Eta carinae and the homunculus: far infrared/submillimetre spectral lines detected with the Herschel Space Observatory

The evolved massive binary star η Carinae underwent eruptive mass-loss events that formed the complex bi-polar ‘Homunculus’ nebula harbouring tens of solar masses of unusually nitrogen-rich gas and dust. Despite expectations for the presence of a significant molecular component to the gas, detections have been observationally challenged by limited access to the far-infrared and the intense thermal continuum. A spectral survey of the atomic and rotational molecular transitions was carried out with the Herschel Space Observatory, revealing a rich spectrum of broad emission lines originating in the ejecta. Velocity profiles of selected PACS lines correlate well with known substructures: H I in the central core; NH and weak [C II] within the Homunculus; and [N II] emissions in fast-moving structures external to the Homunculus. We have identified transitions from [O I], H I, and 18 separate light C- and O-bearing molecules including CO, CH, CH+, and OH, and a wide set of N-bearing molecules: NH, NH+, N2H+, NH2, NH3, HCN, HNC, CN, and N2H+. Half of these are new detections unprecedented for any early-type massive star environment. A very low ratio [12C/13C] ≤ 4 is estimated from five molecules and their isotopologues. We demonstrate that non-LTE effects due to the strong continuum are significant. Abundance patterns are consistent with line formation in regions of carbon and oxygen depletions with nitrogen enhancements, reflecting an evolved state of the erupting star with efficient transport of CNO-processed material to the outer layers. The results offer many opportunities for further observational and theoretical investigations of the molecular chemistry under extreme physical and chemical conditions around massive stars in their final stages of evolution

The role of forensic anthropology in disaster victim identification (DVI):recent developments and future prospects

Forensic anthropological knowledge has been used in disaster victim identification (DVI) for over a century, but over the past decades, there have been a number of disaster events which have seen an increasing role for the forensic anthropologist. The experiences gained from some of the latest DVI operations have provided valuable lessons that have had an effect on the role and perceived value of the forensic anthropologist as part of the team managing the DVI process. This paper provides an overview of the ways in which forensic anthropologists may contribute to DVI with emphasis on how recent experiences and developments in forensic anthropology have augmented these contributions. Consequently, this paper reviews the value of forensic anthropological expertise at the disaster scene and in the mortuary, and discusses the way in which forensic anthropologists may use imaging in DVI efforts. Tissue-sampling strategies for DNA analysis, especially in the case of disasters with a large amount of fragmented remains, are also discussed. Additionally, consideration is given to the identification of survivors; the statistical basis of identification; the challenges related to some specific disaster scenarios; and education and training. Although forensic anthropologists can play a valuable role in different phases of a DVI operation, they never practice in isolation. The DVI process requires a multidisciplinary approach and, therefore, has a close collaboration with a range of forensic specialists

Trapped in the prison of the mind: notions of climate-induced (im)mobility decision-making and wellbeing from an urban informal settlement in Bangladesh

The concept of Trapped Populations has until date mainly referred to people ‘trapped’ in environmentally high-risk rural areas due to economic constraints. This article attempts to widen our understanding of the concept by investigating climate-induced socio-psychological immobility and its link to Internally Displaced People’s (IDPs) wellbeing in a slum of Dhaka. People migrated here due to environmental changes back on Bhola Island and named the settlement Bhola Slum after their home. In this way, many found themselves ‘immobile’ after having been mobile—unable to move back home, and unable to move to other parts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, or beyond. The analysis incorporates the emotional and psychosocial aspects of the diverse immobility states. Mind and emotion are vital to better understand people’s (im)mobility decision-making and wellbeing status. The study applies an innovative and interdisciplinary methodological approach combining Q-methodology and discourse analysis (DA). This mixed-method illustrates a replicable approach to capture the complex state of climate-induced (im)mobility and its interlinkages to people’s wellbeing. People reported facing non-economic losses due to the move, such as identity, honour, sense of belonging and mental health. These psychosocial processes helped explain why some people ended up ‘trapped’ or immobile. The psychosocial constraints paralysed them mentally, as well as geographically. More empirical evidence on how climate change influences people’s wellbeing and mental health will be important to provide us with insights in how to best support vulnerable people having faced climatic impacts, and build more sustainable climate policy frameworks

