Treacherous Passage

While the Great War raged across the trench-lined battlefields of Europe, a hidden conflict took place in the distant hinterlands of the turbulent Mexican Republic. German officials and secret-service operatives plotted to bring war to the United States through an array of schemes and strategies, from training a German-Mexican army for a cross-border invasion, to dispatching saboteurs to disrupt American industry, and planning for submarine bases on the western coast of Mexico.Bill Mills tells the true story of the most audacious of these operations: the German plot to launch clandestine sea raiders from the Mexican port of Mazatlán to disrupt Allied merchant shipping in the Pacific. The scheme led to a desperate struggle between German and American secret agents in Mexico. German consul Fritz Unger, the director of a powerful trading house, plotted to obtain a salvaged Mexican gunboat to supply U-boats operating off Mexico and to seize a hapless tramp schooner to help hunt Allied merchantmen.Unger’s efforts were opposed by a colorful array of individuals, including a trusted member of the German secret service in Mexico who was also the top American spy, the U.S. State Department’s senior officer in Mazatlán, the hard-charging commander of a navy gunboat, and a draft-dodging American informant in the enemy camp. Full of drama and intrigue, Treacherous Passage is the first complete account of the daring German attempts to raid Allied shipping from Mexico in 1918

Treacherous Passage

While the Great War raged across the trench-lined battlefields of Europe, a hidden conflict took place in the distant hinterlands of the turbulent Mexican Republic. German officials and secret-service operatives plotted to bring war to the United States through an array of schemes and strategies, from training a German-Mexican army for a cross-border invasion, to dispatching saboteurs to disrupt American industry, and planning for submarine bases on the western coast of Mexico.Bill Mills tells the true story of the most audacious of these operations: the German plot to launch clandestine sea raiders from the Mexican port of Mazatlán to disrupt Allied merchant shipping in the Pacific. The scheme led to a desperate struggle between German and American secret agents in Mexico. German consul Fritz Unger, the director of a powerful trading house, plotted to obtain a salvaged Mexican gunboat to supply U-boats operating off Mexico and to seize a hapless tramp schooner to help hunt Allied merchantmen.Unger’s efforts were opposed by a colorful array of individuals, including a trusted member of the German secret service in Mexico who was also the top American spy, the U.S. State Department’s senior officer in Mazatlán, the hard-charging commander of a navy gunboat, and a draft-dodging American informant in the enemy camp. Full of drama and intrigue, Treacherous Passage is the first complete account of the daring German attempts to raid Allied shipping from Mexico in 1918

Ozone impacts on vegetation in a nitrogen enriched and changing climate

This paper provides a process-oriented perspective on the combined effects of ozone (O3), climate change and/or nitrogen (N) on vegetation. Whereas increasing CO2 in controlled environments or opentop chambers often ameliorates effects of O3 on leaf physiology, growth and C allocation, this is less likely in the field. Combined responses to elevated temperature and O3 have rarely been studied even though some critical growth stages such as seed initiation are sensitive to both. Under O3 exposure, many species have smaller roots, thereby enhancing drought sensitivity. Of the 68 species assessed for stomatal responses to ozone, 22.5% were unaffected, 33.5% had sluggish or increased opening and 44% stomatal closure. The beneficial effect of N on root development was lost at higher O3 treatments whilst the effects of increasing O3 on root biomass became more pronounced as N increased. Both responses to gradual changes in pollutants and climate and those under extreme weather events require further study

Vimentin is a novel AKT1 target mediating motility and invasion.

The PI3K/AKT signaling pathway is aberrant in a wide variety of cancers. Downstream effectors of AKT are involved in survival, growth and metabolic-related pathways. In contrast, contradictory data relating to AKT effects on cell motility and invasion, crucial prometastatic processes, have been reported pointing to a potential cell type and isoform type-specific AKT-driven function. By implication, study of AKT signaling should optimally be conducted in an appropriate intracellular environment. Prognosis in soft-tissue sarcoma (STS), the aggressive malignancies of mesenchymal origin, is poor, reflecting our modest ability to control metastasis, an effort hampered by lack of insight into molecular mechanisms driving STS progression and dissemination. We examined the impact of the cancer progression-relevant AKT pathway on the mesenchymal tumor cell internal milieu. We demonstrate that AKT1 activation induces STS cell motility and invasiveness at least partially through a novel interaction with the intermediate filament vimentin (Vim). The binding of AKT (tail region) to Vim (head region) results in Vim Ser39 phosphorylation enhancing the ability of Vim to induce motility and invasion while protecting Vim from caspase-induced proteolysis. Moreover, vimentin phosphorylation was shown to enhance tumor and metastasis growth in vivo. Insights into this mesenchymal-related molecular mechanism may facilitate the development of critically lacking therapeutic options for these devastating malignancies

Benchmarking of automatic quality control checks for ocean temperature profiles and recommendations for optimal sets

