• Open Access close
• Open Source close
• Publications close
• Research software close
• Other research products close
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Re... close
• US close
• English close

Background: Every phenotypic trait can be viewed as a “system” in which a group of interconnected componentsfunction synergistically to yield a unified whole. Once a system’s components and their interactions have beendelineated according to biological principles, we can manipulate and engineer functionally relevant components toproduce a desirable system phenotype.Results: We describe a conceptual framework for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that control complex traitsby treating trait formation as a dynamic system. This framework, called systems mapping, incorporates a system ofdifferential equations that quantifies how alterations of different components lead to the global change of traitdevelopment and function through genes, and provides a quantitative and testable platform for assessing theinterplay between gene action and development. We applied systems mapping to analyze biomass growth data ina mapping population of soybeans and identified specific loci that are responsible for the dynamics of biomasspartitioning to leaves, stem, and roots.Conclusions: We show that systems mapping implemented by design principles of biological systems is quiteversatile for deciphering the genetic machineries for size-shape, structural-functional, sink-source and pleiotropicrelationships underlying plant physiology and development. Systems mapping should enable geneticists to shedlight on the genetic complexity of any biological system in plants and other organisms and predict itsphysiological and pathological states.

We report the discovery of TeV gamma-ray emission from the Type Ia supernova remnant (SNR) G120.1+1.4, known as Tycho's supernova remnant. Observations performed in the period 2008-2010 with the VERITAS ground-based gamma-ray observatory reveal weak emission coming from the direction of the remnant, compatible with a point source located at $00^{\rm h} \ 25^{\rm m} \ 27.0^{\rm s},\ +64^{\circ} \ 10^{\prime} \ 50^{\prime\prime}$ (J2000). The TeV photon spectrum measured by VERITAS can be described with a power-law $dN/dE = C(E/3.42\;\textrm{TeV})^{-\Gamma}$ with $\Gamma = 1.95 \pm 0.51_{stat} \pm 0.30_{sys}$ and $C = (1.55 \pm 0.43_{stat} \pm 0.47_{sys}) \times 10^{-14}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$TeV$^{-1}$. The integral flux above 1 TeV corresponds to $\sim 0.9%$ percent of the steady Crab Nebula emission above the same energy, making it one of the weakest sources yet detected in TeV gamma rays. We present both leptonic and hadronic models which can describe the data. The lowest magnetic field allowed in these models is $\sim 80 \mu$G, which may be interpreted as evidence for magnetic field amplification.

Superallowed $\beta$-decay studies provide some of the best constraints on the possibility of additional quark generations, as well as limits on exotic currents in the weak interaction. The three experimental quantities that are required for performing these tests using $0^+\rightarrow0^+$ nuclear decays (branching ratio, half-life, and $Q$-value) can all be measured to high-precision with rare-isotope beams at the TRIUMF-ISAC facility in Vancouver, Canada. This proceeding presents a brief outline of the general experimental techniques used at TRIUMF over the past 15 years, as well as recent theoretical advances towards {\it ab-initio} isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections to superallowed nuclear decays. Comment: Talk presented at CIPANP2018. 12 pages, LaTeX, 2 png figures

The beam-helicity asymmetry was measured, for the first time, in photoproduction of $\pi^{0}\eta$ pairs on carbon, aluminum, and lead, with the A2 experimental setup at MAMI. The results are compared to an earlier measurement on a free proton and to the corresponding theoretical calculations. The Mainz model is used to predict the beam-helicity asymmetry for the nuclear targets. The present results indicate that the photoproduction mechanism for $\pi^{0}\eta$ pairs on nuclei is similar to photoproduction on a free nucleon. This process is dominated by the $D_{33}$ partial wave with the $\eta\Delta(1232)$ intermediate state.

The $^{20}$Ne$(p, \gamma)^{21}$Na reaction is the starting point of the NeNa cycle, which is an important process for the production of intermediate mass elements. The $E_{\text{cm}} = 1113$ keV resonance plays an important role in the determination of stellar rates for this reaction since it is used to normalize experimental direct capture yields at lower energies. The commonly accepted strength of this resonance, $\omega \gamma = 1.13 \pm 0.07$ eV, has been misinterpreted as the strength in the center-of-mass frame when it is actually the strength in the laboratory frame. This has motivated a new measurement of the $E_{\text{cm}} = 1113$ keV resonance strength in $^{20}$Ne$(p, \gamma)^{21}$Na using the DRAGON recoil mass spectrometer. The DRAGON result, $0.972 \pm 0.11$ eV, is in good agreement with the accepted value when both are calculated in the same frame of reference. Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, recommended for publication in Phys. Rev. C, Brief Reports

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused principally by the species belonging to the

Population synthesis consists of generating synthetic but realistic representations of a target population of micro-agents for the purpose of behavioral modeling and simulation. We introduce a new framework based on copulas to generate synthetic data for a target population of which only the empirical marginal distributions are known by using a sample from another population sharing similar marginal dependencies. This makes it possible to include a spatial component in the generation of population synthesis and to combine various sources of information to obtain more realistic population generators. Specifically, we normalize the data and treat them as realizations of a given copula, and train a generative model on the normalized data before injecting the information on the marginals. We compare the copulas framework to IPF and to modern probabilistic approaches such as Bayesian networks, variational auto-encoders, and generative adversarial networks. We also illustrate on American Community Survey data that the method proposed allows to study the structure of the data at different geographical levels in a way that is robust to the peculiarities of the marginal distributions.

We report a measurement of cross section σðνμ þ nucleus → μ− þ XÞ and the first measurements of the cross section σðν¯μ þ nucleus → μþ þ XÞ and their ratio Rð σðν¯Þ σðνÞ Þ at (anti) neutrino energies below 1.5 GeV. We determine the single momentum bin cross section measurements, averaged over the T2K ν¯=ν-flux, for the detector target material (mainly carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and copper) with phase space restricted laboratory frame kinematics of θμ 500 MeV=c. The results are σðν¯Þ ¼ ð0.900 0.029ðstatÞ 0.088ðsystÞÞ × 10−39 and σðνÞ¼ð2.41 0.022ðstatÞ 0.231ðsystÞÞ × 10−39 in units of cm2=nucleon and Rð σðν¯Þ σðνÞ Þ ¼ 0.373 0.012ðstatÞ 0.015ðsystÞ.