2,985 research outputs found
The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy
Recent observational evidence suggests that the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy
represents the only major ongoing accretion event in the Galactic halo,
accounting for the majority of stellar debris identified there. This paper
summarizes the recent discovery of another potential Milky Way accretion event,
the Canis Major dwarf galaxy. This dwarf satellite galaxy is found to lie just
below the Galactic plane and appears to be on an equatorial orbit. Unlike
Sagittarius, which is contributing to the Galactic halo, the location and
eventual demise of Canis Major suggests that it represents a building block of
the thick disk.Comment: Refereed contribution to "Structure & Dynamics in the Local Universe,
a workshop to honour Brent Tully's 60th birthday", Nov 2003. 4 pages + 2
figures (quality reduced due to size restrictions). To appear in PAS
Correcting the influence of an asymmetric line spread function in 2-degree Field spectrograph data
We investigate the role of asymmetries in the line spread function of the
2-degree field spectrograph and the variations in these asymmetries with the
CCD, the plate, the time of observation and the fibre. A data-reduction
pipeline is developed that takes these deformations into account for the
calibration and cross-correlation of the spectra. We show that, using the
emission lines of calibration lamp observations, we can fit the line spread
function with the sum of two Gaussian functions representing the theoretical
signal and a perturbation of the system. This model is then used to calibrate
the spectra and generate templates by downgrading high resolution spectra.
Thus, we can cross-correlate the observed spectra with templates degraded in
the same way. Our reduction pipeline is tested on real observations and
provides a significant improvement in the accuracy of the radial velocities
obtained. In particular, the systematic errors that were as high as ~20 km/s
when applying the AAO reduction package 2dfDR are now reduced to ~5 km/s. Even
though the 2-degree Field spectrograph is to be decommissioned at the end of
2005, the analysis of archival data and previous studies could be improved by
the reduction procedure we propose here.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted to PASA, minor change
Distributed computing system with dual independent communications paths between computers and employing split tokens
This is a distributed computing system providing flexible fault tolerance; ease of software design and concurrency specification; and dynamic balance of the loads. The system comprises a plurality of computers each having a first input/output interface and a second input/output interface for interfacing to communications networks each second input/output interface including a bypass for bypassing the associated computer. A global communications network interconnects the first input/output interfaces for providing each computer the ability to broadcast messages simultaneously to the remainder of the computers. A meshwork communications network interconnects the second input/output interfaces providing each computer with the ability to establish a communications link with another of the computers bypassing the remainder of computers. Each computer is controlled by a resident copy of a common operating system. Communications between respective ones of computers is by means of split tokens each having a moving first portion which is sent from computer to computer and a resident second portion which is disposed in the memory of at least one of computer and wherein the location of the second portion is part of the first portion. The split tokens represent both functions to be executed by the computers and data to be employed in the execution of the functions. The first input/output interfaces each include logic for detecting a collision between messages and for terminating the broadcasting of a message whereby collisions between messages are detected and avoided
The experimental gas-phase structures of 1,3,5-trisilylbenzene and hexasilylbenzene and the theoretical structures of all benzenes with three or more silyl substituents
The structures of 1,3,5-trisilylbenzene and hexasilylbenzene in the gas phase have been determined by electron diffraction, and that of 1,3,5-trisilylbenzene by X-ray crystallography. The structures of three trisilylbenzene isomers, three tetrasilylbenzenes, pentasilylbenzene and hexasilylbenzene have been computed, ab initio and using Density Functional Theory, at levels up to MP2/6-31G*. The primary effect of silyl substituents is to narrow the ring angle at the substituted carbon atoms. Steric interactions between silyl groups on neighbouring carbon atoms lead first to displacement of these groups away from one another, and then to displacement out of the ring plane, with alternate groups moving to opposite sides of the ring. In the extreme example, hexasilylbenzene, the SiCCSi dihedral angle is 17.8(8)°
