The Twin--Jet System in NGC 1052: VLBI-Scrutiny of the Obscuring Torus

NGC 1052 offers the possibility to study the obscuring torus around a supermassive black hole, predicted by the standard model of active galactic nuclei, over a wide range of wavelengths from the radio to the X-ray regime. We present a detailed VLBI study of the parsec-scale structure of the ``twin-jet'' system in NGC 1052 in both total and polarized intensity and at multiple frequencies. We report the detection of linearly polarized emission from the base of the eastern jet at 5 GHz. While the radio spectrum in this region might be still consistent with synchrotron self absorption, the highly inverted spectrum of the western jet base represents a clear sign of pronounced free-free absorption in a circumnuclear torus. We observe an abrupt change of the brightness temperature gradient at a distance of $\sim 0.2$ pc to 0.3 pc from the central engine. This might provide an observational signature of the edge of the central torus, where the transition from an external pressure-dominated jet regime to a more or less freely expanding jet takes place. We determine the absorbing column density towards the western jet core to be $\sim 2.2 \times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ in good agreement with the values derived from various X-ray observations. This suggests that the nuclear X-ray emission and the jet emission imaged by VLBI originate on the same scales.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, needs aa.cls, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, note that the resolution of figure 2 has been decreased in comparison to the journal versio

Pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity and gestational diabetes as predictors of body composition in offspring twenty years later : evidence from two birth cohort studies

Background. Global prevalence of overweight/obesity and gestational diabetes (GDM) is increasing. In pregnant women both conditions affect offspring's later health. Overweight/obesity is a risk factor of GDM; to what extent maternal overweight/obesity explains long-term effects of GDM in offspring is unknown. Objective. To evaluate effects of maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity (BMI ⩾25 kg/m2) and GDM, occurring together or separately, on body composition among adult offspring. Methods. Participants include 891 individuals aged 24.1 years (s.d. 1.4) from two longitudinal cohort studies (ESTER and AYLS). Adult offspring of normoglycemic mothers with overweight/obesity (ONOO, n=153), offspring of mothers with GDM (OGDM; n=191) and controls (n=547) underwent anthropometric measurements and bioimpedance analysis. GDM was diagnosed by oral glucose tolerance test. Data were analyzed by linear regression models adjusted for confounders. Results. Compared with controls, ONOO-participants showed higher BMI [men 1.64 kg/m2 (95% confidence interval 0.57, 2.72); women 1.41 kg/m2 (0.20, 2.63)] and fat percentage [men 2.70% (0.99, 4.41); women 2.98% (0.87, 5.09)] with larger waist circumferences [men 3.34 cm (0.68, 5.99); women 3.09 cm (0.35, 5.83)]. Likewise, OGDM-participants showed higher fat percentage [men 1.97% (0.32, 3.61); women 2.32% (0.24, 4.41)]. BMI was non-significantly different between OGDM-participants and controls [men 0.88kg/m2 (-0.17, 1.92); women 0.82 kg/m2 (-0.39, 2.04)]. Also waist circumferences were larger [men 2.63 cm (-0.01, 5.28); women 3.39 cm (0.60, 6.18)], this difference was statistically significant in OGDM-women only. Differences in body composition measures were stronger among offspring of women with both GDM and overweight/obesity. For instance, fat mass was higher among OGDM-participants of overweight mothers [men 4.24 kg (1.36, 7.11) vs controls; women 5.22 kg (1.33, 9.11)] than OGDM participants of normal weight mothers [men 1.50 kg (-2.11, 5.11) higher vs controls; women 1.57 kg (-3.27, 6.42)]. Conclusions. Maternal pre-pregnancy overweight and GDM are associated with unhealthy body size and composition in offspring over 20 years later. Effects of maternal pre-pregnancy overweight appear more pronounced

Performance of HPGe Detectors in High Magnetic Fields

A new generation of high-resolution hypernuclear gamma$-spectroscopy experiments with high-purity germanium detectors (HPGe) are presently designed at the FINUDA spectrometer at DAPhiNE, the Frascati phi-factory, and at PANDA, the antiproton proton hadron spectrometer at the future FAIR facility. Both, the FINUDA and PANDA spectrometers are built around the target region covering a large solid angle. To maximise the detection efficiency the HPGe detectors have to be located near the target, and therefore they have to be operated in strong magnetic fields B ~ 1 T. The performance of HPGe detectors in such an environment has not been well investigated so far. In the present work VEGA and EUROBALL Cluster HPGe detectors were tested in the field provided by the ALADiN magnet at GSI. No significant degradation of the energy resolution was found, and a change in the rise time distribution of the pulses from preamplifiers was observed. A correlation between rise time and pulse height was observed and is used to correct the measured energy, recovering the energy resolution almost completely. Moreover, no problems in the electronics due to the magnetic field were observed.Comment: submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. A, LaTeX, 19 pages, 9 figure

Understanding developmental language disorder -The Helsinki longitudinal SLI study (HelSLI) : A study protocol

Background: Developmental language disorder (DLD, also called specific language impairment, SLI) is a common developmental disorder comprising the largest disability group in pre-school-aged children. Approximately 7% of the population is expected to have developmental language difficulties. However, the specific etiological factors leading to DLD are not yet known and even the typical linguistic features appear to vary by language. We present here a project that investigates DLD at multiple levels of analysis and aims to make the reliable prediction and early identification of the difficulties possible. Following the multiple deficit model of developmental disorders, we investigate the DLD phenomenon at the etiological, neural, cognitive, behavioral, and psychosocial levels, in a longitudinal study of preschool children. Methods: In January 2013, we launched the Helsinki Longitudinal SLI study (HelSLI) at the Helsinki University Hospital ( http://tiny.cc/HelSLI ). We will study 227 children aged 3-6 years with suspected DLD and their 160 typically developing peers. Five subprojects will determine how the child's psychological characteristics and environment correlate with DLD and how the child's well-being relates to DLD, the characteristics of DLD in monolingual versus bilingual children, nonlinguistic cognitive correlates of DLD, electrophysiological underpinnings of DLD, and the role of genetic risk factors. Methods include saliva samples, EEG, computerized cognitive tasks, neuropsychological and speech and language assessments, video-observations, and questionnaires. Discussion: The project aims to increase our understanding of the multiple interactive risk and protective factors that affect the developing heterogeneous cognitive and behavioral profile of DLD, including factors affecting literacy development. This accumulated knowledge will form a heuristic basis for the development of new interventions targeting linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of DLD. © 2018 The Author(s).Non peer reviewe

Review Article : Atomic layer deposition of optoelectronic materials

Optoelectronic materials can source, detect, and control light wavelengths ranging from gamma and x rays to ultraviolet, visible, and infrared regions. Optoelectronic devices are usually systems that transduce electricity to optical signal or vice versa. Optoelectronic devices include many modern necessities such as lamps, displays, lasers, solar cells, and various photodetectors. Some important research topics in the field of optoelectronics materials are development of new materials, new technologies for fabricating materials, and design of device structures. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a technology that was developed in the early 1970s for manufacturing high-quality luminescent and dielectric films to be used in AC-driven thin film electroluminescent (TFEL) displays. Monochromic yellow-black displays based on a ZnS:Mn luminescent layer have been manufactured industrially using ALD since the mid-1980s. Multicolor displays (green-yellow-red) were successfully realized by filtering the broad emission band of ZnS:Mn or adding another luminescent material, e.g., green-emitting ZnS:Tb or SrS:Ce. However, applicable full-color AC TFEL devices could not be developed because of the lack of an efficient deep blue-emitting phosphor. Currently, the most promising application area in TFEL displays is transparent displays, which are commonly used in various vehicles. In the mid-1980s, epitaxial III-V semiconductors were studied using ALD. It was shown that manufacturing real epitaxial [atomic layer epitaxy (ALE)] films is possible for different III (Al, Ga, In) and V (N, P, As) materials. The advantages of ALE processing compared to more traditional metalorganic chemical vapor deposition or molecular beam epitaxy methods have remained low, however, and ALE is not used on a large scale. Research continues to be carried out using ALE, especially with nitride films. Thin film solar cells have continuously received attention in ALD research. ALD films may be used as both an absorber (CdTe, SnS) and a passivation [In2S3, Zn(O,S)] material. However, in the solar cell field, the real industrial-level use is in passivation of silicon cells. Thin ALD Al2O3 film effectively passivates all types of silicon cells and improves their efficiency. Transition metal dichalcogenides are emerging 2D materials that have potential uses as channel materials in field-effect transistors, as well as phototransistors and other optoelectronic devices. The problem with achieving large-scale use of these 2D materials is the lack of a scalable, low-temperature process for fabricating high-quality, large-area films. ALD is proposed as a solution for these limitations. This review covers all of these ALD applications in detail. (C) 2019 Author(s).Peer reviewe

