The ALMaQUEST survey – III. Scatter in the resolved star-forming main sequence is primarily due to variations in star formation efficiency

Using a sample of 11,478 spaxels in 34 galaxies with molecular gas, star formation and stellar maps taken from the ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey, we investigate the parameters that correlate with variations in star formation rates on kpc scales. We use a combination of correlation statistics and an artificial neural network to quantify the parameters that drive both the absolute star formation rate surface density (Sigma_SFR), as well as its scatter around the resolved star forming main sequence (Delta Sigma_SFR). We find that Sigma_SFR is primarily regulated by molecular gas surface density (Sigma_H2) with a secondary dependence on stellar mass surface density (Sigma_*), as expected from an `extended Kennicutt-Schmidt relation'. However, Delta Sigma_SFR is driven primarily by changes in star formation efficiency (SFE), with variations in gas fraction playing a secondary role. Taken together, our results demonstrate that whilst the absolute rate of star formation is primarily set by the amount of molecular gas, the variation of star formation rate above and below the resolved star forming main sequence (on kpc scales) is primarily due to changes in SFE

Information Technology and Competitive Advantage: The Role of the Ownership Structure

This paper analyses the relationship between information technology use (IT) and competitive advantage. Previous empirical research shows that IT improves competitive advantage when it acts together with some human or managerial resources of an intangible nature. In this work we propose a new complementary resource to IT: democratic ownership structure. We empirically analyse whether ownership structure and IT have a positive, combined impact on competitive advantage. Results show that ownership structure is a key element in explaining competitive advantage differences. Nonetheless, we did not find any IT-ownership structure complementary effect

The influence of defined ante-mortem stressors on the early post-mortem biochemical processes in the abdominal muscle of the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The effects of four different ante-mortem stressors (exercise, emersion, starvation and a patent infection with the parasite Hematodinium sp.) on post-mortem processes have been investigated in the abdominal muscle of Norway lobster Nephrops norvegicus by measuring changes in the pH, the levels of glycogen, l-lactate, arginine phosphate, ATP, ADP, AMP, IMP, HxR, Hx and the adenylate energy charge (AEC) over a time course of 24 h with samples being taken at 0, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h. The acute stresses of intense exercise and 2 h emersion resulted in a premature onset of anaerobic glycolysis, leading both to an enhanced glycogen depletion rate and an early accumulation of l-lactate. The chronic stressors, starvation and parasite infection, resulted in a complete ante-mortem depletion of muscle glycogen and consequently the failure of post-mortem glycolytic fermentation. Post-mortem pH and ATP inter-conversion were significantly altered in chronically stressed animals. Ante-mortem, a rapid, almost complete depletion of arginine phosphate was observed in all stress groups. The AEC was altered significantly by all stresses, indicating a strong energy demand. The findings suggest that ante-mortem stressors strongly influence the post-mortem biochemical processes. The laboratory-based results are compared to 'field' data and effects on post-harvest product quality are discussed

How Does It Feel? Self-Supervised Costmap Learning for Off-Road Vehicle Traversability

Estimating terrain traversability in off-road environments requires reasoning about complex interaction dynamics between the robot and these terrains. However, it is challenging to build an accurate physics model, or create informative labels to learn a model in a supervised manner, for these interactions. We propose a method that learns to predict traversability costmaps by combining exteroceptive environmental information with proprioceptive terrain interaction feedback in a self-supervised manner. Additionally, we propose a novel way of incorporating robot velocity in the costmap prediction pipeline. We validate our method in multiple short and large-scale navigation tasks on a large, autonomous all-terrain vehicle (ATV) on challenging off-road terrains, and demonstrate ease of integration on a separate large ground robot. Our short-scale navigation results show that using our learned costmaps leads to overall smoother navigation, and provides the robot with a more fine-grained understanding of the interactions between the robot and different terrain types, such as grass and gravel. Our large-scale navigation trials show that we can reduce the number of interventions by up to 57% compared to an occupancy-based navigation baseline in challenging off-road courses ranging from 400 m to 3150 m

An adaptation of meaning-centered psychotherapy integrating "essential care": A pilot study

