Third Generation Familons, B Factories, and Neutrino Cosmology

We study the physics of spontaneously broken family symmetries acting on the third generation. Massless familons (or Majorons) $f$ associated with such broken symmetries are motivated especially by cosmological scenarios with decaying tau neutrinos. We first note that, in marked contrast with the case for the first two generations, constraints on third generation familon couplings are poor, and are, in fact, non-existent at present in the hadronic sector. We derive new bounds from $B^0$--$\bar{B}^0$ mixing, $B^0 \to l^+ l'^-$, $b\to s\nu\bar{\nu}$, and astrophysics. The resulting constraints on familon decay constants are still much weaker than those for the first and second generation. We then discuss the promising prospects for significant improvements from searches for $\tau\to l f$, $B\to (\pi, K) f$, and $b\to (d,s) f$ with the current CLEO, ARGUS, and LEP data. Finally, we note that future constraints from CLEO III and the $B$ factories will probe decay constants beyond 10^8 GeV, well within regions of parameter space favored by proposed scenarios in neutrino cosmology.Comment: ReVTeX, 33 pages, 6 figures, notation improved, references added, revised to conform to pubished versio

Single-cell Analysis of the Neonatal Immune System Across the Gestational Age Continuum

Although most causes of death and morbidity in premature infants are related to immune maladaptation, the premature immune system remains poorly understood. We provide a comprehensive single-cell depiction of the neonatal immune system at birth across the spectrum of viable gestational age (GA), ranging from 25 weeks to term. A mass cytometry immunoassay interrogated all major immune cell subsets, including signaling activity and responsiveness to stimulation. An elastic net model described the relationship between GA and immunome (R=0.85, p=8.75e-14), and unsupervised clustering highlighted previously unrecognized GA-dependent immune dynamics, including decreasing basal MAP-kinase/NFkB signaling in antigen presenting cells; increasing responsiveness of cytotoxic lymphocytes to interferon-a; and decreasing frequency of regulatory and invariant T cells, including NKT cells and MAIT cells. Knowledge gained from the analysis of the neonatal immune landscape across GA provides a mechanistic framework to understand the unique susceptibility of preterm infants to both hyper-inflammatory diseases and infections

ACCESS: Design and Sub-System Performance

Establishing improved spectrophotometric standards is important for a broad range of missions and is relevant to many astrophysical problems. ACCESS, "Absolute Color Calibration Experiment for Standard Stars", is a series of rocket-borne sub-orbital missions and ground-based experiments designed to enable improvements in the precision of the astrophysical flux scale through the transfer of absolute laboratory detector standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to a network of stellar standards with a calibration accuracy of 1% and a spectral resolving power of 500 across the 0.35 -1.7 micrometer bandpass

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Harmful algal blooms and climate change: exploring future distribution changes

Harmful algae can cause death in fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and humans, via their toxins or from effects associated with their sheer quantity. There are many species, which cause a variety of problems around north-west Europe, and the frequency and distribution of algal blooms have altered in the recent past. Species distribution modelling was used to understand how harmful algal species may respond in the future to climate change, by considering environmental preferences and how these may shift. Most distribution studies to date use low resolution global model outputs. In this study, high resolution, downscaled shelf seas climate projections for the north-west European shelf were nested within lower resolution global projections, to understand how the distribution of harmful algae may change by the mid to end of century. Projections suggest that the habitat of most species (defined by temperature, salinity, depth, and stratification) will shift north this century, with suitability increasing in the central and northern North Sea. An increase in occurrence here might lead to more frequent detrimental blooms if wind, irradiance and nutrient levels are also suitable. Prioritizing monitoring of species in these susceptible areas could help in establishing early-warning systems for aquaculture and health protection schemes

Variability and connectivity of plaice populations from the Eastern North Sea to the Western Baltic Sea, and implications for assessment and management

An essential prerequisite of sustainable fisheries is the match between biologically relevant processes and management action. Various populations may however co-occur on fishing grounds, although they might not belong to the same stock, leading to poor performance of stock assessment and management. Plaice in Kattegat and Skagerrak have traditionally been considered as one stock unit. Current understanding indicates that several plaice components may exist in the transition area between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. A comprehensive review of all available biological knowledge on plaice in this area is performed, including published and unpublished literature together with the analyses of commercial and survey data and historical tagging data. The results suggest that plaice in Skagerrak is closely associated with plaice in the North Sea, although local populations are present in the area. Plaice in Kattegat, the Belts Sea and the Sound can be considered a stock unit, as is plaice in the Baltic Sea. The analyses revealed great heterogeneity in the dynamics and productivity of the various local components, and suggested for specific action to maintain biodiversity

The Incidence of AIDS-Defining Illnesses at a Current CD4 Count ≥200 Cells/µL in the Post-Combination Antiretroviral Therapy Era

The incidence of AIDS was higher in patients with a current CD4 count of 500-749 cells/µL compared to 750-999 cells/µL, but did not decrease further at higher CD4 levels. Results were similar in those virologically suppressed on combination antiretroviral therapy, suggesting immune reconstitution is incomplete until CD4 >750/µ

Validation of a Novel Multivariate Method of Defining HIV-Associated Cognitive Impairment

Background. The optimum method of defining cognitive impairment in virally suppressed people living with HIV is unknown. We evaluated the relationships between cognitive impairment, including using a novel multivariate method (NMM), patientreported outcome measures (PROMs), and neuroimaging markers of brain structure across 3 cohorts.Methods. Differences in the prevalence of cognitive impairment, PROMs, and neuroimaging data from the COBRA, CHARTER, and POPPY cohorts (total n = 908) were determined between HIV-positive participants with and without cognitive impairment defined using the HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), global deficit score (GDS), and NMM criteria.Results. The prevalence of cognitive impairment varied by up to 27% between methods used to define impairment (eg, 48% for HAND vs 21% for NMM in the CHARTER study). Associations between objective cognitive impairment and subjective cognitive complaints generally were weak. Physical and mental health summary scores (SF-36) were lowest for NMM-defined impairment (P&lt;.05). There were no differences in brain volumes or cortical thickness between participants with and without cognitive impairment defined using the HAND and GDS measures. In contrast, those identified with cognitive impairment by the NMM had reduced mean cortical thickness in both hemispheres (P&lt;.05), as well as smaller brain volumes (P&lt;.01). The associations with measures of white matter microstructure and brain-predicted age generally were weaker.Conclusion. Different methods of defining cognitive impairment identify different people with varying symptomatology and measures of brain injury. Overall, NMM-defined impairment was associated with most neuroimaging abnormalities and poorer selfreported health status. This may be due to the statistical advantage of using a multivariate approach