Identifying Slope Failure Deposits from a Potentially Mixed Magnetic Susceptibility Signal in Gas Hydrate Bearing Regions

The marine gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) occurs in the slope environment along many active and passive continental margins. In this environment, slope failures are common and can occur near the shelf slope break, within submarine canyons, or on the flanks of bathymetric highs, resulting in a spectrum of slope failure deposits from landslides to turbidites. On the Cascadia margin, the GHSZ occurs within the bathymetric thrust ridges and slope basins of the accretionary wedge. Here, the ridges are composed of uplifted abyssal plain deposits associated with submarine fans and/or paleoslope basin deposits formed during the evolution of the accretionary wedge (Johnson et al., 2006; Torres et al., 2008). The adjoining slope basins contain the deposits from slope failure of the ridges. Both ridges and slope basins offshore Central Oregon and Vancouver Island were sampled by drilling during ODP Leg 204 and IODP Expedition 311, respectively (Figure 1). The recovered cores document the distribution and abundance of gas hydrate in these regions within a stratigraphy that is dominated by silt and sand turbidites, debris flows, and intervals of silty clay, separated by hemipelagic clay

Geography, generalisability, and susceptibility in clinical trials

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Preparedness of the CTSA's Structural and Scientific Assets to Support the Mission of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

The formation of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) brings new promise for moving basic and discoveries to clinical practice, ultimately improving the health of the nation. The CTSA sites, now housed with NCATS, are organized and prepared to support in this endeavor. The CTSAs provide a foundation for capitalizing on such promise through provision of a disease-agnostic infrastructure devoted to C&T science, maintenance of training programs designed for C&T investigators of the future, by incentivizing institutional reorganization and by cultivating institutional support

A Triple Test for Behavioral Economics Models and Public Health Policy

We propose a triple test to evaluate the usefulness of behavioral economics models for public health policy. Test 1 is whether the model provides reasonably new insights. Test 2 is on whether these have been properly applied to policy settings. Test 3 is whether they are corroborated by evidence. Where a test is not passed, this may point to directions for needed further research. We exemplify by considering the cases of social interactions models, self-control models and, in relation to health message framing, prospect theory; out of these, only a correctly applied prospect theory fully passes the tests at present

Variation in the Interleukin 4–Receptor α Gene Confers Susceptibility to Asthma and Atopy in Ethnically Diverse Populations

After a genomewide screen in the Hutterites was completed, the IL4RA gene was examined as the 16p-linked susceptibility locus for asthma and atopy. Seven known variants and one novel variant, representing all nonsynonymous substitutions in the mature protein, were examined in the Hutterites; on the basis of studies in the Hutterites, outbred white, black, and Hispanic families were genotyped for selected markers. All population samples showed evidence of association to atopy or to asthma (P values .039–.0044 for atopy and .029–.0000061 for asthma), but the alleles or haplotypes showing the strongest evidence differed between the groups. Overall, these data suggest that the IL4RA gene is an atopy- and asthma-susceptibility locus but that variation outside the coding region of the gene influences susceptibility

Step-up therapy in black children and adults with poorly controlled asthma

BACKGROUND: Morbidity from asthma is disproportionately higher among black patients than among white patients, and black patients constitute the minority of participants in trials informing treatment. Data indicate that patients with inadequately controlled asthma benefit more from addition of a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) than from increased glucocorticoids; however, these data may not be informative for treatment in black patients. METHODS: We conducted two prospective, randomized, double-blind trials: one involving children and the other involving adolescents and adults. In both trials, the patients had at least one grandparent who identified as black and had asthma that was inadequately controlled with low-dose inhaled glucocorticoids. We compared combinations of therapy, which included the addition of a LABA (salmeterol) to an inhaled glucocorticoid (fluticasone propionate), a step-up to double to quintuple the dose of fluticasone, or both. The treatments were compared with the use of a composite measure that evaluated asthma exacerbations, asthma-control days, and lung function; data were stratified according to genotypic African ancestry. RESULTS: When quintupling the dose of fluticasone (to 250 μg twice a day) was compared with adding salmeterol (50 μg twice a day) and doubling the fluticasone (to 100 μg twice a day), a superior response occurred in 46% of the children with quintupling the fluticasone and in 46% of the children with doubling the fluticasone and adding salmeterol (P = 0.99). In contrast, more adolescents and adults had a superior response to added salmeterol than to an increase in fluticasone (salmeterol-low-dose fluticasone vs. medium-dose fluticasone, 49% vs. 28% [P = 0.003]; salmeterol-medium-dose fluticasone vs. high-dose fluticasone, 49% vs. 31% [P = 0.02]). Neither the degree of African ancestry nor baseline biomarkers predicted a superior response to specific treatments. The increased dose of inhaled glucocorticoids was associated with a decrease in the ratio of urinary cortisol to creatinine in children younger than 8 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to black adolescents and adults, almost half the black children with poorly controlled asthma had a superior response to an increase in the dose of an inhaled glucocorticoid and almost half had a superior response to the addition of a LABA. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; BARD ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01967173.)