Sickness, Violence and Reconciliation: Congenital Heart Disease in Iraq

Congenital heart disease affects tens of thousands of children and families throughout Iraq, where complex surgical treatment remains largely unavailable. Through participant-observation and in-depth interviews, I investigated the understandings of this disorder among families in two areas: Kurdish northern Iraq and Arab southern Iraq. I pay particular attention to families’ perspectives on causes and treatment of the disorder in relation to historical and current macrosocial forces. Among the families I spoke with, there is a strong connection between the recent history of violence in Iraq and congenital heart disease. This thesis is largely an attempt to understand the uses and implications of this connection between sickness and violence for Iraqi families pursuing treatment through an international non-governmental organization

Bias effects on the electronic spectrum of a molecular bridge

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98651/1/JChemPhys_134_054708.pd

Study of Mill Island ice core (East Antarctica): A sensitive site for high resolution ocean climate signals?

第2回極域科学シンポジウム　氷床コアセッション 11月16日（水） 国立極地研究所 2階大会議

Agreement between gastrointestinal panel testing and standard microbiology methods for detecting pathogens in suspected infectious gastroenteritis : test evaluation and meta-analysis in the absence of a reference standard

Objective: Multiplex gastrointestinal pathogen panel (GPP) tests simultaneously identify bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens from the stool samples of patients with suspected infectious gastroenteritis presenting in hospital or the community. We undertook a systematic review to compare the accuracy of GPP tests with standard microbiology techniques. Review methods: Searches in Medline, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane library were undertaken from inception to January 2016. Eligible studies compared GPP tests with standard microbiology techniques in patients with suspected gastroenteritis. Quality assessment of included studies used tailored QUADAS-2. In the absence of a reference standard we analysed test performance taking GPP tests and standard microbiology techniques in turn as the benchmark test, using random effects meta-analysis of proportions. Results: No study provided an adequate reference standard with which to compare the test accuracy of GPP and conventional tests. Ten studies informed a meta-analysis of positive and negative agreement. Positive agreement across all pathogens was 0.93 (95% CI 0.90 to 0.96) when conventional methods were the benchmark and 0.68 (95% CI: 0.58 to 0.77) when GPP provided the benchmark. Negative agreement was high in both instances due to the high proportion of negative cases. GPP testing produced a greater number of pathogen-positive findings than conventional testing. It is unclear whether these additional ‘positives’ are clinically important. Conclusions: GPP testing has the potential to simplify testing and accelerate reporting when compared to conventional microbiology methods. However the impact of GPP testing upon the management, treatment and outcome of patients is poorly understood and further studies are needed to evaluate the health economic impact of GPP testing compared with standard methods

Atomic hydrogen in the one-sided "compact double" radio galaxy 2050+364

European VLBI Network spectral imaging of the "compact double" radio source 2050+364 in the UHF band at 1049 MHz has resolved the HI absorbing region, and has shown a faint continuum component to the North (N), in addition to the well-known East-West double (E, W). Re-examination of VLBI continuum images at multiple frequencies suggests that 2050+364 may well be a one-sided core-jet source, which appears as a double over a limited frequency range. One of the dominant features, W, would then be the innermost visible portion of the jet, and could be at or adjacent to the canonical radio core. The other, E, is probably related to shocks at a sudden bend of the jet, towards extended steep-spectrum region N. A remarkably deep and narrow HI absorption line component extends over the entire projected extent of 2050+364. It coincides in velocity with the [OIII] optical doublet lines to within 10 km/s. This HI absorption could arise in the atomic cores of NLR clouds, and the motion in the NLR is then remarkably coherent both along the line-of-sight and across a projected distance of > 300 pc on the plane of the sky. Broader, shallower HI absorption at lower velocities covers only the plausible core area W. This absorption could be due to gas which is either being entrained by the inner jet or is flowing out from the accretion region; it could be related to the BLR.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted in A&

Episodic X-ray Emission Accompanying the Activation of an Eruptive Prominence: Evidence of Episodic Magnetic Reconnection

