401 research outputs found
George Wharton Rice Correspondence
Entry is typed resume with biographical information
Robert Carse Correspondence
Entries include a typed letter of correspondence from Carse at the Hotel Chelsea with his reply that he shared the Maine Author Collection letter of introduction with the Children\u27s Book editor at Putnam and with research questions for an upcoming W.W. Norton book
Obscuration in the Host Galaxies of Soft X-ray Selected Seyferts
We define a new sample of 96 low-redshift (z<0.1), soft X-ray selected
Seyferts from the catalog of the Einstein Slew Survey (Elvis etal. 1992,
Plummer et al. 1994). We probe the geometry and column depth of obscuring
material in the host-galaxy disks using galaxian axial ratios determined mainly
from the Digitized Sky Survey. The distribution of host-galaxy axial ratios
clearly shows a bias against edge-on spirals, confirming the existence of a
geometrically thick layer of obscuring material in the host-galaxy planes. Soft
X-ray selection recovers some of the edge-on objects missed in UV and visible
surveys but still results in 30% incompleteness for Type 1's. We speculate that
thick rings of obscuring material like the ones we infer for these Seyferts
might be commonly present in early type spirals, sitting at the Inner Lindblad
Resonances of the nonaxisymmetric potentials of the host galaxies.Comment: 14 pages including 2 tables and 3 eps figures, aas2pp4.sty, to appear
in Ap
2003 Manifesto on the California Electricity Crisis
The authors, an ad-hocgroup of professionals with experience in regulatory and energy economics, share a common concern with the continuing turmoil facing the electricity industry ("the industry") in California. Most ofthe authorsendorsed the first California Electricity Manifesto issued on January 25, 2001. Almost two years have passed since that first Manifesto. While wholesale electric prices have moderated and California no longer faces the risk of blackouts, in many ways the industry is in worse shape now than it was at the start of 2001. As a result, the group of signatories continues to have a deep concern with the conflicting policy directions being pursued for the industry at both the State and Federal levels of government and the impact the uncertainties associated with these conflicting policies will have, long term, on the economy of California. Theauthorshave once again convened under the auspices of the Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization at the University of California, Berkeley, to put forward ourtheir ideas on a basic set of necessary policies to move the industry forward for the benefit of all Californians and the nation. The authors point out that theydo not pretend to be "representative." They do bring, however, a very diverse range of backgrounds and expertise.Technology and Industry, Regulatory Reform
Universal features of the order-parameter fluctuations : reversible and irreversible aggregation
We discuss the universal scaling laws of order parameter fluctuations in any
system in which the second-order critical behaviour can be identified. These
scaling laws can be derived rigorously for equilibrium systems when combined
with the finite-size scaling analysis. The relation between order parameter,
criticality and scaling law of fluctuations has been established and the
connexion between the scaling function and the critical exponents has been
found. We give examples in out-of-equilibrium aggregation models such as the
Smoluchowski kinetic equations, or of at-equilibrium Ising and percolation
models.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure
Real-world outcomes of sipuleucel-T treatment in PROCEED, a prospective registry of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
BackgroundThe large registry, PROVENGE Registry for the Observation, Collection, and Evaluation of Experience Data (PROCEED)(NCT01306890), evaluated sipuleucel-T immunotherapy for asymptomatic/minimally symptomatic metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).MethodsPROCEED enrolled patients with mCRPC receiving 3 biweekly sipuleucel-T infusions. Assessments included overall survival (OS), serious adverse events (SAEs), cerebrovascular events (CVEs), and anticancer interventions (ACIs). Follow-up was for ≥3 years or until death or study withdrawal.ResultsIn 2011-2017, 1976 patients were followed for 46.6 months (median). The median age was 72 years, and the baseline median prostate-specific antigen level was 15.0 ng/mL; 86.7% were white, and 11.6% were African American. Among the patients, 1902 had 1 or more sipuleucel-T infusions. The median OS was 30.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 28.6-32.2 months). Known prognostic factors were independently associated with OS in a multivariable analysis. Among the 1255 patients who died, 964 (76.8%) died of prostate cancer (PC) progression. The median time from the first infusion to PC death was 42.7 months (95% CI, 39.4-46.2 months). The incidence of sipuleucel-T-related SAEs was 3.9%. The incidence of CVEs was 2.8%, and the rate per 100 person-years was 1.2 (95% CI, 0.9-1.6). The CVE incidence among 11,972 patients with mCRPC from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database was 2.8%; the rate per 100 person-years was 1.5 (95% CI, 1.4-1.7). One or more ACIs (abiraterone, enzalutamide, docetaxel, cabazitaxel, or radium 223) were received by 77.1% of the patients after sipuleucel-T; 32.5% and 17.4% of the patients experienced 1- and 2-year treatment-free intervals, respectively.ConclusionsPROCEED provides contemporary survival data for sipuleucel-T-treated men in a real-world setting of new life-prolonging agents, which will be useful in discussing treatment options with patients and in powering future trials with sipuleucel-T. The safety and tolerability of sipuleucel-T in PROCEED were consistent with previous findings
