Survival and Nesting Ecology of Scaled Quail in the Trans-Pecos, Texas

Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) are one of the most ecologically and economically important wildlife species in the Trans-Pecos, because they are the primary upland game bird in the Chihuahuan Desert. Using radiotelemetry, we evaluated survival (Kaplan–Meier) and nesting success of quail on 3 study sites in the Trans-Pecos, Texas: one (Santiago Mountain Ranch, central Brewster Co.) was supplemented with milo (Sorghum bicolor) year-round, the second (Lado Ranch, south Culberson Co.) never used supplements, and the third (Apache Ranch, central Culberson Co.) was supplemented with quail blocks. We trapped and radiocollared 164 female quail collectively across all study sites, and followed them for 2 years (May–Sep 2012–2013). There were no survival differences between years within study sites (P = 0.985), so we grouped data across years and compared survival between study sites. Apache Ranch had the lowest survival (55%) compared with the Santiago Mountain Ranch (76.3%) and Lado Ranch (75%). We found 47 nests across the reproductive seasons for 2012 and 2013. On average, scaled quail had high nesting success (72.6%), eggs per nest (11.6), and hatchability (91.25%). Nesting occurred from May to September with peak nesting in June and July. Timing and quantity of rain, combined with range conditions seemed to have the greatest effect on nesting performance

Removal of Arsenic from water using synthetic Fe7S8 nanoparticles

In the present study, pyrrhotite was used to remove arsenite and arsenate from aqueous solutions. The Fe7S8 was synthesized using a solvothermal synthetic method and it was characterized using XRD and SEM micrographs. Furthermore, the particle size for the nanomaterial Fe7S8 was determined to be 29.86 ± 0.87 nm using Scherer’s equation. During the pH profile studies, the optimum pH for the binding of As (III) and As (V) was determined to be pH 4. Batch isotherm studies were performed to determine the binding capacity of As(III) and As(V), which was determined to be 14.3 mg/g and 31.3 mg/g respectively for 25°C. The thermodynamic studies indicated that the ΔG for the sorption of As(III) and As(V) ranged from −115.5 to −0.96 kJ/mol, indicating a spontaneous process was occurring. The enthalpy indicated that an exothermic reaction was occurring during the adsorption in which the ΔH was −53.69 kJ/mol and −32.51 kJ/mol for As(III) and As(V) respectively. In addition, ΔS values for the reaction had negative values of −160.46 J/K and −99.77 J/K for the adsorption of As(III) and As(V) respectively which indicated that the reaction was spontaneous at low temperatures. Furthermore, the sorption for As(III) and As(V) was determined to follow the second order kinetics adsorption model

The Fading Optical Counterpart of GRB~970228, Six Months and One Year Later

We report on observations of the fading optical counterpart of the gamma-ray burst GRB 970228, made with the Hubble Space Telescope STIS CCD approximately six months after outburst and with the HST/NICMOS and Keck/NIRC approximately one year after outburst. The unresolved counterpart is detected by STIS at V=28.0 +/- 0.25, consistent with a continued power-law decline with exponent -1.14 +/- 0.05. The counterpart is located within, but near the edge of, a faint extended source with diameter ~0."8 and integrated magnitude V=25.8 +/- 0.25. A reanalysis of HST and NTT observations performed shortly after the burst shows no evidence of proper motion of the point source or fading of the extended emission. Only the extended source is visible in the NICMOS images with a magnitude of H=23.3 +/- 0.1. The Keck observations find K = 22.8 +/- 0.3. Several distinct and independent means of deriving the foreground extinction in the direction of GRB 970228 all agree with A_V = 0.75 +/- 0.2. After adjusting for Galactic extinction, we find that the size of the observed extended emission is consistent with that of galaxies of comparable magnitude found in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and other deep HST images. Only 2% of the sky is covered by galaxies of similar or greater surface brightness; therefore the extended source is almost certainly the host galaxy. Additionally, we find that the extinction-corrected V - H and V - K colors of the host are as blue as any galaxy of comparable or brighter magnitude in the HDF. Taken in concert with recent observations of GRB 970508, GRB 971214, and GRB 980703 our work suggests that all four GRBs with spectroscopic identification or deep multicolor broad-band imaging of the host lie in rapidly star-forming galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, 4 PostScript figures, to appear in the May 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal (Note: displayed abstract is abridged

The N2K Consortium. II. A Transiting Hot Saturn Around HD 149026 With a Large Dense Core

Doppler measurements from Subaru and Keck have revealed radial velocity variations in the V=8.15, G0IV star HD 149026 consistent with a Saturn-Mass planet in a 2.8766 day orbit. Photometric observations at Fairborn Observatory have detected three complete transit events with depths of 0.003 mag at the predicted times of conjunction. HD 149026 is now the second brightest star with a transiting extrasolar planet. The mass of the star, based on interpolation of stellar evolutionary models, is 1.3 +/- 0.1 solar masses; together with the Doppler amplitude, K=43.3 m s^-1, we derive a planet mass Msin(i)=0.36 Mjup, and orbital radius of 0.042 AU. HD 149026 is chromospherically inactive and metal-rich with spectroscopically derived [Fe/H]=+0.36, Teff=6147 K, log g=4.26 and vsin(i)=6.0 km s^-1. Based on Teff and the stellar luminosity of 2.72 Lsun, we derive a stellar radius of 1.45 Rsun. Modeling of the three photometric transits provides an orbital inclination of 85.3 +/- 1.0 degrees and (including the uncertainty in the stellar radius) a planet radius of 0.725 +/- 0.05 Rjup. Models for this planet mass and radius suggest the presence of a ~67 Mearth core composed of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This substantial planet core would be difficult to construct by gravitational instability.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, accepted by the Astrophysical Journa

Neutrino Masses and Lepton Flavour Violation in Thick Brane Scenarios

We address the issue of lepton flavour violation and neutrino masses in the ``fat-brane'' paradigm, where flavour changing processes are suppressed by localising different fermion field wave-functions at different positions (in the extra dimensions) in a thick brane. We study the consequences of suppressing lepton number violating charged lepton decays within this scenario for lepton masses and mixing angles. In particular, we find that charged lepton mass matrices are constrained to be quasi-diagonal. We further consider whether the same paradigm can be used to naturally explain small Dirac neutrino masses by considering the existence of three right-handed neutrinos in the brane, and discuss the requirements to obtain phenomenologically viable neutrino masses and mixing angles. Finally, we examine models where neutrinos obtain a small Majorana mass by breaking lepton number in a far away brane and show that, if the fat-brane paradigm is the solution to the absence of lepton number violating charged lepton decays, such models predict, in the absence of flavour symmetries, that charged lepton flavour violation will be observed in the next round of rare muon/tau decay experiments.Comment: 33 pages, 9 eps figure

Supernova Bounds on Majoron-emitting decays of light neutrinos

Neutrino masses arising from the spontaneous violation of ungauged lepton-number are accompanied by a physical Goldstone boson, generically called Majoron. In the high-density supernova medium the effects of Majoron-emitting neutrino decays are important even if they are suppressed in vacuo by small neutrino masses and/or small off-diagonal couplings. We reconsider the influence of these decays on the neutrino signal of supernovae in the light of recent Super-Kamiokande data on solar and atmospheric neutrinos. We find that majoron-neutrino coupling constants in the range 3\times 10^{-7}\lsim g\lsim 2\times 10^{-5} or g \gsim 3 \times 10^{-4} are excluded by the observation of SN1987A. Then we discuss the potential of Superkamiokande and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory to detect majoron neutrino interactions in the case of a future galactic supernova. We find that these experiments could probe majoron neutrino interactions with improved sensitivity.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figure

Quality of Life and Work Productivity Improvements with Upadacitinib: Phase 2b Evidence from Patients with Moderate to Severe Crohn’s Disease

