TAUVEX: status in 2011

We present a short history of the TAUVEX instrument, conceived to provide multi-band wide-field imaging in the ultraviolet, emphasizing the lack of sufficient and aggressive support on the part of the different space agencies that dealt with this basic science mission. First conceived in 1985 and selected by the Israel Space Agency in 1989 as its first priority payload, TAUVEX is fast becoming one of the longest-living space project of space astronomy. After being denied a launch on a national Israeli satellite, and then not flying on the Spectrum X-Gamma (SRG) international observatory, it was manifested since 2003 as part of ISRO's GSAT-4 Indian satellite to be launched in the late 2000s. However, two months before the launch, in February 2010, it was dismounted from its agreed-upon platform. This proved to be beneficial, since GSAT-4 and its launcher were lost on April 15 2010 due to the failure of the carrier rocket's 3rd stage. TAUVEX is now stored in ISRO's clean room in Bangalore with no firm indications when or on what platform it might be launched.Comment: Invited contribution presented at the "UV Universe 2010". Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Histone deacetylases in replicative senescence: evidence for a senescence-specific form of HDAC-2

AbstractTo analyze mechanisms of senescence-associated gene expression, we have investigated histone deacetylases (HDACs) in human fibroblasts undergoing replicative senescence. We found that the overall acetylation pattern of histones does not vary detectably with replicative senescence. By Northern blot and Western blot, we found a significant decrease in the abundance of HDAC-1 in senescent cells. Biochemical analysis of deacetylase activities in extracts from old and young cells revealed a striking difference. While by anion exchange chromatography we found a single peak of activity in extracts from young cells, which coincided with the elution of both HDAC-1 and HDAC-2, in senescent cells a second peak of activity was found. This second peak of activity is associated with HDAC-2 but does not contain HDAC-1. These results suggest that HDAC-2 is present in at least two distinct forms, one of which is specific for senescent cells. Further biochemical characterization of the enzyme activity revealed that addition of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) did not detectably influence the activity of any fraction, suggesting that NAD is not an essential co-factor for the analyzed HDACs from diploid human fibroblasts

On the Structural Differences between Disk and Dwarf Galaxies

Gas-rich dwarf and disk galaxies overlap in numerous physical quantities that make their classification subjective. We report the discovery of a separation between dwarfs and disks into two unique sequences in the mass (luminosity) versus scale length plane. This provides an objective classification scheme for late-type galaxies that only requires optical or near-IR surface photometry of a galaxy. Since the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation for these samples produces a continuous relation between baryonic mass and rotational velocity, we conclude that the difference between dwarfs and disks must be because of their distribution of stellar light such that dwarfs are more diffuse than disk galaxies. This structural separation may be due to a primordial difference between low and high mass galaxies or produced by hierarchical mergers where disks are built up from dwarfs. Structural differences between dwarf and disk galaxies may also be driven by the underlying kinematics where the strong rotation in disks produces an axial symmetric object that undergoes highly efficient star formation in contrast to the lower rotation, more disordered motion of dwarfs that produces a diffuse, triaxial object with a history of inefficient star formation.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, AJ in press, AASTeX5.

The polar ring galaxy AM1934-563 revisited

We report long-slit spectroscopic observations of the dust-lane polar-ring galaxy AM1934-563 obtained with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) during its performance-verification phase. The observations target the spectral region of the Ha, [NII] and [SII] emission-lines, but show also deep NaI stellar absorption lines that we interpret as produced by stars in the galaxy. We derive rotation curves along the major axis of the galaxy that extend out to about 8 kpc from the center for both the gaseous and the stellar components, using the emission and absorption lines. We derive similar rotation curves along the major axis of the polar ring and point out differences between these and the ones of the main galaxy. We identify a small diffuse object visible only in Ha emission and with a low velocity dispersion as a dwarf HII galaxy and argue that it is probably metal-poor. Its velocity indicates that it is a fourth member of the galaxy group in which AM1934-563 belongs. We discuss the observations in the context of the proposal that the object is the result of a major merger and point out some observational discrepancies from this explanation. We argue that an alternative scenario that could better fit the observations may be the slow accretion of cold intergalactic gas, focused by a dense filament of galaxies in which this object is embedded (abridged).Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Some figures were bitmapped to reduce the size. Full resolution version is available from http://www.saao.ac.za/~akniazev/pub/AM1934_563.pd

Tversky loss function for image segmentation using 3D fully convolutional deep networks

Fully convolutional deep neural networks carry out excellent potential for fast and accurate image segmentation. One of the main challenges in training these networks is data imbalance, which is particularly problematic in medical imaging applications such as lesion segmentation where the number of lesion voxels is often much lower than the number of non-lesion voxels. Training with unbalanced data can lead to predictions that are severely biased towards high precision but low recall (sensitivity), which is undesired especially in medical applications where false negatives are much less tolerable than false positives. Several methods have been proposed to deal with this problem including balanced sampling, two step training, sample re-weighting, and similarity loss functions. In this paper, we propose a generalized loss function based on the Tversky index to address the issue of data imbalance and achieve much better trade-off between precision and recall in training 3D fully convolutional deep neural networks. Experimental results in multiple sclerosis lesion segmentation on magnetic resonance images show improved F2 score, Dice coefficient, and the area under the precision-recall curve in test data. Based on these results we suggest Tversky loss function as a generalized framework to effectively train deep neural networks

The Reddening-Free Decline Rate Versus Luminosity Relationship for Type Ia Supernovae

We develop a method for estimating the host galaxy dust extinction for type Ia supernovae based on an observational coincidence first noted by Lira (1995), who found that the B-V evolution during the period from 30-90 days after V maximum is remarkably similar for all events, regardless of light curve shape. This fact is used to calibrate the dependence of the B(max)-V(max) and V(max)-I(max) colors on the light curve decline rate parameter delta-m15, which can, in turn, be used to separately estimate the host galaxy extinction. Using these methods to eliminate the effects of reddening, we reexamine the functional form of the decline rate versus luminosity relationship and provide an updated estimate of the Hubble constant of Ho = 63.3 +- 2.2(internal) +- 3.5(external) km/s/Mpc.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, AJ 1999 in pres

Immersive virtual reality helps to promote pro-environmental norms, attitudes and behavioural strategies

Our study focuses on the promotion of sustainable actions that individuals can adopt at home. We tested the effectiveness of different formats of conducting promotional campaigns providing pro-environmental knowledge. Specifically, we assessed whether the same message delivered in print, in a video or in an immersive virtual environment, via a virtual human that resembles the participant or not, affects norms, attitudes and behavioural strategies in relation to energy saving gestures. Results revealed that receiving pro-environmental knowledge while being immersed in virtual reality led to greater energy saving attitudes and a different use of products and appliances at home as compared to receiving the same information via more traditional means. The present work aims to sensitise governmental and pro-environmental organisations about the effectiveness of using immersive virtual reality to conduct such campaigns

Modeling of the Super-Eddington Phase for Classical Novae: Five IUE Novae

We present a light curve model for the super-Eddington luminosity phase of five classical novae observed with IUE. Optical and UV light curves are calculated based on the optically thick wind theory with a reduced effective opacity for a porous atmosphere. Fitting a model light curve with the UV 1455 \AA light curve, we determine the white dwarf mass and distance to be (1.3 M_sun, 4.4 kpc) for V693 CrA, (1.05 M_sun, 1.8 kpc) for V1974 Cyg, (0.95 M_sun, 4.1 kpc) for V1668 Cyg, (1.0 M_sun, 2.1 kpc) for V351 Pup, and (1.0 M_sun, 4.3 kpc) for OS And.Comment: 9 pages including 8 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journa