Development of a testing protocol for oil solidifier effectiveness evaluation

Chemical countermeasures for oil spill remediation have to be evaluated and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before they may be used to remove or control oil discharges. Solidifiers are chemical agents that change oil from a liquid to a solid by immobilizing the oil and bonding the liquid into a solid carpet-like mass with minimal volume increase. Currently, they are listed as Miscellaneous Oil Spill Control Agent in the National Contingency Plan and there is no protocol for evaluating their effectiveness. An investigation was conducted to test the oil removal efficiency of solidifiers using three newly developed testing protocols. The protocols were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated to determine if they can satisfactorily differentiate effective and mediocre products while still accounting for experimental error. The repeatability of the three protocols was 15.9, 5.1, and 2.7 %. The protocol with the best performance involved measuring the amount of free oil remaining in the water after the solidified product was removed using an ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer and it was adopted to study the effect of solidifier-to-oil mass ratio, mixing energy, salinity, and beaker size (i.e., area affected by the spill) on solidifier efficiency. Analysis of Variances were performed on the data collected and results indicated that the beaker size increased spreading, which reduced removal efficiency. Mixing speed appears to impart a ceiling effect with no additional benefit provided by the highest level over the middle level. Salinity was found to be mostly an insignificant factor on performance

Non-productive angiogenesis disassembles Aß plaque-associated blood vessels

The human Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain accumulates angiogenic markers but paradoxically, the cerebral microvasculature is reduced around Aß plaques. Here we demonstrate that angiogenesis is started near Aß plaques in both AD mouse models and human AD samples. However, endothelial cells express the molecular signature of non-productive angiogenesis (NPA) and accumulate, around Aß plaques, a tip cell marker and IB4 reactive vascular anomalies with reduced NOTCH activity. Notably, NPA induction by endothelial loss of presenilin, whose mutations cause familial AD and which activity has been shown to decrease with age, produced a similar vascular phenotype in the absence of Aß pathology. We also show that Aß plaque-associated NPA locally disassembles blood vessels, leaving behind vascular scars, and that microglial phagocytosis contributes to the local loss of endothelial cells. These results define the role of NPA and microglia in local blood vessel disassembly and highlight the vascular component of presenilin loss of function in AD

Peripheral T-lymphocytes express WNT7A and its restoration in leukemia-derived lymphoblasts inhibits cell proliferation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>WNT7a, a member of the Wnt ligand family implicated in several developmental processes, has also been reported to be dysregulated in some types of tumors; however, its function and implication in oncogenesis is poorly understood. Moreover, the expression of this gene and the role that it plays in the biology of blood cells remains unclear. In addition to determining the expression of the <it>WNT7A </it>gene in blood cells, in leukemia-derived cell lines, and in samples of patients with leukemia, the aim of this study was to seek the effect of this gene in proliferation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells, sorted CD3 and CD19 cells, four leukemia-derived cell lines, and blood samples from 14 patients with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 19 clinically healthy subjects. Reverse transcription followed by quantitative Real-time Polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis were performed to determine relative <it>WNT7A </it>expression. Restoration of WNT7a was done employing a lentiviral system and by using a recombinant human protein. Cell proliferation was measured by addition of WST-1 to cell cultures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>WNT7a is mainly produced by CD3 T-lymphocytes, its expression decreases upon activation, and it is severely reduced in leukemia-derived cell lines, as well as in the blood samples of patients with ALL when compared with healthy controls (<it>p </it>≤0.001). By restoring <it>WNT7A </it>expression in leukemia-derived cells, we were able to demonstrate that WNT7a inhibits cell growth. A similar effect was observed when a recombinant human WNT7a protein was used. Interestingly, restoration of <it>WNT7A </it>expression in Jurkat cells did not activate the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>To our knowledge, this is the first report evidencing quantitatively decreased <it>WNT7A </it>levels in leukemia-derived cells and that <it>WNT7A </it>restoration in T-lymphocytes inhibits cell proliferation. In addition, our results also support the possible function of <it>WNT7A </it>as a tumor suppressor gene as well as a therapeutic tool.</p

THEMIS: A Parameter Estimation Framework for the Event Horizon Telescope

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) provides the unprecedented ability to directly resolve the structure and dynamics of black hole emission regions on scales smaller than their horizons. This has the potential to critically probe the mechanisms by which black holes accrete and launch outflows, and the structure of supermassive black hole spacetimes. However, accessing this information is a formidable analysis challenge for two reasons. First, the EHT natively produces a variety of data types that encode information about the image structure in nontrivial ways; these are subject to a variety of systematic effects associated with very long baseline interferometry and are supplemented by a wide variety of auxiliary data on the primary EHT targets from decades of other observations. Second, models of the emission regions and their interaction with the black hole are complex, highly uncertain, and computationally expensive to construct. As a result, the scientific utilization of EHT observations requires a flexible, extensible, and powerful analysis framework. We present such a framework, Themis, which defines a set of interfaces between models, data, and sampling algorithms that facilitates future development. We describe the design and currently existing components of Themis, how Themis has been validated thus far, and present additional analyses made possible by Themis that illustrate its capabilities. Importantly, we demonstrate that Themis is able to reproduce prior EHT analyses, extend these, and do so in a computationally efficient manner that can efficiently exploit modern high-performance computing facilities. Themis has already been used extensively in the scientific analysis and interpretation of the first EHT observations of M87

A Universal Power-law Prescription for Variability from Synthetic Images of Black Hole Accretion Flows

