• 1-O-Acetylgeopyxin A, a derivative of a fungal metabolite, blocks tetrodotoxin-sensitive voltage-gated sodium, calcium channels and neuronal excitability which correlates with inhibition of neuropathic pain

      Zhou, Yuan; Cai, Song; Gomez, Kimberly; Wijeratne, E M Kithsiri; Ji, Yingshi; Bellampalli, Shreya S; Luo, Shizhen; Moutal, Aubin; Gunatilaka, A A Leslie; Khanna, Rajesh; et al. (BMC, 2020-05-11)
      Chronic pain can be the result of an underlying disease or condition, medical treatment, inflammation, or injury. The number of persons experiencing this type of pain is substantial, affecting upwards of 50 million adults in the United States. Pharmacotherapy of most of the severe chronic pain patients includes drugs such as gabapentinoids, re-uptake blockers and opioids. Unfortunately, gabapentinoids are not effective in up to two-thirds of this population and although opioids can be initially effective, their long-term use is associated with multiple side effects. Therefore, there is a great need to develop novel non-opioid alternative therapies to relieve chronic pain. For this purpose, we screened a small library of natural products and their derivatives in the search for pharmacological inhibitors of voltage-gated calcium and sodium channels, which are outstanding molecular targets due to their important roles in nociceptive pathways. We discovered that the acetylated derivative of the ent-kaurane diterpenoid, geopyxin A, 1-O-acetylgeopyxin A, blocks voltage-gated calcium and tetrodotoxin-sensitive voltage-gated sodium channels but not tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium channels in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Consistent with inhibition of voltage-gated sodium and calcium channels, 1-O-acetylgeopyxin A reduced reduce action potential firing frequency and increased firing threshold (rheobase) in DRG neurons. Finally, we identified the potential of 1-O-acetylgeopyxin A to reverse mechanical allodynia in a preclinical rat model of HIV-induced sensory neuropathy. Dual targeting of both sodium and calcium channels may permit block of nociceptor excitability and of release of pro-nociceptive transmitters. Future studies will harness the core structure of geopyxins for the generation of antinociceptive drugs.
    • The 1.4 mm Core of Centaurus A: First VLBI Results with the South Pole Telescope

      Kim, Junhan; Marrone, Daniel P.; Roy, Alan L.; Wagner, Jan; Asada, Keiichi; Beaudoin, Christopher; Blanchard, Jay; Carlstrom, John E.; Chen, Ming-Tang; Crawford, Thomas M.; et al. (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2018-07-10)
      Centaurus A (Cen A) is a bright radio source associated with the nearby galaxy NGC 5128 where high-resolution radio observations can probe the jet at scales of less than a light day. The South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment performed a single-baseline very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observation of Cen A in 2015 January as part of VLBI receiver deployment for the SPT. We measure the correlated flux density of Cen A at a wavelength of 1.4 mm on a similar to 7000 km (5 G lambda) baseline. Ascribing this correlated flux density to the core, and with the use of a contemporaneous short-baseline flux density from a Submillimeter Array observation, we infer a core brightness temperature of 1.4 x 10(11) K. This is close to the equipartition brightness temperature, where the magnetic and relativistic particle energy densities are equal. Under the assumption of a circular Gaussian core component, we derive an upper limit to the core size phi = 34.0 +/- 1.8 mu as, corresponding to 120 Schwarzschild radii for a black hole mass of 5.5 x. 10(7) M-circle dot.
    • 10 Lessons in Community Love

      Morales, S.; Alvarez, M.; University of Arizona (American Folklore Society, 2022)
      This conversation engages one of folklore’s foundational tasks: the recording, archiving, and sharing of the diversity of experiences and points of view that shape human experience. Modeling the practice of collaboration they advocate for the folklorist/documentarian, the authors Selina Morales and Maribel Alvarez explore through conversation a pedagogy of documentation from a critical racial justice lens. Moving across a spectrum from family stories to public folklore projects and reflecting on their deep roots in community organizing, they draw attention to the dynamics of power that impact whose stories are told and which assumptions of disciplinary knowledge are applied to theorizing documentation practices. Copyright © 2022 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
    • A 100,000 Scale Factor Radar Range

      Blanche, Pierre-Alexandre; Neifeld, Mark; Peyghambarian, Nasser; Univ Arizona, Coll Opt Sci (NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2017-12-19)
      The radar cross section of an object is an important electromagnetic property that is often measured in anechoic chambers. However, for very large and complex structures such as ships or sea and land clutters, this common approach is not practical. The use of computer simulations is also not viable since it would take many years of computational time to model and predict the radar characteristics of such large objects. We have now devised a new scaling technique to overcome these difficulties, and make accurate measurements of the radar cross section of large items. In this article we demonstrate that by reducing the scale of the model by a factor 100,000, and using near infrared wavelength, the radar cross section can be determined in a tabletop setup. The accuracy of the method is compared to simulations, and an example of measurement is provided on a 1mm highly detailed model of a ship. The advantages of this scaling approach is its versatility, and the possibility to perform fast, convenient, and inexpensive measurements.
    • 10 kHz Spinal Cord Stimulation for Combined Alleviation of Post-Laminectomy Syndrome and Chronic Abdominal Pain: A Case Report.

      Berger, Amnon A; Hasoon, Jamal; Urits, Ivan; Viswanath, Omar; Gill, Jatinder; Univ Arizona, Coll Med Phoenix, Dept Anesthesiol (DOVE MEDICAL PRESS LTD, 2020-04-30)
      Chronic pain affects roughly 50 million Americans, or 20.4% of the national population, and is a huge economic burden on society. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a cost-effective interventional treatment modality for patients with chronic neuropathic and radicular pain. It is traditionally reserved for patients suffering from post-laminectomy syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, or chronic back pain that is refractory to other less invasive techniques. There have been a few cases describing the use of SCS at higher levels to successfully obtain coverage of visceral abdominal pain. Here we describe an interesting case of a patient who suffered from chronic back pain and radiculopathy with post-laminectomy syndrome as well as chronic abdominal pain. We describe the use of high-frequency SCS to alleviate the patient's post-laminectomy pain as well as his abdominal pain. Our case describes SCS use with multi-level lead placement targeting both post-laminectomy pain and abdominal pain. We describe a strategy that can be useful to patients with concurrent pain from more than one source. Our case also adds to the growing evidence supporting the use of SCS for treating chronic visceral pain syndromes.
    • 1200 years of Upper Missouri River streamflow reconstructed from tree rings

      Martin, Justin T.; Pederson, Gregory T.; Woodhouse, Connie A.; Cook, Edward R.; McCabe, Gregory J.; Wise, Erika K.; Erger, Patrick; Dolan, Larry; McGuire, Marketa; Gangopadhyay, Subhrendu; et al. (PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2019-11-15)
      Paleohydrologic records can provide unique, long-term perspectives on streamflow variability and hydroclimate for use in water resource planning. Such long-term records can also play a key role in placing both present day events and projected future conditions into a broader context than that offered by instrumental observations. However, relative to other major river basins across the western United States, a paucity of streamflow reconstructions has to date prevented the full application of such paleohydrologic information in the Upper Missouri River Basin. Here we utilize a set of naturalized streamflow records for the Upper Missouri and an expanded network of tree-ring records to reconstruct streamflow at thirty-one gaging locations across the major headwaters of the basin. The reconstructions explain an average of 68% of the variability in the observed streamflow records and extend available records of streamflow back to 886 CE on average. Basin-wide analyses suggest unprecedented hydroclimatic variability over the region during the Medieval period, similar to that observed in the Upper Colorado River Basin, and show considerable synchrony of persistent wet-dry phasing with the Colorado River over the last 1200 years. Streamflow estimates in individual sub-basins of the Upper Missouri demonstrate increased spatial variability in discharge during the Little Ice Age (similar to 1400-1850 CE) compared with the Medieval Climate Anomaly (similar to 800-1400 CE). The network of streamflow reconstructions presented here fills a major geographical void in paleohydrologic understanding and now allows for a long-term assessment of hydrological variability over the majority of the western U.S. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
    • A 1200+year reconstruction of temperature extremes for the northeastern Mediterranean region

      Klippel, Lara; Krusic, Paul J.; Konter, Oliver; St George, Scott; Trouet, Valerie; Esper, Jan; Univ Arizona, Tree Ring Res Lab (WILEY, 2019-03-30)
      Proxy evidence is necessary to place current temperature and hydroclimatic changes in a long-term context and to assess the full range of natural and anthropogenic climate forcings. Here, we present the first millennium-length reconstruction of late summer (August-September) temperature variability for the Mediterranean region. We compiled 132 maximum latewood density (MXD) tree-ring series of living and relict Pinus heldreichii trees from a network of four high-elevation sites in the Pindus Mountains of Greece. Forty series reach back into the first millennium and the oldest sample dates to 575 CE. At annual to decadal scales, the record correlates significantly with August-September temperatures over the Balkan Peninsula and northeastern Mediterranean (r1950-2014 = 0.71, p < 0.001). We produce two reconstructions emphasizing interannual and decadal scale variance over the past millennium. Analysis of temperature extremes reveals the coldest summers occurred in 1035, 1117, 1217, 1884 and 1959 and the coldest decades were 1061-1070 and 1811-1820. The warmest summers occurred in 1240 and 1474, and the warmest decades were 1141-1150 and 1481-1490. Comparison of this new reconstruction with MXD-based summer temperature reconstructions across Europe reveals synchronized occurrences of extreme cool summers in the northeastern Mediterranean, and an antiphase-relationship with warm summer temperatures over the British Isles and Scandinavia. This temperature dipole is related to anomalies in the latitudinal position of the North Atlantic Jet. Despite the representation of common atmospheric forcing patterns, the occurrence of warm extremes is limited to few events, suggesting potential weaknesses of MXD to record warm temperature anomalies. In addition, we acknowledge problems in the observational data to capture local temperature variability due to small scale topographic differences in this high-elevation landscape. At a broader geographical scale, the occurrence of common cold summer extremes is restricted to years with volcanically induced changes in radiative forcing.
    • The 12C/ 13C Ratio in Sgr B2(N): Constraints for Galactic Chemical Evolution and Isotopic Chemistry

      Halfen, D. T.; Woolf, N. J.; Ziurys, L. M.; Univ Arizona, Dept Chem & Biochem; Univ Arizona, Dept Astron, Arizona Radio Observ (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2017-08-22)
      A study has been conducted of 12C/13C ratios in five complex molecules in the Galactic center. H2CS, CH3CCH, NH2CHO, CH2CHCN, and CH3CH2CN and their 13C-substituted species have been observed in numerous transitions at 1, 2, and 3 mm, acquired in a spectral-line survey of Sgr B2(N), conducted with the telescopes of the Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO). Between 22 and 54 individual, unblended lines for the 12C species and 2–54 for 13C-substituted analogs were modeled in a global radiative transfer analysis. All five molecules were found to consistently exhibit two velocity components near VLSR ∼ 64 and 73 km s−1, with column densities ranging from Ntot ∼ 3 × 1014 − 4 × 1017 cm−2 and ∼2 × 1013 − 1 × 1017 cm−2 for the 12C and 13C species, respectively. Based on 14 different isotopic combinations, ratios were obtained in the range 12C/13C = 15 ± 5 to 33 ± 13, with an average value of 24 ± 7, based on comparison of column densities. These measurements better anchor the 12C/13C ratio at the Galactic center, and suggest a slightly revised isotope gradient of 12C/13C = 5.21(0.52) DGC + 22.6(3.3). As indicated by the column densities, no preferential 13C enrichment was found on the differing carbon sites of CH3CCH, CH2CHCN, and CH3CH2CN. Because of the elevated temperatures in Sgr B2(N), 13C isotopic substitution is effectively “scrambled,” diminishing chemical fractionation effects. The resulting ratios thus reflect stellar nucleosynthesis and Galactic chemical evolution, as is likely the case for most warm clouds.
    • 12C/13C isotopic ratios in red-giant stars of the open cluster NGC 6791

      Szigeti, László; Mészáros, Szabolcs; Smith, Verne V; Cunha, Katia; Lagarde, Nadège; Charbonnel, Corinne; García-Hernández, D A; Shetrone, Matthew; Pinsonneault, Marc; Allende Prieto, Carlos; et al. (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2018-03)
      Carbon isotope ratios, along with carbon and nitrogen abundances, are derived in a sample of 11 red-giant members of one of the most metal-rich clusters in the Milky Way, NGC 6791. The selected red-giants have a mean metallicity and standard deviation of [Fe/H] = +0.39 +/- 0.06 (Cunha et al. 2015). We used high-resolution H-band spectra obtained by the SDSS-IV Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment. The advantage of using high-resolution spectra in the H band is that lines of CO are well represented and their line profiles are sensitive to the variation of C-12/C-13. Values of the C-12/C-13 ratio were obtained from a spectrum synthesis analysis. The derived C-12/C-13 ratios varied between 6.3 and 10.6 in NGC 6791, in agreement with the final isotopic ratios from thermohaline-induced mixing models. The ratios derived here are combined with those obtained for more metal poor red-giants from the literature to examine the correlation between C-12/C-13, mass, metallicity, and evolutionary status.
    • 13,000 years of sociocultural plant use in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile

      Ugalde, Paula C.; McRostie, Virginia; Gayo, Eugenia M.; García, Magdalena; Latorre, Claudio; Santoro, Calogero M.; Univ Arizona, Sch Anthropol (SPRINGER, 2020-05-06)
      Throughout Earth's most extreme environments, such as the Kalahari Desert or the Arctic, hunter-gatherers found ingenious ways to obtain proteins and sugars provided by plants for dietary requirements. In the hyperarid Atacama Desert, wild plant resources are scarce and unevenly distributed due to limited water availability. This study brings together all available archaeobotanical evidence gathered in the Atacama Desert from the Late Pleistocene (ca. 13,000 cal bp) until the Inka epoch (ca. 450 cal bp) to help us comprehend when these populations acquired and managed useful plants from the coastal zone, Intermediate Depression, High Andes, as well as tropical and subtropical ecosystems. Widespread introduction of farming crops, water control techniques and cultivation of diverse plants by 3,000 cal bp ended not only a chronic food shortage, but also led to the establishment of a set of staple foods for the Atacama Desert dwellers, a legacy that remains visible today. By contrasting these trends with major sociocultural changes, together with palaeodemographic and climatic fluctuations, we note that humans adapted to, and transformed this hyperarid landscape and oscillating climate, with plants being a key factor in their success. This long-term process, which we term the "Green Revolution", coincided with an exponential increase in the number of social groups inhabiting the Atacama Desert during the Late Holocene.
    • The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

      Albareti, Franco D.; Prieto, Carlos Allende; Almeida, Andres; Anders, Friedrich; Anderson, Scott; Andrews, B.; Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso; Argudo-Fernández, Maria; Armengaud, Eric; Aubourg, Eric; et al. (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2017-12-08)
      The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) began observations in 2014 July. It pursues three core programs: the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2), Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA), and the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). As well as its core program, eBOSS contains two major subprograms: the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) and the SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Sources (SPIDERS). This paper describes the first data release from SDSS-IV, Data Release 13 (DR13). DR13 makes publicly available the first 1390 spatially resolved integral field unit observations of nearby galaxies from MaNGA. It includes new observations from eBOSS, completing the Sloan Extended QUasar, Emission-line galaxy, Luminous red galaxy Survey (SEQUELS), which also targeted variability-selected objects and X-ray-selected objects. DR13 includes new reductions of the SDSS-III BOSS data, improving the spectrophotometric calibration and redshift classification, and new reductions of the SDSS-III APOGEE-1 data, improving stellar parameters for dwarf stars and cooler stars. DR13 provides more robust and precise photometric calibrations. Value-added target catalogs relevant for eBOSS, TDSS, and SPIDERS and an updated red-clump catalog for APOGEE are also available. This paper describes the location and format of the data and provides references to important technical papers. The SDSS web site, http://www.sdss.org, provides links to the data, tutorials, examples of data access, and extensive documentation of the reduction and analysis procedures. DR13 is the first of a scheduled set that will contain new data and analyses from the planned similar to 6 yr operations of SDSS-IV.
    • A 15-year record of CO emissions constrained by MOPITT CO observations

      Jiang, Zhe; Worden, John R.; Worden, Helen; Deeter, Merritt; Jones, Dylan B. A.; Arellano, Avelino F.; Henze, Daven K.; Univ Arizona, Dept Hydrol & Atmospher Sci (COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH, 2017-04-06)
      Long-term measurements from satellites and surface stations have demonstrated a decreasing trend of tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) in the Northern Hemisphere over the past decade. Likely explanations for this decrease include changes in anthropogenic, fires, and/or biogenic emissions or changes in the primary chemical sink hydroxyl radical (OH). Using remotely sensed CO measurements from the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) satellite instrument, in situ methyl chloroform (MCF) measurements from the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) and the adjoint of the GEOS-Chem model, we estimate the change in global CO emissions from 2001 to 2015. We show that the loss rate of MCF varied by 0.2 % in the past 15 years, indicating that changes in global OH distributions do not explain the recent decrease in CO. Our two-step inversion approach for estimating CO emissions is intended to mitigate the effect of bias errors in the MOPITT data as well as model errors in transport and chemistry, which are the primary factors contributing to the uncertainties when quantifying CO emissions using these remotely sensed data. Our results confirm that the decreasing trend of tropospheric CO in the Northern Hemisphere is due to decreasing CO emissions from anthropogenic and biomass burning sources. In particular, we find decreasing CO emissions from the United States and China in the past 15 years, and unchanged anthropogenic CO emissions from Europe since 2008. We find decreasing trends of biomass burning CO emissions from boreal North America, boreal Asia and South America, but little change over Africa. In contrast to prior results, we find that a positive trend in CO emissions is likely for India and southeast Asia.
    • 16S rRNA gene sequencing on a benchtop sequencer: accuracy for identification of clinically important bacteria.

      Watts, G S; Youens-Clark, K; Slepian, M J; Wolk, D M; Oshiro, M M; Metzger, G S; Dhingra, D; Cranmer, L D; Hurwitz, B L; Univ Arizona, Ctr Canc; et al. (WILEY, 2017-12-01)
      Test the choice of 16S rRNA gene amplicon and data analysis method on the accuracy of identification of clinically important bacteria utilizing a benchtop sequencer. Nine 16S rRNA amplicons were tested on an Ion Torrent PGM to identify 41 strains of clinical importance. The V1-V2 region identified 40 of 41 isolates to the species level. Three data analysis methods were tested, finding that the Ribosomal Database Project's SequenceMatch outperformed BLAST and the Ion Reporter Metagenomics analysis pipeline. Lastly, 16S rRNA gene sequencing mixtures of four species through a six log range of dilution showed species were identifiable even when present as 0·1% of the mixture. Sequencing the V1-V2 16S rRNA gene region, made possible by the increased read length Ion Torrent PGM sequencer's 400 base pair chemistry, may be a better choice over other commonly used regions for identifying clinically important bacteria. In addition, the SequenceMatch algorithm, freely available from the Ribosomal Database Project, is a good choice for matching filtered reads to organisms. Lastly, 16S rRNA gene sequencing's sensitivity to the presence of a bacterial species at 0·1% of a mixture suggests it has sufficient sensitivity for samples in which important bacteria may be rare. We have validated 16S rRNA gene sequencing on a benchtop sequencer including simple mixtures of organisms; however, our results highlight deficits for clinical application in place of current identification methods.
    • 17-β-Estradiol induces spreading depression and pain behavior in alert female rats

      Sandweiss, Alexander J.; Cottier, Karissa E.; McIntosh, Mary I.; Dussor, Gregory; Davis, Thomas P.; Vanderah, Todd W.; Largent-Milnes, Tally M.; Univ Arizona, Coll Med, Dept Pharmacol (IMPACT JOURNALS LLC, 2017-12-12)
      Aims: Test the putative contribution of 17-beta-estradiol in the development of spreading depression (SD) events and head pain in awake, non-restrained rats. Main Methods: Female, Sprague-Dawley rats were intact or underwent ovariectomy followed one week later by surgery to place electrodes onto the dura to detect epidural electroencephalographic activity (dEEG). dEEG activity was recorded two days later for 12 hours after systemic administration of 17-beta-estradiol (180 mu g/kg, i.p.). A separate set of rats were observed for changes in exploratory, ambulatory, fine, and rearing behaviors; periorbital allodynia was also assessed. Key Findings: A bolus of 17-beta-estradiol significantly elevated serum estrogen levels, increased SD episodes over a 12-hour recording period and decreased rearing behaviors in ovariectomized rats. Pre-administration of ICI 182,780, an estrogen receptor antagonist, blocked 17-beta-estradiol-evoked SD events and pain behaviors; similar results were observed when the antimigraine therapeutic sumatriptan was used. Significance: These data indicate that an estrogen receptor-mediated mechanism contributes to SD events in ovariectomized rats and pain behaviors in both ovariectomized -and intact-rats. This suggests that estrogen plays a different role in each phenomenon of migraine where intense fluctuations in concentration may influence SD susceptibility. This is the first study to relate estrogen peaks to SD development and pain behaviors in awake, freely moving female rats, establishing a framework for future preclinical migraine studies.
    • 1720-nm narrow-linewidth all-fiber ring laser based on thulium-doped fiber

