7,436 research outputs found
Morbidity and pollution: model specification analysis for time-series data on hospital admissions
Time-series analysis of effects of pollutants on emergency hospital admissions indicates important synergistic interactions among pollutants and to a lesser degree nonlinearities in effects of single pollutants. Comparisons of alternative econometric specifications are made to determine the appropriateness of incorporating nonuniform pollution impacts. The data substantially support the existence of synergisms among pollutants with high levels of sulfur dioxide, SO, (particulates), increasing the impact of particulates (SO,) on emergency hospital admissions. Marginal effects of either pollutant are, however, small at current ambient air quality levels. These results indicate that damage estimates were likely to be understated during the 1960’s when pollution levels were high, while, at current levels of those pollutants considered here, marginal damages are lower than would be estimated in studies failing to incorporate synergistic and nonlinear impacts.time series; hospital admissions; pollution and human health; synergisms; nonlinearities; econometric model specification
Use of pop-up satellite archival tag technology to study postrelease survival of and habitat use by estuarine and coastal fishes: an application to striped bass (Morone saxatilis)
Pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) have been used to
study movements, habitat use, and postrelease survival of large pelagic vertebrates, but the size of these tags has historically precluded their use on smaller coastal species. To evaluate a new generation of smaller PSATs for the study of postrelease survival and habitat use of coastal species, we attached Microwave Telemetry, Inc.,
X-tags to ten striped bass (Morone saxatilis) 94–112 cm total length (TL) caught on J hooks and circle hooks during the winter recreational fishery in Virginia. Tags collected temperature and depth information every five minutes and detached from the fish after 30 days. Nine of the ten tags
released on schedule and eight transmitted 30% to 96% (mean 78.6%) of the archived data. Three tags were physically recovered during or after the transmission period, allowing
retrieval of all archived data. All eight striped bass whose tags transmitted data survived for 30 days after
release, including two fish that were hooked deeply with J hooks. The eight fish spent more than 90% of their time at depths less than 10 m and in temperatures of 6–9°C, demonstrated no significant diel differences in depth
or temperature utilization (P>0.05), and exhibited weak periodicities in vertical movements consistent with daily and tidal cycles
Millisecond accuracy video display using OpenGL under Linux
To measure people’s reaction times to the nearest millisecond, it is necessary to know exactly when
a stimulus is displayed. This article describes how to display stimuli with millisecond accuracy on a
normal CRT monitor, using a PC running Linux. A simple C program is presented to illustrate how this
may be done within X Windows using the OpenGL rendering system. A test of this system is reported
that demonstrates that stimuli may be consistently displayed with millisecond accuracy. An algorithm
is presented that allows the exact time of stimulus presentation to be deduced, even if there are relatively
large errors in measuring the display time
Brayton heat exchanger unit development program (alternate design)
A Brayton Heat Exchanger Unit Alternate Design (BHXU-Alternate) consisting of a recuperator, a heat sink heat exchanger, and a gas ducting system, was designed and fabricated. The design was formulated to provide a high performance unit suitable for use in a long-life Brayton-cycle powerplant. Emphasis was on double containment against external leakage and leakage of the organic coolant into the gas stream. A parametric analysis and design study was performed to establish the optimum component configurations to achieve low weight and size and high reliability, while meeting the requirements of high effectiveness and low pressure drop. Layout studies and detailed mechanical and structural design were performed to obtain a flight-type packaging arrangement, including the close-coupled integration of the BHXU-Alternate with the Brayton Rotating Unit (BRU)
Brightest Cluster Galaxies at the Present Epoch
We have observed 433 z<=0.08 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a full-sky
survey of Abell clusters. The BCG Hubble diagram is consistent to within 2% of
a Omega_m=0.3, Lambda=0.7 Hubble relation. The L_m-alpha relation for BCGs,
which uses alpha, the log-slope of the BCG photometric curve of growth, to
predict metric luminosity, L_m, has 0.27 mag residuals. We measure central
stellar velocity dispersions, sigma, of the BCGs, finding the Faber-Jackson
relation to flatten as the metric aperture grows to include an increasing
fraction of the total BCG luminosity. A 3-parameter "metric plane" relation
using alpha and sigma together gives the best prediction of L_m, with 0.21 mag
residuals. The projected spatial offset, r_x, of BCGs from the X-ray-defined
cluster center is a gamma=-2.33 power-law over 1<r_x<10^3 kpc. The median
offset is ~10 kpc, but ~15% of the BCGs have r_x>100 kpc. The absolute
cluster-dispersion normalized BCG peculiar velocity |Delta V_1|/sigma_c follows
an exponential distribution with scale length 0.39+/-0.03. Both L_m and alpha
increase with sigma_c. The alpha parameter is further moderated by both the
spatial and velocity offset from the cluster center, with larger alpha
correlated with the proximity of the BCG to the cluster mean velocity or
potential center. At the same time, position in the cluster has little effect
on L_m. The luminosity difference between the BCG and second-ranked galaxy, M2,
increases as the peculiar velocity of the BCG within the cluster decreases.
Further, when M2 is a close luminosity "rival" of the BCG, the galaxy that is
closest to either the velocity or X-ray center of the cluster is most likely to
have the larger alpha. We conclude that the inner portions of the BCGs are
formed outside the cluster, but interactions in the heart of the galaxy cluster
grow and extend the envelopes of the BCGs.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
The tumour microenvironment links complement system dysregulation and hypoxic signalling.
The complement system is an innate immune pathway typically thought of as part of the first line of defence against "non-self" species. In the context of cancer, complement has been described to have an active role in facilitating cancer-associated processes such as increased proliferation, angiogenesis and migration. Several cellular members of the tumour microenvironment express and/or produce complement proteins locally, including tumour cells. Dysregulation of the complement system has been reported in numerous tumours and increased expression of complement activation fragments in cancer patient specimens correlates with poor patient prognosis. Importantly, genetic or pharmacological targeting of complement has been shown to reduce tumour growth in several cancer preclinical models, suggesting that complement could be an attractive therapeutic target. Hypoxia (low oxygen) is frequently found in solid tumours and has a profound biological impact on cellular and non-cellular components of the tumour microenvironment. In this review, we focus on hypoxia since this is a prevailing feature of the tumour microenvironment that, like increased complement, is typically associated with poor prognosis. Furthermore, interesting links between hypoxia and complement have been recently proposed but never collectively reviewed. Here, we explore how hypoxia alters regulation of complement proteins in different cellular components of the tumour microenvironment, as well as the downstream biological consequences of this regulation
The Stellar Halos of Massive Elliptical Galaxies II: Detailed Abundance Ratios at Large Radius
We study the radial dependence in stellar populations of 33 nearby early-type
galaxies with central stellar velocity dispersions sigma* > 150 km/s. We
measure stellar population properties in composite spectra, and use ratios of
these composites to highlight the largest spectral changes as a function of
radius. Based on stellar population modeling, the typical star at 2 R_e is old
(~10 Gyr), relatively metal poor ([Fe/H] -0.5), and alpha-enhanced
([Mg/Fe]~0.3). The stars were made rapidly at z~1.5-2 in shallow potential
wells. Declining radial gradients in [C/Fe], which follow [Fe/H], also arise
from rapid star formation timescales due to declining carbon yields from
low-metallicity massive stars. In contrast, [N/Fe] remains high at large
radius. Stars at large radius have different abundance ratio patterns from
stars in the center of any present-day galaxy, but are similar to Milky Way
thick disk stars. Our observations are thus consistent with a picture in which
the stellar outskirts are built up through minor mergers with disky galaxies
whose star formation is truncated early (z~1.5-2).Comment: ApJ in press, 12 pages, 6 figure
A Correction to the Standard Galactic Reddening Map: Passive Galaxies as Standard Crayons
We present corrections to the Schlegel, Finkbeiner, Davis (SFD98) reddening
maps over the Sloan Digital Sky Survey northern Galactic cap area. To find
these corrections, we employ what we dub the "standard crayon" method, in which
we use passively evolving galaxies as color standards by which to measure
deviations from the reddening map. We select these passively evolving galaxies
spectroscopically, using limits on the H alpha and O II equivalent widths to
remove all star-forming galaxies from the SDSS main galaxy catalog. We find
that by correcting for known reddening, redshift, color-magnitude relation, and
variation of color with environmental density, we can reduce the scatter in
color to below 3% in the bulk of the 151,637 galaxies we select. Using these
galaxies we construct maps of the deviation from the SFD98 reddening map at 4.5
degree resolution, with 1-sigma error of ~ 1.5 millimagnitudes E(B-V). We find
that the SFD98 maps are largely accurate with most of the map having deviations
below 3 millimagnitudes E(B-V), though some regions do deviate from SFD98 by as
much as 50%. The maximum deviation found is 45 millimagnitudes in E(B-V), and
spatial structure of the deviation is strongly correlated with the observed
dust temperature, such that SFD98 underpredicts reddening in regions of low
dust temperature. Our maps of these deviations, as well as their errors, are
made available to the scientific community as supplemental correction to SFD98
at http://www.peekandgraves2010.com.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Accepted to the ApJ. Reddening correction maps
and associated software can be found at http://www.peekandgraves2010.co
The Peak Brightness and Spatial Distribution of AGB Stars Near the Nucleus of M32
The bright stellar content near the center of the Local Group elliptical
galaxy M32 is investigated with 0.12 arcsec FWHM H and K images obtained with
the Gemini Mauna Kea telescope. Stars with K = 15.5, which are likely evolving
near the tip of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), are resolved to within 2
arcsec of the nucleus, and it is concluded that the peak stellar brightness
near the center of M32 is similar to that in the outer regions of the galaxy.
Moreover, the projected density of bright AGB stars follows the visible light
profile to within 2 arcsec of the nucleus, indicating that the brightest stars
are well mixed throughout the galaxy. Thus, there is no evidence for an age
gradient, and the radial variations in spectroscopic indices and ultraviolet
colors that have been detected previously must be due to metallicity and/or
some other parameter. We suggest that either the bright AGB stars formed as
part of a highly uniform and coherent galaxy-wide episode of star formation, or
they originated in a separate system that merged with M32.Comment: 9 pages of text, 3 figures. ApJ (Letters) in pres
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