Vertical Structure and Turbulent Saturation Level in Fully Radiative Protoplanetary Disc Models

We investigate a massive ($\varSigma \sim 10000 g cm^{-2}$ at 1 AU) protoplanetary disc model by means of 3D radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations. The vertical structure of the disc is determined self-consistently by a balance between turbulent heating caused by the MRI and radiative cooling. Concerning the vertical structure, two different regions can be distinguished: A gas-pressure dominated, optically thick midplane region where most of the dissipation takes place, and a magnetically dominated, optically thin corona which is dominated by strong shocks. At the location of the photosphere, the turbulence is supersonic ($M \sim 2$), which is consistent with previous results obtained from the fitting of spectra of YSOs. It is known that the turbulent saturation level in simulations of MRI-induced turbulence does depend on numerical factors such as the numerical resolution and the box size. However, by performing a suite of runs at different resolutions (using up to 64x128x512 grid cells) and with varying box sizes (with up to 16 pressure scaleheights in the vertical direction), we find that both the saturation levels and the heating rates show a clear trend to converge once a sufficient resolution in the vertical direction has been achieved.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Protease inhibitors prevent plasminogen-mediated, but not pemphigus vulgaris-induced, acantholysis in human epidermis

Pemphigus is an autoimmune blistering disease of the skin and mucous membranes. It is caused by autoantibodies directed against desmosomes, which are the principal adhesion structures between epidermal keratinocytes. Binding of autoantibodies leads to the destruction of desmosomes resulting in the loss of cell-cell adhesion (acantholysis) and epidermal blisters. The plasminogen activator system has been implicated as a proteolytic effector in pemphigus. We have tested inhibitors of the plasminogen activator system with regard to their potential to prevent pemphigus-induced cutaneous pathology. In a human split skin culture system, IgG preparations of sera from pemphigus vulgaris patients caused histopathologic changes (acantholysis) similar to those observed in the original pemphigus disease. All inhibitors that were tested (active site inhibitors directed against uPA, tPA, and/or plasmin; antibodies neutralizing the enzymatic activity of uPA or tPA; substances interfering with the binding of uPA to its specific cell surface receptor uPAR) failed to prevent pemphigus vulgaris IgG-mediated acantholysis. Plasminogen-mediated acantholysis, however, was effectively antagonized by the synthetic active site serine protease inhibitor WX-UK1 or by p-aminomethylbenzoic acid. Our data argue against applying anti-plasminogen activator/anti-plasmin strategies in the management of pemphigus

Fundamentale Steuerreformen für Deutschland: die Unternehmensteuerreform 2008, die Duale Einkommensteuer und die Einheitssteuer im Vergleich

In den letzten Jahren wurde eine Vielzahl an Steuerreformvorschlägen in Deutschland unterbreitet. Zu den aktuellen gehören neben der Unternehmensteuerreform 2008 (UntSt-Reform), die Duale Einkommensteuer des Sachverständigenrates (DIT) und die Kirchhof'sche Einheitssteuer. Dieser Aufsatz quantifiziert und vergleicht die gesamtwirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen dieser Steuerreformvorschläge mithilfe des eigens für Deutschland entwickelten dynamischen, allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodells ifoMod. Wie die Ergebnisse zeigen, bewirken die DIT und die Einheitssteuer einen positiven Impuls auf das Wirtschaftswachstum, während sich die UntSt-Reform als leichte Wachstumsbremse herausstellt. Im Hinblick auf die Wohlfahrtsaspekte der Reformen erzielt lediglich die DIT positive Resultate. Die UntSt-Reform hemmt insbesondere die Investitionstätigkeit der Kapitalgesellschaften, da diese Unternehmen mit Einführung der Abgeltungssteuer auf Dividenden und Wertzuwächse einer Doppelbesteuerung unterliegen. Dennoch generiert diese als einzige Reform einen langfristigen Finanzierungsüberschuss.The past years have seen several tax reform proposals being put forward in Germany. The most prominent ones count the Business Tax Reform 2008 (BTR 2008), the Dual Income Tax (DIT) proposal advanced by the German Council of Economic Advisors and Kirchhof's flat tax. We analyze, compare and quantify the effects of these reform proposals by applying ifoMOD, a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. ifoMOD was in particular developed to simulate the effects of capital income tax reforms for the German economy. The simulation results show that both the DIT and the flat tax have a positive stimulus for economic growth while the BTR 2008 slightly impedes growth. Regarding the welfare effects of the reforms, the DIT is the only reform proposal which achieves positive results. The BTR 2008 impedes in particular the investment activity of corporate firms since these are effectively subject to double taxation following the introduction of a withholding tax on dividends and capital gains. Nevertheless, this reform proposal is the only one which generates a financing surplus in the long run

Ambient vibration tests of a cross-laminated timber building

Cross-laminated timber has, in the last 6 years, been used for the first time to form shear walls and cores in multi-storey buildings of seven storeys or more. Such buildings can have low mass in comparison to conventional structural forms. This low mass means that, as cross-laminated timber is used for taller buildings still, their dynamic movement under wind load is likely to be a key design parameter. An understanding of dynamic lateral stiffness and damping, which has so far been insufficiently researched, will be vital to the effective design for wind-induced vibration. In this study, an ambient vibration method is used to identify the dynamic properties of a seven-storey cross-laminated timber building in situ. The random decrement method is used, along with the Ibrahim time domain method, to extract the modal properties of the structure from the acceleration measured under ambient conditions. The results show that this output-only modal analysis method can be used to extract modal information from such a building, and that information is compared with a simple structural model. Measurements on two occasions during construction show the effect of non-structural elements on the modal properties of the structure

Multiproxy synthesis at the Arlington Archosaur Site: New insights into Cretaceous paralic paleoenvironments and regional stratigraphy, Woodbine Group, Texas, USA

Ecosystems of the \u27mid\u27 Cretaceous are significant but poorly understood, due in large part to a sparse fossil record. Existing fossils, particularly in North America, are not chronostratigraphically well-constrained, further hampering comparisons of species and ecosystems across Laramidia and Appalachia. Efforts to overcome this lack of temporal resolution typically involve systematic collection of ashfall deposits, geochemistry, and biostratigraphy. Here we describe a new, high-resolution palynological and sedimentologic dataset from the Arlington Archosaur Site (AAS) of the Lewisville Formation (Woodbine Group; Middle Cenomanian). The integration of these new data with existing biostratigraphic, macrofossil (vertebrate, invertebrate, botanical), lithologic, ichnologic, and geochemical data allows for a comprehensive paleoenvironmental reconstruction and assessment of paleoenvironmental evolution during AAS deposition. Depositional environments are paralic and include nearshore, shallow-marine tidal-flat, lagoonal, tidal-delta deposits, fluvial-distributary channels, and associated floodplain environments including wetlands (swamp-marsh-lakes) and paleosols. The presence of the Cyclonephelium compactum – C. membraniphorum (Ccm) morphological plexus throughout the AAS deposit suggests a younger minimum age of (early) late Cenomanian for deposits, indicating possible southward expansion of this group into the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (CWIS) coincident with the onset of the Plenus Cold Event (PCE) of OAE2. The revised age estimate for the AAS suggests that Woodbine deposition at more proximal clastic source areas continued into the late Cenomanian, coeval with down dip Eagle Ford Group sedimentation. This study has important implications for the biogeography of western Appalachia and the response of terrestrial and shallow marine ecosystems of the southeastern CWIS to the onset of OAE2

Rapid sediment re-deposition may limit carbon release during catastrophic thermokarst lake drainage

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Georgina Heldreich for valuable discussions on delta formation, and the two constructive anonymous reviews, which greatly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Genome-wide, high-content siRNA screening identifies the Alzheimer's genetic risk factor FERMT2 as a major modulator of APP metabolism

