248 research outputs found
Bestimmung von hydraulischen Parametern in Lockergesteinen: Ein Vergleich unterschiedlicher Feldmethoden
Zusammenfassung: In dieser Feldstudie werden die laufzeitbasierte tomographische Inversion von Daten aus Kurzzeitpumpversuchen mit der analytischen Auswertung verglichen und die ermittelten hydraulischen Parameter hinsichtlich ihrer rĂ€umlichen Auflösung diskutiert und bewertet. Als Datenbasis dienen Messergebnisse aus Kurzzeitpumpversuchen, die in einer tomographischen Messanordnung in einem zwei Meter mĂ€chtigen, gut charakterisierten Sand- und Kiesgrundwasserleiter unter Verwendung eines 2"-Brunnens und eines Multikammerbrunnens, beide mit Direct-Push-Technik installiert, durchgefĂŒhrt wurden. Die analytische Auswertung der Kurzzeitpumpversuche hat gezeigt, dass es nicht möglich ist, Bereiche mit unterschiedlichen hydraulischen Eigenschaften voneinander abzugrenzen. Entsprechend einem Vergleich mit den Ergebnissen von Multilevel-Slug-Tests werden die ermittelten hydraulischen Parameter, trotz einer geringen Pumpdauer von 200 Sekunden und hydraulisch isolierten Pump- und Beobachtungsintervallen, von einem hydraulisch höher durchlĂ€ssigen Bereich am unteren Rand des Grundwasserleiters dominiert. Die laufzeitbasierte tomographische Inversion ermöglicht hingegen, vertikale und laterale Ănderungen der DiffusivitĂ€tsverteilung zwischen Pump- und Beobachtungsbrunnen hochaufgelöst zu rekonstruiere
Professionalsâ views on the use of smartphone technology to support children and adolescents with memory impairment due to acquired brain injury
Purpose: To identify from a health-care professionalsâ perspective whether smartphones are used by children and adolescents with acquired brain injury as memory aids; what factors predict smartphone use and what barriers prevent the use of smartphones as memory aids by children and adolescents.
Method: A cross-sectional online survey was undertaken with 88 health-care professionals working with children and adolescents with brain injury.
Results: Children and adolescents with brain injury were reported to use smartphones as memory aids by 75% of professionals. However, only 42% of professionals helped their clients to use smartphones. The only factor that significantly predicted reported smartphone use was the professionalsâ positive attitudes toward assistive technology. Several barriers to using smartphones as memory aids were identified, including the poor accessibility of devices and cost of devices.
Conclusion: Many children and adolescents with brain injury are already using smartphones as memory aids but this is often not facilitated by professionals. Improving the attitudes of professionals toward using smartphones as assistive technology could help to increase smartphone use in rehabilitation
Relative importance of geostatistical and transport models in describing heavily tailed breakthrough curves at the Lauswiesen site
We analyze the relative importance of the selection of (1) the geostatistical model depicting the structural heterogeneity of an aquifer, and (2) the basic processes to be included in the conceptual model, to describe the main aspects of solute transport at an experimental site. We focus on the results of a forced-gradient tracer test performed at the “Lauswiesen” experimental site, near Tübingen, Germany. In the experiment, NaBr is injected into a well located 52 m from a pumping well. Multilevel breakthrough curves (BTCs) are measured in the latter. We conceptualize the aquifer as a three-dimensional, doubly stochastic composite medium, where distributions of geomaterials and attributes, e.g., hydraulic conductivity (K) and porosity (Ï), can be uncertain. Several alternative transport processes are considered: advection, advection–dispersion and/or mass-transfer between mobile and immobile regions. Flow and transport are tackled within a stochastic Monte Carlo framework to describe key features of the experimental BTCs, such as temporal moments, peak time, and pronounced tailing. We find that, regardless the complexity of the conceptual transport model adopted, an adequate description of heterogeneity is crucial for generating alternative equally likely realizations of the system that are consistent with (a) the statistical description of the heterogeneous system, as inferred from the data, and (b) salient features of the depth-averaged breakthrough curve, including preferential paths, slow release of mass particles, and anomalous spreading. While the available geostatistical characterization of heterogeneity can explain most of the integrated behavior of transport (depth-averaged breakthrough curve), not all multilevel BTCs are described with equal success. This suggests that transport models simply based on integrated measurements may not ensure an accurate representation of many of the important features required in three-dimensional transport models
