The co-construction of energy provision and everyday practice: integrating heat pumps in social housing in England

Challenges of energy security, low carbon transitions, and electricity network constraints have led to a shift to new, efficient technologies for household energy services. Studies of such technological innovations usually focus on consumer information and changes in behaviour to realise their full potential. We suggest that regarding such technologies in existing energy provision systems opens up questions concerning how and why such interventions are delivered. We argue that we must understand the ways by which energy systems are co-constituted through the habits and expectations of households, their technologies and appliances, alongside arrangements associated with large-scale socio-technical infrastructures. Drawing on research with air-source-to-water heat pumps (ASWHP), installed as part of a large trans-disciplinary, utility-led research and demonstration project in the north of England, we investigate how energy services provision and everyday practice shapes new technologies uptake, and how such technologies mediate and reconfigure relations between users, providers and infrastructure networks. While the installation of ASWHP has led to role differentiation through which energy services are provided, the space for new forms of co-provision to emerge is limited by existing commitments to delivering energy services. Simultaneously, new forms of interdependency emerge between users, providers and intermediaries through sites of installation, instruction, repair and feedback. We find that although new technologies do lead to the rearrangement of practices, this is often disrupted by obduracy in the conventions and habits around domestic heating and hot water practices that have been established in relation to existing systems of provision. Rather being simply a matter of increasing levels of knowledge in order to ensure that such technologies are adopted effi ciently and effectively, our paper demonstrates how systemic arrangements of energy provision and everyday practice are co-implicated in socio-technical innovation by changing the nature of energy supply and use

Palomar 13: An Unusual Stellar System in the Galactic Halo

We have measured Keck/HIRES radial velocities for 30 candidate red giants in the direction of Palomar 13: an object traditionally cataloged as a compact, low-luminosity globular cluster. From a sample of 21 confirmed members, we find a systemic velocity of 24.1 km/s and a projected, intrinsic velocity dispersion of 2.2 km/s. Although small, this dispersion is several times larger than that expected for a globular cluster of this luminosity and central concentration. Taken at face value, this dispersion implies a mass-to-light ratio of ~ 40 (in solar units) based on the best-fit King-Michie model. The surface density profile of Palomar 13 also appears to be anomalous among Galactic globular clusters -- depending upon the details of background subtraction and model-fitting, Palomar 13 either contains a substantial population of "extra-tidal" stars, or it is far more spatially extended than previously suspected. The full surface density profile is equally well-fit by a King-Michie model having a high concentration and large tidal radius, or by a NFW model. We examine -- and tentatively reject -- a number of possible explanations for the observed characteristics of Palomar 13 (e.g., velocity "jitter" among the red giants, spectroscopic binary stars, non-standard mass functions, modified Newtonian dynamics), and conclude that the two most plausible scenarios are either catastrophic heating during a recent perigalacticon passage, or the presence of a massive dark halo. Thus, the available evidence suggests that Palomar 13 is either a globular cluster which is now in the process of dissolving into the Galactic halo, or a faint, dark-matter-dominated stellar system (ABRIDGED).Comment: 31 pages, 13 postscript figures and 1 color gif image. Also available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/ast/ast-rap.html. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

GENOMICS OF ENDOGLIN PATHWAY IN PREECLAMPSIA

THE GENOMICS OF ENDOGLIN PATHWAY IN PREECLAMPSIA Mandy J. Bell, PhD, RN University of Pittsburgh, 2012 Preeclampsia is a pregnancy disorder that greatly impacts maternal and fetal/neonatal health and wellbeing. This case-control candidate gene association study investigated endoglin pathway genetic variation and its association with preeclampsia. Tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) in ENG, TGFβ1, TGFβR1, ALK1, and TGFβR2 were genotyped with iPLEX® and TaqMan® in maternal/fetal dyads. The Prenatal Exposures and Preeclampsia Prevention study provided maternal DNA extracted from peripherally collected white blood cell pellets, along with umbilical cord serum we used for fetal DNA extraction. Data on 355 white (181 cases/174 controls) and 60 black (30 cases/30 controls) women matched on ancestry, age, and parity were analyzed. Separate subgroup allele/genotype/haplotype tests were conducted with Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests. Binary logistic regression provided odds ratios for tSNPs with significant genotype tests. Analysis of maternal/fetal dyads was not conducted, because unlike the maternal samples, the fetal samples did not provide a quality template suitable for iPLEX® data collection. In white women, variation in ENG (rs11792480, rs10121110) and TGFβR2 (rs6550005) was associated with preeclampsia. Allelic frequency distributions in rs11792480, rs10121110, and rs6550005 were significantly different among cases and controls while genotype distributions of rs10121110 and rs6550005 were further associated with preeclampsia (p-values < .05). For rs10121110, women with the AA genotype were 2.290 times more likely to develop preeclampsia compared to the GG genotype (99% CI [1.022, 5.133], p = .008). ENG haplotype TACGA, which contains rs11792480 and rs10121110 risk alleles, was also over-represented in cases (p = .022). In black women, variation in TGFβ1 (rs4803455, rs4803457), TGFβR1 (rs10739778), and TGFβR2 (rs6550005, rs1346907, rs877572) was associated with preeclampsia. Allelic frequency distributions in rs10739778, rs6550005, rs1346907, and rs877572 were significantly different among cases and controls while genotype distributions of rs10739778, rs4803455, and rs4803457 were further associated with preeclampsia (p-values < .05). For rs4803457, women with the CT genotype were 7.437 more times likely to develop preeclampsia compared to the CC genotype (99% CI [1.192, 46.408], p = .005). These results demonstrate that variation in ENG pathway genes is associated with preeclampsia, with different genes from the same pathway contributing to preeclampsia in white compared to black women

Fostering active network management through SMEs’practises

Managing the electricity network through ‘smart grid’ systems is a key strategy to address challenges of energy security, low carbon transitions and the replacement of ageing infrastructure networks in the UK. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant role in shaping patterns of energy consumption. Understanding how their activities interrelate with changes in electricity systems is critical for active network management. A significant challenge for the transformation of electricity systems involves comprehending the complexity that stems from the variety of commercial activities and diversity of social and organizational practises among SMEs that interact with material infrastructures. We engage with SMEs to consider how smart grid interventions ‘fit’ into everyday operational activities. Drawing on analysis of empirical data on electricity use, smart metre data, surveys, interviews and ‘energy tours’ with SMEs to understand lighting, space heating and cooling, refrigeration and IT use, this paper argues for experimenting with the use of practise theory as a framework for bringing together technical and social aspects of energy use in SMEs. This approach reveals that material circumstances and temporal factors shape current energy demand among SMEs, with ‘connectedness’ an emergent factor

Loss of CSMD1 expression is associated with high tumour grade and poor survival in invasive ductal breast carcinoma

International audienceCUB and SUSHI multiple domain protein 1 () is a candidate tumour suppressor gene that maps to chromosome 8p23, a region deleted in many tumour types including 50% of breast cancers. CSMD1 has homologies to proteins implicated in carcinogenesis. We aimed to study the expression pattern of the CSMD1 protein and evaluate its prognostic importance in invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). An anti-CSMD1 antibody was developed and validated. The expression pattern of CSMD1 in normal breast and IDC samples was investigated by immunohistochemistry in 275 patients. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed. In normal breast duct epithelial cells, luminal, membranous and cytoplasmic CSMD1 staining was identified. Reduced expression of CSMD1 was detected in 79/275 (28.7%) of IDC cases. Low CSMD1 expression was significantly associated with high tumour grade ( = 0.003). CSMD1 expression was associated with overall survival (OS; HR = 0.607, 95%CI: 0.4-0.91,  = 0.018) but not with disease-free survival (DFS; HR = 0.81, 95%CI: 0.46-1.43,  = 0.48). Multivariate analysis showed that CSMD1, together with Nottingham Prognostic Index, was considered an independent predictor of OS (HR = 0.607, 95%CI: 0.4-0.91,  = 0.018) but not DFS (HR = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.46-1.5,  = 0.573). Reduction of CSMD1 expression was significantly associated with high tumour grade and decreased OS. Therefore, our results support the idea that is a tumour suppressor gene and suggest its possible use as a new prognostic biomarker. The membrane expression pattern of CSMD1 suggests that it may be a receptor or co-receptor involved in the process of signal transduction

Clumpy Galaxies in CANDELS. I. The Definition of UV Clumps and the Fraction of Clumpy Galaxies at 0.5<z<3

Although giant clumps of stars are crucial to galaxy formation and evolution, the most basic demographics of clumps are still uncertain, mainly because the definition of clumps has not been thoroughly discussed. In this paper, we study the basic demographics of clumps in star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at 0.5<z<3, using our proposed physical definition that UV-bright clumps are discrete star-forming regions that individually contribute more than 8% of the rest-frame UV light of their galaxies. Clumps defined this way are significantly brighter than the HII regions of nearby large spiral galaxies, either individually or blended, when physical spatial resolution and cosmological dimming are considered. Under this definition, we measure the fraction of SFGs that contain at least one off-center clump (Fclumpy) and the contributions of clumps to the rest-frame UV light and star formation rate of SFGs in the CANDELS/GOODS-S and UDS fields, where our mass-complete sample consists of 3239 galaxies with axial ratio q>0.5. The redshift evolution of Fclumpy changes with the stellar mass (M*) of the galaxies. Low-mass (log(M*/Msun)<9.8) galaxies keep an almost constant Fclumpy of about 60% from z~3.0 to z~0.5. Intermediate-mass and massive galaxies drop their Fclumpy from 55% at z~3.0 to 40% and 15%, respectively, at z~0.5. We find that (1) the trend of disk stabilization predicted by violent disk instability matches the Fclumpy trend of massive galaxies; (2) minor mergers are a viable explanation of the Fclumpy trend of intermediate-mass galaxies at z<1.5, given a realistic observability timescale; and (3) major mergers are unlikely responsible for the Fclumpy trend in all masses at z<1.5. The clump contribution to the rest-frame UV light of SFGs shows a broad peak around galaxies with log(M*/Msun)~10.5 at all redshifts, possibly linked to the molecular gas fraction of the galaxies. (Abridged)Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures. Appeared in ApJ (2015, 800, 39). A few typos correcte

3D-HST+CANDELS : the evolution of the galaxy size-mass distribution since z=3

Spectroscopic+photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early- and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)–1.48, and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)-0.75Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Smooth(er) Stellar Mass Maps in CANDELS: Constraints on the Longevity of Clumps in High-redshift Star-forming Galaxies

We perform a detailed analysis of the resolved colors and stellar populations of a complete sample of 323 star-forming galaxies at 0.5 < z < 1.5, and 326 star-forming galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5 in the ERS and CANDELS-Deep region of GOODS-South. Galaxies were selected to be more massive than 10^10 Msun and have specific star formation rates above 1/t_H. We model the 7-band optical ACS + near-IR WFC3 spectral energy distributions of individual bins of pixels, accounting simultaneously for the galaxy-integrated photometric constraints available over a longer wavelength range. We analyze variations in rest-frame color, stellar surface mass density, age, and extinction as a function of galactocentric radius and local surface brightness/density, and measure structural parameters on luminosity and stellar mass maps. We find evidence for redder colors, older stellar ages, and increased dust extinction in the nuclei of galaxies. Big star-forming clumps seen in star formation tracers are less prominent or even invisible on the inferred stellar mass distributions. Off-center clumps contribute up to ~20% to the integrated SFR, but only 7% or less to the integrated mass of all massive star-forming galaxies at z ~ 1 and z ~ 2, with the fractional contributions being a decreasing function of wavelength used to select the clumps. The stellar mass profiles tend to have smaller sizes and M20 coefficients, and higher concentration and Gini coefficients than the light distribution. Our results are consistent with an inside-out disk growth scenario with brief (100 - 200 Myr) episodic local enhancements in star formation superposed on the underlying disk. Alternatively, the young ages of off-center clumps may signal inward clump migration, provided this happens efficiently on the order of an orbital timescale.Comment: Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal, 27 pages, 1 table, 16 figure

A MAPK/c-Jun-mediated switch regulates the initial adaptive and cell death responses to mitochondrial damage in a neuronal cell model

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is defined by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons. Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress are associated with PD although it is not fully understood how neurons respond to these stresses. How adaptive and apoptotic neuronal stress response pathways are regulated and the thresholds at which they are activated remains ambiguous. Utilising SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, we show that MAPK/AP-1 pathways are critical in regulating the response to mitochondrial uncoupling. Here we found the AP-1 transcription factor cJun can act in either a pro- or anti-apoptotic manner, depending on the level ofstress. JNK-mediated cell death in differentiated cells only occurred once a threshold of stress was surpassed. We also identified a novel feedback loop between Parkin activity and the c-Jun response, suggesting defective mitophagy may initiate MAPK/c-Jun-mediated neuronal loss observed in PD. Our data supports the hypothesis that blocking cell death pathways upstream of c-Jun as a therapeutic target in PD may not be appropriate due to crossover of the pro- and anti-apoptotic responses. Boosting adaptive responses or targeting specific aspects of the neuronal death response may therefore represent more viable therapeutic strategie

Consensus Recommendations for Sick Day Medication Guidance for People With Diabetes, Kidney, or Cardiovascular Disease:A Modified Delphi Process

Rationale &amp; Objective: Sick day medication guidance (SDMG) involves withholding or adjusting specific medications in the setting of acute illnesses that could contribute to complications such as hypotension, acute kidney injury (AKI), or hypoglycemia. We sought to achieve consensus among clinical experts on recommendations for SDMG that could be studied in future intervention studies. Study Design: A modified Delphi process following guidelines for conducting and reporting Delphi studies. Setting &amp; Participants: An international group of clinicians with expertise relevant to SDMG was recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. A scoping review of the literature was presented, followed by 3 sequential rounds of development, refinement, and voting on recommendations. Meetings were held virtually and structured to allow the participants to provide their input and rapidly prioritize and refine ideas.Outcome: Opinions of participants were measured as the percentage who agreed with each recommendation, whereas consensus was defined as &gt;75% agreement. Analytical Approach: Quantitative data were summarized using counts and percentages. A qualitative content analysis was performed to capture the context of the discussion around recommendations and any additional considerations brought forward by participants. Results: The final panel included 26 clinician participants from 4 countries and 10 clinical disciplines. Participants reached a consensus on 42 specific recommendations: 5 regarding the signs and symptoms accompanying volume depletion that should trigger SDMG; 6 regarding signs that should prompt urgent contact with a health care provider (including a reduced level of consciousness, severe vomiting, low blood pressure, presence of ketones, tachycardia, and fever); and 14 related to scenarios and strategies for patient self-management (including frequent glucose monitoring, checking ketones, fluid intake, and consumption of food to prevent hypoglycemia). There was consensus that renin-angiotensin system inhibitors, diuretics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, and metformin should be temporarily stopped. Participants recommended that insulin, sulfonylureas, and meglitinides be held only if blood glucose was low and that basal and bolus insulin be increased by 10%-20% if blood glucose was elevated. There was consensus on 6 recommendations related to the resumption of medications within 24-48 hours of the resolution of symptoms and the presence of normal patterns of eating and drinking. Limitations: Participants were from high-income countries, predominantly Canada. Findings may not be generalizable to implementation in other settings. Conclusions: A multidisciplinary panel of clinicians reached a consensus on recommendations for SDMG in the presence of signs and symptoms of volume depletion, as well as self-management strategies and medication instructions in this setting. These recommendations may inform the design of future trials of SDMG strategies.</p