Roses

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6397/thumbnail.jp

It Was Summer - time In Dixieland

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3798/thumbnail.jp

On The Shores Of The Delaware

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4464/thumbnail.jp

Savannah Lou

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4296/thumbnail.jp

Effect of mulberry fruit extract on glucose fluxes after a wheat porridge meal:a dual isotope study in healthy human subjects

Background: Previous research has shown the efficacy of mulberry extracts for lowering post-prandial glucose (PPG) responses. The postulated mechanism is slowing of glucose absorption, but effects on glucose disposal or endogenous production are also possible. This research assessed the effect of a specified mulberry fruit extract (MFE) on these three glucose flux parameters. Methods: The study used a double-blind, randomized, controlled, full cross-over design. In 3 counter-balanced treatments, 12 healthy adult male subjects, mean (SD) age 24.9 (2.50) years and body mass index 22.5 (1.57) kg/m2, consumed porridge prepared from 13C-labelled wheat, with or without addition of 0.75 g MFE, or a solution of 13C-glucose in water. A co-administered 2H-glucose venous infusion allowed for assessment of glucose disposal. Glucose flux parameters, cumulative absorption (time to 50% absorption, T50%abs), and PPG positive incremental area under the curve from 0 to 120 min (+iAUC0–120) were determined from total and isotopically labelled glucose in plasma. As this exploratory study was not powered for formal inferential statistical tests, results are reported as the mean percent difference (or minutes for T50%abs) between treatments with 95% CI. Results: MFE increased mean T50%abs by 10.2 min, (95% CI 3.9–16.5 min), and reduced mean 2 h post-meal rate of glucose appearance by 8.4% (95% CI −14.9 to −1.4%) and PPG + iAUC0-120 by 11% (95% CI −26.3 to −7.3%), with no significant changes in glucose disposal or endogenous production. Conclusions: The PPG-lowering effect of MFE is primarily mediated by a reduced rate of glucose uptake.</p

Accurate calibration of test mass displacement in the LIGO interferometers

We describe three fundamentally different methods we have applied to calibrate the test mass displacement actuators to search for systematic errors in the calibration of the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors. The actuation frequencies tested range from 90 Hz to 1 kHz and the actuation amplitudes range from 1e-6 m to 1e-18 m. For each of the four test mass actuators measured, the weighted mean coefficient over all frequencies for each technique deviates from the average actuation coefficient for all three techniques by less than 4%. This result indicates that systematic errors in the calibration of the responses of the LIGO detectors to differential length variations are within the stated uncertainties.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted on 31 October 2009 to Classical and Quantum Gravity for the proceedings of 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Wave

Overview of virus metagenomic classification methods and their biological applications

Metagenomics poses opportunities for clinical and public health virology applications by offering a way to assess complete taxonomic composition of a clinical sample in an unbiased way. However, the techniques required are complicated and analysis standards have yet to develop. This, together with the wealth of different tools and workflows that have been proposed, poses a barrier for new users. We evaluated 49 published computational classification workflows for virus metagenomics in a literature review. To this end, we described the methods of existing workflows by breaking them up into five general steps and assessed their ease-of-use and validation experiments. Performance scores of previous benchmarks were summarized and correlations between methods and performance were investigated. We indicate the potential suitability of the different workflows for (1) time-constrained diagnostics, (2) surveillance and outbreak source tracing, (3) detection of remote homologies (discovery), and (4) biodiversity studies. We provide two decision trees for virologists to help select a workflow for medical or biodiversity studies, as well as directions for future developments in clinical viral metagenomics

A randomized phase II study of SM-88 plus methoxsalen, phenytoin, and sirolimus in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer treated in the second line and beyond

BACKGROUND: This trial explores SM-88 used with methoxsalen, phenytoin, and sirolimus (MPS) in pretreated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC) METHODS: Forty-nine patients were randomized to daily 460 or 920 mg oral SM-88 with MPS (SM-88 Regimen). The primary endpoint was objective response rate (RECIST 1.1). RESULTS: Thirty-seven patients completed ≥ one cycle of SM-88 Regimen (response evaluable population). Disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS) did not differ significantly between dose levels. Stable disease was achieved in 9/37 patients (DCR, 24.3%); there were no complete or partial responses. Quality-of-life (QOL) was maintained and trended in favor of 920 mg. SM-88 Regimen was well tolerated; a single patient (1/49) had related grade 3 and 4 adverse events, which later resolved. In the intention-to-treat population of 49 patients, the median overall survival (mOS) was 3.4 months (95% CI: 2.7-4.9 months). Those treated in the second line had an mOS of 8.1 months and a median PFS of 3.8 months. Survival was higher for patients with stable versus progressive disease (any line; mOS: 10.6 months vs. 3.9 months; p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: SM-88 Regimen has a favorable safety profile with encouraging QOL effects, disease control, and survival trends. This regimen should be explored in the second-line treatment of patients with mPDAC. CLINICALTRIALS: gov Identifier: NCT03512756

Astrophysically Triggered Searches for Gravitational Waves: Status and Prospects

In gravitational-wave detection, special emphasis is put onto searches that focus on cosmic events detected by other types of astrophysical observatories. The astrophysical triggers, e.g. from gamma-ray and X-ray satellites, optical telescopes and neutrino observatories, provide a trigger time for analyzing gravitational wave data coincident with the event. In certain cases the expected frequency range, source energetics, directional and progenitor information is also available. Beyond allowing the recognition of gravitational waveforms with amplitudes closer to the noise floor of the detector, these triggered searches should also lead to rich science results even before the onset of Advanced LIGO. In this paper we provide a broad review of LIGO's astrophysically triggered searches and the sources they target

Sensitivity to Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Coalescences Achieved during LIGO's Fifth and Virgo's First Science Run

We summarize the sensitivity achieved by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors for compact binary coalescence (CBC) searches during LIGO's fifth science run and Virgo's first science run. We present noise spectral density curves for each of the four detectors that operated during these science runs which are representative of the typical performance achieved by the detectors for CBC searches. These spectra are intended for release to the public as a summary of detector performance for CBC searches during these science runs.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure