The LAMOST Survey of Background Quasars in the Vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies -- II. Results from the Commissioning Observations and the Pilot Surveys

We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies with the LAMOST during the 2010 and 2011 observational seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available SDSS, KPNO 4 m telescope, XSTPS optical, and WISE near infrared photometric data. We present 509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 sq. deg from M31 to M33 along the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey datasets, and also 17 new quasars discovered in an area of ~100 sq. deg that covers the central region and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning datasets. These 526 new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to 3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62 and 139 known quasars in this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5 and 18.0 respectively, of which 5, 20 and 75 are newly-discovered. These bright quasars provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the ISM/IGM in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars are now known with locations within 2.5 deg of M31, of which 73 are newly discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant Stellar Stream, and hundreds behind the extended halo and its associated substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric reference frame to measure the minute PMs of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, AJ accepte

Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System

Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde

Expression of Cystathionine β-synthase and Cystathionine γ-lyase in Human Pregnant Myometrium and Their Roles in the Control of Uterine Contractility

BACKGROUND: Human uterus undergoes distinct molecular and functional changes during pregnancy and parturition. Hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) has recently been shown to play a key role in the control of smooth muscle tension. The role of endogenous H(2)S produced locally in the control of uterine contractility during labour is unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Human myometrium biopsies were obtained from pregnant women undergoing cesarean section at term. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) and cystathionine-β-synthetase (CBS), the principle enzymes responsible for H(2)S generation, were mainly localized to smooth muscle cells of human pregnant myometrium. The mRNA and protein expression of CBS as well as H(2)S production rate were down-regulated in labouring tissues compared to nonlabouring tissues. Cumulative administration of L-cysteine (10(-7)-10(-2) mol/L), a precursor of H(2)S, caused a dose-dependent decrease in the amplitude of spontaneous contractions in nonlabouring and labouring myometrium strips. L-cysteine at high concentration (10(-3) mol/L) increased the frequency of spontaneous contractions and induced tonic contraction. These effects of L-cysteine were blocked by the inhibitors of CBS and CSE. Pre-treatment of myometrium strips with glibenclamide, an inhibitor of ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels, abolished the inhibitory effect of L-cysteine on spontaneous contraction amplitude. The effects of L-cysteine on the amplitude of spontaneous contractions and baseline muscle tone were less potent in labouring tissues than that in nonlabouring strips. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: H(2)S generated by CSE and CBS locally exerts dual effects on the contractility of pregnant myometrium. Expression of H(2)S synthetic enzymes is down-regulated during labour, suggesting that H(2)S is one of the factors involved in the transition of pregnant uterus from quiescence to contractile state after onset of parturition

Off-line evaluation of indoor positioning systems in different scenarios: the experiences from IPIN 2020 competition

Every year, for ten years now, the IPIN competition has aimed at evaluating real-world indoor localisation systems by testing them in a realistic environment, with realistic movement, using the EvAAL framework. The competition provided a unique overview of the state-of-the-art of systems, technologies, and methods for indoor positioning and navigation purposes. Through fair comparison of the performance achieved by each system, the competition was able to identify the most promising approaches and to pinpoint the most critical working conditions. In 2020, the competition included 5 diverse off-site off-site Tracks, each resembling real use cases and challenges for indoor positioning. The results in terms of participation and accuracy of the proposed systems have been encouraging. The best performing competitors obtained a third quartile of error of 1 m for the Smartphone Track and 0.5 m for the Foot-mounted IMU Track. While not running on physical systems, but only as algorithms, these results represent impressive achievements.Track 3 organizers were supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska Curie Grant 813278 (A-WEAR: A network for dynamic WEarable Applications with pRivacy constraints), MICROCEBUS (MICINN, ref. RTI2018-095168-B-C55, MCIU/AEI/FEDER UE), INSIGNIA (MICINN ref. PTQ2018-009981), and REPNIN+ (MICINN, ref. TEC2017-90808-REDT). We would like to thanks the UJI’s Library managers and employees for their support while collecting the required datasets for Track 3. Track 5 organizers were supported by JST-OPERA Program, Japan, under Grant JPMJOP1612. Track 7 organizers were supported by the Bavarian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology through the Center for Analytics-Data-Applications (ADA-Center) within the framework of “BAYERN DIGITAL II. ” Team UMinho (Track 3) was supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope under Grant UIDB/00319/2020, and the Ph.D. Fellowship under Grant PD/BD/137401/2018. Team YAI (Track 3) was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan under Grant MOST 109-2221-E-197-026. Team Indora (Track 3) was supported in part by the Slovak Grant Agency, Ministry of Education and Academy of Science, Slovakia, under Grant 1/0177/21, and in part by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under Contract APVV-15-0091. Team TJU (Track 3) was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61771338 and in part by the Tianjin Research Funding under Grant 18ZXRHSY00190. Team Next-Newbie Reckoners (Track 3) were supported by the Singapore Government through the Industry Alignment Fund—Industry Collaboration Projects Grant. This research was conducted at Singtel Cognitive and Artificial Intelligence Lab for Enterprises (SCALE@NTU), which is a collaboration between Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Team KawaguchiLab (Track 5) was supported by JSPS KAKENHI under Grant JP17H01762. Team WHU&AutoNavi (Track 6) was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2016YFB0502202. Team YAI (Tracks 6 and 7) was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan under Grant MOST 110-2634-F-155-001

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

MUSiC : a model-unspecific search for new physics in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV

Results of the Model Unspecific Search in CMS (MUSiC), using proton-proton collision data recorded at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1), are presented. The MUSiC analysis searches for anomalies that could be signatures of physics beyond the standard model. The analysis is based on the comparison of observed data with the standard model prediction, as determined from simulation, in several hundred final states and multiple kinematic distributions. Events containing at least one electron or muon are classified based on their final state topology, and an automated search algorithm surveys the observed data for deviations from the prediction. The sensitivity of the search is validated using multiple methods. No significant deviations from the predictions have been observed. For a wide range of final state topologies, agreement is found between the data and the standard model simulation. This analysis complements dedicated search analyses by significantly expanding the range of final states covered using a model independent approach with the largest data set to date to probe phase space regions beyond the reach of previous general searches.Peer reviewe