COPD exacerbations have negative impact on patients' survival. Several risk factors for grave outcomes of such exacerbations have been descried. Muscle dysfunction and mass loss were shown to impact ...negatively on prognosis and survival. Low activity of the enzyme ALT (Alanine amino-transferase) in the blood is a known indicator for sarcopenia and frailty, however, no previous studies addressed the association of low ALT amongst patients hospitalized due to COPD exacerbation and long-term survival.
This is a historic prospective cohort study of patients hospitalized due to acute COPD exacerbation.
Included were 232 consecutive COPD exacerbation patients. The median time of follow-up was 34.9 months (IQR 23.13-41.73 months). During this period 104 (44.8%) patients died. All patients were grouped to quartiles according to blood ALT levels (after exclusion of cases considered to have hepatic tissue damage (ALT > 40 IU)). The risk of long-term mortality increased, in a statistically significant manner, amongst patients with low ALT values: the median survival of patients with ALT < 11 IU was 18.5 months only while the median survival for the rest of the study group was not reached. For ALT < 11 IU; 12-16 IU; 17-20 IU and > 21 IU the mortality rates were 69%; 40.9%; 36.3 and 25% respectively (p < 0.001 for comparison of lower quartile with upper three quartiles). The crude hazard ratio for mortality amongst patients with ALT levels lower than 11 IU was 2.37 (95% CI; 1.6-3.5). This increased risk of mortality remained significant after adjustment for age, weight, creatinine, albumin concentration and cardiovascular diseases (HR = 1.83; 95% CI 1.08-3.1, p < 0.05).
Low ALT values, a biomarker of sarcopenia and frailty, are associated with poor long-term survival amongst patients hospitalized due to COPD exacerbation.
The ultimate fate of the Universe, infinite expansion or a big crunch,
can be determined by using the redshifts and distances of very distant supernovae
to monitor changes in the expansion rate. We ...can now find large
numbers of these distant supernovae, and measure their redshifts and apparent
brightnesses; moreover, recent studies of nearby type Ia supernovae have shown
how to determine their intrinsic luminosities-and
therefore with their apparent brightnesses obtain their distances. The >50
distant supernovae discovered so far provide a record of changes in the expansion
rate over the past several billion years. However, it
is necessary to extend this expansion history still farther away (hence further
back in time) in order to begin to distinguish the causes of the expansion-rate
changes-such as the slowing caused by the gravitational attraction of
the Universe's mass density, and the possibly counteracting effect of the
cosmological constant. Here we report the most distant spectroscopically
confirmed supernova. Spectra and photometry from the largest telescopes on
the ground and in space show that this ancient supernova is strikingly similar
to nearby, recent type Ia supernovae. When combined with previous measurements
of nearer supernovae,, these new measurements
suggest that we may live in a low-mass-density universe.
We present observations of SCP 06F6, an unusual optical transient discovered during the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey. The transient brightened over a period of ~100 days, reached a ...peak magnitude of ~ 21.0 in both i 775 and z 850, and then declined over a similar timescale. There is no host galaxy or progenitor star detected at the location of the transient to a 3 sigma upper limit of i 775 >= 26.4 and z 850 >= 26.1, giving a corresponding lower limit on the flux increase of a factor of ~ 120. Multiple spectra show five broad absorption bands between 4100 A and 6500 A, and a mostly featureless continuum longward of 6500 A. The shape of the light curve is inconsistent with microlensing. The transient's spectrum, in addition to being inconsistent with all known supernova types, does not match any spectrum in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database. We suggest that the transient may be one of a new class.
We report measurements of the mass density, Omega_M, and cosmological-constant energy density, Omega_Lambda, of the universe based on the analysis of 42 Type Ia supernovae discovered by the Supernova ...Cosmology Project. The magnitude-redshift data for these SNe, at redshifts between 0.18 and 0.83, are fit jointly with a set of SNe from the Calan/Tololo Supernova Survey, at redshifts below 0.1, to yield values for the cosmological parameters. All SN peak magnitudes are standardized using a SN Ia lightcurve width-luminosity relation. The measurement yields a joint probability distribution of the cosmological parameters that is approximated by the relation 0.8 Omega_M - 0.6 Omega_Lambda ~= -0.2 +/- 0.1 in the region of interest (Omega_M <~ 1.5). For a flat (Omega_M + Omega_Lambda = 1) cosmology we find Omega_M = 0.28{+0.09,-0.08} (1 sigma statistical) {+0.05,-0.04} (identified systematics). The data are strongly inconsistent with a Lambda = 0 flat cosmology, the simplest inflationary universe model. An open, Lambda = 0 cosmology also does not fit the data well: the data indicate that the cosmological constant is non-zero and positive, with a confidence of P(Lambda > 0) = 99%, including the identified systematic uncertainties. The best-fit age of the universe relative to the Hubble time is t_0 = 14.9{+1.4,-1.1} (0.63/h) Gyr for a flat cosmology. The size of our sample allows us to perform a variety of statistical tests to check for possible systematic errors and biases. We find no significant differences in either the host reddening distribution or Malmquist bias between the low-redshift Calan/Tololo sample and our high-redshift sample. The conclusions are robust whether or not a width-luminosity relation is used to standardize the SN peak magnitudes.
