1,889 research outputs found
Writing in your own voice: An intervention that reduces plagiarism and common writing problems in students' scientific writing.
In many of our courses, particularly laboratory courses, students are expected to engage in scientific writing. Despite various efforts by other courses and library resources, as instructors we are often faced with the frustration of student plagiarism and related writing problems. Here, we describe a simple Writing in Your Own Voice intervention designed to help students become more aware of different types of plagiarism and writing problems, avoid those problems, and practice writing in their own voice. In this article, we will introduce the types of plagiarism and writing problems commonly encountered in our molecular biology laboratory course, the intervention, and the results of our study. From the evaluation of 365 student reports, we found the intervention resulted in nearly 50% fewer instances of plagiarism and common writing problems. We also observed significantly fewer instances of severe plagiarism (e.g. several sentences copied from an external source). In addition, we find that the effects last for several weeks after the students complete the intervention assignment. This assignment is particularly easy to implement and can be a very useful tool for teaching students how to write in their own voices. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(5):589-598, 2019
Extinction of the N=20 neutron-shell closure for 32Mg examined by direct mass measurements
The 'island of inversion' around Mg is one of the most important
paradigm for studying the disappearance of the stabilizing 'magic' of a shell
closure. We present the first Penning-trap mass measurements of the exotic
nuclides Na and Mg, which allow a precise determination of
the empirical shell gap for Mg. The new value of 1.10(3) MeV is the
lowest observed shell gap for any nuclide with a canonical magic number.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Noise and Nonlinearity in Measles Epidemics: Combining Mechanistic and Statistical Approaches to Population Modeling
We present and evaluate an approach to analyzing population dynamics data using semimechanistic models. These models incorporate reliable information on population structure and underlying dynamic mechanisms but use nonparametric surface-fitting methods to avoid unsupported assumptions about the precise form of rate equations. Using historical data on measles epidemics as a case study, we show how this approach can lead to better forecasts, better characterizations of the dynamics, and better understanding of the factors causing complex population dynamics relative to either mechanistic models or purely descriptive statistical time-series models. The semimechanistic models are found to have better forecasting accuracy than either of the model types used in previous analyses when tested on data not used to fit the models. The dynamics are characterized as being both nonlinear and noisy, and the global dynamics are clustered very tightly near the border of stability (dominant Lyapunov exponent λ < 0). However, locally in state space the dynamics oscillate between strong short-term stability and strong short-term chaos (i.e., between negative and positive local Lyapunov exponents). There is statistically significant evidence for short-term chaos in all data sets examined. Thus the nonlinearity in these systems is characterized by the variance over state space in local measures of chaos versus stability rather than a single summary measure of the overall dynamics as either chaotic or nonchaotic
Low-Background In-Trap Decay Spectroscopy with TITAN at TRIUMF
An in-trap decay spectroscopy setup has been developed and constructed for
use with the TITAN facility at TRIUMF. The goal of this device is to observe
weak electron-capture (EC) branching ratios for the odd-odd intermediate nuclei
in the decay process. This apparatus consists of an up-to 6 Tesla,
open-access spectroscopy ion-trap, surrounded radially by up to 7 planar Si(Li)
detectors which are separated from the trap by thin Be windows. This
configuration provides a significant increase in sensitivity for the detection
of low-energy photons by providing backing-free ion storage and eliminating
charged-particle-induced backgrounds. An intense electron beam is also employed
to increase the charge-states of the trapped ions, thus providing storage times
on the order of minutes, allowing for decay-spectroscopy measurements. The
technique of multiple ion-bunch stacking was also recently demonstrated, which
further extends the measurement possibilities of this apparatus. The current
status of the facility and initial results from a In measurement are
presented.Comment: Proceedings for the 2nd International Conference on Advances in
Radioactive Isotope Science (ARIS2014
Breakdown of the Isobaric Multiplet Mass Equation for the A = 20 and 21 Multiplets
Using the Penning trap mass spectrometer TITAN, we performed the first direct
mass measurements of 20,21Mg, isotopes that are the most proton-rich members of
the A = 20 and A = 21 isospin multiplets. These measurements were possible
through the use of a unique ion-guide laser ion source, a development that
suppressed isobaric contamination by six orders of magnitude. Compared to the
latest atomic mass evaluation, we find that the mass of 21Mg is in good
agreement but that the mass of 20Mg deviates by 3{\sigma}. These measurements
reduce the uncertainties in the masses of 20,21Mg by 15 and 22 times,
respectively, resulting in a significant departure from the expected behavior
of the isobaric multiplet mass equation in both the A = 20 and A = 21
multiplets. This presents a challenge to shell model calculations using either
the isospin non-conserving USDA/B Hamiltonians or isospin non-conserving
interactions based on chiral two- and three-nucleon forces.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Gamma-ray signatures of cosmic ray acceleration, propagation, and confinement in the era of CTA
Galactic cosmic rays are commonly believed to be accelerated at supernova
remnants via diffusive shock acceleration. Despite the popularity of this idea,
a conclusive proof for its validity is still missing. Gamma-ray astronomy
provides us with a powerful tool to tackle this problem, because gamma rays are
produced during cosmic ray interactions with the ambient gas. The detection of
gamma rays from several supernova remnants is encouraging, but still does not
constitute a proof of the scenario, the main problem being the difficulty in
disentangling the hadronic and leptonic contributions to the emission. Once
released by their sources, cosmic rays diffuse in the interstellar medium, and
finally escape from the Galaxy. The diffuse gamma-ray emission from the
Galactic disk, as well as the gamma-ray emission detected from a few galaxies
is largely due to the interactions of cosmic rays in the interstellar medium.
On much larger scales, cosmic rays are also expected to permeate the
intracluster medium, since they can be confined and accumulated within clusters
of galaxies for cosmological times. Thus, the detection of gamma rays from
clusters of galaxies, or even upper limits on their emission, will allow us to
constrain the cosmic ray output of the sources they contain, such as normal
galaxies, AGNs, and cosmological shocks. In this paper, we describe the impact
that the Cherenkov Telescope Array, a future ground-based facility for
very-high energy gamma-ray astronomy, is expected to have in this field of
research.Comment: accepted to Astroparticle Physics, special issue on Physics with the
Cherenkov Telescope Arra
Storage capacity of a constructive learning algorithm
Upper and lower bounds for the typical storage capacity of a constructive
algorithm, the Tilinglike Learning Algorithm for the Parity Machine [M. Biehl
and M. Opper, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 44} 6888 (1991)], are determined in the
asymptotic limit of large training set sizes. The properties of a perceptron
with threshold, learning a training set of patterns having a biased
distribution of targets, needed as an intermediate step in the capacity
calculation, are determined analytically. The lower bound for the capacity,
determined with a cavity method, is proportional to the number of hidden units.
The upper bound, obtained with the hypothesis of replica symmetry, is close to
the one predicted by Mitchinson and Durbin [Biol. Cyber. {\bf 60} 345 (1989)].Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur
Statistical Properties of Share Volume Traded in Financial Markets
We quantitatively investigate the ideas behind the often-expressed adage `it
takes volume to move stock prices', and study the statistical properties of the
number of shares traded for a given stock in a fixed time
interval . We analyze transaction data for the largest 1000 stocks
for the two-year period 1994-95, using a database that records every
transaction for all securities in three major US stock markets. We find that
the distribution displays a power-law decay, and that the
time correlations in display long-range persistence. Further, we
investigate the relation between and the number of transactions
in a time interval , and find that the long-range
correlations in are largely due to those of . Our
results are consistent with the interpretation that the large equal-time
correlation previously found between and the absolute value of
price change (related to volatility) are largely due to
.Comment: 4 pages, two-column format, four figure
Precision mass measurements of magnesium isotopes and implications on the validity of the Isobaric Mass Multiplet Equation
If the mass excess of neutron-deficient nuclei and their neutron-rich mirror
partners are both known, it can be shown that deviations of the Isobaric Mass
Multiplet Equation (IMME) in the form of a cubic term can be probed. Such a
cubic term was probed by using the atomic mass of neutron-rich magnesium
isotopes measured using the TITAN Penning trap and the recently measured
proton-separation energies of Cl and Ar. The atomic mass of
Mg was found to be within 1.6 of the value stated in the Atomic
Mass Evaluation. The atomic masses of Mg were measured to be both
within 1, while being 8 and 34 times more precise, respectively. Using
the Mg mass excess and previous measurements of Cl we uncovered a
cubic coefficient of = 28(7) keV, which is the largest known cubic
coefficient of the IMME. This departure, however, could also be caused by
experimental data with unknown systematic errors. Hence there is a need to
confirm the mass excess of S and the one-neutron separation energy of
Cl, which have both come from a single measurement. Finally, our results
were compared to ab initio calculations from the valence-space in-medium
similarity renormalization group, resulting in a good agreement.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
VLBI imaging of a flare in the Crab Nebula: More than just a spot
We report on very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of the
radio emission from the inner region of the Crab Nebula, made at 1.6 GHz and 5
GHz after a recent high-energy flare in this object. The 5 GHz data have
provided only upper limits of 0.4 milli-Jansky (mJy) on the flux density of the
pulsar and 0.4 mJy/beam on the brightness of the putative flaring region. The
1.6 GHz data have enabled imaging the inner regions of the nebula on scales of
up to ~40". The emission from the inner "wisps" is detected for the first time
with VLBI observations. A likely radio counterpart (designated "C1") of the
putative flaring region observed with Chandra and HST is detected in the radio
image, with an estimated flux density of \,mJy and a size of
0.2-0.6". Another compact feature ("C2") is also detected in the VLBI image
closer to the pulsar, with an estimated flux density of 0.4 +- 0.2 mJy and a
size smaller than 0{\farcs}2. Combined with the broad-band SED of the flare,
the radio properties of C1 yield a lower limit of ~0.5 mG for the magnetic
field and a total minimum energy of 1.2*10^41 ergs vested in the flare
(corresponding to using about 0.2% of the pulsar spin-down power). The 1.6 GHz
observations provide upper limits for the brightness (0.2 mJy/beam) and total
flux density (0.4 mJy) of the optical Knot 1 located at 0.6" from the pulsar.
The absolute position of the Crab pulsar is determined, and an estimate of the
pulsar proper motion is obtained.Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics; accepted; 10 pages, 8 figure
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