Photometry of Variable Stars from Dome A, Antarctica

Dome A on the Antarctic plateau is likely one of the best observing sites on Earth thanks to the excellent atmospheric conditions present at the site during the long polar winter night. We present high-cadence time-series aperture photometry of 10,000 stars with i<14.5 mag located in a 23 square-degree region centered on the south celestial pole. The photometry was obtained with one of the CSTAR telescopes during 128 days of the 2008 Antarctic winter. We used this photometric data set to derive site statistics for Dome A and to search for variable stars. Thanks to the nearly-uninterrupted synoptic coverage, we find 6 times as many variables as previous surveys with similar magnitude limits. We detected 157 variable stars, of which 55% are unclassified, 27% are likely binaries and 17% are likely pulsating stars. The latter category includes delta Scuti, gamma Doradus and RR Lyrae variables. One variable may be a transiting exoplanet.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. PDF version with high-resolution figures available at http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/lmacri/papers/wang11.pd

Mary in jewish tradition = Maria na tradição judaica

Uma vez que os judeus rejeitaram o relato milagroso do nascimento de Jesus, eles assumiram que Maria era concebida através de atividade sexual ilícita, às vezes expressa em termos vulgares. Alguns judeus refutaram a possibilidade do nascimento virginal por meio de argumentos filosóficos e outros ofereceram argumentos bíblicos contra a virgindade perpétua de Maria. Apesar das opiniões geralmente negativas acerca de Maria, há evidências de uma atração pela idéia de um modelo feminino semi-divino e é possível que certas interpretações cabalísticas da presença divina tenham mapeamentos mariano

Egg mortality: predation and hydrography in the central Baltic

Cod and sprat are the dominant fish species in the Baltic pelagic ecosystem, both of great economic importance and ecologically strongly interlinked. Management of both species is challenged by highly variable recruitment success. Recent studies have identified predation and hydrographic conditions during the egg phase to be of critical importance. Two years of extensive field investigations in the Bornholm Basin, central Baltic Sea, were undertaken. In 2002, a typical stagnation situation characterized by low salinity and poor oxygen conditions was investigated, and in early 2003, a major inflow of North Sea water completely changed the hydrographic conditions by increasing salinity and oxygen content, thereby altering ecological conditions. The goal was to quantify egg mortality caused by predation and hydrography, and to compare these estimates with independent estimates based on cohort analysis. Results indicated high intra-annual variability in egg mortality. Cod and sprat egg mortality responded differently to the major Baltic inflow: mortality related to hydrographic conditions increased for sprat and decreased for cod. On the other hand, predation mortality during peak spawning decreased for sprat and increased for cod

Perspectives sur l'histoire du karaïsme = Perspectives on the History of Karaism

This book examines the history of Karaism, a Jewish religious movement that emerged in the ninth century in Iraq and Palestine, in opposition to rabbinic Judaism and the notion of the Oral Torah. This important current of medieval Judaism, of which a few communities remain today, is a remarkable example of the complexity and variety of Judaism. Cet ouvrage étudie l'histoire du karaïsme, un mouvement religieux juif, apparu au ixe siècle, en Iraq et en Palestine, qui s’oppose au judaïsme rabbinique et à la notion de Torah orale. Ce courant important du judaïsme médiéval, dont il reste quelques communautés aujourd’hui, est un exemple remarquable de la complexité et de la variété du judaïsme

Analisis Kestabilan Model SEIR Penyebaran Penyakit Campak dengan Pengaruh Imunisasi dan Vaksin MR

Measles is a contagious infectious disease caused by a virus and has the potential to cause an outbreak. Immunization and vaccination are carried out as an effort to prevent the spread of measles. This study aims to analyze and determine the stability of the SEIR model on the spread of measles with the influence of immunization and MR vaccines. The results obtained from model analysis, namely there are two disease free and endemic equilibrium points. If the conditions are met, the measles-free equilibrium point will be asymptotically stable and the measles endemic equilibrium point will be stable. Numerical solutions show a decrease in the rate of spread of measles due to the effect of immunization and the addition of MR vaccines

The material properties of a bacterial-derived biomolecular condensate tune biological function in natural and synthetic systems

Intracellular phase separation is emerging as a universal principle for organizing biochemical reactions in time and space. It remains incompletely resolved how biological function is encoded in these assemblies and whether this depends on their material state. The conserved intrinsically disordered protein PopZ forms condensates at the poles of the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, which in turn orchestrate cell-cycle regulating signaling cascades. Here we show that the material properties of these condensates are determined by a balance between attractive and repulsive forces mediated by a helical oligomerization domain and an expanded disordered region, respectively. A series of PopZ mutants disrupting this balance results in condensates that span the material properties spectrum, from liquid to solid. A narrow range of condensate material properties supports proper cell division, linking emergent properties to organismal fitness. We use these insights to repurpose PopZ as a modular platform for generating tunable synthetic condensates in human cells

Putting the Pieces Together: Integrative Modeling Platform Software for Structure Determination of Macromolecular Assemblies

A set of software tools for building and distributing models of macromolecular assemblies uses an integrative structure modeling approach, which casts the building of models as a computational optimization problem where information is encoded into a scoring function used to evaluate candidate models

Effective practices of international volunteering for health : perspectives from partner organizations

Abstract: The demand for international volunteer experiences to promote global health and nutrition is increasing and numerous studies have documented the experiences of the international volunteers who travel abroad; however, little is known about effective practices from the perspective of partner organizations. This study aims to understand how variables such as the skill-level of volunteers, the duration of service, cultural and language training, and other key variables affect partner organizations’ perceptions of volunteer effectiveness at promoting healthcare and nutrition..