Comet and Meteorite Traditions of Aboriginal Australians

Of the hundreds of distinct Aboriginal cultures of Australia, many have oral traditions rich in descriptions and explanations of comets, meteors, meteorites, airbursts, impact events, and impact craters. These views generally attribute these phenomena to spirits, death, and bad omens. There are also many traditions that describe the formation of meteorite craters as well as impact events that are not known to Western science.Comment: Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, 2014. Edited by Helaine Selin. Springer Netherland

New Mechanics of Traumatic Brain Injury

The prediction and prevention of traumatic brain injury is a very important aspect of preventive medical science. This paper proposes a new coupled loading-rate hypothesis for the traumatic brain injury (TBI), which states that the main cause of the TBI is an external Euclidean jolt, or SE(3)-jolt, an impulsive loading that strikes the head in several coupled degrees-of-freedom simultaneously. To show this, based on the previously defined covariant force law, we formulate the coupled Newton-Euler dynamics of brain's micro-motions within the cerebrospinal fluid and derive from it the coupled SE(3)-jolt dynamics. The SE(3)-jolt is a cause of the TBI in two forms of brain's rapid discontinuous deformations: translational dislocations and rotational disclinations. Brain's dislocations and disclinations, caused by the SE(3)-jolt, are described using the Cosserat multipolar viscoelastic continuum brain model. Keywords: Traumatic brain injuries, coupled loading-rate hypothesis, Euclidean jolt, coupled Newton-Euler dynamics, brain's dislocations and disclinationsComment: 18 pages, 1 figure, Late

Behaviour patterns preceding a railway suicide: Explorative study of German Federal Police officers' experiences

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Constant high-level numbers of railway suicides indicate that prevention strategies against railway suicides are urgently needed. The main question of the present study was whether pre-crash railway suicide behaviour can be identified, using German Federal Police officers experience with suicidal events in railway related environments.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To collect information on pre-crash railway suicide behaviour, a questionnaire was used and made available on the German Federal Police intranet. A total of 202 subjects (mean age: 41 years, sex: 84.9% male) were included in the analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to predict the prevention of suicide (first model) or demand for counselling (second model) as outcomes. Sex, age, years of service, number of experienced suicides, suicides personally observed, information on suicides obtained from witnesses and finally either counselling/debriefing (first model) or whether officers had prevented a suicide (second model) were used as predictors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A considerable proportion of police officers reported behavioural patterns preceding a suicide. Half of them observed the dropping or leaving behind of personal belongings or the avoidance of eye contact, more than a third erratic gesture, mimic or movement. Erratic communication patterns and general confusion were each reported by about one quarter. One fifth indicated the influence of alcohol. Less frequently observed behaviour was aimlessly wandering (14.3%) and out of the ordinary clothing (4%). About one third of all railway suicide victims committed suicide in stations. Of those, 70% had chosen an eminent spot. The multivariate logistic regression model using prevented suicides as the outcome identified the number of suicides experienced, counselling/debriefing and having personally observed a suicide as variables with significant impact. The model using counselling/debriefing as the outcome identified age and having prevented a suicide as variables with a significant association.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results provide evidence that railway suicides are preceded by identifiable behavioural patterns. This emphasizes the importance of educational efforts, taking into account the knowledge and skills of experienced police officers.</p

Immunolocalization of Influenza A Virus and Markers of Inflammation in the Human Parkinson's Disease Brain

Although much is known regarding the molecular mechanisms leading to neuronal cell loss in Parkinson's disease (PD), the initiating event has not been identified. Prevailing theories including a chemical insult or infectious agent have been postulated as possible triggers, leading to neuroinflammation. We present immunohistochemical data indicating the presence of influenza A virus within the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) from postmortem PD brain sections. Influenza A virus labeling was identified within neuromelanin granules as well as on tissue macrophages in the SNpc. Further supporting a role for neuroinflammation in PD was the identification of T-lymphocytes that colocalized with an antibody to caspase-cleaved Beclin-1 within the SNpc. The presence of influenza A virus together with macrophages and T-lymphocytes may contribute to the neuroinflammation associated with this disease

