Influence of a discontinuity on the spectral and fractal analysis of one-dimensional data

The analysis of a data area or segment containing steep transitions between regions with different textures (for example a cloud and its background) leads to addressing the problem of discontinuities and their impact on texture analysis. In that purpose, an original one-dimensional analytical model of spectrum and roughness function has been worked out, with a discontinuity between two fractal regions, each one specified by its average &micro;, standard deviation &sigma;, spectral index &beta; and Hurst exponent <i>H</i>. This has the advantage of not needing the generation of a fractal structure with a particular algorithm or random functions and clearly puts into evidence the role played by the average in generating spectral poles and side lobes. After validation of the model calibration, a parametric study is carried out in order to understand the influence of this discontinuity on the estimation of the spectral index &beta; and the Hurst parameter <i>H</i>. It shows that for a pure &micro;-gap, <i>H</i> is well estimated everywhere, though overestimated, and &beta; is overestimated in the anti-correlation range and saturates in the correlation range. For a pure &sigma;-gap the retrieval of <i>H</i> is excellent everywhere and the behaviour of &beta; is better than for a &micro;-gap, leading to less overestimation in the anti-correlation range. For a pure &beta;-gap, saturation degrades measurements in the case of raw data and the medium with smaller spectral index is predominant in the case of trend-corrected data. For a pure <i>H</i>-gap, there is also dominance of the medium with smaller fractal exponent

Detecting Extrasolar Planets with Integral Field Spectroscopy

Observations of extrasolar planets using Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS), if coupled with an extreme Adaptive Optics system and analyzed with a Simultaneous Differential Imaging technique (SDI), are a powerful tool to detect and characterize extrasolar planets directly; they enhance the signal of the planet and, at the same time, reduces the impact of stellar light and consequently important noise sources like speckles. In order to verify the efficiency of such a technique, we developed a simulation code able to test the capabilities of this IFS-SDI technique for different kinds of planets and telescopes, modelling the atmospheric and instrumental noise sources. The first results obtained by the simulations show that many significant extrasolar planet detections are indeed possible using the present 8m-class telescopes within a few hours of exposure time. The procedure adopted to simulate IFS observations is presented here in detail, explaining in particular how we obtain estimates of the speckle noise, Adaptive Optics corrections, specific instrumental features, and how we test the efficiency of the SDI technique to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the planet detection. The most important results achieved by simulations of various objects, from 1 M_J to brown dwarfs of 30 M_J, for observations with an 8 meter telescope, are then presented and discussed.Comment: 60 pages, 37 figures, accepted in PASP, 4 Tables adde

Refractive Index of Humid Air in the Infrared: Model Fits

The theory of summation of electromagnetic line transitions is used to tabulate the Taylor expansion of the refractive index of humid air over the basic independent parameters (temperature, pressure, humidity, wavelength) in five separate infrared regions from the H to the Q band at a fixed percentage of Carbon Dioxide. These are least-squares fits to raw, highly resolved spectra for a set of temperatures from 10 to 25 C, a set of pressures from 500 to 1023 hPa, and a set of relative humidities from 5 to 60%. These choices reflect the prospective application to characterize ambient air at mountain altitudes of astronomical telescopes.Comment: Corrected exponents of c0ref, c1ref and c1p in Table

A pilot study comparing the metabolic profiles of elite-level athletes from different sporting disciplines

Background: The outstanding performance of an elite athlete might be associated with changes in their blood metabolic profile. The aims of this study were to compare the blood metabolic profiles between moderate- and high-power and endurance elite athletes and to identify the potential metabolic pathways underlying these differences. Methods: Metabolic profiling of serum samples from 191 elite athletes from different sports disciplines (121 high- and 70 moderate-endurance athletes, including 44 high- and 144 moderate-power athletes), who participated in national or international sports events and tested negative for doping abuse at anti-doping laboratories, was performed using non-targeted metabolomics-based mass spectroscopy combined with ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography. Multivariate analysis was conducted using orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis. Differences in metabolic levels between high- and moderate-power and endurance sports were assessed by univariate linear models. Results: Out of 743 analyzed metabolites, gamma-glutamyl amino acids were significantly reduced in both high-power and high-endurance athletes compared to moderate counterparts, indicating active glutathione cycle. High-endurance athletes exhibited significant increases in the levels of several sex hormone steroids involved in testosterone and progesterone synthesis, but decreases in diacylglycerols and ecosanoids. High-power athletes had increased levels of phospholipids and xanthine metabolites compared to moderate-power counterparts. Conclusions: This pilot data provides evidence that high-power and high-endurance athletes exhibit a distinct metabolic profile that reflects steroid biosynthesis, fatty acid metabolism, oxidative stress, and energy-related metabolites. Replication studies are warranted to confirm differences in the metabolic profiles associated with athletes’ elite performance in independent data sets, aiming ultimately for deeper understanding of the underlying biochemical processes that could be utilized as biomarkers with potential therapeutic implications

Dephosphorylation of Nucleophosmin by PP1β Facilitates pRB Binding and Consequent E2F1-dependent DNA Repair

We report a new pathway through which PP1β signals to nucleophosmin (NPM) in response to DNA damage. UV induces dephosphorylation of NPM at multiple sites, leading to enhancement of complex formation between NPM and retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein and the subsequent upregulation of E2F1. Consequently, such signaling pathway potentiates the cellular DNA repair capacity

Core-collapse supernova subtypes in luminous infrared galaxies

Acknowledgements. We thank the anonymous referee for useful comments. We thank Marco Fiaschi for carrying out some of the Asiago observations. EK is supported by the Turku Collegium of Science, Medicine and Technology. EK also acknowledge support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; ST/P000312/1). ECK acknowledges support from the G.R.E.A.T. research environment and support from The Wenner-Gren Foundations. MF is supported by a Royal Society – Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship. EC, LT, AP, and MT are partially supported by the PRIN-INAF 2017 with the project “Towards the SKA and CTA era: discovery, localization, and physics of transient objects”. HK was funded by the Academy of Finland projects 324504 and 328898. TWC acknowledges the EU Funding under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 842471. LG was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 839090. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish grant PGC2018-095317-B-C21 within the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER). MG is supported by the Polish NCN MAESTRO grant 2014/14/A/ST9/00121. KM acknowledges support from EU H2020 ERC grant no. 758638. TMB was funded by the CONICYT PFCHA / DOCTORADOBECAS CHILE/2017-72180113. MN is supported by a Royal Astronomical Society Research Fellowship. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programmes 67.D-0438, 60.A-9475, 199.D-0143, and 1103.D-0328. Some of the observations reported in this paper were obtained with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) under programme 2018-1-DDT-003 (PI: Kankare). Polish participation in SALT is funded by grant No. MNiSW DIR/WK/2016/07. Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The data presented here were obtained in part with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOTSA. This work is partly based on the NUTS2 programme carried out at the NOT. NUTS2 is funded in part by the Instrument Center for Danish Astrophysics (IDA). The Liverpool Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. This paper is also based on observations collected at the Copernico 1.82 m and Schmidt 67/92 Telescopes operated by INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova at Asiago, Italy. Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina), and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil). Observations were carried out under programme GS-2017A-C-1. This project used data obtained with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which was constructed by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration. Funding for the DES Projects has been provided by the DOE and NSF (USA), MISE (Spain), STFC (UK), HEFCE (UK), NCSA (UIUC), KICP (U. Chicago), CCAPP (Ohio State), MIFPA (Texas A&M University), CNPQ, FAPERJ, FINEP (Brazil), MINECO (Spain), DFG (Germany) and the collaborating institutions in the Dark Energy Survey, which are Argonne Lab, UC Santa Cruz, University of Cambridge, CIEMAT-Madrid, University of Chicago, University College London, DES-Brazil Consortium, University of Edinburgh, ETH Zürich, Fermilab, University of Illinois, ICE (IEEC-CSIC), IFAE Barcelona, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, LMU München and the associated Excellence Cluster Universe, University of Michigan, NOAO, University of Nottingham, Ohio State University, OzDES Membership Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, University of Portsmouth, SLAC National Lab, Stanford University, University of Sussex, and Texas A&M University. Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. Based on observations at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO Prop. ID 2017A-0260; and PI: Soares-Santos), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys (PS1) and the PS1 public science archive have been made possible through contributions by the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawaii, the Pan-STARRS Project Office, the Max-Planck Society and its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, The Johns Hopkins University, Durham University, the University of Edinburgh, the Queen’s University Belfast, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Incorporated, the National Central University of Taiwan, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX08AR22G issued through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, the National Science Foundation Grant No. AST-1238877, the University of Maryland, Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE), the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Some of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This work is based in part on archival data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. This research has made use of NED which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We have made use of the Weizmann Interactive Supernova Data Repository (Yaron & Gal-Yam 2012, https://wiserep.weizmann.ac.il).1 iraf is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.The fraction of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) occurring in the central regions of galaxies is not well constrained at present. This is partly because large-scale transient surveys operate at optical wavelengths, making it challenging to detect transient sources that occur in regions susceptible to high extinction factors. Here we present the discovery and follow-up observations of two CCSNe that occurred in the luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) NGC 3256. The first, SN 2018ec, was discovered using the ESO HAWK-I/GRAAL adaptive optics seeing enhancer, and was classified as a Type Ic with a host galaxy extinction of AV = 2.1−0.1+0.3 mag. The second, AT 2018cux, was discovered during the course of follow-up observations of SN 2018ec, and is consistent with a subluminous Type IIP classification with an AV = 2.1 ± 0.4 mag of host extinction. A third CCSN, PSN J10275082−4354034 in NGC 3256, was previously reported in 2014, and we recovered the source in late-time archival Hubble Space Telescope imaging. Based on template light curve fitting, we favour a Type IIn classification for it with modest host galaxy extinction of AV = 0.3−0.3+0.4 mag. We also extend our study with follow-up data of the recent Type IIb SN 2019lqo and Type Ib SN 2020fkb that occurred in the LIRG system Arp 299 with host extinctions of AV = 2.1−0.3+0.1 and AV = 0.4−0.2+0.1 mag, respectively. Motivated by the above, we inspected, for the first time, a sample of 29 CCSNe located within a projected distance of 2.5 kpc from the host galaxy nuclei in a sample of 16 LIRGs. We find, if star formation within these galaxies is modelled assuming a global starburst episode and normal IMF, that there is evidence of a correlation between the starburst age and the CCSN subtype. We infer that the two subgroups of 14 H-poor (Type IIb/Ib/Ic/Ibn) and 15 H-rich (Type II/IIn) CCSNe have different underlying progenitor age distributions, with the H-poor progenitors being younger at 3σ significance. However, we note that the currently available sample sizes of CCSNe and host LIRGs are small, and the statistical comparisons between subgroups do not take into account possible systematic or model errors related to the estimated starburst ages.DOCTORADOBECAS CHILE/2017-72180113Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt UniversityEU H2020 ERC 758638IFAE BarcelonaIPACInstituto de Astrofisica de CanariasKICPMIFPAMarie Skłodowska-Curie 839090,PGC2018-095317-B-C21Max Planck Institute for AstronomyMax Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial PhysicsNOAONational Central University of TaiwanNational Optical Astronomy ObservatoriesScience Foundation Ireland UniversityTurku Collegium of Science, Medicine and TechnologyWeizmann Institute for ScienceNational Science Foundation NSFU.S. Department of Energy USDOENational Aeronautics and Space Administration AST-1238877,NNX08AR22G NASAGordon and Betty Moore Foundation NAS5-26555 GBMFMerck Institute for Science Education MISEUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign UIUCStanford University SUArgonne National Laboratory ANLLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2017A-0260 LBNLUniversity of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeOhio State University OSUCalifornia Institute of Technology CITUniversity of ChicagoUniversity of Michigan U-MUniversity of Washington UWJohns Hopkins University JHUTexas A and M University TAMUUniversity of Maryland UMDUniversity of Hawai'i UHLos Alamos National Laboratory LANLUniversity of PortsmouthSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory SAONational Centre for Supercomputing Applications NCSAHorizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory SLACNational Research Council NRCSpace Telescope Science Institute STScICenter for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Ohio State University CCAPPWenner-Gren StiftelsernaScience and Technology Facilities Council ST/P000312/1 STFCRoyal SocietyRoyal Astronomical Society MNiSW DIR/WK/2016/07 RASUniversity College London UCLEuropean Commission 842471 ECUniversity of NottinghamUniversity of Sussex AST-1440341University of Edinburgh EDQueen's University Belfast QUBDurham UniversityDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFGSuomen Akatemia 324504,328898Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica CONICYTMinisterio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva MINCyTMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad MINECOMinistério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação MCTILiverpool John Moores University LJMUMax-Planck-Gesellschaft MPGNarodowe Centrum Nauki 2014/14/A/ST9/00121 NCNFundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro FAPERJFinanciadora de Estudos e Projetos FINEPEuropean Regional Development Fund ERDFEötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem ELT

