Barley yield formation under abiotic stress depends on the interplay between flowering time genes and environmental cues.

Since the dawn of agriculture, crop yield has always been impaired through abiotic stresses. In a field trial across five locations worldwide, we tested three abiotic stresses, nitrogen deficiency, drought and salinity, using HEB-YIELD, a selected subset of the wild barley nested association mapping population HEB-25. We show that barley flowering time genes Ppd-H1, Sdw1, Vrn-H1 and Vrn-H3 exert pleiotropic effects on plant development and grain yield.

Potential Role of Cost and Quality of Life in Treatment Decisions for Arthritis-Related Knee Pain in African American and Latina Women.

Objective: The present study was undertaken to investigate whether Latina and African American women with arthritis-related knee pain and primary care providers who treat them believe their treatment decisions would benefit from having more information about the impact of treatment on their quality of life, medical care costs, and work productivity.

Methods: We conducted 4 focus groups of Latina and African American women over age 45 years who had knee pain. We also conducted 2 focus groups with primary care providers who treated Latina and African American women for knee pain.

Genome-wide association of barley plant growth under drought stress using a nested association mapping population.

Background: Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is the fourth most important cereal crop worldwide. Barley production is compromised by many abiotic stresses including drought.

Linguistic Information in Auditory Dynamic Events Contributes to the Detection of Fine, Not Coarse Event Boundaries.

Human observers (comprehenders) segment dynamic information into discrete events. That is, although there is continuous sensory information, comprehenders perceive boundaries between two meaningful units of information. In narrative comprehension, comprehenders use linguistic, non-linguistic , and physical cues for this event boundary perception.

Halide Photoredox Chemistry.

Halide photoredox chemistry is of both practical and fundamental interest. Practical applications have largely focused on solar energy conversion with hydrogen gas, through HX splitting, and electrical power generation, in regenerative photoelectrochemical and photovoltaic cells. On a more fundamental level, halide photoredox chemistry provides a unique means to generate and characterize one electron transfer chemistry that is intimately coupled with X-X bond-breaking and -forming reactivity.

Stem cell persistence in CML is mediated by extrinsically activated JAK1-STAT3 signaling.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy effectively blocks oncogenic Bcr-Abl signaling and induces molecular remission in the majority of CML patients. However, the disease-driving stem cell population is not fully targeted by TKI therapy in the majority of patients, and leukemic stem cells (LSCs) capable of re-inducing the disease can persist. In TKI-resistant CML, STAT3 inhibition was previously shown to reduce malignant cell survival.

Recycling process for carbon fiber reinforced plastics with polyamide 6, polyurethane and epoxy matrix by gentle solvent treatment.

Due to the complex composition of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs), a complete and useful recovery of such composite material is a real challenge. This paper presents studies on potential solvent-based recycling processes for three CFRP samples comprising polyamide 6 (PA6), polyurethane resin (PUR) and epoxy resin (EP) matrix. Different proprietary CreaSolv Formulations were applied in laboratory scale and under thermodynamically subcritical conditions in order to dissolve the polymeric matrix and separate the inert carbon fibers.

Multiregion human bladder cancer sequencing reveals tumour evolution, bladder cancer phenotypes and implications for targeted therapy.

We present an evolutionary analysis of the relative time of genetic events underlying tumorigenesis in human bladder cancers from 10 whole cystectomy specimens using multiregional whole-exome sequencing. We timed bladder cancer drivers, mutational signatures, ploidy and copy number alterations, provided evidence for kataegis and correlated alterations with tumour areas and histological phenotypes. We found that: (1) heterogeneous tumour areas/phenotypes had distinct driver mutations, (2) papillary-invasive tumours divided early into two parallel evolving branches and (3) parallel evolution of subclonal driver mutations occurred.

Ordering of Diagnostic Imaging by Physical Therapists: A 5-Year Retrospective Practice Analysis.

Background: Significant progress has been made in implementing direct access. As more therapists transition into direct access roles, it seems prudent to consider how additional resources common to other first-contact providers might impact patient care.

