216 research outputs found
DALiuGE: A Graph Execution Framework for Harnessing the Astronomical Data Deluge
The Data Activated Liu Graph Engine - DALiuGE - is an execution framework for
processing large astronomical datasets at a scale required by the Square
Kilometre Array Phase 1 (SKA1). It includes an interface for expressing complex
data reduction pipelines consisting of both data sets and algorithmic
components and an implementation run-time to execute such pipelines on
distributed resources. By mapping the logical view of a pipeline to its
physical realisation, DALiuGE separates the concerns of multiple stakeholders,
allowing them to collectively optimise large-scale data processing solutions in
a coherent manner. The execution in DALiuGE is data-activated, where each
individual data item autonomously triggers the processing on itself. Such
decentralisation also makes the execution framework very scalable and flexible,
supporting pipeline sizes ranging from less than ten tasks running on a laptop
to tens of millions of concurrent tasks on the second fastest supercomputer in
the world. DALiuGE has been used in production for reducing interferometry data
sets from the Karl E. Jansky Very Large Array and the Mingantu Ultrawide
Spectral Radioheliograph; and is being developed as the execution framework
prototype for the Science Data Processor (SDP) consortium of the Square
Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. This paper presents a technical overview of
DALiuGE and discusses case studies from the CHILES and MUSER projects that use
DALiuGE to execute production pipelines. In a companion paper, we provide
in-depth analysis of DALiuGE's scalability to very large numbers of tasks on
two supercomputing facilities.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, currently under review by Astronomy and
Computin
Higher order antibunching in intermediate states
Since the introduction of binomial state as an intermediate state, different
intermediate states have been proposed. Different nonclassical effects have
also been reported in these intermediate states. But till now higher order
antibunching or higher order subpoissonian photon statistics is predicted only
in one type of intermediate state, namely shadowed negative binomial state.
Recently we have shown the existence of higher order antibunching in some
simple nonlinear optical processes to establish that higher order antibunching
is not a rare phenomenon (J. Phys. B 39 (2006) 1137). To establish our earlier
claim further, here we have shown that the higher order antibunching can be
seen in different intermediate states, such as binomial state, reciprocal
binomial state, hypergeometric state, generalized binomial state, negative
binomial state and photon added coherent state. We have studied the possibility
of observing the higher order subpoissonian photon statistics in different
limits of intermediate states. The effect of different control parameters have
also been studied in this connection and it has been shown that the depth of
nonclassicality can be tuned by controlling various physical parameters.Comment: 12 Pages LaTeX 2e, 11 figure
Source-Frequency Phase-Referencing Observation of AGNs with KaVA Using Simultaneous Dual-Frequency Receiving
The KVN(Korean VLBI Network)-style simultaneous multi-frequency receiving
mode is demonstrated to be promising for mm-VLBI observations. Recently, other
Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) facilities all over the globe start to
implement compatible optics systems. Simultaneous dual/multi-frequency VLBI
observations at mm wavelengths with international baselines are thus possible.
