21,666 research outputs found
Perceived Cognitive Changes with Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: A Pilot Study
Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine perceived cognitive functioning, fatigue, depression and general well-being among women before and after the initiation of chemotherapy for breast cancer compared to a sample of healthy women. Method This descriptive, repeated measures study compared women receiving chemotherapy and healthy women. Women completed measures of quality of life, fatigue, cognitive changes and depression. Results Before chemotherapy, women with cancer reported more fatigue and depression than healthy women. After chemotherapy, women with cancer reported decreased cognitive functioning accompanied by more fatigue and depressive symptoms than healthy women. Conclusion This study is one of the first to use multiple symptom measures before and after starting chemotherapy. Understanding cognitive changes and related symptoms that occur before and during chemotherapy for breast cancer is the first step toward helping women cope with changes that occur with breast cancer treatment
The Rapidly Fading Afterglow from the Gamma-Ray Burst of 1999 May 6
We report on the discovery of the radio afterglow from the gamma-ray burst
(GRB) of 1999 May 6 (GRB 990506) using the Very Large Array (VLA). The radio
afterglow was detected at early times (1.5 days), but began to fade rapidly
sometime between 1 and 5 days after the burst. If we attribute the radio
emission to the forward shock from an expanding fireball, then this rapid onset
of the decay in the radio predicts that the corresponding optical transient
began to decay between 1 and 5 minutes after the burst. This could explain why
no optical transient for GRB 990506 was detected in spite of numerous searches.
The cause of the unusually rapid onset of the decay for the afterglow is
probably the result of an isotropically energetic fireball expanding into a low
density circumburst environment. At the location of the radio afterglow we find
a faint (R ~ 24 mag) host galaxy with a double morphology.Comment: in press at ApJ Letters, 13 page LaTeX document includes 2 postscript
figure
A New Low-Mass Eclipsing Binary from SDSS-II
We present observations of a new low-mass double-lined eclipsing binary
system discovered using repeat observations of the celestial equator from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey II. Using near-infrared photometry and optical
spectroscopy we have measured the properties of this short-period
[P=0.407037(14) d] system and its two components. We find the following
parameters for the two components: M_1=0.272+/-0.020 M_sun, R_1=0.268+/-0.010
R_sun, M_2=0.240+/-0.022 M_sun, R_2=0.248+/-0.0090 R_sun, T_1=3320+/-130 K,
T_2=3300+/-130 K. The masses and radii of the two components of this system
agree well with theoretical expectations based on models of low-mass stars,
within the admittedly large errors. Future synoptic surveys like Pan-STARRS and
LSST will produce a wealth of information about low-mass eclipsing systems and
should make it possible, with an increased reliance on follow-up observations,
to detect many systems with low-mass and sub-stellar companions. With the large
numbers of objects for which these surveys will produce high-quality
photometry, we suggest that it becomes possible to identify such systems even
with sparse time sampling and a relatively small number of individual
observations.Comment: 15 Pages, 9 Figures, 6 Tables. Replaced with version accepted to Ap
Probing the distance and morphology of the Large Magellanic Cloud with RR Lyrae stars
We present a Bayesian analysis of the distances to 15,040 Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC) RR Lyrae stars using - and -band light curves from the
Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, in combination with new -band
observations from the Dark Energy Camera. Our median individual RR Lyrae
distance statistical error is 1.89 kpc (fractional distance error of 3.76 per
cent). We present three-dimensional contour plots of the number density of LMC
RR Lyrae stars and measure a distance to the core LMC RR Lyrae centre of
,
equivalently . This finding is statistically consistent with and four
times more precise than the canonical value determined by a recent
meta-analysis of 233 separate LMC distance determinations. We also measure a
maximum tilt angle of at a position angle of
, and report highly precise constraints on the , , and RR
Lyrae period--magnitude relations. The full dataset of observed mean-flux
magnitudes, derived colour excess values, and fitted distances for
the 15,040 RR Lyrae stars produced through this work is made available through
the publication's associated online data.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
The Discovery of Vibrationally-Excited H_2 in the Molecular Cloud near GRB 080607
GRB 080607 has provided the first strong observational signatures of
molecular absorption bands toward any galaxy hosting a gamma-ray burst. Despite
the identification of dozens of features as belonging to various atomic and
molecular (H_2 and CO) carriers, many more absorption features remained
unidentified. Here we report on a search among these features for absorption
from vibrationally-excited H_2, a species that was predicted to be produced by
the UV flash of a GRB impinging on a molecular cloud. Following a detailed
comparison between our spectroscopy and static, as well as dynamic, models of
H_2* absorption, we conclude that a column density of 10^{17.5+-0.2} cm^{-2} of
H_2* was produced along the line of sight toward GRB 080607. Depending on the
assumed amount of dust extinction between the molecular cloud and the GRB, the
model distance between the two is found to be in the range 230--940 pc. Such a
range is consistent with a conservative lower limit of 100 pc estimated from
the presence of Mg I in the same data. These distances show that substantial
molecular material is found within hundreds of pc from GRB 080607, part of the
distribution of clouds within the GRB host galaxy.Comment: Submitted to ApJL, 6 pages emulate
Astrometric Microlensing Constraints on a Massive Body in the Outer Solar System with Gaia
A body in Solar orbit beyond the Kuiper belt exhibits an annual parallax that
exceeds its apparent proper motion by up to many orders of magnitude. Apparent
motion of this body along the parallactic ellipse will deflect the angular
position of background stars due to astrometric microlensing ("induced
parallax"). By synoptically sampling the astrometric position of background
stars over the entire sky, constraints on the existence (and basic properties)
of a massive nearby body may be inferred. With a simple simulation, we estimate
the signal-to-noise for detecting such a body -- as function of mass,
heliocentric distance, and ecliptic latitude -- using the anticipated
sensitivity and temporal cadences from Gaia (launch 2011). A Jupiter-mass
(M_Jup) object at 2000 AU is detectable by Gaia over the whole sky above
5-sigma, with even stronger constraints if it lies near the ecliptic plane.
Hypotheses for the mass (~3M_Jup), distance (~20,000 AU) and location of the
proposed perturber ("Planet X") which gives rise to long-period comets may be
testable.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. Figures revised, new figure added, minor text
revisions. Accepted to ApJ, to appear in the Dec 10, 2005 issue (v635
Convergence of random zeros on complex manifolds
We show that the zeros of random sequences of Gaussian systems of polynomials
of increasing degree almost surely converge to the expected limit distribution
under very general hypotheses. In particular, the normalized distribution of
zeros of systems of m polynomials of degree N, orthonormalized on a regular
compact subset K of C^m, almost surely converge to the equilibrium measure on K
as the degree N goes to infinity.Comment: 16 page
Multi-color Optical and NIR Light Curves of 64 Stripped-Envelope Core-Collapse Supernovae
We present a densely-sampled, homogeneous set of light curves of 64 low
redshift (z < 0.05) stripped-envelope supernovae (SN of type IIb, Ib, Ic and
Ic-bl). These data were obtained between 2001 and 2009 at the Fred L. Whipple
Observatory (FLWO) on Mt. Hopkins in Arizona, with the optical FLWO 1.2-m and
the near-infrared PAIRITEL 1.3-m telescopes. Our dataset consists of 4543
optical photometric measurements on 61 SN, including a combination of UBVRI,
UBVr'i', and u'BVr'i', and 2142 JHKs near-infrared measurements on 25 SN. This
sample constitutes the most extensive multi-color data set of stripped-envelope
SN to date. Our photometry is based on template-subtracted images to eliminate
any potential host galaxy light contamination. This work presents these
photometric data, compares them with data in the literature, and estimates
basic statistical quantities: date of maximum, color, and photometric
properties. We identify promising color trends that may permit the
identification of stripped-envelope SN subtypes from their photometry alone.
Many of these SN were observed spectroscopically by the CfA SN group, and the
spectra are presented in a companion paper (Modjaz et al. 2014). A thorough
exploration that combines the CfA photometry and spectroscopy of
stripped-envelope core-collapse SN will be presented in a follow-up paper.Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures, 8 tables. Revised version resubmitted to ApJ
Supplements after referee report. Additional online material is available
through http://cosmo.nyu.edu/SNYU
Discovery of a supernova associated with GRB 031203: SMARTS Optical-Infrared Lightcurves from 0.2 to 92 days
Optical and infrared monitoring of the afterglow site of gamma-ray burst
(GRB) 031203 has revealed a brightening source embedded in the host galaxy,
which we attribute to the presence of a supernova (SN) related to the GRB ("SN
031203"). We present details of the discovery and evolution of SN 031203 from
0.2 to 92 days after the GRB, derived from SMARTS consortium photometry in I
and J bands. A template type Ic lightcurve, constructed from SN 1998bw
photometry, is consistent with the peak brightness of SN 031203 although the
lightcurves are not identical. Differential astrometry reveals that the SN, and
hence the GRB, occurred less than 300 h_71^-1 pc (3-sigma) from the apparent
galaxy center. The peak of the supernova is brighter than the optical afterglow
suggesting that this source is intermediate between a strong GRB and a
supernova.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter
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