Role of tumour necrosis factor gene polymorphisms (-308 and -238) in breast cancer susceptibility and severity

Introduction Genetic polymorphisms in the promoter region of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) gene can regulate gene expression and have been associated with inflammatory and malignant conditions. We have investigated two polymorphisms in the promoter of the TNF gene (-308 G>A and -238 G>A) for their role in breast cancer susceptibility and severity by means of an allelic association study. Methods Using a case–control study design, breast cancer patients (n = 709) and appropriate age-matched and sex-matched controls obtained from the Breast Screening Unit (n = 498) were genotyped for these TNF polymorphisms, using a high-throughput allelic discrimination method. Results Allele frequencies for both polymorphisms were similar in both breast cancer cases and controls. However, the -308 polymorphism was found to be associated with vascular invasion in breast tumours (P = 0.024). Comparison with other standard prognostic indices did not show any association for either genotype. Conclusions We demonstrated no association between the -308G>A polymorphism and the -238G>A polymorphism in the promoter region of TNF and susceptibility to breast cancer, in a large North European population. However, the -308 G>A polymorphism was found to be associated with the presence of vascular invasion in breast tumours

Numerical simulations of the kappa-mechanism with convection

A strong coupling between convection and pulsations is known to play a major role in the disappearance of unstable modes close to the red edge of the classical Cepheid instability strip. As mean-field models of time-dependent convection rely on weakly-constrained parameters, we tackle this problem by the means of 2-D Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of kappa-mechanism with convection. Using a linear stability analysis, we first determine the physical conditions favourable to the kappa-mechanism to occur inside a purely-radiative layer. Both the instability strips and the nonlinear saturation of unstable modes are then confirmed by the corresponding DNS. We next present the new simulations with convection, where a convective zone and the driving region overlap. The coupling between the convective motions and acoustic modes is then addressed by using projections onto an acoustic subspace.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science, HELAS workshop (Rome june 2009

PDRs4All: A JWST Early Release Science Program on Radiative Feedback from Massive Stars

Massive stars disrupt their natal molecular cloud material through radiative and mechanical feedback processes. These processes have profound effects on the evolution of interstellar matter in our Galaxy and throughout the universe, from the era of vigorous star formation at redshifts of 1-3 to the present day. The dominant feedback processes can be probed by observations of the Photo-Dissociation Regions (PDRs) where the far-ultraviolet photons of massive stars create warm regions of gas and dust in the neutral atomic and molecular gas. PDR emission provides a unique tool to study in detail the physical and chemical processes that are relevant for most of the mass in inter-and circumstellar media including diffuse clouds, proto-planetary disks, and molecular cloud surfaces, globules, planetary nebulae, and star-forming regions. PDR emission dominates the infrared (IR) spectra of star-forming galaxies. Most of the Galactic and extragalactic observations obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will therefore arise in PDR emission. In this paper we present an Early Release Science program using the MIRI, NIRSpec, and NIRCam instruments dedicated to the observations of an emblematic and nearby PDR: the Orion Bar. These early JWST observations will provide template data sets designed to identify key PDR characteristics in JWST observations. These data will serve to benchmark PDR models and extend them into the JWST era. We also present the Science-Enabling products that we will provide to the community. These template data sets and Science-Enabling products will guide the preparation of future proposals on star-forming regions in our Galaxy and beyond and will facilitate data analysis and interpretation of forthcoming JWST observations.</p

The Ruled Vertex and Nontoric del Pezzo Surfaces

We construct the topological partition function of local nontoric del Pezzo surfaces using the ruled vertex formalism.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Increasing access to the profession: Admissions lessons learned from the pandemic

Introduction: The disruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced quick and significant changes to recruitment and admissions practices in colleges of pharmacy. This process has helped to identify barriers and challenges for prospective students. At the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, some changes were already under consideration prior to the pandemic, such as moving to test-optional admissions and allowing remote interviews, while new considerations included offering the entire recruitment and admissions process remotely. Methods: In 2020–2021, the decision was made to move to test-optional admissions. A separate decision was made to conduct interviews remotely. Data from the admission cycle were collected from the Pharmacy College Application Service as part of the standard admissions process and exported for analysis. Descriptive statistics (mean ± SD) were used. Results: Completed applications increased by 59.1% in 2020–2021 from the previous year. Applications increased by 9.8% from underrepresented students, by 6.2% from those with a bachelor's degree, and by 8.4% by out of state students. Other admissions metrics, such as the mean grade point average (3.50) and mean Pharmacy College Admissions Test composite percentile (88%), did not change. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic experience validated our perspective that we must continue to embrace change and seize opportunities to reduce barriers for prospective students to improve access to the profession. The changes that this pandemic has necessitated may help to close the gaps in accessing health professions education. © 2022 Elsevier Inc

Mass-luminosity relation for FGK main sequence stars: metallicity and age contributions

The stellar mass-luminosity relation (MLR) is one of the most famous empirical "laws", discovered in the beginning of the 20th century. MLR is still used to estimate stellar masses for nearby stars, particularly for those that are not binary systems, hence the mass cannot be derived directly from the observations. It's well known that the MLR has a statistical dispersion which cannot be explained exclusively due to the observational errors in luminosity (or mass). It is an intrinsic dispersion caused by the differences in age and chemical composition from star to star. In this work we discuss the impact of age and metallicity on the MLR. Using the recent data on mass, luminosity, metallicity, and age for 26 FGK stars (all members of binary systems, with observational mass-errors <= 3%), including the Sun, we derive the MLR taking into account, separately, mass-luminosity, mass-luminosity-metallicity, and mass-luminosity-metallicity-age. Our results show that the inclusion of age and metallicity in the MLR, for FGK stars, improves the individual mass estimation by 5% to 15%.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Statistical analysis of nitrous oxide emission factors from pastoral agriculture field trials conducted in New Zealand

AbstractBetween 11 May 2000 and 31 January 2013, 185 field trials were conducted across New Zealand to measure the direct nitrous oxide (N2O) emission factors (EF) from nitrogen (N) sources applied to pastoral soils. The log(EF) data were analysed statistically using a restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method. To estimate mean EF values for each N source, best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) were calculated. For lowland soils, mean EFs for dairy cattle urine and dung, sheep urine and dung and urea fertiliser were 1.16 ± 0.19% and 0.23 ± 0.05%, 0.55 ± 0.19% and 0.08 ± 0.02% and 0.48 ± 0.13%, respectively, each significantly different from one another (p < 0.05), except for sheep urine and urea fertiliser. For soils in terrain with slopes >12°, mean EFs were significantly lower. Thus, urine and dung EFs should be disaggregated for sheep and cattle as well as accounting for terrain

A recent rebuilding of most spirals ?

Re-examination of the properties of distant galaxies leads to the evidence that most present-day spirals have built up half of their stellar masses during the last 8 Gyr, mostly during several intense phases of star formation during which they took the appearance of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs). Distant galaxy morphologies encompass all of the expected stages of galaxy merging, central core formation and disk growth, while their cores are much bluer than those of present-day bulges. We have tested a spiral rebuilding scenario, for which 75+/-25% of spirals have experienced their last major merger event less than 8 Gyr ago. It accounts for the simultaneous decreases, during that period, of the cosmic star formation density, of the merger rate, of the number densities of LIRGs and of compact galaxies, while the densities of ellipticals and large spirals are essentially unaffected.Comment: (1) GEPI, Obs. Meudon, France ;(2)Max-Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, Germany (3) National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, China. Five pages, 1 figure. To be published in "Starbursts: From 30 Doradus to Lyman Break Galaxies", held in Cambridge, ed. R. de Grijs & R. M. Gonzalez Delgado (Dordrecht: Kluwer

The Nature of CO Emission from z~6 Quasars

We investigate the nature of molecular gas emission from z ~ 6 quasars via the commonly observed tracer of H2, carbon monoxide (CO). We achieve this by combining non-LTE radiative transfer calculations with merger-driven models of z ~ 6 quasar formation that arise naturally in Λ cold dark matter structure formation simulations. Motivated by observational constraints, we consider four representative z ~ 6 quasars formed in the halo mass range ~1012-1013 M☉ from different merging histories. Our main results are as follows. We find that, owing to massive starbursts and funneling of dense gas into the nuclear regions of merging galaxies, the CO is highly excited during both the hierarchical buildup of the host galaxy and the quasar phase, and the CO flux density peaks between J = 5 and 8. The CO morphology of z ~ 6 quasars often exhibits multiple CO emission peaks which arise from molecular gas concentrations which have not yet fully coalesced. Both of these results are found to be consistent with the sole CO detection at z ~ 6, in quasar J1148+5251. Quasars which form at z ~ 6 display a large range of sight line-dependent line widths. The sight line dependencies are such that the narrowest line widths are when the rotating molecular gas associated with the quasar is viewed face-on (when the LB is largest) and broadest when the quasar is seen edge-on (and the LB is lowest). Thus, we find that for all models selection effects exist such that quasars selected for optical luminosity are preferentially seen to be face-on which may result in CO detections of optically luminous quasars at z ~ 6 having line widths narrower than the median. The mean sight line-averaged line width is found to be reflective of the circular velocity of the host halo and thus scales with halo mass. For example, the mean line width for the ~1012 M☉ halo is σ ~ 300 km s−1, while the median for the ~1013 M☉ quasar host is σ ~ 650 km s−1. Depending on the host halo mass, approximately 2%-10% of sight lines in our modeled quasars are found to have narrow line widths compatible with observations of J1148+5251. When considering the aforementioned selection effects, these percentages increase to 10%-25% for quasars selected for optical luminosity. When accounting for both temporal evolution of CO line widths in galaxies, as well as the redshift evolution of halo circular velocities, these models can self-consistently account for the observed line widths of both submillimeter galaxies and quasars at z ~ 2. Finally, we find that the dynamical mass derived from the mean sight line-averaged line widths provide a good estimate of the total mass and allow for a massive molecular reservoir, supermassive black hole, and stellar bulge, consistent with the local MBH-Mbul relation