Techniques for targeted Fermi-GBM follow-up of gravitational-wave events

The Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are projected to come online 2015-2016, reaching a final sensitivity sufficient to observe dozens of binary neutron star mergers per year by 2018. We present a fully-automated, targeted search strategy for prompt gamma-ray counterparts in offline Fermi-GBM data. The multi-detector method makes use of a detailed model response of the instrument, and benefits from time and sky location information derived from the gravitational-wave signal.Comment: 2012 Fermi Symposium proceedings - eConf C12102

Planned search for LIGO-GBM coincidence in the first advanced LIGO data run

In the fall of 2015 the first scientific observing run (O1) of the advanced LIGO detectors will be conducted. Based on the recent commissioning progress at the LIGO Hanford and Livingston sites, the gravitational wave detector range for a neutron star binary inspiral is expected to be of order 60 Mpc. We describe here our planning for an O1 search for coincidence between a LIGO gravitational wave detection and a gamma-ray signal from the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor. Such a coincidence would constitute measurement of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave signal, with significant corresponding scientific benefits, including revealing the central engine powering the gamma-ray burst, enhanced confidence in the event as a genuine astrophysical detection, and a determination of the relative speed of the photon and graviton.Comment: Submitted to Moriond Gravitation Conference Proceedings 201

Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project

The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the sensitivity of existing gravitational-wave search algorithms using numerically generated waveforms and to foster closer collaboration between the numerical relativity and data analysis communities. We describe the results of the first NINJA analysis which focused on gravitational waveforms from binary black hole coalescence. Ten numerical relativity groups contributed numerical data which were used to generate a set of gravitational-wave signals. These signals were injected into a simulated data set, designed to mimic the response of the Initial LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Nine groups analysed this data using search and parameter-estimation pipelines. Matched filter algorithms, un-modelled-burst searches and Bayesian parameter-estimation and model-selection algorithms were applied to the data. We report the efficiency of these search methods in detecting the numerical waveforms and measuring their parameters. We describe preliminary comparisons between the different search methods and suggest improvements for future NINJA analyses.Comment: 56 pages, 25 figures; various clarifications; accepted to CQ

