CRB2 completes a fully expressed Crumbs complex in the Retinal Pigment Epithelium

The CRB proteins CRB1, CRB2 and CRB3 are members of the cell polarity complex Crumbs in mammals that together with Scribble and Par complexes stablish the polarity of a variety of cell types. Although many members of the Crumbs complex proteins are expressed in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), and even though the mRNA of CRB2 has been detected in ARPE-19 cells and in the RPE/Choroid, to date no CRB protein has yet been found in this tissue. To investigate this possibility, we generated an antibody that specifically recognize the mouse CRB2 protein, and we demonstrate the expression of CRB2 in mouse RPE. Confocal analysis shows that CRB2 is restricted to the apicolateral membrane of RPE cells, and more precisely, in the tight junctions. Our study identified CRB2 as the member of the CRB protein family that is present together with the rest of the components of the Crumbs complex in the RPE apico-lateral cell membrane. Considering that the functions of CRB proteins are decisive in the establishment and maintenance of cell-cell junctions in several epithelial-derived cell types, we believe that these findings are a relevant starting point for unraveling the functions that CRB2 might perform in the RPE

Equal Channel Angular Extrusion Progress Report for March 1998 - May 1999

Pure copper and Alloy 5083 aluminum were processed by equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE); their microstructural evolution and corresponding mechanical properties were investigated. Work also began on the possible use of ECAE to synthesize advanced materials or to consolidate metal powders or powder mixtures. The die tooling used for ECAE is described and selected microstructural and mechanical property results for ECAE-processed copper and cold-rolled (conventionally-processed) copper in the as-processed and annealed condition are compared. Results thus far show that the “pure” metal is prone to low temperature recrystallization after large strain hardening—more beneficial effects are expected in the dispersion-strengthened and precipitation-hardening alloys. The large range of tensile properties and grain sizes from the copper allowed a flow stress analysis to be performed. From this analysis, a new model for flow stress behavior is proposed. An evaluation of ECAE processing of material for spot welding electrodes began. Results to date include electrodes of ECAE-processed commercially pure copper (Alloy 101). Future work involving Glidcop® (Al2O3 oxide dispersionstrengthened copper) and CuCrZr (Cr-Zr precipitation dispersion) materials will be required to fully investigate the benefits of ECAE for electrode life extension. Initial work on Aluminum Alloy 5083 showed that ECAE led to grain refinement as well as broke up and more uniformly dispersed the hardening precipitates. This is desirable for enhancing superplastic behavior. Study of ECAE for consolidating metal powder began. Early results with a Cu-Ag powder indicate that near 100% density was achieved with room temperature consolidation

A look at the other 90 per cent: Investigating British Sign Language vocabulary knowledge in deaf children from different language learning backgrounds

In this study we present new data on deaf children's receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge in British Sign Language (BSL) from a sample consisting of children with deaf parents, children with hearing parents, and children with additional needs. Their performance on three BSL vocabulary tasks was compared with (previously reported findings from) a sample of deaf fluent signers. We use these data to assess the effects of some key demographic/ child variables on deaf signing children's vocabulary and discuss findings in the relation to the meaning of 'normative' data and samples for this heterogeneous population. Findings show no effect of the presence of additional disabilities on participants' scores for any of the three tasks. As expected, chronological age is the most significant factor in performance on all vocabulary tasks while the number of deaf relatives only becomes statistically significant for the form recall task. This study contributes to the field of sign language assessment by seeking to identify key variables in heterogeneity and how these variables affect signed vocabulary acquisition with the long-term objective of informing intervention

Masses, radii, and orbits of small Kepler planets : The transition from gaseous to rocky planets

