In the months since the publication of the first results, the noise performance of LISA Pathfinder has improved because of reduced Brownian noise due to the continued decrease in pressure around the ...test masses, from a better correction of noninertial effects, and from a better calibration of the electrostatic force actuation. In addition, the availability of numerous long noise measurement runs, during which no perturbation is purposely applied to the test masses, has allowed the measurement of noise with good statistics down to 20 μHz. The Letter presents the measured differential acceleration noise figure, which is at (1.74±0.05) fm s^{-2}/sqrtHz above 2 mHz and (6±1)×10 fm s^{-2}/sqrtHz at 20 μHz, and discusses the physical sources for the measured noise. This performance provides an experimental benchmark demonstrating the ability to realize the low-frequency science potential of the LISA mission, recently selected by the European Space Agency.
Summary
Growing evidence suggests that thrombophilia is associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE) and adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, methodological limitations have made it difficult to ...obtain a clear overview of the overall risks. We conducted a systematic review to determine the risk of VTE and adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with thrombophilia in pregnancy. The effectiveness of prophylactic interventions during pregnancy was also evaluated. Major electronic databases were searched, relevant data ed and study quality assessed by two independent reviewers. Odds ratios (ORs) stratified by thrombophilia type were calculated for each outcome. A total of 79 studies were included in our review. The risks for individual thrombophilic defects were determined for VTE (ORs, 0·74–34·40); early pregnancy loss (ORs, 1·40–6·25); late pregnancy loss (ORs, 1·31–20·09); pre‐eclampsia (ORs, 1·37–3·49); placental abruption (ORs, 1·42–7·71) and intrauterine growth restriction (ORs, 1·24–2·92). Low‐dose aspirin plus heparin was the most effective in preventing pregnancy loss in thrombophilic women (OR, 1·62). Our findings confirm that women with thrombophilia are at risk of developing VTE and complications in pregnancy. However, despite the increase in relative risk, the absolute risk of VTE and adverse outcomes remains low. There is also a lack of controlled trials of antithrombotic intervention to prevent pregnancy complications. Thus, at present, universal screening for thrombophilia in pregnancy cannot be justified clinically.
NCBI's Conserved Domain Database (CDD) is a resource for the annotation of protein sequences with the location of conserved domain footprints, and functional sites inferred from these footprints. CDD ...includes manually curated domain models that make use of protein 3D structure to refine domain models and provide insights into sequence/structure/function relationships. Manually curated models are organized hierarchically if they describe domain families that are clearly related by common descent. As CDD also imports domain family models from a variety of external sources, it is a partially redundant collection. To simplify protein annotation, redundant models and models describing homologous families are clustered into superfamilies. By default, domain footprints are annotated with the corresponding superfamily designation, on top of which specific annotation may indicate high-confidence assignment of family membership. Pre-computed domain annotation is available for proteins in the Entrez/Protein dataset, and a novel interface, Batch CD-Search, allows the computation and download of annotation for large sets of protein queries. CDD can be accessed via http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/cdd.shtml.
