384 research outputs found
A Survey for EHB Stars in the Galactic Bulge
We present a progress report on an extensive survey to find and characterize
all types of blue horizontal-branch stars in the nuclear bulge of the Galaxy.
We have obtained wide, shallow imaging in UBV of ~12 square degrees in the
bulge, with follow-up spectroscopy for radial velocities and metal abundance
determinations. We have discovered a number of metal-rich blue HB stars, whose
presence in the bulge is expected by the interpretation of the extragalactic
ultraviolet excess. Very deep images have been obtained in UBV and SDSS u along
the bulge minor axis, which reveal a significant number of EHB candidates
fainter than B = 19, i.e., with the same absolute magnitudes as EHB stars in
several globular clusters.Comment: To appear in "Extreme Horizontal Branch Stars and Related Objects",
Astrophysics and Space Science, Kluwer Academic Publishers, proceedings of
the meeting held in Keele, UK, June 16-20, 200
Hot Horizontal Branch Stars in the Galactic Bulge. I
We present the first results of a survey of blue horizontal branch (BHB)
stars in the Galactic bulge. 164 candidates with 15 < V < 17.5 in a field
7.5deg from the Galactic Center were observed in the blue at 2.4A FWHM
resolution with the AAT 2dF spectrograph. Radial velocities were measured for
all stars. For stars with strong Balmer lines, their profiles were matched to
theoretical spectrum calculations to determine stellar temperature Teff and
gravity log g; matches to metal lines yielded abundances. CTIO UBV photometry
then gave the reddening and distance to each hot star. Reddening was found to
be highly variable, with E(B-V) from 0.0 to 0.55 around a mean of 0.28.
Forty-seven BHB candidates were identified with Teff >= 7250K, of which seven
have the gravities of young stars, three are ambiguous, and 37 are HB stars.
They span a wide metallicity range, from solar to 1/300 solar. The warmer BHB's
are more metal-poor and loosely concentrated towards the Galactic center, while
the cooler ones are of somewhat higher metallicity and closer to the center.
Their red B-V colors overlap main-sequence stars, but the U-B vs. B-V diagram
separates them until E(B-V) > 0.5. We detect two cool solar-metallicity HB
stars in the bulge of our own Galaxy, the first such stars known. Still elusive
are their hot counterparts, the metal-rich sdB/O stars causing excess UV light
in metal-rich galaxies; they have V ~ 20.5 in the Bulge.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures (the third with 4 panels, the fourth with 2
panels). To appear in the Astrophysical Journal v571n1, Jan. 20, 2000.
Abstract is shortened here, and figures compresse
Elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines predict survival in idiopathic and familial pulmonary arterial hypertension
BACKGROUND: Inflammation is a feature of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and increased circulating levels of cytokines are reported in patients with PAH. However, to date, no information exists on the significance of elevated cytokines or their potential as biomarkers. We sought to determine the levels of a range of cytokines in PAH and to examine their impact on survival and relationship to hemodynamic indexes.
METHODS AND RESULTS: We measured levels of serum cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interferon-gamma and interleukin-1beta, -2, -4, -5, -6, -8, -10, -12p70, and -13) using ELISAs in idiopathic and heritable PAH patients (n=60). Concurrent clinical data included hemodynamics, 6-minute walk distance, and survival time from sampling to death or transplantation. Healthy volunteers served as control subjects (n=21). PAH patients had significantly higher levels of interleukin-1beta, -2, -4, -6, -8, -10, and -12p70 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha compared with healthy control subjects. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that levels of interleukin-6, 8, 10, and 12p70 predicted survival in patients. For example, 5-year survival with interleukin-6 levels of >9 pg/mL was 30% compared with 63% for patients with levels < or = 9 pg/mL (P=0.008). In this PAH cohort, cytokine levels were superior to traditional markers of prognosis such as 6-minute walk distance and hemodynamics.
CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates dysregulation of a broad range of inflammatory mediators in idiopathic and familial PAH and demonstrates that cytokine levels have a previously unrecognized impact on patient survival. They may prove to be useful biomarkers and provide insight into the contribution of inflammation in PAH
Stronger Associations Between Sleep and Mental Health in Adults with Autism: A UK Biobank Study
This study examined sleep and its cognitive and affective correlates in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD), utilizing UK Biobank data. There were no group differences in subjective sleep duration [n = 220 ASD; n = 2200 general population (GP)]. Accelerometer measures of sleep duration or nighttime activity did not differ by group, but sleep efficiency was marginally lower in ASD (n = 83 ASD; n = 824 GP). Sleep efficiency was associated with wellbeing and mental health, and pathways between accelerometer sleep measures and wellbeing and mental health were significantly stronger for adults with ASD (who also reported substantially poorer wellbeing and > 5 × likelihood of experiencing mental distress). These findings highlight the need to monitor sleep to maintain good mental health in adult ASD
Outcomes of a research project to identify the enablers and barriers to effective preceptorship for newly qualified nurses
Poster presentationFunded by Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Trus
The Proper Motion of NGC 6522 in Baade's Window
We have detected seven stars with a common proper motion which are located
within 2.5 arcminutes of the globular cluster NGC 6522 in the Baade's Window
field of the Galactic bulge. We argue that these stars are members of the
cluster, and derive a weighted mean proper motion and heliocentric radial
velocity of mu_l = 1.4 +/- 0.2 mas/yr, mu_b = -6.2 +/- 0.2 mas/yr, v = -28.5
+/- 6.5 km/s. We rederive the distance to NGC 6522 (0.91 +/- 0.04 R_0, where
R_0 is the Galactocentric distance) and metallicity ([Fe/H] = -1.28 +/- 0.12),
making use of recent revisions in the foreground extinction toward the cluster
(A_V = 1.42 +/- 0.05). We find the spatial velocity of the cluster and conclude
that the cluster stays close to the Galactic center, and may have experienced
significant bulge/disk shocking during its lifetime.Comment: submitted to AJ, 21 pages, 5 figure
The human squamous oesophagus has widespread capacity for clonal expansion from cells at diverse stages of differentiation.
OBJECTIVE: Knowledge of the cellular mechanisms involved in homeostasis of human squamous oesophagus in the steady state and following chronic injury is limited. We aimed to better understand these mechanisms by using a functional 3D approach. DESIGN: Proliferation, mitosis and the expression of progenitor lineage markers were assessed in normal squamous oesophagus from 10 patients by immunofluorescence on 3D epithelial whole mounts. Cells expressing differential levels of epithelial and progenitor markers were isolated using flow cytometry sorting and characterised by qPCR and IF. Their self-renewing potential was investigated by colony forming cells assays and in vitro organotypic culture models. RESULTS: Proliferation and mitotic activity was highest in the interpapillary basal layer and decreased linearly towards the tip of the papilla (p<0.0001). The orientation of mitosis was random throughout the basal layer, and asymmetric divisions were not restricted to specific cell compartments. Cells sorted into distinct populations based on the expression of epithelial and progenitor cell markers (CD34 and EpCAM) showed no difference in self-renewal in 2D culture, either as whole populations or as single cells. In 3D organotypic cultures, all cell subtypes were able to recapitulate the architecture of the tissue of origin and the main factor determining the success of the 3D culture was the number of cells plated, rather than the cell type. CONCLUSIONS: Oesophageal epithelial cells demonstrate remarkable plasticity for self-renewal. This situation could be viewed as an ex vivo wounding response and is compatible with recent findings in murine models
The pH-responsive PacC transcription factor of Aspergillus fumigatus governs epithelial entry and tissue invasion during pulmonary aspergillosis
Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. Raw data have been deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) under accession number GSE54810. Funding: This work was supported in part by grants to EMB from the MRC (G0501164) and BBSRC (BB/G009619/1), to EMB and NDR from the Wellcome Trust (WT093596MA), to MB from Imperial College London (Division of Investigative Sciences PhD Studentship), to HH from the ERA-NET PathoGenoMics project TRANSPAT, Austrian Science Foundation (FWF I282-B09), to SGF from the National Institutes of Health, USA (R01AI073829). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Accelerated autoimmune disease and lymphoreticular neoplasms in F1 hybrid PN/NZB and NZB/PN mice
This report describes the first studies of inheritance of autoimmunity in inbred Palmerston North (PN) mice, a model of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Mating of PN mice with the nonautoimmune DBA/2 strain produced evidence that PN disease had a recessive mode of inheritance. When PN mice were crossed with autoimmune NZB mice, female offspring from both crosses developed anti-DNA antibodies and died prematurely with vasculitis, renal disease, and lymphomas. In contrast, reciprocal hybrid males had different patterns of mortality; PN/NZB males from the PN female x NZB male mating had moderately prolonged life spans, whereas NZB/PN males from the opposite cross (NZB female x PN male) had prolonged survival to the mean age of 104 weeks. To determine if testicular hormones were solely responsible for increased longevity in hybrid males, PN/NZB and NZB/PN mice were castrated at 2 weeks of age and compared to sham-operated littermate controls. Prepubertal castration did not influence longevity in PN/NZB males, but loss of gonadal hormones significantly reduced life spans in reciprocal NZB/PN males. Female hybrids were not affected by oophorectomy. Because castration changed disease expression only in male hybrids from the NZB female x PN male cross, it was concluded that parentage influenced sensitivity to the protective effects of male hormones. Although surgical sterilization had disparate effects on males, castrated PN/NZB and NZB/PN males consistently outlived oophorectomized females. The lack of clear-cut reversal of disease in males subjected to early castration suggested that nonhormonal, possibly genetic, factors contributed to longevity in both groups of male hybrids.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26206/1/0000286.pd
Assessing gender mainstreaming in the education sector: depoliticised technique or a step towards women's rights and gender equality?
In 1995 the Beijing Conference on Women identified gender mainstreaming as a key area for action. Policies to effect gender mainstreaming have since been widely adopted. This special issue of Compare looks at research on how gender mainstreaming has been used in government education departments, schools, higher education institutions, international agencies and NGOs .1 In this introduction we first provide a brief history of the emergence of gender mainstreaming and review changing definitions of the term. In the process we outline some policy initiatives that have attempted to mainstream gender and consider some difficulties with putting ideas into practice, particularly the tensions between a technical and transformative interpretations . Much of the literature about experiences with gender mainstreaming tends to look at organizational processes and not any specificities of a particular social sector. However, in our second section, we are concerned to explore whether institutional forms and particular actions associated with education give gender mainstreaming in education sites some distinctive features. In our last section we consider some of the debates about global and local negotiations in discussions of gender policy and education and the light this throws on gender mainstreaming. In so doing, we place the articles that follow in relation to contestations over ownership, political economy, the form and content of education practice and the social complexity of gender equality
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