8,929 research outputs found
Study of lunar reflective components of solar radio emission semiannual status report
Solar radio frequency reflection from lunar surface for scattering measuremen
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Winter Ecosystem Respiration and Sources of CO2 From the High Arctic Tundra of Svalbard: Response to a Deeper Snow Experiment
Currently, there is a lack of understanding on how the magnitude and sources of carbon (C) emissions from High Arctic tundra are impacted by changing snow cover duration and depth during winter. Here we investigated this issue in a graminoid tundra snow fence experiment on shale-derived gelisols in Svalbard from the end of the growing season and throughout the winter. To characterize emissions, we measured ecosystem respiration (Reco) along with its radiocarbon (14C) content. We assessed the composition of soil organic matter (SOM) by measuring its bulk-C and nitrogen (N), 14C content, and n-alkane composition. Our findings reveal that greater snow depth increased soil temperatures and winter Reco (25 mg C mâ2 dâ1 under deeper snow compared to 13 mg C mâ2 dâ1 in ambient conditions). At the end of the growing season, Reco was dominated by plant respiration and microbial decomposition of C fixed within the past 60 years (Î14C = 62 ± 8â°). During winter, emissions were significantly older (Î14C = â64 ± 14â°), and likely sourced from microorganisms decomposing aged SOM formed during the Holocene mixed with biotic or abiotic mineralization of the carbonaceous, fossil parent material. Our findings imply that snow cover duration and depth is a key control on soil temperatures and thus the magnitude of Reco in winter. We also show that in shallow Arctic soils, mineralization of carbonaceous parent materials can contribute significant proportions of fossil C to Reco. Therefore, permafrost-C inventories informing C emission projections must carefully distinguish between more vulnerable SOM from recently fixed biomass and more recalcitrant ancient sedimentary C sources
Outdoor music festivals: Cacophonous consumption or melodious moderation?
Large outdoor music festivals have emerged as part of a general expansion of licensed recreational activities, but in research terms they have been largely impenetrable due to commercial sensitivities. These sensitivities notwithstanding, the number and scale of such events necessitate a greater understanding of alcohol and drug use and the potential to promote normative protective behaviours in this context. This study examines self-reported alcohol and drug behaviours of 1589 attendees at a music festival in Scotland during the summer of 2008. Similarities between the outdoor rock music festivals and the dance club scene are considered alongside the challenges associated with risk reduction in these settings. Results show that alcohol was consumed by the majority of samples; however, negative consequences were reported by a minority of respondents, suggesting evidence of controlled hedonism within a situation traditionally associated with unrestrained excess. Similarly, the majority of samples did not use drugs. The majority also report a number of self-regulating protective behaviours suggesting that alcohol and drug use is contained within a developing social culture of âcontrolled intoxicationâ. Results further suggest that although music festivals are transitory events, there is a degree of consistency amongst attendees. Music festivals may therefore be atypical but potentially effective environments to increase protective behaviours using normative messaging and modern communications media. This study was resourced exclusively by local alcohol and drug partnerships
Stellar mass function of cluster galaxies at z ~ 1.5: evidence for reduced quenching efficiency at high redshift
IndexaciĂłn: Web of ScienceWe present the stellar mass functions (SMFs) of passive and star-forming galaxies with a limiting mass of 10(10.1) M-circle dot in four spectroscopically confirmed Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey (SpARCS) galaxy clusters at 1 : 37 < z < 1 : 63. The clusters have 113 spectroscopically confirmed members combined, with 8-45 confirmed members each. We construct Ks-bandselected photometric catalogs for each cluster with an average of 11 photometric bands ranging from u to 8 mu m. We compare our cluster galaxies to a field sample derived from a similar Ks-band-selected catalog in the UltraVISTA / COSMOS field. The SMFs resemble those of the field, but with signs of environmental quenching. We find that 30 +/- 20% of galaxies that would normally be forming stars in the field are quenched in the clusters. The environmental quenching e ffi ciency shows little dependence on projected cluster-centric distance out to similar to 4 Mpc, providing tentative evidence of pre-processing and/or galactic conformity in this redshift range. We also compile the available data on environmental quenching efficiencies from the literature, and find that the quenching e ffi ciency in clusters and in groups appears to decline with increasing redshift in a manner consistent with previous results and expectations based on halo mass growth.http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2016/08/aa28663-16/aa28663-16.htm
Does prediction error drive one-shot declarative learning?
