Abstract: Context. The QUBIC collaboration is building a bolometric interferometer dedicated to the detection of B-mode polarization fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background.
Aims: We introduce a self-calibration procedure related to those used in radio-interferometry to control a wide range of instrumental systematic errors in polarization-sensitive instruments.
Methods: This procedure takes advantage of the need for measurements on redundant baselines to match each other exactly in the absence of systematic effects. For a given systematic error model, measuring each baseline independently therefore allows writing a system of nonlinear equations whose unknowns are the systematic error model parameters (gains and couplings of Jones matrices, for instance).
Results: We give the mathematical basis of the self-calibration. We implement this method numerically in the context of bolometric interferometry. We show that, for large enough arrays of horns, the nonlinear system can be solved numerically using a standard nonlinear least-squares fitting and that the accuracy achievable on systematic effects is only limited by the time spent on the calibration mode for each baseline apart from the validity of the systematic error model.

Abstract: Background: The Ice krill, Euphausia crystallorophias is one of the species at the base of the Southern Ocean food chain. Given their significant contribution to the biomass of the Southern Ocean, it is vitally important to gain a better understanding of their physiology and, in particular, anticipate their responses to climate change effects in the warming seas around Antarctica. Methodology/Principal Findings: Illumina sequencing was used to produce a transcriptome of the ice krill. Analysis of the assembled contigs via two different methods, produced 36 new pre-pro-peptides, coding for 61 neuropeptides or peptide hormones belonging to the following families: Allatostatins (A, B et C), Bursicon (α and β), Crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormones (CHH and MIH/VIHs), Crustacean Cardioactive Peptide (CCAP), Corazonin, Diuretic Hormones (DH), the Eclosion Hormone (EH), Neuroparsin, Neuropeptide F (NPF), small Neuropeptide F (sNPF), Pigment Dispersing Hormone (PDH), Red Pigment Concentrating Hormone (RPCH) and finally Tachykinin. LC/MS/MS proteomics was also carried out on eyestalk extracts, which are the major site of neuropeptide synthesis in decapod crustaceans. Results confirmed the presence of six neuropeptides and six precursor-related peptides previously identified in the transcriptome analyses.Conclusions: This study represents the first comprehensive analysis of neuropeptide hormones in a Eucarida non-decapod Malacostraca, several of which are described for the first time in a non-decapod crustacean. Additionally, there is a potential expansion of PDH and Neuropeptide F family members, which may reflect certain life history traits such as circadian rhythms associated with diurnal migrations and also the confirmation via mass spectrometry of several novel pre-pro-peptides, of unknown function. Knowledge of these essential hormones provides a vital framework for understanding the physiological response of this key Southern Ocean species to climate change and provides a valuable resource for studies into the molecular phylogeny of these organisms and the evolution of neuropeptide hormones.