Mapping UV properties throughout the cosmic horseshoe: Lessons from VLT-MUSE

We present the first spatially-resolved rest-frame UV study of the gravitationally lensed galaxy, the 'Cosmic Horseshoe' (J1148+1930) at z=2.38. Our gravitational lens model shows that the system is made up of four star-forming regions, each ~4-8 kpc^2 in size, from which we extract four spatially exclusive regional spectra. We study the interstellar and wind absorption lines, along with CIII] doublet emission lines, in each region to investigate any variation in emission/absorption line properties. The mapped CIII] emission shows distinct kinematical structure, with velocity offsets of ~+/-50 km/s between regions suggestive of a merging system, and a variation in equivalent width that indicates a change in ionisation parameter and/or metallicity between the regions. Absorption line velocities reveal a range of outflow strengths, with gas outflowing between -200<v(km/s)<-50 relative to the systemic velocity of that region. Interestingly, the strongest gas outflow appears to emanate from the most diffuse star-forming region. The star-formation rates remain relatively constant (~8-16 M_sol/yr), mostly due to large uncertainties in reddening estimates. As such, the outflows appear to be 'global' rather than 'locally' sourced. We measure electron densities with a range of log(Ne)=3.92-4.36 cm^-3, and point out that such high densities may be common when measured using the CIII] doublet due to its large critical density. Overall, our observations demonstrate that while it is possible to trace variations in large scale gas kinematics, detecting inhomogeneities in physical gas properties and their effects on the outflowing gas may be more difficult. This study provides important lessons for the spatially-resolved rest-frame UV studies expected with future observatories, such as JWST.BLJ thanks support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and SC acknowledges nancial support from the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 308024

The glyoxal budget and its contribution to organic aerosol for Los Angeles, California, during CalNex 2010

Recent laboratory and field studies have indicated that glyoxal is a potentially large contributor to secondary organic aerosol mass. We present in situ glyoxal measurements acquired with a recently developed, high sensitivity spectroscopic instrument during the CalNex 2010 field campaign in Pasadena, California. We use three methods to quantify the production and loss of glyoxal in Los Angeles and its contribution to organic aerosol. First, we calculate the difference between steady state sources and sinks of glyoxal at the Pasadena site, assuming that the remainder is available for aerosol uptake. Second, we use the Master Chemical Mechanism to construct a two-dimensional model for gas-phase glyoxal chemistry in Los Angeles, assuming that the difference between the modeled and measured glyoxal concentration is available for aerosol uptake. Third, we examine the nighttime loss of glyoxal in the absence of its photochemical sources and sinks. Using these methods we constrain the glyoxal loss to aerosol to be 0-5 × 10-5 s-1 during clear days and (1 ± 0.3) × 10-5 s-1 at night. Between 07:00-15:00 local time, the diurnally averaged secondary organic aerosol mass increases from 3.2 μg m-3 to a maximum of 8.8 μg m -3. The constraints on the glyoxal budget from this analysis indicate that it contributes 0-0.2 μg m-3 or 0-4% of the secondary organic aerosol mass. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union

Blue diffuse dwarf galaxies: a clearer picture

The search for chemically unevolved galaxies remains prevalent in the nearby Universe, mostly because these systems provide excellent proxies for exploring in detail the physics of high-z systems. The most promising candidates are extremely metal-poor galaxies (XMPs), i.e., galaxies with <1/10 solar metallicity. However, due to the bright emission line based search criteria traditionally used to find XMPs, we may not be sampling the full XMP population. In 2014 we reoriented this search using only morphological properties and uncovered a population of ~150 `blue diffuse dwarf (BDD) galaxies', and published a sub-sample of 12 BDD spectra. Here we present optical spectroscopic observations of a larger sample of 51 BDDs, along with their SDSS photometric properties. With our improved statistics, we use direct-method abundances to confirm that BDDs are chemically unevolved (7.43<12+log(O/H)<8.01), with ~20% of our sample classified as being XMP galaxies, and find they are actively forming stars at rates of 1-33x10^-2 M_sol/yr in HII regions randomly embedded in a blue, low-surface brightness continuum. Stellar masses are calculated from population synthesis models and estimated to be in the range log(M_star/M_sol) ~5-9. Unlike other low-metallicity star-forming galaxies, BDDs are in agreement with the mass-metallicity relation at low masses, suggesting they are not accreting large amounts of pristine gas relative to their stellar mass. BDD galaxies appear to be a population of actively star-forming dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies who fall within the class of low-surface brightness dIrr galaxies. Their ongoing star-formation and irregular morphology make them excellent analogues for galaxies in the early Universe.BLJ thanks support from the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 308024. SK acknowledges financial support from the ERC. DPS acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation through the grant AST-1410155. EWO is partially supported by NSF grant AST1313006

RELICS: The Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey and the Brightest High-z Galaxies

Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations. We present here the z ~ 6-8 candidate high-redshift galaxies from the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS), a Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope survey of 41 massive galaxy clusters spanning an area of ≈200 arcmin². These clusters were selected to be excellent lenses, and we find similar high-redshift sample sizes and magnitude distributions as the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). We discover 257, 57, and eight candidate galaxies at z ~ 6, 7, and 8 respectively, (322 in total). The observed (lensed) magnitudes of the z ~ 6 candidates are as bright as AB mag ~23, making them among the brightest known at these redshifts, comparable with discoveries from much wider, blank-field surveys. RELICS demonstrates the efficiency of using strong gravitational lenses to produce high-redshift samples in the epoch of reionization. These brightly observed galaxies are excellent targets for follow-up study with current and future observatories, including the James Webb Space Telescope

siRNAs Induce Efficient RNAi Response in Bombyx mori Embryos

Short interference RNA (siRNA) is widely used in mammalian cells. In insects, however, reports concerning the suitablility of siRNA in vivo is very limited compared with that of long dsRNA, which is thought to be more effective. There is insufficient information on the essential rules of siRNA design in insects, as very few siRNAs have been tested in this context. To establish an effective method of gene silencing using siRNA in vivo in insects, we determined the effects of siRNA on seven target genes. We designed siRNAs according to a new guideline and injected them into eggs of Bombyx mori. At the mRNA level, the expression of most of these genes was successfully silenced, down to less than half the constitutive level, which in some cases led to the development of distinctive phenotypes. In addition, we observed stronger effect of siRNA both on the mRNA level and the phenotype than that of long dsRNA under comparable conditions. These results indicate that direct injection of siRNA is an effective reverse-genetics tool for the analysis of embryogenesis in vivo in insects

Genome-Wide Local Ancestry Approach Identifies Genes and Variants Associated with Chemotherapeutic Susceptibility in African Americans

Chemotherapeutic agents are used in the treatment of many cancers, yet variable resistance and toxicities among individuals limit successful outcomes. Several studies have indicated outcome differences associated with ancestry among patients with various cancer types. Using both traditional SNP-based and newly developed gene-based genome-wide approaches, we investigated the genetics of chemotherapeutic susceptibility in lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from 83 African Americans, a population for which there is a disparity in the number of genome-wide studies performed. To account for population structure in this admixed population, we incorporated local ancestry information into our association model. We tested over 2 million SNPs and identified 325, 176, 240, and 190 SNPs that were suggestively associated with cytarabine-, 5′-deoxyfluorouridine (5′-DFUR)-, carboplatin-, and cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity, respectively (p≤10−4). Importantly, some of these variants are found only in populations of African descent. We also show that cisplatin-susceptibility SNPs are enriched for carboplatin-susceptibility SNPs. Using a gene-based genome-wide association approach, we identified 26, 11, 20, and 41 suggestive candidate genes for association with cytarabine-, 5′-DFUR-, carboplatin-, and cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity, respectively (p≤10−3). Fourteen of these genes showed evidence of association with their respective chemotherapeutic phenotypes in the Yoruba from Ibadan, Nigeria (p<0.05), including TP53I11, COPS5 and GAS8, which are known to be involved in tumorigenesis. Although our results require further study, we have identified variants and genes associated with chemotherapeutic susceptibility in African Americans by using an approach that incorporates local ancestry information

Seroprevalence following the second wave of pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza in Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Background: In April 2009, a new pandemic strain of influenza infected thousands of persons in Mexico and the United States and spread rapidly worldwide. During the ensuing summer months, cases ebbed in the Northern Hemisphere while the Southern Hemisphere experienced a typical influenza season dominated by the novel strain. In the fall, a second wave of pandemic H1N1 swept through the United States, peaking in most parts of the country by mid October and returning to baseline levels by early December. The objective was to determine the seroprevalence of antibodies against the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza strain by decade of birth among Pittsburgh-area residents. Methods and Findings: Anonymous blood samples were obtained from clinical laboratories and categorized by decade of birth from 1920-2009. Using hemagglutination-inhibition assays, approximately 100 samples per decade (n = 846) were tested from blood samples drawn on hospital and clinic patients in mid-November and early December 2009. Age specific seroprevalences against pandemic H1N1 (A/California/7/2009) were measured and compared to seroprevalences against H1N1 strains that had previously circulated in the population in 2007, 1957, and 1918. (A/Brisbane/59/2007, A/Denver/1/ 1957, and A/South Carolina/1/1918). Stored serum samples from healthy, young adults from 2008 were used as a control group (n = 100). Seroprevalences against pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza varied by age group, with children age 10-19 years having the highest seroprevalence (45%), and persons age 70-79 years having the lowest (5%). The baseline seroprevalence among control samples from 18-24 year-olds was 6%. Overall seroprevalence against pandemic H1N1 across all age groups was approximately 21%. Conclusions: After the peak of the second wave of 2009 H1N1, HAI seroprevalence results suggest that 21% of persons in the Pittsburgh area had become infected and developed immunity. Extrapolating to the entire US population, we estimate that at least 63 million persons became infected in 2009. As was observed among clinical cases, this sero-epidemiological study revealed highest infection rates among school-age children. © 2010 Zimmer et al

Seasonality and trend in blood lead levels of New York State children

BACKGROUND: Environmental exposure to lead remains a significant health problem for children. The costs of lead exposure in children are estimated to be considerably more than other childhood diseases of environmental origin. While long-term trends in blood lead levels (BLLs) among children are declining, seasonal variation persists. Cross-sectional studies have found a peak in summer months. Part of this variation may be due to increased exposure to lead paint on window sills and through increased contact with soils containing lead during the summer. The current study represents the largest published population-based study on seasonality and trends in the BLLs of children to date. In addition, the results offer a comparison of recent data on seasonality of BLLs in New York State children, to studies conducted over the past three decades. METHODS: 262,687 New York State children born between 1994 and 1997 were screened for blood lead within 2 weeks of their first or second birthdays. Time series analyses of blood lead data from these children were conducted to study the seasonality and trends of BLLs. RESULTS: Children's blood lead values showed a distinct seasonal cycle on top of a long-term decreasing trend. The geometric mean BLL declined by about 24% for children born between 1994 and 1997. The prevalence of elevated BLLs in two-year-olds was almost twice that in one-year-olds over the time period. Nearly twice as many children had elevated BLLs in the late summer compared to late winter/early spring. In this and previous cross-sectional studies, the amount of seasonality as a proportion of the mean ranged between 15% and 30%. CONCLUSION: Pediatricians should be aware of the seasonality of BLLs. For example, if a two-year-old receives a borderline result during the winter, it is possible that the levels would have been higher if he had been tested during the summer. However, physicians should continue to screen children at their normally scheduled well-child visits rather than delaying until summertime and possibly postponing the discovery of an elevated BLL. Age, season, and time trends still need to be considered in lead studies and result interpretation

Observation of the Baryonic Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-

We report the first observation of the baryonic flavor-changing neutral current decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- with 24 signal events and a statistical significance of 5.8 Gaussian standard deviations. This measurement uses ppbar collisions data sample corresponding to 6.8fb-1 at sqrt{s}=1.96TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. The total and differential branching ratios for Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- are measured. We find B(Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-) = [1.73+-0.42(stat)+-0.55(syst)] x 10^{-6}. We also report the first measurement of the differential branching ratio of B_s -> phi mu+ mu- using 49 signal events. In addition, we report branching ratios for B+ -> K+ mu+ mu-, B0 -> K0 mu+ mu-, and B -> K*(892) mu+ mu- decays.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let