T-bet controls intestinal mucosa immune responses via repression of type 2 innate lymphoid cell function

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) play an important role in regulating immune responses at mucosal surfaces. The transcription factor T-bet is crucial for the function of ILC1s and NCR+ ILC3s and constitutive deletion of T-bet prevents the development of these subsets. Lack of T-bet in the absence of an adaptive immune system causes microbiota-dependent colitis to occur due to aberrant ILC3 responses. Thus, T-bet expression in the innate immune system has been considered to dampen pathogenic immune responses. Here, we show that T-bet plays an unexpected role in negatively regulating innate type 2 responses, in the context of an otherwise intact immune system. Selective loss of T-bet in ILCs leads to the expansion and increased activity of ILC2s, which has a functionally important impact on mucosal immunity, including enhanced protection from Trichinella spiralis infection and inflammatory colitis. Mechanistically, we show that T-bet controls the intestinal ILC pool through regulation of IL-7 receptor signalling. These data demonstrate that T-bet expression in ILCs acts as the key transcriptional checkpoint in regulating pathogenic vs. protective mucosal immune responses, which has significant implications for the understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases and intestinal infections

A global call for action to include gender in research impact assessment

Global investment in biomedical research has grown significantly over the last decades, reaching approximately a quarter of a trillion US dollars in 2010. However, not all of this investment is distributed evenly by gender. It follows, arguably, that scarce research resources may not be optimally invested (by either not supporting the best science or by failing to investigate topics that benefit women and men equitably). Women across the world tend to be significantly underrepresented in research both as researchers and research participants, receive less research funding, and appear less frequently than men as authors on research publications. There is also some evidence that women are relatively disadvantaged as the beneficiaries of research, in terms of its health, societal, and economic impacts. Historical gender biases may have created a path dependency that means that the research system and the impacts of research are biased towards male researchers and male beneficiaries, making it inherently difficult (though not impossible) to eliminate gender bias. In this commentary, we – a group of scholars and practitioners from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe– argue that gender-sensitive research impact assessment could become a force for good in moving science policy and practice towards gender equity. Research impact assessment is the multidisciplinary field of scientific inquiry that examines the research process to maximise scientific, societal, and economic returns on investment in research. It encompasses many theoretical and methodological approaches that can be used to investigate gender bias and recommend actions for change to maximise research impact. We offer a set of recommendations to research funders, research institutions, and research evaluators who conduct impact assessment on how to include and strengthen analysis of gender equity in research impact assessment and issue a global call for action

Fragmentation and Multifragmentation of 10.6A GeV Gold Nuclei

We present the results of a study performed on the interactions of 10.6A GeV gold nuclei in nuclear emulsions. In a minimum bias sample of 1311 interac- tions, 5260 helium nuclei and 2622 heavy fragments were observed as Au projec- tile fragments. The experimental data are analyzed with particular emphasis of target separation interactions in emulsions and study of criticalexponents. Multiplicity distributions of the fast-moving projectile fragments are inves- tigated. Charged fragment moments, conditional moments as well as two and three -body asymmetries of the fast moving projectile particles are determined in terms of the total charge remaining bound in the multiply charged projectile fragments. Some differences in the average yields of helium nuclei and heavier fragments are observed, which may be attributed to a target effect. However, two and three-body asymmetries and conditional moments indicate that the breakup mechanism of the projectile seems to be independent of target mass. We looked for evidence of critical point observable in finite nuclei by study the resulting charged fragments distributions. We have obtained the values for the critical exponents gamma, beta and tau and compare our results with those at lower energy experiment (1.0A GeV data). The values suggest that a phase transition like behavior, is observed.Comment: latex, revtex, 28 pages, 12 figures, 3tables, submitted to Europysics Journal

All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients with initial LIGO

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% confidence upper limits on the rate of long-duration gravitational wave transients for different types of gravitational wave signals. For signals from black hole accretion disk instabilities, we set upper limits on the source rate density between 3.4×10-5 and 9.4×10-4 Mpc-3 yr-1 at 90% confidence. These are the first results from an all-sky search for unmodeled long-duration transient gravitational waves. © 2016 American Physical Society

All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients with initial LIGO

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% confidence upper limits on the rate of long-duration gravitational wave transients for different types of gravitational wave signals. For signals from black hole accretion disk instabilities, we set upper limits on the source rate density between 3.4×10-5 and 9.4×10-4 Mpc-3 yr-1 at 90% confidence. These are the first results from an all-sky search for unmodeled long-duration transient gravitational waves. © 2016 American Physical Society

Search for Tensor, Vector, and Scalar Polarizations in the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background

The detection of gravitational waves with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo has enabled novel tests of general relativity, including direct study of the polarization of gravitational waves. While general relativity allows for only two tensor gravitational-wave polarizations, general metric theories can additionally predict two vector and two scalar polarizations. The polarization of gravitational waves is encoded in the spectral shape of the stochastic gravitational-wave background, formed by the superposition of cosmological and individually unresolved astrophysical sources. Using data recorded by Advanced LIGO during its first observing run, we search for a stochastic background of generically polarized gravitational waves. We find no evidence for a background of any polarization, and place the first direct bounds on the contributions of vector and scalar polarizations to the stochastic background. Under log-uniform priors for the energy in each polarization, we limit the energy densities of tensor, vector, and scalar modes at 95% credibility to Ω0T<5.58×10-8, Ω0V<6.35×10-8, and Ω0S<1.08×10-7 at a reference frequency f0=25 Hz. © 2018 American Physical Society