Health, employment, and economic change, 1973-2009: repeated cross sectional study

Objective To see whether adverse relations between social class, health, and economic activity, observed between 1973 and 1993 and previously identified in a 1996 BMJ paper, were still apparent between 1994 and 2009 despite improvements in the general economic climate and overall population health

Clostridioides difficile binary toxin binding component (cdtb) increases virulence in a hamster model

Background Clostridioides difficile is the leading cause of hospital-acquired gastrointestinal infection, in part due to the existence of binary toxin (CDT)-expressing hypervirulent strains. Although the effects of the CDT holotoxin on disease pathogenesis have been previously studied, we sought to investigate the role of the individual components of CDT during in vivo infection. Methods To determine the contribution of the separate components of CDT during infection, we developed strains of C difficile expressing either CDTa or CDTb individually. We then infected both mice and hamsters with these novel mutant strains and monitored them for development of severe illness. Results Although expression of CDTb without CDTa did not induce significant disease in a mouse model of C difficile infection, we found that complementation of a CDT-deficient C difficile strain with CDTb alone restored virulence in a hamster model of C difficile infection. Conclusions Overall, this study demonstrates that the binding component of C difficile binary toxin, CDTb, contributes to virulence in a hamster model of infection

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERYING MULTI-CURRENCY FEATURES ONTO AN EXISTING CARD

The present disclosure provides a system and a method to delivery multi-currency features on an existing card without re-issuing another card for multi-currency. The proposed system uses virtual multi-currency ledgers to implement multi-currency payments on the existing card. The system provides multi-currency features to clients of issuer and cardholders. The multi-currency features may be accessed with issuer mobile banking app through a travel mode layer. The system is transparent to merchants/acquirer. Also, the system minimises issuer and issuer processor development

Asteroids Were Born Big

How big were the first planetesimals? We attempt to answer this question by conducting coagulation simulations in which the planetesimals grow by mutual collisions and form larger bodies and planetary embryos. The size frequency distribution (SFD) of the initial planetesimals is considered a free parameter in these simulations, and we search for the one that produces at the end objects with a SFD that is consistent with asteroid belt constraints. We find that, if the initial planetesimals were small (e.g. km-sized), the final SFD fails to fulfill these constraints. In particular, reproducing the bump observed at diameter D~100km in the current SFD of the asteroids requires that the minimal size of the initial planetesimals was also ~100km. This supports the idea that planetesimals formed big, namely that the size of solids in the proto-planetary disk ``jumped'' from sub-meter scale to multi-kilometer scale, without passing through intermediate values. Moreover, we find evidence that the initial planetesimals had to have sizes ranging from 100 to several 100km, probably even 1,000km, and that their SFD had to have a slope over this interval that was similar to the one characterizing the current asteroids in the same size-range. This result sets a new constraint on planetesimal formation models and opens new perspectives for the investigation of the collisional evolution in the asteroid and Kuiper belts as well as of the accretion of the cores of the giant planets.Comment: Icarus (2009) in pres

Performance Evaluation of the Operational Air Quality Monitor for Water Testing Aboard the International Space Station

Real-time environmental monitoring on ISS is necessary to provide data in a timely fashion and to help ensure astronaut health. Current real-time water TOC monitoring provides high-quality trending information, but compound-specific data is needed. The combination of ETV with the AQM showed that compounds of interest could be liberated from water and analyzed in the same manner as air sampling. Calibration of the AQM using water samples allowed for the quantitative analysis of ISS archival samples. Some calibration issues remain, but the excellent accuracy of DMSD indicates that ETV holds promise for as a sample introduction method for water analysis in spaceflight

The remarkable surface homogeneity of the Dawn mission target (1) Ceres

Dwarf-planet (1) Ceres is one of the two targets, along with (4) Vesta, that will be studied by the NASA Dawn spacecraft via imaging, visible and near-infrared spectroscopy, and gamma-ray and neutron spectroscopy. While Ceres' visible and near-infrared disk-integrated spectra have been well characterized, little has been done about quantifying spectral variations over the surface. Any spectral variation would give us insights on the geographical variation of the composition and/or the surface age. The only work so far was that of Rivkin & Volquardsen (2010, Icarus 206, 327) who reported rotationally-resolved spectroscopic (disk-integrated) observations in the 2.2-4.0 {\mu}m range; their observations showed evidence for a relatively uniform surface. Here, we report disk-resolved observations of Ceres with SINFONI (ESO VLT) in the 1.17-1.32 {\mu}m and 1.45-2.35 {\mu}m wavelength ranges. The observations were made under excellent seeing conditions (0.6"), allowing us to reach a spatial resolution of ~75 km on Ceres' surface. We do not find any spectral variation above a 3% level, suggesting a homogeneous surface at our spatial resolution. Slight variations (about 2%) of the spectral slope are detected, geographically correlated with the albedo markings reported from the analysis of the HST and Keck disk-resolved images of Ceres (Li et al., 2006, Icarus 182, 143; Carry et al., 2008, A&A 478, 235). Given the lack of constraints on the surface composition of Ceres, however, we cannot assert the causes of these variations.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Icaru

