3,911 research outputs found
Meteoroid detector
A meteoroid detector is described which uses, a cold cathode discharge tube with a gas-pressurized cell in space for recording a meteoroid puncture of the cell and for determining the size of the puncture
SAM 2 data user's guide
This document is intended to serve as a guide to the use of the data products from the Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement (SAM) 2 experiment for scientific investigations of polar stratospheric aerosols. Included is a detailed description of the Beta and Aerosol Number Density Archive Tape (BANAT), which is the SAM 2 data product containing the aerosol extinction data available for these investigations. Also included are brief descriptions of the instrument operation, data collection, processing and validation, and some of the scientific analyses conducted to date
SAM-2 ground-truth plan: Correlative measurements for the Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement-2 (SAM 2) sensor on the Nimbus G satellite
The SAM-2 will fly aboard the Nimbus-G satellite for launch in the fall of 1978 and measure stratospheric vertical profiles of aerosol extinction in high latitude bands. The plan gives details of the location and times for the simultaneous satellite/correlative measurements for the nominal launch time, the rationale and choice of the correlative sensors, their characteristics and expected accuracies, and the conversion of their data to extinction profiles. The SAM-2 expected instrument performance and data inversion results are presented. Various atmospheric models representative of polar stratospheric aerosols are used in the SAM-2 and correlative sensor analyses
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Placental Structure in Preterm Birth Among HIV-Positive Versus HIV-Negative Women in Kenya.
BackgroundPreterm birth (PTB) is a major cause of infant morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Recent data suggest that in addition to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) increases the risk of PTB. As the mechanisms remain unexplored, we conducted this study to determine whether HIV and ART were associated with placental changes that could contribute to PTB.SettingWe collected and evaluated placentas from 38 HIV-positive women on ART and 43 HIV-negative women who had preterm deliveries in Nairobi, Kenya.MethodsAnatomical features of the placentas were examined at gross and microscopic levels. Cases were matched for gestational age and compared by the investigators who were blinded to maternal HIV serostatus.ResultsAmong preterm placentas, HIV infection was significantly associated with thrombosis (P = 0.001), infarction (P = 0.032), anomalies in cord insertion (P = 0.02), gross evidence of membrane infection (P = 0.043), and reduced placental thickness (P = 0.010). Overall, preterm placentas in both groups were associated with immature villi, syncytial knotting, villitis, and deciduitis. Features of HIV-positive versus HIV-negative placentas included significant fibrinoid deposition with villus degeneration, syncytiotrophoblast delamination, red blood cell adhesion, hypervascularity, and reduction in both surface area and perimeter of the terminal villi.ConclusionsThese results imply that HIV infection and/or ART are associated with morphological changes in preterm placentas that contribute to delivery before 37 weeks. Hypervascularity suggests that the observed pathologies may be attributable, in part, to hypoxia. Further research to explore potential mechanisms will help elucidate the pathways that are involved perhaps pointing to interventions for decreasing the risk of prematurity among HIV-positive women
Near-Infrared Polarimetric Adaptive Optics Observations of NGC 1068: A torus created by a hydromagnetic outflow wind
We present J' and K' imaging linear polarimetric adaptive optics observations
of NGC 1068 using MMT-Pol on the 6.5-m MMT. These observations allow us to
study the torus from a magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) framework. In a 0.5" (30 pc)
aperture at K', we find that polarisation arising from the passage of radiation
from the inner edge of the torus through magnetically aligned dust grains in
the clumps is the dominant polarisation mechanism, with an intrinsic
polarisation of 7.0%2.2%. This result yields a torus magnetic field
strength in the range of 482 mG through paramagnetic alignment, and
139 mG through the Chandrasekhar-Fermi method. The measured
position angle (P.A.) of polarisation at K is found to be similar to the
P.A. of the obscuring dusty component at few parsec scales using infrared
interferometric techniques. We show that the constant component of the magnetic
field is responsible for the alignment of the dust grains, and aligned with the
torus axis onto the plane of the sky. Adopting this magnetic field
configuration and the physical conditions of the clumps in the MHD outflow wind
model, we estimate a mass outflow rate 0.17 M yr at 0.4
pc from the central engine for those clumps showing near-infrared dichroism.
The models used were able to create the torus in a timescale of 10
yr with a rotational velocity of 1228 km s at 0.4 pc. We conclude
that the evolution, morphology and kinematics of the torus in NGC 1068 can be
explained within a MHD framework.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Accepted by MNRA
Real-time analysis of gene regulation by glucocorticoid hormones
There is increasing evidence that temporal factors are important in allowing
cells to gain additional information from external factors, such as hormones and
cytokines. We sought to discover how cell responses to glucocorticoids develop
over time, and how the response kinetics vary according to ligand structure and
concentration, and hence have developed a continuous gene transcription
measurement system, based on an interleukin-6 (IL-6) luciferase reporter gene.