Food fight: conflicting language ideologies in English and French news and social media

Although social media provide new opportunities for minority language use and communication, the extent to which they differ from mainstream news media requires more investigation. This paper addresses this issue by comparing French and English language ideologies in Canadian news media and on Twitter. These ideologies are investigated using a specific case study where an Italian restaurant owner in French-speaking Canada was challenged for using Italian words on a menu. This generated extensive media coverage and Twitter activity. A corpus-assisted discourse study sheds insight on the complex dynamics of language politics and how they play out on different media platforms. It also indicates that minoritised groups are under growing pressure to translate linguistic cultures into English and globalised, market-driven contexts

Rotten Egg Nebula: The magnetic field of a binary evolved star

Most of PNe are not spherical. The loss of spherical symmetry occurs somewhere between the AGB and PN phase. The cause of this change of morphology is not yet well known, but magnetic fields are one of the possible agents. Its origin remains to be determined, and potentially requires the presence of a massive companion to the AGB star. Therefore, further detections of the magnetic field around evolved stars (in particular those thought to be part of a binary system) are crucial to improve our understanding of the origin and role of magnetism on evolved stars. One such binaries is the pre-PN OH231.8, around which a magnetic field was detected in the OH maser region of the outer circumstellar envelope. We aim to detect and infer the properties of the magnetic field of this source in the water maser region. We observed the 6_{1,6}-5_{2,3} water maser rotational transition to determine its linear and circular polarization. These emissions are located within the inner regions of OH231.8 (at few tens of AU). We detected 30 water maser features, which occur in two distinct regions that are moving apart with a velocity on the sky of 2.3 mas/year. Taking into account the inclination angle of the source, this corresponds to an average separation velocity of 21 km/s. Based on the velocity gradient of the maser emission, the masers appear to be dragged along the direction of the nebula jet. Linear polarization is present in 3 of the features, and circular polarization was detected in the 2 brightest ones. We found that the strength of the magnetic field is |B_{||}|~45 mG which, when assuming a toroidal magnetic field, implies B~2.5 G on the stellar surface. The morphology of the field is not yet determined, but the high scatter found on the directions of the linear polarization vectors could indicate that the masers occur near the tangent points of a toroidal field.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Tyrosine Sulfation of the Amino Terminus of PSGL-1 Is Critical for Enterovirus 71 Infection

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is one of the major causative agents of hand, foot, and mouth disease, a common febrile disease in children; however, EV71 has been also associated with various neurological diseases including fatal cases in large EV71 outbreaks particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Recently we identified human P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) as a cellular receptor for entry and replication of EV71 in leukocytes. PSGL-1 is a sialomucin expressed on the surface of leukocytes, serves as a high affinity counterreceptor for selectins, and mediates leukocyte rolling on the endothelium. The PSGL-1–P-selectin interaction requires sulfation of at least one of three clustered tyrosines and an adjacent O-glycan expressing sialyl Lewis x in an N-terminal region of PSGL-1. To elucidate the molecular basis of the PSGL-1–EV71 interaction, we generated a series of PSGL-1 mutants and identified the post-translational modifications that are critical for binding of PSGL-1 to EV71. We expressed the PSGL-1 mutants in 293T cells and the transfected cells were assayed for their abilities to bind to EV71 by flow cytometry. We found that O-glycosylation on T57, which is critical for PSGL-1–selectin interaction, is not necessary for PSGL-1 binding to EV71. On the other hand, site-directed mutagenesis at one or more potential tyrosine sulfation sites in the N-terminal region of PSGL-1 significantly impaired PSGL-1 binding to EV71. Furthermore, an inhibitor of sulfation, sodium chlorate, blocked the PSGL-1–EV71 interaction and inhibited PSGL-1-mediated viral replication of EV71 in Jurkat T cells in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, the results presented in this study reveal that tyrosine sulfation, but not O-glycosylation, in the N-terminal region of PSGL-1 may facilitate virus entry and replication of EV71 in leukocytes