738 research outputs found
The Medical Home and Care Coordination in Disaster Recovery: Hypothesis for Interventions and Research
In postdisaster settings, health care providers encounter secondary surges of unmet primary care and mental health needs that evolve throughout disaster recovery phases. Whatever a communityâs predisaster adequacy of health care, postdisaster gaps are similar to those of any underserved region. We hypothesize that existing practice and evidence supporting medical homes and care coordination in primary care for the underserved provide a favorable model for improving health in disrupted communities. Elements of medical home services can be offered by local or temporary providers from outside the region, working out of mobile clinics early in disaster recovery. As repairs and reconstruction proceed, local services are restored over weeks or years. Throughout recovery, major tasks include identifying high-risk patients relative to the disaster and underlying health conditions, assisting displaced families as they transition through housing locations, and tracking their evolving access to health care and community services as they are restored. Postdisaster sources of financial assistance for the disaster-exposed population are often temporary and evolving, requiring up-to-date information to cover costs of care until stable services and insurance coverage are restored. Evidence to support disaster recovery health care improvement will require research funding and metrics on structures, processes, and outcomes of the disaster recovery medical home and care coordination, based on adaptation of standard validated methods to crisis environments
Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars. VI. Extended Distributions of Giant Stars Around the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy -- How Reliable Are They?
The question of the existence of active tidal disruption around various dSph
galaxies remains controversial. That debate often centers on the nature (bound
vs. unbound) of extended populations of stars. However, the more fundamental
issue of the very existence of the extended populations is still contentious.
We present an evaluation of the debate centering on one particular dSph,
Carina, for which claims both for and against the existence of stars beyond the
King radius have been made. Our review includes an examination of all previous
studies bearing on the Carina radial profile and shows that the survey method
which achieves the highest detected dSph signal-to-background in the outer
parts of the galaxy is the Washington M, T2 + DDO51 (MTD) filter approach from
Paper II in this series. We then address statistical methods used to evaluate
the reliability of MTD surveys in the presence of photometric errors and for
which a new, a posteriori statistical analysis methodology is provided.
Finally, these statistical methods are tested by new spectroscopy of stars in
the MTD-selected Carina candidate sample. Of 74 candidate giants with follow-up
spectroscopy, the MTD technique identified 61 new Carina members, including 8
stars outside the King radius. From a sample of 29 stars not initially
identified as candidate Carina giants but that lie just outside of our
selection criteria, 12 have radial velocities consistent with membership,
including 5 extratidal stars. Carina is shown to have an extended population of
giant stars extending to a major axis radius of 40' (1.44x the nominal King
radius).Comment: 56 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to the Astronomical Journal, 2004 Sep
2
Evaluation of the Ability of LL-37 to Neutralise LPS In Vitro and Ex Vivo
BACKGROUND: Human cathelicidin LL-37 is a cationic antimicrobial peptide (AMP) which possesses a variety of activities including the ability to neutralise endotoxin. In this study, we investigated the role of LPS neutralisation in mediating LL-37's ability to inhibit Pseudomonas aeruginosa LPS signalling in human monocytic cells. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Pre-treatment of monocytes with LL-37 significantly inhibited LPS-induced IL-8 production and the signalling pathway of associated transcription factors such as NF-ÎșB. However, upon removal of LL-37 from the media prior to LPS stimulation, these inhibitory effects were abolished. These findings suggest that the ability of LL-37 to inhibit LPS signalling is largely dependent on extracellular LPS neutralisation. In addition, LL-37 potently inhibited cytokine production induced by LPS extracted from P. aeruginosa isolated from the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. In the CF lung, polyanionic molecules such as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and DNA bind LL-37 and impact negatively on its antibacterial activity. In order to determine whether such interactions interfere with the LPS neutralising ability of LL-37, the status of LL-37 and its ability to bind LPS in CF sputum were investigated. Overall our findings suggest that in the CF lung, the ability of LL-37 to bind LPS and inhibit LPS-induced IL-8 production is attenuated as a result of binding to DNA and GAGs. However, LL-37 levels and its concomitant LPS-binding activity can be increased with a combination of DNase and GAG lyase (heparinase II) treatment. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overall, these findings suggest that a deficiency in available LL-37 in the CF lung may contribute to greater LPS-induced inflammation during CF lung disease
Upper limits for undetected trace species in the stratosphere of Titan
In this paper we describe a first quantitative search for several molecules
in Titan's stratosphere in Cassini CIRS infrared spectra. These are: ammonia
(NH3), methanol (CH3OH), formaldehyde (H2CO), and acetonitrile (CH3CN), all of
which are predicted by photochemical models but only the last of which
observed, and not in the infrared. We find non-detections in all cases, but
derive upper limits on the abundances from low-noise observations at 25{\deg}S
and 75{\deg}N. Comparing these constraints to model predictions, we conclude
that CIRS is highly unlikely to see NH3 or CH3OH emissions. However, CH3CN and
H2CO are closer to CIRS detectability, and we suggest ways in which the
sensitivity threshold may be lowered towards this goal.Comment: 11 pages plus 6 figure file
A Catalog of Chandra X-ray Sources in the Carina Nebula
We present a catalog of ~14,000 X-ray sources observed by the ACIS instrument
on the Chandra X-ray Observatory within a 1.42 square degree survey of the
Great Nebula in Carina, known as the Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP).
