Stay with me

“Hello, I'm from the memory service. I'm looking for Mr Sheppard?” The door swings wide open and a relieved smile beckons me inside. “Oh yes doctor, we've been expecting you. My husband's just in the living room. This way.

A New ZZ Ceti White Dwarf Pulsator: G30-20

We report the discovery of a new hydrogen atmosphere variable white dwarf (DAV; ZZ Ceti), G30-20, a high-amplitude, long-period pulsator. The Fourier transform of its light curve shows power around 1050-1125 s. We suspect the existence of multiple periodicities in this region, probably corresponding to different radial order (k) modes, but our observations are not long enough to resolve them. This discovery increases the number of known DAVs to 32. Our best fit to its optical spectrum gives T-eff = 11; 070 +/- 180 K and log g = 7.95 +/- 0.06. This implies that G30-20 is the coolest known DAV.NSF AST-9876730NASA NAG 5-9321STSI GO-08254Astronom

The training and development of Muslim faith leaders: current practice and future possibilities

"There were three broad aims [of the review]: 1. To research and evaluate the current training provisions for imams and scholars provided by seminaries and other imam-training institutions in the UK; to explore the strengths and weaknesses of current provision; and, in particular, to identify any gaps in the training of faith leaders that need to be addressed. 2. To explore the different models and methods employed for training faith leaders and to identify elements of best practice for wider dissemination. 3. To explore the possibilities of collaborative initiatives between the providers of Muslim faith leadership training and mainstream further education and higher education institutions and the possibility of attaining additional knowledge and skills leading to higher education qualifications and better employment prospects." - Page 8

The Relationship of Bilingualism Compared to Monolingualism to the Risk of Cognitive Decline or Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve, protect against cognitive decline, and delay the onset of dementia. OBJECTIVE: We systematically reviewed evidence about the effect of bilingualism on subsequent cognitive decline or dementia. METHODS: We searched electronic databases and references for longitudinal studies comparing cognitive decline in people who were bilingual with those who were monolingual and evaluated study quality. We conducted meta-analyses using random effects models to calculate pooled odds ratio of incident dementia. RESULTS: We included 13/1,156 eligible articles. Meta-analysis of prospective studies of the effects of bilingualism on future dementia gave a combined Odds Ratio of dementia of 0.96 (95% CI 0.74-1.23) in bilingual participants (n = 5,527) compared to monolinguals. Most retrospective studies found that bilingual people were reported to develop symptoms of cognitive decline at a later age than monolingual participants. CONCLUSION: We did not find that bilingualism protects from cognitive decline or dementia from prospective studies. Retrospective studies are more prone to confounding by education, or cultural differences in presentation to dementia services and are therefore not suited to establishing causative links between risk factors and outcomes

Magnetocaloric effect and critical behavior near the paramagnetic to ferrimagnetic phase transition temperature in TbCo2-xFex

Magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in TbCo2-xFex has been studied by dc magnetization measurements.On substituting Fe in TbCo2, not only the magnetic transition temperature is tuned to room temperature, but also the operating temperature range for MCE is increased from 50 K for TbCo2 to 95 K for TbCo1.9Fe0.1. The maximum magnetic entropy change (-{\Delta}SM) for TbCo1.9Fe0.1 is found to be 3.7 J kg-1 K-1 for a 5 T field change, making it a promising candidate for magnetic refrigeration near room temperature. The temperature dependent neutron diffraction study shows a structural phase transition (from cubic to rhombohedral phase with lowering of temperature) which is associated with the magnetic phase transition and these transitions broaden on Fe substitution. To investigate the nature of the paramagnetic to ferrimagnetic phase transition, we performed a critical exponent study. From the derived values of critical exponents, we conclude that TbCo2 belongs to the 3D Heisenberg class with short-range interaction, while on Fe substitution it tends towards mean-field with long-range interaction. The derived values of critical exponents represent the phenomenological universal curve for the field dependence of {\Delta}SM, indicating that TbCo2 and TbCo1.9Fe0.1 belong to two different universality classes.Comment: 12 figure

Analysis of novel endosome-to-Golgi retrieval genes reveals a role for PLD3 in regulating endosomal protein sorting and amyloid precursor protein processing

The processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) to the neurotoxic pro-aggregatory Aβ peptide is controlled by the mechanisms that govern the trafficking and localisation of APP. We hypothesised that genes involved in endosomal protein sorting could play an important role in regulating APP processing and therefore analysed ~40 novel endosome-to-Golgi retrieval genes previously identified in a genome-wide siRNA screen. We report that phospholipase D3 (PLD3), a type II membrane protein, functions in endosomal protein sorting and plays an important role in regulating APP processing. PLD3 colocalises with APP in endosomes and loss of PLD3 function results in reduced endosomal tubules, impaired trafficking of several membrane proteins and reduced association of sortilin-like 1 (SorL1) with APP.MNJS is supported by funding from the Medical Research Council (Grant no.: MR/L007533/1). Work at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research is aided by a Wellcome Trust Strategic award

Two-dimensional Induced Ferromagnetism

Magnetic properties of materials confined to nanometer length scales are providing important information regarding low dimensional physics. Using gadolinium based Langmuir-Blodgett films, we demonstrate that two-dimensional ferromagnetic order can be induced by applying magnetic field along the in-plane (perpendicular to growth) direction. Field dependent exchange coupling is evident in the in-plane magnetization data that exhibit absence of hysteresis loop and show reduction in field required to obtain saturation in measured moment with decreasing temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figures, corrected paper forma

A New Small-Amplitude Variable Hot DQ White Dwarf

We present the discovery of photometric variations in the carbon-dominated atmosphere (hot DQ) white dwarf star SDSS J133710.19-002643.6. We find evidence for two low-amplitude, harmonically-related periodicities at 169 s and 339 s, making it the fastest and smallest amplitude of the four known hot DQ variables and the only variable whose spectrum suggests the presence of hydrogen. The star's fundamental and harmonic amplitudes are roughly equal, and its pulse shape is similar to the other two members of the class with detected harmonics. Like the other variables, it appears relatively stable in frequency and amplitude.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. 5 pages, 2 figures, uses emulateap