1,464 research outputs found
Cicrumnuclear Supernova Remnants and HII Regions in NGC 253
Archival VLA data has been used to produce arcsecond-resolution 6- and 20-cm
images of the region surrounding the nuclear 200-pc (~15") starburst in NGC
253. Twenty-two discrete sources stronger than 0.4 mJy have been detected
within ~2 kpc (~3') of the galaxy nucleus; almost all these sources must be
associated with the galaxy. None of the radio sources coincides with a detected
X-ray binary, so they appear to be due to supernova remnants and H II regions.
The region outside the central starburst has a derived radio supernova rate of
<~0.1/yr, and may account for at least 20% of the recent star formation in NGC
253. Most of the newly identified sources have steep, nonthermal radio spectra,
but several relatively strong thermal sources also exist, containing the
equivalent of tens of O5 stars. These stars are spread over tens of parsecs,
and are embedded in regions having average ionized gas densities of
20-200/cm^3, much lower than in the most active nuclear star-forming regions in
NGC 253 or in the super star clusters seen in other galaxies. The strongest
region of thermal emission coincides with a highly reddened area seen at
near-infrared wavelengths, possibly containing optically obscured H II regions.Comment: 17 pages, 3 postscript figures, AASTeX format, in press for
Astronomical Journal, July 200
Millimeter wave satellite concepts. Volume 1: Executive summary
The objectives of the program were: (1) development of methodology based on the technical requirements of potential services that might be assigned to millimeter wave bands for identifying the viable and appropriate technologies for future NASA millimeter research and development programs, and (2) testing of this methodology with user applications and services. The scope of the program included the entire communications network, both ground and space subsystems. The reports include: (1) cost, weight, and performance models for the subsystems, (2) conceptual design for point-to-point and broadcast communications satellites, (3) analytic relationships between subsystem parameters and an overall link performance, (4) baseline conceptual systems, (5) sensitivity studies, (6) model adjustment analyses, (7) identification of critical technologies and their risks, (8) brief R&D program scenarios for the technologies judged to be moderate or extensive risks
Calculation of coercivity of magnetic nanostructures at finite temperatures
We report a finite temperature micromagnetic method (FTM) that allows for the
calculation of the coercive field of arbitrary shaped magnetic nanostructures
at time scales of nanoseconds to years. Instead of directly solving the
Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, the coercive field is obtained without any
free parameter by solving a non linear equation, which arises from the
transition state theory. The method is applicable to magnetic structures where
coercivity is determined by one thermally activated reversal or nucleation
process. The method shows excellent agreement with experimentally obtained
coercive fields of magnetic nanostructures and provides a deeper understanding
of the mechanism of coercivity.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
Physicians’ Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding Athletic Trainers
Purpose: The relationship between athletic trainers (ATs) and physicians is a legal obligation and collaboration to improve patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to examine the knowledge of physicians regarding the educational preparation, legal obligations, and scope of practice for ATs and how it relates to previous experiences with ATs. Additionally physicians’ perceptions of Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) were studied. Methods: 169 physicians medical doctors (MD)=133/169, 78.7%, doctor of osteopathy (DO)=36/169, 21%) completed a 36-question web-based survey, which included a validated IPC scale. Results: Respondents with experience working with an AT scored significantly higher (P \u3c 0.01) on the knowledge assessment, where physicians currently working with an AT scored higher (5.4/8) than those who previously worked with an AT (4.2/8) and those who had never worked with an AT (3.3/8). Additionally, physicians with previous exposure to an AT as an athlete had significantly higher knowledge scores than those without exposure (P \u3c 0.01). Two areas of weakness in IPC from the physician’s perspective included sharing of important information (2.48/4) and importance of work as compared to others on the team (2.38/4). Conclusions: Physicians who have a current working relationship with an AT and those that had access to an AT as an athlete demonstrated significantly higher knowledge about an AT’s academic preparation, legal obligations, and scope of practice. Moreover, physicians currently working with an AT report positive interprofessional collaborations
