Long optical plateau in the afterglow of the short GRB 150424A with extended emission

Context. Short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with extended emission form a subclass of short GRBs, comprising about 15% of the short-duration sample. Afterglow detections of short GRBs are also rare (about 30%) because of their lower luminosity. Aims. We present a multiband data set of the short burst with extended emission, GRB 150424A, comprising of GROND observations, complemented with data from Swift/UVOT, Swift/XRT, HST, Keck/LRIS, and data points from the literature. The GRB 150424A afterglow shows an extended plateau phase, lasting about 8 h. The analysis of this unique GRB afterglow might shed light on the understanding of afterglow plateau emission, the nature of which is still under debate. Methods. We present a phenomenological analysis made by applying fireball closure relations and interpret the findings in the context of the fireball model. We discuss the plausibility of a magnetar as a central engine, which would be responsible for additional and prolonged energy injection into the fireball. Results. We find convincing evidence for energy injection into the afterglow of GRB 150424A. We find that a magnetar spin-down as the source for a prolonged energy injection requires that at least 4% of the spin-down energy is converted into radiation

Scalable Purification and Characterization of the Anticancer Lunasin Peptide from Soybean

Lunasin is a peptide derived from the soybean 2S albumin seed protein that has both anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities. Large-scale animal studies and human clinical trials to determine the efficacy of lunasin in vivo have been hampered by the cost of synthetic lunasin and the lack of a method for obtaining gram quantities of highly purified lunasin from plant sources. The goal of this study was to develop a large-scale method to generate highly purified lunasin from defatted soy flour. A scalable method was developed that utilizes the sequential application of anion-exchange chromatography, ultrafiltration, and reversed-phase chromatography. This method generates lunasin preparations of >99% purity with a yield of 442 mg/kg defatted soy flour. Mass spectrometry of the purified lunasin revealed that the peptide is 44 amino acids in length and represents the original published sequence of lunasin with an additional C-terminal asparagine residue. Histone-binding assays demonstrated that the biological activity of the purified lunasin was similar to that of synthetic lunasin. This study provides a robust method for purifying commercial-scale quantities of biologically-active lunasin and clearly identifies the predominant form of lunasin in soy flour. This method will greatly facilitate the development of lunasin as a potential nutraceutical or therapeutic anticancer agent

Abnormal motor activity during anaesthesia in a dog: a case report

Seizures or convulsions that occur during anaesthesia in veterinary patients are infrequently reported in the literature. Consequently, the incidence of such events is unknown. Several drugs commonly used in clinical veterinary anaesthesia have been shown to induce epileptiform activity in both human clinical patients and experimental candidates. The present case report describes convulsions in a four-year old male Bernese mountain dog during maintenance of anaesthesia with isoflurane after premedication with acepromazine and methadone followed by co-induction with propofol and ketamine. The dog had no history of previous convulsions. The use of several sedative and anaesthetic drugs makes it difficult to find one single causative pharmaceutical

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Competing magnetostructural phases in a semiclassical system

The interplay between charge, structure, and magnetism gives rise to rich phase diagrams in complex materials with exotic properties emerging when phases compete. Molecule-based materials are particularly advantageous in this regard due to their low energy scales, flexible lattices, and chemical tunability. Here, we bring together high pressure Raman scattering, modeling, and first principles calculations to reveal the pressure-temperature-magnetic field phase diagram of Mn[N(CN)2]2. We uncover how hidden soft modes involving octahedral rotations drive two pressure-induced transitions triggering the low ??? high magnetic anisotropy crossover and a unique reorientation of exchange planes. These magnetostructural transitions and their mechanisms highlight the importance of spin-lattice interactions in establishing phases with novel magnetic properties in Mn(II)-containing systems

