The Data Processing Pipeline for the Herschel-HIFI Instrument

The HIFI data processing pipeline was developed to systematically process diagnostic, calibration and astronomical observations taken with the HIFI science instrumentas part of the Herschel mission. The HIFI pipeline processed data from all HIFI observing modes within the Herschel automated processing environment, as well as, within an interactive environment. A common software framework was developed to best support the use cases required by the instrument teams and by the general astronomers. The HIFI pipeline was built on top of that and was designed with a high degree of modularity. This modular design provided the necessary flexibility and extensibility to deal with the complexity of batch-processing eighteen different observing modes, to support the astronomers in the interactive analysis and to cope with adjustments necessary to improve the pipeline and the quality of the end-products. This approach to the software development and data processing effort was arrived at by coalescing the lessons learned from similar research based projects with the understanding that a degree of foresight was required given the overall length of the project. In this article, both the successes and challenges of the HIFI software development process are presented. To support future similar projects and retain experience gained lessons learned are extracted.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Prevalence of chronic complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus in a secondary health centre in Niger Delta, Nigeria

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Nigeria is believed to rapidly be on the increase despite its awareness. Its related chronic complications is also expanding leading to reduction in the quality of life of patients, incurring heavy burdens to the health care system, loss of man hours from work and increasing diabetic mortality. Current information on the prevalence of chronic complications and its related clinical characteristics in Niger Delta area is scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of chronic complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus in a secondary health Centre in Niger Delta, with the objective of relating the effect of age and gender with these complications as well as determining their glycemic control.Methods: 200 consenting adult diabetics 96 (48%) males and 104 (52%) females, who have been attending the diabetic clinics for at least 12 months, were randomly recruited for the study. Hospital records, questionnaire and laboratory investigations were used to collect the demographic, clinical data as well as values of fasting blood sugar, urea, creatinine, lipids, urine microalbumin and glycated hemoglobin for all subjects.Results: Of the 200 T2DM patients evaluated for chronic complications, 130 (65%) presented with one form of complication varying from nephropathy (58%), dyslipidemia (57%), hypertension (48%), neuropathy (14%) and retinopathy (9%) with 104 (52%) having more than two categories concurrently. chronic complications varied with gender as well as age.Conclusions: Chronic complications are common among type 2 diabetes in central hospital Warri, Nigeria. Implementation of timely and appropriate screening strategies could decrease the burden of diabetes chronic complications

Correcting for the Effects of Interstellar Extinction

This paper addresses the issue of how best to correct astronomical data for the wavelength-dependent effects of Galactic interstellar extinction. The main general features of extinction from the IR through the UV are reviewed, along with the nature of observed spatial variations. The enormous range of extinction properties found in the Galaxy, particularly in the UV spectral region, is illustrated. Fortunately, there are some tight constraints on the wavelength dependence of extinction and some general correlations between extinction curve shape and interstellar environment. These relationships provide some guidance for correcting data for the effects of extinction. Several strategies for dereddening are discussed along with estimates of the uncertainties inherent in each method. In the Appendix, a new derivation of the wavelength dependence of an average Galactic extinction curve from the IR through the UV is presented, along with a new estimate of how this extinction law varies with the parameter R = A(V)/E(B-V). These curves represent the true monochromatic wavelength dependence of extinction and, as such, are suitable for dereddening IR--UV spectrophotometric data of any resolution, and can be used to derive extinction relations for any photometry system.Comment: To appear in PASP (January 1999) 14 pages including 4 pages of figures Uses emulateapj style. PASP, in press (January 1999

Antifungal Potential of Black Mangrove Leave Extracts on Isolates of Smoked Bonga Fish Sampled from Oju-Ore and Iyana Markets in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

The contamination of dried fishes by fungi poses serious threat to food safety and public health. This study was carried out on fungal contaminants found in smoked Bonga fish and to determine if there are any antifungal properties in the ethanol extract of Black Mangrove leaves. To achieve this, the study made use of six bonga fish samples purchased from two different markets, with six samples from three different retailers in each market, making a total of thirty-six samples. The antifungal properties of Black Mangrove (Avicennia germinans) were determined; the leaves were dried in the open air, followed by blending and extraction using absolute ethanol. Mycological examination of samples revealed the prevalence of seven types of fungi namely, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Rhizopus sp, Alternaria, Candida sp, Mucor sp. Concentration of 1% and 0.1% was applied, using the agar well diffusion method. The 1% ethanol extract showed very small zone of inhibition on the fungal isolates. Rhizopus, A. niger, A flavus, A. Fumigatus, Alternaria sp, Candida sp, Mucor sp showed zones of inhibition 2mm, 1mm, 0mm, 1mm, 0mm, 1mm, 2mm, respectively. The 0.1% ethanol extract showed no zone of inhibition. This showed that the extract had little or no antifungal effects on the isolates

Characterization of potential biomarkers of reactogenicity of licensed antiviral vaccines: randomized controlled clinical trials conducted by the BIOVACSAFE consortium

