782 research outputs found
Infrared High-Resolution Spectroscopy of Post-AGB Circumstellar Disks. I. HR 4049 - The Winnowing Flow Observed?
High-resolution infrared spectroscopy in the 2.3-4.6 micron region is
reported for the peculiar A supergiant, single-lined spectroscopic binary HR
4049. Lines from the CO fundamental and first overtone, OH fundamental, and
several H2O vibration-rotation transitions have been observed in the
near-infrared spectrum. The spectrum of HR 4049 appears principally in emission
through the 3 and 4.6 micron region and in absorption in the 2 micron region.
The 4.6 micron spectrum shows a rich 'forest' of emission lines. All the
spectral lines observed in the 2.3-4.6 micron spectrum are shown to be
circumbinary in origin. The presence of OH and H2O lines confirm the
oxygen-rich nature of the circumbinary gas which is in contrast to the
previously detected carbon-rich material. The emission and absorption line
profiles show that the circumbinary gas is located in a thin, rotating layer
near the dust disk. The properties of the dust and gas circumbinary disk and
the spectroscopic orbit yield masses for the individual stars, M_AI~0.58 Msolar
and M_MV~0.34 Msolar. Gas in the disk also has an outward flow with a velocity
of 1 km/s. The severe depletion of refractory elements but near-solar
abundances of volatile elements observed in HR 4049 results from abundance
winnowing. The separation of the volatiles from the grains in the disk and the
subsequent accretion by the star are discussed. Contrary to prior reports, the
HR 4049 carbon and oxygen isotopic abundances are typical AGB values:
12C/13C=6^{+9}_{-4} and 16O/17O>200.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures, Accepted by Ap
High HIV prevalence in an early cohort of hospital admissions with COVID-19 in Cape Town, South Africa
Background. South Africa (SA) has a high prevalence of HIV and tuberculosis. Cape Town was the SA metropole most affected in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Early observational data from Africa may provide valuable insight into what can be expected as the pandemic expands across the continent.Objectives. To describe the prevalence, clinical features, comorbidities and outcome of an early cohort of HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients admitted with COVID-19.Methods. This was a descriptive observational study of an early cohort of adults with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted from 25 March to 11 May 2020.Results. Of 116 patients (mean age 48 years, 61% female) admitted, 24 were HIV-positive (21%). The most common symptoms reported were cough (n=88; 73%), shortness of breath (n=78; 69%), fever (n=67; 59%), myalgia (n=29; 25%) and chest pain (n=22; 20%). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (n=46; 41%), diabetes mellitus (n=43; 38%), obesity (n=32; 28%) and HIV (n=24; 21%). Mortality was associated with older age (mean (standard deviation) 55 (12) years v. 46 (14) years; p<0.01); the presence of hypertension or hypertension along with diabetes and/or obesity; lower partial pressure of arterial oxygen to fraction of inspired oxygen ratio; and higher urea level, white cell count, neutrophil count, and C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase and ferritin levels, and high neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio. The overall survival rate for all hospital admissions was 86/116 (73%). In this early cohort, survival was similar in patients with HIV (n=18; 75%) compared with those without HIV (n=67; 75%) (p=1). Of the 74 patients admitted to the wards, 63 (85%) survived, whereas 22 of 42 (52%) admitted to the intensive care unit survived.Conclusions. Patients with HIV infection represented a large proportion of all COVID-19 admissions. The presentation and outcome of patients with HIV did not differ significantly from those of patients without HIV
Observational diagnostics of gas in protoplanetary disks
Protoplanetary disks are composed primarily of gas (99% of the mass).
Nevertheless, relatively few observational constraints exist for the gas in
disks. In this review, I discuss several observational diagnostics in the UV,
optical, near-IR, mid-IR, and (sub)-mm wavelengths that have been employed to
study the gas in the disks of young stellar objects. I concentrate in
diagnostics that probe the inner 20 AU of the disk, the region where planets
are expected to form. I discuss the potential and limitations of each gas
tracer and present prospects for future research.Comment: Review written for the proceedings of the conference "Origin and
Evolution of Planets 2008", Ascona, Switzerland, June 29 - July 4, 2008. Date
manuscript: October 2008. 17 Pages, 6 graphics, 134 reference
First results of the Herschel Key Program 'Dust, Ice and Gas in Time': Dust and Gas Spectroscopy of HD 100546
We present far-infrared spectroscopic observations, taken with the
Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space
Observatory, of the protoplanetary disk around the pre-main-sequence star HD
100546. These observations are the first within the DIGIT Herschel key program,
which aims to follow the evolution of dust, ice, and gas from young stellar
objects still embedded in their parental molecular cloud core, through the
final pre-main-sequence phases when the circumstellar disks are dissipated.
