Development of Experimental Chamber for Testing High-Temperature Hydrogen Permeation through Metal Foils

This paper describes the methodology for conducting experiments to study hydrogen diffusion through metal membranes using a specially designed diffusion chamber of an automated gas reaction controller complex. This complex allows experiments to study hydrogen diffusion with the following parameters: the inlet hydrogen pressure is up to 50 atmospheres, and the temperature in the chamber is from 30 °C to 1000 °C. The size of the samples is limited to a diameter of 10 mm and a thickness of 100 µm. The method for calculating the diffusion coefficient based on the Fick equation is also described. When studying hydrogen diffusion through a sample of Zr–1Nb alloy with nickel film deposited at the temperature of 550 °C, it was noted that phase transformations can be observed on the diffusion curve

Historical factors associated with past environments influence the biogeography of thermophilic endospores in Arctic marine sediments

Selection by the local, contemporary environment plays a prominent role in shaping the biogeography of microbes. However, the importance of historical factors in microbial biogeography is more debatable. Historical factors include past ecological and evolutionary circumstances that may have influenced present-day microbial diversity, such as dispersal and past environmental conditions. Diverse thermophilic sulphate-reducing Desulfotomaculum are present as dormant endospores in marine sediments worldwide where temperatures are too low to support their growth. Therefore, they are dispersed to here from elsewhere, presumably a hot, anoxic habitat. While dispersal through ocean currents must influence their distribution in cold marine sediments, it is not clear whether even earlier historical factors, related to the source habitat where these organisms were once active, also have an effect. We investigated whether these historical factors may have influenced the diversity and distribution of thermophilic endospores by comparing their diversity in 10 Arctic fjord surface sediments. Although community composition varied spatially, clear biogeographic patterns were only evident at a high level of taxonomic resolution (>97% sequence similarity of the 16S rRNA gene) achieved with oligotyping. In particular, the diversity and distribution of oligotypes differed for the two most prominent OTUs (defined using a standard 97% similarity cutoff). One OTU was dominated by a single ubiquitous oligotype, while the other OTU consisted of ten more spatially localised oligotypes that decreased in compositional similarity with geographic distance. These patterns are consistent with differences in historical factors that occurred when and where the taxa were once active, prior to sporulation. Further, the influence of history on biogeographic patterns was only revealed by analysing microdiversity within OTUs, suggesting that populations within standard OTU-level groupings do not necessarily share a common ecological and evolutionary history

SHSU Recreational Reading Survey

This online survey was sent to Sam Houston State University students, faculty, and staff on April 2, 2014 on behalf of several SHSU librarians. The purpose of the survey was to gain insight into recreational reading habits and preferences of the University communityLibrar

Koopman-von Neumann Formulation of Classical Yang-Mills Theories: I

In this paper we present the Koopman-von Neumann (KvN) formulation of classical non-Abelian gauge field theories. In particular we shall explore the functional (or classical path integral) counterpart of the KvN method. In the quantum path integral quantization of Yang-Mills theories concepts like gauge-fixing and Faddeev-Popov determinant appear in a quite natural way. We will prove that these same objects are needed also in this classical path integral formulation for Yang-Mills theories. We shall also explore the classical path integral counterpart of the BFV formalism and build all the associated universal and gauge charges. These last are quite different from the analog quantum ones and we shall show the relation between the two. This paper lays the foundation of this formalism which, due to the many auxiliary fields present, is rather heavy. Applications to specific topics outlined in the paper will appear in later publications.Comment: 46 pages, Late

Nanoparticulate STING agonists are potent lymph node–targeted vaccine adjuvants

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) are agonists of stimulator of IFN genes (STING) and have potential as vaccine adjuvants. However, cyclic di-GMP (cdGMP) injected s.c. shows minimal uptake into lymphatics/draining lymph nodes (dLNs) and instead is rapidly distributed to the bloodstream, leading to systemic inflammation. Here, we encapsulated cdGMP within PEGylated lipid nanoparticles (NP-cdGMP) to redirect this adjuvant to dLNs. Compared with unformulated CDNs, encapsulation blocked systemic dissemination and markedly enhanced dLN accumulation in murine models. Delivery of NP-cdGMP increased CD8[superscript +] T cell responses primed by peptide vaccines and enhanced therapeutic antitumor immunity. A combination of a poorly immunogenic liposomal HIV gp41 peptide antigen and NP-cdGMP robustly induced type I IFN in dLNs, induced a greater expansion of vaccine-specific CD4[superscript +] T cells, and greatly increased germinal center B cell differentiation in dLNs compared with a combination of liposomal HIV gp41 and soluble CDN. Further, NP-cdGMP promoted durable antibody titers that were substantially higher than those promoted by the well-studied TLR agonist monophosphoryl lipid A and comparable to a much larger dose of unformulated cdGMP, without the systemic toxicity of the latter. These results demonstrate that nanoparticulate delivery safely targets CDNs to the dLNs and enhances the efficacy of this adjuvant. Moreover, this approach can be broadly applied to other small-molecule immunomodulators of interest for vaccines and immunotherapy.Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationRagon Institute of MGH, MIT and HarvardNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (AI091693)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (AI095109)National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Koch Institute Support (Core) Grant P30-CA14051)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award 1F32CA180586)Hertz Foundation (Graduate Fellowship)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowshi

Molecular outflows towards O-type young stellar objects

We have searched for massive molecular outflows in a sample of high-mass star forming regions, and we have characterised both the outflow properties and those of their associated molecular clumps. With a sample composed largely of more luminous objects than previous ones, this work complements analogous surveys performed by other authors by adding the missing highest luminosity sources. The sample under study has been selected so as to favour the earliest evolutionary phases of star formation, and is composed of very luminous objects (L_bol > 2x10^4 L_sun and up to ~10^6 L_sun), possibly containing O-type stars. Each source has been mapped in 13CO(2-1) and C18O(2-1) with the IRAM-30m telescope on Pico Veleta (Spain). The whole sample shows high-velocity wings in the 13CO(2-1) spectra, indicative of outflowing motions. In addition, we have obtained outflow maps in 9 of our 11 sources, which display well-defined blue and/or red lobes. For these sources, the outflow parameters have been derived from the line wing 13CO(2-1) emission. An estimate of the clump masses from the C18O(2-1) emission is also provided and found to be comparable to the virial masses. From a comparison between our results and those found by other authors at lower masses, it is clear that the outflow mechanical force increases with the bolometric luminosity of the clump and with the ionising photon rate of the associated HII regions, indicating that high-mass stars drive more powerful outflows. A tight correlation between outflow mass and clump mass is also found. Molecular outflows are found to be as common in massive star forming regions as in low-mass star forming regions. This, added to the detection of a few tentative large-scale rotating structures suggests that high-mass stars may generally form via accretion, as low-mass stars.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Faking on a situational judgment test in a medical school selection setting: Effect of different scoring methods?

We examined the occurrence of faking on a rating situational judgment test (SJT) by comparing SJT scores and response styles of the same individuals across two natu‐ rally occurring situations. An SJT for medical school selection was administered twice to the same group of applicants (N = 317) under low‐stakes (T1) and high‐stakes (T2) circumstances. The SJT was scored using three different methods that were differ‐ entially affected by response tendencies. Applicants used significantly more extreme responding on T2 than T1. Faking (higher SJT score on T2) was only observed for scoring methods that controlled for response tendencies. Scoring methods that do not control for response tendencies introduce systematic error into the SJT score, which may lead to inaccurate conclusions about the existence of faking

Identifying metabolites by integrating metabolome databases with mass spectrometry cheminformatics.

Novel metabolites distinct from canonical pathways can be identified through the integration of three cheminformatics tools: BinVestigate, which queries the BinBase gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolome database to match unknowns with biological metadata across over 110,000 samples; MS-DIAL 2.0, a software tool for chromatographic deconvolution of high-resolution GC-MS or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS); and MS-FINDER 2.0, a structure-elucidation program that uses a combination of 14 metabolome databases in addition to an enzyme promiscuity library. We showcase our workflow by annotating N-methyl-uridine monophosphate (UMP), lysomonogalactosyl-monopalmitin, N-methylalanine, and two propofol derivatives

Rationale and design of the Multicenter Medication Reconciliation Quality Improvement Study (MARQUIS)

Background: Unresolved medication discrepancies during hospitalization can contribute to adverse drug events, resulting in patient harm. Discrepancies can be reduced by performing medication reconciliation; however, effective implementation of medication reconciliation has proven to be challenging. The goals of the Multi-Center Medication Reconciliation Quality Improvement Study (MARQUIS) are to operationalize best practices for inpatient medication reconciliation, test their effect on potentially harmful unintentional medication discrepancies, and understand barriers and facilitators of successful implementation. Methods: Six U.S. hospitals are participating in this quality improvement mentored implementation study. Each hospital has collected baseline data on the primary outcome: the number of potentially harmful unintentional medication discrepancies per patient, as determined by a trained on-site pharmacist taking a “gold standard” medication history. With the guidance of their mentors, each site has also begun to implement one or more of 11 best practices to improve medication reconciliation. To understand the effect of the implemented interventions on hospital staff and culture, we are performing mixed methods program evaluation including surveys, interviews, and focus groups of front line staff and hospital leaders. Discussion At baseline the number of unintentional medication discrepancies in admission and discharge orders per patient varies by site from 2.35 to 4.67 (mean=3.35). Most discrepancies are due to history errors (mean 2.12 per patient) as opposed to reconciliation errors (mean 1.23 per patient). Potentially harmful medication discrepancies averages 0.45 per patient and varies by site from 0.13 to 0.82 per patient. We discuss several barriers to implementation encountered thus far. In the end, we anticipate that MARQUIS tools and lessons learned have the potential to decrease medication discrepancies and improve patient outcomes. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT0133706