Transcriptomics and proteomics reveal a cooperation between interferon and T-helper 17 cells in neuromyelitis optica

Type I interferon (IFN-I) and T helper 17 (TH17) drive pathology in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and in TH17-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (TH17-EAE). This is paradoxical because the prevalent theory is that IFN-I inhibits TH17 function. Here we report that a cascade involving IFN-I, IL-6 and B cells promotes TH17-mediated neuro-autoimmunity. In NMOSD, elevated IFN-I signatures, IL-6 and IL-17 are associated with severe disability. Furthermore, IL-6 and IL-17 levels are lower in patients on anti-CD20 therapy. In mice, IFN-I elevates IL-6 and exacerbates TH17-EAE. Strikingly, IL-6 blockade attenuates disease only in mice treated with IFN-I. By contrast, B-cell-deficiency attenuates TH17-EAE in the presence or absence of IFN-I treatment. Finally, IFN-I stimulates B cells to produce IL-6 to drive pathogenic TH17 differentiation in vitro. Our data thus provide an explanation for the paradox surrounding IFN-I and TH17 in neuro-autoimmunity, and may have utility in predicting therapeutic response in NMOSD

Comparison of multiple and logistic regression analyses of relativistic electron flux enhancement at geosynchronous orbit following storms.

Many factors influence relativistic outer radiation belt electron fluxes, such as waves in the ultra low frequency (ULF) Pc5, very low frequency (VLF), and electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) frequency bands, seed electron flux, Dst disturbance levels, substorm occurrence, and solar wind inputs. In this work we compared relativistic electron flux post storm vs. pre‐storm using three methods of analysis: 1) multiple regression to predict flux values following storms, 2) multiple regression to predict the size and direction of the change in electron flux, and 3) multiple logistic regression to predict only the probability of the flux rising or falling. We determined which is the most predictive model, and which factors are most influential. We found that a linear regression predicting the difference in pre‐storm and post storm flux (Model 2) results in the highest validation correlations. The logistic regression used in Model 3 had slightly weaker predictive abilities than the other two models, but had most value in providing a prediction of the probability of the electron flux increasing after a storm. Of the variables used (ULF Pc5 and VLF waves, seed electrons, substorm activity, and EMIC waves), the most influential in the final model were ULF Pc5 waves and the seed electrons. IMF Bz, Dst, and solar wind number density, velocity, and pressure did not improve any of the models, and were deemed unnecessary for effective predictions

Growth and mortality of coccolithophores during spring in a temperate Shelf Sea (Celtic Sea, April 2015)

Coccolithophores are key components of phytoplankton communities, exerting a critical impact on the global carbon cycle and the Earth’s climate through the production of coccoliths made of calcium carbonate (calcite) and bioactive gases. Microzooplankton grazing is an important mortality factor in coccolithophore blooms, however little is currently known regarding the mortality (or growth) rates within non-bloom populations. Measurements of coccolithophore calcite production (CP) and dilution experiments to determine microzooplankton (≤63 µm) grazing rates were made during a spring cruise (April 2015) at the Central Celtic Sea (CCS), shelf edge (CS2), and within an adjacent April bloom of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi at station J2. CP at CCS ranged from 10.4 to 40.4 µmol C m−3 d−1 and peaked at the height of the spring phytoplankton bloom (peak chlorophyll-a concentrations ∼6 mg m−3). Cell normalised calcification rates declined from ∼1.7 to ∼0.2 pmol C cell−1 d−1, accompanied by a shift from a mixed coccolithophore species community to one dominated by the more lightly calcified species E. huxleyi and Calciopappus caudatus. At the CCS, coccolithophore abundance increased from 6 to 94 cells mL−1, with net growth rates ranging from 0.06 to 0.21 d−1 from the 4th to the 28th April. Estimates of intrinsic growth and grazing rates from dilution experiments, at the CCS ranged from 0.01 to 0.86 d−1 and from 0.01 to 1.32 d−1, respectively, which resulted in variable net growth rates during April. Microzooplankton grazers consumed 59 to >100% of daily calcite production at the CCS. Within the E. huxleyi bloom a maximum density of 1986 cells mL−1 was recorded, along with CP rates of 6000 µmol C m−3 d−1 and an intrinsic growth rate of 0.29 d−1, with ∼80% of daily calcite production being consumed. Our results show that microzooplankton can exert strong top-down control on both bloom and non-bloom coccolithophore populations, grazing over 60% of daily growth (and calcite production). The fate of consumed calcite is unclear, but may be lost either through dissolution in acidic food vacuoles, and subsequent release as CO2, or export to the seabed after incorporation into small faecal pellets. With such high microzooplankton-mediated mortality losses, the fate of grazed calcite is clearly a high priority research direction

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Reducing heterotic M-theory to five dimensional supergravity on a manifold with boundary

This paper constructs the reduction of heterotic $M$-theory in eleven dimensions to a supergravity model on a manifold with boundary in five dimensions using a Calabi-Yau three-fold. New results are presented for the boundary terms in the action and for the boundary conditions on the bulk fields. Some general features of dualisation on a manifold with boundary are used to explain the origin of some topological terms in the action. The effect of gaugino condensation on the fermion boundary conditions leads to a `twist' in the chirality of the gravitino which can provide an uplifting mechanism in the vacuum energy to cancel the cosmological constant after moduli stabilisation.Comment: 16 pages, RevTe

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters

Measurement of the production cross section of prompt j/psi mesons in association with a W (+/-) boson in pp collisions root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The process pp → W±J/ψ provides a powerful probe of the production mechanism of charmonium in hadronic collisions, and is also sensitive to multiple parton interactions in the colliding protons. Using the 2011 ATLAS dataset of 4.5 fb-1 of p s = 7TeV pp collisions at the LHC, the first observation is made of the production of W± + prompt J/ events in hadronic collisions, using W± → μ and J/ψ → μ+μ-. A yield of 27.4±7.5 -6.5 W± + prompt J/ψ events is observed, with a statistical significance of 5.1. The production rate as a ratio to the inclusive W± boson production rate is measured, and the double parton scattering contribution to the cross section is estimated. Copyright CERN, for the benefit of the ATLAS Collaboration