464 research outputs found
Editorial: Research reproducibility and preventing fraud.
SCOPUS: ed.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Retinal nerve fibre layer assessment in myopic glaucomatous eyes: comparison of GDx variable corneal compensation with GDx enhanced corneal compensation
Разработка информационной системы планирования энергоресурсов производственного предприятия OOO "Завод ТехноНИКОЛЬ-Сибирь"
On the Influence of Uncertainties in Chemical Reaction Rates on Results of the Astrochemical Modelling
With the chemical reaction rate database UMIST95 (Millar et al. 1997) we
analyze how uncertainties in rate constants of gas-phase chemical reactions
influence the modelling of molecular abundances in the interstellar medium.
Random variations are introduced into the rate constants to estimate the
scatter in theoretical abundances. Calculations are performed for dark and
translucent molecular clouds where gas phase chemistry is adequate. Similar
approach was used by Pineau des Forets & Roueff (2000) for the study of
chemical bistability. All the species are divided into 6 sensitivity groups
according to the value of the scatter in their model abundances computed with
varied rate constants. It is shown that the distribution of species within
these groups depends on the number of atoms in a molecule and on the adopted
physical conditions. The simple method is suggested which allows to single out
reactions that are most important for the evolution of a given species.Comment: 4 pages. To appear in the proceedings of the 4th Cologne-Bonn Zermatt
Symposiu
Deuterium Fractionation as an Evolutionary Probe in Massive Proto-stellar/cluster Cores
Clouds of high infrared extinction are promising sites of massive
star/cluster formation. A large number of cloud cores discovered in recent
years allows investigation of possible evolutionary sequence among cores in
early phases. We have conducted a survey of deuterium fractionation toward 15
dense cores in various evolutionary stages, from high-mass starless cores to
ultracompact Hii regions, in the massive star-forming clouds of high
extinction, G34.43+0.24, IRAS 18151-1208, and IRAS 18223-1243, with the
Submillimeter Telescope (SMT). Spectra of N2H+ (3 - 2), N2D+ (3 - 2), and C18O
(2 - 1) were observed to derive the deuterium fractionation of N2H+, Dfrac
\equiv N(N2D+)/N(N2H+), as well as the CO depletion factor for every selected
core. Our results show a decreasing trend in Dfrac with both gas temperature
and linewidth. Since colder and quiescent gas is likely to be associated with
less evolved cores, larger Dfrac appears to correlate with early phases of core
evolution. Such decreasing trend resembles the behavior of Dfrac in the
low-mass protostellar cores and is consistent with several earlier studies in
high-mass protostellar cores. We also find a moderate increasing trend of Dfrac
with the CO depletion factor, suggesting that sublimation of ice mantles alters
the competition in the chemical reactions and reduces Dfrac. Our findings
suggest a general chemical behavior of deuterated species in both low- and
high-mass proto-stellar candidates at early stages. In addition, upper limits
to the ionization degree are estimated to be within 2 \times 10^-7 and 5 \times
10^-6. The four quiescent cores have marginal field-neutral coupling and
perhaps favor turbulent cooling flows.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Proteomic analysis of the Plasmodium male gamete reveals the key role for glycolysis in flagellar motility.
BACKGROUND: Gametogenesis and fertilization play crucial roles in malaria transmission. While male gametes are thought to be amongst the simplest eukaryotic cells and are proven targets of transmission blocking immunity, little is known about their molecular organization. For example, the pathway of energy metabolism that power motility, a feature that facilitates gamete encounter and fertilization, is unknown.
METHODS: Plasmodium berghei microgametes were purified and analysed by whole-cell proteomic analysis for the first time. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD001163.
RESULTS: 615 proteins were recovered, they included all male gamete proteins described thus far. Amongst them were the 11 enzymes of the glycolytic pathway. The hexose transporter was localized to the gamete plasma membrane and it was shown that microgamete motility can be suppressed effectively by inhibitors of this transporter and of the glycolytic pathway.
CONCLUSIONS: This study describes the first whole-cell proteomic analysis of the malaria male gamete. It identifies glycolysis as the likely exclusive source of energy for flagellar beat, and provides new insights in original features of Plasmodium flagellar organization
High iso aldehyde selectivity in the hydroformylation of short-chain alkenes
The authors thank the Eastman Chemical Company for funding (LI, and later JAF) and permission to publish. The EPSRC (EP/M003868/1) is also acknowledged for funding (JAF).The hydroformylation of propene to give predominantly iso‐butanal has been achieved; class‐leading selectivity is possible even at higher temperatures that deliver fast conversion. Racemic rhodium complexes of bidentate phospholane phosphites derived from tropos‐biphenols and unusual solvent systems are the key to the selectivity observed.PostprintPeer reviewe
Molecular abundances and C/O ratios in chemically evolving planet-forming disk midplanes
Context. Exoplanet atmospheres are thought be built up from accretion of gas as well as pebbles and planetesimals in the midplanes of planet-forming disks. The chemical composition of this material is usually assumed to be unchanged during the disk lifetime. However, chemistry can alter the relative abundances of molecules in this planet-building material.
Aims. We aim to assess the impact of disk chemistry during the era of planet formation. This is done by investigating the chemical changes to volatile gases and ices in a protoplanetary disk midplane out to 30 AU for up to 7 Myr, considering a variety of different conditions, including a physical midplane structure that is evolving in time, and also considering two disks with different masses.
Methods. An extensive kinetic chemistry gas-grain reaction network was utilised to evolve the abundances of chemical species over time. Two disk midplane ionisation levels (low and high) were explored, as well as two different makeups of the initial abundances (“inheritance” or “reset”).
Results. Given a high level of ionisation, chemical evolution in protoplanetary disk midplanes becomes significant after a few times 105 yr, and is still ongoing by 7 Myr between the H2O and the O2 icelines. Inside the H2O iceline, and in the outer, colder regions of the disk midplane outside the O2 iceline, the relative abundances of the species reach (close to) steady state by 7 Myr. Importantly, the changes in the abundances of the major elemental carbon and oxygen-bearing molecules imply that the traditional “stepfunction” for the C/O ratios in gas and ice in the disk midplane (as defined by sharp changes at icelines of H2O, CO2 and CO) evolves over time, and cannot be assumed fixed, with the C/O ratio in the gas even becoming smaller than the C/O ratio in the ice. In addition, at lower temperatures (<29 K), gaseous CO colliding with the grains gets converted into CO2 and other more complex ices, lowering the CO gas abundance between the O2 and CO thermal icelines. This effect can mimic a CO iceline at a higher temperature than suggested by its binding energy.
Conclusions. Chemistry in the disk midplane is ionisation-driven, and evolves over time. This affects which molecules go into forming planets and their atmospheres. In order to reliably predict the atmospheric compositions of forming planets, as well as to relate observed atmospheric C/O ratios of exoplanets to where and how the atmospheres have formed in a disk midplane, chemical evolution needs to be considered and implemented into planet formation models
Grounded Language Interpretation of Robotic Commands through Structured Learning
The presence of robots in everyday life is increasing day by day at a growing pace. Industrial and working environments, health-care assistance in public or domestic areas can benefit from robots' services to accomplish manifold tasks that are difficult and annoying for humans. In such scenarios, Natural Language interactions, enabling collaboration and robot control, are meant to be situated, in the sense that both the user and the robot access and make reference to the environment. Contextual knowledge may thus play a key role in solving inherent ambiguities of grounded language as, for example, the prepositional phrase attachment. In this work, we present a linguistic pipeline for semantic processing of robotic commands, that combines discriminative structured learning, distributional semantics and contextual evidence extracted from the working environment. The final goal is to make the interpretation process of linguistic exchanges depending on physical, cognitive and language-dependent aspects. We present, formalize and discuss an adaptive Spoken Language Understanding chain for robotic commands, that explicitly depends on the operational context during both the learning and processing stages. The resulting framework allows to model heterogeneous information concerning the environment (e.g., positional information about the objects and their properties) and to inject it in the learning process. Empirical results demonstrate a significant contribution of such additional dimensions, achieving up to a 25% of relative error reduction with respect to a pipeline that only exploits linguistic evidence
Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). VIII. A Small Protostellar Disk around the Extremely Low-Mass and Young Class 0 Protostar, IRAS 15398-3359
Protostellar disks are a ubiquitous part of the star formation process and
the future sites of planet formation. As part of the Early Planet Formation in
Embedded Disks (eDisk) large program, we present high-angular resolution dust
continuum (mas) and molecular line (mas) observations of
the Class 0 protostar, IRAS 15398-3359. The dust continuum is small, compact,
and centrally peaked, while more extended dust structures are found in the
outflow directions. We perform a 2D Gaussian fitting to find the deconvolved
size and radius of the dust disk to be
and , respectively. We estimate the gas+dust disk mass
assuming optically thin continuum emission to be ,
indicating a very low-mass disk. The CO isotopologues trace components of the
outflows and inner envelope, while SO traces a compact, rotating disk-like
component. Using several rotation curve fittings on the PV diagram of the SO
emission, the lower limits of the protostellar mass and gas disk radius are
and from our Modified 2 single power-law
fitting. A conservative upper limit of the protostellar mass is inferred to be
. The protostellar mass-accretion rate and the specific angular
momentum at the protostellar disk edge are found to be between
and
, respectively, with an age
estimated between yr. At this young age with no clear
substructures in the disk, planet formation would likely not yet have started.
This study highlights the importance of high-resolution observations and
systematic fitting procedures when deriving dynamical properties of deeply
embedded Class 0 protostars.Comment: 28 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ as one of the
first-look papers of the eDisk ALMA Large Progra
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