Sensitivity of Different Animal Species to Monkeypox Virus

Studied is the sensitivity of different animal species (white mice, rabbits, mini-pigs, and marmots) to Monkeypox virus (MPXV). Determined is the fact that MPXV-sensitive are groundhogs (ID50 and LD50 5 lg of PFU in case of intranasal inoculation). The most pronounced clinical signs of the disease such as varioliform eruption all over body and mucous linings, purulent discharges out of nasal cavity, lymphadenitis, loss of coordination, tremor of extremities, fever, hyper-aggressiveness, disheveled hair have been registered in groundhogs. The highest viral loads in the majority of fallen marmots have been observed in nasal mucosa, trachea, lungs, and pock-marked skin (>6,0 lg PFU/g). The symptomatology of the disease in mice as compared to groundhogs is a bit milder: purulent conjunctivitis, blepharitis, and disheveled hair. As for mini-pigs and rabbits, no visual signs of the disease have been observed in them

Minkowski superspaces and superstrings as almost real-complex supermanifolds

In 1996/7, J. Bernstein observed that smooth or analytic supermanifolds that mathematicians study are real or (almost) complex ones, while Minkowski superspaces are completely different objects. They are what we call almost real-complex supermanifolds, i.e., real supermanifolds with a non-integrable distribution, the collection of subspaces of the tangent space, and in every subspace a complex structure is given. An almost complex structure on a real supermanifold can be given by an even or odd operator; it is complex (without "always") if the suitable superization of the Nijenhuis tensor vanishes. On almost real-complex supermanifolds, we define the circumcised analog of the Nijenhuis tensor. We compute it for the Minkowski superspaces and superstrings. The space of values of the circumcised Nijenhuis tensor splits into (indecomposable, generally) components whose irreducible constituents are similar to those of Riemann or Penrose tensors. The Nijenhuis tensor vanishes identically only on superstrings of superdimension 1|1 and, besides, the superstring is endowed with a contact structure. We also prove that all real forms of complex Grassmann algebras are isomorphic although singled out by manifestly different anti-involutions.Comment: Exposition of the same results as in v.1 is more lucid. Reference to related recent work by Witten is adde

Mice as Animal Model for Evaluation of Therapeutic Efficacy of Preparations against Monkeypox

of MPV after 7 days postinfection, applying peroral administration once within 24 hours (24 hours before infection and 7 days after infection of mouse with 60 µg/g of a preparation). Displayed is the feasibility of using 8–15-days-old ICR mice (body weight 9–11 g) as an animal model for evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of the preparations under development against Monkeypox and smallpox

Steps Toward Determination of the Size and Structure of the Broad-Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei. XV. Long-Term Optical Monitoring of NGC 5548

We present the results of three years of ground-based observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548, which combined with previously reported data, yield optical continuum and broad-line H-beta light curves for a total of eight years. The light curves consist of over 800 points, with a typical spacing of a few days between observations. During this eight-year period, the nuclear continuum has varied by more than a factor of seven, and the H-beta emission line has varied by a factor of nearly six. The H-beta emission line responds to continuum variations with a time delay or lag of 10-20 days, the precise value varying somewhat from year to year. We find some indications that the lag varies with continuum flux in the sense that the lag is larger when the source is brighter.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ (1999 Jan 10

Simultaneous laparoscopic surgery for ureteropelvic junction obstruction and retrograde intrarenal surgery for nephrolithiasis

Objective: To determine the surgical possibilities of the one-stage laparoscopic repair in the obstructed ureteropelvic junction (UPJ) complicated with nephrolithiasis in combination with the retrograde intrarenal surgery.Case report: The patient A., a 36-year-old male complaining about dragging pains in the right lumbar region was admitted to Urology Unit No. 1 of Krasnodar Regional Clinical Hospital No. 2. The patient underwent ultrasound examination, CT, and dynamic renal scintigraphy. The findings were as follows: the enlargement of pelvicalyceal system in the right kidney (calyx up to 22 mm, pelvis up to 50 mm), 5 calyx concrements and 2 pelvic concrements 6 to 8 mm in size, obstruction at the level of the right UPJ up to 10 mm in length, III grade hydronephrosis on the right according to Lopatkin classification.Conclusions: The combination of laparoscopic surgery and retrograde intrarenal surgery with the flexible ureteroscope and holmium laser is an effective and safe method for the treatment of UPJ obstruction complicated with nephrolithiasis

Entry of Plasma Sheet Particles into the Inner Magnetosphere Observed by POLAR/CAMMICE

