An instrument design for non-contact detection of biomolecules and minerals on Mars using fluorescence.

We discuss fluorescence as a method to detect polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other organic molecules, as well as minerals on the surface of Mars. We present an instrument design that is adapted from the ChemCam instrument which is currently on the Mars Science Lander Rover Curiosity and thus most of the primary components are currently flight qualified for Mars surface operations, significantly reducing development costs. The major change compared to ChemCam is the frequency multipliers of the 1064 nm laser to wavelengths suitable for fluorescence excitation (266 nm, 355 nm, and 532 nm).

Zoning in on parents' needs: understanding parents' perspectives in order to provide person-centered care.

Purpose: In order to develop a theoretical framework for person-centered care models for children with epilepsy and their parents, we conducted a qualitative study to explore and understand parents' needs, values, and preferences to ultimately reduce barriers that may be impeding parents from accessing and obtaining help for their children's co-occurring problems.

Methods: A qualitative grounded theory study design was utilized to understand parents' perspectives. The participants were 22 parents of children with epilepsy whose age ranged from 31 to 53 years.

Complement and spinal cord injury: traditional and non-traditional aspects of complement cascade function in the injured spinal cord microenvironment.

The pathology associated with spinal cord injury (SCI) is caused not only by primary mechanical trauma, but also by secondary responses of the injured CNS. The inflammatory response to SCI is robust and plays an important but complex role in the progression of many secondary injury-associated pathways. Although recent studies have begun to dissect the beneficial and detrimental roles for inflammatory cells and proteins after SCI, many of these neuroimmune interactions are debated, not well understood, or completely unexplored.

Search for low-mass weakly interacting massive particles with SuperCDMS.

We report a first search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) using the background rejection capabilities of SuperCDMS. An exposure of 577 kg days was analyzed for WIMPs with mass <30  GeV/c(2), with the signal region blinded. Eleven events were observed after unblinding.

Injury to the spinal cord niche alters the engraftment dynamics of human neural stem cells.

The microenvironment is a critical mediator of stem cell survival, proliferation, migration, and differentiation. The majority of preclinical studies involving transplantation of neural stem cells (NSCs) into the CNS have focused on injured or degenerating microenvironments, leaving a dearth of information as to how NSCs differentially respond to intact versus damaged CNS. Furthermore, single, terminal histological endpoints predominate, providing limited insight into the spatiotemporal dynamics of NSC engraftment and migration.

A control experiment for studies that show improved visual sensitivity with intraocular pressure lowering in glaucoma.

Purpose: Contrast sensitivity sometimes increases in patients with open-angle glaucoma when intraocular pressure (IOP) is decreased. Although often interpreted as demonstrating reversible glaucoma-induced dysfunction, this result, if true, could simply reflect a general relationship between sensitivity and IOP in visual mechanisms unaffected by glaucoma. To investigate this relationship, we test the hypothesis that reducing IOP in eyes without glaucoma (ocular hypertension) does not increase perimetric contrast sensitivity.

Sonic hedgehog and neurotrophin-3 increase oligodendrocyte numbers and myelination after spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in loss of sensory and motor function below the level of injury and has limited available therapies. Multiple channel bridges have been investigated as a means to create a permissive environment for regeneration, with channels supporting axonal growth through the injury. Bridges support robust axon growth and myelination.

Global gene expression analysis following spinal cord injury in non-human primates.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition with no established treatment. To better understand the pathology and develop a treatment modality for SCI, an understanding of the physiological changes following SCI at the molecular level is essential. However, studies on SCI have primarily used rodent models, and few studies have examined SCI in non-human primates.

The effects of ageing and visual field loss on pointing to visual targets.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of ageing on visuomotor function and subsequently evaluate the effect of visual field loss on such function in older adults.

Methods: Two experiments were performed: 1) to determine the effect of ageing on visual localisation and subsequent pointing precision, and 2) to determine the effect of visual field loss on these outcome measures. For Experiment 1, we measured visual localisation and pointing precision radially at visual eccentricities of 5, 10 and 15° in 25 older (60-72 years) and 25 younger (20-31 years) adults.

Test-retest reliability of retinal oxygen saturation measurement.

Purpose: To determine intrasession and intersession repeatability of retinal vessel oxygen saturation from the Oxymap Retinal Oximeter using a whole image-based analysis technique and so determine optimal analysis parameters to reduce variability.

Methods: Ten fundus oximetry images were acquired through dilated pupils from 18 healthy participants (aged 22 to 38) using the Oxymap Retinal Oximeter T1. A further 10 images were obtained 1 to 2 weeks later from each individual.

Induction of early neural precursors and derivation of tripotent neural stem cells from human pluripotent stem cells under xeno-free conditions.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) can differentiate into many cell types and are important for regenerative medicine; however, further work is needed to reliably differentiate hESC and hiPSC into neural-restricted multipotent derivatives or specialized cell types under conditions that are free from animal products. Toward this goal, we tested the transition of hESC and hiPSC lines onto xeno-free (XF) / feeder-free conditions and evaluated XF substrate preference, pluripotency, and karyotype. Critically, XF transitioned H9 hESC, Shef4 hESC, and iPS6-9 retained pluripotency (Oct-4 and NANOG), proliferation (MKI67 and PCNA), and normal karyotype.

ZnO nanoparticles and root colonization by a beneficial pseudomonad influence essential metal responses in bean (Phaseolus vulgaris).

