211 research outputs found
The Partners for Life Program: A Couples Approach to Cardiac Risk Reduction
Morbidity and mortality are reliably lower for the married compared with the unmarried across a variety of illnesses. What is less well understood is how a couple uses their relationship for recommended lifestyle changes associated with decreased risk for illness. Partners for Life compared a patient and partner approach to behavior change with a patient only approach on such factors as exercise, nutrition and medication adherence. Ninety-three patients and their spouses/partners consented to participate (26% of those eligible) and were randomized into either the individual or couples conditon. However, only 80 couples, distributed across conditions, contributed data to the analyses, due to missing data and missing data points. For exercise, there was a significant effect of couples treatment on the increase in activity and a significant effect of couples treatment on the acceleration of treatment over time. Additionally, there was an interaction between marital satisfaction and treatment condition such that patients who reported higher levels of marital distress in the individuals condition did not maintain their physical activity gains by the end of treatment, while both distressed and non-distressed patients in the couples treatment exhibited accelerating gains throughout treatment. In terms of medication adherence, patients in the couples treatment exhibited virtually no change in medication adherence over time, while patients in the individuals treatment showed a 9% relative decrease across time. There were no condition or time effects for nutritional outcomes. Finally, there was an interaction between baseline marital satisfaction and treatment condition such that patients in the individuals condition who reported lower levels of initial marital satisfaction showed deterioration in marital satisfaction, while non- satisfied patients in the couples treatment showed improvement over time
CHANG-ES XI: Circular Polarization in the Cores of Nearby Galaxies
We detect 5 galaxies in the CHANG-ES (Continuum Halos in Nearby Galaxies --
an EVLA Survey) sample that show circular polarization (CP) at L-band in our
high resolution data sets. Two of the galaxies (NGC~4388 and NGC~4845) show
strong Stokes \%, two (NGC~660 and NGC~3628) have
values of \%, and NGC~3079 is a marginal detection at \%. The two strongest galaxies also have the most luminous X-ray
cores and the strongest internal absorption in X-rays. We have expanded on our
previous Faraday conversion interpretation and analysis and provide analytical
expressions for the expected signal for a general case in which the cosmic
ray electron energy spectral index can take on any value. We provide examples
as to how such expressions could be used to estimate magnetic field strengths
and the lower energy cutoff for CR electrons. Four out of our detections are
{\it resolved}, showing unique structures, including a {\it jet} in NGC~4388
and a CP `conversion disk' in NGC~4845. The conversion disk is inclined to the
galactic disk but is perpendicular to a possible outflow direction. Such CP
structures have never before been seen in any galaxy to our knowledge. None of
the galaxy cores show linear polarization at L-band. Thus CP may provide a
unique probe of physical conditions deep into radio AGNs.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, accepted to MNRA
Prime Focus Spectrograph - Subaru's future -
The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) of the Subaru Measurement of Images and
Redshifts (SuMIRe) project has been endorsed by Japanese community as one of
the main future instruments of the Subaru 8.2-meter telescope at Mauna Kea,
Hawaii. This optical/near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph targets cosmology
with galaxy surveys, Galactic archaeology, and studies of galaxy/AGN evolution.
Taking advantage of Subaru's wide field of view, which is further extended with
the recently completed Wide Field Corrector, PFS will enable us to carry out
multi-fiber spectroscopy of 2400 targets within 1.3 degree diameter. A
microlens is attached at each fiber entrance for F-ratio transformation into a
larger one so that difficulties of spectrograph design are eased. Fibers are
accurately placed onto target positions by positioners, each of which consists
of two stages of piezo-electric rotary motors, through iterations by using
back-illuminated fiber position measurements with a wide-field metrology
camera. Fibers then carry light to a set of four identical fast-Schmidt
spectrographs with three color arms each: the wavelength ranges from 0.38
{\mu}m to 1.3 {\mu}m will be simultaneously observed with an average resolving
power of 3000. Before and during the era of extremely large telescopes, PFS
will provide the unique capability of obtaining spectra of 2400
cosmological/astrophysical targets simultaneously with an 8-10 meter class
telescope. The PFS collaboration, led by IPMU, consists of USP/LNA in Brazil,
Caltech/JPL, Princeton, & JHU in USA, LAM in France, ASIAA in Taiwan, and
NAOJ/Subaru.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to "Ground-based and Airborne
Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, Ian S. McLean, Suzanne K. Ramsay, Hideki
Takami, Editors, Proc. SPIE 8446 (2012)
Planet Occurrence within 0.25 AU of Solar-type Stars from Kepler
We report the distribution of planets as a function of planet radius (R_p),
orbital period (P), and stellar effective temperature (Teff) for P < 50 day
orbits around GK stars. These results are based on the 1,235 planets (formally
"planet candidates") from the Kepler mission that include a nearly complete set
of detected planets as small as 2 Earth radii (Re). For each of the 156,000
target stars we assess the detectability of planets as a function of R_p and P.
