Chemical composition of A and F dwarfs members of the Pleiades open cluster

Abundances of 18 chemical elements have been derived for 16 A (normal and chemically peculiar CP) and 5 F dwarfs members of the Pleiades open cluster in order to set constraints on evolutionary models. The abundances, rotational velocities and microturbulent velocities were derived by iteratively adjusting synthetic spectra to observations at high resolution (R~42000 and R~75000) and high signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios. The abundances obtained do not exhibit any clear correlation with the effective temperature nor the projected rotational velocity. Interestingly, A stars exhibit larger star-to-star variations in C, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Sr, Y, Zr and Ba than F stars. F stars exhibit solar abundances for almost all the elements. In A stars, the abundances of Si, Ti and Cr are found to be correlated with that of Fe, the [X/Fe] ratios being solar for these three elements. The derived abundances have been compared to the predictions of published evolutionary models at the age of Pleiades (100 Myr). For the F stars, the predicted slight underabundances of light elements and overabundances of Cr, Fe and Ni are indeed confirmed by our findings. For A stars, the predicted overabundances in iron peak elements are confirmed in a few stars only. The large scatter of the abundances in A stars, already found in the Hyades, Coma Berenices and the UMa group and in field stars appears to be a characteristic property of dwarf A stars. The occurence of hydrodynamical processes competing with radiative diffusion in the radiative zones of the A dwarfs might account for the found scatter in abundances.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted in A&

Relationships between Personality Traits, Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy, and White Matter Lesion in Subjects Suffering from Mild Cognitive Impairment

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous cognitive status that can be a prodromal stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is particularly relevant to focus on prodromal stages of AD such as MCI, because patho-physiological abnormalities of AD start years before the dementia stage. Medial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy resulting from AD lesions and cerebrovascular lesions [i.e., white matter lesions (WML), lacunar strokes, and strokes] are often revealed concurrently on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in MCI subjects. Personality changes have been reported to be associated with MCI status and early AD. More specifically, an increase in neuroticism and a decrease in conscientiousness have been reported, suggesting that higher and lower scores, respectively, in neuroticism and conscientiousness are associated with an increased risk of developing the disease. However, personality changes have not been studied concomitantly with pathological structural brain alterations detected on MRI in patients suffering from MCI. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to assess the relationship between MTL atrophy, WML, lacunar strokes, and personality traits in such patients. The severity of WML was strongly associated with lower levels of conscientiousness and higher levels of neuroticism. Conversely, no association was detected between personality traits and the presence of lacunar strokes or MTL atrophy. Altogether, these results strongly suggest that personality changes occurring in a MCI population, at high risk of AD, are associated with WML, which can induce executive dysfunctions, rather than with MTL atrophy

Chemical composition of A and F dwarf members of the Coma Berenices open cluster

Abundances of 18 chemical elements have been derived for 11 A (normal and Am) and 11 F dwarfs members of the Coma Berenices open cluster in order to set constraints on evolutionary models including transport processes (radiative and turbulent diffusion)calculated with the Montreal code. A spectral synthesis iterative procedure has been applied to derive the abundances from selected high quality lines in high resolution high signal-to-noise echelle spectra obtained with ELODIE at the Observatoire de Haute Provence. The chemical pattern found for the A and F dwarfs in Coma Berenices is reminiscent of that found in the Hyades and the UMa moving group. In graphs representing the abundances [X/H] versus the effective temperature, the A stars often display abundances much more scattered around their mean values than the F stars do. Large star-to-star variations are detected for A stars in their abundances which we interpret as evidence of transport processes competing with radiative diffusion. The F stars have solar abundances for almost all elements except for Mg, Si, V and Ba. The derived abundances patterns, [X/H] versus atomic number, for the slow rotator HD108642 (A2m) and the moderately fast rotator HD106887 (A4m) were compared to the predictions of self consistent evolutionary model codes including radiative and different amounts of turbulent diffusion. None of the models reproduces entirely the overall shape of the abundance pattern. While part of the discrepancies between derived and predicted abundances may be accounted for by non-LTE effects, the inclusion of competing processes such as rotational mixing in the radiative zones of these stars seems necessary to improve the agreement between observed and predicted abundance patterns.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figure

Dusty Debris Around Solar-Type Stars: Temporal Disk Evolution

Using ISO-ISOPHOT we carried out a survey of almost 150 stars to search for evidence of emission from dust orbiting young main sequence stars, both in clusters and isolated systems. Over half of the detections are new examples of dusty stellar systems, and demonstrate that such dust can be detected around numerous stars older than a few x 10^6 years. Fluxes at 60 microns and either 90 or 100 microns for the new excess sources together with improved fluxes for a number of IRAS-identified sources are presented. Analysis of the excess luminosity relative to the stellar photosphere shows a systematic decline of this excess with stellar age consistent with a power law index of -2.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures, 7 tables; accepted for publication in Ap

