Global Climate Change and Invariable Photoperiods: A Mismatch That Jeopardizes Animal fitness

The Earth\u27s surface temperature is rising, and precipitation patterns throughout the Earth are changing; the source of these shifts is likely anthropogenic in nature. Alterations in temperature and precipitation have obvious direct and indirect ef‐ fects on both plants and animals. Notably, changes in temperature and precipita‐ tion alone can have both advantageous and detrimental consequences depending on the species. Typically, production of offspring is timed to coincide with optimal food availability; thus, individuals of many species display annual rhythms of reproductive function. Because it requires substantial time to establish or re‐establish reproduc‐ tive function, individuals cannot depend on the arrival of seasonal food availability to begin breeding; thus, mechanisms have evolved in many plants and animals to monitor and respond to day length in order to anticipate seasonal changes in the environment. Over evolutionary time, there has been precise fine‐tuning of critical photoperiod and onset/offset of seasonal adaptations. Climate change has provoked changes in the availability of insects and plants which shifts the timing of optimal reproduction. However, adaptations to the stable photoperiod may be insufficiently plastic to allow a shift in the seasonal timing of bird and mammal breeding. Coupled with the effects of light pollution which prevents these species from determining day length, climate change presents extreme evolutionary pressure that can result in se‐ vere deleterious consequences for individual species reproduction and survival. This review describes the effects of climate change on plants and animals, defines photo‐ period and the physiological events it regulates, and addresses the consequences of global climate change and a stable photoperiod

Standard Model tests with trapped radioactive atoms

We review the use of laser cooling and trapping for Standard Model tests, focusing on trapping of radioactive isotopes. Experiments with neutral atoms trapped with modern laser cooling techniques are testing several basic predictions of electroweak unification. For nuclear $\beta$ decay, demonstrated trap techniques include neutrino momentum measurements from beta-recoil coincidences, along with methods to produce highly polarized samples. These techniques have set the best general constraints on non-Standard Model scalar interactions in the first generation of particles. They also have the promise to test whether parity symmetry is maximally violated, to search for tensor interactions, and to search for new sources of time reversal violation. There are also possibilites for exotic particle searches. Measurements of the strength of the weak neutral current can be assisted by precision atomic experiments using traps of small numbers of radioactive atoms, and sensitivity to possible time-reversal violating electric dipole moments can be improved.Comment: 45 pages, 17 figures, v3 includes clarifying referee comments, especially in beta decay section, and updated figure

A Graph-Based Digital Pathology Approach To Describe Lymphocyte Clustering Patterns After Renal Transplantation

Introduction/ Background Renal transplantation (rTx) induces an adaptive immune response against foreign donor antigens mediated by lymphocytes of the recipient. Local accumulation of B- and T-cells is an important component of this response enabling and controlling immune cell interactions [1]. Combining digital microscopic images with network analysis [2][3] opens new perspectives to study the spa- tial dimension of lymphocyte clustering and to model their potential interactions.   Aims The aim of this study is to characterize the range of B- and T-lymphocytic infiltrates below the threshold of rejection defined by theBanffclassification [4][5] and to propose a mathematical description of immune cell clustering for use in systems medicine approaches.   Methods We established a workflow to comprehensively characterize lymphocyte clusters and compare their morphological features with organized structures such as secondary or tertiary lymphoid organs (TLO/SLO) [6]. 51 renal protocol and indication biopsies from 13 patients without evidence for severe rejection over 10 years were stained by CD3/CD20 duplex immunohisto- chemistry. Whole slide images (WSIs) were acquired to automatically detect biologically relevant regions of in- terest (ROIs) by means of density maps for lymphocytes (image analysis workflow illustrated in Fig. 1a). They are generated from single nuclei identification using an au- to-adaptive random forest pixelwise classifier (“nucleus container” module [7],Definiens,Germany). We imple- mented a graph-based tool in Java using individual cell coordinates to identify cell compartments (Fig. 1b) and applied it to each selected ROI. For this, a neighborhood graph is built by Delaunay triangulation and Euclidean distances. This analysis allows describing their specific clustering behavior based on features as described in [8]. The convex hull of the neighborhood graph allows a visualization of B- and T-cell compartments.   Results We identified B-cell rich compartments in about 55% of 150 ROIs in kidney tissue after successful transplantation (examples in Fig. 2). The B-cell compartments in rTx tended towards smaller overall size with on average about 90 cells in a B-cell cluster compared to more than 600 B-cells observed in mature TLOs and SLOs and they showed less prominent spatial organization (average degree on average 3.92 instead of 4.97; degree shows generally Poisson distribution as illustrated in Fig. 3A). Further, the graph analysis confirmed lower B-cell density (Fig. 3B displays the exponential character of the spatial B-cell distribution in a selected ROI), a different ratio between T- and B-cell compartments, and more frequent overlap between both regions than in mature lymphoid structures.   We conclude that the graph-based approach is feasible to distinguish relevant immune cell patterns in rTx and provides a useful mathematical description of neighborhood relationships between immune cells and their spatial organization. The workflow has the potential to improve throughput and robustness of immune cell evaluation for use in translational science

