2,168 research outputs found
That Creation is Incarnation in Maximus Confessor
Thesis advisor: Boyd T. CoolmanThis dissertation argues that Maximus Confessor conceives the logic of creation from nothing as the logic of the divine Wordâs historical Incarnation. It first studies the peculiar features of Maximusâs Neochalcedonian christology in order to understand what he means by âIncarnationâ (Chapter 1). It then discovers this same logic operative in Maximusâs protology (Chapter 2) and eschatology (Chapter 3). I therefore conclude that Maximusâs declaration, âThe Word of God, very God, wills that the mystery of his Incarnation be actualized always and in all thingsâ (Amb 7.22), ought to be interpreted literally.Thesis (PhD) â Boston College, 2018.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology
Tissue-Specific Gene Delivery via Nanoparticle Coating
Author Manuscript: 2010 August 1.The use of biomaterials for gene delivery can potentially avoid many of the safety concerns with viral gene delivery. However, the efficacy of polymeric gene delivery methods is low, particularly in vivo. One significant concern is that the interior and exterior composition of polymeric gene delivery nanoparticles are often coupled, with a single polymer backbone governing all functions from biophysical properties of the polymer/DNA particle to DNA condensation and release. In this work we develop electrostatically adsorbed poly(glutamic acid)-based peptide coatings to alter the exterior composition of a core gene delivery particle and thereby affect tissue-specificity of gene delivery function in vivo. We find that with all coating formulations tested, the coatings reduce potential toxicity associated with uncoated cationic gene delivery nanoparticles following systemic injection. Particles coated with a low 2.5:1 peptide:DNA weight ratio (w/w) form large 2 Ό sized particles in the presence of serum that can facilitate specific gene delivery to the liver. The same particles coated at a higher 20:1 w/w form small 200 nm particles in the presence of serum that can facilitate specific gene delivery to the spleen and bone marrow. Thus, variations in nanoparticle peptide coating density can alter the tissue-specificity of gene delivery in vivo.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (BRP: 1R01CA124427-01)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (EB 000244)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (U54 CA119349-01)David & Lucile Packard Foundation (Fellowship 1999-1453A
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is designed to measure the
scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of matter over a
larger volume than the combined efforts of all previous spectroscopic surveys
of large scale structure. BOSS uses 1.5 million luminous galaxies as faint as
i=19.9 over 10,000 square degrees to measure BAO to redshifts z<0.7.
Observations of neutral hydrogen in the Lyman alpha forest in more than 150,000
quasar spectra (g<22) will constrain BAO over the redshift range 2.15<z<3.5.
Early results from BOSS include the first detection of the large-scale
three-dimensional clustering of the Lyman alpha forest and a strong detection
from the Data Release 9 data set of the BAO in the clustering of massive
galaxies at an effective redshift z = 0.57. We project that BOSS will yield
measurements of the angular diameter distance D_A to an accuracy of 1.0% at
redshifts z=0.3 and z=0.57 and measurements of H(z) to 1.8% and 1.7% at the
same redshifts. Forecasts for Lyman alpha forest constraints predict a
measurement of an overall dilation factor that scales the highly degenerate
D_A(z) and H^{-1}(z) parameters to an accuracy of 1.9% at z~2.5 when the survey
is complete. Here, we provide an overview of the selection of spectroscopic
targets, planning of observations, and analysis of data and data quality of
BOSS.Comment: 49 pages, 16 figures, accepted by A
Photometric constraints on white dwarfs and the identification of extreme objects
It is possible to reliably identify white dwarfs (WDs) without recourse to
spectra, instead using photometric and astrometric measurements to distinguish
them from Main Sequence stars and quasars. WDs' colours can also be used to
infer their intrinsic properties (effective temperature, surface gravity,
etc.), but the results obtained must be interpreted with care. The difficulties
stem from the existence of a solid angle degeneracy, as revealed by a full
exploration of the likelihood, although this can be masked if a simple best-fit
approach is used. Conversely, this degeneracy can be broken if a Bayesian
approach is adopted, as it is then possible to utilise the prior information on
the surface gravities of WDs implied by spectroscopic fitting. The benefits of
such an approach are particularly strong when applied to outliers, such as the
candidate halo and ultra-cool WDs identified by Vidrih et al. (2007). A
reanalysis of these samples confirms their results for the latter sample but
suggests that that most of the halo candidates are thick disk WDs in the tails
of the photometric noise distribution.Comment: MNRAS in press; 19 pages, 16 figures; major revisions to text but
conclusions unchange
The Ninth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) presents the first spectroscopic
data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This ninth data
release (DR9) of the SDSS project includes 535,995 new galaxy spectra (median
z=0.52), 102,100 new quasar spectra (median z=2.32), and 90,897 new stellar
spectra, along with the data presented in previous data releases. These spectra
were obtained with the new BOSS spectrograph and were taken between 2009
December and 2011 July. In addition, the stellar parameters pipeline, which
determines radial velocities, surface temperatures, surface gravities, and
metallicities of stars, has been updated and refined with improvements in
temperature estimates for stars with T_eff<5000 K and in metallicity estimates
for stars with [Fe/H]>-0.5. DR9 includes new stellar parameters for all stars
presented in DR8, including stars from SDSS-I and II, as well as those observed
as part of the SDSS-III Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and
Exploration-2 (SEGUE-2).
