Arrival directions of cosmic rays of E .4 EeV

The anisotropy of cosmic rays observed by the Utah Fly's Eye detector has been studied. Emphasis has been placed on examining distributions of events in galactic coordinates. No statistically significant departure from isotropy has been observed for energies greater than 0.4 EeV (1 EeV = 10 to the 18th power eV). Results of the standard harmonic analysis in right ascension are also presented

Long-term stability of TES satellite radiance measurements

The utilization of Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) Level 2 (L2) retrieval products for the purpose of assessing long term changes in atmospheric trace gas composition requires knowledge of the overall radiometric stability of the Level 1B (L1B) radiances. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the stability of the radiometric calibration of the TES instrument by analyzing the difference between measured and calculated brightness temperatures in selected window regions of the spectrum. The Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) profiles for temperature and water vapor and the Real-Time Global Sea Surface Temperature (RTGSST) are used as input to the Optimal Spectral Sampling (OSS) radiative transfer model to calculate the simulated spectra. The TES reference measurements selected cover a 4-year period of time from mid 2005 through mid 2009 with the selection criteria being; observation latitudes greater than −30° and less than 30°, over ocean, Global Survey mode (nadir view) and retrieved cloud optical depth of less than or equal to 0.01. The TES cloud optical depth retrievals are used only for screening purposes and no effects of clouds on the radiances are included in the forward model. This initial screening results in over 55 000 potential reference spectra spanning the four year period. Presented is a trend analysis of the time series of the residuals (observation minus calculations) in the TES 2B1, 1B2, 2A1, and 1A1 bands, with the standard deviation of the residuals being approximately equal to 0.6 K for bands 2B1, 1B2, 2A1, and 0.9 K for band 1A1. The analysis demonstrates that the trend in the residuals is not significantly different from zero over the 4-year period. This is one method used to demonstrate that the relative radiometric calibration is stable over time, which is very important for any longer term analysis of TES retrieved products (L2), particularly well-mixed species such as carbon dioxide and methane

Search for Anisotropy of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with the Telescope Array Experiment

We study the anisotropy of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) events collected by the Telescope Array (TA) detector in the first 40 months of operation. Following earlier studies, we examine event sets with energy thresholds of 10 EeV, 40 EeV, and 57 EeV. We find that the distributions of the events in right ascension and declination are compatible with an isotropic distribution in all three sets. We then compare with previously reported clustering of the UHECR events at small angular scales. No significant clustering is found in the TA data. We then check the events with E>57 EeV for correlations with nearby active galactic nuclei. No significant correlation is found. Finally, we examine all three sets for correlations with the large-scale structure of the Universe. We find that the two higher-energy sets are compatible with both an isotropic distribution and the hypothesis that UHECR sources follow the matter distribution of the Universe (the LSS hypothesis), while the event set with E>10 EeV is compatible with isotropy and is not compatible with the LSS hypothesis at 95% CL unless large deflection angles are also assumed. We show that accounting for UHECR deflections in a realistic model of the Galactic magnetic field can make this set compatible with the LSS hypothesis.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Review of high-contrast imaging systems for current and future ground- and space-based telescopes I. Coronagraph design methods and optical performance metrics

The Optimal Optical Coronagraph (OOC) Workshop at the Lorentz Center in September 2017 in Leiden, the Netherlands gathered a diverse group of 25 researchers working on exoplanet instrumentation to stimulate the emergence and sharing of new ideas. In this first installment of a series of three papers summarizing the outcomes of the OOC workshop, we present an overview of design methods and optical performance metrics developed for coronagraph instruments. The design and optimization of coronagraphs for future telescopes has progressed rapidly over the past several years in the context of space mission studies for Exo-C, WFIRST, HabEx, and LUVOIR as well as ground-based telescopes. Design tools have been developed at several institutions to optimize a variety of coronagraph mask types. We aim to give a broad overview of the approaches used, examples of their utility, and provide the optimization tools to the community. Though it is clear that the basic function of coronagraphs is to suppress starlight while maintaining light from off-axis sources, our community lacks a general set of standard performance metrics that apply to both detecting and characterizing exoplanets. The attendees of the OOC workshop agreed that it would benefit our community to clearly define quantities for comparing the performance of coronagraph designs and systems. Therefore, we also present a set of metrics that may be applied to theoretical designs, testbeds, and deployed instruments. We show how these quantities may be used to easily relate the basic properties of the optical instrument to the detection significance of the given point source in the presence of realistic noise.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the SPIE, vol. 1069

DNA replication stress restricts ribosomal DNA copy number

Ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) in budding yeast are encoded by ~100–200 repeats of a 9.1kb sequence arranged in tandem on chromosome XII, the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) locus. Copy number of rDNA repeat units in eukaryotic cells is maintained far in excess of the requirement for ribosome biogenesis. Despite the importance of the repeats for both ribosomal and non-ribosomal functions, it is currently not known how “normal” copy number is determined or maintained. To identify essential genes involved in the maintenance of rDNA copy number, we developed a droplet digital PCR based assay to measure rDNA copy number in yeast and used it to screen a yeast conditional temperature-sensitive mutant collection of essential genes. Our screen revealed that low rDNA copy number is associated with compromised DNA replication. Further, subculturing yeast under two separate conditions of DNA replication stress selected for a contraction of the rDNA array independent of the replication fork blocking protein, Fob1. Interestingly, cells with a contracted array grew better than their counterparts with normal copy number under conditions of DNA replication stress. Our data indicate that DNA replication stresses select for a smaller rDNA array. We speculate that this liberates scarce replication factors for use by the rest of the genome, which in turn helps cells complete DNA replication and continue to propagate. Interestingly, tumors from mini chromosome maintenance 2 (MCM2)-deficient mice also show a loss of rDNA repeats. Our data suggest that a reduction in rDNA copy number may indicate a history of DNA replication stress, and that rDNA array size could serve as a diagnostic marker for replication stress. Taken together, these data begin to suggest the selective pressures that combine to yield a “normal” rDNA copy number

Piezoelectricity: Quantized Charge Transport Driven by Adiabatic Deformations

We study the (zero temperature) quantum piezoelectric response of Harper-like models with broken inversion symmetry. The charge transport in these models is related to topological invariants (Chern numbers). We show that there are arbitrarily small periodic modulations of the atomic positions that lead to nonzero charge transport for the electrons.Comment: Latex, letter. Replaced version with minor change in style. 1 fi

Resection of the liver for colorectal carcinoma metastases - A multi-institutional study of long-term survivors

In this review of a collected series of patients undergoing hepatic resection for colorectal metastases, 100 patients were found to have survived greater than five years from the time of resection. Of these 100 long-term survivors, 71 remain disease-free through the last follow-up, 19 recurred prior to five years, and ten recurred after five years. Patient characteristics that may have contributed to survival were examined. Procedures performed included five trisegmentectomies, 32 lobectomies, 16 left lateral segmentectomies, and 45 wedge resections. The margin of resection was recorded in 27 patients, one of whom had a positive margin, nine of whom had a less than or equal to 1-cm margin, and 17 of whom had a greater than 1-cm margin. Eighty-one patients had a solitary metastasis to the liver, 11 patients had two metastases, one patient had three metastases, and four patients had four metastases. Thirty patients had Stage C primary carcinoma, 40 had Stage B primary carcinoma, and one had Stage A primarycarcinoma. The disease-free interval from the time of colon resection to the time of liver resection was less than one year in 65 patients, and greater than one year in 34 patients. Three patients had bilobar metastases. Four of the patients had extrahepatic disease resected simultaneously with the liver resection. Though several contraindications to hepatic resection have been proposed in the past, five-year survival has been found in patients with extrahepatic disease resected simultaneously, patients with bilobar metastases, patients with multiple metastases, and patients with positive margins. Five-year disease-free survivors are also present in each of these subsets. It is concluded that five-year survival is possible in the presence of reported contraindications to resection, and therefore that the decision to resect the liver must be individualized. © 1988 American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons

Small Open Chemical Systems Theory and Its Implications to Darwinian Evolutionary Dynamics, Complex Self-Organization and Beyond

The study of biological cells in terms of mesoscopic, nonequilibrium, nonlinear, stochastic dynamics of open chemical systems provides a paradigm for other complex, self-organizing systems with ultra-fast stochastic fluctuations, short-time deterministic nonlinear dynamics, and long-time evolutionary behavior with exponentially distributed rare events, discrete jumps among punctuated equilibria, and catastrophe.Comment: 15 page