Naresuan University Journal
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Building the Genomic Nation: Homo Brasilis and the Genoma Mexicano in Comparative Cultural Perspective
No full textThis paper explores the relationship between genetic research, nationalism and the construction of collective social identities in Latin America. It makes a comparative analysis of two research endeavours that have sought to establish national genetic profiles, the ‘Genoma Mexicano’ and the ‘Homo Brasilis’, as well as their articulation with wider socio-political ideas and processes. The outcomes and social impacts of these endeavours reveal important similarities: they have reproduced and strengthened the idea of the Mexican and Brazilian nation, incorporating biological elements into debates on social identities; they have placed the unifying figure of the mestizo/mestiço at the heart of national identity constructions, displacing alternative identity categories, such as those based on race. However, having developed in different national contexts, these projects have had distinct scientific and social trajectories, mobilizing the genomic mestizo in relation mainly to health in Mexico while in Brazil, race has been an important arena for genetic knowledge. We show the importance of the nation as a frame for mobilizing genetic data in public policy debates and demonstrate how race comes in and out of focus in different Latin American national contexts of genomic research, while never completely disappearing
Extreme medicine 2: Pre-Hospital emergency medicine
No full textPre-hospital care is emergency medical care given to patients before arrival in hospital after activation of emergency medical services. It traditionally incorporated a breadth of care from bystander resuscitation to statutory emergency medical services treatment and transfer. New concepts of care including community paramedicine, novel roles such as emergency care practitioners, and physician delivered pre-hospital emergency medicine are re-defi ning the scope of pre-hospital care. For severely ill or injured patients, acting quickly in the pre-hospital period is crucial with decisions and interventions greatly aff ecting outcomes. The transfer of skills and procedures from hospital care to pre-hospital medicine enables early advanced care across a range of disciplines. The variety of possible pathologies, challenges of environmental factors, and hazardous situations requires management that is tailored to the patient’s clinical need and setting. Pre-hospital clinicians should be generalists with a broad understanding of medical, surgical, and trauma pathologies, who will often work from locally developed standard operating procedures, but who are able to revert to core principles. Pre-hospital emergency medicine consists of not only clinical care, but also logistics, rescue competencies, and scene management skills (especially in major incidents, which have their own set of management principles). Traditionally, research into the hyper-acute phase (the fi rst hour) of disease has been diffi cult, largely because physicians are rarely present and issues of consent, transport expediency, and resourcing of research. However, the pre-hospital phase is acknowledged as a crucial period, when irreversible pathology and secondary injury to neuronal and cardiac tissue can be prevented. The development of pre-hospital emergency medicine into a sub-specialty in its own right should bring focus to this period of care
Photoluminescence: Near-Unity Quantum Yields from Chloride Treated CdTe Colloidal Quantum Dots (Small 13/2015)
No full textHierarchical fragmentation and collapse signatures in a high-mass starless region
No full textAims: We study the fragmentation and collapse properties of the dense gas during the onset of high-mass star formation. Methods: We observed the massive (~800 M⊙) starless gas clump IRDC 18310-4 with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) at subarcsecond resolution in the 1.07 mm continuum and N2H+(3-2) line emission. Results: Zooming from a single-dish low-resolution map to previous 3 mm PdBI data, and now the new 1.07 mm continuum observations, the substructures hierarchically fragment on the increasingly smaller spatial scales. While the fragment separations may still be roughly consistent with pure thermal Jeans fragmentation, the derived core masses are almost two orders of magnitude larger than the typical Jeans mass at the given densities and temperatures. However, the data can be reconciled with models using non-homogeneous initial density structures, turbulence, and/or magnetic fields. While most subcores remain (far-)infrared dark even at 70 μm, we identify weak 70 μm emission toward one core with a comparably low luminosity of ~16 L⊙, supporting the notion of the general youth of the region. The spectral line data always exhibit multiple spectral components toward each core with comparably small line widths for the individual components (in the 0.3 to 1.0 km s-1 regime). Based on single-dish C18O(2-1) data we estimate a low virial-to-gas-mass ratio ≤ 0.25. We propose that the likely origin of these spectral properties may be the global collapse of the original gas clump that results in multiple spectral components along each line of sight. Even within this dynamic picture the individual collapsing gas cores appear to have very low levels of internal turbulence
Calcium-Mediated Induction of Paradoxical Growth Following Caspofungin Treatment is Associated with Calcineurin Activation and Phosphorylation in Aspergillus fumigatus.
No full textThe echinocandin antifungal drug caspofungin at high concentrations reverses the growth inhibition of Aspergillus fumigatus, a phenomenon known as the "paradoxical effect", which is not consistently observed with other echinocandins (micafungin and anidulafungin). Previous studies on A. fumigatus revealed the loss of the paradoxical effect following pharmacological or genetic inhibition of calcineurin, yet the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Here we utilized a codon-optimized bioluminescent Ca(2+)-reporter aequorin expression system in A. fumigatus and show that caspofungin elicits a transient increase in [Ca(2+)]c (cytosolic free Ca(2+)) in the fungus that acts as the initial trigger of the paradoxical effect by activating calmodulin-calcineurin signaling. While the increase in [Ca(2+)]c was also observed upon treatment with micafungin, another echinocandin without the paradoxical effect, a higher [Ca(2+)]c increase was noted with the paradoxical growth concentration of caspofungin. Treatments with a Ca(2+)-selective chelator, BAPTA, or the L-type Ca(2+)-channel blocker, verapamil, abolished caspofungin-mediated paradoxical growth in both the wild-type and the echinocandin resistant (EMFR-S678P) strains. Concomitant to increased [Ca(2+)]c levels at higher concentration of caspofungin, calmodulin and calcineurin gene expression was enhanced. Phosphoproteomic analysis revealed that calcineurin is activated through phosphorylation at its serine proline rich region (SPRR), a domain previously shown to be essential for regulation of hyphal growth, only at a paradoxical growth concentration of caspofungin. Our results indicate that as opposed to micafungin, the increased [Ca(2+)]c at high concentrations of caspofungin activates calmodulin-calcineurin signaling both at a transcriptional and post-translational level and ultimately leads to paradoxical fungal growth
Scalable bottom-up assembly of suspended carbon nanotube and graphene devices by dielectrophoresis
No full textIncremental benefits of screening colonoscopy over sigmoidoscopy in average-risk populations: a model-driven analysis
No full textPURPOSE: Screening colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy (FSG) reduce the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), but the magnitude and duration of protection, particularly against right-sided cancer, remain uncertain. We computed the incremental benefit of colonoscopy over FSG using a validated mathematical model, which reflects colorectal neoplasia growth characteristics while allowing uncertainty in endoscopic detection and removal of adenomas. METHODS: We calibrated models of CRC incidence within a multistage clonal expansion framework to data from: (1) San Francisco-Oakland SEER registry (reference population) and (2) FSG long-term follow-up data from 50,757 individuals after a negative FSG in the Kaiser Permanente system. We compared the residual CRC risks after FSG with full-length colonoscopy. RESULTS: Our model mirrors trial data with 10-year CRC risk reductions after FSG screening at age 50 years of approximately one-third; the optimal age for a 'once-only' FSG exam was between ages 50 and 60 years; and the greater benefit was for men compared with women. There were considerable incremental gains in reduction in CRC risk by colonoscopy compared with FSG with the greatest benefit for screening colonoscopy at age 50 years. These results held up against lowering the right-sided adenoma detection sensitivity by 30 %, as well as reducing the curative efficacy of polypectomy throughout the colon. CONCLUSIONS: Mathematical modeling of CRC screening, which takes account of important aspects of tumor biology, demonstrates superior risk reductions by colonoscopy over FSG. Our predictions provide further rationale for recommending screening colonoscopy in average-risk populations before the age of 60
