Showing papers by "Australian National University published in 2012"
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TL;DR: GenAlEx: Genetic Analysis in Excel is a cross-platform package for population genetic analyses that runs within Microsoft Excel that offers analysis of diploid codominant, haploid and binary genetic loci and DNA sequences.
Abstract: Summary: GenAlEx: Genetic Analysis in Excel is a cross-platform package for population genetic analyses that runs within Microsoft Excel. GenAlEx offers analysis of diploid codominant, haploid and binary genetic loci and DNA sequences. Both frequency-based (F-statistics, heterozygosity, HWE, population assignment, relatedness) and distance-based (AMOVA, PCoA, Mantel tests, multivariate spatial autocorrelation) analyses are provided. New features include calculation of new estimators of population structure: G′ST, G′′ST, Jost’s Dest and F′ST through AMOVA, Shannon Information analysis, linkage disequilibrium analysis for biallelic data and novel heterogeneity tests for spatial autocorrelation analysis. Export to more than 30 other data formats is provided. Teaching tutorials and expanded step-by-step output options are included. The comprehensive guide has been fully revised.
Availability and implementation: GenAlEx is written in VBA and provided as a Microsoft Excel Add-in (compatible with Excel 2003, 2007, 2010 on PC; Excel 2004, 2011 on Macintosh). GenAlEx, and supporting documentation and tutorials are freely available at: http://biology.anu.edu.au/GenAlEx.
Contact: rod.peakall@anu.edu.au
9,564 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors estimated deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs; sum of years lived with disability [YLD] and years of life lost [YLL]) attributable to the independent effects of 67 risk factors and clusters of risk factors for 21 regions in 1990 and 2010.
9,324 citations
TL;DR: Two new objective methods for the combined selection of best-fit partitioning schemes and nucleotide substitution models are described and implemented in an open-source program, PartitionFinder, which it is hoped will encourage the objective selection of partitions and thus lead to improvements in phylogenetic analyses.
Abstract: In phylogenetic analyses of molecular sequence data, partitioning involves estimating independent models of molecular evolution for different sets of sites in a sequence alignment. Choosing an appropriate partitioning scheme is an important step in most analyses because it can affect the accuracy of phylogenetic reconstruction. Despite this, partitioning schemes are often chosen without explicit statistical justification. Here, we describe two new objective methods for the combined selection of best-fit partitioning schemes and nucleotide substitution models. These methods allow millions of partitioning schemes to be compared in realistic time frames and so permit the objective selection of partitioning schemes even for large multilocus DNA data sets. We demonstrate that these methods significantly outperform previous approaches, including both the ad hoc selection of partitioning schemes (e.g., partitioning by gene or codon position) and a recently proposed hierarchical clustering method. We have implemented these methods in an open-source program, PartitionFinder. This program allows users to select partitioning schemes and substitution models using a range of information-theoretic metrics (e.g., the Bayesian information criterion, akaike information criterion [AIC], and corrected AIC). We hope that PartitionFinder will encourage the objective selection of partitioning schemes and thus lead to improvements in phylogenetic analyses. PartitionFinder is written in Python and runs under Mac OSX 10.4 and above. The program, source code, and a detailed manual are freely available from www.robertlanfear.com/partitionfinder.
4,877 citations
TL;DR: This work proposes a framework for analyzing and comparing distributions, which is used to construct statistical tests to determine if two samples are drawn from different distributions, and presents two distribution free tests based on large deviation bounds for the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD).
Abstract: We propose a framework for analyzing and comparing distributions, which we use to construct statistical tests to determine if two samples are drawn from different distributions. Our test statistic is the largest difference in expectations over functions in the unit ball of a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS), and is called the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD).We present two distribution free tests based on large deviation bounds for the MMD, and a third test based on the asymptotic distribution of this statistic. The MMD can be computed in quadratic time, although efficient linear time approximations are available. Our statistic is an instance of an integral probability metric, and various classical metrics on distributions are obtained when alternative function classes are used in place of an RKHS. We apply our two-sample tests to a variety of problems, including attribute matching for databases using the Hungarian marriage method, where they perform strongly. Excellent performance is also obtained when comparing distributions over graphs, for which these are the first such tests.
3,792 citations
TL;DR: Unexpectedly, it is found that many proteins of the HeLa mRNA interactome are highly intrinsically disordered and enriched in short repetitive amino acid motifs.
1,782 citations
TL;DR: This Review summarizes research on photonic, terahertz and microwave electromagnetic metamaterials and metadevices with functionalities attained through the exploitation of phase-change media, semiconductors, graphene, carbon nanotubes and liquid crystals.
Abstract: Metamaterials, artificial electromagnetic media that are structured on the subwavelength scale, were initially suggested for the negative-index 'superlens'. Later metamaterials became a paradigm for engineering electromagnetic space and controlling propagation of waves: the field of transformation optics was born. The research agenda is now shifting towards achieving tunable, switchable, nonlinear and sensing functionalities. It is therefore timely to discuss the emerging field of metadevices where we define the devices as having unique and useful functionalities that are realized by structuring of functional matter on the subwavelength scale. In this Review we summarize research on photonic, terahertz and microwave electromagnetic metamaterials and metadevices with functionalities attained through the exploitation of phase-change media, semiconductors, graphene, carbon nanotubes and liquid crystals. The Review also encompasses microelectromechanical metadevices, metadevices engaging the nonlinear and quantum response of superconductors, electrostatic and optomechanical forces and nonlinear metadevices incorporating lumped nonlinear components.
1,741 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that the previously reported increase in global drought is overestimated because the PDSI uses a simplified model of potential evaporation that responds only to changes in temperature and thus responds incorrectly to global warming in recent decades.
Abstract: A physically based approach to drought modelling shows that there has been little change in drought from 1950 to 2008, contradicting previous work that suggested an increase in recent years. Published assessments of historic changes in drought during recent decades have suggested that the frequency and area of droughts have been increasing. Here Justin Sheffield et al. show that this prior work was flawed, because of an inappropriate calculation of drought metrics. Using a more physically based approach, the team shows that there has in fact been little change in drought during the period 1950 to 2008. Drought is expected to increase in frequency and severity in the future as a result of climate change, mainly as a consequence of decreases in regional precipitation but also because of increasing evaporation driven by global warming1,2,3. Previous assessments of historic changes in drought over the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries indicate that this may already be happening globally. In particular, calculations of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) show a decrease in moisture globally since the 1970s with a commensurate increase in the area in drought that is attributed, in part, to global warming4,5. The simplicity of the PDSI, which is calculated from a simple water-balance model forced by monthly precipitation and temperature data, makes it an attractive tool in large-scale drought assessments, but may give biased results in the context of climate change6. Here we show that the previously reported increase in global drought is overestimated because the PDSI uses a simplified model of potential evaporation7 that responds only to changes in temperature and thus responds incorrectly to global warming in recent decades. More realistic calculations, based on the underlying physical principles8 that take into account changes in available energy, humidity and wind speed, suggest that there has been little change in drought over the past 60 years. The results have implications for how we interpret the impact of global warming on the hydrological cycle and its extremes, and may help to explain why palaeoclimate drought reconstructions based on tree-ring data diverge from the PDSI-based drought record in recent years9,10.
1,563 citations
University of Göttingen1, University of Canterbury2, Agricultural Research Service3, University of Western Australia4, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation5, Carleton University6, Eötvös Loránd University7, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences8, Miami University9, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ10, Imperial College London11, University of Florida12, University of Würzburg13, Lüneburg University14, University of California, Berkeley15, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center16, James Cook University17, Australian National University18, National University of Singapore19, Wageningen University and Research Centre20
TL;DR: This review uses knowledge gained from human‐modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which it hopes will encourage more systematic research on the role of landscape composition and configuration in determining the structure of ecological communities, ecosystem functioning and services.
Abstract: Understanding how landscape characteristics affect biodiversity patterns and ecological processes at local and landscape scales is critical for mitigating effects of global environmental change. In this review, we use knowledge gained from human-modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which we hope will encourage more systematic research on
1,513 citations
TL;DR: In this article, two relaying protocols, namely, time switching-based relaying (TSR) and power splitting-based relay (PSR), are proposed to enable energy harvesting and information processing at the relay.
