866 research outputs found
Living with HIV after Release from Prison: An Evaluation of the Long-term Health of Formerly Incarcerated Individuals who used Michiganâs Community Reentry Service
In 2003, Michigan implemented a reentry service to assist HIV-infected people incarcerated in state prisons in linking to HIV medical care immediately upon their release. We examined whether formerly incarcerated people were linked to care successfully, remained in care, and were in good health 3 years after their date of release. In all, 190 people used the service over the 5 years following its inception. Only a minority of those who were alive and not reincarcerated at the time of the evaluation engaged consistently with medical care. Unsurprisingly given low rates of engagement in care, 3 years after their release only 27% had achieved viral suppression. Concerted efforts to support formerly incarcerated HIV-infected individualsâ engagement in care over the long term are urgently needed
Down-regulation of TGF- ÎČ 1 production restores immunogenicity in prostate cancer cells
The objective of this study is to determine if a non-immunogenic Dunningâs rat prostate cancer cell line, MATLyLu, can become immunogenic by reducing the endogenous production of TGF-ÎČ1. An expression construct containing a DNA sequence in an antisense orientation to TGF-ÎČ1 (TGF-ÎČ1 antisense) was stably transfected into MATLyLu cells. Following transfection, cellular content of TGF-ÎČ1 reduced from 70 to10 pg per 2 Ă 104cells and the rate of in vitro3H-thymidine incorporation increased 3â5-fold. After subcutaneous injection of tumour cells into syngeneic male hosts (Copenhagen rats), the tumour incidence was 100% (15/15) for the wild type MATLyLu cells and cells transfected with the control construct, but only 43% (9/21, P†0.05) for cells transfected with TGF-ÎČ1 antisense. However, when cells were injected into immunodeficient hosts (athymic nude rats), the incidence of tumour development was 100% (10/10) for both the wild type MATLyLu cells and cells transfected with the control construct and 90% (9/10) for cells transfected with TGF-ÎČ1 antisense. These observations support the concept that MATLyLu cells are immunogenic, when the endogenous production of TGF-ÎČ1 is down-regulated. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig
The sdB pulsating star V391 Peg and its putative giant planet revisited after 13 years of time-series photometric data
V391 Peg (alias HS 2201+2610) is a subdwarf B (sdB) pulsating star that shows both p- and g-modes. By studying the arrival times of the p-mode maxima and minima through the O-C method, in a previous article the presence of a planet was inferred with an orbital period of 3.2 years and a minimum mass of 3.2 MJup. Here we present an updated O-C analysis using a larger data set of 1066 h of photometric time series ( 2.5à larger in terms of the number of data points), which covers the period between 1999 and 2012 (compared with 1999-2006 of the previous analysis). Up to the end of 2008, the new O-C diagram of the main pulsation frequency (f1) is compatible with (and improves) the previous two-component solution representing the long-term variation of the pulsation period (parabolic component) and the giant planet (sine wave component). Since 2009, the O-C trend of f1 changes, and the time derivative of the pulsation period (p.) passes from positive to negative; the reason of this change of regime is not clear and could be related to nonlinear interactions between different pulsation modes. With the new data, the O-C diagram of the secondary pulsation frequency (f2) continues to show two components (parabola and sine wave), like in the previous analysis. Various solutions are proposed to fit the O-C diagrams of f1 and f2, but in all of them, the sinusoidal components of f1 and f2 differ or at least agree less well than before. The nice agreement found previously was a coincidence due to various small effects that are carefully analyzed. Now, with a larger dataset, the presence of a planet is more uncertain and would require confirmation with an independent method. The new data allow us to improve the measurement of p. for f1 and f2: using only the data up to the end of 2008, we obtain p.1 = (1.34 ± 0.04) à 10-12 and p.2 = (1.62 ± 0.22) à 10-12. The long-term variation of the two main pulsation periods (and the change of sign of p.1) is visible also in direct measurements made over several years. The absence of peaks near f1 in the Fourier transform and the secondary peak close to f2 confirm a previous identification as l = 0 and l = 1, respectively, and suggest a stellar rotation period of about 40 days. The new data allow constraining the main g-mode pulsation periods of the star
Diagnosing the Clumpy Protoplanetary Disk of the UXor Type Young Star GM Cephei
UX Orionis stars (UXors) are Herbig Ae/Be or T Tauri stars exhibiting
sporadic occultation of stellar light by circumstellar dust. GM\,Cephei is such
a UXor in the young (~Myr) open cluster Trumpler\,37, showing prominent
infrared excess, emission-line spectra, and flare activity. Our photometric
monitoring (2008--2018) detects (1)~an 3.43~day period, likely arising
from rotational modulation by surface starspots, (2)~sporadic brightening on
time scales of days due to accretion, (3)~irregular minor flux drops due to
circumstellar dust extinction, and (4)~major flux drops, each lasting for a
couple of months with a recurrence time, though not exactly periodic, of about
two years. The star experiences normal reddening by large grains, i.e., redder
when dimmer, but exhibits an unusual "blueing" phenomenon in that the star
turns blue near brightness minima. The maximum extinction during relatively
short (lasting ~days) events, is proportional to the duration, a
consequence of varying clump sizes. For longer events, the extinction is
independent of duration, suggestive of a transverse string distribution of
clumps. Polarization monitoring indicates an optical polarization varying
--8, with the level anticorrelated with the slow brightness
change. Temporal variation of the unpolarized and polarized light sets
constraints on the size and orbital distance of the circumstellar clumps in the
interplay with the young star and scattering envelope. These transiting clumps
are edge-on manifestations of the ring- or spiral-like structures found
recently in young stars with imaging in infrared of scattered light, or in
submillimeter of thermalized dust emission.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
A Possible Detection of Occultation by a Proto-planetary Clump in GM Cephei
GM Cep in the young (~4 Myr) open cluster Trumpler 37 has been known to be an
abrupt variable and to have a circumstellar disk with very active accretion.
Our monitoring observations in 2009-2011 revealed the star to show sporadic
flare events, each with brightening of < 0.5 mag lasting for days. These
brightening events, associated with a color change toward the blue, should
originate from an increased accretion activity. Moreover, the star also
underwent a brightness drop of ~1 mag lasting for about a month, during which
the star became bluer when fainter. Such brightness drops seem to have a
recurrence time scale of a year, as evidenced in our data and the photometric
behavior of GM Cep over a century. Between consecutive drops, the star
brightened gradually by about 1 mag and became blue at peak luminosity. We
propose that the drop is caused by obscuration of the central star by an
orbiting dust concentration. The UX Orionis type of activity in GM Cep
therefore exemplifies the disk inhomogeneity process in transition between
grain coagulation and planetesimal formation in a young circumstellar disk.Comment: In submission to the Astrophysical Journal, 4 figure
Whole Earth Telescope observations of the pulsating subdwarf B star PG 0014+067
PG 0014+067 is one of the most promising pulsating subdwarf B stars for
seismic analysis, as it has a rich pulsation spectrum. The richness of its
pulsations, however, poses a fundamental challenge to understanding the
pulsations of these stars, as the mode density is too complex to be explained
only with radial and nonradial low degree (l < 3) p-modes without rotational
splittings. One proposed solution, for the case of PG 0014+067 in particular,
assigns some modes with high degree (l=3). On the other hand, theoretical
models of sdB stars suggest that they may retain rapidly rotating cores, and so
the high mode density may result from the presence of a few rotationally-split
triplet (l=1), quintuplet (l=2) modes, along with radial (l=0) p-modes. To
examine alternative theoretical models for these stars, we need better
frequency resolution and denser longitude coverage. Therefore, we observed this
star with the Whole Earth Telescope for two weeks in October 2004. In this
paper we report the results of Whole Earth Telescope observations of the
pulsating subdwarf B star PG 0014+067. We find that the frequencies seen in PG
0014+067 do not appear to fit any theoretical model currently available;
however, we find a simple empirical relation that is able to match all of the
well-determined frequencies in this star.Comment: 19 pages, preprint of paper accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journa
Observations of the pulsating subdwarf B star Feige 48: Constraints on evolution and companions
Since pulsating subdwarf B (sdBV or EC14026) stars were first discovered
(Kilkenny et al, 1997), observational efforts have tried to realize their
potential for constraining the interior physics of extreme horizontal branch
(EHB) stars. Difficulties encountered along the way include uncertain mode
identifications and a lack of stable pulsation mode properties. Here we report
on Feige 48, an sdBV star for which follow-up observations have been obtained
spanning more than four years, which shows some stable pulsation modes.
We resolve the temporal spectrum into five stable pulsation periods in the
range 340 to 380 seconds with amplitudes less than 1%, and two additional
periods that appear in one dataset each. The three largest amplitude
periodicities are nearly equally spaced, and we explore the consequences of
identifying them as a rotationally split l=1 triplet by consulting with a
representative stellar model.
The general stability of the pulsation amplitudes and phases allows us to use
the pulsation phases to constrain the timescale of evolution for this sdBV
star. Additionally, we are able to place interesting limits on any stellar or
planetary companion to Feige 48.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA
Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay
channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7
TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector,
and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No
significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper
limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the
standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at
95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE
Search for New Physics with Jets and Missing Transverse Momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search for new physics is presented based on an event signature of at least
three jets accompanied by large missing transverse momentum, using a data
sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns
collected in proton--proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the CMS detector
at the LHC. No excess of events is observed above the expected standard model
backgrounds, which are all estimated from the data. Exclusion limits are
presented for the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard
model. Cross section limits are also presented using simplified models with new
particles decaying to an undetected particle and one or two jets
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