Optical counterpart of galactic plane variable radio sources

We present I-band deep CCD exposures of the fields of galactic plane radio variables. An optical counterpart, based on positional coincidence, has been found for 15 of the 27 observed program objects. The Johnson I magnitude of the sources identified is in the range 18-21.

Super-resolution of remotely sensed images with variable-pixel linear reconstruction

This paper describes the development and applications of a super-resolution method, known as Super-Resolution Variable-Pixel Linear Reconstruction. The algorithm works combining different lower resolution images in order to obtain, as a result, a higher resolution image. We show that it can make significant spatial resolution improvements to satellite images of the Earth¿s surface allowing recognition of objects with size approaching the limiting spatial resolution of the lower resolution images. The algorithm is based on the Variable-Pixel Linear Reconstruction algorithm developed by Fruchter and Hook, a well-known method in astronomy but never used for Earth remote sensing purposes. The algorithm preserves photometry, can weight input images according to the statistical significance of each pixel, and removes the effect of geometric distortion on both image shape and photometry. In this paper, we describe its development for remote sensing purposes, show the usefulness of the algorithm working with images as different to the astronomical images as the remote sensing ones, and show applications to: 1) a set of simulated multispectral images obtained from a real Quickbird image; and 2) a set of multispectral real Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images. These examples show that the algorithm provides a substantial improvement in limiting spatial resolution for both simulated and real data sets without significantly altering the multispectral content of the input low-resolution images, without amplifying the noise, and with very few artifacts.

Variable Very-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the Microquasar LS I +61 303

Microquasars are binary star systems with relativistic radio-emitting jets. They are potential sources of cosmic rays and can be used to elucidate the physics of relativistic jets. We report the detection of variable gamma-ray emission above 100 gigaelectron volts from the microquasar LS I 61 + 303. Six orbital cycles were recorded. Several detections occur at a similar orbital phase, which suggests that the emission is periodic. The strongest gamma-ray emission is not observed when the two stars are closest to one another, implying a strong orbital modulation of the emission or absorption processes.

Creació musical i improvisació. Crèdit variable per a primer cicle d'ESO

Document en què es proposen una sèrie d'activitats pràctiques ordenades i agrupades en sessions, per tal de treballar la creativitat i la improvisació musical amb els alumnes de secundària.

Common Variable Immunodeficiency: molecular pathways and clinical manifestations

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), is a disease that is characterized by hypogammaglobulinemia as well as a defect in T, B and dendritic cells. This leads to recurrent bacterial infection mainly caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae, as well as inflammatory manifestations, i.e. granulomateous disease, gastro-intestinal disorders and chronic lung disease. Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIg) therapy reduces CVID susceptibility to bacterial infections to some extend. We analyzed clinical aspects of patients from our database. We recently showed that bacteria-specific CD4 T cells of CVID patients were impaired. We therefor postulated that CVID patients may harbor an acquired T-cell deficiency also called exhaustion. To test this hypothesis, we performed a comprehensive investigation of the functional profiles of bacteria-specific CD4 T cells isolated from 31 healthy individuals and 30 CVID patients. In the present study, we demonstrated that bacteria-specific but not virus-specific CD4 T cells in CVID patients harbored reduced proliferation capacity and expressed high level of PD-1. Interestingly, the blockade of PD-1/PD-1 ligands interactions restored partially bacteria but not virus-specific CD4 T-cell proliferation. Finally, we showed that 1) the level of endotoxins inversely correlates with IgG concentration, 2) IVIG treated CVID patients harbored reduced endotoxemia and 3) IgG concentration exceeding 7 mg/mL strongly reduces both the proportion of CVID patients with detectable endotoxemia and the concentration of endotoxins in plasma. Taken together our observations, suggest that primary B-cell defect(s) in CVID patients leads to recurrent bacterial infections that are associated to an acquired (secondary) impairment of CD4 T cells which may in turn exacerbate the lack of protection against extracellular bacteria.

The SOS screen in Arabidopsis: a search for functions involved in DNA metabolism.

The SOS screen, as originally described by Perkins et al. (1999) [7], was setup with the aim of identifying Arabidopsis functions that might potentially be involved in the DNA metabolism. Such functions, when expressed in bacteria, are prone to disturb replication and thus trigger the SOS response. Consistently, expression of AtRAD51 and AtDMC1 induced the SOS response in bacteria, even affecting E. coli viability. 100 SOS-inducing cDNAs were isolated from a cDNA library constructed from an Arabidopsis cell suspension that was found to highly express meiotic genes. A large proportion of these SOS(+) candidates are clearly related to the DNA metabolism, others could be involved in the RNA metabolism, while the remaining cDNAs encode either totally unknown proteins or proteins that were considered as irrelevant. Seven SOS(+) candidate genes are induced following gamma irradiation. The in planta function of several of the SOS-inducing clones was investigated using T-DNA insertional mutants or RNA interference. Only one SOS(+) candidate, among those examined, exhibited a defined phenotype: silenced plants for DUT1 were sensitive to 5-fluoro-uracil (5FU), as is the case of the leaky dut-1 mutant in E. coli that are affected in dUTPase activity. dUTPase is essential to prevent uracil incorporation in the course of DNA replication.

Search for nonstandard Higgs boson in diphoton events at p anti-p collisions

We estimate the attainable limits on the coupling of a nonstandard Higgs boson to two photons taking into account the data collected by the Fermilab collaborations on diphoton events. We based our analysis on a general set of dimension-6 effective operators that give rise to anomalous couplings in the bosonic sector of the standard model. If the coefficients of all blind operators have the same magnitude, indirect bounds on the anomalous triple vector-boson couplings can also be inferred, provided there is no large cancellation in the Higgs-gamma-gamma coupling.

Quantum metric spaces as a model for pregeometry

A new arena for the dynamics of spacetime is proposed, in which the basic quantum variable is the two-point distance on a metric space. The scaling dimension (that is, the Kolmogorov capacity) in the neighborhood of each point then defines in a natural way a local concept of dimension. We study our model in the region of parameter space in which the resulting spacetime is not too different from a smooth manifold.

Nicotine vaccines for smoking cessation.

BACKGROUND: By reducing the amount of nicotine that reaches the brain when a person smokes a cigarette, nicotine vaccines may help people to stop smoking or to prevent recent quitters from relapsing. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this review are to assess the efficacy of nicotine vaccines for smoking cessation and for relapse prevention, and to assess the frequency and type of adverse events associated with the use of nicotine vaccines. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Review Group specialised register for trials, using the term 'vaccine' in the title or abstract, or in a keyword (date of most recent search April 2012). To identify any other material including reviews and papers potentially relevant to the background or discussion sections, we also searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO, combining terms for nicotine vaccines with terms for smoking and tobacco use, without design limits or limits for human subjects. We searched the Annual Meeting abstracts of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco up to 2012, using the search string 'vaccin'. We searched Google Scholar for 'nicotine vaccine'. We also searched company websites and Google for information related to specific vaccines. We searched clinicaltrials.gov in March 2012 for 'nicotine vaccine' and for the trade names of known vaccine candidates. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomized controlled trials of nicotine vaccines, at Phase II and Phase III trial stage and beyond, in adult smokers or recent ex-smokers. We included studies of nicotine vaccines used as part of smoking cessation or relapse prevention interventions. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We extracted data on the type of participants, the dose and duration of treatment, the outcome measures, the randomization procedure, concealment of allocation, blinding of participants and personnel, reporting of outcomes, and completeness of follow-up.Our primary outcome measure was a minimum of six months abstinence from smoking. We used the most rigorous definition of abstinence, and preferred cessation rates at 12 months and biochemically validated rates where available. We have used the risk ratio (RR) to summarize individual trial outcomes. We have not pooled the current group of included studies as they cover different vaccines and variable regimens. MAIN RESULTS: There are no nicotine vaccines currently licensed for public use, but there are a number in development. We found four trials which met our inclusion criteria, three comparing NicVAX to placebo and one comparing NIC002 (formerly NicQbeta) to placebo. All were smoking cessation trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies as part of the drug development process, and all trials were judged to be at high or unclear risk of bias in at least one domain. Overall, 2642 smokers participated in the included studies in this review. None of the four included studies detected a statistically significant difference in long-term cessation between participants receiving vaccine and those receiving placebo. The RR for 12 month cessation in active and placebo groups was 1.35 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.82 to 2.22) in the trial of NIC002 and 1.74 (95% CI 0.73 to 4.18) in one NicVAX trial. Two Phase III NicVAX trials, for which full results were not available, reported similar quit rates of approximately 11% in both groups. In the two studies with full results available, post hoc analyses detected higher cessation rates in participants with higher levels of nicotine antibodies, but these findings are not readily generalisable. The two studies with full results showed nicotine vaccines to be well tolerated, with the majority of adverse events classified as mild or moderate. In the study of NIC002, participants receiving the vaccine were more likely to report mild to moderate adverse events, most commonly flu-like symptoms, whereas in the study of NicVAX there was no significant difference between the two arms. Information on adverse events was not available for the large Phase III trials of NicVAX.Vaccine candidates are likely to undergo significant changes before becoming available to the general public, and those included in this review may not be the first to reach market; this limits the external validity of the results reported in this review in terms of both effectiveness and tolerability. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There is currently no evidence that nicotine vaccines enhance long-term smoking cessation. Rates of serious adverse events recorded in the two trials with full data available were low, and the majority of adverse events reported were at mild to moderate levels. The evidence available suggests nicotine vaccines do not induce compensatory smoking or affect withdrawal symptoms. No nicotine vaccines are currently licensed for use in any country but a number are under development.Further trials of nicotine vaccines are needed, comparing vaccines with placebo for smoking cessation. Further trials are also needed to explore the potential of nicotine vaccines to prevent relapse. Results from past, current and future research should be reported in full. Adverse events and serious adverse events should continue to be carefully monitored and thoroughly reported.

