Enhanced flight performance by genetic manipulation of wing shape in Drosophila

Insect wing shapes are remarkably diverse and the combination of shape and kinematics determines both aerial capabilities and power requirements. However, the contribution of any specific morphological feature to performance is not known. Using targeted RNA interference to modify wing shape far beyond the natural variation found within the population of a single species, we show a direct effect on flight performance that can be explained by physical modelling of the novel wing geometry. Our data show that altering the expression of a single gene can significantly enhance aerial agility and that the Drosophila wing shape is not, therefore, optimized for certain flight performance characteristics that are known to be important. Our technique points in a new direction for experiments on the evolution of performance specialities in animals

Risk-shifting Through Issuer Liability and Corporate Monitoring

This article explores how issuer liability re-allocates fraud risk and how risk allocation may reduce the incidence of fraud. In the US, the apparent absence of individual liability of officeholders and insufficient monitoring by insurers under-mine the potential deterrent effect of securities litigation. The underlying reasons why both mechanisms remain ineffective are collective action problems under the prevailing dispersed ownership structure, which eliminates the incentives to moni-tor set by issuer liability. This article suggests that issuer liability could potentially have a stronger deterrent effect when it shifts risk to individuals or entities holding a larger financial stake. Thus, it would enlist large shareholders in monitoring in much of Europe. The same risk-shifting effect also has implications for the debate about the relationship between securities litigation and creditor interests. Credi-tors’ claims should not be given precedence over claims of defrauded investors (e.g., because of the capital maintenance principle), since bearing some of the fraud risk will more strongly incentivise large creditors, such as banks, to monitor the firm in jurisdictions where corporate debt is relatively concentrated

Pyocin S5 import into Pseudomonas aeruginosa reveals a generic mode of bacteriocin transport

Pyocin S5 (PyoS5) is a potent protein bacteriocin that eradicates the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in animal infection models, but its import mechanism is poorly understood. Here, using crystallography, biophysical and biochemical analyses, and live-cell imaging, we define the entry process of PyoS5 and reveal links to the transport mechanisms of other bacteriocins. In addition to its C-terminal pore-forming domain, elongated PyoS5 comprises two novel tandemly repeated kinked 3-helix bundle domains that structure-based alignments identify as key import domains in other pyocins. The central domain binds the lipid-bound common polysaccharide antigen, allowing the pyocin to accumulate on the cell surface. The N-terminal domain binds the ferric pyochelin transporter FptA while its associated disordered region binds the inner membrane protein TonB1, which together drive import of the bacteriocin across the outer membrane. Finally, we identify the minimal requirements for sensitizing Escherichia coli toward PyoS5, as well as other pyocins, and suggest that a generic pathway likely underpins the import of all TonB-dependent bacteriocins across the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria

Analysis of aircraft and satellite measurements from the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-B) to quantify long-range transport of East Asian sulfur to Canada

We interpret a suite of satellite, aircraft, and ground-based measurements over the North Pacific Ocean and western North America during April–May 2006 as part of the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment Phase B (INTEX-B) campaign to understand the implications of long-range transport of East Asian emissions to North America. The Canadian component of INTEX-B included 33 vertical profiles from a Cessna 207 aircraft equipped with an aerosol mass spectrometer. Long-range transport of organic aerosols was insignificant, contrary to expectations. Measured sulfate plumes in the free troposphere over British Columbia exceeded 2 μg/m<sup>3</sup>. We update the global anthropogenic emission inventory in a chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and use it to interpret the observations. Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) retrieved from two satellite instruments (MISR and MODIS) for 2000–2006 are analyzed with GEOS-Chem to estimate an annual growth in Chinese sulfur emissions of 6.2% and 9.6%, respectively. Analysis of aircraft sulfate measurements from the NASA DC-8 over the central Pacific, the NSF C-130 over the east Pacific and the Cessna over British Columbia indicates most Asian sulfate over the ocean is in the lower free troposphere (800–600 hPa), with a decrease in pressure toward land due to orographic effects. We calculate that 56% of the measured sulfate between 500–900 hPa over British Columbia is due to East Asian sources. We find evidence of a 72–85% increase in the relative contribution of East Asian sulfate to the total burden in spring off the northwest coast of the United States since 1985. Campaign-average simulations indicate anthropogenic East Asian sulfur emissions increase mean springtime sulfate in Western Canada at the surface by 0.31 μg/m<sup>3</sup> (~30%) and account for 50% of the overall regional sulfate burden between 1 and 5 km. Mean measured daily surface sulfate concentrations taken in the Vancouver area increase by 0.32 μg/m<sup>3</sup> per 10% increase in the simulated fraction of Asian sulfate, and suggest current East Asian emissions episodically degrade local air quality by more than 1.5 μg/m<sup>3</sup>

Vortex lattice structure in a d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconductor

The vortex lattice structure in a d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconductor is investigated near the upper critical magnetic field in the framework of the Ginzburg Landau theory extended by including the correction terms such as the higher order derivatives derived from the Gor'kov equation. On lowering temperature, the unit cell shape of the vortex lattice gradually varies from a regular triangular lattice to a square lattice through the shape of an isosceles triangle. As for the orientation of the vortex lattice, the base of an isosceles triangle is along the a axis or the b axis of the crystal. The fourfold symmetric structure around a vortex core is also studied in the vortex lattice case. It is noted that these characteristic features appear even in the case the induced s-wave order parameter is absent around the vortex of the d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconductivity. We also investigate the effect of the induced s-wave order parameter. It enhances (suppresses) these characteristic features of the d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconductor when the s-wave component of the interaction is attractive (repulsive).Comment: 20 pages, RevTex, 9 figures in 3 PS-files and 5 GIF-file

Muon-induced background in the EDELWEISS dark matter search

A dedicated analysis of the muon-induced background in the EDELWEISS dark matter search has been performed on a data set acquired in 2009 and 2010. The total muon flux underground in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) was measured to be $\Phi_{\mu}=(5.4\pm 0.2 ^{+0.5}_{-0.9})$\,muons/m$^2$/d. The modular design of the muon-veto system allows the reconstruction of the muon trajectory and hence the determination of the angular dependent muon flux in LSM. The results are in good agreement with both MC simulations and earlier measurements. Synchronization of the muon-veto system with the phonon and ionization signals of the Ge detector array allowed identification of muon-induced events. Rates for all muon-induced events $\Gamma^{\mu}=(0.172 \pm 0.012)\, \rm{evts}/(\rm{kg \cdot d})$ and of WIMP-like events $\Gamma^{\mu-n} = 0.008^{+0.005}_{-0.004}\, \rm{evts}/(\rm{kg \cdot d})$ were extracted. After vetoing, the remaining rate of accepted muon-induced neutrons in the EDELWEISS-II dark matter search was determined to be $\Gamma^{\mu-n}_{\rm irred} < 6\cdot 10^{-4} \, \rm{evts}/(\rm{kg \cdot d})$ at 90%\,C.L. Based on these results, the muon-induced background expectation for an anticipated exposure of 3000\,\kgd\ for EDELWEISS-3 is $N^{\mu-n}_{3000 kg\cdot d} < 0.6$ events.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in Astropart. Phy

A search for low-mass WIMPs with EDELWEISS-II heat-and-ionization detectors

We report on a search for low-energy (E < 20 keV) WIMP-induced nuclear recoils using data collected in 2009 - 2010 by EDELWEISS from four germanium detectors equipped with thermal sensors and an electrode design (ID) which allows to efficiently reject several sources of background. The data indicate no evidence for an exponential distribution of low-energy nuclear recoils that could be attributed to WIMP elastic scattering after an exposure of 113 kg.d. For WIMPs of mass 10 GeV, the observation of one event in the WIMP search region results in a 90% CL limit of 1.0x10^-5 pb on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-section, which constrains the parameter space associated with the findings reported by the CoGeNT, DAMA and CRESST experiments.Comment: PRD rapid communication accepte

Features of Muon Arrival Time Distributions of High Energy EAS at Large Distances From the Shower Axis

In view of the current efforts to extend the KASCADE experiment (KASCADE-Grande) for observations of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) of primary energies up to 1 EeV, the features of muon arrival time distributions and their correlations with other observable EAS quantities have been scrutinised on basis of high-energy EAS, simulated with the Monte Carlo code CORSIKA and using in general the QGSJET model as generator. Methodically various correlations of adequately defined arrival time parameters with other EAS parameters have been investigated by invoking non-parametric methods for the analysis of multivariate distributions, studying the classification and misclassification probabilities of various observable sets. It turns out that adding the arrival time information and the multiplicity of muons spanning the observed time distributions has distinct effects improving the mass discrimination. A further outcome of the studies is the feature that for the considered ranges of primary energies and of distances from the shower axis the discrimination power of global arrival time distributions referring to the arrival time of the shower core is only marginally enhanced as compared to local distributions referring to the arrival of the locally first muon.Comment: 24 pages, Journal Physics G accepte

Relative drifts and biases between six ozone limb satellite measurements from the last decade

As part of European Space Agency’s (ESA) climate change initiative, high vertical resolution ozone profiles from three instruments all aboard ESA’s Envisat (GOMOS, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY) and ESA’s third party missions (OSIRIS, SMR, ACE-FTS) are to be combined in order to create an essential climate variable data record for the last decade. A prerequisite before combining data is the examination of differences and drifts between the data sets. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of ozone profile differences based on pairwise collocated measurements, including the evolution of the differences with time. Such a diagnosis is helpful to identify strengths and weaknesses of each data set that may vary in time and introduce uncertainties in long-term trend estimates. The analysis reveals that the relative drift between the sensors is not statistically significant for most pairs of instruments. The relative drift values can be used to estimate the added uncertainty in physical trends. The added drift uncertainty is estimated at about 3% decade$^{-1}$ (1σ). Larger differences and variability in the differences are found in the lowermost stratosphere (below 20 km) and in the mesosphere