EXPERIMENTALLY MEASURED RADIATIVE LIFETIMES AND OSCILLATOR STRENGTHS IN NEUTRAL VANADIUM

We report a new study of the V i atom using a combination of time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence and Fourier transform spectroscopy that contains newly measured radiative lifetimes for 25 levels between 24,648 cm−1 and 37,518 cm−1 and oscillator strengths for 208 lines between 3040 and 20000 Å from 39 upper energy levels. Thirteen of these oscillator strengths have not been reported previously. This work was conducted independently of the recent studies of neutral vanadium lifetimes and oscillator strengths carried out by Den Hartog et al. and Lawler et al., and thus serves as a means to verify those measurements. Where our data overlap with their data, we generally find extremely good agreement in both level lifetimes and oscillator strengths. However, we also find evidence that Lawler et al. have systematically underestimated oscillator strengths for lines in the region of 9000 ± 100 Å. We suggest a correction of 0.18 ± 0.03 dex for these values to bring them into agreement with our results and those of Whaling et al. We also report new measurements of hyperfine structure splitting factors for three odd levels of V i lying between 24,700 and 28,400 cm−1

Longer Leukocyte Telomere Length Is Associated with Smaller Hippocampal Volume among Non-Demented APOE ε3/ε3 Subjects

Telomere length shortens with cellular division, and leukocyte telomere length is used as a marker for systemic telomere length. The hippocampus hosts adult neurogenesis and is an important structure for episodic memory, and carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele exhibit higher hippocampal atrophy rates and differing telomere dynamics compared with non-carriers. The authors investigated whether leukocyte telomere length was associated with hippocampal volume in 57 cognitively intact subjects (29 ε3/ε3 carriers; 28 ε4 carriers) aged 49–79 yr. Leukocyte telomere length correlated inversely with left (rs = −0.465; p = 0.011), right (rs = −0.414; p = 0.025), and total hippocampus volume (rs = −0.519; p = 0.004) among APOE ε3/ε3 carriers, but not among ε4 carriers. However, the ε4 carriers fit with the general correlation pattern exhibited by the ε3/ε3 carriers, as ε4 carriers on average had longer telomeres and smaller hippocampi compared with ε3/ε3 carriers. The relationship observed can be interpreted as long telomeres representing a history of relatively low cellular proliferation, reflected in smaller hippocampal volumes. The results support the potential of leukocyte telomere length being used as a biomarker for tapping functional and structural processes of the aging brain

May Measurement Month: results of 12 national blood pressure screening programmes between 2017 and 2019

The first May Measurement Month (MMM) campaign, a global blood pressure (BP) screening programme, began in 2017 as an initiative of the International Society of Hypertension.1 Two subsequent annual campaigns have also been completed in consecutive years2,3 and having had to defer activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 the fourth campaign was run in 2021, the results of which are currently in press. Since its initiation in 2017, volunteers from more than 100 countries have participated. The aims of MMM have remained consistent from the start—to raise awareness of the importance of the measurement of BP at the individual and population level and to provide a temporary pragmatic solution to the shortfall in BP screening programmes in countries around the world

Long-term (trophic) purinergic signalling: purinoceptors control cell proliferation, differentiation and death

The purinergic signalling system, which uses purines and pyrimidines as chemical transmitters, and purinoceptors as effectors, is deeply rooted in evolution and development and is a pivotal factor in cell communication. The ATP and its derivatives function as a 'danger signal' in the most primitive forms of life. Purinoceptors are extraordinarily widely distributed in all cell types and tissues and they are involved in the regulation of an even more extraordinary number of biological processes. In addition to fast purinergic signalling in neurotransmission, neuromodulation and secretion, there is long-term (trophic) purinergic signalling involving cell proliferation, differentiation, motility and death in the development and regeneration of most systems of the body. In this article, we focus on the latter in the immune/defence system, in stratified epithelia in visceral organs and skin, embryological development, bone formation and resorption, as well as in cancer. Cell Death and Disease (2010) 1, e9; doi:10.1038/cddis.2009.11; published online 14 January 201

Behavioural syndrome in a solitary predator is independent of body size and growth rate.

Models explaining behavioural syndromes often focus on state-dependency, linking behavioural variation to individual differences in other phenotypic features. Empirical studies are, however, rare. Here, we tested for a size and growth-dependent stable behavioural syndrome in the juvenile-stages of a solitary apex predator (pike, Esox lucius), shown as repeatable foraging behaviour across risk. Pike swimming activity, latency to prey attack, number of successful and unsuccessful prey attacks was measured during the presence/absence of visual contact with a competitor or predator. Foraging behaviour across risks was considered an appropriate indicator of boldness in this solitary predator where a trade-off between foraging behaviour and threat avoidance has been reported. Support was found for a behavioural syndrome, where the rank order differences in the foraging behaviour between individuals were maintained across time and risk situation. However, individual behaviour was independent of body size and growth in conditions of high food availability, showing no evidence to support the state-dependent personality hypothesis. The importance of a combination of spatial and temporal environmental variation for generating growth differences is highlighted

No evidence for UV-based nest-site selection in sticklebacks

BACKGROUND: Nests are built in various animal taxa including fish. In systems with exclusive male parental care, the choice of a nest site may be an important component of male fitness. The nest site may influence male attractiveness as a mate, and male, embryo, and juvenile survival probabilities. Reproductively active three-spined stickleback males establish and defend a territory in which they build a nest. Territories can differ remarkably in qualities that influence male and female reproductive success like predation risk or abiotic factors such as dissolved oxygen concentration or lighting conditions. The latter may be important because in sticklebacks the extended visual capability into the ultraviolet (UV) wave range plays a role in female mate choice. Males are thus expected to be choosy about the habitat in which they will build their nest. RESULTS: We tested nest-site choice in male three-spined sticklebacks with respect to different UV lighting conditions. Reproductively active males were given the simultaneous choice to build their nest either in an UV-rich (UV+) or an UV-lacking (UV-) environment. Males exhibited no significant nest-site preferences with respect to UV+ or UV-. However, larger males and also heavier ones completed their nests earlier. CONCLUSION: We found that UV radiation as well as differences in luminance had no influence on nest-site choice in three-spined sticklebacks. Males that built in the UV-rich environment were not different in any trait (body traits and UV reflection traits) from males that built in the UV-poor environment. There was a significant effect of standard length and body mass on the time elapsed until nest completion in the UV experiment. The larger and heavier a male, the faster he completed his nest. In the brightness control experiment there was a significant effect only of body mass on the duration of nest completion. Whether nest building preferences with respect to UV lighting conditions are context dependent needs to be tested for instance by nest-site choice experiment under increased predation risk

A lake as a microcosm: reflections on developments in aquatic ecology

In the present study, we aim at relating Forbes' remarkable paper on "The lake as a microcosm", published 125 years ago, to the present status of knowledge in our own research group. Hence, we relate the observations Forbes made to our own microcosm, Lake Krankesjon in southern Sweden, that has been intensively studied by several research groups for more than three decades. Specifically, we focus on the question: Have we made any significant progress or did Forbes and colleagues blaze the trail through the unknown wilderness and we are mainly paving that intellectual road? We conclude that lakes are more isolated than many other biomes, but have, indeed, many extensions, for example, input from the catchment, fishing and fish migration. We also conclude that irrespective of whether lakes should be viewed as microcosms or not, the paper by Forbes has been exceptionally influential and still is, especially since it touches upon almost all aspects of the lake ecosystem, from individual behaviour to food web interactions and environmental issues. Therefore, there is no doubt that even if 125 years have passed, Forbes' paper still is a source of inspiration and deserves to be read. Hence, although aquatic ecology has made considerable progress over the latest century, Forbes might be viewed as one of the major pioneers and visionary scientists of limnology

Moduli Stabilization and Cosmology of Type IIB on SU(2)-Structure Orientifolds

We consider type IIB flux compactifications on six-dimensional SU(2)-structure manifolds with O5- and O7-planes. These six-dimensional spaces allow not only for F_3 and H_3 fluxes but also for F_1 and F_5 fluxes. We derive the four-dimensional N=1 scalar potential for such compactifications and present one explicit example of a fully stabilized AdS vacuum with large volume and small string coupling. We then discuss cosmological aspects of these compactifications and derive several no-go theorems that forbid dS vacua and slow-roll inflation under certain conditions. We also study concrete examples of cosets and twisted tori and find that our no-go theorems forbid dS vacua and slow-roll inflation in all but one of them. For the latter we find a dS critical point with \epsilon numerically zero. However, the point has two tachyons and eta-parameter \eta \approx -3.1.Comment: 35 pages + appendices, LaTeX2e; v2: numerical dS extremum added, typos corrected, references adde

Tasting Soil Fungal Diversity with Earth Tongues: Phylogenetic Test of SATé Alignments for Environmental ITS Data

An abundance of novel fungal lineages have been indicated by DNA sequencing of the nuclear ribosomal ITS region from environmental samples such as soil and wood. Although phylogenetic analysis of these novel lineages is a key component of unveiling the structure and diversity of complex communities, such analyses are rare for environmental ITS data due to the difficulties of aligning this locus across significantly divergent taxa. One potential approach to this issue is simultaneous alignment and tree estimation. We targeted divergent ITS sequences of the earth tongue fungi (Geoglossomycetes), a basal class in the Ascomycota, to assess the performance of SATé, recent software that combines progressive alignment and tree building. We found that SATé performed well in generating high-quality alignments and in accurately estimating the phylogeny of earth tongue fungi. Drawing from a data set of 300 sequences of earth tongues and progressively more distant fungal lineages, 30 insufficiently identified ITS sequences from the public sequence databases were assigned to the Geoglossomycetes. The association between earth tongues and plants has been hypothesized for a long time, but hard evidence is yet to be collected. The ITS phylogeny showed that four ectomycorrhizal isolates shared a clade with Geoglossum but not with Trichoglossum earth tongues, pointing to the significant potential inherent to ecological data mining of environmental samples. Environmental sampling holds the key to many focal questions in mycology, and simultaneous alignment and tree estimation, as performed by SATé, can be a highly efficient companion in that pursuit