bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Balancing Formal and Informal Care for Older Persons: How Case Managers Respond
Authors: Peckham Allie , Williams A. Paul , Neysmith Sheila
Published: April 2014

Cette étude a examiné la façon dont les gestionnaires de cas de soins à domicile et en milieu communautaire dans la première ligne de la profession voir le rôle des aidants naturels et les facteurs qui contribuent aux décisions de ces gestionnaires en ce qui concerne l’allocation des ressources. La recherche pour l’étude a utilisé deux méthodes de collecte de données: (a) l’analyse secondaire des résultats de simulations de la balance de soins, réalisées dans neuf régions de l’Ontario, et (b) des entretiens en profondeur de suivi avec les différents gestionnaires de la B de S. Les résultats indiquent que les gestionnaires de cas sont d’accord à l’unanimité que l’unité des soins dans le secteur SDMC ne se limite pas à l’individu, tel qu’en soins aigus, mais englobe à la fois l’individu et le soignant. Nous avons constaté, cependant, des variations considérables dans l’assortiment et le volume des services SDMC recommandés par les gestionnaires de cas. Nous concluons que la variabilité de la prise de décision peut refléter la manque de réglementation, de meilleures pratiques, et de lignes directrices pour la responsabilité dans le secteur SDMC.
Underfilm corrosion of steel sheets observed by confocal 3D-XRF technique
Authors: Akioka Koji , Nakazawa Takashi , Doi Takashi , Arai Masahiro , Tsuji Kouichi
Published: April 2014

A confocal micro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF) method with a vacuum chamber was used for investigation of underfilm corrosion that occurs on a painted steel sheet used for automotive applications. A painted steel sheet was prepared by applying electrodeposition coating onto an electro-galvanized steel sheet with a zinc phosphate conversion coating. The spatial resolution of the confocal micro-XRF was about 10.9 ?m at an energy of 17.4 keV. The phosphorus signal from the zinc phosphate layer was able to be observed nondestructively by measuring under the vacuum condition. Each layer of the painted steel sheet was observed from the depth profile analysis of the characteristic elements of each layer. The painted steel sheet was scratched to expose the substrate surface, and then the sheet was then immersed in a NaCl solution for 10 days. The in-depth elemental map of Ti of the corroded steel sheet revealed blister-type corrosion around the scratch. The in-depth elemental maps of Zn and P suggested that the zinc phosphate layer dissolved from the scratched part into the NaCl solution.
From unit-and-ten to ten-before-unit order in the history of English numerals
Authors: Berg Thomas , Neubauer Marion
Published: April 2014

In the course of its history, English underwent a significant structural change in its numeral system. The number words from 21 to 99 switched from the unit-and-ten to the ten-before-unit pattern. This change is traced on the basis of more than 800 number words. It is argued that this change, which took seven centuries to complete and in which the Old English pattern was highly persistent, can be broken down into two parts—the reordering of the units and tens and the loss of the conjoining element. Although the two steps logically belong to the same overall change, they display a remarkably disparate behavior. Whereas the reordering process affected the least frequent number words first, the deletion process affected the most frequent words first. This disparity lends support to the hypothesis that the involvement or otherwise of low-level aspects of speech determines the role of frequency in language change (Phillips, 2006). Finally, the order change is likely to be a contact-induced phenomenon and may have been facilitated by a reduction in mental cost.
VISUALIZING UNCERTAINTIES, OR HOW ALBERT HIRSCHMAN AND THE WORLD BANK DISAGREED ON PROJECT APPRAISAL AND WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT THE END OF “HIGH DEVELOPMENT THEORY”
Authors: Alacevich Michele
Published: April 2014

Since its birth in 1944, the World Bank has had a strong focus on development projects. Yet, a project evaluation function was not made operational until the early 1970s. An early attempt to conceptualize project appraisal had been initiated in the 1960s by Albert Hirschman, whose undertaking raised high expectations at the Bank. Yet, Hirschman’s conclusions—published first in internal Bank reports and finally as a book in 1967—disappointed many at the Bank, primarily because they were found impractical. Hirschman attempted to offer the Bank a new Weltanschauung by transforming the Bank’s approach to project design, project management, and project appraisal. Instead, what the Bank expected from Hirschman was not a revolution, but rather an examination of the Bank’s projects and advice on how to make project design and management more measurable, more controllable, and more suitable for replication.

The history of this failed collaboration gives useful insights on the unstable equilibrium between operations and evaluation within the Bank. In addition, it shows that the Bank was active in the development economics debates of the 1960s. These insights should be of interest for those development economists today who reflect on the future of the discipline and emphasize the need for a non-dogmatic approach to the study of development issues. It should also be of interest for the Bank itself, with its renewed attention to the importance of evaluation for effective development policies. The history of the practice of development economics, together with the use of archival material, can bring new perspectives that contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of this discipline.
THE ECONOMISTS OF THE LOST CAUSE AND THE MONETARY EDUCATION OF JOHN R. COMMONS
Authors: Chasse J. Dennis
Published: April 2014

Wild price swings following World War I motivated some economists and their allies to start a stable money campaign. John R. Commons joined this campaign, and the story of his participation opens a window into an historical learning episode in which the campaign, though it failed, sparked intellectual efforts and interacted with events in ways that changed beliefs about relations between central bank actions, on the one hand, and unemployment, inflation, and economic growth, on the other. The paper dwells on Commons’ role and on the long learning experience that led participants to conclusions they could not have anticipated when they embarked on their campaign.
Options to improve family income, labor input and soil organic matter balances by soil management and maize–livestock interactions. Exploration of farm-specific options for a region in Southwest Mexico
Authors: Flores-Sánchez Diego , Groot Jeroen C.J. , Lantinga Egbert A. , Kropff Martin J. , Rossing Walter A.H.
Published: April 2014

Farming systems in the Costa Chica region in Mexico face limitations linked to low yields and soil fertility degradation. Several alternative maize-based cropping systems have been proposed to improve current limitations. These field-level options need to be evaluated at farm level in order to assess their feasibility, taking into account input requirements, contributions to self-sufficiency in food and long-term soil fertility, and the availability of labor. In this study, we defined four scenarios to explore consequences of changes in current farming systems for eight typical farms in the region; the first two scenarios comprised redressing current imbalances in crop nutrition and organic matter (OM) supply, respectively, and the last two scenarios explored high fertilizer input and animal husbandry. Farms responded in different ways to the various options depending on available land, current soil quality, current cropping systems and presence of livestock. Improvements in crop nutrition based on mineral fertilizers increased family income but only had substantial effects on soil OM (SOM) balances when fertilizer rates were double the amount currently subsidized. Addition of organic fertilizers resulted in positive effects on SOM balance, but with often strong trade-offs with family income due to costs of acquisition, transport and application. Animals played an important role in increasing SOM balances, but had relatively little effect on improving family income. The results demonstrated that improvements in family income and SOM balance at farm scale were feasible but that without more fundamental system changes trade-offs between short-term yield increases and longer-term soil fertility increases should be expected. The results highlight the need for policies that take into account farm-specific differences in crop and livestock intensification opportunities.
Transit & RV Observations of Exoplanets by the 1-m Telescope at Weihai
Authors: Cao Chen , Ren Dayong , Gao Dongyang , Zhang Jicheng , Song Nan , Wang Feige
Published: April 2014

By using the 1-m reflecting telescope at Weihai Observatory of Shandong University, the transit observations of seven stars are carried out to accurately estimate the physical parameters of extrasolar planets. Besides, a new high-resolution spectrograph (WES) was installed on this telescope for radial velocity measurements on exoplanets, we will show some preliminary results.
Exoplanet Searches in the Habitable Zone with Gravitational Microlensing
Authors: Zakharov Alexander F. , Ingrosso Gabriele , De Paolis Francesco , Nucita Achille A. , Strafella Francesco , Novati Sebastiano Calchi , Jetzer Philippe
Published: April 2014

There are different methods for finding exoplanets such as radial spectral shifts, astrometrical measurements, transits, timing, etc. Gravitational microlensing (including pixel-lensing) is among the most promising techniques with the potential of detecting Earth-like planets at distances about a few astronomical units from their host stars. Here we emphasize the importance of polarization measurements which can help to resolve degeneracies in theoretical models. In particular, the polarization angle could give additional information about the relative position of the lens with respect to the source.
Image Retrieval of Earth-like Planets from Light Curves
Authors: Kawahara Hajime , Fujii Yuka
Published: April 2014

Surface environment of habitable exoplanets will be important for astrobiologists on exoplanets in near future. Diverse surface environments on the Earth including continents, ocean, and meteorological condition (clouds and rains) serve as the backbone of biodiversity. One of the promising approaches to know the landscape of the terrestrial exoplanets is to use scattered light of the planet through direct imaging.

Since spin rotation and orbital revolution change illuminating area on planetary surface and cause time variation to disk-integrated brightness, light curves carry spatial information on the planetary surface. We propose an inversion technique of annual reflected light curves to sketch a two-dimensional albedo map of exoplanets, named the spin-orbit tomography (SOT). Applying the SOT to realistic simulations of the reflected light of an Earth-twin, we demonstrate how the SOT works. The mean cloud and continental distributions can be roughly obtained with single band photometry and difference of two-bands photometry, respectively. The SOT retrieves the planetary image without actually resolving the planet, which can be used to know the habitat of the exoplanets in near future.
Detection of a Proto-planetary Clump in the Habitable Zone of GM Cephei
Authors: Chen W. P. , Hu S. C.-L. ,   the YETI Collaboration
Published: April 2014

GM Cephei is an active T Tauri star in the young open cluster Trumpler 37, showing abrupt UX Orionis type of photometric variability. Its light curves exhibit frequent, sporadic brightening events, each of <0.5 mag and lasting for days, which must have been originated from unsteady circumstellar accretion. In addition, the star undergoes a brightness drop up to ~1 mag lasting for about a month, during which the star became bluer when fainter. Moreover, the brightness drops seem to have a recurrence timescale of about 300 days. It is proposed that the brightness drop arises from obscuration of the central star by an orbiting dust concentration, exemplifying disk inhomogeneity in transition between grain coagulation and planetesimal formation in a young circumstellar disk. GM Cep was found to show a few percent polarization in the optical wavelengths, and an enhanced level of polarization during the occultation phase.
Exploring the Cosmic Context of Earth
Authors: Dominik Martin
Published: April 2014

Studying the amazingly diverse planet zoo provides us with unprecedented opportunities for understanding planet Earth and ultimately ourselves. An assessment of a planet's “habitability” reflects our Earth-centric prejudice and can serve to prioritise targets to actually search for signatures of life similar to ours. The probability for life beyond Earth to exist however remains unknown, and studies on habitability or statistics of planetary systems do not change this. But we can leave speculation behind, and embark on a journey of exploration. A sample of detected cosmic habitats would provide us with insight on the conditions for life to emerge, develop, and sustain, but disentangling the biota fraction from the duration of the biotic era would depend particularly on our knowledge about the dynamics of planetary systems. Apart from the fact that planets usually do not come alone, we also must not forget that the minor bodies in the Solar system vastly outnumber the planets. A focus on just what we might consider “habitable” planets is too narrow to understand their formation and evolution. While uniqueness prevents understanding, we need to investigate the context and embrace diversity. A comprehensive picture of planet populations can only arise by exploiting a variety of different detection techniques, where not only Kepler but also gravitational microlensing can now enter hitherto uncharted territory below the mass or size of the Earth. There is actually no shortage of planets, the Milky Way alone may host hundreds of billions, and so far we have found only about 1000.
Evidence for Solid Planets from Kepler's Near-Resonance Systems
Authors: Lee Man Hoi , Fabrycky D. , Lin D. N. C.
Published: April 2014

The multiple-planet systems discovered by the Kepler mission show an excess of planet pairs with period ratios just wide of exact commensurability for first-order resonances like 2:1 and 3:2. In principle, these planet pairs could be in resonance if their orbital eccentricities are sufficiently small, because the width of first-order resonances diverges in the limit of vanishingly small eccentricity. We consider a widely-held scenario in which pairs of planets were captured into first-order resonances by migration due to planet-disk interactions, and subsequently became detached from the resonances, due to tidal dissipation in the planets. In the context of this scenario, we find a constraint on the ratio of the planet's tidal dissipation function and Love number that implies that some of the Kepler planets are likely solid. However, tides are not strong enough to move many of the planet pairs to the observed separations, suggesting that additional processes are at play.
Observation and Modelling of Transits and Starspots in the WASP-19 Planetary System
Authors: Tregloan-Reed Jeremy , Southworth John
Published: April 2014

We have developed a new model for analysing light curves of planetary transits when there are starspots on the stellar disc. Because the parameter space contains a profusion of local minima we developed a new optimisation algorithm which combines the global minimisation power of a genetic algorithm and the Bayesian statistical analysis of the Markov chain. With these tools we modelled three transit light curves of WASP-19. Two light curves were obtained on consecutive nights and contain anomalies which we confirm as being due to the same spot. Using these data we measure the star's rotation period and velocity to be 11.76 ± 0.09 d and 3.88 ± 0.15 kms−1, respectively, at a latitude of 65°. We find that the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis is λ = 1.0° ± 1.2°, indicating axial alignment. Our results are consistent with and more precise than published spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect.
High Precision Photometry from EulerCam and TRAPPIST: The Case of WASP-42, WASP-49 and WASP-50
Authors: Lendl Monika , Gillon Michaël , Queloz Didier
Published: April 2014

Transiting extrasolar planets provide unmatched insights into the structure and composition of close-in planets. When a planet transits its host star, its radius is known, which together with radial velocity measurements, allows accessing the planetary density. We present results obtained using the Euler and TRAPPIST telescopes that aim at reaching very high accuracy on the parameters derived from transit lightcurves. Here, we show the case of the recently discovered WASP-42b and WASP-49b and new observations of WASP-50b.
Aspects on the Dynamics and Detection of Additional Circumbinary Extrasolar Planets
Authors: Hinse Tobias C. , Haghighipour Nader , Goździewski Krzysztof
Published: April 2014

The presence of additional bodies orbiting a binary star system can be detected by monitoring the binary's eclipse timing. These so-called circumbinary objects will reveal themselves by i) either introducing a reflex motion of the binary system about the total system's barycenter creating a geometric light-travel time effect (LITE), ii) by gravitational perturbations on the binary orbit, or iii) a combination of the two effects resulting in eclipse timing (ETV) and transit timing (TTV) variations. Motivated by the four recently detected circumbinary planets by the Kepler space telescope (Kepler-16b, Kepler-34b, Kepler-35b and Kepler-38b) we have begun to study their dynamics in the presence of an additional massive perturber. In particular we used Kepler-16b as a test bed case. We are aiming to study the detectability of non-transiting and inclined circumbinary planets using the ETV effect along with the fast indicator MEGNO to quantitatively map the chaotic/quasi-periodic regions of the orbital parameter-space and to determine where the orbit of a circumbinary planet will be stable. We have calculated the amplitudes of TTV and ETV signals for different values of the mass and orbital elements of the planet and binary.
On the Habitability of Terrestrial Planets in Binary Star Systems
Authors: Pilat-Lohinger Elke , Funk Barbara , Eggl Siegfried
Published: April 2014

The growing number of detected planets in binary star systems requires methods for a quick assessment of possible habitability of planets in such environments. We offer an analytic method to determine habitability of a terrestrial planet in binary star systems. In this context we give an answer to the most important question: Do the radiative and gravitational perturbations of a secondary influence the extent of the habitable zone (HZ)?

After we have defined the borders of the HZ, we will show the dynamical behaviour of a terrestrial planet in the HZ when adding a Jupiter to the system. In such a system the HZ shows signs of mean motion resonances and secular resonances, depending on the architecture of the planetary system.
The Cumulative Effect of Stellar Encounters on Multi-Planet Systems in Star Clusters
Authors: Hao Wei , Kouwenhoven M. B. N.
Published: April 2014

Distant stellar encouters can substantially affect the dynamical evolution of existing stellar and planetary systems (e.g., Malmberg et al. 2007; Spurzem et al. 2009). Although planets with small orbital periods are not directly affected by encountering stars, the secular evolution of a perturbed system may result in the ejection of the innermost planets, or physical collisions between the innermost planets and the host star, hundreds of thousands of years after a weak encounter with a neighboring star occurs. Here we present the results of our study on the cumulative effect of distant stellar encounters on multi-planet systems in star clusters, and how these results depend on the properties of the star cluster in which a planetary system is born (for details we refer to Hao & Kouwenhoven, in prep.). With our simulations we explain the scarcity of exoplanets in star clusters, not only for those in wide orbits (affected by stellar encounters), but also in close orbits (affected by the secular evolution of the system following an encounter).
The CARMENES Survey: A Search for Terrestrial Planets in the Habitable Zones of M Dwarfs
Authors: Quirrenbach A. , Amado P. J. , Caballero J. A. , Mandel H. , Mundt R. , Reiners A. , Ribas I. , Carrasco M. A. Sánchez , Seifert W. , Azzaro M. , Galadí D. ,   the CARMENES Consortium
Published: April 2014

CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a next-generation instrument under construction for the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. The scientific goal of the project is a five-year exoplanet survey targeting 300 M stars with the completed instrument. The CARMENES hardware consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.55 to 1.7 μm at a spectral resolution of R = 82,000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. Both spectrographs are housed in a temperature-stabilized environment in vacuum tanks, to enable a long-term radial velocity precision of 1 m s−1 employing a simultaneous calibration with Th-Ne and U-Ne emission line lamps.
Habitable Worlds Around M Dwarf Stars: The CAPSCam Astrometric Planet Search
Authors: Boss Alan P. , Weinberger Alycia J. , Anglada-Escudé Guillem , Thompson Ian B. , Brahm Rafael
Published: April 2014

M dwarf stars are attractive targets in the search for habitable worlds as a result of their relative abundance and proximity, making them likely targets for future direct detection efforts. Hot super-Earths as well as gas giants have already been detected around a number of early M dwarfs, and the former appear to be the high-mass end of the population of rocky, terrestrial exoplanets. The Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search (CAPS) program has been underway since March 2007, searching ~ 100 nearby late M, L, and T dwarfs for gas giant planets on orbits wide enough for habitable worlds to orbit interior to them. The CAPSCam-N camera on the 2.5-m du Pont telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory has demonstrated the ability to detect planets as low in mass as Saturn orbiting at several AU around late M dwarfs within 15 pc. Over the next decade, the CAPS program will provide new constraints on the planetary census around late M dwarf stars, and hence on the suitability of these nearby planetary systems for supporting life.
An Astrobiological Experiment to Explore the Habitability of Tidally Locked M-Dwarf Planets
Authors: Angerhausen Daniel , Sapers Haley , Simoncini Eugenio , Lutz Stefanie , Alexandre Marcelo da Rosa , Galante Douglas
Published: April 2014

We present a summary of a three-year academic research proposal drafted during the Sao Paulo Advanced School of Astrobiology (SPASA) to prepare for upcoming observations of tidally locked planets orbiting M-dwarf stars. The primary experimental goal of the suggested research is to expose extremophiles from analogue environments to a modified space simulation chamber reproducing the environmental parameters of a tidally locked planet in the habitable zone of a late-type star. Here we focus on a description of the astronomical analysis used to define the parameters for this climate simulation.
Search for Low-Mass Planets Around Late-M Dwarfs Using IRD
Authors: Omiya Masashi , Sato Bun'ei , Harakawa Hiroki , Kuzuhara Masayuki , Hirano Teruyuki , Narita Norio ,   IRD team
Published: April 2014

We have a plan to conduct a Doppler planet search for low-mass planets around nearby middle-to-late M dwarfs using IRD. IRD is the near-infrared high-precision radial velocity instrument for the Subaru 8.2-m telescope. We expect to achieve the accuracy of the radial velocity measurements of 1 m/s using IRD with a frequency comb as a wavelengh calibrator. Thus, we would detect super-Earths in habitable zone and low-mass rocky planets in close-in orbits around late-M dwarfs. In this survey, we aim to understand and discuss statistical properties of low-mass planets around low-mass M dwarfs compared with those derived from theoretical simulations.
Migration & Extra-solar Terrestrial Planets: Watering the Planets
Authors: Carter-Bond Jade C. , O'Brien David P. , Raymond Sean N.
Published: April 2014

A diverse range of terrestrial planet compositions is believed to exist within known extrasolar planetary systems, ranging from those that are relatively Earth-like to those that are highly unusual, dominated by species such as refractory elements (Al and Ca) or C (as pure C, TiC and SiC)(Bond et al. 2010b). However, all prior simulations have ignored the impact that giant planet migration during planetary accretion may have on the final terrestrial planetary composition. Here, we combined chemical equilibrium models of the disk around five known planetary host stars (Solar, HD4203, HD19994, HD213240 and Gl777) with dynamical models of terrestrial planet formation incorporating various degrees of giant planet migration. Giant planet migration is found to drastically impact terrestrial planet composition by 1) increasing the amount of Mg-silicate species present in the final body; and 2) dramatically increasing the efficiency and amount of water delivered to the terrestrial bodies during their formation process.
Water in Protoplanetary Disks
Authors: Nomura H. , Walsh C. , Heinzeller D. , Millar T. J.
Published: April 2014

Infrared water line emission from protoplanetary disks, recently observed by the Spitzer and Herschel space telescopes, is thought to trace the surface layer of the inner to outer regions of the disks. We have modelled the water abundance profile and line emission, especially focusing on the effects of dust size growth and turbulent mixing. Comparison between model calculations and observations suggests a small grain model with turbulent mixing is preferred.
Formation of Habitable Planets in Inclined Planetary Systems
Authors: Ji Jianghui , Jin Sheng
Published: April 2014

We extensively investigate the terrestrial planetary formation for the inclined planetary systems (considering the OGLE-2006-BLG-109L system as example) in the late stage. In the simulations, we show that the occurrence of terrestrial planets appears to be common in the final assembly stage. Moreover, we find that a lot of runs finally occupy at least one planet in the habitable zone (HZ). On the other hand, the numerical results also indicate that the inner region of the planetesimal disk, ranging from ~ 0.1 to 0.3 AU, plays an important role in building up terrestrial planets. The outcomes suggest that it may exist moderate possibility for the inclined systems to harbor terrestrial planets in the HZ.
Flow of Planets Raises Short Period Fall-Off
Authors: Taylor Stuart F.
Published: April 2014

After finding more planets than expected at the shortest period, there has been an effort to explain their numbers by weak tidal friction. However, we find that the strength of tidal dissipation that would produce the occurence distribution found from Kepler planet candidates is different for giant versus medium radii planets. This discrepancy can be resolved if there is a “flow” of the largest planets regularly arriving such that they go through a “hot Jupiter” stage. We also show a correlation of higher stellar Fe/H with higher eccentricity of giant planets that may be from smaller planets having been sent into the star by the migration of the larger planet. This disruption of the orbits of medium and smaller planets could account for the lower occurrence of “hot Neptune” medium radius planets.
Planetesimal Capture by an Evolving Giant Gaseous Protoplanet
Authors: Podolak Morris , Haghighipour Nader
Published: April 2014

Both the core-accretion and disk-instability models suggest that at the last stage of the formation of a gas-giant, the core of this object is surrounded by an extended gaseous envelope. At this stage, while the envelope is contracting, planetesimals from the protoplanetary disk may be scattered into the protoplanets atmosphere and deposit some or all of their materials as they interact with the gas. We have carried out extensive simulations of approximately 104 planetesimals interacting with a envelope of a Jupiter-mass protoplanet including effects of gas drag, heating, and the effect of the protoplanets extended mass distribution. Simulations have been carried out for different radii and compositions of planetesimals so that all three processes occur to different degrees. We present the results of our simulations and discuss their implications for the enrichment of ices in giant planets. We also present statistics for the probability of capture (i.e. total mass-deposition) of planetesimals as a function of their size, composition, and closest approach to the center of the protoplanetary body.
On the Climatic Impact of CO2Ice Particles in Atmospheres of Terrestrial Exoplanets
Authors: Kitzmann D. , Patzer A. B. C. , Rauer H.
Published: April 2014

Clouds play a significant role for the energy budget in planetary atmospheres. They can scatter incident stellar radiation back to space, effectively cooling the surface of terrestrial planets. On the other hand, they may contribute to the atmospheric greenhouse effect by trapping outgoing thermal radiation. For exoplanets near the outer boundary of the habitable zone, condensation of CO2can occur due to the low atmospheric temperatures. These CO2ice clouds may play an important role for the surface temperature and, therefore, for the question of habitability of those planets. However, the optical properties of CO2ice crystals differ significantly from those of water droplets or water ice particles. Except for a small number of strong absorption bands, they are almost transparent with respect to absorption. Instead, they are highly effective scatterers at long and short wavelengths. Therefore, the climatic effect of a CO2ice cloud will depend on how much incident stellar radiation is scattered to space in comparison to the amount of thermal radiation scattered back towards the planetary surface. This contribution aims at the potential greenhouse effect of CO2ice particles. Their scattering and absorption properties are calculated for assumed particle size distributions with different effective radii and particle densities. An accurate radiative transfer model is used to determine the atmospheric radiation field affected by such CO2particles. These results are compared to less detailed radiative transfer schemes employed in previous studies.
Assimilating and Modeling Dust Transport in the Martian Climate System
Authors: Ruan Tao , Montabone Luca , Read Peter L. , Lewis Stephen R.
Published: April 2014

A meteorological data assimilation system has been developed recently for analyzing measurements of temperature and dust opacity on Mars and has been successfully applied in several studies (e.g. Montabone et al. 2005, Lewis et al. 2007) to study various atmospheric phenomena. A more sophisticated data assimilation system, now with full dust transport incorporated, is becoming available to represent more accurately and realistically the physical transport of dust.
Microarcsecond Astrometry with MCAO Using a Diffractive Mask
Authors: Ammons S. Mark , Bendek Eduardo A. , Guyon Olivier , Macintosh Bruce , Savransky Dmitry
Published: April 2014

We present a new ground-based technique to detect or follow-up long-period, potentially habitable exoplanets via precise relative astrometry of host stars using Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) on 8 meter telescopes equipped with diffractive masks. MCAO improves relative astrometry both by cancellation of high-altitude atmospheric layers, which induce dynamic focal-plane distortions, and the improvement of centroiding precision with sharper PSFs. However, mass determination of habitable exoplanets requires multi-year reference grid stability of ~1–10 μas or nanometer-level stability on the long-term average of out-of-pupil phase errors, which is difficult to achieve with MCAO (e.g., Meyer et al. 2011). The diffractive pupil technique calibrates dynamic distortion via extended diffraction spikes generated by a dotted primary mirror, which are referenced against a grid of background stars (Guyon et al. 2012). The diffractive grid provides three benefits to relative astrometry: (1) increased dynamic range, permitting observation of V < 10 stars without saturation; (2) calibration of dynamic distortion; and (3) a spectrum of the target star, which can be used to calibrate the magnitude of differential atmospheric refraction to the microarcsecond level. A diffractive 8-meter telescope with diffraction-limited MCAO in K-band reaches < 3–5 μas relative astrometric error per coordinate perpendicular to the zenith vector in one hour on a bright target star in fields of moderate stellar density (~10–40 stars arcmin−2). We present preliminary on-sky results of a test of the diffractive mask on the Nickel telescope at Lick Observatory.
Quantitative Stellar Classification with Low-Resolution Spectroscopy
Authors: Eiff Matthias Ammler-von , Sebastian Daniel , Guenther Eike W.
Published: April 2014

Low-resolution spectroscopy (R ≈ 1000) is used to efficiently characterize faint stars suspected to host planets. Stellar parameters, i.e. effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity can be assessed from these spectra by methods of quantitative classification. For this purpose, more than 130 template stars have been observed with the faint object spectrograph at the Tautenburg 2m telescope, Germany. A large number of lines are measured and the dependence of line depths on stellar parameters is studied.
Laser Speckles from Multimode Fiber under Scrambling
Authors: Yu Hongfei , Han Jian , Xiao Dong
Published: April 2014

When a laser beam transmits through a multi-mode fiber, speckles show in the output beam. In this work, we study the laser speckle under static and dynamic scrambling by the histogram and line profile of far-field pattern. The results show that static scrambling has little effect on the intensity distribution. The dynamic scrambling reduces the speckles without changing the line profile. Two possible explanations are proposed.
Study of the HARPS Line Profile Using a Laser Frequency Comb
Authors: Zhao F. , Curto G. Lo , Pasquini L. , Zhao G.
Published: April 2014

High precision spectroscopy is one of the most successful methods to detect extra-solar planets. To enable the detection of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone, extremely precise instruments are required. Our lack of knowledge of the instrument line profile, non-linearity and charge transfer efficiency effects in the detector limits the achievable precision of an instrument. We report our studies on the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial- velocity Planet Searcher) line profiles, measured using the unresolved lines of a Laser Frequency Comb (LFC). We show how the line profile changes as a function of position and signal, and estimate the errors made in the line centroid measurement due to the variation of the line profile.
Eliminating Noise at the Box-fitting Spectrum
Authors: Boufleur Rodrigo Carlos , Emilio Marcelo , Pacheco Eduardo Janot , de La Reza Jorge Ramiro , da Rocha José Carlos
Published: April 2014

Non gaussian sources of erros need to be taken into consideration when searching for planetary transits. Such phenomena are mostly caused by the impact of high energetic particles on the detector (Pinheiro da Silva et al. 2008). The detection efficiency of transits, therefor, depend significantly on the data quality and the algorithms utilized to deal with these errors sources. In this work we show that a modified detrend algorithm CDA (CoRoT Detrend Algorithm; Mislis et al. 2010) using a robust statistics and an empirical fit, instead of a polynomial one, can eliminate more efficiently gaps in the data and other long-term trends from the light-curve. Using this algorithm enables us to obtain a reconstructed light-curve with better signal-to-noise ratio that allows to improve the detection of exoplanet transits, although long term signals are destroyed. The results show that these modifications lead to an improved BLS (Box-fitting Least Squares; Kovács, Zucker & Mazeh 2002) algorithm spectrum. At the end we have compared our planetary search results with CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) satellite chromatic light-curves available in the literature.
SPICES: A Mission Concept to Characterize Long Period Planets from Giants to Super-Earths
Authors: Boccaletti Anthony , Maire Anne-Lise , Galicher Raphaël , Baudoz Pierre , Mawet Dimitri , Trauger John , Schneider Jean , Traub Wes , Stam Daphne , Lagage Pierre-Olivier , Gratton Raffaele ,   the SPICES team
Published: April 2014

SPICES (Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging and Characterization of Exoplanetary Systems) was proposed in 2010 for a five-year M-class mission in the context of ESA Cosmic Vision. Its purpose is to image and characterize long-period extrasolar planets located at several AUs (0.5-10 AU) from nearby stars (<25 pc) with masses ranging from a few Jupiter masses down to super-Earths (~2 Earth radii, ~10 M⊕), possibly habitable. In addition, circumstellar disks as faint as a few times the zodiacal light in the Solar System can be studied. SPICES is based on a 1.5-m off-axis telescope and can perform spectro-polarimetric measurements in the visible (450 - 900 nm) at a spectral resolution of about 40. This paper summarizes the top science program and the choices made to conceive the instrument. The performance is illustrated for a few emblematic cases.
NEAT: An Astrometric Mission to Detect and Characterize Nearby Habitable Planetary Systems
Authors: Malbet Fabien , Crouzier Antoine , Goullioud Renaud , Lagage Pierre-Olivier , Léger Alain , Shao Mike ,   the NEAT collaboration
Published: April 2014

Many planets have been detected so far but very few around nearby stars that could allow characterization of their atmosphere thanks to their proximity. There are known exoplanets around less than 8.3% of the FGK stars of the Solar neighborhood (d<20 pc) and the vast majority of them are giant planets. Within the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan, the scientific goal of the NEAT (Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope) mission is to detect and characterize planetary systems around these nearby stars in an exhaustive way down to 1 Earth-mass in the habitable zone. This survey would provide the actual planetary masses, the full characterization of the orbits including their inclination, for all the components of the planetary system down to the Earth-mass limit. NEAT will continue the work performed by Hipparcos and Gaia by reaching a precision that is improved by two orders of magnitude on pointed targets compared to Gaia. We present the free-flyer concept that has been submitted to the 2010 ESA call for M3 missions with two satellites flying in formation 40m apart.
Functional cytotoxic T lymphocytes against IGRP206‐214 predict diabetes in the non‐obese diabetic mouse
Authors: Ko Hyun‐Ja , Chee Jonathan , Sutherland Robyn M , Thomas Helen E , Zhan Yifan , Krishnamurthy Balasubramanian , Kay Thomas W H , Lew Andrew M
Published: April 2014

CD8+ T cells are prominent in autoimmune diabetes of both humans and non‐obese diabetic (NOD) mice. For example, CD8+ T cells against islet‐specific glucose 6‐phosphatase catalytic subunit‐related protein (IGRP) can be detected readily in older NOD mice. It has been suggested that the enumeration of islet‐specific CD8+ T cells in the peripheral blood may be a predictive biomarker for autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D). Here, we determined the natural history of the functional endogenous IGRP206–214‐specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in NOD mice with regard to age (3‐ to 15‐week‐old pre‐diabetic mice and diabetic mice) and sex. We demonstrated that in vivo IGRP206–214‐specific CTLs significantly increased after 12 weeks of age and in vivo cytotoxicity in female NOD mice was significantly higher than in male NOD mice. To determine the in vivo IGRP206–214‐specific CTL frequency without killing the mice, we performed splenectomies on a cohort of mice after injecting IGRP206–214‐coated targets and then followed their diabetes progression. We found that CTL frequency correlated with future of disease onset. Thus, our data support that IGRP206–214‐specific CTLs may be a potent biomarker for T1D.
Siple Dome ice reveals two modes of millennial CO2 change during the last ice age
Authors: Ahn Jinho , Brook Edward J.
Published: April 2014

Reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 during times of past abrupt climate change may help us better understand climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Previous ice core studies reveal simultaneous increases in atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic temperature during times when Greenland and the northern hemisphere experienced very long, cold stadial conditions during the last ice age. Whether this relationship extends to all of the numerous stadial events in the Greenland ice core record has not been clear. Here we present a high-resolution record of atmospheric CO2 from the Siple Dome ice core, Antarctica for part of the last ice age. We find that CO2 does not significantly change during the short Greenlandic stadial events, implying that the climate system perturbation that produced the short stadials was not strong enough to substantially alter the carbon cycle.
Maternal nutrition at conception modulates DNA methylation of human metastable epialleles
Authors: Dominguez-Salas Paula , Moore Sophie E. , Baker Maria S. , Bergen Andrew W. , Cox Sharon E. , Dyer Roger A. , Fulford Anthony J. , Guan Yongtao , Laritsky Eleonora , Silver Matt J. , Swan Gary E. , Zeisel Steven H. , Innis Sheila M. , Waterland Robert A. , Prentice Andrew M. , Hennig Branwen J.
Published: April 2014

