1,996 research outputs found
Three-dimensional structure of human serum albumin
The binding locations to human serum albumin (HSA) of several drug molecules were determined at low resolution using crystallographic methods. The principal binding sites are located within subdomains IIA and IIIA. Preliminary studies suggest that an approach to increasing the in vivo efficacy of drugs which are rendered less effective or ineffective by virtue of their interaction with HSA, would be the use of competitive displacement in drug therapies and/or the development of a general inhibitor to the site within subdomain IIIA. These findings also suggest that the facilitated transfer of various ligands across organ/circulatory interfaces such as liver, kidney, and brain may be associated with binding to the IIIA subdomain
EXONEST: The Bayesian Exoplanetary Explorer
The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are currently engaged in an
unprecedented era of discovery as recent missions have revealed thousands of
exoplanets orbiting other stars. While the Kepler Space Telescope mission has
enabled most of these exoplanets to be detected by identifying transiting
events, exoplanets often exhibit additional photometric effects that can be
used to improve the characterization of exoplanets. The EXONEST Exoplanetary
Explorer is a Bayesian exoplanet inference engine based on nested sampling and
originally designed to analyze archived Kepler Space Telescope and CoRoT
(Convection Rotation et Transits plan\'etaires) exoplanet mission data. We
discuss the EXONEST software package and describe how it accommodates
plug-and-play models of exoplanet-associated photometric effects for the
purpose of exoplanet detection, characterization and scientific hypothesis
testing. The current suite of models allows for both circular and eccentric
orbits in conjunction with photometric effects, such as the primary transit and
secondary eclipse, reflected light, thermal emissions, ellipsoidal variations,
Doppler beaming and superrotation. We discuss our new efforts to expand the
capabilities of the software to include more subtle photometric effects
involving reflected and refracted light. We discuss the EXONEST inference
engine design and introduce our plans to port the current MATLAB-based EXONEST
software package over to the next generation Exoplanetary Explorer, which will
be a Python-based open source project with the capability to employ third-party
plug-and-play models of exoplanet-related photometric effects.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Presented at the 37th International
Workshop on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and
Engineering (MaxEnt 2017) in Jarinu/SP Brasi
Cool Jupiters greatly outnumber their toasty siblings : Occurrence rates from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©2019 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Our understanding of planetary systems different to our own has grown dramatically in the past 30 yr. However, our efforts to ascertain the degree to which the Solar system is abnormal or unique have been hindered by the observational biases inherent to the methods that have yielded the greatest exoplanet hauls. On the basis of such surveys, one might consider our planetary system highly unusual - but the reality is that we are only now beginning to uncover the true picture. In this work, we use the full 18-yr archive of data from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search to examine the abundance of 'cool Jupiters' - analogues to the Solar system's giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. We find that such planets are intrinsically far more common through the cosmos than their siblings, the hot Jupiters.We find that the occurrence rate of such 'cool Jupiters' is 6.73 +2.09 -1.13 per cent, almost an order of magnitude higher than the occurrence of hot Jupiters (at 0.84 +0.70 -0.20 per cent). We also find that the occurrence rate of giant planets is essentially constant beyond orbital distances of ~1 au. Our results reinforce the importance of legacy radial velocity surveys for the understanding of the Solar system's place in the cosmos.Peer reviewe
Dual Computations of Non-abelian Yang-Mills on the Lattice
In the past several decades there have been a number of proposals for
computing with dual forms of non-abelian Yang-Mills theories on the lattice.
