177 research outputs found
Computing Aggregate Properties of Preimages for 2D Cellular Automata
Computing properties of the set of precursors of a given configuration is a
common problem underlying many important questions about cellular automata.
Unfortunately, such computations quickly become intractable in dimension
greater than one. This paper presents an algorithm --- incremental aggregation
--- that can compute aggregate properties of the set of precursors
exponentially faster than na{\"i}ve approaches. The incremental aggregation
algorithm is demonstrated on two problems from the two-dimensional binary Game
of Life cellular automaton: precursor count distributions and higher-order mean
field theory coefficients. In both cases, incremental aggregation allows us to
obtain new results that were previously beyond reach
Binational reflections on pathways to groundwater security in the Mexico-United States borderlands
Shared groundwater resources between Mexico and the United States are facing unprecedented stressors. We reflect on how to improve water security for groundwater systems in the border region. Our reflection begins with the state of groundwater knowledge, and the challenges groundwater resources face from a physical, societal and institutional perspective. We conclude that the extent of ongoing cooperation frameworks, joint and remaining research efforts, from which alternative strategies can emerge, still need to be developed. The way forward offers a variety of cooperation models as the future offers rather complex, shared and multidisciplinary water challenges to the Mexico–US borderlands
Binational reflections on pathways to groundwater security in the Mexico–United States borderlands
Shared groundwater resources between Mexico and the United States are facing unprecedented stressors. We reflect on how to improve water security for groundwater systems in the border region. Our reflection begins with the state of groundwater knowledge, and the challenges groundwater resources face from a physical, societal and institutional perspective. We conclude that the extent of ongoing cooperation frameworks, joint and remaining research efforts, from which alternative strategies can emerge, still need to be developed. The way forward offers a variety of cooperation models as the future offers rather complex, shared and multidisciplinary water challenges to the Mexico–US borderlands
Deregulation of Sucrose-Controlled Translation of a bZIP-Type Transcription Factor Results in Sucrose Accumulation in Leaves
Sucrose is known to repress the translation of Arabidopsis thaliana AtbZIP11 transcript which encodes a protein belonging to the group of S (S - stands for small) basic region-leucine zipper (bZIP)-type transcription factor. This repression is called sucrose-induced repression of translation (SIRT). It is mediated through the sucrose-controlled upstream open reading frame (SC-uORF) found in the AtbZIP11 transcript. The SIRT is reported for 4 other genes belonging to the group of S bZIP in Arabidopsis. Tobacco tbz17 is phylogenetically closely related to AtbZIP11 and carries a putative SC-uORF in its 5′-leader region. Here we demonstrate that tbz17 exhibits SIRT mediated by its SC-uORF in a manner similar to genes belonging to the S bZIP group of the Arabidopsis genus. Furthermore, constitutive transgenic expression of tbz17 lacking its 5′-leader region containing the SC-uORF leads to production of tobacco plants with thicker leaves composed of enlarged cells with 3–4 times higher sucrose content compared to wild type plants. Our finding provides a novel strategy to generate plants with high sucrose content
Bose-Einstein Correlations of Three Charged Pions in Hadronic Z^0 Decays
Bose-Einstein Correlations (BEC) of three identical charged pions were
studied in 4 x 10^6 hadronic Z^0 decays recorded with the OPAL detector at LEP.
The genuine three-pion correlations, corrected for the Coulomb effect, were
separated from the known two-pion correlations by a new subtraction procedure.
A significant genuine three-pion BEC enhancement near threshold was observed
having an emitter source radius of r_3 = 0.580 +/- 0.004 (stat.) +/- 0.029
(syst.) fm and a strength of \lambda_3 = 0.504 +/- 0.010 (stat.) +/- 0.041
(syst.). The Coulomb correction was found to increase the \lambda_3 value by
\~9% and to reduce r_3 by ~6%. The measured \lambda_3 corresponds to a value of
0.707 +/- 0.014 (stat.) +/- 0.078 (syst.) when one takes into account the
three-pion sample purity. A relation between the two-pion and the three-pion
source parameters is discussed.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 5 eps figures included, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
The Search for Gravitational Waves
Experiments aimed at searching for gravitational waves from astrophysical
sources have been under development for the last 40 years, but only now are
sensitivities reaching the level where there is a real possibility of
detections being made within the next five years. In this article a history of
detector development will be followed by a description of current detectors
such as LIGO, VIRGO, GEO 600, TAMA 300, Nautilus and Auriga. Preliminary
results from these detectors will be discussed and related to predicted
detection rates for some types of sources. Experimental challenges for detector
design are introduced and discussed in the context of detector developments for
the future.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, accepted J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phy
Search for anomalous t t-bar production in the highly-boosted all-hadronic final state
A search is presented for a massive particle, generically referred to as a
Z', decaying into a t t-bar pair. The search focuses on Z' resonances that are
sufficiently massive to produce highly Lorentz-boosted top quarks, which yield
collimated decay products that are partially or fully merged into single jets.
