143 research outputs found
It is a Small World: Global Medical Education for the Twenty-first Century
Last year’s epidemic of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus in Asia and the present world-wide concern about the spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus has brought international health concerns to the front pages of national and international newspapers, newsmagazines, and health journals around the world. Add to this the global Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic, the global resurgence of tuberculosis (TB), and the disturbing increases in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and it becomes difficult to imagine the compartmentalized world of even 30 years ago when diseases of different continents stayed in their place. Today, more than one million people cross international borders each day (not including refugees and displaced persons). Air transport guarantees a rapid transit of both person and pathogen well within the incubation period of many diseases. Body-heat detectors used recently at immigration points (e.g., Singapore and Hanoi) to detect febrile passengers are symbolic of the coarse screening attempts being used to control the movement of contagious diseases.
Identification of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor orthologue in Caenorhabditis elegans
BACKGROUND: The Caenorhabditis elegans genome is known to code for at least 1149 G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), but the GPCR(s) critical to the regulation of reproduction in this nematode are not yet known. This study examined whether GPCRs orthologous to human gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor (GnRHR) exist in C. elegans. RESULTS: Our sequence analyses indicated the presence of two proteins in C. elegans, one of 401 amino acids [GenBank: NP_491453; WormBase: F54D7.3] and another of 379 amino acids [GenBank: NP_506566; WormBase: C15H11.2] with 46.9% and 44.7% nucleotide similarity to human GnRHR1 and GnRHR2, respectively. Like human GnRHR1, structural analysis of the C. elegans GnRHR1 orthologue (Ce-GnRHR) predicted a rhodopsin family member with 7 transmembrane domains, G protein coupling sites and phosphorylation sites for protein kinase C. Of the functionally important amino acids in human GnRHR1, 56% were conserved in the C. elegans orthologue. Ce-GnRHR was actively transcribed in adult worms and immunoanalyses using antibodies generated against both human and C. elegans GnRHR indicated the presence of a 46-kDa protein, the calculated molecular mass of the immature Ce-GnRHR. Ce-GnRHR staining was specifically localized to the germline, intestine and pharynx. In the germline and intestine, Ce-GnRHR was localized specifically to nuclei as revealed by colocalization with a DNA nuclear stain. However in the pharynx, Ce-GnRHR was localized to the myofilament lattice of the pharyngeal musculature, suggesting a functional role for Ce-GnRHR signaling in the coupling of food intake with reproduction. Phylogenetic analyses support an early evolutionary origin of GnRH-like receptors, as evidenced by the hypothesized grouping of Ce-GnRHR, vertebrate GnRHRs, a molluscan GnRHR, and the adipokinetic hormone receptors (AKHRs) and corazonin receptors of arthropods. CONCLUSION: This is the first report of a GnRHR orthologue in C. elegans, which shares significant similarity with insect AKHRs. In vertebrates, GnRHRs are central components of the reproductive endocrine system, and the identification of a GnRHR orthologue in C. elegans suggests the potential use of C. elegans as a model system to study reproductive endocrinology
Panel 2.11: Food Security and Nutrition
This is a summary of the presentations and discussion of Panel 2.11, Food Security and Nutrition of the Conference, Health Aspects of the Tsunami Disaster in Asia, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Phuket, Thailand, 04-06 May 2005. The topics discussed included issues related to food security and nutrition as pertain to the responses to the damage created by the Tsunami. It is presented in the following major sections: (1) findings; (2) key questions; (3) discussion; and (4) recommendation
Using the Rosat Catalogue to find Counterparts for Unidentified Objects in the 1st Fermi/LAT Catalogue
There are a total of 1451 gamma-ray emitting objects in the Fermi Large Area
Telescope First Source Catalogue. The point source location accuracy of
typically a few arcminutes has allowed the counterparts for many of these
sources to be found at other wavelengths, but even so there are 630 which are
described as having no plausible counterpart at 80% confidence. In order to
help identify the unknown objects, we have cross-correlated the positions of
these sources with the Rosat All Sky Survey Bright Source Catalogue. In this
way, for Fermi sources which have a possible counterpart in soft X-rays, we can
use the, much smaller, Rosat error box to search for identifications. We find a
strong correlation between the two samples and calculate that there are about
60 sources with a Rosat counterpart. Using the Rosat error boxes we provide
tentative associations for half of them, demonstrate that the majority of these
are either blazars or blazar candidates and give evidence that most belong to
the BL Lac class. Given that they are X-ray selected and most are high
synchrotron peaked objects, which indicates the presence of high energy
electrons, these sources are also good candidates for TeV emission, and
