A universal two-way approach for estimating unknown frequencies for unknown number of sinusoids in a signal based on eigenspace analysis of Hankel matrix

YesWe develop a novel approach to estimate the n unknown constituent frequencies of a noiseless signal that comprises of unknown number, n, of sinusoids of unknown phases and unknown amplitudes. The new two way approach uses two constraints to accurately estimate the unknown frequencies of the sinusoidal components in a signal. The new approach serves as a verification test for the estimated unknown frequencies through the estimated count of the unknown number of frequencies. The Hankel matrix, of the time domain samples of the signal, is used as a basis for further analysis in the Pisarenko harmonic decomposition. The new constraints, the Existence Factor (EF) and the Component Factor (CF), have been introduced in the methodology based on the relationships between the components of the sinusoidal signal and the eigenspace of the Hankel matrix. The performance of the developed approach has been tested to correctly estimate any number of frequencies within a signal with or without a fixed unknown bias. The method has also been tested to accurately estimate the very closely spaced low frequencies.Innovate U

Molecular Signatures of Regression of the Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor

The canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT) is a clonally transmissible cancer that regresses spontaneously or after treatment with vincristine, but we know little about the regression mechanisms. We performed global transcriptional, methylation, and functional pathway analyses on serial biopsies of vincristine-treated CTVTs and found that regression occurs in sequential steps; activation of the innate immune system and host epithelial tissue remodeling followed by immune infiltration of the tumor, arrest in the cell cycle, and repair of tissue damage. We identified CCL5 as a possible driver of CTVT regression. Changes in gene expression are associated with methylation changes at specific intragenic sites. Our results underscore the critical role of host innate immunity in triggering cancer regression. By analyzing serial biopsies of vincristine-treated canine transmissible venereal tumors, Frampton et al. show that tumor regression occurs in sequential steps involving the activation of the innate immune system and immune infiltration of the tumor, and they identify CCL5 as a possible driver of regression

Stakeholder discourse coalitions and polarisation in the hen harrier conservation debate in news media

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordData availability statement: All the relevant data are available in the Nexis UK news online database.Conservation conflicts are complex and can be deep-rooted, with stakeholders holding entrenched policy positions. The actors involved producing verbal interconnected interactions that form policy debates. Thus, conservation debates can be viewed as network phenomena with stakeholders forming coalitions in support of, or opposition to, certain policies and practices. We used Discourse Network Analysis of print media to investigate the structure and dynamics of the stakeholder debate around the management of hen harriers Circus cyaneus, a bird of prey at the centre of a long-standing conservation conflict in the United Kingdom. We aimed to determine whether the structure of discourse coalitions changed among the diverse aspects of the debate and whether the polarisation of the debate has changed through time. Our search and selection criteria led to the analysis of 737 statements within 131 newspaper articles published from August 1993 to December 2019. We show that, while the discourse network of the overall debate is quite unstructured, actors formed divergent coalitions when defining the conservation problem and its solutions. In contrast, discourses converged around reactions with positive or negative emotions in relation to events and issues of hen harrier conservation. Polarisation among actors has increased over time and peaked in the second half of the 2010s, concurrent with the release of the species recovery plan. Our study highlights the value of analysing discourse networks in conservation policy debates. Discourse networks reveal which aspects of any conservation problem cause stakeholders to converge or diverge and can identify periods of intensified debate that, ultimately, contribute to informing conflict mitigation and resolution processes. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.University of ExeterNatural Englan

The Effect of Transposable Element Insertions on Gene Expression Evolution in Rodents

Background:Many genomes contain a substantial number of transposable elements (TEs), a few of which are known to be involved in regulating gene expression. However, recent observations suggest that TEs may have played a very important role in the evolution of gene expression because many conserved non-genic sequences, some of which are know to be involved in gene regulation, resemble TEs. Results:Here we investigate whether new TE insertions affect gene expression profiles by testing whether gene expression divergence between mouse and rat is correlated to the numbers of new transposable elements inserted near genes. We show that expression divergence is significantly correlated to the number of new LTR and SINE elements, but not to the numbers of LINEs. We also show that expression divergence is not significantly correlated to the numbers of ancestral TEs in most cases, which suggests that the correlations between expression divergence and the numbers of new TEs are causal in nature. We quantify the effect and estimate that TE insertion has accounted for ~20% (95% confidence interval: 12% to 26%) of all expression profile divergence in rodents. Conclusions:We conclude that TE insertions may have had a major impact on the evolution of gene expression levels in rodents

Characterisation of feline renal cortical fibroblast cultures and their transcriptional response to transforming growth factor beta 1

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in geriatric cats, and the most prevalent pathology is chronic tubulointerstitial inflammation and fibrosis. The cell type predominantly responsible for the production of extra-cellular matrix in renal fibrosis is the myofibroblast, and fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation is probably a crucial event. The cytokine TGF-β1 is reportedly the most important regulator of myofibroblastic differentiation in other species. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterise renal fibroblasts from cadaverous kidney tissue of cats with and without CKD, and to investigate the transcriptional response to TGF-β1

Retinal glycoprotein enrichment by concanavalin a enabled identification of novel membrane autoantigen synaptotagmin-1 in equine recurrent uveitis.

