Defining the geographical range of the plasmodium knowlesi reservoir

Background: The simian malaria parasite, Plasmodium knowlesi, can cause severe and fatal disease in humans yet it is rarely included in routine public health reporting systems for malaria and its geographical range is largely unknown. Because malaria caused by P. knowlesi is a truly neglected tropical disease, there are substantial obstacles to defining the geographical extent and risk of this disease. Information is required on the occurrence of human cases in different locations, on which non-human primates host this parasite and on which vectors are able to transmit it to humans. We undertook a systematic review and ranked the existing evidence, at a subnational spatial scale, to investigate the potential geographical range of the parasite reservoir capable of infecting humans.Methodology/Principal Findings: After reviewing the published literature we identified potential host and vector species and ranked these based on how informative they are for the presence of an infectious parasite reservoir, based on current evidence. We collated spatial data on parasite occurrence and the ranges of the identified host and vector species. The ranked spatial data allowed us to assign an evidence score to 475 subnational areas in 19 countries and we present the results on a map of the Southeast and South Asia region.Conclusions/Significance: We have ranked subnational areas within the potential disease range according to evidence for presence of a disease risk to humans, providing geographical evidence to support decisions on prevention, management and prophylaxis. This work also highlights the unknown risk status of large parts of the region. Within this unknown category, our map identifies which areas have most evidence for the potential to support an infectious reservoir and are therefore a priority for further investigation. Furthermore we identify geographical areas where further investigation of putative host and vector species would be highly informative for the region-wide assessment

Wide Bandwidth Observations of Pulsars C, D and J in 47 Tucanae

We report the first wideband observations of pulsars C, D and J in the globular cluster 47Tucanae (NGC 104) using the Ultra-Wideband Low (UWL) receiver system recently installed on the Parkes 64 m radio telescope. The wide frequency range of the UWL receiver (704-4032 MHz), along with the well-calibrated system, allowed us to obtain flux density measurements and polarization pulse profiles. The mean pulse profiles have significant linear and circular polarization, allowing for determination of the Faraday rotation measure for each pulsar. Precise measurements of the dispersion measures show a significant deviation in the value for pulsar D compared to earlier results. Searches for new pulsars in the cluster are on-going and we have determined optimal bands for such searches using the Parkes UWL receiver system

The Study of Mode Switching behavior of PSR J0614+2229 Using the Parkes Ultra-wideband Receiver Observations

In this paper, we presented a detailed single pulse and polarization study of PSR J0614+2229 based on the archived data observed on 2019 August 15 (MJD 58710) and September 12 (MJD 58738) using the Ultra-wideband Low-frequency Receiver on the Parkes radio telescope. The single-pulse sequences show that this pulsar switches between two emission states, in which the emission of state A occurs earlier than that of state B in pulse longitude. We found that the variation in relative brightness between the two states is related to time and both states follow a simple power law very well. Based on the phase-aligned multi-frequency profiles, we found that there is a significant difference in the distributions of spectral index across the emission regions of the two states. Furthermore, we obtained the emission height evolution for the two emission states and found that, at a fixed frequency, the emission height of state A is higher than that of state B. What is even more interesting is that the emission heights of both states A and B have not changed with frequency. Our results suggest that the mode switching of this pulsar is possibly caused by changes in the emission heights that alter the distributions of spectral index across the emission regions of states A and B resulting in the frequency-dependent behaviors, i.e., intensity and pulse width

PSR J1926-0652: A Pulsar with Interesting Emission Properties Discovered at FAST

We describe PSR J1926-0652, a pulsar recently discovered with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). Using sensitive single-pulse detections from FAST and long-term timing observations from the Parkes 64-m radio telescope, we probed phenomena on both long and short time scales. The FAST observations covered a wide frequency range from 270 to 800 MHz, enabling individual pulses to be studied in detail. The pulsar exhibits at least four profile components, short-term nulling lasting from 4 to 450 pulses, complex subpulse drifting behaviours and intermittency on scales of tens of minutes. While the average band spacing P3 is relatively constant across different bursts and components, significant variations in the separation of adjacent bands are seen, especially near the beginning and end of a burst. Band shapes and slopes are quite variable, especially for the trailing components and for the shorter bursts. We show that for each burst the last detectable pulse prior to emission ceasing has different properties compared to other pulses. These complexities pose challenges for the classic carousel-type models.Comment: 13pages with 12 figure

Homozygous p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1 is associated with a new type of hypercholanemia and implications for personalized medicine.

SLC10A1 codes for the sodium-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP), which is a hepatocellular transporter for bile acids (BAs) and the receptor for hepatitis B and D viruses. NTCP is also a target of multiple drugs. We aimed to evaluate the medical consequences of the loss of function mutation p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1. We identified eight individuals with homozygous p.Ser267Phe mutation in SLC10A1 and followed up for 8-90 months. We compared their total serum BAs and 6 species of BAs with 170 wild-type and 107 heterozygous healthy individuals. We performed in-depth medical examinations and exome sequencing in the homozygous individuals. All homozygous individuals had persistent hypercholanemia (P = 5.8 × 10-29). Exome sequencing excluded the involvement of other BA metabolism-associated genes in the hypercholanemia. Although asymptomatic, all individuals had low vitamin D levels. Of six adults that were subjected to bone mineral density analysis, three presented with osteoporosis/osteopenia. Sex hormones and blood lipids were deviated in all subjects. Homozygosity of p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1 is associated with asymptomatic hypercholanemia. Individuals with homozygous p.Ser267Phe in SLC10A1 are prone to vitamin D deficiency, deviated sex hormones and blood lipids. Surveillance of these parameters may also be needed in patients treated with drugs targeting NTCP.This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31471193, 81570539, 81370535, 91331204 and 31525014). S.X. acknowledges financial support from the Strategic Priority Research Program (XDB13040100) and Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences (QYZDJ-SSW-SYS009) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Spectral and Timing Properties of H 1743-322 in the “Faint” 2005 Normal Outburst

H 1743-322 is a well-known black hole X-ray binary (BH XRBs) that has been observed in several outbursts over the past. In this work, we have performed the spectral and timing analysis of H 1743-322 during the “faint” 2005 outburst for the first time with the RXTE/PCA data. In this outburst, the spectral and timing parameters (e.g., Tin, Γ, Rin, rms and QPOs, etc.) presented an obvious change and a q-like pattern was found in the Hardness Intensity Diagram (HID), which often named as the hysteresis effect of BH XRBs. The radius of the innermost stable circular orbit was constrained as RISCO∼3.50 Rg, which predicts that H 1743-322 is a lower-spin black hole. We further explored the correlation between timing and spectral properties. The relation of photon index Γ and X-ray flux, F3–25keV, presented a transition between negative and positive correlation when the X-ray luminosity, L3–25keV, is above and below a critical X-ray luminosity, LX,crit≃2.55×10−3 LEdd, which can be well explained by the Shakura-Sunyaev disk–corona model (SSD-corona) and advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF). We also found the tight linear, negative correlation between photon index Γ and the total fractional rms. Since the amount of soft photons from the accretion disk seems invariable, an increase of the number of soft photons will dilute the variability from the harder photons. Therefore, the softer the X-ray spectra will result in the smaller total fractional rms. The above results suggested that the 2005 outburst of H 1743-322 was a normal outburst and H 1743-322 represented similar properties with other black hole X-ray binaries

Investigating the Unique Drift Behavior of PSR B2110+27 with FAST

Careful scrutiny of the single pulse emissions from PSR B2110+27 has been conducted through highly sensitive observations using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) at a central frequency of 1250 MHz. Our investigation revealed significant subpulse drift behavior and nulling in this pulsar. Moreover, we observed that the nulling events tend to be of short duration, with an estimated overall nulling fraction of approximately 27% ± 3%. It is noteworthy that the drift direction of the subpulses exhibits abrupt changes, occasionally transitioning into a steady state or displaying a low drift rate. Analysis using longitude resolved fluctuation spectra indicates the presence of two distinct repetition periods for the pulsar: P _3 = (10.8 ± 2.5)P and P _3 = (31.6 ± 4.2)P, where P denotes the pulsar period. Our investigation revealed that the subpulse separation remains consistent across different drift patterns, with P _2 = 2.°3 ± 0.°2. A more comprehensive analysis indicates that the unique drift behavior observed can be explained by a carousel model of the dipole field. Minor changes in P _2 and drift rate caused significant variations in the apparent P _3 and abrupt shifts in the drift direction, while the true repetition period (assuming first-order aliasing) changed by only ∼10%. We observe a drift band memory and apparent phase memory across the null state in this pulsar, as well as variations in the drift rate and drift direction across the null state, though we have not detected significant periodicity of the nulling itself. This suggests that these phenomena may arise from random null pulses intersecting with the frequently aliased drift bands