Abstract: An emerging solution for prolonging the lifetime of energy constrained relay nodes in wireless networks is to avail the ambient radio-frequency (RF) signal and to simultaneously harvest energy and process information. In this paper, an amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying network is considered, where an energy constrained relay node harvests energy from the received RF signal and uses that harvested energy to forward the source information to the destination. Based on the time switching and power splitting receiver architectures, two relaying protocols, namely, i) time switching-based relaying (TSR) protocol and ii) power splitting-based relaying (PSR) protocol are proposed to enable energy harvesting and information processing at the relay. In order to determine the throughput, analytical expressions for the outage probability and the ergodic capacity are derived for delay-limited and delay-tolerant transmission modes, respectively. The numerical analysis provides practical insights into the effect of various system parameters, such as energy harvesting time, power splitting ratio, source transmission rate, source to relay distance, noise power, and energy harvesting efficiency, on the performance of wireless energy harvesting and information processing using AF relay nodes. In particular, the TSR protocol outperforms the PSR protocol in terms of throughput at relatively low signal-to-noise-ratios and high transmission rate.
1,443 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of dissipative solitons and their application to high-energy mode-locked fiber laser cavities are discussed, and an outlook of the field is also provided.
Abstract: This Review explains the concept of dissipative solitons and their application to high-energy mode-locked fibre laser cavities. Dynamics and effects such as dissipative soliton ‘explosions’ and ‘rain’ are summarized, and an outlook of the field is also provided.
1,322 citations
TL;DR: This tutorial article overviews the history of femtocells, demystifies their key aspects, and provides a preview of the next few years, which the authors believe will see a rapid acceleration towards small cell technology.
Abstract: Femtocells, despite their name, pose a potentially large disruption to the carefully planned cellular networks that now connect a majority of the planet's citizens to the Internet and with each other. Femtocells - which by the end of 2010 already outnumbered traditional base stations and at the time of publication are being deployed at a rate of about five million a year - both enhance and interfere with this network in ways that are not yet well understood. Will femtocells be crucial for offloading data and video from the creaking traditional network? Or will femtocells prove more trouble than they are worth, undermining decades of careful base station deployment with unpredictable interference while delivering only limited gains? Or possibly neither: are femtocells just a "flash in the pan"; an exciting but short-lived stage of network evolution that will be rendered obsolete by improved WiFi offloading, new backhaul regulations and/or pricing, or other unforeseen technological developments? This tutorial article overviews the history of femtocells, demystifies their key aspects, and provides a preview of the next few years, which the authors believe will see a rapid acceleration towards small cell technology. In the course of the article, we also position and introduce the articles that headline this special issue.
TL;DR: In this article, a tutorial for modeling, estimation, and control for multi-rotor aerial vehicles that includes the common four-rotors or quadrotors case is presented.
Abstract: This article provides a tutorial introduction to modeling, estimation, and control for multirotor aerial vehicles that includes the common four-rotor or quadrotor case.
TL;DR: This work proposes a novel way to achieve an exceptionally wide frequency range where metamaterial possesses negative effective permeability, and demonstrates that, with an appropriate design, a frequency band exceeding 100% is available for a range of signal amplitudes.
Abstract: We propose a novel way to achieve an exceptionally wide frequency range where metamaterial possesses negative effective permeability. This can be achieved by employing a nonlinear response of metamaterials. We demonstrate that, with an appropriate design, a frequency band exceeding 100% is available for a range of signal amplitudes. Our proposal provides a significant improvement over the linear approach, opening a road towards broadband negative refraction and its applications.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation1, Australian National University2, University of Mainz3, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology4, Socièté Nationale de l'Electricité et du Gaz5, Cornell University6, South African Weather Service7, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals8, University of Tabriz9
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a review of the literature to assess whether stilling is a globally widespread phenomenon and highlight the contribution of the aerodynamic and radiative components to these declining evaporation rates.
Swinburne University of Technology1, Australian Astronomical Observatory2, University of Sydney3, University of Queensland4, California Institute of Technology5, University of Chicago6, Australia Telescope National Facility7, Carnegie Institution for Science8, Monash University, Clayton campus9, Australian National University10, University of British Columbia11, University of Toronto12
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors performed a joint determination of the distance-redshift relation and cosmic expansion rate at redshifts z = 0.44, 0.6 and 0.73 by combining measurements of the baryon acoustic peak and Alcock-Paczynski distortion from galaxy clustering in the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey, using a large ensemble of mock catalogues to calculate the covariance between the measurements.
