3,891 research outputs found
Scanning Electron Microscopy of the Forming Enamel of Rat Incisor: Influence of Fixative and Treatments Interacting with the Organic Matrix
The forming enamel of rat incisor was either treated before fixation with one of these five treatments: ultrasonication, NaOCl, chloroform/methanol, NaOH or tween 20; or the incisors were first fixed and then submitted to one of these treatments. The structure of the forming enamel, compared with sections fixed with aldehyde and submitted to osmic maceration, depends on the way the samples were treated and on the fixative used. An amorphous material, removed by osmium tetroxide but not by aldehyde solution was seen to be located between fiber-like structures. In the region of inner enamel secretion the thickness of interrod septa was fairly constant, whereas in the region of outer enamel secretion, transverse septa of interred enamel gradually became thinner and finally disappeared. The longitudinal septa did not display such changes. Longitudinal grooves and ridges were seen at the end of enamel completion. These longitudinal septa finally merged and formed a flat surface
Quasimodes of a chaotic elastic cavity with increasing local losses
We report non-invasive measurements of the complex field of elastic
quasimodes of a silicon wafer with chaotic shape. The amplitude and phase
spatial distribution of the flexural modes are directly obtained by Fourier
transform of time measurements. We investigate the crossover from real mode to
complex-valued quasimode, when absorption is progressively increased on one
edge of the wafer. The complexness parameter, which characterizes the degree to
which a resonance state is complex-valued, is measured for non-overlapping
resonances and is found to be proportional to the non-homogeneous contribution
to the line broadening of the resonance. A simple two-level model based on the
effective Hamiltonian formalism supports our experimental results
A spectroscopic study of component C and the extended emission around I Zw 18
Long-slit Keck II, 4m Kitt Peak, and 4.5m MMT spectrophotometric data are
used to investigate the stellar population and the evolutionary status of I Zw
18C, the faint C component of the nearby blue compact dwarf galaxy I Zw 18.
Hydrogen H and H emission lines are detected in the spectra of I
Zw 18C, implying that ionizing massive stars are present. High signal-to-noise
Keck II spectra of different regions in I Zw 18C reveal H, H
and higher order hydrogen lines in absorption. Several techniques are used to
constrain the age of the stellar population in I Zw 18C. Ages derived from two
different methods, one based on the equivalent widths of the H,
H emission lines and the other on H, H absorption lines
are consistent with a 15 Myr instantaneous burst model. We find that a small
extinction in the range = 0.20 -- 0.65 mag is needed to fit the observed
spectral energy distribution of I Zw 18C with that model. In the case of
constant star formation, all observed properties are consistent with stars
forming continuously between ~ 10 Myr and < 100 Myr ago. We use all available
observational constraints for I Zw 18C, including those obtained from Hubble
Space Telescope color-magnitude diagrams, to argue that the distance to I Zw 18
should be as high as ~ 15 Mpc. The deep spectra also reveal extended ionized
gas emission around I Zw 18. H emission is detected as far as 30" from
it. To a B surface brightness limit of ~ 27 mag arcsec we find no
observational evidence for extended stellar emission in the outermost regions,
at distances > 15" from I Zw 18.Comment: 38 pages, 11 Postscript figures, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
An imaging and spectroscopic study of the very metal-deficient blue compact dwarf galaxy Tol 1214--277
We present a spectrophotometric study based on VLT/FORS I observations of one
of the most metal-deficient blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxies known, Tol
1214-277 (Z ~ Zsun/25). The data show that roughly half of the total luminosity
of the BCD originates from a bright and compact starburst region located at the
northeastern tip of a faint dwarf galaxy with cometary appearance. The
starburst has ignited less than 4 Myr ago and its emission is powered by
several thousands O7V stars and ~ 170 late-type nitrogen Wolf-Rayet stars
located within a compact region with < 500 pc in diameter. For the first time
in a BCD, a relatively strong [Fe V] 4227 emission line is seen which together
with intense He II 4686 emission indicates the presence of a very hard
radiation field in Tol 1214-277. We argue that this extraordinarily hard
radiation originates from both Wolf--Rayet stars and radiative shocks in the
starburst region. The structural properties of the low-surface-brightness (LSB)
component underlying the starburst have been investigated by means of surface
photometry down to 28 B mag/sq.arcsec. We find that, for a surface brightness
level fainter than ~ 24.5 B mag/sq.arcsec, an exponential fitting law provides
an adequate approximation to its radial intensity distribution. The broad-band
colors in the outskirts of the LSB component of Tol 1214-277 are nearly
constant and are consistent with an age below one Gyr. This conclusion is
supported by the comparison of the observed spectral energy distribution (SED)
of the LSB host with theoretical SEDs.Comment: 17 pages, 11 Postscript figures, uses emulateapj.sty, to appear in
Astronomical Journa
On the long term change in the geomagnetic activity during the 20th century
International audienceThe analysis of the aa index series presented in this paper clearly shows that during the last century (1900 to 2000) the number of quiet days (Aa<20 nT) drastically di- minished from a mean annual value greater than 270 days per year at the end of the nineteenth century to a mean value of 160 quiet days per year one hundred years later. This de- crease is mainly due to the decrease of the number of very quiet days (Aa<13 nT). We show that the so-evidenced de- crease in the number of quiet days cannot be accounted for by drift in the aa baseline resulting in a systematic underes- timation of aa during the first quarter of the century: a 2– 3 nT overestimation in the aa increase during the 20th cen- tury would lead to a 20–40% overestimation in the decrease of the number of quiet days during the same period.The quiet days and very quiet days correspond to periods during which the Earth encounters slow solar wind streams flowing in the heliosheet during the period where the solar magnetic field has a dipolar geometry. Therefore, the ob- served change in the number of quiet days is the signature of a long term evolution of the solar coronal field topology. It may be interpreted in terms of an increase in the magnitude of the solar dipole, the associated decrease of the heliosheet thickness accounting for the observed decrease in the number of quiet days
