We study the properties of photochemical hazes in super-Earth/mini-Neptune atmospheres with particular focus on GJ 1214b. We evaluate photochemical haze properties at different metallicities between ...solar and 10,000× solar. Within the four-order-of-magnitude change in metallicity, we find that the haze precursor mass fluxes change only by a factor of ∼3. This small diversity occurs with a nonmonotonic manner among the different metallicity cases, reflecting the interaction of the main atmospheric gases with the radiation field. Comparison with relative haze yields at different metallicities from laboratory experiments reveals a qualitative similarity to our theoretical calculations and highlights the contributions of different gas precursors. Our haze simulations demonstrate that higher metallicity results in smaller average particle sizes. Metallicities at and above 100× solar with haze formation yields of ∼10% provide enough haze opacity to satisfy transit observations at visible wavelengths and obscure sufficiently the H2O molecular absorption features between 1.1 and 1.7 m. However, only the highest-metallicity case considered (10,000× solar) brings the simulated spectra into closer agreement with transit depths at 3.6 and 4.5 m, indicating a high contribution of CO/CO2 in GJ 1214b's atmosphere. We also evaluate the impact of aggregate growth in our simulations, in contrast to spherical growth, and find that the two growth modes provide similar transit signatures (for Df = 2), but with different particle size distributions. Finally, we conclude that the simulated haze particles should have major implications for the atmospheric thermal structure and for the properties of condensation clouds.
Background: As the public expenditure on long-term care is likely to increase with the ageing of the population, identifying chronic medical conditions associated with the risk of long-term ...institutionalization is of particular interest. However, there is little systematic evidence showing how chronic medical conditions, other than dementia, affect the risk of entering into institutional care in the general older population. Methods: We used population-based follow-up data on Finnish older people aged 65 and over (n = 280 722), to estimate the impact of different chronic conditions on the risk of long-term institutionalization. Furthermore, we analysed which chronic conditions were more strongly associated with the risk of institutionalization than with the risk of death without institutionalization. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used. Results: Our results showed that dementia, Parkinson's disease, stroke, depressive symptoms, other mental health problems, hip fracture and diabetes were strongly associated with increased risk of long-term institutionalization, independent of socio-demographic confounders and the presence of other chronic conditions. All these conditions raised the risk of institutionalization by 50% or more. Dementia, Parkinson's disease, stroke and mental health problems were more strongly associated with the risk of institutionalization than with the risk of death without institutionalization. Conclusions: Overall, these results show that the future demand for institutional care depends not only on the ageing of the population but also on the development of the prevalence and severity of chronic conditions associated with institutionalization.
The PIM family kinases promote cancer cell survival and motility as well as metastatic growth in various types of cancer. We have previously identified several PIM substrates, which support cancer ...cell migration and invasiveness. However, none of them are known to regulate cellular movements by directly interacting with the actin cytoskeleton. Here we have studied the phosphorylation-dependent effects of PIM1 on actin capping proteins, which bind as heterodimers to the fast-growing actin filament ends and stabilize them.
Based on a phosphoproteomics screen for novel PIM substrates, we have used kinase assays and fluorescence-based imaging techniques to validate actin capping proteins as PIM1 substrates and interaction partners. We have analysed the functional consequences of capping protein phosphorylation on cell migration and adhesion by using wound healing and real-time impedance-based assays. We have also investigated phosphorylation-dependent effects on actin polymerization by analysing the protective role of capping protein phosphomutants in actin disassembly assays.
We have identified capping proteins CAPZA1 and CAPZB2 as PIM1 substrates, and shown that phosphorylation of either of them leads to increased adhesion and migration of human prostate cancer cells. Phosphorylation also reduces the ability of the capping proteins to protect polymerized actin from disassembly.
Our data suggest that PIM kinases are able to induce changes in actin dynamics to support cell adhesion and movement. Thus, we have identified a novel mechanism through which PIM kinases enhance motility and metastatic behaviour of cancer cells. Video abstract.
Past ultraviolet and optical observations of stars hosting close-in Jupiter-mass planets have shown that some of these stars present an anomalously low chromospheric activity, significantly below the ...basal level. For the hot Jupiter planet host WASP-13, observations have shown that the apparent lack of activity is possibly caused by absorption from the intervening interstellar medium (ISM). Inspired by this result, we study the effect of ISM absorption on activity measurements (S and log R 'HK indices) for main-sequence late-type stars. To this end, we employ synthetic stellar photospheric spectra combined with varying amounts of chromospheric emission and ISM absorption. We present the effect of ISM absorption on activity measurements by varying several instrumental (spectral resolution), stellar (projected rotational velocity, effective temperature, and chromospheric emission flux), and ISM parameters (relative velocity between stellar and ISM Ca ii lines, broadening b-parameter, and Ca ii column density). We find that for relative velocities between the stellar and ISM lines smaller than 30–40 km s-1 and for ISM Ca ii column densities log NCaII ⪆ 12, the ISM absorption has a significant influence on activity measurements. Direct measurements and three dimensional maps of the Galactic ISM absorption indicate that an ISM Ca ii column density of log NCaII = 12 is typically reached by a distance of about 100 pc along most sight lines. In particular, for a Sun-like star lying at a distance greater than 100 pc, we expect a depression (bias) in the log R 'HK value larger than 0.05–0.1 dex, about the same size as the typical measurement and calibration uncertainties on this parameter. This work shows that the bias introduced by ISM absorption must always be considered when measuring activity for stars lying beyond 100 pc. We also consider the effect of multiple ISM absorption components. We discuss the relevance of this result for exoplanet studies and revise the latest results on stellar activity versus planet surface gravity correlation. We finally describe methods with which it would be possible to account for ISM absorption in activity measurements and provide a code to roughly estimate the magnitude of the bias. Correcting for the ISM absorption bias may allow one to identify the origin of the anomaly in the activity measured for some planet-hosting stars.
Modern industrial machine applications often contain data collection functions through automation systems or external sensors. Yet, while the different data collection mechanisms might be effortless ...to construct, it is advised to have a well-balanced consideration of the possible data inputs based on the machine characteristics, usage, and operational environment. Prior consideration of the collected data parameters reduces the risk of excessive data, yet another challenge remains to distinguish meaningful features significant for the purpose. This research illustrates a peripheral milling machine data collection and data pre-processing approach to diagnose significant machine parameters relevant to milling blade wear. The experiences gained from this research encourage conducting pre-categorisation of data significant for the purpose, those being manual setup data, programmable logic controller (PLC) automation system data, calculated parameters, and measured parameters under this study. Further, the results from the raw data pre-processing phase performed with Pearson Correlation Coefficient and permutation feature importance methods indicate that the most dominant correlation to recognised wear characteristics in the case machine context is perceived with vibration excitation monitoring. The root mean square (RMS) vibration signal is further predicted by using the support vector regression (SVR) algorithm to test the SVR’s overall suitability for the asset’s health index (HI) approximation. It was found that the SVR algorithm has sufficient data parameter behaviour forecast capabilities to be used in the peripheral milling machine prognostic process and its development. The SVR with Gaussian radial basis function (RBF) kernel receives the highest scoring metrics; therefore, outperforming the linear and polynomial kernels compared as part of the study.
Long-term predictors of geriatric syndrome of frailty are unclear. Several obesity-related conditions are associated with frailty. This study examines the predictive role of midlife overweight and ...obesity on development of frailty more than 22 years of follow-up.
Data are from 1,119 men and women aged 30 or older without frailty at baseline participating in a population-based Mini-Finland Health Examination Survey (1978-1980) with follow-up measurement in 2000-2001. At baseline (1978-1980), body weight and height were measured. At follow-up (2000-2001), the dependent variable prefrailty was defined as the presence of one or two of five frailty indicators (shrinking, weakness, exhaustion, slowness, and low physical activity) and frailty was defined as three or more indicators.
The mean age at the baseline was 43.6 (SD 9.7) years, and majority of the participants (95%) were 30-60 years old. Incidence of prefrailty was 5% and frailty 36%. Based on adjusted multinomial logistic regression, persons with overweight (body mass index 25-29.9kg/m(2)) and obesity (body mass index ≥ 30kg/m(2)) at baseline had increased risk of prefrailty (odds ratio 1.45, 95% CI 1.08, 1.96; odds ratio 2.36, 95% CI 1.41, 3.93) and frailty (odds ratio 2.49, 95% CI 1.22, 5.06; odds ratio 5.02, 95% CI 1.89, 13.33) at follow-up in comparison to normal-weight persons after adjusting for age, sex, lifestyle factors and chronic conditions.
Development of frailty may start already in midlife, and obesity is one of the underlying causes of frailty.
Objective
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of anakinra compared to triamcinolone in the treatment of gout flares.
Methods
Patients for whom nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and colchicine were ...not suitable treatments were enrolled in this multicenter, randomized, double‐blind study with follow‐up for up to 2 years. The study was designed to assess superiority of anakinra (100 or 200 mg/day for 5 days) over triamcinolone (40 mg in a single injection) for the primary end point of changed patient‐assessed pain intensity in the most affected joint (scored on a visual analog scale of 0–100) from baseline to 24–72 hours. Secondary outcome measures included: safety, immunogenicity, and patient‐ and physician‐assessed global response.
