GREAT3 results I: systematic errors in shear estimation and the impact of real galaxy morphology

We present first results from the third GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing (GREAT3) challenge, the third in a sequence of challenges for testing methods of inferring weak gravitational lensing shear distortions from simulated galaxy images. GREAT3 was divided into experiments to test three specific questions, and included simulated space- and ground-based data with constant or cosmologically-varying shear fields. The simplest (control) experiment included parametric galaxies with a realistic distribution of signal-to-noise, size, and ellipticity, and a complex point spread function (PSF). The other experiments tested the additional impact of realistic galaxy morphology, multiple exposure imaging, and the uncertainty about a spatially-varying PSF; the last two questions will be explored in Paper II. The 24 participating teams competed to estimate lensing shears to within systematic error tolerances for upcoming Stage-IV dark energy surveys, making 1525 submissions overall. GREAT3 saw considerable variety and innovation in the types of methods applied. Several teams now meet or exceed the targets in many of the tests conducted (to within the statistical errors). We conclude that the presence of realistic galaxy morphology in simulations changes shear calibration biases by $\sim 1$ per cent for a wide range of methods. Other effects such as truncation biases due to finite galaxy postage stamps, and the impact of galaxy type as measured by the S\'{e}rsic index, are quantified for the first time. Our results generalize previous studies regarding sensitivities to galaxy size and signal-to-noise, and to PSF properties such as seeing and defocus. Almost all methods' results support the simple model in which additive shear biases depend linearly on PSF ellipticity.Comment: 32 pages + 15 pages of technical appendices; 28 figures; submitted to MNRAS; latest version has minor updates in presentation of 4 figures, no changes in content or conclusion

Clinical Manifestations and Case Management of Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever caused by a newly identified virus strain, Bundibugyo, Uganda, 2007-2008

A confirmed Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) outbreak in Bundibugyo, Uganda, November 2007-February 2008, was caused by a putative new species (Bundibugyo ebolavirus). It included 93 putative cases, 56 laboratory-confirmed cases, and 37 deaths (CFR = 25%). Study objectives are to describe clinical manifestations and case management for 26 hospitalised laboratory-confirmed EHF patients. Clinical findings are congruous with previously reported EHF infections. The most frequently experienced symptoms were non-bloody diarrhoea (81%), severe headache (81%), and asthenia (77%). Seven patients reported or were observed with haemorrhagic symptoms, six of whom died. Ebola care remains difficult due to the resource-poor setting of outbreaks and the infection-control procedures required. However, quality data collection is essential to evaluate case definitions and therapeutic interventions, and needs improvement in future epidemics. Organizations usually involved in EHF case management have a particular responsibility in this respect

A proposal for multi-tens of GW fully coherent femtosecond soft X-ray lasers

X-ray free-electron lasers1,2 delivering up to 131013 coherent photons in femtosecond pulses are bringing about a revolution in X-ray science3?5. However, some plasma-based soft X-ray lasers6 are attractive because they spontaneously emit an even higher number of photons (131015), but these are emitted in incoherent and long (hundreds of picoseconds) pulses7 as a consequence of the amplification of stochastic incoherent self-emission. Previous experimental attempts to seed such amplifiers with coherent femtosecond soft X-rays resulted in as yet unexplained weak amplification of the seed and strong amplification of incoherent spontaneous emission8. Using a time-dependent Maxwell?Bloch model describing the amplification of both coherent and incoherent soft X-rays in plasma, we explain the observed inefficiency and propose a new amplification scheme based on the seeding of stretched high harmonics using a transposition of chirped pulse amplification to soft X-rays. This scheme is able to deliver 531014 fully coherent soft X-ray photons in 200 fs pulses and with a peak power of 20 GW

The SERRATE protein is involved in alternative splicing in <em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em>

Howalternative splicing (AS) is regulated in plants has not yet been elucidated. Previously, we have shown that the nuclear cap-binding protein complex (AtCBC) is involved in AS in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here we show that both subunits of AtCBC (AtCBP20 and AtCBP80) interact with SERRATE (AtSE), a protein involved in the microRNA biogenesis pathway. Moreover, using a high-resolution reverse transcript-ase-polymerase chain reaction AS system we have found that AtSE influences AS in a similar way to the cap-binding complex (CBC), preferentially affecting selection of 50 splice site of first introns. The AtSE protein acts in cooperation with AtCBC: many changes observed in the mutant lacking the correct SERRATE activity were common to those observed in the cbp mutants. Interestingly, significant changes in AS of some genes were also observed in other mutants of plant microRNA biogenesis pathway, hyl1-2 and dcl1-7, but a majority of them did not cor-respond to the changes observed in the se-1mutant. Thus, the role of SERRATE in AS regulation is distinct from that of HYL1andDCL1, and is similar to the regu-lation of AS in which CBC is involved

Imprint of DES superstructures on the cosmic microwave background

Small temperature anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be sourced by density perturbations via the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect. Large voids and superclusters are excellent environments to make a localized measurement of this tiny imprint. In some cases excess signals have been reported. We probed these claims with an independent data set, using the first year data of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) in a different footprint, and using a different superstructure finding strategy. We identified 52 large voids and 102 superclusters at redshifts 0.2 < z < 0.65. We used the Jubilee simulation to a priori evaluate the optimal ISW measurement configuration for our compensated top-hat filtering technique, and then performed a stacking measurement of the CMB temperature field based on the DES data. For optimal configurations, we detected a cumulative cold imprint of voids with DeltaTf ≈ -5.0 ± 3.7 muK and a hot imprint of superclusters DeltaTf ≈ 5.1 ± 3.2 muK; this is ˜1.2sigma higher than the expected |DeltaTf| ≈ 0.6 muK imprint of such superstructures in Lambda cold dark matter (LambdaCDM). If we instead use an a posteriori selected filter size (R/Rv = 0.6), we can find a temperature decrement as large as DeltaTf ≈ -9.8 ± 4.7 muK for voids, which is ˜2sigma above LambdaCDM expectations and is comparable to previous measurements made using Sloan Digital Sky Survey superstructure data

GREAT3 results - I. Systematic errors in shear estimation and the impact of real galaxy morphology

We present first results from the third GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing (GREAT3) challenge, the third in a sequence of challenges for testing methods of inferring weak gravitational lensing shear distortions from simulated galaxy images. GREAT3 was divided into experiments to test three specific questions, and included simulated space- and ground-based data with constant or cosmologically varying shear fields. The simplest (control) experiment included parametric galaxies with a realistic distribution of signal-to-noise, size, and ellipticity, and a complex point spread function (PSF). The other experiments tested the additional impact of realistic galaxy morphology, multiple exposure imaging, and the uncertainty about a spatially varying PSF; the last two questions will be explored in Paper II. The 24 participating teams competed to estimate lensing shears to within systematic error tolerances for upcoming Stage-IV dark energy surveys, making 1525 submissions overall. GREAT3 saw considerable variety and innovation in the types of methods applied. Several teams now meet or exceed the targets in many of the tests conducted (to within the statistical errors). We conclude that the presence of realistic galaxy morphology in simulations changes shear calibration biases by ∼1percent for a wide range of methods. Other effects such as truncation biases due to finite galaxy postage stamps, and the impact of galaxy type as measured by the Sérsic index, are quantified for the first time. Our results generalize previous studies regarding sensitivities to galaxy size and signal-to-noise, and to PSF properties such as seeing and defocus. Almost all methods' results support the simple model in which additive shear biases depend linearly on PSF ellipticit

Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation

We analyse the implications of the Planck data for cosmic inflation. The Planck nominal mission temperature anisotropy measurements, combined with the WMAP large-angle polarization, constrain the scalar spectral index to be ns = 0:9603 _ 0:0073, ruling out exact scale invariance at over 5_: Planck establishes an upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio of r < 0:11 (95% CL). The Planck data thus shrink the space of allowed standard inflationary models, preferring potentials with V00 < 0. Exponential potential models, the simplest hybrid inflationary models, and monomial potential models of degree n _ 2 do not provide a good fit to the data. Planck does not find statistically significant running of the scalar spectral index, obtaining dns=dln k = 0:0134 _ 0:0090. We verify these conclusions through a numerical analysis, which makes no slowroll approximation, and carry out a Bayesian parameter estimation and model-selection analysis for a number of inflationary models including monomial, natural, and hilltop potentials. For each model, we present the Planck constraints on the parameters of the potential and explore several possibilities for the post-inflationary entropy generation epoch, thus obtaining nontrivial data-driven constraints. We also present a direct reconstruction of the observable range of the inflaton potential. Unless a quartic term is allowed in the potential, we find results consistent with second-order slow-roll predictions. We also investigate whether the primordial power spectrum contains any features. We find that models with a parameterized oscillatory feature improve the fit by __2 e_ _ 10; however, Bayesian evidence does not prefer these models. We constrain several single-field inflation models with generalized Lagrangians by combining power spectrum data with Planck bounds on fNL. Planck constrains with unprecedented accuracy the amplitude and possible correlation (with the adiabatic mode) of non-decaying isocurvature fluctuations. The fractional primordial contributions of cold dark matter (CDM) isocurvature modes of the types expected in the curvaton and axion scenarios have upper bounds of 0.25% and 3.9% (95% CL), respectively. In models with arbitrarily correlated CDM or neutrino isocurvature modes, an anticorrelated isocurvature component can improve the _2 e_ by approximately 4 as a result of slightly lowering the theoretical prediction for the ` <_ 40 multipoles relative to the higher multipoles. Nonetheless, the data are consistent with adiabatic initial conditions

Planck intermediate results XIV : Dust emission at millimetre wavelengths in the Galactic plane

Peer reviewe

Planck 2013 results. XIII. Galactic CO emission

Rotational transition lines of CO play a major role in molecular radio astronomy as a mass tracer and in particular in the study of star formation and Galactic structure. Although a wealth of data exists for the Galactic plane and some well-known molecular clouds, there is no available high sensitivity all-sky survey of CO emission to date. Such all-sky surveys can be constructed using the Planck HFI data because the three lowest CO rotational transition lines at 115, 230 and 345 GHz significantly contribute to the signal of the 100, 217 and 353 GHz HFI channels, respectively. Two different component separation methods are used to extract the CO maps from Planck HFI data. The maps obtained are then compared to one another and to existing external CO surveys. From these quality checks the best CO maps, in terms of signal to noise ratio and/or residual contamination by other emission, are selected. Three different sets of velocity-integrated CO emission maps are produced with different trade-offs between signal-to-noise, angular resolution, and reliability. Maps for the CO J = 1 → 0, J = 2 → 1, and J = 3 → 2 rotational transitions are presented and described in detail. They are shown to be fully compatible with previous surveys of parts of the Galactic plane as well as with undersampled surveys of the high latitude sky. The Planck HFI velocity-integrated CO maps for the J = 1 → 0, J = 2 → 1, and J = 3 →2 rotational transitions provide an unprecedented all-sky CO view of the Galaxy. These maps are also of great interest to monitor potential CO contamination of the Planck studies of the cosmological microwave background

Planck 2013 results. III. LFI systematic uncertainties

Peer reviewe