Identification of the Early Fermi LAT Gamma-Ray Bright Objects with Extragalactic VLBI sources

A list of 205 gamma-ray strong objects was reported recently as a result of a 3-month integration with the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. We attempted identification of these objects, cross-correlating the gamma-ray positions with VLBI positions of a large all-sky sample of extragalactic radio sources selected on the basis of their parsec-scale flux density. The original associations reported by the Fermi team are confirmed and six new identifications are suggested. A Monte-Carlo analysis shows that the fraction of chance associations in our analysis is less than 5 per cent, and confirms that the vast majority of gamma-ray bright extragalactic sources are radio loud blazars with strong parsec-scale jets. A correlation between the parsec-scale radio and gamma-ray flux is supported by our analysis of a complete VLBI flux-density-limited sample of extragalactic jets. The effectiveness of using a VLBI catalog to find associations between gamma-ray detections and compact extragalactic radio sources, especially near the Galactic plane, is demonstrated. It is suggested that VLBI catalogs should be used for future identification of Fermi LAT objects.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted by the Astrophysical Journal Letters; minor corrections to the text are made, one panel is added to Figure 1; full table 1 in electronic form can be extracted from the preprint sourc

Precise absolute astrometry from the VLBA imaging and polarimetry survey at 5 GHz

We present in this paper accurate positions of 857 sources derived from the astrometric analysis of 16 eleven-hour experiments from the Very Long Baseline Array imaging and polarimetry survey at 5 GHz (VIPS). Among observed sources, positions of 430 objects were not determined before at a milliarcsecond level of accuracy. For 95% of the sources the uncertainty of their positions range from 0.3 to 0.9 mas, with the median value of 0.5 mas. This estimate of accuracy is substantiated by the comparison of positions of 386 sources that were previously observed in astrometric programs simultaneously at 2.3/8.6 GHz. Surprisingly, the ionosphere contribution to group delay was adequately modeled with the use of the total electron contents maps derived from GPS observations and only marginally affected estimates of source coordinates.Comment: Accepted for publication by the Astronomical Journal. 7 pages, 2 tables, 4 figures. Submission contains an ascii file with the catalogue. You can get the catalogue by downloading the source of this paper and extracting file table2.tx

Observations and properties of candidate high frequency GPS radio sources in the AT20G survey

We used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to obtain 40 GHz and 95 GHz observations of a number of sources that were selected from the Australia Telescope Compact Array 20 GHz (AT20G) survey . The aim of the observations was to improve the spectral coverage for sources with spectral peaks near 20 GHz or inverted (rising) radio spectra between 8.6 GHz and 20 GHz. We present the radio observations of a sample of 21 such sources along with optical spectra taken from the ANU Siding Spring Observatory 2.3m telescope and the ESO-New Technology Telescope (NTT). We find that as a group the sources show the same level of variability as typical GPS sources, and that of the 21 candidate GPS sources roughly 60% appear to be genuinely young radio galaxies. Three of the 21 sources studied show evidence of being restarted radio galaxies. If these numbers are indicative of the larger population of AT20G radio sources then as many as 400 genuine GPS sources could be contained within the AT20G with up to 25% of them being restarted radio galaxies.Comment: 21 pages, 24 figures, Table 1 truncated at 11 column

ATPMN: accurate positions and flux densities at 5 and 8 GHz for 8,385 sources from the PMN survey

We present a source catalogue of 9,040 radio sources resulting from high-resolution observations of 8,385 PMN sources with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The catalogue lists flux density and structural measurements at 4.8 and 8.6 GHz, derived from observations of all PMN sources in the declination range -87 deg < delta < -38.5 deg (exclusive of galactic latitudes |b| 70 mJy (50 mJy south of delta = -73 deg). We assess the quality of the data, which was gathered in 1992-1994, describe the population of catalogued sources, and compare it to samples from complementary catalogues. In particular we find 127 radio sources with probable association with gamma-ray sources observed by the orbiting Fermi Large Area Telescope.Comment: 20 pages, 21 figure

Mutation analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Iranian high risk breast cancer families

