A visualization platform to analyze contextual links between natural capital and ecosystem services

To prevent further loss of our vital ecosystem services we must understand the linkages to their supporting natural capital attributes. Systematic literature reviews synthesise evidence of natural capital attribute to ecosystem service (NC-ES) linkages. However, such reviews rarely account for the context dependency of evidence that is derived from individual studies undertaken for a particular purpose, at a specific spatial scale or geographic location. To address this deficiency, we developed the LiNCAGES (Linking Natural Capital Attribute Groups to Ecosystem Services) platform for investigating the context dependency of literature-based evidence for NC-ES linkages. We demonstrate the application of the LiNCAGES platform using the OpenNESS systematic literature review of NC-ES linkages. A hypothetical use case scenario of a small-scale European forest manager is described. We find evidence for many NC-ES linkages, and trade-offs and synergies between services, is severely diminished or non-existent under certain contexts, such as larger spatial scales and European study location. The LiNCAGES platform provides a flexible tool that researchers can use to support collation, exploration and synthesis of literature-based evidence on NC-ES linkages. This is vital for providing credible and salient evidence to stakeholders on important NC-ES linkages that occur under their context, to guide effective management strategies

Prevention of Decline in Cognition after Stroke Trial (PODCAST): a study protocol for a factorial randomised controlled trial of intensive versus guideline lowering of blood pressure and lipids

Background Stroke is a common cause of cognitive impairment and dementia. However, effective strategies for reducing the risk of post-stroke dementia remain undefined. Potential strategies include intensive lowering of blood pressure and/or lipids. Methods/Design Design: multi-centre prospective randomised open-label blinded-endpoint controlled partial-factorial phase IV trial in secondary and primary care. Participants: 100 participants from 30 UK Stroke Research Network sites who are post- ischemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage by three to seven months. Interventions - all patients (1:1): intensive versus guideline blood pressure lowering (target systolic < 125 mmHg versus < 140 mmHg). Interventions - ischemic stroke (1:1): intensive versus guideline lipid lowering (target low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) < 1.4 mmol/l versus < 3 mmol/l). Hypotheses: does ‘intensive’ blood pressure lowering therapy and/or ‘intensive’ lipid control reduce cognitive decline and dementia in people with ischemic stroke; and does ‘intensive’ blood pressure lowering therapy reduce cognitive decline and dementia in patients with hemorrhagic stroke. Primary outcome: Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised. Secondary outcomes: feasibility of recruitment and retention of participants, tolerability and safety of the interventions, achieving and maintaining the blood pressure and lipid targets, maintaining differences in systolic blood pressure (> 10 mmHg) and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (> 1 mmol/l) between the treatment groups, and performing clinic and telephone follow-up of cognition measures. Randomisation: using stratification, minimization and simple randomization. Blinding: participants receive open-label management. Cognition is assessed both unblinded (in clinic) and blinded (by telephone) to treatment. Adjudication of events (dementia, vascular, serious adverse events) is blinded to management. Discussion The PODCAST trial is ongoing with 78 patients recruited to date from 22 sites. Outcomes of cognitive impairment and dementia are accruing. Trial registration ISRCTN8556238

Traceable measurement and imaging of the complex permittivity of a multiphase mineral specimen at micron scales using a microwave microscope

This paper describes traceable measurements of the dielectric permittivity and loss tangent of a multiphase material (particulate rock set in epoxy) at micron scales using a resonant Near-Field Scanning Microwave Microscope (NSMM) at 1.2 GHz. Calibration and extraction of the permittivity and loss tangent is via an image charge analysis which has been modified by the use of the complex frequency to make it applicable for high loss materials. The results presented are obtained using a spherical probe tip, 0.1 mm in diameter, and also a conical probe tip with a rounded end 0.01 mm in diameter, which allows imaging with higher resolution (≈10 µm). The microscope is calibrated using approach-curve data over a restricted range of gaps (typically between 1% and 10% of tip diameter) as this is found to give the best measurement accuracy. For both tips the uncertainty of scanned measurements of permittivity is estimated to be±10% (at coverage factor k=2) for permittivity ⪝10. Loss tangent can be resolved to approximately 0.001. Subject to this limit, the uncertainty of loss tangent measurements is estimated to be±20% (at k=2). The reported measurements inform studies of how microwave energy interacts with multiphase materials containing microwave absorbent phases