Results
One hundred sixty‐five patients were randomized to receive anakinra (n = 110) or triamcinolone (n = 55). The median age was 55 years (range 25–83), 87% were men, the mean disease duration was 8.7 years, and the mean number of self‐reported flares during the prior year was 4.5. A total of 301 flares were treated (214 with anakinra; 87 with triamcinolone). Anakinra in both doses and triamcinolone provided clinically meaningful reduction in patient‐assessed pain intensity in the first and subsequent flares. For the first flare, the mean decline in pain intensity from baseline to 24–72 hours for total anakinra and triamcinolone was −41.2 and −39.4, respectively (P = 0.688). Anakinra performed better than triamcinolone for most secondary end points. There were no unexpected safety findings. The presence of antidrug antibodies was not associated with adverse events or altered pain reduction.
Conclusion
Anakinra was not superior to triamcinolone for the primary end point, but had comparable efficacy in pain reduction and was favored for most secondary end points. Anakinra is an effective option for gout flares when conventional therapy is unsuitable.
Context.
Observationally constraining the atmospheric temperature-pressure (TP) profile of exoplanets is an important step forward for improving planetary atmosphere models, thus further enabling one ...to place the detection of spectral features and the measurement of atomic and molecular abundances through transmission and emission spectroscopy on solid ground.
Aims.
The aim is to constrain the TP profile of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9b by fitting synthetic spectra to the observed H
α
and H
β
lines and identify why self-consistent planetary TP models are unable to fit the observations.
Methods.
We constructed 126 one-dimensional TP profiles varying the lower and upper atmospheric temperatures, as well as the location and gradient of the temperature rise. For each TP profile, we computed the transmission spectra of the H
α
and H
β
lines employing the Cloudy radiative transfer code, which self-consistently accounts for non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) effects.
Results.
The TP profiles, leading to best fit the observations, are characterised by an upper atmospheric temperature of 10 000–11 000 K and by an inverted temperature profile at pressures higher than 10
−4
bar. We find that the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) leads one to overestimate the level population of excited hydrogen by several orders of magnitude and hence to significantly overestimate the strength of the Balmer lines. The chemical composition of the best fitting models indicate that the high upper atmospheric temperature is most likely driven by metal photoionisation and that Fe
II
and Fe
III
have comparable abundances at pressures lower than 10
−6
bar, possibly making the latter detectable.
Conclusions.
Modelling the atmospheres of ultra-hot Jupiters requires one to account for metal photoionisation. The high atmospheric mass-loss rate (>10
11
g s
−1
), caused by the high temperature, may have consequences on the planetary atmospheric evolution. Other ultra-hot Jupiters orbiting early-type stars may be characterised by similarly high upper atmospheric temperatures and hence high mass-loss rates. This may have consequences on the basic properties of the observed planets orbiting hot stars.
Electrodynamics plays an important role in controlling circulation and energy balance in Saturn's auroral thermosphere, but less is known about its effects at lower latitudes. Recent observations by ...the Cassini magnetometer instrument, taken around the equator during the Grand Finale tour, revealed azimuthal magnetic field perturbations of the order of 10–30 nT associated with electrodynamics in Saturn's upper atmosphere. In order to investigate the implications of these observations, we develop a steady-state, axisymmetric model adapted from terrestrial studies to simulate wind-driven electrodynamics at low to middle latitudes in Saturn's thermosphere. Our results demonstrate, based on rigorous theory, that the magnetic field observations can be reproduced by a wind dynamo generating electric currents in the ionosphere of the order 10−9 − 10−7 Am−2 provided that eastward zonal winds of the order of 100 ms−1 exist in the equatorial thermosphere. The resistive (Joule) heating rate based on the equatorial current system, however, is significantly lower than that required to explain the temperatures in Saturn's thermosphere. In spite of this, we find that resistive heating and ion drag due to a mid-latitude wind dynamo have the potential to alter the energy balance and general circulation in Saturn's thermosphere and should be treated self-consistently in future global circulation models.
•An ionospheric wind dynamo may explain unexpected Cassini Grand Finale measurements.•We use an axisymmetric, steady-state model to study equatorial electrodynamics.•Ionospheric electrodynamics is sensitive to both vertical and meridional structure.•An equatorial jet can explain Cassini MAG observations at low latitudes.•Equatorial electrodynamics is unlikely to resolve the heating problem on Saturn.
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