Automatic lane detection in chromatography images

This paper proposes a method for automating the detection of lanes in Thin-Layer Chromatography images. Our approach includes a preprocessing step to detect the image region of interest, followed by background estimation and removal. This image is then projected onto the horizontal direction to integrate the information into a one-dimensional profile. A smoothing filter is applied to this profile and the outcome is the input of the lane detection process, which is performed in three phases. The first one aims at obtaining an initial set of candidate lanes that are further validated or removed in the second phase. The last phase is a refinement step that allows the inclusion of lanes that are not clearly distinguishable in the profile and that were not included in the initial set. The method was evaluated in 66 chromatography images and achieved values of recall, precision and F ß -measure of 97.0%, 99.4% and 98.2%, respectively

Deconfining Phase Transition as a Matrix Model of Renormalized Polyakov Loops

We discuss how to extract renormalized from bare Polyakov loops in SU(N) lattice gauge theories at nonzero temperature in four spacetime dimensions. Single loops in an irreducible representation are multiplicatively renormalized without mixing, through a renormalization constant which depends upon both representation and temperature. The values of renormalized loops in the four lowest representations of SU(3) were measured numerically on small, coarse lattices. We find that in magnitude, condensates for the sextet and octet loops are approximately the square of the triplet loop. This agrees with a large $N$ expansion, where factorization implies that the expectation values of loops in adjoint and higher representations are just powers of fundamental and anti-fundamental loops. For three colors, numerically the corrections to the large $N$ relations are greatest for the sextet loop, $\leq 25$; these represent corrections of $\sim 1/N$ for N=3. The values of the renormalized triplet loop can be described by an SU(3) matrix model, with an effective action dominated by the triplet loop. In several ways, the deconfining phase transition for N=3 appears to be like that in the $N=\infty$ matrix model of Gross and Witten.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures; v2, 27 pages, 12 figures, extended discussion for clarity, results unchange

All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations

We report on a measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum with the IceTop air shower array, the surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. The data used in this analysis were taken between June and October, 2007, with 26 surface stations operational at that time, corresponding to about one third of the final array. The fiducial area used in this analysis was 0.122 km^2. The analysis investigated the energy spectrum from 1 to 100 PeV measured for three different zenith angle ranges between 0{\deg} and 46{\deg}. Because of the isotropy of cosmic rays in this energy range the spectra from all zenith angle intervals have to agree. The cosmic-ray energy spectrum was determined under different assumptions on the primary mass composition. Good agreement of spectra in the three zenith angle ranges was found for the assumption of pure proton and a simple two-component model. For zenith angles {\theta} < 30{\deg}, where the mass dependence is smallest, the knee in the cosmic ray energy spectrum was observed between 3.5 and 4.32 PeV, depending on composition assumption. Spectral indices above the knee range from -3.08 to -3.11 depending on primary mass composition assumption. Moreover, an indication of a flattening of the spectrum above 22 PeV were observed.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figure

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in tau final states

We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson using hadronically decaying tau leptons, in 1 inverse femtobarn of data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron ppbar collider. We select two final states: tau plus missing transverse energy and b jets, and tau+ tau- plus jets. These final states are sensitive to a combination of associated W/Z boson plus Higgs boson, vector boson fusion and gluon-gluon fusion production processes. The observed ratio of the combined limit on the Higgs production cross section at the 95% C.L. to the standard model expectation is 29 for a Higgs boson mass of 115 GeV.Comment: publication versio

How many bird and mammal extinctions has recent conservation action prevented?

Aichi Target 12 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims to ‘prevent extinctions of known threatened species’. To measure its success, we used a Delphi expert elicitation method to estimate the number of bird and mammal species whose extinctions were prevented by conservation action in 1993 - 2020 (the lifetime of the CBD) and 2010 - 2020 (the timing of Aichi Target 12). We found that conservation prevented 21–32 bird and 7–16 mammal extinctions since 1993, and 9–18 bird and 2–7 mammal extinctions since 2010. Many remain highly threatened, and may still become extinct in the near future. Nonetheless, given that ten bird and five mammal species did go extinct (or are strongly suspected to) since 1993, extinction rates would have been 2.9–4.2 times greater without conservation action. While policy commitments have fostered significant conservation achievements, future biodiversity action needs to be scaled up to avert additional extinctions