5,228 research outputs found
Probing the Super Star Cluster Environment of NGC 1569 Using FISICA
We present near-IR JH spectra of the central regions of the dwarf starburst
galaxy NGC 1569 using the Florida Image Slicer for Infrared Cosmology and
Astrophysics (FISICA). The dust-penetrating properties and available spectral
features of the near-IR, combined with the integral field unit (IFU) capability
to take spectra of a field, make FISICA an ideal tool for this work. We use the
prominent [He I] (1.083\mu m) and Pa\beta (1.282 \mu m) lines to probe the
dense star forming regions as well as characterize the general star forming
environment around the super star clusters (SSCs) in NGC 1569. We find [He I]
coincident with CO clouds to the north and west of the SSCs, which provides the
first, conclusive evidence for embedded star clusters here.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the MNRA
Recommended from our members
Intense molecular emission from the Lagoon nebula, M8
The discovery is reported of the second strongest source of mm and submm wavelength CO line emission, towards M8, the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius. The ~31 M⊙ molecular core has dimensions ~0.2 x 0.3pc and is centred on the O7V star Herschel 36 (H36), near the Hourglass Nebula in the core of M8. Emission from the CO line wings extends to the north and south of the Hourglass, although a lack of near-IR H2 emission indicates that outflow activity is much less prominent than in many active star-formation regions, and suggests that the CO line wings may trace the expanding edge of a cavity around H36. The molecular line data are compared with new near-IR narrow-band, continuum-subtracted images in He I, H2, and H,+ (Brγ) lines and archival HST emission-line images in Hα, [O III], and [S II]. The optical and near-IR data are found to be broadly consistent with previous photo-ionisation models of the Hourglass, which is excited by H 36. However, there are variations in the He I/Brγ line ratio which are difficult to explain
VLA 1.4GHz observations of the GOODS-North Field: Data Reduction and Analysis
We describe deep, new, wide-field radio continuum observations of the Great
Observatories Origins Deep Survey -- North (GOODS-N) field. The resulting map
has a synthesized beamsize of ~1.7" and an r.m.s. noise level of ~3.9uJy/bm
near its center and ~8uJy/bm at 15', from phase center. We have cataloged 1,230
discrete radio emitters, within a 40' x 40' region, above a 5-sigma detection
threshold of ~20uJy at the field center. New techniques, pioneered by Owen &
Morrison (2008), have enabled us to achieve a dynamic range of 6800:1 in a
field that has significantly strong confusing sources. We compare the 1.4-GHz
(20-cm) source counts with those from other published radio surveys. Our
differential counts are nearly Euclidean below 100uJy with a median source
diameter of ~1.2". This adds to the evidence presented by Owen & Morrison
(2008) that the natural confusion limit may lie near ~1uJy. If the Euclidean
slope of the counts continues down to the natural confusion limit as an
extrapolation of our log N - log S, this indicates that the cutoff must be
fairly sharp below 1uJy else the cosmic microwave background temperature would
increase above 2.7K at 1.4 GHz.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS. 16 pages, 19 figures. Radio data
and source list can be found at http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~morrison/GOODSN
In situ measurements of tropospheric volcanic plumes in Ecuador and Colombia during TC
A NASA DC‐8 research aircraft penetrated tropospheric gas and aerosol plumes sourced from active volcanoes in Ecuador and Colombia during the Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4 ) mission in July–August 2007. The likely source volcanoes were Tungurahua (Ecuador) and Nevado del Huila (Colombia). The TC4 data provide rare insight into the chemistry of volcanic plumes in the tropical troposphere and permit a comparison of SO2 column amounts measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite with in situ SO2 measurements. Elevated concentrations of SO2, sulfate aerosol, and particles were measured by DC‐8 instrumentation in volcanic outflow at altitudes of 3–6 km. Estimated plume ages range from ∼2 h at Huila to ∼22–48 h downwind of Ecuador. The plumes contained sulfate‐rich accumulation mode particles that were variably neutralized and often highly acidic. A significant fraction of supermicron volcanic ash was evident in one plume. In‐plume O3 concentrations were ∼70%–80% of ambient levels downwind of Ecuador, but data are insufficient to ascribe this to O3 depletion via reactive halogen chemistry. The TC4 data record rapid cloud processing of the Huila volcanic plume involving aqueous‐phase oxidation of SO2 by H2O2, but overall the data suggest average in‐plume SO2 to sulfate conversion rates of ∼1%–2% h−1 . SO2 column amounts measured in the Tungurahua plume (∼0.1–0.2 Dobson units) are commensurate with average SO2 columns retrieved from OMI measurements in the volcanic outflow region in July 2007. The TC4 data set provides further evidence of the impact of volcanic emissions on tropospheric acidity and oxidizing capacit
High-flux beam source for cold, slow atoms or molecules
We demonstrate and characterize a high-flux beam source for cold, slow atoms
or molecules. The desired species is vaporized using laser ablation, then
cooled by thermalization in a cryogenic cell of buffer gas. The beam is formed
by particles exiting a hole in the buffer gas cell. We characterize the
properties of the beam (flux, forward velocity, temperature) for both an atom
(Na) and a molecule (PbO) under varying buffer gas density, and discuss
conditions for optimizing these beam parameters. Our source compares favorably
to existing techniques of beam formation, for a variety of applications.Comment: 5 Pages, 4 figure
The production and persistence of ΣRONO2 in the Mexico City plume
Alkyl and multifunctional nitrates (RONO2, ΣANs) have been observed to be a significant fraction of NOy in a number of different chemical regimes. Their formation is an important free radical chain termination step ending production of ozone and possibly affecting formation of secondary organic aerosol. ΣANs also represent a potentially large, unmeasured contribution to OH reactivity and are a major pathway for the removal of nitrogen oxides from the atmosphere. Numerous studies have investigated the role of nitrate formation from biogenic compounds and in the remote atmosphere. Less attention has been paid to the role ΣANs may play in the complex mixtures of hydrocarbons typical of urban settings. Measurements of total alkyl and multifunctional nitrates, NO2, total peroxy nitrates (ΣPNs), HNO3 and a representative suite of hydrocarbons were obtained from the NASA DC-8 aircraft during spring of 2006 in and around Mexico City and the Gulf of Mexico. ΣANs were observed to be 10–20% of NOy in the Mexico City plume and to increase in importance with increased photochemical age. We describe three conclusions: (1) Correlations of ΣANs with odd-oxygen (Ox) indicate a stronger role for ΣANs in the photochemistry of Mexico City than is expected based on currently accepted photochemical mechanisms, (2) ΣAN formation suppresses peak ozone production rates by as much as 40% in the near-field of Mexico City and (3) ΣANs play a significant role in the export of NOy from Mexico City to the Gulf Region
Brane Localization and Stabilization via Regional Physics
Extra-dimensional scenarios have become widespread among particle and
gravitational theories of physics to address several outstanding problems,
including cosmic acceleration, the weak hierarchy problem, and the quantization
of gravity. In general, the topology and geometry of the full spacetime
manifold will be non-trivial, even if our ordinary dimensions have the topology
of their covering space. Most compact manifolds are inhomogeneous, even if they
admit a homogeneous geometry, and it will be physically relevant where in the
extra-dimensions one is located. In this letter, we explore the use of both
local and global effects in a braneworld scenario to naturally provide
position-dependent forces that determine and stabilize the location of a single
brane. For illustrative purposes, we consider the 2-dimensional hyperbolic horn
and the Euclidean cone as toy models of the extra-dimensional manifold, and add
a brane wrapped around one of the two spatial dimensions. We calculate the
total energy due to brane tension and bending (extrinsic curvature) as well as
that due to the Casimir energy of a bulk scalar satisfying a Dirchlet boundary
condition on the brane. From the competition of at least two of these effects
there can exist a stable minimum of the effective potential for the brane
location. However, on more generic spaces (on which more symmetries are broken)
any one of these effects may be sufficient to stabilize the brane. We discuss
this as an example of physics that is neither local nor global, but regional.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. PRL submitte
In the Shadow of the Accretion Disk: Higher Resolution Imaging of the Central Parsec in NGC 4261
The physical conditions in the inner parsec of accretion disks believed to
orbit the central black holes in active galactic nuclei can be probed by
imaging the absorption (by ionized gas in the disk) of background emission from
a radio counterjet. We report high angular resolution VLBI observations of the
nearby (about 40 Mpc) radio galaxy NGC 4261 that confirm free-free absorption
of radio emission from a counterjet by a geometrically thin, nearly edge-on
disk at 1.6, 4.8, and 8.4 GHz. The angular width and depth of the absorption
appears to increase with decreasing frequency, as expected. We derive an
average electron density of ~10E4 per cc at a disk radius of about 0.2 pc,
assuming that the inner disk inclination and opening angles are the same as at
larger radii. Pressure balance between the thermal gas and the magnetic field
in the disk implies an average field strength of 0.1 milligauss at a radius of
0.2 pc. These are the closest-in free-free absorption measurements to date of
the conditions in an extragalactic accretion disk orbiting a black hole with a
well-determined mass. If a standard advection-dominated accretion flow exists
in the disk center, then the transition between thin and thick disk regions
must occur at a radius less than 0.2 pc (4000 Schwarzschild radii).Comment: 20 pages including 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
“It’s like heaven over there”: Medicine as discipline and the production of the carceral body
A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background
Correctional systems in several U.S. states have entered into partnerships with Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) to provide healthcare for people who are incarcerated. This project was initiated to better understand medical trainee perspectives on training and providing healthcare services to prison populations at one AMC specializing in the care of incarcerated patients: The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB). We set out to characterize the attitudes and perceptions of medical trainees from the start of their training until the final year of Internal Medicine residency. Our goal was to analyze medical trainee perspectives on caring for incarcerated patients and to determine what specialized education and training is needed, if any, for the provision of ethical and appropriate healthcare to incarcerated patients.
Results
We found that medical trainees grapple with being beneficiaries of a state and institutional power structure that exploits the neglected health of incarcerated patients for the benefit of medical education and research. The benefits include the training opportunities afforded by the advanced pathologies suffered by persons who are incarcerated, an institutional culture that generally allowed students more freedom to practice their skills on incarcerated patients as compared to free-world patients, and an easy compliance of incarcerated patients likely conditioned by their neglect. Most trainees failed to recognize the extreme power differential between provider and patient that facilitates such freedom.
Conclusions
Using a critical prison studies/Foucauldian theoretical framework, we identified how the provision/withholding of healthcare to and from persons who are incarcerated plays a major role in disciplining incarcerated bodies into becoming compliant medical patients and research subjects, complacent with and even grateful for delayed care, delivered sometimes below the standard best practices. Specialized vulnerable-population training is sorely needed for both medical trainees and attending physicians in order to not further contribute to this exploitation of incarcerated patients.The University of Kansas (KU) One University Open Access Author Fun
- …