ALBERT

Description: Males of Neptunea arthritica have been shown to mate preferentially with copulated females (CFs) over noncopulated females, which is unexpected due to the increased risk of sperm competition. To investigate how this preference for CFs affects the reproductive success of males, paternity was examined in the offspring of 13 females that had each copulated with three different males following male mate-choice trials. The paternity of each offspring was assigned to its most likely sire using polymorphic microsatellite markers. Males consistently chose CFs. During intromission in the females' second and third matings, live sperm cells were detected in the mucus exiting the female shell whereas no sperm were detected during the first matings. In the 13 analysed clutches, single paternity was found in seven clutches, dual paternity was found in three and triple paternity was found in three. These results suggest that males can achieve considerable reproductive success with a mated female through sperm removal.

Description: Searches for extrasolar planets have uncovered an astonishing diversity of planetary systems, yet the frequency of solar system analogs remains unknown. The gravitational microlensing planet search method is potentially sensitive to multiple-planet systems containing analogs of all the solar system planets except Mercury. We report the detection of a multiple-planet system with microlensing. We identify two planets with masses of approximately 0.71 and approximately 0.27 times the mass of Jupiter and orbital separations of approximately 2.3 and approximately 4.6 astronomical units orbiting a primary star of mass approximately 0.50 solar mass at a distance of approximately 1.5 kiloparsecs. This system resembles a scaled version of our solar system in that the mass ratio, separation ratio, and equilibrium temperatures of the planets are similar to those of Jupiter and Saturn. These planets could not have been detected with other techniques; their discovery from only six confirmed microlensing planet detections suggests that solar system analogs may be common.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gaudi, B S -- Bennett, D P -- Udalski, A -- Gould, A -- Christie, G W -- Maoz, D -- Dong, S -- McCormick, J -- Szymanski, M K -- Tristram, P J -- Nikolaev, S -- Paczynski, B -- Kubiak, M -- Pietrzynski, G -- Soszynski, I -- Szewczyk, O -- Ulaczyk, K -- Wyrzykowski, L -- OGLE Collaboration -- Depoy, D L -- Han, C -- Kaspi, S -- Lee, C-U -- Mallia, F -- Natusch, T -- Pogge, R W -- Park, B-G -- MuFUN Collaboration -- Abe, F -- Bond, I A -- Botzler, C S -- Fukui, A -- Hearnshaw, J B -- Itow, Y -- Kamiya, K -- Korpela, A V -- Kilmartin, P M -- Lin, W -- Masuda, K -- Matsubara, Y -- Motomura, M -- Muraki, Y -- Nakamura, S -- Okumura, T -- Ohnishi, K -- Rattenbury, N J -- Sako, T -- Saito, To -- Sato, S -- Skuljan, L -- Sullivan, D J -- Sumi, T -- Sweatman, W L -- Yock, P C M -- MOA Collaboration -- Albrow, M D -- Allan, A -- Beaulieu, J-P -- Burgdorf, M J -- Cook, K H -- Coutures, C -- Dominik, M -- Dieters, S -- Fouque, P -- Greenhill, J -- Horne, K -- Steele, I -- Tsapras, Y -- PLANET and RoboNet Collaborations -- Chaboyer, B -- Crocker, A -- Frank, S -- Macintosh, B -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2008 Feb 15;319(5865):927-30. doi: 10.1126/science.1151947.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. gaudi@astronomy.ohio-state.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18276883" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Observations of the gravitational microlensing event MOA 2003-BLG-32/OGLE 2003-BLG-219 are presented, for which the peak magnification was over 500, the highest yet reported. Continuous observations around the peak enabled a sensitive search for planets orbiting the lens star. No planets were detected. Planets 1.3 times heavier than Earth were excluded from more than 50% of the projected annular region from approximately 2.3 to 3.6 astronomical units surrounding the lens star, Uranus-mass planets were excluded from 0.9 to 8.7 astronomical units, and planets 1.3 times heavier than Saturn were excluded from 0.2 to 60 astronomical units. These are the largest regions of sensitivity yet achieved in searches for extrasolar planets orbiting any star.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Abe, F -- Bennett, D P -- Bond, I A -- Eguchi, S -- Furuta, Y -- Hearnshaw, J B -- Kamiya, K -- Kilmartin, P M -- Kurata, Y -- Masuda, K -- Matsubara, Y -- Muraki, Y -- Noda, S -- Okajima, K -- Rakich, A -- Rattenbury, N J -- Sako, T -- Sekiguchi, T -- Sullivan, D J -- Sumi, T -- Tristram, P J -- Yanagisawa, T -- Yock, P C M -- Gal-Yam, A -- Lipkin, Y -- Maoz, D -- Ofek, E O -- Udalski, A -- Szewczyk, O -- Zebrun, K -- Soszynski, I -- Szymanski, M K -- Kubiak, M -- Pietrzynski, G -- Wyrzykowski, L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Aug 27;305(5688):1264-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Solar Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-01, Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15333833" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Using gravitational microlensing, we detected a cold terrestrial planet orbiting one member of a binary star system. The planet has low mass (twice Earth's) and lies projected at ~0.8 astronomical units (AU) from its host star, about the distance between Earth and the Sun. However, the planet's temperature is much lower, 〈60 Kelvin, because the host star is only 0.10 to 0.15 solar masses and therefore more than 400 times less luminous than the Sun. The host itself orbits a slightly more massive companion with projected separation of 10 to 15 AU. This detection is consistent with such systems being very common. Straightforward modification of current microlensing search strategies could increase sensitivity to planets in binary systems. With more detections, such binary-star planetary systems could constrain models of planet formation and evolution.