Medical ultrasonic tomographic system

An electro-mechanical scanning assembly was designed and fabricated for the purpose of generating an ultrasound tomogram. A low cost modality was demonstrated in which analog instrumentation methods formed a tomogram on photographic film. Successful tomogram reconstructions were obtained on in vitro test objects by using the attenuation of the fist path ultrasound signal as it passed through the test object. The nearly half century tomographic methods of X-ray analysis were verified as being useful for ultrasound imaging

Dynamic glycosylation of the transcription factor CREB: A potential role in gene regulation

We report that CREB (cyclic AMP-responsive element-binding protein), a transcription factor essential for long-term memory, is O-GlcNAc glycosylated in the mammalian brain. Glycosylation occurs at two sites within the Q2 domain and disrupts the interaction between CREB and TAF_(II)130, thereby repressing the transcriptional activity of CREB in vitro. These findings have important implications for the role of O-GlcNAc glycosylation in gene regulation, and they provide a link between O-GlcNAc and information storage processes in the brain

Visualizing electrostatic gating effects in two-dimensional heterostructures

The ability to directly observe electronic band structure in modern nanoscale field-effect devices could transform understanding of their physics and function. One could, for example, visualize local changes in the electrical and chemical potentials as a gate voltage is applied. One could also study intriguing physical phenomena such as electrically induced topological transitions and many-body spectral reconstructions. Here we show that submicron angle-resolved photoemission (micro-ARPES) applied to two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals heterostructures affords this ability. In graphene devices, we observe a shift of the chemical potential by 0.6 eV across the Dirac point as a gate voltage is applied. In several 2D semiconductors we see the conduction band edge appear as electrons accumulate, establishing its energy and momentum, and observe significant band-gap renormalization at low densities. We also show that micro-ARPES and optical spectroscopy can be applied to a single device, allowing rigorous study of the relationship between gate-controlled electronic and excitonic properties.Comment: Original manuscript with 9 pages with 4 figures in main text, 5 pages with 4 figures in supplement. Substantially edited manuscript accepted at Natur

Measurements of galactic cosmic ray shielding with the CRaTER instrument

[1] The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been measuring energetic charged particles from the galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar particle events in lunar orbit since 2009. CRaTER includes three pairs of silicon detectors, separated by pieces of tissue-equivalent plastic that shield two of the three pairs from particles incident at the zenith-facing end of the telescope. Heavy-ion beams studied in previous ground-based work have been shown to be reasonable proxies for the GCRs when their energies are sufficiently high. That work, which included GCR simulations, led to predictions for the amount of dose reduction that would be observed by CRaTER. Those predictions are compared to flight data obtained by CRaTER in 2010–2011

Introduction : Piracy and occasional state power

States exert their power over maritime predation only occasionally depending on prevalent circumstances. Historically, when states have perceived and attempted to address a problem of piracy, they have encountered severe limits on their abilities to manage private maritime enterprise in waters under their purported control. Despite the popular conception that piracy falls into the legal category of 'universal jurisdiction', such jurisdiction has only been employed sporadically. In reality, despite high-profile 'terror' campaigns against pirates, states regularly employed alternative means of suppression, including negotiation, legal posturing and co-optation. The four articles in this Forum provide detailed case studies of the occasional use of state power to regulate maritime predation in diverse waters and contexts. In these examples, states respectively negotiated with maritime communities in medieval England, sought a monopoly on violence in the South China Sea, collaborated with other states to police colonial Hong Kong, and dealt diplomatically with a local pirate hero to defend New Orleans. Across each article, the 'state' faced a particular problem of piracy, but could only occasionally exert power to manage it

Providing surgical care in Somalia: A model of task shifting.

ABSTRACT

The first cosmic ray albedo proton map of the Moon

[1] Neutrons emitted from the Moon are produced by the impact of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) within the regolith. GCRs are high-energy particles capable of smashing atomic nuclei in the lunar regolith and producing a shower of energetic protons, neutrons and other subatomic particles. Secondary particles that are ejected out of the regolith become “albedo” particles. The neutron albedo has been used to study the hydrogen content of the lunar regolith, which motivates our study of albedo protons. In principle, the albedo protons should vary as a function of the input GCR source and possibly as a result of surface composition and properties. During the LRO mission, the total detection rate of albedo protons between 60 MeV and 150 MeV has been declining since 2009 in parallel with the decline in the galactic cosmic ray flux, which validates the concept of an albedo proton source. On the other hand, the average yield of albedo protons has been increasing as the galactic cosmic ray spectrum has been hardening, consistent with a disproportionately stronger modulation of lower energy GCRs as solar activity increases. We construct the first map of the normalized albedo proton emission rate from the lunar surface to look for any albedo variation that correlates with surface features. The map is consistent with a spatially uniform albedo proton yield to within statistical uncertainties

The Association of qSOFA, SOFA, and SIRS with Mortality in Emergency Department Pneumonia

Objective: To determine the association between 30-day mortality with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), and quick SOFA (qSOFA) in emergency department patients with pneumonia. Secondary outcomes included the association of sepsis scores with hospital admission and direct ICU admission. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a pneumonia population conducted in the emergency department of 3 tertiary care medical centers and 4 community hospitals. Adult immunocompetent patients diagnosed with pneumonia were included from 3 twelve-month periods spanning December 2009 to October 2015. We generated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values for each sepsis score for our primary outcome of 30-day mortality and secondarily for hospital admission and direct ICU admission. We also created logistic regression models to assess associations of individual score components to the outcomes. Results:We studied 6931 patients with mean (SD) age 58 (20) years, and 30 day all-cause mortality rate 7%. Hospital and ICU admission rate was 63% and 16% respectively. Sepsis by SIRS was present in 70% of patients. Only respiratory rate and white blood count of the SIRS criteria were associated with 30-day mortality (OR=2.42 [1.94, 3.03] and 2.06 [1.68, 2.54] respectively, both p Conclusions: In emergency department patients with pneumonia, qSOFA outperformed SIRS in relation to 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes also showed better performance of qSOFA in hospital and ICU admission compared to SIRS. SOFA performed better than qSOFA and SIRS for all outcomes except ICU admission

How Territoriality and Sociality Influence the Habitat Selection and Movements of a Large Carnivore

While territoriality is one of the key mechanisms influencing carnivore space use, most studies quantify resource selection and movement in the absence of conspecific influence or territorial structure. Our analysis incorporated social information in a resource selection framework to investigate mechanisms of territoriality and intra‐specific competition on the habitat selection of a large, social carnivore. We fit integrated step selection functions to 3‐h GPS data from 12 collared African wild dog packs in the Okavango Delta and estimated selection coefficients using a conditional Poisson likelihood with random effects. Packs selected for their neighbors\u27 30‐day boundary (defined as their 95% kernel density estimate) and for their own 90‐day core (defined as their 50% kernel density estimate). Neighbors\u27 30‐day boundary had a greater influence on resource selection than any habitat feature. Habitat selection differed when they were within versus beyond their neighbors\u27 30‐day boundary. Pack size, pack tenure, pup presence, and seasonality all mediated how packs responded to neighbors\u27 space use, and seasonal dynamics altered the strength of residency. While newly‐formed packs and packs with pups avoided their neighbors\u27 boundary, older packs and those without pups selected for it. Packs also selected for the boundary of larger neighboring packs more strongly than that of smaller ones. Social structure within packs has implications for how they interact with conspecifics, and therefore how they are distributed across the landscape. Future research should continue to investigate how territorial processes are mediated by social dynamics and, in turn, how territorial structure mediates resource selection and movement. These results could inform the development of a human–wildlife conflict (HWC) mitigation tool by co‐opting the mechanisms of conspecific interactions to manage space use of endangered carnivores