5,278 research outputs found
Smallpox Models as Policy Tools1
Interactions between policymakers and mathematical modelers can improve biodefense strategies
Mapping Isolation and Loneliness Amongst Older People in Belfast Report Commissioned by the Belfast Strategic Partnership
Bidirectional transcription of a novel chimeric gene mapping to mouse chromosome Yq
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The male-specific region of the mouse Y chromosome long arm (MSYq) contains three known highly multi-copy X-Y homologous gene families, <it>Ssty1/2</it>, <it>Sly </it>and <it>Asty</it>. Deletions on MSYq lead to teratozoospermia and subfertility or infertility, with a sex ratio skew in the offspring of subfertile MSYqdel males</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report the highly unusual genomic structure of a novel MSYq locus, <it>Orly</it>, and a diverse set of spermatid-specific transcripts arising from copies of this locus. <it>Orly </it>is composed of partial copies of <it>Ssty1</it>, <it>Asty </it>and <it>Sly </it>arranged in sequence. The <it>Ssty1- </it>and <it>Sly-</it>derived segments are in antisense orientation relative to each other, leading to bi-directional transcription of <it>Orly</it>. Genome search and phylogenetic tree analysis is used to determine the order of events in mouse Yq evolution. We find that <it>Orly </it>is the most recent gene to arise on Yq, and that subsequently there was massive expansion in copy number of all Yq-linked genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>Orly </it>has an unprecedented chimeric structure, and generates both "forward" (<it>Orly</it>) and "reverse" (<it>Orlyos</it>) transcripts arising from the promoters at each end of the locus. The region of overlap of known <it>Orly </it>and <it>Orlyos </it>transcripts is homologous to <it>Sly </it>intron 2. We propose that <it>Orly </it>may be involved in an intragenomic conflict between mouse X and Y chromosomes, and that this process underlies the massive expansion in copy number of the genes on MSYq and their X homologues.</p
The Efficacy of Fibrinogen Concentrates in Relation to Cryoprecipitate in Restoring Clot Integrity and Stability against Lysis
Funding: This work was supported in part by Tenovus Scotland Grampian (G17.03) and Friends of Anchor (SC025332). C.S.W. and N.J.M. were supported by the British Heart Foundation (PG/15/82/31721and PG/20/17/35050). Acknowledgments: We thank the NHS Grampian Haematology department for kindly performing the Clauss assay to measure the fibrinogen concentration in the cryoprecipitate. We thank the University of Aberdeen Microscopy and Histology facility for their advice and the use of their facilities. We thank Linda Robertson and Megan Simpson for their technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
The Evolution of the Optical and Near-Infrared Galaxy Luminosity Functions and Luminosity Densities to z~2
Using Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based U through K- band photometry
from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), we measure the
evolution of the luminosity function and luminosity density in the rest-frame
optical (UBR) to z ~ 2, bridging the poorly explored ``redshift desert''
between z~1 and z~2. We also use deep near-infrared observations to measure the
evolution in the rest-frame J-band to z~1. Compared to local measurements from
the SDSS, we find a brightening of the characteristic magnitude, (M*), by ~2.1,
\~0.8 and ~0.7 mag between z=0.1 and z=1.9, in U, B, and R bands, respectively.
The evolution of M* in the J-band is in the opposite sense, showing a dimming
between redshifts z=0.4 and z=0.9. This is consistent with a scenario in which
the mean star formation rate in galaxies was higher in the past, while the mean
stellar mass was lower, in qualitative agreement with hierarchical galaxy
formation models. We find that the shape of the luminosity function is strongly
dependent on spectral type and that there is strong evolution with redshift in
the relative contribution from the different spectral types to the luminosity
density.
We find good agreement in the luminosity function derived from an R-selected
and a K-selected sample at z~1, suggesting that optically selected surveys of
similar depth (R < 24) are not missing a significant fraction of objects at
this redshift relative to a near-infrared-selected sample. We compare the
rest-frame B-band luminosity functions from z~0--2 with the predictions of a
semi-analytic hierarchical model of galaxy formation, and find qualitatively
good agreement. In particular, the model predicts at least as many optically
luminous galaxies at z~1--2 as are implied by our observations.Comment: 43 pages; 15 Figures; 5 Tables, Accepted for publication in Ap.
GANs and Closures: Micro-Macro Consistency in Multiscale Modeling
Sampling the phase space of molecular systems -- and, more generally, of
complex systems effectively modeled by stochastic differential equations -- is
a crucial modeling step in many fields, from protein folding to materials
discovery. These problems are often multiscale in nature: they can be described
in terms of low-dimensional effective free energy surfaces parametrized by a
small number of "slow" reaction coordinates; the remaining "fast" degrees of
freedom populate an equilibrium measure on the reaction coordinate values.
Sampling procedures for such problems are used to estimate effective free
energy differences as well as ensemble averages with respect to the conditional
equilibrium distributions; these latter averages lead to closures for effective
reduced dynamic models. Over the years, enhanced sampling techniques coupled
with molecular simulation have been developed. An intriguing analogy arises
with the field of Machine Learning (ML), where Generative Adversarial Networks
can produce high dimensional samples from low dimensional probability
distributions. This sample generation returns plausible high dimensional space
realizations of a model state, from information about its low-dimensional
representation. In this work, we present an approach that couples physics-based
simulations and biasing methods for sampling conditional distributions with
ML-based conditional generative adversarial networks for the same task. The
"coarse descriptors" on which we condition the fine scale realizations can
either be known a priori, or learned through nonlinear dimensionality
reduction. We suggest that this may bring out the best features of both
approaches: we demonstrate that a framework that couples cGANs with
physics-based enhanced sampling techniques can improve multiscale SDE dynamical
systems sampling, and even shows promise for systems of increasing complexity.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, 3 table
Non-parametric analysis of the rest-frame UV sizes and morphological disturbance amongst L* galaxies at 4<z<8
We present the results of a study investigating the sizes and morphologies of
redshift 4 < z < 8 galaxies in the CANDELS GOODS-S, HUDF and HUDF parallel
fields. Based on non-parametric measurements and incorporating a careful
treatment of measurement biases, we quantify the typical size of galaxies at
each redshift as the peak of the log-normal size distribution, rather than the
arithmetic mean size. Parameterizing the evolution of galaxy half-light radius
as , we find at bright
UV-luminosities () and at faint
luminosities (). Furthermore, simulations based on
artificially redshifting our z~4 galaxy sample show that we cannot reject the
null hypothesis of no size evolution. We show that this result is caused by a
combination of the size-dependent completeness of high-redshift galaxy samples
and the underestimation of the sizes of the largest galaxies at a given epoch.
To explore the evolution of galaxy morphology we first compare asymmetry
measurements to those from a large sample of simulated single S\'ersic
profiles, in order to robustly categorise galaxies as either `smooth' or
`disturbed'. Comparing the disturbed fraction amongst bright () galaxies at each redshift to that obtained by artificially redshifting
our z~4 galaxy sample, while carefully matching the size and UV-luminosity
distributions, we find no clear evidence for evolution in galaxy morphology
over the redshift interval 4 < z < 8. Therefore, based on our results, a bright
() galaxy at z~6 is no more likely to be measured as
`disturbed' than a comparable galaxy at z~4, given the current observational
constraints.Comment: 29 pages, 25 figures, 4 tables, published in MNRA
More evidence for an intracluster planetary nebulae population in the Virgo cluster
We surveyed a 50 sq arcmin region in the Virgo cluster core to search for
intergalactic planetary nebulae, and found 11 candidates in the surveyed area.
The measured fluxes of these unresolved sources are consistent with these
objects being planetary nebulae from an intracluster population of stars. We
compute the cumulative luminosity function of these 11 planetary nebula
candidates. If we assume that they belong to the Virgo cluster, their
cumulative luminosity function is in good agreement with planetary nebula
luminosity function simulations. This comparison allows us to estimate the
surface mass density of the intracluster stellar population at the surveyed
field in the cluster core.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press. A .ps file is also available at:
http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de:8001/people/mendez/preprints/preprints.htm
High levels of childhood obesity observed among 3- to 7-year-old New Zealand Pacific children is a public health concern.
This cross-sectional, community-based survey was designed to assess attained growth and body composition of 3- to 7-y-old Pacific children (n = 21 boys and 20 girls) living in Dunedin, New Zealand, and to examine nondietary factors associated with the percentage of body fat. Fat mass, lean tissue mass and the percentage of body fat were measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. One trained anthropometrist also measured height, weight, skinfolds (triceps, subscapular) and circumferences (mid-upper arm, chest, waist, calf). Compared with the National Center for Health Statistics and National Health and Examination Surveys I and II reference data, these Pacific children were tall and heavy for their age with high arm-muscle-area-for-height. Median (quartiles) Z-scores for height and BMI-for-age and arm-muscle-area-for-height were 1.33 (0.60, 2.15), 1.20 (0.74, 4.43) and 1.09 (0.63, 1.85), respectively. Their median (quartile) percentage of body fat was 21.8% (15.0, 35.5) of which 38.5% was located in the trunk. The estimated percentage of children classified as obese ranged from 34 to 49% depending on the criterion used. Over 60% of the children had levels of trunk fat above 1 SD of reported age- and sex-specific Z-scores for New Zealand children. The nondietary factors examined (hours of television viewing and hours playing organized sports, as reported by parents) were not associated with variations in the percentage of body fat, after adjusting for age, sex and birth weight. These extremely high levels of obesity and truncal fat among very young New Zealand children will have major public health implications as these children age
'Debating 'The Rediscovery of Liberalism' in Zambia: Responses to Harri Englund
In Africa 83(4) (November 2013), Harri Englund discussed several recent books on Zambia published preceding the country’s fiftieth independence anniversary. His article explored the ways in which recent publications by Zambian and Zambianist authors have launched a fresh research agenda, and he focused in particular on the scholarly engagement with liberalism. Below, we publish responses from David M.Gordon, Bizeck Jube Phiri and Giacomo Macola, whose work was discussed in this article, and a comment by James Ferguson on more scholarly directions
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