195 research outputs found
Uv-vis in situ spectrometry data mining through linear and non linear analysis methods
UV-visible spectrometers are instruments that register the absorbance of emitted light by particles suspended in water for several wavelengths and deliver continuous measurements that can be interpreted as concentrations of parameters commonly used to evaluate physico-chemical status of water bodies. Classical parameters that indicate presence of pollutants are total suspended solids (TSS) and chemical demand of oxygen (CDO). Flexible and efficient methods to relate the instruments’s multivariate registers and classical measurements are needed in order to extract useful information for management and monitoring. Analysis methods such as Partial Least Squares (PLS) are used in order to calibrate an instrument for a water matrix taking into account cross-sensitivity. Several authors have shown that it is necessary to undertake specific instrument calibrations for the studied hydro-system and explore linear and non-linear statistical methods for the UV-visible data analysis and its relationship with chemical and physical parameters. In this work we apply classical linear multivariate data analysis and nonlinear kernel methods in order to mine UV-vis high dimensional data, which turn out to be useful for detecting relationships between UV-vis data and classical parameters and outliers, as well as revealing non-linear data structures
Multifragmentation and the liquid-gas phase transition: an experimental overview
Two roads are presently being followed in order to establish the existence of
a liquid-gas phase transition in finite nuclear systems from nuclear reactions
at high energy. The clean experiment of observing the thermodynamic properties
of a finite number of nucleons in a container is presently only possible with
the computer. Performed with advanced nuclear transport models, it has revealed
the first-order character of the transition and allowed the extraction of the
pertinent thermodynamic parameters. The validity of the applied theory is being
confirmed by comparing its predictions for heavy-ion reactions with exclusive
experiments.
The second approach is experimentally more direct. Signals of the transition
are searched for by analysing reaction data within the framework of
thermodynamics of small systems. A variety of potential signals has been
investigated and found to be qualitatively consistent with the expectations for
the phase transition. Many of them are well reproduced with percolation models
which places the nuclear fragmentation into the more general context of
partitioning phenomena in finite systems.
A wealth of new data on this subject has been obtained in recent experiments,
some of them with a new generation of multi-detector devices aiming at higher
resolutions, isotopic identification of the fragments, and the coincident
detection of neutrons. Isotopic effects in multifragmentation were addressed
quite intensively, with particular attention being given to their relation to
the symmetry energy and its dependence on density.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Contribution to Proceedings of INPC2004,
Goeteborg, Sweden, June 27 - July 2, 200
Critical Temperature for the Nuclear Liquid-Gas Phase Transition
The charge distribution of the intermediate mass fragments produced in p (8.1
GeV) + Au collisions is analyzed in the framework of the statistical
multifragmentation model with the critical temperature for the nuclear
liquid-gas phase transition as a free parameter. It is found that
MeV (90% CL).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published in Phys. Rev.
Extending the Limited Transfer Window Hypothesis to Inter-organelle DNA Migration
Mitochondrial genomes often contain large amounts of plastid DNA (ptDNA)-derived sequences (MTPTs). It has been suggested that the intercompartmental transfer of ptDNA is greatly reduced in species with only a single plastid per cell (monoplastidic) as compared with those with many plastids per cell (polyplastidic). This hypothesis has not been applied to the movement of DNA from plastids to mitochondria. By analyzing the organelle genomes from diverse mono- and polyplastidic taxa, I show that MTPTs are restricted to the mitochondrial genomes of species with many plastids per cell and are absent from those with one plastid per cell or with monoplastidic meristematic systems. Moreover, the most bloated mitochondrial genomes that were explored had the largest MTPT contents. These data, like previous results on ptDNA-derived sequences in nuclear genomes, support the hypothesis that plastid number and the forces governing the expansion and contraction of noncoding mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) influence MTPT abundance. I also show that plastid genomes are depauperate in mtDNA-derived sequences (PTMTs), irrespective of the number of mitochondria per cell and plastid genome size, which may reflect the lack of a DNA uptake system in plastids
How formation time-scales affect the period dependence of the transition between rocky super-Earths and gaseous sub-Neptunesand implications for η⊕
One of the most significant advances by NASA's Mission was
the discovery of an abundant new population of highly irradiated planets with
sizes between the Earth and Neptune. Subsequent analysis showed that at ~1.5
Earth radii there is a transition from a population of predominantly rocky
super-Earths to non-rocky sub-Neptunes, which must have substantial volatile
envelopes. Determining the origin of these highly irradiated rocky planets will
be critical to our understanding of low-mass planet formation and the frequency
of potentially habitable Earth-like planets. These short-period rocky
super-Earths could simply be the stripped cores of sub-Neptunes, which have
lost their envelopes due to atmospheric photo-evaporation or other processes,
or they might instead be a separate population of inherently rocky planets,
which never had significant envelopes. Using models of atmospheric
photo-evaporation, we show that if most bare rocky planets are the evaporated
cores of sub-Neptunes then the transition radius should decrease as surveys
push to longer orbital periods, since on wider orbits only planets with smaller
less massive cores can be stripped. On the other hand, if most rocky planets
formed after their disks dissipate then these planets will have formed without
initial gaseous envelopes. In this case, we use N-body simulations of planet
formation to show that the transition radius should increase with orbital
period, due to the increasing solid mass available in their disks. Moreover, we
show that distinguishing between these two scenarios should be possible in
coming years with radial velocity follow-up of planets found by TESS. Finally,
we discuss the broader implications of this work for current efforts to measure
, which may yield significant overestimates if most
rocky planets form as evaporated cores.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices
of the Royal Astronomical Societ
Innovations in Doctoral Training and Research on Tinnitus:The European School on Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Research (ESIT) Perspective
Tinnitus is a common medical condition which interfaces many different disciplines, yet it is not a priority for any individual discipline. A change in its scientific understanding and clinical management requires a shift toward multidisciplinary cooperation, not only in research but also in training. The European School for Interdisciplinary Tinnitus research (ESIT) brings together a unique multidisciplinary consortium of clinical practitioners, academic researchers, commercial partners, patient organizations, and public health experts to conduct innovative research and train the next generation of tinnitus researchers. ESIT supports fundamental science and clinical research projects in order to: (1) advancing new treatment solutions for tinnitus, (2) improving existing treatment paradigms, (3) developing innovative research methods, (4) performing genetic studies on, (5) collecting epidemiological data to create new knowledge about prevalence and risk factors, (6) establishing a pan-European data resource. All research projects involve inter-sectoral partnerships through practical training, quite unlike anything that can be offered by any single university alone. Likewise, the postgraduate training curriculum fosters a deep knowledge about tinnitus whilst nurturing transferable competencies in personal qualities and approaches needed to be an effective researcher, knowledge of the standards, requirements and professionalism to do research, and skills to work with others and to ensure the wider impact of research. ESIT is the seed for future generations of creative, entrepreneurial, and innovative researchers, trained to master the upcoming challenges in the tinnitus field, to implement sustained changes in prevention and clinical management of tinnitus, and to shape doctoral education in tinnitus for the future
Molecular Poltergeists: Mitochondrial DNA Copies (numts) in Sequenced Nuclear Genomes
The natural transfer of DNA from mitochondria to the nucleus generates nuclear copies of mitochondrial DNA (numts) and is an ongoing evolutionary process, as genome sequences attest. In humans, five different numts cause genetic disease and a dozen human loci are polymorphic for the presence of numts, underscoring the rapid rate at which mitochondrial sequences reach the nucleus over evolutionary time. In the laboratory and in nature, numts enter the nuclear DNA via non-homolgous end joining (NHEJ) at double-strand breaks (DSBs). The frequency of numt insertions among 85 sequenced eukaryotic genomes reveal that numt content is strongly correlated with genome size, suggesting that the numt insertion rate might be limited by DSB frequency. Polymorphic numts in humans link maternally inherited mitochondrial genotypes to nuclear DNA haplotypes during the past, offering new opportunities to associate nuclear markers with mitochondrial markers back in time
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