1,759 research outputs found
Atomic and Molecular Opacities for Brown Dwarf and Giant Planet Atmospheres
We present a comprehensive description of the theory and practice of opacity
calculations from the infrared to the ultraviolet needed to generate models of
the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and extrasolar giant planets. Methods for using
existing line lists and spectroscopic databases in disparate formats are
presented and plots of the resulting absorptive opacities versus wavelength for
the most important molecules and atoms at representative temperature/pressure
points are provided. Electronic, ro-vibrational, bound-free, bound-bound,
free-free, and collision-induced transitions and monochromatic opacities are
derived, discussed, and analyzed. The species addressed include the alkali
metals, iron, heavy metal oxides, metal hydrides, , , , ,
, , , and representative grains. [Abridged]Comment: 28 pages of text, plus 22 figures, accepted to the Astrophysical
Journal Supplement Series, replaced with more compact emulateapj versio
Signs Workshop: the importance of natural gestures in the promotion of early communication skills of children with developmental disabilities
This article emphasises the importance of natural gestures and describes the framework and the development process of the “Signs Workshop” CD-ROM, which is a multimedia application for the promotion of early communication skills of children with developmental disabilities. Signs Workshop CD-ROM was created in the scope of Down’s Comm Project, which was financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and is the result of a partnership between UNICA (Communication and Arts Research Unit of the University of Aveiro) and the Portuguese Down Syndrome Association (APPT21/Differences)
Holding up mirrors: reflections on academic literacy development across course curricula
The aim of the HEPPP funded project presented here is to embed support for the development of academic literacies (Lea & Street 1998) by developing inclusive curricula in courses with a high percentage of students from low socioeconomic status (LSES) backgrounds (Devlin et al. 2012). Reflection is central in both the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (BECE) and the Bachelor of Social Work, and the student profiles in these two courses mirror each other, but the approach taken differs.
Many BECE students enter university through a TAFE pathway, some have low or no school exit scores and may have faced significant educational disadvantage in the past (Whitington et al. 2009). The BECE team responded to the invitation to use the Harper (2011) framework for academic literacy mapping by revising it and making it their own. Similarly, a large proportion of social work students are mature aged and first in their family to attend university with many entering via the TAFE sector (Goldingay et al. 2011). This earlier study found differences between staff and student perceptions of the academic skills needed for success, so resources developed through the project drew on the student voice and student perceptions to invite new students into disciplinary practices. This presentation will illustrate the approaches taken by Language and Learning Advisers (LLAs) working collaboratively with these two academic teams to help academic staff reflect on, scaffold and support the development of the academic literacies relevant to their discipline and provide more relevant feedback (Jolly 2001)
Site-specific perturbations of alpha-synuclein fibril structure by the Parkinson's disease associated mutations A53T and E46K.
PMCID: PMC3591419This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Parkinson's disease (PD) is pathologically characterized by the presence of Lewy bodies (LBs) in dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra. These intracellular inclusions are largely composed of misfolded α-synuclein (AS), a neuronal protein that is abundant in the vertebrate brain. Point mutations in AS are associated with rare, early-onset forms of PD, although aggregation of the wild-type (WT) protein is observed in the more common sporadic forms of the disease. Here, we employed multidimensional solid-state NMR experiments to assess A53T and E46K mutant fibrils, in comparison to our recent description of WT AS fibrils. We made de novo chemical shift assignments for the mutants, and used these chemical shifts to empirically determine secondary structures. We observe significant perturbations in secondary structure throughout the fibril core for the E46K fibril, while the A53T fibril exhibits more localized perturbations near the mutation site. Overall, these results demonstrate that the secondary structure of A53T has some small differences from the WT and the secondary structure of E46K has significant differences, which may alter the overall structural arrangement of the fibrils
Large Deviations of the Maximum Eigenvalue for Wishart and Gaussian Random Matrices
We present a simple Coulomb gas method to calculate analytically the
probability of rare events where the maximum eigenvalue of a random matrix is
much larger than its typical value. The large deviation function that
characterizes this probability is computed explicitly for Wishart and Gaussian
ensembles. The method is quite general and applies to other related problems,
e.g. the joint large deviation function for large fluctuations of top
eigenvalues. Our results are relevant to widely employed data compression
techniques, namely the principal components analysis. Analytical predictions
are verified by extensive numerical simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 .eps figures include
Density of states in random lattices with translational invariance
We propose a random matrix approach to describe vibrational excitations in
disordered systems. The dynamical matrix M is taken in the form M=AA^T where A
is some real (not generally symmetric) random matrix. It guaranties that M is a
positive definite matrix which is necessary for mechanical stability of the
system. We built matrix A on a simple cubic lattice with translational
invariance and interaction between nearest neighbors. We found that for certain
type of disorder phonons cannot propagate through the lattice and the density
of states g(w) is a constant at small w. The reason is a breakdown of affine
assumptions and inapplicability of the elasticity theory. Young modulus goes to
zero in the thermodynamic limit. It strongly reminds of the properties of a
granular matter at the jamming transition point. Most of the vibrations are
delocalized and similar to diffusons introduced by Allen, Feldman et al., Phil.
Mag. B v.79, 1715 (1999).Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Wishart and Anti-Wishart random matrices
We provide a compact exact representation for the distribution of the matrix
elements of the Wishart-type random matrices , for any finite
number of rows and columns of , without any large N approximations. In
particular we treat the case when the Wishart-type random matrix contains
redundant, non-random information, which is a new result. This representation
is of interest for a procedure of reconstructing the redundant information
hidden in Wishart matrices, with potential applications to numerous models
based on biological, social and artificial intelligence networks.Comment: 11 pages; v2: references updated + some clarifications added; v3:
version to appear in J. Phys. A, Special Issue on Random Matrix Theor
FAD binding, cobinamide binding and active site communication in the corrin reductase (CobR)
Adenosylcobalamin, the coenzyme form of vitamin B12, is one Nature's most complex coenzyme whose de novo biogenesis proceeds along either an anaerobic or aerobic metabolic pathway. The aerobic synthesis involves reduction of the centrally chelated cobalt metal ion of the corrin ring from Co(II) to Co(I) before adenosylation can take place. A corrin reductase (CobR) enzyme has been identified as the likely agent to catalyse this reduction of the metal ion. Herein, we reveal how Brucella melitensis CobR binds its coenzyme FAD (flavin dinucleotide) and we also show that the enzyme can bind a corrin substrate consistent with its role in reduction of the cobalt of the corrin ring. Stopped-flow kinetics and EPR reveal a mechanistic asymmetry in CobR dimer that provides a potential link between the two electron reduction by NADH to the single electron reduction of Co(II) to Co(I)
Heating and Ionization of the Intergalactic Medium by an Early X-Ray Background
Observational studies indicate that the intergalactic medium (IGM) is highly
ionized up to redshifts just over 6. A number of models have been developed to
describe the process of reionization and the effects of the ionizing photons
from the first luminous objects. In this paper, we study the impact of an X-ray
background, such as high-energy photons from early quasars, on the temperature
and ionization of the IGM prior to reionization, before the fully ionized
bubbles associated with individual sources have overlapped. X-rays, which have
large mean free paths relative to EUV photons, and their photoelectrons can
have significant effects on the thermal and ionization balance. We find that
hydrogen ionization is dominated by the X-ray photoionization of neutral helium
and the resulting secondary electrons. Thus, the IGM may have been warm and
weakly ionized prior to full reionization. We examine several related
consequences, including the filtering of the baryonic Jeans mass scale,
signatures in the cosmic microwave background, and the H-catalyzed
production of molecular hydrogen.Comment: 9 emulateapj pages with 5 embedded postscript figures; accepted for
publication in Ap.J. (Dec. 10, 2001 issue
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