X-Ray Measurement of Material Properties in Composites

Advanced materials for use in the aerospace industry are presently being developed and applied at an astonishing rate. This pace is driven by the need for materials that can withstand higher operating temperatures and loads, yet remain cost competitive. As the performance demands of aerospace materials push nearer and nearer the theoretical limit for strength, the allowed flaw size in traditional materials is driven smaller, making quality control more stringent. This demand for improved performance characteristics is also generating strong interest in other materials such as: exotic alloys, ceramics and reinforced composites. A need exists for characterizing these advanced materials for composition variations, flaw content, inclusions and porosity using nondestructive techniques at all stages of the materials life cycle. These stages include initial characterization of a new material, process control during the manufacturing of the material, quality control of incoming material, and the in service inspection of the final part

The novel CXCR4 antagonist POL5551 mobilizes hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells with greater efficiency than Plerixafor

Mobilized blood has supplanted bone marrow (BM) as the primary source of hematopoietic stem cells for autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Pharmacologically enforced egress of hematopoietic stem cells from BM, or mobilization, has been achieved by directly or indirectly targeting the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis. Shortcomings of the standard mobilizing agent, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), administered alone or in combination with the only approved CXCR4 antagonist, Plerixafor, continue to fuel the quest for new mobilizing agents. Using Protein Epitope Mimetics technology, a novel peptidic CXCR4 antagonist, POL5551, was developed. In vitro data presented herein indicate high affinity to and specificity for CXCR4. POL5551 exhibited rapid mobilization kinetics and unprecedented efficiency in C57BL/6 mice, exceeding that of Plerixafor and at higher doses also of G-CSF. POL5551-mobilized stem cells demonstrated adequate transplantation properties. In contrast to G-CSF, POL5551 did not induce major morphological changes in the BM of mice. Moreover, we provide evidence of direct POL5551 binding to hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) in vivo, strengthening the hypothesis that CXCR4 antagonists mediate mobilization by direct targeting of HSPCs. In summary, POL5551 is a potent mobilizing agent for HSPCs in mice with promising therapeutic potential if these data can be orroborated in humans

Cytotoxic polyfunctionality maturation of cytomegalovirus-pp65-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T-cell responses in older adults positively correlates with response size

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is one of the most common persistent viral infections in humans worldwide and is epidemiologically associated with many adverse health consequences during aging. Previous studies yielded conflicting results regarding whether large, CMV-specific T-cell expansions maintain their function during human aging. In the current study, we examined the in vitro CMV-pp65-reactive T-cell response by comprehensively studying five effector functions (i.e., interleukin-2, tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, perforin, and CD107a expression) in 76 seropositive individuals aged 70 years or older. Two data-driven, polyfunctionality panels (IL-2-associated and cytotoxicity-associated) derived from effector function co-expression patterns were used to analyze the results. We found that, CMV-pp65-reactive CD8 + and CD4 + T cells contained similar polyfunctional subsets, and the level of polyfunctionality was related to the size of antigen-specific response. In both CD8 + and CD4 + cells, polyfunctional cells with high cytotoxic potential accounted for a larger proportion of the total response as the total response size increased. Notably, a higher serum CMV-IgG level was positively associated with a larger T-cell response size and a higher level of cytotoxic polyfunctionality. These findings indicate that CMV-pp65-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cell undergo simultaneous cytotoxic polyfunctionality maturation during aging

A habituation account of change detection in same/different judgments

We investigated the basis of change detection in a short-term priming task. In two experiments, participants were asked to indicate whether or not a target word was the same as a previously presented cue. Data from an experiment measuring magnetoencephalography failed to find different patterns for “same” and “different” responses, consistent with the claim that both arise from a common neural source, with response magnitude defining the difference between immediate novelty versus familiarity. In a behavioral experiment, we tested and confirmed the predictions of a habituation account of these judgments by comparing conditions in which the target, the cue, or neither was primed by its presentation in the previous trial. As predicted, cue-primed trials had faster response times, and target-primed trials had slower response times relative to the neither-primed baseline. These results were obtained irrespective of response repetition and stimulus–response contingencies. The behavioral and brain activity data support the view that detection of change drives performance in these tasks and that the underlying mechanism is neuronal habituation

Coefficients of Wronskian Hermite polynomials

We study Wronskians of Hermite polynomials labeled by partitions and use the combinatorial concepts of cores and quotients to derive explicit expressions for their coefficients. These coefficients can be expressed in terms of the characters of irreducible representations of the symmetric group, and also in terms of hook lengths. Further, we derive the asymptotic behavior of the Wronskian Hermite polynomials when the length of the core tends to infinity, while fixing the quotient. Via this combinatorial setting, we obtain in a natural way the generalization of the correspondence between Hermite and Laguerre polynomials to Wronskian Hermite polynomials and Wronskians involving Laguerre polynomials. Lastly, we generalize most of our results to polynomials that have zeros on the p‐sta

Systematic review of prognostic models in traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability world-wide. The ability to accurately predict patient outcome after TBI has an important role in clinical practice and research. Prognostic models are statistical models that combine two or more items of patient data to predict clinical outcome. They may improve predictions in TBI patients. Multiple prognostic models for TBI have accumulated for decades but none of them is widely used in clinical practice. The objective of this systematic review is to critically assess existing prognostic models for TBI METHODS: Studies that combine at least two variables to predict any outcome in patients with TBI were searched in PUBMED and EMBASE. Two reviewers independently examined titles, abstracts and assessed whether each met the pre-defined inclusion criteria. RESULTS: A total of 53 reports including 102 models were identified. Almost half (47%) were derived from adult patients. Three quarters of the models included less than 500 patients. Most of the models (93%) were from high income countries populations. Logistic regression was the most common analytical strategy to derived models (47%). In relation to the quality of the derivation models (n:66), only 15% reported less than 10% pf loss to follow-up, 68% did not justify the rationale to include the predictors, 11% conducted an external validation and only 19% of the logistic models presented the results in a clinically user-friendly way CONCLUSION: Prognostic models are frequently published but they are developed from small samples of patients, their methodological quality is poor and they are rarely validated on external populations. Furthermore, they are not clinically practical as they are not presented to physicians in a user-friendly way. Finally because only a few are developed using populations from low and middle income countries, where most of trauma occurs, the generalizability to these setting is limited

Mycobacterium indicus pranii Supernatant Induces Apoptotic Cell Death in Mouse Peritoneal Macrophages In Vitro

Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP), also known as Mw, is a saprophytic, non-pathogenic strain of Mycobacterium and is commercially available as a heat-killed vaccine for leprosy and recently tuberculosis (TB) as part of MDT. In this study we provide evidence that cell-free supernatant collected from original MIP suspension induces rapid and enhanced apoptosis in mouse peritoneal macrophages in vitro. It is demonstrated that the MIP cell-free supernatant induced apoptosis is mitochondria-mediated and caspase independent and involves mitochondrial translocation of Bax and subsequent release of AIF and cytochrome c from the mitochondria. Experiments with pharmacological inhibitors suggest a possible role of PKC in mitochondria-mediated apoptosis of macrophages

Cold-water coral distributions in the Drake Passage area from towed camera observations – initial interpretations

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 6 (2011): e16153, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016153.Seamounts are unique deep-sea features that create habitats thought to have high levels of endemic fauna, productive fisheries and benthic communities vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. Many seamounts are isolated features, occurring in the high seas, where access is limited and thus biological data scarce. There are numerous seamounts within the Drake Passage (Southern Ocean), yet high winds, frequent storms and strong currents make seafloor sampling particularly difficult. As a result, few attempts to collect biological data have been made, leading to a paucity of information on benthic habitats or fauna in this area, particularly those on primarily hard-bottom seamounts and ridges. During a research cruise in 2008 six locations were examined (two on the Antarctic margin, one on the Shackleton Fracture Zone, and three on seamounts within the Drake Passage), using a towed camera with onboard instruments to measure conductivity, temperature, depth and turbidity. Dominant fauna and bottom type were categorized from 200 randomized photos from each location. Cold-water corals were present in high numbers in habitats both on the Antarctic margin and on the current swept seamounts of the Drake Passage, though the diversity of orders varied. Though the Scleractinia (hard corals) were abundant on the sedimented margin, they were poorly represented in the primarily hard-bottom areas of the central Drake Passage. The two seamount sites and the Shackleton Fracture Zone showed high numbers of stylasterid (lace) and alcyonacean (soft) corals, as well as large numbers of sponges. Though data are preliminary, the geological and environmental variability (particularly in temperature) between sample sites may be influencing cold-water coral biogeography in this region. Each area observed also showed little similarity in faunal diversity with other sites examined for this study within all phyla counted. This manuscript highlights how little is understood of these isolated features, particularly in Polar regions.This work was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Earth Sciences Program (ANT0636787 awarded to LFR and RGW) and a CenSeam minigrant (awarded to RGW), and RGW is supported by a SOEST Young Investigator Fellowship from the University of Hawaii at Manoa