Do sound waves transport the AGN energy in the Perseus cluster?

The level of random motions in the intracluster gas lying between 20 and 60 kpc radius in the core of the Perseus cluster has been measured by the Hitomi Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) at 164 ± 10 km s$^{−1}$ . The maximum energy density in turbulent motions on that scale is therefore low. If dissipated as heat, the turbulent energy will be radiated away in less than 80 Myr and cannot spread across the core. A higher velocity is needed to prevent a cooling collapse. Gravity waves are shown to travel too slowly in a radial direction. Here we investigate propagation of energy by sound waves. The energy travels at ~1000 km s$^{−1}$ and can cross the core in a cooling time. We show that the displacement velocity amplitude of the gas required to carry the power is consistent with the Hitomi result and that the inferred density and temperature variations are consistent with $\textit{Chandra}$ observations.ACF, CP, CSR and HRR thank the Hitomi collaboration for the opportunity to participate in the analysis of the SXS data. ACF, CP, HRR and SAW acknowledge support from ERC Advanced Grant FEEDBACK, 340442

Clonal karyotype evolution involving ring chromosome 1 with myelodysplastic syndrome subtype RAEB-t progressing into acute leukemia

s Karyotypic evolution is a well-known phenomenon in patients with malignant hernatological disorders during disease progression. We describe a 50-year-old male patient who had originally presented with pancytopenia in October 1992. The diagnosis of a myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) FAB subtype RAEB-t was established in April 1993 by histological bone marrow (BM) examination, and therapy with low-dose cytosine arabinoside was initiated. In a phase of partial hernatological remission, cytogenetic assessment in August 1993 revealed a ring chromosome 1 in 13 of 21 metaphases beside BM cells with normal karyotypes {[}46,XY,r(1)(p35q31)/46,XY]. One month later, the patient progressed to an acute myeloid leukemia (AML), subtype M4 with 40% BM blasts and cytogenetic examination showed clonal evolution by the appearance of additional numerical aberrations in addition to the ring chromosome{[}46,XY,r(1),+8,-21/45,XY,r(1),+8,-21,-22/46, XY]. Intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy was applied to induce remission in preparation for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from the patient's HLA-compatible son. After BMT, complete remission was clinically, hematologically and cytogenetically (normal male karyotype) confirmed. A complete hematopoietic chimerism was demonstrated. A relapse in January 1997 was successfully treated using donor lymphocyte infusion and donor peripheral blood stem cells (PB-SC) in combination with GM-CSF as immunostimulating agent in April 1997, and the patient's clinical condition remained stable as of January 2005. This is an interesting case of a patient with AML secondary to MDS. With the ring chromosome 1 we also describe a rare cytogenetic abnormality that predicted the poor prognosis of the patient, but the patient could be cured by adoptive immunotherapy and the application of donor's PB-SC. This case confirms the value of cytogenetic analysis in characterizing the malignant clone in hernatological neoplasias, the importance of controlling the quality of an induced remission and of the detection of a progress of the disease. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Acceptability of a Positive Parenting Programme on a Mother and Baby Unit: Q-Methodology with Staff

The Baby Triple P Positive Parenting Programme, a new addition to the established Triple P programmes, is currently being considered for a trial in a Mother and Baby Unit with the aim of exploring its benefits to mothers presenting with severe mental illness. The aim of the current study was to investigate staff views of the acceptability and feasibility of a parenting programme such as the Baby Triple P Positive Parenting Programme in a Mother and Baby Unit. Q-methodology, using an 88-item Q-sort, was employed to explore the opinions of 16 staff working in a Mother and Baby Unit in the North West of England. Results obtained from the Q-sort analysis identified two distinct factors: (1) staff qualified acceptance and (2) systemic approach/systemic results. Preliminary findings indicate that staff perceived Baby Triple P to be an acceptable and feasible intervention for the Mother and Baby Unit setting and that mothers on the unit would be open and receptive to the programme. Further research is required to expand these findings and assess the potential for this type of intervention to be used more widely across a number of Mother and Baby Unit settings

