Search

The cosmological 21-cm signal offers a potential probe of the early Universe and the first ionizing sources. Current experiments probe the spatially dependent variance (Gaussianity) of the signal through the power spectrum (PS). The signal, however, is expected to be highly non-Gaussian due to the complex topology of reionization and X-ray heating. We investigate the non-Gaussianities of X-ray heating and reionization, by calculating the skew spectrum (SS) of the 21-cm signal using meraxes , which couples a semi-analytic galaxy population with seminumerical reionization simulations. The SS is the cross-spectrum of the quadratic temperature brightness field with itself. We generate a set of seven simulations from z = 30 to 5, varying the halo mass threshold for hosting star formation, the X-ray luminosity per star formation rate, and the minimum X-ray energy escaping host galaxies. We find the SS is predominantly negative as a function of redshift, transitioning to positive towards the start of reionization, and peaking during the mid-point of reionization. We do not see a negative dip in the SS during reionization, likely due to the specifics of modelling ionization sources. We normalize the SS by the PS during reionization isolating the non-Gaussianities. We find a trough (⁠|$k\sim \, 0.1\, \textrm {Mpc}^{-1}$|⁠) and peak (⁠|$k\sim \, 0.4{-}1\, \textrm {Mpc}^{-1}$|⁠) in the normalized SS during the mid-to-late periods of reionization. These correlate to the ionization topology, and neutral islands in the IGM. We calculate the cosmic variance of the normalized SS, and find these features are detectable in the absence of foregrounds with the SKA_LOW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal broadening is a commonly observed property of fast radio bursts (FRBs), associated with turbulent media which cause radiowave scattering. Similarly to dispersion, scattering is an important probe of the media along the line of sight to an FRB source, such as the circumburst or circumgalactic media (CGM). Measurements of characteristic scattering times alone are insufficient to constrain the position of the dominant scattering media along the line of sight. However, where more than one scattering screen exists, Galactic scintillation can be leveraged to form strong constraints. We quantify the scattering and scintillation in 10 FRBs with (1) known host galaxies and redshifts and (2) captured voltage data enabling high-time resolution analysis. We find strong evidence for two screens in three cases. For FRBs 20190608B and 20210320C, we find evidence for scattering screens less than approximately 16.7 and 3000 kpc, respectively, from their sources, consistent with the scattering occurring in the circumburst environment, the host interstellar medium (ISM) or the CGM. For FRB 20201124A, we find a low modulation index that evolves over the burst's scattering tail, indicating the presence of a scattering screen ≈9 kpc from the host, and excluding the circumburst environment from potential scattering sites. By assuming that pulse broadening is contributed by the host galaxy ISM or circumburst environment, the lack of observed scintillation in four FRBs in our sample suggests that existing models may be poor estimators of scattering times associated with the Milky Way's ISM, similar to the anomalously low scattering observed for FRB 20201124A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast cosmological transients such as fast radio bursts (FRBs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) represent a class of sources more compact than any other cosmological object. As such, they are sensitive to significant magnification via gravitational lensing from a class of lenses which are not well constrained by observations today. Low-mass primordial black holes are one such candidate which may constitute a significant fraction of the Universe's dark matter. Current observations only constrain their density in the nearby Universe, giving fast transients from cosmological distances the potential to form complementary constraints. Motivated by this, we calculate the effect that gravitational lensing from a cosmological distribution of compact objects would have on the observed rates of FRBs and GRBs. For static lensing geometries, we rule out the prospect that all FRBs are gravitationally lensed for a range of lens masses and show that lens masses greater than 10−5 M ⊙ can be constrained with 8000 unlocalized high-fluence FRBs at 1.4GHz, as might be detected by the next generation of FRB-finding telescopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the contribution of extended radio sources such as Centaurus A, and Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) to our ability to detect the statistical 21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). These sources are typically ignored because they are in highly attenuated parts of the MWA primary beam, however, in aggregate, these sources have apparent flux densities of |$10\, \rm {Jy}$| on angular scales we expect to detect the 21-cm signal. We create bespoke multicomponent 2D Gaussian models for Galactic SNRs and for Centaurus A, and simulate the visibilities for two MWA snapshot observations. We grid those visibilities and then Fourier transform them with respect to frequency, averaging them both spherically and cylindrically to produce the 1D and 2D power spectra. We compare the simulated 1D power spectra to the expected 21- |$\rm {cm}$| power spectrum. We find that although these extended sources are in highly attenuated parts of the MWA primary beam pattern, collectively they have enough power (∼104−105  |$\rm {mK^2}\, {\it h^{-3}} \, \rm {Mpc^{3}}$|⁠) on EoR significant modes |$(|{\boldsymbol k}| \lesssim 0.1\, h\, \rm {Mpc^{-1}})$| to prohibit detection of the 21- |$\rm {cm}$| signal (∼104  |$\rm {mK^2}\, {\it h^{-3}} \, \rm {Mpc^{3}}$|⁠). We find that |$50{-}90{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| of sources must be removed in order to reduce leakage to a level of |$\sim 10{-}20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| of the 21- |$\rm {cm}$| power spectrum on EoR significant modes. The effects of wide-field extended sources will have implications on the detectability of the 21- |$\rm {cm}$| signal for the MWA and with the future Square Kilometre Array (SKA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The locations of Ly α-emitting galaxies (LAEs) at the end of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are expected to correlate with regions of ionized hydrogen, traced by the redshifted 21 cm hyperfine line. Mapping the neutral hydrogen around regions with detected and localized LAEs offers an avenue to constrain the brightness temperature of the Universe within the EoR by providing an expectation for the spatial distribution of the gas, thereby providing prior information unavailable to power spectrum measurements. We use a test set of 12 h of observations from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in extended array configuration, to constrain the neutral hydrogen signature of 58 LAEs, detected with the Subaru Hypersuprime Cam in the Silverrush survey, centred on z = 6.58. We assume that detectable emitters reside in the centre of ionized H  ii bubbles during the end of reionization, and predict the redshifted neutral hydrogen signal corresponding to the remaining neutral regions using a set of different ionized bubble radii. A pre-whitening matched filter detector is introduced to assess detectability. We demonstrate the ability to detect, or place limits upon, the amplitude of brightness temperature fluctuations, and the characteristic H  ii bubble size. With our limited data, we constrain the brightness temperature of neutral hydrogen to ΔTB <30 mK (<200 mK) at 95 per cent (99 per cent) confidence for lognormally distributed bubbles of radii, R B = 15 ± 2 h −1 cMpc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations in the lowest Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) band between 75 and 100 MHz have the potential to constrain the distribution of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium at redshift ∼13–17. Using 15 h of MWA data, we analyse systematics in this band such as radio-frequency interference (RFI), ionospheric and wide field effects. By updating the position of point sources, we mitigate the direction-independent calibration error due to ionospheric offsets. Our calibration strategy is optimized for the lowest frequency bands by reducing the number of direction-dependent calibrators and taking into account radio sources within a wider field of view. We remove data polluted by systematics based on the RFI occupancy and ionospheric conditions, finally selecting 5.5 h of the cleanest data. Using these data, we obtain 2σ upper limits on the 21 cm power spectrum in the range of |$0.1~ h~{\mathrm{ Mpc}}^{-1}\lessapprox k \lessapprox 1 ~ ~h~{\mathrm{ Mpc}}^{-1}$| and at z  = 14.2, 15.2, and 16.5, with the lowest limit being |$6.3\times 10^6 ~\rm mK^2$| at |$k=0.14 ~h~{\mathrm{ Mpc}}^{-1}$| and at z  = 15.2 with a possibility of a few  per cent of signal loss due to direction-independent calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming to fill a crucial gap in our observational knowledge of the early Universe, experiments around the world continue to attempt to verify the claimed detection of the redshifted 21-cm signal from Cosmic Dawn by the EDGES experiment. This sky-averaged or 'global' signal from neutral hydrogen should be detectable at low radio frequencies (50–200 MHz), but is difficult to measure due to bright foreground emission and difficulties in reaching the required levels of instrumental-calibration precision. In this paper, we outline our progress toward using a novel new method to measure the global redshifted 21-cm signal. Motivated by the need to use alternative methods with very different systematic errors to EDGES for an independent result, we employ an array of closely spaced antennas to measure the global-sky signal interferometrically, rather than using the conventional approach with a single antenna. We use simulations to demonstrate our newly developed methods and show that, for an idealized instrument, a 21-cm signal could theoretically be extracted from the visibilities of an array of closely spaced dipoles. We verify that our signal-extraction methods work on real data using observations made with a Square-Kilometre-Array-like prototype, the Engineering Development Array-2. Finally, we use the lessons learned in both our simulations and observations to lay out a clear plan for future work, which will ultimately lead to a new global redshifted 21-cm instrument: the All-Sky SignAl Short-Spacing INterferometer (ASSASSIN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting a signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) requires