Strong dissipation inhibits losses and induces correlations in cold molecular gases

Atomic quantum gases in the strong-correlation regime offer unique possibilities to explore a variety of many-body quantum phenomena. Reaching this regime has usually required both strong elastic and weak inelastic interactions, as the latter produce losses. We show that strong inelastic collisions can actually inhibit particle losses and drive a system into a strongly-correlated regime. Studying the dynamics of ultracold molecules in an optical lattice confined to one dimension, we show that the particle loss rate is reduced by a factor of 10. Adding a lattice along the one dimension increases the reduction to a factor of 2000. Our results open up the possibility to observe exotic quantum many-body phenomena with systems that suffer from strong inelastic collisions

Control of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Latin America—A Systematic Review

Visceral leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease characterized by fever, spleen and liver enlargement, and low blood cell counts. In the Americas VL is zoonotic, with domestic dogs as main animal reservoirs, and is caused by the intracellular parasite Leishmania infantum (syn. Leishmania chagasi). Humans acquire the infection through the bite of an infected sand fly. The disease is potentially lethal if untreated. VL is reported from Mexico to Argentina, with recent trends showing a rapid spread in Brazil. Control measures directed against the canine reservoir and insect vectors have been unsuccessful, and early detection and treatment of human cases remains as the most important strategy to reduce case fatality. Well-designed studies evaluating diagnosis, treatment, and prevention/control interventions are scarce. The available scientific evidence reasonably supports the use of rapid diagnostic tests for the diagnosis of human disease. Properly designed randomized controlled trials following good clinical practices are needed to inform drug policy. Routine control strategies against the canine reservoirs and insect vectors are based on weak and conflicting evidence, and vector control strategies and vaccine development should constitute research priorities

One Health: The global challenge of epidemic and endemic leishmaniasis

'One Health' proposes the unification of medical and veterinary sciences with the establishment of collaborative ventures in clinical care, surveillance and control of cross-species disease, education, and research into disease pathogenesis, diagnosis, therapy and vaccination. The concept encompasses the human population, domestic animals and wildlife, and the impact that environmental changes ('environmental health') such as global warming will have on these populations. Visceral leishmaniasis is a perfect example of a small companion animal disease for which prevention and control might abolish or decrease the suffering of canine and human patients, and which aligns well with the One Health approach. In this review we discuss how surveillance for leishmaniases is undertaken globally through the control of anthroponootic visceral leishmaniasis (AVL) and zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL). The ZVL epidemic has been managed to date by the culling of infected dogs, treatment of human cases and control of the sandfly vector by insecticidal treatment of human homes and the canine reservoir. Recently, preventive vaccination of dogs in Brazil has led to reduction in the incidence of the canine and human disease. Vaccination permits greater dog owner compliance with control measures than a culling programme. Another advance in disease control in Africa is provided by a surveillance programme that combines remote satellite sensing, ecological modelling, vector surveillance and geo-spatial mapping of the distribution of vectors and of the animal-to-animal or animal-to-human pathogen transmission. This coordinated programme generates advisory notices and alerts on emerging infectious disease outbreaks that may impede or avoid the spreading of visceral leishmaniasis to new areas of the planet as a consequence of global warming

The macrophage at the intersection of immunity and metabolism in obesity

Obesity is a worldwide pandemic representing one of the major challenges that societies face around the globe. Identifying the mechanisms involved in its development and propagation will help the development of preventative and therapeutic strategies that may help control its rising rates

The Cell Ontology 2016: enhanced content, modularization, and ontology interoperability

