【目的】子宮頸がんは発生原因が、ヒトパピローマウイルス（HPV）であることが解明された。さらにこの前がん病変を発見するには、子宮頸がん検診の受診率向上と細胞診検査の精度を上げることが重要である。近年婦人科細胞診領域に、液状法が導入されはじめている。そこで、従来の塗抹細胞診と液状細胞診、ハイリスクHPV検査結果の比較検討をしたので報告する。【対象】当施設の平成23年1月から12月までの、子宮頸部細胞診を施行した18,956例を対象とした。【方法】子宮頸部よりブラシを用いて擦過採取した従来法18,956例と、同意を得られたスプリットサンプル標本1,227例は液状法（TACASバイアル少量法）、とハイリスクHPV検査を行った。 ハイリスクHPVはBML（ハイブリットキャプチャー法）へ依頼した。【結果】従来法の不適正率は0.2％（44/18,956）で液状法では0％（0/1,227）であった。 液状法の判定は従来法と比較し、95.2％（1,168/1,227）の一致率であった。 ASC-US以上の判定については、液状法が従来法よりも感度が高かった。 高リスクHPV検査の陽性率は6.9％（85/1,227）であった。 従来法及び液状法ともに陰性（NILM）であった1,137例中27例、2.4％（27/1,137）が高リスクHPV陽性であった。さらに追跡調査でCIN1又はLSILが48％（13/1,227）認められた。液状法の方が従来法よりも、細胞が均一に塗抹され、さらに血液の影響が少なく異型細胞の検出が容易であった。【結論】液状法は、不適正標本を減らし、さらに異型細胞の検出感度を向上させる可能性が示唆された。また、HPV併用液状法によって、ASC-US管理と検診感度の向上が期待できると考えられる。

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has validated and made publicly available its First Data Release. This consists of 2099 square degrees of five-band (u g r i z) imaging data, 186,240 spectra of galaxies, quasars, stars and calibrating blank sky patches selected over 1360 square degrees of this area, and tables of measured parameters from these data. The imaging data go to a depth of r ≈ 22.6 and are photometrically and astrometrically calibrated to 2% rms and 100 milli-arcsec rms per coordinate, respectively. The spectra cover the range 3800–9200Å, with a resolution of 1800–2100. Further characteristics of the data are described, as are the data products themselves. Subject headings: Atlases—Catalogs—Surveys Enrico Fermi Institute, The University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley CA 94720-8160 Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QJ, United Kingdom Department of Physics, University of Michigan, 500 East University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Institute for Astronomy Royal Observatory Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ Scotland Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 Lucent Technologies, 2701 Lucent Lane, Lisle, IL 60532 Department of Astronomy and Research Center for the Early Universe, School of Science, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540 Physics Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, 85 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603 Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 University of Zagreb, Department of Physics, Bijenička cesta 32, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 University of Wyoming, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Laramie, WY 82071 Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104 Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85741 Garching, Germany Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210

We have developed a next-generation data acquisition system, MESSIA5 (Modularized Extensible System for Image Acquisition), which comprises the digital part of a focal plane array controller. The new data acquisition system was constructed based on a 64 bit, 66 MHz PCI ( peripheral component interconnect) bus architecture and runs on an x86 CPU computer with (non-real-time) Linux. The system, including the CPU board, is placed at the telescope focus, and standard gigabit Ethernet is adopted for the data transfer, as opposed to a dedicated fiber link. During the summer of 2002, we installed the new system for the first time on the Subaru prime-focus camera Suprime-Cam and successfully improved the observing performance.

We report the discovery of a probable large-scale structure composed of many galaxy clumps around the known twin clusters at z = 1.26 and 1.27 in the Lynx region. Our analysis is based on deep, panoramic, and multicolour imaging, 26.4 x 24.1 arcmin 2 in VRi'z' bands with the Suprime-Cam on the 8.2-m Subaru telescope. This unique, deep and wide-field imaging data set allows us for the first time to map out the galaxy distribution in the highest-redshift supercluster known. We apply a photometric redshift technique to extract plausible cluster members at z ∼ 1.27 down to i' = 26.15 (5a) corresponding to ∼ M* + 2.5 at this redshift. From the two-dimensional distribution of these photometrically selected galaxies, we newly identify seven candidates of galaxy groups or clusters where the surface density of red galaxies is significantly high (>5σ), in addition to the two known clusters. These candidates show clear red colour-magnitude sequences consistent with a passive evolution model, which suggests the existence of additional high-density regions around the Lynx superclusters.