Objectives: Direct referral for diagnostic imaging by physical therapists is relatively rare in the civilian setting and little has been published on the subject.

Experience-Dependent Effects of Muscimol-Induced Hippocampal Excitation on Mnemonic Discrimination.

Memory requires similar episodes with overlapping features to be represented distinctly, a process that is disrupted in many clinical conditions as well as normal aging. Data from humans have linked this ability to activity in hippocampal CA3 and dentate gyrus (DG). While animal models have shown the perirhinal cortex is critical for disambiguating similar stimuli, hippocampal activity has not been causally linked to discrimination abilities.

Wave Turbulence and Energy Cascade in the Hippocampus.

Mesoscale cortical activity can be defined as the organization of activity of large neuron populations into collective action, forming time-dependent patterns such as traveling waves. Although collective action may play an important role in the cross-scale integration of brain activity and in the emergence of cognitive behavior, a comprehensive formulation of the laws governing its dynamics is still lacking. Because collective action processes are macroscopic with respect to neuronal activity, these processes cannot be described directly with methods and models developed for the microscale (individual neurons).

Residues on Adeno-associated Virus Capsid Lumen Dictate Interactions and Compatibility with the Assembly-Activating Protein.

The adeno-associated virus (AAV) serves as a broadly used vector system for gene delivery. The process of AAV capsid assembly remains poorly understood. The viral cofactor assembly-activating protein (AAP) is required for maximum AAV production and has multiple roles in capsid assembly, namely, trafficking of the structural proteins (VP) to the nuclear site of assembly, promoting the stability of VP against multiple degradation pathways, and facilitating stable interactions between VP monomers.

Perforant Path Fiber Loss Results in Mnemonic Discrimination Task Deficits in Young Rats.

The observation that entorhinal input to the hippocampus declines in old age is well established across human studies and in animal models. This loss of perforant path fibers is exaggerated in individuals with episodic memory deficits and Mild Cognitive Impairment, suggesting that perforant path integrity is associated with progression to Alzheimer's Disease. During normal aging, behaviors that measure the ability of a study participant to discriminate between stimuli that share features is particularly sensitive to perforant fiber loss.

A Ketogenic Diet Improves Cognition and Has Biochemical Effects in Prefrontal Cortex That Are Dissociable From Hippocampus.

Age-related cognitive decline has been linked to a diverse set of neurobiological mechanisms, including bidirectional changes in proteins critical for neuron function. Importantly, these alterations are not uniform across the brain. For example, the hippocampus (HPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) show distinct patterns of dysfunction in advanced age.

Theta-gamma cascades and running speed.

Oscillations in the hippocampal local field potential at theta and gamma frequencies are prominent during awake behavior and have demonstrated several behavioral correlates. Both oscillations have been observed to increase in amplitude and frequency as a function of running speed. Previous investigations, however, have examined the relationship between speed and each of these oscillation bands separately.

Acetuino-A Handy Open-Source Radiochemistry Module for the Preparation of [1-C]Acetate.

Radiosynthesis of [1-C]acetate is well described in literature, but all syntheses either require adaptations in complex commercial synthesizers or rely on closed-source hardware and software control. Arduino microcontrollers are ideal for the compact, flexible, and inexpensive control of low-complexity hardware, making them particularly suited for radiochemistry where operation in space-limited shielded hot cells is mandatory. We established a [1-C]acetate radiosynthesis module for combination with a [C]MeI module available in almost every lab working with C.

JAK2V617F but not CALR mutations confer increased molecular responses to interferon-α via JAK1/STAT1 activation.

Pegylated interferon-α (peg-IFNa) treatment induces molecular responses (MR) in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), including partial MR (PMR) in 30-40% of patients. Here, we compared the efficacy of IFNa treatment in JAK2V617F- vs. calreticulin (CALR)-mutated cells and investigated the mechanisms of differential response.

Comparative immuno-Cerenkov luminescence and -PET imaging enables detection of PSMA tumors in mice using Cu-radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies.

