First Views of a Nearby LIRG: Star Formation and Molecular Gas in IRAS 04296+2923

We present a first look at the local LIRG, IRAS04296+2923. This barred spiral, overlooked because of its location in the Galactic plane, is among the half dozen closest LIRGs. More IR-luminous than either M82 or the Antennae, it may be the best local example of a nuclear starburst caused by bar-mediated secular evolution. We present Palomar J and Pa beta images, VLA maps from 20-1.3cm, a Keck LWS image at 11.7mic and OVRO CO(1-0) and ^13CO(1-0), and 2.7 mm continuum images. The J-band image shows a symmetric barred spiral. Two bright, compact mid-IR/radio sources in the nucleus comprise a starburst that is equivalent to 10^5 O7 stars, probably a pair of young super star clusters separated by 30pc. The nuclear starburst is forming stars at the rate of ~12Msun/yr, half of the total star formation rate for the galaxy of ~25Msun/yr. IRAS04296 is bright in CO, and among the most gas-rich galaxies in the local universe. The CO luminosity of the inner half kpc is equivalent to that of the entire Milky Way. While the most intense CO emission extends over a 15"(2 kpc) region, the nuclear starburst is confined to ~1-2"(150-250 pc) of the dynamical center. From ^13CO, we find that the CO conversion factor in the nucleus is higher than the Galactic value by a factor 3-4, typical of gas-rich spiral nuclei. The nuclear star formation efficiency is M_gas/SFR^nuc = 2.7x10^-8 yr^-1, corresponding to gas consumption timescale, tau_SF^nuc~4x10^7 yrs. The star formation efficiency is ten times lower in the disk, tau_SF^disk~3.3x10^8 yrs. The low absolute star formation efficiency in the disk implies that the molecular gas is not completely consumed before it drifts into the nucleus, and is capable of fueling a sustained nuclear starburst. IRAS04296 is beginning a 100Myr period as a LIRG, during which it will turn much of its 6x10^9Msun of molecular gas into a nuclear cluster of stars. (abridged)Comment: Accepted, Astronomical Journa

A theory-based approach to understanding condom errors and problems reported by men attending an STI clinic

The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2008 Springer VerlagWe employed the information–motivation–behavioral skills (IMB) model to guide an investigation of correlates for correct condom use among 278 adult (18–35 years old) male clients attending a sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic. An anonymous questionnaire aided by a CD-recording of the questions was administered. Linear Structural Relations Program was used to conduct path analyses of the hypothesized IMB model. Parameter estimates showed that while information did not directly affect behavioral skills, it did have a direct (negative) effect on condom use errors. Motivation had a significant direct (positive) effect on behavioral skills and a significant indirect (positive) effect on condom use errors through behavioral skills. Behavioral skills had a direct (negative) effect on condom use errors. Among men attending a public STI clinic, these findings suggest brief, clinic-based, safer sex programs for men who have sex with women should incorporate activities to convey correct condom use information, instill motivation to use condoms correctly, and directly enhance men’s behavioral skills for correct use of condoms

The genome sequence of <i>Trypanosoma brucei gambiense</i>, causative agent of chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Background:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Trypanosoma brucei gambiense&lt;/i&gt; is the causative agent of chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness, a disease endemic across often poor and rural areas of Western and Central Africa. We have previously published the genome sequence of a &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; isolate, and have now employed a comparative genomics approach to understand the scale of genomic variation between &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; and the reference genome. We sought to identify features that were uniquely associated with &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; and its ability to infect humans.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Methods and findings:&lt;/b&gt; An improved high-quality draft genome sequence for the group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; DAL 972 isolate was produced using a whole-genome shotgun strategy. Comparison with &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; showed that sequence identity averages 99.2% in coding regions, and gene order is largely collinear. However, variation associated with segmental duplications and tandem gene arrays suggests some reduction of functional repertoire in &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; DAL 972. A comparison of the variant surface glycoproteins (VSG) in &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; with all &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; sequence reads showed that the essential structural repertoire of VSG domains is conserved across &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; This study provides the first estimate of intraspecific genomic variation within &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt;, and so has important consequences for future population genomics studies. We have shown that the &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; genome corresponds closely with the reference, which should therefore be an effective scaffold for any &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt; genome sequence data. As VSG repertoire is also well conserved, it may be feasible to describe the total diversity of variant antigens. While we describe several as yet uncharacterized gene families with predicted cell surface roles that were expanded in number in &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt;, no &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt;-specific gene was identified outside of the subtelomeres that could explain the ability to infect humans.&lt;/p&gt

