Persistent variations in national asthma mortality, hospital admissions and prevalence by socioeconomic status and region in England

Background The UK-wide National Review of Asthma Deaths sought to identify avoidable factors from the high numbers of deaths, but did not examine variation by socioeconomic status (SES) or region. Methods We used asthma deaths in England over the period 2002–2015 obtained from national deaths registers, summarised by quintiles of Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and Government Office Region. Emergency asthma admissions were obtained from Hospital Episode Statistics for England 2001–2011. The prevalence of asthma was derived from the Health Survey for England 2010. Associations of mortality, admissions and prevalence with IMD quintile and region were estimated cross-sectionally using incidence rate ratios (IRRs) adjusted for age and sex and, where possible, smoking. Results Asthma mortality decreased among more deprived groups at younger ages. Among 5–44 year olds, those in the most deprived quintile, mortality was 19% lower than those in the least deprived quintile (IRR 0.81 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.96). In older adults, this pattern was reversed (45–74 years: IRR 1.37 (1.24–1.52), ≥75 years: IRR 1.30 (1.22–1.39)). In 5–44 year olds the inverse trend with asthma mortality contrasted with large positive associations for admissions (IRR 3.34 (3.30–3.38)) and prevalence of severe symptoms (IRR 2.38 (1.70–3.33)). Prevalence trends remained after adjustment for smoking. IRRs for asthma mortality, admissions and prevalence showed significant heterogeneity between English regions. Conclusions Despite asthma mortality, emergency admissions and prevalence decreasing over recent decades, England still experiences significant SES and regional variations. The previously undocumented inverse relation between deprivation and mortality in the young requires further investigation

Thunderstorms, lightning, sprites and magnetospheric whistler-mode radio waves

Thunderstorms and the lightning that they produce are inherently interesting phenomena that have intrigued scientists and mankind in general for many years. The study of thunderstorms has rapidly advanced during the past century and many efforts have been made towards understanding lightning, thunderstorms and their consequences. Recent observations of optical phenomena above an active lightning discharge along with the availability of modern technology both for data collection and data analysis have renewed interest in the field of thunderstorms and their consequences in the biosphere. In this paper, we review the electrification processes of a thunderstorm, lightning processes and their association with global electric circuit and climate. The upward lightning discharge can cause sprites, elves, jets, etc. which are together called transient luminous events. Their morphological features and effects in the mesosphere are reviewed. The wide spectrum of electromagnetic waves generated during lightning discharges couple the lower atmosphere with the ionosphere/ magnetosphere. Hence various features of these waves from ULF to VHF are reviewed with reference to recent results and their consequences are also briefly discussed. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

Tidal and gravity waves study from the airglow measurements at Kolhapur(India)

Simultaneous photometric measurements of the OI 557.7 nm and OH (7, 2) band from a low latitude station, Kolhapur (16.8° N, 74.2° E) during the period 2004-2007 are analyzed to study the dominant waves present in the 80-100 km altitude region of the atmosphere. The nocturnal intensity variations of different airglow emissions are observed using scanning temperature controlled filter photometers. Waves having period lying between 2 and 12 hours have been recorded. Some of these waves having subharmonic tidal oscillation periods 4, 6, 8 and 12 hours propagate upward with velocity lying in the range 1.6-11.3 m/s and the vertical wave length lying between 28.6 and 163 kms. The other waves may be the upward propagating gravity waves or waves resulting from the interaction of inter-mode tidal oscillations, interaction of tidal waves with planetary waves and gravity waves. Some times, the second harmonic wave has higher vertical velocity than the corresponding fundamental wave. Application of these waves in studying the thermal structure of the region is discussed

Interpreting ancient food practices:Stable isotope and molecular analyses of visible and absorbed residues from a year-long cooking experiment

Chemical analyses of carbonized and absorbed organic residues from archaeological ceramic cooking vessels can provide a unique window into the culinary cultures of ancient people, resource use, and environmental effects by identifying ingredients used in ancient meals. However, it remains uncertain whether recovered organic residues represent only the final foodstuffs prepared or are the accumulation of various cooking events within the same vessel. To assess this, we cooked seven mixtures of C3 and C4 foodstuffs in unglazed pots once per week for one year, then changed recipes between pots for the final cooking events. We conducted bulk stable-isotope analysis and lipid residue analysis on the charred food macro-remains, carbonized thin layer organic patina residues and absorbed lipids over the course of the experiment. Our results indicate that: (1) the composition of charred macro-remains represent the final foodstuffs cooked within vessels, (2) thin-layer patina residues represent a mixture of previous cooking events with bias towards the final product(s) cooked in the pot, and (3) absorbed lipid residues are developed over a number of cooking events and are replaced slowly over time, with little evidence of the final recipe ingredients

Product market competition with differentiated goods and social welfare in the presence of an industry-wide union

Mainstream locus communis indicates that a more competitive product market leads to higher social welfare levels. Using a Conjectural Variation (CV) model, this research note analyzes the effects on welfare of different degrees of product market competition in a duopoly with differentiated goods. Bargaining between the firms and the industry-wide union occurs under the Efficient Bargaining (EB) model. The work indicates that, with close substitute goods, social welfare is maximized for the inter- mediate levels of market competition, whereas more independent goods lead to the standard result of a high welfare level under competitive markets.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Identification of a novel zinc metalloprotease through a global analysis of clostridium difficile extracellular proteins

