2,974 research outputs found
An Entomopathogenic Nematode by Any Other Name
Among the diversity of insect-parasitic nematodes, entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are distinct, cooperating with insect-pathogenic bacteria to kill insect hosts. EPNs have adapted specific mechanisms to associate with and transmit bacteria to insect hosts. New discoveries have expanded this guild of nematodes and refine our understanding of the nature and evolution of insectânematode associations. Here, we clarify the meaning of âentomopathogenicâ in nematology and argue that EPNs must rapidly kill their hosts with the aid of bacterial partners and must pass on the associated bacteria to future generations
From Newton's Laws to the Wheeler-DeWitt Equation
This is a pedagogical paper which explains some ideas in cosmology at a level
accessible to undergraduate students. It does not use general relativity, but
uses the ideas of Newtonian cosmology worked out by Milne and McCrea. The
cosmological constant is also introduced within a Newtonian framework.
Following standard quantization procedures the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in the
minisuperspace approximation is derived for empty and non-empty universes.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur
Diluted Josephson-junction arrays in a magnetic field: phase coherence and vortex glass thresholds
The effects of random dilution of junctions on a two-dimensional
Josephson-junction array in a magnetic field are considered. For rational
values of the average flux quantum per plaquette , the superconducting
transition temperature vanishes, for increasing dilution, at a critical value
, while the vortex ordering remains stable up to , much
below the value corresponding to the geometric percolation threshold. For
, the array behaves as a zero-temperature vortex-glass.
Numerical results for from defect energy calculations are presented
which are consistent with this scenario.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
What works in managing young people who offend? A summary of the international evidence
This review was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and considers international literature concerning the management of young people who have offended. It was produced to inform youth justice policy and practice. The review focuses on the impact and delivery of youth justice supervision, programmes and interventions within the community, secure settings, and during transition into adult justice settings or into mainstream society
Brain charts for the human lifespan
Over the past few decades, neuroimaging has become a ubiquitous tool in basic research and clinical studies of the human brain. However, no reference standards currently exist to quantify individual differences in neuroimaging metrics over time, in contrast to growth charts for anthropometric traits such as height and weight1. Here we assemble an interactive open resource to benchmark brain morphology derived from any current or future sample of MRI data (http://www.brainchart.io/). With the goal of basing these reference charts on the largest and most inclusive dataset available, acknowledging limitations due to known biases of MRI studies relative to the diversity of the global population, we aggregated 123,984 MRI scans, across more than 100 primary studies, from 101,457 human participants between 115 days post-conception to 100 years of age. MRI metrics were quantified by centile scores, relative to non-linear trajectories2 of brain structural changes, and rates of change, over the lifespan. Brain charts identified previously unreported neurodevelopmental milestones3, showed high stability of individuals across longitudinal assessments, and demonstrated robustness to technical and methodological differences between primary studies. Centile scores showed increased heritability compared with non-centiled MRI phenotypes, and provided a standardized measure of atypical brain structure that revealed patterns of neuroanatomical variation across neurological and psychiatric disorders. In summary, brain charts are an essential step towards robust quantification of individual variation benchmarked to normative trajectories in multiple, commonly used neuroimaging phenotypes
Neutralization of Diverse Human Cytomegalovirus Strains Conferred by Antibodies Targeting Viral gH/gL/pUL128-131 Pentameric Complex
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the leading cause of congenital viral infection, and developing a prophylactic vaccine is of high priority to public health. We recently reported a replication-defective human cytomegalovirus with restored pentameric complex glycoprotein H (gH)/gL/pUL128-131 for prevention of congenital HCMV infection. While the quantity of vaccine-induced antibody responses can be measured in a viral neutralization assay, assessing the quality of such responses, including the ability of vaccine-induced antibodies to cross-neutralize the field strains of HCMV, remains a challenge. In this study, with a panel of neutralizing antibodies from three healthy human donors with natural HCMV infection or a vaccinated animal, we mapped eight sites on the dominant virus-neutralizing antigen-the pentameric complex of glycoprotein H (gH), gL, and pUL128, pUL130, and pUL131. By evaluating the site-specific antibodies in vaccine immune sera, we demonstrated that vaccination elicited functional antiviral antibodies to multiple neutralizing sites in rhesus macaques, with quality attributes comparable to those of CMV hyperimmune globulin. Furthermore, these immune sera showed antiviral activities against a panel of genetically distinct HCMV clinical isolates. These results highlighted the importance of understanding the quality of vaccine-induced antibody responses, which includes not only the neutralizing potency in key cell types but also the ability to protect against the genetically diverse field strains. IMPORTANCE HCMV is the leading cause of congenital viral infection, and development of a preventive vaccine is a high public health priority. To understand the strain coverage of vaccine-induced immune responses in comparison with natural immunity, we used a panel of broadly neutralizing antibodies to identify the immunogenic sites of a dominant viral antigen-the pentameric complex. We further demonstrated that following vaccination of a replication-defective virus with the restored pentameric complex, rhesus macaques can develop broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting multiple immunogenic sites of the pentameric complex. Such analyses of site-specific antibody responses are imperative to our assessment of the quality of vaccine-induced immunity in clinical studies
Symmetries and reversing symmetries of toral automorphisms
Toral automorphisms, represented by unimodular integer matrices, are
investigated with respect to their symmetries and reversing symmetries. We
characterize the symmetry groups of GL(n,Z) matrices with simple spectrum
through their connection with unit groups in orders of algebraic number fields.
For the question of reversibility, we derive necessary conditions in terms of
the characteristic polynomial and the polynomial invariants. We also briefly
discuss extensions to (reversing) symmetries within affine transformations, to
PGL(n,Z) matrices, and to the more general setting of integer matrices beyond
the unimodular ones.Comment: 34 page
The Electromagnetic Mass Differences of Pions and Kaons
We use the Cottingham method to calculate the pion and kaon electromagnetic
mass differences with as few model dependent inputs as possible. The
constraints of chiral symmetry at low energy, QCD at high energy and
experimental data in between are used in the dispersion relation. We find
excellent agreement with experiment for the pion mass difference. The kaon mass
difference exhibits a strong violation of the lowest order prediction of
Dashen's theorem, in qualitative agreement with several other recent
calculations.Comment: 40 pages, Latex, needs axodraw. and psfig. macros, 4 figure
Non-Critical Liouville String Escapes Constraints on Generic Models of Quantum Gravity
It has recently been pointed out that generic models of quantum gravity must
contend with severe phenomenological constraints imposed by gravitational
Cerenkov radiation, neutrino oscillations and the cosmic microwave background
radiation. We show how the non-critical Liouville-string model of quantum
gravity we have proposed escapes these constraints. It gives energetic
particles subluminal velocities, obviating the danger of gravitational Cerenkov
radiation. The effect on neutrino propagation is naturally flavour-independent,
obviating any impact on oscillation phenomenology. Deviations from the expected
black-body spectrum and the effects of time delays and stochastic fluctuations
in the propagation of cosmic microwave background photons are negligible, as
are their effects on observable spectral lines from high-redshift astrophysical
objects.Comment: 15 pages LaTeX, 2 eps figures include
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