No thick carbon dioxide atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c.

Seven rocky planets orbit the nearby dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, providing a unique opportunity to search for atmospheres on small planets outside the Solar System. Thanks to the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), possible atmospheric constituents such as carbon dioxide (CO) are now detectable. Recent JWST observations of the innermost planet TRAPPIST-1 b showed that it is most probably a bare rock without any CO in its atmosphere.

The generation and propagation of the human alpha rhythm.

The alpha rhythm is the longest-studied brain oscillation and has been theorized to play a key role in cognition. Still, its physiology is poorly understood. In this study, we used microelectrodes and macroelectrodes in surgical epilepsy patients to measure the intracortical and thalamic generators of the alpha rhythm during quiet wakefulness.

Implicit mind perception alters vigilance performance because of cognitive conflict processing.

Knowing the internal states of others is essential to predicting behavior in social interactions and requires that the general characteristic of "having a mind" is granted to our interaction partners. Mind perception is a highly automatic process and can potentially cause a cognitive conflict when interacting with agents whose mind status is ambiguous, such as artificial agents. We investigate whether mind perception negatively impacts performance on tasks involving artificial agents because of cognitive conflict processing caused by a potentially increased difficulty to categorize them as human versus nonhuman.

A COMPARISON OF SIMULATED JWST OBSERVATIONS DERIVED FROM EQUILIBRIUM AND NON-EQUILIBRIUM CHEMISTRY MODELS OF GIANT EXOPLANETS.

We aim to see if the difference between equilibrium and disequilibrium chemistry is observable in the atmospheres of transiting planets by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We perform a case study comparing the dayside emission spectra of three planets like HD 189733b, WASP-80b, and GJ436b, in and out of chemical equilibrium at two metallicities each. These three planets were chosen because they span a large range of planetary masses and equilibrium temperatures, from hot and Jupiter-sized to warm and Neptune-sized.

An ultrahot gas-giant exoplanet with a stratosphere.

Infrared radiation emitted from a planet contains information about the chemical composition and vertical temperature profile of its atmosphere. If upper layers are cooler than lower layers, molecular gases will produce absorption features in the planetary thermal spectrum. Conversely, if there is a stratosphere-where temperature increases with altitude-these molecular features will be observed in emission.

HAT-P-26b: A Neptune-mass exoplanet with a well-constrained heavy element abundance.

A correlation between giant-planet mass and atmospheric heavy elemental abundance was first noted in the past century from observations of planets in our own Solar System and has served as a cornerstone of planet-formation theory. Using data from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes from 0.5 to 5 micrometers, we conducted a detailed atmospheric study of the transiting Neptune-mass exoplanet HAT-P-26b.

Growth of colloidal PbS nanosheets and the enhancement of their photoluminescence.

Dual photoluminescence peaks observed during the synthesis of colloidal PbS nanosheets reveal their growth mechanism - two-dimensional attachments of the quantum dots. Well-grown nanosheets show the photoluminescence linewidth of 95 meV at room temperature. Aged nanosheets in toluene have enhanced photoluminescence with intensity improved by an order of magnitude.

Neuroticism and vigilance revisited: A transcranial doppler investigation.

Selecting for vigilance assignments remains an important factor in human performance research. The current study revisits the potential relationship between vigilance performance and trait neuroticism, in light of two possible theories. The first theory suggests that neuroticism impairs vigilance performance by competing for available resources.

The effects of self-control on cognitive resource allocation during sustained attention: a transcranial Doppler investigation.

Vigilance, or sustained attention, is a required ability in many operational professions. While past research has consistently indicated that vigilance performance declines over time, referred to as the vigilance decrement, the theoretical mechanisms underlying the decrement continue to be explored. In the current study, trait self-control was examined to determine how this individual differences measure may contribute to the theoretical explanation of vigilance decrement.

Ultra-slow frequency bands reflecting potential coherence between neocortical brain regions.

Recent studies of electromagnetic ultra-slow waves (⩽0.1Hz) have suggested that they play a role in the integration of otherwise disassociated brain regions supporting vital functions (Ackermann and Borbely, 1997; Picchioni et al., 2010; Knyazev, 2012; Le Bon et al.

Intrinsic mode functions locate implicit turbulent attractors in time in frontal lobe MEG recordings.

In seeking evidence for the presence and characteristic range of coupled time scale(s) of putative implicit turbulent attractors of dorsal frontal lobe magnetic fields, the recorded nonstationary, nonlinear MEG signals were non-orthogonally decomposed using Huang's Empirical Mode Decomposition, EMD, (Huang and Attoh-Okine, 2005) into 16 Intrinsic Mode Functions, EMD→IMFi, i=1…16. Measures known to be invariant in non-uniformly hyperbolic (turbulent) dynamical systems, topological entropy, hT, metric entropy, hM, non-uniform entropy, hU and power spectral scaling exponent, α, were imposed on each of the IMFi which evidenced most clearly an invariant temporal scale zone of IMFi, i=6…11, for hT, which we have found to be the most robust of invariant measures of MEG's magnetic field turbulent attractors (Mandell et al., 2011a,b; Mandell, 2013).

Do age-related increases in tip-of-the-tongue experiences signify episodic memory impairments?

Tip-of-the-tongue experiences (TOTs), in which a name is known but cannot be immediately retrieved from memory, can be a cause of concern if these experiences are viewed as a sign of memory decline. The current study was conducted to investigate the relation between age and TOT frequency, and the influence of episodic memory, which is the type of memory most often assessed to detect memory problems, on that relation. In a sample of adults, increased age was found to be associated with more TOTs across different types of materials, and additional analyses suggested that these relations between age and TOT frequency were not attributable to the use of different response criteria or to different amounts of knowledge.

