Estimation of bias errors in measured airplane responses using maximum likelihood method

A maximum likelihood method is used for estimation of unknown bias errors in measured airplane responses. The mathematical model of an airplane is represented by six-degrees-of-freedom kinematic equations. In these equations the input variables are replaced by their measured values which are assumed to be without random errors. The resulting algorithm is verified with a simulation and flight test data. The maximum likelihood estimates from in-flight measured data are compared with those obtained by using a nonlinear-fixed-interval-smoother and an extended Kalmar filter

Pax3 Stimulates p53 Ubiquitination and Degradation Independent of Transcription

Background: Pax3 is a developmental transcription factor that is required for neural tube and neural crest development. We previously showed that inactivating the p53 tumor suppressor protein prevents neural tube and cardiac neural crest defects in Pax3-mutant mouse embryos. This demonstrates that Pax3 regulates these processes by blocking p53 function. Here we investigated the mechanism by which Pax3 blocks p53 function. Methodology/Principal Findings We employed murine embryonic stem cell (ESC)-derived neuronal precursors as a cell culture model of embryonic neuroepithelium or neural crest. Pax3 reduced p53 protein stability, but had no effect on p53 mRNA levels or the rate of p53 synthesis. Full length Pax3 as well as fragments that contained either the DNA-binding paired box or the homeodomain, expressed as GST or FLAG fusion proteins, physically associated with p53 and Mdm2 both in vitro and in vivo. In contrast, Splotch Pax3, which causes neural tube and neural crest defects in homozygous embryos, bound weakly, or not at all, to p53 or Mdm2. The paired domain and homeodomain each stimulated Mdm2-mediated ubiquitination of p53 and p53 degradation in the absence of the Pax3 transcription regulatory domains, whereas Splotch Pax3 did not stimulate p53 ubiquitination or degradation. Conclusions/Significance: Pax3 inactivates p53 function by stimulating its ubiquitination and degradation. This process utilizes the Pax3 paired domain and homeodomain but is independent of DNA-binding and transcription regulation. Because inactivating p53 is the only required Pax3 function during neural tube closure and cardiac neural crest development, and inactivating p53 does not require Pax3-dependent transcription regulation, this indicates that Pax3 is not required to function as a transcription factor during neural tube closure and cardiac neural crest development. These findings further suggest novel explanations for PAX3 functions in human diseases, such as in neural crest-derived cancers and Waardenburg syndrome types 1 and 3

Lorentz and CPT Invariance Violation In High-Energy Neutrinos

High-energy neutrino astronomy will be capable of observing particles at both extremely high energies and over extremely long baselines. These features make such experiments highly sensitive to the effects of CPT and Lorentz violation. In this article, we review the theoretical foundation and motivation for CPT and Lorentz violating effects, and then go on to discuss the related phenomenology within the neutrino sector. We describe several signatures which might be used to identify the presence of CPT or Lorentz violation in next generation neutrino telescopes and cosmic ray experiments. In many cases, high-energy neutrino experiments can test for CPT and Lorentz violation effects with much greater precision than other techniques.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

Antecedent moisture and temperature conditions modulate the response of ecosystem respiration to elevated CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e and warming

Terrestrial plant and soil respiration, or ecosystem respiration (Reco), represents a major CO2 flux in the global carbon cycle. However, there is disagreement in how Reco will respond to future global changes, such as elevated atmosphere CO2 and warming. To address this, we synthesized six years (2007–2012) of Reco data from the Prairie Heating And CO2 Enrichment (PHACE) experiment. We applied a semi-mechanistic temperature–response model to simultaneously evaluate the response of Reco to three treatment factors (elevated CO2, warming, and soil water manipulation) and their interactions with antecedent soil conditions [e.g., past soil water content (SWC) and temperature (SoilT)] and aboveground factors (e.g., vapor pressure deficit, photosynthetically active radiation, vegetation greenness). The model fits the observed Reco well (R2 = 0.77). We applied the model to estimate annual (March–October) Reco, which was stimulated under elevated CO2 in most years, likely due to the indirect effect of elevated CO2 on SWC. When aggregated from 2007 to 2012, total six-year Reco was stimulated by elevated CO2 singly (24%) or in combination with warming (28%). Warming had little effect on annual Reco under ambient CO2, but stimulated it under elevated CO2 (32% across all years) when precipitation was high (e.g., 44% in 2009, a ‘wet’ year). Treatment-level differences in Reco can be partly attributed to the effects of antecedent SoilT and vegetation greenness on the apparent temperature sensitivity of Reco and to the effects of antecedent and current SWC and vegetation activity (greenness modulated by VPD) on Reco base rates. Thus, this study indicates that the incorporation of both antecedent environmental conditions and aboveground vegetation activity are critical to predicting Reco at multiple timescales (subdaily to annual) and under a future climate of elevated CO2 and warming

Elevated CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e further lengthens growing season under warming conditions

Observations of a longer growing season through earlier plant growth in temperate to polar regions have been thought to be a response to climate warming. However, data from experimental warming studies indicate that many species that initiate leaf growth and flowering earlier also reach seed maturation and senesce earlier, shortening their active and reproductive periods. A conceptual model to explain this apparent contradiction, and an analysis of the effect of elevated CO2—which can delay annual life cycle events—on changing season length, have not been tested. Here we show that experimental warming in a temperate grassland led to a longer growing season through earlier leaf emergence by the first species to leaf, often a grass, and constant or delayed senescence by other species that were the last to senesce, supporting the conceptual model. Elevated CO2 further extended growing, but not reproductive, season length in the warmed grassland by conserving water, which enabled most species to remain active longer. Our results suggest that a longer growing season, especially in years or biomes where water is a limiting factor, is not due to warming alone, but also to higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations that extend the active period of plant annual life cycles

Making the user more efficient: Design for sustainable behaviour

User behaviour is a significant determinant of a product’s environmental impact; while engineering advances permit increased efficiency of product operation, the user’s decisions and habits ultimately have a major effect on the energy or other resources used by the product. There is thus a need to change users’ behaviour. A range of design techniques developed in diverse contexts suggest opportunities for engineers, designers and other stakeholders working in the field of sustainable innovation to affect users’ behaviour at the point of interaction with the product or system, in effect ‘making the user more efficient’. Approaches to changing users’ behaviour from a number of fields are reviewed and discussed, including: strategic design of affordances and behaviour-shaping constraints to control or affect energyor other resource-using interactions; the use of different kinds of feedback and persuasive technology techniques to encourage or guide users to reduce their environmental impact; and context-based systems which use feedback to adjust their behaviour to run at optimum efficiency and reduce the opportunity for user-affected inefficiency. Example implementations in the sustainable engineering and ecodesign field are suggested and discussed

CfAIR2: Near Infrared Light Curves of 94 Type Ia Supernovae

CfAIR2 is a large homogeneously reduced set of near-infrared (NIR) light curves for Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) obtained with the 1.3m Peters Automated InfraRed Imaging TELescope (PAIRITEL). This data set includes 4607 measurements of 94 SN Ia and 4 additional SN Iax observed from 2005-2011 at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins, Arizona. CfAIR2 includes JHKs photometric measurements for 88 normal and 6 spectroscopically peculiar SN Ia in the nearby universe, with a median redshift of z~0.021 for the normal SN Ia. CfAIR2 data span the range from -13 days to +127 days from B-band maximum. More than half of the light curves begin before the time of maximum and the coverage typically contains ~13-18 epochs of observation, depending on the filter. We present extensive tests that verify the fidelity of the CfAIR2 data pipeline, including comparison to the excellent data of the Carnegie Supernova Project. CfAIR2 contributes to a firm local anchor for supernova cosmology studies in the NIR. Because SN Ia are more nearly standard candles in the NIR and are less vulnerable to the vexing problems of extinction by dust, CfAIR2 will help the supernova cosmology community develop more precise and accurate extragalactic distance probes to improve our knowledge of cosmological parameters, including dark energy and its potential time variation.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures, 10 tables. Accepted to ApJS. v2 modified to more closely match journal versio

A framework for the successful implementation of food traceability systems in China

Implementation of food traceability systems in China faces many challenges due to the scale, diversity and complexity of China’s food supply chains. This study aims to identify critical success factors specific to the implementation of traceability systems in China. Twenty-seven critical success factors were identified in the literature. Interviews with managers at four food enterprises in a pre-study helped identify success criteria and five additional critical success factors. These critical success factors were tested through a survey of managers in eighty-three food companies. This study identifies six dimensions for critical success factors: laws, regulations and standards; government support; consumer knowledge and support; effective management and communication; top management and vendor support; and information and system quality

Identification and functional characterisation of CRK12:CYC9, a novel cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-cyclin complex in Trypanosoma brucei

The protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, is spread by the tsetse fly and causes trypanosomiasis in humans and animals. Both the life cycle and cell cycle of the parasite are complex. Trypanosomes have eleven cdc2-related kinases (CRKs) and ten cyclins, an unusually large number for a single celled organism. To date, relatively little is known about the function of many of the CRKs and cyclins, and only CRK3 has previously been shown to be cyclin-dependent in vivo. Here we report the identification of a previously uncharacterised CRK:cyclin complex between CRK12 and the putative transcriptional cyclin, CYC9. CRK12:CYC9 interact to form an active protein kinase complex in procyclic and bloodstream T. brucei. Both CRK12 and CYC9 are essential for the proliferation of bloodstream trypanosomes in vitro, and we show that CRK12 is also essential for survival of T. brucei in a mouse model, providing genetic validation of CRK12:CYC9 as a novel drug target for trypanosomiasis. Further, functional characterisation of CRK12 and CYC9 using RNA interference reveals roles for these proteins in endocytosis and cytokinesis, respectively

Reversible growth of gold nanoparticles in the low-temperature water-gas shift reaction

Supported gold nanoparticles are widely studied catalysts and are among the most active known for the low-temperature water–gas shift reaction, which is essential in fuel and energy applications, but their practical application has been limited by their poor thermal stability. The catalysts deactivate on-stream via the growth of small Au nanoparticles. Using operando X-ray absorption and in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy, we report direct evidence that this process can be reversed by carrying out a facile oxidative treatment, which redisperses the gold nanoparticles and restores catalytic activity. The use of in situ methods reveals the complex dynamics of supported gold nanoparticles under reaction conditions and demonstrates that gold catalysts can be easily regenerated, expanding their scope for practical application