Distal Interphalangeal Joint Arthrodesis Complicated by Postoperative Infection: A Rare Presentation of Disseminated Herpes Simplex Virus.

Postoperative infection after elective arthrodesis of the interphalangeal joint is an uncommon complication often necessitating urgent debridement. We present the rare case of a female patient with a history of oral herpetic lesions, who underwent elective arthrodesis of the middle and index fingers for treatment of erosive osteoarthritis and subsequently developed a postoperative herpetic infection at the surgical site

Observation of condensed phases of quasi-planar core-softened colloids

We experimentally study the condensed phases of repelling core-softened spheres in two dimensions. The dipolar pair repulsion between superparamagnetic spheres trapped in a thin cell is induced by a transverse magnetic field and softened by suitably adjusting the cell thickness. We scan a broad density range and we materialize a large part of the theoretically predicted phases in systems of core-softened particles, including expanded and close-packed hexagonal, square, chain-like, stripe/labyrinthine, and honeycomb phase. Further insight into their structure is provided by Monte Carlo simulations

Human Milk Oligosaccharide Utilization in Intestinal Bifidobacteria Is Governed by Global Transcriptional Regulator NagR

Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis is a prevalent beneficial bacterium that colonizes the human neonatal gut and is uniquely adapted to efficiently use human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) as a carbon and energy source. Multiple studies have focused on characterizing the elements of HMO utilization machinery in B. longum subsp. infantis; however, the regulatory mechanisms governing the expression of these catabolic pathways remain poorly understood. A bioinformatic regulon reconstruction approach used in this study implicated NagR, a transcription factor from the ROK family, as a negative global regulator of gene clusters encoding lacto-N-biose/galacto-N-biose (LNB/GNB), lacto-N-tetraose (LNT), and lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT) utilization pathways in B. longum subsp. infantis. This conjecture was corroborated by transcriptome profiling upon nagR genetic inactivation and experimental assessment of binding of recombinant NagR to predicted DNA operators. The latter approach also implicated N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), a universal intermediate of LNT and LNnT catabolism, and its phosphorylated derivatives as plausible NagR transcriptional effectors. Reconstruction of NagR regulons in various Bifidobacterium lineages revealed multiple potential regulon expansion events, suggesting evolution from a local regulator of GlcNAc catabolism in ancestral bifidobacteria to a global regulator controlling the utilization of mixtures of GlcNAc-containing host glycans in B. longum subsp. infantis and Bifidobacterium bifidum

A High-Resolution Atlas of Uranium-Neon in the H Band

We present a high-resolution (R ~ 50 000) atlas of a uranium-neon (U/Ne) hollow-cathode spectrum in the H-band (1454 nm to 1638 nm) for the calibration of near-infrared spectrographs. We obtained this U/Ne spectrum simultaneously with a laser-frequency comb spectrum, which we used to provide a first-order calibration to the U/Ne spectrum. We then calibrated the U/Ne spectrum using the recently-published uranium line list of Redman et al. (2011), which is derived from high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer measurements. These two independent calibrations allowed us to easily identify emission lines in the hollow cathode lamp that do not correspond to known (classified) lines of either uranium or neon, and to compare the achievable precision of each source. Our frequency comb precision was limited by modal noise and detector effects, while the U/Ne precision was limited primarily by the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the observed emission lines and our ability to model blended lines. The standard deviation in the dispersion solution residuals from the S/N-limited U/Ne hollow cathode lamp were 50% larger than the standard deviation of the dispersion solution residuals from the modal-noise-limited laser frequency comb. We advocate the use of U/Ne lamps for precision calibration of near-infrared spectrographs, and this H-band atlas makes these lamps significantly easier to use for wavelength calibration.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, submitted and accepted in ApJSS. Online-only material to be published online by ApJS

Managed moves: schools collaborating for collective gain

Government guidance in the United Kingdom encourages groups of schools to take collective responsibility for supporting and making provision for excluded pupils and those at risk of exclusion. Managed-moves are one way that some schools and authorities are enacting such guidance. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of one such scheme. The scheme, involving seven neighbouring secondary schools, was nearing its first year of completion. The paper draws primarily on interview data with pupils, parents and school staff to describe a number of positive outcomes associated with the scheme and to explore how these were achieved. We found that while some of these could be attributed directly to the managed-move, others arose from the more inclusive ethos and practices of particular schools. The concepts of tailored support, care and commitment emerged as strong themes that underpinned the various practical ways in which some schools in the cluster were able to re-engage 'at-risk' pupils. As managed moves become more widely practiced it will be important to remember that it is how the move proceeds and develops rather than the move itself that will ultimately make the difference for troubled and troublesome pupils

Near field modal noise reduction using annealed optical fiber

Incomplete and unstable mode population has long complicated the application of optical fiber for transferring star and calibration light to high precision spectrographs. The need for improved precision calibrators in support of radial velocity planet surveys has led to the introduction of coherent wavelengths sources using single mode fibers that are then coupled into multi-mode fibers, further exacerbating this problem. We explore mode scrambling in annealed optical fiber with and without agitation, as compared to that obtained using octagonal fiber and using an integrating sphere. We observe improved scrambling with annealed fibers compared to conventional and octagonal fibers

Generic flow profiles induced by a beating cilium

We describe a multipole expansion for the low Reynolds number fluid flows generated by a localized source embedded in a plane with a no-slip boundary condition. It contains 3 independent terms that fall quadratically with the distance and 6 terms that fall with the third power. Within this framework we discuss the flows induced by a beating cilium described in different ways: a small particle circling on an elliptical trajectory, a thin rod and a general ciliary beating pattern. We identify the flow modes present based on the symmetry properties of the ciliary beat.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to appear in EPJ

Observations of Mass Loss from the Transiting Exoplanet HD 209458b

Using the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the {\it Hubble Space Telescope (HST)}, we obtained moderate-resolution, high signal/noise ultraviolet spectra of HD 209458 and its exoplanet HD 209458b during transit, both orbital quadratures, and secondary eclipse. We compare transit spectra with spectra obtained at non-transit phases to identify spectral features due to the exoplanet's expanding atmosphere. We find that the mean flux decreased by $7.8\pm 1.3$% for the C II 1334.5323\AA\ and 1335.6854\AA\ lines and by $8.2\pm 1.4$% for the Si III 1206.500\AA\ line during transit compared to non-transit times in the velocity interval --50 to +50 km s$^{-1}$. Comparison of the C II and Si III line depths and transit/non-transit line ratios shows deeper absorption features near --10 and +15 km s$^{-1}$ and less certain features near --40 and +30--70 km s$^{-1}$, but future observations are needed to verify this first detection of velocity structure in the expanding atmosphere of an exoplanet. Our results for the C II lines and the non-detection of Si IV 1394.76\AA\ absorption are in agreement with \citet{Vidal-Madjar2004}, but we find absorption during transit in the Si III line contrary to the earlier result. The $8\pm 1$% obscuration of the star during transit is far larger than the 1.5% obscuration by the exoplanet's disk. Absorption during transit at velocities between --50 and +50 km s$^{-1}$ in the C II and Si III lines requires high-velocity ion absorbers, but models that assume that the absorbers are high-temperature thermal ions are inconsistent with the COS spectra. Assuming hydrodynamic model values for the gas temperature and outflow velocity at the limb of the outflow as seen in the C II lines, we find mass-loss rates in the range (8--40)$\times 10^{10}$ g s$^{-1}$.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, Astrophysical Journal in pres