SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000 years cal BP

The Southern Hemisphere SHCal04 radiocarbon calibration curve has been updated with the addition of new data sets extending measurements to 2145 cal BP and including the ANSTO Younger Dryas Huon pine data set. Outside the range of measured data, the curve is based upon the Northern Hemisphere data sets as presented in IntCal13, with an interhemispheric offset averaging 43 ± 23 yr modeled by an autoregressive process to represent the short-term correlations in the offset

Cerebral mGluR5 availability contributes to elevated sleep need and behavioral adjustment after sleep deprivation.

Increased sleep time and intensity quantified as low-frequency brain electrical activity after sleep loss demonstrate that sleep need is homeostatically regulated, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. We here demonstrate that metabotropic glutamate receptors of subtype 5 (mGluR5) contribute to the molecular machinery governing sleep-wake homeostasis. Using positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and electroencephalography in humans, we find that increased mGluR5 availability after sleep loss tightly correlates with behavioral and electroencephalographic biomarkers of elevated sleep need. These changes are associated with altered cortical myo-inositol and glycine levels, suggesting sleep loss-induced modifications downstream of mGluR5 signaling. Knock-out mice without functional mGluR5 exhibit severe dysregulation of sleep-wake homeostasis, including lack of recovery sleep and impaired behavioral adjustment to a novel task after sleep deprivation. The data suggest that mGluR5 contribute to the brain's coping mechanisms with sleep deprivation and point to a novel target to improve disturbed wakefulness and sleep

Charge form factor of π\pi and KK mesons

The charge form factor of $\pi$ and $K$ mesons is evaluated adopting a relativistic constituent quark model based on the light-front formalism. The relevance of the high-momentum components of the meson wave function, for values of the momentum transfer accessible to $CEBAF$ energies, is illustrated. The predictions for the elastic form factor of $\pi$ and $K$ mesons are compared with the results of different relativistic approaches, showing that the measurements of the pion and kaon form factors planned at $CEBAF$ could provide information for discriminating among various models of the meson structure.Comment: 8 pages, latex, 4 figures available as separate .uu fil

Optical nanofibers and spectroscopy

We review our recent progress in the production and characterization of tapered optical fibers with a sub-wavelength diameter waist. Such fibers exhibit a pronounced evanescent field and are therefore a useful tool for highly sensitive evanescent wave spectroscopy of adsorbates on the fiber waist or of the medium surrounding. We use a carefully designed flame pulling process that allows us to realize preset fiber diameter profiles. In order to determine the waist diameter and to verify the fiber profile, we employ scanning electron microscope measurements and a novel accurate in situ optical method based on harmonic generation. We use our fibers for linear and non-linear absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy of surface-adsorbed organic molecules and investigate their agglomeration dynamics. Furthermore, we apply our spectroscopic method to quantum dots on the surface of the fiber waist and to caesium vapor surrounding the fiber. Finally, towards dispersive measurements, we present our first results on building and testing a single-fiber bi-modal interferometer.Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in Applied Physics B. Changes according to referee suggestions: changed title, clarification of some points in the text, added references, replacement of Figure 13

The T=0 neutron-proton pairing correlations in the superdeformed rotational bands around 60Zn

The superdeformed bands in 58Cu, 59Cu, 60Zn, and 61Zn are analyzed within the frameworks of the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock as well as Strutinsky-Woods-Saxon total routhian surface methods with and without the T=1 pairing correlations. It is shown that a consistent description within these standard approaches cannot be achieved. A T=0 neutron-proton pairing configuration mixing of signature-separated bands in 60Zn is suggested as a possible solution to the problem.Comment: 9 ReVTex pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Is prenatal diet associated with the composition of the vaginal microbiome?

