1,051 research outputs found
Europe's plans for responsible science
In the past, European framework programs for research and innovation have included funding for the integration of science and society (1). Collaborative projects have brought together diverse sets of actors to co-create and implement common agendas through citizen science, science communication, public engagement, and responsible research and innovation (RRI) and have built an evidence base about science-society interaction (2, 3). In the proposal for the upcoming Horizon Europe program, however, there is no sustained support for RRI, nor is there a program line dedicated to co-creating knowledge and agendas with civil society (4). These serious oversights must be corrected before the Horizon Europe program is adopted by the Council and the European Parliament
Genes Associated with Honey Bee Behavioral Maturation Affect Clock-Dependent and -Independent Aspects of Daily Rhythmic Activity in Fruit Flies
BACKGROUND: In the honey bee, the age-related and socially regulated transition of workers from in-hive task performance (e.g., caring for young) to foraging (provisioning the hive) is associated with changes in many behaviors including the 24-hour pattern of rhythmic activity. We have previously shown that the hive-bee to forager transition is associated with extensive changes in brain gene expression. In this study, we test the possible function of a subset of these genes in daily rhythmic activity pattern using neural-targeted RNA interference (RNAi) of an orthologous gene set in Drosophila melanogaster. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Of 10 genes tested, knockdown of six affected some aspect of locomotor activity under a 12 h:h light:dark regime (LD). Inos affected anticipatory activity preceding lights-off, suggesting a possible clock-dependent function. BM-40-SPARC, U2af50 and fax affected peak activity at dawn without affecting anticipation or overall inactivity (proportion of 15-min intervals without activity), suggesting that these effects may depend on the day-night light cycle. CAH1 affected overall inactivity. The remaining gene, abl, affected peak activity levels but was not clearly time-of-day-specific. No gene tested affected length of period or strength of rhythmicity in constant dark (DD), suggesting that these genes do not act in the core clock. SIGNIFICANCE: Taking advantage of Drosophila molecular genetic tools, our study provides an important step in understanding the large set of gene expression changes that occur in the honey bee transition from hive bee to forager. We show that orthologs of many of these genes influence locomotor activity in Drosophila, possibly through both clock-dependent and -independent pathways. Our results support the importance of both circadian clock and direct environmental stimuli (apart from entrainment) in shaping the bee's 24-hour pattern of activity. Our study also outlines a new approach to dissecting complex behavior in a social animal
Delayed Appearance of High Altitude Retinal Hemorrhages
When closely examined, a very large amount of climbers exhibit retinal hemorrhages during exposure to high altitudes. The incidence of retinal hemorrhages may be greater than previously appreciated as a definite time lag was observed between highest altitude reached and development of retinal bleeding. Retinal hemorrhages should not be considered warning signs of impending severe altitude illness due to their delayed appearance
Study of Tau-pair Production in Photon-Photon Collisions at LEP and Limits on the Anomalous Electromagnetic Moments of the Tau Lepton
Tau-pair production in the process e+e- -> e+e-tau+tau- was studied using
data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP2 during the years 1997 - 2000.
The corresponding integrated luminosity is 650 pb^{-1}. The values of the
cross-section obtained are found to be in agreement with QED predictions.
Limits on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton
are deduced.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
CP asymmetry in in a general two-Higgs-doublet model with fourth-generation quarks
We discuss the time-dependent CP asymmetry of decay in an
extension of the Standard Model with both two Higgs doublets and additional
fourth-generation quarks. We show that although the Standard Model with
two-Higgs-doublet and the Standard model with fourth generation quarks alone
are not likely to largely change the effective from the decay of
, the model with both additional Higgs doublet and
fourth-generation quarks can easily account for the possible large negative
value of without conflicting with other experimental
constraints. In this model, additional large CP violating effects may arise
from the flavor changing Yukawa interactions between neutral Higgs bosons and
the heavy fourth generation down type quark, which can modify the QCD penguin
contributions. With the constraints obtained from processes
such as and , this model can lead to the
effective to be as large as in the CP asymmetry of .Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, references added, to appear in Eur.Phys.J.
Energy dependence of Cronin momentum in saturation model for and collisions
We calculate dependence of Cronin momentum for and
collisions in saturation model. We show that this dependence is consistent with
expectation from formula which was obtained using simple dimentional
consideration. This can be used to test validity of saturation model (and
distinguish among its variants) and measure dependence of saturation
momentum from experimental data.Comment: LaTeX2e, 12 pages, 8 figure
Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2
A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is
reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and
quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated
luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV
and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172
GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95%
confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2,
depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and
quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited
fermio
Search for lightest neutralino and stau pair production in light gravitino scenarios with stau NLSP
Promptly decaying lightest neutralinos and long-lived staus are searched for
in the context of light gravitino scenarios. It is assumed that the stau is the
next to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and that the lightest
neutralino is the next to NLSP (NNLSP). Data collected with the Delphi detector
at centre-of-mass energies from 161 to 183 \GeV are analysed. No evidence of
the production of these particles is found. Hence, lower mass limits for both
kinds of particles are set at 95% C.L.. The mass of gaugino-like neutralinos is
found to be greater than 71.5 GeV/c^2. In the search for long-lived stau,
masses less than 70.0 to 77.5 \GeVcc are excluded for gravitino masses from 10
to 150 \eVcc . Combining this search with the searches for stable heavy leptons
and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model staus a lower limit of 68.5 \GeVcc
may be set for the stau mas
Experimental tests of CPT symmetry and quantum mechanics at CPLEAR
We review a phenomenological parametrization of an open quantum-mechanical formalism for CPT violation in the neutral kaon system, and constrain the parameters using fits to recent CPLEAR data.We review a phenomenological parametrization of an open quantum-mechanical formalism for CPT violation in the neutral kaon system, and constrain the parameters using fits to recent CPLEAR data
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