Electronic upgrades on the second generation of an autonomous and portable cetacean auditory screening system

While noise is now considered a marine hazard that can directly affect cetaceans and induce a stranding, no clinical approach has yet introduced the detection of a possible hearing loss at a stranding site as a necessary practice. Here we present the second generation of an autonomous and portable auditory screening system for cetacean clinical and research purposes. This system is composed by two independent and autonomous modules that build a more versatile, lighter and interference isolated system. The improvement relies on the isolation between modules and their independency on many situations. The system is separated in two modules. The first one contains the low voltage biopotential amplification system and the acustic signal transmiter . The second module will activate only when needed for some frequencies and levels driving high voltage to the transducers thus avoiding interferences with the first module containing the low voltage amplifications system. The tool has been successfully tested for research purposes in captive dolphins and calibrated for a stranding site diagnoses operation.Peer Reviewe

The Lyman Alpha Reference Sample. VIII. Characterizing Lyman-Alpha Scattering in Nearby Galaxies

We examine the dust geometry and Ly{\alpha} scattering in the galaxies of the Lyman Alpha Reference Sample (LARS), a set of 14 nearby (0.02 < $z$ < 0.2) Ly{\alpha} emitting and starbursting systems with Hubble Space Telescope Ly{\alpha}, H{\alpha}, and H{\beta} imaging. We find that the global dust properties determined by line ratios are consistent with other studies, with some of the LARS galaxies exhibiting clumpy dust media while others of them show significantly lower Ly{\alpha} emission compared to their Balmer decrement. With the LARS imaging, we present Ly{\alpha}/H{\alpha} and H{\alpha}/H{\beta} maps with spatial resolutions as low as $\sim$ 40 pc, and use these data to show that in most galaxies, the dust geometry is best modeled by three distinct regions: a central core where dust acts as a screen, an annulus where dust is distributed in clumps, and an outer envelope where Ly{\alpha} photons only scatter. We show that the dust that affects the escape of Ly{\alpha} is more restricted to the galaxies' central regions, while the larger Ly{\alpha} halos are generated by scattering at large radii. We present an empirical modeling technique to quantify how much Ly{\alpha} scatters in the halo, and find that this "characteristic" scattering distance correlates with the measured size of the Ly{\alpha} halo. We note that there exists a slight anti-correlation between the scattering distance of Ly{\alpha} and global dust properties.Comment: 32 pages, 51 figures, accepted to Ap

ngsJulia: population genetic analysis of next-generation DNA sequencing data with Julia language [version 3; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]

A sound analysis of DNA sequencing data is important to extract meaningful information and infer quantities of interest. Sequencing and mapping errors coupled with low and variable coverage hamper the identification of genotypes and variants and the estimation of population genetic parameters. Methods and implementations to estimate population genetic parameters from sequencing data available nowadays either are suitable for the analysis of genomes from model organisms only, require moderate sequencing coverage, or are not easily adaptable to specific applications. To address these issues, we introduce ngsJulia, a collection of templates and functions in Julia language to process short-read sequencing data for population genetic analysis. We further describe two implementations, ngsPool and ngsPloidy, for the analysis of pooled sequencing data and polyploid genomes, respectively. Through simulations, we illustrate the performance of estimating various population genetic parameters using these implementations, using both established and novel statistical methods. These results inform on optimal experimental design and demonstrate the applicability of methods in ngsJulia to estimate parameters of interest even from low coverage sequencing data. ngsJulia provide users with a flexible and efficient framework for ad hoc analysis of sequencing data.ngsJulia is available from: https://github.com/mfumagalli/ngsJulia

The shear viscosity of gauge theory plasma with chemical potentials

We consider strongly coupled gauge theory plasma with conserved global charges that allow for a dual gravitational description. We study the shear viscosity of the gauge theory plasma in the presence of chemical potentials for these charges. Using gauge theory/string theory correspondence we prove that at large 't Hooft coupling the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density is universal.Comment: 13 pages, no figure

Bulk viscosity of gauge theory plasma at strong coupling

We propose a lower bound on bulk viscosity of strongly coupled gauge theory plasmas. Using explicit example of the N=2^* gauge theory plasma we show that the bulk viscosity remains finite at a critical point with a divergent specific heat. We present an estimate for the bulk viscosity of QGP plasma at RHIC.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Linking sensory and proton transfer reaction–mass spectrometry analyses for the assessment of melon fruit (Cucumis melo L.) quality traits

Sixty-seven samples of ten melon types (Cucumis melo L.) were evaluated to determine the relationship between their quality traits: sensory attributes, pH, soluble solids, and volatile organic compounds. Fruits from the cantalupensis, conomon, dudaim, inodorus, and momordica cultivar groups were analyzed. The sensory profiles were assessed using ten attributes covering odor, flavor, and taste characteristics, whereas the volatile profiles were derived by proton transfer reaction–mass spectrometry. Fruits from the cantalupensis and inodorus cultivars showed an opposite pattern for several quality traits. Fruits from the dudaim cultivar were more related to the cantalupensis, whereas conomon and momordica showed an intermediate behavior between inodorus and cantalupensis. The attributes of odor and flavor intensity, ripe fruit odor, fermentative odor, and fermentative flavor correlated positively to C3–C9 esters (r = 0.43–0.73; p ≤ 0.01). Positive correlations were also observed for several alcohols (r = 0.36–0.82; p ≤ 0.05), including methanol, ethanol, and diol alcohols, as well as for several aldehydes (r = 0.43–0.85; p ≤ 0.01), such as acetaldehyde, butanal, methyl butanal, heptanal, and decanal. The attributes mentioned above were negatively correlated with two C9 aldehydes, 2,6-nonadienal and nonenal (r = − 0.45 to − 0.62; p ≤ 0.01), whereas sweetness was negatively correlated with two C6 green leaf volatiles, hexenal and 3-hexenol (r = − 0.50; − 0.67; p ≤ 0.001). The melon fruits presented distinct differences in the quality traits evaluated. These results provide information for the development of new cultivars with characteristic taste combinations without compromising other desirable fruit quality traits.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio