Chronic non-healing wounds significantly strain modern healthcare systems, affecting 1-2% of the population in developed countries with costs ranging between $28.1 and $96.8 billion annually. ...Additionally, it has been established that chronic wounds resulting from comorbidities, such as peripheral vascular disease and diabetes mellitus, tend to be polymicrobial in nature. Treatment of polymicrobial chronic wounds with oral and IV antibiotics can result in antimicrobial resistance, leading to more difficult-to-treat wounds. Ideally, chronic ulcers would be topically treated with antibiotic combinations tailored to the microbiome of a patient's wound. We have previously shown that a topical collagen-rich hydrogel (cHG) can elute single antibiotics to inhibit bacterial growth in a manner that is nontoxic to mammalian cells. Here, we analyzed the microbiology of cultures taken from human patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus suffering from chronic wounds present for more than 6 weeks. Additionally, we examined the safety of the elution of multiple antibiotics from collagen-rich hydrogel in mammalian cells in vivo. Finally, we aimed to create tailored combinations of antibiotics impregnated into cHG to successfully target and treat infections and eradicate biofilms cultured from human chronic diabetic wound tissue. We found that the majority of human chronic wounds in our study were polymicrobial in nature. The elution of multiple antibiotics from cHG was well-tolerated in mammalian cells, making it a potential topical treatment of the polymicrobial chronic wound. Finally, combinations of antibiotics tailored to each patient's microbiome eluted from a collagen-rich hydrogel successfully treated bacterial cultures isolated from patient samples via an in vitro assay.
Quasar spectra reveal a rich array of important astrophysical information about galaxies which intersect the quasar line of sight. They also enable tests of the variability of fundamental constants ...over cosmological time- and distance-scales. Key to these endeavours are the laboratory frequencies, isotopic and hyperfine structures of various metal-ion transitions. Here, we review and synthesize the existing information about these quantities for 43 transitions which are important for measuring possible changes in the fine-structure constant, α, using optical quasar spectra, i.e. those of Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni and Zn. We also summarize the information currently missing that precludes more transitions being used. We present an up-to-date set of coefficients, q, which define the sensitivity of these transitions to variations in α. New calculations of isotopic structures and q-coefficients are performed for
and
, including
λ1808 and
λλ1910.6/1910.9 for the first time. Finally, simulated absorption-line spectra are used to illustrate the systematic errors expected if the isotopic/hyperfine structures are omitted from profile fitting analyses. To ensure transparency, repeatability and currency of the data and calculations, we supply a comprehensive data base as Supporting Information. This will be updated as new measurements and calculations are performed.
We report the serendipitous detection of a 0.2 L*, Lyα emitting galaxy at redshift 2.5 at an impact parameter of 50 kpc from a bright background QSO sightline. A high-resolution spectrum of the QSO ...reveals a partial Lyman-limit absorption system (
${\it N}_\mathrm{H\,\small {i}}=10^{16.94\pm 0.10}$
cm−2) with many associated metal absorption lines at the same redshift as the foreground galaxy. Using photoionization models that carefully treat measurement errors and marginalize over uncertainties in the shape and normalization of the ionizing radiation spectrum, we derive the total hydrogen column density
${\it N}_\mathrm{H}=10^{19.4\pm 0.3}\,\rm cm^{-2}$
, and show that all the absorbing clouds are metal enriched, with Z = 0.1–0.6 Z⊙. These metallicities and the system's large velocity width (436 km s− 1) suggest the gas is produced by an outflowing wind. Using an expanding shell model we estimate a mass outflow rate of ∼5 M⊙ yr−1. Our photoionization model yields extremely small sizes (<100–500 pc) for the absorbing clouds, which we argue is typical of high column density absorbers in the circumgalactic medium (CGM). Given these small sizes and extreme kinematics, it is unclear how the clumps survive in the CGM without being destroyed by hydrodynamic instabilities. The small cloud sizes imply that even state-of-the-art cosmological simulations require more than a 1000-fold improvement in mass resolution to resolve the hydrodynamics relevant for cool gas in the CGM.
Available evidence demonstrates that direct patient contact and contact with infectious body fluids are the primary modes for Ebola virus transmission, but this is based on a limited number of ...studies. Key areas requiring further study include (i) the role of aerosol transmission (either via large droplets or small particles in the vicinity of source patients), (ii) the role of environmental contamination and fomite transmission, (iii) the degree to which minimally or mildly ill persons transmit infection, (iv) how long clinically relevant infectiousness persists, (v) the role that "superspreading events" may play in driving transmission dynamics, (vi) whether strain differences or repeated serial passage in outbreak settings can impact virus transmission, and (vii) what role sylvatic or domestic animals could play in outbreak propagation, particularly during major epidemics such as the 2013-2015 West Africa situation. In this review, we address what we know and what we do not know about Ebola virus transmission. We also hypothesize that Ebola viruses have the potential to be respiratory pathogens with primary respiratory spread.
Lithium and quetiapine are considered standard maintenance agents for bipolar disorder yet it is unclear how their efficacy compares with each other.
To investigate the differential effect of lithium ...and quetiapine on symptoms of depression, mania, general functioning, global illness severity and quality of life in patients with recently stabilised first-episode mania.
Maintenance trial of patients with first-episode mania stabilised on a combination of lithium and quetiapine, subsequently randomised to lithium or quetiapine monotherapy (up to 800 mg/day) and followed up for 1 year. (Trial registration: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry - ACTRN12607000639426.)
