DIRBE Minus 2MASS: Confirming the CIRB in 40 New Regions at 2.2 and 3.5 Microns

With the release of the 2MASS All-Sky Point Source Catalog, stellar fluxes from 2MASS are used to remove the contribution due to Galactic stars from the intensity measured by DIRBE in 40 new regions in the North and South Galactic polar caps. After subtracting the interplanetary and Galactic foregrounds, a consistent residual intensity of 14.69 +/- 4.49 kJy/sr at 2.2 microns is found. Allowing for a constant calibration factor between the DIRBE 3.5 microns and the 2MASS 2.2 microns fluxes, a similar analysis leaves a residual intensity of 15.62 +/- 3.34 kJy/sr at 3.5 microns. The intercepts of the DIRBE minus 2MASS correlation at 1.25 microns show more scatter and are a smaller fraction of the foreground, leading to a still weak limit on the CIRB of 8.88 +/- 6.26 kJy/sr (1 sigma).Comment: 25 pages LaTeX, 10 figures, 5 tables; Version accepted by the ApJ. Includes minor changes to the text including further discussion of zodiacal light issues and the allowance for variable stars in computing uncertainties in the stellar contribution to the DIRBE intensitie

Confidence: Its role in dependability cases for risk assessment

Society is increasingly requiring quantitative assessment of risk and associated dependability cases. Informally, a dependability case comprises some reasoning, based on assumptions and evidence, that supports a dependability claim at a particular level of confidence. In this paper we argue that a quantitative assessment of claim confidence is necessary for proper assessment of risk. We discuss the way in which confidence depends upon uncertainty about the underpinnings of the dependability case (truth of assumptions, correctness of reasoning, strength of evidence), and propose that probability is the appropriate measure of uncertainty. We discuss some of the obstacles to quantitative assessment of confidence (issues of composability of subsystem claims; of the multi-dimensional, multi-attribute nature of dependability claims; of the difficult role played by dependence between different kinds of evidence, assumptions, etc). We show that, even in simple cases, the confidence in a claim arising from a dependability case can be surprisingly low

Atomic-phase interference devices based on ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates: Two ring case

We theoretically investigate the ground-state properties and quantum dynamics of a pair of adjacent ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates that are coupled via tunneling. This device, which is the analogue of a symmetric superconducting quantum interference device, is the simplest version of what we term an Atomic-Phase Interference Device (APHID). The two-ring APHID is shown to be sensitive to rotation.Comment: 8 page

People and guns involved in denied and completed handgun sales

Objective: Denial of handgun purchases by prohibited people and knowledge of the structure of gun commerce have helped to deter and prevent firearm violence. The authors hypothesize that handguns involved in a denied purchase would more closely resemble those used in crime compared with handguns sold. Design: Cross sectional. Setting: Denied and completed handgun sales in California, 1998 -- 2000. Main outcome measures: Handgun and purchaser characteristics of denied and completed sales were compared. In particular, handgun characteristics most closely associated with crime guns (type, caliber, barrel length, price) were examined. Results: Compared with handguns sold, handguns in denied sales were somewhat more likely to be semiautomatic pistols (74.6% v 69.4%), to have short barrels (25.9% v 22.2%), and be of medium caliber (48.9% v 37.3%). Ten percent of the handguns in denied sales and 3.4% of handguns sold were identified as inexpensive. Conclusions: The characteristics of denied handguns are similar to those seen among crime guns. Both groups of guns may reflect the desirability for criminal purposes of pistols, which have larger ammunition capacities than other handguns, and short barrels, which increase their ability to be concealed

Assessing the Effect of Photodynamic Therapy on Peripheral Nerve and Cancer Cells Using a Thin Tissue Engineered Collagen Culture Model

Abstract not available

Intracellular localisation of mTHPC and effect of photodynamic therapy in cells of the mammalian peripheral nervous system

Fewer nerve-related side effects have been noted after treating head and neck cancer with photodynamic therapy (PDT) compared to conventional cancer therapy. Our aim is to investigate the biological basis for any such nerve-sparing effect. In this study the intracellular localisation and effect on cell viability of the photosensitiser meta-tetrahydroxylphenylchlorin (mTHPC) was investigated in cell culture models using peripheral nerve cells. Primary cells from adult rat dorsal root ganglia (containing both neurons and glia) were used in these experiments. Localisation of mTHPC was detected using fluorescence and confocal microscopy. Levels of mTHPC fluorescence were quantified using digital image analysis. Immunocytochemistry with anti-?-III-tubulin and anti-S100 was used to distinguish neuronal and glial cell populations respectively. A cell-death assay using propidium iodide was used to evaluate neural cell susceptibility to PDT following incubation with mTHPC. The results showed that mTHPC was localised in cytoplasmic regions of neurons and glia, but was not detected in neuronal axons. Necrotic cell death was detected after PDT in these neural cell types. These results suggest that the cells of the peripheral nervous system are susceptible to PDT-mediated necrosis, but that the sparing of nerves observed during clinical PDT may be related to the heterogeneous distribution of mTHPC within neurons

Differences in sensitivity to mTHPC-mediated photodynamic therapy of neurons, glial cells and MCF7 cells in a 3-dimensional cell culture model

The effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT) on the cells of the nervous system is an important consideration in the treatment of tumours that are located within or adjacent to the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. Previous studies have reported the sparing of nerves during PDT using meta-tetrahydroxyphenylchlorin (mTHPC, Foscan®) in patients and in animal models. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of mTHPC on key nervous system cells using a 3-dimensional cell culture system for the accurate detection of differences in sensitivity

Structural, vibrational and thermal properties of densified silicates : insights from Molecular Dynamics

Structural, vibrational and thermal properties of densified sodium silicate (NS2) are investigated with classical molecular dynamics simulations of the glass and the liquid state. A systematic investigation of the glass structure with respect to density was performed. We observe a repolymerization of the network manifested by a transition from a tetrahedral to an octahedral silicon environment, the decrease of the amount of non-bridging oxygen atoms and the appearance of three-fold coordinated oxygen atoms (triclusters). Anomalous changes in the medium range order are observed, the first sharp diffraction peak showing a minimum of its full-width at half maximum according to density. The previously reported vibrational trends in densified glasses are observed, such as the shift of the Boson peak intensity to higher frequencies and the decrease of its intensity. Finally, we show that the thermal behavior of the liquid can be reproduced by the Birch-Murnaghan equation of states, thus allowing us to compute the isothermal compressibility