3,660 research outputs found
The Effect of Industrialization on Children�s Education. The Experience of Mexico
We use census data to examine the impact of industrialization on children’s education in Mexico. We find no evidence of reverse causality in this case. We find small positive effects of industrialization on primary education, effects which are larger for domestic manufacturing than for export-intensive assembly (maquiladoras). In contrast, teen-aged girls in Mexican counties (municipios) with more growth in maquiladora employment 1990-2000 have significantly less educational attainment than do girls in low-growth counties. These results shed light on literatures analyzing the impacts of industrialization, foreign investment, and intra-household bargaining powe
On ionisation effects and abundance ratios in damped Lyman-alpha systems
The similarity between observed velocity structures of Al III and singly
ionised species in damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) suggests the presence of
ionised gas in the regions where most metal absorption lines are formed.
To explore the possible implications of ionisation effects we construct a
simplified two-region model for DLAs consisting of an ionisation bounded region
with an internal radiation field and a neutral region with a lower metal
content. Within this framework we find that ionisation effects are important.
If taken into account, the element abundance ratios in DLAs are quite
consistent with those observed in Milky Way stars and in metal-poor H II
regions in blue compact dwarf galaxies. In particular we cannot exclude the
same primary N origin in both DLAs and metal-poor galaxies. From our models no
dust depletion of heavy elements needs to be invoked; little depletion is
however not excluded.Comment: to appear in "Evolution of Galaxies. I. Observational clues", Eds.
J.M. Vilchez, G. Stasinska, Astrophysics and Space Science, in press. 5
pages, including 3 figure
Effects of Dust on Gravitational Lensing by Spiral Galaxies
Gravitational lensing of an optical QSO by a spiral galaxy is often
counteracted by dust obscuration, since the line-of-sight to the QSO passes
close to the center of the galactic disk. The dust in the lens is likely to be
correlated with neutral hydrogen, which in turn should leave a Lyman-alpha
absorption signature on the QSO spectrum. We use the estimated dust-to-gas
ratio of the Milky-Way galaxy as a mean and allow a spread in its values to
calculate the effects of dust on lensing by low redshift spiral galaxies. Using
a no-evolution model for spirals at z<1 we find (in Lambda=0 cosmologies) that
the magnification bias due to lensing is stronger than dust obscuration for QSO
samples with a magnitude limit B<16. The density parameter of neutral hydrogen,
Omega_HI, is overestimated in such samples and is underestimated for fainter
QSOs.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, ApJ, in pres
Lyman-alpha absorption around nearby galaxies
We have used STIS aboard HST to search for Lyman-alpha (Lya) absorption lines
in the outer regions of eight nearby galaxies using background QSOs and AGN as
probes. Lya lines are detected within a few hundred km/s of the systemic
velocity of the galaxy in all cases. We conclude that a background
line-of-sight which passes within 26-200 h-1 kpc of a foreground galaxy is
likely to intercept low column density neutral hydrogen with log N(HI) >~ 13.0.
The ubiquity of detections implies a covering factor of ~ 100% for low N(HI)
gas around galaxies within 200 h-1 kpc. We discuss the difficulty in trying to
associate individual absorption components with the selected galaxies and their
neighbors, but show that by degrading our STIS data to lower resolutions, we
are able to reproduce the anti-correlation of Lya equivalent width and impact
parameter found at higher redshift. We also show that the equivalent width and
column density of Lya complexes (when individual components are summed over ~
1000 km/s) correlate well with a simple estimate of the volume density of
galaxies brighter than M(B) = -17.5 at the same redshift as a Lya complex. We
do not reject the hypothesis that the selected galaxies are directly
responsible for the observed Lya lines, but our analysis indicates that
absorption by clumpy intragroup gas is an equally likely explanation. (Abriged)Comment: Accepted for publication in Nov 20, 2002 issue of ApJ. Paper with all
figures can be found at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dvb/lyapaper.ps
(preferable). Minor typos fixe
Two New Low Redshift 21cm Absorbers
As part of a larger program to identify low redshift radio analogues of the
damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) absorbers seen in the spectra of high redshift
quasars, Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) observations have
discovered two new HI 21cm absorption lines at z=0.394 and z=0.437 in the
spectra of the radio sources B 0248+430 and B 1243-072 respectively. These
sightlines and redshifts were selected for study on the basis of the previously
known low ionization absorption lines of MgII, and neither has been observed in
the Lyman-alpha line. The 21cm line observations provide information on column
densities, temperatures and kinematics of the thickest cold neutral clouds in
the absorbers.Comment: 6 pages incl. 2 figures, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal Letters, missing reference adde
Quantum-Classical Correspondence of Dynamical Observables, Quantization and the Time of Arrival Correspondence Problem
We raise the problem of constructing quantum observables that have classical
counterparts without quantization. Specifically we seek to define and motivate
a solution to the quantum-classical correspondence problem independent from
quantization and discuss the general insufficiency of prescriptive
quantization, particularly the Weyl quantization. We demonstrate our points by
constructing time of arrival operators without quantization and from these
recover their classical counterparts
Using Gravitational Lensing to study HI clouds at high redshift
We investigate the possibility of detecting HI emission from gravitationally
lensed HI clouds (akin to damped Lyman- clouds) at high redshift by
carrying out deep radio observations in the fields of known cluster lenses.
Such observations will be possible with present radio telescopes only if the
lens substantially magnifies the flux of the HI emission. While at present this
holds the only possibility of detecting the HI emission from such clouds, it
has the disadvantage of being restricted to clouds that lie very close to the
caustics of the lens. We find that observations at a detection threshold of 50
micro Jy at 320 MHz (possible with the GMRT) have a greater than 20%
probability of detecting an HI cloud in the field of a cluster, provided the
clouds have HI masses in the range 5 X 10^8 M_{\odot} < M_{HI} < 2.5 X 10^{10}
M_{\odot}. The probability of detecting a cloud increases if they have larger
HI masses, except in the cases where the number of HI clouds in the cluster
field becomes very small. The probability of a detection at 610 MHz and 233 MHz
is comparable to that at 320 MHz, though a definitive statement is difficult
owing to uncertainties in the HI content at the redshifts corresponding to
these frequencies. Observations at a detection threshold of 2 micro Jy
(possible in the future with the SKA) are expected to detect a few HI clouds in
the field of every cluster provided the clouds have HI masses in the range 2 X
10^7 M_{\odot} < M_{HI} < 10^9 M_{\odot}. Even if such observations do not
result in the detection of HI clouds, they will be able to put useful
constraints on the HI content of the clouds.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, minor changes in figures, accepted for
publication in Ap
NICMOS Imaging of a Damped Lyman-alpha Absorber at z=1.89 toward LBQS 1210+1731 : Constraints on Size and Star Formation Rate
We report results of a high-resolution imaging search (in rest frame
H- and optical continuum) for the galaxy associated with the damped
Lyman- (DLA) absorber at toward the quasar
LBQS 1210+1731, using HST/NICMOS. After PSF subtraction, a feature is seen in
both the broad-band and narrow-band images, at a projected separation of
0.25\arcsec from the quasar. If associated with the DLA, the object would be
kpc in size with a flux of Jy in
the F160W filter, implying a luminosity at {\AA} in
the rest frame of L at ,
for . However, no significant H- emission is seen,
suggesting a low star formation rate (SFR) (3 upper limit of 4.0
M yr), or very high dust obscuration.
Alternatively, the object may be associated with the host galaxy of the quasar.
H-band images obtained with the NICMOS camera 2 coronagraph show a much fainter
structure kpc in size and containing four knots of
continuum emission, located 0.7\arcsec away from the quasar. We have probed
regions far closer to the quasar sight-line than in most previous studies of
high-redshift intervening DLAs. The two objects we report mark the closest
detected high-redshift DLA candidates yet to any quasar sight line. If the
features in our images are associated with the DLA, they suggest faint,
compact, somewhat clumpy objects rather than large, well-formed proto-galactic
disks or spheroids.Comment: 52 pages of text, 19 figures, To be published in Astrophysical
Journal (accepted Dec. 8, 1999
The VIMOS Integral Field Unit: data reduction methods and quality assessment
With new generation spectrographs integral field spectroscopy is becoming a
widely used observational technique. The Integral Field Unit of the VIsible
Multi-Object Spectrograph on the ESO-VLT allows to sample a field as large as
54" x 54" covered by 6400 fibers coupled with micro-lenses. We are presenting
here the methods of the data processing software developed to extract the
astrophysical signal of faint sources from the VIMOS IFU observations. We focus
on the treatment of the fiber-to-fiber relative transmission and the sky
subtraction, and the dedicated tasks we have built to address the peculiarities
and unprecedented complexity of the dataset. We review the automated process we
have developed under the VIPGI data organization and reduction environment
(Scodeggio et al. 2005), along with the quality control performed to validate
the process. The VIPGI-IFU data processing environment is available to the
scientific community to process VIMOS-IFU data since November 2003.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in PAS
3D imaging of theranostic nanoparticles in mice organs by means of x-ray phase contrast tomography
Theranostics is an innovative research field that aims to develop high target specificity cancer treatments by administering small metal-based nanoparticles (NPs). This new generation of compounds exhibits diagnostic and therapeutic properties due to the high atomic number of their metal component. In the framework of a combined research program on low dose X-ray imaging and theranostic NPs, X-ray Phase Contrast Tomography (XPCT) was performed at ESRF using a 3 \u3bcm pixel optical system on two samples: a mouse brain bearing melanoma metastases injected with gadolinium NPs and, a mouse liver injected with gold NPs. XPCT is a non-destructive technique suitable to achieve the 3D reconstruction of a specimen and, widely used at micro-scale to detect abnormalities of the vessels, which are associated to the tumor growth or to the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, XPCT represents a promising and complementary tool to study the biodistribution of theranostic NPs in biological materials, thanks to the strong contrast with respect to soft tissues that metal-based NPs provide in radiological images. This work is relied on an original imaging approach based on the evaluation of the contrast differences between the images acquired below and above K-edge energies, as a proof of the certain localization of NPs. We will present different methods aiming to enhance the localization of NPs and a 3D map of their distribution in large volume of tissues
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