290 research outputs found
Estimating Spectroscopic Redshifts by Using k Nearest Neighbors Regression I. Description of Method and Analysis
Context: In astronomy, new approaches to process and analyze the
exponentially increasing amount of data are inevitable. While classical
approaches (e.g. template fitting) are fine for objects of well-known classes,
alternative techniques have to be developed to determine those that do not fit.
Therefore a classification scheme should be based on individual properties
instead of fitting to a global model and therefore loose valuable information.
An important issue when dealing with large data sets is the outlier detection
which at the moment is often treated problem-orientated. Aims: In this paper we
present a method to statistically estimate the redshift z based on a similarity
approach. This allows us to determine redshifts in spectra in emission as well
as in absorption without using any predefined model. Additionally we show how
an estimate of the redshift based on single features is possible. As a
consequence we are e.g. able to filter objects which show multiple redshift
components. We propose to apply this general method to all similar problems in
order to identify objects where traditional approaches fail. Methods: The
redshift estimation is performed by comparing predefined regions in the spectra
and applying a k nearest neighbor regression model for every predefined
emission and absorption region, individually. Results: We estimated a redshift
for more than 50% of the analyzed 16,000 spectra of our reference and test
sample. The redshift estimate yields a precision for every individually tested
feature that is comparable with the overall precision of the redshifts of SDSS.
In 14 spectra we find a significant shift between emission and absorption or
emission and emission lines. The results show already the immense power of this
simple machine learning approach for investigating huge databases such as the
SDSS.Comment: accepted for publication in A&
Bose-Einstein condensation in a circular waveguide
We have produced Bose-Einstein condensates in a ring-shaped magnetic
waveguide. The few-millimeter diameter non-zero bias ring is formed from a
time-averaged quadrupole ring. Condensates which propagate around the ring make
several revolutions within the time it takes for them to expand to fill the
ring. The ring shape is ideally suited for studies of vorticity in a
multiply-connected geometry and is promising as a rotation sensor.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Optimized pharmacological control over the AAV-Gene-Switch vector for regulable gene therapy.
Gene therapy in its current design is an irreversible process. It cannot be stopped in case of unwanted side effects, nor can expression levels of therapeutics be adjusted to individual patient's needs. Thus, the Gene-Switch (GS) system for pharmacologically regulable neurotrophic factor expression was established for treatment of parkinsonian patients. Mifepristone, the synthetic steroid used to control transgene expression of the GS vector, is an approved clinical drug. However, pharmacokinetics and -dynamics of mifepristone vary considerably between different experimental animal species and depend on age and gender. In humans, but not in any other species, mifepristone binds to a high-affinity plasma carrier protein. We now demonstrate that the formulation of mifepristone can have robust impact on its ability to activate the GS system. Furthermore, we show that a pharmacological booster, ritonavir (Rtv), robustly enhances the pharmacological effect of mifepristone, and allows it to overcome gender- and species-specific pharmacokinetic and -dynamic issues. Most importantly, we demonstrate that the GS vector can be efficiently controlled by mifepristone in the presence of its human plasma carrier protein, α1-acid glycoprotein, in a "humanized" rat model. Thus, we have substantially improved the applicability of the GS vector toward therapeutic use in patients
Bound States and Threshold Resonances in Quantum Wires with Circular Bends
We study the solutions to the wave equation in a two-dimensional tube of unit
width comprised of two straight regions connected by a region of constant
curvature. We introduce a numerical method which permits high accuracy at high
curvature. We determine the bound state energies as well as the transmission
and reflection matrices, and and focus on the nature of
the resonances which occur in the vicinity of channel thresholds. We explore
the dependence of these solutions on the curvature of the tube and angle of the
bend and discuss several limiting cases where our numerical results confirm
analytic predictions.Comment: 24 pages, revtex file, one style file and 17 PostScript figures
include
FastSurfer-HypVINN: Automated sub-segmentation of the hypothalamus and adjacent structures on high-resolutional brain MRI
The hypothalamus plays a crucial role in the regulation of a broad range of
physiological, behavioural, and cognitive functions. However, despite its
importance, only a few small-scale neuroimaging studies have investigated its
substructures, likely due to the lack of fully automated segmentation tools to
address scalability and reproducibility issues of manual segmentation. While
the only previous attempt to automatically sub-segment the hypothalamus with a
neural network showed promise for 1.0 mm isotropic T1-weighted (T1w) MRI, there
is a need for an automated tool to sub-segment also high-resolutional (HiRes)
MR scans, as they are becoming widely available, and include structural detail
also from multi-modal MRI. We, therefore, introduce a novel, fast, and fully
automated deep learning method named HypVINN for sub-segmentation of the
hypothalamus and adjacent structures on 0.8 mm isotropic T1w and T2w brain MR
images that is robust to missing modalities. We extensively validate our model
with respect to segmentation accuracy, generalizability, in-session test-retest
reliability, and sensitivity to replicate hypothalamic volume effects (e.g.
