All-sky search for gravitational-wave bursts in the second joint LIGO-Virgo run

We present results from a search for gravitational-wave bursts in the data collected by the LIGO and Virgo detectors between July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010: data are analyzed when at least two of the three LIGO-Virgo detectors are in coincident operation, with a total observation time of 207 days. The analysis searches for transients of duration < 1 s over the frequency band 64-5000 Hz, without other assumptions on the signal waveform, polarization, direction or occurrence time. All identified events are consistent with the expected accidental background. We set frequentist upper limits on the rate of gravitational-wave bursts by combining this search with the previous LIGO-Virgo search on the data collected between November 2005 and October 2007. The upper limit on the rate of strong gravitational-wave bursts at the Earth is 1.3 events per year at 90% confidence. We also present upper limits on source rate density per year and Mpc^3 for sample populations of standard-candle sources. As in the previous joint run, typical sensitivities of the search in terms of the root-sum-squared strain amplitude for these waveforms lie in the range 5 10^-22 Hz^-1/2 to 1 10^-20 Hz^-1/2. The combination of the two joint runs entails the most sensitive all-sky search for generic gravitational-wave bursts and synthesizes the results achieved by the initial generation of interferometric detectors.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures: data for plots and archived public version at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=70814&version=19, see also the public announcement at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S6BurstAllSky

Microbial adherence to a nonprecious alloy after plasma nitriding process

WOS: 000236399300018PubMed ID: 16602372Purpose: To investigate the microbial adherence to the surfaces of a nonprecious metal alloy after plasma nitriding. Materials and Methods: The plasma-nitriding process was performed to the surfaces of metals prepared from a nickel-chromium alloy. The microorganisms were labeled with technetium-99m. After the labeling procedure, 60 metal disks were treated with a microorganism for each use. Results: The results revealed that the amount of adherence of all microorganisms on surfaces was changed by plasma-nitriding process; adherence decreased substantially (P .05) Conclusion: With the plasma-nitriding process, the surface properties of nonprecious metal alloys can be changed, leading to decreased microbial adherence

Quality of life and related factors among chronic hepatitis B-infected patients: a multi-center study, Turkey.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients in Turkey and to study related factors. METHODS: This multicenter study was carried out between January 01 and April 15, 2015 in Turkey in 57 centers. Adults were enrolled and studied in three groups. Group 1: Inactive HBsAg carriers, Group 2: CHB patients receiving antiviral therapy, Group 3: CHB patients who were neither receiving antiviral therapy nor were inactive HBsAg carriers. Study data was collected by face-to-face interviews using a standardized questionnaire, Short Form-36 (SF-36) and Hepatitis B Quality of Life (HBQOL). Values equivalent to p < 0.05 in analyses were accepted as statistically significant. RESULTS: Four thousand two hundred fifty-seven patients with CHB were included in the study. Two thousand five hundred fifty-nine (60.1 %) of the patients were males. Groups 1, 2 and 3, consisted of 1529 (35.9 %), 1721 (40.4 %) and 1007 (23.7 %) patients, respectively. The highest value of HRQOL was found in inactive HBsAg carriers. We found that total HBQOL score increased when antiviral treatment was used. However, HRQOL of CHB patients varied according to their socio-demographic properties. Regarding total HBQOL score, a higher significant level of HRQOL was determined in inactive HBV patients when matched controls with the associated factors were provided. CONCLUSIONS: The HRQOL score of CHB patients was higher than expected and it can be worsen when the disease becomes active. Use of an antiviral therapy can contribute to increasing HRQOL of patients

Nogo-receptor 1 deficiency has no influence on immune cell repertoire or function during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

The potential role of Nogo-66 Receptor 1 (NgR1) on immune cell phenotypes and their activation during neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), is unclear. To further understand the function of this receptor on haematopoietically-derived cells, phenotypic and functional analyses were performed using NgR1-deficient (ngr1-/-) animals. Flow cytometry-based phenotypic analyses performed on blood, spleen, thymus, lymph nodes, bone marrow and central nervous-system (CNS)-infiltrating blood cells revealed no immunological defects in naïve ngr1-/- animals versus wild-type littermate (WTLM) controls. EAE was induced by either recombinant myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (rMOG), a model in which B cells are considered to contribute pathogenically, or by MOG35-55 peptide, a B cell-independent model. We have demonstrated that in ngr1-/- mice injected with MOG35-55, a significant reduction in the severity of EAE correlated with reduced axonal damage present in the spinal cord when compared to their WTLM controls. However, despite a reduction in axonal damage observed in the CNS of ngr1-/- mice at the chronic stage of disease, no clinical differences could be attributed to a specific genotype when rMOG was used as the encephalitogen. Following MOG35-55-induction of EAE, we could not derive any major changes to the immune cell populations analyzed between ngr1-/- and WTLM mice. Collectively, these data demonstrate that NgR1 has little if any effects on the repertoire of immune cells, their activation and trafficking to the CNS