Transcriptomics and proteomics reveal two waves of translational repression during the maturation of malaria parasite sporozoites.

Plasmodium sporozoites are transmitted from infected mosquitoes to mammals, and must navigate the host skin and vasculature to infect the liver. This journey requires distinct proteomes. Here, we report the dynamic transcriptomes and proteomes of both oocyst sporozoites and salivary gland sporozoites in both rodent-infectious Plasmodium yoelii parasites and human-infectious Plasmodium falciparum parasites. The data robustly define mRNAs and proteins that are upregulated in oocyst sporozoites (UOS) or upregulated in infectious sporozoites (UIS) within the salivary glands, including many that are essential for sporozoite functions in the vector and host. Moreover, we find that malaria parasites use two overlapping, extensive, and independent programs of translational repression across sporozoite maturation to temporally regulate protein expression. Together with gene-specific validation experiments, these data indicate that two waves of translational repression are implemented and relieved at different times during sporozoite maturation, migration and infection, thus promoting their successful development and vector-to-host transition

The source counts of submillimetre galaxies detected at 1.1 mm

The source counts of galaxies discovered at sub-millimetre and millimetre wavelengths provide important information on the evolution of infrared-bright galaxies. We combine the data from six blank-field surveys carried out at 1.1 mm with AzTEC, totalling 1.6 square degrees in area with root-mean-square depths ranging from 0.4 to 1.7 mJy, and derive the strongest constraints to date on the 1.1 mm source counts at flux densities S(1100) = 1-12 mJy. Using additional data from the AzTEC Cluster Environment Survey to extend the counts to S(1100) ~ 20 mJy, we see tentative evidence for an enhancement relative to the exponential drop in the counts at S(1100) ~ 13 mJy and a smooth connection to the bright source counts at >20 mJy measured by the South Pole Telescope; this excess may be due to strong lensing effects. We compare these counts to predictions from several semi-analytical and phenomenological models and find that for most the agreement is quite good at flux densities > 4 mJy; however, we find significant discrepancies (>3sigma) between the models and the observed 1.1 mm counts at lower flux densities, and none of them are consistent with the observed turnover in the Euclidean-normalised counts at S(1100) < 2 mJy. Our new results therefore may require modifications to existing evolutionary models for low luminosity galaxies. Alternatively, the discrepancy between the measured counts at the faint end and predictions from phenomenological models could arise from limited knowledge of the spectral energy distributions of faint galaxies in the local Universe.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

Final report on the CCPR Key Comparison CCPR-K3.2014 Luminous Intensity

Main text The metrological equivalence of national measurement standards in the field of photometry and radiometry is determined by a set of key comparisons chosen and organised by the Consultative Committee of Photometry and Radiometry (CCPR) of the Comité international des poids et mesures (CIPM), working closely with the Regional Metrology Organisations (RMOs). In September 2009 the CCPR decided that a second round of the key comparison K3 Luminous Intensity be commenced. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) was chosen to pilot this comparison. A total of 12 participants were selected from the three RMO group members: EURAMET&COOMET (6: IO-CSIC, LNE-CNAM, METAS, NPL, PTB, VNIIOFI), APMP&AFRIMETS (4: NMISA, NIM, NMIA, NMIJ), and SIM (2: NIST, NRC). The comparison was organised as a star comparison (NMI-Pilot-NMI) using incandescent standard lamps supplied by each NMI (National Metrology Institute) as the travelling comparison artifact. This report describes the comparison organisation (Section 2), the measurement methods and uncertainties achieved at all the participants and at the pilot (Sections 3 and 4), and the method for analysis and the results of the comparison according to this method (Section 4). It includes a comparison of the results of this comparison with the 1999 first round key comparison (Section 5). Section 6 presents a summary of the comparison. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database https://www.bipm.org/kcdb/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCPR, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA)

Millimeter imaging of submillimeter galaxies in the COSMOS field: Redshift distribution

We present new IRAM PdBI 1.3mm continuum observations at ~1.5" resolution of 28 SMGs previously discovered with the 870um bolometer LABOCA at APEX within the central 0.7deg2 of the COSMOS field. 19 out of the 28 LABOCA sources were detected with the PdBI at a >~3sigma level of ~1.4mJy/b. A combined analysis of this new sample with existing interferometrically identified SMGs in the COSMOS field yields the following results: 1) >~15%, and possibly up to ~40% of single-dish detected SMGs consist of multiple sources, 2) statistical identifications of multi-wavelength counterparts to the single-dish SMGs yield that only ~50% of these single-dish SMGs have real radio or IR counterparts, 3) ~18% of interferometric SMGs have only radio or even no multi-wavelength counterpart at all, and 4) ~50-70% of z>~3 SMGs have no radio counterparts down to an rms of 7-12uJy at 1.4GHz. Using the exact interferometric positions to identify proper multi-wavelength counterparts allows us to determine accurate photometric redshifts for these sources. The redshift distributions of the combined and the individual 1.1mm and 870um selected samples have a higher mean and broader width than the redshift distributions derived in previous studies. Our sample supports the previous tentative trend that on average brighter and/or mm-selected SMGs are located at higher redshifts. There is a tentative offset between the mean redshift for the 1.1mm (=3.1+/-0.4) and 870um (=2.6+/-0.4) selected samples, with the 1.1mm sources lying on average at higher redshifts. Based on our nearly complete sample of AzTEC 1.1mm SMGs within a uniform 0.15deg2 area we infer a higher surface density of z>~4 SMGs than predicted by current cosmological models. In summary, our findings imply that (sub-)millimeter interferometric identifications are crucial to build statistically complete and unbiased samples of SMGs.Comment: 35 pages, 18 figures, 10 tables; accepted for publication in A&

