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%$\pm$2.2%. This result yields a torus magnetic field strength in the range of 4$-$82 mG through paramagnetic alignment, and 139$^{+11}_{-20}$ 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 $\le$0.17 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ 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 $\geq$10$^{5}$ yr with a rotational velocity of $\leq$1228 km s$^{-1}$ 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

Variability of the extreme z=4.72 blazar, GB 1428+4217

We report X-ray and radio variability of GB 1428+4217 which confirm its blazar nature. IR observations reveal a powerful optical-UV component, not obscured by dust, which is suggestive of the presence of a billion solar mass black hole, already formed by z ~ 5. A detailed comparison of the broad band spectral properties of GB 1428+4217 with those of nearby blazars shows it to be extreme, but nevertheless consistent with the trend found for nearby sources.Comment: MNRAS, in press - 5 pages, 5 figure

Studying Cat (Felis catus) Diabetes: Beware of the Acromegalic Imposter

Naturally occurring diabetes mellitus (DM) is common in domestic cats (Felis catus). It has been proposed as a model for human Type 2 DM given many shared features. Small case studies demonstrate feline DM also occurs as a result of insulin resistance due to a somatotrophinoma. The current study estimates the prevalence of hypersomatotropism or acromegaly in the largest cohort of diabetic cats to date, evaluates clinical presentation and ease of recognition. Diabetic cats were screened for hypersomatotropism using serum total insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1; radioimmunoassay), followed by further evaluation of a subset of cases with suggestive IGF-1 (>1000 ng/ml) through pituitary imaging and/ or histopathology. Clinicians indicated pre-test suspicion for hypersomatotropism. In total 1221 diabetic cats were screened; 319 (26.1%) demonstrated a serum IGF-1>1000 ng/ml (95% confidence interval: 23.6-28.6%). Of these cats a subset of 63 (20%) underwent pituitary imaging and 56/63 (89%) had a pituitary tumour on computed tomography; an additional three on magnetic resonance imaging and one on necropsy. These data suggest a positive predictive value of serum IGF-1 for hypersomatotropism of 95% (95% confidence interval: 90-100%), thus suggesting the overall hypersomatotropism prevalence among UK diabetic cats to be 24.8% (95% confidence interval: 21.2-28.6%). Only 24% of clinicians indicated a strong pre-test suspicion; most hypersomatotropism cats did not display typical phenotypical acromegaly signs. The current data suggest hypersomatotropism screening should be considered when studying diabetic cats and opportunities exist for comparative acromegaly research, especially in light of the many detected communalities with the human disease

Low-frequency measurement of the tunneling amplitude in a flux qubit

We have observed signatures of resonant tunneling in an Al three-junction qubit, inductively coupled to a Nb LC tank circuit. The resonant properties of the tank oscillator are sensitive to the effective susceptibility (or inductance) of the qubit, which changes drastically as its flux states pass through degeneracy. The tunneling amplitude is estimated from the data. We find good agreement with the theoretical predictions in the regime of their validity.Comment: REVTeX4, 3pp., 3 EPS figures. v2: new sample, textual clarifications. v3: minor polishing; final, to appear in PRB Rapid

Early invasive versus conservative strategies for unstable angina & non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction in the stent era (Review)

BACKGROUND: In patients with unstable angina and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (UA/NSTEMI) two strategies are possible: a routine invasive strategy where all patients undergo coronary angiography shortly after admission and, if indicated, coronary revascularization; or a conservative strategy where medical therapy alone is used initially with selection of patients for angiography based on clinical symptoms or investigational evidence of persistent myocardial ischemia. OBJECTIVES: To determine the benefits of an invasive compared to a conservative strategy for treating UA/NSTEMI in the stent era. SEARCH STRATEGY: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Issue 3 2005), MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched from 1996 to September 2005 with no language restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: Included studies were prospective trials comparing invasive with conservative strategies in UA/NSTEMI. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We identified 5 studies (7818 participants). Using intention-to-treat analysis with random effects models, summary estimates of relative risk (95% confidence interval [CI]) were determined for primary end-points of all-cause death, fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction; all-cause death or non-fatal myocardial infarction; and refractory angina. Further analysis of included studies was undertaken based on whether glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists were used routinely. Heterogeneity was assessed using chi-square and variance (I(2)) methods. MAIN RESULTS: In the all-study analysis, mortality during initial hospitalization showed a trend to hazard with an invasive strategy; relative risk 1.59 (95% CI 0.96 to 2.64). Mortality and myocardial infarction assessed at 2-5 years in two trials were significantly decreased by an invasive strategy with relative risk of 0.75 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.92) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.61 to 0.91) respectively. The composite end-point of death or non-fatal myocardial infarction was significantly decreased by an invasive strategy at several time points after initial hospitalization. The incidence of early

Correction of both immunodeficiency and hypoparathyroidism by thymus transplantation in complete DiGeorge Syndrome

Combined immune deficiency due to athymia in patients with complete DiGeorge syndrome can be corrected by allogeneic thymus transplantation. Hypoparathyroidism is a frequent concomitant clinical problem in these patients, which persists after thymus transplantation. Cotransplantation of allogeneic thymus and parental parathyroid tissue has been attempted but does not achieve durable correction of the patients' hypoparathyroidism due to parathyroid graft rejection. Surprisingly, we observed correction of hypoparathyroidism in one patient after thymus transplantation. Immunohistochemical analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization confirmed the presence of allogeneic parathyroid tissue in the patient's thymus transplant biopsy. Despite a lack of HLA‐matching between thymus donor and recipient, the reconstituted immune system displays tolerance toward the thymus donor. Therefore we expect this patient's hypoparathyroidism to be permanently cured. It is recognised that ectopic parathyroid tissue is not infrequently found in the thymus. If such thymuses could be identified, we propose that their use would offer a compelling approach to achieving lasting correction of both immunodeficiency and hypoparathyroidism

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Dynamical Modeling of the Broad-Line Region

We present models of the H$\beta$-emitting broad-line region (BLR) in seven Seyfert 1 galaxies from the Lick AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus) Monitoring Project 2011 sample, drawing inferences on the BLR structure and dynamics as well as the mass of the central supermassive black hole. We find that the BLR is generally a thick disk, viewed close to face-on, with preferential emission back toward the ionizing source. The dynamics in our sample range from near-circular elliptical orbits to inflowing or outflowing trajectories. We measure black hole masses of $\log_{10}(M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot) = 6.48^{+0.21}_{-0.18}$ for PG 1310$-$108, $7.50^{+0.25}_{-0.18}$ for Mrk 50, $7.46^{+0.15}_{-0.21}$ for Mrk 141, $7.58^{+0.08}_{-0.08}$ for Mrk 279, $7.11^{+0.20}_{-0.17}$ for Mrk 1511, $6.65^{+0.27}_{-0.15}$ for NGC 4593, and $6.94^{+0.14}_{-0.14}$ for Zw 229$-$015. We use these black hole mass measurements along with cross-correlation time lags and line widths to recover the scale factor $f$ used in traditional reverberation mapping measurements. Combining our results with other studies that use this modeling technique, bringing our sample size to 16, we calculate a scale factor that can be used for measuring black hole masses in other reverberation mapping campaigns. When using the root-mean-square (rms) spectrum and using the line dispersion to measure the line width, we find $\log_{10}(f_{{\rm rms},\sigma})_{\rm pred} = 0.57 \pm 0.19$. Finally, we search for correlations between $f$ and other AGN and BLR parameters and find marginal evidence that $f$ is correlated with $M_{\rm BH}$ and the BLR inclination angle, but no significant evidence of a correlation with the AGN luminosity or Eddington ratio.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Connectomics and molecular imaging in neurodegeneration.

Our understanding on human neurodegenerative disease was previously limited to clinical data and inferences about the underlying pathology based on histopathological examination. Animal models and in vitro experiments have provided evidence for a cell-autonomous and a non-cell-autonomous mechanism for the accumulation of neuropathology. Combining modern neuroimaging tools to identify distinct neural networks (connectomics) with target-specific positron emission tomography (PET) tracers is an emerging and vibrant field of research with the potential to examine the contributions of cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous mechanisms to the spread of pathology. The evidence provided here suggests that both cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous processes relate to the observed in vivo characteristics of protein pathology and neurodegeneration across the disease spectrum. We propose a synergistic model of cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous accounts that integrates the most critical factors (i.e., protein strain, susceptible cell feature and connectome) contributing to the development of neuronal dysfunction and in turn produces the observed clinical phenotypes. We believe that a timely and longitudinal pursuit of such research programs will greatly advance our understanding of the complex mechanisms driving human neurodegenerative diseases.The Molecular Imaging of Neurodegeneration Cologne (MINC) Symposium was partly funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) awarded to Dr. Thilo van Eimeren (EI 892/5-1). The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) also awarded funding to Dr. Alexander Drzezga (DR442/91)

The spectral energy distribution of the central parsecs of the nearest AGN

Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the central few tens of parsec region of some of the nearest, most well studied, active galactic nuclei (AGN) are presented. These genuine AGN-core SEDs, mostly from Seyfert galaxies, are characterised by two main features: an IR bump with the maximum in the 2-10 micron range, and an increasing X-ray spectrum in the 1 to ~200 keV region. These dominant features are common to Seyfert type 1 and 2 objects alike. Type 2 AGN exhibit a sharp drop shortward of 2 micron, with the optical to UV region being fully absorbed, while type 1s show instead a gentle 2 micron drop ensued by a secondary, partially-absorbed optical to UV emission bump. Assuming the bulk of optical to UV photons generated in these AGN are reprocessed by dust and re-emitted in the IR in an isotropic manner, the IR bump luminosity represents >70% of the total energy output in these objects while the high energies above 20 keV are the second energetically important contribution. Galaxies selected by their warm IR colours, i.e. presenting a relatively-flat flux distribution in the 12 to 60 micron range have often being classified as AGN. The results from these high spatial resolution SEDs question this criterion as a general rule. It is found that the intrinsic shape of the IR SED of an AGN and inferred bolometric luminosity largely depart from those derived from large aperture data. AGN luminosities can be overestimated by up to two orders of magnitude if relying on IR satellite data. We find these differences to be critical for AGN luminosities below or about 10^{44} erg/s. Above this limit, AGNs tend to dominate the light of their host galaxy regardless of the aperture size used. We tentatively mark this luminosity as a threshold to identify galaxy-light- vs AGN- dominated objects.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA