4,471 research outputs found
Two Poems
Poems include: If You and I Said Fuck It, and Bought the Ranch in Montana and Yesterday’s Bestiary for Tomorrow
High Latitude Radio Emission in a Sample of Edge-On Spiral Galaxies
We have mapped 16 edge-on galaxies at 20 cm using the VLA. For 5 galaxies, we
could form spectral index, energy and magnetic field maps. We find that all but
one galaxy show evidence for non-thermal high latitude radio continuum
emission, suggesting that cosmic ray halos are common in star forming galaxies.
The high latitude emission is seen over a variety of spatial scales and in
discrete and/or smooth features. In general, the discrete features emanate from
the disk, but estimates of CR diffusion lengths suggest that diffusion alone is
insufficient to transport the particles to the high latitudes seen (> 15 kpc in
one case). Thus CRs likely diffuse through low density regions and/or are
assisted by other mechanisms (e.g. winds). We searched for correlations between
the prevalence of high latitude radio emission and a number of other
properties, including the global SFR, supernova input rate per unit star
forming, and do not find clear correlations with any of these properties.Comment: 40 pages of text, 3 figures, 6 tables, and an appendix of 21 jpeg
figures (which is a radio continuum catalogue of 17 galaxies). to appear in
A. J. (around January 1999
Genome-wide SNP typing of ancient DNA: Determination of hair and eye color of Bronze Age humans from their skeletal remains.
Objective A genome-wide high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing method was tested with respect of the applicability to ancient and degraded DNA. The results were compared to mini-sequencing data achieved through single base extension (SBE) typing. The SNPs chosen for the study allow to determine the hair colors and eye colors of humans. Material and methods The DNA samples were extracted from the skeletal remains of 59 human individuals dating back to the Late Bronze Age. The 3,000 years old bones had been discovered in the Lichtenstein Cave in Lower Saxony, Germany. The simultaneous typing of 24 SNPs for each of the ancient DNA samples was carried out using the 192.24 Dynamic Array (TM) by Fluidigm (R). Results Thirty-eight of the ancient samples (=64%) revealed full and reproducible SNP genotypes allowing hair and eye color phenotyping. In 10 samples (=17%) at least half of the SNPs were unambiguously determined, in 11 samples (=19%) the SNP typing failed. For 23 of the 59 individuals, a comparison of the SNP typing results with genotypes from an earlier performed SBE typing approach was possible. The comparison confirmed the full concordance of the results for 90% of the SNP typings. In the remaining 10% allelic dropouts were identified. Discussion The high genotyping success rate could be achieved by introducing modifications to the preamplification protocol mainly by increasing the DNA input and the amplification cycle number. The occurrence of allelic dropouts indicates that a further increase of DNA input to the preamplification step is desirable
Estimating Be Star Disk Radii using H-alpha Emission Equivalent Widths
We present numerical models of the circumstellar disks of Be stars, and we
describe the resulting synthetic H-alpha emission lines and maps of the
wavelength-integrated emission flux projected onto the sky. We demonstrate that
there are monotonic relationships between the emission line equivalent width
and the ratio of the angular half-width at half maximum of the projected disk
major axis to the radius of the star. These relationships depend mainly upon
the temperatures of the disk and star, the inclination of the disk normal to
the line of sight, and the adopted outer boundary for the disk radius. We show
that the predicted H-alpha disk radii are consistent with those observed
directly through long baseline interferometry of nearby Be stars (especially
once allowance is made for disk truncation in binaries and for dilution of the
observed H-alpha equivalent width by continuum disk flux in the V-band).Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, ApJL in pres
Instant Two-Body Equation in Breit Frame
A quasipotential formalism for elastic scattering from relativistic bound
states is based on applying an instant constraint to both initial and final
states in the Breit frame. This formalism is advantageous for the analysis of
electromagnetic interactions because current conservation and four momentum
conservation are realized within a three-dimensional formalism. Wave functions
are required in a frame where the total momentum is nonzero, which means that
the usual partial wave analysis is inapplicable. In this work, the
three-dimensional equation is solved numerically, taking into account the
relevant symmetries. A dynamical boost of the interaction also is needed for
the instant formalism, which in general requires that the boosted interaction
be defined as the solution of a four-dimensional equation. For the case of a
scalar separable interaction, this equation is solved and the Lorentz
invariance of the three-dimensional formulation using the boosted interaction
is verified. For more realistic interactions, a simple approximation is used to
characterize the boost of the interaction.Comment: 20 pages in revtex 3, 3 figures. Fixed reform/tex errors
Tidally Triggered Star Formation in Close Pairs of Galaxies: Major and Minor Interactions
We study star formation in a sample of 345 galaxies in 167 pairs and compact
groups drawn from the original CfA2 Redshift Survey and from a follow-up search
for companions. We construct our sample with attention to including pairs with
luminosity contrast |\Delta m_R| >= 2. These 57 galaxies with |\Delta m_R| >= 2
provide a set of nearby representative cases of minor interactions, a central
feature of the hierarchical galaxy formation model. Here we report the
redshifts and positions of the 345 galaxies in our sample, and of 136 galaxies
in apparent pairs that are superpositions. In the pairs sample as a whole,
there are strong correlations between the equivalent width of the H\alpha
emission line and the projected spatial and the line-of-sight velocity
separation of the pair. For pairs of small luminosity contrast, |\Delta m_R| <
2, the member galaxies show a correlation between the equivalent width of
H\alpha and the projected spatial separation of the pair. However, for pairs
with large luminosity contrast, |\Delta m_R| >= 2, we detect no correlation
between the equivalent width of H\alpha and the projected spatial separation.
