Texas A&M University

About: Texas A&M University is a education organization based out in College Station, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Finite element method. The organization has 72169 authors who have published 164372 publications receiving 5764236 citations.

A review of the global burden, novel diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine targets for cryptosporidium

Abstract: Summary Cryptosporidium spp are well recognised as causes of diarrhoeal disease during waterborne epidemics and in immunocompromised hosts. Studies have also drawn attention to an underestimated global burden and suggest major gaps in optimum diagnosis, treatment, and immunisation. Cryptosporidiosis is increasingly identified as an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Studies in low-resource settings and high-income countries have confirmed the importance of cryptosporidium as a cause of diarrhoea and childhood malnutrition. Diagnostic tests for cryptosporidium infection are suboptimum, necessitating specialised tests that are often insensitive. Antigen-detection and PCR improve sensitivity, and multiplexed antigen detection and molecular assays are underused. Therapy has some effect in healthy hosts and no proven efficacy in patients with AIDS. Use of cryptosporidium genomes has helped to identify promising therapeutic targets, and drugs are in development, but methods to assess the efficacy in vitro and in animals are not well standardised. Partial immunity after exposure suggests the potential for successful vaccines, and several are in development; however, surrogates of protection are not well defined. Improved methods for propagation and genetic manipulation of the organism would be significant advances.

A Simple Ocean Data Assimilation Analysis of the Global Upper Ocean 1950–95. Part I: Methodology

Abstract: The authors describe a 46-year global retrospective analysis of upper-ocean temperature, salinity, and currents. The analysis is an application of the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) package. SODA uses an ocean model based on Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory MOM2 physics. Assimilated data includes temperature and salinity profiles from the World Ocean Atlas-94 (MBT, XBT, CTD, and station data), as well as additional hydrography, sea surface temperature, and altimeter sea level. After reviewing the basic methodology the authors present experiments to examine the impact of trends in the wind field and model forecast bias (referred to in the engineering literature as “colored noise”). The authors believe these to be the major sources of error in the retrospective analysis. With detrended winds the analysis shows a pattern of warming in the subtropics and cooling in the Tropics and at high latitudes. Model forecast bias results partly from errors in surface forcing and partly from limitati...

Does neuroinflammation fan the flame in neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract: While peripheral immune access to the central nervous system (CNS) is restricted and tightly controlled, the CNS is capable of dynamic immune and inflammatory responses to a variety of insults. Infections, trauma, stroke, toxins and other stimuli are capable of producing an immediate and short lived activation of the innate immune system within the CNS. This acute neuroinflammatory response includes activation of the resident immune cells (microglia) resulting in a phagocytic phenotype and the release of inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and chemokines. While an acute insult may trigger oxidative and nitrosative stress, it is typically short-lived and unlikely to be detrimental to long-term neuronal survival. In contrast, chronic neuroinflammation is a long-standing and often self-perpetuating neuroinflammatory response that persists long after an initial injury or insult. Chronic neuroinflammation includes not only long-standing activation of microglia and subsequent sustained release of inflammatory mediators, but also the resulting increased oxidative and nitrosative stress. The sustained release of inflammatory mediators works to perpetuate the inflammatory cycle, activating additional microglia, promoting their proliferation, and resulting in further release of inflammatory factors. Neurodegenerative CNS disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), tauopathies, and age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), are associated with chronic neuroinflammation and elevated levels of several cytokines. Here we review the hallmarks of acute and chronic inflammatory responses in the CNS, the reasons why microglial activation represents a convergence point for diverse stimuli that may promote or compromise neuronal survival, and the epidemiologic, pharmacologic and genetic evidence implicating neuroinflammation in the pathophysiology of several neurodegenerative diseases.

Discovery of cellulose as a smart material

Abstract: The past 10 years has witnessed a renewed interest in cellulose research and application, sparked mostly by technological interests in renewable raw materials and more environmentally friendly and sustainable resources. In this paper, we further expand the current knowledge in cellulose applications and technologies by reporting our discovery of cellulose as a smart material that can be used for biomimetic sensor/actuator devices and micro-electromechanical systems. This smart cellulose is termed electroactive paper (EAPap). It can produce a large bending displacement with low actuation voltage and low power consumption. The actuation phenomenon and its characteristics are illustrated in this paper. Because cellulose EAPap is ultra-lightweight, inexpensive, and biodegradable, it is advantageous for many applications such as micro-insect robots, micro-flying objects, micro-electromechanical systems, biosensors, and flexible electrical displays.

Extraintestinal dissemination of Salmonella by CD18-expressing phagocytes

Abstract: Specialized epithelia known as M cells overlying the lymphoid follicles of Peyer's patches are important in the mucosal immune system, but also provide a portal of entry for pathogens such as Salmonella typhimurium, Mycobacterium bovis, Shigella flexneri, Yersinia enterocolitica and reoviruses1,2,3,4. Penetration of intestinal M cells and epithelial cells by Salmonella typhimurium requires the invasion genes of Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 1 (SPI1)3,5,6,7,8,9. SPI1-deficient S. typhimurium strains gain access to the spleen following oral administration and cause lethal infection in mice5 without invading M cells3,9 or localizing in Peyer's patches10, which indicates that Salmonella uses an alternative strategy to disseminate from the gastrointestinal tract. Here we report that Salmonella is transported from the gastrointestinal tract to the bloodstream by CD18-expressing phagocytes, and that CD18-deficient mice are resistant to dissemination of Salmonella to the liver and spleen after oral administration. This CD18-dependent pathway of extraintestinal dissemination may be important for the development of systemic immunity to gastrointestinal pathogens, because oral challenge with SPI1-deficient S. typhimurium elicits a specific systemic IgG humoral immune response, despite an inability to stimulate production of specific mucosal IgA.