The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Nutritional predictors of complications following radical cystectomy

PURPOSE: To determine the impact of preoperative nutritional status on the development of surgical complications following cystectomy using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP). METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of the NSQIP 2005–2012 Participant Use Data Files. ACS-NSQIP collects data on 135 variables, including pre- and intraoperative data and 30-day post-operative complications and mortality on all major surgical procedures at participating institutions. Preoperative albumin (<3.5 or >3.5 g/dl), weight loss 6 months before surgery (>10%), and BMI were identified as nutritional variables within the database. The overall complication rate was calculated and predictors of complications were identified using multivariable logistic regression models. RESULTS: 1,213 patients underwent cystectomy for bladder cancer between 2005–2012. The overall 30-day complication rate was 55.1% (n=668). While 14.7% (n=102) had a preoperative albumin <3.5 g/dL, 3.4% had >10% weight loss in the 6 months prior to surgery, and the mean BMI was 28 kg/m(2). After controlling for age, sex, medical comorbidities, medical resident involvement, operation year, operative time and prior operation, only albumin <3.5g/dl was a significant predictor of experiencing a postoperative complication (p=0.03). This remained significant when albumin was evaluated as a continuous variable (p=0.02) CONCLUSIONS: Poor nutritional status measured by serum albumin is predictive of an increased rate of surgical complications following radical cystectomy. This finding supports the importance of preoperative nutritional status in this population and highlights the need for the development of effective nutritional interventions in the preoperative setting

Hyperinflammation in chronic granulomatous disease and anti-inflammatory role of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is an immunodeficiency caused by the lack of the superoxide-producing phagocyte nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase. However, CGD patients not only suffer from recurrent infections, but also present with inflammatory, non-infectious conditions. Among the latter, granulomas figure prominently, which gave the name to the disease, and colitis, which is frequent and leads to a substantial morbidity. In this paper, we systematically review the inflammatory lesions in different organs of CGD patients and compare them to observations in CGD mouse models. In addition to the more classical inflammatory lesions, CGD patients and their relatives have increased frequency of autoimmune diseases, and CGD mice are arthritis-prone. Possible mechanisms involved in CGD hyperinflammation include decreased degradation of phagocytosed material, redox-dependent termination of proinflammatory mediators and/or signaling, as well as redox-dependent cross-talk between phagocytes and lymphocytes (e.g. defective tryptophan catabolism). As a conclusion from this review, we propose the existence of ROS high and ROS low inflammatory responses, which are triggered as a function of the level of reactive oxygen species and have specific characteristics in terms of physiology and pathophysiology

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least 4 m. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the 6.5 m James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 yr, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit