457 research outputs found
Greenland precipitation trends in a long-term instrumental climate context (1890-2012): evaluation of coastal and ice core records
Here, we present an analysis of monthly, seasonal, and annual long-term precipitation time-series compiled from coastal meteorological stations in Greenland and Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) ice cores (including three new ice core records from ACT11D, Tunu2013, and Summit2010). The dataset covers the period from 1890 to 2012, a period of climate warming. For approximately the first decade of the new millennium (2001-2012) minimum and maximum mean annual precipitation conditions are found in Northeast Greenland (Tunu2013 c. 120mm water equivalent (w.e.) year-1) and South Greenland (Ikerasassuaq: c. 2300mm w.e. year-1), respectively. The coastal meteorological stations showed on average increasing trends for 1890-2012 (3.5mm w.e. year-2) and 1961-2012 (1.3mm w.e. year-2). Years with high coastal annual precipitation also had a: (1) significant high number of precipitation days (r2 = 0.59); and (2) high precipitation intensity measured as 24-h precipitation (r2 = 0.54). For the GrIS the precipitation estimated from ice cores increased on average by 0.1mm w.e. year-2 (1890-2000), showing an antiphase variability in precipitation trends between the GrIS and the coastal regions. Around 1960 a major shift occurred in the precipitation pattern towards wetter precipitation conditions for coastal Greenland, while drier conditions became more prevalent on the GrIS. Differences in precipitation trends indicate a heterogeneous spatial distribution of precipitation in Greenland. An Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis reveals a spatiotemporal cycle of precipitation that is linked instantaneously to the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and with an �6 years lag time response to the Greenland Blocking Index. © 2014 Royal Meteorological Society
Surface Geometry of C60 on Ag(111)
The geometry of adsorbed C60 influences its collective properties. We report the first dynamical low-energy electron diffraction study to determine the geometry of a C60 monolayer, Ag(111)-(23×23)30°-C60, and related density functional theory calculations. The stable monolayer has C60 molecules in vacancies that result from the displacement of surface atoms. C60 bonds with hexagons down, with their mirror planes parallel to that of the substrate. The results indicate that vacancy structures are the rule rather than the exception for C60 monolayers on close-packed metal surfaces. © 2009 The American Physical Society
Long-term Death Rates, West Nile Virus Epidemic, Israel, 2000
We studied the 2-year death rate of 246 adults discharged from hospital after experiencing acute West Nile Virus infection in Israel during 2000. The age- and sex-adjusted death rates were significantly higher than in the general population. This excess was greater for men. Significant adverse prognostic factors were age, male sex, diabetes mellitus, and dementia
Discovery of cellular regulation by protein degradation
What follows is a story of some of the lab’s adventures mentioned above, including the inventions of new biochemical and genetic methods. This account stems, in part, from previous descriptions of the early history of the Ub field (31,32). Another antecedent is an interview I gave to Dr. Istvan Hargittai, a distinguished Hungarian chemist. It describes my life and science, including the early years in Moscow, the 1977 escape from the former Soviet Union, the essentially accidental hiring of me by MIT, and the work that ensued (33). The narrative below borrows from these sources, and mentions our more recent contributions as well
Drug discovery for Diamond-Blackfan anemia using reprogrammed hematopoietic progenitors
Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a congenital disorder characterized by the failure of erythroid progenitor differentiation, severely curtailing red blood cell production. Because many DBA patients fail to respond to corticosteroid therapy, there is considerable need for therapeutics for this disorder. Identifying therapeutics for DBA requires circumventing the paucity of primary patient blood stem and progenitor cells. To this end, we adopted a reprogramming strategy to generate expandable hematopoietic progenitor cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from DBA patients. Reprogrammed DBA progenitors recapitulate defects in erythroid differentiation, which were rescued by gene complementation. Unbiased chemical screens identified SMER28, a small-molecule inducer of autophagy, which enhanced erythropoiesis in a range of in vitro and in vivo models of DBA. SMER28 acted through autophagy factor ATG5 to stimulate erythropoiesis and up-regulate expression of globin genes. These findings present an unbiased drug screen for hematological disease using iPSCs and identify autophagy as a therapeutic pathway in DBA.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Grant R24-DK092760)National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Grant R24-DK49216)National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Grant U54DK110805)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant UO1-HL100001)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant U01HL134812)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant R01HL04880)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R24OD017870-01
Multiwavelength Observations of the Blazar PKS 0735+178 in Spatial and Temporal Coincidence with an Astrophysical Neutrino Candidate IceCube-211208A
We report on multiwavelength target-of-opportunity observations of the blazar PKS 0735+178, located 2.°2 away from the best-fit position of the IceCube neutrino event IceCube-211208A detected on 2021 December 8. The source was in a high-flux state in the optical, ultraviolet, X-ray, and GeV γ-ray bands around the time of the neutrino event, exhibiting daily variability in the soft X-ray flux. The X-ray data from Swift-XRT and NuSTAR characterize the transition between the low-energy and high-energy components of the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED), and the γ-ray data from Fermi-LAT, VERITAS, and H.E.S.S. require a spectral cutoff near 100 GeV. Both the X-ray and γ-ray measurements provide strong constraints on the leptonic and hadronic models. We analytically explore a synchrotron self-Compton model, an external Compton model, and a lepto-hadronic model. Models that are entirely based on internal photon fields face serious difficulties in matching the observed SED. The existence of an external photon field in the source would instead explain the observed γ-ray spectral cutoff in both the leptonic and lepto-hadronic models and allow a proton jet power that marginally agrees with the Eddington limit in the lepto-hadronic model. We show a numerical lepto-hadronic model with external target photons that reproduces the observed SED and is reasonably consistent with the neutrino event despite requiring a high jet power
Season of birth is different in Inuit suicide victims born into Traditional than into Modern Lifestyle: a register study from Greenland
A VERITAS/Breakthrough Listen Search for Optical Technosignatures
The Breakthrough Listen Initiative is conducting a program using multiple
telescopes around the world to search for "technosignatures": artificial
transmitters of extraterrestrial origin from beyond our solar system. The
VERITAS Collaboration joined this program in 2018, and provides the capability
to search for one particular technosignature: optical pulses of a few
nanoseconds duration detectable over interstellar distances. We report here on
the analysis and results of dedicated VERITAS observations of Breakthrough
Listen targets conducted in 2019 and 2020 and of archival VERITAS data
collected since 2012. Thirty hours of dedicated observations of 136 targets and
249 archival observations of 140 targets were analyzed and did not reveal any
signals consistent with a technosignature. The results are used to place limits
on the fraction of stars hosting transmitting civilizations. We also discuss
the minimum-pulse sensitivity of our observations and present VERITAS
observations of CALIOP: a space-based pulsed laser onboard the CALIPSO
satellite. The detection of these pulses with VERITAS, using the analysis
techniques developed for our technosignature search, allows a test of our
analysis efficiency and serves as an important proof-of-principle.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
An Archival Search for Neutron-Star Mergers in Gravitational Waves and Very-High-Energy Gamma Rays
The recent discovery of electromagnetic signals in coincidence with
neutron-star mergers has solidified the importance of multimessenger campaigns
in studying the most energetic astrophysical events. Pioneering multimessenger
observatories, such as LIGO/Virgo and IceCube, record many candidate signals
below the detection significance threshold. These sub-threshold event
candidates are promising targets for multimessenger studies, as the information
provided by them may, when combined with contemporaneous gamma-ray
observations, lead to significant detections. Here we describe a new method
that uses such candidates to search for transient events using archival
very-high-energy gamma-ray data from imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes
(IACTs). We demonstrate the application of this method to sub-threshold binary
neutron star (BNS) merger candidates identified in Advanced LIGO's first
observing run. We identify eight hours of archival VERITAS observations
coincident with seven BNS merger candidates and search them for TeV emission.
No gamma-ray emission is detected; we calculate upper limits on the integral
flux and compare them to a short gamma-ray burst model. We anticipate this
search method to serve as a starting point for IACT searches with future
LIGO/Virgo data releases as well as in other sub-threshold studies for
multimessenger transients, such as IceCube neutrinos. Furthermore, it can be
deployed immediately with other current-generation IACTs, and has the potential
for real-time use that places minimal burden on experimental operations.
Lastly, this method may serve as a pilot for studies with the Cherenkov
Telescope Array, which has the potential to observe even larger fields of view
in its divergent pointing mode
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