Nova Sagittarii 1998 (V4633 Sgr) - a permanent superhump system or an asynchronous polar?

We report the results of observations of V4633 Sgr (Nova Sagittarii 1998) during 1998-2000. Two photometric periodicities were present in the light curve during the three years of observations: a stable one at P=3.014 h, which is probably the orbital period of the underlying binary system, and a second one of lower coherence, approximately 2.5 per cent longer than the former. The latter periodicity may be a permanent superhump, or alternatively, the spin period of the white dwarf in a nearly synchronous magnetic system. A third period, at P=5.06 d, corresponding to the beat between the two periods was probably present in 1999. Our results suggest that a process of mass transfer took place in the binary system since no later than two and a half months after the nova eruption. We derive an interstellar reddening of E(B-V)~0.21 from our spectroscopic measurements and published photometric data, and estimate a distance of d~9 kpc to this nova.Comment: 13 pages, latex, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

TAUVEX: status in 2011

We present a short history of the TAUVEX instrument, conceived to provide multi-band wide-field imaging in the ultraviolet, emphasizing the lack of sufficient and aggressive support on the part of the different space agencies that dealt with this basic science mission. First conceived in 1985 and selected by the Israel Space Agency in 1989 as its first priority payload, TAUVEX is fast becoming one of the longest-living space project of space astronomy. After being denied a launch on a national Israeli satellite, and then not flying on the Spectrum X-Gamma (SRG) international observatory, it was manifested since 2003 as part of ISRO's GSAT-4 Indian satellite to be launched in the late 2000s. However, two months before the launch, in February 2010, it was dismounted from its agreed-upon platform. This proved to be beneficial, since GSAT-4 and its launcher were lost on April 15 2010 due to the failure of the carrier rocket's 3rd stage. TAUVEX is now stored in ISRO's clean room in Bangalore with no firm indications when or on what platform it might be launched.Comment: Invited contribution presented at the "UV Universe 2010". Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely