The 0.5M(J) transiting exoplanet WASP-13b

We report the discovery of WASP-13b, a low-mass M-p = 0.46(-0.05)(+0.06) M-J transiting exoplanet with an orbital period of 4.35298 +/- 0.00004 days. The transit has a depth of 9 mmag, and although our follow-up photometry does not allow us to constrain the impact parameter well (0 <b <0.46), with radius in the range R-p similar to 1.06-1.21 R-J the location of WASP-13b in the mass-radius plane is nevertheless consistent with H/He-dominated, irradiated, low core mass and core-free theoretical models. The G1V host star is similar to the Sun in mass (M-* = 1.03(-0.09)(+0.11) M-circle dot) and metallicity ([M/H] = 0.0 +/- 0.2), but is possibly older (8.5(-4.9)(+5.5) Gyr).

WASP-14b: 7.3 M-J transiting planet in an eccentric orbit

We report the discovery of a 7.3 M-J exoplanet WASP-14b, one of the most massive transiting exoplanets observed to date. The planet orbits the 10th-magnitude F5V star USNO-B1 11118-0262485 with a period of 2.243 752 d and orbital eccentricity e = 0.09. A simultaneous fit of the transit light curve and radial velocity measurements yields a planetary mass of 7.3 +/- 0.5 M-J and a radius of 1.28 +/- 0.08 R-J. This leads to a mean density of about 4.6 g cm(-3) making it the densest transiting exoplanets yet found at an orbital period less than 3 d. We estimate this system to be at a distance of 160 +/- 20 pc. Spectral analysis of the host star reveals a temperature of 6475 +/- 100 K, log g = 4.07 cm s(-2) and v sin i = 4.9 +/- 1.0 km s(-1), and also a high lithium abundance, log N(Li) = 2.84 +/- 0.05. The stellar density, effective temperature and rotation rate suggest an age for the system of about 0.5-1.0 Gyr.

WASP-10b: a 3M(J), gas-giant planet transiting a late-type K star

We report the discovery of WASP-10b, a new transiting extrasolar planet (ESP) discovered by the Wide Angle Search for Planets ( WASP) Consortium and confirmed using Nordic Optical Telescope FIbre-fed Echelle Spectrograph and SOPHIE radial velocity data. A 3.09-d period, 29 mmag transit depth and 2.36 h duration are derived for WASP-10b using WASP and high-precision photometric observations. Simultaneous fitting to the photometric and radial velocity data using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure leads to a planet radius of 1.28R(J), a mass of 2.96M(J) and eccentricity of approximate to 0.06. WASP-10b is one of the more massive transiting ESPs, and we compare its characteristics to the current sample of transiting ESP, where there is currently little information for masses greater than approximate to 2M(J) and non-zero eccentricities. WASP-10's host star, GSC 2752-00114 (USNO-B1.0 1214-0586164) is among the fainter stars in the WASP sample, with V = 12.7 and a spectral type of K5. This result shows promise for future late-type dwarf star surveys.

A fast method for fuzzy neural modeling and refinement

In the identification of complex dynamic systems using fuzzy neural networks, one of the main issues is the curse of dimensionality, which makes it difficult to retain a large number of system inputs or to consider a large number of fuzzy sets. Moreover, due to the correlations, not all possible network inputs or regression vectors in the network are necessary and adding them simply increases the model complexity and deteriorates the network generalisation performance. In this paper, the problem is solved by first proposing a fast algorithm for selection of network terms, and then introducing a refinement procedure to tackle the correlation issue. Simulation results show the efficacy of the method.

Neuropeptides Regulate Expression of Angiogenic Growth Factors in Human Dental Pulp Fibroblasts

Abstract
INTRODUCTION:
Neuropeptides play an important role in inflammation and repair and have been implicated in mediating angiogenesis. Pulp fibroblasts express neuropeptide receptors, and the aim of this research was to investigate whether neuropeptides could regulate angiogenic growth factor expression in vitro
METHODS:
An angiogenic array was used to determine the levels of 10 angiogenic growth factors expressed by human pulp fibroblasts.
RESULTS:
Pulp fibroblasts were shown to express angiogenin, angiopoietin-2, epidermal growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, heparin-binding epidermal growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor, leptin, platelet-derived growth factor, placental growth factor, and vascular endothelial growth factor. Furthermore, the neuropeptides substance P, calcitonin gene-related peptide, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, and neuropeptide Y altered angiogenic growth factor expression in vitro.
CONCLUSIONS:
The regulation of angiogenic growth factor expression by neuropeptides suggests a novel role for neuropeptides in pulpal inflammation and repair.

An orbital period of 0.94days for the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-18b

The `hot Jupiters' that abound in lists of known extrasolar planets are thought to have formed far from their host stars, but migrate inwards through interactions with the proto-planetary disk from which they were born, or by an alternative mechanism such as planet-planet scattering. The hot Jupiters closest to their parent stars, at orbital distances of only ~0.02 astronomical units, have strong tidal interactions, and systems such as OGLE-TR-56 have been suggested as tests of tidal dissipation theory. Here we report the discovery of planet WASP-18b with an orbital period of 0.94days and a mass of ten Jupiter masses (10MJup), resulting in a tidal interaction an order of magnitude stronger than that of planet OGLE-TR-56b. Under the assumption that the tidal-dissipation parameter Q of the host star is of the order of 106, as measured for Solar System bodies and binary stars and as often applied to extrasolar planets, WASP-18b will be spiralling inwards on a timescale less than a thousandth that of the lifetime of its host star. Therefore either WASP-18 is in a rare, exceptionally short-lived state, or the tidal dissipation in this system (and possibly other hot-Jupiter systems) must be much weaker than in the Solar System.

The Low Density Transiting Exoplanet WASP-15b

We report the discovery of a low-density exoplanet transiting an 11th magnitude star in the Southern hemisphere. WASP-15b, which orbits its host star with a period P = 3.7520656 ± 0.0000028 d, has a mass M p = 0.542 ± 0.050 M J and radius R p = 1.428 ± 0.077 R J, and is therefore one of the least dense transiting exoplanets so far discovered (?p = 0.247 ± 0.035 g cm-3). An analysis of the spectrum of the host star shows it to be of spectral type around F5, with an effective temperature T eff = 6300 ± 100 K and [Fe/H] = -0.17 ± 0.11.

Wasp-7: A Bright Transiting-Exoplanet System in the Southern Hemisphere

We report that a Jupiter-mass planet, WASP-7b, transits the V = 9.5 star HD 197286 every 4.95 d. This is the brightest discovery from the WASP-South transit survey so far and is currently the brightest transiting-exoplanet system in the southern hemisphere. WASP-7b is among the densest of the known Jupiter-mass planets, suggesting that it has a massive core. The planet mass is 0.96+0.12 -0.18 M Jup, the radius is 0.915+0.046 -0.040 R Jup, and the density is 1.26+0.25 -0.21 ?Jup (1.67+0.33 -0.28 g cm-3).

The circle in the relationship between space and body. Photo-essay based on Isidro Blasco and the BAPNE method

This article demonstrates a visual study on the educational space in which the teaching of body percussion is carried out in universities. The methodological framework is chosen by the Visual Arts Based Educational Research, using the work of an artist as a conceptual and methodological model. The research remains notable (1) due to the theoretical reference to the BAPNE method, (2) due to the visual reference to the work of Isidro Blasco – especially with the piece “Shanghai Planet 2009” - ;(3) due to the parallelisms established between the object of study in this investigation -the spatial analysis- and the focuses of interest revealed by the art critics in relation to the work of this artist. By means of a visual speech formed with 7 photo-collages the relationship between body and educational space is visualized in the basic disposition of circular learning. The visual constructions by way of photo-collage and their aesthetic charge brings us closer to the intimacy of the educational space, in the style in which it is distributed to the students in the music classroom, the materialization of interpersonal relationships, the occupied and empty volumes.

Patrimonio e Identidad en la Investigación Educativa Basada en las Artes desde un Enfoque Multimodal

Este artículo describe dos experiencias de investigación de nuestro grupo interconectadas, la primera desarrollada durante el año 2007 a través del proyecto internacional CALVINO del Programa Cultura 2000 de la Unión Europea, y la segunda implementada durante el año 2014 en el marco del Proyecto Investigación e Innovación en Secundaria en Andalucía (PIIISA). Ambos proyectos tienen en común el eje temático de la identidad a partir de una idea de patrimonio y el hecho de haber puesto en práctica metodologías de investigación basadas en las artes visuales con un enfoque multimodal. Desde estos dos puntos de anclaje relativos a la temática (qué) y a la metodología (cómo) analizamos lo acontecido para obtener conclusiones relevantes que, por una parte, pongan en valor estas prácticas significativas y, por otra, aporten nuestra experiencia para futuras propuestas de investigación en el ámbito temático y/o metodológico.

A hierarchical multiclass support vector machine incorporated with holistic triple learning units

This paper proposes a new hierarchical learning structure, namely the holistic triple learning (HTL), for extending the binary support vector machine (SVM) to multi-classification problems. For an N-class problem, a HTL constructs a decision tree up to a depth of A leaf node of the decision tree is allowed to be placed with a holistic triple learning unit whose generalisation abilities are assessed and approved. Meanwhile, the remaining nodes in the decision tree each accommodate a standard binary SVM classifier. The holistic triple classifier is a regression model trained on three classes, whose training algorithm is originated from a recently proposed implementation technique, namely the least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). A major novelty with the holistic triple classifier is the reduced number of support vectors in the solution. For the resultant HTL-SVM, an upper bound of the generalisation error can be obtained. The time complexity of training the HTL-SVM is analysed, and is shown to be comparable to that of training the one-versus-one (1-vs.-1) SVM, particularly on small-scale datasets. Empirical studies show that the proposed HTL-SVM achieves competitive classification accuracy with a reduced number of support vectors compared to the popular 1-vs-1 alternative.

PAR-2 Regulates Dental Pulp Inflammation Associated with Caries

Protease-activated receptors (PARs) are G-protein-coupled receptors that are activated enzymatically by proteolysis of an N-terminal domain. The cleavage and activation of PARs by serine proteases represent a novel mechanism by which such enzymes could influence the host inflammatory response. The aim of this study was to determine whether PAR-2 expression and activation were increased in dental caries. Using immunohistochemistry, we showed PAR-2 to be localized to pulp cells subjacent to caries lesions, but minimally expressed by healthy pulp tissue. Trypsin and the PAR-2 agonist (PAR2-AP) activated PAR-2 in an in vitro functional assay. Endogenous molecules present in pulp cell lysates from carious teeth specifically activated PAR-2, but those from healthy teeth failed to do so. The activation of PAR-2 in vitro was shown to increase the expression of the pro-inflammatory mediator cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2), providing a mechanism whereby PAR-2 could modulate pulpal inflammation.