NGC 7789: An Open Cluster Case Study

We have obtained high-resolution spectra of 32 giants in the open cluster NGC 7789 using the Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO Hydra spectrograph. We explore differences in atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances caused by the use of the linelist developed for the Gaia-ESO Survey (GES) compared to one based on Arcturus used in our previous work. [Fe/H] values decrease when using the GES linelist instead of the Arcturus-based linelist; these differences are probably driven by systematically lower (~ -0.1 dex) GES surface gravities. Using the GES linelist we determine abundances for 10 elements - Fe, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Na, Ni, Zr, Ba, and La. We find the cluster's average metallicity [Fe/H] = 0.03 +/- 0.07 dex, in good agreement with literature values, and a lower [Mg/Fe] abundance than has been reported before for this cluster (0.11 +/- 0.05 dex). We also find the neutron-capture element barium to be highly enhanced - [Ba/Fe] = +0.48 +/- 0.08 - and disparate from cluster measurements of neutron-capture elements La and Zr (-0.08 +/- 0.05 and 0.08 +/- 0.08, respectively). This is in accordance with recent discoveries of supersolar Ba enhancement in young clusters along with more modest enhancement of other neutron-capture elements formed in similar environments.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, Table 1 typo fixe

Sluice gate discharge of stratified flow

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Sanitary Engineering, 1954.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 29).by Carroll C. Jacobson, Jr, Norman R. Rosen.M.S

Effects of Heparin and Enoxaparin on APP Processing and Aβ Production in Primary Cortical Neurons from Tg2576 Mice

BACKGROUND Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by accumulation of Aβ, which is produced through sequential cleavage of β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) by the β-site APP cleaving enzyme (BACE1) and γ-secretase. Enoxaparin, a low molecular weight form of the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) heparin, has been reported to lower Aβ plaque deposition and improve cognitive function in AD transgenic mice. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We examined whether heparin and enoxaparin influence APP processing and inhibit Aβ production in primary cortical cell cultures. Heparin and enoxaparin were incubated with primary cortical cells derived from Tg2576 mice, and the level of APP and proteolytic products of APP (sAPPα, C99, C83 and Aβ) was measured by western blotting. Treatment of the cells with heparin or enoxaparin had no significant effect on the level of total APP. However, both GAGs decreased the level of C99 and C83, and inhibited sAPPα and Aβ secretion. Heparin also decreased the level of β-secretase (BACE1) and α-secretase (ADAM10). In contrast, heparin had no effect on the level of ADAM17. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE The data indicate that heparin and enoxaparin decrease APP processing via both α- and β-secretase pathways. The possibility that GAGs may be beneficial for the treatment of AD needs further study.This work was funded by a project grant (490031) from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (http://www.nhmrc.gov.au). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Påverkan av e-handelns framtida utveckling på pappersförpackningsbranschen

Syftet med denna studie har varit att analysera förpackningsbehoven hos olika e-handelsföretag som säljer varor till konsumenter. En ökning av den direkta distributionen av varor till konsumenter är av allmänt intresse på grund av dess inverkan på distributionskedjorna. Eftersom varor kommer att levereras som styckegods direkt till slukund istället för i stora volymer till en grossist kommer förpackningarna att behöva utvecklas. För det första kommer distributionen av varor via e-handeln att öka behovet av förpackningsmaterial eftersom varje enskild produkt behöver förpackas vid transport till slutkund. För det andra kommer nya typer av högkvalitativa förpackningar, som är skräddarsydda för att passa enskilda produkter, att behövas. Följaktligen, belyser denna studie förpackningsbehovet hos olika e-handelsföretag som säljer varor direkt till svenska konsumenter. Sverige har en av de högsta siffrorna för internethandel i Europa, 74% av vuxna i åldrarna 16-74 hade någon gång under år 2012 handlat produkter online. Den totala omsättningen för den svenska e-handel uppgick år 2012 till 31,6 miljarder kronor, vilket går att jämföra med 17,7 miljarder kronor år 2007. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med tio e-handelsföretag som distribuerar hemelektronik, kläder och skor direkt till slutkonsumenter. Resultaten presenteras med avseende på viktiga förpacknings- och leverantörsegenskaper. De förpackningsegenskaper som enligt studien värdesätts mest är hållbarhet, prisvärdhet, funktionalitet, flexibilitet och produktanpassning. Dessa egenskaper är viktiga eftersom företagen distribuerar många olika typer av varor samtidigt som förpackningarna många gånger påverkar konsumenternas helhetsintryck av köpet samt kan fungera som en kanal för marknadsföring. E-handelsföretagen anser att attraktiva egenskaper hos en förpackningsleverantör kännetecknas av att de är innovativa, goda samarbetspartners, har viljan att utvecklas tillsammans med sina kunder och är serviceinriktade. Utifrån studiens resultat går det att konstatera att e-handelns kraftiga tillväxt, visar att karakteriseringen av förpackningar som en mogen bransch inte är särskilt användbar. Studien är genomförd i samarbete med DS Smith Packaging, en ledande leverantör av förpackningar. Studien har utifrån resultatet givit förslag på hur DS Smith Packaging kan möta sina kunders framtida förpackningsbehov. DS Smith Packaging ska försöka bygga ett förtroende till sina kunder genom att erbjuda innovativa förpacknings- och servicerbjudanden. Förutom säljare som är bra på att skapa långvariga relationer, är det viktigt att involvera sina ingenjörer och designers i kundrelationerna. Detta för att försöka utveckla en utökad förståelse för varje enskild kunds specifika behov och distributionsprocesser. Genom en sådan process kan lämpliga affärer och erbjudanden utvecklas som är av ömsesidig affärsnytta för både e-handelskunderna och DS Smith Packaging som förpackningsleverantör.This research concerns the packaging needs of e-commerce firms who sell goods to consumers. An increase in the direct distribution of goods to consumers is of general interest because of its impact on distribution supply chains. The change from transporting large batches of products to retails to transporting small parcles to consumers implies several developments. Firstly, e-commerce distribution will be large users of packaging material because every single product must be packed for redistribution to consumers. Secondly, new types of high-quality packaging, which are tailored to suit the transportation of individual products, are likely to be needed. Accordingly, this study assessed the packaging needs of e-commerce firms that sell goods directly to Swedish consumers. Sweden has one of the highest internet trading figures in Europe, with 74% of adults in the ages 16-74 having purchased products online. E-commerce to the consumer segment has increased in Sweden to 31.6 billion SEK in 2012 from 17.7 billion SEK in 2007. Qualitative interviews were conducted with ten e-commerce firms that distribute electronics, clothing and shoes directly to consumers. Findings are grouped into packaging attributes and packaging supplier characteristics. The required attributes of the packaging are sustainable, affordable, functional, flexible and tailored for individual products. These attributes are important because firms distribute many different types of goods and distribution packaging can influence consumer perceptions of both the branding of the consumer goods as well as the retailers brands. E-commerce firms consider that the characteristics of attractive business suppliers of packaging materials are that the supplier is innovative, has good cooperation skills, has the desire to grow business together with its customers and is service oriented. These findings, together with growth of e-commerce, illustrates that the characterization of packaging as a mature industry may not be particularly useful. The study was conducted in collaboration with DS Smith Packaging, a leading supplier of packaging. This study has several implications for DS Smith Packaging. DS Smith ought to increasingly inspire the confidence of e-commers customers by innovating their service based offerings. In addition to sales personnel that take a long term business perspective, it is important to involve engineers and packaging designers directly into customer relationships. The reason for involving engineers and designers is to develop a specific understanding for each customer firms’ particular e-commerce packaging and distribution processes. Through such process understanding, appropriate business offerings can be developed that are of mutual business benefit to the e-commerce customer and DS Smith Packaging

Age- and stress-associated C. elegans granulins impair lysosomal function and induce a compensatory HLH-30/TFEB transcriptional response.

The progressive failure of protein homeostasis is a hallmark of aging and a common feature in neurodegenerative disease. As the enzymes executing the final stages of autophagy, lysosomal proteases are key contributors to the maintenance of protein homeostasis with age. We previously reported that expression of granulin peptides, the cleavage products of the neurodegenerative disease protein progranulin, enhance the accumulation and toxicity of TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). In this study we show that C. elegans granulins are produced in an age- and stress-dependent manner. Granulins localize to the endolysosomal compartment where they impair lysosomal protease expression and activity. Consequently, protein homeostasis is disrupted, promoting the nuclear translocation of the lysosomal transcription factor HLH-30/TFEB, and prompting cells to activate a compensatory transcriptional program. The three C. elegans granulin peptides exhibited distinct but overlapping functional effects in our assays, which may be due to amino acid composition that results in distinct electrostatic and hydrophobicity profiles. Our results support a model in which granulin production modulates a critical transition between the normal, physiological regulation of protease activity and the impairment of lysosomal function that can occur with age and disease

Evolutionary aspects in evaluating mutations in the melanocortin 4 receptor

More than 70 missense mutations have been identified in the human melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R), and many of them have been associated with obesity. In a number of cases, the causal link between mutations in MC4R and obesity is controversially discussed. Here, we mined evolution as an additional source of structural information that may help to evaluate the functional relevance of naturally occurring variations in MC4R. The sequence information of more than 60 MC4R orthologs enabled us to identify residues that are important for maintaining receptor function. More than 90% of all inactivating mutations found in obese patients were located at amino acid positions that are highly conserved during 450 million years of MC4R evolution in vertebrates. However, for a reasonable number of MC4R variants, we found no correlation between structural conservation of the mutated position and the reported functional consequence. By re-evaluating selected mutations in the MC4R, we demonstrate the usefulness of combining functional and evolutionary approaches

Passage of Time in a Planck Scale Rooted Local Inertial Structure

It is argued that the `problem of time' in quantum gravity necessitates a refinement of the local inertial structure of the world, demanding a replacement of the usual Minkowski line element by a 4+2n dimensional pseudo-Euclidean line element, with the extra 2n being the number of internal phase space dimensions of the observed system. In the refined structure, the inverse of the Planck time takes over the role of observer-independent conversion factor usually played by the speed of light, which now emerges as an invariant but derivative quantity. In the relativistic theory based on the refined structure, energies and momenta turn out to be invariantly bounded from above, and lengths and durations similarly bounded from below, by their respective Planck scale values. Along the external timelike world-lines, the theory naturally captures the `flow of time' as a genuinely structural attribute of the world. The theory also predicts expected deviations--suppressed quadratically by the Planck energy--from the dispersion relations for free fields in the vacuum. The deviations from the special relativistic Doppler shifts predicted by the theory are also suppressed quadratically by the Planck energy. Nonetheless, in order to estimate the precision required to distinguish the theory from special relativity, an experiment with a binary pulsar emitting TeV range gamma-rays is considered in the context of the predicted deviations from the second-order shifts.Comment: 17 pages; Diagram depicting "the objective flow of time" is replaced with a much-improved diagra