Found: High Surface Brightness Compact Galaxies

We are using the 2dF spectrograph to make a survey of all objects (`stars' and `galaxies') in a 12 sq.deg region towards the Fornax cluster. We have discovered a population of compact emission-line galaxies unresolved on photographic sky survey plates and therefore missing in most galaxy surveys based on such material. These galaxies are as luminous as normal field galaxies. Using H-alpha to estimate star formation they contribute at least an additional 5 per cent to the local star formation rate.Comment: To appear in "The Low Surface Brightness Universe", IAU Coll 171, eds. J.I. Davies et al., A.S.P. Conference Series. 3 pages, LaTex, 1 encapsulated ps-figure, requires paspconf.st

A model for measuring the health burden of classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia in adults

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Aim: Patients with classic Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) have poor health outcomes. In the absence of a comprehensive observational study, this manuscript provides a model to estimate the lifetime disease burden of adults with classic CAH. Methods: The model, built in Excel, comprises sub-domains addressing the health consequences of CAH, and synthesises evidence from clinical and epidemiological studies on health outcomes. Results: The model estimates that adults with classic CAH will implement “sick day rules” (doubling or tripling glucocorticoid and/or use of parenteral therapy) 171 times over their lifetime, and attend hospital for adrenal crisis on 11 occasions. In a population of 1,000, over 200 will die of a condition complicated by adrenal crisis resulting, on average, in a loss of 7 years of life. CAH patients may also suffer from excess CVD events. Treatment with glucocorticoids almost doubles the risk of bone fractures in CAH patients compared to the general population, leading on average to an additional 0.8 fractures per CAH patient over their lifetime. Conclusions: The disease burden model highlights gaps in evidence, particularly regarding intensity of care and adrenal crisis, and the relationship between control of CAH and risks of CVD, osteoporosis, diabetes and infertility. The model can be used for research on the impact of new clinical pathways and therapeutic interventions in terms of clinical events and cost.Funded by: European Commission under the Framework 7 programme. Grant Number: HEALTH-F5-2011-281654Diurnal Limited (UK

Community pharmacists' interventions with electronic prescriptions in England: an exploratory study

Prescribing errors in primary care are problematic. The electronic prescription service (EPS) is an English electronic system linking prescribing, dispensing and reimbursement, designed to rectify some of the problems associated with paper-based prescribing

Heterogeneity within the Asian American community

BACKGROUND: Educational interventions are grounded on scientific data and assumptions about the community to be served. While the Pan Asian community is composed of multiple, ethnic subgroups, it is often treated as a single group for which one health promotion program will be applicable for all of its cultural subgroups. Compounding this stereotypical view of the Pan Asian community, there is sparse data about the cultural subgroups' similarities and dissimilarities. The Asian Grocery Store based cancer education program evaluation data provided an opportunity to compare data collected under identical circumstances from members of six Asian American cultural groups. METHODS: A convenience sample of 1,202 Asian American women evaluated the cultural alignment of a cancer education program, completing baseline and follow-up surveys that included questions about their breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors. Participants took part in a brief education program that facilitated adherence to recommended screening guidelines. RESULTS: Unique recruitment methods were needed to attract participants from each ethnic group. Impressions gained from the aggregate data revealed different insights than the disaggregate data. Statistically significant variations existed among the subgroups' breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors that could contribute to health disparities among the subgroups and within the aggregate Pan Asian community. CONCLUSION: Health promotion efforts of providers, educators, and policy makers can be enhanced if cultural differences are identified and taken into account when developing strategies to reduce health disparities and promote health equity

Differential cargo mobilisation within Weibel-Palade bodies after transient fusion with the plasma membrane.

Inflammatory chemokines can be selectively released from Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs) during kiss-and-run exocytosis. Such selectivity may arise from molecular size filtering by the fusion pore, however differential intra-WPB cargo re-mobilisation following fusion-induced structural changes within the WPB may also contribute to this process. To determine whether WPB cargo molecules are differentially re-mobilised, we applied FRAP to residual post-fusion WPB structures formed after transient exocytosis in which some or all of the fluorescent cargo was retained. Transient fusion resulted in WPB collapse from a rod to a spheroid shape accompanied by substantial swelling (>2 times by surface area) and membrane mixing between the WPB and plasma membranes. Post-fusion WPBs supported cumulative WPB exocytosis. To quantify diffusion inside rounded organelles we developed a method of FRAP analysis based on image moments. FRAP analysis showed that von Willebrand factor-EGFP (VWF-EGFP) and the VWF-propolypeptide-EGFP (Pro-EGFP) were immobile in post-fusion WPBs. Because Eotaxin-3-EGFP and ssEGFP (small soluble cargo proteins) were largely depleted from post-fusion WPBs, we studied these molecules in cells preincubated in the weak base NH4Cl which caused WPB alkalinisation and rounding similar to that produced by plasma membrane fusion. In these cells we found a dramatic increase in mobilities of Eotaxin-3-EGFP and ssEGFP that exceeded the resolution of our method (∼ 2.4 µm2/s mean). In contrast, the membrane mobilities of EGFP-CD63 and EGFP-Rab27A in post-fusion WPBs were unchanged, while P-selectin-EGFP acquired mobility. Our data suggest that selective re-mobilisation of chemokines during transient fusion contributes to selective chemokine secretion during transient WPB exocytosis. Selective secretion provides a mechanism to regulate intravascular inflammatory processes with reduced risk of thrombosis

