430 research outputs found
CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey: I. Survey presentation
We present here the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey,
which has been designed to provide a first step in this direction.We summarize
the survey goals and design, including sample selection and observational
strategy.We also showcase the data taken during the first observing runs
(June/July 2010) and outline the reduction pipeline, quality control schemes
and general characteristics of the reduced data. This survey is obtaining
spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of
galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005< z <0.03). CALIFA has been
designed to allow the building of two-dimensional maps of the following
quantities: (a) stellar populations: ages and metallicities; (b) ionized gas:
distribution, excitation mechanism and chemical abundances; and (c) kinematic
properties: both from stellar and ionized gas components. CALIFA uses the PPAK
Integral Field Unit (IFU), with a hexagonal field-of-view of
\sim1.3\sq\arcmin', with a 100% covering factor by adopting a three-pointing
dithering scheme. The optical wavelength range is covered from 3700 to 7000
{\AA}, using two overlapping setups (V500 and V1200), with different
resolutions: R\sim850 and R\sim1650, respectively. CALIFA is a legacy survey,
intended for the community. The reduced data will be released, once the quality
has been guaranteed. The analyzed data fulfill the expectations of the original
observing proposal, on the basis of a set of quality checks and exploratory
analysis.
We conclude from this first look at the data that CALIFA will be an important
resource for archaeological studies of galaxies in the Local Universe.Comment: 32 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publishing in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Density functional method for nonequilibrium electron transport
We describe an ab initio method for calculating the electronic structure,
electronic transport, and forces acting on the atoms, for atomic scale systems
connected to semi-infinite electrodes and with an applied voltage bias. Our
method is based on the density functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the
well tested Siesta approach (which uses non-local norm-conserving
pseudopotentials to describe the effect of the core electrons, and linear
combination of finite-range numerical atomic orbitals to describe the valence
states). We fully deal with the atomistic structure of the whole system,
treating both the contact and the electrodes on the same footing. The effect of
the finite bias (including selfconsistency and the solution of the
electrostatic problem) is taken into account using nonequilibrium Green's
functions. We relate the nonequilibrium Green's function expressions to the
more transparent scheme involving the scattering states. As an illustration,
the method is applied to three systems where we are able to compare our results
to earlier ab initio DFT calculations or experiments, and we point out
differences between this method and existing schemes. The systems considered
are: (1) single atom carbon wires connected to aluminum electrodes with
extended or finite cross section, (2) single atom gold wires, and finally (3)
large carbon nanotube systems with point defects.Comment: 18 pages, 23 figure
Can Jupiters be found by monitoring Galactic Bulge microlensing events from northern sites?
In 1998 the EXPORT team monitored microlensing event lightcurves using a CCD
camera on the IAC 0.8m telescope on Tenerife to evaluate the prospect of using
northern telescopes to find microlens anomalies that reveal planets orbiting
the lens stars. The high airmass and more limited time available for
observations of Galactic Bulge sources makes a northern site less favourable
for microlensing planet searches. However, there are potentially a large number
of northern 1m class telescopes that could devote a few hours per night to
monitor ongoing microlensing events. Our IAC observations indicate that
accuracies sufficient to detect planets can be achieved despite the higher
airmass.Comment: 8 pages, 14 figures, 1 bbl file, based on EXPORT observations,
accepted by MNRA
Panmicrobial Oligonucleotide Array for Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases
To facilitate rapid, unbiased, differential diagnosis of infectious diseases, we designed GreeneChipPm, a panmicrobial microarray comprising 29,455 sixty-mer oligonucleotide probes for vertebrate viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Methods for nucleic acid preparation, random primed PCR amplification, and labeling were optimized to allow the sensitivity required for application with nucleic acid extracted from clinical materials and cultured isolates. Analysis of nasopharyngeal aspirates, blood, urine, and tissue from persons with various infectious diseases confirmed the presence of viruses and bacteria identified by other methods, and implicated Plasmodium falciparum in an unexplained fatal case of hemorrhagic feverlike disease during the Marburg hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Angola in 2004–2005
Taxonomic variations in the gut microbiome of gout patients with and without tophi might have a functional impact on urate metabolism
Objective: To evaluate the taxonomic composition of the gut microbiome in gout patients with and without tophi
formation, and predict bacterial functions that might have an impact on urate metabolism.
Methods: Hypervariable V3–V4 regions of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from fecal samples of gout patients with
and without tophi (n=33 and n=25, respectively) were sequenced and compared to fecal samples from 53 healthy
controls. We explored predictive functional profles using bioinformatics in order to identify diferences in taxonomy
and metabolic pathways.
Results: We identifed a microbiome characterized by the lowest richness and a higher abundance of Phascolarctobacterium, Bacteroides, Akkermansia, and Ruminococcus_gnavus_group genera in patients with gout without tophi
when compared to controls. The Proteobacteria phylum and the Escherichia-Shigella genus were more abundant
in patients with tophaceous gout than in controls. Fold change analysis detected nine genera enriched in healthy
controls compared to gout groups (Bifdobacterium, Butyricicoccus, Oscillobacter, Ruminococcaceae_UCG_010, Lachnospiraceae_ND2007_group, Haemophilus, Ruminococcus_1, Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, and Ruminococcaceae_
UGC_013). We found that the core microbiota of both gout groups shared Bacteroides caccae, Bacteroides stercoris ATCC
43183, and Bacteroides coprocola DSM 17136. These bacteria might perform functions linked to one-carbon metabo‑
lism, nucleotide binding, amino acid biosynthesis, and purine biosynthesis. Finally, we observed diferences in key
bacterial enzymes involved in urate synthesis, degradation, and elimination.
Conclusion: Our fndings revealed that taxonomic variations in the gut microbiome of gout patients with and with‑
out tophi might have a functional impact on urate metabolism.
Keywords: Gout, Gut microbiota, Uric acid metabolis
Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma)
The ratio of branching fractions of the radiative B decays B0 -> K*0 gamma
and Bs0 -> phi gamma has been measured using 0.37 fb-1 of pp collisions at a
centre of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The
value obtained is BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) = 1.12 +/- 0.08
^{+0.06}_{-0.04} ^{+0.09}_{-0.08}, where the first uncertainty is statistical,
the second systematic and the third is associated to the ratio of fragmentation
fractions fs/fd. Using the world average for BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma) = (4.33 +/-
0.15) x 10^{-5}, the branching fraction BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) is measured to be
(3.9 +/- 0.5) x 10^{-5}, which is the most precise measurement to date.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, 2 table
Development of a Flow-Trough Microarray based Reverse Transcriptase Multiplex Ligation-Dependent Probe Amplification Assay for the Detection of European Bunyaviruses
It is suspected that apart from tick-borne encephalitis virus several additional European Arboviruses such as the sandfly borne Toscana virus, sandfly fever Sicilian virus and sandfly fever Naples virus, mosquito-borne Tahyna virus, Inkoo virus, Batai virus and tick-borne Uukuniemi virus cause aseptic meningo-encephalitis or febrile disease in Europe. Currently, the microarray technology is developing rapidly and there are many efforts to apply it to infectious diseases diagnostics. In order to arrive at an assay system useful for high throughput analysis of samples from aseptic meningo-encephalitis cases the authors developed a combined multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and flow-through microarray assay for the detection of European Bunyaviruses. These results show that this combined assay indeed is highly sensitive, and specific for the accurate detection of multiple viruses
First observation of the decay and a measurement of the ratio of branching fractions
The first observation of the decay using
data collected by the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV,
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb, is reported. A
signal of events is obtained and the absence of signal is
rejected with a statistical significance of more than nine standard deviations.
The branching fraction is measured relative to
that of : , where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and
the third is due to the uncertainty on the ratio of the and
hadronisation fractions.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett. B; ISSN 0370-269
First observation of Bs -> D_{s2}^{*+} X mu nu decays
Using data collected with the LHCb detector in proton-proton collisions at a
centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, the semileptonic decays Bs -> Ds+ X mu nu and
Bs -> D0 K+ X mu nu are detected. Two structures are observed in the D0 K+ mass
spectrum at masses consistent with the known D^+_{s1}(2536) and
$D^{*+}_{s2}(2573) mesons. The measured branching fractions relative to the
total Bs semileptonic rate are B(Bs -> D_{s2}^{*+} X mu nu)/B(Bs -> X mu nu)=
(3.3\pm 1.0\pm 0.4)%, and B(Bs -> D_{s1}^+ X munu)/B(Bs -> X mu nu)= (5.4\pm
1.2\pm 0.5)%, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is
systematic. This is the first observation of the D_{s2}^{*+} state in Bs
decays; we also measure its mass and width.Comment: 8 pages 2 figures. Published in Physics Letters
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