193 research outputs found
The preparation of an infectious full-length cDNA clone of Saffold virus
The pathogenicity of Saffold virus (SAFV) among humans still remains unclear, although it was identified as a novel human cardiovirus in 2007. In order to encourage the molecular pathogenetic studies of SAFV, we generated an infectious cDNA clone of SAFV type 3 (SAFV-3). The present study demonstrated that the synthesis of the full-length infectious RNA by T7 RNA polymerase was terminated by a homologous sequence motif with the human preproparathyroid hormone (PTH) signal in the SAFV-3 genome. To obtain the infectious RNA using T7 promoter, a variant of T7 RNA polymerase, which fails to recognize the PTH signal, was useful. This study will provide a valuable technical insight into the reverse genetics of SAFV
The LHCf experiment at LHC
The LHCf experiment will be installed in 2007 on the LHC collider in the forward direction at ±140m from the ATLAS interaction point. The purpose of LHCf is to precisely measure the pion production cross section near zero degrees through the measurement of the photons produced in neutral pion decay. This measurement is crucial for the simulation of the showers induced in the atmosphere by very high energy cosmic rays; the 14 TeV energy available in the center of mass frame corresponds in fact to an equivalent energy of 1017 eV in the laboratory system. The paper focus on the proposed experiment and on the physics results that we expect from it
Forward photon energy spectrum at LHC 7 TeV p-p collisions measured by LHCf
Abstract The LHCf experiment is one of the LHC forward experiments. The aim is to measure the energy and the transverse momentum spectra of photons, neutrons and Ï 0 's at the very forward region (the pseudo-rapidity range of η > 8.4 ), which should be critical data to calibrate hadron interaction models used in the air shower simulations. LHCf successfully operated at s = 900 GeV and s = 7 TeV protonâproton collisions in 2009 and 2010. We present the first physics result, single photon energy spectra at s = 7 TeV protonâproton collisions and the pseudo-rapidity ranges of η > 10.94 and 8.81 η 8.9 . The obtained spectra were compared with the predictions by several hadron interaction models and the models do not reproduce the experimental results perfectly
Decadalâcentennial-scale solar-linked climate variations and millennial-scale internal oscillations during the Early Cretaceous
Understanding climate variability and stability under extremely warm âgreenhouseâ conditions in the past is essential for future climate predictions. However, information on millennial-scale (and shorter) climate variability during such periods is scarce, owing to a lack of suitable high-resolution, deep-time archives. Here we present a continuous record of decadal- to orbital-scale continental climate variability from annually laminated lacustrine deposits formed during the late Early Cretaceous (123â120 Ma: late Barremianâearly Aptian) in southeastern Mongolia. Inter-annual changes in lake algal productivity for a 1091-year interval reveal a pronounced solar influence on decadal- to centennial-scale climatic variations (including the ~ 11-year Schwabe cycle). Decadally-resolved Ca/Ti ratios (proxy for evaporation/precipitation changes) for a ~ 355-kyr long interval further indicate millennial-scale (~ 1000â2000-yr) extreme drought events in inner-continental areas of mid-latitude palaeo-Asia during the Cretaceous. Millennial-scale oscillations in Ca/Ti ratio show distinct amplitude modulation (AM) induced by the precession, obliquity and short eccentricity cycles. Similar millennial-scale AM by Milankovitch cycle band was also previously observed in the abrupt climatic oscillations (known as DansgaardâOeschger events) in the âintermediate glacialâ state of the late Pleistocene, and in their potential analogues in the Jurassic âgreenhouseâ. Our findings indicate that external solar activity forcing was effective on decadalâcentennial timescales, whilst the millennial-scale variations were likely amplified by internal process such as changes in deep-water formation strength, even during the Cretaceous âgreenhouseâ period
A Planetary Microlensing Event with an Unusually Red Source Star: MOA-2011-BLG-291
We present the analysis of planetary microlensing event MOA-2011-BLG-291,
which has a mass ratio of and a source star that
is redder (or brighter) than the bulge main sequence. This event is located at
a low Galactic latitude in the survey area that is currently planned for NASA's
WFIRST exoplanet microlensing survey. This unusual color for a microlensed
source star implies that we cannot assume that the source star is in the
Galactic bulge. The favored interpretation is that the source star is a lower
main sequence star at a distance of kpc in the Galactic disk.
However, the source could also be a turn-off star on the far side of the bulge
or a sub-giant in the far side of the Galactic disk if it experiences
significantly more reddening than the bulge red clump stars. However, these
possibilities have only a small effect on our mass estimates for the host star
and planet. We find host star and planet masses of and from a Bayesian
analysis with a standard Galactic model under the assumption that the planet
hosting probability does not depend on the host mass or distance. However, if
we attempt to measure the host and planet masses with host star brightness
measurements from high angular resolution follow-up imaging, the implied masses
will be sensitive to the host star distance. The WFIRST exoplanet microlensing
survey is expected to use this method to determine the masses for many of the
planetary systems that it discovers, so this issue has important design
implications for the WFIRST exoplanet microlensing survey
GEOTAIL observation of the SGR1806-20 Giant Flare: The first 600 ms
On December 27, 2004, plasma particle detectors on the GEOTAIL spacecraft
detected an extremely strong signal of hard X-ray photons from the giant flare
of SGR1806-20, a magnetar candidate. While practically all gamma-ray detectors
on any satellites were saturated during the first ~500 ms interval after the
onset, one of the particle detectors on GEOTAIL was not saturated and provided
unique measurements of the hard X-ray intensity and the profile for the first
600 ms interval with 5.48 ms time resolution. After ~50 ms from the initial
rapid onset, the peak photon flux (integrated above ~50 keV) reached the order
of 10^7 photons sec^{-1} cm^{-2}. Assuming a blackbody spectrum with kT=175
keV, we estimate the peak energy flux to be 21 erg sec^{-1} cm^{-2} and the
fluence (for 0-600 ms) to be 2.4 erg cm^{-2}. The implied energy release
comparable to the magnetic energy stored in a magnetar (~10^{47} erg) suggests
an extremely efficient energy release mechanism.Comment: 6 pages, 2 color figures, submitted to Natur
Spectroscopic Mass and Host-star Metallicity Measurements for Newly Discovered Microlensing Planet OGLE-2018-BLG-0740Lb
We report the discovery of the microlensing planet OGLE-2018-BLG-0740Lb. The
planet is detected with a very strong signal of , but
the interpretation of the signal suffers from two types of degeneracies. One
type is caused by the previously known close/wide degeneracy, and the other is
caused by an ambiguity between two solutions, in which one solution requires to
incorporate finite-source effects, while the other solution is consistent with
a point-source interpretation. Although difficult to be firmly resolved based
on only the photometric data, the degeneracy is resolved in strong favor of the
point-source solution with the additional external information obtained from
astrometric and spectroscopic observations. The small astrometric offset
between the source and baseline object supports that the blend is the lens and
this interpretation is further secured by the consistency of the spectroscopic
distance estimate of the blend with the lensing parameters of the point-source
solution. The estimated mass of the host is and the mass
of the planet is (close solution) or (wide solution) and the lens is located at a distance of ~kpc.
The bright nature of the lens, with (), combined with
its dominance of the observed flux suggest that radial-velocity (RV) follow-up
observations of the lens can be done using high-resolution spectrometers
mounted on large telescopes, e.g., VLT/ESPRESSO, and this can potentially not
only measure the period and eccentricity of the planet but also probe for
close-in planets. We estimate that the expected RV amplitude would be .Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 4 table
- âŠ