The IFN-γ receptor promotes immune dysregulation and disease in STING gain-of-function mice

STING gain-of-function mutations cause STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI) in humans, a disease characterized by spontaneous lung inflammation and fibrosis. Mice with STING gain-of-function mutations (SAVI mice) develop αβ T cell-dependent lung disease and also lack lymph nodes. Although SAVI has been regarded as a type I interferonopathy, the relative contributions of the three interferon receptors are incompletely understood. Here, we show that STING gain of function led to upregulation of IFN-γ-induced chemokines in the lungs of SAVI mice and that deletion of the type II IFN receptor (IFNGR1), but not the type I IFN receptor (IFNAR1) or type III IFN receptor (IFNλR1), ameliorated lung disease and restored lymph node development in SAVI mice. Furthermore, deletion of IFNGR1, but not IFNAR1 or IFNλR1, corrected the ratio of effector to Tregs in SAVI mice and in mixed bone marrow chimeric mice. Finally, cultured SAVI mouse macrophages were hyperresponsive to IFN-γ, but not IFN-β, in terms of Cxcl9 upregulation and cell activation. These results demonstrate that IFNGR1 plays a major role in autoinflammation and immune dysregulation mediated by STING gain of function

Antarctic intermediate water circulation in the South Atlantic over the past 25,000 years

Antarctic Intermediate Water is an essential limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation that redistributes heat and nutrients within the Atlantic Ocean. Existing reconstructions have yielded conflicting results on the history of Antarctic Intermediate Water penetration into the Atlantic across the most recent glacial termination. In this study we present leachate, foraminiferal, and detrital neodymium isotope data from three intermediate-depth cores collected from the southern Brazil margin in the South Atlantic covering the past 25 kyr. These results reveal that strong chemical leaching following decarbonation does not extract past seawater neodymium composition in this location. The new foraminiferal records reveal no changes in seawater Nd isotopes during abrupt Northern Hemisphere cold events at these sites. We therefore conclude that there is no evidence for greater incursion of Antarctic Intermediate Water into the South Atlantic during either the Younger Dryas or Heinrich Stadial 1. We do, however, observe more radiogenic Nd isotope values in the intermediate-depth South Atlantic during the mid-Holocene. This radiogenic excursion coincides with evidence for a southward shift in the Southern Hemisphere westerlies that may have resulted in a greater entrainment of radiogenic Pacific-sourced water during intermediate water production in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Our intermediate-depth records show similar values to a deglacial foraminiferal Nd isotope record from the deep South Atlantic during the Younger Dryas but are clearly distinct during the Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich Stadial 1, demonstrating that the South Atlantic remained chemically stratified during Heinrich Stadial 1

SN 2008in—Bridging the Gap between Normal and Faint Supernovae of Type IIP

We present optical photometric and low-resolution spectroscopic observations of the Type II plateau supernova (SN) 2008in, which occurred in the outskirts of the nearly face-on spiral galaxy M61. Photometric data in the X-ray, ultraviolet, and near-infrared bands have been used to characterize this event. The SN field was imaged with the ROTSE-IIIb optical telescope about seven days before the explosion. This allowed us to constrain the epoch of the shock breakout to JD = 2454825.6. The duration of the plateau phase, as derived from the photometric monitoring, was ~98 days. The spectra of SN 2008in show a striking resemblance to those of the archetypal low-luminosity IIP SNe 1997D and 1999br. A comparison of ejecta kinematics of SN 2008in with the hydrodynamical simulations of Type IIP SNe by Dessart et al. indicates that it is a less energetic event (~5 × 10^(50) erg). However, the light curve indicates that the production of radioactive ^(56)Ni is significantly higher than that in the low-luminosity SNe. Adopting an interstellar absorption along the SN direction of AV ~ 0.3 mag and a distance of 13.2 Mpc, we estimated a synthesized ^(56)Ni mass of ~0.015 M_☉. Employing semi-analytical formulae derived by Litvinova and Nadezhin, we derived a pre-SN radius of ~126 R_☉, an explosion energy of ~5.4 × 10^(50) erg, and a total ejected mass of ~16.7 M_☉. The latter indicates that the zero-age main-sequence mass of the progenitor did not exceed 20 M_☉. Considering the above properties of SN 2008in and its occurrence in a region of sub-solar metallicity ([O/H] ~ 8.44 dex), it is unlikely that fall-back of the ejecta onto a newly formed black hole occurred in SN 2008in. We therefore favor a low-energy explosion scenario of a relatively compact, moderate-mass progenitor star that generates a neutron star

Scintillation efficiency measurement of Na recoils in NaI(Tl) below the DAMA/LIBRA energy threshold

The dark matter interpretation of the DAMA modulation signal depends on the NaI(Tl) scintillation efficiency of nuclear recoils. Previous measurements for Na recoils have large discrepancies, especially in the DAMA/LIBRA modulation energy region. We report a quenching effect measurement of Na recoils in NaI(Tl) from 3keV$_{\text{nr}}$ to 52keV$_{\text{nr}}$, covering the whole DAMA/LIBRA energy region for light WIMP interpretations. By using a low-energy, pulsed neutron beam, a double time-of-flight technique, and pulse-shape discrimination methods, we obtained the most accurate measurement of this kind for NaI(Tl) to date. The results differ significantly from the DAMA reported values at low energies, but fall between the other previous measurements. We present the implications of the new quenching results for the dark matter interpretation of the DAMA modulation signal

