Spectroscopic Evidence That the Extreme Properties of IRAS F10214+4724 are due to Gravitational Lensing

The extreme bolometric luminosity of IRAS F10214+4724, and in particular the huge mass in molecular gas inferred from the CO line fluxes have led to suggestions that this is a giant galaxy in the process of formation. An arc-like structure and the closeness of a second object suggest, however, that gravitational lensing may be responsible for its anomalously high luminosity and mass. In this paper, we use an optical spectrum taken in conditions of 0.7-arcsec seeing to provide further evidence that F10214+4724 is a gravitationally lensed system. We measure tentative redshifts of 0.896 and 0.899 for galaxies projected $\approx 1$ and $\approx 3$ arcsec from IRAS F10214+4724 respectively. Identifying the former as the lensing galaxy we obtain a mass:light ratio consistent with those derived for other lenses, and find that its luminosity is consistent with the velocity dispersion deduced from the radius of the Einstein ring. If lensed, our models suggest magnification by a factor $\sim 10$, and hence an intrinsic bolometric luminosity for F10214+4724 similar to local ULIRGs.Comment: 5 pages, uuencoded compressed PostScript, 3 figures included. Accepted for publication in MNRAS pink pages; submitted 1 May 199

Home Area Networks and the Smart Grid

With the wide array of home area network (HAN) options being presented as solutions to smart grid challenges for the home, it is time to compare and contrast their strengths and weaknesses. This white paper examines leading and emerging HAN technologies. The emergence of the smart grid is bringing more networking players into the field. The need for low consistent bandwidth usage differs enough from the traditional information technology world to open the door to new technologies. The predominant players currently consist of a blend of the old and new. Within the wired world Ethernet and HomePlug Green PHY are leading the way with an advantage to HomePlug because it doesn't require installing new wires. In the wireless the realm there are many more competitors but WiFi and ZigBee seem to have the most momentum

AMI Communication Requirements to Implement Demand-Response: Applicability of Hybrid Spread Spectrum Wireless

While holistically defining the smart grid is a challenge, one area of interest is demand-response. In 2009, the Department of Energy announced over $4 billion in grant and project funding for the Smart Grid. A significant amount of this funding was allotted to utilities for cost sharing projects to deploy Smart Grid technologies, many of whom have deployed and are deploying advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). AMI is an enabler to increase the efficiency of utilities and the bulk power grid. The bulk electrical system is unique in that it produces electricity as it is consumed. Most other industries have a delay between generation and consumption. This aspect of the power grid means that there must be enough generation capacity to meet the highest demand whereas other industries could over produce during off-peak times. This requires significant investment in generation capacity to cover the few days a year of peak consumption. Since bulk electrical storage doesn't yet exist at scale another way to curb the need for new peak period generation is through demand-response; that is to incentivize consumers (demand) to curtail (respond) electrical usage during peak periods. Of the various methods proposed for enabling demand-response, this paper will focus on the communication requirements for creating an energy market using transactional controls. More specifically, the paper will focus on the communication requirements needed to send the peak period notices and receive the response back from the consumers

Prostatic trypsin-like kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) and other prostate-expressed tryptic proteinases as regulators of signalling via proteinase-activated receptors (PARs)

The prostate is a site of high expression of serine proteinases including members of the kallikrein-related peptidase (KLK) family, as well as other secreted and membrane-anchored serine proteinases. It has been known for some time that members of this enzyme family elicit cellular responses by acting directly on cells. More recently, it has been recognised that for serine proteinases with specificity for cleavage after arginine and lysine residues (trypsin-like or tryptic enzymes) these cellular responses are often mediated by cleavage of members of the proteinase-activated receptor (PAR) family - a four member sub-family of G protein-coupled receptors. Here, we review the expression of PARs in prostate, the ability of prostatic trypsin-like KLKs and other prostate-expressed tryptic enzymes to cleave PARs, as well as the prostate cancer-associated consequences of PAR activation. In addition, we explore the dysregulation of trypsin-like serine proteinase activity through the loss of normal inhibitory mechanisms and potential interactions between these dysregulated enzymes leading to aberrant PAR activation, intracellular signalling and cancer-promoting cellular changes

Mesothelioma trends in the ACT and comparisons with the rest of Australia

OBJECTIVES Inhalation of asbestos fibres is the predominant cause of malignant mesothelioma. Domestic exposure to asbestos is a major community concern in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) because of loose-fill asbestos home insulation. Little is known about how trends in mesothelioma rates in the ACT compare with those elsewhere. The objective of this study was to describe trends in mesothelioma rates in the ACT and compare them with those for the rest of Australia. METHODS We used de-identified data from the ACT Cancer Registry (1982- 2014), and the Western Australia (WA) Cancer Registry and the Australian Cancer Database (1982-2011). We calculated crude mesothelioma rates, by 3-year periods, for the ACT and for the rest of Australia (excluding WA). We used Poisson regression to analyse mesothelioma trends from 1994 to 2011 (complete reporting period) using an indirect standardisation approach to adjust for age and sex. RESULTS There were 140 mesothelioma cases reported to the ACT Cancer Registry between 1982 and 2014 - 81% male and 19% female. Between 1994 and 2011, age- and sex-adjusted mesothelioma rates in the ACT increased over time, on average by 12% per 3-year period (relative risk [RR] 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.99, 1.26). Compared with the rest of Australia (excluding WA), ACT rates were, on average, lower (RR 0.84; 95% CI 0.69, 1.02), but they increased at a higher rate (RR 1.12 per 3-year period; 95% CI 0.99, 1.27). These results are strongly influenced by the higher rate of mesothelioma observed in the ACT in 2009-2011, when ACT rates became similar to those for the rest of Australia (excluding WA). CONCLUSIONS Although mesothelioma rates may have increased more in the ACT than the rest of Australia (excluding WA) during the past two decades, there is considerable uncertainty in the trends. More information is needed regarding the health risks associated with living in a house with loose-fill asbestos insulation. This is the subject of further studies within the ACT Asbestos Health Study.Includes Appendix table: Number of mesothelioma cases and person-years (PY) by sex, age group and year, ACT, 1982 to 201

A posteriori inclusion of parton density functions in NLO QCD final-state calculations at hadron colliders: The APPLGRID Project

A method to facilitate the consistent inclusion of cross-section measurements based on complex final-states from HERA, TEVATRON and the LHC in proton parton density function (PDF) fits has been developed. This can be used to increase the sensitivity of LHC data to deviations from Standard Model predictions. The method stores perturbative coefficients of NLO QCD calculations of final-state observables measured in hadron colliders in look-up tables. This allows the posteriori inclusion of parton density functions (PDFs), and of the strong coupling, as well as the a posteriori variation of the renormalisation and factorisation scales in cross-section calculations. The main novelties in comparison to original work on the subject are the use of higher-order interpolation, which substantially improves the trade-off between accuracy and memory use, and a CPU and computer memory optimised way to construct and store the look-up table using modern software tools. It is demonstrated that a sufficient accuracy on the cross-section calculation can be achieved with reasonably small look-up table size by using the examples of jet production and electro-weak boson (Z, W) production in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV at the LHC. The use of this technique in PDF fitting is demonstrated in a PDF-fit to HERA data and simulated LHC jet cross-sections as well as in a study of the jet cross-section uncertainties at various centre-of-mass energies

Observations of Arp 220 using Herschel-SPIRE: An Unprecedented View of the Molecular Gas in an Extreme Star Formation Environment

We present Herschel SPIRE-FTS observations of Arp~220, a nearby ULIRG. The FTS continuously covers 190 -- 670 microns, providing a good measurement of the continuum and detection of several molecular and atomic species. We detect luminous CO (J = 4-3 to 13-12) and water ladders with comparable total luminosity; very high-J HCN absorption; OH+, H2O+, and HF in absorption; and CI and NII. Modeling of the continuum yields warm dust, with T = 66 K, and an unusually large optical depth of ~5 at 100 microns. Non-LTE modeling of the CO shows two temperature components: cold molecular gas at T ~ 50 K and warm molecular gas at T ~1350 K. The mass of the warm gas is 10% of the cold gas, but dominates the luminosity of the CO ladder. The temperature of the warm gas is in excellent agreement with H2 rotational lines. At 1350 K, H2 dominates the cooling (~20 L_sun/M_sun) in the ISM compared to CO (~0.4 L_sun/M_sun). We found that only a non-ionizing source such as the mechanical energy from supernovae and stellar winds can excite the warm gas and satisfy the energy budget of ~20 L_sun/M_sun. We detect a massive molecular outflow in Arp 220 from the analysis of strong P-Cygni line profiles observed in OH+, H2O+, and H2O. The outflow has a mass > 10^{7} M_sun and is bound to the nuclei with velocity < 250 km/s. The large column densities observed for these molecular ions strongly favor the existence of an X-ray luminous AGN (10^{44} ergs/s) in Arp 220.Comment: Accepted in ApJ on September 1, 201

The Pliocene marine megafauna extinction and its impact on functional diversity

The end of the Pliocene marked the beginning of a period of great climatic variability and sea-level oscillations. Here, based on a new analysis of the fossil record, we identify a previously unrecognized extinction event among marine megafauna (mammals, seabirds, turtles and sharks) during this time, with extinction rates three times higher than in the rest of the Cenozoic, and with 36% of Pliocene genera failing to survive into the Pleistocene. To gauge the potential consequences of this event for ecosystem functioning, we evaluate its impacts on functional diversity, focusing on the 86% of the megafauna genera that are associated with coastal habitats. Seven (14%) coastal functional entities (unique trait combinations) disappeared, along with 17% of functional richness (volume of the functional space). The origination of new genera during the Pleistocene created new functional entities and contributed to a functional shift of 21%, but minimally compensated for the functional space lost. Reconstructions show that from the late Pliocene onwards, the global area of the neritic zone significantly diminished and exhibited amplified fluctuations. We hypothesize that the abrupt loss of productive coastal habitats, potentially acting alongside oceanographic alterations, was a key extinction driver. The importance of area loss is supported by model analyses showing that animals with high energy requirements (homeotherms) were more susceptible to extinction. The extinction event we uncover here demonstrates that marine megafauna were more vulnerable to global environmental changes in the recent geological past than previously thought

Implications of the 2019–2020 megafires for the biogeography and conservation of Australian vegetation

Australia's 2019–2020 'Black Summer' bushfires burnt more than 8 million hectares of vegetation across the south-east of the continent, an event unprecedented in the last 200 years. Here we report the impacts of these fires on vascular plant species and communities. Using a map of the fires generated from remotely sensed hotspot data we show that, across 11 Australian bioregions, 17 major native vegetation groups were severely burnt, and up to 67–83% of globally significant rainforests and eucalypt forests and woodlands. Based on geocoded species occurrence data we estimate that >50% of known populations or ranges of 816 native vascular plant species were burnt during the fires, including more than 100 species with geographic ranges more than 500 km across. Habitat and fire response data show that most affected species are resilient to fire. However, the massive biogeographic, demographic and taxonomic breadth of impacts of the 2019–2020 fires may leave some ecosystems, particularly relictual Gondwanan rainforests, susceptible to regeneration failure and landscape-scale decline