A case report on the physiological responses to extreme heat during Sicily's July 2023 heatwave

July 2023 has been confirmed as Earth's hottest month on record, and it was characterized by extraordinary heatwaves across southern Europe. Field data collected under real heatwave periods could add important evidence to understand human adaptability to extreme heat. However, field studies on human physiological responses to heatwave periods remain limited. We performed field thermo-physiological measurements in a healthy 37-years male undergoing resting and physical activity in an outdoor environment in the capital of Sicily, Palermo, during (July 21; highest level of local heat-health alert) and following (August 10; lowest level of local heat-health alert) the peak of Sicily's July 2023 heatwave. Results indicated that ~40 min of outdoor walking and light running in 33.8°C Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) conditions (July 21) resulted in significant physiological stress (i.e., peak heart rate: 209 bpm; core temperature: 39.13°C; mean skin temperature: 37.2°C; whole-body sweat losses: 1.7 kg). Importantly, significant physiological stress was also observed during less severe heat conditions (August 10; WBGT: 29.1°C; peak heart rate: 190 bpm; core temperature: 38.48°C; whole-body sweat losses: 2 kg). These observations highlight the physiological strain that current heatwave conditions pose on healthy young individuals. This ecologically-valid empirical evidence could inform more accurate heat-health planning

B3 0003+387: AGN Marked Large-Scale Structure at z=1.47?

We present evidence for a significant overdensity of red galaxies, as much as a factor of 14 over comparable field samples, in the field of the z=1.47 radio galaxy B3 0003+387. The colors and luminosities of the brightest red galaxies are consistent with their being at z>0.8. The radio galaxy and one of the red galaxies are separated by 5" and show some evidence of a possible interaction. However, the red galaxies do not show any strong clustering around the radio galaxy nor around any of the brighter red galaxies. The data suggest that we are looking at a wall or sheet of galaxies, possibly associated with the radio galaxy at z=1.47. Spectroscopic redshifts of these red galaxies will be necessary to confirm this large-scale structure.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX2e/AASTeX v5.0.2. The full photometric catalog is included as a separate deluxetable file. To appear in the Astronomical Journal (~Nov 00

The influence of closed or open grip type during a pull-up test to exhaustion

The aim of this study is to assess whether a closed (CG) or open grip (OC) can influence the maximum number of repetitions during the pull-up test to exhaustion. Ninety-five physically active males (age 23.5 ± 6.2 years, body mass 69 ± 7.9 kg, height 174.0 ± 6.4 cm, BMI 22.9 ± 2.2) randomly performed the pull-up test to exhaustion twice, once for each type of grip, one week apart. No significant difference (p = 0.092) was found between the maximum number of repetitions performed with the OG (14.2 ± 5.7) or the CG (13.9 ± 5.9). Spearman's correlation showed no significant association between participants' body mass and the number of repetitions (r = 0.128, p = 0.22 for OG; r = 0.157, p = 0.13 for CG). According to our results, the grip is not relevant in the determination of the performance during a pull-up test to exhaustion. Thus, using one grip instead of another may be recommended independently of performance needs. Grip type may be adapted considering the practised sport, and specific athletic requirements, as well as individual preference

Parsec Scale Properties of Markarian 501

We present the results of a high angular resolution study of the BL Lac object Markarian 501 in the radio band. We consider data taken at 14 different epochs, ranging between 1.6 GHz and 22 GHz in frequency, and including new Space VLBI observations obtained on 2001 March 5 and 6 at 1.6 and 5 GHz. We study the kinematics of the parsec-scale jet and estimate its bulk velocity and orientation with respect to the line of sight. Limb brightened structure in the jet is clearly visible in our data and we discuss its possible origin in terms of velocity gradients in the jet. Quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength observations allow us to map the spectral index distribution and to compare it to the jet morphology. Finally, we estimate the physical parameters of the parsec-scale jet.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ; 24 pages with 17 figures (fig. 1 and fig. 2 available only as .jpg files

A multifrequency study of giant radio sources III. Dynamical age vs. spectral age of the lobes of selected sources

The dynamical ages of the opposite lobes of selected giant radio sources are estimated using the DYNAGE algorithm of Machalski et al., and compared with their spectral ages estimated and studied by Jamrozy et al. in Paper II. As expected, the DYNAGE fits give slightly different dynamical ages and other model's parameters for the opposite lobes modelled independently each other, e.g. the age ratios are found between ~1.1 to ~1.4. Demanding similar values of the jet power and the radio core density for the same source, we look for a self-consistent solution for the opposite lobes, which results in different density profiles along them found by the fit. We also show that a departure from the equipartition conditions assumed in the model, justified by X-ray observations of the lobes of some nearby radio galaxies, and a relevant variation of the magnetic-field strengths may provide an equalisation of the lobes' ages. A comparison of the dynamical and spectral ages shows that a ratio of the dynamical age to the spectral age of the lobes of investigated giant radio galaxies is between ~1 and ~5, i.e. is similar to that found for smaller radio galaxies (e.g. Parma et al. 1999). Supplementing possible causes for this effect already discussed in the literature, like uncertainty of assumed parameters of the model, an influence of a possible departure from the energy equipartition assumption, etc. Arguments are given to suggest that DYNAGE can better take account of radiative effects at lower frequencies than the spectral-ageing analysis.The DYNAGE algorithm is especially effective for sources at high redshifts, for which an intrinsic spectral curvature is shifted to low frequencies.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 12 pages, 6 figures, 4 table

PIK3R1 fusion drives chemoresistance in ovarian cancer by activating ERK1/2 and inducing rod and ring-like structures

Gene fusions are common in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC). Such genetic lesions may promote tumorigenesis, but the pathogenic mechanisms are currently poorly understood. Here, we investigated the role of a PIK3R1-CCDC178 fusion identified from a patient with advanced HGSC. We show that the fusion induces HGSC cell migration by regulating ERK1/2 and increases resistance to platinum treatment. Platinum resistance was associated with rod and ring-like cellular structure formation. These structures contained, in addition to the fusion protein, CIN85, a key regulator of PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling. Our data suggest that the fusion-driven structure formation induces a previously unrecognized cell survival and resistance mechanism, which depends on ERK1/2-activation

Immune infiltrate composition across intrinsic subtypes in hormone receptor (HR)+/HER2- early breast cancer (BC) enrolled in the prospective LETLOB trial.

Background In HR+/HER2- early BC, high tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) levels predict higher pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, but are associated with shorter overall survival (Denkert, Lancet Oncol 2018). HR+/HER2- BC is a biologically heterogeneous disease, encompassing all BC molecular intrinsic subtypes, with different clinical behaviour (Cejalvo, CTR 2018). Little is known concerning the distribution of TIL levels and immune infiltrate composition across intrinsic subtypes in HR+/HER2- BC. Methods Gene-expression data (Affymetrix platform) from pre-treatment frozen core-biopsies was available from 66 postmenopausal patients with HR+/HER2- early BC from the LETLOB trial (neoadjuvant letrozole+/-lapatinib) (Guarneri, JCO 2014). Intrinsic subtype was assigned using a research-based PAM50 subtype predictor. Relative leukocyte fractions were calculated using CIBERSORT (Newman, Nature Methods 2015), a deconvolution method based on RNA gene-expression signatures. Pre-treatment stromal TILs were assessed on centralized HES slides according to recommendations (Salgado, Ann Oncol 2015). Results Intrinsic subtype distribution was as follows: basal 18% (N = 12), HER2-enriched 8% (N = 5), Luminal A 39% (N = 25), Luminal B 36% (N = 24). Non-luminal subtypes (HER2-enriched and Basal) had significantly higher baseline TIL levels than luminal subtypes (median (range): 7 (0-100) and 2 (0-35), respectively; p = 0.038). Non-luminal subtypes also presented higher fractions of CD4 memory activated T-cells (p = 0.018), γδ T-cells (p = 0.010) and M1 macrophages (p = 0.001) and lower fractions of T-regulatory cells (p = 0.002) than luminal subtypes. Conclusions In HR+/HER2- early BC, non-luminal subtypes show higher TIL levels and a more pro-inflammatory anti-tumour immune infiltrate composition. This immune heterogeneity across intrinsic subtypes should be considered when analysing the complex prognostic role of TILs in HR+/HER2- early BC

The new sample of giant radio sources II. Update of optical counterparts, further spectroscopy of identified faint host galaxies, high-frequency radio maps, and polarisation properties of the sources

Our sample of giant radio-source candidates, published in Paper I (Machalski et al. 2001), is updated and supplemented with further radio and optical data. In this paper we present: (i) newly detected host galaxies, their photometric magnitude, and redshift estimate for the sample sources not identified yet, (ii) optical spectra and spectroscopic redshift for the host galaxies fainter than about 18.5 mag taken with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5m telescope, and (iii) the VLA 4.9 GHz total-intensity and polarised-intensity radio maps of the sample members. In a few cases they reveal extremely faint radio cores undetected before, which confirm the previously uncertain optical identifications. The radio maps are analysed and the polarisation properties of the sample sources summarised. A comparison of our updated sample with three samples published by other authors implies that all these four samples probe the same part of the population of extragalactic radio sources. There is no significant difference between the distributions of intrinsic size and radio power among these samples. The median redshift of 0.38 +/- 0.07 in our sample is the highest among the corresponding values in the four samples, indicating that the angular size and flux-density limits in our sample, lower than those for the other three samples, result in effective detections of more distant, giant-size galaxies compared to those detected in the other samples. This sample and a comparison sample of `normal'-size radio galaxies will be used in Paper III (Machalski & Jamrozy 2006) to investigate of a number of trends and correlations in the entire data.Comment: 30 pages, 21 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A. Version with high resolution figures available from http://www.oa.uj.edu.pl/~jamrozy

Discovery of the low-energy cutoff in a powerful giant radio galaxy

The lobes of radio galaxies and quasars, fed by jets and hotspots, represent a significant, and currently ill-constrained, source of energy input into the inter-galactic medium (IGM). How much energy is input into the IGM depends on the minimum energy to which the power-law distribution of relativistic particles is accelerated in the hotspots. This has hitherto been unknown to within three orders of magnitude. We present direct evidence for the discovery of this low-energy cutoff in the lobe of a Mpc-sized radio galaxy via the existence of extended X-ray emission, inverse-Compton scattered from aged radio plasma, and its separation by 80kpc from regions containing freshly accelerated plasma from the hotspot. The low-energy cutoff of gamma ~ 10^4 in the hotspot is higher than previously thought, but reconciles discrepancies with magnetic field estimates which had been systematically lower than equipartition values. The inverse Compton scattering of the spent synchrotron plasma is at the expense of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons; we comment on the importance of such giant radio galaxies as contaminants of CMB anisotropies.Comment: Accepted by Ap J Letter