ALMA Capabilities for Observations of Spectral Line Emission

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) combines large collecting area and location on a high dry site to provide it with unparalleled potential for sensitive millimeter/submillimeter spectral line observations. Its wide frequency coverage, superb receivers and flexible spectrometer will ensure that its potential is met. Since the 1999 meeting on ALMA Science\cite{RefA}, the ALMA team has substantially enhanced its capability for line observations. ALMA's sensitivity increased when Japan joined the project, bringing the 16 antennas of the Atacama Compcat Array (ACA), equivalent to eight additional 12m telescopes. The first four receiver cartridges for the baseline ALMA (Japan's entry has brought two additional bands to ALMA's receiver retinue) have been accepted, with performance above the already-challenging specifications. ALMA's flexibility has increased with the enhancement of the baseline correlator with additional channels and flexibility, and with the addition of a separate correlator for the ACA. As an example of the increased flexibility, ALMA is now capable of multi-spectral-region and multi-resolution modes. With the former, one might observe e.g. four separate transitions anywhere within a 2 GHz band with a high resolution bandwidth. With the latter, one might simultaneously observe with low spectral resolution over a wide bandwidth and with high spectral resolution over a narrow bandwidth; this mode could be useful for observations of pressure-broadened lines with narrow cores, for example. Several science examples illustrate ALMA's potential for transforming millimeter and submillimeter astronomy.Comment: 6 pages, for the Proceedings of Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics: International Conference, 2006 held 13 - 17 November 2006 in Madrid, Spai

Structures of the linear silicon carbides SiC 4 and SiC 6 : Isotopic substitution and Ab Initio theory

V. D. Gordon,a) E. S. Nathan, A. J. Apponi, M. C. McCarthy, and P. Thaddeus are with Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 and Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 -- P. Botschwina is with the Institut fu¨r Physikalische Chemie der Universita¨t Go¨ttingen, Tammannstr, 6. D-37077 Go¨ttingen, GermanyThe structures of two linear silicon carbides, SiC4 and SiC6, have been determined by a combination of isotopic substitution and large-scale coupled-cluster ab initio calculations, following detection of all of the singly substituted isotopic species in a supersonic molecular beam with a Fourier transform microwave spectrometer. Rotational constants obtained by least-squares fitting transition frequencies were used to derive experimental structures; except for those nearest the center of mass, individual bond lengths for both chains have an error of less than 0.008 Å. Accurate equilibrium structures were derived by converting the experimental rotational constants to equilibrium constants using the vibration–rotation coupling constants from coupled-cluster calculations, including connected triple substitutions. Equilibrium dipole moments and harmonic vibrational frequencies were also calculated for both chains. On the basis of the calculated vibration–rotation and l-type doubling constants, weak rotational satellites from a low-lying vibrational state of SiC4 were assigned to v6 , a bending mode calculated to lie about 205 cm -1 above the ground state. A recommended ab initio equilibrium structure for SiC8 has also been established. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. @S0021-9606~00!01537-3#Chemistr

Survival of Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in the human nose after artificial inoculation.

There is evidence that MRSA ST398 of animal origin is only capable of temporarily occupying the human nose, and it is therefore, often considered a poor human colonizer.We inoculated 16 healthy human volunteers with a mixture of the human MSSA strain 1036 (ST931, CC8) and the bovine MSSA strain 5062 (ST398, CC398), 7 weeks after a treatment with mupirocin and chlorhexidine-containing soap. Bacterial survival was studied by follow-up cultures over 21 days. The human strain 1036 was eliminated faster (median 14 days; range 2-21 days) than the bovine strain 5062 (median 21 days; range 7-21 days) but this difference was not significant (p = 0.065). The bacterial loads were significantly higher for the bovine strain on day 7 and day 21. 4/14 volunteers (28.6%) showed elimination of both strains within 21 days. Of the 10 remaining volunteers, 5 showed no differences in bacterial counts between both strains, and in the other 5 the ST398 strain far outnumbered the human S. aureus strain. Within the 21 days of follow-up, neither human strain 1036 nor bovine strain 5062 appeared to acquire or lose any mobile genetic elements. In conclusion, S. aureus ST398 strain 5062 is capable of adequately competing for a niche with a human strain and survives in the human nose for at least 21 days

Amino acid stable N isotope estimations reveal uniform diazotrophic contributions across zooplankton size fractions in the subtropical N Atlantic

