Sample records for source catalog psc

  1. The establishment and use of the point source catalog database of the 2MASS near infrared survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Y. F.; Shan, H. G.; Cheng, D.

    2003-02-01

    The 2MASS near infrared survey project is introduced briefly. The 2MASS point sources catalog (2MASS PSC) database and the network query system are established by using the PHP Hypertext Preprocessor and MySQL database server. By using the system, one can not only query information of sources listed in the catalog, but also draw the plots related. Moreover, after the 2MASS data are diagnosed , some research fields which can be benefited from this database are suggested.

  2. VizieR Online Data Catalog: The Red MSX Source Survey: massive protostars (Lumsden+, 2013)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lumsden, S. L.; Hoare, M. G.; Urquhart, J. S.; Oudmaijer, R. D.; Davies, B.; Mottram, J. C.; Cooper, H. D. B.; Moore, T. J. T.

    2013-10-01

    The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite mission included an astronomy experiment (SPIRIT III) designed to acquire mid-infrared photometry of sources in the Galactic plane (b<5°). MSX had a raw resolution of 18.3", a beam size 50 times smaller than that of IRAS at 12 and 25um. MSX observed six bands between 4 and 21um, of which the four between 8 and 21um are sensitive to astronomical sources. We used v2.3 of the MSX PSC (Egan et al. 2003, Cat. V/114) as our basic input, restricting ourselves to the main Galactic plane catalog, which excludes sources seen in only a single observing pass and those seen in multiple passes but with low significance. We restricted our catalog to 10

  3. Galaxy evolution and large-scale structure in the far-infrared. I - IRAS pointed observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lonsdale, Carol J.; Hacking, Perry B.

    1989-04-01

    Redshifts for 66 galaxies were obtained from a sample of 93 60-micron sources detected serendipitously in 22 IRAS deep pointed observations, covering a total area of 18.4 sq deg. The flux density limit of this survey is 150 mJy, 4 times fainter than the IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC). The luminosity function is similar in shape with those previously published for samples selected from the PSC, with a median redshift of 0.048 for the fainter sample, but shifted to higher space densities. There is evidence that some of the excess number counts in the deeper sample can be explained in terms of a large-scale density enhancement beyond the Pavo-Indus supercluster. In addition, the faintest counts in the new sample confirm the result of Hacking et al. (1989) that faint IRAS 60-micron source counts lie significantly in excess of an extrapolation of the PSC counts assuming no luminosity or density evolution.

  4. Galaxy evolution and large-scale structure in the far-infrared. I. IRAS pointed observations

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lonsdale, C.J.; Hacking, P.B.

    1989-04-01

    Redshifts for 66 galaxies were obtained from a sample of 93 60-micron sources detected serendipitously in 22 IRAS deep pointed observations, covering a total area of 18.4 sq deg. The flux density limit of this survey is 150 mJy, 4 times fainter than the IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC). The luminosity function is similar in shape with those previously published for samples selected from the PSC, with a median redshift of 0.048 for the fainter sample, but shifted to higher space densities. There is evidence that some of the excess number counts in the deeper sample can be explained inmore » terms of a large-scale density enhancement beyond the Pavo-Indus supercluster. In addition, the faintest counts in the new sample confirm the result of Hacking et al. (1989) that faint IRAS 60-micron source counts lie significantly in excess of an extrapolation of the PSC counts assuming no luminosity or density evolution. 81 refs.« less

  5. Galaxy evolution and large-scale structure in the far-infrared. I - IRAS pointed observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lonsdale, Carol J.; Hacking, Perry B.

    1989-01-01

    Redshifts for 66 galaxies were obtained from a sample of 93 60-micron sources detected serendipitously in 22 IRAS deep pointed observations, covering a total area of 18.4 sq deg. The flux density limit of this survey is 150 mJy, 4 times fainter than the IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC). The luminosity function is similar in shape with those previously published for samples selected from the PSC, with a median redshift of 0.048 for the fainter sample, but shifted to higher space densities. There is evidence that some of the excess number counts in the deeper sample can be explained in terms of a large-scale density enhancement beyond the Pavo-Indus supercluster. In addition, the faintest counts in the new sample confirm the result of Hacking et al. (1989) that faint IRAS 60-micron source counts lie significantly in excess of an extrapolation of the PSC counts assuming no luminosity or density evolution.

  6. An IRAS-Based Search for New Dusty Late-Type WC Wolf-Rayet Stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cohen, Martin

    1995-01-01

    I have examined all Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) data relevant to the 173 Galactic Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars in an updated catalog, including the 13 stars newly discovered by Shara and coworkers. Using the W-R coordinates in these lists, I have examined the IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC), the Faint Source Catalog, and the Faint Source Reject Catalog, and have generated one-dimensional spatial profiles, 'ADDSCANs', and two-dimensional full-resolution images, 'FRESCOS'. The goal was to assemble the best set of observed IRAS color indices for different W-R types, in particular for known dusty late-type WC Wolf-Rayet (WCL) objects. I have also unsuccessfully sought differences in IRAS colors and absolute magnitudes between single and binary W-R stars. The color indices for the entire ensemble of W-R stars define zones in the IRAS color-color ([12] - [25], [25] - [60])-plane. By searching the PSC for otherwise unassociated sources that satisfy these colors, I have identified potential new W-R candidates, perhaps too faint to have been recognized in previous optical searches. I have extracted these candidates' IRAS low-resolution spectrometer (LRS) data and compared the spectra with the highly characteristic LRS shape for known dusty WCL stars. The 13 surviving candidates must now be ex amined by optical spectroscopy. This work represents a much more rigorous and exhaustive version of the LRS study that identified IRAS 17380 - 3031 (WR98a) as the first new W-R (WC9) star discovered by IPAS. This search should have detected dusty WCL stars to a distance of 7.0 kpc from the Sun, for l is greater than 30 degrees, and to 2.9 kpc even in the innermost galaxy. For free-free-dominated W-R stars the corresponding distances are 2.5 and 1.0 kpc, respectively.

  7. An IRAS-based search for new Dusty Late-Type WC Wolf-Rayet stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cohen, Martin

    1995-01-01

    I have examined all Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) data relevant to the 173 Galactic Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars in an updated catalog, including the 13 stars newly discovered by Shara and coworkers. Using the W-R coordinates in these lists, I have examined the IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC), the Faint Source Catalog, and the Faint Source Reject Catalog, and have generated one-dimensional spatial profiles ('ADDSCANs') and two-dimensional full-resolution images ('FRESCOs'). The goal was to assemble the best set of observed IRAS color indices for different W-R types, in particular for known dusty late-type WC Wolf-Rayet (WCL) objects. I have also unsuccessfully sought differences in IRAS colors and absolute magnitudes between single and binary W-R stars. The color indices for the entire ensemble of W-R stars define zones in the IRAS color-color plane. By searching the PSC for otherwise unassociated sources that satisfy these colors, I have identified potential new W-R candidates, perhaps too faint to have been recognized in previous optical searches. I have extracted these candidates' IRAS low-resolution spectrometer (LRS) data and compared the spectra with the highly characteristic LRS shape for known dusty WCL stars. The 13 surviving candidates must now be examined by optical spectroscopy. This work represents a much more rigorous and exhaustive version of the LRS study that identified IRAS 17380 - 3031 (WR98a) as the first new W-R (WC9) star discovered by IRAS. This search should have detected dusty WCL stars to a distance of 7.0 kpc from the Sun, for the absolute value of l greater than 30 deg, and to 2.9 kpc even in the innermost Galaxy. For free-free-dominated W-R stars the corresponding distances are 2.5 and 1.0 kpc, respectively.

  8. A very deep IRAS survey at the north ecliptic pole

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Houck, J. R.; Hacking, P. B.; Condon, J. J.

    1987-01-01

    The data from approximately 20 hours observation of the 4- to 6-square degree field surrounding the north ecliptic pole have been combined to produce a very deep IR survey at the four IRAS bands. Scans from both pointed and survey observations were included in the data analysis. At 12 and 25 microns the deep survey is limited by detector noise and is approximately 50 times deeper than the IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC). At 60 microns the problems of source confusion and Galactic cirrus combine to limit the deep survey to approximately 12 times deeper than the PSC. These problems are so severe at 100 microns that flux values are only given for locations corresponding to sources selected at 60 microns. In all, 47 sources were detected at 12 microns, 37 at 25 microns, and 99 at 60 microns. The data-analysis procedures and the significance of the 12- and 60-micron source-count results are discussed.

  9. AKARI's infrared view on nearby stars. Using AKARI infrared camera all-sky survey, 2MASS, and Hipparcos catalogs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ita, Y.; Matsuura, M.; Ishihara, D.; Oyabu, S.; Takita, S.; Kataza, H.; Yamamura, I.; Matsunaga, N.; Tanabé, T.; Nakada, Y.; Fujiwara, H.; Wada, T.; Onaka, T.; Matsuhara, H.

    2010-05-01

    Context. The AKARI, a Japanese infrared space mission, has performed an All-Sky Survey in six infrared-bands from 9 to 180 μm with higher spatial resolutions and better sensitivities than IRAS. Aims: We investigate the mid-infrared (9 and 18 μm) point source catalog (PSC) obtained with the infrared camera (IRC) onboard AKARI, in order to understand the infrared nature of the known objects and to identify previously unknown objects. Methods: Color-color diagrams and a color-magnitude diagram were plotted with the AKARI-IRC PSC and other available all-sky survey catalogs. We combined the Hipparcos astrometric catalog and the 2MASS all-sky survey catalog with the AKARI-IRC PSC. We furthermore searched literature and SIMBAD astronomical database for object types, spectral types, and luminosity classes. We identified the locations of representative stars and objects on the color-magnitude and color-color diagram schemes. The properties of unclassified sources can be inferred from their locations on these diagrams. Results: We found that the (B-V) vs. (V-S9W) color-color diagram is useful for identifying the stars with infrared excess emerged from circumstellar envelopes or disks. Be stars with infrared excess are separated well from other types of stars in this diagram. Whereas (J-L18W) vs. (S9W-L18W) diagram is a powerful tool for classifying several object types. Carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and OH/IR stars form distinct sequences in this color-color diagram. Young stellar objects (YSOs), pre-main sequence (PMS) stars, post-AGB stars, and planetary nebulae (PNe) have the largest mid-infrared color excess and can be identified in the infrared catalog. Finally, we plot the L18W vs. (S9W-L18W) color-magnitude diagram, using the AKARI data together with Hipparcos parallaxes. This diagram can be used to identify low-mass YSOs and AGB stars. We found that this diagram is comparable to the [24] vs. ([8.0]-[24]) diagram of Large Magellanic Cloud sources using the Spitzer Space Telescope data. Our understanding of Galactic objects will be used to interpret color-magnitude diagram of stellar populations in the nearby galaxies that Spitzer Space Telescope observed. Conclusions: Our study of the AKARI color-color and color-magnitude diagrams will be used to explore properties of unknown objects in the future. In addition, our analysis highlights a future key project to understand stellar evolution with a circumstellar envelope, once the forthcoming astronometrical data with GAIA are available. Catalog (full Tables 3 and 4) are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/514/A2

  10. VizieR Online Data Catalog: ATLASGAL clumps with IRAS flux and MALT90 data (Stephens+, 2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stephens, I. W.; Jackson, J. M.; Whitaker, J. S.; Contreras, Y.; Guzman, A. E.; Sanhueza, P.; Foster, J. B.; Rathborne, J. M.

    2016-08-01

    The Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90GHz (MALT90) survey (Foster+ 2011, J/ApJS/197/25; 2013PASA...30...38F; Jackson+ 2013PASA...30...57J) mapped 16 lines for 3246 clumps, primarily high-mass star-forming clumps that are >200M⊙, as identified from the ATLASGAL 870um survey (Schuller et al. 2009A&A...504..415S). In order to compare luminosities derived from IRAS (LIR) to molecular line luminosities from MALT90 (Lmolecule), we first matched the MALT90 clumps to the IRAS Point Source Catalog v2.1 (PSC; see Cat. II/125). See section 2.1 for further explanations. (1 data file).

  11. MOTION VERIFIED RED STARS (MoVeRS): A CATALOG OF PROPER MOTION SELECTED LOW-MASS STARS FROM WISE, SDSS, AND 2MASS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Theissen, Christopher A.; West, Andrew A.; Dhital, Saurav, E-mail: ctheisse@bu.edu

    2016-02-15

    We present a photometric catalog of 8,735,004 proper motion selected low-mass stars (KML-spectral types) within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint, from the combined SDSS Data Release 10 (DR10), Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) point-source catalog (PSC), and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) AllWISE catalog. Stars were selected using r − i, i − z, r − z, z − J, and z − W1 colors, and SDSS, WISE, and 2MASS astrometry was combined to compute proper motions. The resulting 3,518,150 stars were augmented with proper motions for 5,216,854 earlier type stars from the combined SDSS and United States Naval Observatory B1.0 catalog (USNO-B). We used SDSS+USNO-B proper motionsmore » to determine the best criteria for selecting a clean sample of stars. Only stars whose proper motions were greater than their 2σ uncertainty were included. Our Motion Verified Red Stars catalog is available through SDSS CasJobs and VizieR.« less

  12. Global properties of infrared bright galaxies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Young, Judith S.; Xie, Shuding; Kenney, Jeffrey D. P.; Rice, Walter L.

    1989-01-01

    Infrared flux densities of 182 galaxies, including 50 galaxies in the Virgo cluster, were analyzed using IRAS data for 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns, and the results were compared with data listed in the Point Source Catalog (PSC, 1985). In addition, IR luminosities, L(IRs), colors, and warm dust masses were derived for these galaxies and were compared with the interstellar gas masses and optical luminosities of the galaxies. It was found that, for galaxies whose optical diameter measures between 5 and 8 arcmin, the PSC flux densities are underestimated by a factor of 2 at 60 microns, and by a factor of 1.5 at 100 microns. It was also found that, for 49 galaxies, the mass of warm dust correlated well with the H2 mass, and that L(IR) correlated with L(H-alpha), demonstrating that the L(IR) measures the rate of star formation in these galaxies.

  13. VizieR Online Data Catalog: New IR photometric study of Ap and Am stars (Chen+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, P. S.; Liu, J. Y.; Shan, H. G.

    2018-05-01

    In the General Catalog of Ap and Am stars (Renson & Manfroid 2009, Cat. III/260) 8265 stars are included in which, as Renson & Manfroid (2009, Cat. III/260) described, only 426 stars are of the "well known confirmed sample". We take these 426 stars as our working sample. The cross-identifications of 2MASS/WISE counterparts for all Ap, Am, and HgMn stars listed in this paper are made from Cutri et al. (2012, Cat. II/311) by using the radius of 2 arcsec. All 426 Ap, Am, and HgMn stars have 2MASS and/or WISE counterparts, which are listed in Table 3. The cross-identifications of IRAS counterparts are made according to the positional error ellipse of the source, because it has a 95% confidence level (IRAS Explanatory Supplement, Beichman et al. 1988, Cat. II/274). Finally, 202 stars are found to have the IRAS counterparts from IRAS PSC/FSC, which is listed in Table 4. (5 data files).

  14. Mass return to the interstellar medium from highly-evolved carbon stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Latter, W. B.; Thronson, H. A., Jr.; Hacking, P.; Bally, J.; Black, J.

    1986-01-01

    Data produced by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) was surveyed at the mid- and far-infrared wavelengths. Visually-identified carbon stars in the 12/25/60 micron color-color diagram were plotted, along with the location of a number of mass-losing stars that lie near the location of the carbon stars, but are not carbon rich. The final sample consisted of 619 objects, which were estimated to be contaminated by 7 % noncarbon-rich objects. The mass return rate was estimated for all evolved circumstellar envelopes. The IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC) was also searched for the entire class of stars with excess emission. Mass-loss rates, lifetimes, and birthrates for evolved stars were also estimated.

  15. The far-infrared properties of the CfA galaxy sample. I - The catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thuan, T. X.; Sauvage, M.

    1992-01-01

    IRAS flux densities are presented for all galaxies in the Center for Astrophysics magnitude-limited sample (mB not greater than 14.5) detected in the IRAS Faint Source Survey (FSS), a total of 1544 galaxies. The detection rate in the FSS is slightly larger than in the PSC for the long-wavelength 60- and 100-micron bands, but improves by a factor of about 3 or more for the short wavelength 12- and 25-micron bands. This optically selected sample consists of galaxies which are, on average, much less IR-active than galaxies in IR-selected samples. It possesses accurate and complete redshift, morphological, and magnitude information, along with observations at other wavelengths.

  16. A BROWN DWARF CENSUS FROM THE SIMP SURVEY

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Robert, Jasmin; Gagné, Jonathan; Artigau, Étienne

    We have conducted a near-infrared (NIR) proper motion survey, the Sondage Infrarouge de Mouvement Propre, in order to discover field ultracool dwarfs (UCD) in the solar neighborhood. The survey was conducted by imaging ∼28% of the sky with the Caméra PAnoramique Proche-InfraRouge both in the southern hemisphere at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 1.5 m telescope, and in the northern hemisphere at the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic 1.6 m telescope and comparing the source positions from these observations with the Two Micron All-Sky Survey Point Source Catalog (2MASS PSC). Additional color criteria were used to further discriminate unwanted astrophysical sources. Wemore » present the results of an NIR spectroscopic follow-up of 169 M, L, and T dwarfs. Among the sources discovered are 2 young field brown dwarfs, 6 unusually red M and L dwarfs, 25 unusually blue M and L dwarfs, 2 candidate unresolved L+T binaries, and 24 peculiar UCDs. Additionally, we add 9 L/T transition dwarfs (L6–T4.5) to the already known objects.« less

  17. A Brown Dwarf Census from the SIMP Survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Robert, Jasmin; Gagné, Jonathan; Artigau, Étienne; Lafrenière, David; Nadeau, Daniel; Doyon, René; Malo, Lison; Albert, Loïc; Simard, Corinne; Bardalez Gagliuffi, Daniella C.; Burgasser, Adam J.

    2016-10-01

    We have conducted a near-infrared (NIR) proper motion survey, the Sondage Infrarouge de Mouvement Propre, in order to discover field ultracool dwarfs (UCD) in the solar neighborhood. The survey was conducted by imaging ˜28% of the sky with the Caméra PAnoramique Proche-InfraRouge both in the southern hemisphere at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 1.5 m telescope, and in the northern hemisphere at the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic 1.6 m telescope and comparing the source positions from these observations with the Two Micron All-Sky Survey Point Source Catalog (2MASS PSC). Additional color criteria were used to further discriminate unwanted astrophysical sources. We present the results of an NIR spectroscopic follow-up of 169 M, L, and T dwarfs. Among the sources discovered are 2 young field brown dwarfs, 6 unusually red M and L dwarfs, 25 unusually blue M and L dwarfs, 2 candidate unresolved L+T binaries, and 24 peculiar UCDs. Additionally, we add 9 L/T transition dwarfs (L6-T4.5) to the already known objects.

  18. Isolation and characterization of canine perivascular stem/stromal cells for bone tissue engineering.

    PubMed

    James, Aaron W; Zhang, Xinli; Crisan, Mihaela; Hardy, Winters R; Liang, Pei; Meyers, Carolyn A; Lobo, Sonja; Lagishetty, Venu; Childers, Martin K; Asatrian, Greg; Ding, Catherine; Yen, Yu-Hsin; Zou, Erin; Ting, Kang; Peault, Bruno; Soo, Chia

    2017-01-01

    For over 15 years, human subcutaneous adipose tissue has been recognized as a rich source of tissue resident mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC). The isolation of perivascular progenitor cells from human adipose tissue by a cell sorting strategy was first published in 2008. Since this time, the interest in using pericytes and related perivascular stem/stromal cell (PSC) populations for tissue engineering has significantly increased. Here, we describe a set of experiments identifying, isolating and characterizing PSC from canine tissue (N = 12 canine adipose tissue samples). Results showed that the same antibodies used for human PSC identification and isolation are cross-reactive with canine tissue (CD45, CD146, CD34). Like their human correlate, canine PSC demonstrate characteristics of MSC including cell surface marker expression, colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) inclusion, and osteogenic differentiation potential. As well, canine PSC respond to osteoinductive signals in a similar fashion as do human PSC, such as the secreted differentiation factor NEL-Like Molecule-1 (NELL-1). Nevertheless, important differences exist between human and canine PSC, including differences in baseline osteogenic potential. In summary, canine PSC represent a multipotent mesenchymogenic cell source for future translational efforts in tissue engineering.

  19. Comparative study of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) as a treatment for retinal dystrophies

    PubMed Central

    Riera, Marina; Fontrodona, Laura; Albert, Silvia; Ramirez, Diana Mora; Seriola, Anna; Salas, Anna; Muñoz, Yolanda; Ramos, David; Villegas-Perez, Maria Paz; Zapata, Miguel Angel; Raya, Angel; Ruberte, Jesus; Veiga, Anna; Garcia-Arumi, Jose

    2016-01-01

    Retinal dystrophies (RD) are major causes of familial blindness and are characterized by progressive dysfunction of photoreceptor and/or retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. In this study, we aimed to evaluate and compare the therapeutic effects of two pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-based therapies. We differentiated RPE from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) or human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and transplanted them into the subretinal space of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rat. Once differentiated, cells from either source of PSC resembled mature RPE in their morphology and gene expression profile. Following transplantation, both hESC- and hiPSC-derived cells maintained the expression of specific RPE markers, lost their proliferative capacity, established tight junctions, and were able to perform phagocytosis of photoreceptor outer segments. Remarkably, grafted areas showed increased numbers of photoreceptor nuclei and outer segment disk membranes. Regardless of the cell source, human transplants protected retina from cell apoptosis, glial stress and accumulation of autofluorescence, and responded better to light stimuli. Altogether, our results show that hESC- and hiPSC-derived cells survived, migrated, integrated, and functioned as RPE in the RCS rat retina, providing preclinical evidence that either PSC source could be of potential benefit for treating RD. PMID:27006969

  20. Chandra Source Catalog: User Interface

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonaventura, Nina; Evans, Ian N.; Rots, Arnold H.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; van Stone, David W.; Zografou, Panagoula; Primini, Francis A.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Anderson, Craig S.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Helen; Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Winkelman, Sherry L.

    2009-09-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is intended to be the definitive catalog of all X-ray sources detected by Chandra. For each source, the CSC provides positions and multi-band fluxes, as well as derived spatial, spectral, and temporal source properties. Full-field and source region data products are also available, including images, photon event lists, light curves, and spectra. The Chandra X-ray Center CSC website (http://cxc.harvard.edu/csc/) is the place to visit for high-level descriptions of each source property and data product included in the catalog, along with other useful information, such as step-by-step catalog tutorials, answers to FAQs, and a thorough summary of the catalog statistical characterization. Eight categories of detailed catalog documents may be accessed from the navigation bar on most of the 50+ CSC pages; these categories are: About the Catalog, Creating the Catalog, Using the Catalog, Catalog Columns, Column Descriptions, Documents, Conferences, and Useful Links. There are also prominent links to CSCview, the CSC data access GUI, and related help documentation, as well as a tutorial for using the new CSC/Google Earth interface. Catalog source properties are presented in seven scientific categories, within two table views: the Master Source and Source Observations tables. Each X-ray source has one ``master source'' entry and one or more ``source observation'' entries, the details of which are documented on the CSC ``Catalog Columns'' pages. The master source properties represent the best estimates of the properties of a source; these are extensively described on the following pages of the website: Position and Position Errors, Source Flags, Source Extent and Errors, Source Fluxes, Source Significance, Spectral Properties, and Source Variability. The eight tutorials (``threads'') available on the website serve as a collective guide for accessing, understanding, and manipulating the source properties and data products provided by the catalog.

  1. Improved Point-source Detection in Crowded Fields Using Probabilistic Cataloging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Portillo, Stephen K. N.; Lee, Benjamin C. G.; Daylan, Tansu; Finkbeiner, Douglas P.

    2017-10-01

    Cataloging is challenging in crowded fields because sources are extremely covariant with their neighbors and blending makes even the number of sources ambiguous. We present the first optical probabilistic catalog, cataloging a crowded (˜0.1 sources per pixel brighter than 22nd mag in F606W) Sloan Digital Sky Survey r-band image from M2. Probabilistic cataloging returns an ensemble of catalogs inferred from the image and thus can capture source-source covariance and deblending ambiguities. By comparing to a traditional catalog of the same image and a Hubble Space Telescope catalog of the same region, we show that our catalog ensemble better recovers sources from the image. It goes more than a magnitude deeper than the traditional catalog while having a lower false-discovery rate brighter than 20th mag. We also present an algorithm for reducing this catalog ensemble to a condensed catalog that is similar to a traditional catalog, except that it explicitly marginalizes over source-source covariances and nuisance parameters. We show that this condensed catalog has a similar completeness and false-discovery rate to the catalog ensemble. Future telescopes will be more sensitive, and thus more of their images will be crowded. Probabilistic cataloging performs better than existing software in crowded fields and so should be considered when creating photometric pipelines in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope era.

  2. Faint warm debris disks around nearby bright stars explored by AKARI and IRSF

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ishihara, Daisuke; Takeuchi, Nami; Kobayashi, Hiroshi; Nagayama, Takahiro; Kaneda, Hidehiro; Inutsuka, Shu-ichiro; Fujiwara, Hideaki; Onaka, Takashi

    2017-05-01

    Context. Debris disks are important observational clues for understanding planetary-system formation process. In particular, faint warm debris disks may be related to late planet formation near 1 au. A systematic search of faint warm debris disks is necessary to reveal terrestrial planet formation. Aims: Faint warm debris disks show excess emission that peaks at mid-IR wavelengths. Thus we explore debris disks using the AKARI mid-IR all-sky point source catalog (PSC), a product of the second generation unbiased IR all-sky survey. Methods: We investigate IR excess emission for 678 isolated main-sequence stars for which there are 18 μm detections in the AKARI mid-IR all-sky catalog by comparing their fluxes with the predicted fluxes of the photospheres based on optical to near-IR fluxes and model spectra. The near-IR fluxes are first taken from the 2MASS PSC. However, 286 stars with Ks < 4.5 in our sample have large flux errors in the 2MASS photometry due to saturation. Thus we have measured accurate J, H, and Ks band fluxes, applying neutral density (ND) filters for Simultaneous InfraRed Imager for Unbiased Survey (SIRIUS) on IRSF, the φ1.4 m near-IR telescope in South Africa, and improved the flux accuracy from 14% to 1.8% on average. Results: We identified 53 debris-disk candidates including eight new detections from our sample of 678 main-sequence stars. The detection rate of debris disks for this work is 8%, which is comparable with those in previous works by Spitzer and Herschel. Conclusions: The importance of this study is the detection of faint warm debris disks around nearby field stars. At least nine objects have a large amount of dust for their ages, which cannot be explained by the conventional steady-state collisional cascade model. The full version of Table 2 is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/601/A72

  3. Immunomodulatory Properties of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Mesenchymal Cells.

    PubMed

    Ng, Jia; Hynes, Kim; White, Gregory; Sivanathan, Kisha Nandini; Vandyke, Kate; Bartold, Peter Mark; Gronthos, Stan

    2016-12-01

    MSC-like populations derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-MSC) serve as an alternative stem cell source due to their high proliferative capacity. In this study, we assessed the immunomodulatory potential of iPSC-MSC generated from periodontal ligament (PDL) and gingival (GF) tissue. The iPSC-MSC lines exhibited a similar level of suppression of mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) proliferation compared to their respective parental fibroblast populations in vitro. Moreover, iPSC-MSC demonstrated the ability to suppress T-cells effector cells, Th1/Th2/Th17 populations, and increase levels of Treg cells. In order to investigate the mechanisms involved, expression of common MSC-derived soluble factors known to supress lymphocyte proliferation were assessed in iPSC-MSC cultured with PBMNC with direct cell-cell contact or separated in transwells. Real-time PCR analysis of factors known to be involved in MSC mediated immune regulation, found a general trend of elevated IDO1 and IL6 transcript levels in iPSC-MSC lines and their respective primary cells co-cultured with activated PBMNC, with a wide range of gene expression levels between the different mesenchymal cell types. The results suggest that different iPSC-MSC may be useful as a potential alternative source of cells for future clinical use in therapeutic applications because of their potent immunosuppressive properties. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2844-2853, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Stars associated to Eagle Nebula (M16=NGC6611) (Guarcello+ 2010)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guarcello, M. G.; Micela, G.; Peres, G.; Prisinzano, L.; Sciortino, S.

    2010-08-01

    This catalog contains coordinates and both optical and infrared photometry, plus usefull tags, of the candidate stars associated to the Eagle Nebula (M16), bost disk-less and disk-bearing, selected in Guarcello et al. 2010: "Chronology of star formation and disks evolution in the Eagle Nebula". The optical photometry in BVI bands comes from observations with WFI@ESO (Guarcello et al. 2007, Cat. J/A+A/462/245); JHK photometry have been obtained from 2MASS/PSC (Bonatto et al. 2006A&A...445..567B, Guarcello et al. 2007, Cat. J/A+A/462/245) and UKIDSS/GPS catalogs (Guarcello et al., 2010, in prep.) ; IRAC data are from GLIMPSE public survey (Indebetouw 2007ApJ...666..321I, Guarcello et al., 2009, Cat. J/A+A/496/453); X-ray data from three observations with Chandra/ACIS-I (Linsky et al., 2007, Cat. J/ApJ/654/347, Guarcello et al., 2007, J/A+A/462/245, Guarcello et al. 2010, in prep.). (1 data file).

  5. Residual Expression of the Reprogramming Factors Prevents Differentiation of iPSC Generated from Human Fibroblasts and Cord Blood CD34+ Progenitors

    PubMed Central

    Ramos-Mejía, Verónica; Montes, Rosa; Bueno, Clara; Ayllón, Verónica; Real, Pedro J.; Rodríguez, René; Menendez, Pablo

    2012-01-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) have been generated from different tissues, with the age of the donor, tissue source and specific cell type influencing the reprogramming process. Reprogramming hematopoietic progenitors to hiPSC may provide a very useful cellular system for modelling blood diseases. We report the generation and complete characterization of hiPSCs from human neonatal fibroblasts and cord blood (CB)-derived CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors using a single polycistronic lentiviral vector containing an excisable cassette encoding the four reprogramming factors Oct4, Klf4, Sox2 and c-myc (OKSM). The ectopic expression of OKSM was fully silenced upon reprogramming in some hiPSC clones and was not reactivated upon differentiation, whereas other hiPSC clones failed to silence the transgene expression, independently of the cell type/tissue origin. When hiPSC were induced to differentiate towards hematopoietic and neural lineages those hiPSC which had silenced OKSM ectopic expression displayed good hematopoietic and early neuroectoderm differentiation potential. In contrast, those hiPSC which failed to switch off OKSM expression were unable to differentiate towards either lineage, suggesting that the residual expression of the reprogramming factors functions as a developmental brake impairing hiPSC differentiation. Successful adenovirus-based Cre-mediated excision of the provirus OKSM cassette in CB-derived CD34+ hiPSC with residual transgene expression resulted in transgene-free hiPSC clones with significantly improved differentiation capacity. Overall, our findings confirm that residual expression of reprogramming factors impairs hiPSC differentiation. PMID:22545141

  6. Reprogramming of Adult Peripheral Blood Cells into Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells as a Safe and Accessible Source of Endothelial Cells.

    PubMed

    Simara, Pavel; Tesarova, Lenka; Rehakova, Daniela; Farkas, Simon; Salingova, Barbara; Kutalkova, Katerina; Vavreckova, Eva; Matula, Pavel; Matula, Petr; Veverkova, Lenka; Koutna, Irena

    2018-01-01

    New approaches in regenerative medicine and vasculogenesis have generated a demand for sufficient numbers of human endothelial cells (ECs). ECs and their progenitors reside on the interior surface of blood and lymphatic vessels or circulate in peripheral blood; however, their numbers are limited, and they are difficult to expand after isolation. Recent advances in human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) research have opened possible avenues to generate unlimited numbers of ECs from easily accessible cell sources, such as the peripheral blood. In this study, we reprogrammed peripheral blood mononuclear cells, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), and human saphenous vein endothelial cells (HSVECs) into hiPSCs and differentiated them into ECs. The phenotype profiles, functionality, and genome stability of all hiPSC-derived ECs were assessed and compared with HUVECs and HSVECs. hiPSC-derived ECs resembled their natural EC counterparts, as shown by the expression of the endothelial surface markers CD31 and CD144 and the results of the functional analysis. Higher expression of endothelial progenitor markers CD34 and kinase insert domain receptor (KDR) was measured in hiPSC-derived ECs. An analysis of phosphorylated histone H2AX (γH2AX) foci revealed that an increased number of DNA double-strand breaks upon reprogramming into pluripotent cells. However, differentiation into ECs restored a normal number of γH2AX foci. Our hiPSCs retained a normal karyotype, with the exception of the HSVEC-derived hiPSC line, which displayed mosaicism due to a gain of chromosome 1. Peripheral blood from adult donors is a suitable source for the unlimited production of patient-specific ECs through the hiPSC interstage. hiPSC-derived ECs are fully functional and comparable to natural ECs. The protocol is eligible for clinical applications in regenerative medicine, if the genomic stability of the pluripotent cell stage is closely monitored.

  7. Generation of clinical-grade human induced pluripotent stem cells in Xeno-free conditions.

    PubMed

    Wang, Juan; Hao, Jie; Bai, Donghui; Gu, Qi; Han, Weifang; Wang, Lei; Tan, Yuanqing; Li, Xia; Xue, Ke; Han, Pencheng; Liu, Zhengxin; Jia, Yundan; Wu, Jun; Liu, Lei; Wang, Liu; Li, Wei; Liu, Zhonghua; Zhou, Qi

    2015-11-12

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are considered as one of the most promising seed cell sources in regenerative medicine. Now hiPSC-based clinical trials are underway. To ensure clinical safety, cells used in clinical trials or therapies should be generated under GMP conditions, and with Xeno-free culture media to avoid possible side effects like immune rejection that induced by the Xeno reagents. However, up to now there are no reports for hiPSC lines developed completely under GMP conditions using Xeno-free reagents. Clinical-grade human foreskin fibroblast (HFF) cells used as feeder cells and parental cells of the clinical-grade hiPSCs were isolated from human foreskin tissues and cultured in Xeno-free media. Clinical-grade hiPSCs were derived by integration-free Sendai virus-based reprogramming kit in Xeno-free pluriton™ reprogramming medium or X medium. Neural cells and cardiomyocytes differentiation were conducted following a series of spatial and temporal specific signals induction according to the corresponding lineage development signals. Biological safety evaluation of the clinical-grade HFF cells and hiPSCs were conducted following the guidance of the "Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China, Edition 2010, Volume III". We have successfully derived several integration-free clinical-grade hiPSC lines under GMP-controlled conditions and with Xeno-free reagents culture media in line with the current guidance of international and national evaluation criteria. As for the source of hiPSCs and feeder cells, biological safety evaluation of the HFF cells have been strictly reviewed by the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC). The hiPSC lines are pluripotent and have passed the safety evaluation. Moreover, one of the randomly selected hiPSC lines was capable of differentiating into functional neural cells and cardiomyocytes in Xeno-free culture media. The clinical-grade hiPSC lines therefore could be valuable sources for future hiPSC-based clinical trials or therapies and for drug screening.

  8. Comparative Gene Expression Analyses Reveal Distinct Molecular Signatures between Differentially Reprogrammed Cardiomyocytes.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Yang; Wang, Li; Liu, Ziqing; Alimohamadi, Sahar; Yin, Chaoying; Liu, Jiandong; Qian, Li

    2017-09-26

    Cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) or directly reprogrammed from non-myocytes (induced cardiomyocytes [iCMs]) are promising sources for heart regeneration or disease modeling. However, the similarities and differences between iPSC-CMs and iCMs are still unknown. Here, we performed transcriptome analyses of beating iPSC-CMs and iCMs generated from cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) of the same origin. Although both iPSC-CMs and iCMs establish CM-like molecular features globally, iPSC-CMs exhibit a relatively hyperdynamic epigenetic status, whereas iCMs exhibit a maturation status that more closely resembles that of adult CMs. Based on gene expression of metabolic enzymes, iPSC-CMs primarily employ glycolysis, whereas iCMs utilize fatty acid oxidation as the main pathway. Importantly, iPSC-CMs and iCMs exhibit different cell-cycle status, alteration of which influenced their maturation. Therefore, our study provides a foundation for understanding the pros and cons of different reprogramming approaches. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Signature Lipids and Stable Carbon Isotope Analyses of Octopus Spring Hyperthermophilic Communities Compared with Those of Aquificales Representatives

    PubMed Central

    Jahnke, Linda L.; Eder, Wolfgang; Huber, Robert; Hope, Janet M.; Hinrichs, Kai-Uwe; Hayes, John M.; Des Marais, David J.; Cady, Sherry L.; Summons, Roger E.

    2001-01-01

    The molecular and isotopic compositions of lipid biomarkers of cultured Aquificales genera have been used to study the community and trophic structure of the hyperthermophilic pink streamers and vent biofilm from Octopus Spring. Thermocrinis ruber, Thermocrinis sp. strain HI 11/12, Hydrogenobacter thermophilus TK-6, Aquifex pyrophilus, and Aquifex aeolicus all contained glycerol-ether phospholipids as well as acyl glycerides. The n-C20:1 and cy-C21 fatty acids dominated all of the Aquificales, while the alkyl glycerol ethers were mainly C18:0. These Aquificales biomarkers were major constituents of the lipid extracts of two Octopus Spring samples, a biofilm associated with the siliceous vent walls, and the well-known pink streamer community (PSC). Both the biofilm and the PSC contained mono- and dialkyl glycerol ethers in which C18 and C20 alkyl groups were prevalent. Phospholipid fatty acids included both the Aquificales n-C20:1 and cy-C21, plus a series of iso-branched fatty acids (i-C15:0 to i-C21:0), indicating an additional bacterial component. Biomass and lipids from the PSC were depleted in 13C relative to source water CO2 by 10.9 and 17.2‰, respectively. The C20–21 fatty acids of the PSC were less depleted than the iso-branched fatty acids, 18.4 and 22.6‰, respectively. The biomass of T. ruber grown on CO2 was depleted in 13C by only 3.3‰ relative to C source. In contrast, biomass was depleted by 19.7‰ when formate was the C source. Independent of carbon source, T. ruber lipids were heavier than biomass (+1.3‰). The depletion in the C20–21 fatty acids from the PSC indicates that Thermocrinis biomass must be similarly depleted and too light to be explained by growth on CO2. Accordingly, Thermocrinis in the PSC is likely to have utilized formate, presumably generated in the spring source region. PMID:11679343

  10. Signature lipids and stable carbon isotope analyses of Octopus Spring hyperthermophilic communities compared with those of Aquificales representatives

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jahnke, L. L.; Eder, W.; Huber, R.; Hope, J. M.; Hinrichs, K. U.; Hayes, J. M.; Des Marais, D. J.; Cady, S. L.; Summons, R. E.

    2001-01-01

    The molecular and isotopic compositions of lipid biomarkers of cultured Aquificales genera have been used to study the community and trophic structure of the hyperthermophilic pink streamers and vent biofilm from Octopus Spring. Thermocrinis ruber, Thermocrinis sp. strain HI 11/12, Hydrogenobacter thermophilus TK-6, Aquifex pyrophilus, and Aquifex aeolicus all contained glycerol-ether phospholipids as well as acyl glycerides. The n-C(20:1) and cy-C(21) fatty acids dominated all of the Aquificales, while the alkyl glycerol ethers were mainly C(18:0). These Aquificales biomarkers were major constituents of the lipid extracts of two Octopus Spring samples, a biofilm associated with the siliceous vent walls, and the well-known pink streamer community (PSC). Both the biofilm and the PSC contained mono- and dialkyl glycerol ethers in which C(18) and C(20) alkyl groups were prevalent. Phospholipid fatty acids included both the Aquificales n-C(20:1) and cy-C(21), plus a series of iso-branched fatty acids (i-C(15:0) to i-C(21:0)), indicating an additional bacterial component. Biomass and lipids from the PSC were depleted in (13)C relative to source water CO(2) by 10.9 and 17.2 per thousand, respectively. The C(20-21) fatty acids of the PSC were less depleted than the iso-branched fatty acids, 18.4 and 22.6 per thousand, respectively. The biomass of T. ruber grown on CO(2) was depleted in (13)C by only 3.3 per thousand relative to C source. In contrast, biomass was depleted by 19.7 per thousand when formate was the C source. Independent of carbon source, T. ruber lipids were heavier than biomass (+1.3 per thousand). The depletion in the C(20-21) fatty acids from the PSC indicates that Thermocrinis biomass must be similarly depleted and too light to be explained by growth on CO(2). Accordingly, Thermocrinis in the PSC is likely to have utilized formate, presumably generated in the spring source region.

  11. Functional Comparison of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell- and Blood-Derived GPIIbIIIa Deficient Platelets

    PubMed Central

    Haas, Jessica; Sandrock-Lang, Kirstin; Gärtner, Florian; Jung, Christian Billy; Zieger, Barbara; Parrotta, Elvira; Kurnik, Karin; Sinnecker, Daniel; Wanner, Gerhard; Laugwitz, Karl-Ludwig; Massberg, Steffen; Moretti, Alessandra

    2015-01-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) represent a versatile tool to model genetic diseases and are a potential source for cell transfusion therapies. However, it remains elusive to which extent patient-specific hiPSC-derived cells functionally resemble their native counterparts. Here, we generated a hiPSC model of the primary platelet disease Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT), characterized by dysfunction of the integrin receptor GPIIbIIIa, and compared side-by-side healthy and diseased hiPSC-derived platelets with peripheral blood platelets. Both GT-hiPSC-derived platelets and their peripheral blood equivalents showed absence of membrane expression of GPIIbIIIa, a reduction of PAC-1 binding, surface spreading and adherence to fibrinogen. We demonstrated that GT-hiPSC-derived platelets recapitulate molecular and functional aspects of the disease and show comparable behavior to their native counterparts encouraging the further use of hiPSC-based disease models as well as the transition towards a clinical application. PMID:25607928

  12. The Chandra Source Catalog: Processing and Infrastructure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, Janet; Evans, Ian N.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Miller, Joseph B.; Plummer, David A.; Zografou, Panagoula; Primini, Francis A.; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Grier, John D.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiang Qun (Helen); Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.

    2009-09-01

    Chandra Source Catalog processing recalibrates each observation using the latest available calibration data, and employs a wavelet-based source detection algorithm to identify all the X-ray sources in the field of view. Source properties are then extracted from each detected source that is a candidate for inclusion in the catalog. Catalog processing is completed by matching sources across multiple observations, merging common detections, and applying quality assurance checks. The Chandra Source Catalog processing system shares a common processing infrastructure and utilizes much of the functionality that is built into the Standard Data Processing (SDP) pipeline system that provides calibrated Chandra data to end-users. Other key components of the catalog processing system have been assembled from the portable CIAO data analysis package. Minimal new software tool development has been required to support the science algorithms needed for catalog production. Since processing pipelines must be instantiated for each detected source, the number of pipelines that are run during catalog construction is a factor of order 100 times larger than for SDP. The increased computational load, and inherent parallel nature of the processing, is handled by distributing the workload across a multi-node Beowulf cluster. Modifications to the SDP automated processing application to support catalog processing, and extensions to Chandra Data Archive software to ingest and retrieve catalog products, complete the upgrades to the infrastructure to support catalog processing.

  13. Disease modeling and cell based therapy with iPSC: future therapeutic option with fast and safe application.

    PubMed

    Kim, Changsung

    2014-03-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has shown us great hope to treat various human diseases which have been known as untreatable and further endows personalized medicine for future therapy without ethical issues and immunological rejection which embryonic stem cell (hES) treatment has faced. It has been agreed that iPSCs knowledge can be harnessed from disease modeling which mimics human pathological development rather than trials utilizing conventional rodent and cell lines. Now, we can routinely generate iPSC from patient specific cell sources, such as skin fibroblast, hair follicle cells, patient blood samples and even urine containing small amount of epithelial cells. iPSC has both similarity and dissimilarity to hES. iPSC is similar enough to regenerate tissue and even full organism as ES does, however what we want for therapeutic advantage is limited to regenerated tissue and lineage specific differentiation. Depending on the lineage and type of cells, both tissue memory containing (DNA rearrangement/epigenetics) and non-containing iPSC can be generated. This makes iPSC even better choice to perform disease modeling as well as cell based therapy. Tissue memory containing iPSC from mature leukocytes would be beneficial for curing cancer and infectious disease. In this review, the benefit of iPSC for translational approaches will be presented.

  14. Alternative functional in vitro models of human intestinal epithelia

    PubMed Central

    Kauffman, Amanda L.; Gyurdieva, Alexandra V.; Mabus, John R.; Ferguson, Chrissa; Yan, Zhengyin; Hornby, Pamela J.

    2013-01-01

    Physiologically relevant sources of absorptive intestinal epithelial cells are crucial for human drug transport studies. Human adenocarcinoma-derived intestinal cell lines, such as Caco-2, offer conveniences of easy culture maintenance and scalability, but do not fully recapitulate in vivo intestinal phenotypes. Additional sources of renewable physiologically relevant human intestinal cells would provide a much needed tool for drug discovery and intestinal physiology. We compared two alternative sources of human intestinal cells, commercially available primary human intestinal epithelial cells (hInEpCs) and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived intestinal cells to Caco-2, for use in in vitro transwell monolayer intestinal transport assays. To achieve this for iPSC-derived cells, intestinal organogenesis was adapted to transwell differentiation. Intestinal cells were assessed by marker expression through immunocytochemical and mRNA expression analyses, monolayer integrity through Transepithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) measurements and molecule permeability, and functionality by taking advantage the well-characterized intestinal transport mechanisms. In most cases, marker expression for primary hInEpCs and iPSC-derived cells appeared to be as good as or better than Caco-2. Furthermore, transwell monolayers exhibited high TEER with low permeability. Primary hInEpCs showed molecule efflux indicative of P-glycoprotein (Pgp) transport. Primary hInEpCs and iPSC-derived cells also showed neonatal Fc receptor-dependent binding of immunoglobulin G variants. Primary hInEpCs and iPSC-derived intestinal cells exhibit expected marker expression and demonstrate basic functional monolayer formation, similar to or better than Caco-2. These cells could offer an alternative source of human intestinal cells for understanding normal intestinal epithelial physiology and drug transport. PMID:23847534

  15. Alternative functional in vitro models of human intestinal epithelia.

    PubMed

    Kauffman, Amanda L; Gyurdieva, Alexandra V; Mabus, John R; Ferguson, Chrissa; Yan, Zhengyin; Hornby, Pamela J

    2013-01-01

    Physiologically relevant sources of absorptive intestinal epithelial cells are crucial for human drug transport studies. Human adenocarcinoma-derived intestinal cell lines, such as Caco-2, offer conveniences of easy culture maintenance and scalability, but do not fully recapitulate in vivo intestinal phenotypes. Additional sources of renewable physiologically relevant human intestinal cells would provide a much needed tool for drug discovery and intestinal physiology. We compared two alternative sources of human intestinal cells, commercially available primary human intestinal epithelial cells (hInEpCs) and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived intestinal cells to Caco-2, for use in in vitro transwell monolayer intestinal transport assays. To achieve this for iPSC-derived cells, intestinal organogenesis was adapted to transwell differentiation. Intestinal cells were assessed by marker expression through immunocytochemical and mRNA expression analyses, monolayer integrity through Transepithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) measurements and molecule permeability, and functionality by taking advantage the well-characterized intestinal transport mechanisms. In most cases, marker expression for primary hInEpCs and iPSC-derived cells appeared to be as good as or better than Caco-2. Furthermore, transwell monolayers exhibited high TEER with low permeability. Primary hInEpCs showed molecule efflux indicative of P-glycoprotein (Pgp) transport. Primary hInEpCs and iPSC-derived cells also showed neonatal Fc receptor-dependent binding of immunoglobulin G variants. Primary hInEpCs and iPSC-derived intestinal cells exhibit expected marker expression and demonstrate basic functional monolayer formation, similar to or better than Caco-2. These cells could offer an alternative source of human intestinal cells for understanding normal intestinal epithelial physiology and drug transport.

  16. Catalog of infrared observations including: Bibliography of infrared astronomy and index of infrared source positions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gezari, D. Y.; Schmitz, M.; Mead, J. M.

    1984-01-01

    The Catalog of Infrared Observations and its Far Infrared Supplement summarize all infrared astronomical observations at infrared wavelengths published in the scientific literature between 1965 and 1982. The Catalog includes as appendices the Bibliography of infrared astronomy which keys observations in the Catalog with the original journal references, and the index of infrared source positions which gives source positions for alphabetically listed sources in the Catalog. The Catalog data base contains over 85,000 observations of about 10,000 infrared sources, of which about 2,000 have no known visible counterpart.

  17. Genomic Epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae O1 Associated with Floods, Pakistan, 2010

    PubMed Central

    Shah, Muhammad Ali; Mutreja, Ankur; Thomson, Nicholas; Baker, Stephen; Parkhill, Julian; Dougan, Gordon; Bokhari, Habib

    2014-01-01

    In August 2010, Pakistan experienced major floods and a subsequent cholera epidemic. To clarify the population dynamics and transmission of Vibrio cholerae in Pakistan, we sequenced the genomes of all V. cholerae O1 El Tor isolates and compared the sequences to a global collection of 146 V. cholerae strains. Within the global phylogeny, all isolates from Pakistan formed 2 new subclades (PSC-1 and PSC-2), lying in the third transmission wave of the seventh-pandemic lineage that could be distinguished by signature deletions and their antimicrobial susceptibilities. Geographically, PSC-1 isolates originated from the coast, whereas PSC-2 isolates originated from inland areas flooded by the Indus River. Single-nucleotide polymorphism accumulation analysis correlated river flow direction with the spread of PSC-2. We found at least 2 sources of cholera in Pakistan during the 2010 epidemic and illustrate the value of a global genomic data bank in contextualizing cholera outbreaks. PMID:24378019

  18. Genomic epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae O1 associated with floods, Pakistan, 2010.

    PubMed

    Shah, Muhammad Ali; Mutreja, Ankur; Thomson, Nicholas; Baker, Stephen; Parkhill, Julian; Dougan, Gordon; Bokhari, Habib; Wren, Brendan W

    2014-01-01

    In August 2010, Pakistan experienced major floods and a subsequent cholera epidemic. To clarify the population dynamics and transmission of Vibrio cholerae in Pakistan, we sequenced the genomes of all V. cholerae O1 El Tor isolates and compared the sequences to a global collection of 146 V. cholerae strains. Within the global phylogeny, all isolates from Pakistan formed 2 new subclades (PSC-1 and PSC-2), lying in the third transmission wave of the seventh-pandemic lineage that could be distinguished by signature deletions and their antimicrobial susceptibilities. Geographically, PSC-1 isolates originated from the coast, whereas PSC-2 isolates originated from inland areas flooded by the Indus River. Single-nucleotide polymorphism accumulation analysis correlated river flow direction with the spread of PSC-2. We found at least 2 sources of cholera in Pakistan during the 2010 epidemic and illustrate the value of a global genomic data bank in contextualizing cholera outbreaks.

  19. Engineered heart tissues and induced pluripotent stem cells: Macro- and microstructures for disease modeling, drug screening, and translational studies.

    PubMed

    Tzatzalos, Evangeline; Abilez, Oscar J; Shukla, Praveen; Wu, Joseph C

    2016-01-15

    Engineered heart tissue has emerged as a personalized platform for drug screening. With the advent of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, patient-specific stem cells can be developed and expanded into an indefinite source of cells. Subsequent developments in cardiovascular biology have led to efficient differentiation of cardiomyocytes, the force-producing cells of the heart. iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) have provided potentially limitless quantities of well-characterized, healthy, and disease-specific CMs, which in turn has enabled and driven the generation and scale-up of human physiological and disease-relevant engineered heart tissues. The combined technologies of engineered heart tissue and iPSC-CMs are being used to study diseases and to test drugs, and in the process, have advanced the field of cardiovascular tissue engineering into the field of precision medicine. In this review, we will discuss current developments in engineered heart tissue, including iPSC-CMs as a novel cell source. We examine new research directions that have improved the function of engineered heart tissue by using mechanical or electrical conditioning or the incorporation of non-cardiomyocyte stromal cells. Finally, we discuss how engineered heart tissue can evolve into a powerful tool for therapeutic drug testing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Injectable calcium phosphate with hydrogel fibers encapsulating induced pluripotent, dental pulp and bone marrow stem cells for bone repair

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Lin; Zhang, Chi; Li, Chunyan; Weir, Michael D.; Wang, Ping; Reynolds, Mark A.; Zhao, Liang; Xu, Hockin H.K.

    2017-01-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hiPSC-MSCs), dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) and bone marrow MSCs (hBMSCs) are exciting cell sources in regenerative medicine. However, there has been no report comparing hDPSCs, hBMSCs and hiPSC-MSCs for bone engineering in an injectable calcium phosphate cement (CPC) scaffold. The objectives of this study were to: (1) develop a novel injectable CPC containing hydrogel fibers encapsulating stem cells for bone engineering, and (2) compare cell viability, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of hDPSCs, hiPSC-MSCs from bone marrow (BM-hiPSC-MSCs) and from foreskin (FS-hiPSC-MSCs), and hBMSCs in CPC for the first time. The results showed that the injection did not harm cell viability. The porosity of injectable CPC was 62%. All four types of cells proliferated and differentiated down the osteogenic lineage inside hydrogel fibers in CPC. hDPSCs, BM-hiPSC-MSCs, and hBMSCs exhibited high alkaline phosphatase, runt-related transcription factor, collagen I, and osteocalcin gene expressions. Cell-synthesized minerals increased with time (p < 0.05), with no significant difference among hDPSCs, BM-hiPSC-MSCs and hBMSCs (p > 0.1). Mineralization by hDPSCs, BM-hiPSC-MSCs, and hBMSCs inside CPC at 14 d was 14-fold that at 1 d. FS-hiPSC-MSCs were inferior in osteogenic differentiation compared to the other cells. In conclusion, hDPSCs, BM-hiPSC-MSCs and hBMSCs are similarly and highly promising for bone tissue engineering; however, FS-hiPSC-MSCs were relatively inferior in osteogenesis. The novel injectable CPC with cell-encapsulating hydrogel fibers may enhance bone regeneration in dental, craniofacial and orthopedic applications. PMID:27612810

  1. VizieR Online Data Catalog: GUViCS. Ultraviolet Source Catalogs (Voyer+, 2014)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Voyer, E. N.; Boselli, A.; Boissier, S.; Heinis, S.; Cortese, L.; Ferrarese, L.; Cote, P.; Cuillandre, J.-C.; Gwyn, S. D. J.; Peng, E. W.; Zhang, H.; Liu, C.

    2014-07-01

    These catalogs are based on GALEX NUV and FUV source detections in and behind the Virgo Cluster. The detections are split into catalogs of extended sources and point-like sources. The UV Virgo Cluster Extended Source catalog (UV_VES.fit) provides the deepest and most extensive UV photometric data of extended galaxies in Virgo to date. If certain data is not available for a given source then a null value is entered (e.g. -999, -99). UV point-like sources are matched with SDSS, NGVS, and NED and the relevant photometry and further data from these databases/catalogs are provided in this compilation of catalogs. The primary GUViCS UV Virgo Cluster Point-Like Source catalog is UV_VPS.fit. This catalog provides the most useful GALEX pipeline NUV and FUV photometric parameters, and categorizes sources as stars, Virgo members, and background sources, when possible. It also provides identifiers for optical matches in the SDSS and NED, and indicates if a match exists in the NGVS, only if GUViCS-optical matches are one-to-one. NED spectroscopic redshifts are also listed for GUViCS-NED one-to-one matches. If certain data is not available for a given source a null value is entered. Additionally, the catalog is useful for quick access to optical data on one-to-one GUViCS-SDSS matches.The only parameter available in the catalog for UV sources that have multiple SDSS matches is the total number of multiple matches, i.e. SDSSNUMMTCHS. Multiple GUViCS sources matched to the same SDSS source are also flagged given a total number of matches, SDSSNUMMTCHS, of one. All other fields for multiple matches are set to a null value of -99. In order to obtain full optical SDSS data for multiply matched UV sources in both scenarios, the user can cross-correlate the GUViCS ID of the sources of interest with the full GUViCS-SDSS matched catalog in GUV_SDSS.fit. The GUViCS-SDSS matched catalog, GUV_SDSS.fit, provides the most relevant SDSS data on all GUViCS-SDSS matches, including one-to-one matches and multiply matched sources. The catalog gives full SDSS identification information, complete SDSS photometric measurements in multiple aperture types, and complete redshift information (photometric and spectroscopic). It is ideal for large statistical studies of galaxy populations at multiple wavelengths in the background of the Virgo Cluster. The catalog can also be used as a starting point to study and search for previously unknown UV-bright point-like objects within the Virgo Cluster. If certain data is not available for a given source that field is given a null value. (6 data files).

  2. Microcarrier-based platforms for in vitro expansion and differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells in bioreactor culture systems.

    PubMed

    Badenes, Sara M; Fernandes, Tiago G; Rodrigues, Carlos A V; Diogo, Maria Margarida; Cabral, Joaquim M S

    2016-09-20

    Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) have attracted a great attention as an unlimited source of cells for cell therapies and other in vitro biomedical applications such as drug screening, toxicology assays and disease modeling. The implementation of scalable culture platforms for the large-scale production of hPSC and their derivatives is mandatory to fulfill the requirement of obtaining large numbers of cells for these applications. Microcarrier technology has been emerging as an effective approach for the large scale ex vivo hPSC expansion and differentiation. This review presents recent achievements in hPSC microcarrier-based culture systems and discusses the crucial aspects that influence the performance of these culture platforms. Recent progress includes addressing chemically-defined culture conditions for manufacturing of hPSC and their derivatives, with the development of xeno-free media and microcarrier coatings to meet good manufacturing practice (GMP) quality requirements. Finally, examples of integrated platforms including hPSC expansion and directed differentiation to specific lineages are also presented in this review. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. The Third EGRET Catalog of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hartman, R. C.; Bertsch, D. L.; Bloom, S. D.; Chen, A. W.; Deines-Jones, P.; Esposito, J. A.; Fichtel, C. E.; Friedlander, D. P.; Hunter, S. D.; McDonald, L. M.; hide

    1998-01-01

    The third catalog of high-energy gamma-ray sources detected by the EGRET telescope on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory includes data from 1991 April 22 to 1995 October 3 (Cycles 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the mission). In addition to including more data than the second EGRET catalog and its supplement, this catalog uses completely reprocessed data (to correct a number of mostly minimal errors and problems). The 271 sources (E greater than 100 MeV) in the catalog include the single 1991 solar flare bright enough to be detected as a source, the Large Magellanic Cloud, five pulsars, one probable radio galaxy detection (Cen A), and 66 high-confidence identifications of blazars (BL Lac objects, flat-spectrum radio quasars, or unidentified flat-spectrum radio sources). In addition, 27 lower-confidence potential blazar identifications are noted. Finally, the catalog contains 170 sources not yet identified firmly with known objects, although potential identifications have been suggested for a number of those. A figure is presented that gives approximate upper limits for gamma-ray sources at any point in the sky, as well as information about sources listed in the second catalog and its supplement which do not appear in this catalog.

  4. Effects of mesenchymal stem cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells on differentiation, maturation, and function of dendritic cells.

    PubMed

    Gao, Wen-Xiang; Sun, Yue-Qi; Shi, Jianbo; Li, Cheng-Lin; Fang, Shu-Bin; Wang, Dan; Deng, Xue-Quan; Wen, Weiping; Fu, Qing-Ling

    2017-03-02

    Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have potent immunomodulatory effects on multiple immune cells and have great potential in treating immune disorders. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) serve as an unlimited and noninvasive source of MSCs, and iPSC-MSCs have been reported to have more advantages and exhibit immunomodulation on T lymphocytes and natural killer cells. However, the effects of iPSC-MSCs on dendritic cells (DCs) are unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of iPSC-MSCs on the differentiation, maturation, and function of DCs. Human monocyte-derived DCs were induced and cultured in the presence or absence of iPSC-MSCs. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the phenotype and functions of DCs, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to study cytokine production. In this study, we successfully induced MSCs from different clones of human iPSCs. iPSC-MSCs exhibited a higher proliferation rate with less cell senescence than BM-MSCs. iPSC-MSCs inhibited the differentiation of human monocyte-derived DCs by both producing interleukin (IL)-10 and direct cell contact. Furthermore, iPSC-MSCs did not affect immature DCs to become mature DCs, but modulated their functional properties by increasing their phagocytic ability and inhibiting their ability to stimulate proliferation of lymphocytes. More importantly, iPSC-MSCs induced the generation of IL-10-producing regulatory DCs in the process of maturation, which was mostly mediated by a cell-cell contact mechanism. Our results indicate an important role for iPSC-MSCs in the modulation of DC differentiation and function, supporting the clinical application of iPSC-MSCs in DC-mediated immune diseases.

  5. Control of dental-derived induced pluripotent stem cells through modified surfaces for dental application.

    PubMed

    Choi, Hyunmin; Park, Kyu-Hyung; Lee, Ah-Reum; Mun, Chin Hee; Shin, Yong Dae; Park, Yong-Beom; Park, Young-Bum

    2017-07-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the behaviour of iPSc derived from dental stem cells in terms of initial adhesion, differentiation potential on differently surface-treated titanium disc. iPSc derived from human gingival fibroblasts (hGFs) were established using 4-reprogramming factors transduction with Sendai virus. The hGF-iPSc established in this study exhibited the morphology and growth properties similar to human embryonic stem (ES) cells and expressed pluripotency makers. Alkaline Phosphatase (AP) staining, Embryoid Body (EB) formation and in vitro differentiation and karyotyping further confirmed pluripotency of hGF-iPSc. Then, hGF-iPSc were cultured on machined- and Sandblasted and acid etched (SLA)-treated titanium discs with osteogenic induction medium and their morphological as well as quantitative changes according to different surface types were investigated using Alizrin Red S staining, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Flow cytometry and RT-PCR. Time-dependent and surface-dependent morphological changes as well as quantitative change in osteogenic differentiation of hGF-iPSc were identified and osteogenic gene expression of hGF-iPSc cultured on SLA-treated titanium disc found to be greater than machined titanium disc, suggesting the fate of hGF-iPSc may be determined by the characteristics of surface to which hGF-iPSc first adhere. iPSc derived from dental stem cell can be one of the most promising and practical cell sources for personalized regenerative dentistry and their morphological change as well as quantitative change in osteogenic differentiation according to different surface types may be further utilized for future clinical application incorporated with dental implant.

  6. Isolation and culture of primary human pancreatic stellate cells that reflect the context of their tissue of origin.

    PubMed

    Strobel, Oliver; Dadabaeva, Nigora; Felix, Klaus; Hackert, Thilo; Giese, Nathalia A; Jesenofsky, Ralf; Werner, Jens

    2016-02-01

    Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) play a critical role in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Activated PSCs are the main source of fibrosis in chronic pancreatitis and of desmoplasia in PDAC. The majority of studies on PSC are based on in vitro experiments relying on immortalized cell lines derived from diseased human pancreas or from animal models. These PSCs are usually activated and may not represent the biological context of their tissue of origin. (1) To isolate and culture primary human PSC from different disease contexts with minimal impact on their state of activation. (2) To perform a comparative analysis of phenotypes of PSC derived from different contexts. PSCs were isolated from normal pancreas, chronic pancreatitis, and PDAC using a hybrid method of digestion and outgrowth. To minimize activation by serum compounds, cells were cultured in a low-serum environment (2.5 % fetal bovine serum (FBS)). Expression patterns of commonly used markers for PSC phenotype and activity were compared between primary PSC lines derived from different contexts and correlated to expression in their original tissues. Isolation was successful from 14 of 17 tissues (82 %). Isolated PSC displayed stable viability and phenotype in low-serum environment. Expression profiles of isolated PSC and matched original tissues were closely correlated. PDAC-derived PSC tended to have a higher status of activation if compared to PSC derived from non-cancerous tissues. Primary human PSCs isolated from different contexts and cultured in a low-serum environment maintain a phenotype that reflects the stromal activity present in their tissue of origin.

  7. Establishment of feeder-free culture system for human induced pluripotent stem cell on DAS nanocrystalline graphene

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Hyunah; Nam, Donggyu; Choi, Jae-Kyung; Araúzo-Bravo, Marcos J.; Kwon, Soon-Yong; Zaehres, Holm; Lee, Taehee; Park, Chan Young; Kang, Hyun-Wook; Schöler, Hans R.; Kim, Jeong Beom

    2016-02-01

    The maintenance of undifferentiated human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) under xeno-free condition requires the use of human feeder cells or extracellular matrix (ECM) coating. However, human-derived sources may cause human pathogen contamination by viral or non-viral agents to the patients. Here we demonstrate feeder-free and xeno-free culture system for hPSC expansion using diffusion assisted synthesis-grown nanocrystalline graphene (DAS-NG), a synthetic non-biological nanomaterial which completely rule out the concern of human pathogen contamination. DAS-NG exhibited advanced biocompatibilities including surface nanoroughness, oxygen containing functional groups and hydrophilicity. hPSC cultured on DAS-NG could maintain pluripotency in vitro and in vivo, and especially cell adhesion-related gene expression profile was comparable to those of cultured on feeders, while hPSC cultured without DAS-NG differentiated spontaneously with high expression of somatic cell-enriched adhesion genes. This feeder-free and xeno-free culture method using DAS-NG will facilitate the generation of clinical-grade hPSC.

  8. Common genetic variation drives molecular heterogeneity in human iPSCs

    PubMed Central

    Leha, Andreas; Afzal, Vackar; Alasoo, Kaur; Ashford, Sofie; Bala, Sendu; Bensaddek, Dalila; Casale, Francesco Paolo; Culley, Oliver J; Danecek, Petr; Faulconbridge, Adam; Harrison, Peter W; Kathuria, Annie; McCarthy, Davis; McCarthy, Shane A; Meleckyte, Ruta; Memari, Yasin; Moens, Nathalie; Soares, Filipa; Mann, Alice; Streeter, Ian; Agu, Chukwuma A; Alderton, Alex; Nelson, Rachel; Harper, Sarah; Patel, Minal; White, Alistair; Patel, Sharad R; Clarke, Laura; Halai, Reena; Kirton, Christopher M; Kolb-Kokocinski, Anja; Beales, Philip; Birney, Ewan; Danovi, Davide; Lamond, Angus I; Ouwehand, Willem H; Vallier, Ludovic; Watt, Fiona M; Durbin, Richard

    2017-01-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has enormous potential to provide improved cellular models of human disease. However, variable genetic and phenotypic characterisation of many existing iPSC lines limits their potential use for research and therapy. Here, we describe the systematic generation, genotyping and phenotyping of 711 iPSC lines derived from 301 healthy individuals by the Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Initiative (HipSci: http://www.hipsci.org). Our study outlines the major sources of genetic and phenotypic variation in iPSCs and establishes their suitability as models of complex human traits and cancer. Through genome-wide profiling we find that 5-46% of the variation in different iPSC phenotypes, including differentiation capacity and cellular morphology, arises from differences between individuals. Additionally, we assess the phenotypic consequences of rare, genomic copy number mutations that are repeatedly observed in iPSC reprogramming and present a comprehensive map of common regulatory variants affecting the transcriptome of human pluripotent cells. PMID:28489815

  9. Low incidence of DNA sequence variation in human induced pluripotent stem cells generated by non-integrating plasmid expression

    PubMed Central

    Cheng, Linzhao; Hansen, Nancy F.; Zhao, Ling; Du, Yutao; Zou, Chunlin; Donovan, Frank X.; Chou, Bin-Kuan; Zhou, Guangyu; Li, Shijie; Dowey, Sarah N.; Ye, Zhaohui; Chandrasekharappa, Settara C.; Yang, Huanming; Mullikin, James C.; Liu, P. Paul

    2012-01-01

    Summary The utility of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as models to study diseases and as sources for cell therapy depends on the integrity of their genomes. Despite recent publications of DNA sequence variations in the iPSCs, the true scope of such changes for the entire genome is not clear. Here we report the whole-genome sequencing of three human iPSC lines derived from two cell types of an adult donor by episomal vectors. The vector sequence was undetectable in the deeply sequenced iPSC lines. We identified 1058–1808 heterozygous single nucleotide variants (SNVs), but no copy number variants, in each iPSC line. Six to twelve of these SNVs were within coding regions in each iPSC line, but ~50% of them are synonymous changes and the remaining are not selectively enriched for known genes associated with cancers. Our data thus suggest that episome-mediated reprogramming is not inherently mutagenic during integration-free iPSC induction. PMID:22385660

  10. The Third EGRET Catalog of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hartman, R. C.; Bertsch, D. L.; Bloom, S. D.; Chen, A. W.; Deines-Jones, P.; Esposito, J. A.; Fichtel, C. E.; Friedlander, D. P.; Hunter, S. D.; McDonald, L. M.; hide

    1998-01-01

    The third catalog of high-energy gamma-ray sources detected by the EGRET telescope on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory includes data from 1991 April 22 to 1995 October 3 (Cycles 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the mission). In addition to including more data than the second EGRET catalog (Thompson et al. 1995) and its supplement (Thompson et al. 1996), this catalog uses completely reprocessed data (to correct a number of mostly minimal errors and problems). The 271 sources (E greater than 100 MeV) in the catalog include the single 1991 solar flare bright enough to be detected as a source, the Large Magellanic Cloud, five pulsars, one probable radio galaxy detection (Cen A), and 66 high-confidence identifications of blazars (BL Lac objects, flat-spectrum radio quasars, or unidentified flat-spectrum radio sources). In addition, 27 lower-confidence potential blazar identifications are noted. Finally, the catalog contains 170 sources not yet identified firmly with known objects, although potential identifications have been suggested for a number of those. A figure is presented that gives approximate upper limits for gamma-ray sources at any point in the sky, as well as information about sources listed in the second catalog and its supplement which do not appear in this catalog.

  11. The Chandra Source Catalog: Storage and Interfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Stone, David; Harbo, Peter N.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; Zografou, Panagoula; Evans, Ian N.; Primini, Francis A.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; He, Xiang Qun (Helen); Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Winkelman, Sherry L.

    2009-09-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is part of the Chandra Data Archive (CDA) at the Chandra X-ray Center. The catalog contains source properties and associated data objects such as images, spectra, and lightcurves. The source properties are stored in relational databases and the data objects are stored in files with their metadata stored in databases. The CDA supports different versions of the catalog: multiple fixed release versions and a live database version. There are several interfaces to the catalog: CSCview, a graphical interface for building and submitting queries and for retrieving data objects; a command-line interface for property and source searches using ADQL; and VO-compliant services discoverable though the VO registry. This poster describes the structure of the catalog and provides an overview of the interfaces.

  12. Human vascular tissue models formed from human induced pluripotent stem cell derived endothelial cells

    PubMed Central

    Belair, David G.; Whisler, Jordan A.; Valdez, Jorge; Velazquez, Jeremy; Molenda, James A.; Vickerman, Vernella; Lewis, Rachel; Daigh, Christine; Hansen, Tyler D.; Mann, David A.; Thomson, James A.; Griffith, Linda G.; Kamm, Roger D.; Schwartz, Michael P.; Murphy, William L.

    2015-01-01

    Here we describe a strategy to model blood vessel development using a well-defined iPSC-derived endothelial cell type (iPSC-EC) cultured within engineered platforms that mimic the 3D microenvironment. The iPSC-ECs used here were first characterized by expression of endothelial markers and functional properties that included VEGF responsiveness, TNF-α-induced upregulation of cell adhesion molecules (MCAM/CD146; ICAM1/CD54), thrombin-dependent barrier function, shear stress-induced alignment, and 2D and 3D capillary-like network formation in Matrigel. The iPSC-ECs also formed 3D vascular networks in a variety of engineering contexts, yielded perfusable, interconnected lumen when co-cultured with primary human fibroblasts, and aligned with flow in microfluidics devices. iPSC-EC function during tubule network formation, barrier formation, and sprouting was consistent with that of primary ECs, and the results suggest a VEGF-independent mechanism for sprouting, which is relevant to therapeutic anti-angiogenesis strategies. Our combined results demonstrate the feasibility of using a well-defined, stable source of iPSC-ECs to model blood vessel formation within a variety of contexts using standard in vitro formats. PMID:25190668

  13. Statistical Characterization of the Chandra Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Primini, Francis A.; Houck, John C.; Davis, John E.; Nowak, Michael A.; Evans, Ian N.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G.; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger M.; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiangqun Helen; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; Van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2011-06-01

    The first release of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) contains ~95,000 X-ray sources in a total area of 0.75% of the entire sky, using data from ~3900 separate ACIS observations of a multitude of different types of X-ray sources. In order to maximize the scientific benefit of such a large, heterogeneous data set, careful characterization of the statistical properties of the catalog, i.e., completeness, sensitivity, false source rate, and accuracy of source properties, is required. Characterization efforts of other large Chandra catalogs, such as the ChaMP Point Source Catalog or the 2 Mega-second Deep Field Surveys, while informative, cannot serve this purpose, since the CSC analysis procedures are significantly different and the range of allowable data is much less restrictive. We describe here the characterization process for the CSC. This process includes both a comparison of real CSC results with those of other, deeper Chandra catalogs of the same targets and extensive simulations of blank-sky and point-source populations.

  14. Fermi Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nolan, P. L.; Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M; Allafort, A.; Antolini, E; Bonnell, J.; Cannon, A.; Celik O.; Corbet, R.; hide

    2012-01-01

    We present the second catalog of high-energy gamma-ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), derived from data taken during the first 24 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. Source detection is based on the average flux over the 24-month period. The Second Fermi-LAT catalog (2FGL) includes source location regions, defined in terms of elliptical fits to the 95% confidence regions and spectral fits in terms of power-law, exponentially cutoff power-law, or log-normal forms. Also included are flux measurements in 5 energy bands and light curves on monthly intervals for each source. Twelve sources in the catalog are modeled as spatially extended. We provide a detailed comparison of the results from this catalog with those from the first Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL). Although the diffuse Galactic and isotropic models used in the 2FGL analysis are improved compared to the 1FGL catalog, we attach caution flags to 162 of the sources to indicate possible confusion with residual imperfections in the diffuse model. The 2FGL catalog contains 1873 sources detected and characterized in the 100 11eV to 100 GeV range of which we consider 127 as being firmly identified and 1171 as being reliably associated with counterparts of known or likely gamma-ray-producing source classes.

  15. Human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes exhibit beat rate variability and power-law behavior.

    PubMed

    Mandel, Yael; Weissman, Amir; Schick, Revital; Barad, Lili; Novak, Atara; Meiry, Gideon; Goldberg, Stanislav; Lorber, Avraham; Rosen, Michael R; Itskovitz-Eldor, Joseph; Binah, Ofer

    2012-02-21

    The sinoatrial node is the main impulse-generating tissue in the heart. Atrioventricular conduction block and arrhythmias caused by sinoatrial node dysfunction are clinically important and generally treated with electronic pacemakers. Although an excellent solution, electronic pacemakers incorporate limitations that have stimulated research on biological pacing. To assess the suitability of potential biological pacemakers, we tested the hypothesis that the spontaneous electric activity of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) exhibit beat rate variability and power-law behavior comparable to those of human sinoatrial node. We recorded extracellular electrograms from hESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs under stable conditions for up to 15 days. The beat rate time series of the spontaneous activity were examined in terms of their power spectral density and additional methods derived from nonlinear dynamics. The major findings were that the mean beat rate of hESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs was stable throughout the 15-day follow-up period and was similar in both cell types, that hESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs exhibited intrinsic beat rate variability and fractal behavior, and that isoproterenol increased and carbamylcholine decreased the beating rate in both hESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs. This is the first study demonstrating that hESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs exhibit beat rate variability and power-law behavior as in humans, thus supporting the potential capability of these cell sources to serve as biological pacemakers. Our ability to generate sinoatrial-compatible spontaneous cardiomyocytes from the patient's own hair (via keratinocyte-derived iPSCs), thus eliminating the critical need for immunosuppression, renders these myocytes an attractive cell source as biological pacemakers.

  16. Non-integrating episomal plasmid-based reprogramming of human amniotic fluid stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells in chemically defined conditions.

    PubMed

    Slamecka, Jaroslav; Salimova, Lilia; McClellan, Steven; van Kelle, Mathieu; Kehl, Debora; Laurini, Javier; Cinelli, Paolo; Owen, Laurie; Hoerstrup, Simon P; Weber, Benedikt

    2016-01-01

    Amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSC) represent an attractive potential cell source for fetal and pediatric cell-based therapies. However, upgrading them to pluripotency confers refractoriness toward senescence, higher proliferation rate and unlimited differentiation potential. AFSC were observed to rapidly and efficiently reacquire pluripotency which together with their easy recovery makes them an attractive cell source for reprogramming. The reprogramming process as well as the resulting iPSC epigenome could potentially benefit from the unspecialized nature of AFSC. iPSC derived from AFSC also have potential in disease modeling, such as Down syndrome or β-thalassemia. Previous experiments involving AFSC reprogramming have largely relied on integrative vector transgene delivery and undefined serum-containing, feeder-dependent culture. Here, we describe non-integrative oriP/EBNA-1 episomal plasmid-based reprogramming of AFSC into iPSC and culture in fully chemically defined xeno-free conditions represented by vitronectin coating and E8 medium, a system that we found uniquely suited for this purpose. The derived AF-iPSC lines uniformly expressed a set of pluripotency markers Oct3/4, Nanog, Sox2, SSEA-1, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60, TRA-1-81 in a pattern typical for human primed PSC. Additionally, the cells formed teratomas, and were deemed pluripotent by PluriTest, a global expression microarray-based in-silico pluripotency assay. However, we found that the PluriTest scores were borderline, indicating a unique pluripotent signature in the defined condition. In the light of potential future clinical translation of iPSC technology, non-integrating reprogramming and chemically defined culture are more acceptable.

  17. Increased reprogramming of human fetal hepatocytes compared with adult hepatocytes in feeder-free conditions.

    PubMed

    Hansel, Marc C; Gramignoli, Roberto; Blake, William; Davila, Julio; Skvorak, Kristen; Dorko, Kenneth; Tahan, Veysel; Lee, Brian R; Tafaleng, Edgar; Guzman-Lepe, Jorge; Soto-Gutierrez, Alejandro; Fox, Ira J; Strom, Stephen C

    2014-01-01

    Hepatocyte transplantation has been used to treat liver disease. The availability of cells for these procedures is quite limited. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) may be a useful source of hepatocytes for basic research and transplantation if efficient and effective differentiation protocols were developed and problems with tumorigenicity could be overcome. Recent evidence suggests that the cell of origin may affect hiPSC differentiation. Thus, hiPSCs generated from hepatocytes may differentiate back to hepatocytes more efficiently than hiPSCs from other cell types. We examined the efficiency of reprogramming adult and fetal human hepatocytes. The present studies report the generation of 40 hiPSC lines from primary human hepatocytes under feeder-free conditions. Of these, 37 hiPSC lines were generated from fetal hepatocytes, 2 hiPSC lines from normal hepatocytes, and 1 hiPSC line from hepatocytes of a patient with Crigler-Najjar syndrome, type 1. All lines were confirmed reprogrammed and expressed markers of pluripotency by gene expression, flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, and teratoma formation. Fetal hepatocytes were reprogrammed at a frequency over 50-fold higher than adult hepatocytes. Adult hepatocytes were only reprogrammed with six factors, while fetal hepatocytes could be reprogrammed with three (OCT4, SOX2, NANOG) or four factors (OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, LIN28 or OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, C-MYC). The increased reprogramming efficiency of fetal cells was not due to increased transduction efficiency or vector toxicity. These studies confirm that hiPSCs can be generated from adult and fetal hepatocytes including those with genetic diseases. Fetal hepatocytes reprogram much more efficiently than adult hepatocytes, although both could serve as useful sources of hiPSC-derived hepatocytes for basic research or transplantation.

  18. Isolation and expansion of human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatic progenitor cells by growth factor defined serum-free culture conditions.

    PubMed

    Fukuda, Takayuki; Takayama, Kazuo; Hirata, Mitsuhi; Liu, Yu-Jung; Yanagihara, Kana; Suga, Mika; Mizuguchi, Hiroyuki; Furue, Miho K

    2017-03-15

    Limited growth potential, narrow ranges of sources, and difference in variability and functions from batch to batch of primary hepatocytes cause a problem for predicting drug-induced hepatotoxicity during drug development. Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived hepatocyte-like cells in vitro are expected as a tool for predicting drug-induced hepatotoxicity. Several studies have already reported efficient methods for differentiating hPSCs into hepatocyte-like cells, however its differentiation process is time-consuming, labor-intensive, cost-intensive, and unstable. In order to solve this problem, expansion culture for hPSC-derived hepatic progenitor cells, including hepatic stem cells and hepatoblasts which can self-renewal and differentiate into hepatocytes should be valuable as a source of hepatocytes. However, the mechanisms of the expansion of hPSC-derived hepatic progenitor cells are not yet fully understood. In this study, to isolate hPSC-derived hepatic progenitor cells, we tried to develop serum-free growth factor defined culture conditions using defined components. Our culture conditions were able to isolate and grow hPSC-derived hepatic progenitor cells which could differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells through hepatoblast-like cells. We have confirmed that the hepatocyte-like cells prepared by our methods were able to increase gene expression of cytochrome P450 enzymes upon encountering rifampicin, phenobarbital, or omeprazole. The isolation and expansion of hPSC-derived hepatic progenitor cells in defined culture conditions should have advantages in terms of detecting accurate effects of exogenous factors on hepatic lineage differentiation, understanding mechanisms underlying self-renewal ability of hepatic progenitor cells, and stably supplying functional hepatic cells. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. The Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: 7 Ms Source Catalogs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Luo, B.; Brandt, W. N.; Xue, Y. Q.; Lehmer, B.; Alexander, D. M.; Bauer, F. E.; Vito, F.; Yang, G.; Basu-Zych, A. R.; Comastri, A.; hide

    2016-01-01

    We present X-ray source catalogs for the approx. 7 Ms exposure of the Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S), which covers a total area of 484.2 arcmin2. Utilizing WAVDETECT for initial source detection and ACIS Extract for photometric extraction and significance assessment, we create a main source catalog containing 1008 sources that are detected in up to three X-ray bands: 0.5-7.0 keV, 0.5-2.0 keV, and 2-7 keV. A supplementary source catalog is also provided, including 47 lower-significance sources that have bright (Ks < or = 23) near-infrared counterparts. We identify multiwavelength counterparts for 992 (98.4%) of the main-catalog sources, and we collect redshifts for 986 of these sources, including 653 spectroscopic redshifts and 333 photometric redshifts. Based on the X-ray and multiwavelength properties, we identify 711 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the main-catalog sources. Compared to the previous approx. 4 Ms CDF-S catalogs, 291 of the main-catalog sources are new detections. We have achieved unprecedented X-ray sensitivity with average flux limits over the central approx. 1 arcmin2 region of 1.9 x 10(exp -17), 6.4 x 10(exp -18), and 2.7 x 10(exp -17) erg/sq cm/s in the three X-ray bands, respectively. We provide cumulative number-count measurements observing, for the first time, that normal galaxies start to dominate the X-ray source population at the faintest 0.5-2.0 keV flux levels. The highest X-ray source density reaches approx. 50,500/sq deg, and 47% +/- 4 of these sources are AGNs (approx. 23,900/sq deg).

  20. Multiwavelength counterparts of the point sources in the Chandra Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reynolds, Michael; Civano, Francesca Maria; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; D'Abrusco, Raffaele

    2018-01-01

    The most recent release of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) version 2.0 comprises more than $\\sim$350,000 point sources, down to fluxes of $\\sim$10$^{-16}$ erg/cm$^2$/s, covering $\\sim$500 deg$^2$ of the sky, making it one of the best available X-ray catalogs to date. There are many reasons to have multiwavelength counterparts for sources, one such reason is that X-ray information alone is not enough to identify the sources and divide them between galactic and extragalactic origin, therefore multiwavelength data associated to each X-ray source is crucial for classification and scientific analysis of the sample. To perform this multiwavelength association, we are going to employ the recently released versatile tool NWAY (Salvato et al. 2017), based on a Bayesian algorithm for cross-matching multiple catalogs. NWAY allows the combination of multiple catalogs at the same time, provides a probability for the matches, even in case of non-detection due to different depth of the matching catalogs, and it can be used by including priors on the nature of the sources (e.g. colors, magnitudes, etc). In this poster, we are presenting the preliminary analysis using the CSC sources above the galactic plane matched to the WISE All-Sky catalog, SDSS, Pan-STARRS and GALEX.

  1. Fermi large area telescope second source catalog

    DOE PAGES

    Nolan, P. L.; Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; ...

    2012-03-28

    Here, we present the second catalog of high-energy γ-ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), derived from data taken during the first 24 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. Source detection is based on the average flux over the 24 month period. The second Fermi-LAT catalog (2FGL) includes source location regions, defined in terms of elliptical fits to the 95% confidence regions and spectral fits in terms of power-law, exponentially cutoff power-law, or log-normal forms. Also included are fluxmore » measurements in five energy bands and light curves on monthly intervals for each source. Twelve sources in the catalog are modeled as spatially extended. Furthermore, we provide a detailed comparison of the results from this catalog with those from the first Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL). Although the diffuse Galactic and isotropic models used in the 2FGL analysis are improved compared to the 1FGL catalog, we attach caution flags to 162 of the sources to indicate possible confusion with residual imperfections in the diffuse model. Finally, the 2FGL catalog contains 1873 sources detected and characterized in the 100 MeV to 100 GeV range of which we consider 127 as being firmly identified and 1171 as being reliably associated with counterparts of known or likely γ-ray-producing source classes.« less

  2. FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE SECOND SOURCE CATALOG

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nolan, P. L.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.

    We present the second catalog of high-energy {gamma}-ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), derived from data taken during the first 24 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. Source detection is based on the average flux over the 24 month period. The second Fermi-LAT catalog (2FGL) includes source location regions, defined in terms of elliptical fits to the 95% confidence regions and spectral fits in terms of power-law, exponentially cutoff power-law, or log-normal forms. Also included are flux measurementsmore » in five energy bands and light curves on monthly intervals for each source. Twelve sources in the catalog are modeled as spatially extended. We provide a detailed comparison of the results from this catalog with those from the first Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL). Although the diffuse Galactic and isotropic models used in the 2FGL analysis are improved compared to the 1FGL catalog, we attach caution flags to 162 of the sources to indicate possible confusion with residual imperfections in the diffuse model. The 2FGL catalog contains 1873 sources detected and characterized in the 100 MeV to 100 GeV range of which we consider 127 as being firmly identified and 1171 as being reliably associated with counterparts of known or likely {gamma}-ray-producing source classes.« less

  3. VizieR Online Data Catalog: ChaMP X-ray point source catalog (Kim+, 2007)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, M.; Kim, D.-W.; Wilkes, B. J.; Green, P. J.; Kim, E.; Anderson, C. S.; Barkhouse, W. A.; Evans, N. R.; Ivezic, Z.; Karovska, M.; Kashyap, V. L.; Lee, M. G.; Maksym, P.; Mossman, A. E.; Silverman, J. D.; Tananbaum, H. D.

    2009-01-01

    We present the Chandra Multiwavelength Project (ChaMP) X-ray point source catalog with ~6800 X-ray sources detected in 149 Chandra observations covering ~10deg2. The full ChaMP catalog sample is 7 times larger than the initial published ChaMP catalog. The exposure time of the fields in our sample ranges from 0.9 to 124ks, corresponding to a deepest X-ray flux limit of f0.5-8.0=9x10-16ergs/cm2/s. The ChaMP X-ray data have been uniformly reduced and analyzed with ChaMP-specific pipelines and then carefully validated by visual inspection. The ChaMP catalog includes X-ray photometric data in eight different energy bands as well as X-ray spectral hardness ratios and colors. To best utilize the ChaMP catalog, we also present the source reliability, detection probability, and positional uncertainty. (10 data files).

  4. A catalog of selected compact radio sources for the construction of an extragalactic radio/optical reference frame (Argue et al. 1984): Documentation for the machine-readable version

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1990-01-01

    This document describes the machine readable version of the Selected Compact Radio Source Catalog as it is currently being distributed from the international network of astronomical data centers. It is intended to enable users to read and process the computerized catalog. The catalog contains 233 strong, compact extragalactic radio sources having identified optical counterparts. The machine version contains the same data as the published catalog and includes source identifications, equatorial positions at J2000.0 and their mean errors, object classifications, visual magnitudes, redshift, 5-GHz flux densities, and comments.

  5. A LARGE AND FAINT PHOTOMETRIC CATALOG ON THE ECLIPTIC

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Buie, Marc W.; Trilling, David E.; Wasserman, Lawrence H.

    2011-06-01

    A photometric catalog, developed for the calibration of the Deep Ecliptic Survey, is presented. The catalog contains 213,272 unique sources that were measured in V and R filters and transformed to the Johnson-Cousins systems using the Landolt standard catalog. All of the sources lie within 6{sup 0} of the ecliptic and cover all longitudes except for the densest stellar regions nearest the galactic center. Seventeen percent of the sources in the catalog are derived from three or more nights of observation. The catalog contains sources as faint as R {approx}19 but the largest fraction fall in the R {approx}15-16 (Vmore » {approx}16-17) mag range. All magnitude bins down to R = 19 have a significant fraction of objects with uncertainties {<=}0.1 mag.« less

  6. Introducing the All-sky NOAO Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nidever, David L.; NOAO DataLab

    2017-06-01

    Most of the sky has been imaged with NOAO's telescopes from both hemispheres. While the large majority of these data were obtained for PI-led projects only a small fraction have been released to the community via well-calibrated and easily accessible catalogs. We are remedying this by created a catalog of sources from most of the public data taken on CTIO-4m+DECam as well as KPNO-4m+Mosaic3. This catalog, called the NOAO Source Catalog (NSC), already contains 2.3 billion unique objects, 19 billion source measurements, covers ~25,000 square degrees of the sky, has 10-sigma depths of ~23rd magnitude in most broadband filters, and astrometric accuracy of ~20 mas. We plan to release the catalog via the new NOAO Data Lab service in the near future.

  7. Doing Science with the Chandra Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, Ian N.; Chandra Source Catalog Team

    2018-01-01

    The excellent spatial resolution (~1 arcsecond on-axis) of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, combined with a reasonable field of view and low instrumental backgrounds, allow detection of serendipitous X-ray sources with a high detectable-source density with low confusion. The aim of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is to disseminate this wealth of information to the user community in a form that is immediately usable for scientific investigation, and the catalog is intended to satisfy the needs of a broad- based group of scientists, including those who may be less familiar with astronomical data analysis in the X-ray regime.The second major release of the catalog, CSC 2.0, will be made available to the user community in early 2018, and preliminary lists of detections and sources are available now. CSC 2.0 will roughly triple the size of the current version of the catalog to an estimated 375,000 detections, corresponding to ~315,000 unique X-ray sources on the sky. For each detected X-ray source, the catalog provides a detailed set of properties including the source position and associated position error ellipse, source extent, multi-band aperture photometry probability density functions, spectral fits using several source models, hardness ratios, and intra- and inter-observation temporal variability measures. All numerical measures have associated two-sided confidence intervals. In addition to tabular data, the catalog provides FITS data products that are immediately suitable for further user analysis, including per-field and per-source images, photon event lists, responses, spectra, and light curves.We describe the content and organization of the catalog in more detail, discuss the analyses that were performed to extract the measured source properties, and demonstrate how the catalog content can be immediately and effectively utilized for scientific investigations. This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center.

  8. Recent technological updates and clinical applications of induced pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Diecke, Sebastian; Jung, Seung Min; Lee, Jaecheol; Ju, Ji Hyeon

    2014-09-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were first described in 2006 and have since emerged as a promising cell source for clinical applications. The rapid progression in iPSC technology is still ongoing and directed toward increasing the efficacy of iPSC production and reducing the immunogenic and tumorigenic potential of these cells. Enormous efforts have been made to apply iPSC-based technology in the clinic, for drug screening approaches and cell replacement therapy. Moreover, disease modeling using patient-specific iPSCs continues to expand our knowledge regarding the pathophysiology and prospective treatment of rare disorders. Furthermore, autologous stem cell therapy with patient-specific iPSCs shows great propensity for the minimization of immune reactions and the provision of a limitless supply of cells for transplantation. In this review, we discuss the recent updates in iPSC technology and the use of iPSCs in disease modeling and regenerative medicine.

  9. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 10 Years Later: For Cardiac Applications.

    PubMed

    Yoshida, Yoshinori; Yamanaka, Shinya

    2017-06-09

    Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are reprogrammed cells that have features similar to embryonic stem cells, such as the capacity of self-renewal and differentiation into many types of cells, including cardiac myocytes. Although initially the reprogramming efficiency was low, several improvements in reprogramming methods have achieved robust and efficient generation of iPSCs without genomic insertion of transgenes. iPSCs display clonal variations in epigenetic and genomic profiles and cellular behavior in differentiation. iPSC-derived cardiac myocytes (iPSC cardiac myocytes) recapitulate phenotypic differences caused by genetic variations, making them attractive human disease models, and are useful for drug discovery and toxicology testing. In addition, iPSC cardiac myocytes can help with patient stratification in regard to drug responsiveness. Furthermore, they can be used as source cells for cardiac regeneration in animal models. Here, we review recent progress in iPSC technology and its applications to cardiac diseases. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

  10. Hubble Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lubow, S.; Budavári, T.

    2013-10-01

    We have created an initial catalog of objects observed by the WFPC2 and ACS instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The catalog is based on observations taken on more than 6000 visits (telescope pointings) of ACS/WFC and more than 25000 visits of WFPC2. The catalog is obtained by cross matching by position in the sky all Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA) Source Extractor source lists for these instruments. The source lists describe properties of source detections within a visit. The calculations are performed on a SQL Server database system. First we collect overlapping images into groups, e.g., Eta Car, and determine nearby (approximately matching) pairs of sources from different images within each group. We then apply a novel algorithm for improving the cross matching of pairs of sources by adjusting the astrometry of the images. Next, we combine pairwise matches into maximal sets of possible multi-source matches. We apply a greedy Bayesian method to split the maximal matches into more reliable matches. We test the accuracy of the matches by comparing the fluxes of the matched sources. The result is a set of information that ties together multiple observations of the same object. A byproduct of the catalog is greatly improved relative astrometry for many of the HST images. We also provide information on nondetections that can be used to determine dropouts. With the catalog, for the first time, one can carry out time domain, multi-wavelength studies across a large set of HST data. The catalog is publicly available. Much more can be done to expand the catalog capabilities.

  11. Attenuation of Hind-Limb Ischemia in Mice with Endothelial-Like Cells Derived from Different Sources of Human Stem Cells

    PubMed Central

    Chan, Yau-Chi; Ng, Joyce H. L.; Au, Ka-Wing; Wong, Lai-Yung; Siu, Chung-Wah; Tse, Hung-Fat

    2013-01-01

    Functional endothelial-like cells (EC) have been successfully derived from different cell sources and potentially used for treatment of cardiovascular diseases; however, their relative therapeutic efficacy remains unclear. We differentiated functional EC from human bone marrow mononuclear cells (BM-EC), human embryonic stem cells (hESC-EC) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-EC), and compared their in-vitro tube formation, migration and cytokine expression profiles, and in-vivo capacity to attenuate hind-limb ischemia in mice. Successful differentiation of BM-EC was only achieved in 1/6 patient with severe coronary artery disease. Nevertheless, BM-EC, hESC-EC and hiPSC-EC exhibited typical cobblestone morphology, had the ability of uptaking DiI-labeled acetylated low-density-lipoprotein, and binding of Ulex europaeus lectin. In-vitro functional assay demonstrated that hiPSC-EC and hESC-EC had similar capacity for tube formation and migration as human umbilical cord endothelial cells (HUVEC) and BM-EC (P>0.05). While increased expression of major angiogenic factors including epidermal growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, placental growth factor and stromal derived factor-1 were observed in all EC cultures during hypoxia compared with normoxia (P<0.05), the magnitudes of cytokine up-regulation upon hypoxic were more dramatic in hiPSC-EC and hESC-EC (P<0.05). Compared with medium, transplanting BM-EC (n = 6), HUVEC (n = 6), hESC-EC (n = 8) or hiPSC-EC (n = 8) significantly attenuated severe hind-limb ischemia in mice via enhancement of neovascularization. In conclusion, functional EC can be generated from hECS and hiPSC with similar therapeutic efficacy for attenuation of severe hind-limb ischemia. Differentiation of functional BM-EC was more difficult to achieve in patients with cardiovascular diseases, and hESC-EC or iPSC-EC are readily available as “off-the-shelf” format for the treatment of tissue ischemia. PMID:23472116

  12. Cryopreservation of Brain Endothelial Cells Derived from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Is Enhanced by Rho-Associated Coiled Coil-Containing Kinase Inhibition.

    PubMed

    Wilson, Hannah K; Faubion, Madeline G; Hjortness, Michael K; Palecek, Sean P; Shusta, Eric V

    2016-12-01

    The blood-brain barrier (BBB) maintains brain homeostasis but also presents a major obstacle to brain drug delivery. Brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) form the principal barrier and therefore represent the major cellular component of in vitro BBB models. Such models are often used for mechanistic studies of the BBB in health and disease and for drug screening. Recently, human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have emerged as a new source for generating BMEC-like cells for use in in vitro human BBB studies. However, the inability to cryopreserve iPSC-BMECs has impeded implementation of this model by requiring a fresh differentiation to generate cells for each experiment. Cryopreservation of differentiated iPSC-BMECs would have a number of distinct advantages, including enabling production of larger scale lots, decreasing lead time to generate purified iPSC-BMEC cultures, and facilitating use of iPSC-BMECs in large-scale screening. In this study, we demonstrate that iPSC-BMECs can be successfully cryopreserved at multiple differentiation stages. Cryopreserved iPSC-BMECs retain high viability, express standard endothelial and BBB markers, and reach a high transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) of ∼3000 Ω·cm 2 , equivalent to nonfrozen controls. Rho-associated coiled coil-containing kinase (ROCK) inhibitor Y-27632 substantially increased survival and attachment of cryopreserved iPSC-BMECs, as well as stabilized TEER above 800 Ω·cm 2 out to 7 days post-thaw. Overall, cryopreservation will ease handling and storage of high-quality iPSC-BMECs, reducing a key barrier to greater implementation of these cells in modeling the human BBB.

  13. Version 1 of the Hubble Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Whitmore, Bradley C.; Allam, Sahar S.; Budavári, Tamás; Casertano, Stefano; Downes, Ronald A.; Donaldson, Thomas; Fall, S. Michael; Lubow, Stephen H.; Quick, Lee; Strolger, Louis-Gregory; Wallace, Geoff; White, Richard L.

    2016-06-01

    The Hubble Source Catalog is designed to help optimize science from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) by combining the tens of thousands of visit-based source lists in the Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA) into a single master catalog. Version 1 of the Hubble Source Catalog includes WFPC2, ACS/WFC, WFC3/UVIS, and WFC3/IR photometric data generated using SExtractor software to produce the individual source lists. The catalog includes roughly 80 million detections of 30 million objects involving 112 different detector/filter combinations, and about 160,000 HST exposures. Source lists from Data Release 8 of the HLA are matched using an algorithm developed by Budavári & Lubow. The mean photometric accuracy for the catalog as a whole is better than 0.10 mag, with relative accuracy as good as 0.02 mag in certain circumstances (e.g., bright isolated stars). The relative astrometric residuals are typically within 10 mas, with a value for the mode (I.e., most common value) of 2.3 mas. The absolute astrometric accuracy is better than 0''\\hspace{-0.5em}. 1 for most sources, but can be much larger for a fraction of fields that could not be matched to the PanSTARRS, SDSS, or 2MASS reference systems. In this paper we describe the database design with emphasis on those aspects that enable the users to fully exploit the catalog while avoiding common misunderstandings and potential pitfalls. We provide usage examples to illustrate some of the science capabilities and data quality characteristics, and briefly discuss plans for future improvements to the Hubble Source Catalog.

  14. Version 1 of the Hubble Source Catalog

    DOE PAGES

    Whitmore, Bradley C.; Allam, Sahar S.; Budavari, Tamas; ...

    2016-05-11

    The Hubble Source Catalog is designed to help optimize science from the Hubble Space Telescope by combining the tens of thousands of visit-based source lists in the Hubble Legacy Archive into a single master catalog. Version 1 of the Hubble Source Catalog includes WFPC2, ACS/WFC, WFC3/UVIS, and WFC3/IR photometric data generated using SExtractor software to produce the individual source lists. The catalog includes roughly 80 million detections of 30 million objects involving 112 different detector/filter combinations, and about 160 thousand HST exposures. Source lists from Data Release 8 of the Hubble Legacy Archive are matched using an algorithm developed by Budavari & Lubow (2012). The mean photometric accuracy for the catalog as a whole is better than 0.10 mag, with relative accuracy as good as 0.02 mag in certain circumstances (e.g., bright isolated stars). The relative astrometric residuals are typically within 10 mas, with a value for the mode (i.e., most common value) of 2.3 mas. The absolute astrometric accuracy is better thanmore » $$\\sim$$0.1 arcsec for most sources, but can be much larger for a fraction of fields that could not be matched to the PanSTARRS, SDSS, or 2MASS reference systems. In this paper we describe the database design with emphasis on those aspects that enable the users to fully exploit the catalog while avoiding common misunderstandings and potential pitfalls. Here, we provide usage examples to illustrate some of the science capabilities and data quality characteristics, and briefly discuss plans for future improvements to the Hubble Source Catalog.« less

  15. The Chandra Source Catalog: Source Properties and Data Products

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rots, Arnold; Evans, Ian N.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Primini, Francis A.; Zografou, Panagoula; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiang Qun (Helen); Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.

    2009-09-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is breaking new ground in several areas. There are two aspects that are of particular interest to the users: its evolution and its contents. The CSC will be a living catalog that becomes richer, bigger, and better in time while still remembering its state at each point in time. This means that users will be able to take full advantage of new additions to the catalog, while retaining the ability to back-track and return to what was extracted in the past. The CSC sheds the limitations of flat-table catalogs. Its sources will be characterized by a large number of properties, as usual, but each source will also be associated with its own specific data products, allowing users to perform mini custom analysis on the sources. Source properties fall in the spatial (position, extent), photometric (fluxes, count rates), spectral (hardness ratios, standard spectral fits), and temporal (variability probabilities) domains, and are all accompanied by error estimates. Data products cover the same coordinate space and include event lists, images, spectra, and light curves. In addition, the catalog contains data products covering complete observations: event lists, background images, exposure maps, etc. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

  16. Astronomical Data Center Bulletin, volume 1, number 3

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mead, J. M.; Warren, W. H., Jr.; Nagy, T. A.

    1983-01-01

    A catalog of galactic O-type stars, a machine-readable version of the bright star catalog, a two-micron sky survey, sky survey sources with problematical Durchmusterung identifications, data retrieval for visual binary stars, faint blue objects, the sixth catalog of galactic Wolf-Rayet stars, declination versus magnitude distribution, the SAO-HD-GC-DM cross index catalog, star cross-identification tables, astronomical sources, bibliographical star index search updates, DO-HD and HD-DO cross indices, and catalogs, are reviewed.

  17. The Third Fermi LAT Catalog of High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thompson, David J.; Ballet, J.; Burnett, T.; Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration

    2014-01-01

    The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope (LAT) has been gathering science data since August 2008, surveying the full sky every three hours. The second source catalog (2FGL, Nolan et al 2012, ApJS 199, 31) was based on 2 years of data. We are preparing a third source catalog (3FGL) based on 4 years of reprocessed data. The reprocessing introduced a more accurate description of the instrument, which resulted in a narrower point spread function. Both the localization and the detection threshold for hard-spectrum sources have been improved. The new catalog also relies on a refined model of Galactic diffuse emission, particularly important for low-latitude soft-spectrum sources. The process for associating LAT sources with those at other wavelengths has also improved, thanks to dedicated multiwavelength follow-up, new surveys and better ways to extract sources likely to be gamma-ray counterparts. We describe the construction of this new catalog, its characteristics, and its remaining limitations.

  18. The Third Fermi-LAT Catalog of High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burnett, Toby

    2014-03-01

    The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope (LAT) has been gathering science data since August 2008, surveying the full sky every three hours. The second source catalog (2FGL, Nolan et al. 2012, ApJS 199, 31) was based on 2 years of data. We are preparing a third source catalog (3FGL) based on 4 years of reprocessed data. The reprocessing introduced a more accurate description of the instrument, which resulted in a narrower point spread function. Both the localization and the detection threshold for hard-spectrum sources have been improved. The new catalog also relies on a refined model of Galactic diffuse emission, particularly important for low-latitude soft-spectrum sources. The process for associating LAT sources with those at other wavelengths has also improved, thanks to dedicated multiwavelength follow-up, new surveys and better ways to extract sources likely to be gamma-ray counterparts. We describe the construction of this new catalog, its characteristics, and its remaining limitations.

  19. VizieR Online Data Catalog: IRAS Point Source Identifications (MacConnell, 1993; rev. 2009)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    MacConnell, D. J.

    2010-08-01

    Most of the sources are south of the celestial equator and have been classified in increasing galactic longitude over the period Sept. 1985 to May 1992. They have been classified on Kodak I-N objective-prism plates taken primarily with the Curtis Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo, but some northern plates taken with the Burrell Schmidt at Kitt Peak were also used for classification. The spectra cover the range 680-880nm at a dispersion of 340nm/mm at the A-band, and the plate scale is 96.6"/mm. They are ideal for classifying M stars of type M3 and cooler (increasing strength of TiO and VO bands) and carbon stars (CN bands), but stars warmer than M2 and most S stars cannot be classified or identified as such. The M stars M3 and cooler can be separated into about five groups. The limiting mag of the deepest plates is I about 13.5. The IRAS PS were identified on transparent overlays made to the plate scale for each plate center, and the association of a spectrum with a given PS is usually unambiguous. In cases of doubt or offset, a comment is made. Note that there are some cases where the PSC gives an incorrect association on the basis of position, and the correct association is with a faint, uncatalogued M star. (3 data files).

  20. THE VLA-COSMOS SURVEY. IV. DEEP DATA AND JOINT CATALOG

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Schinnerer, E.; Sargent, M. T.; Bondi, M.

    2010-06-15

    In the context of the VLA-COSMOS Deep project, additional VLA A array observations at 1.4 GHz were obtained for the central degree of the COSMOS field and combined with the existing data from the VLA-COSMOS Large project. A newly constructed Deep mosaic with a resolution of 2.''5 was used to search for sources down to 4{sigma} with 1{sigma} {approx} 12 {mu}Jy beam{sup -1} in the central 50' x 50'. This new catalog is combined with the catalog from the Large project (obtained at 1.''5 x 1.''4 resolution) to construct a new Joint catalog. All sources listed in the new Jointmore » catalog have peak flux densities of {>=}5{sigma} at 1.''5 and/or 2.''5 resolution to account for the fact that a significant fraction of sources at these low flux levels are expected to be slightly resolved at 1.''5 resolution. All properties listed in the Joint catalog, such as peak flux density, integrated flux density, and source size, are determined in the 2.''5 resolution Deep image. In addition, the Joint catalog contains 43 newly identified multi-component sources.« less

  1. Fermi Large Area Telescope First Source Catalog

    DOE PAGES

    Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; ...

    2010-05-25

    Here, we present a catalog of high-energy gamma-ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), during the first 11 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. The First Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL) contains 1451 sources detected and characterized in the 100 MeV to 100 GeV range. Source detection was based on the average flux over the 11 month period, and the threshold likelihood Test Statistic is 25, corresponding to a significance of just over 4σ. The 1FGL catalog includes source location regions,more » defined in terms of elliptical fits to the 95% confidence regions and power-law spectral fits as well as flux measurements in five energy bands for each source. In addition, monthly light curves are provided. Using a protocol defined before launch we have tested for several populations of gamma-ray sources among the sources in the catalog. For individual LAT-detected sources we provide firm identifications or plausible associations with sources in other astronomical catalogs. Identifications are based on correlated variability with counterparts at other wavelengths, or on spin or orbital periodicity. For the catalogs and association criteria that we have selected, 630 of the sources are unassociated. In conclusion, care was taken to characterize the sensitivity of the results to the model of interstellar diffuse gamma-ray emission used to model the bright foreground, with the result that 161 sources at low Galactic latitudes and toward bright local interstellar clouds are flagged as having properties that are strongly dependent on the model or as potentially being due to incorrectly modeled structure in the Galactic diffuse emission.« less

  2. Human-impacted areas of France are environmental reservoirs of the Pseudallescheria boydii/Scedosporium apiospermum species complex.

    PubMed

    Rougeron, Amandine; Schuliar, Gaëlle; Leto, Julie; Sitterlé, Emilie; Landry, David; Bougnoux, Marie-Elisabeth; Kobi, Abdessamad; Bouchara, Jean-Philippe; Giraud, Sandrine

    2015-04-01

    Species of the Pseudallescheria boydii/Scedosporium apiospermum complex (PSC) are emerging fungal pathogens able to chronically colonize the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). As P. boydii was found more frequently colonizing the lungs of CF patients in France than in other European countries in a previous report, the present study was conducted in order to clarify distribution of PSC species in France and to characterize their natural habitat. The highest densities of PSC isolates were found in human-impacted areas, i.e. agricultural areas, fluids obtained from wastewater treatment plants, playgrounds and industrial areas. PSC was not detected from soil samples collected in forests. Most PSC culture-positive soil samples exhibited a pH range of 6-8. Scedosporium dehoogii, the most abundant species, was detected in all human-impacted area types except vineyards, whereas Scedosporium aurantiacum was mostly found in agricultural areas. Pseudallescheria boydii and S. apiospermum were predominantly isolated from seashores and playgrounds respectively. Pseudallescheria minutispora was found only once from a playground. This study highlights potential sources of contamination of the patients, especially in the CF context. © 2014 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived limbal epithelial cells (LiPSC) as a cellular alternative for in vitro ocular toxicity testing.

    PubMed

    Aberdam, Edith; Petit, Isabelle; Sangari, Linda; Aberdam, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cells hold great potential to produce unlimited amount of differentiated cells as cellular source for regenerative medicine but also for in vitro drug screening and cytotoxicity tests. Ocular toxicity testing is mandatory to evaluate the risks of drugs and cosmetic products before their application to human patients by preventing eye irritation or insult. Since the global ban to use animals, many human-derived alternatives have been proposed, from ex-vivo enucleated postmortem cornea, primary corneal cell culture and immortalized corneal epithelial cell lines. All of them share limitations for their routine use. Using an improved protocol, we derived limbal epithelial cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells, named LiPSC, that are able to be passaged and differentiate further into corneal epithelial cells. Comparative RT-qPCR, immunofluorescence staining, flow cytometry analysis and zymography assays demonstrate that LiPSC are morphologically and molecularly similar to the adult stem cells. Moreover, contrary to HCE, LiPSC and primary limbal cells display similarly sensitive to cytotoxicity treatment among passages. Our data strongly suggest that LiPSC could become a powerful alternative cellular model for cosmetic and drug tests.

  4. Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived limbal epithelial cells (LiPSC) as a cellular alternative for in vitro ocular toxicity testing

    PubMed Central

    Aberdam, Edith; Petit, Isabelle; Sangari, Linda

    2017-01-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cells hold great potential to produce unlimited amount of differentiated cells as cellular source for regenerative medicine but also for in vitro drug screening and cytotoxicity tests. Ocular toxicity testing is mandatory to evaluate the risks of drugs and cosmetic products before their application to human patients by preventing eye irritation or insult. Since the global ban to use animals, many human-derived alternatives have been proposed, from ex-vivo enucleated postmortem cornea, primary corneal cell culture and immortalized corneal epithelial cell lines. All of them share limitations for their routine use. Using an improved protocol, we derived limbal epithelial cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells, named LiPSC, that are able to be passaged and differentiate further into corneal epithelial cells. Comparative RT-qPCR, immunofluorescence staining, flow cytometry analysis and zymography assays demonstrate that LiPSC are morphologically and molecularly similar to the adult stem cells. Moreover, contrary to HCE, LiPSC and primary limbal cells display similarly sensitive to cytotoxicity treatment among passages. Our data strongly suggest that LiPSC could become a powerful alternative cellular model for cosmetic and drug tests. PMID:28640863

  5. DSG2 Is a Functional Cell Surface Marker for Identification and Isolation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.

    PubMed

    Park, Jongjin; Son, Yeonsung; Lee, Na Geum; Lee, Kyungmin; Lee, Dong Gwang; Song, Jinhoi; Lee, Jaemin; Kim, Seokho; Cho, Min Ji; Jang, Ju-Hong; Lee, Jangwook; Park, Jong-Gil; Kim, Yeon-Gu; Kim, Jang-Seong; Lee, Jungwoon; Cho, Yee Sook; Park, Young-Jun; Han, Baek Soo; Bae, Kwang-Hee; Han, Seungmin; Kang, Byunghoon; Haam, Seungjoo; Lee, Sang-Hyun; Lee, Sang Chul; Min, Jeong-Ki

    2018-06-08

    Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) represent the most promising clinical source for regenerative medicine. However, given the cellular heterogeneity within cultivation and safety concerns, the development of specific and efficient tools to isolate a pure population and eliminate all residual undifferentiated PSCs from differentiated derivatives is a prerequisite for clinical applications. In this study, we raised a monoclonal antibody and identified its target antigen as desmoglein-2 (DSG2). DSG2 co-localized with human PSC (hPSC)-specific cell surface markers, and its expression was rapidly downregulated upon differentiation. The depletion of DSG2 markedly decreased hPSC proliferation and pluripotency marker expression. In addition, DSG2-negative population in hPSCs exhibited a notable suppression in embryonic body and teratoma formation. The actions of DSG2 in regulating the self-renewal and pluripotency of hPSCs were predominantly exerted through the regulation of β-catenin/Slug-mediated epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Our results demonstrate that DSG2 is a valuable PSC surface marker that is essential for the maintenance of PSC self-renewal. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. VizieR Online Data Catalog: OCARS catalog second version (Malkin, 2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malkin, Z. M.

    2016-11-01

    Unlike the first version, supported in 2007-2015, the second version of the OCARS catalog includes three files: ocars.txt is the main file containing the source coordinates, source types, redshifts, and approximate magnitudes, together with commentary; this file corresponds to the first version of the OCARS catalog; ocars_m.txt contains photometric data in the 13 uUBgV rRiIzJHK bands; ocars_n.txt contains a table of corresponding source names in various catalogs; currently, only cross-identifications with IVS programs4 and the LQAC catalog [9] are included; The list of objects included in the OCARS catalog is formed from various astrometric and geodeticVLBI programs and catalogs in the following order: - sources in the ICRF2 [2]; - other sources observed in the framework of IVS programs; - sources from the NASA Goddard VLBI group catalog5 ; - sources from the RFC catalog,6 which is the most complete astrometric catalog of radio sources, is updated each quarter, and contributed more than half the OCARS objects; the latest version of OCARS used the RFC-2016a catalog based on observations obtained in 1980-2015 as part of IVS and other radio astrometric programs [19-31]; - sources from the literature. Optical Characteristics of Astrometric Radio Sources (OCARS) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last revised: 27-NOV-2016 Latest update: - removed 30+ RFC sources not identified in NED and optics - removed rather long detailed statistics table, which seems to be not interested for most of users; it is always available on request - a few additions and amendments E-mail alerts about updates are available on request. URL of this file is http://www.gao.spb.ru/english/as/ac_vlbi/ocars.txt Supplement files: Optical and IR magnitudes: http://www.gao.spb.ru/english/as/acvlbi/ocarsm.txt Cross-identification table: http://www.gao.spb.ru/english/as/acvlbi/ocarsn.txt OCARS catalog in CSV format: http://www.gao.spb.ru/english/as/ac_vlbi/ocars.csv Please send comments and requests to Zinovy Malkin, malkin(at)gao.spb.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Second Version of the OCARS Catalog of Optical Characteristics of Astrometric Radio Sources. Astronomy Reports, 2016, Vol. 60, No. 11, pp. 996-1005. DOI: 10.1134/S1063772916110032 If you use OCARS catalog in your work, please cite this publication. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Brief OCARS statistics (detailed statistics is available on request) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Total number of sources 11375 +30...+90 3320 ( 29.2%) -30...+30 6233 ( 54.8%) -90...-30 1822 ( 16.0%) Number of sources with known type 6284 ( 55.2%) AGN 4704 ( 74.9%) quasars 3027 ( 64.3%) BL Lac 992 ( 21.1%) Seyfert 384 ( 8.2%) blazars 89 ( 1.9%) radio galaxies 1580 ( 25.1%) Number of sources with redshift info 5845 ( 51.4%) +30...+90 1803 ( 30.8%) -30...+30 3329 ( 57.0%) -90...-30 713 ( 12.2%) unreliable 868 ( 14.9%) Number of sources with known magnitude 8133 ( 71.5%) +30...+90 2380 ( 29.3%) -30...+30 4481 ( 55.1%) -90...-30 1272 ( 15.6%) Number of sources with both z and magnitude info 5803 ( 51.0%) (3 data files).

  7. Infra-Red Characteristics of Faint Galactic Carbon Stars from the First Byurakan Spectral Sky Survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kostandyan, G. R.; Gigoyan, K. S.

    2017-07-01

    Infra-Red (IR) astronomical databases, namely, IRAS, 2MASS, WISE, and Spitzer, are used to analyze photometric data of 126 carbon (C) stars whose spectra are visible in the First Byurakan Survey (FBS) (Markarian et al. 1989) low-resolution (lr) spectral plates. In this work several IR color-color diagrams are studied. Early and late-type C stars are separated in the JHK Near-Infra-Red (NIR) color-color plots, as well as in the WISE W3-W4 versus W1-W2 diagram. Late N-type Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are redder in W1-W2, while early-types (CH and R giants) are redder in W3-W4 as expected. Objects with W2-W3 > 1.0m show double-peaked spectral energy distribution (SED), indicating the existence of the circumstellar envelopes around them. 26 N-type stars have IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC) associations. The reddest object among the targets is N-type C star FBS 2213+421, which belong to the group of the cold post-AGB R Coronae Borealis (R CrB) variables (Rossi et al. 2016).

  8. The Ultraviolet Sky: final catalogs of unique UV sources from GALEX, and characterization of the UV-emitting sources across the sky, and of the Milky Way extinction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bianchi, Luciana; Conti, A.; Shiao, B.; Keller, G. R.; Thilker, D. A.

    2014-01-01

    The legacy of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which imaged the sky at Ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths for about 9 years, is its unprecedented database with more than 200 million source measurements in far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV), as well as wide-field imaging of extended objects. GALEX's data, the first substantial sky surveys at UV wavelengths, offer an unprecedented view of the sky and a unique opportunity for an unbiased characterization of several classes of astrophysical objects, such as hot stars, QSOs at red-shift about 1, UV-peculiar QSOs, star-forming galaxies, among others. Bianchi et al. (2013, J. Adv. Space Res. (2013), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2013.07.045) have constructed final catalogs of UV sources, with homogeneous quality, eliminating duplicate measurements of the same source ('unique' source catalogs), and excluding rim artifacts and bad photometry. The catalogs are constructed improving on the recipe of Bianchi et al. 2011 (MNRAS, 411, 2770, which presented the earlier version of these catalogs) and include all data for the major surveys, AIS and MIS. Considering the fields where both FUV and NUV detectors were exposed, the catalogs contain about 71 and 16.6 million unique sources respectively. We show several maps illustrating the content of UV sources across the sky, globally, and separately for bright/faint, hot, stellar/extragalactic objects. We matched the UV-source catalogs with optical-IR data from the SDSS, GSC2, 2MASS surveys. We are also in the process of matching the catalogs with preliminary PanSTARRS1 (PS1) 3pi survey photometry which already provides twice the sky coverage of SDSS, at slightly fainter magnitude limits. The sources' SED from FUV to optical wavelengths enables classification, derivation of the object physical parameters, and ultimately also a map of the Milky Way extinction. The catalogs will be available on MAST, Vizier (where the previous version already is), and in reduced form (for agile downloading), with related tools, from the author web site " http://dolomiti.pha.jhu.edu/uvsky "

  9. The Fermi Large Area Telescope Thrid Gamma-ray Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stephens, Thomas E.; Ballet, Jean; Burnett, Toby; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Digel, Seth William; Fermi LAT Collaboration

    2015-01-01

    We present an overview of the third Fermi Large Area Telescope source catalog (3FGL) of sources in the 100 MeV - 300 GeV range. Based on the first four years of science data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope mission, it is the deepest yet in this energy range. Relative to the 2FGL catalog (Nolan et al. 2012, ApJS 199, 31), the 3FGL catalog incorporates twice as much data as well as a number of analysis improvements, including improved calibrations at the event reconstruction level, an updated model for Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission, a refined procedure for source detection, and improved methods for associating LAT sources with potential counterparts at other wavelengths. The 3FGL catalog includes 3033 sources, with source location regions, spectral properties, and monthly light curves for each. For approximately one-third of the sources we have not found counterparts at other wavelengths. More than 1100 of the identified or associated sources are active galaxies of the blazar class; several other classes of non-blazar active galaxies are also represented in the 3FGL. Pulsars represent the largest Galactic source class. From source counts of Galactic sources we estimate the contribution of unresolved sources to the Galactic diffuse emission.

  10. A statistical approach to recognize source classes for unassociated sources in the first Fermi-LAT catalog

    DOE PAGES

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.; ...

    2012-06-15

    The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) First Source Catalog (1FGL) provided spatial, spectral, and temporal properties for a large number of γ-ray sources using a uniform analysis method. After correlating with the most-complete catalogs of source types known to emit γ rays, 630 of these sources are "unassociated" (i.e., have no obvious counterparts at other wavelengths).We employ two statistical analyses of the primary γ-ray characteristics for these unassociated sources in an effort to correlate their γ-ray properties with the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and pulsar populations in 1FGL. Based on the correlation results, we classify 221 AGN-like and 134 pulsar-likemore » sources in the 1FGL unassociated sources. Furthermore, the results of these source "classifications" appear to match the expected source distributions, especially at high Galactic latitudes. While useful for planning future multiwavelength follow-up observations, these analyses use limited inputs, and their predictions should not be considered equivalent to "probable source classes" for these sources. We also discuss multiwavelength results and catalog cross-correlations to date, and provide new source associations for 229 Fermi-LAT sources that had no association listed in the 1FGL catalog. By validating the source classifications against these new associations, we find that the new association matches the predicted source class in ~80% of the sources.« less

  11. A STATISTICAL APPROACH TO RECOGNIZING SOURCE CLASSES FOR UNASSOCIATED SOURCES IN THE FIRST FERMI-LAT CATALOG

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.

    The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) First Source Catalog (1FGL) provided spatial, spectral, and temporal properties for a large number of {gamma}-ray sources using a uniform analysis method. After correlating with the most-complete catalogs of source types known to emit {gamma} rays, 630 of these sources are 'unassociated' (i.e., have no obvious counterparts at other wavelengths). Here, we employ two statistical analyses of the primary {gamma}-ray characteristics for these unassociated sources in an effort to correlate their {gamma}-ray properties with the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and pulsar populations in 1FGL. Based on the correlation results, we classify 221 AGN-like andmore » 134 pulsar-like sources in the 1FGL unassociated sources. The results of these source 'classifications' appear to match the expected source distributions, especially at high Galactic latitudes. While useful for planning future multiwavelength follow-up observations, these analyses use limited inputs, and their predictions should not be considered equivalent to 'probable source classes' for these sources. We discuss multiwavelength results and catalog cross-correlations to date, and provide new source associations for 229 Fermi-LAT sources that had no association listed in the 1FGL catalog. By validating the source classifications against these new associations, we find that the new association matches the predicted source class in {approx}80% of the sources.« less

  12. A Statistical Approach to Recognizing Source Classes for Unassociated Sources in the First FERMI-LAT Catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.; Antolini, E.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bellazzini, R.; Berenji, B.; hide

    2012-01-01

    The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) First Source Catalog (1FGL) provided spatial, spectral, and temporal properties for a large number of gamma -ray sources using a uniform analysis method. After correlating with the mostcomplete catalogs of source types known to emit gamma rays, 630 of these sources are "unassociated" (i.e., have no obvious counterparts at other wavelengths). Here, we employ two statistical analyses of the primary gamma-ray characteristics for these unassociated sources in an effort to correlate their gamma-ray properties with the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and pulsar populations in 1FGL. Based on the correlation results, we classify 221 AGN-like and 134 pulsar-like sources in the 1FGL unassociated sources. The results of these source "classifications" appear to match the expected source distributions, especially at high Galactic latitudes. While useful for planning future multiwavelength follow-up observations, these analyses use limited inputs, and their predictions should not be considered equivalent to "probable source classes" for these sources. We discuss multiwavelength results and catalog cross-correlations to date, and provide new source associations for 229 Fermi-LAT sources that had no association listed in the 1FGL catalog. By validating the source classifications against these new associations, we find that the new association matches the predicted source class in approximately 80% of the sources.

  13. A statistical approach to recognize source classes for unassociated sources in the first Fermi-LAT catalog

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.

    The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) First Source Catalog (1FGL) provided spatial, spectral, and temporal properties for a large number of γ-ray sources using a uniform analysis method. After correlating with the most-complete catalogs of source types known to emit γ rays, 630 of these sources are "unassociated" (i.e., have no obvious counterparts at other wavelengths).We employ two statistical analyses of the primary γ-ray characteristics for these unassociated sources in an effort to correlate their γ-ray properties with the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and pulsar populations in 1FGL. Based on the correlation results, we classify 221 AGN-like and 134 pulsar-likemore » sources in the 1FGL unassociated sources. Furthermore, the results of these source "classifications" appear to match the expected source distributions, especially at high Galactic latitudes. While useful for planning future multiwavelength follow-up observations, these analyses use limited inputs, and their predictions should not be considered equivalent to "probable source classes" for these sources. We also discuss multiwavelength results and catalog cross-correlations to date, and provide new source associations for 229 Fermi-LAT sources that had no association listed in the 1FGL catalog. By validating the source classifications against these new associations, we find that the new association matches the predicted source class in ~80% of the sources.« less

  14. Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells From Hypertensive Patient-Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Advance Hypertension Pharmacogenomics.

    PubMed

    Biel, Nikolett M; Santostefano, Katherine E; DiVita, Bayli B; El Rouby, Nihal; Carrasquilla, Santiago D; Simmons, Chelsey; Nakanishi, Mahito; Cooper-DeHoff, Rhonda M; Johnson, Julie A; Terada, Naohiro

    2015-12-01

    Studies in hypertension (HTN) pharmacogenomics seek to identify genetic sources of variable antihypertensive drug response. Genetic association studies have detected single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that link to drug responses; however, to understand mechanisms underlying how genetic traits alter drug responses, a biological interface is needed. Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide a potential source for studying otherwise inaccessible tissues that may be important to antihypertensive drug response. The present study established multiple iPSC lines from an HTN pharmacogenomics cohort. We demonstrated that established HTN iPSCs can robustly and reproducibly differentiate into functional vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), a cell type most relevant to vasculature tone control. Moreover, a sensitive traction force microscopy assay demonstrated that iPSC-derived VSMCs show a quantitative contractile response on physiological stimulus of endothelin-1. Furthermore, the inflammatory chemokine tumor necrosis factor α induced a typical VSMC response in iPSC-derived VSMCs. These studies pave the way for a large research initiative to decode biological significance of identified SNPs in hypertension pharmacogenomics. Treatment of hypertension remains suboptimal, and a pharmacogenomics approach seeks to identify genetic biomarkers that could be used to guide treatment decisions; however, it is important to understand the biological underpinnings of genetic associations. Mouse models do not accurately recapitulate individual patient responses based on their genetics, and hypertension-relevant cells are difficult to obtain from patients. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology provides a great interface to bring patient cells with their genomic data into the laboratory and to study hypertensive responses. As an initial step, the present study established an iPSC bank from patients with primary hypertension and demonstrated an effective and reproducible method of generating functional vascular smooth muscle cells. ©AlphaMed Press.

  15. Catalog of infrared observations. Part 1: Data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gezari, Daniel Y.; Schmitz, Marion; Mead, Jaylee M.

    1987-01-01

    The Catalog of Infrared Observations (CIO) is a compilation of infrared astronomical observational data obtained from an extensive literature search of astronomical journals and major astronomical catalogs and surveys. The literature searches are complete for 1965 through 1986 in this Second Edition. The Catalog is published in two parts, with the observational data (roughly 200,000 observations of 20,000 individual sources) listed in Part I, and supporting appendices in Part II. The expanded Second Edition contains a new feature: complete IRAS 4-band data for all CIO sources detected, listed with the main Catalog observations, as well as in complete detail in the Appendix. The appendices include an atlas of infrared source positions, two bibliographies of infrared literature upon which the search was based, and, keyed to the main Catalog listings (organized alphabetically by author and then chronologically), an atlas of infrared spectral ranges, and IRAS data from the CIO sources. The complete CIO database is available to qualified users in printed microfiche and magnetic tape formats.

  16. VizieR Online Data Catalog: GB6 catalog of radio sources (Gregory+ 1996)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gregory, P. C.; Scott, W. K.; Douglas, K.; Condon, J. J.

    1997-01-01

    The final set of sky maps from the Green Bank 4.85 GHz survey (Condon J.J., Broderick J.J., Seielstad G.A., Douglas K., & Gregory P.C. in 1994AJ....107.1829C) was used to construct the GB6 Catalog of sources stronger than S ~ 18 mJy in the declination range 0deg < Dec. < +75deg (Gregory P.C., Scott W.K., Douglas K., & Condon J.J. in 1996ApJS..103..427G). There are two machine-readable versions of the GB6 catalog, with coordinates precessed to B1950 (file b1950.dat) and J2000 (file j2000.dat). Each catalog file contains one line per source (75,162 lines each), and the sources are sorted by increasing B1950 or J2000 right ascension. (3 data files).

  17. The HEAO A-1 X Ray Source Catalog (Wood Et Al. 1984): Documentation for the Machine-Readable Version

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warren, Wayne H., Jr.

    1990-01-01

    The machine-readable version of the catalog, as it is currently being distributed from the Astronomical Data Center, is described. The catalog is a compilation of data for 842 sources detected with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Large Area Sky Survey Experiment flown aboard the HEAO 1 satellite. The data include source identifications, positions, error boxes, mean X-ray intensities, and cross identifications to other source designations.

  18. Fermi Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nolan, P. L.; Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.; Antolini, E.; Atwood, W. B.; Axelsson, M.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Belfiore, A.; Bellazzini, R.; Berenji, B.; Bignami, G. F.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonamente, E.; Bonnell, J.; Borgland, A. W.; Bottacini, E.; Bouvier, A.; Brandt, T. J.; Bregeon, J.; Brigida, M.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Burnett, T. H.; Buson, S.; Caliandro, G. A.; Cameron, R. A.; Campana, R.; Cañadas, B.; Cannon, A.; Caraveo, P. A.; Casandjian, J. M.; Cavazzuti, E.; Ceccanti, M.; Cecchi, C.; Çelik, Ö.; Charles, E.; Chekhtman, A.; Cheung, C. C.; Chiang, J.; Chipaux, R.; Ciprini, S.; Claus, R.; Cohen-Tanugi, J.; Cominsky, L. R.; Conrad, J.; Corbet, R.; Cutini, S.; D'Ammando, F.; Davis, D. S.; de Angelis, A.; DeCesar, M. E.; DeKlotz, M.; De Luca, A.; den Hartog, P. R.; de Palma, F.; Dermer, C. D.; Digel, S. W.; Silva, E. do Couto e.; Drell, P. S.; Drlica-Wagner, A.; Dubois, R.; Dumora, D.; Enoto, T.; Escande, L.; Fabiani, D.; Falletti, L.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Ferrara, E. C.; Focke, W. B.; Fortin, P.; Frailis, M.; Fukazawa, Y.; Funk, S.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Gehrels, N.; Germani, S.; Giebels, B.; Giglietto, N.; Giommi, P.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Godfrey, G.; Grenier, I. A.; Grondin, M.-H.; Grove, J. E.; Guillemot, L.; Guiriec, S.; Gustafsson, M.; Hadasch, D.; Hanabata, Y.; Harding, A. K.; Hayashida, M.; Hays, E.; Hill, A. B.; Horan, D.; Hou, X.; Hughes, R. E.; Iafrate, G.; Itoh, R.; Jóhannesson, G.; Johnson, R. P.; Johnson, T. E.; Johnson, A. S.; Johnson, T. J.; Kamae, T.; Katagiri, H.; Kataoka, J.; Katsuta, J.; Kawai, N.; Kerr, M.; Knödlseder, J.; Kocevski, D.; Kuss, M.; Lande, J.; Landriu, D.; Latronico, L.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Lionetto, A. M.; Llena Garde, M.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lott, B.; Lovellette, M. N.; Lubrano, P.; Madejski, G. M.; Marelli, M.; Massaro, E.; Mazziotta, M. N.; McConville, W.; McEnery, J. E.; Mehault, J.; Michelson, P. F.; Minuti, M.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Moiseev, A. A.; Mongelli, M.; Monte, C.; Monzani, M. E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Murgia, S.; Nakamori, T.; Naumann-Godo, M.; Norris, J. P.; Nuss, E.; Nymark, T.; Ohno, M.; Ohsugi, T.; Okumura, A.; Omodei, N.; Orlando, E.; Ormes, J. F.; Ozaki, M.; Paneque, D.; Panetta, J. H.; Parent, D.; Perkins, J. S.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Pierbattista, M.; Pinchera, M.; Piron, F.; Pivato, G.; Porter, T. A.; Racusin, J. L.; Rainò, S.; Rando, R.; Razzano, M.; Razzaque, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Reposeur, T.; Ritz, S.; Rochester, L. S.; Romani, R. W.; Roth, M.; Rousseau, R.; Ryde, F.; Sadrozinski, H. F.-W.; Salvetti, D.; Sanchez, D. A.; Saz Parkinson, P. M.; Sbarra, C.; Scargle, J. D.; Schalk, T. L.; Sgrò, C.; Shaw, M. S.; Shrader, C.; Siskind, E. J.; Smith, D. A.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Stephens, T. E.; Strickman, M. S.; Suson, D. J.; Tajima, H.; Takahashi, H.; Takahashi, T.; Tanaka, T.; Thayer, J. G.; Thayer, J. B.; Thompson, D. J.; Tibaldo, L.; Tibolla, O.; Tinebra, F.; Tinivella, M.; Torres, D. F.; Tosti, G.; Troja, E.; Uchiyama, Y.; Vandenbroucke, J.; Van Etten, A.; Van Klaveren, B.; Vasileiou, V.; Vianello, G.; Vitale, V.; Waite, A. P.; Wallace, E.; Wang, P.; Werner, M.; Winer, B. L.; Wood, D. L.; Wood, K. S.; Wood, M.; Yang, Z.; Zimmer, S.

    2012-04-01

    We present the second catalog of high-energy γ-ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), derived from data taken during the first 24 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. Source detection is based on the average flux over the 24 month period. The second Fermi-LAT catalog (2FGL) includes source location regions, defined in terms of elliptical fits to the 95% confidence regions and spectral fits in terms of power-law, exponentially cutoff power-law, or log-normal forms. Also included are flux measurements in five energy bands and light curves on monthly intervals for each source. Twelve sources in the catalog are modeled as spatially extended. We provide a detailed comparison of the results from this catalog with those from the first Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL). Although the diffuse Galactic and isotropic models used in the 2FGL analysis are improved compared to the 1FGL catalog, we attach caution flags to 162 of the sources to indicate possible confusion with residual imperfections in the diffuse model. The 2FGL catalog contains 1873 sources detected and characterized in the 100 MeV to 100 GeV range of which we consider 127 as being firmly identified and 1171 as being reliably associated with counterparts of known or likely γ-ray-producing source classes. We dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleague Patrick Nolan, who died on 2011 November 6. His career spanned much of the history of high-energy astronomy from space and his work on the Large Area Telescope (LAT) began nearly 20 years ago when it was just a concept. Pat was a central member in the operation of the LAT collaboration and he is greatly missed.

  19. A compiled catalog of rotation measures of radio point sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Jun; Han, Jin-Lin

    2014-08-01

    We compiled a catalog of Faraday rotation measures (RMs) for 4553 extragalactic radio point sources published in literature. These RMs were derived from multi-frequency polarization observations. The RM data are compared to those in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) RM catalog. We reveal a systematic uncertainty of about 10.0 ± 1.5 rad m-2 in the NVSS RM catalog. The Galactic foreground RM is calculated through a weighted averaging method by using the compiled RM catalog together with the NVSS RM catalog, with careful consideration of uncertainties in the RM data. The data from the catalog and the interface for the Galactic foreground RM calculations are publicly available on the webpage: http://zmtt.bao.ac.cn/RM/.

  20. The Chandra Source Catalog: User Interface

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonaventura, Nina; Evans, I. N.; Harbo, P. N.; Rots, A. H.; Tibbetts, M. S.; Van Stone, D. W.; Zografou, P.; Anderson, C. S.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E.; Gibbs, D. G.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Grier, J. D.; Hain, R.; Hall, D. M.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Primini, F. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Winkelman, S. L.

    2009-01-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is the definitive catalog of all X-ray sources detected by Chandra. The CSC is presented to the user in two tables: the Master Chandra Source Table and the Table of Individual Source Observations. Each distinct X-ray source identified in the CSC is represented by a single master source entry and one or more individual source entries. If a source is unaffected by confusion and pile-up in multiple observations, the individual source observations are merged to produce a master source. In each table, a row represents a source, and each column a quantity that is officially part of the catalog. The CSC contains positions and multi-band fluxes for the sources, as well as derived spatial, spectral, and temporal source properties. The CSC also includes associated source region and full-field data products for each source, including images, photon event lists, light curves, and spectra. The master source properties represent the best estimates of the properties of a source, and are presented in the following categories: Position and Position Errors, Source Flags, Source Extent and Errors, Source Fluxes, Source Significance, Spectral Properties, and Source Variability. The CSC Data Access GUI provides direct access to the source properties and data products contained in the catalog. The user may query the catalog database via a web-style search or an SQL command-line query. Each query returns a table of source properties, along with the option to browse and download associated data products. The GUI is designed to run in a web browser with Java version 1.5 or higher, and may be accessed via a link on the CSC website homepage (http://cxc.harvard.edu/csc/). As an alternative to the GUI, the contents of the CSC may be accessed directly through a URL, using the command-line tool, cURL. Support: NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

  1. The Physical Relationship between Infectivity and Prion Protein Aggregates Is Strain-Dependent

    PubMed Central

    Tixador, Philippe; Herzog, Laëtitia; Reine, Fabienne; Jaumain, Emilie; Chapuis, Jérôme; Le Dur, Annick; Laude, Hubert; Béringue, Vincent

    2010-01-01

    Prions are unconventional infectious agents thought to be primarily composed of PrPSc, a multimeric misfolded conformer of the ubiquitously expressed host-encoded prion protein (PrPC). They cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases in both animals and humans. The disease phenotype is not uniform within species, and stable, self-propagating variations in PrPSc conformation could encode this ‘strain’ diversity. However, much remains to be learned about the physical relationship between the infectious agent and PrPSc aggregation state, and how this varies according to the strain. We applied a sedimentation velocity technique to a panel of natural, biologically cloned strains obtained by propagation of classical and atypical sheep scrapie and BSE infectious sources in transgenic mice expressing ovine PrP. Detergent-solubilized, infected brain homogenates were used as starting material. Solubilization conditions were optimized to separate PrPSc aggregates from PrPC. The distribution of PrPSc and infectivity in the gradient was determined by immunoblotting and mouse bioassay, respectively. As a general feature, a major proteinase K-resistant PrPSc peak was observed in the middle part of the gradient. This population approximately corresponds to multimers of 12–30 PrP molecules, if constituted of PrP only. For two strains, infectivity peaked in a markedly different region of the gradient. This most infectious component sedimented very slowly, suggesting small size oligomers and/or low density PrPSc aggregates. Extending this study to hamster prions passaged in hamster PrP transgenic mice revealed that the highly infectious, slowly sedimenting particles could be a feature of strains able to induce a rapidly lethal disease. Our findings suggest that prion infectious particles are subjected to marked strain-dependent variations, which in turn could influence the strain biological phenotype, in particular the replication dynamics. PMID:20419156

  2. Disease-causing mitochondrial heteroplasmy segregated within induced pluripotent stem cell clones derived from a patient with MELAS.

    PubMed

    Folmes, Clifford D L; Martinez-Fernandez, Almudena; Perales-Clemente, Ester; Li, Xing; McDonald, Amber; Oglesbee, Devin; Hrstka, Sybil C; Perez-Terzic, Carmen; Terzic, Andre; Nelson, Timothy J

    2013-07-01

    Mitochondrial diseases display pathological phenotypes according to the mixture of mutant versus wild-type mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), known as heteroplasmy. We herein examined the impact of nuclear reprogramming and clonal isolation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) on mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Patient-derived dermal fibroblasts with a prototypical mitochondrial deficiency diagnosed as mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) demonstrated mitochondrial dysfunction with reduced oxidative reserve due to heteroplasmy at position G13513A in the ND5 subunit of complex I. Bioengineered iPSC clones acquired pluripotency with multilineage differentiation capacity and demonstrated reduction in mitochondrial density and oxygen consumption distinguishing them from the somatic source. Consistent with the cellular mosaicism of the original patient-derived fibroblasts, the MELAS-iPSC clones contained a similar range of mtDNA heteroplasmy of the disease-causing mutation with identical profiles in the remaining mtDNA. High-heteroplasmy iPSC clones were used to demonstrate that extended stem cell passaging was sufficient to purge mutant mtDNA, resulting in isogenic iPSC subclones with various degrees of disease-causing genotypes. On comparative differentiation of iPSC clones, improved cardiogenic yield was associated with iPSC clones containing lower heteroplasmy compared with isogenic clones with high heteroplasmy. Thus, mtDNA heteroplasmic segregation within patient-derived stem cell lines enables direct comparison of genotype/phenotype relationships in progenitor cells and lineage-restricted progeny, and indicates that cell fate decisions are regulated as a function of mtDNA mutation load. The novel nuclear reprogramming-based model system introduces a disease-in-a-dish tool to examine the impact of mutant genotypes for MELAS patients in bioengineered tissues and a cellular probe for molecular features of individual mitochondrial diseases. Copyright © 2013 AlphaMed Press.

  3. Human Perivascular Stem Cells Show Enhanced Osteogenesis and Vasculogenesis with Nel-Like Molecule I Protein

    PubMed Central

    Askarinam, Asal; James, Aaron W.; Zara, Janette N.; Goyal, Raghav; Corselli, Mirko; Pan, Angel; Liang, Pei; Chang, Le; Rackohn, Todd; Stoker, David; Zhang, Xinli; Ting, Kang; Péault, Bruno

    2013-01-01

    An ideal mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) source for bone tissue engineering has yet to be identified. Such an MSC population would be easily harvested in abundance, with minimal morbidity and with high purity. Our laboratories have identified perivascular stem cells (PSCs) as a candidate cell source. PSCs are readily isolatable through fluorescent-activated cell sorting from adipose tissue and have been previously shown to be indistinguishable from MSCs in the phenotype and differentiation potential. PSCs consist of two distinct cell populations: (1) pericytes (CD146+, CD34−, and CD45−), which surround capillaries and microvessels, and (2) adventitial cells (CD146−, CD34+, and CD45−), found within the tunica adventitia of large arteries and veins. We previously demonstrated the osteogenic potential of pericytes by examining pericytes derived from the human fetal pancreas, and illustrated their in vivo trophic and angiogenic effects. In the present study, we used an intramuscular ectopic bone model to develop the translational potential of our original findings using PSCs (as a combination of pericytes and adventitial cells) from human white adipose tissue. We evaluated human PSC (hPSC)-mediated bone formation and vascularization in vivo. We also examined the effects of hPSCs when combined with the novel craniosynostosis-associated protein, Nel-like molecule I (NELL-1). Implants consisting of the demineralized bone matrix putty combined with NELL-1 (3 μg/μL), hPSC (2.5×105 cells), or hPSC+NELL-1, were inserted in the bicep femoris of SCID mice. Bone growth was evaluated using microcomputed tomography, histology, and immunohistochemistry over 4 weeks. Results demonstrated the osteogenic potential of hPSCs and the additive effect of hPSC+NELL-1 on bone formation and vasculogenesis. Comparable osteogenesis was observed with NELL-1 as compared to the more commonly used bone morphogenetic protein-2. Next, hPSCs induced greater implant vascularization than the unsorted stromal vascular fraction from patient-matched samples. Finally, we observed an additive effect on implant vascularization with hPSC+NELL-1 by histomorphometry and immunohistochemistry, accompanied by in vitro elaboration of vasculogenic growth factors. These findings hold significant implications for the cell/protein combination therapy hPSC+NELL-1 in the development of strategies for vascularized bone regeneration. PMID:23406369

  4. Generation of scaffoldless hyaline cartilaginous tissue from human iPSCs.

    PubMed

    Yamashita, Akihiro; Morioka, Miho; Yahara, Yasuhito; Okada, Minoru; Kobayashi, Tomohito; Kuriyama, Shinichi; Matsuda, Shuichi; Tsumaki, Noriyuki

    2015-03-10

    Defects in articular cartilage ultimately result in loss of joint function. Repairing cartilage defects requires cell sources. We developed an approach to generate scaffoldless hyaline cartilage from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). We initially generated an hiPSC line that specifically expressed GFP in cartilage when teratoma was formed. We optimized the culture conditions and found BMP2, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), and GDF5 critical for GFP expression and thus chondrogenic differentiation of the hiPSCs. The subsequent use of scaffoldless suspension culture contributed to purification, producing homogenous cartilaginous particles. Subcutaneous transplantation of the hiPSC-derived particles generated hyaline cartilage that expressed type II collagen, but not type I collagen, in immunodeficiency mice. Transplantation of the particles into joint surface defects in immunodeficiency rats and immunosuppressed mini-pigs indicated that neocartilage survived and had potential for integration into native cartilage. The immunodeficiency mice and rats suffered from neither tumors nor ectopic tissue formation. The hiPSC-derived cartilaginous particles constitute a viable cell source for regenerating cartilage defects. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Generation of Scaffoldless Hyaline Cartilaginous Tissue from Human iPSCs

    PubMed Central

    Yamashita, Akihiro; Morioka, Miho; Yahara, Yasuhito; Okada, Minoru; Kobayashi, Tomohito; Kuriyama, Shinichi; Matsuda, Shuichi; Tsumaki, Noriyuki

    2015-01-01

    Summary Defects in articular cartilage ultimately result in loss of joint function. Repairing cartilage defects requires cell sources. We developed an approach to generate scaffoldless hyaline cartilage from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). We initially generated an hiPSC line that specifically expressed GFP in cartilage when teratoma was formed. We optimized the culture conditions and found BMP2, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), and GDF5 critical for GFP expression and thus chondrogenic differentiation of the hiPSCs. The subsequent use of scaffoldless suspension culture contributed to purification, producing homogenous cartilaginous particles. Subcutaneous transplantation of the hiPSC-derived particles generated hyaline cartilage that expressed type II collagen, but not type I collagen, in immunodeficiency mice. Transplantation of the particles into joint surface defects in immunodeficiency rats and immunosuppressed mini-pigs indicated that neocartilage survived and had potential for integration into native cartilage. The immunodeficiency mice and rats suffered from neither tumors nor ectopic tissue formation. The hiPSC-derived cartilaginous particles constitute a viable cell source for regenerating cartilage defects. PMID:25733017

  6. Integrated Genomic Analysis of Diverse Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from the Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium.

    PubMed

    Salomonis, Nathan; Dexheimer, Phillip J; Omberg, Larsson; Schroll, Robin; Bush, Stacy; Huo, Jeffrey; Schriml, Lynn; Ho Sui, Shannan; Keddache, Mehdi; Mayhew, Christopher; Shanmukhappa, Shiva Kumar; Wells, James; Daily, Kenneth; Hubler, Shane; Wang, Yuliang; Zambidis, Elias; Margolin, Adam; Hide, Winston; Hatzopoulos, Antonis K; Malik, Punam; Cancelas, Jose A; Aronow, Bruce J; Lutzko, Carolyn

    2016-07-12

    The rigorous characterization of distinct induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived from multiple reprogramming technologies, somatic sources, and donors is required to understand potential sources of variability and downstream potential. To achieve this goal, the Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium performed comprehensive experimental and genomic analyses of 58 iPSC from ten laboratories generated using a variety of reprogramming genes, vectors, and cells. Associated global molecular characterization studies identified functionally informative correlations in gene expression, DNA methylation, and/or copy-number variation among key developmental and oncogenic regulators as a result of donor, sex, line stability, reprogramming technology, and cell of origin. Furthermore, X-chromosome inactivation in PSC produced highly correlated differences in teratoma-lineage staining and regulator expression upon differentiation. All experimental results, and raw, processed, and metadata from these analyses, including powerful tools, are interactively accessible from a new online portal at https://www.synapse.org to serve as a reusable resource for the stem cell community. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Hubble Source Catalog (V1 and V2) (Whitmore+, 2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Whitmore, B. C.; Allam, S. S.; Budavari, T.; Casertano, S.; Downes, R. A.; Donaldson, T.; Fall, S. M.; Lubow, S. H.; Quick, L.; Strolger, L.-G.; Wallace, G.; White, R. L.

    2016-10-01

    The HSC v1 contains members of the WFPC2, ACS/WFC, WFC3/UVIS and WFC3/IR Source Extractor source lists from HLA version DR8 (data release 8). The crossmatching process involves adjusting the relative astrometry of overlapping images so as to minimize positional offsets between closely aligned sources in different images. After correction, the astrometric residuals of crossmatched sources are significantly reduced, to typically less than 10mas. The relative astrometry is supported by using Pan-STARRS, SDSS, and 2MASS as the astrometric backbone for initial corrections. In addition, the catalog includes source nondetections. The crossmatching algorithms and the properties of the initial (Beta 0.1) catalog are described in Budavari & Lubow (2012ApJ...761..188B). The HSC v2 contains members of the WFPC2, ACS/WFC, WFC3/UVIS and WFC3/IR Source Extractor source lists from HLA version DR9.1 (data release 9.1). The crossmatching process involves adjusting the relative astrometry of overlapping images so as to minimize positional offsets between closely aligned sources in different images. After correction, the astrometric residuals of crossmatched sources are significantly reduced, to typically less than 10mas. The relative astrometry is supported by using Pan-STARRS, SDSS, and 2MASS as the astrometric backbone for initial corrections. In addition, the catalog includes source nondetections. The crossmatching algorithms and the properties of the initial (Beta 0.1) catalog are described in Budavari & Lubow (2012ApJ...761..188B). Hubble Source Catalog Acknowledgement: Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESAC/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA). (2 data files).

  8. The Chandra Source Catalog: Statistical Characterization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Primini, Francis A.; Nowak, M. A.; Houck, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Karovska, M.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, I. N.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E. C.; Gibbs, D. G., II; Grier, J. D.; Hain, R.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Plummer, D. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Rots, A. H.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

    2009-09-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) will ultimately contain more than ˜250000 x-ray sources in a total area of ˜1% of the entire sky, using data from ˜10000 separate ACIS and HRC observations of a multitude of different types of x-ray sources (see Evans et al. this conference). In order to maximize the scientific benefit of such a large, heterogeneous dataset, careful characterization of the statistical properties of the catalog, i.e., completeness, sensitivity, false source rate, and accuracy of source properties, is required. Our Characterization efforts include both extensive simulations of blank-sky and point source datasets, and detailed comparisons of CSC results with those of other x-ray and optical catalogs. We present here a summary of our characterization results for CSC Release 1 and preliminary plans for future releases. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

  9. Far infrared supplement. Third edition: Catalog of infrared observations (lambda greater than or equal to 4.6 micrometers)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gezari, Daniel Y.; Schmitz, Marion; Pitts, Patricia S.; Mead, Jaylee M.

    1993-01-01

    The Far Infrared Supplement contains a subset of the data in the full Catalog of Infrared Observations (all observations at wavelengths greater than 4.6 microns). The Catalog of Infrared Observations (CIO), NASA RP-1294, is a compilation of infrared astronomical observational data obtained from an extensive literature search of scientific journals and major astronomical catalogs and surveys. The literature search is complete for years 1965 through 1990 in this third edition. The catalog contains about 210,000 observations of roughly 20,000 individual sources, and supporting appendices. The expanded third edition contains coded IRAS 4-band data for all CIO sources detected by IRAS. The appendices include an atlas of infrared source positions (also included in this volume), two bibliographies of catalog listings, and an atlas of infrared spectral ranges. The complete CIO database is available to qualified users in printed, microfiche, and magnetic tape formats.

  10. Catalog of Infrared Observations, Third Edition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gezari, Daniel Y.; Schmitz, Marion; Pitts, Patricia S.; Mead, Jaylee M.

    1993-01-01

    The Far Infrared Supplement contains a subset of the data in the full Catalog of Infrared Observations (all observations at wavelengths greater than 4.6 microns). The Catalog of Infrared Observations (CIO), NASA RP-1294, is a compilation of infrared astronomical observational data obtained from an extensive literature search of scientific journals and major astronomical catalogs and surveys. The literature search is complete for years 1965 through 1990 in this Third Edition. The Catalog contains about 210,000 observations of roughly 20,000 individual sources and supporting appendices. The expanded Third Edition contains coded IRAS 4-band data for all CIO sources detected by IRAS. The appendices include an atlas of infrared source positions (also included in this volume), two bibliographies of Catalog listings, and an atlas of infrared spectral ranges. The complete CIO database is available to qualified users in printed, microfiche, and magnetic-tape formats.

  11. Urine-derived induced pluripotent stem cells as a modeling tool to study rare human diseases

    PubMed Central

    Shi, Liang; Cui, Yazhou; Luan, Jing; Zhou, Xiaoyan; Han, Jinxiang

    2016-01-01

    Summary Rare diseases with a low prevalence are a key public health issue because the causes of those diseases are difficult to determine and those diseases lack a clearly established or curative treatment. Thus, investigating the molecular mechanisms that underlie the pathology of rare diseases and facilitating the development of novel therapies using disease models is crucial. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are well suited to modeling rare diseases since they have the capacity for self-renewal and pluripotency. In addition, iPSC technology provides a valuable tool to generate patient-specific iPSCs. These cells can be differentiated into cell types that have been affected by a disease. These cells would circumvent ethical concerns and avoid immunological rejection, so they could be used in cell replacement therapy or regenerative medicine. To date, human iPSCs could have been generated from multiple donor sources, such as skin, adipose tissue, and peripheral blood. However, these cells are obtained via invasive procedures. In contrast, several groups of researchers have found that urine may be a better source for producing iPSCs from normal individuals or patients. This review discusses urinary iPSC (UiPSC) as a candidate for modeling rare diseases. Cells obtained from urine have overwhelming advantages compared to other donor sources since they are safely, affordably, and frequently obtained and they are readily obtained from patients. The use of iPSC-based models is also discussed. UiPSCs may prove to be a key means of modeling rare diseases and they may facilitate the treatment of those diseases in the future. PMID:27672542

  12. Viral Vector-Based Innovative Approaches to Directly Abolishing Tumorigenic Pluripotent Stem Cells for Safer Regenerative Medicine.

    PubMed

    Mitsui, Kaoru; Ide, Kanako; Takahashi, Tomoyuki; Kosai, Ken-Ichiro

    2017-06-16

    Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are a promising source of regenerative material for clinical applications. However, hPSC transplant therapies pose the risk of teratoma formation and malignant transformation of undifferentiated remnants. These problems underscore the importance of developing technologies that completely prevent tumorigenesis to ensure safe clinical application. Research to date has contributed to establishing safe hPSC lines, improving the efficiency of differentiation induction, and indirectly ensuring the safety of products. Despite such efforts, guaranteeing the clinical safety of regenerative medicine products remains a key challenge. Given the intrinsic genome instability of hPSCs, selective growth advantage of cancer cells, and lessons learned through failures in previous attempts at hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy, conventional strategies are unlikely to completely overcome issues related to hPSC tumorigenesis. Researchers have recently embarked on studies aimed at locating and directly treating hPSC-derived tumorigenic cells. In particular, novel approaches to directly killing tumorigenic cells by transduction of suicide genes and oncolytic viruses are expected to improve the safety of hPSC-based therapy. This article discusses the current status and future perspectives of methods aimed at directly eradicating undifferentiated tumorigenic hPSCs, with a focus on viral vector transduction.

  13. Overexpression of Polysialylated Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule Improves the Migration Capacity of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Oligodendrocyte Precursors

    PubMed Central

    Czepiel, Marcin; Leicher, Lasse; Becker, Katja; Boddeke, Erik

    2014-01-01

    Cell replacement therapy aiming at the compensation of lost oligodendrocytes and restoration of myelination in acquired or congenital demyelination disorders has gained considerable interest since the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Patient-derived iPSCs provide an inexhaustible source for transplantable autologous oligodendrocyte precursors (OPCs). The first transplantation studies in animal models for demyelination with iPSC-derived OPCs demonstrated their survival and remyelinating capacity, but also revealed their limited migration capacity. In the present study, we induced overexpression of the polysialylating enzyme sialyltransferase X (STX) in iPSC-derived OPCs to stimulate the production of polysialic acid-neuronal cell adhesion molecules (PSA-NCAMs), known to promote and facilitate the migration of OPCs. The STX-overexpressing iPSC-derived OPCs showed a normal differentiation and maturation pattern and were able to downregulate PSA-NCAMs when they became myelin-forming oligodendrocytes. After implantation in the demyelinated corpus callosum of cuprizone-fed mice, STX-expressing iPSC-derived OPCs demonstrated a significant increase in migration along the axons. Our findings suggest that the reach and efficacy of iPSC-derived OPC transplantation can be improved by stimulating the OPC migration potential via specific gene modulation. PMID:25069776

  14. Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for cardiovascular disease modeling and drug screening.

    PubMed

    Sharma, Arun; Wu, Joseph C; Wu, Sean M

    2013-12-24

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have emerged as a novel tool for drug discovery and therapy in cardiovascular medicine. hiPSCs are functionally similar to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and can be derived autologously without the ethical challenges associated with hESCs. Given the limited regenerative capacity of the human heart following myocardial injury, cardiomyocytes derived from hiPSCs (hiPSC-CMs) have garnered significant attention from basic and translational scientists as a promising cell source for replacement therapy. However, ongoing issues such as cell immaturity, scale of production, inter-line variability, and cell purity will need to be resolved before human clinical trials can begin. Meanwhile, the use of hiPSCs to explore cellular mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases in vitro has proven to be extremely valuable. For example, hiPSC-CMs have been shown to recapitulate disease phenotypes from patients with monogenic cardiovascular disorders. Furthermore, patient-derived hiPSC-CMs are now providing new insights regarding drug efficacy and toxicity. This review will highlight recent advances in utilizing hiPSC-CMs for cardiac disease modeling in vitro and as a platform for drug validation. The advantages and disadvantages of using hiPSC-CMs for drug screening purposes will be explored as well.

  15. The VLITE Post-Processing Pipeline

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Richards, Emily E.; Clarke, Tracy; Peters, Wendy; Polisensky, Emil; Kassim, Namir E.

    2018-01-01

    A post-processing pipeline to adaptively extract and catalog point sources is being developed to enhance the scientific value and accessibility of data products generated by the VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE; ) on the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). In contrast to other radio sky surveys, the commensal observing mode of VLITE results in varying depths, sensitivities, and spatial resolutions across the sky based on the configuration of the VLA, location on the sky, and time on source specified by the primary observer for their independent science objectives. Therefore, previously developed tools and methods for generating source catalogs and survey statistics are not always appropriate for VLITE's diverse and growing set of data. A raw catalog of point sources extracted from every VLITE image will be created from source fit parameters stored in a queryable database. Point sources will be measured using the Python Blob Detector and Source Finder software (PyBDSF; Mohan & Rafferty 2015). Sources in the raw catalog will be associated with previous VLITE detections in a resolution- and sensitivity-dependent manner, and cross-matched to other radio sky surveys to aid in the detection of transient and variable sources. Final data products will include separate, tiered point source catalogs grouped by sensitivity limit and spatial resolution.

  16. VizieR Online Data Catalog: The North 20cm Survey (White+ 1992)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    White, R. L.; Becker, R. H.

    1995-08-01

    This catalog contains a list of 30239 radio sources at 1.4GHz over the declination range of -5 to +82 degrees. This catalog is based on the Green Bank 1.4GHz Northern Sky Survey (Condon and Broderick, 1986, Cat. VIII/6) which was generated using the Green Bank 300 foot (91m) telescope. The threshold for identifying a 1.4GHz radio source was set at 100mJy. The catalog data include the source name, a confusion flag, right ascension (1950), declination (1950), 1.4GHz flux, a flag to indicate if the source is extended at 20cm, 4.85GHz flux (from Becker et al., 1991, Cat. VIII/13), a flag to indicate if the source is extended at 6cm, 365MHz flux (from the Texas Survey, Douglas et al. 1980; see Cat. VIII/42)), spectral index between 6 and 20 cm, and spectral index between 20 and 80 cm. Where possible, the source name is derived from the 6cm catalog of Becker et al. 1991 (Cat. VIII/13). (1 data file).

  17. Correlated flux densities from VLBI observations with the DSN

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Coker, R. F.

    1992-01-01

    Correlated flux densities of extragalactic radio sources in the very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) astrometric catalog are required for the VLBI tracking of Galileo, Mars Observer, and future missions. A system to produce correlated and total flux density catalogs was developed to meet these requirements. A correlated flux density catalog of 274 sources, accurate to about 20 percent, was derived from more than 5000 DSN VLBI observations at 2.3 GHz (S-band) and 8.4 GHz (X-band) using 43 VLBI radio reference frame experiments during the period 1989-1992. Various consistency checks were carried out to ensure the accuracy of the correlated flux densities. All observations were made on the California-Spain and California-Australia DSN baselines using the Mark 3 wideband data acquisition system. A total flux density catalog, accurate to about 20 percent, with data on 150 sources, was also created. Together, these catalogs can be used to predict source strengths to assist in the scheduling of VLBI tracking passes. In addition, for those sources with sufficient observations, a rough estimate of source structure parameters can be made.

  18. Deep Galex Observations of the Coma Cluster: Source Catalog and Galaxy Counts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hammer, D.; Hornschemeier, A. E.; Mobasher, B.; Miller, N.; Smith, R.; Arnouts, S.; Milliard, B.; Jenkins, L.

    2010-01-01

    We present a source catalog from deep 26 ks GALEX observations of the Coma cluster in the far-UV (FUV; 1530 Angstroms) and near-UV (NUV; 2310 Angstroms) wavebands. The observed field is centered 0.9 deg. (1.6 Mpc) south-west of the Coma core, and has full optical photometric coverage by SDSS and spectroscopic coverage to r-21. The catalog consists of 9700 galaxies with GALEX and SDSS photometry, including 242 spectroscopically-confirmed Coma member galaxies that range from giant spirals and elliptical galaxies to dwarf irregular and early-type galaxies. The full multi-wavelength catalog (cluster plus background galaxies) is 80% complete to NUV=23 and FUV=23.5, and has a limiting depth at NUV=24.5 and FUV=25.0 which corresponds to a star formation rate of 10(exp -3) solar mass yr(sup -1) at the distance of Coma. The GALEX images presented here are very deep and include detections of many resolved cluster members superposed on a dense field of unresolved background galaxies. This required a two-fold approach to generating a source catalog: we used a Bayesian deblending algorithm to measure faint and compact sources (using SDSS coordinates as a position prior), and used the GALEX pipeline catalog for bright and/or extended objects. We performed simulations to assess the importance of systematic effects (e.g. object blends, source confusion, Eddington Bias) that influence source detection and photometry when using both methods. The Bayesian deblending method roughly doubles the number of source detections and provides reliable photometry to a few magnitudes deeper than the GALEX pipeline catalog. This method is also free from source confusion over the UV magnitude range studied here: conversely, we estimate that the GALEX pipeline catalogs are confusion limited at NUV approximately 23 and FUV approximately 24. We have measured the total UV galaxy counts using our catalog and report a 50% excess of counts across FUV=22-23.5 and NUV=21.5-23 relative to previous GALEX measurements, which is not attributed to cluster member galaxies. Our galaxy counts are a better match to deeper UV counts measured with HST.

  19. The Herschel-SPIRE Point Source Catalog Version 2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schulz, Bernhard; Marton, Gábor; Valtchanov, Ivan; María Pérez García, Ana; Pintér, Sándor; Appleton, Phil; Kiss, Csaba; Lim, Tanya; Lu, Nanyao; Papageorgiou, Andreas; Pearson, Chris; Rector, John; Sánchez Portal, Miguel; Shupe, David; Tóth, Viktor L.; Van Dyk, Schuyler; Varga-Verebélyi, Erika; Xu, Kevin

    2018-01-01

    The Herschel-SPIRE instrument mapped about 8% of the sky in Submillimeter broad-band filters centered at 250, 350, and 500 microns (1199, 857, 600 GHz) with spatial resolutions of 17.9”, 24.2”, and 35.4” respectively. We present here the 2nd version of the SPIRE Point Source Catalog (SPSC). Stacking on WISE 22 micron catalog sources led to the identification of 108 maps, out of 6878, that had astrometry offsets of greater than 5”. After fixing these deviations and re-derivation of all affected map-mosaics, we repeated the systematic and homogeneous source extraction performed on all maps, using an improved version of the 4 different photometry extraction methods that were already employed in the generation of the first version catalog. Only regions affected by strong Galactic emission, mostly in the Galactic Plane, were excluded, as they exceeded the limits of the available source extraction methods. Aimed primarily at point sources, that allow for the best photometric accuracy, the catalog contains also significant fractions of slightly extended sources. With most SPIRE maps being confusion limited, uncertainties in flux densities were established as a function of structure noise and flux density, based on the results of artificial source insertion experiments into real data along a range of celestial backgrounds. Many sources have been rejected that do not pass the imposed SNR threshold, especially at flux densities approaching the extragalactic confusion limit. A range of additional flags provide information on the reliability of the flux information, as well as the spatial extent and orientation of a source. The catalog should be particularly helpful for determining cold dust content in extragalactic and galactic sources with low to moderate background confusion. We present an overview of catalog construction, detailed content, and validation results, with focus on the improvements achieved in the second version that is soon to be released.

  20. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Rotation measures of radio point sources (Xu+, 2014)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, J.; Han, J.-L.

    2015-04-01

    We compiled a catalog of Faraday rotation measures (RMs) for 4553 extragalactic radio point sources published in literature. These RMs were derived from multi-frequency polarization observations. The RM data are compared to those in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) RM catalog. We reveal a systematic uncertainty of about 10.0+/-1.5rad/m2 in the NVSS RM catalog. The Galactic foreground RM is calculated through a weighted averaging method by using the compiled RM catalog together with the NVSS RM catalog, with careful consideration of uncertainties in the RM data. The data from the catalog and the interface for the Galactic foreground RM calculations are publicly available on the webpage: http://zmtt.bao.ac.cn/RM/ . (2 data files).

  1. VizieR Online Data Catalog: The Chandra Source Catalog, Release 1.1 (Evans+ 2012)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, I. N.; Primini, F. A.; Glotfelty, C. S.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E. C.; Gibbs, D. G.; Grier, J. D.; Hain, R. M.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Kashyap, V. L.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Mossman, A. E.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Rots, A. H.; Siemiginowska, A.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

    2014-01-01

    This version of the catalog is release 1.1. It includes the information contained in release 1.0.1, plus point and compact source data extracted from HRC imaging observations, and catch-up ACIS observations released publicly prior to the end of 2009. (1 data file).

  2. The Chandra Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, Ian N.; Primini, Francis A.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger M.; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiangqun Helen; Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; Van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2010-07-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a general purpose virtual X-ray astrophysics facility that provides access to a carefully selected set of generally useful quantities for individual X-ray sources, and is designed to satisfy the needs of a broad-based group of scientists, including those who may be less familiar with astronomical data analysis in the X-ray regime. The first release of the CSC includes information about 94,676 distinct X-ray sources detected in a subset of public Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer imaging observations from roughly the first eight years of the Chandra mission. This release of the catalog includes point and compact sources with observed spatial extents lsim30''. The catalog (1) provides access to the best estimates of the X-ray source properties for detected sources, with good scientific fidelity, and directly supports scientific analysis using the individual source data; (2) facilitates analysis of a wide range of statistical properties for classes of X-ray sources; and (3) provides efficient access to calibrated observational data and ancillary data products for individual X-ray sources, so that users can perform detailed further analysis using existing tools. The catalog includes real X-ray sources detected with flux estimates that are at least 3 times their estimated 1σ uncertainties in at least one energy band, while maintaining the number of spurious sources at a level of lsim1 false source per field for a 100 ks observation. For each detected source, the CSC provides commonly tabulated quantities, including source position, extent, multi-band fluxes, hardness ratios, and variability statistics, derived from the observations in which the source is detected. In addition to these traditional catalog elements, for each X-ray source the CSC includes an extensive set of file-based data products that can be manipulated interactively, including source images, event lists, light curves, and spectra from each observation in which a source is detected.

  3. Multiwavelength search and studies of active galaxies and quasars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mickaelian, Areg M.