The relative luminosity of the companion galaxy is more important in a
gravitational tidal interaction than the intrinsic luminosity of the galaxy.
Central star formation across the entire pairs sample depends strongly on the
luminosity ratio, |\Delta m_R|, a reasonable proxy for the mass ratio of the
pair; pairs composed of similarly luminous galaxies produce the strongest
bursts of star formation. Pairs with |\Delta m_R| >= 2 rarely have EW(H\alpha)
>~ 70 Ang.Comment: Minor revisions following journal proof
Properties of bow-shock sources at the Galactic center
There are an enigmatic population of massive stars around the Galactic Center
(GC) that were formed some Ma ago. A fraction of these stars has been found to
orbit the supermassive black hole, SgrA*, in a projected clockwise disk, which
suggests that they were formed in a formerly existing dense disk around SgrA*.
We focus on the extended, near-infrared (NIR) sources IRS1W, IRS5, IRS10W, and
IRS21 that have been suggested to be young, massive stars that form bow-shocks
through their interaction with the ISM. Their nature has impeded accurate
determination of their orbital parameters. We aim at establishing their nature
and kinematics to test whether they form part of the clockwise disk. We
performed NIR multi-wavelength imaging using adaptive optics (AO) and sparse
aperture masking (SAM). We introduce a new method for self-calibration of the
SAM PSF in dense stellar fields. The emission mechanism, morphology and
kinematics of the targets were examined via 3D bow-shock models. We confirm
previous findings that IRS21, IRS1W, and IRS5 are bow-shocks created by the
interaction between mass-losing stars and the interstellar gas. The nature of
IRS10W remains unclear. Our modeling shows that the bow-shock-emission is
caused by thermal emission while the scattering of stellar light does not play
any significant role. IRS 1W appears to be a bow-shock produced by an
anisotropic stellar wind or by locally inhomogeneous ISM density. Our best-fit
models provide an estimate of the local proper motion of the ISM in the NA in
agreement with the published models. Assuming that all of the sources are tied
to SgrA*, their orbital planes were obtained via a Monte-Carlo simulation. Our
orbital analysis suggests that they are not part of any of the clockwise disk.
We thus add more evidence to recent findings that a large part of the massive
stars show apparently random orbital orientations.Comment: accepted for publication by A&A, 17 pages, 11 figures, 1 appendi
Changes in olfactory bulb volume following lateralized olfactory training.
Repeated exposure to odors modifies olfactory function. Consequently, "olfactory training" plays a significant role in hyposmia treatment. In addition, numerous studies show that the olfactory bulb (OB) volume changes in disorders associated with olfactory dysfunction. Aim of this study was to investigate whether and how olfactory bulb volume changes in relation to lateralized olfactory training in healthy people. Over a period of 4 months, 97 healthy participants (63 females and 34 males, mean age: 23.74 ± 4.16 years, age range: 19-43 years) performed olfactory training by exposing the same nostril twice a day to 4 odors (lemon, rose, eucalyptus and cloves) while closing the other nostril. Before and after olfactory training, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were performed to measure OB volume. Furthermore, participants underwent lateralized odor threshold and odor identification testing using the "Sniffin' Sticks" test battery.OB volume increased significantly after olfactory training (11.3 % and 13.1 % respectively) for both trained and untrained nostril. No significant effects of sex, duration and frequency of training or age of the subjects were seen. Interestingly, PEA odor thresholds worsened after training, while olfactory identification remained unchanged.These data show for the first time in humans that olfactory training may involve top-down process, which ultimately lead to a bilateral increase in olfactory bulb volume
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