A computerized program for statistical treatment of biological data

Biologists frequently conduct experiments which measure the patterns of inactivation of bacterial populations after exposure to a lethal environment. A computer program is discussed which calculates many of the quantities that have proven to be useful in the analysis of such experimental data

Energetic Impact of Jet Inflated Cocoons in Relaxed Galaxy Clusters

Jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the cores of galaxy clusters have the potential to be a major contributor to the energy budget of the intracluster medium (ICM). To study the dependence of the interaction between the AGN jets and the ICM on the parameters of the jets themselves, we present a parameter survey of two-dimensional (axisymmetric) ideal hydrodynamic models of back-to-back jets injected into a cluster atmosphere (with varying Mach numbers and kinetic luminosities). We follow the passive evolution of the resulting structures for several times longer than the active lifetime of the jet. The simulations fall into roughly two classes, cocoon-bounded and non-cocoon bounded sources. We suggest a correspondence between these two classes and the Faranoff-Riley types. We find that the cocoon-bounded sources inject significantly more entropy into the core regions of the ICM atmosphere, even though the efficiency with which energy is thermalized is independent of the morphological class. In all cases, a large fraction (50--80%) of the energy injected by the jet ends up as gravitational potential energy due to the expansion of the atmosphere.Comment: 12 pages, Accepted for publication in Ap

NuSTAR Observations of G11.2–0.3

We present in this paper the hard X-ray view of the pulsar wind nebula in G11.2−0.3 and its central pulsar powered pulsar J1811−1925 as seen by NuSTAR. We complement the data with Chandra for a more complete picture and confirm the existence of a hard, power-law component in the shell with photon index Γ = 2.1 ± 0.1, which we attribute to synchrotron emission. Our imaging observations of the shell show a slightly smaller radius at higher energies, consistent with Chandra results, and we find shrinkage as a function of increased energy along the jet direction, indicating that the electron outflow in the PWN may be simpler than that seen in other young PWNe. Combining NuSTAR with INTEGRAL, we find that the pulsar spectrum can be fit by a power law with Γ = 1.32 ± 0.07 up to 300 keV without evidence of curvature

The effect of within-crop habitat manipulations on the conservation biological control of aphids in field-grown lettuce

Within-crop habitat manipulations have the potential to increase the biological control of pests in horticultural field crops. Wildflower strips have been shown to increase the abundance of natural enemies, but there is little evidence to date of an impact on pest populations. The aim of this study was to determine whether withincrop wildflower strips can increase the natural regulation of pests in horticultural field crops. Aphid numbers in plots of lettuce grown adjacent to wildflower strips were compared with those in plots grown in the absence of wildflowers. The presence of wildflower strips led to a decrease in aphid numbers on adjacent lettuce plants during June and July, but had less impact in August and September. The decrease in aphid numbers was greatest close to the wildflower strips and, the decrease in aphid numbers declined with increasing distance from the wildflower strips, with little effect at a distance of ten metres. The main natural enemies found in the crop were those that dispersed aerially, which is consistent with data from previous studies on cereal crops. Analysis and interpretation of natural enemy numbers was difficult due to low recovery of natural enemies, and the numbers appeared to follow changes in aphid abundance rather than being directly linked to the presence of wildflower strips. Cutting the wildflower strips, to remove floral resources, had no impact on the reduction in aphid numbers achieved during June and July, but decreased the effect of the wildflower strips during August and September. The results suggest that wildflower strips can lead to increased natural regulation of pest aphids in outdoor lettuce crops, but more research is required to determine how this is mediated by natural enemies and how the impact of wildflower strips on natural pest regulation changes during the growing season

Detection of a variable ultra-fast outflow in the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy PG 1448+273

Relativistically blueshifted absorption features of highly ionised ions, the so-called ultra-fast outflows (UFOs), have been detected in the X-ray spectra of a number of accreting supermassive black holes. If these features truly originate from accretion disc winds accelerated to more than 10 per cent of the speed of light, their energy budget is very significant and they can contribute to or even drive galaxy-scale feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, the UFO spectral features are often weak due to high ionisation of the outflowing material, and the inference of the wind physical properties can be complicated by other spectral features in AGN such as relativistic reflection. Here we study a highly accreting Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy PG 1448+273. We apply an automated, systematic routine for detecting outflows in accreting systems and achieve an unambiguous detection of a UFO in this AGN. The UFO absorption is observed in both soft and hard X-ray bands with the XMM-Newton observatory. The velocity of the outflow is (26900 +- 600) km/s (~0.09c), with an ionisation parameter of log ({\xi} / erg cm s^-1)=4.03_{-0.08}^{+0.10} and a column density above 10^23 cm^-2. At the same time, we detect weak warm absorption features in the spectrum of the object. Our systematic outflow search suggests the presence of further multi-phase wind structure, but we cannot claim a significant detection considering the present data quality. The UFO is not detected in a second, shorter observation with XMM-Newton, indicating variability in time, observed also in other similar AGN.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 14 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl

WHAM Observations of H-alpha Emission from High Velocity Clouds in the M, A, and C Complexes

The first observations of the recently completed Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) facility include a study of emission lines from high velocity clouds in the M, A, and C complexes, with most of the observations on the M I cloud. We present results including clear detections of H-alpha emission from all three complexes with intensities ranging from 0.06 R to 0.20 R. In every observed direction where there is significant high velocity H I gas seen in the 21 cm line we have found associated ionized hydrogen emitting the H-alpha line. The velocities of the H-alpha and 21 cm emission are well correlated in every case except one, but the intensities are not correlated. There is some evidence that the ionized gas producing the H-alpha emission envelopes the 21 cm emitting neutral gas but the H-alpha "halo", if present, is not large. If the H-alpha emission arises from the photoionization of the H I clouds, then the implied Lyman continuum flux F_{LC} at the location of the clouds ranges from 1.3 to 4.2 x 10^5 photons cm^{-2} s^{-1}. If, on the other hand, the ionization is due to a shock arising from the collision of the high-velocity gas with an ambient medium in the halo, then the density of the pre-shocked gas can be constrained. We have also detected the [S II] 6716 angstrom line from the M I cloud and have evidence that the [S II] to H-alpha ratio varies with location on the cloud.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figures, to appear in ApJ (Sept. 10, 1998

Compact Radio Cores in Seyfert Galaxies

We have observed a sample of 157 Seyfert galaxies with a 275 km baseline radio interferometer to search for compact, high brightness temperature radio emission from the active nucleus. We obtain the surprising result that compact radio cores are much more common in Seyfert 2 than in Seyfert 1 galaxies, which at first seems to be inconsistent with orientation unification schemes. We propose a model, involving optical depth effects in the narrow-line region, which can reconcile our result with the standard unified scheme. (Accepted for publication in ApJ 1994 Sep 10)Comment: 21 pages and 7 figures, uuencoded tar-compressed postscript files, ATP18

PUDENDAL NERVE BLOCK AND OBSTETRIC SIMULATION

A primeira descrição do bloqueio do nervo pudendo foi em 1908. Esta é uma técnica indicada para analgesia nas fases mais adiantadas do trabalho de parto. O uso de técnicas analgésicas eficazes desde os estadios mais precoces do trabalho de parto, como as técnicas do neuro-eixo, deixaram o bloqueio do pudendo para segundo plano. No entanto, é de fácil execução, habitualmente pelo obstetra, e com baixo risco de hemorragia ou infeção. O bloqueio do pudendo é um procedimento com poucas oportunidades de treino na prática clínica, pelo que o retomar da prática na sua execução através do uso de simuladores obstétricos torna-se pertinente. Ainda, a sua utilização em cenários simulados permite a familiarização de equipas multidisciplinares na sua aplicação em diversos contextos, emergentes ou não emergentes. Os principais objetivos deste trabalho são (1) efetuar uma revisão sobre o bloqueio do nervo pudendo na analgesia de parto, focando as principais vantagens e limitações, (2) repensar a sua utilização na ausência ou contraindicação de outras técnicas analgésicas, (3) reavivar a técnica de execução através da simulação aplicada à Obstetrícia