A New Collisional Ring Galaxy at z = 0.111: Auriga's Wheel
We report the serendipitous discovery of a collision ring galaxy, identified
as 2MASX J06470249+4554022, which we have dubbed 'Auriga's Wheel', found in a
SUPRIME-CAM frame as part of a larger Milky Way survey. This peculiar class of
galaxies is the result of a near head-on collision between typically, a late
type and an early type galaxy. Subsequent GMOS-N long-slit spectroscopy has
confirmed both the relative proximity of the components of this interacting
pair and shown it to have a redshift of 0.111. Analysis of the spectroscopy
reveals that the late type galaxy is a LINER class Active Galactic Nuclei while
the early type galaxy is also potentially an AGN candidate, this is very
uncommon amongst known collision ring galaxies. Preliminary modeling of the
ring finds an expansion velocity of ~200 kms^-1 consistent with our
observations, making the collision about 50 Myr old. The ring currently has a
radius of about 10 kpc and a bridge of stars and gas is also visible connecting
the two galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures and 4 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap
Phenothiazine-mediated rescue of cognition in tau transgenic mice requires neuroprotection and reduced soluble tau burden
Abstract Background It has traditionally been thought that the pathological accumulation of tau in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies facilitates neurodegeneration, which in turn leads to cognitive impairment. However, recent evidence suggests that tau tangles are not the entity responsible for memory loss, rather it is an intermediate tau species that disrupts neuronal function. Thus, efforts to discover therapeutics for tauopathies emphasize soluble tau reductions as well as neuroprotection. Results Here, we found that neuroprotection alone caused by methylene blue (MB), the parent compound of the anti-tau phenothiaziazine drug, Rember™, was insufficient to rescue cognition in a mouse model of the human tauopathy, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and fronto-temporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP17): Only when levels of soluble tau protein were concomitantly reduced by a very high concentration of MB, was cognitive improvement observed. Thus, neurodegeneration can be decoupled from tau accumulation, but phenotypic improvement is only possible when soluble tau levels are also reduced. Conclusions Neuroprotection alone is not sufficient to rescue tau-induced memory loss in a transgenic mouse model. Development of neuroprotective agents is an area of intense investigation in the tauopathy drug discovery field. This may ultimately be an unsuccessful approach if soluble toxic tau intermediates are not also reduced. Thus, MB and related compounds, despite their pleiotropic nature, may be the proverbial "magic bullet" because they not only are neuroprotective, but are also able to facilitate soluble tau clearance. Moreover, this shows that neuroprotection is possible without reducing tau levels. This indicates that there is a definitive molecular link between tau and cell death cascades that can be disrupted.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78314/1/1750-1326-5-45.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78314/2/1750-1326-5-45.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78314/3/1750-1326-5-45-S1.PDFPeer Reviewe
Topology of non-linear structure in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey
We study the evolution of non-linear structure as a function of scale in
samples from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, constituting over 221 000 galaxies
at a median redshift of z=0.11. The two flux-limited galaxy samples, located
near the southern galactic pole and the galactic equator, are smoothed with
Gaussian filters of width ranging from 5 to 8 Mpc/h to produce a continuous
galaxy density field. The topological genus statistic is used to measure the
relative abundance of overdense clusters to void regions at each scale; these
results are compared to the predictions of analytic theory, in the form of the
genus statistic for i) the linear regime case of a Gaussian random field; and
ii) a first-order perturbative expansion of the weakly non-linear evolved
field. The measurements demonstrate a statistically significant detection of an
asymmetry in the genus statistic between regions corresponding to low- and
high-density volumes of the universe. We attribute the asymmetry to the
non-linear effects of gravitational evolution and biased galaxy formation, and
demonstrate that these effects evolve as a function of scale. We find that
neither analytic prescription satisfactorily reproduces the measurements,
though the weakly non-linear theory yields substantially better results in some
cases, and we discuss the potential explanations for this result.Comment: 13 pages, matching proof to be published in MNRAS; new version adds
reference and corrects figure
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