Kinship Index Variations among Populations and Thresholds for Familial Searching

Current familial searching strategies are developed primarily based on autosomal STR loci, since most of the offender profiles in the forensic DNA databases do not contain Y-STR or mitochondrial DNA data. There are generally two familial searching methods, Identity-by-State (IBS) based methods or kinship index (KI) based methods. The KI based method is an analytically superior method because the allele frequency information is considered as opposed to solely allele counting. However, multiple KIs should be calculated if the unknown forensic profile may be attributed to multiple possible relevant populations. An important practical issue is the KI threshold to select for limiting the list of candidates from a search. There are generally three strategies of setting the KI threshold for familial searching: (1) SWGDAM recommendation 6; (2) minimum KI≥KI threshold; and (3) maximum KI≥KI threshold. These strategies were evaluated and compared by using both simulation data and empirical data. The minimum KI will tend to be closer to the KI appropriate for the population of which the forensic profile belongs. The minimum KI≥KI threshold performs better than the maximum KI≥KI threshold. The SWGDAM strategy may be too stringent for familial searching with large databases (e.g., 1 million or more profiles), because its KI thresholds depend on the database size and the KI thresholds of large databases have a higher probability to exclude true relatives than smaller databases. Minimum KI≥KI threshold strategy is a better option, as it provides the flexibility to adjust the KI threshold according to a pre-determined number of candidates or false positive/negative rates. Joint use of both IBS and KI does not significantly reduce the chance of including true relatives in a candidate list, but does provide a higher efficiency of familial searching

Impact of Mechanical Unloading on Microvasculature and Associated Central Remodeling Features of the Failing Human Heart

ObjectivesThis study investigates alterations in myocardial microvasculature, fibrosis, and hypertrophy before and after mechanical unloading of the failing human heart.BackgroundRecent studies demonstrated the pathophysiologic importance and significant mechanistic links among microvasculature, fibrosis, and hypertrophy during the cardiac remodeling process. The effect of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) unloading on cardiac endothelium and microvasculature is unknown, and its influence on fibrosis and hypertrophy regression to the point of atrophy is controversial.MethodsHemodynamic data and left ventricular tissue were collected from patients with chronic heart failure at LVAD implant and explant (n = 15) and from normal donors (n = 8). New advances in digital microscopy provided a unique opportunity for comprehensive whole-field, endocardium-to-epicardium evaluation for microvascular density, fibrosis, cardiomyocyte size, and glycogen content. Ultrastructural assessment was done with electron microscopy.ResultsHemodynamic data revealed significant pressure unloading with LVAD. This was accompanied by a 33% increase in microvascular density (p = 0.001) and a 36% decrease in microvascular lumen area (p = 0.028). We also identified, in agreement with these findings, ultrastructural and immunohistochemical evidence of endothelial cell activation. In addition, LVAD unloading significantly increased interstitial and total collagen content without any associated structural, ultrastructural, or metabolic cardiomyocyte changes suggestive of hypertrophy regression to the point of atrophy and degeneration.ConclusionsThe LVAD unloading resulted in increased microvascular density accompanied by increased fibrosis and no evidence of cardiomyocyte atrophy. These new insights into the effects of LVAD unloading on microvasculature and associated key remodeling features might guide future studies of unloading-induced reverse remodeling of the failing human heart

On the Constancy of the Characteristic Mass of Young Stars

The characteristic mass M_c in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is about constant for most star-forming regions. Numerical simulations consistently show a proportionality between M_c and the thermal Jeans mass M_J at the time of cloud fragmentation, but no models have explained how it can be the same in diverse conditions. Here we show that M_J depends weakly on density, temperature, metallicity, and radiation field in three environments: the dense cores where stars form, larger star-forming regions ranging from GMCs to galactic disks, and the interiors of HII regions and super star clusters. In dense cores, the quantity T^{3/2}n^{-1/2} that appears in M_J scales with core density as n^{0.25} or with radiation density as U^{0.1} at the density where dust and gas come into thermal equilibrium. On larger scales, this quantity varies with ambient density as n^{-0.05} and ambient radiation field as U^{-0.033} when the Kennicutt-Schmidt law of star formation determines U(n). In super star clusters with ionization and compression of pre-stellar globules, M_J varies as the 0.13 power of the cluster column density. These weak dependencies on n, U, and column density imply that most environmental variations affect the thermal Jeans mass by at most a factor of ~2. Cosmological increases in M_J, which have been suggested by observations, may be explained if the star formation efficiency is systematically higher at high redshift for a given density and pressure, if dust grains are smaller at lower metallicity, and so hotter for a given radiation field, or if small pre-stellar cores are more severely ionized in extreme starburst conditions.Comment: 29 pages, no figures, accepted by Ap

Detection of brown dwarf-like objects in the core of NGC3603

We use near-infrared data obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope to identify objects having the colors of brown dwarfs (BDs) in the field of the massive galactic cluster NGC 3603. These are identified through use of a combination of narrow and medium band filters spanning the J and H bands, and which are particularly sensitive to the presence of the 1.3-1.5{\mu}m H2O molecular band - unique to BDs. We provide a calibration of the relationship between effective temperature and color for both field stars and for BDs. This photometric method provides effective temperatures for BDs to an accuracy of {\pm}350K relative to spectroscopic techniques. This accuracy is shown to be not significantly affected by either stellar surface gravity or uncertainties in the interstellar extinction. We identify nine objects having effective temperature between 1700 and 2200 K, typical of BDs, observed J-band magnitudes in the range 19.5-21.5, and that are strongly clustered towards the luminous core of NGC 3603. However, if these are located at the distance of the cluster, they are far too luminous to be normal BDs. We argue that it is unlikely that these objects are either artifacts of our dataset, normal field BDs/M-type giants or extra-galactic contaminants and, therefore, might represent a new class of stars having the effective temperatures of BDs but with luminosities of more massive stars. We explore the interesting scenario in which these objects would be normal stars that have recently tidally ingested a Hot Jupiter, the remnants of which are providing a short-lived extended photosphere to the central star. In this case, we would expect them to show the signature of fast rotation.Comment: 26 Pages, 8 Figures, Accepted for publication on Ap

Remote climate forcing of decadal-scale regime shifts in Northwest Atlantic shelf ecosystems

Author Posting. © Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, doi:10.4319/lo.2013.58.3.0803.Decadal-scale regime shifts in Northwest Atlantic shelf ecosystems can be remotely forced by climate-associated atmosphere–ocean interactions in the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean Basins. This remote climate forcing is mediated primarily by basin- and hemispheric-scale changes in ocean circulation. We review and synthesize results from process-oriented field studies and retrospective analyses of time-series data to document the linkages between climate, ocean circulation, and ecosystem dynamics. Bottom-up forcing associated with climate plays a prominent role in the dynamics of these ecosystems, comparable in importance to that of top-down forcing associated with commercial fishing. A broad perspective, one encompassing the effects of basin- and hemispheric-scale climate processes on marine ecosystems, will be critical to the sustainable management of marine living resources in the Northwest Atlantic.Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation as part of the Regional and Pan-Regional Synthesis Phases of the U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystem (GLOBEC) Program

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Dynamical Masses and Scaling Relations for a Sample of Massive Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Selected Galaxy Clusters

We present the first dynamical mass estimates and scaling relations for a sample of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected galaxy clusters. The sample consists of 16 massive clusters detected with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) over a 455 sq. deg. area of the southern sky. Deep multi-object spectroscopic observations were taken to secure intermediate-resolution (R~700-800) spectra and redshifts for ~60 member galaxies on average per cluster. The dynamical masses M_200c of the clusters have been calculated using simulation-based scaling relations between velocity dispersion and mass. The sample has a median redshift z=0.50 and a median mass M_200c~12e14 Msun/h70 with a lower limit M_200c~6e14 Msun/h70, consistent with the expectations for the ACT southern sky survey. These masses are compared to the ACT SZE properties of the sample, specifically, the match-filtered central SZE amplitude y, the central Compton parameter y0, and the integrated Compton signal Y_200c, which we use to derive SZE-Mass scaling relations. All SZE estimators correlate with dynamical mass with low intrinsic scatter (<~20%), in agreement with numerical simulations. We explore the effects of various systematic effects on these scaling relations, including the correlation between observables and the influence of dynamically disturbed clusters. Using the 3-dimensional information available, we divide the sample into relaxed and disturbed clusters and find that ~50% of the clusters are disturbed. There are hints that disturbed systems might bias the scaling relations but given the current sample sizes these differences are not significant; further studies including more clusters are required to assess the impact of these clusters on the scaling relations.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; matches published version. Full Table 8 with complete spectroscopic member sample available in machine-readable form in the journal site and upon request to C. Sif\'o

