Using THELI pipeline in order to reduce Abell 226 multi-band optical images

In this paper we review THELI (Erben & Schrimer, 2005), an image processing pipeline developed to reduce multi-pointing optical images taken by mosaic CCD cameras. This pipeline works on raw images by removing several instrumental contaminations, implementing photometric calibration and astrometric alignment, and constructing a deep co-added mosaic image complemented by a weight map. We demonstrate the procedure of reducing NGC3923 images from raw data to the final results. We also demonstrate the quality of our data reduction strategy using mag-count and mag-error in mag plots. Emphasis is mainly placed on photometric calibration which is of great interest to us due to our scientific case. Based on the cross-association of the extracted catalogue against a reference catalogue of stellar magnitudes, zero-point calibration is performed. Our data reduction strategy and the method employed for cross-correlating large catalogues is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Land-use Change and Forestry in Austria: A Scientific Assessment of Austria's Carbon Balance in Light of Article 3 of the Kyoto Protocol

Article 3 of the Kyoto Protocol states that Parties included in Annex I shall use net changes in greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals by sinks resulting from direct human-induced land-use change and forestry (LUCF) activities since 1990 to meet their their emission reduction commitments. However, even with clear guidelines on how to calculate LUCF emissions and removals, considerable problems remain. Our paper addresses a number of relevant issues by summarizing the knowledge gained from assessing and quantifying sources and sinks of carbon compounds relevant to Austria on the basis of an interated operational model framework, the "Austrian Carbon Balance Model" (ACBM). The ACBM covers Austria's biosphere and technosphere and at present permits project researchers to run a Reference Scenario for 1990-2050. We attempt to generalize our experience and also to compare our model results regarding Austria's net atmospheric carbon contribution on the basis of uncertainties underlying these results. This permits us (1) to identify several high-priority research issues that will enable Austria to cope adequately with its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol; and (2) to draw general conclusions that may provide support to the Conference of the Parties as it decides upon modalities, rules and guidelines in accounting for LUCF emissions and removals

Combination of gastric atrophy, reflux symptoms and histological subtype indicates two distinct aetiologies of gatric cardia cancer.

<b>INTRODUCTION</b> Atrophic gastritis is a risk factor for non-cardia gastric cancer, and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) for oesophageal adenocarcinoma. The role of atrophic gastritis and GORD in the aetiology of adenocarcinoma of the cardia remains unclear. We have investigated the association between adenocarcinoma of the different regions of the upper gastrointestinal tract and atrophic gastritis and GORD symptoms. <b>METHODS</b> 138 patients with upper GI adenocarcinoma and age and sex matched controls were studied. Serum pepsinogen I/II was used as a marker of atrophic gastritis and categorised to five quintiles. History of GORD symptoms, smoking and H.pylori infection was incorporated in logistic regression analysis. Lauren classification of gastric cancer was used to subtype gastric and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. <b>RESULTS</b> Non-cardia cancer was associated with atrophic gastritis but not with GORD symptoms; 55% of these cancers were intestinal subtype. Oesophageal adenocarcinoma was associated with GORD symptoms, but not with atrophic gastritis; 84% were intestinal subtype. Cardia cancer was positively associated with both severe gastric atrophy [OR, 95% CI: 3.92 (1.77 – 8.67)] and with frequent GORD symptoms [OR, 95% CI: 10.08 (2.29 – 44.36)] though the latter was only apparent in the nonatrophic subgroup and in the intestinal subtype. The association of cardia cancer with atrophy was stronger for the diffuse versus intestinal subtype and this was the converse of the association observed with non-cardia cancer. <b>CONCLUSION</b> These findings indicate two distinct aetiologies of cardia cancer, one arising from severe atrophic gastritis and being of intestinal or diffuse subtype similar to non-cardia cancer, and one related to GORD and intestinal in subtype, similar to oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Gastric atrophy, GORD symptoms and histological subtype may distinguish between gastric versus oesophageal origin of cardia cancer

Endoscopic screening for precancerous lesions of the esophagus in a high risk area in northern Iran

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a major health problem in many developing countries, including Iran. ESCC has a very poor prognosis, largely due to late diagnosis. As a first step in developing an early detection and treatment program, we conducted a population-based endoscopic screening for ESCC and its precursor lesion, esophageal squamous dysplasia (ESD), in asymptomatic adults from Golestan Province, northern Iran (a high-risk area for ESCC) to evaluate the feasibility of such a program and to document the prevalence and risk factor correlates of ESD. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among participants of the Golestan Cohort Study (GCS), a population-based cohort of 50,000 adults in eastern Golestan Province. Randomly selected GCS participants were invited by telephone. Those who accepted were referred to a central endoscopy clinic. Eligible subjects who consented were asked to complete a brief questionnaire. Detailed information about selected risk factors was obtained from the GCS main database. Endoscopic examination with was performed with Lugol's iodine staining; biopsies were taken from unstained lesions as well as the normally stained mucosa of the esophagus, and the biopsies were diagnosed by expert pathologists according to previously described criteria. Results: In total, 1906 GCS subjects were invited, of whom only 302 (15.8%) were successfully enrolled. Esophagitis (29.5%) and ESD (6.0%) were the most common pathological diagnoses. Turkmen ethnicity (adjusted OR = 8.61; 95%CI: 2.48-29.83), being older than the median age (OR = 7.7; 95% CI: 1.99-29.87), and using deep frying cooking methods (OR = 4.65; 95%CI: 1.19-18.22) were the strongest predictors for ESD. There were significant relationships between esophagitis and smoking (p-value<0.001), drinking hot tea (P value = 0.02) and lack of education (P value = 0.004). Conclusion: We observed a low rate of participation in endoscopic screening. The overall prevalence of ESD was 6.0%. Developing non-endoscopic primary screening methods and screening individuals with one or more risk factors may improve these rates

Influence of B cells in liver fibrosis associated with hepatitis B virus harboring basal core promoter mutations

The development of the liver disease in chronic hepatitis B with common viral variants can be determined through the interaction between the virus and the host immune response. B cells constitute half of the intrahepatic lymphocyte population with an impact on fibrosis. A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) has been shown to have a co-stimulatory activity on B cells. For this study HBV DNA was amplified and then sequenced to show the presence of the basal core promoter (BCP) mutations in the serum from 57 patients with chronic hepatitis B. The range of IgD-positive B cells was detected by immunohistochemistry in liver biopsies; and patients serum was assayed for APRIL levels by enzyme immunoassay. Twenty-seven patients (47.4) harbored the A1762T-G1764A BCP mutations. Coefficients of logistic regression showed that the effect of increasing IgD-positive B cells in rising odds of the liver disease is the same in the patients with BCP mutation A1762T-G1764A and in the patients without mutation, nevertheless the effect of APRIL is not similar in these two groups of patients. Logistic regression in patients with BCP A1762T-G1764A mutations demonstrated that increasing one score of APRIL decreased the odds of fibrosis stage about 8. These results suggest that in infection with viral variants of hepatitis B virus, the population of IgD-positive B cells may play a decisive role in later stages of the liver disease which is reduced by APRIL in chronic hepatitis patients with BCP mutations. J. Med. Virol. 84:18891896, 2012. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

AWG Filter for Wavelength Interrogator

A wavelength interrogator is coupled to a circulator which couples optical energy from a broadband source to an optical fiber having a plurality of sensors, each sensor reflecting optical energy at a unique wavelength and directing the reflected optical energy to an AWG. The AWG has a detector coupled to each output, and the reflected optical energy from each grating is coupled to the skirt edge response of the AWG such that the adjacent channel responses form a complementary pair response. The complementary pair response is used to convert an AWG skirt response to a wavelength

Prognostic factors for esophageal squamous cell Carcinoma-A Population-Based study in Golestan province, Iran, a high incidence area

Golestan Province in northern Iran is an area with a high incidence of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We aimed to investigate prognostic factors for ESCC and survival of cases in Golestan, on which little data were available. We followed-up 426 ESCC cases participating in a population-based case-control study. Data were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the Cox proportional hazard models. Median survival was 7 months. Age at diagnosis was inversely associated with survival, but the association was disappeared with adjustment for treatment. Residing in urban areas (hazard ratio, HR = 0.70; 95 CI 0.54-0.90) and being of non-Turkmen ethnic groups (HR = 0.76; 95 CI 0.61-0.96) were associated with better prognosis. In contrast to other types of tobacco use, nass (a smokeless tobacco product) chewing was associated with a slightly poorer prognosis even in models adjusted for other factors including stage of disease and treatment (HR = 1.38; 95 CI 0.99-1.92). Opium use was associated with poorer prognosis in crude analyses but not in adjusted models. Almost all of potentially curative treatments were associated with longer survival. Prognosis of ESCC in Golestan is very poor. Easier access to treatment facilities may improve the prognosis of ESCC in Golestan. The observed association between nass chewing and poorer prognosis needs further investigations; this association may suggest a possible role for ingestion of nass constituents in prognosis of ESCC. © 2011 Aghcheli et al

Using THELI pipeline in order to reduce Abell 226 multi-band optical images

In this paper we review THELI (Erben & Schrimer, 2005), an image processing pipeline developed to reduce multipointing optical images taken by mosaic CCD cameras. This pipeline works on raw images by removing several instrumental contaminations, implementing photometric calibration and astrometric alignment, and constructing a deep co-added mosaic image complemented by a weight map. We demonstrate the procedure of reducing NGC 3923 images from raw data to the final results. We also demonstrate the quality of our data reduction strategy using mag-count and mag-error in mag plots. Emphasis is mainly placed on photometric calibration which is of great interest to us due to our scientific case. Based on the cross-association of the extracted catalogue against a reference catalogue of stellar magnitudes, zero-point calibration is performed. Our data reduction strategy and the method employed for cross-correlating large catalogues is also presented

The effect of isolated Lactobacillus from gut of Barbus grypus on growth performance, survival and gut microflora of common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

This study evaluated the impact of dietary supplementation bacteria, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus bulgaricus isolated from the intestine of Barbus grypus on growth performance, survival and intestinal flora of common carp. For this purpose 480 common carp (average initial weight of 40 ± 6g) were randomly divided to 4 treatments (with three replications) and fed with diet containing 5×107 CFU/g L.plantarum (Group 1), L.bulgaricus (Group 2), Lactobacillus casei (Group3) and a diet without probiotic supplementation (As control group) for 60 days. To evaluate the persistent of the bacteria in digestive system, from the 60 th day to75 th day, experimental fish were fed with diet without probiotics (control). Results showed that Specific growth rate of fish fed diets containing Lactobacillus significantly higher compared with control group (p<0.05). Fish fed diets containing L.casei had significantly lower FCR than the control group on 60 th and 75 th of trial (p<0.05). The protein efficiency ratio and specific growth rate of fish fed the isolated bacteria at different times of trial was higher compared to fish fed than control diet. In general, results of intestinal micro flora assessment showed that Lactobacillus bacteria significantly increased in fish fed with dietary probiotic at 30 and 60 of trial (p<0.05) and groups 2 and 3 showed the greatest amount of Lactobacillus compared to the control group after 30 days of feeding. Theresults of this study showed that the addition of lactobacillus bacteria isolated from the intestines of Barbus grypus in the diet of common carp increased the beneficial micro flora population of intestinal microflora and ultimately improved growth performance and feed utilization