Deep Near-Infrared Observations and Identifications of Chandra Sources in the Orion Molecular Cloud 2 and 3

We conducted deep NIR imaging observations of the Orion molecular cloud 2 and 3 using QUIRC on the 88-inch telescope of the University of Hawaii. Our purposes are 1) to generate a comprehensive NIR source catalog of these star forming clouds, and 2) to identify the NIR counterpart of the Chandra X-ray sources that have no counterpart in the 2MASS catalog. Our J-, H-, and K-band observations are about 2 mag deeper than those of 2MASS, and well match the current Chandra observation. We detected 1448 NIR sources, for which we derived the position, the J-, H-, and K-band magnitude, and the 2MASS counterpart. Using this catalog, we identified the NIR counterpart for about 42% of the 2MASS-unIDed Chandra sources. The nature of these Chandra sources are discussed using their NIR colors and spatial distributions, and a dozen protostar and brown dwarf candidates are identified.Comment: 39 pages, 9 postscript figures, accepted for publication in A

Case of relapsed AIDS-related plasmablastic lymphoma treated with autologous stem cell transplantation and highly active antiretroviral therapy

Plasmablastic lymphoma is a rare and aggressive malignancy strongly associated with HIV infection. The refractory/relapsed disease rate is high, and the survival rate is characteristically poor. There are no satisfactory salvage regimens for relapsed cases. We successfully performed autologous stem cell transplantation using a regimen consisting of MCNU (ranimustine), etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan in a Japanese patient with relapsed AIDS-related plasmablastic lymphoma of the oral cavity. Highly active antiretroviral therapy continued during the therapy. Therapy-related toxicity was tolerable, and a total of 40 Gy of irradiation was administered after autologous stem cell transplantation. The patient has remained in complete remission for 16 months since transplantation

BGDL-II: a GPS data logger for birds

We have developed a new GPS data logger consisting of a receiver, timer, memory, and battery. It is principally designed for long period tracking of migratory birds. It can fix 600 positions with one small lithium battery. We can set an arbitrary measuring schedule prior to each experiment. We can, for example, track a bird over six months, fixing positions three times a day. The whole unit weighs 67 g including battery and casing. The casing is pressure-resistant up to 3 bars. The main advantages compared to tracking methods based on the ARGOS system are: 1) several times cheaper equipment, 2) no charge for the use of satellite links, 3) the errors in the position data obtained are more than 10 times smaller, 4) the schedule setting has greater flexibility, and 5) the fixing has a lesser failure rate. However these advantages are realized at the cost of real time delivery of position data as users must re-capture the birds to obtain the stored data. In this paper, we explain the configuration of equipment, principles of operation, and the performance. We also discuss some results of albatross tracking. In the experiment the failure rate in the fixing of the albatross positions averaged 20%