Predicting the distribution of Phortica variegata and potential for Thelazia callipaeda transmission in Europe and the United Kingdom

Male fruitflies Phortica variegata (Drosophilidae, Steganinae) are the intermediate host of the zoonotic nematode Thelazia callipaeda (Spirurida, Thelaziidae). More than 10 years ago, when T. callipaeda was confined to remote regions of southern Italy, ecological niche models were used to predict the potential distribution of P. variegata across Europe and the likely risk of the nematode spreading through infected dogs travelling to/from endemic regions. As predicted, over the last 10 years T. callipaeda has spread rapidly across Europe. Recently, we identified the potential for its introduction to the UK through infected dogs travelling to/from endemic regions of mainland Europe

Extragalactic Results from the Infrared Space Observatory

More than a decade ago the IRAS satellite opened the realm of external galaxies for studies in the 10 to 100 micron band and discovered emission from tens of thousands of normal and active galaxies. With the 1995-1998 mission of the Infrared Space Observatory the next major steps in extragalactic infrared astronomy became possible: detailed imaging, spectroscopy and spectro-photometry of many galaxies detected by IRAS, as well as deep surveys in the mid- and far- IR. The spectroscopic data reveal a wealth of detail about the nature of the energy source(s) and about the physical conditions in galaxies. ISO's surveys for the first time explore the infrared emission of distant, high-redshift galaxies. ISO's main theme in extragalactic astronomy is the role of star formation in the activity and evolution of galaxies.Comment: 106 pages, including 17 figures. Ann.Rev.Astron.Astrophys. (in press), a gzip'd pdf file (667kB) is also available at http://www.mpe.mpg.de/www_ir/preprint/annrev2000.pdf.g

Decreased Autocrine EGFR Signaling in Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells Inhibits Tumor Growth in Bone and Mammary Fat Pad

Breast cancer metastasis to bone triggers a vicious cycle of tumor growth linked to osteolysis. Breast cancer cells and osteoblasts express the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and produce ErbB family ligands, suggesting participation of these growth factors in autocrine and paracrine signaling within the bone microenvironment. EGFR ligand expression was profiled in the bone metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells (MDA-231), and agonist-induced signaling was examined in both breast cancer and osteoblast-like cells. Both paracrine and autocrine EGFR signaling were inhibited with a neutralizing amphiregulin antibody, PAR34, whereas shRNA to the EGFR was used to specifically block autocrine signaling in MDA-231 cells. The impact of these was evaluated with proliferation, migration and gene expression assays. Breast cancer metastasis to bone was modeled in female athymic nude mice with intratibial inoculation of MDA-231 cells, and cancer cell-bone marrow co-cultures. EGFR knockdown, but not PAR34 treatment, decreased osteoclasts formed in vitro (p<0.01), reduced osteolytic lesion tumor volume (p<0.01), increased survivorship in vivo (p<0.001), and resulted in decreased MDA-231 growth in the fat pad (p<0.01). Fat pad shEGFR-MDA-231 tumors produced in nude mice had increased necrotic areas and decreased CD31-positive vasculature. shEGFR-MDA-231 cells also produced decreased levels of the proangiogenic molecules macrophage colony stimulating factor-1 (MCSF-1) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), both of which were decreased by EGFR inhibitors in a panel of EGFR-positive breast cancer cells. Thus, inhibiting autocrine EGFR signaling in breast cancer cells may provide a means for reducing paracrine factor production that facilitates microenvironment support in the bone and mammary gland

The Gaia–ESO Survey: dynamical models of flattened, rotating globular clusters

We present a family of self-consistent axisymmetric rotating globular cluster models which are fitted to spectroscopic data for NGC 362, NGC 1851, NGC 2808, NGC 4372, NGC 5927 and NGC 6752 to provide constraints on their physical and kinematic properties, including their rotation signals. They are constructed by flattening Modified Plummer profiles, which have the same asymptotic behaviour as classical Plummer models, but can provide better fits to young clusters due to a slower turnover in the density profile. The models are in dynamical equilibrium as they depend solely on the action variables. We employ a fully Bayesian scheme to investigate the uncertainty in our model parameters (including mass-to-light ratios and inclination angles) and evaluate the Bayesian evidence ratio for rotating to non-rotating models. We find convincing levels of rotation only in NGC 2808. In the other clusters, there is just a hint of rotation (in particular, NGC 4372 and NGC 5927), as the data quality does not allow us to draw strong conclusions. Where rotation is present, we find that it is confined to the central regions, within radii of R ≤ 2rh. As part of this work, we have developed a novel q-Gaussian basis expansion of the line-of-sight velocity distributions, from which general models can be constructed via interpolation on the basis coefficients.This work was partly supported by the European Union FP7 programme through ERC grant number 320360 and by the Leverhulme Trust through grant RPG-2012-541. We acknowledge the support from INAF and Ministero dell’ Istruzione, dell’ Università’ e della Ricerca (MIUR) in the form of the grant ‘Premiale VLT 2012’

The Policy Dystopia Model:an interpretive analysis of tobacco industry political activity

