Subduction Initiation Recorded in the Dadeville Complex of Alabama and Georgia, Southeastern United States

The Dadeville Complex of Alabama and Georgia (southeastern United States) represents the largest suite of exposed mafic-ultramafic rocks in the southern Appalachians. Due to poor preservation, chemical alteration, and tectonic reworking, a specific tectonic origin for the Dadeville Complex has been difficult to deduce. We obtained new whole-rock and mineral geochemistry coupled with zircon U-Pb geochronology to investigate the magmatic and metamorphic processes recorded by the Dadeville Complex, as well as the timing of these processes. Our data reveal an up-stratigraphic evolution in the geochemistry of the volcanic rocks, from forearc basalts to boninites. Our new U-Pb zircon crystallization data—obtained from three amphibolite samples—place the timing of forearc/protoarc volcanism no later than ca. 467 Ma. New thermobarometry suggests that the Dadeville Complex rocks subsequently experienced deep, high-grade metamorphism, at pressure-temperature conditions of \u3e7 kbar and \u3e760 °C. The data presented here support a model for formation of the Dadeville Complex in the forearc region of a subduction zone during subduction initiation and protoarc development, followed by deep burial/underthrusting of the complex during orogenesis

Experimental transmission of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease results in differential microbial responses within coral mucus and tissue

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Huntley, N., Brandt, M., Becker, C., Miller, C., Meiling, S., Correa, A., Holstein, D., Muller, E., Mydlarz, L., Smith, T., & Apprill, A. Experimental transmission of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease results in differential microbial responses within coral mucus and tissue. ISME Communications, 2(1), (2022): 46, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43705-022-00126-3.Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is a widespread and deadly disease that affects nearly half of Caribbean coral species. To understand the microbial community response to this disease, we performed a disease transmission experiment on US Virgin Island (USVI) corals, exposing six species of coral with varying susceptibility to SCTLD. The microbial community of the surface mucus and tissue layers were examined separately using a small subunit ribosomal RNA gene-based sequencing approach, and data were analyzed to identify microbial community shifts following disease acquisition, potential causative pathogens, as well as compare microbiota composition to field-based corals from the USVI and Florida outbreaks. While all species displayed similar microbiome composition with disease acquisition, microbiome similarity patterns differed by both species and mucus or tissue microhabitat. Further, disease exposed but not lesioned corals harbored a mucus microbial community similar to those showing disease signs, suggesting that mucus may serve as an early warning detection for the onset of SCTLD. Like other SCTLD studies in Florida, Rhodobacteraceae, Arcobacteraceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, Peptostreptococcaceae, Fusibacter, Marinifilaceae, and Vibrionaceae dominated diseased corals. This study demonstrates the differential response of the mucus and tissue microorganisms to SCTLD and suggests that mucus microorganisms may be diagnostic for early disease exposure.This work was funded by an International Coral Reef Society student grant to N.H., National Science Foundation (NSF) VI EPSCoR 0814417 and 1946412 and NSF (Biological Oceanography) award numbers 1928753 to MEB and TBS, 1928609 to AMSC, 1928817 to EMM, 19228771 to LDM, 1927277 to DMH as well as 1928761 and 1938112 to AA, NSF EEID award number 2109622 to MEB, AA, LDM, and AMSC, and a NOAA OAR Cooperative Institutes award to AA (#NA19OAR4320074). Samples were collected under permit #DFW19057U authorized by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources Coastal Zone Management

Investigation of attentional bias in obsessive compulsive disorder with and without depression in visual search

Copyright: © 2013 Morein-Zamir et al. This 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 creditedWhether Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is associated with an increased attentional bias to emotive stimuli remains controversial. Additionally, it is unclear whether comorbid depression modulates abnormal emotional processing in OCD. This study examined attentional bias to OC-relevant scenes using a visual search task. Controls, non-depressed and depressed OCD patients searched for their personally selected positive images amongst their negative distractors, and vice versa. Whilst the OCD groups were slower than healthy individuals in rating the images, there were no group differences in the magnitude of negative bias to concern-related scenes. A second experiment employing a common set of images replicated the results on an additional sample of OCD patients. Although there was a larger bias to negative OC-related images without pre-exposure overall, no group differences in attentional bias were observed. However, OCD patients subsequently rated the images more slowly and more negatively, again suggesting post-attentional processing abnormalities. The results argue against a robust attentional bias in OCD patients, regardless of their depression status and speak to generalized difficulties disengaging from negative valence stimuli. Rather, post-attentional processing abnormalities may account for differences in emotional processing in OCD.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Universal WBC reduction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75583/1/j.1537-2995.2000.40060751.x.pd

Anthropometric characteristics and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

Background: The incidences of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma are increasing steadily. It has been hypothesized that this may be due, in part, to the parallel rising prevalence of obesity. It is biologically plausible that anthropometric characteristics can infuence the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Design and Methods: In the context of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), anthropometric characteristics were assessed in 371,983 cancer-free individuals at baseline. During the 8.5 years of follow-up, 1,219 histologically confirmed incident cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma occurred in 609 men and 610 women. Gender-specific proportional hazards models were used to estimate relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of development of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma in relation to the anthropometric characteristics. Results: Height was associated with overall non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma in women (RR 1.50,95% CI 1.14-1.98) for highest versus lowest quartile; p-trend <0.01) but not in men. Neither obesity (weight and body mass index) nor abdominal fat (waist-to-hip ratio, waist or hip circumference) measures were positively associated with overall non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Relative risks for highest versus lowest body mass index quartile were 1.09 (95% CI 0.85-1.38) and 0.92 (95% CI 0.71-1.19) for men and women, respectively. Women in the upper body mass index quartile were at greater risk of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (RR 2.18, 95% CI 1.05-4.53) and taller women had an elevated risk of follicular lymphoma (RR 1.25, 95% CI 0.59-2.62). Among men, height and body mass index were non-significantly, positively related to follicular lymphoma. Multiple myeloma risk alone was elevated for taller women (RR 2.34, 95% CI 1.29-4.21) and heavier men (RR 1.77, 95% CI 1.02-3.05). Conclusions: The EPIC analyses support an association between height and overall non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma among women and suggest heterogeneous subtype associations. This is one of the first prospective studies focusing on central adiposity and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma subtypes

Proteomic Analyses Reveal High Expression of Decorin and Endoplasmin (HSP90B1) Are Associated with Breast Cancer Metastasis and Decreased Survival

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide in terms of incidence and mortality. About 10% of North American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime and 20% of those will die of the disease. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and biomarkers able to correctly classify patients into prognostic groups are needed to better tailor treatment options and improve outcomes. One powerful method used for biomarker discovery is sample screening with mass spectrometry, as it allows direct comparison of protein expression between normal and pathological states. The purpose of this study was to use a systematic and objective method to identify biomarkers with possible prognostic value in breast cancer patients, particularly in identifying cases most likely to have lymph node metastasis and to validate their prognostic ability using breast cancer tissue microarrays. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Differential proteomic analyses were employed to identify candidate biomarkers in primary breast cancer patients. These analyses identified decorin (DCN) and endoplasmin (HSP90B1) which play important roles regulating the tumour microenvironment and in pathways related to tumorigenesis. This study indicates that high expression of Decorin is associated with lymph node metastasis (p&lt;0.001), higher number of positive lymph nodes (p&lt;0.0001) and worse overall survival (p = 0.01). High expression of HSP90B1 is associated with distant metastasis (p&lt;0.0001) and decreased overall survival (p&lt;0.0001) these patients also appear to benefit significantly from hormonal treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Using quantitative proteomic profiling of primary breast cancers, two new promising prognostic and predictive markers were found to identify patients with worse survival. In addition HSP90B1 appears to identify a group of patients with distant metastasis with otherwise good prognostic features

Canakinumab relieves symptoms of acute flares and improves health-related quality of life in patients with difficult-to-treat Gouty Arthritis by suppressing inflammation: results of a randomized, dose-ranging study

INTRODUCTION: We report the impact of canakinumab, a fully human anti-interleukin-1β monoclonal antibody, on inflammation and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with difficult-to-treat Gouty Arthritis. METHODS: In this eight-week, single-blind, double-dummy, dose-ranging study, patients with acute Gouty Arthritis flares who were unresponsive or intolerant to--or had contraindications for--non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and/or colchicine were randomized to receive a single subcutaneous dose of canakinumab (10, 25, 50, 90, or 150 mg) (N = 143) or an intramuscular dose of triamcinolone acetonide 40 mg (N = 57). Patients assessed pain using a Likert scale, physicians assessed clinical signs of joint inflammation, and HRQoL was measured using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) (acute version). RESULTS: At baseline, 98% of patients were suffering from moderate-to-extreme pain. The percentage of patients with no or mild pain was numerically greater in most canakinumab groups compared with triamcinolone acetonide from 24 to 72 hours post-dose; the difference was statistically significant for canakinumab 150 mg at these time points (P &lt; 0.05). Treatment with canakinumab 150 mg was associated with statistically significant lower Likert scores for tenderness (odds ratio (OR), 3.2; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.27 to 7.89; P = 0.014) and swelling (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.09 to 6.50, P = 0.032) at 72 hours compared with triamcinolone acetonide. Median C-reactive protein and serum amyloid A levels were normalized by seven days post-dose in most canakinumab groups, but remained elevated in the triamcinolone acetonide group. Improvements in physical health were observed at seven days post-dose in all treatment groups; increases in scores were highest for canakinumab 150 mg. In this group, the mean SF-36 physical component summary score increased by 12.0 points from baseline to 48.3 at seven days post-dose. SF-36 scores for physical functioning and bodily pain for the canakinumab 150 mg group approached those for the US general population by seven days post-dose and reached norm values by eight weeks post-dose. CONCLUSIONS: Canakinumab 150 mg provided significantly greater and more rapid reduction in pain and signs and symptoms of inflammation compared with triamcinolone acetonide 40 mg. Improvements in HRQoL were seen in both treatment groups with a faster onset with canakinumab 150 mg compared with triamcinolone acetonide 40 mg. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00798369

Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Weighing Distant Clusters with the Most Ancient Light

We use gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to measure the mass of the most distant blindly selected sample of galaxy clusters on which a lensing measurement has been performed to date. In CMB data from the the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Planck satellite, we detect the stacked lensing effect from 677 near-infrared-selected galaxy clusters from the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey (MaDCoWS), which have a mean redshift of ⟨z⟩ = 1.08. There are currently no representative optical weak lensing measurements of clusters that match the distance and average mass of this sample. We detect the lensing signal with a significance of 4.2σ. We model the signal with a halo model framework to find the mean mass of the population from which these clusters are drawn. Assuming that the clusters follow Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) density profiles, we infer a mean mass of ⟨M_(500c)⟩ = (1.7±0.4)×10¹⁴M⊙. We consider systematic uncertainties from cluster redshift errors, centering errors, and the shape of the NFW profile. These are all smaller than 30% of our reported uncertainty. This work highlights the potential of CMB lensing to enable cosmological constraints from the abundance of distant clusters populating ever larger volumes of the observable universe, beyond the capabilities of optical weak lensing measurements