Motivated by the gauge-invariant, geometric picture offered by dual models and
successful applications of duality in the U(1) case, we revisit the question of
whether it is practical to perform numerical computation using non-abelian dual
models. Specifically, we consider three-dimensional SU(2) pure Yang-Mills as an
accessible yet non-trivial case in which the gauge group is non-abelian. Using
methods developed recently in the context of spin foam quantum gravity, we
derive an algorithm for efficiently computing the dual amplitude and describe
Metropolis moves for sampling the dual ensemble. We relate our algorithms to
prior work in non-abelian dual computations of Hari Dass and his collaborators,
addressing several problems that have been left open. We report results of spin
expectation value computations over a range of lattice sizes and couplings that
are in agreement with our conventional lattice computations. We conclude with
an outlook on further development of dual methods and their application to
problems of current interest.Comment: v1: 18 pages, 7 figures, v2: Many changes to appendix, minor changes
throughout, references and figures added, v3: minor corrections, 22 page
Asymptotic behavior of the Kleinberg model
We study Kleinberg navigation (the search of a target in a d-dimensional
lattice, where each site is connected to one other random site at distance r,
with probability proportional to r^{-a}) by means of an exact master equation
for the process. We show that the asymptotic scaling behavior for the delivery
time T to a target at distance L scales as (ln L)^2 when a=d, and otherwise as
L^x, with x=(d-a)/(d+1-a) for ad+1. These
values of x exceed the rigorous lower-bounds established by Kleinberg. We also
address the situation where there is a finite probability for the message to
get lost along its way and find short delivery times (conditioned upon arrival)
for a wide range of a's
X-raying Abell 2125 -- a Large-scale Hierarchical Complex of Galaxies and Hot Gas
We present an 82 ksec Chandra ACIS-I observation of a large-scale
hierarchical complex, which consists of various clusters/groups of galaxies and
low-surface brightness X-ray emission at z = 0.247. This high-resolution {\sl
Chandra} observation allows us for the first time to separate unambiguously the
X-ray contributions from discrete sources and large-scale diffuse hot gas. We
detect 99 X-ray sources in a field. Ten of these
sources are identified as members of the complex and are mostly radio-bright.
Whereas unresolved X-ray sources tend to be associated with galaxies in
intermediate density environments, extended X-ray emission peak at bright radio
galaxies in the central cluster. In particular, a distinct X-ray trail appears
on one side of the fast-moving galaxy C153, clearly due to ram-pressure
stripping. The diffuse X-ray emission from the central cluster can be
characterized by a thermal plasma with a characteristic temperature of
keV and a heavy element abundance of
solar (90% confidence uncertainties). In comparison, a patch of low-surface
brightness X-ray emission apparently originates in relatively low density
intergalactic gas with a characteristic temperature of
keV and an abundance of solar. The Chandra observation,
together with extensive multi-wavelength data, indicates that the complex
represents a projection of several galaxy sub-structures, which may be
undergoing major mergers. We discuss the dynamic states of the complex and its
sub-structures as well as properties of X-ray-emitting galaxies and the
relationship to their environments.Comment: 18 pages plus figures, to be published in ApJ. A complete high
resolution version can be found at
http://www.astro.umass.edu/~wqd/papers/a2125
Cohomology of the minimal nilpotent orbit
We compute the integral cohomology of the minimal non-trivial nilpotent orbit
in a complex simple (or quasi-simple) Lie algebra. We find by a uniform
approach that the middle cohomology group is isomorphic to the fundamental
group of the sub-root system generated by the long simple roots. The modulo
reduction of the Springer correspondent representation involves the sign
representation exactly when divides the order of this cohomology group.
The primes dividing the torsion of the rest of the cohomology are bad primes.Comment: 29 pages, v2 : Leray-Serre spectral sequence replaced by Gysin
sequence only, corrected typo
Extreme Variability in a Broad Absorption Line Quasar
CRTS J084133.15+200525.8 is an optically bright quasar at z=2.345 that has
shown extreme spectral variability over the past decade. Photometrically, the
source had a visual magnitude of V~17.3 between 2002 and 2008. Then, over the
following five years, the source slowly brightened by approximately one
magnitude, to V~16.2. Only ~1 in 10,000 quasars show such extreme variability,
as quantified by the extreme parameters derived for this quasar assuming a
damped random walk model. A combination of archival and newly acquired spectra
reveal the source to be an iron low-ionization broad absorption line (FeLoBAL)
quasar with extreme changes in its absorption spectrum. Some absorption
features completely disappear over the 9 years of optical spectra, while other
features remain essentially unchanged. We report the first definitive redshift
for this source, based on the detection of broad H-alpha in a Keck/MOSFIRE
spectrum. Absorption systems separated by several 1000 km/s in velocity show
coordinated weakening in the depths of their troughs as the continuum flux
increases. We interpret the broad absorption line variability to be due to
changes in photoionization, rather than due to motion of material along our
line of sight. This source highlights one sort of rare transition object that
astronomy will now be finding through dedicated time-domain surveys.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
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