G03-1501 Prudent Use of Antibiotics in Companion Animals

This NebGuide explains why antibiotics must be used with care and how to prudently use antibiotics to treat companion animals. Antibiotics are used to improve animal health and performance. You, as the animal owner or caregiver, make important decisions about how antibiotics are finally used in companion animals. Antibiotics should be used prudently to ensure they are effective and will continue to benefit man and animals in the future. Are you prepared to make the best decisions about using antibiotics in animals

G03-1485 Guidelines for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics in Food Animals

This NebGuide explains why antibiotics must be used with care and how to prudently use antibiotics to treat food animals. Antibiotics are used to improve animal health and productivity. You, the animal caregiver, make important decisions about how antibiotics are finally used in food producing animals. Antibiotics should be used prudently to ensure they are effective, do not leave residues in food, and will continue to benefit man and animals in the future. Are you prepared to make the best decisions about using antibiotics in animals

Sex differences in the transcriptional response to acute inflammatory challenge: A randomized controlled trial of endotoxin

Background: Sex differences in immune-based disorders are well-established, with female sex associated with a markedly heightened risk of autoimmune disease. Female sex is also overrepresented in other conditions associated with elevated inflammation, including depression, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue. The mechanisms underlying these disparities are unclear. This study used an experimental model of inflammatory challenge to interrogate molecular mechanisms that may contribute to female vulnerability to disorders with an inflammatory basis. Method: In this analysis of a secondary outcome from a randomized controlled trial, 111 participants (67 female) received either a bolus injection of endotoxin (n = 59) or placebo (n = 52). Participants provided blood samples before and 0.5 h post-injection for assessment of differential activation of key pro-inflammatory (i.e., activator protein (AP)-1; nuclear factor (NF)-κB) and immunoregulatory (i.e., glucocorticoid receptor (GR); cAMP response element binding protein (CREB)) signaling pathways via genome-wide expression profiling and promoter-based bioinformatics analyses. Results: Relative to males, females exhibited greater endotoxin-induced increases in bioinformatic measures of CREB transcription factor activity (p's < 0.01). However, contrary to hypotheses, female vs. male sex was not associated with greater increases in activation of NF-κB, AP-1, or GR in response to endotoxin vs. placebo administration. Conclusions: This work suggests CREB signaling as a critical upstream biological pathway that should be further interrogated as a mechanism of female vulnerability to immune-related disorders. Future work should clarify whether increased CREB signaling indicates sex differences in activity of the sympathetic nervous system or other physiological pathways that signal through CREB, such as prostaglandin release

Modeling and characterization of the SPIDER half-wave plate

Spider is a balloon-borne array of six telescopes that will observe the Cosmic Microwave Background. The 2624 antenna-coupled bolometers in the instrument will make a polarization map of the CMB with approximately one-half degree resolution at 145 GHz. Polarization modulation is achieved via a cryogenic sapphire half-wave plate (HWP) skyward of the primary optic. We have measured millimeter-wave transmission spectra of the sapphire at room and cryogenic temperatures. The spectra are consistent with our physical optics model, and the data gives excellent measurements of the indices of A-cut sapphire. We have also taken preliminary spectra of the integrated HWP, optical system, and detectors in the prototype Spider receiver. We calculate the variation in response of the HWP between observing the CMB and foreground spectra, and estimate that it should not limit the Spider constraints on inflation

Satellite Tracking Reveals Long Distance Coastal Travel and Homing by Translocated Estuarine Crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus

Crocodilians have a wide distribution, often in remote areas, are cryptic, secretive and are easily disturbed by human presence. Their capacity for large scale movements is poorly known. Here, we report the first study of post-release movement patterns in translocated adult crocodiles, and the first application of satellite telemetry to a crocodilian. Three large male Crocodylus porosus (3.1–4.5 m) were captured in northern Australia and translocated by helicopter for 56, 99 and 411 km of coastline, the last across Cape York Peninsula from the west coast to the east coast. All crocodiles spent time around their release site before returning rapidly and apparently purposefully to their capture locations. The animal that circumnavigated Cape York Peninsula to return to its capture site, travelled more than 400 km in 20 days, which is the longest homeward travel yet reported for a crocodilian. Such impressive homing ability is significant because translocation has sometimes been used to manage potentially dangerous C. porosus close to human settlement. It is clear that large male estuarine crocodiles can exhibit strong site fidelity, have remarkable navigational skills, and may move long distances following a coastline. These long journeys included impressive daily movements of 10–30 km, often consecutively

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Spectra and Parameters

We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol). We analyze night-time data collected during 2013-14 using two detector arrays at 149 GHz, from 548 deg$^2$ of sky on the celestial equator. We use these spectra, and the spectra measured with the MBAC camera on ACT from 2008-10, in combination with Planck and WMAP data to estimate cosmological parameters from the temperature, polarization, and temperature-polarization cross-correlations. We find the new ACTPol data to be consistent with the LCDM model. The ACTPol temperature-polarization cross-spectrum now provides stronger constraints on multiple parameters than the ACTPol temperature spectrum, including the baryon density, the acoustic peak angular scale, and the derived Hubble constant. Adding the new data to planck temperature data tightens the limits on damping tail parameters, for example reducing the joint uncertainty on the number of neutrino species and the primordial helium fraction by 20%.Comment: 23 pages, 25 figure

Assessing the efficacy of the healthy eating and lifestyle programme (HELP) compared with enhanced standard care of the obese adolescent in the community: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: The childhood obesity epidemic is one of the foremost UK health priorities. Childhood obesity tracks into adult life and places individuals at considerable risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver disease and other morbidities. There is widespread need for paediatric lifestyle programmes as change may be easier to accomplish in childhood than later in life. Study Design/Method: The study will evaluate the management of adolescent obesity by conducting a Medical Research Council complex intervention phase III efficacy randomised clinical trial of the Healthy Eating Lifestyle Programme within primary care. The study tests a community delivered multi-component intervention designed for adolescents developed from best practice as identified by National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The hospital based pilot reduced body mass index and improved health-related quality of life. Subjects will be individually randomised to receiving either the Healthy Eating Lifestyle Programme (12 fortnightly family sessions) or enhanced standard care. Baseline and follow up assessments will be undertaken blind to allocation status. A health economic evaluation is also being conducted. 200 obese young people (13-17 years, body mass index > 98th centile for age and sex) will be recruited from primary care within the greater London area. The primary hypothesis is that a motivational and solution-focused family-based weight management programme delivered over 6 months is more efficacious in reducing body mass index in obese adolescents identified in the community than enhanced standard care. The primary outcome will be body mass index at the end of the intervention, adjusted for baseline body mass index, age and sex. The secondary hypothesis is that the Healthy Eating Lifestyle Programme is more efficacious in improving quality of life and psychological function and reducing waist circumference and cardiovascular risk factors in obese adolescents than enhanced standard care assessed at 6 and 12 months post baseline assessment. Improvement in quality of life predicts on-going lifestyle change and maximises the chances of long-term weight reduction. We will explore whether improvement in QOL may be intermediate on the pathway between the intervention and body mass index change

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

© 2023 The Author(s) . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366$-$959\,nm at $R\sim5000$, or two shorter ranges at $R\sim20\,000$. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for $\sim$3 million stars and detailed abundances for $\sim1.5$ million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey $\sim0.4$ million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey $\sim400$ neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in $z1$ million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at $z>2$. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.Peer reviewe

A pair of TESS planets spanning the radius valley around the nearby mid-M dwarf LTT 3780

We present the confirmation of two new planets transiting the nearby mid-M dwarf LTT 3780 (TIC 36724087, TOI-732, $V=13.07$, $K_s=8.204$, $R_s$=0.374 R$_{\odot}$, $M_s$=0.401 M$_{\odot}$, d=22 pc). The two planet candidates are identified in a single TESS sector and are validated with reconnaissance spectroscopy, ground-based photometric follow-up, and high-resolution imaging. With measured orbital periods of $P_b=0.77$ days, $P_c=12.25$ days and sizes $r_{p,b}=1.33\pm 0.07$ R$_{\oplus}$, $r_{p,c}=2.30\pm 0.16$ R$_{\oplus}$, the two planets span the radius valley in period-radius space around low mass stars thus making the system a laboratory to test competing theories of the emergence of the radius valley in that stellar mass regime. By combining 63 precise radial-velocity measurements from HARPS and HARPS-N, we measure planet masses of $m_{p,b}=2.62^{+0.48}_{-0.46}$ M$_{\oplus}$ and $m_{p,c}=8.6^{+1.6}_{-1.3}$ M$_{\oplus}$, which indicates that LTT 3780b has a bulk composition consistent with being Earth-like, while LTT 3780c likely hosts an extended H/He envelope. We show that the recovered planetary masses are consistent with predictions from both photoevaporation and from core-powered mass loss models. The brightness and small size of LTT 3780, along with the measured planetary parameters, render LTT 3780b and c as accessible targets for atmospheric characterization of planets within the same planetary system and spanning the radius valley.Comment: Accepted to AJ. 8 figures, 6 tables. CSV file of the RV measurements (i.e. Table 2) are included in the source cod