A novel architecture for room temperature microwave optomechanical experiments

We have developed a novel architecture for room temperature microwave cavity optomechanics, which is based on the coupling of a 3D microwave reentrant cavity to a compliant membrane. Devices parameters have enabled resolving the thermomechanical motion of the membrane, and observing optomechanically induced transparency/absorption in the linear regime, for the first time in a microwave optomechanical system operated at room temperature. We have extracted the single photon coupling rate (g0) using four independent measurement techniques, and hence obtain a full characterization of the proposed cavity optomechanical system

Skin colour changes during experimentally-induced sickness

This project was supported by Swedish foundation for humanities and social sciences and a British Academy Wolfson Foundation Research Professorship grant. AH is supported by a studentship from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.Skin colour may be an important cue to detect sickness in humans but how skin colour changes with acute sickness is currently unknown. To determine possible colour changes, 22 healthy Caucasian participants were injected twice, once with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, at a dose of 2 ng/kg body weight) and once with placebo (saline), in a randomised cross-over design study. Skin colour across 3 arm and 3 face locations was recorded spectrophotometrically over a period of 8 hours in terms of lightness (L∗), redness (a∗) and yellowness (b∗) in a manner that is consistent with human colour perception. In addition, carotenoid status was assessed as we predicted that a decrease it skin yellowness would reflect a drop in skin carotenoids. We found an early change in skin colouration 1-3 hours post LPS injection with facial skin becoming lighter and less red whilst arm skin become darker but also less red and less yellow. The LPS injection also caused a drop in plasma carotenoids from 3 hours onwards. However, the timing of the carotenoid changes was not consistent with the skin colour changes suggesting that other mechanisms, such as a reduction of blood perfusion, oxygenation or composition. This is the first experimental study characterising skin colour associated with acute illness, and shows that changes occur early in the development of the sickness response. Colour changes may serve as a cue to health, prompting actions from others in terms of care-giving or disease avoidance. Specific mechanisms underlying these colour changes require further investigation.PostprintPeer reviewe

DECIPHER: Supporting the interpretation and sharing of rare disease phenotype-linked variant data to advance diagnosis and research.

Funder: European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100013060DECIPHER (https://www.deciphergenomics.org) is a free web platform for sharing anonymized phenotype-linked variant data from rare disease patients. Its dynamic interpretation interfaces contextualize genomic and phenotypic data to enable more informed variant interpretation, incorporating international standards for variant classification. DECIPHER supports almost all types of germline and mosaic variation in the nuclear and mitochondrial genome: sequence variants, short tandem repeats, copy-number variants, and large structural variants. Patient phenotypes are deposited using Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) terms, supplemented by quantitative data, which is aggregated to derive gene-specific phenotypic summaries. It hosts data from >250 projects from ~40 countries, openly sharing >40,000 patient records containing >51,000 variants and >172,000 phenotype terms. The rich phenotype-linked variant data in DECIPHER drives rare disease research and diagnosis by enabling patient matching within DECIPHER and with other resources, and has been cited in >2,600 publications. In this study, we describe the types of data deposited to DECIPHER, the variant interpretation tools, and patient matching interfaces which make DECIPHER an invaluable rare disease resource

CREB serine 133 is necessary for spatial cognitive flexibility and long-term potentiation

The transcription factor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is widely regarded as orchestrating the genomic response that underpins a range of physiological functions in the central nervous system, including learning and memory. Of the means by which CREB can be regulated, emphasis has been placed on the phosphorylation of a key serine residue, S133, in the CREB protein, which is required for CREB-mediated transcriptional activation in response to a variety of activity-dependent stimuli. Understanding the role of CREB S133 has been complicated by molecular genetic techniques relying on over-expression of either dominant negative or activating transgenes that may distort the physiological role of endogenous CREB. A more elegant recent approach targeting S133 in the endogenous CREB gene has yielded a mouse with constitutive replacement of this residue with alanine (S133A), but has generated results (no behavioural phenotype and no effect on gene transcription) at odds with contemporary views as to the role of CREB S133, and which may reflect compensatory changes associated with the constitutive mutation. To avoid this potential complication, we generated a post-natal and forebrain-specific CREB S133A mutant in which the expression of the mutation was under the control of CaMKIIα promoter. Using male and female mice we show that CREB S133 is necessary for spatial cognitive flexibility, the regulation of basal synaptic transmission, and for the expression of long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal area CA1. These data point to the importance of CREB S133 in neuronal function, synaptic plasticity and cognition in the mammalian brain

Discovery of 90 Type Ia supernovae among 700,000 Sloan spectra: the Type-Ia supernova rate versus galaxy mass and star-formation rate at redshift ~0.1

Using a method to discover and classify supernovae (SNe) in galaxy spectra, we find 90 Type Ia SNe (SNe Ia) and 10 Type II SNe among the ~700,000 galaxy spectra in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 that have VESPA-derived star-formation histories (SFHs). We use the SN Ia sample to measure SN Ia rates per unit stellar mass. We confirm, at the median redshift of the sample, z = 0.1, the inverse dependence on galaxy mass of the SN Ia rate per unit mass, previously reported by Li et al. (2011b) for a local sample. We further confirm, following Kistler et al. (2011), that this relation can be explained by the combination of galaxy "downsizing" and a power-law delay-time distribution (DTD; the distribution of times that elapse between a hypothetical burst of star formation and the subsequent SN Ia explosions) with an index of -1, inherent to the double-degenerate progenitor scenario. We use the method of Maoz et al. (2011) to recover the DTD by comparing the number of SNe Ia hosted by each galaxy in our sample with the VESPA-derived SFH of the stellar population within the spectral aperture. In this galaxy sample, which is dominated by old and massive galaxies, we recover a "delayed" component to the DTD of 4.5 +/- 0.6 (statistical) +0.3 -0.5 (systematic) X 10^-14 SNe Msun^-1 yr^-1 for delays in the range > 2.4 Gyr. The mass-normalized SN Ia rate, averaged over all masses and redshifts in our galaxy sample, is R(Ia,M,z=0.1) = 0.10 +/- 0.01 (statistical) +/- 0.01 (systematic) SNuM, and the volumetric rate is R(Ia,V,z=0.1) = 0.247 +0.029 -0.026 (statistical) +0.016 -0.031 (systematic) X 10^-4 SNe yr^-1 Mpc^-3. This rate is consistent with the rates and rate evolution from other recent SN Ia surveys, which together also indicate a ~t^-1 DTD.Comment: MNRAS accepted. 20 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables. Revised following referee report. A full version of figure 8 can be found at http://www.astro.tau.ac.il/~orgraur/Graur_SDSS_SNe_full.pd

Women take care and men take charge’: The case of leadership and gender in the Public and Commercial Services Union

This article presents the findings of a case study that aimed to understand the specific leadership styles that are valued by women and men lay representatives in the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and to determine the gendered implications for increasing women’s leadership and representation in trade unions. Survey responses from PCS lay representatives (reps) show the majority of women and men agreed that the leadership style they value, and makes a good union leader, is post-heroic (communal) leadership. This approach is associated with leadership characteristics such as being helpful, sensitive, and kind and are generally practised by women. This contrasts with male union leaders who are associated with a traditional, heroic (agentic) leadership style characterised by confidence, self-reliance, and decisiveness. Although some differences exist that highlight gender issues, both women and men lay reps have positive attitudes towards increasing women’s representation and participation in union leadership

Cross-Modal Object Recognition Is Viewpoint-Independent

BACKGROUND: Previous research suggests that visual and haptic object recognition are viewpoint-dependent both within- and cross-modally. However, this conclusion may not be generally valid as it was reached using objects oriented along their extended y-axis, resulting in differential surface processing in vision and touch. In the present study, we removed this differential by presenting objects along the z-axis, thus making all object surfaces more equally available to vision and touch. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants studied previously unfamiliar objects, in groups of four, using either vision or touch. Subsequently, they performed a four-alternative forced-choice object identification task with the studied objects presented in both unrotated and rotated (180 degrees about the x-, y-, and z-axes) orientations. Rotation impaired within-modal recognition accuracy in both vision and touch, but not cross-modal recognition accuracy. Within-modally, visual recognition accuracy was reduced by rotation about the x- and y-axes more than the z-axis, whilst haptic recognition was equally affected by rotation about all three axes. Cross-modal (but not within-modal) accuracy correlated with spatial (but not object) imagery scores. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The viewpoint-independence of cross-modal object identification points to its mediation by a high-level abstract representation. The correlation between spatial imagery scores and cross-modal performance suggest that construction of this high-level representation is linked to the ability to perform spatial transformations. Within-modal viewpoint-dependence appears to have a different basis in vision than in touch, possibly due to surface occlusion being important in vision but not touch