Editorial: Exercise as a Countermeasure to Human Aging, Volume II

Tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes (Christopher Bullock in the Cobbler of Preston, 1716). We are inclined to agree with Bullock concerning the certainly of death and in this context, aging is ubiquitous amongst humans which results in a deterioration of physiological function and an inevitable march towards death. However, physical activity and exercise are known to exert positive effects on health and wider physiological function via multiple complex and interacting mechanisms (that have not yet been completely defined). In volume II of this Research Topic, 10 articles covered the interplay between exercise and aging, utilizing approaches that spanned molecular, physiological, and population scale approaches, in both healthy older populations and certain disease subsets. This work builds on our previous work Exercise as a Countermeasure to Human Aging, Volume I and it is a pleasure to note continued progress in this field, and the range of methodological approaches authors have used

Fully three dimensional breather solitons can be created using Feshbach resonance

We investigate the stability properties of breather solitons in a three-dimensional Bose-Einstein Condensate with Feshbach Resonance Management of the scattering length and con ned only by a one dimensional optical lattice. We compare regions of stability in parameter space obtained from a fully 3D analysis with those from a quasi two-dimensional treatment. For moderate con nement we discover a new island of stability in the 3D case, not present in the quasi 2D treatment. Stable solutions from this region have nontrivial dynamics in the lattice direction, hence they describe fully 3D breather solitons. We demonstrate these solutions in direct numerical simulations and outline a possible way of creating robust 3D solitons in experiments in a Bose Einstein Condensate in a one-dimensional lattice. We point other possible applications.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; accepted to Physical Review Letter

What are the experiences of education for unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in the UK?

BACKGROUND: The number of refugees worldwide has increased in recent years and with this, there has been an increase in the numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors (UASMs) in the UK. Refugees have been found to experience notable difficulties upon resettlement and there is evidence to suggest that education can provide a supportive role for young refugees. Although there has been research that has found that UASMs value education, there has been less research that has directly looked at the experiences of education for UASMs. METHODS: In the present study, six UASMs were interviewed and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used as a methodology to analyse the data. RESULTS: Five themes were identified: Education facilitating socialising; Education and English proficiency leading to a better life in the UK; the impact of transitions; the impact of external stressors; and a desire for additional resources to learn at one's own pace. CONCLUSIONS: Participants within the present research expressed a strong desire for additional resources that would allow them to learn at their own pace. They also emphasised how transitions between different settings and external stressors had an impact on their experiences of education. The links between coping strategies and the participant's asylum status are also discussed with reference to relevant research in the field

Travelling Salesman Problem with a Center

We study a travelling salesman problem where the path is optimized with a cost function that includes its length $L$ as well as a certain measure $C$ of its distance from the geometrical center of the graph. Using simulated annealing (SA) we show that such a problem has a transition point that separates two phases differing in the scaling behaviour of $L$ and $C$, in efficiency of SA, and in the shape of minimal paths.Comment: 4 pages, minor changes, accepted in Phys.Rev.

Sensitivity of Lake Sturgeon population dynamics and genetics to demographic parameters [Powerpoint Slide]

Lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens restoration is a priority throughout the Great Lakes basin, where sturgeon have been reduced to less than 1% of historic levels due to habitat degradation, overharvest, and fragmentation of spawning populations. The population parameters most important to long-term lake sturgeon persistence are unknown

Evidence for a functional role of the pineal in bovines

Dat die epifise moontlik n regulerende invloed op die gonadotrofiese funksie van die adenohipofise ultoefen, is m.b.v. in vitro tegnieke ondersoek. Bykomstig, is n aaneenlopende stelsel ontwerp om die meganisme van die werking van die antionadotrofiese beginsel van die epifise te bestudeer, aangesien daar n direkte negatiewe terugvoer van hiposifiele LH op die hipothalamus voorgekom het toe adenohipofisiale en hipothalamiese weefsel gesamentlik gekweek is. Resultate het aangetoon dat die hormone van die epifise die vrystelling van die tersake hipothalamiese vrystellingsfaktore inhibeer, waardeur die afskeiding van LH deur die adenohipofise verminder word. Laastens toon die resultate aan dat die epifise die produksie van LH-inhiberende faktore geproduseer deur die hipothalamus, stimuleer. SUMMARY:The possibility that the pineal exerts a regulatory influence on the gonadotrophic function of the adenohypophysis was investigated using in vitro techniques. Additionally, since a direct negative feedback of pituitary LH onto the hypothalamus occured when adenohypophysical and hypothalamic tiisisues were incubated together, a continuous-flow system was devised to study the mechanisms of action of the pineal anti-gonadotrophic principles. Results demonstrated that the bovine pineal has marked anti-gonadotrophic properties in vitro. Data showed that the pineal hormones inhibited the release of the relevant hypothalamic release factor, thereby reducing secretion of LH from the adenohypophysis. Finally, results indicated that the pineal also stimulated the production by the hypothalamus of an LH-inhibitory factor

Advanced magneto-optical microscopy: Imaging from picoseconds to centimeters - imaging spin waves and temperature distributions (invited)

© 2016 Author(s).Recent developments in the observation of magnetic domains and domain walls by wide-field optical microscopy based on the magneto-optical Kerr, Faraday, Voigt, and Gradient effect are reviewed. Emphasis is given to the existence of higher order magneto-optical effects for advanced magnetic imaging. Fundamental concepts and advances in methodology are discussed that allow for imaging of magnetic domains on various length and time scales. Time-resolved imaging of electric field induced domain wall rotation is shown. Visualization of magnetization dynamics down to picosecond temporal resolution for the imaging of spin-waves and magneto-optical multi-effect domain imaging techniques for obtaining vectorial information are demonstrated. Beyond conventional domain imaging, the use of a magneto-optical indicator technique for local temperature sensing is shown