708 research outputs found
78 GAIT AS A SURROGATE MEASURE OF PAIN/DISABILITY IN ADDITION TO STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS OF JOINT DAMAGE AND INFLAMMATION IN TWO DIFFERENT CANINE MODELS OF OA
Leak Rate Quantification Method for Gas Pressure Seals with Controlled Pressure Differential
An enhancement to the pressure decay leak rate method with mass point analysis solved deficiencies in the standard method. By adding a control system, a constant gas pressure differential across the test article was maintained. As a result, the desired pressure condition was met at the onset of the test, and the mass leak rate and measurement uncertainty were computed in real-time. The data acquisition and control system were programmed to automatically stop when specified criteria were met. Typically, the test was stopped when a specified level of measurement uncertainty was attained. Using silicone O-ring test articles, the new method was compared with the standard method that permitted the downstream pressure to be non-constant atmospheric pressure. The two methods recorded comparable leak rates, but the new method recorded leak rates with significantly lower measurement uncertainty, statistical variance, and test duration. Utilizing this new method in leak rate quantification, projects will reduce cost and schedule, improve test results, and ease interpretation between data sets
Transiting Exoplanets with JWST
The era of exoplanet characterization is upon us. For a subset of exoplanets
-- the transiting planets -- physical properties can be measured, including
mass, radius, and atmosphere characteristics. Indeed, measuring the atmospheres
of a further subset of transiting planets, the hot Jupiters, is now routine
with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will
continue Spitzer's legacy with its large mirror size and precise thermal
stability. JWST is poised for the significant achievement of identifying
habitable planets around bright M through G stars--rocky planets lacking
extensive gas envelopes, with water vapor and signs of chemical disequilibrium
in their atmospheres. Favorable transiting planet systems, are, however,
anticipated to be rare and their atmosphere observations will require tens to
hundreds of hours of JWST time per planet. We review what is known about the
physical characteristics of transiting planets, summarize lessons learned from
Spitzer high-contrast exoplanet measurements, and give several examples of
potential JWST observations.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures. In press in "Astrophysics in the Next Decade:
JWST and Concurrent Facilities, Astrophysics & Space Science Library,
Thronson, H. A., Tielens, A., Stiavelli, M., eds., Springer: Dordrecht
(2008)." The original publication will be available at
http://www.springerlink.co
Experimental feasibility of measuring the gravitational redshift of light using dispersion in optical fibers
This paper describes a new class of experiments that use dispersion in
optical fibers to convert the gravitational frequency shift of light into a
measurable phase shift or time delay. Two conceptual models are explored. In
the first model, long counter-propagating pulses are used in a vertical fiber
optic Sagnac interferometer. The second model uses optical solitons in
vertically separated fiber optic storage rings. We discuss the feasibility of
using such an instrument to make a high precision measurement of the
gravitational frequency shift of light.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure
Recent Advances in Modeling Stellar Interiors
Advances in stellar interior modeling are being driven by new data from
large-scale surveys and high-precision photometric and spectroscopic
observations. Here we focus on single stars in normal evolutionary phases; we
will not discuss the many advances in modeling star formation, interacting
binaries, supernovae, or neutron stars. We review briefly: 1) updates to input
physics of stellar models; 2) progress in two and three-dimensional evolution
and hydrodynamic models; 3) insights from oscillation data used to infer
stellar interior structure and validate model predictions (asteroseismology).
We close by highlighting a few outstanding problems, e.g., the driving
mechanisms for hybrid gamma Dor/delta Sct star pulsations, the cause of giant
eruptions seen in luminous blue variables such as eta Car and P Cyg, and the
solar abundance problem.Comment: Proceedings for invited talk at conference High Energy Density
Laboratory Astrophysics 2010, Caltech, March 2010, submitted for special
issue of Astrophysics and Space Science; 7 pages; 5 figure
Black hole solutions in F(R) gravity with conformal anomaly
In this paper, we consider theory instead of Einstein gravity
with conformal anomaly and look for its analytical solutions. Depending on the
free parameters, one may obtain both uncharged and charged solutions for some
classes of models. Calculation of Kretschmann scalar shows that there is
a singularity located at , which the geometry of uncharged (charged)
solution is corresponding to the Schwarzschild (Reissner-Nordstr\"om)
singularity. Further, we discuss the viability of our models in details. We
show that these models can be stable depending on their parameters and in
different epoches of the universe.Comment: 12 pages, one figur
Growth capacity of thermotolerant campylobacters in culture media supplemented with pig and cow blood
Diagnóstico e genotipagem do vírus da pseudoraiva por nested-PCR e análise de restrição enzimática
Systematic evaluation and validation of reference and library selection methods for deconvolution of cord blood DNA methylation data
Background: Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is commonly used in epigenome-wide association studies of prenatal
exposures. Accounting for cell type composition is critical in such studies as it reduces confounding due to the cell
specificity of DNA methylation (DNAm). In the absence of cell sorting information, statistical methods can be
applied to deconvolve heterogeneous cell mixtures. Among these methods, reference-based approaches leverage
age-appropriate cell-specific DNAm profiles to estimate cellular composition. In UCB, four reference datasets
comprising DNAm signatures profiled in purified cell populations have been published using the Illumina 450 K and
EPIC arrays. These datasets are biologically and technically different, and currently, there is no consensus on how to
best apply them. Here, we systematically evaluate and compare these datasets and provide recommendations for
reference-based UCB deconvolution.
Results: We first evaluated the four reference datasets to ascertain both the purity of the samples and the potential
cell cross-contamination. We filtered samples and combined datasets to obtain a joint UCB reference. We selected
deconvolution libraries using two different approaches: automatic selection using the top differentially methylated
probes from the function pickCompProbes in minfi and a standardized library selected using the IDOL (Identifying
Optimal Libraries) iterative algorithm. We compared the performance of each reference separately and in
combination, using the two approaches for reference library selection, and validated the results in an independent
cohort (Generation R Study, n = 191) with matched Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting measured cell counts. Strict
filtering and combination of the references significantly improved the accuracy and efficiency of cell type estimates.
Ultimately, the IDOL library outperformed the library from the automatic selection method implemented in
pickCompProbes.
Conclusion: These results have important implications for epigenetic studies in UCB as implementing this method
will optimally reduce confounding due to cellular heterogeneity. This work provides guidelines for future referencebased UCB deconvolution and establishes a framework for combining reference datasets in other tissues
Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
The elliptic, , triangular, , and quadrangular, , azimuthal
anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles,
pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the
event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the
pseudo-rapidity range at different collision centralities and as a
function of transverse momentum, , out to GeV/.
The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on
transverse momentum for GeV/. The small dependence
of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane
and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow
fluctuations up to GeV/. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton
elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least
GeV/ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out
to high .Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published
version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186
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