The HIPASS Catalogue - II. Completeness, Reliability, and Parameter Accuracy

The HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS) is a blind extragalactic HI 21-cm emission line survey covering the whole southern sky from declination -90 to +25. The HIPASS catalogue (HICAT), containing 4315 HI-selected galaxies from the region south of declination +2, is presented in Meyer et al. (2004a, Paper I). This paper describes in detail the completeness and reliability of HICAT, which are calculated from the recovery rate of synthetic sources and follow-up observations, respectively. HICAT is found to be 99 per cent complete at a peak flux of 84 mJy and an integrated flux of 9.4 Jy km/s. The overall reliability is 95 per cent, but rises to 99 per cent for sources with peak fluxes >58 mJy or integrated flux > 8.2 Jy km/s. Expressions are derived for the uncertainties on the most important HICAT parameters: peak flux, integrated flux, velocity width, and recessional velocity. The errors on HICAT parameters are dominated by the noise in the HIPASS data, rather than by the parametrization procedure.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 11 figures. Paper with higher resolution figures can be downloaded from http://hipass.aus-vo.or

MeerKAT uncovers the physics of an odd radio circle

Odd radio circles (ORCs) are recently-discovered faint diffuse circles of radio emission, of unknown cause, surrounding galaxies at moderate redshift (z ∼0.2-0.6). Here, we present detailed new MeerKAT radio images at 1284 MHz of the first ORC, originally discovered with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, with higher resolution (6 arcsec) and sensitivity (∼2.4 μJy/beam). In addition to the new images, which reveal a complex internal structure consisting of multiple arcs, we also present polarization and spectral index maps. Based on these new data, we consider potential mechanisms that may generate the ORCs

Study protocol : Minimum effective low dose: anti-human thymocyte globulin (MELD-ATG): phase II, dose ranging, efficacy study of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) within 6 weeks of diagnosis of type 1 diabetes

Introduction Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease, characterised by progressive destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. One immunosuppressive agent that has recently shown promise in the treatment of new-onset T1D subjects aged 12-45 years is antithymocyte globulin (ATG), Thymoglobuline, encouraging further exploration in lower age groups. Methods and analysis Minimal effective low dose (MELD)-ATG is a phase 2, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiarm parallel-group trial in participants 5-25 years diagnosed with T1D within 3-9 weeks of planned treatment day 1. A total of 114 participants will be recruited sequentially into seven different cohorts with the first cohort of 30 participants being randomised to placebo, 2.5 mg/kg, 1.5 mg/kg, 0.5 mg/kg and 0.1 mg/kg ATG total dose in a 1:1:1:1:1 allocation ratio. The next six cohorts of 12-15 participants will be randomised to placebo, 2.5 mg/kg, and one or two selected middle ATG total doses in a 1:1:1:1 or 1:1:1 allocation ratio, as dependent on the number of middle doses, given intravenously over two consecutive days. The primary objective will be to determine the changes in stimulated C-peptide response over the first 2 hours of a mixed meal tolerance test at 12 months for 2.5 mg/kg ATG arm vs the placebo. Conditional on finding a significant difference at 2.5 mg/kg, a minimally effective dose will be sought. Secondary objectives include the determination of the effects of a particular ATG treatment dose on (1) stimulated C-peptide, (2) glycated haemoglobin, (3) daily insulin dose, (4) time in range by intermittent continuous glucose monitoring measures, (5) fasting and stimulated dry blood spot (DBS) C-peptide measurements. Ethics and dissemination MELD-ATG received first regulatory and ethical approvals in Belgium in September 2020 and from the German and UK regulators as of February 2021. The publication policy is set in the INNODIA (An innovative approach towards understanding and arresting Type 1 diabetes consortium) grant agreement (www.innodia.eu).Peer reviewe

The Northern HIPASS catalogue - Data presentation, completeness and reliability measures

The Northern HIPASS catalogue (NHICAT) is the northern extension of the HIPASS catalogue, HICAT (Meyer et al. 2004). This extension adds the sky area between the declination range of +2 deg < dec. < +25.5 deg to HICAT's declination range of -90 deg < dec. < +2 deg. HIPASS is a blind HI survey using the Parkes Radio Telescope covering 71% of the sky (including this northern extension) and a heliocentric velocity range of -1,280 km/s to 12,700 km/s . The entire Virgo Cluster region has been observed in the Northern HIPASS. The galaxy catalogue, NHICAT, contains 1002 sources with v_hel > 300 km/s . Sources with -300 km/s < v_hel < 300 km/s were excluded to avoid contamination by Galactic emission. In total, the entire HIPASS survey has found 5317 galaxies identified purely by their HI content. The full galaxy catalogue is publicly-available at .Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication by MNRA

Open astronomy and big data science

Open Astronomy is an important and valuable goal, including the availability of refereed science papers and user-friendly public astronomy data archives. The latter allow and encourage interested researchers from around the world to visualise, analyse and possibly download data from many different science and frequency domains. With the enormous growth of data volumes and complexity, open archives are essential to explore ideas and make discoveries. Open source software is equally important for many reasons, including reproducibility and collaboration. I will present examples of open archive and software tools, including the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive (CASDA), the Local Volume HI Survey (LVHIS), the 3D Source Finding Application (SoFiA) and the Busy Function (BF). Astronomy is international and includes or links to an incredibly wide range of sciences, computing, engineering, and education. Its open nature can serve as an example for world-wide interdisciplinary collaborations