Multitemperature mapping of dust structures throughout the Galactic Plane using the PPMAP tool with Herschel Hi-GAL data

We describe new Hi-GAL based maps of the entire Galactic Plane, obtained using continuum data in the wavelength range 70–500 μm. These maps are derived with the PPMAP procedure, and therefore represent a significant improvement over those obtained with standard analysis techniques. Specifically they have greatly improved resolution (12 arcsec) and, in addition to more accurate integrated column densities and mean dust temperatures, they give temperature-differential column densities, i.e., separate column density maps in twelve distinct dust temperature intervals, along with the corresponding uncertainty maps. The complete set of maps is available online. We briefly describe PPMAP and present some illustrative examples of the results. These include (a) multi-temperature maps of the Galactic H II region W5-E, (b) the temperature decomposition of molecular cloud column-density probability distribution functions, and (c) the global variation of mean dust temperature as a function of Galactocentric distance. Amongst our findings are: (i) a strong localised temperature gradient in W5-E in a direction orthogonal to that towards the ionising star, suggesting an alternative heating source and providing possible guidance for models of the formation of the bubble complex, and (ii) the overall radial profile of dust temperature in the Galaxy shows a monotonic decrease, broadly consistent both with models of the interstellar radiation field and with previous estimates at lower resolution. However, we also find a central temperature plateau within ∼6 kpc of the Galactic centre, outside of which is a pronounced steepening of the radial profile. This behaviour may reflect the greater proportion of molecular (as opposed to atomic) gas in the central region of the Galaxy

Cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, their ratio and hypertension: evidence of associations in male veterans from the Vietnam Experience Study.

Although clinical observations implicate cortisol in hypertension, the epidemiological evidence is less compelling. Little is known about the relationship between dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) and hypertension, and nothing about the association with the cortisol: DHEAS ratio. The present analyses of data obtained from Vietnamera US veterans examined the associations between cortisol, DHEAS, their ratio and hypertension. Participants were 4180 male veterans. From military files, telephone interviews and a medical examination, sociodemographic and health data were collected. At medical examination, a fasted morning blood sample was collected to assay serum cortisol and DHEAS, blood pressure measured and body mass index (BMI) determined. Hypertension was defined by having one of the following: a reported physician diagnosis, taking antihypertensive medication, an average systolic blood pressure >= 140 mm Hg and an average diastolic blood pressure >= 90 mm Hg. Cortisol and the cortisol: DHEAS ratio were positively associated with hypertension (P < 0.001), whereas DHEAS was negatively associated; the latter relationship was attenuated to non-significance (P = 0.06) in models that adjusted for age, sociodemographics, place of service, health behaviours and BMI. The present analyses provide confirmation of a positive association between cortisol and the cortisol: DHEAS ratio and population hypertension. Journal of Human Hypertension (2011) 25, 418-424; doi:10.1038/jhh.2011.6; published online 10 February 201

The Hi-GAL catalogue of dusty filamentary structures in the Galactic plane

The recent data collected by Herschel have confirmed that interstellar structures with a filamentary shape are ubiquitously present in the Milky Way. Filaments are thought to be formed by several physical mechanisms acting from large Galactic scales down to subparsec fractions of molecular clouds, and they might represent a possible link between star formation and the large-scale structure of the Galaxy. In order to study this potential link, a statistically significant sample of filaments spread throughout the Galaxy is required. In this work, we present the first catalogue of 32 059 candidate filaments automatically identified in the Herschel Infrared Galactic plane Survey (Hi-GAL) of the entire Galactic plane. For these objects, we determined morphological (length la and geometrical shape) and physical (average column density NH2 and average temperature T) properties. We identified filaments with a wide range of properties: 2 ≤ la ≤ 100 arcmin, 1020≤NH2≤1023 cm−2 and 10 ≤ T ≤ 35 K. We discuss their association with the Hi-GAL compact sources, finding that the most tenuous (and stable) structures do not host any major condensation. We also assign a distance to ∼18 400 filaments, for which we determine mass, physical size, stability conditions and Galactic distribution. When compared with the spiral arms structure, we find no significant difference between the physical properties of on-arm and inter-arm filaments. We compare our sample with previous studies, finding that our Hi-GAL filament catalogue represents a significant extension in terms of Galactic coverage and sensitivity. This catalogue represents a unique and important tool for future studies devoted to understanding the filament life-cycle

The epidemiology and management of severe hypertension

Hypertension guidelines stress that patients with severe hypertension (systolic blood pressure (BP)⩾180 or diastolic BP⩾110 mm Hg) require multiple drugs to achieve control and should have close follow-up to prevent adverse outcomes. However, little is known about the epidemiology or actual management of these patients. We retrospectively studied 59 207 veterans with hypertension. Patients were categorized based on their highest average BP over an 18-month period (1 July 1999 to 31 December 2000) as controlled (<140/90 mm Hg), mild (140–159/90–99 mm Hg), moderate (160–179/100–109 mm Hg) and severe hypertension. We examined severe hypertension prevalence, pattern, duration, associated patient characteristics, time to subsequent visit, percentage of visits with a medication increase, and final BP control and antihypertensive medication adequacy. Twenty-three per cent had ⩾1 visit with severe hypertension, 42% of whom had at least two such visits; median day with severe hypertension was 80 (range 1–548). These subjects were significantly older, more likely black, and with more comorbidities than other hypertension subjects. Medication increases occurred at 20% of visits with mild hypertension compared to 40% with severe hypertension; P<0.05). At study end, 76% of patients with severe hypertension remained uncontrolled; severe hypertension subjects with uncontrolled BP were less likely to be on adequate therapy than those with controlled BP (43.7 vs 45.4%). Among hypertensive veterans, severe hypertension episodes are common. Many subjects had relatively prolonged elevations, with older, sicker subjects at highest risk. Although, follow-up times are shorter and antihypertensive medication use greater in severe hypertension subjects, they are still not being managed aggressively enough. Interventions to improve providers' management of these high-risk patients are needed

The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations

The current knowledge on the stellar IMF is documented. It appears to become top-heavy when the star-formation rate density surpasses about 0.1Msun/(yr pc^3) on a pc scale and it may become increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing metallicity and in increasingly massive early-type galaxies. It declines quite steeply below about 0.07Msun with brown dwarfs (BDs) and very low mass stars having their own IMF. The most massive star of mass mmax formed in an embedded cluster with stellar mass Mecl correlates strongly with Mecl being a result of gravitation-driven but resource-limited growth and fragmentation induced starvation. There is no convincing evidence whatsoever that massive stars do form in isolation. Various methods of discretising a stellar population are introduced: optimal sampling leads to a mass distribution that perfectly represents the exact form of the desired IMF and the mmax-to-Mecl relation, while random sampling results in statistical variations of the shape of the IMF. The observed mmax-to-Mecl correlation and the small spread of IMF power-law indices together suggest that optimally sampling the IMF may be the more realistic description of star formation than random sampling from a universal IMF with a constant upper mass limit. Composite populations on galaxy scales, which are formed from many pc scale star formation events, need to be described by the integrated galactic IMF. This IGIMF varies systematically from top-light to top-heavy in dependence of galaxy type and star formation rate, with dramatic implications for theories of galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 167 pages, 37 figures, 3 tables, published in Stellar Systems and Galactic Structure, Vol.5, Springer. This revised version is consistent with the published version and includes additional references and minor additions to the text as well as a recomputed Table 1. ISBN 978-90-481-8817-

HYPEST study: profile of hypertensive patients in Estonia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>More than one third of adult population in Estonia has problems with elevated blood pressure (BP). The <it>Hypertension in Estonia </it>(HYPEST) study represents the country's first hypertension-targeted sample collection aiming to examine the epidemiological and genetic determinants for hypertension (HTN) and related cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in Estonian population. The HYPEST subjects (n = 1,966) were recruited across Estonia between 2004-2007 including clinically diagnosed HTN cases and population-based controls. The present report is focused on the clinical and epidemiological profile of HYPEST cases, and gender-specific effects on the pathophysiology of hypertension.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Current analysis was performed on 1,007 clinically diagnosed HTN patients (617 women and 390 men) aged 18-85 years. The hypertensives were recruited to the study by BP specialists at the North Estonia Medical Center, Centre of Cardiology, Tallinn or at the Cardiology Clinic, Tartu University Hospital, Estonia. Longitudinal BP data was extracted retrospectively from clinical records. Current and retrospective data of patient's medical history, medication intake and lifestyle habits were derived from self-administrated questionnaire and each variable was examined separately for men and women. Eleven biochemical parameters were measured from fasting serum samples of 756 patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The distribution of recruited men and women was 39% and 61% respectively. Majority of Estonian HTN patients (85%) were overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m²) and a total of 79% of patients had additional complications with cardiovascular system. In men, the hypertension started almost 5 years earlier than in women (40.5 ± 14.5 vs 46.1 ± 12.7 years), which led to earlier age of first myocardial infarction (MI) and overall higher incidence rate of MI among male patients (men 21.2%, women 8.9%, <it>P </it>< 0.0001). Heart arrhythmia, thyroid diseases, renal tubulo-intestinal diseases and hyperlipidemia were more prevalent in hypertensive women compared to men (<it>P </it>< 0.0001). An earlier age of HTN onset was significantly associated with smoking (<it>P </it>= 0.00007), obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²; <it>P </it>= 0.0003), increased stress (<it>P </it>= 0.0003) and alcohol consumption (<it>P </it>= 0.004).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Understanding the clinical profile of HTN patients contributes to CVD management. Estonian hypertension patients exhibited different disease and risk profiles of male and female patients. This well-characterized sample set provides a good resource for studying hypertension and other cardiovascular phenotypes.</p

