Low incidence of toxoplasma infection during pregnancy and in newborns in Sweden

To estimate the burden of disease due to congenital toxoplasmosis in Sweden the incidence of primary infections during pregnancy and birth prevalence of congenital toxoplasmosis in 40978 children born in two regions in Sweden was determined. Women possibly infected during pregnancy were identified based on: 1, detection of specific IgG based on neonatal screening of the phenylketonuria (PKU) card blood spot followed by retrospective testing of stored prenatal samples to detect women who acquired infection during pregnancy and follow up of their children to 12 months; 2, detection of specific IgM on the PKU blood spot. The birth prevalence of congenital toxoplasmosis was 0·73/10000 (95% CI 0·15–2·14) (3/40978). The incidence of primary infection during pregnancy was 5·1/10000 (95% CI 2·6–8·9) susceptible pregnant women. The seroprevalence in the southern part was 25·7% and in the Stockholm area 14·0%. The incidence of infection during pregnancy was low, as the birth prevalence of congenital toxoplasmosis. Neonatal screening warrants consideration in view of the low cost and feasibility

Non-LTE line formation for Pr II and Pr III in A and Ap stars

Non-LTE line formation for Pr II and Pr III is considered through a range of effective temperatures between 7250 K and 9500 K. A comprehensive model atom for Pr II/III is based on the measured and the predicted energy levels, in total, 6708 levels of Pr II and Pr III. We describe calculations of the Pr II energy levels and oscillator strengths for the transitions in Pr II and Pr III. The influence of departures from LTE on Pr abundance determinations is evaluated. At Teff >= 8000 K departures from LTE lead to overionization of Pr II and to systematically depleted total absorption in the line and positive abundance corrections. At the lower temperatures, different lines of Pr II may be either weakened or amplified depending on the line strength. The non-LTE effects strengthen the Pr III lines and lead to negative abundance corrections. Non-LTE corrections grow with effective temperature for the Pr II lines, and, in contrast, they decline for the Pr III lines. The Pr II/III model atom is applied to determine the Pr abundance in the atmosphere of the roAp star HD 24712 from the lines of two ionization stages. In the chemically uniform atmosphere with [Pr/H] = 3, the departures from LTE may explain only small part (0.3 dex) of the difference between the LTE abundances derived from the Pr II and Pr III lines (2 dex). We find that the lines of both ionization stages are described for the vertical distribution of the praseodymium where the Pr enriched layer with [Pr/H] > 4 exists in the outer atmosphere at log tau_5000 < -4. The departures from LTE for Pr II/III are strong in the stratified atmosphere and have the opposite sign for the Pr II and Pr III lines. Using the revised partition function of Pr II and experimental transition probabilities, we determine the solar non-LTE abundance of Pr as log (Pr/H) = -11.15\pm0.08.Comment: 17 pages, 4 tables, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Systematic review: early infant feeding and the prevention of coeliac disease.

BACKGROUND: PREVENTCD, Prevent Coeliac Disease, is an international project investigating the hypothesis of possible induction of tolerance to gluten in genetically predisposed children through introducing small quantities of gluten during the period of breastfeeding. AIM: To summarise current knowledge on the possible relationship between early feeding practices and the risk of coeliac disease (CD). METHODS: The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases were searched in May 2011, and the search was updated in January 2012, and again in July 2012. RESULTS: Breastfeeding (BF) and CD: some studies show a protective effect of BF, while others show no effect. No studies have shown a long-term preventive effect. BF at the time of gluten introduction and CD: Results from a meta-analysis of five observational case-control studies suggest that BF at gluten introduction is associated with a lower risk of CD compared with formula feeding. It is unclear whether BF provides a permanent protection or only delays the onset of CD. Timing of gluten introduction: The data suggest that both early (≤4 months) and late (≥7 months) introduction of gluten may increase the risk of CD. Amount of gluten at weaning (and later) and CD: One incident case-referent study documented that the introduction of gluten in large amounts compared with small or medium amounts increased the risk of CD. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of clear evidence, in order to decrease the risk of later coeliac disease, it is reasonable to avoid both early (<4 months) and late (≥7 months) introduction of gluten, and to introduce gluten while the infant is still being breastfed. Future studies may clarify the remaining uncertainties

An interpolation theorem for proper holomorphic embeddings

Given a Stein manifold X of dimension n>1, a discrete sequence a_j in X, and a discrete sequence b_j in C^m where m > [3n/2], there exists a proper holomorphic embedding of X into C^m which sends a_j to b_j for every j=1,2,.... This is the interpolation version of the embedding theorem due to Eliashberg, Gromov and Schurmann. The dimension m cannot be lowered in general due to an example of Forster

HD 65949: Rosetta Stone or Red Herring

HD 65949 is a late B star with exceptionally strong Hg II at 3984[A], but it is not a typical HgMn star. The Re II spectrum is of extraordinary strength. Abundances, or upper limits are derived here for 58 elements based on a model with Teff = 13100K, and log(g) = 4.0. Even-Z elements through nickel show minor deviations from solar abundances. Anomalies among the odd-Z elements through copper are mostly small. Beyond the iron peak, a huge scatter is found. The abundance pattern of the heaviest elements resembles the N=126 r-process peak of solar material, though not in detail. We find a significant correlation of the abundance excesses with second ionization potentials for elements with Z > 30. This indicates the relevance of photospheric or near-photospheric processes. We explore a model with mass accretion of exotic material followed by the more commonly accepted differentiation by diffusion. That model leads to a number of predictions which challenge future work. Likely primary and secondary masses are near 3.3 and 1.6 M(solar), with a separation of ca. 0.25 AU. New atomic structure calculations are presented in two appendices.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS: 16 pages, 5 figure

