Field guide for didymo DNA sample collection

This protocol is designed for work in two-person teams for both safety and to maximise sample integrity

Quantum walk with a four-dimensional coin

We examine the physical implementation of a discrete time quantum walk with a four-dimensional coin. Our quantum walker is a photon moving repeatedly through a time delay loop, with time being our position space. The quantum coin is implemented using the internal states of the photon: the polarization and two of the orbital angular momentum states. We demonstrate how to implement this physically and what components would be needed. We then illustrate some of the results that could be obtained by performing the experiment

National Center for Genome Analysis Program Year 3 Report – September 15, 2013 – September 14, 2014

On September 15, 2011, Indiana University (IU) received three years of support to establish the National Center for Genome Analysis Support (NCGAS). This technical report describes the activities of the third 12 months of NCGASThe facilities supported by the Research Technologies division at Indiana University are supported by a number of grants. The authors would like to acknowledge that although the National Center for Genome Analysis Support is funded by NSF 1062432, our work would not be possible without the generous support of the following awards received by our parent organization, the Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University. • The Indiana University Pervasive Technology Institute was supported in part by two grants from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. • NCGAS has also been supported directly by the Indiana METACyt Initiative. The Indiana METACyt Initiative of Indiana University is supported in part by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. • This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-0521433. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF)

The effects of energetic and physiological state on the foraging decisions of birds

Animals make many decisions throughout their lives and there is good reason to suggest that these decisions are related to their energetic state. However, there is a need for more experimental data linking animals' behavioural decisions directly with their energetic state. Using behavioural assays and measurements of energetic state, I conducted a number of experiments that investigated the relationship between an animal's foraging decision-making and their energy levels. In Chapter 2, I examined the effects of energetic state on the rationality of foraging decisions of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). I found that there were no breaches of rationality and that there were no relationships with energy reserves. In Chapter 3, I investigated risk-sensitive foraging behaviour and its relationship with temperature and behaviour in rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus). However, the birds were indifferent to risk and there was no relationship with any of the variables that were included in the analysis. The remaining four experimental chapters dealt with problems related to the state-based consumption of chemically defended prey in European starlings. The results from these experiments confirmed many long-held assumptions regarding the state-based consumption of chemically defended prey. They also confirmed some recent predictions of stochastic dynamic programming models, which were less obvious. Generalist predators, such as European starlings, can also adapt to new food sources quickly and develop sophisticated behaviours that may mediate their intakes of dangerous compounds. The results of this thesis show that a bird's state can play an important role in mediating the foraging decisions that they make, especially regarding chemically defended prey. More generally, these results have important implications for how the dynamic systems of foraging behaviour and energetic state are viewed, and demonstrate a path as to how these different areas can be integrated.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceNewcastle University : Universities UKGBUnited Kingdo

A Roadmap for Using NSF Cyberinfrastructure with InCommon

This document provides a Roadmap for using the InCommon identity federation to enable researchers to access NSF cyberinfrastructure (CI) via their campus authentication service. It presents benefits and challenges of using InCommon for NSF cyberinfrastructure, and guidance in overcoming the challenges.NSF OCI-1040777, IU Pervasive Technology Institut

National Center for Genome Analysis Program Year 2 Report – September 15, 2012 – September 14, 2013

On September 15, 2011, Indiana University (IU) received three years of support to establish the National Center for Genome Analysis Support (NCGAS). This technical report describes the activities of the second 12 months of NCGASThe facilities supported by the Research Technologies division at Indiana University are supported by a number of grants. The authors would like to acknowledge that although the National Center for Genome Analysis Support is funded by NSF 1062432, our work would not be possible without the generous support of the following awards received by our parent organization, the Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University. • The Indiana University Pervasive Technology Institute was supported in part by two grants from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. • NCGAS has also been supported directly by the Indiana METACyt Initiative. The Indiana METACyt Initiative of Indiana University is supported in part by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. • This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-0521433. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF)

Distinct trajectories of leisure time physical activity and predictors of trajectory class membership: a 22 year cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Prospective studies linking social factors to long term patterns of physical activity are lacking. In this 22 year longitudinal study, we seek to identify long term patterns of involvement in leisure time physical activity (LTPA), and explore socioeconomic and demographic predictors of distinct LTPA trajectories.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Among 2102 individuals aged 18–60 years in 1981 who participated in the 1981 Canada Fitness Survey/1988 Campbell's Survey of Well-Being, 1186 (56.4%) completed questionnaires for the 2002/04 follow-up. Complete data on LTPA at all 3 surveys were available for 884 participants. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify major classes of LTPA trajectories; predictors of class membership were identified using polytomous logistic regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four latent classes were identified: <it>inactive</it>, <it>increasers</it>, <it>active</it>, and <it>decreasers </it>(53%, 26%, 12%, and 9% of participants, respectively). Women, older participants, those with lower household income, and with lower educational attainment, were significantly less likely to follow <it>active </it>(Vs. <it>inactive</it>) trajectories of LTPA. Disadvantaged groups with respect to education and income were also significantly more likely to follow <it>decreasing </it>(Vs. <it>active</it>) trajectories.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a need for continued efforts to increase overall population levels of LTPA, particularly among socially disadvantaged groups with respect to income and education, who are most likely to experience unfavorable trajectories of LTPA.</p

Noncovariant gauge fixing in the quantum Dirac field theory of atoms and molecules

Starting from the Weyl gauge formulation of quantum electrodynamics (QED), the formalism of quantum-mechanical gauge fixing is extended using techniques from nonrelativistic QED. This involves expressing the redundant gauge degrees of freedom through an arbitrary functional of the gauge-invariant transverse degrees of freedom. Particular choices of functional can be made to yield the Coulomb gauge and Poincar\'{e} gauge representations. The Hamiltonian we derive therefore serves as a good starting point for the description of atoms and molecules by means of a relativistic Dirac field. We discuss important implications for the ontology of noncovariant canonical QED due to the gauge freedom that remains present in our formulation.Comment: 8 pages, 0 figure

Increased traffic exposure and negative birth outcomes: a prospective cohort in Australia

Background: Pregnant women exposed to traffic pollution have an increased risk of negative birth outcomes. We aimed to investigate the size of this risk using a prospective cohort of 970 mothers and newborns in Logan, Queensland. ----- ----- Methods: We examined two measures of traffic: distance to nearest road and number of roads around the home. To examine the effect of distance we used the number of roads around the home in radii from 50 to 500 metres. We examined three road types: freeways, highways and main roads.----- ----- Results: There were no associations with distance to road. A greater number of freeways and main roads around the home were associated with a shorter gestation time. There were no negative impacts on birth weight, birth length or head circumference after adjusting for gestation. The negative effects on gestation were largely due to main roads within 400 metres of the home. For every 10 extra main roads within 400 metres of the home, gestation time was reduced by 1.1% (95% CI: -1.7, -0.5; p-value = 0.001).----- ----- Conclusions: Our results add weight to the association between exposure to traffic and reduced gestation time. This effect may be due to the chemical toxins in traffic pollutants, or because of disturbed sleep due to traffic noise

The angular momentum of twisted light in anisotropic media: chiroptical interactions in chiral and achiral materials

The issue of whether the optical orbital angular momentum of light can play any significant role in chiroptical interactions has seen a resurgence of interest in the past few years. Revising preliminary expectations, it has been shown both theoretically and experimentally that the topological charge can indeed play a decisive role in some chiroptical interactions, with the rates of these optical phenomena proving sensitive to the sign of the vortex charge. Using quantum electro- dynamics, it is now revealed how the inclusion of molecular electric-quadrupole transition moments in both chiral and achiral anisotropic media produces such an effect. Specifically, for single-photon absorption it transpires that both the orbital and spin angular momentum must be engaged through a circularly polarized vortex beam. The chiroptical effect is identified as a manifestation spin-orbit interaction in light