The analysis uses new methods to analyze jet substructure, providing
suppression of the non-top multijet backgrounds. The analysis is based on a
data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV,
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns. Upper limits
in the range of 1 pb are set on the product of the production cross section and
branching fraction for a topcolor Z' modeled for several widths, as well as for
a Randall--Sundrum Kaluza--Klein gluon. In addition, the results constrain any
enhancement in t t-bar production beyond expectations of the standard model for
t t-bar invariant masses larger than 1 TeV.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physics; this version
includes a minor typo correction that will be submitted as an erratu
Canonical and quantum FRW cosmological solutions in M-theory
We present the canonical and quantum cosmological investigation of a
spatially flat, four-dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) model that is
derived from the M-theory effective action obtained originally by Billyard,
Coley, Lidsey and Nilsson (BCLN). The analysis makes use of two sets of
canonical variables, the Shanmugadhasan gauge invariant canonical variables and
the ``hybrid'' variables which diagonalise the Hamiltonian. We find the
observables and discuss in detail the phase space of the classical theory. In
particular, a region of the phase space exists that describes a
four-dimensional FRW spacetime first contracting from a strong coupling regime
and then expanding to a weak coupling regime, while the internal space ever
contracts. We find the quantum solutions of the model and obtain the positive
norm Hilbert space of states. Finally, the correspondence between wave
functions and classical solutions is outlined.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figure
Evaluation of the bacterial diversity of Pressure ulcers using bTEFAP pyrosequencing
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Decubitus ulcers, also known as bedsores or pressure ulcers, affect millions of hospitalized patients each year. The microflora of chronic wounds such as ulcers most commonly exist in the biofilm phenotype and have been known to significantly impair normal healing trajectories.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Bacterial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP), a universal bacterial identification method, was used to identify bacterial populations in 49 decubitus ulcers. Diversity estimators were utilized and wound community compositions analyzed in relation to metadata such as Age, race, gender, and comorbidities.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Decubitus ulcers are shown to be polymicrobial in nature with no single bacterium exclusively colonizing the wounds. The microbial community among such ulcers is highly variable. While there are between 3 and 10 primary populations in each wound there can be hundreds of different species present many of which are in trace amounts. There is no clearly significant differences in the microbial ecology of decubitus ulcer in relation to metadata except when considering diabetes. The microbial populations and composition in the decubitus ulcers of diabetics may be significantly different from the communities in non-diabetics.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Based upon the continued elucidation of chronic wound bioburdens as polymicrobial infections, it is recommended that, in addition to traditional biofilm-based wound care strategies, an antimicrobial/antibiofilm treatment program can be tailored to each patient's respective wound microflora.</p
Search for Radions at LEP2
A new scalar resonance, called the radion, with couplings to fermions and
bosons similar to those of the Higgs boson, is predicted in the framework of
Randall-Sundrum models, proposed solutions to the hierarchy problem with one
extra dimension. An important distinction between the radion and the Higgs
boson is that the radion would couple directly to gluon pairs, and in
particular its decay products would include a significant fraction of gluon
jets. The radion had the same quantum numbers as the Standard Model (SM) Higgs
boson, and therefore they can mix, with the resulting mass eigenstates having
properties different from those of the SM Higgs boson. Existing searches for
the Higgs boson are sensitive to the possible production and decay of radions
and Higgs bosons in these models. For the first time, searches for the SM Higgs
boson and flavour-independent and decay-mode independent searches for a neutral
Higgs boson are used in combination to explore the parameter space of the
Randall-Sundrum model. In the dataset recorded by the OPAL experiment at LEP,
no evidence for radion or Higgs particle production was observed in any of
those searches. The results are used to set limits on the radion and Higgs
boson masses.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Phys. Lett.
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