Here, we describe immuno-Cerenkov luminescence imaging (immuno-CLI) with a specific monoclonal antibody-based tracer for the detection of prostate tumors, which is used in preclinical positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. As PET isotopes generate a continuous spectrum of light in the ultraviolet/visible (UV/vis) wavelength range (Cerenkov luminescence, CL) in dielectric materials and consequently inside living tissues, these isotopes can also be detected by luminescence imaging performed with optical imaging (OI) systems. Imaging tumors with tracers that are specifically binding to a tumor-associated antigen can increase diagnostic accuracy, enables monitoring of treatment efficacy, and can be advantageous compared to radiolabeled small molecules used in PET-oncology such as 2-deoxy-2-[F]-fluoro-D-glucose ([F]FDG; glucose metabolism) or [C]choline (membrane synthesis) which was used to image prostate cancer.

Towards a Fuller Assessment of Gastric Motility in Patients With Upper GI Dyspepsia: Time to Accommodate!

There is increasing recognition of the importance of assessing patients with unexplained upper gastrointestinal symptoms for impaired gastric accommodation. New therapeutic approaches to treat impaired accommodation are being developed. This increasing interest in diagnosing and treating impaired gastric accommodation emphasizes the need to have a clinically available method to measure the gastric accommodation response.

A Wolter imager on the Z machine to diagnose warm x-ray sources.

A new Wolter x-ray imager has been developed for the Z machine to study the emission of warm (>15 keV) x-ray sources. A Wolter optic has been adapted from observational astronomy and medical imaging, which uses curved x-ray mirrors to form a 2D image of a source with 5 × 5 × 5 mm field-of-view and measured 60-300-m resolution on-axis. The mirrors consist of a multilayer that create a narrow bandpass around the Mo K lines at 17.

Design and raytrace simulations of a multilayer-coated Wolter x-ray optic for the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories.

Recent breakthroughs in the fabrication of small-radii Wolter optics for astrophysics allow high energy density facilities to consider such optics as novel x-ray diagnostics at photon energies of 15-50 keV. Recently, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center jointly developed and fabricated the first custom Wolter microscope for implementation in SNL's Z machine with optimized sensitivity at 17.5 keV.

One dimensional imager of neutrons on the Z machine.

We recently developed a one-dimensional imager of neutrons on the Z facility. The instrument is designed for Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) experiments, which produce D-D neutrons yields of ∼3 × 10. X-ray imaging indicates that the MagLIF stagnation region is a 10-mm long, ∼100-m diameter column.

Modeling the one-dimensional imager of neutrons (ODIN) for neutron response functions at the Sandia Z facility.

The one-dimensional imager of neutrons (ODIN) at the Sandia Z facility consists of a 10-cm block of tungsten with rolled edges, creating a slit imager with slit widths of either 250, 500, or 750 m. Designed with a 1-m neutron imaging line of sight, we achieve about 4:1 magnification and 500-m axial spatial resolution. The baseline inertial confinement fusion concept at Sandia is magnetized liner inertial fusion, which nominally creates a 1-cm line source of neutrons.

Recalling Lashley and reconsolidating Hebb.

Many of the foundational theoretical ideas in the field of learning and memory are traced to Donald Hebb. Examination of these ideas and their evolution suggest that Karl Lashley might have significantly influenced their development. Here, we discuss the relationship between Hebb and Lashley, and the parallels between them.

Pre-clinical Imaging of Invasive Candidiasis Using ImmunoPET/MR.

The human commensal yeast is the fourth most common cause of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections, with accounting for the majority of the >400,000 life-threatening infections annually. Diagnosis of invasive candidiasis (IC), a disease encompassing candidemia (blood-borne yeast infection) and deep-seated organ infections, is a major challenge since clinical manifestations of the disease are indistinguishable from viral, bacterial and other fungal diseases, and diagnostic tests for biomarkers in the bloodstream such as PCR, ELISA, and pan-fungal β-D-glucan lack either standardization, sensitivity, or specificity. Blood culture remains the gold standard for diagnosis, but test sensitivity is poor and turn-around time slow.