Population expansion in the North African Late Pleistocene signalled by mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6

Background <br/> The archaeology of North Africa remains enigmatic, with questions of population continuity versus discontinuity taking centre-stage. Debates have focused on population transitions between the bearers of the Middle Palaeolithic Aterian industry and the later Upper Palaeolithic populations of the Maghreb, as well as between the late Pleistocene and Holocene. <br/> Results Improved resolution of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup U6 phylogeny, by the screening of 39 new complete sequences, has enabled us to infer a signal of moderate population expansion using Bayesian coalescent methods. To ascertain the time for this expansion, we applied both a mutation rate accounting for purifying selection and one with an internal calibration based on four approximate archaeological dates: the settlement of the Canary Islands, the settlement of Sardinia and its internal population re-expansion, and the split between haplogroups U5 and U6 around the time of the first modern human settlement of the Near East. <br/> Conclusions <br/> A Bayesian skyline plot placed the main expansion in the time frame of the Late Pleistocene, around 20 ka, and spatial smoothing techniques suggested that the most probable geographic region for this demographic event was to the west of North Africa. A comparison with U6's European sister clade, U5, revealed a stronger population expansion at around this time in Europe. Also in contrast with U5, a weak signal of a recent population expansion in the last 5,000 years was observed in North Africa, pointing to a moderate impact of the late Neolithic on the local population size of the southern Mediterranean coast

Systemic release of volatiles by Brassica oleracea var. acephala induced by Pieris brassicae predation.

Pieris brassicae is a specialist on crucifers and its interactions with some of its host plants have been increasingly studied given their importance in pest management, chemical ecology and entomology. Plants are known to respond to insect attack by releasing volatiles that can either warn neighbour plants to the presence of a predator or attract insect parasitoids, thus reducing the attack efficiency. The influence of P. brassicae feeding on Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala (kale) was investigated, namely, its effect in the volatiles released by the plant through time. Substantial differences, mainly quantitative, were found between the volatiles composition of B. oleracea var. acephala before the attack and after insect feeding. More than 40 compounds were found, between terpenes (monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes) and lipoxygenase pathway byproducts (alcohols and aldehydes), ketones, norisoprenoids, among others. After insect attack, monoterpenes like limonene, eucalyptol, camphor and caryophyllene increased noticeably. These compounds have been regarded as markers in local tissue responses and in this study an increase in their concentration was detected at 1 and 4 hours after feeding, with subsequent reduction after 8 hours. Menthol, menthone, phenol and sabinene were found only in the time following the attack. A considerable increase in hexenyl acetate, a well known semiochemical, was also found, with this compound being the major peak in all experiments, rising with time. These findings provide further knowledge of the ecological interactions between these two species and, given the chemical diversity of these matrices, they may constitute a good source of health promoting compounds.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for financial support (PTDC/AGRAAM/ 64150/2006). F. Fernandes (SFRH/BD/37963/2007

Metabolic fate of dietary volatile compounds in Pieris brassicae

In this work, the evolution of the qualitative and quantitative profile of the volatile fraction of Pieris brassicae after feeding on Brassica oleracea var. acephala (kale) was monitored through time. HS-SPME/GC-MS was applied to both the host plant and the living insect and its excrements. A total of seventy seven compounds (lipoxygenase pathway by-products, nitrogen compounds, norisoprenoids, sulphur compounds, terpenes, among others) were identified. Thirty eight compounds were identified in insect after 2 h of starvation and forty eight compounds in excrements. Qualitative and quantitative changes were detected along time. Dimethyldisulfide, dimethyltrisulfide, limonene and eugenol were major compounds for all analysed times in both matrices, being limonene an important compound in insect after starvation. The accumulation by P. brassicae of some compounds, such as limonene, was verified, suggesting a mechanism by which the insect can take benefit from bioactive constituents from the diet. Along with accumulation, complete excretion of some compounds, including nitrogen bearing compounds, by-products of glucosinolates was detected. These results reflect one of the strategies used to overcome plant barriers, namely detoxification of toxic compounds. The findings contribute to the knowledge of the metabolization of the volatile compounds in insects and contribute to the body of knowledge of this ecologic system.FC

The Fueling and Evolution of AGN: Internal and External Triggers

In this chapter, I review the fueling and evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) under the influence of internal and external triggers, namely intrinsic properties of host galaxies (morphological or Hubble type, color, presence of bars and other non-axisymmetric features, etc) and external factors such as environment and interactions. The most daunting challenge in fueling AGN is arguably the angular momentum problem as even matter located at a radius of a few hundred pc must lose more than 99.99 % of its specific angular momentum before it is fit for consumption by a BH. I review mass accretion rates, angular momentum requirements, the effectiveness of different fueling mechanisms, and the growth and mass density of black BHs at different epochs. I discuss connections between the nuclear and larger-scale properties of AGN, both locally and at intermediate redshifts, outlining some recent results from the GEMS and GOODS HST surveys.Comment: Invited Review Chapter to appear in LNP Volume on "AGN Physics on All Scales", Chapter 6, in press. 40 pages, 12 figures. Typo in Eq 5 correcte

PHB-PEO electrospun fiber membranes containing chlorhexidine for drug delivery applications

Fiber meshes of poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and poly(hydroxybutyrate)/poly(ethylene oxide) (PHB/PEO) with different concentrations of chlorhexidine (CHX) were prepared by electrospinning for assessment as a polymer based drug delivery system. The electrospun fibers were characterized at morphological, molecular and mechanical levels. The bactericidal potential of PHB and PHB/PEO electrospun fibers, with and without CHX, was investigated against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) by disk diffusion susceptibility tests. Electrospun fibers containing CHX exhibited bactericidal activity. PHB/PEO-1%CHX displayed higher CHX release levels and equivalent antibacterial activity when compared to PHB/PEO with 5 and 10 wt% CHX. Bactericidal performance of samples with 1 wt% CHX was assessed by Colony Forming Units (CFU), where reductions of 100% and 99.69% against E. coli and S. aureus were achieved, respectively.This work was supported by FEDER through the COMPETE Program and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011 and PEST-C/QUI/UIO686/2011. The authors also thank funding from Matepro - Optimizing Materials and Processes", ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000037", co-funded by the "Programa Operacional Regional do Norte" (ON.2 - O Novo Norte), under the "Quadro de Referencia Estrategico Nacional" (QREN), through the "Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional" (FEDER). D.M.C, JP and VS thanks the FCT for the, SFRH/BD/82411/2011, SFRH/BD/64901/2009 and SFRH/BPD/63148/2009 grants respectively. The authors also thank support from the COST Action MP1003, 2010 'European Scientific Network for Artificial Muscles' and to the COST Action MP1206 'Electrospun Nano-fibres for Bio inspired Composite Materials and Innovative Industrial Applications'. The authors also thank prof. Jose Luis Gomez Ribelles from the Unversidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain, for interesting discussions on these issues

Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is based on a data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector with an integrated luminosity of 0.30 pb^-1 for jets with transverse momentum between 25 and 70 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.5. D*+/- mesons found in jets are fully reconstructed in the decay chain: D*+ -> D0pi+, D0 -> K-pi+, and its charge conjugate. The production rate is found to be N(D*+/-)/N(jet) = 0.025 +/- 0.001(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) for D*+/- mesons that carry a fraction z of the jet momentum in the range 0.3 < z < 1. Monte Carlo predictions fail to describe the data at small values of z, and this is most marked at low jet transverse momentum.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (22 pages total), 5 figures, 1 table, matches published version in Physical Review

Search for supersymmetry in final states with jets, missing transverse momentum and one isolated lepton in sqrt{s} = 7 TeV pp collisions using 1 fb-1 of ATLAS data

We present an update of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing jets, missing transverse momentum, and one isolated electron or muon, using 1.04 fb^-1 of proton-proton collision data at sqrt{s} = 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in the first half of 2011. The analysis is carried out in four distinct signal regions with either three or four jets and variations on the (missing) transverse momentum cuts, resulting in optimized limits for various supersymmetry models. No excess above the standard model background expectation is observed. Limits are set on the visible cross-section of new physics within the kinematic requirements of the search. The results are interpreted as limits on the parameters of the minimal supergravity framework, limits on cross-sections of simplified models with specific squark and gluino decay modes, and limits on parameters of a model with bilinear R-parity violation.Comment: 18 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 9 figures, 4 tables, final version to appear in Physical Review

Reducing heterotic M-theory to five dimensional supergravity on a manifold with boundary

This paper constructs the reduction of heterotic $M$-theory in eleven dimensions to a supergravity model on a manifold with boundary in five dimensions using a Calabi-Yau three-fold. New results are presented for the boundary terms in the action and for the boundary conditions on the bulk fields. Some general features of dualisation on a manifold with boundary are used to explain the origin of some topological terms in the action. The effect of gaugino condensation on the fermion boundary conditions leads to a `twist' in the chirality of the gravitino which can provide an uplifting mechanism in the vacuum energy to cancel the cosmological constant after moduli stabilisation.Comment: 16 pages, RevTe

Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=2.76\sqrt{s} = 2.76 TeV

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ in the rapidity range $|y|<0.5$, and for transverse momentum $1< p_{\rm T} <12$ GeV/$c$, were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D$^0 \rightarrow$K$\pi$, D$^+ \rightarrow$K$\pi\pi$, D$^{*+} \rightarrow$D$^0\pi$, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a $L_{\rm int} = 1.1$ nb$^{-1}$ event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and our previous measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cdbar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.Comment: 20 pages, 5 captioned figures, 4 tables, authors from page 15, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/307