Ambiguity for Social Self-tracking Practices: Exploring an emerging design space

Ambiguity is gaining attention in self-tracking research as a means to go beyond the mere quantification of body signals. Recent research has suggested that ambiguity can be used even to enable social connection mediated by personal data. To explore this design space more widely, we organized two design workshops with a total of 67 participants. In this paper, we present three design concepts, as outcomes of the workshops, which use ambiguity to enable social self-tracking practices. We then discuss how these concepts demonstrate the potential of ambiguity to encourage collective sense-making, directly impact the user’s social relationships, and offer multifaceted perspectives on reality

Origin of Irreversibility of Cell Cycle Start in Budding Yeast

In budding yeast, the commitment to entry into a new cell division cycle is made irreversible by positive feedback-driven expression of the G1 cyclins Cln1,2

Non-random aneuploidy specifies subgroups of pilocytic astrocytoma and correlates with older age

Pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is the most common brain tumor in children but is rare in adults, and hence poorly studied in this age group. We investigated 222 PA and report increased aneuploidy in older patients. Aneuploid genomes were identified in 45% of adult compared with 17% of pediatric PA. Gains were non-random, favoring chromosomes 5, 7, 6 and 11 in order of frequency, and preferentially affecting non-cerebellar PA and tumors with BRAF V600E mutations and not with KIAA1549-BRAF fusions or FGFR1 mutations. Aneuploid PA differentially expressed genes involved in CNS development, the unfolded protein response, and regulators of genomic stability and the cell cycle (MDM2, PLK2),whose correlated programs were overexpressed specifically in aneuploid PA compared to other glial tumors. Thus, convergence of pathways affecting the cell cycle and genomic stability may favor aneuploidy in PA, possibly representing an additional molecular driver in older patients with this brain tumor

KiDS-1000 Cosmology::constraints beyond flat ΛCDM

We present constraints on extensions to the standard cosmological model of a spatially flat Universe governed by general relativity, a cosmological constant (Λ), and cold dark matter (CDM) by varying the spatial curvature ΩK, the sum of the neutrino masses ∑mν, the dark energy equation of state parameter w, and the Hu-Sawicki f(R) gravity fR0 parameter. With the combined 3 × 2 pt measurements of cosmic shear from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-1000), galaxy clustering from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), and galaxy-galaxy lensing from the overlap between KiDS-1000, BOSS, and the spectroscopic 2-degree Field Lensing Survey, we find results that are fully consistent with a flat ΛCDM model with $\Omega_K=0.011^{+0.054}_{-0.057}$, ∑mν < 1.76 eV (95% CL), and $\mathit{w}=-0.99^{+0.11}_{-0.13}$. The fR0 parameter is unconstrained in our fully non-linear f(R) cosmic shear analysis. Considering three different model selection criteria, we find no clear preference for either the fiducial flat ΛCDM model or any of the considered extensions. In addition to extensions to the flat ΛCDM parameter space, we also explore restrictions to common subsets of the flat ΛCDM parameter space by fixing the amplitude of the primordial power spectrum to the Planck best-fit value, as well as adding external data from supernovae and lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Neither the beyond-ΛCDM models nor the imposed restrictions explored in this analysis are able to resolve the ∼3σ tension in S8 between the 3 × 2 pt constraints and the Planck temperature and polarisation data, with the exception of wCDM, where the S8 tension is resolved. The tension in the wCDM case persists, however, when considering the joint S8 − w parameter space. The joint flat ΛCDM CMB lensing and 3 × 2 pt analysis is found to yield tight constraints on $\Omega_{\mathrm{m}}=0.307^{+0.008}_{-0.013}$, $\sigma_8=0.769^{+0.022}_{-0.010}$, and $S_8=0.779^{+0.013}_{-0.013}$

Mucins and Pathogenic Mucin-Like Molecules Are Immunomodulators During Infection and Targets for Diagnostics and Vaccines

Mucins and mucin-like molecules are highly O-glycosylated proteins present on the cell surface of mammals and other organisms. These glycoproteins are highly diverse in the apoprotein and glycan cores and play a central role in many biological processes and diseases. Mucins are the most abundant macromolecules in mucus and are responsible for its biochemical and biophysical properties. Mucin-like molecules cover various protozoan parasites, fungi and viruses. In humans, modifications in mucin glycosylation are associated with tumors in epithelial tissue. These modifications allow the distinction between normal and abnormal cell conditions and represent important targets for vaccine development against some cancers. Mucins and mucin-like molecules derived from pathogens are potential diagnostic markers and targets for therapeutic agents. In this review, we summarize the distribution, structure, role as immunomodulators, and the correlation of human mucins with diseases and perform a comparative analysis of mucins with mucin-like molecules present in human pathogens. Furthermore, we review the methods to produce pathogenic and human mucins using chemical synthesis and expression systems. Finally, we present applications of mucin-like molecules in diagnosis and prevention of relevant human diseases

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Exploits Asparagine to Assimilate Nitrogen and Resist Acid Stress during Infection

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an intracellular pathogen. Within macrophages, M. tuberculosis thrives in a specialized membrane-bound vacuole, the phagosome, whose pH is slightly acidic, and where access to nutrients is limited. Understanding how the bacillus extracts and incorporates nutrients from its host may help develop novel strategies to combat tuberculosis. Here we show that M. tuberculosis employs the asparagine transporter AnsP2 and the secreted asparaginase AnsA to assimilate nitrogen and resist acid stress through asparagine hydrolysis and ammonia release. While the role of AnsP2 is partially spared by yet to be identified transporter(s), that of AnsA is crucial in both phagosome acidification arrest and intracellular replication, as an M. tuberculosis mutant lacking this asparaginase is ultimately attenuated in macrophages and in mice. Our study provides yet another example of the intimate link between physiology and virulence in the tubercle bacillus, and identifies a novel pathway to be targeted for therapeutic purposes. © 2014 Gouzy et al