Evidence for a gene influencing heart rate on chromosome 5p13-14 in a meta-analysis of genome-wide scans from the NHLBI Family Blood Pressure Program

BACKGROUND: Elevated resting heart rate has been shown in multiple studies to be a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease. Previous family studies have shown a significant heritable component to heart rate with several groups conducting genomic linkage scans to identify quantitative trait loci. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide linkage scan to identify quantitative trait loci influencing resting heart rate among 3,282 Caucasians and 3,989 African-Americans in three independent networks comprising the Family Blood Pressure Program (FBPP) using 368 microsatellite markers. Mean heart rate measurements were used in a regression model including covariates for age, body mass index, pack-years, currently drinking alcohol (yes/no), hypertension status and medication usage to create a standardized residual for each gender/ethnic group within each study network. This residual was used in a nonparametric variance component model to generate a LOD score and a corresponding P value for each ethnic group within each study network. P values from each ethnic group and study network were merged using an adjusted Fisher's combining P values method and the resulting P values were converted to LOD scores. The entire analysis was redone after individuals currently taking beta-blocker medication were removed. RESULTS: We identified significant evidence of linkage (LOD = 4.62) to chromosome 10 near 142.78 cM in the Caucasian group of HyperGEN. Between race and network groups we identified a LOD score of 1.86 on chromosome 5 (between 39.99 and 45.34 cM) in African-Americans in the GENOA network and the same region produced a LOD score of 1.12 among Caucasians within a different network (HyperGEN). Combining all network and race groups we identified a LOD score of 1.92 (P = 0.0013) on chromosome 5p13-14. We assessed heterogeneity for this locus between networks and ethnic groups and found significant evidence for low heterogeneity (P ≤ 0.05). CONCLUSION: We found replication (LOD > 1) between ethnic groups and between study networks with low heterogeneity on chromosome 5p13-14 suggesting that a gene in this region influences resting heart rate

Estimativas de parâmetros genéticos para as características consideradas no índice bioeconômico (MGTe) do programa de melhoramento Nelore Brasil.

Resumo: O objetivo do presente estudo foi estimar parâmetros genéticos para características de carcaça, crescimento e reprodutivas de bovinos da raça Nelore. Foram analisadas as características de peso aos 120, 210 e 450 dias (P120, P210, P450), área do olho de lombo (AOL), perímetros escrotais aos 365 e 450 dias (PE365, PE450), idade ao primeiro parto (IPP), stayability (STAY) e probabilidade de prenhez precoce (3P). Para as características STAY e 3P foi utilizado o modelo de limiar, e para as demais características o modelo animal linear. Para a estimação dos componentes de variância e herdabildaide soi utilizado o modelo ssGBLUP. As estimativas de herdabilidade para as características P120, P210, P450, AOL, PE365, PE450, IPP, STAY e 3P foram 0,20; 0,21; 0,43; 0,33; 0,47; 0,52; 0,11; 0,12 e 0,37, respectivamente. A magnitude apresentada para as estimativas de herdabilidade foram de baixa (0,30), o que mostra que as mesmas possuem variabilidade genética suficiente para responderem a seleção. Indicando que maiores ganhos por seleção direta podem ser obtidos para as características P450, PE365, PE450, AOL e 3P, uma vez que a herdabilidade estimada destas características é superior as demais. Abstract: The aim in the present study was to estimate genetic parameters for carcass, growth and reproductive traits of Nellore cattle. The weight traits at 120, 210 and 450 days (W120, W210, W450), loin eye area (LEA), scrotal circumference at 365 (SC365) and 450 (SC450) days of age age at first calving (AFC), stayability (STAY) and probability of Precocious pregnancy (3P) with the inclusion of the genomic kinship matrix by means of the Single Step GBLUP. For the STAY and 3P traits, the threshold model was used, and for the other traits the linear animal model. Heritability estimates for traits W120, W210, W450, LEA, SP365, SP450, AFC, STAY and 3P were 0.20; 0.21; 0.43; 0.33; 0.47; 0.52; 0.11; 0.12 and 0.37, respectively. The results show that higher gains by direct selection can be obtained for the traits P450, PE365, PE450, LEA and 3P, because these traits presented heritability is higher than the others