10Gbit/s modulation of a fast switching slotted Fabry-Pérot tunable laser

The device used is a three-section, 3mum wide ridge waveguide laser based on commercially available material. During the fabrication a series of slots are introduced into the front and back sections, which act as sites of internal reflections. The slots are etched to a depth that just penetrates the top of the upper waveguide resulting in an internal reflectance of-1% at each slot. The front, middle, and back sections are 180, 690 and 170 microns long respectively. In this work the back and middle sections are tied together electrically allowing simpler control of the device. By varying the applied DC currents, eight discrete channels are observed over a range of approximately 19nm

A comparison of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging to invasive electrocortical stimulation for sensorimotor mapping in pediatric patients

Localizing neurologic function within the brain remains a significant challenge in clinical neurosurgery. Invasive mapping with direct electrocortical stimulation currently is the clinical gold standard but is impractical in young or cognitively delayed patients who are unable to reliably perform tasks. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging non-invasively identifies resting state networks without the need for task performance, hence, is well suited to pediatric patients. We compared sensorimotor network localization by resting state fMRI to cortical stimulation sensory and motor mapping in 16 pediatric patients aged 3.1 to 18.6 years. All had medically refractory epilepsy that required invasive electrographic monitoring and stimulation mapping. The resting state fMRI data were analyzed using a previously trained machine learning classifier that has previously been evaluated in adults. We report comparable functional localization by resting state fMRI compared to stimulation mapping. These results provide strong evidence for the utility of resting state functional imaging in the localization of sensorimotor cortex across a wide range of pediatric patients

Tracking Cryptic SARS-CoV-2 Lineages Detected in NYC Wastewater

Tracking SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity is strongly indicated because diversifying selection may lead to the emergence of novel variants resistant to naturally acquired or vaccine-induced immunity. To monitor New York City (NYC) for the presence of novel variants, we deep sequence most of the receptor binding domain coding sequence of the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from the New York City wastewater. Here we report detecting increasing frequencies of novel cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineages not recognized in GISAID’s EpiCoV database. These lineages contain mutations that had been rarely observed in clinical samples, including Q493K, Q498Y, E484A, and T572N and share many mutations with the Omicron variant of concern. Some of these mutations expand the tropism of SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses by allowing infection of cells expressing the human, mouse, or rat ACE2 receptor. Finally, pseudoviruses containing the spike amino acid sequence of these lineages were resistant to different classes of receptor binding domain neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. We offer several hypotheses for the anomalous presence of these lineages, including the possibility that these lineages are derived from unsampled human COVID-19 infections or that they indicate the presence of a non-human animal reservoir

Cultivation of Heligmosomoides polygyrus:An immunomodulatory nematode parasite and its secreted products

Heligmosomoides polygyrus (formerly known as Nematospiroides dubius, and also referred to by some as H. bakeri) is a gastrointestinal helminth that employs multiple immunomodulatory mechanisms to establish chronic infection in mice and closely resembles prevalent human helminth infections. H. polygyrus has been studied extensively in the field of helminth-derived immune regulation and has been found to potently suppress experimental models of allergy and autoimmunity (both with active infection and isolated secreted products). The protocol described in this paper outlines management of the H. polygyrus life cycle for consistent production of L3 larvae, recovery of adult parasites, and collection of their excretory-secretory products (HES)

Acute Effects of Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Shocks on Biomarkers of Myocardial Injury, Apoptosis, Heart Failure, and Systemic Inflammation

