510 research outputs found
Materials science: Carbon sheet solutions
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62936/1/442254a.pd
Mean Spectral Energy Distributions and Bolometric Corrections for Luminous Quasars
We explore the mid-infrared (mid-IR) through ultraviolet (UV) spectral energy
distributions (SEDs) of 119,652 luminous broad-lined quasars with 0.064<z<5.46
using mid-IR data from Spitzer and WISE, near-infrared data from Two Micron All
Sky Survey and UKIDSS, optical data from Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and UV data
from Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The mean SED requires a bolometric correction
(relative to 2500A) of BC=2.75+-0.40 using the integrated light from 1um-2keV,
and we further explore the range of bolometric corrections exhibited by
individual objects. In addition, we investigate the dependence of the mean SED
on various parameters, particularly the UV luminosity for quasars with 0.5<z<3
and the properties of the UV emission lines for quasars with z>1.6; the latter
is a possible indicator of the strength of the accretion disk wind, which is
expected to be SED dependent. Luminosity-dependent mean SEDs show that,
relative to the high-luminosity SED, low-luminosity SEDs exhibit a harder
(bluer) far-UV spectral slope, a redder optical continuum, and less hot dust.
Mean SEDs constructed instead as a function of UV emission line properties
reveal changes that are consistent with known Principal Component Analysis
(PCA) trends. A potentially important contribution to the bolometric correction
is the unseen extream-UV (EUV) continuum. Our work suggests that
lower-luminosity quasars and/or quasars with disk-dominated broad emission
lines may require an extra continuum component in the EUV that is not present
(or much weaker) in high-luminosity quasars with strong accretion disk winds.
As such, we consider four possible models and explore the resulting bolometric
corrections. Understanding these various SED-dependent effects will be
important for accurate determination of quasar accretion rates.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figure
Expression of STAT3 in Prostate Cancer Metastases
STAT3 and its upstream activator IL6R have been implicated in the progression of prostate cancer and are possible future therapeutic targets. We analyzed 223 metastatic samples from rapid autopsies of 71 patients who had died of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) to study protein and gene expression of pSTAT3 and IL6R. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that 95% of metastases were positive for pSTAT3 and IL6R, with varying expression levels. Bone metastases showed significantly higher expression of both pSTAT3 and IL6R in comparison to lymph node and visceral metastases. STAT3 mRNA levels were significantly higher in bone than in lymph node and visceral metastases, whereas no significant difference in IL6R mRNA expression was observed. Our study strongly supports the suggested view of targeting STAT3 as a therapeutic option in patients with metastatic CRPC. Patient summary We studied the levels of two proteins (pSTAT3 and IL6R) in metastases from patients who died from castration-resistant prostate cancer. We found high levels of pSTAT3and IL6R in bone metastases, suggesting that these proteins could be used as targets for new anticancer drugs
Soliton quantization and internal symmetry
We apply the method of collective coordinate quantization to a model of
solitons in two spacetime dimensions with a global symmetry. In
particular we consider the dynamics of the charged states associated with
rotational excitations of the soliton in the internal space and their
interactions with the quanta of the background field (mesons). By solving a
system of coupled saddle-point equations we effectively sum all tree-graphs
contributing to the one-point Green's function of the meson field in the
background of a rotating soliton. We find that the resulting one-point function
evaluated between soliton states of definite charge exhibits a pole on
the meson mass shell and we extract the corresponding S-matrix element for the
decay of an excited state via the emission of a single meson using the standard
LSZ reduction formula. This S-matrix element has a natural interpretation in
terms of an effective Lagrangian for the charged soliton states with an
explicit Yukawa coupling to the meson field. We calculate the leading-order
semi-classical decay width of the excited soliton states discuss the
consequences of these results for the hadronic decay of the resonance
in the Skyrme model.Comment: 23 pages, LA-UR-93-299
Type 1 Diabetes Alters Lipid Handling and Metabolism in Human Fibroblasts and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells
Triggers of the autoimmune response that leads to type 1 diabetes (T1D) remain poorly understood. A possibility is that parallel changes in both T cells and target cells provoke autoimmune attack. We previously documented greater Ca2+ transients in fibroblasts from T1D subjects than non-T1D after exposure to fatty acids (FA) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). These data indicate that metabolic and signal transduction defects present in T1D can be elicited ex vivo in isolated cells. Changes that precede T1D, including inflammation, may activate atypical responses in people that are genetically predisposed to T1D. To identify such cellular differences in T1D, we quantified a panel of metabolic responses in fibroblasts and peripheral blood cells (PBMCs) from age-matched T1D and non-T1D subjects, as models for non-immune and immune cells, respectively. Fibroblasts from T1D subjects accumulated more lipid, had higher LC-CoA levels and converted more FA to CO2, with less mitochondrial proton leak in response to oleate alone or with TNFα, using the latter as a model of inflammation. T1D-PBMCs contained and also accumulated more lipid following FA exposure. In addition, they formed more peroxidized lipid than controls following FA exposure. We conclude that both immune and non-immune cells in T1D subjects differ from controls in terms of responses to FA and TNFα. Our results suggest a differential sensitivity to inflammatory insults and FA that may precede and contribute to T1D by priming both immune cells and their targets for autoimmune reactions
Seasonal total methane depletion in limestone caves
Methane concentration in caves is commonly much lower than the external atmosphere, yet the cave CH4 depletion causal mechanism is contested and dynamic links to external diurnal and seasonal temperature cycles unknown. Here, we report a continuous 3-year record of cave methane and other trace gases in Jenolan Caves, Australia which shows a seasonal cycle of extreme CH4 depletion, from ambient âŒ1,775 ppb to near zero during summer and to âŒ800 ppb in winter. Methanotrophic bacteria, some newly-discovered, rapidly consume methane on cave surfaces and in external karst soils with lifetimes in the cave of a few hours. Extreme bacterial selection due to the absence of alternate carbon sources for growth in the cave environment has resulted in an extremely high proportion 2-12% of methanotrophs in the total bacteria present. Unexpected seasonal bias in our cave CH4 depletion record is explained by a three-step process involving methanotrophy in aerobic karst soil above the cave, summer transport of soil-gas into the cave through epikarst, followed by further cave CH4 depletion. Disentangling cause and effect of cave gas variations by tracing sources and sinks has identified seasonal speleothem growth bias, with implied palaeo-climate record bias
An Improved Brane Anti-Brane Action from Boundary Superstring Field Theory and Multi-Vortex Solutions
We present an improved effective action for the D-brane-anti-D-brane system
obtained from boundary superstring field theory. Although the action looks
highly non-trivial, it has simple explicit multi-vortex (i.e. codimension-2
multi-BPS D-brane) multi-anti-vortex solutions. The solutions have a curious
degeneracy corresponding to different ``magnetic'' fluxes at the core of each
vortex. We also generalize the brane anti-brane effective action that is
suitable for the study of the inflationary scenario and the production of
defects in the early universe. We show that when a brane and anti-brane are
distantly separated, although the system is classically stable it can decay via
quantum tunneling through the barrier.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure, JHEP3.cls; v2: references added, tunneling rate
discussion expande
Long-Term Follow-Up of the Intergroup Exemestane Study
Purpose: The Intergroup Exemestane Study, an investigator-led study of 4,724 postmenopausal patients with early breast cancer (clinical trial information: ISRCTN11883920), has previously demonstrated that a switch from adjuvant endocrine therapy after 2 to 3 years of tamoxifen to exemestane was associated with clinically relevant improvements in efficacy. Here, we report the final efficacy analyses of this cohort. Patients and Methods: Patients who remained disease free after 2 to 3 years of adjuvant tamoxifen were randomly assigned to continue tamoxifen or switch to exemestane to complete a total of 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy. Given the large number of nonâbreast cancerârelated