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The aim of this study was to develop an accurate and intuitive semi-automatic segmentation technique to calculate an average maxillary arch and palatal growth profile for healthy newborns in their first year of life. Seventy babies born between 1985 and 1988 were included in this study. Each child had five impressions made in the first year after birth that were digitalized. A semi-automatic segmentation tool was developed and used to assess the maxillary dimensions. Finally, random effect models were built to describe the growth and build a simulation population of 10,000 newborns. The segmentation was tested for inter- and intra-observer variability. The Pearson correlation coefficient for each of the variables was between 0.94 and 1.00, indicating high inter-observer agreement. The paired sample t test showed that, except for the tuberosity distance, there were small, but significant differences in the landmark placements between observers. Intra-observer repeatability was high, with Pearson correlation coefficients ranging from 0.87 to 1.00 for all measurements, and the mean differences were not significant. A third or second degree growth curve could be successfully made for each parameter. These findings indicated this method could be used for objective clinical evaluation of maxillary growth. The resulting growth models can be used for growth studies in healthy newborns and for growth and treatment outcome studies in children with cleft lip and palate or other craniofacial anomalies.

Date Presented 04/02/2022 There exists a paucity of data-driven guidelines specific to practicalities implementing telerehabilitation. This study explicates gains in practical knowledge for implementing telerehabilitation that were accelerated during the Veterans Health Administration health care systems’ rapid shift to telerehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic and contributes clinical reasoning considerations, supportive strategies, and practical approaches for engaging veterans in telerehabilitation. Primary Author and Speaker: Consuelo Kreider Additional Authors and Speakers: Mackenzi Slamka Contributing Authors: Jennifer L. Hale-Gallardo, John C. Kramer, Sharon Mburu, Kimberly Findley, Keith J. Myers, Sergio Romero

This study assessed attitudes toward HIV and awareness of previous HIV prevention campaigns among young black men in the United States of America (USA). The study also ascertained the appropriateness of HIV testing messages for young black men and explored the use of social networking sites to deliver HIV testing messages for social media marketing campaigns. Nineteen (n = 19) black male college students attending a public university in Atlanta, GA, USA from September 2016 to October 2016 participated in three focus groups. The focus groups consisted of a group interview querying experiences with HIV and STI testing, awareness of HIV campaigns, solicited feedback on campaign messages and the use of social networking sites to deliver messages. Data analysis involved the grounded theory approach to identify emergent themes. Fear, stigma and low risk perception were discussed as barriers to HIV testing. HIV prevention, social support and new sexual partners were discussed as reasons for testing. There was a general lack of awareness of existing HIV testing campaigns. Messaging with a universal appeal and disseminated through Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat may counter narratives of fear, stigma and low risk perception to increase HIV testing among young black men.

The modelling of a tidal array farm is an inherently multi-scale endeavour. It requires the simultaneous resolution of tidal processes across tens or hundreds of kilometres of coastal ocean (including estuaries, or even entire seas), the hydrodynamics in the neighbourhood of the farm (hundreds of metres), the wakes of individual turbines (metres, or tens of metres) and device hydrodynamics (sub-metre). As such, the construction of an accurate, computationally efficient numerical model requires careful consideration of the underlying discretisation. In this paper, we apply time-dependent mesh adaptation techniques based on the Riemannian metric framework to an idealised tidal array and assess the quality of the resulting approximations. Whilst classical hierarchical mesh adaptation methods modify mesh element/cell size in order to improve resolution locally, the metric-based approach also allows for control of element shape and orientation, which can be especially advantageous for advection-dominated problems. Metrics are normalised in such a way that the resulting discretisation is multi-scale in both space and time as per Alauzet and Olivier (2010). Typically, metrics are constructed from recovered derivatives of solution fields, such as fluid vorticity. Alternatively, metrics may be derived from goal-oriented error estimates, enabling accurate estimation of a diagnostic quantity of interest (QoI). In the context of tidal farm modelling, one clear QoI is the power output. Building upon the idealised steady-state test case considered in Wallwork et al. (2020), which represents turbines using a drag parametrisation in a depth-averaged shallow water model, we demonstrate here that goal-oriented mesh adaptation can be used to obtain an accurate approximation of tidal farm power output using relatively few overall degrees of freedom.

In mammals, photoreceptor loss causes permanent blindness, but in zebrafish (Danio rerio), photoreceptor loss reprograms Müller glia to function as stem cells, producing progenitors that regenerate photoreceptors. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate CNS neurogenesis, but the roles of miRNAs in injury-induced neuronal regeneration are largely unknown. In the embryonic zebrafish retina, miR-18a regulates photoreceptor differentiation. The purpose of the current study was to determine, in zebrafish, the function of miR-18a during injury-induced photoreceptor regeneration. RT-qPCR, in-situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry showed that miR-18a expression increases throughout the retina between 1 and 5 days post-injury (dpi). To test miR-18a function during photoreceptor regeneration, we used homozygous miR-18a mutants (miR-18ami5012), and knocked down miR-18a with morpholino oligonucleotides. During photoreceptor regeneration, miR-18ami5012 retinas have fewer mature photoreceptors than WT at 7 and 10 dpi, but there is no difference at 14 dpi, indicating that photoreceptor regeneration is delayed. Labeling dividing cells with 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) showed that at 7 and 10 dpi, there are excess dividing progenitors in both mutants and morphants, indicating that miR-18a negatively regulates injury-induced proliferation. Tracing 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) and BrdU-labeled cells showed that in miR-18ami5012 retinas excess progenitors migrate to other retinal layers in addition to the photoreceptor layer. Inflammation is critical for photoreceptor regeneration, and RT-qPCR showed that in miR-18ami5012 retinas, inflammatory gene expression and microglia activation are prolonged. Suppressing inflammation with dexamethasone rescues the miR-18ami5012 phenotype. Together, these data show that in the injured zebrafish retina, disruption of miR-18a alters proliferation, inflammation, the microglia/macrophage response, and the timing of photoreceptor regeneration.

During the peri-implantation period, conceptuses [embryo and placental membranes, particularly the trophectoderm (Tr)] of farm animals (e.g., sheep and pigs) rapidly elongate from spherical to tubular to filamentous forms. In concert with Tr outgrowth during conceptus elongation, the Tr of sheep and pig conceptuses attaches to the endometrial luminal epithelium (LE) to initiate placentation. In sheep, binucleate cells (BNCs) begin to differentiate from the mononuclear trophectoderm cells and migrate to the endometrial LE to form syncytial plaques. These events require Tr cells to expend significant amounts of energy to undergo timely and extensive proliferation, migration and fusion. It is likely essential that conceptuses optimally utilize multiple biosynthetic pathways to convert molecules such as glucose, fructose, and glutamine (components of histotroph transport by sheep and pig endometria into the uterine lumen), into ATP, amino acids, ribose, hexosamines and nucleotides required to support early conceptus development and survival. Elongating and proliferating conceptus Tr cells potentially act, in a manner similar to cancer cells, to direct carbon generated from glucose and fructose away from the TCA cycle for utilization in branching pathways of glycolysis, including the pentose phosphate pathway, one-carbon metabolism, and hexosamine biosynthesis. The result is a limited availability of pyruvate for maintaining the TCA cycle within mitochondria, and Tr cells replenish TCA cycle metabolites via a process known as anaplerosis, primarily through glutaminolysis to convert glutamine into TCA cycle intermediates. Here we describe the cell-specific expression of enzymes required for serine biosynthesis, one-carbon metabolism and glutaminolysis at the uterine-placental interface of sheep and pigs, and propose that these biosynthetic pathways are essential to support early placental development including Tr elongation, cell migration, cell fusion and implantation by ovine and porcine conceptuses.

