Orion Navigation Sensitivities to Ground Station Infrastructure for Lunar Missions

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will replace the Space Shuttle and serve as the next-generation spaceship to carry humans to the International Space Station and back to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo program. As in the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, the Mission Control Navigation team will utilize radiometric measurements to determine the position and velocity of the CEV. In the case of lunar missions, the ground station infrastructure consisting of approximately twelve stations distributed about the Earth and known as the Apollo Manned Spaceflight Network, no longer exists. Therefore, additional tracking resources will have to be allocated or constructed to support mission operations for Orion lunar missions. This paper examines the sensitivity of Orion navigation for lunar missions to the number and distribution of tracking sites that form the ground station infrastructure

Glucose-Dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide (GIP) Induces Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP)-I and Procalcitonin (Pro-CT) Production in Human Adipocytes

Context: Increased plasma levels of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), calcitonin CT gene-related peptide (CGRP)-I, and procalcitonin (Pro-CT) are associated with obesity. Adipocytes express functional GIP receptors and the CT peptides Pro-CT and CGRP-I. However, a link between GIP and CT peptides has not been studied yet. Objective: The objective of the study was the assessment of the GIP effect on the expression and secretion of CGRP-I and Pro-CT in human adipocytes, CGRP-I and CT gene expression in adipose tissue (AT) from obese vs. lean subjects, and plasma levels of CGRP-I and Pro-CT after a high-fat meal in obese patients. Design and Participants: Human preadipocyte-derived adipocytes, differentiated in vitro, were treated with GIP. mRNA expression and protein secretion of CGRP-I and Pro-CT were measured. Human CGRP-I and CT mRNA expression in AT and CGRP-I and Pro-CT plasma concentrations were assessed. Results: Treatment with 1 nm GIP induced CGRP-I mRNA expression 6.9 ± 1.0-fold (P > 0.001 vs. control) after 2 h and CT gene expression 14.0 ± 1.7-fold (P > 0.001 vs. control) after 6 h. GIP stimulated CGRP-I secretion 1.7 ± 0.2-fold (P > 0.05 vs. control) after 1 h. In AT samples of obese subjects, CGRP-I mRNA expression was higher in sc AT (P > 0.05 vs. lean subjects), whereas CT expression was higher in visceral AT (P > 0.05 vs. lean subjects). CGRP-I plasma levels increased after a high-fat meal in obese patients. Conclusion: GIP induces CGRP-I and CT expression in human adipocytes. Therefore, elevated Pro-CT and CGRP-I levels in obesity might result from GIP-induced Pro-CT and CGRP-I release in AT and might be triggered by a high-fat diet. How these findings relate to the metabolic complications of obesity warrants further investigations

Reactive Oxygen Species Production and Brugia Pahangi Survivorship in Aedes polynesiensis with Artificial Wolbachia Infection Types

Heterologous transinfection with the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia has been shown previously to induce pathogen interference phenotypes in mosquito hosts. Here we examine an artificially infected strain of Aedes polynesiensis, the primary vector of Wuchereria bancrofti, which is the causative agent of Lymphatic filariasis (LF) throughout much of the South Pacific. Embryonic microinjection was used to transfer the wAlbB infection from Aedes albopictus into an aposymbiotic strain of Ae. polynesiensis. The resulting strain (designated MTB ) experiences a stable artificial infection with high maternal inheritance. Reciprocal crosses of MTB with naturally infected wild-type Ae. polynesiensis demonstrate strong bidirectional incompatibility. Levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the MTB strain differ significantly relative to that of the wild-type, indicating an impaired ability to regulate oxidative stress. Following a challenge with Brugia pahangi, the number of filarial worms achieving the infective stage is significantly reduced in MTB as compared to the naturally infected and aposymbiotic strains. Survivorship of MTB differed significantly from that of the wild-type, with an interactive effect between survivorship and blood feeding. The results demonstrate a direct correlation between decreased ROS levels and decreased survival of adult female Aedes polynesiensis. The results are discussed in relation to the interaction of Wolbachia with ROS production and antioxidant expression, iron homeostasis and the insect immune system. We discuss the potential applied use of the MTB strain for impacting Ae. polynesiensis populations and strategies for reducing LF incidence in the South Pacific

The Use of Telehealth Technology in Assessing the Accuracy of Self-Reported Weight and the Impact of a Daily Immediate-Feedback Intervention among Obese Employees

Objective. To determine the accuracy of self-reported body weight prior to and following a weight loss intervention including daily self-weighing among obese employees. Methods. As part of a 6-month randomized controlled trial including a no-treatment control group, an intervention group received a series of coaching calls, daily self-weighing, and interactive telemonitoring. The primary outcome variable was the absolute discrepancy between self-reported and measured body weight at baseline and at 6 months. We used general linear mixed model regression to estimate changes and differences between study groups over time. Results. At baseline, study participants underreported their weight by an average of 2.06 (se = 0.33) lbs. The intervention group self-reported a smaller absolute body weight discrepancy at followup than the control group. Conclusions. The discrepancy between self-reported and measured body weight appears to be relatively small, may be improved through daily self-monitoring using immediate-feedback telehealth technology, and negligibly impacts change in body weight

Chandra survey of nearby highly inclined disc galaxies - III. Comparison with hydrodynamical simulations of circumgalactic coronae