Uncovering trophic interactions in arthropod predators through DNA shotgun-sequencing of gut contents
Characterizing trophic networks is fundamental to many questions in ecology, but this typically requires painstaking efforts, especially to identify the diet of small generalist predators. Several attempts have been devoted to develop suitable molecular tools to determine predatory trophic interactions through gut content analysis, and the challenge has been to achieve simultaneously high taxonomic breadth and resolution. General and practical methods are still needed, preferably independent of PCR amplification of barcodes, to recover a broader range of interactions. Here we applied shotgun-sequencing of the DNA from arthropod predator gut contents, extracted from four common coccinellid and dermapteran predators co-occurring in an agroecosystem in Brazil. By matching unassembled reads against six DNA reference databases obtained from public databases and newly assembled mitogenomes, and filtering for high overlap length and identity, we identified prey and other foreign DNA in the predator guts. Good taxonomic breadth and resolution was achieved (93% of prey identified to species or genus), but with low recovery of matching reads. Two to nine trophic interactions were found for these predators, some of which were only inferred by the presence of parasitoids and components of the microbiome known to be associated with aphid prey. Intraguild predation was also found, including among closely related ladybird species. Uncertainty arises from the lack of comprehensive reference databases and reliance on low numbers of matching reads accentuating the risk of false positives. We discuss caveats and some future prospects that could improve the use of direct DNA shotgun-sequencing to characterize arthropod trophic networks
Fine-scale Identification of the Most Likely Source of a Human Plague Infection
We describe an analytic approach to provide fine-scale discrimination among multiple infection source hypotheses. This approach uses mutation-rate data for rapidly evolving multiple locus variable-number tandem repeat loci in probabilistic models to identify the most likely source. We illustrate the utility of this approach using data from a North American human plague investigation
A deep X-ray observation of NGC 4258 and its surrounding field
We present a deep X-ray observation of the low-luminosity active galactic
nucleus in NGC4258 (M106) using ASCA. The soft X-ray spectrum <2keV is
dominated by thermal emission from optically-thin plasma with kT~0.5keV. The
hard X-ray emission is clearly due to a power-law component with photon index
Gamma=1.8 absorbed by a column density of N_H=8x10^22/cm^2. The power-law is
readily identified with primary X-ray emission from the AGN central engine. We
also clearly detect a narrow iron K-alpha emission line at 6.4keV. No broad
component is detected. We suggest that the bulk of this narrow line comes from
the accretion disk and, furthermore, that the power-law X-ray source which
excites this line emission (which is typically identified with a disk corona)
must be at least 100GM/c^2 in extent. This is in stark contrast to many
higher-luminosity Seyfert galaxies which display a broad iron line indicating a
small 10 GM/c^2 X-ray emitting region. It must be stressed that this study
constrains the size of the X-ray emitting corona rather than the
presence/absence of a radiatively efficient accretion disk in the innermost
regions. If, instead, a substantial fraction of the observed narrow line
originates from material not associated with the accretion disk, limits can be
placed on the parameter space of possible allowed relativistically broad iron
lines. By comparing our data with previous ASCA observations, we find marginal
evidence for a change in absorbing column density through to the central
engine, and good evidence for a change in the AGN flux.Comment: 11 pages, 9 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Radio Continuum Jet in NGC 7479
The barred galaxy NGC 7479 hosts a remarkable jet-like radio continuum
feature: bright, 12-kpc long in projection, and hosting an aligned magnetic
field. The degree of polarization is 6%-8% along the jet, and remarkably
constant, which is consistent with helical field models. The radio brightness
of the jet suggests strong interaction with the ISM and hence a location near
the disk plane. We observed NGC 7479 at four wavelengths with the VLA and
Effelsberg radio telescopes. The equipartition strength is 35-40 micro-G for
the total and >10 micro-G for the ordered magnetic field in the jet. The jet
acts as a bright, polarized background. Faraday rotation between 3.5 and 6 cm
and depolarization between 6 and 22 cm can be explained by magneto-ionic gas in
front of the jet, with thermal electron densities of ~0.06 cm**(-3) in the bar
and ~0.03 cm**(-3) outside the bar. The regular magnetic field along the bar
points toward the nucleus on both sides. The regular field in the disk reveals
multiple reversals, probably consisting of field loops stretched by a shearing
gas flow in the bar. The projection of the jet bending in the sky plane is in
the sense opposite to that of the underlying stellar and gaseous spiral
structure. The bending in 3-D is most easily explained as a precessing jet,
with an age less than 10**6 years. Our observations are consistent with very
recent triggering, possibly by a minor merger. NGC 7479 provides a unique
opportunity to study interaction-triggered 15-kpc scale radio jets within a
spiral galaxy.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
A Search for Extraplanar Dust in Nearby Edge-On Spirals
We present high resolution BV images of 12 edge-on spiral galaxies observed
with the WIYN 3.5-m telescope. These images were obtained to search for
extraplanar (|z| > 0.4 kpc) absorbing dust structures similar to those
previously found in NGC 891 (Howk & Savage 1997). Our imaged galaxies include a
sample of seven massive L_*-like spiral galaxies within D<25 Mpc that have
inclinations i > 87 deg from the plane of the sky. We find that five of these
seven systems show extraplanar dust, visible as highly-structured absorbing
clouds against the background stellar light of the galaxies. The more prominent
structures are estimated to have associated gas masses >10^5 M_sun; the implied
potential energies are > 10^(52) ergs. All of the galaxies in our sample that
show detectable halpha emission at large z also show extraplanar dust
structures. None of those galaxies for which extraplanar halpha searches were
negative show evidence for extensive high-z dust. The existence of extraplanar
dust is a common property of massive spiral galaxies. We discuss several
mechanisms for shaping the observed dust features, emphasizing the possibility
that these dusty clouds represent the dense phase of a multiphase medium at
high-z in spiral galaxies. The correlation between high-z dust and extraplanar
Halpha emission may simply suggest that both trace the high-z interstellar
medium in its various forms (or phases), the existence of which may ultimately
be driven by vigorous star formation in the underlying disk. (Abstract
abridged)Comment: 26 pages; 15 jpeg figures. To appear in The Astronomical Journal, May
1999. Gzipped tar files of high-resolution figures in postscript and jpeg
formats are available at
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~howk/Papers/papers.html#surve
The BeppoSAX view of the X-ray active nucleus of NGC4258
BeppoSAX observed NGC4258 on December 1998, when its 2-10 keV luminosity was
\~1E41 erg/s. 100% variability is observed in the 3-10 keV band on timescales
of a half a day while 20% variability is observed on timescales of one hour.
The nuclear component is visible above 2 keV only, being obscured by a column
density of (9.5+/-1.2)E22 cm-2; this component is detected up to 70 keV with
S/N>=3 and with the steep power law energy index of 1.11+/-0.14. Bremsstrahlung
emission for the 2-70 keV X-ray luminosity, as expected in ADAF models with
strong winds, is ruled out by the data. The ratio between the nuclear radio and
the X-ray luminosities is <=1E-5, similar to that of radio quiet AGN. X-ray
variability and spectral shape, radio to X-ray and NIR to X-ray luminosity
ratios suggest that the nucleus of NGC4258 could be a scaled-down version of a
Seyfert nucleus. The soft (E<=2keV) X-ray emission is complex. There are at
least two thermal-like components, with T1=0.6+/-0.1 keV and T2>=1.3 keV. The
cooler (L(0.1-2.4keV)=1E40 erg/s) component is probably associated with the
jet, resolved in X-rays by the ROSAT HRI. The second component, which can be
modeled equally well by an unobscured power law model, has L(0.1-2.4keV)~7E39
erg/s, consistent with that expected from discrete X-ray sources in the host
galaxy. NGC4258 and other maser AGNs show strong nuclear X-ray absorption. We
propose that this large column of gas might be responsible for shielding the
regions of maser emission from X-ray illumination. So a large column density
gas may be a necessary property of masing AGNs.Comment: ApJ in pres
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