Crop Updates 2009 - Cereals

This session covers twenty seven papers from different authors: PLENARY 1. Building soil carbon for productivity and implications for carbon accounting, Jeff Baldock, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, SA 2. Fact or Fiction: Who is telling the truth and how to tell the difference, Doug Edmeades, agKnowledge Ltd, Hamilton 3. Four decades of crop sequence trials in Western Australia, Mark Seymour,Department of Agriculture and Food BREAK CROPS 4. 2008 Break Crops survey Report, Paul Carmody,Development Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food 5. Attitudes of Western Australian wheatbelt growers to ‘Break Crops’, Paul Carmody and Ian Pritchard, Development Officers, Department of Agriculture and Food 6. The value of organic nitrogen from lupins, Alan Meldrum, Pulse Australia 7.The area of break crops on farm: What farmers are doing compared to estimates based on maximising profit, Michael Robertson and Roger Lawes,CSIRO Floreat, Rob Sands,FARMANCO Farm Consultants, Peter White,Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, Felicity Byrne and Andrew Bathgate,Farming Systems Analysis CROP SPECIFIC Breeding 8. Identification of WALAB2014 as a potential albus lupin variety for northern agricultural region of Western Australia, Kedar Adhikari, Department of Agriculture and Food 9. Enhancement of black spot resistance in field pea, Kedar Adhikari, Tanveer Khan, Stuart Morgan and Alan Harris, Department of Agriculture and Food 10. Desi chickpea breeding: Evaluation of advanced line, Khan, TN1, Harris, A1, Gaur, P2, Siddique, KHM3, Clarke, H4, Turner, NC4, MacLeod, W1, Morgan, S1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), 3The University of Western Australia, 4Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture 11. Pulse Breeding Australia-Australian Field Pea Improvement Program (AFPIP), Ian Pritchard1, Chris Veitch1, Stuart Morgan1, Alan Harris1 and Tony Leonforte 2 1 Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2 Department off Primary Industries, Victoria Disease 12. Interaction between wheat varieties and fungicides to control stripe rust for grain and quality, Kith Jayasena, Geoff Thomas, Rob Loughman, Kazue Tanaka and Bill MacLeod, Department of Agriculture and Food 13. Findings of canola disease survey 2008 and its implications for better disease management in 2009, Ravjit Khangura, WJ MacLeod, P White, P Carmody and M Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 14. Combating wheat leaf diseases using genome sequencing and functional genomics, Richard Oliver, Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University 15. Distribution and survival of wheat curl mite (Aceria tosichella), vector of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus, in the WA grainbelt during 2008, Dusty Severtson, Peter Mangano, John Botha and Brenda Coutts, Department of Agriculture and Food 16. Partial resistance to Stagonspora (Septoria) Partial resistance to Stagonospora (Septoria) nodorum blotch and response to fungicide in a severe epidemic scenario, Manisha Shankar1, Richard Oliver2, Kasia Rybak2and Rob Loughman1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University, Western Australia 17. Black pod syndrome in lupins can be reduced by regular insecticide sprays, Peter White and Michael Baker,Department of Agriculture and Food Variety performance 18. Incorporating new herbicide tolerant juncea canola into low rainfall cropping systems in Western Australia, Mohammad Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 19. Varietal differences in germ end staining of barley, Andrea Hills,Department of Agriculture and Food 20. Wheat variety performance in the Central Agricultural Region in 2008, Shahajahan Miyan, Department of Agriculture and Food 21. Barley variety identification using DNA fingerprinting, Peter Portmann, Agriconnect, Perth WA Dr Nicole Rice, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW Prof Robert Henry, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 22. Forecast disease resistance profile for the Western Australian barley crop over the next three years, Jeff J. Russell, Department of Agriculture and Food 23. Malting barley varieties differ in their flowering date and their response to changes in sowing date, BH Paynter and Jeff J. Russell,Department of Agriculture and Food 24. Market development for new barley varieties, Linda Price,Barley Australia 25. Response of wheat varieties to sowing time at Mt Barker, Katanning and Newdegate in 2008, Brenda Shackley and Vicki Scanlan,Department of Agriculture and Food 26. Flowering dates of wheat varieties in 2008 at three locations in Western Australia, Darshan Sharma, Brenda Shackley and Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Food 27. Agronomic responses of new wheat varieties in the norther agricultural region in 2008, Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Foo

Search for gravitational wave bursts in LIGO's third science run

We report on a search for gravitational wave bursts in data from the three LIGO interferometric detectors during their third science run. The search targets subsecond bursts in the frequency range 100-1100 Hz for which no waveform model is assumed, and has a sensitivity in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude of hrss ~ 10^{-20} / sqrt(Hz). No gravitational wave signals were detected in the 8 days of analyzed data.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Amaldi-6 conference proceedings to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with advanced LIGO and advanced virgo

We present a possible observing scenario for the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We determine the expected sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron-star systems, which are considered the most promising for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90% credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5 deg^2 to 20 deg^2 will require at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of ~2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. Should the third LIGO detector be relocated to India as expected, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone

Polymorphisms near TBX5 and GDF7 are associated with increased risk for Barrett's esophagus.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Barrett's esophagus (BE) increases the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). We found the risk to be BE has been associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 6p21 (within the HLA region) and on 16q23, where the closest protein-coding gene is FOXF1. Subsequently, the Barrett's and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Consortium (BEACON) identified risk loci for BE and esophageal adenocarcinoma near CRTC1 and BARX1, and within 100 kb of FOXP1. We aimed to identify further SNPs that increased BE risk and to validate previously reported associations. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify variants associated with BE and further analyzed promising variants identified by BEACON by genotyping 10,158 patients with BE and 21,062 controls. RESULTS: We identified 2 SNPs not previously associated with BE: rs3072 (2p24.1; odds ratio [OR] = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.09-1.18; P = 1.8 × 10(-11)) and rs2701108 (12q24.21; OR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.86-0.93; P = 7.5 × 10(-9)). The closest protein-coding genes were respectively GDF7 (rs3072), which encodes a ligand in the bone morphogenetic protein pathway, and TBX5 (rs2701108), which encodes a transcription factor that regulates esophageal and cardiac development. Our data also supported in BE cases 3 risk SNPs identified by BEACON (rs2687201, rs11789015, and rs10423674). Meta-analysis of all data identified another SNP associated with BE and esophageal adenocarcinoma: rs3784262, within ALDH1A2 (OR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.87-0.93; P = 3.72 × 10(-9)). CONCLUSIONS: We identified 2 loci associated with risk of BE and provided data to support a further locus. The genes we found to be associated with risk for BE encode transcription factors involved in thoracic, diaphragmatic, and esophageal development or proteins involved in the inflammatory response

