3,541 research outputs found
Distribution of particles which produces a "smart" material
If is the scattering amplitude, corresponding to a
potential , where is a bounded domain, and
is the incident plane wave, then we call the radiation
pattern the function , where the unit vector
, the incident direction, is fixed, and , the wavenumber, is
fixed. It is shown that any function , where is the
unit sphere in , can be approximated with any desired accuracy by a
radiation pattern: , where
is an arbitrary small fixed number. The potential ,
corresponding to , depends on and , and can be
calculated analytically. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the above
potential and the density of the number of small acoustically soft particles
, , distributed in an a priori given bounded
domain . The geometrical shape of a small particle is
arbitrary, the boundary of is Lipschitz uniformly with respect to
. The wave number and the direction of the incident upon
plane wave are fixed.It is shown that a suitable distribution of the above
particles in can produce the scattering amplitude ,
, at a fixed , arbitrarily close in the norm of
to an arbitrary given scattering amplitude
, corresponding to a real-valued potential .Comment: corrected typo
Stellar Structure and Tests of Modified Gravity
Theories that attempt to explain cosmic acceleration by modifying gravity
typically introduces a long-range scalar force that needs to be screened on
small scales. One common screening mechanism is the chameleon, where the scalar
force is screened in environments with a sufficiently deep gravitational
potential, but acts unimpeded in regions with a shallow gravitational
potential. This leads to a variation in the overall gravitational G with
environment. We show such a variation can occur within a star itself,
significantly affecting its evolution and structure, provided that the host
galaxy is unscreened. The effect is most pronounced for red giants, which would
be smaller by a factor of tens of percent and thus hotter by 100's of K,
depending on the parameters of the underlying scalar-tensor theory. Careful
measurements of these stars in suitable environments (nearby dwarf galaxies not
associated with groups or clusters) would provide constraints on the chameleon
mechanism that are four orders of magnitude better than current large scale
structure limits, and two orders of magnitude better than present solar system
tests.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure, submitted to Ap
Multiple effects govern endogenous retrovirus survival patterns in human gene introns
BACKGROUND: Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) and solitary long terminal repeats (LTRs) have a significant antisense bias when located in gene introns, suggesting strong negative selective pressure on such elements oriented in the same transcriptional direction as the enclosing gene. It has been assumed that this bias reflects the presence of strong transcriptional regulatory signals within LTRs but little work has been done to investigate this phenomenon further. RESULTS: In the analysis reported here, we found significant differences between individual human ERV families in their prevalence within genes and degree of antisense bias and show that, regardless of orientation, ERVs of most families are less likely to be found in introns than in intergenic regions. Examination of density profiles of ERVs across transcriptional units and the transcription signals present in the consensus ERVs suggests the importance of splice acceptor sites, in conjunction with splice donor and polyadenylation signals, as the major targets for selection against most families of ERVs/LTRs. Furthermore, analysis of annotated human mRNA splicing events involving ERV sequence revealed that the relatively young human ERVs (HERVs), HERV9 and HERV-K (HML-2), are involved in no human mRNA splicing events at all when oriented antisense to gene transcription, while elements in the sense direction in transcribed regions show considerable bias for use of strong splice sites. CONCLUSION: Our observations suggest suppression of splicing among young intronic ERVs oriented antisense to gene transcription, which may account for their reduced mutagenicity and higher fixation rate in gene introns
Multiple effects govern endogenous retrovirus survival patterns in human gene introns
BACKGROUND: Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) and solitary long terminal repeats (LTRs) have a significant antisense bias when located in gene introns, suggesting strong negative selective pressure on such elements oriented in the same transcriptional direction as the enclosing gene. It has been assumed that this bias reflects the presence of strong transcriptional regulatory signals within LTRs but little work has been done to investigate this phenomenon further. RESULTS: In the analysis reported here, we found significant differences between individual human ERV families in their prevalence within genes and degree of antisense bias and show that, regardless of orientation, ERVs of most families are less likely to be found in introns than in intergenic regions. Examination of density profiles of ERVs across transcriptional units and the transcription signals present in the consensus ERVs suggests the importance of splice acceptor sites, in conjunction with splice donor and polyadenylation signals, as the major targets for selection against most families of ERVs/LTRs. Furthermore, analysis of annotated human mRNA splicing events involving ERV sequence revealed that the relatively young human ERVs (HERVs), HERV9 and HERV-K (HML-2), are involved in no human mRNA splicing events at all when oriented antisense to gene transcription, while elements in the sense direction in transcribed regions show considerable bias for use of strong splice sites. CONCLUSION: Our observations suggest suppression of splicing among young intronic ERVs oriented antisense to gene transcription, which may account for their reduced mutagenicity and higher fixation rate in gene introns
The Young Stellar Population of the Nearby Late-Type Galaxy NGC 1311
We have extracted PSF-fitted stellar photometry from near-ultraviolet,
optical and near-infrared images, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, of
the nearby (D ~ 5.5 Mpc) SBm galaxy NGC 1311. The ultraviolet and optical data
reveal a population of hot main sequence stars with ages of 2-10 Myr. We also
find populations of blue supergiants with ages between 10 and 40 Myr and red
supergiants with ages between 10 and 100 Myr. Our near-infrared data shows
evidence of star formation going back ~1 Gyr, in agreement with previous work.
Fits to isochrones indicate a metallicity of Z ~ 0.004. The ratio of blue to
red supergiants is consistent with this metallicity. This indicates that NGC
1311 follows the well-known luminosity-metallicity relation for late-type dwarf
galaxies. About half of the hot main sequence stars and blue supergiants are
found in two regions in the inner part of NGC 1311. These two regions are each
about 200 pc across, and thus have crossing times roughly equal to the 10 Myr
age we find for the dominant young population. The Luminosity Functions of the
supergiants indicate a slowly rising star formation rate (of 0.001 Solar masses
per year) from ~100 Myr ago until ~15 Myr ago, followed by a strong enhancement
(to 0.01 Solar Masses per year) at ~10 Myr ago. We see no compelling evidence
for gaps in the star-forming history of NGC 1311 over the last 100 Myr, and,
with lower significance, none over the last Gyr. This argues against a bursting
mode, and in favor of a gasping or breathing mode for the recent star-formation
history.Comment: AASTex, 34 pages, 13 postscript figures. Accepted for publication by
The Astronomical Journa
Super-paramagnetic clustering of yeast gene expression profiles
High-density DNA arrays, used to monitor gene expression at a genomic scale,
have produced vast amounts of information which require the development of
efficient computational methods to analyze them. The important first step is to
extract the fundamental patterns of gene expression inherent in the data. This
paper describes the application of a novel clustering algorithm,
Super-Paramagnetic Clustering (SPC) to analysis of gene expression profiles
that were generated recently during a study of the yeast cell cycle. SPC was
used to organize genes into biologically relevant clusters that are suggestive
for their co-regulation. Some of the advantages of SPC are its robustness
against noise and initialization, a clear signature of cluster formation and
splitting, and an unsupervised self-organized determination of the number of
clusters at each resolution. Our analysis revealed interesting correlated
behavior of several groups of genes which has not been previously identified
Star Clusters in the Nearby Late-Type Galaxy NGC 1311
Ultraviolet, optical and near infrared images of the nearby (D ~ 5.5 Mpc) SBm
galaxy NGC 1311, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal a small
population of 13 candidate star clusters. We identify candidate star clusters
based on a combination of their luminosity, extent and spectral energy
distribution. The masses of the cluster candidates range from ~1000 up to
~100000 Solar masses, and show a strong positive trend of larger mass with
increasing with cluster age. Such a trend follows from the fading and
dissolution of old, low-mass clusters, and the lack of any young super star
clusters of the sort often formed in strong starbursts. The cluster age
distribution is consistent with a bursting mode of cluster formation, with
active episodes of age ~10 Myr, ~100 Myr and ~1 Gyr. The ranges of age and mass
we probe are consistent with those of the star clusters found in quiescent
Local Group dwarf galaxies.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, accepted by A
Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology
Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/
Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology
Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/
Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology
Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/
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