Mapping Nanostructural Variations in Silk by Secondary Electron Hyperspectral Imaging

Nanostructures underpin the excellent properties of silk. Although the bulk nanocomposition of silks has been well studied, direct evidence of the spatial variation of nanocrystalline (ordered) and amorphous (disordered) structures has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate that secondary electron hyperspectral imaging, can be exploited for direct imaging of hierarchical structures in carbon based materials which cannot be revealed by any other standard characterization methods. Applying this technique to silks from domesticated (Bombyx mori) and wild (Antheraea mylitta) silkworms, we report a variety of previously unseen features which highlight the local interplay between ordered and disordered structures. We conclude that our technique is able to differentiate composition on the nanoscale and enables in-depth studies into the relationship between morphology and performance of these complex biopolymer systems

Reconstruction of primary vertices at the ATLAS experiment in Run 1 proton–proton collisions at the LHC

This paper presents the method and performance of primary vertex reconstruction in proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 1 of the LHC. The studies presented focus on data taken during 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of √s=8 TeV. The performance has been measured as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing over a wide range, from one to seventy. The measurement of the position and size of the luminous region and its use as a constraint to improve the primary vertex resolution are discussed. A longitudinal vertex position resolution of about 30μm is achieved for events with high multiplicity of reconstructed tracks. The transverse position resolution is better than 20μm and is dominated by the precision on the size of the luminous region. An analytical model is proposed to describe the primary vertex reconstruction efficiency as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing and of the longitudinal size of the luminous region. Agreement between the data and the predictions of this model is better than 3% up to seventy interactions per bunch crossing

Evidence for a mass dependent forward-backward asymmetry in top quark pair production

Aaltonen, T., Álvarez González, B., Amerio, S., Amidei, D., Anastassov, A., Annovi, A., Antos, J., Apollinari, G., Appel, J.A., Apresyan, A., Arisawa, T., Artikov, A., Asaadi, J., Ashmanskas, W., Auerbach, B., Aurisano, A., Azfar, F., Badgett, W., Barbaro-Galtieri, A., Barnes, V.E., Barnett, B.A., Barria, P., Bartos, P., Bauce, M., Bauer, G., Bedeschi, F., Beecher, D., Behari, S., Bellettini, G., Bellinger, J., Benjamin, D., Beretvas, A., Bhatti, A., Binkley, M., Bisello, D., Bizjak, I., Bland, K.R., Blumenfeld, B., Bocci, A., Bodek, A., Bortoletto, D., Boudreau, J., Boveia, A., Brau, B., Brigliadori, L., Brisuda, A., Bromberg, C., Brucken, E., Bucciantonio, M., Budagov, J., Budd, H.S., Budd, S., Burkett, K., Busetto, G., Bussey, P., Buzatu, A., Calancha, C., Camarda, S., Campanelli, M., Campbell, M., Canelli, F., Canepa, A., Carls, B., Carlsmith, D., Carosi, R., Carrillo, S., Carron, S., Casal, B., Casarsa, M., Castro, A., Catastini, P., Cauz, D., Cavaliere, V., Cavalli-Sforza, M., Cerri, A., Cerrito, L., Chen, Y.C., Chertok, M., Chiarelli, G., Chlachidze, G., Chlebana, F., Cho, K., Chokheli, D., Chou, J.P., Chung, W.H., Chung, Y.S., Ciobanu, C.I., Ciocci, M.A., Clark, A., Compostella, G., Convery, M.E., Conway, J., Corbo, M., Cordelli, M., Cox, C.A., Cox, D.J., Crescioli, F., Cuenca Almenar, C., Cuevas, J., Culbertson, R., Dagenhart, D., D'Ascenzo, N., Datta, M., De Barbaro, P., De Cecco, S., De Lorenzo, G., Dell'Orso, M., Deluca, C., Demortier, L., Deng, J., Deninno, M., Devoto, F., D'Errico, M., Di Canto, A., Di Ruzza, B., Dittmann, J.R., D'Onofrio, M., Donati, S., Dong, P., Dorigo, M., Dorigo, T., Ebina, K., Elagin, A., Eppig, A., Erbacher, R., Errede, D., Errede, S., Ershaidat, N., Eusebi, R., Fang, H.C., Farrington, S., Feindt, M., Fernandez, J.P., Ferrazza, C., Field, R., Flanagan, G., Forrest, R., Frank, M.J., Franklin, M., Freeman, J.C., Funakoshi, Y., Furic, I., Gallinaro, M., Galyardt, J., Garcia, J.E., Garfinkel, A.F., Garosi, P., Gerberich, H., Gerchtein, E., Giagu, S., Giakoumopoulou, V., Giannetti, P., Gibson, K., Ginsburg, C.M., Giokaris, N., Giromini, P., Giunta, M., Giurgiu, G., Glagolev, V., Glenzinski, D., Gold, M., Goldin, D., Goldschmidt, N., Golossanov, A., Gomez, G., Gomez-Ceballos, G., Goncharov, M., González, O., Gorelov, I., Goshaw, A.T., Goulianos, K., Gresele, A., Grinstein, S., Grosso-Pilcher, C., Group, R.C., Guimaraes Da Costa, J., Gunay-Unalan, Z., Haber, C., Hahn, S.R., Halkiadakis, E., Hamaguchi, A., Han, J.Y., Happacher, F., Hara, K., Hare, D., Hare, M., Harr, R.F., Hatakeyama, K., Hays, C., Heck, M., Heinrich, J., Herndon, M., Hewamanage, S., Hidas, D., Hocker, A., Hopkins, W., Horn, D., Hou, S., Hughes, R.E., Hurwitz, M., Husemann, U., Hussain, N., Hussein, M., Huston, J., Introzzi, G., Iori, M., Ivanov, A., James, E., Jang, D., Jayatilaka, B., Jeon, E.J., Jha, M.K., Jindariani, S., Johnson, W., Jones, M., Joo, K.K., Jun, S.Y., Junk, T.R., Kamon, T., Karchin, P.E., Kato, Y., Ketchum, W., Keung, J., Khotilovich, V., Kilminster, B., Kim, D.H., Kim, H.S., Kim, H.W., Kim, J.E., Kim, M.J., Kim, S.B., Kim, S.H., Kim, Y.K., Kimura, N., Kirby, M., Klimenko, S., Kondo, K., Kong, D.J., Konigsberg, J., Kotwal, A.V., Kreps, M., Kroll, J., Krop, D., Krumnack, N., Kruse, M., Krutelyov, V., Kuhr, T., Kurata, M., Kwang, S., Laasanen, A.T., Lami, S., Lammel, S., Lancaster, M., Lander, R.L., Lannon, K., Lath, A., Latino, G., Lazzizzera, I., Lecompte, T., Lee, E., Lee, H.S., Lee, J.S., Lee, S.W., Leo, S., Leone, S., Lewis, J.D., Lin, C.-J., Linacre, J., Lindgren, M., Lipeles, E., Lister, A., Litvintsev, D.O., Liu, C., Liu, Q., Liu, T., Lockwitz, S., Lockyer, N.S., Loginov, A., Lucchesi, D., Lueck, J., Lujan, P., Lukens, P., Lungu, G., Lys, J., Lysak, R., Madrak, R., Maeshima, K., Makhoul, K., Maksimovic, P., Malik, S., Manca, G., Manousakis-Katsikakis, A., Margaroli, F., Marino, C., Martínez, M., Martínez-Ballarín, R., Mastrandrea, P., Mathis, M., Mattson, M.E., Mazzanti, P., McFarland, K.S., 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Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Correlations in thermal comfort and natural wind

Many field surveyshaveshownthatnaturallyventilatedbuildingsarefavorabletohumanthermal comfort andmayallowhighercoolingtemperaturesthanair-conditionedbuildings.Recreatingnatural wind characteristicswithamechanicalcoolingsystemmaydiminishthedrawbacksofconventional cooling systemssuchasdraftsandhighenergydemands.Naturalwindcharacteristics(windvelocity, direction, turbulentintensity,temperatureandrelativehumidity)wererecordedinamountain environmentandcorrelatedwiththehumanthermalsensationof48subjects.Naturalwind fluctuation characteristicswereanalyzedusingtheFastFourierTransform(FFT)analysis.Thedynamiccharacter- istics ofnaturalwindwereaveragedthroughthepowerspectrumexponent (β−value),whichrepresents the energydistributionoftheturbulent flowofnaturalwind.Thepowerspectrumexponent (β−value)of the naturalwindwilldecreasewhenthemeanvelocityincreases,whileitwillincreasewhenthe turbulent intensityincreases.Thepowerspectrumexponent (β−value)wascorrelated(Spearman's rank coefficient¼0.56, po0.001)withthermalcomfort.Thepowerspectrumexponent(β-value)forpeople feeling comfortablehasamedianvalueof1.62[1.41–1.80forthe first andthirdquartiles,respectively] and the β−valueforpeoplefeelinguncomfortablehasamedianvalueof1.10[0.97–1.25]. & 2013ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved

"Arabic is the language of the Muslims–that's how it was supposed to be": exploring language and religious identity through reflective accounts from young British-born South Asians

This study explores how a group of young British-born South Asians understood and defined their religious and linguistic identities, focusing upon the role played by heritage languages and liturgical languages and by religious socialisation. Twelve British-born South Asians were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interview transcripts were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four superordinate themes are reported. These addressed participants' meaning-making regarding "the sanctification of language" and the consequential suitability of "the liturgical language as a symbol of religious community"; the themes of "ethnic pride versus religious identity" and "linguistic Otherness and religious alienation" concerned potential ethno-linguistic barriers to a positive religious identity. Findings are interpreted in terms of concepts drawn from relevant identity theories and tentative recommendations are offered concerning the facilitation of positive religious and ethnic identities

A two-stage association study identifies methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2 gene polymorphisms as candidates for breast cancer susceptibility

Genome-wide association studies for breast cancer have identified over 40 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a subset of which remains statistically significant after genome-wide correction. Improved strategies for mining of genome-wide association data have been suggested to address heritable component of genetic risk in breast cancer. In this study, we attempted a two-stage association design using markers from a genome-wide study (stage 1, Affymetrix Human SNP 6.0 array, cases=302, controls=321). We restricted our analysis to DNA repair/modifications/metabolism pathway related gene polymorphisms for their obvious role in carcinogenesis in general and for their known protein–protein interactions vis-à-vis, potential epistatic effects. We selected 22 SNPs based on linkage disequilibrium patterns and high statistical significance. Genotyping assays in an independent replication study of 1178 cases and 1314 controls were attempted using Sequenom iPLEX Gold platform (stage 2). Six SNPs (rs8094493, rs4041245, rs7614, rs13250873, rs1556459 and rs2297381) showed consistent and statistically significant associations with breast cancer risk in both stages, with allelic odds ratios (and P-values) of 0.85 (0.0021), 0.86 (0.0026), 0.86 (0.0041), 1.17 (0.0043), 1.20 (0.0103) and 1.13 (0.0154), respectively, in combined analysis (N=3115). Of these, three polymorphisms were located in methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2 gene regions and were in strong linkage disequilibrium. The remaining three SNPs were in proximity to RAD21 homolog (S. pombe), O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase and RNA polymerase II-associated protein 1. The identified markers may be relevant to breast cancer susceptibility in populations if these findings are confirmed in independent cohorts

Diagnostic tools in Rhinology EAACI position paper

This EAACI Task Force document aims at providing the readers with a comprehensive and complete overview of the currently available tools for diagnosis of nasal and sino-nasal disease. We have tried to logically order the different important issues related to history taking, clinical examination and additional investigative tools for evaluation of the severity of sinonasal disease into a consensus document. A panel of European experts in the field of Rhinology has contributed to this consensus document on Diagnostic Tools in Rhinology

Microbial fuel cells: From fundamentals to applications. A review

© 2017 The Author(s) In the past 10–15 years, the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has captured the attention of the scientific community for the possibility of transforming organic waste directly into electricity through microbially catalyzed anodic, and microbial/enzymatic/abiotic cathodic electrochemical reactions. In this review, several aspects of the technology are considered. Firstly, a brief history of abiotic to biological fuel cells and subsequently, microbial fuel cells is presented. Secondly, the development of the concept of microbial fuel cell into a wider range of derivative technologies, called bioelectrochemical systems, is described introducing briefly microbial electrolysis cells, microbial desalination cells and microbial electrosynthesis cells. The focus is then shifted to electroactive biofilms and electron transfer mechanisms involved with solid electrodes. Carbonaceous and metallic anode materials are then introduced, followed by an explanation of the electro catalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction and its behavior in neutral media, from recent studies. Cathode catalysts based on carbonaceous, platinum-group metal and platinum-group-metal-free materials are presented, along with membrane materials with a view to future directions. Finally, microbial fuel cell practical implementation, through the utilization of energy output for practical applications, is described

Production of dust by massive stars at high redshift

The large amounts of dust detected in sub-millimeter galaxies and quasars at high redshift pose a challenge to galaxy formation models and theories of cosmic dust formation. At z > 6 only stars of relatively high mass (> 3 Msun) are sufficiently short-lived to be potential stellar sources of dust. This review is devoted to identifying and quantifying the most important stellar channels of rapid dust formation. We ascertain the dust production efficiency of stars in the mass range 3-40 Msun using both observed and theoretical dust yields of evolved massive stars and supernovae (SNe) and provide analytical expressions for the dust production efficiencies in various scenarios. We also address the strong sensitivity of the total dust productivity to the initial mass function. From simple considerations, we find that, in the early Universe, high-mass (> 3 Msun) asymptotic giant branch stars can only be dominant dust producers if SNe generate <~ 3 x 10^-3 Msun of dust whereas SNe prevail if they are more efficient. We address the challenges in inferring dust masses and star-formation rates from observations of high-redshift galaxies. We conclude that significant SN dust production at high redshift is likely required to reproduce current dust mass estimates, possibly coupled with rapid dust grain growth in the interstellar medium.Comment: 72 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables; to be published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Revie