4,587 research outputs found

    The Rupture Process of the 2018 M-w 6.9 Hawai'i Earthquake as Imaged by a Genetic Algorithm-Based Back-Projection Technique

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    An episode of unrest began at Klauea in April 2018 that produced both significant volcanic output and high rates of seismicity, including a M-w 6.9 earthquake on 4 May 2018. In this study, we image the rupture process of this earthquake using a genetic algorithm-based back-projection technique. The dominant feature of the earthquake is a slowly propagating western rupture, which shares similar characteristics with the region's largest recorded event in 1975 (M-w 7.7). The location of this western segment suggests that small asperities on this section of the decollement that frequently fail as slow slip events may achieve seismic slip rates when rupture is initiated on adjacent sections of the fault. Given the interaction between volcanic and seismic activity in this region, imaging the rupture properties of these events can improve our understanding of future geologic hazards in this region. Plain Language Summary Voluminous lava flows and explosive eruptions at Klauea Volcano in Hawai?i have captured the attention of the media and general public during the past year. In the early stages of this volcanic activity, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake occurred beneath the south flank of Klauea, which was the second largest earthquake recorded by modern instrumentation in this region. The research presented in the manuscript uses a novel source imaging technique to study the fine-scale spatiotemporal evolution of the rupture that produced this event. The details of this rupture provide new insight into the relationship between fault properties, background seismicity, slow slip events, and major earthquakes in volcanic settings.6 month embargo; published online: 6 February 2019This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

    ESCAP CovCAP survey of heads of academic departments to assess the perceived initial (April/May 2020) impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and adolescent psychiatry services.

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    In April 2020, the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) Research Academy and the ESCAP Board launched the first of three scheduled surveys to evaluate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) services in Europe and to assess the abilities of CAP centers to meet the new challenges brought on by the crisis. The survey was a self-report questionnaire, using a multistage process, which was sent to 168 heads of academic CAP services in 24 European countries. Eighty-two responses (56 complete) from 20 countries, representing the subjective judgement of heads of CAP centers, were received between mid-April and mid-May 2020. Most respondents judged the impact of the crisis on the mental health of their patients as medium (52%) or strong (33%). A large majority of CAP services reported no COVID-19 positive cases among their inpatients and most respondents declared no or limited sick leaves in their team due to COVID-19. Outpatient, daycare, and inpatient units experienced closures or reductions in the number of treated patients throughout Europe. In addition, a lower referral rate was observed in most countries. Respondents considered that they were well equipped to handle COVID-19 patients despite a lack of protective equipment. Telemedicine was adopted by almost every team despite its sparse use prior to the crisis. Overall, these first results were surprisingly homogeneous, showing a substantially reduced patient load and a moderate effect of the COVID-19 crisis on psychopathology. The effect on the organization of CAP services appears profound. COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the adoption of new technologies, including telepsychiatry

    Structure in the Dusty Debris around Vega

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    We present images of the Vega system obtained with the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer at 1.3 millimeters wavelength with sub-mJy sensitivity and \sim2\farcs5 resolution (about 20 AU). These observations clearly detect the stellar photosphere and two dust emission peaks offset from the star by 9\farcs5 and 8\farcs0 to the northeast and southwest, respectively. These offset emission peaks are consistent with the barely resolved structure visible in previous submillimeter images, and they account for a large fraction of the dust emission. The presence of two dust concentrations at the observed locations is plausibly explained by the dynamical influence of an unseen planet of a few Jupiter masses in a highly eccentric orbit that traps dust in principle mean motion resonances.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, accepted by ApJ

    The Roles of the Chaperone-like Protein CpeZ and the Phycoerythrobilin Lyase CpeY in Phycoerythrin Biogenesis

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    Phycoerythrin (PE) present in the distal ends of light-harvesting phycobilisome rods in Fremyella diplosiphon (Tolypothrix sp. PCC 7601) contains five phycoerythrobilin (PEB) chromophores attached to six cysteine residues for efficient green light capture for photosynthesis. Chromophore ligation on PE subunits occurs through bilin lyase catalyzed reactions, but the characterization of the roles of all bilin lyases for phycoerythrin is not yet complete. To gain a more complete understanding about the individual functions of CpeZ and CpeY in PE biogenesis in cyanobacteria, we examined PE and phycobilisomes purified from wild type F. diplosiphon, cpeZ and cpeY knockout mutants. We find that the cpeZ and cpeY mutants accumulate less PE than wild type cells. We show that in the cpeZ mutant, chromophorylation of both PE subunits is affected, especially the Cys-80 and Cys-48/Cys-59 sites of CpeB, the beta-subunit of PE. The cpeY mutant showed reduced chromophorylation at Cys-82 of CpeA. We also show that, in vitro, CpeZ stabilizes PE subunits and assists in refolding of CpeB after denaturation. Taken together, we conclude that CpeZ acts as a chaperone-like protein, assisting in the folding/stability of PE subunits, allowing bilin lyases such as CpeY and CpeS to attach PEB to their PE subunit

    The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System

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    The observation of a prompt optical flash from GRB990123 convincingly demonstrated the value of autonomous robotic telescope systems. Pursuing a program of rapid follow-up observations of gamma-ray bursts, the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) has developed a next-generation instrument, ROTSE-III, that will continue the search for fast optical transients. The entire system was designed as an economical robotic facility to be installed at remote sites throughout the world. There are seven major system components: optics, optical tube assembly, CCD camera, telescope mount, enclosure, environmental sensing & protection and data acquisition. Each is described in turn in the hope that the techniques developed here will be useful in similar contexts elsewhere.Comment: 19 pages, including 4 figures. To be published in PASP in January, 2003. PASP Number IP02-11

    Observation of contemporaneous optical radiation from a gamma-ray burst

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    The origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been enigmatic since their discovery. The situation improved dramatically in 1997, when the rapid availability of precise coordinates for the bursts allowed the detection of faint optical and radio afterglows - optical spectra thus obtained have demonstrated conclusively that the bursts occur at cosmological distances. But, despite efforts by several groups, optical detection has not hitherto been achieved during the brief duration of a burst. Here we report the detection of bright optical emission from GRB990123 while the burst was still in progress. Our observations begin 22 seconds after the onset of the burst and show an increase in brightness by a factor of 14 during the first 25 seconds; the brightness then declines by a factor of 100, at which point (700 seconds after the burst onset) it falls below our detection threshold. The redshift of this burst, approximately 1.6, implies a peak optical luminosity of 5 times 10^{49} erg per second. Optical emission from gamma-ray bursts has been generally thought to take place at the shock fronts generated by interaction of the primary energy source with the surrounding medium, where the gamma-rays might also be produced. The lack of a significant change in the gamma-ray light curve when the optical emission develops suggests that the gamma-rays are not produced at the shock front, but closer to the site of the original explosion.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature. For additional information see http://www.umich.edu/~rotse

    Extensive Spectroscopy and Photometry of the Type IIP Supernova 2013ej

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    We present extensive optical (UBVRIUBVRI, grizg'r'i'z', and open CCD) and near-infrared (ZYJHZYJH) photometry for the very nearby Type IIP SN ~2013ej extending from +1 to +461 days after shock breakout, estimated to be MJD 56496.9±0.356496.9\pm0.3. Substantial time series ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy obtained from +8 to +135 days are also presented. Considering well-observed SNe IIP from the literature, we derive UBVRIJHKUBVRIJHK bolometric calibrations from UBVRIUBVRI and unfiltered measurements that potentially reach 2\% precision with a BVB-V color-dependent correction. We observe moderately strong Si II λ6355\lambda6355 as early as +8 days. The photospheric velocity (vphv_{\rm ph}) is determined by modeling the spectra in the vicinity of Fe II λ5169\lambda5169 whenever observed, and interpolating at photometric epochs based on a semianalytic method. This gives vph=4500±500v_{\rm ph} = 4500\pm500 km s1^{-1} at +50 days. We also observe spectral homogeneity of ultraviolet spectra at +10--12 days for SNe IIP, while variations are evident a week after explosion. Using the expanding photosphere method, from combined analysis of SN 2013ej and SN 2002ap, we estimate the distance to the host galaxy to be 9.00.6+0.49.0_{-0.6}^{+0.4} Mpc, consistent with distance estimates from other methods. Photometric and spectroscopic analysis during the plateau phase, which we estimated to be 94±794\pm7 days long, yields an explosion energy of 0.9±0.3×10510.9\pm0.3\times10^{51} ergs, a final pre-explosion progenitor mass of 15.2±4.215.2\pm4.2~M_\odot and a radius of 250±70250\pm70~R_\odot. We observe a broken exponential profile beyond +120 days, with a break point at +183±16183\pm16 days. Measurements beyond this break time yield a 56^{56}Ni mass of 0.013±0.0010.013\pm0.001~M_\odot.Comment: 29 pages, 23 figures, 15 tables, Published in The Astrophisical Journa

    The ROTSE-IIIa Telescope System

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    We report on the current operating status of the ROTSE-IIIa telescope, currently undergoing testing at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico. It will be shipped to Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, in first quarter 2002. ROTSE-IIIa has been in automated observing mode since early October, 2001, after completing several weeks of calibration and check-out observations. Calibrated lists of objects in ROTSE-IIIa sky patrol data are produced routinely in an automated pipeline, and we are currently automating analysis procedures to compile these lists, eliminate false detections, and automatically identify transient and variable objects. The manual application of these procedures has already led to the detection of a nova that rose over six magnitudes in two days to a maximum detected brightness of m_R~13.9 and then faded two magnitudes in two weeks. We also readily identify variable stars, includings those suspected to be variables from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We report on our system to allow public monitoring of the telescope operational status in real time over the WWW.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication in the proceedings of ``Gamma-Ray Burst and Afterglow Astronomy 2001: A Workshop Celebrating the First Year of the HETE Mission'

    CpeF is the Bilin Lyase that Ligates the Doubly Linked Phycoerythrobilin on Phycoerythrin in the Cyanobacterium Fremyella Diplosiphon

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    Phycoerythrin (PE) is a green light-absorbing protein present in the light-harvesting complex of cyanobacteria and red algae. The spectral characteristics of PE are due to its prosthetic groups, or phycoerythrobilins (PEBs), that are covalently attached to the protein chain by specific bilin lyases. Only two PE lyases have been identified and characterized so far, and the other bilin lyases are unknown. Here, using in silico analyses, markerless deletion, biochemical assays with purified and recombinant proteins, and site-directed mutagenesis, we examined the role of a putative lyase-encoding gene, cpeF, in the cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon. Analyzing the phenotype of the cpeF deletion, we found that cpeF is required for proper PE biogenesis, specifically for ligation of the doubly linked PEB to Cys-48/Cys-59 residues of the CpeB subunit of PE. We also show that in a heterologous host, CpeF can attach PEB to Cys-48/Cys-59 of CpeB, but only in the presence of the chaperone-like protein CpeZ. Additionally, we report that CpeF likely ligates the A ring of PEB to Cys-48 prior to the attachment of the D ring to Cys-59. We conclude that CpeF is the bilin lyase responsible for attachment of the doubly ligated PEB to Cys-48/Cys-59 of CpeB and together with other specific bilin lyases contributes to the post-translational modification and assembly of PE into mature light-harvesting complexes

    Overshadowing by fixed- and variable-duration stimuli

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    Two experiments investigated the effect of the temporal distribution form of a stimulus on its ability to produce an overshadowing effect. The overshadowing stimuli were either of the same duration on every trial, or of a variable duration drawn from an exponential distribution with the same mean duration as that of the fixed stimulus. Both experiments provided evidence that a variable-duration stimulus was less effective than a fixed-duration cue at overshadowing conditioning to a target conditioned stimulus (CS); moreover, this effect was independent of whether the overshadowed CS was fixed or variable. The findings presented here are consistent with the idea that the strength of the association between CS and unconditioned stimulus (US) is, in part, determined by the temporal distribution form of the CS. These results are discussed in terms of time-accumulation and trial-based theories of conditioning and timing
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