Trends in adult asthma hospitalization: gender-age effect

BACKGROUND: Hospital admissions due to asthma are a reliable source of information on the morbidity of the disease which, after the increase observed in the last quarter of the last century, shows a declining trend in the last few years. The aim of this study was to look at hospital admission trends due to asthma in our community and analyze some of its associated factors. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of all hospital admissions involving adults aged 15 years and older with asthma as the primary or secondary diagnosis (if the first diagnosis was respiratory failure or respiratory infection) in Public Health Service hospitals in the Galician region of Spain between the years 1995-2009 (total 24,766 admissions). RESULTS: The majority of patients admitted were female (71%), over 60 years of age (64%), and admission occurred predominantly in the winter months. The hospitalization rate due to asthma tripled over the period studied, this being mainly accounted for by women aged over 60 years. Mean hospital stay was 9.2 days, longer in older patients or those admitted over the weekend. CONCLUSIONS: A significant increase in hospital admissions due to asthma over the last few years has been observed in our community, mainly involving older women. The mean stay seems long, increasing with patients' age and admission over the weekend

Removal of Cu2+ and Ni2+ from Aqueous Solution using SnO2 Nanomaterial effect of: pH, Time, Temperature, interfering cations

Tin oxide, SnO2, nanomaterial was synthesized and tested for the removal of Cu2+ and Ni2+ ions from aqueous solutions. Various parameters for the binding were investigated in batch studied, which included pH, time, temperature, and interferences. In addition, isotherm studied were performed to determine the maximum binding capacity for both Cu2+ and Ni2+ ions. The optimal binding pH determined from the effects of pH were to be at pH 5 for both the Cu2+ and Ni2+ ions. The isotherm studies were performed at temperatures of 4°C, 25 °C, and 45 °C for both the Cu2+ and Ni2+ ions and were found to follow the Langmuir isotherm model. The binding capacities for the Cu2+ ions were 2.63 mg/g, 2.95 mg/g and 3.27 mg/g at the aforementioned temperatures, respectively. Whereas the binding capacities for Ni2+ were 0.79 mg/g, 1.07 mg/g, and 1.46 mg/g at the respective temperatures. The determined thermodynamic parameters for the binding showed that the binding processes for the reactions were endothermic, as the ΔG was observed to decrease with decreasing temperatures. As well the ΔH was 28.73 kJ/mol for Cu2+ (III) and 13.37 kJ/mol for Ni2+. The ΔS was observed to be 92.65 J/mol for Cu2+ and 54.53 J/mol for Ni2+. The free energy of adsorption for the Cu2+ was determined to be 13.99 kJ/mol and the activation energy for the binding of Ni2+ was determined to be 8.09 KJ/mol. The activation energy data indicate that the reaction was occurring through chemisorptio

Exact solution for the time-dependent temperature field in dry grinding: application to segmental wheels

We present a closed analytical solution for the time evolution of the temperature field in dry grinding for any time-dependent friction profile between the grinding wheel and the workpiece. We base our solution in the framework of the Samara-Valencia model Skuratov et al., 2007, solving the integral equation posed for the case of dry grinding. We apply our solution to segmental wheels that produce an intermittent friction over the workpiece surface. For the same grinding parameters, we plot the temperature fields of up- and downgrinding, showing that they are quite different from each other. © 2011 J. L. Gonzlez-Santander et al.The authors wish to thank the financial support received from Generalitat Valenciana under Grant GVA 3012/2009 and from Universidad Politecnica de Valencia under Grant PAID-06-09.González-Santander Martínez, JL.; Valdes Placeres, JM.; Isidro San Juan, JM. (2011). Exact solution for the time-dependent temperature field in dry grinding: application to segmental wheels. Mathematical Problems in Engineering. 1-28. doi:10.1155/2011/927876S12

Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory. Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km$^2$ str and provides us with an unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X$_{max}$ data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100% duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, talk given at the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro 201

Anisotropy and chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Collaboration has reported evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of arrival directions of the cosmic rays with energies $E>E_{th}=5.5\times 10^{19}$ eV. These show a correlation with the distribution of nearby extragalactic objects, including an apparent excess around the direction of Centaurus A. If the particles responsible for these excesses at $E>E_{th}$ are heavy nuclei with charge $Z$, the proton component of the sources should lead to excesses in the same regions at energies $E/Z$. We here report the lack of anisotropies in these directions at energies above $E_{th}/Z$ (for illustrative values of $Z=6,\ 13,\ 26$). If the anisotropies above $E_{th}$ are due to nuclei with charge $Z$, and under reasonable assumptions about the acceleration process, these observations imply stringent constraints on the allowed proton fraction at the lower energies

Update on the correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic matter

Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory through 31 August 2007 showed evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min energy threshold, \nobreak{$6\times 10^{19}$eV}. The anisotropy was measured by the fraction of arrival directions that are less than $3.1^\circ$ from the position of an active galactic nucleus within 75 Mpc (using the V\'eron-Cetty and V\'eron $12^{\rm th}$ catalog). An updated measurement of this fraction is reported here using the arrival directions of cosmic rays recorded above the same energy threshold through 31 December 2009. The number of arrival directions has increased from 27 to 69, allowing a more precise measurement. The correlating fraction is $(38^{+7}_{-6})$, compared with $21$ expected for isotropic cosmic rays. This is down from the early estimate of $(69^{+11}_{-13})$. The enlarged set of arrival directions is examined also in relation to other populations of nearby extragalactic objects: galaxies in the 2 Microns All Sky Survey and active galactic nuclei detected in hard X-rays by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A celestial region around the position of the radiogalaxy Cen A has the largest excess of arrival directions relative to isotropic expectations. The 2-point autocorrelation function is shown for the enlarged set of arrival directions and compared to the isotropic expectation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics on 31 August 201

Advanced functionality for radio analysis in the Offline software framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The advent of the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) necessitates the development of a powerful framework for the analysis of radio measurements of cosmic ray air showers. As AERA performs "radio-hybrid" measurements of air shower radio emission in coincidence with the surface particle detectors and fluorescence telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory, the radio analysis functionality had to be incorporated in the existing hybrid analysis solutions for fluoresence and surface detector data. This goal has been achieved in a natural way by extending the existing Auger Offline software framework with radio functionality. In this article, we lay out the design, highlights and features of the radio extension implemented in the Auger Offline framework. Its functionality has achieved a high degree of sophistication and offers advanced features such as vectorial reconstruction of the electric field, advanced signal processing algorithms, a transparent and efficient handling of FFTs, a very detailed simulation of detector effects, and the read-in of multiple data formats including data from various radio simulation codes. The source code of this radio functionality can be made available to interested parties on request.Comment: accepted for publication in NIM A, 13 pages, minor corrections to author list and references in v

Search for First Harmonic Modulation in the Right Ascension Distribution of Cosmic Rays Detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory

We present the results of searches for dipolar-type anisotropies in different energy ranges above $2.5\times 10^{17}$ eV with the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, reporting on both the phase and the amplitude measurements of the first harmonic modulation in the right-ascension distribution. Upper limits on the amplitudes are obtained, which provide the most stringent bounds at present, being below 2% at 99% $C.L.$ for EeV energies. We also compare our results to those of previous experiments as well as with some theoretical expectations.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figure

Association of a functional microsatellite within intron 1 of the BMP5 gene with susceptibility to osteoarthritis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In a previous study carried out by our group, the genotyping of 36 microsatellite markers from within a narrow interval of chromosome 6p12.3-q13 generated evidence for linkage and for association to female hip osteoarthritis (OA), with the most compelling association found for a marker within intron 1 of the bone morphogenetic protein 5 gene (<it>BMP5</it>). In this study, we aimed to further categorize the association of variants within intron 1 of <it>BMP5 </it>with OA through an expanded genetic association study of the intron and subsequent functional analysis of associated polymorphisms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We genotyped 18 common polymorphisms including 8 microsatellites and 9 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 1 insertion/deletion (INDEL) from within highly conserved regions between human and mouse within intron 1 of <it>BMP5</it>. These markers were then tested for association to OA by a two-stage approach in which the polymorphisms were initially genotyped in a case-control cohort comprising 361 individuals with associated polymorphisms (<it>P </it>≤ 0.05) then genotyped in a second case-control cohort comprising 1185 individuals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two <it>BMP5 </it>intron 1 polymorphisms demonstrated association in the combined case-control cohort of 1546 individuals (765 cases and 781 controls): microsatellite D6S1276 (<it>P </it>= 0.018) and SNP rs921126 (<it>P </it>= 0.013). Functional analyses in osteoblastic, chondrocytic, and adipocytic cell lines indicated that allelic variants of D6S1276 have significant effects on the transcriptional activity of the <it>BMP5 </it>promoter <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Variability in gene expression of <it>BMP5 </it>may be an important contributor to OA genetic susceptibility.</p

CUP-1 Is a Novel Protein Involved in Dietary Cholesterol Uptake in Caenorhabditis elegans

Sterols transport and distribution are essential processes in all multicellular organisms. Survival of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans depends on dietary absorption of sterols present in the environment. However the general mechanisms associated to sterol uptake in nematodes are poorly understood. In the present work we provide evidence showing that a previously uncharacterized transmembrane protein, designated Cholesterol Uptake Protein-1 (CUP-1), is involved in dietary cholesterol uptake in C. elegans. Animals lacking CUP-1 showed hypersensitivity to cholesterol limitation and were unable to uptake cholesterol. A CUP-1-GFP fusion protein colocalized with cholesterol-rich vesicles, endosomes and lysosomes as well as the plasma membrane. Additionally, by FRET imaging, a direct interaction was found between the cholesterol analog DHE and the transmembrane “cholesterol recognition/interaction amino acid consensus” (CRAC) motif present in C. elegans CUP-1. In-silico analysis identified two mammalian homologues of CUP-1. Most interestingly, CRAC motifs are conserved in mammalian CUP-1 homologous. Our results suggest a role of CUP-1 in cholesterol uptake in C. elegans and open up the possibility for the existence of a new class of proteins involved in sterol absorption in mammals