Complete knowledge of autoantigen spectra is crucial for understanding pathomechanisms of autoimmune diseases like equine recurrent uveitis (ERU), a spontaneous model for human autoimmune uveitis. While several ERU autoantigens were identified previously, no membrane protein was found so far. As there is a great overlap between glycoproteins and membrane proteins, the aim of this study was to test whether pre-enrichment of retinal glycoproteins by ConA affinity is an effective tool to detect autoantigen candidates among membrane proteins. In 1D Western blots, the glycoprotein preparation allowed detection of IgG reactions to low abundant proteins in sera of ERU patients. Synaptotagmin-1, a Ca2+-sensing protein in synaptic vesicles, was identified as autoantigen candidate from the pre-enriched glycoprotein fraction by mass spectrometry and was validated as a highly prevalent autoantigen by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Analysis of Syt1 expression in retinas of ERU cases showed a downregulation in the majority of ERU affected retinas to 24%. Results pointed to a dysregulation of retinal neurotransmitter release in ERU. Identification of synaptotagmin-1, the first cell membrane associated autoantigen in this spontaneous autoimmune disease, demonstrated that examination of tissue fractions can lead to the discovery of previously undetected novel autoantigens. Further experiments will address its role in ERU pathology

Towards a New Paradigm of Non-Captive Research on Cetacean Cognition

Contemporary knowledge of impressive neurophysiology and behavior in cetaceans, combined with increasing opportunities for studying free-ranging cetaceans who initiate sociable interaction with humans, are converging to highlight serious ethical considerations and emerging opportunities for a new era of progressive and less-invasive cetacean research. Most research on cetacean cognition has taken place in controlled captive settings, e.g., research labs, marine parks. While these environments afford a certain amount of experimental rigor and logistical control they are fraught with limitations in external validity, impose tremendous stress on the part of the captive animals, and place burdens on populations from which they are often captured. Alternatively, over the past three decades, some researchers have sought to focus their attention on the presence of free-ranging cetacean individuals and groups who have initiated, or chosen to participate in, sociable interactions with humans in the wild. This new approach, defined as Interspecies Collaborative Research between cetacean and human, involves developing novel ways to address research questions under natural conditions and respecting the individual cetacean's autonomy. It also offers a range of potential direct benefits to the cetaceans studied, as well as allowing for unprecedented cognitive and psychological research on sociable mysticetes. Yet stringent precautions are warranted so as to not increase their vulnerability to human activities or pathogens. When conducted in its best and most responsible form, collaborative research with free-ranging cetaceans can deliver methodological innovation and invaluable new insights while not necessitating the ethical and scientific compromises that characterize research in captivity. Further, it is representative of a new epoch in science in which research is designed so that the participating cetaceans are the direct recipients of the benefits

Faint end of the <i>z</i> ∼ 3–7 luminosity function of Lyman-alpha emitters behind lensing clusters observed with MUSE

Contact. This paper presents the results obtained with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the ESO Very Large Telescope on the faint end of the Lyman-alpha luminosity function (LF) based on deep observations of four lensing clusters. The goal of our project is to set strong constraints on the relative contribution of the Lyman-alpha emitter (LAE) population to cosmic reionization. Aims. The precise aim of the present study is to further constrain the abundance of LAEs by taking advantage of the magnification provided by lensing clusters to build a blindly selected sample of galaxies which is less biased than current blank field samples in redshift and luminosity. By construction, this sample of LAEs is complementary to those built from deep blank fields, whether observed by MUSE or by other facilities, and makes it possible to determine the shape of the LF at fainter levels, as well as its evolution with redshift. Methods. We selected a sample of 156 LAEs with redshifts between 2.9 ≤ z ≤ 6.7 and magnification-corrected luminosities in the range 39 ≲ log LLyα [erg s−1] ≲43. To properly take into account the individual differences in detection conditions between the LAEs when computing the LF, including lensing configurations, and spatial and spectral morphologies, the non-parametric 1/Vmax method was adopted. The price to pay to benefit from magnification is a reduction of the effective volume of the survey, together with a more complex analysis procedure to properly determine the effective volume Vmax for each galaxy. In this paper we present a complete procedure for the determination of the LF based on IFU detections in lensing clusters. This procedure, including some new methods for masking, effective volume integration and (individual) completeness determinations, has been fully automated when possible, and it can be easily generalized to the analysis of IFU observations in blank fields. Results. As a result of this analysis, the Lyman-alpha LF has been obtained in four different redshift bins: 2.9 &lt;  z &lt;  6, 7, 2.9 &lt;  z &lt;  4.0, 4.0 &lt;  z &lt;  5.0, and 5.0 &lt;  z &lt;  6.7 with constraints down to log LLyα = 40.5. From our data only, no significant evolution of LF mean slope can be found. When performing a Schechter analysis also including data from the literature to complete the present sample towards the brightest luminosities, a steep faint end slope was measured varying from α = −1.69−0.08+0.08 to α = −1.87−0.12+0.12 between the lowest and the highest redshift bins. Conclusions. The contribution of the LAE population to the star formation rate density at z ∼ 6 is ≲50% depending on the luminosity limit considered, which is of the same order as the Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) contribution. The evolution of the LAE contribution with redshift depends on the assumed escape fraction of Lyman-alpha photons, and appears to slightly increase with increasing redshift when this fraction is conservatively set to one. Depending on the intersection between the LAE/LBG populations, the contribution of the observed galaxies to the ionizing flux may suffice to keep the universe ionized at z ∼ 6.</jats:p

Paradoxical euthyroid hormone profile in a case of Graves' disease with cardiac failure

Cardiac failure is an uncommon complication of juvenile hyperthyroidism. We describe an adolescent boy with Graves' disease who developed manifestations of heart failure while on antithyroid medications. There was no evidence of any underlying cardiac disease. He had paradoxical euthyroid hormone profile which rose to hyperthyroid range when the manifestations of the cardiac failure subsided. The case highlights several unusual features of Graves' disease