COLD MILKY WAY H i GAS IN FILAMENTS Kalberla, P. M. W.; Kerp, J.; Haud, U. ...
The Astrophysical journal,
04/2016, Volume:
821, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
ABSTRACT We investigate data from the Galactic Effelsberg-Bonn H i Survey, supplemented with data from the third release of the Galactic All Sky Survey (GASS III) observed at Parkes. We explore the ...all-sky distribution of the local Galactic H i gas with v LSR < 25 km s−1 on angular scales of 11′-16′. Unsharp masking is applied to extract small-scale features. We find cold filaments that are aligned with polarized dust emission and conclude that the cold neutral medium (CNM) is mostly organized in sheets that are, because of projection effects, observed as filaments. These filaments are associated with dust ridges, aligned with the magnetic field measured on the structures by Planck at 353 GHz. The CNM above latitudes b > 20 ° is described by a log-normal distribution, with a median Doppler temperature TD = 223 K, derived from observed line widths that include turbulent contributions. The median neutral hydrogen (H i) column density is NH i 1019.1 cm−2. These CNM structures are embedded within a warm neutral medium with NH i 1020 cm−2. Assuming an average distance of 100 pc, we derive for the CNM sheets a thickness of 0.3 pc. Adopting a magnetic field strength of Btot = (6.0 1.8) G, proposed by Heiles & Troland, and assuming that the CNM filaments are confined by magnetic pressure, we estimate a thickness of 0.09 pc. Correspondingly, the median volume density is in the range 14 n 47 cm−3.
Context. Out-of-focus (OOF) holography can be used to determine the aperture deformations of radio telescopes that lead to errors in the phase of the complex aperture distribution. In contrast to ...traditional methods, OOF holography can be performed without a reference antenna, which has a number of practical advantages. Aims. The aim of this work is to develop a standard procedure for OOF holography at the Effelsberg telescope. This includes performing OOF holography observations and the development of dedicated software, the pyoof package, to compute aberrations of the telescope’s optical system. Methods. Based on the OOF holography method developed at the Green Bank telescope, we adapted the approach to the Effelsberg 100 m telescope in order to determine the aberrations of the aperture phase distribution (phase-error maps). Results. The developed OOF holography software is presented as well as the results from observations at Effelsberg. Early results reveal gravitation-related residual deformation not contained in the previously existing aperture and pointing model, and hence we propose changes to the model to counteract aberrations in the telescope’s surface. Conclusions. The OOF holography method (observations and pyoof package) works as expected at the Effelsberg 100 m telescope and is able to validate the good performance of the existing finite element model. Test measurements show that slight improvements of the aperture efficiency and gain elevation dependence are possible but limited in the current configuration.
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease affecting over 200 million people in multiple organs, including the lungs. Despite this, there is little understanding of pulmonary immune responses during ...schistosomiasis. Here, we show type-2 dominated lung immune responses in both patent (egg producing) and pre-patent (larval lung migration) murine Schistosoma mansoni (S. mansoni) infection. Human pre-patent S. mansoni infection pulmonary (sputum) samples revealed a mixed type-1/type-2 inflammatory cytokine profile, whilst a case-control study showed no significant pulmonary cytokine changes in endemic patent infection. However, schistosomiasis induced expansion of pulmonary type-2 conventional dendritic cells (cDC2s) in human and murine hosts, at both infection stages. Further, cDC2s were required for type-2 pulmonary inflammation in murine pre-patent or patent infection. These data elevate our fundamental understanding of pulmonary immune responses during schistosomiasis, which may be important for future vaccine design, as well as for understanding links between schistosomiasis and other lung diseases.
Context. The Effelsberg-Bonn Hi Survey (EBHIS) is a new 21-cm survey performed with the 100-m telescope at Effelsberg. It covers the whole northern sky out to a redshift of z ~ 0.07 and comprises Hi ...line emission from the Milky Way and the Local Volume. Aims. We aim to substitute the northern-hemisphere part of the Leiden/Argentine/Bonn Milky Way Hi survey (LAB) with this first EBHIS data release, which presents the Hi gas in the Milky Way regime. Methods. The use of a seven-beam L-band array made it feasible to perform this all-sky survey with a 100-m class telescope in a reasonable amount of observing time. State-of-the-art fast-Fourier-transform spectrometers provide the necessary data read-out speed, dynamic range, and spectral resolution to apply software radio-frequency interference mitigation. EBHIS is corrected for stray radiation and employs frequency-dependent flux-density calibration and sophisticated baseline-removal techniques to ensure the highest possible data quality. Results. Detailed analyses of the resulting data products show that EBHIS is not only outperforming LAB in terms of sensitivity and angular resolution, but also matches the intensity-scale of LAB extremely well, allowing EBHIS to be used as a drop-in replacement for LAB. Data products are made available to the public in a variety of forms. Most important, we provide a properly gridded Milky Way Hi column density map in HEALPix representation. To maximize the usefulness of EBHIS data, we estimate uncertainties in the Hi column density and brightness temperature distributions, accounting for systematic effects.
Context. The H i halo clouds of the Milky Way, and in particular the intermediate-velocity clouds (IVCs), are thought to be connected to Galactic fountain processes. Observations of fountain clouds ...are important for understanding the role of matter recycling and accretion onto the Galactic disk and subsequent star formation. Aims. Here, we quantify the amount of molecular gas in the Galactic halo. We focus on the rare class of molecular IVCs (MIVCs) and search for new objects. Methods. The H i-FIR correlation was studied across the entire northern and southern Galactic hemispheres at Galactic latitudes | b | > 20° to determine the amount and distribution of molecular gas in IVCs. We used the most recent large-scale H i and FIR data, the Effelsberg Bonn-H i Survey, the Parkes Galactic All-Sky Survey, and the Planck FIR surveys. Results. We present a catalogue of 239 MIVC candidates on the northern and southern Galactic hemispheres. Among these candidates, all previously known MIVCs are recovered except for one single source. The frequency of candidates differs significantly between the northern and southern Galactic hemispheres and between negative and positive LSR velocities as well. Conclusions. In our approach we analyse the local Galactic environment. Extrapolating our results to the entire Galaxy, the global inflow of atomic and molecular IVC gas onto the Milky Way may account for the major fraction of the gaseous mass that is required to sustain the current Galactic star formation rate.
We present a systematic study of the extraplanar gas (EPG) in a sample of 15 nearby late-type galaxies at intermediate inclinations using publicly available, deep interferometric H I data from the ...Hydrogen Accretion in LOcal GAlaxieS (HALOGAS) survey. For each system we masked the H I emission coming from the regularly rotating disc and used synthetic datacubes to model the leftover “anomalous” H I flux. Our model consists of a smooth, axisymmetric thick component described by three structural and four kinematical parameters, which are fit to the data via a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) based Bayesian method. We find that extraplanar H I is nearly ubiquitous in disc galaxies as we fail to detect it in only two of the systems with the poorest spatial resolution. The EPG component encloses ∼5−25% of the total H I mass with a mean value of 14%, and has a typical thickness of a few kpc which is incompatible with expectations based on hydrostatic equilibrium models. The EPG kinematics is remarkably similar throughout the sample, and consists of a lagging rotation with typical vertical gradients of ∼ − 10 km s−1 kpc−1, a velocity dispersion of 15−30 km s−1, and, for most galaxies, a global inflow in both the vertical and radial directions with speeds of 20−30 km s−1. The EPG H I masses are in excellent agreement with predictions from simple models of the galactic fountain that are powered by stellar feedback. The combined effect of photo-ionisation and interaction of the fountain material with the circumgalactic medium can qualitatively explain the kinematics of the EPG, but dynamical models of the galactic fountain are required to fully test this framework.
More than 300 variants in 12 genes have been associated with Brugada syndrome (BrS) which has a prevalence ranging between 1:2000 and 1:100,000. Until recently, there has been little knowledge ...regarding the distribution of genetic variations in the general population. This problem was partly solved, when exome data from the NHLI GO Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) was published. In this study, we aimed to report the prevalence of previously BrS‐associated variants in the ESP population. We performed a search in ESP for variants previously associated with BrS. In addition, four variants in ESP were genotyped in a second Danish control population (n = 536) with available electrocardiograms. In ESP, we identified 38 of 355 (10%) variants, distributed on 272 heterozygote carriers and two homozygote carriers. The genes investigated were on average screened in 6258 individuals. This corresponds to a surprisingly high genotype prevalence of 1:23 (274:6258). Genotyping the four common ESP‐derived variants CACNA2D1 S709N, SCN5A F2004L, CACNB2 S143F, and CACNB2 T450I in the Danish controls, we found a genotype prevalence comparable with that found in ESP. We suggest that exome data are used in research, as an additive tool to predict the pathogenicity of variants in patients suspected for BrS.
Context. Data gridding is a common task in astronomy and many other science disciplines. It refers to the resampling of irregularly sampled data to a regular grid. Aims. We present cygrid, a library ...module for the general purpose programming language Python. Cygrid can be used to resample data to any collection of target coordinates, although its typical application involves FITS maps or data cubes. The FITS world coordinate system standard is supported. Methods. The regridding algorithm is based on the convolution of the original samples with a kernel of arbitrary shape. We introduce a lookup table scheme that allows us to parallelize the gridding and combine it with the HEALPix tessellation of the sphere for fast neighbor searches. Results. We show that for n input data points, cygrids runtime scales between O(n) and O(nlog n) and analyze the performance gain that is achieved using multiple CPU cores. We also compare the gridding speed with other techniques, such as nearest-neighbor, and linear and cubic spline interpolation. Conclusions. Cygrid is a very fast and versatile gridding library that significantly outperforms other third-party Python modules, such as the linear and cubic spline interpolation provided by SciPy.
Malaria vaccine candidates based on live, attenuated sporozoites have led to high levels of protection. However, their efficacy critically depends on the sporozoites' ability to reach and infect the ...host liver. Administration via mosquito inoculation is by far the most potent method for inducing immunity but highly impractical. Here, we observed that intradermal syringe-injected
sporozoites (
SPZ) were 3-fold less efficient in migrating to and infecting mouse liver than mosquito-inoculated sporozoites (
SPZ). This was related to a clustered dermal distribution (2-fold-decreased median distance between
SPZ and
SPZ) and, more importantly, a 1.4-fold (significantly)-slower and more erratic movement pattern. These erratic movement patterns were likely caused by alteration of dermal tissue morphology (>15-μm intercellular gaps) due to injection of fluid and may critically decrease sporozoite infectivity. These results suggest that novel microvolume-based administration technologies hold promise for replicating the success of mosquito-inoculated live, attenuated sporozoite vaccines.
Malaria still causes a major burden on global health and the economy. The efficacy of live, attenuated malaria sporozoites as vaccine candidates critically depends on their ability to migrate to and infect the host liver. This work sheds light on the effect of different administration routes on sporozoite migration. We show that the delivery of sporozoites via mosquito inoculation is more efficient than syringe injection; however, this route of administration is highly impractical for vaccine purposes. Using confocal microscopy and automated imaging software, we demonstrate that syringe-injected sporozoites do cluster, move more slowly, and display more erratic movement due to alterations in tissue morphology. These findings indicate that microneedle-based engineering solutions hold promise for replicating the success of mosquito-inoculated live, attenuated sporozoite vaccines.
Information regarding the possible influence of immunosuppressive drugs on male sexual function and reproductive outcomes is scarce. Men diagnosed with immune-mediated diseases and a wish to become a ...father represent an important neglected population since they lack vital information to make balanced decisions about their treatment.
The aim of this research was to systematically review the literature for the influence of paternal immunosuppressive drug use on many aspects of male sexual health, such as sexual function, fertility, pregnancy outcomes and offspring health outcomes.
A systematic literature search was performed in the bibliographic databases: Embase (via Elsevier embase.com), MEDLINE ALL via Ovid, Cochrane Central Register of Trials (via Wiley) and Web of Science Core Collection. Additionally, Google Scholar and the Clinical trial registries of Europe and the USA were searched. The databases were searched from inception until 31 August 2019. The searches combined keywords regarding male sexual function and fertility, pregnancy outcomes and offspring health with a list of immunosuppressive drugs. Studies were included if they were published in English and if they included original data on male human exposure to immunosuppressive drugs. A meta-analysis was not possible to perform due to the heterogeneity of the data.
A total of 5867 references were identified, amongst which we identified 161 articles fulfilling the eligibility criteria. Amongst these articles, 50 included pregnancy and offspring outcomes and 130 included sexual health outcomes. Except for large Scandinavian cohorts, most of the identified articles included a small number of participants. While a clear negative effect on sperm quality was evident for sulfasalazine and cyclophosphamide, a dubious effect was identified for colchicine, methotrexate and sirolimus. In three articles, exposure to tumour necrosis factor-α inhibitors in patients diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis resulted in improved sperm quality. The information regarding pregnancy and offspring outcomes was scant but no large negative effect associated with paternal immunosuppressive drug exposure was reported.
Evidence regarding the safety of immunosuppressive drugs in men with a wish to become a father is inconclusive. The lack of standardisation on how to evaluate and report male sexual function, fertility and reproduction as study outcomes in men exposed to immunosuppressive drugs is an important contributor to this result. Future research on this topic is needed and should be preferably done using standardised methods.
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