The faintest galaxies

We investigate the nature of Ultra Faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies (UF dSphs) in a general cosmological context, simultaneously accounting for various "classical" dSphs and Milky Way (MW) properties, including their Metallicity Distribution Function (MDF). The model successfully reproduces both the observed [Fe/H]-Luminosity relation and the mean MDF of UFs. According to our results UFs are the living fossils of H2-cooling minihaloes formed at z>8.5, i.e. before the end of reionization. They are the oldest and the most dark matter-dominated (M/L > 100) dSphs in the MW system, with a total mass of M = 10^(7-8) Msun. The model allows to interpret the different shape of UFs and classical dSphs MDF, along with the frequency of extremely metal-poor stars in these objects. We discuss the "missing satellites problem" by comparing the UF star formation efficiencies with those derived for minihaloes in the Via Lactea simulation.Comment: To appear in the conference proceeding: "First Stars and Galaxies: Challenges in the Next Decade" . Publisher: American Institute of Physics. Editors: V. Bromm, D. Whalen, N. Yoshid

Buckeyes Without Borders

IMPACT. 1: Beginning in 2009, BWB student member Cara Whalen forged partnerships between the Ubumwe Community Center (UCC), The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium's Partners In Conservation (PIC), and BWB to enable an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students to travel to Gisenyi, Rwanda annually to provide health education and service to the UCC. -- 2. Three years of preparation with partners in Rwanda (UCC), Columbus (PIC), and students, faculty, and staff at OSU culminated in five interdisciplinary student members of BWB travelling to the UCC in June 2012. This trip to Rwanda is now the annual international service opportunity for BWB members and an international service-learning course is currently being developed.OSU PARTNERS: Dentistry; Medicine; Nursing; Occupational Therapy; Pharmacy; Physical Therapy; Public Health; Veterinary Medicine; The Health Sciences Center for Global Health; Office of International Affairs Global GatewaysCOMMUNITY PARTNERS: Ubumwe Community Center (UCC); The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium's; Partners In ConservationPRIMARY CONTACT: Cara N. Whalen ([email protected])Buckeyes Without Borders (BWB) is a graduate interdisciplinary global health student organization at The Ohio State University. BWB members represent the disciplines of audiology, dentistry, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, physical therapy, public health, social work, speech language pathology, and veterinary medicine. BWB strives to foster Global Health awareness and the benefits of an interdisciplinary health care team on positive patient outcomes to its members through outreach and education to the OSU, Central Ohio, and Global communities

Generalised Umbral Moonshine

Umbral moonshine describes an unexpected relation between 23 finite groups arising from lattice symmetries and special mock modular forms. It includes the Mathieu moonshine as a special case and can itself be viewed as an example of the more general moonshine phenomenon which connects finite groups and distinguished modular objects. In this paper we introduce the notion of generalised umbral moonshine, which includes the generalised Mathieu moonshine [Gaberdiel M.R., Persson D., Ronellenfitsch H., Volpato R., Commun. Number Theory Phys. 7 (2013), 145-223] as a special case, and provide supporting data for it. A central role is played by the deformed Drinfel'd (or quantum) double of each umbral finite group $G$, specified by a cohomology class in $H^3(G,U(1))$. We conjecture that in each of the 23 cases there exists a rule to assign an infinite-dimensional module for the deformed Drinfel'd double of the umbral finite group underlying the mock modular forms of umbral moonshine and generalised umbral moonshine. We also discuss the possible origin of the generalised umbral moonshine

Negative emotional reactivity as a marker of vulnerability in the development of borderline personality disorder symptoms

Negative emotionality is a distinguishing feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, this person-level characteristic has not been examined as a marker of vulnerability in the development of this disorder. The current study utilized a multi-method approach to examine the interplay between negative emotional reactivity and cumulative exposure to family adversity on the development of BPD symptoms across three years (ages 16–18) in a diverse, at-risk sample of adolescent girls (N=113). A latent variable of negative emotional reactivity was created from multiple assessments at age 16: (1) self-report, (2) emotion ratings to stressors from ecological assessments across one week, and (3) observer-rated negative affectivity during a mother-daughter conflict discussion task. Exposure to family adversity was measured cumulatively between ages 5 and 16 from annual assessments of family poverty, single parent household, and difficult life circumstances. Results from latent growth curve models demonstrated a significant interaction between negative emotional reactivity and family adversity, such that exposure to adversity strengthened the association between negative emotional reactivity and BPD symptoms. Additionally, family adversity predicted increasing BPD symptoms during late adolescence. These findings highlight negative emotional reactivity as a marker of vulnerability that ultimately increases risk for the development of BPD symptoms

Inversion of Physically Recorded Ultrasonic Waveforms Using Adaptive Learning Network Models Trained on Theoretical Data

The objective of this work has been to demonstrate the feasibility of estimating automatically the size and orientation of subsurface defects in metals. The approach has been to (1) obtain computer-generated spectra from various elastic scattering theories, (2) use these spectra to train empirical nonlinear Adaptive Learning Network (ALN) models, and (3) evaluate the theoretically trained ALN\u27s on eight physically recorded defect specimens via a blind test. The results demonstrate that very good defect characterization is possible and that a fully automatic and general purpose NDE system can be implemented. An average orientation error of 10.2 degrees has been achieved and the defect average volume error is 17.5 percent

Vermicompost as a fertilizer for urban and peri-urban farms: Perceptions of farmers in Accra, Ghana

Vermicompost is considered a valuable organic fertilizer in many tropical regions, but has rarely been used in sub-Saharan Africa. A study in Accra, Ghana, assessed urban and peri-urban (UP) farmers’ fertilizer and pesticide use, knowledge of earthworms, fertilizer performance criteria, and attitudes toward vermicompost as a fertilizer. Twenty-six farmers involved in irrigated vegetable farming and three subsistence farmers were interviewed. Farmers were aware that earthworm activity was associated with soil fertility, and some associated insecticide applications to reduced earthworm populations. Farmers used the greenness of leaves, crop emergence, stand and yield as indicators of fertilizer performance. Farmers resisted making statements about vermicompost before testing it, and advised that its fertilizer value be tested during the dry season. Farmers involved in irrigated vegetable farming had insufficient space and time for on-farm vermicomposting, while subsistence farmers lacked a reliable access to water necessary for on-farm vermicomposting; but both types of farmers were interested in adopting vermicompost if it improved crop performance. Such lack of farm resources suggest that a commercial facility would be best suited to produce vermicompost from organic waste, which would then be sold to farmers

Fish pool their experience to solve problems collectively

This work was funded by an ERC Advanced grant to KNL (EVOCULTURE, Ref: 232823)Access to information is a key advantage of grouping. Although experienced animals can lead others to solve problems, less is known about whether partially informed individuals can pool experiences to overcome challenges collectively. Here we provide evidence of such ‘experience-pooling’. We presented shoals of sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) with a two-stage foraging task requiring them to find and access hidden food. Individual fish were either inexperienced or had knowledge of just one of the stages. Shoals containing individuals trained in each of the stages pooled their expertise, allowing more fish to access the food, and to do so more rapidly, compared with other shoal compositions. Strong social effects were identified: the presence of experienced individuals increased the likelihood of untrained fish completing each stage. These findings demonstrate that animal groups can integrate individual experience to solve multi-stage problems, and have implications for our understanding of social foraging, migration and social systems.PostprintPeer reviewe

Effects of a series of triorganotins on ATP levels in human natural killer cells

Natural killer (NK) cells are our initial immune defense against viral infections and cancer development. Thus, agents that are able to interfere with their function increase the risk of cancer and/or infection. A series of triorganotins (trimethyltin (TMT), dimethylphenyltin (DMPT), methyldiphenyltin (MDPT), and triphenyltin (TPT)) have been shown to decrease the lytic function of human NK cells. TPT and MDPT were much more effective than DMPT or TMT at reducing lytic function. This study investigates the role that decreased ATP levels may play in decreases in the lytic function of NK cells induced by these organotins (OTs). A 24h exposure to as high as 10μM TMT caused no decrease in ATP levels even though this level of TMT caused a greater than 75% loss of lytic function. TPT at 200nM caused a decrease in ATP levels of about 20% while decreasing lytic function by greater than 85%. There was no association between ATP levels and lytic function for any of the compounds when NK cells were exposed for 1 or 24h. However, after a 48h exposure to both DMPT and TPT decreased lytic function was associated with decreased ATP levels. There was an association between decreased lytic function and decreased ATP levels after a 6-day exposure to each of the four compounds. These studies indicate that the loss of lytic function seen after 1 and 24h exposures to this series of organotins cannot be accounted for by decreases in ATP. However, after longer exposures loss of lytic function may be in part be attributable to inadequate ATP levels