      Zhang, Junxiang; Sheng, Quan; Sun, Shuai; Shi, Chaodu; Fu, Shijie; Shi, Wei; Yao, Jianquan; Univ Arizona, Coll Opt Sci (SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING, 2020-02-21)
      A 1720-nm thulium-doped all-fiber laser based on a ring-cavity configuration is demonstrated. The long-wavelength lasing near the 1.9-mu m thulium emission peak was suppressed using a wavelength division multiplexer and single-mode-multimode-single-mode (SMS) fiber device, which together served as a short-pass filter instead of the grating devices usually used in 1.7-mu m thulium fiber lasers. A stable hundred-milliwatt-level 1720-nm laser output with a narrow spectral linewidth on the order of gigahertz was obtained after optimizing the output coupling, the active fiber length and the SMS device.
    • 197 CANDIDATES AND 104 VALIDATED PLANETS IN K2's FIRST FIVE FIELDS

      Crossfield, Ian J. M.; Ciardi, David R.; Petigura, Erik; Sinukoff, Evan; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Howard, Andrew W.; Beichman, Charles A.; Isaacson, Howard T.; Dressing, Courtney D.; Christiansen, Jessie L.; et al. (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2016-09-02)
      We present 197 planet candidates discovered using data from the first year of the NASA K2 mission (Campaigns 0-4), along with the results of an intensive program of photometric analyses, stellar spectroscopy, high-resolution imaging, and statistical validation. We distill these candidates into sets of 104 validated planets (57 in multi-planet systems), 30 false positives, and 63 remaining candidates. Our validated systems span a range of properties, with median values of R-P = 2.3 R-circle plus, P = 8.6 days, T-eff = 5300 K, and Kp = 12.7 mag. Stellar spectroscopy provides precise stellar and planetary parameters for most of these systems. We show that K2 has increased by 30% the number of small planets known to orbit moderately bright stars (1-4 R-circle plus, Kp = 9-13. mag). Of particular interest are 76 planets smaller than 2 R-circle plus, 15 orbiting stars brighter than Kp = 11.5. mag, 5 receiving Earth-like irradiation levels, and several multi-planet systems-including 4 planets orbiting the M dwarf K2-72 near mean-motion resonances. By quantifying the likelihood that each candidate is a planet we demonstrate that our candidate sample has an overall false positive rate of 15%-30%, with rates substantially lower for small candidates (<2 R-circle plus) and larger for candidates with radii >8 R-circle plus and/or with P < 3 days. Extrapolation of the current planetary yield suggests that K2 will discover between 500 and 1000 planets in its planned four-year mission, assuming sufficient follow-up resources are available. Efficient observing and analysis, together with an organized and coherent follow-up strategy, are essential for maximizing the efficacy of planet-validation efforts for K2, TESS, and future large-scale surveys.
    • The 1997 Mars Pathfinder Spacecraft Landing Site: Spillover Deposits from an Early Mars Inland Sea

      Rodriguez, J A P; Baker, V R; Liu, T; Zarroca, M; Travis, B; Hui, T; Komatsu, G; Berman, D C; Linares, R; Sykes, M V; et al. (NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2019-02-25)
      The Martian outflow channels comprise some of the largest known channels in the Solar System. Remote-sensing investigations indicate that cataclysmic floods likely excavated the channels ~3.4 Ga. Previous studies show that, in the southern circum-Chryse region, their flooding pathways include hundreds of kilometers of channel floors with upward gradients. However, the impact of the reversed channel-floor topography on the cataclysmic floods remains uncertain. Here, we show that these channel floors occur within a vast basin, which separates the downstream reaches of numerous outflow channels from the northern plains. Consequently, floods propagating through these channels must have ponded, producing an inland sea, before reaching the northern plains as enormous spillover discharges. The resulting paleohydrological reconstruction reinterprets the 1997 Pathfinder landing site as part of a marine spillway, which connected the inland sea to a hypothesized northern plains ocean. Our flood simulation shows that the presence of the sea would have permitted the propagation of low-depth floods beyond the areas of reversed channel-floor topography. These results explain the formation at the landing site of possible fluvial features indicative of flow depths at least an order of magnitude lower than those apparent from the analyses of orbital remote-sensing observations.
    • 1H, 15N and 13C sequence specific backbone assignment of the vanadate inhibited hematopoietic tyrosine phosphatase

