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CREDO, A New Online Repository of Digital Collections: Launch Party
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The Evolution of Adiabatic Supernova Remnants in a Turbulent, Magnetized Medium
(Abridged) We present the results of three dimensional calculations for the
MHD evolution of an adiabatic supernova remnant in both a uniform and turbulent
interstellar medium using the RIEMANN framework of Balsara. In the uniform
case, which contains an initially uniform magnetic field, the density structure
of the shell remains largely spherical, while the magnetic pressure and
synchrotron emissivity are enhanced along the plane perpendicular to the field
direction. This produces a bilateral or barrel-type morphology in synchrotron
emission for certain viewing angles. We then consider a case with a turbulent
external medium as in Balsara & Pouquet, characterized by .
Several important changes are found. First, despite the presence of a uniform
field, the overall synchrotron emissivity becomes approximately spherically
symmetric, on the whole, but is extremely patchy and time-variable, with
flickering on the order of a few computational time steps. We suggest that the
time and spatial variability of emission in early phase SNR evolution provides
information on the turbulent medium surrounding the remnant. The
shock-turbulence interaction is also shown to be a strong source of
helicity-generation and, therefore, has important consequences for magnetic
field generation. We compare our calculations to the Sedov-phase evolution, and
discuss how the emission characteristics of SNR may provide a diagnostic on the
nature of turbulence in the pre-supernova environment.Comment: ApJ, in press, 5 color figure
Functional anatomy of the masking level difference, an fMRI study
Introduction: Masking level differences (MLDs) are differences in the hearing threshold for the detection of a signal presented in a noise background, where either the phase of the signal or noise is reversed between ears. We use N0/Nπ to denote noise presented in-phase/out-of-phase between ears and S0/Sπ to denote a 500 Hz sine wave signal as in/out-of-phase. Signal detection level for the noise/signal combinations N0Sπ and NπS0 is typically 10-20 dB better than for N0S0. All combinations have the same spectrum, level, and duration of both the signal and the noise. Methods: Ten participants (5 female), age: 22-43, with N0Sπ-N0S0 MLDs greater than 10 dB, were imaged using a sparse BOLD fMRI sequence, with a 9 second gap (1 second quiet preceding stimuli). Band-pass (400-600 Hz) noise and an enveloped signal (.25 second tone burst, 50% duty-cycle) were used to create the stimuli. Brain maps of statistically significant regions were formed from a second-level analysis using SPM5. Results: The contrast NπS0- N0Sπ had significant regions of activation in the right pulvinar, corpus callosum, and insula bilaterally. The left inferior frontal gyrus had significant activation for contrasts N0Sπ-N0S0 and NπS0-N0S0. The contrast N0S0-N0Sπ revealed a region in the right insula, and the contrast N0S0-NπS0 had a region of significance in the left insula. Conclusion: Our results extend the view that the thalamus acts as a gating mechanism to enable dichotic listening, and suggest that MLD processing is accomplished through thalamic communication with the insula, which communicate across the corpus callosum to either enhance or diminish the binaural signal (depending on the MLD condition). The audibility improvement of the signal with both MLD conditions is likely reflected by activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, a late stage in the what/where model of auditory processing. © 2012 Wack et al
Manipulating Testosterone to Assess Links between Behavior, Morphology, and Performance in the Brown Anole Anolis sagrei
Survival and reproductive success are determined by the complex interplay between behavior, physiology, morphology, and performance. When optimal trait combinations along these various phenotypic axes differ between sexes or across seasons, regulatory mechanisms such as sex steroids can often facilitate sex‐specific and/or seasonal trait expression. In this study, we used surgical castration and replacement of exogenous testosterone in adult male brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) to simultaneously examine the effects of testosterone on a suite of morphological (dewlap area, body size), physiological (immune function), behavioral (dewlap, head bob, and push‐up displays), and performance (stamina, sprint speed, bite force) traits. We show that testosterone increases (or castration reduces) growth rate, dewlap area, and bite force. Treatment effects on bite force may simply reflect underlying treatment differences in growth combined with allometry of bite force. Other traits, such as stamina, sprint speed, and rate of behavioral displays, were largely independent of circulating testosterone levels. Although we did not observe significant treatment effects on immune function, we found negative correlations between growth and immune function consistent with the hypothesis that testosterone mediates trade‐offs between these competing aspects of energy allocation. Overall, our results demonstrate that testosterone can exert pleiotropic effects on a variety of morphological, physiological, behavioral, and performance traits that are known to influence survival and reproductive success
Long term (5 Year) safety of bronchial thermoplasty: Asthma Intervention Research (AIR) trial
<b>Background:</b>
Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a bronchoscopic procedure that improves asthma control by reducing excess airway smooth muscle. Treated patients have been followed out to 5 years to evaluate long-term safety of this procedure.
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<b>Methods:</b>
Patients enrolled in the Asthma Intervention Research Trial were on inhaled corticosteroids ≥200 μg beclomethasone or equivalent + long-acting-beta2-agonists and demonstrated worsening of asthma on long-acting-β2-agonist withdrawal. Following initial evaluation at 1 year, subjects were invited to participate in a 4 year safety study. Adverse events (AEs) and spirometry data were used to assess long-term safety out to 5 years post-BT.
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<b>Results:</b>
45 of 52 treated and 24 of 49 control group subjects participated in long-term follow-up of 5 years and 3 years respectively. The rate of respiratory adverse events (AEs/subject) was stable in years 2 to 5 following BT (1.2, 1.3, 1.2, and 1.1, respectively,). There was no increase in hospitalizations or emergency room visits for respiratory symptoms in Years 2, 3, 4, and 5 compared to Year 1. The FVC and FEV1 values showed no deterioration over the 5 year period in the BT group. Similar results were obtained for the Control group.
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<b>Conclusions:</b>
The absence of clinical complications (based on AE reporting) and the maintenance of stable lung function (no deterioration of FVC and FEV1) over a 5-year period post-BT in this group of patients with moderate to severe asthma support the long-term safety of the procedure out to 5 years
Detecting the subtle shape differences in hemodynamic responses at the group level
The nature of the hemodynamic response (HDR) is still not fully understood due to the multifaceted processes involved. Aside from the overall amplitude, the response may vary across cognitive states, tasks, brain regions, and subjects with respect to characteristics such as rise and fall speed, peak duration, undershoot shape, and overall duration. Here we demonstrate that the fixed-shape or adjusted-shape methods may fail to detect some shape subtleties. In contrast, the estimated-shape method (ESM) through multiple basis functions can provide the opportunity to identify some subtle shape differences and achieve higher statistical power at both individual and group levels. Previously, some dimension reduction approaches focused on the peak magnitude, or made inferences based on the area under the curve or interaction, which can lead to potential misidentifications. By adopting a generic framework of multivariate modeling (MVM), we showcase a hybrid approach that is validated by simulations and real data. Unlike the few analyses that were limited to main effect, two- or three-way interactions, we extend the approach to an inclusive platform that is more adaptable than the conventional GLM, achieving a practical equipoise among representation, false positive control, statistical power, and modeling flexibility
Spectral Redundancy for Calibrating Interferometers and Suppressing the Foreground Wedge in 21\,cm Cosmology
Observations of 21\,cm line from neutral hydrogen promise to be an exciting
new probe of astrophysics and cosmology during the Cosmic Dawn and through the
Epoch of Reionization (EoR) to when dark energy accelerates the expansion of
the Universe. At each of these epochs, separating bright foregrounds from the
cosmological signal is a primary challenge that requires exquisite calibration.
In this paper, we present a new calibration method called \textsc{nucal} that
extends redundant-baseline calibration, allowing spectral variation in antenna
responses to be solved for by using correlations between visibilities measuring
the same angular Fourier modes at different frequencies. By modeling the
chromaticity of the beam-weighted sky with a tunable set of discrete prolate
spheroidal sequences (DPSS), we develop a calibration loop that optimizes for
spectrally smooth calibrated visibilities. Crucially, this technique does not
require explicit models of the sky or the primary beam. With simulations that
incorporate realistic source and beam chromaticity, we show that this method
solves for unsmooth bandpass features, exposes narrowband interference
systematics, and suppresses smooth-spectrum foregrounds below the level of
21\,cm reionization models, even within much of the so-called "wedge" region
where current foreground mitigation techniques struggle. We show that this
foreground subtraction can be performed with minimal cosmological signal loss
for certain well-sampled angular Fourier modes, making spectral-redundant
calibration a promising technique for current and next-generation 21\,cm
intensity mapping experiments.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to MNRA
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