therefore good probes of the extragalactic background light.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; Accepted for publication in MNRA
Sentinel-based Surveillance of Coyotes to Detect Bovine Tuberculosis, Michigan
Coyotes could be used as sentinels to detect Mycobacterium bovis in the wild
QCD Corrections to Spin Correlations in Top Quark Production at Lepton Colliders
Spin correlations, using a generic spin basis, are investigated to leading
order in QCD for top quark production at lepton colliders. Even though, these
radiative corrections induce an anomalous gamma/Z magnetic moment for the top
quarks and allow for single, real gluon emission, their effects on the top
quark spin orientation are very small. The final results are that the top (or
anti-top) quarks are produced in an essentially unique spin configuration in
polarized lepton collisions even after including the O(alpha_{s}) QCD
corrections.Comment: 32 pages, REVTeX, 13 Postscript figures, psfig.sty and here.sty are
required. Several references added, Tables 3, 4 and 5 are change
Spectroscopy of Broad Line Blazars from 1LAC
We report on optical spectroscopy of 165 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs)
in the Fermi 1LAC sample, which have helped allow a nearly complete study of
this population. Fermi FSRQ show significant evidence for non-thermal emission
even in the optical; the degree depends on the gamma-ray hardness. They also
have smaller virial estimates of hole mass than the optical quasar sample. This
appears to be largely due to a preferred (axial) view of the gamma-ray FSRQ and
non-isotropic (H/R ~ 0.4) distribution of broad-line velocities. Even after
correction for this bias, the Fermi FSRQ show higher mean Eddington ratios than
the optical population. A comparison of optical spectral properties with Owens
Valley Radio Observatory radio flare activity shows no strong correlation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Angular Correlations in Top Quark Pair Production and Decay at Hadron Colliders
We show how to observe sizable angular correlations between the decay
products of the top quark and those of the anti-top quark in top quark pair
production and decay at hadron colliders. These correlations result from the
large asymmetry in the rate for producing like-spin versus unlike-spin top
quark pairs provided the appropriate spin axes are used. The effects of new
physics at production or decay on these correlations are briefly discussed.Comment: 34 pages, revtex, including 12 uuencoded postscript figure
Blazars in the Fermi Era: The OVRO 40-m Telescope Monitoring Program
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
provides an unprecedented opportunity to study gamma-ray blazars. To capitalize
on this opportunity, beginning in late 2007, about a year before the start of
LAT science operations, we began a large-scale, fast-cadence 15 GHz radio
monitoring program with the 40-m telescope at the Owens Valley Radio
Observatory (OVRO). This program began with the 1158 northern (declination>-20
deg) sources from the Candidate Gamma-ray Blazar Survey (CGRaBS) and now
encompasses over 1500 sources, each observed twice per week with a ~4 mJy
(minimum) and 3% (typical) uncertainty. Here, we describe this monitoring
program and our methods, and present radio light curves from the first two
years (2008 and 2009). As a first application, we combine these data with a
novel measure of light curve variability amplitude, the intrinsic modulation
index, through a likelihood analysis to examine the variability properties of
subpopulations of our sample. We demonstrate that, with high significance
(7-sigma), gamma-ray-loud blazars detected by the LAT during its first 11
months of operation vary with about a factor of two greater amplitude than do
the gamma-ray-quiet blazars in our sample. We also find a significant (3-sigma)
difference between variability amplitude in BL Lacertae objects and
flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), with the former exhibiting larger
variability amplitudes. Finally, low-redshift (z<1) FSRQs are found to vary
more strongly than high-redshift FSRQs, with 3-sigma significance. These
findings represent an important step toward understanding why some blazars emit
gamma-rays while others, with apparently similar properties, remain silent.Comment: 23 pages, 24 figures. Submitted to ApJ
The Identification of the X-ray Counterpart to PSR J2021+4026
We report the probable identification of the X-ray counterpart to the
gamma-ray pulsar PSR J2021+4026 using imaging with the Chandra X-ray
Observatory ACIS and timing analysis with the Fermi satellite. Given the
statistical and systematic errors, the positions determined by both satellites
are coincident. The X-ray source position is R.A. 20h21m30.733s, Decl. +40 deg
26 min 46.04sec (J2000) with an estimated uncertainty of 1.3 arsec combined
statistical and systematic error. Moreover, both the X-ray to gamma-ray and the
X-ray to optical flux ratios are sensible assuming a neutron star origin for
the X-ray flux. The X-ray source has no cataloged infrared-to-visible
counterpart and, through new observations, we set upper limits to its optical
emission of i' >23.0 mag and r' > 25.2mag. The source exhibits an X-ray
spectrum with most likely both a powerlaw and a thermal component. We also
report on the X-ray and visible light properties of the 43 other sources
detected in our Chandra observation.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
- …