Weak magnetic fields in Ap/Bp stars: evidence for a dipole field lower limit and a tentative interpretation of the magnetic dichotomy

Publisher's version/PDFAims. We investigated a sample of 28 well-known spectroscopically-identified magnetic Ap/Bp stars, with weak, poorly-determined or previously undetected magnetic fields. The aim of this study is to explore the weak part of the magnetic field distribution of Ap/Bp stars. Methods. Using the MuSiCoS and NARVAL spectropolarimeters at Télescope Bernard Lyot (Observatoire du Pic du Midi, France) and the cross-correlation technique Least Squares Deconvolution (LSD), we obtained 282 LSD Stokes V signatures of our 28 sample stars, in order to detect the magnetic field and to infer its longitudinal component with high precision (median [sigma] = 40 G). Results. For the 28 studied stars, we obtained 27 detections of Stokes V Zeeman signatures from the MuSiCoS observations. Detection of the Stokes V signature of the 28th star (HD 32650) was obtained during science demonstration time of the new NARVAL spectropolarimeter at Pic du Midi. This result clearly shows that when observed with sufficient precision, all firmly classified Ap/Bp stars show detectable surface magnetic fields. Furthermore, all detected magnetic fields correspond to longitudinal fields which are significantly greater than some tens of G. To better characterise the surface magnetic field intensities and geometries of the sample, we phased the longitudinal field measurements of each star using new and previously-published rotational periods, and modeled them to infer the dipolar field intensity (B[subscript d], measured at the magnetic pole) and the magnetic obliquity ([Beta]). The distribution of derived dipole strengths for these stars exhibits a plateau at about 1 kG, falling off to larger and smaller field strengths. Remarkably, in this sample of stars selected for their presumably weak magnetic fields, we find only 2 stars for which the derived dipole strength is weaker than 300 G.We interpret this “magnetic threshold” as a critical value necessary for the stability of large-scale magnetic fields, and develop a simple quantitative model that is able to approximately reproduce the observed threshold characteristics. This scenario leads to a natural explanation of the small fraction of intermediate-mass magnetic stars. It may also explain the near-absence of magnetic fields in more massive B and O-type stars

Étude de la région centrale de l'Amas Mel 111 dans la constellation Coma Bérénices

Study of the central region of the Galactic Cluster Mel 111 in the Coma Berenices ConstellationLe but du présent travail est d'établir une nouvelle liste d’étoiles de l'amas Coma Bérénices indépendamment de celle de Trumpler (1938), en la limitant aux étoiles plus brillantes que 9 ou 9,5, cette limite étant imposée par l'utilisation de l'AGK3 qui présente l'avantage de fournir des mouvements propres précis et homogènes. La sélection des membres de l'amas par leurs mouvements propres ne résulte pas d'une simple inspection portant sur leur grandeur, mais de l'application d'une méthode statistique proposée par King (1979). Elle est accompagnée de différents tests statistiques portant sur l'amas aussi bien que sur le champ stellaire qui l'entoure. La vitesse et les propriétés photométriques sont aussi considérées. Une liste des membres brillants de l'amas en résulte. Cette liste permet de construire le diagramme H-R de l'amas (jusqu'au type solaire), de déduire la population correspondante et d'estimer certains paramètres qui caractérisent l'amas, en particulier sa distance, ses dimensions, son âge et sa composition chimique. Le problème du taux de concentration des étoiles, de la fonction de masse initiale sera aussi étudié

Sûreté des cathéters veineux périphériques pré-hospitaliers

PARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocCentre Technique Livre Ens. Sup. (774682301) / SudocSudocFranceF

Etude de la region centrale de l'amas galactique Mel 111 dans la constellation Coma Berenices

SIGLEAvailable from INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : T 73634 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Enhanced identification of different types of microcalcifications using the wavelet transform method

International audienceMicrocalcifications and Clustered microcalcifications are known to be the first sign of a development of an eventual cancer. They appear as small and bright region with irregular shape in the breast. Their diversity in their shape, their directionality, their size and localisation in a dense mammogram confirm the major difficulty of their detection. The aim of our scheme is the de¬velopment of a method for the detection of all type of microcalcifications. The wavelet transform has recently emerged as a powerful tool for non-stationary signal analysis, its discrete version is closely related to filter banks. Also, multiresolution signal analysis has been used in image processing. This paper uses the relationship between these two techniques to provide a method of enhancing all type of microcalcifications. The digital mammograms are first processed by the wavelet transform with its multiresolution analysis. The enhancement of the microcalcifications is assured for each different type by using for an appropriate wavelet coefficients