Achieving Consistent Doppler Measurements from SDO/HMI Vector Field Inversions

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is delivering vector field observations of the full solar disk with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution; however, the satellite is in a highly inclined geostationary orbit. The relative spacecraft-Sun velocity varies by $\pm3$~km/s over a day which introduces major orbital artifacts in the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager data. We demonstrate that the orbital artifacts contaminate all spatial and temporal scales in the data. We describe a newly-developed three stage procedure for mitigating these artifacts in the Doppler data derived from the Milne-Eddington inversions in the HMI Pipeline. This procedure was applied to full disk images of AR11084 to produce consistent Dopplergrams. The data adjustments reduce the power in the orbital artifacts by 31dB. Furthermore, we analyze in detail the corrected images and show that our procedure greatly improve the temporal and spectral properties of the data without adding any new artifacts. We conclude that this new and easily implemented procedure makes a dramatic improvement in the consistency of the HMI data and in its usefulness for precision scientific studies.Comment: 58 pages, 19 figures, submitted to Ap

Neutrino oscillations in low density medium

For the case of small matter effects: $V \ll \Delta m^2/2E$, where $V$ is the matter potential, we develop the perturbation theory using $\epsilon \equiv 2VE/\Delta m^2$ as the expansion parameter. We derive simple and physically transparent formulas for the oscillation probabilities in the lowest order in $\epsilon$ which are valid for arbitrary density profile. The formulas can be applied for propagation of the solar and supernova neutrinos in matter of the Earth, substantially simplifying numerical calculations. Using these formulas we study sensitivity of the oscillation effects to structures of the density profile situated at different distances from the detector $d$. We show that for the mass-to-flavor state transitions, {\it e.g.}, $\nu_2 \to \nu_e$, the sensitivity is suppressed for remote structures: $d > l_{\nu} E/\Delta E$, where $l_{\nu}$ is the oscillation length and $\Delta E/E$ is the energy resolution of detector.Comment: discussion simplified, clarifications adde

Integration of Neuroimaging and Microarray Datasets through Mapping and Model-Theoretic Semantic Decomposition of Unstructured Phenotypes

An approach towards heterogeneous neuroscience dataset integration is proposed that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and a knowledge-based phenotype organizer system (PhenOS) to link ontology-anchored terms to underlying data from each database, and then maps these terms based on a computable model of disease (SNOMED CT®). The approach was implemented using sample datasets from fMRIDC, GEO, The Whole Brain Atlas and Neuronames, and allowed for complex queries such as “List all disorders with a finding site of brain region X, and then find the semantically related references in all participating databases based on the ontological model of the disease or its anatomical and morphological attributes”. Precision of the NLP-derived coding of the unstructured phenotypes in each dataset was 88% (n = 50), and precision of the semantic mapping between these terms across datasets was 98% (n = 100). To our knowledge, this is the first example of the use of both semantic decomposition of disease relationships and hierarchical information found in ontologies to integrate heterogeneous phenotypes across clinical and molecular datasets

The two ways of gauging the Poincare' group

A description of how a theory of gravity can be considered as a gauge theory (in the sense of Trautman) of the Poincare' group is given. As a result, it is shown that a gauge theory of this kind is consistent with the Equivalence Principle only if the Lagrangian and the constraints are preserved not only by the gauge transformations but also by an additional family of transformations, called "pseudo-translations". Explicit expressions of pseudo-translations and of their action on gravitational gauge fields are given. They are expected to be useful for geometric interpretations of their analogues in supergravity theories.Comment: 21 page

Chemotherapy versus supportive care in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: improved survival without detriment to quality of life

BACKGROUND: In 1995 a meta-analysis of randomised trials investigating the value of adding chemotherapy to primary treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) suggested a small survival benefit for cisplatin-based chemotherapy in each of the primary treatment settings. However, the metaanalysis included many small trials and trials with differing eligibility criteria and chemotherapy regimens. METHODS: The aim of the Big Lung Trial was to confirm the survival benefits seen in the meta-analysis and to assess quality of life and cost in the supportive care setting. A total of 725 patients were randomised to receive supportive care alone (n = 361) or supportive care plus cisplatin-based chemotherapy (n = 364). RESULTS: 65% of patients allocated chemotherapy (C) received all three cycles of treatment and a further 27% received one or two cycles. 74% of patients allocated no chemotherapy (NoC) received thoracic radiotherapy compared with 47% of the C group. Patients allocated C had a significantly better survival than those allocated NoC: HR 0.77 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.89, p = 0.0006), median survival 8.0 months for the C group v 5.7 months for the NoC group, a difference of 9 weeks. There were 19 (5%) treatment related deaths in the C group. There was no evidence that any subgroup benefited more or less fromchemotherapy. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of the pre-defined primary and secondary quality of life end points, although large negative effects of chemotherapy were ruled out. The regimens used proved to be cost effective, the extra cost of chemotherapy being offset by longer survival. CONCLUSIONS: The survival benefit seen in this trial was entirely consistent with the NSCLC meta-analysis and subsequent similarly designed large trials. The information on quality of life and cost should enablepatients and their clinicians to make more informed treatment choices

Nuclear Resonance Vibrational Spectroscopy of Iron Sulfur Proteins

Nuclear inelastic scattering in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) calculations has been applied for the identification of vibrational modes of the high-spin ferric and the high-spin ferrous iron-sulfur center of a rubredoxin-type protein from the thermophylic bacterium Pyrococcus abysii