Single Dish Research Articles

Do Behaviors Such As Eating Faster or Taking Larger Bites Moderate the Portion Size Effect?

ObjectivesIndividuals eat more when served larger portions, and this may be influenced by eating-related microstructural behaviors. In a controlled study, we explored whether microstructural components of eating such as eating rate, bite size, bite count, and meal duration influenced the portion size effect. MethodsIn a randomized crossover design, 44 adults aged 18 to 68 y (66% women; 45% with overweight or obesity) ate lunch in the laboratory once a week for four weeks. The meal consisted of a single dish of pasta (1.4 kcal/g) that was varied in portion size (400,500, 600, or 700 g) along with ∼700 g of water. Intake was assessed by weighing items before and after the meal. To characterize eating microstructure, meals were video-recorded to assess bite counts and meal duration, which were used to calculate mean eating rate (g/min) and mean bite size (g/bite). The influence of eating microstructure on the portion size effect was analyzed by random coefficients models. ResultsAs larger portions were served, meal intake increased in a curvilinear manner (P < 0.0001). Compared to the smallest portion, intake of the largest portion increased by a mean (±SEM) of 123 ± 16 g (43%). As portions were increased, there were similar increases in bite count (35%) and meal duration (38%; both P < 0.0001), but only small increases in mean bite size (8%; P = 0.019) and no significant change in eating rate (P = 0.92). Measures of eating microstructure did not moderate the portion size effect but did have main effects on intake across all portions. Individuals ate more at the meal when they ate faster, took larger bites, took more bites, or ate for longer (all P < 0.0001). Body mass index did not influence eating microstructure or the strength of the portion size effect but had a modest negative effect on intake across all meals (–5.9 ± 2.7 g/unit increase in BMI; P = 0.046). ConclusionsEating-related microstructural behaviors influenced meal intake across portions, but did not moderate the effect of portion size on intake. Individuals who ate faster and took larger bites ate more across all portions, possibly as a result of reduced oro-sensory exposure, which can delay meal termination. Targeted interventions to alter components of eating microstructure have the potential as strategies to reduce overconsumption. Funding SourcesNIDDK, Jenny Craig.

On the photoevaporation, dust polarization and kinematics of two nebulae in Sh2-236

In the work presented here, the impact of magnetic field on the dynamical evolution of cometary globules Sim 129 and Sim 130 in the Sh2-236 HII region and the ionized gas streaming out of their surfaces is investigated. The magnetic field morphology in the region associated with these globules is inferred using optical polarization measurements with the Sampurnanand Telescope at ARIES. The nebular emission is probed through radio continuum mapping at 1.4 GHz with the archival National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Very Large Array (VLA) Sky Survey (NVSS) data. The correlation of these measurements suggests that photoevaporated gas from the surfaces of Sim 129 and Sim 130 accumulates in clouds and starts streaming along the magnetic field lines. The 12CO (J=1–0) molecular line observations are performed towards NGC 1893 from the 14-m single dish radio telescope in Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory (TRAO). The velocity dispersion in the 12CO (J=1–0) molecular line and the dispersion in polarization angles are considered in the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi formulation to estimate the magnetic field strength towards two Sim nebulae. The average value of field strength is found to be ∼60 μG with uncertainty of 0.5 times the estimated value.

Giant molecular cloud formation at the interface of colliding supershells in the large magellanic cloud

ABSTRACT We investigate the H i envelope of the young, massive GMCs in the star-forming regions N48 and N49, which are located within the high column density H i ridge between two kpc-scale supergiant shells, LMC 4 and LMC 5. New long-baseline H i 21 cm line observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) were combined with archival shorter baseline data and single dish data from the Parkes telescope, for a final synthesized beam size of 24.75 arcsec by 20.48 arcsec, which corresponds to a spatial resolution of ∼6 pc in the LMC. It is newly revealed that the H i gas is highly filamentary and that the molecular clumps are distributed along filamentary H i features. In total 39 filamentary features are identified and their typical width is ∼21 (8–49) [pc]. We propose a scenario in which the GMCs were formed via gravitational instabilities in atomic gas which was initially accumulated by the two shells and then further compressed by their collision. This suggests that GMC formation involves the filamentary nature of the atomic medium.

Mixed Dish Recognition With Contextual Relation and Domain Alignment

Mixed dish is a food category that contains different dishes mixed in one plate, and is popular in Eastern and Southeast Asia. Recognizing the individual dishes in a mixed dish image is important for health related applications, e.g. to calculate the nutrition values of the dish. However, most existing methods that focus on single dish classification are not applicable to the recognition of mixed dish images. The main challenge of mixed dish recognition comes from three aspects: a wide range of dish types, the complex dish combination with severe overlap between different dishes and the large visual variances of same dish type caused by different cooking/cutting methods applied in different canteens. In order to tackle these problems, we propose the contextual relation network that encodes the implicit and explicit contextual relations among multiple dishes from region-level features and label-level co-occurrence respectively. Besides, to address the visual variances of dish instances from different canteens, we introduce the domain adaption networks to align both local and global features, and eliminating domain gaps of dish features across different canteens. In addition, we collect a mixed dish image dataset containing 9254 mixed dish images from 6 canteens in Singapore. Extensive experiments on both our dataset and public one validate that our methods can achieve top performance for localizing and recognizing multiple dishes and solve the domain shift problem to a certain extent in mixed dish images.

Shining on from the first light: The early sciences of FAST

<p indent=0mm>The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese mega-science project, the first light of which was achieved on September 19th, 2016. The mid-1990s witnessed the birth of the FAST concept, March of 2011 the commencement of construction, 2019 the shared-risk open programs, and 2020 the final project review, first batch of major surveys and the starting of normal operation. Throughout the more than two decades’ “long march”, there has never been a lack of constant struggle and challenges, brought about by the fast-moving frontiers of radio technology and radio astronomy. This is a brief summary of our innovations in response, including a low-cost ultra-wideband commissioning receiver, a highly configurable digital spectrometer, a container-based data center, a fast radio burst (FRB) backend, etc. During the early science phase, we developed the world’s first commensal observing mode in this band, capable of recording pulsar, Galactic HI, extra-galactic HI, and transient data streams, simultaneously. The thus based Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS) was approved as one of the five major surveys by the science committee and has produced the first batch of FAST’s science results, including new pulsars, new FRBs, the first paper on systematic timing of FAST new pulsars, etc. Before CRAFTS, there is no major survey that accomplished simultaneously searching for pulsars and imaging HI. CRAFTS helps improve the survey efficiency of FAST by more than three folds. In addition to surveys, FAST has started more than 100 PI-led programs, selected by open competitions through the “shared-risk” and the first open call for proposals. Many proposals focused on new frontiers, such as FRBs and exoplanets. FAST joined the campaign to monitor the only Galactic FRB source J1935+2154 and provided the most stringent constraint on its radio flux, which is crucial to understand the origin of FRBs. This result along with the discovery papers has been cited as one of the major scientific achievements world-wide in 2020. The cost per unit effective collecting area of FAST is only 1/4 that of the Greenbank Telescope (GBT) or the Square Kilometer Array-phase 1 (SKA1). The success of FAST demonstrates that a giant filled-aperture antenna can still be the most cost-effective route toward the best absolute sensitivity. In light of the main stream of radio astronomy development toward powerful arrays, however, FAST will have to continue exploiting its upgradability, which is another major advantage of a giant single dish over interferometers. For an interferometer of <italic>n</italic> element, any major upgrade will incur cost of ~<italic>n</italic> sets of electronics and of ~<italic>n</italic>² computational costs. For FAST, a cooled PAF is its clear land-mark goal, which will help utilize its relatively flat and spacious focal plane to achieve even better survey efficiency and quality. Human’s worldview and cosmos-view have been entirely shaped by what we can observe. The ultimate goal of FAST is to deepen mankind’s understanding of nature through worldview-altering discoveries. On December 1st, 2020 local time, the great Arecibo telescope, after occupying the world’s apex of radio sensitivity for more than half a century, collapsed. The FAST was inspired by the audacity of Arecibo and encouraged by its achievements. As envisioned by Dr. Nan, Rendong, “FAST represents the collective ambition of Chinese astronomers to leap from chasing to leading.” It starts now.

