38,379 research outputs found
A three-dimensional hydrodynamical line profile analysis of iron lines and barium isotopes in HD140283
Heavy-elements, i.e. those beyond the iron peak, mostly form via two neutron
capture processes: the s- and r-process. Metal-poor stars should contain fewer
isotopes that form via the s-process, according to currently accepted theory.
It has been shown in several investigations that theory and observation do not
agree well, raising questions on the validity of either the methodology or the
theory. We analyse the metal-poor star HD140283, for which we have a high
quality spectrum. We test whether a 3D LTE stellar atmosphere and spectrum
synthesis code permits a more reliable analysis of the iron abundance and
barium isotope ratio than a 1D LTE analysis. Using 3D model atmospheres, we
examine 91 iron lines of varying strength and formation depth. This provides us
with the star's rotational speed. With this, we model the barium isotope ratio
by exploiting the hyperfine structure of the singly ionised 4554 resonance
line, and study the impact of the uncertainties in the stellar parameters.
HD140283's vsini = 1.65 +/- 0.05 km/s. Barium isotopes under the 3D paradigm
show a dominant r-process signature as 77 +/- 6 +/- 17% of barium isotopes form
via the r-process, where errors represent the assigned random and systematic
errors, respectively. We find that 3D LTE fits reproduce iron line profiles
better than those in 1D, but do not provide a unique abundance (within the
uncertainties). However, we demonstrate that the isotopic ratio is robust
against this shortcoming. Our barium isotope result agrees well with currently
accepted theory regarding the formation of the heavy-elements during the early
Galaxy. The improved fit to the asymmetric iron line profiles suggests that the
current state of 3D LTE modelling provides excellent simulations of fluid
flows. However, the abundances they provide are not yet self-consistent. This
may improve with NLTE considerations and higher resolution models.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in A&
From Statehouse to Schoolhouse: Anti-Bullying Policy Efforts in U.S. States and School Districts
In 2011, 29.5 percent of U.S. public school districts didn't have anti-bullying policies, including many districts in states that require them, according to a report published by GLSEN. In states with such mandates, 26.3 percent of districts didn't have local policies. The report shows the gap that can emerge between the intentions of a law and the effectiveness of its implementation via policy and regulations
Extending Quantum Coherence in Diamond
We experimentally demonstrate over two orders of magnitude increase in the
coherence time of nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond by implementing
decoupling techniques. We show that equal pulse spacing decoupling performs
just as well as non-periodic Uhrig decoupling and has the additional benefit
that it allows us to take advantage of "revivals" in the echo (due to the
coherent nature of the bath) to explore the longest coherence times. At short
times, we can extend the coherence of particular quantum states out from
T_2*=2.7 us out to an effective T_2 > 340 us. For preserving arbitrary states
we show the experimental importance of using pulse sequences, that through
judicious choice of the phase of the pulses, compensate the imperfections of
individual pulses for all input states. At longer times we use these
compensated sequences to enhance the echo revivals and show a coherence time of
over 1.6 ms in ultra-pure natural abundance 13C diamond.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; minor syntax/typo. changes and updated reference
Antiphase dynamics in a multimode semiconductor laser with optical injection
A detailed experimental study of antiphase dynamics in a two-mode
semiconductor laser with optical injection is presented. The device is a
specially designed Fabry-Perot laser that supports two primary modes with a THz
frequency spacing. Injection in one of the primary modes of the device leads to
a rich variety of single and two-mode dynamical scenarios, which are reproduced
with remarkable accuracy by a four dimensional rate equation model. Numerical
bifurcation analysis reveals the importance of torus bifurcations in mediating
transitions to antiphase dynamics and of saddle-node of limit cycle
bifurcations in switching of the dynamics between single and two-mode regimes.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
False discovery rate regression: an application to neural synchrony detection in primary visual cortex
Many approaches for multiple testing begin with the assumption that all tests
in a given study should be combined into a global false-discovery-rate
analysis. But this may be inappropriate for many of today's large-scale
screening problems, where auxiliary information about each test is often
available, and where a combined analysis can lead to poorly calibrated error
rates within different subsets of the experiment. To address this issue, we
introduce an approach called false-discovery-rate regression that directly uses
this auxiliary information to inform the outcome of each test. The method can
be motivated by a two-groups model in which covariates are allowed to influence
the local false discovery rate, or equivalently, the posterior probability that
a given observation is a signal. This poses many subtle issues at the interface
between inference and computation, and we investigate several variations of the
overall approach. Simulation evidence suggests that: (1) when covariate effects
are present, FDR regression improves power for a fixed false-discovery rate;
and (2) when covariate effects are absent, the method is robust, in the sense
that it does not lead to inflated error rates. We apply the method to neural
recordings from primary visual cortex. The goal is to detect pairs of neurons
that exhibit fine-time-scale interactions, in the sense that they fire together
more often than expected due to chance. Our method detects roughly 50% more
synchronous pairs versus a standard FDR-controlling analysis. The companion R
package FDRreg implements all methods described in the paper
Phytoplankton Community and Algal Toxicity at a Recurring Bloom in Sullivan Bay, Kabetogama Lake, Minnesota, USA
Kabetogama Lake in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA suffers from recurring late summer algal blooms that often contain toxin-producing cyanobacteria. Previous research identified the toxin microcystin in blooms, but we wanted to better understand how the algal and cyanobacterial community changed throughout an open water season and how changes in community structure were related to toxin production. Therefore, we sampled one recurring bloom location throughout the entire open water season. The uniqueness of this study is the absence of urban and agricultural nutrient sources, the remote location, and the collection of samples before any visible blooms were present. Through quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), we discovered that toxin-forming cyanobacteria were present before visible blooms and toxins not previously detected in this region (anatoxin-a and saxitoxin) were present, indicating that sampling for additional toxins and sampling earlier in the season may be necessary to assess ecosystems and human health risk
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