Electron paramagnetic resonance and other properties of hydrogenases isolated from Desulfovibrio vulgaris (strain Hildenborough) and Megasphaera elsdenii

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65872/1/j.1432-1033.1983.tb07727.x.pd

The Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP Survey: Overview and Survey Design

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg$^2$ in five broad bands ($grizy$), with a $5\,\sigma$ point-source depth of $r \approx 26$. The Deep layer covers a total of 26~deg$^2$ in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg$^2$). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables. Corrected for a typo in the coordinates of HSC-Wide spring equatorial field in Table

Meditation on the Soles of the Feet Practice Provides Some Control of Aggression for Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects cognition, mental and physical health, and functionality of older people. As the disease progresses from the mild to moderate stage, there is a concomitant increase in several behavioral variables, chiefly agitation, anger, and aggression. Currently, there are no evidence-based treatments for these behaviors in this population. Three individuals with moderate Alzheimer’s disease were taught an informal mindfulness practice, meditation on the Soles of the Feet (SoF), as a self-management strategy within a multiple-baseline design across participants. All three were able to learn and use the SoF practice to manage their verbal and physical aggression. Their use of the SoF practice was correlated with decreased perceived psychological stress for their spouses and caregivers, as well as for the participants, but to a much smaller degree. In terms of social validity, the participants, their spouses, and caregivers rated the SoF practice as acceptable, effective, with no unintended effects, and indicated that they would recommend the practice to others. However, they also rated SoF as effortful for the participants because it involves the participants remembering to use the practice with rising anger, a requirement particularly challenging for those with memory problems. The SoF practice may enable individuals in the early stages of dementia to manage their anger and aggression. The data were derived from an internally valid experimental design, suggestive of initial proof-of-concept, but needs to be replicated before any clinical implications can be imputed from this study

Cluster Lenses

Clusters of galaxies are the most recently assembled, massive, bound structures in the Universe. As predicted by General Relativity, given their masses, clusters strongly deform space-time in their vicinity. Clusters act as some of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe. Light rays traversing through clusters from distant sources are hence deflected, and the resulting images of these distant objects therefore appear distorted and magnified. Lensing by clusters occurs in two regimes, each with unique observational signatures. The strong lensing regime is characterized by effects readily seen by eye, namely, the production of giant arcs, multiple-images, and arclets. The weak lensing regime is characterized by small deformations in the shapes of background galaxies only detectable statistically. Cluster lenses have been exploited successfully to address several important current questions in cosmology: (i) the study of the lens(es) - understanding cluster mass distributions and issues pertaining to cluster formation and evolution, as well as constraining the nature of dark matter; (ii) the study of the lensed objects - probing the properties of the background lensed galaxy population - which is statistically at higher redshifts and of lower intrinsic luminosity thus enabling the probing of galaxy formation at the earliest times right up to the Dark Ages; and (iii) the study of the geometry of the Universe - as the strength of lensing depends on the ratios of angular diameter distances between the lens, source and observer, lens deflections are sensitive to the value of cosmological parameters and offer a powerful geometric tool to probe Dark Energy. In this review, we present the basics of cluster lensing and provide a current status report of the field.Comment: About 120 pages - Published in Open Access at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j183018170485723/ . arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0504478 and arXiv:1003.3674 by other author

Reversible Pulmonary Hypertension and Isolated Right-sided Heart Failure Associated with Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism may present with signs and symptoms related to dysfunction of a variety of organs. Cardiovascular pathology in hyperthyroidism is common. A few case reports describe isolated right heart failure, tricuspid regurgitation, and pulmonary hypertension as the prominent cardiovascular manifestations of hyperthyroidism. Although most textbooks do not mention hyperthyroidism as a cause of pulmonary hypertension and isolated right heart failure, the literature suggests that some hyperthyroid patients may develop reversible pulmonary hypertension and isolated right heart failure. We report a case of hyperthyroidism presenting with signs and symptoms of isolated right heart failure, tricuspid regurgitation, and pulmonary hypertension, which resolved with treatment of hyperthyroidism

Strong Lensing as a Probe of the Mass Distribution Beyond the Einstein Radius. Mass & Light in SL2S J08544-0121, a Galaxy Group at z=0.35