Diffusion of a soluble protein, photoactivatable GFP, through a sensory cilium

Transport of proteins to and from cilia is crucial for normal cell function and survival, and interruption of transport has been implicated in degenerative and neoplastic diseases. It has been hypothesized that the ciliary axoneme and structures adjacent to and including the basal bodies of cilia impose selective barriers to the movement of proteins into and out of the cilium. To examine this hypothesis, using confocal and multiphoton microscopy we determined the mobility of the highly soluble photoactivatable green fluorescent protein (PAGFP) in the connecting cilium (CC) of live Xenopus retinal rod photoreceptors, and in the contiguous subcellular compartments bridged by the CC, the inner segment (IS) and the outer segment (OS). The estimated axial diffusion coefficients are DCC = 2.8 ± 0.3, DIS = 5.2 ± 0.6, and DOS = 0.079 ± 0.009 µm2 s−1. The results establish that the CC does not pose a major barrier to protein diffusion within the rod cell. However, the results also reveal that axial diffusion in each of the rod’s compartments is substantially retarded relative to aqueous solution: the axial diffusion of PAGFP was retarded ∼18-, 32- and 1,000-fold in the IS, CC, and OS, respectively, with ∼20-fold of the reduction in the OS attributable to tortuosity imposed by the lamellar disc membranes. Previous investigation of PAGFP diffusion in passed, spherical Chinese hamster ovary cells yielded DCHO = 20 µm2 s−1, and estimating cytoplasmic viscosity as Daq/DCHO = 4.5, the residual 3- to 10-fold reduction in PAGFP diffusion is ascribed to sub-optical resolution structures in the IS, CC, and OS compartments

Movement and habitat use of the snapping turtle in an urban landscape

In order to effectively manage urban habitats, it is important to incorporate the spatial ecology and habitat use of the species utilizing them. Our previous studies have shown that the distribution of upland habitats surrounding a highly urbanized wetland habitat, the Central Canal (Indianapolis, IN, USA) influences the distribution of map turtles (Graptemys geographica) and red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta) during both the active season and hibernation. In this study we detail the movements and habitat use of another prominent member of the Central Canal turtle assemblage, the common snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina. We find the same major upland habitat associations for C. serpentina as for G. geographica and T. scripta, despite major differences in their activity (e.g., C. serpentina do not regularly engage in aerial basking). These results reinforce the importance of recognizing the connection between aquatic and surrounding terrestrial habitats, especially in urban ecosystems

From basic mechanisms to clinical applications in heart protection, new players in cardiovascular diseases and cardiac theranostics: meeting report from the third international symposium on "New frontiers in cardiovascular research"

In this meeting report, particularly addressing the topic of protection of the cardiovascular system from ischemia/reperfusion injury, highlights are presented that relate to conditioning strategies of the heart with respect to molecular mechanisms and outcome in patients' cohorts, the influence of co-morbidities and medications, as well as the contribution of innate immune reactions in cardioprotection. Moreover, developmental or systems biology approaches bear great potential in systematically uncovering unexpected components involved in ischemia-reperfusion injury or heart regeneration. Based on the characterization of particular platelet integrins, mitochondrial redox-linked proteins, or lipid-diol compounds in cardiovascular diseases, their targeting by newly developed theranostics and technologies opens new avenues for diagnosis and therapy of myocardial infarction to improve the patients' outcome

Procalcitonin Is Not a Reliable Biomarker of Bacterial Coinfection in People With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Undergoing Microbiological Investigation at the Time of Hospital Admission

Abstract Admission procalcitonin measurements and microbiology results were available for 1040 hospitalized adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (from 48 902 included in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium World Health Organization Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK study). Although procalcitonin was higher in bacterial coinfection, this was neither clinically significant (median [IQR], 0.33 [0.11–1.70] ng/mL vs 0.24 [0.10–0.90] ng/mL) nor diagnostically useful (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.56 [95% confidence interval, .51–.60]).</jats:p