Spatiotemporal imaging of complexity.

What are the functional neuroimaging measurements required for more fully characterizing the events and locations of neocortical activity? A prime assumption has been that modulation of cortical activity will inevitably be reflected in changes in energy utilization (for the most part) changes of glucose and oxygen consumption. Are such a measures complete and sufficient? More direct measures of cortical electrophysiological activity show event or task-related modulation of amplitude or band-limited oscillatory power. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), these measures have been shown to correlate well with energy utilization sensitive BOLD fMRI.

Suspecting optic neuritis, diagnosing Bartonella cat scratch disease.

Background: Bartonella cat scratch disease is classically a febrile illness, in conjunction with lymphadenopathy and cat exposure.

Objective: To report 2 atypical cases of cat scratch disease with only blurred vision and headache.

Design: Case reports.

Novel methods for storage stability and release of Bacillus spores.

Bacillus subtilis spores were immobilized in activated charcoal and tapioca and filled with acacia gum. These formulations were tested for spore stability during storage at temperatures ranging from 40 degrees C to 90 degrees C and for bacterial release. Thermodynamic analysis showed that immobilization of spores in acacia gum significantly increased their viability compared with unprotected spores.

Strong release of methane on Mars in northern summer 2003.

Living systems produce more than 90% of Earth's atmospheric methane; the balance is of geochemical origin. On Mars, methane could be a signature of either origin. Using high-dispersion infrared spectrometers at three ground-based telescopes, we measured methane and water vapor simultaneously on Mars over several longitude intervals in northern early and late summer in 2003 and near the vernal equinox in 2006.

Designing allosteric peptide ligands targeting a globular protein.

Patented signal analytic algorithms applied to hydrophobically transformed, numerical amino acid sequences have previously been used to design short, protein-targeted, L or D retro-inverso peptides. These peptides have demonstrated allosteric and/or indirect agonist effects on a variety of G-protein and tyrosine kinase coupled membrane receptors with 30% to over 80% hit rates. Here we extend these approaches to a globular protein target.

Exotic Earths: forming habitable worlds with giant planet migration.

Close-in giant planets (e.g., "hot Jupiters") are thought to form far from their host stars and migrate inward, through the terrestrial planet zone, via torques with a massive gaseous disk.

Algorithmically designed peptides ameliorate behavioral defects in animal model of ADHD by an allosteric mechanism.

This study exemplifies the use of three ADHD-relevant methodological innovations. (1) The use of novel, patented, computational peptide design techniques to generate peptides targeting the extra-cellular and para-transmembrane amino acid loops of the putatively ADHD-involved, D(2) dopamine receptor, D(2)DAR; (2) experimental evidence that these peptides in L-amino acid/ortho ordered or D-amino acid/reverse ordered (retro-inverso), D(2)DAR, hydrophobic eigenmode matched forms, evoked positive allosteric and indirect agonist influences on in vitro stably receptor transfected CHO and LtK cells and on in vivo, brain mediated activity; (3) a representative 15 residue all-D-amino acid, D(2) mode matched peptide, given parenterally, was found to "repair" a key aberrant ADHD behavioral characteristic in a standard animal model of ADHD, the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat, SHR, relative to its progenitor species control, the Wistar-Kyoto rat, WKY. The representative, retro-inverso peptide, all-D-LLYKNKPRYPKRNRE, reversed SHR's relative deficiency in sensory motor gating (pre-pulse inhibition, PPI) while leaving SHR's nonselective attention (rearings), impulsive behavior (time in center), and activity level (timed total motor behavior) unchanged.

Hydrogen emission in meteors as a potential marker for the exogenous delivery of organics and water.

We detected hydrogen Balmer-alpha (H(alpha)) emission in the spectra of bright meteors and investigated its potential use as a tracer for exogenous delivery of organic matter. We found that it is critical to observe the meteors with high enough spatial resolution to distinguish the 656.46 nm H(alpha) emission from the 657.

Designing human m1 muscarinic receptor-targeted hydrophobic eigenmode matched peptides as functional modulators.

A new proprietary de novo peptide design technique generated ten 15-residue peptides targeting and containing the leading nontransmembrane hydrophobic autocorrelation wavelengths, "modes", of the human m(1) muscarinic cholinergic receptor, m(1)AChR. These modes were also shared by the m(4)AChR subtype (but not the m(2), m(3), or m(5) subtypes) and the three-finger snake toxins that pseudoirreversibly bind m(1)AChR. The linear decomposition of the hydrophobically transformed m(1)AChR amino acid sequence yielded ordered eigenvectors of orthogonal hydrophobic variational patterns.

Potentially inappropriate antiepileptic drugs for elderly patients with epilepsy.

Objectives: To describe prescribing patterns for older veterans with epilepsy, determine whether disparity exists between these patterns and clinical recommendations, and describe those at greatest risk of receiving potentially inappropriate antiepileptic drugs (AEDs).

Design: Retrospective administrative database analysis.

Setting: All outpatient facilities within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Cellular and behavioral effects of D2 dopamine receptor hydrophobic eigenmode-targeted peptide ligands.

Patterns in G-protein-coupled receptors' hydrophobically transformed amino-acid sequences can be computationally characterized as hierarchies of autocorrelation waves, "hydrophobic eigenmodes", using autocovariance matrix decomposition and all poles power spectral and wavelet transformations. L- or D-amino acid (retro-inverso) 12-18 residue peptides targeting these modes can be designed using eigenvector templates derived from these computations. In all, 12 human long-form D(2) dopamine receptor eigenmode-targeted 15 mer peptides were designed, synthesized, and shown to modulate and/or indirectly activate the extracellular acidification response, EAR, in stably receptor-transfected CHO and LtK cells, with an 83% hit rate.