Standard Model tests with trapped radioactive atoms

We review the use of laser cooling and trapping for Standard Model tests, focusing on trapping of radioactive isotopes. Experiments with neutral atoms trapped with modern laser cooling techniques are testing several basic predictions of electroweak unification. For nuclear $\beta$ decay, demonstrated trap techniques include neutrino momentum measurements from beta-recoil coincidences, along with methods to produce highly polarized samples. These techniques have set the best general constraints on non-Standard Model scalar interactions in the first generation of particles. They also have the promise to test whether parity symmetry is maximally violated, to search for tensor interactions, and to search for new sources of time reversal violation. There are also possibilites for exotic particle searches. Measurements of the strength of the weak neutral current can be assisted by precision atomic experiments using traps of small numbers of radioactive atoms, and sensitivity to possible time-reversal violating electric dipole moments can be improved.Comment: 45 pages, 17 figures, v3 includes clarifying referee comments, especially in beta decay section, and updated figure

Development of a taxonomy to describe massage treatments for musculoskeletal pain

BACKGROUND: One of the challenges in conducting research in the field of massage and bodywork is the lack of consistent terminology for describing the treatments given by massage therapists. The objective of this study was to develop a taxonomy to describe what massage therapists actually do when giving a massage to patients with musculoskeletal pain. METHODS: After conducting a review of the massage treatment literature for musculoskeletal pain, a list of candidate techniques was generated for possible inclusion in the taxonomy. This list was modified after discussions with a senior massage therapist educator and seven experienced massage therapists participating in a study of massage for neck pain. RESULTS: The taxonomy was conceptualized as a three level classification system, principal goals of treatment, styles, and techniques. Four categories described the principal goal of treatment (i.e., relaxation massage, clinical massage, movement re-education and energy work). Each principal goal of treatment could be met using a number of different styles, with each style consisting of a number of specific techniques. A total of 36 distinct techniques were identified and described, many of which could be included in multiple styles. CONCLUSION: A new classification system is presented whereby practitioners using different styles of massage can describe the techniques they employ using consistent terminology. This system could help facilitate standardized reporting of massage interventions

Inflammasome Sensor Nlrp1b-Dependent Resistance to Anthrax Is Mediated by Caspase-1, IL-1 Signaling and Neutrophil Recruitment

Bacillus anthracis infects hosts as a spore, germinates, and disseminates in its vegetative form. Production of anthrax lethal and edema toxins following bacterial outgrowth results in host death. Macrophages of inbred mouse strains are either sensitive or resistant to lethal toxin depending on whether they express the lethal toxin responsive or non-responsive alleles of the inflammasome sensor Nlrp1b (Nlrp1bS/S or Nlrp1bR/R, respectively). In this study, Nlrp1b was shown to affect mouse susceptibility to infection. Inbred and congenic mice harboring macrophage-sensitizing Nlrp1bS/S alleles (which allow activation of caspase-1 and IL-1β release in response to anthrax lethal toxin challenge) effectively controlled bacterial growth and dissemination when compared to mice having Nlrp1bR/R alleles (which cannot activate caspase-1 in response to toxin). Nlrp1bS-mediated resistance to infection was not dependent on the route of infection and was observed when bacteria were introduced by either subcutaneous or intravenous routes. Resistance did not occur through alterations in spore germination, as vegetative bacteria were also killed in Nlrp1bS/S mice. Resistance to infection required the actions of both caspase-1 and IL-1β as Nlrp1bS/S mice deleted of caspase-1 or the IL-1 receptor, or treated with the Il-1 receptor antagonist anakinra, were sensitized to infection. Comparison of circulating neutrophil levels and IL-1β responses in Nlrp1bS/S,Nlrp1bR/R and IL-1 receptor knockout mice implicated Nlrp1b and IL-1 signaling in control of neutrophil responses to anthrax infection. Neutrophil depletion experiments verified the importance of this cell type in resistance to B. anthracis infection. These data confirm an inverse relationship between murine macrophage sensitivity to lethal toxin and mouse susceptibility to spore infection, and establish roles for Nlrp1bS, caspase-1, and IL-1β in countering anthrax infection

Copper complexes as a source of redox active MRI contrast agents

The study reports an advance in designing copper-based redox sensing MRI contrast agents. Although the data demonstrate that copper(II) complexes are not able to compete with lanthanoids species in terms of contrast, the redox-dependent switch between diamagnetic copper(I) and paramagnetic copper(II) yields a novel redox-sensitive contrast moiety with potential for reversibility

Deciphering the Arginine-Binding Preferences at the Substrate-Binding Groove of Ser/Thr Kinases by Computational Surface Mapping

Protein kinases are key signaling enzymes that catalyze the transfer of γ-phosphate from an ATP molecule to a phospho-accepting residue in the substrate. Unraveling the molecular features that govern the preference of kinases for particular residues flanking the phosphoacceptor is important for understanding kinase specificities toward their substrates and for designing substrate-like peptidic inhibitors. We applied ANCHORSmap, a new fragment-based computational approach for mapping amino acid side chains on protein surfaces, to predict and characterize the preference of kinases toward Arginine binding. We focus on positions P−2 and P−5, commonly occupied by Arginine (Arg) in substrates of basophilic Ser/Thr kinases. The method accurately identified all the P−2/P−5 Arg binding sites previously determined by X-ray crystallography and produced Arg preferences that corresponded to those experimentally found by peptide arrays. The predicted Arg-binding positions and their associated pockets were analyzed in terms of shape, physicochemical properties, amino acid composition, and in-silico mutagenesis, providing structural rationalization for previously unexplained trends in kinase preferences toward Arg moieties. This methodology sheds light on several kinases that were described in the literature as having non-trivial preferences for Arg, and provides some surprising departures from the prevailing views regarding residues that determine kinase specificity toward Arg. In particular, we found that the preference for a P−5 Arg is not necessarily governed by the 170/230 acidic pair, as was previously assumed, but by several different pairs of acidic residues, selected from positions 133, 169, and 230 (PKA numbering). The acidic residue at position 230 serves as a pivotal element in recognizing Arg from both the P−2 and P−5 positions

Strain-tuning of the magnetocaloric transition temperature in model FeRh films

The chemically ordered B2 phase of equiatomic FeRh is known to absorb or evolve a significant latent heat as it traverses its first-order phase transition in response to thermal, magnetic, and mechanical drivers. This attribute makes FeRh an ideal magnetocaloric material testbed for investigation of relationships between the crystalline lattice and the magnetic spins, which are especially experimentally accessible in thin films. In this work, epitaxial FeRh films of nominal 30 nm and 50 nm thicknesses with out-of-plane c-axis orientation were sputter-deposited at high temperature onto (0 0 1)-MgO or (0 0 0 1)-Al2O3 substrates and capped with Al, Au, Cr, or W after in situ annealing at 973 K to promote CsCl-type chemical order. In this manner a controlled strain state was invoked. Experimental results derived from laboratory and synchrotron x-ray diffraction combined with magnetometry indicate that the antiferromagnetic (AF)—ferromagnetic (FM) magnetostructural phase transformation in these films may be tuned over an ~50° range (373 K–425 K) through variation in the c/a ratio derived from lattice strain delivered by the substrate and the capping layers. These results supply fundamental information that might be used to engineer the magnetocaloric working material in new system designs by introducing targeted values of passive strain to the system