Precise modelling of strong lensing systems can be affected by external mass distributions, e.g. the group or cluster within which the lens is embedded. In this article, we propose to turn this limitation to our advantage and to use precise strong lensing modelling to probe external mass distributions surrounding the lens. We consider SL2S J08544-0121, a galaxy group at z=0.35 that contains a strong lensing system. A simple elliptical isothermal potential cannot reproduce satisfactorily the strong lensing constraints. We include an external mass perturbation corresponding to the group within which the lens is embedded. The lensing properties of this perturbation are parametrised by its total mass M and a smoothing scale s that quantifies the characteristic scale over which M is distributed. For a range of these parameters, we are able to reproduce accurately the observations. This suggests that light is a good tracer of mass. Interestingly, this also shows that a localised strong lensing analysis (on scales of ~10") allows us to constrain global properties of the group as a whole (on scales of ~100). Indeed, we constrain the group mass-to-light ratio to be M/L=98+-27 (i band, solar units, not corrected for evolution) and s=20" +- 9 (2sigma confidence level). We demonstrate that these strong lensing only constraints are due to the perturbed strong lensing configuration, where the main arc is located at ~5" from the galaxy, whereas its counter-image is found at ~8". To test independently our resulting strong lensing model, we pursue an independent weak lensing analysis of the group and find a mass-to-light ratio in the range 66-146 (1sigma confidence level).Comment: accepted for publication in Aand

The effect of 5-aminolevulinic acid on cytochrome c oxidase activity in mouse liver

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is a precursor of heme that is fundamentally important in aerobic energy metabolism. Among the enzymes involved in aerobic energy metabolism, cytochrome <it>c </it>oxidase (COX) is crucial. In this study, the effect of ALA on cytochrome <it>c </it>oxidase activity was measured.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>c57BL/6N species of mice were administered ALA orally for 15 weeks. After ALA administration, mice were sacrificed and livers were obtained. COX activity in mitochondria from ALA-administered mouse livers was 1.5-fold higher than that in mitochondria from PBS-administered mouse livers (P < 0.05). Furthermore, ATP levels in ALA-administered mouse livers were much higher than those in PBS-administered mouse livers. These data suggest that oral administration of ALA promotes aerobic energy metabolism, especially COX activity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the first report of a drug that functions in aerobic energy metabolism directly. Since COX activity is decreased in various diseases and aging, the pharmacological effects of ALA will be expanding.</p

Cystatin C, a marker for successful aging and glomerular filtration rate, is not influenced by inflammation

Abstract Background. The plasma level of cystatin C is a better marker than plasma creatinine for successful aging. It has been assumed that the advantage of cystatin C is not only due to it being a better marker for glomerular filtration rate (GFR) than creatinine, but also because an inflammatory state of a patient induces a raised cystatin C level. However, the observations of an association between cystatin C level and inflammation stem from large cohort studies. The present work concerns the cystatin C levels and degree of inflammation in longitudinal studies of individual subjects without inflammation, who undergo elective surgery. Methods. Cystatin C, creatinine, and the inflammatory markers CRP, serum amyloid A (SAA), haptoglobin and orosomucoid were measured in plasma samples from 35 patients the day before elective surgery and subsequently during seven consecutive days. Results. Twenty patients had CRP-levels below 1 mg/L before surgery and low levels of the additional inflammatory markers. Surgery caused marked inflammation with high peak values of CRP and SAA on the second day after the operation. The cystatin C level did not change significantly during the observation period and did not correlate significantly with the level of any of the four inflammatory markers. The creatinine level was significantly reduced on the first postoperative day but reached the preoperative level towards the end of the observation period. Conclusion. The inflammatory status of a patient does not influence the role of cystatin C as a marker of successful aging, nor of GFR

Genetic analysis of the capsule polysaccharide (K antigen) and exopolysaccharide genes in pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pandemic <it>Vibrio parahaemolyticus </it>has undergone rapid changes in both K- and O-antigens, making detection of outbreaks more difficult. In order to understand these rapid changes, the genetic regions encoding these antigens must be examined. In <it>Vibrio cholerae </it>and <it>Vibrio vulnificus</it>, both O-antigen and capsular polysaccharides are encoded in a single region on the large chromosome; a similar arrangement in pandemic <it>V. parahaemolyticus </it>would help explain the rapid serotype changes. However, previous reports on "capsule" genes are controversial. Therefore, we set out to clarify and characterize these regions in pandemic <it>V. parahaemolyticus </it>O3:K6 by gene deletion using a chitin based transformation strategy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We generated different deletion mutants of putative polysaccharide genes and examined the mutants by immuno-blots with O and K specific antisera. Our results showed that O- and K-antigen genes are separated in <it>V. parahaemolyticus </it>O3:K6; the region encoding both O-antigen and capsule biosynthesis in other vibrios, i.e. genes between <it>gmhD </it>and <it>rjg</it>, determines the K6-antigen but not the O3-antigen in <it>V. parahaemolyticus</it>. The previously identified "capsule genes" on the smaller chromosome were related to exopolysaccharide synthesis, not K-antigen.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Understanding of the genetic basis of O- and K-antigens is critical to understanding the rapid changes in these polysaccharides seen in pandemic <it>V. parahaemolyticus. </it>This report confirms the genetic location of K-antigen synthesis in <it>V. parahaemolyticus </it>O3:K6 allowing us to focus future studies of the evolution of serotypes to this region.</p