4,447 research outputs found
Shifting the Universe: Early Dark Energy and Standard Rulers
The presence of dark energy at high redshift influences both the cosmic sound
horizon and the distance to last scattering of the cosmic microwave background.
We demonstrate that through the degeneracy in their ratio, early dark energy
can lie hidden in the CMB temperature and polarization spectra, leading to an
unrecognized shift in the sound horizon. If the sound horizon is then used as a
standard ruler, as in baryon acoustic oscillations, then the derived
cosmological parameters can be nontrivially biased. Fitting for the absolute
ruler scale (just as supernovae must be fit for the absolute candle magnitude)
removes the bias but decreases the leverage of the BAO technique by a factor 2.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Energy-dependent quenching adjusts the excitation diffusion length to regulate photosynthetic light harvesting
An important determinant of crop yields is the regulation of photosystem II
(PSII) light harvesting by energy-dependent quenching (qE). However, the
molecular details of excitation quenching have not been quantitatively
connected to the PSII yield, which only emerges on the 100 nm scale of the
grana membrane and determines flux to downstream metabolism. Here, we
incorporate excitation dissipation by qE into a pigment-scale model of
excitation transfer and trapping for a 200 nm x 200 nm patch of the grana
membrane. We demonstrate that single molecule measurements of qE are consistent
with a weak-quenching regime. Consequently, excitation transport can be
rigorously coarse-grained to a 2D random walk with an excitation diffusion
length determined by the extent of quenching. A diffusion-corrected lake model
substantially improves the PSII yield determined from variable chlorophyll
fluorescence measurements and offers an improved model of PSII for
photosynthetic metabolism.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 3 supplementary figure
Recommended from our members
Assessing time knowledge in children aged 10 to 11 years
The acquisition of time knowledge involves learning how to read clocks, estimate time, read dates and learn about temporal sequences. Evidence suggests that many of these competencies are acquired by 10 years of age although not all children may follow this developmental path. The main purpose of this study was to collect normative data for a screening tool that assesses time knowledge. These data identify the prevalence and pattern of difficulties with time knowledge among a UK sample of Year 6 pupils (aged 10 to 11 years). The Time Screening Assessment tool (Doran, Dutt & Pembery, 2015), designed to assess time knowledge, was administered individually to a sample of 79 children. Findings revealed a median overall score of 32 out of a maximum score of 36. 25% of children performed at or close to ceiling, however seven children scored more than -1.5 standard deviations below the mean. The value of these findings to practitioners working with children in schools is discussed
- …