Characterization of a novel polyextremotolerant fungus, \u3ci\u3eExophiala viscosa\u3c/i\u3e, with insights into its melanin regulation and ecological niche

Black yeasts are polyextremotolerant fungi that contain high amounts of melanin in their cell wall and maintain a primar yeast form. These fungi grow in xeric, nutrient depletes environments which implies that they require highly flexible metabolisms and have been suggested to contain the ability to form lichen-like mutualisms with nearby algae and bacteria. However, the exact ecological niche and interactions between these fungi and their surrounding community are not well understood. We have isolated 2 novel black yeasts from the genus Exophiala that were recovered from dryland biological soil crusts. Despite notable differences in colony and cellular morphology, both fungi appear to be members of the same species, which has been named Exophiala viscosa (i.e. E. viscosa JF 03-3 Goopy and E. viscosa JF 03-4F Slimy). A combination of whole genome sequencing, phenotypic experiments, and melanin regulation experiments have been performed on these isolates to fully characterize these fungi and help decipher their fundamental niche within the biological soil crust consortium. Our results reveal that E. viscosa is capable of utilizing a wide variety of carbon and nitrogen sources potentially derived from symbiotic microbes, can withstand many forms of abiotic stresses, and excretes melanin which can potentially provide ultraviolet resistance to the biological soil crust community. Besides the identification of a novel species within the genus Exophiala, our study also provides new insight into the regulation of melanin production in polyextremotolerant fungi

A review of patients who suddenly deteriorate in the presence of paramedics

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The report of the Ministerial Review of Trauma and Emergency Services in Victoria, Australia, recommended that paramedics be permitted to divert to the closest hospital in incidences of life threatening situations prior to and during transport. An audit of patients that suddenly deteriorated in paramedic care was recommended by the Ministerial Review. The objective of the study was to identify the number and outcome of patients who suddenly deteriorated in the presence of paramedics.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A retrospective cohort study of trauma patients who suddenly deteriorated in the presence of paramedics during 2002. As there was no standard definition, sudden deterioration was defined using a predetermined set of physiological criteria. Patient care record data of patients who suddenly deteriorated were compared with the State Trauma Registry to determine those who sustained hospital defined major trauma. Patient care records where hospital bypass was undertaken were identified and analysed. Ethics committee approval was obtained.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 2,893 patients that suddenly deteriorated according to predefined criteria. 2,687 (5.1% of the total trauma patients for 2002) were suitable for further analysis. The majority of patients had a sudden decrease in BP (n = 2,463) with 4.3% having hospital defined major trauma. For patients with a sudden decrease in conscious state or a total GCS score of less than 13 (n = 77), 37.7% had hospital defined major trauma; and a sudden increase/decrease in pulse rate and sudden decrease in BP (n = 65), 26.2% had hospital defined major trauma. Only 28 documented incidents of hospital bypass were identified.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study suggests that the incidents of patients suddenly deteriorating in the presence of paramedics are low and the incidence of hospital bypass is not well documented.</p

Weak Lensing with SDSS Commissioning Data: The Galaxy-Mass Correlation Function To 1/h Mpc

(abridged) We present measurements of galaxy-galaxy lensing from early commissioning imaging data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We measure a mean tangential shear around a stacked sample of foreground galaxies in three bandpasses out to angular radii of 600'', detecting the shear signal at very high statistical significance. The shear profile is well described by a power-law. A variety of rigorous tests demonstrate the reality of the gravitational lensing signal and confirm the uncertainty estimates. We interpret our results by modeling the mass distributions of the foreground galaxies as approximately isothermal spheres characterized by a velocity dispersion and a truncation radius. The velocity dispersion is constrained to be 150-190 km/s at 95% confidence (145-195 km/s including systematic uncertainties), consistent with previous determinations but with smaller error bars. Our detection of shear at large angular radii sets a 95% confidence lower limit $s>140^{\prime\prime}$, corresponding to a physical radius of $260h^{-1}$ kpc, implying that galaxy halos extend to very large radii. However, it is likely that this is being biased high by diffuse matter in the halos of groups and clusters. We also present a preliminary determination of the galaxy-mass correlation function finding a correlation length similar to the galaxy autocorrelation function and consistency with a low matter density universe with modest bias. The full SDSS will cover an area 44 times larger and provide spectroscopic redshifts for the foreground galaxies, making it possible to greatly improve the precision of these constraints, measure additional parameters such as halo shape, and measure the properties of dark matter halos separately for many different classes of galaxies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, submitted to A

Social Networks and Friendships at School: Comparing Children With and Without ASD

Self, peer and teacher reports of social relationships were examined for 60 high-functioning children with ASD. Compared to a matched sample of typical children in the same classroom, children with ASD were more often on the periphery of their social networks, reported poorer quality friendships and had fewer reciprocal friendships. On the playground, children with ASD were mostly unengaged but playground engagement was not associated with peer, self, or teacher reports of social behavior. Twenty percent of children with ASD had a reciprocated friendship and also high social network status. Thus, while the majority of high functioning children with ASD struggle with peer relationships in general education classrooms, a small percentage of them appear to have social success

