777 research outputs found
Free Differential Algebras: Their Use in Field Theory and Dual Formulation
The gauging of free differential algebras (FDA's) produces gauge field
theories containing antisymmetric tensors. The FDA's extend the Cartan-Maurer
equations of ordinary Lie algebras by incorporating p-form potentials (). We study here the algebra of FDA transformations. To every p-form in the
FDA we associate an extended Lie derivative generating a corresponding
``gauge" transformation. The field theory based on the FDA is invariant under
these new transformations. This gives geometrical meaning to the antisymmetric
tensors. The algebra of Lie derivatives is shown to close and provides the dual
formulation of FDA's.Comment: 10 pages, latex, no figures. Talk presented at the 4-th Colloquium on
"Quantum Groups and Integrable Sysytems", Prague, June 199
Probing neutrino masses with CMB lensing extraction
We evaluate the ability of future cosmic microwave background (CMB)
experiments to measure the power spectrum of large scale structure using
quadratic estimators of the weak lensing deflection field. We calculate the
sensitivity of upcoming CMB experiments such as BICEP, QUaD, BRAIN, ClOVER and
PLANCK to the non-zero total neutrino mass M_nu indicated by current neutrino
oscillation data. We find that these experiments greatly benefit from lensing
extraction techniques, improving their one-sigma sensitivity to M_nu by a
factor of order four. The combination of data from PLANCK and the SAMPAN
mini-satellite project would lead to sigma(M_nu) = 0.1 eV, while a value as
small as sigma(M_nu) = 0.035 eV is within the reach of a space mission based on
bolometers with a passively cooled 3-4 m aperture telescope, representative of
the most ambitious projects currently under investigation. We show that our
results are robust not only considering possible difficulties in subtracting
astrophysical foregrounds from the primary CMB signal but also when the minimal
cosmological model (Lambda Mixed Dark Matter) is generalized in order to
include a possible scalar tilt running, a constant equation of state parameter
for the dark energy and/or extra relativistic degrees of freedom.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. One new figure and references added. Version
accepted for publicatio
Zinc ions alter morphology and chitin deposition in an ericoid fungus
A sterile mycelium PS IV, an ascomycete capable of establishing ericoid mycorrhizas, was used to investigate how zinc ions affect the cellular mechanisms of fungal growth. Asignificant reduction of the fungal biomass was observed in the presence of millimolar zinc concentrations; this mirrored conspicuous changes in hyphal morphology which led to apical swellings and increased branching in the subapical parts. Specific probes for fluorescence and electron microscopy localised chitin, the main cell wall polysaccharide, on the inner part of the fungal wall and on septa in control specimens. In Zn-treated mycelium, hyphal walls were thicker and a more intense chitin labelling was detected on the transverse walls. Aquantitative assay showed a significant increase in the amount of chitin in metal- treated hyphae
Electrospun silk fibroin fibers for storage and controlled release of human platelet lysate
Human platelet lysate (hPL) is a pool of growth factors and cytokines able to induce regeneration of different tissues. Despite its good potentiality as therapeutic tool for regenerative medicine applications, hPL has been only moderately exploited in this field. A more widespread adoption has been limited because of its rapid degradation at room temperature that decreases its functionality. Another limiting factor for its extensive use is the difficulty of handling the hPL gels. In this work, silk fibroin-based patches were developed to address several points: improving the handling of hPL, enabling their delivery in a controlled manner and facilitating their storage by creating a device ready to use with expanded shelf life. Patches of fibroin loaded with hPL were synthesized by electrospinning to take advantage of the fibrous morphology. The release kinetics of the material was characterized and tuned through the control of fibroin crystallinity. Cell viability assays, performed with primary human dermal fibroblasts, demonstrated that fibroin is able to preserve the hPL biological activity and prolong its shelf-life. The strategy of storing and preserving small active molecules within a naturally-derived, protein-based fibrous scaffold was successfully implemented, leading to the design of a biocompatible device, which can potentially simplify the storage and the application of the hPL on a human patient, undergoing medical procedures such as surgery and wound care. Statement of Significance: Human platelets lysate (hPL) is a mixture of growth factors and cytokines able to induce the regeneration of damaged tissues. This study aims at enclosing hPL in a silk fibroin electrospun matrix to expand its utilization. Silk fibroin showed the ability to preserve the hPL activity at temperature up to 60 \ub0C and the manipulation of fibroin's crystallinity provided a tool to modulate the hPL release kinetic. This entails the possibility to fabricate the hPL silk fibroin patches in advance and store them, resulting in an easy and fast accessibility and an expanded use of hPL for wound healing
mTORC2 sustains thermogenesis via Akt-induced glucose uptake and glycolysis in brown adipose tissue
Activation of non-shivering thermogenesis (NST) in brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been proposed as an anti-obesity treatment. Moreover, cold-induced glucose uptake could normalize blood glucose levels in insulin-resistant patients. It is therefore important to identify novel regulators of NST and cold-induced glucose uptake. Mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2) mediates insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in metabolic tissues, but its role in NST is unknown. We show that mTORC2 is activated in brown adipocytes upon ÎČ-adrenergic stimulation. Furthermore, mice lacking mTORC2 specifically in adipose tissue (AdRiKO mice) are hypothermic, display increased sensitivity to cold, and show impaired cold-induced glucose uptake and glycolysis. Restoration of glucose uptake in BAT by overexpression of hexokinase II or activated Akt2 was sufficient to increase body temperature and improve cold tolerance in AdRiKO mice. Thus, mTORC2 in BAT mediates temperature homeostasis via regulation of cold-induced glucose uptake. Our findings demonstrate the importance of glucose metabolism in temperature regulation
Widespread association between the ericoid mycorrhizal fungus Rhizoscyphus ericae and a leafy liverwort in the maritime and sub-Antarctic
A recent study identified a fungal isolate from the Antarctic leafy liverwort Cephaloziella varians as the ericoid mycorrhizal associate Rhizoscyphus ericae. However, nothing is known about the wider Antarctic distribution of R. ericae in C. varians, and inoculation experiments confirming the ability of the fungus to form coils in the liverwort are lacking.
Using direct isolation and baiting with Vaccinium macrocarpon seedlings, fungi were isolated from C. varians sampled from eight sites across a 1875-km transect through sub- and maritime Antarctica. The ability of an isolate to form coils in aseptically grown C. varians was also tested.
Fungi with 98â99% sequence identity to R. ericae internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and partial large subunit ribosomal (r)DNA sequences were frequently isolated from C. varians at all sites sampled. The EF4/Fung5 primer set did not amplify small subunit rDNA from three of five R. ericae isolates, probably accounting for the reported absence of the fungus from C. varians in a previous study. Rhizoscyphus ericae was found to colonize aseptically-grown C. varians intracellularly, forming hyphal coils.
This study shows that the association between R. ericae and C. varians is apparently widespread in Antarctica, and confirms that R. ericae is at least in part responsible for the formation of the coils observed in rhizoids of field-collected C. varians
Effects of CMB temperature uncertainties on cosmological parameter estimation
We estimate the effect of the experimental uncertainty in the measurement of
the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the extraction of
cosmological parameters from future CMB surveys. We find that even for an ideal
experiment limited only by cosmic variance up to l = 2500 for both the
temperature and polarisation measurements, the projected cosmological parameter
errors are remarkably robust against the uncertainty of 1 mK in the FIRAS
instrument's CMB temperature monopole measurement. The maximum degradation in
sensitivity is 20%, for the baryon density estimate, relative to the case in
which the monopole is known infinitely well. While this degradation is
acceptable, we note that reducing the uncertainty in the current temperature
measurement by a factor of five will bring it down to the per cent level. We
also estimate the effect of the uncertainty in the dipole temperature
measurement. Assuming the overall calibration of the data to be dominated by
the dipole error of 0.2% from FIRAS, the sensitivity degradation is
insignificant and does not exceed 10% in any parameter direction.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, uses iopart.cls, v2: added discussion of CMB
dipole uncertainty, version accepted by JCA
Constraints on non-thermal Dark Matter from Planck lensing extraction
Distortions of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropy maps caused by
gravitational lensing, observable with high angular resolution and sensitivity,
can be used to constrain the sterile neutrino mass, offering several advantages
against the analysis based on the combination of CMB, LSS and Ly\alpha forest
power spectra. As the gravitational lensing effect depends on the matter
distribution, no assumption on light-to-mass bias is required. In addition,
unlike the galaxy clustering and Ly\alpha forest power spectra, the projected
gravitational potential power spectrum probes a larger range of angular scales,
the non-linear corrections being required only at very small scales. Taking
into account the changes in the time-temperature relation of the primordial
plasma and the modification of the neutrino thermal potential, we compute the
