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Aims: To assess the accuracy of point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) in the hands of two trained and blinded emergency physicians (EPs) in detecting very small amounts of free intraperitoneal air injected intra-abdominally, using a fresh human cadaver model.Material and methods: Fifteen cadavers were injected on 3 occasions with predefined quantities of free intraperitoneal air ranging from 0-10 mL. Seven cadavers were injected in the mid-epigastrium (ME), while 8 were injected in the left lower quadrant (LLQ). Each cadaver was scanned after each of the 3 injections by 2 trained and blinded EPs, resulting in 45 scans per sonographer. Scans were performed using previously validated and standardized techniques. All scans were recorded, time-stamped and labeled. For each scan the sonographers indicated “yes” or “no” to whether pneumoperitoneum was detected. A chi square analysis was performed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of PoCUS utilized by each sonographer of pneumoperitoneum based on the location and volume of air injected.Results: Free air (0.25-10 mL) injected into the ME was successfully diagnosed in 36/42 instances (86% sensitivity), but only detected in 10/36 instances when injected into the LLQ (28% sensitivity). Both EPs detected all air injections of ≥2 mL into the ME.Conclusion: Detection of free air originating from the midepigastric region may become a future PoCUS indication for adequately trained EPs.

A longstanding barrier to deploying robots in the real world is the ongoing need to author robot behavior. Remote data collection–particularly crowdsourcing—is increasingly receiving interest. In this paper, we make the argument to scale robot programming to the crowd and present an initial investigation of the feasibility of this proposed method. Using an off-the-shelf visual programming interface, non-experts created simple robot programs for two typical robot tasks (navigation and pick-and-place). Each needed four subtasks with an increasing number of programming statements (if statement, while loop, variables) for successful completion of the programs. Initial findings of an online study (N = 279) indicate that non-experts, after minimal instruction, were able to create simple programs using an off-the-shelf visual programming interface. We discuss our findings and identify future avenues for this line of research.

Current generation general circulation models (GCMs) simulate synoptic-scale climate state variables such as geopotential heights, specific humidity, and integrated vapor transport (IVT) more reliably than mesoscale precipitation. Statistical downscaling methods that condition precipitation on GCM-based, synoptic-scale climate features have shown promise in the reproduction of local precipitation. However, current approaches to climate-state-informed downscaling impose some limitations on the skill of precipitation reproduction, including hard clustering of climate modes into a discrete set of states, utilization of numerical clustering methodologies poorly suited to nonnormal data, and a tendency to focus on relationships to a limited set of large-scale climate modes. This study presents a methodology based on emerging machine learning techniques to develop global approximators of regional precipitation and discharge extremes given a suite of synoptic-scale climate state variables. Archetypal analysis is first used to define regional modes of winter and summer extreme precipitation and discharge across the eastern contiguous United States. A 2D convolution neural network (NN) is then used to predict the co-occurrence of the archetypes using 300- and 700-hPa geopotential heights, 300- and 700-hPa specific humidity, and IVT. Results suggest that 300-hPa geopotential height, 700-hPa specific humidity, and IVT yield the most reliable predictions, although with some important differences by season and region. Finally, we demonstrate that the trained activations of NN convolutional layers can be used to infer the causal pathways between synoptic-scale climate features and regional extremes.

There is considerable effort within the HCI community to explore, document, and advocate for the lived experiences of persons with disabilities (PWDs). However, PWDs from the Global South, particularly Africa, are underrepresented in this scholarship. We contribute to closing this gap by investigating the unmet transit needs and characterization of technology within the disability community in Kampala, Uganda. We investigated transportation due to the increase in ride-share solutions created by widespread mobile computing and the resulting disruption of transportation worldwide. We hosted co-design sessions with disability advocates and adapted the stakeholder tokens method from the value-sensitive design framework to map the stakeholder ecosystem. Our key insight is the identification of a new group of non-traditional core stakeholders who highlight the values of inclusion, mobility, and safety within the ecosystem. Finally, we discuss how our findings engage with concepts of disability justice and perceptions of power.

We explored different ways in which a multi-robot system might recover after one robot experiences a failure. We compared four recovery conditions: Update (a robot fixes its error and continues the task), Re-embody (a robot transfers its intelligence to a different body), Call (the failed robot summons a second robot to take its place), and Sense (a second robot detects the failure and proactively takes the place of the first robot). We found that trust in the system and perceived competence of the system were higher when a single robot recovered from a failure on its own (by updating or re-embodying) than when a second robot took over the task. We also found evidence that two robots that used the same socially interactive intelligence were perceived more similarly than two robots with different intelligences. Finally, our study revealed a relationship between how people perceive the agency of a robot and how they perceive the performance of the system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced institutions to rapidly alter their behavior, which typically has disproportionate negative effects on people with disabilities as accessibility is overlooked. To investigate these issues, we analyzed Twitter data to examine accessibility problems surfaced by the crisis. We identified three key domains at the intersection of accessibility and technology: (i) the allocation of product delivery services, (ii) the transition to remote education, and (iii) the dissemination of public health information. We found that essential retailers expanded their high-risk customer shopping hours and pick-up and delivery services, but individuals with disabilities still lacked necessary access to goods and services. Long-experienced access barriers to online education were exacerbated by the abrupt transition of in-person to remote instruction. Finally, public health messaging has been inconsistent and inaccessible, which is unacceptable during a rapidly-evolving crisis. We argue that organizations should create flexible, accessible technology and policies in calm times to be adaptable in times of crisis to serve individuals with diverse needs.

Smart technologies have recently come under scrutiny for automating inequality. Given the current push towards developing and implementing smart cities policies that affect transportation systems in places like Kampala and Kigali, it is important to examine how the different modes of transportation meet the needs of diverse passengers and identify opportunities for technology to address any inequities. Prior studies have focused on the impact of informal public transportation on government policy and examined drivers' perspectives, but they largely overlooked the experiences of passengers and other industry stakeholders. In this study, we conducted interviews and surveys with public transportation riders with different disabilities as well as other stakeholders, including transport and financial technology creators. Our findings illuminate inequities in the transportation system surrounding discrimination and harassment, influence of ability on preferred transportation modes despite inaccessible interfaces, and influence of perceived social hierarchical structures on innovation. We present insights into how passengers appropriate technology to overcome challenges, and we uncover opportunities for technology to fill additional gaps. Lastly, we discuss how these findings support emergent frameworks such as aspiration-based design, and we present potential envisioned futures of technology for informal public transportation.

Service robots often perform their main functions in public settings, interacting with more than one person at a time. How these robots should handle the afairs of individual users while also behaving appropriately when others are present is an open question. One option is to design for flexible agent embodiment: letting agents take control of different robots as people move between contexts. Through structured User Enactments, we explored how agents embodied within a single robot might interact with multiple people. Participants interacted with a robot embodied by a singular service agent, agents that re-embody in different robots and devices, and agents that co-embody within the same robot. Findings reveal key insights about the promise of re-embodiment and co-embodiment as design paradigms as well as what people value during interactions with service robots that use personalization. CCS CONCEPTS •Human-centered computing → Laboratory experiments. Acm Reference Format: Samantha Reig, Michal Luria, Janet Z Wang, Danielle Oltman, Elizabeth Jeanne Carter, Aaron Steinfeld, Jodi Forlizzi, and John Zimmerman. 2020. Not Some Random Agent: Multi-person Interaction with a Personalizing Service Robot. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’20), March 23-26, 2020, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 9 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3319502.3374795

People take to social media to share their thoughts, joys, and sorrows. A recent popular trend has been to support and mourn people and pets that have died as well as other objects that have suffered catastrophic damage. As several popular robots have been discontinued, including the opportunity Rover, Jibo, and Kuri, we are interested in how language used to mourn these robots compares to that to mourn people, animals, and other objects. We performed a study in which we asked participants to categorize deidentified Twitter reactions as referencing the death of a person, an animal, a robot, or another object. Most reactions were labeled as being about humans, which suggests that people use similar language to describe feelings for animate and inanimate entities. We used a natural language toolkit to analyze language from a larger set of tweets. A majority of tweets about opportunity included second-person (you”) and gendered third-person pronouns (she/he versus it), but terms like “R.I. P” were reserved almost exclusively for humans and animals. Our findings suggest that people verbally mourn robots similarly to living things, but reserve some language for people. CCS Concepts • Human-centered computing $\rightarrow$ Empirical Studies in HCI ACM Reference Format: Elizabeth Jeanne Carter, Samantha Reig, Xiang Zhi Tan, Gierad Laput, Stephanie Rosenthal, and Aaron Steinfeld. 2020. Death of a Robot: Social Media Reactions and Language Usage when a Robot Stops Operating. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI’20), March 23-26, 2020, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 9 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3319502.3374794

Lipids are important cellular components which can be significantly altered in a range of disease states including prostate cancer. Here, a unique systematic approach has been used to define lipid profiles of prostate cancer cell lines, using quantitative mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS), FTIR spectroscopy and fluorescent microscopy. All three approaches identified significant difference in the lipid profiles of the three prostate cancer cell lines (DU145, LNCaP and 22RV1) and one non-malignant cell line (PNT1a). Specific lipid classes and species, such as phospholipids (e.g., phosphatidylethanolamine 18:1/16:0 and 18:1/18:1) and cholesteryl esters, detected by LC-ESI-MS/MS, allowed statistical separation of all four prostate cell lines. Lipid mapping by FTIR revealed that variations in these lipid classes could also be detected at a single cell level, however further investigation into this approach would be needed to generate large enough data sets for quantitation. Visualisation by fluorescence microscopy showed striking variations that could be observed in lipid staining patterns between cell lines allowing visual separation of cell lines. In particular, polar lipid staining by a fluorescent marker was observed to increase significantly in prostate cancer lines cells, when compared to PNT1a cells, which was consistent with lipid quantitation by LC-ESI-MS/MS and FTIR spectroscopy. Thus, multiple technologies can be employed to either quantify or visualise changes in lipid composition, and moreover specific lipid profiles could be used to detect and phenotype prostate cancer cells Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Accurate gridded estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) are essential to the analysis of terrestrial water budgets. In this study, ET estimates from three gridded energy balance–based products (ETEB) with independent model formations and data forcings are evaluated for their ability to capture long-term climatology and interannual variability in ET derived from a terrestrial water budget (ETWB) for 671 gauged basins across the contiguous United States. All three ETEB products have low spatial bias and accurately capture interannual variability of ETWB in the central United States, where ETEB and ancillary estimates of change in total surface water storage (ΔTWS) from the GRACE satellite project appear to close terrestrial water budgets. In humid regions, ETEB products exhibit higher long-term bias, and the covariability of ETEB and ETWB decreases significantly. Several factors related to either failure of ETWB, such as errors in ΔTWS and precipitation, or failure of ETEB, such as treatment of snowfall and horizontal heat advection, explain some of these discrepancies. These results mirror and build on conclusions from other studies: on interannual time scales, ΔTWS and error in precipitation estimates are nonnegligible uncertainties in ET estimates based on a terrestrial water budget, and this confounds their comparison to energy balance ET models. However, there is also evidence that in at least some regions, climate and landscape features may also influence the accuracy and long-term bias of ET estimates from energy balance models, and these potential errors should be considered when using these gridded products in hydrologic applications.

Microplastics and fibres occur in high concentrations along urban coastlines, but the occurrence of microplastic ingestion by fishes in these areas requires further investigation. Herein, the ingestion of debris (i.e., synthetic and natural fibres and synthetic fragments of various polymer types) by three benthic-foraging fish species Acanthopagrus australis (yellowfin bream), Mugil cephalus (sea mullet) and Gerres subfasciatus (silverbiddy) in Sydney Harbour, Australia has been quantified and chemically speciated by vibrational spectroscopy to identify the polymer type. Ingested debris were quantified using gut content analysis, and identified using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and Raman microspectroscopies in combination with principal component analysis (PCA). The occurrence of debris ingestion at the time of sampling ranged from 21 to 64% for the three species, and the debris number ranged from 0.2 to 4.6 items per fish for the different species, with ∼53% of debris being microplastic. There was a significant difference in the amount of debris ingested among species; however, there was no difference among species when debris counts were standardised to fish weight or gut content weight, indicating that these species ingest a similar concentration of debris relative to their ingestion rate of other material. ATR-FTIR microspectroscopy successfully identified 72% of debris. Raman spectroscopy contributed an additional 1% of successful identification. In addition, PCA was used to non-subjectively classify the ATR-FTIR spectra resulting in the identification of an additional 9% of the debris. The most common microplastics found were polyester (PET), acrylic-polyester blend, and rayon (semi-synthetic) fibres. The potential of using Raman microspectroscopy for debris identification was investigated and provided additional information about the nature of the debris as well as the presence of specific dyes (and hence potential toxicity).

The trimeric HIV-1 Envelope protein (Env) mediates viral-host cell fusion via a network of conformational transitions, with allosteric elements in each protomer orchestrating host receptor-induced exposure of the co-receptor binding site and fusion elements. To understand the molecular details of this allostery, here, we introduce Env mutations aimed to prevent CD4-induced rearrangements in the HIV-1 BG505 Env trimer. Binding analysis and single−molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer confirm that these mutations prevent CD4-induced transitions of the HIV-1 Env. Structural analysis by single−particle cryo-electron microscopy performed on the BG505 SOSIP mutant Env proteins shows rearrangements in the gp120 topological layer contacts with gp41. Displacement of a conserved tryptophan (W571) from its typical pocket in these Env mutants renders the Env insensitive to CD4 binding. These results reveal the critical function of W571 as a conformational switch in Env allostery and receptor-mediated viral entry and provide insights on Env conformation that are relevant for vaccine design., Here, using cryo-EM and smFRET, Henderson et al. show how tryptophan 571 in the HIV-1 Env acts as a conformational switch during receptor-mediated viral entry and design HIV-1 Env proteins that cannot undergo conformational changes. This has important implications for HIV-1 vaccine design.

We describe an exploration of how kiosk-type stationary robots might provide navigation instructions for blind people. Inspired by a technique used by Orientation & Mobility experts in which a route is traced out on a person's palm, we developed five methods that supplement verbal instructions with physical movements. We explored the usability, strengths, and limitations of each of our methods in two exploratory studies with blind participants. One method, in which the robot used its entire arm to create path gestures while participants held its gripper, was preferred by 5 out of 8 blind participants and performed comparably on a recall task as a verbal-only instruction method. A closer approximation of the original palm method failed. We analyzed interview data to understand the reasons behind the failures and successes. We discuss the lessons learned from our studies about instruction methods, how robots in public settings can be useful for blind people, and the challenges of deploying such systems in public.

When controlling robots, users often face the issue of an operatingarea that is occluded by an element in the environment or the robot’sbody. To gain an unobstructed view of the scene, users have to eitheradjust the pose of the robot or their own viewpoint. This presentsa problem, especially for users who rely on assistive robots as theycan’t easily change their point of view. We introduce InvisibleRobot,a diminished reality-based approach that overlays backgroundinformation onto the robot in the user’s view through an OpticalSee-Through Head-Mounted Display. We consider two visualizationmodes for InvisibleRobot: removing the robot body from theuser’s view entirely, or removing the interior of the robot whilemaintaining its outline. In a preliminary user study, we compareInvisibleRobot with traditional robot manipulation under differentocclusion conditions. Our results suggest that InvisibleRobot cansupport manipulation in occluded conditions and could be an efficientmethod to simplify control in assistive robotics., Poster in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality,Beijing (China), on October 14-18, 2019.

The inevitable increase in real-world robot applications will, consequently, lead to more opportunities for robots to have observable failures. Although previous work has explored interaction during robot failure and discussed hypothetical danger, little is known about human reactions to actual robot behaviors involving property damage or bodily harm. An additional, largely unexplored complication is the possible influence of social characteristics in robot design. In this work, we sought to explore these issues through an in-person study with a real robot capable of inducing perceived property damage and personal harm. Participants observed a robot packing groceries and had opportunities to react to and assist the robot in multiple failure cases. Prior exposure to damage and threat failures decreased assistance rates from approximately 81% to 60%, with variations due to robot facial expressions and other factors. Qualitative data was then analyzed to identify interaction design needs and opportunities for failing robots.

Virtual Reality (VR) can greatly benefit Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) as a tool to effectively iterate across robot designs. However, possible system limitations of VR could influence the results such that they do not fully reflect real-life encounters with robots. In order to better deploy VR in HRI, we need to establish a basic understanding of what the differences are between HRI studies in the real world and in VR. This paper investigates the differences between the real life and VR with a focus on proxemic preferences, in combination with exploring the effects of visual familiarity and spatial sound within the VR experience. Results suggested that people prefer closer interaction distances with a real, physical robot than with a virtual robot in VR. Additionally, the virtual robot was perceived as more discomforting than the real robot, which could result in the differences in proxemics. Overall, these results indicate that the perception of the robot has to be evaluated before the interaction can be studied. However, the results also suggested that VR settings with different visual familiarities are consistent with each other in how they affect HRI proxemics and virtual robot perceptions, indicating the freedom to study HRI in various scenarios in VR. The effect of spatial sound in VR drew a more complex picture and thus calls for more in-depth research to understand its influence on HRI in VR.

Many people who interact with robots in the near future will not have prior experience, and they are likely to intuitively form their first impressions of the robot based on its appearance. This paper explores the effects of component material on people’s perception of the robots in terms of social attributes and willingness to interact. Participants watched videos of three robots with different outer materials: wood, synthetic fur, and plastic. The results showed that people rated the perceived warmth of a plastic robot lower than a wooden or furry robot. Ratings of perceived competence and discomfort did not differ between the three robots. QC 20191122

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy and confocal imaging have been used to demonstrate that the neutral rhenium(i) tricarbonyl 1,10-phenanthroline complex bound to 4-cyanophenyltetrazolate as the ancillary ligand is able to localise in regions with high concentrations of polar lipids such as phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), sphingomyelin, sphingosphine and lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in mammalian adipocytes. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

For effective verbal communication in collaborative tasks, robots need to account for the different perspectives of their human partners when referring to objects in a shared space. For example, when a robot helps its partner find correct pieces while assembling furniture, it needs to understand how its collaborator perceives the world and refer to objects accordingly. In this work, we propose a method to endow robots with perspective-taking abilities while spatially referring to objects. To examine the impact of our proposed method, we report the results of a user study showing that when the objects are spatially described from the users’ perspectives, participants take less time to find the referred objects, find the correct objects more often and consider the task easier.

Fifty Veterans of the first Gulf War in 1991 exposed to depleted uranium (DU) were studied for glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor (GPIa) deficient T-cell mutants on three occasions during the years 2009, 2011, and 2013. GPIa deficiency was determined in two ways: cloning assays employing aerolysin selection and cytometry using the FLAER reagent for positive staining of GPIa cell surface proteins. Subsequent molecular analyses of deficient isolates recovered from cloning assays (Nicklas JA et al. [2019]: Environ Mol Mutagen) revealed apparent incomplete selection in some cloning assays, necessitating correction of original data to afford a more realistic estimate of GPIa deficient mutant frequency (MF) values. GPIa deficient variant frequencies (VFs) determined by cytometry were determined in the years 2011 and 2013. A positive but nonsignificant association was observed between MF and VF values determined on the same blood samples during 2013. Exposure to DU had no effect on either GPIa deficient MF or VFs. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 60:494-504, 2019. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

It was previously demonstrated that the loss of infectivity of a myovirus PEV44 after jet nebulization was closely related to a change in bacteriophage (phage) structure. In this follow-up study, we further examined the impact of jet nebulization on tailed phages, which constitute 96% of all known phages, from three different families, Podoviridae (PEV2), Myoviridae (PEV40) and Siphoviridae (D29). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) identified major changes in phage structures after jet nebulization, correlating with their loss of infectivity. For the podovirus PEV2, jet nebulization had a negligible impact on activity (0.04 log10¬ pfu/mL loss) and structural change. On the other hand, the proportion of intact phages in the nebulised samples dropped from 50% to ~27% for PEV40 and from 15% to ~2% for D29. Phage deactivation of PEV40 measured by the TEM structural damage (0.52 log10¬ pfu/mL) was lower than that obtained by plaque assay (1.02 log10 pfu/mL), but within the range of variation (± 0.5 log10 pfu/mL). However, TEM quantification considerably underestimated the titer reduction of D29 phage, ~ 2 log pfu/mL lower than that obtained in plaque assay (3.25 log10 pfu/mL). In conclusion, nebulisation-induced titre loss was correlated with morphological damage to phages and in particular, the tail length may be an important consideration for selection of phages in inhaled therapy using jet nebulization. This work was financially supported by the Australian Research Council (Discovery Project DP150103953). The authors acknowledge the facilities and technical assistance of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility at the Australian Centre for Microscopy

Background Despite high rates of perinatal depression among women from diverse backgrounds, the understanding of the trajectory of depressive symptoms is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the trajectories of depressive symptoms from pregnancy to postpartum among an international sample of pregnant women. Methods Hispanic/Latina (79.2%), Spanish-speaking (81%) pregnant women (N = 1796; Mean age = 28.32, SD = 5.51) representing 78 unique countries/territories participated in this study. A sequential-process latent growth-curve model was estimated to examine general trajectories of depression as well as risk and protective factors that may impact depression levels throughout both the prenatal and postpartum periods. Results Overall, depression levels decreased significantly across the entire perinatal period, but this decrease slowed over time within both the prenatal and postpartum periods. Spanish-speaking women, those who were partnered, and those with no history of depression reported lower levels of depression during early pregnancy, but this buffer effect reduced over time. Depression levels at delivery best predicted postpartum depression trajectories (i.e., women with higher levels of depression at delivery were at greater risk for depression postpartum). Limitations Given the emphasis on language and not country or culture of origin this study was limited in its ability to examine the impact of specific cultural norms and expectations on perinatal depression. Conclusions Given these findings, it is imperative that providers pay attention to, and assess for, depressive symptoms and identified buffers for depression, especially when working with women from diverse communities.

This study aimed to assess the robustness of using a spray drying approach and formulation design in producing inhalable phage powders. Two types of Pseudomonas phages, PEV2 (Podovirus) and PEV40 (Myovirus) in two formulations containing different amounts of trehalose (70% and 60%) and leucine (30% and 40%) were studied. Most of the surface of the produced powders was found to be covered in crystalline leucine. The powders were stored at 4 °C and 20 °C under vacuum. The phage stability and in vitro aerosol performance of the phage powders were examined on the day of production and after 1, 3 and 12 months of storage. A minor titer loss during production was observed for both phages (0.2–0.8 log10 pfu/ml). The storage stability of the produced phage powders was found to be phage and formulation dependent. No further reduction in titer occurred for PEV2 powders stored at 4 °C across the study. The formulation containing 30% leucine maintained the viability of PEV2 at 20 °C, while the formulation containing 40% leucine gradually lost titer over time with a storage reduction of ∼0.9 log10 pfu/ml measured after 12 months. In comparison, the PEV40 phage powders generally had a ∼ 0.5 log10 pfu/ml loss upon storage regardless of temperature. When aerosolized, the total in vitro lung doses of PEV2 were of the order of 107 pfu, except the formulation containing 40% leucine stored at 20 °C which had a lower lung dose. The PEV40 powders also had lung doses of 106–107 pfu. The results demonstrate that spray dried Myoviridae and Podoviridae phage in a simple formulation of leucine and trehalose can be successfully stored for one year at 4 °C and 20 °C with vacuum packaging. The University of Sydney; Australian Research Council; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health; National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control

A Focal Plane Array FTIR microscope has successfully been coupled to the IRM beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, following the method pioneered at previous beamlines at the SRC and NSLS I synchrotrons, whereby a wide aperture of synchrotron light is split into multiple beams and spatially reconfigured to match the entrance aperture of the FTIR instrumentation. Imaging performance has been assessed using a selection of polymer and biological samples, providing diffraction-limited sub-cellular lateral resolution in the biological materials. We have demonstrated that improved collection times at high lateral resolution are possible, when compared with single element point-mapping microspectroscopy, though this is achieved with a trade off in spectral noise. Future improvements in the use of an FPA detector at the Australian Synchrotron are proposed, including removal of coherent interference and installation of a dedicated beam extraction port for FPA microspectroscopy.

A total of 70 military Veterans have been monitored for HPRT T-cell mutations in five separate studies at 2-year intervals over an 8-year period. Systemic depleted uranium (DU) levels were measured at the time of each study by determining urinary uranium (uU) excretion. Each HPRT study included 30-40 Veterans, several with retained DU-containing shrapnel. Forty-nine Veterans were evaluated in multiple studies, including 14 who were in all five studies. This permitted a characterization of the HPRT mutation assay over time to assess the effects of age, smoking and non-selected cloning efficiencies, as well as the inter- and intra-individual variability across time points. Molecular analyses identified the HPRT mutation and T-cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangement in 1,377 mutant isolates. An unexpected finding was that in vivo clones of HPRT mutant T-cells were present in some Veterans, and could persist over several years of the study. The calculated HPRT mutant frequencies (MFs) were repeatedly elevated in replicate studies in three outlier Veterans with elevated urinary uranium excretion levels. However, these three outlier Veterans also harbored large and persistent in vivo HPRT mutant T-cell clones, each of which was represented by a single founder mutation. Correction for in vivo clonality allowed calculation of HPRT T-cell mutation frequencies (MutFs). Despite earlier reports of DU associated increases in HPRT MFs in some Veterans, the results presented here demonstrate that HPRT mutations are not increased by systemic DU exposure. Additional battlefield exposures were also evaluated for associations with HPRT mutations and none were found.

