New frontiers of peer review

This news article introduces a new COST Action entitled PEERE (TD1306), which stands for New Frontiers of Peer Review (PEERE). PEERE is a trans-domain proposal which brings together researchers from various different disciplines and science stake-holders for the purpose of reviewing the process of peer review. PEERE officially began in May 2014 and will end in May 2018. Thirty-one countries, including Malta, are currently participating in the Action. In order to set the context in which this COST Action was initiated, we first look very briefly at the history of the process of peer review and various models of peer review currently in use. We then share what this COST Action hopes to achieve.peer-reviewe

The Data Quality Monitoring for the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

The detector performance of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter is monitored using applications based on the CMS Data Quality Monitoring (DQM) framework and running on the High-Level Trigger Farm as well as on local DAQ systems. The monitorable quantities are organized into hierarchical structures based on the physics content. The information produced is accessible by client applications according to their subscription requests. The client applications process the received quantities, according to pre-defined analyses, making the results immediately available, while also storing the results in a database, and in the form of static web pages, for subsequent studies. We describe here the functionalities of the CMS ECAL DQM applications and report about their use in real environments

The Role of Wall Shear Stress in the Failure of Arteriovenous Fistula for Hemodialysis Vascular Access

Native arteriovenous fistulas created in the forearm between the radial artery and the cephalic vein are currently considered the best vascular access for hemodialysis in terms of outcome and safety. However, this type of access is associated with a significant failure rate that is generally caused by intimal hyperplasia development and consequent stenosis. Computational studies have shown that intimal hyperplasia is preferentially localized in regions of the fistula that are exposed to disturbed wall shear stresses. This thesis reports the development and testing of a novel, real-time controlled cone-and-plate device to assess the role of changes in shear stress induced by fistula creation on the activation state of endothelial cells and paracrine signalling in vitro. The selected shear stress waveforms were representative of the pulsatile/unidirectional waveforms in zones that are generally not affected by hyperplasia or the disturbed/reciprocating waveforms present in the high-risk stenosis areas. Experimental results showed that after 48 hours of flow exposure, these stimuli elicited differential effects on human umbilical vein endothelial cells monolayers. Pulsatile waveforms induced major cellular shape remodeling and upregulation of the transcription factor KLF2 mRNA expression. On the contrary cells exposed to reciprocating flows showed a lack of cytoskeletal remodeling, upregulation of the enzyme PLDl , the integrin subunit ITGA4 and RASA1 (coding for the protein activator p120RasGAP) mRNA expression and an increased production of chemoattractant cytokines MCP-1 and IL-8. Furthermore, it was observed that human smooth muscle cells incubated for 24 hours with medium conditioned by endothelial cells exposed to reciprocating shear stress stimuli, had an increased rate of proliferation compared to smooth muscle cells cultured in medium conditioned by endothelial cells exposed to pulsatile waveforms. These results confirm potential links between disturbed wall shear stress and arteriovenous fistula failure

A Hyperpolarizable 1H Magnetic Resonance Probe for Signal Detection 15 Minutes after Spin Polarization Storage

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are two extremely important techniques with applications ranging from molecular structure determination to human imaging. However, in many cases the applicability of NMR and MRI are limited by inherently poor sensitivity and insufficient nuclear spin lifetime. Here we demonstrate a cost-efficient and fast technique that tackles both issues simultaneously. We use the signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) technique to hyperpolarize the target1H nuclei and store this polarization in long-lived singlet (LLS) form after suitable radiofrequency (rf) pulses. Compared to the normal scenario, we achieve three orders of signal enhancement and one order of lifetime extension, leading to1H NMR signal detection 15 minutes after the creation of the detected states. The creation of such hyperpolarized long-lived polarization reflects an important step forward in the pipeline to see such agents used as clinical probes of disease

When citizens judge science: Crowd evaluations in Mode 2 knowledge production

Emerging crowdsourcing and crowdfunding mechanisms enable citizens to decide which research projects should be funded. By transferring control from professional scientists, these mechanisms reflect a broader shift towards more open “Mode 2” knowledge production that allows non-academic stakeholders to shape the direction of science. Although this may lead to a greater emphasis on the social impact of research, there is no systematic evidence on how crowd evaluators weigh social impact relative to other criteria such as scientific merit or team qualifications. There are also concerns that the personal financial costs associated with crowdfunding prevent certain socio-economic groups from participating, reducing the representativeness of opinions. Similarly, it is not clear what role citizens’ personal interest in particular topics plays in shaping their evaluations. We provide empirical evidence using data from over 2,300 crowd evaluators who assessed four research proposals in different fields and could express their support using a crowdsourcing mechanism (i.e., recommendation) and a crowdfunding mechanism (i.e., donation of own money). We confirm that crowd evaluators give significant weight to perceived social impact, although this weight is not larger than that of scientific merit. Compared to crowdsourcing, crowdfunding gives greater voice to citizens with higher income and education. Personal interest in a topic tends to be associated with greater project support, which may partly reflect an inflated assessment of social impact. Despite these general patterns, we also observe differences across projects – illustrating context-specificity and variability that make open Mode 2 processes difficult to predict and control

Identification and characterization of a novel non-structural protein of bluetongue virus

Bluetongue virus (BTV) is the causative agent of a major disease of livestock (bluetongue). For over two decades, it has been widely accepted that the 10 segments of the dsRNA genome of BTV encode for 7 structural and 3 non-structural proteins. The non-structural proteins (NS1, NS2, NS3/NS3a) play different key roles during the viral replication cycle. In this study we show that BTV expresses a fourth non-structural protein (that we designated NS4) encoded by an open reading frame in segment 9 overlapping the open reading frame encoding VP6. NS4 is 77–79 amino acid residues in length and highly conserved among several BTV serotypes/strains. NS4 was expressed early post-infection and localized in the nucleoli of BTV infected cells. By reverse genetics, we showed that NS4 is dispensable for BTV replication in vitro, both in mammalian and insect cells, and does not affect viral virulence in murine models of bluetongue infection. Interestingly, NS4 conferred a replication advantage to BTV-8, but not to BTV-1, in cells in an interferon (IFN)-induced antiviral state. However, the BTV-1 NS4 conferred a replication advantage both to a BTV-8 reassortant containing the entire segment 9 of BTV-1 and to a BTV-8 mutant with the NS4 identical to the homologous BTV-1 protein. Collectively, this study suggests that NS4 plays an important role in virus-host interaction and is one of the mechanisms played, at least by BTV-8, to counteract the antiviral response of the host. In addition, the distinct nucleolar localization of NS4, being expressed by a virus that replicates exclusively in the cytoplasm, offers new avenues to investigate the multiple roles played by the nucleolus in the biology of the cell

Psychological treatments and psychotherapies in the neurorehabilitation of pain. Evidences and recommendations from the italian consensus conference on pain in neurorehabilitation

BACKGROUND: It is increasingly recognized that treating pain is crucial for effective care within neurological rehabilitation in the setting of the neurological rehabilitation. The Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation was constituted with the purpose identifying best practices for us in this context. Along with drug therapies and physical interventions, psychological treatments have been proven to be some of the most valuable tools that can be used within a multidisciplinary approach for fostering a reduction in pain intensity. However, there is a need to elucidate what forms of psychotherapy could be effectively matched with the specific pathologies that are typically addressed by neurorehabilitation teams. OBJECTIVES: To extensively assess the available evidence which supports the use of psychological therapies for pain reduction in neurological diseases. METHODS: A systematic review of the studies evaluating the effect of psychotherapies on pain intensity in neurological disorders was performed through an electronic search using PUBMED, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Based on the level of evidence of the included studies, recommendations were outlined separately for the different conditions. RESULTS: The literature search yielded 2352 results and the final database included 400 articles. The overall strength of the recommendations was medium/low. The different forms of psychological interventions, including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, cognitive or behavioral techniques, Mindfulness, hypnosis, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Brief Interpersonal Therapy, virtual reality interventions, various forms of biofeedback and mirror therapy were found to be effective for pain reduction in pathologies such as musculoskeletal pain, fibromyalgia, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Central Post-Stroke pain, Phantom Limb Pain, pain secondary to Spinal Cord Injury, multiple sclerosis and other debilitating syndromes, diabetic neuropathy, Medically Unexplained Symptoms, migraine and headache. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological interventions and psychotherapies are safe and effective treatments that can be used within an integrated approach for patients undergoing neurological rehabilitation for pain. The different interventions can be specifically selected depending on the disease being treated. A table of evidence and recommendations from the Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation is also provided in the final part of the pape

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

Radiation hardness qualification of PbWO4 scintillation crystals for the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPEnsuring the radiation hardness of PbWO4 crystals was one of the main priorities during the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at CERN. The production on an industrial scale of radiation hard crystals and their certification over a period of several years represented a difficult challenge both for CMS and for the crystal suppliers. The present article reviews the related scientific and technological problems encountered