Quantitative nucleotide level analysis of regulation of translation in response to depolarization of cultured neural cells

Studies on regulation of gene expression have contributed substantially to understanding mechanisms for the long-term activity-dependent alterations in neural connectivity that are thought to mediate learning and memory. Most of these studies, however, have focused on the regulation of mRNA transcription. Here, we utilized high-throughput sequencing coupled with ribosome footprinting to globally characterize the regulation of translation in primary mixed neuronal-glial cultures in response to sustained depolarization. We identified substantial and complex regulation of translation, with many transcripts demonstrating changes in ribosomal occupancy independent of transcriptional changes. We also examined sequence-based mechanisms that might regulate changes in translation in response to depolarization. We found that these are partially mediated by features in the mRNA sequence—notably upstream open reading frames and secondary structure in the 5′ untranslated region—both of which predict downregulation in response to depolarization. Translationally regulated transcripts are also more likely to be targets of FMRP and include genes implicated in autism in humans. Our findings support the idea that control of mRNA translation plays an important role in response to neural activity across the genome

Political Dimension of Indian Federal System: an Evaluation

Indian federalism is a blend of formation of federations of both the existing modes of federations The prevailing situations at the juncture in the country forced the Constituent Assembly to make India a federation with the strong central government. The constitution makes adequate provisions for a true federation to meet out all the exigencies. In practice, it reflects both federal and unitary governments\u27 features as per the demand of the situations and has experienced, the bitter taste of emergency and coalition government. The decisions of the Hon\u27ble Supreme Court also contributed to clearing the grey areas. Undoubtedly, the constitution is a fundamental document to provide the guidelines and limits to government. Its success and applicability ultimately depend upon the mental make-up, honesty, and commitment of the persons at the helm of the affairs. The present write-up comprises of salient features of Indian federation, its historical profile, and the concluding remarks

Magnification relations in gravitational lensing via multidimensional residue integrals

We investigate the so-called magnification relations of gravitational lensing models. We show that multidimensional residue integrals provide a simple explanation for the existence of these relations, and an effective method of computation. We illustrate the method with several examples, thereby deriving new magnification relations for galaxy lens models and microlensing (point mass lensing).Comment: 16 pages, uses revtex4, submitted to Journal of Mathematical Physic

Genetic Algorithms for Redundancy in Interaction Testing

It is imperative for testing to determine if the components within large-scale software systems operate functionally. Interaction testing involves designing a suite of tests, which guarantees to detect a fault if one exists among a small number of components interacting together. The cost of this testing is typically modeled by the number of tests, and thus much effort has been taken in reducing this number. Here, we incorporate redundancy into the model, which allows for testing in non-deterministic environments. Existing algorithms for constructing these test suites usually involve one "fast" algorithm for generating most of the tests, and another "slower" algorithm to "complete" the test suite. We employ a genetic algorithm that generalizes these approaches that also incorporates redundancy by increasing the number of algorithms chosen, which we call "stages." By increasing the number of stages, we show that not only can the number of tests be reduced compared to existing techniques, but the computational time in generating them is also greatly reduced.Comment: Submitted to Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2020 (GECCO '20

A New Survey for Giant Arcs

We report on the first results of an imaging survey to detect strong gravitational lensing targeting the richest clusters selected from the photometric data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with follow-up deep imaging observations from the Wisconsin Indiana Yale NOAO (WIYN) 3.5m telescope and the University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope (UH88). The clusters are selected from an area of 8000 deg^2 using the Red Cluster Sequence technique and span the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.6, corresponding to a comoving cosmological volume of ~ 2 Gpc^3. Our imaging survey thus targets a volume more than an order of magnitude larger than any previous search. A total of 240 clusters were imaged of which 141 had sub-arcsecond image quality. Our survey has uncovered16 new lensing clusters with definite giant arcs, an additional 12 systems for which the lensing interpretation is very likely, and 9 possible lenses which contain shorter arclets or candidate arcs which are less certain and will require further observations to confirm their lensing origin. The number of new cluster lenses detected in this survey is likely > 30. Among these new systems are several of the most dramatic examples of strong gravitational lensing ever discovered with multiple bright arcs at large angular separation. These will likely become 'poster-child' gravitational lenses similar to Abell 1689 and CL0024+1654. The new lenses discovered in this survey will enable future sysetmatic studies of the statistics of strong lensing and its implications for cosmology and our structure formation paradigm.Comment: 19 pages, 7 pages of Figures, submitted to AJ. Fixed Typo

Electrical expression of spin accumulation in ferromagnet/semiconductor structures

We treat the spin injection and extraction via a ferromagnetic metal/semiconductor Schottky barrier as a quantum scattering problem. This enables the theory to explain a number of phenomena involving spin-dependent current through the Schottky barrier, especially the counter-intuitive spin polarization direction in the semiconductor due to current extraction seen in recent experiments. A possible explanation of this phenomenon involves taking into account the spin-dependent inelastic scattering via the bound states in the interface region. The quantum-mechanical treatment of spin transport through the interface is coupled with the semiclassical description of transport in the adjoining media, in which we take into account the in-plane spin diffusion along the interface in the planar geometry used in experiments. The theory forms the basis of the calculation of spin-dependent current flow in multi-terminal systems, consisting of a semiconductor channel with many ferromagnetic contacts attached, in which the spin accumulation created by spin injection/extraction can be efficiently sensed by electrical means. A three-terminal system can be used as a magnetic memory cell with the bit of information encoded in the magnetization of one of the contacts. Using five terminals we construct a reprogrammable logic gate, in which the logic inputs and the functionality are encoded in magnetizations of the four terminals, while the current out of the fifth one gives a result of the operation.Comment: A review to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

A Racist Attack Managing Complex Relationships with Traumatised Service Users – a Psychodynamic Approach

Notions of whiteness, white supremacy and racial hatred such as the recent multiple racist murders by a white supremacist in New Zealand are at the forefront of public consciousness. How does whiteness and racism play out in a clinical and social welfare context? This article illustrates the impact of trauma on a vulnerable young white woman who although was not the direct target of a racist assault was left traumatized by witnessing it. It discusses how initially she sought refuge in a racist solution synonymous with a psychic retreat to her own detriment. Working with such complex, unconscious and bewildering dynamics are extremely challenging for clinicians. It describes the impact of these dynamics on a clinician of colour who attempted to work with this young woman in a child and adolescent mental health service after the family were referred as a consequence of her assaulting her child shortly after witnessing the racist attack. The unconscious responses to trauma and challenges for clinicians and clinician of colour in particular when working with racism in the consulting room are also discussed

Predicting convective blueshift and radial-velocity dispersion due to granulation for FGK stars

To detect Earth-mass planets using the Doppler method, a major obstacle is to differentiate the planetary signal from intrinsic stellar variability (e.g., pulsations, granulation, spots and plages). Convective blueshift, which results from small-scale convection at the surface of Sun-like stars, is relevant for Earth-twin detections as it exhibits Doppler noise on the order of 1 m/s. Here, we present a simple model for convective blueshift based on fundamental equations of stellar structure. Our model successfully matches observations of convective blueshift for FGK stars. Based on our model, we also compute the intrinsic noise floor for stellar granulation in the radial velocity observations. We find that for a given mass range, stars with higher metallicities display lower radial-velocity dispersion due to granulation, in agreement with MHD simulations. We also provide a set of formulae to predict the amplitude of radial-velocity dispersion due to granulation as a function of stellar parameters. Our work is vital in identifying the most amenable stellar targets for EPRV surveys and radial velocity follow-up programmes for TESS, CHEOPS, and the upcoming PLATO mission.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. Submitted, under revie

Incommensurate Transverse Anisotropy Induced by Disorder and Spin-Orbit-Vibron Coupling in Mn12-acetate

It has been shown within density-functional theory that in Mn$_{12}$-acetate there are effects due to disorder by solvent molecules and a coupling between vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom. We calculate the in-plane principal axes of the second-order anisotropy caused by the second effect and compare them with those of the fourth-order anisotropy due to the first effect. We find that the two types of the principal axes are not commensurate with each other, which results in a complete quenching of the tunnel-splitting oscillation as a function of an applied transverse field.Comment: Will be presented at MMM conference 200