Rhesus TRIM5α disrupts the HIV-1 capsid at the inter-hexamer interfaces

TRIM proteins play important roles in the innate immune defense against retroviral infection, including human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1). Rhesus macaque TRIM5α (TRIM5αrh) targets the HIV-1 capsid and blocks infection at an early post-entry stage, prior to reverse transcription. Studies have shown that binding of TRIM5α to the assembled capsid is essential for restriction and requires the coiled-coil and B30.2/SPRY domains, but the molecular mechanism of restriction is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated, by cryoEM combined with mutagenesis and chemical cross-linking, the direct interactions between HIV-1 capsid protein (CA) assemblies and purified TRIM5αrh containing coiled-coil and SPRY domains (CC-SPRYrh). Concentration-dependent binding of CC-SPRYrh to CA assemblies was observed, while under equivalent conditions the human protein did not bind. Importantly, CC-SPRYrh, but not its human counterpart, disrupted CA tubes in a non-random fashion, releasing fragments of protofilaments consisting of CA hexamers without dissociation into monomers. Furthermore, such structural destruction was prevented by inter-hexamer crosslinking using P207C/T216C mutant CA with disulfide bonds at the CTD-CTD trimer interface of capsid assemblies, but not by intra-hexamer crosslinking via A14C/E45C at the NTD-NTD interface. The same disruption effect by TRIM5αrh on the inter-hexamer interfaces also occurred with purified intact HIV-1 cores. These results provide insights concerning how TRIM5α disrupts the virion core and demonstrate that structural damage of the viral capsid by TRIM5α is likely one of the important components of the mechanism of TRIM5α-mediated HIV-1 restriction. © 2011 Zhao et al

What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations

Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research

Prehospital score for acute disease: a community-based observational study in Japan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ambulance usage in Japan has increased consistently because it is free under the national health insurance system. The introduction of refusal for ambulance transfer is being debated nationally. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between prehospital data and hospitalization outcome for acute disease patients, and to develop a simple prehospital evaluation tool using prehospital data for Japan's emergency medical service system.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The subjects were 9,160 consecutive acute disease patients aged ≥ 15 years who were transferred to hospital by Kishiwada City Fire Department ambulance between July 2004 and March 2006. The relationship between prehospital data (age, systolic blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate, level of consciousness, SpO₂level and ability to walk) and outcome (hospitalization or non-hospitalization) was analyzed using logistic regression models. The prehospital score component of each item of prehospital data was determined by beta coefficients. Eligible patients were scored retrospectively and the distribution of outcome was examined. For patients transported to the two main hospitals, outcome after hospitalization was also confirmed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 8,330 (91%) patients were retrospectively evaluated using a prehospital score with a maximum value of 14. The percentage of patients requiring hospitalization rose from 9% with score = 0 to 100% with score = 14. With a cut-off point score ≥ 2, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 97%, 16%, 39% and 89%, respectively. Among the 6,498 patients transported to the two main hospitals, there were no deaths at scores ≤ 1 and the proportion of non-hospitalization was over 90%. The proportion of deaths increased rapidly at scores ≥ 11.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The prehospital score could be a useful tool for deciding the refusal of ambulance transfer in Japan's emergency medical service system.</p

Can precursors improve the transmission of energy at optical frequencies?

The recent interest in precursors has been fuelled by the possibility of using them for the efficient transmission of information through absorbing media at radio or optical frequencies. Here we demonstrate that the low attenuation experienced by the Brillouin precursor is attributed to the inherently low absorption of dispersive media near DC, a characteristic already exploited with communications systems using the extremely low frequency (ELF) band. Pulses, regardless of their temporal width and carrier frequency, always obey Beer's law as long as they propagate in the linear time invariant regime. We conclude with an FDTD simulation of the Maxwell–Bloch equations that shows how optical coherent bleaching effects, which take place in the linear time variant regime of the Lorentz oscillator model, can cause sustained deviations from Beer's law over relatively long distances of water

Elevated urinary excretion of free pyridinoline in Friesian horses suggests a breed-specific increase in collagen degradation

Background: Friesian horses are known for their high inbreeding rate resulting in several genetic diseases such as hydrocephaly and dwarfism. This last decade, several studies focused on two other presumed hereditary traits in Friesian horses: megaoesophagus and aortic rupture. The pathogenesis of these diseases remains obscure but an important role of collagen has been hypothesized. The purpose of this study was to examine possible breed-related differences in collagen catabolism. Urinary specimens from Friesian (n = 17, median age 10 years old) and Warmblood horses (n = 17, median age 10 years old) were assessed for mature collagen cross-links, i.e. pyridinoline (PYD) (=hydroxylysylpyridinoline/HP) and deoxypyridinoline (DPD) (lysylpyridinoline /LP). Solid-phase extraction was performed, followed by reversed-phase ion-paired liquid chromatography prior to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) detection. Results: Mean urinary concentrations of free PYD, expressed as fPYD/creatinine ratio, were significantly higher in Friesian horses compared to Warmblood horses (28.5 ± 5.2 versus 22.2 ± 9.6 nmol/mmol, p = 0.02) while mean fDPD/creatinine ratios were similar in both horse breeds (3.0 ± 0.7 versus 4.6 ± 3.7 nmol/mmol, p = 0.09). Conclusions: Since DPD is considered a specific bone degradation marker and PYD is more widely distributed in connective tissues, the significant elevation in the mean PYD/DPD ratio in Friesian versus Warmblood horses (9.6 ± 1.6 versus 5.7 ± 1.8, p < 0.0001) suggests a soft tissue origin for the increased fPYD levels. Considering that a previous study found no differences in total collagen content between Friesian and Warmblood horses for tendon and aortic tissue, this indicates a higher rate of collagen degradation. The latter might, at least in part, explain the predisposition of Friesians to connective tissue disorders

Response of bone turnover markers to raloxifene treatment in postmenopausal women with osteopenia.

Introduction: The change in bone turnover markers (BTM) in response to osteoporosis therapy can be assessed by a decrease beyond the least significant change (LSC) or below the mean of the reference interval (RI). We compared the performance of these two approaches in women treated with raloxifene. Methods: Fifty postmenopausal osteopenic women, (age 51-72y) were randomised to raloxifene or no treatment for 2 years. Blood samples were collected for the measurement of BTM. The LSC for each marker was calculated from the untreated women and the RI obtained from healthy premenopausal women (age 35-40y). Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured at the spine and hip. Results: There was a decrease in BTM in response to raloxifene treatment; percentage change at 12 weeks, CTX -39% (95% CI -48 to -28) and PINP -32% (95% CI -40 to -23) P<0.001. The proportion of women classified as responding to treatment using LSC at 12 weeks was: CTX 38%, PINP 52%, at 48 weeks CTX 60%, PINP 65%. For the RI approach; at 12 weeks CTX and PINP 38%, at 48 weeks CTX 40%, PINP 45%. There was a significant difference in the change in spine BMD in the raloxifene treated group compared to the no-treatment group at week 48; difference 0.031 g/cm2, (95% CI 0.016 to 0.046, P<0.001). Conclusions: The two approaches identified women that reached the target for treatment using BTM. Both LSC and RI criteria appear useful in identifying treatment response but the two approaches do not fully overlap and may be complementary

Extratropical cyclones and the projected decline of winter Mediterranean precipitation in the CMIP5 models

The Mediterranean region has been identified as a climate change "hot-spot" due to a projected reduction in precipitation and fresh water availability which has potentially large socio-economic impacts. To increase confidence in these projections, it is important to physically understand how this precipitation reduction occurs. This study quantifies the impact on winter Mediterranean precipitation due to changes in extratropical cyclones in 17 CMIP5 climate models. In each model, the extratropical cyclones are objectively tracked and a simple approach is applied to identify the precipitation associated to each cyclone. This allows us to decompose the Mediterranean precipitation reduction into a contribution due to changes in the number of cyclones and a contribution due to changes in the amount of precipitation generated by each cyclone. The results show that the projected Mediterranean precipitation reduction in winter is strongly related to a decrease in the number of Mediterranean cyclones. However, the contribution from changes in the amount of precipitation generated by each cyclone are also locally important: in the East Mediterranean they amplify the precipitation trend due to the reduction in the number of cyclones, while in the North Mediterranean they compensate for it. Some of the processes that determine the opposing cyclone precipitation intensity responses in the North and East Mediterranean regions are investigated by exploring the CMIP5 inter-model spread