Low energy neutrino astronomy with the large liquid scintillation detector LENA

The detection of low energy neutrinos in a large scintillation detector may provide further important information on astrophysical processes as supernova physics, solar physics and elementary particle physics as well as geophysics. In this contribution, a new project for Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy (LENA) consisting of a 50kt scintillation detector is presented.Comment: Proccedings of the International School of Nuclear Physics, Neutrinos in Cosmology, in Astro, Particle and Nuclear Physics, Erice (SICILY) 16 - 24 Sept. 200

Isolated right ventricular failure in hyperthyroidism: a clinical dilemma

We present a unique case of a 42-year-old gentleman with newly diagnosed Graves’ disease and isolated right ventricular failure. Extensive evaluation to include echocardiogram and cardiac catheterization were negative for significant pulmonary hypertension or coronary artery disease as potential etiologies. Hyperthyroid induced vasospasm is a rare but reported clinical entity that serves to be a clinical and diagnostic dilemma

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

The metabolic activity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, assessed by use of a novel inducible GFP expression system, correlates with its capacity to inhibit phagosomal maturation and acidification in human macrophages

M. tuberculosis generally reside in phagosomes within human macrophages that resist maturation and acidification, but exhibit significant heterogeneity. In this study we have constructed an IPTG inducible-GFP expression system in M. tuberculosis to assess the relationship between the metabolic status of M. tuberculosis and the degree of phagosomal maturation. Using these recombinant bacteria, we have found that, in human macrophages, M. tuberculosis that respond to IPTG with expression of GFP fluorescence, and hence are metabolically active, reside in non-acidified phagosomes that have not fused with Texas Red dextran prelabeled lysosomes. In contrast, M. tuberculosis that fail to express GFP in response to IPTG, and hence are metabolically inactive, reside within acidified phagosomes that have fused with Texas Red dextran labeled lysosomes. These studies demonstrate that metabolic activity of M. tuberculosis correlates strongly with phagosomal maturation and that the inducible GFP expression system is useful for assessing metabolic activity of intracellular M. tuberculosis