Supermassive black holes in the nuclei of active galaxies expel large
amounts of matter through powerful winds of ionized gas. The archetypal
active galaxy NGC 5548 has been studied for decades, and ...high-resolution
x-ray and ultraviolet (UV) observations have previously shown a
persistent ionized outflow. An observing campaign in 2013 with six space
observatories shows the nucleus to be obscured by a long-lasting, clumpy
stream of ionized gas not seen before. It blocks 90% of the soft x-ray
emission and causes simultaneous deep, broad UV absorption troughs. The
outflow velocities of this gas are up to five times faster than those in
the persistent outflow, and, at a distance of only a few light days from
the nucleus, it may likely originate from the accretion disk.
This study aims to identify the account of the diploma/certificate owner in way of face recognition. The process of detecting the face image of diploma/certificate owner is using the Viola-Jones ...Method. The process is comparing existing face images in database using the Eigen face Algorithm. The trial material in the form of test data is totaling 10 people to identify ownership of data from a diploma/certificate. The test result using the Viola-Jones method and Eigen face algorithm obtained an accuracy value of 70%. The system can identify and recognize facial image data with the provisions of the face position facing to front of the camera, evenly distributed light intensity, and the distance between the face and computer camera ± 35 cm.
Water-ethanol mixtures exhibit interesting anomalies in their macroscopic properties. Despite a lot of research, the origin of the anomalies and the microscopic structure itself is still far from ...completely known. We have utilized the synchrotron x-ray Compton scattering technique to elucidate the structure of aqueous ethanol from a new experimental perspective. The technique is uniquely sensitive to the local molecular geometries at the angstrom and subangstrom scales. The experiments reveal two distinct mixing regimes in terms of geometry: the dilute 5 mol % and the concentrated >15 mol % regimes. By comparing with pure liquids, the former regime is characterized by an intramolecular and the latter by an intermolecular change. The findings bring new light to evaluating the hypothesis of formation of clathratelike structures at the dilute concentrations.
The prevalence of nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is greater in individuals of African ancestry than in individuals of European ancestry. However, little is known about whether the ...difference in prevalence or outcomes is associated with functional genetic variants.
We hypothesized that Bcl2-associated anthanogene 3 (BAG3) genetic variants were associated with outcomes in individuals of African ancestry with DCM.
This multicohort study of the BAG3 genotype in patients of African ancestry with dilated cardiomyopathy uses DNA obtained from African American individuals enrolled in 3 clinical studies: the Genetic Risk Assessment of African Americans With Heart Failure (GRAHF) study; the Intervention in Myocarditis and Acute Cardiomyopathy Trial-2 (IMAC-2) study; and the Genetic Risk Assessment of Cardiac Events (GRACE) study. Samples of DNA were also acquired from the left ventricular myocardium of patients of African ancestry who underwent heart transplant at the University of Colorado and University of Pittsburgh.
The primary end points were the prevalence of BAG3 mutations in African American individuals and event-free survival in participants harboring functional BAG3 mutations.
Four BAG3 genetic variants were identified; these were expressed in 42 of 402 African American individuals (10.4%) with nonischemic heart failure and 9 of 107 African American individuals (8.4%) with ischemic heart failure but were not present in a reference population of European ancestry (P < .001). The variants included 2 nonsynonymous single-nucleotide variants; 1 three-nucleotide in-frame insertion; and 2 single-nucleotide variants that were linked in cis. The presence of BAG3 variants was associated with a nearly 2-fold (hazard ratio, 1.97 95% CI, 1.19-3.24; P = .01) increase in cardiac events in carriers compared with noncarriers. Transfection of transformed adult human ventricular myocytes with plasmids expressing the 4 variants demonstrated that each variant caused an increase in apoptosis and a decrease in autophagy when samples were subjected to the stress of hypoxia-reoxygenation.
This study demonstrates that genetic variants in BAG3 found almost exclusively in individuals of African ancestry were not causative of disease but were associated with a negative outcome in patients with a dilated cardiomyopathy through modulation of the function of BAG3. The results emphasize the importance of biological differences in causing phenotypic variance across diverse patient populations, the need to include diverse populations in genetic cohorts, and the importance of determining the pathogenicity of genetic variants.
We report the design and the performance of the engineering model of the digital signal processing system called the Pulse Shape Processor (PSP) for the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard the ...ASTRO-H satellite. The SXS employs an X-ray microcalorimeter system, in which X-ray photons are detected as a heat pulse due to photoelectric absorption. The pixelized HgTe absorbers are cooled down to 50 mK. The required energy resolution is 7 eV (FWHM) at 6 keV. Since the data link to the satellite data recorder is limited to 200 kbit s -1 , the onboard digital processor PSP plays a critical role in achieving the required resolution. The PSP is also the rate-limiting factor for other performance of the SXS, such as maximum count rate and energy range. In this paper, we show the design of the PSP, and show the performance based on a series of laboratory tests performed with the engineering models of the detector and the analog readout electronics. We found that (1) the PSP can register energy in the 0.07-18 keV band energy range, (2) the energy resolution of the engineering model system, including the detector, analog electronics, and the PSP, is 4.8-5.7 eV at 5.9 keV energy resolution, and (3) the PSP has sufficient processing power to handle a point-like source fainter than 0.3 Crab maximum count rate. These results are expected to be quite similar to those with the flight model, thus the results will be useful for the observation planning using the SXS.
The Pulse Shape Processor is a digital signal processing electronics for the microcalorimeter instrument onboard ASTRO-H. Receiving digitized waveform (14 bit, 12.5 kHz sample) from 2×18 channels, ...two identical units of PSP-A and -B trigger X-ray events, assign five kinds of event grade, and perform optimal filtering to measure energy deposit on the 6×6 microcalorimeter pixels. One unit of PSP is composed of one FPGA board and two CPU boards. This paper describes the event processing algorithm to fulfill requirements for the signal processing, and task sharing between FPGA and CPU.
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