New results from H.E.S.S. observations of galaxy clusters

Clusters of galaxies are believed to contain a significant population of cosmic rays. From the radio and probably hard X-ray bands it is known that clusters are the spatially most extended emitters of non-thermal radiation in the Universe. Due to their content of cosmic rays, galaxy clusters are also potential sources of VHE (>100 GeV) gamma rays. Recently, the massive, nearby cluster Abell 85 has been observed with the H.E.S.S. experiment in VHE gamma rays with a very deep exposure as part of an ongoing campaign. No significant gamma-ray signal has been found at the position of the cluster. The non-detection of this object with H.E.S.S. constrains the total energy of cosmic rays in this system. For a hard spectral index of the cosmic rays of -2.1 and if the cosmic-ray energy density follows the large scale gas density profile, the limit on the fraction of energy in these non-thermal particles with respect to the total thermal energy of the intra-cluster medium is 8% for this particular cluster. This value is at the lower bounds of model predictions.Comment: 4 pages, one figure, invited talk at the 2nd Heidelberg workshop: "High-Energy Gamma-rays and Neutrinos from Extra-Galactic Sources", January 13 - 16, 2009, to be published in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Constructive role of dissipation for driven coupled bosonic modes

We describe four cases of childhood B-cell progenitor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BCP-ALL) and one of T-cell (T-ALL) with unexpected numbers of interphase signals for ETV6 with an ETV6-RUNX1 fusion probe. Three fusion negative cases each had a telomeric part of 12p terminating within intron 2 of ETV6, attached to sequences from 5q, 7p and 7q, respectively. Two fusion positive cases, with partial insertions of ETV6 into chromosome 21, also had a breakpoint in intron 2. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation ( FISH), array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and Molecular Copy-Number Counting (MCC) results were concordant for the T-cell case. Sequences downstream of TLX3 on chromosome 5 were deleted, leaving the intact gene closely apposed to the first two exons of ETV6 and its upstream promoter. qRT-PCR showed a significant upregulation of TLX3. In this study we provide the first incontrovertible evidence that the upstream promoter of ETV6 attached to the first two exons of the gene was responsible for the ectopic expression of a proto-oncogene that became abnormally close as the result of deletion and translocation. We have also shown breakpoints in intron 2 of ETV6 in two cases of insertion with ETV6-RUNX1 fusion

Responsibility without legal authority? Tackling alcohol-related health harms through licensing and planning policy in local government.

BACKGROUND: The power to influence many social determinants of health lies within local government sectors that are outside public health's traditional remit. We analyse the challenges of achieving health gains through local government alcohol control policies, where legal and professional practice frameworks appear to conflict with public health action. METHODS: Current legislation governing local alcohol control in England and Wales is reviewed and analysed for barriers and opportunities to implement effective population-level health interventions. Case studies of local government alcohol control practices are described. RESULTS: Addressing alcohol-related health harms is constrained by the absence of a specific legal health licensing objective and differences between public health and legal assessments of the relevance of health evidence to a specific place. Local governments can, however, implement health-relevant policies by developing local evidence for alcohol-related health harms; addressing cumulative impact in licensing policy statements and through other non-legislative approaches such as health and non-health sector partnerships. Innovative local initiatives-for example, minimum unit pricing licensing conditions-can serve as test cases for wider national implementation. CONCLUSIONS: By combining the powers available to the many local government sectors involved in alcohol control, alcohol-related health and social harms can be tackled through existing local mechanisms

The Effects of Gravitational Back-Reaction on Cosmological Perturbations

Because of the non-linearity of the Einstein equations, the cosmological fluctuations which are generated during inflation on a wide range of wavelengths do not evolve independently. In particular, to second order in perturbation theory, the first order fluctuations back-react both on the background geometry and on the perturbations themselves. I this paper, the gravitational back-reaction of long wavelength (super-Hubble) scalar metric fluctuations on the perturbations themselves is investigated for a large class of inflationary models. Specifically, the equations describing the evolution of long wavelength cosmological metric and matter perturbations in an inflationary universe are solved to second order in both the amplitude of the perturbations and in the slow roll expansion parameter. Assuming that the linear fluctuations have random phases, we show that the fractional correction to the power spectrum due to the leading infrared back-reaction terms does not change the shape of the spectrum. The amplitude of the effect is suppressed by the product of the inflationary slow-roll parameter and the amplitude of the linear power spectrum. The non-gaussianity of the spectrum induced by back-reaction is commented upon.Comment: 9 page

Serum anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations before and after treatment of an ovarian granulosa cell tumour in a cat

Case summary A 15-year-old female cat was presented for investigation of progressive behavioural changes, polyuria, polydipsia and periuria. An ovarian granulosa cell tumour was identified and the cat underwent therapeutic ovariohysterectomy (OHE). The cat’s clinical signs resolved, but 6 months later it was diagnosed as having an anaplastic astrocytoma and was euthanased. Serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) concentration prior to OHE was increased vs a control group of entire and neutered female cats. Following OHE, serum AMH concentration decreased to <1% of the original value. Relevance and novel information Serum AMH measurement may represent a novel diagnostic and monitoring tool for functional ovarian neoplasms in cats

Can Action Research Strengthen District Health Management and Improve Health Workforce Performance? A Research Protocol.

The single biggest barrier for countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to scale up the necessary health services for addressing the three health-related Millennium Development Goals and achieving Universal Health Coverage is the lack of an adequate and well-performing health workforce. This deficit needs to be addressed both by training more new health personnel and by improving the performance of the existing and future health workforce. However, efforts have mostly been focused on training new staff and less on improving the performance of the existing health workforce. The purpose of this paper is to disseminate the protocol for the PERFORM project and reflect on the key challenges encountered during the development of this methodology and how they are being overcome. The overall aim of the PERFORM project is to identify ways of strengthening district management in order to address health workforce inadequacies by improving health workforce performance in SSA. The study will take place in three districts each in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda using an action research approach. With the support of the country research teams, the district health management teams (DHMTs) will lead on planning, implementation, observation, reflection and redefinition of the activities in the study. Taking into account the national and local human resource (HR) and health systems (HS) policies and practices already in place, 'bundles' of HR/HS strategies that are feasible within the context and affordable within the districts' budget will be developed by the DHMTs to strengthen priority areas of health workforce performance. A comparative analysis of the findings from the three districts in each country will add new knowledge on the effects of these HR/HS bundles on DHMT management and workforce performance and the impact of an action research approach on improving the effectiveness of the DHMTs in implementing these interventions. Different challenges were faced during the development of the methodology. These include the changing context in the study districts, competing with other projects and duties for the time of district managers, complexity of the study design, maintaining the anonymity and confidentiality of study participants as well as how to record the processes during the study. We also discuss how these challenges are being addressed. The dissemination of this research protocol is intended to generate interest in the PERFORM project and also stimulate discussion on the use of action research in complex studies such as this on strengthening district health management to improve health workforce performance