DECam integration tests on telescope simulator

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a next generation optical survey aimed at measuring the expansion history of the universe using four probes: weak gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster counts, baryon acoustic oscillations, and Type Ia supernovae. To perform the survey, the DES Collaboration is building the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square degree, 570 Megapixel CCD camera which will be mounted at the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter- American Observatory. DES will survey 5000 square degrees of the southern galactic cap in 5 filters (g, r, i, z, Y). DECam will be comprised of 74 250 micron thick fully depleted CCDs: 62 2k x 4k CCDs for imaging and 12 2k x 2k CCDs for guiding and focus. Construction of DECam is nearing completion. In order to verify that the camera meets technical specifications for DES and to reduce the time required to commission the instrument, we have constructed a full sized telescope simulator and performed full system testing and integration prior to shipping. To complete this comprehensive test phase we have simulated a DES observing run in which we have collected 4 nights worth of data. We report on the results of these unique tests performed for the DECam and its impact on the experiments progress.Comment: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Technology and Instrumentation in Particle Physics (TIPP 2011). To appear in Physics Procedia. 8 pages, 3 figure

PreCam, a Precursor Observational Campaign for Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey

PreCam, a precursor observational campaign supporting the Dark Energy Survey (DES), is designed to produce a photometric and astrometric catalog of nearly a hundred thousand standard stars within the DES footprint, while the PreCam instrument also serves as a prototype testbed for the Dark Energy Camera (DECam)'s hardware and software. This catalog represents a potential 100-fold increase in Southern Hemisphere photometric standard stars, and therefore will be an important component in the calibration of the Dark Energy Survey. We provide details on the PreCam instrument's design, construction and testing, as well as results from a subset of the 51 nights of PreCam survey observations on the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy's Curtis-Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. We briefly describe the preliminary data processing pipeline that has been developed for PreCam data and the preliminary results of the instrument performance, as well as astrometry and photometry of a sample of stars previously included in other southern sky surveys.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, submitted to PAS

Treatment of advanced, recurrent, resistant to previous treatments basal and squamous cell skin carcinomas with a synergistic formulation of interferons. Open, prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Aggressive non-melanoma skin cancer (deeply infiltrating, recurrent, and morphea form lesions) are therapeutically challenging because they require considerable tissue loss and may demand radical disfiguring surgery. Interferons (IFN) may provide a non-surgical approach to the management of these tumors. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of a formulation containing IFNs-α and -γ in synergistic proportions on patients with recurrent, advanced basal cell (BCC) or squamous cell skin carcinomas (SCSC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients with extensive, recurrent, resistant to other procedures BCC or SCSC received the IFN formulation peri- and intralesionally, three times per week for 3 weeks. They had been previously treated with surgery and/or radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Thirteen weeks after the end of treatment, the original lesion sites were examined for histological evidence of remaining tumor.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sixteen elder (median 70 years-old) patients were included. They beared 12 BCC and 4 SCSC ranging from 1.5 to 12.5 cm in the longest dimension. At the end of treatment 47% CR (complete tumor elimination), 40% PR (>30% tumor reduction), and 13% stable disease were obtained. None of the patients relapsed during the treatment period. The median duration of the response was 38 months. Only one patient with complete response had relapsed until today. Principal adverse reactions were influenza-like symptoms well known to occur with interferon therapy, which were well tolerated.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The peri- and intralesional combination of IFNs-α and -γ was safe and showed effect for the treatment of advanced, recurrent and resistant to previous treatments of BCC and SCSC in elder patients. This is the first report of such treatment in patients with advance non-melanoma skin cancer. The encouraging result justifies further confirmatory trials.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials RPCEC00000052.</p

Exome-wide association study to identify rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes : Results from the Host Genetics Initiative

Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2022 Butler-Laporte et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Host genetics is a key determinant of COVID-19 outcomes. Previously, the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative genome-wide association study used common variants to identify multiple loci associated with COVID-19 outcomes. However, variants with the largest impact on COVID-19 outcomes are expected to be rare in the population. Hence, studying rare variants may provide additional insights into disease susceptibility and pathogenesis, thereby informing therapeutics development. Here, we combined whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing from 21 cohorts across 12 countries and performed rare variant exome-wide burden analyses for COVID-19 outcomes. In an analysis of 5,085 severe disease cases and 571,737 controls, we observed that carrying a rare deleterious variant in the SARS-CoV-2 sensor toll-like receptor TLR7 (on chromosome X) was associated with a 5.3-fold increase in severe disease (95% CI: 2.75–10.05, p = 5.41x10-7). This association was consistent across sexes. These results further support TLR7 as a genetic determinant of severe disease and suggest that larger studies on rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes could provide additional insights.Peer reviewe

Photometric redshift analysis in the Dark Energy Survey science verification data

We present results from a study of the photometric redshift performance of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), using the early data from a Science Verification period of observations in late 2012 and early 2013 that provided science-quality images for almost 200 sq. deg. at the nominal depth of the survey.We assess the photometric redshift (photo-z) performance using about 15 000 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts available from other surveys. These galaxies are used, in different configurations, as a calibration sample, and photo-z’s are obtained and studied using most of the existing photo-z codes. A weighting method in a multidimensional colour–magnitude space is applied to the spectroscopic sample in order to evaluate the photo-z performance with sets that mimic the full DES photometric sample, which is on average significantly deeper than the calibration sample due to the limited depth of spectroscopic surveys. Empirical photo-z methods using, for instance, artificial neural networks or random forests, yield the best performance in the tests, achieving core photo-z resolutions σ68 ∼ 0.08. Moreover, the results from most of the codes, including template-fitting methods, comfortably meet the DES requirements on photo-z performance, therefore, providing an excellent precedent for future DES data sets

PreCam, a Precursor Observational Campaign for Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey

PreCam, a precursor observational campaign supporting the Dark Energy Survey (DES), is designed to produce a photometric and astrometric catalog of nearly a hundred thousand standard stars within the DES footprint, while the PreCam instrument also serves as a prototype testbed for the Dark Energy Camera (DECam)'s hardware and software. This catalog represents a potential 100-fold increase in Southern Hemisphere photometric standard stars, and therefore will be an important component in the calibration of the Dark Energy Survey. We provide details on the PreCam instrument's design, construction and testing, as well as results from a subset of the 51 nights of PreCam survey observations on the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy's Curtis-Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. We briefly describe the preliminary data processing pipeline that has been developed for PreCam data and the preliminary results of the instrument performance, as well as astrometry and photometry of a sample of stars previously included in other southern sky surveys

Mass and galaxy distributions of four massive galaxy clusters from Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data

We measure the weak lensing masses and galaxy distributions of four massive galaxy clusters observed during the Science Verification phase of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). This pathfinder study is meant to (1) validate the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) imager for the task of measuring weak lensing shapes, and (2) utilize DECam’s large field of view to map out the clusters and their environments over 90 arcmin. We conduct a series of rigorous tests on astrometry, photometry, image quality, point spread function (PSF) modelling, and shear measurement accuracy to single out flaws in the data and also to identify the optimal data processing steps and parameters. We find Science Verification data from DECam to be suitable for the lensing analysis described in this paper. The PSF is generally well behaved, but the modelling is rendered difficult by a flux-dependent PSF width and ellipticity. We employ photometric redshifts to distinguish between foreground and background galaxies, and a red-sequence cluster finder to provide cluster richness estimates and cluster–galaxy distributions. By fitting Navarro–Frenk–White profiles to the clusters in this study, we determine weak lensing masses that are in agreement with previous work. For Abell 3261, we provide the first estimates of redshift, weak lensing mass, and richness. In addition, the cluster–galaxy distributions indicate the presence of filamentary structures attached to 1E 0657−56 and RXC J2248.7−4431, stretching out as far as 1◦(approximately 20 Mpc), showcasing the potential of DECam and DES for detailed studies of degree-scale features on the sky