Improved Log(gf) Values for Lines of Ti I and Abundance Determinations in the Photospheres of the Sun and Metal-Poor Star HD 84937 (Accurate Transition Probabilities for Ti I)

New atomic transition probability measurements for 948 lines of Ti I are reported. Branching fractions from Fourier transform spectra and from spectra recorded using a 3 m echelle spectrometer are combined with published radiative lifetimes from laser-induced fluorescence measurements to determine these transition probabilities. Generally good agreement is found in comparisons to the NIST Atomic Spectra Database. The new Ti I data are applied to re-determine the Ti abundance in the photospheres of the Sun and metal-poor star HD 84937 using many lines covering a range of wavelength and excitation potential to explore possible non-local thermal equilibrium effects. The variation of relative Ti/Fe abundance with metallicity in metal-poor stars observed in earlier studies is supported in this study.NSF AST-1211055, AST-0908978, AST-1211585NSF REU grant AST-1004881ESO Science Archive Facility 073.D-0024, 266.D-5655NASA NAS 5-26555Astronom

Improved V I Log(gf) Values and Abundance Determinations in the Photospheres of the Sun and Metal-Poor Star HD 84937

New emission branching fraction measurements for 836 lines of the first spectrum of vanadium (V I) are determined from hollow cathode lamp spectra recorded with the National Solar Observatory 1 m Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) and a high-resolution echelle spectrometer. The branching fractions are combined with recently published radiative lifetimes from laser-induced fluorescence measurements to determine accurate absolute atomic transition probabilities for the 836 lines. The FTS data are also used to extract new hyperfine structure A coefficients for 26 levels of neutral vanadium. These new laboratory data are applied to determine the V abundance in the Sun and metal-poor star HD 84937, yielding log epsilon(V) = 3.956 +/- 0.004 (sigma = 0.037) based on 93 V I lines and log epsilon(V) = 1.89 +/- 0.03 (sigma = 0.07) based on nine Vi lines, respectively, using the Holweger-Muller 1D model. These new V I abundance values for the Sun and HD 84937 agree well with our earlier determinations based upon V II.NASA NNX10AN93GNSF AST-1211055, AST-1211585Astronom

Detection of Gluten Exorphin B4 and B5 in Human Blood by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry

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Temporal changes in fruit production between recurrent prescribed burns in pine woodlands of the Ouachita Mountains

The use of prescribed fire is integral to the restoration of open woodlands and savannas, including shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) woodlands in the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Fire offers many potential benefits to numerous wildlife; however, short-term implications for understory fruit production are not fully understood, especially in stands subjected to frequent, recurrent burns. We examined the effects of dormant season prescribed burns on woody fruit production (kg ha−1) and fruit producing vegetative cover in the understory of restored pine woodlands. We inventoried 32 stands during four temporal periods after dormant season prescribed fires: 1, 2, 3, and 5 growing seasons post-burn. We counted fruit (\u3c2 m above the ground) throughout the summer and visually estimated vegetative cover of fruit producing plants. Fruit production was greatest in the 3rd year (18.2 kg ha−1), followed by 5th (10.9 kg ha−1) and 2nd (9.8 kg ha−1) years after burns. Overall, 87% of total production consisted of three genera: American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana [38%]), Vitis spp. (summer grapes [Vitis aestivalis; 11%] and muscadine grape [V. rotundifolia; 10%]), and Rubus spp. (blackberry [20%] and dewberry [R. flagellaris; 8%]). Production was recorded in 13 of the 14 fruit producing species present during the 5th year post-burn, indicating that production diversity increased over time. Percent cover and species richness (26 taxa) of fruit producing taxa were greatest in the 3rd year post-burn. Taxa such as poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) and sumac (Rhus spp.) comprised a sizable percent of coverage (\u3e7% each), but this did not translate into substantial fruit production. American beautyberry and summer grape had both substantial coverage and production. Results suggest that burning on a 3-year rotation maximizes and prolongs fruit production; however, occasional burning on a 5-year rotation will promote a higher diversity of woody mast-producing understory species

Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors Alpha, Beta, and Gamma mRNA and Protein Expression in Human Fetal Tissues

