2,025 research outputs found
A format for phylogenetic placements
We have developed a unified format for phylogenetic placements, that is,
mappings of environmental sequence data (e.g. short reads) into a phylogenetic
tree. We are motivated to do so by the growing number of tools for computing
and post-processing phylogenetic placements, and the lack of an established
standard for storing them. The format is lightweight, versatile, extensible,
and is based on the JSON format which can be parsed by most modern programming
languages. Our format is already implemented in several tools for computing and
post-processing parsimony- and likelihood-based phylogenetic placements, and
has worked well in practice. We believe that establishing a standard format for
analyzing read placements at this early stage will lead to a more efficient
development of powerful and portable post-analysis tools for the growing
applications of phylogenetic placement.Comment: Documents version 3 of the forma
On direct measurement of the W production charge asymmetry at the LHC
The prospects for making a direct measurement of the W production charge
asymmetry at the LHC are discussed. A modification to the method used at the
Tevatron is proposed for measurements at the LHC. The expected sensitivity for
such a measurement to parton distribution functions is compared to that for a
measurement of the lepton charge asymmetry. The direct measurement approach is
found to be less useful for placing constraints on parton distribution
functions at the LHC than a measurement of the lepton charge asymmetry.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, v2: references and keywords updated v3:
Additional paragraph discussing inclusion of W asymmetry in global fits adde
Experimental Measurements of Heat Transfer through a Lunar Regolith Simulant in a Vibro-Fluidized Reactor Oven
Extraction of mission consumable resources such as water and oxygen from the planetary environment provides valuable reduction in launch-mass and potentially extends the mission duration. Processing of lunar regolith for resource extraction necessarily involves heating and chemical reaction of solid material with processing gases. Vibrofluidization is known to produce effective mixing and control of flow within granular media. In this study we present experimental results for vibrofluidized heat transfer in lunar regolith simulants (JSC-1 and JSC-1A) heated up to 900 C. The results show that the simulant bed height has a significant influence on the vibration induced flow field and heat transfer rates. A taller bed height leads to a two-cell circulation pattern whereas a single-cell circulation was observed for a shorter height. Lessons learned from these test results should provide insight into efficient design of future robotic missions involving In-Situ Resource Utilization
Lead exposure of mainland Australia\u27s top avian predator
Lead (Pb) toxicity, through ingestion of lead ammunition in carcasses, is a threat to scavenging birds worldwide, but has received little attention in Australia. We analyzed lead exposure in the wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax), the largest raptor species found in mainland Australia and a facultative scavenger. Eagle carcasses were collected opportunistically throughout south-eastern mainland Australia between 1996 and 2022. Lead concentrations were measured in bone samples from 62 animals via portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Lead was detected (concentration \u3e 1 ppm) in 84% (n = 52) of the bone samples. The mean lead concentration of birds in which lead was detected was 9.10 ppm (±SE 1.66). Bone lead concentrations were elevated (10–20 ppm) in 12.9% of samples, and severe ( \u3e 20 ppm) in 4.8% of samples. These proportions are moderately higher than equivalent data for the same species from the island of Tasmania, and are comparable to data from threatened eagle species from other continents. Lead exposure at these levels is likely to have negative impacts on wedge-tailed eagles at the level of the individual and perhaps at a population level. Our results suggest that studies of lead exposure in other Australian avian scavenger species are warranted
Barriers to Infectious Disease Care among Lesbians1
Despite the considerable number of women in the United States who identify as lesbian, few data exist that address lesbians' health needs. The Institute of Medicine emphasized that data on sexually transmitted infections, Pap smear screening, and cervical dysplasia among lesbians were needed to guide clinical practice, policy development, and patient education. Use of surveillance data for this purpose is limited because risk classifications exclude same-gender sex among women or subsume it under behavior considered as higher risk. However, sexual transmission of human papillomavirus, HIV, Treponema pallidum, and Trichomonas vaginalis between women has been reported. Data indicate that lesbians receive routine Pap smear screening less frequently than is optimal. Moreover, lesbians commonly report previous pregnancy, induced abortion, and hormonal contraceptive use. Education of lesbians and their care providers should counter assumptions that sex between women confers no risk for transmission of sexually transmitted infections, and lesbians should receive Pap smears according to current guidelines
Giant Faraday rotation in single- and multilayer graphene
Optical Faraday rotation is one of the most direct and practically important
manifestations of magnetically broken time-reversal symmetry. The rotation
angle is proportional to the distance traveled by the light, and up to now
sizeable effects were observed only in macroscopically thick samples and in
two-dimensional electron gases with effective thicknesses of several
nanometers. Here we demonstrate that a single atomic layer of carbon - graphene
- turns the polarization by several degrees in modest magnetic fields. The
rotation is found to be strongly enhanced by resonances originating from the
cyclotron effect in the classical regime and the inter-Landau-level transitions
in the quantum regime. Combined with the possibility of ambipolar doping, this
opens pathways to use graphene in fast tunable ultrathin infrared
magneto-optical devices
SN 2009bb: a Peculiar Broad-Lined Type Ic Supernova
Ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared photometry and optical spectroscopy
of the broad-lined Type Ic supernova (SN) 2009bb are presented, following the
flux evolution from -10 to +285 days past B-band maximum. Thanks to the very
early discovery, it is possible to place tight constraints on the SN explosion
epoch. The expansion velocities measured from near maximum spectra are found to
be only slightly smaller than those measured from spectra of the prototype
broad-lined SN 1998bw associated with GRB 980425. Fitting an analytical model
to the pseudo-bolometric light curve of SN 2009bb suggests that 4.1+-1.9 Msun
of material was ejected with 0.22 +-0.06 Msun of it being 56Ni. The resulting
kinetic energy is 1.8+-0.7x10^52 erg. This, together with an absolute peak
magnitude of MB=-18.36+-0.44, places SN 2009bb on the energetic and luminous
end of the broad-lined Type Ic (SN Ic) sequence. Detection of helium in the
early time optical spectra accompanied with strong radio emission, and high
metallicity of its environment makes SN 2009bb a peculiar object. Similar to
the case for GRBs, we find that the bulk explosion parameters of SN 2009bb
cannot account for the copious energy coupled to relativistic ejecta, and
conclude that another energy reservoir (a central engine) is required to power
the radio emission. Nevertheless, the analysis of the SN 2009bb nebular
spectrum suggests that the failed GRB detection is not imputable to a large
angle between the line-of-sight and the GRB beamed radiation. Therefore, if a
GRB was produced during the SN 2009bb explosion, it was below the threshold of
the current generation of gamma-ray instruments.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
The fables of pity: Rousseau, Mandeville and the animal-fable
Copyright @ 2012 Edinburgh University PressPrompted by Derrida’s work on the animal-fable in eighteenth-century debates about political power, this article examines the role played by the fiction of the animal in thinking of pity as either a natural virtue (in Rousseau’s Second Discourse) or as a natural passion (in Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees). The war of fables between Rousseau and Mandeville – and their hostile reception by Samuel Johnson and Adam Smith – reinforce that the animal-fable illustrates not so much the proper of man as the possibilities and limitations of a moral philosophy that is unable to address the political realities of the state
Extracting the Distribution Amplitudes of the rho meson from the Color Glass Condensate
We extract the leading twist-2 and subleading twist-3 Distribution Amplitudes
(DAs) of the rho meson using the HERA data on diffractive rho photoproduction.
We do so using several Colour Glass Condensate (CGC) inspired and a Regge
inspired dipole models. We find that our extracted twist-2 DA is not much model
dependent and is consistent with QCD Sum Rules and lattice predictions. The
extracted twist-3 DA is more model dependent but is still consistent with the
Sum Rules prediction.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Section 6 revised, figures 8 and 9
and table 3 updated. Conclusions essentially unchange
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