The breakdown of the municipality as caring platform: lessons for co-design and co-learning in the age of platform capitalism

If municipalities were the caring platforms of the 19-20th century sharing economy, how does care manifest in civic structures of the current period? We consider how platforms - from the local initiatives of communities transforming neighbourhoods, to the city, in the form of the local authority - are involved, trusted and/or relied on in the design of shared services and amenities for the public good. We use contrasting cases of interaction between local government and civil society organisations in Sweden and the UK to explore trends in public service provision. We look at how care can manifest between state and citizens and at the roles that co-design and co-learning play in developing contextually sensitive opportunities for caring platforms. In this way, we seek to learn from platforms in transition about the importance of co-learning in political and structural contexts and make recommendations for the co-design of (digital) platforms to care with and for civil society

Tissue-Specific Education of Decidual NK Cells.

During human pregnancy, fetal trophoblast cells invade the decidua and remodel maternal spiral arteries to establish adequate nutrition during gestation. Tissue NK cells in the decidua (dNK) express inhibitory NK receptors (iNKR) that recognize allogeneic HLA-C molecules on trophoblast. Where this results in excessive dNK inhibition, the risk of pre-eclampsia or growth restriction is increased. However, the role of maternal, self-HLA-C in regulating dNK responsiveness is unknown. We investigated how the expression and function of five iNKR in dNK is influenced by maternal HLA-C. In dNK isolated from women who have HLA-C alleles that carry a C2 epitope, there is decreased expression frequency of the cognate receptor, KIR2DL1. In contrast, women with HLA-C alleles bearing a C1 epitope have increased frequency of the corresponding receptor, KIR2DL3. Maternal HLA-C had no significant effect on KIR2DL1 or KIR2DL3 in peripheral blood NK cells (pbNK). This resulted in a very different KIR repertoire for dNK capable of binding C1 or C2 epitopes compared with pbNK. We also show that, although maternal KIR2DL1 binding to C2 epitope educates dNK cells to acquire functional competence, the effects of other iNKR on dNK responsiveness are quite different from those in pbNK. This provides a basis for understanding how dNK responses to allogeneic trophoblast affect the outcome of pregnancy. Our findings suggest that the mechanisms that determine the repertoire of iNKR and the effect of self-MHC on NK education may differ in tissue NK cells compared with pbNK.This work was supported by Wellcome Trust Grants 090108/Z/09/Z and 085992/Z/08/Z, as well as by British Heart Foundation Grant PG/09/077/27964. P.R.K. was the recipient of a Wellcome Trust Ph.D. studentship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the American Association of Immunologists via http://dx.doi.org/10.4049/​jimmunol.150122

The atomic structure of low-index surfaces of the intermetallic compound InPd

The intermetallic compound InPd (CsCl type of crystal structure with a broad compositional range) is considered as a candidate catalyst for the steam reforming of methanol. Single crystals of this phase have been grown to study the structure of its three low-index surfaces under ultra-high vacuum conditions, using low energy electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). During surface preparation, preferential sputtering leads to a depletion of In within the top few layers for all three surfaces. The near-surface regions remain slightly Pd-rich until annealing to ∼580 K. A transition occurs between 580 and 660 K where In segregates towards the surface and the near-surface regions become slightly In-rich above ∼660 K. This transition is accompanied by a sharpening of LEED patterns and formation of flat step-terrace morphology, as observed by STM. Several superstructures have been identified for the different surfaces associated with this process. Annealing to higher temperatures (≥750 K) leads to faceting via thermal etching as shown for the (110) surface, with a bulk In composition close to the In-rich limit of the existence domain of the cubic phase. The Pd-rich InPd(111) is found to be consistent with a Pd-terminated bulk truncation model as shown by dynamical LEED analysis while, after annealing at higher temperature, the In-rich InPd(111) is consistent with an In-terminated bulk truncation, in agreement with density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the relative surface energies. More complex surface structures are observed for the (100) surface. Additionally, individual grains of a polycrystalline sample are characterized by micro-spot XPS and LEED as well as low-energy electron microscopy. Results from both individual grains and “global” measurements are interpreted based on comparison to our single crystals findings, DFT calculations and previous literature

Inclusive V0V^0 Production Cross Sections from 920 GeV Fixed Target Proton-Nucleus Collisions

Inclusive differential cross sections $d\sigma_{pA}/dx_F$ and $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ for the production of \kzeros, \lambdazero, and \antilambda particles are measured at HERA in proton-induced reactions on C, Al, Ti, and W targets. The incident beam energy is 920 GeV, corresponding to $\sqrt {s} = 41.6$ GeV in the proton-nucleon system. The ratios of differential cross sections \rklpa and \rllpa are measured to be $6.2\pm 0.5$ and $0.66\pm 0.07$, respectively, for \xf $\approx-0.06$. No significant dependence upon the target material is observed. Within errors, the slopes of the transverse momentum distributions $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ also show no significant dependence upon the target material. The dependence of the extrapolated total cross sections $\sigma_{pA}$ on the atomic mass $A$ of the target material is discussed, and the deduced cross sections per nucleon $\sigma_{pN}$ are compared with results obtained at other energies.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 5 table