Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early Universe.

During the first 500 million years of cosmic history, the first stars and galaxies formed, seeding the Universe with heavy elements and eventually reionizing the intergalactic medium. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have uncovered a surprisingly high abundance of candidates for early star-forming galaxies, with distances (redshifts, z), estimated from multiband photometry, as large as z ≈ 16, far beyond pre-JWST limits. Although such photometric redshifts are generally robust, they can suffer from degeneracies and occasionally catastrophic errors.

Control-Normalized Fisher Ratio Analysis of Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Data for Enhanced Biomarker Discovery in a Metabolomic Study of Orthopedic Knee-Ligament Injury.

An innovative form of Fisher ratio (F-ratio) analysis (FRA) is developed for use with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) data and applied to the investigation of the changes in the metabolome in human plasma for patients with injury to their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Specifically, FRA provides a supervised discovery of metabolites that express a statistically significant variance in a two-sample class comparison: patients and healthy controls. The standard F-ratio utilizes the between-class variance relative to the pooled within-class variance.

Progress and Future Directions of the NCAA-DoD Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium and Mind Matters Challenge at the US Service Academies.

Despite the significant impact that concussion has on military service members, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the optimal diagnostic, management, and return to activity/duty criteria to mitigate the consequences of concussion. In response to these significant knowledge gaps, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) partnered to form the NCAA-DoD Grand Alliance in 2014. The NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium was established with the aim of creating a national multisite research network to study the clinical and neurobiological natural history of concussion in NCAA athletes and military Service Academy cadets and midshipmen.

Trunk and Lower Extremity Movement Patterns, Stress Fracture Risk Factors, and Biomarkers of Bone Turnover in Military Trainees.

Context: Military service members commonly sustain lower extremity stress fractures (SFx). How SFx risk factors influence bone metabolism is unknown. Understanding how SFx risk factors influence bone metabolism may help to optimize risk-mitigation strategies.

Muscle inflammation susceptibility: a prognostic index of recovery potential after hip arthroplasty?

While elective total hip arthroplasty (THA) for end-stage osteoarthritis (OA) improves pain, mobility function, and quality of life in most cases, a large proportion of patients suffer persistent muscle atrophy, pain, and mobility impairment. Extensive skeletal muscle damage is unavoidable in these surgical procedures, and it stands to reason that poor recovery and long-term mobility impairment among some individuals after THA is linked to failed muscle regeneration and regrowth following surgery and that local muscle inflammation susceptibility (MuIS) is a major contributing factor. Here we present results of two integrated studies.

Natural organic matter as global antennae for primary production.

Humic substances (HS) are high-molecular-weight complex refractory organics that are ubiquitous in terrestrial and aquatic environments. While resistant to microbial degradation, these compounds nevertheless support microbial metabolism via oxidation or reduction of their (hydro)quinone moieties. As such, they are known to be important electron sinks for respiratory and fermentative bacteria and electron sources for denitrifying and perchlorate-reducing bacteria.

Humic acid-oxidizing, nitrate-reducing bacteria in agricultural soils.

Unlabelled: This study demonstrates the prevalence, phylogenetic diversity, and physiology of nitrate-reducing microorganisms capable of utilizing reduced humic acids (HA) as electron donors in agricultural soils. Most probable number (MPN) enumeration of agricultural soils revealed large populations (10(4) to 10(6) cells g(-1) soil) of microorganisms capable of reducing nitrate while oxidizing the reduced HA analog 2,6-anthrahydroquinone disulfonate (AH(2)DS) to its corresponding quinone. Nitrate-dependent HA-oxidizing organisms isolated from agricultural soils were phylogenetically diverse and included members of the Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria.

Environmental and taxonomic bacterial diversity of anaerobic uranium(IV) bio-oxidation.

Microorganisms in diverse terrestrial surface and subsurface environments can anaerobically catalyze the oxidative dissolution of uraninite. While a limited quantity (∼5 to 12 μmol liter(-1)) of uranium is oxidatively dissolved in pure culture studies, the metabolism is coupled to electron transport, providing the potential of uraninite to support indigenous microbial populations and to solubilize uranium.

Thermodynamic targeting of microbial perchlorate reduction by selective electron donors.

Here we describe 2,6-anthrahydroquinone disulfonate (AH(2)DS) as a model thermodynamically 'targeting' electron donor capable of selectively stimulating respiratory processes relevant to the bioremediation of perchlorate. Pure cultures of Dechloromonas aromatica, Dechloromonas agitata and Azospira suillum, as well as uncharacterized microbial consortia, were capable of stoichiometrically reducing perchlorate to chloride upon oxidation of AH(2)DS to the corresponding quinone 2,6-anthraquinone disulfonate (AQDS). No degradation of the anthraquinone structure was observed, and no organism tested grew by this metabolism.

Electrochemical stimulation of microbial perchlorate reduction.

As part of our studies into the diversity of dissimilatory perchlorate reducing bacteria (DPRB) we investigated the reduction of perchlorate in the cathodic chamber of a bioelectrical reactor (BER). Our results demonstrated that washed cells of Dechloromonas and Azospira species readily reduced 90 mg L(-1) perchlorate in the BER with 2,6-anthraquinone disulfonate (AQDS) as a mediator. No perchlorate was reduced in the absence of cells or AQDS, or in an open-circuit control.

Prebiotic synthesis of methionine.

Methionine has been shown to be a product of the action of a spark discharge on a simulated primitive earth atmosphere containing CH(4), N(2), NH(3), H(2)O, and H(2)S or CH(3)SH. Acrolein has also been shown to be a product of the discharge and is proposed as an intermediate in the prebiotic synthesis of methionine and of glutamic acid, homocysteine, homoserine, and alpha,gamma-diaminobutyric acid.