8,383 research outputs found
HI Observations of the Stephan's Quintet
Using the VLA, we have made spectral-line and continuum observations of the
neutral hydrogen in the direction of the compact group of galaxies Stephan's
Quintet. The high-velocity clouds between 5600 and 6600 km/s, the disk of the
foreground galaxy, NGC 7320, at 800 km/s, the extended continuum ridge near the
center of the group, and 3 faint dwarf-like galaxies in the surrounding field
were imaged with C, CS, and D arrays. Four of the HI clouds previously detected
are confirmed. The two largest HI features are coincident with and concentrated
mainly along separate large tidal tails that extend eastward. The most diffuse
of the four clouds is resolved into two clumps, one coincide with tidal
features south of NGC 7318a and the other devoid of any detectable stellar or
Halfa sources. The two compact clouds, along the same line of sight, have peak
emission at luminous infrared and bright Halfa sources probably indicative of
star-forming activity. The total amount of HI detected at high redshifts is ~
10**10Msol. As in previous HI studies of the group, no detectable emission was
measured at the positions of any high-redshift galaxies so that any HI still
bound to their disks must be less than 2.4 x 10**7Msol.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ and tentatively scheduled for the May
2002 issue. High-resolution ps figures are available at:
http://www.iaa.es/~lourdes/bw/bw-paper.tar.g
Long-term X-ray Variability Study of IC342 from XMM-Newton Observations
We presented the results of an analysis of four XMM-Newton observations of
the starburst galaxy IC342 taken over a four-year span from 2001 to 2005, with
an emphasis on investigating the long-term flux and spectral variability of the
X-ray point sources. We detected a total of 61 X-ray sources within 35'
30' of the galaxy down to a luminosity of (1-2)1037 erg s-1
depending on the local background. We found that 39 of the 61 detected sources
showed long-term variability, in which 26 of them were classified as X-ray
transients. We also found 19 sources exhibiting variations in hardness ratios
or undergoing spectral transitions among observations, and were identified as
spectral variables. In particular, 8 of the identified X-ray transients showed
spectral variability in addition to flux variability. The diverse patterns of
variability observed is indicative of a population of X-ray binaries. We used
X-ray colors, flux and spectral variability, and in some cases the optical or
radio counterparts to classify the detected X-ray sources into several stellar
populations. We identified a total of 11 foreground stars, 1 supersoft sources
(SSS), 3 quasisoft sources (QSS), and 2 supernova remnants (SNR). The
identified SSS/QSS are located near or on the spiral arms, associate with young
stellar populations; the 2 SNR are very close to the starburst nucleus where
current star formation activities are dominated. We also discovered a spectral
change in the nuclear source of IC342 for the first time by a series of X-ray
spectrum analysis.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figures accepted by Ap
Nucleation of Stable Superconductivity in YBCO-Films
By means of the linear dynamic conductivity, inductively measured on
epitaxial films between 30mHz and 30 MHz, the transition line to
generic superconductivity is studied in fields between B=0 and 19T. It follows
closely the melting line described recently in terms of a blowout of
thermal vortex loops in clean materials. The critical exponents of the
correlation length and time near , however, seem to be dominated by
some intrinsic disorder. Columnar defects produced by heavy-ion irradiation up
to field-equivalent-doses of lead to a disappointing reduction
of while for the generic line of the pristine film
is recovered. These novel results are also discussed in terms of a loop-driven
destruction of generic superconductivity.Comment: 11 pages including 7 EPS figures, accepted for publication in the
Proceedings of the Spring Meeting of the German Physical Society, Muenster
1999,Festkoerperprobleme/Advances in Solid State Physics 199
Using Radiological Data to Estimate Ischemic Stroke Severity
Background
Risk-adjusted poststroke mortality has been proposed for use as a measure of stroke care quality. Although valid measures of stroke severity (e.g., the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS]) are not typically available in administrative datasets, radiology reports are often available within electronic health records. We sought to examine whether admission head computed tomography data could be used to estimate stroke severity.
Materials and Methods
Using chart review data from a cohort of acute ischemic stroke patients (1998-2003), we developed a radiographic measure ([BIS]) of stroke severity in a two-third development set and assessed in a one-third validation set. The retrospective NIHSS was dichotomized as mild/moderate (<10) and severe (≥10). We compared the association of this radiographic score with NIHSS and in-hospital mortality at the patient level.
Results
Among 1348 stroke patients, 86.5% had abnormal findings on initial head computed tomography. The c-statistic for the BIS for modeling severe stroke (development, .581; validation, .579) and in-hospital mortality (development, .623; validation, .678) were generated.
