Vibronic Structure in Room Temperature Photoluminescence of the Halide Perovskite Cs3Bi2Br9

We report a study on the optical properties of the layered polymorph of vacancy-ordered triple perovskite Cs3Bi2Br9. The electronic structure, determined from density functional theory calculations, shows the top of the valence band and bottom of the conduction band minima are, unusually, dominated by Bi s and p states, respectively. This produces a sharp exciton peak in the absorption spectra with a binding energy that was approximated to be 940 meV, which is substantially stronger than values found in other halide perovskites and, instead, more closely reflects values seen in alkali halide crystals. This large binding energy is indicative of a strongly localized character and results in a highly structured emission at room temperature as the exciton couples to vibrations in the lattice

The NRG1 exon 11 missense variant is not associated with autism in the Central Valley of Costa Rica

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We are conducting a genetic study of autism in the isolated population of the Central Valley of Costa Rica (CVCR). A novel Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) missense variant (exon 11 G>T) was recently associated with psychosis and schizophrenia (SCZ) in the same population isolate.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We genotyped the NRG1 exon 11 missense variant in 146 cases with autism, or autism spectrum disorder, with CVCR ancestry, and both parents when available (N = 267 parents) from 143 independent families. Additional microsatellites were genotyped to examine haplotypes bearing the exon 11 variant.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The NRG1 exon 11 G>T variant was found in 4/146 cases including one de novo occurrence. The frequency of the variant in case chromosomes was 0.014 and 0.045 in the parental non-transmitted chromosomes. At least 6 haplotypes extending 0.229 Mb were associated with the T allele. Three independent individuals, with no personal or family history of psychiatric disorder, shared at least a 1 megabase haplotype 5' to the T allele.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The NRG1 exon 11 missense variant is not associated with autism in the CVCR.</p

The Precursors and Products of Justice Climates: Group Leader Antecedents and Employee Attitudinal Consequences

Drawing on the organizational justice, organizational climate, leadership and personality, and social comparison theory literatures, we develop hypotheses about the effects of leader personality on the development of three types of justice climates (e.g., procedural, interpersonal, and informational), and the moderating effects of these climates on individual level justice- attitude relationships. Largely consistent with the theoretically-derived hypotheses, the results showed that leader (a) agreeableness was positively related to procedural, interpersonal and informational justice climates, (b) conscientiousness was positively related to a procedural justice climate, and (c) neuroticism was negatively related to all three types of justice climates. Further, consistent with social comparison theory, multilevel data analyses revealed that the relationship between individual justice perceptions and job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment) was moderated by justice climate such that the relationships were stronger when justice climate was high

Bisphosphonates attenuate age-related muscle decline in Caenorhabditis elegans

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordBACKGROUND: Age-related muscle decline (sarcopenia) associates with numerous health risk factors and poor quality of life. Drugs that counter sarcopenia without harmful side effects are lacking, and repurposing existing pharmaceuticals could expedite realistic clinical options. Recent studies suggest bisphosphonates promote muscle health; however, the efficacy of bisphosphonates as an anti-sarcopenic therapy is currently unclear. METHODS: Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a sarcopenia model, we treated animals with 100 nM, 1, 10, 100 and 500 μM zoledronic acid (ZA) and assessed lifespan and healthspan (movement rates) using a microfluidic chip device. The effects of ZA on sarcopenia were examined using GFP-tagged myofibres or mitochondria at days 0, 4 and 6 post-adulthood. Mechanisms of ZA-mediated healthspan extension were determined using combined ZA and targeted RNAi gene knockdown across the life-course. RESULTS: We found 100 nM and 1 μM ZA increased lifespan (P  0.05), whereas 100 and 500 μM ZA were larval lethal. ZA (1 μM) significantly improved myofibrillar structure on days 4 and 6 post-adulthood (83 and 71% well-organized myofibres, respectively, vs. 56 and 34% controls, P  0.05). Life/healthspan was extended through knockdown of igdb-1/FNDC5 (635 ± 10 vs. 523 ± 10% population activity AUC in gene knockdown vs. untreated controls, P  0.05]. Conversely, let-756/FGF21 and sir-2.2/SIRT-4 were dispensable for ZA-induced healthspan [630 ± 6 vs. 523 ± 10% population activity AUC in knockdown + 1 μM ZA vs. untreated controls, P < 0.01 (let-756/FGF21) and 568 ± 9 vs. 523 ± 10%, P < 0.05 (sir-2.2/SIRT-4)]. CONCLUSIONS: Despite lacking an endoskeleton, ZA delays Caenorhabditis elegans sarcopenia, which translates to improved neuromuscular function across the life course. Bisphosphonates might, therefore, be an immediately exploitable anti-sarcopenia therapy

Timescales of Massive Human Entrainment

The past two decades have seen an upsurge of interest in the collective behaviors of complex systems composed of many agents entrained to each other and to external events. In this paper, we extend concepts of entrainment to the dynamics of human collective attention. We conducted a detailed investigation of the unfolding of human entrainment - as expressed by the content and patterns of hundreds of thousands of messages on Twitter - during the 2012 US presidential debates. By time locking these data sources, we quantify the impact of the unfolding debate on human attention. We show that collective social behavior covaries second-by-second to the interactional dynamics of the debates: A candidate speaking induces rapid increases in mentions of his name on social media and decreases in mentions of the other candidate. Moreover, interruptions by an interlocutor increase the attention received. We also highlight a distinct time scale for the impact of salient moments in the debate: Mentions in social media start within 5-10 seconds after the moment; peak at approximately one minute; and slowly decay in a consistent fashion across well-known events during the debates. Finally, we show that public attention after an initial burst slowly decays through the course of the debates. Thus we demonstrate that large-scale human entrainment may hold across a number of distinct scales, in an exquisitely time-locked fashion. The methods and results pave the way for careful study of the dynamics and mechanisms of large-scale human entrainment.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, 4 supplementary figures. 2nd version revised according to peer reviewers' comments: more detailed explanation of the methods, and grounding of the hypothese

Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) foraging at Arvoredo Island in Southern Brazil: Genetic characterization and mixed stock analysis through mtDNA control region haplotypes

We analyzed mtDNA control region sequences of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) from Arvoredo Island, a foraging ground in southern Brazil, and identified eight haplotypes. Of these, CM-A8 (64%) and CM-A5 (22%) were dominant, the remainder presenting low frequencies (< 5%). Haplotype (h) and nucleotide (π) diversities were 0.5570 ± 0.0697 and 0.0021 ± 0.0016, respectively. Exact tests of differentiation and AMOVA ΦST pairwise values between the study area and eight other Atlantic foraging grounds revealed significant differences in most areas, except Ubatuba and Rocas/Noronha, in Brazil (p > 0.05). Mixed Stock Analysis, incorporating eleven Atlantic and one Mediterranean rookery as possible sources of individuals, indicated Ascension and Aves islands as the main contributing stocks to the Arvoredo aggregation (68.01% and 22.96%, respectively). These results demonstrate the extensive relationships between Arvoredo Island and other Atlantic foraging and breeding areas. Such an understanding provides a framework for establishing adequate management and conservation strategies for this endangered species

'Getting people on board': Discursive leadership for consensus building in team meetings

Meetings are increasingly seen as sites where organizing and strategic change take place, but the role of specific discursive strategies and related linguistic-pragmatic and argumentative devices, employed by meeting chairs, is little understood. The purpose of this article is to address the range of behaviours of chairs in business organizations by comparing strategies employed by the same chief executive officer (CEO) in two key meeting genres: regular management team meetings and ‘away-days’. While drawing on research from organization studies on the role of leadership in meetings and studies of language in the workplace from (socio)linguistics and discourse studies, we abductively identified five salient discursive strategies which meeting chairs employ in driving decision making: (1) Bonding; (2) Encouraging; (3) Directing; (4) Modulating; and (5) Re/Committing. We investigate the leadership styles of the CEO in both meeting genres via a multi-level approach using empirical data drawn from meetings of a single management team in a multinational defence corporation. Our key findings are, first, that the chair of the meetings (and leading manager) influences the outcome of the meetings in both negative and positive ways, through the choice of discursive strategies. Second, it becomes apparent that the specific context and related meeting genre mediate participation and the ability of the chair to control interactions within the team. Third, a more hierarchical authoritarian or a more interpersonal egalitarian leadership style can be identified via specific combinations of these five discursive strategies. The article concludes that the egalitarian leadership style increases the likelihood of achieving a durable consensus. Several related avenues for research are outlined

Colorectal Cancers from Distinct Ancestral Populations Show Variations in BRAF Mutation Frequency

It has been demonstrated for some cancers that the frequency of somatic oncogenic mutations may vary in ancestral populations. To determine whether key driver alterations might occur at different frequencies in colorectal cancer, we applied a high-throughput genotyping platform (OncoMap) to query 385 mutations across 33 known cancer genes in colorectal cancer DNA from 83 Asian, 149 Black and 195 White patients. We found that Asian patients had fewer canonical oncogenic mutations in the genes tested (60% vs Black 79% (P = 0.011) and White 77% (P = 0.015)), and that BRAF mutations occurred at a higher frequency in White patients (17% vs Asian 4% (P = 0.004) and Black 7% (P = 0.014)). These results suggest that the use of genomic approaches to elucidate the different ancestral determinants harbored by patient populations may help to more precisely and effectively treat colorectal cancer

Multiple Distant Origins for Green Sea Turtles Aggregating off Gorgona Island in the Colombian Eastern Pacific

Mitochondrial DNA analyses have been useful for resolving maternal lineages and migratory behavior to foraging grounds (FG) in sea turtles. However, little is known about source rookeries and haplotype composition of foraging green turtle aggregations in the southeastern Pacific. We used mitochondrial DNA control region sequences to identify the haplotype composition of 55 green turtles, Chelonia mydas, captured in foraging grounds of Gorgona National Park in the Colombian Pacific. Amplified fragments of the control region (457 bp) revealed the presence of seven haplotypes, with haplotype (h) and nucleotide (π) diversities of h = 0.300±0.080 and π = 0.009±0.005 respectively. The most common haplotype was CMP4 observed in 83% of individuals, followed by CMP22 (5%). The genetic composition of the Gorgona foraging population primarily comprised haplotypes that have been found at eastern Pacific rookeries including Mexico and the Galapagos, as well as haplotypes of unknown stock origin that likely originated from more distant western Pacific rookeries. Mixed stock analysis suggests that the Gorgona FG population is comprised mostly of animals from the Galapagos rookery (80%). Lagrangian drifter data showed that movement of turtles along the eastern Pacific coast and eastward from distant western and central Pacific sites was possible through passive drift. Our results highlight the importance of this protected area for conservation management of green turtles recruited from distant sites along the eastern Pacific Ocean