The Dust Content of Galaxy Clusters

We report on the detection of reddening toward z ~ 0.2 galaxy clusters. This is measured by correlating the Sloan Digital Sky Survey cluster and quasar catalogs and by comparing the photometric and spectroscopic properties of quasars behind the clusters to those in the field. We find mean E(B-V) values of a few times 10^-3 mag for sight lines passing ~Mpc from the clusters' center. The reddening curve is typical of dust but cannot be used to distinguish between different dust types. The radial dependence of the extinction is shallow near the cluster center suggesting that most of the detected dust lies at the outskirts of the clusters. Gravitational magnification of background z ~ 1.7 sources seen on Mpc (projected) scales around the clusters is found to be of order a few per cent, in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions. Contamination by different spectral properties of the lensed quasar population is unlikely but cannot be excluded.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A Case of Immune-Mediated Pneumonitis Associated With Dual Nivolumab and Ipilimumab Immunotherapy Treatment

Nivolumab and ipilimumab are immunotherapy agents used in combination to treat metastatic melanoma and have proven to be efficacious. However, they have been linked to the development of immune-mediated inflammatory processes in various organ systems and tissues, including immune-mediated pneumonitis (IMP). This case report describes a 50-year-old female patient with metastatic melanoma who was treated with nivolumab and ipilimumab therapy and developed IMP as a complication. Despite treatment with steroids and infliximab, the patient\u27s condition worsened, and she passed away due to respiratory compromise. This report emphasizes the potential for serious complications in patients receiving combination immunotherapy and highlights the importance of close monitoring and risk stratification, particularly in patients with underlying lung conditions

Smoke gets in your eyes:what is sociological about cigarettes?

Contemporary public health approaches increasingly draw attention to the unequal social distribution of cigarette smoking. In contrast, critical accounts emphasize the importance of smokers’ situated agency, the relevance of embodiment and how public health measures against smoking potentially play upon and exacerbate social divisions and inequality. Nevertheless, if the social context of cigarettes is worthy of such attention, and sociology lays a distinct claim to understanding the social, we need to articulate a distinct, positive and systematic claim for smoking as an object of sociological enquiry. This article attempts to address this by situating smoking across three main dimensions of sociological thinking: history and social change; individual agency and experience; and social structures and power. It locates the emergence and development of cigarettes in everyday life within the project of modernity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It goes on to assess the habituated, temporal and experiential aspects of individual smoking practices in everyday lifeworlds. Finally, it argues that smoking, while distributed in important ways by social class, also works relationally to render and inscribe it

A WFC3 Grism Emission Line Redshift Catalog in the GOODS-South Field

We combine HST/WFC3 imaging and G141 grism observations from the CANDELS and 3D-HST surveys to produce a catalog of grism spectroscopic redshifts for galaxies in the CANDELS/GOODS-South field. The WFC3/G141 grism spectra cover a wavelength range of 1.1<lambda<1.7 microns with a resolving power of R~130 for point sources, thus providing rest-frame optical spectra for galaxies out to z~3.5. The catalog is selected in the H-band (F160W) and includes both galaxies with and without previously published spectroscopic redshifts. Grism spectra are extracted for all H-band detected galaxies with H<24 and a CANDELS photometric redshift z_phot > 0.6. The resulting spectra are visually inspected to identify emission lines and redshifts are determined using cross-correlation with empirical spectral templates. To establish the accuracy of our redshifts, we compare our results against high-quality spectroscopic redshifts from the literature. Using a sample of 411 control galaxies, this analysis yields a precision of sigma_NMAD=0.0028 for the grism-derived redshifts, which is consistent with the accuracy reported by the 3D-HST team. Our final catalog covers an area of 153 square arcmin and contains 1019 redshifts for galaxies in GOODS-S. Roughly 60% (608/1019) of these redshifts are for galaxies with no previously published spectroscopic redshift. These new redshifts span a range of 0.677 < z < 3.456 and have a median redshift of z=1.282. The catalog contains a total of 234 new redshifts for galaxies at z>1.5. In addition, we present 20 galaxy pair candidates identified for the first time using the grism redshifts in our catalog, including four new galaxy pairs at z~2, nearly doubling the number of such pairs previously identified.Comment: 25 Pages, 9 Figures, submitted to A

Conservation Status of the Plains Spotted Skunk, Spilogale putorius interrupta, in Texas, with an Assessment of Genetic Variability in the Species

