How does prior experience influence team creativity? We address this question by examining the effects of task experience acquired directly and task experience acquired vicariously from others on ...team creativity in a product-development task. Across three laboratory studies, we find that direct task experience leads to higher levels of team creativity and more divergent products than indirect task experience. Moreover, our results show that the difference in team creativity between direct and indirect task experience persists over time. Finally, our findings demonstrate that transactive memory systems fully mediate the effect of direct task experience on team creativity. Teams who acquired task experience directly are more creative because they develop better transactive memory systems than teams who acquired experience vicariously. We discuss how our findings contribute to understanding the effects of prior experience on team creativity, and the role of transactive memory systems in creative tasks.
To compare the accuracy of total keratometry (TK) and standard keratometry (K) from a swept-source optical coherence tomography biometer for intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation in eyes with ...previous corneal refractive surgery.
Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
Retrospective case series.
The differences between the TK and K and their association with K were assessed. For IOL power calculation, combinations of 1) K with Haigis, Haigis-L, and Barrett True-K, and 2) TK with Haigis (Haigis-TK) were used. The mean absolute error (MAE) and the percentages of eyes within prediction errors of ± 0.50 diopters (D), ± 1.00 D, and ± 2.00 D were calculated.
The study comprised 129 eyes. For Haigis, Haigis-L, Barrett True-K, and Haigis-TK, respectively, the MAEs were 0.72 D, 0.61 D, 0.54 D, and 0.50 D in the myopic laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK)/photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) group, and 0.74 D, 0.68 D, 0.71 D, and 0.70 D in hyperopic LASIK/PRK group. For the radial keratotomy (RK) eyes, the MAEs were 0.66 D, 0.71 D, and 0.72 D for the Haigis, Barrett True-K, and Haigis-TK formulas, respectively. In the myopic LASIK/PRK group, the Barrett True-K and Haigis-TK produced significantly lower MAEs than did Haigis (P < .05). In the hyperopic LASIK/PRK and RK groups, there were no significant differences between the formulas in MAEs and percentages of eyes within the above prediction errors.
The performance of the combination of Haigis and TK in refractive prediction was comparable with Haigis-L and Barrett True-K in eyes with previous corneal refractive surgery.
Abstract
Terahertz (THz) technology offers a variety of applications in label-free medical diagnosis and therapy, majority of which rely on the effective medium theory that assumes biological tissues ...to be optically isotropic and homogeneous at the scale posed by the THz wavelengths. Meanwhile, most recent research discovered mesoscale (
$$\sim \lambda $$
∼
λ
) heterogeneities of tissues;
$$\lambda $$
λ
is a wavelength. This posed a problem of studying the related scattering and polarization effects of THz-wave–tissue interactions, while there is still a lack of appropriate tools and instruments for such studies. To address this challenge, in this paper, quantitative polarization-sensitive reflection-mode THz solid immersion (SI) microscope is developed, that comprises a silicon hemisphere-based SI lens, metal-wire-grid polarizer and analyzer, a continuous-wave 0.6 THz (
$$\lambda = 500$$
λ
=
500
µm) backward-wave oscillator (BWO), and a Golay detector. It makes possible the study of local polarization-dependent THz response of mesoscale tissue elements with the resolution as high as
$$0.15 \lambda $$
0.15
λ
. It is applied to retrieve the refractive index distributions over the freshly-excised rat brain for the two orthogonal linear polarizations of the THz beam, aimed at uncovering the THz birefringence (structural optical anisotropy) of tissues. The most pronounced birefringence is observed for the Corpus callosum, formed by well-oriented and densely-packed axons bridging the cerebral hemispheres. The observed results are verified by the THz pulsed spectroscopy of the porcine brain, which confirms higher refractive index of the Corpus callosum when the THz beam is polarized along axons. Our findings highlight a potential of the quantitative polarization THz microscopy in biophotonics and medical imaging.
Ferritin turnover plays a major role in tissue iron homeostasis, and ferritin malfunction is associated with impaired iron homeostasis and neurodegenerative diseases. In most eukaryotes, ferritin is ...considered an intracellular protein that stores iron in a nontoxic and bioavailable form. In insects, ferritin is a classically secreted protein and plays a major role in systemic iron distribution. Mammalian ferritin lacks the signal peptide for classical endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi secretion but is found in serum and is secreted via a nonclassical lysosomal secretion pathway. This study applied bioinformatics and biochemical tools, alongside a protein trafficking mouse models, to characterize the mechanisms of ferritin secretion. Ferritin trafficking via the classical secretion pathway was ruled out, and a 2:1 distribution of intracellular ferritin between membrane-bound compartments and the cytosol was observed, suggesting a role for ferritin in the vesicular compartments of the cell. Focusing on nonclassical secretion, we analyzed mouse models of impaired endolysosomal trafficking and found that ferritin secretion was decreased by a BLOC-1 mutation but increased by BLOC-2, BLOC-3, and Rab27A mutations of the cellular trafficking machinery, suggesting multiple export routes. A 13-amino-acid motif unique to ferritins that lack the secretion signal peptide was identified on the BC-loop of both subunits and plays a role in the regulation of ferritin secretion. Finally, we provide evidence that secretion of iron-rich ferritin was mediated via the multivesicular body–exosome pathway. These results enhance our understanding of the mechanism of ferritin secretion, which is an important piece in the puzzle of tissue iron homeostasis.
•Iron-loaded ferritin is secreted via both the nonclassical secretory autophagy and multivesicular body–exosome pathways.•A motif on both ferritin subunits is involved in the regulation of ferritin secretion.
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A radiothermometer has made it possible to take deep temperature directly from the kidney. Comparison of temperatures, obtained from normal nonpregnant women, normal pregnant women and pregnant ...patients with acute pyelonephritis has demonstrated a significant drop in renal temperature during pregnancy. In acute pyelonephritis, renal temperature drops still further, with the temperature difference between the affected kidney and the contralateral one ranging from 0.5 degrees to 1.5 degrees. Deep temperature measurements of each kidney are taken from several sites, selected at ultrasonic scanning, which makes it possible to calculate temperature variance for the kidney. Variance increases significantly (more than two-fold) in the inflamed kidney, as compared to the intact one. Therefore, the diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis can be made where deep temperature difference is between 0.5 degrees and 1.5 degrees and temperature variance is increased twofold or more in one kidney, as compared to the other, in a pregnant patient. The side of affection is also determined in this way. The proposed diagnostic method is perfectly safe for the mother and the fetus, and can be used for the diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis during pregnancy, along with other procedures.
Therapeutic radiation has conflicting immune effects: radiation therapy (RT)-induced immunogenic cell death can contribute to immune response, but lymphocytes are also sensitive to RT. It is unknown ...whether palliative RT leads to lymphopenia in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and whether this affects outcomes. As such, we sought to assess the impact of palliative RT on circulating lymphocyte count and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients being treated with PD-1-directed ICI and associations with survival.
We identified patients from 5 radiation oncology centers, treated with palliative RT and either pembrolizumab or nivolumab with non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic melanoma, and renal cell carcinoma. Patients who received intervening cytotoxic chemotherapy were excluded. We recorded absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio before and after palliative RT and at the start of ICI. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard models.
One hundred ten patients received 225 courses of palliative RT. Median change in ALC after RT was -161 cells/mL. Decreases in ALC were greater with RT to the spine, lung/mediastinum, and chest wall compared with the brain, extremity, or abdomen/pelvis (P = .002) and after courses >5 fractions (P = .003). Extracranial and >5-fraction RT was associated with increased odds of severe lymphopenia (ALC <500) at the end of RT (odds ratio OR, 3.7; P = .001; and OR, 3.9; P = .001, respectively). Patients who developed RT-induced severe lymphopenia were more likely to have severe lymphopenia when ICI was initiated (OR, 6.4; P = .0001), particularly when RT was administered in the previous 3 months (OR, 189; P < .0001). Severe lymphopenia at onset of ICI therapy was associated with increased mortality on multivariable analysis (hazard ratio, 2.1; P = .03).
Extracranial or prolonged courses of RT increase the risk of severe lymphopenia, which is associated with poorer survival in patients treated with ICI.
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