6,434 research outputs found
Comparison between persisting anti-lipopolysaccharide antibodies and culture at postmortem in salmonella-infected cattle herds
Horizontal-branch morphology and multiple stellar populations in the anomalous globular cluster M22
M22 is an anomalous globular cluster that hosts two groups of stars with
different metallicity and s-element abundance. The star-to-star light-element
variations in both groups, with the presence of individual Na-O and C-N
anticorrelations, demonstrates that this Milky-Way satellite has experienced a
complex star-formation history. We have analysed FLAMES/UVES spectra for seven
stars covering a small color interval, on the reddest horizontal-branch (HB)
portion of this cluster and investigated possible relations between the
chemical composition of a star and its location along the HB. Our chemical
abundance analysis takes into account effects introduced by deviations from the
local-thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE effects), that are significant for the
measured spectral lines in the atmospheric parameters range spanned by our
stars. We find that all the analysed stars are barium-poor and sodium-poor,
thus supporting the idea that the position of a star along the HB is strictly
related to the chemical composition, and that the HB-morphology is influenced
by the presence of different stellar populations.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Carbon and oxygen in metal-poor halo stars
Carbon and oxygen are key tracers of the Galactic chemical evolution; in
particular, a reported upturn in [C/O] towards decreasing [O/H] in metal-poor
halo stars could be a signature of nucleosynthesis by massive Population III
stars. We reanalyse carbon, oxygen, and iron abundances in thirty-nine
metal-poor turn-off stars. For the first time, we take into account
three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic effects together with departures from local
thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) when determining both the stellar parameters
and the elemental abundances, by deriving effective temperatures from 3D
non-LTE H profiles, surface gravities from Gaia parallaxes, iron
abundances from 3D LTE Feii equivalent widths, and carbon and oxygen abundances
from 3D non-LTE Ci and Oi equivalent widths. We find that [C/Fe] stays flat
with [Fe/H], whereas [O/Fe] increases linearly up to dex with decreasing
[Fe/H] down to dex. As such [C/O] monotonically decreases towards
decreasing [O/H], in contrast to previous findings, mainly by virtue of less
severe non-LTE effects for Oi at low [Fe/H] with our improved calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; published in A&A Letter
Experimental evolution reveals hidden diversity in evolutionary pathways
Replicate populations of natural and experimental organisms often show evidence of parallel genetic evolution, but the causes are unclear. The wrinkly spreader morph of Pseudomonas fluorescens arises repeatedly during experimental evolution. The mutational causes reside exclusively within three pathways. By eliminating these, 13 new mutational pathways were discovered with the newly arising WS types having fitnesses similar to those arising from the commonly passaged routes. Our findings show that parallel genetic evolution is strongly biased by constraints and we reveal the genetic bases. From such knowledge, and in instances where new phenotypes arise via gene activation, we suggest a set of principles: evolution proceeds firstly via pathways subject to negative regulation, then via promoter mutations and gene fusions, and finally via activation by intragenic gain-of-function mutations. These principles inform evolutionary forecasting and have relevance to interpreting the diverse array of mutations associated with clinically identical instances of disease in humans
Effective temperature determinations of late-type stars based on 3D non-LTE Balmer line formation
Hydrogen Balmer lines are commonly used as spectroscopic effective
temperature diagnostics of late-type stars. However, the absolute accuracy of
classical methods that are based on one-dimensional (1D) hydrostatic model
atmospheres and local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) is still unclear. To
investigate this, we carry out 3D non-LTE calculations for the Balmer lines,
performed, for the first time, over an extensive grid of 3D hydrodynamic
STAGGER model atmospheres. For H, H, and H, we find
significant 1D non-LTE versus 3D non-LTE differences (3D effects): the outer
wings tend to be stronger in 3D models, particularly for H, while the
inner wings can be weaker in 3D models, particularly for H. For
H, we also find significant 3D LTE versus 3D non-LTE differences
(non-LTE effects): in warmer stars (K) the inner
wings tend to be weaker in non-LTE models, while at lower effective
temperatures (K) the inner wings can be stronger in
non-LTE models; the non-LTE effects are more severe at lower metallicities. We
test our 3D non-LTE models against observations of well-studied benchmark
stars. For the Sun, we infer concordant effective temperatures from H,
H, and H; however the value is too low by around 50K which could
signal residual modelling shortcomings. For other benchmark stars, our 3D
non-LTE models generally reproduce the effective temperatures to within
uncertainties. For H, the absolute 3D effects and non-LTE
effects can separately reach around 100K, in terms of inferred effective
temperatures. For metal-poor turn-off stars, 1D LTE models of H can
underestimate effective temperatures by around 150K. Our 3D non-LTE model
spectra are publicly available, and can be used for more reliable spectroscopic
effective temperature determinations.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, abstract abridged; accepted for publication in
Astronomy & Astrophysic
Salmonella dublin in Danish Dairy Herds: Frequency of Change to Positive Serological Status in Bulk Tank Milk ELISA in Relation to Serostatus of Neighbouring Farms
Bulk tank milk from 1,429 herds were collected in 3 rounds from 19 different geographic areas. The milk samples were tested by use of indirect LPS-ELISA procedure to detect Salmonella dublin antibodies. From the obtained OD-values herd seroprevalence in the given area was determined and GR-scores calculated for each herd by addition of the number of positive sampling rounds by the 5 geographically closest neighbour herds. In the 19 different areas the calculated prevalence ranged from 0.01 to 0.41. Totally 3,697 GR-scores were given. The mean GR-scores in the areas ranged from 0.0 to 6.5. Higher GR-scores were found in herds changing to seropositive status compared with herds seronegative throughout the study period. The results indicate that the risk for a dairy herd to receive S. dublin infection increases with the disease status among the nearest neighbours and with the prevalence of seropositive herds in the geographic area
Coherence in scale-free networks of chaotic maps
We study fully synchronized states in scale-free networks of chaotic logistic
maps as a function of both dynamical and topological parameters. Three
different network topologies are considered: (i) random scale-free topology,
(ii) deterministic pseudo-fractal scale-free network, and (iii) Apollonian
network. For the random scale-free topology we find a coupling strength
threshold beyond which full synchronization is attained. This threshold scales
as , where is the outgoing connectivity and depends on the
local nonlinearity. For deterministic scale-free networks coherence is observed
only when the coupling strength is proportional to the neighbor connectivity.
We show that the transition to coherence is of first-order and study the role
of the most connected nodes in the collective dynamics of oscillators in
scale-free networks.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
New approaches to model and study social networks
We describe and develop three recent novelties in network research which are
particularly useful for studying social systems. The first one concerns the
discovery of some basic dynamical laws that enable the emergence of the
fundamental features observed in social networks, namely the nontrivial
clustering properties, the existence of positive degree correlations and the
subdivision into communities. To reproduce all these features we describe a
simple model of mobile colliding agents, whose collisions define the
connections between the agents which are the nodes in the underlying network,
and develop some analytical considerations. The second point addresses the
particular feature of clustering and its relationship with global network
measures, namely with the distribution of the size of cycles in the network.
Since in social bipartite networks it is not possible to measure the clustering
from standard procedures, we propose an alternative clustering coefficient that
can be used to extract an improved normalized cycle distribution in any
network. Finally, the third point addresses dynamical processes occurring on
networks, namely when studying the propagation of information in them. In
particular, we focus on the particular features of gossip propagation which
impose some restrictions in the propagation rules. To this end we introduce a
quantity, the spread factor, which measures the average maximal fraction of
nearest neighbors which get in contact with the gossip, and find the striking
result that there is an optimal non-trivial number of friends for which the
spread factor is minimized, decreasing the danger of being gossiped.Comment: 16 Pages, 9 figure
Moral reasoning and homosexuality: the acceptability of arguments about lesbian and gay issues
In the political arena, lesbian and gay issues have typically been contested on grounds of human rights, but with variable success. Using a moral developmental framework, the purpose of this study was to explore preferences for different types of moral arguments when thinking about moral dilemmas around lesbian and gay issues. The analysis presented here comprised data collected from 545 students at UK universities, who completed a questionnaire, part of which comprised a moral dilemma task. Findings of the study showed that respondents do not apply moral reasoning consistently, and do not (clearly) favour human rights reasoning when thinking about lesbian and gay issues. Respondents tended to favour reasoning supporting existing social structures and frameworks, therefore this study highlights the importance of structural change in effecting widespread attitude change in relation to lesbian and gay rights issues. The implications of the findings for moral education are also discussed.</p
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