Effects of Microstructure on the Strain Rate Sensitivity of Advanced Steels

The dependence of the strain rate sensitivity of advanced ~1 GPa tensile strength steels on the phases present in their microstructures was studied by testing different steels at 0.005 and 500 s−1. The high strain rate tests were performed using a Kolsky bar setup, while the quasi-static tests were performed using a universal testing machine. The two main steels of interest were the Ferrite-Martensite DP980 and the Ferrite-Martensite-Austenite QP980; the latter being a transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) assisted steel. For comparison, ferritic CR5 mild steel and austenitic stainless steel 201 were also tested under the same conditions. Though the differences in the steel chemistries were not taken into account, the results obtained here suggest a strong relationship between the phase-content of the steel and its response to the changes in the loading rate. The relationships between the observed mechanical behavior and the phases present in the microstructure are discussed

Evidence of sound production by spawning lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in lakes Huron and Champlain

Two sounds associated with spawning lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in lakes Huron and Champlain were characterized by comparing sound recordings with behavioral data collected using acoustic telemetry and video. These sounds were named “growls” and “snaps” and were heard on lake trout spawning reefs, but not on a nonspawning reef, and were more common at night than during the day. Growls also occurred more often during the spawning period than the prespawning period, while the trend for snaps was reversed. In a laboratory flume, sounds occurred when male lake trout were displaying spawning behaviors: growls when males were quivering and parallel swimming and snaps when males moved their jaw. Combining our results with the observation of possible sound production by spawning splake (Salvelinus fontinalis × Salvelinus namaycush hybrid) provides rare evidence for spawning-related sound production by a salmonid or any other fish in the superorder Protacanthopterygii. Further characterization of these sounds could be useful for lake trout assessment, restoration, and control

The p.Arg435His Variation of IgG3 With High Affinity to FcRn Is Associated With Susceptibility for Pemphigus Vulgaris—Analysis of Four Different Ethnic Cohorts

IgG3 is the IgG subclass with the strongest effector functions among all four IgG subclasses and the highest degree of allelic variability among all constant immunoglobulin genes. Due to its genetic position, IgG3 is often the first isotype an antibody switches to before IgG1 or IgG4. Compared with the other IgG subclasses, it has a reduced half-life which is probably connected to a decreased affinity to the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn). However, a few allelic variants harbor an amino acid replacement of His435 to Arg that reverts the half-life of the resulting IgG3 to the same level as the other IgG subclasses. Because of its functional impact, we hypothesized that the p.Arg435His variation could be associated with susceptibility to autoantibody-mediated diseases like pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and bullous pemphigoid (BP). Using a set of samples from German, Turkish, Egyptian, and Iranian patients and controls, we were able to demonstrate a genetic association of the p.Arg435His variation with PV risk, but not with BP risk. Our results suggest a hitherto unknown role for the function of IgG3 in the pathogenesis of PV

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Identification of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush spawning habitat in northern Lake Huron using high-resolution satellite imagery

© 2015 International Association for Great Lakes Research. The availability and quality of spawning habitat may limit lake trout recovery in the Great Lakes, but comprehensive maps of current spawning habitats are unavailable at the basin scale. Current methods used to identify lake trout spawning locations are time- and labor-intensive and spatially limited. Due to the observation that some lake trout spawning sites are relatively clean of overlaying algae compared to adjacent areas not used for spawning, we hypothesized that spawning sites could be identified using satellite imagery. Satellite imagery collected just before and after the spawning season in 2013 was used to assess whether lake trout spawning habitat could be identified based on its spectral characteristics. Results indicated that Pléiades high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery can be successfully used to estimate the vegetative cover of substrates and temporal changes in vegetative coverage, and that models developed from processed imagery can be used to identify potential shallow water lake trout spawning sites based on comparison of sites where lake trout eggs were and were not observed after spawning. Satellite imagery is a new potential tool for identifying nearshore lake trout spawning habitat across broad areas of the Great Lakes

Exercise Oscillatory Ventilation: Interreviewer Agreement and a Novel Determination

INTRODUCTION: Determination of exercise oscillatory ventilation (EOV) is subjective, and the interreviewer agreement has not been reported. The purposes of this study were, among patients with heart failure (HF), as follows: 1) to determine the interreviewer agreement for EOV and 2) to describe a novel, objective, and quantifiable measure of EOV. METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of the HEART Camp: Promoting Adherence to Exercise in Patients with Heart Failure study. EOV was determined through a blinded review by six individuals on the basis of their interpretation of the EOV literature. Interreviewer agreement was assessed using Fleiss kappa (κ). Final determination of EOV was based on agreement by four of the six reviewers. A new measure (ventilation dispersion index; VDI) was calculated for each test, and its ability to predict EOV was assessed with the receiver operator characteristics curve. RESULTS: Among 243 patients with HF (age, 60 ± 12 yr; 45% women), the interreviewer agreement for EOV was fair (κ = 0.303) with 10-s discrete data averages and significantly better, but only moderate (κ = 0.429) with 30-s rolling data averages. Prevalence rates of positive and indeterminate EOVs were 18% and 30% with the 10-s discrete averages and 14% and 13% with the 30-s rolling averages, respectively. VDI was strongly associated with EOV, with areas under the receiver operator characteristics curve of 0.852 to 0.890. CONCLUSIONS: Interreviewer agreement for EOV in patients with HF is fair to moderate, which can negatively affect risk stratification. VDI has strong predictive validity with EOV; as such, it might be a useful measure of prognosis in patients with HF

Evidence of sound production by spawning lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in lakes Huron and Champlain

Two sounds associated with spawning lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in lakes Huron and Champlain were characterized by comparing sound recordings to behavioral data collected using acoustic telemetry and video. These sounds were named growls and snaps, and were heard on lake trout spawning reefs, but not on a non-spawning reef, and were more common at night than during the day. Growls also occurred more often during the spawning period than the pre-spawning period, while the trend for snaps was reversed. In a laboratory flume, sounds occurred when male lake trout were displaying spawning behaviors; growls when males were quivering and parallel swimming, and snaps when males moved their jaw. Combining our results with the observation of possible sound production by spawning splake (Salvelinus fontinalis Ă Salvelinus namaycush hybrid), provides rare evidence for spawning-related sound production by a salmonid, or any other fish in the superorder Protacanthopterygii. Further characterization of these sounds could be useful for lake trout assessment, restoration, and control.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Encapsulation of a Nerve Agent Detoxifying Enzyme by a Mesoporous Zirconium Metal–Organic Framework Engenders Thermal and Long-Term Stability

Immobilized enzymes typically have greater thermal and operational stability than their soluble form. Here we report that for the first time, a nerve agent detoxifying enzyme, organophosphorus acid anhydrolase (OPAA), has been successfully encapsulated into a water-stable zirconium metal–organic framework (MOF). This MOF features a hierarchical mesoporous channel structure and exhibits a 12 wt % loading capacity of OPAA. The thermal and long-term stabilities of OPAA are both significantly enhanced after immobilization