166 research outputs found
Remarkable symmetries in the Milky Way disk's magnetic field
Using a new, expanded compilation of extragalactic source Faraday rotation
measures (RM) we investigate the broad underlying magnetic structure of the
Galactic disk at latitudes over all longitudes ,
where our total number of RM's in this low-latitude range of the Galactic sky
is comparable to those in the combined Canadian Galactic Plane Survey(CGPS) at
and the Southern Galactic Plane (SGPS)
survey. We report newly revealed, remarkably coherent patterns of RM at
from to and RM()
features of unprecedented clarity that replicate in with opposite sign on
opposite sides of the Galactic center. They confirm a highly patterned
bisymmetric field structure toward the inner disc, an axisymmetic pattern
toward the outer disc, and a very close coupling between the CGPS/SGPS RM's at
("mid-plane") and our new RM's up to ("near-plane").
Our analysis also shows the approximate -height -- the vertical height of
the coherent component of the disc field above the Galactic disc's mid-plane --
to be kpc out to kpc from the Sun. This identifies the
approximate height of the transition layer to the halo field structure. We find
no RM sign change across the plane within in any
longitude range. The prevailing {\it disc} field pattern, and its striking
degree of large scale ordering confirm that our side of the Milky Way has a
very organized underlying magnetic structure, for which the inward spiral pitch
angle is at all up to in
the inner semicircle of Galactic longitudes. It decreases to
toward the anticentre.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Version 3. Accepted 2011 for publication in
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia(PASA
How can transport provision and associated built environment infrastructure be enhanced and developed to support the mobility needs of individuals as they age?
First paragraph: Mobility touches every aspect of most of our lives. Restrictions on our mobility are perceived as a loss of freedom, and we seek wherever possible to regain that mobility, or replace it with other forms of mobility. While we immediately think of physical mobility, virtual mobility is increasingly becoming another world that we inhabit and move around in. Older people, however, are the most likely to experience mobility deprivation. The need to be mobile and to travel is related to psychological well-being in older age, and a reduction in mobility can lead to an increase in isolation, loneliness and depression and overall a poorer quality of life. Mobility is important to older people. There are also benefits to society as a whole in increasing travel for older people, including the economic benefits of older people spending more in shops, of them looking after grandchildren, undertaking voluntary work, and carrying out other caring responsibilities. In order to develop a framework of the mobility of people as they age, we formulated a set of guiding principles that underpin this Evidence Review. These principles are drawn from current thinking in applied gerontology in the many differing fields that cover mobility issues and represent a shift from individual discipline-based silo thinking to person-centred thinking that attempts to cross traditional disciplinary boundaries
Low-Mach-number turbulence in interstellar gas revealed by radio polarization gradients
The interstellar medium of the Milky Way is multi-phase, magnetized and
turbulent. Turbulence in the interstellar medium produces a global cascade of
random gas motions, spanning scales ranging from 100 parsecs to 1000
kilometres. Fundamental parameters of interstellar turbulence such as the sonic
Mach number (the speed of sound) have been difficult to determine because
observations have lacked the sensitivity and resolution to directly image the
small-scale structure associated with turbulent motion. Observations of linear
polarization and Faraday rotation in radio emission from the Milky Way have
identified unusual polarized structures that often have no counterparts in the
total radiation intensity or at other wavelengths, and whose physical
significance has been unclear. Here we report that the gradient of the Stokes
vector (Q,U), where Q and U are parameters describing the polarization state of
radiation, provides an image of magnetized turbulence in diffuse ionized gas,
manifested as a complex filamentary web of discontinuities in gas density and
magnetic field. Through comparison with simulations, we demonstrate that
turbulence in the warm ionized medium has a relatively low sonic Mach number,
M_s <~ 2. The development of statistical tools for the analysis of polarization
gradients will allow accurate determinations of the Mach number, Reynolds
number and magnetic field strength in interstellar turbulence over a wide range
of conditions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, published in Nature on 13 Oct 201
Deriving global structure of the Galactic Magnetic Field from Faraday Rotation Measures of extragalactic sources
We made use of the two latest sets of Rotational Measures (RMs) of
extra-galactic radio sources, namely the NRAO VLA Sky Survey otation Measures
Catalogue, and a compilation by Kronberg&Newton-McGee(2011), to infer the
global structure of the Galactic Magnetic Field (GMF). We have checked that
these two data sets are consistent with each other. Motivated by clear patterns
in the observed distribution of RMs over the sky, we considered GMF models
consisting of the two components: disk (spiral or ring) and halo. The
parameters of these components were determined by fitting different model field
geometries to the observed RMs. We found that the model consisting of a
symmetric (with respect to the Galactic plane) spiral disk and anti-symmetric
halo fits the data best, and reproduces the observed distribution of RMs over
the sky very well. We confirm that ring disk models are disfavored. Our results
favor small pitch angles around -5 degrees and an increased vertical scale of
electron distribution, in agreement with some previous studies. Based on our
fits, we identify two benchmark models suitable for studies of cosmic ray
propagation, including the ultra-high energies.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables misprints corrected, presentation
improved generally matches the published versio
The Australia Telescope 20GHz (AT20G) Survey: analysis of the extragalactic source sample
The Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey is a blind survey of the whole
Southern sky at 20 GHz with follow-up observations at 4.8, 8.6, and 20 GHz
carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). In this paper we
present an analysis of radio spectral properties in total intensity and
polarisation, sizes, optical identifications, and redshifts of the sample of
the 5808 extragalactic sources in the survey catalogue of confirmed sources
over the whole Southern sky excluding the strip at Galactic latitude
|b|<1.5deg. The sample has a flux density limit of 40 mJy. Completeness has
been measured as a function of scan region and flux density. Averaging over the
whole survey area the follow-up survey is 78% complete above 50mJy and 93%
complete above 100mJy. 3332 sources with declination <-15deg have good quality
almost simultaneous observations at 4.8, 8.6, and 20GHz. The spectral analysis
shows that the sample is dominated by flat-spectrum sources. The fraction of
flat-spectrum sources decreases from 81% for 20GHz flux densities S>500mJy, to
60% for S<100mJy. There is also a clear spectral steepening at higher
frequencies with the median spectral index decreasing from -0.16 between 4.8
and 8.6GHz to -0.28 between 8.6 and 20GHz. Simultaneous observations in
polarisation are available for all the sources at all the frequencies. 768
sources have a good quality detection of polarised flux density at 20GHz; 467
of them were also detected in polarisation at 4.8 and/or at 8.6GHz so that it
has been possible to compare the spectral behaviour in total intensity and
polarisation. We have found that the polarised fraction increases slightly with
frequency and decreases with flux density. Cross matches and comparisons have
been made with other catalogues at lower radio frequencies, and in the optical,
X-ray and gamma-ray bands. Redshift estimates are available for 825 sources.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
New Constraints on the Galactic Halo Magnetic Field using Rotation Measures of Extragalactic Sources Towards the Outer Galaxy
We present a study of the Milky Way disk and halo magnetic field, determined
from observations of Faraday rotation measure (RM) towards 641 polarized
extragalactic radio sources in the Galactic longitude range 100-117 degs,
within 30 degs of the Galactic plane. For |b| < 15 degs, we observe a symmetric
RM distribution about the Galactic plane. This is consistent with a disk field
in the Perseus arm of even parity across the Galactic mid-plane. In the range
15<|b|<30 degs, we find median rotation measures of -15+/-4 rad/m^2 and -62+/-5
rad/m^2 in the northern and southern Galactic hemispheres, respectively. If the
RM distribution is a signature of the large-scale field parallel to the
Galactic plane, this suggests that the halo magnetic field toward the outer
Galaxy does not reverse direction across the mid-plane. The variation of RM as
a function of Galactic latitude in this longitude range is such that RMs become
more negative at larger |b|. This is consistent with an azimuthal magnetic
field of strength 2 microGauss (7 microGauss) at a height 0.8-2 kpc above
(below) the Galactic plane between the local and the Perseus spiral arm. We
propose that the Milky Way could possess spiral-like halo magnetic fields
similar to those observed in M51.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ.
Electronic version of Table 1 is available via email from the first autho
The Australia Telescope 20 GHz Survey: The Source Catalogue
We present the full source catalogue from the Australia Telescope 20 GHz
(AT20G) Survey. The AT20G is a blind radio survey carried out at 20 GHz with
the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) from 2004 to 2008, and covers the
whole sky south of declination 0 deg. The AT20G source catalogue presented here
is an order of magnitude larger than any previous catalogue of high-frequency
radio sources, and includes 5890 sources above a 20 GHz flux-density limit of
40 mJy. All AT20G sources have total intensity and polarisation measured at 20
GHz, and most sources south of declination -15 deg also have near-simultaneous
flux-density measurements at 5 and 8 GHz. A total of 1559 sources were detected
in polarised total intensity at one or more of the three frequencies. We detect
a small but significant population of non-thermal sources that are either
undetected or have only weak detections in low-frequency catalogues. We
introduce the term Ultra-Inverted Spectrum (UIS) to describe these radio
sources, which have a spectral index alpha(5, 20) > +0.7 and which constitute
roughly 1.2 per cent of the AT20G sample. The 20 GHz flux densities measured
for the strongest AT20G sources are in excellent agreement with the WMAP 5-year
source catalogue of Wright et al. (2009), and we find that the WMAP source
catalogue is close to complete for sources stronger than 1.5 Jy at 23 GHz.Comment: 21 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA
Enhanced Determination of Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotypes Associated with Invasive Disease in Laos by Using a Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Serotyping Assay with Cerebrospinal Fluid
A prospective hospital-based study was undertaken to define the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and circulating serotypes in Laos. Of 10,799 patients with hemocultures and 353 patients with cerebrospinal fluid samples, 0.21% and 5.4%, respectively, were positive for Streptococcus pneumoniae, giving a total of 35 IPD patients. We developed a real-time polymerase chain reaction to detect serotypes represented in the 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine. A blinded evaluation comparing serotype as defined by the Quellung reaction versus the polymerase chain reaction demonstrated 100% concordance. The most frequent serotype (n = 33 patients) was 1 (n = 6), followed by serotypes 5, 6A/B/C, 14, and 23F. Serotypes represented in the 7-valent polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccine (PCV-7) infected 39% of patients, with 73% coverage for the PCV-10 and PCV-13 vaccines. Although the sample size is small, these data suggest that the PCV-7 vaccine may have relatively low efficacy in Laos. Further studies are urgently needed to guide pneumococcal vaccine policy in Laos
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