Strelitzia nicolai (Strelitziaceae): a new species, genus and family weed record for New South Wales

Strelitzia nicolai Regel & Körn. (Strelitziaceae) is newly recorded as a sparingly naturalised weed for New South Wales and represents new family, generic and species records for the state. Descriptions, notes and keys are provided for the family, genus and species

The Black Bear Undergraduate History Journal

Inaugural Black Bear Undergraduate History Journal. This publication is an initiative of UMaine History graduate students, including Dylan O’Hara, PhD student and chief editor, intended to highlight some of the strongest undergraduate essays from the academic year

Development of the Arizona Robotic Telescope Network

The Arizona Robotic Telescope Network (ARTN) project is a long term effort to develop a system of telescopes to carry out a flexible program of PI observing, survey projects, and time domain astrophysics including monitoring, rapid response, and transient/target-of-opportunity followup. Steward Observatory operates and shares in several 1-3m class telescopes with quality sites and instrumentation, largely operated in classical modes. Science programs suited to these telescopes are limited by scheduling flexibility and people-power of available observers. Our goal is to adapt these facilities for multiple co-existing queued programs, interrupt capability, remote/robotic operation, and delivery of reduced data. In the long term, planning for the LSST era, we envision an automated system coordinating across multiple telescopes and sites, where alerts can trigger followup, classification, and triggering of further observations if required, such as followup imaging that can trigger spectroscopy. We are updating telescope control systems and software to implement this system in stages, beginning with the Kuiper 61'' and Vatican Observatory 1.8-m telescopes. The Kuiper 61'' and its Mont4K camera can now be controlled and queue-scheduled by the RTS2 observatory control software, and operated from a remote room at Steward. We discuss science and technical requirements for ARTN, and some of the challenges in adapting heterogenous legacy facilities, scheduling, data pipelines, and maintaining capabilities for a diverse user base.Comment: Proceedings of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation 2018, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VI

Intracluster supernovae in the Multi-epoch Nearby Cluster Survey

The Multi-Epoch Nearby Cluster Survey (MENeaCS) has discovered twenty-three cluster Type Ia supernovae (SNe) in the 58 X-ray selected galaxy clusters (0.05 < z < 0.15) surveyed. Four of our SN Ia events have no host galaxy on close inspection, and are likely intracluster SNe. Deep image stacks at the location of the candidate intracluster SNe put upper limits on the luminosities of faint hosts, with M_{r} > -13.0 mag and M_{g} > -12.5 mag in all cases. For such limits, the fraction of the cluster luminosity in faint dwarfs below our detection limit is <0.1%, assuming a standard cluster luminosity function. All four events occurred within ~600 kpc of the cluster center (projected), as defined by the position of the brightest cluster galaxy, and are more centrally concentrated than the cluster SN Ia population as a whole. After accounting for several observational biases that make intracluster SNe easier to discover and spectroscopically confirm, we calculate an intracluster stellar mass fraction of 0.16^{+0.13}_{-0.09} (68% CL) for all objects within R_{200}. If we assume that the intracluster stellar population is exclusively old, and the cluster galaxies themselves have a mix of stellar ages, we derive an upper limit on the intracluster stellar mass fraction of <0.47 (84% one-sided CL). When combined with the intragroup SNe results of McGee & Balogh, we confirm the declining intracluster stellar mass fraction as a function of halo mass reported by Gonzalez and collaborators. (Abridged)Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, ApJ publishe

Mass transport by buoyant bubbles in galaxy clusters

We investigate the effect of three important processes by which AGN-blown bubbles transport material: drift, wake transport and entrainment. The first of these, drift, occurs because a buoyant bubble pushes aside the adjacent material, giving rise to a net upward displacement of the fluid behind the bubble. For a spherical bubble, the mass of upwardly displaced material is roughly equal to half the mass displaced by the bubble, and should be ~ 10^{7-9} solar masses depending on the local ICM and bubble parameters. We show that in classical cool core clusters, the upward displacement by drift may be a key process in explaining the presence of filaments behind bubbles. A bubble also carries a parcel of material in a region at its rear, known as the wake. The mass of the wake is comparable to the drift mass and increases the average density of the bubble, trapping it closer to the cluster centre and reducing the amount of heating it can do during its ascent. Moreover, material dropping out of the wake will also contribute to the trailing filaments. Mass transport by the bubble wake can effectively prevent the build-up of cool material in the central galaxy, even if AGN heating does not balance ICM cooling. Finally, we consider entrainment, the process by which ambient material is incorporated into the bubble. AbridgedComment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 17 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Formatted for letter paper and adjusted author affiliations

Assessment of interactions between 205 breast cancer susceptibility loci and 13 established risk factors in relation to breast cancer risk, in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium.

BACKGROUND: Previous gene-environment interaction studies of breast cancer risk have provided sparse evidence of interactions. Using the largest available dataset to date, we performed a comprehensive assessment of potential effect modification of 205 common susceptibility variants by 13 established breast cancer risk factors, including replication of previously reported interactions. METHODS: Analyses were performed using 28 176 cases and 32 209 controls genotyped with iCOGS array and 44 109 cases and 48 145 controls genotyped using OncoArray from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC). Gene-environment interactions were assessed using unconditional logistic regression and likelihood ratio tests for breast cancer risk overall and by estrogen-receptor (ER) status. Bayesian false discovery probability was used to assess the noteworthiness of the meta-analysed array-specific interactions. RESULTS: Noteworthy evidence of interaction at ≤1% prior probability was observed for three single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-risk factor pairs. SNP rs4442975 was associated with a greater reduction of risk of ER-positive breast cancer [odds ratio (OR)int = 0.85 (0.78-0.93), Pint = 2.8 x 10-4] and overall breast cancer [ORint = 0.85 (0.78-0.92), Pint = 7.4 x 10-5) in current users of estrogen-progesterone therapy compared with non-users. This finding was supported by replication using OncoArray data of the previously reported interaction between rs13387042 (r2 = 0.93 with rs4442975) and current estrogen-progesterone therapy for overall disease (Pint = 0.004). The two other interactions suggested stronger associations between SNP rs6596100 and ER-negative breast cancer with increasing parity and younger age at first birth. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our study does not suggest strong effect modification of common breast cancer susceptibility variants by established risk factors

In search of phylogenetic congruence between molecular and morphological data in bryozoans with extreme adult skeletal heteromorphy

peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=tsab20© Crown Copyright 2015. This document is the author's final accepted/submitted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it

Urinary Metabolites of Prostanoids and Risk of Recurrent Colorectal Adenomas in the Aspirin/Folate Polyp Prevention Study (AFPPS)

Aspirin has been shown to protect against colorectal neoplasms, however the optimal chemopreventive dose and underlying mechanisms are unclear. We aimed to study the relationship between prostanoid metabolites and aspirin’s effect on adenoma occurrence. We used data from the Aspirin/Folate Polyp Prevention Study, in which 1,121 participants with a recent adenoma were randomized to placebo or two doses of aspirin (81 or 325 mg/d) to be taken until the next surveillance colonoscopy, anticipated about 3 years later. Urinary metabolites of prostanoids (PGE-M, PGI-M, and dTxB2) were measured using LC/MS or GC/NICI-MS in 876 participants near the end of treatment follow-up. Poisson regression with a robust error variance was used to calculate relative risks and 95% confidence intervals. PGE-M, PGI-M, and dTxB2 levels were 28%, 37%, and 60% proportionately lower, respectively, in individuals who took 325 mg of aspirin compared to individuals who took placebo (all P<0.001). Similarly, among individuals who took 81 mg of aspirin, PGE-M, PGI-M, and dTxB2 were, respectively, 18%, 30%, and 57% proportionally lower compared to placebo (all P<0.005). None of the metabolites or their ratios were statistically significantly associated with the risk of adenoma occurrence. The effect of aspirin in reducing adenoma risk was independent of prostanoid levels. Aspirin use is associated with lower levels of urinary prostanoid metabolites. However, our findings do not support the hypothesis that these metabolites are associated with adenoma occurrence, suggesting that COX-dependent mechanisms may not completely explain the chemopreventive effect of aspirin on colorectal neoplasms

Ground reaction force, spinal kinematics and their relationship to lower back pain and injury in cricket fast bowling: A review

BACKGROUND: Fast bowlers display a high risk of lower back injury and pain. Studies report factors that may increase this risk, however exact mechanisms remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: To provide a contemporary analysis of literature, up to April 2016, regarding fast bowling, spinal kinematics, ground reaction force (GRF), lower back pain (LBP) and pathology. METHOD: Key terms including biomechanics, bowling, spine and injury were searched within MEDLINE, Google Scholar, SPORTDiscuss, Science Citation Index, OAIster, CINAHL, Academic Search Complete, Science Direct and Scopus. Following application of inclusion criteria, 56 studies (reduced from 140) were appraised for quality and pooled for further analysis. RESULTS: Twelve times greater risk of lumbar injury was reported in bowlers displaying excessive shoulder counter-rotation (SCR), however SCR is a surrogate measure which may not describe actual spinal movement. Little is known about LBP specifically. Weighted averages of 5.8 ± 1.3 times body weight (BW) vertically and 3.2 ± 1.1 BW horizontally were calculated for peak GRF during fast bowling. No quantitative synthesis of kinematic data was possible due to heterogeneity of reported results. CONCLUSIONS: Fast bowling is highly injurious especially with excessive SCR. Studies adopted similar methodologies, constrained to laboratory settings. Future studies should focus on methods to determine biomechanics during live play

A network analysis to identify mediators of germline-driven differences in breast cancer prognosis.

Identifying the underlying genetic drivers of the heritability of breast cancer prognosis remains elusive. We adapt a network-based approach to handle underpowered complex datasets to provide new insights into the potential function of germline variants in breast cancer prognosis. This network-based analysis studies ~7.3 million variants in 84,457 breast cancer patients in relation to breast cancer survival and confirms the results on 12,381 independent patients. Aggregating the prognostic effects of genetic variants across multiple genes, we identify four gene modules associated with survival in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative and one in ER-positive disease. The modules show biological enrichment for cancer-related processes such as G-alpha signaling, circadian clock, angiogenesis, and Rho-GTPases in apoptosis