608 research outputs found
Improving Inversions of the Overlap Operator
We present relaxation and preconditioning techniques which accelerate the
inversion of the overlap operator by a factor of four on small lattices, with
larger gains as the lattice size increases. These improvements can be used in
both propagator calculations and dynamical simulations.Comment: lattice2004(machines
Histopathologic Features of Mycobacterium ulcerans Infection
Because of the emergence of Buruli ulcer disease, the World Health Organization launched a Global Buruli Ulcer Initiative in 1998. This indolent skin infection is caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. During a study of risk factors for the disease in Ghana, adequate excisional skin-biopsy specimens were obtained from 124 clinically suspicious lesions. Buruli ulcer disease was diagnosed in 78 lesions since acid-fast bacilli (AFB) were found by histopathologic examination. Lesions with other diagnoses included filariasis (3 cases), zygomycosis (2 cases), ulcerative squamous cell carcinomas (2 cases), keratin cyst (1 case), and lymph node (1 case). Thirty-seven specimens that did not show AFB were considered suspected Buruli ulcer disease cases. Necrosis of subcutaneous tissues and dermal collagen were found more frequently in AFB-positive specimens compared with specimens from suspected case-patients (p<0.001). Defining histologic criteria for a diagnosis of Buruli ulcer disease is of clinical and public health importance since it would allow earlier treatment, leading to less deforming sequelae
Ortho-to-para ratio of interstellar heavy water
Despite the low elemental deuterium abundance in the Galaxy, enhanced
molecular D/H ratios have been found in the environments of low-mass star
forming regions, and in particular the Class 0 protostar IRAS 16293-2422. The
CHESS (Chemical HErschel Surveys of Star forming regions) Key Program aims at
studying the molecular complexity of the interstellar medium. The high
sensitivity and spectral resolution of the HIFI instrument provide a unique
opportunity to observe the fundamental 1,1,1 - 0,0,0 transition of the
ortho-D2O molecule, inaccessible from the ground, and to determine the
ortho-to-para D2O ratio. We have detected the fundamental transition of the
ortho-D2O molecule at 607.35 GHz towards IRAS 16293-2422. The line is seen in
absorption with a line opacity of 0.62 +/- 0.11 (1 sigma). From the previous
ground-based observations of the fundamental 1,1,0 - 1,0,1 transition of
para-D2O seen in absorption at 316.80 GHz we estimate a line opacity of 0.26
+/- 0.05 (1 sigma). We show that the observed absorption is caused by the cold
gas in the envelope of the protostar. Using these new observations, we estimate
for the first time the ortho to para D2O ratio to be lower than 2.6 at a 3
sigma level of uncertainty, to be compared with the thermal equilibrium value
of 2:1.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted the A&A HIFI Special Issue as a lette
Herschel observations of extra-ordinary sources: Detecting spiral arm clouds by CH absorption lines
We have observed CH absorption lines ()
against the continuum source Sgr~B2(M) using the \textit{Herschel}/HIFI
instrument. With the high spectral resolution and wide velocity coverage
provided by HIFI, 31 CH absorption features with different radial velocities
and line widths are detected and identified. The narrower line width and lower
column density clouds show `spiral arm' cloud characteristics, while the
absorption component with the broadest line width and highest column density
corresponds to the gas from the Sgr~B2 envelope. The observations show that
each `spiral arm' harbors multiple velocity components, indicating that the
clouds are not uniform and that they have internal structure. This
line-of-sight through almost the entire Galaxy offers unique possibilities to
study the basic chemistry of simple molecules in diffuse clouds, as a variety
of different cloud classes are sampled simultaneously. We find that the linear
relationship between CH and H column densities found at lower by UV
observations does not continue into the range of higher visual extinction.
There, the curve flattens, which probably means that CH is depleted in the
denser cores of these clouds.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, HIFI Special Issu
Herschel observations of extra-ordinary sources: Detection of Hydrogen Fluoride in absorption towards Orion~KL
We report a detection of the fundamental rotational transition of hydrogen
fluoride in absorption towards Orion KL using Herschel/HIFI. After the removal
of contaminating features associated with common molecules ("weeds"), the HF
spectrum shows a P-Cygni profile, with weak redshifted emission and strong
blue-shifted absorption, associated with the low-velocity molecular outflow. We
derive an estimate of 2.9 x 10^13 cm^-2 for the HF column density responsible
for the broad absorption component. Using our best estimate of the H2 column
density within the low-velocity molecular outflow, we obtain a lower limit of
~1.6 x 10^-10 for the HF abundance relative to hydrogen nuclei, corresponding
to 0.6% of the solar abundance of fluorine. This value is close to that
inferred from previous ISO observations of HF J=2--1 absorption towards Sgr B2,
but is in sharp contrast to the lower limit of 6 x 10^-9 derived by Neufeld et
al. (2010) for cold, foreground clouds on the line of sight towards G10.6-0.4.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, paper to be published in the Herschel special
issue of A&A letter
Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources: The Terahertz spectrum of Orion KL seen at high spectral resolution
We present the first high spectral resolution observations of Orion KL in the
frequency ranges 1573.4 - 1702.8 GHz (band 6b) and 1788.4 - 1906.8 GHz (band
7b) obtained using the HIFI instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory.
We characterize the main emission lines found in the spectrum, which primarily
arise from a range of components associated with Orion KL including the hot
core, but also see widespread emission from components associated with
molecular outflows traced by H2O, SO2, and OH. We find that the density of
observed emission lines is significantly diminished in these bands compared to
lower frequency Herschel/HIFI bands.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Herschel HIFI special issue of
Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, 5 pages, 3 figure
Hepatitis B Virus Impairs TLR9 Expression and Function in Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play a key role in detecting pathogens by producing large amounts of type I interferon (IFN) by sensing the presence of viral infections through the Toll-Like Receptor (TLR) pathway. TLR9 is a sensor of viral and bacterial DNA motifs and activates the IRF7 transcription factor which leads to type I IFN secretion by pDCs. However, during chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, pDCs display an impaired ability to secrete IFN-α following ex vivo stimulation with TLR9 ligands. Here we highlight several strategies used by HBV to block IFN-α production through a specific impairment of the TLR9 signaling. Our results show that HBV particle internalisation could inhibit TLR9- but not TLR7-mediated secretion of IFN-α by pDCs. We observed that HBV down-regulated TLR9 transcriptional activity in pDCs and B cells in which TLR9 mRNA and protein levels were reduced. HBV can interfere with TLR9 activity by blocking the MyD88-IRAK4 axis and Sendai virus targeting IRF7 to block IFN-α production. Neutralising CpG motif sequences were identified within HBV DNA genome of genotypes A to H which displayed a suppressive effect on TLR9-immune activation. Moreover, TLR9 mRNA and protein were downregulated in PBMCs from patients with HBV-associated chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus HBV has developed several escape mechanisms to avoid TLR9 activation in both pDCs and B lymphocytes, which may in turn contribute to the establishment and/or persistence of chronic infection
Inter-Network magnetic fields observed with sub-arcsec resolution
We analyze a time sequence of Inter-Network (IN) magnetograms observed at the
solar disk center. Speckle reconstruction techniques provide a good spatial
resolution (0.5" cutoff frequency) yet maintaining a fair sensitivity (some
20G). Patches with signal above noise cover 60% of the observed area, most of
which corresponds to intergranular lanes. The large surface covered by signal
renders a mean unsigned magnetic flux density between 17G and 21G (1G \equiv
1Mx cm). The difference depends on the spectral line used to generate
the magnetograms (Fe I 6302 or Fe I 6301). Such systematic difference can be
understood if the magnetic structures producing the polarization have intrinsic
field strengths exceeding 1 kG, and consequently, occupying only a very small
fraction of the surface (some 2%). We observe both, magnetic signals changing
in time scales smaller than 1 min, and a persistent pattern lasting longer than
the duration of the sequence (17 min). The pattern resembles a network with a
spatial scale between 5 and 10 arcsec, which we identify as the
mesogranulation. The strong dependence of the polarization signals on spatial
resolution and sensitivity suggests that much quiet Sun magnetic flux still
remains undetected.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 17 pages with 15 figure
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