Tracing a Disk Wind in NGC 3516

X-ray spectra of AGN often contain signatures indicative of absorption in multiple layers of gas whose ionization-state and covering fraction may vary with time. It has been unclear to date how much of the observed X-ray spectral and timing behavior in AGN can be attributed to variations in absorption, versus variations in the strengths of emission or reflection components. Diagnostics of the inner regions of AGN cannot be reliably performed until the origin of observed effects is understood. We investigate the role of the X-ray absorbers in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3516. Time-averaged and flux-selected spectroscopy is used to examine the behavior of NGC 3516 observed in Chandra HETG and XMM data from Oct 2006. New H-like and He-like emission and absorption features discovered in the Fe K regime reveal a previously unknown zone of circumnuclear gas in NGC 3516 with log xi ~ 4.3 and column density 1E23 cm^-2. A lower-ionization layer with log xi ~2 and of similar column density is confirmed from previous observations, this layer has a covering fraction around 50%, and changes in covering provide a simple explanation of a deep dip in the light curve that we interpret as an eclipse of the continuum due to passage of a cloud across the sight line within half a day. These inner zones of absorbing gas are detected to have outflow velocities in the range 1000-2000 km/s, this, and constraints on radial location are consistent with an origin as part of a disk wind in NGC 3516.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&A Feb 26 2008 Version 2: Figs 1 & 2 were corrected for a problem with ACIS section of the data. Little impact on text of the pape

Factors Associated with the Diversification of the Gut Microbial Communities within Chimpanzees from Gombe National Park.

The gastrointestinal tract harbors large and diverse populations of bacteria that vary among individuals and within individuals over time. Numerous internal and external factors can influence the contents of these microbial communities, including diet, geography, physiology, and the extent of contact among hosts. To investigate the contributions of such factors to the variation and changes in gut microbial communities, we analyzed the distal gut microbiota of individual chimpanzees from two communities in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. These samples, which were derived from 35 chimpanzees, many of whom have been monitored for multiple years, provide an unusually comprehensive longitudinal depth for individuals of known genetic relationships. Although the composition of the great-ape microbiota has been shown to codiversify with host species, indicating that host genetics and phylogeny have played a major role in its differentiation over evolutionary timescales, the geneaological relationships of individual chimpanzees did not coincide with the similarity in their gut microbial communities. However, the inhabitants from adjacent chimpanzee communities could be distinguished based on the contents of their gut microbiota. Despite the broad similarity of community members, as would be expected from shared diet or interactions, long-term immigrants to a community often harbored the most distinctive gut microbiota, suggesting that individuals retain hallmarks of their previous gut microbial communities for extended periods. This pattern was reinforced in several chimpanzees sampled over long temporal scales, in which the major constituents of the gut microbiota were maintained for nearly a decade

PHYSIOLOGY AND ENDOCRINOLOGY SYMPOSIUM: How single nucleotide polymorphism chips will advance our knowledge of factors controlling puberty and aid in selecting replacement beef females

The promise of genomic selection is accurate prediction of the genetic potential of animals from their genotypes. Simple DNA tests might replace low-accuracy predictions for expensive or lowly heritable measures of puberty and fertility based on performance and pedigree. Knowing with some certainty which DNA variants (e.g., SNP) affect puberty and fertility is the best way to fulfill the promise. Several SNP from the BovineSNP50 assay have tentatively been associated with reproductive traits including age at puberty, antral follicle count, and pregnancy observed on different sets of heifers. However, sample sizes are too small and SNP density is too sparse to definitively determine genomic regions harboring causal variants affecting reproductive success. Additionally, associations between individual SNP and similar phenotypes are inconsistent across data sets, and genomic predictions do not appear to be globally applicable to cattle of different breeds. Discrepancies may be a result of different QTL segregating in the sampled populations, differences in linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns such that the same SNP are not correlated with the same QTL, and spurious correlations with phenotype. Several approaches can be used independently or in combination to improve detection of genomic factors affecting heifer puberty and fertility. Larger samples and denser SNP will increase power to detect real associations with SNP having more consistent LD with underlying QTL. Meta- analysis combining results from different studies can also be used to effectively increase sample size. High-density genotyping with heifers pooled by pregnancy status or early and late puberty can be a cost-effective means to sample large numbers. Networks of genes, implicated by associations with multiple traits correlated with puberty and fertility, could provide insight into the complex nature of these traits, especially if corroborated by functional annotation, established gene interaction pathways, and transcript expression. Example analyses are provided to demonstrate how integrating information about gene function and regulation with statistical associations from whole-genome SNP genotyping assays might enhance knowledge of genomic mechanisms affecting puberty and fertility, enabling reliable DNA tests to guide heifer selection decisions