The First Fast Radio Burst Detected with VLITE-Fast

Abstract The VLITE-Fast experiment combines the wide-field-of-view of single dish antennas operating at low frequency with the high angular resolution furnished by the 3–30 km baselines of the VLA, making it ideal for the detection and precise localization of radio transients. We describe the VLITE-Fast experiment, its capabilities, and operational status, and we briefly overview its main science case, the detection of fast radio bursts (FRBs) and determination of their host galaxies. We report on commissioning observations in an incoherent mode prohibiting precise localization. These include discovery of FRB 20200405A, detected during early science operations at dispersion measure (DM) = 212.3 pc cm−3, strongly in excess of the Galactic DM along the line of sight.

Resolved H i in two ultra-diffuse galaxies from contrasting non-cluster environments

ABSTRACT We report on the first resolved H i observations of two blue ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). These observations add to the so-far limited number of UDGs with resolved H i data. The targets are from contrasting non-cluster environments: UDG-B1 is projected in the outskirts of Hickson Compact Group 25 and Secco-dI-2 (SdI-2) is an isolated UDG. These UDGs also have contrasting effective radii with Re of 3.7 kpc (similar to the Milky Way) and 1.3 kpc, respectively. SdI-2 has an unusually large $\frac{M_{\rm H\,{\small I}}}{M_*}$ ratio = 28.9, confirming a previous single dish H i observation. Both galaxies display H i morphological and kinematic signatures consistent with a recent tidal interaction, which is also supported by observations from other wavelengths, including optical spectroscopy. Within the limits of the observations’ resolution our analysis indicates that SdI-2 is dark matter dominated within its H i radius and this is also likely to be the case for UDG-B1. Our study highlights the importance of high spatial and spectral resolution H i observations for the study of the dark matter properties of UDGs.

IVIA - Ibero-American VLBI Initiative -Progress on the Brazilian side.

IVIA is a joint initiative of at least 8 Latin-American countries plus Portugal and Spain to make good use of large telecommunications antennas that are out of service in these countries, because most international communications are now using submarine cables. The first step will be to refurbish the antennas and then to start doing single dish observations of radiosources. In a second step the antennas will be equipped with VLBI (Very Long Base Interferometry) equipment, to establish a VLBI network. This project will be able to effectively promote scientific integration in Ibero-America. The work is starting in several countries; here we present several scientific cases for the use of the antennas, and we report on the first Brasilian activities.

H i intensity mapping with MeerKAT: 1/f noise analysis

ABSTRACT The nature of the time correlated noise component (the 1/f noise) of single dish radio telescopes is critical to the detectability of the H i signal in intensity mapping experiments. In this paper, we present the 1/f noise properties of the MeerKAT receiver system using South Celestial Pole tracking data. We estimate both the temporal power spectrum density and the 2D power spectrum density for each of the antennas and polarizations. We apply singular value decomposition to the data set and show that, by removing the strongest components, the 1/f noise can be drastically reduced, indicating that it is highly correlated in frequency. With two-mode subtraction, the knee frequency over a $20\,$ MHz averaging is about $3\times 10^{-3}\, {\rm Hz}$, indicating that the system induced 1/f-type variations are well under the thermal noise fluctuations over a few hundred seconds time-scales. We also show that such cleaning on the time ordered data has very little impact on the 21-cm signal itself. The 2D power spectrum shows that the 1/f-type variations are restricted to a small region in the time–frequency space, either with long-wavelength correlations in frequency or in time. This gives a wide range of cosmological scales where the H i signal can be measured without further need to calibrate the gain time fluctuations. Finally, we demonstrate that a simple power spectrum parameterization is sufficient to describe the data and provide fitting parameters for both the 1D and 2D power spectrum.

In vitro Neuromuscular Junction Induced from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a specialized synapse that transmits action potentials from the motor neuron to skeletal muscle for mechanical movement. The architecture of the NMJ structure influences the functions of the neuron, the muscle and the mutual interaction. Previous studies have reported many strategies by co-culturing the motor neurons and myotubes to generate NMJ in vitro with complex induction process and long culture period but have struggled to recapitulate mature NMJ morphology and function. Our in vitro NMJ induction system is constructed by differentiating human iPSC in a single culture dish. By switching the myogenic and neurogenic induction medium for induction, the resulting NMJ contained pre- and post- synaptic components, including motor neurons, skeletal muscle and Schwann cells in the one month culture. The functional assay of NMJ also showed that the myotubes contraction can be triggered by Ca++ then inhibited by curare, an acetylcholine receptor (AChR) inhibitor, in which the stimulating signal is transmitted through NMJ. This simple and robust approach successfully derived the complex structure of NMJ with functional connectivity. This in vitro human NMJ, with its integrated structures and function, has promising potential for studying pathological mechanisms and compound screening.

Making a Sustainable Diet Acceptable: An Emerging Programming Model With Applications to Schools and Nursing Homes Menus.

Background: Food consumption is one of the most important drivers of the relation between human well-being and Earth's ecosystems. The current production level is difficult to sustain without compromising environmental integrity or public health. This calls for a decisive change in food consumption patterns in order to improve nutrition quality while respecting biodiversity and ecosystems. This change will produce some effect only if it is also culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable. The design of food plans is traditionally carried out using mathematical optimization models, such as linear programming. This method has proved to be successful in providing nutritionally adequate diets while minimizing their economic and environmental impact. Nevertheless, cultural habits as well as attractiveness and variety of meals is very difficult to deal with, and no fully satisfactory way to include these issues in linear programming has been found.Objective: The aim of this paper is to move from traditional linear programming to a new programming methodology in order to cope also with acceptability in the design of meal plans.Method: Binary integer linear programming is the new modeling paradigm. In the proposed model, meal plans consist of providing the sequence and composition of daily meals over a given period of time and each meal can be composed using dishes from a given set. Therefore, instead of defining just a level of consumption of food groups or food items, the proposed model provides a realistic menu. To cope with sustainability, the energy and nutritional content of each dish is calculated together with its price and environmental impact. Furthermore, acceptability can be explicitly taken into account in a very natural way, that is bounding the daily, weekly, or total repetitions of single dishes and of dishes in the same food groups.Results: The paper reviews three successful studies with increasing complexity considering lunch plans for schools and full-board menus for nursing homes. The case studies show a great reduction of the environmental impact of the meal plans while ensuring an adequate nutritional intake, affordable prices and most importantly the plans are varied and culturally acceptable.

Deep learning improves identification of Radio Frequency Interference

ABSTRACTFlagging of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) in time–frequency visibility data is an increasingly important challenge in radio astronomy. We present R-Net, a deep convolutional ResNet architecture that significantly outperforms existing algorithms – including the default MeerKAT RFI flagger, and deep U-Net architectures – across all metrics including AUC, F1-score, and MCC. We demonstrate the robustness of this improvement on both single dish and interferometric simulations and, using transfer learning, on real data. Our R-Net model’s precision is approximately $90{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ better than the current MeerKAT flagger at $80{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ recall and has a 35 per cent higher F1-score with no additional performance cost. We further highlight the effectiveness of transfer learning from a model initially trained on simulated MeerKAT data and fine-tuned on real, human-flagged, KAT-7 data. Despite the wide differences in the nature of the two telescope arrays, the model achieves an AUC of 0.91, while the best model without transfer learning only reaches an AUC of 0.67. We consider the use of phase information in our models but find that without calibration the phase adds almost no extra information relative to amplitude data only. Our results strongly suggest that deep learning on simulations, boosted by transfer learning on real data, will likely play a key role in the future of RFI flagging of radio astronomy data.

