612 research outputs found
Paleoculicis minututs (Diptera: Culicidae) n. Gen., n. Sp., from Cretaceous Canadian amber, with a summary of described fossil mosquitoes
A new genus and species of fossil mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) is described from Canadian Cretaceous amber, thus providing the first undeniable record of this group from the Cretaceous Period. Paleoculicis minutus n.gen., n.sp. can be separated from extant culicids by features of the head, thorax, and abdomen. Paleoculicis has closer affinities to the Culicinae than to the Anophelinae or Toxorhynchitinae. If P. minutus fed on blood, a range of vertebrates (including dinosaurs) were potential hosts some 79 million years ago. A review of previous descriptions of fossil mosquitoes is presented. Many cannot be confidently assigned to the Culicidae, while others are extant species in copal. Only a minority of them can be regarded as true Culicidae, all of which are reported from Tertiary deposits
The Magnetic Field of the Solar Corona from Pulsar Observations
We present a novel experiment with the capacity to independently measure both
the electron density and the magnetic field of the solar corona. We achieve
this through measurement of the excess Faraday rotation due to propagation of
the polarised emission from a number of pulsars through the magnetic field of
the solar corona. This method yields independent measures of the integrated
electron density, via dispersion of the pulsed signal and the magnetic field,
via the amount of Faraday rotation. In principle this allows the determination
of the integrated magnetic field through the solar corona along many lines of
sight without any assumptions regarding the electron density distribution. We
present a detection of an increase in the rotation measure of the pulsar
J18012304 of approximately 160 \rad at an elongation of 0.95 from
the centre of the solar disk. This corresponds to a lower limit of the magnetic
field strength along this line of sight of . The lack of
precision in the integrated electron density measurement restricts this result
to a limit, but application of coronal plasma models can further constrain this
to approximately 20mG, along a path passing 2.5 solar radii from the solar
limb. Which is consistent with predictions obtained using extensions to the
Source Surface models published by Wilcox Solar ObservatoryComment: 16 pages, 4 figures (1 colour): Submitted to Solar Physic
Molecular scale contact line hydrodynamics of immiscible flows
From extensive molecular dynamics simulations on immiscible two-phase flows,
we find the relative slipping between the fluids and the solid wall everywhere
to follow the generalized Navier boundary condition, in which the amount of
slipping is proportional to the sum of tangential viscous stress and the
uncompensated Young stress. The latter arises from the deviation of the
fluid-fluid interface from its static configuration. We give a continuum
formulation of the immiscible flow hydrodynamics, comprising the generalized
Navier boundary condition, the Navier-Stokes equation, and the Cahn-Hilliard
interfacial free energy. Our hydrodynamic model yields interfacial and velocity
profiles matching those from the molecular dynamics simulations at the
molecular-scale vicinity of the contact line. In particular, the behavior at
high capillary numbers, leading to the breakup of the fluid-fluid interface, is
accurately predicted.Comment: 33 pages for text in preprint format, 10 pages for 10 figures with
captions, content changed in this resubmissio
Importance of the secondary genepool in barley genetics and breeding. II. Disease resistance, agronomic performance and quality
In this second paper on the use of secondary genepools in barley improvement, we describe the characterisation of leaf rust resistant recombinant lines (RLs) derived from Hordeum vulgare × H. bulbosum crosses. Twelve RLs were inoculated with leaf rust and the early stages of disease development were observed. Several RLs showed complete resistance to the pathogen, but others had a high level of partial resistance, which may be durable. Some of these RLs and others were tested in yield trials to determine the effects of introgressed chromatin from H. bulbosum on yield and quality. We conclude that there are no major adverse effects that cannot be overcome through normal breeding technique
The consequences of ubiquitous expression of the wingless gene in the Drosophila embryo
The segment polarity gene wingless has an essential
function in cell-to-cell communication during various
stages of Drosophila development. The wingless gene
encodes a secreted protein that affects gene expression
in surrounding cells but does not spread far from the
cells where it is made. In larvae, wingless is necessary
to generate naked cuticle in a restricted part of each
segment.
To test whether the local accumulation of wingless is
essential for its function, we made transgenic flies that
express wingless under the control of a hsp70 promoter
(HS-wg flies). Uniform wingless expression results in a
complete naked cuticle, uniform armadillo accumulation
and broadening of the engrailed domain. The expression
patterns of patched, cubitus interruptus Dominant and
Ultrabithorax follow the change in engrailed.