The astrometry error introduced in the DR8 imaging catalogs has been
corrected in the DR9 data products. The next data release for SDSS-III will be
in Summer 2013, which will present the first data from the Apache Point
Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) along with another year of
data from BOSS, followed by the final SDSS-III data release in December 2014.Comment: 9 figures; 2 tables. Submitted to ApJS. DR9 is available at
http://www.sdss3.org/dr
LSST Science Book, Version 2.0
A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint
magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science
opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)
will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field
of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over
20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with
fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a
total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic
parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book
discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a
broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and
outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies,
the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local
Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the
properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then
turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to
z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and
baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to
constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at
http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo
Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial
Background
Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy
CfA3: 185 Type Ia Supernova Light Curves from the CfA
We present multi-band photometry of 185 type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia), with over
11500 observations. These were acquired between 2001 and 2008 at the F. L.
Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
This sample contains the largest number of homogeneously-observed and reduced
nearby SN Ia (z < 0.08) published to date. It more than doubles the nearby
sample, bringing SN Ia cosmology to the point where systematic uncertainties
dominate. Our natural system photometry has a precision of 0.02 mag or better
in BVRIr'i' and roughly 0.04 mag in U for points brighter than 17.5 mag. We
also estimate a systematic uncertainty of 0.03 mag in our SN Ia standard system
BVRIr'i' photometry and 0.07 mag for U. Comparisons of our standard system
photometry with published SN Ia light curves and comparison stars, where
available for the same SN, reveal agreement at the level of a few hundredths
mag in most cases. We find that 1991bg-like SN Ia are sufficiently distinct
from other SN Ia in their color and light-curve-shape/luminosity relation that
they should be treated separately in light-curve/distance fitter training
samples. The CfA3 sample will contribute to the development of better
light-curve/distance fitters, particularly in the few dozen cases where
near-infrared photometry has been obtained and, together, can help disentangle
host-galaxy reddening from intrinsic supernova color, reducing the systematic
uncertainty in SN Ia distances due to dust.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal. Minor changes from last
version. Light curves, comparison star photometry, and passband tables are
available at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/CfA3
Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses
To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1â11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is designed to measure the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of matter over a larger volume than the combined efforts of all previous spectroscopic surveys of large-scale structure. BOSS uses 1.5 million luminous galaxies as faint as i = 19.9 over 10,000 deg(2) to measure BAO to redshifts z < 0.7. Observations of neutral hydrogen in the Ly alpha forest in more than 150,000 quasar spectra (g < 22) will constrain BAO over the redshift range 2.15 < z < 3.5. Early results from BOSS include the first detection of the large-scale three-dimensional clustering of the Ly alpha forest and a strong detection from the Data Release 9 data set of the BAO in the clustering of massive galaxies at an effective redshift z = 0.57. We project that BOSS will yield measurements of the angular diameter distance d(A) to an accuracy of 1.0% at redshifts z = 0.3 and z = 0.57 and measurements of H(z) to 1.8% and 1.7% at the same redshifts. Forecasts for Ly alpha forest constraints predict a measurement of an overall dilation factor that scales the highly degenerate D-A(z) and H-1(z) parameters to an accuracy of 1.9% at z similar to 2.5 when the survey is complete. Here, we provide an overview of the selection of spectroscopic targets, planning of observations, and analysis of data and data quality of BOSS
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