Cometary charge exchange diagnostics in UV and X‐ray

Since the initial discovery of cometary charge exchange emission, more than 20 comets have been observed with a variety of X‐ray and UV observatories. This observational sample offers a broad variety of comets, solar wind environments and observational conditions. It clearly demonstrates that solar wind charge exchange emission provides a wealth of diagnostics, which are visible as spatial, temporal, and spectral emission features. We review the possibilities and limitations of each of those in this contribution (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91138/1/335_ftp.pd

The SELF Trial: A self-efficacy based behavioral intervention trial for weight loss maintenance.

The SELF Trial examined the effect of adding individual self‐efficacy (SE) enhancement sessions to standard behavioral weight loss treatment (SBT). Participants were randomly assigned to SBT or SBT plus SE sessions (SBT+SE). Outcome measures were weight loss maintenance, quality of life, intervention adherence, and self‐efficacy at 12 and 18 months. The sample (N = 130) was female (83.08%) with a mean (SD) body mass index of 33.15 (4.11) kg m2. There was a significant time effect for percent weight change (P = 0.002) yet no significant group or group‐by‐time effects. The weight loss for the SBT+SE group was 8.38% (7.48) at 12 months and 8.00% (7.87) at 18 months, with no significant difference between the two time points (P = 0.06). However, weight loss for the SBT group was 6.95% (6.67) at 12 months and 5.96% (7.35) at 18 months, which was significantly different between the two time points (P = 0.005), indicating that the SBT group had significant weight regain. Both groups achieved clinically significant weight loss. The group receiving an intervention targeting enhanced self‐efficacy had greater weight loss maintenance whereas the SBT group demonstrated significant weight regain possibly related to the greater attention provided to the SBT+SE group

Meningococcus genome informatics platform: a system for analyzing multilocus sequence typing data

The Meningococcus Genome Informatics Platform (MGIP) is a suite of computational tools for the analysis of multilocus sequence typing (MLST) data, at http://mgip.biology.gatech.edu. MLST is used to generate allelic profiles to characterize strains of Neisseria meningitidis, a major cause of bacterial meningitis worldwide. Neisseria meningitidis strains are characterized with MLST as specific sequence types (ST) and clonal complexes (CC) based on the DNA sequences at defined loci. These data are vital to molecular epidemiology studies of N. meningitidis, including outbreak investigations and population biology. MGIP analyzes DNA sequence trace files, returns individual allele calls and characterizes the STs and CCs. MGIP represents a substantial advance over existing software in several respects: (i) ease of use—MGIP is user friendly, intuitive and thoroughly documented; (ii) flexibility—because MGIP is a website, it is compatible with any computer with an internet connection, can be used from any geographic location, and there is no installation; (iii) speed—MGIP takes just over one minute to process a set of 96 trace files; and (iv) expandability—MGIP has the potential to expand to more loci than those used in MLST and even to other bacterial species

A complete parameterisation of the relative humidity and wavelength dependence of the refractive index of hygroscopic inorganic aerosol particles

Calculations of aerosol radiative forcing require knowledge of wavelength-dependent aerosol optical properties, such as single-scattering albedo. These aerosol optical properties can be calculated using Mie theory from knowledge of the key microphysical properties of particle size and refractive index, assuming that atmospheric particles are well-approximated to be spherical and homogeneous. We provide refractive index determinations for aqueous aerosol particles containing the key atmospherically relevant inorganic solutes of NaCl, NaNO3, (NH4)2SO4, NH4HSO4 and Na2SO4, reporting the refractive index variation with both wavelength (400–650 nm) and relative humidity (from 100 % to the efflorescence value of the salt). The accurate and precise retrieval of refractive index is performed using single-particle cavity ring-down spectroscopy. This approach involves probing a single aerosol particle confined in a Bessel laser beam optical trap through a combination of extinction measurements using cavity ring-down spectroscopy and elastic light-scattering measurements. Further, we assess the accuracy of these refractive index measurements, comparing our data with previously reported data sets from different measurement techniques but at a single wavelength. Finally, we provide a Cauchy dispersion model that parameterises refractive index measurements in terms of both wavelength and relative humidity. Our parameterisations should provide useful information to researchers requiring an accurate and comprehensive treatment of the wavelength and relative humidity dependence of refractive index for the inorganic component of atmospheric aerosol

