218 research outputs found
Metallicity of Red Giants in the Galactic Bulge from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
We present K-band spectra of more than 110 M giants in Galactic bulge fields
interior to -4 degrees and as close as 0.2 degrees of the Galactic Center. From
the equivalent widths of three features in these spectra, EW(Na),EW(Ca), and
EW(CO) we calculate [Fe/H] for the stars with a calibration derived from
globular clusters Stephens et al (2000). The mean [Fe/H] for each field is in
good agreement with the results from Frogel et al. (1999) based on the slope of
the giant branch method. We find no evidence for a metallicity gradient along
the minor or major axes of the inner bulge (R < 0.6 kpc). A metallicity
gradient along the minor axis, found earlier, arises when fields located at
larger galactic radius are included. However, these more distant fields are
located outside of the infrared bulge defined by the COBE/DIRBE observations.
We compute the [Fe/H] distribution for the inner bulge and find a mean value of
-0.21 dex with a full width dispersion of 0.30 dex, close to the values found
for Baade's Window (BW) by Sadler et al. (1996) and to a theoretical prediction
for a bulge formed by dissipative collapse Molla et al (2000).Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, AJ submitte
Design and Analysis of Subsystems for a CubeSat Mission
The project addresses the science payload and performs thermal and spacecraft charging analysis of a three-unit CubeSat under design. An infrared spectrometer and a magnetometer are selected for the circular 680-km polar CubeSat mission. Thermal analysis using SolidWorks provides the CubeSat temperature distribution under anticipated ambient and internal heat fluxes. To achieve the design temperatures thermal control is recommended with coatings and internal insulation. Charging analysis is performed using the Spacecraft Plasma Interaction System (SPIS) software under anticipated ambient plasma conditions and shows no adverse impacts. Electromagnetic interference due to the onboard propulsion solenoids is assessed using COMSOL. The analysis guides the design of a 10-cm magnetometer boom
An Accurate, Easy to Use Abundace Scale for Globular Clusters Based on 2.2um Spectra of Giant Stars
We present a new method for the determination of [Fe/H] for globular
clusters. This new method is based on moderate resolution (R~1500) near-IR
spectroscopy in the K-band of 6 to 10 of the brightest giants in a cluster. Our
calibration is derived from spectra of 105 stars in 15 globular clusters. From
measurements of the equivalent widths of three features in these spectra, Na,
Ca, and CO, we are able to reproduce the Zinn & West (1984) abundance scale as
updated by Harris (1996) to better than 0.10 dex for clusters with near solar
[Fe/H] down to an [Fe/H] of -1.8. Three advantages of this method are that it
can be used for metal rich, heavily reddened globulars in crowded fields, it
does not require any knowledge of any other cluster or stellar parameters such
as reddening, distance, or luminosity, and it requires only minimal telescope
time. If stellar (J-K)0 and MK values are available as well, the accuracy of
the [Fe/H] estimate is further improved. Observations of as few as three stars
per cluster still gives an [Fe/H] estimate wich is nearly as reliable as that
based on two to three times as many stars.
The accuracy of an [Fe/H] value based on observations of CO absorption alone
is significantly less than that which results from the three spectroscopic
indices. However, we predict that space-based observations of this feature in
the integrated light of stellar systems will prove to be of great value for
abundance determinations at distances as far as the Coma cluster of galaxies.Comment: 53 pages, 16 Postscript figures. Submitted to the A
Massive Gravity Theories and limits of Ghost-free Bigravity models
We construct a class of theories which extend New Massive Gravity to higher
orders in curvature in any dimension. The lagrangians arise as limits of a new
class of bimetric theories of Lovelock gravity, which are unitary theories free
from the Boulware-Deser ghost. These Lovelock bigravity models represent the
most general non-chiral ghost-free theories of an interacting massless and
massive spin-two field in any dimension. The scaling limit is taken in such a
way that unitarity is explicitly broken, but the Boulware-Deser ghost remains
absent. This automatically implies the existence of a holographic -theorem
for these theories. We also show that the Born-Infeld extension of New Massive
Gravity falls into our class of models demonstrating that this theory is also
free of the Boulware-Deser ghost. These results extend existing connections
between New Massive Gravity, bigravity theories, Galileon theories and
holographic -theorems.Comment: 11+5 page
A Chandra Observation of the Circinus Galaxy
We report on a recent Chandra ACIS-S observation of the Circinus galaxy.
These observations confirm that the nuclear spectrum results from reflection of
a hard X-ray continuum by ``neutral'' matter. The nuclear X-ray emission is
extended by \sim 60 pc in the general direction of the optical ``ionization
cone''. An image in the Fe K\alpha line has been made and shows that this
emission extends up to 200 pc from the nucleus. There is also large-scale X-ray
emission both along and perpendicular to the galaxy disk. Thermal plasma models
for this extended gas indicate temperatures kT \sim 0.6 keV, though cooler
photoionized gas is also possible. The X-ray emission from gas in the disk is
probably associated with the starburst ring of radius 150--250 pc. The gas
extending \sim 600 pc perpendicular to the disk is closely correlated with the
high-excitation optical-line emission. In addition to its soft X-ray emission,
we tentatively detect a hard component from the gas above the plane; this hard
emission may represent nuclear X-rays scattered into our line of sight by
electrons in the outflowing wind. Ten compact sources are found in the central
kpc of the galaxy. The most luminous has an X-ray luminosity of \simeq 10^{40}
erg s^{-1} and seems to be an X-ray binary in the Circinus galaxy with a
black-hole mass exceeding 80 M_{\odot}.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Joint Inference in Weakly-Annotated Image Datasets via Dense Correspondence
We present a principled framework for inferring pixel labels in weakly-annotated image datasets. Most previous, example-based approaches to computer vision rely on a large corpus of densely labeled images. However, for large, modern image datasets, such labels are expensive to obtain and are often unavailable. We establish a large-scale graphical model spanning all labeled and unlabeled images, then solve it to infer pixel labels jointly for all images in the dataset while enforcing consistent annotations over similar visual patterns. This model requires significantly less labeled data and assists in resolving ambiguities by propagating inferred annotations from images with stronger local visual evidences to images with weaker local evidences. We apply our proposed framework to two computer vision problems, namely image annotation with semantic segmentation, and object discovery and co-segmentation (segmenting multiple images containing a common object). Extensive numerical evaluations and comparisons show that our method consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art in automatic annotation and semantic labeling, while requiring significantly less labeled data. In contrast to previous co-segmentation techniques, our method manages to discover and segment objects well even in the presence of substantial amounts of noise images (images not containing the common object), as typical for datasets collected from Internet search
The impact of sex on gene expression across human tissues
Many complex human phenotypes exhibit sex-differentiated characteristics. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these differences remain largely unknown. We generated a catalog of sex differences in gene expression and in the genetic regulation of gene expression across 44 human tissue sources surveyed by the Genotype-Tissue Expression project (GTEx, v8 release). We demonstrate that sex influences gene expression levels and cellular composition of tissue samples across the human body. A total of 37% of all genes exhibit sex-biased expression in at least one tissue. We identify cis expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) with sex-differentiated effects and characterize their cellular origin. By integrating sex-biased eQTLs with genome-wide association study data, we identify 58 gene-trait associations that are driven by genetic regulation of gene expression in a single sex. These findings provide an extensive characterization of sex differences in the human transcriptome and its genetic regulation
An African-Specific Variant of TP53 Reveals PADI4 as a Regulator of p53-Mediated Tumor Suppression
TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene in cancer, yet key target genes for p53-mediated tumor suppression remain unidentified. Here, we characterize a rare, African-specific germline variant of TP53 in the DNA-binding domain Tyr107His (Y107H). Nuclear magnetic resonance and crystal structures reveal that Y107H is structurally similar to wild-type p53. Consistent with this, we find that Y107H can suppress tumor colony formation and is impaired for the transactivation of only a small subset of p53 target genes; this includes the epigenetic modifier PADI4, which deiminates arginine to the nonnatural amino acid citrulline. Surprisingly, we show that Y107H mice develop spontaneous cancers and metastases and that Y107H shows impaired tumor suppression in two other models. We show that PADI4 is itself tumor suppressive and that it requires an intact immune system for tumor suppression. We identify a p53–PADI4 gene signature that is predictive of survival and the efficacy of immune-checkpoint inhibitors.
Significance:
We analyze the African-centric Y107H hypomorphic variant and show that it confers increased cancer risk; we use Y107H in order to identify PADI4 as a key tumor-suppressive p53 target gene that contributes to an immune modulation signature and that is predictive of cancer survival and the success of immunotherapy
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The impact of sex on gene expression across human tissues
Many complex human phenotypes exhibit sex-differentiated characteristics, however the underlying molecular mechanisms of these differences remain largely unknown. Here, we present an extensive catalog of both sex differences in gene expression and its genetic regulation across 44 human tissue sources surveyed by GTEx (v8 release). We demonstrate that sex strongly influences gene expression levels and cellular composition of tissue samples across the human body. The effect of sex on gene expression is widespread, with a total of 37% of all genes exhibiting sex-biased expression in at least one tissue. This suggests that many if not most biological processes, and thus complex traits and diseases, are impacted by sex effects on the transciptome. We expand the identification of cis-eQTLs with sex-differentiated effects and characterize their cellular origin. By integrating sex-biased eQTLs with genome-wide association study data, we identify 58 gene-trait associations that are driven by genetic regulation in a single sex, including novel associations not detected with sex-agnostic approaches. Altogether we provide the most comprehensive characterization of sex differences in the human transcriptome and its regulation to date.Peer ReviewedPreprin
The degree of acute descending control of spinal nociception in an area of primary hyperalgesia is dependent on the peripheral domain of afferent input
Descending controls of spinal nociceptive processing play a critical role in the development of inflammatory hyperalgesia. Acute peripheral nociceptor sensitization drives spinal sensitization and activates spino–supraspinal–spinal loops leading to descending inhibitory and facilitatory controls of spinal neuronal activity that further modify the extent and degree of the pain state. The afferent inputs from hairy and glabrous skin are distinct with respect to both the profile of primary afferent classes and the degree of their peripheral sensitization. It is not known whether these differences in afferent input differentially engage descending control systems to different extents or in different ways. Injection of complete Freund's adjuvant resulted in inflammation and swelling of hairy hind foot skin in rats, a transient thermal hyperalgesia lasting 72 h). In hairy skin, transient hyperalgesia was associated with sensitization of withdrawal reflexes to thermal activation of either A- or C-nociceptors. The transience of the hyperalgesia was attributable to a rapidly engaged descending inhibitory noradrenergic mechanism, which affected withdrawal responses to both A- and C-nociceptor activation and this could be reversed by intrathecal administration of yohimbine (α-2-adrenoceptor antagonist). In glabrous skin, yohimbine had no effect on an equivalent thermal inflammatory hyperalgesia. We conclude that acute inflammation and peripheral nociceptor sensitization in hind foot hairy skin, but not glabrous skin, rapidly activates a descending inhibitory noradrenergic system. This may result from differences in the engagement of descending control systems following sensitization of different primary afferent classes that innervate glabrous and hairy skin
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