8,232 research outputs found
Self-Organization, Layered Structure, and Aggregation Enhance Persistence of a Synthetic Biofilm Consortium
Microbial consortia constitute a majority of the earth’s biomass, but little is known about how these cooperating
communities persist despite competition among community members. Theory suggests that non-random spatial structures
contribute to the persistence of mixed communities; when particular structures form, they may provide associated
community members with a growth advantage over unassociated members. If true, this has implications for the rise and
persistence of multi-cellular organisms. However, this theory is difficult to study because we rarely observe initial instances
of non-random physical structure in natural populations. Using two engineered strains of Escherichia coli that constitute a
synthetic symbiotic microbial consortium, we fortuitously observed such spatial self-organization. This consortium forms a
biofilm and, after several days, adopts a defined layered structure that is associated with two unexpected, measurable
growth advantages. First, the consortium cannot successfully colonize a new, downstream environment until it selforganizes
in the initial environment; in other words, the structure enhances the ability of the consortium to survive
environmental disruptions. Second, when the layered structure forms in downstream environments the consortium
accumulates significantly more biomass than it did in the initial environment; in other words, the structure enhances the
global productivity of the consortium. We also observed that the layered structure only assembles in downstream
environments that are colonized by aggregates from a previous, structured community. These results demonstrate roles for
self-organization and aggregation in persistence of multi-cellular communities, and also illustrate a role for the techniques
of synthetic biology in elucidating fundamental biological principles
Ground Processing of Cassini RADAR Imagery of Titan
The Cassini RADAR instrument onboard
the Cassini Orbiter is currently collecting
SAR Imagery of the surface of Saturn's largest
moon, Titan. This paper describes the ground
processing of Cassini SAR data. We focus upon the
unusual features of the data and how these features
impact the processing. We exhibit a data dependent
mechanism we have implemented for eliminating
artifacts due to attitude and ephemeris knowledge
error. Finally we describe how we trade-off SAR
performance vs. area of coverage when we design
our spacecraft pointing profiles
Wildfire and Abrupt Ecosystem Disruption on California\u27s Northern Channel Islands at the Allerod-Younger Dryas Boundary (13.0-12.9 ka)
Sedimentary records from California\u27s Northern Channel Islands and the adjacent Santa Barbara Basin (SBB) indicate intense regional biomass burning (wildfire) at the Ållerød–Younger Dryas boundary (~13.0–12.9 ka) (All age ranges in this paper are expressed in thousands of calendar years before present [ka]. Radiocarbon ages will be identified and clearly marked “14C years”.). Multiproxy records in SBB Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) Site 893 indicate that these wildfires coincided with the onset of regional cooling and an abrupt vegetational shift from closed montane forest to more open habitats. Abrupt ecosystem disruption is evident on the Northern Channel Islands at the Ållerød–Younger Dryas boundary with the onset of biomass burning and resulting mass sediment wasting of the landscape. These wildfires coincide with the extinction of Mammuthus exilis [pygmy mammoth]. The earliest evidence for human presence on these islands at 13.1–12.9 ka (~11,000–10,900 14C years) is followed by an apparent 600–800 year gap in the archaeological record, which is followed by indications of a larger-scale colonization after 12.2 ka. Although a number of processes could have contributed to a post 18 ka decline in M. exilis populations (e.g., reduction of habitat due to sea-level rise and human exploitation of limited insular populations), we argue that the ultimate demise of M. exilis was more likely a result of continental scale ecosystem disruption that registered across North America at the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling episode, contemporaneous with the extinction of other megafaunal taxa. Evidence for ecosystem disruption at 13–12.9 ka on these offshore islands is consistent with the Younger Dryas boundary cosmic impact hypothesis [Firestone, R.B., West, A., Kennett, J.P., Becker, L., Bunch, T.E., Revay, Z.S., Schultz, P.H., Belgya, T., Kennett, D.J., Erlandson, J.M., Dickenson, O.J., Goodyear, A.A., Harris, R.S., Howard, G.A., Kloosterman, J.B., Lechler, P., Mayewski, P.A., Montgomery, J., Poreda, R., Darrah, T., Que Hee, S.S., Smith, A.R., Stich, A., Topping, W., Wittke, J.H. Wolbach, W.S., 2007. Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and Younger Dryas cooling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 16016–16021.]
Prospecting in ultracool dwarfs : Measuring the metallicities of mid- and late-m dwarfs
© 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Metallicity is a fundamental parameter that contributes to the physical characteristics of a star. The low temperatures and complex molecules present in M dwarf atmospheres make it difficult to measure their metallicities using techniques that have been commonly used for Sun-like stars. Although there has been significant progress in developing empirical methods to measure M dwarf metallicities over the last few years, these techniques have been developed primarily for early- to mid-M dwarfs. We present a method to measure the metallicity of mid- to late-M dwarfs from moderate resolution (R ∼ 2000) K-band (≃ 2.2 μm) spectra. We calibrate our formula using 44 wide binaries containing an F, G, K, or early-M primary of known metallicity and a mid- to late-M dwarf companion. We show that similar features and techniques used for early-M dwarfs are still effective for late-M dwarfs. Our revised calibration is accurate to ∼0.07 dex for M4.5-M9.5 dwarfs with -0.58 <[Fe/H] <+0.56 and shows no systematic trends with spectral type, metallicity, or the method used to determine the primary star metallicity. We show that our method gives consistent metallicities for the components of M+M wide binaries. We verify that our new formula works for unresolved binaries by combining spectra of single stars. Lastly, we show that our calibration gives consistent metallicities with the Mann et al. study for overlapping (M4-M5) stars, establishing that the two calibrations can be used in combination to determine metallicities across the entire M dwarf sequence.Peer reviewe
16S rRNA gene-based microbiota profiles from diverse avian faeces are largely independent of DNA preservation and extraction method
The avian gut microbiota has been the subject of considerable recent attention, with potential implications for diverse fields such as the poultry industry, microbial ecology, and conservation. Faecal microbiotas are frequently used as a non-invasive proxy for the gut microbiota, however the extraction of high-quality microbial DNA from avian faeces has often proven challenging. Here we aimed to evaluate the performance of two DNA preservation methods (95% ethanol and RNAlater) and five extraction approaches (IndiSpin Pathogen Kit, QIAamp PowerFecal Pro DNA Kit, MicroGEM PrepGEM Bacteria Kit, ZymoBIOMICS DNA Miniprep Kit, and an in-house phase separation-based method) for studying the avian gut microbiota. Systematic testing of the efficacy of these approaches on faecal samples from an initial three avian species (chicken, ostrich, and the flightless parrot kākāpō) revealed substantial differences in the quality, quantity and integrity of extracted DNA, but negligible influence of applied method on 16S rRNA gene-based microbiota profiles. Subsequent testing with a selected combination of preservation and extraction method on 10 further phylogenetically and ecologically diverse avian species reiterated the efficacy of the chosen approach, with bacterial community structure clustering strongly by technical replicates for a given avian species. Our finding that marked differences in extraction efficacy do not appear to influence 16S rRNA gene-based bacterial community profiles provides an important foundation for ongoing research on the avian gut microbiota
Parton model versus color dipole formulation of the Drell-Yan process
In the kinematical region where the center of mass energy is much larger than
all other scales, the Drell-Yan process can be formulated in the target rest
frame in terms of the same color dipole cross section as low Bjorken-x deep
inelastic scattering. Since the mechanisms for heavy dilepton production appear
very different in the dipole approach and in the conventional parton model, one
may wonder whether these two formulations really represent the same physics. We
perform a comparison of numerical calculations in the color dipole approach
with calculations in the next-to-leading order parton model. For proton-proton
scattering, the results are very similar at low x_2 from fixed target to RHIC
energies, confirming the close connection between these two very different
approaches. We also compare the transverse momentum distributions of Drell-Yan
dileptons predicted in both formulations. The range of applicability of the
