375 research outputs found
Local Voids as the Origin of Large-angle Cosmic Microwave Background Anomalies: The Effect of a Cosmological Constant
We explore the large angular scale temperature anisotropies in the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) due to homogeneous local dust-filled voids in a flat
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with a cosmological constant. In comparison
with the equivalent dust-filled void model in the Einstein-de Sitter
background, we find that the anisotropy for compensated asymptotically
expanding local voids can be larger because second-order effects enhance the
linear integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect. However, for local voids that
expand sufficiently faster than the asymptotic velocity of the wall, the
second-order effect can suppress the fluctuation due to the linear ISW effect.
A pair of quasi-linear compensated asymptotic local voids with radius
(2-3)*10^2 ~h^{-1} Mpc and a matter density contrast ~-0.3 can be observed as
cold spots with a temperature anisotropy Delta T/T~O(10^{-5}) that might help
explain the observed large-angle CMB anomalies. We predict that the associated
anisotropy in the local Hubble constant in the direction of the voids could be
as large as a few percent.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in ApJ with
minor revisio
Constraining neutrino masses with the ISW-galaxy correlation function
Temperature anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) are
affected by the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (lISW) effect caused by any
time-variation of the gravitational potential on linear scales. Dark energy is
not the only source of lISW, since massive neutrinos induce a small decay of
the potential on small scales during both matter and dark energy domination. In
this work, we study the prospect of using the cross-correlation between CMB and
galaxy density maps as a tool for constraining the neutrino mass. On the one
hand massive neutrinos reduce the cross-correlation spectrum because
free-streaming slows down structure formation; on the other hand, they enhance
it through their change in the effective linear growth. We show that in the
observable range of scales and redshifts, the first effect dominates, but the
second one is not negligible. We carry out an error forecast analysis by
fitting some mock data inspired by the Planck satellite, Dark Energy Survey
(DES) and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The inclusion of the
cross-correlation data from Planck and LSST increases the sensitivity to the
neutrino mass m_nu by 38% (and to the dark energy equation of state w by 83%)
with respect to Planck alone. The correlation between Planck and DES brings a
far less significant improvement. This method is not potentially as good for
detecting m_nu as the measurement of galaxy, cluster or cosmic shear power
spectra, but since it is independent and affected by different systematics, it
remains potentially interesting if the total neutrino mass is of the order of
0.2 eV; if instead it is close to the lower bound from atmospheric
oscillations, m_nu ~ 0.05 eV, we do not expect the ISW-galaxy correlation to be
ever sensitive to m_nu.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. References added. Accepted for publication in
Phys.Rev.
Survey of Canine Dirofilaria immitis Infection in New Caledonia
Canine dirofilariosis is a frequent parasitic disease in New-Caledonia. A survey of canine heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) infection among dogs from the cities of Tontouta, Nandaï and Nouméa, was performed in March 2009 using two antigen test kits; the microwell ELISA test: DiroCHE (Synbiotics Europe) and the Rapid Immuno Migration (RIM) test: WITNESS DIROFILARIA (Synbiotics Europe). Blood samples were collected from 64 dogs: 49 strays and 15 military working dogs. The military dogs received a permanent chemoprophylaxis (moxidectin). In 11 stray dogs, both tests were positive (22.4%). All the military dogs were negative, showing efficiency of chemoprophaxis. Results were discrepant in 6 dogs, negative with one test and doubtful with the other. Antigen heartworm test kits are available and reliable diagnostic tools. They are useful to evaluate the efficiency of chemoprophylaxis and to detect infected animals in order to treat them and to prevent the spreading of the disease
The imprints of primordial non-gaussianities on large-scale structure: scale dependent bias and abundance of virialized objects
We study the effect of primordial nongaussianity on large-scale structure,
focusing upon the most massive virialized objects. Using analytic arguments and
N-body simulations, we calculate the mass function and clustering of dark
matter halos across a range of redshifts and levels of nongaussianity. We
propose a simple fitting function for the mass function valid across the entire
range of our simulations. We find pronounced effects of nongaussianity on the
clustering of dark matter halos, leading to strongly scale-dependent bias. This
suggests that the large-scale clustering of rare objects may provide a
sensitive probe of primordial nongaussianity. We very roughly estimate that