Introduction: In the phase 2 CELEST study, positive efficacy results were obtained with the Janus kinase 1 inhibitor upadacitinib for adult patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease. We present the health-related quality of life and work productivity improvement results with upadacitinib from CELEST. Methods: CELEST (NCT02365649) was a double-blind study where patients were randomized 1:1:1:1:1:1 in the 16-week induction period to placebo or upadacitinib 3 mg twice daily (BID), 6 mg BID, 12 mg BID, 24 mg BID, or 24 mg once daily (QD). Patients completing the induction period were re-randomized 1:1:1 to receive upadacitinib 3 mg BID, 12 mg BID, or 24 mg QD for 36 weeks or 3 mg BID, 6 mg BID, or 12 mg BID (after amendment). Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ), European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions visual analog scale (EQ-5D VAS), and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) questionnaire outcomes were assessed at baseline and Weeks 8, 16, and 52. Results: At Week 16, a significant percentage (P ≤ 0.05) of patients receiving upadacitinib 6-mg BID dose or higher achieved IBDQ response (IBDQ score change ≥ 16 points; 49%–57% for upadacitinib vs. 24% for placebo) and IBDQ remission, except 24 mg QD (IBDQ score ≥ 170; 26%–39% for upadacitinib vs. 11% for placebo). Greater improvements in IBDQ total score, EQ-5D VAS, and activity impairment from baseline (P ≤ 0.1) versus placebo were also observed. Larger improvements (P ≤ 0.1) in IBDQ response and total score and EQ-5D VAS were observed at Week 8 with 6 and 24 mg BID versus placebo, with improvements for all dosages maintained or greater at Week 52 for IBDQ, EQ-5D VAS, and WPAI endpoints, in particular for the 12-mg BID group. Conclusion: Improvements in health-related quality of life and work productivity were achieved and sustained with upadacitinib in patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT02365649. © 2021, The Author(s)

Probing Ion-Ion and Electron-Ion Correlations in Liquid Metals within the Quantum Hypernetted Chain Approximation

We use the Quantum Hypernetted Chain Approximation (QHNC) to calculate the ion-ion and electron-ion correlations for liquid metallic Li, Be, Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, and Ga. We discuss trends in electron-ion structure factors and radial distribution functions, and also calculate the free-atom and metallic-atom form-factors, focusing on how bonding effects affect the interpretation of X-ray scattering experiments, especially experimental measurements of the ion-ion structure factor in the liquid metallic phase.Comment: RevTeX, 19 pages, 7 figure

Trkalian fields: ray transforms and mini-twistors

We study X-ray and Divergent beam transforms of Trkalian fields and their relation with Radon transform. We make use of four basic mathematical methods of tomography due to Grangeat, Smith, Tuy and Gelfand-Goncharov for an integral geometric view on them. We also make use of direct approaches which provide a faster but restricted view of the geometry of these transforms. These reduce to well known geometric integral transforms on a sphere of the Radon or the spherical Curl transform in Moses eigenbasis, which are members of an analytic family of integral operators. We also discuss their inversion. The X-ray (also Divergent beam) transform of a Trkalian field is Trkalian. Also the Trkalian subclass of X-ray transforms yields Trkalian fields in the physical space. The Riesz potential of a Trkalian field is proportional to the field. Hence, the spherical mean of the X-ray (also Divergent beam) transform of a Trkalian field over all lines passing through a point yields the field at this point. The pivotal point is the simplification of an intricate quantity: Hilbert transform of the derivative of Radon transform for a Trkalian field in the Moses basis. We also define the X-ray transform of the Riesz potential (of order 2) and Biot-Savart integrals. Then, we discuss a mini-twistor respresentation, presenting a mini-twistor solution for the Trkalian fields equation. This is based on a time-harmonic reduction of wave equation to Helmholtz equation. A Trkalian field is given in terms of a null vector in C3 with an arbitrary function and an exponential factor resulting from this reduction.Comment: 37 pages, http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.482610