Clostridium difficile is a major cause of infectious diarrhea worldwide. Although the cell surface proteins are recognized to be important in clostridial pathogenesis, biological functions of only a few are known. Also, apart from the toxins, proteins exported by C. difficile into the extracellular milieu have been poorly studied. In order to identify novel extracellular factors of C. difficile, we analyzed bacterial culture supernatants prepared from clinical isolates, 630 and R20291, using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The majority of the proteins identified were non-canonical extracellular proteins. These could be largely classified into proteins associated to the cell wall (including CWPs and extracellular hydrolases), transporters and flagellar proteins. Seven unknown hypothetical proteins were also identified. One of these proteins, CD630_28300, shared sequence similarity with the anthrax lethal factor, a known zinc metallopeptidase. We demonstrated that CD630_28300 (named Zmp1) binds zinc and is able to cleave fibronectin and fibrinogen in vitro in a zinc-dependent manner. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we identified residues important in zinc binding and enzymatic activity. Furthermore, we demonstrated that Zmp1 destabilizes the fibronectin network produced by human fibroblasts. Thus, by analyzing the exoproteome of C. difficile, we identified a novel extracellular metalloprotease that may be important in key steps of clostridial pathogenesis

GLAST: Understanding the High Energy Gamma-Ray Sky

We discuss the ability of the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT) to identify, resolve, and study the high energy gamma-ray sky. Compared to previous instruments the telescope will have greatly improved sensitivity and ability to localize gamma-ray point sources. The ability to resolve the location and identity of EGRET unidentified sources is described. We summarize the current knowledge of the high energy gamma-ray sky and discuss the astrophysics of known and some prospective classes of gamma-ray emitters. In addition, we also describe the potential of GLAST to resolve old puzzles and to discover new classes of sources.Comment: To appear in Cosmic Gamma Ray Sources, Kluwer ASSL Series, Edited by K.S. Cheng and G.E. Romer

Effects of butter from mountain-pasture grazing cows on risk markers of the metabolic syndrome compared with conventional Danish butter: a randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND: There is considerable interest in dairy products from low-input systems, such as mountain-pasture grazing cows, because these products are believed to be healthier than products from high-input conventional systems. This may be due to a higher content of bioactive components, such as phytanic acid, a PPAR-agonist derived from chlorophyll. However, the effects of such products on human health have been poorly investigated. OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of milk-fat from mountain-pasture grazing cows (G) and conventionally fed cows (C) on risk markers of the metabolic syndrome. DESIGN: In a double-blind, randomized, 12-week, parallel intervention study, 38 healthy subjects replaced part of their habitual dietary fat intake with 39 g fat from test butter made from milk from mountain-pasture grazing cows or from cows fed conventional winter fodder. Glucose-tolerance and circulating risk markers were analysed before and after the intervention. RESULTS: No differences in blood lipids, lipoproteins, hsCRP, insulin, glucose or glucose-tolerance were observed. Interestingly, strong correlations between phytanic acid at baseline and total (P<0.0001) and LDL cholesterol (P=0.0001) were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Lack of effects on blood lipids and inflammation indicates that dairy products from mountain-pasture grazing cows are not healthier than products from high-input conventional systems. Considering the strong correlation between LDL cholesterol and phytanic acid at baseline, it may be suggested that phytanic acid increases total and LDL cholesterol. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT0134358

Thermodynamic State Ensemble Models of cis-Regulation

A major goal in computational biology is to develop models that accurately predict a gene's expression from its surrounding regulatory DNA. Here we present one class of such models, thermodynamic state ensemble models. We describe the biochemical derivation of the thermodynamic framework in simple terms, and lay out the mathematical components that comprise each model. These components include (1) the possible states of a promoter, where a state is defined as a particular arrangement of transcription factors bound to a DNA promoter, (2) the binding constants that describe the affinity of the protein–protein and protein–DNA interactions that occur in each state, and (3) whether each state is capable of transcribing. Using these components, we demonstrate how to compute a cis-regulatory function that encodes the probability of a promoter being active. Our intention is to provide enough detail so that readers with little background in thermodynamics can compose their own cis-regulatory functions. To facilitate this goal, we also describe a matrix form of the model that can be easily coded in any programming language. This formalism has great flexibility, which we show by illustrating how phenomena such as competition between transcription factors and cooperativity are readily incorporated into these models. Using this framework, we also demonstrate that Michaelis-like functions, another class of cis-regulatory models, are a subset of the thermodynamic framework with specific assumptions. By recasting Michaelis-like functions as thermodynamic functions, we emphasize the relationship between these models and delineate the specific circumstances representable by each approach. Application of thermodynamic state ensemble models is likely to be an important tool in unraveling the physical basis of combinatorial cis-regulation and in generating formalisms that accurately predict gene expression from DNA sequence

Mitochondrial Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase Independent Import of tRNA Lysine into Yeast Mitochondria

Aminoacyl tRNA synthetases play a central role in protein synthesis by charging tRNAs with amino acids. Yeast mitochondrial lysyl tRNA synthetase (Msk1), in addition to the aminoacylation of mitochondrial tRNA, also functions as a chaperone to facilitate the import of cytosolic lysyl tRNA. In this report, we show that human mitochondrial Kars (lysyl tRNA synthetase) can complement the growth defect associated with the loss of yeast Msk1 and can additionally facilitate the in vitro import of tRNA into mitochondria. Surprisingly, the import of lysyl tRNA can occur independent of Msk1 in vivo. This suggests that an alternative mechanism is present for the import of lysyl tRNA in yeast