The clinical value of immunohistochemically demonstrable CEA in breast cancer: a possible method of selecting patients for adjuvant chemotherapy.

The production of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) by human breast cancer tissue has been studied in relation to the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. All of the patients were in a controlled trial of adjuvant chemotherapy for the treatment of operable breast cancer. CEA was studied in primary tumours and axillary node metastases from these patients using an immunoperoxidase (PAP) method. Sections of 290 primary carcinomas and 217 axillary metastases were examined for CEA. The CEA status of the primary tumours was of no value as a prognostic indicator nor in the selection of patients for chemotherapy. In contrast, patients could be divided into 3 groups on the basis of the CEA results in the axillary nodes. In one group, in which cases were strongly positive for CEA (24% of the total) the prognosis, as reflected by recurrence free survival, was relatively good and chemotherapy produced no further advantage. In another group in which cases were weakly positive for CEA (18% of the total) the prognosis was poor but chemotherapy produced significant improvement. In a third group, in which cases were negative for CEA (58% of the total) the prognosis was poor and was not improved by chemotherapy, at least in the short term. Thus, the CEA status of axillary metastases may be clinically useful

A Binary Orbit for the Massive, Evolved Star HDE 326823, a WR+O System Progenitor

The hot star HDE 326823 is a candidate transition-phase object that is evolving into a nitrogen-enriched Wolf-Rayet star. It is also a known low-amplitude, photometric variable with a 6.123 d period. We present new, high and moderate resolution spectroscopy of HDE 326823, and we show that the absorption lines show coherent Doppler shifts with this period while the emission lines display little or no velocity variation. We interpret the absorption line shifts as the orbital motion of the apparently brighter star in a close, interacting binary. We argue that this star is losing mass to a mass gainer star hidden in a thick accretion torus and to a circumbinary disk that is the source of the emission lines. HDE 326823 probably belongs to a class of objects that produce short-period WR+O binaries.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, accepted to the Astronomical Journa

Influence of advanced cylinder coatings on vehicular fuel economy and emissions in piston compression ring conjunction

IC engines contribute to global warming through extensive use of fossil fuel energy and emission of combustion by‐products. Innovative technologies such as cylinder de‐activation (CDA), after‐exhaust heat treatment, surface texturing and coatings are proposed to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions of the vehicle fleet. Therefore, study of coating technology through a comprehensive multi‐physics analytical model of engine top compression ring is important to ascertain ways of promoting energy savings. This paper presents a multi‐scale, multi‐physics model of the compression ring‐cylinder bore conjunction, using three alternative bore surfaces. The model comprises ring dynamics, contact tribology, heat transfer and gas blow‐by. Tribological and thermal properties of advanced coatings, such as Nickel Nanocomposite (NNC) and diamond‐like carbon (DLC) are compared with an uncoated steel bore surface as the base line configuration. Such a comprehensive analysis has not hitherto been reported in open literature, particularly with original contributions made through inclusion of salient properties of alternative bore materials for high performance race engines. Power loss and FMEP are evaluated in a dynamometric test, representative of the World‐ wide harmonised Light vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC). The NNC coating shows promising tribological improvements. The DLC coating is detrimental in terms of frictional power loss and FMEP, although it can effectively improve sealing of the combustion chamber. The differences in power loss of nominated bore surfaces are represented as fuel mass and CO emissions, using theoretical and empirical relations. For the first time the paper shows that advanced coatings can potentially mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of spark ignition (SI) engines, with significant repercussions when applied to the global gasoline‐powered vehicle fleet

Real-time Analysis and Selection Biases in the Supernova Legacy Survey

The Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) has produced a high-quality, homogeneous sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) out to redshifts greater than z=1. In its first four years of full operation (to June 2007), the SNLS discovered more than 3000 transient candidates, 373 of which have been confirmed spectroscopically as SNe Ia. Use of these SNe Ia in precision cosmology critically depends on an analysis of the observational biases incurred in the SNLS survey due to the incomplete sampling of the underlying SN Ia population. This paper describes our real-time supernova detection and analysis procedures, and uses detailed Monte Carlo simulations to examine the effects of Malmquist bias and spectroscopic sampling. Such sampling effects are found to become apparent at z~0.6, with a significant shift in the average magnitude of the spectroscopically confirmed SN Ia sample towards brighter values for z>0.75. We describe our approach to correct for these selection biases in our three-year SNLS cosmological analysis (SNLS3), and present a breakdown of the systematic uncertainties involved.Comment: Accepted for publication in A

A massive exoplanet candidate around KOI-13: Independent confirmation by ellipsoidal variations

We present an analysis of the KOI-13.01 candidate exoplanet system included in the September 2011 Kepler data release. The host star is a known and relatively bright $(m_{\rm KP} = 9.95)$ visual binary with a separation significantly smaller (0.8 arcsec) than the size of a Kepler pixel (4 arcsec per pixel). The Kepler light curve shows both primary and secondary eclipses, as well as significant out-of-eclipse light curve variations. We confirm that the transit occurs round the brighter of the two stars. We model the relative contributions from (i) thermal emission from the companion, (ii) planetary reflected light, (iii) Doppler beaming, and (iv) ellipsoidal variations in the host-star arising from the tidal distortion of the host star by its companion. Our analysis, based on the light curve alone, enables us to constrain the mass of the KOI-13.01 companion to be $M_{\rm C} = 8.3 \pm 1.25M_{\rm J}$ and thus demonstrates that the transiting companion is a planet (rather than a brown dwarf which was recently proposed by \cite{b7}). The high temperature of the host star (Spectral Type A5-7V, $T_{\rm eff} = 8511-8020$ K), combined with the proximity of its companion KOI-13.01, may make it one of the hottest exoplanets known, with a detectable thermal contribution to the light curve even in the Kepler optical passband. However, the single passband of the Kepler light curve does not enable us to unambiguously distinguish between the thermal and reflected components of the planetary emission. Infrared observations may help to break the degeneracy, while radial velocity follow-up with $\sigma \sim$ 100 m s$^{-1}$ precision should confirm the mass of the planet.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

On the boundary conditions in multi-phase flow through the piston ring-cylinder liner conjunction

Prediction of load capacity and friction depends on the assumed boundary conditions. The inlet comprises swirl and counter flows, admitting only a portion of the inward flow into the conjunctional gap. At the contact exit, the lubricant film ruptures with multi-phase flow through a cavitation region. Therefore, the boundary conditions affect the load carrying capacity and friction. A Navier–Stokes solution of multi-phase flow, including vapour transport is presented, with determined realistic boundary conditions. The evaluated boundaries agree with potential flow analysis satisfying compatibility conditions, not hitherto reported in literature. The investigation is extended to the determination of optimum compression ring contacting geometry

J-band spectroscopy of cataclysmic variables

We present time-resolved, J-band (1.025–1.340 μm) infrared spectra of the short-period dwarf novae (DNe) WZ Sge and VY Aqr, and single spectra of the short-period DN EF Peg and the nova-like variable PX And. There is some evidence in the spectra of VY Aqr and EF Peg that we have detected the secondary star, both in the continuum slope and also through the possible presence of spectral features. The spectra of WZ Sge and PX And, on the other hand, show no evidence for the secondary star, with upper limits for its contribution to the J-band light of 10 and 20 per cent respectively. The spectral type of the secondary in WZ Sge is constrained to be later than M7.5V. Using skew mapping, we have been able to derive a value for the radial velocity semi-amplitude of the secondary star in VY Aqr of KR=320±70 km s−1, which in conjunction with KW from Thorstensen & Taylor gives a mass ratio of q=0.15±0.04