The clownfish-hosting sea anemones (Anthozoa: Actiniaria): updated nomenclature, biogeography, and practical field guide.

Ten described species of sea anemones (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: Actiniaria) serve as hosts to charismatic clownfishes (or anemonefishes) on coral reefs throughout the tropical Indo-West Pacific. Although not diverse in number, the clownfish-hosting sea anemones have large biogeographic ranges, exhibit extensive intraspecific phenotypic appearances, and have been surrounded by a great deal of historical and contemporary taxonomic and nomenclatural confusion. We believe these factors have created challenges for field scientists making real-time species-level identifications of host sea anemones.

Young infants display heterogeneous serological responses and extensive but reversible transcriptional changes following initial immunizations.

Infants necessitate vaccinations to prevent life-threatening infections. Our understanding of the infant immune responses to routine vaccines remains limited. We analyzed two cohorts of 2-month-old infants before vaccination, one week, and one-month post-vaccination.

Novel observations of asexual reproduction in the carpet sea anemone, (Stichodactylidae, Actiniaria).

Merten's carpet sea anemone, Brandt, 1835, is the largest known sea anemone species in the world, regularly exceeding one meter in oral disc diameter. A tropical species from the Indo-Pacific, drapes prominently over coral reef substrates and is a common host to numerous species of clownfishes and other symbionts throughout its range, which extends from the Red Sea through the Central Pacific Ocean. Long thought to reproduce via sexual reproduction only, recent genetic evidence suggests it may rarely reproduce asexually as well, although this process had never been confirmed through direct observation and the mechanism was yet to be described.

Red Sea Atlas of Coral-Associated Bacteria Highlights Common Microbiome Members and Their Distribution across Environmental Gradients-A Systematic Review.

The Red Sea is a suitable model for studying coral reefs under climate change due to its strong environmental gradient that provides a window into future global warming scenarios. For instance, corals in the southern Red Sea thrive at temperatures predicted to occur at the end of the century in other biogeographic regions. Corals in the Red Sea thrive under contrasting thermal and environmental regimes along their latitudinal gradient.

Modeling Noise-Related Timbre Semantic Categories of Orchestral Instrument Sounds With Audio Features, Pitch Register, and Instrument Family.

Audio features such as inharmonicity, noisiness, and spectral roll-off have been identified as correlates of "noisy" sounds. However, such features are likely involved in the experience of multiple semantic timbre categories of varied meaning and valence. This paper examines the relationships of stimulus properties and audio features with the semantic timbre categories , , and .

Contrasting Effects of Local Environmental and Biogeographic Factors on the Composition and Structure of Bacterial Communities in Arid Monospecific Mangrove Soils.

Mangrove forests are important biotic sinks of atmospheric CO and play an integral role in nutrient-cycling and decontamination of coastal waters, thereby mitigating climatic and anthropogenic stressors. These services are primarily regulated by the activity of the soil microbiome. To understand how environmental changes may affect this vital part of the ecosystem, it is key to understand the patterns that drive microbial community assembly in mangrove forest soils.

Sex Differences in Blood Transcriptional Profiles and Clinical Phenotypes in Pediatric Patients with Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

Background: Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is an increasingly recognized, chronic inflammatory disease. Recent reports suggest clinical differences between males and females.

Objective: To define the relevant molecular pathways that could be related to clinical phenotypes in children with EoE.

Early Changes in Interferon Gene Expression and Antibody Responses Following Influenza Vaccination in Pregnant Women.

Background: Influenza immunization during pregnancy provides protection to the mother and the infant. Studies in adults and children with inactivated influenza vaccine have identified changes in immune gene expression that were correlated with antibody responses. The current study was performed to define baseline blood transcriptional profiles and changes induced by inactivated influenza vaccine in pregnant women and to identify correlates with antibody responses.

Immune profiles provide insights into respiratory syncytial virus disease severity in young children.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with major morbidity in infants, although most cases result in mild disease. The pathogenesis of the disease is incompletely understood, especially the determining factors of disease severity. A better characterization of these factors may help with development of RSV vaccines and antivirals.

Characterization of Young Children Presenting to the Emergency Department for Mental Health Complaints.

Objectives: From 2011 to 2015, psychiatric emergency department visits among youth in the United States increased 28% and psychiatric visits made up 10% of all pediatric emergency department (ED) visits. Previous research has focused on adolescent mental health, with little characterization of children 10 years of age and younger with mental health complaints. The primary objective of this study was to describe these children who presented to a pediatric ED for mental health complaints in terms of demographics and psychosocial factors.

Interface-Dependent Radiative Lifetimes of Yb, Er Co-doped Single NaYF Upconversion Nanowires.

The development of upconversion nanomaterials for many photonic applications requires a detailed understanding of their radiative lifetimes that in turn depend critically on local environmental conditions. In this work, hexagonal (β-phase) sodium-yttrium-fluoride (NaYF) nanowires (NWs) were synthesized and substitutionally co-doped with a luminescent solid solution of trivalent erbium and ytterbium ions. A single-beam laser trapping instrument was used in tandem with a piezo-controlled, variable-temperature stage to precisely vary the nanowire's distance from the substrate.

Secondhand smoke alters arachidonic acid metabolism and inflammation in infants and children with cystic fibrosis.

Background: Mechanisms that facilitate early infection and inflammation in cystic fibrosis (CF) are unclear. We previously demonstrated that children with CF and parental-reported secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe) have increased susceptibility to bacterial infections. SHSe hinders arachidonic acid (AA) metabolites that mediate immune function in patients without CF, and may influence CF immune dysfunction.

Whole blood transcriptional profiles as a prognostic tool in complete and incomplete Kawasaki Disease.

Background: Early identification of children with Kawasaki Disease (KD) is key for timely initiation of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy. However, the diagnosis of the disease remains challenging, especially in children with an incomplete presentation (inKD). Moreover, we currently lack objective tools for identification of non-response (NR) to IVIG.

Nasopharyngeal Microbiota, Host Transcriptome, and Disease Severity in Children with Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection.

Rationale: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections and hospitalizations in infants worldwide. Known risk factors, however, incompletely explain the variability of RSV disease severity, especially among healthy children. We postulate that the severity of RSV infection is influenced by modulation of the host immune response by the local bacterial ecosystem.

Association of RNA Biosignatures With Bacterial Infections in Febrile Infants Aged 60 Days or Younger.

Importance: Young febrile infants are at substantial risk of serious bacterial infections; however, the current culture-based diagnosis has limitations. Analysis of host expression patterns ("RNA biosignatures") in response to infections may provide an alternative diagnostic approach.

Objective: To assess whether RNA biosignatures can distinguish febrile infants aged 60 days or younger with and without serious bacterial infections.

Laser Refrigeration of Ytterbium-Doped Sodium-Yttrium-Fluoride Nanowires.

Sodium yttrium fluoride (β-NaYF ) nanowires (NWs) with a hexagonal crystal structure are synthesized using a low-cost hydrothermal process and are shown to undergo laser refrigeration based on an upconversion process leading to anti-Stokes (blueshifted) photoluminescence. Single-beam laser trapping combined with forward light scattering is used to investigate cryophotonic laser refrigeration of individual NWs through analysis of their local Brownian dynamics.

Deuteron irradiation of W and WO3 for production of high specific activity (186)Re: Challenges associated with thick target preparation.

This investigation evaluated target fabrication and beam parameters for scale-up production of high specific activity (186)Re using deuteron irradiation of enriched (186)W via the (186)W(d,2n)(186)Re reaction. Thick W and WO3 targets were prepared, characterized and evaluated in deuteron irradiations. Full-thickness targets, as determined using SRIM, were prepared by uniaxially pressing powdered natural abundance W and WO3, or 96.

Accelerator-based production of the (99m)Tc-(186)Re diagnostic-therapeutic pair using metal disulfide targets (MoS2, WS2, OsS2).

Novel, natural abundance metal disulfide targets were irradiated for 1h with a 10µA proton beam in a small, medical cyclotron. Osmium disulfide was synthesized by simple distillation and precipitation methods while MoS2 and WS2 were commercially available. The targets dissolved under mild conditions and were analyzed by γ-spectroscopy.

Laser refrigeration of hydrothermal nanocrystals in physiological media.

Coherent laser radiation has enabled many scientific and technological breakthroughs including Bose-Einstein condensates, ultrafast spectroscopy, superresolution optical microscopy, photothermal therapy, and long-distance telecommunications. However, it has remained a challenge to refrigerate liquid media (including physiological buffers) during laser illumination due to significant background solvent absorption and the rapid (∼ ps) nonradiative vibrational relaxation of molecular electronic excited states. Here we demonstrate that single-beam laser trapping can be used to induce and quantify the local refrigeration of physiological media by >10 °C following the emission of photoluminescence from upconverting yttrium lithium fluoride (YLF) nanocrystals.

Nanoscale materials for hyperthermal theranostics.

Recently, the use of nanoscale materials has attracted considerable attention with the aim of designing personalized therapeutic approaches that can enhance both spatial and temporal control over drug release, permeability, and uptake. Potential benefits to patients include the reduction of overall drug dosages, enabling the parallel delivery of different pharmaceuticals, and the possibility of enabling additional functionalities such as hyperthermia or deep-tissue imaging (LIF, PET, etc.) that complement and extend the efficacy of traditional chemotherapy and surgery.

Cycling of Etk and Etp phosphorylation states is involved in formation of group 4 capsule by Escherichia coli.

Capsules frequently play a key role in bacterial interactions with their environment. Escherichia coli capsules were categorized as groups 1 through 4, each produced by a distinct mechanism. Etk and Etp are members of protein families required for the production of group 1 and group 4 capsules.

Comparison of Methods for Collecting and Modeling Dissimilarity Data: Applications to Complex Sound Stimuli.

Sorting procedures are frequently adopted as an alternative to dissimilarity ratings to measure the dissimilarity of large sets of stimuli in a comparatively short time. However, systematic empirical research on the consequences of this experiment-design choice is lacking. We carried out a behavioral experiment to assess the extent to which sorting procedures compare to dissimilarity ratings in terms of efficiency, reliability, and accuracy, and the extent to which data from different data-collection methods are redundant and are better fit by different distance models.

Toll-like receptor 2 activation by Chlamydia trachomatis is plasmid dependent, and plasmid-responsive chromosomal loci are coordinately regulated in response to glucose limitation by C. trachomatis but not by C. muridarum.

We previously demonstrated that plasmid-deficient Chlamydia muridarum retains the ability to infect the murine genital tract but does not elicit oviduct pathology because it fails to activate Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). We derived a plasmid-cured derivative of the human genital isolate Chlamydia trachomatis D/UW-3/Cx, strain CTD153, which also fails to activate TLR2, indicating this virulence phenotype is associated with plasmid loss in both C. trachomatis and C.

Infectivity acts as in vivo selection for maintenance of the chlamydial cryptic plasmid.

Chlamydia trachomatis contains a conserved ∼7.5-kb plasmid. Loss of the plasmid results in reduced glycogen accumulation, failure to activate TLR2, and reduced infectivity.

Enhanced pure-tone pitch discrimination among persons with autism but not Asperger syndrome.

Persons with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) display atypical perceptual processing in visual and auditory tasks. In vision, Bertone, Mottron, Jelenic, and Faubert (2005) found that enhanced and diminished visual processing is linked to the level of neural complexity required to process stimuli, as proposed in the neural complexity hypothesis. Based on these findings, Samson, Mottron, Jemel, Belin, and Ciocca (2006) proposed to extend the neural complexity hypothesis to the auditory modality.