The multifrequency Siberian Radioheliograph

The 10-antenna prototype of the multifrequency Siberian radioheliograph is described. The prototype consists of four parts: antennas with broadband front-ends, analog back-ends, digital receivers and a correlator. The prototype antennas are mounted on the outermost stations of the Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) array. A signal from each antenna is transmitted to a workroom by an analog fiber optical link, laid in an underground tunnel. After mixing, all signals are digitized and processed by digital receivers before the data are transmitted to the correlator. The digital receivers and the correlator are accessible by the LAN. The frequency range of the prototype is from 4 to 8 GHz. Currently the frequency switching observing mode is used. The prototype data include both circular polarizations at a number of frequencies given by a list. This prototype is the first stage of the multifrequency Siberian radioheliograph development. It is assumed that the radioheliograph will consist of 96 antennas and will occupy stations of the West-East-South subarray of the SSRT. The radioheliograph will be fully constructed in autumn of 2012. We plan to reach the brightness temperature sensitivity about 100 K for the snapshot image, a spatial resolution up to 13 arcseconds at 8 GHz and polarization measurement accuracy about a few percent. First results with the 10-antenna prototype are presented of observations of solar microwave bursts. The prototype abilities to estimate source size and locations at different frequencies are discussed

A varying kHz peak separation in 4U 1608-52

Using a new technique to improve the sensitivity to weak Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPO) we discovered a new QPO peak at about 1100 Hz in the March 1996 outburst observations of 4U 1608-52, simultaneous with the ~ 600-900 Hz peak previously reported from these data. The frequency separation between the upper and the lower QPO peak varied significantly from $232.7 \pm 11.5$ Hz on March 3, to $293.1 \pm 6.6$ Hz on March 6. This is the first case of a variable kHz peak separation in an atoll source.Comment: Aipproc LaTeX (4 pages, 2 ps-figures), to appear in "Accretion Processes in Astrophysical Systems", Proc. of the 8th Annual Astrophysics Conference in Maryland, S. S. Holt & T. Kallman (eds.

Double Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation in High-Risk Hematological Patients: A Phase II Study Focusing on the Mechanism of Graft Predominance

Immunobiology of allogeneic stem cell transplantation and immunotherapy of hematological disease

Strawberry fruit resistance to simulated handling

Harvest operations are currently the main source of mechanical injury of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.). Experiments were designed to simulate conditions encountered during commercial handling. Individual fruits were subjected to impact or compression forces with similar energy to determine the sensitivity to mechanical injury. Bruise volume was used as the measurement of injury. Bruise severity increased as a function of impact energy for both impact types. However, dropped fruits had larger bruise volume than fruits submitted to pendulum impactor at the same energy level. Doubling the impact energy (0.040 to 0.083 J) increased bruise volume by 7 times (13 to 91 mm³). Fruits dropped from 380 mm (0.075 J) showed 71% greater bruise volume than those dropped from either 130 mm (0.025 J) or 200 mm (0.040 J). Compressed fruits showed higher bruise volume than other tests. Some cultivars are more susceptible to compression forces than others. 'Sweet Charlie' berries showed bruise volume 40% higher than the others cultivars when subjected to compression. Fruits subjected to impact showed bruise volume lower than the compressed fruits, indicating the possibility to be handled and graded in a packing line.A etapa de colheita é a principal fonte de danos físicos ao morango (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.). Experimentos foram realizados para simular condições encontradas durante manuseio. Frutos foram submetidos individualmente às forças de impacto e compressão em energias similares para determinar sensibilidade dos frutos a danos físicos. Volume da injúria física foi utilizado para mensurar a incidência do dano físico ocorrido. Severidade da lesão aumenta, com incremento da energia, tanto para força de impacto como para compressão. Todavia, frutos submetidos à queda livre demonstraram maiores volumes de danos físicos do que frutos submetidos a danos ocasionados por pendulo no mesmo nível de energia. Dobrando a energia de impacto (0,040 para 0,083 J) ocorreu aumento no volume da injúria em sete vezes (13 para 91 mm³). Frutos submetidos à queda de 380 mm (0,075 J) demonstraram volumes de danos físicos 71% superiores do que aqueles ocasionados em queda de 130 mm (0,025 J) ou 200 mm (0,040 J). Frutos em teste de compressão mostraram maiores volumes de injúrias físicas do que outros testes. Alguns cultivares são mais sensíveis à força de compressão do que outros. Frutos cultivar 'Sweet Charlie' apresentaram volume de injúria 40% superiores do que outros quando submetidos à força de compressão. Morangos submetidos à força de impacto demonstraram volume de injúria inferior do que aqueles comprimidos, indicando a possibilidade dos morangos serem classificados e manuseados em uma linha de beneficiamento

An investigation of the potential application of chitosan/aloe-based membranes for regenerative medicine

A significant number of therapeutics derived from natural polymers and plants have been developed to replace or to be used in conjunction with existing dressing products. The use of the therapeutic properties of aloe vera could be very useful in the creation of active wound dressing materials. The present work was undertaken to examine issues concerning structural features, topography, enzymatic degradation behavior, antibacterial activity and cellular response of chitosan/aloe vera-based membranes. The chitosan/aloe vera-based membranes that were developed displayed satisfactory degradation, roughness, wettability and mechanical properties. A higher antibacterial potency was displayed by the blended membranes. Moreover, in vitro assays demonstrated that these blended membranes have good cell compatibility with primary human dermal fibroblasts. The chitosan/aloe vera-based membranes might be promising wound dressing materials.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (grants SFRH/BPD/45307/2008 and SFRH/BD/64601/2009), the "Fundo Social Europeu", and the "Programa Diferencial de Potencial Humano". This work was partially supported by the FEDER through POCTEP 0330_IBEROMARE_1_P

Evidence for the Onset of Color Transparency in ρ0\rho^0 Electroproduction off Nuclei

We have measured the nuclear transparency of the incoherent diffractive $A(e,e'\rho^0)$ process in $^{12}$C and $^{56}$Fe targets relative to $^2$H using a 5 GeV electron beam. The nuclear transparency, the ratio of the produced $\rho^0$'s on a nucleus relative to deuterium, which is sensitive to $\rho A$ interaction, was studied as function of the coherence length ($l_c$), a lifetime of the hadronic fluctuation of the virtual photon, and the four-momentum transfer squared ($Q^2$). While the transparency for both $^{12}$C and $^{56}$Fe showed no $l_c$ dependence, a significant $Q^2$ dependence was measured, which is consistent with calculations that included the color transparency effects.Comment: 6 pages and 4 figure

All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients with initial LIGO

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% confidence upper limits on the rate of long-duration gravitational wave transients for different types of gravitational wave signals. For signals from black hole accretion disk instabilities, we set upper limits on the source rate density between 3.4×10-5 and 9.4×10-4 Mpc-3 yr-1 at 90% confidence. These are the first results from an all-sky search for unmodeled long-duration transient gravitational waves. © 2016 American Physical Society