Abstract: We perform a joint determination of the distance–redshift relation and cosmic expansion rate at redshifts z = 0.44, 0.6 and 0.73 by combining measurements of the baryon acoustic peak and Alcock–Paczynski distortion from galaxy clustering in the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey, using a large ensemble of mock catalogues to calculate the covariance between the measurements. We find that D_A(z) = (1205 ± 114, 1380 ± 95, 1534 ± 107) Mpc and H(z) = (82.6 ± 7.8, 87.9 ± 6.1, 97.3 ± 7.0) km s^(−1) Mpc^(−1) at these three redshifts. Further combining our results with other baryon acoustic oscillation and distant supernovae data sets, we use a Monte Carlo Markov Chain technique to determine the evolution of the Hubble parameter H(z) as a stepwise function in nine redshift bins of width Δz = 0.1, also marginalizing over the spatial curvature. Our measurements of H(z), which have precision better than 7 per cent in most redshift bins, are consistent with the expansion history predicted by a cosmological constant dark energy model, in which the expansion rate accelerates at redshift z < 0.7.
TL;DR: In this article, the injection-dependent carrier recombination for a broad range of dopant concentrations of high-purity $n$-type and $p$)-type silicon wafers passivated with state-of-the-art dielectric layers of aluminum oxide or silicon nitride was studied.
Abstract: An accurate quantitative description of the Auger recombination rate in silicon as a function of the dopant density and the carrier injection level is important to understand the physics of this fundamental mechanism and to predict the physical limits to the performance of silicon based devices. Technological progress has permitted a near suppression of competing recombination mechanisms, both in the bulk of the silicon crystal and at the surfaces. This, coupled with advanced characterization techniques, has led to an improved determination of the Auger recombination rate, which is lower than previously thought. In this contribution we present a systematic study of the injection-dependent carrier recombination for a broad range of dopant concentrations of high-purity $n$-type and $p$-type silicon wafers passivated with state-of-the-art dielectric layers of aluminum oxide or silicon nitride. Based on these measurements, we develop a general parametrization for intrinsic recombination in crystalline silicon at 300 K consistent with the theory of Coulomb-enhanced Auger and radiative recombination. Based on this improved description we are able to analyze physical aspects of the Auger recombination mechanism such as the Coulomb enhancement.
TL;DR: The effects of menarche and menopause on breast cancer risk might not be acting merely by lengthening women's total number of reproductive years, and endogenous ovarian hormones are more relevant for oestrogen receptor-positive disease than for ostrogens receptor-negative disease and for lobular than for ductal tumours.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Menarche and menopause mark the onset and cessation, respectively, of ovarian activity associated with reproduction, and affect breast cancer risk. Our aim was to assess the strengths of their effects and determine whether they depend on characteristics of the tumours or the affected women.METHODS:Individual data from 117 epidemiological studies, including 118 964 women with invasive breast cancer and 306 091 without the disease, none of whom had used menopausal hormone therapy, were included in the analyses. We calculated adjusted relative risks (RRs) associated with menarche and menopause for breast cancer overall, and by tumour histology and by oestrogen receptor expression.FINDINGS:Breast cancer risk increased by a factor of 1·050 (95% CI 1·044-1·057; p<0·0001) for every year younger at menarche, and independently by a smaller amount (1·029, 1·025-1·032; p<0·0001), for every year older at menopause. Premenopausal women had a greater risk of breast cancer than postmenopausal women of an identical age (RR at age 45-54 years 1·43, 1·33-1·52, p<0·001). All three of these associations were attenuated by increasing adiposity among postmenopausal women, but did not vary materially by women's year of birth, ethnic origin, childbearing history, smoking, alcohol consumption, or hormonal contraceptive use. All three associations were stronger for lobular than for ductal tumours (p<0·006 for each comparison). The effect of menopause in women of an identical age and trends by age at menopause were stronger for oestrogen receptor-positive disease than for oestrogen receptor-negative disease (p<0·01 for both comparisons).INTERPRETATION:The effects of menarche and menopause on breast cancer risk might not be acting merely by lengthening women's total number of reproductive years. Endogenous ovarian hormones are more relevant for oestrogen receptor-positive disease than for oestrogen receptor-negative disease and for lobular than for ductal tumours.
TL;DR: The widespread presence of modified cytosines throughout coding and non-coding sequences in a transcriptome is demonstrated, suggesting a broader role of this modification in the post-transcriptional control of cellular RNA function.
Abstract: The modified base 5-methylcytosine (m(5)C) is well studied in DNA, but investigations of its prevalence in cellular RNA have been largely confined to tRNA and rRNA. In animals, the two m(5)C methyltransferases NSUN2 and TRDMT1 are known to modify specific tRNAs and have roles in the control of cell growth and differentiation. To map modified cytosine sites across a human transcriptome, we coupled bisulfite conversion of cellular RNA with next-generation sequencing. We confirmed 21 of the 28 previously known m(5)C sites in human tRNAs and identified 234 novel tRNA candidate sites, mostly in anticipated structural positions. Surprisingly, we discovered 10,275 sites in mRNAs and other non-coding RNAs. We observed that distribution of modified cytosines between RNA types was not random; within mRNAs they were enriched in the untranslated regions and near Argonaute binding regions. We also identified five new sites modified by NSUN2, broadening its known substrate range to another tRNA, the RPPH1 subunit of RNase P and two mRNAs. Our data demonstrates the widespread presence of modified cytosines throughout coding and non-coding sequences in a transcriptome, suggesting a broader role of this modification in the post-transcriptional control of cellular RNA function.
TL;DR: The association between sitting and all-cause mortality appeared consistent across the sexes, age groups, body mass index categories, and physical activity levels and across healthy participants compared with participants with preexisting cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus.
Abstract: Background:Prolonged sitting is considered detrimental to health, but evidence regarding the independent relationship of total sitting time with all-cause mortality is limited. This study aimed to determine the independent relationship of sitting time with all-cause mortality. Methods:Welinkedprospectivequestionnairedatafrom 222497 individuals 45 years or older from the 45 and Up Study to mortality data from the New South Wales RegistryofBirths,Deaths,andMarriages(Australia)from February1,2006,throughDecember31,2010.Coxproportional hazards models examined all-cause mortality in relation to sitting time, adjusting for potential confounders that included sex, age, education, urban/rural residence, physical activity, body mass index, smoking status, self-rated health, and disability. Results:During621695person-yearsoffollow-up(mean follow-up, 2.8 years), 5405 deaths were registered. Allcause mortality hazard ratios were 1.02 (95% CI, 0.951.09),1.15(1.06-1.25),and1.40(1.27-1.55)for4toless than 8, 8 to less than 11, and 11 or more h/d of sitting, respectively,comparedwithlessthan4h/d,adjustingfor physicalactivityandotherconfounders.Thepopulationattributable fraction for sitting was 6.9%. The associationbetweensittingandall-causemortalityappearedconsistent across the sexes, age groups, body mass index categories,andphysicalactivitylevelsandacrosshealthy participants compared with participants with preexisting cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus. Conclusions: Prolonged sitting is a risk factor for allcause mortality, independent of physical activity. Publichealthprogramsshouldfocusonreducingsittingtime in addition to increasing physical activity levels.
TL;DR: A survey of 12 variations of 6 indexing techniques for record linkage and deduplication aimed at reducing the number of record pairs to be compared in the matching process by removing obvious nonmatching pairs, while at the same time maintaining high matching quality is presented.
Abstract: Record linkage is the process of matching records from several databases that refer to the same entities. When applied on a single database, this process is known as deduplication. Increasingly, matched data are becoming important in many application areas, because they can contain information that is not available otherwise, or that is too costly to acquire. Removing duplicate records in a single database is a crucial step in the data cleaning process, because duplicates can severely influence the outcomes of any subsequent data processing or data mining. With the increasing size of today's databases, the complexity of the matching process becomes one of the major challenges for record linkage and deduplication. In recent years, various indexing techniques have been developed for record linkage and deduplication. They are aimed at reducing the number of record pairs to be compared in the matching process by removing obvious nonmatching pairs, while at the same time maintaining high matching quality. This paper presents a survey of 12 variations of 6 indexing techniques. Their complexity is analyzed, and their performance and scalability is evaluated within an experimental framework using both synthetic and real data sets. No such detailed survey has so far been published.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how the institutional environment influences capital structure and debt maturity choices of firms in 39 developed and developing countries and find that firms in more corrupt countries and those with weaker laws tend to use more debt, especially short-term debt; explicit bankruptcy codes and deposit insurance are associated with higher leverage and more longterm debt.
