3,156 research outputs found
PSRCHIVE and PSRFITS: Definition of the Stokes Parameters and Instrumental Basis Conventions
This paper defines the mathematical convention adopted to describe an
electromagnetic wave and its polarisation state, as implemented in the PSRCHIVE
software and represented in the PSRFITS definition. Contrast is made between
the convention that has been widely accepted by pulsar astronomers and the
IAU/IEEE definitions of the Stokes parameters. The former is adopted as the
PSR/IEEE convention, and a set of useful parameters are presented for
describing the differences between the PSR/IEEE standard and the conventions
(either implicit or explicit) that form part of the design of observatory
instrumentation. To aid in the empirical determination of instrumental
convention parameters, well-calibrated average polarisation profiles of PSR
J0304+1932 and PSR J0742-2822 are presented at radio wavelengths of
approximately 10, 20, and 40 cm.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, to be published in PAS
Lipoprotein biosynthesis as a target for anti-Wolbachia treatment of filarial nematodes
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis are debilitating diseases caused by filarial nematodes. Disease pathogenesis is induced by inflammatory responses following the death of the parasite. <it>Wolbachia </it>endosymbionts of filariae are potent inducers of innate and adaptive inflammation and bacterial lipoproteins have been identified as the ligands that bind toll-like receptors (TLR) 2 and TLR6. Lipoproteins are important structural and functional components of bacteria and therefore enzymes involved in <it>Wolbachia </it>lipoprotein biosynthesis are potential chemotherapeutic targets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Globomycin, a signal peptidase II (LspA) inhibitor, has activity against Gram-negative bacteria and a putative <it>lspA </it>gene has been identified from the <it>Wolbachia </it>genome of <it>Brugia malayi </it>(<it>w</it>Bm). The amino acids required for function are strictly conserved and functionality was verified by complementation tests in a temperature-sensitive <it>Escherichia coli lspA </it>mutant. Also, transformation of wild type <it>E. coli </it>with <it>Wolbachia lspA </it>conferred significant globomycin resistance. A cell-based screen has been developed utilizing a <it>Wolbachia</it>-containing <it>Aedes albopictus </it>cell line to assay novel compounds active against <it>Wolbachia</it>. Globomycin was screened using this assay, which resulted in a dose-dependent reduction in <it>Wolbachia </it>load. Furthermore, globomycin was also effective in reducing the motility and viability of adult <it>B. malayi in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These studies validate lipoprotein biosynthesis as a target in an organism for which no genetic tools are available. Further studies to evaluate drugs targeting this pathway are underway as part of the A-WOL drug discovery and development program.</p
Spin/disorder correlations and duality in the c=1/2 string
We use the method of discrete loop equations to calculate exact correlation
functions of spin and disorder operators on the sphere and on the boundary of a
disk in the string, both in the Ising and dual Ising matrix model
formulations. For both the Ising and dual Ising theories the results on the
sphere are in agreement with the KPZ/DDK scaling predictions based on Liouville
theory; the results on the disk agree with the scaling predictions of Martinec,
Moore, and Seiberg for boundary operators. The calculation of Ising disorder
correlations on the sphere requires the use of boundary variables introduced in
[hep-th/9510199], which have no matrix model analog. A subtlety in the
calculation on the disk arises because the expansions of the correlation
functions have leading singular terms which are nonuniversal; we show that this
issue may be resolved by using separate cosmological constants for each
boundary domain. These results give evidence that the Kramers-Wannier duality
symmetry of the conformal field theory survives coupling to quantum
gravity, implying a duality symmetry of the string even in the
presence of boundary operators.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX; final publication versio
An efficient method for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on irregular domains with no-slip boundary conditions, high order up to the boundary
Common efficient schemes for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, such
as projection or fractional step methods, have limited temporal accuracy as a
result of matrix splitting errors, or introduce errors near the domain
boundaries (which destroy uniform convergence to the solution). In this paper
we recast the incompressible (constant density) Navier-Stokes equations (with
the velocity prescribed at the boundary) as an equivalent system, for the
primary variables velocity and pressure. We do this in the usual way away from
the boundaries, by replacing the incompressibility condition on the velocity by
a Poisson equation for the pressure. The key difference from the usual
approaches occurs at the boundaries, where we use boundary conditions that
unequivocally allow the pressure to be recovered from knowledge of the velocity
at any fixed time. This avoids the common difficulty of an, apparently,
over-determined Poisson problem. Since in this alternative formulation the
pressure can be accurately and efficiently recovered from the velocity, the
recast equations are ideal for numerical marching methods. The new system can
be discretized using a variety of methods, in principle to any desired order of
accuracy. In this work we illustrate the approach with a 2-D second order
finite difference scheme on a Cartesian grid, and devise an algorithm to solve
the equations on domains with curved (non-conforming) boundaries, including a
case with a non-trivial topology (a circular obstruction inside the domain).