    2017-12-01

    The Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO) has always been one of the centres for surveys and studies of active galaxies. Here we review our search and studies of active galaxies during last 30 years using various wavelength ranges, as well as some recent related works. These projects since late 1980s were focused on multiwavelength search and studies of AGN and Starbursts (SB). 1103 blue stellar objects (BSOs) on the basis of their UV-excess were selected using Markarian Survey (First Byurakan Survey, FBS) plates and Markarian's criteria used for the galaxies. Among many blue stars, QSOs and Seyfert galaxies were found by follow-up observations. 1577 IRAS point sources were optically identified using FBS low-dispersion spectra and many AGN, SB and high-luminosity IR galaxies (LIRG/ULIRG) were discovered. 32 extremely high IR/opt flux ratio galaxies were studies with Spitzer. 2791 ROSAT FSC sources were optically identified using Hamburg Quasar Survey (HQS) low-dispersion spectra and many AGN were discovered by follow-up observations. Fine analysis of emission line spectra was carried out using spectral line decomposition software to establish true profiles and calculate physical parameters for the emitting regions, as well as to study the spectral variability of these objects. X-ray and radio selection criteria were used to find new AGN and variable objects for further studies. We have estimated AGN content of X-ray sources as 52.9%. We have also combined IRAS PSC and FSC catalogs and compiled its extragalactic sample, which allowed us to estimate AGN content among IR sources as 23.7%. Multiwavelength approach allowed revealing many new AGN and SB and obtaining a number of interesting relations using their observational characteristics and physical properties.

  4. The Online Catalog: Issues in Planning and Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Richards, Timothy F.

    1984-01-01

    Discusses key issues to be addressed in planning for introduction of online public access catalog in academic research library environment. Purpose of catalog, reasons to adopt catalog, user behavior, use of catalog records, authority control, shared or unique systems, and impact on staff are highlighted. Seventy-three sources are cited. (EJS)

  5. 1SXPS: A Deep Swift X-Ray Telescope Point Source Catalog with Light Curves and Spectra

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Evans, P. A.; Osborne, J. P.; Beardmore, A. P.; Page, K. L.; Willingale, R.; Mountford, C. J.; Pagani, C.; Burrows, D. N.; Kennea, J. A.; Perri, M.; hide

    2013-01-01

    We present the 1SXPS (Swift-XRT point source) catalog of 151,524 X-ray point sources detected by the Swift-XRT in 8 yr of operation. The catalog covers 1905 sq deg distributed approximately uniformly on the sky. We analyze the data in two ways. First we consider all observations individually, for which we have a typical sensitivity of approximately 3 × 10(exp -13) erg cm(exp -2) s(exp -1) (0.3-10 keV). Then we co-add all data covering the same location on the sky: these images have a typical sensitivity of approximately 9 × 10(exp -14) erg cm(exp -2) s(exp -1) (0.3-10 keV). Our sky coverage is nearly 2.5 times that of 3XMM-DR4, although the catalog is a factor of approximately 1.5 less sensitive. The median position error is 5.5 (90% confidence), including systematics. Our source detection method improves on that used in previous X-ray Telescope (XRT) catalogs and we report greater than 68,000 new X-ray sources. The goals and observing strategy of the Swift satellite allow us to probe source variability on multiple timescales, and we find approximately 30,000 variable objects in our catalog. For every source we give positions, fluxes, time series (in four energy bands and two hardness ratios), estimates of the spectral properties, spectra and spectral fits for the brightest sources, and variability probabilities in multiple energy bands and timescales.

  6. The lost history of American veterinary medicine: the need for preservation.

    PubMed

    Boyd, C Trenton

    2011-01-01

    The objective of this study was to survey holdings of ephemeral veterinary literature. World Cat OCLC catalog, the Library of Congress online catalog, the US National Agricultural Library online catalog, and the Dictionary Catalog of the National Agricultural Library, 1862-1965, were used to determine current library holdings of materials published by veterinary schools that are no longer in existence and veterinary associations that are defunct, veterinary supply catalogs, veterinary house organs, patent medicine publications, and veterinary advertisements. Individual library catalogs were also consulted. In addition, the practice of removing advertisements from bound volumes was examined. There are many gaps in the cataloged library holdings of primary source materials relating to the history of the education of veterinarians in the United States. A proactive action plan needs to be designed and activated to locate, catalog, and preserve this primary source material of veterinary medicine for posterity.

  7. The lost history of American veterinary medicine: the need for preservation*†

    PubMed Central

    Boyd, C. Trenton

    2011-01-01

    Objective: The objective of this study was to survey holdings of ephemeral veterinary literature. Methods: WorldCat OCLC catalog, the Library of Congress online catalog, the US National Agricultural Library online catalog, and the Dictionary Catalog of the National Agricultural Library, 1862–1965, were used to determine current library holdings of materials published by veterinary schools that are no longer in existence and veterinary associations that are defunct, veterinary supply catalogs, veterinary house organs, patent medicine publications, and veterinary advertisements. Individual library catalogs were also consulted. In addition, the practice of removing advertisements from bound volumes was examined. Results: There are many gaps in the cataloged library holdings of primary source materials relating to the history of the education of veterinarians in the United States. Conclusions: A proactive action plan needs to be designed and activated to locate, catalog, and preserve this primary source material of veterinary medicine for posterity. PMID:21243050

  8. A 1420 MHz Catalog of Compact Sources in the Northern Galactic Plane

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Taylor, A. R.; Leahy, D. A.; Sunstrum, C.

    We present a catalog of compact sources of radio emission at 1420 MHz in the northern Galactic plane from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey. The catalog contains 72,758 compact sources with an angular size less than 3′ within the Galactic longitude range 52° <  ℓ  < 192° down to a 5 σ detection level of ∼1.2 mJy. Linear polarization properties are included for 12,368 sources with signals greater than 4 σ{sub QU} in the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) Stokes Q and U images at the position of the total intensity peak. We compare CGPS flux densities with cataloged flux densities in themore » Northern VLA Sky Survey catalog for 10,897 isolated unresolved sources with CGPS flux density greater than 4 mJy to search for sources that show variable flux density on timescales of several years. We identify 146 candidate variables that exhibit high fractional variations between the two surveys. In addition, we identify 13 candidate transient sources that have CGPS flux density above 10 mJy but are not detected in the Northern VLA Sky Survey.« less

  9. VizieR Online Data Catalog: SKY2000 Master Catalog, Version 5 (Myers+ 2006)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Myers, J. R.; Sande, C. B.; Miller, A. C.; Warren, W. H., Jr.; Tracewell, D. A.

    2015-02-01

    The SKYMAP Star Catalog System consists of a Master Catalog stellar database and a collection of utility software designed to create and maintain the database and to generate derivative mission star catalogs (run catalogs). It contains an extensive compilation of information on almost 300000 stars brighter than 8.0mag. The original SKYMAP Master Catalog was generated in the early 1970's. Incremental updates and corrections were made over the following years but the first complete revision of the source data occurred with Version 4.0. This revision also produced a unique, consolidated source of astrometric information which can be used by the astronomical community. The derived quantities were removed and wideband and photometric data in the R (red) and I (infrared) systems were added. Version 4 of the SKY2000 Master Catalog was completed in April 2002; it marks the global replacement of the variability identifier and variability data fields. More details can be found in the description file sky2kv4.pdf. The SKY2000 Version 5 Revision 4 Master Catalog differs from Revision 3 in that MK and HD spectral types have been added from the Catalogue of Stellar Spectral Classifications (B. A. Skiff of Lowell Observatory, 2005), which has been assigned source code 50 in this process. 9622 entries now have MK types from this source, while 3976 entries have HD types from this source. SKY2000 V5 R4 also differs globally from preceding MC versions in that the Galactic coordinate computations performed by UPDATE have been increased in accuracy, so that differences from the same quantities from other sources are now typically in the last decimal places carried in the MC. This version supersedes the previous versions 1(V/95), 2(V/102), 3(V/105) and 4(V/109). (6 data files).

  10. catsHTM: A Tool for Fast Accessing and Cross-matching Large Astronomical Catalogs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Soumagnac, Maayane T.; Ofek, Eran O.

    2018-07-01

    Fast access to large catalogs is required for some astronomical applications. Here we introduce the catsHTM tool, consisting of several large catalogs reformatted into HDF5-based file format, which can be downloaded and used locally. To allow fast access, the catalogs are partitioned into hierarchical triangular meshes and stored in HDF5 files. Several tools are provided to perform efficient cone searches at resolutions spanning from a few arc-seconds to degrees, within a few milliseconds time. The first released version includes the following catalogs (by alphabetical order): 2MASS, 2MASS extended sources, AKARI, APASS, Cosmos, DECaLS/DR5, FIRST, GAIA/DR1, GAIA/DR2, GALEX/DR6Plus7, HSC/v2, IPHAS/DR2, NED redshifts, NVSS, Pan-STARRS1/DR1, PTF photometric catalog, ROSAT faint source, SDSS sources, SDSS/DR14 spectroscopy, SkyMapper, Spitzer/SAGE, Spitzer/IRAC galactic center, UCAC4, UKIDSS/DR10, VST/ATLAS/DR3, VST/KiDS/DR3, WISE and XMM. We provide Python code that allows to perform cone searches, as well as MATLAB code for performing cone searches, catalog cross-matching, general searches, as well as load and create these catalogs.

  11. Construction of a Calibrated Probabilistic Classification Catalog: Application to 50k Variable Sources in the All-Sky Automated Survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Richards, Joseph W.; Starr, Dan L.; Miller, Adam A.; Bloom, Joshua S.; Butler, Nathaniel R.; Brink, Henrik; Crellin-Quick, Arien

    2012-12-01

    With growing data volumes from synoptic surveys, astronomers necessarily must become more abstracted from the discovery and introspection processes. Given the scarcity of follow-up resources, there is a particularly sharp onus on the frameworks that replace these human roles to provide accurate and well-calibrated probabilistic classification catalogs. Such catalogs inform the subsequent follow-up, allowing consumers to optimize the selection of specific sources for further study and permitting rigorous treatment of classification purities and efficiencies for population studies. Here, we describe a process to produce a probabilistic classification catalog of variability with machine learning from a multi-epoch photometric survey. In addition to producing accurate classifications, we show how to estimate calibrated class probabilities and motivate the importance of probability calibration. We also introduce a methodology for feature-based anomaly detection, which allows discovery of objects in the survey that do not fit within the predefined class taxonomy. Finally, we apply these methods to sources observed by the All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS), and release the Machine-learned ASAS Classification Catalog (MACC), a 28 class probabilistic classification catalog of 50,124 ASAS sources in the ASAS Catalog of Variable Stars. We estimate that MACC achieves a sub-20% classification error rate and demonstrate that the class posterior probabilities are reasonably calibrated. MACC classifications compare favorably to the classifications of several previous domain-specific ASAS papers and to the ASAS Catalog of Variable Stars, which had classified only 24% of those sources into one of 12 science classes.

  12. CONSTRUCTION OF A CALIBRATED PROBABILISTIC CLASSIFICATION CATALOG: APPLICATION TO 50k VARIABLE SOURCES IN THE ALL-SKY AUTOMATED SURVEY

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Richards, Joseph W.; Starr, Dan L.; Miller, Adam A.

    2012-12-15

    With growing data volumes from synoptic surveys, astronomers necessarily must become more abstracted from the discovery and introspection processes. Given the scarcity of follow-up resources, there is a particularly sharp onus on the frameworks that replace these human roles to provide accurate and well-calibrated probabilistic classification catalogs. Such catalogs inform the subsequent follow-up, allowing consumers to optimize the selection of specific sources for further study and permitting rigorous treatment of classification purities and efficiencies for population studies. Here, we describe a process to produce a probabilistic classification catalog of variability with machine learning from a multi-epoch photometric survey. In additionmore » to producing accurate classifications, we show how to estimate calibrated class probabilities and motivate the importance of probability calibration. We also introduce a methodology for feature-based anomaly detection, which allows discovery of objects in the survey that do not fit within the predefined class taxonomy. Finally, we apply these methods to sources observed by the All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS), and release the Machine-learned ASAS Classification Catalog (MACC), a 28 class probabilistic classification catalog of 50,124 ASAS sources in the ASAS Catalog of Variable Stars. We estimate that MACC achieves a sub-20% classification error rate and demonstrate that the class posterior probabilities are reasonably calibrated. MACC classifications compare favorably to the classifications of several previous domain-specific ASAS papers and to the ASAS Catalog of Variable Stars, which had classified only 24% of those sources into one of 12 science classes.« less

  13. VizieR Online Data Catalog: 231 AGN candidates from the 2FGL catalog (Doert+, 2014)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Doert, M.; Errando, M.

    2016-01-01

    The second Fermi-LAT source catalog (2FGL; Nolan et al. 2012, cat. J/ApJS/199/31) is the deepest all-sky survey available in the gamma-ray band. It contains 1873 sources, of which 576 remain unassociated. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope started operations in 2008. In this work, machine-learning algorithms are used to identify unassociated sources in the 2FGL catalog with properties similar to gamma-ray-emitting Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). This analysis finds 231 high-confidence AGN candidates (see Table3). (1 data file).

  14. Documentation for the machine-readable version of The Revised AFGL Infrared Sky Survey Catalog (Price and Murdock 1983)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warren, W. H., Jr.

    1984-01-01

    A detailed description of the machine-readable catalog as it is currently being distributed from the Astronomical Data Center is given. The catalog contains a main data file of 2970 sources and a supplemental file of 3176 sources measured at wavelengths of 4.2, 11, 20 and 27 microns.

  15. Vascular niche promotes hematopoietic multipotent progenitor formation from pluripotent stem cells

    PubMed Central

    Gori, Jennifer L.; Butler, Jason M.; Chan, Yan-Yi; Chandrasekaran, Devikha; Poulos, Michael G.; Ginsberg, Michael; Nolan, Daniel J.; Elemento, Olivier; Wood, Brent L.; Adair, Jennifer E.; Rafii, Shahin; Kiem, Hans-Peter

    2015-01-01

    Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) represent an alternative hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) source for treating hematopoietic disease. The limited engraftment of human PSC–derived (hPSC-derived) multipotent progenitor cells (MPP) has hampered the clinical application of these cells and suggests that MPP require additional cues for definitive hematopoiesis. We hypothesized that the presence of a vascular niche that produces Notch ligands jagged-1 (JAG1) and delta-like ligand-4 (DLL4) drives definitive hematopoiesis. We differentiated hes2 human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and Macaca nemestrina–induced PSC (iPSC) line-7 with cytokines in the presence or absence of endothelial cells (ECs) that express JAG1 and DLL4. Cells cocultured with ECs generated substantially more CD34+CD45+ hematopoietic progenitors compared with cells cocultured without ECs or with ECs lacking JAG1 or DLL4. EC-induced cells exhibited Notch activation and expressed HSC-specific Notch targets RUNX1 and GATA2. EC-induced PSC-MPP engrafted at a markedly higher level in NOD/SCID/IL-2 receptor γ chain–null (NSG) mice compared with cytokine-induced cells, and low-dose chemotherapy-based selection further increased engraftment. Long-term engraftment and the myeloid-to-lymphoid ratio achieved with vascular niche induction were similar to levels achieved for cord blood–derived MPP and up to 20-fold higher than those achieved with hPSC-derived MPP engraftment. Our findings indicate that endothelial Notch ligands promote PSC-definitive hematopoiesis and production of long-term engrafting CD34+ cells, suggesting these ligands are critical for HSC emergence. PMID:25664855

  16. Explanation of temporal clustering of tsunami sources using the epidemic-type aftershock sequence model

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Geist, Eric L.

    2014-01-01

    Temporal clustering of tsunami sources is examined in terms of a branching process model. It previously was observed that there are more short interevent times between consecutive tsunami sources than expected from a stationary Poisson process. The epidemic‐type aftershock sequence (ETAS) branching process model is fitted to tsunami catalog events, using the earthquake magnitude of the causative event from the Centennial and Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) catalogs and tsunami sizes above a completeness level as a mark to indicate that a tsunami was generated. The ETAS parameters are estimated using the maximum‐likelihood method. The interevent distribution associated with the ETAS model provides a better fit to the data than the Poisson model or other temporal clustering models. When tsunamigenic conditions (magnitude threshold, submarine location, dip‐slip mechanism) are applied to the Global CMT catalog, ETAS parameters are obtained that are consistent with those estimated from the tsunami catalog. In particular, the dip‐slip condition appears to result in a near zero magnitude effect for triggered tsunami sources. The overall consistency between results from the tsunami catalog and that from the earthquake catalog under tsunamigenic conditions indicates that ETAS models based on seismicity can provide the structure for understanding patterns of tsunami source occurrence. The fractional rate of triggered tsunami sources on a global basis is approximately 14%.

  17. Optical Characteristics of Astrometric Radio Sources OCARS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malkin, Z.

    2013-04-01

    In this paper, the current status of the catalog of Optical Characteristics of Astrometric Radio Sources OCARS is presented. The catalog includes radio sources observed in various astrometric and geodetic VLBI programs in 1979-2012. For these sources the physical object type, redshift and visual or infrared magnitude is given when available. Detailed comments are provided when some problems with published data were encountered. Since the first version created in December 2007, the catalog is continuously developed and expanded in respect to inclusion of new radio sources and addition of new or correction of old astrophysical data. Several sources of information are used for OCARS. The main of them are the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) and SIMBAD astronomical databases. Besides several astronomical journals and arXiv depository are regularly monitored, so that new data is included in OCARS just after publication. The redshift for about 150 sources have been determined from dedicated optical spectroscopic observations. As of October 2012, OCARS catalog includes 7173 radio sources. 3898 sources have known redshift, and 4860 sources have known magnitude. In 2009, it was used as a supplement material to the ICRF2. The list of radio sources with a good observational history but lacking astrophysical information is provide for planning of optical observations of the most important astrometric sources. The OCARS catalog is updated, in average every several weeks and is available at http://www.gao.spb.ru/english/as/ac_vlbi/ocars.txt.

  18. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Planck high-z source candidates catalog (PHZ) (Planck+, 2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoit-Levy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Catalano, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clements, D. L.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; De Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Dore, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Elsner, F.; Ensslin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Finelli, F.; Flores-Cacho, I.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Heraud, Y.; Gjerlow, E.; Gonzalez-Nuevo, J.; Gorski, K. M.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Harrison, D. L.; Helou, G.; Hernandez-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Keihanen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leonardi, R.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vornle, M.; Lopez-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macias-Perez, J. F.; Maffei, B.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martinez-Gonzalez, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Melchiorri, A.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschenes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Nesvadba, N. P. H.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paoletti, D.; Partridge, B.; Pasian, F.; Pearson, T. J.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubino-Martin, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Turler, M.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; van Tent, F.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Welikala, N.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

    2016-11-01

    We present in this work the Planck List of Highredshift Source Candidates (the "PHZ"), which includes 2151 sources distributed over 26% of the sky, with redshifts likely to be greater than 2. (2 data files).

  19. The Hubble Catalog of Variables

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gavras, P.; Bonanos, A. Z.; Bellas-Velidis, I.; Charmandaris, V.; Georgantopoulos, I.; Hatzidimitriou, D.; Kakaletris, G.; Karampelas, A.; Laskaris, N.; Lennon, D. J.; Moretti, M. I.; Pouliasis, E.; Sokolovsky, K.; Spetsieri, Z. T.; Tsinganos, K.; Whitmore, B. C.; Yang, M.

    2017-06-01

    The Hubble Catalog of Variables (HCV) is a 3 year ESA funded project that aims to develop a set of algorithms to identify variables among the sources included in the Hubble Source Catalog (HSC) and produce the HCV. We will process all HSC sources with more than a predefined number of measurements in a single filter/instrument combination and compute a range of lightcurve features to determine the variability status of each source. At the end of the project, the first release of the Hubble Catalog of Variables will be made available at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) and the ESA Science Archives. The variability detection pipeline will be implemented at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) so that updated versions of the HCV may be created following the future releases of the HSC.

  20. Fermi Large Area Telescope third source catalog

    DOE PAGES

    Acero, F.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; ...

    2015-06-12

    Here, we present the third Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) source catalog (3FGL) of sources in the 100 MeV–300 GeV range. Based on the first 4 yr of science data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope mission, it is the deepest yet in this energy range. Relative to the Second Fermi LAT catalog, the 3FGL catalog incorporates twice as much data, as well as a number of analysis improvements, including improved calibrations at the event reconstruction level, an updated model for Galactic diffuse γ-ray emission, a refined procedure for source detection, and improved methods for associating LAT sources with potential counterparts at other wavelengths. The 3FGL catalog includes 3033 sources abovemore » $$4\\sigma $$ significance, with source location regions, spectral properties, and monthly light curves for each. Of these, 78 are flagged as potentially being due to imperfections in the model for Galactic diffuse emission. Twenty-five sources are modeled explicitly as spatially extended, and overall 238 sources are considered as identified based on angular extent or correlated variability (periodic or otherwise) observed at other wavelengths. For 1010 sources we have not found plausible counterparts at other wavelengths. More than 1100 of the identified or associated sources are active galaxies of the blazar class; several other classes of non-blazar active galaxies are also represented in the 3FGL. Pulsars represent the largest Galactic source class. As a result, from source counts of Galactic sources we estimate that the contribution of unresolved sources to the Galactic diffuse emission is ~3% at 1 GeV.« less

  1. The Chandra Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, Ian; Primini, Francis A.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiang Qun (Helen); Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2009-09-01

    The first release of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) was published in 2009 March, and includes information about 94,676 X-ray sources detected in a subset of public ACIS imaging observations from roughly the first eight years of the Chandra mission. This release of the catalog includes point and compact sources with observed spatial extents <˜30''.The CSC is a general purpose virtual X-ray astrophysics facility that provides access to a carefully selected set of generally useful quantities for individual X-ray sources, and is designed to satisfy the needs of a broad-based group of scientists, including those who may be less familiar with astronomical data analysis in the X-ray regime.The catalog (1) provides access to the best estimates of the X-ray source properties for detected sources, with good scientific fidelity, and directly supports medium sophistication scientific analysis on using the individual source data; (2) facilitates analysis of a wide range of statistical properties for classes of X-ray sources; (3) provides efficient access to calibrated observational data and ancillary data products for individual X-ray sources, so that users can perform detailed further analysis using existing tools; and (4) includes real X-ray sources detected with flux significance greater than a predefined threshold, while maintaining the number of spurious sources at an acceptable level. For each detected X-ray source, the CSC provides commonly tabulated quantities, including source position, extent, multi-band fluxes, hardness ratios, and variability statistics, derived from the observations in which the source is detected. In addition to these traditional catalog elements, for each X-ray source the CSC includes an extensive set of file-based data products that can be manipulated interactively, including source images, event lists, light curves, and spectra from each observation in which a source is detected.

  2. Near-UV Sources in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: The Catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gardner, Jonathan P.; Voyrer, Elysse; de Mello, Duilia F.; Siana, Brian; Quirk, Cori; Teplitz, Harry I.

    2009-01-01

    The catalog from the first high resolution U-band image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, taken with Hubble s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 through the F300W filter, is presented. We detect 96 U-band objects and compare and combine this catalog with a Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) B-selected catalog that provides B, V, i, and z photometry, spectral types, and photometric redshifts. We have also obtained Far-Ultraviolet (FUV, 1614 Angstroms) data with Hubble s Advanced Camera for Surveys Solar Blind Channel (ACS/SBC) and with Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). We detected 31 sources with ACS/SBC, 28 with GALEX/FUV, and 45 with GALEX/NUV. The methods of observations, image processing, object identification, catalog preparation, and catalog matching are presented.

  3. AUTOCLASSIFICATION OF THE VARIABLE 3XMM SOURCES USING THE RANDOM FOREST MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHM

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Farrell, Sean A.; Murphy, Tara; Lo, Kitty K., E-mail: s.farrell@physics.usyd.edu.au

    In the current era of large surveys and massive data sets, autoclassification of astrophysical sources using intelligent algorithms is becoming increasingly important. In this paper we present the catalog of variable sources in the Third XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source catalog (3XMM) autoclassified using the Random Forest machine learning algorithm. We used a sample of manually classified variable sources from the second data release of the XMM-Newton catalogs (2XMMi-DR2) to train the classifier, obtaining an accuracy of ∼92%. We also evaluated the effectiveness of identifying spurious detections using a sample of spurious sources, achieving an accuracy of ∼95%. Manual investigation of amore » random sample of classified sources confirmed these accuracy levels and showed that the Random Forest machine learning algorithm is highly effective at automatically classifying 3XMM sources. Here we present the catalog of classified 3XMM variable sources. We also present three previously unidentified unusual sources that were flagged as outlier sources by the algorithm: a new candidate supergiant fast X-ray transient, a 400 s X-ray pulsar, and an eclipsing 5 hr binary system coincident with a known Cepheid.« less

  4. The first Fermi-LAT catalog of sources above 10 GeV

    DOE PAGES

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.; ...

    2013-11-14

    Here, we present a catalog of γ-ray sources at energies above 10 GeV based on data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) accumulated during the first 3 yr of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope mission. The first Fermi-LAT catalog of >10 GeV sources (1FHL) has 514 sources. For each source we present location, spectrum, a measure of variability, and associations with cataloged sources at other wavelengths. We found that 449 (87%) could be associated with known sources, of which 393 (76% of the 1FHL sources) are active galactic nuclei. Of the 27 sources associated with known pulsars, we find 20more » (12) to have significant pulsations in the range >10 GeV (>25 GeV). In this work we also report that, at energies above 10 GeV, unresolved sources account for 27% ± 8% of the isotropic γ-ray background, while the unresolved Galactic population contributes only at the few percent level to the Galactic diffuse background. We also highlight the subset of the 1FHL sources that are best candidates for detection at energies above 50-100 GeV with current and future ground-based γ-ray observatories.« less

  5. The First Fermi-LAT Catalog of Sources Above 10 GeV

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Moiseev, Alexander A.

    2013-01-01

    We present a catalog of gamma-ray sources at energies above 10 GeV based on data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) accumulated during the first 3 yr of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope mission. The first Fermi-LAT catalog of >10 GeV sources (1FHL) has 514 sources. For each source we present location, spectrum, a measure of variability, and associations with cataloged sources at other wavelengths. We found that 449 (87%) could be associated with known sources, of which 393 (76% of the 1FHL sources) are active galactic nuclei. Of the 27 sources associated with known pulsars, we find 20 (12) to have significant pulsations in the range >10 GeV (>25 GeV). In this work we also report that, at energies above 10 GeV, unresolved sources account for 27% +/- 8% of the isotropic ? -ray background, while the unresolved Galactic population contributes only at the few percent level to the Galactic diffuse background. We also highlight the subset of the 1FHL sources that are best candidates for detection at energies above 50-100 GeV with current and future ground-based ? -ray observatories.

  6. VizieR Online Data Catalog: VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project (Smolcic+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smolcic, V.; Novak, M.; Bondi, M.; Ciliegi, P.; Mooley, K. P.; Schinnerer, E.; Zamorani, G.; Navarrete, F.; Bourke, S.; Karim, A.; Vardoulaki, E.; Leslie, S.; Delhaize, J.; Carilli, C. L.; Myers, S. T.; Baran, N.; Delvecchio, I.; Miettinen, O.; Banfield, J.; Balokovic, M.; Bertoldi, F.; Capak, P.; Frail, D. A.; Hallinan, G.; Hao, H.; Herrera Ruiz, N.; Horesh, A.; Ilbert, O.; Intema, H.; Jelic, V.; Klockner, H.-R.; Krpan, J.; Kulkarni, S. R.; McCracken, H.; Laigle, C.; Middleberg, E.; Murphy, E.; Sargent, M.; Scoville, N. Z.; Sheth, K.

    2016-10-01

    The catalog contains sources selected down to a 5σ(σ~2.3uJy/beam) threshold. This catalog can be used for statistical analyses, accompanied with the corrections given in the data & catalog release paper. All completeness & bias corrections and source counts presented in the paper were calculated using this sample. The total fraction of spurious sources in the COSMOS 2 sq.deg. is below 2.7% within this catalog. However, an increase of spurious sources up to 24% at 5.0=5.5 for single component sources (MULTI=0). The total fraction of spurious sources in the COSMOS 2 sq.deg. within such a selected sample is below 0.4%, and the fraction of spurious sources is below 3% even at the lowest S/N (=5.5). Catalog Notes: 1. Maximum ID is 10966 although there are 10830 sources. Some IDs were removed by joining them into multi-component sources. 2. Peak surface brightness of sources [uJy/beam] is not reported, but can be obtained by multiplying SNR with RMS. 3. High NPIX usually indicates extended or very bright sources. 4. Reported positional errors on resolved and extended sources should be considered lower limits. 5. Multicomponent sources have errors and S/N column values set to -99.0 Additional data information: Catalog date: 21-Mar-2016 Source extractor: BLOBCAT v1.2 (http://blobcat.sourceforge.net/) Observations: 384 hours, VLA, S-band (2-4GHz), A+C array, 192 pointings Imaging software: CASA v4.2.2 (https://casa.nrao.edu/) Imaging algorithm: Multiscale multifrequency synthesis on single pointings Mosaic size: 30000x30000 pixels (3.3 GB) Pixel size: 0.2x0.2 arcsec2 Median rms noise in the COSMOS 2 sq.deg.: 2.3uJy/beam Beam is circular with FWHM=0.75 arcsec Bandwidth-smearing peak correction: 0% (no corrections applied) Resolved criteria: Sint/Speak>1+6*snr^(-1.44) Total area covered: 2.6 sq.deg. (1 data file).

  7. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes from cardiac progenitor cells: effects of selective ion channel blockade.

    PubMed

    Altomare, Claudia; Pianezzi, Enea; Cervio, Elisabetta; Bolis, Sara; Biemmi, Vanessa; Benzoni, Patrizia; Camici, Giovanni G; Moccetti, Tiziano; Barile, Lucio; Vassalli, Giuseppe

    2016-12-01

    Human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes are likely to revolutionize electrophysiological approaches to arrhythmias. Recent evidence suggests the somatic cell origin of hiPSCs may influence their differentiation potential. Owing to their cardiomyogenic potential, cardiac-stromal progenitor cells (CPCs) are an interesting cellular source for generation of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. The effect of ionic current blockade in hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes generated from CPCs has not been characterized yet. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes were generated from adult CPCs and skin fibroblasts from the same individuals. The effect of selective ionic current blockade on spontaneously beating hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes was assessed using multi-electrode arrays. Cardiac-stromal progenitor cells could be reprogrammed into hiPSCs, then differentiated into hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes of cardiac origin showed higher upregulation of cardiac-specific genes compared with those of fibroblastic origin. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes of both somatic cell origins exhibited sensitivity to tetrodotoxin, a blocker of Na +  current (I Na ), nifedipine, a blocker of L-type Ca 2+  current (I CaL ), and E4031, a blocker of the rapid component of delayed rectifier K +  current (I Kr ). Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes of cardiac origin exhibited sensitivity to JNJ303, a blocker of the slow component of delayed rectifier K +  current (I Ks ). In hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes of cardiac origin, I Na , I CaL , I Kr , and I Ks were present as tetrodotoxin-, nifedipine-, E4031-, and JNJ303-sensitive currents, respectively. Although cardiac differentiation efficiency was improved in hiPSCs of cardiac vs. non-cardiac origin, no major functional differences were observed between hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes of different somatic cell origins. Further studies are warranted to characterize electrophysiological properties of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes generated from CPCs. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2016. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  8. The BATSE Earth Occultation Catalog of Low Energy Gamma Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harmon, B. A.; WilsonHodge, C. A.; Fishman, G. J.; Paciesas, W.

    2002-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), provided a record of the hard X-ray/low energy gamma ray sky between April 1991 and June 2000. During that time, a catalog of known sources was derived from existing catalogs such as HEAO A-4, as well as new transient sources discovered with BATSE and other X-ray monitors operating in the CGRO era. The Earth Occultation Technique was used to monitor a combination of these sources, mostly galactic, totaling to about 175 objects. The catalog will present the global properties of these sources and their probability of detection (> 10 mCrab, 20-100 keV) with BATSE. Systematic errors due to unknown sources or background components are included. Cursory analyses to search for new transients (35-80 mCrab in the 20-100 keV band) and super-orbital periods in known binary sources are also presented. Whole mission light curves and associated data production/analysis tools are being delivered to the HEASARC for public use.

  9. The BATSE Earth Occultation Catalog of Low Energy Gamma-Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harmon, B. A.; Wilson-Hodge, C. A.; Fishman, G. J.; Paciesas, W. S.; Zhang, S. N.; Finger, M. H.; Connaughton, V.; Koshut, T. M.; Henze, W.; McCollough, M. L.

    2004-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE),aboard the COmptOn Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), provided a record of the hard X-ray/low energy gamma ray sky between April 1991 and June 2000. During that time, a catalog of known sources was derived from existing catalogs such as HEAO A-4 (Levine et al. 19841, as well as new transient sources discovered with RATSE and other X-ray monitors operating in the CGRO era. The Earth Occultation Technique (Harmon et al. 2001, astro-ph/0109069) was used to monitor a combination of these sources, mostly galactic, totaling about 175 objects. The catalog will present the global properties of these sources and their probability of detection (>lO mCrab, 20-100 keV) with BATSE. Systematic errors due to unknown sources or background components are included. Cursory analyses to search for new transients (35-80 mCrab in the 20-100 keV band) and super-orbital periods in known binary sources are also presented. Whole mission light curves and associated data production/analysis tools are being delivered to the HEASARC for public use.

  10. The Herschel-ATLAS Data Release 2. Paper II. Catalogs of Far-infrared and Submillimeter Sources in the Fields at the South and North Galactic Poles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maddox, S. J.; Valiante, E.; Cigan, P.; Dunne, L.; Eales, S.; Smith, M. W. L.; Dye, S.; Furlanetto, C.; Ibar, E.; de Zotti, G.; Millard, J. S.; Bourne, N.; Gomez, H. L.; Ivison, R. J.; Scott, D.; Valtchanov, I.

    2018-06-01

    The Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) is a survey of 660 deg2 with the PACS and SPIRE cameras in five photometric bands: 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm. This is the second of three papers describing the data release for the large fields at the south and north Galactic poles (NGP and SGP). In this paper we describe the catalogs of far-infrared and submillimeter sources for the NGP and SGP, which cover 177.1 deg2 and 303.4 deg2, respectively. The catalogs contain 118,908 sources for the NGP field and 193,527 sources for the SGP field detected at more than 4σ significance in any of the 250, 350, or 500 μm bands. The source detection is based on the 250 μm map, and we present photometry in all five bands for each source, including aperture photometry for sources known to be extended. The rms positional accuracy for the faintest sources is about 2.4 arcsec in both R.A. and decl. We present a statistical analysis of the catalogs and discuss the practical issues—completeness, reliability, flux boosting, accuracy of positions, accuracy of flux measurements—necessary to use the catalogs for astronomical projects.

  11. The Chandra Source Catalog 2.0: Interfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    D'Abrusco, Raffaele; Zografou, Panagoula; Tibbetts, Michael; Allen, Christopher E.; Anderson, Craig S.; Budynkiewicz, Jamie A.; Burke, Douglas; Chen, Judy C.; Civano, Francesca Maria; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Ian N.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Graessle, Dale E.; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; Houck, John C.; Lauer, Jennifer L.; Laurino, Omar; Lee, Nicholas P.; Martínez-Galarza, Rafael; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph; McLaughlin, Warren; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nguyen, Dan T.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Paxson, Charles; Plummer, David A.; Primini, Francis Anthony; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Van Stone, David W.

    2018-01-01

    Easy-to-use, powerful public interfaces to access the wealth of information contained in any modern, complex astronomical catalog are fundamental to encourage its usage. In this poster,I present the public interfaces of the second Chandra Source Catalog (CSC2). CSC2 is the most comprehensive catalog of X-ray sources detected by Chandra, thanks to the inclusion of Chandra observations public through the end of 2014 and to methodological advancements. CSC2 provides measured properties for a large number of sources that sample the X-ray sky at fainter levels than the previous versions of the CSC, thanks to the stacking of single overlapping observations within 1’ before source detection. Sources from stacks are then crossmatched, if multiple stacks cover the same area of the sky, to create a list of unique, optimal CSC2 sources. The properties of sources detected in each single stack and each single observation are also measured. The layered structure of the CSC2 catalog is mirrored in the organization of the CSC2 database, consisting of three tables containing all properties for the unique stacked sources (“Master Source”), single stack sources (“Stack Source”) and sources in any single observation (“Observation Source”). These tables contain estimates of the position, flags, extent, significances, fluxes, spectral properties and variability (and associated errors) for all classes of sources. The CSC2 also includes source region and full-field data products for all master sources, stack sources and observation sources: images, photon event lists, light curves and spectra.CSCview, the main interface to the CSC2 source properties and data products, is a GUI tool that allows to build queries based on the values of all properties contained in CSC2 tables, query the catalog, inspect the returned table of source properties, browse and download the associated data products. I will also introduce the suite of command-line interfaces to CSC2 that can be used in alternative to CSCview, and will present the concept for an additional planned cone-search web-based interface.This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center.

  12. Documentation for the machine-readable version of the revised Catalogue of Stellar Rotational Velocities of Uesugi and Fukuda (1982)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warren, W. H., Jr.

    1983-01-01

    The machine-readable catalog provides mean data on the old Slettebak system for 6472 stars. The catalog results from the review, analysis and transformation of 11460 data from 102 sources. Star identification, (major catalog number, name if the star has one, or cluster identification, etc.), a man projected rotational velocity, and a list of source references re included. The references are given in a second file included with the catalog when it is distributed on magnetic tape. The contents and/formats of the the data and reference files of the machine-readable catalog are described to enable users to read and process the data.

  13. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Fermi LAT second source catalog (2FGL) (Nolan+, 2012)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nolan, P. L.; Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.; Antolini, E.; Atwood, W. B.; Axelsson, M.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Belfiore, A.; Bellazzini, R.; Berenji, B.; Bignami, G. F.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonamente, E.; Bonnell, J.; Borgland, A. W.; Bottacini, E.; Bouvier, A.; Brandt, T. J.; Bregeon, J.; Brigida, M.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Burnett, T. H.; Buson, S.; Caliandro, G. A.; Cameron, R. A.; Campana, R.; Canadas, B.; Cannon, A.; Caraveo, P. A.; Casandjian, J. M.; Cavazzuti, E.; Ceccanti, M.; Cecchi, C.; Celik, O.; Charles, E.; Chekhtman, A.; Cheung, C. C.; Chiang, J.; Chipaux, R.; Ciprini, S.; Claus, R.; Cohen-Tanugi, J.; Cominsky, L. R.; Conrad, J.; Corbet, R.; Cutini, S.; D'Ammando, F.; Davis, D. S.; de Angelis, A.; Decesar, M. E.; Deklotz, M.; de Luca A.; den Hartog, P. R.; de Palma, F.; Dermer, C. D.; Digel, S. W.; Do Couto, E. Silva E.; Drell, P. S.; Drlica-Wagner, A.; Dubois, R.; Dumora, D.; Enoto, T.; Escande, L.; Fabiani, D.; Falletti, L.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Ferrara, E. C.; Focke, W. B.; Fortin, P.; Frailis, M.; Fukazawa, Y.; Funk, S.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Gehrels, N.; Germani, S.; Giebels, B.; Giglietto, N.; Giommi, P.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Godfrey, G.; Grenier, I. A.; Grondin, M.-H.; Grove, J. E.; Guillemot, L.; Guiriec, S.; Gustafsson, M.; Hadasch, D.; Hanabata, Y.; Harding, A. K.; Hayashida, M.; Hays, E.; Hill, A. B.; Horan, D.; Hou, X.; Hughes, R. E.; Iafrate, G.; Itoh, R.; Johannesson, G.; Johnson, R. P.; Johnson, T. E.; Johnson, A. S.; Johnson, T. J.; Kamae, T.; Katagiri, H.; Kataoka, J.; Katsuta, J.; Kawai, N.; Kerr, M.; Knodlseder, J.; Kocevski, D.; Kuss, M.; Lande, J.; Landriu, D.; Latronico, L.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Lionetto, A. M.; Llena Garde, M.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lott, B.; Lovellette, M. N.; Lubrano, P.; Madejski, G. M.; Marelli, M.; Massaro, E.; Mazziotta, M. N.; McConville, W.; McEnery, J. E.; Mehault, J.; Michelson, P. F.; Minuti, M.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Moiseev, A. A.; Mongelli, M.; Monte, C.; Monzani, M. E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Murgia, S.; Nakamori, T.; Naumann-God, O. M.; Norris, J. P.; Nuss, E.; Nymark, T.; Ohno, M.; Ohsugi, T.; Okumura, A.; Omodei, N.; Orlando, E.; Ormes, J. F.; Ozaki, M.; Paneque, D.; Panetta, J. H.; Parent, D.; Perkins, J. S.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Pierbattista, M.; Pinchera, M.; Piron, F.; Pivato, G.; Porter, T. A.; Racusin, J. L.; Raino, S.; Rando, R.; Razzano, M.; Razzaque, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Reposeur, T.; Ritz, S.; Rochester, L. S.; Romani, R. W.; Roth, M.; Rousseau, R.; Ryde, F.; Sadrozinski, H. F.-W.; Salvetti, D.; Sanchez, D. A.; Saz Parkinson, P. M.; Sbarra, C.; Scargle, J. D.; Schalk, T. L.; Sgro, C.; Shaw, M. S.; Shrader, C.; Siskind, E. J.; Smith, D. A.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Stephens, T. E.; Strickman, M. S.; Suson, D. J.; Tajima, H.; Takahashi, H.; Takahashi, T.; Tanaka, T.; Thayer, J. G.; Thayer, J. B.; Thompson, D. J.; Tibaldo, L.; Tibolla, O.; Tinebra, F.; Tinivella, M.; Torres, D. F.; Tosti, G.; Troja, E.; Uchiyama, Y.; Vandenbroucke, J.; van Etten, A.; van Klaveren, B.; Vasileiou, V.; Vianello, G.; Vitale, V.; Waite, A. P.; Wallace, E.; Wang, P.; Werner, M.; Winer, B. L.; Wood, D. L.; Wood, K. S.; Wood, M.; Yang, Z.; Zimmer, S.

    2012-06-01

    This paper presents a catalog of high-energy γ-ray sources detected, in the 100MeV-100GeV energy range, in the first two years of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope mission by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), during the period 2008 August 4 (15:43 UTC)-2010 August 1 (01:17 UTC). (4 data files).

  14. Human induced pluripotent stem cell line with cytochrome P450 enzyme polymorphism (CYP2C19*2/CYP3A5*3C) generated from lymphoblastoid cells.

    PubMed

    Lee, Jaehun; Woo, Dong-Hun; Park, Han-Jin; Park, Kijung; Ko, Duck Sung; Kim, Jong-Hoon

    2018-03-01

    Cytochrome P450 (CYP) comprises a superfamily of monooxygenase responsible for the metabolism of xenobiotics and approximately 75% of drugs in use today. Thus, genetic polymorphisms in CYP genes contribute to interindividual differences in hepatic metabolism of drugs, affecting on individual drug efficacy and may cause adverse effects. Here, we generated a human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line with pharmacologically important traits (CYP2C19*2/CYP3A5*3C), which are highly polymorphic in Asian from lymphoblastoid cells. This hiPSC line could be a valuable source for predicting individual drug responses in the drug screening process that uses hiPSC-derived somatic cells, including hepatocytes. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. X chromosome inactivation in human pluripotent stem cells as a model for human development: back to the drawing board?

    PubMed

    Geens, Mieke; Chuva De Sousa Lopes, Susana M

    2017-09-01

    Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC), both embryonic and induced (hESC and hiPSC), are regarded as a valuable in vitro model for early human development. In order to fulfil this promise, it is important that these cells mimic as closely as possible the in vivo molecular events, both at the genetic and epigenetic level. One of the most important epigenetic events during early human development is X chromosome inactivation (XCI), the transcriptional silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in female cells. XCI is important for proper development and aberrant XCI has been linked to several pathologies. Recently, novel data obtained using high throughput single-cell technology during human preimplantation development have suggested that the XCI mechanism is substantially different from XCI in mouse. It has also been suggested that hPSC show higher complexity in XCI than the mouse. Here we compare the available recent data to understand whether XCI during human preimplantation can be properly recapitulated using hPSC. We will summarize what is known on the timing and mechanisms of XCI during human preimplantation development. We will compare this to the XCI patterns that are observed during hPSC derivation, culture and differentiation, and comment on the cause of the aberrant XCI patterns observed in hPSC. Finally, we will discuss the implications of the aberrant XCI patterns on the applicability of hPSC as an in vitro model for human development and as cell source for regenerative medicine. Combinations of the following keywords were applied as search criteria in the PubMed database: X chromosome inactivation, preimplantation development, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, primordial germ cells, differentiation. Recent single-cell RNASeq data have shed new light on the XCI process during human preimplantation development. These indicate a gradual inactivation on both XX chromosomes, starting from Day 4 of development and followed by a random choice to inactivate one of them, instead of the mechanism in mice where imprinted XCI is followed by random XCI. We have put these new findings in perspective using previous data obtained in human (and mouse) embryos. In addition, there is an ongoing discussion whether or not hPSC lines show X chromosome reactivation upon derivation, mimicking the earliest embryonic cells, and the XCI states observed during culture of hPSC are highly variable. Recent studies have shown that hPSC rapidly progress to highly aberrant XCI patterns and that this process is probably driven by suboptimal culture conditions. Importantly, these aberrant XCI states seem to be inherited by the differentiated hPSC-progeny. The aberrant XCI states (and epigenetic instability) observed in hPSC throw a shadow on their applicability as an in vitro model for development and disease modelling. Moreover, as the aberrant XCI states observed in hPSC seem to shift to a more malignant phenotype, this may also have important consequences for the safety aspect of using hPSC in the clinic. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  16. Anti-aging effects of vitamin C on human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.

    PubMed

    Kim, Yoon Young; Ku, Seung-Yup; Huh, Yul; Liu, Hung-Ching; Kim, Seok Hyun; Choi, Young Min; Moon, Shin Yong

    2013-10-01

    Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have arisen as a source of cells for biomedical research due to their developmental potential. Stem cells possess the promise of providing clinicians with novel treatments for disease as well as allowing researchers to generate human-specific cellular metabolism models. Aging is a natural process of living organisms, yet aging in human heart cells is difficult to study due to the ethical considerations regarding human experimentation as well as a current lack of alternative experimental models. hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) bear a resemblance to human cardiac cells and thus hPSC-derived CMs are considered to be a viable alternative model to study human heart cell aging. In this study, we used hPSC-derived CMs as an in vitro aging model. We generated cardiomyocytes from hPSCs and demonstrated the process of aging in both human embryonic stem cell (hESC)- and induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived CMs. Aging in hESC-derived CMs correlated with reduced membrane potential in mitochondria, the accumulation of lipofuscin, a slower beating pattern, and the downregulation of human telomerase RNA (hTR) and cell cycle regulating genes. Interestingly, the expression of hTR in hiPSC-derived CMs was not significantly downregulated, unlike in hESC-derived CMs. In order to delay aging, vitamin C was added to the cultured CMs. When cells were treated with 100 μM of vitamin C for 48 h, anti-aging effects, specifically on the expression of telomere-related genes and their functionality in aging cells, were observed. Taken together, these results suggest that hPSC-derived CMs can be used as a unique human cardiomyocyte aging model in vitro and that vitamin C shows anti-aging effects in this model.

  17. MAXI/GSC 7-year Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ueda, Y.; Kawamuro, T.; Hori, T.; Shidatsu, M.; Tanimoto, A.; MAXI Team

    2017-10-01

    Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) on the International Space Station has been continuously observing the X-ray sky since its launch in 2009. The MAXI survey has achieved the best sensitivity in the 4-10 keV band as an all sky X-ray mission, and is complementary to the ROSAT all sky survey (<2 keV) and hard X-ray (>10 keV) surveys performed with Swift and INTEGRAL. Here we present the latest source catalog of MAXI/Gas Slit Camera (GSC) constructed from the first 7-year data, which is an extension of the 37-month catalog of the high Galactic-latitude sky (Hiroi et al. 2013). We summarize statistical properties of the X-ray sources and results of cross identification with other catalogs.

  18. Patient-Specific Pluripotent Stem Cells in Neurological Diseases

    PubMed Central

    Durnaoglu, Serpen; Genc, Sermin; Genc, Kursad

    2011-01-01

    Many human neurological diseases are not currently curable and result in devastating neurologic sequelae. The increasing availability of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from adult human somatic cells provides new prospects for cellreplacement strategies and disease-related basic research in a broad spectrum of human neurologic diseases. Patient-specific iPSC-based modeling of neurogenetic and neurodegenerative diseases is an emerging efficient tool for in vitro modeling to understand disease and to screen for genes and drugs that modify the disease process. With the exponential increase in iPSC research in recent years, human iPSCs have been successfully derived with different technologies and from various cell types. Although there remain a great deal to learn about patient-specific iPSC safety, the reprogramming mechanisms, better ways to direct a specific reprogramming, ideal cell source for cellular grafts, and the mechanisms by which transplanted stem cells lead to an enhanced functional recovery and structural reorganization, the discovery of the therapeutic potential of iPSCs offers new opportunities for the treatment of incurable neurologic diseases. However, iPSC-based therapeutic strategies need to be thoroughly evaluated in preclinical animal models of neurological diseases before they can be applied in a clinical setting. PMID:21776279

  19. Cross-Matching Source Observations from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Laher, Russ; Grillmair, C.; Surace, J.; Monkewitz, S.; Jackson, E.

    2009-01-01

    Over the four-year lifetime of the PTF project, approximately 40 billion instances of astronomical-source observations will be extracted from the image data. The instances will correspond to the same astronomical objects being observed at roughly 25-50 different times, and so a very large catalog containing important object-variability information will be the chief PTF product. Organizing astronomical-source catalogs is conventionally done by dividing the catalog into declination zones and sorting by right ascension within each zone (e.g., the USNOA star catalog), in order to facilitate catalog searches. This method was reincarnated as the "zones" algorithm in a SQL-Server database implementation (Szalay et al., MSR-TR-2004-32), with corrections given by Gray et al. (MSR-TR-2006-52). The primary advantage of this implementation is that all of the work is done entirely on the database server and client/server communication is eliminated. We implemented the methods outlined in Gray et al. for a PostgreSQL database. We programmed the methods as database functions in PL/pgSQL procedural language. The cross-matching is currently based on source positions, but we intend to extend it to use both positions and positional uncertainties to form a chi-square statistic for optimal thresholding. The database design includes three main tables, plus a handful of internal tables. The Sources table stores the SExtractor source extractions taken at various times; the MergedSources table stores statistics about the astronomical objects, which are the result of cross-matching records in the Sources table; and the Merges table, which associates cross-matched primary keys in the Sources table with primary keys in the MergedSoures table. Besides judicious database indexing, we have also internally partitioned the Sources table by declination zone, in order to speed up the population of Sources records and make the database more manageable. The catalog will be accessible to the public after the proprietary period through IRSA (irsa.ipac.caltech.edu).

  20. 48 CFR 8.703 - Procurement list.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... Administration (GSA) Supply Catalog and GSA's Customer Service Center Catalogs with a black square and the words “NIB/NISH Mandatory Source,” and in similar catalogs issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and...

  1. 48 CFR 8.703 - Procurement list.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... Administration (GSA) Supply Catalog and GSA's Customer Service Center Catalogs with a black square and the words “NIB/NISH Mandatory Source,” and in similar catalogs issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and...

  2. A PUBLIC, K-SELECTED, OPTICAL-TO-NEAR-INFRARED CATALOG OF THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH (ECDFS) FROM THE MULTIWAVELENGTH SURVEY BY YALE-CHILE (MUSYC)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Taylor, Edward N.; Franx, Marijn; Quadri, Ryan F.

    2009-08-01

    We present a new, K-selected, optical-to-near infrared photometric catalog of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS), making it publicly available to the astronomical community.{sup 22}Imaging and spectroscopy data and catalogs are freely available through the MUSYC Public Data Release webpage: http://www.astro.yale.edu/MUSYC/. The data set is founded on publicly available imaging, supplemented by original z'JK imaging data collected as part of the MUltiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC). The final photometric catalog consists of photometry derived from UU {sub 38} BVRIz'JK imaging covering the full 1/2 x 1/2 square circ of the ECDFS, plus H-band photometry for approximately 80% of themore » field. The 5{sigma} flux limit for point sources is K{sup (AB)}{sub tot}= 22.0. This is also the nominal completeness and reliability limit of the catalog: the empirical completeness for 21.75 < K < 22.00 is {approx}>85%. We have verified the quality of the catalog through both internal consistency checks, and comparisons to other existing and publicly available catalogs. As well as the photometric catalog, we also present catalogs of photometric redshifts and rest-frame photometry derived from the 10-band photometry. We have collected robust spectroscopic redshift determinations from published sources for 1966 galaxies in the catalog. Based on these sources, we have achieved a (1{sigma}) photometric redshift accuracy of {delta}z/(1 + z) = 0.036, with an outlier fraction of 7.8%. Most of these outliers are X-ray sources. Finally, we describe and release a utility for interpolating rest-frame photometry from observed spectral energy distributions, dubbed InterRest.{sup 23}InterRest is available via http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/{approx}ent/InterRest. Documentation and a complete walkthrough can be found at the same address.« less

  3. Infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS) catalogs and atlases. Volume 2: The point source catalog declination range 90 deg greater than delta greater than 30 deg

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched January 26, 1983. During its 300-day mission, IRAS surveyed 96 pct of the celestial sphere at four infrared wavelengths, centered approximately at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. This is Volume 2, The Point Source Catalog Declination Range 90 deg greater than delta greater than 30 deg.

  4. A Catalog of MIPSGAL Disk and Ring Sources

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-04-01

    average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and...California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 14. ABSTRACT We present a catalog of 416 extended, resolved , disk and ringlike objects as... Satellite sources. Among the identified objects, those with central sources are mostly listed as emission-line stars, but with other source types including

  5. VizieR Online Data Catalog: SFiNCs: X-ray, IR and membership catalogs (Getman+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Getman, K. V.; Broos, P. S.; Kuhn, M. A.; Feigelson, E. D.; Richert, A. J. W.; Ota, Y.; Bate, M. R.; Garmire, G. P.

    2017-06-01

    Sixty five X-ray observations for the 22 Star Formation in Nearby Clouds (SFiNCs) star-forming regions (SFRs) (see tables 1 and 2), made with the imaging array on the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), were pulled from the Chandra archive (spanning 2000 Jan to 2015 Apr; see table 2). Our final Chandra-ACIS catalog for the 22 SFiNCs SFRs comprises 15364 X-ray sources (Tables 3 and 4 and section 3.2). To obtain MIR photometry for X-ray objects and to identify and measure MIR photometry for additional non-Chandra disky stars that were missed in previous studies of the SFiNCs regions (typically faint YSOs), we have reduced the archived Spitzer-IRAC data by homogeneously applying the MYStIX-based Spitzer-IRAC data reduction methods of Kuhn+ (2013, J/ApJS/209/29) to the 423 Astronomical Object Request (AORs) data sets for the 22 SFiNCs SFRs (Table 5). As in MYStIX, here the SFiNCs IRAC source catalog retains all point sources with the photometric signal-to-noise ratio >5 in both [3.6] and [4.5] channels. This catalog covers the 22 SFiNCs SFRs and their vicinities on the sky and comprises 1638654 IRAC sources with available photometric measurements for 100%, 100%, 29%, and 23% of these sources in the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0um bands, respectively (see table 6 and section 3.4). Source position cross correlations between the SFiNCs Chandra X-ray source catalog and an IR catalog, either the "cut-out" IRAC or 2MASS, were made using the steps described in section 3.5. Tables 7 and 8 provide the list of 8492 SFiNCs probable cluster members (SPCMs) and their main IR and X-ray properties (see section 4). (9 data files).

  6. Restoration of pseudo-self-compatibility (PSC) in derivatives of a high-PSC × no-PSC cross in Nemesia strumosa Benth.

    PubMed

    Robacker, C D; Ascher, P D

    1978-05-01

    Mean PSC increased following each generation of recurrent selection in F1, F2 and F3 Nemesia strumosa families derived from a cross of a 100% PSC plant to an unrelated 0% PSC plant. The first 100% PSC individuals occurred in the F4. Populations derived through sib pollination tended to have higher PSC means than lines derived through self pollination. One F3 family showed a three-fold higher PSC level when pollinated in the green-house than when pollinated in the growth chamber, while another F3 family similarly pollinated showed no change in PSC.

  7. The Chandra Source Catalog 2.0: Building The Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grier, John D.; Plummer, David A.; Allen, Christopher E.; Anderson, Craig S.; Budynkiewicz, Jamie A.; Burke, Douglas; Chen, Judy C.; Civano, Francesca Maria; D'Abrusco, Raffaele; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Ian N.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Graessle, Dale E.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; Houck, John C.; Lauer, Jennifer L.; Laurino, Omar; Lee, Nicholas P.; Martínez-Galarza, Juan Rafael; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph; McLaughlin, Warren; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nguyen, Dan T.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Paxson, Charles; Primini, Francis Anthony; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael; Van Stone, David W.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2018-01-01

    To build release 2.0 of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC2), we require scientific software tools and processing pipelines to evaluate and analyze the data. Additionally, software and hardware infrastructure is needed to coordinate and distribute pipeline execution, manage data i/o, and handle data for Quality Assurance (QA) intervention. We also provide data product staging for archive ingestion.Release 2 utilizes a database driven system used for integration and production. Included are four distinct instances of the Automatic Processing (AP) system (Source Detection, Master Match, Source Properties and Convex Hulls) and a high performance computing (HPC) cluster that is managed to provide efficient catalog processing. In this poster we highlight the internal systems developed to meet the CSC2 challenge.This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center.

  8. 50 CFR Table 35 to Part 679 - Apportionment of Crab PSC and Halibut PSC Between the Amendment 80 and BSAI Trawl Limited Access...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 35 to Part 679—Apportionment of Crab PSC and Halibut PSC Between the Amendment 80 and BSAI Trawl Limited Access Sectors Fishery Year Halibut PSC limit in the BSAI Zone 1 Red king crab PSC limit . . . C... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 11 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Apportionment of Crab PSC and Halibut PSC...

  9. 50 CFR Table 35 to Part 679 - Apportionment of Crab PSC and Halibut PSC Between the Amendment 80 and BSAI Trawl Limited Access...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 35 to Part 679—Apportionment of Crab PSC and Halibut PSC Between the Amendment 80 and BSAI Trawl Limited Access Sectors Fishery Year Halibut PSC limit in the BSAI Zone 1 Red king crab PSC limit . . . C... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Apportionment of Crab PSC and Halibut PSC...

  10. Somatic cell reprogramming informed by the oocyte.

    PubMed

    Gonzalez-Munoz, Elena; Cibelli, Jose B

    2018-05-08

    The successful production of animals and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has demonstrated the unmatched nuclear reprogramming capacity of the oocyte and helped prove the degree of plasticity of differentiated cells. The introduction of transcription factors to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) displaced SCNT and, due to its ease of implementation, became the method of choice for cell reprogramming. Nonetheless, iPSC derivation remains inefficient and stochastic. This review article focuses on using the oocyte as a source of reprogramming factors, comparing the SCNT and iPSC mechanisms for remodeling chromatin and acquiring pluripotency.

  11. The BATSE Earth Occultation Catalog of Low Energy Gamma Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harmon, B. A.; Wilson-Hodge, C. A.; Fishman, G. J.; Paciesas, W. S.; Zhang, S. N.; Finger, M. H.; Connaughton, V.; Koshut, T. M.; Henze, W.; McCollough, M. L.; hide

    2002-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), provided a record of the hard X-ray/low energy gamma ray sky between April 1991 and June 2000. During that time, a catalog of known sources was derived from existing catalogs such as HEAO A-4 (Levine et al. 1984), as well as new transient sources discovered with BATSE and other X-ray monitors operating in the CGRO era. The Earth Occultation Technique (Harmon et al. 2001, astro-ph/0109069) was used to monitor a combination of these sources, mostly galactic, totaling to about 175 objects. The catalog will present the global properties of these sources and their probability of detection (greater than 10 mCrab, 20-100 keV) with BATSE. Systematic errors due to unknown sources or background components are included. Cursory analyses to search for new transients (35-80 mCrab in the 20-100 keV band) and super-orbital periods in known binary sources are also presented. Whole mission light curves and associated data production/analysis tools are being delivered to the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) for public use.

  12. The new energy management policy: Indonesian PSC-gross-split applied on steam flooding project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Irham, S.; Julyus, P.

    2018-01-01

    “SIPY” oil field has been producing oil using steam flooding technology since 1992 under the PSC-Cost-Recovery policy. In 2021, the contract will be finished, and a new agreement must be submitted to the Indonesian government. There are two applied fiscal policies on oil and gas management: PSC-Cost-Recovery and PSC-Gross-Split (introduced in 2017 as the new energy management plan). The contractor must choose between PSC-Cost-Recovery and PSC-Gross-split which makes more profit. The aim of this research is to determine the best oil and gas contract policy for the contractor. The methods are calculating contractor cash flow and comparing the Profitability Indexes. The results of this study are (1) Net Present Values for the PSC-Cost-Recovery and the PSC-Gross-Split are 15 MMUS and 61 MMUS, respectively; and (2) Internal Rate of Return values for the PSC-Cost-Recovery and PSC-Gross-Split are 10% and 11%, respectively. The conclusion is that the Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return of PSC-Gross-Split are greater than those of PSC-Cost-Recovery, but in Pay Out Time of PSC-Gross-split is longer than Pay Out Time in PSC-Cost-Recovery. Thus, the new energy management policy will be more attractive than PSC-Cost-Recovery.

  13. Infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS) catalogs and atlases. Volume 4: The point source catalog declination range 0 deg greater than delta greater than -30 deg

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched 26 January 1983. During its 300-day mission, it surveyed over 96 pct of the celestial sphere at four infrared wavelengths, centered approximately at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. This is Volume 4, The Point Source Catalog Declination Range 0 deg greater than delta greater than -30 deg.

  14. Infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS) catalogs and atlases. Volume 3: The point source catalog declination range 30 deg greater than delta greater than 0 deg

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched January 26, 1983. During its 300-day mission, IRAS surveyed over 96 pct of the celestial sphere at four infrared wavelengths, centered approximately at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. This is Volume 3, The Point Source Catalog Declination Range 30 deg greater than delta greater than 0 deg.

  15. Infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS) catalogs and atlases. Volume 6: The point source catalog declination range -50 deg greater than delta greater than -90 deg

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched January 26, 1983. During its 300-day mission, it surveyed over 96 pct of the celestial sphere at four infrared wavelengths, centered approximately at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. This is Volume 6, The Point Source Catalog Declination Range -50 deg greater than delta greater than -90 deg.

  16. Infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS) catalogs and atlases. Volume 5: The point source catalog declination range -30 deg greater than delta greater than -50 deg

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched January 26, 1983. During its 300-day mission, IRAS surveyed over 96 pct of the celestial sphere at four infrared wavelengths, centered approximately at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. This is Volume 5, The Point Source Catalog Declination Range -30 deg greater than delta greater than -50 deg.

  17. VizieR Online Data Catalog: ASC Gaia Attitude Star Catalog (Smart, 2015)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smart, R. L.

    2015-04-01

    The ASC is a compilation produced for the Gaia mission. We have combined data from the following catalogs or datasets to produce a homogenous list of positions, proper motions, photometry in a blue and red band and estimates of the magnitudes in the Gaia G and G_RVS bands: Tycho2, UCAC4, Hipparcos, PPMXL, GSC2.3 and Sky2000. Originally ASC sources were selected from the Initial Gaia Source List (IGSL, I/324). However, here we produce a cleaner catalog starting from the bright source catalogs and using the following criteria: 1) The candidate must be in the Tycho2, UCAC4, Hipparcos or Sky2000 catalog. 2) The Gaia G magnitude must be brighter than 13.4. 3) The star must be isolated from other objects of similar magnitudes 4) The object must not be in the Washington Double Star catalog 5) If a healpix 6th region has more than 1000 objects the magnitude limit is reduced to reduce the number of objects in that region. Since the ASC was produced independently from the IGSL using different procedures there is not a direct 1 to 1 match between ASC and IGSL entries. We have matched the ASC to the IGSL and found that 9 out of the 8 million entries do not have a clear match. Since there may still remain ambiguous matches in the 8 million matched objects, we decided to assign the sourceIDs of the IGSL with the adjustment that the runningnumber is equal to the IGSL runningnumber + 320000. Included Catalogs: Tycho2, UCAC4, Sky2000, HIPPARCOS for candidates and the PPMXL, GSC2.3 were used to calculating magnitudes. (2 data files).

  18. The WISE AGN Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Assef, R. J.; Stern, D.; Noirot, G.; Jun, H. D.; Cutri, R. M.; Eisenhardt, P. R. M.

    2018-02-01

    We present two large catalogs of active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates identified across 30,093 deg2 of extragalactic sky from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer’s AllWISE Data Release. Both catalogs are selected purely using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) W1 and W2 bands. The R90 catalog consists of 4,543,530 AGN candidates with 90% reliability, while the C75 catalog consists of 20,907,127 AGN candidates with 75% completeness. These reliability and completeness figures were determined from a detailed analysis of UV- to near-IR spectral energy distributions of ∼ {10}5 sources in the 9 deg2 Boötes field. The AGN selection criteria are based on those of Assef et al. (2013) recalibrated to the AllWISE data release. We provide a detailed discussion of potential artifacts and excise portions of the sky close to the Galactic Center, Galactic Plane, nearby galaxies, and other expected contaminating sources. These catalogs are expected to enable a broad range of science, and we present a few illustrative cases. From the R90 sample, we identify 45 highly variable AGNs lacking radio counterparts in the FIRST survey. One of these sources, WISEA J142846.71+172353.1, is a changing-look quasar at z = 0.104, which has changed from having broad Hα to being a narrow-lined AGN. We characterize our catalogs by comparing them to large, wide-area AGN catalogs in the literature. We identify four ROSAT X-ray sources that are each matched to three WISE-selected AGNs in the R90 sample within 30″. Spectroscopy reveals that one of these systems, 2RXS J150158.6+691029, consists of a triplet of quasars at z = 1.133 ± 0.004, suggestive of a rich group or forming galaxy cluster.

  19. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gwyn, Stephen D. J., E-mail: Stephen.Gwyn@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

    This paper describes the image stacks and catalogs of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey produced using the MegaPipe data pipeline at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre. The Legacy Survey is divided into two parts. The Deep Survey consists of four fields each of 1 deg{sup 2}, with magnitude limits (50% completeness for point sources) of u = 27.5, g = 27.9, r = 27.7, i = 27.4, and z = 26.2. It contains 1.6 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 6} sources. The Wide Survey consists of 150 deg{sup 2} split over four fields, with magnitude limits of u = 26.0, g = 26.5,more » r = 25.9, i = 25.7, and z = 24.6. It contains 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 7} sources. This paper describes the calibration, image stacking, and catalog generation process. The images and catalogs are available on the web through several interfaces: normal image and text file catalog downloads, a 'Google Sky' interface, an image cutout service, and a catalog database query service.« less

  20. The First Data Release of the All-sky NOAO Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nidever, David L.; NOAO Data Lab

    2018-06-01

    Roughly three quarters of the sky has been imaged with NOAO's telescopes from both hemispheres. While the large majority of these data were obtained for PI-led projects and surveys only a fraction have been released to the community via well-calibrated and easily accessible catalogs. We have remedied this by creating a catalog of sources from most of the public data taken on CTIO-4m+DECam as well as KPNO 4m+Mosaic3. The first data release (DR1) of this catalog, called the NOAO Source Catalog (NSC), contains 2.9 billion unique objects, 34 billion individual measurements, covers ~30,000 square degrees, has depths of ~23rd magnitude in most broadband filters with ~1-2% photometric accuracy and astrometric accuracy of ~2 mas. The NSC will be useful for exploring stellar streams, dwarf satellite galaxies, distant galaxies as well as variable stars and other transients. DR1 is now available through the NOAO Data Lab (datalab.noao.edu).

  1. Recombinant PrPSc shares structural features with brain-derived PrPSc: Insights from limited proteolysis.

    PubMed

    Sevillano, Alejandro M; Fernández-Borges, Natalia; Younas, Neelam; Wang, Fei; R Elezgarai, Saioa; Bravo, Susana; Vázquez-Fernández, Ester; Rosa, Isaac; Eraña, Hasier; Gil, David; Veiga, Sonia; Vidal, Enric; Erickson-Beltran, Melissa L; Guitián, Esteban; Silva, Christopher J; Nonno, Romolo; Ma, Jiyan; Castilla, Joaquín; R Requena, Jesús

    2018-01-01

    Very solid evidence suggests that the core of full length PrPSc is a 4-rung β-solenoid, and that individual PrPSc subunits stack to form amyloid fibers. We recently used limited proteolysis to map the β-strands and connecting loops that make up the PrPSc solenoid. Using high resolution SDS-PAGE followed by epitope analysis, and mass spectrometry, we identified positions ~116/118, 133-134, 141, 152-153, 162, 169 and 179 (murine numbering) as Proteinase K (PK) cleavage sites in PrPSc. Such sites likely define loops and/or borders of β-strands, helping us to predict the threading of the β-solenoid. We have now extended this approach to recombinant PrPSc (recPrPSc). The term recPrPSc refers to bona fide recombinant prions prepared by PMCA, exhibiting infectivity with attack rates of ~100%. Limited proteolysis of mouse and bank vole recPrPSc species yielded N-terminally truncated PK-resistant fragments similar to those seen in brain-derived PrPSc, albeit with varying relative yields. Along with these fragments, doubly N- and C-terminally truncated fragments, in particular ~89/97-152, were detected in some recPrPSc preparations; similar fragments are characteristic of atypical strains of brain-derived PrPSc. Our results suggest a shared architecture of recPrPSc and brain PrPSc prions. The observed differences, in particular the distinct yields of specific PK-resistant fragments, are likely due to differences in threading which result in the specific biochemical characteristics of recPrPSc. Furthermore, recombinant PrPSc offers exciting opportunities for structural studies unachievable with brain-derived PrPSc.

  2. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Massaro, F.; D’Abrusco, R.; Paggi, A.

    The Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) First Source Catalog (1FGL) was released in 2010 February and the Fermi-LAT 2-Year Source Catalog (2FGL) appeared in 2012 April, based on data from 24 months of operation. Since they were released, many follow up observations of unidentified γ-ray sources have been performed and new procedures for associating γ-ray sources with potential counterparts at other wavelengths have been developed. Here we review and characterize all of the associations as published in the 1FGL and 2FGL catalogs on the basis of multifrequency archival observations. In particular, we located 177 spectra for the low-energy counterparts that weremore » not listed in the previous Fermi catalogs, and in addition we present new spectroscopic observations of eight γ-ray blazar candidates. Based on our investigations, we introduce a new counterpart category of “candidate associations” and propose a refined classification for the candidate low-energy counterparts of the Fermi sources. We compare the 1FGL-assigned counterparts with those listed in 2FGL to determine which unassociated sources became associated in later releases of the Fermi catalogs. We also search for potential counterparts to all of the remaining unassociated Fermi sources. Finally, we prepare a refined and merged list of all of the associations of 1FGL plus 2FGL that includes 2219 unique Fermi objects. This is the most comprehensive and systematic study of all the associations collected for the γ-ray sources available to date. We conclude that 80% of the Fermi sources have at least one known plausible γ-ray emitter within their positional uncertainty regions.« less

  3. VizieR Online Data Catalog: IR photometry of AGNs in Swift/BAT 70 month cat. (Ichikawa+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ichikawa, K.; Ricci, C.; Ueda, Y.; Matsuoka, K.; Toba, Y.; Kawamuro, T.; Trakhtenbrot, B.; Koss, M. J.

    2017-08-01

    Our initial sample contains the 834 AGNs reported in the 70 month Swift/BAT catalog (Baumgartner+ 2013, J/ApJS/207/19), 105 of which are blazars. Of the remaining 729 sources, 697 sources have secure redshift information as presented in Ricci et al. (2016, ApJ, submitted). Next, we removed galaxy pairs or interacting galaxies not resolved in the BAT survey. Further, the 606 sources located at higher galactic latitudes with |b|>10° were selected to reduce the contamination in the crowded region through IR catalog matching. (1 data file).

  4. Transient activation of c-MYC expression is critical for efficient platelet generation from human induced pluripotent stem cells

    PubMed Central

    Takayama, Naoya; Nishimura, Satoshi; Nakamura, Sou; Shimizu, Takafumi; Ohnishi, Ryoko; Endo, Hiroshi; Yamaguchi, Tomoyuki; Otsu, Makoto; Nishimura, Ken; Nakanishi, Mahito; Sawaguchi, Akira; Nagai, Ryozo; Takahashi, Kazutoshi; Yamanaka, Shinya; Nakauchi, Hiromitsu

    2010-01-01

    Human (h) induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are a potentially abundant source of blood cells, but how best to select iPSC clones suitable for this purpose from among the many clones that can be simultaneously established from an identical source is not clear. Using an in vitro culture system yielding a hematopoietic niche that concentrates hematopoietic progenitors, we show that the pattern of c-MYC reactivation after reprogramming influences platelet generation from hiPSCs. During differentiation, reduction of c-MYC expression after initial reactivation of c-MYC expression in selected hiPSC clones was associated with more efficient in vitro generation of CD41a+CD42b+ platelets. This effect was recapitulated in virus integration-free hiPSCs using a doxycycline-controlled c-MYC expression vector. In vivo imaging revealed that these CD42b+ platelets were present in thrombi after laser-induced vessel wall injury. In contrast, sustained and excessive c-MYC expression in megakaryocytes was accompanied by increased p14 (ARF) and p16 (INK4A) expression, decreased GATA1 expression, and impaired production of functional platelets. These findings suggest that the pattern of c-MYC expression, particularly its later decline, is key to producing functional platelets from selected iPSC clones. PMID:21098095

  5. THE ARECIBO LEGACY FAST ALFA SURVEY: THE {alpha}.40 H I SOURCE CATALOG, ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE DERIVATION OF THE H I MASS FUNCTION

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Haynes, Martha P.; Giovanelli, Riccardo; Martin, Ann M.

    We present a current catalog of 21 cm H I line sources extracted from the Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFALFA) survey over {approx}2800 deg{sup 2} of sky: the {alpha}.40 catalog. Covering 40% of the final survey area, the {alpha}.40 catalog contains 15,855 sources in the regions 07{sup h}30{sup m} < R.A. < 16{sup h}30{sup m}, +04 Degree-Sign < decl. <+16 Degree-Sign , and +24 Degree-Sign < decl. <+28 Degree-Sign and 22{sup h} < R.A. < 03{sup h}, +14 Degree-Sign < decl. <+16 Degree-Sign , and +24 Degree-Sign < decl. < + 32 Degree-Sign . Of those, 15,041more » are certainly extragalactic, yielding a source density of 5.3 galaxies per deg{sup 2}, a factor of 29 improvement over the catalog extracted from the H I Parkes All-Sky Survey. In addition to the source centroid positions, H I line flux densities, recessional velocities, and line widths, the catalog includes the coordinates of the most probable optical counterpart of each H I line detection, and a separate compilation provides a cross-match to identifications given in the photometric and spectroscopic catalogs associated with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. Fewer than 2% of the extragalactic H I line sources cannot be identified with a feasible optical counterpart; some of those may be rare OH megamasers at 0.16 < z < 0.25. A detailed analysis is presented of the completeness, width-dependent sensitivity function and bias inherent of the {alpha}.40 catalog. The impact of survey selection, distance errors, current volume coverage, and local large-scale structure on the derivation of the H I mass function is assessed. While {alpha}.40 does not yet provide a completely representative sampling of cosmological volume, derivations of the H I mass function using future data releases from ALFALFA will further improve both statistical and systematic uncertainties.« less

  6. In Search of the Largest Possible Tsunami: An Example Following the 2011 Japan Tsunami

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Geist, E. L.; Parsons, T.

    2012-12-01

    Many tsunami hazard assessments focus on estimating the largest possible tsunami: i.e., the worst-case scenario. This is typically performed by examining historic and prehistoric tsunami data or by estimating the largest source that can produce a tsunami. We demonstrate that worst-case assessments derived from tsunami and tsunami-source catalogs are greatly affected by sampling bias. Both tsunami and tsunami sources are well represented by a Pareto distribution. It is intuitive to assume that there is some limiting size (i.e., runup or seismic moment) for which a Pareto distribution is truncated or tapered. Likelihood methods are used to determine whether a limiting size can be determined from existing catalogs. Results from synthetic catalogs indicate that several observations near the limiting size are needed for accurate parameter estimation. Accordingly, the catalog length needed to empirically determine the limiting size is dependent on the difference between the limiting size and the observation threshold, with larger catalog lengths needed for larger limiting-threshold size differences. Most, if not all, tsunami catalogs and regional tsunami source catalogs are of insufficient length to determine the upper bound on tsunami runup. As an example, estimates of the empirical tsunami runup distribution are obtained from the Miyako tide gauge station in Japan, which recorded the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami as the largest tsunami among 51 other events. Parameter estimation using a tapered Pareto distribution is made both with and without the Tohoku-oki event. The catalog without the 2011 event appears to have a low limiting tsunami runup. However, this is an artifact of undersampling. Including the 2011 event, the catalog conforms more to a pure Pareto distribution with no confidence in estimating a limiting runup. Estimating the size distribution of regional tsunami sources is subject to the same sampling bias. Physical attenuation mechanisms such as wave breaking likely limit the maximum tsunami runup at a particular site. However, historic and prehistoric data alone cannot determine the upper bound on tsunami runup. Because of problems endemic to sampling Pareto distributions of tsunamis and their sources, we recommend that tsunami hazard assessment be based on a specific design probability of exceedance following a pure Pareto distribution, rather than attempting to determine the worst-case scenario.

  7. VizieR Online Data Catalog: The FIRST Survey Catalog, Version 2014Dec17 (Helfand+ 2015)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Helfand, D. J.; White, R. L.; Becker, R. H.

    2015-05-01

    The Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters (FIRST) began in 1993. It uses the VLA (Very Large Array, a facility of the National Radio Observatory (NRAO)) at a frequency of 1.4GHz, and it is slated to 10,000 deg2 of the North and South Galactic Caps, to a sensitivity of about 1mJy with an angular resolution of about 5''. The images produced by an automated mapping pipeline have pixels of 1.8'', a typical rms of 0.15mJy, and a resolution of 5''; the images are available on the Internet (see the FIRST home page at http://sundog.stsci.edu/ for details). The source catalogue is derived from the images. This catalog from the 1993 through 2011 observations contains 946,432 sources from the north and south Galactic caps. It covers a total of 10,575 square degrees of the sky (8444 square degrees in the north and 2131 square degrees in the south). In this version of the catalog, images taken in the the new EVLA configuration have been re-reduced using shallower CLEAN thresholds in order to reduce the "CLEAN bias" in those images. Also, the EVLA images are not co-added with older VLA images to avoid problems resulting from the different frequencies and noise properties of the configurations. That leads to small gaps in the sky coverage at boundaries between the EVLA and VLA regions. As a result, the area covered by this release of the catalog is about 60 square degrees smaller than the earlier release of the catalog (13Jun05, also available here as the "first13.dat" file), and the total number of sources is reduced by nearly 25,000. The previous version of the catalog does have sources in the overlap regions, but their flux densities are considered unreliable due to calibration errors. The flux densities should be more accurate in this catalog, biases are smaller, and the incidence of spurious sources is also reduced. Over most of the survey area, the detection limit is 1 mJy. A region along the equatorial strip (RA=21.3 to 3.3hr, Dec=-1 to 1deg) has a deeper detection threshold because two epochs of observation were combined. The typical detection threshold in this region is 0.75mJy. There are approximately 4,500 sources below the 1mJy threshold used for most previous versions of the catalog. The previous versions http://sundog.stsci.edu/first/catalogs/ (2 data files).

  8. Catalog of infrared observations. Part 2: Appendixes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gezari, Daniel Y.; Schmitz, Marion; Mead, Jaylee M.

    1987-01-01

    The Catalog of Infrared Observations (CIO) is a compilation of infrared astronomical observational data obtained from an extensive literature search of astronomical journals and major astronomical catalogs and surveys. The literature searches are complete for years 1965 to 1986. Supporting appendixes are published in this part. The appendices include an atlas of infrared source positions, two bibliographies of infrared literature upon which the search was based, and, keyed to the main Catalog listings (organized alphabetically by first author, and by date), an atlas of infrared spectral ranges, and IRAS data for the CIO sources. The complete CIO database is available to qualified users in printed microfiche and magnetic tape formats.

  9. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Intermediate-luminosity X-ray objects catalog (Colbert+, 2002)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Colbert, E. J. M.; Ptak, A. F.

    2002-11-01

    ROSAT, and now Chandra, X-ray images allow studies of extranuclear X-ray point sources in galaxies other than our own. X-ray observations of normal galaxies with ROSAT and Chandra have revealed that off-nuclear, compact, intermediate-luminosity (LX[2-10keV]>=1039erg/s) X-ray objects (IXOs, a.k.a. ULXs [ultraluminous X-ray sources]) are quite common. Here we present a catalog and finding charts for 87 IXOs in 54 galaxies, derived from all of the ROSAT HRI imaging data for galaxies with cz<=5000km/s from the Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies. (2 data files).

  10. Functional vascular smooth muscle cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells via mesenchymal stem cell intermediates

    PubMed Central

    Bajpai, Vivek K.; Mistriotis, Panagiotis; Loh, Yuin-Han; Daley, George Q.; Andreadis, Stelios T.

    2012-01-01

    Aims Smooth muscle cells (SMC) play an important role in vascular homeostasis and disease. Although adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been used as a source of contractile SMC, they suffer from limited proliferation potential and culture senescence, particularly when originating from older donors. By comparison, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) can provide an unlimited source of functional SMC for autologous cell-based therapies and for creating models of vascular disease. Our goal was to develop an efficient strategy to derive functional, contractile SMC from hiPSC. Methods and results We developed a robust, stage-wise, feeder-free strategy for hiPSC differentiation into functional SMC through an intermediate stage of multipotent MSC, which could be coaxed to differentiate into fat, bone, cartilage, and muscle. At this stage, the cells were highly proliferative and displayed higher clonogenic potential and reduced senescence when compared with parental hair follicle mesenchymal stem cells. In addition, when exposed to differentiation medium, the myogenic proteins such as α-smooth muscle actin, calponin, and myosin heavy chain were significantly upregulated and displayed robust fibrillar organization, suggesting the development of a contractile phenotype. Indeed, tissue constructs prepared from these cells exhibited high levels of contractility in response to receptor- and non-receptor-mediated agonists. Conclusion We developed an efficient stage-wise strategy that enabled hiPSC differentiation into contractile SMC through an intermediate population of clonogenic and multipotent MSC. The high yield of MSC and SMC derivation suggests that our strategy may facilitate an acquisition of the large numbers of cells required for regenerative medicine or for studying vascular disease pathophysiology. PMID:22941255

  11. The Chandra Source Catalog: Background Determination and Source Detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McCollough, Michael; Rots, Arnold; Primini, Francis A.; Evans, Ian N.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Hain, Roger; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Danny G. Gibbs, II; Grier, John D.; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiang Qun (Helen); Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2009-09-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a major project in which all of the pointed imaging observations taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory are used to generate one of the most extensive X-ray source catalog produced to date. Early in the development of the CSC it was recognized that the ability to estimate local background levels in an automated fashion would be critical for essential CSC tasks such as source detection, photometry, sensitivity estimates, and source characterization. We present a discussion of how such background maps are created directly from the Chandra data and how they are used in source detection. The general background for Chandra observations is rather smoothly varying, containing only low spatial frequency components. However, in the case of ACIS data, a high spatial frequency component is added that is due to the readout streaks of the CCD chips. We discuss how these components can be estimated reliably using the Chandra data and what limitations and caveats should be considered in their use. We will discuss the source detection algorithm used for the CSC and the effects of the background images on the detection results. We will also touch on some the Catalog Inclusion and Quality Assurance criteria applied to the source detection results. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

  12. Chandra Source Catalog: Background Determination and Source Detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McCollough, Michael L.; Rots, A. H.; Primini, F. A.; Evans, I. N.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Hain, R.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E.; Gibbs, D. G.; Grier, J. D.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Lauer, J.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; Van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

    2009-01-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a major project in which all of the pointed imaging observations taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory will used to generate the most extensive X-ray source catalog produced to date. Early in the development of the CSC it was recognized that the ability to estimate local background levels in an automated fashion would be critical for essential CSC tasks such as source detection, photometry, sensitivity estimates, and source characterization. We present a discussion of how such background maps are created directly from the Chandra data and how they are used in source detection. The general background for Chandra observations is rather smoothly varying, containing only low spatial frequency components. However, in the case of ACIS data, a high spatial frequency component is added that is due to the readout streaks of the CCD chips. We discuss how these components can be estimated reliably using the Chandra data and what limitations and caveats should be considered in their use. We will discuss the source detection algorithm used for the CSC and the effects of the background images on the detection results. We will also touch on some the Catalog Inclusion and Quality Assurance criteria applied to the source detection results. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

  13. The Chandra Source Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, Ian N.; Primini, F. A.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E. C.; Gibbs, D. G., II; Grier, J. D.; Hain, R. M.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Kashyap, V. L.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Mossman, A. E.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Rots, A. H.; Siemiginowska, A.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; Van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

    2010-03-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a general purpose virtual X-ray astrophysics facility that provides access to a carefully selected set of generally useful quantities for individual X-ray sources, and is designed to satisfy the needs of a broad-based group of scientists, including those who may be less familiar with astronomical data analysis in the X-ray regime. The first release of the CSC includes information about 94,676 distinct X-ray sources detected in a subset of public ACIS imaging observations from roughly the first eight years of the Chandra mission. This release of the catalog includes point and compact sources with observed spatial extents < 30". The catalog (1) provides access to estimates of the X-ray source properties for detected sources with good scientific fidelity; (2) facilitates analysis of a wide range of statistical properties for classes of X-ray sources; and (3) provides efficient access to calibrated observational data and ancillary data products for individual X-ray sources. The catalog includes real X-ray sources detected with flux estimates that are at least 3 times their estimated 1σ uncertainties in at least one energy band, while maintaining the number of spurious sources at a level of < 1 false source per field for a 100 ks observation. For each detected source, the CSC provides commonly tabulated quantities, including source position, extent, multi-band fluxes, hardness ratios, and variability statistics. In addition, for each X-ray source the CSC includes an extensive set of file-based data products that can be manipulated interactively, including source images, event lists, light curves, and spectra. Support for development of the CSC is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the Chandra X-ray Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contract NAS 8-03060.

  14. The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. XVII. SPIRE point-source catalogs and number counts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pappalardo, Ciro; Bendo, George J.; Bianchi, Simone; Hunt, Leslie; Zibetti, Stefano; Corbelli, Edvige; di Serego Alighieri, Sperello; Grossi, Marco; Davies, Jonathan; Baes, Maarten; De Looze, Ilse; Fritz, Jacopo; Pohlen, Michael; Smith, Matthew W. L.; Verstappen, Joris; Boquien, Médéric; Boselli, Alessandro; Cortese, Luca; Hughes, Thomas; Viaene, Sebastien; Bizzocchi, Luca; Clemens, Marcel

    2015-01-01

    Aims: We present three independent catalogs of point-sources extracted from SPIRE images at 250, 350, and 500 μm, acquired with the Herschel Space Observatory as a part of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). The catalogs have been cross-correlated to consistently extract the photometry at SPIRE wavelengths for each object. Methods: Sources have been detected using an iterative loop. The source positions are determined by estimating the likelihood to be a real source for each peak on the maps, according to the criterion defined in the sourceExtractorSussextractor task. The flux densities are estimated using the sourceExtractorTimeline, a timeline-based point source fitter that also determines the fitting procedure with the width of the Gaussian that best reproduces the source considered. Afterwards, each source is subtracted from the maps, removing a Gaussian function in every position with the full width half maximum equal to that estimated in sourceExtractorTimeline. This procedure improves the robustness of our algorithm in terms of source identification. We calculate the completeness and the flux accuracy by injecting artificial sources in the timeline and estimate the reliability of the catalog using a permutation method. Results: The HeViCS catalogs contain about 52 000, 42 200, and 18 700 sources selected at 250, 350, and 500 μm above 3σ and are ~75%, 62%, and 50% complete at flux densities of 20 mJy at 250, 350, 500 μm, respectively. We then measured source number counts at 250, 350, and 500 μm and compare them with previous data and semi-analytical models. We also cross-correlated the catalogs with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate the redshift distribution of the nearby sources. From this cross-correlation, we select ~2000 sources with reliable fluxes and a high signal-to-noise ratio, finding an average redshift z ~ 0.3 ± 0.22 and 0.25 (16-84 percentile). Conclusions: The number counts at 250, 350, and 500 μm show an increase in the slope below 200 mJy, indicating a strong evolution in number of density for galaxies at these fluxes. In general, models tend to overpredict the counts at brighter flux densities, underlying the importance of studying the Rayleigh-Jeans part of the spectral energy distribution to refine the theoretical recipes of the models. Our iterative method for source identification allowed the detection of a family of 500 μm sources that are not foreground objects belonging to Virgo and not found in other catalogs. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by a European-led principal investigator consortia and with an important participation from NASA.The 250, 350, 500 μm, and the total catalogs are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/573/A129

  15. A Chimeric Humanized Mouse Model by Engrafting the Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Hepatocyte-Like Cell for the Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection

    PubMed Central

    Yuan, Lunzhi; Liu, Xuan; Zhang, Liang; Li, Xiaoling; Zhang, Yali; Wu, Kun; Chen, Yao; Cao, Jiali; Hou, Wangheng; Zhang, Jun; Zhu, Hua; Yuan, Quan; Tang, Qiyi; Cheng, Tong; Xia, Ningshao

    2018-01-01

    Humanized mouse model generated by grafting primary human hepatocytes (PHHs) to immunodeficient mouse has contributed invaluably to understanding the pathogenesis of hepatitis B virus (HBV). However, the source of PHHs is limited, which necessitates the search for alternatives. Recently, hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) generated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have been used for in vitro HBV infection. Herein, we developed a robust human liver chimeric animal model to study in vivo HBV infection by engrafting the hiPSC-HLCs to Fah-/-Rag2-/-IL-2Rγc-/- SCID (FRGS) mice. After being optimized by a small molecule, XMU-MP-1, the hiPSC-HLCs engrafted FRGS (hHLC-FRGS) mice displayed approximately 40% liver chimerism at week 6 after engraftment and maintained at this level for at least 14 weeks. Viremia and HBV infection markers include antigens, RNA, DNA, and covalently closed circular DNA were detectable in HBV infected hHLC-FRGS mice. Furthermore, hiPSC-HLCs and hHLC-FRGS mice were successfully used to evaluate different antivirals. Therefore, we established a humanized mouse model for not only investigating HBV pathogenesis but also testing the effects of the anti-HBV drugs. Highlights:    (1) The implanted hiPSC-HLCs established a long-term chimerism in FRGS mice liver.    (2) hHLC-FRGS mice are adequate to support chronic HBV infection with a full viral life cycle.    (3) hiPSC-HLCs and hHLC-FRGS mice are useful tools for evaluation of antivirals against HBV infection in vitro and in vivo. Research in Context  To overcome the disadvantages of using primary human hepatocytes, we induced human pluripotent stem cells to hepatocyte-like cells (hiPSC-HLCs) that developed the capability to express important liver functional markers and critical host factors for HBV infection. The hiPSC-HLCs were permissive for the HBV infection and supported a full HBV replication. The hiPSC-HLCs were then engrafted to immunodeficient mouse to establish a chimeric liver mouse model, which was capable of supporting HBV infection in vivo and evaluating the effects of antiviral drugs. Our results shed light into improving the cellular and animal models for studying HBV and other hepatotropic viruses. PMID:29867819

  16. Catalog of infrared observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gezari, D. Y.; Schmitz, M.; Mead, J. M.

    1982-01-01

    The infrared astronomical data base and its principal data product, the catalog of Infrared Observations (CIO), comprise a machine readable library of infrared (1 microns to 1000 microns astronomical observations. To date, over 1300 journal articles and 10 major survey catalogs are included in this data base, which contains about 55,000 individual observations of about 10,000 different infrared sources. Of these, some 8,000 sources are identifiable with visible objects, and about 2,000 do not have known visible counterparts.

  17. THE LOW-FREQUENCY RADIO CATALOG OF FLAT-SPECTRUM SOURCES

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Massaro, F.; Giroletti, M.; D'Abrusco, R.

    A well known property of the γ-ray sources detected by Cos-B in the 1970s, by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the 1990s, and recently by the Fermi observations is the presence of radio counterparts, particularly for those associated with extragalactic objects. This observational evidence is the basis of the radio-γ-ray connection established for the class of active galactic nuclei known as blazars. In particular, the main spectral property of the radio counterparts associated with γ-ray blazars is that they show a flat spectrum in the GHz frequency range. Our recent analysis dedicated to search blazar-like candidates as potential counterparts formore » the unidentified γ-ray sources allowed us to extend the radio-γ-ray connection in the MHz regime. We also showed that blazars below 1 GHz maintain flat radio spectra. Thus, on the basis of these new results, we assembled a low-frequency radio catalog of flat-spectrum sources built by combining the radio observations of the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey and of the Westerbork in the southern hemisphere catalog with those of the NRAO Very Large Array Sky survey (NVSS). This could be used in the future to search for new, unknown blazar-like counterparts of γ-ray sources. First, we found NVSS counterparts of Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope radio sources, and then we selected flat-spectrum radio sources according to a new spectral criterion, specifically defined for radio observations performed below 1 GHz. We also described the main properties of the catalog listing 28,358 radio sources and their logN-logS distributions. Finally, a comparison with the Green Bank 6 cm radio source catalog was performed to investigate the spectral shape of the low-frequency flat-spectrum radio sources at higher frequencies.« less

  18. 3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.

    Here, we present a catalog of sources detected above 10 GeV by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the first 7 years of data using the Pass 8 event-level analysis. This is the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL), containing 1556 objects characterized in the 10 GeV–2 TeV energy range. The sensitivity and angular resolution are improved by factors of 3 and 2 relative to the previous LAT catalog at the same energies (1FHL). The vast majority of detected sources (79%) are associated with extragalactic counterparts at other wavelengths, including 16 sources located at very high redshift (zmore » > 2). Of the sources, 8% have Galactic counterparts and 13% are unassociated (or associated with a source of unknown nature). The high-latitude sky and the Galactic plane are observed with a flux sensitivity of 4.4 to 9.5 × 10 -11 ph cm -2 s -1, respectively (this is approximately 0.5% and 1% of the Crab Nebula flux above 10 GeV). The catalog includes 214 new γ-ray sources. The substantial increase in the number of photons (more than 4 times relative to 1FHL and 10 times to 2FHL) also allows us to measure significant spectral curvature for 32 sources and find flux variability for 163 of them. We also estimate that for the same flux limit of 10 -12 erg cm -2 s -1, the energy range above 10 GeV has twice as many sources as the range above 50 GeV, highlighting the importance, for future Cherenkov telescopes, of lowering the energy threshold as much as possible.« less

  19. 3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.

    We present a catalog of sources detected above 10 GeV by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the first 7 years of data using the Pass 8 event-level analysis. This is the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources (3FHL), containing 1556 objects characterized in the 10 GeV–2 TeV energy range. The sensitivity and angular resolution are improved by factors of 3 and 2 relative to the previous LAT catalog at the same energies (1FHL). The vast majority of detected sources (79%) are associated with extragalactic counterparts at other wavelengths, including 16 sources located at very high redshift (more » z > 2). Of the sources, 8% have Galactic counterparts and 13% are unassociated (or associated with a source of unknown nature). The high-latitude sky and the Galactic plane are observed with a flux sensitivity of 4.4 to 9.5 × 10{sup −11} ph cm{sup −2} s{sup −1}, respectively (this is approximately 0.5% and 1% of the Crab Nebula flux above 10 GeV). The catalog includes 214 new γ -ray sources. The substantial increase in the number of photons (more than 4 times relative to 1FHL and 10 times to 2FHL) also allows us to measure significant spectral curvature for 32 sources and find flux variability for 163 of them. Furthermore, we estimate that for the same flux limit of 10{sup −12} erg cm{sup −2} s{sup −1}, the energy range above 10 GeV has twice as many sources as the range above 50 GeV, highlighting the importance, for future Cherenkov telescopes, of lowering the energy threshold as much as possible.« less

  20. 3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonino, R.; Bregeon, J.; Britto, R. J.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Buson, S.; Cameron, R. A.; Caputo, R.; Caragiulo, M.; Caraveo, P. A.; Cavazzuti, E.; Cecchi, C.; Charles, E.; Chekhtman, A.; Cheung, C. C.; Chiaro, G.; Ciprini, S.; Cohen, J. M.; Costantin, D.; Costanza, F.; Cuoco, A.; Cutini, S.; D'Ammando, F.; de Palma, F.; Desiante, R.; Digel, S. W.; Di Lalla, N.; Di Mauro, M.; Di Venere, L.; Domínguez, A.; Drell, P. S.; Dumora, D.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Ferrara, E. C.; Fortin, P.; Franckowiak, A.; Fukazawa, Y.; Funk, S.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Giglietto, N.; Giommi, P.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Green, D.; Grenier, I. A.; Grondin, M.-H.; Grove, J. E.; Guillemot, L.; Guiriec, S.; Harding, A. K.; Hays, E.; Hewitt, J. W.; Horan, D.; Jóhannesson, G.; Kensei, S.; Kuss, M.; La Mura, G.; Larsson, S.; Latronico, L.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Li, J.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lott, B.; Lubrano, P.; Magill, J. D.; Maldera, S.; Manfreda, A.; Mazziotta, M. N.; McEnery, J. E.; Meyer, M.; Michelson, P. F.; Mirabal, N.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Moiseev, A. A.; Monzani, M. E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Negro, M.; Nuss, E.; Ohsugi, T.; Omodei, N.; Orienti, M.; Orlando, E.; Palatiello, M.; Paliya, V. S.; Paneque, D.; Perkins, J. S.; Persic, M.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Piron, F.; Porter, T. A.; Principe, G.; Rainò, S.; Rando, R.; Razzano, M.; Razzaque, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Reposeur, T.; Saz Parkinson, P. M.; Sgrò, C.; Simone, D.; Siskind, E. J.; Spada, F.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Stawarz, L.; Suson, D. J.; Takahashi, M.; Tak, D.; Thayer, J. G.; Thayer, J. B.; Thompson, D. J.; Torres, D. F.; Torresi, E.; Troja, E.; Vianello, G.; Wood, K.; Wood, M.

    2017-10-01

    We present a catalog of sources detected above 10 GeV by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the first 7 years of data using the Pass 8 event-level analysis. This is the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL), containing 1556 objects characterized in the 10 GeV-2 TeV energy range. The sensitivity and angular resolution are improved by factors of 3 and 2 relative to the previous LAT catalog at the same energies (1FHL). The vast majority of detected sources (79%) are associated with extragalactic counterparts at other wavelengths, including 16 sources located at very high redshift (z > 2). Of the sources, 8% have Galactic counterparts and 13% are unassociated (or associated with a source of unknown nature). The high-latitude sky and the Galactic plane are observed with a flux sensitivity of 4.4 to 9.5 × 10-11 ph cm-2 s-1, respectively (this is approximately 0.5% and 1% of the Crab Nebula flux above 10 GeV). The catalog includes 214 new γ-ray sources. The substantial increase in the number of photons (more than 4 times relative to 1FHL and 10 times to 2FHL) also allows us to measure significant spectral curvature for 32 sources and find flux variability for 163 of them. Furthermore, we estimate that for the same flux limit of 10-12 erg cm-2 s-1, the energy range above 10 GeV has twice as many sources as the range above 50 GeV, highlighting the importance, for future Cherenkov telescopes, of lowering the energy threshold as much as possible.

  1. 3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources

    DOE PAGES

    Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.; ...

    2017-09-27

    Here, we present a catalog of sources detected above 10 GeV by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the first 7 years of data using the Pass 8 event-level analysis. This is the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL), containing 1556 objects characterized in the 10 GeV–2 TeV energy range. The sensitivity and angular resolution are improved by factors of 3 and 2 relative to the previous LAT catalog at the same energies (1FHL). The vast majority of detected sources (79%) are associated with extragalactic counterparts at other wavelengths, including 16 sources located at very high redshift (zmore » > 2). Of the sources, 8% have Galactic counterparts and 13% are unassociated (or associated with a source of unknown nature). The high-latitude sky and the Galactic plane are observed with a flux sensitivity of 4.4 to 9.5 × 10 -11 ph cm -2 s -1, respectively (this is approximately 0.5% and 1% of the Crab Nebula flux above 10 GeV). The catalog includes 214 new γ-ray sources. The substantial increase in the number of photons (more than 4 times relative to 1FHL and 10 times to 2FHL) also allows us to measure significant spectral curvature for 32 sources and find flux variability for 163 of them. We also estimate that for the same flux limit of 10 -12 erg cm -2 s -1, the energy range above 10 GeV has twice as many sources as the range above 50 GeV, highlighting the importance, for future Cherenkov telescopes, of lowering the energy threshold as much as possible.« less

  2. Herschel Key Program Heritage: a Far-Infrared Source Catalog for the Magellanic Clouds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seale, Jonathan P.; Meixner, Margaret; Sewiło, Marta; Babler, Brian; Engelbracht, Charles W.; Gordon, Karl; Hony, Sacha; Misselt, Karl; Montiel, Edward; Okumura, Koryo; Panuzzo, Pasquale; Roman-Duval, Julia; Sauvage, Marc; Boyer, Martha L.; Chen, C.-H. Rosie; Indebetouw, Remy; Matsuura, Mikako; Oliveira, Joana M.; Srinivasan, Sundar; van Loon, Jacco Th.; Whitney, Barbara; Woods, Paul M.

    2014-12-01

    Observations from the HERschel Inventory of the Agents of Galaxy Evolution (HERITAGE) have been used to identify dusty populations of sources in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC). We conducted the study using the HERITAGE catalogs of point sources available from the Herschel Science Center from both the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS; 100 and 160 μm) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE; 250, 350, and 500 μm) cameras. These catalogs are matched to each other to create a Herschel band-merged catalog and then further matched to archival Spitzer IRAC and MIPS catalogs from the Spitzer Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution (SAGE) and SAGE-SMC surveys to create single mid- to far-infrared (far-IR) point source catalogs that span the wavelength range from 3.6 to 500 μm. There are 35,322 unique sources in the LMC and 7503 in the SMC. To be bright in the FIR, a source must be very dusty, and so the sources in the HERITAGE catalogs represent the dustiest populations of sources. The brightest HERITAGE sources are dominated by young stellar objects (YSOs), and the dimmest by background galaxies. We identify the sources most likely to be background galaxies by first considering their morphology (distant galaxies are point-like at the resolution of Herschel) and then comparing the flux distribution to that of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (ATLAS) survey of galaxies. We find a total of 9745 background galaxy candidates in the LMC HERITAGE images and 5111 in the SMC images, in agreement with the number predicted by extrapolating from the ATLAS flux distribution. The majority of the Magellanic Cloud-residing sources are either very young, embedded forming stars or dusty clumps of the interstellar medium. Using the presence of 24 μm emission as a tracer of star formation, we identify 3518 YSO candidates in the LMC and 663 in the SMC. There are far fewer far-IR bright YSOs in the SMC than the LMC due to both the SMC's smaller size and its lower dust content. The YSO candidate lists may be contaminated at low flux levels by background galaxies, and so we differentiate between sources with a high (“probable”) and moderate (“possible”) likelihood of being a YSO. There are 2493/425 probable YSO candidates in the LMC/SMC. Approximately 73% of the Herschel YSO candidates are newly identified in the LMC, and 35% in the SMC. We further identify a small population of dusty objects in the late stages of stellar evolution including extreme and post-asymptotic giant branch, planetary nebulae, and supernova remnants. These populations are identified by matching the HERITAGE catalogs to lists of previously identified objects in the literature. Approximately half of the LMC sources and one quarter of the SMC sources are too faint to obtain accurate ample FIR photometry and are unclassified.

  3. Astronomical Data Center Bulletin, volume 1, number 2

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nagy, T. A.; Warren, W. H., Jr.; Mead, J. M.

    1981-01-01

    Work in progress on astronomical catalogs is presented in 16 papers. Topics cover astronomical data center operations; automatic astronomical data retrieval at GSFC; interactive computer reference search of astronomical literature 1950-1976; formatting, checking, and documenting machine-readable catalogs; interactive catalog of UV, optical, and HI data for 201 Virgo cluster galaxies; machine-readable version of the general catalog of variable stars, third edition; galactic latitude and magnitude distribution of two astronomical catalogs; the catalog of open star clusters; infrared astronomical data base and catalog of infrared observations; the Air Force geophysics laboratory; revised magnetic tape of the N30 catalog of 5,268 standard stars; positional correlation of the two-micron sky survey and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory catalog sources; search capabilities for the catalog of stellar identifications (CSI) 1979 version; CSI statistics: blue magnitude versus spectral type; catalogs available from the Astronomical Data Center; and status report on machine-readable astronomical catalogs.

  4. VizieR Online Data Catalog: IR-bright MSX sources in the SMC with Spitzer/IRS (Kraemer+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kraemer, K. E.; Sloan, G. C.; Wood, P. R.; Jones, O. C.; Egan, M. P.

    2017-07-01

    Our original set of infrared spectra of MSX SMC sources was obtained in Spitzer Cycle 1 (Program ID 3277, P.I. M. Egan). This program included 35 targets from the MSX SMC catalog. 24 targets were discussed in previous papers; this paper examines the remaining 11 sources in the sample. We also selected 4 objects in the MSX SMC catalog with similar photometric characteristics in an effort to uncover additional sources with crystalline dust. We observed these targets in Spitzer Cycle 3 (Program ID 30355, P.I. J. Houck). See tables 1 and 2 for observation data and basic properties of the targets. Table 3 lists 20 additional MSX SMC sources that were observed by other Spitzer IRS programs. Overall, 59 MSX SMC sources were observed with the IRS. The spectra were observed using the low-resolution modules of the IRS, Short-Low (SL) and Long-Low (LL), which provided spectra in the 5-14 and 14-37um ranges, respectively, at a resolution between ~60 and 120. For 10 evolved stars with oxygen-rich dust in our Cycle 1 program, we obtained spectra from 0.45 to 1.03um with the Double-Beam Spectrograph at the 2.3m telescope of the Australian National University at Siding Spring Observatory. A 0.45-0.89um spectrum for one of the stars in program 30355 was also observed. These spectra have a resolution of 10Å. Tables 5-7: catalog based on the 243 sources detected in the MSX survey of the SMC, updated with positions and photometry from more recent space-based missions and ground-based surveys. See the Appendix section for more details. The SMC catalog from MSX consists of the 243 sources in the main MSX catalog (Egan+ 2003, see V/114) that lie within the region 7°

  5. The potential of induced pluripotent stem cells as a tool to study skeletal dysplasias and cartilage-related pathologic conditions.

    PubMed

    Liu, H; Yang, L; Yu, F F; Wang, S; Wu, C; Qu, C; Lammi, M J; Guo, X

    2017-05-01

    The development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) technology has opened up new horizons for development of new research tools especially for skeletal dysplasias, which often lack human disease models. Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering could be the next areas to benefit from refinement of iPSC methods to repair focal cartilage defects, while applications for osteoarthritis (OA) and drug screening have evolved rather slowly. Although the advances in iPSC research of skeletal dysplasias and repair of focal cartilage lesions are not directly relevant to OA, they can be considered to pave the way to future prospects and solutions to OA research, too. The same problems which face the present cell-based treatments of cartilage injuries concern also the iPSC-based ones. However, established iPSC lines, which have no genomic aberrations and which efficiently differentiate into extracellular matrix secreting chondrocytes, could be an invaluable cell source for cell transplantations in the future. The safety issues concerning the recipient risks of teratoma formation and immune response still have to be solved before the potential use of iPSCs in cartilage repair of focal cartilage defects and OA. Copyright © 2016 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Repressed SIRT1/PGC-1α pathway and mitochondrial disintegration in iPSC-derived RPE disease model of age-related macular degeneration.

    PubMed

    Golestaneh, Nady; Chu, Yi; Cheng, Shuk Kei; Cao, Hong; Poliakov, Eugenia; Berinstein, Daniel M

    2016-12-20

    Study of age related macular degeneration (AMD) has been hampered by lack of human models that represent the complexity of the disease. Here we have developed a human in vitro disease model of AMD to investigate the underlying AMD disease mechanisms. Generation of iPSCs from retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of AMD donors, age-matched normal donors, skin fibroblasts of a dry AMD patient, and differentiation of iPSCs into RPE (AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE, normal RPE-iPSC-RPE and AMD Skin-iPSC-RPE, respectively). Immunostaining, cell viability assay and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production under oxidative stress conditions, electron microscopy (EM) imaging, ATP production and glycogen concentration assays, quantitative real time PCR, western blot, karyotyping. The AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE and AMD Skin-iPSC-RPE present functional impairment and exhibit distinct disease phenotypes compared to RPE-iPSC-RPE generated from normal donors (Normal RPE-iPSC-RPE). The AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE and AMD Skin-iPSC-RPE show increased susceptibility to oxidative stress and produced higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under stress in accordance with recent reports. The susceptibility to oxidative stress-induced cell death in AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE and Skin-iPSC-RPE was consistent with inability of the AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE and Skin-iPSC-RPE to increase SOD2 expression under oxidative stress. Phenotypic analysis revealed disintegrated mitochondria, accumulation of autophagosomes and lipid droplets in AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE and AMD Skin-iPSC-RPE. Mitochondrial activity was significantly lower in AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE and AMD Skin-iPSC-RPE compared to normal cells and glycogen concentration was significantly increased in the diseased cells. Furthermore, Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α), a regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis and function was repressed, and lower expression levels of NAD-dependent deacetylase sirtuin1 (SIRT1) were found in AMD RPE-iPSC-RPE and AMD Skin-iPSC-RPE as compared to normal RPE-iPSC-RPE. Our studies suggest SIRT1/PGC-1α as underlying pathways contributing to AMD pathophysiology, and open new avenues for development of targeted drugs for treatment of this devastating neurodegenerative disease of the visual system.

  7. Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neurons respond to convulsant drugs when co-cultured with hiPSC-derived astrocytes.

    PubMed

    Ishii, Misawa Niki; Yamamoto, Koji; Shoji, Masanobu; Asami, Asano; Kawamata, Yuji

    2017-08-15

    Accurate risk assessment for drug-induced seizure is expected to be performed before entering clinical studies because of its severity and fatal damage to drug development. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has allowed the use of human neurons and glial cells in toxicology studies. Recently, several studies showed the advantage of co-culture system of human iPSC (hiPSC)-derived neurons with rodent/human primary astrocytes regarding neuronal functions. However, the application of hiPSC-derived neurons for seizure risk assessment has not yet been fully addressed, and not at all when co-cultured with hiPSC-derived astrocytes. Here, we characterized hiPSC-derived neurons co-cultured with hiPSC-derived astrocytes to discuss how hiPSC-derived neurons are useful to assess seizure risk of drugs. First, we detected the frequency of spikes and synchronized bursts hiPSC-derived neurons when co-cultured with hiPSC-derived astrocytes for 8 weeks. This synchronized burst was suppressed by the treatment with 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione, α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) receptor antagonist, and D-(-)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid, an N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist. These data suggested that co-cultured hiPSC-derived neurons formed synaptic connections mediated by AMPA and NMDA receptors. We also demonstrated that co-cultured hiPSC-derived neurons showed epileptiform activity upon treatment with gabazine or kaliotoxin. Finally, we performed single-cell transcriptome analysis in hiPSC-derived neurons and found that hiPSC-derived astrocytes activated the pathways involved in the activities of AMPA and NMDA receptor functions, neuronal polarity, and axon guidance in hiPSC-derived neurons. These data suggested that hiPSC-derived astrocytes promoted the development of action potential, synaptic functions, and neuronal networks in hiPSC-derived neurons, and then these functional alterations result in the epileptiform activity in response to convulsant drugs. Our study indicates the possibility that co-culture system of hiPSC-derived neurons with hiPSC-derived astrocytes could be useful in the risk assessment of drug-induced seizure. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. The H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    H. E. S. S. Collaboration; Abdalla, H.; Abramowski, A.; Aharonian, F.; Benkhali, F. Ait; Angüner, E. O.; Arakawa, M.; Arrieta, M.; Aubert, P.; Backes, M.; Balzer, A.; Barnard, M.; Becherini, Y.; Tjus, J. Becker; Berge, D.; Bernhard, S.; Bernlöhr, K.; Blackwell, R.; Böttcher, M.; Boisson, C.; Bolmont, J.; Bonnefoy, S.; Bordas, P.; Bregeon, J.; Brun, F.; Brun, P.; Bryan, M.; Büchele, M.; Bulik, T.; Capasso, M.; Carrigan, S.; Caroff, S.; Carosi, A.; Casanova, S.; Cerruti, M.; Chakraborty, N.; Chaves, R. C. G.; Chen, A.; Chevalier, J.; Colafrancesco, S.; Condon, B.; Conrad, J.; Davids, I. D.; Decock, J.; Deil, C.; Devin, J.; deWilt, P.; Dirson, L.; Djannati-Ataï, A.; Domainko, W.; Donath, A.; Drury, L. O.'C.; Dutson, K.; Dyks, J.; Edwards, T.; Egberts, K.; Eger, P.; Emery, G.; Ernenwein, J.-P.; Eschbach, S.; Farnier, C.; Fegan, S.; Fernandes, M. V.; Fiasson, A.; Fontaine, G.; Förster, A.; Funk, S.; Füßling, M.; Gabici, S.; Gallant, Y. A.; Garrigoux, T.; Gast, H.; Gaté, F.; Giavitto, G.; Giebels, B.; Glawion, D.; Glicenstein, J. F.; Gottschall, D.; Grondin, M.-H.; Hahn, J.; Haupt, M.; Hawkes, J.; Heinzelmann, G.; Henri, G.; Hermann, G.; Hinton, J. A.; Hofmann, W.; Hoischen, C.; Holch, T. L.; Holler, M.; Horns, D.; Ivascenko, A.; Iwasaki, H.; Jacholkowska, A.; Jamrozy, M.; Jankowsky, D.; Jankowsky, F.; Jingo, M.; Jouvin, L.; Jung-Richardt, I.; Kastendieck, M. A.; Katarzyński, K.; Katsuragawa, M.; Katz, U.; Kerszberg, D.; Khangulyan, D.; Khélifi, B.; King, J.; Klepser, S.; Klochkov, D.; Kluźniak, W.; Komin, Nu.; Kosack, K.; Krakau, S.; Kraus, M.; Krüger, P. P.; Laffon, H.; Lamanna, G.; Lau, J.; Lees, J.-P.; Lefaucheur, J.; Lemière, A.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Lenain, J.-P.; Leser, E.; Lohse, T.; Lorentz, M.; Liu, R.; López-Coto, R.; Lypova, I.; Marandon, V.; Malyshev, D.; Marcowith, A.; Mariaud, C.; Marx, R.; Maurin, G.; Maxted, N.; Mayer, M.; Meintjes, P. J.; Meyer, M.; Mitchell, A. M. W.; Moderski, R.; Mohamed, M.; Mohrmann, L.; Morå, K.; Moulin, E.; Murach, T.; Nakashima, S.; de Naurois, M.; Ndiyavala, H.; Niederwanger, F.; Niemiec, J.; Oakes, L.; O'Brien, P.; Odaka, H.; Ohm, S.; Ostrowski, M.; Oya, I.; Padovani, M.; Panter, M.; Parsons, R. D.; Paz Arribas, M.; Pekeur, N. W.; Pelletier, G.; Perennes, C.; Petrucci, P.-O.; Peyaud, B.; Piel, Q.; Pita, S.; Poireau, V.; Poon, H.; Prokhorov, D.; Prokoph, H.; Pühlhofer, G.; Punch, M.; Quirrenbach, A.; Raab, S.; Rauth, R.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Renaud, M.; de los Reyes, R.; Rieger, F.; Rinchiuso, L.; Romoli, C.; Rowell, G.; Rudak, B.; Rulten, C. B.; Safi-Harb, S.; Sahakian, V.; Saito, S.; Sanchez, D. A.; Santangelo, A.; Sasaki, M.; Schandri, M.; Schlickeiser, R.; Schüssler, F.; Schulz, A.; Schwanke, U.; Schwemmer, S.; Seglar-Arroyo, M.; Settimo, M.; Seyffert, A. S.; Shafi, N.; Shilon, I.; Shiningayamwe, K.; Simoni, R.; Sol, H.; Spanier, F.; Spir-Jacob, M.; Stawarz, Ł.; Steenkamp, R.; Stegmann, C.; Steppa, C.; Sushch, I.; Takahashi, T.; Tavernet, J.-P.; Tavernier, T.; Taylor, A. M.; Terrier, R.; Tibaldo, L.; Tiziani, D.; Tluczykont, M.; Trichard, C.; Tsirou, M.; Tsuji, N.; Tuffs, R.; Uchiyama, Y.; van der Walt, D. J.; van Eldik, C.; van Rensburg, C.; van Soelen, B.; Vasileiadis, G.; Veh, J.; Venter, C.; Viana, A.; Vincent, P.; Vink, J.; Voisin, F.; Völk, H. J.; Vuillaume, T.; Wadiasingh, Z.; Wagner, S. J.; Wagner, P.; Wagner, R. M.; White, R.; Wierzcholska, A.; Willmann, P.; Wörnlein, A.; Wouters, D.; Yang, R.; Zaborov, D.; Zacharias, M.; Zanin, R.; Zdziarski, A. A.; Zech, A.; Zefi, F.; Ziegler, A.; Zorn, J.; Żywucka, N.

    2018-04-01

    We present the results of the most comprehensive survey of the Galactic plane in very high-energy (VHE) γ-rays, including a public release of Galactic sky maps, a catalog of VHE sources, and the discovery of 16 new sources of VHE γ-rays. The High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Galactic plane survey (HGPS) was a decade-long observation program carried out by the H.E.S.S. I array of Cherenkov telescopes in Namibia from 2004 to 2013. The observations amount to nearly 2700 h of quality-selected data, covering the Galactic plane at longitudes from ℓ = 250° to 65° and latitudes |b|≤ 3°. In addition to the unprecedented spatial coverage, the HGPS also features a relatively high angular resolution (0.08° ≈ 5 arcmin mean point spread function 68% containment radius), sensitivity (≲1.5% Crab flux for point-like sources), and energy range (0.2-100 TeV). We constructed a catalog of VHE γ-ray sources from the HGPS data set with a systematic procedure for both source detection and characterization of morphology and spectrum. We present this likelihood-based method in detail, including the introduction of a model component to account for unresolved, large-scale emission along the Galactic plane. In total, the resulting HGPS catalog contains 78 VHE sources, of which 14 are not reanalyzed here, for example, due to their complex morphology, namely shell-like sources and the Galactic center region. Where possible, we provide a firm identification of the VHE source or plausible associations with sources in other astronomical catalogs. We also studied the characteristics of the VHE sources with source parameter distributions. 16 new sources were previously unknown or unpublished, and we individually discuss their identifications or possible associations. We firmly identified 31 sources as pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), supernova remnants (SNRs), composite SNRs, or gamma-ray binaries. Among the 47 sources not yet identified, most of them (36) have possible associations with cataloged objects, notably PWNe and energetic pulsars that could power VHE PWNe. The source catalog is available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/612/A1

  9. 2MASS Catalog Server Kit Version 2.1

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamauchi, C.

    2013-10-01

    The 2MASS Catalog Server Kit is open source software for use in easily constructing a high performance search server for important astronomical catalogs. This software utilizes the open source RDBMS PostgreSQL, therefore, any users can setup the database on their local computers by following step-by-step installation guide. The kit provides highly optimized stored functions for positional searchs similar to SDSS SkyServer. Together with these, the powerful SQL environment of PostgreSQL will meet various user's demands. We released 2MASS Catalog Server Kit version 2.1 in 2012 May, which supports the latest WISE All-Sky catalog (563,921,584 rows) and 9 major all-sky catalogs. Local databases are often indispensable for observatories with unstable or narrow-band networks or severe use, such as retrieving large numbers of records within a small period of time. This software is the best for such purposes, and increasing supported catalogs and improvements of version 2.1 can cover a wider range of applications including advanced calibration system, scientific studies using complicated SQL queries, etc. Official page: http://www.ir.isas.jaxa.jp/~cyamauch/2masskit/

  10. Modern representation of databases on the example of the Catalog of Solar Proton Events in the 23rd Cycle of Solar Activity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ishkov, V. N.; Zabarinskaya, L. P.; Sergeeva, N. A.

    2017-11-01

    The development of studies of solar sources and their effects on the state of the near-Earth space required systematization of the corresponding information in the form of databases and catalogs for the entire time of observation of any geoeffective phenomenon that includes, if possible at the time of creation, all of the characteristics of the phenomena themselves and the sources of these phenomena on the Sun. A uniform presentation of information in the form of a series of similar catalogs that cover long time intervals is of particular importance. The large amount of information collected in such catalogs makes it necessary to use modern methods of its organization and presentation that allow a transition between individual parts of the catalog and a quick search for necessary events and their characteristics, which is implemented in the presented Catalog of Solar Proton Events in the 23rd Cycle of Solar Activity of the sequence of catalogs (six separate issues) that cover the period from 1970 to 2009 (20th-23rd solar cycles).

  11. New UV-source catalogs, UV spectral database, UV variables and science tools from the GALEX surveys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bianchi, Luciana; de la Vega, Alexander; Shiao, Bernard; Bohlin, Ralph

    2018-03-01

    We present a new, expanded and improved catalog of Ultraviolet (UV) sources from the GALEX All-Sky Imaging survey: GUVcat_AIS (Bianchi et al. in Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 230:24, 2017). The catalog includes 83 million unique sources (duplicate measurements and rim artifacts are removed) measured in far-UV and near-UV. With respect to previous versions (Bianchi et al. in Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 411:2770 2011a, Adv. Space Res. 53:900-991, 2014), GUVcat_AIS covers a slightly larger area, 24,790 square degrees, and includes critical corrections and improvements, as well as new tags, in particular to identify sources in the footprint of extended objects, where pipeline source detection may fail and custom-photometry may be necessary. The UV unique-source catalog facilitates studies of density of sources, and matching of the UV samples with databases at other wavelengths. We also present first results from two ongoing projects, addressing respectively UV variability searches on time scales from seconds to years by mining the GALEX photon archive, and the construction of a database of ˜120,000 GALEX UV spectra (range ˜1300-3000 Å), including quality and calibration assessment and classification of the grism, hence serendipitous, spectral sources.

  12. The Einstein Observatory catalog of IPC x ray sources. Volume 1E: Documentation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harris, D. E.; Forman, W.; Gioia, I. M.; Hale, J. A.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Jones, C.; Karakashian, T.; Maccacaro, T.; Mcsweeney, J. D.; Primini, F. A.

    1993-01-01

    The Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2, launched November 13, 1978) achieved radically improved sensitivity over previous x-ray missions through the use of focusing optics, which simultaneously afforded greatly reduced background and produced true images. During its 2.5-yr mission, the Einstein X-Ray Telescope was pointed toward some 5,000 celestial targets, most of which were detected, and discovered several thousand additional 'serendipitous' sources in the observed fields. This catalog contains contour diagrams and source data, obtained with the imaging proportional counter in the 0.16 to 3.5 keV energy band, and describes methods for recovering upper limits for any sky position within the observed images. The main catalog consists of six volumes (numbered 2 through 7) of right ascension ordered pages, each containing data for one observation. Along with the primary documentation describing how the catalog was constructed, volume 1 contains a complete source list, results for merged fields, a reference system to published papers, and data useful for calculating upper limits and fluxes.

  13. Generation of the SCN1A epilepsy mutation in hiPS cells using the TALEN technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Wanjuan; Liu, Jingxin; Zhang, Longmei; Xu, Huijuan; Guo, Xiaogang; Deng, Sihao; Liu, Lipeng; Yu, Daiguan; Chen, Yonglong; Li, Zhiyuan

    2014-06-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) can be used to understand the pathological mechanisms of human disease. These cells are a promising source for cell-replacement therapy. However, such studies require genetically defined conditions. Such genetic manipulations can be performed using the novel Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs), which generate site-specific double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs) with high efficiency and precision. Combining the TALEN and iPSC methods, we developed two iPS cell lines by generating the point mutation A5768G in the SCN1A gene, which encodes the voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.1 α subunit. The engineered iPSC maintained pluripotency and successfully differentiated into neurons with normal functional characteristics. The two cell lines differ exclusively at the epilepsy-susceptibility variant. The ability to robustly introduce disease-causing point mutations in normal hiPS cell lines can be used to generate a human cell model for studying epileptic mechanisms and for drug screening.

  14. An isogenic blood-brain barrier model comprising brain endothelial cells, astrocytes, and neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Canfield, Scott G; Stebbins, Matthew J; Morales, Bethsymarie Soto; Asai, Shusaku W; Vatine, Gad D; Svendsen, Clive N; Palecek, Sean P; Shusta, Eric V

    2017-03-01

    The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is critical in maintaining a physical and metabolic barrier between the blood and the brain. The BBB consists of brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) that line the brain vasculature and combine with astrocytes, neurons and pericytes to form the neurovascular unit. We hypothesized that astrocytes and neurons generated from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) could induce BBB phenotypes in iPSC-derived BMECs, creating a robust multicellular human BBB model. To this end, iPSCs were used to form neural progenitor-like EZ-spheres, which were in turn differentiated to neurons and astrocytes, enabling facile neural cell generation. The iPSC-derived astrocytes and neurons induced barrier tightening in primary rat BMECs indicating their BBB inductive capacity. When co-cultured with human iPSC-derived BMECs, the iPSC-derived neurons and astrocytes significantly elevated trans-endothelial electrical resistance, reduced passive permeability, and improved tight junction continuity in the BMEC cell population, while p-glycoprotein efflux transporter activity was unchanged. A physiologically relevant neural cell mixture of one neuron: three astrocytes yielded optimal BMEC induction properties. Finally, an isogenic multicellular BBB model was successfully demonstrated employing BMECs, astrocytes, and neurons from the same donor iPSC source. It is anticipated that such an isogenic facsimile of the human BBB could have applications in furthering understanding the cellular interplay of the neurovascular unit in both healthy and diseased humans. Read the Editorial Highlight for this article on page 843. © 2016 International Society for Neurochemistry.

  15. Proximity of SCG10 and prion protein in membrane rafts.

    PubMed

    Iwamaru, Yoshifumi; Kitani, Hiroshi; Okada, Hiroyuki; Takenouchi, Takato; Shimizu, Yoshihisa; Imamura, Morikazu; Miyazawa, Kohtaro; Murayama, Yuichi; Hoover, Edward A; Yokoyama, Takashi

    2015-12-10

    The conversion of normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) into its pathogenic isoform (PrPSc) is an essential event in prion pathogenesis. In culture models, membrane rafts are suggested to play a critical role in PrPSc formation. To identify the candidate molecules capable of interacting with PrPC and facilitating PrPSc formation in membrane rafts, we applied a novel biochemical labelling method termed 'enzyme-mediated activation of radical sources (EMARS)'. EMARS was applied to the Lubrol WX insoluble detergent-resistant membrane fractions from mouse neuroblastoma (N2a) cells in which the surface PrPC was labeled with HRP-conjugated anti-PrP antibody. Two-dimensional Western blots of these preparations revealed biotinylated spots of approximately 20 kDa with an isoelectric point of 8.0-9.0. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis resulted in the identification of peptides containing SCG10, the neuron-specific microtubule regulator. Proximity of SCG10 and PrPC was confirmed using proximity ligation assay and co-immunoprecipitation assay. Transfection of persistently 22L prion infected N2a cells with SCG10 small interfering RNA reduced SCG10 expression but did not prevent PrPSc accumulation, indicating that SCG10 appears to be unrelated to PrPSc formation of 22L prion. Immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses showed reduced levels of SCG10 in the hippocampus of prion-infected mice, suggesting a possible association between SCG10 levels and the prion neuropathogenesis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  16. Improvement of Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Acute Hepatic Failure by Transplantation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells without Reprogramming Factor c-Myc

    PubMed Central

    Chang, Hua-Ming; Liao, Yi-Wen; Chiang, Chih-Hung; Chen, Yi-Jen; Lai, Ying-Hsiu; Chang, Yuh-Lih; Chen, Hen-Li; Jeng, Shaw-Yeu; Hsieh, Jung-Hung; Peng, Chi-Hsien; Li, Hsin-Yang; Chien, Yueh; Chen, Szu-Yu; Chen, Liang-Kung; Huo, Teh-Ia

    2012-01-01

    The only curative treatment for hepatic failure is liver transplantation. Unfortunately, this treatment has several major limitations, as for example donor organ shortage. A previous report demonstrated that transplantation of induced pluripotent stem cells without reprogramming factor c-Myc (3-genes iPSCs) attenuates thioacetamide-induced hepatic failure with minimal incidence of tumorigenicity. In this study, we investigated whether 3-genes iPSC transplantation is capable of rescuing carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced fulminant hepatic failure and hepatic encephalopathy in mice. Firstly, we demonstrated that 3-genes iPSCs possess the capacity to differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells (iPSC-Heps) that exhibit biological functions and express various hepatic specific markers. 3-genes iPSCs also exhibited several antioxidant enzymes that prevented CCl4-induced reactive oxygen species production and cell death. Intraperitoneal transplantation of either 3-genes iPSCs or 3-genes iPSC-Heps significantly reduced hepatic necrotic areas, improved hepatic functions, and survival rate in CCl4-treated mice. CCl4-induced hepatic encephalopathy was also improved by 3-genes iPSC transplantation. Hoechst staining confirmed the successful engraftment of both 3-genes iPSCs and 3-genes iPSC-Heps, indicating the homing properties of these cells. The most pronounced hepatoprotective effect of iPSCs appeared to originate from the highest antioxidant activity of 3-gene iPSCs among all transplanted cells. In summary, our findings demonstrated that 3-genes iPSCs serve as an available cell source for the treatment of an experimental model of acute liver diseases. PMID:22489170

  17. Matrigel Mattress: A Method for the Generation of Single Contracting Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

    PubMed

    Feaster, Tromondae K; Cadar, Adrian G; Wang, Lili; Williams, Charles H; Chun, Young Wook; Hempel, Jonathan E; Bloodworth, Nathaniel; Merryman, W David; Lim, Chee Chew; Wu, Joseph C; Knollmann, Björn C; Hong, Charles C

    2015-12-04

    The lack of measurable single-cell contractility of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac myocytes (hiPSC-CMs) currently limits the utility of hiPSC-CMs for evaluating contractile performance for both basic research and drug discovery. To develop a culture method that rapidly generates contracting single hiPSC-CMs and allows quantification of cell shortening with standard equipment used for studying adult CMs. Single hiPSC-CMs were cultured for 5 to 7 days on a 0.4- to 0.8-mm thick mattress of undiluted Matrigel (mattress hiPSC-CMs) and compared with hiPSC-CMs maintained on a control substrate (<0.1-mm thick 1:60 diluted Matrigel, control hiPSC-CMs). Compared with control hiPSC-CMs, mattress hiPSC-CMs had more rod-shape morphology and significantly increased sarcomere length. Contractile parameters of mattress hiPSC-CMs measured with video-based edge detection were comparable with those of freshly isolated adult rabbit ventricular CMs. Morphological and contractile properties of mattress hiPSC-CMs were consistent across cryopreserved hiPSC-CMs generated independently at another institution. Unlike control hiPSC-CMs, mattress hiPSC-CMs display robust contractile responses to positive inotropic agents, such as myofilament calcium sensitizers. Mattress hiPSC-CMs exhibit molecular changes that include increased expression of the maturation marker cardiac troponin I and significantly increased action potential upstroke velocity because of a 2-fold increase in sodium current (INa). The Matrigel mattress method enables the rapid generation of robustly contracting hiPSC-CMs and enhances maturation. This new method allows quantification of contractile performance at the single-cell level, which should be valuable to disease modeling, drug discovery, and preclinical cardiotoxicity testing. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

  18. Prions amplify through degradation of the VPS10P sorting receptor sortilin.

    PubMed

    Uchiyama, Keiji; Tomita, Mitsuru; Yano, Masashi; Chida, Junji; Hara, Hideyuki; Das, Nandita Rani; Nykjaer, Anders; Sakaguchi, Suehiro

    2017-06-01

    Prion diseases are a group of fatal neurodegenerative disorders caused by prions, which consist mainly of the abnormally folded isoform of prion protein, PrPSc. A pivotal pathogenic event in prion disease is progressive accumulation of prions, or PrPSc, in brains through constitutive conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein, PrPC, into PrPSc. However, the cellular mechanism by which PrPSc is progressively accumulated in prion-infected neurons remains unknown. Here, we show that PrPSc is progressively accumulated in prion-infected cells through degradation of the VPS10P sorting receptor sortilin. We first show that sortilin interacts with PrPC and PrPSc and sorts them to lysosomes for degradation. Consistently, sortilin-knockdown increased PrPSc accumulation in prion-infected cells. In contrast, overexpression of sortilin reduced PrPSc accumulation in prion-infected cells. These results indicate that sortilin negatively regulates PrPSc accumulation in prion-infected cells. The negative role of sortilin in PrPSc accumulation was further confirmed in sortilin-knockout mice infected with prions. The infected mice had accelerated prion disease with early accumulation of PrPSc in their brains. Interestingly, sortilin was reduced in prion-infected cells and mouse brains. Treatment of prion-infected cells with lysosomal inhibitors, but not proteasomal inhibitors, increased the levels of sortilin. Moreover, sortilin was reduced following PrPSc becoming detectable in cells after infection with prions. These results indicate that PrPSc accumulation stimulates sortilin degradation in lysosomes. Taken together, these results show that PrPSc accumulation of itself could impair the sortilin-mediated sorting of PrPC and PrPSc to lysosomes for degradation by stimulating lysosomal degradation of sortilin, eventually leading to progressive accumulation of PrPSc in prion-infected cells.

  19. Time-dependent clustering analysis of the second BATSE gamma-ray burst catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brainerd, J. J.; Meegan, C. A.; Briggs, Michael S.; Pendleton, G. N.; Brock, M. N.

    1995-01-01

    A time-dependent two-point correlation-function analysis of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) 2B catalog finds no evidence of burst repetition. As part of this analysis, we discuss the effects of sky exposure on the observability of burst repetition and present the equation describing the signature of burst repetition in the data. For a model of all burst repetition from a source occurring in less than five days we derive upper limits on the number of bursts in the catalog from repeaters and model-dependent upper limits on the fraction of burst sources that produce multiple outbursts.

  20. Infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS) catalogs and atlases. Volume 7: The small scale structure catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Helou, George (Editor); Walker, D. W. (Editor)

    1988-01-01

    The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched January 26, 1983. During its 300-day mission, it surveyed over 96 pct of the celestial sphere at four infrared wavelengths, centered approximately at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. Volume 1 describes the instrument, the mission, and the data reduction process. Volumes 2 through 6 present the observations of the approximately 245,000 individual point sources detected by IRAS; each volume gives sources within a specified range of declination. Volume 7 gives the observations of the approximately 16,000 sources spatially resolved by IRAS and smaller than 8'. This is Volume 7, The Small Scale Structure Catalog.

  1. Towards a Future ICRF Realization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ma, Chopo; Gordon, D.; MacMillan, D.; Petrov, L.; Smith, David E. (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    The data and analysis for the ICRF were completed in 1995 to define a frame to which the Hipparcos optical catalog could be fixed. Additional observations on most of the 608 sources in the overall ICRF catalog have been acquired using a small portion of geodetic observing time as well as astrometric sessions concentrating on the southern hemisphere. Positions of new sources have been determined, including approx.1200 from a VLBA phase calibrator survey. A future ICRF realization will require improved geophysical modeling, sophisticated treatment of position variations and/or source structure, optimized data selection and weighting, and reidentification of defining sources. The motivation for the next realization could be significant improvement in accuracy and density or preparation for optical extragalactic catalogs with microarcsecond precision.

  2. Towards a Future ICRF Realization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ma, Chopo; Gordon, David; MacMillan, Daniel; Petrov, Leonid

    2002-01-01

    The data and analysis for the ICRF were completed in 1995 to define a frame to which the Hipparcos optical catalog could be fixed. Additional observations on most of the 608 sources in the overall ICRF catalog have been acquired using a small portion of geodetic observing time as well as astrometric sessions concentrating on the Southern Hemisphere. Positions of new sources have been determined, including approximately 1200 from a VLBA phase calibrator survey. A future ICRF realization will require improved geophysical modeling, sophisticated treatment of position variations and/or source structure, optimized data selection and weighting, and re-identification of defining sources. The motivation for the next realization could be significant improvement in accuracy and density or preparation for optical extragalactic catalogs with microarcsecond precision.

  3. Rapid Monte Carlo Simulation of Gravitational Wave Galaxies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Breivik, Katelyn; Larson, Shane L.

    2015-01-01

    With the detection of gravitational waves on the horizon, astrophysical catalogs produced by gravitational wave observatories can be used to characterize the populations of sources and validate different galactic population models. Efforts to simulate gravitational wave catalogs and source populations generally focus on population synthesis models that require extensive time and computational power to produce a single simulated galaxy. Monte Carlo simulations of gravitational wave source populations can also be used to generate observation catalogs from the gravitational wave source population. Monte Carlo simulations have the advantes of flexibility and speed, enabling rapid galactic realizations as a function of galactic binary parameters with less time and compuational resources required. We present a Monte Carlo method for rapid galactic simulations of gravitational wave binary populations.

  4. Event Discrimination Using Seismoacoustic Catalog Probabilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albert, S.; Arrowsmith, S.; Bowman, D.; Downey, N.; Koch, C.

    2017-12-01

    Presented here are three seismoacoustic catalogs from various years and locations throughout Utah and New Mexico. To create these catalogs, we combine seismic and acoustic events detected and located using different algorithms. Seismoacoustic events are formed based on similarity of origin time and location. Following seismoacoustic fusion, the data is compared against ground truth events. Each catalog contains events originating from both natural and anthropogenic sources. By creating these seismoacoustic catalogs, we show that the fusion of seismic and acoustic data leads to a better understanding of the nature of individual events. The probability of an event being a surface blast given its presence in each seismoacoustic catalog is quantified. We use these probabilities to discriminate between events from natural and anthropogenic sources. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.

  5. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Chromospherically Active Binaries (Strassmeier+ 1993)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strassmeier, K. G.; Hall, D. S.; Fekel, F. C.

    1996-08-01

    Stars always appear in order of increasing right-ascension for the epoch 2000.0. For the current version of the catalog, the literature was searched through December 31, 1991 although a few later references are included. Additionally, some entries are cited with "private communication", which make this catalog also a first-hand source. A number in parentheses behind an entry always corresponds to a reference given in the bibliography. See the 1988 publication for specific requirements and restrictions in compiling these catalogs. See the source reference for more details about this catalog. The following binary systems, which were listed in the first edition of the catalog, were not included in the present edition due to insufficient evidence for chromospheric activity: eta And 26 Aql 4 UMi nu2 Sgr tau Sgr the following stars are chromospherically active but are components in a "wide" binary and were not included. HD 25893 HD 79211 Forty three new binary systems have been included in the present edition. (12 data files).

  6. Cataloging the Entire Sky with NOAO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nidever, David; Dey, Arjun; Olsen, Knut; Nikutta, Robert; Juneau, Stephanie; NOAO Data Lab Team

    2018-01-01

    More than two thirds of the sky has now been imaged in at least one band with NOAO's telescopes. The large majority of these data were obtained for PI-led projects and surveys, and thus far only a small fraction have been released to the community via well-calibrated and easily accessible catalogs. We are remedying this by creating a catalog of sources from most of the public data taken using the CTIO-4m+DECam and KPNO-4m+Mosaic3. This catalog, called the NOAO Source Catalog (NSC), currently covers ~25,000 square degrees, contains 20 billion individual measurements of 2 billion unique objects, and has 10-sigma depths of ~23rd magnitude in most broad-band filters and astrometric accuracy of ~20 mas. The NSC can be used to investigate stellar streams, dwarf satellite galaxies, galaxy distributions, variable stars and other transients. I will give an overview of the first public data release distributed through NOAO Data Lab and discuss initial results from a search for Milky Way satellite galaxies using the new catalog.

  7. A Guide to U.S. Government Documents.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clark, Suzanne M., Comp.

    This listing of government documents in the Bailey/Howe Library of the University of Vermont covers (1) general information sources including guides, current catalogs and indexes, retrospective catalogs and indexes, and biographical and statistical materials; (2) Presidential and Executive Branch activity information sources, such as addresses,…

  8. VizieR Online Data Catalog: First Fermi-LAT Inner Galaxy point source catalog (Ajello+, 2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Atwood, W. B.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonino, R.; Bottacini, E.; Brandt, T. J.; Bregeon, J.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Buson, S.; Caliandro, G. A.; Cameron, R. A.; Caputo, R.; Caragiulo, M.; Caraveo, P. A.; Cecchi, C.; Chekhtman, A.; Chiang, J.; Chiaro, G.; Ciprini, S.; Cohen-Tanugi, J.; Cominsky, L. R.; Conrad, J.; Cutini, S.; D'Ammando, F.; de Angelis, A.; de Palma, F.; Desiante, R.; di Venere, L.; Drell, P. S.; Favuzzi, C.; Ferrara, E. C.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Giglietto, N.; Giommi, P.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Godfrey, G.; Gomez-Vargas, G. A.; Grenier, I. A.; Guiriec, S.; Gustafsson, M.; Harding, A. K.; Hewitt, J. W.; Hill, A. B.; Horan, D.; Jogler, T.; Johannesson, G.; Johnson, A. S.; Kamae, T.; Karwin, C.; Knodlseder, J.; Kuss, M.; Larsson, S.; Latronico, L.; Li, J.; Li, L.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lovellette, M. N.; Lubrano, P.; Magill, J.; Maldera, S.; Malyshev, D.; Manfreda, A.; Mayer, M.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Michelson, P. F.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Moiseev, A. A.; Monzani, M. E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Murgia, S.; Nuss, E.; Ohno, M.; Ohsugi, T.; Omodei, N.; Orlando, E.; Ormes, J. F.; Paneque, D.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Piron, F.; Pivato, G.; Porter, T. A.; Raino, S.; Rando, R.; Razzano, M.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Ritz, S.; Sanchez-Conde, M.; Parkinson, P. M. S.; Sgro, C.; Siskind, E. J.; Smith, D. A.; Spada, F.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Suson, D. J.; Tajima, H.; Takahashi, H.; Thayer, J. B.; Torres, D. F.; Tosti, G.; Troja, E.; Uchiyama, Y.; Vianello, G.; Winer, B. L.; Wood, K. S.; Zaharijas, G.; Zimmer, S.

    2018-01-01

    The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) has provided the most detailed view to date of the emission toward the Galactic center (GC) in high-energy γ-rays. This paper describes the analysis of data taken during the first 62 months of the mission in the energy range 1-100GeV from a 15°x15° region about the direction of the GC. Specialized interstellar emission models (IEMs) are constructed to enable the separation of the γ-ray emissions produced by cosmic ray particles interacting with the interstellar gas and radiation fields in the Milky Way into that from the inner ~1kpc surrounding the GC, and that from the rest of the Galaxy. A catalog of point sources for the 15°x15° region is self-consistently constructed using these IEMs: the First Fermi-LAT Inner Galaxy Point Source Catalog (1FIG). The spatial locations, fluxes, and spectral properties of the 1FIG sources are presented, and compared with γ-ray point sources over the same region taken from existing catalogs. After subtracting the interstellar emission and point-source contributions a residual is found. If templates that peak toward the GC are used to model the positive residual the agreement with the data improves, but none of the additional templates tried account for all of its spatial structure. The spectrum of the positive residual modeled with these templates has a strong dependence on the choice of IEM. (2 data files).

  9. An Open Catalog for Supernova Data

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Guillochon, James; Parrent, Jerod; Kelley, Luke Zoltan

    We present the Open Supernova Catalog , an online collection of observations and metadata for presently 36,000+ supernovae and related candidates. The catalog is freely available on the web (https://sne.space), with its main interface having been designed to be a user-friendly, rapidly searchable table accessible on desktop and mobile devices. In addition to the primary catalog table containing supernova metadata, an individual page is generated for each supernova, which displays its available metadata, light curves, and spectra spanning X-ray to radio frequencies. The data presented in the catalog is automatically rebuilt on a daily basis and is constructed by parsingmore » several dozen sources, including the data presented in the supernova literature and from secondary sources such as other web-based catalogs. Individual supernova data is stored in the hierarchical, human- and machine-readable JSON format, with the entirety of each supernova’s data being contained within a single JSON file bearing its name. The setup we present here, which is based on open-source software maintained via git repositories hosted on github, enables anyone to download the entirety of the supernova data set to their home computer in minutes, and to make contributions of their own data back to the catalog via git. As the supernova data set continues to grow, especially in the upcoming era of all-sky synoptic telescopes, which will increase the total number of events by orders of magnitude, we hope that the catalog we have designed will be a valuable tool for the community to analyze both historical and contemporary supernovae.« less

  10. An Open Catalog for Supernova Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guillochon, James; Parrent, Jerod; Kelley, Luke Zoltan; Margutti, Raffaella

    2017-01-01

    We present the Open Supernova Catalog, an online collection of observations and metadata for presently 36,000+ supernovae and related candidates. The catalog is freely available on the web (https://sne.space), with its main interface having been designed to be a user-friendly, rapidly searchable table accessible on desktop and mobile devices. In addition to the primary catalog table containing supernova metadata, an individual page is generated for each supernova, which displays its available metadata, light curves, and spectra spanning X-ray to radio frequencies. The data presented in the catalog is automatically rebuilt on a daily basis and is constructed by parsing several dozen sources, including the data presented in the supernova literature and from secondary sources such as other web-based catalogs. Individual supernova data is stored in the hierarchical, human- and machine-readable JSON format, with the entirety of each supernova’s data being contained within a single JSON file bearing its name. The setup we present here, which is based on open-source software maintained via git repositories hosted on github, enables anyone to download the entirety of the supernova data set to their home computer in minutes, and to make contributions of their own data back to the catalog via git. As the supernova data set continues to grow, especially in the upcoming era of all-sky synoptic telescopes, which will increase the total number of events by orders of magnitude, we hope that the catalog we have designed will be a valuable tool for the community to analyze both historical and contemporary supernovae.

  11. Fixing the reference frame for PPMXL proper motions using extragalactic sources

    DOE PAGES

    Grabowski, Kathleen; Carlin, Jeffrey L.; Newberg, Heidi Jo; ...

    2015-05-27

    In this study, we quantify and correct systematic errors in PPMXL proper motions using extragalactic sources from the first two LAMOST data releases and the Vèron-Cetty & Vèron Catalog of Quasars. Although the majority of the sources are from the Vèron catalog, LAMOST makes important contributions in regions that are not well-sampled by previous catalogs, particularly at low Galactic latitudes and in the south Galactic cap. We show that quasars in PPMXL have measurable and significant proper motions, which reflect the systematic zero-point offsets present in the catalog. We confirm the global proper motion shifts seen by Wu et al.,more » and additionally find smaller-scale fluctuations of the QSO-derived corrections to an absolute frame. Finally, we average the proper motions of 158 106 extragalactic objects in bins of 3° × 3° and present a table of proper motion corrections.« less

  12. Preview of the BATSE Earth Occultation Catalog of Low Energy Gamma Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harmon, B. A.; Wilson, C. A.; Fishman, G. J.; McCollough, M. L.; Robinson, C. R.; Sahi, M.; Paciesas, W. S.; Zhang, S. N.

    1999-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) has been detecting and monitoring point sources in the high energy sky since 1991. Although BATSE is best known for gamma ray bursts, it also monitors the sky for longer-lived sources of radiation. Using the Earth occultation technique to extract flux information, a catalog is being prepared of about 150 sources potential emission in the large area detectors (20-1000 keV). The catalog will contain light curves, representative spectra, and parametric data for black hole and neutron star binaries, active galaxies, and super-nova remnants. In this preview, we present light curves for persistent and transient sources, and also show examples of what type of information can be obtained from the BATSE Earth occultation database. Options for making the data easily accessible as an "on line" WWW document are being explored.

  13. New science catalogs of UV sources from the GALEX sky surveys, matched to optical-IR surveys. Related science tools, models, and first results on the characterization of evolved Galactic stellar populations.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bianchi, Luciana; Shiao, Bernie; Thilker, David; Barr, Robert; Girardi, Leo

    2018-01-01

    GUVcat is a new, expanded and improved catalog of Ultraviolet (UV) sources from the GALEX surveys (Bianchi et al. 2017, ApJ Suppl, 230, 24; arXiv:1704.05903). It contains 83million unique sources measured in FUV and NUV (duplicate measurements and rim artifacts removed) at AIS depth (about FUV < 20, NUV<20.8 ABmag). It covers an area of 24,790 sq.deg., larger than that of previous versions (e.g., Bianchi et al. 2011 MNRAS 411, 2770; Bianchi et al.2014 J. ASR. 53, 900). In GUVcat we cured 640 fields improperly coadded by the GALEX pipeline, and implemented other improvements and new tags, e.g. to mark sources in the footprint of nearby extended galaxies or crowded clusters.The UV unique-source catalog facilitates studies of density of sources, and matching with catalogs at other wavelegths. We matched GUVcat with SDSS and Pan-STARRS surveys, which provide five optical bands each, and used the UV-to-optical colors to classify sources by astrophysical class, and to characterize classes of stellar sources to which UV data are uniquely sensitive, such as hot white dwarfs (WD), including elusive types of binaries. We compared the content of Galactic sources with Milky Way models, computed with different prescriptions. We also matched GUVcat with the first Gaia source and Gaia TGAS releases, which add precise position and G-band photometry for the bright sources, and direct distance measurements for a few very bright sources. GALEX spectra are also available and included in the analysis. Follow-up observations with HST are ongoing for an exploratory subsample.The source catalogs and related tools are available from the uvsky web site http://dolomiti.pha.jhu.edu/uvsky/#GUVcat . GUVcat_AIS is also available from MAST casjobs and soon from Vizier. A useful tool for calculating the effective area coverage of GUVcat, and of the matched catalogs, in user-chosen regions of the sky, is also available at the above url.Acknowledgements: Partial support for this work was provided by NASA grants: NNX16AF40G, NNX14AF88G, HST-GO-14119.001

  14. The Chandra Source Catalog 2.0

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, Ian N.; Allen, Christopher E.; Anderson, Craig S.; Budynkiewicz, Jamie A.; Burke, Douglas; Chen, Judy C.; Civano, Francesca Maria; D'Abrusco, Raffaele; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Graessle, Dale E.; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; Houck, John C.; Lauer, Jennifer L.; Laurino, Omar; Lee, Nicholas P.; Martínez-Galarza, Juan Rafael; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; McLaughlin, Warren; Miller, Joseph; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nguyen, Dan T.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Paxson, Charles; Plummer, David A.; Primini, Francis Anthony; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael; Van Stone, David W.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2018-01-01

    The current version of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) continues to be well utilized by the astronomical community. Usage over the past year has continued to average more than 15,000 searches per month. Version 1.1 of the CSC, released in 2010, includes properties and data for 158,071 detections, corresponding to 106,586 distinct X-ray sources on the sky. The second major release of the catalog, CSC 2.0, will be made available to the user community in early 2018, and preliminary lists of detections and sources are available now. Release 2.0 will roughly triple the size of the current version of the catalog to an estimated 375,000 detections, corresponding to ~315,000 unique X-ray sources. Compared to release 1.1, the limiting sensitivity for compact sources in CSC 2.0 is significantly enhanced. This improvement is achieved by using a two-stage approach that involves stacking (co-adding) multiple observations of the same field prior to source detection, and then using an improved source detection approach that enables us to detect point source down to ~5 net counts on-axis for exposures shorter than ~15 ks. In addition to enhanced source detection capabilities, improvements to the Bayesian aperture photometry code included in release 2.0 provides robust photometric probability density functions (PDFs) in crowded fields even for low count detections. All post-aperture photometry properties (e.g., hardness ratios, source variability) work directly from the PDFs in release 2.0. CSC 2.0 also adds a Bayesian Blocks analysis of the multi-band aperture photometry PDFs to identify multiple observations of the same source that have similar photometric properties, and therefore can be analyzed simultaneously to improve S/N.We briefly describe these and other updates that significantly enhance the scientific utility of CSC 2.0 when compared to the earlier catalog release.This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center.

  15. The new management policy: Indonesian PSC-Gross split applied on CO2 flooding project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Irham, S.; Sibuea, S. N.; Danu, A.

    2018-01-01

    “SIAD” oil field will be developed by CO2 flooding. CO2, a famous pollutant gas, is injected into the oil reservoir to optimize the oil recovery. This technique should be conducted economically according to the energy management policy in Indonesia. In general, Indonesia has two policy contracts on oil and gas: the old one is PSC-Cost-Recovery, and the new one is PSC-Gross-Split (introduced in 2017 as the new energy management plan). The contractor must choose between PSC-Cost-Recovery and PSC-Gross-Split which makes more profit. The aim of this paper is to show the best oil and gas contract policy for the contractor. The methods are calculating and comparing the economic indicators. The result of this study are (1) NPV for the PSC-Cost-Recovery is -46 MUS, while for the PSC-Gross-Split is 73 MUS, and (2) IRR for the PSC-Cost-Recovery is 9%, whereas for the PSC-Gross-Split is 11%. The conclusion is that the NPV and IRR for PSC-Gross-Split are greater than the NPV and IRR of PSC-Cost-Recovery, but POT in PSC-Gross-split is longer than POT in PSC-Cost-Recovery. Thus, in this case, the new energy policy contract can be applied for CO2 flooding technology since it yields higher economic indicators than its antecendent.

  16. IRSA

    Science.gov Websites

    Ipac_logo NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive Search for Source Search Radius 10 deg arcmin arcsec Guide for Solar System Observers Search Catalog: WISE 2MASS Spitzer Planck Herschel Gaia COSMOS PTF IRAS MSX AKARI Bolocam USNO DENIS Composite_Catalogs Contributed_Data_Sets INTERNALS Search Catalogs

  17. An Enhanced Multiwavelength Photometric Catalog for the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nyland, Kristina

    2017-01-01

    Although our knowledge of the physics of galaxy evolution has made great strides over the past few decades, we still lack a complete understanding of the formation and growth of galaxies at high redshift. The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS) aims to address this issue through deep Spitzer observations at [3.6] and [4.5] microns of 4 million sources distributed over five well-studied “deep fields” with abundant ancillary data from ground-based near-infrared surveys. The large SERVS footprint covers 18 square degrees and will provide a census of the multiwavelength properties of massive galaxies in the redshift range z = 1-6. A critical aspect of the scientific success and legacy value of SERVS is the construction of a robust source catalog. While multiwavelength source catalogs of the SERVS fields have been generated using traditional techniques, the photometric accuracy of these catalogs is limited by their inability to correctly measure fluxes of individual sources that are blended and/or inherently faint in the IRAC bands. To improve upon this shortfall and maximize the scientific impact of SERVS, we are using The Tractor image modeling code to produce a more accurate and complete multiwavelength source catalog. The Tractor optimizes a likelihood for the source properties given an image cut-out, light profile model, and the PSF information. Thus, The Tractor uses the source properties at the fiducial, highest-resolution band as a prior to more accurately measure the source properties in the lower-resolution images at longer wavelengths. We provide an overview of our parallelized implementation of The Tractor, discuss the subsequent improvements to the SERVS photometry, and suggest future applications.

  18. Web catalog of oceanographic data using GeoNetwork

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marinova, Veselka; Stefanov, Asen

    2017-04-01

    Most of the data collected, analyzed and used by Bulgarian oceanographic data center (BgODC) from scientific cruises, argo floats, ferry boxes and real time operating systems are spatially oriented and need to be displayed on the map. The challenge is to make spatial information more accessible to users, decision makers and scientists. In order to meet this challenge, BgODC concentrate its efforts on improving dynamic and standardized access to their geospatial data as well as those from various related organizations and institutions. BgODC currently is implementing a project to create a geospatial portal for distributing metadata and search, exchange and harvesting spatial data. There are many open source software solutions able to create such spatial data infrastructure (SDI). Finally, the GeoNetwork open source is chosen, as it is already widespread. This software is free, effective and "cheap" solution for implementing SDI at organization level. It is platform independent and runs under many operating systems. Filling of the catalog goes through these practical steps: • Managing and storing data reliably within MS SQL spatial data base; • Registration of maps and data of various formats and sources in GeoServer (most popular open source geospatial server embedded with GeoNetwork) ; • Filling added meta data and publishing geospatial data at the desktop of GeoNetwork. GeoServer and GeoNetwork are based on Java so they require installing of a servlet engine like Tomcat. The experience gained from the use of GeoNetwork Open Source confirms that the catalog meets the requirements for data management and is flexible enough to customize. Building the catalog facilitates sustainable data exchange between end users. The catalog is a big step towards implementation of the INSPIRE directive due to availability of many features necessary for producing "INSPIRE compliant" metadata records. The catalog now contains all available GIS data provided by BgODC for Internet access. Searching data within the catalog is based upon geographic extent, theme type and free text search.

  19. Retrospective Catalog Conversion in Mid-Sized Law Libraries: Some Practical Guidelines for Automation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Riger, Robert E.

    1992-01-01

    Discusses retrospective catalog conversion from the viewpoint of a law firm library. Topics discussed include reasons for retrospective conversion; preplanning; suggestions for the selection of software; conducting an inventory of the collection; sources of MARC bibliographic records; setting up an online public access catalog; and marketing…

  20. Exosomes Derived From Pancreatic Stellate Cells: MicroRNA Signature and Effects on Pancreatic Cancer Cells.

    PubMed

    Takikawa, Tetsuya; Masamune, Atsushi; Yoshida, Naoki; Hamada, Shin; Kogure, Takayuki; Shimosegawa, Tooru

    2017-01-01

    Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) interact with pancreatic cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment. Cell constituents including microRNAs may be exported from cells within membranous nanovesicles termed exosomes. Exosomes might play a pivotal role in intercellular communication. This study aimed to clarify the microRNA signature of PSC-derived exosomes and their effects on pancreatic cancer cells. Exosomes were prepared from the conditioned medium of immortalized human PSCs. MicroRNAs were prepared from the exosomes and their source PSCs, and the microRNA expression profiles were compared by microarray. The effects of PSC-derived exosomes on proliferation, migration, and the mRNA expression profiles were examined in pancreatic cancer cells. Pancreatic stellate cell-derived exosomes contained a variety of microRNAs including miR-21-5p. Several microRNAs such as miR-451a were enriched in exosomes compared to their source PSCs. Pancreatic stellate cell-derived exosomes stimulated the proliferation, migration and expression of mRNAs for chemokine (C - X - C motif) ligands 1 and 2 in pancreatic cancer cells. The stimulation of proliferation, migration, and chemokine gene expression by the conditioned medium of PSCs was suppressed by GW4869, an exosome inhibitor. We clarified the microRNA expression profile in PSC-derived exosomes. Pancreatic stellate cell-derived exosomes might play a role in the interactions between PSCs and pancreatic cancer cells.

  1. Sexually localized expression of pseudo-self compatibility (PSC) in Petunia X hybrida Hort : 2. Stylar inactivation.

    PubMed

    Dana, M N; Ascher, P D

    1986-01-01

    A previously identified S-linked stylar-inactivation PSC factor (Flaschenriem and Ascher 1979b) was studied for its location relative to S. Plants exhibiting complete stylar-inactivation PSC were those with higher multigenic PSC background level than plants with only S-linked partial stylar-inactivation PSC. A pollen-mediated pseudo-self compatibility (PMPSC) adjustment factor was offered as a device to focus on stylar-inactivation PSC by removing some male origin, multigenic PSC. The stylar inactivation factor was not tightly linked to S but affected expression of only the allele to which it was linked. A three part interacting association of genetic material governing self incompatibility (SI) is proposed. The parts of S are the SI identity gene, S-specific PSC genes and, finally, PSC genes which are not S-specific in action. The complete association is termed the SI-complex.

  2. VizieR Online Data Catalog: NGC3115 & NGC1399 VEGAS-SSS globular clusters (Cantiello+, 2018)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cantiello, M.; D'Abrusco, R.; Spavone, M.; Paolillo, M.; Capaccioli, M.; Limatola, L.; Grado, A.; Iodice, E.; Raimondo, G.; Napolitano, N.; Blakeslee, J. P.; Brocato, E.; Forbes, D. A.; Hilker, M.; Mieske, S.; Peletier, R.; van de Ven, G.; Schipani, P.

    2017-11-01

    Photometric catalogs for globular cluster (GC) candidates over the the 1 sq. degree area around NGC3115 and NGC1399 (ngc3115.dat and ngc1399.dat). The catalogues are based on u-, g- and i- band images from the VST elliptical galaxies survey (VEGAS). Aperture magnitudes, corrected for aperture correction are reported. We also provide the full catalogs of matched sources, which also include the matched background and foreground sources in the frames (ngc3115_full.dat and ngc1399_full.dat). (4 data files).

  3. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Flaring gamma-ray sources; LAT 7.4yr (2FAV) (Abdollahi+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdollahi, S.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Becerra Gonzalez, J.; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonino, R.; Bottacini, E.; Bregeon, J.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Buson, S.; Cameron, R. A.; Caragiulo, M.; Caraveo, P. A.; Cavazzuti, E.; Cecchi, C.; Chekhtman, A.; Cheung, C. C.; Chiaro, G.; Ciprini, S.; Conrad, J.; Costantin, D.; Costanza, F.; Cutini, S.; D'Ammando, F.; de Palma, F.; Desai, A.; Desiante, R.; Digel, S. W.; di Lalla, N.; di Mauro, M.; di Venere, L.; Donaggio, B.; Drell, P. S.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Ferrara, E. C.; Focke, W. B.; Franckowiak, A.; Fukazawa, Y.; Funk, S.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Giglietto, N.; Giomi, M.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Green, D.; Grenier, I. A.; Grove, J. E.; Guillemot, L.; Guiriec, S.; Hays, E.; Horan, D.; Jogler, T.; Johannesson, G.; Johnson, A. S.; Kocevski, D.; Kuss, M.; La Mura, G.; Larsson, S.; Latronico, L.; Li, J.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lovellette, M. N.; Lubrano, P.; Magill, J. D.; Mal! Dera, S.; Manfreda, A.; Mayer, M.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Michelson, P. F.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Monzani, M. E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Negro, M.; Nuss, E.; Ohsugi, T.; Omodei, N.; Orienti, M.; Orlando, E.; Paliya, V. S.; Paneque, D.; Perkins, J. S.; Persic, M.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Petrosian, V.; Piron, F.; Porter, T. A.; Principe, G.; Raino, S.; Rando, R.; Razzano, M.; Razzaque, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Sgro, C.; Simone, D.; Siskind, E. J.; Spada, F.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Stawarz, L.; Suson, D. J.; Takahashi, M.; Tanaka, K.; Thayer, J. B.; Thompson, D. J.; Torres, D. F.; Torresi, E.; Tosti, G.; Troja, E.; Vianello, G.; Wood, K. S.

    2018-04-01

    To build the second catalog of flaring gamma-ray sources (2FAV) catalog, we apply the Fermi All-sky Variability Analysis (FAVA; Ackermann+ 2013, J/ApJ/771/57) to the first 387 weeks of Fermi observations, from Mission Elapsed Time (MET) 239557418 to 473615018, or Modified Julian Date (MJD) from 54682 (2008 August 4) to 57391 (2016 January 4). In this time range, a total of 7106 seed flares were found, roughly 18 per week. As for the previous catalog, FAVA uses weekly time bins. Two independent energy bands are used, 0.1-0.8GeV and 0.8-300GeV, to enhance the sensitivity to spectrally soft and hard flares, respectively. (2 data files).

  4. MSX Colors of Radio-Selected HII Regions in the Milky Way

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giveon, U.; Becker, R. H.; Helfand, D. J.; White, R. L.

    2003-12-01

    Investigation of the color-space properties of mid-infrared sources in the MSX Galactic plane catalog reveals two distinct populations - a blue population composed mainly of evolved stars, masers and molecular clouds, and a red population comprising sources of a nebular nature - HII regions, planetary nebulae, and unclassified radio sources. We compare the MSX catalog to 5 GHz VLA maps of the first quadrant of the Galactic plane. A catalog extracted from these maps was published first by Becker et al., but we have re-reduced the data with significantly improved calibration and mosaicing procedures, resulting in an increase of ˜ 60% in the number of detected sources. Comparison of the radio and infrared catalogs resulted in a sample of 491 matches, out of which we estimate 38 to be false counterparts, all of them from the MSX red population. The radio sources with infrared counterparts are found to have extremely small scale height (FWHM of 14' or ˜ 35 pc), and have thermal radio spectrum. These properties suggest that the sample is dominated by HII regions, most of them are previously uncataloged. This research is supported be the National Science Foundation.

  5. Risk factors and prognosis for recurrent primary sclerosing cholangitis after liver transplantation: a Nordic Multicentre Study.

    PubMed

    Lindström, Lina; Jørgensen, Kristin K; Boberg, Kirsten M; Castedal, Maria; Rasmussen, Allan; Rostved, Andreas Arendtsen; Isoniemi, Helena; Bottai, Matteo; Bergquist, Annika

    2018-03-01

    The risk for recurrent primary sclerosing cholangitis (rPSC) after liver transplantation is associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We assessed the frequency of rPSC and studied risk factors for recurrent disease with special focus on IBD. We also evaluated the importance of rPSC for prognosis. All liver transplanted PSC patients in the Nordic countries between 1984 and 2007 (n = 440), identified by the Nordic Liver Transplant Registry, were studied. Data were retrieved from patients' chart reviews. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to calculate risk factors for rPSC and death. Of the 440 patients with a follow-up time after liver transplantation of 3743 patient years, rPSC was diagnosed in 19% (n = 85). Colectomy before liver transplantation was associated with a reduced risk of rPSC (HR 0.49; 95% CI, 0.26-0.94, p = 0.033). Neither high IBD activity nor presence of IBD flares before or after liver transplantation was associated with rPSC. Treatment with tacrolimus was an independent risk factor associated with increased risk for rPSC (HR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.15-2.86, p = 0.010). The risk of dying or needing a re-transplantation after rPSC was increased in all age groups, but highest in patients transplanted before 40 years of age (HR 7.3; 95% CI, 4.1-12.8, p = 0.0001). This study confirms that colectomy before liver transplantation is associated with a decreased risk of rPSC. Inflammatory activity of IBD was not associated with the risk of rPSC. Tacrolimus was an independent risk factor for PSC recurrence and its use as first line immunosuppression in PSC needs further study.

  6. Should Psychosocial Safety Climate Theory Be Extended to Include Climate Strength?

    PubMed

    Afsharian, Ali; Zadow, Amy; Dollard, Maureen F; Dormann, Christian; Ziaian, Tahereh

    2017-08-31

    Psychosocial safety climate (PSC; climate for psychological health) is an organizational antecedent to work conditions articulated in the job demands-resources model. We responded to calls for broader consideration of organizational climate in terms of both climate level and strength. We tested PSC level and strength as main and interactive predictors of work conditions, psychological health, and engagement. Using multilevel analysis and cross-sectional data, the effects of unit-level PSC constructs were investigated in 21 hospital work units (n = 249 employees) in Australia. The correlation between PSC levels (measured at the unit mean) and PSC strength (measured as unit -1 × SD) was moderate and positive, suggesting that ceiling effects of PSC scores were not problematic. PSC level was a better predictor than PSC strength or their interactions for job demands (psychological and emotional demands), job resources (e.g., skill discretion and organizational support), and health (emotional exhaustion). For engagement, the interaction was significant-improving engagement, therefore, benefits from high levels of PSC and PSC strength within the work units. So, in answer to the research question regarding PSC theory extension, "it depends on the outcome." Research limitations are acknowledged, and the potential of the PSC model to guide the reduction of workplace psychosocial risk factors and the negative consequences is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  7. The Einstein Observatory catalog of IPC x ray sources. Volume 6E: Right ascension range 16h 00m to 19h 59m

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harris, D. E.; Forman, W.; Gioia, I. M.; Hale, J. A.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Jones, C.; Karakashian, T.; Maccacaro, T.; Mcsweeney, J. D.; Primini, F. A.

    1993-01-01

    The Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2 launched November 13, 1978) achieved radically improved sensitivity over previous x-ray missions through the use of focusing optics, which simultaneously afforded greatly reduced background and produced true images. During its 2.5-yr mission, the Einstein X-Ray Telescope was pointed toward some 5,000 celestial targets, most of which were detected, and discovered several thousand additional 'serendipitous' sources in the observed fields. This catalog contains contour diagrams and source data, obtained with the imaging proportional counter in the 0.16 to 3.5 keV energy band, and describes methods for recovering upper limits for any sky position within the observed images. The main catalog consists of six volumes (numbered 2 through 7) of right ascension ordered pages, each containing data for one observation. Along with the primary documentation describing how the catalog was constructed, volume 1 contains a complete source list, results for merged fields, a reference system to published papers, and data useful for calculating upper limits and fluxes.

