1,205 research outputs found

    Spherically Symmetric Gravitational Collapse of General Fluids

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    We express Einstein's field equations for a spherically symmetric ball of general fluid such that they are conducive to an initial value problem. We show how the equations reduce to the Vaidya spacetime in a non-null coordinate frame, simply by designating specific equations of state. Furthermore, this reduces to the Schwarzschild spacetime when all matter variables vanish. We then describe the formulation of an initial value problem, whereby a general fluid ball with vacuum exterior is established on an initial spacelike slice. As the system evolves, the fluid ball collapses and emanates null radiation such that a region of Vaidya spacetime develops. Therefore, on any subsequent spacelike slice there exists three regions; general fluid, Vaidya and Schwarzschild, all expressed in a single coordinate patch with two free-boundaries determined by the equations. This implies complicated matching schemes are not required at the interfaces between the regions, instead, one simply requires the matter variables tend to the appropriate equations of state. We also show the reduction of the system of equations to the static cases, and show staticity necessarily implies zero ``heat flux''. Furthermore, the static equations include a generalization of the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations for hydrostatic equilibrium to include anisotropic stresses in general coordinates.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

    The Tensor-Vector-Scalar theory and its cosmology

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    Over the last few decades, astronomers and cosmologists have accumulated vast amounts of data clearly demonstrating that our current theories of fundamental particles and of gravity are inadequate to explain the observed discrepancy between the dynamics and the distribution of the visible matter in the Universe. The Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) proposal aims at solving the problem by postulating that Newton's second law of motion is modified for accelerations smaller than ~10^{-10}m/s^2. This simple amendment, has had tremendous success in explaining galactic rotation curves. However, being non-relativistic, it cannot make firm predictions for cosmology. A relativistic theory called Tensor-Vector-Scalar (TeVeS) has been proposed by Bekenstein building on earlier work of Sanders which has a MOND limit for non-relativistic systems. In this article I give a short introduction to TeVeS theory and focus on its predictions for cosmology as well as some non-cosmological studies.Comment: 44 pages, topical review for Classical and Quantum Gravit

    Plasma metabolite profiles in children with current asthma

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    Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146270/1/cea13183.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146270/2/cea13183_am.pd

    Diaspirin-crosslinked hemoglobin reduces blood transfusion in noncardiac surgery: a multicenter, randomized, controlled, double-blinded trial.

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    UNLABELLED: In this randomized, prospective, double-blinded clinical trial, we sought to investigate whether diaspirin-crosslinked hemoglobin (DCLHb) can reduce the perioperative use of allogeneic blood transfusion. One-hundred-eighty-one elective surgical patients were enrolled at 19 clinical sites from 1996 to 1998. Selection criteria included anticipated transfusion of 2-4 blood units, aortic repair, and major joint or abdomino-pelvic surgery. Once a decision to transfuse had been made, patients received initially up to 3 250-mL infusions of 10% DCLHb (n = 92) or 3 U of packed red blood cells (PRBCs) (n = 89). DCLHb was infused during a 36-h perioperative window. On the day of surgery, 58 of 92 (64%; confidence interval [CI], 54%-74%) DCLHb-treated patients received no allogeneic PRBC transfusions. On Day 1, this number was 44 of 92 (48%; CI, 37%-58%) and decreased further until Day 7, when it was 21 of 92 (23%; CI, 15%-33%). During the 7-day period, 2 (1-4) units of PRBC per patient were used in the DCLHb group compared with 3 (2-4) units in the control patients (P = 0.002; medians and 25th and 75th percentiles). Mortality (4% and 3%, respectively) and incidence of suffering at least one serious adverse event (21% and 15%, respectively) were similar in DCLHb and PRBC groups. The incidence of jaundice, urinary side effects, and pancreatitis were more frequent in DCLHb patients. The study was terminated early because of safety concerns. Whereas the side-effect profile of modified hemoglobin solutions needs to be improved, our data show that hemoglobin solutions can be effective at reducing exposure to allogeneic blood for elective surgery. IMPLICATIONS: In a randomized, double-blinded red blood cell controlled, multicenter trial, diaspirin-crosslinked hemoglobin spared allogeneic transfusion in 23% of patients undergoing elective noncardiac surgery. The observed side-effect profile indicates a need for improvement in hemoglobin development

