249 research outputs found
Translational Research from an Informatics Perspective
Clinical and translational research (CTR) is an essential part of a sustainable global health system. Informatics is now recognized as an important en-abler of CTR and informaticians are increasingly called upon to help CTR efforts. The US National Institutes of Health mandated biomedical informatics activity as part of its new national CTR grant initiative, the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). Traditionally, translational re-search was defined as the translation of laboratory discoveries to patient care (bench to bedside). We argue, however, that there are many other kinds of translational research. Indeed, translational re-search requires the translation of knowledge dis-covered in one domain to another domain and is therefore an information-based activity. In this panel, we will expand upon this view of translational research and present three different examples of translation to illustrate the point: 1) bench to bedside, 2) Earth to space and 3) academia to community. We will conclude with a discussion of our local translational research efforts that draw on each of the three examples
The Circumstellar Disk Mass Distribution in the Orion Trapezium Cluster
We present the results of a submillimeter interferometric survey of
circumstellar disks in the Trapezium Cluster of Orion. We observed the 880
micron continuum emission from 55 disks using the Submillimeter Array, and
detected 28 disks above 3sigma significance with fluxes between 6-70 mJy and
rms noise between 0.7-5.3 mJy. Dust masses and upper limits are derived from
the submillimeter excess above free-free emission extrapolated from longer
wavelength observations. Above our completeness limit of 0.0084 solar masses,
the disk mass distribution is similar to that of Class II disks in
Taurus-Auriga and rho Ophiuchus but is truncated at 0.04 solar masses. We show
that the disk mass and radius distributions are consistent with the formation
of the Trapezium Cluster disks ~1 Myr ago and subsequent photoevaporation by
the ultraviolet radiation field from Theta-1 Ori C. The fraction of disks which
contain a minimum mass solar nebula within 60 AU radius is estimated to be
11-13% in both Taurus and the Trapezium Cluster, which suggests the potential
for forming Solar Systems is not compromised in this massive star forming
region.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL (2009 Feb 3
Dusty Cometary Globules in W5
We report the discovery of four dusty cometary tails around low mass stars in
two young clusters belonging to the W5 star forming region. Fits to the
observed emission profiles from 24 micron observations with the Spitzer Space
Telescope give tail lifetimes < 30 Myr, but more likely < 5 Myr. This result
suggests that the cometary phase is a short lived phenomenon, occurring after
photoevaporation by a nearby O star has removed gas from the outer disk of a
young low mass star (see also Balog et al. 2006; Balog et al. 2008).Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication to ApJ Letter
Galileo In-Situ Dust Measurements in Jupiter's Gossamer Rings
During its late orbital mission at Jupiter the Galileo spacecraft made two
passages through the giant planet's gossamer ring system. The impact-ionization
dust detector on board successfully recorded dust impacts during both ring
passages and provided the first in-situ measurements from a dusty planetary
ring. In all, a few thousand dust impacts were counted with the instrument
accumulators during both ring passages, but only a total of 110 complete data
sets of dust impacts were transmitted to Earth. Detected particle sizes range
from about 0.2 to 5 micron, extending the known size distribution by an order
of magnitude towards smaller particles than previously derived from optical
imaging (Showalter et al. 2008). The grain size distribution increases towards
smaller particles and shows an excess of these tiny motes in the Amalthea
gossamer ring compared to the Thebe ring. The size distribution for the
Amalthea ring derived from our in-situ measurements for the small grains agrees
very well with the one obtained from images for large grains. Our analysis
shows that particles contributing most to the optical cross-section are about 5
micron in radius, in agreement with imaging results. The measurements indicate
a large drop in particle flux immediately interior to Thebe's orbit and some
detected particles seem to be on highly-tilted orbits with inclinations up to
20 deg.Comment: 13 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Icaru
A Keck High Resolution Spectroscopic Study of the Orion Nebula Proplyds
We present the results of spectroscopy of four bright proplyds in the Orion
Nebula obtained at a velocity resolution of 6 km/s. After careful isolation of
the proplyd spectra from the confusing nebular radiation, the emission line
profiles are compared with those predicted by realistic dynamic/photoionization
models of the objects. The spectral line widths show a clear correlation with
ionization potential, which is consistent with the free expansion of a
transonic, ionization-stratified, photoevaporating flow. Fitting models of such
a flow simultaneously to our spectra and HST emission line imaging provides
direct measurements of the proplyd size, ionized density and outflow velocity.
