612 research outputs found
The Status of Utah\u27s Agriculture and its Contribution to the State Economy
Growth in agricultural productivity and the migration of labor from agriculture to other employment has been a source of growth for the whole economy. From the times of pioneer settlement in Utah, more than 130 years ago, agricultural production has declined as a proportion of total economic activity. Employment, personal income, gross sales, and other measures can be shown to have declined as a proportion of the totals of these measures for the state. Yet, it is this very decline in dependence on workers producing food that has helped the economy to grow in size and variety both in Utah and throughout the nation
Space Velocities of Southern Globular Clusters. IV. First Results for Inner-Galaxy Clusters
We have measured the absolute proper motions of four low-latitude,
inner-Galaxy globular clusters. These clusters are: NGC 6266 (M62), NGC 6304,
NGC 6316 and NGC 6723. The proper motions are on the Hipparcos system, as no
background extragalactic objects are found in these high-extinction regions.
The proper-motion uncertainties range between 0.3 and 0.6 mas/yr.
We discuss the kinematics of these clusters and of three additional bulge
clusters -- NGC 6522, NGC 6528 and NFC 6553 -- whose proper motions with
respect to bulge stars had been determined previously. We find that all of the
clusters have velocities that confine them to the bulge region. Of the three
metal poor clusters ([Fe/H] < -1.0), NGC 6522, and NGC 6723 have kinematics
consistent with halo membership. The third cluster, NGC 6266 however, appears
to belong to a rotationally-supported system. Of the four metal rich clusters
([Fe/H] >= -1.0), NGC 6304 and NGC 6553 also have kinematics consistent with
membership to a rotationally-supported system. NGC 6528 has kinematics,
metallicity and mass that argue in favor of a genuine Milky-Way bar cluster.
NGC 6316's kinematics indicate membership to a hotter system than the bar.Comment: 4 figures, 5 tables; accepted for publication in A
A large local rotational speed for the Galaxy found from proper-motions: Implications for the mass of the Milky-Way
Predictions from a Galactic Structure and Kinematic model are compared to the
absolute proper-motions of about 30,000 randomly selected stars with derived from the Southern Proper-Motion Program (SPM) toward
the South Galactic Pole. The absolute nature of the SPM proper-motions allow us
to measure not only the relative motion of the Sun with respect to the local
disk, but also, and most importantly, the overall state of rotation of the
local disk with respect to galaxies. The SPM data are best fit by models having
a solar peculiar motion of +5 km~s in the V-component (pointing in the
direction of Galactic rotation), a large LSR speed of 270 km~s, and a
disk velocity ellipsoid that points towards the Galactic center. We stress,
however, that these results rest crucially on the assumptions of both
axisymmetry and equilibrium dynamics.
The absolute proper-motions in the U-component indicate a solar peculiar
motion of km~s, with no need for a local expansion or
contraction term.
The implications of the large LSR speed are discussed in terms of
gravitational mass of the Galaxy inferred from the most recent and accurate
determination for the proper-motion of the LMC. We find that our derived value
for the LSR is consistent both with the mass of the Galaxy inferred from the
motion of the Clouds ( to kpc), as well
as the timing argument, based on the binary motion of M31 and the Milky Way,
and Leo I and the Milky Way ( to
kpc).Comment: 7 pages (AAS Latex macro v4.0), 2 B&W postscript figures, accepted
for publication on ApJ, Letters sectio
A successful audit with multidisciplinary intervention in controlling hospital acquired infections in postpartum mothers in a Tertiary Care Obstetrics Unit
Absolute Proper Motion of the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy from Photographic and HST WFPC2 Data
We have measured the absolute proper motion of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal
galaxy from a combination of photographic plate material and HST WFPC2 data
that provide a time baseline of up to 50 years. The extragalactic reference
frame consists of 8 QSO images and 48 galaxies. The absolute proper motion is
mu_alpha cos(delta) = 0.59 +-0.16 mas/yr and mu_delta = -0.15 +- 0.16 mas/yr.
The corresponding orbit of Fornax is polar, with an eccentricity of 0.27, and a
radial period of 4.5 Gyr. Fornax's current location is near pericenter. The
direction of the motion of Fornax supports the notion that Fornax belongs to
the Fornax-LeoI-LeoII-Sculptor-Sextans stream as hypothesized by Lynden-Bell
(1976, 1982) and Majewski (1994).
According to our orbit determination, Fornax crossed the Magellanic plane
\~190 Myr ago, a time that coincides with the termination of the star-formation
process in Fornax. We propose that ram-pressure stripping due to the passage of
Fornax through a gaseous medium denser than the typical intragalactic medium
left behind from the LMC may have caused the end of star formation in Fornax.
The excess, anomalous clouds within the South Galactic pole region of the
Magellanic Stream whose origin has long been debated in the literature as
constituents of either the Magellanic Stream or of the extragalactic Sculptor
group, are found to lie along the orbit of Fornax. We speculate that these
clouds are stripped material from Fornax as the dwarf crossed the Magellanic
Clouds' orbit.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal. The version with
high resolution figures can be found at
ftp://pegasus.astro.yale.edu/pub/dana/paper
Use of Shared Faculty in U.S. and Canadian Dental Schools
Dental schools are facing substantial financial challenges and a shortage of faculty members. One solution to address these issues has been to hire âsharedâ faculty members, i.e., faculty members whose primary appointment is at one institution who are hired by another institution to teach a course or part of a course. This is a controversial concept. A survey of academic deans at U.S. and Canadian dental schools was conducted for this study; thirty-nine (54 percent) of the seventy-two academic deans completed the online survey. This survey found that the use of shared faculty members is not rare amongst U.S. and Canadian dental schools and that the opinions of the academic deans about the use of shared faculty members ranged widelyâfrom strong support to strong disapproval. Using shared faculty members has advantages and disadvantages for students, the shared faculty members, and both institutions. Many of the disadvantages could be potentially minimized by stakeholdersâ working together to develop collaborative arrangements. Networks could be developed in which institutions coordinate hiring of shared faculty members based on what expertise is needed. Financial challenges and shortages of faculty members are unlikely to be resolved in the near future, but use of shared faculty members is one promising approach to begin to meet these challenges
Galactic Kinematics Towards the South Galactic Pole. First Results from the Yale-San Juan Southern Proper-Motion Program
The predictions from a Galactic Structure and Kinematic model code are
compared to the color counts and absolute proper-motions derived from the
Southern Proper-Motion survey covering more than 700 toward the South
Galactic Pole in the range . The theoretical assumptions
and associated computational procedures, the geometry for the kinematic model,
and the adopted parameters are presented in detail and compared to other
Galactic Kinematic models of its kind. The data to which the model is compared
consists of more than 30,000 randomly selected stars, and it is best fit by
models with a solar peculiar motion of +5 km s in the V-component
(pointing in the direction of Galactic rotation), a large LSR speed of 270 km
s, and a (disk) velocity ellipsoid that always points towards the
Galactic center. The absolute proper-motions in the U-component indicate a
solar peculiar motion of km s, with no need for a local
expansion or contraction term. The fainter absolute motions show an indication
that the thick-disk must exhibit a rather steep velocity gradient of about -36
km s kpc with respect to the LSR. We are not able to set
constraints on the overall rotation for the halo, nor on the thick-disk or halo
velocity dispersions. Some substructure in the U & V proper-motions could be
present in the brighter bins , and it might be indicative
of (disk) moving groups.Comment: 24 double-column pages, 12 tables, AAS Latex macros v4.0, 19 B&W
figures, 1 color figure. Accepted for publication on The Astronomical Journa
Proper Motions in the Galactic Bulge: Plaut's Window
A proper motion study of a field of 20' x 20' inside Plaut's low extinction
window (l,b)=(0 deg,-8 deg), has been completed. Relative proper motions and
photographic BV photometry have been derived for ~21,000 stars reaching to
V~20.5 mag, based on the astrometric reduction of 43 photographic plates,
spanning over 21 years of epoch difference. Proper motion errors are typically
1 mas/yr and field dependent systematics are below 0.2 mas/yr.
Cross-referencing with the 2MASS catalog yielded a sample of ~8,700 stars, from
which predominantly disk and bulge subsamples were selected photometrically
from the JH color-magnitude diagram. The two samples exhibited different
proper-motion distributions, with the disk displaying the expected reflex solar
motion as a function of magnitude. Galactic rotation was also detected for
stars between ~2 and ~3 kpc from us. The bulge sample, represented by red
giants, has an intrinsic proper motion dispersion of (sigma_l,sigma_b)=(3.39,
2.91)+/-(0.11,0.09) mas/yr, which is in good agreement with previous results,
and indicates a velocity anisotropy consistent with either rotational
broadening or tri-axiality. A mean distance of 6.37^{+0.87}_{-0.77} kpc has
been estimated for the bulge sample, based on the observed K magnitude of the
horizontal branch red clump. The metallicity [M/H] distribution was also
obtained for a subsample of 60 bulge giants stars, based on calibrated
photometric indices. The observed [M/H] shows a peak value at [M/H]~-0.1 with
an extended metal poor tail and around 30% of the stars with supersolar
metallicity. No change in proper motion dispersion was observed as a function
of [M/H]. We are currently in the process of obtaining CCD UBVRI photometry for
the entire proper-motion sample of ~21,000 stars.Comment: Submitted to AJ April 17th 2007. Accepted June 8th 2007. 45 pages, 14
figure
A calculation of the parameter in the static limit
We calculate the parameter, relevant for --
mixing, from a lattice gauge theory simulation at . The bottom
quarks are simulated in the static theory, the light quarks with Wilson
fermions. Improved smearing functions produced by a variational technique,
MOST, are used to reduce statistical errors and minimize excited-state
contamination of the ground-state signal. We obtain (statistical) (systematic) which corresponds to
(statistical) (systematic) for
the one-loop renormalization-scheme-independent parameter. The systematic
errors include the uncertainty due to alternative (less favored) treatments of
the perturbatively-calculated mixing coefficients; this uncertainty is at least
as large as residual differences between Wilson-static and clover-static
results. Our result agrees with extrapolations of results from relativistic
(Wilson) heavy quark simulations.Comment: 39 pages (REVTeX) including 10 figures (PostScript); Final version
accepted for publication: Added new section for clarity; Included comparison
to recent results by other groups; slight numerical changes; Essential
conclusions remain the sam
Proper Motions in Kapteyn Selected Area 103: A Preliminary Orbit for the Virgo Stellar Stream
We present absolute proper motions in Kapteyn Selected Area (SA) 103. This
field is located 7 degrees west of the center of the Virgo Stellar Stream (VSS,
Duffau et al. 2006), and has a well-defined main sequence representing the
stream. In SA 103 we identify one RR Lyrae star as a member of the VSS
according to its metallicity, radial velocity and distance. VSS candidate
turnoff stars and subgiant stars have proper motions consistent with that of
the RR Lyrae star. The 3D velocity data imply an orbit with a pericenter of 11
kpc and an apocenter of ~90 kpc. Thus, the VSS comprises tidal debris found
near the pericenter of a highly destructive orbit. Examining the six globular
clusters at distances larger than 50 kpc from the Galactic center, and the
proposed orbit of the VSS, we find one tentative association, NGC 2419. We
speculate that NGC 2419 is possibly the nucleus of a disrupted system of which
the VSS is a part.Comment: ApJL accepte
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