227 research outputs found
Nonlinearity-induced photonic topological insulator
The hallmark feature of topological insulators renders edge transport
virtually impervious to scattering at defects and lattice disorder. In our
work, we experimentally demonstrate a topological system, using a photonic
platform, in which the very existence of the topological phase is brought about
by nonlinearity. Whereas in the linear regime, the lattice structure remains
topologically trivial, light beams launched above a certain power threshold
drive the system into its transient topological regime, and thereby define a
nonlinear unidirectional channel along its edge. Our work studies topological
properties of matter in the nonlinear regime, and may pave the way towards
compact devices that harness topological features in an on-demand fashion
State Capacity and the Environmental Investment Gap in Authoritarian States
We construct an n-period, constrained optimization model where the authoritarian ruler maximizes expected rents subject to budget constraint of available surplus. We show that the larger state capacity is in the previous period, the worse environmental quality will be in the next period: while infrastructural investment and environmental protection increase with state capacity, the former increases at a faster rate which enlarges the gap between the two?the environmental investment gap. Given infrastructural public goods typically damage the environment, the larger this gap is the worse the environmental quality would be. This follows from rulers? optimizing logic of equating marginal returns once we assume the declining marginal productivity of factors of production of surplus. We model three types of air and water pollutants in autocracies as a function of state capacity and other relevant variables. State capacity is associated with higher levels of all three types of pollutants
Public perceptions of demand side management and a smarter energy future
Demand side management (DSM) is a key aspect of many future energy system scenarios1,2. DSM refers to a range of technologies and interventions designed to create greater efficiency and flexibility on the demand side of the energy system3. Examples include the provision of more information to users to support efficient behaviour and new ‘smart’ technologies that can be automatically controlled. Key stated outcomes of implementing DSM are benefits for consumers, such as cost savings3, 4 and greater control over energy use. Here, we use results from an online survey to examine public perceptions and acceptability of a range of current DSM possibilities in a representative sample of the British population (N = 2441). We show that, whilst cost is likely to be a significant reason for many people to uptake DSM measures, those concerned about energy costs are actually less likely to accept DSM. Notably, individuals concerned about climate change are more likely to be accepting. A significant proportion of people, particularly those concerned about affordability, indicated unwillingness or concerns about sharing energy data, a necessity for many forms of DSM. We conclude substantial public engagement and further policy development is required for widespread DSM implementation
Worker remittances and the global preconditions of ‘smart development’
With the growing environmental crisis affecting our globe, ideas to weigh economic or social progress by the ‘energy input’ necessary to achieve it are increasingly gaining acceptance. This question is intriguing and is being dealt with by a growing number of studies, focusing on the environmental price of human progress. Even more intriguing, however, is the question of which factors of social organization contribute to a responsible use of the resources of our planet to achieve a given social result (‘smart development’). In this essay, we present the first systematic study on how migration – or rather, more concretely, received worker remittances per GDP – helps the nations of our globe to enjoy social and economic progress at a relatively small environmental price. We look at the effects of migration on the balance sheets of societal accounting, based on the ‘ecological price’ of the combined performance of democracy, economic growth, gender equality, human development, research and development, and social cohesion. Feminism in power, economic freedom, population density, the UNDP education index as well as the receipt of worker remittances all significantly contribute towards a ‘smart overall development’, while high military expenditures and a high world economic openness are a bottleneck for ‘smart overall development’
The Changes in China's Forests: An Analysis Using the Forest Identity
Changes in forest carbon stocks are a determinant of the regional carbon budget. In the past several decades, China has experienced a pronounced increase in forest area and density. However, few comprehensive analyses have been conducted. In this study, we employed the Forest Identity concept to evaluate the changing status of China's forests over the past three decades, using national forest inventory data of five periods (1977–1981, 1984–1988, 1989–1993, 1994–1998, and 1999–2003). The results showed that forest area and growing stock density increased by 0.51% and 0.44% annually over the past three decades, while the conversion ratio of forest biomass to growing stock declined by 0.10% annually. These developments resulted in a net annual increase of 0.85% in forest carbon sequestration, which is equivalent to a net biomass carbon uptake of 43.8 Tg per year (1 Tg = 1012 g). This increase can be attributed to the national reforestation/afforestation programs, environmentally enhanced forest growth and economic development as indicated by the average gross domestic product
Caspase 8 and maspin are downregulated in breast cancer cells due to CpG site promoter methylation
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epigenetic changes associated with promoter DNA methylation results in silencing of several tumor suppressor genes that lead to increased risk for tumor formation and for progression of the cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Methylation specific PCR (MSP) and bisulfite sequencing were used for determination of proapoptotic gene Caspase 8 (CASP8) and the tumor suppressor gene maspin promoter methylation in four breast cancer and two non-tumorigenic breast cell lines. Involvement of histone H3 methylation in those cell lines were examined by CHIP assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The CpG sites in the promoter region of CASP8 and maspin were methylated in all four breast cancer cell lines but not in two non-tumorigenic breast cell lines. Demethylation agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dc) selectively inhibits DNA methyltransferases, DNMT3a and DNMT3b, and restored CASP8 and maspin gene expression in breast cancer cells. 5-aza-dc also reduced histone H3k9me2 occupancy on CASP8 promoter in SKBR3cells, but not in MCF-7 cells. Combination of histone deacetylase inhibitor Trichostatin A (TSA) and 5-aza-dc significant decrease in nuclear expression of Di-methyl histone H3-Lys27 and slight increase in acetyl histone H3-Lys9 in MCF-7 cells. CASP8 mRNA and protein level in MCF-7 cells were increased by the 5-aza-dc in combination with TSA. Data from our study also demonstrated that treatment with 5-FU caused a significant increase in unmethylated CASP8 and in CASP8 mRNA in all 3 cancer lines.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CASP8 and maspin expression were reduced in breast cancer cells due to promoter methylation. Selective application of demethylating agents could offer novel therapeutic opportunities in breast cancer.</p
Multimessenger Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Coincidence Alerts using HAWC and IceCube sub-threshold Data
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) and IceCube observatories, through
the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) framework, have
developed a multimessenger joint search for extragalactic astrophysical
sources. This analysis looks for sources that emit both cosmic neutrinos and
gamma rays that are produced in photo-hadronic or hadronic interactions. The
AMON system is running continuously, receiving sub-threshold data (i.e. data
that is not suited on its own to do astrophysical searches) from HAWC and
IceCube, and combining them in real-time. We present here the analysis
algorithm, as well as results from archival data collected between June 2015
and August 2018, with a total live-time of 3.0 years. During this period we
found two coincident events that have a false alarm rate (FAR) of
coincidence per year, consistent with the background expectations. The
real-time implementation of the analysis in the AMON system began on November
20th, 2019, and issues alerts to the community through the Gamma-ray
Coordinates Network with a FAR threshold of coincidences per year.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 3 table
Search for Quantum Gravity Using Astrophysical Neutrino Flavour with IceCube
Along their long propagation from production to detection, neutrino states
undergo quantum interference which converts their types, or flavours.
High-energy astrophysical neutrinos, first observed by the IceCube Neutrino
Observatory, are known to propagate unperturbed over a billion light years in
vacuum. These neutrinos act as the largest quantum interferometer and are
sensitive to the smallest effects in vacuum due to new physics. Quantum gravity
(QG) aims to describe gravity in a quantum mechanical framework, unifying
matter, forces and space-time. QG effects are expected to appear at the
ultra-high-energy scale known as the Planck energy, ~giga-electronvolts (GeV). Such a high-energy universe would have
existed only right after the Big Bang and it is inaccessible by human
technologies. On the other hand, it is speculated that the effects of QG may
exist in our low-energy vacuum, but are suppressed by the Planck energy as
(~GeV), (~GeV), or its higher powers. The coupling of particles to these
effects is too small to measure in kinematic observables, but the phase shift
of neutrino waves could cause observable flavour conversions. Here, we report
the first result of neutrino interferometry~\cite{Aartsen:2017ibm} using
astrophysical neutrino flavours to search for new space-time structure. We did
not find any evidence of anomalous flavour conversion in IceCube astrophysical
neutrino flavour data. We place the most stringent limits of any known
technologies, down to ~GeV, on the dimension-six operators
that parameterize the space-time defects for preferred astrophysical production
scenarios. For the first time, we unambiguously reach the signal region of
quantum-gravity-motivated physics.Comment: The main text is 7 pages with 3 figures and 1 table. The Appendix
includes 5 pages with 3 figure
IceCat-1: The IceCube Event Catalog of Alert Tracks
We present a catalog of likely astrophysical neutrino track-like events from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. IceCube began reporting likely astrophysical neutrinos in 2016, and this system was updated in 2019. The catalog presented here includes events that were reported in real time since 2019, as well as events identified in archival data samples starting from 2011. We report 275 neutrino events from two selection channels as the first entries in the catalog, the IceCube Event Catalog of Alert Tracks, which will see ongoing extensions with additional alerts. The Gold and Bronze alert channels respectively provide neutrino candidates with a 50% and 30% probability of being astrophysical, on average assuming an astrophysical neutrino power-law energy spectral index of 2.19. For each neutrino alert, we provide the reconstructed energy, direction, false-alarm rate, probability of being astrophysical in origin, and likelihood contours describing the spatial uncertainty in the alert\u27s reconstructed location. We also investigate a directional correlation of these neutrino events with gamma-ray and X-ray catalogs, including 4FGL, 3HWC, TeVCat, and Swift-BAT
Constraining High-energy Neutrino Emission from Supernovae with IceCube
Core-collapse supernovae are a promising potential high-energy neutrino source class. We test for correlation between seven years of IceCube neutrino data and a catalog containing more than 1000 core-collapse supernovae of types IIn and IIP and a sample of stripped-envelope supernovae. We search both for neutrino emission from individual supernovae, and for combined emission from the whole supernova sample through a stacking analysis. No significant spatial or temporal correlation of neutrinos with the cataloged supernovae was found. The overall deviation of all tested scenarios from the background expectation yields a p-value of 93% which is fully compatible with background. The derived upper limits on the total energy emitted in neutrinos are 1.7×10 erg for stripped-envelope supernovae, 2.8×10 erg for type IIP, and 1.3×10 erg for type IIn SNe, the latter disfavouring models with optimistic assumptions for neutrino production in interacting supernovae. We conclude that strippe-envelope supernovae and supernovae of type IIn do not contribute more than 14.6% and 33.9% respectively to the diffuse neutrino flux in the energy range of about 10−10 GeV, assuming that the neutrino energy spectrum follows a power-law with an index of −2.5. Under the same assumption, we can only constrain the contribution of type IIP SNe to no more than 59.9%. Thus core-collapse supernovae of types IIn and stripped-envelope supernovae can both be ruled out as the dominant source of the diffuse neutrino flux under the given assumptions
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