Chaste: an open source C++ library for computational physiology and biology

Chaste - Cancer, Heart And Soft Tissue Environment - is an open source C++ library for the computational simulation of mathematical models developed for physiology and biology. Code development has been driven by two initial applications: cardiac electrophysiology and cancer development. A large number of cardiac electrophysiology studies have been enabled and performed, including high performance computational investigations of defibrillation on realistic human cardiac geometries. New models for the initiation and growth of tumours have been developed. In particular, cell-based simulations have provided novel insight into the role of stem cells in the colorectal crypt. Chaste is constantly evolving and is now being applied to a far wider range of problems. The code provides modules for handling common scientific computing components, such as meshes and solvers for ordinary and partial differential equations (ODEs/PDEs). Re-use of these components avoids the need for researchers to "re-invent the wheel" with each new project, accelerating the rate of progress in new applications. Chaste is developed using industrially-derived techniques, in particular test-driven development, to ensure code quality, re-use and reliability. In this article we provide examples that illustrate the types of problems Chaste can be used to solve, which can be run on a desktop computer. We highlight some scientific studies that have used or are using Chaste, and the insights they have provided. The source code, both for specific releases and the development version, is available to download under an open source Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) licence at http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/chaste, together with details of a mailing list and links to documentation and tutorials

Measuring and controlling medical record abstraction (MRA) error rates in an observational study.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that data collection by medical record abstraction (MRA) is a significant source of error in clinical research studies relying on secondary use data. Yet, the quality of data collected using MRA is seldom assessed. We employed a novel, theory-based framework for data quality assurance and quality control of MRA. The objective of this work is to determine the potential impact of formalized MRA training and continuous quality control (QC) processes on data quality over time. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of QC data collected during a cross-sectional medical record review of mother-infant dyads with Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome. A confidence interval approach was used to calculate crude (Wald\u27s method) and adjusted (generalized estimating equation) error rates over time. We calculated error rates using the number of errors divided by total fields ( all-field error rate) and populated fields ( populated-field error rate) as the denominators, to provide both an optimistic and a conservative measurement, respectively. RESULTS: On average, the ACT NOW CE Study maintained an error rate between 1% (optimistic) and 3% (conservative). Additionally, we observed a decrease of 0.51 percentage points with each additional QC Event conducted. CONCLUSIONS: Formalized MRA training and continuous QC resulted in lower error rates than have been found in previous literature and a decrease in error rates over time. This study newly demonstrates the importance of continuous process controls for MRA within the context of a multi-site clinical research study

Transcriptome sequencing reveals two subtypes of cortisol-secreting adrenocortical tumours in dogs and identifies CYP26B1 as a potential new therapeutic target

Cushing's syndrome (CS) is a serious endocrine disorder that is relatively common in dogs, but rare in humans. In ~15%–20% of cases, CS is caused by a cortisol-secreting adrenocortical tumour (csACT). To identify differentially expressed genes that can improve prognostic predictions after surgery and represent novel treatment targets, we performed RNA sequencing on csACTs (n = 48) and normal adrenal cortices (NACs; n = 10) of dogs. A gene was declared differentially expressed when the adjusted p-value was 2 or < −2. Between NACs and csACTs, 98 genes were differentially expressed. Based on the principal component analysis (PCA) the csACTs were separated in two groups, of which Group 1 had significantly better survival after adrenalectomy (p =.002) than Group 2. Between csACT Group G1 and Group 2, 77 genes were differentially expressed. One of these, cytochrome P450 26B1 (CYP26B1), was significantly associated with survival in both our canine csACTs and in a publicly available data set of 33 human cortisol-secreting adrenocortical carcinomas. In the validation cohort, CYP26B1 was also expressed significantly higher (p =.012) in canine csACTs compared with NACs. In future studies it would be interesting to determine whether CYP26B1 inhibitors could inhibit csACT growth in both dogs and humans

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson