Strain in GaAs by low-dose ion implantation

The production of strain in (100) GaAs by low-dose ion implantation has been investigated. Implantations were conducted at room temperature with ions of He, B, C, Ne, Si, P, and Te. Energies were between 100 and 500 keV, and each species was implanted over a range of doses sufficient to create perpendicular strain below 0.3%. The perpendicular strains epsilon [perpendicular] were measured by x-ray double-crystal diffractometry about the (400) Bragg condition. Detailed depth profiles of epsilon[perpendicular] were obtained by fitting the resulting rocking curves with a kinematic model for the diffraction. For all implantations the maximum in the epsilon[perpendicular] distribution was found approximately from the separation of the lowest-angle prominent oscillation from the substrate peak. The depth profiles of perpendicular strain had the same shape as the calculated profiles of energy deposited per ion by nuclear collisions, FD. The maximum perpendicular strains scaled linearly with the dose phi of the implanted ions for all ion species. Also the ratio of maximum strain to dose was found to vary linearly with FD over more than 2 orders of magnitude in FD. We therefore conclude that epsilon[perpendicular]=KphiFD at all depths, where K is a constant. The value of K was found to be (5±1)×10^−2 Å^3/eV. Our results suggest that this holds for any ion species in the mass range 4–128 amu, with energy in the hundreds of keV, implanted into (100) GaAs at room temperature, provided the maximum strain is less than 0.3%

Transcription of Insulin-like Growth Factor Receptor in Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) Ovary during Oogenesis

Abstract In the present study, we examined the insulin-like growth factor receptor 1(IGF-1R) transcription using real-time PCR at different stages of oocytes of Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) at age 8-9 years and weight 25 kg that were grown under aquaculture conditions. Compare to the pre-vitellogenesis stage, the transcription of IGF-1R increased at the vitellogenesis stages (yellow, gray and black). The mRNA of IGF-1R of oocytes in the black stage is significantly higher than in the gray or yellow stages. However, there are no significant differences between the gray or yellow stages of the mRNA level. Based on previous studies and the result of the mRNA of IGF-1R of oocytes during oogenesis, we proposed a model for the effect of GH, IGF-1 and IGF-1R on the oogenesis of Russian sturgeon, which is a very important process for creating caviar

'Heaven starts at your parents' feet' : adolescent bowing to parents and associated spiritual attitudes

In a quantitative survey of religious attitudes and practices in a multi-religious sample of 369 school pupils aged between 13 and 15 in London, the practice of bowing to parents was found widespread in 22% of adolescents spanning several religious affiliations and ethnicities – especially Buddhists, Hindus and those of Indian, African and ‘Other Asian’ ethnicity. Whether an adolescent bowed correlated significantly with spiritual attitudes such as wanting to abstain from alcohol, hearing religious stories, being inspired by religious festivals and liking the idea of seeing God in everything. Findings suggest bowing to parents can have religious significance on all three levels of Jackson’s Interpretive Approach and therefore cannot be regarded as a ‘cultural accretion’ of religion. Study of bowing to parents could form a unifying exercise in shared values for study of religion in the plural classroom and facilitate community cohesion in certain religious membership groups

Highly efficient broadband conversion of light polarization by composite retarders

Driving on an analogy with the technique of composite pulses in quantum physics, we propose highly efficient broadband polarization converters composed of sequences of ordinary retarders rotated at specific angles with respect to their fast-polarization axes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; check JOSA A 201

Adults with Cerebral Palsy have Higher Prevalence of Fracture Compared with Adults Without Cerebral Palsy Independent of Osteoporosis and Cardiometabolic Diseases

Individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) have an increased risk of fracture throughout their lifespan based on an underdeveloped musculoskeletal system, excess body fat, diminished mechanical loading, and early development of noncommunicable diseases. However, the epidemiology of fracture among adults with CP is unknown. The purpose of this cross‐sectional study was to determine the prevalence of fracture among a large sample of privately insured adults with CP, as compared with adults without CP. Data were from the Optum Clinformatics Data Mart (Eden Prairie, MN, USA), a deidentified nationwide claims database of beneficiaries from a single private payer. Diagnostic codes were used to identify 18‐ to 64‐year‐old beneficiaries with and without CP and any fracture that consisted of osteoporotic pathological fracture as well as any type of fracture of the head/neck, thoracic, lumbar/pelvic, upper extremity, and lower extremity regions. The prevalence of any fracture was compared between adults with (n = 5,555) and without (n = 5.5 million) CP. Multivariable logistic regression was performed with all‐cause fracture as the outcome and CP group as the primary exposure. Adults with CP had a higher prevalence of all‐cause fracture (6.3% and 2.7%, respectively) and fracture of the head/neck, thoracic, lumbar/pelvic, upper extremity, and lower extremity regions compared with adults without CP (all p < 0.01). After adjusting for sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables, adults with CP had higher odds of all‐cause fracture compared with adults without CP (OR 2.5; 95% CI, 2.2 to 2.7). After further adjusting for cardiometabolic diseases, adults with CP had higher odds of all‐cause fracture compared with adults without CP (OR 2.2; 95% CI, 2.0 to 2.5). After further adjusting for osteoporosis, adults with CP still had higher odds of all‐cause fracture compared with adults without CP (OR 2.0; 95% CI, 1.8 to 2.2). These findings suggest that young and middle‐aged adults with CP have an elevated prevalence of all‐cause fracture compared with adults without CP, which was present even after accounting for cardiometabolic diseases and osteoporosis. © 2019 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150537/1/jbmr3694_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150537/2/jbmr3694.pd

