Floral organ abscission in Arabidopsis requires the combined activities of three TALE homeodomain transcription factors.

Floral organ abscission is a separation process in which sepals, petals, and stamens detach from the plant at abscission zones. Here, we investigated the collective role of three amino-acid-loop-extension (TALE) homeobox genes ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA HOMEOBOX GENE1 (ATH1), KNAT6 (for KNOTTED LIKE from Arabidopsis thaliana) and KNAT2, which form a module that patterns boundaries under the regulation of BLADE-ON-PETIOLE 1 and 2 (BOP1/2) co-activators. These TALE homeodomain transcription factors were shown to maintain boundaries in the flower, functioning as a unit to coordinate the growth, patterning, and activity of abscission zones.

Thoracic weighting of restrained subjects during exhaustion recovery causes loss of lung reserve volume in a model of police arrest.

Restraint asphyxia has been proposed as a mechanism for some arrest-related deaths that occur during or shortly after a suspect is taken into custody. Our analysis of the literature found that prone positioning, weight applied to the back, recovery after simulated pursuit, and restraint position have led to restrictive, but non life-threatening respiratory changes when tested in subsets. However, the combined effects of all four parameters have not been tested together in a single study.

A simple and dynamic thermal gradient device for measuring thermal performance in small ectotherms.

The body temperature of ectothermic animals is heavily dependent on environmental temperature, impacting fitness. Laboratory exposure to favorable and unfavorable temperatures is used to understand these effects, as well as the physiological, biochemical, and molecular underpinnings of variation in thermal performance. Although small ectotherms, like insects, can often be easily reared in large numbers, it can be challenging and expensive to simultaneously create and manipulate several thermal environments in a laboratory setting.

Using Electrical Impedance Tomography in an Experimental Model of Weighted Restraint.

One restraint technique used by police and paramedical personnel is to apply weight to a prone subject. There is concern that the weight and posture cause breathing difficulties and that restraint asphyxia could contribute to rare, inexplicable arrest-related deaths. Previous studies on restraint asphyxia have used global measures of breathing, which are less sensitive to ventilation changes than other methods.

E-band neodymium-doped fiber amplifier: model and application.

To analyze recent experiments with a neodymium-doped fiber amplifier operating in the E-band of wavelengths (1350-1450 nm) and embedded in fused silica, we develop a time-dependent model consisting of rate equations for the aggregate ion populations and the radiation intensities along the amplifier axis. Both copropagating and counterpropagating intensities, including amplified spontaneous emission, are incorporated. The wavelength-dependent cross section for excited state absorption is inferred from auxiliary measurements.

E-band Nd amplifier based on wavelength selection in an all-solid micro-structured fiber.

A Nd fiber amplifier with gain from 1376 nm to 1466 nm is demonstrated. This is enabled by a wavelength selective waveguide that suppresses amplified spontaneous emission between 850 nm and 1150 nm. It is shown that while excited state absorption (ESA) precludes net gain below 1375 nm with the exception of a small band from 1333 nm to 1350 nm, ESA diminishes steadily beyond 1375 nm allowing for the construction of an efficient fiber amplifier with a gain peak at 1400 nm and the potential for gain from 1375 nm to 1500 nm.

1.2W laser amplification at 1427nm on the F to I spectral line in an Nd doped fused silica optical fiber.

A 9.3dB improvement in optical gain and a 100x improvement in total optical power over prior published experimental results from the F to I transition in an Nd doped fused silica optical fiber is demonstrated. This is enabled via an optical fiber waveguide design that creates high spectral attenuation in the 1050-1120nm-wavelength range, a continuous spectral filter for the primary F to I optical transition.

Scalable waveguide design for three-level operation in Neodymium doped fiber laser.

We have constructed a double clad neodymium doped fiber laser operating on the three-level F→I transition. The laser has produced 11.5 W at 925 nm with 55% slope efficiency when pumped at 808 nm, comparable to the best previous results for a double-clad fiber configuration on this transition.

Swimming activity and energetic costs of adult lake sturgeon during fishway passage.

Fish migrations through riverine systems can be energetically demanding, and the presence of fishways to facilitate upstream passage can add an additional energetic cost that may directly affect fitness. Successful fishway passage is a function of the ability of fish to select appropriate paths and swimming strategies that do not exceed their swimming capacity. Triaxial accelerometers were used to estimate the energetic expenditure of adult lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) swimming through a vertical slot fishway, to determine whether individual behaviour or path selection, resulting in differences in cumulative energy use, explain fishway passage success.

Behaviour and locomotor activity of a migratory catostomid during fishway passage.

Fishways have been developed to restore longitudinal connectivity in rivers. Despite their potential for aiding fish passage, fishways may represent a source of significant energetic expenditure for fish as they are highly turbulent environments. Nonetheless, our understanding of the physiological mechanisms underpinning fishway passage of fish is still limited.

Fundamental mode operation of a ribbon fiber laser by way of volume Bragg gratings.

Selection of the fundamental mode of an active large mode area "ribbon" fiber laser with core dimensions of 107.8 μm by 8.3 μm was produced by a transmitting Bragg grating (TBG) in a free-space resonator.

Patterned flattened modes.

We show that field-flattened strands may be added to and arbitrarily positioned within a field-flattened shell to create patterned, flattened modes. Patterning does not alter the effective index or flatness of the flattened mode but does alter the characteristics of other modes; we show that it can improve a flattened mode's bend performance significantly. Patterning provides a new and potentially valuable waveguide design tool that may lead to higher-power transport and laser fibers.

Widely tunable 11 GHz femtosecond fiber laser based on a nonmode-locked source.

An 11 GHz fiber laser built on a modulated cw platform is described and characterized. This compact, vibration-insensitive, fiber-based system can be operated at wavelengths compatible with high-energy fiber technology, is driven by an RF signal directly, and is tunable over a wide range of drive frequencies. The demonstration system when operated at 1040 nm is capable of 50 ns bursts of 575 micropulses produced at a macropulse rate of 83 kHz where the macropulse and micropulse energies are 1.

If a bird flies in the forest, does an insect hear it?

Birds are major predators of many eared insects including moths, butterflies, crickets and cicadas. We provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that insect ears can function as 'bird detectors'. First, we show that birds produce flight sounds while foraging.

How age influences phonotaxis in virgin female Jamaican field crickets (Gryllus assimilis).

Female mating preference can be a dominant force shaping the evolution of sexual signals. However, females rarely have consistent mating preferences throughout their lives. Preference flexibility results from complex interactions of predation risk, social and sexual experience, and age.

Abrasion and fatigue resistance of PDMS containing multiblock polyurethanes after accelerated water exposure at elevated temperature.

Segmented polyurethane multiblock polymers containing polydimethylsiloxane and polyether soft segments form tough and easily processed thermoplastic elastomers (PDMS-urethanes). Two commercially available examples, PurSil 35 (denoted as P35) and Elast-Eon E2A (denoted as E2A), were evaluated for abrasion and fatigue resistance after immersion in 85 °C buffered water for up to 80 weeks. We previously reported that water exposure in these experiments resulted in a molar mass reduction, where the kinetics of the hydrolysis reaction is supported by a straight forward Arrhenius analysis over a range of accelerated temperatures (37-85 °C).

Field-flattened, ring-like propagation modes.

We present a method for designing optical fibers that support field-flattened, ring-like higher order modes, and show that the effective and group indices of its modes can be tuned by adjusting the widths of the guide's field-flattened layers or the average index of certain groups of layers. The approach provides a path to fibers that have simultaneously large mode areas and large separations between the propagation constants of their modes.

Mode-converters for rectangular-core fiber amplifiers to achieve diffraction-limited power scaling.

A rectangular-core (ribbon) fiber that guides and amplifies a single higher-order-mode (HOM) can potentially scale to much higher average powers than what is possible in traditional circular-core large-mode-area fibers. Such an amplifier would require mode-conversion at the input to enable interfacing with seed sources that typically output TEM(00) mode radiation and at the output to generate diffraction-limited radiation for end-user applications. We present the first simulation and experimental results of a mode conversion technique that uses two diffractive-optic-elements in conjugate Fourier planes to convert a diffraction limited TEM(00) mode to the HOM of a ribbon fiber.

Determination of the strange-quark density of the proton from ATLAS measurements of the W→ℓν and Z→ℓℓ cross sections.

A QCD analysis is reported of ATLAS data on inclusive W(±) and Z boson production in pp collisions at the LHC, jointly with ep deep-inelastic scattering data from HERA. The ATLAS data exhibit sensitivity to the light quark sea composition and magnitude at Bjorken x∼0.01.

Search for pair production of a new b' quark that decays into a Z boson and a bottom quark with the ATLAS detector.

A search is reported for the pair production of a new quark b' with at least one b' decaying to a Z boson and a bottom quark. The data, corresponding to 2.0 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity, were collected from pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Search for pair production of a heavy up-type quark decaying to a W boson and a b quark in the lepton + jets channel with the ATLAS detector.

A search is presented for production of a heavy up-type quark (t') together with its antiparticle, assuming subsequent decay to a W boson and a b quark, t't[over ¯]'→W(+)bW(-)b[over ¯]. The search is based on 1.04 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at √[s]=7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Search for a light Higgs boson decaying to long-lived weakly interacting particles in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s] = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector.

A search for the decay of a light Higgs boson (120-140 GeV) to a pair of weakly interacting, long-lived particles in 1.94 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s] = 7 TeV recorded in 2011 by the ATLAS detector is presented. The search strategy requires that both long-lived particles decay inside the muon spectrometer.

Search for gluinos in events with two same-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7 TeV.

A search is presented for gluinos decaying via the supersymmetric partner of the top quark using events with two same-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum. The analysis is performed with 2.05  fb(-1) of integrated luminosity from pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7  TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC.

Observation of spin correlation in tt¯ events from pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using the ATLAS detector.

A measurement of spin correlation in tt[over ¯] production is reported using data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.1 fb(-1). Candidate events are selected in the dilepton topology with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets.

Search for production of resonant states in the photon-jet mass distribution using pp collisions at √s=7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector.

This Letter describes a model-independent search for the production of new resonant states in photon+jet events in 2.11 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV. We compare the photon+jet mass distribution to a background model derived from data and find consistency with the background-only hypothesis.