Implementation of clinically useful research discoveries in the academic environment is challenged by limited funding for early phase proof-of-concept studies and inadequate expertise in product development and commercialization. To address these limitations, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the National Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program in 2013. Three centers competed successfully for awards through this mechanism. Here, we present the experience of one such center, the Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC), and demonstrate its remarkable success at the translation of innovations to clinical application and commercialization, as well as skills development and education.

The Tlahuica, a Nahua ethnic group, arrived in what is now western Morelos and conquered several preexisting towns circa a.d. 1100. Members of Tlahuica elite lineages took control of irrigable land and founded altepeme (small city-states). As population increased, segmentation occurred until there were 32 altepeme. The elite's control of the irrigable land was the basis for collecting tribute consisting of cotton cloth. The 32 altepeme in western Morelos became part of three señoríos (regional centers) comprised of multiple altepeme by a.d. 1400: Cuauhnahuac, Tlaquiltenango, and Xiutepec. Coatlan, located in the southwestern part of western Morelos, remained an independent polity separate from the three señoríos. The 32 altepeme were conquered by the Triple Alliance in the 1430s and 1450s, putting a halt to further conquests by these señoríos and leaving Coatlan as an independent buffer state between the Tlahuica señoríos and Chontal polities to the southwest. The Triple Alliance did not displace the local population in western Morelos or send colonists from the Basin of Mexico, as they did in non-Nahua provinces of the empire.

Garnets, omphacite and the minerals of a clinopyroxene/amphibole/plagioclase symplectite in UHP eclogites from Yingshan, Dabieshan have been investigated by TEM and Micro-FTIR. TEM reveals that the predominant microstructures in eclogites and symplectite-forming minerals are chain multiplicity faults (CMFs), dislocation substructures, clusters of water molecules up to ∼50 nm in diameter and recrystallized grains ∼1.75 μm in diameter. This indicates dynamic recrystallization of omphacite, probably during an eclogite-facies metamorphic episode. The deformation structures in symplectite-forming minerals were produced by plastic deformation related to an amphibolite-facies retrograde metamorphic event. CMFs described in the present work demonstrate the existence of an infrequent ½<011> (010) slip system for P2/n omphacite from an UHP eclogite sample from Dabieshan. The frequent occurrence of CMFs in omphacite suggests that they indicate an important deformation mechanism in omphacite and shows that this slip system plays a significant role in the deformation and recovery of eclogite. The hydrous components of deformed minerals may cause plastic deformation of the rocks by dislocation movement and accelerate retrograde metamorphism. Micro-FTIR results show that all the garnets and omphacites contain structural water occurring as hydroxyl groups (OH) or water (H2O). The structural water contents in omphacite range from 110—710 ppm and in garnet from 0—180 ppm. Water released during decompression might supply an early-stage retrograde metamorphic fluid.

Metastable authigenic 1M illite from shale of diagenetic grade has been studied using a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) equipped with energy-dispersive spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope. The illite occurs as deformed flakes deficient in interlayer K+ cations with 0.6 per half cell, and with abnormally high Al in both octahedral and tetrahedral sites. Complex structural adjustments reflecting the unusual chemical composition are observed in images of illite at near-atomic resolution. Different distances and directions of intralayer shift between the upper tetrahedral sheet and the lower tetrahedral sheet within 2:1 layers are found in this sample. Intralayer undershift structure coupled with interlayer displacement is found in a 1M illite crystal, and intralayer overshift structure coupled with no interlayer displacement is found in a 1M domain of a larger crystal. Two tetrahedral sheets across the interlayer region sometimes deviate from ideal positions causing interlayer displacement. Two pyrophyllite layers are found overlying a stack of ordered 1M illite layers, and are overlain by illite layers with anomalous interlayer offsets. This offset is considered to result from an increase in the lateral dimensions of the tetrahedral sheet due to anomalous high Al content. Our observation of intralayer and interlayer deficiencies indicate that authigenic illite that crystallized in the early stage of diagenesis at low temperatures tends to give rise to heterogeneous, disordered, and metastable structures.

The first occurrence of orbicular rocks in Turkey is reported. They are gabbros in a dyke in the Baskil island-arc magmatic suite, of the southern branch of the Alpine-Himalayan chain. The orbicules have lithologically varied cores, regular shells of troctolitic composition, with a radial arrangement of olivine and plagioclase crystals, and a matrix of vari-textured gabbro. Rock and mineral analyses indicate that magmatic crystallization began near the inner margin of the troctolitic shells. Metamorphic hydration of minerals in cores, shells and matrix followed directly after the later stages of magmatic crystallization, as part of a continuous process, and thus a magmatic-metamorphic origin for the orbicules is proposed. Alternative hypotheses for the development of the orbicules are discussed: one involving the development of a protocrystalline magma shell, the other rapid crystallization during upward migration of xenolith-bearing magma.

A reported occurrence of metamorphic rocks containing sodic pyroxenes, in the transition zone between the Pelagonian Crystalline Massif and the Vardar Ophiolite Belt, in Macedonia, Yugoslavia, has been re-investigated, and pyroxenes, micas, plagioclase, and clinozoisite analysed by microprobe. The presence of the high-pressure metamorphic assemblage quartz + omphacite+albite is confirmed, giving the first definite indication of blueschist-facies metamorphic conditions in Yugoslavia.