Selective Service-Conscientious Objectors-Section 6 (j) Requires Deferment for Registrants Whose Beliefs Emanate from Ethical or Moral Bases. Welsh v. United States (U.S. 1970)

This recent case discusses Welsh v. United States (U.S. 1970)

Elements of the B Cell Signalosome Are Differentially Affected by Mercury Intoxication

It has been suggested that environmental exposures to mercury contribute to autoimmune disease. Disruption of BCR signaling is associated with failure of central tolerance and autoimmunity, and we have previously shown that low levels of Hg2+ interfere with BCR signaling. In this report we have employed multiparametric phosphoflow cytometry, as well as a novel generalization of the Overton algorithm from one- to two-dimensional unimodal distributions to simultaneously monitor the effect of low level Hg2+ intoxication on activation of ERK and several upstream elements of the BCR signaling pathway in WEHI-231 B cells. We have found that, after exposure to low levels of Hg2+, only about a third of the cells are sensitive to the metal. For those cells which are sensitive, we confirm our earlier work that activation of ERK is attenuated but now report that Hg2+ has little upstream effect on the Btk tyrosine kinase. On the other hand, we find that signaling upstream through the Syk tyrosine kinase is actually augmented, as is upstream activation of the B cell signalosome scaffolding protein BLNK

Functional interaction between Sequestosome-1/p62 and Autophagy-Linked FYVE-containing protein WDFY3 in human osteoclasts

Peer reviewedPostprin

Social reinforcement learning as a predictor of real-life experiences in individuals with high and low depressive symptomatology

Background: Several studies have reported diminished learning from non-social outcomes in depressed individuals. However, it is not clear how depression impacts learning from social feedback. Notably, mood disorders are commonly associated with deficits in social functioning, which raises the possibility that potential impairments in social learning may negatively affect real-life social experiences in depressed subjects. Methods: Ninety-two participants with high (HD; N=40) and low (LD; N=52) depression scores were recruited. Subjects performed a learning task, during which they received monetary outcomes or social feedback which they were told came from other people. Additionally, participants answered questions about their everyday social experiences. Computational models were fit to the data and model parameters were related to social experience measures. Results: HD subjects reported a reduced quality and quantity of social experiences compared to LD controls, including an increase in the amount of time spent in negative social situations. Moreover, HD participants showed lower learning rates than LD subjects in the social condition of the task. Interestingly, across all participants, reduced social learning rates predicted higher amounts of time spent in negative social situations, even when depression scores were controlled for. Conclusion: These findings indicate that deficits in social learning may affect the quality of everyday social experiences. Specifically, the impaired ability to use social feedback to appropriately update future actions, which was observed in HD subjects, may lead to suboptimal interpersonal behavior in real life. This, in turn, may evoke negative feedback from others, thus bringing about more unpleasant social encounters

A Stochastic Multiscale Model of Cardiac Thin Filament Activation Using Brownian-Langevin Dynamics.

We use Brownian-Langevin dynamics principles to derive a coarse-graining multiscale myofilament model that can describe the thin-filament activation process during contraction. The model links atomistic molecular simulations of protein-protein interactions in the thin-filament regulatory unit to sarcomere-level activation dynamics. We first calculate the molecular interaction energy between tropomyosin and actin surface using Brownian dynamics simulations. This energy profile is then generalized to account for the observed tropomyosin transitions between its regulatory stable states. The generalized energy landscape then served as a basis for developing a filament-scale model using Langevin dynamics. This integrated analysis, spanning molecular to thin-filament scales, is capable of tracking the events of the tropomyosin conformational changes as it moves over the actin surface. The tropomyosin coil with flexible overlap regions between adjacent tropomyosins is represented in the model as a system of coupled stochastic ordinary differential equations. The proposed multiscale approach provides a more detailed molecular connection between tropomyosin dynamics, the trompomyosin-actin interaction-energy landscape, and the generated force by the sarcomere

Randomized clinical trial of the effects of screening and brief intervention for illicit drug use: the Life Shift/Shift Gears study.

BackgroundAlthough screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) has shown promise for alcohol use, relatively little is known about its effectiveness for adult illicit drug use. This randomized controlled trial assessed the effectiveness of the SBIRT approach for outcomes related to drug use among patients visiting trauma and emergency departments (EDs) at two large, urban hospitals.MethodsA total of 700 ED patients who admitted using illegal drugs in the past 30 days were recruited, consented, provided baseline measures of substance use and related problems measured with the Addiction Severity Index-Lite (ASI-Lite), and then randomized to the Life Shift SBIRT intervention or to an attention-placebo control group focusing on driving and traffic safety (Shift Gears). Both groups received a level of motivational intervention matched to their condition and risk level by trained paraprofessional health educators. Separate measurement technicians conducted face-to-face follow-ups at 6 months post-intervention and collected hair samples to confirm reports of abstinence from drug use. The primary outcome measure of the study was past 30-day drug abstinence at 6 months post-intervention, as self-reported on the ASI-Lite.ResultsOf 700 participants, 292 (42%) completed follow-up. There were no significant differences in self-reported abstinence (12.5% vs. 12.0% , p = 0.88) for Life Shift and Shift Gears groups, respectively. When results of hair analyses were applied, the abstinence rate was 7 percent for Life Shift and 2 percent for Shift Gears (p = .074). In an analysis in which results were imputed (n = 694), there was no significant difference in the ASI-Lite drug use composite scores (Life Shift +0.005 vs. Shift Gears +0.017, p = 0.12).ConclusionsIn this randomized controlled trial, there was no evidence of effectiveness of SBIRT on the primary drug use outcome.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01683227

Predicting Strength of Matched Sets of Test Specimens

Five different methods for a priori estimating bending strength of wood and wood composite specimens are compared in this paper. They are: (1) edge-matching, (2) matching specimens by normal distribution, (3) matching specimens by log-normal distribution, (4) simple linear regression, and (5) multiple linear regression. It was found that the square root of mean square error (RMSE) of percent difference (PD) of predicted modulus of rupture (MOR) is the key measure in comparing the five methods. Multiple linear regression was found to be the best method to predict MOR of a specimen in an edge-matched set. Finally, how to create the prediction limits for mean MOR of a subgroup of specimens is discussed. The prediction limits for predicting MOR make it possible to quantitatively determine the effect of various treatments of wood materials

Predicting enhanced absorption of light gases in polyethylene using simplified PC-SAFT and SAFT-VR

International audienceAbsorption of light gases in polyethylene (PE) is studied using two versions of the Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (SAFT): SAFT for chain molecules with attractive potentials of variable range (VR) and simplified perturbed-chain (PC) SAFT. Emphasis is placed on the light gases typically present during ethylene polymerisation in the gas-phase reactor (GPR) process. The two approaches are validated using experimental binary-mixture data for gas absorbed in PE, and predictions are made for mixtures of more components. For most cases studied both SAFT versions perform equally well. For the case of ternary mixtures of two gases with PE, it is predicted that the less-volatile of the two gases acts to enhance the absorption of the more-volatile gas, while the more-volatile gas inhibits the absorption of the less-volatile gas. This general behaviour is also predicted in mixtures containing more gases, such as typical reactor mixtures. The magnitude of the effect may vary considerably, depending on the relative proximity of the gas-mixture saturation pressure to the reactor pressure; for example it is predicted that the absorption of ethylene may be approximately doubled if diluent gases, propane or nitrogen, are partially or completely replaced by less-volatile butane or pentane for a reactor pressure similar to 2 MPa. In the case of a co-polymerisation reaction, it is predicted that increases in absorption of both co-monomers may be obtained in roughly equal proportion. Our findings cast light on the so-called co-monomer effect, in which substantial increases in the rate of ethylene polymerisation are observed in the presence of hexene co-monomer, while suggesting that the effect is more general and not restricted to co-monomer. For example, similar rate increases may be expected in the presence of, e.g., pentane instead of hexene, but without the change in the branch structure of the produced polymer that is inevitable when the amount of co-monomer is increased

DOWNSTREAM IMPACTS OF SLUDGE MASS REDUCTION VIA ALUMINUM DISSOLUTION ON DWPF PROCESSING OF SAVANNAH RIVER SITE HIGH LEVEL WASTE - 9382

The SRS sludge that was to become a major fraction of Sludge Batch 5 (SB5) for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) contained a large fraction of H-Modified PUREX (HM) sludge, containing a large fraction of aluminum compounds that could adversely impact the processing and increase the vitrified waste volume. It is beneficial to reduce the non-radioactive fraction of the sludge to minimize the number of glass waste canisters that must be sent to a Federal Repository. Removal of aluminum compounds, such as boehmite and gibbsite, from sludge can be performed with the addition of NaOH solution and heating the sludge for several days. Preparation of SB5 involved adding sodium hydroxide directly to the waste tank and heating the contents to a moderate temperature through slurry pump operation to remove a fraction of this aluminum. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was tasked with demonstrating this process on actual tank waste sludge in our Shielded Cells Facility. This paper evaluates some of the impacts of aluminum dissolution on sludge washing and DWPF processing by comparing sludge processing with and without aluminum dissolution. It was necessary to demonstrate these steps to ensure that the aluminum removal process would not adversely impact the chemical and physical properties of the sludge which could result in slower processing or process upsets in the DWPF