These measurements confirm that the ionization front in the proplyds is
approximately D-critical and provide the most accurate and robust estimate to
date of the proplyd mass loss rate. Values of 0.7E-6 to 1.5E-6 Msun/year are
found for our spectroscopic sample, although extrapolating our results to a
larger sample of proplyds implies that 0.4E-6 Msun/year is more typical of the
proplyds as a whole. In view of the reported limits on the masses of the
circumstellar disks within the proplyds, the length of time that they can have
been exposed to ionizing radiation should not greatly exceed 10,000 years - a
factor of 30 less than the mean age of the proplyd stars. We review the various
mechanisms that have been proposed to explain this situation, and conclude that
none can plausibly work unless the disk masses are revised upwards by a
substantial amount.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, uses emulateapj.sty, accepted for publication in
The Astronomical Journal (scheduled November 1999
Rapid planetesimal formation in turbulent circumstellar discs
The initial stages of planet formation in circumstellar gas discs proceed via
dust grains that collide and build up larger and larger bodies (Safronov 1969).
How this process continues from metre-sized boulders to kilometre-scale
planetesimals is a major unsolved problem (Dominik et al. 2007): boulders stick
together poorly (Benz 2000), and spiral into the protostar in a few hundred
orbits due to a head wind from the slower rotating gas (Weidenschilling 1977).
Gravitational collapse of the solid component has been suggested to overcome
this barrier (Safronov 1969, Goldreich & Ward 1973, Youdin & Shu 2002). Even
low levels of turbulence, however, inhibit sedimentation of solids to a
sufficiently dense midplane layer (Weidenschilling & Cuzzi 1993, Dominik et al.
2007), but turbulence must be present to explain observed gas accretion in
protostellar discs (Hartmann 1998). Here we report the discovery of efficient
gravitational collapse of boulders in locally overdense regions in the
midplane. The boulders concentrate initially in transient high pressures in the
turbulent gas (Johansen, Klahr, & Henning 2006), and these concentrations are
augmented a further order of magnitude by a streaming instability (Youdin &
Goodman 2005, Johansen, Henning, & Klahr 2006, Johansen & Youdin 2007) driven
by the relative flow of gas and solids. We find that gravitationally bound
clusters form with masses comparable to dwarf planets and containing a
distribution of boulder sizes. Gravitational collapse happens much faster than
radial drift, offering a possible path to planetesimal formation in accreting
circumstellar discs.Comment: To appear in Nature (30 August 2007 issue). 18 pages (in referee
mode), 3 figures. Supplementary Information can be found at 0708.389
The Fate of Sub-micron Circumplanetary Dust Grains II: Multipolar Fields
We study the radial and vertical stability of dust grains launched with all
charge-to-mass ratios at arbitrary distances from rotating planets with complex
magnetic fields. We show that the aligned dipole magnetic field model analyzed
by Jontof-Hutter and Hamilton (2012) is an excellent approximation in most
cases, but that fundamentally new physics arises with the inclusion of
non-axisymmetric magnetic field terms. In particular, large numbers of distant
negatively-charged dust grains, stable in a magnetic dipole, can be driven to
escape by a more complex field. We trace the origin of the instability to
overlapping Lorentz resonances which are extremely powerful when the
gravitational and electromagnetic forces on a dust grain are comparable. These
resonances enable a dust grain to tap the spin energy of the planet to power
its escape. We also explore the relatively minor influence of different launch
speeds and the far more important effects of variable grain charge. Only the
latter are capable of significantly affecting the micron-sized grains that
dominate visible and infrared images of faint dust rings. Finally, we present
full stability maps for Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune with
magnetic fields modeled out to octupole order. Not surprisingly, dust in the
tortured magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune show the greatest instability.Comment: 60 pages in manuscript format, 17 figures, 1 tabl
- …