Maine’s Investment Imperative

In the past two decades, Maine’s per capita income ranking has not topped 27th, and in recent years, the state’s relative position has dropped to 36th. More importantly, the gap between Maine and the United States has increased since 1990. In this article, Maine’s State Economist Laurie Lachance lays out a long-term investment strategy for Maine that focuses on education, research and development, comprehensive tax reform, greater efficiencies in the delivery of state and local services, and limits on government spending. Lachance argues that choices must be made even in times of fiscal crisis. Failure to invest means failure, period

Daily associations between sleep and physical activity : a systematic review and meta-analysis

The day-to-day variations of sleep and physical activity are associated with various health outcomes in adults, and previous studies suggested a bidirectional association between these behaviors. The daily associations between sleep and physical activity have been examined in observational or interventional contexts. The primary goal of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to summarize existing evidence about daily associations between sleep and physical activity outcomes at inter- and intra-individual level in adults. A systematic search of records in eight databases from inception to July 2019 identified 33 peer-reviewed empirical publications that examined daily sleep – physical activity association in adults. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of included studies did not support a bidirectional daily association between sleep outcomes and physical activity. Multilevel meta-analyses showed that three sleep parameters were associated with physical activity the following day: sleep quality, sleep efficiency, and wake after sleep onset. However, the associations were small, and varied in terms of direction and level of variability (e.g. inter- or intra-individual). Daytime physical activity was associated with lower total sleep time the following night at an inter-person level with a small effect size. From a clinical perspective, care providers should monitor the effects of better sleep promotion on physical activity behaviours in their patients. Future studies should examine sleep and physical activity during a longer period and perform additional sophisticated statistical analyses

Prospectives

Tiré de: Prospectives, vol. 17, no 4, déc. 1981Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 24 janv. 2013

Cavity Magnonics

Cavity magnonics deals with the interaction of magnons - elementary excitations in magnetic materials - and confined electromagnetic fields. We introduce the basic physics and review the experimental and theoretical progress of this young field that is gearing up for integration in future quantum technologies. Much of its appeal is derived from the strong magnon-photon coupling and the easily-reached nonlinear regime in microwave cavities. The interaction of magnons with light as detected by Brillouin light scattering is enhanced in magnetic optical resonators, which can be employed to manipulate magnon distributions. The cavity photon-mediated coupling of a magnon mode to a superconducting qubit enables measurements in the single magnon limit

U and Th content in the Central Apennines continental crust: a contribution to the determination of the geo-neutrinos flux at LNGS

The regional contribution to the geo-neutrino signal at Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) was determined based on a detailed geological, geochemical and geophysical study of the region. U and Th abundances of more than 50 samples representative of the main lithotypes belonging to the Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary cover were analyzed. Sedimentary rocks were grouped into four main "Reservoirs" based on similar paleogeographic conditions and mineralogy. Basement rocks do not outcrop in the area. Thus U and Th in the Upper and Lower Crust of Valsugana and Ivrea-Verbano areas were analyzed. Based on geological and geophysical properties, relative abundances of the various reservoirs were calculated and used to obtain the weighted U and Th abundances for each of the three geological layers (Sedimentary Cover, Upper and Lower Crust). Using the available seismic profile as well as the stratigraphic records from a number of exploration wells, a 3D modelling was developed over an area of 2^{\circ}x2^{\circ} down to the Moho depth, for a total volume of about 1.2x10^6 km^3. This model allowed us to determine the volume of the various geological layers and eventually integrate the Th and U contents of the whole crust beneath LNGS. On this base the local contribution to the geo-neutrino flux (S) was calculated and added to the contribution given by the rest of the world, yielding a Refined Reference Model prediction for the geo-neutrino signal in the Borexino detector at LNGS: S(U) = (28.7 \pm 3.9) TNU and S(Th) = (7.5 \pm 1.0) TNU. An excess over the total flux of about 4 TNU was previously obtained by Mantovani et al. (2004) who calculated, based on general worldwide assumptions, a signal of 40.5 TNU. The considerable thickness of the sedimentary rocks, almost predominantly represented by U- and Th- poor carbonatic rocks in the area near LNGS, is responsible for this difference.Comment: 45 pages, 5 figures, 12 tables; accepted for publication in GC

Examination of the rumen bacteria and methanogenic archaea of wild impalas (Aepyceros melampus melampus) from Pongola, South Africa

Although the rumen microbiome of domesticated ruminants has been evaluated, few studies have explored the rumen microbiome of wild ruminants, and no studies have identified the rumen microbiome in the impala (Aepyceros melampus melampus). In the present study, next-generation sequencing and real-time polymerase chain reaction were used to investigate the diversity and density of the bacteria and methanogenic archaea residing in the rumen of five adult male impalas, culled during the winter dry season in Pongola, South Africa. A total of 15,323 bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences (from five impala), representing 3,892 different phylotypes, were assigned to 1,902 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). A total of 20,124 methanogen 16S rRNA gene sequence reads (from four impala), of which 5,028 were unique, were assigned to 344 OTUs. From the total sequence reads, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Firmicutes were the most abundant bacterial phyla. While the majority of the bacterial genera found were unclassified, Prevotella and Cupriavidus were the most abundant classified genera. For methanogens, the genera Methanobrevibacter and Methanosphaera represented 94.3 % and 4.0 % of the classified sequences, respectively. Most notable was the identification of Methanobrevibacter thaueri-like 16S rRNA gene sequence reads in all four impala samples, representing greater than 30 % of each individual’s total sequences. Both data sets are accessible through NCBI’s Sequence Read Archive (SRA), under study accession number SRP [048619]. The densities of bacteria (1.26×1010–3.82×1010 cells/ml whole rumen contents) and methanogens (4.48×108–7.2×109 cells/ml of whole rumen contents) from five individual impala were similar to those typically observed in domesticated ruminants.http://link.springer.com/journal/2482016-04-30hb201

Strain-induced effects in colloidal quantum dots: lifetime measurements and blinking statistics

Abstract A series of samples of CdSe/Cd x Zn 1−x S core/shell quantum dots have been synthesized in order to measure the influence of lattice-mismatch-induced strain on the photoluminescence (PL) and blinking behaviour. The PL spectra show a significant variation of the fluorescence wavelength even though the colloidal quantum dots (cQDs) are similar in size. The PL excitation spectra show a gradual splitting of the first exciton level as the proportion of Zn is increased in the shell and as the shell grows. On the other hand, blinking studies clearly demonstrate a significant dependence on the amount of Zn present in the shell. Distributions of on and off times go from the usual power-law distributions to power-law distributions with exponential cut-offs. These cut-offs become increasingly pronounced as the proportion of Zn increases. We interpret these results in the framework of diffusion-controlled electron transfer. Exciton relaxation lifetime measurements strongly suggest that lattice mismatch is responsible for a greater number of defects in core/shell cQDs. Therefore, strain and lattice mismatch are shown to be parameters of significant importance for the electronic structure of nanocrystals, influencing the photoluminescence, exciton relaxation lifetime and blinking behaviour