Heavy Baryon Specroscopy from the Lattice

The results of an exploratory lattice study of heavy baryon spectroscopy are presented. We have computed the full spectrum of the eight baryons containing a single heavy quark, on a $24^3\times 48$ lattice at $\beta=6.2$, using an $O(a)$-improved fermion action. We discuss the lattice baryon operators and give a method for isolating the contributions of the spin doublets $(\Sigma,\Sigma^*)$, $(\Xi',\Xi^*)$ and $(\Omega,\Omega^*)$ to the correlation function of the relevant operator. We compare our results with the available experimental data and find good agreement in both the charm and the beauty sectors, despite the long extrapolation in the heavy quark mass needed in the latter case. We also predict the masses of several undiscovered baryons. We compute the \Lambda-\mbox{pseudoscalar meson} and $\Sigma-\Lambda$ mass splittings. Our results, which have errors in the range $10-30\%$, are in good agreement with the experimental numbers. For the $\Sigma^*-\Sigma$ mass splitting, we find results considerably smaller than the experimental values for both the charm and the beauty baryons, although in the latter case the experimental results are still preliminary. This is also the case for the lattice results for the hyperfine splitting for the heavy mesons.Comment: 31 pages LaTex, with postscript figures include

Loop Quantum Gravity and the The Planck Regime of Cosmology

The very early universe provides the best arena we currently have to test quantum gravity theories. The success of the inflationary paradigm in accounting for the observed inhomogeneities in the cosmic microwave background already illustrates this point to a certain extent because the paradigm is based on quantum field theory on the curved cosmological space-times. However, this analysis excludes the Planck era because the background space-time satisfies Einstein's equations all the way back to the big bang singularity. Using techniques from loop quantum gravity, the paradigm has now been extended to a self-consistent theory from the Planck regime to the onset of inflation, covering some 11 orders of magnitude in curvature. In addition, for a narrow window of initial conditions, there are departures from the standard paradigm, with novel effects, such as a modification of the consistency relation involving the scalar and tensor power spectra and a new source for non-Gaussianities. Thus, the genesis of the large scale structure of the universe can be traced back to quantum gravity fluctuations \emph{in the Planck regime}. This report provides a bird's eye view of these developments for the general relativity community.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. Plenary talk at the Conference: Relativity and Gravitation: 100 Years after Einstein in Prague. To appear in the Proceedings to be published by Edition Open Access. Summarizes results that appeared in journal articles [2-13

Lattice loop quantum cosmology: scalar perturbations

We study the scalar modes of linear perturbations in loop quantum cosmology. This is done on a lattice where each cell is taken to be homogeneous and isotropic and can be quantized via standard homogeneous loop quantum cosmology techniques. The appropriate interactions between nearby cells are included in the Hamiltonian in order to obtain the correct physics. It is shown that the quantum theory is anomaly-free: the scalar and diffeomorphism constraint operators weakly commute with the Hamiltonian. Finally, the effective theory encoding the leading order quantum gravity corrections is derived and is shown to give the same holonomy-corrected effective equations that have been obtained in previous studies.Comment: 32 pages, v2: Minor change

The changing nature of labour regulation: the distinctiveness of the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry

The article addresses the changing nature of labour regulation through analysis of the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry, originating in 1981. It shows how multiple spatial regulatory scales, the changing coalitions of actors involved, employer and client engagement and labour agency have been critical to National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry's survival

A simple algorithm for quantifying DNA methylation levels on multiple independent CpG sites in bisulfite genomic sequencing electropherograms

DNA methylation at cytosines is a widely studied epigenetic modification. Methylation is commonly detected using bisulfite modification of DNA followed by PCR and additional techniques such as restriction digestion or sequencing. These additional techniques are either laborious, require specialized equipment, or are not quantitative. Here we describe a simple algorithm that yields quantitative results from analysis of conventional four-dye-trace sequencing. We call this method Mquant and we compare it with the established laboratory method of combined bisulfite restriction assay (COBRA). This analysis of sequencing electropherograms provides a simple, easily applied method to quantify DNA methylation at specific CpG sites