Projected Impact of Salt Restriction on Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in China: A Modeling Study

Objectives To estimate the effects of achieving China’s national goals for dietary salt (NaCl) reduction or implementing culturally-tailored dietary salt restriction strategies on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. Methods The CVD Policy Model was used to project blood pressure lowering and subsequent downstream prevented CVD that could be achieved by population-wide salt restriction in China. Outcomes were annual CVD events prevented, relative reductions in rates of CVD incidence and mortality, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained, and CVD treatment costs saved. Results Reducing mean dietary salt intake to 9.0 g/day gradually over 10 years could prevent approximately 197 000 incident annual CVD events [95% uncertainty interval (UI): 173 000–219 000], reduce annual CVD mortality by approximately 2.5% (2.2–2.8%), gain 303 000 annual QALYs (278 000–329 000), and save approximately 1.4 billion international dollars (Int$) in annual CVD costs (Int$; 1.2–1.6 billion). Reducing mean salt intake to 6.0 g/day could approximately double these benefits. Implementing cooking salt-restriction spoons could prevent 183 000 fewer incident CVD cases (153 000–215 000) and avoid Int$1.4 billion in CVD treatment costs annually (1.2–1.7 billion). Implementing a cooking salt substitute strategy could lead to approximately three times the health benefits of the salt-restriction spoon program. More than three-quarters of benefits from any dietary salt reduction strategy would be realized in hypertensive adults. Conclusion China could derive substantial health gains from implementation of population-wide dietary salt reduction policies. Most health benefits from any dietary salt reduction program would be realized in adults with hypertension

Low-Mass Seyfert 2 Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

(Abridged) We describe a sample of low-mass Seyfert 2 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, having a median absolute magnitude of M_g = -19.0 mag. These galaxies are Type 2 counterparts to the Seyfert 1 galaxies with intermediate-mass black holes identified by Greene & Ho (2004). Spectra obtained with the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager at the Keck Observatory are used to determine the central stellar velocity dispersions and to examine the emission-line properties. Overall, the stellar velocity dispersions are low (40-90 km/s), and we find 12 objects having sigma < 60 km/s, a range where very few Seyfert 2 galaxies were previously known. The sample follows the correlation between stellar velocity dispersion and FWHM([OIII]) seen in more massive Seyfert galaxies, indicating that the narrow-line FWHM values are largely determined by virial motion of gas in the central regions of the host galaxies. Using estimates of the black hole masses and AGN bolometric luminosities, we find that these galaxies are typically radiating at a high fraction of their Eddington rate, with a median L_bol/L_Edd = 0.4. We identify one galaxy, SDSS J110912.40+612346.7, as a Type 2 analog of the nearby dwarf Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4395, with a nearly identical narrow-line spectrum and a dwarf spiral host of only M_g = -16.8 mag. Forthcoming observations of this sample, including X-ray and mid-infrared spectroscopy, can provide new tests of the obscuring torus model for active galaxies at low luminosities.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figures. Some figures bitmapped to reduce size. To appear in A

Insight into the Transmission Biology and Species-Specific Functional Capabilities of Tsetse (Diptera: Glossinidae) Obligate Symbiont Wigglesworthia

Ancient endosymbionts have been associated with extreme genome structural stability with little differentiation in gene inventory between sister species. Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) harbor an obligate endosymbiont, Wigglesworthia, which has coevolved with the Glossina radiation. We report on the ~720-kb Wigglesworthia genome and its associated plasmid from Glossina morsitans morsitans and compare them to those of the symbiont from Glossina brevipalpis. While there was overall high synteny between the two genomes, a large inversion was noted. Furthermore, symbiont transcriptional analyses demonstrated host tissue and development-specific gene expression supporting robust transcriptional regulation in Wigglesworthia, an unprecedented observation in other obligate mutualist endosymbionts. Expression and immunohistochemistry confirmed the role of flagella during the vertical transmission process from mother to intrauterine progeny. The expression of nutrient provisioning genes (thiC and hemH) suggests that Wigglesworthia may function in dietary supplementation tailored toward host development. Furthermore, despite extensive conservation, unique genes were identified within both symbiont genomes that may result in distinct metabolomes impacting host physiology. One of these differences involves the chorismate, phenylalanine, and folate biosynthetic pathways, which are uniquely present in Wigglesworthia morsitans. Interestingly, African trypanosomes are auxotrophs for phenylalanine and folate and salvage both exogenously. It is possible that W. morsitans contributes to the higher parasite susceptibility of its host species

Bayesian Cluster Finder: Clusters in the CFHTLS Archive Research Survey

The detection of galaxy clusters in present and future surveys enables measuring mass-to-light ratios, clustering properties, galaxy cluster abundances and therefore, constraining cosmological parameters. We present a new technique for detecting galaxy clusters, which is based on the Matched Filter Algorithm from a Bayesian point of view. The method is able to determine the position, redshift and richness of the cluster through the maximization of a filter depending on galaxy luminosity, density and photometric redshift combined with a galaxy cluster prior that accounts for color-magnitude relations and BCG-redshift relation. We tested the algorithm through realistic mock galaxy catalogs, revealing that the detections are 100% complete and 80% pure for clusters up to z $$20 (Abell Richness $\sim$0, M$\sim4\times10^{14} M_{\odot}$). The completeness and purity remains approximately the same if we do not include the prior information, implying that this method is able to detect galaxy cluster with and without a well defined red sequence. We applied the algorithm to the CFHTLS Archive Research Survey (CARS) data, recovering similar detections as previously published using the same or deeper data plus additional clusters which appear to be real.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 17 pages, 38 figure

The environment of weak emission-line quasars

The nature of weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) is probed by comparing the Baldwin effect (BEff) in WLQs and normal quasars (QSOs). We selected 81 high-redshift (z>2.2) and 2 intermediate-redshift (z=1.66 and 1.89) WLQs. Their rest-frame equivalent widths (EWs) of the C IV emission-line and their Eddington ratio were obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) Quasar Catalogue or from Diamond-Stanic et al. We compare the parameters of WLQs with these of 81 normal quasars from Bright Quasar Survey (BQS) and 155 radio-quiet and radio-intermediate quasars detected by SDSS and Chandra. The influence of the Eddington ratio, Lbol/Ledd, and the X-ray to optical luminosity ratio,alpha_ox, on the BEff is analysed. We find that WLQs follow a different relationship on the EW(CIV)-Lbol/Ledd plane than normal quasars. This relationship disagrees with the super-Eddington hypothesis. The weakness/absence of emission-lines in WLQs does not seem to be caused by their extremely soft ionizing continuum but by low covering factor (Omega) of their broad line region (BLR). Comparing emission-line intensities indicates that the ratios of high-ionization line and low-ionization line regions (i.e. Omega_(HIL)/Omega_(LIL)) are lower in WLQs than in normal QSOs. The covering factor of the regions producing C IV and Lyalpha emission-lines are similar in both WLQs and QSOs.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Minor changes (corrected typos) to match published versio

Treatment strategies and prognostic factors of patients with primary germ cell tumors in the mediastinum

Se presenta una paciente que fue intervenida quirúrgicamente por presentar una lesión tumoral a nivel del mediastino anterior, totalmente asintomática y descubierta, de forma incidental (incidentaloma), en el estudio preoperatorio por padecer litiasis vesicular. La tumoración resultó ser, histológicamente, un teratoma quístico maduro. La paciente evolucionó satisfactoriamente.It presents a patient who was surgery because of a tumor at the level of the anterior mediastinum, totally asymptomatic and uncovered, incidentally (incidentaloma), in the preoperative study due to vesicular lithiasis. The tumor turned out to be, histologically, a mature cystic teratoma. The patient evolved satisfactorily

Isotropic Luminosity Indicators in a Complete AGN Sample

The [O IV] 25.89 micron line has been shown to be an accurate indicator of active galactic nucleus (AGN) intrinsic luminosity in that it correlates well with hard (10-200 keV) X-ray emission. We present measurements of [O IV] for 89 Seyfert galaxies from the unbiased Revised Shapley-Ames (RSA) sample. The [O IV] luminosity distributions of obscured and unobscured Seyferts are indistinguishable, indicating that their intrinsic AGN luminosities are quite similar and that the RSA sample is well suited for tests of the unified model. In addition, we analyze several commonly used proxies for AGN luminosity, including [O III] 5007 A, 6 cm radio, and 2-10 keV X-ray emission. We find that the radio luminosity distributions of obscured and unobscured AGNs show no significant difference, indicating that radio luminosity is a useful isotropic luminosity indicator. However, the observed [O III] and 2-10 keV luminosities are systematically smaller for obscured Seyferts, indicating that they are not emitted isotropically.Comment: Updated to match version published in ApJ. 9 pages, 4 figure

Unobscured Type 2 AGNs

Type 2 AGNs with intrinsically weak broad emission lines (BELs) would be exceptions to the unified model. After examining a number of proposed candidates critically, we find that the sample is contaminated significantly by objects with BELs of strengths indicating that they actually contain intermediate-type AGNs, plus a few Compton-thick sources as revealed by extremely low ratios of X-ray to nuclear IR luminosities. We develop quantitative metrics that show two (NGC 3147 and NGC 4594) of the remaining candidates to have BELs 2-3 orders of magnitude weaker than those of typical type-1 AGNs. Several more galaxies remain as candidates to have anomalously weak BELs, but this status cannot be confirmed with the existing information. Although the parent sample is poorly defined, the two confirmed objects are well under 1% of its total number of members, showing that the absence of a BEL is possible, but very uncommon in AGN. We evaluate these two objects in detail using multi-wavelength measurements. They have little X-ray extinction with N_H < 10^21 cm^{-2}. Their IR spectra show strong silicate emission (NGC 4594) or weak aromatic features on a generally power law continuum with a suggestion of silicates in emission (NGC 3147). No polarized BEL is detected in NGC 3147. These results indicate that the two unobscured type-2 objects have circumnuclear tori that are approximately face-on. Combined with their X-ray and optical/UV properties, this behavior implies that we have an unobscured view of the nuclei and thus that they have intrinsically weak BELs. We compare their properties with those of the other less-extreme candidates. We then compare the distributions of bolometric luminosities and accretion rates of these objects with theoretical models that predict weak BELs.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 17 pages, 13 figure