Herpes keratitis Rowe, A.M.; St. Leger, A.J.; Jeon, S. ...
Progress in retinal and eye research,
01/2013, Letnik:
32
Journal Article
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Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infects the majority of the world's population. These infections are often asymptomatic, but ocular HSV-1 infections cause multiple pathologies with perhaps the most ...destructive being herpes stromal keratitis (HSK). HSK lesions, which are immunoinflammatory in nature, can recur throughout life and often cause progressive corneal scaring resulting in visual impairment. Current treatment involves broad local immunosuppression with topical steroids along with antiviral coverage. Unfortunately, the immunopathologic mechanisms defined in animal models of HSK have not yet translated into improved therapy. Herein, we review the clinical epidemiology and pathology of the disease and summarize the large amount of basic research regarding the immunopathology of HSK. We examine the role of the innate and adaptive immune system in the clearance of virus and the destruction of the normal corneal architecture that is typical of HSK. Our goal is to define current knowledge of the pathogenic mechanisms and recurrent nature of HSK and identify areas that require further study.
Next-generation genetic sequencing (NGS) technologies facilitate the screening of multiple genes linked to neurodegenerative dementia, but there are few reports about their use in clinical practice. ...Which patients would most profit from testing, and information on the likelihood of discovery of a causal variant in a clinical syndrome, are conspicuously absent from the literature, mostly for a lack of large-scale studies. We applied a validated NGS dementia panel to 3241 patients with dementia and healthy aged controls; 13,152 variants were classified by likelihood of pathogenicity. We identified 354 deleterious variants (DV, 12.6% of patients); 39 were novel DVs. Age at clinical onset, clinical syndrome and family history each strongly predict the likelihood of finding a DV, but healthcare setting and gender did not. DVs were frequently found in genes not usually associated with the clinical syndrome. Patients recruited from primary referral centres were compared with those seen at higher-level research centres and a national clinical neurogenetic laboratory; rates of discovery were comparable, making selection bias unlikely and the results generalisable to clinical practice. We estimated penetrance of DVs using large-scale online genomic population databases and found 71 with evidence of reduced penetrance. Two DVs in the same patient were found more frequently than expected. These data should provide a basis for more informed counselling and clinical decision making.
Description of the NIF Laser Spaeth, M. L.; Manes, K. R.; Kalantar, D. H. ...
Fusion science and technology,
02/2016, Letnik:
69, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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The possibility of imploding small capsules to produce mini-fusion explosions was explored soon after the first thermonuclear explosions in the early 1950s. Various technologies have been pursued to ...achieve the focused power and energy required for laboratory-scale fusion. Each technology has its own challenges. For example, electron and ion beams can deliver the large amounts of energy but must contend with Coulomb repulsion forces that make focusing these beams a daunting challenge. The demonstration of the first laser in 1960 provided a new option. Energy from laser beams can be focused and deposited within a small volume; the challenge became whether a practical laser system can be constructed that delivers the power and energy required while meeting all other demands for achieving a high-density, symmetric implosion. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the laser designed and built to meet the challenges for study of high-energy-density physics and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions. This paper describes the architecture, systems, and subsystems of NIF. It describes how they partner with each other to meet these new, complex demands and describes how laser science and technology were woven together to bring NIF into reality.
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs) are a problem in western Lake Erie, and in eutrophic fresh waters worldwide. Western Lake Erie is a large (3000 km2), shallow (8 m mean depth), freshwater ...system. CHABs occur from July to October, when stratification is intermittent in response to wind and surface heating or cooling (polymictic). Existing forecast models give the present location and extent of CHABs from satellite imagery, then predict two‐dimensional (surface) CHAB movement in response to meteorology. In this study, we simulated vertical distribution of buoyant Microcystis colonies, and 3‐D advection, using a Lagrangian particle model forced by currents and turbulent diffusivity from the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM). We estimated the frequency distribution of Microcystis colony buoyant velocity from measured size distributions and buoyant velocities. We evaluated several random‐walk numerical schemes to efficiently minimize particle accumulation artifacts. We selected the Milstein scheme, with linear interpolation of the diffusivity profile in place of cubic splines, and varied the time step at each particle and step based on the curvature of the local diffusivity profile to ensure that the Visser time step criterion was satisfied. Inclusion of vertical mixing with buoyancy significantly improved model skill statistics compared to an advection‐only model, and showed greater skill than a persistence forecast through simulation day 6, in a series of 26 hindcast simulations from 2011. The simulations and in situ observations show the importance of subtle thermal structure, typical of a polymictic lake, along with buoyancy in determining vertical and horizontal distribution of Microcystis.
Key Points:
Microcystis vertical distribution is a dynamic balance between turbulence and buoyancy
Appropriate time step and numerical scheme avoid artifacts in random walk models
Vertical mixing with buoyancy improved simulation of bloom spatial distribution
Inattention can negatively impact several aspects of a child's life, including at home and school. Cognitive and physical interventions are two promising non-pharmaceutical approaches used to enhance ...attention abilities, with combined approaches often being marketed to teachers, therapists, and parents typically without research validation. Here, we assessed the feasibility of incorporating an integrated, cognitive-physical, closed-loop video game (body-brain trainer or 'BBT') as an after-school program, and also evaluated if there were attention benefits following its use. Twenty-two children (7-12 years of age) with a range of attention abilities were recruited to participate in this proof of concept, single-arm, longitudinal study (24 sessions over 8 weeks, ~30 min/day). We interrogated attention abilities through a parent survey of their child's behaviors, in addition to objective performance-based and neural measures of attention. Here we observed 95% compliance as well as, significant improvements on the parent-based reports of inattention and on cognitive tests and neural measures of attention that were comparable in scale to previous work. Exploratory measures of other cognitive control abilities and physical fitness also showed similar improvement, with exploratory evaluation of retained benefits on the primary attention-related outcomes being present 1-year later. Lastly, there was no correlation between the baseline parent-rated inattention score and the improvement on the primary task-based measures of attention, suggesting that intervention-based benefits were not solely attained by those who stood the most to gain. These pilot findings warrant future research to replicate and extend these findings.
Sexual selection drives fundamental evolutionary processes such as trait elaboration and speciation. Despite this importance, there are surprisingly few examples of genes unequivocally responsible ...for variation in sexually selected phenotypes. This lack of information inhibits our ability to predict phenotypic change due to universal behaviours, such as fighting over mates and mate choice. Here, we discuss reasons for this apparent gap and provide recommendations for how it can be overcome by adopting contemporary genomic methods, exploiting underutilized taxa that may be ideal for detecting the effects of sexual selection and adopting appropriate experimental paradigms. Identifying genes that determine variation in sexually selected traits has the potential to improve theoretical models and reveal whether the genetic changes underlying phenotypic novelty utilize common or unique molecular mechanisms. Such a genomic approach to sexual selection will help answer questions in the evolution of sexually selected phenotypes that were first asked by Darwin and can furthermore serve as a model for the application of genomics in all areas of evolutionary biology.
We find that the flow of direct electric current (dc) through graphene on substrate enhances surface optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) from the graphene/substrate system. The current can ...enhance surface SHG by about 300% for a chemical-vapor-deposition (CVD) graphene monolayer on a SiO sub(2)/Si (001) substrate, and by about 25% for an epitaxial four-layer-graphene film on a 3.5degrees-miscut vicinal SiC(0001) substrate. The enhancement in both the CVD and epitaxial graphene samples is due to electric field-induced SHG, which is produced by the current-associated vertical electric field at the SiO sub(2)/Si interface or at the graphene/SiC interface. Measurements of rotational-anisotropy SHG (RA-SH) from both samples revealed that the current-induced SHG varies strongly with the measurement location along the current flow direction. By measuring RA-SH from the vicinal SiC(0001) substrate, we determined all three second-order susceptibility tensor elements (d sub(33) = -52.0 pm/V, d sub(15) = 20.0 pm/V, and d sub(31) = 18.7 pm/V) that characterize the SHG response of hexagonal SiC at the fundamental wavelength of 740 nm. We further determined the three effective susceptibility tensor elements (d sub(33) = -135.8 pm/V, d sub(15) = 18.5 pm/V, and d sub(31) = 14.6 pm/V) that characterize the surface SHG from the graphene/vicinal-SiC(0001) sample and finally showed that the current-dependent tensor element d sub(33) can be enhanced to a large value of d sub(33) = -199.0 pm/V by electric current in epitaxial graphene.
Detectors with the capability to directly measure the photon number of a pulse of light enable linear optics quantum computing, affect the security of quantum communications, and can be used to ...characterize and herald non-classical states of light. Here, we demonstrate the photon-number-resolving capabilities of a quantum-dot, optically gated, field-effect transistor that uses quantum dots as optically addressable floating gates in a GaAs/Al0.2Ga0.8As δ-doped field-effect transistor. When the active area of the detector is illuminated, photo-generated carriers trapped by quantum dots screen the gate field, causing a persistent change in the channel current that is proportional to the number of confined carriers. Using weak laser pulses, we show that discrete numbers of trapped carriers produce well resolved changes in the channel current. We demonstrate that for a mean photon number of 1.1, decision regions can be defined such that the field-effect transistor determines the number of detected photons with a probability of accuracy greater than 83%.
Background. A large outbreak of hepatitis A affected individuals in several Australian states in 2009, resulting in a 2-fold increase in cases reported to state health departments compared with 2008. ...Two peaks of infection occurred (April—May and September—November), with surveillance data suggesting locally acquired infections from a widely distributed food product. Methods. Two case-control studies were completed. Intensive product trace-back and food sampling was undertaken. Genotyping was conducted on virus isolates from patient serum and food samples. Control measures included prophylaxis for close contacts, public health warnings, an order by the chief health officer under the Victorian Food Act 1984, and trade-level recalls on implicated batches of semidried tomatoes. Results. A multijurisdictional case-control study in April—May found an association between illness and consumption of semidried tomatoes (odds ratio OR, 3.0; 95% CI 1.4—6.7). A second case-control study conducted in Victoria in October—November also implicated semidried tomatoes as being associated with illness (OR, 10.3; 95% CI, 4.7—22.7). Hepatitis A RNA was detected in 22 samples of semidried tomatoes. Hepatitis A virus genotype IB was identified in 144 of 153 (94%) patients tested from 2009, and partial sequence analysis showed complete identity with an isolate found in a sample of semidried tomatoes. Conclusions. The results of both case-control studies and food testing implicated the novel vehicle of semidried tomatoes as the cause of this hepatitis A outbreak. The outbreak was extensive and sustained despite public health interventions, the design and implementation of which were complicated by limitations in food testing capability and complex supply chains.
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