4,883 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Does the threat of disqualification deter drivers from speeding?
Road Safety Research Report, number 96, is available from the National Archives: Department for Transport, and can be accessed from the link below.It has long been recognised that driving speeds that are excessive and inappropriate
to the conditions are a major contributory factor in road accidents, and a major issue
for road safety. Restraining driving speeds has proved to be a difficult task, given the
improvements over the years in both vehicle performance and road design.
Within the traditional ‘three Es’ countermeasures of engineering, education and
enforcement, recent years have seen the introduction of a wide range of engineering
measures designed to bring about speed reduction, but these tend to be restricted to
specific parts of the road network. New technologies such as Intelligent Speed
Adaptation (ISA) offer considerable promise, but mainly in the medium or longer term. Similarly, educative efforts to induce attitude and behaviour change in this context are bearing fruit, yet this is a long-term rather than short-term project. For the foreseeable future, enforcement will remain the principal means of influencing speed, by setting speed limits and imposing sanctions on drivers who are caught exceeding them.
The number of licence endorsements has increased enormously in recent years.
However, over the same period the number of disqualifications resulting from ‘totting-up’ points has decreased. This would seem to indicate that many drivers who accumulate up to 11 penalty points are either acting as if deterred by the threat of disqualification, or are avoiding disqualification in some other way. The extent to which penalty points act as a deterrent for the benefit of road safety in general is therefore an important issue, and this report describes work that has been carried out to study this issue by TRL and Brunel University, under contract to the Department for Transport
A Spectropolarimetric Atlas of Seyfert 1 Galaxies
We present optical spectropolarimetry of the nuclei of 36 Seyfert 1 galaxies,
obtained with the William Herschel and the Anglo-Australian Telescopes from
1996 to 1999. In 20 of these, the optical emission from the active nucleus is
intrinsically polarized. We have measured a significant level of polarization
in a further 7 objects but these may be heavily contaminated by Galactic
interstellar polarization. The intrinsically polarized Seyfert 1s exhibit a
variety of characteristics, with the average polarization ranging from < 0.5 to
5 per cent and many showing variations in both the degree and position angle of
polarization across the broad H alpha emission line. We identify a small group
of Seyfert 1s that exhibit polarization properties similar to those of Seyfert
2 galaxies in which polarized broad-lines have been discovered. These objects
represent direct observational evidence that a Seyfert 2-like far-field polar
scattering region is also present in Seyfert 1s. Several other objects have
features that can be explained in terms of equatorial scattering of line
emission from a rotating disk. We propose that much of the diversity in the
polarization properties of Seyfert galaxies can be understood in terms of a
model involving both equatorial and polar scattering, the relative importance
of the two geometries as sources of polarized light being determined
principally by the inclination of the system axis to the line-of-sight.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (28 pages, 25 figures
Evidence for anisotropic motion of the clouds in broad-line regions of BL Lacertae objects
The masses of central massive black holes in BL Lac objects are estimated
from their host galaxy absolute magnitude at R-band by using the empirical
relation between absolute magnitude of host galaxy and black hole mass. Only a
small fraction of BL Lac objects exhibit weak broad-line emission, and we
derive the sizes of the broad-line regions (BLRs) in these BL Lac objects from
the widths of their broad emission lines on the assumption of the clouds being
virilized in BLRs. It is found that the sizes of the BLRs in these sources are
usually 2-3 orders of magnitude larger than that expected by the empirical
correlation between BLR size and optical luminosity defined by a sample of
Seyfert galaxies and quasars. We discuss a variety of possibilities and suggest
it may probably be attributed to anisotropic motion of the BLR clouds in these
BL Lac objects. If the BLR geometry of these sources is disk-like, the viewing
angles between the axis and the line of sight are in the range of 2-12 degrees,
which is consistent with the unification schemes.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
Examining the reversibility of long-term behavioral disruptions in progeny of maternal SSRI exposure
Serotonergic dysregulation is implicated in numerous psychiatric disorders. Serotonin plays widespread trophic roles during neurodevelopment; thus perturbations to this system during development may increase risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. Epidemiological studies have examined association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment during pregnancy and increased autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in offspring. It is unclear from these studies whether ASD susceptibility is purely related to maternal psychiatric diagnosis, or if treatment poses additional risk. We sought to determine whether maternal SSRI treatment alone or in combination with genetically vulnerable background was sufficient to induce offspring behavior disruptions relevant to ASD. We exposed C57BL/6J or Celf6(+/-) mouse dams to fluoxetine (FLX) during different periods of gestation and lactation and characterized offspring on tasks assessing social communicative interaction and repetitive behavior patterns including sensory sensitivities. We demonstrate robust reductions in pup ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) and alterations in social hierarchy behaviors, as well as perseverative behaviors and tactile hypersensitivity. Celf6 mutant mice demonstrate social communicative deficits and perseverative behaviors, without further interaction with FLX. FLX re-exposure in adulthood ameliorates the tactile hypersensitivity yet exacerbates the dominance phenotype. This suggests acute deficiencies in serotonin levels likely underlie the abnormal responses to sensory stimuli, while the social alterations are instead due to altered development of social circuits. These findings indicate maternal FLX treatment, independent of maternal stress, can induce behavioral disruptions in mammalian offspring, thus contributing to our understanding of the developmental role of the serotonin system and the possible risks to offspring of SSRI treatment during pregnancy
Does Every Quasar Harbor A Blazar?
Assuming there is a blazar type continuum in every radio-loud quasar, we find
that the free-free heating due to the beamed infrared continuum can greatly
enhance collisionally excited lines, and thus explain the stronger CIV
1549 line emission observed in radio loud quasars. We further predict
that the CIV line should show variability {\it not} associated with observed
continuum or Ly variability.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Astrophys. J. Let
Mms22p protects Saccharomyces cerevisiae from DNA damage induced by topoisomerase II
The cleavage reaction of topoisomerase II, which creates double-stranded DNA breaks, plays a central role in both the cure and initiation of cancer. Therefore, it is important to understand the cellular processes that repair topoisomerase II-generated DNA damage. Using a genome-wide approach with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we found that Δmre11, Δxrs2, Δrad50, Δrad51, Δrad52, Δrad54, Δrad55, Δrad57 and Δmms22 strains were hypersensitive to etoposide, a drug that specifically increases levels of topoisomerase II-mediated DNA breaks. These results confirm that the single-strand invasion pathway of homologous recombination is the major pathway that repairs topoisomerase II-induced DNA damage in yeast and also indicate an important role for Mms22p. Although Δmms22 strains are sensitive to several DNA-damaging agents, little is known about the function of Mms22p. Δmms22 cultures accumulate in G(2)/M, and display an abnormal cell cycle response to topoisomerase II-mediated DNA damage. MMS22 appears to function outside of the single-strand invasion pathway, but levels of etoposide-induced homologous recombination in Δmms22 cells are lower than wild-type. MMS22 is epistatic with RTT101 and RTT107, genes that encode its protein binding partners. Finally, consistent with a role in DNA processes, Mms22p localizes to discrete nuclear foci, even in the absence of etoposide or its binding partners
The Accretion Rates and Spectral Energy Distributions of BL Lacertae Objects
We investigate the relationship between accretion rates and the spectral
energy distributions (SEDs) of BL Lac objects, using a sample of objects for
which published information on the host galaxies, emission-line luminosities,
and peak frequencies and luminosities of their SEDs are available. The sample
is composed of 43 BL Lac objects which have a relatively continuous
distribution of peak frequencies. Under the assumption that the observed
emission lines are photoionized by the central accretion disk, we use the line
luminosities to estimate the accretion luminosities and hence accretion rates.
We find that low frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (LBLs) span a wide range of
accretion rates, whereas high frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) cover a
more restricted range of lower values. There appears to be a continuous
distribution of accretion rates between the two subclasses of BL Lac objects.
We find that the peak frequency of the SED, \pknu, correlates with the
accretion rate, approximately with the form \pknu\propto \Lambda^{-3} in HBLs
and \pknu \propto \Lambda^{-0.25} in LBLs, where . The peak luminosity of the SED is also correlated with .
These results suggest that the accretion rate influences the shape of the SED
in BL Lac objects. They also support models which couple the jet and the
accretion disk. We present a physical scenario to account for the empirical
trends.Comment: 6 pages in emulateapj.sty, 3 figures 1 table. The Astrophysical
Journal (in press
An analysis of likes and dislikes for history and geography of 3360 sixth grade children
Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit
Voronoï summation via switching cusps
This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this recordWe consider the Fourier expansion of a Hecke (resp. Hecke–Maaß) cusp form of general level N at the various cusps of Γ0(N)∖H. We explain how to compute these coefficients via the local theory of p-adic Whittaker functions and establish a classical Voronoï summation formula allowing an arbitrary additive twist. Our discussion has applications to bounding sums of Fourier coefficients and understanding the (generalised) Atkin–Lehner relations
The Drosophila genome nexus: a population genomic resource of 623 Drosophila melanogaster genomes, including 197 from a single ancestral range population.
Hundreds of wild-derived Drosophila melanogaster genomes have been published, but rigorous comparisons across data sets are precluded by differences in alignment methodology. The most common approach to reference-based genome assembly is a single round of alignment followed by quality filtering and variant detection. We evaluated variations and extensions of this approach and settled on an assembly strategy that utilizes two alignment programs and incorporates both substitutions and short indels to construct an updated reference for a second round of mapping prior to final variant detection. Utilizing this approach, we reassembled published D. melanogaster population genomic data sets and added unpublished genomes from several sub-Saharan populations. Most notably, we present aligned data from phase 3 of the Drosophila Population Genomics Project (DPGP3), which provides 197 genomes from a single ancestral range population of D. melanogaster (from Zambia). The large sample size, high genetic diversity, and potentially simpler demographic history of the DPGP3 sample will make this a highly valuable resource for fundamental population genetic research. The complete set of assemblies described here, termed the Drosophila Genome Nexus, presently comprises 623 consistently aligned genomes and is publicly available in multiple formats with supporting documentation and bioinformatic tools. This resource will greatly facilitate population genomic analysis in this model species by reducing the methodological differences between data sets
- …