In experimental animals, maternal diet during the periconceptional period influences the establishment of DNA methylation at metastable epialleles in the offspring, with permanent phenotypic consequences. Pronounced naturally occurring seasonal differences in the diet of rural Gambian women allowed us to test this in humans. We show that significant seasonal variations in methyl-donor nutrient intake of mothers around the time of conception influence 13 relevant plasma biomarkers. The level of several of these maternal biomarkers predicts increased/decreased methylation at metastable epialleles in DNA extracted from lymphocytes and hair follicles in infants postnatally. Our results demonstrate that maternal nutritional status during early pregnancy causes persistent and systemic epigenetic changes at human metastable epialleles.
High-temperature electromagnons in the magnetically induced multiferroic cupric oxide driven by intersublattice exchange
Authors: Jones S. P. P. , Gaw S. M. , Doig K. I. , Prabhakaran D. , Hétroy Wheeler E. M. , Boothroyd A. T. , Lloyd-Hughes J.
Published: April 2014

Magnetically induced ferroelectric multiferroics present an exciting new paradigm in the design of multifunctional materials, by intimately coupling magnetic and polar order. Magnetoelectricity creates a novel quasiparticle excitation—the electromagnon—at terahertz frequencies, with spectral signatures that unveil important spin interactions. To date, electromagnons have been discovered at low temperature (<70 K) and predominantly in rare-earth compounds such as RMnO3. Here we demonstrate using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy that intersublattice exchange in the improper multiferroic cupric oxide (CuO) creates electromagnons at substantially elevated temperatures (213–230 K). Dynamic magnetoelectric coupling can therefore be achieved in materials, such as CuO, that exhibit minimal static cross-coupling. The electromagnon strength and energy track the static polarization, highlighting the importance of the underlying cycloidal spin structure. Polarized neutron scattering and terahertz spectroscopy identify a magnon in the antiferromagnetic ground state, with a temperature dependence that suggests a significant role for biquadratic exchange.
Antiferromagnetic Metal and Mott Transition on Shastry-Sutherland Lattice
Authors: Liu Hai-Di , Chen Yao-Hua , Lin Heng-Fu , Tao Hong-Shuai , Liu Wu-Ming
Published: April 2014

The Shastry-Sutherland lattice, one of the simplest systems with geometrical frustration, which has an exact eigenstate by putting singlets on diagonal bonds, can be realized in a group of layered compounds and raises both theoretical and experimental interest. Most of the previous studies on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice are focusing on the Heisenberg model. Here we opt for the Hubbard model to calculate phase diagrams over a wide range of interaction parameters and show the competing effects of interaction, frustration and temperature. At low temperature, frustration is shown to favor a paramagnetic metallic ground state, while interaction drives the system to an antiferromagnetic insulator phase. Between these two phases, there are an antiferromagnetic metal phase and a paramagnetic insulator phase (which should consist of a small plaquette phase and a dimer phase) resulting from the competition of the frustration and the interaction. Our results may shed light on more exhaustive studies about quantum phase transitions in geometrically frustrated systems.
The prevalences of impaired fasting glucose and diabetes mellitus in working age men of North China: Anshan Worker Health Survey
Authors: Liu Lei , Zhou Chuang , Du Hang , Zhang Kai , Huang Desheng , Wu Jingyang , Anshan Worker Health Survey Group
Published: April 2014

To investigate the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and total diabetes mellitus (DM) including known diabetes and newly diagnosed diabetes in working age men of North China. A cross-section study was conducted at health medical center of Ansteel Group Hospital in Anshan city of China. 37,345 males between 20–60 years of age were recruited in this study. Age-standardized prevalence of IFG and total DM in these working age men were 25.3% and 8.4%, respectively. The prevalence of IFG and total DM increased, as the age progressed. After multinomial logit analysis, age, systolic blood pressure, drinking, smoking, overweight and obesity, total cholesterol, triglycerides, serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen were independent risk factors for both IFG and DM. The prevalence rate of IFG in Anshan male workers was higher compared with mainland China overall. Diabetes-related education and popularization of DM prevention programs should be actively carried out with age increasing.
Pavlovian conditioning and cross-sensitization studies raise challenges to the hypothesis that overeating is an addictive behavior
Authors: Harb M R , Almeida O F X
Published: April 2014

Elevated glucocorticoid levels and sign tracking (ST) in Pavlovian conditioning are potential biomarkers of compulsive behaviors such as addiction. As overeating is sometimes viewed as a form of addictive behavior, we hypothesized that murine Pavlovian sign trackers would have a greater propensity to overeat and develop obesity. Using a food reward in the classical conditioning paradigm, we show that ST behavior is a robust conditioned response but not a predictor of eating and growth trajectories in mice, thus challenging the view that the development of obesity and drug addiction depend on identical mechanisms. This interpretation was supported by experiments which showed that overweight mice do not display cross-sensitization to an addictive drug (morphine), and conversely, that overweight morphine-sensitized animals do not overconsume a highly rewarding food. Although the rewarding/motivational effects of both food and drugs of abuse are mediated by similar neurochemical mechanisms, obesity and drug addiction represent a summation of other dysfunctional input and output pathways that lead to the emergence of two distinct disorders, each of which would deserve a specific pharmacotherapeutic approach.