sex-differences). The proposed method exhibits high segmentation performance
both for standalone T1w images as well as for T1w/T2w image pairs. Even with
the additional capability to accept flexible inputs, our model matches or
exceeds the performance of state-of-the-art methods with fixed inputs. We,
further, demonstrate the generalizability of our method in experiments with 1.0
mm MR scans from both the Rhineland Study and the UK Biobank. Finally, HypVINN
can perform the segmentation in less than a minute (GPU) and will be available
in the open source FastSurfer neuroimaging software suite, offering a
validated, efficient, and scalable solution for evaluating imaging-derived
phenotypes of the hypothalamus.Comment: Submitted to Imaging Neuroscienc
Surfactants tailored by the class Actinobacteria
Globally the change towards the establishment of a bio-based economy has resulted in an increased need for bio-based applications. This, in turn, has served as a driving force for the discovery and application of novel biosurfactants. The class Actinobacteria represents a vast group of microorganisms with the ability to produce a diverse range of secondary metabolites, including surfactants. Understanding the extensive nature of the biosurfactants produced by actinobacterial strains can assist in finding novel biosurfactants with new potential applications. This review therefore presents a comprehensive overview of the knowledge available on actinobacterial surfactants, the chemical structures that have been completely or partly elucidated, as well as the identity of the biosurfactant-producing strains. Producer strains of not yet elucidated compounds are discussed, as well as the original habitats of all the producer strains, which seems to indicate that biosurfactant production is environmentally driven. Methodology applied in the isolation, purification and structural elucidation of the different types of surface active compounds, as well as surfactant activity tests, are also discussed. Overall, actinobacterial surfactants can be summarized to include the dominantly occurring trehalose-comprising surfactants, other non-trehalose containing glycolipids, lipopeptides and the more rare actinobacterial surfactants. The lack of structural information on a large proportion of actinobacterial surfactants should be considered as a driving force to further explore the abundance and diversity of these compounds. This would allow for a better understanding of actinobacterial surface active compounds and their potential for biotechnological application
Surfactants tailored by the class Actinobacteria
Globally the change towards the establishment of a bio-based economy has resulted in an increased need for bio-based applications. This, in turn, has served as a driving force for the discovery and application of novel biosurfactants. The class Actinobacteria represents a vast group of microorganisms with the ability to produce a diverse range of secondary metabolites, including surfactants. Understanding the extensive nature of the biosurfactants produced by actinobacterial strains can assist in finding novel biosurfactants with new potential applications. This review therefore presents a comprehensive overview of the knowledge available on actinobacterial surfactants, the chemical structures that have been completely or partly elucidated, as well as the identity of the biosurfactant-producing strains. Producer strains of not yet elucidated compounds are discussed, as well as the original habitats of all the producer strains, which seems to indicate that biosurfactant production is environmentally driven. Methodology applied in the isolation, purification and structural elucidation of the different types of surface active compounds, as well as surfactant activity tests, are also discussed. Overall, actinobacterial surfactants can be summarized to include the dominantly occurring trehalose-comprising surfactants, other non-trehalose containing glycolipids, lipopeptides and the more rare actinobacterial surfactants. The lack of structural information on a large proportion of actinobacterial surfactants should be considered as a driving force to further explore the abundance and diversity of these compounds. This would allow for a better understanding of actinobacterial surface active compounds and their potential for biotechnological application
Notions and subnotions in information structure
Three dimensions can be distinguished in a cross-linguistic account of information structure. First, there is the definition of the focus constituent, the part of the linguistic expression which is subject to some focus meaning. Second and third, there are the focus meanings and the array of structural devices that encode them. In a given language, the expression of focus is facilitated as well as constrained by the grammar within which the focus devices operate. The prevalence of focus ambiguity, the structural inability to make focus distinctions, will thus vary across languages, and within a language, across focus meanings
CD20 and CD19 targeted vectors induce minimal activation of resting B lymphocytes
B lymphocytes are an important cell population of the immune system. However, until recently it was not possible to transduce resting B lymphocytes with retro- or lentiviral vectors, making them unsusceptible for genetic manipulations by these vectors. Lately, we demonstrated that lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with modified measles virus (MV) glycoproteins hemagglutinin, responsible for receptor recognition, and fusion protein were able to overcome this transduction block. They use either the natural MV receptors, CD46 and signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM), for cell entry (MV-LV) or the vector particles were further modified to selectively enter via the CD20 molecule, which is exclusively expressed on B lymphocytes (CD20-LV). It has been shown previously that transduction by MV-LV does not induce B lymphocyte activation. However, if this is also true for CD20-LV is still unknown. Here, we generated a vector specific for another B lymphocyte marker, CD19, and compared its ability to transduce resting B lymphocytes with CD20-LV. The vector (CD19ds-LV) was able to stably transduce unstimulated B lymphocytes, albeit with a reduced efficiency of about 10% compared to CD20-LV, which transduced about 30% of the cells. Since CD20 as well as CD19 are closely linked to the B lymphocyte activation pathway, we investigated if engagement of CD20 or CD19 molecules by the vector particles induces activating stimuli in resting B lymphocytes. Although, activation of B lymphocytes often involves calcium influx, we did not detect elevated calcium levels. However, the activation marker CD71 was substantially up-regulated upon CD20-LV transduction and most importantly, B lymphocytes transduced with CD20-LV or CD19ds-LV entered the G1b phase of cell cycle, whereas untransduced or MV-LV transduced B lymphocytes remained in G0. Hence, CD20 and CD19 targeting vectors induce activating stimuli in resting B lymphocytes, which most likely renders them susceptible for lentiviral vector transduction
Magnetic trapping of ultracold neutrons
Three-dimensional magnetic confinement of neutrons is reported. Neutrons are
loaded into an Ioffe-type superconducting magnetic trap through inelastic
scattering of cold neutrons with 4He. Scattered neutrons with sufficiently low
energy and in the appropriate spin state are confined by the magnetic field
until they decay. The electron resulting from neutron decay produces
scintillations in the liquid helium bath that results in a pulse of extreme
ultraviolet light. This light is frequency downconverted to the visible and
detected. Results are presented in which 500 +/- 155 neutrons are magnetically
trapped in each loading cycle, consistent with theoretical predictions. The
lifetime of the observed signal, 660 s +290/-170 s, is consistent with the
neutron beta-decay lifetime.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
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