201 research outputs found
The Voting Rights Act\u27s Fight to Stay Rational: Shelby County v. Holder
This commentary previews an upcoming Supreme Court case, Shelby County v. Holder, in which the Court may decide whether Congress\u27s 2006 reauthorization of Section 5 and Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was constitutional
A Large Sky Simulation of the Gravitational Lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Large scale structure deflects cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons.
Since large angular scales in the large scale structure contribute
significantly to the gravitational lensing effect, a realistic simulation of
CMB lensing requires a sufficiently large sky area. We describe simulations
that include these effects, and present both effective and multiple plane
ray-tracing versions of the algorithm, which employs spherical harmonic space
and does not use the flat sky approximation. We simulate lensed CMB maps with
an angular resolution of ~0.9 arcmin. The angular power spectrum of the
simulated sky agrees well with analytical predictions. Maps generated in this
manner are a useful tool for the analysis and interpretation of upcoming CMB
experiments such as PLANCK and ACT.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, replaced with version accepted for publication
by the AP
Federal Crop Insurance is Part of Farm Safety Net for Maryland Potato Producers
Gives overview of the qualifications for crop insurance on potatoes in Marylan
Changing the academic culture: Valuing patents and commercialization toward tenure and career advancement
There is national and international recognition of the importance of innovation, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship for sustained economic revival. With the decline of industrial research laboratories in the United States, research universities are being asked to play a central role in our knowledge-centered economy by the technology transfer of their discoveries, innovations, and inventions. In response to this challenge, innovation ecologies at and around universities are starting to change. However, the change has been slow and limited. The authors believe this can be attributed partially to a lack of change in incentives for the central stakeholder, the faculty member. The authors have taken the position that universities should expand their criteria to treat patents, licensing, and commercialization activity by faculty as an important consideration for merit, tenure, and career advancement, along with publishing, teaching, and service. This position is placed in a historical context with a look at the history of tenure in the United States, patents, and licensing at universities, the current status of university tenure and career advancement processes, and models for the future
The fate of indeterminate liver lesions: What proportion are precursors of hepatocellular carcinoma?
BACKGROUND: The natural history and incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) arising from indeterminate liver lesions are not well described. We aimed to define the incidence of HCC in a cohort of patients undergoing surveillance by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and estimate any associations with incident HCC. METHODS: We performed a retrospective follow-up study, identifying MRI scans in which indeterminate lesions had been reported between January 2006 and January 2017. Subsequent MRI scan reports were reviewed for incident HCC arising from indeterminate lesions, data were extracted from electronic patient records and survival analysis performed to estimate associations with baseline factors. RESULTS: One hundred and nine patients with indeterminate lesions on MRI were identified. HCC developed in 19 (17%) patients over mean follow up of 4.6 years. Univariate Cox proportional hazards analysis found incident HCC to be significantly associated with baseline low platelet count (hazard ratio (HR) = 7.3 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 2.1-24.9), high serum alpha-fetoprotein level (HR = 2.7 (95% CI 1.0-7.1)) and alcohol consumption above fourteen units weekly (HR = 3.1 (95% CI 1.1-8.7)). Multivariate analysis, however, found that only low platelet count was independently associated with HCC (HR = 5.5 (95% CI 0.6-5.1)). CONCLUSIONS: HCC arises in approximately one fifth of indeterminate liver lesions over 4.6 years and is associated with a low platelet count at the time of first diagnosis of an indeterminate lesion. Incidence of HCC was more common in people with viral hepatitis and in those consuming > 14 units of alcohol per week. Our data may be used to support a strategy of enhanced surveillance in patients with indeterminate lesions
IMAGE-BASED IDENTIFICATION OF MLB DISEASE OF MAIZE
Not AvailableIn recent years, deep learning techniques have become very popular in the field of image recognition and
classification. Image-based diagnosis of diseases in crops using deep learning techniques has become trendy in the
current scientific community. In this study, a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model has been developed
to identify the images of maydis leaf bight (MLB) (Cochliobolus heterostrophus) disease of maize (Zea mays L.)
crop. A total of 1547 digital images of maize leaves (596 healthy and 951 infected with maydis leaf blight disease)
have been collected from different agricultural farms using hand-held camera and smartphones. The images have
been collected from the experimental plots of BCKV, West Bengal and ICAR-IARI, New Delhi during 2018–19. The
architectural framework of popular state-of-the network ‘GoogleNet’ has been used to build the deep CNN model.
The developed model has been successfully trained, validated and tested on the above-mentioned dataset. The trained
model has achieved an overall accuracy of 99.14% on the separate test dataset.Not Availabl
Simulations of the Microwave Sky
We create realistic, full-sky, half-arcminute resolution simulations of the
microwave sky matched to the most recent astrophysical observations. The
primary purpose of these simulations is to test the data reduction pipeline for
the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) experiment; however, we have widened the
frequency coverage beyond the ACT bands to make these simulations applicable to
other microwave background experiments. Some of the novel features of these
simulations are that the radio and infrared galaxy populations are correlated
with the galaxy cluster populations, the CMB is lensed by the dark matter
structure in the simulation via a ray-tracing code, the contribution to the
thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signals from galaxy clusters,
groups, and the IGM has been included, and the gas prescription to model the SZ
signals matches the most recent X-ray observations. Regarding the contamination
of cluster SZ flux by radio galaxies, we find for 148 GHz (90 GHz) only 3% (4%)
of halos have their SZ decrements contaminated at a level of 20% or more. We
find the contamination levels higher for infrared galaxies. However, at 90 GHz,
less than 20% of clusters with M_{200} > 2.5 x 10^{14} Msun and z<1.2 have
their SZ decrements filled in at a level of 20% or more. At 148 GHz, less than
20% of clusters with M_{200} > 2.5 x 10^{14} Msun and z<0.8 have their SZ
decrements filled in at a level of 50% or larger. Our models also suggest that
a population of very high flux infrared galaxies, which are likely lensed
sources, contribute most to the SZ contamination of very massive clusters at 90
and 148 GHz. These simulations are publicly available and should serve as a
useful tool for microwave surveys to cross-check SZ cluster detection, power
spectrum, and cross-correlation analyses.Comment: Sims are now public at
http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/toolbox/tb_cmbsim_ov.cfm; Expanded discussion of
N-body sim and IGM; Version accepted by Ap
Quantifying the CDK inhibitor VMY-1-103\u27s activity and tissue levels in an in vivo tumor model by LC-MS/MS and by MRI.
The development of new small molecule-based therapeutic drugs requires accurate quantification of drug bioavailability, biological activity and treatment efficacy. Rapidly measuring these endpoints is often hampered by the lack of efficient assay platforms with high sensitivity and specificity. Using an in vivo model system, we report a simple and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay to quantify the bioavailability of a recently developed novel cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor VMY-1-103, a purvalanol B-based analog whose biological activity is enhanced via dansylation. We developed a rapid organic phase extraction technique and validated wide and functional VMY-1-103 distribution in various mouse tissues, consistent with its enhanced potency previously observed in a variety of human cancer cell lines. More importantly, in vivo MRI and single voxel proton MR-Spectroscopy further established that VMY-1-103 inhibited disease progression and affected key metabolites in a mouse model of hedgehog-driven medulloblastoma
First Measurement of the Cross-Correlation of CMB Lensing and Galaxy Lensing
We measure the cross-correlation of cosmic microwave background lensing convergence maps derived from Atacama Cosmology Telescope data with galaxy lensing convergence maps as measured by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Stripe 82 Survey. The CMB-galaxy lensing cross power spectrum is measured for the first time with a significance of 3.2, which corresponds to a 16% constraint on the amplitude of density fluctuations at redshifts ~ 0.9. With upcoming improved lensing data, this novel type of measurement will become a powerful cosmological probe, providing a precise measurement of the mass distribution at intermediate redshifts and serving as a calibrator for systematic biases in weak lensing measurements
Observing the Evolution of the Universe
How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and
polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the
evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address
everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star
formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track
the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass.
We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky
can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in
microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose
telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and
the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new
generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in
the planning stages.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey.
Full list of 177 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed
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