  8. The Einstein Observatory catalog of IPC x ray sources. Volume 5E: Right ascension range 12h 00m to 15h 59m

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harris, D. E.; Forman, W.; Gioia, I. M.; Hale, J. A.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Jones, C.; Karakashian, T.; Maccacaro, T.; Mcsweeney, J. D.; Primini, F. A.

    1993-01-01

    The Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2, launched November 13, 1978) achieved radically improved sensitivity over previous x-ray missions through the use of focusing optics, which simultaneously afforded greatly reduced background and produced true images. During its 2.5-yr mission, the Einstein X-Ray Telescope was pointed toward some 5,000 celestial targets, most of which were detected, and discovered several thousand additional 'serendipitous' sources in the observed fields. This catalog contains contour diagrams and source data, obtained with the imaging proportional counter in the 0.16 to 3.5 keV energy band, and describes methods for recovering upper limits for any sky position within the observed images. The main catalog consists of six volumes (numbered 2 through 7) of right ascension ordered pages, each containing data for one observation. Along with the primary documentation describing how the catalog was constructed, volume 1 contains a complete source list, results for merged fields, a reference system to published papers, and data useful for calculating upper limits and fluxes.

  9. The Einstein Observatory catalog of IPC x ray sources. Volume 4E: Right ascension range 08h 00m to 11h 59m

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harris, D. E.; Forman, W.; Gioia, I. M.; Hale, J. A.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Jones, C.; Karakashian, T.; Maccacaro, T.; Mcsweeney, J. D.; Primini, F. A.

    1993-01-01

    The Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2, launched November 13, 1978) achieved radically improved sensitivity over previous x-ray missions through the use of focusing optics which simultaneously afforded greatly reduced background and produced true images. During its 2.5-yr mission, the Einstein X-Ray Telescope was pointed toward some 5,000 celestial targets, most of which were detected, and discovered several thousand additional 'serendipitous' sources in the observed fields. This catalog contains contour diagrams and source data, obtained with the imaging proportional counter in the 0.16 to 3.5 keV energy band, and describes methods for recovering upper limits for any sky position within the observed images, The main catalog consists of six volumes (numbered 2 through 7) of right ascension ordered pages, each containing data for one observation. Along with the primary documentaion describing how the catalog was constructed, volume 1 contains a complete source list, results for merged fields, a reference system to published papers, and data useful for calculating upper limits and fluxes.

  10. The Einstein Observatory catalog of IPC x ray sources. Volume 2E: Right ascension range 00h 00m to 03h 59m

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harris, D. E.; Forman, W.; Gioia, I. M.; Hale, J. A.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Jones, C.; Karakashian, T.; Maccacaro, T.; Mcsweeney, J. D.; Primini, F. A.

    1993-01-01

    The Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2, launched November 13, 1978) achieved radically improved sensitivity over previous x-ray missions through the use of focusing optics which simultaneously afforded greatly reduced background and produced true images. During its 2.5-yr mission, the Einstein X-Ray Telescope was pointed toward some 5,000 celestial targets, most of which were detected, and discovered several thousand additional 'serendipitous' sources in the observed fields. This catalog contains contour diagrams and source data, obtained with the imaging proportional counter in the 0.16 to 3.5 keV energy band, and describes methods for recovering upper limits for any sky position within the observed images. The main catalog consists of six volumes (numbered 2 through 7) of right ascension ordered pages, each containing data for one observation. Along with the primary documentation describing how the catalog was constructed, volume 1 contains a complete source list, results for merged fields, a reference system to published papers and data useful for calculating upper limits and fluxes.

  11. The Einstein Observatory catalog of IPC x ray sources. Volume 3E: Right ascension range 04h 00m to 07h 59m

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harris, D. E.; Forman, W.; Gioia, I. M.; Hale, J. A.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Jones, C.; Karakashian, T.; Maccacaro, T.; Mcsweeney, J. D.; Primini, F. A.

    1993-01-01

    The Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2, launched November 13, 1978) achieved radically improved sensitivity over previous x-ray missions through the use of focusing optics which simultaneously afforded greatly reduced background and produced true images. During its 2.5-yr mission, the Einstein X-Ray Telescope was pointed toward some 5,000 celestial targets, most of which were detected, and discovered several thousand additional 'serendipitous' sources in the observed fields. This catalog contains contour diagrams and source data, obtained with the imaging proportional counter in the 0.16 to 3.5 keV energy band, and describes methods for recovering upper limits for any sky position within the observed images. The main catalog consists of six volumes (numbered 2 through 7) of right ascension ordered pages, each containing data for one observation. Along with the primary documentation describing how the catalog was constructed, volume 1 contains a complete source list, results for merged fields, a reference system to published papers and data useful for calculating upper limits and fluxes.

  12. The Einstein Observatory catalog of IPC x ray sources. Volume 7E: Right ascension range 20h 00m to 23h 59m

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harris, D. E.; Forman, W.; Gioia, I. M.; Hale, J. A.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Jones, C.; Karakashian, T.; Maccacaro, T.; Mcsweeney, J. D.; Primini, F. A.

    1993-01-01

    The Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2, launched November 13, 1978) achieved radically improved sensitivity over previous x-ray missions through the use of focusing optics which simultaneously afforded greatly reduced background and produced true images. During its 2.5-yr mission, the Einstein X-Ray Telescope was pointed toward some 5,000 celestial targets, most of which were detected, and discovered several thousand additional 'serendipitous' sources in the observed fields. This catalog contains contour diagrams and source data, obtained with the imaging proportional counter in the 0.16 to 3.5 keV energy band, and describes methods for recovering upper limits for any sky position within the observed images. The main catalog consists of six volumes (numbered 2 through 7) of right ascension ordered pages, each containing data for one observation. Along with the primary documentation describing how the catalog was constructed, volume 1 contains a complete source list, results for merged fields, a reference system to published papers, and data useful for calculating upper limits and fluxes.

  13. THE ARECIBO LEGACY FAST ALFA SURVEY. VIII. H I SOURCE CATALOG OF THE ANTI-VIRGO REGION AT {delta} = +25 DEG

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Martin, Ann M.; Giovanelli, Riccardo; Haynes, Martha P.

    We present a fourth catalog of H I sources from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) Survey. We report 541 detections over 136 deg{sup 2}, within the region of the sky having 22{sup h} < {alpha} < 03{sup h} and 24 deg. < {delta} < 26 deg. This complements a previous catalog in the region 26 deg. < {delta} < 28 deg. We present here the detections falling into three classes: (1) extragalactic sources with signal-to-noise ratio (S/N)>6.5, where the reliability of the catalog is better than 95%; (2) extragalactic sources 5.0 < S/N < 6.5 and a previously measuredmore » optical redshift that corroborates our detection; or (3) High Velocity Clouds (HVCs), or subcomponents of such clouds, in the periphery of the Milky Way. Of the 541 objects presented here, 90 are associated with HVCs, while the remaining 451 are identified as extragalactic objects. Optical counterparts have been matched with all but one of the extragalactic objects.« less

  14. Disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells: a platform for human disease modeling and drug discovery.

    PubMed

    Jang, Jiho; Yoo, Jeong-Eun; Lee, Jeong-Ah; Lee, Dongjin R; Kim, Ji Young; Huh, Yong Jun; Kim, Dae-Sung; Park, Chul-Yong; Hwang, Dong-Youn; Kim, Han-Soo; Kang, Hoon-Chul; Kim, Dong-Wook

    2012-03-31

    The generation of disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from patients with incurable diseases is a promising approach for studying disease mechanisms and drug screening. Such innovation enables to obtain autologous cell sources in regenerative medicine. Herein, we report the generation and characterization of iPSCs from fibroblasts of patients with sporadic or familial diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), juvenile-onset, type I diabetes mellitus (JDM), and Duchenne type muscular dystrophy (DMD), as well as from normal human fibroblasts (WT). As an example to modeling disease using disease-specific iPSCs, we also discuss the previously established childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CCALD)- and adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN)-iPSCs by our group. Through DNA fingerprinting analysis, the origins of generated disease-specific iPSC lines were identified. Each iPSC line exhibited an intense alkaline phosphatase activity, expression of pluripotent markers, and the potential to differentiate into all three embryonic germ layers: the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm. Expression of endogenous pluripotent markers and downregulation of retrovirus-delivered transgenes [OCT4 (POU5F1), SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC] were observed in the generated iPSCs. Collectively, our results demonstrated that disease-specific iPSC lines characteristically resembled hESC lines. Furthermore, we were able to differentiate PD-iPSCs, one of the disease-specific-iPSC lines we generated, into dopaminergic (DA) neurons, the cell type mostly affected by PD. These PD-specific DA neurons along with other examples of cell models derived from disease-specific iPSCs would provide a powerful platform for examining the pathophysiology of relevant diseases at the cellular and molecular levels and for developing new drugs and therapeutic regimens.

  15. Effects of the Post-Spinal Cord Injury Microenvironment on the Differentiation Capacity of Human Neural Stem Cells Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

    PubMed

    López-Serrano, Clara; Torres-Espín, Abel; Hernández, Joaquim; Alvarez-Palomo, Ana B; Requena, Jordi; Gasull, Xavier; Edel, Michael J; Navarro, Xavier

    2016-10-01

    Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes loss of neural functions below the level of the lesion due to interruption of spinal pathways and secondary neurodegenerative processes. The transplant of neural stem cells (NSCs) is a promising approach for the repair of SCI. Reprogramming of adult somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is expected to provide an autologous source of iPSC-derived NSCs, avoiding the immune response as well as ethical issues. However, there is still limited information on the behavior and differentiation pattern of transplanted iPSC-derived NSCs within the damaged spinal cord. We transplanted iPSC-derived NSCs, obtained from adult human somatic cells, into rats at 0 or 7 days after SCI, and evaluated motor-evoked potentials and locomotion of the animals. We histologically analyzed engraftment, proliferation, and differentiation of the iPSC-derived NSCs and the spared tissue in the spinal cords at 7, 21, and 63 days posttransplant. Both transplanted groups showed a late decline in functional recovery compared to vehicle-injected groups. Histological analysis showed proliferation of transplanted cells within the tissue and that cells formed a mass. At the final time point, most grafted cells differentiated to neural and astroglial lineages, but not into oligodendrocytes, while some grafted cells remained undifferentiated and proliferative. The proinflammatory tissue microenviroment of the injured spinal cord induced proliferation of the grafted cells and, therefore, there are possible risks associated with iPSC-derived NSC transplantation. New approaches are needed to promote and guide cell differentiation, as well as reduce their tumorigenicity once the cells are transplanted at the lesion site.

  16. Role of alpha- and beta-adrenergic receptors in cardiomyocyte differentiation from murine-induced pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Li, Xiao-Li; Zeng, Di; Chen, Yan; Ding, Lu; Li, Wen-Ju; Wei, Ting; Ou, Dong-Bo; Yan, Song; Wang, Bin; Zheng, Qiang-Sun

    2017-02-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes are a promising source of cells for regenerative heart disease therapies, but progress towards their use has been limited by their low differentiation efficiency and high cellular heterogeneity. Previous studies have demonstrated expression of adrenergic receptors (ARs) in stem cells after differentiation; however, roles of ARs in fate specification of stem cells, particularly in cardiomyocyte differentiation and development, have not been characterized. Murine-induced pluripotent stem cells (miPSCs) were cultured in hanging drops to form embryoid bodies, cells of which were then differentiated into cardiomyocytes. To determine whether ARs regulated miPSC differentiation into cardiac lineages, effects of the AR agonist, epinephrine (EPI), on miPSC differentiation and underlying signalling mechanisms, were evaluated. Treatment with EPI, robustly enhanced miPSC cardiac differentiation, as indicated by increased expression levels of cardiac-specific markers, GATA4, Nkx2.5 and Tnnt2. Although β-AR signalling is the foremost signalling pathway in cardiomyocytes, EPI-enhanced cardiac differentiation depended more on α-AR signalling than β-AR signalling. In addition, selective activation of α 1 -AR signalling with specific agonists induced vigorous cardiomyocyte differentiation, whereas selective activation of α 2 - or β-AR signalling induced no or less differentiation, respectively. EPI- and α 1 -AR-dependent cardiomyocyte differentiation from miPSCs occurred through specific promotion of CPC proliferation via the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway and regulation of miPS cell-cycle progression. These results demonstrate that activation of ARs, particularly of α 1 -ARs, promoted miPSC differentiation into cardiac lineages via MEK-ERK1/2 signalling. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  17. Hydrogel fibers encapsulating hiPSC-MSCs, hESC-MSCs and hUCMSCs in injectable calcium phosphate scaffold for bone tissue engineering

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Lin; Wang, Ping; Weir, Michael D.; Reynolds, Mark A.; Zhao, Liang; Xu, Hockin H. K.

    2016-01-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human umbilical cord MSCs (hUCMSCs) are exciting cell sources for use in regenerative medicine. There has been no report on long hydrogel fibers encapsulating stem cells inside injectable calcium phosphate cement (CPC) scaffold for bone tissue engineering. The objectives of this study were to: (1) develop a novel injectable CPC construct containing hydrogel fibers encapsulating cells for bone engineering, and (2) investigate and compare cell viability, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of hiPSC-MSCs, hESC-MSCs and hUCMSCs in injectable CPC. The stem cell-encapsulating pastes were fully injectable under a small injection force, and the injection did not harm the cells, compared to cells without injection (p > 0.1). Mechanical properties of stem cell-CPC construct were much higher than previous injectable polymers and hydrogels for cell delivery. hiPSC-MSCs, hESC-MSCs and hUCMSCs in hydrogel fibers in CPC had excellent proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. All three cells yielded high alkaline phosphatase, runt-related transcription factor, collagen I, and osteocalcin expressions (mean ± sd; n = 6). Cell-synthesized minerals increased substantially with time (p < 0.05), with no significant difference among the three types of cells (p > 0.1). Mineralization by hiPSC-MSCs, hESC-MSCs and hUCMSCs in CPC at 14 d was 13-fold that at 1 d. In conclusion, all three types of cells (hiPSC-MSCs, hESC-MSCs and hUCMSCs) in CPC scaffold showed high potential for bone tissue engineering, and the novel injectable CPC construct with cell-encapsulating hydrogel fibers is promising to enhance bone regeneration in dental, craniofacial and orthopedic applications. PMID:27811389

  18. SPITZER MIPS 24 and 70 {mu}m IMAGING NEAR THE SOUTH ECLIPTIC POLE: MAPS AND SOURCE CATALOGS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Scott, Kimberly S.; Stabenau, Hans F.; Devlin, Mark J.

    2010-12-15

    We have imaged an 11.5 deg{sup 2} region of sky toward the South Ecliptic Pole (R.A. =04{sup h}43{sup m}, decl. =-53{sup 0}40', J2000) at 24 and 70 {mu}m with MIPS, the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer. This region is coincident with a field mapped at longer wavelengths by AKARI and BLAST. We discuss our data reduction and source extraction procedures. The median 1{sigma} depths of the maps are 47 {mu}Jy beam{sup -1} at 24 {mu}m and 4.3 mJy beam{sup -1} at 70 {mu}m. At 24 {mu}m, we identify 93,098 point sources with signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) {>=}5 and an additional 63more » resolved galaxies; at 70 {mu}m we identify 891 point sources with S/N {>=}6. From simulations, we determine a false detection rate of 1.8% (1.1%) for the 24 {mu}m (70 {mu}m) catalog. The 24 and 70 {mu}m point-source catalogs are 80% complete at 230 {mu}Jy and 11 mJy, respectively. These mosaic images and source catalogs will be available to the public through the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive.« less

  19. X-ray Properties of Deep Radio-Selected Quasars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Becker, Robert

    2002-01-01

    This report summarizes the research supported by the ADP grant entitled 'X-ray Properties of Deep Radio-Selected Quasars'. The primary effort consisted of correlating the ROSAT All-Sky Survey catalog with the April 1997 release of the FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters) radio catalog. We found that a matching radius of 60 sec excluded most false matches while retaining most of the true radio-X-ray sources. The correlation of the approx. 80,000 source RASS and approx. 268,000 FIRST catalogs matched 2,588 FIRST sources with 1,649 RASS sources out of a possible 5,520 RASS sources residing in the FIRST survey area. This number is much higher than expected from our previous experience of correlating the RASS with radio surveys and indicates we detected new classes of objects not seen in the correlations with less sensitive radio surveys.

  20. Non-Poissonian Distribution of Tsunami Waiting Times

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Geist, E. L.; Parsons, T.

    2007-12-01

    Analysis of the global tsunami catalog indicates that tsunami waiting times deviate from an exponential distribution one would expect from a Poisson process. Empirical density distributions of tsunami waiting times were determined using both global tsunami origin times and tsunami arrival times at a particular site with a sufficient catalog: Hilo, Hawai'i. Most sources for the tsunamis in the catalog are earthquakes; other sources include landslides and volcanogenic processes. Both datasets indicate an over-abundance of short waiting times in comparison to an exponential distribution. Two types of probability models are investigated to explain this observation. Model (1) is a universal scaling law that describes long-term clustering of sources with a gamma distribution. The shape parameter (γ) for the global tsunami distribution is similar to that of the global earthquake catalog γ=0.63-0.67 [Corral, 2004]. For the Hilo catalog, γ is slightly greater (0.75-0.82) and closer to an exponential distribution. This is explained by the fact that tsunamis from smaller triggered earthquakes or landslides are less likely to be recorded at a far-field station such as Hilo in comparison to the global catalog, which includes a greater proportion of local tsunamis. Model (2) is based on two distributions derived from Omori's law for the temporal decay of triggered sources (aftershocks). The first is the ETAS distribution derived by Saichev and Sornette [2007], which is shown to fit the distribution of observed tsunami waiting times. The second is a simpler two-parameter distribution that is the exponential distribution augmented by a linear decay in aftershocks multiplied by a time constant Ta. Examination of the sources associated with short tsunami waiting times indicate that triggered events include both earthquake and landslide tsunamis that begin in the vicinity of the primary source. Triggered seismogenic tsunamis do not necessarily originate from the same fault zone, however. For example, subduction-thrust and outer-rise earthquake pairs are evident, such as the November 2006 and January 2007 Kuril Islands tsunamigenic pair. Because of variations in tsunami source parameters, such as water depth above the source, triggered tsunami events with short waiting times are not systematically smaller than the primary tsunami.

  1. Effects of surface crystallization and oxidation in nanocrystalline FeNbCuSiB(P) ribbons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Butvinová, B.; Butvin, P.; Brzózka, K.; Kuzminski, M.; Maťko, I.; Švec, P., Sr.; Chromčíková, M.

    2017-02-01

    Si-poor Fe74Nb3Cu1Si8B14-xPx, (x=0, 3) nanocrystalline ribbon-form alloys often form surfaces, which exert in-plane force on underlying ribbon interior when nanocrystallized in even modest presence of oxygen. Mostly unwanted hard-ribbon-axis magnetic anisotropy is standard result. Essential sources of the surface-caused stress have been sought and influence of P instead of B substitution on this effect was studied too. Preferred surface crystallization (PSC) was found to be the major reason. However P substitution suppresses PSC and promotes Fe-oxide formation, which eases the stress, softens the surfaces and provides different annealing evolution of surface properties.

  2. Search for Genetic Modifiers of PSC: Time to Increase the Number of Needles in the Haystack.

    PubMed

    Krawczyk, Marcin; Lammert, Frank

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) belongs to the most obscure liver diseases. Patients with progressive PSC require liver transplantation as only therapeutic option. Previously several HLA- and non-HLA-associated PSC risk variants have been discovered, however their involvement in the development of PSC seems to be minor in comparison to environmental determinants. Lately, variant rs853974 at the RSPO3 gene locus has been shown to modulate the course of PSC. Here we briefly discuss the phenotypes related to this polymorphism and propose alternative directions of research that might help to identify new genetic modifiers of PSC progression.

  3. Performance of a prototype surface collector for juvenile salmonids at Bonneville dam's first powerhouse on the Columbia River, Oregon

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Evans, S.D.; Adams, N.S.; Rondorf, D.W.; Plumb, J.M.; Ebberts, B.D.

    2008-01-01

    During April-July 2000, we radio-tagged and released juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to evaluate a prototype surface flow bypass at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. The mock bypass, called a prototype surface collector (PSC), had six vertical slot entrances that were each 6 m wide and 12 m deep. The PSC was retrofitted to the upstream face of Bonneville Dam's First Powerhouse. Our objectives were to: (1) assess species-specific differences in movement patterns and behaviour of fish within 6 m of the face of the PSC, (2) estimate the efficiency and effectiveness of the PSC and (3) evaluate factors affecting the performance of the PSC. We found that 60-72% of the fish, depending on species, detected within 6 m of the PSC entered it. Of the fish that passed the First Powerhouse at turbines 1-6, 79-83% entered the PSC. Diel period was a significant contributor to PSC performance for all species, and day of year was a significant contributor to PSC performance for subyearling Chinook salmon. The PSC was twice as effective (%fish/%flow) as the spillway, passing 2.5:1 steelhead and subyearling Chinook salmon and 2.4:1 yearling Chinook salmon per unit of water. If fully implemented, the PSC would increase the percentage of fish that pass the First Powerhouse through non-turbine routes from 65-77% (without the PSC) to 76-85% (with the PSC), depending on species. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  4. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Sloan magnitudes for the brightest stars, V2 (Mallama, 2018)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mallama, A.

    2018-05-01

    A new version of the Catalog containing Sloan magnitudes for the brightest stars is presented. The accuracy of the data indicates that the Catalog is a reliable source of comparison star magnitudes for astronomical photometry. Version 2 complements the APASS database of fainter stars. (1 data file).

  5. A Systematic Search for Short-term Variability of EGRET Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wallace, P. M.; Griffis, N. J.; Bertsch, D. L.; Hartman, R. C.; Thompson, D. J.; Kniffen, D. A.; Bloom, S. D.

    2000-01-01

    The 3rd EGRET Catalog of High-energy Gamma-ray Sources contains 170 unidentified sources, and there is great interest in the nature of these sources. One means of determining source class is the study of flux variability on time scales of days; pulsars are believed to be stable on these time scales while blazers are known to be highly variable. In addition, previous work has demonstrated that 3EG J0241-6103 and 3EG J1837-0606 are candidates for a new gamma-ray source class. These sources near the Galactic plane display transient behavior but cannot be associated with any known blazers. Although, many instances of flaring AGN have been reported, the EGRET database has not been systematically searched for occurrences of short-timescale (approximately 1 day) variability. These considerations have led us to conduct a systematic search for short-term variability in EGRET data, covering all viewing periods through proposal cycle 4. Six 3EG catalog sources are reported here to display variability on short time scales; four of them are unidentified. In addition, three non-catalog variable sources are discussed.

  6. WCSTools 3.0: More Tools for Image Astrometry and Catalog Searching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mink, Douglas J.

    For five years, WCSTools has provided image astrometry for astronomers who need accurate positions for objects they wish to observe. Other functions have been added and improved since the package was first released. Support has been added for new catalogs, such as the GSC-ACT, 2MASS Point Source Catalog, and GSC II, as they have been published. A simple command line interface can search any supported catalog, returning information in several standard formats, whether the catalog is on a local disk or searchable over the World Wide Web. The catalog searching routine can be located on either end (or both ends!) of such a web connection, and the output from one catalog search can be used as the input to another search.

  7. VizieR Online Data Catalog: ChaMP. I. First X-ray source catalog (Kim+, 2004)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, D.-W.; Cameron, R. A.; Drake, J. J.; Evans, N. R.; Freeman, P.; Gaetz, T. J.; Ghosh, H.; Green, P. J.; Harnden, F. R. Jr; Karovska, M.; Kashyap, V.; Maksym, P. W.; Ratzlaff, P. W.; Schlegel, E. M.; Silverman, J. D.; Tananbaum, H. D.; Vikhlinin, A. A.; Wilkes, B. J.; Grimes, J. P.

    2004-01-01

    The Chandra Multiwavelength Project (ChaMP) is a wide-area (~14deg2 < survey of serendipitous Chandra X-ray sources, aiming to establish fair statistical samples covering a wide range of characteristics (such as absorbed active galactic nuclei, high-z clusters of galaxies) at flux levels (fX~10-15 to 10-14erg/s/cm2) ) intermediate between the Chandra deep surveys and previous missions. We present the first ChaMP catalog, which consists of 991 near on-axis, bright X-ray sources obtained from the initial sample of 62 observations. The data have been uniformly reduced and analyzed with techniques specifically developed for the ChaMP and then validated by visual examination. To assess source reliability and positional uncertainty, we perform a series of simulations and also use Chandra data to complement the simulation study. The false source detection rate is found to be as good as or better than expected for a given limiting threshold. On the other hand, the chance of missing a real source is rather complex, depending on the source counts, off-axis distance (or PSF), and background rate. The positional error (95% confidence level) is usually less than 1" for a bright source, regardless of its off-axis distance, while it can be as large as 4" for a weak source (~20counts) at a large off-axis distance (Doff-axis>8'). We have also developed new methods to find spatially extended or temporary variable sources, and those sources are listed in the catalog. (5 data files).

  8. Characteristics of unit-level patient safety culture in hospitals in Japan: a cross-sectional study.

    PubMed

    Fujita, Shigeru; Seto, Kanako; Kitazawa, Takefumi; Matsumoto, Kunichika; Hasegawa, Tomonori

    2014-10-22

    Patient safety culture (PSC) has an important role in determining safety and quality in healthcare. Currently, little is known about the status of unit-level PSC in hospitals in Japan. To develop appropriate strategies, characteristics of unit-level PSC should be investigated. Work units may be classified according to the characteristics of PSC, and common problems and appropriate strategies may be identified for each work unit category. This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of unit-level PSC in hospitals in Japan. In 2012, a cross-sectional study was conducted at 18 hospitals in Japan. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire, developed by the United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, was distributed to all healthcare workers (n =12,076). Percent positive scores for 12 PSC sub-dimensions were calculated for each unit, and cluster analysis was used to categorise the units according to the percent positive scores. A generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) was used to analyse the results of the cluster analysis, and odds ratios (ORs) for categorisation as high-PSC units were calculated for each unit type. A total of 9,124 respondents (75.6%) completed the questionnaire, and valid data from 8,700 respondents (72.0%) were analysed. There were 440 units in the 18 hospitals. According to the percent positive scores for the 12 sub-dimensions, the 440 units were classified into 2 clusters: high-PSC units (n =184) and low-PSC units (n =256). Percent positive scores for all PSC sub-dimensions for high-PSC units were significantly higher than those for low-PSC units. The GLMM revealed that the combined unit type of 'Obstetrics and gynaecology ward, perinatal ward or neonatal intensive care unit' was significantly more likely to be categorised as high-PSC units (OR =9.7), and 'Long-term care ward' (OR =0.2), 'Rehabilitation unit' (OR =0.2) and 'Administration unit' (OR =0.3) were significantly less likely to be categorised as high-PSC units. Our study findings demonstrate that PSC varies considerably among different unit types in hospitals in Japan. Factors contributing to low PSC should be identified and possible measures for improving PSC should be developed and initiated.

  9. Age Is Relative-Impact of Donor Age on Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cell Functionality.

    PubMed

    Strässler, Elisabeth Tamara; Aalto-Setälä, Katriina; Kiamehr, Mostafa; Landmesser, Ulf; Kränkel, Nicolle

    2018-01-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) avoid many of the restrictions that hamper the application of human embryonic stem cells: limited availability of source material due to legal restrictions in some countries, immunogenic rejection and ethical concerns. Also, the donor's clinical phenotype is often known when working with iPSCs. Therefore, iPSCs seem ideal to tackle the two biggest tasks of regenerative medicine: degenerative diseases with genetic cause (e.g., Duchenne's muscular dystrophy) and organ replacement in age-related diseases (e.g., end-stage heart or renal failure), especially in combination with recently developed gene-editing tools. In the setting of autologous transplantation in elderly patients, donor age becomes a potentially relevant factor that needs to be assessed. Here, we review and critically discuss available data pertinent to the questions: How does donor age influence the reprogramming process and iPSC functionality? Would it even be possible to reprogram senescent somatic cells? How does donor age affect iPSC differentiation into specialised cells and their functionality? We also identify research needs, which might help resolve current unknowns. Until recently, most hallmarks of ageing were attributed to an accumulation of DNA damage over time, and it was thus expected that DNA damage from a somatic cell would accumulate in iPSCs and the cells derived from them. In line with this, a decreased lifespan of cloned organisms compared with the donor was also observed in early cloning experiments. Therefore, it was questioned for a time whether iPSC derived from an old individual's somatic cells would suffer from early senescence and, thus, may not be a viable option either for disease modelling nor future clinical applications. Instead, typical signs of cellular ageing are reverted in the process of iPSC reprogramming, and iPSCs from older donors do not show diminished differentiation potential nor do iPSC-derived cells from older donors suffer early senescence or show functional impairments when compared with those from younger donors. Thus, the data would suggest that donor age does not limit iPSC application for modelling genetic diseases nor regenerative therapies. However, open questions remain, e.g., regarding the potential tumourigenicity of iPSC-derived cells and the impact of epigenetic pattern retention.

  10. Documentation for the machine-readable version of the Fourth Cambridge Radio Survey Catalogue (4C) (Pilkington, Gower, Scott and Wills 1965, 1967)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warren, W. H., Jr.

    1983-01-01

    The machine readable catalogue contains survey data from the papers of Pilkington and Scott and Gower, Scott and Wills. These data result from a survey of radio sources between declinations -07 deg and +80 deg using the large Cambridge interferometer at 178 MHz. The computerized catalog contains for each source the 4C number, 1950 position, measured flux density, and accuracy class. For some sources miscellaneous brief comments such as cross identifications to the 3C catalog or remarks on contamination from nearby sources are given at the ends of the data records. A detailed description of the machine readable catalog as it is currently being distributed by the Astronomical Data Center is given to enable users to read and process the data.

  11. The XMM-SERVS survey: new XMM-Newton point-source catalog for the XMM-LSS field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, C.-T. J.; Brandt, W. N.; Luo, B.; Ranalli, P.; Yang, G.; Alexander, D. M.; Bauer, F. E.; Kelson, D. D.; Lacy, M.; Nyland, K.; Tozzi, P.; Vito, F.; Cirasuolo, M.; Gilli, R.; Jarvis, M. J.; Lehmer, B. D.; Paolillo, M.; Schneider, D. P.; Shemmer, O.; Smail, I.; Sun, M.; Tanaka, M.; Vaccari, M.; Vignali, C.; Xue, Y. Q.; Banerji, M.; Chow, K. E.; Häußler, B.; Norris, R. P.; Silverman, J. D.; Trump, J. R.

    2018-04-01

    We present an X-ray point-source catalog from the XMM-Large Scale Structure survey region (XMM-LSS), one of the XMM-Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (XMM-SERVS) fields. We target the XMM-LSS region with 1.3 Ms of new XMM-Newton AO-15 observations, transforming the archival X-ray coverage in this region into a 5.3 deg2 contiguous field with uniform X-ray coverage totaling 2.7 Ms of flare-filtered exposure, with a 46 ks median PN exposure time. We provide an X-ray catalog of 5242 sources detected in the soft (0.5-2 keV), hard (2-10 keV), and/or full (0.5-10 keV) bands with a 1% expected spurious fraction determined from simulations. A total of 2381 new X-ray sources are detected compared to previous source catalogs in the same area. Our survey has flux limits of 1.7 × 10-15, 1.3 × 10-14, and 6.5 × 10-15 erg cm-2 s-1 over 90% of its area in the soft, hard, and full bands, respectively, which is comparable to those of the XMM-COSMOS survey. We identify multiwavelength counterpart candidates for 99.9% of the X-ray sources, of which 93% are considered as reliable based on their matching likelihood ratios. The reliabilities of these high-likelihood-ratio counterparts are further confirmed to be ≈97% reliable based on deep Chandra coverage over ≈5% of the XMM-LSS region. Results of multiwavelength identifications are also included in the source catalog, along with basic optical-to-infrared photometry and spectroscopic redshifts from publicly available surveys. We compute photometric redshifts for X-ray sources in 4.5 deg2 of our field where forced-aperture multi-band photometry is available; >70% of the X-ray sources in this subfield have either spectroscopic or high-quality photometric redshifts.

  12. Documentation for the machine-readable version of the catalog of galactic O type stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warren, W. H., Jr.

    1982-01-01

    The Catalog of Galactic O-Type Stars (Garmany, Conti and Chiosi 1982), a compilation from the literature of all O-type stars for which spectral types, luminosity classes and UBV photometry exist, contains 765 stars, for each of which designation (HD, DM, etc.), spectral type, V, B-V, cluster membership, Galactic coordinates, and source references are given. Derived values of absolute visual and bolometric magnitudes, and distances are included. The source reference should be consulted for additional details concerning the derived quantities. This description of the machine-readable version of the catalog seeks to enable users to read and process the data with a minimum of guesswork. A copy of this document should be distributed with any machine readable version of the catalog.

  13. 76 FR 23640 - Small Business Size Standards: Waiver of the Nonmanufacturer Rule

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-04-27

    ... (Ophthalmic Instruments, Equipment, and Supplies), under the North American Industry Classification System...(a) Business Development (BD) program. DATES: Comments and source information must be submitted May... under PSC 6540 (Ophthalmic Instruments, Equipment, and Supplies), under NAICS code 339115 (Ophthalmic...

  14. Donation after cardiac death liver transplantation in primary sclerosing cholangitis: proceed with caution.

    PubMed

    Sundaram, Vinay; Choi, Gina; Jeon, Christie Y; Ayoub, Walid S; Nissen, Nicholas N; Klein, Andrew S; Tran, Tram T

    2015-05-01

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) patients suffer from comorbidities unaccounted for by the model for end-stage liver disease scoring system and may benefit from the increased donor organ pool provided by donation after cardiac death (DCD) liver transplantation. However, the impact of DCD transplantation on PSC graft outcomes is unknown. We studied 41,018 patients using the United Network for Organ Sharing database from 2002 through 2012. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression were used to evaluate graft survival and risk factors for graft failure, respectively. The PSC patients receiving DCD livers (n=75) showed greater overall graft failure (37.3% vs. 20.4%, P = 0.001), graft failure from biliary complications (47.4% vs. 13.9%, P = 0.002), and shorter graft survival time (P = 0.003), compared to PSC patients receiving donation after brain death organs (n=1592). Among DCD transplants (n=1943), PSC and non-PSC patients showed similar prevalence of graft failure and graft survival time, though a trend existed toward increased biliary-induced graft failure among PSC patients (47.4 vs. 26.4%, P = 0.063). Cox modeling demonstrated that PSC patients have a positive graft survival advantage compared to non-PSC patients (hazard ratio [HR]=0.72, P < 0.001), whereas DCD transplantation increased risk of graft failure (HR = 1.28, P < 0.001). Furthermore, the interaction between DCD transplant and PSC was significant (HR = 1.76, P = 0.015), indicating that use of DCD organs impacts graft survival more in PSC than non-PSC patients. Donation after cardiac death liver transplantation leads to significantly worse outcomes in PSC. We recommend cautious use of DCD transplantation in this population.

  15. Mitigation of Prion Infectivity and Conversion Capacity by a Simulated Natural Process—Repeated Cycles of Drying and Wetting

    PubMed Central

    Yuan, Qi; Eckland, Thomas; Telling, Glenn; Bartz, Jason; Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon

    2015-01-01

    Prions enter the environment from infected hosts, bind to a wide range of soil and soil minerals, and remain highly infectious. Environmental sources of prions almost certainly contribute to the transmission of chronic wasting disease in cervids and scrapie in sheep and goats. While much is known about the introduction of prions into the environment and their interaction with soil, relatively little is known about prion degradation and inactivation by natural environmental processes. In this study, we examined the effect of repeated cycles of drying and wetting on prion fitness and determined that 10 cycles of repeated drying and wetting could reduce PrPSc abundance, PMCA amplification efficiency and extend the incubation period of disease. Importantly, prions bound to soil were more susceptible to inactivation by repeated cycles of drying and wetting compared to unbound prions, a result which may be due to conformational changes in soil-bound PrPSc or consolidation of the bonding between PrPSc and soil. This novel finding demonstrates that naturally-occurring environmental process can degrade prions. PMID:25665187

  16. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Seale, Jonathan P.; Meixner, Margaret; Sewiło, Marta

    Observations from the HERschel Inventory of the Agents of Galaxy Evolution (HERITAGE) have been used to identify dusty populations of sources in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC). We conducted the study using the HERITAGE catalogs of point sources available from the Herschel Science Center from both the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS; 100 and 160 μm) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE; 250, 350, and 500 μm) cameras. These catalogs are matched to each other to create a Herschel band-merged catalog and then further matched to archival Spitzer IRAC and MIPS catalogs from themore » Spitzer Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution (SAGE) and SAGE-SMC surveys to create single mid- to far-infrared (far-IR) point source catalogs that span the wavelength range from 3.6 to 500 μm. There are 35,322 unique sources in the LMC and 7503 in the SMC. To be bright in the FIR, a source must be very dusty, and so the sources in the HERITAGE catalogs represent the dustiest populations of sources. The brightest HERITAGE sources are dominated by young stellar objects (YSOs), and the dimmest by background galaxies. We identify the sources most likely to be background galaxies by first considering their morphology (distant galaxies are point-like at the resolution of Herschel) and then comparing the flux distribution to that of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (ATLAS) survey of galaxies. We find a total of 9745 background galaxy candidates in the LMC HERITAGE images and 5111 in the SMC images, in agreement with the number predicted by extrapolating from the ATLAS flux distribution. The majority of the Magellanic Cloud-residing sources are either very young, embedded forming stars or dusty clumps of the interstellar medium. Using the presence of 24 μm emission as a tracer of star formation, we identify 3518 YSO candidates in the LMC and 663 in the SMC. There are far fewer far-IR bright YSOs in the SMC than the LMC due to both the SMC's smaller size and its lower dust content. The YSO candidate lists may be contaminated at low flux levels by background galaxies, and so we differentiate between sources with a high (“probable”) and moderate (“possible”) likelihood of being a YSO. There are 2493/425 probable YSO candidates in the LMC/SMC. Approximately 73% of the Herschel YSO candidates are newly identified in the LMC, and 35% in the SMC. We further identify a small population of dusty objects in the late stages of stellar evolution including extreme and post-asymptotic giant branch, planetary nebulae, and supernova remnants. These populations are identified by matching the HERITAGE catalogs to lists of previously identified objects in the literature. Approximately half of the LMC sources and one quarter of the SMC sources are too faint to obtain accurate ample FIR photometry and are unclassified.« less

  17. Enabling consistency in pluripotent stem cell-derived products for research and development and clinical applications through material standards.

    PubMed

    French, Anna; Bravery, Christopher; Smith, James; Chandra, Amit; Archibald, Peter; Gold, Joseph D; Artzi, Natalie; Kim, Hae-Won; Barker, Richard W; Meissner, Alexander; Wu, Joseph C; Knowles, Jonathan C; Williams, David; García-Cardeña, Guillermo; Sipp, Doug; Oh, Steve; Loring, Jeanne F; Rao, Mahendra S; Reeve, Brock; Wall, Ivan; Carr, Andrew J; Bure, Kim; Stacey, Glyn; Karp, Jeffrey M; Snyder, Evan Y; Brindley, David A

    2015-03-01

    There is a need for physical standards (reference materials) to ensure both reproducibility and consistency in the production of somatic cell types from human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) sources. We have outlined the need for reference materials (RMs) in relation to the unique properties and concerns surrounding hPSC-derived products and suggest in-house approaches to RM generation relevant to basic research, drug screening, and therapeutic applications. hPSCs have an unparalleled potential as a source of somatic cells for drug screening, disease modeling, and therapeutic application. Undefined variation and product variability after differentiation to the lineage or cell type of interest impede efficient translation and can obscure the evaluation of clinical safety and efficacy. Moreover, in the absence of a consistent population, data generated from in vitro studies could be unreliable and irreproducible. Efforts to devise approaches and tools that facilitate improved consistency of hPSC-derived products, both as development tools and therapeutic products, will aid translation. Standards exist in both written and physical form; however, because many unknown factors persist in the field, premature written standards could inhibit rather than promote innovation and translation. We focused on the derivation of physical standard RMs. We outline the need for RMs and assess the approaches to in-house RM generation for hPSC-derived products, a critical tool for the analysis and control of product variation that can be applied by researchers and developers. We then explore potential routes for the generation of RMs, including both cellular and noncellular materials and novel methods that might provide valuable tools to measure and account for variation. Multiparametric techniques to identify "signatures" for therapeutically relevant cell types, such as neurons and cardiomyocytes that can be derived from hPSCs, would be of significant utility, although physical RMs will be required for clinical purposes. ©AlphaMed Press.

  18. Enabling Consistency in Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Products for Research and Development and Clinical Applications Through Material Standards

    PubMed Central

    Bravery, Christopher; Smith, James; Chandra, Amit; Archibald, Peter; Gold, Joseph D.; Artzi, Natalie; Kim, Hae-Won; Barker, Richard W.; Meissner, Alexander; Wu, Joseph C.; Knowles, Jonathan C.; Williams, David; García-Cardeña, Guillermo; Sipp, Doug; Oh, Steve; Loring, Jeanne F.; Rao, Mahendra S.; Reeve, Brock; Wall, Ivan; Carr, Andrew J.; Bure, Kim; Stacey, Glyn; Karp, Jeffrey M.

    2015-01-01

    Summary There is a need for physical standards (reference materials) to ensure both reproducibility and consistency in the production of somatic cell types from human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) sources. We have outlined the need for reference materials (RMs) in relation to the unique properties and concerns surrounding hPSC-derived products and suggest in-house approaches to RM generation relevant to basic research, drug screening, and therapeutic applications. hPSCs have an unparalleled potential as a source of somatic cells for drug screening, disease modeling, and therapeutic application. Undefined variation and product variability after differentiation to the lineage or cell type of interest impede efficient translation and can obscure the evaluation of clinical safety and efficacy. Moreover, in the absence of a consistent population, data generated from in vitro studies could be unreliable and irreproducible. Efforts to devise approaches and tools that facilitate improved consistency of hPSC-derived products, both as development tools and therapeutic products, will aid translation. Standards exist in both written and physical form; however, because many unknown factors persist in the field, premature written standards could inhibit rather than promote innovation and translation. We focused on the derivation of physical standard RMs. We outline the need for RMs and assess the approaches to in-house RM generation for hPSC-derived products, a critical tool for the analysis and control of product variation that can be applied by researchers and developers. We then explore potential routes for the generation of RMs, including both cellular and noncellular materials and novel methods that might provide valuable tools to measure and account for variation. Multiparametric techniques to identify “signatures” for therapeutically relevant cell types, such as neurons and cardiomyocytes that can be derived from hPSCs, would be of significant utility, although physical RMs will be required for clinical purposes. PMID:25650438

  19. Measuring Law Library Catalog Web Site Usability: A Web Analytic Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fang, Wei; Crawford, Marjorie E.

    2008-01-01

    Although there is a proliferation of information available on the Web, and law professors, students, and other users have a variety of channels to locate information and complete their research activities, the law library catalog still remains an important source for offering users access to information that has been evaluated and cataloged by…

  20. Reprogramming of blood cells into induced pluripotent stem cells as a new cell source for cartilage repair.

    PubMed

    Li, Yueying; Liu, Tie; Van Halm-Lutterodt, Nicholas; Chen, JiaYu; Su, Qingjun; Hai, Yong

    2016-02-17

    An attempt was made to reprogram peripheral blood cells into human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSCs) as a new cell source for cartilage repair. We generated chondrogenic lineage from human peripheral blood via hiPSCs using an integration-free method. Peripheral blood cells were either obtained from a human blood bank or freshly collected from volunteers. After transforming peripheral blood cells into iPSCs, the newly derived iPSCs were further characterized through karyotype analysis, pluripotency gene expression and cell differentiation ability. iPSCs were differentiated through multiple steps, including embryoid body formation, hiPSC-mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-like cell expansion, and chondrogenic induction for 21 days. Chondrocyte phenotype was then assessed by morphological, histological and biochemical analysis, as well as the chondrogenic expression. hiPSCs derived from peripheral blood cells were successfully generated, and were characterized by fluorescent immunostaining of pluripotent markers and teratoma formation in vivo. Flow cytometric analysis showed that MSC markers CD73 and CD105 were present in monolayer cultured hiPSC-MSC-like cells. Both alcian blue and toluidine blue staining of hiPSC-MSC-chondrogenic pellets showed as positive. Immunohistochemistry of collagen II and X staining of the pellets were also positive. The sulfated glycosaminoglycan content was significantly increased, and the expression levels of the chondrogenic markers COL2, COL10, COL9 and AGGRECAN were significantly higher in chondrogenic pellets than in undifferentiated cells. These results indicated that peripheral blood cells could be a potential source for differentiation into chondrogenic lineage in vitro via generation of mesenchymal progenitor cells. This study supports the potential applications of utilizing peripheral blood cells in generating seed cells for cartilage regenerative medicine in a patient-specific and cost-effective approach.

  1. Recombinant PrPSc shares structural features with brain-derived PrPSc suggesting that they have a similar architecture: Insights from limited proteolysis

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    An extensive body of experimental and spectroscopic evidence supports the hypothesis that PrPSc is a multimer of 4-rung ß-solenoids, and that individual PrPSc solenoids stack to form amyloid fibers. We recently used limited proteolysis to map the ß-strands and connecting loops that make up the PrPSc...

  2. The Second Catalog of Flaring Gamma-Ray Sources from the Fermi All-sky Variability Analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdollahi, S.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Becerra Gonzalez, J.; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonino, R.; Bottacini, E.; Bregeon, J.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Buson, S.; Cameron, R. A.; Caragiulo, M.; Caraveo, P. A.; Cavazzuti, E.; Cecchi, C.; Chekhtman, A.; Cheung, C. C.; Chiaro, G.; Ciprini, S.; Conrad, J.; Costantin, D.; Costanza, F.; Cutini, S.; D'Ammando, F.; de Palma, F.; Desai, A.; Desiante, R.; Digel, S. W.; Di Lalla, N.; Di Mauro, M.; Di Venere, L.; Donaggio, B.; Drell, P. S.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Ferrara, E. C.; Focke, W. B.; Franckowiak, A.; Fukazawa, Y.; Funk, S.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Giglietto, N.; Giomi, M.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Green, D.; Grenier, I. A.; Grove, J. E.; Guillemot, L.; Guiriec, S.; Hays, E.; Horan, D.; Jogler, T.; Jóhannesson, G.; Johnson, A. S.; Kocevski, D.; Kuss, M.; La Mura, G.; Larsson, S.; Latronico, L.; Li, J.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lovellette, M. N.; Lubrano, P.; Magill, J. D.; Maldera, S.; Manfreda, A.; Mayer, M.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Michelson, P. F.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Monzani, M. E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Negro, M.; Nuss, E.; Ohsugi, T.; Omodei, N.; Orienti, M.; Orlando, E.; Paliya, V. S.; Paneque, D.; Perkins, J. S.; Persic, M.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Petrosian, V.; Piron, F.; Porter, T. A.; Principe, G.; Rainò, S.; Rando, R.; Razzano, M.; Razzaque, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Sgrò, C.; Simone, D.; Siskind, E. J.; Spada, F.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Stawarz, L.; Suson, D. J.; Takahashi, M.; Tanaka, K.; Thayer, J. B.; Thompson, D. J.; Torres, D. F.; Torresi, E.; Tosti, G.; Troja, E.; Vianello, G.; Wood, K. S.

    2017-09-01

    We present the second catalog of flaring gamma-ray sources (2FAV) detected with the Fermi All-sky Variability Analysis (FAVA), a tool that blindly searches for transients over the entire sky observed by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. With respect to the first FAVA catalog, this catalog benefits from a larger data set, the latest LAT data release (Pass 8), as well as from an improved analysis that includes likelihood techniques for a more precise localization of the transients. Applying this analysis to the first 7.4 years of Fermi observations, and in two separate energy bands 0.1-0.8 GeV and 0.8-300 GeV, a total of 4547 flares were detected with significance greater than 6σ (before trials), on the timescale of one week. Through spatial clustering of these flares, 518 variable gamma-ray sources were identified. Based on positional coincidence, likely counterparts have been found for 441 sources, mostly among the blazar class of active galactic nuclei. For 77 2FAV sources, no likely gamma-ray counterpart has been found. For each source in the catalog, we provide the time, location, and spectrum of each flaring episode. Studying the spectra of the flares, we observe a harder-when-brighter behavior for flares associated with blazars, with the exception of BL Lac flares detected in the low-energy band. The photon indexes of the flares are never significantly smaller than 1.5. For a leptonic model, and under the assumption of isotropy, this limit suggests that the spectrum of freshly accelerated electrons is never harder than p˜ 2.

  3. Infectivity-associated PrPSc and disease duration-associated PrPSc of mouse BSE prions

    PubMed Central

    Miyazawa, Kohtaro; Okada, Hiroyuki; Masujin, Kentaro; Iwamaru, Yoshifumi; Yokoyama, Takashi

    2015-01-01

    ABSTRACT Disease-related prion protein (PrPSc), which is a structural isoform of the host-encoded cellular prion protein, is thought to be a causative agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. However, the specific role of PrPSc in prion pathogenesis and its relationship to infectivity remain controversial. A time-course study of prion-affected mice was conducted, which showed that the prion infectivity was not simply proportional to the amount of PrPSc in the brain. Centrifugation (20,000 ×g) of the brain homogenate showed that most of the PrPSc was precipitated into the pellet, and the supernatant contained only a slight amount of PrPSc. Interestingly, mice inoculated with the obtained supernatant showed incubation periods that were approximately 15 d longer than those of mice inoculated with the crude homogenate even though both inocula contained almost the same infectivity. Our results suggest that a small population of fine PrPSc may be responsible for prion infectivity and that large, aggregated PrPSc may contribute to determining prion disease duration. PMID:26555211

  4. 2FHL: The Second Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources

    DOE PAGES

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.; ...

    2016-01-14

    We present a catalog of sources detected above 50 GeV by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) in 80 months of data. The newly delivered Pass 8 event-level analysis allows the detection and characterization of sources in the 50 GeV–2TeV energy range. In this energy band, Fermi - LAT has detected 360 sources, which constitute the second catalog of hard Fermi -LAT sources (2FHL). The improved angular resolution enables the precise localization of point sources (~1.'7 radius at 68 % C. L.) and the detection and characterization of spatially extended sources. We find that 86% of the sources can be associatedmore » with counterparts at other wavelengths, of which the majority (75%) are active galactic nuclei and the rest (11%) are Galactic sources. Only 25% of the 2FHL sources have been previously detected by Cherenkov telescopes, implying that the 2FHL provides a reservoir of candidates to be followed up at very high energies. This work closes the energy gap between the observations performed at GeV energies by Fermi -LAT on orbit and the observations performed at higher energies by Cherenkov telescopes from the ground.« less

  5. 2FHL: The Second Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.

    We present a catalog of sources detected above 50 GeV by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) in 80 months of data. The newly delivered Pass 8 event-level analysis allows the detection and characterization of sources in the 50 GeV–2TeV energy range. In this energy band, Fermi - LAT has detected 360 sources, which constitute the second catalog of hard Fermi -LAT sources (2FHL). The improved angular resolution enables the precise localization of point sources (~1.'7 radius at 68 % C. L.) and the detection and characterization of spatially extended sources. We find that 86% of the sources can be associatedmore » with counterparts at other wavelengths, of which the majority (75%) are active galactic nuclei and the rest (11%) are Galactic sources. Only 25% of the 2FHL sources have been previously detected by Cherenkov telescopes, implying that the 2FHL provides a reservoir of candidates to be followed up at very high energies. This work closes the energy gap between the observations performed at GeV energies by Fermi -LAT on orbit and the observations performed at higher energies by Cherenkov telescopes from the ground.« less

  6. Faint Object Detection in Multi-Epoch Observations via Catalog Data Fusion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Budavári, Tamás; Szalay, Alexander S.; Loredo, Thomas J.

    2017-03-01

    Astronomy in the time-domain era faces several new challenges. One of them is the efficient use of observations obtained at multiple epochs. The work presented here addresses faint object detection and describes an incremental strategy for separating real objects from artifacts in ongoing surveys. The idea is to produce low-threshold single-epoch catalogs and to accumulate information across epochs. This is in contrast to more conventional strategies based on co-added or stacked images. We adopt a Bayesian approach, addressing object detection by calculating the marginal likelihoods for hypotheses asserting that there is no object or one object in a small image patch containing at most one cataloged source at each epoch. The object-present hypothesis interprets the sources in a patch at different epochs as arising from a genuine object; the no-object hypothesis interprets candidate sources as spurious, arising from noise peaks. We study the detection probability for constant-flux objects in a Gaussian noise setting, comparing results based on single and stacked exposures to results based on a series of single-epoch catalog summaries. Our procedure amounts to generalized cross-matching: it is the product of a factor accounting for the matching of the estimated fluxes of the candidate sources and a factor accounting for the matching of their estimated directions. We find that probabilistic fusion of multi-epoch catalogs can detect sources with similar sensitivity and selectivity compared to stacking. The probabilistic cross-matching framework underlying our approach plays an important role in maintaining detection sensitivity and points toward generalizations that could accommodate variability and complex object structure.

  7. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jacobs, Daniel C.; Bowman, Judd; Parsons, Aaron R.

    We present a catalog of spectral measurements covering a 100-200 MHz band for 32 sources, derived from observations with a 64 antenna deployment of the Donald C. Backer Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) in South Africa. For transit telescopes such as PAPER, calibration of the primary beam is a difficult endeavor and errors in this calibration are a major source of error in the determination of source spectra. In order to decrease our reliance on an accurate beam calibration, we focus on calibrating sources in a narrow declination range from –46° to –40°. Since sources atmore » similar declinations follow nearly identical paths through the primary beam, this restriction greatly reduces errors associated with beam calibration, yielding a dramatic improvement in the accuracy of derived source spectra. Extrapolating from higher frequency catalogs, we derive the flux scale using a Monte Carlo fit across multiple sources that includes uncertainty from both catalog and measurement errors. Fitting spectral models to catalog data and these new PAPER measurements, we derive new flux models for Pictor A and 31 other sources at nearby declinations; 90% are found to confirm and refine a power-law model for flux density. Of particular importance is the new Pictor A flux model, which is accurate to 1.4% and shows that between 100 MHz and 2 GHz, in contrast with previous models, the spectrum of Pictor A is consistent with a single power law given by a flux at 150 MHz of 382 ± 5.4 Jy and a spectral index of –0.76 ± 0.01. This accuracy represents an order of magnitude improvement over previous measurements in this band and is limited by the uncertainty in the catalog measurements used to estimate the absolute flux scale. The simplicity and improved accuracy of Pictor A's spectrum make it an excellent calibrator in a band important for experiments seeking to measure 21 cm emission from the epoch of reionization.« less

  8. VizieR Online Data Catalog: KiDS-ESO-DR3 multi-band source catalog (de Jong+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Jong, J. T. A.; Verdoes Kleijn, G. A.; Erben, T.; Hildebrandt, H.; Kuijken, K.; Sikkema, G.; Brescia, M.; Bilicki, M.; Napolitano, N. R.; Amaro, V.; Begeman, K. G.; Boxhoorn, D. R.; Buddelmeijer, H.; Cavuoti, S.; Getman, F.; Grado, A.; Helmich, E.; Huang, Z.; Irisarri, N.; La Barbera, F.; Longo, G.; McFarland, J. P.; Nakajima, R.; Paolillo, M.; Puddu, E.; Radovich, M.; Rifatto, A.; Tortora, C; Valentijn, E. A.; Vellucci, C.; Vriend, W-J.; Amon, A.; Blake, C.; Choi, A.; Fenech, Conti I.; Herbonnet, R.; Heymans, C.; Hoekstra, H.; Klaes, D.; Merten, J.; Miller, L.; Schneider, P.; Viola, M.

    2017-04-01

    KiDS-ESO-DR3 contains a multi-band source catalogue encompassing all publicly released tiles, a total of 440 survey tiles including the coadded images, weight maps, masks and source lists of 292 survey tiles of KiDS-ESO-DR3, adding to the 148 tiles released previously (50 in KiDS-ESO-DR1 and 98 in KiDS-ESO-DR2). (1 data file).

  9. Scalable Generation of Universal Platelets from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

    PubMed Central

    Feng, Qiang; Shabrani, Namrata; Thon, Jonathan N.; Huo, Hongguang; Thiel, Austin; Machlus, Kellie R.; Kim, Kyungho; Brooks, Julie; Li, Feng; Luo, Chenmei; Kimbrel, Erin A.; Wang, Jiwu; Kim, Kwang-Soo; Italiano, Joseph; Cho, Jaehyung; Lu, Shi-Jiang; Lanza, Robert

    2014-01-01

    Summary Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide a potentially replenishable source for the production of transfusable platelets. Here, we describe a method to generate megakaryocytes (MKs) and functional platelets from iPSCs in a scalable manner under serum/feeder-free conditions. The method also permits the cryopreservation of MK progenitors, enabling a rapid “surge” capacity when large numbers of platelets are needed. Ultrastructural/morphological analyses show no major differences between iPSC platelets and human blood platelets. iPSC platelets form aggregates, lamellipodia, and filopodia after activation and circulate in macrophage-depleted animals and incorporate into developing mouse thrombi in a manner identical to human platelets. By knocking out the β2-microglobulin gene, we have generated platelets that are negative for the major histocompatibility antigens. The scalable generation of HLA-ABC-negative platelets from a renewable cell source represents an important step toward generating universal platelets for transfusion as well as a potential strategy for the management of platelet refractoriness. PMID:25418726

  10. Scalable generation of universal platelets from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Feng, Qiang; Shabrani, Namrata; Thon, Jonathan N; Huo, Hongguang; Thiel, Austin; Machlus, Kellie R; Kim, Kyungho; Brooks, Julie; Li, Feng; Luo, Chenmei; Kimbrel, Erin A; Wang, Jiwu; Kim, Kwang-Soo; Italiano, Joseph; Cho, Jaehyung; Lu, Shi-Jiang; Lanza, Robert

    2014-11-11

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide a potentially replenishable source for the production of transfusable platelets. Here, we describe a method to generate megakaryocytes (MKs) and functional platelets from iPSCs in a scalable manner under serum/feeder-free conditions. The method also permits the cryopreservation of MK progenitors, enabling a rapid "surge" capacity when large numbers of platelets are needed. Ultrastructural/morphological analyses show no major differences between iPSC platelets and human blood platelets. iPSC platelets form aggregates, lamellipodia, and filopodia after activation and circulate in macrophage-depleted animals and incorporate into developing mouse thrombi in a manner identical to human platelets. By knocking out the β2-microglobulin gene, we have generated platelets that are negative for the major histocompatibility antigens. The scalable generation of HLA-ABC-negative platelets from a renewable cell source represents an important step toward generating universal platelets for transfusion as well as a potential strategy for the management of platelet refractoriness.

  11. Updating Hawaii Seismicity Catalogs with Systematic Relocations and Subspace Detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Okubo, P.; Benz, H.; Matoza, R. S.; Thelen, W. A.

    2015-12-01

    We continue the systematic relocation of seismicity recorded in Hawai`i by the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), with interests in adding to the products derived from the relocated seismicity catalogs published by Matoza et al., (2013, 2014). Another goal of this effort is updating the systematically relocated HVO catalog since 2009, when earthquake cataloging at HVO was migrated to the USGS Advanced National Seismic System Quake Management Software (AQMS) systems. To complement the relocation analyses of the catalogs generated from traditional STA/LTA event-triggered and analyst-reviewed approaches, we are also experimenting with subspace detection of events at Kilauea as a means to augment AQMS procedures for cataloging seismicity to lower magnitudes and during episodes of elevated volcanic activity. Our earlier catalog relocations have demonstrated the ability to define correlated or repeating families of earthquakes and provide more detailed definition of seismogenic structures, as well as the capability for improved automatic identification of diverse volcanic seismic sources. Subspace detectors have been successfully applied to cataloging seismicity in situations of low seismic signal-to-noise and have significantly increased catalog sensitivity to lower magnitude thresholds. We anticipate similar improvements using event subspace detections and cataloging of volcanic seismicity that include improved discrimination among not only evolving earthquake sequences but also diverse volcanic seismic source processes. Matoza et al., 2013, Systematic relocation of seismicity on Hawai`i Island from 1992 to 2009 using waveform cross correlation and cluster analysis, J. Geophys. Res., 118, 2275-2288, doi:10.1002/jgrb.580189 Matoza et al., 2014, High-precision relocation of long-period events beneath the summit region of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai`i, from 1986 to 2009, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 3413-3421, doi:10.1002/2014GL059819

  12. HFF-DeepSpace Photometric Catalogs of the 12 Hubble Frontier Fields, Clusters, and Parallels: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts, and Stellar Masses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shipley, Heath V.; Lange-Vagle, Daniel; Marchesini, Danilo; Brammer, Gabriel B.; Ferrarese, Laura; Stefanon, Mauro; Kado-Fong, Erin; Whitaker, Katherine E.; Oesch, Pascal A.; Feinstein, Adina D.; Labbé, Ivo; Lundgren, Britt; Martis, Nicholas; Muzzin, Adam; Nedkova, Kalina; Skelton, Rosalind; van der Wel, Arjen

    2018-03-01

    We present Hubble multi-wavelength photometric catalogs, including (up to) 17 filters with the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 from the ultra-violet to near-infrared for the Hubble Frontier Fields and associated parallels. We have constructed homogeneous photometric catalogs for all six clusters and their parallels. To further expand these data catalogs, we have added ultra-deep K S -band imaging at 2.2 μm from the Very Large Telescope HAWK-I and Keck-I MOSFIRE instruments. We also add post-cryogenic Spitzer imaging at 3.6 and 4.5 μm with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), as well as archival IRAC 5.8 and 8.0 μm imaging when available. We introduce the public release of the multi-wavelength (0.2–8 μm) photometric catalogs, and we describe the unique steps applied for the construction of these catalogs. Particular emphasis is given to the source detection band, the contamination of light from the bright cluster galaxies (bCGs), and intra-cluster light (ICL). In addition to the photometric catalogs, we provide catalogs of photometric redshifts and stellar population properties. Furthermore, this includes all the images used in the construction of the catalogs, including the combined models of bCGs and ICL, the residual images, segmentation maps, and more. These catalogs are a robust data set of the Hubble Frontier Fields and will be an important aid in designing future surveys, as well as planning follow-up programs with current and future observatories to answer key questions remaining about first light, reionization, the assembly of galaxies, and many more topics, most notably by identifying high-redshift sources to target.

  13. Time-dependent evolution of functional vs. remodeling signaling in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and induced maturation with biomechanical stimulation.

    PubMed

    Jung, Gwanghyun; Fajardo, Giovanni; Ribeiro, Alexandre J S; Kooiker, Kristina Bezold; Coronado, Michael; Zhao, Mingming; Hu, Dong-Qing; Reddy, Sushma; Kodo, Kazuki; Sriram, Krishna; Insel, Paul A; Wu, Joseph C; Pruitt, Beth L; Bernstein, Daniel

    2016-04-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) are a powerful platform for uncovering disease mechanisms and assessing drugs for efficacy/toxicity. However, the accuracy with which hiPSC-CMs recapitulate the contractile and remodeling signaling of adult cardiomyocytes is not fully known. We used β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) signaling as a prototype to determine the evolution of signaling component expression and function during hiPSC-CM maturation. In "early" hiPSC-CMs (less than or equal to d 30), β2-ARs are a primary source of cAMP/PKA signaling. With longer culture, β1-AR signaling increases: from 0% of cAMP generation at d 30 to 56.8 ± 6.6% by d 60. PKA signaling shows a similar increase: 15.7 ± 5.2% (d 30), 49.8 ± 0.5% (d 60), and 71.0 ± 6.1% (d 90). cAMP generation increases 9-fold from d 30 to 60, with enhanced coupling to remodeling pathways (e.g., Akt and Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II) and development of caveolin-mediated signaling compartmentalization. By contrast, cardiotoxicity induced by chronic β-AR stimulation, a major component of heart failure, develops much later: 5% cell death at d 30vs 55% at d 90. Moreover, β-AR maturation can be accelerated by biomechanical stimulation. The differential maturation of β-AR functionalvs remodeling signaling in hiPSC-CMs has important implications for their use in disease modeling and drug testing. We propose that assessment of signaling be added to the indices of phenotypic maturation of hiPSC-CMs.-Jung, G., Fajardo, G., Ribeiro, A. J. S., Kooiker, K. B., Coronado, M., Zhao, M., Hu, D.-Q., Reddy, S., Kodo, K., Sriram, K., Insel, P. A., Wu, J. C., Pruitt, B. L., Bernstein, D. Time-dependent evolution of functionalvs remodeling signaling in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and induced maturation with biomechanical stimulation. © FASEB.

  14. Internet and Catalog Representation of Required Intervention and Assessment Training in APA- and/or NASP-Approved Doctoral Programs in School Psychology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Monville, Amanda; Williams, Robert L.

    The purpose of this study was to determine the extent and nature of required intervention and assessment-related course work identified in Internet and catalog sources for American Psychological Association- and/or National Association of School Psychologists-approved doctoral programs in school psychology. These sources provided the necessary…

  15. Fire in Your Life: A Catalog of Flammable Products & Ignition Sources.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC.

    To reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by fires, this catalog (which is part of the Hap and Hazard Series) gives information about typical accident patterns and about the safest way to purchase, use, store, maintain, and dispose of flammable products. As a reference source, it is intended for use in formal teaching situations as well…

  16. A study of the far infrared counterparts of new candidates for planetary nebulae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Iyengar, K. V. K.

    1986-05-01

    The IRAS Point Source Catalog was searched for infrared counterparts of the fourteen new candidates for planetary nebulae of low surface brightness detected by Hartl and Tritton (1985). Five of these candidates were identified with sources in the Catalog. All five nebulae are found in regions of high cirrus flux at 100 microns, and all have both point sources and small size extended sources with numbers varying from field to field. The infrared emission from these nebulae is connected with dust temperatures of about 100 K, characteristic of planetary nebulae.

  17. Primary sclerosing cholangitis - the Norwegian experience.

    PubMed

    Schrumpf, Erik; Boberg, Kirsten Muri; Karlsen, Tom H

    2015-06-01

    Research related to primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) has since 1980 been a major activity at the Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet. The purpose of this publication is to describe the development of this research, the impact of this research on the clinical handling of the patients, and finally to describe what we believe are the most urgent, remaining problems to be solved. During the early years, our research dealt primarily with clinical aspects of the disease. The concomitant inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) seen in most patients with PSC was a major interest and we also started looking into genetic associations of PSC. Prognosis, malignancy development and treatment with special emphasis on transplantation have later been dealt with. These activities has had impact on several aspects of PSC management; when and how to diagnose PSC and variant forms of PSC, how to handle IBD in PSC and how to deal with the increased rate of malignancy? The problems remaining to be solved are many. What is the role of the gut and the gut microbiota in the development of PSC? Do the PSC patients have an underlying disturbance in the bile homeostasis? And how does the characteristic type of fibrosis in PSC develop? The genetic studies have supported a role for the adaptive immune system in the disease development, but how should this be dealt with? Importantly, the development of malignancy in PSC is still not understood, and we lack appropriate medical treatment for our patients.

  18. A correlation between hard gamma-ray sources and cosmic voids along the line of sight

    DOE PAGES

    Furniss, A.; Sutter, P. M.; Primack, J. R.; ...

    2014-11-25

    We estimate the galaxy density along lines of sight to hard extragalactic gamma-ray sources by correlating source positions on the sky with a void catalog based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Extragalactic gamma-ray sources that are detected at very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) or have been highlighted as VHE-emitting candidates in the Fermi Large Area Telescope hard source catalog (together referred to as “VHE-like” sources) are distributed along underdense lines of sight at the 2.4σ level. There is a less suggestive correlation for the Fermi hard source population (1.7σ). A correlation between 10-500 GeV fluxmore » and underdense fraction along the line of sight for VHE-like and Fermi hard sources is found at 2.4σ and 2.6σ, calculated from the Pearson correlation coefficients of r = 0.57 and 0.47, respectively. The preference for underdense sight lines is not displayed by gamma-ray emitting galaxies within the second Fermi catalog, containing sources detected above 100 MeV, or the SDSS DR7 quasar catalog. We investigate whether this marginal correlation might be a result of lower extragalactic background light (EBL) photon density within the underdense regions and find that, even in the most extreme case of a entirely underdense sight line, the EBL photon density is only 2% less than the nominal EBL density. Translating this into gamma-ray attenuation along the line of sight for a highly attenuated source with opacity τ(E, z) ~ 5, we estimate that the attentuation of gamma-rays decreases no more than 10%. This decrease, although non-neglible, is unable to account for the apparent hard source correlation with underdense lines of sight.« less

  19. Evaluation of the Seismic Hazard in Venezuela with a revised seismic catalog that seeks for harmonization along the country borders

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rendon, H.; Alvarado, L.; Paolini, M.; Olbrich, F.; González, J.; Ascanio, W.

    2013-05-01

    Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment is a complex endeavor that relies on the quality of the information that comes from different sources: the seismic catalog, active faults parameters, strain rates, etc. Having this in mind, during the last several months, the FUNVISIS seismic hazard group has been working on a review and update of the local data base that form the basis for a reliable PSHA calculation. In particular, the seismic catalog, which provides the necessary information that allows the evaluation of the critical b-value, which controls how seismic occurrence distributes with magnitude, has received particular attention. The seismic catalog is the result of the effort of several generations of researchers along the years; therefore, the catalog necessarily suffers from the lack of consistency, homogeneity and completeness for all ranges of magnitude over any seismic study area. Merging the FUNVISIS instrumental catalog with the ones obtained from international agencies, we present the work that we have been doing to produce a consistent seismic catalog that covers Venezuela entirely, with seismic events starting from 1910 until 2012, and report the magnitude of completeness for the different periods. Also, we present preliminary results on the Seismic Hazard evaluation that takes into account such instrumental catalog, the historical catalog, updated known fault geometries and its correspondent parameters, and the new seismic sources that have been defined accordingly. Within the spirit of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM), all these efforts look for possible bridges with neighboring countries to establish consistent hazard maps across the borders.

  20. A 15 year catalog of more than 1 million low-frequency earthquakes: Tracking tremor and slip along the deep San Andreas Fault

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shelly, David R.

    2017-05-01

    Low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) are small, rapidly recurring slip events that occur on the deep extensions of some major faults. Their collective activation is often observed as a semicontinuous signal known as tectonic (or nonvolcanic) tremor. This manuscript presents a catalog of more than 1 million LFEs detected along the central San Andreas Fault from 2001 to 2016. These events have been detected via a multichannel matched-filter search, cross-correlating waveform templates representing 88 different LFE families with continuous seismic data. Together, these source locations span nearly 150 km along the central San Andreas Fault, ranging in depth from 16 to 30 km. This accumulating catalog has been the source for numerous studies examining the behavior of these LFE sources and the inferred slip behavior of the deep fault. The relatively high temporal and spatial resolutions of the catalog have provided new insights into properties such as tremor migration, recurrence, and triggering by static and dynamic stress perturbations. Collectively, these characteristics are inferred to reflect a very weak fault likely under near-lithostatic fluid pressure, yet the physical processes controlling the stuttering rupture observed as tremor and LFE signals remain poorly understood. This paper aims to document the LFE catalog assembly process and associated caveats, while also updating earlier observations and inferred physical constraints. The catalog itself accompanies this manuscript as part of the electronic supplement, with the goal of providing a useful resource for continued future investigations.

  1. Trends in Source of Catalog Records for European Monographs 1996-2000: A Preliminary Study of Italian Monographs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kellsey, Charlene

    2001-01-01

    Discusses catalog records for non-English books created by European booksellers and loaded into OCLC; describes a study of Italian language monographs to compare vendor records with Library of Congress and OCLC member libraries' records; and considers changes in cataloging workflow needed to edit records to include Library of Congress call numbers…

  2. Parallel software tools at Langley Research Center

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moitra, Stuti; Tennille, Geoffrey M.; Lakeotes, Christopher D.; Randall, Donald P.; Arthur, Jarvis J.; Hammond, Dana P.; Mall, Gerald H.

    1993-01-01

    This document gives a brief overview of parallel software tools available on the Intel iPSC/860 parallel computer at Langley Research Center. It is intended to provide a source of information that is somewhat more concise than vendor-supplied material on the purpose and use of various tools. Each of the chapters on tools is organized in a similar manner covering an overview of the functionality, access information, how to effectively use the tool, observations about the tool and how it compares to similar software, known problems or shortfalls with the software, and reference documentation. It is primarily intended for users of the iPSC/860 at Langley Research Center and is appropriate for both the experienced and novice user.

  3. 2FHL- The Second Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Gonzalez, J. Becerra; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; hide

    2016-01-01

    We present a catalog of sources detected above 50 GeV by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) in 80 months of data. The newly delivered Pass8 event-level analysis allows the detection and characterization of sources in the 50 GeV-2 TeV energy range. In this energy band, Fermi-LAT has detected 360 sources, which constitute the second catalog of hard Fermi-LAT sources (2FHL). The improved angular resolution enables the precise localization of point sources (1.7 radius at 68% C.L.) and the detection and characterization of spatially extended sources. We find that 86% of the sources can be associated with counterparts at other wavelengths, of which the majority (75%) are active galactic nuclei and the rest (11%) are Galactic sources. Only 25% of the 2FHLsources have been previously detected by Cherenkov telescopes, implying that the 2FHL provides a reservoir of candidates to be followed up at very high energies. This work closes the energy gap between the observations performed at GeV energies by Fermi-LAT on orbit and the observations performed at higher energies byCherenkov telescopes from the ground.

  4. The first Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer source catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bowyer, S.; Lieu, R.; Lampton, M.; Lewis, J.; Wu, X.; Drake, J. J.; Malina, R. F.

    1994-01-01

    The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) has conducted an all-sky survey to locate and identify point sources of emission in four extreme ultraviolet wavelength bands centered at approximately 100, 200, 400, and 600 A. A companion deep survey of a strip along half the ecliptic plane was simultaneously conducted. In this catalog we report the sources found in these surveys using rigorously defined criteria uniformly applied to the data set. These are the first surveys to be made in the three longer wavelength bands, and a substantial number of sources were detected in these bands. We present a number of statistical diagnostics of the surveys, including their source counts, their sensitivites, and their positional error distributions. We provide a separate list of those sources reported in the EUVE Bright Source List which did not meet our criteria for inclusion in our primary list. We also provide improved count rate and position estimates for a majority of these sources based on the improved methodology used in this paper. In total, this catalog lists a total of 410 point sources, of which 372 have plausible optical ultraviolet, or X-ray identifications, which are also listed.

  5. The Chandra Source Catalog 2.0: Early Cross-matches

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rots, Arnold H.; Allen, Christopher E.; Anderson, Craig S.; Budynkiewicz, Jamie A.; Burke, Douglas; Chen, Judy C.; Civano, Francesca Maria; D'Abrusco, Raffaele; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Ian N.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Graessle, Dale E.; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; Houck, John C.; Lauer, Jennifer L.; Laurino, Omar; Lee, Nicholas P.; Martínez-Galarza, Rafael; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph; McLaughlin, Warren; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nguyen, Dan T.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Paxson, Charles; Plummer, David A.; Primini, Francis Anthony; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael; Van Stone, David W.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2018-01-01

    Cross-matching the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) with other catalogs presents considerable challenges, since the Point Spread Function (PSF) of the Chandra X-ray Observatory varies significantly over the field of view. For the second release of the CSC (CSC2) we have been developing a cross-match tool that is based on the Bayesian algorithms by Budavari, Heinis, and Szalay (ApJ 679, 301 and 705, 739), making use of the error ellipses for the derived positions of the sources.However, calculating match probabilities only on the basis of error ellipses breaks down when the PSFs are significantly different. Not only can bonafide matches easily be missed, but the scene is also muddied by ambiguous multiple matches. These are issues that are not commonly addressed in cross-match tools. We have applied a satisfactory modification to the algorithm that, although not perfect, ameliorates the problems for the vast majority of such cases.We will present some early cross-matches of the CSC2 catalog with obvious candidate catalogs and report on the determination of the absolute astrometric error of the CSC2 based on such cross-matches.This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center.

  6. Composite regional catalogs of earthquakes in the former Soviet Union

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rautian, Tatyana; Leith, William

    2002-01-01

    Seismological study of the territory of the former Soviet Union developed in the 20th century with the approach of maintaining constant observations with standard instrumentation and methods of data processing, determining standardized parameters describing the seismic sources, and producing regular summary publications. For most of the century, event data were published only in Russian and were generally unavailable to the Western scientific community. Yet for many regions of this vast territory, earthquakes with magnitudes less than 2 were routinely located and characterized, especially since the early 1960s. A great volume of data on the seismicity of the Eurasian land mass is therefore available, although to date only in scattered publications and for incomplete periods of time.To address this problem, we have undertaken a comprehensive compilation, documentation and evaluation of catalogs of seismicity of the former Soviet Union. These include four principal, Soviet-published catalog sources, supplemented by other publications. We view this as the first step in compiling a complete catalog of all known seismic events in this large and important region. Completion of this work will require digitizing the remaining catalogs of the various regional seismological institutes. To make these data more useful for regional seismic investigations, as well as to be consistent with their provenance, we have prepared composite regional catalogs, dividing the territory of the former Soviet Union into 24 regions. For each of these regions, all the data available from the basic catalog sources (see below) have been combined and evaluated. Note that, for regions with low seismicity, the historical (non-instrumental, macro-seismic) data are of increased importance. Such information, if not included in any summary, were taken from various publications and marked as "historical".

  7. The third catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi large area telescope

    DOE PAGES

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Atwood, W. B.; ...

    2015-08-25

    We present the third catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by the Fermi-LAT (3LAC). It is based on the third Fermi-LAT catalog (3FGL) of sources detected between 100 MeV and 300 GeV with a Test Statistic greater than 25, between 2008 August 4 and 2012 July 31. The 3LAC includes 1591 AGNs located at high Galactic latitudes (more » $$| b| \\gt 10^\\circ $$), a 71% increase over the second catalog based on 2 years of data. There are 28 duplicate associations, thus 1563 of the 2192 high-latitude gamma-ray sources of the 3FGL catalog are AGNs. Most of them (98%) are blazars. About half of the newly detected blazars are of unknown type, i.e., they lack spectroscopic information of sufficient quality to determine the strength of their emission lines. Based on their gamma-ray spectral properties, these sources are evenly split between flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lacs. The most abundant detected BL Lacs are of the high-synchrotron-peaked (HSP) type. There were about 50% of the BL Lacs that had no measured redshifts. A few new rare outliers (HSP-FSRQs and high-luminosity HSP BL Lacs) are reported. The general properties of the 3LAC sample confirm previous findings from earlier catalogs. The fraction of 3LAC blazars in the total population of blazars listed in BZCAT remains non-negligible even at the faint ends of the BZCAT-blazar radio, optical, and X-ray flux distributions, which hints that even the faintest known blazars could eventually shine in gamma-rays at LAT-detection levels. Furthermore, the energy-flux distributions of the different blazar populations are in good agreement with extrapolation from earlier catalogs.« less

  8. Variations in primary sclerosing cholangitis across the age spectrum.

    PubMed

    Eaton, John E; McCauley, Bryan M; Atkinson, Elizabeth J; Juran, Brian D; Schlicht, Erik M; de Andrade, Mariza; Lazaridis, Konstantinos N

    2017-10-01

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) typically develops in middle-age adults. Little is known about phenotypic differences when PSC is diagnosed at various ages. Therefore, we sought to compare the clinical characteristics of a large PSC cohort based on the age when PSC was diagnosed. We performed a multicenter retrospective review to compare the features of PSC among those diagnosed between 1-19 (n = 95), 20-59 (n = 662), and 60-79 years (n = 102). Those with an early diagnosis (ED) of PSC were more likely to have small-duct PSC (13%) than those with a middle-age diagnosis (MD) (5%) and late diagnosis (LD) groups (2%), P < 0.01, and appeared to have a decrease risk of hepatobiliary malignancies: ED versus MD: hazard ratio (HR), 0.25; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06-1.03, and ED versus LD: HR, 0.07; 95% CI 0.01-0.62. Cholangiocarcinoma was diagnosed in 78 subjects (ED n = 0, MD n = 66, and LD n = 12) and was more likely to be diagnosed within a year after the PSC diagnosis among those found to have PSC late in life: ED 0% (0/95), MD 2% (14/662), and LD 6% (6/102), P = 0.02. Similarly, hepatic decompensation was more common among those with LD-PSC versus younger individuals: LD versus MD: HR, 1.64; 95% CI 0.98-2.70, and LD versus ED: HR, 2.26; 95% CI 1.02-5.05. Those diagnosed with PSC early in life are more likely to have small-duct PSC and less likely to have disease-related complications. Clinicians should be vigilant for underlying cholangiocarcinoma among those with PSC diagnosed late in life. © 2017 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  9. Genome-wide association analysis in primary sclerosing cholangitis and ulcerative colitis identifies risk loci at GPR35 and TCF4.

    PubMed

    Ellinghaus, David; Folseraas, Trine; Holm, Kristian; Ellinghaus, Eva; Melum, Espen; Balschun, Tobias; Laerdahl, Jon K; Shiryaev, Alexey; Gotthardt, Daniel N; Weismüller, Tobias J; Schramm, Christoph; Wittig, Michael; Bergquist, Annika; Björnsson, Einar; Marschall, Hanns-Ulrich; Vatn, Morten; Teufel, Andreas; Rust, Christian; Gieger, Christian; Wichmann, H-Erich; Runz, Heiko; Sterneck, Martina; Rupp, Christian; Braun, Felix; Weersma, Rinse K; Wijmenga, Cisca; Ponsioen, Cyriel Y; Mathew, Christopher G; Rutgeerts, Paul; Vermeire, Séverine; Schrumpf, Erik; Hov, Johannes R; Manns, Michael P; Boberg, Kirsten M; Schreiber, Stefan; Franke, Andre; Karlsen, Tom H

    2013-09-01

    Approximately 60%-80% of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) have concurrent ulcerative colitis (UC). Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in PSC have detected a number of susceptibility loci that also show associations in UC and other immune-mediated diseases. We aimed to systematically compare genetic associations in PSC with genotype data in UC patients with the aim of detecting new susceptibility loci for PSC. We performed combined analyses of GWAS for PSC and UC comprising 392 PSC cases, 987 UC cases, and 2,977 controls and followed up top association signals in an additional 1,012 PSC cases, 4,444 UC cases, and 11,659 controls. We discovered novel genome-wide significant associations with PSC at 2q37 [rs3749171 at G-protein-coupled receptor 35 (GPR35); P = 3.0 × 10(-9) in the overall study population, combined odds ratio [OR] and 95% confidence interval [CI] of 1.39 (1.24-1.55)] and at 18q21 [rs1452787 at transcription factor 4 (TCF4); P = 2.61 × 10(-8) , OR (95% CI) = 0.75 (0.68-0.83)]. In addition, several suggestive PSC associations were detected. The GPR35 rs3749171 is a missense single nucleotide polymorphism resulting in a shift from threonine to methionine. Structural modeling showed that rs3749171 is located in the third transmembrane helix of GPR35 and could possibly alter efficiency of signaling through the GPR35 receptor. By refining the analysis of a PSC GWAS by parallel assessments in a UC GWAS, we were able to detect two novel risk loci at genome-wide significance levels. GPR35 shows associations in both UC and PSC, whereas TCF4 represents a PSC risk locus not associated with UC. Both loci may represent previously unexplored aspects of PSC pathogenesis. Copyright © 2012 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

  10. Technological progress and challenges towards cGMP manufacturing of human pluripotent stem cells based therapeutic products for allogeneic and autologous cell therapies.

    PubMed

    Abbasalizadeh, Saeed; Baharvand, Hossein

    2013-12-01

    Recent technological advances in the generation, characterization, and bioprocessing of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have created new hope for their use as a source for production of cell-based therapeutic products. To date, a few clinical trials that have used therapeutic cells derived from hESCs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but numerous new hPSC-based cell therapy products are under various stages of development in cell therapy-specialized companies and their future market is estimated to be very promising. However, the multitude of critical challenges regarding different aspects of hPSC-based therapeutic product manufacturing and their therapies have made progress for the introduction of new products and clinical applications very slow. These challenges include scientific, technological, clinical, policy, and financial aspects. The technological aspects of manufacturing hPSC-based therapeutic products for allogeneic and autologous cell therapies according to good manufacturing practice (cGMP) quality requirements is one of the most important challenging and emerging topics in the development of new hPSCs for clinical use. In this review, we describe main critical challenges and highlight a series of technological advances in all aspects of hPSC-based therapeutic product manufacturing including clinical grade cell line development, large-scale banking, upstream processing, downstream processing, and quality assessment of final cell therapeutic products that have brought hPSCs closer to clinical application and commercial cGMP manufacturing. © 2013.

  11. Comparison of electrophysiological data from human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to functional preclinical safety assays.

    PubMed

    Harris, Kate; Aylott, Mike; Cui, Yi; Louttit, James B; McMahon, Nicholas C; Sridhar, Arun

    2013-08-01

    Human-induced pluripotent stem cell cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) are a potential source to develop assays for predictive electrophysiological safety screening. Published studies show that the relevant physiology and pharmacology exist but does not show the translation between stem cell cardiomyocyte assays and other preclinical safety screening assays, which is crucial for drug discovery and safety scientists and the regulators. Our studies are the first to show the pharmacology of ion channel blockade and compare them with existing functional cardiac electrophysiology studies. Ten compounds (a mixture of pure hERG [E-4031 and Cisapride], hERG and sodium [Flecainide, Mexiletine, Quinidine, and Terfenadine], calcium channel blockers [Nifedipine and Verapamil], and two proprietary compounds [GSK A and B]) were tested, and results from hiPSC-CMs studied on multielectrode arrays (MEA) were compared with other preclincial models and clinical drug concentrations and effects using integrated risk assessment plots. All ion channel blockers produced (1) functional effects on repolarization and depolarization around the IC25 and IC50 values and (2) excessive blockade of hERG and/or blockade of sodium current precipitated arrhythmias. Our MEA data show that hiPSC-CMs demonstrate relevant pharmacology and show excellent correlations to current functional cardiac electrophysiological studies. Based on these results, MEA assays using iPSC-CMs offer a reliable, cost effective, and surrogate to preclinical in vitro testing, in addition to the 3Rs (refine, reduce, and replace animals in research) benefit.

  12. Neonatal Transplantation Confers Maturation of PSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes Conducive to Modeling Cardiomyopathy.

    PubMed

    Cho, Gun-Sik; Lee, Dong I; Tampakakis, Emmanouil; Murphy, Sean; Andersen, Peter; Uosaki, Hideki; Chelko, Stephen; Chakir, Khalid; Hong, Ingie; Seo, Kinya; Chen, Huei-Sheng Vincent; Chen, Xiongwen; Basso, Cristina; Houser, Steven R; Tomaselli, Gordon F; O'Rourke, Brian; Judge, Daniel P; Kass, David A; Kwon, Chulan

    2017-01-10

    Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) offer unprecedented opportunities for disease modeling and personalized medicine. However, PSC-derived cells exhibit fetal-like characteristics and remain immature in a dish. This has emerged as a major obstacle for their application for late-onset diseases. We previously showed that there is a neonatal arrest of long-term cultured PSC-derived cardiomyocytes (PSC-CMs). Here, we demonstrate that PSC-CMs mature into adult CMs when transplanted into neonatal hearts. PSC-CMs became similar to adult CMs in morphology, structure, and function within a month of transplantation into rats. The similarity was further supported by single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis. Moreover, this in vivo maturation allowed patient-derived PSC-CMs to reveal the disease phenotype of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, which manifests predominantly in adults. This study lays a foundation for understanding human CM maturation and pathogenesis and can be instrumental in PSC-based modeling of adult heart diseases. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Neonatal Transplantation Confers Maturation of PSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes Conducive to Modeling Cardiomyopathy

    PubMed Central

    Cho, Gun-Sik; Lee, Dong I.; Tampakakis, Emmanouil; Murphy, Sean; Andersen, Peter; Uosaki, Hideki; Chelko, Stephen; Chakir, Khalid; Hong, Ingie; Seo, Kinya; Vincent Chen, Huei-Sheng; Chen, Xiongwen; Basso, Cristina; Houser, Steven R.; Tomaselli, Gordon F.; O’Rourke, Brian; Judge, Daniel P.; Kass, David A.; Kwon, Chulan

    2016-01-01

    SUMMARY Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) offer unprecedented opportunities for disease modeling and personalized medicine. However, PSC-derived cells exhibit fetal-like characteristics and remain immature in a dish. This has emerged as a major obstacle for their application for late-onset diseases. We previously showed that there is a neonatal arrest of long-term cultured PSC-derived cardiomyocytes (PSC-CMs). Here, we demonstrate that PSC-CMs mature into adult CMs when transplanted into neonatal hearts. PSC-CMs became similar to adult CMs in morphology, structure, and function within a month of the transplantation into rats. The similarity was further supported by single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis. Moreover, this in vivo maturation allowed patient-derived PSC-CMs to reveal the disease phenotype of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, which predominantly manifests in adults. This study lays a foundation for understanding human CM maturation and pathogenesis and can be instrumental in PSC-based modeling of adult heart diseases. PMID:28076798

  14. Variability Properties of Four Million Sources in the TESS Input Catalog Observed with the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope Survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oelkers, Ryan J.; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Pepper, Joshua; Somers, Garrett; Kafka, Stella; Stevens, Daniel J.; Beatty, Thomas G.; Siverd, Robert J.; Lund, Michael B.; Kuhn, Rudolf B.; James, David; Gaudi, B. Scott

    2018-01-01

    The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) has been surveying more than 70% of the celestial sphere for nearly a decade. While the primary science goal of the survey is the discovery of transiting, large-radii planets around bright host stars, the survey has collected more than 106 images, with a typical cadence between 10–30 minutes, for more than four million sources with apparent visual magnitudes in the approximate range 7< V< 13. Here, we provide a catalog of 52,741 objects showing significant large-amplitude fluctuations likely caused by stellar variability, as well as 62,229 objects identified with likely stellar rotation periods. The detected variability ranges in rms-amplitude from ∼3 mmag to ∼2.3 mag, and the detected periods range from ∼0.1 to ≳2000 days. We provide variability upper limits for all other ∼4,000,000 sources. These upper limits are principally a function of stellar brightness, but we achieve typical 1σ sensitivity on 30 min timescales down to ∼5 mmag at V∼ 8, and down to ∼43 mmag at V∼ 13. We have matched our catalog to the TESS Input catalog and the AAVSO Variable Star Index to precipitate the follow-up and classification of each source. The catalog is maintained as a living database on the Filtergraph visualization portal at the URL https://filtergraph.com/kelt_vars.

  15. The first catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the FERMI large area telescope

    DOE PAGES

    Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; ...

    2010-04-29

    Here, we present the first catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), corresponding to 11 months of data collected in scientific operation mode. The First LAT AGN Catalog (1LAC) includes 671 γ-ray sources located at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>10°) that are detected with a test statistic greater than 25 and associated statistically with AGNs. Some LAT sources are associated with multiple AGNs, and consequently, the catalog includes 709 AGNs, comprising 300 BL Lacertae objects, 296 flat-spectrum radio quasars, 41 AGNs of other types, and 72 AGNs of unknown type. We also classify the blazarsmore » based on their spectral energy distributions as archival radio, optical, and X-ray data permit. In addition to the formal 1LAC sample, we provide AGN associations for 51 low-latitude LAT sources and AGN "affiliations" (unquantified counterpart candidates) for 104 high-latitude LAT sources without AGN associations. The overlap of the 1LAC with existing γ-ray AGN catalogs (LBAS, EGRET, AGILE, Swift, INTEGRAL, TeVCat) is briefly discussed. Various properties—such as γ-ray fluxes and photon power-law spectral indices, redshifts, γ-ray luminosities, variability, and archival radio luminosities—and their correlations are presented and discussed for the different blazar classes. Lastly, we compare the 1LAC results with predictions regarding the γ-ray AGN populations, and we comment on the power of the sample to address the question of the blazar sequence.« less

  16. Improved selection criteria for H II regions, based on IRAS sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, Qing-Zeng; Xu, Ye; Walsh, A. J.; Macquart, J. P.; MacLeod, G. C.; Zhang, Bo; Hancock, P. J.; Chen, Xi; Tang, Zheng-Hong

    2018-05-01

    We present new criteria for selecting H II regions from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) Point Source Catalogue (PSC), based on an H II region catalogue derived manually from the all-sky Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The criteria are used to augment the number of H II region candidates in the Milky Way. The criteria are defined by the linear decision boundary of two samples: IRAS point sources associated with known H II regions, which serve as the H II region sample, and IRAS point sources at high Galactic latitudes, which serve as the non-H II region sample. A machine learning classifier, specifically a support vector machine, is used to determine the decision boundary. We investigate all combinations of four IRAS bands and suggest that the optimal criterion is log(F_{60}/F_{12})≥ ( -0.19 × log(F_{100}/F_{25})+ 1.52), with detections at 60 and 100 {μ}m. This selects 3041 H II region candidates from the IRAS PSC. We find that IRAS H II region candidates show evidence of evolution on the two-colour diagram. Merging the WISE H II catalogue with IRAS H II region candidates, we estimate a lower limit of approximately 10 200 for the number of H II regions in the Milky Way.

  17. NOAA's Data Catalog and the Federal Open Data Policy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wengren, M. J.; de la Beaujardiere, J.

    2014-12-01

    The 2013 Open Data Policy Presidential Directive requires Federal agencies to create and maintain a 'public data listing' that includes all agency data that is currently or will be made publicly-available in the future. The directive requires the use of machine-readable and open formats that make use of 'common core' and extensible metadata formats according to the best practices published in an online repository called 'Project Open Data', to use open licenses where possible, and to adhere to existing metadata and other technology standards to promote interoperability. In order to meet the requirements of the Open Data Policy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has implemented an online data catalog that combines metadata from all subsidiary NOAA metadata catalogs into a single master inventory. The NOAA Data Catalog is available to the public for search and discovery, providing access to the NOAA master data inventory through multiple means, including web-based text search, OGC CS-W endpoint, as well as a native Application Programming Interface (API) for programmatic query. It generates on a daily basis the Project Open Data JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file required for compliance with the Presidential directive. The Data Catalog is based on the open source Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) software and runs on the Amazon Federal GeoCloud. This presentation will cover topics including mappings of existing metadata in standard formats (FGDC-CSDGM and ISO 19115 XML ) to the Project Open Data JSON metadata schema, representation of metadata elements within the catalog, and compatible metadata sources used to feed the catalog to include Web Accessible Folder (WAF), Catalog Services for the Web (CS-W), and Esri ArcGIS.com. It will also discuss related open source technologies that can be used together to build a spatial data infrastructure compliant with the Open Data Policy.

  18. Chandra Source Catalog: User Interfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonaventura, Nina; Evans, I. N.; Harbo, P. N.; Rots, A. H.; Tibbetts, M. S.; Van Stone, D. W.; Zografou, P.; Anderson, C. S.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E.; Gibbs, D. G.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Grier, J. D.; Hain, R.; Hall, D. M.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Primini, F. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Winkelman, S. L.

    2010-03-01

    The CSCview data mining interface is available for browsing the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) and downloading tables of quality-assured source properties and data products. Once the desired source properties and search criteria are entered into the CSCview query form, the resulting source matches are returned in a table along with the values of the requested source properties for each source. (The catalog can be searched on any source property, not just position.) At this point, the table of search results may be saved to a text file, and the available data products for each source may be downloaded. CSCview save files are output in RDB-like and VOTable format. The available CSC data products include event files, spectra, lightcurves, and images, all of which are processed with the CIAO software. CSC data may also be accessed non-interactively with Unix command-line tools such as cURL and Wget, using ADQL 2.0 query syntax. In fact, CSCview features a separate ADQL query form for those who wish to specify this type of query within the GUI. Several interfaces are available for learning if a source is included in the catalog (in addition to CSCview): 1) the CSC interface to Sky in Google Earth shows the footprint of each Chandra observation on the sky, along with the CSC footprint for comparison (CSC source properties are also accessible when a source within a Chandra field-of-view is clicked); 2) the CSC Limiting Sensitivity online tool indicates if a source at an input celestial location was too faint for detection; 3) an IVOA Simple Cone Search interface locates all CSC sources within a specified radius of an R.A. and Dec.; and 4) the CSC-SDSS cross-match service returns the list of sources common to the CSC and SDSS, either all such sources or a subset based on search criteria.

  19. Characterization of Polar Stratospheric Clouds With Spaceborne Lidar: CALIPSO and the 2006 Antarctic Season

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pitts, Michael C.; Thomason, L. W.; Poole, Lamont R.; Winker, David M.

    2007-01-01

    The role of polar stratospheric clouds in polar ozone loss has been well documented. The CALIPSO satellite mission offers a new opportunity to characterize PSCs on spatial and temporal scales previously unavailable. A PSC detection algorithm based on a single wavelength threshold approach has been developed for CALIPSO. The method appears to accurately detect PSCs of all opacities, including tenuous clouds, with a very low rate of false positives and few missed clouds. We applied the algorithm to CALIPSO data acquired during the 2006 Antarctic winter season from 13 June through 31 October. The spatial and temporal distribution of CALIPSO PSC observations is illustrated with weekly maps of PSC occurrence. The evolution of the 2006 PSC season is depicted by time series of daily PSC frequency as a function of altitude. Comparisons with virtual solar occultation data indicate that CALIPSO provides a different view of the PSC season than attained with previous solar occultation satellites. Measurement-based time series of PSC areal coverage and vertically-integrated PSC volume are computed from the CALIPSO data. The observed area covered with PSCs is significantly smaller than would be inferred from a temperature-based proxy such as TNAT but is similar in magnitude to that inferred from TSTS. The potential of CALIPSO measurements for investigating PSC microphysics is illustrated using combinations of lidar backscatter coefficient and volume depolarization to infer composition for two CALIPSO PSC scenes.

  20. The Availability of Cataloging Copy in the OCLC Data Base.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Espley, John; Metz, Paul

    1980-01-01

    Findings of a longitudinal study indicate high success rates for OCLC as a source of cataloging copy. They further suggest that holding patterns for many types of materials may be unnecessary. (Author/RAA)

  1. Patient Safety Culture: A Review of the Nursing Home Literature and Recommendations for Practice

    PubMed Central

    Bonner, Alice F.; Castle, Nicholas G.; Perera, Subashan; Handler, Steven M.

    2010-01-01

    Patient safety culture (PSC) is a critical factor in creating high-reliability health-care organizations. Most PSC research studies to date have been conducted in acute care settings; however, nursing home studies have recently begun to appear in the literature. Nursing homes differ from hospitals in a number of ways, including the population they serve, the medical model of care, and having the vast majority of direct care provided by non-licensed certified nursing assistants. Research has shown that nursing home PSC differs in important ways from PSC in acute care institutions. Recent PSC studies conducted in nursing homes and related quality and safety research can guide recommendations for nursing homes wishing to evaluate their own PSC. Relationships between PSC measurement, quality improvement, and workforce issues are potentially important and may influence clinical outcomes. PMID:21701601

  2. Comparison of the glycosphingolipids of human-induced pluripotent stem cells and human embryonic stem cells.

    PubMed

    Säljö, Karin; Barone, Angela; Vizlin-Hodzic, Dzeneta; Johansson, Bengt R; Breimer, Michael E; Funa, Keiko; Teneberg, Susann

    2017-04-01

    High expectations are held for human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) since they are established from autologous tissues thus overcoming the risk of allogeneic immune rejection when used in regenerative medicine. However, little is known regarding the cell-surface carbohydrate antigen profile of hiPSC compared with human embryonic stem cells (hESC). Here, glycosphingolipids were isolated from an adipocyte-derived hiPSC line, and hiPSC and hESC glycosphingolipids were compared by concurrent characterization by binding assays with carbohydrate-recognizing ligands and mass spectrometry. A high similarity between the nonacid glycosphingolipids of hiPSC and hESC was found. The nonacid glycosphingolipids P1 pentaosylceramide, x2 pentaosylceramide and H type 1 heptaosylceramide, not previously described in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC), were characterized in both hiPSC and hESC. The composition of acid glycosphingolipids differed, with increased levels of GM3 ganglioside, and reduced levels of GD1a/GD1b in hiPSC when compared with hESC. In addition, the hESC glycosphingolipids sulf-globopentaosylceramide and sialyl-globotetraosylceramide were lacking in hiPSC. Neural stem cells differentiating from hiPSC had a reduced expression of sialyl-lactotetra, whereas expression of the GD1a ganglioside was significantly increased. Thus, while sialyl-lactotetra is a marker of undifferentiated hPSC, GD1a is a novel marker of neural differentiation. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. Metformin Preconditioning of Human induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Neural Stem Cells Promotes Their Engraftment and Improves Post-Stroke Regeneration and Recovery.

    PubMed

    Ould-Brahim, Fares; Sarma, Sailendra Nath; Syal, Charvi; Lu, Kevin Jiaqi; Seegobin, Matthew; Carter, Anthony; Jeffers, Matthew S; Doré, Carole; Stanford, William; Corbett, Dale; Wang, Jing

    2018-06-12

    While transplantation of hiPSC-derived neural stem cells (hiPSC-NSCs) shows therapeutic potential in animal stroke models, major concerns for translating hiPSC therapy to the clinic are efficacy and safety. Therefore, there is a demand to develop an optimal strategy to enhance the engraftment and regenerative capacity of transplanted hiPSC-NSCs in order to produce fully differentiated neural cells to replace lost brain tissues. Metformin, an FDA approved drug, is an optimal neuroregenerative agent that not only promotes NSC proliferation but also drives NSC towards differentiation. In this regard, we hypothesize that preconditioning of hiPSC-NSCs with metformin before transplantation into the stroke-damaged brain will improve engraftment and regenerative capabilities of hiPSC-NSCs, ultimately enhancing functional recovery. Here we show that pretreatment of hiPSC-NSCs with metformin enhances the proliferation and differentiation of hiPSC-NSCs in culture. Furthermore, metformin-preconditioned hiPSC-NSCs show increased engraftment 1-week post-transplant in a rat endothelin-1 focal ischemic stroke model. In addition, metformin preconditioned cell grafts exhibit increased survival compared to naïve cell grafts at 7-week post-transplant. Analysis of the grafts demonstrates that metformin preconditioning enhances the differentiation of hiPSC-NSCs. As an outcome, rats receiving metformin preconditioned cells display accelerated gross motor recovery and reduced infarct volume. These studies represent a vital step forward in the optimization of hiPSC-NSC based transplantation to promote post-stroke recovery.

  4. The Chandra Source Catalog : Automated Source Correlation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hain, Roger; Evans, I. N.; Evans, J. D.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E.; Gibbs, D. G.; Grier, J. D.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Primini, F. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Rots, A. H.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; Van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

    2009-01-01

    Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) master source pipeline processing seeks to automatically detect sources and compute their properties. Since Chandra is a pointed mission and not a sky survey, different sky regions are observed for a different number of times at varying orientations, resolutions, and other heterogeneous conditions. While this provides an opportunity to collect data from a potentially large number of observing passes, it also creates challenges in determining the best way to combine different detection results for the most accurate characterization of the detected sources. The CSC master source pipeline correlates data from multiple observations by updating existing cataloged source information with new data from the same sky region as they become available. This process sometimes leads to relatively straightforward conclusions, such as when single sources from two observations are similar in size and position. Other observation results require more logic to combine, such as one observation finding a single, large source and another identifying multiple, smaller sources at the same position. We present examples of different overlapping source detections processed in the current version of the CSC master source pipeline. We explain how they are resolved into entries in the master source database, and examine the challenges of computing source properties for the same source detected multiple times. Future enhancements are also discussed. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

  5. Career Education Pamphlets (A Library of 1200 Free and Inexpensive Sources) Plus: "100 Millionaire Success Stories." Where Important Careers Begin.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shaffer, Dale E.

    The contents in this catalog represent a basic collection of occupational booklets and paperbacks suitable for any library or school. It was prepared to assist librarians, teachers, counselors, and educators in obtaining free and inexpensive resources on career education. Students can also use the catalog as a reference handbook for sources of…

  6. Korea Institute for Advanced Study Value-Added Galaxy Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Choi, Yun-Young; Han, Du-Hwan; Kim, Sungsoo S.

    2010-12-01

    We present the Korea Institute for Advanced Study Value-Added Galaxy Catalog (KIAS VAGC),a catalog of galaxies based on the Large Scale Structure (LSS) sample of New York University Value-Added Galaxy Catalog (NYU VAGC) Data Release 7. Our catalog supplements redshifts of 10,497 galaxies with 10 < r_{P} ≤ 17.6 (1455 with 10 < r_{P} ≤ 14.5) to the NYU VAGC LSS sample. Redshifts from various existing catalogs such as the Updated Zwicky Catalog, the IRAS Point Source Catalog Redshift Survey, the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies, and the Two Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey have been put into the NYU VAGC photometric catalog. Our supplementation significantly improves spectroscopic completeness: the area covered by the spectroscopic sample with completeness higher than 95% increases from 2.119 to 1.737 sr.Our catalog also provides morphological types of all galaxies that are determined by the automated morphology classification scheme of Park & Choi (2005), and related parameters, together with fundamental photometry parameters supplied by the NYU VAGC. Our catalog contains matches to objects in the Max Planck for Astronomy (MPA) & Johns Hopkins University (JHU) spectrum measurements (Data Release 7). This new catalog, the KIAS VAGC, is complementary to the NYU VAGC and MPA-JHU catalog.

  7. The ALFALFA Extragalactic Catalog and Data Processing Pipeline

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kent, Brian R.; Haynes, Martha P.; Giovanelli, Riccardo; ALFALFA Team

    2018-06-01

    The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA 21cm HI Survey has reached completion. The observations and data are used by team members and the astronomical community in a variety of scientific initiatives with gas-rich galaxies, cluster environments, and studies of low redshift cosmology. The survey covers nearly 7000 square degrees of high galactic latitude sky visible from Arecibo, Puerto Rico and ~4400 hours of observations from 2005 to 2011. We present the extragalactic HI source catalog of over ~31,000 detections, their measured properties, and associated derived parameters. The observations were carefully reduced using a custom made data reduction pipeline and interface. Team members interacted with this pipeline through observation planning, calibration, imaging, source extraction, and cataloging. We describe this processing workflow as it pertains to the complexities of the single-dish multi-feed data reduction as well as known caveats of the source catalog and spectra for use in future astronomical studies and analysis. The ALFALFA team at Cornell has been supported by NSF grants AST-0607007, AST-1107390 and AST-1714828 and by grants from the Brinson Foundation.

  8. Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells as an Individual-Specific and Renewable Source of Adult Stem Cells.

    PubMed

    Sequiera, Glen Lester; Saravanan, Sekaran; Dhingra, Sanjiv

    2017-01-01

    This chapter deals with the employment of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) as a candidate to differentiate into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). This would enable to help establish a regular source of human MSCs with the aim of avoiding the problems associated with procuring the MSCs either from different healthy individuals or patients, limited extraction potentials, batch-to-batch variations or from diverse sources such as bone marrow or adipose tissue. The procedures described herein allow for a guided and ensured approach for the regular maintenance of hiPSCs and their subsequent differentiation into MSCs using the prescribed medium. Subsequently, an easy protocol for the successive isolation and purification of the hiPSC-differentiated MSCs is outlined, which is carried out through passaging and can be further sorted through flow cytometry. Further, the maintenance and expansion of the resultant hiPSC-differentiated MSCs using appropriate characterization techniques, i.e., Reverse-transcription PCR and immunostaining is also elaborated. The course of action has been deliberated keeping in mind the awareness and the requisites available to even beginner researchers who mostly have access to regular consumables and medium components found in the general laboratory.

  9. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Luminous persistent sources in nearby galaxies search (Ofek, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ofek, E. O.

    2018-04-01

    I compiled a catalog of nearby galaxies within 108Mpc. The catalog is based on combining the HyperLEDA galaxies (Paturel+ 2003, VII/238 ; Makarov+ 2014A&A...570A..13M) with the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED) redshifts, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York+ 2000AJ....120.1579Y ; see V/147) galaxies with known redshifts. Both catalogs are restricted to the FIRST radio survey footprint (Becker+ 1995ApJ...450..559B ; see VIII/92). (1 data file).

  10. Faint Object Detection in Multi-Epoch Observations via Catalog Data Fusion

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Budavári, Tamás; Szalay, Alexander S.; Loredo, Thomas J.

    Astronomy in the time-domain era faces several new challenges. One of them is the efficient use of observations obtained at multiple epochs. The work presented here addresses faint object detection and describes an incremental strategy for separating real objects from artifacts in ongoing surveys. The idea is to produce low-threshold single-epoch catalogs and to accumulate information across epochs. This is in contrast to more conventional strategies based on co-added or stacked images. We adopt a Bayesian approach, addressing object detection by calculating the marginal likelihoods for hypotheses asserting that there is no object or one object in a small imagemore » patch containing at most one cataloged source at each epoch. The object-present hypothesis interprets the sources in a patch at different epochs as arising from a genuine object; the no-object hypothesis interprets candidate sources as spurious, arising from noise peaks. We study the detection probability for constant-flux objects in a Gaussian noise setting, comparing results based on single and stacked exposures to results based on a series of single-epoch catalog summaries. Our procedure amounts to generalized cross-matching: it is the product of a factor accounting for the matching of the estimated fluxes of the candidate sources and a factor accounting for the matching of their estimated directions. We find that probabilistic fusion of multi-epoch catalogs can detect sources with similar sensitivity and selectivity compared to stacking. The probabilistic cross-matching framework underlying our approach plays an important role in maintaining detection sensitivity and points toward generalizations that could accommodate variability and complex object structure.« less

  11. Spitzer Observations of the North Ecliptic Pole

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nayyeri, H.; Ghotbi, N.; Cooray, A.; Bock, J.; Clements, D. L.; Im, M.; Kim, M. G.; Korngut, P.; Lanz, A.; Lee, H. M.; Lee, D. H.; Malkan, M.; Matsuhara, H.; Matsumoto, T.; Matsuura, S.; Nam, U. W.; Pearson, C.; Serjeant, S.; Smidt, J.; Tsumura, K.; Wada, T.; Zemcov, M.

    2018-02-01

    We present a photometric catalog for Spitzer Space Telescope warm mission observations of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP; centered at R.A. = 18h00m00s, decl. = 66d33m38.ˢ552). The observations are conducted with IRAC in the 3.6 and 4.5 μm bands over an area of 7.04 deg2, reaching 1σ depths of 1.29 μJy and 0.79 μJy in the 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm bands, respectively. The photometric catalog contains 380,858 sources with 3.6 and 4.5 μm band photometry over the full-depth NEP mosaic. Point-source completeness simulations show that the catalog is 80% complete down to 19.7 AB. The accompanying catalog can be used for constraining the physical properties of extragalactic objects, studying the AGN population, measuring the infrared colors of stellar objects, and studying the extragalactic infrared background light.

  12. The Biological Reference Repository (BioR): a rapid and flexible system for genomics annotation.

    PubMed

    Kocher, Jean-Pierre A; Quest, Daniel J; Duffy, Patrick; Meiners, Michael A; Moore, Raymond M; Rider, David; Hossain, Asif; Hart, Steven N; Dinu, Valentin

    2014-07-01

    The Biological Reference Repository (BioR) is a toolkit for annotating variants. BioR stores public and user-specific annotation sources in indexed JSON-encoded flat files (catalogs). The BioR toolkit provides the functionality to combine and retrieve annotation from these catalogs via the command-line interface. Several catalogs from commonly used annotation sources and instructions for creating user-specific catalogs are provided. Commands from the toolkit can be combined with other UNIX commands for advanced annotation processing. We also provide instructions for the development of custom annotation pipelines. The package is implemented in Java and makes use of external tools written in Java and Perl. The toolkit can be executed on Mac OS X 10.5 and above or any Linux distribution. The BioR application, quickstart, and user guide documents and many biological examples are available at http://bioinformaticstools.mayo.edu. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  13. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Abundances of bright metal-poor stars (Schlaufman+, 2014)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schlaufman, K. C.; Casey, A. R.

    2016-11-01

    As input to our sample selection, we use the APASS DR6 Catalog, the 2MASS All-Sky Point Source Catalog, and the AllWISE Source Catalog (Henden+ 2012JAVSO..40..430H; Skrutskie+ 2006AJ....131.1163S; Wright+ 2010AJ....140.1868W; Mainzer+ 2011ApJ...731...53M). We followed up our metal-poor star candidates with the Mayall 4m/Echelle, Gemini South/GMOS-S, and Magellan/MIKE telescopes and spectrographs. We observed 98 stars with the Mayall 4m/Echelle on 2013 June 25-27. We observed 90 stars with Gemini South/GMOS-S in service mode from 2014 March to July (R~3700). We observed 416 stars with Magellan/MIKE on 2014 June 21-23 and July 8-10 (R~41000 in the blue and R~35000 in the red). (3 data files).

  14. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Polarized point sources in LOTSS-HETDEX (Van Eck+, 2018)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Eck, C. L.; Haverkorn, M.; Alves, M. I. R.; Beck, R.; Best, P.; Carretti, E.; Chyzy, K. T.; Farnes, J. S.; Ferriere, K.; Hardcastle, M. J.; Heald, G.; Horellou, C.; Iacobelli, M.; Jelic, V.; Mulcahy, D. D.; O'Sullivan, S. P.; Polderman, I. M.; Reich, W.; Riseley, C. J.; Rottgering, H.; Schnitzeler, D. H. F. M.; Shimwell, T. W.; Vacca, V.; Vink, J.; White, G. J.

    2018-06-01

    Visibility data taken from LOTSS, imaged in polarization, and had RM synthesis applied. Resulting RM spectra were searched for polarization peaks. Detected peaks that were determined to not be foreground or instrumental effects were collected in this catalog. Source locations (for peak searches) were selected from TGSS-ADR1 (J/A+A/598/A78). Due to overlap between fields, some sources were detected multiple times, as recorded in the Ndet column. Polarized sources were cross-matched with the high-resolution LOTSS images (Shimwell+, in prep), and WISE and PanSTARRS images, which were used to determine the source classification and morphology. (1 data file).

  15. Identification and Classification of Infrared Excess Sources in the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strasburger, David; Gorjian, Varoujan; Burke, Todd; Childs, Linda; Odden, Caroline; Tambara, Kevin; Abate, Antoinette; Akhtar, Nadir; Beach, Skyler; Bhojwani, Ishaan; Brown, Caden; Dear, AnnaMaria; Dumont, Theodore; Harden, Olivia; Joli-Coeur, Laurent; Nahirny, Rachel; Nakahira, Andie; Nix, Sabine; Orgul, Sarp; Parry, Johnny; Picken, John; Taylor, Isabel; Toner, Emre; Turner, Aspen; Xu, Jessica; Zhu, Emily

    2015-01-01

    The Spitzer Space Telescope's original cryogenic mission imaged roughly 42 million sources, most of which were incidental and never specifically targeted for research. These have now been compiled in the publicly accessible Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) catalog. The SEIP stores millions of never before examined sources that happened to be in the same field of view as objects specifically selected for study. This project examined the catalog to isolate previously unknown infrared excess (IRXS) candidates. The culling process utilized four steps. First, we considered only those objects with signal to noise ratios of at least 10 to 1 in the following five wavelengths: 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8 and 24 microns, which narrowed the source list to about one million. Second, objects were removed from highly studied regions, such as the galactic plane and previously conducted infrared surveys. This further reduced the population of sources to 283,758. Third, the remaining sources were plotted using a [3.6]-[4.5] vs. [8]-[24] color-color diagram to isolate IRXS candidates. Fourth, multiple images of sixty-three outlier points from the extrema of the color-color diagram were examined to verify that the sources had been cross matched correctly and to exclude any candidate sources that may have been compromised due to image artifacts or field crowding. The team will ultimately provide statistics for the prevalence of IRXS sources in the SEIP catalog and provide analysis of those extreme outliers from the main locus of points. This research was made possible through the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) and was funded by NASA Astrophysics Data Program.

  16. PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFTS IN THE HAWAII-HUBBLE DEEP FIELD-NORTH (H-HDF-N)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yang, G.; Xue, Y. Q.; Kong, X.

    2015-01-01

    We derive photometric redshifts (z {sub phot}) for sources in the entire (∼0.4 deg{sup 2}) Hawaii-Hubble Deep Field-North (H-HDF-N) field with the EAzY code, based on point-spread-function-matched photometry of 15 broad bands from the ultraviolet (U band) to mid-infrared (IRAC 4.5 μm). Our catalog consists of a total of 131,678 sources. We evaluate the z {sub phot} quality by comparing z {sub phot} with spectroscopic redshifts (z {sub spec}) when available, and find a value of normalized median absolute deviation σ{sub NMAD} = 0.029 and an outlier fraction of 5.5% (outliers are defined as sources having |z{sub phot} – z{sub spec} |/(1more » + z{sub spec} ) > 0.15) for non-X-ray sources. More specifically, we obtain σ{sub NMAD} = 0.024 with 2.7% outliers for sources brighter than R = 23 mag, σ{sub NMAD} = 0.035 with 7.4% outliers for sources fainter than R = 23 mag, σ{sub NMAD} = 0.026 with 3.9% outliers for sources having z < 1, and σ{sub NMAD} = 0.034 with 9.0% outliers for sources having z > 1. Our z {sub phot} quality shows an overall improvement over an earlier z {sub phot} work that focused only on the central H-HDF-N area. We also classify each object as a star or galaxy through template spectral energy distribution fitting and complementary morphological parameterization, resulting in 4959 stars and 126,719 galaxies. Furthermore, we match our catalog with the 2 Ms Chandra Deep Field-North main X-ray catalog. For the 462 matched non-stellar X-ray sources (281 having z {sub spec}), we improve their z {sub phot} quality by adding three additional active galactic nucleus templates, achieving σ{sub NMAD} = 0.035 and an outlier fraction of 12.5%. We make our catalog publicly available presenting both photometry and z {sub phot}, and provide guidance on how to make use of our catalog.« less

  17. Immunoreactivity of specific epitopes of PrPSc is enhanced by pretreatment in a hydrated autoclave.

    PubMed Central

    Yokoyama, T; Momotani, E; Kimura, K; Yuasa, N

    1996-01-01

    An abnormal protein (PrPSc) accumulates in animals affected with scrapie. Immunoblotting procedures have been used widely to detect PrPSc. Blotted membranes were subjected to pretreatment in a hydrated autoclave, and the subsequent immunoreactivity of PrPSc was examined. The immunoreactivity of PrPSc to antisera against the synthetic peptides of the mouse PrP amino acid sequences 199 to 208 and 213 to 226 was enhanced by the pretreatment. However, the reactivity to antisera of peptide sequences 100 to 115 and 165 to 174 was not affected. The antibody-binding ability of the specific epitopes which are located close to the C-terminal end of PrP27-30 the proteinase-resistant portion of PrPSc, was enhanced by pretreatment in a hydrated autoclave. This pretreatment increased the sensitivity of PrPSc, and it would be useful for diagnosis of scrapie. PMID:8807215

  18. Influence of pumpkin seed cake and extruded linseed on milk production and milk fatty acid profile in Alpine goats.

    PubMed

    Klir, Z; Castro-Montoya, J M; Novoselec, J; Molkentin, J; Domacinovic, M; Mioc, B; Dickhoefer, U; Antunovic, Z

    2017-10-01

    The aim was to determine the effect of substituting pumpkin seed cake (PSC) or extruded linseed (ELS) for soya bean meal in goats' diets on milk yield, milk composition and fatty acids profile of milk fat. In total, 28 dairy goats were divided into three groups. They were fed with concentrate mixtures containing soya bean meal (Control; n=9), ELS (n=10) or PSC (n=9) as main protein sources in the trial lasting 75 days. Addition of ELS or PSC did not influence milk yield and milk gross composition in contrast to fatty acid profile compared with Control. Supplementation of ELS resulted in greater branched-chain fatty acids (BCFA) and total n-3 fatty acids compared with Control and PSC (P<0.05). Total n-3 fatty acids were accompanied by increased α-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3n-3; 0.56 g/100 g fatty acids) and EPA (C20:5n-3; 0.12 g/100 g fatty acids) proportions in milk of the ELS group. In contrast, ELS and PSC resulted in lower linoleic acid (LA, C18:2n-6; 2.10 and 2.28 g/100 g fatty acids, respectively) proportions compared with Control (2.80 g/100 g fatty acids; P<0.05). Abovementioned resulted in lower LA/ALA ratio (3.81 v. 7.44 or 6.92, respectively; P<0.05) with supplementation of ELS compared with Control or PSC. The PSC diet decreased total n-6 fatty acids compared with the Control (2.96 v. 3.54 g/100 g fatty acids, P<0.05). Oleic acid (c9-C18:1), CLA (c9,t11-18:2) and t10-,t11-C18:1 did not differ between treatments (P⩾0.08), although stearic acid (C18:0) increased in ELS diets compared with Control (12.7 v. 10.2 g/100 g fatty acids, P<0.05). Partially substituted soya bean meal with ELS in hay-based diets may increase beneficial n-3 fatty acids and BCFA accompanied by lowering LA/ALA ratio and increased C18:0. Pumpkin seed cake completely substituted soya bean meal in the diet of dairy goats without any decrease in milk production or sharp changes in fatty acid profile that may have a commercial or a human health relevancy.

  19. VizieR Online Data Catalog: MGIV (Fourth MIT-Green Bank) 5GHz Survey (Griffith+ 1991)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Griffith, M.; Langston, G.; Heflin, M.; Conner, S.; Burke, B.

    1998-10-01

    The MIT-Green Bank IV (MG IV) 5 GHz survey covers 0.504 sr of sky in the right ascension range 15.5 to 2.5 hours, between +37.00 and +50.98 degrees declination (B1950). The final MG IV catalog contains 3427 sources detected with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 5. The catalog was produced from two separate north and south surveys with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) 91m transit telescope. The north survey was produced from data collected while scanning the telescope north from +39.0 to +50.98 degrees declination and the south survey from data collected from scans from +48.98 to +37.00 degrees declination. The completeness and reliability of the final source list is checked by examination of north and south source lists in a twice observed comparison region, lying between +39.15 and +48.83 degrees declination and excluding the area between +/-10 degrees Galactic latitude. The comparison region covers 0.270 sr of sky and contains 1094 sources. In this region, the MG IV catalog contains 423 sources brighter than 90 mJy and is shown to be 99.1 +/- 1.2% complete at this flux density level. Spectral indices are computed for sources identified in the NRAO 1400 MHz Survey (published by Condon and Broderick in 1985). A comparison of the spectral index distributions between +/- 10 and outside of +/- 10 degrees Galactic latitude is presented. (1 data file).

  20. Temporally coordinated spiking activity of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons co-cultured with astrocytes.

    PubMed

    Kayama, Tasuku; Suzuki, Ikuro; Odawara, Aoi; Sasaki, Takuya; Ikegaya, Yuji

    2018-01-01

    In culture conditions, human induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC)-derived neurons form synaptic connections with other cells and establish neuronal networks, which are expected to be an in vitro model system for drug discovery screening and toxicity testing. While early studies demonstrated effects of co-culture of hiPSC-derived neurons with astroglial cells on survival and maturation of hiPSC-derived neurons, the population spiking patterns of such hiPSC-derived neurons have not been fully characterized. In this study, we analyzed temporal spiking patterns of hiPSC-derived neurons recorded by a multi-electrode array system. We discovered that specific sets of hiPSC-derived neurons co-cultured with astrocytes showed more frequent and highly coherent non-random synchronized spike trains and more dynamic changes in overall spike patterns over time. These temporally coordinated spiking patterns are physiological signs of organized circuits of hiPSC-derived neurons and suggest benefits of co-culture of hiPSC-derived neurons with astrocytes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. The Third BATSE Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meegan, Charles A.; Pendleton, Geoffrey N.; Briggs, Michael S.; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Koshut, Thomas M.; Lestrade, John Patrick; Paciesas, William S.; McCollough, Michael L.; Brainerd, Jerome J.; Horack, John M.; hide

    1996-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) has triggered on 1122 cosmic gamma-ray bursts between 1991 April 19 and 1994 September 19. These events constitute the Third BATSE (3B) burst catalog. This catalog includes the events previously reported in the 2B catalog, which covered the time interval 1991 April 19 to 1993 March 9. We present tables of the burst occurrence times, locations, peak fluxes, fluences, and durations. In general, results from previous BATSE catalogs are confirmed here with greater statistical significance. The angular distribution is consistent with isotropy. The mean galactic dipole and quadrupole moments are within 0.6 a and 0.3 a, respectively, of the values expected for isotropy. The intensity distribution is not consistent with a homogeneous distribution of burst sources, with V/V(sub max) = 0.33 +/- 0.01. The duration distribution (T(sub 90)) exhibits bimodality, with peaks at approx. 0.5 and approx. 30 s. There is no compelling evidence for burst repetition, but only weak limits can be placed on the repetition rate.

  2. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Second ROSAT PSPC Catalog (ROSAT, 2000)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rosat, Consortium

    2000-07-01

    This catalogue contains sources from PSPC-ROSAT (Position-Sensitive Proportional Counter aboard the Roentgen Satellite), as provided by Max-Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik (MPE). It supersedes the 1994 version (Cat. ) The current release of the catalog is comprised of results from 4093 sequences (sky coverage of 14.5%). The complete version contains entries for 95,331 detections whereas the short version has 43,156 detections. 2189 obvious sources were not detected by the automated Standard Analysis Software System (SASS), and are not yet contained in this catalogue. These data have been screened by ROSAT data centers in the US, Germany, and the UK as a step in the production of the ROSAT RESULTS ARCHIVE. The RRA contains extracted source and associated products with an indication of reliability for the primary parameters. (3 data files).

  3. Nanowires and Electrical Stimulation Synergistically Improve Functions of hiPSC Cardiac Spheroids.

    PubMed

    Richards, Dylan J; Tan, Yu; Coyle, Robert; Li, Yang; Xu, Ruoyu; Yeung, Nelson; Parker, Arran; Menick, Donald R; Tian, Bozhi; Mei, Ying

    2016-07-13

    The advancement of human induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived cardiomyocyte (hiPSC-CM) technology has shown promising potential to provide a patient-specific, regenerative cell therapy strategy to treat cardiovascular disease. Despite the progress, the unspecific, underdeveloped phenotype of hiPSC-CMs has shown arrhythmogenic risk and limited functional improvements after transplantation. To address this, tissue engineering strategies have utilized both exogenous and endogenous stimuli to accelerate the development of hiPSC-CMs. Exogenous electrical stimulation provides a biomimetic pacemaker-like stimuli that has been shown to advance the electrical properties of tissue engineered cardiac constructs. Recently, we demonstrated that the incorporation of electrically conductive silicon nanowires to hiPSC cardiac spheroids led to advanced structural and functional development of hiPSC-CMs by improving the endogenous electrical microenvironment. Here, we reasoned that the enhanced endogenous electrical microenvironment of nanowired hiPSC cardiac spheroids would synergize with exogenous electrical stimulation to further advance the functional development of nanowired hiPSC cardiac spheroids. For the first time, we report that the combination of nanowires and electrical stimulation enhanced cell-cell junction formation, improved development of contractile machinery, and led to a significant decrease in the spontaneous beat rate of hiPSC cardiac spheroids. The advancements made here address critical challenges for the use of hiPSC-CMs in cardiac developmental and translational research and provide an advanced cell delivery vehicle for the next generation of cardiac repair.

  4. Characterization of Intestinal Microbiota in Ulcerative Colitis Patients with and without Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis.

    PubMed

    Kevans, D; Tyler, A D; Holm, K; Jørgensen, K K; Vatn, M H; Karlsen, T H; Kaplan, G G; Eksteen, B; Gevers, D; Hov, J R; Silverberg, M S

    2016-03-01

    There is an unexplained association between ulcerative colitis [UC] and primary sclerosing cholangitis [PSC], with the intestinal microbiota implicated as an important factor. The study aim was to compare the structure of the intestinal microbiota of patients with UC with and without PSC. UC patients with PSC [PSC-UC] and without PSC [UC] were identified from biobanks at Oslo University Hospital, Foothills Hospital Calgary and Mount Sinai Hospital Toronto. Microbial DNA was extracted from colonic tissue and sequencing performed of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene on Illumina MiSeq. Sequences were assigned to operational taxonomic units [OTUs] using Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology [QIIME]. Microbial alpha diversity, beta diversity, and relative abundance were compared between PSC-UC and UC phenotypes. In all, 31 PSC-UC patients and 56 UC patients were included. Principal coordinate analysis [PCoA] demonstrated that city of sample collection was the strongest determinant of taxonomic profile. In the Oslo cohort, Chao 1 index was modestly decreased in PSC-UC compared with UC [p = 0.04] but did not differ significantly in the Calgary cohort. No clustering by PSC phenotype was observed using beta diversity measures. For multiple microbial genera there were nominally significant differences between UC and PSC-UC, but results were not robust to false-discovery rate correction. No strong PSC-specific microbial associations in UC patients consistent across different cohorts were identified. Recruitment centre had a strong effect on microbial composition. Future studies should include larger cohorts to increase power and the ability to control for confounding factors. Copyright © 2015 European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  5. The gut microbial profile in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis is distinct from patients with ulcerative colitis without biliary disease and healthy controls.

    PubMed

    Kummen, Martin; Holm, Kristian; Anmarkrud, Jarl Andreas; Nygård, Ståle; Vesterhus, Mette; Høivik, Marte L; Trøseid, Marius; Marschall, Hanns-Ulrich; Schrumpf, Erik; Moum, Bjørn; Røsjø, Helge; Aukrust, Pål; Karlsen, Tom H; Hov, Johannes R

    2017-04-01

    Gut microbiota could influence gut, as well as hepatic and biliary immune responses. We therefore thoroughly characterised the gut microbiota in primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) compared with healthy controls (HC) and patients with ulcerative colitis without liver disease. We prospectively collected 543 stool samples. After a stringent exclusion process, bacterial DNA was submitted for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. PSC and HC were randomised to an exploration panel or a validation panel, and only significant results (p<0.05, Q FDR <0.20) in both panels were reported, followed by a combined comparison of all samples against UC. Patients with PSC (N=85) had markedly reduced bacterial diversity compared with HC (N=263, p<0.0001), and a different global microbial composition compared with both HC (p<0.001) and UC (N=36, p<0.01). The microbiota of patients with PSC with and without IBD was similar. Twelve genera separated PSC and HC, out of which 11 were reduced in PSC. However, the Veillonella genus showed a marked increase in PSC compared with both HC (p<0.0001) and UC (p<0.02). Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, Veillonella abundance yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.64 to discriminate PSC from HC, while a combination of PSC-associated genera yielded an AUC of 0.78. Patients with PSC exhibited a gut microbial signature distinct from both HC and UC without liver disease, but similar in PSC with and without IBD. The Veillonella genus, which is also associated with other chronic inflammatory and fibrotic conditions, was enriched in PSC. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  6. Anti-GP2 IgA autoantibodies are associated with poor survival and cholangiocarcinoma in primary sclerosing cholangitis.

    PubMed

    Jendrek, Sebastian Torben; Gotthardt, Daniel; Nitzsche, Thomas; Widmann, Laila; Korf, Tobias; Michaels, Maike Anna; Weiss, Karl-Heinz; Liaskou, Evaggelia; Vesterhus, Mette; Karlsen, Tom Hemming; Mindorf, Swantje; Schemmer, Peter; Bär, Florian; Teegen, Bianca; Schröder, Torsten; Ehlers, Marc; Hammers, Christoph Matthias; Komorowski, Lars; Lehnert, Hendrik; Fellermann, Klaus; Derer, Stefanie; Hov, Johannes Roksund; Sina, Christian

    2017-01-01

    Pancreatic autoantibodies (PABs), comprising antibodies against glycoprotein 2 (anti-GP2), are typically associated with complicated phenotypes in Crohn's disease, but have also been observed with variable frequencies in patients with UC. In a previous study, we observed a high frequency of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) in patients with anti-GP2-positive UC. We therefore aimed to characterise the role of anti-GP2 in PSC. In an evaluation phase, sera from 138 well-characterised Norwegian patients with PSC were compared with healthy controls (n=52), and patients with UC without PSC (n=62) for the presence of PABs by indirect immunofluorescence. Further, 180 German patients with PSC served as a validation cohort together with 56 cases of cholangiocarcinoma without PSC, 20 of secondary sclerosing cholangitis (SSC) and 18 of autoimmune hepatitis. Anti-GP2 IgA specifically occurred at considerable rates in large bile duct diseases (cholangiocarcinoma=36%, PSC and SSC about 50%). In PSC, anti-GP2 IgA consistently identified patients with poor survival during follow-up (Norwegian/German cohort: p Log Rank=0.016/0.018). Anti-GP2 IgA was associated with the development of cholangiocarcinoma in both PSC cohorts, yielding an overall OR of cholangiocarcinoma in patients with anti-GP2 IgA-positive PSC of 5.0 (p=0.001). Importantly, this association remained independent of disease duration, bilirubin level and age. Anti-GP2 IgA can be hypothesised as a novel marker in large bile duct diseases. In particular, in PSC, anti-GP2 IgA identified a subgroup of patients with severe phenotype and poor survival due to cholangiocarcinoma. Anti-GP2 IgA may therefore be a clinically valuable tool for risk stratification in PSC. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  7. Effective Hypothermic Storage of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes Compatible With Global Distribution of Cells for Clinical Applications and Toxicology Testing

    PubMed Central

    Correia, Cláudia; Koshkin, Alexey; Carido, Madalena; Espinha, Nuno; Šarić, Tomo; Lima, Pedro A.; Alves, Paula M.

    2016-01-01

    To fully explore the potential of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs), efficient methods for storage and shipment of these cells are required. Here, we evaluated the feasibility to cold store monolayers and aggregates of functional CMs obtained from different PSC lines using a fully defined clinical-compatible preservation formulation and investigated the time frame that hPSC-CMs could be subjected to hypothermic storage. We showed that two-dimensional (2D) monolayers of hPSC-CMs can be efficiently stored at 4°C for 3 days without compromising cell viability. However, cell viability decreased when the cold storage interval was extended to 7 days. We demonstrated that hPSC-CMs are more resistant to prolonged hypothermic storage-induced cell injury in three-dimensional aggregates than in 2D monolayers, showing high cell recoveries (>70%) after 7 days of storage. Importantly, hPSC-CMs maintained their typical (ultra)structure, gene and protein expression profile, electrophysiological profiles, and drug responsiveness. Significance The applicability of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) in the clinic/industry is highly dependent on the development of efficient methods for worldwide shipment of these cells. This study established effective clinically compatible strategies for cold (4°C) storage of hPSC-CMs cultured as two-dimensional (2D) monolayers and three-dimensional (3D) aggregates. Cell recovery of 2D monolayers of hPSC-CMs was found to be dependent on the time of storage, and 3D cell aggregates were more resistant to prolonged cold storage than 2D monolayers. Of note, it was demonstrated that 7 days of cold storage did not affect hPSC-CM ultrastructure, phenotype, or function. This study provides important insights into the cold preservation of PSC-CMs that could be valuable in improving global commercial distribution of hPSC-CMs. PMID:27025693

  8. Effective Hypothermic Storage of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes Compatible With Global Distribution of Cells for Clinical Applications and Toxicology Testing.

    PubMed

    Correia, Cláudia; Koshkin, Alexey; Carido, Madalena; Espinha, Nuno; Šarić, Tomo; Lima, Pedro A; Serra, Margarida; Alves, Paula M

    2016-05-01

    To fully explore the potential of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs), efficient methods for storage and shipment of these cells are required. Here, we evaluated the feasibility to cold store monolayers and aggregates of functional CMs obtained from different PSC lines using a fully defined clinical-compatible preservation formulation and investigated the time frame that hPSC-CMs could be subjected to hypothermic storage. We showed that two-dimensional (2D) monolayers of hPSC-CMs can be efficiently stored at 4°C for 3 days without compromising cell viability. However, cell viability decreased when the cold storage interval was extended to 7 days. We demonstrated that hPSC-CMs are more resistant to prolonged hypothermic storage-induced cell injury in three-dimensional aggregates than in 2D monolayers, showing high cell recoveries (>70%) after 7 days of storage. Importantly, hPSC-CMs maintained their typical (ultra)structure, gene and protein expression profile, electrophysiological profiles, and drug responsiveness. The applicability of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) in the clinic/industry is highly dependent on the development of efficient methods for worldwide shipment of these cells. This study established effective clinically compatible strategies for cold (4°C) storage of hPSC-CMs cultured as two-dimensional (2D) monolayers and three-dimensional (3D) aggregates. Cell recovery of 2D monolayers of hPSC-CMs was found to be dependent on the time of storage, and 3D cell aggregates were more resistant to prolonged cold storage than 2D monolayers. Of note, it was demonstrated that 7 days of cold storage did not affect hPSC-CM ultrastructure, phenotype, or function. This study provides important insights into the cold preservation of PSC-CMs that could be valuable in improving global commercial distribution of hPSC-CMs. ©AlphaMed Press.

  9. New Insight into Polar Stratospheric Cloud Processes from A-Train Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pitts, M. C.; Poole, L. R.

    2016-12-01

    Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) play essential roles in the chemical depletion of stratospheric ozone at high latitudes. Heterogeneous reactions occurring on PSC particles, primarily supercooled ternary (H2SO4-H2O-HNO3) solution (STS) droplets, convert stable chlorine reservoir species to highly reactive ozone-destructive forms. Also, sedimentation and evaporation of large nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) particles irreversibly redistributes odd nitrogen and prolongs ozone depletion by slowing the reformation of stable chlorine reservoirs. Even after three decades of research, significant gaps in our understanding of PSC processes still exist, particularly concerning NAT nucleation and the extent to which chlorine is activated on cold background aerosol prior to PSC formation. These uncertainties limit our ability to represent PSCs accurately in global models and call into question predictions of ozone recovery in a changing climate. PSC observations from the A-Train satellite constellation have stimulated a number of new research activities that have both extended and challenged our knowledge of PSC processes and modeling capabilities. Specifically, the CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) lidar on the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) satellite is providing information on PSC morphology and composition in unprecedented detail, while the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite is providing nearly coincident measurements of gas-phase HNO3 and H2O, the major constituents of all PSC particles. The combined analyses of these datasets enable better PSC composition discrimination and provide valuable new insight into processes such as PSC-catalyzed chlorine activation and PSC particle growth kinetics. The more than ten years of CALIOP and MLS measurements have uniquely captured the primary aspects of the seasonal and multi-year variability of PSCs in the Arctic and Antarctic and are enabling the development of a state-of-the-art reference PSC data record and climatology which can be utilized to test current and future global models. In this paper, we will illustrate key features of this evolving PSC climatology and highlight recent significant findings with regard to PSC processes in the Arctic and Antarctic.

  10. Measuring patient safety culture in maternal and child health institutions in China: a qualitative study.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yuanyuan; Liu, Weiwei; Shi, Huifeng; Liu, Chaojie; Wang, Yan

    2017-07-12

    Patient safety culture (PSC) plays a critical role in ensuring safe and quality care. Extensive PSC studies have been undertaken in hospitals. However, little is known about PSC in maternal and child health (MCH) institutions in China, which provide both population-based preventive services as well as individual care for patients. This study aimed to develop a theoretical framework for conceptualising PSC in MCH institutions in China. The study was undertaken in six MCH institutions (three in Hebei and three in Beijing). Participants (n=118) were recruited through stratified purposive sampling: 20 managers/administrators, 59 care providers and 39 patients. In-depth interviews were conducted with the participants. The interview data were coded using both inductive (based on the existing PSC theory developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and deductive (open coding arising from data) approaches. A PSC framework was formulated through axial coding that connected initial codes and selective coding that extracted a small number of themes. The interviewees considered patient safety in relation to six aspects: safety and security in public spaces, safety of medical services, privacy and information security, financial security, psychological safety and gap in services. A 12-dimensional PSC framework was developed, containing 69 items. While the existing PSC theory was confirmed by this study, some new themes emerged from the data. Patients expressed particular concerns about psychological safety and financial security. Defensive medical practices emerged as a PSC dimension that is associated with not only medical safety but also financial security and psychological safety. Patient engagement was also valued by the interviewees, especially the patients, as part of PSC. Although there are some common features in PSC across different healthcare delivery systems, PSC can also be context specific. In MCH settings in China, the meaning of 'patient safety' goes beyond the traditional definition of patients. General well-being, health and disease prevention are important anchor points for defining PSC in such settings. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  11. Development and validation of a primary sclerosing cholangitis-specific patient-reported outcomes instrument: The PSC PRO.

    PubMed

    Younossi, Zobair M; Afendy, Arian; Stepanova, Maria; Racila, Andrei; Nader, Fatema; Gomel, Rachel; Safer, Ricky; Lenderking, William R; Skalicky, Anne; Kleinman, Leah; Myers, Robert P; Subramanian, G Mani; McHutchison, John G; Levy, Cynthia; Bowlus, Christopher L; Kowdley, Kris; Muir, Andrew J

    2017-11-20

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic liver disease associated with inflammation and biliary fibrosis that leads to cholangitis, cirrhosis, and impaired quality of life. Our objective was to develop and validate a PSC-specific patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument. We developed a 42-item PSC PRO instrument that contains two modules (Symptoms and Impact of Symptoms) and conducted an external validation. Reliability and validity were evaluated using clinical data and a battery of other validated instruments. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a subgroup of patients who repeated the PSC PRO after the first administration. One hundred two PSC subjects (44 ± 13 years; 32% male, 74% employed, 39% with cirrhosis, 14% with a history of decompensated cirrhosis, 38% history of depression, and 68% with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]) completed PSC PRO and other PRO instruments (Short Form 36 V2 [SF-36], Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire [CLDQ], Primary Biliary Cholangitis - 40 [PBC-40], and five dimensions [5-D Itch]). PSC PRO demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach alphas, 0.84-0.94) and discriminant validity (41 of 42 items had the highest correlations with their own domains). There were good correlations between PSC PRO domains and relevant domains of SF-36, CLDQ, and PBC-40 (R = 0.69-0.90; all P < 0.0001), but lower (R = 0.31-0.60; P < 0.001) with 5-D Itch. Construct validity showed that PSC PRO can differentiate patients according to the presence and severity of cirrhosis and history of depression (P < 0.05), but not by IBD (P > 0.05). Test-retest reliability was assessed in 53 subjects who repeated PSC PRO within a median (interquartile range) of 37 (27-47) days. There was excellent reliability for most domains with intraclass correlations (0.71-0.88; all P < 0.001). PSC PRO is a self-administered disease-specific instrument developed according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines. This preliminary validation study suggests good psychometric properties. Further validation of the instrument in a larger and more diverse sample of PSC patients is needed. (Hepatology 2017). © 2017 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

  12. A Gaia DR2 Mock Stellar Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rybizki, Jan; Demleitner, Markus; Fouesneau, Morgan; Bailer-Jones, Coryn; Rix, Hans-Walter; Andrae, René

    2018-07-01

    We present a mock catalog of Milky Way stars, matching in volume and depth the content of the Gaia data release 2 (GDR2). We generated our catalog using Galaxia, a tool to sample stars from a Besançon Galactic model, together with a realistic 3D dust extinction map. The catalog mimics the complete GDR2 data model and contains most of the entries in the Gaia source catalog: five-parameter astrometry, three-band photometry, radial velocities, stellar parameters, and associated scaled nominal uncertainty estimates. In addition, we supplemented the catalog with extinctions and photometry for non-Gaia bands. This catalog can be used to prepare GDR2 queries in a realistic runtime environment, and it can serve as a Galactic model against which to compare the actual GDR2 data in the space of observables. The catalog is hosted through the virtual observatory GAVO’s Heidelberg data center (http://dc.g-vo.org/tableinfo/gdr2mock.main) service, and thus can be queried using ADQL as for GDR2 data.

  13. The SIMPLE Survey: Observations, Reduction, and Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Damen, M.; Labbé, I.; van Dokkum, P. G.; Franx, M.; Taylor, E. N.; Brandt, W. N.; Dickinson, M.; Gawiser, E.; Illingworth, G. D.; Kriek, M.; Marchesini, D.; Muzzin, A.; Papovich, C.; Rix, H.-W.

    2011-01-01

    We present the Spitzer IRAC/MUSYC Public Legacy Survey in the Extended CDF-South (SIMPLE), which consists of deep IRAC observations covering the ~1600 arcmin2 area surrounding GOODS-S. The limiting magnitudes of the SIMPLE IRAC mosaics typically are 23.8, 23.6, 21.9, and 21.7, at 3.6 μm, 4.5 μm, 5.8 μm, and 8.0 μm, respectively (5σ total point source magnitudes in AB). The SIMPLE IRAC images are combined with the 10' × 15' GOODS IRAC mosaics in the center. We give detailed descriptions of the observations, data reduction, and properties of the final images, as well as the detection and photometry methods used to build a catalog. Using published optical and near-infrared data from the Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC), we construct an IRAC-selected catalog, containing photometry in UBVRIz'JHK, [3.6 μm], [4.5 μm], [5.8 μm], and [8.0 μm]. The catalog contains 43,782 sources with S/N >5 at 3.6 μm, 19,993 of which have 13-band photometry. We compare this catalog to the publicly available MUSYC and FIREWORKS catalogs and discuss the differences. Using a high signal-to-noise sub-sample of 3391 sources with ([3.6] + [4.5])/2 < 21.2, we investigate the star formation rate history of massive galaxies out to z ~ 1.8. We find that at z ~ 1.8 at least 30% ± 7% of the most massive galaxies (M * >1011 M sun) are passively evolving, in agreement with earlier results from surveys covering less area.

  14. Malignancies in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis – A Continuing Threat

    PubMed Central

    Bonato, Giulia; Cristoferi, Laura; Strazzabosco, Mario; Fabris, Luca

    2016-01-01

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic inflammatory liver disease of unknown etiology, primarily targeting cholangiocytes at any portion of the biliary tree. No effective medical treatments are currently available. A unique feature of PSC is its close association (about 80%) with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), mainly ulcerative colitis (UC). As in many chronic inflammatory conditions, cancer development can complicate PSC, accounting for >40% of deaths. Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) and colorectal carcinoma (CRC) have been variably associated to PSC, with a prevalence up to 13–14%. The risk of cancer is one of the most challenging issues in the management of PSC; it raises several questions about cancer surveillance, early diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Key Messages Among the different cancers complicating PSC, CCA is the most relevant, because it is more frequent (incidence of 0.5–1.5%) and because the prognosis is poor (5-year survival <10%). Early diagnosis of CCA in PSC can be difficult because lesions may not be evident in radiological studies. Surgical resection provides disappointing results; liver transplantation combined with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is being proposed, but this approach is limited to a highly selected group of patients and is available only in a few specialized centers. Similar to CCA, GBC carries a dismal prognosis. Since it is difficult to discriminate GBC from other gallbladder abnormalities, cholecystectomy has been proposed in all gallbladder lesions detected in PSC, regardless of their size. CRC is a frequent complication of PSC associated to UC; its incidence steadily increases with time of colitis, reaching up to 20–30% of the patients after 20 years. Colonoscopy with extensive histologic sampling at an annual/biannual interval is an effective surveillance strategy. However, when dysplastic lesions are detected, preemptive proctocolectomy should be considered. Conclusions PSC may be regarded as paradigmatic of the sequence leading from chronic inflammatory epithelial damage to neoplastic transformation. Understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating this patho-genetic sequence, may improve strategies of disease surveillance and cancer prevention and treatment. PSC is a chronic inflammatory cholangiopathy of unknown etiology but likely immune-mediated, characterized by peribiliary inflammation and fibrosis leading to strictures in any portion (intra-and/or extrahepatic) of the bile duct system. No effective medical treatments are currently available. A unique feature of PSC is the close association (about 80%) with IBD, mainly UC, often diagnosed before PSC (PSC/UC). As in other chronic inflammatory diseases, development of malignancies is a feared complication of PSC. PMID:26641079

  15. Moving beyond the comprehensive in vitro proarrhythmia assay: Use of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to assess contractile effects associated with drug-induced structural cardiotoxicity.

    PubMed

    Yang, Xi; Papoian, Thomas

    2018-02-27

    Drug-induced cardiotoxicity is a potentially severe side effect that can adversely affect myocardial contractility through structural or electrophysiological changes in cardiomyocytes. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) are a promising human cardiac in vitro model system to assess both proarrhythmic and non-proarrhythmic cardiotoxicity of new drug candidates. The scalable differentiation of hiPSCs into cardiomyocytes provides a renewable cell source that overcomes species differences present in current animal models of drug toxicity testing. The Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) initiative represents a paradigm shift for proarrhythmic risk assessment, and hiPSC-CMs are an integral component of that paradigm. The recent advancements in hiPSC-CMs will not only impact safety decisions for possible drug-induced proarrhythmia, but should also facilitate risk assessment for non-proarrhythmic cardiotoxicity, where current non-clinical approaches are limited in detecting this risk before initiation of clinical trials. Importantly, emerging evidence strongly suggests that the use of hiPSC-CMs with cardiac physiological relevant measurements in vitro improves the detection of structural cardiotoxicity. Here we review high-throughput drug screening using the hiPSC-CM model as an experimentally feasible approach to assess potential contractile and structural cardiotoxicity in early phase drug development. We also suggest that the assessment of structural cardiotoxicity can be added to electrophysiological tests in the same platform to complement the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay for regulatory use. Ideally, application of these novel tools in early drug development will allow for more reliable risk assessment and lead to more informed regulatory decisions in making safe and effective drugs available to the public. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  16. Application of “omics” to Prion Biomarker Discovery

    PubMed Central

    Huzarewich, Rhiannon L. C. H.; Siemens, Christine G.; Booth, Stephanie A.

    2010-01-01

    The advent of genomics and proteomics has been a catalyst for the discovery of biomarkers able to discriminate biological processes such as the pathogenesis of complex diseases. Prompt detection of prion diseases is particularly desirable given their transmissibility, which is responsible for a number of human health risks stemming from exogenous sources of prion protein. Diagnosis relies on the ability to detect the biomarker PrPSc, a pathological isoform of the host protein PrPC, which is an essential component of the infectious prion. Immunochemical detection of PrPSc is specific and sensitive enough for antemortem testing of brain tissue, however, this is not the case in accessible biological fluids or for the detection of recently identified novel prions with unique biochemical properties. A complementary approach to the detection of PrPSc itself is to identify alternative, “surrogate” gene or protein biomarkers indicative of disease. Biomarkers are also useful to track the progress of disease, especially important in the assessment of therapies, or to identify individuals “at risk”. In this review we provide perspective on current progress and pitfalls in the use of “omics” technologies to screen body fluids and tissues for biomarker discovery in prion diseases. PMID:20224650

  17. Dynamic regulation of EZH2 from HPSc to hepatocyte-like cell fate

    PubMed Central

    Helsen, Nicky; Vanhove, Jolien; Boon, Ruben; Xu, Zhuofei; Ordovas, Laura; Verfaillie, Catherine M.

    2017-01-01

    Currently, drug metabolization and toxicity studies rely on the use of primary human hepatocytes and hepatoma cell lines, which both have conceivable limitations. Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)—derived hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) are an alternative and valuable source of hepatocytes that can overcome these limitations. EZH2 (enhancer of zeste homolog 2), a transcriptional repressor of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), may play an important role in hepatocyte development, but its role during in vitro hPSC-HLC differentiation has not yet been assessed. We here demonstrate dynamic regulation of EZH2 during hepatic differentiation of hPSC. To enhance EZH2 expression, we inducibly overexpressed EZH2 between d0 and d8, demonstrating a significant improvement in definitive endoderm formation, and improved generation of HLCs. Despite induction of EZH2 overexpression until d8, EZH2 transcript and protein levels decreased from d4 onwards, which might be caused by expression of microRNAs predicted to inhibit EZH2 expression. In conclusion, our studies demonstrate that EZH2 plays a role in endoderm formation and hepatocyte differentiation, but its expression is tightly post-transcriptionally regulated during this process. PMID:29091973

  18. Stem cell-derived kidney cells and organoids: Recent breakthroughs and emerging applications.

    PubMed

    Chuah, Jacqueline Kai Chin; Zink, Daniele

    The global rise in the numbers of kidney patients and the shortage in transplantable organs have led to an increasing interest in kidney-specific regenerative therapies, renal disease modelling and bioartificial kidneys. Sources for large quantities of high-quality renal cells and tissues would be required, also for applications in in vitro platforms for compound safety and efficacy screening. Stem cell-based approaches for the generation of renal-like cells and tissues would be most attractive, but such methods were not available until recently. This situation has drastically changed since 2013, and various protocols for the generation of renal-like cells and precursors from pluripotent stem cells (PSC) have been established. The most recent breakthroughs were related to the establishment of various protocols for the generation of PSC-derived kidney organoids. In combination with recent advances in genome editing, bioprinting and the establishment of predictive renal screening platforms this results in exciting new possibilities. This review will give a comprehensive overview over current PSC-based protocols for the generation of renal-like cells, precursors and organoids, and their current and potential applications in regenerative medicine, compound screening, disease modelling and bioartificial organs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. VizieR Online Data Catalog: New gamma-ray blazar candidates in the 3PBC (Maselli+, 2013)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maselli, A.; Massaro, F.; Cusumano, G.; D'Abrusco, R.; La Parola, V.; Paggi, A.; Segreto, A.; Smith, H. A.; Tosti, G.

    2013-06-01

    We searched for γ-ray blazar candidates among the 382 unidentified hard X-ray sources of the third Palermo BAT Catalog (3PBC) obtained from the analysis of 66 months of Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) survey data and listing 1586 sources. We adopted a recently developed association method based on the peculiar infrared colors that characterize the γ-ray blazars included in the second catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We used this method exploiting the data of the all-sky survey performed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to establish correspondences between unidentified 3PBC sources and WISE γ-ray blazar candidates located within the BAT positional uncertainty region at a 99% confidence level. We obtained a preliminary list of candidates for which we analyzed all the available data in the Swift archive to complement the information in the literature and in the radio, infrared, and optical catalogs with the information on their optical-UV and soft X-ray emission. Requiring the presence of radio and soft X-ray counterparts consistent with the infrared positions of the selected WISE sources, as well as a blazar-like radio morphology, we finally obtained a list of 24 γ-ray blazar candidates. (2 data files).

  20. Searching for New γ-Ray Blazar Candidates in the Third Palermo BAT Hard X-Ray Catalog with WISE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maselli, A.; Massaro, F.; Cusumano, G.; D'Abrusco, R.; La Parola, V.; Paggi, A.; Segreto, A.; Smith, Howard A.; Tosti, G.

    2013-06-01

    We searched for γ-ray blazar candidates among the 382 unidentified hard X-ray sources of the third Palermo BAT Catalog (3PBC) obtained from the analysis of 66 months of Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) survey data and listing 1586 sources. We adopted a recently developed association method based on the peculiar infrared colors that characterize the γ-ray blazars included in the second catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We used this method exploiting the data of the all-sky survey performed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to establish correspondences between unidentified 3PBC sources and WISE γ-ray blazar candidates located within the BAT positional uncertainty region at a 99% confidence level. We obtained a preliminary list of candidates for which we analyzed all the available data in the Swift archive to complement the information in the literature and in the radio, infrared, and optical catalogs with the information on their optical-UV and soft X-ray emission. Requiring the presence of radio and soft X-ray counterparts consistent with the infrared positions of the selected WISE sources, as well as a blazar-like radio morphology, we finally obtained a list of 24 γ-ray blazar candidates.

  1. Efficient and Scalable Cross-Matching of (Very) Large Catalogs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pineau, F.-X.; Boch, T.; Derriere, S.

    2011-07-01

    Whether it be for building multi-wavelength datasets from independent surveys, studying changes in objects luminosities, or detecting moving objects (stellar proper motions, asteroids), cross-catalog matching is a technique widely used in astronomy. The need for efficient, reliable and scalable cross-catalog matching is becoming even more pressing with forthcoming projects which will produce huge catalogs in which astronomers will dig for rare objects, perform statistical analysis and classification, or real-time transients detection. We have developed a formalism and the corresponding technical framework to address the challenge of fast cross-catalog matching. Our formalism supports more than simple nearest-neighbor search, and handles elliptical positional errors. Scalability is improved by partitioning the sky using the HEALPix scheme, and processing independently each sky cell. The use of multi-threaded two-dimensional kd-trees adapted to managing equatorial coordinates enables efficient neighbor search. The whole process can run on a single computer, but could also use clusters of machines to cross-match future very large surveys such as GAIA or LSST in reasonable times. We already achieve performances where the 2MASS (˜470M sources) and SDSS DR7 (˜350M sources) can be matched on a single machine in less than 10 minutes. We aim at providing astronomers with a catalog cross-matching service, available on-line and leveraging on the catalogs present in the VizieR database. This service will allow users both to access pre-computed cross-matches across some very large catalogs, and to run customized cross-matching operations. It will also support VO protocols for synchronous or asynchronous queries.

  2. Improving Data Catalogs with Free and Open Source Software

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schweitzer, R.; Hankin, S.; O'Brien, K.

    2013-12-01

    The Global Earth Observation Integrated Data Environment (GEO-IDE) is NOAA's effort to successfully integrate data and information with partners in the national US-Global Earth Observation System (US-GEO) and the international Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). As part of the GEO-IDE, the Unified Access Framework (UAF) is working to build momentum towards the goal of increased data integration and interoperability. The UAF project is moving towards this goal with an approach that includes leveraging well known and widely used standards, as well as free and open source software. The UAF project shares the widely held conviction that the use of data standards is a key ingredient necessary to achieve interoperability. Many community-based consensus standards fail, though, due to poor compliance. Compliance problems emerge for many reasons: because the standards evolve through versions, because documentation is ambiguous or because individual data providers find the standard inadequate as-is to meet their special needs. In addition, minimalist use of standards will lead to a compliant service, but one which is of low quality. In this presentation, we will be discussing the UAF effort to build a catalog cleaning tool which is designed to crawl THREDDS catalogs, analyze the data available, and then build a 'clean' catalog of data which is standards compliant and has a uniform set of data access services available. These data services include, among others, OPeNDAP, Web Coverage Service (WCS) and Web Mapping Service (WMS). We will also discuss how we are utilizing free and open source software and services to both crawl, analyze and build the clean data catalog, as well as our efforts to help data providers improve their data catalogs. We'll discuss the use of open source software such as DataNucleus, Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS), ncISO and the netCDF Java Common Data Model (CDM). We'll also demonstrate how we are using free services such as Google Charts to create an easily identifiable visual metaphor which describes the quality of data catalogs. Using this rubric, in conjunction with the ncISO metadata quality rubric, will allow data providers to identify non-compliance issues in their data catalogs, thereby improving data availability to their users and to data discovery systems

  3. The Chandra Source Catalog: X-ray Aperture Photometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kashyap, Vinay; Primini, F. A.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, I. N.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E. C.; Gibbs, D. G., II; Grier, J. D.; Hain, R.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Rots, A. H.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

    2009-09-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) represents a reanalysis of the entire ACIS and HRC imaging observations over the 9-year Chandra mission. We describe here the method by which fluxes are measured for detected sources. Source detection is carried out on a uniform basis, using the CIAO tool wavdetect. Source fluxes are estimated post-facto using a Bayesian method that accounts for background, spatial resolution effects, and contamination from nearby sources. We use gamma-function prior distributions, which could be either non-informative, or in case there exist previous observations of the same source, strongly informative. The current implementation is however limited to non-informative priors. The resulting posterior probability density functions allow us to report the flux and a robust credible range on it.

  4. VizieR Online Data Catalog: CANDELS multiwavelength catalog (Galametz+, 2013)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galametz, A.; Grazian, A.; Fontana, A.; Ferguson, H. C.; Ashby, M. L. N.; Barro, G.; Castellano, M.; Dahlen, T.; Donley, J. L.; Faber, S. M.; Grogin, N.; Guo, Y.; Huang, K.-H.; Kocevski, D. D.; Koekemoer, A. M.; Lee, K.-S.; McGrath, E. J.; Peth, M.; Willner, S. P.; Almaini, O.; Cooper, M.; Cooray, A.; Conselice, C. J.; Dickinson, M.; Dunlop, J. S.; Fazio, G. G.; Foucaud, S.; Gardner, J. P.; Giavalisco, M.; Hathi, N. P.; Hartley, W. G.; Koo, D. C.; Lai, K.; de Mello, D. F.; McLure, R. J.; Lucas, R. A.; Paris, D.; Pentericci, L.; Santini, P.; Simpson, C.; Sommariva, V.; Targett, T.; Weiner, B. J.; Wuyts, S.; CANDELS Team

    2013-06-01

    The present multiwavelength catalog is based on public data in the CANDELS UDS field (J2000 position: 02:17:37.5-05:12:00) located within the original UDS field. It includes: * CANDELS HST/ACS (F606W, F814W) and HST/WFC3 (F125W, F160W); Grogin et al. 2011ApJS..197...35G, Koekemoer et al. 2011ApJS..197...36K. * CFHT U-band (UKIDSS; Almaini et al. in prep.), * SUBARU B, V, Rc, i', z' (SXDS; Furusawa et al. 2008, Cat. J/ApJS/176/1) * VLT/HAWK-I Y and Ks bands (HUGS; Fontana et al. in prep.) * UKIRT/WFCam J, H, K (UKIDSS DR8; Almaini et al. in prep.) * Spitzer/IRAC SEDS 3.6 and 4.5um (SEDS; Ashby et al. 2013ApJ...769...80A) * Spitzer/IRAC SpUDS 5.8, 8.0um (PI: J. Dunlop). The catalog is F160W-selected and contains 35932 sources over an area of 201.7 square arcmin and includes radio and X-ray detected sources and spectroscopic redshifts available for 210 sources. The full official CANDELS UDS catalog (which contains some extra columns including additional SExtractor parameters derived from the F160W image) can be found on the CANDELS website at: http://candels.ucolick.org/data_access/UDS.html (1 data file).

  5. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies for Degenerative Disease of the Outer Retina: Disease Modeling and Cell Replacement.

    PubMed

    Di Foggia, Valentina; Makwana, Priyanka; Ali, Robin R; Sowden, Jane C

    2016-06-01

    Stem cell therapies are being explored as potential treatments for retinal disease. How to replace neurons in a degenerated retina presents a continued challenge for the regenerative medicine field that, if achieved, could restore sight. The major issues are: (i) the source and availability of donor cells for transplantation; (ii) the differentiation of stem cells into the required retinal cells; and (iii) the delivery, integration, functionality, and survival of new cells in the host neural network. This review considers the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), currently under intense investigation, as a platform for cell transplantation therapy. Moreover, patient-specific iPSC are being developed for autologous cell transplantation and as a tool for modeling specific retinal diseases, testing gene therapies, and drug screening.

  6. An inverter/controller subsystem optimized for photovoltaic applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pickrell, R. L.; Merrill, W. C.; Osullivan, G.

    1978-01-01

    Conversion of solar array dc power to ac power stimulated the specification, design, and simulation testing of an inverter/controller subsystem tailored to the photovoltaic power source characteristics. This paper discusses the optimization of the inverter/controller design as part of an overall Photovoltaic Power System (PPS) designed for maximum energy extraction from the solar array. The special design requirements for the inverter/controller include: (1) a power system controller (PSC) to control continuously the solar array operating point at the maximum power level based on variable solar insolation and cell temperatures; and (2) an inverter designed for high efficiency at rated load and low losses at light loadings to conserve energy. It must be capable of operating connected to the utility line at a level set by an external controller (PSC).

  7. Possible new VY Scl-type variable 1RXS J075330.1+044606

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sokolovsky, K.; Denisenko, D.; Mescheryakov, A.; Tkachenko, A.; Korotkiy, S.; Gerke, V.

    2012-02-01

    We report the discovery of a possible new VY Scl-type cataclysmic variable associated with previously unidentified X-ray source 1RXS J075330.1+044606. The variable optical object USNO-B1.0 0947-0148659 (07:53:30.78 +04:45:56.3, J2000) located 15" from the X-ray source listed in the ROSAT All Sky Survey Faint Source Catalog (Voges et al., 2000, IAUC, 7432) was identified from information listed in the USNO-B1.0 catalog (Monet et al.

  8. Isolation and characterization of ventricular-like cells derived from NKX2-5eGFP/w and MLC2vmCherry/w double knock-in human pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Yamauchi, Kaori; Li, Junjun; Morikawa, Kumi; Liu, Li; Shirayoshi, Yasuaki; Nakatsuji, Norio; Elliott, David A; Hisatome, Ichiro; Suemori, Hirofumi

    2018-01-01

    Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) are a promising source for cell transplantation into the damaged heart, which has limited regenerative ability. Many methods have been developed to obtain large amounts of functional CMs from hPSCs for therapeutic applications. However, during the differentiation process, a mixed population of various cardiac cells, including ventricular, atrial, and pacemaker cells, is generated, which hampers the proper functional analysis and evaluation of cell properties. Here, we established NKX2-5 eGFP/w and MLC2v mCherry/w hPSC double knock-ins that allow for labeling, tracing, purification, and analysis of the development of ventricular cells from early to late stages. As with the endogenous transcriptional activities of these genes, MLC2v-mCherry expression following NKX2-5-eGFP expression was observed under previously established culture conditions, which mimic the in vivo cardiac developmental process. Patch-clamp and microelectrode array electrophysiological analyses showed that the NKX2-5 and MLC2v double-positive cells possess ventricular-like properties. The results demonstrate that the NKX2-5 eGFP/w and MLC2v mCherry/w hPSCs provide a powerful model system to capture region-specific cardiac differentiation from early to late stages. Our study would facilitate subtype-specific cardiac development and functional analysis using the hPSC-derived sources. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. VizieR Online Data Catalog: The Initial Gaia Source List (IGSL) (Smart, 2013)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smart, R. L.; Nicastro, L.

    2013-11-01

    The IGSL is a compilation catalog produced for the Gaia mission. We have combined data from the following catalogs or datasets to produce a homogenous list of positons, proper motions, photometry in a blue and red band and estimates of the magnitudes in the Gaia G and G_RVS bands. Included Catalogs: Tycho2, LQRF, UCAC4, SDSS-DR9, PPMXL, GSC23, GEPC, OGLE, Sky2000, 2MASS. Note that in compiling the various entries we did not consider the individual flags. Overall, we think this catalog is reliable but there will be errors, mismatches and duplicates. The user should use this catalog with that in mind, it is fine for statistical studies that has some way to remove obviously incorrect entries but it should only be used with care for individual objects. The source catalogs used to produce the IGSL are: * The Gaia Ecliptic Pole Catalog, version 3.0 (GEPC) Altmann & Bastian 2009, "Ecliptic Poles Catalogue Version 1.1" ESA Document GAIA-C3-TN-ARI-MA-002 URL http://www.rssd.esa.int/llink/livelink/open/2885828 * GSC2.3: GSC2 version 2.3, Lasker et al. 2008AJ....136..735L (I/305) * an excerpt of the 4th version of the Gaia Initial QSO Catalog (GIQC) as compiled by the GWP-S-335-13000, formed by Alexandre H. Andrei, Christophe Barache, Dario N. da Silva Neto, Francois Taris, Geraldine Bourda, Jean-Francois Le Campion, Jean Souchay, J.J. Pereira Osorio, Julio I. Bueno de Camargo, Marcelo Assafin, Roberto Vieira Martins, Sebastien Bouquillon, Sebastien Lambert, Sonia Anton, Patrick Charlot * OGLE: Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment version III (Szymaski et al., 2011, Cat. J/AcA/61/83) * PPMXL: Positions and Proper Motions "Extra Large" Catalog, Roeser et al. (2010, Cat. I/317) * SDSS: Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 9, Cat. V/139 * UCAC4: Zacharias et al., 2012, Cat. I/322 * Tycho-2, Hoeg et al., 2000, Cat. I/259 (1 data file).

  10. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    J. Daniel Arthur

    In recent years, rising populations and regional droughts have caused coal-fired power plants to temporarily curtail or cease production due to a lack of available water for cooling. In addition, concerns about the availability of adequate supplies of cooling water have resulted in cancellation of plans to build much-needed new power plants. These issues, coupled with concern over the possible impacts of global climate change, have caused industry and community planners to seek alternate sources of water to supplement or replace existing supplies. The Department of Energy, through the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is researching ways to reduce themore » water demands of coal-fired power plants. As part of the NETL Program, ALL Consulting developed an internet-based Catalog of potential alternative sources of cooling water. The Catalog identifies alternative sources of water, such as mine discharge water, oil and gas produced water, saline aquifers, and publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), which could be used to supplement or replace existing surface water sources. This report provides an overview of the Catalog, and examines the benefits and challenges of using these alternative water sources for cooling water.« less

  11. Psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources, psychological health and employee engagement.

    PubMed

    Law, Rebecca; Dollard, Maureen F; Tuckey, Michelle R; Dormann, Christian

    2011-09-01

    Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) is defined as shared perceptions of organizational policies, practices and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety, that stem largely from management practices. PSC theory extends the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework and proposes that organizational level PSC determines work conditions and subsequently, psychological health problems and work engagement. Our sample was derived from the Australian Workplace Barometer project and comprised 30 organizations, and 220 employees. As expected, hierarchical linear modeling showed that organizational PSC was negatively associated with workplace bullying and harassment (demands) and in turn psychological health problems (health impairment path). PSC was also positively associated with work rewards (resources) and in turn work engagement (motivational path). Accordingly, we found that PSC triggered both the health impairment and motivational pathways, thus justifying extending the JD-R model in a multilevel way. Further we found that PSC, as an organization-based resource, moderated the positive relationship between bullying/harassment and psychological health problems, and the negative relationship between bullying/harassment and engagement. The findings provide evidence for a multilevel model of PSC as a lead indicator of workplace psychosocial hazards (high demands, low resources), psychological health and employee engagement, and as a potential moderator of psychosocial hazard effects. PSC is therefore an efficient target for primary and secondary intervention. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. A national standard for psychosocial safety climate (PSC): PSC 41 as the benchmark for low risk of job strain and depressive symptoms.

    PubMed

    Bailey, Tessa S; Dollard, Maureen F; Richards, Penny A M

    2015-01-01

    Despite decades of research from around the world now permeating occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation and guidelines, there remains a lack of tools to guide practice. Our main goal was to establish benchmark levels of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) that would signify risk of job strain (jobs with high demands and low control) and depression in organizations. First, to justify our focus on PSC, using interview data from Australian employees matched at 2 time points 12 months apart (n = 1081), we verified PSC as a significant leading predictor of job strain and in turn depression. Next, using 2 additional data sets (n = 2097 and n = 1043) we determined benchmarks of organizational PSC (range 12-60) for low-risk (PSC at 41 or above) and high-risk (PSC at 37 or below) of employee job strain and depressive symptoms. Finally, using the newly created benchmarks we estimated the population attributable risk (PAR) and found that improving PSC in organizations to above 37 could reduce 14% of job strain and 16% of depressive symptoms in the working population. The results provide national standards that organizations and regulatory agencies can utilize to promote safer working environments and lower the risk of harm to employee mental health. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  13. Myosin light chain 2-based selection of human iPSC-derived early ventricular cardiac myocytes

    PubMed Central

    Bizy, Alexandra; Guerrero-Serna, Guadalupe; Hu, Bin; Ponce-Balbuena, Daniela; Willis, B. Cicero; Zarzoso, Manuel; Ramirez, Rafael J.; Sener, Michelle F.; Mundada, Lakshmi V.; Klos, Matthew; Devaney, Eric J.; Vikstrom, Karen L.; Herron, Todd J.; Jalife, José

    2014-01-01

    Applications of human induced pluripotent stemcell derived-cardiac myocytes (hiPSC-CMs) would be strengthened by the ability to generate specific cardiac myocyte (CM) lineages. However, purification of lineage-specific hiPSC-CMs is limited by the lack of cell marking techniques. Here, we have developed an iPSC-CM marking system using recombinant adenoviral reporter constructs with atrial- or ventricular-specific myosin light chain-2 (MLC-2) promoters. MLC-2a and MLC-2v selected hiPSC-CMs were purified by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and their biochemical and electrophysiological phenotypes analyzed. We demonstrate that the phenotype of both populations remained stable in culture and they expressed the expected sarcomeric proteins, gap junction proteins and chamber-specific transcription factors. Compared to MLC-2a cells, MLC-2v selected CMs had larger action potential amplitudes and durations. In addition, by immunofluorescence, we showed that MLC-2 isoform expression can be used to enrich hiPSC-CM consistent with early atrial and ventricularmyocyte lineages. However, only the ventricular myosin light chain-2 promoter was able to purify a highly homogeneous population of iPSC-CMs. Using this approach, it is now possible to develop ventricular-specific disease models using iPSC-CMs while atrial-specific iPSC-CM cultures may require additional chamber-specific markers. PMID:24095945

  14. Myosin light chain 2-based selection of human iPSC-derived early ventricular cardiac myocytes.

    PubMed

    Bizy, Alexandra; Guerrero-Serna, Guadalupe; Hu, Bin; Ponce-Balbuena, Daniela; Willis, B Cicero; Zarzoso, Manuel; Ramirez, Rafael J; Sener, Michelle F; Mundada, Lakshmi V; Klos, Matthew; Devaney, Eric J; Vikstrom, Karen L; Herron, Todd J; Jalife, José

    2013-11-01

    Applications of human induced pluripotent stem cell derived-cardiac myocytes (hiPSC-CMs) would be strengthened by the ability to generate specific cardiac myocyte (CM) lineages. However, purification of lineage-specific hiPSC-CMs is limited by the lack of cell marking techniques. Here, we have developed an iPSC-CM marking system using recombinant adenoviral reporter constructs with atrial- or ventricular-specific myosin light chain-2 (MLC-2) promoters. MLC-2a and MLC-2v selected hiPSC-CMs were purified by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and their biochemical and electrophysiological phenotypes analyzed. We demonstrate that the phenotype of both populations remained stable in culture and they expressed the expected sarcomeric proteins, gap junction proteins and chamber-specific transcription factors. Compared to MLC-2a cells, MLC-2v selected CMs had larger action potential amplitudes and durations. In addition, by immunofluorescence, we showed that MLC-2 isoform expression can be used to enrich hiPSC-CM consistent with early atrial and ventricular myocyte lineages. However, only the ventricular myosin light chain-2 promoter was able to purify a highly homogeneous population of iPSC-CMs. Using this approach, it is now possible to develop ventricular-specific disease models using iPSC-CMs while atrial-specific iPSC-CM cultures may require additional chamber-specific markers. © 2013.

  15. Tri-iodo-l-thyronine promotes the maturation of human cardiomyocytes-derived from induced pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Yang, Xiulan; Rodriguez, Marita; Pabon, Lil; Fischer, Karin A; Reinecke, Hans; Regnier, Michael; Sniadecki, Nathan J; Ruohola-Baker, Hannele; Murry, Charles E

    2014-07-01

    Cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CMs) have great potential as a cell source for therapeutic applications such as regenerative medicine, disease modeling, drug screening, and toxicity testing. This potential is limited, however, by the immature state of the cardiomyocytes acquired using current protocols. Tri-iodo-l-thyronine (T3) is a growth hormone that is essential for optimal heart growth. In this study, we investigated the effect of T3 on hiPSC-CM maturation. A one-week treatment with T3 increased cardiomyocyte size, anisotropy, and sarcomere length. T3 treatment was associated with reduced cell cycle activity, manifest as reduced DNA synthesis and increased expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21. Contractile force analyses were performed on individual cardiomyocytes using arrays of microposts, revealing an almost two-fold higher force per-beat after T3 treatment and also an enhancement in contractile kinetics. This improvement in force generation was accompanied by an increase in rates of calcium release and reuptake, along with a significant increase in sarcoendoplasmic reticulum ATPase expression. Finally, although mitochondrial genomes were not numerically increased, extracellular flux analysis showed a significant increase in maximal mitochondrial respiratory capacity and respiratory reserve capability after T3 treatment. Using a broad spectrum of morphological, molecular, and functional parameters, we conclude that T3 is a driver for hiPSC-CM maturation. T3 treatment may enhance the utility of hiPSC-CMs for therapy, disease modeling, or drug/toxicity screens. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Systematic optimization of human pluripotent stem cells media using Design of Experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marinho, Paulo A.; Chailangkarn, Thanathom; Muotri, Alysson R.

    2015-05-01

    Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) are used to study the early stages of human development in vitro and, increasingly due to somatic cell reprogramming, cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease. Cell culture medium is a critical factor for hPSC to maintain pluripotency and self-renewal. Numerous defined culture media have been empirically developed but never systematically optimized for culturing hPSC. We applied design of experiments (DOE), a powerful statistical tool, to improve the medium formulation for hPSC. Using pluripotency and cell growth as read-outs, we determined the optimal concentration of both basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and neuregulin-1 beta 1 (NRG1β1). The resulting formulation, named iDEAL, improved the maintenance and passage of hPSC in both normal and stressful conditions, and affected trimethylated histone 3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) epigenetic status after genetic reprogramming. It also enhances efficient hPSC plating as single cells. Altogether, iDEAL potentially allows scalable and controllable hPSC culture routine in translational research. Our DOE strategy could also be applied to hPSC differentiation protocols, which often require numerous and complex cell culture media.

  17. Live imaging of prions reveals nascent PrPSc in cell-surface, raft-associated amyloid strings and webs

    PubMed Central

    Rouvinski, Alexander; Karniely, Sharon; Kounin, Maria; Moussa, Sanaa; Goldberg, Miri D.; Warburg, Gabriela; Lyakhovetsky, Roman; Papy-Garcia, Dulce; Kutzsche, Janine; Korth, Carsten; Carlson, George A.; Godsave, Susan F.; Peters, Peter J.; Luhr, Katarina; Kristensson, Krister

    2014-01-01

    Mammalian prions refold host glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored PrPC into β-sheet–rich PrPSc. PrPSc is rapidly truncated into a C-terminal PrP27-30 core that is stable for days in endolysosomes. The nature of cell-associated prions, their attachment to membranes and rafts, and their subcellular locations are poorly understood; live prion visualization has not previously been achieved. A key obstacle has been the inaccessibility of PrP27-30 epitopes. We overcame this hurdle by focusing on nascent full-length PrPSc rather than on its truncated PrP27-30 product. We show that N-terminal PrPSc epitopes are exposed in their physiological context and visualize, for the first time, PrPSc in living cells. PrPSc resides for hours in unexpected cell-surface, slow moving strings and webs, sheltered from endocytosis. Prion strings observed by light and scanning electron microscopy were thin, micrometer-long structures. They were firmly cell associated, resisted phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C, aligned with raft markers, fluoresced with thioflavin, and were rapidly abolished by anti-prion glycans. Prion strings and webs are the first demonstration of membrane-anchored PrPSc amyloids. PMID:24493590

  18. Crystal structure of class III chitinase from pomegranate provides the insight into its metal storage capacity.

    PubMed

    Masuda, Taro; Zhao, Guanghua; Mikami, Bunzo

    2015-01-01

    Chitinase hydrolyzes the β-1,4-glycosidic bond in chitin. In higher plants, this enzyme has been regarded as a pathogenesis-related protein. Recently, we identified a class III chitinase, which functions as a calcium storage protein in pomegranate (Punica granatum) seed (PSC, pomegranate seed chitinase). Here, we solved a crystal structure of PSC at 1.6 Å resolution. Although its overall structure, including the structure of catalytic site and non-proline cis-peptides, was closely similar to those of other class III chitinases, PSC had some unique structural characteristics. First, there were some metal-binding sites with coordinated water molecules on the surface of PSC. Second, many unconserved aspartate residues were present in the PSC sequence which rendered the surface of PSC negatively charged. This acidic electrostatic property is in contrast to that of hevamine, well-characterized plant class III chitinase, which has rather a positively charged surface. Thus, the crystal structure provides a clue for metal association property of PSC.

  19. Glycoform-independent prion conversion by highly efficient, cell-based, protein misfolding cyclic amplification

    PubMed Central

    Moudjou, Mohammed; Chapuis, Jérôme; Mekrouti, Mériem; Reine, Fabienne; Herzog, Laetitia; Sibille, Pierre; Laude, Hubert; Vilette, Didier; Andréoletti, Olivier; Rezaei, Human; Dron, Michel; Béringue, Vincent

    2016-01-01

    Prions are formed of misfolded assemblies (PrPSc) of the variably N-glycosylated cellular prion protein (PrPC). In infected species, prions replicate by seeding the conversion and polymerization of host PrPC. Distinct prion strains can be recognized, exhibiting defined PrPSc biochemical properties such as the glycotype and specific biological traits. While strain information is encoded within the conformation of PrPSc assemblies, the storage of the structural information and the molecular requirements for self-perpetuation remain uncertain. Here, we investigated the specific role of PrPC glycosylation status. First, we developed an efficient protein misfolding cyclic amplification method using cells expressing the PrPC species of interest as substrate. Applying the technique to PrPC glycosylation mutants expressing cells revealed that neither PrPC nor PrPSc glycoform stoichiometry was instrumental to PrPSc formation and strainness perpetuation. Our study supports the view that strain properties, including PrPSc glycotype are enciphered within PrPSc structural backbone, not in the attached glycans. PMID:27384922

  20. Using a Brief Parent-Report Measure to Track Outcomes for Children and Teens with Internalizing Disorders.

    PubMed

    Kamin, Hayley S; McCarthy, Alyssa E; Abel, Madelaine R; Jellinek, Michael S; Baer, Lee; Murphy, J Michael

    2015-12-01

    The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is a widely-used, parent-completed measure of children's emotional and behavioral functioning. Previous research has shown that the PSC and its subscales are generally responsive to patient progress over the course of psychiatric treatment. In this naturalistic study, we examined the performance and utility of the five-item PSC Internalizing Subscale (PSC-IS) as an assessment of routine treatment in outpatient pediatric psychiatry. Parents and clinicians of 1,593 patients aged 17 or younger completed standardized measures at intake and three-month follow-up appointments. Comparisons between PSC-IS scores and clinician-reported diagnoses, internalizing symptoms, and overall functioning showed acceptable levels of agreement. Change scores on the PSC-IS were also larger among patients with internalizing diagnoses than those with non-internalizing diagnoses. As a brief measure of internalizing symptoms, the PSC may be particularly useful to mental health clinicians treating youth with depression and anxiety as a quality assurance or treatment outcome measure.

  1. The Chandra Source Catalog 2.0: Estimating Source Fluxes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Primini, Francis Anthony; Allen, Christopher E.; Miller, Joseph; Anderson, Craig S.; Budynkiewicz, Jamie A.; Burke, Douglas; Chen, Judy C.; Civano, Francesca Maria; D'Abrusco, Raffaele; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Ian N.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Graessle, Dale E.; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; Houck, John C.; Lauer, Jennifer L.; Laurino, Omar; Lee, Nicholas P.; Martínez-Galarza, Juan Rafael; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; McLaughlin, Warren; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nguyen, Dan T.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Paxson, Charles; Plummer, David A.; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael; Van Stone, David W.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2018-01-01

    The Second Chandra Source Catalog (CSC2.0) will provide information on approximately 316,000 point or compact extended x-ray sources, derived from over 10,000 ACIS and HRC-I imaging observations available in the public archive at the end of 2014. As in the previous catalog release (CSC1.1), fluxes for these sources will be determined separately from source detection, using a Bayesian formalism that accounts for background, spatial resolution effects, and contamination from nearby sources. However, the CSC2.0 procedure differs from that used in CSC1.1 in three important aspects. First, for sources in crowded regions in which photometric apertures overlap, fluxes are determined jointly, using an extension of the CSC1.1 algorithm, as discussed in Primini & Kashyap (2014ApJ...796…24P). Second, an MCMC procedure is used to estimate marginalized posterior probability distributions for source fluxes. Finally, for sources observed in multiple observations, a Bayesian Blocks algorithm (Scargle, et al. 2013ApJ...764..167S) is used to group observations into blocks of constant source flux.In this poster we present details of the CSC2.0 photometry algorithms and illustrate their performance in actual CSC2.0 datasets.This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center.

  2. Characterization and antioxidant activities of marine pepsin soluble collagen from the skin of yellow goosefish Lophius litulon

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Bin; Xiang, Xingwei; Zhou, Yufang; Yang, Huicheng; Luo, Hongyu; Liao, Miaofei; Wen, Zhengshun

    2017-05-01

    Characteristics and antioxidant activities of pepsin-soluble collagen (PSC) from yellow goosefish ( Lophius litulon) skins were investigated. PSC was characterized as a type I collagen, and its imino acid content was 193 residues/1 000 residues. PSC's denaturation temperature was 17.56°C and Fourier transform infrared spectra confirmed the presence of triple helices. Solubility analysis showed good solubility at acidic pH (1-6) or low NaCl concentrations (≤2%). PSC showed scavenging activity against hydroxyl radicals and superoxide anions in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, PSC could protect D-galactose-induced skin aging by significantly controlling malondialdehyde formation and improving the activity of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase, glutathione, and hydroxyproline. PSC may be a promising antioxidant in appropriate applications.

  3. Small astronomy satellite-A, Uhuru data analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Koch, D.

    1974-01-01

    Objectives were to conduct observations with the first satellite entirely devoted to X-ray astronomy and to analyze the results obtained. A catalog of X-ray sources was generated, and results of discoveries and further detailed observations of sources were presented in scientific journals and meetings. A list of how objectives were met, a brief description of the instrument, significant results, the X-ray catalog, and a complete bibliography of results are included.

  4. The Red MSX Source Survey: The Massive Young Stellar Population of Our Galaxy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lumsden, S. L.; Hoare, M. G.; Urquhart, J. S.; Oudmaijer, R. D.; Davies, B.; Mottram, J. C.; Cooper, H. D. B.; Moore, T. J. T.

    2013-09-01

    We present the Red MSX Source survey, the largest statistically selected catalog of young massive protostars and H II regions to date. We outline the construction of the catalog using mid- and near-infrared color selection. We also discuss the detailed follow up work at other wavelengths, including higher spatial resolution data in the infrared. We show that within the adopted selection bounds we are more than 90% complete for the massive protostellar population, with a positional accuracy of the exciting source of better than 2 arcsec. We briefly summarize some of the results that can be obtained from studying the properties of the objects in the catalog as a whole; we find evidence that the most massive stars form: (1) preferentially nearer the Galactic center than the anti-center; (2) in the most heavily reddened environments, suggestive of high accretion rates; and (3) from the most massive cloud cores.

  5. Treatment of Star Catalog Biases in Asteroid Astrometric Observations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-01-01

    90 to +40 (Zacharias et al., 2004). (Note: The recently introduced UCAC3 catalog (Zacharias et al., 2004) covers the entire sky, thus resolving ...the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the...Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 With the catalog biases resolved , a future paper will describe the subsequent development of a

  6. The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) Earth Occultation Catalog of Low-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harmon, B. A.; Wilson, C. A.; Fishman, G. J.; Connaughton, V.; Henze, W.; Paciesas, W. S.; Finger, M. H.; McCollough, M. L.; Sahi, M.; Peterson, B.

    2004-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), provided a record of the low-energy gamma-ray sky (approx. 20-1000 keV) between 1991 April and 2000 May (9.1 yr). BATSE monitored the high-energy sky using the Earth occultation technique (EOT) for point sources whose emission extended for times on the order of the CGRO orbital period (approx. 92 min) or greater. Using the EOT to extract flux information, a catalog of sources using data from the BATSE Large Area Detectors has been prepared. The first part of the catalog consists of results from the all-sky monitoring of 58 sources, mostly Galactic, with intrinsic variability on timescales of hours to years. For these sources, we have included tables of flux and spectral data, and outburst times for transients. Light curves (or flux histories) have been placed on the World Wide Web. We then performed a deep sampling of these 58 objects, plus a selection of 121 more objects, combining data from the entire 9.1 yr BATSE data set. Source types considered were primarily accreting binaries, but a small number of representative active galaxies, X-ray-emitting stars, and supernova remnants were also included. The sample represents a compilation of sources monitored and/or discovered with BATSE and other high-energy instruments between 1991 and 2000, known sources taken from the HEAO 1 A-4 and Macomb & Gehrels catalogs. The deep sample results include definite detections of 83 objects and possible detections of 36 additional objects. The definite detections spanned three classes of sources: accreting black hole and neutron star binaries, active galaxies, and Supernova remnants. The average fluxes measured for the fourth class, the X-ray emitting stars, were below the confidence limit for definite detection.

  7. Donor cell type can influence the epigenome and differentiation potential of human induced pluripotent stem cells

    PubMed Central

    Kim, Kitai; Zhao, Rui; Doi, Akiko; Ng, Kitwa; Unternaehrer, Juli; Cahan, Patrick; Hongguang, Huo; Loh, Yuin-Han; Aryee, Martin J.; Lensch, M. William; Li, Hu; Collins, James J.; Feinberg, Andrew P.; Daley, George Q.

    2012-01-01

    We compared bona-fide human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived from umbilical cord blood (CB) and neonatal keratinocytes (K). As a consequence of both incomplete erasure of tissue-specific methylation and aberrant de novo methylation, CB-iPSC and K-iPSC are distinct in genome-wide DNA methylation profiles and differentiation potential. Extended passage of some iPSC clones in culture didn't improve their epigenetic resemblance to ESC, implying that some human iPSC retain a residual “epigenetic memory” of their tissue of origin. PMID:22119740

  8. Enhanced Therapeutic and Long-Term Dynamic Vascularization Effects of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Endothelial Cells Encapsulated in a Nanomatrix Gel.

    PubMed

    Lee, Shin-Jeong; Sohn, Young-Doug; Andukuri, Adinarayana; Kim, Sangsung; Byun, Jaemin; Han, Ji Woong; Park, In-Hyun; Jun, Ho-Wook; Yoon, Young-Sup

    2017-11-14

    Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived endothelial cells (ECs) have limited clinical utility because of undefined components in the differentiation system and poor cell survival in vivo. Here, we aimed to develop a fully defined and clinically compatible system to differentiate hPSCs into ECs. Furthermore, we aimed to enhance cell survival, vessel formation, and therapeutic potential by encapsulating hPSC-ECs with a peptide amphiphile (PA) nanomatrix gel. We induced differentiation of hPSCs into the mesodermal lineage by culturing on collagen-coated plates with a glycogen synthase kinase 3β inhibitor. Next, vascular endothelial growth factor, endothelial growth factor, and basic fibroblast growth factor were added for endothelial lineage differentiation, followed by sorting for CDH5 (VE-cadherin). We constructed an extracellular matrix-mimicking PA nanomatrix gel (PA-RGDS) by incorporating the cell adhesive ligand Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser (RGDS) and a matrix metalloproteinase-2-degradable sequence. We then evaluated whether the encapsulation of hPSC-CDH5 + cells in PA-RGDS could enhance long-term cell survival and vascular regenerative effects in a hind-limb ischemia model with laser Doppler perfusion imaging, bioluminescence imaging, real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and histological analysis. The resultant hPSC-derived CDH5 + cells (hPSC-ECs) showed highly enriched and genuine EC characteristics and proangiogenic activities. When injected into ischemic hind limbs, hPSC-ECs showed better perfusion recovery and higher vessel-forming capacity compared with media-, PA-RGDS-, or human umbilical vein EC-injected groups. However, the group receiving the PA-RGDS-encapsulated hPSC-ECs showed better perfusion recovery, more robust and longer cell survival (> 10 months), and higher and prolonged angiogenic and vascular incorporation capabilities than the bare hPSC-EC-injected group. Surprisingly, the engrafted hPSC-ECs demonstrated previously unknown sustained and dynamic vessel-forming behavior: initial perivascular concentration, a guiding role for new vessel formation, and progressive incorporation into the vessels over 10 months. We generated highly enriched hPSC-ECs via a clinically compatible system. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that a biocompatible PA-RGDS nanomatrix gel substantially improved long-term survival of hPSC-ECs in an ischemic environment and improved neovascularization effects of hPSC-ECs via prolonged and unique angiogenic and vessel-forming properties. This PA-RGDS-mediated transplantation of hPSC-ECs can serve as a novel platform for cell-based therapy and investigation of long-term behavior of hPSC-ECs. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

  9. Generation of complete source samples from the Slew Survey

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schachter, Jonathan

    1992-01-01

    The Einstein Slew Survey consists of 819 bright X-ray sources, of which 636 (or 78 percent) are identified with counterparts in standard catalogs. We argue for the importance of bright X-ray surveys, and compare the slew results to the ROSAT all-sky survey. Also, we discuss statistical techniques for minimizing confusion in arcminute error circles in digitized data. We describe the 238 Slew Survey AGN, clusters, and BL Lac objects identified to date and their implications for logN-logS and source evolution studies. Also given is a catalog of 1075 sources detected in the Einstein Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) Slew Survey of the X-ray sky. Five hundred fifty-four of these sources were not previously known as X-ray sources.

  10. Sources of resistance to sunflower diseases in a global collection of domesticated USDA plant introductions

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Basal stalk rot (BSR) and head rot (HR) caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary are traditionally major diseases of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) in the United States, while Phomopsis stem canker (PSC) caused by Phomopsis helianthi Munt.-Cvet. et. al. has increasingly become damaging in...

  11. Schwann Cell Precursors from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Myelin Repair.

    PubMed

    Kim, Han-Seop; Lee, Jungwoon; Lee, Da Yong; Kim, Young-Dae; Kim, Jae Yun; Lim, Hyung Jin; Lim, Sungmin; Cho, Yee Sook

    2017-06-06

    Schwann cells play a crucial role in successful nerve repair and regeneration by supporting both axonal growth and myelination. However, the sources of human Schwann cells are limited both for studies of Schwann cell development and biology and for the development of treatments for Schwann cell-associated diseases. Here, we provide a rapid and scalable method to produce self-renewing Schwann cell precursors (SCPs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), using combined sequential treatment with inhibitors of the TGF-β and GSK-3 signaling pathways, and with neuregulin-1 for 18 days under chemically defined conditions. Within 1 week, hPSC-derived SCPs could be differentiated into immature Schwann cells that were functionally confirmed by their secretion of neurotrophic factors and their myelination capacity in vitro and in vivo. We propose that hPSC-derived SCPs are a promising, unlimited source of functional Schwann cells for treating demyelination disorders and injuries to the peripheral nervous system. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Quantification of Retinogenesis in 3D Cultures Reveals Epigenetic Memory and Higher Efficiency in iPSCs Derived from Rod Photoreceptors.

    PubMed

    Hiler, Daniel; Chen, Xiang; Hazen, Jennifer; Kupriyanov, Sergey; Carroll, Patrick A; Qu, Chunxu; Xu, Beisi; Johnson, Dianna; Griffiths, Lyra; Frase, Sharon; Rodriguez, Alberto R; Martin, Greg; Zhang, Jiakun; Jeon, Jongrye; Fan, Yiping; Finkelstein, David; Eisenman, Robert N; Baldwin, Kristin; Dyer, Michael A

    2015-07-02

    Cell-based therapies to treat retinal degeneration are now being tested in clinical trials. However, it is not known whether the source of stem cells is important for the production of differentiated cells suitable for transplantation. To test this, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from murine rod photoreceptors (r-iPSCs) and scored their ability to make retinae by using a standardized quantitative protocol called STEM-RET. We discovered that r-iPSCs more efficiently produced differentiated retinae than did embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or fibroblast-derived iPSCs (f-iPSCs). Retinae derived from f-iPSCs had fewer amacrine cells and other inner nuclear layer cells. Integrated epigenetic analysis showed that DNA methylation contributes to the defects in f-iPSC retinogenesis and that rod-specific CTCF insulator protein-binding sites may promote r-iPSC retinogenesis. Together, our data suggest that the source of stem cells is important for producing retinal neurons in three-dimensional (3D) organ cultures. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Do gamma-ray burst sources repeat?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meegan, C. A.; Hartmann, D. H.; Brainerd, J. J.; Briggs, M.; Paciesas, W. S.; Pendleton, G.; Kouveliotou, C.; Fishman, G.; Blumenthal, G.; Brock, M.

    1994-01-01

    The demonstration of repeated gamma-ray bursts from an individual source would severely constrain burst source models. Recent reports of evidence for repetition in the first BATSE burst catalog have generated renewed interest in this issue. Here, we analyze the angular distribution of 585 bursts of the second BATSE catalog (Meegan et al. 1994). We search for evidence of burst recurrence using the nearest and farthest neighbor statistic ad the two-point angular correlation function. We find the data to be consistent with the hypothesis that burst sources do not repeat; however, a repeater fraction of up to about 20% of the bursts cannot be excluded.

  14. Probing dim point sources in the inner Milky Way using PCAT

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Daylan, Tansu; Portillo, Stephen K. N.; Finkbeiner, Douglas P.

    2017-01-01

    Poisson regression of the Fermi-LAT data in the inner Milky Way reveals an extended gamma-ray excess. An important question is whether the signal is coming from a collection of unresolved point sources, possibly old recycled pulsars, or constitutes a truly diffuse emission component. Previous analyses have relied on non-Poissonian template fits or wavelet decomposition of the Fermi-LAT data, which find evidence for a population of dim point sources just below the 3FGL flux limit. In order to be able to draw conclusions about the flux distribution of point sources at the dim end, we employ a Bayesian trans-dimensional MCMC framework by taking samples from the space of catalogs consistent with the observed gamma-ray emission in the inner Milky Way. The software implementation, PCAT (Probabilistic Cataloger), is designed to efficiently explore that catalog space in the crowded field limit such as in the galactic plane, where the model PSF, point source positions and fluxes are highly degenerate. We thus generate fair realizations of the underlying MSP population in the inner galaxy and constrain the population characteristics such as the radial and flux distribution of such sources.

  15. The Use of Ratiometric Fluorescence Measurements of the Voltage Sensitive Dye Di-4-ANEPPS to Examine Action Potential Characteristics and Drug Effects on Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

    PubMed

    Hortigon-Vinagre, M P; Zamora, V; Burton, F L; Green, J; Gintant, G A; Smith, G L

    2016-12-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) and higher throughput platforms have emerged as potential tools to advance cardiac drug safety screening. This study evaluated the use of high bandwidth photometry applied to voltage-sensitive fluorescent dyes (VSDs) to assess drug-induced changes in action potential characteristics of spontaneously active hiPSC-CM. Human iPSC-CM from 2 commercial sources (Cor.4U and iCell Cardiomyocytes) were stained with the VSD di-4-ANEPPS and placed in a specialized photometry system that simultaneously monitors 2 wavebands of emitted fluorescence, allowing ratiometric measurement of membrane voltage. Signals were acquired at 10 kHz and analyzed using custom software. Action potential duration (APD) values were normally distributed in cardiomyocytes (CMC) from both sources though the mean and variance differed significantly (APD 90 : 229 ± 15 ms vs 427 ± 49 ms [mean ± SD, P < 0.01]; average spontaneous cycle length: 0.99 ± 0.02 s vs 1.47 ± 0.35 s [mean ± SD, P < 0.01], Cor.4U vs iCell CMC, respectively). The 10-90% rise time of the AP (T rise ) was ∼6 ms and was normally distributed when expressed as 1/[Formula: see text] in both cell preparations. Both cell types showed a rate dependence analogous to that of adult human cardiac cells. Furthermore, nifedipine, ranolazine, and E4031 had similar effects on cardiomyocyte electrophysiology in both cell types. However, ranolazine and E4031 induced early after depolarization-like events and high intrinsic firing rates at lower concentrations in iCell CMC. These data show that VSDs provide a minimally invasive, quantitative, and accurate method to assess hiPSC-CM electrophysiology and detect subtle drug-induced effects for drug safety screening while highlighting a need to standardize experimental protocols across preparations. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Toxicology.

  16. Retrieval techniques and graphics displays using a computerized stellar data base

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mead, J.; Nagy, T. A.

    1977-01-01

    The paper describes a stellar data retrieval system for which the data base consists of 28 machine-readable astronomical catalogs. Eleven of these catalogs have been combined into the Goddard Cross Index (GCI), which serves as the computer entry point to these catalogs. The full data entry from any of the GCI catalogs can be retrieved in a single computer run. With this system, it is possible to prepare candidates for observation by searching the data base for stars with given characteristics. Generation of plots of all catalog stars in or near the telescope's field of view to scale of Palomar, other atlases, or to the telescope itself for use as observing charts or to aid in identifying unknown sources, can be accomplished.

  17. A Mechanized Information Services Catalog.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marron, Beatrice; And Others

    The National Bureau of Standards is mechanizing a catalog of currently available information sources and services. Information from recent surveys of machine-readable, commercially-available bibliographic data bases, and the various current awareness, batch retrospective, and interactive retrospective services which can access them have been…

  18. Using mass spectrometry and small molecule reagents to detect distinctive structural features of different prion conformations (strains)

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    A prion (PrPSc) is a conformer of a normal cellular prion protein (PrPC). Although they are isosequential, PrPSc is an infectious protein able to convert PrPC into the prion conformation and thereby propagate an infection. PrPC is monomeric while PrPSc is a multimer. PrPSc can adopt more than one co...

  19. Composition of Hydrothermal Vent Microbial Communities as Revealed by Analyses of Signature Lipids, Stable Carbon Isotopes and Aquificales Cultures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jahnke, Linda L.; Edger, Wolfgang; Huber, Robert; Hinrichs, Kai-Uwe; Hayes, John M.; DesMarais, David J.; Cady, Sherry; Hope, Janet M.; Summons, Roger E.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    Extremely thermophilic microbial communities associated with the siliceous vent walls and outflow channel of Octopus Spring, Yellowstone National Park, have been examined for lipid biomarkers and carbon isotopic signatures. These data were compared with that obtained from representatives of three Aquificales genera. Thermocrinis ruber. "Thermocrinis sp. HI", Hydrogenobacter thermophilus TK-6, Aquifex pyrophilus and Aquifex aeolicus all contained phospholipids composed not only of the usual ester-linked fatty acids, but also ether-linked alkyls. The fatty acids of all cultured organisms were dominated by a very distinct pattern of n-C-20:1 and cy-C-21 compounds. The alkyl glycerol ethers were present primarily as CIS() monoethers with the expection of the Aquifex spp. in which dialkyl glycerol ethers with a boarder carbon-number distribution were also present. These Aquificales biomarker lipids were the major constituents in the lipid extracts of the Octopus Spring microbial samples. Two natural samples, a microbial biofilm growing in association with deposition of amorphous silica on the vent walls at 92 C, and the well-known 'pink-streamers community' (PSC), siliceous filaments of a microbial consortia growing in the upper outflow channel at 87 C were analyzed. Both the biofilm and PSC samples contained mono and dialkyl glycerol ethers with a prevalence of C-18 and C-20 alkyls. Phospholipid fatty acids were comprised of both the characteristic Aquificales n-C-20:1 and cy-C-21, and in addition, a series of iso-branched fatty acids from i-C-15:0 to i-C-21:0, With i-C-17:0 dominant in the PSC and i-C-19:0 in the biofilm, suggesting the presence of two major bacterial groups. Bacteriohopanepolyols were absent and the minute quantities of archaeol detected showed that Archaea were only minor constituents. Carbon isotopic compositions of the PSC yielded information about community structure and likely physiology. Biomass was C-13-depleted (10.9%) relative to available CO2 from the source water inorganic carbon pool with lipids further depleted by 6.3% relative to biomass The C-20-21 Aquificales fatty acids of the PSC were somewhat heavier than the iso-branched fatty acids. The carbon isotopic signatures of lipid biomarkers were also explored using a pure culture, T ruber, previously isolated from the PSC. Cells grown on C02 with O2 and both H2 and thiosulfate as electron donors were only slightly depleted (3.3%) relative to the C-source while cells grown on formate with O2 showed a major discrimination (19.7%), possibly the result of a metabolic branch point involving the assimilation of C-formate to biomass and the dissimilation to CO2 associated with energy production. T. ruber lipids were slightly heavier than biomass (+1.3%) whether cells were grown using CO2 or formate. Fatty acids from CO2 grown T. ruber cells were a so slightly heavier (average +2.1%) than biomass. The relatively depleted PSC C-20-21 fatty acids suggest that any associated Thermocrinis biomass would also be similarly depleted and much too light to be explained by growth on CO2. The C-fractionations determined with the pure culture suggest that growth of Thermocrinis in the PSC is more likely to occur on formate, presumably generated by geothermal activity. This study points to the value of the analysis of the structural and isotopic composition of lipid blomarkers both in pure culture studies, and in establishing community structure and physiology, as a complement to genomic profiles of microbial diversity. This is especially so when the members of the microbial community are novel and difficult to cultivate in the laboratory.

  20. Time dependent data, time independent models: challenges of updating Australia's National Seismic Hazard Assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Griffin, J.; Clark, D.; Allen, T.; Ghasemi, H.; Leonard, M.

    2017-12-01

    Standard probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) simulates earthquake occurrence as a time-independent process. However paleoseismic studies in slowly deforming regions such as Australia show compelling evidence that large earthquakes on individual faults cluster within active periods, followed by long periods of quiescence. Therefore the instrumental earthquake catalog, which forms the basis of PSHA earthquake recurrence calculations, may only capture the state of the system over the period of the catalog. Together this means that data informing our PSHA may not be truly time-independent. This poses challenges in developing PSHAs for typical design probabilities (such as 10% in 50 years probability of exceedance): Is the present state observed through the instrumental catalog useful for estimating the next 50 years of earthquake hazard? Can paleo-earthquake data, that shows variations in earthquake frequency over time-scales of 10,000s of years or more, be robustly included in such PSHA models? Can a single PSHA logic tree be useful over a range of different probabilities of exceedance? In developing an updated PSHA for Australia, decadal-scale data based on instrumental earthquake catalogs (i.e. alternative area based source models and smoothed seismicity models) is integrated with paleo-earthquake data through inclusion of a fault source model. Use of time-dependent non-homogeneous Poisson models allows earthquake clustering to be modeled on fault sources with sufficient paleo-earthquake data. This study assesses the performance of alternative models by extracting decade-long segments of the instrumental catalog, developing earthquake probability models based on the remaining catalog, and testing performance against the extracted component of the catalog. Although this provides insights into model performance over the short-term, for longer timescales it is recognised that model choice is subject to considerable epistemic uncertainty. Therefore a formal expert elicitation process has been used to assign weights to alternative models for the 2018 update to Australia's national PSHA.

  1. A Shared Infrastructure for Federated Search Across Distributed Scientific Metadata Catalogs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reed, S. A.; Truslove, I.; Billingsley, B. W.; Grauch, A.; Harper, D.; Kovarik, J.; Lopez, L.; Liu, M.; Brandt, M.

    2013-12-01

    The vast amount of science metadata can be overwhelming and highly complex. Comprehensive analysis and sharing of metadata is difficult since institutions often publish to their own repositories. There are many disjoint standards used for publishing scientific data, making it difficult to discover and share information from different sources. Services that publish metadata catalogs often have different protocols, formats, and semantics. The research community is limited by the exclusivity of separate metadata catalogs and thus it is desirable to have federated search interfaces capable of unified search queries across multiple sources. Aggregation of metadata catalogs also enables users to critique metadata more rigorously. With these motivations in mind, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and Advanced Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service (ACADIS) implemented two search interfaces for the community. Both the NSIDC Search and ACADIS Arctic Data Explorer (ADE) use a common infrastructure which keeps maintenance costs low. The search clients are designed to make OpenSearch requests against Solr, an Open Source search platform. Solr applies indexes to specific fields of the metadata which in this instance optimizes queries containing keywords, spatial bounds and temporal ranges. NSIDC metadata is reused by both search interfaces but the ADE also brokers additional sources. Users can quickly find relevant metadata with minimal effort and ultimately lowers costs for research. This presentation will highlight the reuse of data and code between NSIDC and ACADIS, discuss challenges and milestones for each project, and will identify creation and use of Open Source libraries.

  2. Pravastatin reverses obesity-induced dysfunction of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells via a nitric oxide-dependent mechanism

    PubMed Central

    Gu, Mingxia; Mordwinkin, Nicholas M.; Kooreman, Nigel G.; Lee, Jaecheol; Wu, Haodi; Hu, Shijun; Churko, Jared M.; Diecke, Sebastian; Burridge, Paul W.; He, Chunjiang; Barron, Frances E.; Ong, Sang-Ging; Gold, Joseph D.; Wu, Joseph C.

    2015-01-01

    Aims High-fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) is a major contributor to type II diabetes and micro- and macro-vascular complications leading to peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Metabolic abnormalities of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells (iPSC-ECs) from obese individuals could potentially limit their therapeutic efficacy for PVD. The aim of this study was to compare the function of iPSC-ECs from normal and DIO mice using comprehensive in vitro and in vivo assays. Methods and results Six-week-old C57Bl/6 mice were fed with a normal or high-fat diet. At 24 weeks, iPSCs were generated from tail tip fibroblasts and differentiated into iPSC-ECs using a directed monolayer approach. In vitro functional analysis revealed that iPSC-ECs from DIO mice had significantly decreased capacity to form capillary-like networks, diminished migration, and lower proliferation. Microarray and ELISA confirmed elevated apoptotic, inflammatory, and oxidative stress pathways in DIO iPSC-ECs. Following hindlimb ischaemia, mice receiving intramuscular injections of DIO iPSC-ECs had significantly decreased reperfusion compared with mice injected with control healthy iPSC-ECs. Hindlimb sections revealed increased muscle atrophy and presence of inflammatory cells in mice receiving DIO iPSC-ECs. When pravastatin was co-administered to mice receiving DIO iPSC-ECs, a significant increase in reperfusion was observed; however, this beneficial effect was blunted by co-administration of the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, Nω-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester. Conclusion This is the first study to provide evidence that iPSC-ECs from DIO mice exhibit signs of endothelial dysfunction and have suboptimal efficacy following transplantation in a hindlimb ischaemia model. These findings may have important implications for future treatment of PVD using iPSC-ECs in the obese population. PMID:25368203

  3. Reprogramming T cell Lymphocytes to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bared, Kalia

    The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) provided a novel technology for the study of development and pharmacology and complement embryonic stem cells (ES) for cell therapy applications. Though iPSC are derived from adult tissue they are comparable to ES cells in their behavior; multi-lineage differentiation and self-renewal. This makes iPSC research appealing because they can be studied in great detail and expanded in culture broadly. Fibroblasts were the first cell type reprogrammed to an iPSC using a retrovirus vector, since then alternative cell types including lymphocytes have been used to generate iPSC. Different types of vectors have also been developed to enhance iPSC formation and quality. However, specific T lymphocyte subsets have not been shown to reprogram to a pluripotent state to date. Here, we proposed to derive iPSC from peripheral blood effector and central memory T cells, reasoning that the resultant iPSC will maintain the epigenetic memory of a T lymphocyte, including the T cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangement. This epigenetic memory will enable the differentiation and expansion of T cell iPSC into professional T cells containing a specific TCR. These could then be used for cell therapy to target specific antigens, as well as to improve culture techniques to expand T cells in vitro. We studied different gene delivery methods to derive iPSC from different types of T lymphocytes. We assessed the viability of viral transduction using flow cytometry to detect green fluorescent marker contained in the viral construct and quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to detect Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, and c-Myc gene expression. Our results demonstrate that the Sendai virus construct is the most feasible platform to reprogram T lymphocytes. We anticipate that this platform will provide an efficient and safe approach to derive iPSC from different T cell subsets, including memory T cells.

  4. Mesenchymal stem cells alleviate oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in the airways.

    PubMed

    Li, Xiang; Michaeloudes, Charalambos; Zhang, Yuelin; Wiegman, Coen H; Adcock, Ian M; Lian, Qizhou; Mak, Judith C W; Bhavsar, Pankaj K; Chung, Kian Fan

    2018-05-01

    Oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction can contribute to inflammation and remodeling in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Mesenchymal stem cells protect against lung damage in animal models of COPD. It is unknown whether these effects occur through attenuating mitochondrial dysfunction in airway cells. We sought to examine the effect of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells (iPSC-MSCs) on oxidative stress-induce mitochondrial dysfunction in human airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) in vitro and in mouse lungs in vivo. ASMCs were cocultured with iPSC-MSCs in the presence of cigarette smoke medium (CSM), and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), and apoptosis were measured. Conditioned medium from iPSC-MSCs and transwell cocultures were used to detect any paracrine effects. The effect of systemic injection of iPSC-MSCs on airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in ozone-exposed mice was also investigated. Coculture of iPSC-MSCs with ASMCs attenuated CSM-induced mitochondrial ROS, apoptosis, and ΔΨm loss in ASMCs. iPSC-MSC-conditioned medium or transwell cocultures with iPSC-MSCs reduced CSM-induced mitochondrial ROS but not ΔΨm or apoptosis in ASMCs. Mitochondrial transfer from iPSC-MSCs to ASMCs was observed after direct coculture and was enhanced by CSM. iPSC-MSCs attenuated ozone-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, airway hyperresponsiveness, and inflammation in mouse lungs. iPSC-MSCs offered protection against oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in human ASMCs and in mouse lungs while reducing airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness. These effects are, at least in part, dependent on cell-cell contact, which allows for mitochondrial transfer, and paracrine regulation. Therefore iPSC-MSCs show promise as a therapy for oxidative stress-dependent lung diseases, such as COPD. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Cell-free extract from porcine induced pluripotent stem cells can affect porcine somatic cell nuclear reprogramming.

    PubMed

    No, Jin-Gu; Choi, Mi-Kyung; Kwon, Dae-Jin; Yoo, Jae Gyu; Yang, Byoung-Chul; Park, Jin-Ki; Kim, Dong-Hoon

    2015-01-01

    Pretreatment of somatic cells with undifferentiated cell extracts, such as embryonic stem cells and mammalian oocytes, is an attractive alternative method for reprogramming control. The properties of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are similar to those of embryonic stem cells; however, no studies have reported somatic cell nuclear reprogramming using iPSC extracts. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of porcine iPSC extracts treatment on porcine ear fibroblasts and early development of porcine cloned embryos produced from porcine ear skin fibroblasts pretreated with the porcine iPSC extracts. The Chariot(TM) reagent system was used to deliver the iPSC extracts into cultured porcine ear skin fibroblasts. The iPSC extracts-treated cells (iPSC-treated cells) were cultured for 3 days and used for analyzing histone modification and somatic cell nuclear transfer. Compared to the results for nontreated cells, the trimethylation status of histone H3 lysine residue 9 (H3K9) in the iPSC-treated cells significantly decreased. The expression of Jmjd2b, the H3K9 trimethylation-specific demethylase gene, significantly increased in the iPSC-treated cells; conversely, the expression of the proapoptotic genes, Bax and p53, significantly decreased. When the iPSC-treated cells were transferred into enucleated porcine oocytes, no differences were observed in blastocyst development and total cell number in blastocysts compared with the results for control cells. However, H3K9 trimethylation of pronuclear-stage-cloned embryos significantly decreased in the iPSC-treated cells. Additionally, Bax and p53 gene expression in the blastocysts was significantly lower in iPSC-treated cells than in control cells. To our knowledge, this study is the first to show that an extracts of porcine iPSCs can affect histone modification and gene expression in porcine ear skin fibroblasts and cloned embryos.

  6. LSST Resources for the Community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jones, R. Lynne

    2011-01-01

    LSST will generate 100 petabytes of images and 20 petabytes of catalogs, covering 18,000-20,000 square degrees of area sampled every few days, throughout a total of ten years of time -- all publicly available and exquisitely calibrated. The primary access to this data will be through Data Access Centers (DACs). DACs will provide access to catalogs of sources (single detections from individual images) and objects (associations of sources from multiple images). Simple user interfaces or direct SQL queries at the DAC can return user-specified portions of data from catalogs or images. More complex manipulations of the data, such as calculating multi-point correlation functions or creating alternative photo-z measurements on terabyte-scale data, can be completed with the DAC's own resources. Even more data-intensive computations requiring access to large numbers of image pixels on petabyte-scale could also be conducted at the DAC, using compute resources allocated in a similar manner to a TAC. DAC resources will be available to all individuals in member countries or institutes and LSST science collaborations. DACs will also assist investigators with requests for allocations at national facilities such as the Petascale Computing Facility, TeraGrid, and Open Science Grid. Using data on this scale requires new approaches to accessibility and analysis which are being developed through interactions with the LSST Science Collaborations. We are producing simulated images (as might be acquired by LSST) based on models of the universe and generating catalogs from these images (as well as from the base model) using the LSST data management framework in a series of data challenges. The resulting images and catalogs are being made available to the science collaborations to verify the algorithms and develop user interfaces. All LSST software is open source and available online, including preliminary catalog formats. We encourage feedback from the community.

  7. Mechanism of Scrapie Prion Precipitation with Phosphotungstate Anions

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    The phosphotungstate anion (PTA) is widely used to facilitate the precipitation of disease-causing prion protein (PrPSc) from infected tissue for applications in structural studies and diagnostic approaches. However, the mechanism of this precipitation is not understood. In order to elucidate the nature of the PTA interaction with PrPSc under physiological conditions, solutions of PTA were characterized by NMR spectroscopy at varying pH. At neutral pH, the parent [PW12O40]3– ion decomposes to give a lacunary [PW11O39]7– (PW11) complex and a single orthotungstate anion [WO4]2– (WO4). To measure the efficacy of each component of PTA, increasing concentrations of PW11, WO4, and mixtures thereof were used to precipitate PrPSc from brain homogenates of scrapie prion-infected mice. The amount of PrPSc isolated, quantified by ELISA and immunoblotting, revealed that both PW11 and WO4 contribute to PrPSc precipitation. Incubation with sarkosyl, PTA, or individual components of PTA resulted in separation of higher-density PrP aggregates from the neuronal lipid monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1), as observed by sucrose gradient centrifugation. These experiments revealed that yield and purity of PrPSc were greater with polyoxometalates (POMs), which substantially supported the separation of lipids from PrPSc in the samples. Interaction of POMs and sarkosyl with brain homogenates promoted the formation of fibrillar PrPSc aggregates prior to centrifugation, likely through the separation of lipids like GM1 from PrPSc. We propose that this separation of lipids from PrP is a major factor governing the facile precipitation of PrPSc by PTA from tissue and might be optimized further for the detection of prions. PMID:25695325

  8. Genetic association analysis identifies variants associated with disease progression in primary sclerosing cholangitis.

    PubMed

    Alberts, Rudi; de Vries, Elisabeth M G; Goode, Elizabeth C; Jiang, Xiaojun; Sampaziotis, Fotis; Rombouts, Krista; Böttcher, Katrin; Folseraas, Trine; Weismüller, Tobias J; Mason, Andrew L; Wang, Weiwei; Alexander, Graeme; Alvaro, Domenico; Bergquist, Annika; Björkström, Niklas K; Beuers, Ulrich; Björnsson, Einar; Boberg, Kirsten Muri; Bowlus, Christopher L; Bragazzi, Maria C; Carbone, Marco; Chazouillères, Olivier; Cheung, Angela; Dalekos, Georgios; Eaton, John; Eksteen, Bertus; Ellinghaus, David; Färkkilä, Martti; Festen, Eleonora A M; Floreani, Annarosa; Franceschet, Irene; Gotthardt, Daniel Nils; Hirschfield, Gideon M; Hoek, Bart van; Holm, Kristian; Hohenester, Simon; Hov, Johannes Roksund; Imhann, Floris; Invernizzi, Pietro; Juran, Brian D; Lenzen, Henrike; Lieb, Wolfgang; Liu, Jimmy Z; Marschall, Hanns-Ulrich; Marzioni, Marco; Melum, Espen; Milkiewicz, Piotr; Müller, Tobias; Pares, Albert; Rupp, Christian; Rust, Christian; Sandford, Richard N; Schramm, Christoph; Schreiber, Stefan; Schrumpf, Erik; Silverberg, Mark S; Srivastava, Brijesh; Sterneck, Martina; Teufel, Andreas; Vallier, Ludovic; Verheij, Joanne; Vila, Arnau Vich; Vries, Boudewijn de; Zachou, Kalliopi; Chapman, Roger W; Manns, Michael P; Pinzani, Massimo; Rushbrook, Simon M; Lazaridis, Konstantinos N; Franke, Andre; Anderson, Carl A; Karlsen, Tom H; Ponsioen, Cyriel Y; Weersma, Rinse K

    2017-08-04

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a genetically complex, inflammatory bile duct disease of largely unknown aetiology often leading to liver transplantation or death. Little is known about the genetic contribution to the severity and progression of PSC. The aim of this study is to identify genetic variants associated with PSC disease progression and development of complications. We collected standardised PSC subphenotypes in a large cohort of 3402 patients with PSC. After quality control, we combined 130 422 single nucleotide polymorphisms of all patients-obtained using the Illumina immunochip-with their disease subphenotypes. Using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models, we identified genetic variants associated with binary and time-to-event PSC subphenotypes. We identified genetic variant rs853974 to be associated with liver transplant-free survival (p=6.07×10 -9 ). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed a 50.9% (95% CI 41.5% to 59.5%) transplant-free survival for homozygous AA allele carriers of rs853974 compared with 72.8% (95% CI 69.6% to 75.7%) for GG carriers at 10 years after PSC diagnosis. For the candidate gene in the region, RSPO3 , we demonstrated expression in key liver-resident effector cells, such as human and murine cholangiocytes and human hepatic stellate cells. We present a large international PSC cohort, and report genetic loci associated with PSC disease progression. For liver transplant-free survival, we identified a genome-wide significant signal and demonstrated expression of the candidate gene RSPO3 in key liver-resident effector cells. This warrants further assessments of the role of this potential key PSC modifier gene. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  9. MicroRNAs in Serum and Bile of Patients with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and/or Cholangiocarcinoma.

    PubMed

    Voigtländer, Torsten; Gupta, Shashi K; Thum, Sabrina; Fendrich, Jasmin; Manns, Michael P; Lankisch, Tim O; Thum, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    Patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are at high risk for the development of cholangiocarcinoma (CC). Analysis of micro ribonucleic acid (MiRNA) patterns is an evolving research field in biliary pathophysiology with potential value in diagnosis and therapy. Our aim was to evaluate miRNA patterns in serum and bile of patients with PSC and/or CC. Serum and bile from consecutive patients with PSC (n = 40 (serum), n = 52 (bile)), CC (n = 31 (serum), n = 19 (bile)) and patients with CC complicating PSC (PSC/CC) (n = 12 (bile)) were analyzed in a cross-sectional study between 2009 and 2012. As additional control serum samples from healthy individuals were analyzed (n = 12). The miRNA levels in serum and bile were determined with global miRNA profiling and subsequent miRNA-specific polymerase chain reaction-mediated validation. Serum analysis revealed significant differences for miR-1281 (p = 0.001), miR-126 (p = 0.001), miR-26a (p = 0.001), miR-30b (p = 0.001) and miR-122 (p = 0.034) between patients with PSC and patients with CC. All validated miRNAs were significantly lower in healthy individuals. MiR-412 (p = 0.001), miR-640 (p = 0.001), miR-1537 (p = 0.003) and miR-3189 (p = 0.001) were significantly different between patients with PSC and PSC/CC in bile. Patients with PSC and/or CC have distinct miRNA profiles in serum and bile. Furthermore, miRNA concentrations are different in bile of patients with CC on top of PSC indicating the potential diagnostic value of these miRNAs.

  10. Pompe Disease Results in a Golgi-based Glycosylation Deficit in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Cardiomyocytes*

    PubMed Central

    Raval, Kunil K.; Tao, Ran; White, Brent E.; De Lange, Willem J.; Koonce, Chad H.; Yu, Junying; Kishnani, Priya S.; Thomson, James A.; Mosher, Deane F.; Ralphe, John C.; Kamp, Timothy J.

    2015-01-01

    Infantile-onset Pompe disease is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by the complete loss of lysosomal glycogen-hydrolyzing enzyme acid α-glucosidase (GAA) activity, which results in lysosomal glycogen accumulation and prominent cardiac and skeletal muscle pathology. The mechanism by which loss of GAA activity causes cardiomyopathy is poorly understood. We reprogrammed fibroblasts from patients with infantile-onset Pompe disease to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that were differentiated to cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM). Pompe iPSC-CMs had undetectable GAA activity and pathognomonic glycogen-filled lysosomes. Nonetheless, Pompe and control iPSC-CMs exhibited comparable contractile properties in engineered cardiac tissue. Impaired autophagy has been implicated in Pompe skeletal muscle; however, control and Pompe iPSC-CMs had comparable clearance rates of LC3-II-detected autophagosomes. Unexpectedly, the lysosome-associated membrane proteins, LAMP1 and LAMP2, from Pompe iPSC-CMs demonstrated higher electrophoretic mobility compared with control iPSC-CMs. Brefeldin A induced disruption of the Golgi in control iPSC-CMs reproduced the higher mobility forms of the LAMPs, suggesting that Pompe iPSC-CMs produce LAMPs lacking appropriate glycosylation. Isoelectric focusing studies revealed that LAMP2 has a more alkaline pI in Pompe compared with control iPSC-CMs due largely to hyposialylation. MALDI-TOF-MS analysis of N-linked glycans demonstrated reduced diversity of multiantennary structures and the major presence of a trimannose complex glycan precursor in Pompe iPSC-CMs. These data suggest that Pompe cardiomyopathy has a glycan processing abnormality and thus shares features with hypertrophic cardiomyopathies observed in the congenital disorders of glycosylation. PMID:25488666

  11. A Search to Uncover the Infrared Excess (IRXS) Sources in the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rowe, Jamie Lynn; Duranko, Gary; Gorjian, Varoujan; Lineberger, Howard; Orr, Laura; Adewole, Ayomikun; Bradford, Eric; Douglas, Alea; Kohl, Steven; Larson, Lillia; Lascola, Gus; Orr, Quinton; Scott, Mekai; Walston, Joseph; Wang, Xian

    2018-01-01

    The Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products catalog (SEIP) is a collection of nearly 42 million point sources obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope during its 5+ year cryogenic mission. Strasburger et al (2014) isolated sources with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) >10 in five infrared (IR) wavelength channels (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8 and 24 microns) to begin a search for sources with infrared excess (IRXS). They found 76 objects that were never catalogued before. Based on this success, we intend to dig deeper into the catalog in an attempt to find more IRXS sources, specifically by lowering the SNR on the 3.6, 4.5, and 24 micron channels. The ultimate goal is to use this large sample to seek rare astrophysical sources that are transitional in nature and evolutionarily very important.Our filtering of the database at SNR > 5 yielded 461,000 sources. This was further evaluated and reduced to only the most interesting based on source location on a [3.6]-[4.5] vs [4.5]-[24] color-color diagram. We chose a sample of 985 extreme IRXS sources for further inspection. All of these candidate sources were visually inspected and cross-referenced against known sources in existing databases, resulting in a list of highly reliable IRXS sources.These sources will prove important in the study of galaxy and stellar evolution, and will serve as a starting point for further investigation.

  12. Controversies in Cardiovascular Research: Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes – boutique science or valuable arrhythmia model?

    PubMed Central

    Knollmann, Björn C

    2013-01-01

    As part of the series on Controversies in Cardiovascular Research, the article reviews the strengths and limitations of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM) as models of cardiac arrhythmias. Specifically, the article attempts to answer the following questions: Which clinical arrhythmias can be modeled by iPSC-CM? How well can iPSC-CM model adult ventricular myocytes? What are the strengths and limitations of published iPSC-CM arrhythmia models? What new mechanistic insight has been gained? What is the evidence that would support using iPSC-CM to personalize anti-arrhythmic drug therapy? The review also discusses the pros and cons of using the iPSC-CM technology for modeling specific genetic arrhythmia disorders such as long QT syndrome, Brugada Syndrome or Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia. PMID:23569106

  13. Elevated interleukin-8 in bile of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis.

    PubMed

    Zweers, Serge J; Shiryaev, Alexey; Komuta, Mina; Vesterhus, Mette; Hov, Johannes R; Perugorria, María J; de Waart, D Rudi; Chang, Jung-Chin; Tol, Shanna; Te Velde, Anje A; de Jonge, Wouter J; Banales, Jesus M; Roskams, Tania; Beuers, Ulrich; Karlsen, Tom H; Jansen, Peter L; Schaap, Frank G

    2016-09-01

    To better understand the pathogenesis of primary sclerosing cholangitis, anti- and pro-inflammatory factors were studied in bile. Ductal bile of PSC patients (n = 36) and controls (n = 20) was collected by endoscopic retrograde cholangiography. Gallbladder bile was collected at liver transplantation. Bile samples were analysed for cytokines, FGF19 and biliary lipids. Hepatobiliary tissues of PSC and non-PSC patients (n = 8-11 per patient group) were collected at transplantation and were analysed for IL8 and FGF19 mRNA expression and IL8 localization. The effect of IL8 on proliferation of primary human cholangiocytes and expression of pro-fibrotic genes was studied. In PSC patients, median IL8 in ductal bile was 6.6 ng/ml vs. 0.24 ng/ml in controls. Median IL8 in gallbladder bile was 7.6 ng/ml in PSC vs. 2.2 and 0.3 ng/ml in two control groups. IL8 mRNA in PSC gallbladder was increased and bile ducts stained positive for IL8. In vitro, IL8 induced proliferation of primary human cholangiocytes and increased the expression of pro-fibrotic genes. Elevation of IL8 in bile of PSC patients, collected at different stages of disease, indicates an ongoing inflammatory stimulus that drives IL8 production. This challenges the idea that advanced PSC is a burned-out disease, and calls for reconsideration of anti-inflammatory therapy in PSC. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Current Results and Future Directions of the Pulsar Search Collaboratory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heatherly, Sue Ann; Rosen, R.; McLaughlin, M.; Lorimer, D.

    2011-01-01

    The Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) is a joint partnership between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and West Virginia University (WVU). The ultimate goal of the PSC is to interest students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) fields by engaging them in conducting authentic scientific research-specifically the search for new pulsars. Of the 33 schools in the original PSC program, 13 come from rural school districts; one third of these are from schools where over 50% participate in the Free/Reduced School Lunch program. We are reaching first generation college-goers. For students, the program succeeds in building confidence in students, rapport with the scientists involved in the project, and greater comfort with team-work. We see additional gains in girls, as they see themselves more as scientists after participating in the PSC program, which is an important predictor of success in STEM fields. The PSC has had several scientific successes as well. To date, PSC students have made two astronomical discoveries: a 4.8-s pulsar and bright radio burst of astrophysical origin, most likely from a sporadic neutron star. We will report on the status of the project including new evaluation data. We will also describe PSC-West, an experiment to involve schools in Illinois and Wisconsin using primarily online tools for professional development of teachers and coaching of students. Knowledge gained through our efforts with PSC-West will assist the PSC team in scaling up the project.

  15. Cadmium and lead accumulations and agronomic quality of a newly bred pollution-safe cultivar (PSC) of water spinach.

    PubMed

    Huang, Ying-Ying; Mu, Yang-Xiu; He, Chun-Tao; Fu, Hui-Ling; Wang, Xue-Song; Gong, Fei-Yue; Yang, Zhong-Yi

    2018-04-01

    Breeding for pollution-safe cultivars (PSCs) can reduce pollutant accumulation in crops. However, the PSC breeding would face the risk of nutritional quality reduction, which is usually ignored in conventional breeding programs targeting to increase crop yield or nutritional quality. Thus, the doubt whether the risk would exist has to be clarified for supporting the PSC breeding. In the present study, a newly bred Cd/Pb-PSC of water spinach (Ipomoea aquatic Forsk.) and its parents (QLQ with low-Cd/Pb accumulation ability and T308 with high yield) of water spinach were employed to clarify the above-mentioned issue. Yields, and concentrations of Cd, Pb, nitrite, and organic and inorganic nutrients in shoots of the three experimental lines were determined. There were no significant differences in Cd/Pb concentration between the new PSC and QLQ, in nitrite content between the new PSC and its two parents and in yield between the new PSC and T308. It is decisively significant that shoot concentrations of organic and inorganic nutrients in the Cd/Pb-PSC were as high as those in one of its parents. It is affirmed that the breeding operations (crossing and consequently continuous selfing) for lowering Cd/Pb accumulation capacity of water spinach would not lower the nutritional values of the obtained Cd/Pb-PSCs from the breeding, which should be a pillar that supports the feasibility to minimize Cd/Pb pollution in vegetables using PSC-breeding method.

  16. Impact of emergency medical services stroke routing protocols on Primary Stroke Center certification in California.

    PubMed

    Schuberg, Sam; Song, Sarah; Saver, Jeffrey L; Mack, William J; Cen, Steven Y; Sanossian, Nerses

    2013-12-01

    Organized stroke systems of care include Primary Stroke Center (PSC) certification and preferential emergency medical services (EMS) routing of suspected patients with stroke to designated PSCs. Stroke EMS routing is not nationally governed; in California, routing is determined by county. EMS routing policies might provide an incentive for PSC accreditation. We evaluated the relationship between independent adoption of EMS routing protocols and PSC designation acquisition in California. Dates of PSC certification were obtained through The Joint Commissions Website and confirmatory calls to stroke coordinators. Starting date of county EMS PSC routing policies was obtained from county EMS agencies. We provide descriptive analysis of number of hospitals achieving PSC designation relative to implementation of EMS routing policies for all counties with PSCs. By June 2012, there were 131 California PSCs in 27 counties, and 22 of 58 counties had implemented EMS routing policies. The greatest number of PSCs was in Los Angeles (30) followed by San Diego (11), Orange (9), and Santa Clara (9) counties. Achievement of PSC designation occurred more frequently immediately before and after EMS routing: 51 PSCs (39%) within 1 year; 85 PSCs (65%) within 2 years. The yearly rate of eligible hospital conversion to PSC designation accelerated concurrent with EMS diversion policy adoption from 3.8% before to 16.2% during and decelerated afterward to 7.6%. Implementation of EMS routing policies may be an important factor driving PSC certification. National adoption of stroke routing policies may lead to more PSCs, positively impacting patient care.

  17. New GALEX UV Data Products At MAST For Stellar Astrophysics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shiao, Bernie; Fleming, S. W.; Million, C.; Seibert, M.; Bianchi, L.; Thompson, R.; Tseng, S.; Adler, W. J.; Hubbard, M.; Levay, K.; Madore, B. F.; Martin, C. D.; Nieto-Santisteban, M. A.; Sahai, R.; Schiminovich, D.; White, R. L.; Wyder, T. K.

    2014-01-01

    The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) mission ended in June 2013 after ten years in orbit. Its FUV and NUV microchannel plate detectors were used to conduct a variety of direct imaging and spectroscopic astronomical surveys with various depths and sky coverage, recording individual photon events with a time resolution of five thousandths of a second. Although the mission has ended, MAST is continuing to provide new data products as the mission transitions to a legacy archive. One product is the GCAT (Seibert et al., in prep), a catalog of GALEX sources across the entire GR6 data release that removes duplicate objects found in the GALEX MCAT. The GCAT defines "primary" NUV and FUV fluxes within the AIS and MIS surveys 40 million and 22 million sources, respectively), accounting for tile overlaps, and with visual inspection of every tile to flag artifacts and conduct other quality control checks. Another catalog of unique sources is that of Bianchi et al. (2013). Similar to the GCAT, their catalog produces a list of distinct GALEX sources in both the FUV and NUV from the AIS and MIS surveys, and includes data from GR7 (through the end of 2012). They have also cross-matched their sources with SDSS DR9, GSC-II, PanSTARRS, and 2MASS. We review access options for these catalogs, including updated matches between the GCAT and SDSS / Kepler available at MAST. In addition to these unique GALEX source catalogs, MAST will provide a database and software package that archives each of the ~1.5 trillion photon events detected over the lifetime of the mission. For the first time, users will be able to create calibrated lightcurves, intensity maps, and animated movies from any set of photons selected across any tile, and with specified aperture sizes, coordinates, and time steps. Users can access the data using either a python-based command-line software package, through a web interface at MAST, or (eventually) through CasJobs using direct SQL queries. We present some example GALEX lightcurves and images using this new data product to highlight just some of the possibilities available for users to mine the GALEX photon database, particularly with variable sources.

  18. Patient safety culture shapes presenteeism and absenteeism: a cross-sectional study among Croatian healthcare workers.

    PubMed

    Brborović, Hana; Brborović, Ognjen

    2017-09-26

    Healthcare workers have high rates of injuries and illnesses at the workplace, and both their absence from work due to illness (absenteeism) or working ill (presenteeism) can compromise patient safety and the quality of health care delivered. Following this premise, we wanted to determine whether presenteeism and absenteeism were associated with patient safety culture (PSC) and in what way. Our sample consisted of 595 Croatian healthcare workers (150 physicians and 445 nurses) who answered the short-form WHO Health and Work Performance Questionnaire and the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. The results have confirmed the association with both presenteeism and absenteeism in several PSC dimensions, but not as we expected based on the premise from which we started. Opposite to our expectations, lower job performance (as a measure of presenteeism) was associated with higher PSC instead of lower PSC. Absenteeism, in turn, was associated with lower PSC, just as we expected. These findings suggest that it is the PSC that shapes presenteeist and absenteeist behaviour and not the other way around. High PSC leads to presenteeism, and low PSC to absenteeism. We also believe that the presenteeism questionnaires should be adjusted to health care and better define what lower performance means both quantitatively and qualitatively in a hospital setting.

  19. De-novo cholangiocarcinoma in native common bile duct remnant following OLT for primary sclerosing cholangitis.

    PubMed

    Landaverde, Carmen; Ng, Vivian; Sato, Alisa; Tabibian, James; Durazo, Francisco; Busuttil, Ronald

    2009-01-01

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory and obstructive disease of the intra- and extra-hepatic bile ducts of unknown etiology. Currently, orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is the only definitive treatment for PSC-related end-stage liver disease. However, PSC has been known to recur in the grafted liver. Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy is more commonly performed than choledochocholedochostomy for PSC, although choledochocholedochostomy has been found to be safe and efficacious for PSC if the distal common bile duct is uninvolved at the time of OLT. Our case is unique in that it describes a patient who developed de-novo cholangiocarcinoma in the remnant portion of the native common bile duct six years after OLT with choledochocholedochostomy for PSC-associated end-stage liver disease without having PSC recurrence. In conclusion, our case report indicates that choledochocholedochostomy may not be desirable in PSC due to an increased risk of developing cholangiocarcinoma in the native common bile duct. This risk exists as well with a Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy in the remaining intra-duodenal and intra-pancreatic biliary epithelium, although in theory to a lesser extent. Therefore, the risk of developing cholangiocarcinoma in the recipient common bile duct can only be completely eliminated by performing a Whipple procedure at the time of OLT.

  20. Catalogs of Audiovisual Materials: A Guide to Government Sources.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dale, Doris Cruger

    This annotated bibliography lists 53 federally published catalogs and bibliographies which identify films and other audiovisual materials produced or sponsored by government agencies; some also include commercially produced audiovisual and/or print materials. Publications are listed alphabetically by government agency or department, and…

  1. SEARCHING FOR NEW {gamma}-RAY BLAZAR CANDIDATES IN THE THIRD PALERMO BAT HARD X-RAY CATALOG WITH WISE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Maselli, A.; Cusumano, G.; La Parola, V.

    We searched for {gamma}-ray blazar candidates among the 382 unidentified hard X-ray sources of the third Palermo BAT Catalog (3PBC) obtained from the analysis of 66 months of Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) survey data and listing 1586 sources. We adopted a recently developed association method based on the peculiar infrared colors that characterize the {gamma}-ray blazars included in the second catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We used this method exploiting the data of the all-sky survey performed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to establish correspondences between unidentified 3PBC sources andmore » WISE {gamma}-ray blazar candidates located within the BAT positional uncertainty region at a 99% confidence level. We obtained a preliminary list of candidates for which we analyzed all the available data in the Swift archive to complement the information in the literature and in the radio, infrared, and optical catalogs with the information on their optical-UV and soft X-ray emission. Requiring the presence of radio and soft X-ray counterparts consistent with the infrared positions of the selected WISE sources, as well as a blazar-like radio morphology, we finally obtained a list of 24 {gamma}-ray blazar candidates.« less

  2. SpIES: The Spitzer IRAC Equatorial Survey

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Timlin, John D.; Ross, Nicholas P.; Richards, Gordon, T.; Lacy, Mark; Ryan, Erin L.; Stone, Robert B.; Bauer, Franz, E.; Brandt, W. N.; Fan, Xiaohui; Glikman, Eilat; hide

    2016-01-01

    We describe the first data release from the Spitzer-IRAC Equatorial Survey (SpIES); a large-area survey of approx.115 sq deg in the Equatorial SDSS Stripe 82 field using Spitzer during its "warm" mission phase. SpIES was designed to probe sufficient volume to perform measurements of quasar clustering and the luminosity function at z > or = 3 to test various models for "feedback" from active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Additionally, the wide range of available multi-wavelength, multi-epoch ancillary data enables SpIES to identify both high-redshift (z > or = 5) quasars as well as obscured quasars missed by optical surveys. SpIES achieves 5 sigma depths of 6.13 µJy (21.93 AB magnitude) and 5.75 µJy (22.0 AB magnitude) at 3.6 and 4.5 microns, respectively-depths significantly fainter than the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We show that the SpIES survey recovers a much larger fraction of spectroscopically confirmed quasars (approx.98%) in Stripe 82 than are recovered by WISE (55%). This depth is especially powerful at high-redshift (z > or = 3.5), where SpIES recovers 94% of confirmed quasars, whereas WISE only recovers 25%. Here we define the SpIES survey parameters and describe the image processing, source extraction, and catalog production methods used to analyze the SpIES data. In addition to this survey paper, we release 234 images created by the SpIES team and three detection catalogs: a 3.6 microns only detection catalog containing approx. 6.1 million sources, a 4.5 microns only detection catalog containing approx. 6.5 million sources, and a dual-band detection catalog containing approx. 5.4 million sources.

  3. Documentation for the machine-readable version of the first Santiago-Pulkovo Fundamental Stars Catalogue (SPF1 catalogue)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warren, W. H., Jr.

    1982-01-01

    The machine-readable version of the first Santiago-Pulkovo Fundamental Stars catalog is described. It is intended to enable users to read and process the computerized catalog without the problems and guesswork often associated with such a task. The source reference should be consulted for additional details regarding the measurements, instrument characteristics, reductions, construction of the quasi-absolute system of right ascension, and star positions in the catalog.

  4. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei in the Southern Survey

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Marsden, Danica; Gralla, Megan; Marriage, Tobias A.; Switzer, Eric R.; Partridge, Bruce; Massardi, Marcella; Morales, Gustavo; Addison, Graeme; Bond, J. Richard; Crichton, Devin; hide

    2013-01-01

    We present a catalog of 191 extragalactic sources detected by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) at 148 GHz and/or 218GHz in the 2008 Southern survey. Flux densities span 14-1700mJy, and we use source spectral indices derived using ACT-only data to divide our sources into two sub-populations: 167 radio galaxies powered by central active galactic nuclei (AGN), and 24 dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). We cross-identify 97% of our sources (166 of the AGN and 19 of the DSFGs) with those in currently available catalogs. When combined with flux densities from the Australian Telescope 20 GHz survey and follow-up observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the synchrotron-dominated population is seen to exhibit a steepening of the slope of the spectral energy distribution from 20 to 148GHz, with the trend continuing to 218GHz. The ACT dust-dominated source population has a median spectral index, alpha(sub 148-218), of 3.7+0.62 or -0.86, and includes both local galaxies and sources with redshifts as great as 5.6. Dusty sources with no counterpart in existing catalogs likely belong to a recently discovered subpopulation of DSFGs lensed by foreground galaxies or galaxy groups.

  5. Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment for Himalayan-Tibetan Region from Historical and Instrumental Earthquake Catalogs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rahman, M. Moklesur; Bai, Ling; Khan, Nangyal Ghani; Li, Guohui

    2018-02-01

    The Himalayan-Tibetan region has a long history of devastating earthquakes with wide-spread casualties and socio-economic damages. Here, we conduct the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis by incorporating the incomplete historical earthquake records along with the instrumental earthquake catalogs for the Himalayan-Tibetan region. Historical earthquake records back to more than 1000 years ago and an updated, homogenized and declustered instrumental earthquake catalog since 1906 are utilized. The essential seismicity parameters, namely, the mean seismicity rate γ, the Gutenberg-Richter b value, and the maximum expected magnitude M max are estimated using the maximum likelihood algorithm assuming the incompleteness of the catalog. To compute the hazard value, three seismogenic source models (smoothed gridded, linear, and areal sources) and two sets of ground motion prediction equations are combined by means of a logic tree on accounting the epistemic uncertainties. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) and spectral acceleration (SA) at 0.2 and 1.0 s are predicted for 2 and 10% probabilities of exceedance over 50 years assuming bedrock condition. The resulting PGA and SA maps show a significant spatio-temporal variation in the hazard values. In general, hazard value is found to be much higher than the previous studies for regions, where great earthquakes have actually occurred. The use of the historical and instrumental earthquake catalogs in combination of multiple seismogenic source models provides better seismic hazard constraints for the Himalayan-Tibetan region.

  6. Far infrared supplement: Catalog of infrared observations, second edition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gezari, Daniel Y.; Schmitz, Marion; Mead, Jaylee M.

    1988-01-01

    The Far Infrared Supplement: Catalog of Infrared Observations summarizes all infrared astronomical observations at far infrared wavelengths (5 to 1000 microns) published in the scientific literature from 1965 through 1986. The Supplement list contain 25 percent of the observations in the full Catalog of Infrared Observations (CIO), and essentially eliminates most visible stars from the listings. The Supplement is thus more compact than the main catalog, and is intended for easy reference during astronomical observations. The Far Infrared Supplement (2nd Edition) includes the Index of Infrared Source Positions and the Bibliography of Infrared Astronomy for the subset of far infrared observations listed.

  7. Mexican Earthquakes and Tsunamis Catalog Reviewed

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ramirez-Herrera, M. T.; Castillo-Aja, R.

    2015-12-01

    Today the availability of information on the internet makes online catalogs very easy to access by both scholars and the public in general. The catalog in the "Significant Earthquake Database", managed by the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI formerly NCDC), NOAA, allows access by deploying tabular and cartographic data related to earthquakes and tsunamis contained in the database. The NCEI catalog is the product of compiling previously existing catalogs, historical sources, newspapers, and scientific articles. Because NCEI catalog has a global coverage the information is not homogeneous. Existence of historical information depends on the presence of people in places where the disaster occurred, and that the permanence of the description is preserved in documents and oral tradition. In the case of instrumental data, their availability depends on the distribution and quality of seismic stations. Therefore, the availability of information for the first half of 20th century can be improved by careful analysis of the available information and by searching and resolving inconsistencies. This study shows the advances we made in upgrading and refining data for the earthquake and tsunami catalog of Mexico since 1500 CE until today, presented in the format of table and map. Data analysis allowed us to identify the following sources of error in the location of the epicenters in existing catalogs: • Incorrect coordinate entry • Place name erroneous or mistaken • Too general data that makes difficult to locate the epicenter, mainly for older earthquakes • Inconsistency of earthquakes and the tsunami occurrence: earthquake's epicenter located too far inland reported as tsunamigenic. The process of completing the catalogs directly depends on the availability of information; as new archives are opened for inspection, there are more opportunities to complete the history of large earthquakes and tsunamis in Mexico. Here, we also present new earthquake and tsunami findings that, so far, we have achieved.

  8. Induced pluripotent stem cell technology: a decade of progress.

    PubMed

    Shi, Yanhong; Inoue, Haruhisa; Wu, Joseph C; Yamanaka, Shinya

    2017-02-01

    Since the advent of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology a decade ago, enormous progress has been made in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Human iPSCs have been widely used for disease modelling, drug discovery and cell therapy development. Novel pathological mechanisms have been elucidated, new drugs originating from iPSC screens are in the pipeline and the first clinical trial using human iPSC-derived products has been initiated. In particular, the combination of human iPSC technology with recent developments in gene editing and 3D organoids makes iPSC-based platforms even more powerful in each area of their application, including precision medicine. In this Review, we discuss the progress in applications of iPSC technology that are particularly relevant to drug discovery and regenerative medicine, and consider the remaining challenges and the emerging opportunities in the field.

  9. Emerging treatments for primary sclerosing cholangitis.

    PubMed

    Rodriguez, Eduardo A; Carey, Elizabeth J; Lindor, Keith D

    2017-05-01

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic, cholestatic, idiopathic liver disease that can progress to end-stage liver disease, cirrhosis and cholangiocarcinoma. PSC is an uncommon and highly heterogeneous disease, associated with inflammatory bowel disease and a complex pathophysiology. To date, no medical therapies have proved effective. The only available treatment for end-stage PSC is liver transplant, but recurrence is a significant complication. Areas covered: This review will explore previously tested treatments, discuss current treatment strategies and present viewpoints about future emerging therapies in PSC. We searched PubMed using the noted keywords. We included data from full-text articles published in English. Further relevant articles were identified from the reference lists of review articles. Expert commentary: The development of new therapies in PSC has been challenging. However, with greater awareness of the disease nowadays, new insights into the disease may help in the design of future therapeutic agents in PSC and ultimately in effective therapies.

  10. Primary sclerosing cholangitis and the microbiota: current knowledge and perspectives on etiopathogenesis and emerging therapies.

    PubMed

    Tabibian, James H; O'Hara, Steven P; Lindor, Keith D

    2014-08-01

    Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic, fibroinflammatory, cholestatic liver disease of unknown etiopathogenesis. PSC generally progresses to liver cirrhosis, is a major risk factor for hepatobiliary and colonic neoplasia, and confers a median survival to death or liver transplantation of only 12 years. Although it is well recognized that approximately 75% of patients with PSC also have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the significance of this association remains elusive. Accumulating evidence now suggests a potentially important role for the intestinal microbiota, and enterohepatic circulation of molecules derived therefrom, as a putative mechanistic link between PSC and IBD and a central pathobiological driver of PSC. In this concise review, we provide a summary of and perspectives regarding the relevant basic, translational, and clinical data, which, taken together, encourage further investigation of the role of the microbiota and microbial metabolites in the etiopathogenesis of PSC and as a potential target for novel pharmacotherapies.

  11. Pharyngeal satellite cells undergo myogenesis under basal conditions and are required for pharyngeal muscle maintenance

    PubMed Central

    Randolph, Matthew E.; Phillips, Brittany L.; Choo, Hyo-Jung; Vest, Katherine E.; Vera, Yandery; Pavlath, Grace K.

    2015-01-01

    The pharyngeal muscles of the nasal, oral, and laryngeal pharynxes are required for swallowing. Pharyngeal muscles are preferentially affected in some muscular dystrophies yet spared in others. Muscle stem cells, called satellite cells, may be critical factors in the development of pharyngeal muscle disorders; however, very little is known about pharyngeal satellite cells (PSC) and their role in pharyngeal muscles. We show that PSC are distinct from the commonly studied hindlimb satellite cells both transcriptionally and biologically. Under basal conditions PSC proliferate, progress through myogenesis, and fuse with pharyngeal myofibers. Furthermore, PSC exhibit biologic differences dependent on anatomic location in the pharynx. Importantly, PSC are required to maintain myofiber size and myonuclear number in pharyngeal myofibers. Together, these results demonstrate that PSC are critical for pharyngeal muscle maintenance and suggest that satellite cell impairment could contribute to pharyngeal muscle pathology associated with various muscular dystrophies and aging. PMID:26178867

  12. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Swift AGN and Cluster Survey (SACS). I. (Dai+, 2015)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dai, X.; Griffin, R. D.; Kochanek, C. S.; Nugent, J. M.; Bregman, J. N.

    2015-07-01

    The Swift XRT observations of GRB fields were downloaded from the HEASARC website. This includes ~9yr of data through 2013 July 27. We matched the sources to the WISE all-sky catalog (see section 3.2). (5 data files).

  13. Annotated Catalog of Bilingual Vocational Training Materials.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miranda (L.) and Associates, Bethesda, MD.

    This catalog contains annotations for 170 bilingual vocational training materials. Most of the materials are written in English, but materials written in 13 source languages and directed toward speakers of 17 target languages are provided. Annotations are provided for the following different types of documents: administrative, assessment and…

  14. Integrating Subject Pathfinders into Online Catalogs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jarvis, William E.

    1985-01-01

    Discusses the integration of subject pathfinders into online public access catalogs (OPAC) through following features: within the OPAC, offline user guide manuals, remotely printed upon user request, or online as saved searches displayed in help screen format. Excerpts of a pathfinder display for biotechnology are presented. Four sources are…

  15. THE BOLOCAM GALACTIC PLANE SURVEY. XII. DISTANCE CATALOG EXPANSION USING KINEMATIC ISOLATION OF DENSE MOLECULAR CLOUD STRUCTURES WITH {sup 13}CO(1-0)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ellsworth-Bowers, Timothy P.; Glenn, Jason; Rosolowsky, Erik

    2015-01-20

    We present an expanded distance catalog for 1710 molecular cloud structures identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) version 2, representing a nearly threefold increase over the previous BGPS distance catalog. We additionally present a new method for incorporating extant data sets into our Bayesian distance probability density function (DPDF) methodology. To augment the dense-gas tracers (e.g., HCO{sup +}(3-2), NH{sub 3}(1,1)) used to derive line-of-sight velocities for kinematic distances, we utilize the Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) {sup 13}CO(1-0) data to morphologically extract velocities for BGPS sources. The outline of a BGPS source is used to select a region ofmore » the GRS {sup 13}CO data, along with a reference region to subtract enveloping diffuse emission, to produce a line profile of {sup 13}CO matched to the BGPS source. For objects with a HCO{sup +}(3-2) velocity, ≈95% of the new {sup 13}CO(1-0) velocities agree with that of the dense gas. A new prior DPDF for kinematic distance ambiguity (KDA) resolution, based on a validated formalism for associating molecular cloud structures with known objects from the literature, is presented. We demonstrate this prior using catalogs of masers with trigonometric parallaxes and H II regions with robust KDA resolutions. The distance catalog presented here contains well-constrained distance estimates for 20% of BGPS V2 sources, with typical distance uncertainties ≲ 0.5 kpc. Approximately 75% of the well-constrained sources lie within 6 kpc of the Sun, concentrated in the Scutum-Centaurus arm. Galactocentric positions of objects additionally trace out portions of the Sagittarius, Perseus, and Outer arms in the first and second Galactic quadrants, and we also find evidence for significant regions of interarm dense gas.« less

  16. The Chandra Source Catalog: X-ray Aperture Photometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kashyap, Vinay; Primini, F. A.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, I. N.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E.; Gibbs, D. G.; Grier, J. D.; Hain, R.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Lauer, J.; McCollough, M. L.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Rots, A. H.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; Van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

    2009-01-01

    The Chandra Source Catalog represents a reanalysis of the entire ACIS and HRC imaging observations over the 9-year Chandra mission. Source detection is carried out on a uniform basis, using the CIAO tool wavdetect, and source fluxes are estimated post-facto using a Bayesian method that accounts for background, spatial resolution effects, and contamination from nearby sources. We use gamma-function prior distributions, which could be either non-informative, or in case there exist previous observations of the same source, strongly informative. The resulting posterior probability density functions allow us to report the flux and a robust credible range on it. We also determine limiting sensitivities at arbitrary locations in the field using the same formulation. This work was supported by CXC NASA contracts NAS8-39073 (VK) and NAS8-03060 (CSC).

