3,640 research outputs found
Public Talks and Science Listens: A Community-Based Participatory Approach to Characterizing Environmental Health Risk Perceptions and Assessing Recovery Needs in the Wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
In response to the human health threats stemming from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, inter-disciplinary working groups representing P30-funded Centers of the National Institute Environmental Health Sciences were created to assess threats posed by mold, harmful alga blooms, chemical toxicants, and various infectious agents at selected sites throughout the hurricane impact zone. Because of proximity to impacted areas, UTMB NIEHS Center in Environmental Toxicology was charged with coordinating direct community outreach efforts, primarily in south Louisiana. In early October 2005, UTMB/NIEHS Center Community Outreach and Education Core, in collaboration with outreach counterparts at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center @ Smithville TX/Center for Research in Environmental Disease sent two groups into southern Louisiana. One group used Lafourche Parish as a base to deliver humanitarian aid and assess local needs for additional supplies during local recovery/reclamation. A second group, ranging through New Iberia, New Orleans, Chalmette, rural Terrebonne, Lafourche and Jefferson Parishes and Baton Rouge met with community environmental leaders, emergency personnel and local citizens to 1) sample public risk perceptions, 2) evaluate the scope and reach of ongoing risk communication efforts, and 3) determine how the NIEHS could best collaborate with local groups in environmental health research and local capacity building efforts. This scoping survey identified specific information gaps limiting efficacy of risk communication, produced a community “wish list” of potential collaborative research projects. The project provided useful heuristics for disaster response and management planning and a platform for future collaborative efforts in environmental health assessment and risk communication with local advocacy groups in south Terrebonne-Lafourche parishes
Chiral Extrapolations and the Covariant Small Scale Expansion
We calculate the nucleon and the delta mass to fourth order in a covariant
formulation of the small scale expansion. We analyze lattice data from the MILC
collaboration and demonstrate that the available lattice data combined with our
knowledge of the physical values for the nucleon and delta masses lead to
consistent chiral extrapolation functions for both observables up to fairly
large pion masses. This holds in particular for very recent data on the delta
mass from the QCDSF collaboration. The resulting pion-nucleon sigma term is
sigma_{piN} = 48.9 MeV. This first quantitative analysis of the quark-mass
dependence of the structure of the Delta(1232) in full QCD within chiral
effective field theory suggests that (the real part of) the nucleon-delta
mass-splitting in the chiral limit, Delta_0 = 0.33 GeV, is slightly larger than
at the physical point. Further analysis of simultaneous fits to nucleon and
delta lattice data are needed for a precision determination of the properties
of the first excited state of the nucleon.Comment: 11 pp, 2 figs, version accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.
The Protostellar Luminosity Function
The protostellar luminosity function (PLF) is the present-day luminosity
function of the protostars in a region of star formation. It is determined
using the protostellar mass function (PMF) in combination with a stellar
evolutionary model that provides the luminosity as a function of instantaneous
and final stellar mass. As in McKee & Offner (2010), we consider three main
accretion models: the Isothermal Sphere model, the Turbulent Core model, and an
approximation of the Competitive Accretion model. We also consider the effect
of an accretion rate that tapers off linearly in time and an accelerating star
formation rate. For each model, we characterize the luminosity distribution
using the mean, median, maximum, ratio of the median to the mean, standard
deviation of the logarithm of the luminosity, and the fraction of very low
luminosity objects. We compare the models with bolometric luminosities observed
in local star forming regions and find that models with an approximately
constant accretion time, such as the Turbulent Core and Competitive Accretion
models, appear to agree better with observation than those with a constant
accretion rate, such as the Isothermal Sphere model. We show that observations
of the mean protostellar luminosity in these nearby regions of low-mass star
formation suggest a mean star formation time of 0.30.1 Myr. Such a
timescale, together with some accretion that occurs non-radiatively and some
that occurs in high-accretion, episodic bursts, resolves the classical
"luminosity problem" in low-mass star formation, in which observed protostellar
luminosities are significantly less than predicted. An accelerating star
formation rate is one possible way of reconciling the observed star formation
time and mean luminosity.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, accepted to Ap
Ferromagnetism in Oriented Graphite Samples
We have studied the magnetization of various, well characterized samples of
highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG), Kish graphite and natural graphite
to investigate the recently reported ferromagnetic-like signal and its possible
relation to ferromagnetic impurities. The magnetization results obtained for
HOPG samples for applied fields parallel to the graphene layers - to minimize
the diamagnetic background - show no correlation with the magnetic impurity
concentration. Our overall results suggest an intrinsic origin for the
ferromagnetism found in graphite. We discuss possible origins of the
ferromagnetic signal.Comment: 11 figure
The Effect of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]-anthracene (DMBA) on Physical Activity in Female Mice
BACKGROUND: Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of occurrence for certain cancers. In animal models, DMBA is a synthetic carcinogen that has been established as the gold standard for inducing cancerous tumors in rodents. However, it has yet to be established whether DMBA has an effect on voluntary wheel running in mice. If there is an effect, it would confound any experiment which investigates exercise effects on tumor growth. PURPOSE: The overall purpose of this project was to determine if DMBA altered voluntary wheel running in mice. METHODS: All procedures were approved by TAMU IACUC. SENCAR mice breeder pairs (Charles River) and offspring at 3 weeks of age were group housed and randomly assigned to a group receiving the DMBA (n=69) or not receiving the DMBA treatment (n=22). At 4 weeks of age, two running wheels were placed inside the cages and connected to a computer that measured distance and time. The running wheels were mounted to the cage tops of standard rat cages and equipped with a cycling computer (BC8.12, Sigma Sport) to record running distance and duration. The running wheels were plastic and had a 410mm circumference with a solid running surface. From 8 to 14 weeks of age, mice in the DMBA group were gavaged daily with a DMBA dose (20 µg/mouse) dissolved in corn oil. A two way ANOVA was employed to determine the effect of DMBA on activity with factors of time and treatment. RESULTS: DMBA had no effect on the distance (p=0.51) or duration ran (p=0.12), but significantly decreased the speed at which the mice ran (p=0.02). A post-hoc analysis indicated that significant decreases in speed occurred at weeks 12 (35.2 ±9.2 vs. 46.4 ± 14.6; p=0.0002) and 20 (35.4 ±10.3 vs. 46.2 ± 14.1; p\u3c0.0001) of age. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that DMBA does not affect the distance or time spent running on a wheel, but does affect the speed at which the mice run. While DMBA decreased speed, the significant effects on speed are minor given that neither distance nor duration were different between the groups. Therefore, we can conclude that DMBA does not prevent voluntary wheel running in mice
Theory of Excitonic States in CaB6
We study the excitonic states in CaB6 in terms of the Ginzburg-Landau theory.
By minimizing the free energy and by comparing with experimental results, we
identify two possible ground states with exciton condensation. They both break
time-reversal and inversion symmetries. This leads to various magnetic and
optical properties. As for magnetic properties, it is expected to be an
antiferromagnet, and its spin structure is predicted. It will exhibit the
magnetoelectric effect, and observed novel ferromagnetism in doped samples and
in thin-film and powder samples can arise from this effect. Interesting optical
phenomena such as the nonreciprocal optical effect and the second harmonic
generation are predicted. Their measurement for CaB6 will clarify whether
exciton condensation occurs or not and which of the two states is realized.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure
Reaction mechanisms in the 6Li+59Co system
The reactions induced by the weakly bound 6Li projectile interacting with the
intermediate mass target 59Co were investigated. Light charged particles
singles and - coincidence measurements were performed at the near
barrier energies E_lab = 17.4, 21.5, 25.5 and 29.6 MeV. The main contributions
of the different competing mechanisms are discussed. A statistical model
analysis, Continuum-Discretized Coupled-Channels calculations and two-body
kinematics were used as tools to provide information to disentangle the main
components of these mechanisms. A significant contribution of the direct
breakup was observed through the difference between the experimental sequential
breakup cross section and the CDCC prediction for the non-capture breakup cross
section.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure
The small molecule curcumin analog FLLL32 induces apoptosis in melanoma cells via STAT3 inhibition and retains the cellular response to cytokines with anti-tumor activity
Background:
We characterized the biologic effects of a novel small molecule STAT3 pathway inhibitor that is derived from the natural product curcumin. We hypothesized this lead compound would specifically inhibit the STAT3 signaling pathway to induce apoptosis in melanoma cells.
Results:
FLLL32 specifically reduced STAT3 phosphorylation at Tyr705 (pSTAT3) and induced apoptosis at micromolar amounts in human melanoma cell lines and primary melanoma cultures as determined by annexin V/propidium iodide staining and immunoblot analysis. FLLL32 treatment reduced expression of STAT3-target genes, induced caspase-dependent apoptosis, and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential. FLLL32 displayed specificity for STAT3 over other homologous STAT proteins. In contrast to other STAT3 pathway inhibitors (WP1066, JSI-124, Stattic), FLLL32 did not abrogate IFN-γ-induced pSTAT1 or downstream STAT1-mediated gene expression as determined by Real Time PCR. In addition, FLLL32 did not adversely affect the function or viability of immune cells from normal donors. In peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), FLLL32 inhibited IL-6-induced pSTAT3 but did not reduce signaling in response to immunostimulatory cytokines (IFN-γ, IL 2). Treatment of PBMCs or natural killer (NK) cells with FLLL32 also did not decrease viability or granzyme b and IFN-γ production when cultured with K562 targets as compared to vehicle (DMSO).
Conclusions:
These data suggest that FLLL32 represents a lead compound that could serve as a platform for further optimization to develop improved STAT3 specific inhibitors for melanoma therapy
Spin and valley quantum Hall ferromagnetism in graphene
In a graphene Landau level (LL), strong Coulomb interactions and the fourfold
spin/valley degeneracy lead to an approximate SU(4) isospin symmetry. At
partial filling, exchange interactions can spontaneously break this symmetry,
manifesting as additional integer quantum Hall plateaus outside the normal
sequence. Here we report the observation of a large number of these quantum
Hall isospin ferromagnetic (QHIFM) states, which we classify according to their
real spin structure using temperature-dependent tilted field magnetotransport.
The large measured activation gaps confirm the Coulomb origin of the broken
symmetry states, but the order is strongly dependent on LL index. In the high
energy LLs, the Zeeman effect is the dominant aligning field, leading to real
spin ferromagnets with Skyrmionic excitations at half filling, whereas in the
`relativistic' zero energy LL, lattice scale anisotropies drive the system to a
spin unpolarized state, likely a charge- or spin-density wave.Comment: Supplementary information available at http://pico.phys.columbia.ed
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