X-ray observations of circumgalactic coronae provide a valuable means by which to test galaxy formation theories. Two primary mechanisms are thought to be responsible for the establishment of such coronae: accretion of intergalactic gas and/or galactic feedback. In this paper, we first compare our Chandra sample of galactic coronae of 53 nearby highly-inclined disc galaxies to an analytical model considering only the accretion of intergalactic gas. We confirm the existing conclusion that this pure accretion model substantially over-predicts the coronal emission. We then select 30 field galaxies from our original sample, and correct their coronal luminosities to uniformly compare them to deep X-ray measurements of several massive disc galaxies from the literature, as well as to a comparable sample of simulated galaxies drawn from the Galaxies-Intergalactic Medium Interaction Calculation (GIMIC). These simulations explicitly model both accretion and supernovae feedback and yield galaxies that exhibit X-ray properties in broad agreement with our observational sample. However, notable and potentially instructive discrepancies exist between the slope and scatter of the LX −M200 and LX − SFR relations, highlighting some known shortcomings of GIMIC, for example, the absence of AGN feedback, and possibly the adoption of constant stellar feedback parameters. The simulated galaxies exhibit a tight correlation (with little scatter) between coronal luminosity and halo mass. Having inferredM200 for our observational sample via the Tully-Fisher relation, we find a weaker and more scattered correlation. In the simulated and observed samples alike, massive non-starburst galaxies above a typical transition mass of M∗ � 2×1011 M⊙ or M200 � 1013 M⊙ tend to have higher LX/M∗ and LX/M200 than low-mass counterparts, indicating that the accretion of intergalactic gas plays an increasingly important role in establishing the observable hot circumgalactic medium with increasing galaxy mass. Subject headings: galaxies: general—galaxies: halos—galaxies: normal—X-rays: galaxie

Disentangling galaxy environment and host halo mass

[Abridged] The properties of observed galaxies and dark matter haloes in simulations depend on their environment. The term environment has been used to describe a wide variety of measures that may or may not correlate with each other. Popular measures of environment include the distance to the N'th nearest neighbour, the number density of objects within some distance, or the mass of the host dark matter halo. We use results from the Millennium simulation and a semi-analytic model for galaxy formation to quantify the relations between environment and halo mass. We show that the environmental parameters used in the observational literature are in effect measures of halo mass, even if they are measured for a fixed stellar mass. The strongest correlation between environment and halo mass arises when the number of objects is counted out to a distance of 1.5-2 times the virial radius of the host halo and when the galaxies/haloes are required to be relatively bright/massive. For observational studies the virial radius is not easily determined, but the number of neighbours out to 1-2 Mpc/h gives a similarly strong correlation. For the distance to the N'th nearest neighbour the correlation with halo mass is nearly as strong provided N>2. We demonstrate that this environmental parameter becomes insensitive to halo mass if it is constructed from dimensionless quantities. This can be achieved by scaling the minimum luminosity/mass of neighbours to that of the object in question and by dividing the distance to a length scale associated with either the neighbour or the galaxy under consideration. We show how such a halo mass independent environmental parameter can be defined for observational and numerical studies. The results presented here will help future studies to disentangle the effects of halo mass and external environment on the properties of galaxies and dark matter haloes.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by MNRA

In Vitro Generation of Interleukin 10–producing Regulatory CD4+ T Cells Is Induced by Immunosuppressive Drugs and Inhibited by T Helper Type 1 (Th1)– and Th2-inducing Cytokines

We show that a combination of the immunosuppressive drugs, vitamin D3 and Dexamethasone, induced human and mouse naive CD4+ T cells to differentiate in vitro into regulatory T cells. In contrast to the previously described in vitro derived CD4+ T cells, these cells produced only interleukin (IL)-10, but no IL-5 and interferon (IFN)-γ, and furthermore retained strong proliferative capacity. The development of these IL-10–producing cells was enhanced by neutralization of the T helper type 1 (Th1)- and Th2–inducing cytokines IL-4, IL-12, and IFN-γ. These immunosuppressive drugs also induced the development of IL-10–producing T cells in the absence of antigen-presenting cells, with IL-10 acting as a positive autocrine factor for these T cells. Furthermore, nuclear factor (NF)-κB and activator protein (AP)-1 activities were inhibited in the IL-10–producing cells described here as well as key transcription factors involved in Th1 and Th2 subset differentiation. The regulatory function of these in vitro generated IL-10–producing T cells was demonstrated by their ability to prevent central nervous system inflammation, when targeted to the site of inflammation, and this function was shown to be IL-10 dependent. Generating homogeneous populations of IL-10–producing T cells in vitro will thus facilitate the use of regulatory T cells in immunotherapy

RESULTS OF THE FIRST SIMULTANEOUS X-RAY, OPTICAL, AND RADIO CAMPAIGN ON THE BLAZAR PKS 1622-297

Coordinated X-ray, optical, and radio observations of the blazar PKS 1622-297 were obtained during a three-week campaign in 2006 using the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), the University of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory, and optical telescopes at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The RXTE observations indicate that this object is a comparatively weak X-ray emitter for a Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasar. The observed broadband spectral shape indicates that X-rays were most likely produced by the Inverse Compton processes. Optical observations of this object produced unexpected results in that this object appeared redder when in a bright state and bluer when in a faint state, contrary to the observed behavior of BL Lac objects