Reduced Phagocytic Capacity of Blood Monocyte/Macrophages in Tuberculosis Patients Is Further Reduced by Smoking.

Tuberculosis (TB) and tobacco use are two major alarming global health issues posing immense threats to human populations. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) by activation of macrophages could induce the sequences of cells activation and releases of inflammatory cytokines such as CXCL-8, Il-12 and TNF-α which in turn induces the immune system network. However no information is available on other activity of cells by MTB and smoking. In the current study we aimed to investigate the serum levels TNF-a, CXCL-8 and phagocytosis capacity in tuberculosis patients with and without smoking. 103 subjects entered the study including 61 new diagnosed pulmonary TB patients (23 smokers and 38 nonsmokers) and 42 control healthy subjects. The phagocytosis of fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran (FITC-dextran) in blood monocytes/macrophages through flowcytometry was assessed. Serum levels of TNF-a and CXCL-8 were analyzed by ELISA methods. A lower percentage of cells from TB patients who smoked [50.29% (43.4-57.2), p<0.01] took up FITC-dextran after 2h compared to non-smoking TB subjects [71.62% (69.2-74.1)] and healthy cases [97.45% (95.9-99.1). Phagocytic capacity was inversely correlated with cigarette smoking as measured by pack years (r=-0.73, p<0.001). The serum levels of TNF-a and CXCL-8 were significantly higher in the TB patients who smoked compared to the TB non-smoker group (p<0.001, p<0.01 respectively). Blood monocytes/macrophages from TB patients have reduced phagocytic capacity which is further reduced in TB patients who smoke. Smoking enhanced serum levels of TNF-a and CXCL-8 suggesting a greater imbalance between the proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory factors in these patients

Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Scorpion Stings in Ahwaz, Southwest Iran (2006-2010)

Background: Scorpion sting is a health problem in the world including tropical regions of Iran as in rural region of Khuzestan province. Therefore appropriate diagnosis and treatment has a special aspect. The aim of present study was to evaluation of demographic status and clinical aspect of scorpion sting patient due to better prevention and treatment and diagnosis.Methods: This survey done by analyzing medical records of patients suffered from scorpion sting, hospitalize in Razi hospital in Khuzestan province (southwest of Iran) among 2006-2010. Patient information have been extracted and inserted in the inquiry form and data were analyzed by SPSS software.Results: In the present study 1922 patients have been studied. Proportion of females stung by scorpion to male was 1.29 to 1. Place of sting were mostly trunk (693 cases =36.05%) and remains were on other part of body. About 419 persons (21.8 %) have come to hospital about 6-24 hours after being stung and 708 people (36.83 %) came there in less than 6 hours. Most sting (41.2 %) were at night time and other were at daylight. 1308 persons were stung by an unknown black and yellow scorpion and 614 cases (31.94%) by scorpion known as Hemiscorpius lepturus. 708 persons of patients (39.83%) have been suffered from hemoglobinoria , 709 persons (39.88%) were suffered from coagulation dysfunction. Totally 508 persons of patients (26.43%) received blood products. 36 of patients were died, of which 24 cases (1.24%) were female and 12 patients (0.62%) were male. most of patients (1842 cases  95.83%) were hospitalized 1-2 days.Conclusion: In this survey, Patients at the emergency units showed signs of local and systemic effects, 36 patients were died. We propose that public awareness and physician readiness combined with the availability of effective antivenom has potential value in reducing complications and lethality in scorpion envenomation

Cross-correlation Weak Lensing of SDSS Galaxy Clusters III: Mass-to-light Ratios

We present measurements of the excess mass-to-light ratio measured aroundMaxBCG galaxy clusters observed in the SDSS. This red sequence cluster sample includes objects from small groups with masses ranging from ~5x10^{12} to ~10^{15} M_{sun}/h. Using cross-correlation weak lensing, we measure the excess mass density profile above the universal mean \Delta \rho(r) = \rho(r) - \bar{\rho} for clusters in bins of richness and optical luminosity. We also measure the excess luminosity density \Delta l(r) = l(r) - \bar{l} measured in the z=0.25 i-band. For both mass and light, we de-project the profiles to produce 3D mass and light profiles over scales from 25 kpc/ to 22 Mpc/h. From these profiles we calculate the cumulative excess mass M(r) and excess light L(r) as a function of separation from the BCG. On small scales, where \rho(r) >> \bar{\rho}, the integrated mass-to-light profile may be interpreted as the cluster mass-to-light ratio. We find the M/L_{200}, the mass-to-light ratio within r_{200}, scales with cluster mass as a power law with index 0.33+/-0.02. On large scales, where \rho(r) ~ \bar{\rho}, the M/L approaches an asymptotic value independent of cluster richness. For small groups, the mean M/L_{200} is much smaller than the asymptotic value, while for large clusters it is consistent with the asymptotic value. This asymptotic value should be proportional to the mean mass-to-light ratio of the universe . We find /b^2_{ml} = 362+/-54 h (statistical). There is additional uncertainty in the overall calibration at the ~10% level. The parameter b_{ml} is primarily a function of the bias of the L <~ L_* galaxies used as light tracers, and should be of order unity. Multiplying by the luminosity density in the same bandpass we find \Omega_m/b^2_{ml} = 0.02+/-0.03, independent of the Hubble parameter.Comment: Third paper in a series; v2.0 incorporates ApJ referee's suggestion

The effect of lipopolysaccharide on the expression level of immunomodulatory and immunostimulatory factors of human amniotic epithelial cells

Objective Human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) are a novel source of stem cells and have immunomodulatory effects on both the innate and adoptive immune system. hAECs can differentiate into multiple cell lineages that make them a suitable cell source for regenerative medicine. These cells express multiple toll-like receptors (TLRs) and respond to various TLR ligands. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a TLR4 ligand, on the level of immunomodulatory and immunostimulatory factors of hAECs. Results Our results indicated that LPS had the ability to up-regulate the expression of prostaglandin E2 synthase and transforming growth factor-beta1 in hAECs. However, there was no change in the level of interleukin-1beta, interleukin-6 and interleukin-10 in hAECs when were stimulated with LPS. In addition, we observed tumor necrosis factor-alpha was only expressed at very low level in some of hAECs samples which its expression was independent of the effects of LPS. Keywords: Human amniotic epithelial cells Toll-like receptors Lipopolysaccharide Immunomodulatory effects Regenerative medicin

Ongoing Assembly of Massive Galaxies by Major Merging in Large Groups and Clusters from the SDSS

We investigate the incidence of major mergers creating >10e11 Msun galaxies in present-day groups and clusters more massive than 2.5e13 Msun. We identify 38 pairs of massive galaxies with mutual tidal interaction signatures selected from >5000 galaxies with >5e10 Msun that reside in 845 such groups. We fit the images of each galaxy pair as the line-of-sight projection of symmetric models and identify mergers by the presence of residual asymmetries around each progenitor, such as off-center isophotes, broad tidal tails, and dynamical friction wakes. At the resolution and sensitivity of the SDSS, such mergers are found in 16% of high-mass, galaxy-galaxy pairs with magnitude differences of <1.5 and <30 kpc projected separations. We find that 90% of these mergers have nearly equal-mass progenitors with red-sequence colors and centrally-concentrated morphologies, the hallmarks of dissipationless merger simulations. Mergers at group centers are more common than between 2 satellites, but both are morphologically indistinguishable and we tentatively conclude that the latter are likely located at the dynamical centers of recently accreted subhalos. The frequency of central and satellite merging diminishes with group mass consistent with dynamical friction expectations. Based on reasonable assumptions, the centers of these massive halos are growing in stellar mass by 1-9% per Gyr, on average. Compared to all LRG-LRG mergers, we find a 2-9 times higher rate for their merging when restricted to these dense environments. Our results imply that the massive end of the galaxy population continues to evolve hierarchically at a measurable level, and that the centers of massive groups are the preferred environment for merger-driven galaxy assembly. (abridged)Comment: 48 pages, 21 figures. Submitted for publication in MNRAS. Version with full resolution figures at http://www.astro.umass.edu/~dmac/Preprints/mergers.hires.pd

The merger-driven evolution of massive galaxies

We explore the rate and impact of galaxy mergers on the massive galaxy population using the amplitude of the two-point correlation function on small scales for M > 5e10 M_sun galaxies from the COSMOS and COMBO-17 surveys. Using a pair fraction derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as a low-redshift benchmark, the large survey area at intermediate redshifts allows us to determine the evolution of the close pair fraction with unprecedented accuracy for a mass-selected sample: we find that the fraction of galaxies more massive than 5e10M_sun in pairs separated by less than 30 kpc in 3D space evolves as F(z) = (0.0130+/-0.0019)x(1+z)^1.21+/-0.25 between z = 0 and z = 1.2. Assuming a merger time scale of 0.5 Gyrs, the inferred merger rate is such that galaxies with mass in excess of 1e11 M_sun have undergone, on average, 0.5 (0.7) mergers involving progenitor galaxies both more massive than 5e10 M_sun since z = 0.6 (1.2). We also study the number density evolution of massive red sequence galaxies using published luminosity functions and constraints on the M/L evolution from the fundamental plane. Moreover, we demonstrate that the measured merger rate of massive galaxies is sufficient to explain this observed number density evolution in massive red sequence galaxies since z = 1.Comment: Accepted in Ap

Halo Occupation Distribution Modeling of Clustering of Luminous Red Galaxies

We perform Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) modeling to interpret small-scale and intermediate-scale clustering of 35,000 luminous early-type galaxies and their cross-correlation with a reference imaging sample of normal L* galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The modeling results show that most of these luminous red galaxies (LRGs) are central galaxies residing in massive halos of typical mass M ~ a few times 10^13 to 10^14 Msun/h, while a few percent of them have to be satellites within halos in order to produce the strong auto-correlations exhibited on smaller scales. The mean luminosity Lc of central LRGs increases with the host halo mass, with a rough scaling relation of Lc \propto M^0.5. The halo mass required to host on average one satellite LRG above a luminosity threshold is found to be about 10 times higher than that required to host a central LRG above the same threshold. We find that in massive halos the distribution of L* galaxies roughly follows that of the dark matter and their mean occupation number scales with halo mass as M^1.5. The HOD modeling results also allows for an intuitive understanding of the scale-dependent luminosity dependence of the cross-correlation between LRGs and L_* galaxies. Constraints on the LRG HOD provide tests to models of formation and evolution of massive galaxies, and they are also useful for cosmological parameter investigations. In one of the appendices, we provide LRG HOD parameters with dependence on cosmology inferred from modeling the two-point auto-correlation functions of LRGs.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Internal kinematics of groups of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 7

We present measurements of the velocity dispersion profile (VDP) for galaxy groups in the final data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). For groups of given mass we estimate the redshift-space cross-correlation function (CCF) with respect to a reference galaxy sample, xi(r_p, pi), the projected CCF, w_p(r_p), and the real-space CCF, xi(r). The VDP is then extracted from the redshift distortion in xi(r_p, pi), by comparing xi(r_p, pi) with xi(r). We find that the velocity dispersion (VD) within virial radius (R_200) shows a roughly flat profile, with a slight increase at radii below ~0.3 R_200 for high mass systems. The average VD within the virial radius, sigma_v, is a strongly increasing function of central galaxy mass. We apply the same methodology to N-body simulations with the concordance Lambda cold dark matter cosmology but different values of the density fluctuation parameter sigma_8, and we compare the results to the SDSS results. We show that the sigma_v-M_* relation from the data provides stringent constraints on both sigma_8 and sigma_ms, the dispersion in log M_* of central galaxies at fixed halo mass. Our best-fitting model suggests sigma_8 = 0.86 +/- 0.03 and sigma_ms = 0.16 +/- 0.03. The slightly higher value of sigma_8 compared to the WMAP7 result might be due to a smaller matter density parameter assumed in our simulations. Our VD measurements also provide a direct measure of the dark matter halo mass for central galaxies of different luminosities and masses, in good agreement with the results obtained by Mandelbaum et al. (2006) from stacking the gravitational lensing signals of the SDSS galaxies.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ, text slightly changed, abstract substantially shortened, two new panels added to Figs. 2 and 3 showing w_p and VDP as functions of r_p/R_200 instead of r_