27,474 research outputs found
Enhanced LANDSAT images of Antarctica and planetary exploration
Since early in the LANDSAT program, black-and-white paper prints of band 7 (near infrared) of the LANDSAT multispectral scanner have been used extensively to prepare semicontrolled maps of Antarctica. Image-processing techniques are now employed to enhance fine detail and to make controlled image-mosaic maps in color. LANDSAT multispectral images of Antarctica help to expand our knowledge of extraterrestrial bodies by showing bare-ice areas as bright blue patches; on such patches meteorites tend to be concentrated and are collected. Many subtle flow features in Antarctic ice streams resemble features at the mouths of Martian outflow channels, which suggests that the channels also contained ice. Furthermore, flow lines in Antarctic ice sheets that merge with ice shelves resemble Martian flow features associated with dissected terrain along the Martian northern highland margin, and support the concept that ice was involved in the transport of material from the southern highlands to the northern lowland plains. In Antarctica, as on Mars, the virtual absence of fluvial activity over millions of years has permitted the growth of glacial and eolian features to unusually large sizes
Tidal Remnants and Intergalactic HII Regions
We report the discovery of two small intergalactic HII regions in the loose
group of galaxies around the field elliptical NGC 1490. The HII regions are
located at least 100 kpc from any optical galaxy but are associated with a
number of large HI clouds that are lying along an arc 500 kpc in length and
that have no optical counterpart on the Digital Sky Survey. The sum of the HI
masses of the clouds is almost 10^10 M_sun and the largest HI cloud is about
100 kpc in size. Deep optical imaging reveals a very low surface brightness
counterpart to this largest HI cloud, making this one of the HI richest optical
galaxies known (M_HI/L_V~200). Spectroscopy of the HII regions indicates that
the abundance in these HII regions is only slightly sub-solar, excluding a
primordial origin of the HI clouds. The HI clouds are perhaps remnants
resulting from the tidal disruption of a reasonably sized galaxy, probably
quite some time ago, by the loose group to which NGC1490 belongs.
Alternatively, they are remnants of the merger that created the field
elliptical NGC1490. The isolated HII regions show that star formation on a very
small scale can occur in intergalactic space in gas drawn from galaxies by
tidal interactions. Many such intergalactic small star formation regions may
exist near tidally interacting galaxies.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the IAU Symposium #217, Recycling
Intergalactic and Interstellar Matter, eds. P.-A. Duc, J. Braine, and E.
Brinks, 6 pages with low resolution figures. The full paper with high
resolution images can be downloaded from
http://www.astron.nl/~morganti/Papers/cloud.ps.g
Task constraints distinguish perspective inferences from perspective use during discourse interpretation in a false belief task
Interpreting other peoplesâ actions relies on an understanding of their current mental states (e.g. beliefs, desires and intentions). In this paper, we distinguish between listenersâ ability to infer othersâ perspectives and their explicit use of this knowledge to predict subsequent actions. In a visual-world study, two groups of participants (passive observers vs. active participants) watched short videos, depicting transfer events, where one character (âJaneâ) either held a true or false belief about an objectâs location. We tracked participantsâ eye-movements around the final visual scene, time-locked to related auditory descriptions (e.g. âJane will look for the chocolates in the container on the leftâ.). Results showed that active participants had already inferred the characterâs belief in the 1 s preview period prior to auditory onset, before it was possible to use this information to predict an outcome. Moreover, they used this inference to correctly anticipate reference to the objectâs initial location on false belief trials at the earliest possible point (i.e. from âJaneâ onwards). In contrast, passive observers only showed evidence of a belief inference from the onset of âJaneâ, and did not show reliable use of this inference to predict Janeâs behaviour on false belief trials until much later, when the location (âleft/rightâ) was auditorily available. These results show that active engagement in a task activates earlier inferences about othersâ perspectives, and drives immediate use of this information to anticipate othersâ actions, compared to passive observers, who are susceptible to influences from egocentric or reality biases. Finally, we review evidence that using other peoplesâ perspectives to predict their behaviour is more cognitively effortful than simply using oneâs own
Delta-like and gtl2 are reciprocally expressed, differentially methylated linked imprinted genes on mouse chromosome 12
AbstractThe distal portion of mouse chromosome 12 is imprinted. To date, however, Gtl2 is the only imprinted gene identified on chromosome 12. Gtl2 encodes multiple alternatively spliced transcripts with no apparent open reading frame. Using conceptuses with maternal or paternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 12 (UPD12), we found that Gtl2 is expressed from the maternal allele and methylated at the 5Ⲡend of the silent paternal allele. A reciprocally imprinted gene, Delta-like (Dlk), with homology to genes involved in the Notch signalling pathway was identified 80kb upstream of Gtl2. Dlk was expressed exclusively from the paternal allele in both the embryo and placenta, but the CpG-island promoter of Dlk was completely unmethylated on both parental alleles. Rather, a paternally methylated region was identified in the last exon of the active Dlk allele. The proximity, reciprocal imprinting and methylation in this domain are reminiscent of the co-ordinately regulated Igf2âH19 imprinted domain on mouse chromosome 7. Like H19 and Igf2, Gtl2 and Dlk were found to be co-expressed in the same tissues throughout development, though not after birth. These results have implications for the regulation, function and evolution of imprinted domains
Low voltage control of ferromagnetism in a semiconductor p-n junction
The concept of low-voltage depletion and accumulation of electron charge in
semiconductors, utilized in field-effect transistors (FETs), is one of the
cornerstones of current information processing technologies. Spintronics which
is based on manipulating the collective state of electron spins in a
ferromagnet provides complementary technologies for reading magnetic bits or
for the solid-state memories. The integration of these two distinct areas of
microelectronics in one physical element, with a potentially major impact on
the power consumption and scalability of future devices, requires to find
efficient means for controlling magnetization electrically. Current induced
magnetization switching phenomena represent a promising step towards this goal,
however, they relay on relatively large current densities. The direct approach
of controlling the magnetization by low-voltage charge depletion effects is
seemingly unfeasible as the two worlds of semiconductors and metal ferromagnets
are separated by many orders of magnitude in their typical carrier
concentrations. Here we demonstrate that this concept is viable by reporting
persistent magnetization switchings induced by short electrical pulses of a few
volts in an all-semiconductor, ferromagnetic p-n junction.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
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