Stable Maps in Higher Dimensions

We formulate a notion of stability for maps between polarised varieties which generalises Kontsevich's definition when the domain is a curve and Tian-Donaldson's definition of K-stability when the target is a point. We give some examples, such as Kodaira embeddings and fibrations. We prove the existence of a projective moduli space of canonically polarised stable maps, generalising the Kontsevich-Alexeev moduli space of stable maps in dimensions one and two. We also state an analogue of the Yau-Tian-Donaldson conjecture in this setting, relating stability of maps to the existence of certain canonical Kähler metric

Upgrade to the Birmingham Irradiation Facility

The Birmingham Irradiation Facility was developed in 2013 at the University of Birmingham using the Medical Physics MC40 cyclotron. It can achieve High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) fluences of 1015 (1 MeV neutron equivalent (neq)) cm-2 in 80 s with proton beam currents of 1 μA and so can evaluate effectively the performance and durability of detector technologies and new components to be used for the HL-LHC. Irradiations of silicon sensors and passive materials can be carried out in a temperature controlled cold box which moves continuously through the homogenous beamspot. This movement is provided by a pre-configured XY-axis Cartesian robot scanning system. In 2014 the cooling system and cold box were upgraded from a recirculating glycol chiller system to a liquid nitrogen evaporative system. The new cooling system achieves a stable temperature of -50 °C in 30 min and aims to maintain sub-0 °C temperatures on the sensors during irradiations. This paper reviews the design, development, commissioning and performance of the new cooling system

Expanding the Repertoire of Natural Product-Inspired Ring Pairs for Molecular Recognition of DNA

A furan amino acid, inspired by the recently discovered proximicin natural products, was incorporated into the scaffold of a DNA-binding hairpin polyamide. While unpaired oligomers of 2,4-disubstituted furan amino acids show poor DNA-binding activity, furan (Fn) carboxamides paired with N-methylpyrrole (Py) and N-methylimidazole (Im) rings demonstrate excellent stabilization of duplex DNA as well as discrimination of noncognate sequences, consistent with function as a Py mimic according to the Py/Im polyamide pairing rules

K-stability for Kähler manifolds

We formulate a notion of K-stability for Kähler manifolds, and prove one direction of the Yau–Tian–Donaldson conjecture in this setting. More precisely, we prove that the Mabuchi functional being bounded below (resp. coercive) implies K-semistability (resp. uniformly K-stable). In particular this shows that the existence of a constant scalar curvature Kähler metric implies K-semistability, and K-stability if one assumes the automorphism group is discrete. We also show how Stoppa’s argument holds in the Kähler case, giving a simpler proof of this K-stability statement.JR is supported by an EPSRC Career Accelleration Grant (EP/J002062/1) which also provides RD’s studentship. RD has received additional support from a Fondation Wiener-Anspach scholarship

Ranking ligand affinity for the DNA minor groove by experiment and simulation

The structural and thermodynamic basis for the strength and selectivity of the interactions of minor-groove binders (MGBs) with DNA is not fully understood. In 2003 we reported the first example of a thiazole containing MGB that bound in a phase shifted pattern that spanned 6 base-pairs rather than the usual 4 (for tricyclic distamycin-like compounds). Since then, using DNA footprinting, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry and molecular dynamics, we have established that the flanking bases around the central 4 being read by the ligand have subtle effects on recognition. We have investigated the effect of these flanking sequences on binding and the reasons for the differences and established a computational method to rank ligand affinity against varying DNA sequences

An imbalance in progenitor cell populations reflects tumour progression in breast cancer primary culture models

Many factors influence breast cancer progression, including the ability of progenitor cells to sustain or increase net tumour cell numbers. Our aim was to define whether alterations in putative progenitor populations could predict clinicopathological factors of prognostic importance for cancer progression.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe