Candida albicans Hypha Formation and Mannan Masking of β-Glucan Inhibit Macrophage Phagosome Maturation

Received 28 August 2014 Accepted 28 October 2014 Published 2 December 2014 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Janet Willment, Aberdeen Fungal Group, University of Aberdeen, for kindly providing the soluble Dectin-1-Fc reporter. All microscopy was performed with the assistance of the University of Aberdeen Core Microscopy & Histology Facility, and we thank the IFCC for their assistance with flow cytometry. We thank the Wellcome Trust for funding (080088, 086827, 075470, 099215, 097377, and 101873). E.R.B. and A.J.P.B. are funded by the European Research Council (ERC-2009-AdG-249793), and J.L. is funded by a Medical Research Council Clinical Training Fellowship.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

"Madness is rampant on this island": Writing Altered States in Anglophone Caribbean Literature

peer reviewedAs outlined in this introductory chapter, this collection explores how Caribbean writers, including diasporic ones, accommodate altered states of consciousness, such as madness, and thereby reconfigure a space long constructed as a zone of degeneration and derangement. Taking as its starting point the pervasive representation of various forms of mental illness, breakdown and psychopathology in Caribbean literature, this introduction surveys the sparse extant criticism, and invites us to reassess the slippery meaning of such words as “mad”, “madness,” and semantically associated lexicon. This chapter also outlines how, dialoguing with texts and theories concerning affective and mental states that operate on planes other than the rational and the material, the contributors in three focused sections explore a richly evocative and often contradictory phenomenon, culturally constructed and often eluding precise depictions. The chapter closes by sketching other avenues for future research

Inter-Colony Comparison of Diving Behavior of an Arctic Top Predator: Implications for Warming in the Greenland Sea

The goal of this study was to assess how diverse oceanographic conditions and prey communities affect the foraging behavior of little auks Alle alle. The Greenland Sea is characterized by 3 distinct water masses: (1) the East Greenland Current (EGC), which carries Arctic waters southward; (2) the Sørkapp Current (SC), which originates in the Arctic Ocean but flows north along the west coast of Spitsbergen; and (3) the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC), which carries warm Atlantic-derived water north. Each of these 3 water masses is characterized by a distinct mesozooplankton community. Little auks breeding adjacent to the EGC have access to large, lipid-rich Calanus copepods, whereas those adjacent to the SC have medium sized prey, while those near the WSC are limited to even smaller, less profitable prey. We used time−depth recorders to compare the time allocation and diving behavior of little auks adjacent to each of these 3 water masses. We predicted that birds in the EGC would not have to forage as intensively as those in the SC or WSC. We found that little auks foraging in the EGC spent less time at sea, spent less time flying, dived less often, made fewer long, deep dives, and made fewer V-shaped searching dives. This indicates that the EGC provides a more favorable foraging environment than do the warmer water masses to the east. Comparing the foraging behavior of little auk populations confined to Arctic versus Atlantic-influenced waters can provide insight into the potential impacts of future warming in the Greenland Sea

A Field-theoretical Interpretation of the Holographic Renormalization Group

A quantum-field theoretical interpretation is given to the holographic RG equation by relating it to a field-theoretical local RG equation which determines how Weyl invariance is broken in a quantized field theory. Using this approach we determine the relation between the holographic C theorem and the C theorem in two-dimensional quantum field theory which relies on the Zamolodchikov metric. Similarly we discuss how in four dimensions the holographic C function is related to a conjectured field-theoretical C function. The scheme dependence of the holographic RG due to the possible presence of finite local counterterms is discussed in detail, as well as its implications for the holographic C function. We also discuss issues special to the situation when mass deformations are present. Furthermore we suggest that the holographic RG equation may also be obtained from a bulk diffeomorphism which reduces to a Weyl transformation on the boundary.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, no figures; references added, typos corrected, paragraph added to section

Intersecting D3-branes and Holography

We study a defect conformal field theory describing D3-branes intersecting over two space-time dimensions. This theory admits an exact Lagrangian description which includes both two- and four-dimensional degrees of freedom, has (4,4) supersymmetry and is invariant under global conformal transformations. Both two- and four-dimensional contributions to the action are conveniently obtained in a two-dimensional (2,2) superspace. In a suitable limit, the theory has a dual description in terms of a probe D3-brane wrapping an AdS_3 x S^1 slice of AdS_5 x S^5. We consider the AdS/CFT dictionary for this set-up. In particular we find classical probe fluctuations corresponding to the holomorphic curve wy=c\alpha^{\prime}. These fluctuations are dual to defect fields containing massless two-dimensional scalars which parameterize the classical Higgs branch, but do not correspond to states in the Hilbert space of the CFT. We also identify probe fluctuations which are dual to BPS superconformal primary operators and to their descendants. A non-renormalization theorem is conjectured for the correlators of these operators, and verified to order g^2.Comment: 46 pages, 5 figures, Latex, minor corrections to section 4.2, version published in Phys. Rev.

Wave 2 strains of atypical Vibrio cholerae El Tor caused the 2009-2011 cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea.

Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of cholera, a globally important human disease for at least 200 years. In 2009-2011, the first recorded cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea (PNG) occurred. We conducted genetic and phenotypic characterization of 21 isolates of V. cholerae, with whole-genome sequencing conducted on 2 representative isolates. The PNG outbreak was caused by an atypical El Tor strain harbouring a tandem repeat of the CTX prophage on chromosome II. Whole-genome sequence data, prophage structural analysis and the absence of the SXT integrative conjugative element was indicative that the PNG isolates were most closely related to strains previously isolated in South-East and East Asia with affiliations to global wave 2 strains. This finding suggests that the cholera outbreak in PNG was caused by an exotic (non-endemic) strain of V. cholerae that originated in South-East Asia

Wave 2 strains of atypical Vibrio cholerae El Tor caused the 2009-2011 cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea

Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of cholera, a globally important human disease for at least 200 years. In 2009-2011, the first recorded cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea (PNG) occurred. We conducted genetic and phenotypic characterization of 21 isolates of V. cholerae, with whole-genome sequencing conducted on 2 representative isolates. The PNG outbreak was caused by an atypical El Tor strain harbouring a tandem repeat of the CTX prophage on chromosome II. Whole-genome sequence data, prophage structural analysis and the absence of the SXT integrative conjugative element was indicative that the PNG isolates were most closely related to strains previously isolated in South-East and East Asia with affiliations to global wave 2 strains. This finding suggests that the cholera outbreak in PNG was caused by an exotic (non-endemic) strain of V. cholerae that originated in South-East Asia

Searching for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves with LIGO

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has performed the fourth science run, S4, with significantly improved interferometer sensitivities with respect to previous runs. Using data acquired during this science run, we place a limit on the amplitude of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. For a frequency independent spectrum, the new limit is $\Omega_{\rm GW} < 6.5 \times 10^{-5}$. This is currently the most sensitive result in the frequency range 51-150 Hz, with a factor of 13 improvement over the previous LIGO result. We discuss complementarity of the new result with other constraints on a stochastic background of gravitational waves, and we investigate implications of the new result for different models of this background.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figure