Reflection Positivity and Monotonicity

We prove general reflection positivity results for both scalar fields and Dirac fields on a Riemannian manifold, and comment on applications to quantum field theory. As another application, we prove the inequality $C_D \leq C_N$ between Dirichlet and Neumann covariance operators on a manifold with a reflection.Comment: 11 page

Superconducting boron doped nanocrystalline diamond microwave coplanar resonator

A superconducting boron doped nanocrystalline diamond (B-NCD) coplanar waveguide resonator (CPR) is presented for kinetic inductance ($L_k$) and penetration depth ($\lambda_{\rm{L}}$) measurements at microwave frequencies of 0.4 to 1.2 GHz and at temperatures below 3 K. Using a simplified effective medium CPR approach, this work demonstrates that thin granular B-NCD films ($t\approx$ 500 nm) on Si have a large penetration depth ($\lambda_{\rm{L}}\approx 4.3$ to 4.4 $\mu$m), and therefore an associated high kinetic inductance ($L_{k,\square} \approx$ 670 to 690 pH/$\square$). These values are much larger than those typically obtained for films on single crystal diamond which is likely due to the significant granularity of the nanocrystalline films. Based on the measured Q factors of the structure, the calculated surface resistance in this frequency range is found to be as low as $\approx$ 2 to 4 $\mu\Omega$ at $T<2$ K, demonstrating the potential for granular B-NCD for high quality factor superconducting microwave resonators and highly sensitive kinetic inductance detectors.Comment: First draf

Dendritic Cell Mediated Delivery of Plasmid DNA Encoding LAMP/HIV-1 Gag Fusion Immunogen Enhances T Cell Epitope Responses in HLA DR4 Transgenic Mice

This report describes the identification and bioinformatics analysis of HLA-DR4-restricted HIV-1 Gag epitope peptides, and the application of dendritic cell mediated immunization of DNA plasmid constructs. BALB/c (H-2d) and HLA-DR4 (DRA1*0101, DRB1*0401) transgenic mice were immunized with immature dendritic cells transfected by a recombinant DNA plasmid encoding the lysosome-associated membrane protein-1/HIV-1 Gag (pLAMP/gag) chimera antigen. Three immunization protocols were compared: 1) primary subcutaneous immunization with 1×105 immature dendritic cells transfected by electroporation with the pLAMP/gag DNA plasmid, and a second subcutaneous immunization with the naked pLAMP/gag DNA plasmid; 2) primary immunization as above, and a second subcutaneous immunization with a pool of overlapping peptides spanning the HIV-1 Gag sequence; and 3) immunization twice by subcutaneous injection of the pLAMP/gag DNA plasmid. Primary immunization with pLAMP/gag-transfected dendritic cells elicited the greatest number of peptide specific T-cell responses, as measured by ex vivo IFN-γ ELISpot assay, both in BALB/c and HLA-DR4 transgenic mice. The pLAMP/gag-transfected dendritic cells prime and naked DNA boost immunization protocol also resulted in an increased apparent avidity of peptide in the ELISpot assay. Strikingly, 20 of 25 peptide-specific T-cell responses in the HLA-DR4 transgenic mice contained sequences that corresponded, entirely or partially to 18 of the 19 human HLA-DR4 epitopes listed in the HIV molecular immunology database. Selection of the most conserved epitope peptides as vaccine targets was facilitated by analysis of their representation and variability in all reported sequences. These data provide a model system that demonstrates a) the superiority of immunization with dendritic cells transfected with LAMP/gag plasmid DNA, as compared to naked DNA, b) the value of HLA transgenic mice as a model system for the identification and evaluation of epitope-based vaccine strategies, and c) the application of variability analysis across reported sequences in public databases for selection of historically conserved HIV epitopes as vaccine targets

A deformation of AdS_5 x S^5

We analyse a one parameter family of supersymmetric solutions of type IIB supergravity that includes AdS_5 x S^5. For small values of the parameter the solutions are causally well-behaved, but beyond a critical value closed timelike curves (CTC's) appear. The solutions are holographically dual to N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on a non-conformally flat background with non-vanishing R-currents. We compute the holographic energy-momentum tensor for the spacetime and show that it remains finite even when the CTC's appear. The solutions, as well as the uplift of some recently discovered AdS_5 black hole solutions, are shown to preserve precisely two supersymmetries.Comment: 16 pages, v2: typos corrected and references adde

Genetic susceptibility, evolution and the kuru epidemic

The acquired prion disease kuru was restricted to the Fore and neighbouring linguistic groups of the Papua New Guinea highlands and largely affected children and adult women. Oral history documents the onset of the epidemic in the early twentieth century, followed by a peak in the mid-twentieth century and subsequently a well-documented decline in frequency. In the context of these strong associations (gender, region and time), we have considered the genetic factors associated with susceptibility and resistance to kuru. Heterozygosity at codon 129 of the human prion protein gene (PRNP) is known to confer relative resistance to both sporadic and acquired prion diseases. In kuru, heterozygosity is associated with older patients and longer incubation times. Elderly survivors of the kuru epidemic, who had multiple exposures at mortuary feasts, are predominantly PRNP codon 129 heterozygotes and this group show marked Hardy–Weinberg disequilibrium. The deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium is most marked in elderly women, but is also significant in a slightly younger cohort of men, consistent with their exposure to kuru as boys. Young Fore and the elderly from populations with no history of kuru show Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. An increasing cline in 129V allele frequency centres on the kuru region, consistent with the effect of selection in elevating the frequency of resistant genotypes in the exposed population. The genetic data are thus strikingly correlated with exposure. Considering the strong coding sequence conservation of primate prion protein genes, the number of global coding polymorphisms in man is surprising. By intronic resequencing in a European population, we have shown that haplotype diversity at PRNP comprises two major and divergent clades associated with 129M and 129V. Kuru may have imposed the strongest episode of recent human balancing selection, which may not have been an isolated episode in human history

PHANGS CO kinematics: disk orientations and rotation curves at 150 pc resolution

We present kinematic orientations and high resolution (150 pc) rotation curves for 67 main sequence star-forming galaxies surveyed in CO (2-1) emission by PHANGS-ALMA. Our measurements are based on the application of a new fitting method tailored to CO velocity fields. Our approach identifies an optimal global orientation as a way to reduce the impact of non-axisymmetric (bar and spiral) features and the uneven spatial sampling characteristic of CO emission in the inner regions of nearby galaxies. The method performs especially well when applied to the large number of independent lines-of-sight contained in the PHANGS CO velocity fields mapped at 1'' resolution. The high resolution rotation curves fitted to these data are sensitive probes of mass distribution in the inner regions of these galaxies. We use the inner slope as well as the amplitude of our fitted rotation curves to demonstrate that CO is a reliable global dynamical mass tracer. From the consistency between photometric orientations from the literature and kinematic orientations determined with our method, we infer that the shapes of stellar disks in the mass range of log($\rm M_{\star}(M_{\odot})$)=9.0-10.9 probed by our sample are very close to circular and have uniform thickness.Comment: 19 figures, 36 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ. Table of PHANGS rotation curves available from http://phangs.org/dat

A clinical study of kuru patients with long incubation periods at the end of the epidemic in Papua New Guinea

Kuru is so far the principal human epidemic prion disease. While its incidence has steadily declined since the cessation of its route of transmission, endocannibalism, in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s, the arrival of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), also thought to be transmitted by dietary prion exposure, has given kuru a new global relevance. We investigated all suspected cases of kuru from July 1996 to June 2004 and identified 11 kuru patients. There were four females and seven males, with an age range of 46–63 years at the onset of disease, in marked contrast to the age and sex distribution when kuru was first investigated 50 years ago. We obtained detailed histories of residence and exposure to mortuary feasts and performed serial neurological examination and genetic studies where possible. All patients were born a significant period before the mortuary practice of transumption ceased and their estimated incubation periods in some cases exceeded 50 years. The principal clinical features of kuru in the studied patients showed the same progressive cerebellar syndrome that had been previously described. Two patients showed marked cognitive impairment well before preterminal stages, in contrast to earlier clinical descriptions. In these patients, the mean clinical duration of 17 months was longer than the overall average in kuru but similar to that previously reported for the same age group, and this may relate to the effects of both patient age and PRNP codon 129 genotype. Importantly, no evidence for lymphoreticular colonization with prions, seen uniformly in vCJD, was observed in a patient with kuru at tonsil biopsy

The Monitor project: JW 380 -- a 0.26, 0.15 Msol pre main sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion Nebula Cluster

We report the discovery of a low-mass (0.26 +/- 0.02, 0.15 +/- 0.01 Msol) pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary with a 5.3 day orbital period. JW 380 was detected as part of a high-cadence time-resolved photometric survey (the Monitor project) using the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope and Wide Field Camera for a survey of a single field in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) region in V and i bands. The star is assigned a 99 per cent membership probability from proper motion measurements, and radial velocity observations indicate a systemic velocity within 1 sigma of that of the ONC. Modelling of the combined light and radial velocity curves of the system gave stellar radii of 1.19 +0.04 -0.18 Rsol and 0.90 +0.17 -0.03 Rsol for the primary and secondary, with a significant third light contribution which is also visible as a third peak in the cross-correlation functions used to derive radial velocities. The masses and radii appear to be consistent with stellar models for 2-3 Myr age from several authors, within the present observational errors. These observations probe an important region of mass-radius parameter space, where there are currently only a handful of known pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary systems with precise measurements available in the literature.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Witchcraft and the Somerset idyll : The depiction of folk belief in Walter Raymond’s novels

The work of Walter Raymond (1852-1931) is now largely forgotten. Yet his Somerset novels, complemented by his ethnographic writings, contain depictions of local witchcraft belief that are worthy of study in literary and historical contexts. They raise issues regarding the fictional depiction of rural life and tradition, and the value of fiction as a folkloric and historical sourcePeer reviewe

The Monitor project: JW 380 - a 0.26-, 0.15-M⊙, pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion nebula cluster

We report the discovery of a low-mass (0.26 ± 0.02, 0.15 ± 0.01 M⊙) pre-main-sequence (PMS) eclipsing binary (EB) with a 5.3 d orbital period. JW 380 was detected as part of a high-cadence time-resolved photometric survey (the Monitor project) using the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope and Wide Field Camera for a survey of a single field in the Orion nebula cluster (ONC) region in V and i bands. The star is assigned a 99 per cent membership probability from proper motion measurements, and radial velocity observations indicate a systemic velocity within 1σ of that of the ONC. Modelling of the combined light and radial velocity curves of the system gave stellar radii of for the primary and the secondary, with a significant third light contribution which is also visible as a third peak in the cross-correlation functions used to derive radial velocities. The masses and radii appear to be consistent with stellar models for 2-3 Myr age from several authors, within the present observational errors. These observations probe an important region of mass-radius parameter space, where there are currently only a handful of known PMS EB systems with precise measurements available in the literatur