Survival of bacterial isolates exposed to simulated Jovian trapped radiation belt electrons and solar wind protons

With missions to Jupiter, the spacecraft will be exposed for extended duration to solar wind radiation and the Jovian trapped radiation belt. This study is designed to determine the effect of these radiation environments on spacecraft bacterial isolates. The information can be used in the probability of contamination analysis for these missions. A bacterial subpopulation from Mariner Mars 1971 spacecraft (nine sporeforming and three nonsporeforming isolates) plus two comparative organisms, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 17917 and a strain of Bacillus subtilis var. niger, were exposed to 2-, 12-, and 25-MeV electrons at different doses with simultaneous exposure to a vacuum of 0.0013 N/sqm at 20 and -20 C. The radioresistance of the subpopulation was dependent on the isolate, dose, and energy of electrons. Temperature affected the radioresistance of only the sporeforming isolates. Survival data indicated that spores were reduced approximately 1 log/1500 J/kg, while nonsporeforming isolates (micrococci) were reduced 1.5 to 2 logs/1500 J/kg with the exception of an apparent radioresistant isolate whose resistance approached that of the spores. The subpopulation was found to be less resistant to lower energy than to higher energy electrons

HEP Software Foundation Community White Paper Working Group - Data and Software Preservation to Enable Reuse

In this chapter of the High Energy Physics Software Foundation Community Whitepaper, we discuss the current state of infrastructure, best practices, and ongoing developments in the area of data and software preservation in high energy physics. A re-framing of the motivation for preservation to enable re-use is presented. A series of research and development goals in software and other cyberinfrastructure that will aid in the enabling of reuse of particle physics analyses and production software are presented and discussed

Boolean analysis identifies CD38 as a biomarker of aggressive localized prostate cancer.

The introduction of serum Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing nearly 30 years ago has been associated with a significant shift towards localized disease and decreased deaths due to prostate cancer. Recognition that PSA testing has caused over diagnosis and over treatment of prostate cancer has generated considerable controversy over its value, and has spurred efforts to identify prognostic biomarkers to distinguish patients who need treatment from those that can be observed. Recent studies show that cancer is heterogeneous and forms a hierarchy of tumor cell populations. We developed a method of identifying prostate cancer differentiation states related to androgen signaling using Boolean logic. Using gene expression data, we identified two markers, CD38 and ARG2, that group prostate cancer into three differentiation states. Cancers with CD38-, ARG2- expression patterns, corresponding to an undifferentiated state, had significantly lower 10-year recurrence-free survival compared to the most differentiated group (CD38+ARG2+). We carried out immunohistochemical (IHC) staining for these two markers in a single institution (Stanford; n = 234) and multi-institution (Canary; n = 1326) cohorts. IHC staining for CD38 and ARG2 in the Stanford cohort demonstrated that combined expression of CD38 and ARG2 was prognostic. In the Canary cohort, low CD38 protein expression by IHC was significantly associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS), seminal vesicle invasion (SVI), extra-capsular extension (ECE) in univariable analysis. In multivariable analysis, ARG2 and CD38 IHC staining results were not independently associated with RFS, overall survival, or disease-specific survival after adjusting for other factors including SVI, ECE, Gleason score, pre-operative PSA, and surgical margins

Optimal interdependence between networks for the evolution of cooperation

Recent research has identified interactions between networks as crucial for the outcome of evolutionary games taking place on them. While the consensus is that interdependence does promote cooperation by means of organizational complexity and enhanced reciprocity that is out of reach on isolated networks, we here address the question just how much interdependence there should be. Intuitively, one might assume the more the better. However, we show that in fact only an intermediate density of sufficiently strong interactions between networks warrants an optimal resolution of social dilemmas. This is due to an intricate interplay between the heterogeneity that causes an asymmetric strategy flow because of the additional links between the networks, and the independent formation of cooperative patterns on each individual network. Presented results are robust to variations of the strategy updating rule, the topology of interdependent networks, and the governing social dilemma, thus suggesting a high degree of universality

Observation of charge asymmetry dependence of pion elliptic flow and the possible chiral magnetic wave in heavy-ion collisions

We present measurements of $\pi^-$ and $\pi^+$ elliptic flow, $v_2$, at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} =$ 200, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6, 11.5 and 7.7 GeV, as a function of event-by-event charge asymmetry, $A_{ch}$, based on data from the STAR experiment at RHIC. We find that $\pi^-$ ($\pi^+$) elliptic flow linearly increases (decreases) with charge asymmetry for most centrality bins at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = \text{27 GeV}$ and higher. At $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = \text{200 GeV}$, the slope of the difference of $v_2$ between $\pi^-$ and $\pi^+$ as a function of $A_{ch}$ exhibits a centrality dependence, which is qualitatively similar to calculations that incorporate a chiral magnetic wave effect. Similar centrality dependence is also observed at lower energies.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Centrality and transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow of multi-strange hadrons and ϕ\phi meson in Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

We present high precision measurements of elliptic flow near midrapidity ($|y|<1.0$) for multi-strange hadrons and $\phi$ meson as a function of centrality and transverse momentum in Au+Au collisions at center of mass energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV. We observe that the transverse momentum dependence of $\phi$ and $\Omega$ $v_{2}$ is similar to that of $\pi$ and $p$, respectively, which may indicate that the heavier strange quark flows as strongly as the lighter up and down quarks. This observation constitutes a clear piece of evidence for the development of partonic collectivity in heavy-ion collisions at the top RHIC energy. Number of constituent quark scaling is found to hold within statistical uncertainty for both 0-30$\%$ and 30-80$\%$ collision centrality. There is an indication of the breakdown of previously observed mass ordering between $\phi$ and proton $v_{2}$ at low transverse momentum in the 0-30$\%$ centrality range, possibly indicating late hadronic interactions affecting the proton $v_{2}$.Comment: 7 pages and 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter