483 research outputs found
An additional set of phages to characterize epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains from Spain (1989-92).
In recent years, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates in Spain have increased dramatically; in 1986 there were only 1.2% MRSA amongst all nosocomial Staphylococcus aureus (SA) isolates, by 1989 this percentage had risen to 44% in some hospital causing a very serious epidemic situation in the country. We have characterized these isolates by direct, reverse and Fisk phage typing and we have also looked for an additional local set of phages to help us to differentiate these strains. We have been able to differentiate an epidemic strain from other MRSA strains which cause sporadic hospital outbreaks, and we have also distinguished between some variants of the epidemic strain.This research has been supported by a grant from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias de la Seguridad Social (FISS), Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, Spain; No. 93/0144.S
The ISLANDS project I: Andromeda XVI, An Extremely Low Mass Galaxy not Quenched by Reionization
Based on data aquired in 13 orbits of HST time, we present a detailed
evolutionary history of the M31 dSph satellite Andromeda XVI, including its
life-time star formation history, the spatial distribution of its stellar
populations, and the properties of its variable stars. And XVI is characterized
by prolonged star formation activity from the oldest epochs until star
formation was quenched ~6 Gyr ago, and, notably, only half of the mass in stars
of And XVI was in place 10 Gyr ago. And XVI appears to be a low mass galaxy for
which the early quenching by either reionization or starburst feedback seems
highly unlikely, and thus, is most likely due to an environmental effect (e.g.,
an interaction), possibly connected to a late infall in the densest regions of
the Local Group. Studying the star formation history as a function of
galactocentric radius, we detect a mild gradient in the star formation history:
the star formation activity between 6 and 8 Gyr ago is significantly stronger
in the central regions than in the external regions, although the quenching age
appears to be the same, within 1 Gyr. We also report the discovery of 9 RR
Lyrae stars, 8 of which belong to And XVI. The RR Lyrae stars allow a new
estimate of the distance, (m-M)0= 23.72+/-0.09 mag, which is marginally larger
than previous estimates based on the tip of the red giant branch.Comment: Accepted for publication on Ap
The ISLAndS project II: The Lifetime Star Formation Histories of Six Andromeda dSphs
The Initial Star formation and Lifetimes of Andromeda Satellites (ISLAndS)
project uses Hubble Space Telescope imaging to study a representative sample of
six Andromeda dSph satellite companion galaxies. The main goal of the program
is to determine whether the star formation histories (SFHs) of the Andromeda
dSph satellites demonstrate significant statistical differences from those of
the Milky Way, which may be attributable to the different properties of their
local environments. Our observations reach the oldest main sequence turn-offs,
allowing a time resolution at the oldest ages of ~ 1 Gyr, which is comparable
to the best achievable resolution in the MW satellites. We find that the six
dSphs present a variety of SFHs that are not strictly correlated with
luminosity or present distance from M31. Specifically, we find a significant
range in quenching times (lookback times from 9 to 6 Gyr), but with all
quenching times more than ~ 6 Gyr ago. In agreement with observations of Milky
Way companions of similar mass, there is no evidence of complete quenching of
star formation by the cosmic UV background responsible for reionization, but
the possibility of a degree of quenching at reionization cannot be ruled out.
We do not find significant differences between the SFHs of the three members of
the vast, thin plane of satellites and the three off-plane dSphs. The primary
difference between the SFHs of the ISLAndS dSphs and Milky Way dSph companions
of similar luminosities and host distances is the absence of very late
quenching (< 5 Gyr ago) dSphs in the ISLAndS sample. Thus, models that can
reproduce satellite populations with and without late quenching satellites will
be of extreme interest.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, submitted to the Ap
Functionalized carbophenes as high-capacity versatile gas adsorbents: An ab initio study
This study employs density functional theory (DFT) and density functional
tight-binding theory (DFTB) to determine the adsorption properties of carbon
dioxide (CO), methane (CH), and dihydrogen (H) in carbophenes
functionalized with carboxyl (COOH), amine (NH), nitro (NO), and
hydroxyl (OH) groups. We demonstrate that carbophenes are promising candidates
as adsorbents for these gasses. Carbophenes have larger CO and CH
adsorption energies than other next-generation solid-state capture materials.
Yet, the low predicted desorption temperatures mean they can be beneficial as
air scrubbers in confined spaces. Functionalized carbophenes have H
adsorption energies usually observed in metal-containing materials. Further,
the predicted desorption temperatures of H from carbophenes lie within the
DOE Technical Targets for Onboard Hydrogen Storage for Light-Duty Vehicles
(DOEHST) operating temperature range. The possibility of tailoring the degree
of functionalization in combination with selecting sufficiently open carbophene
structures that allow for multiple strong interactions without steric hindrance
(crowding) effects, added to the multiplicity of possible functional groups
alone or in combination, suggests that these very light materials can be ideal
adsorbates for many gases. Tailoring the design to specific adsorption or
separation needs would require extensive combinatorial investigations
MORGOTH: incorporating horizontal branch modelling into star formation history determinations
We present a new method that incorporates the horizontal branch morphology into synthetic colour-magnitude diagram based star formation history determinations. This method, we call MORGOTH, self-consistently takes into account all the stellar evolution phases up to the early asymptothic giant branch, flexibly modelling red giant branch mass loss. We test MORGOTH on a range of synthetic populations, and find that the inclusion of the horizontal branch significantly increases the precision of the resulting star formation histories. When the main sequence turn-off is detected, MORGOTH can fit the star formation history and the red giant branch mass loss at the same time, efficiently breaking this degeneracy. As part of testing MORGOTH, we also model the observed colour-magnitude diagram of the well studied Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We recover a new more detailed star formation history for this galaxy. Both the new star formation history and the red giant branch mass loss we determined for Sculptor with MORGOTH are in good agreement with previous analyses, thus demonstrating the power of this new approach
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CLEC-2 and Syk in the megakaryocytic/platelet lineage are essential for development
The C-type lectin receptor CLEC-2 signals through a pathway that is critically dependent on the tyrosine kinase Syk. We show that homozygous loss of either protein results in defects in brain vascular and lymphatic development, lung inflation and perinatal lethality. Furthermore, we find that conditional deletion of Syk in the haematopoietic lineage, or conditional deletion of CLEC-2 or Syk in the megakaryocyte/platelet lineage, also causes defects in brain vascular and lymphatic development, although the mice are viable. In contrast, conditional deletion of Syk in other haematopoietic lineages had no effect on viability or brain vasculature and lymphatic development. We show that platelets, but not platelet releasate, modulate the migration and intercellular adhesion of lymphatic endothelial cells through a pathway that is dependent on CLEC-2 and Syk. These studies demonstrate that megakaryocyte/platelet expression of CLEC-2 and Syk is required for normal brain vasculature and lymphatic development and that platelet CLEC-2 and Syk directly modulate lymphatic endothelial cell behaviour in vitro
The Blue Straggler Population in Dwarf Galaxies
In this chapter I review the recent developments regarding the study of Blue
Stragglers (BSS) in dwarf galaxies. The loose density environment of dwarf
galaxies resembles that of the Galactic Halo, hence it is natural to compare
their common BSS properties. At the same time, it is unescapable to compare
with the BSS properties in Galactic Globular clusters, which constitute the
reference point for BSS studies. Admittedly, the literature on BSS in dwarf
galaxies is not plentiful. The limitation is mostly due to the large distance
to even the closest dwarf galaxies. Nevertheless, recent studies have allowed a
deeper insight on the BSS photometric properties that are worth examining.Comment: Chapter 6, in Ecology of Blue Straggler Stars, H.M.J. Boffin, G.
Carraro & G. Beccari (Eds), Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springe
Quasi-coherent fluctuations limiting the pedestal growth on Alcator C-Mod: experiment and modelling
Performance predictions for future fusion devices rely on an accurate model of the pedestal structure. The candidate for predictive pedestal structure is EPED, and it is imperative to test the underlying hypotheses to further gain confidence for ITER projections. Here, we present experimental work testing one of the EPED hypotheses, namely the existence of a soft limit set by microinstabilities such as the kinetic ballooning mode. This work extends recent work on Alactor C-Mod (Diallo et al 2014 Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 115001), to include detailed measurements of the edge fluctuations and comparisons of edge simulation codes and experimental observations
The effect of Ku on telomere replication time is mediated by telomere length but is independent of histone tail acetylation
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
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