924 research outputs found
A Hydrophobic Gate in an Ion Channel: The Closed State of the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor
The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) is the prototypic member of the
`Cys-loop' superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels which mediate synaptic
neurotransmission, and whose other members include receptors for glycine,
gamma-aminobutyric acid, and serotonin. Cryo-electron microscopy has yielded a
three dimensional structure of the nAChR in its closed state. However, the
exact nature and location of the channel gate remains uncertain. Although the
transmembrane pore is constricted close to its center, it is not completely
occluded. Rather, the pore has a central hydrophobic zone of radius about 3 A.
Model calculations suggest that such a constriction may form a hydrophobic
gate, preventing movement of ions through a channel. We present a detailed and
quantitative simulation study of the hydrophobic gating model of the nicotinic
receptor, in order to fully evaluate this hypothesis. We demonstrate that the
hydrophobic constriction of the nAChR pore indeed forms a closed gate.
Potential of mean force (PMF) calculations reveal that the constriction
presents a barrier of height ca. 10 kT to the permeation of sodium ions,
placing an upper bound on the closed channel conductance of 0.3 pS. Thus, a 3 A
radius hydrophobic pore can form a functional barrier to the permeation of a 1
A radius Na+ ion. Using a united atom force field for the protein instead of an
all atom one retains the qualitative features but results in differing
conductances, showing that the PMF is sensitive to the detailed molecular
interactions.Comment: Accepted by Physical Biology; includes a supplement and a
supplementary mpeg movie can be found at
http://sbcb.bioch.ox.ac.uk/oliver/download/Movies/watergate.mp
Semliki Forest virus induced, immune mediated demyelination: the effect of irradiation
International audienceThe Dark Energy Camera has captured a large set of images as part of Science Verification (SV) for the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The SV footprint covers a large portion of the outer Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), providing photometry 1.5 mag fainter than the main sequence turn-off of the oldest LMC stellar population. We derive geometrical and structural parameters for various stellar populations in the LMC disc. For the distribution of all LMC stars, we find an inclination of i = -38.14° ± 0.08° (near side in the north) and a position angle for the line of nodes of θ0 = 129.51° ± 0.17°. We find that stars younger than ∼4 Gyr are more centrally concentrated than older stars. Fitting a projected exponential disc shows that the scale radius of the old populations is R>4 Gyr = 1.41 ± 0.01 kpc, while the younger population has R = 0.72 ± 0.01 kpc. However, the spatial distribution of the younger population deviates significantly from the projected exponential disc model. The distribution of old stars suggests a large truncation radius of Rt = 13.5 ± 0.8 kpc. If this truncation is dominated by the tidal field of the Galaxy, we find that the LMC is {∼eq } 24^{+9}_{-6} times less massive than the encircled Galactic mass. By measuring the Red Clump peak magnitude and comparing with the best-fitting LMC disc model, we find that the LMC disc is warped and thicker in the outer regions north of the LMC centre. Our findings may either be interpreted as a warped and flared disc in the LMC outskirts, or as evidence of a spheroidal halo component
Brown dwarf census with the Dark Energy Survey year 3 data and the thin disc scale height of early L types
27 pages, 18 figuresIn this paper we present a catalogue of 11 745 brown dwarfs with spectral types ranging from L0 to T9, photometrically classified using data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) year 3 release matched to the Vista Hemisphere Survey (VHS) DR3 and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data, covering ≈2400 deg2 up to iAB = 22. The classification method follows the same phototype method previously applied to SDSS-UKIDSS-WISE data. The most significant difference comes from the use of DES data instead of SDSS, which allow us to classify almost an order of magnitude more brown dwarfs than any previous search and reaching distances beyond 400 pc for the earliest types. Next, we also present and validate the GalmodBD simulation, which produces brown dwarf number counts as a function of structural parameters with realistic photometric properties of a given survey. We use this simulation to estimate the completeness and purity of our photometric LT catalogue down to iAB = 22, as well as to compare to the observed number of LT types. We put constraints on the thin disc scale height for the early L (L0–L3) population to be around 450 pc, in agreement with previous findings. For completeness, we also publish in a separate table a catalogue of 20 863 M dwarfs that passed our colour cut with spectral types greater than M6. Both the LT and the late M catalogues are found at DES release page https://des.ncsa.illinois.edu/releases/other/y3-mlt.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
Forward Global Photometric Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey
Many scientific goals for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) require calibration of
optical/NIR broadband photometry that is stable in time and uniform
over the celestial sky to one percent or better. It is also necessary to limit
to similar accuracy systematic uncertainty in the calibrated broadband
magnitudes due to uncertainty in the spectrum of the source. Here we present a
"Forward Global Calibration Method (FGCM)" for photometric calibration of the
DES, and we present results of its application to the first three years of the
survey (Y3A1). The FGCM combines data taken with auxiliary instrumentation at
the observatory with data from the broad-band survey imaging itself and models
of the instrument and atmosphere to estimate the spatial- and time-dependence
of the passbands of individual DES survey exposures. "Standard" passbands are
chosen that are typical of the passbands encountered during the survey. The
passband of any individual observation is combined with an estimate of the
source spectral shape to yield a magnitude in the standard
system. This "chromatic correction" to the standard system is necessary to
achieve sub-percent calibrations. The FGCM achieves reproducible and stable
photometric calibration of standard magnitudes of stellar
sources over the multi-year Y3A1 data sample with residual random calibration
errors of per exposure. The accuracy of the
calibration is uniform across the DES footprint to
within . The systematic uncertainties of magnitudes in
the standard system due to the spectra of sources are less than
for main sequence stars with .Comment: 25 pages, submitted to A
Astrometric calibration and performance of the Dark Energy Camera
We characterize the ability of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to perform
relative astrometry across its 500~Mpix, 3 deg^2 science field of view, and
across 4 years of operation. This is done using internal comparisons of ~4x10^7
measurements of high-S/N stellar images obtained in repeat visits to fields of
moderate stellar density, with the telescope dithered to move the sources
around the array. An empirical astrometric model includes terms for: optical
distortions; stray electric fields in the CCD detectors; chromatic terms in the
instrumental and atmospheric optics; shifts in CCD relative positions of up to
~10 um when the DECam temperature cycles; and low-order distortions to each
exposure from changes in atmospheric refraction and telescope alignment. Errors
in this astrometric model are dominated by stochastic variations with typical
amplitudes of 10-30 mas (in a 30 s exposure) and 5-10 arcmin coherence length,
plausibly attributed to Kolmogorov-spectrum atmospheric turbulence. The size of
these atmospheric distortions is not closely related to the seeing. Given an
astrometric reference catalog at density ~0.7 arcmin^{-2}, e.g. from Gaia, the
typical atmospheric distortions can be interpolated to 7 mas RMS accuracy (for
30 s exposures) with 1 arcmin coherence length for residual errors. Remaining
detectable error contributors are 2-4 mas RMS from unmodelled stray electric
fields in the devices, and another 2-4 mas RMS from focal plane shifts between
camera thermal cycles. Thus the astrometric solution for a single DECam
exposure is accurate to 3-6 mas (0.02 pixels, or 300 nm) on the focal plane,
plus the stochastic atmospheric distortion.Comment: Submitted to PAS
Evidence for Color Dichotomy in the Primordial Neptunian Trojan Population
In the current model of early Solar System evolution, the stable members of
the Jovian and Neptunian Trojan populations were captured into resonance from
the leftover reservoir of planetesimals during the outward migration of the
giant planets. As a result, both Jovian and Neptunian Trojans share a common
origin with the primordial disk population, whose other surviving members
constitute today's trans-Neptunian object (TNO) populations. The cold classical
TNOs are ultra-red, while the dynamically excited "hot" population of TNOs
contains a mixture of ultra-red and blue objects. In contrast, Jovian and
Neptunian Trojans are observed to be blue. While the absence of ultra-red
Jovian Trojans can be readily explained by the sublimation of volatile material
from their surfaces due to the high flux of solar radiation at 5AU, the lack of
ultra-red Neptunian Trojans presents both a puzzle and a challenge to formation