Hybrid silicon evanescent approach to optical interconnects

We discuss the recently developed hybrid silicon evanescent platform (HSEP), and its application as a promising candidate for optical interconnects in silicon. A number of key discrete components and a wafer-scale integration process are reviewed. The motivation behind this work is to realize silicon-based photonic integrated circuits possessing unique advantages of III–V materials and silicon-on-insulator waveguides simultaneously through a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor fabrication process. Electrically pumped hybrid silicon distributed feedback and distributed Bragg reflector lasers with integrated hybrid silicon photodetectors are demonstrated coupled to SOI waveguides, serving as the reliable on-chip single-frequency light sources. For the external signal processing, Mach–Zehnder interferometer modulators are demonstrated, showing a resistance-capacitance-limited, 3 dB electrical bandwidth up to 8 GHz and a modulation efficiency of 1.5 V mm. The successful implementation of quantum well intermixing technique opens up the possibility to realize multiple III–V bandgaps in this platform. Sampled grating DBR devices integrated with electroabsorption modulators (EAM) are fabricated, where the bandgaps in gain, mirror, and EAM regions are 1520, 1440 and 1480 nm, respectively. The high-temperature operation characteristics of the HSEP are studied experimentally and theoretically. An overall characteristic temperature (T 0) of 51°C, an above threshold characteristic temperature (T 1) of 100°C, and a thermal impedance (Z T ) of 41.8°C/W, which agrees with the theoretical prediction of 43.5°C/W, are extracted from the Fabry–Perot devices. Scaling this platform to larger dimensions is demonstrated up to 150 mm wafer diameter. A vertical outgassing channel design is developed to accomplish high-quality III–V epitaxial transfer to silicon in a timely and dimension-independent fashion

Competing Ground States in Triple-layered Sr4Ru3O10: Verging on Itinerant Ferromagnetism with Critical Fluctuations

Sr4Ru3O10 is characterized by a sharp metamagnetic transition and ferromagnetic behavior occurring within the basal plane and along the c-axis, respectively. Resistivity at magnetic field, B, exhibits low-frequency quantum oscillations when B||c-axis and large magnetoresistivity accompanied by critical fluctuations driven by the metamagnetism when B^c-axis. The complex behavior evidenced in resistivity, magnetization and specific heat presented is not characteristic of any obvious ground states, and points to an exotic state that shows a delicate balance between fluctuations and order.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Dilaton Coupled Quintessence Model in the ω−ω′\omega-\omega' Plane

In this paper, we regard dilaton in Weyl-scaled induced gravitational theory as a coupled quintessence. Based on this consideration, we investigate the dilaton coupled quintessence(DCQ) model in $\omega-\omega'$ plane, which is defined by the equation of state parameter for the dark energy and its derivative with respect to $N$(the logarithm of the scale factor $a$). We find the scalar field equation of motion in $\omega-\omega'$ plane, and show mathematically the property of attractor solutions which correspond to $\omega_\sigma\sim-1$, $\Omega_\sigma=1$. Finally, we find that our model is a tracking one which belongs to "freezing" type model classified in $\omega-\omega'$ plane.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, some references adde

FAPRI 2002 World Agricultural Outlook

Crop Production/Industries, Livestock Production/Industries,

Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals: LISA's unique probe of black hole gravity

In this review article I attempt to summarise past and present-ongoing-work on the problem of the inspiral of a small body in the gravitational field of a much more massive Kerr black hole. Such extreme mass ratio systems, expected to occur in galactic nuclei, will constitute prime sources of gravitational radiation for the future LISA gravitational radiation detector. The article's main goal is to provide a survey of basic celestial mechanics in Kerr spacetime and calculations of gravitational waveforms and backreaction on the small body's orbital motion, based on the traditional `flux-balance' method and the Teukolsky black hole perturbation formalism.Comment: Invited review article, 45 pages, 23 figure

Quenching Measurements and Modeling of a Boron-Loaded Organic Liquid Scintillator

Organic liquid scintillators are used in a wide variety of applications in experimental nuclear and particle physics. Boron-loaded scintillators are particularly useful for detecting neutron captures, due to the high thermal neutron capture cross section of 10B. These scintillators are commonly used in neutron detectors, including the DarkSide-50 neutron veto, where the neutron may produce a signal when it scatters off protons in the scintillator or when it captures on 10B. Reconstructing the energy of these recoils is complicated by scintillation quenching. Understanding how nuclear recoils are quenched in these scintillators is an important and difficult problem. In this article, we present a set of measurements of neutron-induced proton recoils in a boron-loaded organic liquid scintillator at recoil energies ranging from 57–467 keV, and we compare these measurements to predictions from different quenching models. We find that a modified Birks’ model whose denominator is quadratic in dE/dx best describes the measurements, with χ 2 /NDF= 1.6. This result will help model nuclear recoil scintillation in similar detectors and can be used to improve their neutron tagging efficiency