Ribosomal DNA methylation in human and mouse oocytes increases with age
An age-dependent increase in ribosomal DNA (rDNA) methylation has been observed across a broad spectrum of somatic tissues and the male mammalian germline. Bisulfite pyrosequencing (BPS) was used to determine the methylation levels of the rDNA core promoter and the rDNA upstream control element (UCE) along with two oppositely genomically imprinted control genes (PEG3 and GTL2) in individual human germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes from 90 consenting women undergoing fertility treatment because of male infertility. Apart from a few (4%) oocytes with single imprinting defects (in either PEG3 or GTL2), the analyzed GV oocytes displayed correct imprinting patterns. In 95 GV oocytes from 42 younger women (26-32 years), the mean methylation levels of the rDNA core promoter and UCE were 7.4±4.0% and 9.3±6.1%, respectively. In 79 GV oocytes from 48 older women (33-39 years), methylation levels increased to 9.3±5.3% (P = 0.014) and 11.6±7.4% (P = 0.039), respectively. An age-related increase in oocyte rDNA methylation was also observed in 123 mouse GV oocytes from 29 4-16-months-old animals. Similar to the continuously mitotically dividing male germline, ovarian aging is associated with a gain of rDNA methylation in meiotically arrested oocytes. Oocytes from the same woman can exhibit varying rDNA methylation levels and, by extrapolation, different epigenetic ages
Species-specific paternal age effects and sperm methylation levels of developmentally important genes
A growing number of sperm methylome analyses have identified genomic loci that are susceptible to paternal age effects in a variety of mammalian species, including human, bovine, and mouse. However, there is little overlap between different data sets. Here, we studied whether or not paternal age effects on the sperm epigenome have been conserved in mammalian evolution and compared methylation patterns of orthologous regulatory regions (mainly gene promoters) containing both conserved and non-conserved CpG sites in 94 human, 36 bovine, and 94 mouse sperm samples, using bisulfite pyrosequencing. We discovered three (NFKB2, RASGEF1C, and RPL6) age-related differentially methylated regions (ageDMRs) in humans, four (CHD7, HDAC11, PAK1, and PTK2B) in bovines, and three (Def6, Nrxn2, and Tbx19) in mice. Remarkably, the identified sperm ageDMRs were all species-specific. Most ageDMRs were in genomic regions with medium methylation levels and large methylation variation. Orthologous regions in species not showing this age effect were either hypermethylated (>80%) or hypomethylated (<20%). In humans and mice, ageDMRs lost methylation, whereas bovine ageDMRs gained methylation with age. Our results are in line with the hypothesis that sperm ageDMRs are in regions under epigenomic evolution and may be part of an epigenetic mechanism(s) for lineage-specific environmental adaptations and provide a solid basis for studies on downstream effects in the genes analyzed here
On the Nature of the X-ray Emission from the Ultraluminous X-ray Source, M33 X-8: New Constraints from NuSTAR and XMM-Newton
We present nearly simultaneous NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations of the
nearby (832 kpc) ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) M33 X-8. M33 X-8 has a 0.3-10
keV luminosity of LX ~ 1.4 x 10^39 erg/s, near the boundary of the
"ultraluminous" classification, making it an important source for understanding
the link between typical Galactic X-ray binaries and ULXs. Past studies have
shown that the 0.3-10 keV spectrum of X-8 can be characterized using an
advection-dominated accretion disk model. We find that when fitting to our
NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations, an additional high-energy (>10 keV)
Comptonization component is required, which allows us to rule out single
advection-dominated disk and classical sub-Eddington models. With our new
constraints, we analyze XMM-Newton data taken over the last 17 years to show
that small (~30%) variations in the 0.3-10 keV flux of M33 X-8 result in
spectral changes similar to those observed for other ULXs. The two most likely
phenomenological scenarios suggested by the data are degenerate in terms of
constraining the nature of the accreting compact object (i.e., black hole
versus neutron star). We further present a search for pulsations using our
suite of data; however, no clear pulsations are detected. Future observations
designed to observe M33 X-8 at different flux levels across the full 0.3-30 keV
range would significantly improve our constraints on the nature of this
important source.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (15 pages, 4 tables, 6 figures
Spatially Resolving a Starburst Galaxy at Hard X-ray Energies: NuSTAR, Chandra, AND VLBA Observations of NGC 253
Prior to the launch of NuSTAR, it was not feasible to spatially resolve the
hard (E > 10 keV) emission from galaxies beyond the Local Group. The combined
NuSTAR dataset, comprised of three ~165 ks observations, allows spatial
characterization of the hard X-ray emission in the galaxy NGC 253 for the first
time. As a follow up to our initial study of its nuclear region, we present the
first results concerning the full galaxy from simultaneous NuSTAR, Chandra, and
VLBA monitoring of the local starburst galaxy NGC 253. Above ~10 keV, nearly
all the emission is concentrated within 100" of the galactic center, produced
almost exclusively by three nuclear sources, an off-nuclear ultraluminous X-ray
source (ULX), and a pulsar candidate that we identify for the first time in
these observations. We detect 21 distinct sources in energy bands up to 25 keV,
mostly consisting of intermediate state black hole X-ray binaries. The global
X-ray emission of the galaxy - dominated by the off-nuclear ULX and nuclear
sources, which are also likely ULXs - falls steeply (photon index >~ 3) above
10 keV, consistent with other NuSTAR-observed ULXs, and no significant excess
above the background is detected at E > 40 keV. We report upper limits on
diffuse inverse Compton emission for a range of spatial models. For the most
extended morphologies considered, these hard X-ray constraints disfavor a
dominant inverse Compton component to explain the {\gamma}-ray emission
detected with Fermi and H.E.S.S. If NGC 253 is typical of starburst galaxies at
higher redshift, their contribution to the E > 10 keV cosmic X-ray background
is < 1%.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The Next Generation X-ray Galaxy Survey with eROSITA
eROSITA, launched on 13 July 2019, will be completing the first all-sky
survey in the soft and medium X-ray band in nearly three decades. This 4-year
survey, finishing in late 2023, will present a rich legacy for the entire
astrophysics community and complement upcoming multi-wavelength surveys (with,
e.g. the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and the Dark Energy Survey). Besides
the major scientific aim to study active galactic nuclei (AGN) and galaxy
clusters, eROSITA will contribute significantly to X-ray studies of normal
(i.e., not AGN) galaxies. Starting from multi-wavelength catalogues, we measure
star formation rates and stellar masses for 60 212 galaxies constrained to
distances of 50-200 Mpc. We chose this distance range to focus on the
relatively unexplored volume outside the local Universe, where galaxies will be
largely spatially unresolved and probe a range of X-ray luminosities that
overlap with the low luminosity and/or highly obscured AGN population. We use
the most recent X-ray scaling relations as well as the on-orbit eROSITA
instrument performance to predict the X-ray emission from XRBs and diffuse hot
gas and to perform both an analytic prediction and an end-to-end simulation
using the mission simulation software, SIXTE. We consider potential
contributions from hidden AGN and comment on the impact of normal galaxies on
the measurement of the faint end of the AGN luminosity function. We predict
that the eROSITA 4-year survey, will detect 15 000 galaxies (3
significance) at 50-200 Mpc, which is ~100X more normal galaxies than
detected in any X-ray survey to date.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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