11,805 research outputs found
The efficacy of halofantrine in the treatment of acute malaria in nonimmune travelers
A multicenter prospective trial was performed to investigate the efficacy and the tolerability of halofantrine in nonimmune patients with malaria imported from areas with drug-resistant falciparum parasites (mainly Africa). Forty-five of the 74 subjects were treated with a one-day regimen (3 x 500 mg) of halofantrine, and the other 29 received the same regimen with an additional treatment on day 7. In the second group, a 100% efficacy rate was demonstrated, but in the group receiving the one-day regimen, four recrudescences were observed in patients with falciparum malaria. Only five mild adverse reactions were seen, which disappeared spontaneously after the end of the treatment. We conclude that halofantrine is highly effective in curing malaria in nonimmune subjects. The treatment scheme for such persons should include an additional treatment on day 7 for nonimmune individuals. This drug was well tolerated in our patients, indicating that halofantrine will be useful in the treatment of multidrug-resistant malaria in nonimmune persons
Non-detection of a pulsar-powered nebula in Puppis A, and implications for the nature of the radio-quiet neutron star RX J0822-4300
We report on a deep radio search for a pulsar wind nebula associated with the
radio-quiet neutron star RX J0822-4300 in the supernova remnant Puppis A. The
well-determined properties of Puppis A allow us to constrain the size of any
nebula to less than 30 arcsec; however we find no evidence for such a source on
any spatial scale up to 30 arcmin. These non-detections result in an upper
limit on the radio luminosity of any pulsar-powered nebula which is three
orders of magnitude below what would be expected if RX J0822-4300 was an
energetic young radio pulsar beaming away from us, and cast doubt on a recent
claim of X-ray pulsations from this source. The lack of a radio nebula leads us
to conclude that RX J0822-4300 has properties very different from most young
radio pulsars, and that it represents a distinct population which may be as
numerous, or even more so, than radio pulsars.Comment: 5 pages, including 2 embedded EPS figures, uses emulateapj.sty.
Accepted to ApJ Letters (minor changes made following referee's report
A paradox of syntactic priming: why response tendencies show priming for passives, and response latencies show priming for actives
Speakers tend to repeat syntactic structures across sentences, a phenomenon called syntactic priming. Although it has been suggested that repeating syntactic structures should result in speeded responses, previous research has focused on effects in response tendencies. We investigated syntactic priming effects simultaneously in response tendencies and response latencies for active and passive transitive sentences in a picture description task. In Experiment 1, there were priming effects in response tendencies for passives and in response latencies for actives. However, when participants' pre-existing preference for actives was altered in Experiment 2, syntactic priming occurred for both actives and passives in response tendencies as well as in response latencies. This is the first investigation of the effects of structure frequency on both response tendencies and latencies in syntactic priming. We discuss the implications of these data for current theories of syntactic processing
ATLBS Extended Source Sample: The evolution in radio source morphology with flux density
Based on the ATLBS survey we present a sample of extended radio sources and
derive morphological properties of faint radio sources. 119 radio galaxies form
the ATLBS-Extended Source Sample (ATLBS-ESS) consisting of all sources
exceeding 30" in extent and integrated flux densities exceeding 1 mJy. We give
structural details along with information on galaxy identifications and source
classifications. The ATLBS-ESS, unlike samples with higher flux-density limits,
has almost equal fractions of FR-I and FR-II radio galaxies with a large
fraction of the FR-I population exhibiting 3C31-type structures. Significant
asymmetry in lobe extents appears to be a common occurrence in the ATLBS-ESS
FR-I sources compared to FR-II sources. We present a sample of 22 FR-Is at
z>0.5 with good structural information. The detection of several giant radio
sources, with size exceeding 0.7 Mpc, at z>1 suggests that giant radio sources
are not less common at high redshifts. The ESS also includes a sample of 28
restarted radio galaxies. The relative abundance of dying and restarting
sources is indicative of a model where radio sources undergo episodic activity
in which an active phase is followed by a brief dying phase that terminates
with restarting of the central activity; in any massive elliptical a few such
activity cycles wherein adjacent events blend may constitute the lifetime of a
radio source and such bursts of blended activity cycles may be repeated over
the age of the host. The ATLBS-ESS includes a 2-Mpc giant radio galaxy with the
lowest surface brightness lobes known to date.Comment: 69 pages, 119 figures, 4 tables, to appear in ApJ
A high-resolution radio survey of the Vela supernova remnant
This paper presents a high-resolution radio continuum (843 MHz) survey of the
Vela supernova remnant. The contrast between the structures in the central
pulsar-powered nebula of the remnant and the synchrotron radiation shell allows
the remnant to be identified morphologically as a member of the composite
class. The data are the first of a composite remnant at spatial scales
comparable with those available for the Cygnus Loop and the Crab Nebula, and
make possible a comparison of radio, optical and soft X-ray emission from the
resolved shell filaments. The survey, made with the Molonglo Observatory
Synthesis Telescope, covers an area of 50 square degrees at a resolution of
43'' x 60'', while imaging structures on scales up to 30'.Comment: 18 pages, 7 jpg figures (version with ps figures at
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~dbock/papers/); AJ, in pres
Effects of CMB temperature uncertainties on cosmological parameter estimation
We estimate the effect of the experimental uncertainty in the measurement of
the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the extraction of
cosmological parameters from future CMB surveys. We find that even for an ideal
experiment limited only by cosmic variance up to l = 2500 for both the
temperature and polarisation measurements, the projected cosmological parameter
errors are remarkably robust against the uncertainty of 1 mK in the FIRAS
instrument's CMB temperature monopole measurement. The maximum degradation in
sensitivity is 20%, for the baryon density estimate, relative to the case in
which the monopole is known infinitely well. While this degradation is
acceptable, we note that reducing the uncertainty in the current temperature
measurement by a factor of five will bring it down to the per cent level. We
also estimate the effect of the uncertainty in the dipole temperature
measurement. Assuming the overall calibration of the data to be dominated by
the dipole error of 0.2% from FIRAS, the sensitivity degradation is
insignificant and does not exceed 10% in any parameter direction.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, uses iopart.cls, v2: added discussion of CMB
dipole uncertainty, version accepted by JCA
From aptamer-based biomarker discovery to diagnostic and clinical applications: an aptamer-based, streamlined multiplex proteomic assay
Recently, we reported an aptamer-based, highly multiplexed assay for the purpose of biomarker identification. To enable seamless transition from highly multiplexed biomarker discovery assays to a format suitable and convenient for diagnostic and life-science applications, we developed a streamlined, plate-based version of the assay. The plate-based version of the assay is robust, sensitive (sub-picomolar), rapid, can be highly multiplexed (upwards of 60 analytes), and fully automated. We demonstrate that quantification by microarray-based hybridization, Luminex bead-based methods, and qPCR are each compatible with our platform, further expanding the breadth of proteomic applications for a wide user community
The AzTEC mm-Wavelength Camera
AzTEC is a mm-wavelength bolometric camera utilizing 144 silicon nitride
micromesh detectors. Herein we describe the AzTEC instrument architecture and
its use as an astronomical instrument. We report on several performance metrics
measured during a three month observing campaign at the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope, and conclude with our plans for AzTEC as a facility instrument on
the Large Millimeter Telescope.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notice
- …