Environmental Information: Placing Biodiversity Phenomena in an Ecological and Environmental Context

Environmental models are increasingly being used as surrogates to determine plant and animal species’ distributions for a range of uses. This use of models has become an important part of the recent science that has become known as biodiversity informatics. Because of the nature of species data, considerable effort has often been spent in managing the quality of those species data, but less time has generally been spent on determining the quality and efficacy of the environmental data against which the species data are being modeled. This paper examines a range of environmental data being used in species distribution modeling, and looks at how they are prepared, their quality and use, and some of the commonly encountered pitfalls and problems in using these data in species’ distribution modeling

Short Gamma Ray Bursts as possible electromagnetic counterpart of coalescing binary systems

Coalescing binary systems, consisting of two collapsed objects, are among the most promising sources of high frequency gravitational waves signals detectable, in principle, by ground-based interferometers. Binary systems of Neutron Star or Black Hole/Neutron Star mergers should also give rise to short Gamma Ray Bursts, a subclass of Gamma Ray Bursts. Short-hard-Gamma Ray Bursts might thus provide a powerful way to infer the merger rate of two-collapsed object binaries. Under the hypothesis that most short Gamma Ray Bursts originate from binaries of Neutron Star or Black Hole/Neutron Star mergers, we outline here the possibility to associate short Gamma Ray Bursts as electromagnetic counterpart of coalescing binary systems.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Autoantibody Production in Cancer—The Humoral Immune Response toward Autologous Antigens in Cancer Patients

A link between autoimmune responses and cancer via autoantibodies was first described in the 1950s. Since, autoantibodies have been studied for their potential use as cancer biomarkers, however the exact causes of their production remain to be elucidated. This review summarizes current theories of the causes of autoantibody production in cancer, namely: 1) defects in tolerance and inflammation, 2) changes in protein expression levels, 3) altered protein structure, and 4) cellular death mechanisms. We also highlight the need for further research into this field to improve our understanding of autoantibodies as biomarkers for cancer development and progression

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

A "critical" climatic evaluation of last interglacial (MIS 5e) records from the Norwegian Sea

Sediment cores from the Norwegian Sea were studied to evaluate interglacial climate conditions of the marine isotope stage 5e (MIS 5e). Using planktic forminiferal assemblages as the core method, a detailed picture of the evolution of surface water conditions was derived. According to our age model, a step-like deglaciation of the Saalian ice sheets is noted between ca. 135 and 124.5 Kya, but the deglaciation shows little response with regard to surface ocean warming. From then on, the rapidly increasing abundance of subpolar forminifers, concomitant with decreasing iceberg indicators, provides evidence for the development of interglacial conditions sensu stricto (5e-ss), a period that lasted for about 9 Ky. As interpreted from the foraminiferal records, and supported by the other proxies, this interval of 5e-ss was in two parts: showing an early warm phase, but with a fresher, i.e., lower salinity, water mass, and a subsequent cooling phase that lasted until ca. 118.5 Kya. After this time, the climatic optimum with the most intense advection of Atlantic surface water masses occurred until ca. 116 Kya. A rapid transition with two notable climatic perturbations is observed subsequently during the glacial inception. Overall, the peak warmth of the last interglacial period occurred relatively late after deglaciation, and at no time did it reach the high warmth level of the early Holocene. This finding must be considered when using the last interglacial situation as an analogue model for enhanced meridional transfer of ocean heat to the Arctic, with the prospect of a future warmer climate

Association between T2-related co-morbidities and effectiveness of biologics in severe asthma

Acknowledgments The authors thank Mr. Joash Tan (BSc, Hons), of the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI), and Ms Andrea Lim (BSc, Hons) of the Observational Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI) for their editorial and formatting assistance that supported the development of this publication. Funding statement: This study was conducted by the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI) Pte Ltd and was partially funded by Optimum Patient Care Global and AstraZeneca Ltd. AstraZeneca UK LimitedPeer reviewe

Denial of long-term issues with agriculture on tropical peatlands will have devastating consequences

Non peer reviewe