4,033 research outputs found
MetExplore: a web server to link metabolomic experiments and genome-scale metabolic networks
High-throughput metabolomic experiments aim at identifying and ultimately quantifying all metabolites present in biological systems. The metabolites are interconnected through metabolic reactions, generally grouped into metabolic pathways. Classical metabolic maps provide a relational context to help interpret metabolomics experiments and a wide range of tools have been developed to help place metabolites within metabolic pathways. However, the representation of metabolites within separate disconnected pathways overlooks most of the connectivity of the metabolome. By definition, reference pathways cannot integrate novel pathways nor show relationships between metabolites that may be linked by common neighbours without being considered as joint members of a classical biochemical pathway. MetExplore is a web server that offers the possibility to link metabolites identified in untargeted metabolomics experiments within the context of genome-scale reconstructed metabolic networks. The analysis pipeline comprises mapping metabolomics data onto the specific metabolic network of an organism, then applying graph-based methods and advanced visualization tools to enhance data analysis. The MetExplore web server is freely accessible at http://metexplore.toulouse.inra.fr
Synaptic targets of photoreceptors specialized to detect color and skylight polarization in Drosophila
Color and polarization provide complementary information about the world and are detected by specialized photoreceptors. However, the downstream neural circuits that process these distinct modalities are incompletely understood in any animal. Using electron microscopy, we have systematically reconstructed the synaptic targets of the photoreceptors specialized to detect color and skylight polarization in Drosophila, and we have used light microscopy to confirm many of our findings. We identified known and novel downstream targets that are selective for different wavelengths or polarized light, and followed their projections to other areas in the optic lobes and the central brain. Our results revealed many synapses along the photoreceptor axons between brain regions, new pathways in the optic lobes, and spatially segregated projections to central brain regions. Strikingly, photoreceptors in the polarization-sensitive dorsal rim area target fewer cell types, and lack strong connections to the lobula, a neuropil involved in color processing. Our reconstruction identifies shared wiring and modality-specific specializations for color and polarization vision, and provides a comprehensive view of the first steps of the pathways processing color and polarized light inputs
Photometric redshifts and clustering of emission line galaxies selected jointly by DES and eBOSS
We present the results of the first test plates of the extended Baryon
Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. This paper focuses on the emission line
galaxies (ELG) population targetted from the Dark Energy Survey (DES)
photometry. We analyse the success rate, efficiency, redshift distribution, and
clustering properties of the targets. From the 9000 spectroscopic redshifts
targetted, 4600 have been selected from the DES photometry. The total success
rate for redshifts between 0.6 and 1.2 is 71\% and 68\% respectively for a
bright and faint, on average more distant, samples including redshifts measured
from a single strong emission line. We find a mean redshift of 0.8 and 0.87,
with 15 and 13\% of unknown redshifts respectively for the bright and faint
samples. In the redshift range 0.6<z<1.2, for the most secure spectroscopic
redshifts, the mean redshift for the bright and faint sample is 0.85 and 0.9
respectively. Star contamination is lower than 2\%. We measure a galaxy bias
averaged on scales of 1 and 10~Mpc/h of 1.72 \pm 0.1 for the bright sample and
of 1.78 \pm 0.12 for the faint sample. The error on the galaxy bias have been
obtained propagating the errors in the correlation function to the fitted
parameters. This redshift evolution for the galaxy bias is in agreement with
theoretical expectations for a galaxy population with MB-5\log h < -21.0. We
note that biasing is derived from the galaxy clustering relative to a model for
the mass fluctuations. We investigate the quality of the DES photometric
redshifts and find that the outlier fraction can be reduced using a comparison
between template fitting and neural network, or using a random forest
algorithm
Astrometric calibration and performance of the Dark Energy Camera
We characterize the ability of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to perform
relative astrometry across its 500~Mpix, 3 deg^2 science field of view, and
across 4 years of operation. This is done using internal comparisons of ~4x10^7
measurements of high-S/N stellar images obtained in repeat visits to fields of
moderate stellar density, with the telescope dithered to move the sources
around the array. An empirical astrometric model includes terms for: optical
distortions; stray electric fields in the CCD detectors; chromatic terms in the
instrumental and atmospheric optics; shifts in CCD relative positions of up to
~10 um when the DECam temperature cycles; and low-order distortions to each
exposure from changes in atmospheric refraction and telescope alignment. Errors
in this astrometric model are dominated by stochastic variations with typical
amplitudes of 10-30 mas (in a 30 s exposure) and 5-10 arcmin coherence length,
plausibly attributed to Kolmogorov-spectrum atmospheric turbulence. The size of
these atmospheric distortions is not closely related to the seeing. Given an
astrometric reference catalog at density ~0.7 arcmin^{-2}, e.g. from Gaia, the
typical atmospheric distortions can be interpolated to 7 mas RMS accuracy (for
30 s exposures) with 1 arcmin coherence length for residual errors. Remaining
detectable error contributors are 2-4 mas RMS from unmodelled stray electric
fields in the devices, and another 2-4 mas RMS from focal plane shifts between
camera thermal cycles. Thus the astrometric solution for a single DECam
exposure is accurate to 3-6 mas (0.02 pixels, or 300 nm) on the focal plane,
plus the stochastic atmospheric distortion.Comment: Submitted to PAS
COSMOGRAIL XVI: Time delays for the quadruply imaged quasar DES J0408-5354 with high-cadence photometric monitoring
We present time-delay measurements for the new quadruply imaged quasar DES
J0408-5354, the first quadruply imaged quasar found in the Dark Energy Survey
(DES). Our result is made possible by implementing a new observational strategy
using almost daily observations with the MPIA 2.2m telescope at La Silla
observatory and deep exposures reaching a signal-to-noise ratio of about 1000
per quasar image. This data quality allows us to catch small photometric
variations (a few mmag rms) of the quasar, acting on temporal scales much
shorter than microlensing, hence making the time delay measurement very robust
against microlensing. In only 7 months we measure very accurately one of the
time delays in DES J0408-5354: Dt(AB) = -112.1 +- 2.1 days (1.8%) using only
the MPIA 2.2m data. In combination with data taken with the 1.2m Euler Swiss
telescope, we also measure two delays involving the D component of the system
Dt(AD) = -155.5 +- 12.8 days (8.2%) and Dt(BD) = -42.4 +- 17.6 days (41%),
where all the error bars include systematics. Turning these time delays into
cosmological constraints will require deep HST imaging or ground-based Adaptive
Optics (AO), and information on the velocity field of the lensing galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Causal propagation of geometrical fields in relativistic cosmology
We employ the extended 1+3 orthonormal frame formalism for fluid spacetime
geometries , which contains the Bianchi field
equations for the Weyl curvature, to derive a 44-D evolution system of
first-order symmetric hyperbolic form for a set of geometrically defined
dynamical field variables. Describing the matter source fields
phenomenologically in terms of a barotropic perfect fluid, the propagation
velocities (with respect to matter-comoving observers that Fermi-propagate
their spatial reference frames) of disturbances in the matter and the
gravitational field, represented as wavefronts by the characteristic 3-surfaces
of the system, are obtained. In particular, the Weyl curvature is found to
account for two (non-Lorentz-invariant) Coulomb-like characteristic eigenfields
propagating with and four transverse characteristic eigenfields
propagating with , which are well known, and four
(non-Lorentz-invariant) longitudinal characteristic eigenfields propagating
with |v| = \sfrac{1}{2}. The implications of this result are discussed in
some detail and a parallel is drawn to the propagation of irregularities in the
matter distribution. In a worked example, we specialise the equations to
cosmological models in locally rotationally symmetric class II and include the
constraints into the set of causally propagating dynamical variables.Comment: 25 pages, RevTeX (10pt), accepted for publication by Physical Review
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H0LiCOW X: Spectroscopic/imaging survey and galaxy-group identification around the strong gravitational lens system WFI2033-4723
Galaxies and galaxy groups located along the line of sight towards
gravitationally lensed quasars produce high-order perturbations of the
gravitational potential at the lens position. When these perturbation are too
large, they can induce a systematic error on of a few-percent if the lens
system is used for cosmological inference and the perturbers are not explicitly
accounted for in the lens model. In this work, we present a detailed
characterization of the environment of the lens system WFI2033-4723 (, = 0.6575), one of the core targets of the H0LICOW
project for which we present cosmological inferences in a companion paper (Rusu
et al. 2019). We use the Gemini and ESO-Very Large telescopes to measure the
spectroscopic redshifts of the brightest galaxies towards the lens, and use the
ESO-MUSE integral field spectrograph to measure the velocity-dispersion of the
lens ( km/s) and of several nearby
galaxies. In addition, we measure photometric redshifts and stellar masses of
all galaxies down to mag, mainly based on Dark Energy Survey imaging
(DR1). Our new catalog, complemented with literature data, more than doubles
the number of known galaxy spectroscopic redshifts in the direct vicinity of
the lens, expanding to 116 (64) the number of spectroscopic redshifts for
galaxies separated by less than 3 arcmin (2 arcmin) from the lens. Using the
flexion-shift as a measure of the amplitude of the gravitational perturbation,
we identify 2 galaxy groups and 3 galaxies that require specific attention in
the lens models. The ESO MUSE data enable us to measure the
velocity-dispersions of three of these galaxies. These results are essential
for the cosmological inference analysis presented in Rusu et al. (2019).Comment: Matches the version accepted for publication by MNRAS. Note that this
paper previously appeared as H0LICOW X
Forward Global Photometric Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey
Many scientific goals for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) require calibration of
optical/NIR broadband photometry that is stable in time and uniform
over the celestial sky to one percent or better. It is also necessary to limit
to similar accuracy systematic uncertainty in the calibrated broadband
magnitudes due to uncertainty in the spectrum of the source. Here we present a
"Forward Global Calibration Method (FGCM)" for photometric calibration of the
DES, and we present results of its application to the first three years of the
survey (Y3A1). The FGCM combines data taken with auxiliary instrumentation at
the observatory with data from the broad-band survey imaging itself and models
of the instrument and atmosphere to estimate the spatial- and time-dependence
of the passbands of individual DES survey exposures. "Standard" passbands are
chosen that are typical of the passbands encountered during the survey. The
passband of any individual observation is combined with an estimate of the
source spectral shape to yield a magnitude in the standard
system. This "chromatic correction" to the standard system is necessary to
achieve sub-percent calibrations. The FGCM achieves reproducible and stable
photometric calibration of standard magnitudes of stellar
sources over the multi-year Y3A1 data sample with residual random calibration
errors of per exposure. The accuracy of the
calibration is uniform across the DES footprint to
within . The systematic uncertainties of magnitudes in
the standard system due to the spectra of sources are less than
for main sequence stars with .Comment: 25 pages, submitted to A
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