      Machado, Luciana E. S. F.; Page, Rebecca; Peti, Wolfgang; Univ Arizona, Dept Chem & Biochem (SPRINGER, 2018-04)
      The sequence-specific backbone assignment of hematopoietic protein tyrosine phosphatase (HePTP; PTPN7) in presence of vanadate has been determined, based on triple-resonance experiments using uniformly [C-13,N-15]-labeled protein. These assignments facilitate further studies of HePTP in the presence of inhibitors to target leukemia and provide further insights into the function of protein tyrosine phosphatases.
    • 1–2.4 μm Near-IR Spectrum of the Giant Planet β Pictoris b Obtained with the Gemini Planet Imager

      Chilcote, Jeffrey; Pueyo, Laurent; De Rosa, Robert J.; Vargas, Jeffrey; Macintosh, Bruce; Bailey, Vanessa P.; Barman, Travis S.; Bauman, Brian; Bruzzone, Sebastian; Bulger, Joanna; et al. (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2017-03-28)
      Using the Gemini Planet Imager located at Gemini South, we measured the near-infrared (1.0-2.4 mu m) spectrum of the planetary companion to the nearby, young star beta. Pictoris. We compare the spectrum obtained with currently published model grids and with known substellar objects and present the best matching models as well as the best matching observed objects. Comparing the empirical measurement of the bolometric luminosity to evolutionary models, we find a mass of 12.9. +/- 0.2. M-Jup, an effective temperature of 1724. +/- 15 K, a radius of 1.46. +/- 0.01. R-Jup, and a surface gravity of log g = 4.18. 0.01 [dex] (cgs). The stated uncertainties are statistical errors only, and do not incorporate any uncertainty on the evolutionary models. Using atmospheric models, we find an effective temperature of 1700-1800 K and a surface gravity of log g = 3.5-4.0 [dex] depending upon the model. These values agree well with other publications and with "hot-start" predictions from planetary evolution models. Further, we find that the spectrum of beta Pic. b best matches a low surface gravity L2. +/- 1 brown dwarf. Finally, comparing the spectrum to field brown dwarfs, we find the the spectrum best matches 2MASS J04062677- 381210 and 2MASS J03552337 + 1133437.
    • 2-D LDPC Codes and Joint Detection and Decoding for Two-Dimensional Magnetic Recording

      Matcha, Chaitanya Kumar; Roy, Shounak; Bahrami, Mohsen; Vasic, Bane; Srinivasa, Shayan Garani; Univ Arizona, Dept Elect & Comp Engn (IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2018-02)
      Two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) is a promising technology for boosting areal densities (ADs) using sophisticated signal processing algorithms within a systems framework. The read/write channel architectures have to effectively tackle 2-D inter-symbol interference (ISI), 2-D synchronization errors, media and electronic noise sources, as well as thermal asperities resulting in burst erasures. The 1-D low-density parity check (LDPC) codes are well studied to correct large 1-D burst errors/erasures. However, such 1-D LDPC codes are not suitable for correcting 2-D burst errors/erasures due to the 2-D span of errors. In this paper, we propose construction of a native 2-D LDPC code to effectively correct 2-D burst erasures. We also propose a joint detection and decoding engine based on the generalized belief propagation algorithm to simultaneously handle 2-D ISI, as well as correct bit/burst errors for TDMR channels. This paper is novel in two aspects: 1) we propose the construction of native 2-D LDPC codes to correct large 2-D burst erasures and 2) we develop a 2-D joint signal detection-decoder engine that incorporates 2-D ISI constraints, and modulation code constrains along with LDPC decoding. The native 2-D LDPC code can correct >20% more burst erasures compared with the 1-D LDPC code over a 128 x 256 2-D page of detected bits. Also, the proposed algorithm is observed to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio gain of >0.5 dB in bit error rate performance (translating to 10% increase in ADs around the 1.8 Tb/in(2) regime with grain sizes of 9 nm) as compared with a decoupled detector-decoder system configuration over a small 2-D LDPC code of size 16 x 16. The efficacy of our proposed algorithm and system architecture is evaluated by assessing AD gains via simulations for a TDMR configuration comprising of a 2-D generalized partial response over the Voronoi media model assuming perfect 2-D synchronization.