Relative motion at the bone-prosthesis interface

Bone ingrowth in porous surfaces of human joint implants is a desired condition for long-term fixation in patients who are physically active (such as in sport or work). It is generally recognized that little actual bone ingrowth occurs. The best clinical results report between 10 and 20% of the total prosthetic surface in contact with bone will feature good bone ingrowth. One inhibiting factor is the relative motion of the bone with respect to the implant during load-bearing. This study investigated mathematically the interface micromotion (transverse reversible relative motion) between a flat metal tibial prosthetic surface of a prototype implant, and the bone at the resection site. The aim was to assess the effect of perimeter fixation versus midcondylar pin fixation and the effect of plate thickness and plate stiffness.\ud \ud Results showed that in the prototype design the largest reversible relative bone motion occurred at the tibial eminence. By design, the skirt fixation at the perimeter would prevent bone motion. A PCA (Howmedica Inc.) prosthesis has been widely used clinically and was chosen for a control because its fixation by two pegs beneath the condyles is a common variation on the general design of a relatively thick and stiff metal tibial support tray with pegs in each condylar area. The PCA tibial prosthesis showed the largest bone motion at the perimeter along the midcondylar mediolateral line, while being zero at the pegs. Maximum relative bone motion for the prototype was 37 ¿m and for the control was 101 ¿m. Averaged values showed the prototype to have 38% of the relative reversible bone motion of the control (PCA)

An interferometric study of the post-AGB binary 89 Herculis. II Radiative transfer models of the circumbinary disk

The presence of disks and outflows is widespread among post-AGB binaries. In the first paper of this series, a surprisingly large fraction of optical light was found to be resolved in the 89 Her post-AGB system. The data showed this flux to arise from close to the central binary. Scattering off the inner rim of the circumbinary disk, or in a dusty outflow were suggested as two possible origins. With detailed dust radiative transfer models of the disk we aim to discriminate between these two configurations. By including Herschel/SPIRE photometry, we extend the SED such that it now fully covers UV to sub-mm wavelengths. The MCMax radiative transfer code is used to create a large grid of disk models. Our models include a self-consistent treatment of dust settling as well as of scattering. A Si-rich composition with two additional opacity sources, metallic Fe or amorphous C, are tested. The SED is fit together with mid-IR (MIDI) visibilities as well as the optical and near-IR visibilities of Paper I, to constrain the structure of the disk and in particular of its inner rim. The near-IR visibility data require a smooth inner rim, here obtained with a two-power-law parameterization of the radial surface density distribution. A model can be found that fits all the IR photometric and interferometric data well, with either of the two continuum opacity sources. Our best-fit passive models are characterized by a significant amount of mm-sized grains, which are settled to the midplane of the disk. Not a single disk model fits our data at optical wavelengths though, the reason being the opposing constraints imposed by the optical and near-IR interferometric data. A geometry in which a passive, dusty, and puffed-up circumbinary disk is present, can reproduce all the IR but not the optical observations of 89 Her. Another dusty, outflow or halo, component therefore needs to be added to the system.Comment: 15 pages, in pres

Computer Vision for the Humanities: An Introduction to Deep Learning for Image Classification (Part 1)

This is the first of a two-part lesson introducing deep learning based computer vision methods for humanities research. Using a dataset of historical newspaper advertisements and the fastai Python library, the lesson walks through the pipeline of training a computer vision model to perform image classification

The Compression of Dark Matter Halos by Baryonic Infall

The initial radial density profiles of dark matter halos are laid down by gravitational collapse in hierarchical structure formation scenarios and are subject to further compression as baryons cool and settle to the halo centers. We here describe an explicit implementation of the algorithm, originally developed by Young, to calculate changes to the density profile as the result of adiabatic infall in a spherical halo model. Halos with random motion are more resistant to compression than are those in which random motions are neglected, which is a key weakness of the simple method widely employed. Young's algorithm results in density profiles in excellent agreement with those from N-body simulations. We show how the algorithm may be applied to determine the original uncompressed halos of real galaxies, a step which must be computed with care in order to enable a confrontation with theoretical predictions from theories such as LCDM.Comment: Revised version for ApJ. 8 pages, 8 figures, latex uses emulateap

Delayed X-ray brightening accompanied by variable ionized absorption following a tidal disruption event

Supermassive black holes can experience super-Eddington peak mass fallback rates following the tidal disruption of a star. The theoretical expectation is that part of the infalling material is expelled by means of an accretion disk wind, whose observational signature includes blueshifted absorption lines of highly ionized species in X-ray spectra. To date, however, only one such ultra-fast outflow (UFO) has been reported in the tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-14li. Here we report on the discovery of transient absorption-like signatures in X-ray spectra of the TDE AT2020ksf/Gaia20cjk (at a redshift of $z$=0.092), following an X-ray brightening $\sim 230$ days after UV/optical peak. We find that while no statistically significant absorption features are present initially, they appear on a timescale of several days, and remain detected up to 770 days after peak. Simple thermal continuum models, combined with a power-law or neutral absorber, do not describe these features well. Adding a partial covering, low velocity ionized absorber improves the fit at early times, but fails at late times. A high velocity (v$_w$ $\sim$ 42000 km s$^{-1}$, or -0.15c), ionized absorber (ultra-fast outflow) provides a good fit to all data. The few day timescale of variability is consistent with expectations for a clumpy wind. We discuss several scenarios that could explain the X-ray delay, as well as the potential for larger scale wind feedback. The serendipitous nature of the discovery could suggest a high incidence of UFOs in TDEs, alleviating some of the tension with theoretical expectations.Comment: 14 pages + appendices, accepted for publication in Ap

