| 1. |
- Meech, K. J., et al.
(författare)
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EPOXI: Comet 103P/Hartley 2 Observations from a Worldwide Campaign
- 2011
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - London : IOP. - 2041-8213 .- 2041-8205. ; 734:L1, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Earth- and space-based observations provide synergistic information for space mission encounters by providing data over longer timescales, at different wavelengths and using techniques that are impossible with an in situ flyby. We report here such observations in support of the EPOXI spacecraft flyby of comet 103P/Hartley 2. The nucleus is small and dark, and exhibited a very rapidly changing rotation period. Prior to the onset of activity, the period was ~16.4?hr. Starting in 2010 August the period changed from 16.6?hr to near 19?hr in December. With respect to dust composition, most volatiles and carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, the comet is similar to other Jupiter-family comets. What is unusual is the dominance of CO 2 -driven activity near perihelion, which likely persists out to aphelion. Near perihelion the comet nucleus was surrounded by a large halo of water-ice grains that contributed significantly to the total water production.
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| 2. |
- Erni, W., et al.
(författare)
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Technical design report for the PANDA (AntiProton Annihilations at Darmstadt) Straw Tube Tracker
- 2013
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Ingår i: European Physical Journal A. Hadrons and Nuclei. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6001 .- 1434-601X. ; 49:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This document describes the technical layout and the expected performance of the Straw Tube Tracker (STT), the main tracking detector of the PANDA target spectrometer. The STT encloses a Micro-Vertex-Detector (MVD) for the inner tracking and is followed in beam direction by a set of GEM stations. The tasks of the STT are the measurement of the particle momentum from the reconstructed trajectory and the measurement of the specific energy loss for a particle identification. Dedicated simulations with full analysis studies of certain proton-antiproton reactions, identified as being benchmark tests for the whole PANDA scientific program, have been performed to test the STT layout and performance. The results are presented, and the time lines to construct the STT are described.
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| 3. |
- Berthomier, M., et al.
(författare)
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Alfven : magnetosphere-ionosphere connection explorers
- 2012
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Ingår i: Experimental astronomy. - Dordrecht : Springer. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 33:2-3, s. 445-489
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aurorae are dynamic, luminous displays that grace the night skies of Earth's high latitude regions. The solar wind emanating from the Sun is their ultimate energy source, but the chain of plasma physical processes leading to auroral displays is complex. The special conditions at the interface between the solar wind-driven magnetosphere and the ionospheric environment at the top of Earth's atmosphere play a central role. In this Auroral Acceleration Region (AAR) persistent electric fields directed along the magnetic field accelerate magnetospheric electrons to the high energies needed to excite luminosity when they hit the atmosphere. The "ideal magnetohydrodynamics" description of space plasmas which is useful in much of the magnetosphere cannot be used to understand the AAR. The AAR has been studied by a small number of single spacecraft missions which revealed an environment rich in wave-particle interactions, plasma turbulence, and nonlinear acceleration processes, acting on a variety of spatio-temporal scales. The pioneering 4-spacecraft Cluster magnetospheric research mission is now fortuitously visiting the AAR, but its particle instruments are too slow to allow resolve many of the key plasma physics phenomena. The Alfv,n concept is designed specifically to take the next step in studying the aurora, by making the crucial high-time resolution, multi-scale measurements in the AAR, needed to address the key science questions of auroral plasma physics. The new knowledge that the mission will produce will find application in studies of the Sun, the processes that accelerate the solar wind and that produce aurora on other planets.
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| 4. |
- Stenler, S., et al.
(författare)
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Micro-minicircle gene therapy : Implications of size on fermentation, complexation, shearing resistance, and expression
- 2014
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Ingår i: Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids. - : Elsevier BV. - 2162-2531. ; 3, s. e140-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The minicircle (MC), composed of eukaryotic sequences only, is an interesting approach to increase the safety and efficiency of plasmid-based vectors for gene therapy. In this paper, we investigate micro-MC (miMC) vectors encoding small regulatory RNA. We use a construct encoding a splice-correcting U7 small nuclear RNA, which results in a vector of 650 base pairs (bp), as compared to a conventional 3600 bp plasmid carrying the same expression cassette. Furthermore, we construct miMCs of varying sizes carrying different number of these cassettes. This allows us to evaluate how size influences production, supercoiling, stability and efficiency of the vector. We characterize coiling morphology by atomic force microscopy and measure the resistance to shearing forces caused by an injector device, the Biojector. We compare the behavior of miMCs and plasmids in vitro using lipofection and electroporation, as well as in vivo in mice. We here show that when the size of the miMC is reduced, the formation of dimers and trimers increases. There seems to be a lower size limit for efficient expression. We demonstrate that miMCs are more robust than plasmids when exposed to shearing forces, and that they show extended expression in vivo.
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| 5. |
- Clendenen, Tess V, et al.
(författare)
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Circulating inflammation markers and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. - : American Association for Cancer Research. - 1055-9965 .- 1538-7755. ; 20:5, s. 799-810
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Factors contributing to chronic inflammation appear to be associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between circulating levels of inflammation mediators and subsequent risk of ovarian cancer. Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 230 cases and 432 individually matched controls nested within three prospective cohorts to evaluate the association of prediagnostic circulating levels of inflammation-related biomarkers (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p40, IL-12p70, IL-13, TNFα, IL-1Ra, sIL-1RII, sIL-2Ra, sIL-4R, sIL-6R, sTNF-R1, and sTNF-R2) measured using Luminex xMap technology with risk of ovarian cancer. Results: We observed a trend across quartiles for IL-2 (ORQ4 vs. Q1: 1.57, 95% CI: 0.98–2.52, P = 0.07), IL-4 (ORQ4 vs. Q1: 1.50, 95% CI: 0.95–2.38, P = 0.06), IL-6 (ORQ4 vs. Q1: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.03–2.58, P = 0.03), IL-12p40 (ORQ4 vs. Q1: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.02–2.51, P = 0.06), and IL-13 (ORQ4 vs. Q1: 1.42, 95% CI: 0.90–2.26, P = 0.11). Trends were also observed when cytokines were modeled on the continuous scale for IL-4 (P trend = 0.01), IL-6 (P trend = 0.01), IL-12p40 (P trend = 0.01), and IL-13 (P trend = 0.04). ORs were not materially different after excluding cases diagnosed less than 5 years after blood donation or when limited to serous tumors. Conclusions and Impact: This study provides the first direct evidence that multiple inflammation markers, specifically IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-12, and IL-13, may be associated with risk of epithelial ovarian cancer, and adds to the evidence that inflammation is involved in the development of this disease.
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| 6. |
- Clendenen, Tess V., et al.
(författare)
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Circulating prolactin levels and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer
- 2013
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Ingår i: Cancer Causes and Control. - : Springer Netherlands. - 0957-5243 .- 1573-7225. ; 24:4, s. 741-748
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Indirect evidence from experimental and epidemiological studies suggests that prolactin may be involved in ovarian cancer development. However, the relationship between circulating prolactin levels and risk of ovarian cancer is unknown.We conducted a nested case-control study of 230 cases and 432 individually matched controls within three prospective cohorts to evaluate whether pre-diagnostic circulating prolactin is associated with subsequent risk of ovarian cancer. We also assessed whether lifestyle and reproductive factors are associated with circulating prolactin among controls.Prolactin levels were significantly lower among post- versus pre-menopausal women, parous versus nulliparous women, and past versus never users of oral contraceptives in our cross-sectional analysis of controls. In our nested case-control study, we observed a non-significant positive association between circulating prolactin and ovarian cancer risk (ORQ4vsQ1 1.56, 95 % CI 0.94, 2.63, p trend 0.15). Our findings were similar in multivariate-adjusted models and in the subgroup of women who donated blood a parts per thousand yen5 years prior to diagnosis. We observed a significant positive association between prolactin and risk for the subgroup of women with BMI a parts per thousand yen25 kg/m(2) (ORQ4vsQ1 3.10, 95 % CI 1.39, 6.90), but not for women with BMI < 25 kg/m(2) (ORQ4vsQ1 0.81, 95 % CI 0.40, 1.64).Our findings suggest that prolactin may be associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer, particularly in overweight/obese women. Factors associated with reduced risk of ovarian cancer, such as parity and use of oral contraceptives, were associated with lower prolactin levels, which suggests that modulation of prolactin may be a mechanism underlying their association with risk.
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| 7. |
- Clendenen, Tess V, et al.
(författare)
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Factors associated with inflammation markers, a cross-sectional analysis
- 2011
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Ingår i: Cytokine. - : Elsevier BV. - 1043-4666 .- 1096-0023. ; 56:3, s. 769-778
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Epidemiological studies have reported associations between circulating inflammation markers and risk of chronic diseases. It is of interest to examine whether risk factors for these diseases are associated with inflammation. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis to evaluate whether reproductive and lifestyle factors and circulating vitamin D were associated with inflammation markers, including C-reactive protein, cytokines (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p40, IL-12p70, IL-13, TNFα), and cytokine modulators (IL-1RA, sIL-1RII, sIL-2Ra, sIL-4R, sIL-6R, sTNF-R1/R2), among 616 healthy women. We confirmed associations of several inflammation markers with age and BMI. We also observed significantly higher levels of certain inflammation markers in postmenopausal vs. premenopausal women (TNFα, sIL-1RII, sIL-2Ra), with increasing parity (IL-12p40), and with higher circulating 25(OH) vitamin D (IL-13) and lower levels among current users of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-10, IL-12p70, and IL-12p40), current smokers (IL-4, IL-13, IL-12p40), and women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer (IL-4, IL-10, IL-13). Our findings suggest that risk factors for chronic diseases (age, BMI, menopausal status, parity, NSAID use, family history of breast and ovarian cancer, and smoking) are associated with inflammation markers in healthy women.
