A Search for X-Ray Bright Distant Clusters of Galaxies

We present the results of a search for X--ray luminous distant clusters of galaxies. We found extended X--ray emission characteristic of a cluster towards two of our candidate clusters of galaxies. They both have a luminosity in the ROSAT bandpass of $\simeq10^{44}{\rm \,erg\,s^{-1}}$ and a redshift of $>0.5$; thus making them two of the most distant X--ray clusters ever observed. Furthermore, we show that both clusters are optically rich and have a known radio source associated with them. We compare our result with other recent searches for distant X--ray luminous clusters and present a lower limit of $1.2\times10^{-7}\,{\rm Mpc^{-3}}$ for the number density of such high redshift clusters. This limit is consistent with the expected abundance of such clusters in a standard (b=2) Cold Dark Matter Universe. Finally, our clusters provide important high redshift targets for further study into the origin and evolution of massive clusters of galaxies. Accepted for publication in the 10th September 1994 issue of ApJ.Comment: 20 pages Latex file + 1 postscript figure file appende

The Global Star Formation Rate from the 1.4 GHz Luminosity Function

The decimetric luminosity of many galaxies appears to be dominated by synchrotron emission excited by supernova explosions. Simple models suggest that the luminosity is directly proportional to the rate of supernova explosions of massive stars averaged over the past 30 Myr. The proportionality may be used together with models of the evolving 1.4 GHz luminosity function to estimate the global star formation rate density in the era z < 1. The local value is estimated to be 0.026 solar masses per year per cubic megaparsec, some 50% larger than the value inferred from the Halpha luminosity density. The value at z ~ 1 is found to be 0.30 solar masses per year per cubic megaparsec. The 10-fold increase in star formation rate density is consistent with the increase inferred from mm-wave, far-infrared, ultra-violet and Halpha observations.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press); new PS version has improved figure placemen

Onset of collective and cohesive motion

We study the onset of collective motion, with and without cohesion, of groups of noisy self-propelled particles interacting locally. We find that this phase transition, in two space dimensions, is always discontinuous, including for the minimal model of Vicsek et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 75},1226 (1995)] for which a non-trivial critical point was previously advocated. We also show that cohesion is always lost near onset, as a result of the interplay of density, velocity, and shape fluctuations.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Preventing Strip Commercial Development: A Pilot Study in Wake County, North Carolina

Visual experiences along major thoroughfares create some of the first, strongest and most lasting impressions of a community. Residents and visitors form opinions about the quality of life of an area based on what they see from the roadway. A positive image may affect people's choices about where to work, live, locate businesses, retire, or visit. Therefore, the quality of roadside development is a key factor in determining not only people's perception of an area, but ultimately, the economic well-being of a community. In December 1989, the Wake County Board of Commissioners expressed concern about strip development along major thoroughfares throughout the county. The board asked the planning staff to explore ways to encourage appropriate development along various types of thoroughfares, to maintain the carrying capacity of roadways and the visual quality of their surrounding landscape, and to accommodate the use of public transit. The board placed special emphasis on the issue of eliminating the county's Highway District zoning classification, which allows a very broad range of land uses. In response to the board's concerns, the Wake County Planning Department began a pilot study of the NC 55 and US 64 West highway corridors in western Wake County. These rural, two-lane highways were chosen in anticipation of increased development pressure due to the widening of US 64 West and the proposed alignment of the Northern Wake Expressway (west of the US 64- NC 55 intersection)

Measurement of radiotherapy x-ray skin dose on a chest wall phantom

Sufficient skin dose needs to be delivered by a radiotherapy chest wall treatment regimen to ensure the probability of a near surface tumor recurrence is minimized. To simulate a chest wall treatment a hemicylindrical solid water phantom of 7.5 cm radius was irradiated with 6 MV x-rays using 20×20 cm2 and 10×20 cm2 fields at 100 cm source surface distance (SSD) to the base of the phantom. A surface dose profile was obtained from 0 to 180°, in 10° increments around the circumference of the phantom. Dosimetry results obtained from radiochromic film (effective depth of 0.17 mm) were used in the investigation, the superficial doses were found to be 28% (of Dmax) at the 0° beam entry position and 58% at the 90° oblique beam position. Superficial dose results were also obtained using extra thin thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) (effective depth 0.14 mm) of 30% at 0°, 57% at 90°, and a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) detector (effective depth 0.5 mm) of 43% at 0°, 62% at 90°. Because the differences in measured superficial doses were significant and beyond those related to experimental error, these differences are assumed to be mostly attributable to the effective depth of measurement of each detector. We numerically simulated a bolus on/bolus off technique and found we could increase the coverage to the skin. Using an alternate “bolus on,” “bolus off” regimen, the skin would receive 36.8 Gy at 0° incidence and 46.4 Gy at 90° incidence for a prescribed midpoint dose of 50 Gy. From this work it is evident that, as the circumference of the phantom is traversed the SSD increases and hence there is an inverse square fluence fall-off, this is more than offset by the increase in skin dose due to surface curvature to a plateau at about 90°. Beyond this angle it is assumed that beam attenuation through the phantom and inverse square fall-off is causing the surface dose to reduce

