232 research outputs found
OSETI with STACEE: A Search for Nanosecond Optical Transients from Nearby Stars
We have used the STACEE high-energy gamma-ray detector to look for fast
blue-green laser pulses from the vicinity of 187 stars. The STACEE detector
offers unprecedented light-collecting capability for the detection of
nanosecond pulses from such lasers. We estimate STACEE's sensitivity to be
approximately 10 photons per square meter at a wavelength of 420 nm. The stars
have been chosen because their characteristics are such that they may harbor
habitable planets and they are relatively close to Earth. Each star was
observed for 10 minutes and we found no evidence for laser pulses in any of the
data sets.Comment: 38 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrobiolog
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Quantitative plant proteomics using hydroponic isotope labeling of entire plants (HILEP)
Milagrito: a TeV air-shower array
Milagrito, a large, covered water-Cherenkov detector, was the world's first
air-shower-particle detector sensitive to cosmic gamma rays below 1 TeV. It
served as a prototype for the Milagro detector and operated from February 1997
to May 1998. This paper gives a description of Milagrito, a summary of the
operating experience, and early results that demonstrate the capabilities of
this technique.Comment: 38 pages including 24 figure
A High Statistics Search for Ultra-High Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from Cygnus X-3 and Hercules X-1
We have carried out a high statistics (2 Billion events) search for
ultra-high energy gamma-ray emission from the X-ray binary sources Cygnus X-3
and Hercules X-1. Using data taken with the CASA-MIA detector over a five year
period (1990-1995), we find no evidence for steady emission from either source
at energies above 115 TeV. The derived upper limits on such emission are more
than two orders of magnitude lower than earlier claimed detections. We also
find no evidence for neutral particle or gamma-ray emission from either source
on time scales of one day and 0.5 hr. For Cygnus X-3, there is no evidence for
emission correlated with the 4.8 hr X-ray periodicity or with the occurrence of
large radio flares. Unless one postulates that these sources were very active
earlier and are now dormant, the limits presented here put into question the
earlier results, and highlight the difficulties that possible future
experiments will have in detecting gamma-ray signals at ultra-high energies.Comment: 26 LaTeX pages, 16 PostScript figures, uses psfig.sty to be published
in Physical Review
Biological response to pre-mineralized starch based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering
It is known that calcium-phosphate (Ca-P) coatings are able not only to improve the bone
bonding behaviour of polymeric materials, but at the same time play a positive role on
enhancing cell adhesion and inducing the differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells. Recently
an innovative biomimetic methodology, in which a sodium silicate gel was used as a
nucleative agent, was proposed as an alternative to the currently available biomimetic
coating methodologies. This methodology is especially adequate for coating biodegradable
porous scaffolds. In the present work we evaluated the influence of the referred to
treatment on the mechanical properties of 50/50 (wt%) blend of corn starch/ethylene-vinyl
alcohol (SEVA-C) based scaffolds. These Ca-P coated scaffolds presented a compressive
modulus of 224.6 ± 20.6 and a compressive strength of 24.2 ± 2.20. Cytotoxicity evaluation
was performed according ISO/EN 10993 part 5 guidelines and showed that the biomimetic
treatment did not have any deleterious effect on L929 cells and did not inhibit cell growth.
Direct contact assays were done by using a cell line of human osteoblast like cells (SaOS-2).
3 Ă— 105 cells were seeded per scaffold and allowed to grow for two weeks at 37 â—¦C in a
humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2. Total protein quantification and scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) observation showed that cells were able to grow in the
pre-mineralized scaffolds. Furthermore cell viability assays (MTS test) also show that cells
remain viable after two weeks in culture. Finally, protein expression studies showed that
after two weeks osteopontin and collagen type I were being expressed by SaOS-2 cells
seeded on the pre-mineralized scaffolds. Moreover, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was
higher in the supernatants collected from the pre-mineralized samples, when compared to
the control samples (non Ca-P coated). This may indicate that a faster mineralization of the
ECM produced on the pre-mineralized samples was occurring. Consequently, biomimetic
pre-mineralization of starch based scaffolds can be a useful route for applying these
materials on bone tissue engineering
Fine-mapping of prostate cancer susceptibility loci in a large meta-analysis identifies candidate causal variants
Prostate cancer is a polygenic disease with a large heritable component. A number of common, low-penetrance prostate cancer risk loci have been identified through GWAS. Here we apply the Bayesian multivariate variable selection algorithm JAM to fine-map 84 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, using summary data from a large European ancestry meta-analysis. We observe evidence for multiple independent signals at 12 regions and 99 risk signals overall. Only 15 original GWAS tag SNPs remain among the catalogue of candidate variants identified; the remainder are replaced by more likely candidates. Biological annotation of our credible set of variants indicates significant enrichment within promoter and enhancer elements, and transcription factor-binding sites, including AR, ERG and FOXA1. In 40 regions at least one variant is colocalised with an eQTL in prostate cancer tissue. The refined set of candidate variants substantially increase the proportion of familial relative risk explained by these known susceptibility regions, which highlights the importance of fine-mapping studies and has implications for clinical risk profiling. © 2018 The Author(s).Prostate cancer is a polygenic disease with a large heritable component. A number of common, low-penetrance prostate cancer risk loci have been identified through GWAS. Here we apply the Bayesian multivariate variable selection algorithm JAM to fine-map 84 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, using summary data from a large European ancestry meta-analysis. We observe evidence for multiple independent signals at 12 regions and 99 risk signals overall. Only 15 original GWAS tag SNPs remain among the catalogue of candidate variants identified; the remainder are replaced by more likely candidates. Biological annotation of our credible set of variants indicates significant enrichment within promoter and enhancer elements, and transcription factor-binding sites, including AR, ERG and FOXA1. In 40 regions at least one variant is colocalised with an eQTL in prostate cancer tissue. The refined set of candidate variants substantially increase the proportion of familial relative risk explained by these known susceptibility regions, which highlights the importance of fine-mapping studies and has implications for clinical risk profiling. © 2018 The Author(s).Peer reviewe
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