Precision engineering for PRRSV resistance in pigs: Macrophages from genome edited pigs lacking CD163 SRCR5 domain are fully resistant to both PRRSV genotypes while maintaining biological function

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is a panzootic infectious disease of pigs, causing major economic losses to the world-wide pig industry. PRRS manifests differently in pigs of all ages but primarily causes late-term abortions and stillbirths in sows and respiratory disease in piglets. The causative agent of the disease is the positive-strand RNA PRRS virus (PRRSV). PRRSV has a narrow host cell tropism, limited to cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage. CD163 has been described as a fusion receptor for PRRSV, whereby the scavenger receptor cysteine-rich domain 5 (SRCR5) region was shown to be an interaction site for the virus in vitro. CD163 is expressed at high levels on the surface of macrophages, particularly in the respiratory system. Here we describe the application of CRISPR/Cas9 to pig zygotes, resulting in the generation of pigs with a deletion of Exon 7 of the CD163 gene, encoding SRCR5. Deletion of SRCR5 showed no adverse effects in pigs maintained under standard husbandry conditions with normal growth rates and complete blood counts observed. Pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAMs) and peripheral blood monocytes (PBMCs) were isolated from the animals and assessed in vitro. Both PAMs and macrophages obtained from PBMCs by CSF1 stimulation (PMMs) show the characteristic differentiation and cell surface marker expression of macrophages of the respective origin. Expression and correct folding of the SRCR5 deletion CD163 on the surface of macrophages and biological activity of the protein as hemoglobin-haptoglobin scavenger was confirmed. Challenge of both PAMs and PMMs with PRRSV genotype 1, subtypes 1, 2, and 3 and PMMs with PRRSV genotype 2 showed complete resistance to viral infections assessed by replication. Confocal microscopy revealed the absence of replication structures in the SRCR5 CD163 deletion macrophages, indicating an inhibition of infection prior to gene expression, i.e. at entry/fusion or unpacking stages

Contemporary operative caries management:consensus recommendations on minimally invasive caries removal

The International Caries Consensus Collaboration (ICCC) presented recommendations on terminology, on carious tissue removal and on managing cavitated carious lesions. It identified 'dental caries' as the name of the disease that dentists should manage, and the importance of controlling the activity of existing cavitated lesions to preserve hard tissues, maintain pulp sensibility and retain functional teeth in the long term. The ICCC recommended the level of hardness (soft, leathery, firm, and hard dentine) as the criterion for determining the clinical consequences of the disease and defined new strategies for carious tissue removal: 1) Selective removal of carious tissue - including selective removal to soft dentine and selective removal to firm dentine; 2) stepwise removal - including stage 1, selective removal to soft dentine, and stage 2, selective removal to firm dentine 6 to 12 months later; and 3) non-selective removal to hard dentine - formerly known as complete caries removal (a traditional approach no longer recommended). Adoption of these terms will facilitate improved understanding and communication among researchers, within dental educators and the wider clinical dentistry community. Controlling the disease in cavitated carious lesions should be attempted using methods which are aimed at biofilm removal or control first. Only when cavitated carious dentine lesions are either non-cleansable or can no longer be sealed, are restorative interventions indicated. Carious tissue is removed purely to create conditions for long-lasting restorations. Bacterially contaminated or demineralised tissues close to the pulp do not need to be removed. The evidence and, therefore these recommendations, supports minimally invasive carious lesion management, delaying entry to, and slowing down, the destructive restorative cycle by preserving tooth tissue, maintaining pulp sensibility and retaining the functional tooth-restoration complex long-term