A New Hogfish of the Genus Bodianus (Teleostei: Labridae) From Islands of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

A new species of hogfish, Bodianus insularis, is described from Ascension, St. Helena and St. Paul\u27s Rocks in the South Atlantic. The species is the only member of the genus occurring at these islands. It is distinguished from Atlantic and eastern Pacific species of Bodianus, especially B. diplotaenia and B. rufus with which it has been confused in the past

Clinical and financial consequences of setting up an asthma clinic at St. Luke’s Hospital

The effects of setting up an asthma clinic were assessed in an audit study. A comparison was made between the quality and quantity of medication used by patients before and after attending the asthma clinic. The number and severity of exacerbations during a six month period before and a six month period after attending were also assessed. The cost of treatment before and after was also calculated. In 14% of patients, occupational factors, drugs or underlying lung disease were significant contributors to asthma. The number of acute episodes of severe asthma were reduced from 98 to 47, with hospital admissions falling from 26 to 1. Pulmonary function (%FEV1) improved in the group as a whole with the number of patients having their best FEV above 80% improving from 44 to 71. In spite of the expense of high cost drugs and the running costs of the clinic there were substantial savings largely from the reduced number of hospital admissions. The calculated annual cost fell from Lm 22,769 to Lm 10,654.peer-reviewe

Microliter-sized ionization device and method

A microliter-sized metastable ionization device with a cavity, a sample gas inlet, a corona gas inlet and a gas outlet. A first electrode has a hollow and disposed in the cavity and is in fluid communication with the sample gas inlet. A second electrode is in fluid communication with the corona gas inlet and is disposed around the first electrode adjacent the hollow end thereof. A gap forming means forms a corona gap between the first and second electrodes. A first power supply is connected to the first electrode and the second power supply is connected to the second electrode for generating a corona discharge across the corona gap. A collector has a hollow end portion disposed in the cavity which is in fluid communications with the gas outlet for the outgassing and detection of ionized gases. The first electrode can be a tubular member aligned concentrically with a cylindrical second electrode. The gap forming means can be in annular disc projecting radially inwardly from the cylindrical second electrode. The collector can have a tubular opening aligned coaxially with the first electrode and has an end face spaced a short distance from an end face of the first electrode forming a small active volume therebetween for the generation and detection of small quantities of trace analytes

Hedgehog Signaling Pathway Database: a repository of current annotation efforts and resources for the Hh research community

The Hedgehog Signaling Pathway Database is a curated repository of information pertaining to the Hedgehog developmental pathway. It was designed to provide centralized access to a wide range of relevant information in an organism-agnostic manner. Data are provided for all genes and gene targets known to be involved in the Hh pathway across various organisms. The data provided include DNA and protein sequences as well as domain structure motifs. All known human diseases associated with the Hh pathway are indexed including experimental data on therapeutic agents and their molecular targets. Hh researchers will find useful information on relevant protocols, tissue cell lines and reagents used in current Hh research projects. Curated content is also provided for publications, grants and patents relating to the Hh pathway. The database can be accessed at

Compton Echoes from Gamma-ray Bursts

Recent observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have provided growing evidence for collimated outflows and emission, and strengthened the connection between GRBs and supernovae. If massive stars are the progenitors of GRBs, the hard photon pulse will propagate in the pre-burst, dense environment. Circumstellar material will Compton scatter the prompt GRB radiation and give rise to a reflection echo. We calculate luminosities, spectra, and light curves of such Compton echoes in a variety of emission geometries and ambient gas distributions, and show that the delayed hard X-ray flash from a pulse propagating into a red supergiant wind could be detectable by Swift out to z~0.2. Independently of the gamma-ray spectrum of the prompt burst, reflection echoes will typically show a high-energy cutoff between m_ec^2/2 and m_ec^2 because of Compton downscattering. At fixed burst energy per steradian, the luminosity of the reflected echo is proportional to the beaming solid angle, Omega_b, of the prompt pulse, while the number of bright echoes detectable in the sky above a fixed limiting flux increases as Omega_b^{1/2}, i.e. it is smaller in the case of more collimated jets. The lack of an X-ray echo at one month delay from the explosion poses severe constraints on the possible existence of a lateral GRB jet in SN 1987A. The late r-band afterglow observed in GRB990123 is fainter than the optical echo expected in a dense red supergiant environment from a isotropic prompt optical flash. Significant MeV delayed emission may be produced through the bulk Compton (or Compton drag) effect resulting from the interaction of the decelerating fireball with the scattered X-ray radiation.Comment: LaTeX, 18 pages, 4 figures, revised version accepted for publication in the Ap

Order within disorder: the atomic structure of ion-beam sputtered amorphous tantala (a-Ta2O5)

Amorphous tantala (a-Ta2O5) is a technologically important material often used in high-performance coatings. Understanding this material at the atomic level provides a way to further improve performance. This work details extended X-ray absorption fine structure measurements of a-Ta2O5 coatings, where high-quality experimental data and theoretical fits have allowed a detailed interpretation of the nearest-neighbor distributions. It was found that the tantalum atom is surrounded by four shells of atoms in sequence; oxygen, tantalum, oxygen, and tantalum. A discussion is also included on how these models can be interpreted within the context of published crystalline Ta 2O5 and other a-T2O5 studies