an exquisite understanding of Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds, low-frequency radio instruments, instrumental calibration, and data analysis pipelines. In this work, we build upon existing work that aims to understand the impact of calibration errors on 21-cm power spectrum (PS) measurements. It is well established that calibration errors have the potential to inhibit EoR detections by introducing additional spectral features that mimic the structure of EoR signals. We present a straightforward way to estimate the impact of a wide variety of modelling residuals in EoR PS estimation. We apply this framework to the specific case of broken dipoles in Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to understand its effect and estimate its impact on PS estimation. Combining an estimate of the percentage of MWA tiles that have at least one broken dipole (15–40 per cent) with an analytic description of beam errors induced by such dipoles, we compute the residuals of the foregrounds after calibration and source subtraction. We find that that incorrect beam modelling introduces bias in the 2D-PS on the order of |$\sim 10^3\, \mathrm{mK}^2 \, h^{-3}\, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-3}$|⁠ , which is on the order of current lowest limits. Determining the accuracy of both current beam models and direction-dependent calibration pipelines is therefore crucial in our search for an EoR signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observation of the 21 cm line signal from neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization is challenging due to extremely bright Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds and complicated instrumental calibration. A reasonable approach for mitigating these problems is the cross-correlation with other observables. In this work, we present the first results of the cross power spectrum (CPS) between radio images observed by the Murchison Widefield Array and the cosmic microwave background (CMB), measured by the Planck experiment. We study the systematics due to the ionospheric activity, the dependence of CPS on group of pointings, and frequency. The resulting CPS is consistent with zero because the error is dominated by the foregrounds in the 21 cm observation. Additionally, the variance of the signal indicates the presence of unexpected systematics error at small scales. Furthermore, we reduce the error by one order of magnitude with application of a foreground removal using a polynomial fitting method. Based on the results, we find that the detection of the 21 cm-CMB CPS with the MWA Phase I requires more than 99.95 per cent of the foreground signal removed, 2000 h of deep observation and 50 per cent of the sky fraction coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present early results from a project to measure the sky-averaged (global), redshifted |$21\,$| cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR), using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope. Because interferometers are not sensitive to a spatially invariant global average, they cannot be used to detect this signal using standard techniques. However, lunar occultation of the radio sky imprints a spatial structure on the global signal, allowing us to measure the average brightness temperature of the patch of sky immediately surrounding the Moon. In this paper, we present one night of Moon observations with the MWA between 72–230 MHz and verify our techniques to extract the background sky temperature from measurements of the Moon's flux density. We improve upon previous work using the lunar occultation technique by using a more sophisticated model for reflected 'earthshine' and by employing image differencing to remove imaging artefacts. We leave the Moon's (constant) radio brightness temperature as a free parameter in our fit to the data and as a result, measure T moon= 180 ± 12 K and a Galactic synchrotron spectral index of −2.64 ± 0.14, at the position of the Moon. Finally, we evaluate the prospects of the lunar occultation technique for a global EoR detection and map out a way forward for future work with the MWA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, low-frequency, broad-band radio emission has been observed accompanying bright meteors by the Long Wavelength Array (LWA). The broad-band spectra between 20 and 60MHz were captured for several events, while the spectral index (dependence of flux density on frequency, with Sv ∝ vα) was estimated to be -4 ± 1 during the peak of meteor afterglows. Here we present a survey of meteor emission and other transient events using the Murchison Wide Field Array (MWA) at 72-103MHz. In our 322 h survey, down to a 5σ detection threshold of 3.5 Jy beam-1, no transient candidates were identified as intrinsic emission from meteors. We derived an upper limit of -3.7 (95 per cent confidence limit) on the spectral index in our frequency range. We also report detections of other transient events, such as reflected FM broadcast signals from small satellites, conclusively demonstrating the ability of the MWA to detect and track space debris on scales as small as 0.1 m in low Earth orbits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We detail new techniques for analysing ionospheric activity, using Epoch of Reionization data sets obtained with the MurchisonWidefield Array, calibrated by the 'real-time system' (RTS). Using the high spatial- and temporal-resolution information of the ionosphere provided by the RTS calibration solutions over 19 nights of observing, we find four distinct types of ionospheric activity, and have developed a metric to provide an 'at a glance' value for data quality under differing ionospheric conditions. For each ionospheric type, we analyse variations of this metric as we reduce the number of pierce points, revealing that a modest number of pierce points is required to identify the intensity of ionospheric activity; it is possible to calibrate in real-time, providing continuous information of the phase screen. We also analyse temporal correlations, determine diffractive scales, examine the relative fractions of time occupied by various types of ionospheric activity and detail a method to reconstruct the total electron content responsible for the ionospheric data we observe. These techniques have been developed to be instrument agnostic, useful for application on LOw Frequency ARray and Square Kilometre Array-Low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review an improved statistical model of extra-galactic point-source foregrounds first introduced in Murray et al. (2017), in the context of the Epoch of Reionization. This model extends the instrumentally-convolved foreground covariance used in inverse-covariance foreground mitigation schemes, by considering the cosmological clustering of the sources. In this short work, we show that over scales of k ∼ (0.6, 40.) h Mpc−1, ignoring source clustering is a valid approximation. This is in contrast to Murray et al. (2017), who found a possibility of false detection if the clustering was ignored. The dominant cause for this change is the introduction of a Galactic synchrotron component which shadows the clustering of sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are underrepresented as tenure-stream faculty in U.S. academia, particularly in science fields, despite the growth of women among doctorate holders. The decision to pursue an academic career matures during the graduate-school years. What are female science graduate students' views of an academic career, and what values and priorities influence their career intentions and choices? Twenty-five women in a U.S. science graduate program were interviewed about these matters. A dominant theme in these interviews was that an academic career would best fulfill their science interests and aspirations. However, an academic career was viewed as requiring, of them as women, giving up family life—mainly due to the belief that household and family work are women's responsibilities as well as the expectation that science requires relentless focus. Frustration about the lack of options, for women, to pursue their dream of being a scientist while having a family was another recurrent theme. These findings, together with those of other studies, suggest that it is not by choice, but because of gender ideologies and practices about work and family at the disadvantage of women, that women give up on academic-science careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a survey for transient and variable sources, on time-scales from 28 s to ~1 yr, using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) at 182 MHz. Down to a detection threshold of 0.285 Jy, no transient candidates were identified, making this the most constraining lowfrequency survey to date and placing a limit on the surface density of transients of <4.1 ? 10-7 deg-2 for the shortest time-scale considered. At these frequencies, emission from Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) is expected to be detectable in the shortest time-scale images without any corrections for interstellar or intergalactic dispersion. At an FRB limiting flux density of 7980 Jy, we find a rate of <82 FRBs per sky per day for dispersion measures <700 pc cm-3. Assuming a cosmological population of standard candles, our rate limits are consistent with the FRB rates obtained by Thornton et al. if they have a flat spectral slope. Finally, we conduct an initial variability survey of sources in the field with flux densities ≳0.5 Jy and identify no sources with significant variability in their light curves. However, we note that substantial further work is required to fully characterize both the short-term and low-level variability within this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments that pursue detection of signals from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are relying on spectral smoothness of source spectra at low frequencies. This article empirically explores the effect of foreground spectra on EoR experiments by measuring high-resolution full-polarization spectra for the 586 brightest unresolved sources in one of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) EoR fields using 45 h of observation. A novel peeling scheme is used to subtract 2500 sources from the visibilities with ionospheric and beam corrections, resulting in the deepest, confusion-limited MWA image so far. The resulting spectra are found to be affected by instrumental effects, which limit the constraints that can be set on source-intrinsic spectral structure. The sensitivity and power-spectrum of the spectra are analysed, and it is found that the spectra of residuals are dominated by point spread function sidelobes from nearby undeconvolved sources. We release a catalogue describing the spectral parameters for each measured source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the 21 cm power spectrum analysis approach of the Murchison Widefield Array Epoch of Reionization project. In this paper, we compare the outputs of multiple pipelines for the purpose of validating statistical limits cosmological hydrogen at redshifts between 6 and 12. Multiple, independent, data calibration and reduction pipelines are used to make power spectrum limits on a fiducial night of data. Comparing the outputs of imaging and power spectrum stages highlights differences in calibration, foreground subtraction and power spectrum calculation. The power spectra found using these different methods span a space defined by the various tradeoffs between speed, accuracy, and systematic control. Lessons learned from comparing the pipelines range from the algorithmic to the prosaically mundane; all demonstrate the many pitfalls of neglecting reproducibility. We briefly discuss the way these different methods attempt to handle the question of evaluating a significant detection in the presence of foregrounds., Astronomy

We present first results from radio observations with the Murchison Widefield Array seeking to constrain the power spectrum of 21 cm brightness temperature fluctuations between the redshifts of 11.6 and 17.9 (113 and 75 MHz). Three hours of observations were conducted over two nights with significantly different levels of ionospheric activity. We use these data to assess the impact of systematic errors at low frequency, including the ionosphere and radio-frequency interference, on a power spectrum measurement. We find that after the 1-3 hours of integration presented here, our measurements at the Murchison Radio Observatory are not limited by RFI, even within the FM band, and that the ionosphere does not appear to affect the level of power in the modes that we expect to be sensitive to cosmology. Power spectrum detections, inconsistent with noise, due to fine spectral structure imprinted on the foregrounds by reflections in the signal-chain, occupy the spatial Fourier modes where we would otherwise be most sensitive to the cosmological signal. We are able to reduce this contamination using calibration solutions derived from autocorrelations so that we achieve an sensitivity of 104 mK on comoving scales k≲0.5hMpc−1. This represents the first upper limits on the 21 cm power spectrum fluctuations at redshifts 12≲z≲18 but is still limited by calibration systematics. While calibration improvements may allow us to further remove this contamination, our results emphasize that future experiments should consider carefully the existence of and their ability to calibrate out any spectral structure within the EoR window., Astronomy

Detection of the Epoch of Reionization HI signal requires a precise understanding of the intervening galaxies and AGN, both for instrumental calibration and foreground removal. We present a catalogue of 7394 extragalactic sources at 182 MHz detected in the RA=0 field of the Murchison Widefield Array Epoch of Reionization observation programme. Motivated by unprecedented requirements for precision and reliability we develop new methods for source finding and selection. We apply machine learning methods to self-consistently classify the relative reliability of 9490 source candidates. A subset of 7466 are selected based on reliability class and signal-to-noise ratio criteria. These are statistically cross-matched to four other radio surveys using both position and flux density information. We find 7369 sources to have confident matches, including 90 partially resolved sources that split into a total of 192 sub-components. An additional 25 unmatched sources are included as new radio detections. The catalogue sources have a median spectral index of -0.85. Spectral flattening is seen toward lower frequencies with a median of -0.71 predicted at 182 MHz. The astrometric error is 7 arcsec. compared to a 2.3 arcmin. beam FWHM. The resulting catalogue covers approximately 1400 sq. deg. and is complete to approximately 80 mJy within half beam power. This provides the most reliable discrete source sky model available to date in the MWA EoR0 field for precision foreground subtraction., Astronomy

The Detection of redshifted 21 cm emission from the epoch of reionization (EoR) is a challenging task owing to strong foregrounds that dominate the signal. In this paper, we propose a general method, based on the delay spectrum approach, to extract HI power spectra that is applicable to tracking observations using an imaging radio interferometer (Delay Spectrum with Imaging Arrays (DSIA)). Our method is based on modelling the HI signal taking into account the impact of wide field effects such as the w-term which are then used as appropriate weights in cross-correlating the measured visibilities. Our method is applicable to any radio interferometer that tracks a phase center and could be utilized for arrays such as MWA, LOFAR, GMRT, PAPER and HERA. In the literature the delay spectrum approach has been implemented for near-redundant baselines using drift scan observations. In this paper we explore the scheme for non-redundant tracking arrays, and this is the first application of delay spectrum methodology to such data to extract the HI signal. We analyze 3 hours of MWA tracking data on the EoR1 field. We present both 2-dimensional (k∥,k⊥) and 1-dimensional (k) power spectra from the analysis. Our results are in agreement with the findings of other pipelines developed to analyse the MWA EoR data., Astronomy

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has collected hundreds of hours of Epoch of Reionization (EoR) data and now faces the challenge of overcoming foreground and systematic contamination to reduce the data to a cosmological measurement. We introduce several novel analysis techniques such as cable reflection calibration, hyper-resolution gridding kernels, diffuse foreground model subtraction, and quality control methods. Each change to the analysis pipeline is tested against a two dimensional power spectrum figure of merit to demonstrate improvement. We incorporate the new techniques into a deep integration of 32 hours of MWA data. This data set is used to place a systematic-limited upper limit on the cosmological power spectrum of Δ2≤2.7×104 mK2 at k=0.27 h~Mpc−1 and z=7.1, consistent with other published limits, and a modest improvement (factor of 1.4) over previous MWA results. From this deep analysis we have identified a list of improvements to be made to our EoR data analysis strategies. These improvements will be implemented in the future and detailed in upcoming publications., Astronomy

We construct a mass model for the spiral lens galaxy 2237+0305, at redshift , based on gravitational-lensing constraints, H i rotation, and new stellar-kinematic information, based on data taken with the Echelle Spectrograph and Imager (ESI) spectrograph on the 10-m Keck-II Telescope. High-resolution rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles along two perpendicular directions, close to the major and minor axes of the lens galaxy, were obtained by fitting the Mgb–Fe absorption line region. The stellar rotation curve rises slowly and flattens at (∼1.1 kpc). The velocity dispersion profile is approximately flat. A combination of photometric, kinematic and lensing information is used to construct a mass model for the four major mass components of the system – the dark matter halo, disc, bulge and bar. The best-fitting solution has a dark matter halo with a logarithmic inner density slope of for , a bulge with , and a disc with , in agreement with measurements of late-type spirals. The bulge dominates support in the inner regions where the multiple images are located and is therefore tightly constrained by the observations. The disc is submaximal and contributes per cent of the rotational support of the galaxy at . The halo mass is , and the stellar to virial mass ratio is per cent, consistent with typical galaxies of the same mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Histopathology is the gold standard for the diagnosis of pancreatic disease. Laparoscopy offers a minimally invasive route by which to obtain pancreatic biopsies. Hypothesis: Laparoscopy is a safe and effective technique for evaluating the pancreas in small animal patients. Animals: Medical records of 18 dogs and 13 cats examined between 1999 and 2007 that underwent laparoscopy during which observation or biopsy of the pancreas was recorded. Methods: The database for the Laparoscopy Laboratory at Colorado State University was searched for records that contained “pancreatitis,”“pancreas,” or “pancreatic.” The presenting complaints, imaging studies, and histopathologic findings of animals were recorded. All hospital admissions were searched for animals with the same presenting complaints and of those it was determined which animals had exploratory surgery and their pancreas biopsied. Results: Thirteen cats and 18 dogs underwent laparoscopy for presumptive pancreatic disease or had the appearance of the pancreas described, pancreatic biopsies obtained, or both. In 14 animals a laparoscopic biopsy of the pancreas resulted in a histopathologic diagnosis when the sonographic findings or the gross assessment failed to do so. In 35% of the animals a biopsy of the pancreas was not obtained despite findings consistent with pancreatic disease. Those animals examined for vomiting or anorexia were significantly more likely to have a biopsy of the pancreas obtained through laparoscopy versus surgery ( P < .0001). Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Laparoscopy and pancreatic biopsy is useful for evaluation of pancreatic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from young (M = 25) and older (M = 71) adults during a recognition memory paradigm that assessed episodic priming. Participants studied two temporally distinct lists of sentences (each with two unassociated nouns). At test, in response to the nouns, participants made old-new, followed by remember (context)-know (familiarity) and source (i.e., list) judgments. Both young and older adults showed equivalent episodic priming effects. However, compared to the young adults, the older adults showed a greater source performance decrement than item memory performance decrement. Both age groups showed equivalent posterior-maximal old-new ERP effects. However, only the young produced a frontal-maximal, late onset old-new effect that differed as a function of subsequent list attribution. Because source memory is thought to be mediated by prefrontal cortex, we conclude that age-related memory differences may be due to a deficit in a prefrontal cortical system that underlies source memory and are not likely to be due to an age-related decline in episodic priming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]