    Observational constraints on inhomogeneous cosmological models without dark energy

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    It has been proposed that the observed dark energy can be explained away by the effect of large-scale nonlinear inhomogeneities. In the present paper we discuss how observations constrain cosmological models featuring large voids. We start by considering Copernican models, in which the observer is not occupying a special position and homogeneity is preserved on a very large scale. We show how these models, at least in their current realizations, are constrained to give small, but perhaps not negligible in certain contexts, corrections to the cosmological observables. We then examine non-Copernican models, in which the observer is close to the center of a very large void. These models can give large corrections to the observables which mimic an accelerated FLRW model. We carefully discuss the main observables and tests able to exclude them.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures; invited contribution to CQG special issue "Inhomogeneous Cosmological Models and Averaging in Cosmology". Replaced to match the improved version accepted for publication. Appendix B and references adde

    MWA rapid follow-up of gravitational wave transients: prospects for detecting prompt radio counterparts

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    We present and evaluate the prospects for detecting coherent radio counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) events using Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) triggered observations. The MWA rapid-response system, combined with its buffering mode (4\sim4 minutes negative latency), enables us to catch any radio signals produced from seconds prior to hours after a binary neutron star (BNS) merger. The large field of view of the MWA (1000deg2\sim1000\,\text{deg}^2 at 120\,MHz) and its location under the high sensitivity sky region of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) detector network, forecast a high chance of being on-target for a GW event. We consider three observing configurations for the MWA to follow up GW BNS merger events, including a single dipole per tile, the full array, and four sub-arrays. We then perform a population synthesis of BNS systems to predict the radio detectable fraction of GW events using these configurations. We find that the configuration with four sub-arrays is the best compromise between sky coverage and sensitivity as it is capable of placing meaningful constraints on the radio emission from 12.6\% of GW BNS detections. Based on the timescales of four BNS merger coherent radio emission models, we propose an observing strategy that involves triggering the buffering mode to target coherent signals emitted prior to, during or shortly following the merger, which is then followed by continued recording for up to three hours to target later time post-merger emission. We expect MWA to trigger on 522\sim5\text{--}22 BNS merger events during the LVK O4 observing run, which could potentially result in two detections of predicted coherent emission.Comment: Accepted for publication in PAS

    Two New Loci for Body-Weight Regulation Identified in a Joint Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies for Early-Onset Extreme Obesity in French and German Study Groups

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    Meta-analyses of population-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in adults have recently led to the detection of new genetic loci for obesity. Here we aimed to discover additional obesity loci in extremely obese children and adolescents. We also investigated if these results generalize by estimating the effects of these obesity loci in adults and in population-based samples including both children and adults. We jointly analysed two GWAS of 2,258 individuals and followed-up the best, according to lowest p-values, 44 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from 21 genomic regions in 3,141 individuals. After this DISCOVERY step, we explored if the findings derived from the extremely obese children and adolescents (10 SNPs from 5 genomic regions) generalized to (i) the population level and (ii) to adults by genotyping another 31,182 individuals (GENERALIZATION step). Apart from previously identified FTO, MC4R, and TMEM18, we detected two new loci for obesity: one in SDCCAG8 (serologically defined colon cancer antigen 8 gene; p = 1.85610 x 10(-8) in the DISCOVERY step) and one between TNKS (tankyrase, TRF1-interacting ankyrin-related ADP-ribose polymerase gene) and MSRA (methionine sulfoxide reductase A gene; p = 4.84 x 10(-7)), the latter finding being limited to children and adolescents as demonstrated in the GENERALIZATION step. The odds ratios for early-onset obesity were estimated at similar to 1.10 per risk allele for both loci. Interestingly, the TNKS/MSRA locus has recently been found to be associated with adult waist circumference. In summary, we have completed a meta-analysis of two GWAS which both focus on extremely obese children and adolescents and replicated our findings in a large followed-up data set. We observed that genetic variants in or near FTO, MC4R, TMEM18, SDCCAG8, and TNKS/MSRA were robustly associated with early-onset obesity. We conclude that the currently known major common variants related to obesity overlap to a substantial degree between children and adults

    Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

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    We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom
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