67 research outputs found
Elevated immune gene expression is associated with poor reproductive success of urban blue tits
Urban and forest habitats differ in many aspects that can lead to modifications of the immune system of wild animals. Altered parasite communities, pollution, and artificial light at night in cities have been associated with exacerbated inflammatory responses, with possibly negative fitness consequences, but few data are available from free-living animals. Here, we investigate how urbanization affects major immune pathways and experimentally test potentially contributing factors in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) from an urban and forest site. We first compared breeding adults by quantifying the mRNA transcript levels of proteins associated with anti-bacterial, anti-malarial (TLR4, LY86) and anti-helminthic (Type 2 transcription factor GATA3) immune responses. Adult urban and forest blue tits differed in gene expression, with significantly increased TLR4 and GATA3, but not LY86, in the city. We then experimentally tested whether these differences were environmentally induced by cross-fostering eggs between the sites and measuring mRNA transcripts in nestlings. The populations differed in reduced reproductive success, with a lower fledging success and lower fledgling weight recorded at the urban site. This mirrors the findings of our twin study reporting that the urban site was severely resource limited when compared to the forest. Because of low urban survival, robust gene expression data were only obtained from nestlings reared in the forest. Transcript levels in these nestlings showed no (TLR4, LY86), or weak (GATA3), differences according to their origin from forest or city nests, suggesting little genetic or maternal contribution to nestling immune transcript levels. Lastly, to investigate differences in parasite pressure between urban and forest sites, we measured the prevalence of malaria in adult and nestling blood. Prevalence was invariably high across environments and not associated with the transcript levels of the studied immune genes. Our results support the hypothesis that inflammatory pathways are activated in an urban environment and suggest that these differences are most likely induced by environmental factors
Combinations of Maternal KIR and Fetal HLA-C Genes Influence the Risk of Preeclampsia and Reproductive Success
Preeclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy in which the fetus receives an inadequate supply of blood due to failure of trophoblast invasion. There is evidence that the condition has an immunological basis. The only known polymorphic histocompatibility antigens on the fetal trophoblast are HLA-C molecules. We tested the idea that recognition of these molecules by killer immunoglobulin receptors (KIRs) on maternal decidual NK cells is a key factor in the development of preeclampsia. Striking differences were observed when these polymorphic ligand: receptor pairs were considered in combination. Mothers lacking most or all activating KIR (AA genotype) when the fetus possessed HLA-C belonging to the HLA-C2 group were at a greatly increased risk of preeclampsia. This was true even if the mother herself also had HLA-C2, indicating that neither nonself nor missing-self discrimination was operative. Thus, this interaction between maternal KIR and trophoblast appears not to have an immune function, but instead plays a physiological role related to placental development. Different human populations have a reciprocal relationship between AA frequency and HLA-C2 frequency, suggesting selection against this combination. In light of our findings, reproductive success may have been a factor in the evolution and maintenance of human HLA-C and KIR polymorphisms
Distinct neuroinflammatory signatures exist across genetic and sporadic ALS cohorts
Acknowledgments This research was funded in part by the Wellcome Trust (108890/Z/15/Z) to OMR, a Pathological Society and Jean Shanks Foundation grant (JSPS CLSG 202002) to JMG and JOS, an NIH grant (5-R01-NS127186-02) to JMG, FMW, and JOS, a Motor Neuron Disease (MND) Scotland grant to JMG and CRS (2021/MNDS/RP/8440GREG), and a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (215454/Z/19/Z) to CRS. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. This work would not be possible without the resources of the Edinburgh Brain Bank. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.Preprin
Random forest modelling demonstrates microglial and protein misfolding features to be key phenotypic markers in C9orf72 ‐ALS
Acknowledgments We gratefully acknowledge Professor Tom Gillingwater for his helpful comments and support. This work would not have been possible without the resources of the Edinburgh Brain Bank, and the people with ALS and their families who have generously donated tissue. This research was funded in part by a studentship from the Wellcome Trust (108890/Z/15/Z) to OMR and MDES, a Pathological Society and Jean Shanks foundation grant (217CHA R46564) to JMG and JO, and a Sir Henry Dale fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (215454/Z/19/Z) to CRS.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Leadership in Improving Schools: A Qualitative Perspective
This article reports early case-study data gathered from 20 schools involved in the ‘Impact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomes’ project. We present and discuss the perceptions of headteachers and other school leaders regarding leadership factors that directly and indirectly affect pupil outcomes in these improving schools. Included are issues relating to the pivotal role played by the headteacher in setting and communicating a strategic vision for the school; models of distributed leadership; and the building of leadership capacity so as to build a collective responsibility for the improvement of pupil outcomes
Search for gravitational wave bursts in LIGO's third science run
We report on a search for gravitational wave bursts in data from the three
LIGO interferometric detectors during their third science run. The search
targets subsecond bursts in the frequency range 100-1100 Hz for which no
waveform model is assumed, and has a sensitivity in terms of the
root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude of hrss ~ 10^{-20} / sqrt(Hz). No
gravitational wave signals were detected in the 8 days of analyzed data.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Amaldi-6 conference proceedings to be published
in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Quantum state preparation and macroscopic entanglement in gravitational-wave detectors
Long-baseline laser-interferometer gravitational-wave detectors are operating
at a factor of 10 (in amplitude) above the standard quantum limit (SQL) within
a broad frequency band. Such a low classical noise budget has already allowed
the creation of a controlled 2.7 kg macroscopic oscillator with an effective
eigenfrequency of 150 Hz and an occupation number of 200. This result, along
with the prospect for further improvements, heralds the new possibility of
experimentally probing macroscopic quantum mechanics (MQM) - quantum mechanical
behavior of objects in the realm of everyday experience - using
gravitational-wave detectors. In this paper, we provide the mathematical
foundation for the first step of a MQM experiment: the preparation of a
macroscopic test mass into a nearly minimum-Heisenberg-limited Gaussian quantum
state, which is possible if the interferometer's classical noise beats the SQL
in a broad frequency band. Our formalism, based on Wiener filtering, allows a
straightforward conversion from the classical noise budget of a laser
interferometer, in terms of noise spectra, into the strategy for quantum state
preparation, and the quality of the prepared state. Using this formalism, we
consider how Gaussian entanglement can be built among two macroscopic test
masses, and the performance of the planned Advanced LIGO interferometers in
quantum-state preparation
Searching for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves with LIGO
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has performed
the fourth science run, S4, with significantly improved interferometer
sensitivities with respect to previous runs. Using data acquired during this
science run, we place a limit on the amplitude of a stochastic background of
gravitational waves. For a frequency independent spectrum, the new limit is
. This is currently the most sensitive
result in the frequency range 51-150 Hz, with a factor of 13 improvement over
the previous LIGO result. We discuss complementarity of the new result with
other constraints on a stochastic background of gravitational waves, and we
investigate implications of the new result for different models of this
background.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figure
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