Our aim is to improve the constraints on temperature and chemical composition
of the crystalline olivines in the disk of HD 100546 and to give an inventory
of the gas lines present in its far-infrared spectrum. The 69 \mu\m feature is
analyzed in terms of position and shape to derive the dust temperature and
composition. Furthermore, we detected 32 emission lines from five gaseous
species and measured their line fluxes. The 69 \mu\m emission comes either from
dust grains with ~70 K at radii larger than 50 AU, as suggested by blackbody
fitting, or it arises from ~200 K dust at ~13 AU, close to the midplane, as
supported by radiative transfer models. We also conclude that the forsterite
crystals have few defects and contain at most a few percent iron by mass.
Forbidden line emission from [CII] at 157 \mu\m and [OI] at 63 and 145 \mu\m,
most likely due to photodissociation by stellar photons, is detected.
Furthermore, five H2O and several OH lines are detected. We also found high-J
rotational transition lines of CO, with rotational temperatures of ~300 K for
the transitions up to J=22-21 and T~800 K for higher transitions
Speciation, Luminescence, and Alkaline Fluorescence Quenching of 4-(2-methylbutyl)aminodipicolinic acid (H2MEBADPA)
4-(2-Methylbutyl)aminodipicolinic acid (H2MEBADPA) has been synthesized and fully characterized in terms of aqueous phase protonation constants (pKa\u27s) and photophysical measurements. The pKa\u27s were determined by spectrophotometric titrations, utilizing a fully sealed titration system. Photophysical measurements consisted of room temperature fluorescence and frozen solution phosphorescence as well as quantum yield determinations at various pH, which showed that only fully deprotonated MEBADPA2– is appreciably emissive. The fluorescence of MEBADPA2– has been determined to be quenched by hydroxide and methoxide anions, most likely through base-catalyzed excited-state tautomerism or proton transfer. This quenching phenomenon has been quantitatively explored through steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence measurements. Utilizing the determined pKas and quenching constants, the fluorescent intensity of MEBADPA2– has been successfully modeled as a function of pH
Fundamental Vibrational Transition of CO During the Outburst of EX Lupi in 2008
We report monitoring observations of the T Tauri star EX Lupi during its outburst in 2008 in the CO fundamental
band at 4.6–5.0 μm. The observations were carried out at the Very Large Telescope and the Subaru Telescope at six
epochs from 2008 April to August, covering the plateau of the outburst and the fading phase to a quiescent state.
The line flux of CO emission declines with the visual brightness of the star and the continuum flux at 5 μm, but
composed of two subcomponents that decay with different rates. The narrow-line emission (50 kms^(−1) in FWHM) is
near the systemic velocity of EX Lupi. These emission lines appear exclusively in v =1–0. The line widths translate
to a characteristic orbiting radius of 0.4 AU. The broad-line component (FWZI ~ 150 km s^(−1)) is highly excited up
to v ≤ 6. The line flux of the component decreases faster than the narrow-line emission. Simple modeling of the
line profiles implies that the broad-line emitting gas is orbiting around the star at 0.04–0.4 AU. The excitation state, the decay speed of the line flux, and the line profile indicate that the broad-line emission component is physically distinct from the narrow-line emission component, and more tightly related to the outburst event
Middleborns disadvantaged? testing birth-order effects on fitness in pre-industrial finns
Parental investment is a limited resource for which offspring compete in order to increase their own survival and reproductive success. However, parents might be selected to influence the outcome of sibling competition through differential investment. While evidence for this is widespread in egg-laying species, whether or not this may also be the case in viviparous species is more difficult to determine. We use pre-industrial Finns as our model system and an equal investment model as our null hypothesis, which predicts that (all else being equal) middleborns should be disadvantaged through competition. We found no overall evidence to suggest that middleborns in a family are disadvantaged in terms of their survival, age at first reproduction or lifetime reproductive success. However, when considering birth-order only among same-sexed siblings, first-, middle-and lastborn sons significantly differed in the number of offspring they were able to rear to adulthood, although there was no similar effect among females. Middleborn sons appeared to produce significantly less offspring than first-or lastborn sons, but they did not significantly differ from lastborn sons in the number of offspring reared to adulthood. Our results thus show that taking sex differences into account is important when modelling birth-order effects. We found clear evidence of firstborn sons being advantaged over other sons in the family, and over firstborn daughters. Therefore, our results suggest that parents invest differentially in their offspring in order to both preferentially favour particular offspring or reduce offspring inequalities arising from sibling competition
High-contrast imaging constraints on gas giant planet formation - The Herbig Ae/Be star opportunity
Planet formation studies are often focused on solar-type stars, implicitly
considering our Sun as reference point. This approach overlooks, however, that
Herbig Ae/Be stars are in some sense much better targets to study planet
formation processes empirically, with their disks generally being larger,
brighter and simply easier to observe across a large wavelength range. In
addition, massive gas giant planets have been found on wide orbits around early
type stars, triggering the question if these objects did indeed form there and,
if so, by what process. In the following I briefly review what we currently
know about the occurrence rate of planets around intermediate mass stars,
before discussing recent results from Herbig Ae/Be stars in the context of
planet formation. The main emphasis is put on spatially resolved polarized
light images of potentially planet forming disks and how these images - in
combination with other data - can be used to empirically constrain (parts of)
the planet formation process. Of particular interest are two objects, HD100546
and HD169142, where, in addition to intriguing morphological structures in the
disks, direct observational evidence for (very) young planets has been
reported. I conclude with an outlook, what further progress we can expect in
the very near future with the next generation of high-contrast imagers at 8-m
class telescopes and their synergies with ALMA.Comment: Accepted by Astrophysics and Space Science as invited short review in
special issue about Herbig Ae/Be stars; 12 pages incl. 5 figures, 2 tables
and reference
A rebellious past : history, theatre and the England riots
Alain Badiou has argued that the England riots of 2011, in dialogue with societal upheavals around the world that same year, demonstrated fundamental crises in our governing social, economic and political discourses. Whilst institutional responses to the riots treated them as an aberration, Badiou believes them to be symptomatic of a broader rebirth of ‘history’ – the coalescing of past and present events into a congruent trajectory with powerful implications for the future. Using Badiou’s argument as a starting point, this article considers two theatrical responses to the riots – Nicholas Kent’s premiere of Gillian Slovo’s The Riots at the Tricycle, and Sean Holmes’ revival of Edward Bond’s Saved at the Lyric Hammersmith. By looking at the ways in which the productions sought to historicise the riots, I unpick both their interpretations of these events, and the contributions they were able to make to the urgent and ongoing discussions that the riots have generated.PostprintPeer reviewe
Bcl-2 inhibits apoptosis by increasing the time-to-death and intrinsic cell-to-cell variations in the mitochondrial pathway of cell death
BH3 mimetics have been proposed as new anticancer therapeutics. They target
anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, up-regulation of which has been implicated in
the resistance of many cancer cells, particularly leukemia and lymphoma cells,
to apoptosis. Using probabilistic computational modeling of the mitochondrial
pathway of apoptosis, verified by single-cell experimental observations, we
develop a model of Bcl-2 inhibition of apoptosis. Our results clarify how Bcl-2
imparts its anti-apoptotic role by increasing the time-to-death and
cell-to-cell variability. We also show that although the commitment to death is
highly impacted by differences in protein levels at the time of stimulation,
inherent stochastic fluctuations in apoptotic signaling are sufficient to
induce cell-to-cell variability and to allow single cells to escape death. This
study suggests that intrinsic cell-to-cell stochastic variability in apoptotic
signaling is sufficient to cause fractional killing of cancer cells after
exposure to BH3 mimetics. This is an unanticipated facet of cancer
chemoresistance.Comment: 11 pages, In pres
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