Volcanic synchronization of Dome Fuji and Dome C Antarctic deep ice cores over the past 216 kyr

Two deep ice cores, Dome Fuji (DF) and EPICA Dome C (EDC), drilled at remote dome summits in Antarctica, were volcanically synchronized to improve our understanding of their chronologies. Within the past 216 kyr, 1401 volcanic tie points have been identified. DFO2006 is the chronology for the DF core that strictly follows O2/N2 age constraints with interpolation using an ice flow model. AICC2012 is the chronology for five cores, including the EDC core, and is characterized by glaciological approaches combining ice flow modelling with various age markers. A precise comparison between the two chronologies was performed. The age differences between them are within 2 kyr, except at Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5. DFO2006 gives ages older than AICC2012, with peak values of 4.5 and 3.1 kyr at MIS 5d and MIS 5b, respectively. Accordingly, the ratios of duration (AICC2012/DFO2006) range between 1.4 at MIS 5e and 0.7 at MIS 5a. When making a comparison with accurately dated speleothem records, the age of DFO2006 agrees well at MIS 5d, while the age of AICC2012 agrees well at MIS 5b, supporting their accuracy at these stages. In addition, we found that glaciological approaches tend to give chronologies with younger ages and with longer durations than age markers suggest at MIS 5d-6. Therefore, we hypothesize that the causes of the DFO2006-AICC2012 age differences at MIS 5 are (i) overestimation in surface mass balance at around MIS 5d-6 in the glaciological approach and (ii) an error in one of the O2/N2 age constraints by ∼ 3 kyr at MIS 5b. Overall, we improved our knowledge of the timing and duration of climatic stages at MIS 5. This new understanding will be incorporated into the production of the next common age scale. Additionally, we found that the deuterium signals of ice, δDice, at DF tends to lead the one at EDC, with the DF lead being more pronounced during cold periods. The lead of DF is by +710 years (maximum) at MIS 5d, -230 years (minimum) at MIS 7a and +60 to +126 years on average

Nodal degenerations of plane curves and Galois covers

Globally irreducible nodes (i.e. nodes whose branches belong to the same irreducible component) have mild effects on the most common topological invariants of an algebraic curve. In other words, adding a globally irreducible node (simple nodal degeneration) to a curve should not change them a lot. In this paper we study the effect of nodal degeneration of curves on fundamental groups and show examples where simple nodal degenerations produce non-isomorphic fundamental groups and this can be detected in an algebraic way by means of Galois coverings.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Hypertensive pressure mechanosensing alone triggers lipid droplet accumulation and transdifferentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells to foam cells

Arterial Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) play a central role in the onset and progression of atherosclerosis. Upon exposure to pathological stimuli, they can take on alternative phenotypes that, among others, have been described as macrophage like, or foam cells. VSMC foam cells make up >50% of all arterial foam cells and have been suggested to retain an even higher proportion of the cell stored lipid droplets, further leading to apoptosis, secondary necrosis, and an inflammatory response. However, the mechanism of VSMC foam cell formation is still unclear. Here, it is identified that mechanical stimulation through hypertensive pressure alone is sufficient for the phenotypic switch. Hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering imaging demonstrates rapid lipid droplet formation and changes to lipid metabolism and changes are confirmed in ABCA1, KLF4, LDLR, and CD68 expression, cell proliferation, and migration. Further, a mechanosignaling route is identified involving Piezo1, phospholipid, and arachidonic acid signaling, as well as epigenetic regulation, whereby CUT&Tag epigenomic analysis confirms changes in the cells (lipid) metabolism and atherosclerotic pathways. Overall, the results show for the first time that VSMC foam cell formation can be triggered by mechanical stimulation alone, suggesting modulation of mechanosignaling can be harnessed as potential therapeutic strategy

Deriving relativistic momentum and energy

We present a new derivation of the expressions for momentum and energy of a relativistic particle. In contrast to the procedures commonly adopted in textbooks, the one suggested here requires only the knowledge of the composition law for velocities along one spatial dimension, and does not make use of the concept of relativistic mass, or of the formalism of four-vectors. The basic ideas are very general and can be applied also to kinematics different from the Newtonian and Einstein ones, in order to construct the corresponding dynamics.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Observation of the Shadowing of Cosmic Rays by the Moon using a Deep Underground Detector

Using data collected by the MACRO experiment during the years 1989-1996, we show evidence for the shadow of the moon in the underground cosmic ray flux with a significance of 3.6 sigma. This detection of the shadowing effect is the first by an underground detector. A maximum-likelihood analysis is used to determine that the angular resolution of the apparatus is 0.9+/-0.3 degrees. These results demonstrate MACRO's capabilities as a muon telescope by confirming its absolute pointing ability and quantifying its angular resolution.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures Submitted to Phys. Rev.

FGF receptor genes and breast cancer susceptibility: results from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium

Background:Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women. Genome-wide association studies have identified FGFR2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene. Common variation in other fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors might also modify risk. We tested this hypothesis by studying genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed SNPs in FGFR1, FGFR3, FGFR4 and FGFRL1 in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Methods:Data were combined from 49 studies, including 53 835 cases and 50 156 controls, of which 89 050 (46 450 cases and 42 600 controls) were of European ancestry, 12 893 (6269 cases and 6624 controls) of Asian and 2048 (1116 cases and 932 controls) of African ancestry. Associations with risk of breast cancer, overall and by disease sub-type, were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. Results:Little evidence of association with breast cancer risk was observed for SNPs in the FGF receptor genes. The strongest evidence in European women was for rs743682 in FGFR3; the estimated per-allele odds ratio was 1.05 (95 confidence interval=1.02-1.09, P=0.0020), which is substantially lower than that observed for SNPs in FGFR2. Conclusion:Our results suggest that common variants in the other FGF receptors are not associated with risk of breast cancer to the degree observed for FGFR2. © 2014 Cancer Research UK

Limits on dark matter WIMPs using upward-going muons in the MACRO detector

We perform an indirect search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) using the MACRO detector to look for neutrino-induced upward-going muons resulting from the annihilation of WIMPs trapped in the Sun and Earth. The search is conducted in various angular cones centered on the Sun and Earth to accommodate a range of WIMP masses. No significant excess over the background from atmospheric neutrinos is seen and limits are placed on the upward-going muon fluxes from Sun and Earth. These limits are used to constrain neutralino particle parameters from supersymmetric theory, including those suggested by recent results from DAMA/NaI.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.