Ram Opportunity

RAM Opportunity is a self-sustaining mentoring and experiential learning program designed to serve high school students in the local community through programs led by graduate student mentors. RAM Opportunity operates using a plug-and-play structure that can be implemented in the arts, business, education, humanities, sciences, or any other discipline. Partnerships will be formed with local high schools and their guidance counseling services to develop a pipeline for potential students to participate in the program. The program benefits VCU by enhancing engagement with the local community, generating interest in high school students pursuing post-secondary education at VCU, and developing graduate students by providing professional development funding and real-world teaching and mentoring experience

The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new optical time-domain survey that uses the Palomar 48 inch Schmidt telescope. A custom-built wide-field camera provides a 47 deg 2 field of view and 8 s readout time, yielding more than an order of magnitude improvement in survey speed relative to its predecessor survey, the Palomar Transient Factory. We describe the design and implementation of the camera and observing system. The ZTF data system at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center provides near-real-time reduction to identify moving and varying objects. We outline the analysis pipelines, data products, and associated archive. Finally, we present on-sky performance analysis and first scientific results from commissioning and the early survey. ZTF’s public alert stream will serve as a useful precursor for that of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a public–private enterprise, is a new time-domain survey employing a dedicated camera on the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope with a 47 deg2 field of view and an 8 second readout time. It is well positioned in the development of time-domain astronomy, offering operations at 10% of the scale and style of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) with a single 1-m class survey telescope. The public surveys will cover the observable northern sky every three nights in g and r filters and the visible Galactic plane every night in g and r. Alerts generated by these surveys are sent in real time to brokers. A consortium of universities that provided funding (“partnership”) are undertaking several boutique surveys. The combination of these surveys producing one million alerts per night allows for exploration of transient and variable astrophysical phenomena brighter than r∼20.5 on timescales of minutes to years. We describe the primary science objectives driving ZTF, including the physics of supernovae and relativistic explosions, multi-messenger astrophysics, supernova cosmology, active galactic nuclei, and tidal disruption events, stellar variability, and solar system objects. © 2019. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific

The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new optical time-domain survey that uses the Palomar 48 inch Schmidt telescope. A custom-built wide-field camera provides a 47 deg^2 field of view and 8 s readout time, yielding more than an order of magnitude improvement in survey speed relative to its predecessor survey, the Palomar Transient Factory. We describe the design and implementation of the camera and observing system. The ZTF data system at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center provides near-real-time reduction to identify moving and varying objects. We outline the analysis pipelines, data products, and associated archive. Finally, we present on-sky performance analysis and first scientific results from commissioning and the early survey. ZTF's public alert stream will serve as a useful precursor for that of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

Thyroid disorders and mammographic density in Spanish women: Var-DDM study

[EN] Objectives: The association between breast cancer (BC) and thyroid disorders has been widely explored with unclear results. Mammographic density (MD) is one of the strongest risk factor for BC. This study explores the relationship between thyroid diseases and MD in Spanish women. Materials & methods: This cross-sectional study covered 2883 women aged 47-71 years participating in 7 BC screening programs in 2010. They allowed access to their mammograms, had anthropometrical-measures taken, and answered a telephonic epidemiological interview which included specific questions on thyroid diseases. Percentage of MD was assessed with a semiautomatic-computer tool (DM-scan) by two trained radiologists. We calculated the geometric mean of MD percentages (mean MD). Multivariable mixed linear regression models with random screening-center-specific intercepts were fitted, using log-transformed percentage of MD as dependent variable and adjusting for age, body mass index, menopausal status and other confounders. e(beta) represents the relative increase of mean MD. Results: 13.9% of the participants reported personal history of thyroid disease. MD was not associated to hyperthyroidism (e(beta): 1.05, 95%CI: 0.82-1.36), hypothyroidism (e(beta):1.02, 95%CI: 0.75-1.38), thyroid nodules (e(beta):1.01, 95%CI: 0.85-1.19) or thyroid cancer (e(beta):1.03, 95%CI: 0.56-1.92). However, women with goiter had lower MD (mean MDno-goiter: 13.4% vs mean MDgoiter: 10.6%; e(beta):0.79, 95%CI: 0.64-0.98) and those with Hashimoto thyroiditis had higher MD (mean MDno-thyroiditis: 13.3% vs mean MDthyroidits: 25.8%; e(beta) 95%CI: 1.00-3.77). Conclusion: Functional thyroid disorders were not related to MD. However, MD was lower in women with goiter and higher in those reporting Hashimoto's thyroiditis. These relationships should be confirmed in future studies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness - Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII) (FI14CIII/00013, FIS PI060386 & PS09/0790); the Spanish Federation of Breast Cancer Patients (FECMA 485 EPY 1170-10); the Gent per Gent Fund (EDEMAC Project); and the EPY1306/06 collaboration agreement between Astra-Zeneca and the ISCIII and partially funded by the European Regional Development Fund. None of these funding sources had any role in the study design, in the collection, analysis or interpretation of data. Other members of DDM-Spain/Var-DDM: María Casals, Inmaculada Martínez, María Ederra and Jesús Vioque.Pedraza-Flechas, AM.; Lope, V.; Vidal, C.; Sanchez-Contador, C.; Santamariña, C.; Pedraz-Pingarrón, C.; Moreo, P.... (2017). Thyroid disorders and mammographic density in Spanish women: Var-DDM study. The Breast. 34:12-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.breast.2017.04.011S12173

Use of reverse phase protein microarrays and reference standard development for molecular network analysis of metastatic ovarian carcinoma

Cancer can be defined as a deregulation or hyperactivity in the ongoing network of intracellular and extracellular signaling events. Reverse phase protein microarray technology may offer a new opportunity to measure and profile these signaling pathways, providing data on post-translational phosphorylation events not obtainable by gene microarray analysis. Treatment of ovarian epithelial carcinoma almost always takes place in a metastatic setting since unfortunately the disease is often not detected until later stages. Thus, in addition to elucidation of the molecular network within a tumor specimen, critical questions are to what extent do signaling changes occur upon metastasis and are there common pathway elements that arise in the metastatic microenvironment. For individualized combinatorial therapy, ideal therapeutic selection based on proteomic mapping of phosphorylation end points may require evaluation of the patient's metastatic tissue. Extending these findings to the bedside will require the development of optimized protocols and reference standards. We have developed a reference standard based on a mixture of phosphorylated peptides to begin to address this challenge