Charles M. Breder, Jr.: Atlantis Expedition, 1934

Dr. Charles M. Breder participated on the 1934 expedition of the Atlantis from Woods Hole, Massachusetts to Panama and back and kept a field diary of daily activities. The Atlantis expedition of 1934, led by Prof. A. E. Parr, was a milestone in the history of scientific discovery in the Sargasso Sea and the West Indies. Although naturalists had visited the Sargasso Sea for many years, the Atlantis voyage was the first attempt to investigate in detailed quantitative manner biological problems about this varying, intermittent ‘false’ bottom of living, floating plants and associated fauna. In addition to Dr. Breder, the party also consisted of Dr. Alexander Forbes, Harvard University and Trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI); T. S. Greenwood, WHOI hydrographer; M. D. Burkenroad, Yale University’s Bingham Laboratory, carcinology and Sargasso epizoa; M. Bishop, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Zoology Dept., collections and preparations and H. Sears, WHOI ichthyologist. The itinerary included the following waypoints: Woods Hole, the Bermudas, Turks Islands, Kingston, Colon, along the Mosquito Bank off of Nicaragua, off the north coast of Jamaica, along the south coast of Cuba, Bartlett Deep, to off the Isle of Pines, through the Yucatan Channel, off Havana, off Key West, to Miami, to New York City, and then the return to Woods Hole. During the expedition, Breder collected rare and little-known flying fish species and developed a method for hatching and growing flying fish larvae. (PDF contains 48 pages

Previous attentional set can induce an attentional blink with task-irrelevant initial targets

Identification of a second target is often impaired by the requirement to process a prior target in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). This is termed the attentional blink. Even when the first target is task-irrelevant an attentional blink may occur providing this first target shares similar features with the second target (contingent capture). An RSVP experiment was undertaken to assess whether this first target can still cause an attentional blink when it did not require a response and did not share any features with the following target. The results revealed that such task-irrelevant targets can induce an attentional blink providing that they were task-relevant on a previous block of trials. This suggests that irrelevant focal stimuli can distract attention on the basis of a previous attentional set

A comparative study of adhesion of melanoma and breast cancer cells to blood and lymphatic endothelium

Background: Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is an important step in the metastatic cascade; tumor cell migration and adhesion to blood and lymphatic vessels is followed by invasion through the vessel wall and subsequent systemic spread. Although primary breast cancers and melanomas have rich blood vascular networks, LVI is predominately lymphatic in nature. Whilst the adhesion of tumor cells to blood endothelium has been extensively investigated, there is a paucity of information on tumor cell adhesion to lymphatic endothelium. Methods and Results: Breast cancer (MDA-MB-231 and MCF7) and melanoma (MeWo and SKMEL-30) cell adhesion to lymphatic (hTERT-LEC and HMVEC dLy Neo) and blood (HUVEC and hMEC-1) endothelial cells were assessed using static adhesion assays. The effect of inflammatory conditions, tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) stimulation of endothelial and tumor cells, on the adhesive process was also examined. In addition, the effects of TNF-a stimulation on tumor cell migration was investigated using haplotaxis (scratch wound) assays. Breast cancer and melanoma cells exhibited higher levels of adhesion to blood compared to lymphatic endothelial cells ( p < 0.001). TNF-a stimulation of endothelial cells, or of tumor cells alone, did not significantly alter tumor–endothelial cell adhesion or patterns.When both tumor and endothelial cells were stimulated with TNF-a, a significant increase in adhesion was observed ( p < 0.01), which was notably higher in the lymphatic cell models ( p < 0.001). TNF-a-stimulation of all tumor cell lines significantly increased their migration rate ( p < 0.01). Conclusions: Results suggest that metastasis resultant from lymphatic vessel-tumor cell adhesion may be modulated by cytokine stimulation, which could represent an important therapeutic target in breast cancer and melanoma

Enterocutaneous fistula due to mesh fixation in the repair of lateral incisional hernia: a case report

Enterocutaneous fistula following mesh repair of incisional hernia is usually due to mesh erosion of the underlying viscus and presents late. We describe an early enterocutaneous fistula due to an unusual but a potential mode of bowel injury during mesh fixation. This case is reported to emphasize the need for greater attention to the technique of mesh fixation. We suggest laparoscopic guidance to prevent this serious complication in lateral Incisional hernias with ill defined edges of the defect

Monitoring of the operating parameters of the KATRIN Windowless Gaseous Tritium Source

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment will measure the absolute mass scale of neutrinos with a sensitivity of \m_{\nu} = 200 meV/c$^2$ by high-precision spectroscopy close to the tritium beta-decay endpoint at 18.6 keV. Its Windowless Gaseous Tritium Source (WGTS) is a beta-decay source of high intensity ($10^{11}$/s) and stability, where high-purity molecular tritium at 30 K is circulated in a closed loop with a yearly throughput of 10 kg. To limit systematic effects the column density of the source has to be stabilised at the 0.1% level. This requires extensive sensor instrumentation and dedicated control and monitoring systems for parameters such as the beam tube temperature, injection pressure, gas composition and others. Here we give an overview of these systems including a dedicated Laser-Raman system as well as several beta-decay activity monitors. We also report on results of the WGTS demonstrator and other large-scale test experiments giving proof-of-principle that all parameters relevant to the systematics can be controlled and monitored on the 0.1% level or better. As a result of these works, the WGTS systematics can be controlled within stringent margins, enabling the KATRIN experiment to explore the neutrino mass scale with the design sensitivity.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures. modification to title, typos correcte

Q^2 Dependence of the S_{11}(1535) Photocoupling and Evidence for a P-wave resonance in eta electroproduction

New cross sections for the reaction $ep \to e'\eta p$ are reported for total center of mass energy $W$=1.5--2.3 GeV and invariant squared momentum transfer $Q^2$=0.13--3.3 GeV$^2$. This large kinematic range allows extraction of new information about response functions, photocouplings, and $\eta N$ coupling strengths of baryon resonances. A sharp structure is seen at $W\sim$ 1.7 GeV. The shape of the differential cross section is indicative of the presence of a $P$-wave resonance that persists to high $Q^2$. Improved values are derived for the photon coupling amplitude for the $S_{11}$(1535) resonance. The new data greatly expands the $Q^2$ range covered and an interpretation of all data with a consistent parameterization is provided.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure

A New Measurement of the Radiative Ke3 Branching Ratio and Photon Spectrum

We present a preliminary report on a new measurement of the radiative neutral Ke3 branching ratio and the first study of the photon spectrum in this decay. We find BR(Ke3g, E*_g>30 GeV, Th*_eg>20 deg)/BR(Ke3) = 0.911+-0.009(stat)+0.021-0.010(syst)%. Our measurement of the spectrum is consistent with inner bremsstrahlung only as the source of photons at the 2 sigma level.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, proceedings paper from Meson 2000, Cracow, Poland, May 200