The Infrared Extinction Law at Extreme Depth in a Dark Cloud Core

We combined sensitive near-infrared data obtained with ground-based imagers on the ESO NTT and VLT telescopes with space mid-infrared data acquired with the IRAC imager on the Spitzer Space Telescope to calculate the extinction law A_\lambda/A_K as a function of \lambda between 1.25 and 7.76 micron to an unprecedented depth in Barnard 59, a star forming, dense core located in the Pipe Nebula. The ratios A_\lambda/A_K were calculated from the slopes of the distributions of sources in color-color diagrams \lambda-K vs. H-K. The distributions in the color-color diagrams are fit well with single slopes to extinction levels of A_K ~ 7 (A_V ~ 59 mag). Consequently, there appears to be no significant variation of the extinction law with depth through the B59 line of sight. However, when slopes are translated into the relative extinction coefficients A_\lambda/A_K, we find an extinction law which departs from the simple extrapolation of the near-infrared power law extinction curve, and agrees more closely with a dust extinction model for a cloud with a total to selective absorption R_V=5.5 and a grain size distribution favoring larger grains than those in the diffuse ISM. Thus, the difference we observe could be possibly due to the effect of grain growth in denser regions. Finally, the slopes in our diagrams are somewhat less steep than those from the study of Indebetouw et al. (2005) for clouds with lower column densities, and this indicates that the extinction law between 3 and 8 micron might vary slightly as a function of environment.Comment: 22 pages manuscript, 4 figures (2 multipart), 1 tabl

GFR increases before renal mass or ODC activity increase in rats fed high protein diets

GFR increases before renal mass or ODC activity increase in rats fed high protein diets. Consumption of a high protein diet causes renal hypertrophy and increased glomerular filtration rate (GFR). To determine the relationship between increases in GFR, renal ornithine decarboxylase activity (ODC), arginase activity, and renal growth, dietary protein intake was increased from 8.5% to 40% in 50 male Sprague-Dawley rats (HP). Forty-one rats remained on 8.5% protein as time controls (LP). Eight to 17 animals were killed daily for measurement of kidney weight (kidney wt), ODC and arginase activities, total kidney protein and DNA content. GFR increased within the first 24 hours after the increase in dietary protein and reached a maximum within 48hrs. ODC increased from 9.7 ± 0.8 U/g to a peak of 170 ± 35 U/g at 48 hours, decreasing to a stable value of 28.6 ± 8.0 U/g at 72 hours and 25.4 ± 5.1 U/g at 168 hours, a value significantly greater than that at time zero. Arginase activity did not change. Kidney wt as percent body weight (body wt) increased after the initial increase in both GFR and in ODC activity. The peak in ODC activity corresponded with the maximum increase in GFR and preceded the increase in renal mass. After GFR stabilized, ODC activity decreased to a plateau and renal growth relative to body wt ceased. The increase in kidney weight was accompanied by a parallel increase in total kidney protein. Kidney protein/ kidney DNA ratio increased significantly by 96 hours, indicating that renal hypertrophy had occurred. The sequence of these events suggests that increasing GFR may trigger the rise in ODC activity

Judge-Jury Communications: Improving Communications and Understanding Bias

Symposium: Improving Communications in the Courtroo

How Good a Deal Was the Tobacco Settlement?: Assessing Payments to Massachusetts

We estimate the increment in Massachusetts Medicaid program costs attributable to smoking from December 20, 1991, to 1998. We describe how our methods improve upon earlier estimates of analogous costs at the national level. Current costs to the Massachusetts Medicaid program approximate the payments to Massachusetts under the tobacco settlement of November 1998. Whether these payments are viewed as appropriate compensation for Medicaid costs over time depends upon the rate of increase in future health care costs, the rate of decline in smoking, the proportion of smoking that should be attributed to the actions of the tobacco companies and the liklihood that state would have prevailed at trial. The costs to the Medicaid program are dwarfed by the internal costs to smokers themselves.

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing of samples from pediatric febrile illness in Tororo, Uganda.

Febrile illness is a major burden in African children, and non-malarial causes of fever are uncertain. In this retrospective exploratory study, we used metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) to evaluate serum, nasopharyngeal, and stool specimens from 94 children (aged 2-54 months) with febrile illness admitted to Tororo District Hospital, Uganda. The most common microbes identified were Plasmodium falciparum (51.1% of samples) and parvovirus B19 (4.4%) from serum; human rhinoviruses A and C (40%), respiratory syncytial virus (10%), and human herpesvirus 5 (10%) from nasopharyngeal swabs; and rotavirus A (50% of those with diarrhea) from stool. We also report the near complete genome of a highly divergent orthobunyavirus, tentatively named Nyangole virus, identified from the serum of a child diagnosed with malaria and pneumonia, a Bwamba orthobunyavirus in the nasopharynx of a child with rash and sepsis, and the genomes of two novel human rhinovirus C species. In this retrospective exploratory study, mNGS identified multiple potential pathogens, including 3 new viral species, associated with fever in Ugandan children

Changing and unchanging values in the world of the future, November 8, 9, and 10, 2001

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This was the Center's Inaugural Conference that took place during November 8, 9, and 10, 2001. Organized by David Fromkin, Director Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. Co-Sponsored by Boston University and Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.This conference brought together a discussion of different perspectives on what future paradigm shifts will look like – in government, in foreign policy, in what constitutes “classics,” in economic and religious modes, and changes in the interaction between these values. The conference agreed that today’s Western society values democracy, constitutionalism, liberalism, rule of law, open society, and market economy. These are not contingent upon one another and may change. But the “needs and aspirations” of humanity will at their most essential core remain the same. The amount and type of power given to governments is not a fixed thing, and developments in the meaning of democracy and how it is achieved may illustrate this

Two-Minute Peripheral Motion Contrast Threshold Test Predicts Older Drivers’ Collisions and Hazardous Driving in Simulator

Older drivers’ contrast thresholds for low spatial frequency drifting Gabor stimuli at 15 degrees eccentricity were measured with a previously validated 10-minute forced-choice test and a 2-minute increasing contrast detection test (implemented on an iMac and a PC). Older drivers’ contrast thresholds significantly predict collisions, near collisions, hazardous lane excursions, and speeding, during a simulated drive with surprising hazard encounters and highway merging tasks. The 2-minute tests also correlate with each other and with the 10-minute test. The 2-minute tests are potentially suitable for use in an operational driver assessment setting