158 research outputs found
The 3rd Fermi GBM Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog: The First Six Years
Since its launch in 2008, the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) has
triggered and located on average approximately two gamma-ray bursts (GRB) every
three days. Here we present the third of a series of catalogs of GRBs detected
by GBM, extending the second catalog by two more years, through the middle of
July 2014. The resulting list includes 1405 triggers identified as GRBs. The
intention of the GBM GRB catalog is to provide information to the community on
the most important observables of the GBM detected GRBs. For each GRB the
location and main characteristics of the prompt emission, the duration, peak
flux and fluence are derived. The latter two quantities are calculated for the
50-300~keV energy band, where the maximum energy release of GRBs in the
instrument reference system is observed, and also for a broader energy band
from 10-1000 keV, exploiting the full energy range of GBM's low-energy NaI(Tl)
detectors. Using statistical methods to assess clustering, we find that the
hardness and duration of GRBs are better fitted by a two-component model with
short-hard and long-soft bursts, than by a model with three components.
Furthermore, information is provided on the settings and modifications of the
triggering criteria and exceptional operational conditions during years five
and six in the mission. This third catalog is an official product of the Fermi
GBM science team, and the data files containing the complete results are
available from the High-Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
(HEASARC).Comment: 225 pages, 13 figures and 8 tables. Accepted for publication in
Astrophysical Journal Supplement 201
The spread of marine anoxia on the northern Tethys margin during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Records of the paleoenvironmental changes that occurred during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) are preserved in sedimentary rocks along the margins of the former Tethys Ocean and Peri-Tethys. This paper presents new geochemical data that constrain paleoproductivity, sediment delivery, and seawater redox conditions, from three sites that were located in the Peri-Tethys region. Trace and major element, iron speciation, and biomarker data indicate that water column anoxia was established during episodes when inputs of land-derived higher plant organic carbon and highly weathered detrital clays and silts became relatively higher. Anoxic conditions are likely to have been initially caused by two primary processes: (i) oxygen consumption by high rates of marine productivity, initially stimulated by the rapid delivery of terrestrially derived organic matter and nutrients, and (ii) phosphorus regeneration from seafloor sediments. The role of the latter process requires further investigation before its influence on the spread of deoxygenated seawater during the PETM can be properly discerned. Other oxygen-forcing processes, such as temperature/salinity-driven water column stratification and/or methane oxidation, are considered to have been relatively less important in the study region. Organic carbon enrichments occur only during the initial stages of the PETM as defined by the negative carbon isotope excursions at each site. The lack of observed terminal stage organic carbon enrichment does not support a link between PETM climate recovery and the sequestration of excess atmospheric CO2 as organic carbon in this region; such a feedback may, however, have been important in the early stages of the PETM
Multiplex RT-PCR Amplification of HIV Genes to Create a Completely Autologous DC-Based Immunotherapy for the Treatment of HIV Infection
BACKGROUND: Effective therapy for HIV-infected individuals remains an unmet medical need. Promising clinical trials with dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy consisting of autologous DC loaded with autologous virus have been reported, however, these approaches depend on large numbers of HIV virions to generate sufficient doses for even limited treatment regimens. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The present study describes a novel approach for RT-PCR amplification of HIV antigens. Previously, RT-PCR amplification of autologous viral sequences has been confounded by the high mutation rate of the virus which results in unreliable primer-template binding. To resolve this problem we developed a multiplex RT-PCR strategy that allows reliable strain-independent amplification of highly polymorphic target antigens from any patient and requires neither viral sequence data nor custom-designed PCR primers for each individual. We demonstrate the application of our RT-PCR process to amplify translationally-competent RNA encoding regions of Gag, Vpr, Rev and Nef. The products amplified using this method represent a complex mixture of autologous antigens encoded by viral quasispecies. We further demonstrate that DCs electroporated with in vitro-transcribed HIV RNAs are capable of stimulating poly-antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses in vitro. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study describes a strategy to overcome patient to patient viral diversity enabling strain-independent RT-PCR amplification of RNAs encoding sequence divergent quasispecies of Gag, Vpr, Rev and Nef from small volumes of infectious plasma. The approach allows creation of a completely autologous therapy that does not require advance knowledge of the HIV genomic sequences, does not have yield limitations and has no intact virus in the final product. The simultaneous use of autologous viral antigens and DCs may provoke broad patient-specific immune responses that could potentially induce effective control of viral loads in the absence of conventional antiretroviral drug therapy
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A comparison of methods for the measurement of the absorption coefficient in natural waters
In the spring of 1992 an optical closure experiment was conducted at Lake
Pend Oreille, Idaho. A primary objective of the experiment was to compare techniques
for the measurement of the spectral absorption coefficient and other inherent optical
properties of natural waters. Daily averages of absorption coefficients measured using
six methods are compared at wavelengths of 456, 488, and 532 nm. Overall agreement
was within 40% at 456 nm and improved with increasing wavelength to 25% at 532 nm.
These absorption measurements were distributed over the final 9 days of the
experiment, when bio-optical conditions in Lake Pend Oreille (as indexed by the beam
attenuation coefficient cp(660) and chlorophyll a fluorescence profiles) were
representative of those observed throughout the experiment. However, profiles of
stimulated chlorophyll a fluorescence and beam transmission showed that bio-optical
properties in the lake varied strongly on all time and space scales. Therefore
environmental variability contributed significantly to deviations between daily mean
absorption coefficients measured using the different techniques
CP-violation and unitarity triangle test of the Standard Model
Phenomenological issues of the CP violation in the quark sector of the
Standard Model are discussed. We consider quark mixing in the SM, standard and
Wolfenstein parametrization of the mixing matrix and unitarity triangle.
We discuss the phenomenology of the CP violation in and -decays. The standard unitarity triangle fit of the existing
data is discussed. In appendix A we compare the , etc oscillations with
neutrino oscillations. In Appendix B we derive the evolution equation for
system in the Weisskopf-Wigner approximation.Comment: On the basis of the lectures given to the students of SISSA (Trieste)
in 200
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