This paper presents the new cable delay measurement system (CDMS) designed at Yebes Observatory (IGN, Spain), which is required for the VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) stations. This system ...measures the phase difference between the 5 MHz reference signal from the hydrogen maser and the 5 MHz signal that reaches the broadband receiver through a coaxial cable, for the generation of calibration tones. As a result, the system detects the changes in the length of that coaxial cable due to temperature variations along the cable run and flexures caused by VGOS radio telescope movements. This CDMS outperforms the previous versions: firstly, it does not require a frequency counter for phase/delay measurements; secondly, it largely reduces the use of digital circuits; hence, reducing digital noise; and thirdly, it has a remotely controlled automatic calibration subsystem. The system was tested in the laboratory and in the radio telescope, and the measurements of both set-ups are shown. These measurements include the total noise, accuracy, hysteresis, and stability. The results in the radio telescope can be correlated with the different factors that affect the cable, such as temperature and flexures. The system allows to achieve an RMS noise of less than 0.5 ps, significantly improving the requirements established in VGOS. The system is currently installed in the Red Atlántica de Estaciones Geodinámicas y Espaciales (RAEGE)Yebes VGOS 13.2 m radio telescope, and will be installed in the Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA) twin VGOS radio telescopes, in the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) VGOS station and in the RAEGE Santa María VGOS radio telescope (Açores, Portugal).
Carbapenemase-Producing
(CP-Eco) isolates, though less prevalent than other CP-Enterobacterales, have the capacity to rapidly disseminate antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and cause serious ...difficult-to-treat infections. The aim of this study is phenotypically and genotypically characterizing CP-Eco isolates collected from Spain to better understand their resistance mechanisms and population structure.
Ninety representative isolates received from 2015 to 2020 from 25 provinces and 59 hospitals Spanish hospitals were included. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined according to EUCAST guidelines and whole-genome sequencing was performed. Antibiotic resistance and virulence-associated genes, phylogeny and population structure, and carbapenemase genes-carrying plasmids were analyzed.
The 90 CP-Eco isolates were highly polyclonal, where the most prevalent was ST131, detected in 14 (15.6%) of the isolates. The carbapenemase genes detected were
(45.6%),
(23.3%),
(7.8%),
(6.7%), and
(6.7%). Forty (44.4%) were resistant to 6 or more antibiotic groups and the most active antibiotics were colistin (98.9%), plazomicin (92.2%) and cefiderocol (92.2%). Four of the seven cefiderocol-resistant isolates belonged to ST167 and six harbored
. Five of the plazomicin-resistant isolates harbored
. IncL plasmids were the most frequent (45.7%) and eight of these harbored
.
was found in IncF plasmids in eight isolates. Metallo-β-lactamases were more frequent in isolates with resistance to six or more antibiotic groups, with their genes often present on the same plasmid/integron. ST131 isolates were associated with
and
virulence genes. This study highlights the genetic versatility of CP-Eco and its potential to disseminate ARGs and cause community and nosocomial infections.
The XSTAR Atomic Database Mendoza, Claudio; Bautista, Manuel A.; Deprince, Jérôme ...
Atoms,
01/2021, Letnik:
9, Številka:
1
Journal Article, Web Resource
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We describe the atomic database of the xstar spectral modeling code, summarizing the systematic upgrades carried out in the past twenty years to enable the modeling of K-lines from chemical elements ...with atomic number Z≤30 and recent extensions to handle high-density plasmas. Such plasma environments are found, for instance, in the inner region of accretion disks round compact objects (neutron stars and black holes), which emit rich information about the system’s physical properties. Our intention is to offer a reliable modeling tool to take advantage of the outstanding spectral capabilities of the new generation of X-ray space telescopes (e.g., xrism and athena) to be launched in the coming years. Data curatorial aspects are discussed and an updated list of reference sources is compiled to improve the database provenance metadata. Two xstar spin-offs—the ISMabs absorption model and the uaDB database—are also described.
Abstract
Warm absorber spectra contain bound-bound and bound-free absorption features seen in the X-ray and UV spectra from many active galactic nuclei. The widths and centroid energies of these ...features indicate they occur in outflowing gas, and the outflow can affect the gas within the host galaxy. Thus, the warm absorber mass and energy budgets are of great interest. Estimates for these properties depend on models that connect the observed strengths of the absorption features with the density, composition, and ionization state of the absorbing gas. Such models assume that the ionization and heating of the gas come primarily from the strong continuum near the central black hole. They also assume that the various heating, cooling, ionization, and recombination processes are in a time-steady balance. This assumption may not be valid, owing to the intrinsic time variability of the illuminating continuum or other factors that change the cloud environment. This paper presents models for warm absorbers that follow the time dependence of the ionization, temperature, and radiation field in warm absorber gas clouds in response to a changing continuum illumination. We show that the effects of time variability are important over a range of parameter values, that time-dependent models differ from equilibrium models in meaningful ways, and that these effects should be included in models that derive properties of warm absorber outflows.
Abstract
Aims
Atrial electrical remodelling (AER) is a transitional period associated with the progression and long-term maintenance of atrial fibrillation (AF). We aimed to study the progression of ...AER in individual patients with implantable devices and AF episodes.
Methods and results
Observational multicentre study (51 centres) including 4618 patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillator +/−resynchronization therapy (ICD/CRT-D) and 352 patients (2 centres) with pacemakers (median follow-up: 3.4 years). Atrial activation rate (AAR) was quantified as the frequency of the dominant peak in the signal spectrum of AF episodes with atrial bipolar electrograms. Patients with complete progression of AER, from paroxysmal AF episodes to electrically remodelled persistent AF, were used to depict patient-specific AER slopes. A total of 34 712 AF tracings from 830 patients (87 with pacemakers) were suitable for the study. Complete progression of AER was documented in 216 patients (16 with pacemakers). Patients with persistent AF after completion of AER showed ∼30% faster AAR than patients with paroxysmal AF. The slope of AAR changes during AF progression revealed patient-specific patterns that correlated with the time-to-completion of AER (R2 = 0.85). Pacemaker patients were older than patients with ICD/CRT-Ds (78.3 vs. 67.2 year olds, respectively, P < 0.001) and had a shorter median time-to-completion of AER (24.9 vs. 93.5 days, respectively, P = 0.016). Remote transmissions in patients with ICD/CRT-D devices enabled the estimation of the time-to-completion of AER using the predicted slope of AAR changes from initiation to completion of electrical remodelling (R2 = 0.45).
Conclusion
The AF progression shows patient-specific patterns of AER, which can be estimated using available remote-monitoring technology.
Introduction and objectives
Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have been a major scientific and medical achievement in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, very infrequent cases of inflammatory ...heart disease have been described as adverse events, leading to uncertainty in the scientific community and in the general population.
Methods
The Vaccine–Carditis Registry has included all cases of myocarditis and pericarditis diagnosed within 30 days after COVID-19 vaccination since August 1, 2021 in 29 centers throughout the Spanish territory. The definitions of myocarditis (probable or confirmed) and pericarditis followed the consensus of the Centers for Disease Control and the Clinical Practice Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology. A comprehensive analysis of clinical characteristics and 3-month evolution is presented.
Results
From August 1, 2021, to March 10, 2022, 139 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis were recorded (81.3% male, median age 28 years). Most cases were detected in the 1st week after administration of an mRNA vaccine, the majority after the second dose. The most common presentation was mixed inflammatory disease (myocarditis and pericarditis). 11% had left ventricular systolic dysfunction, 4% had right ventricular systolic dysfunction, and 21% had pericardial effusion. In cardiac magnetic resonance studies, left ventricular inferolateral involvement was the most frequent pattern (58%). More than 90% of cases had a benign clinical course. After a 3-month follow-up, the incidence of adverse events was 12.78% (1.44% mortality).
Conclusions
In our setting, inflammatory heart disease after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 predominantly affects young men in the 1st week after the second dose of RNA-m vaccine and presents a favorable clinical course in most cases.
Graphical abstract
•Thermal simulation of a small solar ethanol distillation plant is performed.•The optimum collector area is obtained for two different thermal collectors types.•Higher solar fraction was found for ...parabolic trough collectors.•Economic analysis is performed for different scenarios to evaluate feasibility.
The thermal, environmental and economic performance of a small-scale ethanol distillation system, where solar energy is used as primary energy source, was studied. Two different concentrations of ethanol at the feed stream (5wt.% and 10wt.%) were analysed to obtain a distillate product of 95wt.% ethanol (hydrous ethanol). Evacuated tube solar collectors (ETC) and parabolic trough collectors (PTC) were considered for the solar heating system. A case of study for a specific geographical place (Monterrey, México) was developed herein to evaluate the solar ethanol distillation system; the results can be extended to other locations, weather conditions and operational parameters. The thermal results from the simulation showed that through an adequate selection of the solar collector area and an appropriate sizing of the different equipment of the solar distillation system, PTC represents a better option where energy savings of 80% and 71% can be achieved for 5wt.% and 10wt.% ethanol at the feed stream, respectively. However, the economic feasibility of the solar distillation system is achieved using ETC for a price of hydrous ethanol of 1.75 USD/L and a feed stream of 10wt.% ethanol, reaching an internal rate of return (IRR) of 18.8% and payback period of 5.2years. As an important technical result, selected ETC presented advantages over PTC where an average distillate product of 3.6 and 3.4ml at 95wt.% ethanol can be obtained per unit of solar energy (kWh) captured per area (m2) of solar collector using 5wt.% and 10wt.% ethanol at the feed stream, respectively (36% more than PTC). The reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) was of 72.4kg CO2/yr per area (m2) for evacuated tube solar collector (at least 8% more than PTC). These results are considered useful as they would provide valuable information to members of the ethanol distillation industry, the fuel industry, policy makers in renewable energy, and installers.
Plants produce specific volatile organic compound (VOC) blends in response to herbivory. Herbivore-induced blends may prime the plant for future attack or attract carnivorous insects; these responses ...have been considered adaptive for plants. If herbivores differentially modify the VOC emission among individuals within a group of plants they feed upon, then plant responses to herbivores will not only produce specific blends but also variation in odor among individuals, i.e. individuals smell the same, then having a uniform odor. We investigated the VOC emission variation or uniformity among tomato individuals (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Castlemart) in response to moderate wounding by (1) nymphs of the psyllid Bactericera cockerelli (Sulc.) (TP); (2) Lepidoptera chewing-feeding larvae of Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda Smith) (FAW) and (3) of Cabbage Looper (Trichoplusia ni Hübner) (CL), and (4) mechanical damage (MD). We used a ratio-based analysis to compare the fold-change in concentration from constitutive to induced VOC emission. We also used size and shape analysis to compare the emission of damaged and non-damaged individuals. Aside of finding herbivore-specific blends in line with other studies, we found patterns not described previously. We detected constitutive and induced odor variation among individuals attacked by the same herbivore, with the induced odor uniformity depending on the herbivore identity. We also showed that the fold-change of VOCs from constitutive to induced state differed among individuals independently of the uniformity of the blends before herbivore attack. We discuss our findings in the context of the ecological roles of VOCs in plant-plant and plant-carnivore insects' interactions.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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