We report a detection of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the three-dimensional correlation function of the transmitted flux fraction in the Lyα forest of high-redshift quasars. The ...study uses 48 640 quasars in the redshift range 2.1 ≤ z ≤ 3.5 from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the third generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III). At a mean redshift z = 2.3, we measure the monopole and quadrupole components of the correlation function for separations in the range 20 h-1 Mpc < r < 200 h-1 Mpc. A peak in the correlation function is seen at a separation equal to (1.01 ± 0.03) times the distance expected for the BAO peak within a concordance ΛCDM cosmology. This first detection of the BAO peak at high redshift, when the universe was strongly matter dominated, results in constraints on the angular diameter distance DA and the expansion rate H at z = 2.3 that, combined with priors on H0 and the baryon density, require the existence of dark energy. Combined with constraints derived from cosmic microwave background observations, this result implies H(z = 2.3) = (224 ± 8) km s-1 Mpc-1, indicating that the time derivative of the cosmological scale parameter ȧ = H(z = 2.3)/(1 + z) is significantly greater than that measured with BAO at z ~ 0.5. This demonstrates that the expansion was decelerating in the range 0.7 < z < 2.3, as expected from the matter domination during this epoch. Combined with measurements of H0, one sees the pattern of deceleration followed by acceleration characteristic of a dark-energy dominated universe.
The SDSS-III BOSS Quasar survey will attempt to observe z > 2.15 quasars at a density of at least 15 per square degree to yield the first measurement of the baryon acoustic oscillations in the Ly-α ...forest. To help reaching this goal, we have developed a method to identify quasars based on their variability in the ugriz optical bands. The method has been applied to the selection of quasar targets in the SDSS region known as Stripe 82 (the southern equatorial stripe), where numerous photometric observations are available over a 10-year baseline. This area was observed by BOSS during September and October 2010. Only 8% of the objects selected via variability are not quasars, while 90% of the previously identified high-redshift quasar population is recovered. The method allows for a significant increase in the z > 2.15 quasar density over previous strategies based on optical (ugriz) colors, achieving a density of 24.0 deg-2 on average down to g ~ 22 over the 220 deg2 area of Stripe 82. We applied this method to simulated data from the Palomar Transient Factory and from Pan-STARRS, and showed that even with data that have sparser time sampling than what is available in Stripe 82, including variability in future quasar selection strategies would lead to increased target selection efficiency in the z > 2.15 redshift range. We also found that broad absorption line quasars are preferentially present in a variability than in a color selection.
Context. Baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and their effects on the matter power spectrum can be studied using the Lyman-α absorption signature of the matter density field along quasar (QSO) lines ...of sight. A measurement sufficiently accurate to provide useful cosmological constraints requires the observation of ~ 105 quasars in the redshift range 2.2 < z < 3.5 over ~ 8000deg2. Such a survey is planned by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) project of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III). Aims. We assess one of the challenges for this project, that of building from five-band imaging data a list of targets that contains the largest number of quasars in the required redshift range. In practice, we perform a stellar rejection of more than two orders of magnitude with a selection efficiency for quasars better than 50% to magnitudes as bright as g ~ 22. Methods. To obtain an appropriate target list and estimate quasar redshifts, we develop artificial neural networks (ANNs) with a multilayer perceptron architecture. The input variables are photometric measurements, i.e., the object magnitudes and their errors in the five bands (ugriz) of the SDSS photometry. The ANN developed for target selection provides a continuous output variable between 0 for non-quasar point-like objects to 1 for quasars. A second ANN estimates the QSO redshift z using the photometric information. Results. For target selection, we achieve a non-quasar point-like object rejection of 99.6% and 98.5% for a quasar efficiency of, respectively, 50% and 85%, comparable to the performances of traditional methods. The photometric redshift precision is on the order of 0.1 over the region relevant to BAO studies. These statistical methods, developed in the context of the BOSS project, can easily be extended to any quasar selection and/or determination of their photometric redshift.
Olive oil provides a mixture of lipids and antioxidant nutrients which may help preventing age-related diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). However, little is known about the ...associations between olive oil consumption and the risk of AMD.
To examine associations between olive oil use and AMD prevalence in elderly subjects.
Alienor (Antioxydants, Lipides Essentiels, Nutrition et maladies OculaiRes) is a population-based study on eye diseases performed in elderly residents of Bordeaux (France). In 1999-2000, frequencies of consumption of main categories of dietary fats used were collected. In 2006-2088, AMD was graded from non mydriatic retinal photographs into three exclusive stages: no AMD, early AMD, and late AMD. Two categories of preferred dietary fat used (olive oil, n-3 rich oils, n-6 rich oils, mixed oils, butter and margarine) were defined: "no use" and "regular use" (using fat for spreading and/or cooking and/or dressing). Associations of AMD with each fat use were estimated using Generalized Estimating Equation logistic regressions models.
Our study included 654 subjects (1269 eyes) with complete data (n = 268 eyes with early AMD and n = 56 with late AMD). After adjustment for potential confounders, regular use of olive oil was significantly associated with a decreased risk of late AMD (odds ratio OR = 0.44, 95% confidence interval CI: 0.21;0.91). In contrast, regular use of olive oil was not significantly associated with early AMD (OR = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.59;1.21). No associations were found between regular consumption of n-3 rich oils, n-6 rich oils, mixed oils, butter and margarine and AMD, whatever the stage.
This study suggests a protective effect of olive oil consumption for late AMD in this elderly community-dwelling population. Characterization of the mediating nutrients deserves further research.
Large Scale Structures (LSS) in the universe can be traced using the neutral atomic hydrogen HI through its 21cm emission. Such a 3D matter distribution map can be used to test the Cosmological model ...and to constrain the Dark Energy properties or its equation of state. A novel approach, called intensity mapping can be used to map the HI distribution, using radio interferometers with large instantaneous field of view and waveband. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of different radio interferometer configurations, or multi-beam instruments for the observation of large scale structures and BAO oscillations in 21cm and we discuss the problem of foreground removal. For each configuration, we determine instrument response by computing the (u,v) or Fourier angular frequency plane coverage using visibilities. The (u,v) plane response is the noise power spectrum, hence the instrument sensitivity for LSS P(k) measurement. We describe also a simple foreground subtraction method to separate LSS 21 cm signal from the foreground due to the galactic synchrotron and radio sources emission. We have computed the noise power spectrum for different instrument configuration as well as the extracted LSS power spectrum, after separation of 21cm-LSS signal from the foregrounds. We have also obtained the uncertainties on the Dark Energy parameters for an optimized 21 cm BAO survey. We show that a radio instrument with few hundred simultaneous beams and a collecting area of ~10000 m^2 will be able to detect BAO signal at redshift z ~ 1 and will be competitive with optical surveys.
Interleukin (IL) 34 is a new cytokine implicated in macrophage differentiation and osteoclastogenesis. This study assessed IL-34 expression in the tissue of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
...Immunohistochemistry was performed in synovial biopsies from patients with RA (n=20), osteoarthritis (n=3) or other inflammatory arthritis (n=4). IL-34 was detected in the synovial fluid by ELISA and its messenger RNA expression was studied by quantitative PCR in rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts after stimulation by tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) and IL-1β. Wild-type, jnk1(-/-)-jnk2(-/-) and nemo(-/-) murine fibroblasts and pharmacological inhibition were used to determine the involvement of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and JNK in that effect.
IL-34 was expressed in 24/27 biopsies, with three samples from RA patients being negative. A significant association was found between IL-34 expression and synovitis severity. Levels of IL-34 and the total leucocyte count in synovial fluid were correlated. TNFα and IL-1β stimulated IL-34 expression by synovial fibroblasts in a dose/time-dependent manner through the NF-κB and JNK pathway.
This work for the first time identifies IL-34 expression in the synovial tissue of patients with arthritis. This cytokine, as a downstream effector of TNFα and IL-1β, may contribute to inflammation and bone erosions in RA.
We present the Data Release 9 Quasar (DR9Q) catalog from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. The catalog includes all BOSS objects that were ...targeted as quasar candidates during the survey, are spectrocopically confirmed as quasars via visual inspection, have luminosities Miz = 2 < −20.5 (in a ΛCDM cosmology with H0 = 70 km s-1 Mpc-1, ΩM = 0.3, and ΩΛ = 0.7) and either display at least one emission line with full width at half maximum (FWHM) larger than 500 km s-1 or, if not, have interesting/complex absorption features. It includes as well, known quasars (mostly from SDSS-I and II) that were reobserved by BOSS. This catalog contains 87 822 quasars (78 086 are new discoveries) detected over 3275 deg2 with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra newly derived from a training set of 8632 spectra from SDSS-DR7. The number of quasars with z > 2.15 (61 931) is ~2.8 times larger than the number of z > 2.15 quasars previously known. Redshifts and FWHMs are provided for the strongest emission lines (C iv, C iii, Mg ii). The catalog identifies 7533 broad absorption line quasars and gives their characteristics. For each object the catalog presents five-band (u, g, r, i, z) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag, and information on the morphology and selection method. The catalog also contains X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared, and radio emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys. The calibrated digital spectra cover the wavelength region 3600−10 500 Å at a spectral resolution in the range 1300 < R < 2500; the spectra can be retrieved from the SDSS Catalog Archive Server. We also provide a supplemental list of an additional 949 quasars that have been identified, among galaxy targets of the BOSS or among quasar targets after DR9 was frozen.
Measuring the two-point correlation function of the galaxies in the Universe gives access to the underlying dark matter distribution, which is related to cosmological parameters and to the physics of ...the primordial Universe. The estimation of the correlation function for current galaxy surveys makes use of the Landy-Szalay estimator, which is supposed to reach minimal variance. This is only true, however, for a vanishing correlation function. We study the Landy-Szalay estimator when these conditions are not fulfilled and propose a new estimator that provides the smallest variance for a given survey geometry. Our estimator is a linear combination of ratios between pair counts of data and/or random catalogues (DD, RR, and DR). The optimal combination for a given geometry is determined by using lognormal mock catalogues. The resulting estimator is biased in a model-dependent way, but we propose a simple iterative procedure for obtaining an unbiased model-independent estimator. Our method can be easily applied to any dataset and requires few extra mock catalogues compared to the standard Landy-Szalay analysis. Using various sets of simulated data (lognormal, second-order LPT, and N-body), we obtain a 20–25% gain on the error bars on the two-point correlation function for the SDSS geometry and ΛCDM correlation function. When applied to SDSS data (DR7 and DR9), we achieve a similar gain on the correlation functions, which translates into a 10–15% improvement over the estimation of the densities of matter Ωm and dark energy ΩΛ in an open ΛCDM model. The constraints derived from DR7 data with our estimator are similar to those obtained with the DR9 data and the Landy-Szalay estimator, which covers a volume twice as large and has a density that is three times higher.
PDF