Conclusions
Although the c-statistics were only moderate, the BIS provided significant risk stratification information with a 2-variable score. Until administrative data routinely includes a valid measure of stroke severity, radiographic data may provide information for use in risk adjustment
A Potential Supernova Remnant/X-ray Binary Association in M31
The well-studied X-ray/Optical/Radio supernova remnant DDB 1-15 (CXOM31
J004327.8+411829; r3-63) in M31 has been investigated with archival XMM-Newton
and Chandra observations. The timing data from XMM-Newton reveals a power
density spectrum (PDS) characteristic of accreting compact objects in X-ray
binaries (XRBs). The PDS shows features typical of Roche lobe overflow
accretion, hinting that the XRB is low-mass. The Chandra observations resolve
the SNR into a shell and show a variable count rate at the 94% confidence level
in the northwest quadrant. Together, these XMM-Newton and Chandra data suggest
that there is an XRB in the SNR r3-63 and that the XRB is located in the
northwestern portion of the SNR. The currently-available X-ray and optical data
show no evidence that the XRB is high-mass. If the XRB is low-mass, r3-63 would
be the first SNR found to contain a low-mass X-ray binary.Comment: 30 pages, 3 tables, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Paediatric radiology seen from Africa. Part I: providing diagnostic imaging to a young population
Article approval pendingPaediatric radiology requires dedicated equipment, specific precautions related to ionising radiation, and specialist knowledge. Developing countries face difficulties in providing adequate imaging services for children. In many African countries, children represent an increasing proportion of the population, and additional challenges follow from extreme living conditions, poverty, lack of parental care, and exposure to tuberculosis, HIV, pneumonia, diarrhoea and violent trauma. Imaging plays a critical role in the treatment of these children, but is expensive and difficult to provide. The World Health Organisation initiatives, of which the World Health Imaging System for Radiography (WHIS-RAD) unit is one result, needs to expand into other areas such as the provision of maintenance servicing. New initiatives by groups such as Rotary and the World Health Imaging Alliance to install WHIS-RAD units in developing countries and provide digital solutions, need support. Paediatric radiologists are needed to offer their services for reporting, consultation and quality assurance for free by way of teleradiology. Societies for paediatric radiology are needed to focus on providing a volunteer teleradiology reporting group, information on child safety for basic imaging, guidelines for investigations specific to the disease spectrum, and solutions for optimising imaging in children
Topological phase-fluctuations, amplitude fluctuations, and criticality in extreme type-II superconductors
We study the effect of critical fluctuations on the phase diagram in
extreme type-II superconductors in zero and finite magnetic field using
large-scale Monte Carlo simulations on the Ginzburg-Landau model in a frozen
gauge approximation. We show that a vortex-loop unbinding gives a correct
picture of the zero field superconducting-normal transition even in the
presence of amplitude fluctuations, which are far from being critical at .
We extract critical exponents of the dual model by studying the topological
excitations of the original model. From the vortex-loop distribution function
we extract the anomalous dimension of the dual field , and
conclude that the charged Ginzburg-Landau model and the neutral 3DXY model
belong to different universality classes. We find are two distinct scaling
regimes for the vortex-line lattice melting line: a high-field scaling regime
and a distinct low-field 3DXY critical scaling regime. We also find indications
of an abrupt change in the connectivity of the vortex-tangle in the vortex
liquid along a line . This is the finite field counter-part of
the zero-field vortex-loop blowout. Which at low enough fields appears to
coincide with . Here, a description of the vortex system only in terms of
field induced vortex lines is inadequate at and above the VLL melting
temperature.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figure
Electronic Transport in a Three-dimensional Network of 1-D Bismuth Quantum Wires
The resistance R of a high density network of 6 nm diameter Bi wires in
porous Vycor glass is studied in order to observe its expected semiconductor
behavior. R increases from 300 K down to 0.3 K. Below 4 K, where R varies
approximately as ln(1/T), the order-of-magnitude of the resistance rise, as
well as the behavior of the magnetoresistance are consistent with localization
and electron-electron interaction theories of a one-dimensional disordered
conductor in the presence of strong spin-orbit scattering. We show that this
behaviour and the surface-enhanced carrier density may mask the proposed
semimetal-to-semiconductor transition for quantum Bi wires.Comment: 19 pages total, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Onsager Loop-Transition and First Order Flux-Line Lattice Melting in High- Superconductors
Monte-Carlo simulations in conjunction with finite-size scaling analysis are
used to investigate the -phase diagram in uniaxial anisotropic high-
superconductors, both in zero magnetic field and in intermediate magnetic
fields for various mass-anisotropies. The model we consider is the uniformly
frustrated anisotropic Villain Model. In zero magnetic field, and for all
anisotropies considered, we find one single second order phase transition,
mediated by an Onsager vortex-loop blowout. This is the superconductor-normal
metal transition.A comparison with numerical simulations and a critical scaling
analysis of the zero-field loop-transition yields the same exponent of the loop
distribution function at the critical point. In the intermediate magnetic field
regime, we find two anomalies in the specific heat. The first anomaly at a
temperature is associated with the melting transition of the flux-line
lattice. The second anomaly at a temperature is one where phase coherence
along the field direction is destroyed. We argue that in the
thermodynamic and continuum limit. Hence, there is no regime where the flux
line lattice melts into a disentangled flux-line liquid. The loss of phase
coherence parallel to the magnetic field in the sample is argued to be due to
the proliferation of closed non-field induced vortex loops on the scale of the
magnetic length in the problem, resulting in flux-line cutting and
recombination. In the flux-line liquid phase, therefore, flux-lines appear no
longer to be well defined entities. A finite-size scaling analysis of the delta
function peak specific heat anomaly at the melting transition is used to
extract the discontinuity of the entropy at the melting transition.This entropy
discontinuity is found to increase rapidly with mass-anisotropy.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures included, to be published in Phys. Rev. B, 57
xxx (1998
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