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified 19 susceptibility loci for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, understanding how these genes are involved in the pathophysiology of AD is one of the main challenges of the “post-GWAS” era. At least 123 genes are located within the 19 susceptibility loci; hence, a conventional approach (studying the genes one by one) would not be time- and cost-effective. We therefore developed a genome-wide, high-content siRNA screening approach and used it to assess the functional impact of gene under-expression on APP metabolism. We found that 832 genes modulated APP metabolism. Eight of these genes were located within AD susceptibility loci. Only FERMT2 (a β3-integrin co-activator) was also significantly associated with a variation in cerebrospinal fluid Aβ peptide levels in 2886 AD cases. Lastly, we showed that the under-expression of FERMT2 increases Aβ peptide production by raising levels of mature APP at the cell surface and facilitating its recycling. Taken as a whole, our data suggest that FERMT2 modulates the AD risk by regulating APP metabolism and Aβ peptide production

Multiproxy synthesis at the Arlington Archosaur Site: New insights into Cretaceous paralic paleoenvironments and regional stratigraphy, Woodbine Group, Texas, USA

Ecosystems of the 'mid' Cretaceous are significant but poorly understood, due in large part to a sparse fossil record. Existing fossils, particularly in North America, are not chronostratigraphically well-constrained, further hampering comparisons of species and ecosystems across Laramidia and Appalachia. Efforts to overcome this lack of temporal resolution typically involve systematic collection of ashfall deposits, geochemistry, and biostratigraphy. Here we describe a new, high-resolution palynological and sedimentologic dataset from the Arlington Archosaur Site (AAS) of the Lewisville Formation (Woodbine Group; Middle Cenomanian). The integration of these new data with existing biostratigraphic, macrofossil (vertebrate, invertebrate, botanical), lithologic, ichnologic, and geochemical data allows for a comprehensive paleoenvironmental reconstruction and assessment of paleoenvironmental evolution during AAS deposition. Depositional environments are paralic and include nearshore, shallow-marine tidal-flat, lagoonal, tidal-delta deposits, fluvial-distributary channels, and associated floodplain environments including wetlands (swamp-marsh-lakes) and paleosols. The presence of the Cyclonephelium compactum – C. membraniphorum (Ccm) morphological plexus throughout the AAS deposit suggests a younger minimum age of (early) late Cenomanian for deposits, indicating possible southward expansion of this group into the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (CWIS) coincident with the onset of the Plenus Cold Event (PCE) of OAE2. The revised age estimate for the AAS suggests that Woodbine deposition at more proximal clastic source areas continued into the late Cenomanian, coeval with down dip Eagle Ford Group sedimentation. This study has important implications for the biogeography of western Appalachia and the response of terrestrial and shallow marine ecosystems of the southeastern CWIS to the onset of OAE2

Identifying dementia outcomes in UK Biobank: a validation study of primary care, hospital admissions and mortality data

Prospective, population-based studies that recruit participants in mid-life are valuable resources for dementia research. Follow-up in these studies is often through linkage to routinely-collected healthcare datasets. We investigated the accuracy of these datasets for dementia case ascertainment in a validation study using data from UK Biobank—an open access, population-based study of > 500,000 adults aged 40–69 years at recruitment in 2006–2010. From 17,198 UK Biobank participants recruited in Edinburgh, we identified those with ≥ 1 dementia code in their linked primary care, hospital admissions or mortality data and compared their coded diagnoses to clinical expert adjudication of their full-text medical record. We calculated the positive predictive value (PPV, the proportion of cases identified that were true positives) for all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia for each dataset alone and in combination, and explored algorithmic code combinations to improve PPV. Among 120 participants, PPVs for all-cause dementia were 86.8%, 87.3% and 80.0% for primary care, hospital admissions and mortality data respectively and 82.5% across all datasets. We identified three algorithms that balanced a high PPV with reasonable case ascertainment. For Alzheimer’s disease, PPVs were 74.1% for primary care, 68.2% for hospital admissions, 50.0% for mortality data and 71.4% in combination. PPV for vascular dementia was 43.8% across all sources. UK routinely-collected healthcare data can be used to identify all-cause dementia in prospective studies. PPVs for Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia are lower. Further research is required to explore the geographic generalisability of these findings