We have undertaken an ambitious program to visually classify all galaxies in the five CANDELS fields down to H < 24.5 involving the dedicated efforts of over 65 individual classifiers. Once completed, we expect to have detailed morphological classifications for over 50,000 galaxies spanning 0 < z < 4 over all the fields, with classifications from 3 to 5 independent classifiers for each galaxy. Here, we present our detailed visual classification scheme, which was designed to cover a wide range of CANDELS science goals. This scheme includes the basic Hubble sequence types, but also includes a detailed look at mergers and interactions, the clumpiness of galaxies, k-corrections, and a variety of other structural properties. In this paper, we focus on the first field to be completed-GOODS-S, which has been classified at various depths. The wide area coverage spanning the full field (wide+deep+ERS) includes 7634 galaxies that have been classified by at least three different people. In the deep area of the field, 2534 galaxies have been classified by at least five different people at three different depths. With this paper, we release to the public all of the visual classifications in GOODS-S along with the Perl/ Tk GUI that we developed to classify galaxies. We present our initial results here, including an analysis of our internal consistency and comparisons among multiple classifiers as well as a comparison to the Sérsic index. We find that the level of agreement among classifiers is quite good (>70% across the full magnitude range) and depends on both the galaxy magnitude and the galaxy type, with disks showing the highest level of agreement (>50%) and irregulars the lowest (<10%). A comparison of our classifications with the Sérsic index and rest-frame colors shows a clear separation between disk and spheroid populations. Finally, we explore morphological k-corrections between the V-band and H-band observations and find that a small fraction (84 galaxies in total) are classified as being very different between these two bands. These galaxies typically have very clumpy and extended morphology or are very faint in the V-band.

TGF-β promotes excessive collagen deposition in fibrotic diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The amino acid composition of collagen is unique due to its high (33%) glycine content. Here, we report that TGF-β induces expression of glycolytic genes and increases glycolytic flux. TGF-β also induces the expression of the enzymes of the de novo serine synthesis pathway (phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH), phosphoserine aminotransferase 1 (PSAT1), and phosphoserine phosphatase (PSPH)) and de novo glycine synthesis (serine hydroxymethyltransferase 2 (SHMT2)). Studies in fibroblasts with genetic attenuation of PHGDH or SHMT2 and pharmacologic inhibition of PHGDH showed that these enzymes are required for collagen synthesis. Furthermore, metabolic labeling experiments demonstrated carbon from glucose incorporated into collagen. Lungs from humans with IPF demonstrated increased expression of PHGDH and SHMT2. These results indicate that the de novo serine synthesis pathway is necessary for TGF-β-induced collagen production and suggest that this pathway may be a therapeutic target for treatment of fibrotic diseases including IPF.

ObjectivesTo examine access to palliative care between different disease trajectories and compare to other geographic areas.DesignA retrospective population-based decedent cohort study using linked administrative data.SettingOntario, Canada.ParticipantsOntario decedents between 1 April 2010 and 31 December 2012. Patients were categorised into disease trajectories: terminal illness (eg, cancer), organ failure (eg, chronic heart failure), frailty (eg, dementia), sudden death or other.InterventionsReceipt of palliative care services from institutional and community settings, derived from a validated list of palliative care codes from multiple administrate databases.Outcome measuresReceiving any palliative care services in the last year of life (yes/no), intensity (total days) and time of initiation of palliative care, in hospital and community sectors. Multivariable analysis examined the association between disease trajectory and the receipt of palliative care in the last year of life.ResultsWe identified 235 159 decedents in Ontario. In the last year of life, 88% of terminal illness, 44% of organ failure and 32% of frailty decedents accessed at least one palliative care service. Most care was provided during an inpatient hospitalisation. Terminal illness decedents received twice as many palliative care days (mean of 49 days) compared with organ failure and frailty decedents. Patients with terminal illness initiated palliative care median of 107 days before death compared with median of 19 days among those using the US Medicare hospice benefit.ConclusionsTerminal illness decedents are more likely to receive any palliative care, with increased intensity and earlier before death than organ failure or frailty decedents. These data serve as a useful comparison for other countries with similar and different healthcare systems and eligibility criteria.

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To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in a large population-based cohort demonstrating that longer wait times from diagnosis of uterine cancer to definitive surgery have a negative impact on overall survival.

Our study showed a temporal association between receiving end-of-life nursing in a given week during the last six months of life, and of more standard nursing in the last month of life, with a reduced ED rate in the subsequent week.

We study the relationship between the structure and star formation rate (SFR) of X-ray selected low and moderate luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the two Chandra Deep Fields, using Hubble Space Telescope imaging from the Cosmic Assembly Near Infrared Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) and deep far-infrared maps from the PEP+GOODS-Herschel survey. We derive detailed distributions of structural parameters and FIR luminosities from carefully constructed control samples of galaxies, which we then compare to those of the AGNs. At z ∼ 1, AGNs show slightly diskier light profiles than massive inactive (non-AGN) galaxies, as well as modestly higher levels of gross galaxy disturbance (as measured by visual signatures of interactions and clumpy structure). In contrast, at z ∼ 2, AGNs show similar levels of galaxy disturbance as inactive galaxies, but display a red central light enhancement, which may arise from a more pronounced bulge in AGN hosts or extinguished nuclear light. We undertake a number of tests of both these alternatives, but our results do not strongly favor one interpretation over the other. The mean SFR and its distribution among AGNs and inactive galaxies are similar at z > 1.5. At z < 1, however, clear and significant enhancements are seen in the SFRs of AGNs with bulge-dominated light profiles. These trends suggest an evolution in the relation between nuclear activity and host properties with redshift, towards a minor role for mergers and interactions at z > 1.5.