Discovery of a high state AM CVn binary in the Galactic Bulge Survey

We report on the discovery of a hydrogen-deficient compact binary (CXOGBS J175107.6-294037) belonging to the AM CVn class in the Galactic Bulge Survey. Deep archival X-ray observations constrain the X-ray positional uncertainty of the source to 0.57 arcsec, and allow us to uniquely identify the optical and UV counterpart. Optical spectroscopic observations reveal the presence of broad, shallow He i absorption lines while no sign of hydrogen is present, consistent with a high state system. We present the optical lightcurve from Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment monitoring, spanning 15 years. It shows no evidence for outbursts; variability is present at the 0.2 mag level on timescales ranging from hours to weeks. A modulation on a timescale of years is also observed. A Lomb-Scargle analysis of the optical lightcurves shows two significant periodicities at 22.90 and 23.22 min. Although the physical interpretation is uncertain, such timescales are in line with expectations for the orbital and superhump periods. We estimate the distance to the source to be between 0.5 - 1.1 kpc. Spectroscopic follow-up observations are required to establish the orbital period, and to determine whether this source can serve as a verification binary for the eLISA gravitational wave mission.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Spectroscopic classification of X-ray sources in the Galactic Bulge Survey

We present the classification of 26 optical counterparts to X-ray sources discovered in the Galactic Bulge Survey. We use (time-resolved) photometric and spectroscopic observations to classify the X-ray sources based on their multi-wavelength properties. We find a variety of source classes, spanning different phases of stellar/binary evolution. We classify CX21 as a quiescent cataclysmic variable (CV) below the period gap, and CX118 as a high accretion rate (nova-like) CV. CXB12 displays excess UV emission, and could contain a compact object with a giant star companion, making it a candidate symbiotic binary or quiescent low mass X-ray binary (although other scenarios cannot be ruled out). CXB34 is a magnetic CV (polar) that shows photometric evidence for a change in accretion state. The magnetic classification is based on the detection of X-ray pulsations with a period of 81 $\pm$ 2 min. CXB42 is identified as a young stellar object, namely a weak-lined T Tauri star exhibiting (to date unexplained) UX Ori-like photometric variability. The optical spectrum of CXB43 contains two (resolved) unidentified double-peaked emission lines. No known scenario, such as an AGN or symbiotic binary, can easily explain its characteristics. We additionally classify 20 objects as likely active stars based on optical spectroscopy, their X-ray to optical flux ratios and photometric variability. In 4 cases we identify the sources as binary stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

The Chandra Galactic Bulge Survey: optical catalogue and point-source counterparts to X-ray sources

As part of the Chandra Galactic Bulge Survey (GBS), we present a catalogue of optical sources in the GBS footprint. This consists of two regions centered at Galactic latitude b = 1.5 degrees above and below the Galactic Centre, spanning (l x b) = (6x1) degrees. The catalogue consists of 2 or more epochs of observations for each line of sight in r', i' and H{\alpha} filters. It is complete down to r' = 20.2 and i' = 19.2 mag; the mean 5{\sigma} depth is r' = 22.5 and i' = 21.1 mag. The mean root-mean-square residuals of the astrometric solutions is 0.04 arcsec. We cross-correlate this optical catalogue with the 1640 unique X-ray sources detected in Chandra observations of the GBS area, and find candidate optical counterparts to 1480 X-ray sources. We use a false alarm probability analysis to estimate the contamination by interlopers, and expect ~ 10 per cent of optical counterparts to be chance alignments. To determine the most likely counterpart for each X-ray source, we compute the likelihood ratio for all optical sources within the 4{\sigma} X-ray error circle. This analysis yields 1480 potential counterparts (~ 90 per cent of the sample). 584 counterparts have saturated photometry (r'<17, i'<16), indicating these objects are likely foreground sources and the real counterparts. 171 candidate counterparts are detected only in the i'-band. These sources are good qLMXB and CV candidates as they are X-ray bright and likely located in the Bulge.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures. Published in MNRAS. 2016MNRAS.458.4530

Early life adversity and serotonin transporter gene variation interact at the level of the adrenal gland to affect the adult hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis

The short allelic variant of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) promoter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) has been associated with the etiology of major depression by interaction with early life stress (ELS). Furthermore, 5-HTTLPR has been associated with abnormal functioning of the stress-responsive hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Here, we examined if, and at what level, the HPA-axis is affected in an animal model for ELS × 5-HTTLPR interactions. Heterozygous and homozygous 5-HTT knockout rats and their wild-type littermates were exposed daily at postnatal days 2–14 to 3 h of maternal separation. When grown to adulthood, plasma levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and the major rat glucocorticoid, corticosterone (CORT), were measured. Furthermore, the gene expression of key HPA-axis players at the level of the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands was assessed. No 5-HTT genotype × ELS interaction effects on gene expression were observed at the level of the hypothalamus or pituitary. However, we found significant 5-HTT genotype × ELS interaction effects for plasma CORT levels and adrenal mRNA levels of the ACTH receptor, such that 5-HTT deficiency was associated under control conditions with increased, but after ELS with decreased basal HPA-axis activity. With the use of an in vitro adrenal assay, naïve 5-HTT knockout rats were furthermore shown to display increased adrenal ACTH sensitivity. Therefore, we conclude that basal HPA-axis activity is affected by the interaction of 5- HTT genotype and ELS, and is programmed, within the axis itself, predominantly at the level of the adrenal gland. This study therefore emphasizes the importance of the adrenal gland for HPA-related psychiatric disorders