273 research outputs found
Mitigation and screening for environmental assessment
This article considers how, as a matter of law and policy, mitigation measures should be taken into account in determining whether a project will have significant environmental effects and therefore be subject to assessment under the EU Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive. This is not straightforward: it is problematic to distinguish clearly between an activity and the measures proposed to minimise or mitigate for the adverse consequences of the activity. The issue is a salient one in impact assessment law, but under-explored in the literature and handled with some difficulty by the courts. I argue that there is an unnecessarily and undesirably narrow approach currently taken under the EIA Directive, which could be improved upon by taking a more adaptive approach; alternatively a heightened standard of review of âsignificanceâ, and within this of the scope for mitigation measures to bring projects beneath the significance threshold, may also be desirable
Germline-Focused Analysis of Tumour-Only Sequencing: Recommendations from the ESMO Precision Medicine Working Group.
It is increasingly common in oncology practice to perform tumour sequencing using large cancer panels. For pathogenic sequence variants in cancer susceptibility genes identified on tumour-only sequencing, it is often unclear whether they are of somatic or constitutional (germline) origin. There is wide-spread disparity regarding both the extent to which systematic 'germline-focused analysis' is performed upon tumour sequencing data and for which variants follow-up analysis of a germline sample is performed. Here we present analyses of paired sequencing data from 17,152 cancer samples, in which 1494 pathogenic sequence variants were identified across 65 cancer susceptibility genes. From these analyses, the European Society of Medical Oncology Precision Medicine Working Group Germline Subgroup have generated (i) recommendations regarding germline-focused analyses of tumour-only sequencing data, (ii) indications for germline follow-up testing and (iii) guidance on patient information-giving and consent
Bulge growth through disk instabilities in high-redshift galaxies
The role of disk instabilities, such as bars and spiral arms, and the
associated resonances, in growing bulges in the inner regions of disk galaxies
have long been studied in the low-redshift nearby Universe. There it has long
been probed observationally, in particular through peanut-shaped bulges. This
secular growth of bulges in modern disk galaxies is driven by weak,
non-axisymmetric instabilities: it mostly produces pseudo-bulges at slow rates
and with long star-formation timescales. Disk instabilities at high redshift
(z>1) in moderate-mass to massive galaxies (10^10 to a few 10^11 Msun of stars)
are very different from those found in modern spiral galaxies. High-redshift
disks are globally unstable and fragment into giant clumps containing 10^8-10^9
Msun of gas and stars each, which results in highly irregular galaxy
morphologies. The clumps and other features associated to the violent
instability drive disk evolution and bulge growth through various mechanisms,
on short timescales. The giant clumps can migrate inward and coalesce into the
bulge in a few 10^8 yr. The instability in the very turbulent media drives
intense gas inflows toward the bulge and nuclear region. Thick disks and
supermassive black holes can grow concurrently as a result of the violent
instability. This chapter reviews the properties of high-redshift disk
instabilities, the evolution of giant clumps and other features associated to
the instability, and the resulting growth of bulges and associated sub-galactic
components.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures. Invited refereed review to appear in "Galactic
Bulges", E. Laurikainen, D. Gadotti, R. Peletier (eds.), Springe
JWST/NIRCam probes young star clusters in the reionization era sunrise arc
This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These observations are associated with JWST GO program 2282 and HST GO programs 14096, 15842, and 16668. The data (doi:10.17909/cqfq-5n80) were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., under NASA contractNAS 5-03127 for JWST. We acknowledge financial support from NASA through grant JWST-GO-02282. We thank the anonymous referee for the constructive comments. A.A. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (VetenskapsrĂ„det project grant 2021-05559). A.A. and A.C. thank M. Messa for sharing an earlier version of his software. E.V. acknowledges financial support through grants PRIN-MIUR 2017WSCC32 and 2020SKSTHZ and INAF âmain-streamâ grants 1.05.01.86.20 and 1.05.01.86.31. We acknowledge support from INAF GO grant 2022, âThe revolution is around the corner: JWST will probe globular cluster precursors and Population III stellar clusters at cosmic dawnâ (PI: Vanzella). J.M.D. acknowledges the support of projects PGC2018-101814-B-100 and MDM-2017-0765. M.B. acknowledges support from the Slovenian national research agency ARRS through grant N1-0238. P.D. acknowledges support from NWO grant 016.VIDI.189.162 (âODINâ) and the European Commissionâs and University of Groningenâs COFUND Rosalind Franklin program. M.O. acknowledges support from JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. JP22H01260, JP20H05856, and JP20H00181. S.F. acknowledges support from NASA through NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HSTHF2-51505.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. B.W. acknowledges support from NASA under award No. 80GSFC21M0002. L.J.F. and A.Z. acknowledge support by grant No. 2020750 from the United StatesâIsrael Binational Science Foundation (BSF), grant No. 2109066 from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Ministry of Science & Technology, Israel. E.V. thanks the colleague Antonio Sollima for inspiring discussions on local stellar clusters; Antonio, unfortunately, passed away prematurely at the age of 43, during the acceptance of this work
Observational Diagnostics of Gas Flows: Insights from Cosmological Simulations
Galactic accretion interacts in complex ways with gaseous halos, including
galactic winds. As a result, observational diagnostics typically probe a range
of intertwined physical phenomena. Because of this complexity, cosmological
hydrodynamic simulations have played a key role in developing observational
diagnostics of galactic accretion. In this chapter, we review the status of
different observational diagnostics of circumgalactic gas flows, in both
absorption (galaxy pair and down-the-barrel observations in neutral hydrogen
and metals; kinematic and azimuthal angle diagnostics; the cosmological column
density distribution; and metallicity) and emission (Lya; UV metal lines; and
diffuse X-rays). We conclude that there is no simple and robust way to identify
galactic accretion in individual measurements. Rather, progress in testing
galactic accretion models is likely to come from systematic, statistical
comparisons of simulation predictions with observations. We discuss specific
areas where progress is likely to be particularly fruitful over the next few
years.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dave, to be published by
Springer. Typos correcte
Gas Accretion and Star Formation Rates
Cosmological numerical simulations of galaxy evolution show that accretion of
metal-poor gas from the cosmic web drives the star formation in galaxy disks.
Unfortunately, the observational support for this theoretical prediction is
still indirect, and modeling and analysis are required to identify hints as
actual signs of star-formation feeding from metal-poor gas accretion. Thus, a
meticulous interpretation of the observations is crucial, and this
observational review begins with a simple theoretical description of the
physical process and the key ingredients it involves, including the properties
of the accreted gas and of the star-formation that it induces. A number of
observations pointing out the connection between metal-poor gas accretion and
star-formation are analyzed, specifically, the short gas consumption time-scale
compared to the age of the stellar populations, the fundamental metallicity
relationship, the relationship between disk morphology and gas metallicity, the
existence of metallicity drops in starbursts of star-forming galaxies, the
so-called G dwarf problem, the existence of a minimum metallicity for the
star-forming gas in the local universe, the origin of the alpha-enhanced gas
forming stars in the local universe, the metallicity of the quiescent BCDs, and
the direct measurements of gas accretion onto galaxies. A final section
discusses intrinsic difficulties to obtain direct observational evidence, and
points out alternative observational pathways to further consolidate the
current ideas.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by
Springe
Determinants of Restaurant Systematic Risk: A Reexamination
This study reexamines determinants of the systematic risk or beta of restaurant firms based on the financial data of 75 U.S. restaurant firms from 1996 through 1999. Our weighted least-squares regression analysis found that restaurant systematic risk correlated negatively with assets turnover but positively with quick ratio. The findings suggest that high efficiency in generating sales revenue helps lower the systematic risk, while excess liquidity tends to increase the risk
Hereditary palmoplantar keratoderma - phenotypes and mutations in 64 patients
Background Hereditary palmoplantar keratodermas (PPK) represent a heterogeneous group of rare skin disorders with epidermal hyperkeratosis of the palms and soles, with occasional additional manifestations in other tissues. Mutations in at least 69 genes have been implicated in PPK, but further novel candidate genes and mutations are still to be found. Objectives To identify mutations underlying PPK in a cohort of 64 patients. Methods DNA of 48 patients was analysed on a custom-designed in-house panel for 35 PPK genes, and 16 patients were investigated by a diagnostic genetic laboratory either by whole-exome sequencing, gene panels or targeted single-gene sequencing. Results Of the 64 PPK patients, 32 had diffuse (50%), 19 focal (30%) and 13 punctate (20%) PPK. None had striate PPK. Pathogenic mutations in altogether five genes were identified in 31 of 64 (48%) patients, the majority (22/31) with diffuse PPK. Of them, 11 had a mutation in AQP5, five in SERPINB7, four in KRT9 and two in SLURP1. AAGAB mutations were found in nine punctate PPK patients. New mutations were identified in KRT9 and AAGAB. No pathogenic mutations were detected in focal PPK. Variants of uncertain significance (VUS) in PPK-associated and other genes were observed in 21 patients that might explain their PPK. No suggestive pathogenic variants were found for 12 patients. Conclusions Diffuse PPK was the most common (50%) and striate PPK was not observed. We identified pathogenic mutations in 48% of our PPK patients, mainly in five genes: AQP5, AAGAB, KRT9, SERPINB7 and SLURP1.Peer reviewe
The Extended [C ii] under Construction? Observation of the Brightest High-z Lensed Star-forming Galaxy at z = 6.2
We present results of [C ii] 158 ÎŒm emission line observations, and report the spectroscopic redshift confirmation of a strongly lensed (ÎŒ ⌠20) star-forming galaxy, MACS0308-zD1 at z = 6.2078 ± 0.0002. The [C ii] emission line is detected with a signal-to-noise ratio >6 within the rest-frame UV-bright clump of the lensed galaxy (zD1.1) and exhibits multiple velocity components; the narrow [C ii] has a velocity full width half maximum (FWHM) of 110 ± 20 km sâ1, while broader [C ii] is seen with an FWHM of 230 ± 50 km sâ1. The broader [C ii] component is blueshifted (â80 ± 20 km sâ1) with respect to the narrow [C ii] component, and has a morphology that extends beyond the UV-bright clump. We find that, while the narrow [C ii] emission is most likely associated with zD1.1, the broader component is possibly associated with a physically distinct gas component from zD1.1 (e.g., outflowing or inflowing gas). Based on the nondetection of λ158ÎŒm dust continuum, we find that MACS0308-zD1's star formation activity occurs in a dust-free environment indicated by a strong upper limit of infrared luminosity âČ9 Ă 108Lâ. Targeting this strongly lensed faint galaxy for follow-up Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and JWST observations will be crucial to characterize the details of typical galaxy growth in the early Universe
Reaching for the stars â JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of a lensed star candidate at z = 4.76
We present JWST/NIRSpec observations of a highly magnified star candidate at a photometric redshift of zphot â 4.8, previously detected in JWST/NIRCam imaging of the strong lensing (SL) cluster MACS J0647+7015 (z = 0.591). The spectroscopic observation allows us to precisely measure the redshift of the host arc at zspec = 4.758 ± 0.004, and the starâs spectrum displays clear Lyman- and Balmer-breaks commensurate with this redshift. A fit to the spectrum suggests a B-type super-giant star of surface temperature âK with either a redder F-type companion (â âK) or significant dust attenuation (AV â 0.82) along the line of sight. We also investigate the possibility that this object is a magnified young globular cluster rather than a single star. We show that the spectrum is in principle consistent with a star cluster, which could also accommodate the lack of flux variability between the two epochs. However, the lack of a counter image and the strong upper limit on the size of the object from lensing symmetry, r âČ 0.5âpc, could indicate that this scenario is somewhat less likely â albeit not completely ruled out by the current data. The presented spectrum seen at a time when the Universe was only âŒ1.2âGyr old showcases the ability of JWST to study early stars through extreme lensing
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