9 research outputs found
Lineage Divergence and Historical Gene Flow in the Chinese Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus sinicus)
No full textPMCID: PMC3581519This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
More men than women make mucosal IgA antibodies to Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) and HPV-18: a study of oral HPV and oral HPV antibodies in a normal healthy population
No full textAbstract Background We have previously shown the high prevalence of oral anti-human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) antibodies in women with HPV-associated cervical neoplasia. It was postulated that the HPV antibodies were initiated after HPV antigenic stimulation at the cervix via the common mucosal immune system. The present study aimed to further evaluate the effectiveness of oral fluid testing for detecting the mucosal humoral response to HPV infection and to advance our limited understanding of the immune response to HPV. Methods The prevalence of oral HPV infection and oral antibodies to HPV types 16, 18 and 11 was determined in a normal, healthy population of children, adolescents and adults, both male and female, attending a dental clinic. HPV types in buccal cells were determined by DNA sequencing. Oral fluid was collected from the gingival crevice of the mouth by the OraSure method. HPV-16, HPV-18 and HPV-11 antibodies in oral fluid were detected by virus-like particle-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. As a reference group 44 women with cervical neoplasia were included in the study. Results Oral HPV infection was highest in children (9/114, 7.9%), followed by adolescents (4/78, 5.1%), and lowest in normal adults (4/116, 3.5%). The predominant HPV type found was HPV-13 (7/22, 31.8%) followed by HPV-32 (5/22, 22.7%). The prevalence of oral antibodies to HPV-16, HPV-18 and HPV-11 was low in children and increased substantially in adolescents and normal adults. Oral HPV-16 IgA was significantly more prevalent in women with cervical neoplasia (30/44, 68.2%) than the women from the dental clinic (18/69, 26.1% P = 0.0001). Significantly more adult men than women displayed oral HPV-16 IgA (30/47 compared with 18/69, OR 5.0, 95% CI 2.09–12.1, P Conclusion The increased prevalence of oral HPV antibodies in adolescent individuals compared with children was attributed to the onset of sexual activity. The increased prevalence of oral anti-HPV IgA in men compared with women was noteworthy considering reportedly fewer men than women make serum antibodies, and warrants further investigation.</p
A dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model for Switzerland
Get PDFThis paper presents a DSGE (dynamic stochastic general equilibrium) model of the Swiss economy used since 2007 in the monetary policy decision process at the Swiss National Bank. In addition to forecasting the likely course of main macro variables under various scenarios for the Swiss economy, the model DSGE-CH serves as a laboratory for studying business cycles and examining the effects of actual and hypothetical monetary policies. The microfounded model DSGE-CH represents Switzerland as a small open economy with optimizing economic agents facing several real and nominal rigidities and exogenous foreign and domestic shocks. The comparison of the model's implications with the real world indicates that DSGE-CH performs well along standard dimensions. It captures the overall stochastic structure of the Swiss economy as represented by the moments of its key macroeconomic variables, furthermore, it has appropriate dynamic properties, as judged by its impulse response functions. Finally, it quite accurately replicates the historical path of major Swiss variables.DSGE, forecasting, small open economy, Switzerland
A Musicological Analysis of Nature's Best
No full textAcademic research on New Zealand popular music has primarily been conducted from historical and cultural perspectives. While asking important questions, these sources have rarely engaged with the musical details of New Zealand popular music. This thesis is a musicological analysis of the 100 songs from the three Nature’s Best albums. The musical perspective complements the socio-cultural research on New Zealand popular music.
The Nature’s Best project was instigated by Mike Chunn in 2001 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). All songwriting members of APRA and 100 celebrities and critics were invited to vote for their ten favourite New Zealand popular songs. Fourmyula’s 1969 hit ‘Nature’ gained the most votes. The three Nature’s Best CDs ranked the top 100 songs. The albums were a commercial success upon release in 2002 and 2003.
This thesis analyses the 100 songs with regards to eight musical parameters: harmony, melodic construction, form, beat, length, tempo, introductory hooks and instrumental solos. The analytical methods were drawn from classical and popular musicology. Interviews with twelve songwriters were also conducted to gain alternative viewpoints on the analysis. The 100 songs provide a sample of New Zealand popular music from 1970 until 2000; thus, the analysis is useful for addressing questions of New Zealand musical style and traits.
