103 research outputs found
Simplifying External Load Data in NCAA Division-I Men\u27s Basketball Competitions: A Principal Component Analysis
The primary purpose was to simplify external load data obtained during Division-I (DI) basketball competitions via principal component analysis (PCA). A secondary purpose was to determine if the PCA results were sensitive to load demands of different positional groups (POS). Data comprised 229 observations obtained from 10 men\u27s basketball athletes participating in NCAA DI competitions. Each athlete donned an inertial measurement unit that was affixed to the same location on their shorts prior to competition. The PCA revealed two factors that possessed eigenvalues \u3e1.0 and explained 81.42% of the total variance. The first factor comprised total decelerations (totDEC, 0.94), average speed (avgSPD, 0.90), total accelerations (totACC, 0.85), total mechanical load (totMECH, 0.84), and total jump load (totJUMP, 0.78). Maximum speed (maxSPD, 0.94) was the lone contributor to the second factor. Based on the PCA, external load variables were included in a multinomial logistic regression that predicted POS (Overall model, p \u3c 0.0001; AUCcenters = 0.93, AUCguards = 0.88, AUCforwards = 0.80), but only maxSPD, totDEC, totJUMP, and totMECH were significant contributors to the model\u27s success (p \u3c 0.0001 for each). Even with the high significance, the model still had some issues differentiating between guards and forwards, as in-game demands often overlap between the two positions. Nevertheless, the PCA was effective at simplifying a large external load dataset collected on NCAA DI men\u27s basketball athletes. These data revealed that maxSPD, totDEC, totJUMP, and totMECH were the most sensitive to positional differences during competitions. To best characterize competition demands, such variables may be used to individualize training and recovery regimens most effectively
The Spectrally Resolved Lyman-alpha Emission of Three Lyman-alpha Selected Field Galaxies at z~2.4 from the HETDEX Pilot Survey
We present new results on the spectrally resolved Lyman-alpha (LyA) emission
of three LyA emitting field galaxies at z~2.4 with high LyA equivalent width
(>100 Angstroms) and LyA luminosity (~10^43 erg/s). At 120 km/s (FWHM) spectral
resolution, the prominent double-peaked LyA profile straddles the systemic
velocity, where the velocity zero-point is determined from spectroscopy of the
galaxies' rest-frame optical nebular emission lines. The average velocity
offset from systemic of the stronger redshifted emission component for our
sample is 176 km/s while the average total separation between the redshifted
and main blueshifted emission components is 380 km/s. These measurements are a
factor of ~2 smaller than for UV continuum-selected galaxies that show LyA in
emission with lower LyA equivalent width. We compare our LyA spectra to the
predicted line profiles of a spherical "expanding shell" LyA radiative transfer
grid that models large-scale galaxy outflows. Specifically blueward of the
systemic velocity where two galaxies show a weak, highly blueshifted (by ~1000
km/s) tertiary emission peak, the model line profiles are a relatively poor
representation of the observed spectra. Since the neutral gas column density
has a dominant influence over the shape of the LyA line profile, we caution
against equating the observed LyA velocity offset with a physical outflow
velocity, especially at lower spectral resolution where the unresolved LyA
velocity offset is a convoluted function of several degenerate parameters.
Referring to rest-frame ultraviolet and optical Hubble Space Telescope imaging,
we find that galaxy-galaxy interactions may play an important role in inducing
a starburst that results in copious LyA emission, as well as perturbing the gas
distribution and velocity field which have strong influence over the LyA
emission line profile.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables; Accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journal; Updated v2 fixes incorrectly processed LaTeX symbol
Living with the trilemma constraint: Relative trilemma policy divergence, crises, and output losses for developing countries
The behaviour of political parties and MPs in the parliaments of the Weimar Republic
Copyright @ 2012 The Authors. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Analysing the roll-call votes of the MPs of the Weimar Republic we find: (1) that party competition in the Weimar parliaments can be structured along two dimensions: an economic left–right and a pro-/anti-democratic. Remarkably, this is stable throughout the entire lifespan of the Republic and not just in the later years and despite the varying content of votes across the lifespan of the Republic, and (2) that nearly all parties were troubled by intra-party divisions, though, in particular, the national socialists and communists became homogeneous in the final years of the Republic.Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstan
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search. V. Final Catalog from the Seventh Data Release
We present the final statistical sample of lensed quasars from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Lens Search (SQLS). The well-defined
statistical lens sample consists of 26 lensed quasars brighter than i=19.1 and
in the redshift range of 0.6<z<2.2 selected from 50,836 spectroscopically
confirmed quasars in the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7), where we restrict the image
separation range to 1"<\theta<20" and the i-band magnitude differences in two
image lenses to be smaller than 1.25 mag. The SDSS DR7 quasar catalog also
contains 36 additional lenses identified with various techniques. In addition
to these lensed quasars, we have identified 81 pairs of quasars from follow-up
spectroscopy, 26 of which are physically associated binary quasars. The
statistical lens sample covers a wide range of image separations, redshifts,
and magnitudes, and therefore is suitable for systematic studies of
cosmological parameters and surveys of the structure and evolution of galaxies
and quasars.Comment: 42 pages, 2 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in AJ; see
http://www-utap.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~sdss/sqls/ for supplemental informatio
Biofunctionalized Zinc Oxide Field Effect Transistors for Selective Sensing of Riboflavin with Current Modulation
Zinc oxide field effect transistors (ZnO-FET), covalently functionalized with single stranded DNA aptamers, provide a highly selective platform for label-free small molecule sensing. The nanostructured surface morphology of ZnO provides high sensitivity and room temperature deposition allows for a wide array of substrate types. Herein we demonstrate the selective detection of riboflavin down to the pM level in aqueous solution using the negative electrical current response of the ZnO-FET by covalently attaching a riboflavin binding aptamer to the surface. The response of the biofunctionalized ZnO-FET was tuned by attaching a redox tag (ferrocene) to the 3′ terminus of the aptamer, resulting in positive current modulation upon exposure to riboflavin down to pM levels
The Astropy Problem
The Astropy Project (http://astropy.org) is, in its own words, "a community
effort to develop a single core package for Astronomy in Python and foster
interoperability between Python astronomy packages." For five years this
project has been managed, written, and operated as a grassroots,
self-organized, almost entirely volunteer effort while the software is used by
the majority of the astronomical community. Despite this, the project has
always been and remains to this day effectively unfunded. Further, contributors
receive little or no formal recognition for creating and supporting what is now
critical software. This paper explores the problem in detail, outlines possible
solutions to correct this, and presents a few suggestions on how to address the
sustainability of general purpose astronomical software
Genetic association study of QT interval highlights role for calcium signaling pathways in myocardial repolarization.
The QT interval, an electrocardiographic measure reflecting myocardial repolarization, is a heritable trait. QT prolongation is a risk factor for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) and could indicate the presence of the potentially lethal mendelian long-QT syndrome (LQTS). Using a genome-wide association and replication study in up to 100,000 individuals, we identified 35 common variant loci associated with QT interval that collectively explain ∼8-10% of QT-interval variation and highlight the importance of calcium regulation in myocardial repolarization. Rare variant analysis of 6 new QT interval-associated loci in 298 unrelated probands with LQTS identified coding variants not found in controls but of uncertain causality and therefore requiring validation. Several newly identified loci encode proteins that physically interact with other recognized repolarization proteins. Our integration of common variant association, expression and orthogonal protein-protein interaction screens provides new insights into cardiac electrophysiology and identifies new candidate genes for ventricular arrhythmias, LQTS and SCD
The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment
The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in
operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from
this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release
Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first
two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14
is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all
data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14
is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation
Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the
Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2),
including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine
learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes
from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous
release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of
the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the
important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both
targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS
website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to
data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is
planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be
followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14
happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov
2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections
only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected
Neurophysiological Defects and Neuronal Gene Deregulation in Drosophila mir-124 Mutants
miR-124 is conserved in sequence and neuronal expression across the animal kingdom and is predicted to have hundreds of mRNA targets. Diverse defects in neural development and function were reported from miR-124 antisense studies in vertebrates, but a nematode knockout of mir-124 surprisingly lacked detectable phenotypes. To provide genetic insight from Drosophila, we deleted its single mir-124 locus and found that it is dispensable for gross aspects of neural specification and differentiation. On the other hand, we detected a variety of mutant phenotypes that were rescuable by a mir-124 genomic transgene, including short lifespan, increased dendrite variation, impaired larval locomotion, and aberrant synaptic release at the NMJ. These phenotypes reflect extensive requirements of miR-124 even under optimal culture conditions. Comparison of the transcriptomes of cells from wild-type and mir-124 mutant animals, purified on the basis of mir-124 promoter activity, revealed broad upregulation of direct miR-124 targets. However, in contrast to the proposed mutual exclusion model for miR-124 function, its functional targets were relatively highly expressed in miR-124–expressing cells and were not enriched in genes annotated with epidermal expression. A notable aspect of the direct miR-124 network was coordinate targeting of five positive components in the retrograde BMP signaling pathway, whose activation in neurons increases synaptic release at the NMJ, similar to mir-124 mutants. Derepression of the direct miR-124 target network also had many secondary effects, including over-activity of other post-transcriptional repressors and a net incomplete transition from a neuroblast to a neuronal gene expression signature. Altogether, these studies demonstrate complex consequences of miR-124 loss on neural gene expression and neurophysiology
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