Mechanical control of nuclear import by Importin-7 is regulated by its dominant cargo YAP

Mechanical forces regulate multiple essential pathways in the cell. The nuclear translocation of mechanoresponsive transcriptional regulators is an essential step for mechanotransduction. However, how mechanical forces regulate the nuclear import process is not understood. Here, we identify a highly mechanoresponsive nuclear transport receptor (NTR), Importin-7 (Imp7), that drives the nuclear import of YAP, a key regulator of mechanotransduction pathways. Unexpectedly, YAP governs the mechanoresponse of Imp7 by forming a YAP/Imp7 complex that responds to mechanical cues through the Hippo kinases MST1/2. Furthermore, YAP behaves as a dominant cargo of Imp7, restricting the Imp7 binding and the nuclear translocation of other Imp7 cargoes such as Smad3 and Erk2. Thus, the nuclear import process is an additional regulatory layer indirectly regulated by mechanical cues, which activate a preferential Imp7 cargo, YAP, which competes out other cargoes, resulting in signaling crosstalk.We thank Miguel Sánchez for text editing. We thank Erika R. Geisbrecht, Kenneth Irvine, and Ariberto Fassati for kindly providing reagents. This study was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIIN)/Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)/European Regional Development Fund (ARDF/FEDER) “A way to make Europe” (PID2020-118658RB-I00, SAF2017-83130-R, IGP-SO grant MINSEV1512-07-2016, CSD2009-0016 and BFU2016-81912-REDC), Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Tec4Bio-CM, S2018/NMT¬4443), Fundació La Marató de TV3 (201936-30-31), “La Caixa” Foundation (HR20-00075) and AECC (PROYE20089DELP) all to M.A.d.P. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 641639. M.G.G. and L.S. are sponsored by FPU fellowships (FPU15/03776 and FPU18/05394, respectively). The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICIIN) and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence CEX2020-001041-S

Pilot study on university students' opinion about STEM studies at higher education

The percentages of women enrolled in higher education in the STEM sector are significantly lower than those of men. Overall, gender representation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees in Europe is not balanced. The Leaky Pipeline phenomenon, marked by gender stereotypes, makes the latent gender gap a relevant topic of study. Studies exist on academic performance, self-perception, self-efficacy, outcome expectations; however, studying gender stereotypes linked to STEM studies is also essential. It is necessary to know the social and family context in which young people have grown up, as well as their perception of such studies. To study gender stereotypes of university students about STEM studies, a questionnaire has been designed for empirical validation. For the design of the instrument, to be validated, items from other instruments have been taken and adapted to Spanish. After the design of the instrument, an online pilot study has been applied in the University of Salamanca, the University of Valencia and the Polytechnic University of Valencia. A total of 115 people answered the questionnaire. The results of the pilot study reveal that the study sample is not particularly marked by gender stereotypes about gender equality in STEM. Also, the sample is receptive to learning about science and applying it in their lives. On the other hand, the idea that women have to give up their studies and careers to look after their families and children is rejected. The idea that men are more interested in university studies than women is also rejected. At the same time, the sample is aware of the difficulties that women encounter in the STEM sector. Another optimistic point of the results is that there are no alarming data on bad experiences due to gender. In the future, the study will be replicated on a larger scale

Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale

Accurate astronomical distance determination is crucial for all fields in astrophysics, from Galactic to cosmological scales. Despite, or perhaps because of, significant efforts to determine accurate distances, using a wide range of methods, tracers, and techniques, an internally consistent astronomical distance framework has not yet been established. We review current efforts to homogenize the Local Group's distance framework, with particular emphasis on the potential of RR Lyrae stars as distance indicators, and attempt to extend this in an internally consistent manner to cosmological distances. Calibration based on Type Ia supernovae and distance determinations based on gravitational lensing represent particularly promising approaches. We provide a positive outlook to improvements to the status quo expected from future surveys, missions, and facilities. Astronomical distance determination has clearly reached maturity and near-consistency.Comment: Review article, 59 pages (4 figures); Space Science Reviews, in press (chapter 8 of a special collection resulting from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age

Model-independent search for CP violation in D0→K−K+π−π+ and D0→π−π+π+π− decays

A search for CP violation in the phase-space structures of D0 and View the MathML source decays to the final states K−K+π−π+ and π−π+π+π− is presented. The search is carried out with a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. For the K−K+π−π+ final state, the four-body phase space is divided into 32 bins, each bin with approximately 1800 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 9.1%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 6.5% observed. The phase space of the π−π+π+π− final state is partitioned into 128 bins, each bin with approximately 2500 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 41%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 5.5% observed. All results are consistent with the hypothesis of no CP violation at the current sensitivity

