The Impact of Surface Water Reallocations on the Eastern San Joaquin Valley

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A variable neurodegenerative phenotype with polymerase gamma mutation

mtDNA replication and repair, causes mitochondrial diseases including autosomal dominant progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO),1 childhood hepato-encephalopathy (Alpers– Huttenlocher syndrome), adult-onset spinocerebellar ataxia, and sensory nerve degeneration with dysarthria and ophthalmoparesis (SANDO)

Detection of x-rays from galaxy groups associated with the gravitationally lensed systems PG 1115+080 and B1422+231

Gravitational lenses that produce multiple images of background quasars can be an invaluable cosmological tool. Deriving cosmological parameters, however, requires modeling the potential of the lens itself. It has been estimated that up to a quarter of lensing galaxies are associated with a group or cluster which perturbs the gravitational potential. Detection of X-ray emission from the group or cluster can be used to better model the lens. We report on the first detection in X-rays of the group associated with the lensing system PG 1115+080 and the first X-ray image of the group associated with the system B1422+231. We find a temperature and rest-frame luminosity of 0.8 +/- 0.1 keV and 7 +/- 2 x 10^{42} ergs/s for PG 1115+080 and 1.0 +infty/-0.3 keV and 8 +/- 3 x 10^{42} ergs/s for B1422+231. We compare the spatial and spectral characteristics of the X-ray emission to the properties of the group galaxies, to lens models, and to the general properties of groups at lower redshift.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes to tex

JAK-inhibitors. New players in the field of immune-mediated diseases, beyond rheumatoid arthritis

Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) are a group of molecules associated with one of the major pathways through which many cytokines exert and integrate their function, and as such they are increasingly recognized as playing critical role in the pathogenesis subserving various immune-mediated diseases, including RA, PsA, SpAs, IBD, skin disorders (e.g. alopecia areata, atopic dermatitis), single-gene disorders like interferonopathies, and others. JAKs are the key initiating players of the JAK/STAT pathway. Upon binding of their respective effector molecules (cytokines, IFNs, growth factors and others) to type I and type II receptors, JAKs are activated, and through phosphorylation of themselves and of other molecules (including STATs), they mediate signal transduction to the nucleus. A class of drugs—called JAK inhibitors or JAKinibs—that block one or more JAKs has been developed in the last decade, and now numbers >20 members. Although, so far, JAK inhibitors have been marketed only for RA and PsA, these drugs have been tested in phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials for other inflammatory conditions and beyond. In this review, we summarize the clinical data, including efficacy and safety, available for JAK inhibitors used in some immune-mediated conditions other than RA

The asymmetric drift, the local standard of rest, and implications from RAVE data

Context. The determination of the local standard of rest (LSR), which corresponds to the measurement of the peculiar motion of the Sun based on the derivation of the asymmetric drift of stellar populations, is still a matter of debate. The classical value of the tangential peculiar motion of the Sun with respect to the LSR was challenged in recent years, claiming a significantly larger value. Aims. We present an improved Jeans analysis, which allows a better interpretation of the measured kinematics of stellar populations in the Milky Way disc. We show that the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) sample of dwarf stars is an excellent data set to derive tighter boundary conditions to chemodynamical evolution models of the extended solar neighbourhood. Methods. We propose an improved version of the Stromberg relation with the radial scalelengths as the only unknown. We redetermine the asymmetric drift and the LSR for dwarf stars based on RAVE data. Additionally, we discuss the impact of adopting a different LSR value on the individual scalelengths of the subpopulations. Results. Binning RAVE stars in metallicity reveals a bigger asymmetric drift (corresponding to a smaller radial scalelength) for more metal-rich populations. With the standard assumption of velocity-dispersion independent radial scalelengths in each metallicity bin, we redetermine the LSR. The new Stromberg equation yields a joint LSR value of V-circle dot = 3.06 +/- 0.68 km s(-1), which is even smaller than the classical value based on Hipparcos data. The corresponding radial scalelength increases from 1.6 kpc for the metal-rich bin to 2.9 kpc for the metal-poor bin, with a trend of an even larger scalelength for young metal-poor stars. When adopting the recent Schonrich value of V-circle dot = 12.24 km s(-1) for the LSR, the new Stromberg equation yields much larger individual radial scalelengths of the RAVE subpopulations, which seem unphysical in part. Conclusions. The new Stromberg equation allows a cleaner interpretation of the kinematic data of disc stars in terms of radial scalelengths. Lifting the LSR value by a few km s(-1) compared to the classical value results in strongly increased radial scalelengths with a trend of smaller values for larger velocity dispersions

Four New BL Lac Surveys: Sampling New Populations

The advent of large area deep radio and X-ray surveys is leading to the creation of many new BL Lac samples. In particular, the ROSAT All-Sky, Green Bank and FIRST surveys are proving to be rich sources of new BL Lacs. We will discuss the methods used in four independent BL Lac searches based on these surveys. Comparison of the broadband spectral energy distributions of these BL Lacs with those of previously known objects clearly points to the existence of a large previously unrecognized population of objects with characteristics intermediate between those exhibited by Low and High energy peaked BL Lacs.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figures, To be published in the Proceedings of the conference "BL Lac Phenomenon" held in Turku, Finland, June 22-26, 199