Technical Advance: caspase‐1 activation and IL‐1β release correlate with the degree of lysosome damage, as illustrated by a novel imaging method to quantify phagolysosome damage

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142182/1/jlb0813.pd

Criminal Justice and Suicide Outcomes with Indiana's Risk-Based Gun Seizure Law

This article examines the application and effectiveness of a 2006 Indiana law designed to prevent gun violence by authorizing police officers to separate firearms from persons who present imminent or future risk of injury to self or others, or display a propensity for violent or emotionally unstable conduct. A court hearing is held to determine ongoing risk in these cases; a judge decides whether to return the seized firearms or retain them for up to five years. The study examines the frequency of criminal arrest as well as suicide outcomes for 395 gun-removal actions in Indiana. Fourteen individuals (3.5%) died from suicide, seven (1.8%) using a firearm. The study population's annualized suicide rate was about 31 times higher than that of the general adult population in Indiana, demonstrating that the law is being applied to a population genuinely at high risk. By extrapolating information on the case fatality rate for different methods of suicide, we calculated that one life was saved for every 10 gun-removal actions, similar to results of a previous study in Connecticut. Perspectives from key stakeholders are also presented along with implications for gun policy reform and implementation

Mutations in the mitochondrial cysteinyl-tRNA synthase gene, CARS2, lead to a severe epileptic encephalopathy and complex movement disorder

Background: Mitochondrial disease is often suspected in cases of severe epileptic encephalopathy especially when a complex movement disorder, liver involvement and progressive developmental regression are present. Although mutations in either mitochondrial DNA or POLG are often present, other nuclear defects in mitochondrial DNA replication and protein translation have been associated with a severe epileptic encephalopathy. Methods: and results We identified a proband with an epileptic encephalopathy, complex movement disorder and a combined mitochondrial respiratory chain enzyme deficiency. The child presented with neurological regression, complex movement disorder and intractable seizures. A combined deficiency of mitochondrial complexes I, III and IV was noted in liver tissue, along with increased mitochondrial DNA content in skeletal muscle. Incomplete assembly of complex V, using blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis and complex I, using western blotting, suggested a disorder of mitochondrial transcription or translation. Exome sequencing identified compound heterozygous mutations in CARS2, a mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase. Both mutations affect highly conserved amino acids located within the functional ligase domain of the cysteinyl-tRNA synthase. A specific decrease in the amount of charged mt-tRNACys was detected in patient fibroblasts compared with controls. Retroviral transfection of the wild-type CARS2 into patient skin fibroblasts led to the correction of the incomplete assembly of complex V, providing functional evidence for the role of CARS2 mutations in disease aetiology. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that mutations in CARS2 result in a mitochondrial translational defect as seen in individuals with mitochondrial epileptic encephalopathy

Cold Atmospheric Pressure Air Plasma Jet for Medical Applications

By flowing atmospheric pressure air through a direct current powered microhollow cathode discharge, we were able to generate a 2 cm long plasma jet. With increasing flow rate, the flow becomes turbulent and temperatures of the jet are reduced to values close to room temperature. Utilizing the jet, yeast grown on agar can be eradicated with a treatment of only a few seconds. Conversely, animal studies show no skin damage even with exposures ten times longer than needed for pathogen extermination. This cold plasma jet provides an effective mode of treatment for yeast infections of the skin

From Current to Constituent Quarks: a Renormalization Group Improved Hamiltonian-based Description of Hadrons

A model which combines the perturbative behavior of QCD with low energy phenomenology in a unified framework is developed. This is achieved by applying a similarity transformation to the QCD Hamiltonian which removes interactions between the ultraviolet cutoff and an arbitrary lower scale. Iteration then yields a renormalization group improved effective Hamiltonian at the hadronic energy scale. The procedure preserves the standard ultraviolet behavior of QCD. Furthermore, the Hamiltonian evolves smoothly to a phenomenological low energy behavior below the hadronic scale. This method has the benefit of allowing radiative corrections to be directly incorporated into nonperturbative many-body techniques. It is applied to Coulomb gauge QCD supplemented with a low energy linear confinement interaction. A nontrivial vacuum is included in the analysis via a Bogoliubov-Valatin transformation. Finally, the formalism is applied to the vacuum gap equation, the quark condensate, and the dynamical quark mass.Comment: 36 pages, RevTeX, 5 ps figures include

BB Intermeson Potentials in the Quark Model

In this paper we derive quark model results for scattering amplitudes and equivalent low energy potentials for heavy meson pairs, in which each meson contains a heavy quark. This "BB" system is an attractive theoretical laboratory for the study of the nuclear force between color singlets; the hadronic system is relatively simple, and there are lattice gauge theory (LGT) results for V_BB(r) which may be compared to phenomenological models. We find that the quark model potential (after lattice smearing) has qualitative similarities to the LGT potential in the two B*B* channels in which direct comparison is possible, although there is evidence of a difference in length scales. The quark model prediction of equal magnitude but opposite sign for I=0 and I=1 potentials also appears similar to LGT results at intermediate r. There may however be a discrepancy between the LGT and quark model I=1 BB potentials. A numerical study of the two-meson Schrodinger equations in the (bqbar)(bqbar) and (cqbar)(cqbar) sectors with the quark model potentials finds a single "molecule", in the I=0 BB* sector. Binding in other channels might occur if the quark model forces are augmented by pion exchange.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, revtex and epsfig. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Ultrahigh-temperature granulite-facies metamorphism and exhumation of deep crust in a migmatite dome during late- to post-orogenic collapse and extension in the central Adirondack Highlands (New York, USA)

This study combines field observations, mineral and whole-rock geochemistry, phase equilibrium modeling, and U-Pb sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) zircon geochronology to investigate sillimanite-bearing felsic migmatites exposed on Ledge Mountain in the central Adirondack Highlands (New York, USA), part of an extensive belt of mid-crustal rocks comprising the hinterland of the Mesoproterozoic Grenville orogen. Phase equilibrium modeling suggests minimum peak metamorphic conditions of 960-1025 °C and 11-12.5 kbar during the Ottawan orogeny—sig-nificantly higher pressure-temperature conditions than previously determined—followed by a period of near-isothermal decompression, then isobaric cooling. Petrography reveals abundant melt-related microstructures, and pseudosection models show the presence of at least ~15%-30% melt during buoyancy-driven exhumation and decompression. New zircon data document late Ottawan (re)crys-tallization at ca. 1047 ± 5 to 1035 ± 2 Ma following ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism and anatexis on the retrograde cooling path. Inherited zircon cores give a mean date of 1136 ± 5 Ma, which suggests derivation of these felsic granulites by partial melting of older igneous rocks. The ferroan, anhydrous character of the granulites is similar to that of the ca. 1050 Ma Lyon Mountain Granite and consistent with origin in a late- to post-Ottawan extensional environment. We present a model for development of a late Ottawan migmatitic gneiss dome in the central Adirondacks that exhumed deep crustal rocks including the Snowy Mountain and Oregon anorthosite massifs with UHT Ledge Mountain migmatites. Recognition of deep crustal meta-plutonic rocks recording UHT metamorphism in a migmatite gneiss dome has significant implications for crustal behavior in this formerly thickened orogen

Advanced Gasification Mercury/Trace Metal Control with Monolith Traps

Three potential additives for controlling mercury emissions from syngas at temperatures ranging from 350 to 500 F (177 to 260 C) were developed. Current efforts are being directed at increasing the effective working temperature for these sorbents and also being able to either eliminate any potential mercury desorption or trying to engineer a trace metal removal system that can utilize the observed desorption process to repeatedly regenerate the same sorbent monolith for extended use. Project results also indicate that one of these same sorbents can also successfully be utilized for arsenic removal. Capture of the hydrogen selenide in the passivated tubing at elevated temperatures has resulted in limited results on the effective control of hydrogen selenide with these current sorbents, although lower-temperature results are promising. Preliminary economic analysis suggests that these Corning monoliths potentially could be more cost-effective than the conventional cold-gas (presulfided activated carbon beds) technology currently being utilized. Recent Hg-loading results might suggest that the annualized costs might be as high as 2.5 times the cost of the conventional technology. However, this annualized cost does not take into account the significantly improved thermal efficiency of any plant utilizing the warm-gas monolith technology currently being developed