models. In this work we report the discovery by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) of
two new dynamically stable L4 Neptunian Trojans,2013 VX30 and 2014 UU240, both
with inclinations i >30 degrees, making them the highest-inclination known
stable Neptunian Trojans. We have measured the colors of these and three other
dynamically stable Neptunian Trojans previously observed by DES, and find that
2013 VX30 is ultra-red, the first such Neptunian Trojan in its class. As such,
2013 VX30 may be a "missing link" between the Trojan and TNO populations. Using
a simulation of the DES TNO detection efficiency, we find that there are 162
+/- 73 Trojans with Hr < 10 at the L4 Lagrange point of Neptune. Moreover, the
blue-to-red Neptunian Trojan population ratio should be higher than 17:1. Based
on this result, we discuss the possible origin of the ultra-red Neptunian
Trojan population and its implications for the formation history of Neptunian
Trojans
Photometric redshifts and clustering of emission line galaxies selected jointly by DES and eBOSS
We present the results of the first test plates of the extended Baryon
Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. This paper focuses on the emission line
galaxies (ELG) population targetted from the Dark Energy Survey (DES)
photometry. We analyse the success rate, efficiency, redshift distribution, and
clustering properties of the targets. From the 9000 spectroscopic redshifts
targetted, 4600 have been selected from the DES photometry. The total success
rate for redshifts between 0.6 and 1.2 is 71\% and 68\% respectively for a
bright and faint, on average more distant, samples including redshifts measured
from a single strong emission line. We find a mean redshift of 0.8 and 0.87,
with 15 and 13\% of unknown redshifts respectively for the bright and faint
samples. In the redshift range 0.6<z<1.2, for the most secure spectroscopic
redshifts, the mean redshift for the bright and faint sample is 0.85 and 0.9
respectively. Star contamination is lower than 2\%. We measure a galaxy bias
averaged on scales of 1 and 10~Mpc/h of 1.72 \pm 0.1 for the bright sample and
of 1.78 \pm 0.12 for the faint sample. The error on the galaxy bias have been
obtained propagating the errors in the correlation function to the fitted
parameters. This redshift evolution for the galaxy bias is in agreement with
theoretical expectations for a galaxy population with MB-5\log h < -21.0. We
note that biasing is derived from the galaxy clustering relative to a model for
the mass fluctuations. We investigate the quality of the DES photometric
redshifts and find that the outlier fraction can be reduced using a comparison
between template fitting and neural network, or using a random forest
algorithm
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H0LiCOW X: Spectroscopic/imaging survey and galaxy-group identification around the strong gravitational lens system WFI2033-4723
Galaxies and galaxy groups located along the line of sight towards
gravitationally lensed quasars produce high-order perturbations of the
gravitational potential at the lens position. When these perturbation are too
large, they can induce a systematic error on of a few-percent if the lens
system is used for cosmological inference and the perturbers are not explicitly
accounted for in the lens model. In this work, we present a detailed
characterization of the environment of the lens system WFI2033-4723 (, = 0.6575), one of the core targets of the H0LICOW
project for which we present cosmological inferences in a companion paper (Rusu
et al. 2019). We use the Gemini and ESO-Very Large telescopes to measure the
spectroscopic redshifts of the brightest galaxies towards the lens, and use the
ESO-MUSE integral field spectrograph to measure the velocity-dispersion of the
lens ( km/s) and of several nearby
galaxies. In addition, we measure photometric redshifts and stellar masses of
all galaxies down to mag, mainly based on Dark Energy Survey imaging
(DR1). Our new catalog, complemented with literature data, more than doubles
the number of known galaxy spectroscopic redshifts in the direct vicinity of
the lens, expanding to 116 (64) the number of spectroscopic redshifts for
galaxies separated by less than 3 arcmin (2 arcmin) from the lens. Using the
flexion-shift as a measure of the amplitude of the gravitational perturbation,
we identify 2 galaxy groups and 3 galaxies that require specific attention in
the lens models. The ESO MUSE data enable us to measure the
velocity-dispersions of three of these galaxies. These results are essential
for the cosmological inference analysis presented in Rusu et al. (2019).Comment: Matches the version accepted for publication by MNRAS. Note that this
paper previously appeared as H0LICOW X
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