5,826 research outputs found
The Nature of the Peculiar Virgo Cluster Galaxies NGC 4064 and NGC 4424
We present a detailed study of the peculiar HI-deficient Virgo cluster spiral
galaxies NGC 4064 and NGC 4424, using CO 1-0 interferometry, optical
imaging and integral-field spectroscopic observations, in order to learn what
type of environmental interactions have afected these galaxies. Optical imaging
reveals that NGC 4424 has a strongly disturbed stellar disk, with banana-shaped
isophotes and shells. NGC 4064, which lies in the cluster outskirts, possesses
a relatively undisturbed outer stellar disk and a central bar. In both galaxies
H-alpha emission is confined to the central kiloparsec. CO observations reveal
bilobal molecular gas morphologies, with H-alpha emission peaking inside the CO
lobes, implying a time sequence in the star formation process.Gas kinematics
reveals strong bar-like non-circular motions in the molecular gas in both
galaxies, suggesting that the material is radially infalling. In NGC 4064 the
stellar kinematics reveal strong bar-like non-circular motions in the central 1
kpc. On the other hand, NGC 4424 has extremely modest stellar rotation
velocities (Vmax ~ 30 km s-1), and stars are supported by random motions as far
out as we can measure it. The observations suggest that the peculiarities of
NGC 4424 are the result of an intermediate-mass merger plus ram pressure
stripping. In the case of NGC 4064, the evidence suggests an already stripped
"truncated/normal" galaxy that recently suffered a minor merger or tidal
interaction with another galaxy. We propose that galaxies with
"truncated/compact" H-alpha morphologies such as these are the result of the
independent effects of ram pressure stripping, which removes gas from the outer
disk, and gravitational interactions such as mergers, which heat stellar disks,
drive gas to the central kpc and increase the central mass concentrations.Comment: 42 pages, 21 figure
Ultrafast processing of pixel detector data with machine learning frameworks
Modern photon science performed at high repetition rate free-electron laser
(FEL) facilities and beyond relies on 2D pixel detectors operating at
increasing frequencies (towards 100 kHz at LCLS-II) and producing rapidly
increasing amounts of data (towards TB/s). This data must be rapidly stored for
offline analysis and summarized in real time. While at LCLS all raw data has
been stored, at LCLS-II this would lead to a prohibitive cost; instead,
enabling real time processing of pixel detector raw data allows reducing the
size and cost of online processing, offline processing and storage by orders of
magnitude while preserving full photon information, by taking advantage of the
compressibility of sparse data typical for LCLS-II applications. We
investigated if recent developments in machine learning are useful in data
processing for high speed pixel detectors and found that typical deep learning
models and autoencoder architectures failed to yield useful noise reduction
while preserving full photon information, presumably because of the very
different statistics and feature sets between computer vision and radiation
imaging. However, we redesigned in Tensorflow mathematically equivalent
versions of the state-of-the-art, "classical" algorithms used at LCLS. The
novel Tensorflow models resulted in elegant, compact and hardware agnostic
code, gaining 1 to 2 orders of magnitude faster processing on an inexpensive
consumer GPU, reducing by 3 orders of magnitude the projected cost of online
analysis at LCLS-II. Computer vision a decade ago was dominated by hand-crafted
filters; their structure inspired the deep learning revolution resulting in
modern deep convolutional networks; similarly, our novel Tensorflow filters
provide inspiration for designing future deep learning architectures for
ultrafast and efficient processing and classification of pixel detector images
at FEL facilities.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
How Will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 Affect Young Adults?
Summarizes how healthcare reform provisions including the expansion of dependent coverage, subsidies for insurance premiums, and penalties for opting out of coverage will affect young adults ages 19-29 by income level and gender
A sock for foot-drop: A preliminary study on two chronic stroke patients
Background: Foot-drop is a common motor impairment of chronic stroke patients, which may be addressed with an ankle foot orthosis. Although there is reasonable evidence of effectiveness for ankle foot orthoses, user compliance is sometimes poor. This study investigated a new alternative to the ankle foot orthosis, the dorsiflex sock.
Case description and methods: The dorsiflex sock was evaluated using an A-B single case experimental design. Two community-dwelling, chronic stroke patients with foot-drop participated in this study. Measures were selected to span the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health domains and user views on the dorsiflex sock were also collected.
Findings and outcomes: The dorsiflex sock was not effective in improving participants’ walking symmetry, speed or energy expenditure. Participant 1 showed improvement in the distance he could walk in 6 min when using the dorsiflex sock, but this was in keeping with a general improvement trend over the course of this study. However, both participants viewed the dorsiflex sock positively and reported a positive effect on their walking.
Conclusion: Despite positive user perceptions, the study found no clear evidence that dorsiflex sock is effective in improving foot-drop.
Clinical relevance Although the dorsiflex sock offers an attractive alternative to an ankle foot orthosis, the case studies found no clear evidence of its efficacy. Clinicians should view this device with caution until further research becomes availabl
Repression of CIITA by the Epstein-Barr virus transcription factor Zta is independent of its dimerization and DNA binding
Repression of the cellular CIITA gene is part of the immune evasion strategy of the Îłherpes virus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) during its lytic replication cycle in B-cells. In part this is mediated through down regulation of MHC class II gene expression via the targeted repression of CIITA, the cellular master regulator of MHC class II gene expression. The repression is achieved through a reduction in CIITA promoter activity initiated by the EBV transcription and replication factor Zta (BZLF1, EB1, ZEBRA). Zta is the earliest gene expressed during the lytic replication cycle. Zta interacts with sequence specific elements in promoters, enhancers and the replication origin (ZREs) and also modulates gene expression through interaction with cellular transcription factors and co-activators. Here we explore the requirements for Zta-mediated repression of the CIITA promoter. We find that repression by Zta is specific for the CIITA promoter and can be achieved in the absence of other EBV genes. Surprisingly, we find that the dimerization region of Zta is not required to mediate repression. This contrasts with an obligate requirement of this region to correctly orientate the DNA contact regions of Zta to mediate activation of gene expression through ZREs. Additional support for the model that Zta represses the CIITA promoter without direct DNA binding comes from promoter mapping that shows that repression does not require the presence of a ZRE in the CIITA promoter
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