This paper presents a mathematical model of blood volume kinetics and renal function in response to burn injury and resuscitation, which is applicable to the development and non-clinical testing of burn resuscitation protocols and algorithms. Prior mathematical models of burn injury and resuscitation are not ideally suited to such applications due to their limited credibility in predicting blood volume and urinary output observed in wide-ranging burn patients as well as in incorporating contemporary knowledge of burn pathophysiology. Our mathematical model consists of an established multi-compartmental model of blood volume kinetics, a hybrid mechanistic-phenomenological model of renal function, and novel lumped-parameter models of burn-induced perturbations in volume kinetics and renal function equipped with contemporary knowledge on burn-related physiology and pathophysiology. Using the dataset collected from 16 sheep, we showed that our mathematical model can be characterized with physiologically plausible parameter values to accurately predict blood volume kinetic and renal function responses to burn injury and resuscitation on an individual basis against a wide range of pathophysiological variability. Pending validation in humans, our mathematical model may serve as an effective basis for an in-depth understanding of complex burn-induced volume kinetic and renal function responses as well as development and non-clinical testing of burn resuscitation protocols and algorithms. Keywords: Mathematical Model, Burn Injury, Burn Resuscitation, Non-Clinical Testing, Burn Resuscitation Protocols, and Algorithms, Comment: Published in the Journal of Burns 24 Pages

During the peri-implantation period, conceptuses [embryo and placental membranes, particularly the trophectoderm (Tr)] of farm animals (e.g., sheep and pigs) rapidly elongate from spherical to tubular to filamentous forms. In concert with Tr outgrowth during conceptus elongation, the Tr of sheep and pig conceptuses attaches to the endometrial luminal epithelium (LE) to initiate placentation. In sheep, binucleate cells (BNCs) begin to differentiate from the mononuclear trophectoderm cells and migrate to the endometrial LE to form syncytial plaques. These events require Tr cells to expend significant amounts of energy to undergo timely and extensive proliferation, migration and fusion. It is likely essential that conceptuses optimally utilize multiple biosynthetic pathways to convert molecules such as glucose, fructose, and glutamine (components of histotroph transport by sheep and pig endometria into the uterine lumen), into ATP, amino acids, ribose, hexosamines and nucleotides required to support early conceptus development and survival. Elongating and proliferating conceptus Tr cells potentially act, in a manner similar to cancer cells, to direct carbon generated from glucose and fructose away from the TCA cycle for utilization in branching pathways of glycolysis, including the pentose phosphate pathway, one-carbon metabolism, and hexosamine biosynthesis. The result is a limited availability of pyruvate for maintaining the TCA cycle within mitochondria, and Tr cells replenish TCA cycle metabolites via a process known as anaplerosis, primarily through glutaminolysis to convert glutamine into TCA cycle intermediates. Here we describe the cell-specific expression of enzymes required for serine biosynthesis, one-carbon metabolism and glutaminolysis at the uterine-placental interface of sheep and pigs, and propose that these biosynthetic pathways are essential to support early placental development including Tr elongation, cell migration, cell fusion and implantation by ovine and porcine conceptuses.

We present a multi-probe analysis of the well-known galaxy cluster CL J1226.9+3332 as a proof of concept for multi-wavelength studies within the framework of the NIKA2 Sunyaev-Zeldovich Large Program (LPSZ). CL J1226.9+3332 is a massive and high redshift (z = 0.888) cluster that has already been observed at several wavelengths. A joint analysis of the thermal SZ (tSZ) effect at millimeter wavelength with the NIKA2 camera and in X-ray with the XMM-Newton satellite permits the reconstruction of the cluster thermodynamical properties and mass assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. We test the robustness of our mass estimates against different definitions of the data analysis transfer function. Using convergence maps reconstructed from the data of the CLASH program we obtain estimates of the lensing mass, which we compare to the estimated hydrostatic mass. This allows us to measure the hydrostatic-to-lensing mass bias and the associated systematic effects related to the NIKA2 measurement. We obtain M500HSE = (7.65 +- 1.03) 1014 Msun and M500lens = (7.35 +- 0.65) 1014 Msun, which implies a HSE-to-lensing bias consistent with 0 within 20 percent., Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the International Conference entitled mm Universe @ NIKA2, Rome (Italy), June 2021, EPJ Web of conferences

Artículo escrito por un elevado número de autores, solo se referencia el que aparece en primer lugar, el nombre del grupo de colaboración, si lo hubiere, y los autores pertenecientes a la UAM, Context. Carbon monosulphide (CS) is among the most abundant gas-phase S-bearing molecules in cold dark molecular clouds. It is easily observable with several transitions in the millimeter wavelength range, and has been widely used as a tracer of the gas density in the interstellar medium in our Galaxy and external galaxies. However, chemical models fail to account for the observed CS abundances when assuming the cosmic value for the elemental abundance of sulfur. Aims. The CS+O → CO + S reaction has been proposed as a relevant CS destruction mechanism at low temperatures, and could explain the discrepancy between models and observations. Its reaction rate has been experimentally measured at temperatures of 150-400 K, but the extrapolation to lower temperatures is doubtful. Our goal is to calculate the CS+O reaction rate at temperatures, The research leading to these results has received funding from MICIU (Spain) under grants FIS2017-83473-C2, AYA2016-75066- C2-2-P, ESP2017-86582-C4-1-R, AYA2017-85111-P, PID2019-105552RB-C41 and PID2019-106235GB-I00. N.B. acknowledges the computing facilities by TUBITAK-TRUBA, and O.R. and A.A. acknowledge computing time at Finisterre (CESGA) and Marenostrum (BSC) under RES computational grants ACCT-2019-3-0004 and AECT-2020-1-0003. SPTM acknowledges the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program for funding support under agreement No 639459 (PROMISE)

Physiological closed-loop controlled (PCLC) medical devices are complex systems integrating one or more medical devices with a patient’s physiology through closed-loop control algorithms; introducing many failure modes and parameters that impact performance. These control algorithms should be tested through safety and efficacy trials to compare their performance to the standard of care and determine whether there is sufficient evidence of safety for their use in real care setting. With this aim, credible mathematical models have been constructed and used throughout the development and evaluation phases of a PCLC medical device to support the engineering design and improve safety aspects. Uncertainties about the fidelity of these models and ambiguities about the choice of measures for modeling performance need to be addressed before a reliable PCLC evaluation can be achieved. This research develops tools for evaluating the accuracy of physiological models and establishes fundamental measures for predictive capability assessment across different physiological models. As a case study, we built a refined physiological model of blood volume (BV) response by expanding an original model we developed in our prior work. Using experimental data collected from 16 sheep undergoing hemorrhage and fluid resuscitation, first, we compared the calibration performance of the two candidate physiological models, i.e., original and refined, using root-mean-squared error (RMSE), Akiake information criterion (AIC), and a new multi-dimensional approach utilizing normalized features extracted from the fitting error. Compared to the original model, the refined model demonstrated a significant improvement in calibration performance in terms of RMSE (9%, P = 0.03) and multi-dimensional measure (48%, P = 0.02), while a comparable AIC between the two models verified that the enhanced calibration performance in the refined model is not due to data over-fitting. Second, we compared the physiological predictive capability of the two models under three different scenarios: prediction of subject-specific steady-state BV response, subject-specific transient BV response to hemorrhage perturbation, and leave-one-out inter-subject BV response. Results indicated enhanced accuracy and predictive capability for the refined physiological model with significantly larger proportion of measurements that were within the prediction envelope in the transient and leave-one-out prediction scenarios (P < 0.02). All together, this study helps to identify and merge new methods for credibility assessment and physiological model selection, leading to a more efficient process for PCLC medical device evaluation.

