Calibration of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The construction of the Cherenkov Telescope Array is expected to start soon. We will present the baseline methods and their extensions currently foreseen to calibrate the observatory. These are bound to achieve the strong requirements on allowed systematic uncertainties for the reconstructed gamma-ray energy and flux scales, as well as on the pointing resolution, and on the overall duty cycle of the observatory. Onsite calibration activities are designed to include a robust and efficient calibration of the telescope cameras, and various methods and instruments to achieve calibration of the overall optical throughput of each telescope, leading to both inter-telescope calibration and an absolute calibration of the entire observatory. One important aspect of the onsite calibration is a correct understanding of the atmosphere above the telescopes, which constitutes the calorimeter of this detection technique. It is planned to be constantly monitored with state-of-the-art instruments to obtain a full molecular and aerosol profile up to the stratosphere. In order to guarantee the best use of the observation time, in terms of usable data, an intelligent scheduling system is required, which gives preference to those sources and observation programs that can cope with the given atmospheric conditions, especially if the sky is partially covered by clouds, or slightly contaminated by dust. Ceilometers in combination with all-sky-cameras are plannned to provide the observatory with a fast, online and full-sky knowledge of the expected conditions for each pointing direction. For a precise characterization of the adopted observing direction, wide-field optical telescopes and Raman Lidars are planned to provide information about the height-resolved and wavelength-dependent atmospheric extinction, throughout the field-of-view of the cameras

Checklist de psilídeos (Hemiptera, Sternorrhyncha, Psylloidea) de Mato Grosso, Brasil

Psyllids or jumping plant-lice are small phloem-feeding insects characterised by narrow host ranges, i.e., the plants on which they develop. This work shows the results of a survey of the superfamily Psylloidea in different biomes of Mato Grosso state. In total, 29 described genera and 24 described species are listed. The Cerrado biome showed the highest diversity, followed by the Amazon and Pantanal. Compared with a checklist published for Brazil in 2012, the present paper increases significantly the knowledge on the biodiversity of the state of Mato Grosso. In addition to the species recorded here for the first time from Mato Grosso (Diaphorina citri, Heteropsylla caldwelli, Pseudophacopteron longicaudatum, Tainarys myracrodrui and Trioza struthanthi), we provide also new records for other Brazilian states: Isogonoceraia divergipennis – from Maranhão, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina; Heteropsylla caldwelli – from Goiás and São Paulo; Euphalerus clitoriae – from Ceará, Goiás, Pará, Paraná and Santa Catarina; Trioza tabebuiae – from Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Santa Catarina; and Trioza struthanthi from São Paulo.Os psilídeos são insetos pequenos que se alimentam do floema e se caracterizam por apresentarem uma pequena faixa de plantas hospedeiras em que se desenvolvem. Este trabalho teve como objetivo prospectar e identificar insetos da superfamília de Psylloidea que ocorrem associados a diferentes biomas no Mato Grosso e que resultou na coleta de 29 gêneros descritos, com 24 espécies identificadas. O Cerrado foi o bioma que apresentou a maior diversidade, seguido pela Amazônia e Pantanal. Comparando com a última lista de psilídeos publicada para o Brasil, em 2012, este artigo contribuiu significativamente para o aumento do conhecimento da biodiversidade de Mato Grosso. Além das espécies registradas para o Mato Grosso (Diaphorina citri, Heteropsylla caldwelli, Pseudophacopteron longicaudatum, Tainarys myracrodruie Trioza struthanthi), também apresentamos novos registros para outros estados brasileiros: Isogonoceraia divergipennis– no Maranhão, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro e Santa Catarina; Heteropsylla caldwelli – em Goiás e São Paulo; Euphalerus clitoriae – no Ceará, Goiás, Pará, Paraná e Santa Catarina; Trioza tabebuiae – em Minas Gerais, São Paulo e Santa Catarina; e Trioza struthanthi em São Paulo

Sectoral vs. Aggregate Shocks: A Structural Factor Analysis of Industrial Production

This paper uses factor analytic methods to decompose industrial production (IP) into components arising from aggregate shocks and idiosyncratic sector-specific shocks. An approximate factor model finds that nearly all (90%) of the variability of quarterly growth rates in IP are associated with common factors. Because common factors may reflect sectoral shocks that have propagated by way of input-output linkages, we then use a multisector growth model to adjust for the effects of these linkages. In particular, we show that neoclassical multisector models, of the type first introduced by Long and Plosser (1983), produce an approximate factor model as a reduced form. A structural factor analysis then indicates that aggregate shocks continue to be the dominant source of variation in IP, but the importance of sectoral shocks more than doubles after the Great Moderation (to 30%). The increase in the relative importance of these shocks follows from a fall in the contribution of aggregate shocks to IP movements after 1984.

