Poor diet quality is associated with low CD4 count and anemia and predicts mortality among antiretroviral therapy-naive HIV-positive adults in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: We assessed the association between dietary diversity and CD4 count, moderate anemia, and mortality among 876 antiretroviral therapy-naive people living with HIV/AIDS infection (PLHIV) in Uganda. METHODS: Participants were interviewed and followed for an average of 21.6 months. Dietary diversity was measured using the Individual Dietary Diversity Score (IDDS) (range, 0-12) and summarized into an overall measure and disaggregated into nutrient-rich food groups (range, 0-7), cereals, roots, and tubers (range, 0\x{2013} 2); and oils, fats, sugars, and condiments (range, 0\x{2013} 3). We determined the cross-sectional associations between dietary diversity and (1) immunosuppression (CD4 count ≤ 350 cells/μL) and (2) moderate anemia (hemoglobin 350 CD4 cells per microliter, but not those with CD4 count ≤350 cells per microliter, consumption of nutrient-rich food groups was associated with a lower odds of moderate anemia (adjusted odds ratio, 0.57; 95% CI: 0.34 to 0.96). During follow-up, 48 participants (5.6%) died (mortality rate of 3.1 per 100 person-years). IDDS was inversely associated with mortality [adjusted hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% CI: 0.63 to 0.91]. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that diet quality is an important determinant of HIV disease severity and mortality in antiretroviral therapy-naive PLHIV

Magneto-Transport properties in the thin films of Charge ordered thin films

Thin films of Pr0.7Ca 0.3MnO3, Nd-0.5Ca0.5MnO3 and Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 have been fabricated. by pulse laser deposition. Magnetic and electrical transport properties of these films were compared with their bulk solids. All the films grow in (101) direction on LaAlO3(100). Electrical transport measurements carried out with and without magnetic field has shown dr/dT<0 in these thin films. Application of magnetic field has shown dilution of the insulating behavior. The magnetization studies of Nd-0.5Sr0.5MnO3 exhibited ferromagnetic behavior at 260K and showed antiferomagnetic feature below 130K. This is close to the bulk magnetic behavior of Nd-0.5Sr0.5MnO3. Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 showed ferromagnetic transition below 130K and becomes antiferromagnetic at 90K. Nd-0.5Ca0.5MnO3 showed paramagnetic behavior down to low temperatures. Deviation in the properties of the thin films from the bulk solids is attributed to the growth of the films in more symmetric structure.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Thermal relaxation in charge ordered Pr0.63_{0.63} Ca0.37_{0.37} MnO3_3 in presence of a magnetic field

We report observation of substantial thermal relaxation in single crystal of charge ordered system Pr$_{0.63}$Ca$_{0.37}$MnO$_3$ in an applied magnetic field of H = 8T. The relaxation is observed when the temperature is scanned in presence of a magnetic field in the temperature interval $T_{MH}<T<T_{CO}$ where $T_{CO}$ is the charge ordering temperature and $T_{MH}$ is charge melting temperature in a field. In this temperature range the system has coexisting charged ordered insulator (COI) and ferromagnetic metallic (FMM) phases. No such relaxation is observed in the COI state in H = 0T or in the FMM phase at $T < T_{MH}$ in presence of a magnetic field. We conclude that the thermal relaxation is due to two coexisting phases with nearly same free energies but separated by a potential barrier. This barrier makes the transformation from one phase to the other time-dependent in the scale of the specific heat experiment and gives rise to the thermal relaxation.Comment: 4 pages LaTEX, 3 eps figure

Neuroactive chondroitin sulfate glycomimetics

We report the generation of chondroitin sulfate (CS) glycomimetics with tunable chemical and biological properties. Our approach greatly simplifies the synthesis of complex glycosaminoglycans, providing synthetically accessible, bioactive structures of programmable sulfation sequence. Using these glycopolymers, we demonstrate that multivalent interactions are critical for modulating CS activity and discover an unexpected tolerance for unnatural polymeric architectures. We envision that these glycomimetics will facilitate further explorations into the influence of macromolecular structure on glycosaminoglycan function and provide powerful tools for manipulating CS activity in vivo

A sulfated carbohydrate epitope inhibits axon regeneration after injury

Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) represent a major barrier to regenerating axons in the central nervous system (CNS), but the structural diversity of their polysaccharides has hampered efforts to dissect the structure-activity relationships underlying their physiological activity. By taking advantage of our ability to chemically synthesize specific oligosaccharides, we demonstrate that a sugar epitope on CSPGs, chondroitin sulfate-E (CS-E), potently inhibits axon growth. Removal of the CS-E motif significantly attenuates the inhibitory activity of CSPGs on axon growth. Furthermore, CS-E functions as a protein recognition element to engage receptors including the transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPσ, thereby triggering downstream pathways that inhibit axon growth. Finally, masking the CS-E motif using a CS-E-specific antibody reversed the inhibitory activity of CSPGs and stimulated axon regeneration in vivo. These results demonstrate that a specific sugar epitope within chondroitin sulfate polysaccharides can direct important physiological processes and provide new therapeutic strategies to regenerate axons after CNS injury

IMAGES II. A surprisingly low fraction of undisturbed rotating spiral disks at z~0.6: The morpho-kinematical relation 6 Gyrs ago

We present a first combined analysis of the morphological and dynamical properties for the Intermediate MAss Galaxy Evolution Sequence (IMAGES) sample. It is a representative sample of 52 z~0.6 galaxies with Mstell from 1.5 to 15 10^10Msun and possessing 3D resolved kinematics and HST deep imaging in at least two broad band filters. We aim at evaluate robustly the evolution of rotating spirals since z~0.6, as well as to test the different schemes for classifying galaxies morphologically. We used all the information provided by multi-band images, color maps and 2 dimensional light fitting to assign to each object a morphological class. We divided our sample between spiral disks, peculiar objects, compact objects and mergers. Using our morphological classification scheme, 4/5 of identified spirals are rotating disks and more than 4/5 of identified peculiar galaxies show complex kinematics, while automatic classification methods such as Concentration-Asymmetry and GINI-M20 severely overestimate the fraction of relaxed disk galaxies. Using this methodology, we find that the fraction of rotating spirals has increased by a factor ~ 2 during the last 6 Gyrs, a much higher fraction that found previously based on morphologies alone. These rotating spiral disks are forming stars very rapidly, doubling their stellar masses over the last 6 Gyrs, while most of their stars have been formed few Gyrs earlier, which reveals the presence of a large gas supply. Because they are likely the progenitors of local spirals, we can conjecture how their properties are evolving. Their disks show some evidence for an inside-out growth and the gas supply/accretion is not made randomly as the disk need to be stable in order to match the local disk properties.Comment: Typos corrected, reference adde

Magnetic glass in Shape Memory Alloy : Ni45Co5Mn38Sn12

The first order martensitic transition in the ferromagnetic shape memory alloy Ni45Co5Mn38Sn12 is also a magnetic transition and has a large field induced effect. While cooling in the presence of field this first order magnetic martensite transition is kinetically arrested. Depending on the cooling field, a fraction of the arrested ferromagnetic austenite phase persists down to the lowest temperature as a magnetic glassy state, similar to the one observed in various intermetallic alloys and in half doped manganites. A detailed investigation of this first order ferromagnetic austenite (FM-A) to low magnetization martensite (LM-M) state transition as a function of temperature and field has been carried out by magnetization measurements. Extensive cooling and heating in unequal field (CHUF) measurements and a novel field cooled protocol for isothermal MH measurements (FC-MH) are utilized to investigate the glass like arrested states and show a reverse martensite transition. Finally, we determine a field -temperature (HT) phase diagram of Ni45Co5Mn38Sn12 from various magnetization measurements which brings out the regions where thermodynamic and metastable states co-exist in the HT space clearly depicting this system as a 'Magnetic Glass'.Comment: Magnetic field tunes kinetic arrest and CHUF shows devitrification and melting of Magnetic glas

Sulfation patterns of glycosaminoglycans encode molecular recognition and activity

Although glycosaminoglycans contribute to diverse physiological processes, an understanding of their molecular mechanisms has been hampered by the inability to access homogeneous glycosaminoglycan structures. Here, we assembled well-defined chondroitin sulfate oligosaccharides using a convergent, synthetic approach that permits installation of sulfate groups at precise positions along the carbohydrate backbone. Using these defined structures, we demonstrate that specific sulfation motifs function as molecular recognition elements for growth factors and modulate neuronal growth. These results provide both fundamental insights into the role of sulfation and direct evidence for a 'sulfation code' whereby glycosaminoglycans encode functional information in a sequence-specific manner analogous to that of DNA, RNA and proteins

MOIRCS Deep Survey IV: Evolution of Galaxy Stellar Mass Function Back to z ~ 3

We use very deep near-infrared (NIR) imaging data obtained in MOIRCS Deep Survey (MODS) to investigate the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function back to z~3. The MODS data reach J=24.2, H=23.1, K=23.1 (5sigma, Vega magnitude) over 103 arcmin^2 (wide) and J=25.1, H=23.7, K=24.1 over 28 arcmin^2 (deep) in the GOODS-North region. The wide and very deep NIR data allow us to measure the number density of galaxies down to low stellar mass (10^9-10^10 Msun) even at high redshift with high statistical accuracy. The normalization of the mass function decreases with redshift and the integrated stellar mass density becomes ~ 8-18% of the local value at z~2 and ~ 4-9% at z~3, which are consistent with results of previous studies in general fields. Furthermore, we found that the low-mass slope becomes steeper with redshift from alpha ~- 1.3 at z~1 to alpha ~- 1.6 at z~3, and that the evolution of the number density of low-mass (10^9-10^10 Msun) galaxies is weaker than that of M* (~10^11 Msun) galaxies. This indicates that the contribution of low-mass galaxies to the total stellar mass density has been significant at high redshift. The steepening of the low-mass slope with redshift is opposite trend expected from the stellar mass dependence of the specific star formation rate reported in previous studies. The present result suggests that the hierarchical merging process overwhelmed the effect of the stellar mass growth by star formation and was very important for the stellar mass assembly of these galaxies at 1<~z<~3.Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Quaternion-Octonion Unitary Symmetries and Analogous Casimir Operators

An attempt has been made to investigate the global SU(2) and SU(3) unitary flavor symmetries systematically in terms of quaternion and octonion respectively. It is shown that these symmetries are suitably handled with quaternions and octonions in order to obtain their generators, commutation rules and symmetry properties. Accordingly, Casimir operators for SU(2)and SU(3) flavor symmetries are also constructed for the proper testing of these symmetries in terms of quaternions and octonions