Spatial patterns of natural hazards mortality in the United States

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies on natural hazard mortality are most often hazard-specific (e.g. floods, earthquakes, heat), event specific (e.g. Hurricane Katrina), or lack adequate temporal or geographic coverage. This makes it difficult to assess mortality from natural hazards in any systematic way. This paper examines the spatial patterns of natural hazard mortality at the county-level for the U.S. from 1970–2004 using a combination of geographical and epidemiological methods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Chronic everyday hazards such as severe weather (summer and winter) and heat account for the majority of natural hazard fatalities. The regions most prone to deaths from natural hazards are the South and intermountain west, but sub-regional county-level mortality patterns show more variability. There is a distinct urban/rural component to the county patterns as well as a coastal trend. Significant clusters of high mortality are in the lower Mississippi Valley, upper Great Plains, and Mountain West, with additional areas in west Texas, and the panhandle of Florida, Significant clusters of low mortality are in the Midwest and urbanized Northeast.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is no consistent source of hazard mortality data, yet improvements in existing databases can produce quality data that can be incorporated into spatial epidemiological studies as demonstrated in this paper. It is important to view natural hazard mortality through a geographic lens so as to better inform the public living in such hazard prone areas, but more importantly to inform local emergency practitioners who must plan for and respond to disasters in their community.</p

Tagging Two-Photon Production at the LHC

Tagging two-photon production offers a significant extension of the LHC physics programme. Effective luminosity of high-energy gamma-gamma collisions reaches 1% of the proton-proton luminosity and the standard detector techniques used for measuring very forward proton scattering should allow for a reliable extraction of interesting two-photon interactions. Particularly exciting is a possibility of detecting two-photon exclusive Higgs boson production at the LHC.Comment: 9 pages and 4 figure

The Higgs - photon - Z boson coupling revisited

We analyze the coupling of CP-even and CP-odd Higgs bosons to a photon and a Z boson in extensions of the Standard Model. In particular, we study in detail the effect of charged Higgs bosons in two-Higgs doublet models, and the contribution of SUSY particle loops in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. The Higgs-$\gamma Z$ coupling can be measured in the decay $Z \to \gamma$+Higgs at $e^+e^-$ colliders running on the Z resonance, or in the reverse process Higgs $\to Z \gamma$ with the Higgs boson produced at LHC. We show that a measurement of this coupling with a precision at the percent level, which could be the case at future $e^+e^-$ colliders, would allow to distinguish between the lightest SUSY and standard Higgs bosons in large areas of the parameter space.Comment: 18 pages LaTex + 7 figures (ps). Typo corrected in eq.(5

Detecting and Studying Higgs Bosons at a Photon-Photon Collider

We examine the potential for detecting and studying Higgs bosons at a photon-photon collider facility associated with a future linear collider. Our study incorporates realistic \gam\gam luminosity spectra based on the most probable available laser technology. Results include detector simulations. We study the cases of: a) a SM-like Higgs boson; b) the heavy MSSM Higgs bosons; c) a Higgs boson with no $WW/ZZ$ couplings from a general two Higgs doublet model.Comment: 52 pages, 26 figures, revised version with new appendi

Clostridium difficile Toxin B causes epithelial cell necrosis through an autoprocessing-independent mechanism

Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated nosocomial infection in the United States. C. difficile secretes two homologous toxins, TcdA and TcdB, which are responsible for the symptoms of C. difficile associated disease. The mechanism of toxin action includes an autoprocessing event where a cysteine protease domain (CPD) releases a glucosyltransferase domain (GTD) into the cytosol. The GTD acts to modify and inactivate Rho-family GTPases. The presumed importance of autoprocessing in toxicity, and the apparent specificity of the CPD active site make it, potentially, an attractive target for small molecule drug discovery. In the course of exploring this potential, we have discovered that both wild-type TcdB and TcdB mutants with impaired autoprocessing or glucosyltransferase activities are able to induce rapid, necrotic cell death in HeLa and Caco-2 epithelial cell lines. The concentrations required to induce this phenotype correlate with pathology in a porcine colonic explant model of epithelial damage. We conclude that autoprocessing and GTD release is not required for epithelial cell necrosis and that targeting the autoprocessing activity of TcdB for the development of novel therapeutics will not prevent the colonic tissue damage that occurs in C. difficile - associated disease

R-parity violation and uses of the rare decay sneutrino-->gamma+gamma in hadron and photon colliders

We consider implications of the loop process sneutrino -> gamma gamma in the MSSM with R-parity violation for future experiments, where the sneutrino is produced as the only supersymmetric particle. We present a scenario for the R-parity violating couplings, where this clean decay, although rare with Br(sneutrino -> gamma gamma) ~ 10^{-6}, may be useful for sneutrino detection over a range of sneutrino masses at the LHC. Furthermore, the new sneutrino-gamma-gamma effective coupling may induce detectable sneutrino resonant production in gamma gamma collisions, over a considerably wide mass range. We compare sneutrino -> gamma gamma, gg throughout the paper with the analogous yet quantitatively very different, Higgs -> gamma gamma, gg decays and comment on the loop processes sneutrino -> WW, ZZ.Comment: 19 pages using REVTEX, 3 figures embadded in the text using epsfi

