251 research outputs found
Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Observations of Sgr A* during 2007 April 1-11
We report the detection of variable emission from Sgr A* in almost all
wavelength bands (i.e. centimeter, millimeter, submillimeter, near-IR and
X-rays) during a multi-wavelength observing campaign. Three new moderate flares
are detected simultaneously in both near-IR and X-ray bands. The ratio of X-ray
to near-IR flux in the flares is consistent with inverse Compton scattering of
near-IR photons by submillimeter emitting relativistic particles which follow
scaling relations obtained from size measurements of Sgr A*. We also find that
the flare statistics in near-IR wavelengths is consistent with the probability
of flare emission being inversely proportional to the flux. At millimeter
wavelengths, the presence of flare emission at 43 GHz (7mm) using VLBA with
milli-arcsecond spatial resolution indicates the first direct evidence that
hourly time scale flares are localized within the inner 3070
Schwarzschild radii of Sgr A*. We also show several cross correlation plots
between near-IR, millimeter and submillimeter light curves that collectively
demonstrate the presence of time delays between the peaks of emission up to
three hours. The evidence for time delays at millimeter and submillimeter
wavelengths are consistent with the source of emission being optically thick
initially followed by a transition to an optically thin regime. In particular,
there is an intriguing correlation between the optically thin near-IR and X-ray
flare and optically thick radio flare at 43 GHz that occurred on 2007 April 4.
This would be the first evidence of a radio flare emission at 43 GHz delayed
with respect to the near-IR and X-ray flare emission.Comment: replaced with revised version 57 pages, 28 figures, ApJ (in press
Characteristics of Patients Who Survived < 3 Months or > 2 Years After Surgery for Spinal Metastases: Can We Avoid Inappropriate Patient Selection?
PURPOSE: Survival after metastatic cancer has improved at the cost of increased presentation with metastatic spinal disease. For patients with pathologic spinal fractures and/or spinal cord compression, surgical intervention may relieve pain and improve quality of life. Surgery is generally considered to be inappropriate if anticipated survival is < 3 months. The aim of this international multicenter study was to analyze data from patients who died within 3 months or 2 years after surgery, to identify preoperative factors associated with poor or good survival, and to avoid inappropriate selection of patients for surgery in the future.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 1,266 patients underwent surgery for impending pathologic fractures and/or neurologic deficits and were prospectively observed. Data collected included tumor characteristics, preoperative fitness (American Society of Anesthesiologists advisory [ASA]), neurologic status (Frankel scale), performance (Karnofsky performance score [KPS]), and quality of life (EuroQol five-dimensions questionnaire [EQ-5D]). Outcomes were survival at 3 months and 2 years postsurgery. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to find preoperative factors associated with short-term and long-term survival.
RESULTS: In univariable analysis, age, emergency surgery, KPS, EQ-5D, ASA, Frankel, and Tokuhashi/Tomita scores were significantly associated with short survival. In multivariable analysis, KPS and age were significantly associated with short survival (odds ratio [OR], 1.36; 95% CI, 1.15 to 1.62; and OR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.27, respectively). Associated with longer survival in univariable analysis were age, number of levels included in surgery, KPS, EQ-5D, Frankel, and Tokuhashi/Tomita scores. In multivariable analysis, the number of levels included in surgery (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.38) and primary tumor type were significantly associated with longer survival.
CONCLUSION: Poor performance status at presentation is the strongest indicator of poor short-term survival, whereas low disease load and favorable tumor histology are associated with longer-term survival
Measurement of the p\bar{p}\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8 TeV
We update the measurement of the top production cross section using the CDF
detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. This measurement uses decays to
the final states +jets and +jets. We search for quarks from
decays via secondary-vertex identification or the identification of
semileptonic decays of the and cascade quarks. The background to the
production is determined primarily through a Monte Carlo simulation.
However, we calibrate the simulation and evaluate its uncertainty using several
independent data samples. For a top mass of 175 , we measure
pb and pb using
the secondary vertex and the lepton tagging algorithms, respectively. Finally,
we combine these results with those from other decay channels and
obtain pb.Comment: The manuscript consists of 130 pages, 35 figures and 42 tables in
RevTex. The manuscript is submitted to Physical Review D. Fixed typo in
author lis
Search for charged Higgs decays of the top quark using hadronic tau decays
We present the result of a search for charged Higgs decays of the top quark,
produced in collisions at 1.8 TeV. When the charged
Higgs is heavy and decays to a tau lepton, which subsequently decays
hadronically, the resulting events have a unique signature: large missing
transverse energy and the low-charged-multiplicity tau. Data collected in the
period 1992-1993 at the Collider Detector at Fermilab, corresponding to
18.70.7~pb, exclude new regions of combined top quark and charged
Higgs mass, in extensions to the standard model with two Higgs doublets.Comment: uuencoded, gzipped tar file of LaTeX and 6 Postscript figures; 11 pp;
submitted to Phys. Rev.
