SOUSA: the Swift Optical/Ultraviolet Supernova Archive

The Ultra-Violet Optical Telescope on the Swift spacecraft has observed hundreds of supernovae, covering all major types and most subtypes. Here we introduce the Swift Optical/Ultraviolet Supernova Archive (SOUSA), which will contain all of the supernova images and photometry. We describe the observation and reduction procedures and how they impact the final data. We show photometry from well-observed examples of most supernova classes, whose absolute magnitudes and colors may be used to infer supernova types in the absence of a spectrum. A full understanding of the variety within classes and a robust photometric separation of the groups requires a larger sample, which will be provided by the final archive. The data from the existing Swift supernovae are also useful for planning future observations with Swift as well as future UV observatories.Comment: Accepted for publication in the UV issue of Astrophysics and Space Science 10 pages, 6 figures SOUSA is an archive in progress with data being posted to the Swift SN website: http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/sne/swift_sn.htm

The Increasing Prevalence of Cleft Lip with or without Cleft Palate in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas

Background: Orofacial clefts are a subset of birth defects that include cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP) and cleft palate alone (CP). The treatment for orofacial clefts is surgical repair, ideally within the first six months of life. Their impacts on patients and families are various and substantial. Babies with orofacial clefts can have trouble with breastfeeding, speech, recurrent ear infections, and hearing loss as they age. Additionally, there is a significant economic burden, with the average repair costing nearly $20,000, not including the costs of medical devices, postoperative care, and rehabilitation. Additionally, children with orofacial clefts face a high incidence of teasing and ostracization by peers and even family.These issues can be especially difficult in medically underserved and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations such as the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (RGV). This paper explores trends in the prevalence of orofacial clefts in the RGV. Methods: Aggregated data for orofacial clefts from 1997-2018 was acquired from the Texas Department of State Health Services Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch. All birth outcomes were included, but only definite diagnoses of orofacial clefts are included in this study. No distinction between syndromic and non-syndromic orofacial clefts was made. Populations studied included children born to Hispanic mothers in the RGV (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties) and non-border counties of Texas. Statistical analysis was conducted through two-tailed z-score analysis. Results: Overall, the prevalence of CP between 1997-2018 was lower among children born to Hispanic mothers in the RGV than in non-border counties, but not significantly (p=0.059). The prevalence of CP in the RGV was higher between 2008 and 2018 than in 1997 and 2007 but not significantly (p=-.105). Non-Border counties saw a similar non-statistically significant increase in CP prevalence (p=.177). Overall, the prevalence of CLP between 1997-2008 was higher among children born to Hispanic mothers in the RGV than in non-border counties, but not significantly (p=0.26). For the years 1997-2007, the prevalence of CLP was lower, but not significantly, in the RGV than in non-border counties (p=.258). For 2008-2018, the prevalence of CLP was significantly higher than in non-border counties (p=.007). The RGV saw a non-statistically significant increase in the prevalence of CLP between the decades of 1997-2007 and 2008-2018 (p=0.063). Contrarily, the non-border counties of Texas saw a non-statistically significant decrease in the prevalence of CLP between the decades of 1997-2007 and 2008-2018 (p=0.155). Conclusion: From 2008-2018, children born to Hispanic mothers in the RGV had a significantly higher prevalence of CLP than those born to Hispanic mothers in non-border counties in Texas. Additionally, the RGV saw an increase in the prevalence of CLP, while non-border counties saw a decrease. This is concerning, given that many parts of the RGV are designated as healthcare shortage areas. Travel to other cities of Texas for care can be difficult or impossible for undocumented and disadvantaged residents of the RGV. Investment is required to evaluate local reporting measures, meet healthcare demands, and increase affordable care for these conditions among RGV Residents

COLOR DEPENDENCE IN THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS REVISITED

ABSTRACT The size distribution of the asteroid belt is examined with 16956 main belt asteroids detected in data taken from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey in two filters (g and r ). The cumulative H (absolute magnitude) distribution is examined in both filters, and both match well to simple power laws down to H = 17, with slopes in rough agreement with those reported the literature. This implies that disruptive collisions between asteroids are gravitationally dominated down to at least this size, and probably sub-kilometer scales. The slopes of these distributions appear shallower in the outer belt than the inner belt, and the g distributions appear slightly steeper than the r . The slope shallowing in the outer belt may reflect a real compositional difference: the inner asteroid belt has been suggested to consist mostly of stony and/or metallic S-type asteroids, whereas carbonaceous C-types are thought to be more prevalent further from the Sun. No waves are seen in the size distribution above H = 15. Since waves are expected to be produced at the transition from gravitationally-dominated to internal strength-dominated collisions, their absence here may imply that the transition occurs at sub-kilometer scales, much smaller than the H = 17 (diameter ∼ 1.6 km) cutoff of this study

Compartment-based reconstruction of 3D acquisition-weighted 31P cardiac magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging at 7 T: a reproducibility study

Even at 7 T, cardiac 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) is fundamentally limited by low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), leading to long scan times and poor temporal and spatial resolutions. Compartment-based reconstruction algorithms such as magnetic resonance spectroscopy with linear algebraic modeling (SLAM) and spectral localization by imaging (SLIM) may improve SNR or reduce scan time without changes to acquisition. Here, we compare the repeatability and SNR performance of these compartment-based methods, applied to three different acquisition schemes at 7 T. Twelve healthy volunteers were scanned twice. Each scan session consisted of a 6.5-min 3D acquisition-weighted (AW) cardiac 31P phase encode-based MRSI acquisition and two 6.5-min truncated k-space acquisitions with increased averaging (4 × 4 × 4 central k-space phase encodes and fractional SLAM [fSLAM] optimized k-space phase encodes). Spectra were reconstructed using (i) AW Fourier reconstruction; (ii) AW SLAM; (iii) AW SLIM; (iv) 4 × 4 × 4 SLAM; (v) 4 × 4 × 4 SLIM; and (vi) fSLAM acquisition–reconstruction combinations. The phosphocreatine-to-adenosine triphosphate (PCr/ATP) ratio, the PCr SNR, and spatial response functions were computed, in addition to coefficients of reproducibility and variability. Using the compartment-based reconstruction algorithms with the AW 31P acquisition resulted in a significant increase in SNR compared with previously published Fourier-based MRSI reconstruction methods while maintaining the measured PCr/ATP ratio and improving interscan reproducibility. The alternative acquisition strategies with truncated k-space performed no better than the common AW approach. Compartment-based spectroscopy approaches provide an attractive reconstruction method for cardiac 31P spectroscopy at 7 T, improving reproducibility and SNR without the need for a dedicated k-space sampling strategy

A Tree-Ring Record of Historical Fire Activity In a Piedmont Longleaf Pine (\u3ci\u3ePinus palustris\u3c/i\u3e Mill.) Woodland In North Carolina, USA

CO2 capture from industrial point source waste streams represents an important need for achieving the global goal of carbon-neutrality. Compared with conventional liquid sorbents, solid sorbents can exhibit several distinct advantages, including enhanced lifetime and reduced energy consumption for sorbent regeneration. Considering that reducing CO2 emission is a great challenge, reaching approximately 37 billion metric tons just in 2021, ideal sorbent solutions should not only exhibit a high capture performance but also enable large scale manufacturing using low-cost precursors and simple processes. In this work, we demonstrate the use of a commodity polymer, polystyrene-block-polyisoprene-block-polystyrene (SIS), as the starting material for preparing hierarchically porous, sulfur-doped carbons for CO2 capture. Particularly, the sulfonation-crosslinking reaction enables the formation of macropores in the polymer framework due to the release of gaseous byproducts. After carbonization and activation, the highly porous structure of SIS-derived carbons is successfully retained, while their surface area can reach up to 905 m2 g−1. These porous carbon sorbents exhibit excellent CO2 uptake performance, reaching sorption capacities of 3.8 mmol g−1 at 25 °C and 6.0 mmol g−1 at 0 °C, as well as a high selectivity up to 43 : 1 against N2 gas under ambient conditions. Overall, our work provides an industrially viable method for “template-free” fabrication of porous carbons from commodity polyolefin-based materials, which can be employed for reducing CO2 emission from industrial plants/sectors

Reorganization of syntactic processing following left-hemisphere brain damage: does right-hemisphere activity preserve function?

The extent to which the human brain shows evidence of functional plasticity across the lifespan has been addressed in the context of pathological brain changes and, more recently, of the changes that take place during healthy ageing. Here we examine the potential for plasticity by asking whether a strongly left-lateralized system can successfully reorganize to the right-hemisphere following left-hemisphere brain damage. To do this, we focus on syntax, a key linguistic function considered to be strongly left-lateralized, combining measures of tissue integrity, neural activation and behavioural performance. In a functional neuroimaging study participants heard spoken sentences that differentially loaded on syntactic and semantic information. While healthy controls activated a left-hemisphere network of correlated activity including Brodmann areas 45/47 and posterior middle temporal gyrus during syntactic processing, patients activated Brodmann areas 45/47 bilaterally and right middle temporal gyrus. However, voxel-based morphometry analyses showed that only tissue integrity in left Brodmann areas 45/47 was correlated with activity and performance; poor tissue integrity in left Brodmann area 45 was associated with reduced functional activity and increased syntactic deficits. Activity in the right-hemisphere was not correlated with damage in the left-hemisphere or with performance. Reduced neural integrity in the left-hemisphere through brain damage or healthy ageing results in increased right-hemisphere activation in homologous regions to those left-hemisphere regions typically involved in the young. However, these regions do not support the same linguistic functions as those in the left-hemisphere and only indirectly contribute to preserved syntactic capacity. This establishes the unique role of the left hemisphere in syntax, a core component in human language

Step Counts of 10- to 11-Year-Old Children by Ethnicity and Metropolitan Status

Background: The purpose of this study was to conduct a secondary analysis by combining 2 pedometer data sets to describe and analyze pedometer-determined steps/day of children by ethnicity and metropolitan status. Methods: Participants were 582 children (309 girls, 273 boys; 53% Hispanic, 26% Caucasian, 21% African American) age 10 to 11 years (M = 10.37 ± 0.48) attending 1 of 10 schools located in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Participants wore a research grade pedometer for at least 3 week/school days. Mean steps/ day were analyzed by gender, ethnicity, and metropolitan status. Results: Statistical analyses indicated 1) boys (12,853 ± 3831; P \u3c .001) obtained significantly more steps/day than girls (10,409 ± 3136); 2) African American (10,709 ± 3386; P \u3c .05) children accumulated significantly less steps/day than Hispanic (11,845 ± 3901) and Caucasian (11,668 ± 3369) children; and 3) urban (10,856 ± 3706; P \u3c .05) children obtained significantly less steps/day than suburban (12,297 ± 3616) and rural (11,934 ± 3374) children. Conclusions: Findings support self-report data demonstrating reduced physical activity among African American children and youth, especially girls, and among children and youth living in urban areas. Possible reasons for these discrepancies are explored