We report on the masses, sizes, and orbits of the planets orbiting 22 Kepler stars. There are 49 planet candidates around these stars, including 42 detected through transits and 7 revealed by precise Doppler measurements of the host stars. Based on an analysis of the Kepler brightness measurements, along with high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, Doppler spectroscopy, and (for 11 stars) asteroseismology, we establish low false-positive probabilities (FPPs) for all of the transiting planets (41 of 42 have an FPP under 1%), and we constrain their sizes and masses. Most of the transiting planets are smaller than three times the size of Earth. For 16 planets, the Doppler signal was securely detected, providing a direct measurement of the planet's mass. For the other 26 planets we provide either marginal mass measurements or upper limits to their masses and densities; in many cases we can rule out a rocky composition. We identify six planets with densities above 5 g cm-3, suggesting a mostly rocky interior for them. Indeed, the only planets that are compatible with a purely rocky composition are smaller than 2 R ⊕. Larger planets evidently contain a larger fraction of low-density material (H, He, and H2O).Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

HD 213885b: a transiting 1-d-period super-Earth with an Earth-like composition around a bright (V = 7.9) star unveiled by TESS

We report the discovery of the 1.008-d, ultrashort period (USP) super-Earth HD 213885b (TOI-141b) orbiting the bright (V = 7.9) star HD 213885 (TOI-141, TIC 403224672), detected using photometry from the recently launched TESS mission. Using FEROS, HARPS, and CORALIE radial velocities, we measure a precise mass of 8.8 ± 0.6 M⊕ for this 1.74 ± 0.05 R⊕ exoplanet, which provides enough information to constrain its bulk composition – similar to Earth’s but enriched in iron. The radius, mass, and stellar irradiation of HD 213885b are, given our data, very similar to 55 Cancri e, making this exoplanet a good target to perform comparative exoplanetology of short period, highly irradiated super-Earths. Our precise radial velocities reveal an additional 4.78-d signal which we interpret as arising from a second, non-transiting planet in the system, HD 213885c, whose minimum mass of 19.9 ± 1.4 M⊕ makes it consistent with being a Neptune-mass exoplanet. The HD 213885 system is very interesting from the perspective of future atmospheric characterization, being the second brightest star to host an USP transiting super-Earth (with the brightest star being, in fact, 55 Cancri). Prospects for characterization with present and future observatories are discussed

SoilTemp: a global database of near-surface temperature

Current analyses and predictions of spatially-explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long-term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate-forcing factors that operate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions are overlooked. This is particularly important in relation to effects of observation height (e.g. vegetation, snow and soil characteristics) and in habitats varying in their exposure to radiation, moisture and wind (e.g. topography, radiative forcing, or cold-air pooling). Since organisms living close to the ground relate more strongly to these microclimatic conditions than to free-air temperatures, microclimatic ground and near-surface data are needed to provide realistic forecasts of the fate of such organisms under anthropogenic climate change, as well as of the functioning of the ecosystems they live in. To fill this critical gap, we highlight a call for temperature time series submissions to SoilTemp, a geospatial database initiative compiling soil and near-surface temperature data from all over the world. Currently this database contains time series from 7538 temperature sensors from 51 countries across all key biomes. The database will pave the way towards an improved global understanding of microclimate and bridge the gap between the available climate data and the climate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions relevant to most organisms and ecosystem processes.Additional co-authors: Stuart W. Smith, Robert G. Björk, Lena Muffler, Simone Cesarz, Felix Gottschall, Amanda Ratier Backes, Joseph Okello, Josef Urban, Roman Plichta, Martin Svátek, Shyam S. Phartyal, Sonja Wipf, Nico Eisenhauer, Mihai Pușcaș, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Andrej Varlagin, Romina D. Dimarco, Krystal Randall, Ellen Dorrepaal, Keith Larson, Josefine Walz, Luca Vitale, Miroslav Svoboda, Rebecca Finger Higgens, Aud H. Halbritter, Salvatore R. Curasi, Ian Klupar, Austin Koontz, William D. Pearse, Elizabeth Simpson, Michael Stemkovski, Bente Jessen Graae, Mia Vedel Sørensen, Toke T. Høye, M. Rosa Fernández Calzado, Juan Lorite, Michele Carbognani, Marcello Tomaselli, T'ai G.W. Forte, Alessandro Petraglia, Stef Haesen, Ben Somers, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Mats P. Björkman, Kristoffer Hylander, Sonia Merinero, Mana Gharun, Nina Buchmann, Jiri Dolezal, Radim Matula, Andrew D. Thomas, Joseph J. Bailey, Dany Ghosn, George Kazakis, Miguel Angel de Pablo, Julia Kemppinen, Pekka Niittynen, Lisa Rew, Tim Seipel, Christian Larson, James D.M. Speed, Jonas Ardö, Nicoletta Cannone, Mauro Guglielmin, Francesco Malfasi, Maaike Y. Bader, Rafaella Canessa, Angela Stanisci, Juergen Kreyling, Jonas Schmeddes, Laurenz Teuber, Valeria Aschero, Marek Čiliak, František Máliš, Pallieter De Smedt, Sanne Govaert, Camille Meeussen, Pieter Vangansbeke, Khatuna Gigauri, Andrea Lamprecht, Harald Pauli, Klaus Steinbauer, Manuela Winkler, Masahito Ueyama, Martin A. Nuñez, Tudor‐Mihai Ursu, Sylvia Haider, Ronja E.M. Wedegärtner, Marko Smiljanic, Mario Trouillier, Martin Wilmking, Jan Altman, Josef Brůna, Lucia Hederová, Martin Macek, Matěj Man, Jan Wild, Pascal Vittoz, Meelis Pärtel, Peter Barančok, Róbert Kanka, Jozef Kollár, Andrej Palaj, Agustina Barros, Ana Clara Mazzolari, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, José Luis Benito Alonso, Shengwei Zong, Valter Di Cecco, Zuzana Sitková, Katja Tielbörger, Liesbeth van den Brink, Robert Weigel, Jürgen Homeier, C. Johan Dahlberg, Sergiy Medinets, Volodymyr Medinets, Hans J. De Boeck, Miguel Portillo‐Estrada, Lore T. Verryckt, Ann Milbau, Gergana N. Daskalova, Haydn J.D. Thomas, Isla H. Myers‐Smith, Benjamin Blonder, Jörg G. Stephan, Patrice Descombes, Florian Zellweger, Esther R. Frei, Bernard Heinesch, Christopher Andrews, Jan Dick, Lukas Siebicke, Adrian Rocha, Rebecca A. Senior, Christian Rixen, Juan J. Jimenez, Julia Boike, Aníbal Pauchard, Thomas Scholten, Brett Scheffers, David Klinges, Edmund W. Basham, Jian Zhang, Zhaochen Zhang, Charly Géron, Fatih Fazlioglu, Onur Candan, Jhonatan Sallo Bravo, Filip Hrbacek, Kamil Laska, Edoardo Cremonese, Peter Haase, Fernando E. Moyano, Christian Rossi, and Ivan Nij

Participant Perceptions of Twitter Research Ethics

Social computing systems such as Twitter present new research sites that have provided billions of data points to researchers. However, the availability of public social media data has also presented ethical challenges. As the research community works to create ethical norms, we should be considering users’ concerns as well. With this in mind, we report on an exploratory survey of Twitter users’ perceptions of the use of tweets in research. Within our survey sample, few users were previously aware that their public tweets could be used by researchers, and the majority felt that researchers should not be able to use tweets without consent. However, we find that these attitudes are highly contextual, depending on factors such as how the research is conducted or disseminated, who is conducting it, and what the study is about. The findings of this study point to potential best practices for researchers conducting observation and analysis of public data

Novel approach to analysing large data sets of personal sun exposure measurements

Personal sun exposure measurements provide important information to guide the development of sun awareness and disease prevention campaigns. We assess the scaling properties of personal ultraviolet radiation (pUVR) sun exposure measurements using the wavelet transform (WT) spectral analysis to process long-range, high-frequency personal recordings collected by electronic UVR dosimeters designed to measure erythemal UVR exposure. We analysed the sun exposure recordings of school children, farmers, marathon runners and outdoor workers in South Africa, and construction workers and work site supervisors in New Zealand. We found scaling behaviour in all the analysed pUVR data sets. We found that the observed scaling changes from uncorrelated to long-range correlated with increasing duration of sun exposure. Peaks in the WT spectra that we found suggest the existence of characteristic times in sun exposure behaviour that were to some extent universal across our data set. Our study also showed that WT measures enable group classification, as well as distinction between individual UVR exposures, otherwise unattainable by conventional statistical methods