Diapause in the Boll Weevil, Anthonontus grandis Boheman, As Related to Fruiting Activity in the Cotton Plant

Studies in Arkansas show that boll weevil diapause is related to changes in fruiting activity of the cotton plant. Generally, when larval development took place while fruiting levels were increasing or being held at a high level, diapause in resulting adults was low (0-20%). Diapause was approximately 20-50% when larval development coincided with decreasing fruiting levels, and was 50-100% as true cut-out approached. Regrowth cotton generally lowered diapause incidence and as fruiting levels decreased, diapause increased. Therefore, the boll weevil not only responds to short photoperiods that are characteristic during the fall in the temperate zone, but also may respond throughout the season to changes in fruiting activity of the cotton plant

A Portable, Low-Cost Wheelchair Ergometer Design Based on a Mathematical Model of Pediatric Wheelchair Dynamics

Evaluation and training of wheelchair propulsion improves efficiency and prevents orthopaedic injury in pediatric manual wheelchair users. Ergometers allow static propulsion and emulate typical conditions. Currently available ergometers have deficiencies that limit their use in motion analysis. A new ergometer is developed and evaluated based on a model of wheelchair inertial dynamics that eliminates these deficiencies. This makes integrated motion analysis of wheelchair propulsion in current community, home, and international outreach efforts possible

A Quantitative Sequencing Framework for Absolute Abundance Measurements of Mucosal and Lumenal Microbial Communities

A fundamental goal in microbiome studies is determining which microbes affect host physiology. Standard methods for determining changes in microbial taxa measure relative, rather than absolute abundances. Moreover, studies often analyze only stool, despite microbial diversity differing substantially among gastrointestinal (GI) locations. Here, we develop a quantitative framework to measure absolute abundances of individual bacterial taxa by combining the precision of digital PCR with the high-throughput nature of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. In a murine ketogenic-diet study, we compare microbial loads in lumenal and mucosal samples along the GI tract. Quantitative measurements of absolute (but not relative) abundances reveal decreases in total microbial loads on the ketogenic diet and enable us to determine the differential effects of diet on each taxon in stool and small-intestine mucosa samples. This rigorous quantitative microbial analysis framework, appropriate for diverse GI locations enables mapping microbial biogeography of the mammalian GI tract and more accurate analyses of changes in microbial taxa in microbiome studies

Evaluation of Upper Extremity Movement Characteristics during Standardized Pediatric Functional Assessment with a Kinect®-based Markerless Motion Analysis System

A recently developed and evaluated upper extremity (UE) markerless motion analysis system based on the Microsoft® Kinect® has potential for improving functional assessment of patients with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. 12 typically-developing adolescents ages 12-17 were evaluated using both the Kinect-based system and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Upper Extremity Evaluation (SHUEE), a validated measure of UE motion. The study established population means of UE kinematic parameters for each activity. Statistical correlation analysis was used to identify key kinematic metrics used to develop automatic scoring algorithms. The Kinect motion analysis platform is technically sound and can be applied to standardized task-based UE evaluation while providing enhanced sensitivity in clinical analysis and automation through scoring algorithms

Generation of maximally entangled states with sub-luminal Lorentz boost

Recent work has studied entanglement between the spin and momentum components of a single spin-1/2 particle and showed that maximal entanglement is obtained only when boosts approach the speed of light. Here we extend the boost scenario to general geometries and show that, intriguingly, maximal entanglement can be achieved with boosts less than the speed of light. Boosts approaching the speed of light may even decrease entanglement. We also provide a geometric explanation for this behavior

Monophotonic Ionization of 7-Azaindole, Indole, and Their Derivatives and the Role of Overlapping Excited States

7-Azaindole undergoes monophotonic ionization just as its counterpart, indole. This result suggests that 7-azaindole is qualitatively more similar to indole than has previously been recognized. The appearance of the solvated electron for zwitterionic and anionic 7-azatryptophan and for 7-azaindole in water and methanol is complete within 1 ps, which indicates that the fluorescent state whose lifetime is \u3elo0 ps cannot be the source of the electron. The origin of the electron is related to the presence of closely spaced or overlapping excited states in 7-azaindole, which is another similarity that this chromophore bears with respect to indole. The fluorescence quantum yield of 7-azaindole is shown to be excitation wavelength dependent. The excitation-wavelength dependence and the temperaturedependence of the fluorescence quantum yield of 7-azaindole are explored and related to the production of the solvated electron. The implications of these observations for the use of 7-azatryptophan as an alternative to tryptophan as a probe of protein structure and dynamics are discussed

Rituximab induced pulmonary edema managed with extracorporeal life support

Though rare, rituximab has been reported to induce severe pulmonary edema. We describe the first report of ECLS utilization for this indication. A 31-year-old female with severe thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura developed florid pulmonary edema after rituximab infusion. Despite advanced ventilatory settings, she developed severe respiratory acidosis and remained hypoxemic with a significant vasopressor requirement. Since her pulmonary insult was likely transient, ECLS was considered. Due to combined cardiorespiratory failure, she received support with peripheral venoarterial ECLS. During her ECLS course, she received daily plasmapheresis and high dose steroids. Her pulmonary function recovered and she was decannulated after 8 days. She was discharged after 23 days without residual sequelae

Probing Solvation by Alcohols and Water with 7-Azaindole

The nonradiative pathways of 7-azaindole are extremely sensitive to solvent. In alcohols, 7-azaindole executes an excited-state double-proton transfer. In water, this tautomerization is frustrated. Proton inventory experiments suggest a concerted double-proton transfer in the alcohols and point to another nonradiative process in water. We propose the following idealized picture. Whereas at room temperature 7-azaindole can form a cyclic hydrogen-bonded intermediate with a single alcohol molecule facilitating tautomerization, in water more than one solvent molecule coordinates to the solute and thus prohibits the concerted process. More detailed measurements, however, indicate that water and alcohols do not solvate 7-azaindole in fundamentally different ways, but rather that they represent two extremes of the same phenomenon

Coherent transport in graphene nanoconstrictions

We study the effect of a structural nanoconstriction on the coherent transport properties of otherwise ideal zig-zag-edged infinitely long graphene ribbons. The electronic structure is calculated with the standard one-orbital tight-binding model and the linear conductance is obtained using the Landauer formula. We find that, since the zero-bias current is carried in the bulk of the ribbon, this is very robust with respect to a variety of constriction geometries and edge defects. In contrast, the curve of zero-bias conductance versus gate voltage departs from the $(2n+1) e^2/h$ staircase of the ideal case as soon as a single atom is removed from the sample. We also find that wedge-shaped constrictions can present non-conducting states fully localized in the constriction close to the Fermi energy. The interest of these localized states in regards the formation of quantum dots in graphene is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure