The Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (CoSMO) is a proposed new facility led by the High Altitude Observatory and a consortium of partners to measure magnetic field and plasma properties in a large (one degree) field of view extending down to the inner parts of the solar corona. CoSMO is intended as a research facility that will advance the understanding and prediction of space weather. The instrumentation elements of CoSMO are: a white-light coronagraph (KCor), already operational at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO); the Chromosphere and Prominence Magnetometer (ChroMag), due for deployment to MLSO next year; and the CoSMO Large Coronagraph (LC) which has completed Preliminary Design Review.

Cubic boron nitride (cBN) is a synthetic wide band gap material that has attracted attention due to its high thermal conductivity, optical transparency and optical emission. In this work, defects in cBN have been investigated using experimental and theoretical X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). Vacancy and O substitutional defects were considered, with O substituted at the N site (ON) to be the most energetically favorable. All defects produce unique signatures in either the B or N K-edges and can thus be identified using XANES. The calculations coupled with electron-irradiation / annealing experiments strongly suggest that ON is the dominant defect in irradiated cBN and remains after annealing. This defect is a likely source of optical emission in cBN.

Mcl-1 is an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member that is often over-expressed in the malignant brain tumour glioblastoma (GBM). It has been previously shown that epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) up-regulate Mcl-1 expression contributing to a cell survival response. Hypoxia is a poor prognostic marker in glioblastoma despite the fact that hypoxic regions have areas of necrosis. Hypoxic regions of GBM also highly express the pro-cell death Bcl-2 family member BNIP3, yet when BNIP3 is over-expressed in glioma cells, it induces cell death. The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear. METHODS: Using malignant glioma cell lines +/- hypoxia, gain and/or loss of function assays of BNIP3 or Mcl-1 were performed. BNIP3 and MCL-1 expression was assessed in GBM tumours from adult patients and human gliomas grown as xenografts in immunocompromised mice. RESULTS: Mcl-1 expression is reduced under hypoxia due to degradation by the E3 ligase FBW7 leading to increased hypoxia-induced cell death. This cell death is augmented by EGFR activation leading to increased Mcl-1 expression under hypoxia. Conversely, BNIP3 is over-expressed in hypoxia at times when Mcl-1 expression is decreased. Knocking down BNIP3 expression reduces hypoxia cell death and Mcl-1 expression effectively blocks BNIP3-induced cell death. Of significance, BNIP3 and Mcl-1 are co-localized under hypoxia in glioma cells, GBM tumours and in xenograft glioma tumours expressing mutant EGFR (EGFRvIII). CONCLUSION: These results support that Mcl-1 can block the ability of BNIP3 to induce cell death under hypoxia in GBM tumours

During pregnancy, glycine and serine become more important because they are the primary suppliers of methyl groups for the synthesis of fetal DNA, and more glycine is required for fetal collagen synthesis as pregnancy progresses. In an earlier study, we reported that glycine flux decreased by 39 % from the first to the third trimester in pregnant adolescent girls. As serine is a primary precursor for glycine synthesis, the objective of this study was to measure and compare glycine and serine fluxes and inter-conversions in pregnant adolescent girls and adult women in the first and third trimesters. Measurements were made after an overnight fast by continuous intravenous infusions of 2H2-glycine and 15N-serine in eleven adolescent girls (17·4 (se 0·1) years of age) and in ten adult women (25·8 (se 0·5) years of age) for 4 h. Adolescent girls had significantly slower glycine flux and they made less glycine from serine in the third (P<0·05) than in the first trimester. Baby birth length was significantly shorter of adolescent girls (P=0·04) and was significantly associated with third trimester glycine flux. These findings suggest that the pregnant adolescent cannot maintain glycine flux in late pregnancy compared with early pregnancy because of decreased synthesis from serine. It is possible that the inability to maintain glycine synthesis makes her fetus vulnerable to impaired cartilage synthesis, and thus linear growth.

During pregnancy, adult women with a normal BMI synthesise extra amino acids after an overnight fast by increasing body protein breakdown and decreasing amino acid oxidation. It is not known whether adolescent girls can make these adaptations during pregnancy. The present study aimed to measure and compare the protein, glutamine and alanine kinetics of adult women and adolescent girls at early-, mid- and late-pregnancy. Kinetics were measured in the overnight fasted state using intravenous infusions of 13C-leucine, 15N-glutamine and 15N-alanine in ten adults and twenty adolescents aged 14–17 years in the first and second trimesters (phase 1 study) and infusions of 13C-leucine and 15N2-urea in ten adults and eleven adolescents aged 16–17 years in the first and third trimesters (phase 2 study). In phase 1 study, there were no significant differences between the groups with regard to any of the kinetic parameters measured. In both groups, leucine flux increased (P< 0·05), the percentage of leucine flux oxidised decreased (P< 0·05) and non-oxidative leucine disposal to protein synthesis increased (P< 0·05) from the first to the second trimester. In phase2 study, leucine flux was significantly slower (P< 0·05) in the adult group than in the adolescent group during both trimesters, and whole-body leucine flux and non-oxidative leucine disposal increased significantly in the adolescent group (P< 0·05, respectively) and were higher in the adult group from the first to the third trimester. These results suggest that similar to their adult counterparts after an overnight fast, adolescent girls with a normal BMI provide extra amino acids required for net protein deposition during pregnancy by increasing protein breakdown and decreasing amino acid oxidation.

The deep ice-sheet coring (DISC) drill was used for production ice-core drilling at WAIS Divide in Antarctica for six field seasons between 2007 and 2013. Continuous ice-core samples were obtained between the snow surface and 3405 m depth. During the 2012/13 austral summer, the DISC drill’s newly designed replicate ice-coring system was utilized to collect nearly 285m of additional high-quality core samples at depths of high scientific interest. Annual progress graphs are described, as well as milestones achieved over the course of the project. Drilling operations, challenges encountered, drill fluid usage, drilling results, and the drill crew’s experiences with the DISC drill and replicate coring system during production drilling are described and discussed in detail. Core-processing operations are described briefly, as well as the logistical undertaking of the DISC drill’s deployment to Antarctica.

The Blue Ice Drill (BID) is a large-diameter agile drill system designed by the Ice Drilling Design and Operations group of the University of Wisconsin–Madison to quickly core-clean 241 mm diameter ice samples from near-surface sites. It consists of a down-hole motor/gear reducer rotating a coring cutter and core barrel inside an outer barrel for efficient cuttings transport in solid ice. A variable-frequency drive and custom control box regulates electrical power to the drill. Torque reaction is accomplished on the surface via handles attached to a torsion stem. Core recovery is achieved with either core dogs in the sonde or with a separate core recovery tool. All down-hole tools are suspended on a collapsible tripod via ropes running on a capstan winch. The BID is operated by a minimum of two people and has been used successfully during two seasons of coring on a blue ice area of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. An updated version of the drill system, BID-Deep, has been designed to recover cores to depths up to 200 m.

Many of the ice-coring objectives in the Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) Long Range Science Plan, such as those in the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) 2k array and 40k network, are attainable in many locations with an intermediate depth drill (IDD) that can collect core from a fluid-filled hole down to 1500 m depth. The Ice Drilling Design and Operations (IDDO) group has designed and is in the process of building an agile IDD to meet this objective. The drill tent, power distribution and core-processing systems are an integral part of the IDD, which can be deployed by small aircraft and assembled by hand to minimize logistic requirements. The new drill system will be ready for testing in Greenland beginning in late spring 2014. The first production drilling is scheduled for the 2014/15 field season at the South Pole.

Hierarchical clustering represents the favoured paradigm for galaxy formation throughout the Universe; due to its proximity, the Magellanic system offers one of the few opportunities for astrophysicists to decompose the full six-dimensional phase-space history of a satellite in the midst of being cannibalised by its host galaxy. The availability of improved observational data for the Magellanic Stream and parallel advances in computational power has led us to revisit the canonical tidal model describing the disruption of the Small Magellanic Cloud and the consequent formation of the Stream. We suggest improvements to the tidal model in light of these recent advances.

The Magellanic System represents one of the best places to study the formation and evolution of galaxies. Photometric surveys of various depths, areas and wavelengths have had a significant impact on our understanding of the system; however, a complete picture is still lacking. VMC (the VISTA near-infrared YJK s survey of the Magellanic System) will provide new data to derive the spatially resolved star formation history and to construct a three-dimensional map of the system. These data combined with those from other ongoing and planned surveys will give us an absolutely unique view of the system opening up the doors to truly new science!

The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) is carrying out a survey as part of an international collaboration to image the northe, at a common resolution, in emission from all major constituents of the interstellar medium; the neutral atomic gas, the molecular gas, the ionised gas, dust and relativistic plasma. For many of these constituents the angular resolution of the images (1 arcmin) will be more than a factor of 10 better than any previous studies. The aim is to produce a publicly-available database of high resolution, high-dynamic range images of the Galaxy for multi-phase studies of the physical states and processes in the interstellar medium. We will sketch the main scientific motivations as well as describe some preliminary results from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey/Releve Canadien du Plan Galactique (CGPS/RCPG).

A survey of the Milky Way disk and the Magellanic System at the wavelengths of the 21-cm atomic hydrogen (H i) line and three 18-cm lines of the OH molecule will be carried out with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. The survey will study the distribution of H i emission and absorption with unprecedented angular and velocity resolution, as well as molecular line thermal emission, absorption, and maser lines. The area to be covered includes the Galactic plane (|b| < 10°) at all declinations south of δ = +40°, spanning longitudes 167° through 360°to 79° at b = 0°, plus the entire area of the Magellanic Stream and Clouds, a total of 13 020 deg2. The brightness temperature sensitivity will be very good, typically σT≃ 1 K at resolution 30 arcsec and 1 km s−1. The survey has a wide spectrum of scientific goals, from studies of galaxy evolution to star formation, with particular contributions to understanding stellar wind kinematics, the thermal phases of the interstellar medium, the interaction between gas in the disk and halo, and the dynamical and thermal states of gas at various positions along the Magellanic Stream.