Opinion dynamics model with domain size dependent dynamics: novel features and new universality class

A model for opinion dynamics (Model I) has been recently introduced in which the binary opinions of the individuals are determined according to the size of their neighboring domains (population having the same opinion). The coarsening dynamics of the equivalent Ising model shows power law behavior and has been found to belong to a new universality class with the dynamic exponent $z=1.0 \pm 0.01$ and persistence exponent $\theta \simeq 0.235$ in one dimension. The critical behavior has been found to be robust for a large variety of annealed disorder that has been studied. Further, by mapping Model I to a system of random walkers in one dimension with a tendency to walk towards their nearest neighbour with probability $\epsilon$, we find that for any $\epsilon > 0.5$, the Model I dynamical behaviour is prevalent at long times.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. To be published in "Journal of Physics : Conference Series" (2011

Hypothalamic miR-30 regulates puberty onset via repression of the puberty-suppressing factor, Mkrn3.

Mkrn3, the maternally imprinted gene encoding the makorin RING-finger protein-3, has recently emerged as putative pubertal repressor, as evidenced by central precocity caused by MKRN3 mutations in humans; yet, the molecular underpinnings of this key regulatory action remain largely unexplored. We report herein that the microRNA, miR-30, with three binding sites in a highly conserved region of its 3' UTR, operates as repressor of Mkrn3 to control pubertal onset. Hypothalamic miR-30b expression increased, while Mkrn3 mRNA and protein content decreased, during rat postnatal maturation. Neonatal estrogen exposure, causing pubertal alterations, enhanced hypothalamic Mkrn3 and suppressed miR-30b expression in female rats. Functional in vitro analyses demonstrated a strong repressive action of miR-30b on Mkrn3 3' UTR. Moreover, central infusion during the juvenile period of target site blockers, tailored to prevent miR-30 binding to Mkrn3 3' UTR, reversed the prepubertal down-regulation of hypothalamic Mkrn3 protein and delayed female puberty. Collectively, our data unveil a novel hypothalamic miRNA pathway, involving miR-30, with a prominent role in the control of puberty via Mkrn3 repression. These findings expand our current understanding of the molecular basis of puberty and its disease states

The QUIJOTE experiment: project status and first scientific results

We present the current status of the QUIJOTE (Q-U-I JOint TEnerife) experiment, a new polarimeter with the aim of characterizing the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, and other galactic or extra-galactic physical processes that emit in microwaves in the frequency range 10–42 GHz, and at large angular scales (around 1 degree resolution). The experiment has been designed to reach the required sensitivity to detect a primordial gravitational wave component in the CMB, provided its tensor-to-scalar ratio is larger than r ∼ 0.05. The project consists of two telescopes and three instruments which will survey a large sky area from the Teide Observatory to provide I, Q and U maps of high sensitivity. The first QUIJOTE instrument, known as Multi-Frequency Instrument (MFI), has been surveying the northern sky in four individual frequencies between 10 and 20 GHz since November 2012, providing data with an average sensitivity of 80 µK beam−1 in Q and U in a region of 20, 000 square-degrees. The second instrument, or Thirty-GHz Instrument (TGI), is currently undergoing the commissioning phase, and the third instrument, or Forty-GHz Instrument (FGI), is in the final fabrication phase. Finally, we describe the first scientific results obtained with the MFI. Some specific regions, mainly along the Galactic plane, have been surveyed to a deeper depth, reaching sensitivities of around 40 µK beam−1. We present new upper limits on the polarization of the anomalous dust emission, resulting from these data, in the Perseus molecular complex and in the W43 molecular complex

Vineyard microclimate and yield under different plastic covers.

The use of plastic cover in vineyards minimizes effects of adverse weather conditions. The northwest of São Paulo State is one of the largest grape producing regions in Brazil; however, few studies investigate the effects of different plastic covers on vineyards in this region. This study compared the effect of black shading screen (BSS) and braided polypropylene film (BPF) on BRS Morena vineyard microclimate, grown on an overhead trellis system in the northwestern São Paulo. The experiments were carried out during three growing seasons (2012 ? 2014). BSS allowed superior incoming solar radiation (SR) transmissivity, resulting in higher net radiation (Rn), and higher ratio between photosynthetically active (PAR) and SR. No differences were observed between the average air temperatures (T) and relative humidity (RH) of covered environments (BPF and BSS) and outside condition (automatic weather station ? AWS), due to high air circulation, despite wind speed (WS) reduction caused by plastic covers. BPF provided better conditions for vineyard growth with higher fruit yield than vineyard under BSS regarding the number of shoots with bunches per plant, bunch and stem weights, longitudinal diameter of berries, quantity of fertile buds per shoot, and yield per shoot and per plant. BPF covers also influenced leaf size and growth speed of plants in vineyards. Keywords Black shading screen . Braided polypropylene film . BRS Morena . Leaf wetness duration . Yiel

Euclid preparation: VIII. The Complete Calibration of the Colour–Redshift Relation survey: VLT/KMOS observations and data release

The Complete Calibration of the Colour–Redshift Relation survey (C3R2) is a spectroscopic effort involving ESO and Keck facilities designed specifically to empirically calibrate the galaxy colour–redshift relation – P(z|C) to the Euclid depth (iAB = 24.5) and is intimately linked to the success of upcoming Stage IV dark energy missions based on weak lensing cosmology. The aim is to build a spectroscopic calibration sample that is as representative as possible of the galaxies of the Euclid weak lensing sample. In order to minimise the number of spectroscopic observations necessary to fill the gaps in current knowledge of the P(z|C), self-organising map (SOM) representations of the galaxy colour space have been constructed. Here we present the first results of an ESO@VLT Large Programme approved in the context of C3R2, which makes use of the two VLT optical and near-infrared multi-object spectrographs, FORS2 and KMOS. This data release paper focuses on high-quality spectroscopic redshifts of high-redshift galaxies observed with the KMOS spectrograph in the near-infrared H- and K-bands. A total of 424 highly-reliable redshifts are measured in the 1.3 ≤ z ≤ 2.5 range, with total success rates of 60.7% in the H-band and 32.8% in the K-band. The newly determined redshifts fill 55% of high (mainly regions with no spectroscopic measurements) and 35% of lower (regions with low-resolution/low-quality spectroscopic measurements) priority empty SOM grid cells. We measured Hα fluxes in a 1. 002 radius aperture from the spectra of the spectroscopically confirmed galaxies and converted them into star formation rates. In addition, we performed an SED fitting analysis on the same sample in order to derive stellar masses, E(B − V), total magnitudes, and SFRs. We combine the results obtained from the spectra with those derived via SED fitting, and we show that the spectroscopic failures come from either weakly star-forming galaxies (at z 2 galaxies

Euclid preparation: XII. Optimizing the photometric sample of the Euclid survey for galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing analyses

Photometric redshifts (photo-zs) are one of the main ingredients in the analysis of cosmological probes. Their accuracy particularly affects the results of the analyses of galaxy clustering with photometrically selected galaxies (GCph) and weak lensing. In the next decade, space missions such as Euclid will collect precise and accurate photometric measurements for millions of galaxies. These data should be complemented with upcoming ground-based observations to derive precise and accurate photo-zs. In this article we explore how the tomographic redshift binning and depth of ground-based observations will affect the cosmological constraints expected from the Euclid mission. We focus on GCph and extend the study to include galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL). We add a layer of complexity to the analysis by simulating several realistic photo-z distributions based on the Euclid Consortium Flagship simulation and using a machine learning photo-z algorithm. We then use the Fisher matrix formalism together with these galaxy samples to study the cosmological constraining power as a function of redshift binning, survey depth, and photo-z accuracy. We find that bins with an equal width in redshift provide a higher figure of merit (FoM) than equipopulated bins and that increasing the number of redshift bins from ten to 13 improves the FoM by 35% and 15% for GCph and its combination with GGL, respectively. For GCph, an increase in the survey depth provides a higher FoM. However, when we include faint galaxies beyond the limit of the spectroscopic training data, the resulting FoM decreases because of the spurious photo-zs. When combining GCph and GGL, the number density of the sample, which is set by the survey depth, is the main factor driving the variations in the FoM. Adding galaxies at faint magnitudes and high redshift increases the FoM, even when they are beyond the spectroscopic limit, since the number density increase compensates for the photo-z degradation in this case. We conclude that there is more information that can be extracted beyond the nominal ten tomographic redshift bins of Euclid and that we should be cautious when adding faint galaxies into our sample since they can degrade the cosmological constraints

Identification of Common Differentially Expressed Genes in Urinary Bladder Cancer