High-resolution mapping of the intracluster medium (ICM) up to high redshift and down to low masses is crucial to derive accurate mass estimates of the galaxy cluster and to understand the systematic eects aecting cosmological studies based on galaxy clusters. We present a spatially resolved Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ)/X-ray analysis of ACT-CL J0215.4+0030, a high-redshift (z = 0:865) galaxy cluster of intermediate mass (M500 ' 3:5 1014 M) observed as part of the ongoing NIKA2 SZ large program, which is a follow-up of a representative sample of objects at 0:5 z 0:9. In addition to the faintness and small angular size induced by its mass and redshift, the cluster is contaminated by point sources that significantly aect the SZ signal. This is therefore an interesting case study for the most challenging sources of the NIKA2 cluster sample. We present the NIKA2 observations of this cluster and the resulting data.We identified the point sources that aect the NIKA2 maps of the cluster as submillimeter galaxies with counterparts in catalogs of sources constructed by the SPIRE instrument on board the Herschel observatory. We reconstructed the ICM pressure profile by performing a joint analysis of the SZ signal and of the point-source component in the NIKA2 150 GHz map. This cluster is a very weak source that lies below the selection limit of the Planck catalog. Nonetheless, we obtained high-quality estimates of the ICM thermodynamical properties with NIKA2. We compared the pressure profile extracted from the NIKA2 map to the pressure profile obtained from X-ray data alone by deprojecting the public XMM-Newton observations of the cluster.We combined the NIKA2 pressure profile with the X-ray deprojected density to extract detailed information on the ICM. The radial distribution of its thermodynamic properties (the pressure, temperature and entropy) indicate that the cluster has a highly disturbed core. We also computed the hydrostatic mass of the cluster, which is compatible with estimations from SZ and X-ray scaling relations. We conclude that the NIKA2 SZ large program can deliver quality information on the thermodynamics of the ICM even for one of its faintest clusters after a careful treatment of the contamination by point sources., With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

Fetal-placental development depends on a continuous and efficient supply of nutrients from maternal blood that are acquired by exchange through the placenta. However, the placenta is a low permeability barrier, and effective transport of substances depends on specific transport mechanisms. Active transport requires that ions or nutrients be moved against an electrical and/or concentration gradient. In pigs, active transport of ions occurs across the chorioallantois placenta to produce an electrochemical gradient that changes throughout gestation. The aim of this study was to utilize Ussing chambers to detect regulation of ion transport across the porcine chorioallantois by a factor(s) within the uterine-placental environment of pigs.For the measurement of transchorioallantoic voltage potential as an index of ion transport across the placenta, pieces of chorioallantoic tissue from Day 60 of gestation were mounted into the cassettes of Ussing chambers, and treatments were added to the mucasal side of the tissue. Treatments included: (1) media incubated with Day 60 chorioallantois (placenta-conditioned media); (2) osteopontin/secreted phosphoprotein 1 (OPN/SPP1) purified from cow's milk; (3) placenta-conditioned media from which OPN/SPP1 was removed; and (4) recombinant rat OPN with an intact RGD integrin binding sequence or a mutated RAD sequence. Ouabain was added to both sides of the chamber. Immunofluorescence was utilized to localize beta 3 integrin, aquaporin 8 and OPN/SPP1 in porcine placental tissues, and OPN/SPP1 within porcine lung, kidney and small intestine.Day 60 chorioallantoic membranes had greater transepithelial voltage in the presence of porcine placenta-conditioned media, indicating that a molecule(s) released from the placenta increased ion transport across the placenta. OPN/SPP1 purified from cow's milk increased ion transport across the placenta. When OPN/SPP1 was removed from placenta-conditioned media, ion transport across the placenta did not increase. Recombinant rat OPN/SPP1 with a mutated RGD sequence that does not bind integrins (RAD) did not increase ion transport across the placenta. Ouabain, an inhibiter of the sodium-potassium ion pump, ablated ion transport across the placenta.The present study documents a novel pericellular matrix role for OPN/SPP1 to bind integrins and increase ion transport across the porcine chorioallantoic placenta.

The conceptuses (embryo/fetus and placental membranes) of pigs require energy to support elongation and implantation, and amounts of glucose and fructose increase in the uterine lumen during the peri-implantation period. Conceptuses from Day 16 of pregnancy were incubated with either 14C-glucose or 14C-fructose and amounts of radiolabeled CO2 released from the conceptuses measured to determine rates of oxidation of glucose and fructose. Both glucose and fructose transport into conceptuses, and glucose is preferentially metabolized in the presence of fructose, while fructose is actively metabolized in the absence of glucose and to a lesser extent in the presence of glucose. Endometrial and placental expression of glucose transporters SLC2A1, SLC2A2, SCL2A3 and SLC2A4 were determined. SLC2A1 mRNA and protein, and SLC2A4 mRNA were abundant in the uterine luminal epithelium of pregnant compared to cycling gilts, and increased in response to progesterone and conceptus-secreted estrogen. SLC2A2 mRNA was expressed weakly by conceptus trophectoderm on Day 15 of pregnancy, while SLC2A3 mRNA was abundant in trophectoderm/chorion throughout pregnancy. Therefore, glucose can be transported into the uterine lumen by SLC2A1, and then into conceptuses by SLC2A3. On Day 60 of gestation, the cell-specific expression of these transporters was more complex, suggesting that glucose and fructose transporters are precisely regulated in a spatial-temporal pattern along the uterine-placental interface of pigs to maximize hexose sugar transport to the pig conceptus/placenta.

State–corporate crime research has developed significantly since William Chambliss’s presidential speech to the American Society of Criminology in 1989 calling for specific attention to corporate crimes and connections with the state. From 1992 to 2000, four foundational case studies established a working theoretical framework. Since its debut in 1998, the integrated theoretical framework has had two levels of analysis added as well as the key concepts of state-initiated, state-facilitated, corporate-initiated, and corporate-facilitated crime. However, events of the 21st century have demonstrated the importance of developing the international level of analysis of the theoretical framework. The Great Recession of 2008, the Panama Papers and tax evasion by those people and corporations named, Peruvian lawsuits against German fossil fuel industries regarding climate change, the Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal, and the global Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 elucidate the international connections between states and businesses and the need for extensive research uncovering these connections and the mechanisms used by states and corporations to maintain and reproduce these criminal partnerships.

This chapter examines SDG 13 which deals with efforts to combat climate change. The chapter begins by outlining the targets related to this goal, the trend towards increased heating of the planet and failures to curtail carbon emissions. This is framed using criminological concepts such as state-corporate crime and carbon criminality. The major concern of the rest of the chapter is to outline a climate action plan. As part of this, it discusses a range of initiatives currently underway intended to pressure governments to take more concerted action around climate change. These include activist interventions and climate litigation. The chapter concludes by exploring the possibilities and obligations of global community action to address the most important issue of our era.

Past work has shown that models incorporating human travel can improve the quality of influenza forecasts. Here, we develop and validate a metapopulation model of twelve European countries, in which international translocation of virus is driven by observed commuting and air travel flows, and use this model to generate influenza forecasts in conjunction with incidence data from the World Health Organization. We find that, although the metapopulation model fits the data well, it offers no improvement over isolated models in forecast quality. We discuss several potential reasons for these results. In particular, we note the need for data that are more comparable from country to country, and offer suggestions as to how surveillance systems might be improved to achieve this goal., Author summary In our increasingly connected world, infectious diseases are more capable than ever of rapid spread over large geographical distances. Previous research has shown that human travel can be used to better forecast the transmission of influenza, which may in turn help public health and medical practitioners to prepare for outbreaks with increasing lead time. Here, we developed a model of twelve European countries, in which countries are connected based on rates of commuting and air travel between them. We then used this model, along with publicly available influenza incidence data, to forecast future incidence in Europe. We found that forecasts produced with the network model were not more accurate than those produced for individual countries in isolation. We emphasize the need for aligned influenza data collection practices that are comparable between different countries and which will likely improve forecast accuracy.

The current generation of (sub)mm-telescopes has allowed molecular line emission to become a major tool for studying the physical, kinematic, and chemical properties of extragalactic systems, yet exploiting these observations requires a detailed understanding of where emission lines originate within the Milky Way. In this paper, we present 60$^{\prime\prime}$ ($\sim$3pc) resolution observations of many 3mm-band molecular lines across a large map of the W49 massive star-forming region ($\sim$100$\times$100pc at 11kpc), which were taken as part of the "LEGO" IRAM-30m large project. We find that the spatial extent or brightness of the molecular line transitions are not well correlated with their critical densities, highlighting abundance and optical depth must be considered when estimating line emission characteristics. We explore how the total emission and emission efficiency (i.e. line brightness per H$_{2}$ column density) of the line emission vary as a function of molecular hydrogen column density and dust temperature. We find that there is not a single region of this parameter space responsible for the brightest and most efficiently emitting gas for all species. For example, we find that the HCN transition shows high emission efficiency at high column density ($10^{22}$cm$^{-2}$) and moderate temperatures (35K), whilst e.g. N$_2$H$^+$ emits most efficiently towards lower temperatures ($10^{22}$cm$^{-2}$, Comment: 33+2 pages, 17+3 figures, 4+4 tables. Tables available online in a machine-readable format. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

After transcription, a messenger RNA (mRNA) is further post‐transcriptionally regulated by several features including RNA secondary structure and covalent RNA modifications (specifically N6‐methyladenosine, m6A). Both RNA secondary structure and m6A have been demonstrated to regulate mRNA stability and translation and have been independently linked to plant responses to soil salinity levels. However, the effect of m6A on regulating RNA secondary structure and the combinatorial interplay between these two RNA features during salt stress response has yet to be studied. Here, we globally identify RNA‐protein interactions and RNA secondary structure during systemic salt stress. This analysis reveals that RNA secondary structure changes significantly during salt stress, and that it is independent of global changes in RNA‐protein interactions. Conversely, we find that m6A is anti‐correlated with RNA secondary structure in a condition‐dependent manner, with salt‐specific m6A correlated with a decrease in mRNA secondary structure during salt stress. Taken together, we suggest that salt‐specific m6A deposition and the associated loss of RNA secondary structure results in increases in mRNA stability for transcripts encoding abiotic stress response proteins and ultimately increases in protein levels from these stabilized transcripts. In total, our comprehensive analyses reveal important post‐transcriptional regulatory mechanisms involved in plant long‐term salt stress response and adaptation.

Objectives The objective of this study was to compare maxillary dimensions and growth in newborns with Complete Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate (UCLP) to healthy newborns before and after cheiloplasty. Additionally, a palatal growth curve is constructed to give more information about the natural growth before surgical intervention. Methods Twenty-eight newborns with complete UCLP were enrolled in this study. Multiple plaster-casts of each child during their first year were collected and grouped in before and after cheiloplasty. A previous developed semi-automatic segmentation tool was used to assess the maxillary dimensions and were compared to a healthy control group. Z-scores were calculated to indicate differences between the two populations and if cheiloplasty had influence on maxillary growth. Furthermore, the prediction model created in a previous study was used to indicate differences between predictions and the outcome in UCLP measurements. The analysis was tested for inter- and intra-observer variability. Results Results show differences in alveolar and palatal shape in UCLP patients in comparison with healthy controls. Prior to cheiloplasty an increased width and alveolar length was observed while the palatal depth was decreased. After cheiloplasty the widths moved towards normal but were still significantly larger. Conclusion Infants with unilateral cleft lip and palate show a wider maxillary arch in comparison with the control population. Initial treatment has most influence on the width of the arch, which decreased towards normal.

Intro: When confronted with major threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic, people often experience (temporary) decline in well-being. The central purpose of this study was to identify mechanisms underlying stability and change of well-being in times of threat like the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined change in mental health symptoms and its relationships with appraisals of the pandemic and daily life experiences during the pandemic, including affective states, stress, and mindfulness. Methods: We conducted a study across 3.5 weeks, including pretest, posttest, and a diary phase in-between. In this report, we worked with a sample of 460 adults, pre- and post-test information, as well as a total of 7189 observations from the diary phase. Results: Results showed that less fortunate change in mental health symptoms across three weeks was predicted by more negative affect and less mindfulness, specifically less attention to the present moment, in daily life. Furthermore, less fortunate change in mental health symptoms was correlated with change towards less fortunate appraisals of the appraisals. Finally, we showed that more general views of the pandemic (i.e., appraisals) were interrelated to experiences in daily life, with more negative appraisals of the pandemic predicting more negative affect and stressor occurrence as well as less mindfulness.Discussion: These findings speak to the dynamic nature of well-being and appraisals in times of threat, and they show how experiences in daily life matter for change in well-being

The conceptuses (embryo/fetus and placental membranes) of pigs require energy to support elongation and implantation, and amounts of glucose and fructose increase in the uterine lumen during the peri-implantation period. Conceptuses from day 16 of pregnancy were incubated with either 14C-glucose or 14C-fructose and amounts of radiolabeled CO2 released from the conceptuses measured to determine rates of oxidation of glucose and fructose. Glucose and fructose both transport into conceptuses, and glucose is preferentially metabolized in the presence of fructose, whereas fructose is actively metabolized in the absence of glucose and to a lesser extent in the presence of glucose. Endometrial and placental expression of glucose transporters SLC2A1, SLC2A2, SCL2A3, and SLC2A4 were determined. SLC2A1 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein, and SLC2A4 mRNA were abundant in the uterine luminal epithelium of pregnant compared to cycling gilts, and increased in response to progesterone and conceptus-secreted estrogen. SLC2A2 mRNA was expressed weakly by conceptus trophectoderm on day 15 of pregnancy, whereas SLC2A3 mRNA was abundant in trophectoderm/chorion throughout pregnancy. Therefore, glucose can be transported into the uterine lumen by SLC2A1, and then into conceptuses by SLC2A3. On day 60 of gestation, the cell-specific expression of these transporters was more complex, suggesting that glucose and fructose transporters are precisely regulated in a spatial-temporal pattern along the uterine-placental interface of pigs to maximize hexose sugar transport to the pig conceptus/placenta.

Although eukaryotic messenger RNAs (mRNAs) normally possess a 5’ end N(7)-methyl guanosine (m(7)G) cap, a non-canonical 5’ nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)) cap can tag certain transcripts for degradation mediated by the NAD(+) decapping enzyme DXO1. Despite this importance, whether NAD(+) capping dynamically responds to specific stimuli to regulate eukaryotic transcriptomes remains unknown. Here, we reveal a link between NAD(+) capping and tissue- and hormone response-specific mRNA stability. In the absence of DXO1 function, transcripts displaying a high proportion of NAD(+) capping are instead processed into RNA-DEPENDENT RNA POLYMERASE 6-dependent small RNAs, resulting in their continued turnover likely to free the NAD(+) molecules. Additionally, the NAD(+) capped transcriptome is significantly remodeled in response to the essential plant hormone abscisic acid in a mechanism that is primarily independent of DXO1. Overall, our findings reveal a previously uncharacterized and essential role of NAD(+) capping in dynamically regulating transcript stability during specific physiological responses.

