3,046 research outputs found
Validating gravitational-wave detections: The Advanced LIGO hardware injection system
Hardware injections are simulated gravitational-wave signals added to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The detectors’ test masses are physically displaced by an actuator in order to simulate the effects of a gravitational wave. The simulated signal initiates a control-system response which mimics that of a true gravitational wave. This provides an end-to-end test of LIGO’s ability to observe gravitational waves. The gravitational-wave analyses used to detect and characterize signals are exercised with hardware injections. By looking for discrepancies between the injected and recovered signals, we are able to characterize the performance of analyses and the coupling of instrumental subsystems to the detectors’ output channels. This paper describes the hardware injection system and the recovery of injected signals representing binary black hole mergers, a stochastic gravitational wave background, spinning neutron stars, and sine-Gaussians
Advantages of the no-scalpel vasectomy technique
The no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) technique should be used instead of the standard incisional method. (Strength of Recommendation: A, based on systematic reviews, mixed-quality randomized controlled trials [RCTs], cohort studies, and case-control series.) The NSV technique is associated with fewer complications, produces less perioperative and postoperative pain, results in quicker recovery, takes less time to perform, and is as effective as standard incisional vasectomy
Efficacy of a Soft Release Strategy for Translocating Scaled Quail in the Rolling Plains of Texas
Scaled Quail (Callipepla squamata) populations have become locally extinct and spatially fragmented in the Rolling Plains ecoregion of Texas. Translocating Scaled Quail from core to declining populations could augment populations or re-establishing extinct populations. Although translocations of scaled quail have been attempted in Texas, none have been documented and none have attempted to identify best practices. Release strategy (i.e., hard or soft release) is a factor that can influence the success of a translocation. Our objective was to compare daily apparent survival of scaled quail translocated to the Rolling Plains between 2 release treatment groups: hard- and soft-release. We estimated a daily apparent survival rate (DASR) for radio-marked hens during the breeding season as a function of age, release treatment, and a time trend. We found evidence of a positive effect of the soft release treatment and higher DASR in adult hens. Overall, DASR of translocated hens was low compared to reported estimates of survival in established resident populations. Using a soft release strategy and translocating a greater proportion of adults may improve future translocation success for scaled quail
A TH1 Polarizing Vaccine For Boosting The Antitumor Activity Of Adoptively Transferred T Cells
Genetic analysis reveals spatial structure in an expanding introduced rusa deer population
Context. Rusa deer (Cervus timorensis), originally introduced in the 1860s, are still spreading in eastern Australia. The expanding peri-urban rusa deer population in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia is having undesirable impacts on human and ecological communities, but the spatial structure of this population has not been investigated. Genetic information on invasive species is potentially useful in identifying management units to mitigate undesirable impacts. Aims. The aim of this study was to investigate population structure, characterise dispersal, and determine if natural and human-made landscape features affected gene flow in rusa deer invading the Illawarra region of New South Wales. Methods. We used reduced representation sequencing (DArT-Seq) to analyse single nucleotide polymorphisms distributed throughout the genomic DNA of rusa deer culled during a management program. We used admixture and Principal Component Analyses to investigate population structure with respect to natural and human-made landscape features, and we investigated whether our genetic data supported the presence of sex-biased dispersal. Key results. Genetic diversity was highest in the north, near the original introduction site. A railway line demarcated restricted gene flow. Surprisingly, the Illawarra escarpment, a prominent landscape feature, did not restrict gene flow. There was no evidence of sex-biased dispersal and seven individuals were identified as genetic outliers. Conclusions. The genetic structure of the Illawarra rusa deer population is consistent with individuals spreading south from their introduction site in Royal National Park. The population is not panmictic, and a landscape feature associated with urbanisation was associated with increased spatial genetic structure. Outliers could indicate hybridisation or secondary incursion events. Implications. Rusa deer can be expected to continue invading southwards in the Illawarra region, but landscape features associated with urbanisation might reduce dispersal across the landscape. The genetic structuring of the population identified three potential management units on which to prioritise ground shooting operations
Joint searches between gravitational-wave interferometers and high-energy neutrino telescopes: science reach and analysis strategies
Many of the astrophysical sources and violent phenomena observed in our
Universe are potential emitters of gravitational waves (GWs) and high-energy
neutrinos (HENs). A network of GW detectors such as LIGO and Virgo can
determine the direction/time of GW bursts while the IceCube and ANTARES
neutrino telescopes can also provide accurate directional information for HEN
events. Requiring the consistency between both, totally independent, detection
channels shall enable new searches for cosmic events arriving from potential
common sources, of which many extra-galactic objects.Comment: 4 pages. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2d Heidelberg Workshop:
"High-Energy Gamma-rays and Neutrinos from Extra-Galactic Sources",
Heidelberg (Germany), January 13-16, 200
Heat and water transport in soils and across the soil-atmosphere interface: 1. Theory and different model concepts
Evaporation is an important component of the soil water balance. It is composed of water flow and transport processes in a porous medium that are coupled with heat fluxes and free air flow. This work provides a comprehensive review of model concepts used in different research fields to describe evaporation. Concepts range from nonisothermal two-phase flow, two-component transport in the porous medium that is coupled with one-phase flow, two-component transport in the free air flow to isothermal liquid water flow in the porous medium with upper boundary conditions defined by a potential evaporation flux when available energy and transfer to the free airflow are limiting or by a critical threshold water pressure when soil water availability is limiting. The latter approach corresponds with the classical Richards equation with mixed boundary conditions. We compare the different approaches on a theoretical level by identifying the underlying simplifications that are made for the different compartments of the system: porous medium, free flow and their interface, and by discussing how processes not explicitly considered are parameterized. Simplifications can be grouped into three sets depending on whether lateral variations in vertical fluxes are considered, whether flow and transport in the air phase in the porous medium are considered, and depending on how the interaction at the interface between the free flow and the porous medium is represented. The consequences of the simplifications are illustrated by numerical simulations in an accompanying paper
Numerical study of linear and circular model DNA chains confined in a slit: metric and topological properties
Advanced Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the effect of nano-slit
confinement on metric and topological properties of model DNA chains. We
consider both linear and circularised chains with contour lengths in the
1.2--4.8 m range and slits widths spanning continuously the 50--1250nm
range. The metric scaling predicted by de Gennes' blob model is shown to hold
for both linear and circularised DNA up to the strongest levels of confinement.
More notably, the topological properties of the circularised DNA molecules have
two major differences compared to three-dimensional confinement. First, the
overall knotting probability is non-monotonic for increasing confinement and
can be largely enhanced or suppressed compared to the bulk case by simply
varying the slit width. Secondly, the knot population consists of knots that
are far simpler than for three-dimensional confinement. The results suggest
that nano-slits could be used in nano-fluidic setups to produce DNA rings
having simple topologies (including the unknot) or to separate heterogeneous
ensembles of DNA rings by knot type.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
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