The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over 250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2 in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor correction

The Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Fifth Data Release (DR5) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). DR5 includes all survey quality data taken through June 2005 and represents the completion of the SDSS-I project (whose successor, SDSS-II will continue through mid-2008). It includes five-band photometric data for 217 million objects selected over 8000 square degrees, and 1,048,960 spectra of galaxies, quasars, and stars selected from 5713 square degrees of that imaging data. These numbers represent a roughly 20% increment over those of the Fourth Data Release; all the data from previous data releases are included in the present release. In addition to "standard" SDSS observations, DR5 includes repeat scans of the southern equatorial stripe, imaging scans across M31 and the core of the Perseus cluster of galaxies, and the first spectroscopic data from SEGUE, a survey to explore the kinematics and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. The catalog database incorporates several new features, including photometric redshifts of galaxies, tables of matched objects in overlap regions of the imaging survey, and tools that allow precise computations of survey geometry for statistical investigations.Comment: ApJ Supp, in press, October 2007. This paper describes DR5. The SDSS Sixth Data Release (DR6) is now public, available from http://www.sdss.or

Aortic enlargement in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD study

Background: The prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysm is high in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) population. Emphysema involves proteolytic destruction of elastic fibers. Therefore, emphysema may also contribute to thoracic aorta dilatation. This study assessed aorta dilation in smokers stratified by presence of COPD, emphysema and airway thickening. Methods: Aorta diameters were measured on 3D magnetic resonance angiography in smokers recruited from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), the Emphysema and Cancer Action Project (EMCAP), and the local community. COPD was defined by standard spirometric criteria; emphysema was measured quantitatively on computed tomography and bronchitis was determined from medical history. Results: Participants (n = 315, age 58–79) included 150 with COPD and 165 without COPD, of whom 56% and 19%, respectively, had emphysema. Subjects in the most severe quartile of emphysematous change showed the largest diameter at all four aorta locations compared to those in the least severe quartiles (all p < 0.001). Comparing subjectswith andwithout COPD, aorta diameters were larger in participantswith severe COPD in ascending and arch (both p < 0.001), and abdominal aorta (p = 0.001). Chronic bronchitis and bronchial wall thickness did not correlate with aorta diameter. In subjects with emphysema, subjects with coexistence of COPD showed larger aorta than those without COPD in ascending (p=0.003), arch (p=0.002), and abdominal aorta (p=0.04). Conclusions: This study showed larger aorta diameter in subjects with COPD and severe emphysema

Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Trafficking and Survival in an Augmented Fibrin Matrix Carrier

Cell-based therapies have intriguing potential for the treatment of a variety of neurological disorders. One such example is genetically engineered cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) that are being investigated in brain tumor clinical trials. The development of methods for CTL delivery is critical to their use in the laboratory and clinical setting. In our study, we determined whether CTLs can migrate through fibrin matrices and if their migration, survival, and function could be modulated by adding chemokines to the matrix. Our results indicated that CTLs can freely migrate through fibrin matrices. As expected, the addition of the monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), also known as chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 (CCL2), to the surrounding media increased egress of the CTLs out of the fibrin clot. Interleukin (IL) -2 and/or IL-15 embedded in the matrix enhanced T cell survival and further promoted T cell migration. The interleukin-13 receptor alpha 2 specific (IL-13R alpha2) T cells that traveled out of the fibrin clot retained the capacity to kill U251 glioma cells. In summary, CTLs can survive and migrate robustly in fibrin matrices. These processes can be influenced by modification of matrix constituents. We conclude that fibrin matrices may be suitable T cell carriers and can be used to facilitate understanding of T cell interaction with the surrounding microenvironment

The Ninth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) presents the first spectroscopic data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This ninth data release (DR9) of the SDSS project includes 535,995 new galaxy spectra (median z=0.52), 102,100 new quasar spectra (median z=2.32), and 90,897 new stellar spectra, along with the data presented in previous data releases. These spectra were obtained with the new BOSS spectrograph and were taken between 2009 December and 2011 July. In addition, the stellar parameters pipeline, which determines radial velocities, surface temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities of stars, has been updated and refined with improvements in temperature estimates for stars with T_eff<5000 K and in metallicity estimates for stars with [Fe/H]>-0.5. DR9 includes new stellar parameters for all stars presented in DR8, including stars from SDSS-I and II, as well as those observed as part of the SDSS-III Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration-2 (SEGUE-2). The astrometry error introduced in the DR8 imaging catalogs has been corrected in the DR9 data products. The next data release for SDSS-III will be in Summer 2013, which will present the first data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) along with another year of data from BOSS, followed by the final SDSS-III data release in December 2014.Comment: 9 figures; 2 tables. Submitted to ApJS. DR9 is available at http://www.sdss3.org/dr

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from submitted version