BACKGROUND: The Cell Ontology (CL) is an OBO Foundry candidate ontology covering the domain of canonical, natural biological cell types. Since its inception in 2005, the CL has undergone multiple rounds of revision and expansion, most notably in its representation of hematopoietic cells. For in vivo cells, the CL focuses on vertebrates but provides general classes that can be used for other metazoans, which can be subtyped in species-specific ontologies. CONSTRUCTION AND CONTENT: Recent work on the CL has focused on extending the representation of various cell types, and developing new modules in the CL itself, and in related ontologies in coordination with the CL. For example, the Kidney and Urinary Pathway Ontology was used as a template to populate the CL with additional cell types. In addition, subtypes of the class ‘cell in vitro’ have received improved definitions and labels to provide for modularity with the representation of cells in the Cell Line Ontology and Reagent Ontology. Recent changes in the ontology development methodology for CL include a switch from OBO to OWL for the primary encoding of the ontology, and an increasing reliance on logical definitions for improved reasoning. UTILITY AND DISCUSSION: The CL is now mandated as a metadata standard for large functional genomics and transcriptomics projects, and is used extensively for annotation, querying, and analyses of cell type specific data in sequencing consortia such as FANTOM5 and ENCODE, as well as for the NIAID ImmPort database and the Cell Image Library. The CL is also a vital component used in the modular construction of other biomedical ontologies—for example, the Gene Ontology and the cross-species anatomy ontology, Uberon, use CL to support the consistent representation of cell types across different levels of anatomical granularity, such as tissues and organs. CONCLUSIONS: The ongoing improvements to the CL make it a valuable resource to both the OBO Foundry community and the wider scientific community, and we continue to experience increased interest in the CL both among developers and within the user community

Detection of human papillomavirus in cervical carcinoma: Comparison of peroxidase, Nanogold, and catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD)-Nanogold in situ hybridization

We compared three in situ hybridization (ISH) methods for their applicability and sensitivity in detecting human papillomavirus (HPV) in 61 cases (1 Grade 1, 18 Grade 2, 42 Grade 3) of routinely processed squamous cell cervical carcinoma. A commercially available biotinylated probe for HPV- 16/18 was applied to serial sections and detected by conventional streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase ISH, streptavidin-Nanogold-silver ISH, and catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD)-Nanogold-gold ISH. The latter method involved signal amplification by peroxidase-catalyzed deposition of biotinylated tyramides at the hybridization sites, followed by detection of accumulated biotin by streptavidin-Nanogold made visible by autometallography. The HPV-16/18 detection rates for the three methods were 39.3, 44.3, and 65.6%, respectively. In all of the three ISH methods, a punctate staining pattern (single or multiple intranuclear spots of variable size), presumably indicating viral integration, was highly predominant among the positive cases. Two of the cases identified as positive by streptavidin- biotin-peroxidase ISH were rated negative with streptavidin-Nanogold-silver ISH, whereas six cases that were clearly negative with streptavidin-biotin- peroxidase ISH became positively stained with streptavidin-Nanogold ISH. All of these discordant cases were positive by the highly sensitive CARD Nanogold-gold ISH. In addition, the high detection sensitivity of CARD- Nanogold-gold ISH was confirmed by its ability to detect single copies of HPV-16 in SiHa cells. In general, we found that the intense black reaction product from Nanogold autometallography gave superior contrast to that obtained with the peroxidase system. After tyramide signal amplification, the staining was so clearly visible that preparations could be readily screened under low magnification. Our findings precisely demonstrated the need for improved sensitivity in the in situ detection of HPV. The CARD-Nanogold-gold technology looks promising as a highly sensitive method for routine ISH in molecular pathology.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

In situ hybridisation with tyramide signal-amplification (TSA TM) in combination with various fluorochromes and chromogens

This paper describes recent developments in a program to detect damage to helicopter drivetrains using acoustic emission (AE)1,2. Data obtained from an SH-60 drivetrain on an NAWC test stand was correlated with seeded fault damage in order to identify acoustic emission characteristics unique to the various sources. The objective is to extend prior work in applications of pattern recognition techniques and advanced machine intelligence to AE3,4,5 by designing and implementing an autonomous adaptive procedure to recognize and classify drivetrain damage from AE data