Time-resolved linewidth measurements of a wavelength switched SG-DBR laser for optical packet switched networks

We report time-resolved linewidth measurements of different sizes of optical packets under wavelength-switching for the first time and show that laser linewidth is significantly broadened during switching transition requiring ~3 mus to attain its minimum value

Effects of Pre-Journey Fasting on the Physiological Responses of Young Cattle to 8-hour Road Transport.

End of Project ReportThe present study evaluated the effects of fasting animals for 8 hours prior to an 8-hour road journey and their ability to cope with the stress of transport.There was no significant difference in rectal body temperature, pre and post transport and there were no significant differences in liveweight among treatments on days 0 (pre-transport), 1, 4 and 10 (post-transport). Bulls (230kg) undergoing an 8-h transportation at stocking densities of 0.82 m2 /animal showed physiological and haematological responses that were within normal referenced ranges. Animals that were fasted for 8-hours and then transported lost 9.4% bodyweight following the 8-hour journey, while non-fasted and transported animals (NF+T) lost 7.2%. The control animals remaining at grass and non-fasted (NF+G) gained 2%. The animals that were fasted continuously and not transported (F+F) and the non-fasted control animals that were fasted for 8 hours (NF+F) lost 6.1% and 6.2% respectively. There was no significant change in globulin, glucose, urea, haemoglobin, beta-hydroxy butyrate, fibrinogen concentrations, haematocrit and monocyte percentages, monocyte and red blood cell numbers, platelet numbers among treatments prior to or after transport. The % lymphocytes were reduced in the fasted and non-fasted transported animals and post-transport and there was no significant change in lymphocyte numbers. The % of neutrophils and the number of neutrophils were significantly increased in the fasted and non-fasted transported animals. Baseline protein concentrations were significantly lower in the non-fasted and transported and nonfasted then fasted treatments initially. Following transport, protein concentrations were significantly higher in the fasted and transported treatment compared with the non-fasted animals at grass. White blood cell (WBC) numbers were not significantly different prior to transport. Following transport, the WBC numbers were significantly higher in the fasted and transported treatment compared with the non-fasted at grass, fasted and then fasted, and the non-fasted and fasted treatments. Albumin concentrations were significantly higher following transport in the F+T treatment compared with the NF+G, F+F, and NF+F treatments and the NF+T treatment had significantly lower albumin levels than the F+T and NF+F treatments. Haptoglobin concentrations were not significantly different prior to transport. Following transport, haptoglobin concentrations were significantly higher in the F+T compared with the NF+G treatment. Lactate concentrations were significantly higher in the F+T and NF+T compared with the NF+G, F+F, and NF+F treatments following transport. In conclusion, from the physiological and haematological measurements, an 8 hour journey time, even without access to feed for 8 hours prior to transport did not impact negatively on animal welfare

The potential of antitranspirants in drought management of arable crops: a review

About 80 % of global farmland is under rain-fed conditions and most of it is prone to drought, which limits crop productivity. Due to climate change, drought will become more frequent and severe, threatening world food security. Antitranspirants, materials that reduce transpiration, could potentially result in greater food production by realising more of a crop’s potential yield during drought. Despite antitranspirants reducing photosynthesis, research has shown that they can mitigate drought stress and increase grain yield. Although this paper is not restricted to specific years, part of it is a systematic review of 173 original research articles published between 2009 and 2018. Overall, the analysis suggests that interest in the potential of antitranspirants is growing. One major achievement in antitranspirant research during the past decade was establishing the optimal timing of application of the substances, which is linked to reproductive processes most vulnerable to drought. Despite research evidence of the efficacy of antitranspirants in ameliorating drought stress, they are not widely used for commercial arable crop production. However, in fruit horticulture, products with antitranspirant effects are already being used commercially for various non-antitranspirant purposes. More recent research shows that with knowledge of a crop's growth stage and soil moisture, antitranspirants can be a valuable option for managing drought impacts on yield in arable crops

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

European Red List of Marine Fishes

The European Red List is a review of the conservation status of European species according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level, so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. This Red List publication summarises results for all described native European marine fishes.Postprin

Age at first birth in women is genetically associated with increased risk of schizophrenia

Prof. Paunio on PGC:n jäsenPrevious studies have shown an increased risk for mental health problems in children born to both younger and older parents compared to children of average-aged parents. We previously used a novel design to reveal a latent mechanism of genetic association between schizophrenia and age at first birth in women (AFB). Here, we use independent data from the UK Biobank (N = 38,892) to replicate the finding of an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women, and to estimate the genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in women stratified into younger and older groups. We find evidence for an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women (P-value = 1.12E-05), and we show genetic heterogeneity between younger and older AFB groups (P-value = 3.45E-03). The genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in the younger AFB group is -0.16 (SE = 0.04) while that between schizophrenia and AFB in the older AFB group is 0.14 (SE = 0.08). Our results suggest that early, and perhaps also late, age at first birth in women is associated with increased genetic risk for schizophrenia in the UK Biobank sample. These findings contribute new insights into factors contributing to the complex bio-social risk architecture underpinning the association between parental age and offspring mental health.Peer reviewe

Search for strong gravity in multijet final states produced in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

A search is conducted for new physics in multijet final states using 3.6 inverse femtobarns of data from proton-proton collisions at √s = 13TeV taken at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. Events are selected containing at least three jets with scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT) greater than 1TeV. No excess is seen at large HT and limits are presented on new physics: models which produce final states containing at least three jets and having cross sections larger than 1.6 fb with HT > 5.8 TeV are excluded. Limits are also given in terms of new physics models of strong gravity that hypothesize additional space-time dimensions

Operation and performance of the ATLAS semiconductor tracker

The semiconductor tracker is a silicon microstrip detector forming part of the inner tracking system of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The operation and performance of the semiconductor tracker during the first years of LHC running are described. More than 99% of the detector modules were operational during this period, with an average intrinsic hit efficiency of (99.74±0.04)%. The evolution of the noise occupancy is discussed, and measurements of the Lorentz angle, δ-ray production and energy loss presented. The alignment of the detector is found to be stable at the few-micron level over long periods of time. Radiation damage measurements, which include the evolution of detector leakage currents, are found to be consistent with predictions and are used in the verification of radiation background simulations