presentacionNatural abundance of stable N isotopes (d15N) in both individual amino acids and bulk organic matter of size-fractionated plankton samples were compared to analyze the differential impact of nitrogen fixation through the food web, in a transect across the subtropical North Atlantic. Low d15N values in the central and western regions were consistent with the prevalence of nitrogen fixation, while maximum d15N values tracked the influence of West African upwelling in the eastern zone. Compound-specific amino acid isotope data (CSI-AA) revealed relatively low variability in the impact of diazotrophic nitrogen within the different plankton size fractions, while d15N of bulk organic matter showed higher variability with size. Moreover, CSI-AA results also indicated a greater importance of diazotrophy than suggested by bulk d15N values. Trophic position estimates using CSI-AA showed the expected general increase with mean plankton size class and varied in a relatively narrow range (1.8 to 2.5), with the lowest values in the central zone. Using isotopic δ15N values of individual amino acids (in particular Phe and Thr), as well as reconstructed total protein d15N values, a set of new relationships with bulk plankton d15N was determined, aimed to improve the use CSI-AA data in tracing direct plankton contributions to organic nitrogen pools in the ocean. These new results represent the most detailed investigation of CSI-AA data in zooplankton size classes to date, and point to a key role of large zooplankton in the transmission of the diazotrophic nitrogen up oceanic food webs.Malaspina-2010(CSD2008-00077), NSF Grant OCE-113181

Structural and dielectric properties of Sr2_{2}TiO4_{4} from first principles

We have investigated the structural and dielectric properties of Sr$_{2}$TiO$_{4}$,the first member of the Sr$_{n+1}$Ti$_{n}$O$_{3n+1}$ Ruddlesden-Popper series, within density functional theory. Motivated by recent work in which thin films of Sr$_{2}$TiO$_{4}$ were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on SrTiO$_{3}$ substrates, the in-plane lattice parameter was fixed to the theoretically optimized lattice constant of cubic SrTiO$_{3}$ (n=$\infty$), while the out-of-plane lattice parameter and the internal structural parameters were relaxed. The fully relaxed structure was also investigated. Density functional perturbation theory was used to calculate the zone-center phonon frequencies, Born effective charges, and the electronic dielectric permittivity tensor. A detailed study of the contribution of individual infrared-active modes to the static dielectric permittivity tensor was performed. The calculated Raman and infrared phonon frequencies were found to be in agreement with experiment where available. Comparisons of the calculated static dielectric permittivity with experiments on both ceramic powders and epitaxial thin films are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, 8 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.

A functional riboSNitch in the 3' untranslated region of FKBP5 alters MicroRNA-320a binding efficiency and mediates vulnerability to chronic post-traumatic pain

Previous studies have shown that common variants of the gene coding for FK506-binding protein 51 (FKBP5), a critical regulator of glucocorticoid sensitivity, affect vulnerability to stress-related disorders. In a previous report, FKBP5 rs1360780 was identified as a functional variant because of its effect on gene methylation. Here we report evidence for a novel functional FKBP5 allele, rs3800373. This study assessed the association between rs3800373 and post-traumatic chronic pain in 1607 women and men from two ethnically diverse human cohorts. The molecular mechanism through which rs3800373 affects adverse outcomes was established via in silico, in vivo, and in vitro analyses. The rs3800373 minor allele predicted worse adverse outcomes after trauma exposure, such that individuals with the minor (risk) allele developed more severe post-traumatic chronic musculoskeletal pain. Among these individuals, peritraumatic circulating FKBP5 expression levels increased as cortisol and glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) mRNA levels increased, consistent with increased glucocorticoid resistance. Bioinformatic, in vitro, and mutational analyses indicate that the rs3800373 minor allele reduces the binding of a stress-and pain-associated microRNA, miR-320a, to FKBP5 via altering the FKBP5 mRNA 3'UTR secondary structure (i.e., is a riboSNitch). This results in relatively greater FKBP5 translation, unchecked by miR-320a. Overall, these results identify an important gene–miRNA interaction influencing chronic pain risk in vulnerable individuals and suggest that exogenous methods to achieve targeted reduction in poststress FKBP5 mRNA expression may constitute useful therapeutic strategies

Heritability of specific language impairment depends on diagnostic criteria

Heritability estimates for specific language impairment (SLI) have been inconsistent. Four twin studies reported heritability of 0.5 or more, but a recent report from the Twins Early Development Study found negligible genetic influence in 4-year-olds. We considered whether the method of ascertainment influenced results and found substantially higher heritability if SLI was defined in terms of referral to speech and language pathology services than if defined by language test scores. Further analysis showed that presence of speech difficulties played a major role in determining whether a child had contact with services. Childhood language disorders that are identified by population screening are likely to have a different phenotype and different etiology from clinically referred cases. Genetic studies are more likely to find high heritability if they focus on cases who have speech difficulties and who have been referred for intervention

Measurement of the Proton and Deuteron Spin Structure Functions g2 and Asymmetry A2

We have measured the spin structure functions g2p and g2d and the virtual photon asymmetries A2p and A2d over the kinematic range 0.02 < x < 0.8 and 1.0 < Q^2 < 30(GeV/c)^2 by scattering 38.8 GeV longitudinally polarized electrons from transversely polarized NH3 and 6LiD targets.The absolute value of A2 is significantly smaller than the sqrt{R} positivity limit over the measured range, while g2 is consistent with the twist-2 Wandzura-Wilczek calculation. We obtain results for the twist-3 reduced matrix elements d2p, d2d and d2n. The Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule integral - int(g2(x)dx) is reported for the range 0.02 < x < 0.8.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl