Inversion of Randomly Corrugated Surfaces Structure from Atom Scattering Data

The Sudden Approximation is applied to invert structural data on randomly corrugated surfaces from inert atom scattering intensities. Several expressions relating experimental observables to surface statistical features are derived. The results suggest that atom (and in particular He) scattering can be used profitably to study hitherto unexplored forms of complex surface disorder.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. Related papers available at http://neon.cchem.berkeley.edu/~dan

Kinase Activity Profiling of Pneumococcal Pneumonia

Background: Pneumonia represents a major health burden. Previous work demonstrated that although the induction of inflammation is important for adequate host defense against pneumonia, an inability to regulate the host's inflammatory response within the lung later during infection can be detrimental. Intracellular signaling pathways commonly rely on activation of kinases, and kinases play an essential role in the regulation of the inflammatory response of immune cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: Pneumonia was induced in mice via intranasal instillation of Streptococcus (S.) pneumoniae. Kinomics peptide arrays, exhibiting 1024 specific consensus sequences for protein kinases, were used to produce a systems biology analysis of cellular kinase activity during the course of pneumonia. Several differences in kinase activity revealed by the arrays were validated in lung homogenates of individual mice using western blot. We identified cascades of activated kinases showing that chemotoxic stress and a T helper 1 response were induced during the course of pneumococcal pneumonia. In addition, our data point to a reduction in WNT activity in lungs of S. pneumoniae infected mice. Moreover, this study demonstrated a reduction in overall CDK activity implying alterations in cell cycle biology. Conclusions/Significance: This s

Prospective study of telephone calls to a hotline for infectious disease consultation: analysis of 7,863 solicited consultations over a 1-year period

International audienceTo respond to the increasing requests of non-infectious disease physicians for access to infectious diseases expertise, a hotline was created in the infectious diseases consultation (IDC) unit of the Grenoble university-affiliated hospital (GUH). This study describes the patterns of solicited consultations provided by the hotline during a 1-year period. We conducted a prospective study of consecutive solicited IDCs requested by physicians in 2008. A total of 7,863 consultations were requested by physicians over 1 year; 4,407 (56.0%) by ambulatory physicians, 2,933 (37.3%) by GUH physicians, and 523 (6.7%) by physicians in public or private hospitals. The majority of consultations were requested via cell phone (58.7%). The main reasons for requesting a consultation were related to antimicrobial treatment for hospital-based physicians and prophylaxis for ambulatory physicians ( < 0.001). Recommendations to perform diagnostic or monitoring tests were less frequent in ambulatory medicine (16%) than in the GUH (59%) or other hospitals (63%,  < 0.001). The route of consultation for patients with nosocomial infections was more likely to be formal ( < 0.001). The activity of the IDC hotline attests to an important need for such expertise consultation, both in hospitals and in ambulatory medicine