14,143 research outputs found
Near-infrared colors of minor planets recovered from VISTA - VHS survey (MOVIS)
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
(WISE) provide information about the surface composition of about 100,000 minor
planets. The resulting visible colors and albedos enabled us to group them in
several major classes, which are a simplified view of the diversity shown by
the few existing spectra. We performed a serendipitous search in VISTA-VHS
observations using a pipeline developed to retrieve and process the data that
corresponds to solar system objects (SSo). The colors and the magnitudes of the
minor planets observed by the VISTA survey are compiled into three catalogs
that are available online: the detections catalog (MOVIS-D), the magnitudes
catalog (MOVIS-M), and the colors catalog (MOVIS-C). They were built using the
third data release of the survey (VISTA VHS-DR3). A total of 39,947 objects
were detected, including 52 NEAs, 325 Mars Crossers, 515 Hungaria asteroids,
38,428 main-belt asteroids, 146 Cybele asteroids, 147 Hilda asteroids, 270
Trojans, 13 comets, 12 Kuiper Belt objects and Neptune with its four
satellites. The colors found for asteroids with known spectral properties
reveal well-defined patterns corresponding to different mineralogies. The
distributions of MOVIS-C data in color-color plots shows clusters identified
with different taxonomic types. All the diagrams that use (Y-J) color separate
the spectral classes more effectively than the (J-H) and (H-Ks) plots used
until now: even for large color errors (<0.1), the plots (Y-J) vs (Y-Ks) and
(Y-J) vs (J-Ks) provide the separation between S-complex and C-complex. The end
members A, D, R, and V-types occupy well-defined regions.Comment: 19 pages, 16 figure
Facilitators and barriers to the implementation of a Mobile Health Wallet for pregnancy-related health care: A qualitative study of stakeholders’ perceptions in Madagascar
Financial barriers are a major obstacle to accessing maternal health care services in low-resource settings. In Madagascar, less than half of live births are attended by skilled health staff. Although mobile money-based savings and payment systems are often used to pay for a variety of services, including health care, data on the implications of a dedicated mobile money wallet restricted to health-related spending during pregnancy–a mobile health wallet (MHW)–are not well understood. In cooperation with the Madagascan Ministry of Health, this study aims to elicit the perceptions, experiences, and recommendations of key stakeholders in relation to a MHW amid a pilot study in 31 state-funded health care facilities. We conducted a two-stage qualitative study using semi-structured in-depth interviews with stakeholders (N = 21) representing the following groups: community representatives, health care providers, health officials and representatives from phone provider companies. Interviews were conducted in Atsimondrano and Renivohitra districts, between November and December of 2017. Data was coded thematically using inductive and deductive approaches, and found to align with a social ecological model. Key facilitators for successful implementation of the MHW, include (i) close collaboration with existing communal structures and (ii) creation of an incentive scheme to reward pregnant women to save. Key barriers to the application of the MHW in the study zone include (i) disruption of informal benefits for health care providers related to the current cash-based payment system, (ii) low mobile phone ownership, (iii) illiteracy among the target population, and (iv) failure of the MHW to overcome essential access barriers towards institutional health care services such as fear of unpredictable expenses. The MHW was perceived as a potential solution to reduce disparities in access to maternal health care. To ensure success of the MHW, direct demand-side and provider-side financial incentives merit consideration
Automated optical identification of a large complete northern hemisphere sample of flat spectrum radio sources with S_6cm > 200 mJy
This paper describes the automated optical APM identification of radio
sources from the Jodrell Bank - VLA Astrometric Survey (JVAS), as used for the
search for distant radio-loud quasars. The sample has been used to investigate
possible relations between optical and radio properties of flat spectrum radio
sources. From the 915 sources in the sample, 756 have an optical APM
identification at a red (e) and/or blue (o) plate,resulting in an
identification fraction of 83% with a completeness and reliability of 98% and
99% respectively. About 20% are optically identified with extended APM objects
on the red plates, e.g. galaxies. However the distinction between galaxies and
quasars can not be done properly near the magnitude limit of the POSS-I plates.
