196 research outputs found
Structure of pair winds from compact objects with application to emission from bare strange stars
We present the results of numerical simulations of stationary, spherically
outflowing, electron-positron pair winds, with total luminosities in the range
10^{34}- 10^{42} ergs/s. In the concrete example described here, the wind
injection source is a hot, bare, strange star, predicted to be a powerful
source of electron-positron pairs created by the Coulomb barrier at the quark
surface. We find that photons dominate in the emerging emission, and the
emerging photon spectrum is rather hard and differs substantially from the
thermal spectrum expected from a neutron star with the same luminosity. This
might help distinguish the putative bare strange stars from neutron stars.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, added references, to appear in the
proceedings of the conference "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Surface to
the Interior", London, UK, 24-28 April 200
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Radon and Remedial Action in Spokane River Valley Residences: An Interim Report
Fifty-six percent of 46 residences monitored in the Spokane River Valley in eastern Washington/northern Idaho have indoor radon concentrations above the National Council for Radiation Protection (NCRP) guidelines of 8 pCi/1. Indoor levels were over 20 pCi/1 in eight homes, and ranged up to 132 pCi/1 in one house. Radon concentrations declined by factors of 4 to 38 during summer months. Measurements of soil emanation rates, domestic water supply concentrations, and building material flux rates indicate that diffusion of radon does not significantly contribute to the high concentrations observed. Rather, radon entry is dominated by pressure-driven bulk soil gas transport, aggravated by the local subsurface soil composition and structure. A variety of radon control strategies are being evaluated in 14 of these homes. Sub-surface ventilation by depressurization and overpressurization, basement overpressurization, and crawlspace ventilation are capable of successfully reducing radon levels below 5 pCi/1 in these homes. House ventilation is appropriate in buildings with low-moderate concentrations, while sealing of cracks has been relatively ineffective
Scaling Up ART Adherence Clubs in the Public Sector Health System in the Western Cape, South Africa: a Study of the Institutionalisation of a Pilot Innovation
In 2011, a decision was made to scale up a pilot innovation involving ‘adherence clubs’ as a form of differentiated care for HIV positive people in the public sector antiretroviral therapy programme in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. In 2016 we were involved in the qualitative aspect of an evaluation of the adherence club model, the overall objective of which was to assess the health outcomes for patients accessing clubs through epidemiological analysis, and to conduct a health systems analysis to evaluate how the model of care performed at scale. In this paper we adopt a complex adaptive systems lens to analyse planned organisational change through intervention in a state health system. We explore the challenges associated with taking to scale a pilot that began as a relatively simple innovation by a non-governmental organisation
Systems Analysis of Protein Modification and Cellular Responses Induced by Electrophile Stress
The Association between Hypertension and Depression and Anxiety Disorders: Results from a Nationally-Representative Sample of South African Adults
OBJECTIVE:Growing evidence suggests high levels of comorbidity between hypertension and mental illness but there are few data from low- and middle-income countries. We examined the association between hypertension and depression and anxiety in South Africa. METHODS:Data come from a nationally-representative survey of adults (n = 4351). The Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to measure DSM-IV mental disorders during the previous 12-months. The relationships between self-reported hypertension and anxiety disorders, depressive disorders and comorbid anxiety-depression were assessed after adjustment for participant characteristics including experience of trauma and other chronic physical conditions. RESULTS:Overall 16.7% reported a previous medical diagnosis of hypertension, and 8.1% and 4.9% were found to have a 12-month anxiety or depressive disorder, respectively. In adjusted analyses, hypertension diagnosis was associated with 12-month anxiety disorders [Odds ratio (OR) = 1.55, 95% Confidence interval (CI) = 1.10-2.18] but not 12-month depressive disorders or 12-month comorbid anxiety-depression. Hypertension in the absence of other chronic physical conditions was not associated with any of the 12-month mental health outcomes (p-values all <0.05), while being diagnosed with both hypertension and another chronic physical condition were associated with 12-month anxiety disorders (OR = 2.25, 95% CI = 1.46-3.45), but not 12-month depressive disorders or comorbid anxiety-depression. CONCLUSIONS:These are the first population-based estimates to demonstrate an association between hypertension and mental disorders in sub-Saharan Africa. Further investigation is needed into role of traumatic life events in the aetiology of hypertension as well as the temporality of the association between hypertension and mental disorders
The Inhibitory Effect of Salmon Calcitonin on Tri-Iodothyronine Induction of Early Hypertrophy in Articular Cartilage
Salmon calcitonin has chondroprotective effect both in vitro and in vivo, and is therefore being tested as a candidate drug for cartilage degenerative diseases. Recent studies have indicated that different chondrocyte phenotypes may express the calcitonin receptor (CTR) differentially. We tested for the presence of the CTR in chondrocytes from tri-iodothyronin (T3)-induced bovine articular cartilage explants. Moreover, investigated the effects of human and salmon calcitonin on the explants.Early chondrocyte hypertrophy was induced in bovine articular cartilage explants by stimulation over four days with 20 ng/mL T3. The degree of hypertrophy was investigated by molecular markers of hypertrophy (ALP, IHH, COLX and MMP13), by biochemical markers of cartilage turnover (C2M, P2NP and AGNxII) and histology. The expression of the CTR was detected by qPCR and immunohistochemistry. T3-induced explants were treated with salmon or human calcitonin. Calcitonin down-stream signaling was measured by levels of cAMP, and by the molecular markers.Compared with untreated control explants, T3 induction increased expression of the hypertrophic markers (p<0.05), of cartilage turnover (p<0.05), and of CTR (p<0.01). Salmon, but not human, calcitonin induced cAMP release (p<0.001). Salmon calcitonin also inhibited expression of markers of hypertrophy and cartilage turnover (p<0.05).T3 induced early hypertrophy of chondrocytes, which showed an elevated expression of the CTR and was thus a target for salmon calcitonin. Molecular marker levels indicated salmon, but not human, calcitonin protected the cartilage from hypertrophy. These results confirm that salmon calcitonin is able to modulate the CTR and thus have chondroprotective effects
A realist approach to eliciting the initial programme theory of the antiretroviral treatment adherence club intervention in the Western Cape Province, South Africa
BACKGROUND: The successful initiation of people living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa has
engendered challenges of poor retention in care and suboptimal adherence to medication. The adherence club
intervention was implemented in the Metropolitan area of the Western Cape Province to address these challenges. The
adherence club programme has shown potential to relieve clinic congestion, improve retention in care and
enhance treatment adherence in the context of rapidly growing HIV patient populations being initiated on ART.
Nevertheless, how and why the adherence club intervention works is not clearly understood. We aimed to elicit an
initial programme theory as the first phase of the realist evaluation of the adherence club intervention in the Western
Cape Province.
METHODS: The realist evaluation approach guided the elicitation study. First, information was obtained from an exploratory
qualitative study of programme designers’ and managers’ assumptions of the intervention. Second, a document review of
the design, rollout, implementation and outcome of the adherence clubs followed. Third, a systematic review of available
studies on group-based ART adherence support models in Sub-Saharan Africa was done, and finally, a scoping review of
social, cognitive and behavioural theories that have been applied to explain adherence to ART. We used the
realist evaluation heuristic tool (Intervention-context-actors-mechanism-outcome) to synthesise information from the
sources into a configurational map. The configurational mapping, alignment of a specific combination of attributes,
was based on the generative causality logic – retroduction.
RESULTS: We identified two alternative theories: The first theory supposes that patients become encouraged,
empowered and motivated, through the adherence club intervention to remain in care and adhere to the treatment.
The second theory suggests that stable patients on ART are being nudged through club rules and regulations
to remain in care and adhere to the treatment with the goal to decongest the primary health care facilities.
CONCLUSION: The initial programme theory describes how (dynamics) and why (theories) the adherence club
intervention is expected to work. By testing theories in “real intervention cases” using the realist evaluation
approach, the theories can be modified, refuted and/or reconstructed to elicit a refined theory of how and
why the adherence club intervention works
Differentially expressed genes in a flock of Chinese local-breed chickens infected with a subgroup J avian leukosis virus using suppression subtractive hybridization
Avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) is a new type of virus that mainly induces myeloid leukosis (ML) in chickens. To further elucidate the pathogenesis of ALV-J infection and tumor development, expression profiles from the bone marrow tissue of 15 infected and 18 non-infected birds from a local-breed poultry-farm under naturally infected conditions, were analyzed by suppression-subtractive hybridization. The birds were diagnosed as ML+ (or ML-) by specific ALV-J detection methods, involving serological tests for antigens and antibodies, and RT-PCR to detect viral RNA. A total of 59 partial gene sequences were revealed by differential screening of 496 forward and 384 reverse subtracted cDNA clones. Of these, 22 identified genes, including 8 up-regulated and 14 down-regulated, were related to immune functions, these genes being, MHC B-G antigen, translationally-controlled tumor protein (TPT1/TPTC), transferrin and ferritin, hemoglobin and Carbonic anhydrase. Four of the down-regulated genes were selected for further analysis, in view of their predicted roles in infection and immunity by real-time qRT-PCR, using RNA collected from the same birds as those used for SSH. The four genes were expressed at significantly lower levels (p < 0.001) in ALV-J infected birds than in non-infected ones
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