21 pags., 16 figs., 7 tabs., 2 apps., Context. Sulphur is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe. Surprisingly, sulphuretted molecules are not as abundant as expected in the interstellar medium and the identity of the main sulphur reservoir is still an open question. Aims. Our goal is to investigate the H2S chemistry in dark clouds, as this stable molecule is a potential sulphur reservoir. Methods. Using millimeter observations of CS, SO, H2S, and their isotopologues, we determine the physical conditions and H2S abundances along the cores TMC 1-C, TMC 1-CP, and Barnard 1b. The gas-grain model NAUTILUS is used to model the sulphur chemistry and explore the impact of photo-desorption and chemical desorption on the H2S abundance. Results. Our modeling shows that chemical desorption is the main source of gas-phase H2S in dark cores. The measured H2S abundance can only be fitted if we assume that the chemical desorption rate decreases by more than a factor of 10 when nH > 2 × 104. This change in the desorption rate is consistent with the formation of thick H2O and CO ice mantles on grain surfaces. The observed SO and H2S abundances are in good agreement with our predictions adopting an undepleted value of the sulphur abundance. However, the CS abundance is overestimated by a factor of 5-10. Along the three cores, atomic S is predicted to be the main sulphur reservoir. Conclusions. The gaseous H2S abundance is well reproduced, assuming undepleted sulphur abundance and chemical desorption as the main source of H2S. The behavior of the observed H2S abundance suggests a changing desorption efficiency, which would probe the snowline in these cold cores. Our model, however, highly overestimates the observed gas-phase CS abundance. Given the uncertainty in the sulphur chemistry, we can only conclude that our data are consistent with a cosmic elemental S abundance with an uncertainty of a factor of 10., We thank the Spanish MINECO for funding support from AYA2016-75066-C2-1/2-P, AYA2017-85111P, and ERC under ERC-2013-SyG, G. A. 610256 NANOCOSMOS. JM acknowledges the support of ERC-2015-STG No. 679852 RADFEEDBACK. S.P.T.M. acknowledge to the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program for funding support given under grant agreement No 639459 (PROMISE).

Context. NIKA2 is a dual-band millimetre continuum camera of 2 900 kinetic inductance detectors, operating at 150 and 260 GHz, installed at the IRAM 30-m telescope in Spain. Open to the scientific community since October 2017, NIKA2 will provide key observations for the next decade to address a wide range of open questions in astrophysics and cosmology. Aims. Our aim is to present the calibration method and the performance assessment of NIKA2 after one year of observation. Methods. We used a large data set acquired between January 2017 and February 2018 including observations of primary and secondary calibrators and faint sources that span the whole range of observing elevations and atmospheric conditions encountered by the IRAM 30-m telescope. This allowed us to test the stability of the performance parameters against time evolution and observing conditions. We describe a standard calibration method, referred to as the "Baseline"method, to translate raw data into flux density measurements. This includes the determination of the detector positions in the sky, the selection of the detectors, the measurement of the beam pattern, the estimation of the atmospheric opacity, the calibration of absolute flux density scale, the flat fielding, and the photometry. We assessed the robustness of the performance results using the Baseline method against systematic effects by comparing results using alternative methods. Results. We report an instantaneous field of view of 6.5′ in diameter, filled with an average fraction of 84%, and 90% of valid detectors at 150 and 260 GHz, respectively. The beam pattern is characterised by a FWHM of 17.6″ ± 0.1″ and 11.1″ ± 0.2″, and a main-beam efficiency of 47%±3%, and 64%±3% at 150 and 260 GHz, respectively. The point-source rms calibration uncertainties are about 3% at 150 GHz and 6% at 260 GHz. This demonstrates the accuracy of the methods that we deployed to correct for atmospheric attenuation. The absolute calibration uncertainties are of 5%, and the systematic calibration uncertainties evaluated at the IRAM 30-m reference Winter observing conditions are below 1% in both channels. The noise equivalent flux density at 150 and 260 GHz are of 9 ± 1 mJy s1/2 and 30 ± 3 mJy s1/2. This state-of-the-art performance confers NIKA2 with mapping speeds of 1388 ± 174 and 111 ± 11 arcmin2 mJy-2 h-1 at 150 and 260 GHz. Conclusions. With these unique capabilities of fast dual-band mapping at high (better that 18″) angular resolution, NIKA2 is providing an unprecedented view of the millimetre Universe., With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

The unstructured mesh, discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretisation based coastal ocean model, Thetis, has been extended to include non-hydrostatic (buoyancy-driven and free surface) dynamics. Two alternative approaches to achieve this are described in this work. The first (a 3D based algorithm) makes use of prismatic element based meshes and uses a split-step pressure projection method for baroclinic and barotropic modes, while the second (a 2D based algorithm) adopts a novel multi-layer approach to convert a 3D problem into a combination of multiple 2D computations with only 2D triangle meshes required. Model development is carried out at high-level with the Firedrake library, using code generation techniques to automatically produce low-level code for the discretised model equations in an efficient and rapid manner. Through comparisons against several barotropic/baroclinic test cases where non hydrostatic effects are important, the implemented approaches are verified and validated, and the proposed algorithms compared. Depending on whether the problems are dominated by dispersive, baroclinic or barotropic features, recommendation are given over the use of full 3D or multi-layer 2D based approaches to achieve optimal computational accuracy and efficiency. It is demonstrated that while in general the 2D approach is well-suited for barotropic problems and dispersive free surface waves, the 3D approach is more advantageous for simulating baroclinic buoyancy-driven flows due in part to the high vertical resolution typically required to represent the active tracer fields. Keywords: Discontinuous Galerkin, Finite element, Unstructured mesh, Baroclinic flow, Non-hydrostatic, Dispersion, Free surface

This chapter begins with an overview of the literature on green criminology and climate change. After defining the concept of climate crimes, the chapter develops a conceptual framework for understanding these types of crime by drawing on Robert Agnew’s (2011) notion of ‘blameworthy harms’. Next, this chapter identifies four different types of climate crimes: crimes of continuing extraction and emissions; crimes of denial; crimes of political omission; and crimes of unjust and militaristic adaptation. Finally, to demonstrate some of the theoretical and empirical questions of climate crimes, the chapter concludes with a case study of the ExxonMobil Corporation’s (‘ExxonMobil’) continuing extraction of fossil fuels and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions it produces, particularly as it pertains to the process of hydraulic fracturing (or ‘fracking’).

Context. Realistic synthetic observations of theoretical source models are essential for our understanding of real observational data. In using synthetic data, one can verify the extent to which source parameters can be recovered and evaluate how various data corruption effects can be calibrated. These studies are the most important when proposing observations of new sources, in the characterization of the capabilities of new or upgraded instruments, and when verifying model-based theoretical predictions in a direct comparison with observational data. Aims. We present the SYnthetic Measurement creator for long Baseline Arrays (SYMBA), a novel synthetic data generation pipeline for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations. SYMBA takes into account several realistic atmospheric, instrumental, and calibration effects. Methods. We used SYMBA to create synthetic observations for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a millimetre VLBI array, which has recently captured the first image of a black hole shadow. After testing SYMBA with simple source and corruption models, we study the importance of including all corruption and calibration effects, compared to the addition of thermal noise only. Using synthetic data based on two example general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) model images of M 87, we performed case studies to assess the image quality that can be obtained with the current and future EHT array for different weather conditions. Results. Our synthetic observations show that the effects of atmospheric and instrumental corruptions on the measured visibilities are significant. Despite these effects, we demonstrate how the overall structure of our GRMHD source models can be recovered robustly with the EHT2017 array after performing calibration steps, which include fringe fitting, a priori amplitude and network calibration, and self-calibration. With the planned addition of new stations to the EHT array in the coming years, images could be reconstructed with higher angular resolution and dynamic range. In our case study, these improvements allowed for a distinction between a thermal and a non-thermal GRMHD model based on salient features in reconstructed images. © 2020 ESO., This work is supported by the ERC Synergy Grant "BlackHoleCam: Imaging the Event Horizon of Black Holes" (Grant 610058). I. Natarajan and R. Deane are grateful for the support from the New Scientific Frontiers with Precision Radio Interferometry Fellowship awarded by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), which is a facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of South Africa. The authors of the present paper further thank the following organizations and programmes: the Academy of Finland (projects 274477, 284495, 312496); the Advanced European Network of E-infrastructures for Astronomy with the SKA (AENEAS) project, supported by the European Commission Framework Programme Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation action under grant agreement 731016; the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung; the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University, through a grant (60477) from the John Templeton Foundation; the China Scholarship Council; Comision Nacional de Investigacio Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT, Chile, via PIA ACT172033, Fondecyt 1171506, BASAL AFB-170002, ALMAconicyt 31140007); Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT, Mexico, projects 104497, 275201, 279006, 281692); the Delaney Family via the Delaney Family John A. Wheeler Chair at Perimeter Institute; Direccion General de Asuntos del Personal Academico-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (DGAPA-UNAM, project IN112417); the Generalitat Valenciana postdoctoral grant APOSTD/2018/177; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grants GBMF-3561, GBMF-5278); the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) sezione di Napoli, iniziative specifiche TEONGRAV; the GenT Program (Generalitat Valenciana) under project CIDEGENT/2018/021; the International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne; the Jansky Fellowship program of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO); the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellowship (JP17J08829); the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS, grants QYZDJ-SSW-SLH057, QYZDJ-SSW-SYS008); the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowship; the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG); the Max Planck Partner Group of the MPG and the CAS; the MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI (grants 18KK0090, JP18K13594, JP18K03656, JP18H03721, 18K03709, 18H01245, 25120007); the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) Funds; the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan (105-2112-M-001-025-MY3, 106-2112-M-001-011, 106-2119-M-001027, 107-2119-M-001-017, 107-2119-M-001-020, and 107-2119-M-110-005); the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, Fermi Guest Investigator grant 80NSSC17K0649); NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant #HST-HF2-51431.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. , for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555; the National Institute of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan; the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant 2016YFA0400704, 2016YFA0400702); the National Science Foundation (NSF, grants AST-0096454, AST-0352953, AST-0521233, AST-0705062, AST-0905844, AST-0922984, AST-1126433, AST-1140030, DGE-1144085, AST-1207704, AST-1207730, AST-1207752, MRI-1228509, OPP-1248097, AST-1310896, AST-1312651, AST-1337663, AST-1440254, AST-1555365, AST-1715061, AST-1615796, AST-1716327, OISE-1743747, AST-1816420); the Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 11573051, 11633006, 11650110427, 10625314, 11721303, 11725312, 11933007); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC, including a Discovery Grant and the NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program); the National Youth Thousand Talents Program of China; the National Research Foundation of Korea (the Global PhD Fellowship Grant: grants NRF-2015H1A2A1033752, 2015-R1D1A1A01056807, the Korea Research Fellowship Program: NRF-2015H1D3A1066561); the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VICI award (grant 639.043.513) and Spinoza Prize SPI 78-409; the New Scientific Frontiers with Precision Radio Interferometry Fellowship awarded by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), which is a facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of South Africa; the Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) national infrastructure, for the provisioning of its facilities/observational support (OSO receives funding through the Swedish Research Council under grant 2017-00648) the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (research at Perimeter Institute is supported by the Government of Canada through the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and by the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science); the Princeton/Flatiron Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship; the Russian Science Foundation (grant 17-12-01029); the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (grants AYA2015-63939-C21-P, AYA2016-80889-P); the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709); the Toray Science Foundation; the US Department of Energy (USDOE) through the Los Alamos National Laboratory (operated by Triad National Security, LLC, for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the USDOE (Contract 89233218CNA000001)); the Italian Ministero dell'Istruzione Universita e Ricerca through the grant Progetti Premiali 2012-iALMA (CUP C52I13000140001); the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730562 RadioNet; ALMA North America Development Fund; the Academia Sinica; Chandra TM6-17006X. This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), supported by NSF grant ACI-1548562, and CyVerse, supported by NSF grants DBI-0735191, DBI-1265383, and DBI1743442. XSEDE Stampede2 resource at TACC was allocated through TGAST170024 and TG-AST080026N. XSEDE JetStream resource at PTI and TACC was allocated through AST170028. The simulations were performed in part on the SuperMUC cluster at the LRZ in Garching, on the LOEWE cluster in CSC in Frankfurt, and on the HazelHen cluster at the HLRS in Stuttgart. This research was enabled in part by support provided by Compute Ontario (http://computeontario.ca), Calcul Quebec (http://www. calculquebec.ca) and Compute Canada (http://www.computecanada.ca).We thank the sta ff at the participating observatories, correlation centers, and institutions for their enthusiastic support. This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00841.V. ALMA is a partnership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO; Europe, representing its member states), NSF, and National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan, together with National Research Council (Canada), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST; Taiwan), Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA; Taiwan), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI; Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI)/NRAO, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The NRAO is a facility of the NSF operated under cooperative agreement by AUI. APEX is a collaboration between the Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie (Germany), ESO, and the Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden). The SMA is a joint project between the SAO and ASIAA and is funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Academia Sinica. The JCMT is operated by the East Asian Observatory on behalf of the NAOJ, ASIAA, and KASI, as well as the Ministry of Finance of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Key R&D Program (No. 2017YFA0402700) of China. Additional funding support for the JCMT is provided by the Science and Technologies Facility Council (UK) and participating universities in the UK and Canada. The LMT is a project operated by the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica, y Electronica (Mexico) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA). The IRAM 30m telescope on Pico Veleta, Spain is operated by IRAM and supported by CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France), MPG (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany) and IGN (Instituto Geografico Nacional, Spain). The SMT is operated by the Arizona Radio Observatory, a part of the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona, with financial support of operations from the State of Arizona and financial support for instrumentation development from the NSF. The SPT is supported by the National Science Foundation through grant PLR-1248097. Partial support is also provided by the NSF Physics Frontier Center grant PHY-1125897 to the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, the Kavli Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant GBMF 947. The SPT hydrogen maser was provided on loan from the GLT, courtesy of ASIAA. The EHTC has received generous donations of FPGA chips from Xilinx Inc., under the Xilinx University Program. The EHTC has benefited from technology shared under open-source license by the Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER). The EHT project is grateful to T4Science and Microsemi for their assistance with Hydrogen Masers. This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System. We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the extended staff of the ALMA, both from the inception of the ALMA Phasing Project through the observational campaigns of 2017 and 2018. We would like to thank A. Deller and W. Brisken for EHT-specific support with the use of DiFX. We acknowledge the significance that Maunakea, where the SMA and JCMT EHT stations are located, has for the indigenous Hawaiian people. The software presented in this work makes use of the Numpy (van derWalt et al. 2011), Scipy (Jones et al. 2001), Astropy (Astropy Collaboration 2013, 2018) libraries and the KERN software bundle (Molenaar & Smirnov 2018).

Single-basin tidal range power plants have the advantage of predictable energy outputs, but feature non-generation periods in every tidal cycle. Linked-basin tidal power systems can reduce this variability and consistently generate power. However, as a concept the latter are under-studied with limited information on their performance relative to single-basin designs. In addressing this, we outline the basic principles of linked-basin power plant operation and report results from their numerical simulation. Tidal range energy operational models are applied to gauge their capabilities relative to conventional, single-basin tidal power plants. A coastal ocean model (Thetis) is then refined with linked-basin modelling capabilities. Simulations demonstrate that linked-basin systems can reduce non-generation periods at the expense of the extractable energy output relative to conventional tidal lagoons and barrages. As an example, a hypothetical case is considered for a site in the Severn Estuary, UK. The linked-basin system is seen to generate energy 80–100% of the time over a spring-neap cycle, but harnesses at best ≈ 30% of the energy of an equivalent-area single-basin design.

Purpose of Review Probiotics are promising remedial treatments for symptoms of small intestine (SI) diseases and promoters of overall good health. Probiotics play an important role in supporting a healthy SI microbiome (eubiosis), and in preventing establishment of unhealthy microbiota. SI eubiosis promotes optimal nutrient uptake, and optimal nutritional status maintains a healthy SI, reducing the likelihood of SI diseases. It is important to understand the advantages and limitations of probiotic therapies. Recent Findings Microbial dysbiosis decreases the capacity of the small bowel to utilize and absorb dietary compounds. In some studies, probiotic supplements containing lactic acid bacteria and Bifidobacterium have been demonstrated effective in supporting beneficial microbes in the SI while improving barrier integrity and reducing nutrient malabsorption and SI disease-related pathology. Summary Strain-specific probiotic therapy may be a natural and effective approach to restoring SI barrier integrity and eubiosis, resulting in improved nutrient absorption and better health, including reducing the incidence of and severity of SI diseases.

High-mass clusters at low redshifts have been intensively studied at various wavelengths. However, while more distant objects at lower masses constitute the bulk population of future surveys, their physical state remain poorly explored to date. In this paper, we present resolved observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, obtained with the NIKA2 camera, towards the cluster of galaxies XLSSC 102, a relatively low-mass system (M500 ∼ 2 × 1014 M·) at z = 0.97 detected from the XXL survey. We combine NIKA2 SZ data, XMM-Newton X-ray data, and Megacam optical data to explore, respectively, the spatial distribution of the gas electron pressure, the gas density, and the galaxies themselves. We find significant offsets between the X-ray peak, the SZ peak, the brightest cluster galaxy, and the peak of galaxy density. Additionally, the galaxy distribution and the gas present elongated morphologies. This is interpreted as the sign of a recent major merging event, which induced a local boost of the gas pressure towards the north of XLSSC 102 and stripped the gas out of the galaxy group. The NIKA2 data are also combined with XXL data to construct the thermodynamic profiles of XLSSC 102, obtaining relatively tight constraints up to about ∼r500, and revealing properties that are typical of disturbed systems. We also explore the impact of the cluster centre definition and the implication of local pressure substructure on the recovered profiles. Finally, we derive the global properties of XLSSC 102 and compare them to those of high-mass-and-low-redshift systems, finding no strong evidence for non-standard evolution. We also use scaling relations to obtain alternative mass estimates from our profiles. The variation between these different mass estimates reflects the difficulty to accurately measure the mass of low-mass clusters at z ∼ 1, especially with low signal-to-noise ratio data and for a disturbed system. However, it also highlights the strength of resolved SZ observations alone and in combination with survey-like X-ray data. This is promising for the study of high redshift clusters from the combination of eROSITA and high resolution SZ instruments and will complement the new generation of optical surveys from facilities such as LSST and Euclid., With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

18 pags., 21 figs., 5 tabs, 1 app., Strong winds and ultraviolet (UV) radiation from O-type stars disrupt and ionize their molecular core birthplaces, sweeping up material into parsec-size shells. Owing to dissociation by starlight, the thinnest shells are expected to host low molecular abundances and therefore little star formation. Here, we expand previous maps made with observations using the IRAM 30 m telescope (at 11″ ≃ 4500 AU resolution) and present square-degree 12CO and 13CO (J = 2-1) maps of the wind-driven "Veil bubble"that surrounds the Trapezium cluster and its natal Orion molecular core (OMC). Although widespread and extended CO emission is largely absent from the Veil, we show that several CO "globules"exist that are blueshifted in velocity with respect to OMC and are embedded in the [C » II] 158 μm-bright shell that confines the bubble. This includes the first detection of quiescent CO at negative local standard of rest velocities in Orion. Given the harsh UV irradiation conditions in this translucent material, the detection of CO globules is surprising. These globules are small (Rg = 7100 AU), not massive (Mg = 0.3 M⊙ ), and are moderately dense: nH = 4 × 104 cm-3 (median values). They are confined by the external pressure of the shell, Pext∕ k ≳ 107 cm-3 K, and are likely magnetically supported. They are either transient objects formed by instabilities or have detached from pre-existing molecular structures, sculpted by the passing shock associated with the expanding shell and by UV radiation from the Trapezium. Some represent the first stages in the formation of small pillars, others of isolated small globules. Although their masses (Mg, We warmly thank the operators, AoDs, and chefs at the IRAM 30 m telescope for their support while the CO observations were conducted. This work is also based on observations made with the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is jointly operated by the Universities Space Research Association, Inc. (USRA), under NASA contract NNA17BF53C, and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) under DLR contract 50 OK 0901 to the University of Stuttgart. We acknowledge the work, during the C+ upGREAT square degree survey of Orion, of the USRA and NASA staff of the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, the Ames Research Center in Mountain View (California), and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut. We thank the Spanish MICIU for funding support under grant AYA2017-85111-P. Research on the ISM at Leiden Observatory is supported through a Spinoza award.

The characterization of the Intracluster Medium (ICM) properties of high-redshift galaxy clusters is fundamental to our understanding of large-scale structure formation processes. We present the results of a multiwavelength analysis of the very massive cluster MOO J1142+1527 at a redshift z = 1.2 discovered as part of the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey. This analysis is based on high angular resolution Chandra X-ray and NIKA2 Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) data. The cluster thermodynamic radial profiles have been obtained with unprecedented precision at this redshift and up to 0.7R , thanks to the combination of high-resolution X-ray and SZ data. The comparison between the galaxy distribution mapped in infrared by Spitzer and the morphological properties of the ICM derived from the combined analysis of the Chandra and NIKA2 data leads us to the conclusion that the cluster is an ongoing merger. We have estimated a systematic uncertainty on the cluster total mass that characterizes both the impact of the observed deviations from spherical symmetry and of the core dynamics on the mass profile. We further combine the X-ray and SZ data at the pixel level to obtain maps of the temperature and entropy distributions. We find a relatively low-entropy core at the position of the X-ray peak and high-temperature regions located on its south and west sides. This work demonstrates that the addition of spatially resolved SZ observations to low signal-to-noise X-ray data brings a high information gain on the characterization of the evolution of ICM thermodynamic properties at z > 1., With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

Context. Understanding the dominant heating mechanism in the nuclei of galaxies is crucial to understanding star formation in starbursts (SBs), active galactic nuclei (AGN) phenomena, and the relationship between star formation and AGN activity in galaxies. Analysis of the carbon monoxide (12CO) rotational ladder versus the infrared continuum emission (hereafter, 12CO/IR) in galaxies with different types of activity reveals important differences between them. Aims. We aim to carry out a comprehensive study of the nearby composite AGN-SB galaxy, NGC 4945, using spectroscopic and photometric data from the Herschel satellite. In particular, we want to characterize the thermal structure in this galaxy using a multi-transition analysis of the spatial distribution of the 12CO emission at different spatial scales. We also want to establish the dominant heating mechanism at work in the inner region of this object at smaller spatial scales (200 pc). Methods. We present far-infrared (FIR) and sub-millimeter (sub-mm) 12CO line maps and single spectra (from Jup = 3 to 20) using the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI), the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS), and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE) onboard Herschel, and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX). We combined the 12CO/IR flux ratios and the local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) analysis of the 12CO images to derive the thermal structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) for spatial scales raging from 200 pc to 2 kpc. In addition, we also present single spectra of low- (12CO, 13CO and [CI]) and high-density (HCN, HNC, HCO+, CS and CH) molecular gas tracers obtained with APEX and HIFI applying LTE and non-LTE (NLTE) analyses. Furthermore, the spectral energy distribution of the continuum emission from the FIR to sub-mm wavelengths is also presented. Results. From the NLTE analysis of the low- and high-density tracers, we derive gas volume densities (103-106 cm-3) for NGC 4945 that are similar to those found in other galaxies with different types of activity. From the 12CO analysis we find a clear trend in the distribution of the derived temperatures and the 12CO/IR ratios. It is remarkable that at intermediate scales (360 pc-1 kpc, or 19″-57″) we see large temperatures in the direction of the X-ray outflow while at smaller scales (200 pc-360 pc, or ∼9″-19″), the highest temperature, derived from the high-J lines, is not found toward the nucleus but toward the galaxy plane. The thermal structure derived from the 12CO multi-transition analysis suggests that mechanical heating, like shocks or turbulence, dominates the heating of the ISM in the nucleus of NGC4945 located beyond 100 pc (5″) from the center of the galaxy. This result is further supported by published models, which are able to reproduce the emission observed at high-J (PACS) 12CO transitions when mechanical heating mechanisms are included. Shocks and/or turbulence are likely produced by the barred potential and the outflow observed in X-rays., With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

Although eukaryotic messenger RNAs (mRNAs) normally possess a 5’ end N7-methyl guanosine (m7G) cap, a non-canonical 5’ nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) cap can tag certain transcripts for degradation mediated by the NAD+ decapping enzyme DXO1. Despite its importance as a post-transcriptional regulator, whether NAD+ capping dynamically responds to specific stimuli to regulate eukaryotic transcriptomes remains unknown. Here, we reveal that NAD+ capping is a widespread and tissue-specific mechanism to regulate mRNA stability. In the absence of DXO1 function, NAD+ capped transcripts are instead degraded via a RNA-DEPENDENT RNA POLYMERASE 6-mediated small RNA biogenesis mechanism to permit recycling of the trapped NAD+ molecules. Remarkably, the NAD+ capped transcriptome is significantly remodeled in response to the essential plant hormone abscisic acid in a mechanism that is primarily independent of DXO1. Overall, our findings reveal a previously uncharacterized and essential role of NAD+ capping in dynamically regulating transcript stability during specific physiological responses.

Tidal currents represent an attractive renewable energy source particularly because of their predictability. Prospective tidal stream development sites are often co-located in close proximity. Under such circumstances, in order to maximise the exploitation of the resource, multiple tidal stream turbine arrays working in tandem would be needed. In this paper, a continuous array optimisation approach based on the open source coastal ocean modelling framework Thetis is applied to derive optimal configurations for four turbine arrays around Zhoushan Islands, Zhejiang Province, China. Alternative optimisation scenarios are tested to investigate interactions between the turbine arrays and their hydrodynamic footprint. Results show that there are no obvious competition effects between these four arrays around Hulu and Taohua Island. However, significant interactions could arise among the three turbine arrays situated around Hulu Island, with a maximum decrease in average power of 42.2%. By optimising all turbine arrays simultaneously, the competition effects can be minimised and the cost of energy reduced as less turbines are required to deliver an equivalent energy output. As for the potential environmental impact, it is found that the turbine array around Taohua Island would affect a larger area than turbine arrays around Hulu Island.

Closed-loop automation of critical care therapy has the potential to reduce the workload of clinical personnel while maintaining the quality of care. In the real-world clinical arena, critically ill patients receive multiple medical treatments. However, existing body of work has predominantly focused on closed-loop automation of isolated individual treatments. How these individual treatment loops interact with each other has not been investigated. The goal of this work is to garner insights on the safety of critical care therapy and potential deleterious conflicts therein when multiple isolated and individually closed-loop controlled medical treatments act upon a patient, using a case study of hemorrhage resuscitation and intravenous propofol sedation. For this purpose, a physiological model of a critically ill patient was developed and experimentally validated to describe the collective cardiovascular and pharmacological effects of these treatments. Then, isolated and individually closed-loop controlled hemorrhage resuscitation and intravenous propofol sedation treatments were simultaneously applied to the physiological model and their interactive behavior was investigated. The results showed that (i) the influence of one treatment on the other must be taken into account in selecting treatment set point to maintain the safety of overall therapy, and that (ii) information sharing between control loops may enhance the efficacy and robustness of individual treatment loops. In sum, it was concluded that hemorrhage resuscitation and intravenous propofol sedation treatments may benefit from coordination both at the set point and the loop levels. The conclusion may generalize to a wide spectrum of multiple closed-loop controlled medical treatments.

Unstructured grid ocean models are advantageous for simulating the coastal ocean and river-estuary-plume systems. However, unstructured grid models tend to be diffusive and/or computationally expensive which limits their applicability to real life problems. In this paper, we describe a novel discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element discretization for the hydrostatic equations. The formulation is fully conservative and second-order accurate in space and time. Monotonicity of the advection scheme is ensured by using a strong stability preserving time integration method and slope limiters. Compared to previous DG models advantages include a more accurate mode splitting method, revised viscosity formulation, and new second-order time integration scheme. We demonstrate that the model is capable of simulating baroclinic flows in the eddying regime with a suite of test cases. Numerical dissipation is well-controlled, being comparable or lower than in existing state-of-the-art structured grid models., Submitted to Geoscientific Model Development

During and after transcription, the fate of an RNA molecule is almost entirely directed by the cohorts of interacting RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). RBPs regulate all stages of the life cycle of a messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule, including splicing, polyadenylation, transport out of the nucleus, RNA stability, and translation. In addition to these functions, RBPs can function to modify or edit the sequences encoded by the RNA. While the sequence for each transcript is determined in the genome, by the time an RNA reaches its final fate, the sequence may have been edited, where one nucleotide is converted to another, or modified, where a chemical group, or sometimes others moieties, are covalently linked to a nucleotide base. These changes to the RNA sequence have major consequences on the function of the RNA. Additionally, variation in the levels of the RBPs that perform the editing or modification can drastically affect the fitness of an organism. Here, we review RBPs that are known to edit or modify RNA ribonucleotides, focusing on the RNA editing ability of the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins and the RBPs that modify adenosine to N6- methyladenosine.

In this paper we describe a data set of multivariate physiological measurements recorded from conscious sheep (N = 8; 37.4 ± 1.1 kg) during hemorrhage. Hemorrhage was experimentally induced in each animal by withdrawing blood from a femoral artery at two different rates (fast: 1.25 mL/kg/min; and slow: 0.25 mL/kg/min). Data, including physiological waveforms and continuous/intermittent measurements, were transformed to digital file formats (European Data Format [EDF] for waveforms and Comma-Separated Values [CSV] for continuous and intermittent measurements) as a comprehensive data set and stored and publicly shared here (Appendix A). The data set comprises experimental information (e.g., hemorrhage rate, animal weight, event times), physiological waveforms (arterial and central venous blood pressure, electrocardiogram), time-series records of non-invasive physiological measurements (SpO2, tissue oximetry), intermittent arterial and venous blood gas analyses (e.g., hemoglobin, lactate, SaO2, SvO2) and intermittent thermodilution cardiac output measurements. A detailed explanation of the hemodynamic and pulmonary changes during hemorrhage is available in a previous publication (Scully et al., 2016) [1] .

This paper presents a physiological model to reproduce hemodynamic responses to blood volume perturbation. The model consists of three sub-models: a control-theoretic model relating blood volume response to blood volume perturbation; a simple physics-based model relating blood volume to stroke volume and cardiac output; and a phenomenological model relating cardiac output to blood pressure. A unique characteristic of this model is its balance for simplicity and physiological transparency. Initial validity of the model was examined using experimental data collected from 11 animals. The model may serve as a viable basis for the design and evaluation of closed-loop fluid resuscitation controllers.

Intra-atrial reentrant tachycardia (IART) is a common sequela in the congenital heart disease (CHD) population, and it significantly increases morbidity and mortality. Atrial antitachycardia devices (ATDs) capable of atrial antitachycardia pacing (ATP) therapy have been used to manage IART in the CHD population, but there are limited data on their safety and efficacy.To determine whether ATD implantation was associated with reduced direct current (DC) cardioversions and to compare ATP success between different CHD diagnoses and ATP programs.A single-center retrospective chart review was performed on CHD patients with ATDs. Demographic data were collected in addition to the number of DC cardioversions required before and after ATD implantation; data on ATP efficacy and the specific ATP program utilized; and adverse events related to ATD implantation or subsequent ATP treatments.ATD implantation in 91 CHD patients was associated with a significant reduction in DC cardioversions (P.01). Overall, 72% of IART episodes were successfully terminated by ATP. Patients with levo-transposition of the great arteries experienced lower rates of ATP success than the remainder of the cohort (P.01). There was no evidence of degeneration to ventricular arrhythmia or death directly attributed to ATP.ATD implantation was associated with reduced DC cardioversion burden. Patients with levo-transposition of the great arteries may experience lower ATP efficacy than patients with other CHDs; however, a larger patient population is required to better determine subgroup efficacy. These results support the safety and efficacy of ATP in the CHD population.