The conformal loop ensemble nesting field

The conformal loop ensemble CLE[subscript κ]with parameter 8/3<κ<8 is the canonical conformally invariant measure on countably infinite collections of non-crossing loops in a simply connected domain. We show that the number of loops surrounding an ε-ball (a random function of z and ε) minus its expectation converges almost surely as ε→0 to a random conformally invariant limit in the space of distributions, which we call the nesting field. We generalize this result by assigning i.i.d. weights to the loops, and we treat an alternate notion of convergence to the nesting field in the case where the weight distribution has mean zero. We also establish estimates for moments of the number of CLE loops surrounding two given points

River Otter Distribution in Nebraska

The river otter (Lontra canadensis) was extirpated from Nebraska, USA, in the early 1900s and reintroduced starting in 1986. Information is needed regarding the distribution of river otters in Nebraska before decisions can be made regarding its conservation status. Understanding distribution of a species is critically important for effective management. We investigated river otter distribution in Nebraska with occupancy modeling and maximum entropy (Maxent) modeling using 190 otter sign observations on Nebraska’s navigable rivers and 380 historical otter records from November 1977 to April 2014. Both methods identified the Platte River, Elkhorn River, central and eastern Niobrara River, and southern Loup River system as core areas within the distribution of otters in Nebraska. The Maxent model provided more liberal estimates of site occupancy and identified some smaller rivers as being within the distribution of otters in Nebraska, which were not identified using occupancy modeling. We recommend that multiple data sets and analysis methods be used to estimate species distribution because this allows for the broadest geographical coverage and decreases the likelihood of overlooking areas with fewer animal records. If further reintroduction efforts or translocation efforts are to take place in the future, we recommend focusing on areas with high modeled occupancy but few historical and survey records

Some families of density matrices for which separability is easily tested

We reconsider density matrices of graphs as defined in [quant-ph/0406165]. The density matrix of a graph is the combinatorial laplacian of the graph normalized to have unit trace. We describe a simple combinatorial condition (the "degree condition") to test separability of density matrices of graphs. The condition is directly related to the PPT-criterion. We prove that the degree condition is necessary for separability and we conjecture that it is also sufficient. We prove special cases of the conjecture involving nearest point graphs and perfect matchings. We observe that the degree condition appears to have value beyond density matrices of graphs. In fact, we point out that circulant density matrices and other matrices constructed from groups always satisfy the condition and indeed are separable with respect to any split. The paper isolates a number of problems and delineates further generalizations.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Quantifying subtropical North Pacific gyre mixed layer primary productivity from Seaglider observations of diel oxygen cycles

© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 42 (2015): 4032–4039, doi:10.1002/2015GL063065.Using autonomous underwater gliders, we quantified diurnal periodicity in dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, and temperature in the subtropical North Pacific near the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) Station ALOHA during summer 2012. Oxygen optodes provided sufficient stability and precision to quantify diel cycles of average amplitude of 0.6 µmol kg−1. A theoretical diel curve was fit to daily observations to infer an average mixed layer gross primary productivity (GPP) of 1.8 mmol O2 m−3 d−1. Cumulative net community production (NCP) over 110 days was 500 mmol O2 m−2 for the mixed layer, which averaged 57 m in depth. Both GPP and NCP estimates indicated a significant period of below-average productivity at Station ALOHA in 2012, an observation confirmed by 14C productivity incubations and O2/Ar ratios. Given our success in an oligotrophic gyre where biological signals are small, our diel GPP approach holds promise for remote characterization of productivity across the spectrum of marine environments.The authors acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through an NSF Science and Technology Center, the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE; NSF EF-0424599). D.N. also was supported by NSF (OCE-1129644) and an Independent Study Award from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). D.M.K. was also supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. WHOI Summer Student Fellow Cole Stites-Clayton, Stanford University, contributed to early stages of Seaglider data analysis and was supported by an NSF REU grant to WHOI (OCE-1156952)

Media coverage of Malaysian Airline Flight MH370: a preliminary study on the framing of the crisis in the Malaysian mainstream and alternative newspapers

This study proposes to investigate and compare the coverage of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by Malaysian mainstream and alternative newspapers – The Star newspaper and Malaysiakini. The MH370 crisis in March 2014 is considered as the greatest aviation crisis in the history of Malaysia because of its magnitude and attracted massive local and international media coverage. It presented Malaysian authorities with a new form of challenge, resulting in various criticisms from aviation, media and crisis communication experts over how information regarding the crisis was handled by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) in particular, and the Malaysian government in general. On the other hand, the role of the media during a crisis is not only to provide information regarding the crisis, but also to act as the peoples' advocate by providing an avenue for public engagements and discussions. However, the ability of the media to play this role depends to a certain extent on ownership, and a large extent on the degree of freedom it enjoys in a country. Through quantitative content analysis, the study compares the framing of the crisis by the selected newspapers, the sources of information for their news stories, and slants of the news. The study found that the mainstream newspaper The Star provided general and limited viewpoints with a concentration on the human interest frame, while the alternative newspaper, Malaysiakini, had more critical news reports with a focus on the attribute of responsibility frame

