A Congeries of Absorption Cross Sections for Wavelengths Less Than 3000 degrees Angstrom

The absorption of ultraviolet solar radiation is of prime importance for the study of planetary atmospheres.The absorption coefficients of most of the atmospheric gases have been measured by a number of investigators, but the results are scattered throughout the literature. This report contains a detailed collection of absorption cross sections of the gases listed in Table 1 for wavelengths less than 3000 degrees angstroms. The data on each gas are given together with a historical sketch of the study of the gas and a list of the pertinent references. Also included is a study of the absorption and photoionization coefficients of the major atmospheric gases at intense solar emission lines

Strong convergence rates of probabilistic integrators for ordinary differential equations

Probabilistic integration of a continuous dynamical system is a way of systematically introducing model error, at scales no larger than errors introduced by standard numerical discretisation, in order to enable thorough exploration of possible responses of the system to inputs. It is thus a potentially useful approach in a number of applications such as forward uncertainty quantification, inverse problems, and data assimilation. We extend the convergence analysis of probabilistic integrators for deterministic ordinary differential equations, as proposed by Conrad et al.\ (\textit{Stat.\ Comput.}, 2017), to establish mean-square convergence in the uniform norm on discrete- or continuous-time solutions under relaxed regularity assumptions on the driving vector fields and their induced flows. Specifically, we show that randomised high-order integrators for globally Lipschitz flows and randomised Euler integrators for dissipative vector fields with polynomially-bounded local Lipschitz constants all have the same mean-square convergence rate as their deterministic counterparts, provided that the variance of the integration noise is not of higher order than the corresponding deterministic integrator. These and similar results are proven for probabilistic integrators where the random perturbations may be state-dependent, non-Gaussian, or non-centred random variables.Comment: 25 page

Field boundary habitats and their contribution to the area of semi-natural habitats on lowland farms in east Galway, western Ireland

peer-reviewedSustainable agriculture and the provision of environmental public goods are key deliverables for European farming and food production. Farmland biodiversity, cultural landscapes, soil functionality and climate stability are among the environmental public goods provided through agriculture. Future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) direct payments are intended to be more targeted at the provision of these agricultural deliverables. Field boundaries are an example of such deliverables. They are widespread features that have both environmental and aesthetic functions in farmed landscapes. However, research on their variety, density and contribution to semi-natural habitat cover on farms in Ireland is lacking. This study investigates the diversity and density of all field boundary habitat types on 32 lowland farms in east County Galway, western Ireland. A total of 286km of field boundaries were surveyed across six study sites. Five types of field boundary habitats were recorded. The density of field boundaries on the farms studied was high and could have positive implications for delivery of environmental public goods and sustainable farming metrics. In more intensively farmed areas, field boundaries were the only remaining semi-natural habitat on some farms highlighting the need to retain, and improve the ecological quality, of these features. The condition of one field boundary type (hedgerows) was also investigated in further detail. While the density of field boundaries was high on many of the surveyed farms, we found that the hedgerows on these farms were not necessarily in good condition for wildlife

Clonal analysis of meningococci during a 26 year period prior to the introduction of meningococcal serogroup C vaccines

Meningococcal disease remains a public health burden in the UK and elsewhere. Invasive Neisseria meningitidis, isolated in Scotland between 1972 and 1998, were characterised retrospectively to examine the serogroup and clonal structure of the circulating population. 2607 isolates causing invasive disease were available for serogroup and MLST analysis whilst 2517 were available for multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis only. Serogroup distribution changed from year to year but serogroups B and C were dominant throughout. Serogroup B was dominant throughout the 1970s and early 1980s until serogroup C became dominant during the mid-1980s. The increase in serogroup C was not associated with one particular sequence type (ST) but was associated with a number of STs, including ST-8, ST-11, ST-206 and ST-334. This is in contrast to the increase in serogroup C disease seen in the 1990s that was due to expansion of the ST-11 clonal complex. While there was considerable diversity among the isolates (309 different STs among the 2607 isolates), a large proportion of isolates (59.9%) were associated with only 10 STs. These data highlight meningococcal diversity over time and the need for ongoing surveillance during the introduction of new meningococcal vaccines

Deceleration of the solar wind in the Earth foreshock region: ISEE 2 and IMP 8 observations

The deceleration of the solar wind in the region of the interplanetary space filled by ions backstreaming from the Earth bow shock was studied using a two spacecraft technique. This deceleration, which is correlated with the "diffuse" but not with the "reflected" ion population, depends on the solar wind bulk velocity: at low velocities (below 300 km/sec) the velocity decrease is about 5 km/sec, while at higher velocities (above 400 km/sec) the decrease may be as large as 30 km/sec. Along with this deceleration, the solar wind undergoes a deflection of about 1 deg away from the direction of the Earth bow shock. The energy balance shows that the kinetic energy loss far exceeds the thermal energy which is possibly gained by the solar wind, therefore, at least part of this energy must go into waves and/or into the backstreaming ions

Eicosapentaenoic acid and oxypurinol in the treatment of muscle wasting in a mouse model of cancer cachexia

Cancer cachexia is a wasting condition, driven by systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. This study investigated eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in combination with oxypurinol as a treatment in a mouse model of cancer cachexia. Mice with cancer cachexia were randomized into 4 treatment groups (EPA (0.4 g/kg/day), oxypurinol (1 mmol/L ad-lib), combination, or control), and euthanized after 29 days. Analysis of oxidative damage to DNA, mRNA analysis of pro-oxidant, antioxidant and proteolytic pathway components, along with enzyme activity of pro- and antioxidants were completed on gastrocnemius muscle. The control group displayed earlier onset of tumor compared to EPA and oxypurinol groups (P&lt;0.001). The EPA group maintained body weight for an extended duration (20 days) compared to the oxypurinol (5 days) and combination (8 days) groups (P&lt;0.05). EPA (18.2&plusmn;3.2 pg/ml) and combination (18.4&plusmn;3.7 pg/ml) groups had significantly higher 8-OH-dG levels than the control group (12.9&plusmn;1.4 pg/ml, P&le;0.05) indicating increased oxidative damage to DNA. mRNA levels of GPx1, MURF1 and MAFbx were higher following EPA treatment compared to control (P&le;0.05). Whereas oxypurinol was associated with higher GPx1, MnSOD, CAT, XDH, MURF1, MAFbx and UbB mRNA compared to control (P&le;0.05). Activity of total SOD was higher in the oxypurinol group (32.2&plusmn;1.5 U/ml) compared to control (27.0&plusmn;1.3 U/ml, P&lt;0.01), GPx activity was lower in the EPA group (8.76&plusmn;2.0 U/ml) compared to control (14.0&plusmn;1.9 U/ml, P&lt;0.05), and catalase activity was lower in the combination group (14.4&plusmn;2.8 U/ml) compared to control (20.9&plusmn;2.0 U/ml, P&lt;0.01). There was no change in XO activity. The increased rate of weight decline in mice treated with oxypurinol indicates that XO may play a protective role during the progression of cancer cachexia, and its inhibition is detrimental to outcomes. In combination with EPA, there was little significant improvement from control, indicating oxypurinol is unlikely to be a viable treatment compound in cancer cachexia.<br /

The Phoenix Deep Survey: spectroscopic catalog

The Phoenix Deep Survey is a multi-wavelength survey based on deep 1.4 GHz radio imaging, reaching well into the sub-100 microJy level. One of the aims of this survey is to characterize the sub-mJy radio population, exploring its nature and evolution. In this paper we present the catalog and results of the spectroscopic observations aimed at characterizing the optically ``bright'' (R<~ 21.5 mag) counterparts of faint radio sources. Out of 371 sources with redshift determination, 21% have absorption lines only, 11% show AGN signatures, 32% are star-forming galaxies, 34% show narrow emission lines that do not allow detailed spectral classification (due to poor signal-to-noise ratio and/or lack of diagnostic emission lines) and the remaining 2% are identified with stars. For the star-forming galaxies with a Balmer decrement measurement we find a median extinction of A(Ha)=1.9 mag, higher than that of optically selected samples. This is a result of the radio selection, which is not biased against dusty systems. Using the available spectroscopic information, we estimate the radio luminosity function of star-forming galaxies in two independent redshift bins at z~0.1 and 0.3 respectively. We find direct evidence for strong luminosity evolution of these systems consistent with L(1.4 GHz) ~ (1+z)^(2.7).Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures. References added, and minor changes to reflect published versio

Effects of Self-field and Low Magnetic Fields on the Normal-Superconducting Phase Transition

Researchers have studied the normal-superconducting phase transition in the high-$T_c$ cuprates in a magnetic field (the vortex-glass or Bose-glass transition) and in zero field. Often, transport measurements in "zero field" are taken in the Earth's ambient field or in the remnant field of a magnet. We show that fields as small as the Earth's field will alter the shape of the current vs. voltage curves and will result in inaccurate values for the critical temperature $T_c$ and the critical exponents $\nu$ and $z$, and can even destroy the phase transition. This indicates that without proper screening of the magnetic field it is impossible to determine the true zero-field critical parameters, making correct scaling and other data analysis impossible. We also show, theoretically and experimentally, that the self-field generated by the current flowing in the sample has no effect on the current vs. voltage isotherms.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure