8,390 research outputs found
Hudson M., 2011. Fire Management in the American West: Forest Politics and the Rise of Megafires. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
The October 27-28, 1986, FIRE cirrus case study: Cloud microstructure
Using aircraft in-situ measurements, the microphysics of cirrus clouds observed on 28 Oct. 1986 during FIRE were examined. Results are presented as one component of a coordinated study of the cirrus on the day. The study contributes to the understanding of cold clouds by: (1) providing microphysical data to supplement satellite and aircraft data for investigating cirrus cloud radiative effects; (2) providing more complete information on ice particle evolution and cloud forcing mechanisms than has been available through the use of instrumentation with higher resolution and more accurate calibration; (3) expanding the knowledge of the particle characteristics in cold liquid water clouds, through improved instrumentation and by making use of sensors on other platforms, such as lidar; and (4) by estimating the ice nucleus concentrations active at low temperatures in the upper troposphere from the concentrations of ice particles in colloidally stable liquid water clouds
The nature of emotional support and counselling provision for people with sight loss in the United Kingdom
People with sight loss in the United Kingdom are known to have lower levels of emotional wellbeing and to be at higher risk of depression. Consequently ‘having someone to talk to’ is an important priority for people with visual impairment. An on-line survey of the provision of emotional support and counselling for people affected by sight loss across the UK was undertaken. The survey was distributed widely and received 182 responses. There were more services offering ‘emotional support’, in the form of listening and information and advice giving, than offered ‘counselling’. Services were delivered by providers with differing qualifications in a variety of formats. Waiting times were fairly short and clients presented with a wide range of issues. Funding came from a range of sources, but many felt their funding was vulnerable. Conclusions have been drawn about the need for a national standardised framework for the provision of emotional support and counselling services for blind and partially sighted people in the U
A comparison of broad iron emission lines in archival data of neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries
Relativistic X-ray disk-lines have been found in multiple neutron star
low-mass X-ray binaries, in close analogy with black holes across the
mass-scale. These lines have tremendous diagnostic power and have been used to
constrain stellar radii and magnetic fields, often finding values that are
consistent with independent timing techniques. Here, we compare CCD-based data
from Suzaku with Fe K line profiles from archival data taken with gas-based
spectrometers. In general, we find good consistency between the gas-based line
profiles from EXOSAT, BeppoSAX and RXTE and the CCD data from Suzaku,
demonstrating that the broad profiles seen are intrinsic to the line and not
broad due to instrumental issues. However, we do find that when fitting with a
Gaussian line profile, the width of the Gaussian can depend on the continuum
model in instruments with low spectral resolution, though when the different
models fit equally well the line widths generally agree. We also demonstrate
that three BeppoSAX observations show evidence for asymmetric lines, with a
relativistic disk-line model providing a significantly better fit than a
Gaussian. We test this by using the posterior predictive p-value method, and
bootstrapping of the spectra to show that such deviations from a Gaussian are
unlikely to be observed by chance.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted to Ap
Matched-filter study and energy budget suggest no detectable gravitational-wave 'extended emission' from GW170817
Van Putten & Della Valle (2018) have reported a possible detection of
gravitational-wave 'extended emission' from a neutron star remnant of GW170817.
Starting from the time-frequency evolution and total emitted energy of their
reported candidate, we show that such an emission is not compatible with the
current understanding of neutron stars. We explore the additional required
physical assumptions to make a full waveform model, for example, taking the
optimistic emission from a spining-down neutron star with fixed quadrupolar
deformation, and study whether even an ideal single-template matched-filter
analysis could detect an ideal, fully phase-coherent signal. We find that even
in the most optimistic case an increase in energy and extreme parameters would
be required for a confident detection with LIGO sensitivity as of 2018-08-17.
The argument also holds for other waveform models following a similar
time-frequency track and overall energy budget. Single-template matched
filtering on the LIGO data around GW170817, and on data with added simulated
signals, verifies the expected sensitivity scaling and the overall statistical
expectation.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, updated version as accepted by MNRA
miR-34a-/- mice are susceptible to diet-induced obesity
Objective:
MicroRNA (miR)−34a regulates inflammatory pathways, and increased transcripts have been observed in serum and subcutaneous adipose of subjects who have obesity and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, the role of miR-34a in adipose tissue inflammation and lipid metabolism in murine diet-induced obesity was investigated.
Methods:
Wild-type (WT) and miR-34a−/− mice were fed chow or high-fat diet (HFD) for 24 weeks. WT and miR-34a−/− bone marrow-derived macrophages were cultured in vitro with macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF). Brown and white preadipocytes were cultured from the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of intrascapular brown and epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT), with rosiglitazone.
Results:
HFD-fed miR-34a−/− mice were significantly heavier with a greater increase in eWAT weight than WT. miR-34a−/− eWAT had a smaller adipocyte area, which significantly increased with HFD. miR-34a−/− eWAT showed basal increases in Cd36, Hmgcr, Lxrα, Pgc1α, and Fasn. miR-34a−/− intrascapular brown adipose tissue had basal reductions in c/ebpα and c/ebpβ, with in vitro miR-34a−/− white adipocytes showing increased lipid content. An F4/80high macrophage population was present in HFD miR-34a−/− eWAT, with increased IL-10 transcripts and serum IL-5 protein. Finally, miR-34a−/− bone marrow-derived macrophages showed an ablated CXCL1 response to tumor necrosis factor-α.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest a multifactorial role of miR-34a in controlling susceptibility to obesity, by regulating inflammatory and metabolic pathways
Genome Assembly Improvement and Mapping Convergently Evolved Skeletal Traits in Sticklebacks with Genotyping-by-Sequencing.
Marine populations of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) have repeatedly colonized and rapidly adapted to freshwater habitats, providing a powerful system to map the genetic architecture of evolved traits. Here, we developed and applied a binned genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) method to build dense genome-wide linkage maps of sticklebacks using two large marine by freshwater F2 crosses of more than 350 fish each. The resulting linkage maps significantly improve the genome assembly by anchoring 78 new scaffolds to chromosomes, reorienting 40 scaffolds, and rearranging scaffolds in 4 locations. In the revised genome assembly, 94.6% of the assembly was anchored to a chromosome. To assess linkage map quality, we mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling lateral plate number, which mapped as expected to a 200-kb genomic region containing Ectodysplasin, as well as a chromosome 7 QTL overlapping a previously identified modifier QTL. Finally, we mapped eight QTL controlling convergently evolved reductions in gill raker length in the two crosses, which revealed that this classic adaptive trait has a surprisingly modular and nonparallel genetic basis
- …