We devise improved photometric parameters for the morphological classification of galaxies using a bright sample from the First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In addition to using an elliptical aperture concentration index for classification, we introduce a new texture parameter, coarseness, which quantifies deviations from smooth galaxy isophotes. The elliptical aperture concentration index produces morphological classifications that are in appreciably better agreement with visual classifications than those based on circular apertures. With the addition of the coarseness parameter, the success rate of classifying galaxies into early and late types increases to ≃88% with respect to the reference visual classification. A reasonably high success rate (≃68%) is also attained in classifying galaxies into three types, early-type galaxies (E+S0) and early-type (Sa+Sb) and late-type (Sc+Sdm+Im) spiral galaxies.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has validated and made publicly available its Second Data Release. This data release consists of 3324 deg2 of five-band (ugriz) imaging data with photometry for over 88 million unique objects, 367,360 spectra of galaxies, quasars, stars, and calibrating blank sky patches selected over 2627 deg2 of this area, and tables of measured parameters from these data. The imaging data reach a depth of r ≈ 22.2 (95% completeness limit for point sources) and are photometrically and astrometrically calibrated to 2% rms and 100 mas rms per coordinate, respectively. The imaging data have all been processed through a new version of the SDSS imaging pipeline, in which the most important improvement since the last data release is fixing an error in the model fits to each object. The result is that model magnitudes are now a good proxy for point-spread function magnitudes for point sources, and Petrosian magnitudes for extended sources. The spectroscopy extends from 3800 to 9200 Å at a resolution of 2000. The spectroscopic software now repairs a systematic error in the radial velocities of certain types of stars and has substantially improved spectrophotometry. All data included in the SDSS Early Data Release and First Data Release are reprocessed with the improved pipelines and included in the Second Data Release. Further characteristics of the data are described, as are the data products themselves and the tools for accessing them.

We report here the results of deep optical spectroscopy of the very extended emission-line region (VEELR) found serendipitously around the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 4388 in the Virgo Cluster using the Subaru Telescope. The Hα recession velocities of most of the filaments of the region observed are highly blueshifted with respect to the systemic velocity of the galaxy. The velocity field is complicated, and from the kinematic and morphological points of view, there seem to be several streams of filaments: low-velocity filaments, with radial velocities v with respect to the systemic velocity of NGC 4388 of roughly -100 km s-1; high-velocity (v ∼ -300 km s-1) filaments; and a very high velocity (v ∼ -500 km s-1) cloud complex. The emission-line ratios of the VEELR filaments are well explained by power-law photoionization models with solar abundances, suggesting that the Seyfert nucleus of NGC 4388 is the dominant ionization source of the VEELR and that the VEELR gas has moderate metallicity. In addition to photoionization, shock heating probably contributes to the ionization of the gas. In particular, the filaments outside the ionization cone of the Seyfert nucleus are mainly excited by shocks. The predicted shock velocity is ∼200–300 km s-1, which is comparable to the velocities of the filaments. We conclude that the VEELR was formerly the disk gas of NGC 4388, which has been stripped by ram pressure due to the interaction between the hot intracluster medium and the galaxy. The velocity field and the morphology of the VEELR closely resemble snapshots from some numerical simulations of this process. In the case of NGC 4388, the ram pressure stripped gas, which is normally seen as extended H I filaments, happens to be exposed and ionized by the radiation from the active galactic nucleus, and so can be seen as optical emission-line gas.

We report the discovery of a probable large-scale structure composed of many galaxy clumps around the known twin clusters at ), in addition to the two known clusters, comprising the largest most distant supercluster ever identified.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

More than 4000 stars observed in both MOA and DENIS projects showing periodic or quasi-periodic light curves are studied. Almost all Mira stars are located on the classical period-luminosity relation, and the multiplicity of the period-luminosity relation is confirmed for small-amplitude stars. The colour-magnitude diagrams based on the MOA red band, R m , and K s constructed for the sequences, form a single strip with small successive shifts.

Data for 4.4 million stars from the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA) project are compared with the near- infrared data of the Deep Near Infrared Southern Sky Survey (DENIS). More than 4000 stars observed in both projects show a quite periodic light curve. Among them, a number of stars are likely eclipsing variables, and the others seem to be pulsating stars. The K-S magnitudes of these red variables are in the range 10- 12.5 but a minor clump at K-S approximate to 12.2 mag is also found. The multiplicity of the period- luminosity relation is confirmed, but most of the regular, large- amplitude variables are found on the relation established for the Mira stars. We study the properties of the variables on the colour- magnitude diagram constructed with the MOA red band R-m and K-S of DENIS. Multiplicity of the period- luminosity relation is briefly discussed in relation to the excitation mechanism of red pulsating variables.

We investigate the clustering properties of 2,600 Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) at z=3.5-5.2 in two large blank fields, the Subaru Deep Field and the Subaru/XMM Deep Field (600arcmin^2 each). The angular correlation functions of these LBGs show a clear clustering at both z 4 and 5. The correlation lengths are r_0= 4.1^+0.2_-0.2 and 5.9^+1.3_-1.7 h_100^-1 Mpc (r_0= 5.1^+1.0_-1.1 and 5.9^+1.3_-1.7 h_100^-1 Mpc) for all the detected LBGs (for L>L* LBGs) at z 4 and 5, respectively. These correlation lengths correspond to galaxy-dark matter biases of b_g= 2.9^+0.1_-0.1 and 4.6^+0.9_-1.2 (b_g=3.5^+0.6_-0.7 and 4.6^+0.9_-1.2), for all the detected LBGs (for L>L^* LBGs) at z 4 and 5, respectively. These results, combined with estimates for z 3 LBGs in the literature, show that the correlation length of L>L^* LBGs is almost constant, 5 h_100^-1 Mpc, over z 3-5, while the bias monotonically increases with redshift at z>3. We also find that for LBGs at z 4 the clustering amplitude increases with UV-continuum luminosity and with the amount of dust extinction. We estimate the mass of dark halos hosting various kinds of high-z galaxies including LBGs with the analytic model given by Sheth Tormen (1999). We find that the typical mass of dark halos hosting L>L^* LBGs is about 1x10^12 h_70^-1Msol over z 3-5, which is comparable to that of the Milky Way Galaxy. A single dark halo with 10^12 h_70^-1 Msol is found to host 0.1-0.3 LBG on average but host about four K-band selected galaxies.

The light curves for three eclipsing binaries in the Magellanic Clouds have been obtained using CCD uV(J)T(C) photometry. One target in the LMC, MACHO*05:36:48.7 - 69:17:00, is an eccentric system, e = 0.20, with a period of 3.-853534 +/- 0.000005 d. Initial solutions indicate a primary component in the range T-eff,T-1 = 20,000 - 35,000 K and the secondary T-eff,T-2 1000 - 2000 K cooler than the primary, with inclinations ranging i = 84.2degrees - 86.0degrees. Two targets in the SMC, MOA J005018.4 - 723855 and MOA J005623.5 - 722123, have periods of 1.8399 +/- 0.0004 and 2.3199 +/- 0.0003 days respectively. Both have circular orbits with the former being a semi-detached system.

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We report the discovery of SDSSJ115517.35+634622.0, a previously unknown gravitationally lensed quasar. The lens system exhibits two images of a z = 2.89 quasar, with an image separation of 1832 ± 0.007 . Near-IR imaging of the system reveals the presence of the lensing galaxy between the two quasar images. Based on absorption features seen in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectrum, we determine a lens galaxy redshift of z = 0.1756. The lens is rather unusual in that one of the quasar images is only 022±007 (∼ 0.1 R_ eff) from the center of the lens galaxy and photometric modeling indicates that this image is significantly brighter than predicted by a SIS model. This system was discovered in the course of an ongoing search for strongly lensed quasars in the dataset from the SDSS.