Molecular analysis of proaerolysin selected glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor (GPI-a) deficient isolates in the TK6 cell line was performed. Initial studies found that the expected X-linked PIGA mutations were rare among the spontaneous isolates but did increase modestly after ethyl methane sulfate (EMS) treatment (but to only 50% of isolates). To determine the molecular bases of the remaining GPI-a deficient isolates, real-time analysis for all the 25 autosomal GPI-a pathway genes was performed on the isolates without PIGA mutations, determining that PIGL mRNA was absent for many. Further analysis determined these isolates had several different homozygous deletions of the 5' region of PIGL (17p12-p22) extending 5' (telomeric) through NCOR1 and some into the TTC19 gene (total deletion >250,000 bp). It was determined that the TK6 parent had a hemizygous deletion in 17p12-p22 (275,712 bp) extending from PIGL intron 2 into TTC19 intron 7. Second hit deletions in the other allele in the GPI-a deficient isolates led to the detected homozygous deletions. Several of the deletion breakpoints including the original first hit deletion were sequenced. As strong support for TK6 having a deletion, a number of the isolates without PIGA mutations nor homozygous PIGL deletions had point mutations in the PIGL gene. These studies show that the GPI-a mutation studies using TK6 cell line could be a valuable assay detecting point and deletion mutations in two genes simultaneously.

A novel, pure, synthetic material is presented that promotes the repair of full-thickness skin wounds. The active component is tropoelastin and leverages its ability to promote new blood vessel formation and its cell recruiting properties to accelerate wound repair. Key to the technology is the use of a novel heat-based, stabilized form of human tropoelastin which allows for tunable resorption. This implantable material contributes a tailored insert that can be shaped to the wound bed, where it hydrates to form a conformable protein hydrogel. Significant benefits in the extent of wound healing, dermal repair, and regeneration of mature epithelium in healthy pigs are demonstrated. The implant is compatible with initial co-treatment with full- and split-thickness skin grafts. The implant's superiority to sterile bandaging, commercial hydrogel and dermal regeneration template products is shown. On this basis, a new concept for a prefabricated tissue repair material for point-of-care treatment of open wounds is provided.

The prevalence of diabetes, particularly with respect to type 2 diabetes, has reached epidemic proportions and continues to grow worldwide. One of the potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of type 2 diabetes involves the role of protein tyrosine phosphatases in the negative regulation of insulin signaling. The complexes of V(V/IV), Cr(III), W(VI), and Mo(VI), have all been proposed as possible drugs in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Anti-diabetic activities of V(V/IV), Cr(III), Mo(VI), and W(VI) compounds are likely to be based on similar mechanisms, which involve phosphorylation/dephosphorylation reactions in the glucose uptake and metabolism. In order to clearly understand biological activities and phosphorylation/dephosphorylation reactions involved in anti-diabetic actions of Cr(III), V(V/IV), Mo(VI), and W(VI) complexes, the current research involves the use of cultured insulin-sensitive cells treated with these compounds. These reactions were investigated through vibrational spectroscopy. Protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation induced conformational changes in secondary protein structure from α-helix to β-sheet, and these changes were detected by the IR spectra, which showed changes in the wavenumber and intensities of signals within the composite protein amide I band.

Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) has been shown to improve outcomes related to trauma resuscitation; however, omissions from this protocol persist. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a trauma resuscitation checklist on performance of ATLS tasks.Video recordings of resuscitations of children sustaining blunt or penetrating injuries at a Level I pediatric trauma center were reviewed for completion and timeliness of ATLS primary and secondary survey tasks, with and without checklist use. Patient and resuscitation characteristics were obtained from the trauma registry. Data were collected during two 4-month periods before (n = 222) and after (n = 213) checklist implementation. The checklist contained 50 items and included four sections: prearrival, primary survey, secondary survey, and departure plan.Five primary survey ATLS tasks (cervical spine immobilization, oxygen administration, palpating pulses, assessing neurologic status, and exposing the patient) and nine secondary survey ATLS tasks were performed more frequently (p ≤ 0.01 for all) and vital sign measurements were obtained faster (p ≤ 0.01 for all) after the checklist was implemented. When controlling for patient and event-specific characteristics, primary and secondary survey tasks overall were more likely to be completed (odds ratio [OR] = 2.66, primary survey; OR = 2.47, secondary survey; p0.001 for both) and primary survey tasks were performed faster (p0.001) after the checklist was implemented.Implementation of a trauma checklist was associated with greater ATLS task performance and with increased frequency and speed of primary and secondary survey task completion.

