2,226 research outputs found
Photometry of supernovae in an image series : methods and application to the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS)
We present a technique to measure lightcurves of time-variable point sources
on a spatially structured background from imaging data. The technique was
developed to measure light curves of SNLS supernovae in order to infer their
distances. This photometry technique performs simultaneous PSF photometry at
the same sky position on an image series. We describe two implementations of
the method: one that resamples images before measuring fluxes, and one which
does not. In both instances, we sketch the key algorithms involved and present
the validation using semi-artificial sources introduced in real images in order
to assess the accuracy of the supernova flux measurements relative to that of
surrounding stars. We describe the methods required to anchor these PSF fluxes
to calibrated aperture catalogs, in order to derive SN magnitudes. We find a
marginally significant bias of 2 mmag of the after-resampling method, and no
bias at the mmag accuracy for the non-resampling method. Given surrounding star
magnitudes, we determine the systematic uncertainty of SN magnitudes to be less
than 1.5 mmag, which represents about one third of the current photometric
calibration uncertainty affecting SN measurements. The SN photometry delivers
several by-products: bright star PSF flux mea- surements which have a
repeatability of about 0.6%, as for aperture measurements; we measure relative
astrometric positions with a noise floor of 2.4 mas for a single-image bright
star measurement; we show that in all bands of the MegaCam instrument, stars
exhibit a profile linearly broadening with flux by about 0.5% over the whole
brightness range.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 20 page
Interactions In Space For Archaeological Models
In this article we examine a variety of quantitative models for describing
archaeological networks, with particular emphasis on the maritime networks of
the Aegean Middle Bronze Age. In particular, we discriminate between those
gravitational networks that are most likely (maximum entropy) and most
efficient (best cost/benefit outcomes).Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Contribution to special issue of
Advances in Complex Systems from the conference `Cultural Evolution in
Spatially Structured Populations', UCL, London, September 2010. To appear in
Advances in Complex System
Estimating Protein-Ligand Binding Affinity using High- Throughput Screening by NMR
Many of today’s drug discovery programs utilize high-throughput screening methods that rely on quick evaluations of protein activity to rank potential chemical leads. By monitoring biologically relevant protein-ligand interactions, NMR can provide a means to validate these discovery leads and to optimize the drug discovery process. NMR-based screens typically use a change in chemical shift or linewidth to detect a protein-ligand interaction. However, the relatively low throughput of current NMR screens and their high demand on sample requirements generally makes it impractical to collect complete binding curves to measure the affinity for each compound in a large and diverse chemical library. As a result, NMR ligand screens are typically limited to identifying candidates that bind to a protein and do not give any estimate of the binding affinity. To address this issue, a methodology has been developed to rank binding affinities for ligands based on NMR-based screens that use 1D 1H NMR line-broadening experiments. This method was demonstrated by using it to estimate the dissociation equilibrium constants for twelve ligands with the protein human serum albumin (HSA). The results were found to give good agreement with previous affinities that have been reported for these same ligands with HSA
Wigner's -matrix elements for - A Generating Function Approach
A generating function for the Wigner's -matrix elements of is
derived. From this an explicit expression for the individual matrix elements is
obtained in a closed form.Comment: RevTex 3.0, 22 pages, no figure
Estimating Protein-Ligand Binding Affinity using High- Throughput Screening by NMR
Many of today’s drug discovery programs utilize high-throughput screening methods that rely on quick evaluations of protein activity to rank potential chemical leads. By monitoring biologically relevant protein-ligand interactions, NMR can provide a means to validate these discovery leads and to optimize the drug discovery process. NMR-based screens typically use a change in chemical shift or linewidth to detect a protein-ligand interaction. However, the relatively low throughput of current NMR screens and their high demand on sample requirements generally makes it impractical to collect complete binding curves to measure the affinity for each compound in a large and diverse chemical library. As a result, NMR ligand screens are typically limited to identifying candidates that bind to a protein and do not give any estimate of the binding affinity. To address this issue, a methodology has been developed to rank binding affinities for ligands based on NMR-based screens that use 1D 1H NMR line-broadening experiments. This method was demonstrated by using it to estimate the dissociation equilibrium constants for twelve ligands with the protein human serum albumin (HSA). The results were found to give good agreement with previous affinities that have been reported for these same ligands with HSA
