56 research outputs found
GRB 050505: A high redshift burst discovered by Swift
We report the discovery and subsequent multi-wavelength afterglow behaviour
of the high redshift (z = 4.27) Gamma Ray Burst GRB 050505. This burst is the
third most distant burst, measured by spectroscopic redshift, discovered after
GRB 000131 (z = 4.50) and GRB 050904 (z = 6.29). GRB 050505 is a long GRB with
a multipeaked gamma-ray light curve, with a duration of T_90 = 63+/-2 s and an
inferred isotropic release in gamma-rays of ~4.44 x 10^53 ergs in the 1-10^4
keV rest frame energy range. The Swift X-Ray Telescope followed the afterglow
for 14 days, detecting two breaks in the light curve at 7.4(+/-1.5) ks and 58.0
(+9.9/-15.4) ks after the burst trigger. The power law decay slopes before,
between and after these breaks were 0.25 (+0.16/-0.17), 1.17 (+0.08/-0.09) and
1.97 (+0.27/-0.28) respectively. The light curve can also be fit with a
`smoothly broken' power law model with a break observed at ~ T+18.5 ks, with
decay slopes of ~0.4 and ~1.8 before and after the break respectively. The
X-ray afterglow shows no spectral variation over the course of the Swift
observations, being well fit with a single power law of photon index ~1.90.
This behaviour is expected for the cessation of continued energisation of the
ISM shock followed by a break caused by a jet, either uniform or structured.
Neither break is consistent with a cooling break. The spectral energy
distribution indeed shows the cooling frequency to be below the X-ray but above
optical frequencies. The optical -- X-ray spectrum also shows that there is
significant X-ray absorption in excess of that due to our Galaxy but very
little optical/UV extinction, with E(B-V) ~0.10 for a SMC-like extinction
curve.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by MNRA
Mycoplasma genitalium: An Emerging Cause of Sexually Transmitted Disease in Women
Mycoplasma genitalium is an emerging sexually transmitted pathogen implicated in urethritis in men and several inflammatory reproductive tract syndromes in women including cervicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and infertility. This comprehensive review critically examines epidemiologic studies of M. genitalium infections in women with the goal of assessing the associations with reproductive tract disease and enhancing awareness of this emerging pathogen. Over 27,000 women from 48 published reports have been screened for M. genitalium urogenital infection in high- or low-risk populations worldwide with an overall prevalence of 7.3% and 2.0%, respectively. M. genitalium was present in the general population at rates between those of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Considering more than 20 studies of lower tract inflammation, M. genitalium has been positively associated with urethritis, vaginal discharge, and microscopic signs of cervicitis and/or mucopurulent cervical discharge in seven of 14 studies. A consistent case definition of cervicitis is lacking and will be required for comprehensive understanding of these associations. Importantly, evidence for M. genitalium PID and infertility are quite convincing and indicate that a significant proportion of upper tract inflammation may be attributed to this elusive pathogen. Collectively, M. genitalium is highly prevalent in high- and low-risk populations, and should be considered an etiologic agent of select reproductive tract disease syndromes in women
Towards real-time DNA-based microbial surveillance at water resource recovery facilities
How well do 46 full-scale Danish anaerobic digesters at wastewater treatment plants perform?
Managing the wastewater microbiome: Rapid microbial surveillance using Nanopore DNA sequencing
- …