Dark Energy Survey year 3 results: Constraints on cosmological parameters and galaxy-bias models from galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing using the redMaGiC sample

We constrain cosmological parameters and galaxy-bias parameters using the combination of galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) year-3 data. We describe our modeling framework and choice of scales analyzed, validating their robustness to theoretical uncertainties in small-scale clustering by analyzing simulated data. Using a linear galaxy-bias model and redMaGiC galaxy sample, we obtain 10% constraints on the matter density of the Universe. We also implement a nonlinear galaxy-bias model to probe smaller scales that includes parametrization based on hybrid perturbation theory and find that it leads to a 17% gain in cosmological constraining power. We perform robustness tests of our methodology pipeline and demonstrate stability of the constraints to changes in the theory model. Using the redMaGiC galaxy sample as foreground lens galaxies and adopting the best-fitting cosmological parameters from DES year-1 data, we find the galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements to exhibit significant signals akin to decorrelation between galaxies and mass on large scales, which is not expected in any current models. This likely systematic measurement error biases our constraints on galaxy bias and the S8 parameter. We find that a scale-, redshift-and sky-Area-independent phenomenological decorrelation parameter can effectively capture this inconsistency between the galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing. We trace the source of this correlation to a color-dependent photometric issue and minimize its impact on our result by changing the selection criteria of redMaGiC galaxies. Using this new sample, our constraints on the S8 parameter are consistent with previous studies and we find a small shift in the ωm constraints compared to the fiducial redMaGiC sample. We infer the constraints on the mean host-halo mass of the redMaGiC galaxies in this new sample from the large-scale bias constraints, finding the galaxies occupy halos of mass approximately 1.6×10 13 M⊙/h

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Exploiting small-scale information with lensing shear ratios

Using the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we use ratios of small-scale galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements around the same lens sample to constrain source redshift uncertainties, intrinsic alignments and other systematics or nuisance parameters of our model. Instead of using a simple geometric approach for the ratios as has been done in the past, we use the full modeling of the galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements, including the corresponding integration over the power spectrum and the contributions from intrinsic alignments and lens magnification. We perform extensive testing of the small-scale shear-ratio (SR) modeling by studying the impact of different effects such as the inclusion of baryonic physics, nonlinear biasing, halo occupation distribution descriptions and lens magnification, among others, and using realistic N-body simulations of the DES data. We validate the robustness of our constraints in the data by using two independent lens samples with different galaxy properties, and by deriving constraints using the corresponding large-scale ratios for which the modeling is simpler. The results applied to the DES Y3 data demonstrate how the ratios provide significant improvements in constraining power for several nuisance parameters in our model, especially on source redshift calibration and intrinsic alignments. For source redshifts, SR improves the constraints from the prior by up to 38% in some redshift bins. Such improvements, and especially the constraints it provides on intrinsic alignments, translate to tighter cosmological constraints when shear ratios are combined with cosmic shear and other 2pt functions. In particular, for the DES Y3 data, SR improves S8 constraints from cosmic shear by up to 31%, and for the full combination of probes (3×2pt) by up to 10%. The shear ratios presented in this work are used as an additional likelihood for cosmic shear, 2×2pt and the full 3×2pt in the fiducial DES Y3 cosmological analysis

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Constraints on extensions to ΛcDM with weak lensing and galaxy clustering

We constrain six possible extensions to the Λ cold dark matter (CDM) model using measurements from the Dark Energy Survey's first three years of observations, alone and in combination with external cosmological probes. The DES data are the two-point correlation functions of weak gravitational lensing, galaxy clustering, and their cross-correlation. We use simulated data vectors and blind analyses of real data to validate the robustness of our results to astrophysical and modeling systematic errors. In many cases, constraining power is limited by the absence of theoretical predictions beyond the linear regime that are reliable at our required precision. The ΛCDM extensions are dark energy with a time-dependent equation of state, nonzero spatial curvature, additional relativistic degrees of freedom, sterile neutrinos with eV-scale mass, modifications of gravitational physics, and a binned σ8(z) model which serves as a phenomenological probe of structure growth. For the time-varying dark energy equation of state evaluated at the pivot redshift we find (wp,wa)=(-0.99-0.17+0.28,-0.9±1.2) at 68% confidence with zp=0.24 from the DES measurements alone, and (wp,wa)=(-1.03-0.03+0.04,-0.4-0.3+0.4) with zp=0.21 for the combination of all data considered. Curvature constraints of ωk=0.0009±0.0017 and effective relativistic species Neff=3.10-0.16+0.15 are dominated by external data, though adding DES information to external low-redshift probes tightens the ωk constraints that can be made without cosmic microwave background observables by 20%. For massive sterile neutrinos, DES combined with external data improves the upper bound on the mass meff by a factor of 3 compared to previous analyses, giving 95% limits of (ΔNeff,meff)≤(0.28,0.20 eV) when using priors matching a comparable Planck analysis. For modified gravity, we constrain changes to the lensing and Poisson equations controlled by functions ς(k,z)=ς0ωΛ(z)/ωΛ,0 and μ(k,z)=μ0ωΛ(z)/ωΛ,0, respectively, to ς0=0.6-0.5+0.4 from DES alone and (ς0,μ0)=(0.04±0.05,0.08-0.19+0.21) for the combination of all data, both at 68% confidence. Overall, we find no significant evidence for physics beyond ΛCDM