We present an X-ray imaging and spectroscopic study of a partially occulted C7.7 flare on 2003 April 24 observed by RHESSI that accompanied a prominence eruption observed by TRACE. (1) The activation and rise of the prominence occurs during the preheating phase of the flare. The initial X-ray emission appears as a single coronal source at one leg of the prominence and it then splits into a double source. Such a source splitting happens three times, each coinciding with an increased X-ray flux and plasma temperature, suggestive of fast reconnection in a localized current sheet and an enhanced energy release rate. In the late stage of this phase, the prominence displays a helical structure. These observations are consistent with the tether-cutting and/or kink instability model for triggering solar eruptions. (2) The eruption of the prominence takes place during the flare impulsive phase. Since then, there appear signatures predicted by the classical CSHKP model of two-ribbon flares occurring in a vertical current sheet trailing an eruption. These signatures include an EUV cusp and current-sheet-like feature (or ridge) above it. There is also X-ray emission along the EUV ridge both below and above the cusp, which in both regions appears closer to the cusp at higher energies in the thermal regime. This trend is reversed in the nonthermal regime. (3) Spectral analysis indicates thermal X-rays from all sources throughout the flare, while during the impulsive phase there is additional nonthermal emission which primarily comes from the coronal source below the cusp. This source also has a lower temperature, a higher emission measure, and a much harder nonthermal spectrum than the upper sources.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Ap

A Spitzer Spectroscopic Survey of Low Ionization Nuclear Emission-line Regions: Characterization of the Central Source

We have conducted a comprehensive mid-IR spectroscopic investigation of 67 Low Ionization Nuclear Emission Line Regions (LINERs) using archival observations from the high resolution modules of the Infrared Spectrograph on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. Using the [NeV] 14 and 24um lines as active galactic nuclei (AGN) diagnostics, we detect active black holes in 39% of the galaxies in our sample, many of which show no signs of activity in either the optical or X-ray bands. In particular, a detailed comparison of multi-wavelength diagnostics shows that optical studies fail to detect AGN in galaxies with large far-IR luminosities. These observations emphasize that the nuclear power source in a large percentage of LINERs is obscured in the optical. Indeed, the majority of LINERs show mid-IR [NeV]14/[NeV]24um flux ratios well below the theoretical low-density limit, suggesting that there is substantial extinction toward even the [NeV]-emitting region . Combining optical, X-ray, and mid-IR diagnostics, we find an AGN detection rate in LINERs of 74%, higher than previously reported statistics of the fraction of LINERs hosting AGN. The [NeV]24um /[OIV]26um mid-IR line flux ratio in "AGN-LINERs" is similar to that of standard AGN, suggesting that the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the intrinsic optical/UV continuum is similar in the two. This result is in contrast to previous suggestions of a UV deficit in the intrinsic broadband continuum emission in AGN-LINERs. Consistent with our finding of extinction to the [NeV]-emitting region, we propose that extinction may also be responsible for the observed optical/UV deficit seen in at least some AGN-LINERs.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Photoreversible interconversion of a phytochrome photosensory module in the crystalline state.

A major barrier to defining the structural intermediates that arise during the reversible photointerconversion of phytochromes between their biologically inactive and active states has been the lack of crystals that faithfully undergo this transition within the crystal lattice. Here, we describe a crystalline form of the cyclic GMP phosphodiesterases/adenylyl cyclase/FhlA (GAF) domain from the cyanobacteriochrome PixJ in Thermosynechococcus elongatus assembled with phycocyanobilin that permits reversible photoconversion between the blue light-absorbing Pb and green light-absorbing Pg states, as well as thermal reversion of Pg back to Pb. The X-ray crystallographic structure of Pb matches previous models, including autocatalytic conversion of phycocyanobilin to phycoviolobilin upon binding and its tandem thioether linkage to the GAF domain. Cryocrystallography at 150 K, which compared diffraction data from a single crystal as Pb or after irradiation with blue light, detected photoconversion product(s) based on Fobs - Fobs difference maps that were consistent with rotation of the bonds connecting pyrrole rings C and D. Further spectroscopic analyses showed that phycoviolobilin is susceptible to X-ray radiation damage, especially as Pg, during single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses, which could complicate fine mapping of the various intermediate states. Fortunately, we found that PixJ crystals are amenable to serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) analyses using X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). As proof of principle, we solved by room temperature SFX the GAF domain structure of Pb to 1.55-Å resolution, which was strongly congruent with synchrotron-based models. Analysis of these crystals by SFX should now enable structural characterization of the early events that drive phytochrome photoconversion