Genomic regions associated with kyphosis in swine

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A back curvature defect similar to kyphosis in humans has been observed in swine herds. The defect ranges from mild to severe curvature of the thoracic vertebrate in split carcasses and has an estimated heritability of 0.3. The objective of this study was to identify genomic regions that affect this trait.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations performed with 198 SNPs and microsatellite markers in a Duroc-Landrace-Yorkshire resource population (U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, USMARC resource population) of swine provided regions of association with this trait on 15 chromosomes. Positional candidate genes, especially those involved in human skeletal development pathways, were selected for SNP identification. SNPs in 16 candidate genes were genotyped in an F2 population (n = 371) and the USMARC resource herd (n = 1,257) with kyphosis scores. SNPs in <it>KCNN2 </it>on SSC2, <it>RYR1 </it>and <it>PLOD1 </it>on SSC6 and <it>MYST4 </it>on SSC14 were significantly associated with kyphosis in the resource population of swine (<it>P </it>≤ 0.05). SNPs in <it>CER1 </it>and <it>CDH7 </it>on SSC1, <it>PSMA5 </it>on SSC4, <it>HOXC6 </it>and <it>HOXC8 </it>on SSC5, <it>ADAMTS18 </it>on SSC6 and <it>SOX9 </it>on SSC12 were significantly associated with the kyphosis trait in the F2 population of swine (<it>P </it>≤ 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that this kyphosis trait may be affected by several loci and that these may differ by population. Carcass value could be improved by effectively removing this undesirable trait from pig populations.</p

Reducing bias in auditory duration reproduction by integrating the reproduced signal

Duration estimation is known to be far from veridical and to differ for sensory estimates and motor reproduction. To investigate how these differential estimates are integrated for estimating or reproducing a duration and to examine sensorimotor biases in duration comparison and reproduction tasks, we compared estimation biases and variances among three different duration estimation tasks: perceptual comparison, motor reproduction, and auditory reproduction (i.e. a combined perceptual-motor task). We found consistent overestimation in both motor and perceptual-motor auditory reproduction tasks, and the least overestimation in the comparison task. More interestingly, compared to pure motor reproduction, the overestimation bias was reduced in the auditory reproduction task, due to the additional reproduced auditory signal. We further manipulated the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the feedback/comparison tones to examine the changes in estimation biases and variances. Considering perceptual and motor biases as two independent components, we applied the reliability-based model, which successfully predicted the biases in auditory reproduction. Our findings thus provide behavioral evidence of how the brain combines motor and perceptual information together to reduce duration estimation biases and improve estimation reliability

The generational decay of Euroscepticism in the UK and the EU referendum

© 2017 The Author(s). A prominent feature of media coverage during the UK’s referendum on European Union (EU) membership was the stark difference between the pro-EU young and their Eurosceptic elders, widely assumed to reflect a generational divide. The positive relationship between age and hostility towards the EU is well established in academic research, however only Down, and Wilson [(2013). “A rising generation of Europeans? Life-cycle and cohort effects on support for ‘Europe’.” European Journal of Political Research 52: 431–456] have considered whether this reflects a generational or life-cycle effect. While their research confirms that there is such a generational effect, their capacity to explain it is limited. This study utilizes data from Britain and builds on previous attempts to identify and explain generational trends in Euroscepticism, bridging it with studies on individual-level determinants of hostility towards the EU, providing the most detailed assessment of the extent and causes of generational differences in Euroscepticism to date. The results confirm that today’s young people are the most supportive generation of EU membership, caused by a combination of factors including their experience of the EU during their formative years, their relationships with domestic political institutions, and their access to education.This work was supported by Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/L009099/1]

Rectal Transmission of Transmitted/Founder HIV-1 Is Efficiently Prevented by Topical 1% Tenofovir in BLT Humanized Mice

Rectal microbicides are being developed to prevent new HIV infections in both men and women. We focused our in vivo preclinical efficacy study on rectally-applied tenofovir. BLT humanized mice (n = 43) were rectally inoculated with either the primary isolate HIV-1(JRCSF) or the MSM-derived transmitted/founder (T/F) virus HIV-1(THRO) within 30 minutes following treatment with topical 1% tenofovir or vehicle. Under our experimental conditions, in the absence of drug treatment we observed 50% and 60% rectal transmission by HIV-1(JRCSF) and HIV-1(THRO), respectively. Topical tenofovir reduced rectal transmission to 8% (1/12; log rank p = 0.03) for HIV-1(JRCSF) and 0% (0/6; log rank p = 0.02) for HIV-1(THRO). This is the first demonstration that any human T/F HIV-1 rectally infects humanized mice and that transmission of the T/F virus can be efficiently blocked by rectally applied 1% tenofovir. These results obtained in BLT mice, along with recent ex vivo, Phase 1 trial and non-human primate reports, provide a critically important step forward in the development of tenofovir-based rectal microbicides

Evolutionary Relationships of Wild Hominids Recapitulated by Gut Microbial Communities

Although bacteria are continually acquired over the lifetime of an individual, the phylogenetic relationships of great ape species is mirrored in the compositions of their gut microbial communities

Context dependent learning in the serial RT task

This study investigated the development of contextual dependencies for sequential perceptual-motor learning on static features in the learning environment. In three experiments we assessed the effect of manipulating task irrelevant static context features in a serial reaction-time task. Experiment 1 demonstrated impaired performance after simultaneously changing display color, placeholder shape, and placeholder location. Experiment 2 showed that this effect was mainly caused by changing placeholder shape. Finally, Experiment 3 indicated that changing context affected both the application of sequence knowledge and the selection of individual responses. It is proposed either that incidental stimulus features are integrated with a global sequence representation, or that the changed context causes participants to strategically inhibit sequence skills

Climate change litigation: a review of research on courts and litigants in climate government

Studies of climate change litigation have proliferated over the past two decades, as lawsuits across the world increasingly bring policy debates about climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as climate change‐related loss and damage to the attention of courts. We systematically identify 130 articles on climate change litigation published in English in the law and social sciences between 2000 and 2018 to identify research trajectories. In addition to a budding interdisciplinarity in scholarly interest in climate change litigation we also document a growing understanding of the full spectrum of actors involved and implicated in climate lawsuits and the range of motivations and/or strategic imperatives underpinning their engagement with the law. Situating this within the broader academic literature on the topic we then highlight a number of cutting edge trends and opportunities for future research. Four emerging themes are explored in detail: the relationship between litigation and governance; how time and scale feature in climate litigation; the role of science; and what has been coined the “human rights turn” in climate change litigation. We highlight the limits of existing work and the need for future research—not limited to legal scholarship—to evaluate the impact of both regulatory and anti‐regulatory climate‐related lawsuits, and to explore a wider set of jurisdictions, actors and themes. Addressing these issues and questions will help to develop a deeper understanding of the conditions under which litigation will strengthen or undermine climate governance. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governanc