6,857 research outputs found
On the formation and physical properties of the Intra-Cluster Light in hierarchical galaxy formation models
We study the formation of the Intra-Cluster Light (ICL) using a semi-analytic
model of galaxy formation, coupled to merger trees extracted from N-body
simulations of groups and clusters. We assume that the ICL forms by (1) stellar
stripping of satellite galaxies and (2) relaxation processes that take place
during galaxy mergers. The fraction of ICL in groups and clusters predicted by
our models ranges between 10 and 40 per cent, with a large halo-to-halo scatter
and no halo mass dependence. We note, however, that our predicted ICL fractions
depend on the resolution: for a set of simulations with particle mass one order
of magnitude larger than that adopted in the high resolution runs used in our
study, we find that the predicted ICL fractions are ~30-40 per cent larger than
those found in the high resolution runs. On cluster scale, large part of the
scatter is due to a range of dynamical histories, while on smaller scale it is
driven by individual accretion events and stripping of very massive satellites,
, that we find to be the major contributors
to the ICL. The ICL in our models forms very late (below ), and a
fraction varying between 5 and 25 per cent of it has been accreted during the
hierarchical growth of haloes. In agreement with recent observational
measurements, we find the ICL to be made of stars covering a relatively large
range of metallicity, with the bulk of them being sub-solar.Comment: Accepted for Publication in MNRAS, 19 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl
Simulating the formation of a proto-cluster at z~2
We present results from two high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations of
proto-cluster regions at z~2.1. The simulations have been compared to
observational results for the socalled Spiderweb galaxy system, the core of a
putative proto-cluster region at z = 2.16, found around a radio galaxy. The
simulated regions have been chosen so as to form a poor cluster with M200~10^14
h-1 Msun (C1) and a rich cluster with M200~2x10^15 h-1 Msun (C2) at z = 0. The
simulated proto-clusters show evidence of ongoing assembly of a dominating
central galaxy. The stellar mass of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of the
C2 system is in excess with respect to observational estimates for the
Spiderweb galaxy, with a total star formation rate which is also larger than
indicated by observations. We find that the projected velocities of galaxies in
the C2 cluster are consistent with observations, while those measured for the
poorer cluster C1 are too low compared to the observed velocities. We argue
that the Spiderweb complex resemble the high-redshift progenitor of a rich
galaxy cluster. Our results indicate that the included supernovae feedback is
not enough to suppress star formation in these systems, supporting the need of
introducing AGN feedback. According to our simulations, a diffuse atmosphere of
hot gas in hydrostatic equilibrium should already be present at this redshift,
and enriched at a level comparable to that of nearby galaxy clusters. The
presence of this gas should be detectable with future deep X-ray observations.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS (Letters
Recovery trends of commercial fish: the case of an underperforming Mediterranean marine protected area
Temporal trends in the recovery of exploited species in marine protected areas (MPAs) are useful for a proper assessment of the efficacy of protection measures. The effects of protection on the fish assemblages of the sublittoral rocky reefs in the \u201cPenisola del Sinis-Isola di Mal di Ventre\u201d MPA (W. Sardinia, Italy) were evaluated using a multi-year series of data. Four surveys, conducted 7, 10, 13 and 15 years after the area was designated as an MPA
and carried out in the period spanning June and July, were used to estimate the abundance and biomass of commercial species. The surveys were carried out in zones with decreasing levels of fishing restrictions within the MPA (zones A, B, C) and in unprotected zones (OUT1 and OUT2), and underwater video visual census techniques were used. Protected zones only occasionally showed higher levels of abundance or biomass, and the trajectories of those metrics were not consistent across the years. In addition, the zone with the highest level of protection (zone A) never presented levels of abundance and biomass higher than those in zones B and C. This study shows that even 15 years after designation, protection has had no appreciable effect in the MPA studied. It is argued that this is emblematic of several shortcomings in the planning, regulation and enforcement frameworks of the MPA
E-ABR in patients with cochlear implant: A comparison between patients with malformed cochlea and normal cochlea
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to compare the electrical auditory brainstem response (EABR) following cochlear implant (CI) surgery in pediatric subjects with cochlear malformation and a normal cochlea, in order to assess the sensitivity of EABR and to evaluate the surgery outcome. MATERIALS and METHODS: A total of 26 pediatric subjects who were deaf and scheduled for CI surgery were enrolled into this case control study. Group A (n=20) included subjects with a normo-conformed cochlea. Group B (n=6) included subjects with cochlear malformation. Subjects were evaluated with EABR immediately (T0) and 6 months (T1) post-CI surgery. The EABR Waves III and V average amplitude and latency were compared across time, separately for each group, and across groups, separately for each time. RESULTS: Auditory brainstem response (ABR) could only be recorded in Group A. We were able to record EABR from all subjects at T0 and T1, and waves III and V were present in all the recorded signals. There were no statistically significant differences between T0 and T1 in EABR Waves III and V in terms of average amplitude and latency in neither group. When comparing Groups A and B, the only statistically significant difference was the average amplitude of wave V, both at T0 and T1. CONCLUSION: EABR is a valid tool to measure the auditory nerve integrity after CI surgery in patients with a normal and malformed cochlea, as shown by its ability to measure waves III and V when ABR is absent. The EABR testing should be performed before and after CI surgery, and EABR should be used as a measure of outcome, especially in patients with a malformed cochlea
Identifying Similar Pages in Web Applications using a Competitive Clustering Algorithm
We present an approach based on Winner Takes All (WTA), a competitive clustering algorithm, to support the comprehension of static and dynamic Web applications during Web application reengineering. This approach adopts a process that first computes the distance between Web pages and then identifies and groups similar pages using the considered clustering algorithm. We present an instance of application of the clustering process to identify similar pages at the structural level. The page structure is encoded into a string of HTML tags and then the distance between Web pages at the structural level is computed using the Levenshtein string edit distance algorithm. A prototype to automate the clustering process has been implemented that can be extended to other instances of the process, such as the identification of groups of similar pages at content level. The approach and the tool have been evaluated in two case studies. The results have shown that the WTA clustering algorithm suggests heuristics to easily identify the best partition of Web pages into clusters among the possible partitions
Numerical simulations challenged on the prediction of massive subhalo abundance in galaxy clusters: the case of Abell 2142
In this Letter we compare the abundance of member galaxies of a rich, nearby
() galaxy cluster, Abell 2142, with that of halos of comparable virial
mass extracted from sets of state-of-the-art numerical simulations, both
collisionless at different resolutions and with the inclusion of baryonic
physics in the form of cooling, star formation, and feedback by active galactic
nuclei. We also use two semi-analytical models to account for the presence of
orphan galaxies. The photometric and spectroscopic information, taken from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (SDSS DR12) database, allows us to
estimate the stellar velocity dispersion of member galaxies of Abell 2142. This
quantity is used as proxy for the total mass of secure cluster members and is
properly compared with that of subhalos in simulations. We find that simulated
halos have a statistically significant ( sigma confidence level)
smaller amount of massive (circular velocity above )
subhalos, even before accounting for the possible incompleteness of
observations. These results corroborate the findings from a recent strong
lensing study of the Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0416
\citep{grillo2015} and suggest that the observed difference is already present
at the level of dark matter (DM) subhalos and is not solved by introducing
baryonic physics. A deeper understanding of this discrepancy between
observations and simulations will provide valuable insights into the impact of
the physical properties of DM particles and the effect of baryons on the
formation and evolution of cosmological structures.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Modified to match the version published in ApJ
A topological approach to neural complexity
Considerable efforts in modern statistical physics is devoted to the study of
networked systems. One of the most important example of them is the brain,
which creates and continuously develops complex networks of correlated
dynamics. An important quantity which captures fundamental aspects of brain
network organization is the neural complexity C(X)introduced by Tononi et al.
This work addresses the dependence of this measure on the topological features
of a network in the case of gaussian stationary process. Both anlytical and
numerical results show that the degree of complexity has a clear and simple
meaning from a topological point of view. Moreover the analytical result offers
a straightforward algorithm to compute the complexity than the standard one.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Gas cooling in semi-analytic models and SPH simulations: are results consistent?
We present a detailed comparison between the galaxy populations within a
massive cluster, as predicted by hydrodynamical SPH simulations and by a
semi-analytic model (SAM) of galaxy formation. Both models include gas cooling
and a simple prescription of star formation, which consists in transforming
instantaneously any cold gas available into stars, while neglecting any source
of energy feedback. We find that, in general, galaxy populations from SAMs and
SPH have similar statistical properties, in agreement with previous studies.
However, when comparing galaxies on an object-by-object basis, we find a number
of interesting differences: a) the star formation histories of the brightest
cluster galaxies (BCGs) from SAM and SPH models differ significantly, with the
SPH BCG exhibiting a lower level of star formation activity at low redshift,
and a more intense and shorter initial burst of star formation with respect to
its SAM counterpart; b) while all stars associated with the BCG were formed in
its progenitors in the semi-analytic model used here, this holds true only for
half of the final BCG stellar mass in the SPH simulation, the remaining half
being contributed by tidal stripping of stars from the diffuse stellar
component associated with galaxies accreted on the cluster halo; c) SPH
satellites can loose up to 90 per cent of their stellar mass at the time of
accretion, due to tidal stripping, a process not included in the semi-analytic
model used in this study; d) in the SPH simulation, significant cooling occurs
on the most massive satellite galaxies and this lasts for up to 1 Gyr after
accretion. This physical process is not included in the semi-analytic model
used in our study, as well as in most of the models discussed in the recent
literature.Comment: Revised version submitted to MNRAS, 15 pages, 9 figures. A
High-resolution version of the paper and figures can be found at this
http://adlibitum.oats.inaf.it/saro/SAM2/paper.pd
An Investigation of Clustering Algorithms in the Identification of Similar Web Pages
In this paper we investigate the effect of using clustering algorithms in the reverse engineering field to identify pages that are similar either at the structural level or at the content level. To this end, we have used two instances of a general process that only differ for the measure used to compare web pages. In particular, two web pages at the structural level and at the content level are compared by using the Levenshtein edit distances and Latent Semantic Indexing, respectively. The static pages of two web applications and one static web site have been used to compare the results achieved by using the considered clustering algorithms both at the structural and content level. On these applications we generally achieved comparable results. However, the investigation has also suggested some heuristics to quickly identify the best partition of web pages into clusters among the possible partitions both at the structural and at the content level
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