Hunting Galaxies to (and for) Extinction

In studies of star-forming regions, near-infrared excess (NIRX) sources--objects with intrinsic colors redder than normal stars--constitute both signal (young stars) and noise (e.g. background galaxies). We hunt down (identify) galaxies using near-infrared observations in the Perseus star-forming region by combining structural information, colors, and number density estimates. Galaxies at moderate redshifts (z = 0.1 - 0.5) have colors similar to young stellar objects (YSOs) at both near- and mid-infrared (e.g. Spitzer) wavelengths, which limits our ability to identify YSOs from colors alone. Structural information from high-quality near-infrared observations allows us to better separate YSOs from galaxies, rejecting 2/5 of the YSO candidates identified from Spitzer observations of our regions and potentially extending the YSO luminosity function below K of 15 magnitudes where galaxy contamination dominates. Once they are identified we use galaxies as valuable extra signal for making extinction maps of molecular clouds. Our new iterative procedure: the Galaxies Near Infrared Color Excess method Revisited (GNICER), uses the mean colors of galaxies as a function of magnitude to include them in extinction maps in an unbiased way. GNICER increases the number of background sources used to probe the structure of a cloud, decreasing the noise and increasing the resolution of extinction maps made far from the galactic plane.Comment: 16 pages and 16 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full resolution version at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/COMPLETE/papers/Foster_HuntingGalaxies.pd

The Northwest Archivists Mentoring Program: A Case Study

The Northwest Archivists (NWA), a regional archival association in the Pacific Northwest, established a formal mentoring program in 2007. A pilot phase of the program ran for 2 years and included both formative and summative assessments from participants. This case study documents NWA’s experiences designing and managing a mentoring program within a volunteer-run professional association, reflects on the program’s successes and challenges, and recommends areas for future investigation

Early changes in pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in neonates with encephalopathy are associated with remote epilepsy.

BackgroundNeonatal seizures are associated with adverse neurologic sequelae including epilepsy in childhood. Here we aim to determine whether levels of cytokines in neonates with brain injury are associated with acute symptomatic seizures or remote epilepsy.MethodsThis is a cohort study of term newborns with encephalopathy at UCSF between 10/1993 and 1/2000 who had dried blood spots. Maternal, perinatal/postnatal, neuroimaging, and epilepsy variables were abstracted by chart review. Logistic regression was used to compare levels of cytokines with acute seizures and the development of epilepsy.ResultsIn a cohort of 26 newborns with neonatal encephalopathy at risk for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy with blood spots for analysis, diffuse alterations in both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels were observed between those with (11/28, 39%) and without acute symptomatic seizures. Seventeen of the 26 (63%) patients had >2 years of follow-up and 4/17 (24%) developed epilepsy. Higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α within the IL-1β pathway were significantly associated with epilepsy.ConclusionsElevations in pro-inflammatory cytokines in the IL-1β pathway were associated with later onset of epilepsy. Larger cohort studies are needed to confirm the predictive value of these circulating biomarkers

Can an Immersion in Wellness Camp Influence Youth Health Behaviors?

Summer 4-H camps present an untapped opportunity for advancement of mission mandates. The project reported here immersed campers in healthy living experiential learning. The goal was to improve self-efficacy and health behaviors related to nutrition and physical activity. Data was collected from enrolled campers through multiple survey tools. A total of 74 campers completed baseline surveys during summer 2012; 6-month follow-up rate was 72%. Camp improved intervention campers\u27 nutrition knowledge (

Genomic Analysis of Companion Rabbit Staphylococcus aureus.

In addition to being an important human pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus is able to cause a variety of infections in numerous other host species. While the S. aureus strains causing infection in several of these hosts have been well characterised, this is not the case for companion rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), where little data are available on S. aureus strains from this host. To address this deficiency we have performed antimicrobial susceptibility testing and genome sequencing on a collection of S. aureus isolates from companion rabbits. The findings show a diverse S. aureus population is able to cause infection in this host, and while antimicrobial resistance was uncommon, the isolates possess a range of known and putative virulence factors consistent with a diverse clinical presentation in companion rabbits including severe abscesses. We additionally show that companion rabbit isolates carry polymorphisms within dltB as described as underlying host-adaption of S. aureus to farmed rabbits. The availability of S. aureus genome sequences from companion rabbits provides an important aid to understanding the pathogenesis of disease in this host and in the clinical management and surveillance of these infections.This project was supported by internal funding from the School of Biological, Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, University of Hull (GKP), a Medical Research Council (MRC) Partnership Grant (G1001787/1) (MAH and JP), and the Wellcome Trust, Grant number 098051 (JP).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.015145

Simultaneous Triggered Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injection of Short-Lived Radioisotopes by a Supernova Shock Wave