upcoming surveys can constrain nongaussianity at the level |fNL| <~ 10,
competitive with forecasted constraints from the microwave background.Comment: 16 pages, color figures, revtex4. v2: added references and an
equation. submitted to PRD. v3: simplified derivation, additional reference
Detection of Gravitational Lensing in the Cosmic Microwave Background
Gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), a
long-standing prediction of the standard cosmolgical model, is ultimately
expected to be an important source of cosmological information, but first
detection has not been achieved to date. We report a 3.4 sigma detection, by
applying quadratic estimator techniques to all sky maps from the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite, and correlating the result with
radio galaxy counts from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). We present our
methodology including a detailed discussion of potential contaminants. Our
error estimates include systematic uncertainties from density gradients in
NVSS, beam effects in WMAP, Galactic microwave foregrounds, resolved and
unresolved CMB point sources, and the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figure
First evidence for an association between joint hypermobility and excitability in a non-human species, the domestic dog
There is a well-established relationship between joint hypermobility and anxiety in humans, that has not previously been investigated in other species. A population of 5575 assistance dogs were scored for both hip hypermobility and 13 behaviour characteristics using previously validated methods. Our results suggest a positive association between hip joint hypermobility and emotional arousal in domestic dogs, which parallel results found in people
Meropenem vs standard of care for treatment of neonatal late onset sepsis (NeoMero1): A randomised controlled trial.
BACKGROUND: The early use of broad-spectrum antibiotics remains the cornerstone for the treatment of neonatal late onset sepsis (LOS). However, which antibiotics should be used is still debatable, as relevant studies were conducted more than 20 years ago, recruited in single centres or countries, evaluated antibiotics not in clinical use anymore and had variable inclusion/exclusion criteria and outcome measures. Moreover, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a major problem in many countries worldwide. We hypothesized that efficacy of meropenem as a broad-spectrum antibiotic is superior to standard of care regimens (SOC) in empiric treatment of LOS and aimed to compare meropenem to SOC in infants aged 44 weeks meeting the Goldstein criteria of sepsis, were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive meropenem or one of the two SOC regimens (ampicillin+gentamicin or cefotaxime+gentamicin) chosen by each site prior to the start of the study for 8-14 days. The primary outcome was treatment success (survival, no modification of allocated therapy, resolution/improvement of clinical and laboratory markers, no need of additional antibiotics and presumed/confirmed eradication of pathogens) at test-of-cure visit (TOC) in full analysis set. Stool samples were tested at baseline and Day 28 for meropenem-resistant Gram-negative organisms (CRGNO). The primary analysis was performed in all randomised patients and in patients with culture confirmed LOS. Proportions of participants with successful outcome were compared by using a logistic regression model adjusted for the stratification factors. From September 3, 2012 to November 30th 2014, total of 136 patients (instead of planned 275) in each arm were randomized; 140 (52%) were culture positive. Successful outcome at TOC was achieved in 44/136 (32%) in the meropenem arm vs. 31/135 (23%) in the SOC arm (p = 0.087). The respective numbers in patients with positive cultures were 17/63 (27%) vs. 10/77 (13%) (p = 0.022). The main reason of failure was modification of allocated therapy. Treatment emergent adverse events occurred in 72% and serious adverse events in 17% of patients, the Day 28 mortality was 6%. Cumulative acquisition of CRGNO by Day 28 occurred in 4% of patients in the meropenem and 12% in the SOC arm (p = 0.052). CONCLUSIONS: Within this study population, we found no evidence that meropenem was superior to SOC in terms of success at TOC, short term hearing disturbances, safety or mortality were similar in both treatment arms but the study was underpowered to detect the planned effect. Meropenem treatment did not select for colonization with CRGNOs. We suggest that meropenem as broad-spectrum antibiotic should be reserved for neonates who are more likely to have Gram-negative LOS, especially in NICUs where microorganisms producing extended spectrum- and AmpC type beta-lactamases are circulating
Tracing The Sound Horizon Scale With Photometric Redshift Surveys
We propose a new method for cosmological parameters extraction using the
baryon acoustic oscillation scale as a standard ruler in deep galaxy surveys
with photometric determination of redshifts. The method consists in a simple
empirical parametric fit to the angular 2-point correlation function w(theta).