Statistical results are presented from Polar/CAMMICE measurements of events during which the plasma sheet ions have penetrated deeply into the inner magnetosphere. Owing to their characteristic structure in energy-time spectrograms, these events are called intense nose events. Almost 400 observations of such structures were made during 1997. Intense nose events are shown to be more frequent in the dusk than in the dawn sector. They typically penetrate well inside L = 4, the deepest penetration having occurred around midnight and noon. The intense nose events are associated with magnetic (substorm) activity. However, even moderate activity (AE = 150-250 nT) resulted in formation of these structures. In a case study of November 3, 1997, three sequential inner magnetosphere crossings of the Polar and Interball Auroral spacecraft are shown, each of which exhibited signatures of intense nose-like structures. Using the innermost boundary determinations from these observations, it is demonstrated that a large-scale convective electric field alone cannot account for the inward motion of the structure. It is suggested that the intense nose structures are caused by short-lived intense electric fields (in excess of ∼1 mV/m) in the inner tail at L=4-5

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: Photometric Light Curves and Optical Variability Characteristics

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project targeted 13 nearby Seyfert 1 galaxies with the intent of measuring the masses of their central black holes using reverberation mapping. The sample includes 12 galaxies selected to have black holes with masses roughly in the range 10^6-10^7 solar masses, as well as the well-studied AGN NGC 5548. In conjunction with a spectroscopic monitoring campaign, we obtained broad-band B and V images on most nights from 2008 February through 2008 May. The imaging observations were carried out by four telescopes: the 0.76-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT), the 2-m Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring (MAGNUM) telescope, the Palomar 60-in (1.5-m) telescope, and the 0.80-m Tenagra II telescope. Having well-sampled light curves over the course of a few months is useful for obtaining the broad-line reverberation lag and black hole mass, and also allows us to examine the characteristics of the continuum variability. In this paper, we discuss the observational methods and the photometric measurements, and present the AGN continuum light curves. We measure various variability characteristics of each of the light curves. We do not detect any evidence for a time lag between the B- and V-band variations, and we do not find significant color variations for the AGNs in our sample.Comment: 16 pages, 20 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

Reverberation Mapping Results for Five Seyfert 1 Galaxies

We present the results from a detailed analysis of photometric and spectrophotometric data on five Seyfert 1 galaxies observed as a part of a recent reverberation mapping program. The data were collected at several observatories over a 140-day span beginning in 2010 August and ending in 2011 January. We obtained high sampling-rate light curves for Mrk 335, Mrk 1501, 3C120, Mrk 6, and PG2130+099, from which we have measured the time lag between variations in the 5100 Angstrom continuum and the H-beta broad emission line. We then used these measurements to calculate the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of each of these galaxies. Our new measurements substantially improve previous measurements of MBH and the size of the broad line-emitting region for four sources and add a measurement for one new object. Our new measurements are consistent with photoionization physics regulating the location of the broad line region in active galactic nuclei.Comment: 45 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. For a brief video explaining the key results of this paper, see http://www.youtube.com/user/OSUAstronom

Approaches to Reduce Adverse Effect of Vaccinia Virus in Orally Immunized Mice

Objective of the investigation was to model the adverse action of vaccinia virus (VV), caused by oral immunization of mice and to evaluate efficacy of its reduction, using therapeutic and prophylactic drugs. Materials and methods. Virological and immunological research methods were used. Results and conclusions. Reproduced was pathological action of VV in the orally infected mice. The ability to reduce the side effect and protect mice from lethal infection was demonstrated by such preparations as Metisazon, Likopid, and NIOCH-14 orally administered in the investigated schemes. Moreover preliminary single oral immunization with TEOVak smallpox vaccine before oral infection with Neurovaccine-92 strain of VV also lowered pathogenic effect and protected mice against death. All the investigated schemes of drug administration did not affect the immune response if used alongside with TEOVak smallpox vaccine and can be deployed to develop safe schemes of primary oral vaccination against smallpox. In addition, such drugs as Ribomunil, Immudon, Ingavirin can be used as means to enhance the immune response to smallpox vaccines

Reverberation Mapping of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 7469

A large reverberation mapping study of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 has yielded emission-line lags for Hbeta 4861 and He II 4686 and a central black hole mass measurement of about 10 million solar masses, consistent with previous measurements. A very low level of variability during the monitoring campaign precluded meeting our original goal of recovering velocity-delay maps from the data, but with the new Hbeta measurement, NGC 7469 is no longer an outlier in the relationship between the size of the Hbeta-emitting broad-line region and the AGN luminosity. It was necessary to detrend the continuum and Hbeta and He II 4686 line light curves and those from archival UV data for different time-series analysis methods to yield consistent results.Comment: 9 Pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa