Blue Triangles Research Articles

175. Clindamycin versus linezolid for Group A Streptococcal bloodstream infections?: A comparative effectiveness study of adjunctive antitoxin therapy at 137 US Hospitals

Abstract Background Adjunctive clindamycin has survival benefit in invasive Group A streptococcus (GAS) infections. Like clindamycin, linezolid also leads to decreased toxin and virulence factor production. However, rising clindamycin resistance among GAS isolates and inadequate clinical data on linezolid both offer pause on which to choose. We examined the impact of adjunctive clindamycin vs. linezolid on survival among patients with GAS bloodstream infections (BSI) in the presence and absence of clindamycin resistant (clinda-R) isolates Methods Clinical characteristics, antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), and antibiotic therapy were examined for unique adult inpatient encounters with GAS BSIs in the PINC-AI Database. Patients treated with a β-lactam for ≥3 days ±3 days of culture who received clindamycin ±3 days of culture were overlap weighted on a propensity-score to those who received linezolid using basine patient and hospital factors. The primary outcome was odds ratio (OR) of in-hospital mortality associated with clindamycin (vs linezolid). The secondary outcome was length of stay (LOS) among survivors. Subgroups analyses were conducted excluding clindamycin receipients with clinda-R isolates (subgroup 1) and also missing clindamycin AST(including D-test; subgroup 2).Figure 1.Study Flow chart Selection of patients with Group A streptococcal blood stream infections. The database was queried for inpatients (aged ≥18 years) with blood culture displaying growth of Group A streptococcus, filtered on the basis of receiving β-lactam antibiotics within 3 days either side of culture sampling for a minimum duration of 3 days and received either adjunctive clindamycin or linezolid treatment within 3 days either side of culture sampling.Table 1:Baseline characteristics of all patients with Group A Streptococcal blood stream infections treated with β-lactam antibiotics and adjunctive clindamycin or linezolid (N=660)Abbreviations: IVIG: intravenous immunoglobulin, ICU: intensive care unit, IQR: interquartile range, SOFA: Sequential Organ Failure Assessment * This score was calculated by use of ICD-10-clinical modification codes and adapted from the methods used by Quan and colleagues ^ Calculated by use of an electronic health record-based adaption of the original Sequential Organ Failure Assessment ^^ Deteremined by clindamycin antimicrobial susceptibility and D-test results. Defined as resistant or intermediate clindamycin susceptibility results and/or a positive D-test result. † Defined as presence of ICD-10 codes coding for any of the following conditions: Human immunodeficiency virus, cancer, solid organ or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, receipt of systemic corticosteroids, chemotherapy or other immunosuppressive therapy and immunodeficiency. ‡ Receipt of norepinephrine, epinephrine, phenylephrine, and dopamine administered within a 24-h period either side of culture sampling. Results Of 3019 β-lactam–treated inpatients with GAS BSI, 500 (17%) received clindamycin and 160 (5%) received linezolid. The prevalence of clinda-R isolates was 19%;1 isolate was linezolid resistant and excluded (Figure 1). Overlap weighting resulted in well balanced groups (Figure 2). In the overlap weighted cohort, mortality risk was similar between recipients of clindamycin (10%, [50/500]) vs linezolid (9%, [14/160]; OR 1.38 [95% CI: 0.76-2.49]). Among survivors median[interquartile range] LOS was similar between the two groups (8[9] vs. 9[8] days, p=0.45). Removing those with clinda-R isolates (N=84) and also missing AST (N=166) yielded similar results (Figure 3).Figure 2.Standardized mean differences for covariates included the propensity score calculation Standardized mean differences for covariates included in the propensity score generation averaged across exposure categories in the unweighted cohort (blue triangles) and overlap weighted cohort weight (red circles). After overlap weighting, the mean standard difference at each variable assessed was zero . Abbreviations: ICU: intensive care unit, IVIG: intravenous immunoglobulin, NSTI: necrotizing soft tissue infectionFigure 3.Odds Ratio of in-hospital mortality in patients with invasive group A streptococcal blood stream infection treated with adjunctive clindamycin versus adjunctive linezolid The ORs (95% CIs) of in-hospital mortality (including discharge to hospice) in the primary analysis and subgroup analysis with patients withclindamycin resistant isolates (subgroup 1) and those with clindamycin resistant isolates and missing clindamycin susceptibility results (subgroup 2) removed from clindamycin group. Abbreviations: CI: confidence interval Conclusion Among β-lactam-treated patients with GAS BSI, linezolid and clindamycin displayed comparable effectiveness as adjunctive antitoxin agents. Similar intrinsic effectiveness (i.e., in patients with only susceptible isolates) supports linezolid as an alternative even in low clinda-R settings. Disclosures Ahmed Babiker, MBBS, Roche: Advisor/Consultant Morgan Walker, MD, Cytovale: Advisor/Consultant

Ayo, Bisexual Check

Ayo, Bisexual Check

Is the surface of Hofmann-like spin-crossover {Fe(pz)[Pt(CN)4]} the same as its bulk?

Temperature dependent X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) has been employed to examine the spin-crossover (SCO) transition in the nanocrystals of 3D Hoffman-like {Fe(pz)[Pt(CN)4]}. Consistent with the existing literature, the temperature-dependent variations in the Fe 2p core-level spectrum provide unambiguous evidence of the spin-state transition in this SCO complex. One of the many possible reasons behind a lack of discernible temperature-driven shifts in the binding energies of both the N 1s core-level components could be the immunity of its HS electronic configuration to thermal fluctuations. The high-spin fraction versus temperature plot, extrapolated from the XPS measurements, reveals that the surface of the nanocrystals of {Fe(pz)[Pt(CN)4]} is in the high-spin state at room temperature, rendering it promising for room-temperature spintronics and quantum information science applications.

Bioinspired Vascular Stents with Microfluidic Electrospun Multilayer Coatings for Preventing In‐Stent Restenosis (Adv. Healthcare Mater. 17/2022)

Vascular Stents As shown in the cover picture, the bionic vascular stent prepared by Min Zhou, Yuanjin Zhao, and co-workers in article 2200965, is covered with double-layer nanofiber membranes made by electrospinning technology. The inner layer is loaded with Heparin-VEGF (shown in yellow spheres), which can be released into the lumen and promote endothelial repair. The outer membrane is loaded with rapamycin (shown in blue triangles), which can be released into the walls of blood vessels and prevents proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells.

Fast Parallel Evaluation of Exact Geometric Predicates on GPUs

This paper accelerates the exact evaluation of large numbers of 3D geometric predicates with an algorithm whose work is partitioned between the CPU and the GPU on a high-performance computer to exploit the relative strengths of each. The test algorithm computes all the red–blue intersections between a set of red 3D triangles and another set of blue 3D triangles. A sequence of filters is employed that progressively eliminates more and more red–blue pairs that do not intersect, finally leaving only the actual intersections. Initially, a uniform grid is constructed on the GPU to identify pairs of nearby triangles. Then, these pairs are tested for intersection with single-precision interval arithmetic on the GPU. The ambiguous cases are next filtered with double-precision interval arithmetic on the multi-core CPU, and finally the hard cases are re-evaluated in parallel on the CPU using arbitrary-precision rational numbers. The parallel speedup for the whole algorithm was up to 414 times. It took only 1.17 s to find the 18M intersections between two datasets containing a total of 14M triangles. The intersection computation was sped up by up to 1936 times. The techniques that gave this excellent performance should be useful for parallelizing other geometric algorithms in fields such as CAD, GIS, and 3D modeling.

A Smart Molecule Showing Spin Crossover Responsive Aggregation-Induced Emission

A Smart Molecule Showing Spin Crossover Responsive Aggregation-Induced Emission

Synthesis, structure determination, Hirshfeld surfaces analysis and anticancer activity study of a new biomolecule: (2E)-2-{[4-(benzyloxy)phenyl]methylidene}-3,4-dihydronaphthalen-1(2H)-one

A new chalcone derivative (2E)-2-{[4-(benzyloxy) phenyl]methylidene}-3,4-dihydronaphthalen-1(2H) was synthesized using Claisen-Schmidt condensation reaction and crystallized by slow evaporation method at ambient temperature. The structure of the title compound was determined by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. Hirshfeld surfaces mapped over the properties dnorm, electrostatic potential,shape index, curvedness, fragment patches, 2 D fingerprint plots, and the energy frameworks were generated and analyzed. The red spots on the dnorm surface indicate weak intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonds, π…π and C-H…π contacts. The C-H…π stacking is visualized as adjacent red and blue triangles in the shape index, and by flat regions in the curvedness property. From the 2 D fingerprint plots, the contribution to the total Hirshfeld surface due to the H…H contacts was found to be the highest with 51.7% followed by C···H/H···C (33.9%), and H···O/O···H(12.2%) contacts. The energy framework analysis reveals that the dispersion energy contribution is the most to the total energy than the other component energies. In-vitro and in-silico anti-proliferative activity of the prepared compound showed excellent anti-cancer activity on MCF-7 cell lines at a concentration of 15.6 µg/mL with 50.86% of cell viability. The molecular docking analysis showed the best binding affinity between the compound and the target protein.

Bariatric surgery on obese walking: mass(ive) changes akin to load carrying and hypogravity for normal-weight adults.

Bariatric surgery on obese walking: mass(ive) changes akin to load carrying and hypogravity for normal-weight adults.

Experimental (X-ray, TGA) and computation (NBO, AIM) studies of Iron(II) complex with thiabendazole and 5-aminoisophthalate

In this article, we synthesized the coordination complex: thiabendazole (TBZH) iron 5-aminoisophthalate (AIP), ([(Fe(TBZH)(AIP)(3H2O)]·2.5 H2O), and characterized by the X-ray single crystal diffraction analysis, the result reveals the iron center is six coordinated and formed a slightly distorted octahedron coordinated geometry. In the structure, the Nitrogen of AIP adopts κN coordination mode connecting the metal center and the two carboxylate groups are deprotonized. The TGA manifests there are three weight loss steps and the residue suggest it to be the ferroferric oxide. The Hirshfeld analysis reveals in dnorm-surfac, the O(N)–H···O hydrogen-bonds corresponds to the dark red spots near the hydrogen-bonds acceptor and donor atoms. The presence of patterns of red- and blue triangles on the same region of the shape-index surfaces is a characteristic of π···π stacking. The theoretical calculated the molecular orbitals, it shows that the LUMO orbital, the electron cloud is located at coordinated water molecules (O1, O3) and the free water (O1w). The electron cloud of the HOMO orbitals is mainly sited at the carboxylate groups and the benzene rings of AIP. The bond orders reveal the value of Fe-N1 and Fe-N2 are larger than that of the Fe-N4, Fe-O3, Fe-O2 and Fe-O1. The second-order perturbation energy analysis shown the most of the E(2) stabilization energies of LP(N) → LP*(Fe) is larger than those of the LP(O) → LP*(Fe), indicating the N atom in complex is the main contributor to the coordination. The AIM analysis found the bond critical point (BCP) of the complex, the electron density value ρBCP (from 0.007 to 0.034 a.u.) for the O(C)–H···O hydrogen bonds are all in the suggested interval of 0.002–0.035 a.u. the ρBCP order of Fe-N and Fe-O sequences are ρBCP(Fe-N1) > ρBCP(Fe-N2) > ρBCP(Fe-N4) and ρBCP(Fe-O1) > ρBCP(Fe-O3) > ρBCP(Fe-O2) shown the firm degree of the bond, these are consistent with the bond order. The Laplacian of electron density (∇2ρBCP) are positive and the |v(r)|/g(r) < 1 indicated the O(C)–H···O are mainly closed shell and Fe–O(N) interactions are the intermediate character between the closed shell and the typically covalent interaction.

Sex differences in deterioration of sleep properties associated with aging: a 12-year longitudinal cohort study.

The sleep patterns of humans are greatly influenced by age and sex and have various effects on overall health as they change continuously during the lifespan. We investigated age-dependent changes in sleep properties and their relation to sex in middle-aged individuals. We analyzed data from 2,640 participants (mean age of 49.8 ± 6.8 years at baseline, 50.6% women) in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study, which assessed sleep habits using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and other clinical characteristics. We analyzed the sleep habit changes that occurred between baseline and a follow-up point (mean interval: 12.00 ± 0.16 years). Associations of age and sex with 9 sleep characteristics were evaluated. Age was associated with most of the sleep characteristics cross-sectionally and longitudinally (P < .05), except for the time in bed at baseline (P = .455) and change in sleep duration (P = .561). Compared with men, women had higher Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores, shorter time in bed, shorter sleep duration, and longer latency at baseline (P ≤ .001). Longitudinal deterioration in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score, habitual sleep efficiency, duration, and latency was more prominent in women (P < .001). The sex differences in these longitudinal sleep changes were mainly noticeable before age 60 years (P < .05). Worsening of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores, habitual sleep efficiency, and latency was most evident in perimenopausal women. Men presented with greater advancement of chronotype (P = .006), with the peak sex-related difference occurring when they were in their late 40s (P = .048). Aging is associated with substantial deterioration in sleep quantity and quality as well as chronotype advancement, with the degree and timing of these changes differing by sex.

Conditioned place aversion of caustic paste and hot-iron disbudding in dairy calves

Cauterization by hot iron and application of caustic paste are 2 common methods of disbudding calves. In this study, we compared the affective experience of these 2 procedures on young dairy calves using conditioned place aversion. Male dairy calves (n = 14; 7 ± 2 d old) were disbudded by both thermal and chemical methods (1 horn bud at a time, 48 h apart). Calves received treatments in pens made visually distinct with either red squares or blue triangles on the walls. Calves were restricted to these treatment pens for 6 h following disbudding. For all treatments, calves received a sedative (xylazine, 0.2 mg/kg), local anesthetic (lidocaine, 5 mL), and analgesic (meloxicam, 0.5 mg/kg). Calves were then tested for conditioned place aversion at 48, 72, and 96 h after their last treatment. During tests, calves were placed in a neutral pen connected to both treatment pens where they had previously been disbudded. Time spent in each treatment pen was recorded until calves chose to lie down for 1 min (latency to lie down: 31.0 ± 8.6 min). During the first test (48 h after last disbudding), calves spent more time in the pen associated with hot-iron disbudding compared with what would be expected by chance (intercept: 73.5%, 95% CI: 56.5, 90.5) and fewer calves lay down in the caustic paste pen than in the hot-iron pen (3 vs. 10 lying events). No evidence of preference for the hot-iron pen was found in the following test sessions (72 and 96 h since last disbudding). These results suggest that calves initially remember caustic paste disbudding as a more negative experience than hot-iron disbudding, even with the use of sedation, local anesthesia, and analgesia.

Compositional Nature of Language to Represent Bimodal Visual- Audial Percepts

We describe the perceptual domain which have a composition domain and also which is rarely ever captured in the existed system. This has happened because they started to learn the composition structure directly. Compositional structures can be divided into separate domains. Keeping that in mind, we propose another way to deal with demonstrating bimodal perceptual areas that expressly relates unmistakable projections over every methodology and after that mutually learns a bimodal meager portrayal. Presently this model will empower compositionality crosswise over particular projections and sum up to percept's traversed by this compositional premise. For instance, our model can be prepared on red triangles and blue squares; yet, certainly will likewise have learned red squares and blue triangles. To test our model, we have procured another bimodal dataset including pictures and spoken articulations of hued shapes (hinders) in the table top setting.

Ohmic Impedance: Myth or Reality?

In his seminal work on the impedance response of a blocking electrode, Newman developed the concept of frequency dispersion1 accounting for the geometric effect of the electrochemical system on the primary current distribution. More recently, this approach has been revisited for different cases, including an ideally blocking electrode,2 a blocking electrode with a local constant-phase element behavior,3and a disk electrode with faradaic reactions.4-5 It was shown that the frequency dispersion results in a high-frequency time constant that can be associated to an ohmic impedance with a non-zero imaginary component in the high frequencies.6 Interestingly, the development of local electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (LEIS) has allowed the experimental validation of this concept.7-9 However, from a practical point of view, most of the experimental work reported in the literature deals with global impedance measurements and usually neglects the contribution of current and potential distributions. This is certainly due to the fact that these contribution requires the simultaneous solution of the interfacial kinetics and Laplace’s equation in the electrochemical cell, which makes it difficult to analyze the results when comparing this approach to what can be done with equivalent electrical circuits. However, the analysis of high-frequency domains is needed for all electrochemical systems and is of special interest for many practical applications dealing with the detailed analysis of capacitive behavior of an electrode, such as supercapacitors, Mott-Schottky analysis, thin oxide films, or coatings. This analysis requires a good understanding of the processes in the high-frequency domain, including its resistive component. In this work, a particular attention has been paid to the ohmic contribution observed in the high-frequency domain both for capacitive and faradaic electrochemical responses. We introduce a detailed description of the ohmic impedance first based on synthetic data in order to devise an analytical expression as a quantity that can be easily used in any fitting procedure. An example of the ohmic impedance obtained for blocking electrodes is presented in Fig. 1. In a second step, we propose an experimental validation of our new development by studying three different electrochemical systems: the response of a blocking electrode investigated using a gold disk-electrode in a sodium sulfate solution; the CPE response due to a thin oxide film using an aluminum as electrode material in a sodium sulfate solution, and the electrochemical response of a faradaic system using the dissolution of pure iron in sulfuric acid solution. References Newman, J., Frequency dispersion in capacity measurements at a disk electrode. J. Electrochem. Soc. 1970, 117(2), 198-203. Huang, V. M.-W.; Vivier, V.; Orazem, M. E.; Pebere, N.; Tribollet, B., The apparent constant-phase-element behavior of an ideally polarized blocking electrode a global and local impedance analysis. J. Electrochem. Soc. 2007, 154(2), C81-C88. Huang, V. M.-W.; Vivier, V.; Frateur, I.; Orazem, M. E.; Tribollet, B., The global and local impedance response of a blocking disk electrode with local constant-phase-element behavior. J. Electrochem. Soc. 2007, 154(2), C89-C98. Huang, V. M.-W.; Vivier, V.; Orazem, M. E.; Pebere, N.; Tribollet, B., The apparent constant-phase-element behavior of a disk electrode with Faradaic reactions. A global and local impedance analysis. J. Electrochem. Soc. 2007, 154(2), C99-C107. Orazem, M. E.; Tribollet, B., Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy. 2 ed.; Wiley: Hoboken, New Jersey, 2017; p 768. Frateur, I.; Huang, V. M.; Orazem, M. E.; Tribollet, B.; Vivier, V., Experimental Issues Associated with Measurement of Local Electrochemical Impedance. J. Electrochem. Soc. 2007, 154(12), C719-C727. Zou, F.; Thierry, D.; Isaacs, H. S., A high-resolution probe for localized electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. J. Electrochem. Soc. 1997, 144(6), 1957-1965. Blanc, C.; Orazem, M. E.; Pebere, N.; Tribollet, B.; Vivier, V.; Wu, S., The origin of the complex character of the Ohmic impedance. Electrochim. Acta 2010, 55(21), 6313-6321. Huang, V. M.-W.; Wu, S.-L.; Orazem, M. E.; Pebere, N.; Tribollet, B.; Vivier, V., Local electrochemical impedance spectroscopy: A review and some recent developments. Electrochim. Acta 2011, 56, 8048-8057. Figure1: Nyquist representation ohmic impedance, Ze, determined for the calculated impedance response of a blocking electrode with a pure capacitance (red circles) and a local CPE (blue triangles). The crosses correspond to the fitting of each impedance diagram with the Havriliak-Negami equation. K is the dimensionless frequency defined as K=Qωαr0/κ. Figure 1

A reduced upper bound for an edge-coloring problem from relation algebra

Starting with the Johnson scheme J(14, 7), we construct an edge-coloring of $$K_{N}$$ (for $$N = 3432$$ ) in colors red, dark blue, and light blue, such that there are no monochromatic blue triangles and such that the coloring satisfies a certain strong universal-existential property. The edge-coloring of $$K_{N}$$ depends on a cyclic coloring of $$K_{17}$$ whose two color classes contain no monochromatic $$K_{4}$$ , $$K_{4,3}$$ , or $$K_{5,2}$$ subgraphs. This construction yields the smallest known representation of the relation algebra $$32_{65}$$ , reducing the upper bound from 8192 to 3432.

Disappearance of Slan-Positive Non-Classical Monocytes As a New Parameter for the Diagnosis of Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia with Associated Inflammatory State

Introduction: Even though the diagnosis criteria of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) have been recently revised by the World Health Organization (WHO), recognition of this disease may be challenging. This myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasm can also be diagnosed by a relative accumulation of classical monocytes (cMO, CD14++CD16-) ≥94% of total peripheral blood monocytes and a decrease of intermediate (iMO, CD14++CD16+) and non-classical monocytes (ncMO, CD14lowCD16+) percentages measured by flow cytometry (Selimoglu-Buet, 2015; Talati, 2017; Patnaik, 2017; Hudson, 2018). However, inflammatory diseases concomitant to CMML or inflammatory state in CMML patients can provoke an increase of the iMO percentage leading to a decrease of the relative cMO percentage below the 94% threshold (Selimoglu-Buet, 2017). In these cases, the decrease of the relative ncMO percentage persists, hence it might be a useful diagnostic criterion relevant for CMML diagnostic. Since accurate delineation of the iMO and ncMO populations remains debated, the use of a ncMO specific marker, such as slan (6-sulfo LacNac), could be of interest.Objective:We aimed to assess the clinical utility of the slan marker in peripheral monocytosis exploration and CMML diagnosis, especially in inflammatory state.Methods: From November 2017 to July 2018, whole blood samples collected on EDTA or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were stained with the following antibodies as previously described: anti-CD45, CD2, CD56, CD24, CD14, CD16 (purchased either from Beckman-Coulter or Becton-Dickinson) and anti-slan (Miltenyi Biotec). Sample analysis was performed either with a Navios (BC) or a Fortessa (BD) cytometer. Fifty-four controls (19 young healthy blood donors and 35 age-matched healthy donors), 13 patients with reactive monocytosis and 37 patients newly diagnosed with a CMML were enrolled in this study.Results: Firstly, we analyzed the expression of the slan marker in the different circulating mature populations from control whole blood samples. We found that slan is only expressed in monocytes and not in neutrophils or lymphocytes (Figure 1A), especially not in NK cells. Among the three monocyte subpopulations, the expression of slan is restricted to ncMO with 98.9%±0.7% of slan-positive cells gathering within this subpopulation (Figure 1B). However, only 49.1%±12.3% of the ncMO are slan positive, corresponding to ncMo cells with the weakest expression of CD14 (Figure 1C, compare red population to blue one). Yet, both slan-positive and slan-negative ncMO subpopulations displayed similar morphological features after cell-sorting and MGG staining (Figure 1D).Next, we assessed slan expression within the ncMO subpopulation in comparison with relative cMO percentage in healthy donors, patients presenting a reactive monocytosis or a CMML. Thirty-two out of the 37 CMML patients displayed cMO percentage above 94% as expected (Figure 1E). A significant decrease of slan-positive ncMO percentage was observed in CMML patients compared to healthy donors and patients with reactive monocytosis (Figure 1G). All the five patients whose cMO percentage was below the threshold (Figure 1E, blue triangles amongst red ones) displayed the well-recognized “bulbous” aspect (Figure 1F), with an increase of the iMO leading to the decrease of the relative cMO percentage. Interestingly, these patients that couldn't be diagnosed as CMML using the relative accumulation of cMO displayed a low percentage of slan-positive ncMO (Figure 1G, blue triangles amongst red ones).Eventually, we established a Receiver Operator Curve (ROC) and obtained a 1.4% cut-off value of slan-positive ncMo with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.999 (Figure 1H). The use of the relative slan-positive ncMo percentage led to an improvement of the sensitivity of the CMML flow cytometry assay compared to the relative cMO% (100% vs 86%), as all the false negatives were retrieved.Conclusion: Here, we describe a new parameter for CMML diagnosis, namely the decrease of the relative slan-positive ncMo percentage below 1.4%. This criterion, associated to the relative cMO quantification, may be useful, especially when CMML patient displays an inflammatory state. [Display omitted] DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Author Correction: Decentralized circadian clocks process thermal and photoperiodic cues in specific tissues

In Fig. 2g of the version of this Letter originally published, the CER6::CCA1 #8 data points were incorrectly coloured blue in the graphs, rather than yellow as in the legend; the CER6::CCA2 #16 data points were incorrectly represented in yellow circles in the graphs, rather than yellow triangles as in the legend, and the label should read ‘CER6::CCA1 #16’; and the SUC2::CCA1 #18 data points were indicated using blue triangles in the graphs, rather than blue circles as in the legend. The corrected figure is shown here.

Learning Compositional Sparse Bimodal Models.

Various perceptual domains have underlying compositional semantics that are rarely captured in current models. We suspect this is because directly learning the compositional structure has evaded these models. Yet, the compositional structure of a given domain can be grounded in a separate domain thereby simplifying its learning. To that end, we propose a new approach to modeling bimodal perceptual domains that explicitly relates distinct projections across each modality and then jointly learns a bimodal sparse representation. The resulting model enables compositionality across these distinct projections and hence can generalize to unobserved percepts spanned by this compositional basis. For example, our model can be trained on red triangles and blue squares; yet, implicitly will also have learned red squares and blue triangles. The structure of the projections and hence the compositional basis is learned automatically; no assumption is made on the ordering of the compositional elements in either modality. Although our modeling paradigm is general, we explicitly focus on a tabletop building-blocks setting. To test our model, we have acquired a new bimodal dataset comprising images and spoken utterances of colored shapes (blocks) in the tabletop setting. Our experiments demonstrate the benefits of explicitly leveraging compositionality in both quantitative and human evaluation studies.

Faradaic oxygen evolution from SrTiO3 under nano- and femto-second pulsed light excitation.

During photocatalytic water oxidation, n-SrTiO3(100) demonstrated near 100% Faradaic efficiency for O2 evolution with nano- (30 ns) and femto- (150 fs) second pulsed laser excitation of the band gap, despite surface rearrangements attributed to the high peak power (300 MW cm-2). Therefore, these results establish a methodology for tracking intermediates of the water oxidation cycle at the n-SrTiO3(100) surface from the picosecond time scales of charge transfer through to the millisecond time scales of O2 evolution.

Piecing together a different picture: A host of new studies on autism have begun decoding the longstanding puzzle of its causes.

“A developmental disability that hinders the normal functioning of the brain, affecting, in varying degrees, communication skills and social interaction. Repetitive behaviours, and different ways of learning, paying attention, or reacting to things are often distinctive signs”. This standard definition of autism fails to describe the complexity of a condition that ranges in its manifestations from severe intellectual impairment to superior cognitive skills, like in the Asperger syndrome. To comprise such diversity, autism disorders are now covered under the umbrella term “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD). In most cases, ASD manifests during the first 5 years of life, with boys significantly more likely to be diagnosed than girls. ASD usually goes together with several other problems that frequently include anxiety, sleep disorders, or epilepsy. No cure exists; treatment, such as speech therapy, just attempts to alleviate specific deficits of autistic patients. > Nothing is simple in autism. Even the real number of people affected is uncertain. Nothing is simple in autism. Even the real number of people affected is uncertain. The US CDC estimates that about 1 in 68 (or 1.5%) of children in the USA are living with ASD (http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html). The WHO has a more conservative estimate, last revised in January this year, of 1 in 160 children, based on a larger set of epidemiological surveys (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/autism-spectrum-disorders/en/). Needless to say, most studies were conducted in developed countries, and the prevalence of ASD in many low‐ and middle‐income countries remains largely unknown. > Along the years, many potential causes have been indicated, including genetic and environmental factors, exposure to toxins during pregnancy, wide gaps between parent ages, and so on Although the general consensus is that prevalence rates are increasing globally, this point is debated too. Some analyses indicate that a large percentage of the increase in ASD owes to improved awareness and …

DISC1, astrocytes and neuronal maturation: a possible mechanistic link with implications for mental disorders

Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is a genetic risk factor implicated in major mental disorders that involve disrupted neurodevelopment and synaptic signaling. Glial cells such as astrocytes can regulate neuronal and synaptic maturation. Although astrocytes express DISC1, the role of astrocyte DISC1 in synaptic regulation remains unknown. We expressed a pathogenic, dominant-negative form of DISC1, mutant DISC1, in astrocytes to elucidate the roles of astrocytic DISC1 in maturation of dendrites and excitatory and inhibitory synapses using a co-culture model. We found that wild-type primary neurons exhibited less elaborated dendritic arborization when co-cultured with astrocytes that express mutant DISC1, compared to control astrocytes. We observed significantly decreased density of excitatory but not inhibitory synapses on wild-type primary neurons that were co-cultured with astrocytes that express mutant DISC1, compared to control astrocytes. Treatment of co-cultures with D-serine restored dendritic development and density of excitatory synapses. Our findings show for the first time that mutant DISC1 diminished the capacity of astrocytes to support dendritic and synaptic maturation in co-cultured neurons, and that D-serine can restore the dendritic and synaptic abnormalities. The results provide a new insight into the mechanisms whereby genetic risk factors within astrocytes could contribute the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders. Expression of mutant DISC1 (mDISC1) in astrocytes (A) decreases binding of endogenous DISC1 to serine racemase (SR) and production of D-serine (blue triangles) from L-serine (red triangles). As a result, neurons co-cultured with mutant DISC1 astrocytes exhibit diminished dendritic arborization (DIV10) and decreased linear density of VGLUT+(red)/PSD95+ (green) excitatory synapses (DIV14). Filled circles with arrows denote membrane transporters for D-serine. Read the Editorial Highlight for this article on doi: 10.1111/jnc.13699.