Nanoparticles (NPs) incorporated into commercial products are reactive on plants. Here, the influence of a root-associated bacterium, Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 (PcO6) on the responses of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) to commercial ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) was examined. ZnO NPs (250-1000 mg Zn/kg) significantly (p = 0.

Target direction rather than position determines oculomotor expectation in repeating sequences.

Saccadic latencies to targets appearing to the left and right of fixation in a repeating sequence are significantly increased when a target is presented out of sequence. Is this because the target is in the wrong position, the wrong direction, or both? To find out, we arranged for targets in a horizontal plane occasionally to appear with an unexpected eccentricity, though in the correct direction. This had no significant effect on latency, unlike what is observed when targets appeared in the unexpected direction.

The global regulator GacS regulates biofilm formation in Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 differently with carbon source.

An aggressive root colonizer, Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 produces various secondary metabolites that impact plant health. The sensor kinase GacS is a key regulator of the expression of biocontrol-related traits. Biofilm formation is one such trait because of its role in root surface colonization.

Functional size of human visual area V1: a neural correlate of top-down attention.

Heavy demands are placed on the brain's attentional capacity when selecting a target item in a cluttered visual scene, or when reading. It is widely accepted that such attentional selection is mediated by top-down signals from higher cortical areas to early visual areas such as the primary visual cortex (V1). Further, it has also been reported that there is considerable variation in the surface area of V1.

Search for low-mass weakly interacting massive particles using voltage-assisted calorimetric ionization detection in the SuperCDMS experiment.

SuperCDMS is an experiment designed to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a favored candidate for dark matter ubiquitous in the Universe. In this Letter, we present WIMP-search results using a calorimetric technique we call CDMSlite, which relies on voltage-assisted Luke-Neganov amplification of the ionization energy deposited by particle interactions. The data were collected with a single 0.

Silicon detector dark matter results from the final exposure of CDMS II.

We report results of a search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS) with the silicon detectors of the CDMS II experiment. This blind analysis of 140.2 kg day of data taken between July 2007 and September 2008 revealed three WIMP-candidate events with a surface-event background estimate of 0.

Components from wheat roots modify the bioactivity of ZnO and CuO nanoparticles in a soil bacterium.

ZnO and CuO nanoparticles (NPs) have widespread commercial uses and their impact on agricultural systems is unresolved. This study examined whether the metabolites washed from wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) roots modulated the metabolic response to the NPs of a biosensor generated in the root colonizer, Pseudomonas putida KT2440.

Neuropsychology in Multidisciplinary Stroke Care: Clinical Feasibility of the NINDS-CSN Vascular Cognitive Impairment Harmonization Standards.

As a significant number of stroke victims exhibit cognitive impairment, neuropsychological assessments can enhance poststroke management by identifying pertinent cognitive sequelae and providing salient care recommendations. However, due to operational differences between traditional neuropsychology and stroke services, neuropsychological assessments often remain underutilized in stroke care. We developed a novel care model that incorporated neuropsychological testing into a comprehensive stroke program using the modified vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) half-hour assessment protocol proposed by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-Canadian Stroke Network (NINDS-CSN).

Safety of human neural stem cell transplantation in chronic spinal cord injury.

The spinal cord injury (SCI) microenvironment undergoes dynamic changes over time, which could potentially affect survival or differentiation of cells in early versus delayed transplantation study designs. Accordingly, assessment of safety parameters, including cell survival, migration, fate, sensory fiber sprouting, and behavioral measures of pain sensitivity in animals receiving transplants during the chronic postinjury period is required for establishing a potential therapeutic window. The goal of the study was assessment of safety parameters for delayed transplantation of human central nervous system-derived neural stem cells (hCNS-SCns) by comparing hCNS-SCns transplantation in the subacute period, 9 days postinjury (DPI), versus the chronic period, 60 DPI, in contusion-injured athymic nude rats.

Discriminating taxonomic categories and domains in mental simulations of concepts of varying concreteness.

Most studies of conceptual knowledge in the brain focus on a narrow range of concrete conceptual categories, rely on the researchers' intuitions about which object belongs to these categories, and assume a broadly taxonomic organization of knowledge. In this fMRI study, we focus on concepts with a variety of concreteness levels; we use a state of the art lexical resource (WordNet 3.1) as the source for a relatively large number of category distinctions and compare a taxonomic style of organization with a domain-based model (an example domain is Law).

N-Butanoyl-N-(3-chloro-1,4-dioxonaph-thalen-2-yl)butanamide.

In the title compound, C18H18ClNO4, the imide group with its two alkyl substituents is approximately perpendicular to the plane of the naphtho-quinone ring system [dihedral angle = 78.5 (1)°]. Further, the imide carbonyl groups are oriented in an anti sense.

Effect of iodine supplementation in pregnancy on child development and other clinical outcomes: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Routine iodine supplementation during pregnancy is recommended by leading health authorities worldwide, even in countries where the iodine status of the population is sufficient.

Objectives: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of iodine supplementation during pregnancy or the periconceptional period on the development and growth of children. Secondary outcomes included pregnancy outcome and thyroid function.

Retinal oxygen saturation: novel analysis method for the oxymap.

Purpose: To use a novel image analysis approach to consider how oxygen saturation changes as a function of vessel width and distance from the nerve and between superior and inferior retinal hemifields.

Methods: Ten images were acquired from one eye of 17 participants (mean [standard deviation] age, 28 [4] years; range, 22-38 years) using the Oxymap T1 retinal oximeter. Every pixel identified by the detection algorithm was extracted, and frequency histograms of retinal vessel oxygen saturation were plotted for each vessel diameter (70-170 μm).