To reach the pressures and densities required for ignition, it may be necessary to develop an approach to design that makes it easier for simulations to guide experiments. Here, we report on a new ...short-pulse inertial confinement fusion platform that is specifically designed to be more predictable. The platform has demonstrated 99%+0.5% laser coupling into the hohlraum, high implosion velocity (411 km/s), high hotspot pressure (220+60 Gbar), and high cold fuel areal density compression ratio (>400), while maintaining controlled implosion symmetry, providing a promising new physics platform to study ignition physics.
A diet rich in dairy and calcium (Ca) has been variably associated with improvements in body composition and decreased risk of type 2 diabetes. Our objective was to determine if a dietary pattern ...high in dairy and Ca improves weight loss and subjective appetite to a greater extent than a low dairy/Ca diet during energy restriction in overweight and obese adults with metabolic syndrome.
A total of 49 participants were randomized to one of two treatment groups: Control (low dairy, ≈ 700 mg/day Ca, -500 kcal/day) or Dairy/Ca (high dairy, ≈ 1400 mg/day Ca, -500 kcal/day) for 12 weeks. Body composition, subjective ratings of appetite, food intake, plasma satiety hormones, glycemic response and inflammatory cytokines were measured.
Control (-2.2 ± 0.5 kg) and Dairy/Ca (-3.3 ± 0.6 kg) had similar weight loss. Based on self-reported energy intake, the percentage of expected weight loss achieved was higher with Dairy/Ca (82.1 ± 19.4%) than Control (32.2 ± 7.7%; P=0.03). Subjects in the Dairy/Ca group reported feeling more satisfied (P=0.01) and had lower dietary fat intake (P=0.02) over 12 weeks compared with Control. Compared with Control, Dairy/Ca had higher plasma levels of peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY, P=0.01) during the meal tolerance test at week 12. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 was reduced at 30 min with Dairy/Ca compared with Control (P=0.04).
In conclusion, a dairy- and Ca-rich diet was not associated with greater weight loss than control. Modest increases in plasma PYY concentrations with increased dairy/Ca intake, however, may contribute to enhanced sensations of satisfaction and reduced dietary fat intake during energy restriction.
Hydrodynamic instabilities are a major factor in degradation of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions. In the highest performing implosions on National Ignition Facility, yield amplification ...(YA) due to alpha particle heating approached ∼3, while YA of ∼15-30 is needed for ignition. Understanding and mitigation of the instabilities are critical to achieving ignition. This article reviews several experimental platforms that have been developed to directly measure these instabilities in all phases of ICF implosions. Measurements of ripple-shock propagation at OMEGA laser has provided results on initial seeds for the instabilities in three ablators-plastic (CH), beryllium, and high-density carbon. At the ablation front, instability growth of pre-imposed modulations was measured in the linear regime using the hydrodynamic growth radiography platform. This platform was extended for modulation growth of 'native roughness' modulations and engineering features (fill tubes and capsule support membranes or 'tents'). Several new experimental platforms have or are being developed to measure instability growth at the ablator-ice interface. In the deceleration phase of implosions, complementary 'self-emission' and 'self-backlighting' platforms were developed to measure low-mode asymmetries and high-mode perturbations near peak compression.
Objective
To assess the effect of maternal sildenafil therapy on fetal growth in pregnancies with early‐onset fetal growth restriction.
Design
A randomised placebo‐controlled trial.
Setting
Thirteen ...maternal–fetal medicine units across New Zealand and Australia.
Population
Women with singleton pregnancies affected by fetal growth restriction at 22+0 to 29+6 weeks.
Methods
Women were randomised to oral administration of 25 mg sildenafil citrate or visually matching placebo three times daily until 32+0 weeks, birth or fetal death (whichever occurred first).
Main Outcome Measures
The primary outcome was the proportion of pregnancies with an increase in fetal growth velocity. Secondary outcomes included live birth, survival to hospital discharge free of major neonatal morbidity and pre‐eclampsia.
Results
Sildenafil did not affect the proportion of pregnancies with an increase in fetal growth velocity; 32/61 (52.5%) sildenafil‐treated, 39/57 (68.4%) placebo‐treated adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.49, 95% CI 0.23–1.05 and had no effect on abdominal circumference Z‐scores (P = 0.61). Sildenafil use was associated with a lower mean uterine artery pulsatility index after 48 hours of treatment (1.56 versus 1.81; P = 0.02). The live birth rate was 56/63 (88.9%) for sildenafil‐treated and 47/59 (79.7%) for placebo‐treated (adjusted OR 2.50, 95% CI 0.80–7.79); survival to hospital discharge free of major neonatal morbidity was 42/63 (66.7%) for sildenafil‐treated and 33/59 (55.9%) for placebo‐treated (adjusted OR 1.93, 95% CI 0.84–4.45); and new‐onset pre‐eclampsia was 9/51 (17.7%) for sildenafil‐treated and 14/55 (25.5%) for placebo‐treated (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.26–1.75).
