Protected species aerial survey data collection and analysis in waters underlying the R-5306A airspace: final report submitted to US Marine Corps, MCAS Cherry Point

To be in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the United States Department of the Navy is required to assess the potential environmental impacts of conducting at-sea training operations on sea turtles and marine mammals. Limited recent and area-specific density data of sea turtles and dolphins exist for many of the Navy’s operations areas (OPAREAs), including the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point OPAREA, which encompasses portions of Core and Pamlico Sounds, North Carolina. Aerial surveys were conducted to document the seasonal distribution and estimated density of sea turtles and dolphins within Core Sound and portions of Pamlico Sound, and coastal waters extending one mile offshore. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data for each survey were extracted from 1.4 km/pixel resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer remote images. A total of 92 turtles and 1,625 dolphins were sighted during 41 aerial surveys, conducted from July 2004 to April 2006. In the spring (March – May; 7.9°C to 21.7°C mean SST), the majority of turtles sighted were along the coast, mainly from the northern Core Banks northward to Cape Hatteras. By the summer (June – Aug.; 25.2°C to 30.8°C mean SST), turtles were fairly evenly dispersed along the entire survey range of the coast and Pamlico Sound, with only a few sightings in Core Sound. In the autumn (Sept. – Nov.; 9.6°C to 29.6°C mean SST), the majority of turtles sighted were along the coast and in eastern Pamlico Sound; however, fewer turtles were observed along the coast than in the summer. No turtles were seen during the winter surveys (Dec. – Feb.; 7.6°C to 11.2°C mean SST). The estimated mean surface density of turtles was highest along the coast in the summer of 2005 (0.615 turtles/km², SE = 0.220). In Core and Pamlico Sounds the highest mean surface density occurred during the autumn of 2005 (0.016 turtles/km², SE = 0.009). The mean seasonal abundance estimates were always highest in the coastal region, except in the winter when turtles were not sighted in either region. For Pamlico Sound, surface densities were always greater in the eastern than western section. The range of mean temperatures at which turtles were sighted was 9.68°C to 30.82°C. The majority of turtles sighted were within water ≥ 11°C. Dolphins were observed within estuarine waters and along the coast year-round; however, there were some general seasonal movements. In particular, during the summer sightings decreased along the coast and dolphins were distributed throughout Core and Pamlico Sounds, while in the winter the majority of dolphins were located along the coast and in southeastern Pamlico Sound. Although relative numbers changed seasonally between these areas, the estimated mean surface density of dolphins was highest along the coast in the spring of 2006 (9.564 dolphins/km², SE = 5.571). In Core and Pamlico Sounds the highest mean surface density occurred during the autumn of 2004 (0.192 dolphins/km², SE = 0.066). The estimated mean surface density of dolphins was lowest along the coast in the summer of 2004 (0.461 dolphins/km², SE = 0.294). The estimated mean surface density of dolphins was lowest in Core and Pamlico Sounds in the summer of 2005 (0.024 dolphins/km², SE = 0.011). In Pamlico Sound, estimated surface densities were greater in the eastern section except in the autumn. Dolphins were sighted throughout the entire range of mean SST (7.60°C to 30.82°C), with a tendency towards fewer dolphins sighted as water temperatures increased. Based on the findings of this study, sea turtles are most likely to be encountered within the OPAREAs when SST is ≥ 11°C. Since sea turtle distributions are generally limited by water temperature, knowing the SST of a given area is a useful predictor of sea turtle presence. Since dolphins were observed within estuarine waters year-round and throughout the entire range of mean SST’s, they likely could be encountered in the OPAREAs any time of the year. Although our findings indicated the greatest number of dolphins to be present in the winter and the least in the summer, their movements also may be related to other factors such as the availability of prey. (PDF contains 28 pages

Imaging stress and magnetism at high pressures using a nanoscale quantum sensor

Pressure alters the physical, chemical and electronic properties of matter. The development of the diamond anvil cell (DAC) enables tabletop experiments to investigate a diverse landscape of high-pressure phenomena ranging from the properties of planetary interiors to transitions between quantum mechanical phases. In this work, we introduce and utilize a novel nanoscale sensing platform, which integrates nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers directly into the culet (tip) of diamond anvils. We demonstrate the versatility of this platform by performing diffraction-limited imaging (~600 nm) of both stress fields and magnetism, up to pressures ~30 GPa and for temperatures ranging from 25-340 K. For the former, we quantify all six (normal and shear) stress components with accuracy $<0.01$ GPa, offering unique new capabilities for characterizing the strength and effective viscosity of solids and fluids under pressure. For the latter, we demonstrate vector magnetic field imaging with dipole accuracy $<10^{-11}$ emu, enabling us to measure the pressure-driven $\alpha\leftrightarrow\epsilon$ phase transition in iron as well as the complex pressure-temperature phase diagram of gadolinium. In addition to DC vector magnetometry, we highlight a complementary NV-sensing modality using T1 noise spectroscopy; crucially, this demonstrates our ability to characterize phase transitions even in the absence of static magnetic signatures. By integrating an atomic-scale sensor directly into DACs, our platform enables the in situ imaging of elastic, electric and magnetic phenomena at high pressures.Comment: 18 + 50 pages, 4 + 19 figure

The detection of lubricating oil viscosity changes in gearbox transmission systems driven by sensorless variable speed drives using electrical supply parameters

Lubrication oil plays a decisive role to maintain a reliable and efficient operation of gear transmissions. Many offline methods have been developed to monitor the quality of lubricating oils. This work focus on developing a novel online method to diagnose oil degradation based on the measurements from power supply system to the gearbox. Experimental studies based on an 10kW industrial gearbox fed by a sensorless variable speed drive (VSD) shows that measurable changes in both static power and dynamic behaviour are different with lube oils tested. Therefore, it is feasible to use the static power feature to indicate viscosity changes at low and moderate operating speeds. In the meantime, the dynamic feature can separate viscosity changes for all different tested cases

Massive production of small RNAs from a non-coding region of Cauliflower mosaic virus in plant defense and viral counter-defense

To successfully infect plants, viruses must counteract small RNA-based host defense responses. During infection of Arabidopsis, Cauliflower mosaic pararetrovirus (CaMV) is transcribed into pregenomic 35S and subgenomic 19S RNAs. The 35S RNA is both reverse transcribed and also used as an mRNA with highly structured 600 nt leader. We found that this leader region is transcribed into long sense- and antisense-RNAs and spawns a massive quantity of 21, 22 and 24 nt viral small RNAs (vsRNAs), comparable to the entire complement of host-encoded small-interfering RNAs and microRNAs. Leader-derived vsRNAs were detected bound to the Argonaute 1 (AGO1) effector protein, unlike vsRNAs from other viral regions. Only negligible amounts of leader-derived vsRNAs were bound to AGO4. Genetic evidence showed that all four Dicer-like (DCL) proteins mediate vsRNA biogenesis, whereas the RNA polymerases Pol IV, Pol V, RDR1, RDR2 and RDR6 are not required for this process. Surprisingly, CaMV titers were not increased in dcl1/2/3/4 quadruple mutants that accumulate only residual amounts of vsRNAs. Ectopic expression of CaMV leader vsRNAs from an attenuated geminivirus led to increased accumulation of this chimeric virus. Thus, massive production of leader-derived vsRNAs does not restrict viral replication but may serve as a decoy diverting the silencing machinery from viral promoter and coding region

Influenza nucleoprotein delivered with aluminium salts protects mice from an influenza virus that expresses an altered nucleoprotein sequence

Influenza virus poses a difficult challenge for protective immunity. This virus is adept at altering its surface proteins, the proteins that are the targets of neutralizing antibody. Consequently, each year a new vaccine must be developed to combat the current recirculating strains. A universal influenza vaccine that primes specific memory cells that recognise conserved parts of the virus could prove to be effective against both annual influenza variants and newly emergent potentially pandemic strains. Such a vaccine will have to contain a safe and effective adjuvant that can be used in individuals of all ages. We examine protection from viral challenge in mice vaccinated with the nucleoprotein from the PR8 strain of influenza A, a protein that is highly conserved across viral subtypes. Vaccination with nucleoprotein delivered with a universally used and safe adjuvant, composed of insoluble aluminium salts, provides protection against viruses that either express the same or an altered version of nucleoprotein. This protection correlated with the presence of nucleoprotein specific CD8 T cells in the lungs of infected animals at early time points after infection. In contrast, immunization with NP delivered with alum and the detoxified LPS adjuvant, monophosphoryl lipid A, provided some protection to the homologous viral strain but no protection against infection by influenza expressing a variant nucleoprotein. Together, these data point towards a vaccine solution for all influenza A subtypes

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Molecular characterization of geminivirus-derived small RNAs in different plant species

DNA geminiviruses are thought to be targets of RNA silencing. Here, we characterize small interfering (si) RNAs—the hallmarks of silencing—associated with Cabbage leaf curl begomovirus in Arabidopsis and African cassava mosaic begomovirus in Nicotiana benthamiana and cassava. We detected 21, 22 and 24 nt siRNAs of both polarities, derived from both the coding and the intergenic regions of these geminiviruses. Genetic evidence showed that all the 24 nt and a substantial fraction of the 22 nt viral siRNAs are generated by the dicer-like proteins DCL3 and DCL2, respectively. The viral siRNAs were 5′ end phosphorylated, as shown by phosphatase treatments, and methylated at the 3′-nucleotide, as shown by HEN1 miRNA methylase-dependent resistance to β-elimination. Similar modifications were found in all types of endogenous and transgene-derived siRNAs tested, but not in a major fraction of siRNAs from a cytoplasmic RNA tobamovirus. We conclude that several distinct silencing pathways are involved in DNA virus-plant interaction

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV