2,380 research outputs found
Effects of exoplanetary gravity on human locomotor ability
At some point in the future, if mankind hopes to settle planets outside the
Solar System, it will be crucial to determine the range of planetary conditions
under which human beings could survive and function. In this article, we apply
physical considerations to future exoplanetary biology to determine the
limitations which gravity imposes on several systems governing the human body.
Initially, we examine the ultimate limits at which the human skeleton breaks
and muscles become unable to lift the body from the ground. We also produce a
new model for the energetic expenditure of walking, by modelling the leg as an
inverted pendulum. Both approaches conclude that, with rigorous training,
humans could perform normal locomotion at gravity no higher than 4
.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to be published in The Physics Teache
Improved FPT algorithms for weighted independent set in bull-free graphs
Very recently, Thomass\'e, Trotignon and Vuskovic [WG 2014] have given an FPT
algorithm for Weighted Independent Set in bull-free graphs parameterized by the
weight of the solution, running in time . In this article
we improve this running time to . As a byproduct, we also
improve the previous Turing-kernel for this problem from to .
Furthermore, for the subclass of bull-free graphs without holes of length at
most for , we speed up the running time to . As grows, this running time is
asymptotically tight in terms of , since we prove that for each integer , Weighted Independent Set cannot be solved in time in the class of -free graphs unless the
ETH fails.Comment: 15 page
Morphological and proteomic analysis of biofilms from the Antarctic archaeon, Halorubrum lacusprofundi
© The Author(s) 2016. Biofilms enhance rates of gene exchange, access to specific nutrients, and cell survivability. Haloarchaea in Deep Lake, Antarctica, are characterized by high rates of intergenera gene exchange, metabolic specialization that promotes niche adaptation, and are exposed to high levels of UV-irradiation in summer. Halorubrum lacusprofundi from Deep Lake has previously been reported to form biofilms. Here we defined growth conditions that promoted the formation of biofilms and used microscopy and enzymatic digestion of extracellular material to characterize biofilm structures. Extracellular DNA was found to be critical to biofilms, with cell surface proteins and quorum sensing also implicated in biofilm formation. Quantitative proteomics was used to define pathways and cellular processes involved in forming biofilms; these included enhanced purine synthesis and specific cell surface proteins involved in DNA metabolism; post-translational modification of cell surface proteins; specific pathways of carbon metabolism involving acetyl-CoA; and specific responses to oxidative stress. The study provides a new level of understanding about the molecular mechanisms involved in biofilm formation of this important member of the Deep Lake community
Antibiotikaeinsatz in der Bayerischen Schweinehaltungspraxis ABYS: Antibiotikaeinsatz und Antibiotikaresistenz in ökologischen Betrieben
Between 2012 and 2014, ABYS study recorded antibiotic use, detection and resistance data for 23 organic and 35 conventional pig farms. Antibiotic contents of
farm-made fertilizers were assessed by LC/MS-MS. Phenotypic antimicrobial resistance was investigated in Escherichia (E.) coli (indicator bacteria); antimicrobial
resistance genes of the total bacterial microbiota (sul(II), tet(A), tet(B), tet(M); marker Measured in nUDD (number of animals treated multiplied by treatment days), colistin
was the most frequently used antibiotic, in organic farms followed by tylosin, doxycycline and amoxicillin. Antibiotic residues were rarely detected; however, manure contained up to 10^8 antimicrobial resistance genes per gram; concentrations were higher when the antibiotic had been used on farm. In six farms, antimicrobial resistant E. coli were tracked from the moment when pigs were placed on farm. Some isolates carried a broad variety of resistances from the
very beginning that were maintained until slaughter, despite the fact that partly no antibiotics were applied during fattening. Approaches for reducing carry-over of antimicrobial resistant bacteria will be discusse
Multi-resident activity recognition using label combination approach in smart home environment
Activity recognition in smart home environment is becoming challenging when it is involving more than one resident living in the same space. It is not merely recognizing the activity performed nevertheless to track and identify the performer of specific activity also need to address in order to provide the great autonomous for ambient intelligence system (AmI). It is a challenging task due to diversity and complexity of sensor fusion that only using the binary data from single type technology of ambient sensors. Strong approach is needed to identify types of activities performed at the same time to track which resident are performing that particular activity. Previously, researchers build the multi-resident activity model regardless the performer, thus the data association also fails to tackle the problem applicably. This research presents the multi-label classification approach to recognize the activity at the same is able to track the resident in multi-resident in a smart home setting. It has been tested on the real smart home datasets using Label Combination method of multi-label classification technique using random forest as its base classifier. The Hamming score, accuracy and exact match are selected as evaluation metrics to measure the proposed solution
Measurement of pion, kaon and proton production in proton-proton collisions at TeV
The measurement of primary , K, p and
production at mid-rapidity ( 0.5) in proton-proton collisions at
TeV performed with ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is reported. Particle identification is
performed using the specific ionization energy loss and time-of-flight
information, the ring-imaging Cherenkov technique and the kink-topology
identification of weak decays of charged kaons. Transverse momentum spectra are
measured from 0.1 up to 3 GeV/ for pions, from 0.2 up to 6 GeV/ for kaons
and from 0.3 up to 6 GeV/ for protons. The measured spectra and particle
ratios are compared with QCD-inspired models, tuned to reproduce also the
earlier measurements performed at the LHC. Furthermore, the integrated particle
yields and ratios as well as the average transverse momenta are compared with
results at lower collision energies.Comment: 33 pages, 19 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 28,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/156
An Experimental Exploration of the QCD Phase Diagram: The Search for the Critical Point and the Onset of De-confinement
The QCD phase diagram lies at the heart of what the RHIC Physics Program is
all about. While RHIC has been operating very successfully at or close to its
maximum energy for almost a decade, it has become clear that this collider can
also be operated at lower energies down to 5 GeV without extensive upgrades. An
exploration of the full region of beam energies available at the RHIC facility
is imperative. The STAR detector, due to its large uniform acceptance and
excellent particle identification capabilities, is uniquely positioned to carry
out this program in depth and detail. The first exploratory beam energy scan
(BES) run at RHIC took place in 2010 (Run 10), since several STAR upgrades,
most importantly a full barrel Time of Flight detector, are now completed which
add new capabilities important for the interesting physics at BES energies. In
this document we discuss current proposed measurements, with estimations of the
accuracy of the measurements given an assumed event count at each beam energy.Comment: 59 pages, 78 figure
Measurements of and Production in + Collisions at = 200 GeV
We report measurements of charmed-hadron (, ) production cross
sections at mid-rapidity in + collisions at a center-of-mass energy of
200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the
hadronic decays , and their charge conjugates,
covering the range of 0.62.0 GeV/ and 2.06.0 GeV/ for
and , respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross
section at mid-rapidity is = 170 45
(stat.) (sys.) b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is
compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential
cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order
Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Revised version submitted to Phys. Rev.
Longitudinal Spin Transfer to and Hyperons in Polarized Proton-Proton Collisions at = 200 GeV
The longitudinal spin transfer, , from high energy polarized protons
to and hyperons has been measured for the first time
in proton-proton collisions at with the STAR
detector at RHIC. The measurements cover pseudorapidity, , in the range
and transverse momenta, , up to . The longitudinal spin transfer is found to be for inclusive
and for
inclusive hyperons with and . The dependence on and is presented.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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