Synchrotron radiation (SR) has proven to be an invaluable contributor to the field of molecular spectroscopy, particularly in the terahertz region (1-10 THz) where its bright and broadband properties ...are currently unmatched by laboratory sources. However, measurements using SR are currently limited to a resolution of around 30 MHz, due to the limits of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. To push the resolution limit further, we have developed a spectrometer based on heterodyne mixing of SR with a newly available THz molecular laser, which can operate at frequencies ranging from 1 to 5.5 THz. This spectrometer can record at a resolution of 80 kHz, with 5 GHz of bandwidth around each molecular laser frequency, making it the first SR-based instrument capable of sub-MHz, Doppler-limited spectroscopy across this wide range. This allows closely spaced spectral features, such as the effects of internal dynamics and fine angular momentum couplings, to be observed. Furthermore, mixing of the molecular laser with a THz comb is demonstrated, which will enable extremely precise determinations of molecular transition frequencies.
Abstract
The significant and growing global prevalence of diabetes continues to challenge people with diabetes (PwD), healthcare providers, and payers. While maintaining near-normal glucose levels ...has been shown to prevent or delay the progression of the long-term complications of diabetes, a significant proportion of PwD are not attaining their glycemic goals. During the past 6 years, we have seen tremendous advances in automated insulin delivery (AID) technologies. Numerous randomized controlled trials and real-world studies have shown that the use of AID systems is safe and effective in helping PwD achieve their long-term glycemic goals while reducing hypoglycemia risk. Thus, AID systems have recently become an integral part of diabetes management. However, recommendations for using AID systems in clinical settings have been lacking. Such guided recommendations are critical for AID success and acceptance. All clinicians working with PwD need to become familiar with the available systems in order to eliminate disparities in diabetes quality of care. This report provides much-needed guidance for clinicians who are interested in utilizing AIDs and presents a comprehensive listing of the evidence payers should consider when determining eligibility criteria for AID insurance coverage.
Graphical Abstract
Dysregulation of tissue development pathways can contribute to cancer initiation and progression. In murine embryonic prostate epithelia, the transcription factor SOX9 is required for proper prostate ...development. In this study, we examined a role for SOX9 in prostate cancer in mouse and human. In Pten and Nkx3.1 mutant mice, cells with increased levels of SOX9 appeared within prostate epithelia at early stages of neoplasia, and higher expression correlated with progression at all stages of disease. In transgenic mice, SOX9 overexpression in prostate epithelia increased cell proliferation without inducing hyperplasia. In transgenic mice that were also heterozygous for mutant Pten, SOX9 overexpression quickened the induction of high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia. In contrast, Sox9 attenuation led to a decrease proliferating prostate epithelia cells in normal and homozygous Pten mutant mice with prostate neoplasia. Analysis of a cohort of 880 human prostate cancer samples showed that SOX9 expression was associated with increasing Gleason grades and higher Ki67 staining. Our findings identify SOX9 as part of a developmental pathway that is reactivated in prostate neoplasia where it promotes tumor cell proliferation.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent disorder involving disturbances in mood. There is still much to understand regarding precisely how emotions are disrupted in individuals with MDD. In ...this study, we used a network approach to examine the emotional disturbances underlying MDD. We hypothesized that compared with healthy control individuals, individuals diagnosed with MDD would be characterized by a denser emotion network, thereby indicating that their emotion system is more resistant to change. Indeed, results from a 7-day experience sampling study revealed that individuals with MDD had a denser overall emotion network than did healthy control individuals. Moreover, this difference was driven primarily by a denser negative, but not positive, network in MDD participants. These findings suggest that the disruption in emotions that characterizes depressed individuals stems from a negative emotion system that is resistant to change.
Guided by the multifaceted relations between city and text, Charting Literary Urban Studies: Texts as Models of and for the City attempts to chart the burgeoning field of literary urban studies by ...outlining how texts in varying degrees function as both representations of the city and as blueprints for its future development. The study addresses questions such as these: How do literary texts represent urban complexities – and how can they capture the uniqueness of a given city? How do literary texts simulate layers of urban memory – and how can they reinforce or help dissolve path dependencies in urban development? What role can literary studies play in interdisciplinary urban research? Are the blueprints or 'recipes' for urban development that most quickly travel around the globe – such as the 'creative city', the 'green city' or the 'smart city' – really always the ones that best solve a given problem? Or is the global spread of such travelling urban models not least a matter of their narrative packaging? In answering these key questions, this book also advances a literary studies contribution to the general theory of models, tracing a heuristic trajectory from the analysis of literary texts as representations of urban developments to an analysis of literary strategies in planning documents and other pragmatic, non-literary texts.
The Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) instrument on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On mission has provided the first laser interferometric range measurements between ...remote spacecraft, separated by approximately 220 km. Autonomous controls that lock the laser frequency to a cavity reference and establish the 5 degrees of freedom two-way laser link between remote spacecraft succeeded on the first attempt. Active beam pointing based on differential wave front sensing compensates spacecraft attitude fluctuations. The LRI has operated continuously without breaks in phase tracking for more than 50 days, and has shown biased range measurements similar to the primary ranging instrument based on microwaves, but with much less noise at a level of 1 nm/sqrtHz at Fourier frequencies above 100 mHz.
Organochlorine (OC) pesticides pose a significant environmental risk to wildlife and humans and have been associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study aims to spectroscopically analyze brains ...from free-flying birds and link the results to OC exposure and consequent amyloid aggregation. As long-lived apex predators, predatory birds represent a sentinel species similar to humans. Therefore, the results have implications for both species and may also add to our understanding of the role OC pesticides play in the development of AD. Brains of wild Sparrowhawks were analyzed using ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopy and Congo red staining; results were correlated with OC pesticide concentrations in livers. Effects of OC exposure were sex- and age-dependent and associated alterations were seen in lipids and protein secondary structure. A shift from α-helix to β-sheet conformation of proteins indicated that concentrations of OC pesticides >7.18 μg/g may lead to cerebral amyloid aggregation.
Fibrous cellulosic materials have been used as templates for material synthesis or organization via thermal degradation of the cellulose. Most of these methods, however, fail to exploit fiber ...organization, in part due to loss of structure with processing. Herein, we demonstrate that chemi- and physi-sorbed modifiers of cellulose alters the thermal degradation mechanism allowing for controlled deposition of oxide and carbon (incomplete combustion) along the original paper fiber network. We demonstrate that the degradation of the cellulose fibers depends on the amount of physisorbed material due, in part, to effect on the propagation of the ignition event. From the distribution of the residual elements and shape of the deposits, we can infer that the thermal degradation process depends on the nature, and concentration, of filler(s) or occluded.
► Total bird species richness was higher in the mosaic than in the forest. ► Up to 69% of forest bird species may also occupy the agricultural mosaic. ► Woody patches, trees, plantations are key ...structures for bird presence in the mosaic.
In Madagascar, despite acute land use pressure on forests coupled with unprecedented loss of endemic species and natural habitats, data on species distributions outside natural habitats are strikingly scarce. In this study, this gap is addressed by measuring bird diversity both within a protected forest corridor, and in the agricultural mosaic surrounding it. Results show that the diversity of all birds, and also of several functional guilds was higher in the mosaic than in the corridor. Moreover, 69% of all species found in the forest (61% of those classified as forest species) also occupied the agricultural mosaic. The diversity of frugivores, canopy insectivores and forest species in the mosaic was highly dependent upon the variety of scattered trees, small forest patches, plantations and secondary habitats distributed throughout the landscape. Generalist frugivores were particularly abundant in the mosaic, implying high potential for the maintenance of seed dispersal and fallow regeneration ecosystem services. Forest species in the mosaic were more generalist and less abundant, however, than those in the forest, suggesting the presence of both source–sink dynamics and potential biotic homogenization of the community in this landscape. Although under current conditions of heterogeneity and composition, the agricultural mosaic harbors a significant proportion of the endemic bird community, this study confirms the need for both sustained protection of large forest areas, and for adequate management of the agricultural landscape, particularly through the maintenance and enhancement of old-growth and isolated tree structures and fragments.
This article presents a magnetically actuated two-way, three-position (+, 0, −), paper-based microfluidic valve that includes a neutral position (0)the first of its kind. The system is highly ...robust, customizable, and fully automated. The advent of a neutral position and the ability to precisely control switching frequencies establish a new platform for highly controlled fluid flows in paper-based wicking microfluidic devices. The potential utility of these valves is demonstrated in automated, programmed, patterning of dyed liquids in a wicking device akin to a colorimetric assay but with a programmed fluid/reagent delivery. These valves are fabricated using facile methods and thus remain cost-effective for adoption into affordable point-of-care/bioanalytical devices.
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