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e-ASTROGAM is a concept for a breakthrough observatory space mission carrying a gamma-ray telescope dedicated to the study of the non-thermal Universe in the photon energy range from 0.15 MeV to 3 GeV. The lower energy limit can be pushed down to energies as low as 30 keV for gamma-ray burst detection with the calorimeter. The mission is based on an advanced space-proven detector technology, with unprecedented sensitivity, angular and energy resolution, combined with remarkable polarimetric capability. Thanks to its performance in the MeV-GeV domain, substantially improving its predecessors, e-ASTROGAM will open a new window on the non-thermal Universe, making pioneering observations of the most powerful Galactic and extragalactic sources, elucidating the nature of their relativistic outflows and their effects on the surroundings. With a line sensitivity in the MeV energy range one to two orders of magnitude better than previous and current generation instruments, e-ASTROGAM will determine the origin of key isotopes fundamental for the understanding of supernova explosion and the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. The mission will be a major player of the multiwavelength, multimessenger time-domain astronomy of the 2030s, and provide unique data of significant interest to a broad astronomical community, complementary to powerful observatories such as LISA, LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, the Einstein Telescope and the Cosmic Explorer, IceCube-Gen2 and KM3NeT, SKA, ALMA, JWST, E-ELT, LSST, Athena, and the Cherenkov Telescope Array.
e-ASTROGAM (‘enhanced ASTROGAM’) is a breakthrough Observatory space mission, with a detector composed by a Silicon tracker, a calorimeter, and an anticoincidence system, dedicated to the study of the non-thermal Universe in the photon energy range from 0.3 MeV to 3 GeV – the lower energy limit can be pushed to energies as low as 150 keV, albeit with rapidly degrading angular resolution, for the tracker, and to 30 keV for calorimetric detection. The mission is based on an advanced space-proven detector technology, with unprecedented sensitivity, angular and energy resolution, combined with polarimetric capability. Thanks to its performance in the MeV-GeV domain, substantially improving its predecessors, e-ASTROGAM will open a new window on the non-thermal Universe, making pioneering observations of the most powerful Galactic and extragalactic sources, elucidating the nature of their relativistic outflows and their effects on the surroundings. With a line sensitivity in the MeV energy range one to two orders of magnitude better than previous generation instruments, e-ASTROGAM will determine the origin of key isotopes fundamental for the understanding of supernova explosion and the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. The mission will provide unique data of significant interest to a broad astronomical community, complementary to powerful observatories such as LIGO-Virgo-GEO600-KAGRA, SKA, ALMA, E-ELT, TMT, LSST, JWST, Athena, CTA, IceCube, KM3NeT, and the promise of eLISA.
Phylogenetic analyses using genome-scale data sets must confront incongruence among gene trees, which in plants is exacerbated by frequent gene duplications and losses. Gene tree parsimony (GTP) is a phylogenetic optimization criterion in which a species tree that minimizes the number of gene duplications induced among a set of gene trees is selected. The run time performance of previous implementations has limited its use on large-scale data sets. We used new software that incorporates recent algorithmic advances to examine the performance of GTP on a plant data set consisting of 18,896 gene trees containing 510,922 protein sequences from 136 plant taxa (giving a combined alignment length of >2.9 million characters). The relationships inferred from the GTP analysis were largely consistent with previous large-scale studies of backbone plant phylogeny and resolved some controversial nodes. The placement of taxa that were present in few gene trees generally varied the most among GTP bootstrap replicates. Excluding these taxa either before or after the GTP analysis revealed high levels of phylogenetic support across plants. The analyses supported magnoliids sister to a eudicot + monocot clade and did not support the eurosid I and II clades. This study presents a nuclear genomic perspective on the broad-scale phylogenic relationships among plants, and it demonstrates that nuclear genes with a history of duplication and loss can be phylogenetically informative for resolving the plant tree of life.
Permanent genetic resources added to molecular ecology resources database 1 April 2011-31 May 2011
(2011)
This article documents the addition of 92 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Anopheles minimus, An. sinensis, An. dirus, Calephelis mutica, Lutjanus kasmira, Murella muralis and Orchestia montagui. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Calephelis arizonensi, Calephelis borealis, Calephelis nemesis, Calephelis virginiensis and Lutjanus bengalensis.
The Eating Disorder Examination adapted for children (ChEDE) is the child version of the semi-structured gold standard eating disorder interview for adults. This study was a comprehensive test statistic evaluation of the German ChEDE in a large sample of children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder, loss of control eating, overweight and obesity, as well as non-eating-disordered and chronically ill control probands (n=352). Excellent inter-rater reliability, adequate internal consistency and satisfactory stability of ChEDE indicators were demonstrated. ChEDE indicators discriminated between diverse forms of eating and weight disturbances and normative eating and were significantly correlated with conceptually related measures. Factorial validity was not convincing; a brief eight-item scale showed the best fit. Item statistics were mostly acceptable. Overall, the ChEDE's German translation reliably and validly assesses psychopathology across the eating and weight disorder spectrum and facilitates international comparison of eating disorder research.
Grain-size distributions offer powerful proxies of past environmental conditions that are related to sediment sorting processes. However, they are often of multimodal character because sediments can get mixed during deposition. To facilitate the use of grain size as palaeoenvironmental proxy, this study aims to distinguish the main detrital processes that contribute to lacustrine sedimentation across the Tibetan Plateau using grain-size end-member modelling analysis. Between three and five robust grain-size end-member subpopulations were distinguished at different sites from similarly-likely end-member model runs. Their main modes were grouped and linked to common sediment transport and depositional processes that can be associated with contemporary Tibetan climate (precipitation patterns and lake ice phenology, gridded wind and shear stress data from the High Asia Reanalysis) and local catchment configurations. The coarse sands and clays with grain-size modes > 250 mu m and < 2 mu m were probably transported by fluvial processes. Aeolian sands (similar to 200 mu m) and coarse local dust (similar to 60 mu m), transported by saltation and in near-surface suspension clouds, are probably related to occasional westerly storms in winter and spring. Coarse regional dust with modes similar to 25 mu m may derive from near-by sources that keep in longer term suspension. The continuous background dust is differentiated into two robust end members (modes: 5-10 and 2-5 mu m) that may represent different sources, wind directions and/or sediment trapping dynamics from long-range, upper-level westerly and episodic northerly wind transport. According to this study grain-size end members of only fluvial origin contribute small amounts to mean Tibetan lake sedimentation (19 +/- 5%), whereas local to regional aeolian transport and background dust deposition dominate the clastic sedimentation in Tibetan lakes (contributions: 42 +/- 14% and 51 +/- 11%). However, fluvial and alluvial reworking of aeolian material from nearby slopes during summer seems to limit end-member interpretation and should be cross-checked with other proxy information. If not considered as a stand-alone proxy, a high transferability to other regions and sediment archives allows helpful reconstructions of past sedimentation history.
Recent research showed that past events are associated with the back and left side, whereas future events are associated with the front and right side of space. These spatial-temporal associations have an impact on our sensorimotor system: thinking about one's past and future leads to subtle body sways in the sagittal dimension of space (Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2010). In this study we investigated whether mental time travel leads to sensorimotor correlates in the horizontal dimension of space. Participants were asked to mentally displace themselves into the past or future while measuring their spontaneous eye movements on a blank screen. Eye gaze was directed more rightward and upward when thinking about the future than when thinking about the past. Our results provide further insight into the spatial nature of temporal thoughts, and show that not only body, but also eye movements follow a (diagonal) "time line" during mental time travel. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
A crystal of hen egg-white lysozyme was analyzed by means of energy-dispersive X-ray Laue diffraction with white synchrotron radiation at 2.7 angstrom resolution using a pnCCD detector. From Laue spots measured in a single exposure of the arbitrarily oriented crystal, the lattice constants of the tetragonal unit cell could be extracted with an accuracy of about 2.5%. Scanning across the sample surface, Laue images with split reflections were recorded at various positions. The corresponding diffraction patterns were generated by two crystalline domains with a tilt of about 1 degrees relative to each other. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of the pnCCD for fast X-ray screening of crystals of macromolecules or proteins prior to conventional X-ray structure analysis. The described experiment can be automatized to quantitatively characterize imperfect single crystals or polycrystals.