The SKA and "High-Resolution" Science

"High-resolution", or "long-baseline", science with the SKA and its precursors covers a broad range of topics in astrophysics. In several research areas, the coupling between improved brightness sensitivity of the SKA and a sub-arcsecond resolution would uncover truly unique avenues and opportunities for studying extreme states of matter, vicinity of compact relativistic objects, and complex processes in astrophysical plasmas. At the same time, long baselines would secure excellent positional and astrometric measurements with the SKA and critically enhance SKA image fidelity at all scales. The latter aspect may also have a substantial impact on the survey speed of the SKA, thus affecting several key science projects of the instrument.Comment: JENAM-2010: Invited talk at JENAM session S7: The Square Kilometre Array: Paving the way for the new 21st century radio astronomy paradigm; 9 page

Fourier transform spectroscopy and cross section measurements of the Herzberg III bands of O2 at 295 K

The absorption bands of the Herzberg III of O2 at 295 K were measured using Fourier transform spectrometer. The rotational line positions were determined, as well as the rotational line strengths and the branching ratios. The band oscillator strengths from the sum of the strengths of the individual rotational lines were shown.published_or_final_versio

The application of a vacuum ultraviolet Fourier transform spectrometer and synchrotron radiation source to measurements of: IV. The β(6,0) and γ(3,0) bands of NO

The β(6,0) and the γ(3,0) bands of NO near 198 nm were analyzed using the VUV FT spectrometer with synchrotron radiation for the background source. Accurate line positions and line strengths of the rotational lines were retrieved from the FT spectra. The rotational term values of the B 2∏ r (v=6) and A 2Σ + (v=3) levels were evaluated and fed to a least squares fitting program to obtain accurate molecular constants of these levels.published_or_final_versio

Application of a VUV fourier transform spectrometer and synchrotron radiation source to measurements of. VI. The ε(0,0) band of NO

The analysis of the ε(0,0) band around 187.6 nm was reported using the VUV FTS with synchrotron radiation for the background source. Due to the capability of the combintion of instruments, These were the first high-resolution quantitative measurements of line positions and intensities of the rotational lines of the ε(0,0) band. The determination of the band oscillator strengths of the band was performed using line-by-line measurements, because the resolution of the present experiment was comparable to the Doppler widths.published_or_final_versio

The application of a VUV Fourier transform spectrometer and synchrotron radiation source to measurements of: II. The δ(1,0) band of NO

Line-by-line photoabsorption cross-sections of the NO δ(1,0) band were measured with the VUV Fourier transform spectrometer from Imperial College, London, using synchrotron radiation at Photon Factory, KEK, Japan, as a continuum light source. The analysis of the NO δ(1,0) band provides accurate rotational line positions and term values as well as the photoabsorption cross-sections. The molecular constants of the C(1)2 II level are found to be T0 = 54 690.155±0.03 cm–1, Bv = 1.944 06±0.000 62 cm–1, Dv = (5.91±0.42)×10–5 cm–1, AD = –0.0187±0.0050 cm–1, p = –0.0189±0.0037 cm–1, and q = –0.015 21±0.000 20 cm–1. The sum of the line strengths for all rotational transitions of the NO δ(1,0) band is determined as 4.80×10–15 cm2 cm–1, corresponding to a band oscillator strength of 0.0054±0.0003.published_or_final_versio

Internal and external cooling methods and their effect on body temperature, thermal perception and dexterity

© 2018 The Authors. Published by PLOS. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191416© 2018 Maley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Objective The present study aimed to compare a range of cooling methods possibly utilised by occupational workers, focusing on their effect on body temperature, perception and manual dexterity. Methods Ten male participants completed eight trials involving 30 min of seated rest followed by 30 min of cooling or control of no cooling (CON) (34C, 58% relative humidity). The cooling methods utilised were: ice cooling vest (CV0), phase change cooling vest melting at 14C (CV14), evaporative cooling vest (CVEV), arm immersion in 10C water (AI), portable water-perfused suit (WPS), heliox inhalation (HE) and ice slushy ingestion (SL). Immediately before and after cooling, participants were assessed for fine (Purdue pegboard task) and gross (grip and pinch strength) manual dexterity. Rectal and skin temperature, as well as thermal sensation and comfort, were monitored throughout. Results Compared with CON, SL was the only method to reduce rectal temperature (P = 0.012). All externally applied cooling methods reduced skin temperature (P0.05). Conclusion The present study observed that ice ingestion or ice applied to the skin produced the greatest effect on rectal and skin temperature, respectively. AI should not be utilised if workers require subsequent fine manual dexterity. These results will help inform future studies investigating appropriate pre-cooling methods for the occupational worker.This project is financially supported by the US Government through the Technical Support Working Group within the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office.Published versio

The application of a VUV Fourier transform spectrometer and synchrotron radiation source to measurements of: I. the β(9,0) band of NO

State-of-the-art models of the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) absorbing properties of the atmosphere call for absorption cross sections with detail on the scale of the Doppler widths. As a consequence, spectroscopic data at resolving powers of the order of 10 6 are needed. To meet these requirements in the vacuum ultraviolet region, we have used the VUV Fourier transform spectrometer from Imperial College, London, at the synchrotron radiation facility at Photon Factory, KEK, Japan, to measure photoabsorption cross sections of NO from 195 to 160 nm, and of O 2 from 185 to 175 nm. The analysis of the β(9,0) band (B 2Π r-X 2Π r) of NO provides accurate rotational line positions and term values. Molecular constants of the B(9) 2Π level are T 0=54205.097±0.012cm -1, A=45.320±0.021cm -1, B υ=1.01672±0.00016cm -1, D υ=(10.61±0.32)×10 -6cm -1, and A D=0.00122±0.00011cm -1. The rotational line strengths and the branching ratios are also presented. The band oscillator strength is obtained as f=2.65×10 -4. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Influences of Excluded Volume of Molecules on Signaling Processes on Biomembrane

We investigate the influences of the excluded volume of molecules on biochemical reaction processes on 2-dimensional surfaces using a model of signal transduction processes on biomembranes. We perform simulations of the 2-dimensional cell-based model, which describes the reactions and diffusion of the receptors, signaling proteins, target proteins, and crowders on the cell membrane. The signaling proteins are activated by receptors, and these activated signaling proteins activate target proteins that bind autonomously from the cytoplasm to the membrane, and unbind from the membrane if activated. If the target proteins bind frequently, the volume fraction of molecules on the membrane becomes so large that the excluded volume of the molecules for the reaction and diffusion dynamics cannot be negligible. We find that such excluded volume effects of the molecules induce non-trivial variations of the signal flow, defined as the activation frequency of target proteins, as follows. With an increase in the binding rate of target proteins, the signal flow varies by i) monotonically increasing; ii) increasing then decreasing in a bell-shaped curve; or iii) increasing, decreasing, then increasing in an S-shaped curve. We further demonstrate that the excluded volume of molecules influences the hierarchical molecular distributions throughout the reaction processes. In particular, when the system exhibits a large signal flow, the signaling proteins tend to surround the receptors to form receptor-signaling protein clusters, and the target proteins tend to become distributed around such clusters. To explain these phenomena, we analyze the stochastic model of the local motions of molecules around the receptor.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figure

The S-Matrix in Twistor Space

The simplicity and hidden symmetries of (Super) Yang-Mills and (Super)Gravity scattering amplitudes suggest the existence of a "weak-weak" dual formulation in which these structures are made manifest at the expense of manifest locality. We suggest that this dual description lives in (2,2) signature and is naturally formulated in twistor space. We recast the BCFW recursion relations in an on-shell form that begs to be transformed into twistor space. Our twistor transformation is inspired by Witten's, but differs in treating twistor and dual twistor variables more equally. In these variables the three and four-point amplitudes are amazingly simple; the BCFW relations are represented by diagrammatic rules that precisely define the "twistor diagrams" of Andrew Hodges. The "Hodges diagrams" for Yang-Mills theory are disks and not trees; they reveal striking connections between amplitudes and suggest a new form for them in momentum space. We also obtain a twistorial formulation of gravity. All tree amplitudes can be combined into an "S-Matrix" functional which is the natural holographic observable in asymptotically flat space; the BCFW formula turns into a quadratic equation for this "S-Matrix", providing a holographic description of N=4 SYM and N=8 Supergravity at tree level. We explore loop amplitudes in (2,2) signature and twistor space, beginning with a discussion of IR behavior. We find that the natural pole prescription renders the amplitudes well-defined and free of IR divergences. Loop amplitudes vanish for generic momenta, and in twistor space are even simpler than their tree-level counterparts! This further supports the idea that there exists a sharply defined object corresponding to the S-Matrix in (2,2) signature, computed by a dual theory naturally living in twistor space.Comment: V1: 46 pages + 23 figures. Less telegraphic abstract in the body of the paper. V2: 49 pages + 24 figures. Largely expanded set of references included. Some diagrammatic clarifications added, minor typo fixe

Integrating transposable elements in the 3D genome

Chromosome organisation is increasingly recognised as an essential component of genome regulation, cell fate and cell health. Within the realm of transposable elements (TEs) however, the spatial information of how genomes are folded is still only rarely integrated in experimental studies or accounted for in modelling. Whilst polymer physics is recognised as an important tool to understand the mechanisms of genome folding, in this commentary we discuss its potential applicability to aspects of TE biology. Based on recent works on the relationship between genome organisation and TE integration, we argue that existing polymer models may be extended to create a predictive framework for the study of TE integration patterns. We suggest that these models may offer orthogonal and generic insights into the integration profiles (or "topography") of TEs across organisms. In addition, we provide simple polymer physics arguments and preliminary molecular dynamics simulations of TEs inserting into heterogeneously flexible polymers. By considering this simple model, we show how polymer folding and local flexibility may generically affect TE integration patterns. The preliminary discussion reported in this commentary is aimed to lay the foundations for a large-scale analysis of TE integration dynamics and topography as a function of the three-dimensional host genome