Performance Analysis of MIMO-MRC in Double-Correlated Rayleigh Environments

We consider multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmit beamforming systems with maximum ratio combining (MRC) receivers. The operating environment is Rayleigh-fading with both transmit and receive spatial correlation. We present exact expressions for the probability density function (p.d.f.) of the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), as well as the system outage probability. The results are based on explicit closed-form expressions which we derive for the p.d.f. and c.d.f. of the maximum eigenvalue of double-correlated complex Wishart matrices. For systems with two antennas at either the transmitter or the receiver, we also derive exact closed-form expressions for the symbol error rate (SER). The new expressions are used to prove that MIMO-MRC achieves the maximum available spatial diversity order, and to demonstrate the effect of spatial correlation. The analysis is validated through comparison with Monte-Carlo simulations.Comment: 25 pages. Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Communication

Limits to coseismic landslides triggered by Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes

Landslides are a significant hazard and dominant feature throughout the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. However, the hazard and risk posed by coseismic landslides triggered by great Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquakes is highly uncertain due to a lack of local and global data. Despite a wealth of other geologic evidence for past earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, no landslides have been definitively linked to such earthquakes, even in areas otherwise highly susceptible to failure. While shallow landslides may not leave a lasting topographical signature in the landscape, there are thousands of deep-seated landslides in Cascadia, and these deposits often persist for hundreds of years and multiple earthquake cycles. Synthesizing newly developed inventories of dated large deep-seated landslides in the Oregon Coast Range, we use statistical methods to estimate the proportion of these types of landslides that could have been triggered during past great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes. Statistical analysis of high-precision dendrochronology ages of landslide-dammed lakes and surface roughness-dated bedrock landslides reveal Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes may have triggered 0–15 % of large deep-seated landslides in the Oregon Coast Range over multiple earthquake cycles. Our results refine estimates from previous studies and further suggest that coseismic triggering accounts for a small fraction of the total deep-seated bedrock landslides mapped in coastal Cascadia. However, if the real rate of coseismic landslide triggering during CSZ earthquakes is near our estimated upper bound for the 1700 CSZ earthquake, we estimate up to 2400 coseismic large deep-seated landslides could occur in the Oregon Coast Range in a single earthquake. These findings suggest Cascadia is consistent with global observations from other subduction zones and that coseismic landslides may still represent a serious geohazard in the region

Body Fat Percentage and Hormonal Intrauterine Device Use Are Independently Associated with Self-Reported Menstrual Regularity in Young Adult Females

Menstrual regularity is a key indicator of energy availability, long-term bone density, and other important health information in females. The occurrence of a regular menstrual cycle indicates that an individual’s level of estrogen is supportive of strong bones and that they are achieving the caloric intake required to support their activity level. In contrast, an irregular menstrual cycle can be indicative of insufficient energy availability which may, over time, result in low bone mineral density and thus a higher risk of bone stress injuries. However, hormonal contraceptive use, including the rising use of intrauterine devices (IUDs), may mask these changes in menstrual regularity. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to self-reported menstrual regularity among a population of young, generally healthy females. METHODS: Participants were included if they were no more than 50 years of age at the time of enrollment and had less than 50% body fat as assessed via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Participants were asked via questionnaire if they reported having a regular menstrual cycle, defined as menstrual periods occurring at predictable intervals and no missed periods in the past six months. Additionally, participants were asked if they were currently using any form of hormonal contraception, and if so, what type. A logistic regression was run with menstrual regularity (1 = regular; 0 = irregular) as the dependent variable and body fat percentage (BFP) and contraceptive type as the predictors. RESULTS: Out of the 76 participants (mean±SD age: 23.2±5.1 years; height: 164.5±6.5 cm; weight: 65.2±13.6 kg; BFP: 32.3±8.5%), 54 (71%) reported having a regular menstrual cycle. Of the 45 (59%) participants using hormonal contraception, 27 (60%) used a combined oral contraceptive pill, six (13%) used a progestin-only pill, nine (20%) used an IUD, two (4%) used a hormonal implant, and one (2%) used a vaginal ring. Overall, a higher BFP was associated with a greater likelihood of menstrual regularity (coefficient±SE: 0.08 ± 0.04; p = 0.04) while IUD use was associated with a lower likelihood (coefficient±SE: -1.8 ± 0.9; p = 0.04). No other hormonal contraception type was independently associated with self-reported menstrual regularity. CONCLUSION: These results collectively suggest, within a population of generally healthy, young adult females, that lower BFP and hormonal IUD use are both independently associated with a lower likelihood of having a regular menstrual cycle. When assessing the lack of a regular menstrual cycle, practitioners may consider hormonal IUD use as one potential factor in addition to a general assessment of body composition and energy availability. However, this analysis was limited by a relatively small sample size, which may have reduced the ability to detect the relationship between menstrual regularity and less commonly used contraceptive types. Future research is required to determine the relationship between these contraceptive types and menstrual regularity in generally healthy adult females

Comparative Study of Human and Mouse Postsynaptic Proteomes Finds High Compositional Conservation and Abundance Differences for Key Synaptic Proteins

Direct comparison of protein components from human and mouse excitatory synapses is important for determining the suitability of mice as models of human brain disease and to understand the evolution of the mammalian brain. The postsynaptic density is a highly complex set of proteins organized into molecular networks that play a central role in behavior and disease. We report the first direct comparison of the proteome of triplicate isolates of mouse and human cortical postsynaptic densities. The mouse postsynaptic density comprised 1556 proteins and the human one 1461. A large compositional overlap was observed; more than 70% of human postsynaptic density proteins were also observed in the mouse postsynaptic density. Quantitative analysis of postsynaptic density components in both species indicates a broadly similar profile of abundance but also shows that there is higher abundance variation between species than within species. Well known components of this synaptic structure are generally more abundant in the mouse postsynaptic density. Significant inter-species abundance differences exist in some families of key postsynaptic density proteins including glutamatergic neurotransmitter receptors and adaptor proteins. Furthermore, we have identified a closely interacting set of molecules enriched in the human postsynaptic density that could be involved in dendrite and spine structural plasticity. Understanding synapse proteome diversity within and between species will be important to further our understanding of brain complexity and disease

Proteasome inhibition reduces plasma cell and antibody secretion, but not angiotensin II-induced hypertension

IntroductionDepletion of mature B cells affords protection against experimental hypertension. However, whether B cell-mediated hypertension is dependent on differentiation into antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) remains unclear. Using the proteasome inhibitor, bortezomib, the present study tested the effect of ASC reduction on angiotensin II-induced hypertension.MethodsMale C57BL6/J mice were infused with angiotensin II (0.7 mg/kg/day; s.c.) for 28 days via osmotic minipump to induce hypertension. Normotensive control mice received saline infusion. Bortezomib (750 μg/kg) or vehicle (0.1% DMSO) was administered (i.v.) 3 days prior to minipump implantation, and twice weekly thereafter. Systolic blood pressure was measured weekly using tail-cuff plethysmography. Spleen and bone marrow B1 (CD19+B220−), B2 (B220+CD19+) and ASCs (CD138hiSca-1+Blimp-1+) were enumerated by flow cytometry. Serum immunoglobulins were quantified using a bead-based immunoassay.ResultsBortezomib treatment reduced splenic ASCs by ∼68% and ∼64% compared to vehicle treatment in normotensive (2.00 ± 0.30 vs. 0.64 ± 0.15 × 105 cells; n = 10–11) and hypertensive mice (0.52 ± 0.11 vs. 0.14 ± 0.02 × 105 cells; n = 9–11), respectively. Bone marrow ASCs were also reduced by bortezomib in both normotensive (4.75 ± 1.53 vs. 1.71 ± 0.41 × 103 cells; n = 9–11) and hypertensive mice (4.12 ± 0.82 vs. 0.89 ± 0.18 × 103 cells; n = 9–11). Consistent with ASC reductions, bortezomib reduced serum IgM and IgG2a in all mice. Despite these reductions in ASCs and antibody levels, bortezomib did not affect angiotensin II-induced hypertension over 28 days (vehicle: 182 ± 4 mmHg vs. bortezomib: 177 ± 7 mmHg; n = 9–11).ConclusionReductions in ASCs and circulating IgG2a and IgM did not ameliorate experimental hypertension, suggesting other immunoglobulin isotypes or B cell effector functions may promote angiotensin II-induced hypertension

Altered Thalamocortical Development in the SAP102 Knockout Model of Intellectual Disability