Memory through re-use : food, fuel, fossils, filth and a few filling stations

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-123).This project engages disposable objects and concepts in the design process. Cultural items deemed unusable, obsolete, unfashionable, repugnant, toxic, or otherwise dirty are used as a resource and as a means to access collective memory. In this way the project will redefine for itself that which is useful and that which is wasteful, thereby identifying untapped resources of creative and pragmatic material: by using abandoned gas stations (a site typology created by a piece of sweeping national legislation) the project addresses generic issues applied nationally, making the design a repeatable intervention. by identifying local examples of these generic sites, specific issues of contextual appropriateness are explored. by highlighting the previous use of the site, rather than disguising it, the thesis creates a continuity with the past, learning from and improving on the lessons of a tradition. The previous use of the site is not celebrated though a simple physical preservation, but through a continuation of the methods employed on the sites to create identity. by designing a public lavatory, issues of waste, resource, and stigma are explored. The program foregrounds issues of personal involvement (bodily necessity) in public issues (municipal infrastructure). The program addresses issues of transformation from states of use, to abandonment, to rediscovery, and follows the principle that waste equals food.by Zachary M. Kron.M.Arch

Radio Wavelength Constraints on the Sources of the Far Infrared Background

The cosmic far infrared background detected recently by the COBE-DIRBE team is presumably due, in large part, to the far infrared (FIR) emission from all galaxies. We take the well-established correlation between FIR and radio luminosity for individual galaxies and apply it to the FIR background. We find that these sources make up about half of the extragalactic radio background, the other half being due to AGN. This is in agreement with other radio observations, which leads us to conclude that the FIR-radio correlation holds well for the very faint sources making up the FIR background, and that the FIR background is indeed due to star-formation activity (not AGN or other possible sources). If these star-forming galaxies have a radio spectral index between 0.4 and 0.8, and make up 40 to 60% of the extragalactic radio background, we find that they have redshifts between roughly 1 and 2, in agreement with recent estimates by Madau et al. of the redshift of peak star-formation activity. We compare the observed extragalactic radio background to the integral over the logN-logS curve for star-forming radio sources, and find that the slope of the curve must change significantly below about 1 microjansky. At 1 microjansky, the faint radio source counts predict about 25 sources per square arcminute, and these will cause SIRTF to be confusion limited at 160micron.Comment: 10 pages including 1 figure, AASTeX, accepted by Ap

Optical Spectroscopy of Active Galactic Nuclei in SA57

The cosmological evolution of X-ray-selected and optically selected Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) show different behaviours interpreted in terms of two different populations. The difference is evident mainly for low luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs), many of which are lost by optical photometric surveys. We are conducting a spectroscopical study of a composite sample of AGN candidates selected in SA57 following different searching techniques, to identify low luminosity AGNs and break down the sample into different classes of objects. AGN candidates were obtained through optical variability and/or X-ray emission. Of special interest are the extended variable objects, which are expected to be galaxies hosting LLAGNs. Among the 26 classified objects a fair number (9) show typical AGN spectra. 10 objects show Narrow Emission Line Galaxy spectra, and in most of them (8/10) optical variability suggests the presence of LLAGNs.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, to appear in A&

The Ensemble Variability Properties of Faint QSOs

A refined sample of 64 variable objects with stellar image structure has been identified in SA 57 to $B \sim 22.5$, over a time baseline of 15 years, sampled at 11 distinct epochs. The photometric data typically have a root-mean-square error at $B = 22$ of only 0.05 mag. Thirty-five quasars in this field have already been spectroscopically confirmed, 34 of which are among the sample of variables. Of the other variables, 6 are known spectroscopically to be stars, 10 additional objects are stars based on reliable detection of proper motion, and 1 is spectroscopically a narrow-emission-line galaxy. Of the 13 remaining variables, it is argued that they are a mixture of distant halo subdwarfs and quasars with star-like colors. We compute the ensemble average structure function and autocorrelation function from the light curves in the respective quasar rest-frames, which are used to investigate the general dependences on apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude, and redshift.Comment: 40 pages, uuencoded compressed postscipt with 8 figures, ApJ in press, CRoNA 940

Comparison of source detection procedures for XMM-Newton images

Procedures based on current methods to detect sources in X-ray images are applied to simulated XMM images. All significant instrumental effects are taken into account, and two kinds of sources are considered -- unresolved sources represented by the telescope PSF and extended ones represented by a b-profile model. Different sets of test cases with controlled and realistic input configurations are constructed in order to analyze the influence of confusion on the source analysis and also to choose the best methods and strategies to resolve the difficulties. In the general case of point-like and extended objects the mixed approach of multiresolution (wavelet) filtering and subsequent detection by SExtractor gives the best results. In ideal cases of isolated sources, flux errors are within 15-20%. The maximum likelihood technique outperforms the others for point-like sources when the PSF model used in the fit is the same as in the images. However, the number of spurious detections is quite large. The classification using the half-light radius and SExtractor stellarity index is succesful in more than 98% of the cases. This suggests that average luminosity clusters of galaxies (L_[2-10] ~ 3x10^{44} erg/s) can be detected at redshifts greater than 1.5 for moderate exposure times in the energy band below 5 keV, provided that there is no confusion or blending by nearby sources. We find also that with the best current available packages, confusion and completeness problems start to appear at fluxes around 6x10^{-16} erg/s/cm^2 in [0.5-2] keV band for XMM deep surveys.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in A&