Thin disk kinematics from RAVE and the solar motion

Aims. We study the Milky Way thin disk with the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey. We consider the thin and thick disks as different Galactic components and present a technique to statistically disentangle the two populations. Then we focus our attention on the thin disk component. Methods. We disentangle the thin disk component from amixture of the thin and thick disks using a data set providing radial velocities, proper motions, and photometrically determined distances. Results. We present the trend of the velocity dispersions in the thin disk component of the Milky Way (MW) in the radial direction above and below the Galactic plane using data from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). The selected sample is a limited subsample from the entire RAVE catalogue, roughly mapping up to 500 pc above and below the Galactic plane, a few degrees in azimuthal direction and covering a radial extension of 2.0 kpc around the solar position. The solar motion relative to the local standard of rest is also re-determined with the isolated thin disk component. Major results are the trend of the velocity mean and dispersion in the radial and vertical direction. In addition the azimuthal components of the solar motion relative to the local standard of rest and the velocity dispersion are discussed.Comment: accepted on A&A, please see companion paper "THICK disk kinem...

The Stony Brook / SMARTS Atlas of mostly Southern Novae

We introduce the Stony Brook / SMARTS Atlas of (mostly) Southern Novae. This atlas contains both spectra and photometry obtained since 2003. The data archived in this atlas will facilitate systematic studies of the nova phenomenon and correlative studies with other comprehensive data sets. It will also enable detailed investigations of individual objects. In making the data public we hope to engender more interest on the part of the community in the physics of novae. The atlas is on-line at \url{http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/SMARTS/NovaAtlas/} .Comment: 11 figures; 5 table

Thick disk kinematics from RAVE and the solar motion

Radial velocity surveys such as the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) provide us with measurements of hundreds of thousands of nearby stars most of which belong to the Galactic thin, thick disk or halo. Ideally, to study the Galactic disks (both thin and thick) one should make use of the multi-dimensional phase-space and the whole pattern of chemical abundances of their stellar populations. In this paper, with the aid of the RAVE Survey, we study the thin and thick disks of the Milky Way, focusing on the latter. We present a technique to disentangle the stellar content of the two disks based on the kinematics and other stellar parameters such as the surface gravity of the stars. Using the Padova Galaxy Model, we checked the ability of our method to correctly isolate the thick disk component from the Galaxy mixture of stellar populations. We introduce selection criteria in order to clean the observed radial velocities from the Galactic differential rotation and to take into account the partial sky coverage of RAVE. We developed a numerical technique to statistically disentangle thin and thick disks from their mixture. We deduce the components of the solar motion relative to the Local Standard of Rest (LSR) in the radial and vertical direction, the rotational lag of the thick disk component relative to the LSR, and the square root of the absolute value of the velocity dispersion tensor for the thick disk alone. The analysis of the thin disk is presented in another paper. We find good agreement with previous independent parameter determinations. In our analysis we used photometrically determined distances. In the Appendix we show that similar values can be found for the thick disk alone as derived in the main sections of our paper even without the knowledge of photometric distances.Comment: accepted on A&A, please see companion paper "THIN disk kinem...

Genetic transformation of apple with BIBAC vectors to increase scab resistance in transgenic lines

The apple transformation with BIBAC vectors was not completely successfull because of partial deletions of the construct during or after its integration in the apple genom

Post-translational modification by transglutaminase of proteins involved in incompatibility

Self-incompatibility has been investigated in the cv Abbè Fétel (Pyrus communis) in order to detect a role for transglutaminase (TGase), an enzyme able to post-translationally forming cross-links among proteins. This enzyme is localised in the pollen cytoplasm where it regulates the polymerisation of cytoskeleton proteins. An extracellular form is also necessary for pollen tube growth. In the self-pollinated style of Abbè Fétel (A x A, incompatible system), the activity of TGase increased when the pollen tube stopped its growth inside the style and the enzyme was immuno-localised around the tube tip. In the Abbè Fétel styles pollinated with Williams pollen (A x W, compatible system), on the contrary, the activity decreased during pollen germination. The TGase gene has been cloned and sequenced from Abbè Fétel pollen and style showing that it shares a high homology with a sequence of apple, whose genome has been recently published, which presents the typical TGase catalytic sequence and with the TGase of Arabidopsis. This enzyme was expressed during pollen germination inside the style to a similar extent in both systems (A x A and A x W) showing that only the activity was stimulated by some factor dependent on SI. A molecular approach to clone one of the S-RNase alleles of the cv Abbè Fétel has been performed. This protein, supplied to pollen in the germination medium, was able to inhibit the growth of the 50% of tubes of the homologous pollen. This approach will allow to verify if an interaction between the two enzymes will occur during SI, as TGase, at least in animal cells, is also able to act as disulphide isomerase modifying the RNase structure