The identification fraction appears to decrease from >90% for sources with a 5
GHz flux density of >1 Jy, to <80% for sources at 0.2 Jy. The identification
fraction, in particular that for unresolved quasars, is found to be lower for
sources with steeper radio spectra. In agreement with previous studies, we find
that the quasars at low radio flux density levels also tend to have fainter
optical magnitudes, although there is a large spread. In addition, objects with
a steep radio-to-optical spectral index are found to be mainly highly polarised
quasars, supporting the idea that in these objects the polarised synchrotron
component is more prominent. It is shown that the large spread in
radio-to-optical spectral index is possibly caused by source to source
variations in the Doppler boosting of the synchrotron component [Abridged].Comment: LaTex, 17 pages, 5 gif figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in
MNRAS. High resolution figures can be found at http://www.roe.ac.uk/~ignas
Using New Submillimetre Surveys to Identify the Evolutionary Status of High-z Galaxies
This paper describes a key submillimetre survey which we are currently
conducting to address some of the outstanding questions in cosmology - how, at
what epoch and over what period of time did massive galaxies form at high
redshift? A summary of the technical feasibility of future submillimetre
observations with new ground-based, airborne and satellite telescopes is also
presented.Comment: 6 pages, 3 postscript figures, LaTex uses Kluwer book style file
crckapb10.sty, to appear in "Observational Cosmology with the New Radio
Surveys", 13-15 January 1997, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, M.Bremer,
N.Jackson, I.Perez-Fournon (eds.), Kluwe
Discovery of three z>6.5 quasars in the VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey
Studying quasars at the highest redshifts can constrain models of galaxy and
black hole formation, and it also probes the intergalactic medium in the early
universe. Optical surveys have to date discovered more than 60 quasars up to
z~6.4, a limit set by the use of the z-band and CCD detectors. Only one z>6.4
quasar has been discovered, namely the z=7.08 quasar ULAS J1120+0641, using
near-infrared imaging. Here we report the discovery of three new z>6.4 quasars
in 332 square degrees of the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for
Astronomy Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey, thus extending the
number from 1 to 4. The newly discovered quasars have redshifts of z=6.60,
6.75, and 6.89. The absolute magnitudes are between -26.0 and -25.5, 0.6-1.1
mag fainter than ULAS J1120+0641. Near-infrared spectroscopy revealed the MgII
emission line in all three objects. The quasars are powered by black holes with
masses of ~(1-2)x10^9 M_sun. In our probed redshift range of 6.44<z<7.44 we can
set a lower limit on the space density of supermassive black holes of
\rho(M_BH>10^9 M_sun) > 1.1x10^(-9) Mpc^(-3). The discovery of three quasars in
our survey area is consistent with the z=6 quasar luminosity function when
extrapolated to z~7. We do not find evidence for a steeper decline in the space
density of quasars with increasing redshift from z=6 to z=7.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Published in Ap
Real extensions of distal minimal flows and continuous topological ergodic decompositions
We prove a structure theorem for topologically recurrent real skew product
extensions of distal minimal compact metric flows with a compactly generated
Abelian acting group (e.g. -flows and -flows). The main result
states that every such extension apart from a coboundary can be represented by
a perturbation of a so-called Rokhlin skew product. We obtain as a corollary
that the topological ergodic decomposition of the skew product extension into
prolongations is continuous and compact with respect to the Fell topology on
the hyperspace. The right translation acts minimally on this decomposition,
therefore providing a minimal compact metric analogue to the Mackey action.
This topological Mackey action is a distal (possibly trivial) extension of a
weakly mixing factor (possibly trivial), and it is distal if and only if
perturbation of the Rokhlin skew product is defined by a topological
coboundary.Comment: This paper is an extension and generalisation of
http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.0192. The result has been generalised from actions
of the group of integers to actions of Abelian compactly generated
transformation groups. Therefore the title had to be changed (homeomorphisms
vs. flows
On the origin of non-monotonic doping dependence of the in-plane resistivity anisotropy in Ba(Fe)As, = Co, Ni and Cu
The in-plane resistivity anisotropy has been measured for detwinned single
crystals of Ba(FeNi)As and Ba(FeCu)As.
The data reveal a non-monotonic doping dependence, similar to previous
observations for Ba(FeCo)As. Magnetotransport measurements
of the parent compound reveal a non-linear Hall coefficient and a strong linear
term in the transverse magnetoresistance. Both effects are rapidly suppressed
with chemical substitution over a similar compositional range as the onset of
the large in-plane resistivity anisotropy. It is suggested that the relatively
small in-plane anisotropy of the parent compound in the spin density wave state
is due to the presence of an isotropic, high mobility pocket of reconstructed
Fermi surface. Progressive suppression of the contribution to the conductivity
arising from this isotropic pocket with chemical substitution eventually
reveals the underlying in-plane anisotropy associated with the remaining FS
pockets.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
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