Galactic cosmic rays consist of protons, electrons and ions, most of which are believed to be accelerated to relativistic speeds in supernova remnants. All components of the cosmic rays show an ...intensity that decreases as a power law with increasing energy (for example as E-2.7). Electrons in particular lose energy rapidly through synchrotron and inverse Compton processes, resulting in a relatively short lifetime (about 105 years) and a rapidly falling intensity, which raises the possibility of seeing the contribution from individual nearby sources (less than one kiloparsec away). Here we report an excess of galactic cosmic-ray electrons at energies of ∼300-800 GeV, which indicates a nearby source of energetic electrons. Such a source could be an unseen astrophysical object (such as a pulsar or micro-quasar) that accelerates electrons to those energies, or the electrons could arise from the annihilation of dark matter particles (such as a Kaluza-Klein particle with a mass of about 620 GeV).
Agriculture provides excellent model systems for understanding how selective pressure, as applied by humans, can affect the genomes of plants and animals. One such system is modern poultry breeding ...in which intensive genetic selection has been applied for meat production in the domesticated chicken. As a result, modern meat-type chickens (broilers) exhibit enhanced growth, especially of the skeletal muscle, relative to their legacy counterparts. Comparative studies of modern and legacy broiler chickens provide an opportunity to identify genes and pathways affected by this human-directed evolution. This study used RNA-seq to compare the transcriptomes of a modern and a legacy broiler line to identify differentially enriched genes in the breast muscle at days 6 and 21 post-hatch. Among the 15,945 genes analyzed, 10,841 were expressed at greater than 0.1 RPKM. At day 6 post-hatch 189 genes, including several regulators of myogenic growth and development, were differentially enriched between the two lines. The transcriptional profiles between lines at day 21 post-hatch identify 193 genes differentially enriched and still include genes associated with myogenic growth. This study identified differentially enriched genes that regulate myogenic growth and differentiation between the modern and legacy broiler lines. Specifically, differences in the ratios of several positive (IGF1, IGF1R, WFIKKN2) and negative (MSTN, ACE) myogenic growth regulators may help explain the differences underlying the enhanced growth characteristics of the modern broilers.
CrN thin films with an N/Cr ratio of 95% were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering onto (0 0 0 1) sapphire substrates. X-ray diffraction and pole figure texture analysis show CrN (1 1 1) ...epitaxial growth in a twin domain fashion. By changing the nitrogen versus argon gas flow mixture and the deposition temperature, thin films with different surface morphologies ranging from grainy rough textures to flat and smooth films were prepared. These parameters can also affect the CrNx system, with the film compound changing between semiconducting CrN and metallic Cr2N through the regulation of the nitrogen content of the gas flow and the deposition temperature at a constant deposition pressure. Thermoelectric measurements (electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient), scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy imaging confirm the changing electrical resistivity between 0.75 and 300 , the changing Seebeck coefficient values between 140 and 230 , and the differences in surface morphology and microstructure as higher temperatures result in lower electrical resistivity while gas flow mixtures with higher nitrogen content result in single phase cubic CrN.
Before acquiring highest-resolution data of Ceres, questions remained about the emplacement mechanism and source of Occator crater’s bright faculae. Here we report that brine effusion emplaced the ...faculae in a brine-limited, impact-induced hydrothermal system. Impact-derived fracturing enabled brines to reach the surface. The central faculae, Cerealia and Pasola Facula, postdate the central pit, and were primarily sourced from an impact-induced melt chamber, with some contribution from a deeper, pre-existing brine reservoir. Vinalia Faculae, in the crater floor, were sourced from the laterally extensive deep reservoir only. Vinalia Faculae are comparatively thinner and display greater ballistic emplacement than the central faculae because the deep reservoir brines took a longer path to the surface and contained more gas than the shallower impact-induced melt chamber brines. Impact-derived fractures providing conduits, and mixing of impact-induced melt with deeper endogenic brines, could also allow oceanic material to reach the surfaces of other large icy bodies.
The concepts and technical realisation of the high‐resolution soft X‐ray beamline ADRESS operating in the energy range from 300 to 1600 eV and intended for resonant inelastic X‐ray scattering (RIXS) ...and angle‐resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) are described. The photon source is an undulator of novel fixed‐gap design where longitudinal movement of permanent magnetic arrays controls not only the light polarization (including circular and 0–180° rotatable linear polarizations) but also the energy without changing the gap. The beamline optics is based on the well established scheme of plane‐grating monochromator operating in collimated light. The ultimate resolving power E/ΔE is above 33000 at 1 keV photon energy. The choice of blazed versus lamellar gratings and optimization of their profile parameters is described. Owing to glancing angles on the mirrors as well as optimized groove densities and profiles of the gratings, the beamline is capable of delivering high photon flux up to 1 × 1013 photons s−1 (0.01% BW)−1 at 1 keV. Ellipsoidal refocusing optics used for the RIXS endstation demagnifies the vertical spot size down to 4 µm, which allows slitless operation and thus maximal transmission of the high‐resolution RIXS spectrometer delivering E/ΔE > 11000 at 1 keV photon energy. Apart from the beamline optics, an overview of the control system is given, the diagnostics and software tools are described, and strategies used for the optical alignment are discussed. An introduction to the concepts and instrumental realisation of the ARPES and RIXS endstations is given.
The Seyfert 1 galaxy Arp 151 was monitored as part of three reverberation mapping campaigns spanning 2008-2015. We present modeling of these velocity-resolved reverberation mapping data sets using a ...geometric and dynamical model for the broad-line region (BLR). By modeling each of the three data sets independently, we infer the evolution of the BLR structure in Arp 151 over a total of 7 yr and constrain the systematic uncertainties in nonvarying parameters such as the black hole mass. We find that the BLR geometry of a thick disk viewed close to face-on is stable over this time, although the size of the BLR grows by a factor of ∼2. The dynamics of the BLR are dominated by inflow, and the inferred black hole mass is consistent for the three data sets, despite the increase in BLR size. Combining the inference for the three data sets yields a black hole mass and statistical uncertainty of log10( / ) = with a standard deviation in individual measurements of 0.13 dex.
The final results of processing the data from the balloon-born experiment ATIC-2 (Antarctica, 2002–2003) for the energy spectra of protons and He, C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe nuclei, the spectrum of all ...particles, and the mean logarithm of atomic weight of primary cosmic rays as a function of energy are presented. The final results are based on improvement of the methods used earlier, in particular, considerably increased resolution of the charge spectrum. The preliminary conclusions on the significant difference in the spectra of protons and helium nuclei (the proton spectrum is steeper) and the non-power character of the spectra of protons and heavier nuclei (flattening of carbon spectrum at energies above 10 TeV) are confirmed. A complex structure of the energy dependence of the mean logarithm of atomic weight is found.
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