We present the results of a blind exercise to test the recoverability of stellar rotation and differential rotation in Kepler light curves. The simulated light curves lasted 1000 d and included ...activity cycles, Sun-like butterfly patterns, differential rotation and spot evolution. The range of rotation periods, activity levels and spot lifetime were chosen to be representative of the Kepler data of solar-like stars. Of the 1000 simulated light curves, 770 were injected into actual quiescent Kepler light curves to simulate Kepler noise. The test also included five 1000-d segments of the Sun's total irradiance variations at different points in the Sun's activity cycle. Five teams took part in the blind exercise, plus two teams who participated after the content of the light curves had been released. The methods used included Lomb–Scargle periodograms and variants thereof, autocorrelation function and wavelet-based analyses, plus spot modelling to search for differential rotation. The results show that the ‘overall’ period is well recovered for stars exhibiting low and moderate activity levels. Most teams reported values within 10 per cent of the true value in 70 per cent of the cases. There was, however, little correlation between the reported and simulated values of the differential rotation shear, suggesting that differential rotation studies based on full-disc light curves alone need to be treated with caution, at least for solar-type stars. The simulated light curves and associated parameters are available online for the community to test their own methods.
DESCRIPTION: Update of the 2009 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for depression in adults. METHODS: The USPSTF reviewed the evidence on the benefits and harms of ...screening for depression in adult populations, including older adults and pregnant and postpartum women; the accuracy of depression screening instruments; and the benefits and harms of depression treatment in these populations. POPULATION: This recommendation applies to adults 18 years and older. RECOMMENDATION: The USPSTF recommends screening for depression in the general adult population, including pregnant and postpartum women. Screening should be implemented with adequate systems in place to ensure accurate diagnosis, effective treatment, and appropriate follow-up. (B recommendation)
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most worrisome infectious bacteria due to its intrinsic and acquired resistance against several antibiotics and the recalcitrance of its infections; hence, the ...development of novel antimicrobials effective against multidrug‐resistant P. aeruginosa is mandatory. In this work, silver nanoparticles obtained by green synthesis using a leaf extract and fungi were tested against a battery of clinical strains from cystic fibrosis, pneumonia and burnt patients, some of them with multidrug resistance. Both nanoparticles showed a potent antibacterial effect, causing severe damage to the cell wall, membrane and DNA, and inducing the production of reactive oxygen species. Moreover, the nanoparticles derived from fungi showed synergistic antibacterial effects with the antibiotics meropenem and levofloxacin for some clinical strains and both kinds of nanoparticles were nontoxic for larvae of the moth Galleria mellonella, encouraging further research for their implementation in the treatment of P. aeruginosa infections.
Significance and Impact of the Study: The continuous rise of antibiotic resistance in bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a serious threat to human health, hence it is mandatory to identify novel ways to combat its infections. In this work, silver nanoparticles were synthesized in a green way using leaves and fugal extracts and its antibacterial effects were tested against clinical strains. The nanoparticles killed the strains due severe cellular damage affecting the membranes, the DNA and generating reactive oxygen species, in addition they were nontoxic and displayed synergy with some antibiotics; therefore, being a promising alternative to treat MDR P. aeruginosa infections.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Dark magnetic spots crossing the stellar disk lead to quasiperiodic brightness variations, which allow us to constrain stellar surface rotation and photometric activity. The current work is ...the second of this series, where we analyze the Kepler long-cadence data of 132,921 main-sequence F and G stars and late subgiant stars. Rotation-period candidates are obtained by combining wavelet analysis with autocorrelation function. Reliable rotation periods are then selected via a machine-learning (ML) algorithm, automatic selection, and complementary visual inspection. The ML training data set comprises 26,521 main-sequence K and M stars from Paper I. To supplement the training, we analyze in the same way as Paper I, i.e., automatic selection and visual inspection, 34,100 additional stars. We finally provide rotation periods
P
rot
and associated photometric activity proxy
S
ph
for 39,592 targets. Hotter stars are generally faster rotators than cooler stars. For main-sequence G stars,
S
ph
spans a wider range of values with increasing effective temperature, while F stars tend to have smaller
S
ph
values in comparison with cooler stars. Overall for G stars, fast rotators are photometrically more active than slow rotators, with
S
ph
saturating at short periods. The combined outcome of the two papers accounts for average
P
rot
and
S
ph
values for 55,232 main-sequence and subgiant FGKM stars (out of 159,442 targets), with 24,182 new
P
rot
detections in comparison with McQuillan et al. The upper edge of the
P
rot
distribution is located at longer
P
rot
than found previously.
IMPORTANCE: Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. In 2016, an estimated 134 000 persons will be diagnosed with the disease, and about 49 000 will die ...from it. Colorectal cancer is most frequently diagnosed among adults aged 65 to 74 years; the median age at death from colorectal cancer is 73 years. OBJECTIVE: To update the 2008 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for colorectal cancer. EVIDENCE REVIEW: The USPSTF reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of screening with colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, computed tomography colonography, the guaiac-based fecal occult blood test, the fecal immunochemical test, the multitargeted stool DNA test, and the methylated SEPT9 DNA test in reducing the incidence of and mortality from colorectal cancer or all-cause mortality; the harms of these screening tests; and the test performance characteristics of these tests for detecting adenomatous polyps, advanced adenomas based on size, or both, as well as colorectal cancer. The USPSTF also commissioned a comparative modeling study to provide information on optimal starting and stopping ages and screening intervals across the different available screening methods. FINDINGS: The USPSTF concludes with high certainty that screening for colorectal cancer in average-risk, asymptomatic adults aged 50 to 75 years is of substantial net benefit. Multiple screening strategies are available to choose from, with different levels of evidence to support their effectiveness, as well as unique advantages and limitations, although there are no empirical data to demonstrate that any of the reviewed strategies provide a greater net benefit. Screening for colorectal cancer is a substantially underused preventive health strategy in the United States. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The USPSTF recommends screening for colorectal cancer starting at age 50 years and continuing until age 75 years (A recommendation). The decision to screen for colorectal cancer in adults aged 76 to 85 years should be an individual one, taking into account the patient’s overall health and prior screening history (C recommendation).
IMPORTANCE: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, accounting for 1 of every 3 deaths among adults. OBJECTIVE: To update the 2008 US ...Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for lipid disorders in adults. EVIDENCE REVIEW: The USPSTF reviewed the evidence on the benefits and harms of screening for and treatment of dyslipidemia in adults 21 years and older; the benefits and harms of statin use in reducing CVD events and mortality in adults without a history of CVD events; whether the benefits of statin use vary by subgroup, clinical characteristics, or dosage; and the benefits of various treatment strategies in adults 40 years and older without a history of CVD events. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The USPSTF recommends initiating use of low- to moderate-dose statins in adults aged 40 to 75 years without a history of CVD who have 1 or more CVD risk factors (dyslipidemia, diabetes, hypertension, or smoking) and a calculated 10-year CVD event risk of 10% or greater (B recommendation). The USPSTF recommends that clinicians selectively offer low- to moderate-dose statins to adults aged 40 to 75 years without a history of CVD who have 1 or more CVD risk factors and a calculated 10-year CVD event risk of 7.5% to 10% (C recommendation). The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of initiating statin use in adults 76 years and older (I statement).
We present the PMAS/PPak Integral-field Supernova hosts COmpilation (PISCO), which comprises integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of 232 supernova (SN) host galaxies that hosted 272 SNe, observed over ...several semesters with the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory (CAHA). PISCO is the largest collection of SN host galaxies observed with wide-field IFS, totaling 466,347 individual spectra covering a typical spatial resolution of ∼380 pc. Focused studies regarding specific SN Ia-related topics will be published elsewhere; this paper aims to present the properties of the SN environments, using stellar population (SP) synthesis, and the gas-phase interstellar medium, providing additional results separating stripped-envelope SNe into their subtypes. With 11,270 H ii regions detected in all galaxies, we present for the first time a statistical analysis of H ii regions, which puts H ii regions that have hosted SNe in context with all other star-forming clumps within their galaxies. SNe Ic are associated with environments that are more metal-rich and have higher EW(H ) and higher star formation rate within their host galaxies than the mean of all H ii regions detected within each host. This in contrast to SNe IIb, which occur in environments that are very different compared to other core-collapse SNe types. We find two clear components of young and old SPs at SNe IIn locations. We find that SNe II fast decliners tend to explode at locations where the SFR is more intense. Finally, we outline how a future dedicated IFS survey of galaxies in parallel to an untargeted SN search would overcome the biases in current environmental studies.
The rotation rates in the deep interior and at the surface of 22 main-sequence stars with masses between 1.0 and 1.6 M⊙ are constrained by combining asteroseismological analysis with spectroscopic ...measurements. The asteroseismic data of each star are taken by the Kepler or CoRoT space mission. It is found that the difference between the surface rotation rate and the average rotation rate (excluding the convective core) of most of stars is small enough to suggest that an efficient process of angular momentum transport operates during and/or before the main-sequence stage of stars. If each of the surface convective zone and the underlying radiative zone, for individual stars, is assumed to rotate uniformly, the difference in the rotation rate between the two zones turns out to be no more than a factor of 2 in most of the stars independently of their ages.
Brightness variations due to dark spots on the stellar surface encode information about stellar surface rotation and magnetic activity. In this work, we analyze the Kepler long-cadence data of 26,521 ...main-sequence stars of spectral types M and K in order to measure their surface rotation and photometric activity level. Rotation-period estimates are obtained by the combination of a wavelet analysis and autocorrelation function of the light curves. Reliable rotation estimates are determined by comparing the results from the different rotation diagnostics and four data sets. We also measure the photometric activity proxy using the amplitude of the flux variations on an appropriate timescale. We report rotation periods and photometric activity proxies for about 60% of the sample, including 4431 targets for which McQuillan et al. did not report a rotation period. For the common targets with rotation estimates in this study and in McQuillan et al., our rotation periods agree within 99%. In this work, we also identify potential polluters, such as misclassified red giants and classical pulsator candidates. Within the parameter range we study, there is a mild tendency for hotter stars to have shorter rotation periods. The photometric activity proxy spans a wider range of values with increasing effective temperature. The rotation period and photometric activity proxy are also related, with being larger for fast rotators. Similar to McQuillan et al., we find a bimodal distribution of rotation periods.
IMPORTANCE: Basal and squamous cell carcinoma are the most common types of cancer in the United States and represent the vast majority of all cases of skin cancer; however, they rarely result in ...death or substantial morbidity, whereas melanoma skin cancer has notably higher mortality rates. In 2016, an estimated 76 400 US men and women will develop melanoma and 10 100 will die from the disease. OBJECTIVE: To update the 2009 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for skin cancer. EVIDENCE REVIEW: The USPSTF reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of screening for skin cancer with a clinical visual skin examination in reducing skin cancer morbidity and mortality and death from any cause; its potential harms, including any harms resulting from associated diagnostic follow-up; its test characteristics when performed by a primary care clinician vs a dermatologist; and whether its use leads to earlier detection of skin cancer compared with usual care. FINDINGS: Evidence to assess the net benefit of screening for skin cancer with a clinical visual skin examination is limited. Direct evidence on the effectiveness of screening in reducing melanoma morbidity and mortality is limited to a single fair-quality ecologic study with important methodological limitations. Information on harms is similarly sparse. The potential for harm clearly exists, including a high rate of unnecessary biopsies, possibly resulting in cosmetic or, more rarely, functional adverse effects, and the risk of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION: The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of visual skin examination by a clinician to screen for skin cancer in adults (I statement).
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