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum at 148 and 218 GHz from the 2008 Southern Survey

We present measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope at 148 GHz and 218 GHz, as well as the cross-frequency spectrum between the two channels. Our results clearly show the second through the seventh acoustic peaks in the CMB power spectrum. The measurements of these higher-order peaks provide an additional test of the {\Lambda}CDM cosmological model. At l > 3000, we detect power in excess of the primary anisotropy spectrum of the CMB. At lower multipoles 500 < l < 3000, we find evidence for gravitational lensing of the CMB in the power spectrum at the 2.8{\sigma} level. We also detect a low level of Galactic dust in our maps, which demonstrates that we can recover known faint, diffuse signals.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to ApJ. This paper is a companion to Hajian et al. (2010) and Dunkley et al. (2010

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmology from Galaxy Clusters Detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

We present constraints on cosmological parameters based on a sample of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich-selected galaxy clusters detected in a millimeter-wave survey by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The cluster sample used in this analysis consists of 9 optically-confirmed high-mass clusters comprising the high-significance end of the total cluster sample identified in 455 square degrees of sky surveyed during 2008 at 148 GHz. We focus on the most massive systems to reduce the degeneracy between unknown cluster astrophysics and cosmology derived from SZ surveys. We describe the scaling relation between cluster mass and SZ signal with a 4-parameter fit. Marginalizing over the values of the parameters in this fit with conservative priors gives sigma_8 = 0.851 +/- 0.115 and w = -1.14 +/- 0.35 for a spatially-flat wCDM cosmological model with WMAP 7-year priors on cosmological parameters. This gives a modest improvement in statistical uncertainty over WMAP 7-year constraints alone. Fixing the scaling relation between cluster mass and SZ signal to a fiducial relation obtained from numerical simulations and calibrated by X-ray observations, we find sigma_8 = 0.821 +/- 0.044 and w = -1.05 +/- 0.20. These results are consistent with constraints from WMAP 7 plus baryon acoustic oscillations plus type Ia supernoava which give sigma_8 = 0.802 +/- 0.038 and w = -0.98 +/- 0.053. A stacking analysis of the clusters in this sample compared to clusters simulated assuming the fiducial model also shows good agreement. These results suggest that, given the sample of clusters used here, both the astrophysics of massive clusters and the cosmological parameters derived from them are broadly consistent with current models.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Ap

Testing the cognitive-behavioural maintenance models across DSM-5 bulimic-type eating disorder diagnostic groups: A multi-centre study

The original cognitive-behavioural (CB) model of bulimia nervosa, which provided the basis for the widely used CB therapy, proposed that specific dysfunctional cognitions and behaviours maintain the disorder. However, amongst treatment completers, only 40–50 % have a full and lasting response. The enhanced CB model (CB-E), upon which the enhanced version of the CB treatment was based, extended the original approach by including four additional maintenance factors. This study evaluated and compared both CB models in a large clinical treatment seeking sample (N = 679), applying both DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria for bulimic-type eating disorders. Application of the DSM-5 criteria reduced the number of cases of DSM-IV bulimic-type eating disorders not otherwise specified to 29.6 %. Structural equation modelling analysis indicated that (a) although both models provided a good fit to the data, the CB-E model accounted for a greater proportion of variance in eating-disordered behaviours than the original one, (b) interpersonal problems, clinical perfectionism and low self-esteem were indirectly associated with dietary restraint through over-evaluation of shape and weight, (c) interpersonal problems and mood intolerance were directly linked to binge eating, whereas restraint only indirectly affected binge eating through mood intolerance, suggesting that factors other than restraint may play a more critical role in the maintenance of binge eating. In terms of strength of the associations, differences across DSM-5 bulimic-type eating disorder diagnostic groups were not observed. The results are discussed with reference to theory and research, including neurobiological findings and recent hypotheses