Case Reports1. A Late Presentation of Loeys-Dietz Syndrome: Beware of TGFβ Receptor Mutations in Benign Joint Hypermobility

Background: Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) and dissections are not uncommon causes of sudden death in young adults. Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) is a rare, recently described, autosomal dominant, connective tissue disease characterized by aggressive arterial aneurysms, resulting from mutations in the transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) receptor genes TGFBR1 and TGFBR2. Mean age at death is 26.1 years, most often due to aortic dissection. We report an unusually late presentation of LDS, diagnosed following elective surgery in a female with a long history of joint hypermobility. Methods: A 51-year-old Caucasian lady complained of chest pain and headache following a dural leak from spinal anaesthesia for an elective ankle arthroscopy. CT scan and echocardiography demonstrated a dilated aortic root and significant aortic regurgitation. MRA demonstrated aortic tortuosity, an infrarenal aortic aneurysm and aneurysms in the left renal and right internal mammary arteries. She underwent aortic root repair and aortic valve replacement. She had a background of long-standing joint pains secondary to hypermobility, easy bruising, unusual fracture susceptibility and mild bronchiectasis. She had one healthy child age 32, after which she suffered a uterine prolapse. Examination revealed mild Marfanoid features. Uvula, skin and ophthalmological examination was normal. Results: Fibrillin-1 testing for Marfan syndrome (MFS) was negative. Detection of a c.1270G > C (p.Gly424Arg) TGFBR2 mutation confirmed the diagnosis of LDS. Losartan was started for vascular protection. Conclusions: LDS is a severe inherited vasculopathy that usually presents in childhood. It is characterized by aortic root dilatation and ascending aneurysms. There is a higher risk of aortic dissection compared with MFS. Clinical features overlap with MFS and Ehlers Danlos syndrome Type IV, but differentiating dysmorphogenic features include ocular hypertelorism, bifid uvula and cleft palate. Echocardiography and MRA or CT scanning from head to pelvis is recommended to establish the extent of vascular involvement. Management involves early surgical intervention, including early valve-sparing aortic root replacement, genetic counselling and close monitoring in pregnancy. Despite being caused by loss of function mutations in either TGFβ receptor, paradoxical activation of TGFβ signalling is seen, suggesting that TGFβ antagonism may confer disease modifying effects similar to those observed in MFS. TGFβ antagonism can be achieved with angiotensin antagonists, such as Losartan, which is able to delay aortic aneurysm development in preclinical models and in patients with MFS. Our case emphasizes the importance of timely recognition of vasculopathy syndromes in patients with hypermobility and the need for early surgical intervention. It also highlights their heterogeneity and the potential for late presentation. Disclosures: The authors have declared no conflicts of interes

Identification and mitigation of narrow spectral artifacts that degrade searches for persistent gravitational waves in the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO

Searches are under way in Advanced LIGO and Virgo data for persistent gravitational waves from continuous sources, e.g. rapidly rotating galactic neutron stars, and stochastic sources, e.g. relic gravitational waves from the Big Bang or superposition of distant astrophysical events such as mergers of black holes or neutron stars. These searches can be degraded by the presence of narrow spectral artifacts (lines) due to instrumental or environmental disturbances. We describe a variety of methods used for finding, identifying and mitigating these artifacts, illustrated with particular examples. Results are provided in the form of lists of line artifacts that can safely be treated as non-astrophysical. Such lists are used to improve the efficiencies and sensitivities of continuous and stochastic gravitational wave searches by allowing vetoes of false outliers and permitting data cleaning