This algorithm achieves second order accuracy (in L-infinity), for both the
velocity and the pressure. The scheme has a natural extension to 3-D.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figure
Analytic Detection Thresholds for Measurements of Linearly Polarized Intensity Using Rotation Measure Synthesis
A fully analytic statistical formalism does not yet exist to describe
radio-wavelength measurements of linearly polarized intensity that are produced
using rotation measure synthesis. In this work we extend the analytic formalism
for standard linear polarization, namely that describing measurements of the
quadrature sum of Stokes Q and U intensities, to the rotation measure synthesis
environment. We derive the probability density function and expectation value
for Faraday-space polarization measurements for both the case where true
underlying polarized emission is present within unresolved Faraday components,
and for the limiting case where no such emission is present. We then derive
relationships to quantify the statistical significance of linear polarization
measurements in terms of standard Gaussian statistics. The formalism developed
in this work will be useful for setting signal-to-noise ratio detection
thresholds for measurements of linear polarization, for the analysis of
polarized sources potentially exhibiting multiple Faraday components, and for
the development of polarization debiasing schemes.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
A probabilistic unified approach for power indices in simple games
The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60555-4_11Many power indices on simple games have been defined trying to measure, under different points of view, the “a priori” importance of a voter in a collective binary voting scenario. A unified probabilistic way to define some of these power indices is considered in this paper. We show that six well-known power indices are obtained under such a probabilistic approach. Moreover, some new power indices can naturally be obtained in this way.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
The Evolution of Substructure in Galaxy, Group and Cluster Haloes I: Basic Dynamics
The hierarchical mergers that form the haloes of dark matter surrounding
galaxies, groups and clusters are not entirely efficient, leaving substantial
amounts of dense substructure, in the form of stripped halo cores or
`subhaloes', orbiting within these systems. Using a semi-analytic model of
satellite dynamics, we study the evolution of haloes as they merge
hierarchically, to determine how much substructure survives merging and how the
properties of individual subhaloes change over time. We find that subhaloes
evolve, due to mass loss, orbital decay, and tidal disruption, on a
characteristic time-scale equal to the period of radial oscillations at the
virial radius of the system. Subhaloes with realistic densities and density
profiles lose 25-45 per cent of their mass per pericentric passage, depending
on their concentration and on the circularity of their orbit. As the halo
grows, the subhalo orbits also grow in size and become less bound. Based on
these general patterns, we suggest a method for including realistic amounts of
substructure in semi-analytic models based on merger trees. We show that the
parameters in the resulting model can be fixed by requiring self-consistency
between different levels of the merger hierarchy. In a companion paper, we will
compare the results of our model with numerical simulations of halo formation.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures; submitted to MNRA
High Galactic latitude polarized emission at 1.4 GHz and implications for cosmic microwave background observations
We analyse the polarized emission at 1.4 GHz in a 3x3 deg^2 area at high
Galactic latitude (b ~ -40deg). The region, centred in (RA=5h, Dec=-49deg), was
observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array radio-interferometer, whose
3-30 arcmin angular sensitivity range allows the study of scales appropriate
for CMB Polarization (CMBP) investigations. The angular behavior of the diffuse
emission is analysed through the E- and B-mode power spectra. These follow a
power law with slopes \beta_E = -1.97 \pm 0.08 and
\beta_B = -1.98 \pm 0.07. The emission is found to be about a factor 25 fainter
than in Galactic plane regions. The comparison of the power spectra with other
surveys indicates that this area is intermediate between strong and negligible
Faraday rotation effects. A similar conclusion can be reached by analysing both
the frequency and Galactic latitude behaviors of the diffuse Galactic emission
of the 408-1411 MHz Leiden survey data. We present an analysis of the Faraday
rotation effects on the polarized power spectra, and find that the observed
power spectra can be enhanced by a transfer of power from large to small
angular scales. The extrapolation of the spectra to 32 and 90GHz of the CMB
window suggests that Galactic synchrotron emission leaves the CMBP E-mode
uncontaminated at 32GHz. The level of the contamination at 90GHz is expected to
be more than 4 orders of magnitude below the CMBP spectrum. Extrapolating to
the relevant angular scales, this region also appears adequate for
investigation of the CMBP B-modes for models with tensor/scalar fluctuation
power ratio T/S>0.01. We also identify polarized point sources in the field,
providing a 9 object list which is complete down to the polarized flux limit of
S^p_lim = 2 mJy.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The TANAMI Program
TANAMI (Tracking Active Galactic Nuclei with Austral Milliarcsecond
Interferometry) is a monitoring program to study the parsec-scale structures
and dynamics of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) of the
Southern Hemisphere with the Long Baseline Array and associated telescopes.
Extragalactic jets south of -30 degrees declination are observed at 8.4 GHz and
22 GHz every two months at milliarcsecond resolution. The initial TANAMI sample
is a hybrid radio and gamma-ray selected sample since the combination of VLBI
and gamma-ray observations is crucial to understand the broadband emission
characteristics of AGN.Comment: Confernce Proceedings for "X-ray Astronomy 2009" (Bologna), 3 pages,
3 figures, needs cls-fil
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