3,422 research outputs found
Sex-biased parental care and sexual size dimorphism in a provisioning arthropod
The diverse selection pressures driving the evolution of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) have long been debated. While the balance between fecundity selection and sexual selection has received much attention, explanations based on sex-specific ecology have proven harder to test. In ectotherms, females are typically larger than males, and this is frequently thought to be because size constrains female fecundity more than it constrains male mating success. However, SSD could additionally reflect maternal care strategies. Under this hypothesis, females are relatively larger where reproduction requires greater maximum maternal effort â for example where mothers transport heavy provisions to nests.
To test this hypothesis we focussed on digger wasps (Hymenoptera: Ammophilini), a relatively homogeneous group in which only females provision offspring. In some species, a single large prey item, up to 10 times the motherâs weight, must be carried to each burrow on foot; other species provide many small prey, each flown individually to the nest.
We found more pronounced female-biased SSD in species where females carry single, heavy prey. More generally, SSD was negatively correlated with numbers of prey provided per offspring. Females provisioning multiple small items had longer wings and thoraxes, probably because smaller prey are carried in flight.
Despite much theorising, few empirical studies have tested how sex-biased parental care can affect SSD. Our study reveals that such costs can be associated with the evolution of dimorphism, and this should be investigated in other clades where parental care costs differ between sexes and species
Decoupling property of the supersymmetric Higgs sector with four doublets
In supersymmetric standard models with multi Higgs doublet fields,
selfcoupling constants in the Higgs potential come only from the D-terms at the
tree level. We investigate the decoupling property of additional two heavier
Higgs doublet fields in the supersymmetric standard model with four Higgs
doublets. In particular, we study how they can modify the predictions on the
quantities well predicted in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM),
when the extra doublet fields are rather heavy to be measured at collider
experiments. The B-term mixing between these extra heavy Higgs bosons and the
relatively light MSSM-like Higgs bosons can significantly change the
predictions in the MSSM such as on the masses of MSSM-like Higgs bosons as well
as the mixing angle for the two light CP-even scalar states. We first give
formulae for deviations in the observables of the MSSM in the decoupling region
for the extra two doublet fields. We then examine possible deviations in the
Higgs sector numerically, and discuss their phenomenological implications.Comment: 26 pages, 24 figures, text sligtly modified,version to appear in
Journal of High Energy Physic
Continuous Three-Dimensional Control of a Virtual Helicopter Using a Motor Imagery Based Brain-Computer Interface
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow a user to interact with a computer system using thought. However, only recently have devices capable of providing sophisticated multi-dimensional control been achieved non-invasively. A major goal for non-invasive BCI systems has been to provide continuous, intuitive, and accurate control, while retaining a high level of user autonomy. By employing electroencephalography (EEG) to record and decode sensorimotor rhythms (SMRs) induced from motor imaginations, a consistent, user-specific control signal may be characterized. Utilizing a novel method of interactive and continuous control, we trained three normal subjects to modulate their SMRs to achieve three-dimensional movement of a virtual helicopter that is fast, accurate, and continuous. In this system, the virtual helicopter's forward-backward translation and elevation controls were actuated through the modulation of sensorimotor rhythms that were converted to forces applied to the virtual helicopter at every simulation time step, and the helicopter's angle of left or right rotation was linearly mapped, with higher resolution, from sensorimotor rhythms associated with other motor imaginations. These different resolutions of control allow for interplay between general intent actuation and fine control as is seen in the gross and fine movements of the arm and hand. Subjects controlled the helicopter with the goal of flying through rings (targets) randomly positioned and oriented in a three-dimensional space. The subjects flew through rings continuously, acquiring as many as 11 consecutive rings within a five-minute period. In total, the study group successfully acquired over 85% of presented targets. These results affirm the effective, three-dimensional control of our motor imagery based BCI system, and suggest its potential applications in biological navigation, neuroprosthetics, and other applications
Room temperature coherent control of coupled single spins in solid
Coherent coupling between single quantum objects is at the heart of modern
quantum physics. When coupling is strong enough to prevail over decoherence, it
can be used for the engineering of correlated quantum states. Especially for
solid-state systems, control of quantum correlations has attracted widespread
attention because of applications in quantum computing. Such coherent coupling
has been demonstrated in a variety of systems at low temperature1, 2. Of all
quantum systems, spins are potentially the most important, because they offer
very long phase memories, sometimes even at room temperature. Although precise
control of spins is well established in conventional magnetic resonance3, 4,
existing techniques usually do not allow the readout of single spins because of
limited sensitivity. In this paper, we explore dipolar magnetic coupling
between two single defects in diamond (nitrogen-vacancy and nitrogen) using
optical readout of the single nitrogen-vacancy spin states. Long phase memory
combined with a defect separation of a few lattice spacings allow us to explore
the strong magnetic coupling regime. As the two-defect system was well-isolated
from other defects, the long phase memory times of the single spins was not
diminished, despite the fact that dipolar interactions are usually seen as
undesirable sources of decoherence. A coherent superposition of spin pair
quantum states was achieved. The dipolar coupling was used to transfer spin
polarisation from a nitrogen-vacancy centre spin to a nitrogen spin, with
optical pumping of a nitrogen-vacancy centre leading to efficient