In total, 61 individuals were randomised. Within mixed-model repeated measures analyses, significant omnibus treatment × visit interactions were observed for measures of overall psychopathology, psychotic symptoms and functioning. Planned and
comparisons further demonstrated the superiority of lithium treatment over quetiapine.
In people with first-episode mania treated with a combination of lithium and quetiapine, continuation treatment with lithium rather than quetiapine is superior in terms of mean levels of symptoms during a 1-year evolution.
ABSTRACT
We present a study of metal-enriched halo gas traced by Mg ii and C iv absorption at z < 2 in the MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies survey and the Quasar Sightline and Galaxy Evolution ...survey. Using these large and complete galaxy surveys in quasar fields, we study the dependence of the metal distribution on galaxy properties and overdensities, out to physical projected separations of 750 kpc. We find that the cool, low-ionization gas is significantly affected by the environment across the full redshift range probed, with ≈2–3 times more prevalent and stronger Mg ii absorption in higher overdensity group environments and in regions with greater overall stellar mass and star formation rates. Complementary to these results, we have further investigated the more highly ionized gas as traced by C iv absorption, and found that it is likely to be more extended than the Mg ii gas, with ≈2 times higher covering fraction at a given distance. We find that the strength and covering fraction of C iv absorption show less significant dependence on galaxy properties and environment than the Mg ii absorption, but more massive and star-forming galaxies nevertheless also show ≈2 times higher incidence of C iv absorption. The incidence of Mg ii and C iv absorption within the virial radius shows a tentative increase with redshift, being higher by a factor of ≈1.5 and ≈4, respectively, at z > 1. It is clear from our results that environmental processes have a significant impact on the distribution of metals around galaxies and need to be fully accounted for when analysing correlations between gaseous haloes and galaxy properties.
We are fortunate to be living in an era of twin biomedical data surges: a burgeoning representation of human phenotypes in the medical records of our healthcare systems, and high-throughput ...sequencing making rapid technological advances. The difficulty representing genomic data and its annotations has almost by itself led to the recognition of a biomedical "Big Data" challenge, and the complexity of healthcare data only compounds the problem to the point that coherent representation of both systems on the same platform seems insuperably difficult. We investigated the capability for complex, integrative genomic and clinical queries to be supported in the Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2) translational software package. Three different data integration approaches were developed: The first is based on Sequence Ontology, the second is based on the tranSMART engine, and the third on CouchDB. These novel methods for representing and querying complex genomic and clinical data on the i2b2 platform are available today for advancing precision medicine.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
ABSTRACT
The Survey for Distant Solar Twins aims to find stars very similar to the Sun at distances of 1–$4\, {\rm kpc}$, several times more distant than any currently known solar twins and ...analogues. The goal is to identify the best stars with which to test whether the fine-structure constant, α, varies with dark matter density in our Galaxy. Here, we use epic, our line-by-line differential technique, to measure the stellar parameters – effective temperature Teff, surface gravity log g, and metallicity Fe/H – from moderate-resolution (R ≲ 32 000) spectra of 877 solar twin and analogue candidates (547 at 1–$4\, {\rm kpc}$) observed with the High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. These are consistent with expectations for Teff and log g from photometry, and for Fe/H from the Besançon stellar population model. epic provides small enough uncertainties ($\sim 90\, {\rm K}$, $0.08\, {\rm dex}$, and $0.05\, {\rm dex}$, respectively), even at the low signal-to-noise ratios available (${\rm S/N}\gtrsim$ 25 per pixel), to identify 299 new solar analogues ($\ge 90~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ confidence) and 20 solar twins (≥50 per cent confidence), 206 and 12 of which are at 1–$4\, {\rm kpc}$. By extending epic to measure line broadening and lithium abundance from HERMES spectra, and with ages derived from isochrone fitting with our stellar parameters, we identify 174 solar analogues at 1–$4\, {\rm kpc}$ that are relatively inactive, slowly rotating, and with no evidence of spectroscopic binarity. These are the preferred targets for follow-up spectroscopy to measure α.
ABSTRACT
We conduct a line-by-line differential analysis of a sample of 125 co-moving pairs of stars (dwarfs and subgiants near solar metallicity). We obtain high-precision stellar parameters with ...average uncertainties in effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity of 16.5 K, 0.033 and 0.014 dex, respectively. We classify the co-moving pairs of stars into two groups, chemically homogeneous (conatal; |ΔFe/H| ≤ 0.04 dex) and inhomogeneous (non-conatal), and examine the fraction of chemically homogeneous pairs as a function of separation and effective temperature. The four main conclusions from this study are (1) A spatial separation of Δs = 106 au is an approximate boundary between homogeneous and inhomogeneous pairs of stars, and we restrict our conclusions to only consider the 91 pairs with Δs ≤ 106 au; (2) There is no trend between velocity separation and the fraction of chemically homogeneous pairs in the range Δv ≤ 4 km s−1; (3) We confirm that the fraction of chemically inhomogeneous pairs increases with increasing Teff and the trend matches a toy model of that expected from planet ingestion; (4) Atomic diffusion is not the main cause of the chemical inhomogeneity. A major outcome from this study is a sample of 56 bright co-moving pairs of stars with chemical abundance differences ≤ 0.02 dex (5 per cent) which is a level of chemical homogeneity comparable to that of the Hyades open cluster. These important objects can be used, in conjunction with star clusters and the Gaia ‘benchmark’ stars, to calibrate stellar abundances from large-scale spectroscopic surveys.
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