Monitoring responses by use of five-color flow cytometry in subsets of peripheral T cells obtained from cattle inoculated with a killed Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis vaccine

Objective—To monitor by use of 5-color flow cytometry the antigen-specific responses of subsets of peripheral T cells in cattle inoculated with a killed Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP) vaccine and to compare results with those for 2 established cell-mediated immunity assays. Animals—45 female Holstein cattle with negative results for MAP in skin tests conducted at time of inoculation with MAP. Procedures—Cattle were allocated to 4 groups. Cattle of group 1 (n = 12) were 0 to 3 months old and inoculated with a killed MAP vaccine. The 10 cattle of group 2 were the same age as those in group 1 but were not inoculated with MAP vaccine. The 11 cattle of group 3 were 9 to 12 months old and inoculated with killed MAP vaccine. The 12 cattle of group 4 were the same age as those in group 3 but were not inoculated with MAP vaccine. Results—Flow cytometry identified T-cell subsets that responded specifically to the recall antigen. Results of assays for CD25 expression and wholeblood interferon-γ had the strongest correlation with results for skin tests as well as results with each other. Intracellular expression of interferon-γ was not correlated as well with results for the other tests. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Flow cytometry can be useful for characterizing the immune response after administration of MAP vaccine and should be evaluated with regard to its sensitivity and specificity when used in detecting cattle naturally infected with MAP

Adaptive Threat Modeling for Secure Ad Hoc Routing Protocols

Secure routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks provide the required functionality for proper network operation. If the underlying routing protocol cannot be trusted to follow the protocol operations, additional trust layers, such as authentication, cannot be obtained. Threat models drive analysis capabilities, affecting how we evaluate trust. Current attacker threat models limit the results obtained during protocol security analysis over ad hoc routing protocols. Developing a proper threat model to evaluate security properties in mobile ad hoc routing protocols presents a significant challenge. If the attacker strength is too weak, we miss vital security flaws. If the attacker strength is too strong, we cannot identify the minimum required attacker capabilities needed to break the routing protocol. In this paper we present an adaptive threat model to evaluate route discovery attacks against ad hoc routing protocols. Our approach enables us to evaluate trust in the ad hoc routing process and allows us to identify minimum requirements an attacker needs to break a given routing protocol

Key comparison CCQM-K59 : determination of nitrite and nitrate in calibration solutions. Final report

In this key comparison anion calibration solutions of nitrate and nitrite were investigated. The mass fractions of the anions in both solutions were about 1 g/kg. For the nitrate comparison 8 participants provided results; 3 analytical techniques were used: ion chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and coulometry after ion exchange. The nitrite amount content was determined by 7 participants using one of the following 3 techniques: ion chromatography, titrimetry, and capillary electrophoresis. The following institutes participated in this key comparison: INTI (Argentina), KRISS (Korea), LNE (France), NIM (P.R.China), NIST (USA), NMIJ (Japan), SMU (Slovakia), and VNIIM (Russia). The variability (RSD) of the results is about 0.75% for both the nitrite and the nitrate solutions. Compared to the key comparison CCQM-K29 the results of CCQM-K59 were significantly worse. This is in part due to the measurement methods used, possibly also due to the standards used by the institutes. A pilot study (P89) was performed in parallel on the same calibration solutions used in this K59 comparisons study by laboratories preferring to participate in the pilot study and on a seawater sample containing about 0.1 mg/kg nitrite and 1 mg/kg nitrate. The results of the pilot study are reported separately.Fil: Máriássy, Michal. Slovak Institute of Metrology (SMU); EslovaquiaFil: Hioki, Akiharu. National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ); JapónFil: Konopelko, Leonid A. D. I. Mendeleev Scientific and Research Institute for Metrology (VNIIM); RusiaFil: Hernández, Ana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI); ArgentinaFil: Lee, Joung Hae. Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS); Corea del SurFil: Royer, Chantal. Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d’Essais (LNE); FranciaFil: Chao, Jingbo. National Research Center for Certified Reference Materials (NIM); ChinaFil: Turk, Gregory. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); Estados Unido

A unitary test of the Ratios Conjecture

The Ratios Conjecture of Conrey, Farmer and Zirnbauer predicts the answers to numerous questions in number theory, ranging from n-level densities and correlations to mollifiers to moments and vanishing at the central point. The conjecture gives a recipe to generate these answers, which are believed to be correct up to square-root cancelation. These predictions have been verified, for suitably restricted test functions, for the 1-level density of orthogonal and symplectic families of L-functions. In this paper we verify the conjecture's predictions for the unitary family of all Dirichlet $L$-functions with prime conductor; we show square-root agreement between prediction and number theory if the support of the Fourier transform of the test function is in (-1,1), and for support up to (-2,2) we show agreement up to a power savings in the family's cardinality.Comment: Version 2: 24 pages, provided additional details, fixed some small mistakes and expanded the exposition in place

Tropical Cyclogenesis Sensitivity to Environmental Parameters in Radiative-Convective Equilibrium

In this study, the relationship between the likelihood of tropical cyclogenesis and external environmental forcings is explored in the simplest idealized modelling framework possible: radiative-convective equilibrium on a doubly periodic f-plane. In such an environment, control of the equilibrium environmental sounding is reduced to three parameters: the sea-surface temperature, the Coriolis parameter, and the imposed background surface wind speed. Cloud-resolving mesoscale model simulations are used to generate environments of radiative-convective equilibrium determined by these three factors. The favourability of these environments for tropical cyclogenesis is measured in three ways: in terms of the maximum potential intensity (MPI) of the sounding, based on the thermodynamic theory of Emanuel; in terms of the ‘genesis potential’ determined by an empirical genesis parameter; and in terms of the propensity of weak initial vortices in these environments to form into tropical cyclones. The simulated environments of radiative—convective equilibrium with no vertical wind shear are found to be very favourable for tropical cyclogenesis. Weak initial vortices always transition to a tropical cyclone, even for rather low sea-surface temperatures. However, the time required for these vortices to make the transition from a weak, mid-level vortex to a rapidly developing tropical cyclone decreases as the MPI increases, indicating the importance of MPI in enhancing the frequency of cyclogenesis. The relationship between this ‘time to genesis’ and the thermodynamic parameters is explored. The time to genesis is found to be very highly (negatively) correlated to MPI, with little or no relationship to convective instability, Coriolis parameter, mid-level humidity, or the empirical genesis parameter. In some cases, tropical cyclones are found to form spontaneously from random convection. This formation is due to a cooperative interaction between large-scale moisture, long-wave radiation, and locally enhanced sea-surface fluxes, similar to the ‘aggregation’ of convection found in previous studies.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant ATM-0432067

BigStitcher: reconstructing high-resolution image datasets of cleared and expanded samples.

Light-sheet imaging of cleared and expanded samples creates terabyte-sized datasets that consist of many unaligned three-dimensional image tiles, which must be reconstructed before analysis. We developed the BigStitcher software to address this challenge. BigStitcher enables interactive visualization, fast and precise alignment, spatially resolved quality estimation, real-time fusion and deconvolution of dual-illumination, multitile, multiview datasets. The software also compensates for optical effects, thereby improving accuracy and enabling subsequent biological analysis

Predicting Maximum Tree Heights and Other Traits from Allometric Scaling and Resource Limitations

Terrestrial vegetation plays a central role in regulating the carbon and water cycles, and adjusting planetary albedo. As such, a clear understanding and accurate characterization of vegetation dynamics is critical to understanding and modeling the broader climate system. Maximum tree height is an important feature of forest vegetation because it is directly related to the overall scale of many ecological and environmental quantities and is an important indicator for understanding several properties of plant communities, including total standing biomass and resource use. We present a model that predicts local maximal tree height across the entire continental United States, in good agreement with data. The model combines scaling laws, which encode the average, base-line behavior of many tree characteristics, with energy budgets constrained by local resource limitations, such as precipitation, temperature and solar radiation. In addition to predicting maximum tree height in an environment, our framework can be extended to predict how other tree traits, such as stomatal density, depend on these resource constraints. Furthermore, it offers predictions for the relationship between height and whole canopy albedo, which is important for understanding the Earth's radiative budget, a critical component of the climate system. Because our model focuses on dominant features, which are represented by a small set of mechanisms, it can be easily integrated into more complicated ecological or climate models.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Research Experience for Undergraduates stipend)Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship Program)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Presidential FellowshipEugene V. and Clare Thaw Charitable TrustEngineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (PHY0202180)Colorado College (Venture Grant Program

The Mid-infrared Instrument for JWST and Its In-flight Performance

The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) extends the reach of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to 28.5 μm. It provides subarcsecond-resolution imaging, high sensitivity coronagraphy, and spectroscopy at resolutions of λ/Δλ ∼ 100-3500, with the high-resolution mode employing an integral field unit to provide spatial data cubes. The resulting broad suite of capabilities will enable huge advances in studies over this wavelength range. This overview describes the history of acquiring this capability for JWST. It discusses the basic attributes of the instrument optics, the detector arrays, and the cryocooler that keeps everything at approximately 7 K. It gives a short description of the data pipeline and of the instrument performance demonstrated during JWST commissioning. The bottom line is that the telescope and MIRI are both operating to the standards set by pre-launch predictions, and all of the MIRI capabilities are operating at, or even a bit better than, the level that had been expected. The paper is also designed to act as a roadmap to more detailed papers on different aspects of MIRI

Global Patterns and Controls of Nutrient Immobilization On Decomposing Cellulose In Riverine Ecosystems

Microbes play a critical role in plant litter decomposition and influence the fate of carbon in rivers and riparian zones. When decomposing low-nutrient plant litter, microbes acquire nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from the environment (i.e., nutrient immobilization), and this process is potentially sensitive to nutrient loading and changing climate. Nonetheless, environmental controls on immobilization are poorly understood because rates are also influenced by plant litter chemistry, which is coupled to the same environmental factors. Here we used a standardized, low-nutrient organic matter substrate (cotton strips) to quantify nutrient immobilization at 100 paired stream and riparian sites representing 11 biomes worldwide. Immobilization rates varied by three orders of magnitude, were greater in rivers than riparian zones, and were strongly correlated to decomposition rates. In rivers, P immobilization rates were controlled by surface water phosphate concentrations, but N immobilization rates were not related to inorganic N. The N:P of immobilized nutrients was tightly constrained to a molar ratio of 10:1 despite wide variation in surface water N:P. Immobilization rates were temperature-dependent in riparian zones but not related to temperature in rivers. However, in rivers nutrient supply ultimately controlled whether microbes could achieve the maximum expected decomposition rate at a given temperature