592 research outputs found
Astrometric effects of gravitational wave backgrounds with non-Einsteinian polarizations
The Gaia mission offers a new opportunity to search for the low-frequency gravitational wave background using astrometric measurements. In this paper, the astrometric effect of gravitational waves is reviewed, with a particular focus on the effect of non-Einsteinian gravitational wave polarizations. A stochastic gravitational wave background generates a correlated vector field of astrometric deflections on the sky. A convenient decomposition for the correlation matrix is introduced, enabling it to be calculated for all possible gravitational wave polarizations and compared to the redshift correlations from the pulsar-timing literature; in the case of a general relativity background of transverse traceless gravitational waves, this also allows us to identify an astrometric analog of the famous Hellings-Downs curve. Finally, the cross correlation between the redshift and astrometric signal is also calculated; this may form the basis for future joint pulsar-timing and astrometry searches for arbitrarily polarized gravitational wave backgrounds.D.âM. is funded by the STFC. C.âM. acknowledges financial support provided under the European Unionâs H2020 ERC Consolidator Grant âMatter and strong-field gravity: New frontiers in Einsteins theoryâ grant agreement no. MaGRaTh646597. This project has received funding from the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 690904 and C.âM. would like to acknowledge networking support by the COST Action CA16104
Residual polymer stabiliser causes anisotropic electrical conductivity during inkjet printing of metal nanoparticles
Inkjet printing of metal nanoparticles allows for design flexibility, rapid processing and enables the 3D printing of functional electronic devices through co-deposition of multiple materials. However, the performance of printed devices, especially their electrical conductivity, is lower than those made by traditional manufacturing methods and is not fully understood. Here, we reveal that anisotropic electrical conductivity of printed metal nanoparticles is caused by organic residuals from their inks. We employ a combination of electrical resistivity tests, morphological analysis and 3D nanoscale chemical analysis of printed devices using silver nanoparticles to show that the polymer stabiliser polyvinylpyrrolidone tends to concentrate between vertically stacked nanoparticle layers as well as at dielectric/conductive interfaces. Understanding the behaviour of organic residues in printed nanoparticles reveals potential new strategies to improve nanomaterial ink formulations for functional printed electronics
The stellar halo of the Galaxy
Stellar halos may hold some of the best preserved fossils of the formation
history of galaxies. They are a natural product of the merging processes that
probably take place during the assembly of a galaxy, and hence may well be the
most ubiquitous component of galaxies, independently of their Hubble type. This
review focuses on our current understanding of the spatial structure, the
kinematics and chemistry of halo stars in the Milky Way. In recent years, we
have experienced a change in paradigm thanks to the discovery of large amounts
of substructure, especially in the outer halo. I discuss the implications of
the currently available observational constraints and fold them into several
possible formation scenarios. Unraveling the formation of the Galactic halo
will be possible in the near future through a combination of large wide field
photometric and spectroscopic surveys, and especially in the era of Gaia.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures. References updated and some minor changes.
Full-resolution version available at
http://www.astro.rug.nl/~ahelmi/stellar-halo-review.pd
Recommended from our members
Letter processing and font information during reading: beyond distinctiveness, where vision meets design
Letter identification is a critical front end of the
reading process. In general, conceptualizations of the identification process have emphasized arbitrary sets of distinctive features. However, a richer view of letter processing incorporates principles from the field of type design, including an emphasis on uniformities across letters within a font. The importance of uniformities is supported by a small body of research indicating that consistency of font increases letter identification efficiency. We review design concepts and the relevant literature, with the goal of stimulating further thinking about letter processing during reading
Extragalactic Results from the Infrared Space Observatory
More than a decade ago the IRAS satellite opened the realm of external
galaxies for studies in the 10 to 100 micron band and discovered emission from
tens of thousands of normal and active galaxies. With the 1995-1998 mission of
the Infrared Space Observatory the next major steps in extragalactic infrared
astronomy became possible: detailed imaging, spectroscopy and
spectro-photometry of many galaxies detected by IRAS, as well as deep surveys
in the mid- and far- IR. The spectroscopic data reveal a wealth of detail about
the nature of the energy source(s) and about the physical conditions in
galaxies. ISO's surveys for the first time explore the infrared emission of
distant, high-redshift galaxies. ISO's main theme in extragalactic astronomy is
the role of star formation in the activity and evolution of galaxies.Comment: 106 pages, including 17 figures. Ann.Rev.Astron.Astrophys. (in
press), a gzip'd pdf file (667kB) is also available at
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/www_ir/preprint/annrev2000.pdf.g
A review of elliptical and disc galaxy structure, and modern scaling laws
A century ago, in 1911 and 1913, Plummer and then Reynolds introduced their
models to describe the radial distribution of stars in `nebulae'. This article
reviews the progress since then, providing both an historical perspective and a
contemporary review of the stellar structure of bulges, discs and elliptical
galaxies. The quantification of galaxy nuclei, such as central mass deficits
and excess nuclear light, plus the structure of dark matter halos and cD galaxy
envelopes, are discussed. Issues pertaining to spiral galaxies including dust,
bulge-to-disc ratios, bulgeless galaxies, bars and the identification of
pseudobulges are also reviewed. An array of modern scaling relations involving
sizes, luminosities, surface brightnesses and stellar concentrations are
presented, many of which are shown to be curved. These 'redshift zero'
relations not only quantify the behavior and nature of galaxies in the Universe
today, but are the modern benchmark for evolutionary studies of galaxies,
whether based on observations, N-body-simulations or semi-analytical modelling.
For example, it is shown that some of the recently discovered compact
elliptical galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5 may be the bulges of modern disc galaxies.Comment: Condensed version (due to Contract) of an invited review article to
appear in "Planets, Stars and Stellar
Systems"(www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-90-481-8818-5). 500+ references
incl. many somewhat forgotten, pioneer papers. Original submission to
Springer: 07-June-201
Infant Brain Atlases from Neonates to 1- and 2-Year-Olds
Background: Studies for infants are usually hindered by the insufficient image contrast, especially for neonates. Prior knowledge, in the form of atlas, can provide additional guidance for the data processing such as spatial normalization, label propagation, and tissue segmentation. Although it is highly desired, there is currently no such infant atlas which caters for all these applications. The reason may be largely due to the dramatic early brain development, image processing difficulties, and the need of a large sample size. Methodology: To this end, after several years of subject recruitment and data acquisition, we have collected a unique longitudinal dataset, involving 95 normal infants (56 males and 39 females) with MRI scanned at 3 ages, i.e., neonate, 1-yearold, and 2-year-old. State-of-the-art MR image segmentation and registration techniques were employed, to construct which include the templates (grayscale average images), tissue probability maps (TPMs), and brain parcellation maps (i.e., meaningful anatomical regions of interest) for each age group. In addition, the longitudinal correspondences between agespecific atlases were also obtained. Experiments of typical infant applications validated that the proposed atlas outperformed other atlases and is hence very useful for infant-related studies. Conclusions: We expect that the proposed infant 0â1â2 brain atlases would be significantly conducive to structural and functional studies of the infant brains. These atlases are publicly available in our website
Inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor signalling reduces hypercalcaemia induced by human lung squamous-cell carcinoma in athymic mice
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) expression and humoral hypercalcaemia of malignancy (HHM), using two different human squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) xenograft models. A randomised controlled study in which nude mice with RWGT2 and HARA xenografts received either placebo or gefitinib 200âmgâkgâ1 for 3 days after developing HHM. Effectiveness of therapy was evaluated by measuring plasma calcium and PTHrP, urine cyclic AMP/creatinine ratios, and tumour volumes. The study end point was at 78âh. The lung SCC lines, RWGT2 and HARA, expressed high levels of PTHrP mRNA as well as abundant EGFR protein, but very little erbB2 or erbB3. Both lines expressed high transcript levels for the EGFR ligand, amphiregulin (AREG), as well as, substantially lower levels of transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α), and heparin binding-epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF) mRNA. Parathyroid hormone-related protein gene expression in both lines was reduced 40â80% after treatment with 1âÎŒM of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor PD153035 and precipitating antibodies to AREG. Gefitinib treatment of hypercalcaemic mice with RWGT2 and HARA xenografts resulted in a significant reduction of plasma total calcium concentrations by 78âh. Autocrine AREG stimulated the EGFR and increased PTHrP gene expression in the RWGT2 and HARA lung SCC lines. Inhibition of the EGFR pathway in two human SCC models of HHM by an anilinoquinazoline demonstrated that the EGFR tyrosine kinase is a potential target for antihypercalcaemic therapy
- âŠ