Laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) are capable of accelerating charged particles to very high energies in very compact structures. In theory, therefore, they offer advantages over conventional, ...large-scale particle accelerators. However, the energy gain in a single-stage LPA can be limited by laser diffraction, dephasing, electron-beam loading and laser-energy depletion. The problem of laser diffraction can be addressed by using laser-pulse guiding and preformed plasma waveguides to maintain the required laser intensity over distances of many Rayleigh lengths; dephasing can be mitigated by longitudinal tailoring of the plasma density; and beam loading can be controlled by proper shaping of the electron beam. To increase the beam energy further, it is necessary to tackle the problem of the depletion of laser energy, by sequencing the accelerator into stages, each powered by a separate laser pulse. Here, we present results from an experiment that demonstrates such staging. Two LPA stages were coupled over a short distance (as is needed to preserve the average acceleration gradient) by a plasma mirror. Stable electron beams from a first LPA were focused to a twenty-micrometre radius--by a discharge capillary-based active plasma lens--into a second LPA, such that the beams interacted with the wakefield excited by a separate laser. Staged acceleration by the wakefield of the second stage is detected via an energy gain of 100 megaelectronvolts for a subset of the electron beam. Changing the arrival time of the electron beam with respect to the second-stage laser pulse allowed us to reconstruct the temporal wakefield structure and to determine the plasma density. Our results indicate that the fundamental limitation to energy gain presented by laser depletion can be overcome by using staged acceleration, suggesting a way of reaching the electron energies required for collider applications.
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IJS, KISLJ, NUK, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The Gastrointestinal Microbiome: A Review Barko, P.C.; McMichael, M.A.; Swanson, K.S. ...
Journal of veterinary internal medicine,
January/February 2018, Volume:
32, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The gastrointestinal microbiome is a diverse consortium of bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa, and viruses that inhabit the gut of all mammals. Studies in humans and other mammals have implicated the ...microbiome in a range of physiologic processes that are vital to host health including energy homeostasis, metabolism, gut epithelial health, immunologic activity, and neurobehavioral development. The microbial genome confers metabolic capabilities exceeding those of the host organism alone, making the gut microbiome an active participant in host physiology. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology and computational biology have revolutionized the field of microbiomics, permitting mechanistic evaluation of the relationships between an animal and its microbial symbionts. Changes in the gastrointestinal microbiome are associated with diseases in humans and animals including inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, immune‐mediated conditions, and neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder. While there remains a paucity of data regarding the intestinal microbiome in small animals, recent studies have helped to characterize its role in host animal health and associated disease states. This review is intended to familiarize small animal veterinarians with recent advances in the field of microbiomics and to prime them for a future in which diagnostic tests and therapies will incorporate these developments into clinical practice.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Single-shot, charge-dependent emittance measurements of electron beams generated by a laser plasma accelerator (LPA) reveal that shock-induced density down-ramp injection produces beams with ...normalized emittances a factor of 2 smaller than beams produced via ionization injection. Such a comparison is made possible by the tunable LPA setup, which allows electron beams with nearly identical central energy and peak spectral charge density to be produced using the two distinct injection mechanisms. Parametric measurements of this type are essential for the development of LPA-based applications which ultimately require high charge density and low emittance.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
Guiding of relativistically intense laser pulses with peak power of 0.85 PW over 15 diffraction lengths was demonstrated by increasing the focusing strength of a capillary discharge waveguide using ...laser inverse bremsstrahlung heating. This allowed for the production of electron beams with quasimonoenergetic peaks up to 7.8 GeV, double the energy that was previously demonstrated. Charge was 5 pC at 7.8 GeV and up to 62 pC in 6 GeV peaks, and typical beam divergence was 0.2 mrad.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Abstract Brain function relies on the ability of neural networks to maintain stable levels of activity, while experiences sculpt them. In neocortex, the balance between activity and stability relies ...on the co-regulation of excitatory and inhibitory inputs onto principal neurons. Shifts of excitation or inhibition result in altered excitability impaired processing of incoming information. In many neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, the excitability of local circuits is altered, suggesting that their pathophysiology may involve shifts in synaptic excitation, inhibition or both. Most studies focused on identifying the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling network excitability to assess whether may be altered in animal models of disease. The impact of changes in excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance on local circuit and network computations is not clear. Here we report findings on the integration of excitatory and inhibitory inputs in healthy cortical circuits and discuss how shifts in E/I balance may relate to pathological phenotypes.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Lakes and ponds are important ecosystem components in arctic lowlands, and they are prone to rapid changes in surface area by thermokarst expansion and by sudden lake drainage. The 30 m resolution ...Landsat record (1984-2018) was used to derive a record of changes in the area of lakes and ponds in the five National Parks of northern Alaska. Surface-water area declined significantly in portions of the study area with ice-rich permafros t and water bodies of thermokarst origin. These declines were associated with rapid lake drainage events resulting from the thermoerosion of outlets. Thermoerosion was probably favored by the record warm mean annual temperatures in the study area, combined with precipitation that fluctuated near long-term normals. The rate of lake loss by rapid drainage was greatest in 2005-2007 and 2018. In landscapes with permafrost of lower ice content and water bodies in depressions of non-thermokarst origin, surface-water area generally fluctuated in response to year-to-year changes in precipitation, without a long-term trend, and lake drainage events were rare. Loss of surface water in ice-rich lowlands is likely to continue as the climate warms, with associated impacts on aquatic wildlife.
Daily Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values from the MODIS Aqua and Terra satellites were compared with on-the-ground camera observations at five locations in northern Alaska. Over ...half of the spring rise in NDVI was due to the transition from the snow-covered landscape to the snow-free surface prior to the deciduous leaf-out. In the fall after the green season, NDVI fluctuated between an intermediate level representing senesced vegetation and lower values representing clouds and intermittent snow, and then dropped to constant low levels after establishment of the permanent winter snow cover. The NDVI value of snow-free surfaces after fall leaf senescence was estimated from multi-year data using a 90th percentile smoothing spline curve fit to a plot of daily NDVI values vs. ordinal date. This curve typically showed a flat region of intermediate NDVI values in the fall that represent cloud- and snow-free days with senesced vegetation. This “fall plateau” was readily identified in a large systematic sample of MODIS NDVI values across the study area, in typical tundra, shrub, and boreal forest environments. The NDVI level of the fall plateau can be extrapolated to the spring rising leg of the annual NDVI curve to approximate the true start of green season.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
We sampled shrub canopy volume (height times area) and environmental factors (soil wetness, soil depth of thaw, soil pH, mean July air temperature, and typical date of spring snow loss) on 471 plots ...across five National Park Service units in northern Alaska. Our goal was to determine the environments where tall shrubs thrive and use this information to predict the location of future shrub expansion. The study area covers over 80,000 km2 and has mostly tundra vegetation. Large canopy volumes were uncommon, with volumes over 0.5 m3/m2 present on just 8% of plots. Shrub canopy volumes were highest where mean July temperatures were above 10.5°C and on weakly acid to neutral soils (pH of 6 to 7) with deep summer thaw (>80 cm) and good drainage. On many sites, flooding helped maintain favorable soil conditions for shrub growth. Canopy volumes were highest where the typical snow loss date was near 20 May; these represent sites that are neither strongly wind-scoured in the winter nor late to melt from deep snowdrifts. Individual species varied widely in the canopy volumes they attained and their response to the environmental factors. Betula sp. shrubs were the most common and quite tolerant of soil acidity, cold July temperatures, and shallow thaw depths, but they did not form high-volume canopies under these conditions. Alnus viridis formed the largest canopies and was tolerant of soil acidity down to about pH 5, but required more summer warmth (over 12°C) than the other species. The Salix species varied widely from S. pulchra, tolerant of wet and moderately acid soils, to S. alaxensis, requiring well-drained soils with near neutral pH. Nearly half of the land area in ARCN has mean July temperatures of 10.5 to 12.5°C, where 2°C of warming would bring temperatures into the range needed for all of the potential tall shrub species to form large canopies. However, limitations in the other environmental factors would probably prevent the formation of large shrub canopies on at least half of the land area with newly favorable temperatures after 2°C of warming.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Promoter-proximal pausing by initiated RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and regulated release of paused polymerase into productive elongation has emerged as a major mechanism of transcription activation. ...Reactivation of paused Pol II correlates with recruitment of super-elongation complexes (SECs) containing ELL/EAF family members, P-TEFb, and other proteins, but the mechanism of their recruitment is an unanswered question. Here, we present evidence for a role of human Mediator subunit MED26 in this process. We identify in the conserved N-terminal domain of MED26 overlapping docking sites for SEC and a second ELL/EAF-containing complex, as well as general initiation factor TFIID. In addition, we present evidence consistent with the model that MED26 can function as a molecular switch that interacts first with TFIID in the Pol II initiation complex and then exchanges TFIID for complexes containing ELL/EAF and P-TEFb to facilitate transition of Pol II into the elongation stage of transcription.
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► Mediator subunit MED26 controls expression of genes regulated during elongation ► MED26 N-terminal domain (NTD) contributes to MED26-dependent gene regulation ► MED26 NTD recruits ELL- and P-TEFb-containing complexes to Mediator
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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