BACKGROUND: Tobacco industry interference has been identified as the greatest obstacle to the implementation of evidence-based measures to reduce tobacco use. Understanding and addressing industry interference in public health policy-making is therefore crucial. Existing conceptualisations of corporate political activity (CPA) are embedded in a business perspective and do not attend to CPA's social and public health costs; most have not drawn on the unique resource represented by internal tobacco industry documents. Building on this literature, including systematic reviews, we develop a critically informed conceptual model of tobacco industry political activity. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We thematically analysed published papers included in two systematic reviews examining tobacco industry influence on taxation and marketing of tobacco; we included 45 of 46 papers in the former category and 20 of 48 papers in the latter (n = 65). We used a grounded theory approach to build taxonomies of "discursive" (argument-based) and "instrumental" (action-based) industry strategies and from these devised the Policy Dystopia Model, which shows that the industry, working through different constituencies, constructs a metanarrative to argue that proposed policies will lead to a dysfunctional future of policy failure and widely dispersed adverse social and economic consequences. Simultaneously, it uses diverse, interlocking insider and outsider instrumental strategies to disseminate this narrative and enhance its persuasiveness in order to secure its preferred policy outcomes. Limitations are that many papers were historical (some dating back to the 1970s) and focused on high-income regions. CONCLUSIONS: The model provides an evidence-based, accessible way of understanding diverse corporate political strategies. It should enable public health actors and officials to preempt these strategies and develop realistic assessments of the industry's claims

The effectiveness of tobacco control television advertisements in increasing the prevalence of smoke-free homes

BACKGROUND: There is considerable evidence that tobacco control mass media campaigns can change smoking behaviour. In the UK, campaigns over the last decade have contributed to declines in smoking prevalence and been associated with falls in cigarette consumption among continuing smokers. However, it is less evident whether such campaigns can also play a role in changing smokers’ behaviour in relation to protecting others from the harmful effects of their smoking in the home. We investigated whether exposure to English televised tobacco control campaigns, and specifically campaigns targeting second hand smoking, is associated with smokers having a smoke-free home. METHODS: We used repeated cross-sectional national survey data on 9872 households which participated in the Health Survey for England between 2004 and 2010, with at least one adult current smoker living in the household. Exposure to all government-funded televised tobacco control campaigns, and to those specifically with a second hand smoking theme, was quantified in Gross Rating Points (GRPs), an average per capita measure of advert exposure where 100 GRPs indicates 100 % of adults exposed once or 50 % twice. Our outcome was self-reported presence of a smoke-free home (where no one smokes in the home on most days). Analysis used generalised additive models, controlling for individual factors and temporal trends. RESULTS: There was no association between monthly televised campaigns overall and the probability of having a smoke-free home. However, exposure to campaigns specifically targeting second hand smoke was associated with increased odds of a smoke-free home in the following month (odds ratio per additional 100 GRPs, 1.07, 95 % CI 1.01 to 1.13), though this association was not seen at other lags. These effects were not modified by socio-economic status or by presence of a child in the home. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide tentative evidence that mass media campaigns specifically focussing on second hand smoke may be effective in reducing smoking in the home, and further evaluation of campaigns of this type is needed. General tobacco control campaigns in England, which largely focus on promoting smoking cessation, do not impact on smoke-free homes over and above their direct effect at reducing smoking

Spatial and Seasonal Distribution of American Whaling and Whales in the Age of Sail

American whalemen sailed out of ports on the east coast of the United States and in California from the 18th to early 20th centuries, searching for whales throughout the world’s oceans. From an initial focus on sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and right whales (Eubalaena spp.), the array of targeted whales expanded to include bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), and gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus). Extensive records of American whaling in the form of daily entries in whaling voyage logbooks contain a great deal of information about where and when the whalemen found whales. We plotted daily locations where the several species of whales were observed, both those caught and those sighted but not caught, on world maps to illustrate the spatial and temporal distribution of both American whaling activity and the whales. The patterns shown on the maps provide the basis for various inferences concerning the historical distribution of the target whales prior to and during this episode of global whaling

The Gaia-ESO Survey: Pre-main-sequence stars in the young open cluster NGC 3293

© 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.The young open cluster NGC3293 is included in the observing program of the Gaia-ESO survey (GES). The radial velocity values provided have been used to assign cluster membership probabilities by means of a single-variable parametric analysis. These membership probabilities are compared to the results of the photometric membership assignment of NGC3293, based on UBVRI photometry. The agreement of the photometric and kinematic member samples amounts to 65 per cent, and could increase to 70 per cent as suggested by the analysis of the differences between both samples. A number of photometric PMS candidate members of spectral type F are found, which are confirmed by the results from VPHAS photometry and SED fitting for the stars in common with VPHAS and GES data sets. Excesses at mid- and near-infrared wavelengths, and signs of Hα emission, are investigated for them. Marginal presence of Hα emission or infilling is detected for the candidate members. Several of them exhibit moderate signs of U excess and weak excesses at mid-IR wavelengths. We suggest that these features originate from accretion discs in their last stages of evolution