Gluttony and Sloth: Signs of Trouble or Evidence of Bliss?

In a model of rational agent choice in which agents value consumption and leisure as well as health, we establish that individuals, unconstrained by concerns of income or time, can and will choose levels of consumption and leisure that exceed their physiological optima. By how much they exceed the optima depends on a variety of factors, most importantly, the utility cost (benefit) of achieving health. Observed positive long-run trends in adult weight, brought on by higher levels of consumption and lower levels of physical activity, often interpreted as a public health crisis in the making, can be explained by these factors. But, rather than the trend suggesting crisis, it suggests only optimal responses to altered, and perhaps improved, circumstances. While individuals today, all else equal, may weigh more than those a generation or two ago, they also may be happier

Galactic Point Sources of TeV Antineutrinos

High energy cosmic ray experiments have identified an excess from the region of the Galactic Plane in a limited energy range around $10^{18}$ eV (EeV). This is very suggestive of neutrons as candidate primaries, because the directional signal requires relatively-stable neutral primaries, and time-dilated neutrons can reach Earth from typical Galactic distances when the neutron energy exceeds an EeV. We here point out that if the Galactic messengers are neutrons, then those with energies below an EeV will decay in flight, providing a flux of cosmic antineutrinos above a TeV which is {\it observable} at a kilometer-scale neutrino observatory. The expected event rate per year above 1 TeV in a detector such as IceCube, for example, is 20 antineutrino showers (all flavors) and a $1^\circ$ directional signal of 4 $\bar \nu_\mu$ events. A measurement of this flux can serve to identify the first extraterrestrial point source of TeV antineutrinos.Comment: matches published versio

COPII-Coated Vesicle Formation Reconstituted with Purified Coat Proteins and Chemically Defined Liposomes

AbstractCOPII vesicle formation requires only three coat assembly subunits: Sar1p, Sec13/31p, and Sec23/24p. PI 4-phosphate or PI 4,5-bisphosphate is required for the binding of these proteins to liposomes. The GTP-bound form of Sar1p recruits Sec23/24p to the liposomes as well as to the ER membranes, and this Sar1p-Sec23/24p complex is required for the binding of Sec13/31p. Ultrastructural analysis shows that the binding of COPII coat proteins to liposomes results in coated patches, coated buds, and coated vesicles of 50–90 nm in diameter. Budding proceeds without rupture of the donor liposome or vesicle product. These observations suggest that the assembly of the COPII coat on the ER occurs by a sequential binding of coat proteins to specific lipids and that this assembly promotes the budding of COPII-coated vesicles

High lipid order of Arabidopsis cell‐plate membranes mediated by sterol and DYNAMIN‐RELATED PROTEIN1A function

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109568/1/tpj12674.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109568/2/tpj12674-sup-0002-FigS2.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109568/3/tpj12674-sup-0001-FigS1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109568/4/tpj12674-sup-0003-FigS3.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109568/5/tpj12674-sup-0004-FigS4.pd

Finding short GRB remnants in globular clusters: the VHE gamma-ray source in Terzan 5

Globular cluster are believed to boost the rate of compact binary mergers which may launch a certain type of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Therefore globular clusters appear to be potential sites to search for remnants of such GRBs. The very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray source HESS J1747-248 recently discovered in the direction of the Galactic globular cluster Terzan 5 is investigated for being a GRB remnant. Signatures created by the ultra-relativistic outflow, the sub-relativistic ejecta and the ionizing radiation of a short GRB are estimated for an expected age of such a remnant of t > 10^4 years. The kinetic energy of a short GRB could roughly be adequate to power the VHE source in a hadronic scenario. The age of the proposed remnant estimated from its extension possibly agrees with the occurrence of such events in the Galaxy. Sub-relativistic merger ejecta could shock-heat the ambient medium. Further VHE observations can probe the presence of a break towards lower energies expected for particle acceleration in ultra-relativistic shocks. Deep X-ray observations would have the potential to examine the presence of thermal plasma heated by the sub-relativistic ejecta. The identification of a GRB remnant in our own Galaxy may also help to explore the effect of such a highly energetic event on the Earth.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in A&A Letter

ER body-resident myrosinases and tryptophan specialized metabolism modulate root microbiota assembly

Summary Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) bodies are ER-derived structures that contain a large amount of PYK10 myrosinase, which hydrolyzes tryptophan (Trp)-derived indole glucosinolates (IGs). Given the well-described role of IGs in root–microbe interactions, we hypothesized that ER bodies in roots are important for interaction with soil-borne microbes at the root–soil interface. We used mutants impaired in ER bodies (nai1), ER body-resident myrosinases (pyk10bglu21), IG biosynthesis (myb34/51/122), and Trp specialized metabolism (cyp79b2b3) to profile their root microbiota community in natural soil, evaluate the impact of axenically collected root exudates on soil or synthetic microbial communities, and test their response to fungal endophytes in a mono-association setup. Tested mutants exhibited altered bacterial and fungal communities in rhizoplane and endosphere, respectively. Natural soils and bacterial synthetic communities treated with mutant root exudates exhibited distinctive microbial profiles from those treated with wild-type (WT) exudates. Most tested endophytes severely restricted the growth of cyp79b2b3, a part of which also impaired the growth of pyk10bglu21. Our results suggest that root ER bodies and their resident myrosinases modulate the profile of root-secreted metabolites and thereby influence root–microbiota interactions

Detection of air trapping in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by low frequency ultrasound

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Spirometry is regarded as the gold standard for the diagnosis of COPD, yet the condition is widely underdiagnosed. Therefore, additional screening methods that are easy to perform and to interpret are needed. Recently, we demonstrated that low frequency ultrasound (LFU) may be helpful for monitoring lung diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether LFU can be used to detect air trapping in COPD. In addition, we evaluated the ability of LFU to detect the effects of short-acting bronchodilator medication.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Seventeen patients with COPD and 9 healthy subjects were examined by body plethysmography and LFU. Ultrasound frequencies ranging from 1 to 40 kHz were transmitted to the sternum and received at the back during inspiration and expiration. The high pass frequency was determined from the inspiratory and the expiratory signals and their difference termed ΔF. Measurements were repeated after inhalation of salbutamol.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found significant differences in ΔF between COPD subjects and healthy subjects. These differences were already significant at GOLD stage 1 and increased with the severity of COPD. Sensitivity for detection of GOLD stage 1 was 83% and for GOLD stages worse than 1 it was 91%. Bronchodilator effects could not be detected reliably.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that low frequency ultrasound is cost-effective, easy to perform and suitable for detecting air trapping. It might be useful in screening for COPD.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01080924">NCT01080924</a></p

Observation of Pulsed Gamma-rays Above 25 GeV from the Crab Pulsar with MAGIC

One fundamental question about pulsars concerns the mechanism of their pulsed electromagnetic emission. Measuring the high-end region of a pulsar's spectrum would shed light on this question. By developing a new electronic trigger, we lowered the threshold of the Major Atmospheric gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescope to 25 GeV. In this configuration, we detected pulsed gamma-rays from the Crab pulsar that were greater than 25 GeV, revealing a relatively high cutoff energy in the phase-averaged spectrum. This indicates that the emission occurs far out in the magnetosphere, hence excluding the polar-cap scenario as a possible explanation of our measurement. The high cutoff energy also challenges the slot-gap scenario.Comment: Slight modification of the analysis: Fitting a more general function to the combined data set of COMPTEL, EGRET and MAGIC. Final result and conclusion is unchange

Animals, animacy and anthropocentrism

This paper explores various ways in which contemporary British English depicts degrees of animacy among nonhuman animals, and demonstrates the anthropocentric qualities of much discourse about animals. The first section reviews discussions of animacy in relevant research literature, highlighting how these often take for granted a categorical distinction between humans and other animals, before demonstrating how both corpus-assisted approaches to discourse analysis and developments in the analysis of animacy point to a more complex picture. The second section discusses the implications of recent work in social theory for understanding organisms, and their degrees of animacy, from the perspective of networks rather than hierarchies. The third section of the paper presents analyses of an electronically stored corpus of language about animals. Three analyses of naming terms, descriptors and verbal patterns associated with various non-human animals illustrate a range of ways in which their animacy is denoted and connoted. They also demonstrate the influence of discourse type and human purpose on depictions of animals and assumptions about their animacy