We measured the time to maximal response, maximal response and integrated
response, and have compared these results with a conventional, end point
glucocorticoid bioassay. We studied natural glucocorticoids (corticosterone and
cortisol), synthetic glucocorticoids (dexamethasone) and glucocorticoid
precursors with weak, or absent bioactivity. We found a close correlation
between half maximal effective concentration (EC50) for maximal response, and
for integrated response, but with consistently higher EC50 for the latter. There
was no relation between the concentration of ligand and the time to maximal
response. A comparison between conventional end point assays and real-time
measurement showed similar effects for dexamethasone and hydrocortisone, with a
less effective inhibition of IL-6 seen with corticosterone. We profiled the
activity of precursor steroids, and found pregnenolone, progesterone,
21-hydroxyprogesterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone all to be ineffective in the
real-time assay, but in contrast, progesterone and 21-hydroxyprogesterone showed
an IL-6 inhibitory activity in the end point assay. Taken together, our data
show how ligand concentration can alter the amplitude of glucocorticoid
response, and also that a comparison between real-time and end point assays
reveals an unexpected diversity of the function of glucocorticoid precursor
steroids, with implications for human disorders associated with their
overproduction
The Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Program on the Orion Nebula Cluster
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Program on the Orion Nebula Cluster
has used 104 orbits of HST time to image the Great Orion Nebula region with the
Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2)
and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi Object Spectrograph (NICMOS) instruments
in 11 filters ranging from the U-band to the H-band equivalent of HST. The
program has been intended to perform the definitive study of the stellar
component of the ONC at visible wavelengths, addressing key questions like the
cluster IMF, age spread, mass accretion, binarity and cirumstellar disk
evolution. The scanning pattern allowed to cover a contiguous field of
approximately 600 square arcminutes with both ACS and WFPC2, with a typical
exposure time of approximately 11 minutes per ACS filter, corresponding to a
point source depth AB(F435W) = 25.8 and AB(F775W)=25.2 with 0.2 magnitudes of
photometric error. We describe the observations, data reduction and data
products, including images, source catalogs and tools for quick look preview.
In particular, we provide ACS photometry for 3399 stars, most of them detected
at multiple epochs, WFPC2 photometry for 1643 stars, 1021 of them detected in
the U-band, and NICMOS JH photometry for 2116 stars. We summarize the early
science results that have been presented in a number of papers. The final set
of images and the photometric catalogs are publicly available through the
archive as High Level Science Products at the STScI Multimission Archive hosted
by the Space Telescope Science Institute.Comment: Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journal Supplement
Series, March 27, 201
High pressure photoluminescence of bismuth-doped yttria-alumina-silica glass
We report the effects of high pressure, up to 10.45 GPa, on the photoluminescence of Bi-doped yttria-alumina-silica (Bi:YAlSi) glass under 532 nm excitation. We identify three emission bands attributed to Bi3+, Bi+ and the controversial NIR emitting Bi centre, BiNIR. As the pressure is increased up to ~6 GPa, an irreversible discontinuity in the trend for emission band energies indicates that an irreversible structural modification occurs. This irreversible discontinuity results in the peak energy of emission bands attributed to Bi+ and BiNIR shifting from those typical of Bi-doped oxide glasses to those observed in Bi-doped gallium-lanthanum-sulfide (Bi:GaLaS) glass. The Bi3+ emission band can be almost eliminated at ~6 GPa, but its intensity increases rapidly as the pressure in further increased. The ability we report here to irreversibly modify the emission of Bi-doped glass using pressure treatment adds an extra degree of freedom in the processing parameters available to researchers looking to optimize the emission from Bi-doped glasses
Liver transplantation for type I and type IV glycogen storage disease
Progressive liver failure or hepatic complications of the primary disease led to orthotopic liver transplantation in eight children with glycogen storage disease over a 9-year period. One patient had glycogen storage disease (GSD) type I (von Gierke disease) and seven patients had type IV GSD (Andersen disease). As previously reported [19], a 16.5-year-old-girl with GSD type I was successfully treated in 1982 by orthotopic liver transplantation under cyclosporine and steroid immunosuppression. The metabolic consequences of the disease have been eliminated, the renal function and size have remained normal, and the patient has lived a normal young adult life. A late portal venous thrombosis was treated successfully with a distal splenorenal shunt. Orthotopic liver transplantation was performed in seven children with type N GSD who had progressive hepatic failure. Two patients died early from technical complications. The other five have no evidence of recurrent hepatic amylopectinosis after 1.1–5.8 postoperative years. They have had good physical and intellectual maturation. Amylopectin was found in many extrahepatic tissues prior to surgery, but cardiopathy and skeletal myopathy have not developed after transplantation. Postoperative heart biopsies from patients showed either minimal amylopectin deposits as long as 4.5 years following transplantation or a dramatic reduction in sequential biopsies from one patient who initially had dense myocardial deposits. Serious hepatic derangement is seen most commonly in types T and IV GSD. Liver transplantation cures the hepatic manifestations of both types. The extrahepatic deposition of abnormal glycogen appears not to be problematic in type I disease, and while potentially more threatening in type IV disease, may actually exhibit signs of regression after hepatic allografting
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