The low-field conductivity of zeolite-encapsulated molecular wires
The first measurements of an upper bound for the low-field conductivity of a molecular wire are
presented here. We were able to encapsulate polypyrrole with chain lengths more than 10 monomers
within the channels of different zeolites. Although the chains are fully oxidized by intrazeolite Fe3 +
ions, and should conduct (when included in a bulk polymer), they do not exhibit, in the zeolite,
significant ac conductivity up to 1 GHz. This suggests that other strategies than low field conductivity
are needed to inject charges and transmit information through isolated molecular wires
Lyman alpha line formation in starbursting galaxies II. Extremely Thick, Dustless, and Static HI Media
The Lya line transfer in an extremely thick medium of neutral hydrogen is
investigated by adopting an accelerating scheme in our Monte Carlo code to skip
a large number of core or resonant scatterings. This scheme reduces computing
time significantly with no sacrifice in the accuracy of the results. We applied
this numerical method to the Lya transfer in a static, uniform, dustless, and
plane-parallel medium. Two types of photon sources have been considered, the
midplane source and the uniformly distributed sources. The emergent profiles
show double peaks and absorption trough at the line-center. We compared our
results with the analytic solutions derived by previous researchers, and
confirmed that both solutions are in good agreement with each other. We
investigated the directionality of the emergent Lya photons and found that limb
brightening is observed in slightly thick media while limb darkening appears in
extremely thick media. The behavior of the directionality is noted to follow
that of the Thomson scattered radiation in electron clouds, because both Lya
wing scattering and Thomson scattering share the same Rayleigh scattering phase
function. The mean number of wing scatterings just before escape is in exact
agreement with the prediction of the diffusion approximation. The Lya photons
constituting the inner part of the emergent profiles follow the relationship
derived from the diffusion approximation. We present a brief discussion on the
application of our results to the formation of Lya broad absorption troughs and
P-Cygni type Lya profiles seen in the UV spectra of starburst galaxies.Comment: 24 papges, 12 figures, The revised version submitted to Ap
Probing The Multiphase Interstellar Medium Of The Dwarf Starburst Galaxy NGC 625 With FUSE Spectroscopy
We present new FUSE spectroscopy of the dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 625. These
observations probe multiple phases of the interstellar medium, including the
coronal, ionized, neutral and molecular gas. This nearby (D = 3.9 +/- 0.2 Mpc)
system shows a clear detection of outflowing coronal gas as traced by OVI 1032
Angstrom absorption. The centroid of the OVI profile is blueshifted with
respect to the galaxy systemic velocity by ~ 30 km/sec, suggesting a
low-velocity outflow. The implied OVI velocity extent is found to be 100 +/- 20
km/sec, which is fully consistent with the detected HI outflow velocity found
in radio synthesis observations. We detect multiple lines of diffuse H2
absorption from the ISM of NGC 625; this is one of only a few extragalactic
systems with FUSE detections of H2 lines in the Lyman and Werner bands. We find
a potential abundance offset between the neutral and nebular gas that exceeds
the errors on the derived column densities. Since such an offset has been found
in multiple dwarf galaxies, we discuss the implications of a lower-metallicity
halo surrounding the central star forming regions of dwarf galaxies. The
apparent offset may be due to saturation of the observed OI line, and higher
S/N observations are required to resolve this issue.Comment: ApJ, in press; full-resolution version may be obtained at
http://www.astro.umn.edu/~cannon/n625.fuse.p
What Role for Angiogenesis in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia?
The role of angiogenesis in acute leukaemia has been discussed since the cloning of the gene of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from the acute myelogenous leukemia cell line (HL60) and, thereafter, when the first studies reported increased bone marrow vascularity and elevation of angiogenic cytokines in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). VEGF and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) are the major proangiogenic cytokines that have been studied, and evaluation of their prognostic impact in childhood ALL has been reported in several studies, though with controversial results. The antiangiogenic response, contributing to the angiogenic balance, has scarcely been reported. The origin of the factors, their prognostic value, and their relevance as good markers of what really happens in the bone marrow are discussed in this paper. The place of antiangiogenic drugs in ALL has to be defined in the global treatment strategy
Trends in source gases
Source gases are defined as those gases that, by their breakdown, introduce into the stratosphere halogen, hydrogen, and nitrogen compounds that are important in stratospheric ozone destruction. Given here is an update of the existing concentration time series for chlorocarbons, nitrous oxide, and methane. Also reviewed is information on halogen containing species and the use of these data for establishing trends. Also reviewed is evidence on trends in trace gases that influence tropospheric chemistry and thus the tropospheric lifetimes of source gases, such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or nitrogen oxides. Much of the information is given in tabular form
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