River Influences on Shelf Ecosystems (RISE) is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the rates and dynamics governing the mixing of river and coastal waters in an eastern boundary ...current system, as well as the effects of the resultant plume on phytoplankton standing stocks, growth and grazing rates, and community structure. The RISE Special Volume presents results deduced from four field studies and two different numerical model applications, including an ecosystem model, on the buoyant plume originating from the Columbia River. This introductory paper provides background information on variability during RISE field efforts as well as a synthesis of results, with particular attention to the questions and hypotheses that motivated this research. RISE studies have shown that the maximum mixing of Columbia River and ocean water occurs primarily near plume liftoff inside the estuary and in the near field of the plume. Most plume nitrate originates from upwelled shelf water, and plume phytoplankton species are typically the same as those found in the adjacent coastal ocean. River‐supplied nitrate can help maintain the ecosystem during periods of delayed upwelling. The plume inhibits iron limitation, but nitrate limitation is observed in aging plumes. The plume also has significant effects on rates of primary productivity and growth (higher in new plume water) and microzooplankton grazing (lower in the plume near field and north of the river mouth); macrozooplankton concentration (enhanced at plume fronts); offshelf chlorophyll export; as well as the development of a chlorophyll “shadow zone” off northern Oregon.
ABSTRACT Recent intensive Swift monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 yielded 282 usable epochs over 125 days across six UV/optical bands and the X-rays. This is the densest extended active ...galactic nucleus (AGN) UV/optical continuum sampling ever obtained, with a mean sampling rate <0.5 day. Approximately daily Hubble Space Telescope UV sampling was also obtained. The UV/optical light curves show strong correlations ( ) and the clearest measurement to date of interband lags. These lags are well-fit by a wavelength dependence, with a normalization that indicates an unexpectedly large disk radius of lt-day at 1367 , assuming a simple face-on model. The U band shows a marginally larger lag than expected from the fit and surrounding bands, which could be due to Balmer continuum emission from the broad-line region as suggested by Korista and Goad. The UV/X-ray correlation is weaker ( ) and less consistent over time. This indicates that while Swift is beginning to measure UV/optical lags in general agreement with accretion disk theory (although the derived size is larger than predicted), the relationship with X-ray variability is less well understood. Combining this accretion disk size estimate with those from quasar microlensing studies suggests that AGN disk sizes scale approximately linearly with central black hole mass over a wide range of masses.
In 2014 the NGC 5548 Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping campaign discovered a two-month anomaly when variations in the absorption and emission lines decorrelated from continuum ...variations. During this time the soft X-ray part of the intrinsic spectrum had been strongly absorbed by a line-of-sight (LOS) obscurer, which was interpreted as the upper part of a disk wind. Our first paper showed that changes in the LOS obscurer produces the decorrelation between the absorption lines and the continuum. A second study showed that the base of the wind shields the broad emission-line region (BLR), leading to the emission-line decorrelation. In that study, we proposed the wind is normally transparent with no effect on the spectrum. Changes in the wind properties alter its shielding and affect the spectral energy distribution (SED) striking the BLR, producing the observed decorrelations. In this work we investigate the impact of a translucent wind on the emission lines. We simulate the obscuration using XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Hubble Space Telescope observations to determine the physical characteristics of the wind. We find that a translucent wind can contribute a part of the He ii and Fe K emission. It has a modest optical depth to electron scattering, which explains the fainter far-side emission in the observed velocity-delay maps. The wind produces the very broad base seen in the UV emission lines and may also be present in the Fe K line. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for the effects of such winds in the analysis of the physics of the central engine.
An optical network of superconducting quantum bits (qubits) is an appealing platform for quantum communication and distributed quantum computing, but developing a quantum-compatible link between the ...microwave and optical domains remains an outstanding challenge. Operating at T < 100 mK temperatures, as required for quantum electrical circuits, we demonstrate a mechanically mediated microwave–optical converter with 47% conversion efficiency, and use a classical feed-forward protocol to reduce added noise to 38 photons. The feed-forward protocol harnesses our discovery that noise emitted from the two converter output ports is strongly correlated because both outputs record thermal motion of the same mechanical mode. We also discuss a quantum feed-forward protocol that, given high system efficiencies, would allow quantum information to be transferred even when thermal phonons enter the mechanical element faster than the electro-optic conversion rate.
The success of agents that reverse T-cell inhibitory signals, such as anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapies, has reinvigorated cancer immunotherapy research. However, since only a minority of patients respond to ...single-agent therapies, methods to test the potential anti-tumor activity of rational combination therapies are still needed. Conventional murine xenograft models have been hampered by their immune-compromised status; thus, we developed a hematopoietic humanized mouse model, hu-CB-BRGS, and used it to study anti-tumor human immune responses to triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line and patient-derived colorectal cancer (CRC) xenografts (PDX).