Harnessing the immune system in the battle against breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignancy in women and the second most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Despite major innovations in early detection and advanced therapeutics, up to 30% of women with nodenegative breast cancer and 70% of women with node-positive breast cancer will develop recurrence. The recognition that breast tumors are infiltrated by a complex array of immune cells that influence their development, progression, and metastasis, as well as their responsiveness to systemic therapies has sparked major interest in the development of immunotherapies. In fact, not only the native host immune system can be altered to promote potent antitumor response, but also its components can be manipulated to generate effective therapeutic strategies. We present here a review of the major approaches to immunotherapy in breast cancers, both successes and failures, as well as new therapies on the horizon

Using built environment characteristics to predict walking for exercise

Background: Environments conducive to walking may help people avoid sedentary lifestyles and associated diseases. Recent studies developed walkability models combining several built environment characteristics to optimally predict walking. Developing and testing such models with the same data could lead to overestimating one's ability to predict walking in an independent sample of the population. More accurate estimates of model fit can be obtained by splitting a single study population into training and validation sets (holdout approach) or through developing and evaluating models in different populations. We used these two approaches to test whether built environment characteristics near the home predict walking for exercise. Study participants lived in western Washington State and were adult members of a health maintenance organization. The physical activity data used in this study were collected by telephone interview and were selected for their relevance to cardiovascular disease. In order to limit confounding by prior health conditions, the sample was restricted to participants in good self-reported health and without a documented history of cardiovascular disease. Results: For 1,608 participants meeting the inclusion criteria, the mean age was 64 years, 90 percent were white, 37 percent had a college degree, and 62 percent of participants reported that they walked for exercise. Single built environment characteristics, such as residential density or connectivity, did not significantly predict walking for exercise. Regression models using multiple built environment characteristics to predict walking were not successful at predicting walking for exercise in an independent population sample. In the validation set, none of the logistic models had a C-statistic confidence interval excluding the null value of 0.5, and none of the linear models explained more than one percent of the variance in time spent walking for exercise. We did not detect significant differences in walking for exercise among census areas or postal codes, which were used as proxies for neighborhoods. Conclusion: None of the built environment characteristics significantly predicted walking for exercise, nor did combinations of these characteristics predict walking for exercise when tested using a holdout approach. These results reflect a lack of neighborhood-level variation in walking for exercise for the population studied.University of Washington Royalty Research fund award; by contracts R01-HL043201, R01-HL068639, and T32-HL07902 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; and by grant R01-AG09556 from the National Institute on Aging

Discovery of an unrecognized nidovirus associated with granulomatous hepatitis in rainbow trout

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is the principal species of inland-farmed fish in the Western hemisphere. Recently, we diagnosed in farmed rainbow trout a disease in which the hallmark is granulomatous-like hepatitis. No biotic agents could be isolated from lesions. Still, unbiased high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analyses revealed the presence of a novel piscine nidovirus that we named “Trout Granulomatous Virus” (TGV). TGV genome (28,767 nucleotides long) is predicted to encode non-structural (1a and 1 ab) and structural (S, M, and N) proteins that resemble proteins of other known piscine nidoviruses. High loads of TGV transcripts were detected by quantitative RT-PCR in diseased fish and visualized in hepatic granulomatous sites by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed coronavirus-like particles in these lesions. Together, these analyses corroborated the association of TGV with the lesions. The identification and detection of TGV provide means to control TGV spread in trout populations

Treatment patterns and clinical outcomes for patients with de novo versus recurrent HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer

Improvements in screening and adjuvant therapy for breast cancer are associated with decreased recurrence, which may have the effect of increasing the proportion of patients presenting with first-line de novo versus recurrent metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Here, we describe and compare patients with de novo versus recurrent human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2)-positive MBC. registHER was a prospective observational cohort study (late 2003–early 2006) of 1,023 patients with HER2-positive MBC. Baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and clinical outcomes were examined in patients with newly diagnosed de novo (n = 327) compared with recurrent HER2-positive MBC after prior treatment for early-stage disease (n = 674). Patients with de novo HER2-positive MBC were less likely to have lung metastases, more likely to have lymph node, bone, and/or liver metastases and >4 sites of metastases and more likely to receive combined or concurrent chemotherapy and hormonal therapy with or without trastuzumab than those with recurrent HER2-positive MBC. Median follow-up was 29 months. Median progression-free survival was 12.1 versus 9.3 months [hazard ratio = 0.716 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.617–0.831)], and overall survival was 41.7 versus 32.8 months [hazard ratio = 0.766 (95 % CI 0.633–0.928)] for patients with de novo versus recurrent HER2-positive MBC, respectively. Patients with recurrent HER2-positive MBC had similar outcomes regardless of whether they received prior adjuvant therapy, excluding hormonal therapy. Despite presenting with more advanced-stage disease and higher tumor burdens, patients with de novo HER2-positive MBC have more favorable clinical outcomes than those with recurrent HER2-positive MBC. These differences may be due to effects of prior drug exposure and could have implications for designing and interpreting clinical trials