4,201 research outputs found
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Consideration of exposure to traffic-related air pollution in bicycle route planning
PRICE UNCERTAINTY AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
This paper examines the effects of price uncertainty on agricultural productivity. Appelbaum(1991) provided an empirical framework to analyze the effects of uncertainty on firm behavior. We apply the model to the U.S. agricultural sector, using a parametric rather than a nonparametric approach to obtain the measurement of price uncertainty and risk. Keywords: risk, uncertainty, productivityrisk, uncertainty, productivity, Productivity Analysis,
From Dust To Planetesimal: The Snowball Phase ?
The standard model of planet formation considers an initial phase in which
planetesimals form from a dust disk, followed by a phase of mutual
planetesimal-planetesimal collisions, leading eventually to the formation of
planetary embryos. However, there is a potential transition phase (which we
call the "snowball phase"), between the formation of the first planetesimals
and the onset of mutual collisions amongst them, which has often been either
ignored or underestimated in previous studies. In this snowball phase, isolated
planetesimals move on Keplerian orbits and grow solely via the direct accretion
of sub-cm sized dust entrained with the gas in the protoplanetary disk. Using a
simplified model in which planetesimals are progressively produced from the
dust, we consider the expected sizes to which the planetesimals can grow before
mutual collisions commence and derive the dependence of this size on a number
of critical parameters, including the degree of disk turbulence, the
planetesimal size at birth and the rate of planetesimal creation. For systems
in which turbulence is weak and the planetesimals are created at a low rate and
with relatively small birth size, we show that the snowball growth phase can be
very important, allowing planetesimals to grow by a factor of 10^6 in mass
before mutual collisions take over. In such cases, the snowball growth phase
can be the dominant mode to transfer mass from the dust to planetesimals.
Moreover, such growth can take place within the typical lifetime of a
protoplanetary gas disk. A noteworthy result is that ... ...(see the paper).
For the specific case of close binaries such as Alpha Centauri ... ... (see the
paper). From a more general perspective, these preliminary results suggest that
an efficient snowball growth phase provides a large amount of "room at the
bottom" for theories of planet formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 15 pages, 4
figures, 1 tabl
Local‐Regional Similarity in Drylands Increases During Multiyear Wet and Dry Periods and in Response to Extreme Events
Climate change is predicted to impact ecosystems through altered precipitation (PPT) regimes. In the Chihuahuan Desert, multiyear wet and dry periods and extreme PPT pulses are the most influential climatic events for vegetation. Vegetation responses are most frequently studied locally, and regional responses are often unclear. We present an approach to quantify correlation of PPT and vegetation responses (as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index [NDVI]) at the Jornada ARS‐LTER site (JRN; 550 km2 area) and the surrounding dryland region (from 0 to 500 km distance; 400,000 km2 study area) as a way to understand regional similarity to locally observed patterns. We focused on fluctuating wet and dry years, multiyear wet or dry periods of 3–4 yr, and multiyear wet periods that contained one or more extreme high PPT pulses or extreme low rainfall. In all but extreme high PPT years, JRN PPT was highly correlated... (See article for full abstract)
Dwarf Galaxies with Ionizing Radiation Feedback. I: Escape of Ionizing Photons
We describe a new method for simulating ionizing radiation and supernova
feedback in the analogues of low-redshift galactic disks. In this method, which
we call star-forming molecular cloud (SFMC) particles, we use a ray-tracing
technique to solve the radiative transfer equation for ultraviolet photons
emitted by thousands of distinct particles on the fly. Joined with high
numerical resolution of 3.8 pc, the realistic description of stellar feedback
helps to self-regulate star formation. This new feedback scheme also enables us
to study the escape of ionizing photons from star-forming clumps and from a
galaxy, and to examine the evolving environment of star-forming gas clumps. By
simulating a galactic disk in a halo of 2.3e11 Msun, we find that the average
escape fraction from all radiating sources on the spiral arms (excluding the
central 2.5 kpc) fluctuates between 0.08% and 5.9% during a ~20 Myr period with
a mean value of 1.1%. The flux of escaped photons from these sources is not
strongly beamed, but manifests a large opening angle of more than 60 degree
from the galactic pole. Further, we investigate the escape fraction per SFMC
particle, f_esc(i), and how it evolves as the particle ages. We discover that
the average escape fraction f_esc is dominated by a small number of SFMC
particles with high f_esc(i). On average, the escape fraction from a SFMC
particle rises from 0.27% at its birth to 2.1% at the end of a particle
lifetime, 6 Myrs. This is because SFMC particles drift away from the dense gas
clumps in which they were born, and because the gas around the star-forming
clumps is dispersed by ionizing radiation and supernova feedback. The framework
established in this study brings deeper insight into the physics of photon
escape fraction from an individual star-forming clump, and from a galactic
disk.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal, Image resolution reduced, High-resolution version of this article is
available at http://www.jihoonkim.org/index/research.html#sfm
Dwarf Galaxies with Ionizing Radiation Feedback. II: Spatially-resolved Star Formation Relation
We investigate the spatially-resolved star formation relation using a
galactic disk formed in a comprehensive high-resolution (3.8 pc) simulation.
Our new implementation of stellar feedback includes ionizing radiation as well
as supernova explosions, and we handle ionizing radiation by solving the
radiative transfer equation rather than by a subgrid model. Photoheating by
stellar radiation stabilizes gas against Jeans fragmentation, reducing the star
formation rate. Because we have self-consistently calculated the location of
ionized gas, we are able to make spatially-resolved mock observations of star
formation tracers, such as H-alpha emission. We can also observe how stellar
feedback manifests itself in the correlation between ionized and molecular gas.
Applying our techniques to the disk in a galactic halo of 2.3e11 Msun, we find
that the correlation between star formation rate density (estimated from mock
H-alpha emission) and molecular hydrogen density shows large scatter,
especially at high resolutions of <~ 75 pc that are comparable to the size of
giant molecular clouds (GMCs). This is because an aperture of GMC size captures
only particular stages of GMC evolution, and because H-alpha traces hot gas
around star-forming regions and is displaced from the molecular hydrogen peaks
themselves. By examining the evolving environment around star clusters, we
speculate that the breakdown of the traditional star formation laws of the
Kennicutt-Schmidt type at small scales is further aided by a combination of
stars drifting from their birthplaces, and molecular clouds being dispersed via
stellar feedback.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal, Image resolution greatly reduced, High-resolution version of this
article is available at http://www.jihoonkim.org/index/research.html#sfm
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Diesel exhaust and house dust mite allergen lead to common changes in the airway methylome and hydroxymethylome.
Exposures to diesel exhaust particles (DEP) from traffic and house dust mite (HDM) allergens significantly increase risks of airway diseases, including asthma. This negative impact of DEP and HDM may in part be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Beyond functioning as a mechanical barrier, airway epithelial cells provide the first line of immune defense towards DEP and HDM exposures. To understand the epigenetic responses of airway epithelial cells to these exposures, we exposed human bronchial epithelial cells to DEP and HDM and studied genome-wide 5-methyl-cytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxy-methylcytosine (5hmC) at base resolution. We found that exposures to DEP and HDM result in elevated TET1 and DNMT1 expression, associated with 5mC and 5hmC changes. Interestingly, over 20% of CpG sites are responsive to both exposures and changes in 5mC at these sites negatively correlated with gene expression differences. These 5mC and 5hmC changes are located in genes and pathways related to oxidative stress responses, epithelial function and immune cell responses and are enriched for binding sites of transcription factors (TFs) involved in these pathways. Histone marks associated with promoters, enhancers and actively transcribed gene bodies were associated with exposure-induced DNA methylation changes. Collectively, our data suggest that exposures to DEP and HDM alter 5mC and 5hmC levels at regulatory regions bound by TFs, which coordinate with histone marks to regulate gene networks of oxidative stress responses, epithelial function and immune cell responses. These observations provide novel insights into the epigenetic mechanisms that mediate the epithelial responses to DEP and HDM in airways
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Activity of Genes with Functions in Human Williams-Beuren Syndrome Is Impacted by Mobile Element Insertions in the Gray Wolf Genome.
In canines, transposon dynamics have been associated with a hyper-social behavioral syndrome, although the functional mechanism has yet to be described. We investigate the epigenetic and transcriptional consequences of these behavior-associated mobile element insertions (MEIs) in dogs and Yellowstone gray wolves. We posit that the transposons themselves may not be the causative feature; rather, their transcriptional regulation may exert the functional impact. We survey four outlier transposons associated with hyper-sociability, with the expectation that they are targeted for epigenetic silencing. We predict hyper-methylation of MEIs, suggestive that the epigenetic silencing of and not the MEIs themselves may be driving dysregulation of nearby genes. We found that transposon-derived sequences are significantly hyper-methylated, regardless of their copy number or species. Further, we have assessed transcriptome sequence data and found evidence that MEIs impact the expression levels of six genes (WBSCR17, LIMK1, GTF2I, WBSCR27, BAZ1B, and BCL7B), all of which have known roles in human Williams-Beuren syndrome due to changes in copy number, typically hemizygosity. Although further evidence is needed, our results suggest that a few insertions alter local expression at multiple genes, likely through a cis-regulatory mechanism that excludes proximal methylation
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