Training telescope operators and support astronomers at Paranal

The operations model of the Paranal Observatory relies on the work of efficient staff to carry out all the daytime and nighttime tasks. This is highly dependent on adequate training. The Paranal Science Operations department (PSO) has a training group that devises a well-defined and continuously evolving training plan for new staff, in addition to broadening and reinforcing courses for the whole department. This paper presents the training activities for and by PSO, including recent astronomical and quality control training for operators, as well as adaptive optics and interferometry training of all staff. We also present some future plans.Comment: Paper 9910-123 presented at SPIE 201

Statistical competencies for medical research learners: What is fundamental?

IntroductionIt is increasingly essential for medical researchers to be literate in statistics, but the requisite degree of literacy is not the same for every statistical competency in translational research. Statistical competency can range from 'fundamental' (necessary for all) to 'specialized' (necessary for only some). In this study, we determine the degree to which each competency is fundamental or specialized.MethodsWe surveyed members of 4 professional organizations, targeting doctorally trained biostatisticians and epidemiologists who taught statistics to medical research learners in the past 5 years. Respondents rated 24 educational competencies on a 5-point Likert scale anchored by 'fundamental' and 'specialized.'ResultsThere were 112 responses. Nineteen of 24 competencies were fundamental. The competencies considered most fundamental were assessing sources of bias and variation (95%), recognizing one's own limits with regard to statistics (93%), identifying the strengths, and limitations of study designs (93%). The least endorsed items were meta-analysis (34%) and stopping rules (18%).ConclusionWe have identified the statistical competencies needed by all medical researchers. These competencies should be considered when designing statistical curricula for medical researchers and should inform which topics are taught in graduate programs and evidence-based medicine courses where learners need to read and understand the medical research literature

Epidemiology and Molecular Virus Characterization of Reemerging Rabies, South Africa

Late identification of an outbreak of human rabies in Limpopo Province le

Old vaccines for new infections: Exploiting innate immunity to control COVID-19 and prevent future pandemics

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unparalleled pursuit of vaccines to induce specific adaptive immunity, based on virus-neutralizing antibodies and T cell responses. Although several vaccines have been developed just a year after SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2019, global deployment will take months or even years. Meanwhile, the virus continues to take a severe toll on human life and exact substantial economic costs. Innate immunity is fundamental to mammalian host defense capacity to combat infections. Innate immune responses, triggered by a family of pattern recognition receptors, induce interferons and other cytokines and activate both myeloid and lymphoid immune cells to provide protection against a wide range of pathogens. Epidemiological and biological evidence suggests that the live-attenuated vaccines (LAV) targeting tuberculosis, measles, and polio induce protective innate immunity by a newly described form of immunological memory termed “trained immunity.” An LAV designed to induce adaptive immunity targeting a particular pathogen may also induce innate immunity that mitigates other infectious diseases, including COVID-19, as well as future pandemic threats. Deployment of existing LAVs early in pandemics could complement the development of specific vaccines, bridging the protection gap until specific vaccines arrive. The broad protection induced by LAVs would not be compromised by potential antigenic drift (immune escape) that can render viruses resistant to specific vaccines. LAVs might offer an essential tool to “bend the pandemic curve,” averting the exhaustion of public health resources and preventing needless deaths and may also have therapeutic benefits if used for postexposure prophylaxis of disease

A first constraint on basal melt-water production of the Greenland ice sheet

PROMICE is funded by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities under the Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic (DANCEA), and is conducted in collaboration with DTU Space (Technical University of Denmark) and Asiaq, Greenland.The Greenland ice sheet has been one of the largest sources of sea-level rise since the early 2000s. However, basal melt has not been included explicitly in assessments of ice-sheet mass loss so far. Here, we present the first estimate of the total and regional basal melt produced by the ice sheet and the recent change in basal melt through time. We find that the ice sheet’s present basal melt production is 21.4 +4.4/−4.0 Gt per year, and that melt generated by basal friction is responsible for about half of this volume. We estimate that basal melting has increased by 2.9 ± 5.2 Gt during the first decade of the 2000s. As the Arctic warms, we anticipate that basal melt will continue to increase due to faster ice flow and more surface melting thus compounding current mass loss trends, enhancing solid ice discharge, and modifying fjord circulation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Mutations in succinate dehydrogenase B (SDHB) enhance neutrophil survival independent of HIF-1α expression.