Epidemiological studies of 1,3-butadiene (BD) exposures have reported a possible association with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), which is defined by the presence of the t(9;22) translocation (Philadelphia chromosome) creating an oncogenic BCR-ABL fusion gene. Butadiene diepoxide (DEB), the most mutagenic of three epoxides resulting from BD, forms DNA-DNA crosslink adducts that can lead to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Thus, a study was designed to determine if (±)-DEB exposure of HL60 cells, a promyelocytic leukemia cell line lacking the Philadelphia chromosome, can produce t(9;22) translocations. In HL60 cells exposed for 3 h to 0-10 μM DEB, overlapping dose-response curves suggested a direct relationship between 1,4-bis-(guan-7-yl)-2,3-butanediol crosslink adduct formation (R = 0.977, P = 0.03) and cytotoxicity (R = 0.961, P = 0.002). Experiments to define the relationships between cytotoxicity and the induction of micronuclei (MN), a dosimeter of DNA DSBs, showed that 24 h exposures of HL60 cells to 0-5.0 μM DEB caused significant positive correlations between the concentration and (i) the degree of cytotoxicity (R = 0.998, p = 0.002) and (ii) the frequency of MN (R = 0.984, p = 0.016) at 48 h post exposure. To determine the relative induction of MN and t(9;22) translocations following exposures to DEB, or x-rays as a positive control for formation of t(9;22) translocations, HL60 cells were exposed for 24 h to 0, 1, 2.5, or 5 μM DEB or to 0, 2.0, 3.5, or 5.0 Gy x-rays, or treatments demonstrated to yield 0, 20%, 50%, or 80% cytotoxicity. Treatments between 0 and 3.5 Gy x-rays caused significant dose-related increases in both MN (p 0.001) and t(9;22) translocations (p = 0.01), whereas DEB exposures causing similar cytotoxicity levels did not increase translocations over background. These data indicate that, while DEB induces DNA DSBs required for formation of MN and translocations, acute DEB exposures of HL60 cells did not produce the Philadelphia chromosome obligatory for CML.

Human enamel has been found to be a coating with excellent mechanical performance, and has undergone extensive investigation and discussion. However, most of the reported studies consider the enamel as a homogeneous anisotropic biocomposite. The current study illustrated the graded properties of the biocomposite from its functional load-bearing direction. Within the thickness of the enamel, from the outer surface towards the enamel-dentin junction (EDJ), the elastic modulus (E(x)) and hardness (H(x)) of enamel exist in an exponential relationship with normalized thickness (x) as E(x)=111.64x(0.18) (R(2)=0.94) and H(x)=4.41x(0.16) (R(2)=0.87) GPa, respectively. Moreover, the creep ability of enamel increases towards the EDJ. The graded properties of the biocomposite can be explained by both microstructural and compositional changes along the thickness of the material towards the EDJ. Finite element analysis indicates that the graded properties of enamel have important roles in reducing the enamel-dentin interface stresses and maintaining the integrity of the multilayer tooth structure. The results provide a new angle to understand the excellent mechanical behaviour of the multilayer tooth structure and may inspire the development of new functionally graded materials and coating structures.

Raman spectroscopy has been used to study fragments of early Visigothic historiated manuscripts from the important mediaeval library at Santo Domingo de Silos which were a part of a Beato dating from the tenth to the mid-eleventh centuries. These fragments are from some of the oldest manuscripts in the scriptorium of the monastery. In this study, a comparison is made between the pigments and inks used on these manuscripts and those used in a previous study of the unique Visigothic Beato de Valcavado in Santa Cruz, Valladolid, completed in the year 970, which is noted for its quality of execution as well as its content and is remarkable eschatologically in being identifiable as the complete work of only a single scribe. For comparative purposes, the pigments and inks used in the Silos Monastery Beato and a series of historiated early manuscripts from mediaeval times through to the Renaissance also held in the monastic library were analysed. Raman spectroscopy identified a range of mineral and organic pigments such as cinnabar, orpiment, minium, azurite and indigo. In addition, a number of admixtures were found, for example, indigo and orpiment to produce vergaut (green) and a mixture of cinnabar with iron-gall ink and cerussite to produce darker and lighter shades of red. Some interesting conclusions were drawn about the use of iron-gall and carbon-based inks. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology’.

This study aimed to develop inhalable powders containing phages active against antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa for pulmonary delivery. A Pseudomonas phage, PEV2, was spray dried into powder matrices comprising of trehalose (0–80%), mannitol (0–80%) and L-leucine (20%). The resulting powders were stored at various relative humidity (RH) conditions (0, 22 and 60% RH) at 4 ºC. The phage stability and in vitro aerosol performance of the phage powders were examined at the time of production and after 1, 3 and 12 months storage. After spray drying, a total of 1.3 log titer reduction in phage was observed in the formulations containing 40%, 60% and 80% trehalose, whereas 2.4 and 5.1 log reductions were noted in the formulations containing 20% and no trehalose, respectively. No further reduction in titer occurred for powders stored at 0 and 22% RH even after 12 months, except the formulation containing no trehalose. The 60% RH storage condition had a destructive effect such that no viable phages were detected after 3 and 12 months. When aerosolised, the total lung doses for formulations containing 40%, 60% and 80% trehalose were similar (in the order of 105 pfu). The results demonstrated that spray drying is a suitable method to produce stable phage powders for pulmonary delivery. A powder matrix containing ≥ 40% trehalose provided good phage preservation and aerosol performances after storage at 0 and 22 % RH at 4 ºC for 12 months. This work was financially supported by the Australian Research Council (Discovery Project DP150103953). Authors are grateful to Tony Smithyman of Special Phage Services for his valuable discussion and advice. SSY Leung is a research fellow supported by the University of Sydney. T Parumasivam is a recipient of the Malaysian Government Scholarship. H-K Chan is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH Project no.1R21AI121627-01) and WJ Britton by the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control (APP1043225).

Although data obtained from regional trauma systems demonstrate improved outcomes for children treated at pediatric trauma centers (PTCs) compared with those treated at adult trauma centers (ATCs), differences in mortality have not been consistently observed for adolescents. Because trauma is the leading cause of death and acquired disability among adolescents, it is important to better define differences in outcomes among injured adolescents by using national data.To use a national data set to compare mortality of injured adolescents treated at ATCs, PTCs, or mixed trauma centers (MTCs) that treat both pediatric and adult trauma patients and to determine the final discharge disposition of survivors at different center types.Data from level I and II trauma centers participating in the 2010 National Trauma Data Bank (January 1 to December 31, 2010) were used to create multilevel models accounting for center-specific effects to evaluate the association of center characteristics (PTC, ATC, or MTC) on mortality among patients aged 15 to 19 years who were treated for a blunt or penetrating injury. The models controlled for sex; mechanism of injury (blunt vs penetrating); injuries sustained, based on the Abbreviated Injury Scale scores (post-dot values3 or ≥3 by body region); initial systolic blood pressure; and Glasgow Coma Scale scores. Missing data were managed using multiple imputation, accounting for multilevel data structure. Data analysis was conducted from January 15, 2013, to March 15, 2016.Type of trauma center.Mortality at each center type.Among 29 613 injured adolescents (mean [SD] age, 17.3 [1.4] years; 72.7% male), most were treated at ATCs (20 402 [68.9%]), with the remainder at MTCs (7572 [25.6%]) or PTCs (1639 [5.5%]). Adolescents treated at PTCs were more likely to be injured by a blunt than penetrating injury mechanism (91.4%) compared with those treated at ATCs (80.4%) or MTCs (84.6%). Mortality was higher among adolescents treated at ATCs and MTCs than those treated at PTCs (3.2% and 3.5% vs 0.4%; P .001). The adjusted odds of mortality were higher at ATCs (odds ratio, 4.19; 95% CI, 1.30-13.51) and MTCs (odds ratio, 6.68; 95% CI, 2.03-21.99) compared with PTCs but was not different between level I and II centers (odds ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.59-0.99).Mortality among injured adolescents was lower among those treated at PTCs, compared with those treated at ATCs and MTCs. Defining resource and patient features that account for these observed differences is needed to optimize adolescent outcomes after injury.

Early life stress can disrupt development and negatively impact long-term health trajectories. Reconstructing histories of early life exposure to external stressors is hampered by the absence of retrospective time-specific biomarkers. Defects in tooth enamel have been used to reconstruct stress but the methods used are subjective and do not identify the specific biological systems impacted by external stressors. Here we show that external physical and social stressors impart biochemical signatures in primate teeth that can be retrieved to objectively reconstruct the timing of early life developmental disruptions. Using teeth from captive macaques, we uncovered elemental imprints specific to disruptions of skeletal growth, including major disruptions in body weight trajectory and moderate to severe illnesses. Discrete increases in heat shock protein-70 expression in dentine coincided with elemental signatures, confirming that elemental signals were associated with activation of stress-related pathways. To overcome limitations of conventional light-microscopic analysis, we used high resolution Raman microspectral imaging to identify structural and compositional alterations in enamel and dentine that coincided with elemental signatures and with detailed medical and behavioural data. Integrating these objective biochemical markers with temporal mapping of teeth enables the retrospective study of early life developmental disruptions and their ensuing health sequelae.

Inflammation may play a role in increased risk of heart failure (HF) that is associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome (MS), and diabetes. This study investigated associations between inflammatory markers, MS, and incident HF in a population with a high prevalence of diabetes, obesity, and MS. The cohort consisted of 3098 American Indians without prevalent cardiovascular disease who had C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen measured at the Strong Heart Study phase II examination. Independent associations between inflammatory markers, MS, and HF were analyzed by Cox hazard models. During a mean follow-up of 11 years, 218 participants developed HF. After the adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors, fibrinogen, (hazard ratio [HR], 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-1.59) but not CRP (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 0.97-1.32) remained a significant HF predictor. In individuals without diabetes, concomitant presence of MS and elevated CRP or fibrinogen increased HF risk (for MS and CRP: HR, 2.02; 95% CI, 0.95-4.31; for CRP and fibrinogen: HR, 1.75; 95% CI, 0.83-3.72). In a population with a high prevalence of obesity, MS, and diabetes, elevated CRP and fibrinogen increased HF risk. These associations are attenuated by the adjustments for conventional risk factors suggesting that inflammation acts in concert with metabolic and clinical risk factors in increasing HF risk.