A low-temperature external cavity diode laser for broad wavelength tuning

We report on the design and characterization of a low-temperature external cavity diode laser (ECDL) system for broad wavelength tuning. The performance achieved with multiple diode models addresses the scarcity of commercial red laser diodes below 633 nm, which is a wavelength range relevant to the spectroscopy of many molecules and ions. Using a combination of multiple-stage thermoelectric cooling and water cooling, the operating temperature of a laser diode is lowered to −64 °C, more than 85 °C below the ambient temperature. The laser system integrates temperature and diffraction grating feedback tunability for coarse and fine wavelength adjustments, respectively. For two different diode models, single-mode operation is achieved with 38 mW output power at 616.8 nm and 69 mW at 622.6 nm, more than 15 nm below their ambient temperature free-running wavelengths. The ECDL design can be used for diodes of any available wavelength, allowing individual diodes to be tuned continuously over tens of nanometers and extending the wavelength coverage of commercial laser diodes

Helping to Support CPC+ Initiative to Integrate Behavioral Health Within Primary Care: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Depression Management

AIM: The objective of this project is to increase the rate of documented successful treatment of depression for both new and established diagnoses of depression at Jefferson Internal Medicine Associates (JIMA) from 29% to 50% over 12 months.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/patientsafetyposters/1027/thumbnail.jp

Probing site-resolved correlations in a spin system of ultracold molecules

Synthetic quantum systems with interacting constituents play an important role in quantum information processing and in elucidating fundamental phenomena in many-body physics. Following impressive advances in cooling and trapping techniques, ensembles of ultracold polar molecules have emerged as a promising synthetic system that combines several advantageous properties. These include a large set of internal states for encoding quantum information, long nuclear and rotational coherence times and long-range, anisotropic interactions. The latter are expected to allow the exploration of intriguing phases of correlated quantum matter, such as topological superfluids, quantum spin liquids, fractional Chern insulators and quantum magnets. Probing correlations in these phases is crucial to understand their microscopic properties, necessitating the development of new experimental techniques. Here we use quantum gas microscopy to measure the site-resolved dynamics of quantum correlations in a gas of polar molecules in a two-dimensional optical lattice. Using two rotational states of the molecules, we realize a spin-1/2 system where the particles are coupled via dipolar interactions, producing a quantum spin-exchange model. Starting with the synthetic spin system prepared far from equilibrium, we study the evolution of correlations during the thermalization process for both spatially isotropic and anisotropic interactions. Furthermore, we study the correlation dynamics in a spin-anisotropic Heisenberg model engineered from the native spin-exchange model using Floquet techniques. These experiments push the frontier of probing and controlling interacting systems of ultracold molecules, with prospects for exploring new regimes of quantum matter and characterizing entangled states useful for quantum computation and metrology

Lower levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at the time of initial CSF shunt placement in children are associated with subsequent shunt revision surgeries

OBJECTIVE: We compare cytokine profiles at the time of initial CSF shunt placement between children who required no subsequent shunt revision surgeries and children requiring repeated CSF shunt revision surgeries for CSF shunt failure. We also describe the cytokine profiles across surgical episodes for children who undergo multiple subsequent revision surgeries. METHODS: This pilot study was nested within an ongoing prospective multicenter study collecting CSF samples and clinical data at the time of CSF shunt surgeries since August 2014. We selected cases where CSF was available for children who underwent an initial CSF shunt placement and had no subsequent shunt revision surgeries during \u3e=24 months of follow-up (n = 7); as well as children who underwent an initial CSF shunt placement and then required repeated CSF shunt revision surgeries (n = 3). Levels of 92 human cytokines were measured using the Olink immunoassay and 41 human cytokines were measured using Luminex based bead array on CSF obtained at the time of each child\u27s initial CSF shunt placement and were displayed in heat maps. RESULTS: Qualitatively similar profiles for the majority of cytokines were observed among the patients in each group in both Olink and Luminex assays. Lower levels of MCP-3, CASP-8, CD5, CXCL9, CXCL11, eotaxin, IFN-γ, IL-13, IP-10, and OSM at the time of initial surgery were noted in the children who went on to require multiple surgeries. Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were selected a priori and shown across subsequent revision surgeries for the 3 patients. Cytokine patterns differed between patients, but within a given patient pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines acted in a parallel fashion, with the exception of IL-4. CONCLUSIONS: Heat maps of cytokine levels at the time of initial CSF shunt placement for each child undergoing only a single initial CSF shunt placement and for each child undergoing repeat CSF shunt revision surgeries demonstrated qualitatively similar profiles for the majority of cytokines. Lower levels of MCP-3, CASP-8, CD5, CXCL9, CXCL11, eotaxin, IFN-γ, IL-13, IP-10, and OSM at the time of initial surgery were noted in the children who went on to require multiple surgeries. Better stratification by patient age, etiology, and mechanism of failure is needed to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanism of inflammation in the development of hydrocephalus and response to shunting in children

Positive Selection in East Asians for an EDAR Allele that Enhances NF-κB Activation

Genome-wide scans for positive selection in humans provide a promising approach to establish links between genetic variants and adaptive phenotypes. From this approach, lists of hundreds of candidate genomic regions for positive selection have been assembled. These candidate regions are expected to contain variants that contribute to adaptive phenotypes, but few of these regions have been associated with phenotypic effects. Here we present evidence that a derived nonsynonymous substitution (370A) in EDAR, a gene involved in ectodermal development, was driven to high frequency in East Asia by positive selection prior to 10,000 years ago. With an in vitro transfection assay, we demonstrate that 370A enhances NF-κB activity. Our results suggest that 370A is a positively selected functional genetic variant that underlies an adaptive human phenotype

Google USM: Scaling Automatic Speech Recognition Beyond 100 Languages

We introduce the Universal Speech Model (USM), a single large model that performs automatic speech recognition (ASR) across 100+ languages. This is achieved by pre-training the encoder of the model on a large unlabeled multilingual dataset of 12 million (M) hours spanning over 300 languages, and fine-tuning on a smaller labeled dataset. We use multilingual pre-training with random-projection quantization and speech-text modality matching to achieve state-of-the-art performance on downstream multilingual ASR and speech-to-text translation tasks. We also demonstrate that despite using a labeled training set 1/7-th the size of that used for the Whisper model, our model exhibits comparable or better performance on both in-domain and out-of-domain speech recognition tasks across many languages.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 8 table

Goal disruption theory, military personnel, and the creation of merged profiles: A mixed method investigation

The present study provides an example of the integrated data analysis technique of creating and interpreting merged profiles. By using this approach to merging data sources, we gained unique insight into goal disruption theory (GDT). Qualitative data suggest that military personnel harbor a wide range of desired end-states. Quantitative data support a component of GDT, suggesting that participants who have a strong need for desired end-state displayed greater purposive harm endurance. Interpretation of merged profiles revealed caveats to this relationship, in particular that not all end-states are equally motivating. Results illustrate the benefits of the integrated data analysis technique of creating and interpreting merged profiles. Utilization of the merged profiles illuminated relationships that would not have been exposed otherwise

Objective vs. Self-Reported Physical Activity and Sedentary Time: Effects of Measurement Method on Relationships with Risk Biomarkers

<p><b>Purpose:</b> Imprecise measurement of physical activity variables might attenuate estimates of the beneficial effects of activity on health-related outcomes. We aimed to compare the cardiometabolic risk factor dose-response relationships for physical activity and sedentary behaviour between accelerometer- and questionnaire-based activity measures.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> Physical activity and sedentary behaviour were assessed in 317 adults by 7-day accelerometry and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Fasting blood was taken to determine insulin, glucose, triglyceride and total, LDL and HDL cholesterol concentrations and homeostasis model-estimated insulin resistance (HOMAIR). Waist circumference, BMI, body fat percentage and blood pressure were also measured.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> For both accelerometer-derived sedentary time (<100 counts.min−1) and IPAQ-reported sitting time significant positive (negative for HDL cholesterol) relationships were observed with all measured risk factors – i.e. increased sedentary behaviour was associated with increased risk (all p≤0.01). However, for HOMAIR and insulin the regression coefficients were >50% lower for the IPAQ-reported compared to the accelerometer-derived measure (p<0.0001 for both interactions). The relationships for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and risk factors were less strong than those observed for sedentary behaviours, but significant negative relationships were observed for both accelerometer and IPAQ MVPA measures with glucose, and insulin and HOMAIR values (all p<0.05). For accelerometer-derived MVPA only, additional negative relationships were seen with triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol concentrations, BMI, waist circumference and percentage body fat, and a positive relationship was evident with HDL cholesterol (p = 0.0002). Regression coefficients for HOMAIR, insulin and triglyceride were 43–50% lower for the IPAQ-reported compared to the accelerometer-derived MVPA measure (all p≤0.01).</p> <p><b>Conclusion:</b> Using the IPAQ to determine sitting time and MVPA reveals some, but not all, relationships between these activity measures and metabolic and vascular disease risk factors. Using this self-report method to quantify activity can therefore underestimate the strength of some relationships with risk factors.</p&gt

GENE-Counter: A Computational Pipeline for the Analysis of RNA-Seq Data for Gene Expression Differences

GENE-counter is a complete Perl-based computational pipeline for analyzing RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) data for differential gene expression. In addition to its use in studying transcriptomes of eukaryotic model organisms, GENE-counter is applicable for prokaryotes and non-model organisms without an available genome reference sequence. For alignments, GENE-counter is configured for CASHX, Bowtie, and BWA, but an end user can use any Sequence Alignment/Map (SAM)-compliant program of preference. To analyze data for differential gene expression, GENE-counter can be run with any one of three statistics packages that are based on variations of the negative binomial distribution. The default method is a new and simple statistical test we developed based on an over-parameterized version of the negative binomial distribution. GENE-counter also includes three different methods for assessing differentially expressed features for enriched gene ontology (GO) terms. Results are transparent and data are systematically stored in a MySQL relational database to facilitate additional analyses as well as quality assessment. We used next generation sequencing to generate a small-scale RNA-Seq dataset derived from the heavily studied defense response of Arabidopsis thaliana and used GENE-counter to process the data. Collectively, the support from analysis of microarrays as well as the observed and substantial overlap in results from each of the three statistics packages demonstrates that GENE-counter is well suited for handling the unique characteristics of small sample sizes and high variability in gene counts

Association of objective sedentary behaviour and self-rated health in English older adults

Abstract Objective Reducing sedentary behaviour (SB) might improve the health of older adults. However, we know little about how objectively measured SB impacts on self-rated health in older adults. We aimed to explore the associations between objectively measured SB and self-rated health in English older adults. Results A random sub-sample of older adults (≥ 65 years old) from the 2008 Health Survey for England wore an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer for 7 days. Self-rated health was measured using an item from the General Health Questionnaire. Linear regression and analysis of covariance were used to test the associations between percentage time spent in SB and mean daily minutes in SB and self-rated health (very good/good; fair; bad/very bad), adjusting for covariates. Valid accelerometry datasets were returned by 578 individuals. Significant negative associations between percentage time and mean daily minutes in SB and self-rated health were found. In particular, individuals spending reduced percentages of time being sedentary had higher self-rated health. In conclusion, SB appears to be associated with self-rated health in older people independently from MVPA. If longitudinal research could determine how changes in SB influence self-rated health as individuals’ age, this might be an important lifestyle variable to target for health improvement