Background: The vaginal microbiome has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, but information on the impact of diet on microbiome composition is largely unexamined. Objective: To estimate the association between prenatal diet and vaginal microbiota composition overall and by race. Methods: We leveraged a racially diverse prenatal cohort of North Carolina women enrolled between 1995 and 2001 to conduct this analysis using cross-sectional data. Women completed food frequency questionnaires about diet in the previous 3 months and foods were categorised into subgroups: fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, low-fat dairy, sweetened beverages and red meat. We additionally assessed dietary vitamin D, fibre and yogurt consumption. Stored vaginal swabs collected in mid-pregnancy were sequenced using 16S taxonomic profiling. Women were categorised into three groups based on predominance of species: Lactobacillus iners, Lactobacillus miscellaneous and Bacterial Vaginosis (BV)-associated bacteria. Adjusted Poisson models with robust variance estimators were run to assess the risk of being in a specific vagitype compared to the referent. Race-stratified models (Black/White) were also run. Results: In this study of 634 women, higher consumption of dairy was associated with increased likelihood of membership in the L. crispatus group compared to the L. iners group in a dose-dependent manner (risk ratio quartile 4 vs. 1: 2.01, 95% confidence interval 1.36, 2.95). Increased intake of fruit, vitamin D, fibre and yogurt was also associated with increased likelihood of membership in L. crispatus compared to L. iners, but only among black women. Statistical heterogeneity was only detected for fibre intake. There were no detected associations between any other food groups or risk of membership in the BV group. Conclusions: Higher consumption of low-fat dairy was associated with increased likelihood of membership in a beneficial vagitype, potentially driven by probiotics

Race, the Vaginal Microbiome, and Spontaneous Preterm Birth

Previous studies have investigated the associations between the vaginal microbiome and preterm birth, with the aim of determining whether differences in community patterns meaningfully alter risk and could therefore be the target of intervention. We report on vaginal microbial analysis of a nested case-control subset of the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition (PIN) Study, including 464 White women (375 term birth and 89 spontaneous preterm birth, sPTB) and 360 Black women (276 term birth and 84 sPTB). We found that the microbiome of Black women has higher alpha-diversity, higher abundance of Lactobacillus iners, and lower abundance of Lactobacillus crispatus. However, among women who douche, there were no significant differences in microbiome by race. The sPTB-associated microbiome exhibited a lower abundance of L. crispatus, while alpha diversity and L. iners were not significantly associated with sPTB. For each order of magnitude increase in the normalized relative abundance of L. crispatus, multivariable adjusted odds of sPTB decreased by approximately 20% (odds ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval, 0.70, 0.94). When we considered the impact of douching, associations between the microbiome and sPTB were limited to women who do not douche. We also observed strong intercorrelations between a range of maternal factors, including poverty, education, marital status, age, douching, and race, with microbiome effect sizes in the range of 1.8 to 5.2% in univariate models. Therefore, race may simply be a proxy for other socially driven factors that differentiate microbiome community structures. Future work will continue to refine reliable microbial biomarkers for preterm birth across diverse cohorts

Dyson-Schwinger Equations: Density, Temperature and Continuum Strong QCD

Continuum strong QCD is the application of models and continuum quantum field theory to the study of phenomena in hadronic physics, which includes; e.g., the spectrum of QCD bound states and their interactions; and the transition to, and properties of, a quark gluon plasma. We provide a contemporary perspective, couched primarily in terms of the Dyson-Schwinger equations but also making comparisons with other approaches and models. Our discourse provides a practitioners' guide to features of the Dyson-Schwinger equations [such as confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking] and canvasses phenomenological applications to light meson and baryon properties in cold, sparse QCD. These provide the foundation for an extension to hot, dense QCD, which is probed via the introduction of the intensive thermodynamic variables: chemical potential and temperature. We describe order parameters whose evolution signals deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration, and chronicle their use in demarcating the quark gluon plasma phase boundary and characterising the plasma's properties. Hadron traits change in an equilibrated plasma. We exemplify this and discuss putative signals of the effects. Finally, since plasma formation is not an equilibrium process, we discuss recent developments in kinetic theory and its application to describing the evolution from a relativistic heavy ion collision to an equilibrated quark gluon plasma.Comment: 103 Pages, LaTeX, epsfig. To appear in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vol. 4