Genetic mutations known to cause intellectual disabilities (IDs) are concentrated in specific sets of genes including both those encoding synaptic proteins and those expressed during early development. We have characterized the effect of genetic deletion of Dlg3, an ID-related gene encoding the synaptic NMDA-receptor interacting protein synapse-associated protein 102 (SAP102), on development of the mouse somatosensory cortex. SAP102 is the main representative of the PSD-95 family of postsynaptic MAGUK proteins during early development and is proposed to play a role in stabilizing receptors at immature synapses. Genetic deletion of SAP102 caused a reduction in the total number of thalamocortical (TC) axons innervating the somatosensory cortex, but did not affect the segregation of barrels. On a synaptic level SAP102 knockout mice display a transient speeding of NMDA receptor kinetics during the critical period for TC plasticity, despite no reduction in GluN2B-mediated component of synaptic transmission. These data indicated an interesting dissociation between receptor kinetics and NMDA subunit expression. Following the critical period NMDA receptor function was unaffected by loss of SAP102 but there was a reduction in the divergence of TC connectivity. These data suggest that changes in synaptic function early in development caused by mutations in SAP102 result in changes in network connectivity later in life

ELF3 controls thermoresponsive growth in Arabidopsis

Plant development is highly responsive to ambient temperature, and this trait has been linked to the ability of plants to adapt to climate change [1]. The mechanisms by which natural populations modulate their thermoresponsiveness are not known [2]. To address this, we surveyed Arabidopsis accessions for variation in thermal responsiveness of elongation growth and mapped the corresponding loci. We find that the transcriptional regulator EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3) controls elongation growth in response to temperature. Through a combination of modeling and experiments, we show that high temperature relieves the gating of growth at night, highlighting the importance of temperature-dependent repressors of growth. ELF3 gating of transcriptional targets responds rapidly and reversibly to changes in temperature. We show that the binding of ELF3 to target promoters is temperature dependent, suggesting a mechanism where temperature directly controls ELF3 activity

Ecological notes on the Annulated Treeboa (Corallus annulatus) from a Costa Rican lowland tropical wet forest

The Annulated Treeboa (Corallus annulatus) is one of nine currently recognized species in the boid genus Corallus. Its disjunct range extends from eastern Guatemala into northern Honduras, southeastern Nicaragua, northeastern Costa Rica, and southwestern Panama to northern Colombia west of the Andes. It is the only species of Corallus found on the Caribbean versant of Costa Rica, where it occurs at elevations to at least 650m and perhaps as high as 1,000 m. Corallus annulatus occurs mostly in primary and secondary lowland tropical wet and moist rainforest and it appears to be genuinely rare. Besides C. cropanii and C. blombergi (the latter closely related to C. annulatus), it is the rarest member of the genus. Aside from information on habitat and activity, little is known regarding its natural history. In November 2001, a herpetological investigation at Caño Palma Biological Station, Tortuguero, in northeastern Costa Rica discovered the presence of C. annulatus from a single preserved specimen held at the biological station. Further surveys in the area detected the species in Manicaria swamp forest that apparently held locally common populations of the snake. Further inventory and abundance surveys over the next ten years resulted in some preliminary morphometric and ecological data on C. annulatus

Mineralization and nitrification: Archaea dominate ammonia-oxidising communities in grassland soils

In grasslands, N mineralization and nitrification are important processes and are controlled by several factors, including the in situ microbial community composition. Nitrification involves ammonia oxidising archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) and although AOA and AOB co-exist in soils, they respond differently to environmental characteristics and there is evidence of AOA/AOB niche differentiation. Here, we investigated temporal variation in N mineralization and nitrification rates, together with bacterial, archaeal and ammonia-oxidiser communities in grassland soils, on different geologies: clay, Greensand and Chalk. Across geologies, N mineralization and nitrification rates were slower in the autumn than the rest of the year. Turnover times for soil ammonium pools were <24 h, whilst several days for nitrate. In clay soils, bacterial, archaeal, AOA, and AOB communities were clearly distinct from those in Chalk and Greensand soils. Spatially and temporally, AOA were more abundant than AOB. Notably, Nitrososphaera were predominant, comprising 37.4% of archaeal communities, with the vast majority of AOA found in Chalk and Greensand soils. AOA abundance positively correlated with nitrate concentration, whereas AOB abundance correlated with ammonium and nitrite concentrations, suggesting that these N compounds may be potential drivers for AOA/AOB niche differentiation in these grassland soils