244 research outputs found
Funneling Light Through a Subwavelength Aperture with Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials
Integration of the next generation of photonic structures with electronic and
optical on-chip components requires the development of effective methods for
confining and controlling light in subwavelength volumes. Several techniques
enabling light coupling to sub-wavelength objects have recently been proposed,
including grating-, and composite-based solutions. However, experi-mental
realization of these couplers involves complex fabrication with \sim 10nm
resolution in three dimensions. One promising alternative to complex coupling
structures involves materials with vanishingly small dielectric permittivity,
also known as epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials. In contrast to the previously
referenced approaches, a single at layer of ENZ-material is expected to provide
effcient coupling between free-space radiation and sub-wavelength guiding
structures. Here we report the first direct observation of bulk-ENZ-enhanced
transmission through a subwavelength slit, accompanied by a theoretical study
of this phenomenon. Our study opens the door to multiple practical applications
of ENZ materials and ENZ-based photonic systems
Ideal cardiovascular health, biomarkers, and coronary artery disease in persons with HIV
OBJECTIVE: To investigate relationships between Life\u27s Simple 7 (LS7), an assessment of cardiovascular health (CVH), and coronary plaque among people with HIV (PWH).
DESIGN: Cross-sectional.
METHODS: Coronary computed tomography angiography, immune/inflammatory biomarkers, and characterization of LS7 were collected among a subset of ART-treated PWH enrolled in REPRIEVE, a primary prevention trial. Analyses adjusted for cardiovascular disease risk (ASCVD score).
RESULTS: Median age of the 735 participants was 51(±6) years, 16% female, and median (Q1-Q3) CVD risk was 4.5% (2.6-6.9). Forty percent had poor (≤2 ideal components), 51% had intermediate (three or four ideal components), and only 9% had ideal CVH (≥5). Coronary plaque was present in 357 (49%); 167 (23%) had one or more vulnerable plaque features, 293 (40%) had noncalcified plaque, and 242 (35%) had a coronary artery calcium score \u3e0. All three phenotypes were increasingly more prevalent with poorer CVH and these relationships remained after adjusting for ASCVD risk. Poor CVH was associated with higher high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, oxidized low-density cholesterol, and interleukin-6. The relationship of LS7 to plaque remained after adjusting for these biomarkers.
CONCLUSIONS: Among PWH, poor CVH as measured by LS7 was associated with coronary plaque presence, vulnerable features, and calcification. LS7 was also associated with selected biomarkers; adjustment for these and ASCVD score reduced but did not eliminate LS7\u27s association with plaque, suggesting the possibility of additional protective mechanisms against atherogenesis and plaque remodeling. Clinical use of LS7 and further exploration of its relationships with coronary artery disease may enhance efforts to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in PWH.
CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: NCT02344290
QSO Absorption Systems Detected in Ne VIII: High-Metallicity Clouds with a Large Effective Cross Section
Using high resolution, high signal-to-noise ultraviolet spectra of the z =
0.9754 quasar PG1148+549 obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on
the Hubble Space Telescope, we study the physical conditions and abundances of
NeVIII+OVI absorption line systems at z(abs) =0.68381, 0.70152, 0.72478. In
addition to NeVIII and OVI, absorption lines from multiple ionization stages of
oxygen (OII, OIII, OIV) are detected and are well-aligned with the more highly
ionized species. We show that these absorbers are multiphase systems including
hot gas (T ~ 10^{5.7} K) that produces NeVIII and OVI, and the gas metallicity
of the cool phase ranges from Z = 0.3 Z_{solar} to supersolar. The cool
(~10^{4} K) phases have densities n_{H} ~ 10^{-4} cm^{-3} and small sizes (<
4kpc); these cool clouds are likely to expand and dissipate, and the NeVIII may
be within a transition layer between the cool gas and a surrounding, much
hotter medium. The NeVIII redshift density, dN/dz = 7^{+7}_{-3}, requires a
large number of these clouds for every L > 0.1L* galaxy and a large effective
absorption cross section (>~ 100 kpc), and indeed, we find a star forming ~L*
galaxy at the redshift of the z(abs)=0.72478 system, at an impact parameter of
217 kpc. Multiphase absorbers like these NeVIII systems are likely to be an
important reservoir of baryons and metals in the circumgalactic media of
galaxies.Comment: Final published version (Astrophysical Journal
High-velocity clouds as streams of ionized and neutral gas in the halo of the Milky Way
High-velocity clouds (HVC), fast-moving ionized and neutral gas clouds found
at high galactic latitudes, may play an important role in the evolution of the
Milky Way. The extent of this role depends sensitively on their distances and
total sky covering factor. We search for HVC absorption in HST high resolution
ultraviolet spectra of a carefully selected sample of 133 AGN using a range of
atomic species in different ionization stages. This allows us to identify
neutral, weakly ionized, or highly ionized HVCs over several decades in HI
column densities. The sky covering factor of UV-selected HVCs with |v_LSR|>90
km/s is 68%+/-4% for the entire Galactic sky. We show that our survey is
essentially complete, i.e., an undetected population of HVCs with extremely low
N(H) (HI+HII) is unlikely to be important for the HVC mass budget. We confirm
that the predominantly ionized HVCs contain at least as much mass as the
traditional HI HVCs and show that large HI HVC complexes have generally ionized
envelopes extending far from the HI contours. There are also large regions of
the Galactic sky that are covered with ionized high-velocity gas with little HI
emission nearby. We show that the covering factors of HVCs with 90<|v_LSR|<170
km/s drawn from the AGN and stellar samples are similar. This confirms that
these HVCs are within 5-15 kpc of the sun. The covering factor of these HVCs
drops with decreasing vertical height, which is consistent with HVCs being
decelerated or disrupted as they fall to the Milky Way disk. The HVCs with
|v_LSR|>170 km/s are largely associated with the Magellanic Stream at b<0 and
its leading arm at b>0 as well as other large known HI complexes. Therefore
there is no evidence in the Local Group that any galaxy shows a population of
HVCs extending much farther away than 50 kpc from its host, except possibly for
those tracing remnants of galaxy interaction.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS (19 pages, 11 figures). Comments are welcom
Gas Accretion in Star-Forming Galaxies
Cold-mode gas accretion onto galaxies is a direct prediction of LCDM
simulations and provides galaxies with fuel that allows them to continue to
form stars over the lifetime of the Universe. Given its dramatic influence on a
galaxy's gas reservoir, gas accretion has to be largely responsible for how
galaxies form and evolve. Therefore, given the importance of gas accretion, it
is necessary to observe and quantify how these gas flows affect galaxy
evolution. However, observational data have yet to conclusively show that gas
accretion ubiquitously occurs at any epoch. Directly detecting gas accretion is
a challenging endeavor and we now have obtained a significant amount of
observational evidence to support it. This chapter reviews the current
observational evidence of gas accretion onto star-forming galaxies.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by
Springer. This chapter includes 22 pages with 7 Figure
Converting simulated total dry matter to fresh marketable yield for field vegetables at a range of nitrogen supply levels
Simultaneous analysis of economic and environmental performance of horticultural crop production requires qualified assumptions on the effect of management options, and particularly of nitrogen (N) fertilisation, on the net returns of the farm. Dynamic soil-plant-environment simulation models for agro-ecosystems are frequently applied to predict crop yield, generally as dry matter per area, and the environmental impact of production. Economic analysis requires conversion of yields to fresh marketable weight, which is not easy to calculate for vegetables, since different species have different properties and special market requirements. Furthermore, the marketable part of many vegetables is dependent on N availability during growth, which may lead to complete crop failure under sub-optimal N supply in tightly calculated N fertiliser regimes or low-input systems. In this paper we present two methods for converting simulated total dry matter to marketable fresh matter yield for various vegetables and European growth conditions, taking into consideration the effect of N supply: (i) a regression based function for vegetables sold as bulk or bunching ware and (ii) a population approach for piecewise sold row crops. For both methods, to be used in the context of a dynamic simulation model, parameter values were compiled from a literature survey. Implemented in such a model, both algorithms were tested against experimental field data, yielding an Index of Agreement of 0.80 for the regression strategy and 0.90 for the population strategy. Furthermore, the population strategy was capable of reflecting rather well the effect of crop spacing on yield and the effect of N supply on product grading
Determination of atrazine and degradation products in Luxembourgish drinking water: origin and fate of potential endocrine-disrupting pesticides
Observational Diagnostics of Gas Flows: Insights from Cosmological Simulations
Galactic accretion interacts in complex ways with gaseous halos, including
galactic winds. As a result, observational diagnostics typically probe a range
of intertwined physical phenomena. Because of this complexity, cosmological
hydrodynamic simulations have played a key role in developing observational
diagnostics of galactic accretion. In this chapter, we review the status of
different observational diagnostics of circumgalactic gas flows, in both
absorption (galaxy pair and down-the-barrel observations in neutral hydrogen
and metals; kinematic and azimuthal angle diagnostics; the cosmological column
density distribution; and metallicity) and emission (Lya; UV metal lines; and
diffuse X-rays). We conclude that there is no simple and robust way to identify
galactic accretion in individual measurements. Rather, progress in testing
galactic accretion models is likely to come from systematic, statistical
comparisons of simulation predictions with observations. We discuss specific
areas where progress is likely to be particularly fruitful over the next few
years.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dave, to be published by
Springer. Typos correcte
The First Observations of Low Redshift Damped Lyman-alpha Systems with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
We report on the first Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) observations of
damped and sub-damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems discovered in a new survey of
the gaseous halos of low-redshift galaxies. From observations of 37 sightlines,
we have discovered three DLAs and four sub-DLAs. We measure the neutral gas
density Omega(HI), and redshift density dN/dz, of DLA and sub-DLA systems at
z<0.35. We find dN/dz=0.25 and Omega(HI)=1.4x10^-3 for DLAs, and dN/dz=0.08
with Omega(HI)=4.2x10^-5 for sub-DLAs over a redshift path delta z=11.9. To
demonstrate the scientific potential of such systems, we present a detailed
analysis of the DLA at z=0.1140 in the spectrum of SDSS J1009+0713. Profile
fits to the absorption lines determine log N(H I)=20.68pm0.10 with a
metallicity determined from the undepleted element Sulfur of [S/H]=-0.62pm0.18.
The abundance pattern of this DLA is similar to that of higher z DLAs, showing
mild depletion of the refractory elements Fe and Ti with [S/Fe]=+0.24pm0.22 and
[S/Ti]=+0.28pm0.15. Nitrogen is underabundant in this system with
[N/H]=-1.40pm0.14, placing this DLA below the plateau of the [N/alpha]
measurements in the local Universe at similar metallicities. This DLA has a
simple kinematic structure with only two components required to fit the
profiles and a kinematic width of 52 km/s. Imaging of the QSO field with WFC3
reveals a spiral galaxy at very small impact parameter to the QSO and several
galaxies within 10". Followup spectra with LRIS reveal that none of the nearby
galaxies are at the redshift of the DLA. The spiral galaxy is identified as the
host galaxy of the QSO based on the near perfect alignment of the nucleus and
disk of the galaxy as well as spectra of an H II region showing emission lines
at the QSO redshift. A small feature appears 0.70" from the nucleus of the QSO
after PSF subtraction, providing another candidate for the host galaxy of the
DLA. (abb)Comment: 11 pages, 9 figues, Submitted to Ap
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