X-ray study of HLX1: intermediate-mass black hole or foreground neutron star?

We re-assess the XMM-Newton and Swift observations of HLX1, to examine the evidence for its identification as an intermediate-mass black hole. We show that the X-ray spectral and timing properties are equally consistent with an intermediate-mass black hole in a high state, or with a foreground neutron star with a luminosity of about a few times 10^{32} erg/s ~ 10^{-6} L_{Edd}, located at a distance of about 1.5 to 3 kpc. Contrary to previously published results, we find that the X-ray spectral change between the two XMM-Newton observations of 2004 and 2008 (going from power-law dominated to thermal dominated) is not associated with a change in the X-ray luminosity. The thermal component becomes more dominant (and hotter) during the 2009 outburst seen by Swift, but in a way that is consistent with either scenario.Comment: 10 pages, accepted by MNRAS. Corrected LZ's affiliation and updated 1 referenc

Análisis de los costos de servicios en la Institución Educativa “Los Creativos” – Nuevo Chimbote periodo 2011 al 2013

Las instituciones Educativas a pesar de una falta de asesoría hoy en día tienen un constante crecimiento en el mercado, por su acogida con respecto a la calidad educativa, pero algunas de estas Instituciones no cuentan con una hoja de costos de servicios y las que sí cuentan lo elaboran incorrectamente porque clasifican dentro de sus elementos del costos otros puntos que no corresponden y también no tienen un control ni registros para que estas Instituciones Educativas tomen decisiones y puedan establecer correctamente sus precios, tampoco no realizan un análisis de sus costos de servicios, este problema se presentó en la Institución Educativa en estudio, es por ello que el presente trabajo de investigación buscó determinar cómo se presentan los costos de servicios en la Institución Educativa “Los Creativos” en el periodo 2011 al 2013”. El estudio de esta investigación tuvo como población los costos de servicios de la Institución Educativa “Los Creativos” ubicada en el distrito de Nvo Chimbote. Y la muestra fue los costos de servicios en los periodos 2011 al 2013 de la Institución Educativa “Los Creativos”. La información obtenida de la investigación, se obtuvo a través de una ficha de observación y una guía de análisis documental, la cual se basa en la hoja de costos de servicios de la entidad en estudio. Una vez recolectada dicha información se procedió a realizar el análisis de la misma por medio de gráficos y tablas, Dichos resultados concluyeron que la empresa no determina correctamente los elementos del costo, ni hay un control de ellos, lo cual es una debilidad para la empresa, debido a que es necesario, primordial tener un control y análisis de los costos y utilizarlos con racionalidad, y así podrán tomar decisiones futuras

The nitric oxide-donor molsidomine modulates the innate inflammatory response in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy

n/

A [68Ga]Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT radiomic model for non-invasive prediction of tumour grade in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours

Predicting grade 1 (G1) and 2 (G2) primary pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour (panNET) is crucial to foresee panNET clinical behaviour. 51 patients with G1-G2 primary panNET demonstrated by pre-surgical [68Ga]Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT and diagnostic conventional imaging were grouped according to the tumour grade assessment method: histology on the whole excised primary lesion (HS) or biopsy (BS). First-order and second-order radiomic features (RFs) were computed from SUV maps for the whole tumour volume on HS. The RFs showing the lowest p-values and the highest Area Under the Curve (AUC) were selected. Three radiomic models were assessed: A (trained on HS, validated on BS), B (trained on BS, validated on HS), C (using the cross-validation on the whole dataset). The second-order Normalized homogeneity and Entropy was the most effective RFs couple predicting G2 and G1. The best performance was achieved by model A (test AUC=0.90, sensitivity=0.88, specificity=0.89), followed by model C (median test AUC=0.87, sensitivity=0.83, specificity=0.82). Model B performed worse. Using HS to train a radiomic model leads to the best prediction, although a “hybrid” (HS+BS) population performs better than biopsy-only. The non-invasive prediction of panNET grading may be especially useful in lesions not amenable to biopsy while [68Ga]Ga-DOTANOC heterogeneity might recommend FDG PET/CT

Presentación: La hospitalidad en el cruce del diálogo entre filosofía y literatura

As part of a series of interdisciplinary studies developed within the framework of the Research Project on hospitality as encounter and challenge, carried out between the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature and the Faculty of Theology of our university, which have been published throughout 2019 (Letras No. 80 and Sapientia No. 246), 2020 (Teología No. 131) and 2021 (Teología No. 134 and 135), this dossier presents the work of six authors in whose articles philosophical reflection and literature intersect.Como parte de una serie de estudios interdisciplinarios desarrollados en el marco del Proyecto de Investigación sobre la hospitalidad como encuentro y desafío, llevado a cabo entre la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras y la Facultad de Teología de nuestra universidad, los cuales se han ido publicando a lo largo de 2019 (Letras Nro. 80 y Sapientia Nro. 246), de 2020 (Teología Nro. 131) y de 2021 (Teología Nro. 134 y 135), en este dossier se presentan recorridos de seis autores en cuyos artículos se entrecruzan la reflexión filosófica y la literatura

Evidence that AMP-activated protein kinase can negatively modulate Ornithine decarboxylase activity in cardiac myoblasts

AbstractThe responses of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) to isoproterenol have been examined in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts, AMPK represents the link between cell growth and energy availability whereas ODC, the key enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis, is essential for all growth processes and it is thought to have a role in the development of cardiac hypertrophy. Isoproterenol rapidly induced ODC activity in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts by promoting the synthesis of the enzyme protein and this effect was counteracted by inhibitors of the PI3K/Akt pathway. The increase in enzyme activity became significant between 15 and 30min after the treatment. At the same time, isoproterenol stimulated the phosphorylation of AMPKα catalytic subunits (Thr172), that was associated to an increase in acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (Ser72) phosphorylation. Downregulation of both α1 and α2 isoforms of the AMPK catalytic subunit by siRNA to knockdown AMPK enzymatic activity, led to superinduction of ODC in isoproterenol-treated cardiomyoblasts. Downregulation of AMPKα increased ODC activity even in cells treated with other adrenergic agonists and in control cells. Analogue results were obtained in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells transfected with a shRNA construct against AMPKα. In conclusion, isoproterenol quickly activates in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts two events that seem to contrast one another. The first one, an increase in ODC activity, is linked to cell growth, whereas the second, AMPK activation, is a homeostatic mechanism that negatively modulates the first. The modulation of ODC activity by AMPK represents a mechanism that may contribute to control cell growth processes

Initial activation state, stimulation intensity and timing of stimulation interact in producing behavioral effects of TMS

Behavioral effects of TMS have been shown to depend on various factors, such as neural activation state, stimulation intensity, and timing of stimulation. Here we examined whether these factors interact, by applying TMS at either sub- or suprathreshold intensity (relative to phosphene threshold, PT) and at different time points during a state-dependent TMS paradigm. The state manipulation involved a behavioral task in which a visual prime (colour grating) was followed by a target stimulus which could be either congruent, incongruent or partially congruent with the colour and orientation of the prime. In Experiment 1, single-pulse TMS was applied over the early visual cortex (V1/V2) or Vertex (baseline) at the onset of the target stimulus – timing often used in state-dependent TMS studies. With both subthreshold and suprathreshold stimulation, TMS facilitated the detection of incongruent stimuli while not significantly affecting other stimulus types. In Experiment 2, TMS was applied at 100 ms after target onset –a time window in which V1/V2 is responding to visual input. Only TMS applied at suprathreshold intensity facilitated the detection of incongruent stimuli, with no effect with subthreshold stimulation. The need for higher stimulation intensity is likely to reflect reduced susceptibility to TMS of neurons responding to visual stimulation. Furthermore, the finding that in Experiment 2 only suprathreshold TMS induced a behavioral facilitation on incongruent targets (whereas facilitations in the absence of priming have been reported with subthreshold TMS) indicates that priming, by reducing neural excitability to incongruent targets, shifts the facilitatory/inhibitory range of TMS effects

The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience

The scientific and technical achievements of the last decades have enabled man to achieve an unquestionable life comfort. Paradoxically, however, they also stand behind his existential struggles, where the need to slow down the pace and restore one’s own emotional and cognitive resources, revive communication models based on immediate contact, be authentic, creative, stronger, and so on breaks through the surface. One way of looking for a personal way of life and its meaning is through a religious, more precisely, spiritual experience. We consider the mystical experience to be the modality of the spiritual expression or, more precisely, its autonomous part. We see it as a descent of man into his own interior, so called the centre, in which he acquires a pouring knowledge of the nature of God. Although it is an individual and spontaneous experience, it is characterized by some universal features: imagery as a means of conveying the inexpressible content and as an archetypal basis of spiritual tradition. The publication focuses on the literary-artistic forms of the mystical experience as well as the literary forms of mystagogy, that is the interpretation of the mystical experience of the mystic. Through individual analytical-interpretative contributions based on the works of the mystics of the Western Christian tradition, we will try to enter into a specific image of ineffability modelled (the language of mystical unification) and reflexively stimulated (the language of mystagogy) by mystical experience. This is a complex subject confirmed by its basic attribute (inexpressibility at the language level) and by its thought-initiated tensions (for example, interior vs. exterior, authentic vs. ritual, profane vs. sacred, natural vs. supernatural)

The outburst decay of the low magnetic field magnetar SWIFT J1822.3−1606: phase-resolved analysis and evidence for a variable cyclotron feature

We study the timing and spectral properties of the low-magnetic field, transient magnetar SWIFT J1822.3−1606 as it approached quiescence. We coherently phase-connect the observations over a time-span of ∼500 d since the discovery of SWIFT J1822.3−1606 following the Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) trigger on 2011 July 14, and carried out a detailed pulse phase spectroscopy along the outburst decay. We follow the spectral evolution of different pulse phase intervals and find a phase and energy-variable spectral feature, which we interpret as proton cyclotron resonant scattering of soft photon from currents circulating in a strong (≳1014 G) small-scale component of the magnetic field near the neutron star surface, superimposed to the much weaker (∼3 × 1013 G) magnetic field. We discuss also the implications of the pulse-resolved spectral analysis for the emission regions on the surface of the cooling magnetar