Conclusions
Maternal sildenafil use had no effect on fetal growth velocity. Prospectively planned meta‐analyses will determine whether sildenafil exerts other effects on maternal and fetal/neonatal wellbeing.
Tweetable
Maternal sildenafil use has no beneficial effect on growth in early‐onset FGR, but also no evidence of harm.
Tweetable
Maternal sildenafil use has no beneficial effect on growth in early‐onset FGR, but also no evidence of harm.
Hydrodynamic instabilities can cause capsule defects and other perturbations to grow and degrade implosion performance in ignition experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Here, we show ...the first experimental demonstration that a strong unsupported first shock in indirect drive implosions at the NIF reduces ablation front instability growth leading to a 3 to 10 times higher yield with fuel ρR>1 g/cm(2). This work shows the importance of ablation front instability growth during the National Ignition Campaign and may provide a path to improved performance at the high compression necessary for ignition.
We report ALMA observations of CO(3–2) emission in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 1566, at a spatial resolution of 25 pc. Our aim is to investigate the morphology and dynamics of the gas inside the central ...kpc, and to probe nuclear fueling and feedback phenomena. NGC 1566 has a nuclear bar of 1.7 kpc radius and a conspicuous grand design spiral starting from this radius. The ALMA field of view, of diameter 0.9 kpc, lies well inside the nuclear bar and reveals a molecular trailing spiral structure from 50 to 300 pc in size, which is contributing to fuel the nucleus, according to its negative gravity torques. The spiral starts with a large pitch angle from the center and then winds up in a pseudo-ring at the inner Lindblad resonance (ILR) of the nuclear bar. This is the first time that a trailing spiral structure is clearly seen driving the gas inwards inside the ILR ring of the nuclear bar. This phenomenon shows that the massive central black hole has a significant dynamical influence on the gas, triggering its fueling. The gaseous spiral is well correlated with the dusty spiral seen through extinction in HST images, and also with a spiral feature emitting 0.87 mm continuum. This continuum emission must come essentially from cold dust heated by the interstellar radiation field. The HCN(4–3) and HCO+(4–3) lines were simultaneously mapped and detected in the nuclear spiral. The HCO+(4–3) line is 3 times stronger than the HCN(4–3), as expected when star formation excitation dominates over active galactic nucleus (AGN) heating. The CO(3–2)/HCO+(4–3) integrated intensity ratio is ~100. The molecular gas is in remarkably regular rotation, with only slight non-circular motions at the periphery of the nuclear spiral arms. These perturbations are quite small, and no outflow nor AGN feedback is detected.
The formation of the slow solar wind has been debated for many years. In this Letter we show evidence of persistent outflow at the edges of an active region as measured by the EUV Imaging ...Spectrometer on board Hinode. The Doppler velocity ranged between 20 and 50 km s super(-1) and was consistent with a steady flow seen in the X-Ray Telescope. The latter showed steady, pulsing outflowing material and some transverse motions of the loops. We analyze the magnetic field around the active region and produce a coronal magnetic field model. We determine from the latter that the outflow speeds adjusted for line-of-sight effects can reach over 100 km s super(-1). We can interpret this outflow as expansion of loops that lie over the active region, which may either reconnect with neighboring large-scale loops or are likely to open to the interplanetary space. This material constitutes at least part of the slow solar wind.
Simple leaching protocols have been used to examine trends in the solubility of aerosol nutrients (Fe, P and Si) along a west – east transect through the Saharan dust plume (German SOLAS cruise M55) ...and between Saharan and southern hemisphere‐origin aerosols. Solubilities were in the range 0.5–7.9% for Fe, 2.3–67% for P and 0.02–1.1% for Si, with lower values corresponding to samples of Saharan origin. Previous laboratory studies have suggested that aerosol Fe solubility might be enhanced by acid‐ and/or photo‐chemistry during transport through the atmosphere, but only the solubility of P was observed to be higher at the western end of the transect than the eastern. This implies that if (photo)chemical processing of aerosol Fe occurs in the atmosphere, significant enhancement of Fe solubility requires longer than the 5–10 days associated with transport of Saharan dust across the tropical Atlantic Ocean.
We investigate the fueling and the feedback of star formation and nuclear activity in NGC 1068, a nearby Seyfert 2 barred galaxy, by analyzing the distribution and kinematics of the molecular gas in ...the disk. We aim to understand if and how gas accretion can self-regulate. We have used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to map the emission of a set of dense molecular gas and their underlying continuum emission in the central r ~ 2 kpc of NGC 1068 with spatial resolutions ~0.3" - 0.5". Molecular line and dust continuum emissions are detected from a r ~ 200 pc off-centered circumnuclear disk (CND), from the 2.6 kpc-diameter bar region, and from the r ~ 1.3 kpc starburst (SB) ring. The molecular outflow is likely launched when the ionization cone of the narrow line region sweeps the nuclear disk. The CND gas reservoir is likely replenished on longer timescales by efficient gas inflow from the outer disk.
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