1,748 research outputs found
Limits to the presence of transiting circumbinary planets in CoRoT data
The CoRoT mission during its flight-phase 2007-2012 delivered the
light-curves for over 2000 eclipsing binaries. Data from the Kepler mission
have proven the existence of several transiting circumbinary planets. Albeit
light-curves from CoRoT have typically lower precision and shorter coverage,
CoRoT's number of targets is similar to Kepler, and some of the known
circumbinary planets could potentially be detected in CoRoT data as well. The
aim of this work has been a revision of the entire CoRoT data-set for the
presence of circumbinary planets, and the derivation of limits to the
abundances of such planets. We developed a code which removes the light curve
of the eclipsing binaries and searches for quasi-periodic transit-like features
in a light curve after removal of binary eclipses and instrumental features.
The code needs little information on the sample systems and can be used for
other space missions as well, like Kepler, K2, TESS and PLATO. The code is
broad in the requirements leading to detections, but was tuned to deliver an
amount of detections that is manageable in a subsequent, mainly visual,
revision about their nature. In the CoRoT sample we identified three planet
candidates whose transits would have arisen from a single pass across the
central binary. No candidates remained however with transit events from
multiple planetary orbits. We calculated the upper limits for the number of
Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune sized planets in co-planar orbits for different
orbital period ranges. We found that there are much less giant planets in
short-periodic orbits around close binary systems than around single stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 11 pages, 4 figures and 4 tables.
Updated to fix error in acknowledgemen
Retinal glycoprotein enrichment by concanavalin a enabled identification of novel membrane autoantigen synaptotagmin-1 in equine recurrent uveitis.
Complete knowledge of autoantigen spectra is crucial for understanding pathomechanisms of autoimmune diseases like equine recurrent uveitis (ERU), a spontaneous model for human autoimmune uveitis. While several ERU autoantigens were identified previously, no membrane protein was found so far. As there is a great overlap between glycoproteins and membrane proteins, the aim of this study was to test whether pre-enrichment of retinal glycoproteins by ConA affinity is an effective tool to detect autoantigen candidates among membrane proteins. In 1D Western blots, the glycoprotein preparation allowed detection of IgG reactions to low abundant proteins in sera of ERU patients. Synaptotagmin-1, a Ca2+-sensing protein in synaptic vesicles, was identified as autoantigen candidate from the pre-enriched glycoprotein fraction by mass spectrometry and was validated as a highly prevalent autoantigen by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Analysis of Syt1 expression in retinas of ERU cases showed a downregulation in the majority of ERU affected retinas to 24%. Results pointed to a dysregulation of retinal neurotransmitter release in ERU. Identification of synaptotagmin-1, the first cell membrane associated autoantigen in this spontaneous autoimmune disease, demonstrated that examination of tissue fractions can lead to the discovery of previously undetected novel autoantigens. Further experiments will address its role in ERU pathology
A cool starspot or a second transiting planet in the TrES-1 system?
We investigate the origin of a flux increase found during a transit of
TrES-1, observed with the HST. This feature in the HST light curve cannot be
attributed to noise and is supposedly a dark area on the stellar surface of the
host star eclipsed by TrES-1 during its transit. We investigate the likeliness
of two possible hypothesis for its origin: A starspot or a second transiting
planet. We made use of several transit observations of TrES-1 from space with
the HST and from ground with the IAC-80 telescope. On the basis of these
observations we did a statistical study of flux variations in each of the
observed events, to investigate if similar flux increases are present in other
parts of the data set. The HST observation presents a single clear flux rise
during a transit whereas the ground observations led to the detection of two
such events but with low significance. In the case of having observed a
starspot in the HST data, assuming a central impact between the spot and
TrES-1, we would obtain a lower limit for the spot radius of 42000 km. For this
radius the spot temperature would be 4690 K, 560 K lower then the stellar
surface of 5250 K. For a putative second transiting planet we can set a lower
limit for its radius at 0.37 R and for periods of less than 10.5 days, we
can set an upper limit at 0.72 R. Assuming a conventional interpretation,
then this HST observation constitutes the detection of a starspot.
Alternatively, this flux rise might also be caused by an additional transiting
planet. The true nature of the origin can be revealed if a wavelength
dependency of the flux rise can be shown or discarded with a higher certainty.
Additionally, the presence of a second planet can also be detected by radial
velocity measurements.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Health and mortality of the elderly: the grade of membership method, classification and determination
Educational attainment and women's environmental mastery in midlife: findings from a British Birth Cohort Study
Using data from 1,184 women in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, we estimated associations between education and Ryff's environmental mastery scale scores at age 52. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated two subscales, here termed mastery skills and mastery accomplishments. Low education was associated with higher mastery skills. This was partly explained by childhood socioeconomic position, as mastery was lower among those with fathers in the most and least advantaged occupational classes. Education was not associated with mastery accomplishments in unadjusted models. Lower ambitions for family/home were associated with higher mastery accomplishments and may have partly suppressed as an association between education and mastery accomplishments. This study highlights childhood as well as adult correlates of mastery and adds to mounting evidence that higher mastery is not universally found among those who are more educated
Theory of short-range magnetic order for the t-J model
We present a self-consistent theory of magnetic short-range order based on a
spin-rotation-invariant slave-boson representation of the 2D t-J model. In the
functional-integral scheme, at the nearest-neighbour pair-approximation level,
the bosonized t-J Lagrangian is transformed to a classical Heisenberg model
with an effective (doping-dependent) exchange interaction which takes into
account the interrelation of ``itinerant'' and ``localized'' magnetic
behaviour. Evaluating the theory in the saddle-point approximation, we find a
suppression of antiferromagnetic and incommensurate spiral long-range-ordered
phases in the favour of a paramagnetic phase with pronounced antiferromagnetic
short-range correlations.Comment: 2 pages, 1 Postscript figure, LTpaper.sty, Proc. XXI Int. Conf. on
Low Temp. Phys. Prague 9
Drude weight and total optical weight in a t-t'-J model
We study the Drude weight D and the total optical weight K for a t-t'-J model
on a square lattice that exhibits a metallic phase-modulated antiferromagnetic
ground state close to half-filling. Within a suitable 1/N expansion that
includes leading quantum-fluctuation effects, D and K are found to increase
linearly with small hole doping away from the Mott metal-insulator transition
point at half-filling. The slow zero-sound velocity near the latter transition
identifies with the velocity of the lower-energy branch of the twofold
excitation spectrum. At higher doping values, D and K eventually saturate and
then start to decrease. These features are in qualitative agreement with
optical conductivity measurements in doped antiferromagnets.Comment: 7 pages, REVTEX file (3 Postscript figures). To appear in J. Phys.:
Condens. Mattte
Late-life depressive symptoms, religiousness, and mood in the last week of life
Aim of the current study is to examine whether previous depressive symptoms modify possible effects of religiousness on mood in the last week of life. After-death interviews with proxy respondents of deceased sample members of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam provided information on depressed mood in the last week of life, as well as on the presence of a sense of peace with the approaching end of life. Other characteristics were derived from interviews with the sample members when still alive. Significant interactions were identified between measures of religiousness and previous depressive symptoms (CES-D scores) in their associations with mood in the last week of life. Among those with previous depressive symptoms, church-membership, church-attendance and salience of religion were associated with a greater likelihood of depressed mood in the last week of life. Among those without previous depressive symptoms, church-attendance and salience of religion were associated with a higher likelihood of a sense of peace. For older adults in the last phase of life, supportive effects of religiousness were more or less expected. Fore those with recent depressive symptoms, however, religiousness might involve a component of existential doubt
Ground-based photometry of space-based transit detections: Photometric follow-up of the CoRoT mission
The motivation, techniques and performance of the ground-based photometric
follow-up of transit detections by the CoRoT space mission are presented. Its
principal raison d'\^{e}tre arises from the much higher spatial resolution of
common ground-based telescopes in comparison to CoRoT's cameras. This allows
the identification of many transit candidates as arising from eclipsing
binaries that are contaminating CoRoT's lightcurves, even in low-amplitude
transit events that cannot be detected with ground-based obervations. For the
ground observations, 'on'-'off' photometry is now largely employed, in which
only a short timeseries during a transit and a section outside a transit is
observed and compared photometrically. CoRoT planet candidates' transits are
being observed by a dedicated team with access to telescopes with sizes ranging
from 0.2 to 2 m. As an example, the process that led to the rejection of
contaminating eclipsing binaries near the host star of the Super-Earth planet
CoRoT-7b is shown. Experiences and techniques from this work may also be useful
for other transit-detection experiments, when the discovery instrument obtains
data with a relatively low angular resolution.Comment: Accepted for the A&A special issue on CoRo
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