Hectospec, the MMT's 300 Optical Fiber-Fed Spectrograph
The Hectospec is a 300 optical fiber fed spectrograph commissioned at the MMT
in the spring of 2004. A pair of high-speed six-axis robots move the 300 fiber
buttons between observing configurations within ~300 s and to an accuracy ~25
microns. The optical fibers run for 26 m between the MMT's focal surface and
the bench spectrograph operating at R~1000-2000. Another high dispersion bench
spectrograph offering R~5,000, Hectochelle, is also available. The system
throughput, including all losses in the telescope optics, fibers, and
spectrograph peaks at ~10% at the grating blaze in 1" FWHM seeing. Correcting
for aperture losses at the 1.5" diameter fiber entrance aperture, the system
throughput peaks at 17%. Hectospec has proven to be a workhorse
instrument at the MMT. Hectospec and Hectochelle together were scheduled for
1/3 of the available nights since its commissioning. Hectospec has returned
\~60,000 reduced spectra for 16 scientific programs during its first year of
operation.Comment: 68 pages, 28 figures, to appear in December 2005 PAS
KELT-8b: A highly inflated transiting hot Jupiter and a new technique for extracting high-precision radial velocities from noisy spectra
We announce the discovery of a highly inflated transiting hot Jupiter
discovered by the KELT-North survey. A global analysis including constraints
from isochrones indicates that the V = 10.8 host star (HD 343246) is a mildly
evolved, G dwarf with K, , , an inferred mass
M, and radius
R. The planetary companion has mass , radius
, surface gravity , and density
g cm. The planet is on a roughly
circular orbit with semimajor axis AU and
eccentricity . The best-fit linear ephemeris is
BJD and
days. This planet is one of the most inflated of all known transiting
exoplanets, making it one of the few members of a class of extremely low
density, highly-irradiated gas giants. The low stellar and large
implied radius are supported by stellar density constraints from follow-up
light curves, plus an evolutionary and space motion analysis. We also develop a
new technique to extract high precision radial velocities from noisy spectra
that reduces the observing time needed to confirm transiting planet candidates.
This planet boasts deep transits of a bright star, a large inferred atmospheric
scale height, and a high equilibrium temperature of
K, assuming zero albedo and perfect heat redistribution, making it one of the
best targets for future atmospheric characterization studies.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, feedback is welcom
KELT-7b: A hot Jupiter transiting a bright V=8.54 rapidly rotating F-star
We report the discovery of KELT-7b, a transiting hot Jupiter with a mass of
MJ, radius of RJ, and an orbital
period of days. The bright host star (HD33643;
KELT-7) is an F-star with , Teff K, [Fe/H]
, and . It has a mass of
Msun, a radius of Rsun, and
is the fifth most massive, fifth hottest, and the ninth brightest star known to
host a transiting planet. It is also the brightest star around which KELT has
discovered a transiting planet. Thus, KELT-7b is an ideal target for detailed
characterization given its relatively low surface gravity, high equilibrium
temperature, and bright host star. The rapid rotation of the star (
km/s) results in a Rossiter-McLaughlin effect with an unusually large amplitude
of several hundred m/s. We find that the orbit normal of the planet is likely
to be well-aligned with the stellar spin axis, with a projected spin-orbit
alignment of degrees. This is currently the second most
rapidly rotating star to have a reflex signal (and thus mass determination) due
to a planetary companion measured.Comment: Accepted to The Astronomical Journa
Adhesive and conformational behaviour of mycolic acid monolayers
We have studied the pH-dependent interaction between mycolic acid (MA) monolayers and hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces using molecular (colloidal probe) force spectroscopy. In both cases, hydrophobic and hydrophilic monolayers (prepared by Langmuir-Blodgett and Langmuir-Schaefer deposition on silicon or hydrophobized silicon substrates, respectively) were studied. The force spectroscopy data, fitted with classical DLVO (Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey, and Overbeek) theory to examine the contribution of electrostatic and van der Waals forces, revealed that electrostatic forces are the dominant contribution to the repulsive force between the approaching colloidal probe and MA monolayers. The good agreement between data and the DLVO model suggest that beyond a few nm away from the surface, hydrophobic, hydration, and specific chemical bonding are unlikely to contribute to any significant extent to the interaction energy between the probe and the surface. The pH-dependent conformation of MA molecules in the monolayer at the solid-liquid interface was studied by ellipsometry, neutron reflectometry, and with a quartz crystal microbalance. Monolayers prepared by the Langmuir-Blodgett method demonstrated a distinct pH-responsive behaviour, while monolayers prepared by the Langmuir-Schaefer method were less sensitive to pH variation. It was found that the attachment of water molecules plays a vital role in determining the conformation of the MA monolayers. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
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