It is parametrized as a power law to describe the continuum plus a Gaussian to
describe the BAO bump. The location of the Gaussian is used as the basis for
the measurement of the sound horizon scale. This method, although simple,
actually provides a robust estimation, since the inclusion of the power law and
the use of the Gaussian removes the shifts which affect the local maximum. We
discuss the effects of projection bias, non-linearities, redshift space
distortions and photo-z precision, and apply our method to a mock catalog of
the Dark Energy Survey, built upon a large N-body simulation provided by the
MICE collaboration. We discuss the main systematic errors associated to our
method and show that they are dominated by the photo-z uncertainty.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, published online in MNRAS, 25 October 201
Frontal Non-Invasive Neurostimulation Modulates Antisaccade Preparation in Non-Human Primates
A combination of oculometric measurements, invasive electrophysiological recordings and microstimulation have proven instrumental to study the role of the Frontal Eye Field (FEF) in saccadic activity. We hereby gauged the ability of a non-invasive neurostimulation technology, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), to causally interfere with frontal activity in two macaque rhesus monkeys trained to perform a saccadic antisaccade task. We show that online single pulse TMS significantly modulated antisaccade latencies. Such effects proved dependent on TMS site (effects on FEF but not on an actively stimulated control site), TMS modality (present under active but not sham TMS on the FEF area), TMS intensity (intensities of at least 40% of the TMS machine maximal output required), TMS timing (more robust for pulses delivered at 150 ms than at 100 post target onset) and visual hemifield (relative latency decreases mainly for ipsilateral AS). Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using TMS to causally modulate antisaccade-associated computations in the non-human primate brain and support the use of this approach in monkeys to study brain function and its non-invasive neuromodulation for exploratory and therapeutic purposes
Consistently Large Cosmic Flows on Scales of 100 Mpc/h: a Challenge for the Standard LCDM Cosmology
Peculiar velocity surveys have non-uniform spatial distributions of tracers,
so that the bulk flow estimated from them does not correspond to that of a
simple volume such as a sphere. Thus bulk flow estimates are generally not
strictly comparable between surveys, even those whose effective depths are
similar. In addition, the sparseness of typical surveys can lead to aliasing of
small scale power into what is meant to be a probe of the largest scales. Here
we introduce a new method of calculating bulk flow moments where velocities are
weighted to give an optimal estimate of the bulk flow of an idealized survey,
with the variance of the difference between the estimate and the actual flow
being minimized. These "minimum variance" estimates can be designed to estimate
the bulk flow on a particular scale with minimal sensitivity to small scale
power, and are comparable between surveys. We compile all major peculiar
velocity surveys and apply this new method to them. We find that most surveys
we studied are highly consistent with each other. Taken together the data
suggest that the bulk flow within a Gaussian window of radius 50 Mpc/h is 407
km/s toward l=287 and b=8. The large-scale bulk motion is consistent with
predictions from the local density field. This indicates that there are
significant density fluctuations on very large scales. A flow of this amplitude
on such a large scale is not expected in the WMAP5-normalized LCDM cosmology,
for which the predicted one-dimensional r.m.s. velocity is ~110 km/s. The large
amplitude of the observed bulk flow favors the upper values of the WMAP5
error-ellipse, but even the point at the top of the WMAP5 95% confidence
ellipse predicts a bulk flow which is too low compared to that observed at >98%
confidence level.Comment: 19 Pages, 7 Figures, MNRAS in Press. Added some references and text
to reflect post proofs manuscrip
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