Monte Carlo Simulations with Indefinite and Complex-Valued Measures

A method is presented to tackle the sign problem in the simulations of systems having indefinite or complex-valued measures. In general, this new approach is shown to yield statistical errors smaller than the crude Monte Carlo using absolute values of the original measures. Exactly solvable, one-dimensional Ising models with complex temperature and complex activity illustrate the considerable improvements and the workability of the new method even when the crude one fails.Comment: 10 A4 pages, postscript (140K), UM-P-93-7

Book Reviews

Review of Prehistory, by Derek Roe; Aspects of Prehistory, by Grahame Clark; World Prehistory, by Grahame Clark; Introductory Readings in Archaeology, by Brian M. Fagan, ed.; The Origins of Civilization, by Carroll L. Riley; The Archaeology of Early Man, by J. M. Coles and E. S. Higgs; Shipwrecks and Archaeology, by Peter Throckmorton; A History of Dyed Textiles, by Stuart Robinson; Food in Antiquity, by Don and Patricia Brothwell; World Archaeology, Vol. 1, nos. 1, 2, 3, by Roy Hodson and Colin Platt, eds.; The Structure and Growth of Australia's Aboriginal Population, by F. Lancaster Jones; Attitudes and Social Conditions, by Ronald Taft, John L. M. Dawson, and Pamela Beasley; Aboriginal Settlements, by J. P. M. Long; The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, by C. D. Rowley; Aboriginal Advancement to Integration, by H. P. Schapper

Investigating an unusually large 28-day oscillation in mesospheric temperature over Antarctica using ground-based and satellite measurements

The Utah State University (USU) Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) was deployed at the Amundsen‐Scott South Pole Station in 2010 to measure OH temperature at ~87 km as part of an international network to study the mesospheric dynamics over Antarctica. During the austral winter of 2014, an unusually large amplitude ~28‐day oscillation in mesospheric temperature was observed for ~100 days from the South Pole Station. This study investigates the characteristics and global structure of this exceptional planetary‐scale wave event utilizing ground‐based mesospheric OH temperature measurements from two Antarctic stations (South Pole and Rothera) together with satellite temperature measurements from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite, and the Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) on the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite. Our analyses have revealed that this large oscillation is a winter time, high latitude phenomenon, exhibiting a coherent zonal wave #1 structure below 80 km altitude. At higher altitudes, the wave was confined in longitude between 180‐360°E. The amplitude of this oscillation reached ~15 K at 85 km and it was observed to grow with altitude as it extended from the stratosphere into the lower thermosphere in the southern hemisphere. The satellite data further established the existence of this oscillation in the northern hemisphere during the boreal winter time. The main characteristics and global structure of this event as observed in temperature are consistent with the predicted 28‐day Rossby Wave (1,4) mode

School-based mental health supports during COVID-19: School professional perspectives

The present study explored the ways school professionals adapted school-based mental health supports and services for remote delivery during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We surveyed 81 school professionals (e.g., counselors, psychologists, and social workers) and conducted in-depth interviews with a subsample of professionals (n = 14) to explore their perceptions and experiences of supporting youth with mental health concerns and suicide-related risk during the fall and winter of the 2020–2021 school year. Commonly endorsed school-based mental health interventions (e.g., counseling services and checking in), ways of communicating (phone and email), and individuals delivering support and services to students with suicide-related risk (e.g., counselors and teachers) were identified based on school professional survey responses. Qualitative findings point to facilitators (e.g., specific platforms for connecting with students and families) and barriers (e.g., limited communication) to successful service delivery during COVID-19. Findings highlight the creative ways school support professionals adapted to provide school-based mental health supports. Implications for remote school-based mental health services during and following the pandemic are discussed

Improved Understanding of Atomic Ordering in Y4SixAl2- xO9- xNxMaterials Using a Combined Solid-State NMR and Computational Approach

Ceramics based around silicon aluminum oxynitrides are of both fundamental structural chemistry and technological interest. Certain oxynitride crystal structures allow very significant compositional variation through extensive Si/N exchange for Al/O, which implies a degree of atomic ordering. In this study, solid-state 29Si MAS NMR and variable field 1D and 2D 27Al MAS NMR measurements are combined with density functional theory calculations of both the structural and NMR interaction parameters for various points across the Y4Si2O7N2-Y4Al2O9 compositional range. This series provides numerous possibilities for significant variation of atomic ordering in the local ditetrahedral (Si,Al)2O7-xNx units. The two slightly structurally inequivalent aluminum sites in Y4Al2O9 are unambiguously assigned to the observed resonances. Computational findings on Y4Si2O7N2 demonstrate that the single observed 29Si NMR resonance covers a range of local inequivalent silicon environments. For the first time, the MAS NMR and neutron diffraction data from the Y4SiAlO8N structure have been directly reconciled, thus establishing aspects of atomic order and disorder that characterize this system. This comparison suggests that, although the diffraction data indicates long-range structural order supporting a highly crystalline character, the short-range information afforded by the solid-state NMR measurements indicates significant atomic disorder throughout the (Si,Al)2O7-xNx units

Solid-state NMR studies of mechanism of the opsin shift in the visual pigment rhodopsin

Bio-organic SynthesisSolid state NMR/Biophysical Organic Chemistr

Impact of liver fat on the differential partitioning of hepatic triacylglycerol into VLDL subclasses on high and low sugar diets.

Dietary sugars are linked to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and dyslipidaemia, but it is unknown if NAFLD itself influences the effects of sugars on plasma lipoproteins. To study this further, men with NAFLD (n=11) and low liver fat 'controls' (n= 14) were fed two iso-energetic diets, high or low in sugars (26% or 6% total energy) for 12 weeks, in a randomised, cross-over design. Fasting plasma lipid and lipoprotein kinetics were measured after each diet by stable isotope trace-labelling. There were significant differences in the production and catabolic rates of VLDL subclasses between men with NAFLD and controls, in response to the high and low sugar diets. Men with NAFLD had higher plasma concentrations of VLDL1-triacylglycerol (TAG) after the high ( P <0.02) and low sugar ( P <0.0002) diets, a lower VLDL1-TAG fractional catabolic rate after the high sugar diet ( P <0.01), and a higher VLDL1-TAG production rate after the low sugar diet ( P <0.01), relative to controls. An effect of the high sugar diet, was to channel hepatic TAG into a higher production of VLDL1-TAG ( P <0.02) in the controls, but in contrast, a higher production of VLDL2-TAG ( P <0.05) in NAFLD. These dietary effects on VLDL subclass kinetics could be explained, in part, by differences in the contribution of fatty acids from intra-hepatic stores, and de novo lipogenesis. This study provides new evidence that liver fat accumulation leads to a differential partitioning of hepatic TAG into large and small VLDL subclasses, in response to high and low intakes of sugars.The work was supported by a UK government grant from the Biological Biotechnology Scientific Research Council (Grant no. BB/G009899/1); University of Surrey PhD scholarship for AM; Medical Research Council (body composition measurements) and infrastructure support from the National Institute of Health Research at the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre

Integrating sequence and array data to create an improved 1000 Genomes Project haplotype reference panel

A major use of the 1000 Genomes Project (1000GP) data is genotype imputation in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Here we develop a method to estimate haplotypes from low-coverage sequencing data that can take advantage of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray genotypes on the same samples. First the SNP array data are phased to build a backbone (or 'scaffold') of haplotypes across each chromosome. We then phase the sequence data 'onto' this haplotype scaffold. This approach can take advantage of relatedness between sequenced and non-sequenced samples to improve accuracy. We use this method to create a new 1000GP haplotype reference set for use by the human genetic community. Using a set of validation genotypes at SNP and bi-allelic indels we show that these haplotypes have lower genotype discordance and improved imputation performance into downstream GWAS samples, especially at low-frequency variants. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved