349 research outputs found
BANYAN. II. Very Low Mass and Substellar Candidate Members to Nearby, Young Kinematic Groups With Previously Known Signs of Youth
We present Bayesian Analysis for Nearby Young AssociatioNs II (BANYAN II), a
modified Bayesian analysis for assessing the membership of later-than-M5
objects to any of several Nearby Young Associations (NYAs). In addition to
using kinematic information (from sky position and proper motion), this
analysis exploits 2MASS-WISE color-magnitude diagrams in which old and young
objects follow distinct sequences. As an improvement over our earlier work, the
spatial and kinematic distributions for each association are now modelled as
ellipsoids whose axes need not be aligned with the Galactic coordinate axes,
and we use prior probabilities matching the expected populations of the NYAs
considered versus field stars. We present an extensive contamination analysis
to characterize the performance of our new method. We find that Bayesian
probabilities are generally representative of contamination rates, except when
a parallax measurement is considered. In this case contamination rates become
significantly smaller and hence Bayesian probabilities for NYA memberships are
pessimistic. We apply this new algorithm to a sample of 158 objects from the
literature that are either known to display spectroscopic signs of youth or
have unusually red near-infrared colors for their spectral type. Based on our
analysis, we identify 25 objects as new highly probable candidates to NYAs,
including a new M7.5 bona fide member to Tucana-Horologium, making it the
latest-type member. In addition, we reveal that a known L2{\gamma} dwarf is
co-moving with a bright M5 dwarf, and we show for the first time that two of
the currently known ultra red L dwarfs are strong candidates to the AB Doradus
moving group. Several objects identified here as highly probable members to
NYAs could be free-floating planetary-mass objects if their membership is
confirmed.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal (in press); Several typographic correction
The Coolest Isolated Brown Dwarf Candidate Member of TWA
We present two new late-type brown dwarf candidate members of the TW Hydrae
association (TWA) : 2MASS J12074836-3900043 and 2MASS J12474428-3816464, which
were found as part of the BANYAN all-sky survey (BASS) for brown dwarf members
to nearby young associations. We obtained near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for
both objects (NIR spectral types are respectively L1 and M9), as well as
optical spectroscopy for J1207-3900 (optical spectral type is L0{\gamma}), and
show that both display clear signs of low-gravity, and thus youth. We use the
BANYAN II Bayesian inference tool to show that both objects are candidate
members to TWA with a very low probability of being field contaminants,
although the kinematics of J1247-3816 seem slightly at odds with that of other
TWA members. J1207-3900 is currently the latest-type and the only isolated
L-type candidate member of TWA. Measuring the distance and radial velocity of
both objects is still required to claim them as bona fide members. Such
late-type objects are predicted to have masses down to 11-15 MJup at the age of
TWA, which makes them compelling targets to study atmospheric properties in a
regime similar to that of currently known imaged extrasolar planets.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the ApJ Letter
Identification of clinically significant psychological distress and psychiatric morbidity by examining quality of life in subjects with occupational asthma
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Juniper Asthma Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ(S)) is a questionnaire that allows measurement of disease specific quality of life. We wanted to examine correlations between the (AQLQ(S)) general and different subscale scores and both psychiatric morbidity and levels of psychological distress in individuals with occupational asthma (OA) and to determine if results in the emotional function subscale allow identification of individuals with clinically significant psychological distress or current psychiatric disorders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a cross-sectional study of individuals with OA who were assessed during a re-evaluation for permanent disability, after they were no longer exposed to the sensitizing agent. Patients underwent a general sociodemographic and medical history evaluation, a brief psychiatric interview (Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders, PRIME-MD) and completed a battery of questionnaires including the AQLQ(S), the St-Georges Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), and the Psychiatric Symptom Index (PSI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.936 for the AQLQ(S) total score) and construct validity for the AQLQ(S) (Spearman rho = -0.693 for the SGRQ symptom score and rho = -0.650 for the asthma severity score). There were medium to large correlations between the total score of the AQLQ(S) and the SGRQ symptom score (r = -.693), and PSI total (r = -.619) and subscale scores (including depression, r = -.419; anxiety, r = -.664; anger, r = -.367; cognitive disturbances, r = -.419). A cut-off of 5.1 on the AQLQ(S) emotional function subscale (where 0 = high impairment and 7 = no impairment) had the best discriminative value to distinguish individuals with or without clinically significant psychiatric distress according to the PSI, and a cut-off of 4.7 best distinguished individuals with or without a current psychiatric disorder according to the PRIME-MD.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Impaired quality of life is associated with psychological distress and psychiatric disorders in individuals with OA. Findings suggest that the AQLQ(S) questionnaire may be used to identify patients with potentially clinically significant levels of psychological distress.</p
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