Sex-Biased Phoretic Mite Load on Two Seaweed Flies: Coelopa frigida and Coelopa pilipes

Two hypotheses explain male-biased parasitism. Physiological costs of male sexually selected characteristics can reduce immunocompetence. Alternatively, ecological differences could generate male-biased parasitism. One method of comparing the importance of the two theories is to investigate patterns of phoresy, which are only likely to be generated by ecological rather than immunological differences between the sexes. Here we studied the pattern of phoresy of the mite, Thinoseius fucicola, on two species of seaweed by hosts, Coelopa frigida and Coelopa pilipes.We found a highly male-biased pattern of phoresy of T. fucicola on both species. These are the first reported instances of sex-biased phoresy in a solely phoretic parasite. We also show the first two cases of size-biased phoresy. We suggest that ecological factors, particularly, male mate searching, generated male biased patterns of phoresy. We highlight the potential importance of studies of phoresy in determining the relative roles of the immunocompetence and ecological theories in generating male-biased parasitism. We suggest that more studies of patterns of phoresy are carried out to allow detailed comparisons with patterns of parasitism

Design and Fabrication Highlights Enabling a 2mm, 128 Element Bolometer Array for GISMO

The design and fabrication of a background limited, 128 pixel Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometer array for the Goddard IRAM Super-conducting 2-mm Observer (GISMO) is presented

Enabling Large Focal Plane Arrays Through Mosaic Hybridization

We have demonstrated advances in mosaic hybridization that will enable very large format far-infrared detectors. Specifically we have produced electrical detector models via mosaic hybridization yielding superconducting circuit patbs by hybridizing separately fabricated sub-units onto a single detector unit. The detector model was made on a 100mm diameter wafer while four model readout quadrant chips were made from a separate 100mm wafer. The individually fabric.ted parts were hybridized using a Suss FCI50 flip chip bonder to assemble the detector-readout stack. Once all of the hybridized readouts were in place, a single, large and thick silicon substrate was placed on the stack and attached with permanent epoxy to provide strength and a Coefficient of Thermal Expansion match to the silicon components underneath. Wirebond pads on the readout chips connect circuits to warm readout electronics; and were used to validate the successful superconducting electrical interconnection of the model mosaic-hybrid detector. This demonstration is directly scalable to 150 mm diameter wafers, enabling pixel areas over ten times the area currently available

A New Population of High-z, Dusty Lyα Emitters and Blobs Discovered by WISE: Feedback Caught in the Act?

By combining data from the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission with optical spectroscopy from the W. M. Keck telescope, we discover a mid-IR color criterion that yields a 78% success rate in identifying rare, typically radio-quiet, 1.6 ≾ z ≾ 4.6 dusty Lyα emitters (LAEs). Of these, at least 37% have emission extended on scales of 30-100 kpc and are considered Lyα "blobs" (LABs). The objects have a surface density of only ~0.1 deg^(–2), making them rare enough that they have been largely missed in deep, small area surveys. We measured spectroscopic redshifts for 92 of these galaxies, and find that the LAEs (LABs) have a median redshift of 2.3 (2.5). The WISE photometry coupled with data from Herschel (Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA) reveals that these galaxies are in the Hyper Luminous IR galaxy regime (L IR ≳ 10^(13)-10^(14) L_☉) and have warm colors. They are typically more luminous and warmer than other dusty, z ~ 2 populations such as submillimeter-selected galaxies and dust-obscured galaxies. These traits are commonly associated with the dust being illuminated by intense active galactic nucleus activity. We hypothesize that the combination of spatially extended Lyα, large amounts of warm IR-luminous dust, and rarity (implying a short-lived phase) can be explained if the galaxies are undergoing brief, intense "feedback" transforming them from an extreme dusty starburst/QSO into a mature galaxy

Preventive effects of Salvia officinalis leaf extract on insulin resistance and inflammation in a model of high fat diet-induced obesity in mice that responds to rosiglitazone

Background Salvia officinalis (sage) is a native plant to the Mediterranean region and has been used for a long time in traditional medicine for various diseases. We investigated possible anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-obesity effects of sage methanol (MetOH) extract in a nutritional mouse model of obesity, inflammation and insulin resistance, as well as its effects on lipolysis and lipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells. Methods Diet-induced obese (DIO) mice were treated for 5 weeks with sage methanol extract (100 and 400 mg.kg-1/day. bid), or rosiglitazone (3 mg.kg-1/day. bid), as a positive control. Energy expenditure, food intake, body weight, fat mass, liver glycogen and lipid content were evaluated. Blood glucose, and plasma levels of insulin, lipids leptin and pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were measured throughout the experiment. The effects of sage MetOH extract on lipolysis and lipogenesis were tested in vitro in 3T3-L1 cells. Results After two weeks of treatment, the lower dose of sage MetOH extract decreased blood glucose and plasma insulin levels during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). An insulin tolerance test (ITT), performed at day 29 confirmed that sage improved insulin sensitivity. Groups treated with low dose sage and rosiglitazone showed very similar effects on OGTT and ITT. Sage also improved HOMA-IR, triglycerides and NEFA. Treatment with the low dose increased the plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10 and reduced the plasma level of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-12, TNF-α, and KC/GRO. The GC analysis revealed the presence of two PPARs agonist in sage MetOH extract. In vitro, the extract reduced in a dose-related manner the accumulation of lipid droplets; however no effect on lipolysis was observed. Conclusions Sage MetOH extract at low dose exhibits similar effects to rosiglitazone. It improves insulin sensitivity, inhibits lipogenesis in adipocytes and reduces inflammation as judged by plasma cytokines. Sage presents an alternative to pharmaceuticals for the treatment of diabetes and associated inflammation

Development of a novel antimicrobial-releasing glass ionomer cement functionalized with chlorhexidine hexametaphosphate nanoparticles

BACKGROUND: Glass ionomer cements (GICs) are a class of dental biomaterials. They have a wide range of uses including permanent restorations (fillings), cavity linings, fissure sealants and adhesives. One of the most common reasons for replacing a dental restoration is recurrent bacterial tooth decay around the margins of the biomaterial. Therefore, a dental biomaterial which creates a sustained antimicrobial environment around the restoration would be of considerable clinical benefit. In this manuscript, the formulation of a GIC containing novel antimicrobial nanoparticles composed of chlorhexidine hexametaphosphate at 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20% powder substitution by mass is reported. The aim is to create GICs which contain chlorhexidine-hexametaphosphate nanoparticles and characterize the nanoparticle size, morphology and charge and the release of chlorhexidine and fluoride, tensile strength and morphology of the GICs. RESULTS: The GICs released chlorhexidine, which is a broad spectrum antimicrobial agent effective against a wide range of oral bacteria, over the duration of the experiment in a dose-dependent manner. This was not at the expense of other properties; fluoride release was not significantly affected by the substitution of antimicrobial nanoparticles in most formulations and internal structure appeared unaffected up to and including 10% substitution. Diametral tensile strength decreased numerically with substitutions of 10 and 20% nanoparticles but this difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: A series of GICs functionalized with chlorhexidine-hexametaphosphate nanoparticles were created for the first time. These released chlorhexidine in a dose-dependent manner. These materials may find application in the development of a new generation of antimicrobial dental nanomaterials

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER)

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a balloon-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter designed to search for evidence of inflation by measuring the large-angular scale CMB polarization signal. BICEP2 recently reported a detection of B-mode power corresponding to the tensor-to-scalar ratio r = 0.2 on ~2 degree scales. If the BICEP2 signal is caused by inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs), then there should be a corresponding increase in B-mode power on angular scales larger than 18 degrees. PIPER is currently the only suborbital instrument capable of fully testing and extending the BICEP2 results by measuring the B-mode power spectrum on angular scales $\theta$ = ~0.6 deg to 90 deg, covering both the reionization bump and recombination peak, with sensitivity to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio down to r = 0.007, and four frequency bands to distinguish foregrounds. PIPER will accomplish this by mapping 85% of the sky in four frequency bands (200, 270, 350, 600 GHz) over a series of 8 conventional balloon flights from the northern and southern hemispheres. The instrument has background-limited sensitivity provided by fully cryogenic (1.5 K) optics focusing the sky signal onto four 32x40-pixel arrays of time-domain multiplexed Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers held at 140 mK. Polarization sensitivity and systematic control are provided by front-end Variable-delay Polarization Modulators (VPMs), which rapidly modulate only the polarized sky signal at 3 Hz and allow PIPER to instantaneously measure the full Stokes vector (I, Q, U, V) for each pointing. We describe the PIPER instrument and progress towards its first flight.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 9153. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2014, conference 915

Spitzer Photometry of WISE-Selected Brown Dwarf and Hyper-Luminous Infrared Galaxy Candidates

We present Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m photometry and positions for a sample of 1510 brown dwarf candidates identified by the WISE all-sky survey. Of these, 166 have been spectroscopically classified as objects with spectral types M(1), L(7), T(146), and Y(12); Sixteen other objects are non-(sub)stellar in nature. The remainder are most likely distant L and T dwarfs lacking spectroscopic verification, other Y dwarf candidates still awaiting follow-up, and assorted other objects whose Spitzer photometry reveals them to be background sources. We present a catalog of Spitzer photometry for all astrophysical sources identified in these fields and use this catalog to identify 7 fainter (4.5 $\mu$m $\sim$ 17.0 mag) brown dwarf candidates, which are possibly wide-field companions to the original WISE sources. To test this hypothesis, we use a sample of 919 Spitzer observations around WISE-selected high-redshift hyper-luminous infrared galaxy (HyLIRG) candidates. For this control sample we find another 6 brown dwarf candidates, suggesting that the 7 companion candidates are not physically associated. In fact, only one of these 7 Spitzer brown dwarf candidates has a photometric distance estimate consistent with being a companion to the WISE brown dwarf candidate. Other than this there is no evidence for any widely separated ($>$ 20 AU) ultra-cool binaries. As an adjunct to this paper, we make available a source catalog of $\sim$ 7.33 $\times 10^5$ objects detected in all of these Spitzer follow-up fields for use by the astronomical community. The complete catalog includes the Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m photometry, along with positionally matched $B$ and $R$ photometry from USNO-B; $J$, $H$, and $K_s$ photometry from 2MASS; and $W1$, $W2$, $W3$, and $W4$ photometry from the WISE all-sky catalog