Cavity Nonlinear Optics at Low Photon Numbers from Collective Atomic Motion

We report on Kerr nonlinearity and dispersive optical bistability of a Fabry-Perot optical resonator due to the displacement of ultracold atoms trapped within. In the driven resonator, such collective motion is induced by optical forces acting upon up to $10^5$ $^{87}$Rb atoms prepared in the lowest band of a one-dimensional intracavity optical lattice. The longevity of atomic motional coherence allows for strongly nonlinear optics at extremely low cavity photon numbers, as demonstrated by the observation of both branches of optical bistability at photon numbers below unity.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Modifed following reviewer comment

A search for rapidly pulsating hot subdwarf stars in the GALEX survey

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) provided near- and far-UV observations for approximately 77 percent of the sky over a ten-year period; however, the data reduction pipeline initially only released single NUV and FUV images to the community. The recently released Python module gPhoton changes this, allowing calibrated time-series aperture photometry to be extracted easily from the raw GALEX data set. Here we use gPhoton to generate light curves for all hot subdwarf B (sdB) stars that were observed by GALEX, with the intention of identifying short-period, p-mode pulsations. We find that the spacecraft's short visit durations, uneven gaps between visits, and dither pattern make the detection of hot subdwarf pulsations difficult. Nonetheless, we detect UV variations in four previously known pulsating targets and report their UV pulsation amplitudes and frequencies. Additionally, we find that several other sdB targets not previously known to vary show promising signals in their periodograms. Using optical follow-up photometry with the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network, we confirm p-mode pulsations in one of these targets, LAMOST J082517.99+113106.3, and report it as the most recent addition to the sdBVr class of variable stars.Comment: 11 Pages, 8 Figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

miR-21-mediated regulation of 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase in colon cancer

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Elevated prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels are observed in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, and this increase is associated with poor prognosis. Increased synthesis of PGE2 in CRC has been shown to occur through COX-2-dependent mechanisms; however, loss of the PGE2-catabolizing enzyme, 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH, HPGD), in colonic tumors contributes to increased prostaglandin levels and poor patient survival. While loss of 15-PGDH can occur through transcriptional mechanisms, we demonstrate that 15-PGDH can be additionally regulated by a miRNA-mediated mechanism. We show that 15-PGDH and miR-21 are inversely correlated in CRC patients, with increased miR-21 levels associating with low 15-PGDH expression. 15-PGDH can be directly regulated by miR-21 through distinct sites in its 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR), and miR-21 expression in CRC cells attenuates 15-PGDH and promotes increased PGE2 levels. Additionally, epithelial growth factor (EGF) signaling suppresses 15-PGDH expression while simultaneously enhancing miR-21 levels. miR-21 inhibition represses CRC cell proliferation, which is enhanced with EGF receptor (EGFR) inhibition. These findings present a novel regulatory mechanism of 15-PGDH by miR-21, and how dysregulated expression of miR-21 may contribute to loss of 15-PGDH expression and promote CRC progression via increased accumulation of PGE2.NIH R01 CA134609NIH R01 AR069044NIH/NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA168524)New Jersey Commission on Cancer ResearchAmerican Heart Association (15GRNT23240019

Glaciers in the Canadian Columbia Basin, Technical Report

The cryosphere - all forms of frozen water on Earth- plays a fundamental role in its climate system. Seasonal snow, mountain glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice reflect much of the incoming shortwave radiation at high latitudes and in mountainous terrain back to space, helping to regulate the surface temperature of the planet. Accelerating concentrations of greenhouse gases (Solomon et al. 2009) are responsible for late twentieth and early twenty-first century tropospheric warming; this warming in turn drives large-scale changes in the cryosphere, with global implications that include changes in hemispheric circulation (Francis and Vavrus 2012), sea level rise (Gardner et al. 2013) and increased warming through ice-albedo feedbacks

Towards a Better Understanding of Rural Homelessness: An Examination of Housing Crisis in a Small, Rural Minnesota Community

This report compiles the work done during the Rural Housing Policy course at the University of Minnesota Morris by the students and their instructor, Professor Greg Thorson. the class reviewed the literature on urban and rural homelessness, interviewed local providers of social service programs, developed a survey to be administered at regional homeless shelters, wrote the Institutional Review Board (IRB) proposal to authorize the administration of the survey, administered the survey, and analyzed the results.https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/cst/1009/thumbnail.jp

Evaluating Operational AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature Data at the Coastline Using Benthic Temperature Loggers

The nearshore coastal ocean is one of the most dynamic and biologically productive regions on our planet, supporting a wide range of ecosystem services. It is also one of the most vulnerable regions, increasingly exposed to anthropogenic pressure. In the context of climate change, monitoring changes in nearshore coastal waters requires systematic and sustained observations of key essential climate variables (ECV), one of which is sea surface temperature (SST). As temperature influences physical, chemical and biological processes within coastal systems, accurate monitoring is crucial for detecting change. SST is an ECV that can be measured systematically from satellites. Yet, owing to a lack of adequate in situ data, the accuracy and precision of satellite SST at the coastline are not well known. In a prior study, we attempted to address this by taking advantage of in situ SST measurements collected by a group of surfers. Here, we make use of a three year time-series (2014–2017) of in situ water temperature measurements collected using a temperature logger (recording every 30 min) deployed within a kelp forest (∼3 m below chart datum) at a subtidal rocky reef site near Plymouth, UK. We compared the temperature measurements with three other independent in situ SST datasets in the region, from two autonomous buoys located ∼7 km and ∼33 km from the coastline, and from a group of surfers at two beaches near the kelp site. The three datasets showed good agreement, with discrepancies consistent with the spatial separation of the sites. The in situ SST measurements collected from the kelp site and the two autonomous buoys were matched with operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) EO SST passes, all within 1 h of the in situ data. By extracting data from the closest satellite pixel to the three sites, we observed a significant reduction in the performance of AVHRR at retrieving SST at the coastline, with root mean square differences at the kelp site over twice that observed at the two offshore buoys. Comparing the in situ water temperature data with pixels surrounding the kelp site revealed the performance of the satellite data improves when moving two to three pixels offshore and that this improvement was better when using an SST algorithm that treats each pixel independently in the retrieval process. At the three sites, we related differences between satellite and in situ SST data with a suite of atmospheric variables, collected from a nearby atmospheric observatory, and a high temporal resolution land surface temperature (LST) dataset. We found that differences between satellite and in situ SST at the coastline (kelp site) were well correlated with LST and solar zenith angle; implying contamination of the pixel by land is the principal cause of these larger differences at the coastline, as opposed to issues with atmospheric correction. This contamination could be either from land directly within the pixel, potentially impacted by errors in geo-location, or possibly through thermal adjacency effects. Our results demonstrate the value of using benthic temperature loggers for evaluating satellite SST data in coastal regions, and highlight issues with retrievals at the coastline that may inform future improvements in operational products

High-Dose Chemotherapy with Autologous Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Rescue for Pediatric Brain Tumor Patients: A Single Institution Experience from UCLA

Background. Dose-dependent response makes certain pediatric brain tumors appropriate targets for high-dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic stem-cell rescue (HDCT-AHSCR). Methods. The clinical outcomes and toxicities were analyzed retrospectively for 18 consecutive patients ≤19 y/o treated with HDCT-AHSCR at UCLA (1999–2009). Results. Patients' median age was 2.3 years. Fourteen had primary and 4 recurrent tumors: 12 neural/embryonal (7 medulloblastomas, 4 primitive neuroectodermal tumors, and a pineoblastoma), 3 glial/mixed, and 3 germ cell tumors. Eight patients had initial gross-total and seven subtotal resections. HDCT mostly consisted of carboplatin and/or thiotepa ± etoposide (n = 16). Nine patients underwent a single AHSCR and nine ≥3 tandems. Three-year progression-free and overall survival probabilities were 60.5% ± 16 and 69.3% ± 11.5. Ten patients with pre-AHSCR complete remissions were alive/disease-free, whereas 5 of 8 with measurable disease were deceased (median followup: 2.3 yrs). Nine of 13 survivors avoided radiation. Single AHSCR regimens had greater toxicity than ≥3 AHSCR (P < .01). Conclusion. HDCT-AHSCR has a definitive, though limited role for selected pediatric brain tumors with poor prognosis and pretransplant complete/partial remissions

Quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites (BORTAS) experiment: design, execution and science overview

We describe the design and execution of the BORTAS (Quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites) experiment, which has the overarching objective of understanding the chemical aging of air masses that contain the emission products from seasonal boreal wildfires and how these air masses subsequently impact downwind atmospheric composition. The central focus of the experiment was a two-week deployment of the UK BAe-146-301 Atmospheric Research Aircraft (ARA) over eastern Canada, based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Atmospheric ground-based and sonde measurements over Canada and the Azores associated with the planned July 2010 deployment of the ARA, which was postponed by 12 months due to UK-based flights related to the dispersal of material emitted by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, went ahead and constituted phase A of the experiment. Phase B of BORTAS in July 2011 involved the same atmospheric measurements, but included the ARA, special satellite observations and a more comprehensive ground-based measurement suite. The high-frequency aircraft data provided a comprehensive chemical snapshot of pyrogenic plumes from wildfires, corresponding to photochemical (and physical) ages ranging from 45 sr 10 days, largely by virtue of widespread fires over Northwestern Ontario. Airborne measurements reported a large number of emitted gases including semi-volatile species, some of which have not been been previously reported in pyrogenic plumes, with the corresponding emission ratios agreeing with previous work for common gases. Analysis of the NOy data shows evidence of net ozone production in pyrogenic plumes, controlled by aerosol abundance, which increases as a function of photochemical age. The coordinated ground-based and sonde data provided detailed but spatially limited information that put the aircraft data into context of the longer burning season in the boundary layer. Ground-based measurements of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) over Halifax show that forest fires can on an episodic basis represent a substantial contribution to total surface PM2.5