103 research outputs found
Sh2-205: II. Its quiescent stellar formation activity
We present a study of active stellar forming regions in the environs of the
HII region Sh2-205. The analysis is based on data obtained from point source
catalogues and images extracted from 2MASS, MSX, and IRAS surveys.
Complementary data are taken from CO survey. The identification of primary
candidates to stellar formation activity is made following colour criteria and
the correlation with molecular gas emission.
A number of stellar formation tracer candidates are projected on two
substructures of the HII region: SH148.83-0.67 and SH149.25-0.00. However, the
lack of molecular gas related to these structures casts doubts on the nature of
the sources. Additional infrared sources may be associated with the HI shell
centered at (l,b) = (149\degr 0\arcmin, -1\degr 30\arcmin).
The most striking active area was found in connection to the HII region LBN
148.11-0.45, where stellar formation candidates are projected onto molecular
gas. The analytical model to the "collect and collapse" process shows that
stellar formation activity could have been triggered by the expansion of this
HII region.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 5 figures, 5 table
Two-Stage Cryogenic HEMT Based Amplifier For Low Temperature Detectors
To search for dark matter candidates with masses below (MeV),
the SPLENDOR (Search for Particles of Light dark mattEr with Narrow-gap
semiconDuctORs) experiment is developing novel narrow-bandgap semiconductors
with electronic bandgaps on the order of 1-100 meV. In order to detect the
charge signal produced by scattering or absorption events, SPLENDOR has
designed a two-stage cryogenic HEMT-based amplifier with an estimated charge
resolution approaching the single-electron level. A low-capacitance (1.6
pF) HEMT is used as a buffer stage at to mitigate effects
of stray capacitance at the input. The buffered signal is then amplified by a
higher-capacitance (200 pF) HEMT amplifier stage at .
Importantly, the design of this amplifier makes it usable with any insulating
material - allowing for rapid prototyping of a variety of novel detector
materials. We present the two-stage cryogenic amplifier design, preliminary
voltage noise performance, and estimated charge resolution of 7.2 electrons.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, conference proceedings for LTD2
Intestinal Inflammation Responds to Microbial Tissue Load Independent of Pathogen/Non-Pathogen Discrimination
The intestinal immune system mounts inflammatory responses to pathogens but tolerates harmless commensal microbiota. Various mechanisms for pathogen/non-pathogen discrimination have been proposed but their general relevance for inflammation control is unclear. Here, we compared intestinal responses to pathogenic Salmonella and non-pathogenic E. coli. Both microbes entered intestinal Peyer’s patches and, surprisingly, induced qualitatively and quantitatively similar initial inflammatory responses revealing a striking discrimination failure. Diverging inflammatory responses only occurred when Salmonella subsequently proliferated and induced escalating neutrophil infiltration, while harmless E. coli was rapidly cleared from the tissue and inflammation resolved. Transient intestinal inflammation induced by harmless E. coli tolerized against subsequent exposure thereby preventing chronic inflammation during repeated exposure. These data revealed a striking failure of the intestinal immune system to discriminate pathogens from harmless microbes based on distinct molecular signatures. Instead, appropriate intestinal responses to gut microbiota might be ensured by immediate inflammatory responses to any rise in microbial tissue loads, and desensitization after bacterial clearance
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Reproductive health and lifestyle factors associated with health-related quality of life among perinatally HIV-infected adolescents in Uganda
Background
With increased survival of perinatally HIV - infected adolescents due to antiretroviral therapy (ART), the focus of HIV care has shifted to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as a measure of disease progression, effects of ART co-morbidity and prognosis. We assessed factors associated with better HRQoL in perinatally HIV -infected adolescents in Uganda by determining the associations between sexual and reproductive health (SRH) or lifestyle experiences on HRQoL.
Methods
In a cross-sectional study, data on SRH, lifestyle experiences, socio demographic factors, communication with parents on sexuality and satisfaction of SRH services in ART clinics were collected from 614 HIV perinatally infected adolescents aged 10–19 using an interviewer-administered survey questionnaire. HRQoL data were collected using the Medical Outcomes Study HIV Health Survey instrument (MOS-HIV). Factors associated with better HRQoL were analysed using multiple logistic regression.
