9,861 research outputs found
The genomic footprint of social stratification in admixing American populations.
Cultural and socioeconomic differences stratify human societies and shape their genetic structure beyond the sole effect of geography. Despite mating being limited by sociocultural stratification, most demographic models in population genetics often assume random mating. Taking advantage of the correlation between sociocultural stratification and the proportion of genetic ancestry in admixed populations, we sought to infer the former process in the Americas. To this aim, we define a mating model where the individual proportions of the genome inherited from Native American, European, and sub-Saharan African ancestral populations constrain the mating probabilities through ancestry-related assortative mating and sex bias parameters. We simulate a wide range of admixture scenarios under this model. Then, we train a deep neural network and retrieve good performance in predicting mating parameters from genomic data. Our results show how population stratification, shaped by socially constructed racial and gender hierarchies, has constrained the admixture processes in the Americas since the European colonization and the subsequent Atlantic slave trade
Density-Matrix functional theory of strongly-correlated lattice fermions
A density functional theory (DFT) of lattice fermion models is presented,
which uses the single-particle density matrix gamma_{ij} as basic variable. A
simple, explicit approximation to the interaction-energy functional W[gamma] of
the Hubbard model is derived from exact dimer results, scaling properties of
W[gamma] and known limits. Systematic tests on the one-dimensional chain show a
remarkable agreement with theBethe-Ansatz exact solution for all interaction
regimes and band fillings. New results are obtained for the ground-state
energyand charge-excitation gap in two dimensions. A successful description of
strong electron correlations within DFT is achieved.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures Submitted to PR
The Simple Non-degenerate Relativistic Gas: Statistical Properties and Brownian Motion
This paper shows a novel calculation of the mean square displacement of a
classical Brownian particle in a relativistic thermal bath. The result is
compared with the expressions obtained by other authors. Also, the
thermodynamic properties of a non-degenerate simple relativistic gas are
reviewed in terms of a treatment performed in velocity space.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
A new absolute arrival time data set for Europe
The main aim of this study is to create a data set of accurate absolute arrival times for stations in Europe which do not report to the International Seismological Centre (ISC). Waveforms were obtained from data centres and temporary experiments and a semi-automatic picking method was applied to determine absolute arrival times for P and S phases. 85 000 arrival times were picked whose distribution of residuals shows generally low standard deviations on the order of 0.5-0.7 s. Furthermore, mean teleseismic station residuals reflect the properties of the underlying crust and uppermost mantle. Comparison to ISC data for matching event-station-phase combinations also confirms the good quality of the new absolute arrival time picks. Most importantly, this data set complements the ISC data as it fills regional data coverage gaps in Europ
Interaction energy functional for lattice density functional theory: Applications to one-, two- and three-dimensional Hubbard models
The Hubbard model is investigated in the framework of lattice density
functional theory (LDFT). The single-particle density matrix with
respect the lattice sites is considered as the basic variable of the many-body
problem. A new approximation to the interaction-energy functional
is proposed which is based on its scaling properties and which recovers exactly
the limit of strong electron correlations at half-band filling. In this way, a
more accurate description of is obtained throughout the domain of
representability of , including the crossover from weak to strong
correlations. As examples of applications results are given for the
ground-state energy, charge-excitation gap, and charge susceptibility of the
Hubbard model in one-, two-, and three-dimensional lattices. The performance of
the method is demonstrated by comparison with available exact solutions, with
numerical calculations, and with LDFT using a simpler dimer ansatz for .
Goals and limitations of the different approximations are discussed.Comment: 25 pages and 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Extreme Quiescent Variability of the Transient Neutron Star Low-mass X-ray Binary EXO 1745-248 in Terzan 5
EXO 1745-248 is a transient neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary that resides
in the globular cluster Terzan 5. We studied the transient during its quiescent
state using 18 Chandra observations of the cluster acquired between 2003 and
2016. We found an extremely variable source, with a luminosity variation in the
0.5-10 keV energy range of orders of magnitude (between
erg s and erg s) on timescales
from years down to only a few days. Using an absorbed power-law model to fit
its quiescent spectra, we obtained a typical photon index of ,
indicating that the source is even harder than during outburst and much harder
than typical quiescent neutron stars if their quiescent X-ray spectra are also
described by a single power-law model. This indicates that EXO 1745-248 is very
hard throughout the entire observed X-ray luminosity range. At the highest
luminosity, the spectrum fits better when an additional (soft) component is
added to the model. All these quiescent properties are likely related to strong
variability in the low-level accretion rate in the system. However, its extreme
variable behavior is strikingly different from the one observed for other
neutron star transients that are thought to still accrete in quiescence. We
compare our results to these systems. We also discuss similarities and
differences between our target and the transitional millisecond pulsar IGR
J18245-2452, which also has hard spectra and strong variability during
quiescence.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
A convolution integral representation of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
Analytical expressions for the non-relativistic and relativistic
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) are derived by means of suitable convolution
integrals. The establishment of these expressions is based on the fact that the
SZE disturbed spectrum, at high frequencies, possesses the form of a Laplace
transform of the single line distortion profile (structure factor).
Implications of this description of the SZE related to light scattering in
optically thin plasmas are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in J. Phys.
Nitric oxide induces apoptosis in a human colonic epithelial cell line, T84
Chronic inflammation is associated with inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in infiltrating and resident cells (epithelia, neurons) and an exaggerated release of nitric oxide. NO can induce apoptosis in macrophages and tumour cell lines. We investigated whether NO induced cell death in an epithelial (T84) cell fine via apoptosis. Culture T84 cells were exposed to a bolus of NO (40 or 80 μM) dissolved in Hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS). After incubation for 4 h at 37°C in 5% CO2, cells were either stained for DNA fragmentation with the TdT-mediated dUTP–biotin nick end labelling (TUNEL) method, or cytosolic DNA fragments quantified by a cell death detection ELISA assay. Nitric oxide induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner which preceded frank cell death (failure to exclude Trypan blue). These data suggest that epithelial cell death may be NO dependent and via apoptosis, in states of gut inflammation
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