Extended shells around B[e] stars - implications for B[e] star evolution

Aims. The position of B[e] stars in the upper left part of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram creates a quandary. Are these stars young stars evolving onto the main sequence or old stars that are evolving off of it? Spectral characteristics suggest that B[e] stars can be placed into five subclasses and are not a homogeneous set. Such sub-classification is believed to coincide with varying origins and different evolutions. However, the evolutionary connection of B[e] stars – and notably sgB[e] – to other stars is unclear, particularly to evolved massive stars. We attempt to provide insight into the evolutionary past of B[e] stars. Methods. We performed an Hα narrow-band CCD imaging survey of B[e] stars, in the northern hemisphere. Prior to the current work, no emission-line survey of B[e] stars had yet been made, while only two B[e] stars appeared to have a shell nebula as seen in the Digital Sky Survey. Of nebulae around B[e] stars, only the ring nebula around MWC137 has been previously observed extensively. Results. In this presentation we report the findings from our narrow-band optical imaging survey of the environments of 25 B[e] stars. Of the objects surveyed, 7 show bipolar or uni- polar structures up to 15' across; 5 show faint, large, or filamentary shells; and 2 are compact planetary nebula-type systems. The most spectacular system observed is a large bipolar structure associated with MWC314. Conclusions. The possible links between B[e] stars and other evolved stars, implied by our observations, are investigated

The effectiveness of origami on overall hand function after injury: A pilot controlled trial

This pilot study measured the effectiveness of using origami to improve the overall hand function of outpatients attending an NHS hand injury unit. The initiative came from one of the authors who had used origami informally in the clinical setting and observed beneficial effects. These observed effects were tested experimentally. The design was a pilot non-randomised controlled trial with 13 participants. Allocation of the seven control group members was based on patient preference. The experimental group members attended a weekly hour of origami for six weeks, in addition to their conventional rehabilitation. Hand function of all participants was measured using the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test before and after the six-week period, and additional qualitative data were gathered in the form of written evaluations from patients. The quantitative data were analysed using the Mann Whitney U test or Fisher’s exact test. Themes were highlighted from the qualitative data. The results show that there was a greater difference in the total score of the experimental group using the impaired hand between pre- and post-intervention of 11.8 seconds, compared with 4.3 seconds in the control group, but this was not statistically significant at the 5% level (p=0.06). Additionally, differences in the sub-test scores show a markedly larger improvement in the experimental group. Qualitative data indicate that the experimental group experienced the origami sessions as being enjoyable and beneficial. Further research with a larger sample and randomised group allocation is recommended to verify and expand these preliminary findings

Transport anomalies in a simplified model for a heavy electron quantum critical point

We discuss the transport anomalies associated with the development of heavy electrons out of a neutral spin fluid using the large-N treatment of the Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model. At the phase transition in this model the spin excitations suddenly acquire charge. The Higgs process by which this takes place causes the constraint gauge field to loosely ``lock'' together with the external, electromagnetic gauge field. From this perspective, the heavy fermion phase is a Meissner phase in which the field representing the difference between the electromagnetic and constraint gauge field, is excluded from the material. We show that at the transition into the heavy fermion phase, both the linear and the Hall conductivity jump together. However, the Drude weight of the heavy electron fluid does not jump at the quantum critical point, but instead grows linearly with the distance from the quantum critical point, forming a kind of ``gossamer'' Fermi-liquid.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. Small change in references in v

Microbial and nutritional changes of wet brewers grains inoculated with a commercial preservative

Two experiments were conducted to compare the deterioration of wet brewers grains (WBG) treated with an enzyme and bacterial inoculant (Silo-King GPX, Agri-King Inc., Fulton, IL). Another experiment investigated ruminal DM and CP degradability of samples taken from experiment 1. Wet brewers grains were divided into separate piles upon delivery. Silo-King GPX was added to WBG at 0 kg/kg (control), 0.45 kg/900 kg WBG, and 0.9 kg/900 kg WBG, mixed for 5 min, and then stored in bins. Piles were left for 28 d to simulate farm storage practices. Samples (300 g) were taken every 2 d, 20.3 cm below the surface and analyzed for nutrients, VFA, molds, yeasts, mycotoxins and clostridia. Treated piles had quadratic increases in fat, acetic and butyric acids and quadratic decreases in starch, Ca, Mg, K, and Mn concentrations. In experiment 1, piles treated with preservative had linear decreases in pH and increases in lactic acid. The log CFU of yeast, mold and clostridia were reduced linearly and quadratically in the treated piles. In experiment 3, treatment resulted in linear and quadratic increases for DM, starch and K concentrations. The log CFU counts for yeast and mold decreased linearly and quadratically with treatment. Crude protein decreased linearly, while lactic acid concentration increased with treatment. A quadratic increase in ADF concentration was observed, while fat, NDIP, Na and acetic acid concentrations decreased quadratically. Covering increased NDF, ADF, NDIP, K and tended to increase log CFU mold. Three non-lactating cannulated cows were used in a 3 x 3 Latin square to determine the DM and CP degradability of samples taken from experiment 1. Cows were fed a diet supplemented with WBG at a rate of 1 kg/d. Dacron bags containing 5.3 g of dried sample were incubated in the rumen for 0, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24 and 48 h (2 bags/sample d). Treatment had no effect on ruminal DM or CP degradability of WBG. This study indicates that using Silo-King GPX may reduce spoilage of WBG, without altering the degradability of the feed

MEM application to IRAS CPC images

A method for applying the Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) to Chopped Photometric Channel (CPC) IRAS additional observations is illustrated. The original CPC data suffered from problems with repeatability which MEM is able to cope with by use of a noise image, produced from the results of separate data scans of objects. The process produces images of small areas of sky with circular Gaussian beams of approximately 30 in. full width half maximum resolution at 50 and 100 microns. Comparison is made to previous reconstructions made in the far-infrared as well as morphologies of objects at other wavelengths. Some projects with this dataset are discussed

Extended far-infrared emission and star formation in Seyfert galaxies

An investigation into the extended distribution of far-infrared (FIR) emission associated with nearby Seyfert galaxies is made using a set of MEM reconstructions of IRAS Chopped Photometric Channel (CPC) data (Marston 1993). The data is compared to a set of HII/starburst galaxy images similarly processed in order to compare distributions and FIR color properties. It is shown that the central 1 kpc or so of Seyfert galaxies show extended FIR emission. FIR colors suggest that the bulk of this emission is not directly associated with an active nucleus. They further suggest that the origins of the majority of the emission is from heated dust associated with star formation surrounding the nucleus rather than dust heated by the active nucleus. Nearby Seyfert galaxies are shown to have a higher concentration of far-infrared emission from their centers than the HII/starburst galaxies and a number appear to reside in disk galaxies with relatively low ongoing star formation in their disks. An example of this is NGC 7582 which has a smooth disk but an active nucleus/starbust center