Leaving the cave in search of life (A Platonic reading of R. Sirera's La caverna (The Cave)

The aim of this article is to show how a contemporary playwright thinks once more of the Platonic image of the cave in order to reflect on the necessary existential journey of men and women as in the case of a Bildungsroman. Sooner or later men and women must abandon the protection that any sort of cavern such as home, the family garden or family itself can offer. In spite of writing from a by no means idealistic or metaphysical point of view, thanks to R. Sirera and to the very applicability of Platonic images, Plato becomes once again a classical reference which is both useful and even unavoidable if one bears in mind the Platonic origin of all the literary caverns.

Optical crop sensor for variable-rate nitrogen fertilization in corn: i - plant nutrition and dry matter production

Variable-rate nitrogen fertilization (VRF) based on optical spectrometry sensors of crops is a technological innovation capable of improving the nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and mitigate environmental impacts. However, studies addressing fertilization based on crop sensors are still scarce in Brazilian agriculture. This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of an optical crop sensor to assess the nutritional status of corn and compare VRF with the standard strategy of traditional single-rate N fertilization (TSF) used by farmers. With this purpose, three experiments were conducted at different locations in Southern Brazil, in the growing seasons 2008/09 and 2010/11. The following crop properties were evaluated: above-ground dry matter production, nitrogen (N) content, N uptake, relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) reading, and a vegetation index measured by the optical sensor N-Sensor® ALS. The plants were evaluated in the stages V4, V6, V8, V10, V12 and at corn flowering. The experiments had a completely randomized design at three different sites that were analyzed separately. The vegetation index was directly related to above-ground dry matter production (R² = 0.91; p<0.0001), total N uptake (R² = 0.87; p<0.0001) and SPAD reading (R² = 0.63; p<0.0001) and inversely related to plant N content (R² = 0.53; p<0.0001). The efficiency of VRF for plant nutrition was influenced by the specific climatic conditions of each site. Therefore, the efficiency of the VRF strategy was similar to that of the standard farmer fertilizer strategy at sites 1 and 2. However, at site 3 where the climatic conditions were favorable for corn growth, the use of optical sensors to determine VRF resulted in a 12 % increase in N plant uptake in relation to the standard fertilization, indicating the potential of this technology to improve NUE.