Differential cross section for electron impact excitation of metastable helium measured by the atomic time-of-flight method

The authors have measured the differential cross section for the inelastic process He(11S0)+e- to He(23S1)+e- just above threshold by bombarding a beam of helium atoms with electrons from a pulsed electron gun and measuring the times of flight of the excited metastable atoms to a distant detector. Since each time of flight corresponds to a definite value of the electron scattering angle, the angular distribution of electrons scattered over the entire range 0-180 degrees is deduced from the data.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/48848/2/jbv10i2pL43.pd

Evolutionary dynamics of the most populated genotype on rugged fitness landscapes

We consider an asexual population evolving on rugged fitness landscapes which are defined on the multi-dimensional genotypic space and have many local optima. We track the most populated genotype as it changes when the population jumps from a fitness peak to a better one during the process of adaptation. This is done using the dynamics of the shell model which is a simplified version of the quasispecies model for infinite populations and standard Wright-Fisher dynamics for large finite populations. We show that the population fraction of a genotype obtained within the quasispecies model and the shell model match for fit genotypes and at short times, but the dynamics of the two models are identical for questions related to the most populated genotype. We calculate exactly several properties of the jumps in infinite populations some of which were obtained numerically in previous works. We also present our preliminary simulation results for finite populations. In particular, we measure the jump distribution in time and find that it decays as $t^{-2}$ as in the quasispecies problem.Comment: Minor changes. To appear in Phys Rev

Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. 85

Covering Leg 85 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel Glomar Challenger Los Angeles, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii March-April 1982. Includes six chapters: 1. INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, DEEP SEA DRILLING PROJECT LEG 85, CENTRAL EQUATORIAL PACIFIC 2. SITE 571 3. SITE 572 4. SITE 573 5. SITE 574 6. SITE 57

Magnetically Controlled Accretion Flows onto Young Stellar Objects

(abridged) Accretion from disks onto young stars is thought to follow magnetic field lines from the inner disk edge to the stellar surface. The accretion flow thus depends on the geometry of the magnetic field. This paper extends previous work by constructing a collection of orthogonal coordinate systems, including the corresponding differential operators, where one coordinate traces the magnetic field lines. This formalism allows for an (essentially) analytic description of the geometry and the conditions required for the flow to pass through sonic points. Using this approach, we revisit the problem of magnetically controlled accretion flow in a dipole geometry, and then generalize the treatment to consider magnetic fields with multiple components, including dipole, octupole, and split monopole contributions. This approach can be generalized further to consider more complex magnetic field configurations. Observations indicate that accreting young stars have substantial dipole and octupole components, and that accretion flow is transonic. If the effective equation of state for the fluid is too stiff, the flow cannot pass smoothly through the sonic points in steady state. For a multipole field of order \ell, we derive a constraint on the polytropic index, n>\ell+3/2, required for steady transonic flow to reach free-fall velocities. For octupole fields, inferred on surfaces of T Tauri stars, n>9/2, so that the flow must be close to isothermal. The inclusion of octupole field components produces higher densities at the stellar surface and smaller hot spots, which occur at higher latitudes; the magnetic truncation radius is also modified. This contribution thus increases our understanding of magnetically controlled accretion for young stellar objects and can be applied to a variety of additional astrophysical problems.Comment: 50 pages, 8 figures, accepted to Ap

Records and sequences of records from random variables with a linear trend

We consider records and sequences of records drawn from discrete time series of the form $X_{n}=Y_{n}+cn$, where the $Y_{n}$ are independent and identically distributed random variables and $c$ is a constant drift. For very small and very large drift velocities, we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the probability $p_n(c)$ of a record occurring in the $n$th step and the probability $P_N(c)$ that all $N$ entries are records, i.e. that $X_1 < X_2 < ... < X_N$. Our work is motivated by the analysis of temperature time series in climatology, and by the study of mutational pathways in evolutionary biology.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Predictability of evolutionary trajectories in fitness landscapes

Experimental studies on enzyme evolution show that only a small fraction of all possible mutation trajectories are accessible to evolution. However, these experiments deal with individual enzymes and explore a tiny part of the fitness landscape. We report an exhaustive analysis of fitness landscapes constructed with an off-lattice model of protein folding where fitness is equated with robustness to misfolding. This model mimics the essential features of the interactions between amino acids, is consistent with the key paradigms of protein folding and reproduces the universal distribution of evolutionary rates among orthologous proteins. We introduce mean path divergence as a quantitative measure of the degree to which the starting and ending points determine the path of evolution in fitness landscapes. Global measures of landscape roughness are good predictors of path divergence in all studied landscapes: the mean path divergence is greater in smooth landscapes than in rough ones. The model-derived and experimental landscapes are significantly smoother than random landscapes and resemble additive landscapes perturbed with moderate amounts of noise; thus, these landscapes are substantially robust to mutation. The model landscapes show a deficit of suboptimal peaks even compared with noisy additive landscapes with similar overall roughness. We suggest that smoothness and the substantial deficit of peaks in the fitness landscapes of protein evolution are fundamental consequences of the physics of protein folding.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Development and validation of a novel non-contact monitor of nocturnal respiration for identifying sleep-disordered breathing in patients with heart failure

© 2016 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. Aims: At least 50% of patients with heart failure (HF) may have sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Overnight in-hospital polysomnography (PSG) is considered the gold standard for diagnosis, but a lack of access to such testing contributes to under-diagnosis of SDB. Therefore, there is a need for simple and reliable validated methods to aid diagnosis in patients with HF. The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of a non-contact type IV screening device, SleepMinderTM (SM), compared with in-hospital PSG for detecting SDB in patients with HF. Methods and results: The study included 75 adult patients with systolic HF and suspected SDB who underwent simultaneous PSG and SM recordings. An algorithm was developed from the SM signals, using digital signal processing and pattern recognition techniques to calculate the SM apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI). This was then compared with expert-scored PSGAHI. The SM algorithm had 70% sensitivity and 89% specificity for identifying patients with clinically significant SDB (AHI ≥ 15/h). At this threshold, it had a positive likelihood ratio of 6.3 and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.16. The overall accuracy of the SMAHI algorithm was 85.8% as shown by the area under a receiver operator characteristic curve. The mean AHI with SM was 3.8/h (95% confidence interval 0.5–7.1) lower than that with PSG. Conclusions: The accuracy of the non-contact type IV screening device SM is good for clinically significant SDB in patients with systolic HF and could be considered as a simple first step in the diagnostic pathway

A New Precision Measurement of the 7Be(p,gamma)8B Cross section with an Implanted 7Be Target

The 7Be(p,gamma)8B reaction plays a central role in the evaluation of solar neutrino fluxes. We report on a new precision measurement of the cross section of this reaction, following our previous experiment with an implanted 7Be target, a raster scanned beam and the elimination of the backscattering loss. The new measurement incorporates a more abundant 7Be target and a number of improvements in design and procedure. The point at Elab=991 keV was measured several times under varying conditions, yielding a value of S17(Ec.m. =850 keV) = 24.0(5) eV b. Measurements were carried out at lower energies as well. Due to the precise knowledge of the implanted 7Be density profile it was possible to reconstitute both the off- and on resonance parts of the cross section and to obtain from the entire set of measurements an extrapolated value of S17(0)=21.2(7) eV b.Comment: 4 Pages, 3 Figure