and Millisecond Pulsars at the New Millennium

We review the properties and applications of binary and millisecond pulsars. Our knowledge of these exciting objects has greatly increased in recent years, mainly due to successful surveys which have brought the known pulsar population to over 1300. There are now 56 binary and millisecond pulsars in the Galactic disk and a further 47 in globular clusters. This review is concerned primarily with the results and spin-offs from these surveys which are of particular interest to the relativity community.Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Living Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

Radio pulsar populations

The goal of this article is to summarize the current state of play in the field of radio pulsar statistics. Simply put, from the observed sample of objects from a variety of surveys with different telescopes, we wish to infer the properties of the underlying sample and to connect these with other astrophysical populations (for example supernova remnants or X-ray binaries). The main problem we need to tackle is the fact that, like many areas of science, the observed populations are often heavily biased by a variety of selection effects. After a review of the main effects relevant to radio pulsars, I discuss techniques to correct for them and summarize some of the most recent results. Perhaps the main point I would like to make in this article is that current models to describe the population are far from complete and often suffer from strong covariances between input parameters. That said, there are a number of very interesting conclusions that can be made concerning the evolution of neutron stars based on current data. While the focus of this review will be on the population of isolated Galactic pulsars, I will also briefly comment on millisecond and binary pulsars as well as the pulsar content of globular clusters and the Magellanic Clouds.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proceedings of ICREA Workshop on The High-Energy Emission from Pulsars and their Systems, Sant Cugat, Spain, 2010 April 12-16 (Springer

Measurement of the adhesion between single melamine-formaldehyde resin microparticles and a flat fabric surface using AFM

An understanding of the adhesion of microparticles, particularly microcapsules, containing a functional component to a fabric surface is crucial to an effective application of this component to the fibre. Fabric surface is very rough; hence, direct measurement of the adhesion of single microparticles to surfaces with a roughness greater than the particle diameter is difficult. In the study reported here, cotton films were generated by dissolving cotton powder in an organic solvent and their properties including surface roughness, thickness, contact angle and purity were characterised. The adhesive forces between single melamineformaldehyde (MF) resin microparticles and a cotton film under ambient conditions with a relative humidity of above 40% were measured using atomic force microscopy; they are considered to be dominated by capillary forces. It was found that there was little adhesion between a MF microparticle and a cotton film in an aqueous solution of sodium dodecylbenzene sulphonate as surfactant. Repulsion between them was observed, but it reduced with increase in the surfactant concentration and decrease in the pH of the solution. The repulsion contributions are thought to originate mainly from electrostatic repulsion. It is believed that the studies on the adhesion between single MF microparticles and a cotton film under ambient conditions or dispersed in surfactant solutions, are beneficial to the attempts to enhance the adhesion of microcapsules to fabric surfaces via a modification of their surface composition and morphology

Targeted genetic analysis in a large cohort of familial and sporadic cases of aneurysm or dissection of the thoracic aorta

PURPOSE: Thoracic aortic aneurysm/aortic dissection (TAAD) is a disorder with highly variable age of onset and phenotype. We sought to determine the prevalence of pathogenic variants in TAAD-associated genes in a mixed cohort of sporadic and familial TAAD patients and identify relevant genotype–phenotype relationships. METHODS: We used a targeted polymerase chain reaction and next-generation sequencing–based panel for genetic analysis of 15 TAAD-associated genes in 1,025 unrelated TAAD cases. RESULTS: We identified 49 pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants in 47 cases (4.9% of those successfully sequenced). Almost half of the variants were in nonsyndromic cases with no known family history of aortic disease. Twenty-five variants were within FBN1 and two patients were found to harbor two P/LP variants. Presence of a related syndrome, younger age at presentation, family history of aortic disease, and involvement of the ascending aorta increased the risk of carrying a P/LP variant. CONCLUSION: Given the poor prognosis of TAAD that is undiagnosed prior to acute rupture or dissection, genetic analysis of both familial and sporadic cases of TAAD will lead to new diagnoses, more informed management, and possibly reduced mortality through earlier, preclinical diagnosis in genetically determined cases and their family members

A preliminary investigation to explore the cognitive resources of physicians experiencing difficulty in training

Background Treating patients is complex, and research shows that there are differences in cognitive resources between physicians who experience difficulties, and those who do not. It is possible that differences in some cognitive resources could explain the difficulties faced by some physicians. In this study, we explore differences in cognitive resources between different groups of physicians (that is, between native (UK) physicians and International Medical Graduates (IMG); those who continue with training versus those who were subsequently removed from the training programme); and also between physicians experiencing difficulties compared with the general population. Methods A secondary evaluation was conducted on an anonymised dataset provided by the East Midlands Professional Support Unit (PSU). One hundred and twenty one postgraduate trainee physicians took part in an Educational Psychology assessment through PSU. Referrals to the PSU were mainly on the basis of problems with exam progression and difficulties in communication skills, organisation and confidence. Cognitive resources were assessed using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV). Physicians were categorised into three PSU outcomes: ‘Continued in training’, ‘Removed from training’ and ‘Active’ (currently accessing the PSU). Results Using a one-sample Z test, we compared the referred physician sample to a UK general population sample on the WAIS-IV and found the referred sample significantly higher in Verbal Comprehension (VCI; z = 8.78) and significantly lower in Working Memory (WMI; z = −4.59). In addition, the native sample were significantly higher in Verbal Comprehension than the UK general population sample (VCI; native physicians: z = 9.95, p < .001, d = 1.25), whilst there was a lesser effect for the difference between the IMG sample and the UK general population (z = 2.13, p = .03, d = 0.29). Findings also showed a significant difference in VCI scores between those physicians who were ‘Removed from training’ and those who ‘Continued in training’. Conclusions Our results suggest it is important to understand the cognitive resources of physicians to provide a more focussed explanation of those who experience difficulties in training. This will help to implement more targeted interventions to help physicians develop compensatory strategies

CHOP Potentially Co-Operates with FOXO3a in Neuronal Cells to Regulate PUMA and BIM Expression in Response to ER Stress

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced apoptosis has been implicated in various neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson Disease, Alzheimer Disease and Huntington Disease. PUMA (p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis) and BIM (BCL2 interacting mediator of cell death), pro-apoptotic BH3 domain-only, BCL2 family members, have previously been shown to regulate ER stress-induced cell death, but the upstream signaling pathways that regulate this response in neuronal cells are incompletely defined. Consistent with previous studies, we show that both PUMA and BIM are induced in response to ER stress in neuronal cells and that transcriptional induction of PUMA regulates ER stress-induced cell death, independent of p53. CHOP (C/EBP homologous protein also known as GADD153; gene name Ddit3), a critical initiator of ER stress-induced apoptosis, was found to regulate both PUMA and BIM expression in response to ER stress. We further show that CHOP knockdown prevents perturbations in the AKT (protein kinase B)/FOXO3a (forkhead box, class O, 3a) pathway in response to ER stress. CHOP co-immunoprecipitated with FOXO3a in tunicamycin treated cells, suggesting that CHOP may also regulate other pro-apoptotic signaling cascades culminating in PUMA and BIM activation and cell death. In summary, CHOP regulates the expression of multiple pro-apoptotic BH3-only molecules through multiple mechanisms, making CHOP an important therapeutic target relevant to a number of neurodegenerative conditions