Concomitant Targeting of EGF Receptor, TGF-beta and Src Points to a Novel Therapeutic Approach in Pancreatic Cancer

To test the hypothesis that concomitant targeting of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) may offer a novel therapeutic approach in pancreatic cancer, EGFR silencing by RNA interference (shEGFR) was combined with TGF-β sequestration by soluble TGF-β receptor II (sTβRII). Effects on colony formation in 3-dimensional culture, tumor formation in nude mice, and downstream signaling were monitored. In both ASPC-1 and T3M4 cells, either shEGFR or sTβRII significantly inhibited colony formation. However, in ASPC-1 cells, combining shEGFR with sTβRII reduced colony formation more efficiently than either approach alone, whereas in T3M4 cells, shEGFR-mediated inhibition of colony formation was reversed by sTβRII. Similarly, in vivo growth of ASPC-1-derived tumors was attenuated by either shEGFR or sTβRII, and was markedly suppressed by both vectors. By contrast, T3M4-derived tumors either failed to form or were very small when EGFR alone was silenced, and these effects were reversed by sTβRII due to increased cancer cell proliferation. The combination of shEGFR and sTβRII decreased phospho-HER2, phospho-HER3, phoshpo-ERK and phospho-src (Tyr416) levels in ASPC-1 cells but increased their levels in T3M4 cells. Moreover, inhibition of both EGFR and HER2 by lapatinib or of src by SSKI-606, PP2, or dasatinib, blocked the sTβRII-mediated antagonism of colony formation in T3M4 cells. Together, these observations suggest that concomitantly targeting EGFR, TGF-β, and src may constitute a novel therapeutic approach in PDAC that prevents deleterious cross-talk between EGFR family members and TGF-β-dependent pathways

Enriching Peptide Libraries for Binding Affinity and Specificity Through Computationally Directed Library Design

Peptide reagents with high affinity or specificity for their target protein interaction partner are of utility for many important applications. Optimization of peptide binding by screening large libraries is a proven and powerful approach. Libraries designed to be enriched in peptide sequences that are predicted to have desired affinity or specificity characteristics are more likely to yield success than random mutagenesis. We present a library optimization method in which the choice of amino acids to encode at each peptide position can be guided by available experimental data or structure-based predictions. We discuss how to use analysis of predicted library performance to inform rounds of library design. Finally, we include protocols for more complex library design procedures that consider the chemical diversity of the amino acids at each peptide position and optimize a library score based on a user-specified input model.National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (Award R01 GM110048

Modelling a response as a function of high frequency count data: the association between physical activity and fat mass

We present a new statistical modelling approach where the response is a function of high frequency count data. Our application is about investigating the relationship between the health outcome fat mass and physical activity (PA) measured by accelerometer. The accelerometer quantifies the intensity of physical activity as counts per epoch over a given period of time. We use data from the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children (ALSPAC) where accelerometer data is available as a time series of accelerometer counts per minute over seven days for a subset of children. In order to compare accelerometer profiles between individuals and to reduce the high dimension a functional summary of the profiles is used. We use the histogram as a functional summary due to its simplicity, suitability and ease of interpretation. Our model is an extension of generalised regression of scalars on functions or signal regression. It allows also multi-dimensional functional predictors and additive non-linear predictors for metric covariates. The additive multidimensional functional predictors allow investigating specific questions about whether the effect of PA varies over its intensity, by gender, by time of day or by day of the week. The key feature of the model is that it utilises the full profile of measured PA without requiring cut-points defining intensity levels for light, moderate and vigorous activity. We show that the (not necessarily causal) effect of PA is not linear and not constant over the activity intensity. Also, there is little evidence to suggest that the effect of PA intensity varies by gender or whether it happens on weekdays or on weekends

Channel Characteristics of MIMO-WLAN Communications at 60GHz for Various Corridors

