1,467 research outputs found
From white elephant to Nobel Prize: Dennis Gabor’s wavefront reconstruction
Dennis Gabor devised a new concept for optical imaging in 1947 that went by a variety of names over the following decade: holoscopy, wavefront reconstruction, interference microscopy, diffraction microscopy and Gaboroscopy. A well-connected and creative research engineer, Gabor worked actively to publicize and exploit his concept, but the scheme failed to capture the interest of many researchers. Gabor’s theory was repeatedly deemed unintuitive and baffling; the technique was appraised by his contemporaries to be of dubious practicality and, at best, constrained to a narrow branch of science. By the late 1950s, Gabor’s subject had been assessed by its handful of practitioners to be a white elephant. Nevertheless, the concept was later rehabilitated by the research of Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks at the University of Michigan, and Yury Denisyuk at the Vavilov Institute in Leningrad. What had been judged a failure was recast as a success: evaluations of Gabor’s work were transformed during the 1960s, when it was represented as the foundation on which to construct the new and distinctly different subject of holography, a re-evaluation that gained the Nobel Prize for Physics for Gabor alone in 1971. This paper focuses on the difficulties experienced in constructing a meaningful subject, a practical application and a viable technical community from Gabor’s ideas during the decade 1947-1957
Mapping the Kinematical Regimes of Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering
We construct a language for identifying kinematical regions of transversely
differential semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering cross sections with
particular underlying partonic pictures, especially in regions of moderate to
low where sensitivity to kinematical effects outside the usual very high
energy limit becomes non-trivial. The partonic pictures map to power law
expansions whose leading contributions ultimately lead to well-known QCD
factorization theorems. We propose methods for estimating the consistency of
any particular region of overall hadronic kinematics with the kinematics of a
given underlying partonic picture. The basic setup of kinematics of
semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering is also reviewed in some detail.Comment: 37 pages, 11 Figure
High Temperature Photochemistry in the Atmosphere of HD189733b
Recent infrared spectroscopy of hot exoplanets is beginning to reveal their
atmospheric composition. Deep with in the planetary atmosphere, the composition
is controlled by thermochemical equilibrium. Photochemistry becomes important
higher in the atmosphere, at levels above ~1 bar. These two chemistries compete
between ~1-10 bars in hot Jupiter-like atmospheres, depending on the strength
of the eddy mixing and temperature. HD189733b provides an excellent laboratory
in which to study the consequences of chemistry of hot atmospheres. The recent
spectra of HD189733b and HD209458b contain signatures of CH4, CO2, CO and H2O.
Here we identify the primary chemical pathways that govern the abundances of
CH4, CO2, CO and H2O in the cases of thermochemical equilibrium chemistry,
photochemistry, and their combination. Our results suggest that the abundance
of these species can be photochemically enhanced above or below the
thermochemical equilibrium value, so some caution must be taken when assuming
that an atmosphere is in strict thermochemical equilibrium
Continued Fractions and Fermionic Representations for Characters of M(p,p') minimal models
We present fermionic sum representations of the characters
of the minimal models for all relatively prime
integers for some allowed values of and . Our starting point is
binomial (q-binomial) identities derived from a truncation of the state
counting equations of the XXZ spin chain of anisotropy
. We use the Takahashi-Suzuki method to express
the allowed values of (and ) in terms of the continued fraction
decomposition of (and ) where stands for
the fractional part of These values are, in fact, the dimensions of the
hermitian irreducible representations of (and )
with (and We also establish the duality relation and discuss the action of the Andrews-Bailey transformation in the
space of minimal models. Many new identities of the Rogers-Ramanujan type are
presented.Comment: Several references, one further explicit result and several
discussion remarks adde
Fermionic solution of the Andrews-Baxter-Forrester model II: proof of Melzer's polynomial identities
We compute the one-dimensional configuration sums of the ABF model using the
fermionic technique introduced in part I of this paper. Combined with the
results of Andrews, Baxter and Forrester, we find proof of polynomial
identities for finitizations of the Virasoro characters
as conjectured by Melzer. In the thermodynamic limit
these identities reproduce Rogers--Ramanujan type identities for the unitary
minimal Virasoro characters, conjectured by the Stony Brook group. We also
present a list of additional Virasoro character identities which follow from
our proof of Melzer's identities and application of Bailey's lemma.Comment: 28 pages, Latex, 7 Postscript figure
Corticosterone pattern-dependent glucocorticoid receptor binding and transcriptional regulation within the liver
Ultradian glucocorticoid rhythms are highly conserved across mammalian species, however, their functional significance is not yet fully understood. Here we demonstrate that pulsatile corticosterone replacement in adrenalectomised rats induces a dynamic pattern of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) binding at ~3,000 genomic sites in liver at the pulse peak, subsequently not found during the pulse nadir. In contrast, constant corticosterone replacement induced prolonged binding at the majority of these sites. Additionally, each pattern further induced markedly different transcriptional responses. During pulsatile treatment, intragenic occupancy by active RNA polymerase II exhibited pulsatile dynamics with transient changes in enrichment, either decreased or increased depending on the gene, which mostly returned to baseline during the inter-pulse interval. In contrast, constant corticosterone exposure induced prolonged effects on RNA polymerase II occupancy at the majority of gene targets, thus acting as a sustained regulatory signal for both transactivation and repression of glucocorticoid target genes. The nett effect of these differences were consequently seen in the liver transcriptome as RNA-seq analysis indicated that despite the same overall amount of corticosterone infused, twice the number of transcripts were regulated by constant corticosterone infusion, when compared to pulsatile. Target genes that were found to be differentially regulated in a pattern-dependent manner were enriched in functional pathways including carbohydrate, cholesterol, glucose and fat metabolism as well as inflammation, suggesting a functional role for dysregulated glucocorticoid rhythms in the development of metabolic dysfunction
Optimisation of a propidium monoazide based method to determine the viability of microbes in faecal slurries for transplantation
© 2018 Elsevier BV. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (December 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyThe efficacy of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as a therapeutic intervention may depend on the viability of the microorganisms in faecal slurries (FS) prepared from donor stool. However, determining the viability of these organisms is challenging. Most microorganisms in stool are refractory to culture using standard techniques, and culture-independent PCR-based methods derive signal from both viable and non-viable cells. Propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment has been shown to be effective in preventing PCR amplification of DNA from non-viable bacteria in a range of contexts. However, this methodology can be sensitive to factors such as bacterial load and sample turbidity. We describe the optimisation of a PMA treatment methodology for FS that restricts quantitative PCR-based bacterial enumeration to viable cells. When applied to concentrated FS (10–25% stool content), PMA treatment at 100 μM concentration was ineffective in preventing DNA amplification from heat-killed cells. Efficacy was not significantly improved by doubling the PMA concentration. However, PMA treatment efficacy was improved markedly following 10-fold sample dilution, and was found to be optimal at 100-fold dilution. Substantial reductions in viable bacterial load could be observed following both freeze-thaw and heat-treatment of FS. This method successfully prevented DNA amplification of heat-killed Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus spiked into stool and could reliably determine the proportion of live bacteria and viable E. coli counts present in fresh and heat-treated stool. With appropriate sample dilution, PMA treatment excluded >97% of non-viable cells from amplification in all assays, without significantly affecting the amplification of DNA from viable cells. This method can be applied to optimise sample processing of FMT donor material, and to characterise bacterial viability within faecal samples more widely
Identification of undiagnosed atrial fibrillation patients using a machine learning risk prediction algorithm and diagnostic testing (PULsE-AI): Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with an increased risk of stroke, enhanced stroke severity, and other comorbidities. However, AF is often asymptomatic, and frequently remains undiagnosed until complications occur. Current screening approaches for AF lack either cost-effectiveness or diagnostic sensitivity; thus, there is interest in tools that could be used for population screening. An AF risk prediction algorithm, developed using machine learning from a UK dataset of 2,994,837 patients, was found to be more effective than existing models at identifying patients at risk of AF. Therefore, the aim of the trial is to assess the effectiveness of this risk prediction algorithm combined with diagnostic testing for the identification of AF in a real-world primary care setting. Eligible participants (aged ≥30 years and without an existing AF diagnosis) registered at participating UK general practices will be randomised into intervention and control arms. Intervention arm participants identified at highest risk of developing AF (algorithm risk score ≥ 7.4%) will be invited for a 12‑lead electrocardiogram (ECG) followed by two-weeks of home-based ECG monitoring with a KardiaMobile device. Control arm participants will be used for comparison and will be managed routinely. The primary outcome is the number of AF diagnoses in the intervention arm compared with the control arm during the research window. If the trial is successful, there is potential for the risk prediction algorithm to be implemented throughout primary care for narrowing the population considered at highest risk for AF who could benefit from more intensive screening for AF. Trial Registration: NCT04045639
Polynomial Identities, Indices, and Duality for the N=1 Superconformal Model SM(2,4\nu)
We prove polynomial identities for the N=1 superconformal model SM(2,4\nu)
which generalize and extend the known Fermi/Bose character identities. Our
proof uses the q-trinomial coefficients of Andrews and Baxter on the bosonic
side and a recently introduced very general method of producing recursion
relations for q-series on the fermionic side. We use these polynomials to
demonstrate a dual relation under q \rightarrow q^{-1} between SM(2,4\nu) and
M(2\nu-1,4\nu). We also introduce a generalization of the Witten index which is
expressible in terms of the Rogers false theta functions.Comment: 41 pages, harvmac, no figures; new identities, proofs and comments
added; misprints eliminate
The Interstellar Medium In Galaxies Seen A Billion Years After The Big Bang
Evolution in the measured rest frame ultraviolet spectral slope and
ultraviolet to optical flux ratios indicate a rapid evolution in the dust
obscuration of galaxies during the first 3 billion years of cosmic time (z>4).
This evolution implies a change in the average interstellar medium properties,
but the measurements are systematically uncertain due to untested assumptions,
and the inability to measure heavily obscured regions of the galaxies. Previous
attempts to directly measure the interstellar medium in normal galaxies at
these redshifts have failed for a number of reasons with one notable exception.
Here we report measurements of the [CII] gas and dust emission in 9 typical
(~1-4L*) star-forming galaxies ~1 billon years after the big bang (z~5-6). We
find these galaxies have >12x less thermal emission compared with similar
systems ~2 billion years later, and enhanced [CII] emission relative to the
far-infrared continuum, confirming a strong evolution in the interstellar
medium properties in the early universe. The gas is distributed over scales of
1-8 kpc, and shows diverse dynamics within the sample. These results are
consistent with early galaxies having significantly less dust than typical
galaxies seen at z<3 and being comparable to local low-metallicity systems.Comment: Submitted to Nature, under review after referee report. 22 pages, 4
figures, 4 Extended Data Figures, 5 Extended Data table
- …