498 research outputs found
A review of selection criteria used by medical scheme advisers to approve or deny procedures with a cosmetic component
Objective. To review and apply statistical tests to the selection criteria used by two medical advisers to approve or deny applications for three common cosmetic or reconstructive procedures within a large group of medical schemes.Design. A retrospective descriptive study which applied multiple regression analysis, frequency analysis, comparison of means and simple correlations to the data sets for three procedures.Setting. Administrative records from the clinical files of medical advisers and the administrator's claims database.Subjects. Data were reviewed for 1 143 members who, between January and December 1996, submitted applications for breast reduction, excimer laser refractive surgery, or otoplasty.Main outcome measures. The primary outcome measure was the statistical relationship between medical advisers' selection criteria and final decision. In addition, the financial implications of these cosmetic/reconstructive procedures were assessed.Results. For the three procedures reviewed there was a statistically significant relationship behveen 5 of 13 preoperative criteria requested and the medical advisers' opinion. Excimer laser surgery was generally approved on the basis of the refractive error (myopia> -3.00; astigmatism > -1.5 dioptres); otoplasty was generally approved for children aged :≤ 12.years; and breast reduction was usually covered for women with a sternal-nipple distance > 29.0 cm and with a cup size ≥ DD. The other data submitted were similarly distributed between the approved and denied groups.Conclusions. Review of medical advisers' decisions is important in an era of protocols, guidelines and 'standard operating procedures'. Selection criteria for approval of applications for medically necesssary cosmetic/reconstructive surgery must be reviewed and revised to provide a reliable, reproducible and statistically valid process
Experiment K-6-23. Effect of spaceflight on levels and function of immune cells
Two different immunology experiments were performed on samples received from rats flown on Cosmos 1887. In the first experiment, rat bone marrow cells were examined in Moscow for their response to colony stimulating factor-M. In the second experiment, rat spleen and bone marrow cells were stained in Moscow with a variety of antibodies directed against cell surface antigenic markers. These cells were preserved and shipped to the United States where they were subjected to analysis on a flow cytometer. The results of the studies indicate that bone marrow cells from flown rats showed a decreased response to colony stimulating factor than did bone marrow cells from control rats. There was a higher percentage of spleen cells from flown rats staining positively for pan-T-cell, suppressor-T-cell and innate interleukin-2 receptor antigens than from control animals. In addition, a higher percentage of cells that appeared to be part of the myelogenous population of bone marrow cells from flown rats stained positively for surface immunoglobulin than did equivalent cells from control rats
H0LiCOW XII. Lens mass model of WFI2033-4723 and blind measurement of its time-delay distance and
We present the lens mass model of the quadruply-imaged gravitationally lensed
quasar WFI2033-4723, and perform a blind cosmographical analysis based on this
system. Our analysis combines (1) time-delay measurements from 14 years of data
obtained by the COSmological MOnitoring of GRAvItational Lenses (COSMOGRAIL)
collaboration, (2) high-resolution imaging,
(3) a measurement of the velocity dispersion of the lens galaxy based on
ESO-MUSE data, and (4) multi-band, wide-field imaging and spectroscopy
characterizing the lens environment. We account for all known sources of
systematics, including the influence of nearby perturbers and complex
line-of-sight structure, as well as the parametrization of the light and mass
profiles of the lensing galaxy. After unblinding, we determine the effective
time-delay distance to be , an average
precision of . This translates to a Hubble constant , assuming a flat CDM
cosmology with a uniform prior on in the range [0.05, 0.5].
This work is part of the Lenses in COSMOGRAIL's Wellspring (H0LiCOW)
collaboration, and the full time-delay cosmography results from a total of six
strongly lensed systems are presented in a companion paper (H0LiCOW XIII).Comment: Version accepted by MNRAS. 29 pages including appendix, 17 figures, 6
tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1607.0140
The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Reverberation Mapping of Markarian 50
The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011 observing campaign was carried out over
the course of 11 weeks in Spring 2011. Here we present the first results from
this program, a measurement of the broad-line reverberation lag in the Seyfert
1 galaxy Mrk 50. Combining our data with supplemental observations obtained
prior to the start of the main observing campaign, our dataset covers a total
duration of 4.5 months. During this time, Mrk 50 was highly variable,
exhibiting a maximum variability amplitude of a factor of 4 in the U-band
continuum and a factor of 2 in the H-beta line. Using standard
cross-correlation techniques, we find that H-beta and H-gamma lag the V-band
continuum by tau_cen = 10.64(-0.93,+0.82) and 8.43(-1.28,+1.30) days,
respectively, while the lag of He II 4686 is unresolved. The H-beta line
exhibits a symmetric velocity-resolved reverberation signature with shorter
lags in the high-velocity wings than in the line core, consistent with an
origin in a broad-line region dominated by orbital motion rather than infall or
outflow. Assuming a virial normalization factor of f=5.25, the virial estimate
of the black hole mass is (3.2+-0.5)*10^7 solar masses. These observations
demonstrate that Mrk 50 is among the most promising nearby active galaxies for
detailed investigations of broad-line region structure and dynamics.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. 6 pages, 4 figure
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H0LiCOW X: Spectroscopic/imaging survey and galaxy-group identification around the strong gravitational lens system WFI2033-4723
Galaxies and galaxy groups located along the line of sight towards
gravitationally lensed quasars produce high-order perturbations of the
gravitational potential at the lens position. When these perturbation are too
large, they can induce a systematic error on of a few-percent if the lens
system is used for cosmological inference and the perturbers are not explicitly
accounted for in the lens model. In this work, we present a detailed
characterization of the environment of the lens system WFI2033-4723 (, = 0.6575), one of the core targets of the H0LICOW
project for which we present cosmological inferences in a companion paper (Rusu
et al. 2019). We use the Gemini and ESO-Very Large telescopes to measure the
spectroscopic redshifts of the brightest galaxies towards the lens, and use the
ESO-MUSE integral field spectrograph to measure the velocity-dispersion of the
lens ( km/s) and of several nearby
galaxies. In addition, we measure photometric redshifts and stellar masses of
all galaxies down to mag, mainly based on Dark Energy Survey imaging
(DR1). Our new catalog, complemented with literature data, more than doubles
the number of known galaxy spectroscopic redshifts in the direct vicinity of
the lens, expanding to 116 (64) the number of spectroscopic redshifts for
galaxies separated by less than 3 arcmin (2 arcmin) from the lens. Using the
flexion-shift as a measure of the amplitude of the gravitational perturbation,
we identify 2 galaxy groups and 3 galaxies that require specific attention in
the lens models. The ESO MUSE data enable us to measure the
velocity-dispersions of three of these galaxies. These results are essential
for the cosmological inference analysis presented in Rusu et al. (2019).Comment: Matches the version accepted for publication by MNRAS. Note that this
paper previously appeared as H0LICOW X
Semi-empirical catalog of early-type galaxy-halo systems: dark matter density profiles, halo contraction and dark matter annihilation strength
With SDSS galaxy data and halo data from up-to-date N-body simulations we
construct a semi-empirical catalog (SEC) of early-type systems by making a
self-consistent bivariate statistical match of stellar mass (M_star) and
velocity dispersion (sigma) with halo virial mass (M_vir). We then assign
stellar mass profile and velocity dispersion profile parameters to each system
in the SEC using their observed correlations with M_star and sigma.
Simultaneously, we solve for dark matter density profile of each halo using the
spherical Jeans equation. The resulting dark matter density profiles deviate in
general from the dissipationless profile of NFW or Einasto and their mean inner
density slope and concentration vary systematically with M_vir. Statistical
tests of the distribution of profiles at fixed M_vir rule out the null
hypothesis that it follows the distribution predicted by N-body simulations for
M_vir ~< 10^{13.5-14.5} M_solar. These dark matter profiles imply that dark
matter density is, on average, enhanced significantly in the inner region of
halos with M_vir ~< 10^{13.5-14.5} M_solar supporting halo contraction. The
main characteristics of halo contraction are: (1) the mean dark matter density
within the effective radius has increased by a factor varying systematically up
to ~ 3-4 at M_vir = 10^{12} M_solar, and (2) the inner density slope has a mean
of ~ 1.3 with rho(r) ~ r^{-alpha} and a halo-to-halo rms scatter of
rms(alpha) ~ 0.4-0.5 for 10^{12} M_solar ~< M_vir ~< 10^{13-14} M_solar steeper
than the NFW profile (alpha=1). Based on our results we predict that halos of
nearby elliptical and lenticular galaxies can, in principle, be promising
targets for gamma-ray emission from dark matter annihilation.Comment: 43 pages, 20 figures, JCAP, revised and accepted versio
Size magnification as a complement to Cosmic Shear
We investigate the extent to which cosmic size magnification may be used to
com- plement cosmic shear in weak gravitational lensing surveys, with a view to
obtaining high-precision estimates of cosmological parameters. Using simulated
galaxy images, we find that size estimation can be an excellent complement,
finding that unbiased estimation of the convergence field is possible with
galaxies with angular sizes larger than the point-spread function (PSF) and
signal-to-noise ratio in excess of 10. The statistical power is similar to, but
not quite as good as, cosmic shear, and it is subject to different systematic
effects. Application to ground-based data will be challeng- ing, with
relatively large empirical corrections required to account for with biases for
galaxies which are smaller than the PSF, but for space-based data with 0.1
arcsecond resolution, the size distribution of galaxies brighter than i=24 is
ideal for accurate estimation of cosmic size magnification.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRA
The Glial Regenerative Response to Central Nervous System Injury Is Enabled by Pros-Notch and Pros-NFκB Feedback
Organisms are structurally robust, as cells accommodate changes preserving structural integrity and function. The molecular mechanisms underlying structural robustness and plasticity are poorly understood, but can be investigated by probing how cells respond to injury. Injury to the CNS induces proliferation of enwrapping glia, leading to axonal re-enwrapment and partial functional recovery. This glial regenerative response is found across species, and may reflect a common underlying genetic mechanism. Here, we show that injury to the Drosophila larval CNS induces glial proliferation, and we uncover a gene network controlling this response. It consists of the mutual maintenance between the cell cycle inhibitor Prospero (Pros) and the cell cycle activators Notch and NFκB. Together they maintain glia in the brink of dividing, they enable glial proliferation following injury, and subsequently they exert negative feedback on cell division restoring cell cycle arrest. Pros also promotes glial differentiation, resolving vacuolization, enabling debris clearance and axonal enwrapment. Disruption of this gene network prevents repair and induces tumourigenesis. Using wound area measurements across genotypes and time-lapse recordings we show that when glial proliferation and glial differentiation are abolished, both the size of the glial wound and neuropile vacuolization increase. When glial proliferation and differentiation are enabled, glial wound size decreases and injury-induced apoptosis and vacuolization are prevented. The uncovered gene network promotes regeneration of the glial lesion and neuropile repair. In the unharmed animal, it is most likely a homeostatic mechanism for structural robustness. This gene network may be of relevance to mammalian glia to promote repair upon CNS injury or disease
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