The Effects of Positive Emotion, Negative Emotion, Flourishing, and Languishing on Cardiovascular Risk

Positive psychology has led a movement that concentrates on positive characteristics. The current study examined the relationship between positive emotions, negative emotions, flourishing, languishing, and cardiovascular functioning. The study uses guided imagery to help participants recall a negative emotional event and positive emotional event in a counterbalanced order. The reverse order allowed us to examine the differential contributions of stress buffering versus facilitated recovery effects to higher levels of heart rate variability (HRV). The study also examined the relationship between mental health categories and known cardiovascular disease risk. Univariate analysis of variance revealed that positive emotions can serve as a stress buffer and dampen cardiovascular responses to a negative event. Also, analysis revealed a trend for the prediction that positive emotions can facilitate cardiovascular recovery following a negative event. Exploratory analysis did not reveal differences between a facilitated recovery group and a buffering group for cardiovascular measures. Future studies should include tighter control to help compare the differential influences of stress facilitation and stress buffering on cardiovascular functioning. The results from the study indicate that it is still too early to tell whether mental health buffers those individuals from developing CVD, and to answer whether languishing increases the risk of CVD. Longitudinal studies of young individuals without a prior history of any risk of CVD and who are flourishing or languishing might help provide answers to these questions

Initial Visible and Mid-IR Characterization of P/2019 LD₂ (ATLAS), an Active Transitioning Centaur Among the Trojans, with Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, APO and GROWTH Imaging and Spectroscopy

We present visible and mid-infrared imagery and photometry of Jovian co-orbital comet P/2019 LD₂ (ATLAS) taken with Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 on 2020 April 1, Spitzer Space Telescope/IRAC on 2020 January 25, Zwicky Transient Facility between 2019 April 9 and 2019 Nov 8 and the GROWTH telescope network from 2020 May to July, as well as visible spectroscopy from Keck/LRIS on 2020 August 19. Our observations indicate that LD₂ has a nucleus with radius 0.2-1.8 km assuming a 0.08 albedo and that the coma is dominated by ∼100 μ m-scale dust ejected at ∼1 m/s speeds with a ∼1" jet pointing in the SW direction. LD₂ experienced a total dust mass loss of ∼10⁸ kg and dust mass loss rate of ∼6 kg/s with Afρ/cross-section varying between ∼85 cm/125 km² and ∼200 cm/310 km² between 2019 April 9 and 2019 Nov 8. If the Afρ/cross-section increase remained constant, it implies that LD₂ has remained active since ∼2018 November when it came within 4.8 au of the Sun, a typical distance for comets to begin sublimation of H₂O. From our 4.5 μm Spitzer observations, we set a limit on CO/CO₂ gas production of ∼10²⁷/∼10²⁶ mol/s. Multiple bandpass photometry of LD₂ taken by the GROWTH network measured in a 10,000 km aperture provide color measurements of g-r = 0.59±0.03, r-i = 0.18±0.05, and i-z = 0.01±0.07, colors typical of comets. We set a spectroscopic upper limit to the production of H₂O gas of ∼80 kg/s. Improving the orbital solution for LD₂ with our observations, we determine that the long-term orbit of LD₂ is that of a typical Jupiter Family Comet having close encounters with Jupiter coming within ∼0.5 Hill radius in the last ∼3 y to within 0.8 Hill radius in ∼9 y and has a 95% chance of being ejected from the Solar System in < 10 Myr

Spectroscopic observations of progenitor activity 100 days before a Type Ibn supernova ⋆

Obtaining spectroscopic observations of the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae is often unfeasible, due to an inherent lack of knowledge as to what stars experience supernovae and when they will explode. In this Letter we present photometric and spectroscopic observations of the progenitor activity of SN 2023fyq before the He-rich progenitor explodes as a Type Ibn supernova. The progenitor of SN 2023fyq shows an exponential rise in flux prior to core collapse. Complex He i emission line features are observed in the progenitor spectra, with a P Cygni-like profile, as well as an evolving broad base with velocities of the order of 10 000 km s-1. The luminosity and evolution of SN 2023fyq is consistent with a Type Ibn, reaching a peak r-band magnitude of-18:8 mag, although there is some uncertainty regarding the distance to the host, NGC 4388, which is located in the Virgo cluster. We present additional evidence of asymmetric He-rich material being present both prior to and after the explosion of SN 2023fyq, which suggests that this material survived the ejecta interaction. Broad [O i], C i, and the Ca ii triplet lines are observed at late phases, confirming that SN 2023fyq was a genuine supernova, rather than a non-Terminal interacting transient. SN 2023fyq provides insight into the final moments of a massive star's life, demonstrating that the progenitor is likely highly unstable before core collapse

A light in the dark: searching for electromagnetic counterparts to black hole-black hole mergers in LIGO/Virgo O3 with the Zwicky Transient Facility

The accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising locations for the merger of compact objects detected by gravitational wave (GW) observatories. Embedded within a baryon-rich, high density environment, mergers within AGN are the only GW channel where an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart must occur (whether detectable or not). Considering AGN with unusual flaring activity observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), we describe a search for candidate EM counterparts to binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected by LIGO/Virgo in O3. After removing probable false positives, we find nine candidate counterparts to BBH mergers mergers during O3 (seven in O3a, two in O3b) with a $p$-value of 0.019. Based on ZTF sky coverage, AGN geometry, and merger geometry, we expect $\approx 3(N_{\rm BBH}/83)(f_{\rm AGN}/0.5)$ potentially detectable EM counterparts from O3, where $N_{\rm BBH}$ is the total number of observed BBH mergers and $f_{\rm AGN}$ is the fraction originating in AGN. Further modeling of breakout and flaring phenomena in AGN disks is required to reduce our false positive rate. Two of the events are also associated with mergers with total masses $> 100M_\odot$, which is the expected rate for O3 if hierarchical (large mass) mergers occur in the AGN channel. Candidate EM counterparts in future GW observing runs can be better constrained by coverage of the Southern sky as well as spectral monitoring of unusual AGN flaring events in LIGO/Virgo alert volumes. A future set of reliable AGN EM counterparts to BBH mergers will yield an independent means of measuring cosmic expansion ($H_0$) as a function of redshift

A light in the dark: searching for electromagnetic counterparts to black hole-black hole mergers in LIGO/Virgo O3 with the Zwicky Transient Facility

The accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising locations for the merger of compact objects detected by gravitational wave (GW) observatories. Embedded within a baryon-rich, high density environment, mergers within AGN are the only GW channel where an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart must occur (whether detectable or not). Considering AGN with unusual flaring activity observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), we describe a search for candidate EM counterparts to binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected by LIGO/Virgo in O3. After removing probable false positives, we find nine candidate counterparts to BBH mergers mergers during O3 (seven in O3a, two in O3b) with a $p$-value of 0.019. Based on ZTF sky coverage, AGN geometry, and merger geometry, we expect $\approx 3(N_{\rm BBH}/83)(f_{\rm AGN}/0.5)$ potentially detectable EM counterparts from O3, where $N_{\rm BBH}$ is the total number of observed BBH mergers and $f_{\rm AGN}$ is the fraction originating in AGN. Further modeling of breakout and flaring phenomena in AGN disks is required to reduce our false positive rate. Two of the events are also associated with mergers with total masses $> 100M_\odot$, which is the expected rate for O3 if hierarchical (large mass) mergers occur in the AGN channel. Candidate EM counterparts in future GW observing runs can be better constrained by coverage of the Southern sky as well as spectral monitoring of unusual AGN flaring events in LIGO/Virgo alert volumes. A future set of reliable AGN EM counterparts to BBH mergers will yield an independent means of measuring cosmic expansion ($H_0$) as a function of redshift

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database, a multiproxy, international, community-curated data resource

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database is a community-curated data resource that supports interdisciplinary global change research by enabling broad-scale studies of taxon and community diversity, distributions, and dynamics during the large environmental changes of the past. By consolidating many kinds of data into a common repository, Neotoma lowers costs of paleodata management, makes paleoecological data openly available, and offers a high-quality, curated resource. Neotoma's distributed scientific governance model is flexible and scalable, with many open pathways for participation by new members, data contributors, stewards, and research communities. The Neotoma data model supports, or can be extended to support, any kind of paleoecological or paleoenvironmental data from sedimentary archives. Data additions to Neotoma are growing and now include >3.8 million observations, >17,000 datasets, and >9200 sites. Dataset types currently include fossil pollen, vertebrates, diatoms, ostracodes, macroinvertebrates, plant macrofossils, insects, testate amoebae, geochronological data, and the recently added organic biomarkers, stable isotopes, and specimen-level data. Multiple avenues exist to obtain Neotoma data, including the Explorer map-based interface, an application programming interface, the neotoma R package, and digital object identifiers. As the volume and variety of scientific data grow, community-curated data resources such as Neotoma have become foundational infrastructure for big data science