Observability of dusty debris discs around M-stars

ABSTRACT Debris discs are second-generation dusty discs formed by collisions of planetesimals. Many debris discs have been found and resolved around hot and solar-type stars. However, only a handful have been discovered around M-stars, and the reasons for their paucity remain unclear. Here, we check whether the sensitivity and wavelength coverage of present-day telescopes are simply unfavourable for detection of these discs or if they are truly rare. We approach this question by looking at the Herschel/DEBRIS survey that has searched for debris discs including M-type stars. Assuming that these cool-star discs are ‘similar’ to those of the hotter stars in some sense (i.e. in terms of dust location, temperature, fractional luminosity, or mass), we check whether this survey should have found them. With our procedure we can reproduce the $2.1^{+4.5}_{-1.7}$ per cent detection rate of M-star debris discs of the DEBRIS survey, which implies that these discs can indeed be similar to discs around hotter stars and just avoid detection. We then apply this procedure to IRAM NIKA-2 and ALMA bands 3, 6, and 7 to predict possible detection rates and give recommendations for future observations. We do not favour observing with IRAM, since it leads to detection rates lower than for the DEBRIS survey, with 0.6–4.5 per cent for a 15 min observation. ALMA observations, with detection rates 0.9–7.2 per cent, do not offer a significant improvement either, and so we conclude that more sensitive far-infrared and single dish sub-millimetre telescopes are necessary to discover the missing population of M-star debris discs.

A Multiplex Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Platform Defines Molecular and Functional Subclasses of Autism-Related Genes.

Autism is a clinically heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interactions, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. Despite significant advances in the genetics of autism, understanding how genetic changes perturb brain development and affect clinical symptoms remains elusive. Here, we present a multiplex human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) platform, in which 30 isogenic disease lines are pooled in a single dish and differentiated into prefrontal cortex (PFC) lineages to efficiently test early-developmental hypotheses of autism. We define subgroups of autism mutations that perturb PFC neurogenesis and are correlated to abnormal WNT/βcatenin responses. Class 1 mutations (8 of 27) inhibit while class 2 mutations (5 of 27) enhance PFC neurogenesis. Remarkably, autism patient data reveal that individuals carrying subclass-specific mutations differ clinically in their corresponding language acquisition profiles. Our study provides a framework to disentangle genetic heterogeneity associated with autism and points toward converging molecular and developmental pathways of diverse autism-associated mutations.

Simulation of FAST EM performance for both the axial and lateral feed defocusing

Five-hundred-meter Aperture radio Spherical Telescope (FAST) is the world’s largest single dish radio telescope, which is located in Guizhou Province, in southwest China. The FAST feed cabin is supported and positioned by six steel cables. The deviation of the feed position and orientation would lead to loss in the telescope efficiency. In this paper, a series of electromagnetic (EM) simulations of the FAST facility with varying feed positions and orientation offsets was performed. The maximum gain of FAST is about 82.3 dBi and the sibelobe is –32 dB with respect to the main beam at 3 GHz. The simulation results have demonstrated that the telescope efficiency loss is more sensitive to the lateral feed deviation compared with the axial deviation. The telescope efficiency would decrease by 8.2% due to the FAST feed position deviation of 10 mm rms when the observing frequency is 3 GHz. The FAST feed deviation basically has no effect on the sidelobes and cross polarization characteristic according to the simulations.

AntArr – Etna Low Frequency Antenna Array

Abstract A project called AntArr as a new application of the DBBC3 (Digital Base Band Converter, 3rd generation) is under development. A group of antennas operating at low frequency, in the range from 10 MHz up to 1500 MHz, are phased up for VLBI, pulsar and more recently for FRB observations. Part of the scientific programme is also dedicated to SETI activities in piggy-back mode. Dedicated elements can even be added to reach still lower frequencies to observe the range down to kHz frequencies. The DBBC3 manages the array operations in a selected portion of the band and the main characteristic is to synthesize a beam with an innovative approach. The final product of the array is a single station standard VLBI data stream for correlation with other antennas, or a synthesized beam for single dish observations. A number of antennas and array prototypes are under test at a location on the Etna volcano slope, with the aim to form a complete radio telescope of up to 1024 elements in 2020 and beyond. This project completes the lower part of the frequency spectrum covered in VLBI by the BRAND EVN project. The project AntArr is hosted and financed by HAT-Lab Ltd., which is the manufacturer of the DBBC family backends.