This study appears in a Special Issue of the ApJS devoted to the CCCP. Here, we
describe the data reduction and analysis procedures performed on the X-ray
observations, including calibration and cleaning of the X-ray event data, point
source detection, and source extraction. The catalog appears to be complete
across most of the field to an absorption-corrected total-band luminosity of
~10^{30.7} erg/s for a typical low-mass pre-main sequence star. Counterparts to
the X-ray sources are identified in a variety of visual, near-infrared, and
mid-infrared surveys. The X-ray and infrared source properties presented here
form the basis of many CCCP studies of the young stellar populations in Carina.Comment: Accepted for the ApJS Special Issue on the Chandra Carina Complex
Project (CCCP), scheduled for publication in May 2011. All 16 CCCP Special
Issue papers are available at
http://cochise.astro.psu.edu/Carina_public/special_issue.html through 2011 at
least. 29 pages, 11 figure
The QUEST RR Lyrae Survey II: The Halo Overdensities in the First Catalog
The first catalog of the RR Lyrae stars (RRLS) in the Galactic halo by the
QUEST Survey has been searched for significant overdensities that may be debris
from disrupted dwarf galaxies or globular clusters. Away from the major
overdensities, the distribution of these stars is adequately fit by a smooth
halo model, in which the flattening of the halo decreases with increasing
galactocentric distance (Preston et al 1991). This model was used to estimate
the ``background'' of RRLS on which the halo overdensities are overlaid. A
procedure was developed for recognizing groups of stars that constitute
significant overdensities with respect to this background. To test this
procedure, a Monte Carlo routine was used to make artificial RRLS surveys that
follow the smooth halo model, but with Poisson distributed noise in the numbers
of RRLS and, within limits, random variations in the positions and magnitudes
of the artificial stars. The artificial surveys created by this routine were
examined for significant groups in exactly the same way as the QUEST survey.
These calculations provided estimates of the frequencies with which random
fluctuations produce significant groups. In the QUEST survey, there are six
significant overdensities that contain six or more stars and several smaller
ones. The small ones and possibly one or two of the larger ones may be
artifacts of statistical fluctuations, and they need to be confirmed by
measurements of radial velocity and/or proper motion. The most prominent groups
are the northern stream from the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy and a
large group in Virgo. Two other groups lie in the direction of the Monoceros
stream and at approximately the right distance for membership. Another group is
related to the globular cluster Palomar 5.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa
New insights on the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy from SDSS: a larger radius and no tidal tails
We have investigated the spatial extent and structure of the Draco dwarf
spheroidal galaxy using deep wide-field multicolor CCD photometry from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our study covers an area of 27 square degrees
around the center of the Draco dwarf. We show that the spatial distribution of
Draco's red giants, red horizontal branch stars and subgiants down to i=21.7
mag does not provide evidence for the existence of tidally induced tails or a
halo of unbound stars. The radial profile can be fit by King models as well as
by a generalized exponential. The core radius and the limiting (or tidal)
radius along the major axis are 7.7' and 40.1', respectively, making Draco 40%
larger than previously measured. Down to our magnitude limit tidal effects can
only exist at a level of 10^-3 of the central surface density of Draco or
below. The regular structure of Draco found from the new data argues against it
being a portion of an unbound tidal stream and lends support to the assumption
of dynamical equilibrium. We estimate Draco's total mass to be 2.2 - 3.5 times
10^7 solar masses. We obtain an overall mass-to-light ratio of 146+-42 or
92+-28 solar masses depending on the details of the mass and luminosity
estimates. In summary, our results strengthen the case for a strongly dark
matter dominated, bound stellar system. (Abstract strongly abridged).Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures (in part with degraded resolution). Accepted for
publication in the Astronomical Journa
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