Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO

The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages

Facial Electromyography-based Adaptive Virtual Reality Gaming for Cognitive Training.

Cognitive training has shown promising results for delivering improvements in human cognition related to attention, problem solving, reading comprehension and information retrieval. However, two frequently cited problems in cognitive training literature are a lack of user engagement with the training programme, and a failure of developed skills to generalise to daily life. This paper introduces a new cognitive training (CT) paradigm designed to address these two limitations by combining the benefits of gamification, virtual reality (VR), and affective adaptation in the development of an engaging, ecologically valid, CT task. Additionally, it incorporates facial electromyography (EMG) as a means of determining user affect while engaged in the CT task. This information is then utilised to dynamically adjust the game’s difficulty in real-time as users play, with the aim of leading them into a state of flow. Affect recognition rates of 64.1% and 76.2%, for valence and arousal respectively, were achieved by classifying a DWT-Haar approximation of the input signal using kNN. The affect-aware VR cognitive training intervention was then evaluated with a control group of older adults. The results obtained substantiate the notion that adaptation techniques can lead to greater feelings of competence and a more appropriate challenge of the user’s skills

Lipopolysaccharide enhances FcγR-dependent functions in vivo through CD11b/CD18 up-regulation

Fc receptors for immunoglobulin G (IgG) (FcγR) mediate several defence mechanisms in the course of inflammatory and infectious diseases. In Gram-negative infections, cellular wall lipopolysaccharides (LPS) modulate different immune responses. We have recently demonstrated that murine LPS in vivo treatment significantly increases FcγR-dependent clearance of immune complexes (IC). In addition, we and others have reported the induction of adhesion molecules on macrophages and neutrophils by LPS in vivo and by tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in vitro. The aim of this paper was to investigate CD11b/CD18 participation in LPS enhancing effects on Fcγ-dependent functionality of tissue macrophages. Our results have demonstrated that LPS can enhance antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and IC-triggered cytotoxicity (IC-Ctx), two reactions which involve the Fcγ-receptor but different lytic mechanisms. In vitro incubation of splenocytes from LPS-treated mice with anti-CD11b/CD18 abrogated ADCC and IC-Ctx enhancement, without affecting FcγR expression. Similar results were obtained with physiological concentrations of fibrinogen. In this way cytotoxic values of LPS-splenocytes decreased to the basal levels of control mice. Time and temperature requirements for such inhibition strongly suggested that anti-CD11b/CD18 could modulate intracellular signals leading to downregulation of FcγR functionality. Data presented herein support the hypothesis that functional and/or physical associations between integrins and FcγR could be critical for the modulation of effector functions during an inflammatory response

Photoelectron diffraction study of the Ag(110)-(2×1)-O reconstruction

The structure of the (2×1)-O adsorption phase on Ag(110) has been determined using scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction. The oxygen atoms have been found to occupy the long-bridge site and are almost coplanar with the top layer of silver atoms. The best agreement between multiple-scattering theory and experiment has been obtained for a missing-row (or equivalently an ‘added-row’) reconstruction in which the first-to-second and second-to-third interlayer spacings are 1.55±0.06 Å and 1.33±0.06 Å, respectively. Alternative buckled-row and unreconstructed surface models can be excluded