Sunspot area catalogue revisited: Daily cross-calibrated areas since 1874

Long and consistent sunspot area records are important for understanding the long-term solar activity and variability. Multiple observatories around the globe have regularly recorded sunspot areas, but such individual records only cover restricted periods of time. Furthermore, there are also systematic differences between them, so that these records need to be cross-calibrated before they can be reliably used for further studies. We produce a cross-calibrated and homogeneous record of total daily sunspot areas, both projected and corrected, covering the period between 1874 and 2019. A catalogue of calibrated individual group areas is also generated for the same period. We have compared the data from nine archives: Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO), Kislovodsk, Pulkovo, Debrecen, Kodaikanal, Solar Optical Observing Network (SOON), Rome, Catania, and Yunnan Observatories, covering the period between 1874 and 2019. Mutual comparisons of the individual records have been employed to produce homogeneous and inter-calibrated records of daily projected and corrected areas. As in earlier studies, the basis of the composite is formed by the data from RGO. After 1976, the only datasets used are those from Kislovodsk, Pulkovo and Debrecen observatories. This choice was made based on the temporal coverage and the quality of the data. In contrast to the SOON data used in previous area composites for the post-RGO period, the properties of the data from Kislovodsk and Pulkovo are very similar to those from the RGO series. They also directly overlap the RGO data in time, which makes their cross-calibration with RGO much more reliable. We have also computed and provide the daily Photometric Sunspot Index (PSI) widely used, e.g., in empirical reconstructions of solar irradiance.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. An additional file (animation) is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/armawopcxt8kmb9/Mandal_2020_butterfly_diagram.zip?dl=

Delving into the Historical Ca II K Archive from the Kodaikanal Observatory: the Potential of the Most Recent Digitised Series

Full-disc Ca II K photographic observations of the Sun carry direct information about the evolution of solar-plage regions for more than a century and are therefore a unique dataset for solar-activity studies. For a long time Ca II K observations were barely explored, but recent digitisations of multiple archives have allowed their extensive analysis. However, various studies have reported diverse results partly due to the insufficient quality of the digitised data. Furthermore, inhomogeneities have been identified within the individual archives, which, at least partly, could be due to the digitisation. As a result, some of the archives, e.g. that from the Kodaikanal observatory, were re-digitised. The results obtained by different authors who analysed the data from the new digitisation of the Kodaikanal archive differ from each other as well as from those derived from the old digitisation. Since the data were processed and analysed using different techniques, it is not clear, however, whether the differences are due to the digitisation or the processing of the data. To understand the reasons for such discrepancies, we analyse here the data from the two most recent digitisations of this archive. We use the same techniques to consistently process the images from both archives and to derive the plage areas from them. Some issues have been identified in both digitisations, implying that they are intrinsic characteristics of the data. Moreover, errors in timing of the observations plague both digitisations. Overall, the most recent 16-bit digitisation offers an improvement over the earlier 8-bit one. It also includes considerably more data and should be preferred.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in solar physic

On general properties of Lorentz invariant formulation of noncommutative quantum field theory

We study general properties of certain Lorentz invariant noncommutative quantum field theories proposed in the literature. We show that causality in those theories does not hold, in contrast to the canonical noncommutative field theory with the light-wedge causality condition. This is the consequence of the infinite nonlocality of the theory getting spread in all spacetime directions. We also show that the time-ordered perturbation theory arising from the Hamiltonian formulation of noncommutative quantum field theories remains inequivalent to the covariant perturbation theory with usual Feynman rules even after restoration of Lorentz symmetry.Comment: 13 pages, references adde

The Receptor for Urokinase Regulates TLR2 Mediated Inflammatory Responses in Neutrophils

The urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchored membrane protein, regulates urokinase (uPA) protease activity, chemotaxis, cell-cell interactions, and phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. uPAR expression is increased in cytokine or bacteria activated cell populations, including macrophages and monocytes. However, it is unclear if uPAR has direct involvement in the response of inflammatory cells, such as neutrophils and macrophages, to Toll like receptor (TLR) stimulation. In this study, we found that uPAR is required for optimal neutrophil activation after TLR2, but not TLR4 stimulation. We found that the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 induced by TLR2 engagement in uPAR-/- neutrophils was less than that in uPAR+/+ (WT) neutrophils. Pretreatment of neutrophils with PI-PLC, which cleaves GPI moieties, significantly decreased TLR2 induced expression of TNF-α in WT neutrophils, but demonstrated only marginal effects on TNF-α expression in PAM treated uPAR-/- neutrophils. IκB-α degradation and NF-κB activation were not different in uPAR-/- or WT neutrophils after TLR2 stimulation. However, uPAR is required for optimal p38 MAPK activation after TLR2 engagement. Consistent with the in vitro findings that uPAR modulates TLR2 engagement induced neutrophil activation, we found that pulmonary and systemic inflammation induced by TLR2, but not TLR4 stimulation is reduced in uPAR-/- mice compared to WT counterparts. Therefore, our data suggest that neutrophil associated uPAR could be a potential target for treating acute inflammation, sepsis, and organ injury related to severe bacterial and other microbial infections in which TLR2 engagement plays a major role

Role of a cardio‐renal multi‐disciplinary team meeting in managing cardiovascular risk in patients on kidney transplant waitlists

Background Waitlisted kidney transplant patients suffer from excess cardiovascular events. The benefits of regular cardiac investigations, potentially harmful and expensive, are unknown. We investigate the effectiveness of a cardio‐renal MDT in managing high cardiovascular risk waitlisted transplant patients to prevent events and enable transplantation. Methods Clinical outcomes in waitlisted transplant candidates managed by our cardio‐renal MDT protocol were compared against our standard protocol. Data compared include the transplantation, event, and death rates, cost of cardiac investigations and procedures, and graft, patient survival, and re‐hospitalization rates in transplanted patients. Results 207 patients were studied (81 standard, 126 cardio‐renal MDT). Over 2.7 years, the cardio‐renal MDT protocol transplanted more patients than the standard group (35% vs 21%; P = .02). The managing cost per patient per year was higher in the standard group (£692 vs £610). This was driven by more echocardiograms and more tests per patient in the standard group (P < .01). There was no difference in adverse events or death. There was no difference in re‐hospitalization, graft or patient survival rate in transplanted patients. Conclusions Our cardio‐renal MDT was effective in managing high‐risk kidney transplant candidates with greater rates of transplantation and low rates of events at a lower cost

Biopiracy <i>versus </i>one-world medicine – from colonial relicts to global collaborative concepts

Background: Practices of biopiracy to use genetic resources and indigenous knowledge by Western companies without benefit-sharing of those, who generated the traditional knowledge, can be understood as form of neocolonialism.Hypothesis: : The One-World Medicine concept attempts to merge the best of traditional medicine from developing countries and conventional Western medicine for the sake of patients around the globe.Study design: Based on literature searches in several databases, a concept paper has been written. Legislative initiatives of the United Nations culminated in the Nagoya protocol aim to protect traditional knowledge and regulate benefit-sharing with indigenous communities. The European community adopted the Nagoya protocol, and the corresponding regulations will be implemented into national legislation among the member states. Despite pleasing progress, infrastructural problems of the health care systems in developing countries still remain. Current approaches to secure primary health care offer only fragmentary solutions at best. Conventional medicine from industrialized countries cannot be afforded by the impoverished population in the Third World. Confronted with exploding costs, even health systems in Western countries are endangered to burst. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular among the general public in industrialized countries, although the efficacy is not sufficiently proven according to the standards of evidence-based medicine. CAM is often available without prescription as over-the-counter products with non-calculated risks concerning erroneous self-medication and safety/toxicity issues. The concept of integrative medicine attempts to combine holistic CAM approaches with evidence-based principles of conventional medicine.Conclusion: To realize the concept of One-World Medicine, a number of standards have to be set to assure safety, efficacy and applicability of traditional medicine, e.g. sustainable production and quality control of herbal products, performance of placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trials, phytovigilance, as well as education of health professionals and patients

Dark energy from quantum wave function collapse of dark matter

Dynamical wave function collapse models entail the continuous liberation of a specified rate of energy arising from the interaction of a fluctuating scalar field with the matter wave function. We consider the wave function collapse process for the constituents of dark matter in our universe. Beginning from a particular early era of the universe chosen from physical considerations, the rate of the associated energy liberation is integrated to yield the requisite magnitude of dark energy around the era of galaxy formation. Further, the equation of state for the liberated energy approaches $w \to -1$ asymptotically, providing a mechanism to generate the present acceleration of the universe.Comment: 5 pages in Elsevier style to match with version published in Phys. Lett.

Scalar-field Pressure in Induced Gravity with Higgs Potential and Dark Matter

A model of induced gravity with a Higgs potential is investigated in detail in view of the pressure components related to the scalar-field excitations. The physical consequences emerging as an artifact due to the presence of these pressure terms are analysed in terms of the constraints parting from energy density, solar-relativistic effects and galactic dynamics along with the dark matter halos.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, Minor revision, Published in JHE

Planning a 'slum free' Trivandrum: housing upgrade and the rescaling of urban governance in India

This paper examines how India’s national urban development agenda is reshaping relationships between national, State and city-level governments. JNNURM, the flagship programme that heralded a new era of urban investment in India, contained a range of key governance aspirations: linking the analysis of urban poverty to city-level planning, developing holistic housing solutions for the urban poor, and above all empowering Urban Local Bodies to re-balance relationships between State and city-level governments in favour of the latter. Here, we trace JNNURM’s implementation in Kerala’s capital city, Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), where the city’s decentralised urban governance structure and use of ‘pro-poor’ institutions to implement housing upgrade programmes could have made it an exemplar of success. In practice, Trivandrum’s ‘city visioning’ exercises and the housing projects it has undertaken have fallen short of JNNURM’s lofty goals. The contradictions between empowering cities and retaining centralised control embedded within this national programme, and the unintended city-level consequences of striving for JNNURM funding success, have reshaped urban governance in ways not envisaged within policy. As a result, JNNURM has been important in rescaling governance relationships through three interlinked dynamics of problem framing, technologies of governance and the scalar strategy of driving reform ‘from above’ that together have ensured the national state’s continued influence over the practices of urban governance in India

LEMUR: Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research. European contribution to JAXA's Solar-C mission

Understanding the solar outer atmosphere requires concerted, simultaneous solar observations from the visible to the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and soft X-rays, at high spatial resolution (between 0.1" and 0.3"), at high temporal resolution (on the order of 10 s, i.e., the time scale of chromospheric dynamics), with a wide temperature coverage (0.01 MK to 20 MK, from the chromosphere to the flaring corona), and the capability of measuring magnetic fields through spectropolarimetry at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Simultaneous spectroscopic measurements sampling the entire temperature range are particularly important. These requirements are fulfilled by the Japanese Solar-C mission (Plan B), composed of a spacecraft in a geosynchronous orbit with a payload providing a significant improvement of imaging and spectropolarimetric capabilities in the UV, visible, and near-infrared with respect to what is available today and foreseen in the near future. The Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research (LEMUR), described in this paper, is a large VUV telescope feeding a scientific payload of high-resolution imaging spectrographs and cameras. LEMUR consists of two major components: a VUV solar telescope with a 30 cm diameter mirror and a focal length of 3.6 m, and a focal-plane package composed of VUV spectrometers covering six carefully chosen wavelength ranges between 17 and 127 nm. The LEMUR slit covers 280" on the Sun with 0.14" per pixel sampling. In addition, LEMUR is capable of measuring mass flows velocities (line shifts) down to 2 km/s or better. LEMUR has been proposed to ESA as the European contribution to the Solar C mission.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figures. To appear on Experimental Astronom