1,710 research outputs found
Archetypal analysis of galaxy spectra
Archetypal analysis represents each individual member of a set of data
vectors as a mixture (a constrained linear combination) of the pure types or
archetypes of the data set. The archetypes are themselves required to be
mixtures of the data vectors. Archetypal analysis may be particularly useful in
analysing data sets comprising galaxy spectra, since each spectrum is,
presumably, a superposition of the emission from the various stellar
populations, nebular emissions and nuclear activity making up that galaxy, and
each of these emission sources corresponds to a potential archetype of the
entire data set. We demonstrate archetypal analysis using sets of composite
synthetic galaxy spectra, showing that the method promises to be an effective
and efficient way to classify spectra. We show that archetypal analysis is
robust in the presence of various types of noise.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 style-file. Accepted for publication by MNRA
On the Determination of Star Formation Rates in Evolving Galaxy Populations
The redshift dependence of the luminosity density in certain wavebands (e.g.
UV and H-alpha) can be used to infer the history of star formation in the
populations of galaxies producing this luminosity. This history is a useful
datum in studies of galaxy evolution. It is therefore important to understand
the errors that attend the inference of star formation rate densities from
luminosity densities. This paper explores the self-consistency of star
formation rate diagnostics by reproducing commonly used observational
procedures in a model with known galaxy populations, evolutionary histories and
spectral emission properties. The study reveals a number of potential sources
of error in the diagnostic processes arising from the differential evolution of
different galaxy types. We argue that multi-wavelength observations can help to
reduce these errors.Comment: 13 pages (including 5 encapsulated postscript figures), aastex,
accepted for publication in Ap
The Global Star Formation Rate from the 1.4 GHz Luminosity Function
The decimetric luminosity of many galaxies appears to be dominated by
synchrotron emission excited by supernova explosions. Simple models suggest
that the luminosity is directly proportional to the rate of supernova
explosions of massive stars averaged over the past 30 Myr. The proportionality
may be used together with models of the evolving 1.4 GHz luminosity function to
estimate the global star formation rate density in the era z < 1. The local
value is estimated to be 0.026 solar masses per year per cubic megaparsec, some
50% larger than the value inferred from the Halpha luminosity density. The
value at z ~ 1 is found to be 0.30 solar masses per year per cubic megaparsec.
The 10-fold increase in star formation rate density is consistent with the
increase inferred from mm-wave, far-infrared, ultra-violet and Halpha
observations.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press); new PS
version has improved figure placemen
Effects of early-life competition and maternal nutrition on telomere lengths in wild meerkats
Early-life adversity can affect health, survival and fitness later in life, and recent evidence suggests that telomere attrition may link early conditions with their delayed consequences. Here, we investigate the link between early-life competition and telomere length in wild meerkats. Our results show that, when multiple females breed concurrently, increases in the number of pups in the group are associated with shorter telomeres in pups. Given that pups from different litters compete for access to milk, we tested whether this effect is due to nutritional constraints on maternal milk production, by experimentally supplementing females’ diets during gestation and lactation. While control pups facing high competition had shorter telomeres, the negative effects of pup number on telomere lengths were absent when maternal nutrition was experimentally improved. Shortened pup telomeres were associated with reduced survival to adulthood, suggesting that early-life competition for nutrition has detrimental fitness consequences that are reflected in telomere lengths. Dominant females commonly kill pups born to subordinates, thereby reducing competition and increasing growth rates of their own pups. Our work suggests an additional benefit of infanticide may be that it also reduces telomere shortening caused by competition for resources, with associated benefits for offspring ageing profiles and longevity.The Kalahari Meerkat Project is supported by the Universities of Cambridge, Zurich and Pretoria. Components of this research were supported by grants to TC-B from the Natural Environment Research Council (grant no. NE/G006822/1) and the European Research Council (grant no. 294494). PM was supported by the European Research Council (grant no. 268926)
Taxonomy Induction using Hypernym Subsequences
We propose a novel, semi-supervised approach towards domain taxonomy
induction from an input vocabulary of seed terms. Unlike all previous
approaches, which typically extract direct hypernym edges for terms, our
approach utilizes a novel probabilistic framework to extract hypernym
subsequences. Taxonomy induction from extracted subsequences is cast as an
instance of the minimumcost flow problem on a carefully designed directed
graph. Through experiments, we demonstrate that our approach outperforms
stateof- the-art taxonomy induction approaches across four languages.
Importantly, we also show that our approach is robust to the presence of noise
in the input vocabulary. To the best of our knowledge, no previous approaches
have been empirically proven to manifest noise-robustness in the input
vocabulary
VLA Observations of the "Eye of the Tornado"- the High Velocity \HII Region G357.63-0.06
The unusual supernova remnant candidate G357.7-0.1 and the compact source
G357.63-0.06 have been observed with the Very Large Array at 1.4 and 8.3 GHz.
The H92 line (8.3 GHz) was detected from the compact source with a
surprising velocity of about -210 km/s indicating that this source is an \HII
region, is most likely located at the Galactic center, and is unrelated to the
SNR. The \HI absorption line (1.4 GHz) data toward these sources supports this
picture and suggests that G357.7-0.1 lies farther away than the Galactic
center.Comment: Latex, 14 pages including 4 figures. Accepted to A
High Velocity Cloud Complex H: A Satellite of the Milky Way in a Retrograde Orbit?
Observations with the Green Bank Telescope of 21cm HI emission from the
high-velocity cloud Complex H suggest that it is interacting with the Milky
Way. A model in which the cloud is a satellite of the Galaxy in an inclined,
retrograde circular orbit reproduces both the cloud's average velocity and its
velocity gradient with latitude. The model places Complex H at approximately 33
kpc from the Galactic Center on a retrograde orbit inclined about 45 degrees to
the Galactic plane. At this location it has an HI mass > 6 10^6 Msun and
dimensions of at least 10 by 5 kpc. Some of the diffuse HI associated with the
cloud has apparently been decelerated by interaction with Galactic gas. Complex
H has similarities to the dwarf irregular galaxy Leo A and to some compact
high-velocity clouds, and has an internal structure nearly identical to parts
of the Magellanic Stream, with a pressure P/k about 100 cm^{-3} K.Comment: 12 pages includes 4 figures. To be published in Astrophysical Journal
Letters, 1 July 200
Relation between hospital orthopaedic specialisation and outcomes in patients aged 65 and older: retrospective analysis of US Medicare data
Objective To explore the relation between hospital orthopaedic specialisation and postoperative outcomes after total hip or knee replacement surgery
Optical and X-ray Identification of Faint Radio Sources in the GOODS-S ACS Field
We present optical and X-ray identifications for the sixty-four radio sources
in the GOODS-S ACS field revealed in the ATCA 1.4 GHz survey of the Chandra
Deep Field South. Optical identifications are made using the ACS images and
catalogs, while the X-ray view is provided by the Chandra X-ray Observatory 1
Ms observations. Redshifts for the identified sources are drawn from publicly
available catalogs of spectroscopic observations and multi-band
photometric-based estimates. Using this multiwavelength information we provide
a first characterization of the faint radio source population in this region.
The sample contains a mixture of star-forming galaxies and active galactic
nuclei, as identified by their X-ray properties and optical spectroscopy. A
large number of morphologically disturbed galaxies is found, possibly related
to the star-formation phenomena. In spite of the very deep optical data
available in this field, seven of the sixty-four radio sources have no optical
identification to z(850)~28 mag. Only one of these is identified in the X-rays.Comment: 33 pages, 1 figure + 4 pages of postage stamps. AJ, in press
(February 2006 issue). Version with full-resolution figures is available at
http://www.oal.ul.pt/~jafonso/astronomy/hires_papers.htm
Observations of the Extended Distribution of Ionized Hydrogen in the Plane of M31
We have used the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) to observe the spatially
extended distribution of ionized hydrogen in M31 beyond the stellar disk. We
obtained five sets of observations, centered near the photometric major axis of
M31, that extend from the center of the galaxy to just off the edge of the
southwestern HI disk. Beyond the bright stellar disk, but within the HI disk,
weak H-alpha is detected with an intensity I(H-alpha) = 0.05 (+0.01 / -0.02)
Rayleighs. Since M31 is inclined 77 degrees with respect to the line of sight,
this implies that the ambient intergalactic ionizing flux onto each side of M31
is Phi_0 <= 1.6 x 10^4 photons cm^-2 s^-1. Just beyond the outer boundary of
the HI disk we find no significant detection of H-alpha and place an upper
limit I(H-alpha) <= 0.019 Rayleighs.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letters; 12 pages, 4 figure
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