169 research outputs found
Absence of residual quasiparticle conductivity in the underdoped cuprate YBa2Cu4O8
We report here measurements of the in-plane thermal conductivity K(T) of the
underdoped cuprate YBa2Cu4O8 (Y124) below 1K. K(T) is shown to follow a simple,
phononic T^3 dependence at the lowest temperatures for both current directions,
with a negligible linear, quasiparticle contribution. This observation is in
marked contrast with behavior reported in optimally doped cuprates, and implies
that extended zero-energy (or low energy) low-energy quasiparticles are absent
in YBa2Cu4O8 at low temperatures.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 2 figures, Revised versio
First Season QUIET Observations: Measurements of CMB Polarization Power Spectra at 43 GHz in the Multipole Range 25 <= ell <= 475
The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) employs coherent receivers at 43GHz and
95GHz, operating on the Chajnantor plateau in the Atacama Desert in Chile, to
measure the anisotropy in the polarization of the CMB. QUIET primarily targets
the B modes from primordial gravitational waves. The combination of these
frequencies gives sensitivity to foreground contributions from diffuse Galactic
synchrotron radiation. Between 2008 October and 2010 December, >10,000hours of
data were collected, first with the 19-element 43GHz array (3458hours) and then
with the 90-element 95GHz array. Each array observes the same four fields,
selected for low foregrounds, together covering ~1000deg^2. This paper reports
initial results from the 43GHz receiver which has an array sensitivity to CMB
fluctuations of 69uK sqrt(s). The data were extensively studied with a large
suite of null tests before the power spectra, determined with two independent
pipelines, were examined. Analysis choices, including data selection, were
modified until the null tests passed. Cross correlating maps with different
telescope pointings is used to eliminate a bias. This paper reports the EE, BB
and EB power spectra in the multipole range ell=25-475. With the exception of
the lowest multipole bin for one of the fields, where a polarized foreground,
consistent with Galactic synchrotron radiation, is detected with 3sigma
significance, the E-mode spectrum is consistent with the LCDM model, confirming
the only previous detection of the first acoustic peak. The B-mode spectrum is
consistent with zero, leading to a measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio of
r=0.35+1.06-0.87. The combination of a new time-stream double-demodulation
technique, Mizuguchi-Dragone optics, natural sky rotation, and frequent
boresight rotation leads to the lowest level of systematic contamination in the
B-mode power so far reported, below the level of r=0.1Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, higher quality figures are available at
http://quiet.uchicago.edu/results/index.html; Fixed a typo and corrected
statistical error values used as a reference in Figure 14, showing our
systematic uncertainties (unchanged) vs. multipole; Revision to ApJ accepted
version, this paper should be cited as "QUIET Collaboration et al. (2011)
Measurements of the Electric Form Factor of the Neutron up to Q2=3.4 GeV2 using the Reaction He3(e,e'n)pp
The electric form factor of the neutron was determined from studies of the
reaction He3(e,e'n)pp in quasi-elastic kinematics in Hall A at Jefferson Lab.
Longitudinally polarized electrons were scattered off a polarized target in
which the nuclear polarization was oriented perpendicular to the momentum
transfer. The scattered electrons were detected in a magnetic spectrometer in
coincidence with neutrons that were registered in a large-solid-angle detector.
More than doubling the Q2-range over which it is known, we find GEn = 0.0225
+/- 0.0017 (stat) +/- 0.0024 (syst), 0.0200 +/- 0.0023 +/- 0.0018, and 0.0142
+/- 0.0019 +/- 0.0013 for Q2 = 1.72, 2.48, and 3.41 GeV2, respectively.Comment: submitted to PR
Population growth of Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana) predates human agricultural activity
Background
Human activities, such as agriculture, hunting, and habitat modification, exert a significant effect on native species. Although many species have suffered population declines, increased population fragmentation, or even extinction in connection with these human impacts, others seem to have benefitted from human modification of their habitat. Here we examine whether population growth in an insectivorous bat (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana) can be attributed to the widespread expansion of agriculture in North America following European settlement. Colonies of T. b. mexicana are extremely large (~106 individuals) and, in the modern era, major agricultural insect pests form an important component of their food resource. It is thus hypothesized that the growth of these insectivorous bat populations was coupled to the expansion of agricultural land use in North America over the last few centuries. Results
We sequenced one haploid and one autosomal locus to determine the rate and time of onset of population growth in T. b. mexicana. Using an approximate Maximum Likelihood method, we have determined that T. b. mexicana populations began to grow ~220 kya from a relatively small ancestral effective population size before reaching the large effective population size observed today. Conclusions
Our analyses reject the hypothesis that T. b. mexicana populations grew in connection with the expansion of human agriculture in North America, and instead suggest that this growth commenced long before the arrival of humans. As T. brasiliensis is a subtropical species, we hypothesize that the observed signals of population growth may instead reflect range expansions of ancestral bat populations from southern glacial refugia during the tail end of the Pleistocene
Trees on networks: resolving statistical patterns of phylogenetic similarities among interacting proteins
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Phylogenies capture the evolutionary ancestry linking extant species. Correlations and similarities among a set of species are mediated by and need to be understood in terms of the phylogenic tree. In a similar way it has been argued that biological networks also induce correlations among sets of interacting genes or their protein products.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We develop suitable statistical resampling schemes that can incorporate these two potential sources of correlation into a single inferential framework. To illustrate our approach we apply it to protein interaction data in yeast and investigate whether the phylogenetic trees of interacting proteins in a panel of yeast species are more similar than would be expected by chance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>While we find only negligible evidence for such increased levels of similarities, our statistical approach allows us to resolve the previously reported contradictory results on the levels of co-evolution induced by protein-protein interactions. We conclude with a discussion as to how we may employ the statistical framework developed here in further functional and evolutionary analyses of biological networks and systems.</p
Limited genetic variation and structure in softshell clams (Mya arenaria) across their native and introduced range
Author Posting. © Springer, 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Conservation Genetics 10 (2009): 803-814, doi:10.1007/s10592-008-9641-y.To offset declines in commercial landings of the softshell clam, Mya arenaria, resource
managers are engaged in extensive stocking of seed clams throughout its range in the
northwest Atlantic. Because a mixture of native and introduced stocks can disrupt locally
adapted genotypes, we investigated genetic structure in M. arenaria populations across
its current distribution to test for patterns of regional differentiation. We sequenced
mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) for a total of 212 individuals from 12 sites in
the northwest Atlantic (NW Atlantic), as well as two introduced sites, the northeast
Pacific (NE Pacific) and the North Sea and Europe (NS Europe). Populations exhibited
extremely low genetic variation, with one haplotype dominating (65-100%) at all sites
sampled. Despite being introduced in the last 150-400 years, both NE Pacific and NS
Europe populations had higher diversity measures than those in the NW Atlantic and both
contained private haplotypes at frequencies of 10% to 27% consistent with their
geographic isolation. While significant genetic structure (FST = 0.159, p<0.001) was
observed between NW Atlantic and NS Europe, there was no evidence for genetic
structure across the pronounced environmental clines of the NW Atlantic. Reduced
genetic diversity in mtDNA combined with previous studies reporting reduced genetic
diversity in nuclear markers strongly suggests a recent population expansion in the NW
Atlantic, a pattern that may result from the retreat of ice sheets during Pleistocene glacial
periods. Lack of genetic diversity and regional genetic differentiation suggests that
present management strategies for the commercially important softshell clam are unlikely
to have a significant impact on the regional distribution of genetic variation, although the
possibility of disrupting locally adapted stocks cannot be excluded.This work was supported by NSF grants OCE-0326734 and OCE-0215905 to L.
Mullineaux and OCE- 0349177 (Biological Oceanography) to PHB
Measurements of tropospheric ice clouds with a ground-based CMB polarization experiment, POLARBEAR
The polarization of the atmosphere has been a long-standing concern for ground-based experiments targeting cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. Ice crystals in upper tropospheric clouds scatter thermal radiation from the ground and produce a horizontally polarized signal. We report a detailed analysis of the cloud signal using a ground-based CMB experiment, Polarbear, located at the Atacama desert in Chile and observing at 150 GHz. We observe horizontally polarized temporal increases of low-frequency fluctuations ("polarized bursts," hereafter) of 720.1 K when clouds appear in a webcam monitoring the telescope and the sky. The hypothesis of no correlation between polarized bursts and clouds is rejected with >24\u3c3 statistical significance using three years of data. We consider many other possibilities including instrumental and environmental effects, and find no reasons other than clouds that can explain the data better. We also discuss the impact of the cloud polarization on future ground-based CMB polarization experiments
A conserved aromatic residue in the autochaperone domain of the autotransporter Hbp is critical for initiation of outer membrane translocation
Autotransporters are bacterial virulence factors that share a common mechanism by which they are transported to the cell surface. They consist of an N-terminal passenger domain and a C-terminal β-barrel, which has been implicated in translocation of the passenger across the outer membrane (OM). The mechanism of passenger translocation and folding is still unclear but involves a conserved region at the C terminus of the passenger domain, the so-called autochaperone domain. This domain functions in the stepwise translocation process and in the folding of the passenger domain after translocation. In the autotransporter hemoglobin protease (Hbp), the autochaperone domain consists of the last rung of the β-helix and a capping domain. To examine the role of this region, we have mutated several conserved aromatic residues that are oriented toward the core of the β-helix. We found that non-conservative mutations affected secretion with Trp1015 in the cap region as the most critical residue. Substitution at this position yielded a DegP-sensitive intermediate that is located at the periplasmic side of the OM. Further analysis revealed that Trp1015 is most likely required for initiation of processive folding of the β-helix at the cell surface, which drives sequential translocation of the Hbp passenger across the OM
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