Factors Affecting Foreign Investor Choice in Types of U.S. Real Estate

Using transaction level data, we present the first analysis of the way that foreign investors choose among different types of United States real estate. Our findings based on the conditional logit model analysis for the 1980-91 period are consistent with the hypothesis that foreign investors behave in a traditional profit maximizing, risk minimizing fashion. In choosing among investments in four major categories (apartment, office, retail and industrial) foreign investor choice is most sensitive to changes in capitalization rates, market activity and current rent levels.

Persistent bacterial infections, antibiotic tolerance, and the oxidative stress response

Certain bacterial pathogens are able to evade the host immune system and persist within the human host. The consequences of persistent bacterial infections potentially include increased morbidity and mortality from the infection itself as well as an increased risk of dissemination of disease. Eradication of persistent infections is difficult, often requiring prolonged or repeated courses of antibiotics. During persistent infections, a population or subpopulation of bacteria exists that is refractory to traditional antibiotics, possibly in a non-replicating or metabolically altered state. This review highlights the clinical significance of persistent infections and discusses different in vitro models used to investigate the altered physiology of bacteria during persistent infections. We specifically focus on recent work establishing increased protection against oxidative stress as a key element of the altered physiologic state across different in vitro models and pathogens

Independent large scale duplications in multiple M. tuberculosis lineages overlapping the same genomic region

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of most human tuberculosis, infects one third of the world's population and kills an estimated 1.7 million people a year. With the world-wide emergence of drug resistance, and the finding of more functional genetic diversity than previously expected, there is a renewed interest in understanding the forces driving genome evolution of this important pathogen. Genetic diversity in M. tuberculosis is dominated by single nucleotide polymorphisms and small scale gene deletion, with little or no evidence for large scale genome rearrangements seen in other bacteria. Recently, a single report described a large scale genome duplication that was suggested to be specific to the Beijing lineage. We report here multiple independent large-scale duplications of the same genomic region of M. tuberculosis detected through whole-genome sequencing. The duplications occur in strains belonging to both M. tuberculosis lineage 2 and 4, and are thus not limited to Beijing strains. The duplications occur in both drug-resistant and drug susceptible strains. The duplicated regions also have substantially different boundaries in different strains, indicating different originating duplication events. We further identify a smaller segmental duplication of a different genomic region of a lab strain of H37Rv. The presence of multiple independent duplications of the same genomic region suggests either instability in this region, a selective advantage conferred by the duplication, or both. The identified duplications suggest that large-scale gene duplication may be more common in M. tuberculosis than previously considere

Transport of Sputtered Carbon During Ground-Based Life Testing of Ion Thrusters

High voltage, high power electron bombardment ion thrusters needed for deep space missions will be required to be operated for long durations in space as well as during ground laboratory life testing. Carbon based ion optics are being considered for such thrusters. The sputter deposition of carbon and arc vaporized carbon flakes from long duration operation of ion thrusters can result in deposition on insulating surfaces, causing them to become conducting. Because the sticking coefficient is less than one, secondary deposition needs to be considered to assure that shorting of critical components does not occur. The sticking coefficient for sputtered carbon and arc vaporized carbon is measured as well as directional ejection distribution data for carbon that does not stick upon first impact

Simultaneous generation of many RNA-seq libraries in a single reaction

Although RNA-seq is a powerful tool, the considerable time and cost associated with library construction has limited its utilization for various applications. RNAtag-Seq, an approach to generate multiple RNA-seq libraries in a single reaction, lowers time and cost per sample, and it produces data on prokaryotic and eukaryotic samples that are comparable to those generated by traditional strand-specific RNA-seq approaches

Nucleic acid detection with CRISPR-Cas13a/C2c2

Rapid, inexpensive, and sensitive nucleic acid detection may aid point-of-care pathogen detection, genotyping, and disease monitoring. The RNA-guided, RNA-targeting clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) effector Cas13a (previously known as C2c2) exhibits a "collateral effect" of promiscuous ribonuclease activity upon target recognition. We combine the collateral effect of Cas13a with isothermal amplification to establish a CRISPR-based diagnostic (CRISPR-Dx), providing rapid DNA or RNA detection with attomolar sensitivity and single-base mismatch specificity. We use this Cas13a-based molecular detection platform, termed Specific High-Sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter UnLOCKing (SHERLOCK), to detect specific strains of Zika and Dengue virus, distinguish pathogenic bacteria, genotype human DNA, and identify mutations in cell-free tumor DNA. Furthermore, SHERLOCK reaction reagents can be lyophilized for cold-chain independence and long-term storage and be readily reconstituted on paper for field applications.United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-14-1-0060)Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) (Grant HDTRA1-14-1-0006)National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (Grant 5DP1-MH100706)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant 1R01-MH110049

Atmospheric circulation and cyclone frequency variations linked to the primary modes of Greenland snow accumulation

Data from 34 Greenland firn cores, extending from 1982 to 1996, are used to identify spatial accumulation variability patterns and their associated atmospheric circulation and cyclone frequencies. The first principal component, representing west-central Greenland accumulation, is correlated to NAO variability, having increased southwesterly (northeasterly) flow over that area during high (low) accumulation winters. The flow is linked to a relative increase in cyclone activity on the west central region of the ice sheet during high accumulation periods. The second principal component represents accumulation over southeastern Greenland where strong westerly flow leads to high accumulation and an increase in lee cyclones on the east and southeast coast. The study provides evidence that increased cyclone activity occurs over, or immediately adjacent to, areas experiencing anomalously high accumulation and it is important to distinguish lee cyclones from ‘‘Icelandic’’ cyclones, as they produce opposite precipitation effects over the ice sheet

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Chemical genetics reveals a kinase-independent role for protein kinase R in pyroptosis

Formation of the inflammasome, a scaffolding complex that activates caspase-1, is important in numerous diseases. Pyroptotic cell death induced by anthrax lethal toxin (LT) is a model for inflammasome-mediated caspase-1 activation. We discovered 7-desacetoxy-6,7-dehydrogedunin (7DG) in a phenotypic screen as a small molecule that protects macrophages from LT-induced death. Using chemical proteomics, we identified protein kinase R (PKR) as the target of 7DG and show that RNAi knockdown of PKR phenocopies treatment with 7DG. Further, we show that PKR's role in ASC assembly and caspase-1 activation induced by several different inflammasome stimuli is independent of PKR's kinase activity, demonstrating that PKR has a previously uncharacterized role in caspase-1 activation and pyroptosis that is distinct from its reported kinase-dependent roles in apoptosis and inflammasome formation in lipopolysaccharide-primed cells. Remarkably, PKR has different roles in two distinct cell death pathways and has a broad role in inflammasome function relevant in other diseases

International collaborative study to assess cardiovascular risk and evaluate long-term health in cats with preclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and apparently healthy cats:The REVEAL Study

Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most prevalent heart disorder in cats and principal cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Yet, the impact of preclinical disease is unresolved. Hypothesis/Objectives: Observational study to characterize cardiovascular morbidity and survival in cats with preclinical nonobstructive (HCM) and obstructive (HOCM) hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and in apparently healthy cats (AH). Animals: One thousand seven hundred and thirty client-owned cats (430 preclinical HCM; 578 preclinical HOCM; 722 AH). Methods: Retrospective multicenter, longitudinal, cohort study. Cats from 21 countries were followed through medical record review and owner or referring veterinarian interviews. Data were analyzed to compare long-term outcomes, incidence, and risk for congestive heart failure (CHF), arterial thromboembolism (ATE), and cardiovascular death. Results: During the study period, CHF, ATE, or both occurred in 30.5% and cardiovascular death in 27.9% of 1008 HCM/HOCM cats. Risk assessed at 1, 5, and 10 years after study entry was 7.0%/3.5%, 19.9%/9.7%, and 23.9%/11.3% for CHF/ATE, and 6.7%, 22.8%, and 28.3% for cardiovascular death, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between HOCM compared with HCM for cardiovascular morbidity or mortality, time from diagnosis to development of morbidity, or cardiovascular survival. Cats that developed cardiovascular morbidity had short survival (mean \ub1 standard deviation, 1.3 \ub1 1.7 years). Overall, prolonged longevity was recorded in a minority of preclinical HCM/HOCM cats with 10% reaching 9-15 years. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Preclinical HCM/HOCM is a global health problem of cats that carries substantial risk for CHF, ATE, and cardiovascular death. This finding underscores the need to identify therapies and monitoring strategies that decrease morbidity and mortality