[[abstract]]A comparison of 4 × 4 multiple-input multiple-output wireless local area network wireless communication characteristics for six different geometrical shapes is investigated. These six shapes include the straight shape corridor with rectangular cross section, the straight shape corridor with arched cross section, the curved shape corridor with rectangular cross section, the curved shape corridor with arched cross section, the L-shape corridor, and the T-shape corridor. The impulse responses of these corridors are computed by applying shooting and bouncing ray/image (SBR/Image) techniques along with inverse Fourier transform. By using the impulse response of these multipath channels, the mean excess delay, root mean square (RMS) delay spread for these six corridors can be obtained. Numerical results show that the capacity for the rectangular cross section corridors is smaller than those for the arched cross section corridors regardless of the shapes. And the RMS delay spreads for the T-and the L-shape corridors are greater than the other corridors.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SCI[[incitationindex]]EI[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子

Seroepidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii infection in pregnant women in a public hospital in northern Mexico

BACKGROUND: Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection in pregnant women represents a risk for congenital disease. There is scarce information about the epidemiology of T. gondii infection in pregnant women in Mexico. Therefore, we sought to determine the prevalence of T. gondii infection and associated socio-demographic, clinical and behavioural characteristics in a population of pregnant women of Durango City, Mexico. METHODS: Three hundred and forty three women seeking prenatal care in a public hospital of Durango City in Mexico were examined for T. gondii infection. All women were tested for anti-T. gondii IgM and IgG antibodies by using IMx Toxo IgM and IMx Toxo IgG 2.0 kits (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, USA), respectively. Socio-demographic, clinical and behavioural characteristics from each participant were also obtained. RESULTS: Twenty one out of the 343 (6.1%) women had IgG anti-T. gondii antibodies. None of the 343 women had IgM anti-T. gondii antibodies. Multivariate analysis using logic regression showed that T. gondii infection was associated with living in a house with soil floor (adjusted OR = 7.16; 95% CI: 1.39–36.84), residing outside of Durango State (adjusted OR = 4.25; 95% CI: 1.72–10.49), and turkey meat consumption (adjusted OR = 3.85; 95% CI: 1.30–11.44). Other characteristics as cat contact, gardening, and food preferences did not show any association with T. gondii infection. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of T. gondii infection in pregnant women of Durango City is low as compared with those reported in other regions of Mexico and the majority of other countries. Poor housing conditions as soil floors, residing in other Mexican States, and turkey meat consumption might contribute to acquire T. gondii infection

Genetic Epidemiology of Glioblastoma Multiforme: Confirmatory and New Findings from Analyses of Human Leukocyte Antigen Alleles and Motifs

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I genes mediate cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses and natural killer cell function. In a previous study, several HLA-B and HLA-C alleles and haplotypes were positively or negatively associated with the occurrence and prognosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).As an extension of the Upper Midwest Health Study, we have performed HLA genotyping for 149 GBM patients and 149 healthy control subjects from a non-metropolitan population consisting almost exclusively of European Americans. Conditional logistic regression models did not reproduce the association of HLA-B*07 or the B*07-Cw*07 haplotype with GBM. Nonetheless, HLA-A*32, which has previously been shown to predispose GBM patients to a favorable prognosis, was negatively associated with occurrence of GBM (odds ratio=0.41, p=0.04 by univariate analysis). Other alleles (A*29, A*30, A*31 and A*33) within the A19 serology group to which A*32 belongs showed inconsistent trends. Sequencing-based HLA-A genotyping established that A*3201 was the single A*32 allele underlying the observed association. Additional evaluation of HLA-A promoter and exon 1 sequences did not detect any unexpected single nucleotide polymorphisms that could suggest differential allelic expression. Further analyses restricted to female GBM cases and controls revealed a second association with a specific HLA-B sequence motif corresponding to Bw4-80Ile (odds ratio=2.71, p=0.02).HLA-A allelic product encoded by A*3201 is likely to be functionally important to GBM. The novel, sex-specific association will require further confirmation in other representative study populations