Champ or chump? Challenge and threat states during pressurized competition

Copyright © 2013 Human Kinetics, IncThe present research examined the immediate impact of challenge and threat states on golf performance in both real competition and a laboratory-based task. In Study 1, 199 experienced golfers reported their evaluations of competition demands and personal coping resources before a golf competition. Evaluating the competition as a challenge (i.e., sufficient resources to cope with demands) was associated with superior performance. In Study 2, 60 experienced golfers randomly received challenge or threat manipulation instructions and then performed a competitive golf-putting task. Challenge and threat states were successfully manipulated and the challenge group outperformed the threat group. Furthermore, the challenge group reported less anxiety, more facilitative interpretations of anxiety, less conscious processing, and displayed longer quiet eye durations. However, these variables failed to mediate the group-performance relationship. These studies demonstrate the importance of considering preperformance psychophysiological states when examining the influence of competitive pressure on motor performance

A Simpler Method for Predicting Weight Loss in the First Year after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass

Factors postulated to predict weight loss after gastric bypass surgery, include race, age, gender, technique, height, and initial weight. This paper contained 1551 gastric bypass patients (85.9% female). Operations were performed by one surgeon (MLO) at community hospitals in Southern California from 1989 to 2008 with 314 being laparoscopic and 1237 open. We created the following equation: In[percent weight] = At2 − Bt, where t was the time after operation (days) and A and B are constants. Analysis was completed on R-software. The model fits with R2 value 0.93 and gives patients a realistic mean target weight with a confidence interval of 95% for the first year. Conclusion. We created a curve predicting weight loss after surgery as a percentage of initial weight. Initial weight was the single most important predictor of weight loss after surgery. Other recorded variables accounted for less than 1% of variability. Unknown factors account for the remaining 6-7%

Insights into the Conformation of Aminofluorene-Deoxyguanine Adduct in a DNA Polymerase Active Site

The active site conformation of the mutagenic fluoroaminofluorene-deoxyguanine adduct (dG-FAF, N-(2′-deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-7-fluoro-2-aminofluorene) has been investigated in the presence of Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I (Kfexo−) and DNA polymerase β (pol β) using 19F NMR, insertion assay, and surface plasmon resonance. In a single nucleotide gap, the dG-FAF adduct adopts both a major-groove- oriented and base-displaced stacked conformation, and this heterogeneity is retained upon binding pol β. The addition of a non-hydrolysable 2′-deoxycytosine-5′-[(α,β)-methyleno]triphosphate (dCMPcPP) nucleotide analog to the binary complex results in an increase of the major groove conformation of the adduct at the expense of the stacked conformation. Similar results were obtained with the addition of an incorrect dAMPcPP analog but with formation of the minor groove binding conformer. In contrast, dG-FAF adduct at the replication fork for the Kfexo− complex adopts a mix of the major and minor groove conformers with minimal effect upon the addition of non-hydrolysable nucleotides. For pol β, the insertion of dCTP was preferred opposite the dG-FAF adduct in a single nucleotide gap assay consistent with 19F NMR data. Surface plasmon resonance binding kinetics revealed that pol β binds tightly with DNA in the presence of correct dCTP, but the adduct weakens binding with no nucleotide specificity. These results provide molecular insights into the DNA binding characteristics of FAF in the active site of DNA polymerases and the role of DNA structure and sequence on its coding potential

The peripheral blood transcriptome in septic cardiomyopathy: an observational, pilot study.

BACKGROUND:Septic cardiomyopathy (SCM) is common in sepsis and associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV GLS), measured by speckle tracking echocardiography, allows improved identification of impaired cardiac contractility. The peripheral blood transcriptome may be an important window into SCM pathophysiology. We therefore studied the peripheral blood transcriptome and LV GLS in a prospective cohort of patients with sepsis. RESULTS:In this single-center observational pilot study, we enrolled adult patients (age &gt; 18) with sepsis within 48 h of admission to the ICU. SCM was defined as LV GLS &gt; - 17% based on echocardiograms performed within 72 h of admission. We enrolled 27 patients, 24 of whom had high-quality RNA results; 18 (75%) of 24 had SCM. The group was 50% female and had a median (IQR) age of 59.5 (48.5-67.0) years and admission APACHE II score of 21.0 (16.0-32.3). Forty-six percent had septic shock. After filtering for low-expression and non-coding genes, 15,418 protein coding genes were expressed and 73 had significantly different expression between patients with vs. without SCM. In patients with SCM, 43 genes were upregulated and 30 were downregulated. Pathway analysis identified enrichment in type 1 interferon signaling (adjusted p &lt; 10-5). CONCLUSIONS:In this hypothesis-generating study, SCM was associated with upregulation of genes in the type 1 interferon signaling pathway. Interferons are cytokines that stimulate the innate and adaptive immune response and are implicated in the early proinflammatory and delayed immunosuppression phases of sepsis. While type 1 interferons have not been implicated previously in SCM, interferon therapy (for viral hepatitis and Kaposi sarcoma) has been associated with reversible cardiomyopathy, perhaps suggesting a role for interferon signaling in SCM