The main objectives of the KM3NeT Collaboration are (i) the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe and (ii) the determination of the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. These objectives are strongly motivated by two recent important discoveries, namely: (1) the highenergy astrophysical neutrino signal reported by IceCube and (2) the sizable contribution of electron neutrinos to the third neutrino mass eigenstate as reported by Daya Bay, Reno and others. To meet these objectives, the KM3NeT Collaboration plans to build a new Research Infrastructure consisting of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. A phased and distributed implementation is pursued which maximises the access to regional funds, the availability of human resources and the synergistic opportunities for the Earth and sea sciences community. Three suitable deep-sea sites are selected, namely off-shore Toulon (France), Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Pylos (Peloponnese, Greece). The infrastructure will consist of three so-called building blocks. A building block comprises 115 strings, each string comprises 18 optical modules and each optical module comprises 31 photo-multiplier tubes. Each building block thus constitutes a threedimensional array of photo sensors that can be used to detect the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic particles emerging from neutrino interactions. Two building blocks will be sparsely configured to fully explore the IceCube signal with similar instrumented volume, different methodology, improved resolution and complementary field of view, including the galactic plane. One building block will be densely configured to precisely measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations.

The LHCb experiment is dedicated to precision measurements of CP violation and rare decays of B hadrons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva). The initial configuration and expected performance of the detector and associated systems, as established by test beam measurements and simulation studies, is described.

The elastic constant tensor of an inorganic compound provides a complete description of the response of the material to external stresses in the elastic limit. It thus provides fundamental insight into the nature of the bonding in the material, and it is known to correlate with many mechanical properties. Despite the importance of the elastic constant tensor, it has been measured for a very small fraction of all known inorganic compounds, a situation that limits the ability of materials scientists to develop new materials with targeted mechanical responses. To address this deficiency, we present here the largest database of calculated elastic properties for inorganic compounds to date. The database currently contains full elastic information for 1,181 inorganic compounds, and this number is growing steadily. The methods used to develop the database are described, as are results of tests that establish the accuracy of the data. In addition, we document the database format and describe the different ways it can be accessed and analyzed in efforts related to materials discovery and design.

No abstract

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is a major contributor to inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and type 2 diabetes1,2. ER stress induces the unfolded protein response (UPR), which involves activation of three transmembrane receptors, ATF6 (activating transcription factor 6), PERK (protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase) and IRE1α (inositol-requiring enzyme 1α)3 (Extended Data figure 1a). Once activated, IRE1α recruits TRAF2 (TNF receptor-associated factor 2) to the ER membrane to initiate inflammatory responses via the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway4. Inflammation is commonly triggered when pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs) or nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs), detect tissue damage or microbial infection. However, it is not clear which PRRs play a major role in inducing inflammation during ER stress. Here we show that NOD1 and NOD2, two members of the NLR family of PRRs, are important mediators of ER stress-induced inflammation. The ER stress inducers thapsigargin and dithiothreitol (DTT) triggered production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 in a NOD1/2-dependent fashion. Inflammation and IL-6 production triggered by infection with Brucella abortus, which induces ER stress by injecting the type IV secretion system (T4SS) effector protein VceC into host cells5, was TRAF2, NOD1/2 and RIP2-dependent and could be blunted by treatment with the ER-stress inhibitor tauroursodeoxycholate (TUDCA) or an IRE1α kinase inhibitor. The association of NOD1 and NOD2 with pro-inflammatory responses induced by the IRE1α/TRAF2 signaling pathway provides a novel link between innate immunity and ER stress-induced inflammation.

Netting the Bad Guys Antimicrobial peptides are an evolutionarily conserved component of innate immunity in the intestine. One family, α-defensins, typically exert their antimicrobial effects through microbicidal activity against bacteria. Humans express only two α-defensins, human defensin 5 (HD5) and HD6. HD5 exhibits bactericidal activity and plays a role in shaping the bacterial composition of the gut. HD6, on the other hand, does not show bactericidal activity and its function in the gut is unclear. Now, Chu et al. (p. 477 , published online 21 June; see the Perspective by Ouellette and Selsted ) show that HD6 protects against bacterial pathogens. Rather than killing them directly, HD6 binds to bacteria surface proteins and, through a process of self-assembly, forms fibrils and nanonets that ensnare invading bacterial pathogens.

The ANTARES Neutrino Telescope was completed in May 2008 and is the first operational Neutrino Telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. The main purpose of the detector is to perform neutrino astronomy and the apparatus also offers facilities for marine and Earth sciences. This paper describes the design, the construction and the installation of the telescope in the deep sea, offshore from Toulon in France. An illustration of the detector performance is given. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The quasi-harmonic Debye approximation has been implemented within the AFLOW and Materials Project frameworks for high-throughput computational materials science (Automatic Gibbs Library, AGL), in order to calculate thermal properties such as the Debye temperature and the thermal conductivity of materials. We demonstrate that the AGL method, which is significantly cheaper computationally compared to the fully ab initio approach, can reliably predict the ordinal ranking of the thermal conductivity for several different classes of semiconductor materials. In particular, a high Pearson (i.e. linear) correlation is obtained between the experimental and AGL computed values of the lattice thermal conductivity for a set of 75 compounds including materials with cubic, hexagonal, rhombohedral and tetragonal symmetry.