General Concentric Black Rings

Supersymmetric black ring solutions of five dimensional supergravity coupled to an arbitrary number of vector multiplets are constructed. The solutions are asymptotically flat and describe configurations of concentric black rings which have regular horizons with topology $S^1 \times S^2$ and no closed time-like curves at the horizons.Comment: 8 pages, minor alterations, typos corrected. Version to be published in PR

Randomizations of models as metric structures

The notion of a randomization of a first order structure was introduced by Keisler in the paper Randomizing a Model, Advances in Math. 1999. The idea was to form a new structure whose elements are random elements of the original first order structure. In this paper we treat randomizations as continuous structures in the sense of Ben Yaacov and Usvyatsov. In this setting, the earlier results show that the randomization of a complete first order theory is a complete theory in continuous logic that admits elimination of quantifiers and has a natural set of axioms. We show that the randomization operation preserves the properties of being omega-categorical, omega-stable, and stable

Quantifying the Reversible Association of Thermosensitive Nanoparticles

Under many conditions, biomolecules and nanoparticles associate by means of attractive bonds, due to hydrophobic attraction. Extracting the microscopic association or dissociation rates from experimental data is complicated by the dissociation events and by the sensitivity of the binding force to temperature (T). Here we introduce a theoretical model that combined with light-scattering experiments allows us to quantify these rates and the reversible binding energy as a function of T. We apply this method to the reversible aggregation of thermoresponsive polystyrene/poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) core-shell nanoparticles, as a model system for biomolecules. We find that the binding energy changes sharply with T, and relate this remarkable switchable behavior to the hydrophobic-hydrophilic transition of the thermosensitive nanoparticles

DRIVERS OF ANNUAL FLEDGING IN THE MISSISSIPPI SANDHILL CRANE POPULATION 1991-2018

We studied trends in nesting, number of chicks fledged annually, and their environmental and biotic drivers in the wild population of Mississippi sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis pulla) on Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge during 1991-2018. Population size, number of nests, and number of chicks fledged annually increased slowly but significantly over the course of the study. Increases in population size were related to both number of wild-reared chicks fledged annually and number of captive-reared chicks released each year, but wild-reared chicks had significantly higher survivorship than captive-reared chicks. Hurricanes transiently raised mortality rates but only Hurricane Katrina caused a sustained population decline among adult birds. Total population size was positively related to precipitation during the nesting season, while number of chicks fledged annually was negatively related to annual number of extreme heat days and estimates of bobcat (Lynx rufus) occurrence. Cranes displayed high philopatry to their initial nest location and nested repeatedly in the same general home range regardless of the time since an area had last been treated by prescribed burning. Number of chicks fledged annually occurred with approximately equal frequency across management units burned at different times prior to nesting. The results indicate that both biotic and abiotic factors drive population dynamics on the refuge and suggest that additional attention to prescribed burns, predator removal, and behavioral conditioning of captive-reared birds prior to release may promote faster population growth and establishment of a self-sustaining wild population in the future

Ergodic directional switching in mobile insect groups

We obtain a Fokker-Planck equation describing experimental data on the collective motion of locusts. The noise is of internal origin and due to the discrete character and finite number of constituents of the swarm. The stationary probability distribution shows a rich phenomenology including non-monotonic behavior of several order/disorder transition indicators in noise intensity. This complex behavior arises naturally as a result of the randomness in the system. Its counterintuitive character challenges standard interpretations of noise induced transitions and calls for an extension of this theory in order to capture the behavior of certain classes of biologically motivated models. Our results suggest that the collective switches of the group's direction of motion might be due to a random ergodic effect and, as such, they are inherent to group formation.Comment: Physical Review Focus 26, July 201

From mice to humans: Developments in cancer immunoediting

Cancer immunoediting explains the dual role by which the immune system can both suppress and/or promote tumor growth. Although cancer immunoediting was first demonstrated using mouse models of cancer, strong evidence that it occurs in human cancers is now accumulating. In particular, the importance of CD8+ T cells in cancer immunoediting has been shown, and more broadly in those tumors with an adaptive immune resistance phenotype. This Review describes the characteristics of the adaptive immune resistance tumor microenvironment and discusses data obtained in mouse and human settings. The role of other immune cells and factors influencing the effector function of tumor-specific CD8+ T cells is covered. We also discuss the temporal occurrence of cancer immunoediting in metastases and whether it differs from immunoediting in the primary tumor of origin