14,444 research outputs found
The Effects of Age on Red Giant Metallicities Derived from the Near-Infrared Ca II Triplet
We have obtained spectra with resolution 2.5 Angstroms in the region
7500-9500 Angstroms for 116 red giants in 5 Galactic globular clusters and 6
old open clusters (5 with published metallicities, and one previously
unmeasured). The signal-to-noise ranges from 20 to 85. We measure the
equivalent widths of the infrared Ca II triplet absorption lines in each stars
and compare to cluster metallicities taken from the literature. With globular
cluster abundances on the Carretta & Gratton scale, and open cluster abundances
taken from the compilation of Friel and collaborators, we find a linear
relation between [Fe/H] and Ca II line strength spanning the range -2 < [Fe/H]
< -0.2 and ages from 2.5 - 13 Gyr. No evidence for an age effect on the
metallicity calibration is observed. Using this calibration, we find the
metallicity of the old open cluster Trumpler 5 to be [Fe/H] = -0.56 +/-0.11.
Considering the 10 clusters of known metallicity shifted to a common distance
and reddening, we find that the additional metallicity error introduced by the
variation of horizontal branch/red clump magnitude with metallicity and age is
of order +/-0.05 dex, which can be neglected in comparison to the intrinsic
scatter in our method. The results are discussed in the context of abundance
determinations for red giants in Local Group galaxies.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS; 21 pages in LaTeX MNRAS style, 6 tables, 6 figure
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Evaluation of speech and language therapy interventions for pre-school children with specific language impairment: a comparison of outcomes following specialist intensive, nursery-based and no intervention
Background: Clinical services in the UK are increasingly delivering ‘consultative’ methods of intervention rather than ‘direct’ intensive input for children with receptive and expressive language difficulties, yet there has been little systematic evaluation of these different intervention models.
Aims: To investigate the effectiveness of different models of therapy provision for children with specific language impairment between the ages of 4;00 and 4;06 years.
Methods & Procedures: Twenty-four children were selected from a specialist waiting list in the London Borough of Lambeth. They were assessed on a range of verbal and non-verbal skills, and randomly assigned to three different intervention groups. Group 1 received direct intensive speech and language therapy weekly over an 8-month period at a child development centre; Group 2 received a nursery-based model of intervention; and Group 3 received review sessions at their local clinic.
Outcome & Results: Statistical analysis before the intervention phase revealed no significant differences in scores between the three groups on a range of clinical and parental measures of language, non-verbal skills, play and behaviour. At the end of the intervention period the Intensive group showed significantly greater improvement than the No Intervention group on all clinical and parental measures, and significantly greater improvement than the Nursery-based group on all clinical and parental measures except for expressive grammar.
Conclusions & Implications: The results of this small-scale study demonstrate that intensive direct speech and language therapy delivered by speech and language therapists was a more effective model of intervention for this clinical group with severe speech and language impairment
Observation of a resonant four-body interaction in cold cesium Rydberg atoms
Cold Rydberg atoms subject to long-range dipole-dipole interactions represent
a particularly interesting system for exploring few-body interactions and
probing the transition from 2-body physics to the many-body regime. In this
work we report the direct observation of a resonant 4-body Rydberg interaction.
We exploit the occurrence of an accidental quasi-coincidence of a 2-body and a
4-body resonant Stark-tuned Forster process in cesium to observe a resonant
energy transfer requiring the simultaneous interaction of at least four
neighboring atoms. These results are relevant for the implementation of quantum
gates with Rydberg atoms and for further studies of many-body physics.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Chemical composition of a sample of bright solar-metallicity stars
We present a detailed analysis of seven young stars observed with the
spectrograph SOPHIE at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence for which the
chemical composition was incomplete or absent in the literature. For five
stars, we derived the stellar parameters and chemical compositions using our
automatic pipeline optimized for F, G, and K stars, while for the other two
stars with high rotational velocity, we derived the stellar parameters by using
other information (parallax), and performed a line-by-line analysis.
Chromospheric emission-line fluxes from CaII are obtained for all targets. The
stellar parameters we derive are generally in good agreement with what is
available in the literature. We provide a chemical analysis of two of the stars
for the first time. The star HIP 80124 shows a strong Li feature at 670.8 nm
implying a high lithium abundance. Its chemical pattern is not consistent with
it being a solar sibling, as has been suggested.Comment: To be published on A
Spin gating electrical current
We use an aluminium single electron transistor with a magnetic gate to
directly quantify the chemical potential anisotropy of GaMnAs materials.
Uniaxial and cubic contributions to the chemical potential anisotropy are
determined from field rotation experiments. In performing magnetic field sweeps
we observe additional isotropic magnetic field dependence of the chemical
potential which shows a non-monotonic behavior. The observed effects are
explained by calculations based on the kinetic
exchange model of ferromagnetism in GaMnAs. Our device inverts the conventional
approach for constructing spin transistors: instead of spin-transport
controlled by ordinary gates we spin-gate ordinary charge transport.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Using the Ca II Triplet to Trace Abundance Variations in Individual Red Giant Branch stars in Three Nearby Galaxies
Spectroscopic abundance determinations for stars spanning a Hubble time in
age are necessary in order to unambiguously determine the evolutionary
histories of galaxies. Using FORS1 in Multi-Object Spectroscopy mode on ANTU
(UT1) at the ESO-VLT on Paranal we obtained near infrared spectra from which we
measured the equivalent widths of the two strongest Ca II triplet lines to
determine metal abundances for a sample of Red Giant Branch stars, selected
from ESO-NTT optical (I, V-I) photometry of three nearby, Local Group,
galaxies: the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal, the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal and the
Dwarf Irregular NGC 6822. The summed equivalent width of the two strongest
lines in the Ca II triplet absorption line feature, centered at 8500A, can be
readily converted into an [Fe/H] abundance using the previously established
calibrations by Armandroff & Da Costa (1991) and Rutledge, Hesser & Stetson
(1997). We measured metallicities for 37 stars in Sculptor, 32 stars in Fornax,
and 23 stars in NGC 6822, yielding more precise estimates of the metallicity
distribution functions for these galaxies than it is possible to obtain
photometrically. In the case of NGC 6822, this is the first direct measurement
of the abundances of the intermediate-age and old stellar populations. We find
metallicity spreads in each galaxy which are broadly consistent with the
photometric width of the Red Giant Branch, although the abundances of
individual stars do not always appear to correspond to their colour. This is
almost certainly predominantly due to a highly variable star formation rate
with time in these galaxies, which results in a non-uniform,
non-globular-cluster-like, evolution of the Ca/Fe ratio.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Experimental verification of minima in excited long-range Rydberg states of Rb_2
Recent theoretical studies with alkali atoms A excited to high
Rydberg states predicted the existence of ultra long-range molecular bound
states. Such excited dimers have large electric dipole moments which, in
combination with their long radiative lifetimes, make them excellent candidates
for manipulation in applications. This letter reports on experimental
investigations of the self-broadening of Rb principal series lines, which
revealed multiple satellites in the line wings. The positions of the satellites
agree quantitatively with theoretically-predicted minima in the excited
long-range Rydberg states of Rb.Comment: 3 figures, 5 pages in two-column forma
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