dipole formulation and the impact of future Drell-Yan data from RHIC for
determining the color dipole cross section are discussed. A detailed derivation
of the dipole formulation of the Drell-Yan process is also included.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
Voluntary sustainability standards could significantly reduce detrimental impacts of global agriculture
Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are stakeholder-derived principles with measurable and enforceable criteria to promote sustainable production outcomes. While institutional commitments to use VSS to meet sustainable procurement policies have grown rapidly over the past decade, we still have relatively little understanding of the (i) direct environmental benefits of large-scale VSS adoption; (ii) potential perverse indirect impacts of adoption; and (iii) implementation pathways. Here, we illustrate and address these knowledge gaps using an ecosystem service modeling and scenario analysis of Bonsucro, the leading VSS for sugarcane. We find that global compliance with the Bonsucro environmental standards would reduce current sugarcane production area (−24%), net tonnage (−11%), irrigation water use (−65%), nutrient loading (−34%), and greenhouse gas emissions from cultivation (−51%). Under a scenario of doubled global sugarcane production, Bonsucro adoption would further limit water use and greenhouse gas emissions by preventing sugarcane expansion into water-stressed and high-carbon stock ecosystems. This outcome was achieved via expansion largely on existing agricultural lands. However, displacement of other crops could drive detrimental impacts from indirect land use. We find that over half of the potential direct environmental benefits of Bonsucro standards under the doubling scenario could be achieved by targeting adoption in just 10% of global sugarcane production areas. However, designing policy that generates the most environmentally beneficial Bonsucro adoption pathway requires a better understanding of the economic and social costs of VSS adoption. Finally, we suggest research directions to advance sustainable consumption and production
HAT-P-10b: A light and moderately hot Jupiter transiting a K dwarf
We report on the discovery of HAT-P-10b, the lowest mass (0.46 +/- 0.03 MJ)
transiting extrasolar planet (TEP) discovered to date by transit searches.
HAT-P-10b orbits the moderately bright V=11.89 K dwarf GSC 02340-01714, with a
period P = 3.7224690 +/- 0.0000067 d, transit epoch Tc = 2454729.90631 +/-
0.00030 (BJD) and duration 0.1100 +/- 0.0015 d. HAT-P-10b has a radius of 1.05
+(0.05)-(0.03) RJ yielding a mean density of 0.498+/-0.064 g cm^-3 . Comparing
these observations with recent theoretical models we find that HAT-P-10 is
consistent with a ~4.5 Gyr, coreless, pure hydrogen and helium gas giant
planet. With an equilibrium temperature of Teq = 1030 +(26)-(19)K, HAT-P-10b is
one of the coldest TEPs. Curiously, its Safronov number Theta = 0.047 +/- 0.003
falls close to the dividing line between the two suggested TEP populations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to ApJ. V2: added cross-reference to
WASP-11
NLTT 41135: a field M-dwarf + brown dwarf eclipsing binary in a triple system, discovered by the MEarth observatory
We report the discovery of an eclipsing companion to NLTT 41135, a nearby M5
dwarf that was already known to have a wider, slightly more massive common
proper motion companion, NLTT 41136, at 2.4 arcsec separation. Analysis of
combined-light and radial velocity curves of the system indicates that NLTT
41135B is a 31-34 +/- 3 MJup brown dwarf (where the range depends on the
unknown metallicity of the host star) on a circular orbit. The visual M-dwarf
pair appears to be physically bound, so the system forms a hierarchical triple,
with masses approximately in the ratio 8:6:1. The eclipses are grazing,
preventing an unambiguous measurement of the secondary radius, but follow-up
observations of the secondary eclipse (e.g. with the James Webb Space
Telescope) could permit measurements of the surface brightness ratio between
the two objects, and thus place constraints on models of brown dwarfs.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 10 tables, emulateapj format. Accepted for
publication in Ap
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