2,574 research outputs found
No Detectable Fertility Benefit from a Single Additional Mating in Wild Stalk-Eyed Flies
Background: Multiple mating by female insects is widespread, and the explanation(s) for repeated mating by females has been the subject of much discussion. Females may profit from mating multiply through direct material benefits that increase their own reproductive output, or indirect genetic benefits that increase offspring fitness. One particular direct benefit that has attracted significant attention is that of fertility assurance, as females often need to mate multiply to achieve high fertility. This hypothesis has never been tested in a wild insect population.Methodology/Principal Findings: Female Malaysian stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni) mate repeatedly during their lifetime, and have been shown to be sperm limited under both laboratory and field conditions. Here we ask whether receiving an additional mating alleviates sperm limitation in wild females. In our experiment one group of females received a single additional mating, while a control group received an interrupted, and therefore unsuccessful, mating. Females that received an additional mating did not lay more fertilised eggs in total, nor did they lay proportionately more fertilised eggs. Female fertility declined significantly through time, demonstrating that females were sperm limited. However, receipt of an additional mating did not significantly alter the rate of this decline.Conclusions/Significance: Our data suggest that the fertility consequences of a single additional mating were small. We discuss this effect (or lack thereof), and suggest that it is likely to be attributed to small ejaculate size, a high proportion of failed copulations, and the presence of X-linked meiotic drive in this species
2d Gauge Theories and Generalized Geometry
We show that in the context of two-dimensional sigma models minimal coupling
of an ordinary rigid symmetry Lie algebra leads naturally to the
appearance of the "generalized tangent bundle" by means of composite fields. Gauge transformations of the composite
fields follow the Courant bracket, closing upon the choice of a Dirac structure
(or, more generally, the choide of a "small
Dirac-Rinehart sheaf" ), in which the fields as well as the symmetry
parameters are to take values. In these new variables, the gauge theory takes
the form of a (non-topological) Dirac sigma model, which is applicable in a
more general context and proves to be universal in two space-time dimensions: A
gauging of of a standard sigma model with Wess-Zumino term
exists, \emph{iff} there is a prolongation of the rigid symmetry to a Lie
algebroid morphism from the action Lie algebroid
into (or the algebraic analogue of the morphism in the case of
). The gauged sigma model results from a pullback by this morphism
from the Dirac sigma model, which proves to be universal in two-spacetime
dimensions in this sense.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures; To appear in Journal of High Energy Physic
Evidences for a quasi 60-year North Atlantic Oscillation since 1700 and its meaning for global climate change
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) obtained using instrumental and
documentary proxy predictors from Eurasia is found to be characterized by a
quasi 60-year dominant oscillation since 1650. This pattern emerges clearly
once the NAO record is time integrated to stress its comparison with the
temperature record. The integrated NAO (INAO) is found to well correlate with
the length of the day (since 1650) and the global surface sea temperature
record HadSST2 and HadSST3 (since 1850). These findings suggest that INAO can
be used as a good proxy for global climate change, and that a 60-year cycle
exists in the global climate since at least 1700. Finally, the INAO ~60-year
oscillation well correlates with the ~60- year oscillations found in the
historical European aurora record since 1700, which suggests that this 60-year
dominant climatic cycle has a solar-astronomical origin
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Alzheimer's disease-associated P460L variant of EphA1 dysregulates receptor activity and blood-brain barrier function
INTRODUCTION: Genome-wide association studies link susceptibility to late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) with EphA1. Sequencing identified a non-synonymous substitution P460L as a LOAD risk variant. Other Ephs regulate vascular permeability and immune cell recruitment. We hypothesized that P460L dysregulates EphA1 receptor activity and impacts neuroinflammation. METHODS: EphA1/P460L receptor activity was assayed in isogenic Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK) cells. Soluble EphA1/P460L (sEphA1/sP460L) reverse signaling in brain endothelial cells was assessed by T-cell recruitment and barrier function assays. RESULTS: EphA1 and P460L were expressed in HEK cells, but membrane and soluble P460L were significantly reduced. Ligand engagement induced Y781 phosphorylation of EphA1 but not P460L. sEphA1 primed brain endothelial cells for increased T-cell recruitment; however, sP460L was less effective. sEphA1 decreased the integrity of the brain endothelial barrier, while sP460L had no effect. DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that P460L alters EphA1-dependent forward and reverse signaling, which may impact blood-brain barrier function in LOAD. Highlights: EphA1-dependent reverse signaling controls recruitment of T cells by brain endothelial cells. EphA1-dependent reverse signaling remodels brain endothelial cell contacts. LOAD-associated P460L variant of EphA1 shows reduced membrane expression and reduced ligand responses. LOAD-associated P460L variant of EphA1 fails to reverse signal to brain endothelial cells.Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI), Cardiff University and Sir Geraint Evans Cardiovascular Fund, Cardiff University (grant to A.A. and A.J.R.), L.E.T. by UK Dementia Research Institute, Cardiff University, O.R.M. by School of Medicine, Cardiff University, S.S. and C.L.T. by Eli Lilly (grant to J.W. and A.A.), and C.C. by School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol. The Bioflux 200 was funded by the Leukemia Research Appeal for Wales, and iBright 1500 was funded by the Ser Cymru II programme (grant CU209 to V.K. and Manon Pritch, which was partially funded by Cardiff University and the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government (Grant CU209 to V.K. and Manon Pritchard)
The Interstellar Medium In Galaxies Seen A Billion Years After The Big Bang
Evolution in the measured rest frame ultraviolet spectral slope and
ultraviolet to optical flux ratios indicate a rapid evolution in the dust
obscuration of galaxies during the first 3 billion years of cosmic time (z>4).
This evolution implies a change in the average interstellar medium properties,
but the measurements are systematically uncertain due to untested assumptions,
and the inability to measure heavily obscured regions of the galaxies. Previous
attempts to directly measure the interstellar medium in normal galaxies at
these redshifts have failed for a number of reasons with one notable exception.
Here we report measurements of the [CII] gas and dust emission in 9 typical
(~1-4L*) star-forming galaxies ~1 billon years after the big bang (z~5-6). We
find these galaxies have >12x less thermal emission compared with similar
systems ~2 billion years later, and enhanced [CII] emission relative to the
far-infrared continuum, confirming a strong evolution in the interstellar
medium properties in the early universe. The gas is distributed over scales of
1-8 kpc, and shows diverse dynamics within the sample. These results are
consistent with early galaxies having significantly less dust than typical
galaxies seen at z<3 and being comparable to local low-metallicity systems.Comment: Submitted to Nature, under review after referee report. 22 pages, 4
figures, 4 Extended Data Figures, 5 Extended Data table
Electronic stress tensor analysis of hydrogenated palladium clusters
We study the chemical bonds of small palladium clusters Pd_n (n=2-9)
saturated by hydrogen atoms using electronic stress tensor. Our calculation
includes bond orders which are recently proposed based on the stress tensor. It
is shown that our bond orders can classify the different types of chemical
bonds in those clusters. In particular, we discuss Pd-H bonds associated with
the H atoms with high coordination numbers and the difference of H-H bonds in
the different Pd clusters from viewpoint of the electronic stress tensor. The
notion of "pseudo-spindle structure" is proposed as the region between two
atoms where the largest eigenvalue of the electronic stress tensor is negative
and corresponding eigenvectors forming a pattern which connects them.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, published online, Theoretical Chemistry
Account
Coupling models of cattle and farms with models of badgers for predicting the dynamics of bovine tuberculosis (TB)
Bovine TB is a major problem for the agricultural industry in several
countries. TB can be contracted and spread by species other than cattle and
this can cause a problem for disease control. In the UK and Ireland, badgers
are a recognised reservoir of infection and there has been substantial
discussion about potential control strategies. We present a coupling of
individual based models of bovine TB in badgers and cattle, which aims to
capture the key details of the natural history of the disease and of both
species at approximately county scale. The model is spatially explicit it
follows a very large number of cattle and badgers on a different grid size for
each species and includes also winter housing. We show that the model can
replicate the reported dynamics of both cattle and badger populations as well
as the increasing prevalence of the disease in cattle. Parameter space used as
input in simulations was swept out using Latin hypercube sampling and
sensitivity analysis to model outputs was conducted using mixed effect models.
By exploring a large and computationally intensive parameter space we show that
of the available control strategies it is the frequency of TB testing and
whether or not winter housing is practised that have the most significant
effects on the number of infected cattle, with the effect of winter housing
becoming stronger as farm size increases. Whether badgers were culled or not
explained about 5%, while the accuracy of the test employed to detect infected
cattle explained less than 3% of the variance in the number of infected cattle
Hemispheric Specialization in Dogs for Processing Different Acoustic Stimuli
Considerable experimental evidence shows that functional cerebral asymmetries are widespread in animals. Activity of the right cerebral hemisphere has been associated with responses to novel stimuli and the expression of intense emotions, such as aggression, escape behaviour and fear. The left hemisphere uses learned patterns and responds to familiar stimuli. Although such lateralization has been studied mainly for visual responses, there is evidence in primates that auditory perception is lateralized and that vocal communication depends on differential processing by the hemispheres. The aim of the present work was to investigate whether dogs use different hemispheres to process different acoustic stimuli by presenting them with playbacks of a thunderstorm and their species-typical vocalizations. The results revealed that dogs usually process their species-typical vocalizations using the left hemisphere and the thunderstorm sounds using the right hemisphere. Nevertheless, conspecific vocalizations are not always processed by the left hemisphere, since the right hemisphere is used for processing vocalizations when they elicit intense emotion, including fear. These findings suggest that the specialisation of the left hemisphere for intraspecific communication is more ancient that previously thought, and so is specialisation of the right hemisphere for intense emotions
Evolving the theory and praxis of knowledge translation through social interaction: a social phenomenological study
Background: As an inherently human process fraught with subjectivity, dynamic interaction, and change, social interaction knowledge translation (KT) invites implementation scientists to explore what might be learned from adopting the academic tradition of social constructivism and an interpretive research approach. This paper presents phenomenological investigation of the second cycle of a participatory action KT intervention in the home care sector to answer the question: What is the nature of the process of implementing KT through social interaction?
Methods: Social phenomenology was selected to capture how the social processes of the KT intervention were experienced, with the aim of representing these as typical socially-constituted patterns. Participants (n = 203), including service providers, case managers, administrators, and researchers organized into nine geographically-determined multi-disciplinary action groups, purposefully selected and audiotaped three meetings per group to capture their enactment of the KT process at early, middle, and end-of-cycle timeframes. Data, comprised of 36 hours of transcribed audiotapes augmented by researchers\u27 field notes, were analyzed using social phenomenology strategies and authenticated through member checking and peer review.
Results: Four patterns of social interaction representing organization, team, and individual interests were identified: overcoming barriers and optimizing facilitators; integrating \u27science push\u27 and \u27demand pull\u27 approaches within the social interaction process; synthesizing the research evidence with tacit professional craft and experiential knowledge; and integrating knowledge creation, transfer, and uptake throughout everyday work. Achieved through relational transformative leadership constituted simultaneously by both structure and agency, in keeping with social phenomenology analysis approaches, these four patterns are represented holistically in a typical construction, specifically, a participatory action KT (PAKT) model.
Conclusion: Study findings suggest the relevance of principles and foci from the field of process evaluation related to intervention implementation, further illuminating KT as a structuration process facilitated by evolving transformative leadership in an active and integrated context. The model provides guidance for proactively constructing a \u27fit\u27 between content, context, and facilitation in the translation of evidence informing professional craft knowledge
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