Detection of chromosome aberrations in metaphase and interphase tumor cells by in situ hybridization using chromosome-specific library probes

Chromosome aberrations in two glioma cell lines were analyzed using biotinylated DNA library probes that specifically decorate chromosomes 1, 4, 7, 18 and 22 from pter to qter. Numerical changes, deletions and rearrangements of these chromosomes were radily visualized in metaphase spreads, as well as in early prophase and interphase nuclei. Complete chromosomes, deleted chromosomes and segments of translocated chromosomes were rapidly delineated in very complex karyotypes. Simultaneous hybridizations with additional subregional probes were used to further define aberrant chromosomes. Digital image analysis was used to quantitate the total complement of specific chromosomal DNAs in individual metaphase and interphase cells of each cell line. In spite of the fact that both glioma lines have been passaged in vitro for many years, an under-representation of chromosome 22 and an over-representation of chromosome 7 (specifically 7p) were observed. These observations agree with previous studies on gliomas. In addition, sequences of chromosome 4 were also found to be under-represented, especially in TC 593. These analyses indicate the power of these methods for pinpointing chromosome segments that are altered in specific types of tumors

Nicotine in the Endoplasmic Reticulum

Nicotine activates plasma membrane (PM) nicotinic receptors (nAChRs), but also permeates into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and cis-Golgi, and there binds to nascent nAChRs. Other psychiatric and abused drugs may also enter the ER and bind their classical targets. Further progress requires direct proof, quantification, and time resolution of these processes in live cells and in the brain of animals. Therefore, we are developing genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors to study the subcellular pharmacokinetics of neural drugs

Testing oxygenated microbubbles via intraperitoneal and intrathoracic routes on a large pig model of LPS-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome

With a mortality rate of 46% before the onset of COVID-19, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) affected 200,000 people in the US, causing 75,000 deaths. Mortality rates in COVID-19 ARDS patients are currently at 39%. Extrapulmonary support for ARDS aims to supplement mechanical ventilation by providing life-sustaining oxygen to the patient. A new rapid-onset, human-sized pig ARDS model in a porcine intensive care unit (ICU) was developed. The pigs were nebulized intratracheally with a high dose (4 mg/kg) of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) over a 2 h duration to induce rapid-onset moderate-to- severe ARDS. They were then catheterized to monitor vitals and to evaluate the therapeutic effect of oxygenated microbubble (OMB) therapy delivered by intrathoracic (IT) or intraperitoneal (IP) administration. Post-LPS administration, the PaO2 value dropped below 70 mmHg, the PaO2/FiO2 ratio dropped below 200 mmHg, and the heart rate increased, indicating rapidly developing (within 4 h) moderate-to- severe ARDS with tachycardia. The SpO2 and PaO2 of these LPS-injured pigs did not show significant improvement after OMB administration, as they did in our previous studies of the therapy on small animal models of ARDS injury. Furthermore, pigs receiving OMB or saline infusions had slightly lower survival than their ARDS counterparts. The OMB administration did not induce a statistically significant or clinically relevant therapeutic effect in this model; instead, both saline and OMB infusion appeared to lower survival rates slightly. This result is significant because it contradicts positive results from our previous small animal studies and places a limit on the efficacy of such treatments for larger animals under more severe respiratory distress. While OMB did not prove efficacious in this rapid-onset ARDS pig model, it may retain potential as a novel therapy for the usual presentation of ARDS in humans, which develops and progresses over days to weeks

CP--violating Chargino Contributions to the Higgs Coupling to Photon Pairs in the Decoupling Regime of Higgs Sector

In most supersymmetric theories, charginos $\tilde{\chi}^\pm_{1,2}$ belong to the class of the lightest supersymmetric particles and the couplings of Higgs bosons to charginos are in general complex so that the CP--violating chargino contributions to the loop--induced coupling of the lightest Higgs boson to photon pairs can be sizable even in the decoupling limit of large pseudoscalar mass $m_A$ with only the lightest Higgs boson kinematically accessible at future high energy colliders. We introduce a specific benchmark scenario of CP violation consistent with the electric dipole moment constraints and with a commonly accepted baryogenesis mechanism in the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model. Based on the benchmark scenario of CP violation, we demonstrate that the fusion of the lightest Higgs boson in linearly polarized photon--photon collisions can allow us to confirm the existence of the CP--violating chargino contributions {\it even in the decoupling regime of the Higgs sector} for nearly degenerate SU(2) gaugino and higgsino mass parameters of about the electroweak scale.Comment: 1+13 pages, 3 eps figure