Prospects for Studies of Stellar Evolution and Stellar Death in the JWST Era

I review the prospects for studies of the advanced evolutionary stages of low-, intermediate- and high-mass stars by the JWST and concurrent facilities, with particular emphasis on how they may help elucidate the dominant contributors to the interstellar dust component of galaxies. Observations extending from the mid-infrared to the submillimeter can help quantify the heavy element and dust species inputs to galaxies from AGB stars. JWST's MIRI mid-infrared instrument will be so sensitive that observations of the dust emission from individual intergalactic AGB stars and planetary nebulae in the Virgo Cluster will be feasible. The Herschel Space Observatory will enable the last largely unexplored spectral region, the far-IR to the submillimeter, to be surveyed for new lines and dust features, while SOFIA will cover the wavelength gap between JWST and Herschel, a spectral region containing important fine structure lines, together with key water-ice and crystalline silicate bands. Spitzer has significantly increased the number of Type II supernovae that have been surveyed for early-epoch dust formation but reliable quantification of the dust contributions from massive star supernovae of Type II, Type Ib and Type Ic to low- and high-redshift galaxies should come from JWST MIRI observations, which will be able to probe a volume over 1000 times larger than Spitzer.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures. To appear in `Astrophysics in the Next Decade: JWST and Concurrent Facilities' (JWST Conference Proceedings), edited by H. A. Thronson, M. Stiavelli and A. G. G. M. Tielens; Springer Series: Astrophysics and Space Science Proceeding

Dust in Supernovae and Supernova Remnants I : Formation Scenarios

Supernovae are considered as prime sources of dust in space. Observations of local supernovae over the past couple of decades have detected the presence of dust in supernova ejecta. The reddening of the high redshift quasars also indicate the presence of large masses of dust in early galaxies. Considering the top heavy IMF in the early galaxies, supernovae are assumed to be the major contributor to these large amounts of dust. However, the composition and morphology of dust grains formed in a supernova ejecta is yet to be understood with clarity. Moreover, the dust masses inferred from observations in mid-infrared and submillimeter wavelength regimes differ by two orders of magnitude or more. Therefore, the mechanism responsible for the synthesis of molecules and dust in such environments plays a crucial role in studying the evolution of cosmic dust in galaxies. This review summarises our current knowledge of dust formation in supernova ejecta and tries to quantify the role of supernovae as dust producers in a galaxy.Peer reviewe

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Emotional Intelligence and Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analysis

The purpose of this study is to evaluate claims that emotional intelligence is significantly related to transformational and other leadership behaviors. Results (based on 62 independent samples) indicated a validity estimate of .59 when ratings of both emotional intelligence and leadership behaviors were provided by the same source (self, subordinates, peers, or superiors). However, when ratings of the constructs were derived from different sources, the validity estimate was .12. Lower validity estimates were found for transactional and laissez-faire leadership behaviors. Separate analyses were performed for each measure of emotional intelligence. Trait measures of emotional intelligence tended to show higher validities than ability-based measures of emotional intelligence. Agreement across ratings sources for the same construct was low for both transformational leadership (.14) and emotional intelligence (.16)