264 research outputs found

    An initial overview of the extent and structure of recent star formation within the Serpens Molecular Cloud using Gaia Data Release 2

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    This is the final version. Available from American Astronomical Society / IOP Publishing via the DOI in this record.The dense clusters within the Serpens Molecular Cloud are among the most active regions of nearby star formation. In this paper, we use Gaia DR2 parallaxes and proper motions to statistically measure ∼ 1167 kinematic members of Serpens, few of which were previously identified, to evaluate the star formation history of the complex. The optical members of Serpens are concentrated in three distinct groups located at 380–480 pc; the densest clusters are still highly obscured by optically-thick dust and have few optical members. The total population of young stars and protostars in Serpens is at least 2000 stars, including past surveys that were most sensitive to protostars and disks, and may be far higher. Distances to dark clouds measured from deficits in star counts are consistent with the distances to the optical star clusters. The Serpens Molecular Cloud is seen in the foreground of the Aquila Rift, dark clouds located at 600–700 pc, and behind patchy extinction, here called the Serpens Cirrus, located at ∼ 250 pc. Based on the lack of a distributed population of older stars, the star formation rate throughout the Serpens Molecular Cloud increased by at least a factor of 20 within the past ∼ 5 Myr. The optically bright stars in Serpens Northeast are visible because their natal molecular cloud has been eroded and not because they were flung outwards from a central factory of star formation. The separation between subclusters of 20–100 pc and the absence of an older population leads to speculation that an external forcing was needed to trigger the active star formationNational Science Foundation of ChinaESO - European Southern ObservatoryNational Research Council CanadaNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)National Natural Science Foundation of Chin

    Cadmium uptake, translocation and tolerance in the hyperaccumulator Arabidopsis halleri

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    Arabidopsis halleri is a well-known zinc (Zn) hyperaccumulator, but its status as a cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulator is less certain. Here, we investigated whether A. halleri can hyperaccumulate Cd and whether Cd is transported via the Zn pathway. Growth and Cd and Zn uptake were determined in hydroponic experiments with different Cd and Zn concentrations. Short-term uptake and root-to-shoot transport were measured with radioactive Cd-109 and Zn-65 labelling. A. halleri accumulated > 1000 mg Cd kg(-1) in shoot dry weight at external Cd concentrations >= 5 mu m>, but the short-term uptake rate of Cd-109 was much lower than that of Zn-65. Zinc inhibited short-term Cd-109 uptake kinetics and root-to-shoot translocation, as well as long-term Cd accumulation in shoots. Uptake of Cd-109 and Zn-65 were up-regulated, respectively, by low iron (Fe) or Zn status. A. halleri was much less tolerant to Cd than to Zn. We conclude that A. halleri is able to hyperaccumulate Cd partly, at least, through the Zn pathway, but the mechanisms responsible for cellular Zn tolerance cannot detoxify Cd effectively

    Can we continue research in splenectomized dogs? Mycoplasma haemocanis: Old problem - New insight

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    We report the appearance of a Mycoplasma haemocanis infection in laboratory dogs, which has been reported previously, yet, never before in Europe. Outbreak of the disease was triggered by a splenectomy intended to prepare the dogs for a hemorrhagic shock study. The clinical course of the dogs was dramatic including anorexia and hemolytic anemia. Treatment included allogeneic transfusion, prednisone, and oxytetracycline. Systematic follow-up (n=12, blood smears, antibody testing and specific polymerase chain reaction) gives clear evidence that persistent eradication of M. haemocanis is unlikely. We, therefore, had to abandon the intended shock study. In the absence of effective surveillance and screening for M. haemocanis, the question arises whether it is prudent to continue shock research in splenectomized dogs. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

    A 1.3 mm SMA Survey of 29 Variable Young Stellar Objects

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    Young stellar objects (YSOs) may undergo periods of active accretion (outbursts), during which the protostellar accretion rate is temporarily enhanced by a few orders of magnitude. Whether or not these accretion outburst YSOs possess similar dust/gas reservoirs to each other, and whether or not their dust/gas reservoirs are similar as quiescent YSOs, are issues not yet clarified. The aim of this work is to characterize the millimeter thermal dust emission properties of a statistically significant sample of long and short duration accretion outburst YSOs (i.e., FUors and EXors) and the spectroscopically identified candidates of accretion outbursting YSOs (i.e., FUor-like objects). We have carried out extensive Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations mostly at \sim225 GHz (1.33 mm) and \sim272 GHz (1.10 mm), from 2008 to 2017. We covered accretion outburst YSOs located at 3-σ\sigma significance. Detected sources except for the two cases of V883 Ori and NGC 2071 MM3 were observed with \sim1"" angular resolution. Overall our observed targets show a systematically higher millimeter luminosity distribution than those of the M>M_{*}>0.3 MM_{\odot} Class II YSOs in the nearby (\lesssim400 pc) low-mass star-forming molecular clouds (e.g., Taurus, Lupus, Upp Scorpio, and Chameleon I). In addition, at 1 mm our observed confirmed binaries or triple-system sources are systematically fainter than the rest of the sources even though their 1 mm fluxes are broadly distributed. We may have detected \sim30-60\% millimeter flux variability from V2494 Cyg and V2495 Cyg, from the observations separated by \sim1 year

    What Is a Group? : Young Children’s Perceptions of Different Types of Groups and Group Entitativity

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    To date, developmental research on groups has focused mainly on in-group biases and intergroup relations. However, little is known about children’s general understanding of social groups and their perceptions of different forms of group. In this study, 5- to 6-year-old children were asked to evaluate prototypes of four key types of groups: an intimacy group (friends), a task group (people who are collaborating), a social category (people who look alike), and a loose association (people who coincidently meet at a tram stop). In line with previous work with adults, the vast majority of children perceived the intimacy group, task group, and social category, but not the loose association, to possess entitativity, that is, to be a ‘real group.’ In addition, children evaluated group member properties, social relations, and social obligations differently in each type of group, demonstrating that young children are able to distinguish between different types of in-group relations. The origins of the general group typology used by adults thus appear early in development. These findings contribute to our knowledge about children's intuitive understanding of groups and group members' behavior

    A concordant scenario to explain FU Orionis from deep centimeter and millimeter interferometric observations

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    © ESO, 2017. Aims. The aim of this work is to constrain properties of the disk around the archetype FU Orionis object, FU Ori, with as good as ~25 au resolution. Methods. We resolved FU Ori at 29-37 GHz using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) in the A-Array configuration, which provided the highest possible angular resolution to date at this frequency band (~0\hbox{\farcs}07). We also performed complementary JVLA 8-10 GHz observations, Submillimeter Array (SMA) 224 GHz and 272 GHz observations, and compared these with archival Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 346 GHz observations to obtain the spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Results. Our 8-10 GHz observations do not find evidence for the presence of thermal radio jets, and constrain the radio jet/wind flux to at least 90 times lower than the expected value from the previously reported bolometric luminosity-radio luminosity correlation. The emission at frequencies higher than 29 GHz may be dominated by the two spatially unresolved sources, which are located immediately around FU Ori and its companion FU Ori S, respectively. Their deconvolved radii at 33 GHz are only a few au, which is two orders of magnitude smaller in linear scale than the gaseous disk revealed by the previous Subaru-HiCIAO 1.6 μm coronagraphic polarization imaging observations. We are struck by the fact that these two spatially compact sources contribute to over 50% of the observed fluxes at 224 GHz, 272 GHz, and 346 GHz. The 8-346 GHz SEDs of FU Ori and FU Ori S cannot be fit by constant spectral indices (over frequency), although we cannot rule out that it is due to the time variability of their (sub)millimeter fluxes. Conclusions. The more sophisticated models for SEDs considering the details of the observed spectral indices in the millimeter bands suggest that the >29 GHz emission is contributed by a combination of free-free emission from ionized gas and thermal emission from optically thick and optically thin dust components. We hypothesize that dust in the innermost parts of the disks (â0.1 au) has been sublimated, and thus the disks are no longer well shielded against the ionizing photons. The estimated overall gas and dust mass based on SED modeling, can be as high as a fraction of a solar mass, which is adequate for developing disk gravitational instability. Our present explanation for the observational data is that the massive inflow of gas and dust due to disk gravitational instability or interaction with a companion/intruder, was piled up at the few-Au scale due to the development of a deadzone with negligible ionization. The piled up material subsequently triggered the thermal instability and the magnetorotational instability when the ionization fraction in the inner sub-Au scale region exceeded a threshold value, leading to the high protostellar accretion rate

    The Repertoire and Dynamics of Evolutionary Adaptations to Controlled Nutrient-Limited Environments in Yeast

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    The experimental evolution of laboratory populations of microbes provides an opportunity to observe the evolutionary dynamics of adaptation in real time. Until very recently, however, such studies have been limited by our inability to systematically find mutations in evolved organisms. We overcome this limitation by using a variety of DNA microarray-based techniques to characterize genetic changes—including point mutations, structural changes, and insertion variation—that resulted from the experimental adaptation of 24 haploid and diploid cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to growth in either glucose, sulfate, or phosphate-limited chemostats for ∼200 generations. We identified frequent genomic amplifications and rearrangements as well as novel retrotransposition events associated with adaptation. Global nucleotide variation detection in ten clonal isolates identified 32 point mutations. On the basis of mutation frequencies, we infer that these mutations and the subsequent dynamics of adaptation are determined by the batch phase of growth prior to initiation of the continuous phase in the chemostat. We relate these genotypic changes to phenotypic outcomes, namely global patterns of gene expression, and to increases in fitness by 5–50%. We found that the spectrum of available mutations in glucose- or phosphate-limited environments combined with the batch phase population dynamics early in our experiments allowed several distinct genotypic and phenotypic evolutionary pathways in response to these nutrient limitations. By contrast, sulfate-limited populations were much more constrained in both genotypic and phenotypic outcomes. Thus, the reproducibility of evolution varies with specific selective pressures, reflecting the constraints inherent in the system-level organization of metabolic processes in the cell. We were able to relate some of the observed adaptive mutations (e.g., transporter gene amplifications) to known features of the relevant metabolic pathways, but many of the mutations pointed to genes not previously associated with the relevant physiology. Thus, in addition to answering basic mechanistic questions about evolutionary mechanisms, our work suggests that experimental evolution can also shed light on the function and regulation of individual metabolic pathways
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