Tensor interaction limit derived from the α-β-ν̄ correlation in trapped Li8 ions

A measurement of the α-β-ν̄ angular correlation in the Gamow-Teller decay Li8→Be*8+ν̄+β, Be*8→ α+α has been performed using ions confined in a linear Paul trap surrounded by silicon detectors. The energy difference spectrum of the α particles emitted along and opposite the direction of the β particle is consistent with the standard model prediction and places a limit of 3.1% (95.5% confidence level) on any tensor contribution to the decay. From this result, the amplitude of any tensor component CT relative to that of the dominant axial-vector component CA of the electroweak interaction is limited to |CT/CA|\u3c0.18 (95.5% confidence level). This experimental approach is facilitated by several favorable features of the Li8 β decay and has different systematic effects than the previous β-ν̄ correlation results for a pure Gamow-Teller transition obtained from studying He6 β decay. © 2013 American Physical Society

Electron recombination with multicharged ions via chaotic many-electron states

We show that a dense spectrum of chaotic multiply-excited eigenstates can play a major role in collision processes involving many-electron multicharged ions. A statistical theory based on chaotic properties of the eigenstates enables one to obtain relevant energy-averaged cross sections in terms of sums over single-electron orbitals. Our calculation of the low-energy electron recombination of Au$^{25+}$ shows that the resonant process is 200 times more intense than direct radiative recombination, which explains the recent experimental results of Hoffknecht {\em et al.} [J. Phys. B {\bf 31}, 2415 (1998)].Comment: 9 pages, including 1 figure, REVTe

Penning-trap mass spectrometry of highly charged, neutron-rich Rb and Sr isotopes in the vicinity of A≈100A\approx100

The neutron-rich mass region around $A\approx100$ presents challenges for modeling the astrophysical $r$-process because of rapid shape transitions. We report on mass measurements using the TITAN Penning trap at TRIUMF-ISAC to attain more reliable theoretical predictions of $r$-process nucleosynthesis paths in this region. A new approach using highly charged ($q=15+$) ions has been applied which considerably saves measurement time and preserves accuracy. New mass measurements of neutron-rich $^{94,97,98}$Rb and $^{94,97-99}$Sr have uncertainties of less than 4 keV and show deviations of up to 11$\sigma$ to previous measurements. An analysis using a parameterized $r$-process model is performed and shows that mass uncertainties for the A=90 abundance region are eliminated

Análise in silico do potencial de produção de metabólitos de Trichoderma asperelloides.

Neste trabalho foi realizado o sequenciamento do genoma completo de T. asperelloides T.145 isolado de Victoria amazonica visando a prospecção de clusters gênicos biossintéticos (BGCs)

Radiative recombination of bare Bi83+: Experiment versus theory

Electron-ion recombination of completely stripped Bi83+ was investigated at the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) of the GSI in Darmstadt. It was the first experiment of this kind with a bare ion heavier than argon. Absolute recombination rate coefficients have been measured for relative energies between ions and electrons from 0 up to about 125 eV. In the energy range from 15 meV to 125 eV a very good agreement is found between the experimental result and theory for radiative recombination (RR). However, below 15 meV the experimental rate increasingly exceeds the RR calculation and at Erel = 0 eV it is a factor of 5.2 above the expected value. For further investigation of this enhancement phenomenon the electron density in the interaction region was set to 1.6E6/cm3, 3.2E6/cm3 and 4.7E6/cm3. This variation had no significant influence on the recombination rate. An additional variation of the magnetic guiding field of the electrons from 70 mT to 150 mT in steps of 1 mT resulted in periodic oscillations of the rate which are accompanied by considerable changes of the transverse electron temperature.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. A, see also http://www.gsi.de/ap/ and http://www.strz.uni-giessen.de/~k

Optimization of a high work function solution processed vanadium oxide hole-extracting layer for small molecule and polymer organic photovoltaic cells

We report a method of fabricating a high work function, solution processable vanadium oxide (V2Ox(sol)) hole-extracting layer. The atmospheric processing conditions of film preparation have a critical influence on the electronic structure and stoichiometry of the V2Ox(sol), with a direct impact on organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell performance. Combined Kelvin probe (KP) and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) measurements reveal a high work function, n-type character for the thin films, analogous to previously reported thermally evaporated transition metal oxides. Additional states within the band gap of V2Ox(sol) are observed in the UPS spectra and are demonstrated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to be due to the substoichiometric nature of V2Ox(sol). The optimized V2Ox(sol) layer performance is compared directly to bare indium–tin oxide (ITO), poly(ethyleneoxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), and thermally evaporated molybdenum oxide (MoOx) interfaces in both small molecule/fullerene and polymer/fullerene structures. OPV cells incorporating V2Ox(sol) are reported to achieve favorable initial cell performance and cell stability attributes