BACKGROUND: Current diagnosis and treatment of urinary bladder cancer (BC) has shown great progress with the utilization of microarrays. PURPOSE: Our goal was to identify common differentially expressed (DE) genes among clinically relevant subclasses of BC using microarrays. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: BC samples and controls, both experimental and publicly available datasets, were analyzed by whole genome microarrays. We grouped the samples according to their histology and defined the DE genes in each sample individually, as well as in each tumor group. A dual analysis strategy was followed. First, experimental samples were analyzed and conclusions were formulated; and second, experimental sets were combined with publicly available microarray datasets and were further analyzed in search of common DE genes. The experimental dataset identified 831 genes that were DE in all tumor samples, simultaneously. Moreover, 33 genes were up-regulated and 85 genes were down-regulated in all 10 BC samples compared to the 5 normal tissues, simultaneously. Hierarchical clustering partitioned tumor groups in accordance to their histology. K-means clustering of all genes and all samples, as well as clustering of tumor groups, presented 49 clusters. K-means clustering of common DE genes in all samples revealed 24 clusters. Genes manifested various differential patterns of expression, based on PCA. YY1 and NFκB were among the most common transcription factors that regulated the expression of the identified DE genes. Chromosome 1 contained 32 DE genes, followed by chromosomes 2 and 11, which contained 25 and 23 DE genes, respectively. Chromosome 21 had the least number of DE genes. GO analysis revealed the prevalence of transport and binding genes in the common down-regulated DE genes; the prevalence of RNA metabolism and processing genes in the up-regulated DE genes; as well as the prevalence of genes responsible for cell communication and signal transduction in the DE genes that were down-regulated in T1-Grade III tumors and up-regulated in T2/T3-Grade III tumors. Combination of samples from all microarray platforms revealed 17 common DE genes, (BMP4, CRYGD, DBH, GJB1, KRT83, MPZ, NHLH1, TACR3, ACTC1, MFAP4, SPARCL1, TAGLN, TPM2, CDC20, LHCGR, TM9SF1 and HCCS) 4 of which participate in numerous pathways. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The identification of the common DE genes among BC samples of different histology can provide further insight into the discovery of new putative markers

The CANDELS/SHARDS multiwavelength catalog in GOODS-N : photometry, photometric redshifts, stellar masses, emission-line fluxes, and star formation rates

We present a WFC3 F160W (H-band) selected catalog in the CANDELS/GOODS-N field containing photometry from the ultraviolet (UV) to the far-infrared (IR), photometric redshifts, and stellar parameters derived from the analysis of the multiwavelength data. The catalog contains 35,445 sources over the 171 arcmin(2) of the CANDELS F160W mosaic. The 5 sigma detection limits (within an aperture of radius 0 ''.17) of the mosaic range between H = 27.8, 28.2, and 28.7 in the wide, intermediate, and deep regions, which span approximately 50%, 15%, and 35% of the total area. The multiwavelength photometry includes broadband data from the UV (U band from KPNO and LBC), optical (HST/ACS F435W, F606W, F775W, F814W, and F850LP), near-to-mid IR (HST/WFC3 F105W, F125W, F140W, and F160W; Subaru/MOIRCS Ks; CFHT/Megacam K; and Spitzer/IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 mu m), and far-IR (Spitzer/MIPS 24 mu m, HERSCHEL/PACS 100 and 160 mu m, SPIRE 250, 350 and 500 mu m) observations. In addition, the catalog also includes optical medium-band data (R similar to 50) in 25 consecutive bands, lambda = 500-950 nm, from the SHARDS survey and WFC3 IR spectroscopic observations with the G102 and G141 grisms (R similar to 210 and 130). The use of higher spectral resolution data to estimate photometric redshifts provides very high, and nearly uniform, precision from z = 0-2.5. The comparison to 1485 good-quality spectroscopic redshifts up to z similar to 3 yields Delta z/(1 + z(spec)) = 0.0032 and an outlier fraction of eta = 4.3%. In addition to the multiband photometry, we release value-added catalogs with emission-line fluxes, stellar masses, dust attenuations, UV- and IR-based star formation rates, and rest-frame colors

Euclid preparation: XVI. Exploring the ultra-low surface brightness Universe with Euclid /VIS

Context. While Euclid is an ESA mission specifically designed to investigate the nature of dark energy and dark matter, the planned unprecedented combination of survey area (∼15â 000 deg2), spatial resolution, low sky-background, and depth also make Euclid an excellent space observatory for the study of the low surface brightness Universe. Scientific exploitation of the extended low surface brightness structures requires dedicated calibration procedures that are yet to be tested. Aims. We investigate the capabilities of Euclid to detect extended low surface brightness structure by identifying and quantifying sky-background sources and stray-light contamination. We test the feasibility of generating sky flat-fields to reduce large-scale residual gradients in order to reveal the extended emission of galaxies observed in the Euclid survey. Methods. We simulated a realistic set of Euclid/VIS observations, taking into account both instrumental and astronomical sources of contamination, including cosmic rays, stray-light, zodiacal light, interstellar medium, and the cosmic infrared background, while simulating the effects of background sources in the field of view. Results. We demonstrate that a combination of calibration lamps, sky flats, and self-calibration would enable recovery of emission at a limiting surface brightness magnitude of μlim = 29.5-0.27+0.08 mag arcsec-2 (3σ, 10â ×â 10 arcsec2) in the Wide Survey, and it would reach regions deeper by 2 mag in the Deep Surveys. Conclusions.Euclid/VIS has the potential to be an excellent low surface brightness observatory. Covering the gap between pixel-To-pixel calibration lamp flats and self-calibration observations for large scales, the application of sky flat-fielding will enhance the sensitivity of the VIS detector at scales larger than 1″, up to the size of the field of view, enabling Euclid to detect extended surface brightness structures below μlimâ =â 31 mag arcsec-2 and beyond