Ultra-high energy neutrinos are detectable through impulsive radio signals generated through interactions in dense media, such as ice. Subsurface in-ice radio arrays are a promising way to advance the observation and measurement of astrophysical high-energy neutrinos with energies above those discovered by the IceCube detector (≥ 1 PeV) as well as cosmogenic neutrinos created in the GZK process (≥ 100 PeV). Here we describe the NuPhase detector, which is a compact receiving array of low-gain antennas deployed 185 m deep in glacial ice near the South Pole. Signals from the antennas are digitized and coherently summed into multiple beams to form a low-threshold interferometric phased array trigger for radio impulses. The NuPhase detector was installed at an Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) station during the 2017/18 Austral summer season. In situ measurements with an impulsive, point-source calibration instrument show a 50% trigger efficiency on impulses with voltage signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of ≤2.0, a factor of ∼1.8 improvement in SNR over the standard ARA combinatoric trigger. Hardware-level simulations, validated with in situ measurements, predict a trigger threshold of an SNR as low as 1.6 for neutrino interactions that are in the far field of the array. With the already-achieved NuPhase trigger performance included in ARASim, a detector simulation for the ARA experiment, we find the trigger-level effective detector volume is increased by a factor of 1.8 at neutrino energies between 10 and 100 PeV compared to the currently used ARA combinatoric trigger. We also discuss an achievable near term path toward lowering the trigger threshold further to an SNR of 1.0, which would increase the effective single-station volume by more than a factor of 3 in the same range of neutrino energies. * Corresponding Author

The Okinawa Trough is a young, intracontinental backarc basin that has formed behind the Ryukyu arc±trench system since late Miocene time. In the Southernmost Part of the Okinawa Trough (SPOT), a cluster of active submarine volcanoes delineates a volcanic belt, which is located only *100 km above the Wadati± Benioff zone. We report herein new major and trace element data for the SPOT volcanic rocks. These rocks show a compositional range from medium-K andesite to rhyolite. Their geochemical characteristics are similar to those of pre-backarc rifting volcanic rocks from the central Ryukyu arc, and different from those of backarc basin lavas from the Middle Okinawa Trough and the post-backarc rifting Ryukyu arc volcanics. Therefore, despite being topographically contiguous with the rest of the Trough, the SPOT that developed in the Quaternary is not a simple backarc basin but instead an embryonic rift zone in which early arc volcanism occurs as a result of the Ryukyu subduction.

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Objective To compare, using two large nationwide populationbased data sets, the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (low birthweight [LBW], preterm birth, small for gestational age [SGA] and congenital anomalies) among pregnant women with hyperthyroidism classified into three groups: receiving propylthiouracil (PTU) treatment during pregnancy, receiving methimazole/carbimazole (MMI) treatment, and no antithyroid treatment during pregnancy.Design A matched case-control study.Setting Taiwan.Sample A total of 2830 mothers with hyperthyroidism and 14 150 age-matched randomly selected mothers without hyperthyroidism were included.Methods Conditional logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (LBW, preterm birth, SGA and major congenital anomalies) among these three groups.Main outcome measures LBW, preterm birth, SGA and major congenital anomalies.Results Women receiving PTU treatment during pregnancy had a higher risk of giving birth to LBW infants than those not receiving antithyroid treatment (odds ratio = 1.40; 95% CI 1.00-1.96), after adjusting for maternal education, anaemia, hyperlipidaemia, pregestational diabetes, pregestational hypertension, hyperemesis gravidarum and infant's gender and birth order. However, children of women receiving MMI treatment did not have increased risks of any adverse fetal outcome relative to mothers not receiving antithyroid treatment.Conclusions Our study finds an increased risk of LBW among babies of mothers with hyperthyroidism receiving PTU treatment during pregnancy relative to untreated mothers with hyperthyroidism.

Physician volume significantly predicts inpatient mortality among ICU patients with pneumonia. Detailed study of clinical approaches, decision algorithms, and treatment plans of high-volume physicians is recommended to identify possible mediating factors in this phenomenon.

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Adult asthma hospitalization propensity is highest in spring and is significantly correlated with air pollution and climate. Air quality control programs and early public warning systems on pollution and atmospheric factors are needed to enable predisposed individuals and their physicians to preempt attacks through primary and secondary preventive measures.

There is increasing evidence that reactive oxygen species (ROS) are intimately involved in the oxidative damage of tissues for a wide variety of pulmonary diseases. Thus, it is desirable to search for chemopreventive agents that can counteract ROS-mediated injury to the pulmonary tissues. Using a human lung fibroblast IMR-90 cells as the experimental model, we first demonstrated that nearly 90% of intracellular ROS could be removed when H(2)O(2)-treated cells (200 microM) simultaneously incubated with 10 microg/mL of tannic acid (TA), gallic acid (GA), ellagic acid (EA), and propyl gallate (PA). Using C(11)-BODIPY(581/591 )as a lipid peroxidation probe, we also attested that all these compounds examined (10 microg/mL) could alleviate H(2)O(2)-evoked lipid peroxidation phenomena. Next, we examined the protective effects of these compounds on the depletion of intracellular glutathione (iGSH) in H(2)O(2)-treated cells using CMF-DA probe. Interestingly, PA was demonstrated to be the only compound that could effectively protect the integrity of iGSH from being depleted by this system. Finally, the protective effects of these compounds against oxidative DNA damage were evaluated using 8-oxoguanine formation as a marker. Our data indicated that all four compounds suppressed the formation of 8-oxoguanine effectively. Taken together, our data suggested that TA, GA, EA, and PA can protect cells from oxidative stress.