1,847 research outputs found
Metronidazole (Flagyl): characterization as a cytotoxic drug specific for hypoxic tumour cells.
The cytocidal properties of metronidazole against hypoxic mammalian cells are described. This chemotherapeutic action has been shown to be dependent on drug concentration and duration of exposure. The x-ray TCD50 for a murine anaplastic carcinoma was reduced from 6081 rad to 4643 rad when animals were given metronidazole orally for 36 h before radiation treatment. The effect is attributed to the direct killing of hypoxic tumour cells by a mechanism analogous to that proposed for the action of the drug on anaerobic micro-organisms. It is concluded that further work with metronidazole as a cytotoxin specific for hypoxic cells is warranted, particularly in view of the reported lack of toxicity associated with the preliminary clinical use of the drug as a radiosensitizer in man
Outer jet X-ray and radio emission in R Aquarii: 1999.8 to 2004.0
Chandra and VLA observations of the symbiotic star R Aqr in 2004 reveal
significant changes over the three to four year interval between these
observations and previous observations taken with the VLA in 1999 and with
Chandra in 2000. This paper reports on the evolution of the outer thermal X-ray
lobe-jets and radio jets. The emission from the outer X-ray lobe-jets lies
farther away from the central binary than the outer radio jets, and comes from
material interpreted as being shock heated to ~10^6 K, a likely result of
collision between high speed material ejected from the central binary and
regions of enhanced gas density. Between 2000 and 2004, the Northeast (NE)
outer X-ray lobe-jet moved out away from the central binary, with an apparent
projected motion of ~580 km s^-1. The Southwest (SW) outer X-ray lobe-jet
almost disappeared between 2000 and 2004, presumably due to adiabatic expansion
and cooling. The NE radio bright spot also moved away from the central binary
between 2000 and 2004, but with a smaller apparent velocity than of the NE
X-ray bright spot. The SW outer lobe-jet was not detected in the radio in
either 1999 or 2004. The density and mass of the X-ray emitting material is
estimated. Cooling times, shock speeds, pressure and confinement are discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
Power Spectrum Analysis of Mount-Wilson Solar Diameter Measurements: Evidence for Solar Internal R-mode Oscillations
This article presents a power-spectrum analysis of 39,024 measurements of the
solar diameter made at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1968.670 to 1997.965.
This power spectrum contains a number of very strong peaks. We find that eight
of these peaks agree closely with the frequencies of r-mode oscillations for a
region of the Sun where the sidereal rotation frequency is 12.08 year.
We estimate that there is less than one chance in ten to the sixth power of
finding this pattern by chance
Foraging habitat selection of shrubland bird community in tropical dry forest
Habitat loss due to increasing anthropogenic disturbance is the major driver for bird population declines across the globe. Within the Eastern Ghats of India, shrubland bird communities are threatened by shrinking of suitable habitats due to increased anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. The development of an effective habitat management strategy is hampered by the absence of data for this bird community. To address this knowledge gap, we examined foraging sites for 14 shrubland bird species, including three declining species, in three study areas representing the shrubland type of forest community in the Eastern Ghats. We recorded microhabitat features within an 11 m radius of observed foraging points and compared these data with similar data from random plots. We used chi-square to test the association between plant species and bird species for sites where they were observed foraging. We observed significant differences between foraging sites of all the study species and random plots, thus indicating selection for foraging habitat. Using linear discriminant analysis, we found that the microhabitat features important for the bird species were shrub density, vegetational height, vertical foliage stratification, grass height, and percent rock cover. Our results show that diet guild and foraging strata influence the foraging microhabitat selection of a species (e.g., ground-foraging species differed significantly from other species). Except for two species, all focal birds were associated with at least one plant species. The plant-bird association was based on foraging, structural, or behavioral preferences. Several key factors affecting foraging habitat such as shrub density can be actively managed at the local scale. Strategic and selective harvesting of forest products and a spatially and temporally controlled livestock grazing regime may allow regeneration of scrubland and create conditions favorable to birds
Limits on I-band microvariability of the Galactic Bulge Miras
We search for microvariability in a sample of 485 Mira variables with high
quality I-band light curves from the second generation Optical Gravitational
Lensing Experiment (OGLE-II). Rapid variations with amplitudes in the ~0.2-1.1
mag range lasting hours to days were discovered in Hipparcos data by de Laverny
et al. (1998). Our search is primarily sensitive to events with time-scales of
about 1 day, but retains a few percent efficiency (per object) for detecting
unresolved microvariability events as short as 2 hours. We do not detect any
candidate events. Assuming that the distribution of the event time profiles is
identical to that from the Hipparcos light curves we derive the 95% confidence
level upper limit of 0.038 per year per star for the rate of such events (1 per
26 years per average object of the ensemble). The high event rates of the order
of 1 per year per star implied by the Hipparcos study in the H_P band are
excluded with high confidence by the OGLE-II data in the I band. Our
non-detection could still be explained by much redder spectral response of the
I filter compared to the H_P band or by population differences between the
bulge and the solar neighborhood. In any case, the OGLE-II I-band data provide
the first limit on the rate of the postulated microvariability events in Mira
stars and offer new quantitative constraints on their properties. Similar
limits are obtained for other pulse shapes and a range of the assumed
time-scales and size-frequency distributions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Hard X-ray emission from the galaxy cluster A2256
After the positive detection by BeppoSAX of hard X-ray radiation up to ~80
keV in the Coma cluster spectrum, we present evidence for nonthermal emission
from A2256 in excess of thermal emission at a 4.6sigma confidence level. In
addition to this power law component, a second nonthermal component already
detected by ASCA could be present in the X-ray spectrum of the cluster, not
surprisingly given the complex radio morphology of the cluster central region.
The spectral index of the hard tail detected by the PDS onboard BeppoSAX is
marginally consistent with that expected by the inverse Compton model. A value
of ~0.05 microG is derived for the intracluster magnetic field of the extended
radio emission in the northern regions of the cluster, while a higher value of
\~0.5 microG could be present in the central radio halo, likely related to the
hard tail detected by ASCA.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. To appear in ApJ
Silicates in D-type symbiotic stars: an ISO overview
We investigate the IR spectral features of a sample of D-type symbiotic
stars. Analyzing unexploited ISO-SWS data, deriving the basic observational
parameters of dust bands and comparing them with respect to those observed in
other astronomical sources, we try to highlight the effect of environment on
grain chemistry and physic. We find strong amorphous silicate emission bands at
10 micron and 18 micron in a large fraction of the sample. The analysis of the
10 micron band, along with a direct comparison with several astronomical
sources, reveals that silicate dust in symbiotic stars shows features between
the characteristic circumstellar environments and the interstellar medium. This
indicates an increasing reprocessing of grains in relation to specific
symbiotic behavior of the objects. A correlation between the central wavelength
of the 10 and 18 micron dust bands is found. By the modeling of IR spectral
lines we investigate also dust grains conditions within the shocked nebulae.
Both the unusual depletion values and the high sputtering efficiency might be
explained by the formation of SiO moleculae, which are known to be a very
reliable shock tracer. We conclude that the signature of dust chemical
disturbance due to symbiotic activity should be looked for in the outer,
circumbinary, expanding shells where the environmental conditions for grain
processing might be achieved. Symbiotic stars are thus attractive targets for
new mid-infrared and mm observations.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables - to be published in A
A Note on Encodings of Phylogenetic Networks of Bounded Level
Driven by the need for better models that allow one to shed light into the
question how life's diversity has evolved, phylogenetic networks have now
joined phylogenetic trees in the center of phylogenetics research. Like
phylogenetic trees, such networks canonically induce collections of
phylogenetic trees, clusters, and triplets, respectively. Thus it is not
surprising that many network approaches aim to reconstruct a phylogenetic
network from such collections. Related to the well-studied perfect phylogeny
problem, the following question is of fundamental importance in this context:
When does one of the above collections encode (i.e. uniquely describe) the
network that induces it? In this note, we present a complete answer to this
question for the special case of a level-1 (phylogenetic) network by
characterizing those level-1 networks for which an encoding in terms of one (or
equivalently all) of the above collections exists. Given that this type of
network forms the first layer of the rich hierarchy of level-k networks, k a
non-negative integer, it is natural to wonder whether our arguments could be
extended to members of that hierarchy for higher values for k. By giving
examples, we show that this is not the case
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