Background: Implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator (ICD) shocks are potentially associated with myocardial injury, altered hemodynamics, apoptosis, and inflammatory signaling. Their precise cellular impact can be explored after defibrillation testing (DFT) via biomarkers. We evaluated changes in biomarkers after ICD shocks during DFT. Methods: We prospectively enrolled outpatients presenting for first implantation of a cardiac device. Biomarkers indicative of myocardial injury, inflammation, and apoptosis were measured before and after implantation, and compared between patients receiving DFT (DFT+) to those not (DFT−). Results: Sixty‐three patients were enrolled, 40 in the DFT+ group and 23 in the DFT− group. Average levels of troponin I, hsCRP, Calprotectin, N‐terminal pro B‐type natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP), and sFas increased by \u3e50% after cardiac device implantation compared to baseline. Increase in troponin never exceeded the 50‐fold upper limit of normal (2 ng/mL). Troponin trended higher in the DFT+ group at 8 hours (median 0.18 ng/mL, interquartile range [IQR] 0.11–0.48) versus the DFT− group (0.10 ng/mL, IQR 0.06–0.28, P = 0.0501); NTproBNP had a similar trend (P = 0.0581). sFas significantly increased in the DFT+ group from baseline (median 4663 pg/mL, IQR 2908–5679) to 24 hours (5039 pg/mL, IQR 3274–6261; P = 0.0338) but not in the DFT− group (P = 0.4705). Conclusion: DFT testing is associated with acutely increased plasma levels of troponin and sFas, a biomarker of apoptosis, along with a trend toward higher NTproBNP

C60_{60} in intense femtosecond laser pulses: nonlinear dipole response and ionization

We study the interaction of strong femtosecond laser pulses with the C$_{60}$ molecule employing time-dependent density functional theory with the ionic background treated in a jellium approximation. The laser intensities considered are below the threshold of strong fragmentation but too high for perturbative treatments such as linear response. The nonlinear response of the model to excitations by short pulses of frequencies up to 45eV is presented and analyzed with the help of Kohn-Sham orbital resolved dipole spectra. In femtosecond laser pulses of 800nm wavelength ionization is found to occur multiphoton-like rather than via excitation of a ``giant'' resonance.Comment: 14 pages, including 1 table, 5 figure

Lake-size dependency of wind shear and convection as controls on gas exchange

High-frequency physical observations from 40 temperate lakes were used to examine the relative contributions of wind shear (u*) and convection (w*) to turbulence in the surface mixed layer. Seasonal patterns of u* and w* were dissimilar; u* was often highest in the spring, while w * increased throughout the summer to a maximum in early fall. Convection was a larger mixed-layer turbulence source than wind shear (u */w*-1 for lakes* and w* differ in temporal pattern and magnitude across lakes, both convection and wind shear should be considered in future formulations of lake-air gas exchange, especially for small lakes. © 2012 by the American Geophysical Union.Jordan S. Read, David P. Hamilton, Ankur R. Desai, Kevin C. Rose, Sally MacIntyre, John D. Lenters, Robyn L. Smyth, Paul C. Hanson, Jonathan J. Cole, Peter A. Staehr, James A. Rusak, Donald C. Pierson, Justin D. Brookes, Alo Laas, and Chin H. W

Identifying differential exon splicing using linear models and correlation coefficients

Background: With the availability of the Affymetrix exon arrays a number of tools have been developed to enable the analysis. These however can be expensive or have several pre-installation requirements. This led us to develop an analysis workflow for analysing differential splicing using freely available software packages that are already being widely used for gene expression analysis. The workflow uses the packages in the standard installation of R and Bioconductor (BiocLite) to identify differential splicing. We use the splice index method with the LIMMA framework. The main drawback with this approach is that it relies on accurate estimates of gene expression from the probe-level data. Methods such as RMA and PLIER may misestimate when a large proportion of exons are spliced. We therefore present the novel concept of a gene correlation coefficient calculated using only the probeset expression pattern within a gene. We show that genes with lower correlation coefficients are likely to be differentially spliced.Results: The LIMMA approach was used to identify several tissue-specific transcripts and splicing events that are supported by previous experimental studies. Filtering the data is necessary, particularly removing exons and genes that are not expressed in all samples and cross-hybridising probesets, in order to reduce the false positive rate. The LIMMA approach ranked genes containing single or few differentially spliced exons much higher than genes containing several differentially spliced exons. On the other hand we found the gene correlation coefficient approach better for identifying genes with a large number of differentially spliced exons.Conclusion: We show that LIMMA can be used to identify differential exon splicing from Affymetrix exon array data. Though further work would be necessary to develop the use of correlation coefficients into a complete analysis approach, the preliminary results demonstrate their usefulness for identifying differentially spliced genes. The two approaches work complementary as they can potentially identify different subsets of genes (single/few spliced exons vs. large transcript structure differences)