Alien Registration- Munn, Fred S. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21909/thumbnail.jp

The heritability of premenstrual syndrome

We aimed to determine (1) the prevalence of premenstrual syndrome in a sample of twins and (2) the relative contribution of genes and environment in premenstrual syndrome. A group of 193 subjects inclusive of same gender twins (n = 176) and females from opposite sex twin sets (n = 17) entered the study. Heritability analysis used same gender twin data only. The probandwise concordance rate for the presence or absence of premenstrual syndrome was calculated and the heritability of premenstrual syndrome was assessed by a quantitative genetic model fitting approach using MX software. The prevalence of premenstrual syndrome was 43.0% and 46.8% in monozygotic and dizygotic twins, respectively. The probandwise concordance for premenstrual syndrome was higher in monozygotic (0.81) than in dizygotic twins (0.67), indicating a strong genetic effect. Quantitative genetic modeling found that a model comprising of additive genetic (A) and unique environment (E) factors provided the best fit (A: 95%, E: 5%). No association was found between premenstrual symptom and the following variables: belonging to the opposite gender twin set, birth weight, being breast fed and vaccination. These results established a clear genetic influence in premenstrual syndrome

Sensible heat loss from Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) feeding in winter: small calves are not at a thermal disadvantage compared with adult cows

Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) are large (\u3e200 kg adult body mass) mammalian herbivores that overwinter in the polar regions. Calves are around one-third the body mass of mature females and may be expected to suffer greater thermal stresses in winter compared with adults because the ratio of surface area to volume (SA : vol) is much greater for calves than for adults. We found that during feeding bouts, when animals are fully exposed to environmental conditions, calves did lose sensible (dry) heat more readily than adults (W m(-2)) in still air conditions. However, calves and cows lost less than 2%-6% of their estimated daily digestible energy intake as conductive, convective, and radiant heat losses accumulated during feeding bouts. More important, calves did not lose relatively more heat than larger adults in terms of sensible losses as part of their daily energy intake. Coat surface temperatures were only 2 degrees-5 degrees C above ambient even when air temperature fell to -40 degrees C. Body temperatures recorded deep within the ear canal near the tympanum fluctuated in both cows and calves. Muskoxen combine peripheral heterothermy and an exceptional winter coat to minimize sensible heat loss in winter. These mechanisms appear to have circumvented some of the thermal problems normally associated with a high SA : vol ratio in calves, which reflects the strong selection to conserve energy in winter

Cross-Identification of Stars with Unknown Proper Motions

The cross-identification of sources in separate catalogs is one of the most basic tasks in observational astronomy. It is, however, surprisingly difficult and generally ill-defined. Recently Budav\'ari & Szalay (2008) formulated the problem in the realm of probability theory, and laid down the statistical foundations of an extensible methodology. In this paper, we apply their Bayesian approach to stars that, we know, can move measurably on the sky, with detectable proper motion, and show how to associate their observations. We study models on a sample of stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which allow for an unknown proper motion per object, and demonstrate the improvements over the analytic static model. Our models and conclusions are directly applicable to upcoming surveys such as PanSTARRS, the Dark Energy Survey, Sky Mapper, and the LSST, whose data sets will contain hundreds of millions of stars observed multiple times over several years.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

The High-Order-Multiplicity of Unusually Wide M-dwarf Binaries: Eleven New Triple and Quadruple Systems

M-dwarfs in extremely wide binary systems are very rare, and may thus have different formation processes from those found as single stars or close binaries in the field. In this paper we search for close companions to a new sample of 36 extremely wide M-dwarf binaries, covering a spectral type range of M1 to M5 and a separation range of 600 - 6500 AU. We discover 10 new triple systems and one new quadruple system. We carefully account for selection effects including proper motion, magnitude limits, the detection of close binaries in the SDSS, and other sample biases. The bias-corrected total high-order-multiple fraction is 45% (+18%/-16%) and the bias-corrected incidence of quadruple systems is < 5%, both statistically compatible with that found for the more common close M-dwarf multiple systems. Almost all the detected companions have similar masses to their primaries, although two very low mass companions, including a candidate brown dwarf, are found at relatively large separations. We find that the close-binary separation distribution is strongly peaked towards < 30AU separations. There is marginally significant evidence for a change in high-order M-dwarf multiplicity with binding energy and total mass. We also find 2-sigma evidence of an unexpected increased high-order-multiple fraction for the widest targets in our survey, with a high-order-multiple fraction of 21% (+17%/-7%) for systems with separations up to 2000AU, compared to 77% (+9%/-22%) for systems with separations > 4000AU. These results suggest that the very widest M-dwarf binary systems need higher masses to form or to survive.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Modulation of Tumor Tolerance in Primary Central Nervous System Malignancies

Central nervous system tumors take advantage of the unique immunology of the CNS and develop exquisitely complex stromal networks that promote growth despite the presence of antigen-presenting cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. It is precisely this immunological paradox that is essential to the survival of the tumor. We review the evidence for functional CNS immune privilege and the impact it has on tumor tolerance. In this paper, we place an emphasis on the role of tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells in maintaining stromal and vascular quiescence, and we underscore the importance of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity as a myeloid-driven tumor tolerance mechanism. Much remains to be discovered regarding the tolerogenic mechanisms by which CNS tumors avoid immune clearance. Thus, it is an open question whether tumor tolerance in the brain is fundamentally different from that of peripheral sites of tumorigenesis or whether it simply stands as a particularly strong example of such tolerance

A Detailed Model Atmosphere Analysis of Cool White Dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We present optical spectroscopy and near-infrared photometry of 126 cool white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our sample includes high proper motion targets selected using the SDSS and USNO-B astrometry and a dozen previously known ultracool white dwarf candidates. Our optical spectroscopic observations demonstrate that a clean selection of large samples of cool white dwarfs in the SDSS (and the SkyMapper, Pan-STARRS, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope datasets) is possible using a reduced proper motion diagram and a tangential velocity cut-off (depending on the proper motion accuracy) of 30 km/s. Our near-infrared observations reveal eight new stars with significant absorption. We use the optical and near-infrared photometry to perform a detailed model atmosphere analysis. More than 80% of the stars in our sample are consistent with either pure hydrogen or pure helium atmospheres. However, the eight stars with significant infrared absorption and the majority of the previously known ultracool white dwarf candidates are best explained with mixed hydrogen and helium atmosphere models. The age distribution of our sample is consistent with a Galactic disk age of 8 Gyr. A few ultracool white dwarfs may be as old as 12-13 Gyr, but our models have problems matching the spectral energy distributions of these objects. There are only two halo white dwarf candidates in our sample. However, trigonometric parallax observations are required for accurate mass and age determinations and to confirm their membership in the halo.Comment: ApJ Supplements, in pres

Inverse monoids and immersions of 2-complexes

It is well known that under mild conditions on a connected topological space $\mathcal X$, connected covers of $\mathcal X$ may be classified via conjugacy classes of subgroups of the fundamental group of $\mathcal X$. In this paper, we extend these results to the study of immersions into 2-dimensional CW-complexes. An immersion $f : {\mathcal D} \rightarrow \mathcal C$ between CW-complexes is a cellular map such that each point $y \in {\mathcal D}$ has a neighborhood $U$ that is mapped homeomorphically onto $f(U)$ by $f$. In order to classify immersions into a 2-dimensional CW-complex $\mathcal C$, we need to replace the fundamental group of $\mathcal C$ by an appropriate inverse monoid. We show how conjugacy classes of the closed inverse submonoids of this inverse monoid may be used to classify connected immersions into the complex