During the past several years, immunoassays for specific IgE antibodies have been refined to permit reporting results in mass units. Thus quantitative immunoassays for IgE antibodies may be an ...adjunct to skin tests. In cases of food allergy among children with atopic dermatitis, cutoff values for IgE antibody concentrations to egg, milk, peanut, and fish have been derived to provide 95% positive and 90% negative predictive values. Food-specific IgE antibody determinations can also be used to predict which food allergies are resolving spontaneously. Elevated egg-specific IgE antibody levels in infancy are associated with significantly increased risk for development of inhalant allergies later in childhood. In cases of inhalant allergy, specific IgE antibody levels correlate closely with results of inhalation challenge studies in cat-sensitive persons. Also, mite-specific IgE antibody levels correlate significantly with the mite allergen contents of reservoir dust in the homes of mite-sensitive persons. Immunoassays for quantitation of specific IgE antibodies may be used to document allergen sensitization over time and to evaluate the risk of reaction on allergen exposure. However, immunoassays and skin tests are not entirely interchangeable, and neither will replace the other in appropriate circumstances. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2000;105:1077-84.)
ABSTRACT We report the results of a Dark Energy Camera optical follow-up of the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW151226, discovered by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory ...detectors. Our observations cover 28.8 deg2 of the localization region in the i and z bands (containing 3% of the BAYESTAR localization probability), starting 10 hr after the event was announced and spanning four epochs at 2-24 days after the GW detection. We achieve 5 point-source limiting magnitudes of i 21.7 and z 21.5 , with a scatter of 0.4 mag, in our difference images. Given the two-day delay, we search this area for a rapidly declining optical counterpart with 3 significance steady decline between the first and final observations. We recover four sources that pass our selection criteria, of which three are cataloged active galactic nuclei. The fourth source is offset by 5.8 arcsec from the center of a galaxy at a distance of 187 Mpc, exhibits a rapid decline by 0.5 mag over 4 days, and has a red color of i − z 0.3 mag. These properties could satisfy a set of cuts designed to identify kilonovae. However, this source was detected several times, starting 94 days prior to GW151226, in the Pan-STARRS Survey for Transients (dubbed as PS15cdi) and is therefore unrelated to the GW event. Given its long-term behavior, PS15cdi is likely a Type IIP supernova that transitioned out of its plateau phase during our observations, mimicking a kilonova-like behavior. We comment on the implications of this detection for contamination in future optical follow-up observations.
Is Arginine a Zwitterion in the Gas Phase? Price, William D; Jockusch, Rebecca A; Williams, Evan R
Journal of the American Chemical Society,
12/1997, Letnik:
119, Številka:
49
Journal Article
► Asphaltene present in heavy fuel oils is a major factor in the formation of smoke and stack solids. ► The thermal decomposition of asphaltenes is investigated. ► Information is given on the ...influence of asphaltenes on ignition delay and smoke formation.
Heavy fuel oils, such as Bunker C, are widely used as fuels, particularly in marine engines for transportation. Considerable effort is being applied to reduce the smoke and stack solid emissions. These emissions are largely caused by the asphaltene content of the heavy fuel oils. New information concerning the nature and thermal decomposition of asphaltenes will enable progress to be made in the understanding of the pollutant routes for smoke formation. The emitted smoke is made up of unburned fuel, soot particles and cenospheres. There is evidence that asphaltenes reduce ignition delay times, but do not influence the burning times of the fuel droplets. The reduction in ignition delay is attributed to the production of volatiles from the pyrolysis of asphaltenes. A model is given outlining the kinetics of cenosphere formation during the combustion of the fuel oil droplet.