Funding text The authors are grateful for the vital contributions of the participating study volunteers, clinicians, nurses, and laboratory technicians at the Surrey study site. The work by Roberto Leone, laboratory technician at Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, is gratefully acknowledged. Finally, they thank Ellen Oe (GSK) for scientific writing assistance. The research leading to these results has received support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n°115308, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) and EFPIA companies’ in-kind contribution. The contribution of the European Commission to the Advanced Immunization Technologies (ADITEC) project (grant agreement n° 280873) is also gratefully acknowledged. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s).Biomarkers predictive of inflammatory events post-vaccination could accelerate vaccine development. Within the BIOVACSAFE framework, we conducted three identically designed, placebo-controlled inpatient/outpatient clinical studies (NCT01765413/NCT01771354/NCT01771367). Six antiviral vaccination strategies were evaluated to generate training data-sets of pre-/post-vaccination vital signs, blood changes and whole-blood gene transcripts, and to identify putative biomarkers of early inflammation/reactogenicity that could guide the design of subsequent focused confirmatory studies. Healthy adults (N = 123; 20–21/group) received one immunization at Day (D)0. Alum-adjuvanted hepatitis B vaccine elicited vital signs and inflammatory (CRP/innate cells) responses that were similar between primed/naive vaccinees, and low-level gene responses. MF59-adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (ATIV) induced distinct physiological (temperature/heart rate/reactogenicity) response-patterns not seen with non-adjuvanted TIV or with the other vaccines. ATIV also elicited robust early (D1) activation of IFN-related genes (associated with serum IP-10 levels) and innate-cell-related genes, and changes in monocyte/neutrophil/lymphocyte counts, while TIV elicited similar but lower responses. Due to viral replication kinetics, innate gene activation by live yellow-fever or varicella-zoster virus (YFV/VZV) vaccines was more suspended, with early IFN-associated responses in naïve YFV-vaccine recipients but not in primed VZV-vaccine recipients. Inflammatory responses (physiological/serum markers, innate-signaling transcripts) are therefore a function of the vaccine type/composition and presence/absence of immune memory. The data reported here have guided the design of confirmatory Phase IV trials using ATIV to provide tools to identify inflammatory or reactogenicity biomarkers.Peer reviewe

Investigating situated cultural practices through cross-sectoral digital collaborations: policies, processes, insights

The (Belfast) Good Friday Agreement represents a major milestone in Northern Ireland's recent political history, with complex conditions allowing for formation of a ‘cross-community’ system of government enabling power sharing between parties representing Protestant/loyalist and Catholic/nationalist constituencies. This article examines the apparent flourishing of community-focused digital practices over the subsequent ‘post-conflict’ decade, galvanised by Northern Irish and EU policy initiatives armed with consolidating the peace process. Numerous digital heritage and storytelling projects have been catalysed within programmes aiming to foster social processes, community cohesion and cross-community exchange. The article outlines two projects—‘digital memory boxes’ and ‘interactive galleon’—developed during 2007–2008 within practice-led PhD enquiry conducted in collaboration with the Nerve Centre, a third-sector media education organisation. The article goes on to critically examine the processes involved in practically realising, and creatively and theoretically reconciling, community-engaged digital production in a particular socio-political context of academic-community collaboration

Test of the REX-RFQ and status of the front part of the REX-ISOLDE linac

For REX-ISOLDE (Radioactive beam EXperiments at ISOLDE/CERN), a test beamline is built up at the Garching Accelerator Lab. to perform He$^{1+}$-experiments with the RFQ, the matching (rebunching) section between RFQ and IH-DT-linac, the IH-structure and several electrostatic lenses of the REX-ISOLDE-mass separator. In a first step, the beamline is conceived for tests with the RFQ. This paper presents the parameters and the status of the REX-RFQ, the experimental setup and the particle dynamics simulations with the COSY infinity code for beam injection and beam analysis. Furthermore it shows the design and status of the mass separator, the IH- structure and the buncher section. (5 refs)

HITRAP: A facility at GSI for highly charged ions

An overview and status report of the new trapping facility for highly charged ions at the Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung is presented. The construction of this facility started in 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2008. Once operational, highly charged ions will be loaded from the experimental storage ring ESR into the HITRAP facility, where they are decelerated and cooled. The kinetic energy of the initially fast ions is reduced by more than fourteen orders of magnitude and their thermal energy is cooled to cryogenic temperatures. The cold ions are then delivered to a broad range of atomic physics experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure

On waiting for something to happen

This paper seeks to examine two particular and peculiar practices in which the mediation of apparently direct encounters is made explicit and is systematically theorized: that of the psychoanalytic dialogue with its inward focus and private secluded setting, and that of theatre and live performance, with its public focus. Both these practices are concerned with ways in which “live encounters” impact on their participants, and hence with the conditions under which, and the processes whereby, the coming-together of human subjects results in recognizable personal or social change. Through the rudimentary analysis of two anecdotes, we aim to think these encounters together in a way that explores what each borrows from the other, the psychoanalytic in the theatrical, the theatrical in the psychoanalytic, figuring each practice as differently committed to what we call the “publication of liveness”. We argue that these “redundant” forms of human contact continue to provide respite from group acceptance of narcissistic failure in the post-democratic era through their offer of a practice of waiting