The results suggest New Zealand songwriters follow fundamental principles of Anglo-American songwriting, such as arched and balanced melodies, and forms based on repeated and contrasting sections. The harmonic language is similar to international artists of the same period; however, it appears 1970s and 1980s songwriters were more adventurous in this area compared with their 1990s counterparts. The instrumental solos were notable for an anti-virtuosic trait. It is argued this feature mirrors aspects of New Zealand identity
An in-vitro analysis of the antimicrobial efficacy of herbal toothpastes on selected primary plaque colonizers
Get PDFPlaque associated oral disease affects a considerable portion of the population and is considered one of the major causes of tooth loss. In most cases toothbrushing only removes a limited amount of dental plaque and other chemical agents are required to reduce the bacterial load. Aims & objectives: The purpose of study was to determine whether there was any significant difference in the antimicrobial activity of 4 herbal toothpastes against cultures of 3 primary plaque colonizers. Methods: A total of 5 toothpastes were tested for their antimicrobial efficacy against Streptococcus mutans (NCTC 10920), Streptococcus sanguinis (NCTC 10904) and a non-specific α-heamolytic streptococcus by agar diffusion method. The data was collected and analysed using one way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparison test significant at p<0.05. Results: Dentazyme® Herbal toothpaste showed the greatest ability to inhibit bacterial growth for all the test organisms (p<0.05). Nature Fresh had the lowest potential for antimicrobial activity. Conclusions: Dentazyme® Herbal toothpaste was the only herbal toothpaste to inhibit the growth of all the bacteria tested and had similar antimicrobial efficacy to a triclosan containing toothpaste (Colgate® Total®)
The effect of two novel C-type lectins, Ba100 and Ba25, isolated from the venom of the puff adder, Bitis arietans on T lymphocyte proliferative responses
No full textIncludes abstract.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-318)
Fachkatalog Neuguinea / Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
No full textAus Anlaß des Kongresses der "Deutsch-Pazifischen Gesellschaft" im Juni 1981 in Düsseldorf legt die Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfuxt am Main ein Verzeichnis ihrer Bestände zum Raum "Neuguinea" vor . Dabei umfaßt der Katalog sowohl die Literatur zu "Papua-Neuguinea" (Niugini)" als auch zur indonesischen Provinz "West-Irian (Irian Jaya)". Aus Gründen des geographischen Zusammenhangs werden in einem Anhang allgemeine Publikationen zum Raum Melanesien in den Katalog aufgenommen. Die gezielte Sammlung der Literatur zu diesem Raum ist ein Ergebnis der Zuweisung des Sondersarnmelgebietes "Ozeanian" durch die Deutsche Forschungagemeinschaft an die Frankfurter Stadt- und Univeraitätsbibliothek. Dabei liegt der Schwerpunkt auf der Sammlung historischer und ethnologischer Literatur. Grundlage des Katalogausdruckes ist der Länderteil des Sachkataloges der Bibliothek, der nach feststehenden Länderkennziffern, Fachgruppen und Schlüsselnummern gegliedert ist. Unter jeder Schlüsselnummer sind die Eintragungen chronologisch geordnet. Auf jeder Titelkarte befindet sich rechts oben die Signatur, unter der das Buch über Fernleihe bei der Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main bestellt werden kann
Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes
Get PDFCancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale1,2,3. Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4–5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter4; identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation5,6; analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution7; describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity8,9; and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes8,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18
Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015: a pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19·1 million participants
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Raised blood pressure is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and chronic kidney disease. We estimated worldwide trends in mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressure, and the prevalence of, and number of people with, raised blood pressure, defined as systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg or higher or diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or higher.METHODS: For this analysis, we pooled national, subnational, or community population-based studies that had measured blood pressure in adults aged 18 years and older. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1975 to 2015 in mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressure, and the prevalence of raised blood pressure for 200 countries. We calculated the contributions of changes in prevalence versus population growth and ageing to the increase in the number of adults with raised blood pressure.FINDINGS: We pooled 1479 studies that had measured the blood pressures of 19·1 million adults. Global age-standardised mean systolic blood pressure in 2015 was 127·0 mm Hg (95% credible interval 125·7-128·3) in men and 122·3 mm Hg (121·0-123·6) in women; age-standardised mean diastolic blood pressure was 78·7 mm Hg (77·9-79·5) for men and 76·7 mm Hg (75·9-77·6) for women. Global age-standardised prevalence of raised blood pressure was 24·1% (21·4-27·1) in men and 20·1% (17·8-22·5) in women in 2015. Mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressure decreased substantially from 1975 to 2015 in high-income western and Asia Pacific countries, moving these countries from having some of the highest worldwide blood pressure in 1975 to the lowest in 2015. Mean blood pressure also decreased in women in central and eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and, more recently, central Asia, Middle East, and north Africa, but the estimated trends in these super-regions had larger uncertainty than in high-income super-regions. By contrast, mean blood pressure might have increased in east and southeast Asia, south Asia, Oceania, and sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, central and eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and south Asia had the highest blood pressure levels. Prevalence of raised blood pressure decreased in high-income and some middle-income countries; it remained unchanged elsewhere. The number of adults with raised blood pressure increased from 594 million in 1975 to 1·13 billion in 2015, with the increase largely in low-income and middle-income countries. The global increase in the number of adults with raised blood pressure is a net effect of increase due to population growth and ageing, and decrease due to declining age-specific prevalence.INTERPRETATION: During the past four decades, the highest worldwide blood pressure levels have shifted from high-income countries to low-income countries in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa due to opposite trends, while blood pressure has been persistently high in central and eastern Europe.</p