Cosmochemical evidence for the existence of short-lived radioisotopes (SLRI) such as $^{26}$Al and $^{60}$Fe at the time of the formation of primitive meteorites requires that these isotopes were synthesized in a massive star and then incorporated into chondrites within $\sim 10^6$ yr. A supernova shock wave has long been hypothesized to have transported the SLRI to the presolar dense cloud core, triggered cloud collapse, and injected the isotopes. Previous numerical calculations have shown that this scenario is plausible when the shock wave and dense cloud core are assumed to be isothermal at $\sim 10$ K, but not when compressional heating to $\sim 1000$ K is assumed. We show here for the first time that when calculated with the FLASH2.5 adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code, a 20 km/sec shock wave can indeed trigger the collapse of a 1 $M_\odot$ cloud while simultaneously injecting shock wave isotopes into the collapsing cloud, provided that cooling by molecular species such as H$_2$O, CO$_2$, and H$_2$ is included. These calculations imply that the supernova trigger hypothesis is the most likely mechanism for delivering the SLRI present during the formation of the solar system.Comment: 12 pages, 4 color figures. Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press

Seismic stratigraphic framework of the continental shelf offshore Delmarva, USA: implications for Mid-Atlantic Bight evolution since the Pliocene

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Brothers, L. L., Foster, D. S., Pendleton, E. A., & Baldwin, W. E. Seismic stratigraphic framework of the continental shelf offshore Delmarva, USA: implications for Mid-Atlantic Bight evolution since the Pliocene. Marine Geology, 428, : (2020)106287, doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2020.106287.Understanding how past coastal systems have evolved is critical to predicting future coastal change. Using over 12,000 trackline kilometers of recently collected, co-located multi-channel boomer, sparker and chirp seismic reflection profile data integrated with previously collected borehole and vibracore data, we define the upper (< 115 m below mean lower low water) seismic stratigraphic framework offshore of the Delmarva Peninsula, USA. Twelve seismic units and 11 regionally extensive unconformities (U1-U11) were mapped over 5900 km2 of North America's Mid-Atlantic continental shelf. We interpret U3, U7, U9, U11 as transgressive ravinement surfaces, while U1,2,4,5,6,8,10 are subaerial unconformities illustrating distinct periods of lower sea-level. Based on areal distribution, stratigraphic relationships and dating results (Carbon 14 and amino acid racemization estimates) from earlier vibracore and borehole studies, we interpret the infilled channels as late Neogene and Quaternary courses of the Susquehanna, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, James rivers and tributaries, and a broad flood plain. These findings indicate that the region's geologic framework is more complex than previously thought and that Pleistocene paleochannels are abundant in the Mid-Atlantic. This study synthesizes and correlates the findings of other Atlantic Margin studies and establishes a large-scale Quaternary framework that enables more detailed stratigraphic analysis in the future. Such work has implications for inner continental shelf systems tract evolution, the relationship between antecedent geology and modern coastal systems, assessments of eustacy, glacial isostatic adjustment, and other processes and forcings that play a role in passive margin evolution.This work was supported by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Response to Hurricane Sandy

The Northwest Archivists Mentoring Program: A Case Study

The Northwest Archivists (NWA), a regional archival association in the Pacific Northwest, established a formal mentoring program in 2007. A pilot phase of the program ran for 2 years and included both formative and summative assessments from participants. This case study documents NWA’s experiences designing and managing a mentoring program within a volunteer-run professional association, reflects on the program’s successes and challenges, and recommends areas for future investigation.Keywords: Mentees, Archivists, Professional associations, Mentoring, Professional development, Mentoring programs, Protégés, MentorsThis is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by the Society of American Archivists. The published article can be found at: http://archivists.metapress.com/home/main.mpx

Modeling the Impact of Retention Interventions on Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV: Results From INSPIRE Studies in Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe

Six implementation research studies in Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe tested approaches for improving retention in care among women living with HIV. We simulated the impact of their interventions on the probability of HIV transmission during pregnancy and breastfeeding

The Millimeter Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) Pilot Survey

We describe a pilot survey conducted with the Mopra 22-m radio telescope in preparation for the Millimeter Astronomy Legacy Team Survey at 90 GHz (MALT90). We identified 182 candidate dense molecular clumps using six different selection criteria and mapped each source simultaneously in 16 different lines near 90 GHz. We present a summary of the data and describe how the results of the pilot survey shaped the design of the larger MALT90 survey. We motivate our selection of target sources for the main survey based on the pilot detection rates and demonstrate the value of mapping in multiple lines simultaneously at high spectral resolution.Comment: Accepted to ApJS. 23 pages and 16 figures. Full resolution version with an appendix showing all the data (12.1 MB) is available at http://malt90.bu.edu/publications/Foster_2011_Malt90Pilot.pd