Background: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that synthesises telomeres after cell division and maintains chromosomal stability leading to cellular immortalization. Telomerase has been associated with negative prognostic indicators in some studies. The present study aims to detect any association between telomerase sub-units: hTERT and hTR and the prognostic indicators including tumour's size and grade, nodal status and patient's age. Methods: Tumour samples from 46 patients with primary invasive breast cancer and 3 patients with benign tumours were collected. RT-PCR analysis was used for the detection of hTR, hTERT, and PGM1 (as a housekeeping) genes expression. Results: The expression of hTR and hTERT was found in 31(67.4%) and 38 (82.6%) samples respectively. We observed a significant association between hTR gene expression and younger age at diagnosis (p = 0.019) when comparing patients ≤ 40 years with those who are older than 40 years. None of the benign tumours expressed hTR gene. However, the expression of hTERT gene was revealed in 2 samples. No significant association between hTR and hTERT expression and tumour's grade, stage and nodal status was seen. Conclusion: The expression of hTR and hTERT seems to be independent of tumour's stage. hTR expression probably plays a greater role in mammary tumourogenesis in younger women (≤ 40 years) and this may have therapeutic implications in the context of hTR targeting strategies

The Health Impact Fund: How Might It Work for Novel Anticoagulants in Atrial Fibrillation?

Cardiovascular diseases represent the greatest burden of global disease. Spending on cardiovascular diseases is higher than for other diseases, with the majority being spent on drugs. Therefore, these drugs and these diseases are hugely important to health systems, society, and pharmaceutical companies. The Health Impact Fund represents a new mechanism by which pharmaceutical innovators would be rewarded on the basis of the health impact of their new drugs. This review illustrates the concept of the Health Impact Fund using the example of novel anticoagulants for prevention of stroke and thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation. By considering existing data and the current situation for novel anticoagulants, we suggest that epidemiologic data and modeling techniques can be used to predict future trends in disease and the health impact of new drugs. The Health Impact Fund may offer potential benefits to pharmaceutical companies, patients, and governments and warrants proper investigation

Blurred digital mammography images : an analysis of technical recall and observer detection performance

Background: Blurred images in Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) are a problem in the UK Breast Screening Programme. Technical recalls may be due to blurring not being seen on lower resolution monitors used for review. Objectives: This study assesses the visual detection of blurring on a 2.3 megapixel (MP) monitor and a 5 MP report grade monitor and proposes an observer standard for the visual detection of blurring on a 5 MP reporting grade monitor. Method: Twenty-eight observers assessed 120 images for blurring; 20 had no blurring present whilst 100 had blurring imposed through mathematical simulation at 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 mm levels of motion. Technical recall rate for both monitors and angular size at each level of motion were calculated. Chi-squared (X2) tests were used to test whether significant differences in blurring detection existed between 2.3 and 5 MP monitors. Results: The technical recall rate for 2.3 and 5 MP monitors are 20.3 % and 9.1% respectively. Angular size for 0.2 to 1 mm motion varied from 55 to 275 arc seconds. The minimum amount of motion for visual detection of blurring in this study is 0.4 mm. For 0.2 mm simulated motion, there was no significant difference X2 (1, N=1095) =1.61, p=0.20) in blurring detection between the 2.3 and 5 MP monitors. Conclusion: According to this study monitors equal or below 2.3 MP are not suitable for technical review of FFDM images for the detection of blur. Advances in knowledge: This research proposes the first observer standard for the visual detection of blurring. Key words: Simulated motion; technical recall; monitor resolution; observer standard; blurring detectio

COVID-19 Vaccine Concerns about Safety, Effectiveness, and Policies in the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Italy among Unvaccinated Individuals

Despite the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine, global vaccination distribution efforts have thus far had varying levels of success. Vaccine hesitancy remains a threat to vaccine uptake. This study has four objectives: (1) describe and compare vaccine hesitancy proportions by country; (2) categorize vaccine-related concerns; (3) rank vaccine-related concerns; and (4) compare vaccine-related concerns by country and hesitancy status in four countries—the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Italy. Using the Pollfish survey platform, we sampled 1000 respondents in Canada, Sweden, and Italy and 750 respondents in the United States between 21–28 May 2021. Results showed vaccine-related concerns varied across three topical areas—vaccine safety and government control, vaccine effectiveness and population control, and freedom. For each thematic area, the top concern was statistically significantly different in each country and among the hesitant and non-hesitant subsamples within each county. Concerns related to freedom were the most universal. Understanding the specific concerns among individuals when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine can help to inform public communications and identify which, if any, salient narratives are global