8,125 research outputs found
Testing three hypotheses about effects of sensitive-insensitive parenting on telomeres.
Telomeres are the protective DNA-protein sequences appearing at the ends of chromosomes; they shorten with each cell division and are considered a biomarker of aging. Shorter telomere length and greater erosion have been associated with compromised physical and mental health and are hypothesized to be affected by early life stress. In the latter case, most work has relied on retrospective measures of early life stressors. The Dutch research (n = 193) presented herein tested 3 hypotheses prospectively regarding effects of sensitive-insensitive parenting during the first 2.5 years on telomere length at age 6, when first measured, and change over the following 4 years. It was predicted that (1) less sensitive parenting would predict shorter telomeres and greater erosion and that such effects would be most pronounced in children (2) exposed to prenatal stress and/or (3) who were highly negatively emotional as infants. Results revealed, only, that prenatal stress amplified parenting effects on telomere change-in a differential-susceptibility-related manner: Prenatally stressed children displayed more erosion when they experienced insensitive parenting and less erosion when they experienced sensitive parenting. Mechanisms that might initiate greater postnatal plasticity as a result of prenatal stress are highlighted and future work outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Searching Gravitational Waves from Pulsars, Using Laser Beam Interferometers
We use recent population synthesis results to investigate the distribution of
pulsars in the frequency space, having a gravitational strain high enough to be
detected by the future generations of laser beam interferometers.
We find that until detectors become able to recover the entire population,
the frequency distribution of the 'detectable' population will be very
dependent on the detector noise curve. Assuming a mean equatorial deformation
, the optimal frequency is around 450 Hz for interferometers
of the first generation (LIGO or VIRGO) and shifts toward 85 Hz for advanced
detectors. An interesting result for future detection stategies is the
significant narrowing of the distribution when improving the sensitivity: with
an advanced detector, it is possible to have 90% of detection probability while
exploring less than 20% of the parameter space (7.5% in the case of ). In addition, we show that in most cases the spindown of
'detectable' pulsars represents a period shift of less than a tens of
nanoseconds after one year of observation, making them easier to follow in the
frequency space.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Honey Bunch \u27n\u27 Me
Contains advertisements and/or short musical examples of pieces being sold by publisher.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6808/thumbnail.jp
Raman depolarization ratios in RNA and DNA are sensitive for sugar-base coupling
Polarized and depolarized Raman spectra are obtained for a number of synthetic polynucleotides containing adenine, uracil, and thymine bases. The depolarization ratios are determined by two methods: (1) by dividing the -spectrum by the -spectrum and (2) after curve fitting. Overlapping bands, isotope splitting, reorientational broadening, and noncoincidence splitting affect the magnitude of the depolarization ratios over the band-width. For both Lorentz and Gauss curves these influences are simulated. A comparison of the Raman spectra of RNA and DNA molecules shows that the depolarization ratios for a number of similar base vibrations are different. The vibrational modes and the depolarization ratios of sugar vibrations are most sensitive to the structure of the polynucleotide. Base vibrations that have their potential energy distributed over base and sugar atoms also seem to be more sensitive to the structure. For instance the adenine vibrations at 1332 cm-1 and 1344 cm-1 in poly(dA), poly(dA) · poly(dT) and poly(dA-dT) · poly(dA-dT) have different depolarization ratios of, respectively, 0.36 and 0.28. This supports a previous assignment of the 1332 cm-1 band to a different sugar pucker (O4,-endo) than the C2,-endo corresponding with the 1344 cm-1 vibration. Assuming equal Raman scattering coefficients for this vibration, irrespective of the sugar pucker gives rise to the following ratio of the O4,-endo/C2,-endo in poly(dA) of 0.41, in poly(dA) · poly(dT) of 0.37, and in poly(dA-dT) · poly(dA-dT) of 0.41
High Precision Photometry for K2 Campaign 1
The two reaction wheel K2 mission promises and has delivered new discoveries
in the stellar and exoplanet fields. However, due to the loss of accurate
pointing, it also brings new challenges for the data reduction processes. In
this paper, we describe a new reduction pipeline for extracting high precision
photometry from the K2 dataset, and present public light curves for the K2
Campaign 1 target pixel dataset. Key to our reduction is the derivation of
global astrometric solutions from the target stamps, from which accurate
centroids are passed on for high precision photometry extraction. We extract
target light curves for sources from a combined UCAC4 and EPIC catalogue --
this includes not only primary targets of the K2 campaign 1, but also any other
stars that happen to fall on the pixel stamps. We provide the raw light curves,
and the products of various detrending processes aimed at removing different
types of systematics. Our astrometric solutions achieve a median residual of ~
0.13". For bright stars, our best 6.5 hour precision for raw light curves is
~20 parts per million (ppm). For our detrended light curves, the best 6.5 hour
precisions achieved is ~15 ppm. We show that our detrended light curves have
fewer systematic effects (or trends, or red-noise) than light curves produced
by other groups from the same observations. Example light curves of transiting
planets and a Cepheid variable candidate, are also presented. We make all light
curves public, including the raw and de-trended photometry, at
http://k2.hatsurveys.org.Comment: submitted to MNRA
Above Barrier Dirac Multiple Scattering and Resonances
We extend an above barrier analysis made with the Schrodinger equation to the
Dirac equation. We demonstrate the perfect agreement between the barrier
results and back to back steps. This implies the existence of multiple (indeed
infinite) reflected and transmitted wave packets. These packets may be well
separated in space or partially overlap. In the latter case interference
effects can occur. For the extreme case of total overlap we encounter
resonances. The conditions under which resonance phenomena can be observed is
discussed and illustrated by numerical calculations.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur
Modelling the VHE flare of 3C 279 using one zone leptonic model
We model the simultaneous observations of the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C
279 at radio, optical, X-ray and very high energy (VHE) gamma ray energies
during 2006 flare using a simple one zone leptonic model. We consider
synchrotron emission due to cooling of a non-thermal electron distribution in
an equipartition magnetic field and inverse Compton emission due to the
scattering off synchrotron photons (SSC) and external soft photons (EC) by the
same distribution of electrons. We show that the VHE gamma ray flux cannot be
explained by SSC process thereby suggesting the EC mechanism as a plausible
emission process at this energy. The EC scattering of BLR photons to VHE
energies will be in Klein-Nishina regime predicting a steep spectrum which is
contrary to the observations. However the infrared photons from the dusty torus
can be boosted to VHE energies with the scattering process remaining in the
Thomson regime. Though EC process can successfully explain the observed VHE
flux, it require a magnetic field much lower than the equipartition value to
reproduce the observed X-ray flux. Hence we attribute the X-ray emission due to
SSC process. We derive the physical parameters of 3C 279 considering the above
mentioned emission processes. In addition we assume the size of emission region
constrained by a variability timescale of one day. This model can successfully
reproduce the broadband spectrum of 3C 279 but predicts substantially large
flux at MeV-GeV energies.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
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