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| 8. |
- Gram, Inger T, et al.
(författare)
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Cigarette smoking and risk of histological subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer in the EPIC cohort study
- 2012
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Ingår i: International Journal of Cancer. - : Wiley. - 0020-7136 .- 1097-0215. ; 130:9, s. 2204-2210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- New data regarding a positive association between smoking and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), especially the mucinous tumor type, has started to emerge. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between different measures of smoking exposures and subtypes of EOC in a large cohort of women from 10 European countries. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort is a multicenter prospective study initiated in 1992. The questionnaires included data about dietary, lifestyle, and health factors. Information about cigarette smoking was collected from individuals in all participating countries. We used Cox proportional hazard regression models to estimate hazard ratio (HR) of EOC overall and serous, mucinous, and endometroid histological subtypes, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) associated with different measures of smoking exposures adjusting for confounding variables. Altogether 836 incident EOC cases were identified among 326,831 women. The tumors were classified as 400 serous, 83 mucinous, 80 endometroid, 35 clear cell, and 238 unspecified. Compared with never smokers, current smokers had a significantly increased risk for mucinous tumors [HR = 1.85 (95% CI 1.08-3.16)] and those smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day had a doubling in risk [HR = 2.25(95% CI 1.26-4.03)] as did those who had smoked less than 15 pack-years of cigarettes [HR = 2.18 (95% CI 1.07-4.43)]. The results from the EPIC study add further evidence that smoking increases risk of mucinous ovarian cancer and support the notion that the effect of smoking varies according to histological subtype.
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| 9. |
- Lahmann, Petra H., et al.
(författare)
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Anthropometric measures and epithelial ovarian cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Cancer. - : Wiley. - 0020-7136 .- 1097-0215. ; 126:10, s. 2404-2415
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We examined the associations of measured anthropometric factors, including general and central adiposity and height, with ovarian cancer risk. We also investigated these associations by menopausal status and for specific histological subtypes. Among 226,798 women in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort, there were 611 incident cases of primary, malignant, epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosed during a mean 8.9 years of follow-up. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (as), adjusted for potential confounders. Compared to women with body mass index (BMI) < 25 kg/m(2), obesity (BMI >= 30 kg/m(2)) was associated with excess ovarian cancer risk for all women combined (HR = 1.33, 95% Cl = 1.05-1.68; p(trend) = 0.02) and postmenopausal women (HR = 1.59, 95% Cl = 1.20-2.10; p(trend) = 0.001), but the association was weaker for premenopausal women (HR = 1.16, 95% Cl = 0.65-2.06; p(trend) = 0.65). Neither height or weight gain, nor BMI-adjusted measures of fat distribution assessed by waist circumference, waist-hip ratio (WHR) or hip circumference were associated with overall risk. WHR was related to increased risk of mucinous tumors (BMI-adjusted HR per 0.05 unit increment = 1.17, 95% Cl = 1.00-1.38). For all women combined, no other significant associations with risk were observed for specific histological subtypes. This large, prospective study provides evidence that obesity is an important modifiable risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer, particularly among postmenopausal women.
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| 10. |
- Lammer, H., et al.
(författare)
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Geophysical and Atmospheric Evolution of Habitable Planets
- 2010
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Ingår i: Astrobiology. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc. - 1531-1074 .- 1557-8070. ; 10:1, s. 45-68
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The evolution of Earth-like habitable planets is a complex process that depends on the geodynamical and geophysical environments. In particular, it is necessary that plate tectonics remain active over billions of years. These geophysically active environments are strongly coupled to a planet's host star parameters, such as mass, luminosity and activity, orbit location of the habitable zone, and the planet's initial water inventory. Depending on the host star's radiation and particle flux evolution, the composition in the thermosphere, and the availability of an active magnetic dynamo, the atmospheres of Earth-like planets within their habitable zones are differently affected due to thermal and nonthermal escape processes. For some planets, strong atmospheric escape could even effect the stability of the atmosphere.
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