17,517 research outputs found
"Suboptimal" kidney donors: The experience with tacrolimus-based immunosuppression
Female, pediatric, and older donors have been associated with inferior graft survival after renal transplantation. We analyzed these three subgroups in 397 patients receiving tacrolimus-based immunosuppression. There were no differences in recipient age, incidence of retransplantation, or percentage of sensitized patients. Female donors, compared with male donors, were associated with comparable 1- and 3-year patient survival rates (96% and 93% vs. 95% and 92%, respectively) and comparable 1- and 3-year graft survival rates (90% and 80% vs. 88% and 81%, respectively). Renal function was also similar. Recipients of pediatric en bloc kidneys, when compared with recipients of other cadaveric kidneys, also had comparable 1- and 3-year patient survival rates (94% and 94% vs. 95% and 91%, respectively) and comparable 1- and 3-year graft survival rates (84% and 84% vs. 89% and 79%, respectively). Renal function was better in recipients of en bloc kidneys, with a mean serum creatinine level of 1.4Ā±1.8 mg/dl vs. 2.0Ā±1.5 mg/dl (P=0.01). In contrast to the first two subgroups, donors over 60 years of age, when compared with donors under 60 years of age, were associated with worse 1- and 3-year patient survival rates (88% and 80% vs. 96% and 94%, respectively; P<0.03) and worse 1- and 3-year graft survival rates (74% and 62% vs. 91% and 83%, respectively; P<0.0001). Renal function was worse in the older donor group, with a serum creatinine level of 2.7Ā±1.2 mg/ml vs. 1.9Ā±1.5 mg/dl (P=0.01). We conclude that, under tacrolimus-based immunosuppression, kidneys from female or very young pediatric donors are not associated with adverse outcomes, whereas kidneys from donors over 60 years of age are associated with inferior outcomes
Nonlinearity and pixel shifting effects in HXRG infrared detectors
We study the nonlinearity (NL) in the conversion from charge to voltage in
infrared detectors (HXRG) for use in precision astronomy. We present laboratory
measurements of the NL function of a H2RG detector and discuss the accuracy to
which it would need to be calibrated in future space missions to perform
cosmological measurements through the weak gravitational lensing technique. In
addition, we present an analysis of archival data from the infrared H1RG
detector of the Wide Field Camera 3 in the Hubble Space Telescope that provides
evidence consistent with the existence of a sensor effect analogous to the
brighter-fatter effect found in Charge-Coupled Devices. We propose a model in
which this effect could be understood as shifts in the effective pixel
boundaries, and discuss prospects of laboratory measurements to fully
characterize this effect.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Instrumentation (JINST).
Part of "Precision Astronomy with Fully Depleted CCDs" (Dec 1-2, 2016),
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, US
Special Section Guest Editorial: Detectors for Astronomy and Cosmology
This guest editorial summarizes the Special Section on Detectors for Astronomy and Cosmology
Intra-pixel response characterization of a HgCdTe near infrared detector with a pronounced crosshatch pattern
The "crosshatch" pattern is a recurring "feature" of HgCdTe arrays,
specifically the Teledyne HAWAII family of near infrared detectors. It is a
fixed pattern of high frequency QE variations along 3 directions generally
thought to be related to the crystal structure of HgCdTe. The pattern is
evident in detectors used in Hubble WFC3, WISE, JWST, and in candidate
detectors for Euclid and WFIRST. Using undersampled point sources projected
onto a HAWAII-2RG detector, we show that the pattern induces photometric
variations that are not removed by a flat-field calibration, thus demonstrating
that the QE variations occur on scales smaller than the 18 micron pixels. Our
testbed is the Precision Projector Laboratory's astronomical scene generator,
which can rapidly characterize the full detector by scanning thousands of
undersampled spots. If not properly calibrated, detectors showing strong
crosshatch may induce correlated errors in photometry, astrometry,
spectroscopy, and shape measurements.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to proceedings of SPIE Astronomical
Telescopes and Instrumentation 201
Consistency Management in the EROS Kernel
EROS is a persistent operating system targeted towards managing resources with great longevity. The system provides a persistent single level store supporting two fundamental object types: nodes and pages. All primary objects, including memory segments and protection domains, are constructed out of these fundamental objects, and inherit their persistence. EROS is a pure capability system: access to objects is provided exclusively through the invocation of kernel enforced, secure capabilities. This paper describes the EROS Abstract Machine and the mechanisms used to achieve efficient consistency management within the system. The implementation, including all primary objects, a low overhead checkpoint/migration subsystem, and an efficient interprocess communication mechanism, requires less than 64 Kbytes of supervisor code (prior to size tuning)
A mechanical Turing machine: blueprint for a biomolecular computer
We describe a working mechanical device that embodies the theoretical computing machine of Alan Turing, and as such is a universal programmable computer. The device operates on three-dimensional building blocks by applying mechanical analogues of polymer elongation, cleavage and ligation, movement along a polymer, and control by molecular recognition unleashing allosteric conformational changes. Logically, the device is not more complicated than biomolecular machines of the living cell, and all its operations are part of the standard repertoire of these machines; hence, a biomolecular embodiment of the device is not infeasible. If implemented, such a biomolecular device may operate in vivo, interacting with its biochemical environment in a program-controlled manner. In particular, it may ācomputeā synthetic biopolymers and release them into its environment in response to input from the environment, a capability that may have broad pharmaceutical and biological applications
Fitting formulae of the reduced-shear power spectrum for weak lensing
Context. Weak gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of large-scale
structure and cosmology. Most commonly, second-order correlations of observed
galaxy ellipticities are expressed as a projection of the matter power
spectrum, corresponding to the lowest-order approximation between the projected
and 3d power spectrum.
Aims. The dominant lensing-only contribution beyond the zero-order
approximation is the reduced shear, which takes into account not only
lensing-induced distortions but also isotropic magnification of galaxy images.
This involves an integral over the matter bispectrum. We provide a fast and
general way to calculate this correction term.
Methods. Using a model for the matter bispectrum, we fit elementary functions
to the reduced-shear contribution and its derivatives with respect to
cosmological parameters. The dependence on cosmology is encompassed in a
Taylor-expansion around a fiducial model.
Results. Within a region in parameter space comprising the WMAP7 68% error
ellipsoid, the total reduced-shear power spectrum (shear plus fitted
reduced-shear correction) is accurate to 1% (2%) for l<10^4 (l<2x10^5). This
corresponds to a factor of four reduction of the bias compared to the case
where no correction is used. This precision is necessary to match the accuracy
of current non-linear power spectrum predictions from numerical simulations.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. A&A in press. Revised version with minor change
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