Sixth Amendment; Right of Confrontation; Unavailalbe Witness; State v. Roberts

THE SIXTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution states that [iln all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him .... . This seems simple and absolute, but case law has proven it to be neither; almost every phrase has been dissected and interpreted by courts and commentators. In fact, there may be more law review articles on this subject than there are cases.1 Some of the questions that could be asked are: What is meant by all criminal prosecutions? Does this require confrontation in preliminary hearings? Does shall enjoy the right give only a privilege that may be waived? Is to be confronted synonymous with cross-examination? Are [t]he witnesses against any persons whose testimony is utilized by the prosecution at trial or any persons whose testimony might be so used

Scanning electron microscopy of Rydberg-excited Bose-Einstein condensates

We report on the realization of high resolution electron microscopy of Rydberg-excited ultracold atomic samples. The implementation of an ultraviolet laser system allows us to excite the atom, with a single-photon transition, to Rydberg states. By using the electron microscopy technique during the Rydberg excitation of the atoms, we observe a giant enhancement in the production of ions. This is due to $l$-changing collisions, which broaden the Rydberg level and therefore increase the excitation rate of Rydberg atoms. Our results pave the way for the high resolution spatial detection of Rydberg atoms in an atomic sample

Comparison of Target-Capture and Restriction-Site Associated DNA Sequencing for Phylogenomics: A Test in Cardinalid Tanagers (Aves, Genus: Piranga)

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Systematic Biology following peer review. The version of record, Joseph D. Manthey, Luke C. Campillo, Kevin J. Burns, Robert G. Moyle; Comparison of Target-Capture and Restriction-Site Associated DNA Sequencing for Phylogenomics: A Test in Cardinalid Tanagers (Aves, Genus: Piranga), Systematic Biology, Volume 65, Issue 4, 1 July 2016, Pages 640–650, is available online at: ttps://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syw005.Restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) and target capture of specific genomic regions, such as ultraconserved elements (UCEs), are emerging as two of the most popular methods for phylogenomics using reduced-representation genomic data sets. These two methods were designed to target different evolutionary timescales: RAD-seq was designed for population-genomic level questions and UCEs for deeper phylogenetics. The utility of both data sets to infer phylogenies across a variety of taxonomic levels has not been adequately compared within the same taxonomic system. Additionally, the effects of uninformative gene trees on species tree analyses (for target capture data) have not been explored. Here, we utilize RAD-seq and UCE data to infer a phylogeny of the bird genus Piranga. The group has a range of divergence dates (0.5–6 myr), contains 11 recognized species, and lacks a resolved phylogeny. We compared two species tree methods for the RAD-seq data and six species tree methods for the UCE data. Additionally, in the UCE data, we analyzed a complete matrix as well as data sets with only highly informative loci. A complete matrix of 189 UCE loci with 10 or more parsimony informative (PI) sites, and an approximately 80% complete matrix of 1128 PI single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (from RAD-seq) yield the same fully resolved phylogeny of Piranga. We inferred non-monophyletic relationships of Pirangalutea individuals, with all other a priori species identified as monophyletic. Finally, we found that species tree analyses that included predominantly uninformative gene trees provided strong support for different topologies, with consistent phylogenetic results when limiting species tree analyses to highly informative loci or only using less informative loci with concatenation or methods meant for SNPs alone

Nanoscale Electronic Order in Iron Pnictides

The charge distribution in RFeAs (R=La, Sm) iron pnictides is probed using As NQR. Whereas undoped and optimally-doped/overdoped compounds feature a single charge environment, two charge environments are detected in the underdoped region. Spin- lattice relaxation measurements show their coexistence at the nanoscale. Together with the quantitative variations of the spectra with doping, they point at a local electronic order in the iron layers, where low- and high-doping-like regions would coexist. Implications for the interplay of static magnetism and superconductivity are discussed

Multiple sequence alignment based on set covers

We introduce a new heuristic for the multiple alignment of a set of sequences. The heuristic is based on a set cover of the residue alphabet of the sequences, and also on the determination of a significant set of blocks comprising subsequences of the sequences to be aligned. These blocks are obtained with the aid of a new data structure, called a suffix-set tree, which is constructed from the input sequences with the guidance of the residue-alphabet set cover and generalizes the well-known suffix tree of the sequence set. We provide performance results on selected BAliBASE amino-acid sequences and compare them with those yielded by some prominent approaches

Improving alcohol health literacy and reducing alcohol consumption: recommendations for Germany