Results
The mean age was 16.2 ± 2.1 years, 362 (58.8 %) were females and 210 (34.2 %) were sexually active. Adolescents on ART were twice likely to present with better physical health (AOR = 2.07, 95 % CI: 1.24–3.46) and four times more likely to present with better mental health (AOR = 3.9, 95 % CI: 2.22–6.92) than those who were not on ART. There were no statistically significant associations between SRH (ever had sex, ever been pregnant, condom use, contraceptive use) or life style factors and physical health or mental health. Those with secondary or tertiary education were more likely to present with a better mental health (AOR = 5.3, 95 % CI: 1.86–15.41) compared those who had attained primary or no education. Participants who desired to have a child in future more likely (AOR 1.7, 95 % CI: 1.05–3.00) to present with a better mental health. Lack of communication with guardians on sexuality (AOR = 0.6, 95 % CI: 0.40–0.89), or dissatisfaction with SRH services (AOR 0.34, 95 % CI: 0.18–0.62) were associated with poorer mental health.
Conclusion
Among perinatally HIV-infected adolescents in Uganda, being on ART was associated with better physical and mental health while lack of communication with guardians on sexuality or dissatisfaction with SRH services was associated with poor mental health. Adolescents with pregnancy intentions were more likely to have a better mental health
Coordinated Regulation of Virulence during Systemic Infection of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium
To cause a systemic infection, Salmonella must respond to many environmental cues during mouse infection and express specific subsets of genes in a temporal and spatial manner, but the regulatory pathways are poorly established. To unravel how micro-environmental signals are processed and integrated into coordinated action, we constructed in-frame non-polar deletions of 83 regulators inferred to play a role in Salmonella enteriditis Typhimurium (STM) virulence and tested them in three virulence assays (intraperitoneal [i.p.], and intragastric [i.g.] infection in BALB/c mice, and persistence in 129X1/SvJ mice). Overall, 35 regulators were identified whose absence attenuated virulence in at least one assay, and of those, 14 regulators were required for systemic mouse infection, the most stringent virulence assay. As a first step towards understanding the interplay between a pathogen and its host from a systems biology standpoint, we focused on these 14 genes. Transcriptional profiles were obtained for deletions of each of these 14 regulators grown under four different environmental conditions. These results, as well as publicly available transcriptional profiles, were analyzed using both network inference and cluster analysis algorithms. The analysis predicts a regulatory network in which all 14 regulators control the same set of genes necessary for Salmonella to cause systemic infection. We tested the regulatory model by expressing a subset of the regulators in trans and monitoring transcription of 7 known virulence factors located within Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 (SPI-2). These experiments validated the regulatory model and showed that the response regulator SsrB and the MarR type regulator, SlyA, are the terminal regulators in a cascade that integrates multiple signals. Furthermore, experiments to demonstrate epistatic relationships showed that SsrB can replace SlyA and, in some cases, SlyA can replace SsrB for expression of SPI-2 encoded virulence factors
Performance of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter end-cap module 0
The construction and beam test results of the ATLAS electromagnetic end-cap calorimeter pre-production module 0 are presented. The stochastic term of the energy resolution is between 10% GeV^1/2 and 12.5% GeV^1/2 over the full pseudorapidity range. Position and angular resolutions are found to be in agreement with simulation. A global constant term of 0.6% is obtained in the pseudorapidity range 2.5 eta 3.2 (inner wheel)
Construction, assembly and tests of the ATLAS electromagnetic barrel calorimeter
The construction and assembly of the two half barrels of the ATLAS central electromagnetic calorimeter and their insertion into the barrel cryostat are described. The results of the qualification tests of the calorimeter before installation in the LHC ATLAS pit are given
An algorithm for mapping the positions of point scatterers
We investigate the feasibility of mapping point scatterers based
only on multipath signal component delay estimates, i.e., no angleof-
arrival information is assumed to be available. In this work we
focus on the generation of input data to a point scatterer mapping
algorithm that was recently proposed in [1]. In an effort to make
the mapping problem computationally tractable in ultra-wide band
networks, we first propose a mechanism that detects the presence
of new point scatterers in an environment, and reduces the number
of unwanted signal components due to other scattering objects in
the environment. We also propose to group signal components into
clusters, and base delay estimates on the cluster arrival times, instead
of on individual signal components. Computer simulations
of an ultra-wide band network indicate that reasonably accurate
point scatterer mapping should indeed be feasible in some scenarios
using only estimates of signal component delay
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