We present a framework for characterizing the spatiotemporal power spectrum of the variability expected from the horizon-scale emission structure around supermassive black holes, and we apply this framework to a library of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations and associated general relativistic ray-traced images relevant for Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sgr A*. We find that the variability power spectrum is generically a red-noise process in both the temporal and spatial dimensions, with the peak in power occurring on the longest timescales and largest spatial scales. When both the time-averaged source structure and the spatially integrated light-curve variability are removed, the residual power spectrum exhibits a universal broken power-law behavior. On small spatial frequencies, the residual power spectrum rises as the square of the spatial frequency and is proportional to the variance in the centroid of emission. Beyond some peak in variability power, the residual power spectrum falls as that of the time-averaged source structure, which is similar across simulations; this behavior can be naturally explained if the variability arises from a multiplicative random field that has a steeper high-frequency power-law index than that of the time-averaged source structure. We briefly explore the ability of power spectral variability studies to constrain physical parameters relevant for the GRMHD simulations, which can be scaled to provide predictions for black holes in a range of systems in the optically thin regime. We present specific expectations for the behavior of the M87* and Sgr A* accretion flows as observed by the EHT

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p&lt;0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p&lt;0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised

Monitoring the Morphology of M87* in 2009–2017 with the Event Horizon Telescope

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has recently delivered the first resolved images of M87*, the supermassive black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy. These images were produced using 230 GHz observations performed in 2017 April. Additional observations are required to investigate the persistence of the primary image feature—a ring with azimuthal brightness asymmetry—and to quantify the image variability on event horizon scales. To address this need, we analyze M87* data collected with prototype EHT arrays in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. While these observations do not contain enough information to produce images, they are sufficient to constrain simple geometric models. We develop a modeling approach based on the framework utilized for the 2017 EHT data analysis and validate our procedures using synthetic data. Applying the same approach to the observational data sets, we find the M87* morphology in 2009–2017 to be consistent with a persistent asymmetric ring of ~40 μas diameter. The position angle of the peak intensity varies in time. In particular, we find a significant difference between the position angle measured in 2013 and 2017. These variations are in broad agreement with predictions of a subset of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We show that quantifying the variability across multiple observational epochs has the potential to constrain the physical properties of the source, such as the accretion state or the black hole spin

Non-motor predictors of 36-month quality of life after subthalamic stimulation in Parkinson disease

AbstractTo identify predictors of 36-month follow-up quality of life (QoL) outcome after bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). In this ongoing, prospective, multicenter international study (Cologne, Manchester, London) including 73 patients undergoing STN-DBS, we assessed the following scales preoperatively and at 6-month and 36-month follow-up: PD Questionnaire-8 (PDQ-8), NMSScale (NMSS), Scales for Outcomes in PD (SCOPA)-motor examination, -activities of daily living, and -complications, and levodopa equivalent daily dose (LEDD). We analyzed factors associated with QoL improvement at 36-month follow-up based on (1) correlations between baseline test scores and QoL improvement, (2) step-wise linear regressions with baseline test scores as independent and QoL improvement as dependent variables, (3) logistic regressions and receiver operating characteristic curves using a dichotomized variable “QoL responders”/“non-responders”. At both follow-ups, NMSS total score, SCOPA-motor examination, and -complications improved and LEDD was reduced significantly. PDQ-8 improved at 6-month follow-up with subsequent decrements in gains at 36-month follow-up when 61.6% of patients were categorized as “QoL non-responders”. Correlations, linear, and logistic regression analyses found greater PDQ-8 improvements in patients with younger age, worse PDQ-8, and worse specific NMS at baseline, such as ‘difficulties experiencing pleasure’ and ‘problems sustaining concentration’. Baseline SCOPA scores were not associated with PDQ-8 changes. Our results provide evidence that 36-month QoL changes depend on baseline neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric non-motor symptoms burden. These findings highlight the need for an assessment of a wide range of non-motor and motor symptoms when advising and selecting individuals for DBS therapy

Regulatory nodD1 and nodD2 genes of Rhizobium tropici strain CIAT 899 and their roles in the early stages of molecular signaling and host-legume nodulation

BACKGROUND: Nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation are mediated by several genes, both of the host legume and of the bacterium. The rhizobial regulatory nodD gene plays a critical role, orchestrating the transcription of the other nodulation genes. Rhizobium tropici strain CIAT 899 is an effective symbiont of several legumes—with an emphasis on common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)—and is unusual in carrying multiple copies of nodD, the roles of which remain to be elucidated. RESULTS: Phenotypes, Nod factors and gene expression of nodD1 and nodD2 mutants of CIAT 899 were compared with those of the wild type strain, both in the presence and in the absence of the nod-gene-inducing molecules apigenin and salt (NaCl). Differences between the wild type and mutants were observed in swimming motility and IAA (indole acetic acid) synthesis. In the presence of both apigenin and salt, large numbers of Nod factors were detected in CIAT 899, with fewer detected in the mutants. nodC expression was lower in both mutants; differences in nodD1 and nodD2 expression were observed between the wild type and the mutants, with variation according to the inducing molecule, and with a major role of apigenin with nodD1 and of salt with nodD2. In the nodD1 mutant, nodulation was markedly reduced in common bean and abolished in leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) and siratro (Macroptilium atropurpureum), whereas a mutation in nodD2 reduced nodulation in common bean, but not in the other two legumes. CONCLUSION: Our proposed model considers that full nodulation of common bean by R. tropici requires both nodD1 and nodD2, whereas, in other legume species that might represent the original host, nodD1 plays the major role. In general, nodD2 is an activator of nod-gene transcription, but, in specific conditions, it can slightly repress nodD1. nodD1 and nodD2 play other roles beyond nodulation, such as swimming motility and IAA synthesis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1458-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users