A comparison of SNP and STR loci for delineating population structure and performing individual genetic assignment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Technological advances have lead to the rapid increase in availability of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a range of organisms, and there is a general optimism that SNPs will become the marker of choice for a range of evolutionary applications. Here, comparisons between 300 polymorphic SNPs and 14 short tandem repeats (STRs) were conducted on a data set consisting of approximately 500 Atlantic salmon arranged in 10 samples/populations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Global F_STranged from 0.033-0.115 and -0.002-0.316 for the 14 STR and 300 SNP loci respectively. Global F_STwas similar among 28 linkage groups when averaging data from mapped SNPs. With the exception of selecting a panel of SNPs taking the locus displaying the highest global F_STfor each of the 28 linkage groups, which inflated estimation of genetic differentiation among the samples, inferred genetic relationships were highly similar between SNP and STR data sets and variants thereof. The best 15 SNPs (30 alleles) gave a similar level of self-assignment to the best 4 STR loci (83 alleles), however, addition of further STR loci did not lead to a notable increase assignment whereas addition of up to 100 SNP loci increased assignment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Whilst the optimal combinations of SNPs identified in this study are linked to the samples from which they were selected, this study demonstrates that identification of highly informative SNP loci from larger panels will provide researchers with a powerful approach to delineate genetic relationships at the individual and population levels.</p

Dynamic Gene Expression in the Human Cerebral Cortex Distinguishes Children from Adults

In comparison with other primate species, humans have an extended juvenile period during which the brain is more plastic. In the current study we sought to examine gene expression in the cerebral cortex during development in the context of this adaptive plasticity. We introduce an approach designed to discriminate genes with variable as opposed to uniform patterns of gene expression and found that greater inter-individual variance is observed among children than among adults. For the 337 transcripts that show this pattern, we found a significant overrepresentation of genes annotated to the immune system process (pFDR≅0). Moreover, genes known to be important in neuronal function, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), are included among the genes more variably expressed in childhood. We propose that the developmental period of heightened childhood neuronal plasticity is characterized by more dynamic patterns of gene expression in the cerebral cortex compared to adulthood when the brain is less plastic. That an overabundance of these genes are annotated to the immune system suggests that the functions of these genes can be thought of not only in the context of antigen processing and presentation, but also in the context of nervous system development

CCL2-driven inflammation increases mammary gland stromal density and cancer susceptibility in a transgenic mouse model.

Abstract Background Macrophages play diverse roles in mammary gland development and breast cancer. CC-chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) is an inflammatory cytokine that recruits macrophages to sites of injury. Although CCL2 has been detected in human and mouse mammary epithelium, its role in regulating mammary gland development and cancer risk has not been explored. Methods Transgenic mice were generated wherein CCL2 is driven by the mammary epithelial cell-specific mouse mammary tumour virus 206 (MMTV) promoter. Estrous cycles were tracked in adult transgenic and non-transgenic FVB mice, and mammary glands collected at the four different stages of the cycle. Dissected mammary glands were assessed for cyclical morphological changes, proliferation and apoptosis of epithelium, macrophage abundance and collagen deposition, and mRNA encoding matrix remodelling enzymes. Another cohort of control and transgenic mice received carcinogen 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) and tumour development was monitored weekly. CCL2 protein was also quantified in paired samples of human breast tissue with high and low mammographic density. Results Overexpression of CCL2 in the mammary epithelium resulted in an increased number of macrophages, increased density of stroma and collagen and elevated mRNA encoding matrix remodelling enzymes lysyl oxidase (LOX) and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMP)3 compared to non-transgenic controls. Transgenic mice also exhibited increased susceptibility to development of DMBA-induced mammary tumours. In a paired sample cohort of human breast tissue, abundance of epithelial-cell-associated CCL2 was higher in breast tissue of high mammographic density compared to tissue of low mammographic density. Conclusions Constitutive expression of CCL2 by the mouse mammary epithelium induces a state of low level chronic inflammation that increases stromal density and elevates cancer risk. We propose that CCL2-driven inflammation contributes to the increased risk of breast cancer observed in women with high mammographic density