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Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental - Agriambi is the property of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scientific evidence reveals a high prevalence of health risk behaviour among university students. This calls for the creation of educational programmes that promote more knowledge about health. However, knowledge alone is not enough to change behaviours; other factors should be considered, including attitudes towards health. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to analyse the relationship between knowledge, attitudes and health risk behaviours among university students. For this, a previously validated self-report questionnaire was applied to a stratified sample of 840 students, by year of study (first- and third-year students) and their scientific area. In addition to sociodemographic issues, the questionnaire contains a health-related knowledge scale, an attitudes towards health scale, and questions about health risk behaviours. Students displayed poor knowledge about health, correctly answering 17.77 (SD = 4.59) questions out of a total of 36, and moderate scores concerning attitudes towards health (M = 2.61, SD = 0.48, range: 1–5). Students reported always engaging in, on average, 3.88 (SD = 1.45) of the seven behaviours subject to the analysis. Mediation analyses indicated that knowledge about health and attitudes towards health were statistically significant predictors of risky behaviours. Furthermore, it was indicated that attitudes towards health have a mediating effect between health knowledge and health risk behaviours. Findings from this study indicate that public health and education policies should promote healthy behaviours among university students, taking into account not only the level of knowledge but essentially the development of positive attitudes when facing behaviours which put health at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large proportion of the world's disease burden is attributable to mental illnesses. Although effective interventions are available, many patients still have limited access to evidence-based treatments. Aside from access, treatment gaps, including inappropriate medication selection and monitoring, are also routinely recognised. Mental health clinical pharmacists can help address these gaps and enable patients to receive optimised pharmaceutical care, particularly appropriate medication selection and monitoring. The European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) Special Interest Group on Mental Health was established to improve standardised service provision in mental health settings across Europe. The Special Interest Group identified significant barriers (predominantly associated with reimbursement and position within the multidisciplinary team) to effective pharmaceutical care amongst those with mental illnesses. This commentary presents recommendations to address these gaps through improved mental health clinical pharmacy service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Systemic cancer therapy has traditionally been administered using an intravenous (IV) route, implying patients' frequent visits to hospitals to access to their therapy. If we consider the actual pipeline in oncology, oral chemotherapy will be the main component of cancer treatment in the next few years. This shift in the administration route requires different care models in order to guarantee treatment efficacy and safety. Objective: To analyze time trends in oral chemotherapy consumption in Portugal. Method: Oral chemotherapy consumption over a 13-year period (2008-2020) was analyzed, considering dispensed units by the administration route with respective costs, resorting to the drug regulatory agency (INFARMED I.P.) database. Oral consumption patterns were further explored using common daily doses (CDD) for three conditions, including chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and breast cancer (BC), to adjust for the effect of varying doses. Data were analyzed descriptively resorting to Microsoft Office Excel 2010. Results: Overall chemotherapy consumption increased +54.7%, with the highest contribution in units observed in oral forms (+58.8%). The total expenditure increased +96.5%, and despite the increase in oral forms (+221.6%), intravenous forms continued to be the major cost driver, with an important contribution from immunotherapy. Much of the increase was led by the approval of 40 new IV and 48 new oral cancer medications with higher costs introduced in the market. Using CDD as an alternative metric to units had varying impacts by indication. The observed increases seemed to focus on specific cancer sites with varying effect; in CML, there was a 2.39-fold increase, compared to 4.41 for NSCLC and 1.86 for BC. However, for BC, two distinct sub-patterns were observed for hormone therapy (increasing 1.83) and for the novel tyrosine kinase inhibitors (increasing 40.8). Conclusion: The growing use of oral chemotherapy is obvious and calls for investments in supporting patients in managing medication adherence and adverse events. The shifts in the healthcare system are complex and need to be prioritized. Our data suggest that priority could be attributed to cancer sites driving innovation, namely, advanced breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3D volumetric technique for measuring the evolution over time of the kinematic and geometric characteristics of the bubble population in multiphase flows at moderate void fraction is here proposed. The method is based on a shadowgraphy approach and requires a set of calibrated and synchronized cameras, each placed in front of a bright screen. Synchronized, 2D images of the bubbly flow are analyzed to extract the outline of the bubbles as seen from every camera. Then, each bubble is separately identified as a 3D volume described by the intersection of the cones having vertices on the optical center of each camera and passing through the contour of the bubble. Details about the implementation of the procedure, including the further refinements of the first rough bubble identification and the optimization of the number and geometric arrangement of the points of view, are reported against the results obtained on a reference set of spheres of known dimensions. Application on isolated bubbles demonstrates the ability of the procedure to extract quantitative and self-consistent information over time. These results are consolidated by a hint at a plunging jet test case with a significant void fraction, showing potential for application to situations of practical interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Ciência e Movimento: RBCM is the property of Revista Brasileira de Ciencia e Movimento and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We present a study of the turbulence cascade on the centreline of an inhomogeneous and anisotropic near-field turbulent wake generated by a square prism at a Reynolds number of Re = 3900 using the Kármán–Howarth–Monin–Hill equation. This is the fully generalised scale-by-scale energy balance which, unlike the Kármán–Howarth equation, does not require homogeneity or isotropy assumptions. Our data are obtained from a direct numerical simulation and therefore enable us to access all of the processes involved in this energy balance. A significant range of length scales exists where the orientation-averaged nonlinear interscale transfer rate is approximately constant and negative, indicating a forward turbulence cascade on average. This average cascade consists of coexisting forward and inverse cascade behaviours in different scale-space orientations. With increasing distance from the prism but within the near field of the wake, the orientation-averaged nonlinear interscale transfer rate tends to be approximately equal to minus the turbulence dissipation rate even though all of the inhomogeneity-related energy processes in the scale-by-scale energy balance are significant, if not equally important. We also find well-defined near -5/3 energy spectra in the streamwise direction, in particular at a centreline position where the inverse cascade behaviour occurs for streamwise oriented length scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteological lesions can be important to positively identify human remains in forensic contexts, as well as contribute to past population studies. However, their analysis requires training and appropriate research conditions, which may be lacking in certain geographic areas as, for example, the northern region of Brazil. Emphasising existing resources, such as anatomical collections, may help to address this issue. This study explores the anatomical collection of Professor Dr. Manuel da Silva Braga of the Federal University of Pará (Brazil), introducing the traumatic lesions identified in seven crania (13.7%; 7/51) of male (four) and female (three) individuals. The sample profile and the cases identified are in accordance with the pattern of violent victims in the region. This study is the first of its kind in the Pará State, contributing with case studies and examples, to the disciplines of biological anthropology, paleopathology, and bioarchaeology and forensic discipline. It also highlights the significance that anatomical collections may have in the development of those disciplines, suggesting a need for reappraisal and reevaluation of existing resources, as these may be of use for training and research. Lastly, this study builds a bridge towards the social and cultural context of the collection, reinforcing the value of an interdisciplinary approach to human remains. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental - Agriambi is the property of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT Identified skeletal collections, that is, skeletons for which sex, age at death and occupation at death are known, have been used to test methods for recording entheseal changes (EC). By testing methods on identified collections, the sensitivity of EC for recording activity levels can be ascertained prior to applying the methods to test hypotheses in archaeological contexts. However, the definition of occupational categories used for this research may, in itself, be a source of bias. The aim in this study was to test how categorising occupation affected the interpretation of EC. Male skeletons ( n = 211) from two Portuguese identified skeletal collections were used. Three methods for categorising occupations, all of which have been previously published, were used each dividing occupations into five, three and two categories, respectively. Fibrocartilaginous entheses were recorded and EC scored as present/absent. Results showed that the method for categorising occupation affected the frequencies of EC found in occupational categories for specific entheses. Frequencies that were significantly different between occupational categories for one method were not necessarily significant for others. This demonstrates that the sensitivity of the occupational categorisation does affect the results. However, using logistic regression, we found age to have a greater effect than occupation. These results demonstrate the need for standardised occupational categories, as well as the importance of considering age. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual parallel Mach?Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) used for electro-optic conversion of multi-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) ultra-wideband (UWB) radio signals in intensity modulated direct detection optical communication systems is optimized theoretically and through numerical simulation. The optimum DPMZM parameters that allow simultaneous mitigation of the second and third order distortion components created by the joint electro-optic converter and photodiode nonlinearities are identified. The corresponding minimum optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) required to achieve a bit error ratio of 10-9 is also evaluated. An analytical expression showing the relation between the optimum DPMZM parameters under extended voltage levels of the OFDM-UWB signals applied to the DPMZM is proposed and validated. It is shown that the DPMZM performance presents high robustness to deviations from the optimum DPMZM parameters identified. Additionally, it is shown that similar minimum required OSNR levels are obtained with the optimized DPMZM and when the electro-optic conversion is realized by a single MZM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We studied the allelic profile of CAG and CCG repeats in 61 Brazilian individuals in 21 independent families affected by Huntington's disease (HD). Thirteen individuals had two normal alleles for HD, two had one mutable normal allele and no HD phenotype, and forty-six patients carried at least one expanded CAG repeat allele. Forty-five of these individuals had one expanded allele and one individual had one mutable normal allele (27 CAG repeats) and one expanded allele (48 CAG repeats). Eleven of these forty-five subjects had a mutant allele with reduced penetrance, and thirty-four patients had a mutant allele with complete penetrance. Inter- and intragenerational investigations of CAG repeats were also performed. We found a negative correlation between the number of CAG repeats and the age of disease onset (r=−0.84; P<0.001) and no correlation between the number of CCG repeats and the age of disease onset (r=0.06). We found 40 different haplotypes and the analysis showed that (CCG)10 was linked to a CAG normal allele in 19 haplotypes and to expanded alleles in two haplotypes. We found that (CCG)7 was linked to expanded CAG repeats in 40 haplotypes (95.24%) and (CCG)10 was linked to expanded CAG repeats in only two haplotypes (4.76%). Therefore, (CCG)7 was the most common allele in HD chromosomes in this Brazilian sample. It was also observed that there was a significant association of (CCG)7 with the expanded CAG alleles (χ2=6.97, P=0.0084). Worldwide, the most common CCG alleles have 7 or 10 repeats. In Western Europe, (CCG)7 is the most frequent allele, similarly to our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo is the property of Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Enthesopathies, in the guise of musculoskeletal skeletal stress markers (MSM), have been widely used to reconstruct activity levels in human skeletal populations. In general, studies have focused on their presence in the upper limb, which is used in the majority of daily activities. The aim of this study was to use some of the attachment sites on the humerus to explore the relationship between enthesopathy formation, activity, and the ageing process. The skeletal sample used in this study comprised male adult skeletons with known age-at-death and known occupations from the late-l9th and early-2Oth century cemeteries in Portugal. The enthesopathies were recorded as either present or absent. Statistical analysis using Fishers exact tests and logistic regression was undertaken to determine whether associations could be found between specific activities or socioeconomic status (manual or nonmanual workers), and age and enthesopathy presence. Left and right sides were analyzed separately. Fisher's exact tests were used to determine the relationship between activity and enthesopathy, and they demonstrated no association between activity and enthesopathies (P > 0.01). The results of the logistic regression established that age was the single most significant factor in enthesopathy formation (P > 0.05). This study found that, in these samples, age-at-death, and therefore age-related degeneration rather than degeneration caused by activities, was the primary cause of enthesopathy formation. Considering the difficulties of reliably ageing adult human skeletal remains, this is a major issue for studies of activity using enthesopathies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blends made up of castor oil‐based polyurethane (PU) and poly(o‐methoxyaniline) (POMA) were obtained in the form of films by casting and characterized by FTIR, UV‐Vis‐NIR spectroscopy, and electrical conductivity measurements. Doping was carried out by immersing the films in 1.0M HCl aqueous solution. Chemical bonds between NCO group of PU and NH group of POMA were observed by means of FTIR spectra. The UV‐Vis‐NIR spectra indicated that the presence of the PU in the blend does not affect doping and formation of the POMA phase. The electrical conductivity research was in the range of 10−3 S/cm. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite clinical evidence of myocardial dysfunction, there is no pathological evidence of myocardial injury in hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The dominant opinion is that the primary cardiac lesion is functional rather than structural. The present study describes hantaviral antigen and particles in the cardiac endothelium and interstitial macrophages in association with a typical myocarditis in HPS. Human hearts from 14 individuals who died of HPS were compared with hearts from 14 individuals who died of acute necrotizing pancreatitis associated with acute lung injury and 4 individuals who died accidental deaths without thoracic injury (as controls); all cases were selected from autopsies. Transmural blocks of myocardial tissue were excised from the middle portion of the left-ventricular free wall and fixed in formalin. Small samples of myocardial tissue from 4 HPS cases and 4 non-HPS controls were fixed in glutaraldehyde for electron microscopic study. Histomorphometric, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural methods were employed to detect the presence of hantavirus in the myocardium and to evaluate interstitial edema and the minor diameter of myocytes, to characterize the immunophenotype, and to estimate the number of inflammatory cells and in situ cytokine-producing cells and the T helper cell subset 1 and 2 immune responses (tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α, interferon-γ, interleukin [IL]-10, and IL-4). Cardiac remodeling; hantaviral antigen and particles in the endothelium and macrophages; scattered foci of myofiber necrosis; greater interstitial cellular infiltration, mainly composed of macrophages and memory T lymphocytes and a significant number of T helper and B lymphocytes; and TNF-α protein expression in macrophage-type cells and cardiomyocytes were observed to a greater extent in HPS myocardium than in normal and acute pancreatitis control myocardium. These findings give support to the opinion that structural changes could be responsible for myocardial depression and shock in HPS, and it should be properly named as ‘hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome’ (HCPS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5S rDNA sequences present an intense dynamism and have proved to be valuable as genetic markers to distinguish closed related species and also in the understanding of the evolutionary dynamic of repetitive sequences in the genomes. In order to identify patterns of 5S rDNA organization and their evolution in the genome of fish species, such genomic segment was investigated in the tilapias Oreochromis niloticus and Tilapia rendalli, and in the hybrid O. urolepis hornorum × O. mossambicus. A dual 5S rDNA system was identified in the three analyzed tilapia samples. Although each 5S rDNA class was conserved among the three samples, a distinct 5S rDNA genome organization pattern could be evidenced for each sample. The presence of a dual 5S rDNA system seems to be a general trait among non-related teleost fish orders, suggesting that evolutionary events of duplication have occurred before the divergence of the main groups of teleost fishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose. Depressive symptoms are frequently associated with heart failure (HF), but the brain mechanisms underlying such association are unclear. We hypothesized that the presence of major depressive disorder (MDD) emerging after the onset of HF would be associated with regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) abnormalities in medial temporal regions previously implicated in primary MDD, namely the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus.Method. Using 99mTc-SPECT, we measured rCBF in 17 elderly MDD-HF patients, 17 non-depressed HF patients, and 18 healthy controls, matched for demographic variables. Group differences were investigated with Statistical Parametric Mapping.Results. Significant rCBF reductions in MDD-HF patients relative to both non-depressed HF patients and healthy controls were detected in the left anterior parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus (ANOVA, p=0·008 corrected for multiple comparisons) and the right posterior hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus (p=0·005 corrected). In the overall HF group, there was a negative correlation between the severity of depressive symptoms and rCBF in the right posterior hippocampal/parahippocampal region (p=0·045 corrected).Conclusions. These findings are consistent with the notion that the medial temporal region is vulnerable to brain perfusion deficits associated with HF, and provide evidence that such functional deficits may be specifically implicated in the pathophysiology of MDD associated with HF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The influence of the long-term Trypanosoma cruzi infection in vertebrate host on the biological and genetic properties of the parasite was evaluated. Four T. cruzi isolates obtained from different chronic chagasic dogs infected with Berenice-78 T. cruzi strain during 2 and 7years were comparatively analyzed. The long-term T. cruzi infection has led to alterations in parasitemia, virulence and pathogenicity of Be-78 strain for mice. These biological parameters varied from low to high in realation to the parental strain. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA and isoenzyme profiles detected two distinct genetic groups of parasites. The first group included the parental strain and two T. cruzi isolates, and the second group the two other isolates. Interestingly, the isolates of the second group showed a reversibility of the genetic profile to the parental strain after 25 passages in mice. No correlation between the genetic groups and biological properties of the isolates was observed. Our findings confirmed the population heterogeneity of the Be-78 strain, and showed how differently it responds to the long-term infection in the same vertebrate hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to verify the effect of specific treatment on parasitological and histopathological parameters in mice experimentally infected with different Trypanosoma cruzi clonal genotypes. Twenty cloned stocks were selected, representative of the whole phylogenetic diversity of the protozoan and belonging to the clonal genotypes 19 and 20 (T. cruzi I) and 39 and 32 (T. cruzi II). The stocks were inoculated in 40 BALB/c mice divided into four groups: (i) treated with benznidazole, (ii) treated with itraconazole and (iii and iv) untreated control groups (NT) for each drug, respectively. Seven parameters related to parasitaemia curves and histopathological lesions were analysed. Four during the acute phase (AP) and three during both the AP and chronic phase (CP) of infection. Statistical comparison between benznidazole-treated and NT groups for the biological parameters showed significant differences for all genotypes. Benznidazole treatment led to lower patent period, maximum of parasitaemia, day of maximum parasitaemia and area under the parasitaemia curve for all genotypes analysed. Percentage of positive haemoculture during AP and CP was lower for genotypes 19 and 32. Tissue parasitism (TP) and inflammatory process (IP) during AP were lower for genotypes 19 and 32, respectively. In general, itraconazole treatment induced a smaller reduction in these same parameters between treated and NT animals in relation to benznidazole treatment. Our results indicate that phylogenetic divergence among T. cruzi clonal genotypes must be taken in account in chemotherapy and studies dealing with all aspects of the parasite and the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We give sufficient conditions for the uniform hyperbolicity of certain nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems. In particular, we show that local diffeomorphisms that are nonuniformly expanding on sets of total probability (probability one with respect to every invariant probability measure) are necessarily uniformly expanding. We also present a version of this result for diffeomorphisms with nonuniformly hyperbolic sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During Gram-negative infections bacterial components, such as LPS and formylated peptides, exert profound physiological effects on polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) resulting in increased neutrophil effector activities, including the generation of oxidative metabolites, degranulation, phagocytosis and cytokine release. There is not enough evidence about the relationships between LPS and formylated bacterial peptides in the triggering and regulation of the immune inflammatory response. In this study, we present evidence indicating that pretreatment of human PMN with a prototype formylated peptide such as fMLP results in the inhibition of TNF-α secretion, a key molecule that plays a central role in the pathogenesis of septic shock. This inhibitory effect of fMLP does not appear to alter the expression of LPS receptors or the transcriptional pathway of the TNF-α mRNA, but instead, fMLP reduces the expression of the membrane form of TNF-α on the PMN surface. These findings indicate that fMLP, a typical proinflammatory agent, could play, at least in determined conditions, an anti-inflammatory role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) occupy centre stage in the pathogenesis of gram-negative sepsis. Although LPS are potent stimulators of the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS), their effects on immune complex (IC)specific clearance have not yet been reported. In order to evaluate this issue, we examined the MPS function after LPS treatment by measuring intravascular removal rate of syngeneic erythocytes sensitized with specific immunoglobulin G(IgG) (EA). Our findings showed that LPS, directly or through the release of endogenous cytokines, enhance Fcγ receptor (FcγR)-dependent clearance. The EA uptake by liver, spleen and bone marrow was significantly increased leading to an effective clearance of immune complexes. Splenic antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), an in vitro indicator of FcγR functionality, was also increased after in vivo LPS treatment. However, cytometric studies showed that endotoxin did not modify FcγR expression on splenocytes, but markedly enhanced the expression of CD11b/CD18 (Mac-1), an adhesion molecule closely related to FcγR activity. We conclude that LPS enhance FcγR dependent effector functions and suggest that this effect is mediated through alterations in adhesion molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider one parameter families of vector fields introduced by Rovella, obtained through modifying the eigenvalues of the geometric Lorenz attractor, replacing the expanding condition on the eigenvalues of the singularity by a contracting one. We show that there is no statistical stability within the set of parameters for which there is a physical measure supported on the attractor. This is achieved obtaining a similar conclusion at the level of the corresponding one-dimensional contracting Lorenz maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report new interferometric images of cyclopropenylidene, c-C3H2, toward the young protocluster OMC-2 FIR 4. The observations were performed at 82 and 85 GHz with the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) as part of the project Seeds Of Life In Space (SOLIS). In addition, IRAM-30 m data observations were used to investigate the physical structure of OMC-2 FIR 4. We find that the c-C3H2 gas emits from the same region where previous SOLIS observations showed bright HC5N emission. From a non-LTE analysis of the IRAM-30 m data, the c-C3H2 gas has an average temperature of ∼40 K, a H2 density of ∼3 × 105 cm−3, and a c-C3H2 abundance relative to H2 of (7 ± 1) × 10−12. In addition, the NOEMA observations provide no sign of significant c-C3H2 excitation temperature gradients across the region (about 3–4 beams), with Tex in the range 8 ± 3 up to 16 ± 7 K. We thus infer that our observations are inconsistent with a physical interaction of the OMC-2 FIR 4 envelope with the outflow arising from OMC-2 FIR 3, as claimed by previous studies. The comparison of the measured c-C3H2 abundance with the predictions from an astrochemical PDR model indicates that OMC-2 FIR 4 is irradiated by an FUV field ∼1000 times larger than the interstellar one, and by a flux of ionizing particles ∼4000 times larger than the canonical value of 1 × 10−17 s−1 from the Galaxy cosmic rays, which is consistent with our previous HC5N observations. This provides an important and independent confirmation of other studies that one, or more, source inside the OMC-2 FIR 4 region emits energetic (≥10 MeV) particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex organic molecules have been observed for decades in the interstellar medium. Some of them might be considered as small bricks of the macromolecules at the base of terrestrial life. It is hence particularly important to understand organic chemistry in Solar-like star-forming regions. In this article, we present a new observational project: Seeds Of Life In Space (SOLIS). This is a Large Project using the IRAM-NOEMA interferometer, and its scope is to image the emission of several crucial organic molecules in a sample of Solar-like star-forming regions in different evolutionary stages and environments. Here we report the first SOLIS results, obtained from analyzing the spectra of different regions of the Class 0 source NGC 1333-IRAS4A, the protocluster OMC-2 FIR4, and the shock site L1157-B1. The different regions were identified based on the images of formamide (NH2CHO) and cyanodiacetylene (HC5N) lines. We discuss the observed large diversity in the molecular and organic content, both on large (3000–10,000 au) and relatively small (300–1000 au) scales. Finally, we derive upper limits to the methoxy fractional abundance in the three observed regions of the same order of magnitude of that measured in a few cold prestellar objects, namely –10−11 with respect to H2 molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compact gamma cameras with a square-shaped monolithic scintillator crystal and an array of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are actively being developed for applications in areas such as small animal imaging, cancer diagnostics and radiotracer guided surgery. Statistical methods of position reconstruction, which are potentially superior to the traditional centroid method, require accurate knowledge of the spatial response of each photomultiplier. Using both Monte Carlo simulations and experimental data obtained with a camera prototype, we show that the spatial response of all photomultipliers (light response functions) can be parameterized with axially symmetric functions obtained iteratively from flood field irradiation data. The study was performed with a camera prototype equipped with a 30  ×  30  ×  2 mm3 LYSO crystal and an 8  ×  8 array of SiPMs for 140 keV gamma rays. The simulations demonstrate that the images, reconstructed with the maximum likelihood method using the response obtained with the iterative approach, exhibit only minor distortions: the average difference between the reconstructed and the true positions in X and Y directions does not exceed 0.2 mm in the central area of 22  ×  22 mm2 and 0.4 mm at the periphery of the camera. A similar level of image distortions is shown experimentally with the camera prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the hypocortisolemia as a possible etiology in the development of delirium in older people. Role of cortisol abnormalities in delirium; Relationship between the cortisone deficiency and cerebral activity; Cause of delirium in old age.

Statistical event reconstruction techniques can give better results for gamma cameras than the traditional centroid method. However, implementation of such techniques requires detailed knowledge of the photomultiplier tube light-response functions. Here we describe an iterative method which allows one to obtain the response functions from flood irradiation data without imposing strict requirements on the spatial uniformity of the event distribution. A successful application of the method for medical gamma cameras is demonstrated using both simulated and experimental data. An implementation of the iterative reconstruction technique capable of operating in real time is presented. We show that this technique can also be used for monitoring photomultiplier gain variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present results of an extinction-CO line survey of the southeastern part of the California molecular cloud (CMC). Deep, wide-field, near-infrared images were used to construct a sensitive, relatively high resolution (∼0.5 arcmin) (NICEST) extinction map of the region. The same region was also surveyed in the 12CO(2–1), 13CO(2–1), and C18O(2–1) emission lines at the same angular resolution. These data were used to investigate the relation between the molecular gas, traced by CO emission lines, and the dust column density, traced by extinction, on spatial scales of 0.04 pc across the cloud. We found strong spatial variations in the abundances of 13CO and C18O that were correlated with variations in gas temperature, consistent with temperature-dependent CO depletion/desorption on dust grains. The 13CO-to-C18O abundance ratio was found to increase with decreasing extinction, suggesting selective photodissociation of C18O by the ambient UV radiation field. The effect is particularly pronounced in the vicinity of an embedded cluster where the UV radiation appears to have penetrated deeply (i.e., ≲ 15 mag) into the cloud. We derived the cloud-averaged X-factor to be X = 2.53 × 1020 , a value somewhat higher than the Milky Way average. On sub-parsec scales we find there is no single empirical value of the 12CO X-factor that can characterize the molecular gas in cold (T ≲ 15 K) cloud regions, with X ∝ for ≳ 3 mag. However, in regions containing relatively hot (T ≳ 25 K) molecular gas we find a clear correlation between W(12CO) and over a large (3 ≲ ≲ 25 mag) range of extinction. This results in a constant X = 1.5 × 1020 for the hot gas, a lower value than either the average for the CMC or the Milky Way. Overall we find an (inverse) correlation between X and T in the cloud with X ∝ T . This correlation suggests that the global X-factor of a giant molecular cloud may depend on the relative amounts of hot gas contained within the cloud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

G0.253+0.016 is a molecular clump that appears to be on the verge of forming a high-mass cluster: its extremely low dust temperature, high mass, and high density, combined with its lack of prevalent star formation, make it an excellent candidate for an Arches-like cluster in a very early stage of formation. Here we present new Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array observations of its small-scale (∼0.07 pc) 3 mm dust continuum and molecular line emission from 17 different species that probe a range of distinct physical and chemical conditions. The data reveal a complex network of emission features with a complicated velocity structure: there is emission on all spatial scales, the morphology of which ranges from small, compact regions to extended, filamentary structures that are seen in both emission and absorption. The dust column density is well traced by molecules with higher excitation energies and critical densities, consistent with a clump that has a denser interior. A statistical analysis supports the idea that turbulence shapes the observed gas structure within G0.253+0.016. We find a clear break in the turbulent power spectrum derived from the optically thin dust continuum emission at a spatial scale of ∼0.1 pc, which may correspond to the spatial scale at which gravity has overcome the thermal pressure. We suggest that G0.253+0.016 is on the verge of forming a cluster from hierarchical, filamentary structures that arise from a highly turbulent medium. Although the stellar distribution within high-mass Arches-like clusters is compact, centrally condensed, and smooth, the observed gas distribution within G0.253+0.016 is extended, with no high-mass central concentration, and has a complex, hierarchical structure. If this clump gives rise to a high-mass cluster and its stars are formed from this initially hierarchical gas structure, then the resulting cluster must evolve into a centrally condensed structure via a dynamical process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]