Dairy cows can be reservoirs of foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella that pose serious public health risks to humans. The study was designed to examine the molecular epidemiology and antimicrobial ...resistance profiles of Salmonella isolates from dairy heifer calves and adult lactating cows in the pasture-based system of Australia. A total of 838 animals (328 heifer calves and 510 lactating cows) from 22 farms were sampled. Overall, 54 Salmonella isolates were recovered (calves 28/328 and cows 26/510). A herd-level Salmonella prevalence of 50% (95% confidence interval: 31%–69%) was recorded. Within-herd prevalence for Salmonella ranged between 4%–29% and 4%–45% among the heifer calves and adult lactating cows, respectively. Three different serovars were identified with Salmonella Infantis being the most common serovar (n = 33, 61%) followed by Salmonella Kiambu (n = 20, 37.0%) and one isolate of Salmonella Cerro (2%). The highest antimicrobial resistance prevalence of Salmonella isolates was found against streptomycin (n = 31, 57%), followed by cefoxitin (n = 12, 22%), ceftriaxone (n = 2, 4%), and chloramphenicol (n = 1, 2%). Multiple class resistance was observed on 4 isolates against cefoxitin, chloramphenicol, and streptomycin. Multilocus sequence types ST32 (61%), ST309 (37%), and ST367 (2%) were strongly linked to the serovars Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Kiambu, and Salmonella Cerro, respectively. Whole genome sequencing of Salmonella isolates detected only 2 resistance genes: aac(6′) gene that confers resistance against aminoglycosides among 40.7% of the isolates, and a single isolate positive for the blaDHA-16 gene. Two distinct clusters among the serovars were observed suggesting 2 independent sources of spread. Despite the low prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among Salmonella from the dairy farms, our findings contribute to the regional and national understanding of antimicrobial resistance in dairy herds in Australia. There is need for continued antimicrobial resistance stewardship and surveillance programs to ensure the production of high-quality food products and the long-term protection of both animal and human health.
ABSTRACT
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) has been a space-based mission designed to test new technologies that will be required for a gravitational wave observatory in space. Magnetically driven forces play a ...key role in the instrument sensitivity in the low-frequency regime (mHz and below), the measurement band of interest for a space-based observatory. The magnetic field can couple to the magnetic susceptibility and remanent magnetic moment from the test masses and disturb them from their geodesic movement. LPF carried on-board a dedicated magnetic measurement subsystem with noise levels of 10 $\rm nT \ Hz^{-1/2}$ from 1 Hz down to 1 mHz. In this paper we report on the magnetic measurements throughout LPF operations. We characterize the magnetic environment within the spacecraft, study the time evolution of the magnetic field and its stability down to 20 μHz, where we measure values around 200 $\rm nT \ Hz^{-1/2}$, and identify two different frequency regimes, one related to the interplanetary magnetic field and the other to the magnetic field originating inside the spacecraft. Finally, we characterize the non-stationary component of the fluctuations of the magnetic field below the mHz and relate them to the dynamics of the solar wind.
The science operations of the LISA Pathfinder mission have demonstrated the feasibility of sub-femto-g free fall of macroscopic test masses necessary to build a gravitational wave observatory in ...space such as LISA. While the main focus of interest, i.e., the optical axis or the x-axis, has been extensively studied, it is also of great importance to evaluate the stability of the spacecraft with respect to all the other degrees of freedom (d.o.f.). The current paper is dedicated to such a study: the exhaustive and quantitative evaluation of the imperfections and dynamical effects that impact the stability with respect to its local geodesic. A model of the complete closed-loop system provides a comprehensive understanding of each component of the in-loop coordinates spectral density. As will be presented, this model gives very good agreement with LISA Pathfinder flight data. It allows one to identify the noise source at the origin and the physical phenomena underlying the couplings. From this, the stability performance of the spacecraft with respect to its geodesic is extracted as a function of frequency. Close to 1 mHz, the stability of the spacecraft on the XSC, YSC and ZSC d.o.f. is shown to be of the order of 5.0×10−15 m s−2 Hz−1/2 for X, 6.0×10−14 m s−2 Hz−1/2 for Y, and 4.0×10−14 m s−2 Hz−1/2 for Z. For the angular d.o.f., the values are of the order of 3×10−12 rad s−2 Hz−1/2 for ΘSC, 5×10−13 rad s−2 Hz−1/2 for HSC, and 3×10−13 rad s−2 Hz−1/2 for ΦSC. Below 1 mHz, however, the stability performances are worsened significantly by the effect of the star tracker noise on the closed-loop system. It is worth noting that LISA is expected to be spared from such concerns, as differential wave-front sensing, an attitude sensor system of much higher precision, will be utilized for attitude control.
The LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission has demonstrated the ability to limit and measure the fluctuations in acceleration between two free falling test masses down to sub-femto-g levels. One of the key ...elements to achieve such a level of residual acceleration is the drag free control. In this scheme the spacecraft is used as a shield against any external disturbances by adjusting its relative position to a reference test mass. The actuators used to move the spacecraft are cold gas micropropulsion thrusters. In this paper, we report in-flight characterization of these thrusters in term of noise and artefacts during science operations using all the metrology capabilities of LISA Pathfinder. Using the LISA Pathfinder test masses as an inertial reference frame, an average thruster noise of ∼0.17 μN/Hz is observed and decomposed into a common (coherent) and an uncorrelated component. The very low noise and stability of the onboard metrology system associated with the quietness of the space environment allowed the measurement of the thruster noise down to ∼20 μHz, more than an order of magnitude below any ground measurement. Spectral lines were observed around ∼1.5 mHz and its harmonics and around 55 and 70 mHz. They are associated with the cold gas system itself and possibly to a clock synchronization issue. The thruster noise-floor exhibits an excess of ∼70% compared to characterization that have been made on ground on a single unit and without the feeding system. However this small excess has no impact on the LPF mission performance and is compatible with the noise budget for the upcoming LISA gravitational wave observatory. Over the whole mission, nominal, and extension, the thrusters showed remarkable stability for both the science operations and the different maneuvers necessary to maintain LPF on its orbit around L1. It is therefore concluded that a similar cold gas system would be a viable propulsion system for the future LISA mission.
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) was a European Space Agency mission with the aim to test key technologies for future space-borne gravitational-wave observatories like LISA. The main scientific goal of LPF was ...to demonstrate measurements of differential acceleration between free-falling test masses at the sub-femto-g level, and to understand the residual acceleration in terms of a physical model of stray forces, and displacement readout noise. A key step toward reaching the LPF goals was the correct calibration of the dynamics of LPF, which was a three-body system composed by two test-masses enclosed in a single spacecraft, and subject to control laws for system stability. In this work, we report on the calibration procedures adopted to calculate the residual differential stray force per unit mass acting on the two test-masses in their nominal positions. The physical parameters of the adopted dynamical model are presented, together with their role on LPF performance. The analysis and results of these experiments show that the dynamics of the system was accurately modeled and the dynamical parameters were stationary throughout the mission. Finally, the impact and importance of calibrating system dynamics for future space-based gravitational wave observatories is discussed.
Enhanced community surveillance is a key pillar of the public health response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Asymptomatic carriage of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ...(SARS-CoV-2) is a potentially significant source of transmission, yet remains relatively poorly understood. Disruption of dental services continues with significantly reduced capacity. Ongoing precautions include preappointment and/or at appointment COVID-19 symptom screening and use of enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE). This study aimed to investigate SARS-CoV-2 infection in dental patients to inform community surveillance and improve understanding of risks in the dental setting. Thirty-one dental care centers across Scotland invited asymptomatic-screened patients aged over 5 y to participate. Following verbal consent and completion of sociodemographic and symptom history questionnaire, trained dental teams took a combined oropharyngeal and nasal swab sample using standardized Viral Transport Medium–containing test kits. Samples were processed by the Lighthouse Lab and patients informed of their results by SMS/email with appropriate self-isolation guidance in the event of a positive test. All positive cases were successfully followed up by the national contact tracing program. Over a 13-wk period (from August 3, 2020, to October 31, 2020), 4,032 patients, largely representative of the population, were tested. Of these, 22 (0.5%; 95% CI, 0.5%–0.8%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The positivity rate increased over the period, commensurate with uptick in community prevalence identified across all national testing monitoring data streams. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a COVID-19 testing survey in asymptomatic-screened patients presenting in a dental setting. The positivity rate in this patient group reflects the underlying prevalence in community at the time. These data are a salient reminder, particularly when community infection levels are rising, of the importance of appropriate ongoing infection prevention control and PPE vigilance, which is relevant as health care team fatigue increases as the pandemic continues. Dental settings are a valuable location for public health surveillance.
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