Spectral hardness evolution characteristics of tracking Gamma-ray Burst pulses

Employing a sample presented by Kaneko et al. (2006) and Kocevski et al. (2003), we select 42 individual tracking pulses (here we defined tracking as the cases in which the hardness follows the same pattern as the flux or count rate time profile) within 36 Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) containing 527 time-resolved spectra and investigate the spectral hardness, $E_{peak}$ (where $E_{peak}$ is the maximum of the $\nu F_{\nu}$ spectrum), evolutionary characteristics. The evolution of these pulses follow soft-to-hard-to-soft (the phase of soft-to-hard and hard-to-soft are denoted by rise phase and decay phase, respectively) with time. It is found that the overall characteristics of $E_{peak}$ of our selected sample are: 1) the $E_{peak}$ evolution in the rise phase always start on the high state (the values of $E_{peak}$ are always higher than 50 keV); 2) the spectra of rise phase clearly start at higher energy (the median of $E_{peak}$ are about 300 keV), whereas the spectra of decay phase end at much lower energy (the median of $E_{peak}$ are about 200 keV); 3) the spectra of rise phase are harder than that of the decay phase and the duration of rise phase are much shorter than that of decay phase as well. In other words, for a complete pulse the initial $E_{peak}$ is higher than the final $E_{peak}$ and the duration of initial phase (rise phase) are much shorter than the final phase (decay phase). This results are in good agreement with the predictions of Lu et al. (2007) and current popular view on the production of GRBs. We argue that the spectral evolution of tracking pulses may be relate to both of kinematic and dynamic process even if we currently can not provide further evidences to distinguish which one is dominant. Moreover, our statistical results give some witnesses to constrain the current GRB model.Comment: 32 pages, 26 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in New Astronom

Genetic susceptibility loci for cardiovascular disease and their impact on atherosclerotic plaques

Background: Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease in part caused by lipid uptake in the vascular wall, but the exact underlying mechanisms leading to acute myocardial infarction and stroke remain poorly understood. Large consortia identified genetic susceptibility loci that associate with large artery ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease. However, deciphering their underlying mechanisms are challenging. Histological studies identified destabilizing characteristics in human atherosclerotic plaques that associate with clinical outcome. To what extent established susceptibility loci for large artery ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease relate to plaque characteristics is thus far unknown but may point to novel mechanisms. Methods: We studied the associations of 61 established cardiovascular risk loci with 7 histological plaque characteristics assessed in 1443 carotid plaque specimens from the Athero-Express Biobank Study. We also assessed if the genotyped cardiovascular risk loci impact the tissue-specific gene expression in 2 independent biobanks, Biobank of Karolinska Endarterectomy and Stockholm Atherosclerosis Gene Expression. Results: A total of 21 established risk variants (out of 61) nominally associated to a plaque characteristic. One variant (rs12539895, risk allele A) at 7q22 associated to a reduction of intraplaque fat, P=5.09×10−6 after correction for multiple testing. We further characterized this 7q22 Locus and show tissue-specific effects of rs12539895 on HBP1 expression in plaques and COG5 expression in whole blood and provide data from public resources showing an association with decreased LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and increase HDL (high-density lipoprotein) in the blood. Conclusions: Our study supports the view that cardiovascular susceptibility loci may exert their effect by influencing the atherosclerotic plaque characteristics

The Primordial Gravitational Wave Background in String Cosmology

We find the spectrum P(w)dw of the gravitational wave background produced in the early universe in string theory. We work in the framework of String Driven Cosmology, whose scale factors are computed with the low-energy effective string equations as well as selfconsistent solutions of General Relativity with a gas of strings as source. The scale factor evolution is described by an early string driven inflationary stage with an instantaneous transition to a radiation dominated stage and successive matter dominated stage. This is an expanding string cosmology always running on positive proper cosmic time. A careful treatment of the scale factor evolution and involved transitions is made. A full prediction on the power spectrum of gravitational waves without any free-parameters is given. We study and show explicitly the effect of the dilaton field, characteristic to this kind of cosmologies. We compute the spectrum for the same evolution description with three differents approachs. Some features of gravitational wave spectra, as peaks and asymptotic behaviours, are found direct consequences of the dilaton involved and not only of the scale factor evolution. A comparative analysis of different treatments, solutions and compatibility with observational bounds or detection perspectives is made.Comment: LaTeX, 50 pages with 2 figures. Uses epsfig and psfra

On Physical Equivalence between Nonlinear Gravity Theories

We argue that in a nonlinear gravity theory, which according to well-known results is dynamically equivalent to a self-gravitating scalar field in General Relativity, the true physical variables are exactly those which describe the equivalent general-relativistic model (these variables are known as Einstein frame). Whenever such variables cannot be defined, there are strong indications that the original theory is unphysical. We explicitly show how to map, in the presence of matter, the Jordan frame to the Einstein one and backwards. We study energetics for asymptotically flat solutions. This is based on the second-order dynamics obtained, without changing the metric, by the use of a Helmholtz Lagrangian. We prove for a large class of these Lagrangians that the ADM energy is positive for solutions close to flat space. The proof of this Positive Energy Theorem relies on the existence of the Einstein frame, since in the (Helmholtz--)Jordan frame the Dominant Energy Condition does not hold and the field variables are unrelated to the total energy of the system.Comment: 37 pp., TO-JLL-P 3/93 Dec 199

Fast variability from black-hole binaries

Currently available information on fast variability of the X-ray emission from accreting collapsed objects constitutes a complex phenomenology which is difficult to interpret. We review the current observational standpoint for black-hole binaries and survey models that have been proposed to interpret it. Despite the complex structure of the accretion flow, key observational diagnostics have been identified which can provide direct access to the dynamics of matter motions in the close vicinity of black holes and thus to the some of fundamental properties of curved spacetimes, where strong-field general relativistic effects can be observed.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher

On the reliability of a simple method for scoring phenotypes to estimate heritability: A case study with pupal color in Heliconius erato phyllis, Fabricius 1775 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)

In this paper, two methods for assessing the degree of melanization of pupal exuviae from the butterfly Heliconius erato phyllis, Fabricius 1775 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Heliconiini) are compared. In the first method, which was qualitative, the exuviae were classified by scoring the degree of melanization, whereas in the second method, which was quantitative, the exuviae were classified by optical density followed by analysis with appropriate software. The heritability (h2) of the degree of melanization was estimated by regression and analysis of variance. The estimates of h 2 were similar with both methods, indicating that the qualitative method could be particularly suitable for field work. The low estimates obtained for heritability may have resulted from the small sample size (n = 7-18 broods, including the parents) or from the allocation-priority hypothesis in which pupal color would be a lower priority trait compared to morphological traits and adequate larval development

The Kuiper Belt and Other Debris Disks

We discuss the current knowledge of the Solar system, focusing on bodies in the outer regions, on the information they provide concerning Solar system formation, and on the possible relationships that may exist between our system and the debris disks of other stars. Beyond the domains of the Terrestrial and giant planets, the comets in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud preserve some of our most pristine materials. The Kuiper belt, in particular, is a collisional dust source and a scientific bridge to the dusty "debris disks" observed around many nearby main-sequence stars. Study of the Solar system provides a level of detail that we cannot discern in the distant disks while observations of the disks may help to set the Solar system in proper context.Comment: 50 pages, 25 Figures. To appear in conference proceedings book "Astrophysics in the Next Decade