BALB/c-Rag2
Il2rγ
SIRPα
(BRGS) pups were humanized through transplantation of cord blood (CB)-derived CD34+ cells. Mice were evaluated for human chimerism in the blood and assigned into experimental untreated or nivolumab groups based on chimerism. TNBC cell lines or tumor tissue from established CRC PDX models were implanted into both flanks of humanized mice and treatments ensued once tumors reached a volume of ~150mm
. Tumors were measured twice weekly. At end of study, immune organs and tumors were collected for immunological assessment.
Humanized PDX models were successfully established with a high frequency of tumor engraftment. Humanized mice treated with anti-PD-1 exhibited increased anti-tumor human T-cell responses coupled with decreased Treg and myeloid populations that correlated with tumor growth inhibition. Combination therapies with anti-PD-1 treatment in TNBC-bearing mice reduced tumor growth in multi-drug cohorts. Finally, as observed in human colorectal patients, anti-PD-1 therapy had a strong response to a microsatellite-high CRC PDX that correlated with a higher number of human CD8+ IFNγ+ T cells in the tumor.
Hu-CB-BRGS mice represent an in vivo model to study immune checkpoint blockade to human tumors. The human immune system in the mice is inherently suppressed, similar to a tumor microenvironment, and thus allows growth of human tumors. However, the suppression can be released by anti-PD-1 therapies and inhibit tumor growth of some tumors. The model offers ample access to lymph and tumor cells for in-depth immunological analysis. The tumor growth inhibition correlates with increased CD8 IFNγ+ tumor infiltrating T cells. These hu-CB-BRGS mice provide a relevant preclinical animal model to facilitate prioritization of hypothesis-driven combination immunotherapies.
Cohort Profile: Growing Up in New Zealand MORTON, Susan M. B; ATATOA CARR, Polly E; PERESE, Lana M ...
International journal of epidemiology,
02/2013, Letnik:
42, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Neutral density response to solar flares at Mars Thiemann, E. M. B.; Eparvier, F. G.; Andersson, L. A. ...
Geophysical research letters,
16 November 2015, Letnik:
42, Številka:
21
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
First direct observations of heating of the Mars neutral atmosphere by solar flares are presented in this study. Solar flares were detected using the Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor on board the Mars ...Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, and upper atmospheric temperature enhancements were determined by changes in the density scale height of Argon (Ar) made by the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer also on board MAVEN. We analyzed 14 M‐class or greater flares that occurred during the early part of the MAVEN mission in addition to a 30 day period of high flare activity during May 2015. We report that the Mars dayside upper atmosphere shows significant heating near the flare soft X‐ray peak; and it responds and recovers rapidly to heating from M‐class or larger flares. In addition, we present atmospheric density versus altitude profiles that were taken near the soft X‐ray peak of two flares.
Key Points
First observations of neutral heating at Mars due to solar flares are reported
The upper atmosphere shows significant heating near the flare soft X‐ray peak
The Mars atmosphere responds and recovers rapidly to heating from M‐class flares
We reinvestigate the relationship between the characteristic broad-line region size (R sub(BLR)) and the Balmer emission-line, X-ray, UV, and optical continuum luminosities. Our study makes use of ...the best available determinations of R sub(BLR) for a large number of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from Peterson et al. Using their determinations of R sub(BLR) for a large sample of AGNs and two different regression methods, we investigate the robustness of our correlation results as a function of data subsample and regression technique. Although small systematic differences were found depending on the method of analysis, our results are generally consistent. Assuming a power-law relation R sub(BLR) 8 L super(a), we find that the mean best-fitting a is about 0.67 c 0.05 for the optical continuum and the broad Hb luminosity, about 0.56 c 0.05 for the UV continuum luminosity, and about 0.70 c 0.14 for the X-ray luminosity. We also find an intrinsic scatter of 640% in these relations. The disagreement of our results with the theoretical expected slope of 0.5 indicates that the simple assumption of all AGNs having on average the same ionization parameter, BLR density, column density, and ionizing spectral energy distribution is not valid and there is likely some evolution of a few of these characteristics along the luminosity scale.
ABSTRACT We use both simulated and real quasar light curves to explore modeling photometric reverberation-mapping (RM) data as a stochastic process. We do this using modifications to our previously ...developed RM method based on modeling quasar variability as a damped random walk. We consider the feasibility of one- and two-band photometric RM and compare the results with those from spectroscopic RM. We find that our method for two-band photometric RM can be competitive with spectroscopic RM only for strong (large equivalent width) lines like H and Hβ, and that the one-band method is also feasible but requires very high precision photometry. We fail to robustly detect H lags in single-band quasar light curves from OGLE-III and OGLE-IV despite the outstanding cadence and time span of the data, on account of photometric uncertainties in the range 0.02-0.04 mag. Simulations suggest that success could be achieved if the photometric uncertainties were of order 0.01 mag. Single-band RM for all lines and two-band RM for lower equivalent width lines are likely only feasible for statistical estimates of mean lags for large samples of active galactic nuclei of similar properties (e.g., luminosity) rather than for individual quasars. Our approach is directly applicable to the time-domain programs within ongoing and future wide-field imaging surveys and could provide robust lag measurements for an unprecedented number of systems.
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