A cross-sectional study of predatory publishing emails received by career development grant awardees

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the scope of academic spam emails (ASEs) among career development grant awardees and the factors associated with the amount of time spent addressing them. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey of career development grant investigators via an anonymous online survey was conducted. In addition to demographic and professional information, we asked investigators to report the number of ASEs received each day, how they determined whether these emails were spam and time they spent per day addressing them. We used bivariate analysis to assess factors associated with the amount of time spent on ASEs. SETTING: An online survey sent via email on three separate occasions between November and December 2016. PARTICIPANTS: All National Institutes of Health career development awardees funded in the 2015 fiscal year. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Factors associated with the amount of time spent addressing ASEs. RESULTS: A total of 3492 surveys were emailed, of which 206 (5.9%) were returned as undeliverable and 96 (2.7%) reported an out-of-office message; our overall response rate was 22.3% (n=733). All respondents reported receiving ASEs, with the majority (54.4%) receiving between 1 and 10 per day and spending between 1 and 10 min each day evaluating them. The amount of time respondents reported spending on ASEs was associated with the number of peer-reviewed journal articles authored (p<0.001), a history of publishing in open access format (p<0.01), the total number of ASEs received (p<0.001) and a feeling of having missed opportunities due to ignoring these emails (p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: ASEs are a common distraction for career development grantees that may impact faculty productivity. There is an urgent need to mitigate this growing problem

Interactions between β Subunits of the KCNMB Family and Slo3: β4 Selectively Modulates Slo3 Expression and Function

The pH and voltage-regulated Slo3 K(+) channel, a homologue of the Ca(2+)- and voltage-regulated Slo1 K(+) channel, is thought to be primarily expressed in sperm, but the properties of Slo3 studied in heterologous systems differ somewhat from the native sperm KSper pH-regulated current. There is the possibility that critical partners that regulate Slo3 function remain unidentified. The extensive amino acid identity between Slo3 and Slo1 suggests that auxiliary beta subunits regulating Slo1 channels might coassemble with and modulate Slo3 channels. Four distinct beta subunits composing the KCNMB family are known to regulate the function and expression of Slo1 Channels.To examine the ability of the KCNMB family of auxiliary beta subunits to regulate Slo3 function, we co-expressed Slo3 and each beta subunit in heterologous expression systems and investigated the functional consequences by electrophysiological and biochemical analyses. The beta4 subunit produced an 8-10 fold enhancement of Slo3 current expression in Xenopus oocytes and a similar enhancement of Slo3 surface expression as monitored by YFP-tagged Slo3 or biotin labeled Slo3. Neither beta1, beta2, nor beta3 mimicked the ability of beta4 to increase surface expression, although biochemical tests suggested that all four beta subunits are competent to coassemble with Slo3. Fluorescence microscopy from beta4 KO mice, in which an eGFP tag replaced the deleted exon, revealed that beta4 gene promoter is active in spermatocytes. Furthermore, quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that beta4 and Slo3 exhibit comparable mRNA abundance in both testes and sperm.These results argue that, for native mouse Slo3 channels, the beta4 subunit must be considered as a potential interaction partner and, furthermore, that KCNMB subunits may have functions unrelated to regulation of the Slo1 alpha subunit

High Passage MIN6 Cells Have Impaired Insulin Secretion with Impaired Glucose and Lipid Oxidation

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by the inability of beta-cells to secrete enough insulin to maintain glucose homeostasis. MIN6 cells secrete insulin in response to glucose and other secretagogues, but high passage (HP) MIN6 cells lose their ability to secrete insulin in response to glucose. We hypothesized that metabolism of glucose and lipids were defective in HP MIN6 cells causing impaired glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). HP MIN6 cells had no first phase and impaired second phase GSIS indicative of global functional impairment. This was coupled with a markedly reduced ATP content at basal and glucose stimulated states. Glucose uptake and oxidation were higher at basal glucose but ATP content failed to increase with glucose. HP MIN6 cells had decreased basal lipid oxidation. This was accompanied by reduced expressions of Glut1, Gck, Pfk, Srebp1c, Ucp2, Sirt3, Nampt. MIN6 cells represent an important model of beta cells which, as passage numbers increased lost first phase but retained partial second phase GSIS, similar to patients early in type 2 diabetes onset. We believe a number of gene expression changes occurred to produce this defect, with emphasis on Sirt3 and Nampt, two genes that have been implicated in maintenance of glucose homeostasis.These authors have no support or funding to report

Beyond the hubble sequence – exploring galaxy morphology with unsupervised machine learning

We explore unsupervised machine learning for galaxy morphology analyses using a combination of feature extraction with a vector-quantized variational autoencoder (VQ-VAE) and hierarchical clustering (HC). We propose a new methodology that includes: (1) consideration of the clustering performance simultaneously when learning features from images; (2) allowing for various distance thresholds within the HC algorithm; (3) using the galaxy orientation to determine the number of clusters. This set-up provides 27 clusters created with this unsupervised learning that we show are well separated based on galaxy shape and structure (e.g. Sérsic index, concentration, asymmetry, Gini coefficient). These resulting clusters also correlate well with physical properties such as the colour–magnitude diagram, and span the range of scaling relations such as mass versus size amongst the different machine-defined clusters. When we merge these multiple clusters into two large preliminary clusters to provide a binary classification, an accuracy of ∼87 per cent is reached using an imbalanced data set, matching real galaxy distributions, which includes 22.7 per cent early-type galaxies and 77.3 per cent late-type galaxies. Comparing the given clusters with classic Hubble types (ellipticals, lenticulars, early spirals, late spirals, and irregulars), we show that there is an intrinsic vagueness in visual classification systems, in particular galaxies with transitional features such as lenticulars and early spirals. Based on this, the main result in this work is not how well our unsupervised method matches visual classifications and physical properties, but that the method provides an independent classification that may be more physically meaningful than any visually based ones

Hydrogen Production From catalytic reforming of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) Over Neodymiun (III) oxide supported Cobalt catalyst

Hydrogen production from CO2 reforming of methane over 20wt%.Co/Nd2O3 has been investigated in a fixed bed stainless steel reactor. The 20wt%.Co/Nd2O3 catalyst was synthesized using wet impregnation method and characterized for thermal stability, textural property, crystallinity, morphology and nature of chemical bonds using techniques such as TGA, XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, FESEM, EDX and FTIR. The CO2 reforming of methane was performed at feed ratio (CH4:CO2) between 0.1-1 and reaction temperature ranged 973-1023 K. The catalyst displayed good activity towards selectivity and yield of hydrogen as well as CO, a by product. The selectivity and yield of Hydrogen increases with feed ratio and reaction temperature. The 20wt%.Co/Nd2O3 catalyst displayed promising catalytic activity for hydrogen production with the highest yield and selectivity of 32.5% and 17.6% respectively.Keywords: Cobalt; Greenhouse gases; Hydrogen; Reforming;; Neodymium (III)Oxid

Vacuum ultraviolet photoabsorption spectra of nitrile ices for their identification on Pluto

Icy bodies, such as Pluto, are known to harbor simple and complex molecules. The recent New Horizons flyby of Pluto has revealed a complex surface composed of bright and dark ice surfaces, indicating a rich chemistry based on nitrogen (N2), methane (CH4), and carbon monoxide (CO). Nitrile (CN) containing molecules such as acetonitrile (CH3CN), propionitrile (CH3CH2CN), butyronitrile (CH3CH2CH2CN), and isobutyronitrile ((CH3)2CHCN) are some of the nitrile molecules that are known to be synthesized by radiative processing of such simple ices. Through the provision of a spectral atlas for such compounds we propose that such nitriles may be identified from the ALICE payload on board New Horizons</i

Cytokine Signaling and Hematopoietic Homeostasis Are Disrupted in Lnk-deficient Mice

The adaptor protein Lnk, and the closely related proteins APS and SH2B, form a subfamily of SH2 domain-containing proteins implicated in growth factor, cytokine, and immunoreceptor signaling. To elucidate the physiological function of Lnk, we derived Lnk-deficient mice. Lnk−/− mice are viable, but display marked changes in the hematopoietic compartment, including splenomegaly and abnormal lymphoid and myeloid homeostasis. The in vitro proliferative capacity and absolute numbers of hematopoietic progenitors from Lnk−/− mice are greatly increased, in part due to hypersensitivity to several cytokines. Moreover, an increased synergy between stem cell factor and either interleukin (IL)-3 or IL-7 was observed in Lnk−/− cells. Furthermore, Lnk inactivation causes abnormal modulation of IL-3 and stem cell factor–mediated signaling pathways. Consistent with these results, we also show that Lnk is highly expressed in multipotent cells and committed precursors in the erythroid, megakaryocyte, and myeloid lineages. These data implicate Lnk as playing an important role in hematopoiesis and in the regulation of growth factor and cytokine receptor–mediated signaling