Robert C. Dowler, Department of Biology at Angelo State University is the corresponding author, robert dot dowler at angelo dot eduIn this report, we present results of research on the conservation status of the plains spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius interrupta) in Texas and an assessment of the genetic variability in populations throughout the range of the species. The conservation status portion of the study included (1) mapping the species’ potential habitat in Texas using maximum entropy modeling (Maxent) with historic museum specimen records, (2) field-based surveying of locations in 10 counties to determine occurrence of the plains spotted skunk, (3) seeking additional occurrence records in Texas through crowd sourcing and citizen scientist approaches (4) using all current (2001 – 2017) occurrences to produce a model of probable geographic distribution in Texas and (5) assessing anthropogenic changes in land use, which may threaten the species’ habitats, by mapping current and forecasted oil and gas development and urbanization within the species’ modeled range. The species distribution model, combined with the land-change assessment, was used to select sites in 10 representative counties for field-based surveys in the hopes of revealing patterns of current distribution. Field surveys were carried out using live traps, enclosed track plates, and camera traps. These methods documented detections of plains spotted skunks (n = 12) in 4 of the 10 sites sampled. All methods of detection were successful, but cameras and live traps out-performed track plates. Crowd-sourced approaches and citizen scientist camera trapping revealed an additional 82 occurrences in the state, 79 of which were since 2009. These recent records were used to produce a species distribution model that provides relative probability of occurrence for the plains spotted skunk in the state. Our land-change mapping revealed potential anthropogenic threats to habitats at 2 of the sites (Katy Prairie and Fort Hood), which also had robust populations of plains spotted skunks based on 25 and 51detections, respectively). For our genetic assessment, samples of tissue from three sources (i.e., field surveys, state agencies throughout the distribution of the eastern spotted skunk, and museum tissue collections) allowed a detailed assessment of the genetic variability in the species (S. putorius) using both microsatellite markers and cytochrome b gene sequence. Our analysis of 119 specimens was able to establish that genetic patterns were consistent with currently accepted taxonomy of the 3 recognized subspecies of S. putorius (S. p. putorius, S. p. ambarvalis, and S. p. interrupta). We also determined that there was no evidence for hybridization with the congener, S. gracilis (western spotted skunk), a species co-occurring with the eastern spotted skunk in parts of Texas. The differentiation between S. p. putorius and S. p. ambarvalis was less pronounced (FST = 0.178; cytochrome b sequence divergence = 1.2%) than between these subspecies and the plains spotted skunk (average FST = 0.278; cytochrome b sequence divergence = 2.9%). Overall, genetic variability (observed heterozygosity = 0.474) in the plains spotted skunk was lower than that seen in common carnivores (striped skunks, raccoons), but slightly higher than some endangered carnivores (black-footed ferret). The heterozygosity levels more closely resemble the levels found within the island spotted skunk (S. gracilis amphiala) from the Channel Islands of California and other vertebrates that have a “threatened” conservation status. Key findings of the study include: 1) the current geographic distribution of the plains spotted skunk in Texas is reduced relative to historic records; 2) the species distribution model based on recorded occurrences since 2001 suggests areas of the state that are in need of further survey efforts; 3) genetic variability of plains spotted skunks is lower than more common carnivores, but higher than some recognized endangered species; 4) the subspecies, S. p. interrupta is a distinct genetic subunit of the eastern spotted skunk; and 5) continued energy development and especially future urbanization in some parts of Texas may affect populations of the plains spotted skunk.Texas Comptroller of Public AccountsBureau of Economic Geolog

The EphB4 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Promotes Lung Cancer Growth: A Potential Novel Therapeutic Target

Despite progress in locoregional and systemic therapies, patient survival from lung cancer remains a challenge. Receptor tyrosine kinases are frequently implicated in lung cancer pathogenesis, and some tyrosine kinase inhibition strategies have been effective clinically. The EphB4 receptor tyrosine kinase has recently emerged as a potential target in several other cancers. We sought to systematically study the role of EphB4 in lung cancer. Here, we demonstrate that EphB4 is overexpressed 3-fold in lung tumors compared to paired normal tissues and frequently exhibits gene copy number increases in lung cancer. We also show that overexpression of EphB4 promotes cellular proliferation, colony formation, and motility, while EphB4 inhibition reduces cellular viability in vitro, halts the growth of established tumors in mouse xenograft models when used as a single-target strategy, and causes near-complete regression of established tumors when used in combination with paclitaxel. Taken together, these data suggest an important role for EphB4 as a potential novel therapeutic target in lung cancer. Clinical trials investigating the efficacy of anti-EphB4 therapies as well as combination therapy involving EphB4 inhibition may be warranted.</p

No More Active Galactic Nuclei in Clumpy Disks Than in Smooth Galaxies at z~2 in CANDELS / 3D-HST

We use CANDELS imaging, 3D-HST spectroscopy, and Chandra X-ray data to investigate if active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are preferentially fueled by violent disk instabilities funneling gas into galaxy centers at 1.3<z<2.4. We select galaxies undergoing gravitational instabilities using the number of clumps and degree of patchiness as proxies. The CANDELS visual classification system is used to identify 44 clumpy disk galaxies, along with mass-matched comparison samples of smooth and intermediate morphology galaxies. We note that, despite being being mass-matched and having similar star formation rates, the smoother galaxies tend to be smaller disks with more prominent bulges compared to the clumpy galaxies. The lack of smooth extended disks is probably a general feature of the z~2 galaxy population, and means we cannot directly compare with the clumpy and smooth extended disks observed at lower redshift. We find that z~2 clumpy galaxies have slightly enhanced AGN fractions selected by integrated line ratios (in the mass-excitation method), but the spatially resolved line ratios indicate this is likely due to extended phenomena rather than nuclear AGNs. Meanwhile the X-ray data show that clumpy, smooth, and intermediate galaxies have nearly indistinguishable AGN fractions derived from both individual detections and stacked non-detections. The data demonstrate that AGN fueling modes at z~1.85 - whether violent disk instabilities or secular processes - are as efficient in smooth galaxies as they are in clumpy galaxies.Comment: ApJ accepted. 17 pages, 17 figure

An observational prospective study of topical acidified nitrite for killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in contaminated wounds

Background Endogenous nitric oxide (NO) kills bacteria and other organisms as part of the innate immune response. When nitrite is exposed to low pH, NO is generated and has been used as an NO delivery system to treat skin infections. We demonstrated eradication of MRSA carriage from wounds using a topical formulation of citric acid (4.5%) and sodium nitrite (3%) creams co-applied for 5 days to 15 wounds in an observational prospective pilot study of 8 patients. Findings Following treatment with topical citric acid and sodium nitrite, 9 of 15 wounds (60%) and 3 of 8 patients (37%) were cleared of infection. MRSA isolates from these patients were all sensitive to acidified nitrite in vitro compared to methicillin-sensitive S. aureus and a reference strain of MRSA. Conclusions Nitric oxide and acidified nitrite offer a novel therapy for control of MRSA in wounds. Wounds that were not cleared of infection may have been re-contaminated or the bioavailability of acidified nitrite impaired by local factors in the tissue

Smooth(er) Stellar Mass Maps in CANDELS: Constraints on the Longevity of Clumps in High-redshift Star-forming Galaxies

We perform a detailed analysis of the resolved colors and stellar populations of a complete sample of 323 star-forming galaxies at 0.5 < z < 1.5, and 326 star-forming galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5 in the ERS and CANDELS-Deep region of GOODS-South. Galaxies were selected to be more massive than 10^10 Msun and have specific star formation rates above 1/t_H. We model the 7-band optical ACS + near-IR WFC3 spectral energy distributions of individual bins of pixels, accounting simultaneously for the galaxy-integrated photometric constraints available over a longer wavelength range. We analyze variations in rest-frame color, stellar surface mass density, age, and extinction as a function of galactocentric radius and local surface brightness/density, and measure structural parameters on luminosity and stellar mass maps. We find evidence for redder colors, older stellar ages, and increased dust extinction in the nuclei of galaxies. Big star-forming clumps seen in star formation tracers are less prominent or even invisible on the inferred stellar mass distributions. Off-center clumps contribute up to ~20% to the integrated SFR, but only 7% or less to the integrated mass of all massive star-forming galaxies at z ~ 1 and z ~ 2, with the fractional contributions being a decreasing function of wavelength used to select the clumps. The stellar mass profiles tend to have smaller sizes and M20 coefficients, and higher concentration and Gini coefficients than the light distribution. Our results are consistent with an inside-out disk growth scenario with brief (100 - 200 Myr) episodic local enhancements in star formation superposed on the underlying disk. Alternatively, the young ages of off-center clumps may signal inward clump migration, provided this happens efficiently on the order of an orbital timescale.Comment: Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal, 27 pages, 1 table, 16 figure