We also correct for the geometric probability of transit, R*/a. We consider
first stars within the "solar subset" having Teff = 4100-6100 K, logg =
4.0-4.9, and Kepler magnitude Kp < 15 mag. We include only those stars having
noise low enough to permit detection of planets down to 2 Re. We count planets
in small domains of R_p and P and divide by the included target stars to
calculate planet occurrence in each domain. Occurrence of planets varies by
more than three orders of magnitude and increases substantially down to the
smallest radius (2 Re) and out to the longest orbital period (50 days, ~0.25
AU) in our study. For P < 50 days, the radius distribution is given by a power
law, df/dlogR= k R^\alpha. This rapid increase in planet occurrence with
decreasing planet size agrees with core-accretion, but disagrees with
population synthesis models. We fit occurrence as a function of P to a power
law model with an exponential cutoff below a critical period P_0. For smaller
planets, P_0 has larger values, suggesting that the "parking distance" for
migrating planets moves outward with decreasing planet size. We also measured
planet occurrence over Teff = 3600-7100 K, spanning M0 to F2 dwarfs. The
occurrence of 2-4 Re planets in the Kepler field increases with decreasing
Teff, making these small planets seven times more abundant around cool stars
than the hottest stars in our sample. [abridged]Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 22 pages, 10 figure
Crop Updates 2000 - Cereals part 1
This session covers eleven papers from different authors:
PLENARY PAPERS
1. New Wheat for a Secure, Sustainable Future, Timothy G. Reeves, Sanjaya Rajaram, Maarten van Ginkel, Richard Trethowan, Hans-Joachim Braun, and Kelly Cassaday, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)
2. Managing Cereal Rusts - a National Perspective, R.A. McIntosh, University of Sydney Plant Breeding Institute, New South Wales
3. Managing Cereal Rusts in 2000 - a regional imperative, R. Loughman, Agriculture Western Australia
4. Is nutrition the answer to wheat after canola problems?Ross Brennan1, Bill Bowden1, Mike Bolland1, Zed Rengel2 and David Isbister2 1 Agriculture Western Australia 2University of Western Australia
5. Improved Sandplain Cropping Systems by Controlled Traffic, Dr Paul Blackwell, Agriculture Western Australia
6. Raised bed farming for improved cropping of waterlogged soils, Derk Bakker, Greg Hamilton, David Houlbrooke, Cliff Spann and Doug Rowe, Agriculture Western Australia
7. Banded Urea increased wheat yields, Patrick Gethin, Stephen Loss, Frank Boetel, and Tim O’Dea, CSBP futurefarm
8. Flexi N is as effective as Urea on wheat and canola, Frank Boetel, Stephen Loss, Patrick Gethin, and Tim O’Dea CSBP futurefarm
9. Why potassium may reduce cereal leaf disease, Noeleen Edwards, Agriculture Western Australia
10, Trace elements, Wayne Pluske CSBP futurefarm, and Ross BrennanAgriculture Western Australia
11. Historical Nutrient Balance at Paddock and Whole Farm scales for typical wheatbelt farms in the Dowerin - Wongan Hills area, M.T.F. Wong, K. Wittwer and H. Zhang Precision Agriculture Research Group, CSIRO Land and Wate
The prognostic significance of tumour cell detection in the peripheral blood versus the bone marrow in 733 early-stage breast cancer patients
Stellar Diameters and Temperatures VI. High angular resolution measurements of the transiting exoplanet host stars HD 189733 and HD 209458 and implications for models of cool dwarfs
We present direct radii measurements of the well-known transiting exoplanet
host stars HD 189733 and HD 209458 using the CHARA Array interferometer. We
find the limb-darkened angular diameters to be theta_LD = 0.3848 +/- 0.0055 and
0.2254 +/- 0.0072 milliarcsec for HD 189733 and HD 209458, respectively. HD
189733 and HD 209458 are currently the only two transiting exoplanet systems
where detection of the respective planetary companion's orbital motion from
high resolution spectroscopy has revealed absolute masses for both star and
planet. We use our new measurements together with the orbital information from
radial velocity and photometric time series data, Hipparcos distances, and
newly measured bolometric fluxes to determine the stellar effective
temperatures (T_eff = 4875 +/- 43, 6093 +/- 103 K), stellar linear radii (R_* =
0.805 +/- 0.016, 1.203 +/- 0.061 R_sun), mean stellar densities (rho_* = 1.62
+/- 0.11, 0.58 +/- 0.14 rho_sun), planetary radii (R_p = 1.216 +/- 0.024, 1.451
+/- 0.074 R_Jup), and mean planetary densities (rho_p = 0.605 +/- 0.029, 0.196
+/- 0.033 rho_Jup) for HD 189733 b and HD 209458 b, respectively. The stellar
parameters for HD 209458, a F9 dwarf, are consistent with indirect estimates
derived from spectroscopic and evolutionary modeling. However, we find that
models are unable to reproduce the observational results for the K2 dwarf, HD
189733. We show that, for stellar evolutionary models to match the observed
stellar properties of HD 189733, adjustments lowering the solar-calibrated
mixing length parameter from 1.83 to 1.34 need to be employed
Large-Scale Mapping and Validation of Escherichia coli Transcriptional Regulation from a Compendium of Expression Profiles
Machine learning approaches offer the potential to systematically identify transcriptional regulatory interactions from a compendium of microarray expression profiles. However, experimental validation of the performance of these methods at the genome scale has remained elusive. Here we assess the global performance of four existing classes of inference algorithms using 445 Escherichia coli Affymetrix arrays and 3,216 known E. coli regulatory interactions from RegulonDB. We also developed and applied the context likelihood of relatedness (CLR) algorithm, a novel extension of the relevance networks class of algorithms. CLR demonstrates an average precision gain of 36% relative to the next-best performing algorithm. At a 60% true positive rate, CLR identifies 1,079 regulatory interactions, of which 338 were in the previously known network and 741 were novel predictions. We tested the predicted interactions for three transcription factors with chromatin immunoprecipitation, confirming 21 novel interactions and verifying our RegulonDB-based performance estimates. CLR also identified a regulatory link providing central metabolic control of iron transport, which we confirmed with real-time quantitative PCR. The compendium of expression data compiled in this study, coupled with RegulonDB, provides a valuable model system for further improvement of network inference algorithms using experimental data
Expression of Kruppel-Like Factor KLF4 in Mouse Hair Follicle Stem Cells Contributes to Cutaneous Wound Healing
Kruppel-like factor KLF4 is a transcription factor critical for the establishment of the barrier function of the skin. Its function in stem cell biology has been recently recognized. Previous studies have revealed that hair follicle stem cells contribute to cutaneous wound healing. However, expression of KLF4 in hair follicle stem cells and the importance of such expression in cutaneous wound healing have not been investigated.Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis showed higher KLF4 expression in hair follicle stem cell-enriched mouse skin keratinocytes than that in control keratinocytes. We generated KLF4 promoter-driven enhanced green fluorescence protein (KLF4/EGFP) transgenic mice and tamoxifen-inducible KLF4 knockout mice by crossing KLF4 promoter-driven Cre recombinase fused with tamoxifen-inducible estrogen receptor (KLF4/CreER™) transgenic mice with KLF4(flox) mice. KLF4/EGFP cells purified from dorsal skin keratinocytes of KLF4/EGFP transgenic mice were co-localized with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU)-label retaining cells by flow cytometric analysis and immunohistochemistry. Lineage tracing was performed in the context of cutaneous wound healing, using KLF4/CreER™ and Rosa26RLacZ double transgenic mice, to examine the involvement of KLF4 in wound healing. We found that KLF4 expressing cells were likely derived from bulge stem cells. In addition, KLF4 expressing multipotent cells migrated to the wound and contributed to the wound healing. After knocking out KLF4 by tamoxifen induction of KLF4/CreER™ and KLF4(flox) double transgenic mice, we found that the population of bulge stem cell-enriched population was decreased, which was accompanied by significantly delayed cutaneous wound healing. Consistently, KLF4 knockdown by KLF4-specific small hairpin RNA in human A431 epidermoid carcinoma cells decreased the stem cell population and was accompanied by compromised cell migration.KLF4 expression in mouse hair bulge stem cells plays an important role in cutaneous wound healing. These findings may enable future development of KLF4-based therapeutic strategies aimed at accelerating cutaneous wound closure
A Search for Extended Ultraviolet Disk (XUV-disk) Galaxies in the Local Universe
We have initiated a search for extended ultraviolet disk (XUV-disk) galaxies
in the local universe. Herein, we compare GALEX UV and visible--NIR images of
189 nearby (D40 Mpc) S0--Sm galaxies included in the GALEX Atlas of Nearby
Galaxies and present the first catalogue of XUV-disk galaxies. We find that
XUV-disk galaxies are surprisingly common but have varied relative (UV/optical)
extent and morphology. Type~1 objects (\ga20% incidence) have structured,
UV-bright/optically-faint emission features in the outer disk, beyond the
traditional star formation threshold. Type~2 XUV-disk galaxies (10%
incidence) exhibit an exceptionally large,
UV-bright/optically-low-surface-brightness (LSB) zone having blue
outside the effective extent of the inner, older stellar population, but not
reaching extreme galactocentric distance. If the activity occuring in XUV-disks
is episodic, a higher fraction of present-day spirals could be influenced by
such outer disk star formation. Type~1 disks are associated with spirals of all
types, whereas Type~2 XUV-disks are predominantly found in late-type spirals.
Type~2 XUV-disks are forming stars quickly enough to double their [presently
low] stellar mass in the next Gyr (assuming a constant SF rate). XUV-disk
galaxies of both types are systematically more gas-rich than the general galaxy
population. Minor external perturbation may stimulate XUV-disk incidence, at
least for Type~1 objects. XUV-disks are the most actively evolving galaxies
growing via inside-out disk formation in the current epoch, and may constitute
a segment of the galaxy population experiencing significant, continued gas
accretion from the intergalactic medium or neighboring objects.Comment: 83 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables. Appearing in the GALEX special issue
of ApJS. (A version with high quality figures and proof corrections can be
found at http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/apjs/173/2
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