Light scattering from three-level systems: The T-matrix of a point-dipole with gain

We present an extension of the T-matrix approach to scattering of light by a three-level system, using a description based on a Master equation. More particularly, we apply our formalism to calculate the T-matrix of a pumped three-level atom, providing an exact and analytical expression describing the influence of a pump on the light scattering properties of an atomic three-level system

The First Two Years of Electromagnetic Follow-Up with Advanced LIGO and Virgo

We anticipate the first direct detections of gravitational waves (GWs) with Advanced LIGO and Virgo later this decade. Though this groundbreaking technical achievement will be its own reward, a still greater prize could be observations of compact binary mergers in both gravitational and electromagnetic channels simultaneously. During Advanced LIGO and Virgo's first two years of operation, 2015 through 2016, we expect the global GW detector array to improve in sensitivity and livetime and expand from two to three detectors. We model the detection rate and the sky localization accuracy for binary neutron star (BNS) mergers across this transition. We have analyzed a large, astrophysically motivated source population using real-time detection and sky localization codes and higher-latency parameter estimation codes that have been expressly built for operation in the Advanced LIGO/Virgo era. We show that for most BNS events the rapid sky localization, available about a minute after a detection, is as accurate as the full parameter estimation. We demonstrate that Advanced Virgo will play an important role in sky localization, even though it is anticipated to come online with only one-third as much sensitivity as the Advanced LIGO detectors. We find that the median 90% confidence region shrinks from ~500 square degrees in 2015 to ~200 square degrees in 2016. A few distinct scenarios for the first LIGO/Virgo detections emerge from our simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables. For accompanying data, see http://www.ligo.org/scientists/first2year

Prospectus, May 5, 1975

MCCABE, MCMULLEN, REID….; StuGo Election May 7-8; PC News….In Brief: Art Exhibit To Be Held May 9th, Veterans Plan A Lake Of The Woods Cook-Out, Theta Epsilon Fair May 5, Recreation Society; Parkland Goes To Semester; StuGo Approves New Budget; Carnival A Tension Reliever ; editorials; \u27Next\u27; Vote! Vote!; letters; The Short Circuit; L.T.D.s Corner; Photography 35: Tips On Using An Exposure Meter, The Basic Elements Of Photography ; Candidate Platforms: McCabe, McMullen, Reid, Woodard, Eads, Hart, Weller, McQuinn, Weeks, Mandel, Miller; Skylines; Final Examination Schedule; Sports Views; Women\u27s Softball End With 5-1; Vets Scholarship Society; Cobras Eliminated From State Tourney; $44,000 Ripoff; Girl\u27s Volleyball Tournament May 5; sports; Wanted: Ace Reporters; Right To Life; Classified Ads; Parkland Events; Speeders....Beware!; New Communications 2yr. Program; Strike Freezes Construction; StuGo Minutes; The Parable, May 8 In C118; Band & Choir Scheduled Concerts; PC Hosts Teacher\u27s Aideshttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1975/1010/thumbnail.jp

Thermal Emission and Tidal Heating of the Heavy and Eccentric Planet XO-3b

We determined the flux ratios of the heavy and eccentric planet XO-3b to its parent star in the four IRAC bands of the Spitzer Space Telescope: 0.101% +- 0.004% at 3.6 micron; 0.143% +- 0.006% at 4.5 micron; 0.134% +- 0.049% at 5.8 micron and 0.150% +- 0.036% at 8.0 micron. The flux ratios are within [-2.2,0.3, -0.8, -1.7]-sigma of the model of XO-3b with a thermally inverted stratosphere in the 3.6 micron, 4.5 micron, 5.8 micron and 8.0 micron channels, respectively. XO-3b has a high illumination from its parent star (Fp ~(1.9 - 4.2) x 10^9 ergs cm^-2 s^-1) and is thus expected to have a thermal inversion, which we indeed observe. When combined with existing data for other planets, the correlation between the presence of an atmospheric temperature inversion and the substellar flux is insufficient to explain why some high insolation planets like TrES-3 do not have stratospheric inversions and some low insolation planets like XO-1b do have inversions. Secondary factors such as sulfur chemistry, atmospheric metallicity, amounts of macroscopic mixing in the stratosphere or even dynamical weather effects likely play a role. Using the secondary eclipse timing centroids we determined the orbital eccentricity of XO-3b as e = 0.277 +- 0.009. The model radius-age trajectories for XO-3b imply that at least some amount of tidal-heating is required to inflate the radius of XO-3b, and the tidal heating parameter of the planet is constrained to Qp < 10^6 .Comment: Accepted for publications in The Astrophysical Journa

Simulated Annealing for Topological Solitons

The search for solutions of field theories allowing for topological solitons requires that we find the field configuration with the lowest energy in a given sector of topological charge. The standard approach is based on the numerical solution of the static Euler-Lagrange differential equation following from the field energy. As an alternative, we propose to use a simulated annealing algorithm to minimize the energy functional directly. We have applied simulated annealing to several nonlinear classical field theories: the sine-Gordon model in one dimension, the baby Skyrme model in two dimensions and the nuclear Skyrme model in three dimensions. We describe in detail the implementation of the simulated annealing algorithm, present our results and get independent confirmation of the studies which have used standard minimization techniques.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, better quality pics at http://www.phy.umist.ac.uk/~weidig/Simulated_Annealing/, updated for publicatio

A joint modelling approach for multistate processes subject to resolution and under intermittent observations.

Multistate processes provide a convenient framework when interest lies in characterising the transition intensities between a set of defined states. If, however, there is an unobserved event of interest (not known if and when the event occurs), which when it occurs stops future transitions in the multistate process from occurring, then drawing inference from the joint multistate and event process can be problematic. In health studies, a particular example of this could be resolution, where a resolved patient can no longer experience any further symptoms, and this is explored here for illustration. A multistate model that includes the state space of the original multistate process but partitions the state representing absent symptoms into a latent absorbing resolved state and a temporary transient state of absent symptoms is proposed. The expanded state space explicitly distinguishes between resolved and temporary spells of absent symptoms through disjoint states and allows the uncertainty of not knowing if resolution has occurred to be easily captured when constructing the likelihood; observations of absent symptoms can be considered to be temporary or having resulted from resolution. The proposed methodology is illustrated on a psoriatic arthritis data set where the outcome of interest is a set of intermittently observed disability scores. Estimated probabilities of resolving are also obtained from the model. © 2016 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Preparation and Characterization of Micronized Artemisinin via a Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Solutions (RESS) Method

The particle sizes of pharmaceutical substances are important for their bioavailability. Bioavailability can be improved by reducing the particle size of the drug. In this study, artemisinin was micronized by the rapid expansion of supercritical solutions (RESS). The particle size of the unprocessed white needle-like artemisinin particles was 30 to 1200 µm. The optimum micronization conditions are determined as follows: extraction temperature of 62 °C, extraction pressure of 25 MPa, precipitation temperature 45 °C and nozzle diameter of 1000 μm. Under the optimum conditions, micronized artemisinin with a (mean particle size) MPS of 550 nm is obtained. By analysis of variance (ANOVA), extraction temperature and pressure have significant effects on the MPS of the micronized artemisinin. The particle size of micronized artemisinin decreased with increasing extraction temperature and pressure. Moreover, the SEM, LC-MS, FTIR, DSC and XRD allowed the comparison between the crystalline initial state and the micronization particles obtained after the RESS process. The results showed that RESS process has not induced degradation of artemisinin and that processed artemisinin particles have lower crystallinity and melting point. The bulk density of artemisinin was determined before and after RESS process and the obtained results showed that it passes from an initial density of 0.554 to 0.128 g·cm&lt;sup&gt;−3&lt;/sup&gt; after the processing. The decrease in bulk density of the micronized powder can increase the liquidity of drug particles when they are applied for medicinal preparations. These results suggest micronized powder of artemisinin can be of great potential in drug delivery systems

Genome-Wide Maps of Circulating miRNA Biomarkers for Ulcerative Colitis

Inflammatory Bowel Disease – comprised of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) - is a complex, multi-factorial inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. In this study we have explored the utility of naturally occurring circulating miRNAs as potential blood-based biomarkers for non-invasive prediction of UC incidences. Whole genome maps of circulating miRNAs in micro-vesicles, Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and platelets have been constructed from a cohort of 20 UC patients and 20 normal individuals. Through Significance Analysis of Microarrays, a signature of 31 differentially expressed platelet-derived miRNAs has been identified and biomarker performance estimated through a non-probabilistic binary linear classification using Support Vector Machines. Through this approach, classifier measurements reveal a predictive score of 92.8% accuracy, 96.2% specificity and 89.5% sensitivity in distinguishing UC patients from normal individuals. Additionally, the platelet-derived biomarker signature can be validated at 88% accuracy through qPCR assays, and a majority of the miRNAs in this panel can be demonstrated to sub-stratify into 4 highly correlated intensity based clusters. Analysis of predicted targets of these biomarkers reveal an enrichment of pathways associated with cytoskeleton assembly, transport, membrane permeability and regulation of transcription factors engaged in a variety of regulatory cascades that are consistent with a cell-mediated immune response model of intestinal inflammation. Interestingly, comparison of the miRNA biomarker panel and genetic loci implicated in IBD through genome-wide association studies identifies a physical linkage between hsa-miR-941 and a UC susceptibility loci located on Chr 20. Taken together, analysis of these expression maps outlines a promising catalog of novel platelet-derived miRNA biomarkers of clinical utility and provides insight into the potential biological function of these candidates in disease pathogenesis

Gene Expression Signature in Peripheral Blood Detects Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm

BACKGROUND: Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is usually asymptomatic and associated with high mortality. Adverse clinical outcome of TAA is preventable by elective surgical repair; however, identifying at-risk individuals is difficult. We hypothesized that gene expression patterns in peripheral blood cells may correlate with TAA disease status. Our goal was to identify a distinct gene expression signature in peripheral blood that may identify individuals at risk for TAA. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Whole genome gene expression profiles from 94 peripheral blood samples (collected from 58 individuals with TAA and 36 controls) were analyzed. Significance Analysis of Microarray (SAM) identified potential signature genes characterizing TAA vs. normal, ascending vs. descending TAA, and sporadic vs. familial TAA. Using a training set containing 36 TAA patients and 25 controls, a 41-gene classification model was constructed for detecting TAA status and an overall accuracy of 78+/-6% was achieved. Testing this classifier on an independent validation set containing 22 TAA samples and 11 controls yielded an overall classification accuracy of 78%. These 41 classifier genes were further validated by TaqMan real-time PCR assays. Classification based on the TaqMan data replicated the microarray results and achieved 80% classification accuracy on the testing set. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified informative gene expression signatures in peripheral blood cells that can characterize TAA status and subtypes of TAA. Moreover, a 41-gene classifier based on expression signature can identify TAA patients with high accuracy. The transcriptional programs in peripheral blood leading to the identification of these markers also provide insights into the mechanism of development of aortic aneurysms and highlight potential targets for therapeutic intervention. The classifier genes identified in this study, and validated by TaqMan real-time PCR, define a set of promising potential diagnostic markers, setting the stage for a blood-based gene expression test to facilitate early detection of TAA