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The 325 MHz Radio Luminosity Function of AGN and Star Forming Galaxies

Measurement of the evolution of both active galactic nuclei (AGN) and star-formation in galaxies underpins our understanding of galaxy evolution over cosmic time. Radio continuum observations can provide key information on these two processes, in particular via the mechanical feedback produced by radio jets in AGN, and via an unbiased dust-independent measurement of star-formation rates. In this paper we determine radio luminosity functions at 325 MHz for a sample of AGN and star-forming galaxies by matching a 138 deg sq. radio survey conducted with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), with optical imaging and redshifts from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We find that the radio luminosity function at 325 MHz for star-forming galaxies closely follows that measured at 1.4 GHz. By fitting the AGN radio luminosity function out to $z = 0.5$ as a double power law, and parametrizing the evolution as ${\Phi} \propto (1 + z)^{k}$ , we find evolution parameters of $k = 0.92 \pm 0.95$ assuming pure density evolution and $k = 2.13 \pm 1.96$ assuming pure luminosity evolution. We find that the Low Excitation Radio Galaxies are the dominant population in space density at lower luminosities. Comparing our 325 MHz observations with radio continuum imaging at 1.4 GHz, we determine separate radio luminosity functions for steep and flat-spectrum AGN, and show that the beamed population of flat-spectrum sources in our sample can be shifted in number density and luminosity to coincide with the unbeamed population of steep-spectrum sources, as is expected in the orientation based unification of AGN

Spatial organization acts on cell signaling: how physical force contributes to the development of cancer

Cells constantly encounter physical forces and respond to neighbors and circulating factors by triggering intracellular signaling cascades that in turn affect their behavior. The mechanisms by which cells transduce mechanical signals to downstream biochemical changes are not well understood. In their work, Salaita and coworkers show that the spatial organization of cell surface receptors is crucial for mechanotransduction. Consequently, force modulation that disrupts the mechanochemical coupling may represent a critical step in cancerogenesis

A network medicine approach to quantify distance between hereditary disease modules on the interactome

We introduce a MeSH-based method that accurately quantifies similarity between heritable diseases at molecular level. This method effectively brings together the existing information about diseases that is scattered across the vast corpus of biomedical literature. We prove that sets of MeSH terms provide a highly descriptive representation of heritable disease and that the structure of MeSH provides a natural way of combining individual MeSH vocabularies. We show that our measure can be used effectively in the prediction of candidate disease genes. We developed a web application to query more than 28.5 million relationships between 7,574 hereditary diseases (96% of OMIM) based on our similarity measure

The effect of the electronic transmission of prescriptions on dispensing errors and prescription enhancements made in English community pharmacies: a naturalistic stepped wedge study

To compare prevalence and types of dispensing errors and pharmacists' labelling enhancements, for prescriptions transmitted electronically versus paper prescriptions

Spontaneous vortices in the formation of Bose-Einstein condensates

Phase transitions are ubiquitous in nature, ranging from protein folding and denaturisation, to the superconductor-insulator quantum phase transition, to the decoupling of forces in the early universe. Remarkably, phase transitions can be arranged into universality classes, where systems having unrelated microscopic physics exhibit identical scaling behaviour near the critical point. Here we present an experimental and theoretical study of the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition of an atomic gas, focusing on one prominent universal element of phase transition dynamics: the spontaneous formation of topological defects during a quench through the transition. While the microscopic dynamics of defect formation in phase transitions are generally difficult to investigate, particularly for superfluid phase transitions, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) offer unique experimental and theoretical opportunities for probing such details. Although spontaneously formed vortices in the condensation transition have been previously predicted to occur, our results encompass the first experimental observations and statistical characterisation of spontaneous vortex formation in the condensation transition. Using microscopic theories that incorporate atomic interactions and quantum and thermal fluctuations of a finite-temperature Bose gas, we simulate condensation and observe vortex formation in close quantitative agreement with our experimental results. Our studies provide further understanding of the development of coherence in superfluids, and may allow for direct investigation of universal phase-transition dynamics.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature. Supplementary movie files are available at http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/mdavis/spontaneous_vortice