First Report of Aphanomyces euteiches Causing Aphanomyces Root Rot on Lentil in North Dakota

Aphanomyces euteiches (Drechs) is the causal agent of Aphanomyces root rot (ARR) on field pea (Pisum sativum L.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), and lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.). ARR can cause severe yield loss in lentil. This disease is widespread in the Canadian prairies and was first reported in the U.S. Pacific Northwest in 2010 (Chatterton et al. 2019; Vandemark and Porter 2010). North Dakota is responsible for much of U.S. lentil production with >74,000 ha planted, primarily in the northwest corner of the state (USDA-NASS 2018). In 2018, lentil plants from a commercial field in North Dakota displayed symptoms consistent with ARR. Under microscopic examination, roots contained oospores consistent with A. euteiches. To confirm the pathogen, five cuttings were taken from symptomatic roots, placed onto metalaxyl-benomyl-vancomycin selective media for A. euteiches using the under the block technique, and incubated at 22 ± 2°C for 48 h (Pfender et al. 1984; Schmitthenner and Bhat 1994). Coenocytic mycelium, characteristic of A. euteiches, was transferred to PDA using hyphal-tip micromanipulation. The putative A. euteiches isolate was grown for 5 days on PDA at room temperature under ambient light. The isolate had coenocytic mycelia 5 to 13 µm in diameter (n = 12, average = 9.5 µm) and free-flowing cytoplasm (Scott 1961). The antheridia were monoclinous and diclinous, and they formed one to two antheridial attachments to the oogonia. Oogonia formed terminally, were 20 to 31 µm in diameter (n = 12, average = 24 µm), and were aplerotic. Oogonia developed characteristic smooth, thick walls. Four 5-mm-diameter PDA cores were excised from 5-day-old cultures and aseptically transferred to a sterile 250-ml Erlenmeyer flask containing eight corn kernels and 60 ml of deionized water. Flasks were incubated at 22 ± 2°C for 9 days and washed twice with sterilized tap water with a 3-hour resting period between washings. Sporangia formed 70 to 100 grape-like clusters of smooth primary zoospores (average diameter = 8 µm) at the terminal end of the hyphal stalk that yielded secondary biflagellate zoospores. Morphological identification was confirmed by sequencing using the universal primers ITS1 and ITS4 (White et al. 1990). BLASTn analysis indicated that the 620-bp sequence of isolate LenND18 was 99.52% identical to A. euteiches (GenBank KY593270.1). The sequence was deposited into GenBank as MN175977. To confirm pathogenicity of the isolate, lentils were inoculated and grown on a light shelf under laboratory conditions. Three sterile 640-ml pots were filled two-thirds full with pasteurized potting mix (Miracle Grow). Corn meal agar amended with streptomycin and neomycin from a single 90-mm Petri dish containing a 14-day-old A. euteiches culture was cut into 4-mm² sections and placed on top of the potting mix. Five surface-sterilized Richlea lentil seeds were placed on top of the cut agar pieces containing A. euteiches oospores in each pot and covered with potting mix. Seeds planted into three pots containing only pasteurized potting mix served as negative controls. Plants were grown at room temperature with a 16-h photoperiod. After 14 days, roots were washed and examined for symptoms. This experiment was repeated. Inoculated seedlings displayed symptoms characteristic of ARR. Golden-brown lesions were observed on the tap root, and symptomatic roots were soft with the outer portion (cortical tissue) easily stripped away. Control plants were asymptomatic. A. euteiches was reisolated from symptomatic plants, as confirmed by culture morphology and identification of oospores and mycelia using microscopy. This is the first report of A. euteiches on lentil in North Dakota. The recommended rotation for lentil is 3 to 4 years, but in the presence of long-lived oospores produced by A. euteiches, rotations may need to be lengthened to 6 to 8 years (Wu et al. 2018). Growers will need to monitor fields closely for symptoms and adopt longer rotations if ARR is observed.

A flat-spectrum flare in S4 0444+63 revealed by a new implementation of multiwavelength single-dish observations

ABSTRACT Relativistic amplification boosts the contribution of the jet base to the total emission in blazars, thus making single-dish observations useful and practical to characterize their physical state, particularly during episodes of enhanced multiwavelength activity. Following the detection of a new gamma-ray source by Fermi-LAT in 2017 July, we observed S4 0444+63 in order to secure its identification as a gamma-ray blazar. We conducted observations with the Medicina and Noto radio telescopes at 5, 8, and 24 GHz for a total of 12 epochs between 2017 August 1 and 2018 September 22. We carried out the observations with on-the-fly cross-scans and reduced the data with our newly developed Cross-scan Analysis Pipeline, which we present here in detail for the first time. We found the source to be in an elevated state of emission at radio wavelength, compared to historical values, which lasted for several months. The maximum luminosity was reached on 2018 May 16 at 24 GHz, with $L_{24}=(1.7\pm 0.3)\times 10^{27}\ \mathrm{W\, Hz}^{-1}$; the spectral index was found to evolve from slightly rising to slightly steep. Besides the new observations, which have proved to be an effective and efficient tool to secure the identification of the source, additional single dish and very long baseline interferometry data provide further insight on the physics of the source. We estimate a synchrotron peak frequency νpeak = 1012.97 Hz and a Doppler factor in excess of δ ∼ 5.0, with both quantities playing a role in the gamma-ray emission from the source.

Evaluation of Potential Volatile Allelopathic Plants from Bangladesh, with Sapindus mukorossi as a Candidate Species

This study focuses on identifying volatile emissions from plants with potential plant growth inhibitory activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate plant species from the Asian country Bangladesh for new, potential volatile allelopathic species. A total of 103 plant samples from 40 different families were assessed with the dish pack (DP) method. About 25% of the evaluated plant samples influenced (inhibited or stimulated) the growth of lettuce, due to the presence of potentially volatile allelochemicals. The pericarp of Sapindus mukorossi Gaertn. caused the lowest radicle elongation (3% of control) of the lettuce. This was followed by the leaves of Cassia nodosa Roxb. (34.4%) and the root of Kaempferia galangal L. (43.4%), in that order. Therefore, the pericarp of S. mukorossi is reported from this study as a new potential volatile allelopathic species. On the contrary, the leaves of Gynostemma pentaphyllum Thunb. had a stimulatory effect on the hypocotyl elongation of lettuce seedlings (156% of control). The single petri dish (SPD), a new method, was also adapted to justify the potentiality of the growth control of particular allelopathic species. This study revealed that the new potentially volatile allelopathic plant species could be further explored in sustainable weed management.

Time-Lapse 2D Imaging of Phagocytic Activity in M1 Macrophage-4T1 Mouse Mammary Carcinoma Cells in Co-cultures

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have been identified as an important component for tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and resistance to cancer therapies. However, tumor-associated macrophages can be harmful to the tumor depending on the tumor microenvironment and can reversibly alter their phenotypic characteristics by either antagonizing the cytotoxic activity of immune cells or enhancing anti-tumor response. The molecular actions of macrophages and their interactions with tumor cells (e.g., phagocytosis) have not been extensively studied. Therefore, the interaction between immune cells (M1/M2-subtype TAM) and cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment is now a focus of cancer immunotherapy research. In the present study, a live cell coculture model of induced M1 macrophages and mouse mammary 4T1 carcinoma cells was developed to assess the phagocytic activity of macrophages using a time-lapse video feature using phase-contrast, fluorescent, and differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. The present method can observe and document multipoint live-cell imaging of phagocytosis. Phagocytosis of 4T1 cells by M1 macrophages can be observed using fluorescent microscopy before staining 4T1 cells with carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE). The current publication describes how to coculture macrophages and tumor cells in a single imaging dish, polarize M1 macrophages, and record multipoint events of macrophages engulfing 4T1 cells during 13 h of coculture.