Hyperholomorpic connections on coherent sheaves and stability

Let $M$ be a hyperkaehler manifold, and $F$ a torsion-free and reflexive coherent sheaf on $M$. Assume that $F$ (outside of its singularities) admits a connection with a curvature which is invariant under the standard SU(2)-action on 2-forms. If the curvature is square-integrable, then $F$ is stable and its singularities are hyperkaehler subvarieties in $M$. Such sheaves (called hyperholomorphic sheaves) are well understood. In the present paper, we study sheaves admitting a connection with SU(2)-invariant curvature which is not necessarily square-integrable. This situation arises often, for instance, when one deals with higher direct images of holomorphic bundles. We show that such sheaves are stable.Comment: 37 pages, version 11, reference updated, corrected many minor errors and typos found by the refere

The recent and rapid spread of Themeda triandra

Tropical savannas cover over 20% of land surface. They sustain a high diversity of mammalian herbivores and promote frequent fires, both of which are dependent on the underlying grass composition. These habitats are typically dominated by relatively few taxa, and the evolutionary origins of the dominant grass species are largely unknown. Here, we trace the origins of the genus Themeda, which contains a number of widespread grass species dominating tropical savannas. Complete chloroplast genomes were assembled for seven samples and supplemented with chloroplast and nuclear ITS markers for 71 samples representing 18 of the 27 Themeda species. Phylogenetic analysis supports a South Asian origin for both the genus and the widespread dominant T. triandra. This species emerged ~1.5 Ma from a group that had lived in the savannas of Asia for several million years. It migrated to Australia ~1.3 Ma and to mainland Africa ~0.5 Ma, where it rapidly spread in pre-existing savannas and displaced other species. Themeda quadrivalvis, the second most widespread Themeda species, is nested within T. triandra based on whole chloroplast genomes, and may represent a recent evolution of an annual growth form that is otherwise almost indistinguishable from T. triandra. The recent spread and modern-day dominance of T. triandra highlight the dynamism of tropical grassy biomes over millennial time-scales that has not been appreciated, with dramatic shifts in species dominance in recent evolutionary times. The ensuing species replacements likely had profound effects on fire and herbivore regimes across tropical savannas

The credibility challenge for global fluvial flood risk analysis

Quantifying flood hazard is an essential component of resilience planning, emergency response, and mitigation, including insurance. Traditionally undertaken at catchment and national scales, recently, efforts have intensified to estimate flood risk globally to better allow consistent and equitable decision making. Global flood hazard models are now a practical reality, thanks to improvements in numerical algorithms, global datasets, computing power, and coupled modelling frameworks. Outputs of these models are vital for consistent quantification of global flood risk and in projecting the impacts of climate change. However, the urgency of these tasks means that outputs are being used as soon as they are made available and before such methods have been adequately tested. To address this, we compare multi-probability flood hazard maps for Africa from six global models and show wide variation in their flood hazard, economic loss and exposed population estimates, which has serious implications for model credibility. While there is around 30-40% agreement in flood extent, our results show that even at continental scales, there are significant differences in hazard magnitude and spatial pattern between models, notably in deltas, arid/semi-arid zones and wetlands. This study is an important step towards a better understanding of modelling global flood hazard, which is urgently required for both current risk and climate change projections

A somatic-mutational process recurrently duplicates germline susceptibility loci and tissue-specific super-enhancers in breast cancers

Somatic rearrangements contribute to the mutagenized landscape of cancer genomes. Here, we systematically interrogated rearrangements in 560 breast cancers by using a piecewise constant fitting approach. We identified 33 hotspots of large (>100 kb) tandem duplications, a mutational signature associated with homologous-recombination-repair deficiency. Notably, these tandem-duplication hotspots were enriched in breast cancer germline susceptibility loci (odds ratio (OR) = 4.28) and breast-specific 'super-enhancer' regulatory elements (OR = 3.54). These hotspots may b

Carbon isotope signatures from land snail shells: Implications for palaeovegetation reconstruction in the eastern Mediterranean

In this studywecompare carbon isotope values inmodern Helix melanostoma shell carbonate (d13Cshell) from the Gebel al-Akhdar region of Libya with carbon isotope values in H. melanostomabody tissue (d13Cbody), local vegetation (d13Cplant) and soil (d13Csoil). All vegetation in the study area followed the C3 photosynthetic pathway. However, the d13Cplant values of different species formed two distinct isotopic groups. This can be best explained by different water use efficiencies with arid adapted species having significantly more positive d13Cplant values than less water efficient species. The ranges and means of d13Cbody and d13Cplant were statistically indistinguishable from one another suggesting that d13Cbody was primarily a function of local vegetation composition. H. melanostoma d13Cshell reflected the d13Cplant of local vegetation with a positive offset between body/diet and shell of 14.5± 1.4‰. Therefore, in the Gebel al-Akhdar where only C3 plants are present, highermeand13C shell values likely reflect greater abundances ofwater-efficientC3 plants in the snails diet and therefore in the landscape, whilst lower mean d13Cshell values likely reflect the consumption of less water-efficient C3 plants. The distribution of these plants is in turn affected by environmental factors such as rainfall. These findings can be applied to archaeological and geological shell deposits to reconstruct late Pleistocene to Holocene vegetation change in the southeast Mediterranean

The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Energetic particle influence on the Earth's atmosphere

This manuscript gives an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the effects of energetic particle precipitation (EPP) onto the whole atmosphere, from the lower thermosphere/mesosphere through the stratosphere and troposphere, to the surface. The paper summarizes the different sources and energies of particles, principally galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), solar energetic particles (SEPs) and energetic electron precipitation (EEP). All the proposed mechanisms by which EPP can affect the atmosphere are discussed, including chemical changes in the upper atmosphere and lower thermosphere, chemistry-dynamics feedbacks, the global electric circuit and cloud formation. The role of energetic particles in Earth’s atmosphere is a multi-disciplinary problem that requires expertise from a range of scientific backgrounds. To assist with this synergy, summary tables are provided, which are intended to evaluate the level of current knowledge of the effects of energetic particles on processes in the entire atmosphere

Concussions Are Associated With Increases in Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Risk in American-Style Football Athletes.

Concussions sustained during American-style football (ASF) participation are common. Whether concussions are associated with cardiovascular risk is unknown. The authors sought to determine whether concussions sustained during collegiate ASF participation lead to increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and acquired maladaptive cardiovascular phenotypes. In a longitudinal and case-controlled analysis, ASF athletes at 2 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division-I programs were followed for up to 2 years with cardiovascular assessments including BP, echocardiography, and vascular applanation tonometry. ASF athletes who sustained clinically diagnosed concussions were compared to weight and player position-matched controls without concussions. Thirty-nine ASF athletes who sustained concussions (preconcussion baseline: [SBP] 129.6 ± 13.6 mm Hg) and 39 weight and player position-matched controls (preconcussion baseline: [SBP] 131.6 ± 13.1 mm Hg) were followed for 1 season postconcussion; 14 of these pairs were followed through 2 seasons. After 1 season, increased pulse wave velocity (PWV) (case Δ = 0.4 [0.2] m/s, P = 0.036; control Δ = -0.1 [0.1] m/s, P = 0.38) was observed among cases. Among the case and control pairs followed over 2 seasons, increased SBP (case Δ = 10.1 [3.6] mm Hg, P < 0.01; control Δ = 0.1 [3.2] mm Hg, P = 0.97) and diastolic blood pressure (case Δ = 8.2 [2.9] mm Hg, P < 0.01; control Δ = -4.1 [4.0] mm Hg, P = 0.30) and decreased É (case Δ = -2.8 [0.8] cm/s, P = 0.001; control Δ = -1.0 [0.8] cm/s, P = 0.21) were observed among cases. Over 1 season, concussions were associated with higher PWV (β = 0.33 [95% CI: 0.09-0.56], P = 0.007). Among athletes followed over 2 seasons, concussions were associated with higher PWV (β = 0.42 [95% CI: 0.05-0.78], P = 0.03), diastolic blood pressure (β = 5.89 [95% CI: 1.23-10.54], P = 0.01), LV mass index (β = 11.01 [95% CI: 6.13-15.90], P < 0.001), and lower É (β = -2.11 [95% CI: -3.27 to -0.95], P < 0.001). Concussions sustained during collegiate ASF participation are independently associated with markers of cardiovascular risk and acquired maladaptive cardiovascular phenotypes. Clinical ASF concussion management strategies inclusive of careful BP surveillance may lead to early identification of hypertension

Metagenomics combined with activity-based proteomics point to gut bacterial enzymes that reactivate mycophenolate

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is an important immunosuppressant prodrug prescribed to prevent organ transplant rejection and to treat autoimmune diseases. MMF usage, however, is limited by severe gastrointestinal toxicity that is observed in approximately 45% of MMF recipients. The active form of the drug, mycophenolic acid (MPA), undergoes extensive enterohepatic recirculation by bacterial beta-glucuronidase (GUS) enzymes, which reactivate MPA from mycophenolate glucuronide (MPAG) within the gastrointestinal tract. GUS enzymes demonstrate distinct substrate preferences based on their structural features, and gut microbial GUS enzymes that reactivate MPA have not been identified. Here, we compare the fecal microbiomes of transplant recipients receiving MMF to healthy individuals using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. We find that neither microbial composition nor the presence of specific structural classes of GUS genes are sufficient to explain the differences in MPA reactivation measured between fecal samples from the two cohorts. We next employed a GUS-specific activity-based chemical probe and targeted metaproteomics to identify and quantify the GUS proteins present in the human fecal samples. The identification of specific GUS enzymes was improved by using the metagenomics data collected from the fecal samples. We found that the presence of GUS enzymes that bind the flavin mononucleotide (FMN) is significantly correlated with efficient MPA reactivation. Furthermore, structural analysis identified motifs unique to these FMN-binding GUS enzymes that provide molecular support for their ability to process this drug glucuronide. These results indicate that FMN-binding GUS enzymes may be responsible for reactivation of MPA and could be a driving force behind MPA-induced GI toxicity.Bio-organic Synthesi