Introduction There is a growing interest in the emotional state of cancer patients. The main objective of this pilot study is to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy and Essential Care (MCP-EC) in patients with advanced cancer compared with usual psychological support. We define "Essential Care"as the promotion of patient care and self-care through the recall of good care experiences and discussion of the concepts: responsibility, self-compassion, kindness, and attitude. Method Pilot, single-center, and prospective study of 30 patients with advanced cancer and emotional distress. Our adaptation consisted in three session Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy-Palliative Care, plus a fourth session named "Essential Care". The study was carried out in two phases. First, 20 patients were randomized to one of the two arms: individual MCP-EC (experimental, n = 10) or usual psychological supportive (control, n = 10). In a second phase, 10 patients were assigned consecutively to Group MCP-EC (n = 10). All patients were evaluated at baseline (pre-) and post-intervention with questionnaires for sociodemographic data and clinical scales. Results Nineteen patients completed the 4 sessions of MCP-EC, 9 individual format and 10 group format. Usual supportive intervention was delivered to 10 control patients. Total 28 patients completed pre- and post-treatment evaluations. There were no pre- vs. post-differences in the evaluations of the control group. In the experimental group, significant pre- vs. post-differences were found in EQ-5D-3L, HADS, FACIT, DM, HAI, SCS-SF, and TD questionnaires. These results indicated that MCP-EC reduced anxiety and depression symptoms, hopelessness, demoralization, as well as increased spiritual well-being and sense of meaning. Participants were satisfied and found the MCP-EC intervention positively. Conclusions This pilot study suggests that the MCP-EC has feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy reducing the emotional distress in advanced cancer patients. Larger studies are warranted to clarify the strengths and limitations of this psychotherapy. © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

The ALMaQUEST Survey - II. What drives central starbursts at z ∼ 0?

Starburst galaxies have elevated star formation rates (SFRs) for their stellar mass. In Ellison et al., we used integral field unit maps of SFR surface density (ΣSFR) and stellar mass surface density (Σ⋆) to show that starburst galaxies in the local universe are driven by SFRs that are preferentially boosted in their central regions. Here, we present molecular gas maps obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory for 12 central starburst galaxies at z ∼ 0 drawn from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey. The ALMA and MaNGA data are well matched in spatial resolution, such that the ALMA maps of molecular gas surface density (⁠ΣH2⁠) can be directly compared with MaNGA maps at kpc-scale resolution. The combination of ΣH2⁠, Σ⋆ and ΣSFR at the same resolution allow us to investigate whether central starbursts are driven primarily by enhancements in star formation efficiency (SFE) or by increased gas fractions. By computing offsets from the resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt relation (⁠ΣH2 versus ΣSFR) and the molecular gas main sequence (Σ⋆ versus ΣH2⁠), we conclude that the primary driver of the central starburst is an elevated SFE. We also show that the enhancement in ΣSFR is accompanied by a dilution in O/H, consistent with a triggering that is induced by metal poor gas inflow. These observational signatures are found in both undisturbed (9/12 galaxies in our sample) and recently merged galaxies, indicating that both interactions and secular mechanisms contribute to central starbursts

GEMS: The Size Evolution of Disk Galaxies

We combine HST imaging from the GEMS survey with photometric redshifts from COMBO-17 to explore the evolution of disk-dominated galaxies since z<1.1. The sample is comprised of all GEMS galaxies with Sersic indices n<2.5, derived from fits to the galaxy images. We account fully for selection effects through careful analysis of image simulations; we are limited by the depth of the redshift and HST data to the study of galaxies with absolute magnitudes M(V)10. We find strong evolution in the magnitude-size scaling relation for galaxies with M(V)<-20, corresponding to a brightening of 1 mag per sqarcsec in rest-frame V-band by z=1. Yet, disks at a given absolute magnitude are bluer and have lower stellar mass-to-light ratios at z=1 than at the present day. As a result, our findings indicate weak or no evolution in the relation between stellar mass and effective disk size for galaxies with log(M)>10 over the same time interval. This is strongly inconsistent with the most naive theoretical expectation, in which disk size scales in proportion to the halo virial radius, which would predict that disks are a factor of two denser at fixed mass at z=1. The lack of evolution in the stellar mass-size relation is consistent with an ``inside-out'' growth of galaxy disks on average (galaxies increasing in size as they grow more massive), although we cannot rule out more complex evolutionary scenarios.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap

The ALMaQUEST Survey: V. The non-universality of kpc-scale star formation relations and the factors that drive them

Using a sample of ~15,000 kpc-scale star-forming spaxels in 28 galaxies drawn from the ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey, we investigate the galaxy-to-galaxy variation of the `resolved' Schmidt-Kennicutt relation (rSK; Sigma_H2 - Sigma_SFR), the `resolved' star forming main sequence (rSFMS; Sigma_* - Sigma_SFR) and the `resolved' molecular gas main sequence (rMGMS; Sigma_* - Sigma_H2). The rSK relation, rSFMS and rMGMS all show significant galaxy-to-galaxy variation in both shape and normalization, indicating that none of these relations is universal between galaxies. The rSFMS shows the largest galaxy-to-galaxy variation and the rMGMS the least. By defining an `offset' from the average relations, we compute a Delta_rSK, Delta_rSFMS, Delta_rMGMS for each galaxy, to investigate correlations with global properties. We find the following correlations with at least 2 sigma significance: the rSK is lower (i.e. lower star formation efficiency) in galaxies with higher M_*, larger Sersic index and lower specific SFR (sSFR); the rSFMS is lower (i.e. lower sSFR) in galaxies with higher M_* and larger Sersic index; the rMGMS is lower (i.e. lower gas fraction) in galaxies with lower sSFR. In the ensemble of all 15,000 data points, the rSK relation and rMGMS show equally tight scatters and strong correlation coefficients, compared with a larger scatter and weaker correlation in the rSFMS. Moreover, whilst there is no correlation between Delta_rSK and Delta_rMGMS in the sample, the offset of a galaxy's rSFMS does correlate with both of the other two offsets. Our results therefore indicate that the rSK and rMGMS are independent relations, whereas the rSFMS is a result of their combination.Comment: MNRAS, in pres

Novel Titanium Nanospike Structure Using Low-Energy Helium Ion Bombardment for the Transgingival Part of a Dental Implant.

AIM(S) The aim of the study was to fabricate a nanospike surface on a titanium alloy surface using a newly established method of low-energy helium ion bombardment. Various methods to achieve nanospike formation on titanium have been introduced recently, and their antibacterial properties have been mainly investigated with respect to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Oral pathogens such as Porphyromonas gingivalis play an important role in the development of peri-implantitis. For that reason, the antibacterial properties of the novel, nanostructured titanium surface against P. gingivalis were assessed, and a possible effect on the viability of gingival fibroblasts was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS Helium sputtering was employed for developing titanium surfaces with nanospikes of 500 nm (ND) in height; commercially available smooth-machined (MD) and sandblasted and acid-etched titanium disks (SLA) were used as controls. Surface structure characterization was performed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Following incubation with P. gingivalis, antibacterial properties were determined via conventional culturing and SEM. Additionally, the viability of human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) was tested through MTT assay, and cell morphology was assessed through SEM. RESULTS SEM images confirmed the successful establishment of a nanospike surface with required heights, albeit with heterogeneity. AFM images of the 500 nm nanospike surface revealed that the roughness is dominated by large-scale hills and valleys. For frame sizes of 5 × 5 μm and smaller, the average roughness is dominated by the height of the titanium spikes. ND successfully induces dysmorphisms within P. gingivalis cultures following the incubation period, while conventional culturing reveals a 17% and 20% reduction for ND compared to MD and SLA, respectively. Moreover, the nanospike surfaces did not affect the viability of human growth fibroblasts despite their sharp surface. CONCLUSION(S) This study successfully developed a novel titanium-nanospike-based structuration technique for titanium surfaces. In addition, the nanospikes did not hinder gingival fibroblast viability. Enhanced antimicrobial effects for such a novel nanospike-based resurfacing technique can be achieved through further optimizations for nanospike spacing and height parameters