Modern Sedimentation and Authigenic Mineral Formation in the Chew Bahir Basin, Southern Ethiopia:Implications for Interpretation of Late Quaternary Paleoclimate Records

We present new mineralogical and geochemical data from modern sediments in the Chew Bahir basin and catchment, Ethiopia. Our goal is to better understand the role of modern sedimentary processes in chemical proxy formation in the Chew Bahir paleolake, a newly investigated paleoclimatic archive, to provide environmental context for human evolution and dispersal. Modern sediment outside the currently dry playa lake floor have higher SiO2 and Al2O3 (50-70 wt.%) content compared to mudflat samples. On average, mudflat sediment samples are enriched in elements such as Mg, Ca, Ce, Nd, and Na, indicating possible enrichment during chemical weathering (e.g., clay formation). Thermodynamic modeling of evaporating water in upstream Lake Chamo is shown to produce an authigenic mineral assemblage of calcite, analcime, and Mg-enriched authigenic illitic clay minerals, consistent with the prevalence of environments of enhanced evaporative concentration in the Chew Bahir basin. A comparison with samples from the sediment cores of Chew Bahir based on whole-rock MgO/Al2O3, Ba/Sr and authigenic clay mineral delta O-18 values shows the following: modern sediments deposited in the saline mudflats of the Chew Bahir dried out lake bed resemble paleosediments deposited during dry periods, such as during times of the Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas stadial. Sediments from modern detrital upstream sources are more similar to sediments deposited during wetter periods, such as the early Holocene African Humid Period

Changing the Environment Based on Empowerment as Intrinsic Motivation

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 3.0 which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.One aspect of intelligence is the ability to restructure your own environment so that the world you live in becomes more beneficial to you. In this paper we investigate how the information-theoretic measure of agent empowerment can provide a task-independent, intrinsic motivation to restructure the world. We show how changes in embodiment and in the environment change the resulting behaviour of the agent and the artefacts left in the world. For this purpose, we introduce an approximation of the established empowerment formalism based on sparse sampling, which is simpler and significantly faster to compute for deterministic dynamics. Sparse sampling also introduces a degree of randomness into the decision making process, which turns out to beneficial for some cases. We then utilize the measure to generate agent behaviour for different agent embodiments in a Minecraft-inspired three dimensional block world. The paradigmatic results demonstrate that empowerment can be used as a suitable generic intrinsic motivation to not only generate actions in given static environments, as shown in the past, but also to modify existing environmental conditions. In doing so, the emerging strategies to modify an agent’s environment turn out to be meaningful to the specific agent capabilities, i.e., de facto to its embodiment.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Protocol designs for NOON states

The ability to reliably prepare non-classical states will play a major role in the realization of quantum technology. NOON states, belonging to the class of Schrödinger cat states, have emerged as a leading candidate for several applications. Here we show how to generate NOON states in a model of dipolar bosons confined to a closed circuit of four sites. This is achieved by designing protocols to transform initial Fock states to NOON states through use of time evolution, application of an external field, and local projective measurements. The evolution time is independent of total particle number, offering an encouraging prospect for scalability. By variation of the external field strength, we demonstrate how the system can be controlled to encode a phase into a NOON state. We also discuss the physical feasibility, via ultracold dipolar atoms in an optical superlattice setup. Our proposal showcases the benefits of quantum integrable systems in the design of protocols

Report of first recurrent glioma patients examined with PET-MRI prior to re-irradiation

Background and purpose The advantage of combined PET-MRI over sequential PET and MRI is the high spatial conformity and the absence of time delay between the examinations. The benefit of this technique for planning of re-irradiation (re-RT) treatment is unkown yet. Imaging data from a phase 1 trial of re-RT for recurrent glioma was analysed to assess whether planning target volumes and treatment margins in glioma re-RT can be adjusted by PET-MRI with rater independent PET based biological tumour volumes (BTVs). Patients and methods Combined PET-MRI with the tracer O-(2-F-18-fluoroethyl)-1-tyrosine (F-18-FET) prior to re-RT was performed in recurrent glioma patients in a phase I trial. GTVs including all regions suspicious of tumour on contrast enhanced MRI were delineated by three experienced radiation oncologists and included into MRI based consensus GTVs (mRGTVs). BTVs were semiautomatically delineated with a fixed threshold of 1.6 x background activity. Corresponding BTVs and mRGTVs were fused into union volume RET-NARGIVs. The Sorensen Dice coefficient and the conformity index were used to assess the geometric overlap of the BTVs with the mRGTVs. A recurrence pattern analysis was performed based on the original planning target volumes (PTVs = GTV + 10 mm margin or 5 mm in one case) and the RET-NARGTVs with margins of 10, 8, 5 and 3 mm. Results Seven recurrent glioma patients, who received PET-MRI prior to re-RT, were included into the present planning study. At the time of re-RT, patients were in median 54 years old and had a median Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score of 80. Median post-recurrence survival after the beginning of re-RT was 13 months. Concomitant bevacizumab therapy was applied in six patients and one patient received chemoradiation with temozolomide. Median GTV volumes of the three radiation oncologists were 35.0, 37.5 and 40.5 cubic centimeters (cc) and median (MR)GTV volume 41.8 cc. Median BTV volume was 36.6 cc and median (PET-MR)GTV volume 59.3 cc. The median Sorensen-Dice coefficient for the comparison between (MR)GTV and BTV was 0.61 and the median conformity index 0.44. Recurrence pattern analysis revealed two central, two in-field and one distant recurrence within both, the original PTV, as well as the (PER-MR)GTV with a reduced margin of 3 mm. Conclusion PET-MRI provides radiation treatment planning imaging with high spatial and timely conformity for high-grade glioma patients treated with re-RT with potential advancements for target volume delineation. Prospective randomised trials are warranted to further investigate the treatment benefits of PET-MRI based re-RT planning

an island endemic forest specialist and a widespread habitat generalist

Background. The bay cat Catopuma badia is endemic to Borneo, whereas its sister species the Asian golden cat Catopuma temminckii is distributed from the Himalayas and southern China through Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Based on morphological data, up to five subspecies of the Asian golden cat have been recognized, but a taxonomic assessment, including molecular data and morphological characters, is still lacking. Results. We combined molecular data (whole mitochondrial genomes), morphological data (pelage) and species distribution projections (up to the Late Pleistocene) to infer how environmental changes may have influenced the distribution of these sister species over the past 120 000 years. The molecular analysis was based on sequenced mitogenomes of 3 bay cats and 40 Asian golden cats derived mainly from archival samples. Our molecular data suggested a time of split between the two species approximately 3.16 Ma and revealed very low nucleotide diversity within the Asian golden cat population, which supports recent expansion of the population. Discussion. The low nucleotide diversity suggested a population bottleneck in the Asian golden cat, possibly caused by the eruption of the Toba volcano in Northern Sumatra (approx. 74 kya), followed by a continuous population expansion in the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene. Species distribution projections, the reconstruction of the demographic history, a genetic isolation-by-distance pattern and a gradual variation of pelage pattern support the hypothesis of a post-Toba population expansion of the Asian golden cat from south China/Indochina to Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Our findings reject the current classification of five subspecies for the Asian golden cat, but instead support either a monotypic species or one comprising two subspecies: (i) the Sunda golden cat, distributed south of the Isthmus of Kra: C. t. temminckii and (ii) Indochinese, Indian, Himalayan and Chinese golden cats, occurring north of the Isthmus: C. t. moormensis

Problems and Pitfalls of Identifying Remyelination in Multiple Sclerosis.

Regenerative medicines that promote remyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS) are making the transition from laboratory to clinical trials. While animal models provide the experimental flexibility to analyze mechanisms of remyelination, here we discuss the challenges in understanding where and how remyelination occurs in MS.The authors acknowledge the following support: The UK Multiple Sclerosis Society (RTK, CZ, RJMF), The Adelson Medical Research Foundation (DSR, DEB, RJMF), Intramural Research Program of NINDS/NIH (DSR), European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Re- search and Innovation Program (RTK), The Lister Institute (RTK), and a core support grant from the Wellcome and MRC to the Wellcome-Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (RTK, RJMF)