Abiding With Me

Poem: Abiding With M

Concert recording 2018-04-24a

[Track 1]. Quia fecit mihi magna from Magnificat, BWV 234 [Track 2]. Schlummert ein from Ich habe genug, cantata no. 82 / Johann Sebastian Bach -- [Track 3]. Vier ernste Gesänge, op. 121. 1. Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh [Track 4]. 2. Ich wandte mich, und sahe an alle [Track 5]. 3. O Tod, wie bitter bist du [Track 6]. 4. Wenn ich mit Menschen - und mit Engelszungen / Johannes Brahms -- [Track 7]. Prison / Gabriel Faure -- [Track 8]. Dirait-on / Morten Lauridsen -- [Track 9]. Dover beach / Samuel Barber -- [Track 10]. Non piu andrai from Le Nozze di Figaro / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- [Track 11]. O, better far to live and die from Pirates of Penzance / W.S. Gilbert Arthur Sullivan

Melanization in Candida auris: A Characterization and Investigation of Its Mechanism

Candida auris is a recently emerged opportunistic fungal pathogen of significant concern, primarily due to its role in Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). Pathogenic fungi, including Candida spp., have several ways in which they evade host immune defenses and invade tissue, including fungal melanization, which has been implicated in strengthening virulence and thermotolerance in other fungal pathogens. However, the existence and characteristics of a melanization pathway in Candida auris has never been interrogated. Here, we demonstrate the capacity of Candida auris to melanize when in the presence of DOPA melanin precursors in a strain-specific manner, which appears dependent on the evolutionary clades of the fungus. In characterizing the ability of C. auris to melanize, we elucidate a new mechanism for fungal melanization, one dependent on extracellular pH neutralization and subsequent oxidation of DOPA melanin substrates. This novel mechanism, and its varied development, has implications for study of both the physiology and evolution of Candida auris

Note and Comment

The Law School -As a result of the increased requirements for admission, which are now in their second year of operation, the attendance at the Law School is less than that of last year, though the decrease is less than was anticipated at the time of the adoption of the higher requirements. The entering class (the second, under the new standard) is about thirty larger than that of last year. There are no changes in the teaching staff, and none of great importance in the curriculum

Neutron star equation of state via gravitational wave observations

Gravitational wave observations can potentially measure properties of neutron star equations of state by measuring departures from the point-particle limit of the gravitational waveform produced in the late inspiral of a neutron star binary. Numerical simulations of inspiraling neutron star binaries computed for equations of state with varying stiffness are compared. As the stars approach their final plunge and merger, the gravitational wave phase accumulates more rapidly if the neutron stars are more compact. This suggests that gravitational wave observations at frequencies around 1 kHz will be able to measure a compactness parameter and place stringent bounds on possible neutron star equations of state. Advanced laser interferometric gravitational wave observatories will be able to tune their frequency band to optimize sensitivity in the required frequency range to make sensitive measures of the late-inspiral phase of the coalescence.Comment: Talk given at the 13th Conference on Recent Developments in Gravity (NEB XIII), Thessaloniki, Greece, 4-6 Jun 200

Extracting equation of state parameters from black hole-neutron star mergers. I. Nonspinning black holes

The late inspiral, merger, and ringdown of a black hole-neutron star (BHNS) system can provide information about the neutron-star equation of state (EOS). Candidate EOSs can be approximated by a parametrized piecewise-polytropic EOS above nuclear density, matched to a fixed low-density EOS; and we report results from a large set of BHNS inspiral simulations that systematically vary two parameters. To within the accuracy of the simulations, we find that, apart from the neutron-star mass, a single physical parameter Lambda, describing its deformability, can be extracted from the late inspiral, merger, and ringdown waveform. This parameter is related to the radius, mass, and l=2 Love number, k_2, of the neutron star by Lambda = 2k_2 R^5/3M_{NS}^5, and it is the same parameter that determines the departure from point-particle dynamics during the early inspiral. Observations of gravitational waves from BHNS inspiral thus restrict the EOS to a surface of constant Lambda in the parameter space, thickened by the measurement error. Using various configurations of a single Advanced LIGO detector, we find that neutron stars are distinguishable from black holes of the same mass and that Lambda^{1/5} or equivalently R can be extracted to 10-40% accuracy from single events for mass ratios of Q=2 and 3 at a distance of 100 Mpc, while with the proposed Einstein Telescope, EOS parameters can be extracted to accuracy an order of magnitude better.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures, submitted to PR