The phenotype of heatshocked HS-wg embryos resembles
the segment polarity mutant naked, suggesting that
embryos that overexpress wingless or lack the naked
gene enter similar developmental pathways.
The ubiquitous effects of ectopic wingless expression
may indicate that most cells in the embryo can receive
and interpret the wingless signal. For the development
of the wild-type pattern, it is required that wingless is
expressed in a subset of these cells
Rotation measure variations for 20 millisecond pulsars
We report on variations in the mean position angle of the 20 millisecond
pulsars being observed as part of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA)
project. It is found that the observed variations are dominated by changes in
the Faraday rotation occurring in the Earth's ionosphere. Two ionospheric
models are used to correct for the ionospheric contribution and it is found
that one based on the International Reference Ionosphere gave the best results.
Little or no significant long-term variation in interstellar RM was found with
limits typically about 0.1 rad m yr in absolute value. In a few
cases, apparently significant RM variations over timescales of a few 100 days
or more were seen. These are unlikely to be due to localised magnetised regions
crossing the line of sight since the implied magnetic fields are too high. Most
probably they are statistical fluctuations due to random spatial and temporal
variations in the interstellar electron density and magnetic field along the
line of sight.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Investigating the effects of an oral fructose challenge on hepatic ATP reserves in healthy volunteers: a 31P MRS study
Background: Impaired homeostasis of hepatic ATP has been associated with NAFLD. An intravenous fructose infusion has been shown to be an effective challenge to monitor the depletion and subsequent recovery of hepatic ATP reserves using 31P MRS.
Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an oral rather than intravenous fructose challenge on hepatic ATP reserves in healthy subjects.
Methods: Self-reported healthy males were recruited. Following an overnight fast, baseline liver glycogen and lipid levels were measured using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). Immediately after consuming a 500 ml 75 g fructose drink (1275 kJ) subjects were scanned continuously for 90 min to acquire dynamic 31P MRS measurements of liver ATP reserves.
Results: A significant effect on ATP reserves was observed across the time course (P < 0.05). Mean ATP levels reached a minimum at 50 min which was markedly lower than baseline (80 ± 17% baseline, P < 0.05). Subsequently, mean values tended to rise but did not reach statistical significance above minimum. The time to minimum ATP levels across subjects was negatively correlated with BMI (R2 ¼ 0.74, P < 0.005). Rates of ATP recovery were not significantly correlated with BMI or liver fat levels, but were negatively correlated with baseline glycogen levels (R2 ¼ 0.7, P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Depletion of ATP reserves can be measured non-invasively following an oral fructose challenge using 31P
Dimensional Crossover of Localisation and Delocalisation in a Quantum Hall Bar
The 2-- to 1--dimensional crossover of the localisation length of electrons
confined to a disordered quantum wire of finite width is studied in a
model of electrons moving in the potential of uncorrelated impurities. An
analytical formula for the localisation length is derived, describing the
dimensional crossover as function of width , conductance and
perpendicular magnetic field . On the basis of these results, the scaling
analysis of the quantum Hall effect in high Landau levels, and the
delocalisation transition in a quantum Hall wire are reconsidered.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
A new approach to modelling the relationship between annual population abundance indices and weather data
Weather has often been associated with fluctuations in population sizes of species; however, it can be difficult to estimate the effects satisfactorily because population size is naturally measured by annual abundance indices whilst weather varies on much shorter timescales. We describe a novel method for estimating the effects of a temporal sequence of a weather variable (such as mean temperatures from successive months) on annual species abundance indices. The model we use has a separate regression coefficient for each covariate in the temporal sequence, and over-fitting is avoided by constraining the regression coefficients to lie on a curve defined by a small number of parameters. The constrained curve is the product of a periodic function, reflecting assumptions that associations with weather will vary smoothly throughout the year and tend to be repetitive across years, and an exponentially decaying term, reflecting an assumption that the weather from the most recent year will tend to have the greatest effect on the current population and that the effect of weather in previous years tends to diminish as the time lag increases. We have used this approach to model 501 species abundance indices from Great Britain and present detailed results for two contrasting species alongside an overall impression of the results across all species. We believe this approach provides an important advance to the challenge of robustly modelling relationships between weather and species population size
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