initialisation. At the level anticrossing efficient nuclear spin polarisation
was achieved. Our results demonstrate an important step towards controlled spin
coupling and multi-particle entanglement in the solid state
Synthetic lethality: a framework for the development of wiser cancer therapeutics
The challenge in medical oncology has always been to identify compounds that will kill, or at least tame, cancer cells while leaving normal cells unscathed. Most chemotherapeutic agents in use today were selected primarily for their ability to kill rapidly dividing cancer cells grown in cell culture and in mice, with their selectivity determined empirically during subsequent animal and human testing. Unfortunately, most of the drugs developed in this way have relatively low therapeutic indices (low toxic dose relative to the therapeutic dose). Recent advances in genomics are leading to a more complete picture of the range of mutations, both driver and passenger, present in human cancers. Synthetic lethality provides a conceptual framework for using this information to arrive at drugs that will preferentially kill cancer cells relative to normal cells. It also provides a possible way to tackle 'undruggable' targets. Two genes are synthetically lethal if mutation of either gene alone is compatible with viability but simultaneous mutation of both genes leads to death. If one is a cancer-relevant gene, the task is to discover its synthetic lethal interactors, because targeting these would theoretically kill cancer cells mutant in the cancer-relevant gene while sparing cells with a normal copy of that gene. All cancer drugs in use today, including conventional cytotoxic agents and newer 'targeted' agents, target molecules that are present in both normal cells and cancer cells. Their therapeutic indices almost certainly relate to synthetic lethal interactions, even if those interactions are often poorly understood. Recent technical advances enable unbiased screens for synthetic lethal interactors to be undertaken in human cancer cells. These approaches will hopefully facilitate the discovery of safer, more efficacious anticancer drugs that exploit vulnerabilities that are unique to cancer cells by virtue of the mutations they have accrued during tumor progression
The ATM and ATR inhibitors CGK733 and caffeine suppress cyclin D1 levels and inhibit cell proliferation
The ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and the ATM- related (ATR) kinases play a central role in facilitating the resistance of cancer cells to genotoxic treatment regimens. The components of the ATM and ATR regulated signaling pathways thus provide attractive pharmacological targets, since their inhibition enhances cellular sensitivity to chemo- and radiotherapy. Caffeine as well as more specific inhibitors of ATM (KU55933) or ATM and ATR (CGK733) have recently been shown to induce cell death in drug-induced senescent tumor cells. Addition of these agents to cancer cells previously rendered senescent by exposure to genotoxins suppressed the ATM mediated p21 expression required for the survival of these cells. The precise molecular pharmacology of these agents however, is not well characterized. Herein, we report that caffeine, CGK733, and to a lesser extent KU55933, inhibit the proliferation of otherwise untreated human cancer and non-transformed mouse fibroblast cell lines. Exposure of human cancer cell lines to caffeine and CGK733 was associated with a rapid decline in cyclin D1 protein levels and a reduction in the levels of both phosphorylated and total retinoblastoma protein (RB). Our studies suggest that observations based on the effects of these compounds on cell proliferation and survival must be interpreted with caution. The differential effects of caffeine/CGK733 and KU55933 on cyclin D1 protein levels suggest that these agents will exhibit dissimilar molecular pharmacological profiles
Development of an educational intervention for patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) â a pilot study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many IBS patients experience that they receive limited information and that the health care system does not take their complaints seriously. We aimed to develop a structured patient education, an 'IBS school', and investigate if the efficacy could be evaluated in terms of improved knowledge, symptom severity and health related quality of life (HRQOL).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The IBS school consisted of six weekly two hour sessions in a group setting. Five different health care professionals were responsible for one session each. Questionnaires covering patients' experience of the education, perceived knowledge about IBS, gastrointestinal symptoms, and HRQOL, were used for evaluation at baseline and at three, six, and twelve months after education.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twelve IBS patients were included. The patients were overall satisfied with the IBS school. In line with this, the gastrointestinal symptoms, HRQOL, and perceived knowledge about IBS improved significantly after the education.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>An IBS school seems to be a proper method to meet the patients' need of information about IBS and also to improve the patients' gastrointestinal symptoms, HRQOL, and knowledge about IBS. Further controlled studies are now needed in larger numbers of patients to confirm these preliminary results in order to implement this intervention in clinical practice.</p
Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets
containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass
energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The
measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1.
The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary
decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from
the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is
used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive
b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the
range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet
cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the
range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets
and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are
compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed
between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG +
Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet
cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive
cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse
momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final
version published in European Physical Journal
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