551 research outputs found
Studies on Monitoring and Tracking Genetic Resources: An Executive Summary
The principles underlying fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the utilization of genetic resources are set out in Article 15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which stipulate that access to genetic resources is subject to the prior informed consent of the country where such resources are located and to mutually agreed terms regarding the sharing of benefits that could be derived from such access. One issue of particular concern for provider countries is how to monitor and track genetic resources once they have left the provider country and enter into use in a variety of forms. This report was commissioned to provide a detailed review of advances in DNA sequencing technologies, as those methods apply to identification of genetic resources, and the use of globally unique persistent identifiers for persistently linking to data and other forms of digital documentation that is linked to individual genetic resources. While the report was written for an audience with a mixture of technical, legal, and policy backgrounds it is relevant to the genomics community as it is an example of downstream application of genomics information
Power Spectrum Analysis of Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Decay-Rate Data: Evidence for Solar Rotational Modulation
Evidence for an anomalous annual periodicity in certain nuclear decay data
has led to speculation concerning a possible solar influence on nuclear
processes. We have recently analyzed data concerning the decay rates of Cl-36
and Si-32, acquired at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), to search for
evidence that might be indicative of a process involving solar rotation.
Smoothing of the power spectrum by weighted-running-mean analysis leads to a
significant peak at frequency 11.18/yr, which is lower than the equatorial
synodic rotation rates of the convection and radiative zones. This article
concerns measurements of the decay rates of Ra-226 acquired at the
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany. We find that a similar
(but not identical) analysis yields a significant peak in the PTB dataset at
frequency 11.21/yr, and a peak in the BNL dataset at 11.25/yr. The change in
the BNL result is not significant since the uncertainties in the BNL and PTB
analyses are estimated to be 0.13/yr and 0.07/yr, respectively. Combining the
two running means by forming the joint power statistic leads to a highly
significant peak at frequency 11.23/yr. We comment briefly on the possible
implications of these results for solar physics and for particle physics.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure
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Co-Registered Spectrally Encoded Confocal Microscopy and Optical Frequency Domain Imaging System
Spectrally encoded confocal microscopy and optical frequency domain imaging are two non-contact optical imaging technologies that provide images of tissue cellular and architectural morphology, which are both used for histopathological diagnosis. Although spectrally encoded confocal microscopy has better transverse resolution than optical frequency domain imaging, optical frequency domain imaging can penetrate deeper into tissues, which potentially enables the visualization of different morphologic features. We have developed a co-registered spectrally encoded confocal microscopy and optical frequency domain imaging system and have obtained preliminary images from human oesophageal biopsy samples to compare the capabilities of these imaging techniques for diagnosing oesophageal pathology
Admixture of an s-wave component to the d-wave gap symmetry in high-temperature superconductors
Neutron crystal-field spectroscopy experiments in the Y- and La-type
high-temperature superconductors HoBa2Cu3O6.56, HoBa2Cu4O8, and
La1.81Sr0.15Ho0.04CuO4 are reviewed. By this bulk-sensitive technique,
information on the gap function is obtained from the relaxation behavior of
crystal-field transitions associated with the Ho3+ ions which sit as local
probes close to the superconducting copper-oxide planes. The relaxation data
exhibit a peculiar change from a convex to a concave shape between the
superconducting transition temperature Tc and the pseudogap temperature T*
which can only be modelled satisfactorily if the gap function of predominantly
d-wave symmetry includes an s-wave component of the order of 20-25%,
independent of the doping level. Moreover, our results are compatible with an
unusual temperature dependence of the gap function in the pseudogap region
(Tc<T<T*), i.e., a breakup of the Fermi surface into disconnected arcs.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in J.
Supercond. Nov. Mag
SARS-CoV-2 infection, clinical features and outcome of COVID-19 in United Kingdom nursing homes.
OBJECTIVES: To understand SARS-Co-V-2 infection and transmission in UK nursing homes in order to develop preventive strategies for protecting the frail elderly residents. METHODS: An outbreak investigation involving 394 residents and 70 staff, was carried out in 4 nursing homes affected by COVID-19 outbreaks in central London. Two point-prevalence surveys were performed one week apart where residents underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing and had relevant symptoms documented. Asymptomatic staff from three of the four homes were also offered SARS-CoV-2 testing. RESULTS: Overall, 26% (95% CI 22-31) of residents died over the two-month period. All-cause mortality increased by 203% (95% CI 70-336) compared with previous years. Systematic testing identified 40% (95% CI 35-46) of residents as positive for SARS-CoV-2, and of these 43% (95% CI 34-52) were asymptomatic and 18% (95% CI 11-24) had only atypical symptoms; 4% (95% CI -1 to 9) of asymptomatic staff also tested positive. CONCLUSIONS: The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in four UK nursing homes was associated with very high infection and mortality rates. Many residents developed either atypical or had no discernible symptoms. A number of asymptomatic staff members also tested positive, suggesting a role for regular screening of both residents and staff in mitigating future outbreaks
Theory and Applications of Non-Relativistic and Relativistic Turbulent Reconnection
Realistic astrophysical environments are turbulent due to the extremely high
Reynolds numbers. Therefore, the theories of reconnection intended for
describing astrophysical reconnection should not ignore the effects of
turbulence on magnetic reconnection. Turbulence is known to change the nature
of many physical processes dramatically and in this review we claim that
magnetic reconnection is not an exception. We stress that not only
astrophysical turbulence is ubiquitous, but also magnetic reconnection itself
induces turbulence. Thus turbulence must be accounted for in any realistic
astrophysical reconnection setup. We argue that due to the similarities of MHD
turbulence in relativistic and non-relativistic cases the theory of magnetic
reconnection developed for the non-relativistic case can be extended to the
relativistic case and we provide numerical simulations that support this
conjecture. We also provide quantitative comparisons of the theoretical
predictions and results of numerical experiments, including the situations when
turbulent reconnection is self-driven, i.e. the turbulence in the system is
generated by the reconnection process itself. We show how turbulent
reconnection entails the violation of magnetic flux freezing, the conclusion
that has really far reaching consequences for many realistically turbulent
astrophysical environments. In addition, we consider observational testing of
turbulent reconnection as well as numerous implications of the theory. The
former includes the Sun and solar wind reconnection, while the latter include
the process of reconnection diffusion induced by turbulent reconnection, the
acceleration of energetic particles, bursts of turbulent reconnection related
to black hole sources as well as gamma ray bursts. Finally, we explain why
turbulent reconnection cannot be explained by turbulent resistivity or derived
through the mean field approach.Comment: 66 pages, 24 figures, a chapter of the book "Magnetic Reconnection -
Concepts and Applications", editors W. Gonzalez, E. N. Parke
Solar Influence on Nuclear Decay Rates: Constraints from the MESSENGER Mission
We have analyzed Cs-137 decay data, obtained from a small sample onboard the
MESSENGER spacecraft en route to Mercury, with the aim of setting limits on a
possible correlation between nuclear decay rates and solar activity. Such a
correlation has been suggested recently on the basis of data from Mn-54 decay
during the solar flare of 13 December 2006, and by indications of an annual and
other periodic variations in the decay rates of Si-32, Cl-36, and Ra-226. Data
from five measurements of the Cs-137 count rate over a period of approximately
5.4 years have been fit to a formula which accounts for the usual exponential
decrease in count rate over time, along with the addition of a theoretical
solar contribution varying with MESSENGER-Sun separation. The indication of
solar influence is then characterized by a non-zero value of the calculated
parameter \xi, and we find \xi=(2.8+/-8.1)x10^{-3} for Cs-137. A simulation of
the increased data that can hypothetically be expected following Mercury orbit
insertion on 18 March 2011 suggests that the anticipated improvement in the
determination of \xi could reveal a non-zero value of \xi if present at a level
consistent with other data.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science, 2011. 7
pages, 5 figures. Version 2 has corrected Figure 1, since Fig. 1 did not
appear correctly in Version
Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV
We present the first measurement of directed flow () at RHIC. is
found to be consistent with zero at pseudorapidities from -1.2 to 1.2,
then rises to the level of a couple of percent over the range . The latter observation is similar to data from NA49 if the SPS rapidities
are shifted by the difference in beam rapidity between RHIC and SPS.
Back-to-back jets emitted out-of-plane are found to be suppressed more if
compared to those emitted in-plane, which is consistent with {\it jet
quenching}. Using the scalar product method, we systematically compared
azimuthal correlations from p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions. Flow and non-flow
from these three different collision systems are discussed.Comment: Quark Matter 2004 proceeding, 4 pages, 3 figure
Azimuthal anisotropy: the higher harmonics
We report the first observations of the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the
azimuthal distribution of particles at RHIC. The measurement was done taking
advantage of the large elliptic flow generated at RHIC. The integrated v_4 is
about a factor of 10 smaller than v_2. For the sixth (v_6) and eighth (v_8)
harmonics upper limits on the magnitudes are reported.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, contribution to the Quark Matter 2004 proceeding
All-optical switching and strong coupling using tunable whispering-gallery-mode microresonators
We review our recent work on tunable, ultrahigh quality factor
whispering-gallery-mode bottle microresonators and highlight their applications
in nonlinear optics and in quantum optics experiments. Our resonators combine
ultra-high quality factors of up to Q = 3.6 \times 10^8, a small mode volume,
and near-lossless fiber coupling, with a simple and customizable mode structure
enabling full tunability. We study, theoretically and experimentally, nonlinear
all-optical switching via the Kerr effect when the resonator is operated in an
add-drop configuration. This allows us to optically route a single-wavelength
cw optical signal between two fiber ports with high efficiency. Finally, we
report on progress towards strong coupling of single rubidium atoms to an
ultra-high Q mode of an actively stabilized bottle microresonator.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in Applied Physics B.
Changes according to referee suggestions: minor corrections to some figures
and captions, clarification of some points in the text, added references,
added new paragraph with results on atom-resonator interactio
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