Viral communities of Shark Bay modern stromatolites

© 2018 White, Wong, Ruvindy, Neilan and Burns. Single stranded DNA viruses have been previously shown to populate the oceans on a global scale, and are endemic in microbialites of both marine and freshwater systems. We undertook for the first time direct viral metagenomic shotgun sequencing to explore the diversity of viruses in the modern stromatolites of Shark Bay Australia. The data indicate that Shark Bay marine stromatolites have similar diversity of ssDNA viruses to that of Highbourne Cay, Bahamas. ssDNA viruses in cluster uniquely in Shark Bay and Highbourne Cay, potentially due to enrichment by phi29-mediated amplification bias. Further, pyrosequencing data was assembled from the Shark Bay systems into two putative viral genomes that are related to Genomoviridae family of ssDNA viruses. In addition, the cellular fraction was shown to be enriched for antiviral defense genes including CRISPR-Cas, BREX (bacteriophage exclusion), and DISARM (defense island system associated with restriction-modification), a potentially novel finding for these systems. This is the first evidence for viruses in the Shark Bay stromatolites, and these viruses may play key roles in modulating microbial diversity as well as potentially impacting ecosystem function through infection and the recycling of key nutrients

Multi-lepton signals from the top-prime quark at the LHC

We analyze the collider signatures of models with a vector-like top-prime quark and a massive color-octet boson. The top-prime quark mixes with the top quark in the Standard Model, leading to richer final states than ones that are investigated by experimental collaborations. We discuss the multi-lepton final states, and show that they can provide increased sensitivity to models with a top-prime quark and gluon-prime. Searches for new physics in high multiplicity events are an important component of the LHC program and complementary to analyses that have been performed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Pollutant dispersion in a developing valley cold-air pool

Pollutants are trapped and accumulate within cold-air pools, thereby affecting air quality. A numerical model is used to quantify the role of cold-air-pooling processes in the dispersion of air pollution in a developing cold-air pool within an alpine valley under decoupled stable conditions. Results indicate that the negatively buoyant downslope flows transport and mix pollutants into the valley to depths that depend on the temperature deficit of the flow and the ambient temperature structure inside the valley. Along the slopes, pollutants are generally entrained above the cold-air pool and detrained within the cold-air pool, largely above the ground-based inversion layer. The ability of the cold-air pool to dilute pollutants is quantified. The analysis shows that the downslope flows fill the valley with air from above, which is then largely trapped within the cold-air pool, and that dilution depends on where the pollutants are emitted with respect to the positions of the top of the ground-based inversion layer and cold-air pool, and on the slope wind speeds. Over the lower part of the slopes, the cold-air-pool-averaged concentrations are proportional to the slope wind speeds where the pollutants are emitted, and diminish as the cold-air pool deepens. Pollutants emitted within the ground-based inversion layer are largely trapped there. Pollutants emitted farther up the slopes detrain within the cold-air pool above the ground-based inversion layer, although some fraction, increasing with distance from the top of the slopes, penetrates into the ground-based inversion layer.Peer reviewe

Oxaliplatin induces drug resistance more rapidly than cisplatin in H69 small cell lung cancer cells

Cisplatin produces good responses in solid tumours including small cell lung cancer (SCLC) but this is limited by the development of resistance. Oxaliplatin is reported to show activity against some cisplatin-resistant cancers but there is little known about oxaliplatin in SCLC and there are no reports of oxaliplatin resistant SCLC cell lines. Studies of drug resistance mainly focus on the cellular resistance mechanisms rather than how the cells develop resistance. This study examines the development of cisplatin and oxaliplatin resistance in H69 human SCLC cells in response to repeated treatment with clinically relevant doses of cisplatin or oxaliplatin for either 4 days or 2h. Treatments with 200ng/ml cisplatin or 400ng/ml oxaliplatin for 4 days produced sublines (H69CIS200 and H69OX400 respectively) that showed low level (approximately 2-fold) resistance after 8 treatments. Treatments with 1000ng/ml cisplatin or 2000ng/ml oxaliplatin for 2h also produced sublines, however these were not stably resistant suggesting shorter treatment pulses of drug may be more effective. Cells survived the first five treatments without any increase in resistance, by arresting their growth for a period and then regrowing. The period of growth arrest was reduced after the sixth treatment and the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 sublines showed a reduced growth arrest in response to cisplatin and oxaliplatin treatment suggesting that "regrowth resistance" initially protected against drug treatment and this was further upregulated and became part of the resistance phenotype of these sublines. Oxaliplatin dose escalation produced more surviving sublines than cisplatin dose escalation but neither set of sublines were associated with increased resistance as determined by 5-day cytotoxicity assays, also suggesting the involvement of regrowth resistance. The resistant sublines showed no change in platinum accumulation or glutathione levels even though the H69OX400 subline was more sensitive to buthionine sulfoximine treatment. The H69CIS200 cells were cross-resistant to oxaliplatin demonstrating that oxaliplatin does not have activity against low level cisplatin resistance. Relative to the H69 cells, the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 sublines were more sensitive to paclitaxel and taxotere suggests the taxanes may be useful in the treatment of platinum resistant SCLC. These novel cellular models of cisplatin and oxaliplatin resistant SCLC will be useful in developing strategies to treat platinum-resistant SCLC

Loneliness, social support and cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stress

Self-reported or explicit loneliness and social support have been inconsistently associated with cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress. The present study aimed to adapt an implicit measure of loneliness, and use it alongside the measures of explicit loneliness and social support, to investigate their correlations with CVR to laboratory stress. Twenty-five female volunteers aged between 18 and 39 years completed self-reported measures of loneliness and social support, and an Implicit Association Test (IAT) of loneliness. The systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) reactivity indices were measured in response to psychosocial stress induced in the laboratory. Functional support indices of social support were significantly correlated with CVR reactivity to stress. Interestingly, implicit, but not explicit, loneliness was significantly correlated with DBP reactivity after one of the stressors. No associations were found between structural support and CVR indices. Results are discussed in terms of validity of implicit versus explicit measures and possible factors that affect physiological outcomes

Combining mouse and keyboard events with higher level desktop actions to detect mild cognitive impairment

We present a desktop monitoring application that combines keyboard, mouse, desktop and application-level activities. It has been developed to discover differences in cognitive functioning amongst older computer users indicative of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Following requirements capture from clinical domain experts, the tool collects all Microsoft Windows events deemed potentially useful for detecting early clinical indicators of dementia, with a view to further analysis to determine the most pertinent. Further requirements capture from potential end-users has resulted in a system that has little impact on users? daily activities and ensures data security from initial recording of events through to data analysis. We describe two experiments: firstly, volunteers were asked to perform a short set of known tasks; the second (ongoing) experiment is a longitudinal study, with the software currently successfully running on participants? computers

Missing Momentum Reconstruction and Spin Measurements at Hadron Colliders

We study methods for reconstructing the momenta of invisible particles in cascade decay chains at hadron colliders. We focus on scenarios, such as SUSY and UED, in which new physics particles are pair produced. Their subsequent decays lead to two decay chains ending with neutral stable particles escaping detection. Assuming that the masses of the decaying particles are already measured, we obtain the momenta by imposing the mass-shell constraints. Using this information, we develop techniques of determining spins of particles in theories beyond the standard model. Unlike the methods relying on Lorentz invariant variables, this method can be used to determine the spin of the particle which initiates the decay chain. We present two complementary ways of applying our method by using more inclusive variables relying on kinematic information from one decay chain, as well as constructing correlation variables based on the kinematics of both decay chains in the same event.Comment: Version to appear in JHE