  17. The Chandra Source Catalog: Spectral Properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Doe, Stephen; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Evans, Ian N.; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Grier, John D.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiang Qun (Helen); Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Primini, Francis A.; Rots, Arnold H.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.; Zografou, Panagoula

    2009-09-01

    The first release of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) contains all sources identified from eight years' worth of publicly accessible observations. The vast majority of these sources have been observed with the ACIS detector and have spectral information in 0.5-7 keV energy range. Here we describe the methods used to automatically derive spectral properties for each source detected by the standard processing pipeline and included in the final CSC. Hardness ratios were calculated for each source between pairs of energy bands (soft, medium and hard) using the Bayesian algorithm (BEHR, Park et al. 2006). The sources with high signal to noise ratio (exceeding 150 net counts) were fit in Sherpa (the modeling and fitting application from the Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations package, developed by the Chandra X-ray Center; see Freeman et al. 2001). Two models were fit to each source: an absorbed power law and a blackbody emission. The fitted parameter values for the power-law and blackbody models were included in the catalog with the calculated flux for each model. The CSC also provides the source energy flux computed from the normalizations of predefined power-law and black-body models needed to match the observed net X-ray counts. In addition, we provide access to data products for each source: a file with source spectrum, the background spectrum, and the spectral response of the detector. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

  18. High-throughput screening of tyrosine kinase inhibitor cardiotoxicity with human induced pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Sharma, Arun; Burridge, Paul W; McKeithan, Wesley L; Serrano, Ricardo; Shukla, Praveen; Sayed, Nazish; Churko, Jared M; Kitani, Tomoya; Wu, Haodi; Holmström, Alexandra; Matsa, Elena; Zhang, Yuan; Kumar, Anusha; Fan, Alice C; Del Álamo, Juan C; Wu, Sean M; Moslehi, Javid J; Mercola, Mark; Wu, Joseph C

    2017-02-15

    Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), despite their efficacy as anticancer therapeutics, are associated with cardiovascular side effects ranging from induced arrhythmias to heart failure. We used human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs), generated from 11 healthy individuals and 2 patients receiving cancer treatment, to screen U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved TKIs for cardiotoxicities by measuring alterations in cardiomyocyte viability, contractility, electrophysiology, calcium handling, and signaling. With these data, we generated a "cardiac safety index" to reflect the cardiotoxicities of existing TKIs. TKIs with low cardiac safety indices exhibit cardiotoxicity in patients. We also derived endothelial cells (hiPSC-ECs) and cardiac fibroblasts (hiPSC-CFs) to examine cell type-specific cardiotoxicities. Using high-throughput screening, we determined that vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2)/platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR)-inhibiting TKIs caused cardiotoxicity in hiPSC-CMs, hiPSC-ECs, and hiPSC-CFs. With phosphoprotein analysis, we determined that VEGFR2/PDGFR-inhibiting TKIs led to a compensatory increase in cardioprotective insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling in hiPSC-CMs. Up-regulating cardioprotective signaling with exogenous insulin or IGF1 improved hiPSC-CM viability during cotreatment with cardiotoxic VEGFR2/PDGFR-inhibiting TKIs. Thus, hiPSC-CMs can be used to screen for cardiovascular toxicities associated with anticancer TKIs, and the results correlate with clinical phenotypes. This approach provides unexpected insights, as illustrated by our finding that toxicity can be alleviated via cardioprotective insulin/IGF signaling. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  19. Subcellular colocalization of the cellular and scrapie prion proteins in caveolae-like membranous domains

    PubMed Central

    Vey, Martin; Pilkuhn, Susanne; Wille, Holger; Nixon, Randal; DeArmond, Stephen J.; Smart, Eric J.; Anderson, Richard G. W.; Taraboulos, Albert; Prusiner, Stanley B.

    1996-01-01

    Results of transgenetic studies argue that the scrapie isoform of the prion protein (PrPSc) interacts with the substrate cellular PrP (PrPC) during conversion into nascent PrPSc. While PrPSc appears to accumulate primarily in lysosomes, caveolae-like domains (CLDs) have been suggested to be the site where PrPC is converted into PrPSc. We report herein that CLDs isolated from scrapie-infected neuroblastoma (ScN2a) cells contain PrPC and PrPSc. After lysis of ScN2a cells in ice-cold Triton X-100, both PrP isoforms and an N-terminally truncated form of PrPC (PrPC-II) were found concentrated in detergent-insoluble complexes resembling CLDs that were isolated by flotation in sucrose gradients. Similar results were obtained when CLDs were purified from plasma membranes by sonication and gradient centrifugation; with this procedure no detergents are used, which minimizes artifacts that might arise from redistribution of proteins among subcellular fractions. The caveolar markers ganglioside GM1 and H-ras were found concentrated in the CLD fractions. When plasma membrane proteins were labeled with the impermeant reagent sulfo-N-hydroxysuccinimide-biotin, both PrPC and PrPSc were found biotinylated in CLD fractions. Similar results on the colocalization of PrPC and PrPSc were obtained when CLDs were isolated from Syrian hamster brains. Our findings demonstrate that both PrPC and PrPSc are present in CLDs and, thus, support the hypothesis that the PrPSc formation occurs within this subcellular compartment. PMID:8962161

  20. The Einstein Slew Survey

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Elvis, Martin; Plummer, David; Schachter, Jonathan; Fabbiano, G.

    1992-01-01

    A catalog of 819 sources detected in the Einstein IPC Slew Survey of the X-ray sky is presented; 313 of the sources were not previously known as X-ray sources. Typical count rates are 0.1 IPC count/s, roughly equivalent to a flux of 3 x 10 exp -12 ergs/sq cm s. The sources have positional uncertainties of 1.2 arcmin (90 percent confidence) radius, based on a subset of 452 sources identified with previously known pointlike X-ray sources (i.e., extent less than 3 arcmin). Identifications based on a number of existing catalogs of X-ray and optical objects are proposed for 637 of the sources, 78 percent of the survey (within a 3-arcmin error radius) including 133 identifications of new X-ray sources. A public identification data base for the Slew Survey sources will be maintained at CfA, and contributions to this data base are invited.

  1. Recent Results on SNRs and PWNe from the Fermi Large Area Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hays, Elizabeth A.

    2010-01-01

    Topics include: Fermi LAT Collaboration groups; galactic results from LAT; a GeV, wide-field instrument; the 1FGL catalog, the Fermi LAT 1FGL source catalog, unidentified gamma-ray sources; variability in 1FGL sources; curvature in 1FGL sources; spectral-variability classification; gamma-ray pulsars and MSPs; GeV PWN - where to look; Crab pulsar and nebula; Vela X nebular of Vela pulsar; MSH 15-52; GeV PWNe spectra; GeV nebula limits; Nebula search of LAT pulsars; supernova remnants; SNR: GeV morphology; SNR: molecular connection; SNR: GeV breaks; SNR: young vs. old. The summary includes slides about the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and LAT sensitivity with time.

  2. Do gamma-ray burst sources repeat?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meegan, Charles A.; Hartmann, Dieter H.; Brainerd, J. J.; Briggs, Michael S.; Paciesas, William S.; Pendleton, Geoffrey; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Fishman, Gerald; Blumenthal, George; Brock, Martin

    1995-01-01

    The demonstration of repeated gamma-ray bursts from an individual source would severely constrain burst source models. Recent reports (Quashnock and Lamb, 1993; Wang and Lingenfelter, 1993) of evidence for repetition in the first BATSE burst catalog have generated renewed interest in this issue. Here, we analyze the angular distribution of 585 bursts of the second BATSE catalog (Meegan et al., 1994). We search for evidence of burst recurrence using the nearest and farthest neighbor statistic and the two-point angular correlation function. We find the data to be consistent with the hypothesis that burst sources do not repeat; however, a repeater fraction of up to about 20% of the observed bursts cannot be excluded.

  3. Dynamical structure of magnetized dissipative accretion flow around black holes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sarkar, Biplob; Das, Santabrata

    2016-09-01

    We study the global structure of optically thin, advection dominated, magnetized accretion flow around black holes. We consider the magnetic field to be turbulent in nature and dominated by the toroidal component. With this, we obtain the complete set of accretion solutions for dissipative flows where bremsstrahlung process is regarded as the dominant cooling mechanism. We show that rotating magnetized accretion flow experiences virtual barrier around black hole due to centrifugal repulsion that can trigger the discontinuous transition of the flow variables in the form of shock waves. We examine the properties of the shock waves and find that the dynamics of the post-shock corona (PSC) is controlled by the flow parameters, namely viscosity, cooling rate and strength of the magnetic field, respectively. We separate the effective region of the parameter space for standing shock and observe that shock can form for wide range of flow parameters. We obtain the critical viscosity parameter that allows global accretion solutions including shocks. We estimate the energy dissipation at the PSC from where a part of the accreting matter can deflect as outflows and jets. We compare the maximum energy that could be extracted from the PSC and the observed radio luminosity values for several supermassive black hole sources and the observational implications of our present analysis are discussed.

  4. The G-HAT Search for Advanced Extraterrestrial Civilizations: The Reddest Extended WISE Sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maldonado, Jessica; Povich, Matthew S.; Wright, Jason; Griffith, Roger; Sigurdsson, Steinn; Mullan, Brendan L.

    2015-01-01

    Freeman Dyson (1960) theorized how to identify possible signatures of advanced extra-terrestrial civilizations by their waste heat, an inevitable byproduct of a civilization using a significant fraction of the luminosity from their host star. If a civilizations could tap the starlight throughout their host galaxy their waste heat would be easily detectable by recent infrared surveys. The Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies (G-HAT) pilot project aims to place limits on the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations at pan-galactic scales. We present results from the G-HAT cleaned catalog of 563 extremely red, extended high Galactic latitude (|b| ≥ 10) sources from the WISE All-Sky Catalog. Our catalog includes sources new to the scientific literature along with well-studied objects (e.g. starburst galaxies, AGN, and planetary nebulae) that exemplify extreme WISE colors. Objects of particular interest include a supergiant Be star (48 Librae) surrounded by a resolved, mid-infrared nebula, possibly indicating dust in the stellar wind ejecta, and a curious cluster of seven extremely red WISE sources (associated with IRAS 04287+6444) that have no optical counterparts.

  5. Thrust stand evaluation of engine performance improvement algorithms in an F-15 airplane

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Conners, Timothy R.

    1992-01-01

    Results are presented from the evaluation of the performance seeking control (PSC) optimization algorithm developed by Smith et al. (1990) for F-15 aircraft, which optimizes the quasi-steady-state performance of an F100 derivative turbofan engine for several modes of operation. The PSC algorithm uses onboard software engine model that calculates thrust, stall margin, and other unmeasured variables for use in the optimization. Comparisons are presented between the load cell measurements, PSC onboard model thrust calculations, and posttest state variable model computations. Actual performance improvements using the PSC algorithm are presented for its various modes. The results of using PSC algorithm are compared with similar test case results using the HIDEC algorithm.

  6. The European General Data Protection Regulation: challenges and considerations for iPSC researchers and biobanks

    PubMed Central

    Morrison, Michael; Bell, Jessica; George, Carol; Harmon, Shawn; Munsie, Megan; Kaye, Jane

    2017-01-01

    Increasingly, human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and their associated genetic and clinical information are being used in a wide range of applications, with large biobanks being established to support and increase their scientific use. The new European General Data Protection Regulations, which comes into effect in 2018, will have implications for biobanks that generate, store and allow research access to iPSC. This paper describes some of the challenges that iPSC biobanks face and suggests some points for the development of appropriate governance structures to address these new requirements. These suggestions also have implications for iPSC research in general. PMID:28976812

  7. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Taurus ultra-wide pairs (Joncour+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Joncour, I.; Duchene, G.; Moraux, E.

    2017-05-01

    Although a recent catalog of Taurus members has been released including newly detected mid-infrared Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) sources (Esplin et al., 2014, Cat. J/ApJ/784/126), we adopted the catalog containing 352 Taurus members that offers a full census of members down to 0.02 Mȯ(Luhman et al., 2010, Cat. J/ApJS/186/111; Rebull et al., 2010, Cat. J/ApJS/186/259), which we supplemented with stellar multiplicity data. (3 data files).

  8. Documentation for the machine-readable version of the ANS Ultraviolet Photometry Catalogue of Point Sources (Wesselius et al 1982)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warren, W. H., Jr.

    1984-01-01

    The machine-readable version of the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite ultraviolet photometry catalog is described in detail, with a byte-by-byte format description and characteristics of the data file given. The catalog is a compilation of ultraviolet photometry in five bands, within the wavelength range 155 nm to 330 nm, for 3573 mostly stellar objects. Additional cross reference data (object identification, UBV photometry and MK spectral types) are included in the catalog.

  9. Generation of functional cardiomyocytes from rat embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells using feeder-free expansion and differentiation in suspension culture.

    PubMed

    Dahlmann, Julia; Awad, George; Dolny, Carsten; Weinert, Sönke; Richter, Karin; Fischer, Klaus-Dieter; Munsch, Thomas; Leßmann, Volkmar; Volleth, Marianne; Zenker, Martin; Chen, Yaoyao; Merkl, Claudia; Schnieke, Angelika; Baraki, Hassina; Kutschka, Ingo; Kensah, George

    2018-01-01

    The possibility to generate cardiomyocytes from pluripotent stem cells in vitro has enormous significance for basic research, disease modeling, drug development and heart repair. The concept of heart muscle reconstruction has been studied and optimized in the rat model using rat primary cardiovascular cells or xenogeneic pluripotent stem cell derived-cardiomyocytes for years. However, the lack of rat pluripotent stem cells (rPSCs) and their cardiovascular derivatives prevented the establishment of an authentic clinically relevant syngeneic or allogeneic rat heart regeneration model. In this study, we comparatively explored the potential of recently available rat embryonic stem cells (rESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (riPSCs) as a source for cardiomyocytes (CMs). We developed feeder cell-free culture conditions facilitating the expansion of undifferentiated rPSCs and initiated cardiac differentiation by embryoid body (EB)-formation in agarose microwell arrays, which substituted the robust but labor-intensive hanging drop (HD) method. Ascorbic acid was identified as an efficient enhancer of cardiac differentiation in both rPSC types by significantly increasing the number of beating EBs (3.6 ± 1.6-fold for rESCs and 17.6 ± 3.2-fold for riPSCs). These optimizations resulted in a differentiation efficiency of up to 20% cTnTpos rPSC-derived CMs. CMs showed spontaneous contractions, expressed cardiac markers and had typical morphological features. Electrophysiology of riPSC-CMs revealed different cardiac subtypes and physiological responses to cardio-active drugs. In conclusion, we describe rPSCs as a robust source of CMs, which is a prerequisite for detailed preclinical studies of myocardial reconstruction in a physiologically and immunologically relevant small animal model.

  10. Induction of pluripotent stem cells from a cynomolgus monkey using a polycistronic simian immunodeficiency virus-based vector, differentiation toward functional cardiomyocytes, and generation of stably expressing reporter lines.

    PubMed

    Wunderlich, Stephanie; Haase, Alexandra; Merkert, Sylvia; Beier, Jennifer; Schwanke, Kristin; Schambach, Axel; Glage, Silke; Göhring, Gudrun; Curnow, Eliza C; Martin, Ulrich

    2012-12-01

    Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent a novel cell source for regenerative therapies. Many emerging iPSC-based therapeutic concepts will require preclinical evaluation in suitable large animal models. Among the large animal species frequently used in preclinical efficacy and safety studies, macaques show the highest similarities to humans at physiological, cellular, and molecular levels. We have generated iPSCs from cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) as a segue to regenerative therapy model development in this species. Because typical human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-based lentiviral vectors show poor transduction of simian cells, a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-based vector was chosen for efficient transduction of cynomolgus skin fibroblasts. A corresponding polycistronic vector with codon-optimized reprogramming factors was constructed for reprogramming. Growth characteristics as well as cell and colony morphology of the resulting cynomolgus iPSCs (cyiPSCs) were demonstrated to be almost identical to cynomolgus embryonic stem cells (cyESCs), and cyiPSCs expressed typical pluripotency markers including OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG. Furthermore, differentiation in vivo and in vitro into derivatives of all three germ layers, as well as generation of functional cardiomyocytes, could be demonstrated. Finally, a highly efficient technique for generation of transgenic cyiPSC clones with stable reporter expression in undifferentiated cells as well as differentiated transgenic cyiPSC progeny was developed to enable cell tracking in recipient animals. In conclusion, our data indicate that cyiPSCs represent a valuable cell source for establishment of macaque-based allogeneic and autologous preclinical cell transplantation models for various fields of regenerative medicine.

  11. Modulation of Human Allogeneic and Syngeneic Pluripotent Stem Cells and Immunological Implications for Transplantation

    PubMed Central

    Sackett, S.D.; Brown, M.E.; Tremmel, D.M.; Ellis, T.; Burlingham, W.J.; Odorico, J.S.

    2016-01-01

    Tissues derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are a promising source of cells for building various regenerative medicine therapies; from simply transplanting cells to reseeding decellularized organs to reconstructing multicellular tissues. Although reprogramming strategies for producing iPSCs have improved, the clinical use of iPSCs is limited by the presence of unique human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes, the main immunologic barrier to transplantation. In order to overcome the immunological hurdles associated with allogeneic tissues and organs, the generation of patient-histocompatible iPSCs (autologous or HLA-matched cells) provides an attractive platform for personalized medicine. However, concerns have been raised as to the fitness, safety and immunogenicity of iPSC derivatives because of variable differentiation potential of different lines and the identification of genetic and epigenetic aberrations that can occur during the reprogramming process. In addition, significant cost and regulatory barriers may deter commercialization of patient specific therapies in the short-term. Nonetheless, recent studies provide some evidence of immunological benefit for using autologous iPSCs. Yet, more studies are needed to evaluate the immunogenicity of various autologous and allogeneic human iPSC-derived cell types as well as test various methods to abrogate rejection. Here, we present perspectives of using allogeneic vs autologous iPSCs for transplantation therapies and the advantages and disadvantages of each related to differentiation potential, immunogenicity, genetic stability and tumorigenicity. We also review the current literature on the immunogenicity of syngeneic iPSCs and discuss evidence that questions the feasibility of HLA-matched iPSC banks. Finally, we will discuss emerging methods of abrogating or reducing host immune responses to PSC derivatives. PMID:26970668

  12. Modulation of human allogeneic and syngeneic pluripotent stem cells and immunological implications for transplantation.

    PubMed

    Sackett, S D; Brown, M E; Tremmel, D M; Ellis, T; Burlingham, W J; Odorico, J S

    2016-04-01

    Tissues derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are a promising source of cells for building various regenerative medicine therapies; from simply transplanting cells to reseeding decellularized organs to reconstructing multicellular tissues. Although reprogramming strategies for producing iPSCs have improved, the clinical use of iPSCs is limited by the presence of unique human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes, the main immunologic barrier to transplantation. In order to overcome the immunological hurdles associated with allogeneic tissues and organs, the generation of patient-histocompatible iPSCs (autologous or HLA-matched cells) provides an attractive platform for personalized medicine. However, concerns have been raised as to the fitness, safety and immunogenicity of iPSC derivatives because of variable differentiation potential of different lines and the identification of genetic and epigenetic aberrations that can occur during the reprogramming process. In addition, significant cost and regulatory barriers may deter commercialization of patient specific therapies in the short-term. Nonetheless, recent studies provide some evidence of immunological benefit for using autologous iPSCs. Yet, more studies are needed to evaluate the immunogenicity of various autologous and allogeneic human iPSC-derived cell types as well as test various methods to abrogate rejection. Here, we present perspectives of using allogeneic vs. autologous iPSCs for transplantation therapies and the advantages and disadvantages of each related to differentiation potential, immunogenicity, genetic stability and tumorigenicity. We also review the current literature on the immunogenicity of syngeneic iPSCs and discuss evidence that questions the feasibility of HLA-matched iPSC banks. Finally, we will discuss emerging methods of abrogating or reducing host immune responses to PSC derivatives. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Human Perivascular Stem Cell-Based Bone Graft Substitute Induces Rat Spinal Fusion

    PubMed Central

    Chung, Choon G.; James, Aaron W.; Asatrian, Greg; Chang, Le; Nguyen, Alan; Le, Khoi; Bayani, Georgina; Lee, Robert; Stoker, David; Zhang, Xinli

    2014-01-01

    Adipose tissue is an attractive source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) because of its abundance and accessibility. We have previously defined a population of native MSCs termed perivascular stem cells (PSCs), purified from diverse human tissues, including adipose tissue. Human PSCs (hPSCs) are a bipartite cell population composed of pericytes (CD146+CD34−CD45−) and adventitial cells (CD146−CD34+CD45−), isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and with properties identical to those of culture identified MSCs. Our previous studies showed that hPSCs exhibit improved bone formation compared with a sample-matched unpurified population (termed stromal vascular fraction); however, it is not known whether hPSCs would be efficacious in a spinal fusion model. To investigate, we evaluated the osteogenic potential of freshly sorted hPSCs without culture expansion and differentiation in a rat model of posterolateral lumbar spinal fusion. We compared increasing dosages of implanted hPSCs to assess for dose-dependent efficacy. All hPSC treatment groups induced successful spinal fusion, assessed by manual palpation and microcomputed tomography. Computerized biomechanical simulation (finite element analysis) further demonstrated bone fusion with hPSC treatment. Histological analyses showed robust endochondral ossification in hPSC-treated samples. Finally, we confirmed that implanted hPSCs indeed differentiated into osteoblasts and osteocytes; however, the majority of the new bone formation was of host origin. These results suggest that implanted hPSCs positively regulate bone formation via direct and paracrine mechanisms. In summary, hPSCs are a readily available MSC population that effectively forms bone without requirements for culture or predifferentiation. Thus, hPSC-based products show promise for future efforts in clinical bone regeneration and repair. PMID:25154782

  14. Engineering-derived approaches for iPSC preparation, expansion, differentiation and applications.

    PubMed

    Li, Yang; Li, Ling; Chen, Zhi-Nan; Gao, Ge; Yao, Rui; Sun, Wei

    2017-07-31

    Remarkable achievements have been made since induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were first introduced in 2006. Compared with non-pluripotent stem cells, iPSC research faces several additional complexities, such as the choice of extracellular matrix proteins, growth and differentiation factors, as well as technical challenges related to self-renewal and directed differentiation. Overcoming these challenges requires the integration of knowledge and technologies from multiple fields including cell biology, biomaterial science, engineering, physics and medicine. Here, engineering-derived iPSC approaches are reviewed according to three aspects of iPSC studies: preparation, expansion, differentiation and applications. Engineering strategies, such as 3D systems establishment, cell-matrix mechanics and the regulation of biophysical and biochemical cues, together with engineering techniques, such as 3D scaffolds, cell microspheres and bioreactors, have been applied to iPSC studies and have generated insightful results and even mini-organs such as retinas, livers and intestines. Specific results are given to demonstrate how these approaches impact iPSC behavior, and related mechanisms are discussed. In addition, cell printing technologies are presented as an advanced engineering-derived approach since they have been applied in both iPSC studies and the construction of diverse tissues and organs. Further development and possible innovations of cell printing technologies are presented in terms of creating complex and functional iPSC-derived living tissues and organs.

  15. The impact of nurse working hours on patient safety culture: a cross-national survey including Japan, the United States and Chinese Taiwan using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.

    PubMed

    Wu, Yinghui; Fujita, Shigeru; Seto, Kanako; Ito, Shinya; Matsumoto, Kunichika; Huang, Chiu-Chin; Hasegawa, Tomonori

    2013-10-07

    A positive patient safety culture (PSC) is one of the most critical components to improve healthcare quality and safety. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS), developed by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, has been used to assess PSC in 31 countries. However, little is known about the impact of nurse working hours on PSC. We hypothesized that long nurse working hours would deteriorate PSC, and that the deterioration patterns would vary between countries. Moreover, the common trends observed in Japan, the US and Chinese Taiwan may be useful to improve PSC in other countries. The purpose of this study was to clarify the impact of long nurse working hours on PSC in Japan, the US, and Chinese Taiwan using HSOPS. The HSOPS questionnaire measures 12 sub-dimensions of PSC, with higher scores indicating a more positive PSC. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using a generalized linear mixed model to evaluate the impact of working hours on PSC outcome measures (patient safety grade and number of events reported). Tukey's test and Cohen's d values were used to verify the relationships between nurse working hours and the 12 sub-dimensions of PSC. Nurses working ≥60 h/week in Japan and the US had a significantly lower OR for patient safety grade than those working <40 h/week. In the three countries, nurses working ≥40 h/week had a significantly higher OR for the number of events reported. The mean score on 'staffing' was significantly lower in the ≥60-h group than in the <40-h group in all the three countries. The mean score for 'teamwork within units' was significantly lower in the ≥60-h group than in the <40-h group in Japan and Chinese Taiwan. Patient safety grade deteriorated and the number of events reported increased with long working hours. Among the 12 sub-dimensions of PSC, long working hours had an impact on 'staffing' and 'teamwork within units' in Japan, the US and Chinese Taiwan.

  16. A New Method for the Characterization of Strain-Specific Conformational Stability of Protease-Sensitive and Protease-Resistant PrPSc

    PubMed Central

    Pirisinu, Laura; Di Bari, Michele; Marcon, Stefano; Vaccari, Gabriele; D'Agostino, Claudia; Fazzi, Paola; Esposito, Elena; Galeno, Roberta; Langeveld, Jan; Agrimi, Umberto; Nonno, Romolo

    2010-01-01

    Although proteinacious in nature, prions exist as strains with specific self-perpetuating biological properties. Prion strains are thought to be associated with different conformers of PrPSc, a disease-associated isoform of the host-encoded cellular protein (PrPC). Molecular strain typing approaches have been developed which rely on the characterization of protease-resistant PrPSc. However, PrPSc is composed not only of protease-resistant but also of protease-sensitive isoforms. The aim of this work was to develop a protocol for the molecular characterization of both, protease-resistant and protease-sensitive PrPSc aggregates. We first set up experimental conditions which allowed the most advantageous separation of PrPC and PrPSc by means of differential centrifugation. The conformational solubility and stability assay (CSSA) was then developed by measuring PrPSc solubility as a function of increased exposure to GdnHCl. Brain homogenates from voles infected with human and sheep prion isolates were analysed by CSSA and showed strain-specific conformational stabilities, with mean [GdnHCl]1/2 values ranging from 1.6 M for MM2 sCJD to 2.1 for scrapie and to 2.8 M for MM1/MV1 sCJD and E200K gCJD. Interestingly, the rank order of [GdnHCl]1/2 values observed in the human and sheep isolates used as inocula closely matched those found following transmission in voles, being MM1 sCJD the most resistant (3.3 M), followed by sheep scrapie (2.2 M) and by MM2 sCJD (1.6 M). In order to test the ability of CSSA to characterise protease-sensitive PrPSc, we analysed sheep isolates of Nor98 and compared them to classical scrapie isolates. In Nor98, insoluble PrPSc aggregates were mainly protease-sensitive and showed a conformational stability much lower than in classical scrapie. Our results show that CSSA is able to reveal strain-specified PrPSc conformational stabilities of protease-resistant and protease-sensitive PrPSc and that it is a valuable tool for strain typing in natural hosts, such as humans and sheep. PMID:20856860

  17. Research Catalog, FY 2016

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Atchison, Eric S.

    2016-01-01

    The Mississippi Public Universities Research Catalog is mandated by the State through the University Research Center Act of 1988 (§ 37-141-17). The publication lists the funding amounts by the sources of funding and by the university disciplines receiving the funding. It is designed for use by state policy makers, the educational community,…

  18. Research Catalog, FY 2015

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Atchison, Eric S.

    2015-01-01

    The Mississippi Public Universities Research Catalog is mandated by the State through the University Research Center Act of 1988 (§ 37-141-17). The publication lists the funding amounts by the sources of funding and by the university disciplines receiving the funding. It is designed for use by state policy makers, the educational community,…

  19. VizieR Online Data Catalog: HI-bearing ultra-diffuse ALFALFA galaxies (Leisman+, 2017)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leisman, L.; Haynes, M. P.; Janowiecki, S.; Hallenbeck, G.; Jozsa, G.; Giovanelli, R.; Adams, E. A. K.; Neira, D. B.; Cannon, J. M.; Janesh, W. F.; Rhode, K. L.; Salzer, J. J.

    2018-02-01

    All sources discussed here have available SDSS and ALFALFA data. The ALFALFA observations, data reduction, and catalog products are detailed elsewhere (e.g., Giovanelli+ 2005AJ....130.2598G ; Saintonge 2007AJ....133.2087S ; Haynes+ 2011, J/AJ/142/170). (1 data file).

  20. Research Catalog, FY 2017

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Atchison, E. S.

    2017-01-01

    The Mississippi Public Universities Research Catalog is mandated by the State through the University Research Center Act of 1988 (§ 37-141-17). The publication lists the funding amounts by the sources of funding and by the university disciplines receiving the funding. It is designed for use by state policy makers, the educational community,…

  1. Erratum: Retraction Note to: "The Second Version of the OCARS Catalog of Optical Characteristics of Astrometric Radio Sources" [Astronomy Reports 60, 996 (2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malkin, Z. M.

    2018-04-01

    The Editor-in-Chief is retracting this article [1] because data from the RFC catalog, http://astrogeo.org/rfc, were used without permission from the copyright holder. The author admitted the decision to retract.

  2. Research Catalog, FY 2014

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Atchison, E. S.

    2014-01-01

    The Mississippi Public Universities Research Catalog is mandated by the State through the University Research Center Act of 1988 (§ 37-141-17). The publication lists the funding amounts by the sources of funding and by the university disciplines receiving the funding. It is designed for use by state policy makers, the educational community,…

  3. Finding Information on the State Virtual Libraries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pappas, Marjorie L.

    2004-01-01

    The number of state virtual libraries is rapidly expanding. These virtual libraries might include collections of subscription databases; state weblinks and resources; digital collections of primary source documents; and a state union catalog or links to school, public, and academic library catalogs. Most of these virtual libraries include an…

  4. Patient-Specific Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Model Assessed with Electrical Pacing Validates S107 as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia

    PubMed Central

    Sasaki, Kenichi; Makiyama, Takeru; Yoshida, Yoshinori; Wuriyanghai, Yimin; Kamakura, Tsukasa; Nishiuchi, Suguru; Hayano, Mamoru; Harita, Takeshi; Yamamoto, Yuta; Kohjitani, Hirohiko; Hirose, Sayako; Chen, Jiarong; Kawamura, Mihoko; Ohno, Seiko; Itoh, Hideki; Takeuchi, Ayako; Matsuoka, Satoshi; Miura, Masaru; Sumitomo, Naokata; Horie, Minoru; Yamanaka, Shinya; Kimura, Takeshi

    2016-01-01

    Introduction Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) offer a unique opportunity for disease modeling. However, it is not invariably successful to recapitulate the disease phenotype because of the immaturity of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). The purpose of this study was to establish and analyze iPSC-based model of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), which is characterized by adrenergically mediated lethal arrhythmias, more precisely using electrical pacing that could promote the development of new pharmacotherapies. Method and Results We generated hiPSCs from a 37-year-old CPVT patient and differentiated them into cardiomyocytes. Under spontaneous beating conditions, no significant difference was found in the timing irregularity of spontaneous Ca2+ transients between control- and CPVT-hiPSC-CMs. Using Ca2+ imaging at 1 Hz electrical field stimulation, isoproterenol induced an abnormal diastolic Ca2+ increase more frequently in CPVT- than in control-hiPSC-CMs (control 12% vs. CPVT 43%, p<0.05). Action potential recordings of spontaneous beating hiPSC-CMs revealed no significant difference in the frequency of delayed afterdepolarizations (DADs) between control and CPVT cells. After isoproterenol application with pacing at 1 Hz, 87.5% of CPVT-hiPSC-CMs developed DADs, compared to 30% of control-hiPSC-CMs (p<0.05). Pre-incubation with 10 μM S107, which stabilizes the closed state of the ryanodine receptor 2, significantly decreased the percentage of CPVT-hiPSC-CMs presenting DADs to 25% (p<0.05). Conclusions We recapitulated the electrophysiological features of CPVT-derived hiPSC-CMs using electrical pacing. The development of DADs in the presence of isoproterenol was significantly suppressed by S107. Our model provides a promising platform to study disease mechanisms and screen drugs. PMID:27764147

  5. SIRT1 Overexpression Maintains Cell Phenotype and Function of Endothelial Cells Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Bin; Jen, Michele; Perrin, Louisiane; Wertheim, Jason A; Ameer, Guillermo A

    2015-12-01

    Endothelial cells (ECs) that are differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be used in establishing disease models for personalized drug discovery or developing patient-specific vascularized tissues or organoids. However, a number of technical challenges are often associated with iPSC-ECs in culture, including instability of the endothelial phenotype and limited cell proliferative capacity over time. Early senescence is believed to be the primary mechanism underlying these limitations. Sirtuin1 (SIRT1) is an NAD(+)-dependent deacetylase involved in the regulation of cell senescence, redox state, and inflammatory status. We hypothesize that overexpression of the SIRT1 gene in iPSC-ECs will maintain EC phenotype, function, and proliferative capacity by overcoming early cell senescence. SIRT1 gene was packaged into a lentiviral vector (LV-SIRT1) and transduced into iPSC-ECs at passage 4. Beginning with passage 5, iPSC-ECs exhibited a fibroblast-like morphology, whereas iPSC-ECs overexpressing SIRT1 maintained EC cobblestone morphology. SIRT1 overexpressing iPSC-ECs also exhibited a higher percentage of canonical markers of endothelia (LV-SIRT1 61.8% CD31(+) vs. LV-empty 31.7% CD31(+), P < 0.001; LV-SIRT1 46.3% CD144(+) vs. LV-empty 20.5% CD144(+), P < 0.02), with a higher nitric oxide synthesis, lower β-galactosidase production indicating decreased senescence (3.4% for LV-SIRT1 vs. 38.6% for LV-empty, P < 0.001), enhanced angiogenesis, increased deacetylation activity, and higher proliferation rate. SIRT1 overexpressing iPSC-ECs continued to proliferate through passage 9 with high purity of EC-like characteristics, while iPSC-ECs without SIRT1 overexpression became senescent after passage 5. Taken together, SIRT1 overexpression in iPSC-ECs maintains EC phenotype, improves EC function, and extends cell lifespan, overcoming critical hurdles associated with the use of iPSC-ECs in translational research.

  6. Evaluation of the immunogenicity of human iPS cell-derived neural stem/progenitor cells in vitro.

    PubMed

    Ozaki, Masahiro; Iwanami, Akio; Nagoshi, Narihito; Kohyama, Jun; Itakura, Go; Iwai, Hiroki; Nishimura, Soraya; Nishiyama, Yuichiro; Kawabata, Soya; Sugai, Keiko; Iida, Tsuyoshi; Matsubayashi, Kohei; Isoda, Miho; Kashiwagi, Rei; Toyama, Yoshiaki; Matsumoto, Morio; Okano, Hideyuki; Nakamura, Masaya

    2017-03-01

    To achieve the goal of a first-in-human trial for human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based transplantation for the treatment of various diseases, allogeneic human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched hiPSC cell banks represent a realistic tool from the perspective of quality control and cost performance. Furthermore, considering the limited therapeutic time-window for acute injuries, including neurotraumatic injuries, an iPS cell bank is of potential interest. However, due to the relatively immunoprivileged environment of the central nervous system, it is unclear whether HLA matching is required in hiPSC-derived neural stem/progenitor cell (hiPSC-NS/PC) transplantation for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and neurotraumatic injuries. In this study, we evaluated the significance of HLA matching in hiPSC-NS/PC transplantation by performing modified mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) assays with hiPSC-NS/PCs. Compared to fetus-derived NS/PCs, the expression levels of human leukocyte antigen-antigen D related (HLA-DR) and co-stimulatory molecules on hiPSC-NS/PCs were significantly low, even with the addition of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) and/or interferon-γ (IFNγ) to mimic the inflammatory environment surrounding transplanted hiPSC-NS/PCs in injured tissues. Interestingly, both the allogeneic HLA-matched and the HLA-mismatched responses were similarly low in the modified MLR assay. Furthermore, the autologous response was also similar to the allogeneic response. hiPSC-NS/PCs suppressed the proliferative responses of allogeneic HLA-mismatched peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, the low antigen-presenting function and immunosuppressive effects of hiPSC-NS/PCs result in a depressed immune response, even in an allogeneic HLA-mismatched setting. It is crucial to verify whether these in vitro results are reproducible in a clinical setting. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Do gravity waves significantly impact PSC occurrence in the Antarctic?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McDonald, A. J.; George, S. E.; Woollands, R. M.

    2009-02-01

    This study uses a combination of POAM III aerosol extinction measurements and CHAMP GPS/RO temperature measurements to examine the role of atmospheric gravity waves in Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) formation in the Antarctic. POAM III aerosol extinction observations are used to identify Type I Polar Stratospheric Clouds using an unsupervised clustering algorithm. The seasonal and spatial distribution of PSCs observed by POAM III is examined to determine whether there is a bias towards regions of high wave activity early in the Antarctic winter which may enhance PSC formation. Examination of the probability of temperatures below the Type Ia formation temperature threshold based on UKMO analyses displays a good correspondence to the PSC occurrence derived from POAM III extinction data in general. However, in June the POAM III observations of PSC are more abundant than expected from temperature thresholds. In addition the PSC occurrence based on temperature thresholds in September and October is often significantly higher than the PSC occurrence observed by POAM III, this observation probably being due to dehydration and denitrification. Use of high resolution temperatures from CHAMP GPS/RO observations provide a slightly improved relationship to the POAM III derived values. Analysis of the CHAMP temperature observations indicates that temperature perturbations associated with gravity waves may explain the enhanced PSC incidence observed in June compared to the UKMO analyses. Comparison of the UKMO analyses temperatures relative to corresponding CHAMP observations also suggests a small warm bias in the UKMO analyses during June. Examination of the longitudinal structure PSC occurrence in June 2005 also shows that regions of enhancement are associated with data near the Antarctic peninsula a known Mountain wave "hotspot". The impact of temperature perturbations causing enhanced temperature threshold crossings is shown to be particularly important early in the Antarctic winter while later in the season temperature perturbations associated with gravity waves could contribute to about 15% of the PSC observed, a value which corresponds well to several previous studies.

  8. Mapping extragalactic dark matter annihilation with galaxy surveys: A systematic study of stacked group searches

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lisanti, Mariangela; Mishra-Sharma, Siddharth; Rodd, Nicholas L.

    Dark matter in the halos surrounding galaxy groups and clusters can annihilate to high-energy photons. Recent advancements in the construction of galaxy group catalogs provide many thousands of potential extragalactic targets for dark matter. In this paper, we outline a procedure to infer the dark matter signal associated with a given galaxy group. Applying this procedure to a catalog of sources, one can create a full-sky map of the brightest extragalactic dark matter targets in the nearby Universe (z≲0.03), supplementing sources of dark matter annihilation from within the local group. As with searches for dark matter in dwarf galaxies, thesemore » extragalactic targets can be stacked together to enhance the signals associated with dark matter. We validate this procedure on mock Fermi gamma-ray data sets using a galaxy catalog constructed from the DarkSky N-body cosmological simulation and demonstrate that the limits are robust, at O(1) levels, to systematic uncertainties on halo mass and concentration. We also quantify other sources of systematic uncertainty arising from the analysis and modeling assumptions. Lastly, our results suggest that a stacking analysis using galaxy group catalogs provides a powerful opportunity to discover extragalactic dark matter and complements existing studies of Milky Way dwarf galaxies.« less

  9. Mapping extragalactic dark matter annihilation with galaxy surveys: A systematic study of stacked group searches

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lisanti, Mariangela; Mishra-Sharma, Siddharth; Rodd, Nicholas L.; Safdi, Benjamin R.; Wechsler, Risa H.

    2018-03-01

    Dark matter in the halos surrounding galaxy groups and clusters can annihilate to high-energy photons. Recent advancements in the construction of galaxy group catalogs provide many thousands of potential extragalactic targets for dark matter. In this paper, we outline a procedure to infer the dark matter signal associated with a given galaxy group. Applying this procedure to a catalog of sources, one can create a full-sky map of the brightest extragalactic dark matter targets in the nearby Universe (z ≲0.03 ), supplementing sources of dark matter annihilation from within the local group. As with searches for dark matter in dwarf galaxies, these extragalactic targets can be stacked together to enhance the signals associated with dark matter. We validate this procedure on mock Fermi gamma-ray data sets using a galaxy catalog constructed from the DarkSky N -body cosmological simulation and demonstrate that the limits are robust, at O (1 ) levels, to systematic uncertainties on halo mass and concentration. We also quantify other sources of systematic uncertainty arising from the analysis and modeling assumptions. Our results suggest that a stacking analysis using galaxy group catalogs provides a powerful opportunity to discover extragalactic dark matter and complements existing studies of Milky Way dwarf galaxies.

  10. Mapping extragalactic dark matter annihilation with galaxy surveys: A systematic study of stacked group searches

    DOE PAGES

    Lisanti, Mariangela; Mishra-Sharma, Siddharth; Rodd, Nicholas L.; ...

    2018-03-09

    Dark matter in the halos surrounding galaxy groups and clusters can annihilate to high-energy photons. Recent advancements in the construction of galaxy group catalogs provide many thousands of potential extragalactic targets for dark matter. In this paper, we outline a procedure to infer the dark matter signal associated with a given galaxy group. Applying this procedure to a catalog of sources, one can create a full-sky map of the brightest extragalactic dark matter targets in the nearby Universe (z≲0.03), supplementing sources of dark matter annihilation from within the local group. As with searches for dark matter in dwarf galaxies, thesemore » extragalactic targets can be stacked together to enhance the signals associated with dark matter. We validate this procedure on mock Fermi gamma-ray data sets using a galaxy catalog constructed from the DarkSky N-body cosmological simulation and demonstrate that the limits are robust, at O(1) levels, to systematic uncertainties on halo mass and concentration. We also quantify other sources of systematic uncertainty arising from the analysis and modeling assumptions. Lastly, our results suggest that a stacking analysis using galaxy group catalogs provides a powerful opportunity to discover extragalactic dark matter and complements existing studies of Milky Way dwarf galaxies.« less

  11. Structure of the heterotrimeric complex that regulates type III secretion needle formation

    PubMed Central

    Quinaud, Manuelle; Plé, Sophie; Job, Viviana; Contreras-Martel, Carlos; Simorre, Jean-Pierre; Attree, Ina; Dessen, Andréa

    2007-01-01

    Type III secretion systems (T3SS), found in several Gram-negative pathogens, are nanomachines involved in the transport of virulence effectors directly into the cytoplasm of target cells. T3SS are essentially composed of basal membrane-embedded ring-like structures and a hollow needle formed by a single polymerized protein. Within the bacterial cytoplasm, the T3SS needle protein requires two distinct chaperones for stabilization before its secretion, without which the entire T3SS is nonfunctional. The 2.0-Å x-ray crystal structure of the PscE-PscF55–85-PscG heterotrimeric complex from Pseudomonas aeruginosa reveals that the C terminus of the needle protein PscF is engulfed within the hydrophobic groove of the tetratricopeptide-like molecule PscG, indicating that the macromolecular scaffold necessary to stabilize the T3SS needle is totally distinct from chaperoned complexes between pilus- or flagellum-forming molecules. Disruption of specific PscG–PscF interactions leads to impairment of bacterial cytotoxicity toward macrophages, indicating that this essential heterotrimer, which possesses homologs in a wide variety of pathogens, is a unique attractive target for the development of novel antibacterials. PMID:17470796

  12. Prions Adhere to Soil Minerals and Remain Infectious

    PubMed Central

    Johnson, Christopher J; Phillips, Kristen E; Schramm, Peter T; McKenzie, Debbie; Aiken, Judd M; Pedersen, Joel A

    2006-01-01

    An unidentified environmental reservoir of infectivity contributes to the natural transmission of prion diseases (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies [TSEs]) in sheep, deer, and elk. Prion infectivity may enter soil environments via shedding from diseased animals and decomposition of infected carcasses. Burial of TSE-infected cattle, sheep, and deer as a means of disposal has resulted in unintentional introduction of prions into subsurface environments. We examined the potential for soil to serve as a TSE reservoir by studying the interaction of the disease-associated prion protein (PrPSc) with common soil minerals. In this study, we demonstrated substantial PrPSc adsorption to two clay minerals, quartz, and four whole soil samples. We quantified the PrPSc-binding capacities of each mineral. Furthermore, we observed that PrPSc desorbed from montmorillonite clay was cleaved at an N-terminal site and the interaction between PrPSc and Mte was strong, making desorption of the protein difficult. Despite cleavage and avid binding, PrPSc bound to Mte remained infectious. Results from our study suggest that PrPSc released into soil environments may be preserved in a bioavailable form, perpetuating prion disease epizootics and exposing other species to the infectious agent. PMID:16617377

  13. Pepsin-solubilised collagen (PSC) from Red Sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus) regulates cell cycle and the fibronectin synthesis in HaCaT cell migration.

    PubMed

    Park, Soo-Yeong; Lim, Hee Kyoung; Lee, Seogjae; Hwang, Hyeong Cheol; Cho, Somi K; Cho, Moonjae

    2012-05-01

    Pepsin-solubilised collagen (PSC) from Red Sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus) was studied with respect to its wound-healing effects on a human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cell line. Disaggregated collagen fibres were treated with 0.1M NaOH for 24h and digested with pepsin for 72h to reach maximum yield of 26.6%. The results of an in vitro wound-healing test showed that migration of HaCaT cells was 1.5-fold faster on PSC-coated plates than on untreated plates. The migration rate of sea cucumber PSC was similar to that of rat PSC, but five times higher than that of bovine gelatin. HaCaT cells grown on PSC-coated plates revealed increased fibronectin synthesis (6-fold and 3-fold compared to gelatin and rat PSC, respectively). Additionally, sea cucumber PSCs induced HaCaT cell proliferation by decreasing the G1 phase by 5% and maintaining a larger population (8%) of cells in mitosis. Collagen from Red Sea cucumber might be useful as an alternative to mammalian collagen in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Source Catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wright, E.L.; Chen, X.; Odegard, N.; Bennett, C.L.; Hill, R.S.; Hinshaw, G.; Jarosik, N.; Komatsu, E.; Nolta, M.R.; Page, L.; hide

    2008-01-01

    We present the list of point sources found in the WMAP 5-year maps. The technique used in the first-year and three-year analysis now finds 390 point sources, and the five-year source catalog is complete for regions of the sky away from the galactic plane to a 2 Jy limit, with SNR greater than 4.7 in all bands in the least covered parts of the sky. The noise at high frequencies is still mainly radiometer noise, but at low frequencies the CMB anisotropy is the largest uncertainty. A separate search of CMB-free V-W maps finds 99 sources of which all but one can be identified with known radio sources. The sources seen by WMAP are not strongly polarized. Many of the WMAP sources show significant variability from year to year, with more than a 2:l range between the minimum and maximum fluxes.

  15. The ATLASGAL survey: a catalog of dust condensations in the Galactic plane

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Csengeri, T.; Urquhart, J. S.; Schuller, F.; Motte, F.; Bontemps, S.; Wyrowski, F.; Menten, K. M.; Bronfman, L.; Beuther, H.; Henning, Th.; Testi, L.; Zavagno, A.; Walmsley, M.

    2014-05-01

    Context. The formation processes and the evolutionary stages of high-mass stars are poorly understood compared to low-mass stars. Large-scale surveys are needed to provide an unbiased census of high column density sites that can potentially host precursors to high-mass stars. Aims: The ATLASGAL survey covers 420 sq. degree of the Galactic plane, between -80° < ℓ < +60° at 870 μm. Here we identify the population of embedded sources throughout the inner Galaxy. With this catalog we first investigate the general statistical properties of dust condensations in terms of their observed parameters, such as flux density and angular size. Then using mid-infrared surveys we aim to investigate their star formation activity and the Galactic distribution of star-forming and quiescent clumps. Our ultimate goal is to determine the statistical properties of quiescent and star-forming clumps within the Galaxy and to constrain the star formation processes. Methods: We optimized the source extraction method, referred to as MRE-GCL, for the ATLASGAL maps in order to generate a catalog of compact sources. This technique is based on multiscale filtering to remove extended emission from clouds to better determine the parameters corresponding to the embedded compact sources. In a second step we extracted the sources by fitting 2D Gaussians with the Gaussclumps algorithm. Results: We have identified in total 10861 compact submillimeter sources with fluxes above 5σ. Completeness tests show that this catalog is 97% complete above 5σ and >99% complete above 7σ. Correlating this sample of clumps with mid-infrared point source catalogs (MSX at 21.3 μm and WISE at 22 μm), we have determined a lower limit of 33% that is associated with embedded protostellar objects. We note that the proportion of clumps associated with mid-infrared sources increases with increasing flux density, achieving a rather constant fraction of ~75% of all clumps with fluxes over 5 Jy/beam being associated with star formation. Examining the source counts as a function of Galactic longitude, we are able to identify the most prominent star-forming regions in the Galaxy. Conclusions: We present here the compact source catalog of the full ATLASGAL survey and investigate their characteristic properties. From the fraction of the likely massive quiescent clumps (~25%), we estimate a formation time scale of ~ 7.5 ± 2.5 × 104 yr for the deeply embedded phase before the emergence of luminous young stellar objects. Such a short duration for the formation of high-mass stars in massive clumps clearly proves that the earliest phases have to be dynamic with supersonic motions. Full Table 1 is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/565/A75

  16. The Massive Star-Forming Regions Omnibus X-Ray Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Townsley, Leisa K.; Broos, Patrick S.; Garmire, Gordon P.; Bouwman, Jeroen; Povich, Matthew S.; Feigelson, Eric D.; Getman, Konstantin V.; Kuhn, Michael A.

    2014-07-01

    We present the Massive Star-forming Regions (MSFRs) Omnibus X-ray Catalog (MOXC), a compendium of X-ray point sources from Chandra/ACIS observations of a selection of MSFRs across the Galaxy, plus 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud. MOXC consists of 20,623 X-ray point sources from 12 MSFRs with distances ranging from 1.7 kpc to 50 kpc. Additionally, we show the morphology of the unresolved X-ray emission that remains after the cataloged X-ray point sources are excised from the ACIS data, in the context of Spitzer and WISE observations that trace the bubbles, ionization fronts, and photon-dominated regions that characterize MSFRs. In previous work, we have found that this unresolved X-ray emission is dominated by hot plasma from massive star wind shocks. This diffuse X-ray emission is found in every MOXC MSFR, clearly demonstrating that massive star feedback (and the several-million-degree plasmas that it generates) is an integral component of MSFR physics.

  17. Concept for a power system controller for large space electrical power systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lollar, L. F.; Lanier, J. R., Jr.; Graves, J. R.

    1981-01-01

    The development of technology for a fail-operatonal power system controller (PSC) utilizing microprocessor technology for managing the distribution and power processor subsystems of a large multi-kW space electrical power system is discussed. The specific functions which must be performed by the PSC, the best microprocessor available to do the job, and the feasibility, cost savings, and applications of a PSC were determined. A limited function breadboard version of a PSC was developed to demonstrate the concept and potential cost savings.

  18. Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes as an in vitro model for coxsackievirus B3-induced myocarditis and antiviral drug screening platform.

    PubMed

    Sharma, Arun; Marceau, Caleb; Hamaguchi, Ryoko; Burridge, Paul W; Rajarajan, Kuppusamy; Churko, Jared M; Wu, Haodi; Sallam, Karim I; Matsa, Elena; Sturzu, Anthony C; Che, Yonglu; Ebert, Antje; Diecke, Sebastian; Liang, Ping; Red-Horse, Kristy; Carette, Jan E; Wu, Sean M; Wu, Joseph C

    2014-08-29

    Viral myocarditis is a life-threatening illness that may lead to heart failure or cardiac arrhythmias. A major causative agent for viral myocarditis is the B3 strain of coxsackievirus, a positive-sense RNA enterovirus. However, human cardiac tissues are difficult to procure in sufficient enough quantities for studying the mechanisms of cardiac-specific viral infection. This study examined whether human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) could be used to model the pathogenic processes of coxsackievirus-induced viral myocarditis and to screen antiviral therapeutics for efficacy. hiPSC-CMs were infected with a luciferase-expressing coxsackievirus B3 strain (CVB3-Luc). Brightfield microscopy, immunofluorescence, and calcium imaging were used to characterize virally infected hiPSC-CMs for alterations in cellular morphology and calcium handling. Viral proliferation in hiPSC-CMs was quantified using bioluminescence imaging. Antiviral compounds including interferonβ1, ribavirin, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate, and fluoxetine were tested for their capacity to abrogate CVB3-Luc proliferation in hiPSC-CMs in vitro. The ability of these compounds to reduce CVB3-Luc proliferation in hiPSC-CMs was consistent with reported drug effects in previous studies. Mechanistic analyses via gene expression profiling of hiPSC-CMs infected with CVB3-Luc revealed an activation of viral RNA and protein clearance pathways after interferonβ1 treatment. This study demonstrates that hiPSC-CMs express the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor, are susceptible to coxsackievirus infection, and can be used to predict antiviral drug efficacy. Our results suggest that the hiPSC-CM/CVB3-Luc assay is a sensitive platform that can screen novel antiviral therapeutics for their effectiveness in a high-throughput fashion. © 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.

  19. Potent and reversible lentiviral vector restriction in murine induced pluripotent stem cells.

    PubMed

    Geis, Franziska K; Galla, Melanie; Hoffmann, Dirk; Kuehle, Johannes; Zychlinski, Daniela; Maetzig, Tobias; Schott, Juliane W; Schwarzer, Adrian; Goffinet, Christine; Goff, Stephen P; Schambach, Axel

    2017-05-31

    Retroviral vectors are derived from wild-type retroviruses, can be used to study retrovirus-host interactions and are effective tools in gene and cell therapy. However, numerous cell types are resistant or less permissive to retrovirus infection due to the presence of active defense mechanisms, or the absence of important cellular host co-factors. In contrast to multipotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cells (PSC) have potential to differentiate into all three germ layers. Much remains to be elucidated in the field of anti-viral immunity in stem cells, especially in PSC. In this study, we report that transduction with HIV-1-based, lentiviral vectors (LV) is impaired in murine PSC. Analyses of early retroviral events in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) revealed that the restriction is independent of envelope choice and does not affect reverse transcription, but perturbs nuclear entry and proviral integration. Proteasomal inhibition by MG132 could not circumvent the restriction. However, prevention of cyclophilin A (CypA) binding to the HIV-1 capsid via use of either a CypA inhibitor (cyclosporine A) or CypA-independent capsid mutants improved transduction. In addition, application of higher vector doses also increased transduction. Our data revealed a CypA mediated restriction in iPSC, which was acquired during reprogramming, associated with pluripotency and relieved upon subsequent differentiation. We showed that murine PSC and iPSC are less susceptible to LV. The block observed in iPSC was CypA-dependent and resulted in reduced nuclear entry of viral DNA and proviral integration. Our study helps to improve transduction of murine pluripotent cells with HIV-1-based vectors and contributes to our understanding of retrovirus-host interactions in PSC.

  20. Generation of Functional Human Hepatic Endoderm from Human iPS cells

    PubMed Central

    Sullivan, Gareth J.; Hay, David C.; Park, In-Hyun; Fletcher, Judy; Hannoun, Zara; Payne, Catherine M.; Dalgetty, Donna; Black, James R.; Ross, James A.; Samuel, Kay; Wang, Gang; Daley, George Q.; Lee, Je-Hyuk; Church, George M.; Forbes, Stuart J.; Iredale, John P.; Wilmut, Ian

    2009-01-01

    With the advent of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, it is now feasible to generate iPSCs with a defined genotype or disease state. When coupled with direct differentiation of defined lineage, such as hepatic endoderm (HE). iPSC would revolutionise the way we study human liver biology and generate efficient “off the shelf” models of human liver disease. Here we show the `proof of concept' that iPSC lines representing both male and female sexes and two ethnic origins can be differentiated to HE at efficiencies of between 70–90%, using a method mimicking a physiological condition. iPSC-derived HE exhibited hepatic morphology, and expressed the hepatic markers, Albumin and E-Cadherin as assessed by immuno-histochemistry. They also expressed alpha fetal protein (AFP), HNF4a, and a metabolic marker, Cyp7A1, demonstrating a definitive endodermal lineage differentiation. Furthermore, iPSC-derived hepatocytes produced and secreted the plasma proteins, fibrinogen, fibronectin, transthyretin (TTR) and AFP, an essential feature for functional HE. Additionally iPSC-derived HE supported both CYP1A2 and 3A4 metabolism, which is essential for drug and toxicology testing. Conclusion This work is first to demonstrate the efficient generation of hepatic endodermal lineage from human iPSC that exhibits key attributes of hepatocytes, and the potential application of iPSC-derived HE in studying human liver biology. In particular, iPSC from individuals representing highly polymorphic variants in metabolic genes and different ethnic groups will provide pharmaceutical development and toxicology studies a unique opportunity to revolutionise predictive drug toxicology assays and allow the creation of in vitro hepatic disease models. PMID:19877180

  1. A catalog of galaxy morphology and photometric redshift

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paul, Nicholas; Shamir, Lior

    2018-01-01

    Morphology carries important information about the physical characteristics of a galaxy. Here we used machine learning to produce a catalog of ~3,000,000 SDSS galaxies classified by their broad morphology into spiral and elliptical galaxies. Comparison of the catalog to Galaxy Zooshows that the catalog contains a subset of 1.7*10^6 galaxies classified with the same level of consistency as the debiased “superclean” sub-sample. In addition to the morphology, we also computed the photometric redshifts of the galaxies. Several pattern recognition algorithms and variable selection strategies were tested, and the best accuracy of mean absolute error of ~0.0062 was achieved by using random forest with a combination of manually and automatically selected variables. The catalog shows that for redshift lower than 0.085 galaxies that visually look spiral become more prevalent as the redshift gets higher. For redshift greater than 0.085 galaxies thatvisually look elliptical become more prevalent. The catalog as well as the source code used to produce it is publicly available athttps://figshare.com/articles/Morphology_and_photometric_redshift_catalog/4833593 .

  2. Effectiveness of paper-structured catalyst for the operation of biodiesel-fueled solid oxide fuel cell

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quang-Tuyen, Tran; Kaida, Taku; Sakamoto, Mio; Sasaki, Kazunari; Shiratori, Yusuke

    2015-06-01

    Mg/Al-hydrotalcite (HDT)-dispersed paper-structured catalyst (PSC) was prepared by a simple paper-making process. The PSC exhibited excellent catalytic activity for the steam reforming of model biodiesel fuel (BDF), pure oleic acid methyl ester (oleic-FAME, C19H36O2) which is a mono-unsaturated component of practical BDFs. The PSC exhibited fuel conversion comparable to a pelletized catalyst material, here, conventional Ni-zirconia cermet anode for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with less than one-hundredth Ni weight. Performance of electrolyte-supported cell connected with the PSC was evaluated in the feed of oleic-FAME, and stable operation was achieved. After 60 h test, coking was not observed in both SOFC anode and PSC.

  3. PAGER-CAT: A composite earthquake catalog for calibrating global fatality models

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Allen, T.I.; Marano, K.D.; Earle, P.S.; Wald, D.J.

    2009-01-01

    We have described the compilation and contents of PAGER-CAT, an earthquake catalog developed principally for calibrating earthquake fatality models. It brings together information from a range of sources in a comprehensive, easy to use digital format. Earthquake source information (e.g., origin time, hypocenter, and magnitude) contained in PAGER-CAT has been used to develop an Atlas of Shake Maps of historical earthquakes (Allen et al. 2008) that can subsequently be used to estimate the population exposed to various levels of ground shaking (Wald et al. 2008). These measures will ultimately yield improved earthquake loss models employing the uniform hazard mapping methods of ShakeMap. Currently PAGER-CAT does not consistently contain indicators of landslide and liquefaction occurrence prior to 1973. In future PAGER-CAT releases we plan to better document the incidence of these secondary hazards. This information is contained in some existing global catalogs but is far from complete and often difficult to parse. Landslide and liquefaction hazards can be important factors contributing to earthquake losses (e.g., Marano et al. unpublished). Consequently, the absence of secondary hazard indicators in PAGER-CAT, particularly for events prior to 1973, could be misleading to sorne users concerned with ground-shaking-related losses. We have applied our best judgment in the selection of PAGER-CAT's preferred source parameters and earthquake effects. We acknowledge the creation of a composite catalog always requires subjective decisions, but we believe PAGER-CAT represents a significant step forward in bringing together the best available estimates of earthquake source parameters and reports of earthquake effects. All information considered in PAGER-CAT is stored as provided in its native catalog so that other users can modify PAGER preferred parameters based on their specific needs or opinions. As with all catalogs, the values of some parameters listed in PAGER-CAT are highly uncertain, particularly the casualty numbers, which must be regarded as estimates rather than firm numbers for many earthquakes. Consequently, we encourage contributions from the seismology and earthquake engineering communities to further improve this resource via the Wikipedia page and personal communications, for the benefit of the whole community.

  4. Early-type galaxies: Automated reduction and analysis of ROSAT PSPC data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mackie, G.; Fabbiano, G.; Harnden, F. R., Jr.; Kim, D.-W.; Maggio, A.; Micela, G.; Sciortino, S.; Ciliegi, P.

    1996-01-01

    Preliminary results of early-type galaxies that will be part of a galaxy catalog to be derived from the complete Rosat data base are presented. The stored data were reduced and analyzed by an automatic pipeline. This pipeline is based on a command language scrip. The important features of the pipeline include new data time screening in order to maximize the signal to noise ratio of faint point-like sources, source detection via a wavelet algorithm, and the identification of sources with objects from existing catalogs. The pipeline outputs include reduced images, contour maps, surface brightness profiles, spectra, color and hardness ratios.

  5. The likely optical counterpart of X-ray transient KS 1731-260

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wijnands, Rudy; Groot, Paul J.; Miller, Jon J.; Markwardt, Craig; Lewin, Walter H. G.; van der Klis, Michiel

    2001-07-01

    During our 27 March 2001 Chandra observation of the neutron star X-ray transient KS 1731-260, two X-ray sources were detected (Wijnands et al. 2001, ApJL submitted, astro-ph/0107380). One of those sources is very likely a star in the USNO A2.0 optical catalog (Monet et al. 1998, USNO-SA2.0, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington DC) and in the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) point source catalog with a position (from 2MASS) of R.A = 17h34m12.70s, Dec. -26d05m48.4s (+/- 0.2 arcseconds).

  6. 75 FR 40857 - Small Business Size Standards: Waiver of the Nonmanufacturer Rule

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-14

    ... Herbicides, Insecticides, and Fungicides, under Product Service Code (PSC) 6840, under North American... Rule for Herbicides, Insecticides, and Fungicides, under PSC 6840, under NAICS code 325320. The basis... Herbicides, Insecticides, and Fungicides, PSC 6840, under NAICS code 325320, Pesticides and Other...

  7. The 2HWC HAWC Observatory Gamma-Ray Catalog

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abeysekara, A. U.; Albert, A.; Alfaro, R.; Alvarez, C.; Álvarez, J. D.; Arceo, R.; Arteaga-Velázquez, J. C.; Ayala Solares, H. A.; Barber, A. S.; Baughman, B.; Bautista-Elivar, N.; Becerra Gonzalez, J.; Becerril, A.; Belmont-Moreno, E.; BenZvi, S. Y.; Berley, D.; Bernal, A.; Braun, J.; Brisbois, C.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Capistrán, T.; Carramiñana, A.; Casanova, S.; Castillo, M.; Cotti, U.; Cotzomi, J.; Coutiño de León, S.; de la Fuente, E.; De León, C.; Diaz Hernandez, R.; Dingus, B. L.; DuVernois, M. A.; Díaz-Vélez, J. C.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Engel, K.; Fiorino, D. W.; Fraija, N.; García-González, J. A.; Garfias, F.; Gerhardt, M.; González Muñoz, A.; González, M. M.; Goodman, J. A.; Hampel-Arias, Z.; Harding, J. P.; Hernandez, S.; Hernandez-Almada, A.; Hinton, J.; Hui, C. M.; Hüntemeyer, P.; Iriarte, A.; Jardin-Blicq, A.; Joshi, V.; Kaufmann, S.; Kieda, D.; Lara, A.; Lauer, R. J.; Lee, W. H.; Lennarz, D.; León Vargas, H.; Linnemann, J. T.; Longinotti, A. L.; Raya, G. Luis; Luna-García, R.; López-Coto, R.; Malone, K.; Marinelli, S. S.; Martinez, O.; Martinez-Castellanos, I.; Martínez-Castro, J.; Martínez-Huerta, H.; Matthews, J. A.; Miranda-Romagnoli, P.; Moreno, E.; Mostafá, M.; Nellen, L.; Newbold, M.; Nisa, M. U.; Noriega-Papaqui, R.; Pelayo, R.; Pretz, J.; Pérez-Pérez, E. G.; Ren, Z.; Rho, C. D.; Rivière, C.; Rosa-González, D.; Rosenberg, M.; Ruiz-Velasco, E.; Salazar, H.; Salesa Greus, F.; Sandoval, A.; Schneider, M.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Sinnis, G.; Smith, A. J.; Springer, R. W.; Surajbali, P.; Taboada, I.; Tibolla, O.; Tollefson, K.; Torres, I.; Ukwatta, T. N.; Vianello, G.; Villaseñor, L.; Weisgarber, T.; Westerhoff, S.; Wisher, I. G.; Wood, J.; Yapici, T.; Younk, P. W.; Zepeda, A.; Zhou, H.

    2017-07-01

    We present the first catalog of TeV gamma-ray sources realized with data from the newly completed High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC). It is the most sensitive wide field-of-view TeV telescope currently in operation, with a one-year survey sensitivity of ˜5%-10% of the flux of the Crab Nebula. With an instantaneous field of view >1.5 sr and >90% duty cycle, it continuously surveys and monitors the sky for gamma-ray energies between hundreds of GeV and tens of TeV. HAWC is located in Mexico, at a latitude of 19° N, and was completed in 2015 March. Here, we present the 2HWC catalog, which is the result of the first source search performed with the complete HAWC detector. Realized with 507 days of data, it represents the most sensitive TeV survey to date for such a large fraction of the sky. A total of 39 sources were detected, with an expected number of false detections of 0.5 due to background fluctuation. Out of these sources, 19 are new sources that are not associated with previously known TeV sources (association criteria: <0.°5 away). The source list, including the position measurement, spectrum measurement, and uncertainties, is reported, then each source is briefly discussed. Of the 2HWC associated sources, 10 are reported in TeVCat as PWN or SNR: 2 as blazars and the remaining eight as unidentified.

  8. The 2HWC HAWC Observatory Gamma-Ray Catalog

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Abeysekara, A. U.; Barber, A. S.; Albert, A.

    2017-07-01

    We present the first catalog of TeV gamma-ray sources realized with data from the newly completed High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC). It is the most sensitive wide field-of-view TeV telescope currently in operation, with a one-year survey sensitivity of ∼5%–10% of the flux of the Crab Nebula. With an instantaneous field of view >1.5 sr and >90% duty cycle, it continuously surveys and monitors the sky for gamma-ray energies between hundreds of GeV and tens of TeV. HAWC is located in Mexico, at a latitude of 19° N, and was completed in 2015 March. Here, we present the 2HWCmore » catalog, which is the result of the first source search performed with the complete HAWC detector. Realized with 507 days of data, it represents the most sensitive TeV survey to date for such a large fraction of the sky. A total of 39 sources were detected, with an expected number of false detections of 0.5 due to background fluctuation. Out of these sources, 19 are new sources that are not associated with previously known TeV sources (association criteria: <0.°5 away). The source list, including the position measurement, spectrum measurement, and uncertainties, is reported, then each source is briefly discussed. Of the 2HWC associated sources, 10 are reported in TeVCat as PWN or SNR: 2 as blazars and the remaining eight as unidentified.« less

  9. Exosomes from Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (hiPSC-MSCs) Protect Liver against Hepatic Ischemia/ Reperfusion Injury via Activating Sphingosine Kinase and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Signaling Pathway.

    PubMed

    Du, Yingdong; Li, Dawei; Han, Conghui; Wu, Haoyu; Xu, Longmei; Zhang, Ming; Zhang, Jianjun; Chen, Xiaosong

    2017-01-01

    This study aimed to evaluate the effects of exosomes produced by human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hiPSC-MSCs-Exo) on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, as well as the underlying mechanisms. Exosomes derived from hiPSC-MSCs were isolated and characterized both biochemically and biophysically. hiPSC-MSCs-Exo were injected systemically into a murine ischemia/reperfusion injury model via the inferior vena cava, and then the therapeutic effects were evaluated. The serum levels of transaminases (aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), as well as histological changes were examined. Primary hepatocytes and human hepatocyte cell line HL7702 were used to test whether exosomes could induce hepatocytes proliferation in vitro. In addition, the expression levels of proliferation markers (proliferation cell nuclear antigen, PCNA; Phosphohistone-H3, PHH3) were measured by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. Moreover, SK inhibitor (SKI-II) and S1P1 receptor antagonist (VPC23019) were used to investigate the role of sphingosine kinase and sphingosine-1-phosphate-dependent pathway in the effects of hiPSC-MSCs-Exo on hepatocytes. hiPSCs were efficiently induced into hiPSC-MSCs that had typical MSC characteristics. hiPSC-MSCs-Exo had diameters ranging from 100 to 200 nm and expressed exosome markers (Alix, CD63 and CD81). After hiPSC-MSCs-Exo administration, hepatocyte necrosis and sinusoidal congestion were markedly suppressed in the ischemia/reperfusion injury model, with lower histopathological scores. The levels of hepatocyte injury markers AST and ALT were significantly lower in the treatment group compared to control, and the expression levels of proliferation markers (PCNA and PHH3) were greatly induced after hiPSC-MSCs-Exo administration. Moreover, hiPSC-MSCs-Exo also induced primary hepatocytes and HL7702 cells proliferation in vitro in a dose-dependent manner. We found that hiPSC-MSCs-Exo could directly fuse with target hepatocytes or HL7702 cells and increase the activity of sphingosine kinase and synthesis of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). Furthermore, the inhibition of SK1 or S1P1 receptor completely abolished the protective and proliferative effects of hiPSC-MSCs-Exo on hepatocytes, both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrated that hiPSC-MSCs-Exo could alleviate hepatic I/R injury via activating sphingosine kinase and sphingosine-1-phosphate pathway in hepatocytes and promote cell proliferation. These findings represent a novel mechanism that potentially contributes to liver regeneration and have important implications for new therapeutic approaches to acute liver disease. © 2017 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

  10. Reprogramming to a pluripotent state modifies mesenchymal stem cell resistance to oxidative stress

    PubMed Central

    Asensi, Karina D; Fortunato, Rodrigo S; dos Santos, Danúbia S; Pacheco, Thaísa S; de Rezende, Danielle F; Rodrigues, Deivid C; Mesquita, Fernanda C P; Kasai-Brunswick, Tais H; de Carvalho, Antonio C Campos; Carvalho, Denise P; Carvalho, Adriana B; Goldenberg, Regina C dos S

    2014-01-01

    Properties of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) have been extensively studied since their first derivation in 2006. However, the modification in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and detoxification caused by reprogramming still needs to be further elucidated. The objective of this study was to compare the response of iPSC generated from menstrual blood–derived mesenchymal stem cells (mb-iPSC), embryonic stem cells (H9) and adult menstrual blood–derived mesenchymal stem cells (mbMSC) to ROS exposure and investigate the effects of reprogramming on cellular oxidative stress (OS). mbMSC were extremely resistant to ROS exposure, however, mb-iPSC were 10-fold less resistant to H2O2, which was very similar to embryonic stem cell sensitivity. Extracellular production of ROS was also similar in mb-iPSC and H9 and almost threefold lower than in mbMSC. Furthermore, intracellular amounts of ROS were higher in mb-iPSC and H9 when compared with mbMSC. As the ability to metabolize ROS is related to antioxidant enzymes, we analysed enzyme activities in these cell types. Catalase and superoxide dismutase activities were reduced in mb-iPSC and H9 when compared with mbMSC. Finally, cell adhesion under OS conditions was impaired in mb-iPSC when compared with mbMSC, albeit similar to H9. Thus, reprogramming leads to profound modifications in extracellular ROS production accompanied by loss of the ability to handle OS. PMID:24528612

  11. Geometry-dependent functional changes in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes probed by functional imaging and RNA sequencing

    PubMed Central

    Gaublomme, Jellert; Shekhar, Karthik; Butty, Vincent; Yi, B. Alexander; Kralj, Joel M.; Bloxham, William; Boyer, Laurie A.; Regev, Aviv

    2017-01-01

    Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) are a promising platform for cardiac studies in vitro, and possibly for tissue repair in humans. However, hiPSC-CM cells tend to retain morphology, metabolism, patterns of gene expression, and electrophysiology similar to that of embryonic cardiomyocytes. We grew hiPSC-CM in patterned islands of different sizes and shapes, and measured the effect of island geometry on action potential waveform and calcium dynamics using optical recordings of voltage and calcium from 970 islands of different sizes. hiPSC-CM in larger islands showed electrical and calcium dynamics indicative of greater functional maturity. We then compared transcriptional signatures of the small and large islands against a developmental time course of cardiac differentiation. Although island size had little effect on expression of most genes whose levels differed between hiPSC-CM and adult primary CM, we identified a subset of genes for which island size drove the majority (58%) of the changes associated with functional maturation. Finally, we patterned hiPSC-CM on islands with a variety of shapes to probe the relative contributions of soluble factors, electrical coupling, and direct cell-cell contacts to the functional maturation. Collectively, our data show that optical electrophysiology is a powerful tool for assaying hiPSC-CM maturation, and that island size powerfully drives activation of a subset of genes involved in cardiac maturation. PMID:28333933

  12. Performance seeking control program overview

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Orme, John S.

    1995-01-01

    The Performance Seeking Control (PSC) program evolved from a series of integrated propulsion-flight control research programs flown at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) on an F-15. The first of these was the Digital Electronic Engine Control (DEEC) program and provided digital engine controls suitable for integration. The DEEC and digital electronic flight control system of the NASA F-15 were ideally suited for integrated controls research. The Advanced Engine Control System (ADECS) program proved that integrated engine and aircraft control could improve overall system performance. The objective of the PSC program was to advance the technology for a fully integrated propulsion flight control system. Whereas ADECS provided single variable control for an average engine, PSC controlled multiple propulsion system variables while adapting to the measured engine performance. PSC was developed as a model-based, adaptive control algorithm and included four optimization modes: minimum fuel flow at constant thrust, minimum turbine temperature at constant thrust, maximum thrust, and minimum thrust. Subsonic and supersonic flight testing were conducted at NASA Dryden covering the four PSC optimization modes and over the full throttle range. Flight testing of the PSC algorithm, conducted in a series of five flight test phases, has been concluded at NASA Dryden covering all four of the PSC optimization modes. Over a three year period and five flight test phases 72 research flights were conducted. The primary objective of flight testing was to exercise each PSC optimization mode and quantify the resulting performance improvements.

  13. Electrophysiological Analysis of human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) Using Multi-electrode Arrays (MEAs).

    PubMed

    Sala, Luca; Ward-van Oostwaard, Dorien; Tertoolen, Leon G J; Mummery, Christine L; Bellin, Milena

    2017-05-12

    Cardiomyocytes can now be derived with high efficiency from both human embryonic and human induced-Pluripotent Stem Cells (hPSC). hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) are increasingly recognized as having great value for modeling cardiovascular diseases in humans, especially arrhythmia syndromes. They have also demonstrated relevance as in vitro systems for predicting drug responses, which makes them potentially useful for drug-screening and discovery, safety pharmacology and perhaps eventually for personalized medicine. This would be facilitated by deriving hPSC-CMs from patients or susceptible individuals as hiPSCs. For all applications, however, precise measurement and analysis of hPSC-CM electrical properties are essential for identifying changes due to cardiac ion channel mutations and/or drugs that target ion channels and can cause sudden cardiac death. Compared with manual patch-clamp, multi-electrode array (MEA) devices offer the advantage of allowing medium- to high-throughput recordings. This protocol describes how to dissociate 2D cell cultures of hPSC-CMs to small aggregates and single cells and plate them on MEAs to record their spontaneous electrical activity as field potential. Methods for analyzing the recorded data to extract specific parameters, such as the QT and the RR intervals, are also described here. Changes in these parameters would be expected in hPSC-CMs carrying mutations responsible for cardiac arrhythmias and following addition of specific drugs, allowing detection of those that carry a cardiotoxic risk.

  14. Generation of functional human pancreatic β cells in vitro

    PubMed Central

    Pagliuca, Felicia W.; Millman, Jeffrey R.; Gürtler, Mads; Segel, Michael; Van Dervort, Alana; Ryu, Jennifer Hyoje; Peterson, Quinn P.; Greiner, Dale; Melton, Douglas A.

    2015-01-01

    Summary The generation of insulin-producing pancreatic β cells from stem cells in vitro would provide an unprecedented cell source for drug discovery and cell transplantation therapy in diabetes. However, insulin-producing cells previously generated from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) lack many functional characteristics of bona fide β cells. Here we report a scalable differentiation protocol that can generate hundreds of millions of glucose-responsive β cells from hPSC in vitro. These stem cell derived β cells (SC-β) express markers found in mature β cells, flux Ca2+ in response to glucose, package insulin into secretory granules and secrete quantities of insulin comparable to adult β cells in response to multiple sequential glucose challenges in vitro. Furthermore, these cells secrete human insulin into the serum of mice shortly after transplantation in a glucose-regulated manner, and transplantation of these cells ameliorates hyperglycemia in diabetic mice. PMID:25303535

  15. Southern Salish Sea Habitat Map Series data catalog

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Cochrane, Guy R.

    2015-01-01

    This data catalog contains much of the data used to prepare the SIMs in the Southern Salish Sea Habitat Map Series. Other data that were used to prepare the maps were compiled from previously published sources (for example, sediment samples and seismic reflection profiles) and are not included in this data series.

  16. Designing User Manuals for the Online Public Access Catalog.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seiden, Peggy; Sullivan, Patricia

    1986-01-01

    Describes the process of developing and revising a brochure to guide library patrons in conducting an author search on an online public access catalog in order to demonstrate the application of four steps in production of a functional document--analysis; planning; development; evaluation, testing, and revision. Three sources are given. (EJS)

  17. A Nontriggered Burst Supplement to the BATSE Gamma-Ray Burst Catalogs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kommers, Jefferson M.; Lewin, Walter H. G.; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; vanParadijs, Jan; Pendleton, Geoffrey N.; Meegan, Charles A.; Fishman, Gerald J.

    2001-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detects gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with a real-time burst detection (or "trigger") system running onboard the spacecraft. Under some circumstances, however, a GRB may not activate the on-board burst trigger. For example, the burst may be too faint to exceed the on-board detection threshold, or it may occur while the on-board burst trigger is disabled for technical reasons. This paper describes a catalog of 873 "nontriggered" GRBs that were detected in a search of the archival continuous data from BATSE recorded between 1991 December 9.0 and 1997 December 17.0. For each burst, the catalog gives an estimated source direction, duration, peak flux, and fluence. Similar data are presented for 50 additional bursts of unknown origin that were detected in the 25-50 keV range; these events may represent the low-energy "tail" of the GRB spectral distribution. This catalog increases the number of GRBs detected with BATSE by 48% during the time period covered by the search.

  18. A Non-Triggered Burst Supplement to the BATSE Gamma-Ray Burst Catalogs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kommers, J.; Lewin, W. H.; Kouveliotou, C.; vanParadijs, J.; Pendleton, G. N.; Meegan, C. A.; Fishman, G. J.

    1998-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detects gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with a real-time burst detection (or "trigger") system running onboard the spacecraft. Under some circumstances, however, a GRB may not activate the onboard burst trigger. For example, the burst may be too faint to exceed the onboard detection threshold, or it may occur while the onboard burst trigger is disabled for technical reasons. This paper is a catalog of such "non-triggered" GRBs that were detected in a search of the archival continuous data from BATSE. It lists 873 non-triggered bursts that were recorded between 1991 December 9.0 and 1997 December 17.0. For each burst, the catalog gives an estimated source direction, duration, peak flux, and fluence. Similar data are presented for 50 additional bursts of unknown origin that were detected in the 25-50 keV range; these events may represent the low-energy "tail" of the GRB spectral distribution. This catalog increases the number of GRBs detected with BATSE by 48% during the time period covered by the search.

  19. Acellular therapeutic approach for heart failure: in vitro production of extracellular vesicles from human cardiovascular progenitors.

    PubMed

    El Harane, Nadia; Kervadec, Anaïs; Bellamy, Valérie; Pidial, Laetitia; Neametalla, Hany J; Perier, Marie-Cécile; Lima Correa, Bruna; Thiébault, Léa; Cagnard, Nicolas; Duché, Angéline; Brunaud, Camille; Lemitre, Mathilde; Gauthier, Jeanne; Bourdillon, Alexandra T; Renault, Marc P; Hovhannisyan, Yeranuhi; Paiva, Solenne; Colas, Alexandre R; Agbulut, Onnik; Hagège, Albert; Silvestre, Jean-Sébastien; Menasché, Philippe; Renault, Nisa K E

    2018-05-21

    We have shown that extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by embryonic stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells (Pg) recapitulate the therapeutic effects of their parent cells in a mouse model of chronic heart failure (CHF). Our objectives are to investigate whether EV released by more readily available cell sources are therapeutic, whether their effectiveness is influenced by the differentiation state of the secreting cell, and through which mechanisms they act. The total EV secreted by human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitors (iPSC-Pg) and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM) were isolated by ultracentrifugation and characterized by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, western blot, and cryo-electron microscopy. In vitro bioactivity assays were used to evaluate their cellular effects. Cell and EV microRNA (miRNA) content were assessed by miRNA array. Myocardial infarction was induced in 199 nude mice. Three weeks later, mice with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤ 45% received transcutaneous echo-guided injections of iPSC-CM (1.4 × 106, n = 19), iPSC-Pg (1.4 × 106, n = 17), total EV secreted by 1.4 × 106 iPSC-Pg (n = 19), or phosphate-buffered saline (control, n = 17) into the peri-infarct myocardium. Seven weeks later, hearts were evaluated by echocardiography, histology, and gene expression profiling, blinded to treatment group. In vitro, EV were internalized by target cells, increased cell survival, cell proliferation, and endothelial cell migration in a dose-dependent manner and stimulated tube formation. Extracellular vesicles were rich in miRNAs and most of the 16 highly abundant, evolutionarily conserved miRNAs are associated with tissue-repair pathways. In vivo, EV outperformed cell injections, significantly improving cardiac function through decreased left ventricular volumes (left ventricular end systolic volume: -11%, P < 0.001; left ventricular end diastolic volume: -4%, P = 0.002), and increased LVEF (+14%, P < 0.0001) relative to baseline values. Gene profiling revealed that EV-treated hearts were enriched for tissue reparative pathways. Extracellular vesicles secreted by iPSC-Pg are effective in the treatment of CHF, possibly, in part, through their specific miRNA signature and the associated stimulation of distinct cardioprotective pathways. The processing and regulatory advantages of EV could make them effective substitutes for cell transplantation.

  20. The Hubble Legacy Archive: Data Processing in the Era of AstroDrizzle

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strolger, Louis-Gregory; Hubble Legacy Archive Team, The Hubble Source Catalog Team

    2015-01-01

    The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA) expands the utility of Hubble Space Telescope wide-field imaging data by providing high-level composite images and source lists, perusable and immediately available online. The latest HLA data release (DR8.0) marks a fundamental change in how these image combinations are produced, using DrizzlePac tools and Astrodrizzle to reduce geometric distortion and provide improved source catalogs for all publicly available data. We detail the HLA data processing and source list schemas, what products are newly updated and available for WFC3 and ACS, and how these data products are further utilized in the production of the Hubble Source Catalog. We also discuss plans for future development, including updates to WFPC2 products and field mosaics.

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