Measurement of the top pair production cross section in 8 TeV proton-proton collisions using kinematic information in the lepton plus jets final state with ATLAS

A measurement is presented of the $t\bar{t}$ inclusive production cross-section in $pp$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV using data collected by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement was performed in the lepton+jets final state using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. The cross-section was obtained using a likelihood discriminant fit and $b$-jet identification was used to improve the signal-to-background ratio. The inclusive $t\bar{t}$ production cross-section was measured to be $260\pm 1{\textrm{(stat.)}} ^{+22}_{-23} {\textrm{(syst.)}}\pm 8{\textrm{(lumi.)}}\pm 4{\mathrm{(beam)}}$ pb assuming a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV, in good agreement with the theoretical prediction of $253^{+13}_{-15}$ pb. The $t\bar{t}\to (e,\mu)+{\mathrm{jets}}$ production cross-section in the fiducial region determined by the detector acceptance is also reported.Comment: Published version, 19 pages plus author list (35 pages total), 3 figures, 2 tables, all figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/TOPQ-2013-06

Identification of new susceptibility loci for osteoarthritis (arcOGEN):a genome-wide association study

To access publisher's full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field.Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis worldwide and is a major cause of pain and disability in elderly people. The health economic burden of osteoarthritis is increasing commensurate with obesity prevalence and longevity. Osteoarthritis has a strong genetic component but the success of previous genetic studies has been restricted due to insufficient sample sizes and phenotype heterogeneity. We undertook a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 7410 unrelated and retrospectively and prospectively selected patients with severe osteoarthritis in the arcOGEN study, 80% of whom had undergone total joint replacement, and 11,009 unrelated controls from the UK. We replicated the most promising signals in an independent set of up to 7473 cases and 42,938 controls, from studies in Iceland, Estonia, the Netherlands, and the UK. All patients and controls were of European descent. We identified five genome-wide significant loci (binomial test p≤5·0×10(-8)) for association with osteoarthritis and three loci just below this threshold. The strongest association was on chromosome 3 with rs6976 (odds ratio 1·12 [95% CI 1·08-1·16]; p=7·24×10(-11)), which is in perfect linkage disequilibrium with rs11177. This SNP encodes a missense polymorphism within the nucleostemin-encoding gene GNL3. Levels of nucleostemin were raised in chondrocytes from patients with osteoarthritis in functional studies. Other significant loci were on chromosome 9 close to ASTN2, chromosome 6 between FILIP1 and SENP6, chromosome 12 close to KLHDC5 and PTHLH, and in another region of chromosome 12 close to CHST11. One of the signals close to genome-wide significance was within the FTO gene, which is involved in regulation of bodyweight-a strong risk factor for osteoarthritis. All risk variants were common in frequency and exerted small effects. Our findings provide insight into the genetics of arthritis and identify new pathways that might be amenable to future therapeutic intervention.Arthritis Research UK 1803

Search for dark matter produced in association with a hadronically decaying vector boson in pp collisions at sqrt (s) = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for dark matter produced in association with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson using 3.2 fb−1 of pp collisions at View the MathML sources=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with a hadronic jet compatible with a W or Z boson and with large missing transverse momentum are analysed. The data are consistent with the Standard Model predictions and are interpreted in terms of both an effective field theory and a simplified model containing dark matter

Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eμ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (σtt¯) with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σtt¯ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σtt¯ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented

Search for strong gravity in multijet final states produced in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

A search is conducted for new physics in multijet final states using 3.6 inverse femtobarns of data from proton-proton collisions at √s = 13TeV taken at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. Events are selected containing at least three jets with scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT) greater than 1TeV. No excess is seen at large HT and limits are presented on new physics: models which produce final states containing at least three jets and having cross sections larger than 1.6 fb with HT > 5.8 TeV are excluded. Limits are also given in terms of new physics models of strong gravity that hypothesize additional space-time dimensions