The family Mutillidae comprises a diverse group of solitary wasps, with over 4000 described species. They are characterized by strong sexual dimorphism: all females are wingless, while males almost ...always are fully winged and capable of flight. Adult females are generally parasitoids of immature stages of other aculeate Hymenoptera. When inside a host nest they are known to drink hemolymph from the host larvae or prepupae. Adult males, on the other hand, generally feed on nectar. Additionally, both females and males can also collect honeydew from Hemiptera or sweet exudates from extrafloral nectaries as the main article in their diets. According to Weber and Keeler EFNs are present in 3941 species of vascular plants, representing 745 genera in 108 families; yet as reported by the authors, only 1.0-1.8% of flowering plant species have EFNs. In this article, the authors present the first record of Mutillidae feeding on extrafloral nectaries in Malpighiaceae, a family of herbs, shrubs, vines and trees that comprises about 1300 species worldwide.
Concentrations of NO3 and N2O5 were measured using an in situ instrument aboard the NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown in the marine boundary layer along the United States east coast as part of the ...New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS) in the summer of 2002. We analyze the results in terms of the loss partitioning and sink budgets for both of these compounds. Analysis of the data on nights with large N2O5 losses allowed for a determination of its heterogeneous uptake coefficient and gave γ(N2O5) = 0.03 ± 0.02. Reactions of NO3 with terrestrially emitted biogenic volatile organic compounds (isoprene and monoterpenes), advected into the marine boundary layer, and with DMS emitted from the ocean surface were also important. In general, loss of NO3 and N2O5 was rapid, and the partitioning between NO3 and N2O5 losses was roughly equal. Because rapid N2O5 loss consumes NOx at twice the rate of the reaction of NO2 with O3, whereas rapid NO3 loss leads to NOx removal at the same rate, the equal partitioning of losses indicates a nocturnal NOx loss rate of approximately 1.5 times the rate of NO2 + O3. Activation of halogens from the uptake of NO3 and N2O5 on sea salt was calculated to have produced substantial amounts of active Cl on some mornings through the nocturnal formation and sunrise photolysis of ClNO2 if the process proceeded at the rate determined by laboratory studies. However, there was no direct observational evidence to test the magnitude of the predicted source.
The prevention and management of venous disease is a therapeutic challenge. Movement of blood through the venous system is augmented by the action of muscles on the deep veins, and can be achieved ...through the application of electrical current. The efficacy of currently available clinical devices for this purpose is unknown, and is investigated here.
A literature search of the EMBASE and Medline databases was performed, and studies were included if they were full text articles, written in english, pertaining to venous disease and neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES).
NMES devices increase venous haemodynamic parameters such as peak velocity and volume flow. Studies report them to be non-inferior to intermittent pneumatic compression. They are effective in the prevention of venous thromboembolism, though inferior to low molecular weight heparin. NMES can reduce symptoms of chronic venous disease.
NMES is an important tool in the prevention and management of venous disease, and avoids the significant risks associated with heparin administration. Data explored here is heterogenous in device, protocol, and reported end-points, therefore should be interpreted with care. Long term effects of treatment with NMES have not been explored.
Conservation scientists, national governments, and international conservation groups seek to devise, and implement, governance strategies that mitigate human impact on the environment. However, few ...studies to date have systematically investigated the performance of different systems of governance in achieving successful conservation outcomes. Here, we use a newly-developed analytic framework to conduct analyses of a suite of case studies, linking different governance strategies to standardized scores for delivering ecosystem services, achieving sustainable use of natural resources, and conserving biodiversity, at both local and international levels. Our results: (i) confirm the benefits of adaptive management; and (ii) reveal strong associations for the role of leadership. Our work provides a critical step toward implementing empirically justified governance strategies that are capable of improving the management of human-altered environments, with benefits for both biodiversity and people.
We have performed a search for muon neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the center of the Sun with the 79-string configuration of the IceCube neutrino telescope. For the first time, the ...DeepCore subarray is included in the analysis, lowering the energy threshold and extending the search to the austral summer. The 317 days of data collected between June 2010 and May 2011 are consistent with the expected background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos. Upper limits are set on the dark matter annihilation rate, with conversions to limits on spin-dependent and spin-independent scattering cross sections of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) on protons, for WIMP masses in the range 20-5000 GeV/c2. These are the most stringent spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross section limits to date above 35 GeV/c2 for most WIMP models.
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