Arctic sea-ice melt in 2008 and the role of solar heating

There has been a marked decline in the summer extent of Arctic sea ice over the past few decades. Data from autonomous ice mass-balance buoys can enhance our understanding of this decline. These buoys monitor changes in snow deposition and ablation, ice growth, and ice surface and bottom melt. Results from the summer of 2008 showed considerable large-scale spatial variability in the amount of surface and bottom melt. Small amounts of melting were observed north of Greenland, while melting in the southern Beaufort Sea was quite large. Comparison of net solar heat input to the ice and heat required for surface ablation showed only modest correlation. However, there was a strong correlation between solar heat input to the ocean and bottom melting. As the ice concentration in the Beaufort Sea region decreased, there was an increase in solar heat to the ocean and an increase in bottom melting

Efficacy of Ketamine in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders: A Systematic Review

Background: Despite advances in behavioral and pharmacotherapy interventions, substance use disorders (SUDs) are frequently refractory to treatment. Glutamatergic dysregulation has received increasing attention as one common neuropathology across multiple substances of abuse. Ketamine is a potent N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamatergic receptor antagonist which has been found to be effective in the treatment of severe depression. Here we review the literature on the efficacy of ketamine in the treatment of SUDs.Methods: A systematic review of the PubMed, Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases was undertaken to identify completed and ongoing human studies of the effectiveness of ketamine in the treatment of SUDs between January 1997 and January 2018.Results and conclusion: Seven completed studies were identified. Two studies focused on alcohol use disorder, two focused on cocaine use disorder, and three focused on opioid use disorder. Both cocaine studies found improvements in craving, motivation, and decreased cocaine use rates, although studies were limited by small sample sizes, a homogeneous population and short follow-up. Studies of alcohol and opioid use disorders found improvement in abstinence rates in the ketamine group, with significant between-group effects noted for up to two years following a single infusion, although these were not placebo-controlled trials. These results suggest that ketamine may facilitate abstinence across multiple substances of abuse and warrants broader investigation in addiction treatment. We conclude with an overview of the six ongoing studies of ketamine in the treatment of alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, and opioid use disorders and discuss future directions in this emerging area of research

Treatment outcomes of new tuberculosis patients hospitalized in Kampala, Uganda: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: In most resource limited settings, new tuberculosis (TB) patients are usually treated as outpatients. We sought to investigate the reasons for hospitalisation and the predictors of poor treatment outcomes and mortality in a cohort of hospitalized new TB patients in Kampala, Uganda. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Ninety-six new TB patients hospitalised between 2003 and 2006 were enrolled and followed for two years. Thirty two were HIV-uninfected and 64 were HIV-infected. Among the HIV-uninfected, the commonest reasons for hospitalization were low Karnofsky score (47%) and need for diagnostic evaluation (25%). HIV-infected patients were commonly hospitalized due to low Karnofsky score (72%), concurrent illness (16%) and diagnostic evaluation (14%). Eleven HIV uninfected patients died (mortality rate 19.7 per 100 person-years) while 41 deaths occurred among the HIV-infected patients (mortality rate 46.9 per 100 person years). In all patients an unsuccessful treatment outcome (treatment failure, death during the treatment period or an unknown outcome) was associated with duration of TB symptoms, with the odds of an unsuccessful outcome decreasing with increasing duration. Among HIV-infected patients, an unsuccessful treatment outcome was also associated with male sex (P = 0.004) and age (P = 0.034). Low Karnofsky score (aHR = 8.93, 95% CI 1.88 - 42.40, P = 0.001) was the only factor significantly associated with mortality among the HIV-uninfected. Mortality among the HIV-infected was associated with the composite variable of CD4 and ART use, with patients with baseline CD4 below 200 cells/µL who were not on ART at a greater risk of death than those who were on ART, and low Karnofsky score (aHR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.02 - 4.01, P = 0.045). CONCLUSION: Poor health status is a common cause of hospitalisation for new TB patients. Mortality in this study was very high and associated with advanced HIV Disease and no use of ART

SMC-Last Extracted Photometry

We present point-source photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope's final survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We mapped nearly 30 deg2 in two epochs in 2017, with the second extending to early 2018 at 3.6 and 4.5 μm using the Infrared Array Camera. This survey duplicates the footprint from the SAGE-SMC program in 2008. Together, these surveys cover a nearly 10 yr temporal baseline in the SMC. We performed aperture photometry on the mosaicked maps produced from the new data. We did not use any prior catalogs as inputs for the extractor in order to be sensitive to any moving objects (e.g., foreground brown dwarfs) and other transient phenomena (e.g., cataclysmic variables or FU Ori–type eruptions). We produced a point-source catalog with high-confidence sources for each epoch as well as a combined-epoch catalog. For each epoch and the combined-epoch data, we also produced a more complete archive with lower-confidence sources. All of these data products will be made available to the community at the Infrared Science Archive

Slow progressors to type 1 diabetes lose islet autoantibodies over time, have few islet antigen-specific CD8+ T cells and exhibit a distinct CD95hi B cell phenotype

ims/hypothesis The aim of this study was to characterise islet autoantibody profiles and immune cell phenotypes in slow progressors to type 1 diabetes. Methods Immunological variables were compared across peripheral blood samples obtained from slow progressors to type 1 diabetes, individuals with newly diagnosed or long-standing type 1 diabetes, and healthy individuals. Polychromatic flow cytometry was used to characterise the phenotypic attributes of B and T cells. Islet autoantigen-specific B cells were quantified using an enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay and islet autoantigen-specific CD8+ T cells were quantified using peptide–HLA class I tetramers. Radioimmunoassays were used to detect islet autoantibodies. Sera were assayed for various chemokines, cytokines and soluble receptors via ELISAs. Results Islet autoantibodies were lost over time in slow progressors. Various B cell subsets expressed higher levels of CD95 in slow progressors, especially after polyclonal stimulation, compared with the corresponding B cell subsets in healthy donors (p < 0.05). The phenotypic characteristics of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were similar in slow progressors and healthy donors. Lower frequencies of CD4+ T cells with a central memory phenotype (CD27int, CD127+, CD95int) were observed in slow progressors compared with healthy donors (mean percentage of total CD4+ T cells was 3.00% in slow progressors vs 4.67% in healthy donors, p < 0.05). Autoreactive B cell responses to proinsulin were detected at higher frequencies in slow progressors compared with healthy donors (median no. of spots was 0 in healthy donors vs 24.34 in slow progressors, p < 0.05) in an ELISpot assay. Islet autoantigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses were largely absent in slow progressors and healthy donors. Serum levels of DcR3, the decoy receptor for CD95L, were elevated in slow progressors compared with healthy donors (median was 1087 pg/ml in slow progressors vs 651 pg/ml in healthy donors, p = 0.06). Conclusions/interpretation In this study, we found that slow progression to type 1 diabetes was associated with a loss of islet autoantibodies and a distinct B cell phenotype, consistent with enhanced apoptotic regulation of peripheral autoreactivity via CD95. These phenotypic changes warrant further studies in larger cohorts to determine their functional implications

Chalcogenide Glass-on-Graphene Photonics

Two-dimensional (2-D) materials are of tremendous interest to integrated photonics given their singular optical characteristics spanning light emission, modulation, saturable absorption, and nonlinear optics. To harness their optical properties, these atomically thin materials are usually attached onto prefabricated devices via a transfer process. In this paper, we present a new route for 2-D material integration with planar photonics. Central to this approach is the use of chalcogenide glass, a multifunctional material which can be directly deposited and patterned on a wide variety of 2-D materials and can simultaneously function as the light guiding medium, a gate dielectric, and a passivation layer for 2-D materials. Besides claiming improved fabrication yield and throughput compared to the traditional transfer process, our technique also enables unconventional multilayer device geometries optimally designed for enhancing light-matter interactions in the 2-D layers. Capitalizing on this facile integration method, we demonstrate a series of high-performance glass-on-graphene devices including ultra-broadband on-chip polarizers, energy-efficient thermo-optic switches, as well as graphene-based mid-infrared (mid-IR) waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators

New insights into the classification and nomenclature of cortical GABAergic interneurons.

A systematic classification and accepted nomenclature of neuron types is much needed but is currently lacking. This article describes a possible taxonomical solution for classifying GABAergic interneurons of the cerebral cortex based on a novel, web-based interactive system that allows experts to classify neurons with pre-determined criteria. Using Bayesian analysis and clustering algorithms on the resulting data, we investigated the suitability of several anatomical terms and neuron names for cortical GABAergic interneurons. Moreover, we show that supervised classification models could automatically categorize interneurons in agreement with experts' assignments. These results demonstrate a practical and objective approach to the naming, characterization and classification of neurons based on community consensus

Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) draft genome provides a platform for trait improvement

Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) is a globally significant forage legume in pastoral livestock farming systems. It is an attractive component of grassland farming, because of its high yield and protein content, nutritional value and ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Enhancing its role further in sustainable agriculture requires genetic improvement of persistency, disease resistance, and tolerance to grazing. To help address these challenges, we have assembled a chromosome-scale reference genome for red clover. We observed large blocks of conserved synteny with Medicago truncatula and estimated that the two species diverged ~23 million years ago. Among the 40,868 annotated genes, we identified gene clusters involved in biochemical pathways of importance for forage quality and livestock nutrition. Genotyping by sequencing of a synthetic population of 86 genotypes show that the number of markers required for genomics-based breeding approaches is tractable, making red clover a suitable candidate for association studies and genomic selection