Abstract: This study examines how the institutional environment influences capital structure and debt maturity choices of firms in 39 developed and developing countries. We find that a country's legal and tax system, corruption, and the preferences of capital suppliers explain a significant portion of the variation in leverage and debt maturity ratios. Specifically, firms in more corrupt countries and those with weaker laws tend to use more debt, especially short-term debt; explicit bankruptcy codes and deposit insurance are associated with higher leverage and more long-term debt. More debt is used in countries where there is a greater tax gain from leverage. © 2012 Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195.
TL;DR: The compaction of genomic DNA into chromatin has profound implications for the regulation of key processes such as transcription, replication and DNA repair, and it is becoming clear that chromatin structures are not nearly as uniform and regular as previously assumed.
Abstract: Chromatin compaction has profound implications for the regulation of transcription, replication and DNA repair. Changes in nucleosome structure and stability — due to the incorporation of variant histones and post-translational modifications of histones — affect chromatin compaction. Chromatin structures are not nearly as uniform as previously assumed, which should be taken into account in the context of specific biological functions.
TL;DR: The UCL Lancet Commission met from November, 2009, to June, 2011, bringing together an interdisciplinary team of experts to under stand how better health outcomes can be delivered through interventions in the urban environment in cities across the world, and to generate policy recommendations.
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of state ownership on Chinese firms' foreign direct investment (FDI) ownership decisions is investigated, and the authors argue that state ownership creates the political affiliation of a firm with its home country government, which increases the firm's resource dependence on home-country institutions, while also influencing its image as perceived by host-country institutional constituents.
Abstract: This study investigates the effect of state ownership on Chinese firms’ foreign direct investment (FDI) ownership decisions. It adopts a political perspective to extend the application of institutional theory in international business research. Specifically, it examines firms’ heterogeneous responses to external institutional processes during foreign market entry, while taking into consideration the political affiliation of firms with the external institutions. We argue that state ownership creates the political affiliation of a firm with its home-country government, which increases the firm's resource dependence on home-country institutions, while at the same time influencing its image as perceived by host-country institutional constituents. Such resource dependence and political perception increase firms’ tendency to conform to, rather than resist, isomorphic institutional pressures. We tested our hypotheses using primary data for 132 FDI entries made by Chinese firms during 2000–2006, and we found that the effects of home regulatory, host regulatory and host normative pressures on a firm to choose a joint ownership structure were stronger when the share of equity held by state entities in the firm was high.
TL;DR: In this paper, Eisenstein et al. applied the reconstruction technique to the SDSS DR7 LRG sample, sharpening the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature and achieving a 1.9% measurement of the distance to z=0.35.
Abstract: We apply the reconstruction technique to the clustering of galaxies from the
SDSS DR7 LRG sample, sharpening the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature
and achieving a 1.9% measurement of the distance to z=0.35. This is the first
application of reconstruction of the BAO feature in a galaxy redshift survey.
We update the reconstruction algorithm of Eisenstein et al, 2007 to account for
the effects of survey geometry as well as redshift-space distortions and
validate it on 160 LasDamas simulations. We demonstrate that reconstruction
sharpens the BAO feature in the angle averaged galaxy correlation function,
reducing the nonlinear smoothing scale \Sigma_nl from 8.1 Mpc/h to 4.4 Mpc/h.