Portuguese history storyboard

This paper intends to present relevant facts about the Portuguese culture and history, so as to enable a better understanding of who the Portuguese are and provide an overall perspective of the course of history in this westernmost part of Europe. Although the choice of historical facts was subjective by nature, it is believed it achieves the aim of presenting information in a critical but blithesome way, with a view to also deconstructing national stereotypes, such as that Portuguese people are always late or are crazy about football. Finally, it focuses on some information about the Portuguese language mainly to serve as a term of comparison with other European languages

A Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment Using J-PARC Neutrino Beam and Hyper-Kamiokande

Document submitted to 18th J-PARC PAC meeting in May 2014. 50 pages, 41 figuresDocument submitted to 18th J-PARC PAC meeting in May 2014. 50 pages, 41 figuresDocument submitted to 18th J-PARC PAC meeting in May 2014. 50 pages, 41 figuresHyper-Kamiokande will be a next generation underground water Cherenkov detector with a total (fiducial) mass of 0.99 (0.56) million metric tons, approximately 20 (25) times larger than that of Super-Kamiokande. One of the main goals of Hyper-Kamiokande is the study of $CP$ asymmetry in the lepton sector using accelerator neutrino and anti-neutrino beams. In this document, the physics potential of a long baseline neutrino experiment using the Hyper-Kamiokande detector and a neutrino beam from the J-PARC proton synchrotron is presented. The analysis has been updated from the previous Letter of Intent [K. Abe et al., arXiv:1109.3262 [hep-ex]], based on the experience gained from the ongoing T2K experiment. With a total exposure of 7.5 MW $\times$ 10$^7$ sec integrated proton beam power (corresponding to $1.56\times10^{22}$ protons on target with a 30 GeV proton beam) to a $2.5$-degree off-axis neutrino beam produced by the J-PARC proton synchrotron, it is expected that the $CP$ phase $\delta_{CP}$ can be determined to better than 19 degrees for all possible values of $\delta_{CP}$, and $CP$ violation can be established with a statistical significance of more than $3\,\sigma$ ($5\,\sigma$) for $76$ ($58$) of the $\delta_{CP}$ parameter space

Coupling GIS and LCA for biodiversity assessments of land use

Geospatial details about land use are necessary to assess its potential impacts on biodiversity. Geographic information systems (GIS) are adept at modeling land use in a spatially explicit manner, while life cycle assessment (LCA) does not conventionally utilize geospatial information. This study presents a proof-of-concept approach for coupling GIS and LCA for biodiversity assessments of land use and applies it to a case study of ethanol production from agricultural crops in California. GIS modeling was used to generate crop production scenarios for corn and sugar beets that met a range of ethanol production targets. The selected study area was a four-county region in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California, USA. The resulting land use maps were translated into maps of habitat types. From these maps, vectors were created that contained the total areas for each habitat type in the study region. These habitat compositions are treated as elementary input flows and used to calculate different biodiversity impact indicators in a second paper (Geyer et al., submitted). Ten ethanol production scenarios were developed with GIS modeling. Current land use is added as baseline scenario. The parcels selected for corn and sugar beet production were generally in different locations. Moreover, corn and sugar beets are classified as different habitat types. Consequently, the scenarios differed in both the habitat types converted and in the habitat types expanded. Importantly, land use increased nonlinearly with increasing ethanol production targets. The GIS modeling for this study used spatial data that are commonly available in most developed countries and only required functions that are provided in virtually any commercial or open-source GIS software package. This study has demonstrated that GIS-based inventory modeling of land use allows important refinements in LCA theory and practice. Using GIS, land use can be modeled as a geospatial and nonlinear function of output. For each spatially explicit process, land use can be expressed within the conventional structure of LCA methodology as a set of elementary input flows of habitat types

Search for short baseline nu(e) disappearance with the T2K near detector

8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRD rapid communication8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRD rapid communicationWe thank the J-PARC staff for superb accelerator performance and the CERN NA61 collaboration for providing valuable particle production data. We acknowledge the support of MEXT, Japan; NSERC, NRC and CFI, Canada; Commissariat `a l’Energie Atomique and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique–Institut National de Physique Nucle´aire et de Physique des Particules, France; DFG, Germany; INFN, Italy; National Science Centre (NCN), Poland; Russian Science Foundation, RFBR and Ministry of Education and Science, Russia; MINECO and European Regional Development Fund, Spain; Swiss National Science Foundation and State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, Switzerland; STFC, UK; and DOE, USA. We also thank CERN for the UA1/NOMAD magnet, DESY for the HERA-B magnet mover system, NII for SINET4, the WestGrid and SciNet consortia in Compute Canada, GridPP, UK. In addition participation of individual researchers and institutions has been further supported by funds from ERC (FP7), EU; JSPS, Japan; Royal Society, UK; DOE Early Career program, USA