In this paper, we present the results from the first successful simultaneous
22/43 GHz dual-frequency observation with KaVA(KVN and VERA array), including
images and astrometric results. Our analysis shows that the newly implemented
simultaneous receiving system has brought a significant extension of the
coherence time of the 43 GHz visibility phases along the international
baselines. The astrometric results obtained with KaVA are consistent with those
obtained with the independent analysis of the KVN data. Our results thus
confirm the good performance of the simultaneous receiving systems for the
non-KVN stations. Future simultaneous observations with more global stations
bring even higher sensitivity and micro-arcsecond level astrometric
measurements of the targets.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Published in JKA
Direct and Indirect Induction of a Compensatory Phenotype that Alleviates the Costs of an Inducible Defense
Organisms often exhibit phenotypic plasticity in multiple traits in response to impending environmental change. Multiple traits phenotypic plasticity is complex syndrome brought on by causal relations in ecological and physiological context. Larvae of the salamander Hynobius retardatus exhibit inducible phenotypic plasticity of two traits, when at risk of predation by dragonfly larvae. One induced phenotype is an adaptive defense behaviour, i.e., stasis at the bottom of water column, directly triggered by the predation risk. Another one is a compensatory phenotype, i.e., enlarged external gills, for an unavoidable cost (hypoxia) associated with the induced defense. We identified two ways by which this compensatory phenotype could be induced. The compensatory phenotype is induced in response to not only the associated hypoxic conditions resulting from the induced defense but also the most primary but indirect cause, presence of the predator
Long-term timing and emission behavior of the young Crab-like pulsar PSR B0540-69
We present timing solutions and spin properties of the young pulsar PSR B0540-69 from analysis of 15.8 years of data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. We perform a partially phase-coherent timing analysis in order to mitigate the pronounced effects of timing noise in this pulsar. We also perform fully coherent timing over large subsets of the data set in order to arrive at a more precise solution. In addition to the previously reported first glitch undergone by this pulsar, we find a second glitch, which occurred at MJD 52927 +/- 4, with fractional changes in spin frequency Delta nu/nu = (1.64 +/- 0.05) x 10(-9) and spin-down rate Delta(nu) over dot/(nu) over dot = (0.930 +/- 0.011) x 10(-4) (taken from our fully coherent analysis). We measure a braking index that is consistent over the entire data span, with a mean value n = 2.129 +/- 0.012, from our partially coherent timing analysis. We also investigated the emission behavior of this pulsar, and have found no evidence for significant flux changes, flares, burst-type activity, or pulse profile shape variations. While there is strong evidence for the much-touted similarity of PSR B0540-69 to the Crab pulsar, they nevertheless differ in several aspects, including glitch activity, where PSR B0540-69 can be said to resemble certain other very young pulsars. It seems clear that the specific processes governing the formation, evolution, and interiors of this population of recently born neutron stars can vary significantly, as reflected in their observed properties
Posture Does Not Matter! Paw Usage and Grasping Paw Preference in a Small-Bodied Rooting Quadrupedal Mammal
BACKGROUND: Recent results in birds, marsupials, rodents and nonhuman primates suggest that phylogeny and ecological factors such as body size, diet and postural habit of a species influence limb usage and the direction and strength of limb laterality. To examine to which extent these findings can be generalised to small-bodied rooting quadrupedal mammals, we studied trees shrews (Tupaia belangeri). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We established a behavioural test battery for examining paw usage comparable to small-bodied primates and tested 36 Tupaia belangeri. We studied paw usage in a natural foraging situation (simple food grasping task) and measured the influence of varying postural demands (triped, biped, cling, sit) on paw preferences by applying a forced-food grasping task similar to other small-bodied primates. Our findings suggest that rooting tree shrews prefer mouth over paw usage to catch food in a natural foraging situation. Moreover, we demonstrated that despite differences in postural demand, tree shrews show a strong and consistent individual paw preference for grasping across different tasks, but no paw preference at a population level. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Tree shrews showed less paw usage than small-bodied quadrupedal and arboreal primates, but the same paw preference. Our results confirm that individual paw preferences remain constant irrespective of postural demand in some small-bodied quadrupedal non primate and primate mammals which do not require fine motoric control for manipulating food items. Our findings suggest that the lack of paw/hand preference for grasping food at a population level is a universal pattern among those species and that the influence of postural demand on manual lateralisation in quadrupeds may have evolved in large-bodied species specialised in fine manipulations of food items
The nucleoporin ALADIN regulates Aurora A localization to ensure robust mitotic spindle formation
The formation of the mitotic spindle is a complex process that requires massive cellular reorganization. Regulation by mitotic kinases controls this entire process. One of these mitotic controllers is Aurora A kinase, which is itself highly regulated. In this study, we show that the nuclear pore protein ALADIN is a novel spatial regulator of Aurora A. Without ALADIN, Aurora A spreads from centrosomes onto spindle microtubules, which affects the distribution of a subset of microtubule regulators and slows spindle assembly and chromosome alignment. ALADIN interacts with inactive Aurora A and is recruited to the spindle pole after Aurora A inhibition. Of interest, mutations in ALADIN cause triple A syndrome. We find that some of the mitotic phenotypes that we observe after ALADIN depletion also occur in cells from triple A syndrome patients, which raises the possibility that mitotic errors may underlie part of the etiology of this syndrome
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