225 research outputs found
Life on ice, Antarctica and Mars
The study of the origin of life and the prospects for human exploration of Mars are two themes developed in a new 57-minute film, Life on Ice, Antarctica, and Mars, produced by the InnerSpace Foundation and WHRO Television for broadcast by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). A brief explanation of the film and how it relates to the future human exploration of space is presented
Diversity and Abundance of Hymenopterous Parasitoids Associated with Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Native and Exotic Host Plants in Misiones, Northeastern Argentina
Some Major host species used by the tephritid fruit flies Anastrepha
fraterculus (Wiede-mann) and Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), including
Acca sellowiana (O. Berg) Burret, Campomanesia xanthocarpa O. Berg,
Psidium guajava L., Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl., Citrus reticulata Blanco var. Murcott, C. aurantium L., C. paradisi
Macfadyen var. Dalan Dan, and C. paradisi var. Sudashi, were sampled for fruit fly
larvae between Feb and Dec 2000 in the northernmost section of the Paranaense forest, in the Province of Misiones, NE Argentina. Both A. fraterculus and C. capitata were obtained from these host plant species, with A. fraterculus accounting for 93% of all tephritid puparia identified. Ten species of larval-pupal parasitoids were recovered from A. fraterculus; Doryctobracon areolatus (Szépligeti), D. brasiliensis (Szépligeti), Utetes anastrephae (Viereck), Opius bellus (Gahan), Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) (Opiinae, raconidae),
Odontosema anastrephae Borgmeier, Lopheucoila anastrephae (Rohwer),
Aganaspis pelleranoi (Brèthes) (Eucoilinae, Figitidae), Asobara anastrephae
(Muessebeck) (Alyssinae, Braconidae), and Aceratoneuromyia indica
(Silvestri) (Tetrastichinae, Eulophidae). All these parasitoids, with the exception of D. longicaudata and A. indica, are native to the Neotropical region. No parasitoids were recovered from C. capitata puparia. Asobara anastrephae
and O. anastrephae are newly recorded in Argentina, whereas D. brasiliensis,
U. anastrephae, and L. anastrephae are newly reported in Misiones. The eucoiline
A. pelleranoi wasthe most abundant parasitoid species. Acca sellowiana and P.
guajava harbored the highest parasitoid abundance and diversity.Fil: Schliserman, Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca; ArgentinaFil: Ovruski Alderete, Sergio Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Decoll, Olga. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Misiones; ArgentinaFil: Wharton, Robert. Texas A&M University; Estados Unido
Galactic Center Pulsars with the ngVLA
Pulsars in the Galactic Center (GC) are important probes of General
Relativity, star formation, stellar dynamics, stellar evolution, and the
interstellar medium. Despite years of searching, only a handful of pulsars in
the central 0.5 deg are known. The high-frequency sensitivity of ngVLA will
open a new window for discovery and characterization of pulsars in the GC. A
pulsar in orbit around the GC black hole, Sgr A*, will provide an unprecedented
probe of black hole physics and General Relativity.Comment: To be published in the ASP Monograph Series, "Science with a
Next-Generation VLA", ed. E. J. Murphy (ASP, San Francisco, CA
BlackHoleCam -- Testing general relativity with pulsars orbiting Sagittarius A*
BlackHoleCam is a project funded by a European Research Council Synergy Grant
to build a complete astrophysical description of nearby supermassive black
holes by using a combination of radio imaging, pulsar observations, stellar
astrometry and general relativistic magneto-hydrodynamic models. BlackHoleCam
scientists are active partners of the Event Horizon Telescope Consortium. In
this talk I will discuss the use of pulsars orbiting Sagittarius A* for tests
of General Relativity, the current difficulties in detecting such sources,
recent results from the Galactic Centre magnetar PSR J1745-2900 and how
BlackHoleCam aims to search for undiscovered pulsars in the Galactic Centre.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of The Fifteenth Marcel Grossmann
Meeting on General Relativity, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy, 1 - 7
July 201
The Host Galaxy and Redshift of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102
The precise localization of the repeating fast radio burst (FRB 121102) has
provided the first unambiguous association (chance coincidence probability
) of an FRB with an optical and persistent radio
counterpart. We report on optical imaging and spectroscopy of the counterpart
and find that it is an extended ()
object displaying prominent Balmer and [OIII] emission lines. Based on the
spectrum and emission line ratios, we classify the counterpart as a
low-metallicity, star-forming, AB mag dwarf galaxy at a
redshift of , corresponding to a luminosity distance of 972 Mpc.
From the angular size, the redshift, and luminosity, we estimate the host
galaxy to have a diameter kpc and a stellar mass of
, assuming a mass-to-light ratio between 2 to
3. Based on the H flux, we estimate the star
formation rate of the host to be and a
substantial host dispersion measure depth .
The net dispersion measure contribution of the host galaxy to FRB 121102 is
likely to be lower than this value depending on geometrical factors. We show
that the persistent radio source at FRB 121102's location reported by Marcote
et al (2017) is offset from the galaxy's center of light by 200 mas and
the host galaxy does not show optical signatures for AGN activity. If FRB
121102 is typical of the wider FRB population and if future interferometric
localizations preferentially find them in dwarf galaxies with low metallicities
and prominent emission lines, they would share such a preference with long
gamma ray bursts and superluminous supernovae.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, Published in ApJ Letters. V2: Corrected mistake
in author lis
Your: Your Unified Reader
The advancement in signal processing and GPU based systems has enabled new
transient detectors at various telescopes to perform much more sensitive
searches than their predecessors. Typically the data output from the telescopes
is in one of the two commonly used formats: psrfits and Sigproc filterbank.
Software developed for transient searches often only works with one of these
two formats, limiting their general applicability. Therefore, researchers have
to write custom scripts to read/write the data in their format of choice before
they can begin any data analysis relevant for their research. \textsc{Your}
(Your Unified Reader) is a python-based library that unifies the data
processing across multiple commonly used formats. \textsc{Your} implements a
user-friendly interface to read and write in the data format of choice. It also
generates unified metadata corresponding to the input data file for a quick
understanding of observation parameters and provides utilities to perform
common data analysis operations. \textsc{Your} also provides several
state-of-the-art radio frequency interference mitigation (RFI) algorithms,
which can now be used during any stage of data processing (reading, writing,
etc.) to filter out artificial signals.Comment: 3 pages, Published in JOSS, Github:
https://github.com/thepetabyteproject/you
Molecular Structure and Dimeric Organization of the Notch Extracellular Domain as Revealed by Electron Microscopy
Background: The Notch receptor links cell fate decisions of one cell to that of the immediate cellular neighbor. In humans, malfunction of Notch signaling results in diseases and congenital disorders. Structural information is essential for gaining insight into the mechanism of the receptor as well as for potentially interfering with its function for therapeutic purposes. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used the Affinity Grid approach to prepare specimens of the Notch extracellular domain (NECD) of the Drosophila Notch and human Notch1 receptors suitable for analysis by electron microscopy and three-dimensional (3D) image reconstruction. The resulting 3D density maps reveal that the NECD structure is conserved across species. We show that the NECD forms a dimer and adopts different yet defined conformations, and we identify the membrane-proximal region of the receptor and its ligand-binding site. Conclusions/Significance: Our results provide direct and unambiguous evidence that the NECD forms a dimer. Our studies further show that the NECD adopts at least three distinct conformations that are likely related to different functional states of the receptor. These findings open the way to now correlate mutations in the NECD with its oligomeric state and conformation
Naked1 Antagonizes Wnt Signaling by Preventing Nuclear Accumulation of β-Catenin
Cyto-nuclear shuttling of β-catenin is at the epicenter of the canonical Wnt pathway and mutations in genes that result in excessive nuclear accumulation of β-catenin are the driving force behind the initiation of many cancers. Recently, Naked Cuticle homolog 1 (Nkd1) has been identified as a Wnt-induced intracellular negative regulator of canonical Wnt signaling. The current model suggests that Nkd1 acts between Disheveled (Dvl) and β-catenin. Here, we employ the zebrafish embryo to characterize the cellular and biochemical role of Nkd1 in vivo. We demonstrate that Nkd1 binds to β-catenin and prevents its nuclear accumulation. We also show that this interaction is conserved in mammalian cultured cells. Further, we demonstrate that Nkd1 function is dependent on its interaction with the cell membrane. Given the conserved nature of Nkd1, our results shed light on the negative feedback regulation of Wnt signaling through the Nkd1-mediated negative control of nuclear accumulation of β-catenin
Finding Our Way through Phenotypes
Despite a large and multifaceted effort to understand the vast landscape of phenotypic data, their current form inhibits productive data analysis. The lack of a community-wide, consensus-based, human- and machine-interpretable language for describing phenotypes and their genomic and environmental contexts is perhaps the most pressing scientific bottleneck to integration across many key fields in biology, including genomics, systems biology, development, medicine, evolution, ecology, and systematics. Here we survey the current phenomics landscape, including data resources and handling, and the progress that has been made to accurately capture relevant data descriptions for phenotypes. We present an example of the kind of integration across domains that computable phenotypes would enable, and we call upon the broader biology community, publishers, and relevant funding agencies to support efforts to surmount today's data barriers and facilitate analytical reproducibility
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