Inclusive jet cross section in collisions at TeV
The inclusive jet differential cross section has been measured for jet
transverse energies, , from 15 to 440 GeV, in the pseudorapidity region
0.10.7. The results are based on 19.5 pb of data
collected by the CDF collaboration at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The data
are compared with QCD predictions for various sets of parton distribution
functions. The cross section for jets with GeV is significantly
higher than current predictions based on O() perturbative QCD
calculations. Various possible explanations for the high- excess are
discussed.Comment: 8 pages with 2 eps uu-encoded figures Submitted to Physical Review
Letter
New Abundant Microbial Groups in Aquatic Hypersaline Environments
We describe the microbiota of two hypersaline saltern ponds, one of intermediate salinity (19%) and a NaCl saturated crystallizer pond (37%) using pyrosequencing. The analyses of these metagenomes (nearly 784 Mb) reaffirmed the vast dominance of Haloquadratum walsbyi but also revealed novel, abundant and previously unsuspected microbial groups. We describe for the first time, a group of low GC Actinobacteria, related to freshwater Actinobacteria, abundant in low and intermediate salinities. Metagenomic assembly revealed three new abundant microbes: a low-GC euryarchaeon with the lowest GC content described for any euryarchaeon, a high-GC euryarchaeon and a gammaproteobacterium related to Alkalilimnicola and Nitrococcus. Multiple displacement amplification and sequencing of the genome from a single archaeal cell of the new low GC euryarchaeon suggest a photoheterotrophic and polysaccharide-degrading lifestyle and its relatedness to the recently described lineage of Nanohaloarchaea. These discoveries reveal the combined power of an unbiased metagenomic and single cell genomic approach
Measurement of Dijet Angular Distributions at CDF
We have used 106 pb^-1 of data collected in proton-antiproton collisions at
sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV by the Collider Detector at Fermilab to measure jet angular
distributions in events with two jets in the final state. The angular
distributions agree with next to leading order (NLO) predictions of Quantum
Chromodynamics (QCD) in all dijet invariant mass regions. The data exclude at
95% confidence level (CL) a model of quark substructure in which only up and
down quarks are composite and the contact interaction scale is Lambda_ud(+) <
1.6 TeV or Lambda_ud(-) < 1.4 TeV. For a model in which all quarks are
composite the excluded regions are Lambda(+) < 1.8 TeV and Lambda(-) < 1. 6
TeV.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, LaTex, using epsf.sty. Submitted to
Physical Review Letters on September 17, 1996. Postscript file of full paper
available at http://www-cdf.fnal.gov/physics/pub96/cdf3773_dijet_angle_prl.p
Search for New Particles Decaying to Dijets at CDF
We have used 106 pb^-1 of data collected with the Collider Detector at
Fermilab to search for new particles decaying to dijets. We exclude at the 95%
confidence level models containing the following new particles: axigluons and
flavor universal colorons with mass between 200 and 980 GeV/c, excited quarks
with mass between 80 and 570 GeV/c^2 and between 580 and 760 GeV/c^2, color
octet technirhos with mass between 260 and 480 GeV/c^2, W' bosons with mass
between 300 and 420 GeV/c^2, and E_6 diquarks with mass between 290 and 420
GeV/c^2.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Submitted to Physical Review D Rapid
Communications. Postscript file of paper is also available at
http://www-cdf.fnal.gov/physics/pub97/cdf3276_dijet_search_prd_rc.p
Prediction of individual genetic risk to prostate cancer using a polygenic score
BACKGROUND Polygenic risk scores comprising established susceptibility variants have shown to be informative classifiers for several complex diseases including prostate cancer. For prostate cancer it is unknown if inclusion of genetic markers that have so far not been associated with prostate cancer risk at a genome-wide significant level will improve disease prediction. METHODS We built polygenic risk scores in a large training set comprising over 25,000 individuals. Initially 65 established prostate cancer susceptibility variants were selected. After LD pruning additional variants were prioritized based on their association with prostate cancer. Six-fold cross validation was performed to assess genetic risk scores and optimize the number of additional variants to be included. The final model was evaluated in an independent study population including 1,370 cases and 1,239 controls. RESULTS The polygenic risk score with 65 established susceptibility variants provided an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.67. Adding an additional 68 novel variants significantly increased the AUC to 0.68 (P-=-0.0012) and the net reclassification index with 0.21 (P-=-8.5E-08). All novel variants were located in genomic regions established as associated with prostate cancer risk. CONCLUSIONS Inclusion of additional genetic variants from established prostate cancer susceptibility regions improves disease prediction
Blood lipids and prostate cancer: a Mendelian randomization analysis
Genetic risk scores were used as unconfounded instruments for specific lipid traits (Mendelian randomization) to assess whether circulating lipids causally influence prostate cancer risk. Data from 22,249 prostate cancer cases and 22,133 controls from 22 studies within the international PRACTICAL consortium were analyzed. Allele scores based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously reported to be uniquely associated with each of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglyceride (TG) levels, were first validated in an independent dataset, and then entered into logistic regression models to estimate the presence (and direction) of any causal effect of each lipid trait on prostate cancer risk. There was weak evidence for an association between the LDL genetic score and cancer grade: the odds ratio (OR) per genetically instrumented standard deviation (SD) in LDL, comparing high- (≥7 Gleason score) versus low-grade (<7 Gleason score) cancers was 1.50 (95% CI: 0.92, 2.46; P = 0.11). A genetically instrumented SD increase in TGs was weakly associated with stage: the OR for advanced versus localized cancer per unit increase in genetic risk score was 1.68 (95% CI: 0.95, 3.00; P = 0.08). The rs12916-T variant in 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGCR) was inversely associated with prostate cancer (OR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.94, 1.00; P = 0.03). In conclusion, circulating lipids, instrumented by our genetic risk scores, did not appear to alter prostate cancer risk. We found weak evidence that higher LDL and TG levels increase aggressive prostate cancer risk, and that a variant in HMGCR (that mimics the LDL lowering effect of statin drugs) reduces risk. However, inferences are limited by sample size and evidence of pleiotropy
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