status: publishe

Optical Counterparts for 70,000 Radio Sources: APM Identifications for the FIRST Radio Survey

We describe a program to identify optical counterparts to radio sources from the VLA FIRST survey using the Cambridge APM scans of the POSS-I plates. We use radio observations covering 4150 square degrees of the north Galactic cap to a 20 cm flux density threshold of 1.0 mJy; the 382,892 sources detected all have positional uncertainties of <1" (radius of 90% confidence). Our description of the APM catalog, derived from the 148 POSS-I O and E plates covering this region, includes an assessment of its astrometric and photometric accuracy, a photometric recalibration using the Minnesota APS catalog, a discussion of the classification algorithm, and quantitative tests of the catalog's reliability and completeness. We go on to show how the use of FIRST sources as astrometric standards allows us to improve the absolute astrometry of the POSS plates by nearly an order of magnitude to ~0.15" rms. Matching the radio and optical catalogs yields counterparts for over 70,000 radio sources; we include detailed discussions of the reliability and completeness of these identifications as a function of optical and radio morphology, optical magnitude and color, and radio flux density. An analysis of the problem of radio sources with complex morphologies (e.g., double-lobed radio galaxies) is included. We conclude with a brief discussion of the source classes represented among the radio sources with identified counterparts.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 28 pages, 23 figure

PTF1 J071912.13+485834.0: An outbursting AM CVn system discovered by a synoptic survey

We present extensive photometric and spectroscopic observations of PTF1 J071912.13+485834.0, an outbursting AM CVn system discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). AM CVn systems are stellar binaries with some of the smallest separations known and orbital periods ranging from 5 to 65 minutes. They are believed to be composed of a white dwarf accretor and a (semi)-degenerate He-rich donor and are considered to be the helium equivalents of Cataclysmic Variables. We have spectroscopically and photometrically identified an orbital period of 26.77 \pm 0.02 minutes for PTF1 J071912.13+485834.0 and found a super-outburst recurrence time of greater than 65 days along with the presence of "normal" outbursts - rarely seen in AM CVn systems but well known in super-outbursting Cataclysmic Variables. We present a long-term light curve over two super-cycles as well as high cadence photometry of both outburst and quiescent stages, both of which show clear variability. We also compare both the outburst and quiescent spectra of PTF1 J071912.13+485834.0 to other known AM CVn systems, and use the quiescent phase-resolved spectroscopy to determine the origin of the photometric variability. Finally, we draw parallels between the different subclasses of SU UMa-type Cataclysmic Variables and outbursting AM CVn systems. We conclude by predicting that the Palomar Transient Factory may more than double the number of outbursting AM CVn systems known, which would greatly increase our understanding of AM CVn systems.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures; accepted to Ap

Frozen magma lenses below the oceanic crust

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature 436 (2005): 1149-1152, doi:10.1038/nature03944.The Earth's oceanic crust crystallizes from magmatic systems generated at mid-ocean ridges. Whereas a single magma body residing within the mid-crust is thought to be responsible for the generation of the upper oceanic crust, it remains unclear if the lower crust is formed from the same magma body, or if it mainly crystallizes from magma lenses located at the base of the crust. Thermal modelling, tomography, compliance and wide-angle seismic studies, supported by geological evidence, suggest the presence of gabbroic-melt accumulations within the Moho transition zone in the vicinity of fast- to intermediate-spreading centres. Until now, however, no reflection images have been obtained of such a structure within the Moho transition zone. Here we show images of groups of Moho transition zone reflection events that resulted from the analysis of approximately 1,500 km of multichannel seismic data collected across the intermediate-spreading-rate Juan de Fuca ridge. From our observations we suggest that gabbro lenses and melt accumulations embedded within dunite or residual mantle peridotite are the most probable cause for the observed reflectivity, thus providing support for the hypothesis that the crust is generated from multiple magma bodies