Effects of the Mobility-Fit Physical Activity Program on Strength and Mobility in Older Adults in Assisted Living: A Feasibility Study

Physical activity programs focusing on fall prevention often overlook upper-limb strength, which is important for transferring, balance recovery, and arresting a fall. We developed and evaluated a physical activity program, Mobility-Fit for older adults in Assisted Living (AL) that includes upper-limb strengthening, agility, coordination, and balance exercises. Thirty participants (85 ± 6 years) were recruited from two AL facilities; 15 were assigned to Mobility-Fit (three times/week, 45 min/session for 12 weeks) and 15 maintained usual care. Twenty-two participants (11 in each group) completed the study. We compared outcome changes between groups and interviewed participants and staff to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of the program. Among participants who attended Mobility-Fit, knee extension strength increased by 6%, reaction time decreased by 16%, and five-time sit-to-stand duration decreased by 15%. Conversely, participants in the usual care group had a 6% decrease in handgrip strength. Changes of these outcomes were significantly different between two groups (p < 0.05). Participants enjoyed the program and staff suggested some changes to improve attendance. Our results indicate that Mobility-Fit is feasible to deliver and beneficial for older adults in AL and may guide future clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of upper limb strengthening on safe mobility of older adults in care facilities

A Planetary lensing feature in caustic-crossing high-magnification microlensing events

Current microlensing follow-up observations focus on high-magnification events because of the high efficiency of planet detection. However, central perturbations of high-magnification events caused by a planet can also be produced by a very close or a very wide binary companion, and the two kinds of central perturbations are not generally distinguished without time consuming detailed modeling (a planet-binary degeneracy). Hence, it is important to resolve the planet-binary degeneracy that occurs in high-magnification events. In this paper, we investigate caustic-crossing high-magnification events caused by a planet and a wide binary companion. From this study, we find that because of the different magnification excess patterns inside the central caustics induced by the planet and the binary companion, the light curves of the caustic-crossing planetary-lensing events exhibit a feature that is discriminated from those of the caustic-crossing binary-lensing events, and the feature can be used to immediately distinguish between the planetary and binary companions. The planetary-lensing feature appears in the interpeak region between the two peaks of the caustic-crossings. The structure of the interpeak region for the planetary-lensing events is smooth and convex or boxy, whereas the structure for the binary-lensing events is smooth and concave. We also investigate the effect of a finite background source star on the planetary-lensing feature in the caustic-crossing high-magnification events. From this, we find that the convex-shaped interpeak structure appears in a certain range that changes with the mass ratio of the planet to the planet-hosting star.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

The Importance of Binary Gravitational Microlensing Events Through High-Magnification Channel

We estimate the detection efficiency of binary gravitational lensing events through the channel of high-magnification events. From this estimation, we find that binaries in the separations ranges of 0.1 < s < 10, 0.2 < s < 5, and 0.3 < s < 3 can be detected with ~ 100% efficiency for events with magnifications higher than A=100, 50, and 10, respectively, where s represents the projected separation between the lens components normalized by the Einstein radius. We also find that the range of high efficiency covers nearly the whole mass-ratio range of stellar companions. Due to the high efficiency in wide ranges of parameter space, we point out that majority of binary-lens events will be detected through the high-magnification channel in lensing surveys that focus on high-magnification events for efficient detections of microlensing planets. In addition to the high efficiency, the simplicity of the efficiency estimation makes the sample of these binaries useful in the statistical studies of the distributions of binary companions as functions of mass ratio and separation. We also discuss other importance of these events.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

KMT-2016-BLG-1107: A New Hollywood-Planet Close/Wide Degeneracy

We show that microlensing event KMT-2016-BLG-1107 displays a new type of degeneracy between wide-binary and close-binary Hollywood events in which a giant-star source envelops the planetary caustic. The planetary anomaly takes the form of a smooth, two-day "bump" far out on the falling wing of the light curve, which can be interpreted either as the source completely enveloping a minor-image caustic due to a close companion with mass ratio $q=0.036$, or partially enveloping a major-image caustic due to a wide companion with $q=0.004$. The best estimates of the companion masses are both in the planetary regime ($3.3^{+3.5}_{-1.8}\,M_{\rm jup}$ and $0.090^{+0.096}_{-0.037}\,M_{\rm jup}$) but differ by an even larger factor than the mass ratios due to different inferred host masses. We show that the two solutions can be distinguished by high-resolution imaging at first light on next-generation ("30m") telescopes. We provide analytic guidance to understand the conditions under which this new type of degeneracy can appear.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A

KMT-2018-BLG-1990Lb: A Nearby Jovian Planet From A Low-Cadence Microlensing Field

We report the discovery and characterization of KMT-2018-BLG-1990Lb, a Jovian planet $(m_p=0.57_{-0.25}^{+0.79}\,M_J)$ orbiting a late M dwarf $(M=0.14_{-0.06}^{+0.20}\,M_\odot)$, at a distance (D_L=1.23_{-0.43}^{+1.06}\,\kpc), and projected at $2.6\pm 0.6$ times the snow line distance, i.e., a_{\rm snow}\equiv 2.7\,\au (M/M_\odot), This is the second Jovian planet discovered by KMTNet in its low cadence ($0.4\,{\rm hr}^{-1}$) fields, demonstrating that this population will be well characterized based on survey-only microlensing data.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, 4 table

KMT-2018-BLG-1292: A Super-Jovian Microlens Planet in the Galactic Plane

We report the discovery of KMT-2018-BLG-1292Lb, a super-Jovian $M_{\rm planet} = 4.5\pm 1.3\,M_J$ planet orbiting an F or G dwarf $M_{\rm host} = 1.5\pm 0.4\,M_\odot$, which lies physically within {\cal O}(10\,\pc) of the Galactic plane. The source star is a heavily extincted $A_I\sim 5.2$ luminous giant that has the lowest Galactic latitude, $b=-0.28^\circ$, of any planetary microlensing event. The relatively blue blended light is almost certainly either the host or its binary companion, with the first explanation being substantially more likely. This blend dominates the light at $I$ band and completely dominates at $R$ and $V$ bands. Hence, the lens system can be probed by follow-up observations immediately, i.e., long before the lens system and the source separate due to their relative proper motion. The system is well characterized despite the low cadence $\Gamma=0.15$--$0.20\,{\rm hr^{-1}}$ of observations and short viewing windows near the end of the bulge season. This suggests that optical microlensing planet searches can be extended to the Galactic plane at relatively modest cost.Comment: 35 pages, 3 Tables, 8 figure

The specificity and patterns of staining in human cells and tissues of p16INK4a antibodies demonstrate variant antigen binding

The validity of the identification and classification of human cancer using antibodies to detect biomarker proteins depends upon antibody specificity. Antibodies that bind to the tumour-suppressor protein p16INK4a are widely used for cancer diagnosis and research. In this study we examined the specificity of four commercially available anti-p16INK4a antibodies in four immunological applications. The antibodies H-156 and JC8 detected the same 16 kDa protein in western blot and immunoprecipitation tests, whereas the antibody F-12 did not detect any protein in western blot analysis or capture a protein that could be recognised by the H-156 antibody. In immunocytochemistry tests, the antibodies JC8 and H-156 detected a predominately cytoplasmic localised antigen, whose signal was depleted in p16INK4a siRNA experiments. F-12, in contrast, detected a predominately nuclear located antigen and there was no noticeable reduction in this signal after siRNA knockdown. Furthermore in immunohistochemistry tests, F-12 generated a different pattern of staining compared to the JC8 and E6H4 antibodies. These results demonstrate that three out of four commercially available p16INK4a antibodies are specific to, and indicate a mainly cytoplasmic localisation for, the p16INK4a protein. The F-12 antibody, which has been widely used in previous studies, gave different results to the other antibodies and did not demonstrate specificity to human p16INK4a. This work emphasizes the importance of the validation of commercial antibodies, aside to the previously reported use, for the full verification of immunoreaction specificity

OGLE-2018-BLG-0532Lb: Cold Neptune With Possible Jovian Sibling

We report the discovery of the planet OGLE-2018-BLG-0532Lb, with very obvious signatures in the light curve that lead to an estimate of the planet-host mass ratio $q=M_{\rm planet}/M_{\rm host}\simeq 1\times10^{-4}$. Although there are no obvious systematic residuals to this double-lens/single-source (2L1S) fit, we find that $\chi^2$ can be significantly improved by adding either a third lens (3L1S, $\Delta\chi^2=81$) or second source (2L2S, $\Delta\chi^2=65$) to the lens-source geometry. After thorough investigation, we conclude that we cannot decisively distinguish between these two scenarios and therefore focus on the robustly-detected planet. However, given the possible presence of a second planet, we investigate to what degree and with what probability such additional planets may affect seemingly single-planet light curves. Our best estimates for the properties of the lens star and the secure planet are: a host mass $M\sim 0.25\,M_\odot$, system distance $D_L\sim 1\,$kpc and planet mass $m_{p,1}= 8\,M_\oplus$ with projected separation $a_{1,\perp}=1.4\,$au. However, there is a relatively bright $I=18.6$ (and also relatively blue) star projected within $<50\,$mas of the lens, and if future high-resolution images show that this is coincident with the lens, then it is possible that it is the lens, in which case, the lens would be both more massive and more distant than the best-estimated values above.Comment: 48 pages, 9 figures, 7 table