Reconstruction also significantly reduces the effects of redshift-space
distortions at the BAO scale, isotropizing the correlation function. This
sharpened BAO feature yields an unbiased distance estimate (< 0.2%) and reduces
the scatter from 3.3% to 2.1%. We demonstrate the robustness of these results
to the various reconstruction parameters, including the smoothing scale, the
galaxy bias and the linear growth rate. Applying this reconstruction algorithm
to the SDSS LRG DR7 sample improves the significance of the BAO feature in
these data from 3.3 sigma for the unreconstructed correlation function, to 4.2
sigma after reconstruction. We estimate a relative distance scale D_V/r_s to
z=0.35 of 8.88+/-0.17, where r_s is the sound horizon and D_V = (D_A^2/H)^{1/3}
is a combination of the angular diameter distance D_A and Hubble parameter H.
Assuming a sound horizon of 154.25 Mpc, this translates into a distance
measurement D_V (z=0.35) = 1.356+/-0.025 Gpc. We find that reconstruction
reduces the distance error in the DR7 sample from 3.5% to 1.9%, equivalent to a
survey with three times the volume of SDSS.
TL;DR: The manipulation of the flavonoid pathway to synthesize specifically certain products has been suggested as an avenue to improve root-rhizosphere interactions and the overlapping functions of many flavonoids as stimulators of functions in one organism and inhibitors of another suggests caution in attempts to manipulate flavonoidal rhizosphere signals.
Abstract: The flavonoid pathway produces a diverse array of plant compounds with functions in UV protection, as antioxidants, pigments, auxin transport regulators, defence compounds against pathogens and during signalling in symbiosis This review highlights some of the known function of flavonoids in the rhizosphere, in particular for the interaction of roots with microorganisms Depending on their structure, flavonoids have been shown to stimulate or inhibit rhizobial nod gene expression, cause chemoattraction of rhizobia towards the root, inhibit root pathogens, stimulate mycorrhizal spore germination and hyphal branching, mediate allelopathic interactions between plants, affect quorum sensing, and chelate soil nutrients Therefore, the manipulation of the flavonoid pathway to synthesize specifically certain products has been suggested as an avenue to improve root‐rhizosphere interactions Possible strategies to alter flavonoid exudation to the rhizosphere are discussed Possible challenges in that endeavour include limited knowledge of the mechanisms that regulate flavonoid transport and exudation, unforeseen effects of altering parts of the flavonoid synthesis pathway on fluxes elsewhere in the pathway, spatial heterogeneity of flavonoid exudation along the root, as well as alteration of flavonoid products by microorganisms in the soil In addition, the overlapping functions of many flavonoids as stimulators of functions in one organism and inhibitors of another suggests caution in attempts to manipulate flavonoid rhizosphere signals
TL;DR: Two large facial-expression databases depicting challenging real-world conditions were constructed using a semi-automatic approach via a recommender system based on subtitles.
Abstract: Two large facial-expression databases depicting challenging real-world conditions were constructed using a semi-automatic approach via a recommender system based on subtitles.
TL;DR: In this article, a review of magnetic properties and the environmental processes that give rise to the measured magnetic signal is presented, and the power of environmental magnetism in enabling quantitative environmental interpretations is discussed.
Abstract: [1] In environmental magnetism, rock and mineral magnetic techniques are used to investigate the formation, transportation, deposition, and postdepositional alterations of magnetic minerals under the influences of a wide range of environmental processes. All materials respond in some way to an applied magnetic field, and iron-bearing minerals are sensitive to a range of environmental processes, which makes magnetic measurements extremely useful for detecting signals associated with environmental processes. Environmental magnetism has grown considerably since the mid 1970s and now contributes to research in the geosciences and in branches of physics, chemistry, and biology and environmental science, including research on climate change, pollution, iron biomineralization, and depositional and diagenetic processes in sediments to name a few applications. Magnetic parameters are used to routinely scan sediments, but interpretation is often difficult and requires understanding of the underlying physics and chemistry. Thorough examination of magnetic properties and of the environmental processes that give rise to the measured magnetic signal is needed to avoid ambiguities, complexities, and limitations to interpretations. In this review, we evaluate environmental magnetic parameters based on theory and empirical results. We describe how ambiguities can be resolved by use of combined techniques and demonstrate the power of environmental magnetism in enabling quantitative environmental interpretations. We also review recent developments that demonstrate the mutual benefit of environmental magnetism from close collaborations with biology, chemistry, and physics. Finally, we discuss directions in which environmental magnetism is likely to develop in the future.