Blip glitches in Advanced LIGO data

Blip glitches are short noise transients present in data from ground-based gravitational-wave observatories. These glitches resemble the gravitational-wave signature of massive binary black hole mergers. Hence, the sensitivity of transient gravitational-wave searches to such high-mass systems and other potential short duration sources is degraded by the presence of blip glitches. The origin and rate of occurrence of this type of glitch have been largely unknown. In this paper we explore the population of blip glitches in Advanced LIGO during its first and second observing runs. On average, we find that Advanced LIGO data contains approximately two blip glitches per hour of data. We identify four subsets of blip glitches correlated with detector auxiliary or environmental sensor channels, however the physical causes of the majority of blips remain unclear

Liver carnitine metabolism after partial hepatectomy in the rat Effects of nutritional status and inhibition of carnitine palmitoyltransferase

AbstractThis study examined the effects of partial hepatectony on hepatic carnitine and acylcarnitine concentrations in fed or 24 h-starved partially hepatectonized (PH) or sham-operated (SO) rats at 1 or 4 days after surgery. The ratio of free to esterified carnitine was low in fed PH rats at day 1 : the low ratio was increased to the SO value when mitochondrial fat oxidation was inhibited by 2-tetradecylglycidate. Starvation (24 h) increased plasma [non-esterified fatty acid] in PH or SO rats, the increases being greater at day 1 than at day 4. Hepatic [long-chain acylcarnitine] were also increased. These latter increases were a consequence of increased mitochondrial fat oxidation since they were not observed in PH or SO rats treated with 2-tetradecylglycidate. Whereas the starvation-induced increase in long-chain acylcarnitine was associated with increased [ketone body] in livers of SO rats at both day 1 and day 4 after surgery, [ketone body] was inappropriately low for the steady-state long-chain [acylcarnitine] in livers of PH rats at the first post-operative day. This was not a consequence of a decrease in [total carnitine] in the liver. The results are discussed with reference to the role of the liver in determining the relative proportions of the fat fuels available for extrahepatic tissues and the effects of liver cell proliferation on hepatic triacylclycerol metabolism

"I feel so stupid because I can't give a proper answer ..." How older adults describe chronic pain: a qualitative study

Background - Over 50% of older adults experience chronic pain. Poorly managed pain threatens independent functioning, limits social activities and detrimentally affects emotional wellbeing. Yet, chronic pain is not fully understood from older adults’ perspectives; subsequently, pain management in later life is not necessarily based on their priorities or needs. This paper reports a qualitative exploration of older adults’ accounts of living with chronic pain, focusing on how they describe pain, with a view to informing approaches to its assessment. Methods - Cognitively intact men and women aged over sixty-five who lived in the community opted into the study through responding to advertisements in the media and via contacts with groups and organisations in North-East Scotland. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed using a framework approach. Results - Qualitative individual interviews and one group interview were undertaken with 23 older adults. Following analysis, the following main themes emerged: diversity in conceptualising pain using a simple numerical score; personalising the meaning of pain by way of stories, similes and metaphors; and, contextualising pain in relation to its impact on activities. Conclusions - The importance of attending to individuals’ stories as a meaningful way of describing pain for older adults is highlighted, suggesting that a narrative approach, as recommended and researched in other areas of medicine, may usefully be applied in pain assessment for older adults. Along with the judicious use of numerical tools, this requires innovative methods to elicit verbal accounts, such as using similes and metaphors to help older adults describe and discuss their experience, and contextualising the effects of pain on activities that are important to them

Anatomy ontologies and potential users: bridging the gap.

MOTIVATION: To evaluate how well current anatomical ontologies fit the way real-world users apply anatomy terms in their data annotations. METHODS: Annotations from three diverse multi-species public-domain datasets provided a set of use cases for matching anatomical terms in two major anatomical ontologies (the Foundational Model of Anatomy and Uberon), using two lexical-matching applications (Zooma and Ontology Mapper). RESULTS: Approximately 1500 terms were identified; Uberon/Zooma mappings provided 286 matches, compared to the control and Ontology Mapper returned 319 matches. For the Foundational Model of Anatomy, Zooma returned 312 matches, and Ontology Mapper returned 397. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that for our datasets the anatomical entities or concepts are embedded in user-generated complex terms, and while lexical mapping works, anatomy ontologies do not provide the majority of terms users supply when annotating data. Provision of searchable cross-products for compositional terms is a key requirement for using ontologies.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Nail abnormalities identified in an ageing study of 30 inbred mouse strains.

In a large-scale ageing study, 30 inbred mouse strains were systematically screened for histologic evidence of lesions in all organ systems. Ten strains were diagnosed with similar nail abnormalities. The highest frequency was noted in NON/ShiLtJ mice. Lesions identified fell into two main categories: acute to chronic penetration of the third phalangeal bone through the hyponychium with associated inflammation and bone remodelling or metaplasia of the nail matrix and nail bed associated with severe orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis replacing the nail plate. Penetration of the distal phalanx through the hyponychium appeared to be the initiating feature resulting in nail abnormalities. The accompanying acute to subacute inflammatory response was associated with osteolysis of the distal phalanx. Evaluation of young NON/ShiLtJ mice revealed that these lesions were not often found, or affected only one digit. The only other nail unit abnormality identified was sporadic subungual epidermoid inclusion cysts which closely resembled similar lesions in human patients. These abnormalities, being age-related developments, may have contributed to weight loss due to impacts upon feeding and should be a consideration for future research due to the potential to interact with other experimental factors in ageing studies using the affected strains of mice.American Hair Research Society Mentorship Grants (to SL and AM) Ellison Medical Foundation (to JPS) National Institutes of Health (AG025707, for the Shock Aging Center). The Jackson Laboratory Shared Scientific Services were supported in part by a Basic Cancer Center Core Grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA034196)

Interactions between interfaces dictate stimuli-responsive emulsion behaviour

Stimuli-responsive emulsions offer a dual advantage, combining long-term storage with controlled release triggered by external cues such as pH or temperature changes. This study establishes that thermo-responsive emulsion behaviour is primarily determined by interactions between, rather than within, interfaces. Consequently, the stability of these emulsions is intricately tied to the nature of the stabilizing microgel particles - whether they are more polymeric or colloidal, and the morphology they assume at the liquid interface. The colloidal properties of the microgels provide the foundation for the long-term stability of Pickering emulsions. However, limited deformability can lead to non-responsive emulsions. Conversely, the polymeric properties of the microgels enable them to spread and flatten at the liquid interface, enabling stimuli-responsive behaviour. Furthermore, microgels shared between two emulsion droplets in flocculated emulsions facilitate stimuli-responsiveness, regardless of their internal architecture. This underscores the pivotal role of microgel morphology and the forces they exert on liquid interfaces in the control and design of stimuli-responsive emulsions and interfaces.ISSN:2041-172

Online carbohydrate 3D structure validation with the Privateer web app

Owing to the difficulties associated with working with carbohydrates, validating glycan 3D structures prior to deposition into the Protein Data Bank has become a staple of the structure-solution pipeline. The Privateer software provides integrative methods for the validation, analysis, refinement and graphical representation of 3D atomic structures of glycans, both as ligands and as protein modifiers. While Privateer is free software, it requires users to install any of the structural biology software suites that support it or to build it from source code. Here, the Privateer web app is presented, which is always up to date and available to be used online (https://privateer.york.ac.uk) without installation. This self-updating tool, which runs locally on the user's machine, will allow structural biologists to simply and quickly analyse carbohydrate ligands and protein glycosylation from a web browser whilst retaining all confidential information on their devices

GA4GH Phenopackets: A Practical Introduction

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is developing a suite of coordinated standards for genomics for healthcare. The Phenopacket is a new GA4GH standard for sharing disease and phenotype information that characterizes an individual person, linking that individual to detailed phenotypic descriptions, genetic information, diagnoses, and treatments. A detailed example is presented that illustrates how to use the schema to represent the clinical course of a patient with retinoblastoma, including demographic information, the clinical diagnosis, phenotypic features and clinical measurements, an examination of the extirpated tumor, therapies, and the results of genomic analysis. The Phenopacket Schema, together with other GA4GH data and technical standards, will enable data exchange and provide a foundation for the computational analysis of disease and phenotype information to improve our ability to diagnose and conduct research on all types of disorders, including cancer and rare diseases