Updated Inventory of Carbon Monoxide in The Taurus Molecular Cloud

The most extensive survey of carbon monoxide (CO) gas in the Taurus molecular cloud relied on $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO $J=1 \rightarrow 0$ emission only, distinguishing the region where $^{12}$CO is detected without $^{13}$CO (named mask 1 region) from the one where both are detected (mask 2 region). We have taken advantage of recent $^{12}$CO $J=3\rightarrow2$ JCMT observations where they include mask 1 regions to estimate density, temperature, and $N$(CO) with a LVG model. This represents 1395 pixels out of $\sim$1.2 million in the mark 1 region. Compared to Pineda et al. (2010) results, and assuming a $T_\textrm{kin}$ of 30 K, we find a higher volume density of molecular hydrogen of 3.3$\rm \times\ 10^3$ $\textrm{cm}^{-3}$, compared to their 250--700 $\textrm{cm}^{-3}$ and a CO column density of 5.7$\rm \times\ 10^{15}\ \textrm{cm}^{-2}$, about a quarter of their value. The differences are important and show the necessity to observe several CO transitions to better describe the intermediate region between the dense cloud and the diffuse atomic medium. Future observations to extend the$^{12}$CO$J=3\rightarrow2$mapping further away from the$^{13}$CO--detected region comprising mask 1 are needed to revisit our understanding of the diffuse portions of dark clouds.Comment: Accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 15 pages, 2 tables, 8 figure

Peritoneal Protein and Albumin Excretion as Markers of Cardiovascular Risk and Systemic Endothelial Dysfunction

BackgroundMicroalbuminuria is a marker of systemic endothelial dysfunction. We studied the relationship between peritoneal protein loss in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, which is conceptually analogous to microalbuminuria in non-uremic patients, and pre-existing vascular disease in new PD patients.MethodsPeritoneal total protein and albumin loss were quantified within 2 months of initiation of dialysis in 44 consecutive new PD patients, together with a standard peritoneal equilibration test. The results were compared according to the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prior to initiation of dialysis, lean body mass, and serum albumin and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations.ResultsThe dialysate albumin concentration was closely correlated with the creatinine dialysate-to-plasma ratio at 4 hours (r = 0.601, p < 0.001). It was higher in patients with pre-existing CVD than in those without, when patients were analyzed according to diabetic status (one-way ANOVA, p = 0.004). In diabetic patients, the dialysate albumin concentration was significantly higher in patients with pre-existing CVD than in those without (0.754 ± 0.273 vs 1.088 ± 0.280 mg/μmol creatinine, p = 0.04). Multivariate analysis showed that only diabetic status and dialysate albumin concentration, but not peritoneal transport status or serum CRP, were independent predictors of pre-existing CVD. Although dialysate protein loss accounted for only 10.5 ± 4.4% of total protein catabolism, the dialysate protein level was significantly correlated with serum albumin concentration (r = −0.457, p = 0.002), percentage of lean body mass (r = −0.558, p < 0.001), and serum CRP concentration (r = 0.434, p = 0.003).ConclusionsPatients with CVD prior to initiation of dialysis have higher levels of dialysate albumin and total protein excretion, indicating that dialysate protein loss is a marker of underlying CVD. Dialysate protein and albumin excretion may provide a simple and convenient measure of vascular disease and endothelial dysfunction in PD patients

Discovery of a New Molecular Bubble-Outflow Structure in the Taurus B18 Cloud

Star formation can produce bubbles and outflows, as a result of stellar feedback. Outflows and bubbles inject momentum and energy into the surrounding interstellar medium, and so are related to the overall energy balance of the molecular cloud. Molecular bubbles can be resolved by higher-resolution radio telescopes to quantify the effect of star formation on molecular clouds. We report here the identification of a new molecular bubble with an outflow, and an Herbig Haro object, HH319, located at the bubble center. Multi-wavelength data have been utilized to study its spatial structure, energy injection, and dynamical timescale. This bubble has a kinetic energy of $\rm 5.8 \times 10^{43}$ erg within the smallest radius of a bubble in Taurus, 0.077 pc. The bubble formed $\sim$70,000 years ago. According to the proper motion velocities of protostars from $Gaia$ EDR3, the T Tauri binary stars (FY Tau and FZ Tau) at the southwest edge of the bubble may have produced the outflow-bubble structure. This is an unusual new structure found in low- and intermediate-mass star formation regions. Only a bubble in Orion A, driven by V380 Ori, has a similar structure. The bubble-outflow structure provides additional observational evidence for the theory of stellar wind from T Tauri stars. It enhances our understanding of how stellar feedback acts on molecular clouds.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 14 pages, 2 tables, 9 figure

Multipurpose watermarking approach for copyright and integrity of steganographic autoencoder models

With the great achievements of deep learning technology, neural network models have emerged as a new type of intellectual property. Neural network models’ design and training require considerable computational resources and time. Watermarking is a potential solution for achieving copyright protection and integrity of neural network models without excessively compromising the models’ accuracy and stability. In this work, we develop a multipurpose watermarking method for securing the copyright and integrity of a steganographic autoencoder referred to as “HiDDen.” This autoencoder model is used to hide different kinds of watermark messages in digital images. Copyright information is embedded with imperceptibly modified model parameters, and integrity is verified by embedding the Hash value generated from the model parameters. Experimental results show that the proposed multipurpose watermarking method can reliably identify copyright ownership and localize tampered parts of the model parameters. Furthermore, the accuracy and robustness of the autoencoder model are perfectly preserved

Local Magnetic Field Role in Star Formation

We highlight distinct and systematic observational features of magnetic field morphologies in polarized submm dust continuum. We illustrate this with specific examples and show statistical trends from a sample of 50 star-forming regions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; to appear in the EAS Proceedings of the 6th Zermatt ISM Symposium "Conditions and Impact of Star Formation from Lab to Space", September 201

Magnetic Fields and Massive Star Formation

Massive stars ($M > 8$ \msun) typically form in parsec-scale molecular clumps that collapse and fragment, leading to the birth of a cluster of stellar objects. We investigate the role of magnetic fields in this process through dust polarization at 870 $\mu$m obtained with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). The SMA observations reveal polarization at scales of \lsim 0.1 pc. The polarization pattern in these objects ranges from ordered hour-glass configurations to more chaotic distributions. By comparing the SMA data with the single dish data at parsec scales, we found that magnetic fields at dense core scales are either aligned within $40^\circ$ of or perpendicular to the parsec-scale magnetic fields. This finding indicates that magnetic fields play an important role during the collapse and fragmentation of massive molecular clumps and the formation of dense cores. We further compare magnetic fields in dense cores with the major axis of molecular outflows. Despite a limited number of outflows, we found that the outflow axis appears to be randomly oriented with respect to the magnetic field in the core. This result suggests that at the scale of accretion disks (\lsim 10^3 AU), angular momentum and dynamic interactions possibly due to close binary or multiple systems dominate over magnetic fields. With this unprecedentedly large sample massive clumps, we argue on a statistical basis that magnetic fields play an important role during the formation of dense cores at spatial scale of 0.01 - 0.1 pc in the context of massive star and cluster star formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

The JCMT BISTRO-2 Survey: Magnetic Fields of the Massive DR21 Filament

We present 850 μm dust polarization observations of the massive DR21 filament from the B-fields In STar-forming Region Observations (BISTRO) survey, using the POL-2 polarimeter and the SCUBA-2 camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. We detect ordered magnetic fields perpendicular to the parsec-scale ridge of the DR21 main filament. In the subfilaments, the magnetic fields are mainly parallel to the filamentary structures and smoothly connect to the magnetic fields of the main filament. We compare the POL-2 and Planck dust polarization observations to study the magnetic field structures of the DR21 filament on 0.1-10 pc scales. The magnetic fields revealed in the Planck data are well-aligned with those of the POL-2 data, indicating a smooth variation of magnetic fields from large to small scales. The plane-of-sky magnetic field strengths derived from angular dispersion functions of dust polarization are 0.6-1.0 mG in the DR21 filament and ~0.1 mG in the surrounding ambient gas. The mass-to-flux ratios are found to be magnetically supercritical in the filament and slightly subcritical to nearly critical in the ambient gas. The alignment between column density structures and magnetic fields changes from random alignment in the low-density ambient gas probed by Planck to mostly perpendicular in the high-density main filament probed by James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The magnetic field structures of the DR21 filament are in agreement with MHD simulations of a strongly magnetized medium, suggesting that magnetic fields play an important role in shaping the DR21 main filament and subfilaments

Pretreatment Level of Red Cell Distribution Width as a Prognostic Indicator for Survival in a Large Cohort Study of Male Laryngeal Squamous Carcinoma

Objective: High levels of red cell distribution width (RDW) may be associated with adverse outcomes in patients with cancer. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prognostic impact of pretreatment RDW levels on overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and disease-free survival (DFS) in a large cohort of male laryngeal squamous cell cancer (LSCC) patients.Methods: A total of 809 LSCC patients who were treated between 2007 and 2011 at the Eye &amp; ENT Hospital of Fudan University were enrolled and evaluated retrospectively. OS, CSS, and DFS were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method. To evaluate the prognostic significance of RDW levels, univariate, and multivariate Cox analyses were applied.Results: Higher pretreatment RDW levels were significantly associated with high death events, red blood cell count, hemoglobin, radiotherapy, operation therapy, and advanced tumor stage (p &lt; 0.05). From the univariate analysis, we observed that the higher (13.2–13.5%) and the highest (&gt;13.5%) quartiles of RDW level were consistent factors for poor OS, CSS, and DFS in LSCC patients. In the multivariate analysis, after adjusting for confounding factors, the higher and highest quartiles of RDW levels were identified as independent prognostic factors in male LSCC patients.Conclusion: Higher pretreatment RDW levels were demonstrated to be associated with poor clinical outcome in male LSCC patients and might be novel markers for patient stratification in LSCC management