Risk measures for direct real estate investments with non-normal or unknown return distributions

The volatility of returns is probably the most widely used risk measure for real estate. This is rather surprising since a number of studies have cast doubts on the view that volatility can capture the manifold risks attached to properties and corresponds to the risk attitude of investors. A central issue in this discussion is the statistical properties of real estate returns—in contrast to neoclassical capital market theory they are mostly non-normal and often unknown, which render many statistical measures useless. Based on a literature review and an analysis of data from Germany we provide evidence that volatility alone is inappropriate for measuring the risk of direct real estate. We use a unique data sample by IPD, which includes the total returns of 939 properties across different usage types (56% office, 20% retail, 8% others and 16% residential properties) from 1996 to 2009, the German IPD Index, and the German Property Index. The analysis of the distributional characteristics shows that German real estate returns in this period were not normally distributed and that a logistic distribution would have been a better fit. This is in line with most of the current literature on this subject and leads to the question which indicators are more appropriate to measure real estate risks. We suggest that a combination of quantitative and qualitative risk measures more adequately captures real estate risks and conforms better with investor attitudes to risk. Furthermore, we present criteria for the purpose of risk classification

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Search for direct pair production of the top squark in all-hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for direct pair production of the scalar partner to the top quark using an integrated luminosity of 20.1fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. The top squark is assumed to decay via t˜→tχ˜01 or t˜→ bχ˜±1 →bW(∗)χ˜01 , where χ˜01 (χ˜±1 ) denotes the lightest neutralino (chargino) in supersymmetric models. The search targets a fully-hadronic final state in events with four or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits are reported in terms of the top squark and neutralino masses and as a function of the branching fraction of t˜ → tχ˜01 . For a branching fraction of 100%, top squark masses in the range 270–645 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 30 GeV. For a branching fraction of 50% to either t˜ → tχ˜01 or t˜ → bχ˜±1 , and assuming the χ˜±1 mass to be twice the χ˜01 mass, top squark masses in the range 250–550 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 60 GeV

Observation of the Baryonic Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-

We report the first observation of the baryonic flavor-changing neutral current decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- with 24 signal events and a statistical significance of 5.8 Gaussian standard deviations. This measurement uses ppbar collisions data sample corresponding to 6.8fb-1 at sqrt{s}=1.96TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. The total and differential branching ratios for Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- are measured. We find B(Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-) = [1.73+-0.42(stat)+-0.55(syst)] x 10^{-6}. We also report the first measurement of the differential branching ratio of B_s -> phi mu+ mu- using 49 signal events. In addition, we report branching ratios for B+ -> K+ mu+ mu-, B0 -> K0 mu+ mu-, and B -> K*(892) mu+ mu- decays.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

The genome sequence of <i>Trypanosoma brucei gambiense</i>, causative agent of chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Background:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Trypanosoma brucei gambiense&lt;/i&gt; is the causative agent of chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness, a disease endemic across often poor and rural areas of Western and Central Africa. We have previously published the genome sequence of a &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; isolate, and have now employed a comparative genomics approach to understand the scale of genomic variation between &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; and the reference genome. We sought to identify features that were uniquely associated with &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; and its ability to infect humans.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Methods and findings:&lt;/b&gt; An improved high-quality draft genome sequence for the group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; DAL 972 isolate was produced using a whole-genome shotgun strategy. Comparison with &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; showed that sequence identity averages 99.2% in coding regions, and gene order is largely collinear. However, variation associated with segmental duplications and tandem gene arrays suggests some reduction of functional repertoire in &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; DAL 972. A comparison of the variant surface glycoproteins (VSG) in &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; with all &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; sequence reads showed that the essential structural repertoire of VSG domains is conserved across &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; This study provides the first estimate of intraspecific genomic variation within &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt;, and so has important consequences for future population genomics studies. We have shown that the &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; genome corresponds closely with the reference, which should therefore be an effective scaffold for any &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt; genome sequence data. As VSG repertoire is also well conserved, it may be feasible to describe the total diversity of variant antigens. While we describe several as yet uncharacterized gene families with predicted cell surface roles that were expanded in number in &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt;, no &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt;-specific gene was identified outside of the subtelomeres that could explain the ability to infect humans.&lt;/p&gt

Toll-like receptor 9 polymorphisms are associated with severity variables in a cohort of meningococcal meningitis survivors

BACKGROUND: Genetic variation in immune response genes is associated with susceptibility and severity of infectious diseases. Toll-like receptor (TLR) 9 polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to develop meningococcal meningitis (MM). The aim of this study is to compare genotype distributions of two TLR9 polymorphisms between clinical severity variables in MM survivors. METHODS: We used DNA samples of a cohort of 390 children who survived MM. Next, we determined the genotype frequencies of TLR9 -1237 and TLR9 +2848 polymorphisms and compared these between thirteen clinical variables associated with prognostic factors predicting adverse outcome of bacterial meningitis in children. RESULTS: The TLR9 -1237 TC and CC genotypes were associated with a decreased incidence of a positive blood culture for Neisseria (N.) meningitidis (p = 0.014, odds ratio (OR) 0.5. 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.3 – 0.9). The TLR9 +2848 AA mutant was associated with a decreased incidence of a positive blood culture for N. meningitidis (p = 0.017, OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.3 – 0.9). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leukocytes per μL were higher in patients carrying the TLR9 -1237 TC or CC genotypes compared to carriers of the TT wild type (WT) (p = 0.024, medians: 2117, interquartile range (IQR) 4987 versus 955, IQR 3938). CSF blood/glucose ratios were lower in TLR9 -1237 TC or CC carriers than in carriers of the TT WT (p = 0.017, medians: 0.20, IQR 0.4 versus 0.35, IQR 0.5). CSF leukocytes/μL were higher in patients carrying the TLR9 +2848 AA mutant compared to carriers of GG or GA (p = 0.0067, medians: 1907, IQR 5221 versus 891, IQR 3952). CONCLUSIONS: We identified TLR9 genotypes associated with protection against meningococcemia and enhanced local inflammatory responses inside the central nervous system, important steps in MM pathogenesis and defense

PS18kh: A New Tidal Disruption Event with a Non-axisymmetric Accretion Disk

We present the discovery of PS18kh, a tidal disruption event discovered at the center of SDSS J075654.53+341543.6 (d ≃ 322 Mpc) by the Pan-STARRS Survey for Transients. Our data set includes pre-discovery survey data from Pan-STARRS, the All-sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System as well as high-cadence, multiwavelength follow-up data from ground-based telescopes and Swift, spanning from 56 days before peak light until 75 days after. The optical/UV emission from PS18kh is well-fit as a blackbody with temperatures ranging from T ≃ 12,000 K to T ≃ 25,000 K and it peaked at a luminosity of L ≃ 8.8 × 10 erg s . PS18kh radiated E = (3.45 ± 0.22) × 10 erg over the period of observation, with (1.42 ± 0.20) × 10 erg being released during the rise to peak. Spectra of PS18kh show a changing, boxy/double-peaked Hα emission feature, which becomes more prominent over time. We use models of non-axisymmetric accretion disks to describe the profile of the Hα line and its evolution. We find that at early times the high accretion rate leads the disk to emit a wind which modifies the shape of the line profile and makes it bell-shaped. At late times, the wind becomes optically thin, allowing the non-axisymmetric perturbations to show up in the line profile. The line-emitting portion of the disk extends from r ∼ 60r to an outer radius of r ∼ 1400r and the perturbations can be represented either as an eccentricity in the outer rings of the disk or as a spiral arm in the inner disk. 43 -1 50 50 in g out