1,716 research outputs found
Pandemics—A Scientific Guide for Use in Varied ClassesReview of: <italic toggle="yes">Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know</italic>; Peter C. Doherty; (2013). Oxford University Press, New York, NY. 272 pages.
No full textReview of: Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know; Peter C. Doherty; (2013). Oxford University Press, New York, NY. 272 pages
Helping children think: Gaze aversion and teaching
No full textLooking away from an interlocutor's face during demanding cognitive activity can help adults answer challenging arithmetic and verbal-reasoning questions (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998). However, such `gaze aversion' (GA) is poorly applied by 5-year-old school children (Doherty-Sneddon, Bruce, Bonner, Longbotham, & Doyle, 2002). In Experiment 1 we trained ten 5-year-old children to use GA while thinking about answers to questions. This trained group performed significantly better on challenging questions compared with 10 controls given no GA training. In Experiment 2 we found significant and monotonic age-related increments in spontaneous use of GA across three cohorts of ten 5-year-old school children (mean ages: 5;02, 5;06 and 5;08). Teaching and encouraging GA during challenging cognitive activity promises to be invaluable in promoting learning, particularly during early primary years
A Wideband Four-Way Doherty Bits-In RF-Out CMOS Transmitter
No full textWe present a wideband, 12-bit four-way Doherty Cartesian digital transmitter (DTX) featuring an innovative 50%-LO signed I/Q interleaved up-conversion technique that enables close to perfect orthogonal I/Q summation. The DTX incorporates a compact four-way lumped-element Doherty power combining network to enhance its average efficiency at deep power back-off (DPBO). It comprises a signed second-order hold (SOH) interpolation filter to suppress the sampling spectral replicas significantly. The proposed DTX is realized in a 40-nm bulk CMOS and delivers a peak output power of 27.54 dBm with drain and system efficiencies of 46.35% and 30.77%, respectively, at 5.3 GHz. At 12 dB DPBO, the realized DTX demonstrates a drain efficiency (DE) of 41.74%-39.27% in a 5.2-5.5 GHz band, respectively. Its intrinsic I/Q image, LO leakage, and C-IMD3/H 3BB for a 200 MHz tone spacing over a 4.8-6.2 GHz band are-64,-65, and-69 dBc, respectively, without calibration. Applying a simple memoryless 2× 1-D digital pre-distortion, its error vector magnitude and adjacent channel leakage ratio are lower than-31 dB and-39 dBc, respectively, for a six-carrier '40 MHz 256-QAM OFDM' signal with 18 dBm average output power and a 41% average DE. The signed SOH functionality is verified employing a four-carrier '80 MHz 512-QAM OFDM' signal with spectral purity of better than-35 dBc, while its baseband sampling frequency is 675 MHz.Accepted author manuscriptElectronic
The c-Jun kinase signaling cascade promotes glial engulfment activity through activation of draper and phagocytic function
No full textCo-author Johnna Doherty is a student in the Neuroscience program in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) at UMass Medical School, and Jennifer MacDonald is in the MD/PhD program.After neuronal injury or death glial cells become reactive, exhibiting dramatic changes in morphology and patterns of gene expression and ultimately engulfing neuronal debris. Rapid clearance of degenerating neuronal material is thought to be crucial for suppression of inflammation and promotion of functional recovery. Here we demonstrate that Drosophila c-Jun N-terminal kinase (dJNK) signaling is a critical in vivo mediator of glial engulfment activity. In response to axotomy, we find glial dJNK signals through a cascade involving the upstream mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinases Slipper and Tak1, the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase MKK4, and ultimately the Drosophila activator protein 1 (AP-1) transcriptional complex composed of Jra and Kayak to initiate glial phagocytosis of degenerating axons. Interestingly, loss of dJNK also blocked injury-induced upregulation of Draper levels in glia, and glial-specific overexpression of Draper was sufficient to rescue engulfment defects associated with loss of dJNK signaling. This work identifies that the dJNK pathway is a novel mediator of glial engulfment activity and a primary role for the glial Slipper/Tak1short right arrowMKK4short right arrowdJNKshort right arrowdAP-1 signaling cascade appears to be activation of draper expression after axon injury.Cell Death and Differentiation advance online publication, 26 April 2013; doi:10.1038/cdd.2013.30.MD/PhDNeuroscienc
Adventures in infection and immunity
No full textThe presentation, abstract of the presentation and curriculum vitae of Prof. Peter C. Doherty.Created with MSPowerPoint 2003, 39.3MB (August 26, 2009) and migrated to PDF, 6.69MB on August 31, 2009 with Acrobat Distiller 9.0.0 (Windows.Sir Arnold Theiler Memorial Lecture delivered during Faculty Day, University of Pretoria, Faculty of Veterinary Science on August 27, 2009, Onderstepoort, South Africa.Beginning with the Swiss-born Arnold Theiler, many veterinarians have made major contributions to the understanding of infection and immunity. Sir Arnold Theiler first came to prominence when he produced a smallpox vaccine to protect mine workers, the went on to found the great South African tradition in veterinary infectious disease research. His son Max was awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize for developing the yellow fever vaccine that is still used today. That back and forth between veterinary and human medicine has, of course, been a long tradition, particulary when it comes to pathogens. My personal scientific journey began at age 17 when I started at the University of Queensland School of Veterinary Science and at least in the public sense, peaked almost 40 years later when the Nobel Foundation recognized my Swiss colleague Rolf Zinkernagel and I for discovering the basis of cell-mediated immunity. At least in those distant days when I was an undergraduate, veterinarians weren't too interested in genetics and degenerative conditions, but were well trained to deal with infections. My interest in viral pathogenesis and immunity began as an undergraduate and remains fundamental to what I do in science today. I'll relate some of that personal journey from student, to veterinary scientist, to experimental pathologist, to research immunologist to being a public advocate for rational enquiry and cultural values that emphasize an evidence-based view of the world. Now as then, we may begin our professional lives with one focus, but may end up somewhere very different. A training in veterinary Science gives a respect for reality, a knowledge that the world can never be a totally safe place, a set of practical skills, a sold scientific grounding and an understanding of ecological balance and sustainable production systems. That can be a pretty good place to startas we seek to do our part in dealing with the all too real problems that face humanity through this coming century. Apart from anything else, the challenge of feeding people will be very much to the fore. The future belongs to the young. My bet is that those who start out as veterinarians will continue to play a substantial part, and in a great diversity of roles.http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1996/doherty-autobio.htm
The effect of variation in interpretation of the La Trobe radiographic foot atlas on the prevalence of foot osteoarthritis in older women: the Chingford general population cohort
No full textBackground: The prevalence of foot osteoarthritis (OA) is much less understood than hip, knee and hand OA. The foot is anatomically complex and different researchers have investigated different joints with lack of methodological standardisation across studies. The La Trobe Foot Atlas (LFA) is the first to address these issues in providing quantitative assessment of radiographic foot OA, but has not been tested externally. The aim of this study was to evaluate three different interpretive approaches to using the LFA for grading OA when scoring is difficult due to indistinct views of interosseous space and joint contour.Methods: Foot radiographs of all remaining participants (n=18) assessed in the Chingford Women Study 23year visit (mean (SD) for age: 75.5years (5.1)) were scored using the LFA defined protocol (Technique 1). Two revised scoring strategies were applied to the radiographs in addition to the standard LFA analyses. Technique 2 categorised joints that were difficult to grade as 'missing'. Technique 3 included joints that were difficult to grade as an over estimated score. Radiographic OA prevalence was defined for the foot both collectively and separately for individual joints.Results: When radiographs were scored using the LFA (Technique 1), radiographic foot OA was present in 89.9%. For Technique 2 the presence of radiographic foot OA was 83.5% and for Technique 3 it was 97.2%. At the individual joint level, using Technique 1, the presence of radiographic foot OA was higher with a wider range (18.3-74.3%) than Technique 2 (17.9-46.3%) and lower with a wider range (18.3-74.3%) than Technique 3 (39.9-79.4%).Conclusion: The three different ways of interpreting the LFA scoring system when grading of individual joints is technically difficult and result in very different estimates of foot OA prevalence at both the individual joint and global foot level. Agreement on the best strategy is required to improve comparability between studies
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UK government food strategy lacks ambition to achieve transformative food system change
No full textTo the Editor — Henry Dimbleby’s independent review of the UK food system was published last year, providing what he called a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape the food system”1. The government has now published its food strategy, responding to the review’s findings and recommendations2. While we welcome some aspects of the government’s food strategy, it falls far short of the measures and urgency required for the transformative change the food system needs
Reconstruction of the 1918 Influenza Virus: Unexpected Rewards from the Past
No full textThe influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 killed approximately 50 million people. The unusually severe morbidity and mortality associated with the pandemic spurred physicians and scientists to isolate the etiologic agent, but the virus was not isolated
in 1918. In 1996, it became possible to recover and sequence highly degraded fragments of influenza viral RNA retained in preserved tissues from several 1918 victims. These viral RNA sequences eventually permitted reconstruction of the complete
1918 virus, which has yielded, almost a century after the deaths of its victims, novel insights into influenza virus biology and
pathogenesis and has provided important information about how to prevent and control future pandemics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99107/1/Reconstruction of the 1918 Influenza Virus.pd
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