deaths now reported, breast cancerâfree survival (BCFS), with censorship of intercurrent deaths, was the primary survival end point of interest. Analyses focus on patients with estrogen receptor-positive or unknown tumors (n = 4,599). Results: At the time of the data snapshot, median follow-up was 120 months. In the population that was estrogen receptor positive or had unknown estrogen receptor status, 1,111 BCFS events were observed with 508 (22.1%) of 2,294 patients in the exemestane group and 603 (26.2%) of 2,305 patients in the tamoxifen group. The data corresponded to an absolute difference (between exemestane and tamoxifen) at 10 years of 4.0% (95% CI, 1.2% to 6.7%), and the hazard ratio (HR) of 0.81 (95% CI, 0.72 to 0.92) favored exemestane. This difference remained in multivariable analysis that was adjusted for nodal status, prior use of hormone replacement therapy, and prior chemotherapy (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.71 to 0.90; P < .001). A modest improvement in overall survival was seen with exemestane; the absolute difference (between exemestane and tamoxifen) at 10 years in the population that was estrogen receptor positive or had unknown estrogen receptor status was 2.1% (95% CI, â0.5% to 4.6%), and the HR was 0.89 (95% CI, 0.78 to 1.01; P = .08). For the intention-to-treat population, the absolute difference was 1.6% (95% CI, â0.9% to 4.1%); the HR was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.80 to 1.03, P = .15). No statistically significant difference was observed in the proportion of patients who reported a fracture event in the post-treatment period. Conclusion: The Intergroup Exemestane Study and contemporaneous studies have established that a strategy of switching to an aromatase inhibitor after 2 to 3 years of tamoxifen can lead to sustained benefits in terms of reduction of disease recurrence and breast cancer mortality
CIV Emission and the Ultraviolet through X-ray Spectral Energy Distribution of Radio-Quiet Quasars
In the restframe UV, two of the parameters that best characterize the range
of emission-line properties in quasar broad emission-line regions are the
equivalent width and the blueshift of the CIV line relative to the quasar rest
frame. We explore the connection between these emission-line properties and the
UV through X-ray spectral energy distribution (SED) for radio-quiet (RQ)
quasars. Our sample consists of a heterogeneous compilation of 406 quasars from
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Palomar-Green survey that have well-measured
CIV emission-line and X-ray properties (including 164 objects with measured
Gamma). We find that RQ quasars with both strong CIV emission and small CIV
blueshifts can be classified as "hard-spectrum" sources that are (relatively)
strong in the X-ray as compared to the UV. On the other hand, RQ quasars with
both weak CIV emission and large CIV blueshifts are instead "soft-spectrum"
sources that are (relatively) weak in the X-ray as compared to the UV. This
work helps to further bridge optical/soft X-ray "Eigenvector 1" relationships
to the UV and hard X-ray. Based on these findings, we argue that future work
should consider systematic errors in bolometric corrections (and thus accretion
rates) that are derived from a single mean SED. Detailed analysis of the CIV
emission line may allow for SED-dependent corrections to these quantities.Comment: AJ, in press; 39 pages, 11 figures, 3 table
From Effective Lagrangians, to Chiral Bags, to Skyrmions with the Large-N_c Renormalization Group
We explicitly relate effective meson-baryon Lagrangian models, chiral bags,
and Skyrmions in the following way. First, effective Lagrangians are
constructed in a manner consistent with an underlying large-N_c QCD. An
infinite set of graphs dress the bare Yukawa couplings at *leading* order in
1/N_c, and are summed using semiclassical techniques. What emerges is a picture
of the large-N_c baryon reminiscent of the chiral bag: hedgehog pions for r >
1/\Lambda patched onto bare nucleon degrees of freedom for r < 1/\Lambda, where
the ``bag radius'' 1/\Lambda is the UV cutoff on the graphs. Next, a novel
renormalization group (RG) is derived, in which the bare Yukawa couplings,
baryon masses and hyperfine baryon mass splittings run with \Lambda. Finally,
this RG flow is shown to act as a *filter* on the renormalized Lagrangian
parameters: when they are fine-tuned to obey Skyrme-model relations the
continuum limit \Lambda --> \infty exists and is, in fact, a Skyrme model;
otherwise there is no continuum limit.Comment: Figures included (separate file). This ``replaced'' version corrects
the discussion of backwards-in-time baryon
- âŠ