Millions of in situ ocean temperature profiles have been collected historically using various instrument types with varying sensor accuracy and then assembled into global databases. These are essential to our current understanding of the changing state of the oceans, sea level, Earth’s climate, marine ecosystems and fisheries, and for constraining model projections of future change that underpin mitigation and adaptation solutions. Profiles distributed shortly after collection are also widely used in operational applications such as real-time monitoring and forecasting of the ocean state and weather prediction. Before use in scientific or societal service applications, quality control (QC) procedures need to be applied to flag and ultimately remove erroneous data. Automatic QC (AQC) checks are vital to the timeliness of operational applications and for reducing the volume of dubious data which later require QC processing by a human for delayed mode applications. Despite the large suite of evolving AQC checks developed by institutions worldwide, the most effective set of AQC checks was not known. We have developed a framework to assess the performance of AQC checks, under the auspices of the International Quality Controlled Ocean Database (IQuOD) project. The IQuOD-AQC framework is an open-source collaborative software infrastructure built in Python (available from https://github.com/IQuOD). Sixty AQC checks have been implemented in this framework. Their performance was benchmarked against three reference datasets which contained a spectrum of instrument types and error modes flagged in their profiles. One of these (a subset of the Quality-controlled Ocean Temperature Archive (QuOTA) dataset that had been manually inspected for quality issues by its creators) was also used to identify optimal sets of AQC checks. Results suggest that the AQC checks are effective for most historical data, but less so in the case of data from Mechanical Bathythermographs (MBTs), and much less effective for Argo data. The optimal AQC sets will be applied to generate quality flags for the next release of the IQuOD dataset. This will further elevate the quality and historical value of millions of temperature profile data which have already been improved by IQuOD intelligent metadata and observational uncertainty information (https://doi.org/10.7289/v51r6nsf)

Design, Delivery, Maintenance, and Outcomes of Peer-to-Peer Online Support Groups for People With Chronic Musculoskeletal Disorders: Systematic Review

Background: Online support groups (OSGs) are one way for people with chronic diseases, their family or friends, and health professionals to communicate, gain information, and provide social support. As the number of peer-to-peer OSGs for chronic musculoskeletal conditions grows, it is important to gain insight into the different designs of groups available, who is accessing them, if and how they may be effective, and what strategies are being used to implement or increase consumer engagement. Objective: The objectives of this systematic review of people with musculoskeletal conditions were to (1) describe the design features (functions, usage options, moderation, and expert input) of peer-to-peer OSGs, (2) describe the characteristics of the individuals using peer-to-peer OSGs, (3) synthesize the evidence on outcomes of participation, and (4) identify strategies used in the delivery and maintenance of OSGs. Methods: A search comprising terms related to the population (people with musculoskeletal disorders) and the intervention (peer-to-peer OSGs) was conducted in 6 databases. Results were filtered from 1990 (internet inception) to February 2019. Studies identified in the search were screened according to predefined eligibility criteria using a 2-step process. Quantitative studies were appraised by 2 reviewers using the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions tool. Qualitative studies were appraised by 2 different reviewers using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist. Extracted data were synthesized narratively. Results: We examined 21 studies with low to moderate risk of bias. Of these studies, 13 studies included OSGs hosted on public platforms, 11 studies examined OSGs that were conducted in English, and 6 studies used moderators or peer leaders to facilitate engagement. Studies either reported the number of OSG members (n=1985 across all studies) or the number of posts (range: 223-200,000). The majority of OSG members were females who were not full-time employees and with varied levels of education. There were no randomized controlled trials measuring the efficacy of OSGs. Qualitative and quantitative studies identified empowerment, social support, self-management behavior, and health literacy as primary constructs to measure OSG efficacy. Neutral or marginal improvement was reported in these constructs. Sharing experiences and a greater level of engagement appeared to have an important influence on OSGs efficacy. The extent to which members posted on the website influenced engagement. Conclusions: Across a diverse range of designs, languages, included features, and delivery platforms, peer-to-peer OSGs for chronic musculoskeletal conditions attract predominantly female participants of all ages and education levels. The level of participation of a member appears to be related to their perceived benefit, health literacy, and empowerment. Future studies are needed to identify which design and maintenance strategies have superior efficacy and whether there are concomitant improvements in health outcomes for people with chronic musculoskeletal conditions resulting from participation in OSGs

Be prepared: communism and the politics of scouting in 1950s Britain

This article examines the exposure, and in some cases dismissal, of Boy Scouts who belonged or sympathised with the Young Communist League in Britain during the early 1950s. A focus on the rationale and repercussions of the organisation's approach and attitudes towards ‘Red Scouts’ found within their ‘ranks’ extends our understanding of youth movements and their often complex and conflicting ideological foundations. In particular, the post-World War Two period presented significant challenges to these spaces of youth work in terms of broader social and political change in Britain. An analysis of the politics of scouting in relation to Red Scouts questions not only the assertion that British McCarthyism was ‘silent’, but also brings young people firmly into focus as part of a more everyday politics of communism in British society

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure

Trends in non-metastatic prostate cancer management in the Northern and Yorkshire region of England, 2000–2006

Background: Our objective was to analyse variation in non-metastatic prostate cancer management in the Northern and Yorkshire region of England. Methods: We included 21 334 men aged ⩾55, diagnosed between 2000 and 2006. Principal treatment received was categorised into radical prostatectomy (11%), brachytherapy (2%), external beam radiotherapy (16%), hormone therapy (42%) and no treatment (29%). Results: The odds ratio (OR) for receiving a radical prostatectomy was 1.53 in 2006 compared with 2000 (95% CI 1.26–1.86), whereas the OR for receiving hormone therapy was 0.57 (0.51–0.64). Age was strongly associated with treatment received; radical treatments were significantly less likely in men aged ⩾75 compared with men aged 55–64 years, whereas the odds of receiving hormone therapy or no treatment were significantly higher in the older age group. The OR for receiving radical prostatectomy, brachytherapy or external beam radiotherapy were all significantly lower in the most deprived areas when compared with the most affluent (0.64 (0.55–0.75), 0.32 (0.22–0.47) and 0.83 (0.74–0.94), respectively) whereas the OR for receiving hormone therapy was 1.56 (1.42–1.71). Conclusions: This study highlights the variation and inequalities that exist in the management of non-metastatic prostate cancer in the Northern and Yorkshire region of England