projected gravitational potential power spectrum and its correlation with the
temperature in the presence of DM sterile neutrino. We show that the
cosmological parameters are generally not biased when DM sterile neutrino is
included. From this analysis we found a lower limit on DM sterile neutrino mass
m_s >2.08 keV at 95% CL, consistent with the lower mass limit obtained from the
combined analysis of CMB, SDSS 3D power spectrum and SDSS Ly\alpha forest power
spectrum ( keV). We conclude that although the information that
can be obtained from lensing extraction is rather limited due to the high level
of the lensing noise of Planck experiment, weak lensing of CMB offers a
valuable alternative to constrain the dark matter sterile neutrino mass.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
Measuring primordial gravitational waves from CMB B-modes in cosmologies with generalized expansion histories
We evaluate our capability to constrain the abundance of primordial tensor
perturbations in cosmologies with generalized expansion histories in the epoch
of cosmic acceleration. Forthcoming satellite and sub-orbital experiments
probing polarization in the CMB are expected to measure the B-mode power in CMB
polarization, coming from PGWs on the degree scale, as well as gravitational
lensing on arcmin scales; the latter is the main competitor for the measurement
of PGWs, and is directly affected by the underlying expansion history,
determined by the presence of a DE component. In particular, we consider early
DE possible scenarios, in which the expansion history is substantially modified
at the epoch in which the CMB lensing is most relevant. We show that the
introduction of a parametrized DE may induce a variation as large as 30% in the
ratio of the power of lensing and PGWs on the degree scale. We find that
adopting the nominal specifications of upcoming satellite measurements the
constraining power on PGWs is weakened by the inclusion of the extra degrees of
freedom, resulting in a reduction of about 10% of the upper limits on r in
fiducial models with no GWs, as well as a comparable increase in the error bars
in models with non-zero r. Moreover, we find that the inclusion of sub-orbital
CMB experiments, capable of mapping the B-mode power up to the angular scales
affected by lensing, can restore the forecasted performances with a
cosmological constant. Finally, we show how the combination of CMB data with
Type Ia SNe, BAO and Hubble constant allows to constrain simultaneously r and
the DE quantities in the parametrization we consider, consisting of present
abundance and first redshift derivative of the energy density. We compare this
study with results obtained using the forecasted lensing potential measurement
precision from CMB satellite observations, finding consistent results.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication by JCAP. Modified
version after the referee's comment
Impacts to Quail Space Use and Demographics from Oil and Gas Development
Southern Texas contains some of the last relatively unfragmented habitat for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) and scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) in the United States. Development of the Eagle Ford Shale hydrocarbon formation in this region could negatively impact quail and their habitat. Our objective was to examine the indirect effects of oil and gas activity (traffic and noise) on bobwhite and scaled quail on 2 private ranches in southern Texas. In 2015 and 2016, we radio-marked bobwhite and scaled quail in 2 areas where oil and gas activity was occurring (disturbed treatment) and 2 areas where little oil and gas activity occurred (undisturbed treatment). We measured vehicle passages and modeled noise propagation from oil and gas infrastructure at 2 biologically relevant frequencies (250 Hz and 1,000 Hz) in our study area to quantify oil and gas disturbance and examine its effects on quail space use (site selection and home range size) and demographics (survival, nest success, and density). Bobwhite and scaled quail selected areas 0â200 m and \u3e425 m, respectively, from the primary, high-traffic roads in the disturbed treatment. In the undisturbed treatment, bobwhite and scaled quail selected areas 0â425 m and 0â300 m from primary roads, respectively. Bobwhite and scaled quail selected areas with sound levels 0â1.6 and 0â2.2 dB above ambient levels at the 250-Hz frequency level, respectively. At 1,000 Hz, bobwhite and scaled quail selected areas with sound levels 0â2 and 0â3.2 dB above ambient levels, respectively. We found no evidence that disturbance variables affected bobwhite and scaled quail home range size, survival, or density. We found bobwhite nest success decreased as sound levels (dB) at 250 Hz increased; we found no relationship between nest success and disturbance for scaled quail, possibly as they avoided major oil and gas disturbances. In calculations of the total footprint of quail habitat loss, indirect loss due to oil and gas activity needs to be considered in addition to direct loss due to conversion of rangeland to oil and gas infrastructure
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