Background: Although the detrimental health effects of alcohol are well established, consumption levels are high in many high-income countries such as Germany. Improving alcohol health literacy presents an integrated approach to alcohol prevention and an important complement to alcohol policy. Our aim was to identify and prioritize measures to enhance alcohol health literacy and hence to reduce alcohol consumption, using Germany as an example.Methods: A series of recommendations for improving alcohol health literacy were derived from a review of the literature and subsequently rated by five experts. Recommendations were rated according to their likely impact on enhancing (a) alcohol health literacy and (b) reducing alcohol consumption. Inter-rater agreement was assessed using a two-way intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC).Results: Eleven recommendations were established for three areas of action: (1) education and information, (2) health care system, and (3) alcohol control policy. Education and information measures were rated high to increase alcohol health literacy but low to their impact on alcohol consumption, while this pattern was reversed for alcohol control policies. The ratings showed good agreement (ICC: 0.85-0.88).Conclusions: Improving alcohol health literacy and reducing alcohol consumption should be considered complementary and become part of a comprehensive alcohol strategy to curb the health, social, and economic burden of alcohol

Wireless recording of the calls of Rousettus aegyptiacus and their reproduction using electrostatic transducers

Bats are capable of imaging their surroundings in great detail using echolocation. To apply similar methods to human engineering systems requires the capability to measure and recreate the signals used, and to understand the processing applied to returning echoes. In this work, the emitted and reflected echolocation signals of Rousettus aegyptiacus are recorded while the bat is in flight, using a wireless sensor mounted on the bat. The sensor is designed to replicate the acoustic gain control which bats are known to use, applying a gain to returning echoes that is dependent on the incurred time delay. Employing this technique allows emitted and reflected echolocation calls, which have a wide dynamic range, to be recorded. The recorded echoes demonstrate the complexity of environment reconstruction using echolocation. The sensor is also used to make accurate recordings of the emitted calls, and these calls are recreated in the laboratory using custom-built wideband electrostatic transducers, allied with a spectral equalization technique. This technique is further demonstrated by recreating multi-harmonic bioinspired FM chirps. The ability to record and accurately synthesize echolocation calls enables the exploitation of biological signals in human engineering systems for sonar, materials characterization and imaging

Electronic properties of LaO1-xFxFeAs in the normal state probed by nmr/nqr

We report 139La, 57Fe and 75As nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements on powders of the new LaO1−xFxFeAs superconductor for x=0 and 0.1 at temperatures up to 480 K, and compare our measured NQR spectra with local density approximation (LDA) calculations. For all three nuclei in the x=0.1 material, it is found that the local Knight shift increases monotonically with an increase in temperature, and scales with the macroscopic susceptibility, suggesting a single magnetic degree of freedom. Surprisingly, the spin lattice relaxation rates for all nuclei also scale with one another, despite the fact that the form factors for each site sample different regions of q-space. This result suggests a lack of any q-space structure in the dynamical spin susceptibility that might be expected in the presence of antiferromagnetic correlations. Rather, our results are more compatible with simple quasi-particle scattering. Furthermore, we find that the increase in the electric field gradient at the As cannot be accounted for by LDA calculations, suggesting that structural changes, in particular the position of the As in the unit cell, dominate the NQR response

Computational reconstruction and analysis of structural models of avian cryptochrome 4

A recent study by Xu et al. (Nature,2021, 594, 535−540) provided strongevidence that cryptochrome 4 (Cry4) is a key protein to endow migratory birds with the magneticcompass sense. The investigation compared the magneticfield response of Cry4 from migratoryand nonmigratory bird species and suggested that a difference in magnetic sensitivity could exist.Thisfinding prompted an in-depth investigation into Cry4 protein differences on the structuraland dynamic levels. In the present study, the pigeon Cry4 (ClCry4) crystal structure was used toreconstruct the missing avian Cry4 protein structures via homology modeling for carefullyselected bird species. The reconstructed Cry4 structure from European robin, Eurasian blackcap,zebrafinch, chicken, and pigeon were subsequently simulated dynamically and analyzed. Thestudied avian Cry4 structures showflexibility in analogous regions pointing to similar activationmechanisms and/or signaling interaction partners. It can be concluded that the experimentallyrecorded difference in the magneticfield sensitivity of Cry4 from different birds is unlikely to bedue to solely intrinsic dynamics of the proteins but requires additional factors that have not yet been identified

Continuous Coupling of Ultracold Atoms to an Ionic Plasma via Rydberg Excitation

We characterize the two-photon excitation of an ultracold gas of Rubidium atoms to Rydberg states analysing the induced atomic losses from an optical dipole trap. Extending the duration of the Rydberg excitation to several ms, the ground state atoms are continuously coupled to the formed positively charged plasma. In this regime we measure the $n$-dependence of the blockade effect and we characterise the interaction of the excited states and the ground state with the plasma. We also investigate the influence of the quasi-electrostatic trapping potential on the system, confirming the validity of the ponderomotive model for states with $20\leq n\leq 120$