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gould, A -- Udalski, A -- Shin, I-G -- Porritt, I -- Skowron, J -- Han, C -- Yee, J C -- Kozlowski, S -- Choi, J-Y -- Poleski, R -- Wyrzykowski, L -- Ulaczyk, K -- Pietrukowicz, P -- Mroz, P -- Szymanski, M K -- Kubiak, M -- Soszynski, I -- Pietrzynski, G -- Gaudi, B S -- Christie, G W -- Drummond, J -- McCormick, J -- Natusch, T -- Ngan, H -- Tan, T-G -- Albrow, M -- DePoy, D L -- Hwang, K-H -- Jung, Y K -- Lee, C-U -- Park, H -- Pogge, R W -- Abe, F -- Bennett, D P -- Bond, I A -- Botzler, C S -- Freeman, M -- Fukui, A -- Fukunaga, D -- Itow, Y -- Koshimoto, N -- Larsen, P -- Ling, C H -- Masuda, K -- Matsubara, Y -- Muraki, Y -- Namba, S -- Ohnishi, K -- Philpott, L -- Rattenbury, N J -- Saito, To -- Sullivan, D J -- Sumi, T -- Suzuki, D -- Tristram, P J -- Tsurumi, N -- Wada, K -- Yamai, N -- Yock, P C M -- Yonehara, A -- Shvartzvald, Y -- Maoz, D -- Kaspi, S -- Friedmann, M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Jul 4;345(6192):46-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1251527.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. ; Warsaw University Observatory, Aleje Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland. ; Turitea Observatory, Palmerston North, New Zealand. ; Department of Physics, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 371-763, Republic of Korea. cheongho@astroph.chungbuk.ac.kr. ; Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. ; Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Warsaw University Observatory, Aleje Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland. ; Warsaw University Observatory, Aleje Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK. ; Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Universidad de Concepcion, Departamento de Astronomia, Casilla 160-C, Concepcion, Chile. ; Auckland Observatory, Auckland, New Zealand. ; Possum Observatory, Patutahi, New Zealand. ; Farm Cove Observatory, Centre for Backyard Astrophysics, Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand. ; Possum Observatory, Patutahi, New Zealand. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. ; Perth Exoplanet Survey Telescope, Perth, Australia. ; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. ; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA. ; Department of Physics, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 371-763, Republic of Korea. ; Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejeon 305-348, Republic of Korea. ; Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan. ; University of Notre Dame, Department of Physics, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5670, USA. ; Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Private Bag 102-904, North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland, New Zealand. ; Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland 1001, New Zealand. ; Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Asakuchi, Okayama 719-0232, Japan. ; Department of Earth and Space Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-0043, Japan. ; Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland 1001, New Zealand. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK. ; Nagano National College of Technology, Nagano 381-8550, Japan. ; Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. ; Tokyo Metropolitan College of Aeronautics, Tokyo 116-8523, Japan. ; School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. ; Mount John University Observatory, Post Office Box 56, Lake Tekapo 8770, New Zealand. ; Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto 603-8555, Japan. ; School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24994642" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Received 7 June 2013; accepted 21 June 2013Abstract Electron crystallography is an important method for determining the structure of membrane proteins. In this paper, we show the impact of a carbon sandwich preparation on the preservation of crystalline sample quality, using characteristic examples of two-dimensional (2D) crystals from gastric H + ,K + -ATPase and their analyzed images. Compared with the ordinary single carbon support film preparation, the carbon sandwich preparation dramatically enhanced the resolution of images from flat sheet 2D crystals. As water evaporation is restricted in the carbon-sandwiched specimen, the improvement could be due to the strong protective effect of the retained water against drastic changes in the environment surrounding the specimen, such as dehydration and increased salt concentrations. This protective effect by the carbon sandwich technique helped to maintain the inherent and therefore best crystal conditions for analysis. Together with its strong compensation effect for the image shift due to beam-induced specimen charging, the carbon sandwich technique is a powerful method for preserving crystals of membrane proteins with larger hydrophilic regions, such as H + ,K + -ATPase, and thus constitutes an efficient and high-quality method for collecting data for the structural analysis of these types of membrane proteins by electron crystallography.