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) regulate lipid and glucose homeostasis, are targets of pharmaceuticals, and are also activated by environmental contaminants. Almost nothing is known about expression of PPARs during human fetal development. This study examines expression of PPARα, β, and γ mRNA and protein in human fetal tissues. With increasing fetal age, mRNA expression of PPARα and β increased in liver, but PPARβ decreased in heart and intestine, and PPARγ decreased in adrenal. Adult and fetal mean expression of PPARα, β, and γ mRNA did not differ in intestine, but expression was lower in fetal stomach and heart. PPARα and β mRNA in kidney and spleen, and PPARγ mRNA in lung and adrenal were lower in fetal versus adult. PPARγ in liver and PPARβ mRNA in thymus were higher in fetal versus adult. PPARα protein increased with fetal age in intestine and decreased in lung, kidney, and adrenal. PPARβ protein in adrenal and PPARγ in kidney decreased with fetal age. This study provides new information on expression of PPAR subtypes during human development and will be important in evaluating the potential for the developing human to respond to PPAR environmental or pharmaceutical agonists

A case of recurrent epilepsy-associated rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor with anaplastic transformation in the absence of therapy.

Rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor (RGNT) most commonly occurs adjacent to the fourth ventricle and therefore rarely presents with epilepsy. Recent reports describe RGNT occurrence in other anatomical locations with considerable morphologic and genetic overlap with the epilepsy-associated dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNET). Examples of RGNT or DNET with anaplastic change are rare, and typically occur in the setting of radiation treatment. We present the case of a 5-year-old girl with seizures, who underwent near total resection of a cystic temporal lobe lesion. Pathology showed morphologic and immunohistochemical features of RGNT, albeit with focally overlapping DNET-like patterns. Resections of residual or recurrent tumor were performed 1 year and 5 years after the initial resection, but no adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy was given. Ten years after the initial resection, surveillance imaging identified new and enhancing nodules, leading to another gross total resection. This specimen showed areas similar to the original tumor, but also high-grade foci with oligodendroglial morphology, increased cellularity, palisading necrosis, microvascular proliferation, and up to 13 mitotic figures per 10 high power fields. Ancillary studies the status by sequencing showed wild-type of the isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), IDH2, and human histone 3.3 (H3F3A) genes, and BRAF studies were negative for mutation or rearrangement. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) showed codeletion of 1p and 19q limited to the high-grade regions. By immunohistochemistry there was loss of nuclear alpha-thalassemia mental retardation syndrome, X-linked (ATRX) expression only in the high-grade region. Next-generation sequencing showed an fibroblast growth factor receptor receptor 1 (FGFR1) kinase domain internal tandem duplication in three resection specimens. ATRX mutation in the high-grade tumor was confirmed by sequencing which showed a frameshift mutation (p.R1427fs), while the apparent 1p/19q-codeletion by FISH was due to loss of chromosome arm 1p and only partial loss of 19q. Exceptional features of this case include the temporal lobe location, 1p/19q loss by FISH without true whole-arm codeletion, and anaplastic transformation associated with ATRX mutation without radiation or chemotherapy

The lesson of causal discovery algorithms for quantum correlations: Causal explanations of Bell-inequality violations require fine-tuning

An active area of research in the fields of machine learning and statistics is the development of causal discovery algorithms, the purpose of which is to infer the causal relations that hold among a set of variables from the correlations that these exhibit. We apply some of these algorithms to the correlations that arise for entangled quantum systems. We show that they cannot distinguish correlations that satisfy Bell inequalities from correlations that violate Bell inequalities, and consequently that they cannot do justice to the challenges of explaining certain quantum correlations causally. Nonetheless, by adapting the conceptual tools of causal inference, we can show that any attempt to provide a causal explanation of nonsignalling correlations that violate a Bell inequality must contradict a core principle of these algorithms, namely, that an observed statistical independence between variables should not be explained by fine-tuning of the causal parameters. In particular, we demonstrate the need for such fine-tuning for most of the causal mechanisms that have been proposed to underlie Bell correlations, including superluminal causal influences, superdeterminism (that is, a denial of freedom of choice of settings), and retrocausal influences which do not introduce causal cycles.Comment: 29 pages, 28 figs. New in v2: a section presenting in detail our characterization of Bell's theorem as a contradiction arising from (i) the framework of causal models, (ii) the principle of no fine-tuning, and (iii) certain operational features of quantum theory; a section explaining why a denial of hidden variables affords even fewer opportunities for causal explanations of quantum correlation