Photospheric and chromospheric magnetic activity of seismic solar analogs. Observational inputs on the solar/stellar connection from Kepler and Hermes
We identify a set of 18 solar analogs among the seismic sample of solar-like
stars observed by the Kepler satellite rotating between 10 and 40 days. This
set is constructed using the asteroseismic stellar properties derived using
either the global oscillation properties or the individual acoustic
frequencies. We measure the magnetic activity properties of these stars using
observations collected by the photometric Kepler satellite and by the
ground-based, high-resolution Hermes spectrograph mounted on the Mercator
telescope. The photospheric (Sph) and chromospheric (S index) magnetic activity
levels of these seismic solar analogs are estimated and compared in relation to
the solar activity. We show that the activity of the Sun is comparable to the
activity of the seismic solar analogs, within the maximum-to-minimum temporal
variations of the 11-year solar activity cycle 23. In agreement with previous
studies, the youngest stars and fastest rotators in our sample are actually the
most active. The activity of stars older than the Sun seems to not evolve much
with age. Furthermore, the comparison of the photospheric, Sph, with the
well-established chromospheric, S index, indicates that the Sph index can be
used to provide a suitable magnetic activity proxy which can be easily
estimated for a large number of stars from space photometric observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Optimizing Sequence Coverage for a Moderate Mass Protein in Nano-Electrospray Ionization Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry
Sample pretreatment was optimized to obtain high sequence coverage for human serum albumin (HSA, 66.5 kDa) when using nano-electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (nESI-Q-TOF-MS). Use of the final method with trypsin, Lys-C and Glu-C digests gave a combined coverage of 98.8%. The addition of peptide fractionation resulted in 99.7% coverage. These results were comparable to those obtained previously with matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The sample pretreatment/nESI-Q-TOF-MS method was also used with collision-induced dissociation to analyze HSA digests and to identify peptides that could be employed as internal mass calibrants in future studies of modifications to HSA
Single-atom vibrational spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope
Vibrational spectroscopy can achieve high energy resolution, but spatial resolution of unperturbed vibrations is more difficult to realize. Hage et al. show that a single-atom impurity in a solid (a silicon atom in graphene) can give rise to distinctive localized vibrational signatures. They used high-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope to detect this signal. An experimental geometry was chosen that reduced the relative elastic scattering contribution, and repeated scanning near the silicon impurity enhanced the signal. The experimental vibration frequencies are in agreement with ab initio calculations.Science, this issue p. 1124Single-atom impurities and other atomic-scale defects can notably alter the local vibrational responses of solids and, ultimately, their macroscopic properties. Using high-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy in the electron microscope, we show that a single substitutional silicon impurity in graphene induces a characteristic, localized modification of the vibrational response. Extensive ab initio calculations reveal that the measured spectroscopic signature arises from defect-induced pseudo-localized phonon modestextemdashthat is, resonant states resulting from the hybridization of the defect modes and the bulk continuumtextemdashwith energies that can be directly matched to the experiments. This finding realizes the promise of vibrational spectroscopy in the electron microscope with single-atom sensitivity and has broad implications across the fields of physics, chemistry, and materials science
Optimizing Sequence Coverage for a Moderate Mass Protein in Nano-Electrospray Ionization Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry
Sample pretreatment was optimized to obtain high sequence coverage for human serum albumin (HSA, 66.5 kDa) when using nano-electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (nESI-Q-TOF-MS). Use of the final method with trypsin, Lys-C and Glu-C digests gave a combined coverage of 98.8%. The addition of peptide fractionation resulted in 99.7% coverage. These results were comparable to those obtained previously with matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The sample pretreatment/nESI-Q-TOF-MS method was also used with collision-induced dissociation to analyze HSA digests and to identify peptides that could be employed as internal mass calibrants in future studies of modifications to HSA
In memoriam two distinguished participants of the Bregenz Symmetries in Science Symposia: Marcos Moshinsky and Yurii Fedorovich Smirnov
Some particular facets of the numerous works by Marcos Moshinsky and Yurii
Fedorovich Smirnov are presented in these notes. The accent is put on some of
the common interests of Yurii and Marcos in physics, theoretical chemistry, and
mathematical physics. These notes also contain some more personal memories of
Yurii Smirnov.Comment: Submitted for publication in Journal of Physics: Conference Serie
- …