Internationalization of Higher Education in Turmoil

The goal of this piece is to provide an overview of the internationalization of the University of Missouri using historical artifacts from the institution’s archives. As a result of bringing together these artifacts, the author identifies three distinct internationalization stages that demonstrate where the institution is currently situated. The University of Missouri’s internationalization process has been slow and cumulative, like its peer institutions, until recently. However, the author argues that current events, including travel bans and uncertainty around immigration policies, have disrupted this pattern and created turmoil and uncertainty

Searching for an EBL attenuation signature in the Fermi/LAT 1st year catalog data

Observations of distant sources of high-energy (HE) gamma-rays are affected by attenuation resulting from the interaction of the gamma-rays with low energy photons from the diffuse meta-galactic radiation fields at ultraviolet (UV) to infrared (IR) wavelengths (Extragalactic Background Light; EBL). Recently, a large data-set of HE observations from the 1st year survey of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument on-board of the Fermi satellite became available, covering an energy range from 100 MeV up to 100 GeV. In this paper, the potential of such large HE data-sets to probe the density of the EBL - especially in the UV to optical - is explored. The data from the catalog is investigated for an attenuation signature in the energy range 10-100 GeV and the results are compared with the predictions from EBL model calculations. No clear signature is found. The statistics are still limited by (1) the sensitivity of Fermi/LAT to detect sources above 10 GeV, (2) the number of firmly identified sources with known redshift, both which will improve over the coming years.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&A (submitted May 3, 2010

The Curious Case of NGC6908

The object NGC6908 was once thought to be simply a surface-brightness enhancement in the eastern spiral arm of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC6907. Based on an examination of near-infrared imaging, the object is shown in fact to be a lenticular S0(6/7) galaxy hidden in the optical glare of the disk and spiral structure of the larger galaxy. New radial velocities of NGC6908 (3,060+/-16 (emission); 3,113+/-73 km/s (absorption)) have been obtained at the Baade 6.5m and the duPont 2.5m telescopes at Las Campanas, Chile placing NGC6908 at the same expansion-velocity distance as NGC6907 (3,190+/-5 km/s), eliminating the possibility of a purely chance line-of-sight coincidence. The once-enigmatic asymmetries in the disk and outer spiral structure of NGC6907 are now explained as being due to an advanced merger event. Newly discovered tails and debris in the outer reaches of this galaxy further support the merger scenario for this system. This pair of galaxies is a rather striking example of two objects discovered over 100 years ago, whose true nature was lost until modern detectors operating at infrared wavelengths gave us a new (high-contrast) look. Other examples of embedded merger remnants may also reveal themselves in the growing samples of near-infrared imaging of nearby galaxies; and a pilot study does reveal several other promising candidates for follow-up observations.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A

Providing Enhanced Access for the Oregon State University College Catalogs : A Case Study

The academic catalog is a vital record for colleges and universities. Until the late 1980s, Oregon State University catalogs were published, distributed and archived solely in print format. With the advent of web and digital technologies, the Oregon State University Registrar’s Office also began placing an electronic version of the most recent catalogs online, while the Oregon State University Libraries provided access to earlier versions of the catalog through a subscription to College Source®, an online vendor for academic catalogs. In 2006, the Registrar’s Office was looking for a home for its archive of digital files, while the escalating cost of serials forced Oregon State University Libraries to cut its subscription to College Source®. The two units collaborated to preserve and provide electronic access to the entire run (1866 to present) of Oregon State University academic catalogs in ScholarsArchive, the Libraries’ institutional repository. This article details this collaboration as well as the procedures and workflows for depositing digitized as well as born-digital files into ScholarsArchive (https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/jspui/) We compare the number of patron requests pre- and post- catalog placement in ScholarsArchive and describe how this project led to the OSU Registrar’s Office placing additional university documents into ScholarsArchive

The identification of the optical companion to the binary millisecond pulsar J0610-2100 in the Galactic field

We have used deep V and R images acquired at the ESO Very Large Telescope to identify the optical companion to the binary pulsar PSR J0610-2100, one of the black-widow millisecond pulsars recently detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope in the Galactic plane. We found a faint star (V~26.7) nearly coincident (\delta r ~0".28) with the pulsar nominal position. This star is visible only in half of the available images, while it disappears in the deepest ones (those acquired under the best seeing conditions), thus indicating that it is variable. Although our observations do not sample the entire orbital period (P=0.28 d) of the pulsar, we found that the optical modulation of the variable star nicely correlates with the pulsar orbital period and describes a well defined peak (R~25.6) at \Phi=0.75, suggesting a modulation due to the pulsar heating. We tentatively conclude that the companion to PSR J0610-2100 is a heavily ablated very low mass star (~ 0.02Msun) that completely filled its Roche Lobe.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures - Accepted for pubblication in Ap

Near-Infrared Colours of Active Galactic Nuclei

We propose near-infrared colour selection criteria to extract Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) using the near-infrared Colour-Colour Diagram (CCD) and predict near-infrared colour evolution with respect to redshift. First, we cross-identify two AGN catalogues with the 2MASS Point Source Catalogue, and confirm both the loci of quasars/AGNs in the near-infrared CCD and redshift-colour relations. In the CCD, the loci of over 70 - 80% of AGNs can be distinguished from the stellar locus. To examine the colours of quasars, we simulate near-infrared colours using Hyperz code. Assuming a realistic quasar SED, we derive simulated near-infrared colours of quasars with redshift (up to z ~ 11). The simulated colours can reproduce not only the redshift-colour relations but also the loci of quasars/AGNs in the near-infrared CCD. We finally discuss the possibility of contamination by other types of objects. We compare the locus of AGNs with the other four types of objects (namely, microquasars, CVs, LMXBs, and MYSOs) which have a radiation mechanism similar to that of AGNs. In the near-infrared CCD, each type of object is located at a position similar to the stellar locus. Accordingly, it is highly probable that the four types of objects can be distinguished on the basis of the locus in a near-infrared CCD. We additionally consider contamination by distant normal galaxies. The near-infrared colours of several types of galaxies are also simulated using the Hyperz code. Although galaxies with z ~ 1 have near-infrared colours similar to those of AGNs, these galaxies are unlikely to be detected because they are very faint. In other words, few galaxies should contaminate the locus of AGNs in the near-infrared CCD. Consequently, we can extract reliable AGN candidates on the basis of the near-infrared CCD.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in A&