We report a measurement of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate in galaxy clusters at 0.9 < z < 1.46 from the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey. This is the first cluster SN Ia rate ...measurement with detected z > 0.9 SNe. Finding 8 + or - 1 cluster SNe Ia, we determine an SN Ia rate of (stat) (sys) SNuB (SNuB = 10 super(-12) SNe yr super(-1)). In units of stellar mass, this translates to (stat) (sys) SNuM (SNuM = 10 super(-12) SNe yr super(-1)). This represents a factor of approximate5 + or - 2 increase over measurements of the cluster rate at z < 0.2. We parameterize the late-time SN Ia delay time distribution (DTD) with a power law: Psi(t) is proportional to t super(s). Under the approximation of a single-burst cluster formation redshift of z= 3, our rate measurement in combination with lower-redshift cluster SN Ia rates constrains s = consistent with measurements of the DTD in the field. This measurement is generally consistent with expectations for the "double degenerate" scenario and inconsistent with some models for the "single degenerate" scenario predicting a steeper DTD at large delay times. We check for environmental dependence and the influence of younger stellar populations by calculating the rate specifically in cluster red-sequence galaxies and in morphologically early-type galaxies, finding results similar to the full cluster rate. Finally, the upper limit of one hostless cluster SN Ia detected in the survey implies that the fraction of stars in the intra-cluster medium is less than 0.47 (95% confidence), consistent with measurements at lower redshifts.
R-band intensity measurements along the light curve of Type Ia supernovae discovered by the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) are fitted in brightness to templates allowing a free parameter the ...time-axis width factor w = s(1+z). The data points are then individually aligned in the time-axis, normalized and K-corrected back to the rest frame, after which the nearly 1300 normalized intensity measurements are found to lie on a well-determined common rest-frame B-band curve which we call the ``composite curve''. The same procedure is applied to 18 low-redshift Calan/Tololo SNe with z < 0.11; these nearly 300 B-band photometry points are found to lie on the composite curve equally well. The SCP search technique produces several measurements before maximum light for each supernova. We demonstrate that the linear stretch factor, s, which parameterizes the light-curve timescale appears independent of z,and applies equally well to the declining and rising parts of the light curve. In fact, the B-band template that best fits this composite curve fits the individual supernova photometry data when stretched by a factor s with chi^2/DoF approx = 1, thus as well as any parameterization can, given the current data sets. The measurement of the date of explosion, however, is model dependent and not tightly constrained by the current data. We also demonstrate the 1+z light-curve time-axis broadening expected from cosmological expansion. This argues strongly against alternative explanations, such as tired light, for the redshift of distant objects.
The recent robust and homogeneous analysis of the world's supernova distance-redshift data, together with cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillation data-provides a powerful tool for ...constraining cosmological models. Here we examine particular classes of scalar field, modified gravity, and phenomenological models to assess whether they are consistent with observations even when their behavior deviates from the cosmological constant . Some models have tension with the data, while others survive only by approaching the cosmological constant, and a couple are statistically favored over cold dark matter. Dark energy described by two equation-of-state parameters has considerable phase space to avoid and next-generation data will be required to constrain such physics, with the level of complementarity between probes varying with cosmology.
Using the sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cluster Supernova Survey and augmented with HST-observed SNe Ia in the Great Observatories Origins Deep ...Survey (GOODS) fields, we search for correlations between the properties of SNe and their host galaxies at high redshift. We use galaxy color and quantitative morphology to determine the red sequence in 25 clusters and develop a model to distinguish passively evolving early-type galaxies from star-forming galaxies in both clusters and the field. With this approach, we identify 6 SN Ia hosts that are early-type cluster members and 11 SN Ia hosts that are early-type field galaxies. We confirm for the first time at z > 0.9 that SNe Ia hosted by early-type galaxies brighten and fade more quickly than SNe Ia hosted by late-type galaxies. We also show that the two samples of hosts produce SNe Ia with similar color distributions. The relatively simple spectral energy distributions expected for passive galaxies enable us to measure stellar masses of early-type SN hosts. In combination with stellar mass estimates of late-type GOODS SN hosts from Thomson & Chary, we investigate the correlation of host mass with Hubble residual observed at lower redshifts. Although the sample is small and the uncertainties are large, a hint of this relation is found at z > 0.9. By simultaneously fitting the average cluster galaxy formation history and dust content to the red-sequence scatters, we show that the reddening of early-type cluster SN hosts is likely E(B - V) <, ~0.06. The similarity of the field and cluster early-type host samples suggests that field early-type galaxies that lie on the red sequence may also be minimally affected by dust. Hence, the early-type-hosted SNe Ia studied here occupy a more favorable environment to use as well-characterized high-redshift standard candles than other SNe Ia.
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