Search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓

A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ is performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0  fb-1 of pp collisions at √s=7  TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The observed number of Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ candidates is consistent with background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions of both decays are determined to be B(Bs0→e±μ∓)101  TeV/c2 and MLQ(B0→e±μ∓)>126  TeV/c2 at 95% C.L., and are a factor of 2 higher than the previous bounds

Measurements of long-range near-side angular correlations in sNN=5\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5TeV proton-lead collisions in the forward region

Two-particle angular correlations are studied in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5$TeV, collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on data recorded in two beam configurations, in which either the direction of the proton or that of the lead ion is analysed. The correlations are measured in the laboratory system as a function of relative pseudorapidity, $\Delta\eta$, and relative azimuthal angle, $\Delta\phi$, for events in different classes of event activity and for different bins of particle transverse momentum. In high-activity events a long-range correlation on the near side, $\Delta\phi \approx 0$, is observed in the pseudorapidity range $2.0<\eta<4.9$. This measurement of long-range correlations on the near side in proton-lead collisions extends previous observations into the forward region up to $\eta=4.9$. The correlation increases with growing event activity and is found to be more pronounced in the direction of the lead beam. However, the correlation in the direction of the lead and proton beams are found to be compatible when comparing events with similar absolute activity in the direction analysed.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-040.htm

Study of the production of Λb0\Lambda_b^0 and B‾0\overline{B}^0 hadrons in pppp collisions and first measurement of the Λb0→J/ψpK−\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^- branching fraction

The product of the $\Lambda_b^0$ ($\overline{B}^0$) differential production cross-section and the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ ($\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$) is measured as a function of the beauty hadron transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, and rapidity, $y$. The kinematic region of the measurements is $p_{\rm T}<20~{\rm GeV}/c$ and $2.0<y<4.5$. The measurements use a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3~{\rm fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb detector in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=7~{\rm TeV}$ in 2011 and $\sqrt{s}=8~{\rm TeV}$ in 2012. Based on previous LHCb results of the fragmentation fraction ratio, $f_{\Lambda_B^0}/f_d$, the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ is measured to be \begin{equation*} \mathcal{B}(\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-)= (3.17\pm0.04\pm0.07\pm0.34^{+0.45}_{-0.28})\times10^{-4}, \end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of the decay $\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$, and the fourth is due to the knowledge of $f_{\Lambda_b^0}/f_d$. The sum of the asymmetries in the production and decay between $\Lambda_b^0$ and $\overline{\Lambda}_b^0$ is also measured as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ and $y$. The previously published branching fraction of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi p\pi^-$, relative to that of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$, is updated. The branching fractions of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow P_c^+(\rightarrow J/\psi p)K^-$ are determined.Comment: 29 pages, 19figures. All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-032.htm

Evidence for the strangeness-changing weak decay Ξb−→Λb0π−\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-

Using a $pp$ collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0~fb$^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb detector, we present the first search for the strangeness-changing weak decay $\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-$. No $b$ hadron decay of this type has been seen before. A signal for this decay, corresponding to a significance of 3.2 standard deviations, is reported. The relative rate is measured to be ${{f_{\Xi_b^-}}\over{f_{\Lambda_b^0}}}{\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-) = (5.7\pm1.8^{+0.8}_{-0.9})\times10^{-4}$, where $f_{\Xi_b^-}$ and $f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ are the $b\to\Xi_b^-$ and $b\to\Lambda_b^0$ fragmentation fractions, and ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ is the branching fraction. Assuming $f_{\Xi_b^-}/f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ is bounded between 0.1 and 0.3, the branching fraction ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ would lie in the range from $(0.57\pm0.21)\%$ to $(0.19\pm0.07)\%$.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-047.htm

BB flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment

An algorithm is described for tagging the flavour content at production of neutral $B$ mesons in the LHCb experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation of the flavour of a $B$ meson with the charge of a reconstructed secondary charm hadron from the decay of the other $b$ hadron produced in the proton-proton collision. Charm hadron candidates are identified in a number of fully or partially reconstructed Cabibbo-favoured decay modes. The algorithm is calibrated on the self-tagged decay modes $B^+ \to J/\psi \, K^+$ and $B^0 \to J/\psi \, K^{*0}$ using $3.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ of data collected by the LHCb experiment at $pp$ centre-of-mass energies of $7\mathrm{\,TeV}$ and $8\mathrm{\,TeV}$. Its tagging power on these samples of $B \to J/\psi \, X$ decays is $(0.30 \pm 0.01 \pm 0.01) \%$.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-027.htm