300 research outputs found
Central rotations of Milky Way Globular Clusters
Most Milky Way globular clusters (GCs) exhibit measurable flattening, even if
on a very low level. Both cluster rotation and tidal fields are thought to
cause this flattening. Nevertheless, rotation has only been confirmed in a
handful of GCs, based mostly on individual radial velocities at large radii. We
are conducting a survey of the central kinematics of Galactic GCs using the new
Integral Field Unit instrument VIRUS-W. We detect rotation in all 11 GCs that
we have observed so far, rendering it likely that a large majority of the Milky
Way GCs rotate. We use published catalogs of the ACS survey of GCs to derive
central ellipticities and position angles. We show that in all cases where the
central ellipticity permits an accurate measurement of the position angle,
those angles are in excellent agreement with the kinematic position angles that
we derive from the VIRUS-W velocity fields. We find an unexpected tight
correlation between central rotation and outer ellipticity, indicating that
rotation drives flattening for the objects in our sample. We also find a tight
correlation between central rotation and published values for the central
velocity dispersion, most likely due to rotation impacting the old dispersion
measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Mt. Wendelstein imaging of comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak during the 2017 perihelion arc
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak (41P), a Jupiter family comet with three
discoveries over about 100 years, is in a short-periodic orbit around the Sun
with the perihelion close to the Earth distance. The 2017 apparition of 41P
offered a long-lasting visibility of the comet at a close distance to Earth.
The four month-long imaging campaign with the 2 m telescope at the Mount
Wendelstein Observatory was aimed at characterizing dust activity and nucleus
properties of the comet. Using a new analysis method of the inner coma flux, we
derived a small mean equivalent radius of about 600 m for the nucleus with an
unusual body axes ratio that is higher than two. The nucleus rotation axis was
determined from the geometric appearance of coma structures, which were
enhanced in the images. A long-lasting coma fan was produced by an extended
region at high latitudes on the slowly rotating nucleus, whereas isolated jets
originated from narrow, low latitude active regions on the nucleus. The dust
activity of 41P, despite being difficult to quantify exactly because of an
unknown phase function correction for the comet, indicates a steep radial
profile that falls off with an increasing distance from the Sun. Colors and
flux profiles provide evidence for dust fragmentation in the inner coma of the
comet. A singular outburst event created various dust structures in the coma.
The outburst came from an extended region on the nucleus and was due to either
a landslide on the nucleus or a sudden material release from a subsurface
pocket of volatile ice.Comment: Published on 29 May 2020 in A&A, 25 pages, 12 figures, 9 table
Seminar-Beiträge Cache-Optimierung
Dieser Bericht enthält die Ausarbeitungen von Vorträgen aus einem
Seminar gleichen Namens, das am 29. Januar 1998 am Institut fĂĽr
Programmstrukturen und Datenorganisation unter Leitung von Holger
Hopp, Daniela Genius und Michael Philippsen stattfand.
Die Ausarbeitungen geben einen Ăśberblick ĂĽber Techniken und Modelle,
um die Zwischenspeicher (Caches), die in praktisch allen
heutigen Rechnern eingesetzt werden, effektiv einzusetzen. Dabei
stehen insbesondere solche Techniken im Vordergrund, die von
Übersetzern ausgeführt werden können wie diverse
Schleifentransformationen, Speicherabbildungen, Vorzeitiges Laden von
Daten. AuĂźerdem werden Konsistenzmodelle fĂĽr
Parallelrechner untersucht
Immunomodulation in the treatment and/or prevention of bronchial asthma
ABSTRACTThe immunologic hallmark of atopic allergy and asthma is an increased production of IgE and T helper (h) type 2 cell cytokines (interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13) by Th cells reacting to common environmental allergens. All of us inhale allergens and healthy non-atopics produce allergen-specific IgG1, IgG4 and the Th1 cytokine interferon-α, as well as IL-12 from macrophages. We now have many modalities of immunomodulation to decrease the effect of IL-4 or IL-5 or production and level of IgE or agents to shift the immune response from a Th2 to a Th1 response, thereby decreasing the allergic inflammatory response in the airways. In the present review we focus on conventional immunotherapy, mycobacterial vaccines, DNA vaccines using cytosine guanosine, inhibitors of IL-4 and IL-5 and anti-IgE: Omalizumab
Factors associated with the decision to obtain an HIV test among Chinese/Chinese American community college women in Northern California
HIV testing and counseling is the cornerstone of a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention and education. This article examines reasons for and barriers to obtaining an HIV test among 230 Chinese/Chinese American college students. Using Health Belief Model constructs, a cross-sectional study was administered at four California community college campuses. The self-report survey results indicated that 30% of respondents have obtained HIV testing. The most common reasons for testing were “just to find out” (73%), “having had unprotected sexual intercourse” (63%), and “having had sex with a new partner” (57%). Among those who were never tested, low levels of perceived susceptibility (66%) and lack of knowledge on testing sites (36%) were the most common barriers. Multiple unconditional logistic regression analyses revealed age, ethnic identity, lack of condom use during last intercourse, lower perceived barriers, and higher self-efficacy as significant predictors of HIV testing history. Emphasizing these factors in HIV education campaigns will likely increase testing rates within this population
Recombinant human preproinsulin expression, purification and reaction with insulin autoantibodies in sera from patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
A novel prokaryotic expression vector pGEX-6T was designed for high-level expression of recombinant fusion protein with a histidine-hexapeptide and glutathione-S-transferase at its N-terminus and the recombinant human preproinsulin at its C-terminus. Efficiency of expression was investigated in the Escherichia coli strain CAG456. The synthesized protein was sequestered in an insoluble form in inclusion bodies and was purified to homogeneity by one-step affinity chromatography based on the specific complex formation of the histidine-hexapeptide and a chelating matrix which was charged with Ni2+ ions. The antigenic nature of the purified recombinant preproinsulin fusion protein was evaluated by ELISA screening for insulin autoantibodies in selected sera from patients with recent-onset type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus classified by the existence of additional autoantibodies reactive against glutamic acid decarboxylase. 14% of the tested sera (n=43) conttained insulin autoantibodies which strongly recognized the recombinant human preproinsulin. Comparable measurements with both recombinant human preproinsulin and mature insulin suggested that the observed autoantigenicity of preproinsulin was mediated by the C-peptide or/and signal peptide
Fast reflectivity imaging in 3D using SAFT
The computational burden for 3D Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) is large as for each voxel the delay for each acquired A-scan has to be calculated, e.g. O(N5) for N3 voxels and N2 A-scans. For 3D reconstruction of objects which are large in terms of the wavelength, e.g. ≥ (100 )³, the computation of one volume takes several days on a current multicore PC. If the 3D distribution of speed of sound is applied to correct the delays for objects with varying speed of sound the computation time increases further. This overview paper presents the implementations for 3D SAFT developed by the KIT group and discusses their computational performance
- …