The role of prediction error (PE) in driving learning is well-established in fields such as classical and instrumental conditioning, reward learning and procedural memory; however, its role in human one-shot declarative encoding is less clear. According to one recent hypothesis, PE reflects the divergence between two probability distributions: one reflecting the prior probability (from previous experiences) and the other reflecting the sensory evidence (from the current experience). Assuming unimodal probability distributions, PE can be manipulated in three ways: (1) the distance between the mode of the prior and evidence, (2) the precision of the prior, and (3) the precision of the evidence. We tested these three manipulations across five experiments, in terms of peoples' ability to encode a single presentation of a scene-item pairing as a function of previous exposures to that scene and/or item. Memory was probed by presenting the scene together with three choices for the previously paired item, in which the two foil items were from other pairings within the same condition as the target item. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the evidence to be either consistent or inconsistent with prior expectations, predicting PE to be larger, and hence memory better, when the new pairing was inconsistent. In Experiments 2a-c, we manipulated the precision of the priors, predicting better memory for a new pairing when the (inconsistent) priors were more precise. In Experiment 3, we manipulated both visual noise and prior exposure for unfamiliar faces, before pairing them with scenes, predicting better memory when the sensory evidence was more precise. In all experiments, the PE hypotheses were supported. We discuss alternative explanations of individual experiments, and conclude the Predictive Interactive Multiple Memory Signals (PIMMS) framework provides the most parsimonious account of the full pattern of results
Parallel Search with no Coordination
We consider a parallel version of a classical Bayesian search problem.
agents are looking for a treasure that is placed in one of the boxes indexed by
according to a known distribution . The aim is to minimize
the expected time until the first agent finds it. Searchers run in parallel
where at each time step each searcher can "peek" into a box. A basic family of
algorithms which are inherently robust is \emph{non-coordinating} algorithms.
Such algorithms act independently at each searcher, differing only by their
probabilistic choices. We are interested in the price incurred by employing
such algorithms when compared with the case of full coordination. We first show
that there exists a non-coordination algorithm, that knowing only the relative
likelihood of boxes according to , has expected running time of at most
, where is the expected running time of the best
fully coordinated algorithm. This result is obtained by applying a refined
version of the main algorithm suggested by Fraigniaud, Korman and Rodeh in
STOC'16, which was designed for the context of linear parallel search.We then
describe an optimal non-coordinating algorithm for the case where the
distribution is known. The running time of this algorithm is difficult to
analyse in general, but we calculate it for several examples. In the case where
is uniform over a finite set of boxes, then the algorithm just checks boxes
uniformly at random among all non-checked boxes and is essentially times
worse than the coordinating algorithm.We also show simple algorithms for Pareto
distributions over boxes. That is, in the case where for
, we suggest the following algorithm: at step choose uniformly
from the boxes unchecked in ,
where . It turns out this algorithm is asymptotically
optimal, and runs about times worse than the case of full coordination
From fields to a super-cluster: the role of the environment at z=0.84 with HiZELS
At z=0, clusters are primarily populated by red, elliptical and massive
galaxies, while blue, spiral and lower-mass galaxies are common in low-density
environments. Understanding how and when these differences were established is
of absolute importance for our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution,
but results at high-z remain contradictory. By taking advantage of the widest
and deepest H-alpha narrow-band survey at z=0.84 over the COSMOS and UKIDSS UDS
fields, probing a wide range of densities (from poor fields to rich groups and
clusters, including a confirmed super-cluster with a striking filamentary
structure), we show that the fraction of star-forming galaxies falls
continuously from ~40% in fields to approaching 0% in rich groups/clusters. We
also find that the median SFR increases with environmental density, at least up
to group densities - but only for low and medium mass galaxies, and thus such
enhancement is mass-dependent at z~1. The environment also plays a role in
setting the faint-end slope (alpha) of the H-alpha luminosity function. Our
findings provide a sharper view on galaxy formation and evolution and reconcile
previously contradictory results at z~1: stellar mass is the primary predictor
of star formation activity, but the environment also plays a major role.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of JENAM 2010 S2:
`Environment and the Formation of Galaxies: 30 years later', ASSP, Springe
Competitive aminal formation during the synthesis of a highly soluble, isopropyl-decorated imine porous organic cage.
The synthesis of a new porous organic cage decorated with isopropyl moieties (CC21) was achieved from the reaction of triformylbenzene and an isopropyl functionalised diamine. Unlike structurally analogous porous organic cages, its synthesis proved challenging due to competitive aminal formation, rationalised using control experiments and computational modelling. The use of an additional amine was found to increase conversion to the desired cage
Bad Practice in Erosion Management: The Southern Sicily Case Study
This case study from Sicily illustrates a common sequence of events
where one unwise action was countered with another, which in turn created
additional problems. The situation arose through strong political interference and
ignorance (or lack of concern) regarding the environmental impacts of human
interventions on the shoreline and by the public perception that government has a
duty to protect private property. The poor design and location of ports and harbours
produced infilling problems and huge updrift accretion with concomitant downdrift
erosion. The human-induced coastal retreat was counteracted by the progressive
emplacement of breakwaters creating a âdominoâ effect. On many occasions
these were constructed to protect unplanned and illegal (in the sense that they do
not conform to planning regulations) beachfront summer houses. Without the
presence of these structures, there would have been no need for publicly funded
intervention.
Furthermore, only a narrow coastal belt close to the shoreline is used by
bathers on the wide beaches formed updrift of ports and harbours and in the lee
of breakwaters, most of the accreted beach being unused or partially occupied by
tourist developments. Thus beach users and municipalities acquired some benefits
from beach accretion at specific sites, the opposite being true in eroding areas
Topoisomer Differentiation of Molecular Knots by FTICR MS: Lessons from Class II Lasso Peptides
Lasso peptides constitute a class of bioactive peptides sharing a knotted
structure where the C-terminal tail of the peptide is threaded through and
trapped within an N-terminalmacrolactamring. The structural characterization of
lasso structures and differentiation from their unthreaded topoisomers is not
trivial and generally requires the use of complementary biochemical and
spectroscopic methods. Here we investigated two antimicrobial peptides
belonging to the class II lasso peptide family and their corresponding
unthreaded topoisomers: microcin J25 (MccJ25), which is known to yield
two-peptide product ions specific of the lasso structure under collisioninduced
dissociation (CID), and capistruin, for which CID does not permit to
unambiguously assign the lasso structure. The two pairs of topoisomers were
analyzed by electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance
mass spectrometry (ESI-FTICR MS) upon CID, infrared multiple photon
dissociation (IRMPD), and electron capture dissociation (ECD). CID and
ECDspectra clearly permitted to differentiate MccJ25 from its non-lasso
topoisomer MccJ25-Icm, while for capistruin, only ECD was informative and
showed different extent of hydrogen migration (formation of c\bullet/z from
c/z\bullet) for the threaded and unthreaded topoisomers. The ECD spectra of the
triply-charged MccJ25 and MccJ25-lcm showed a series of radical b-type product
ions {\eth}b0In{\TH}. We proposed that these ions are specific of
cyclic-branched peptides and result from a dual c/z\bullet and y/b
dissociation, in the ring and in the tail, respectively. This work shows the
potentiality of ECD for structural characterization of peptide topoisomers, as
well as the effect of conformation on hydrogen migration subsequent to electron
capture
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