20,058 research outputs found
A TiO study of the black-hole binary GRO J0422+32 in a very low state
We present 53 simultaneous photometric (I band) and spectroscopic (6900-9500
Angstroms) observations of J0422+32, taken during December 1997. From these we
determine that J0422+32 was in its lowest state yet observed, at
I=20.44+/-0.08. Using relative spectrophotometry, we show that it is possible
to correct very accurately for telluric absorption. Following this, we use the
TiO bands at 7055 Angstroms and 7589 Angstroms for a radial velocity study and
thereby obtain a semi-amplitude of 378+/-16kms-1, which yields
f(M)=1.191+/-0.021M_solar and q=9.0+2.2-2.7, consistent with previous
observations. We further demonstrate that this little explored method is very
powerful for such systems. We also determine a new orbital ephemeris of
HJD=2450274.4156+/-0.0009 + 0.2121600+/-0.0000002E.
We see some evidence for an ellipsoidal modulation, from which we determine
the orbital inclination of J0422+32 to be less than 45 degrees. We therefore
calculate a minimum mass for the primary of 2.22M_solar, consistent with a
black hole, but not necessarily the super-massive one proposed by Beekman et al
(1997). We obtain an M4-5 spectral type for the secondary star and determine
that the secondary contributes 38+/-2% of the flux that we observe from
J0422+32 over the range 6950-8400 Angstroms. From this we calculate the
distance to the system to be 1.39+/-0.15kpc.Comment: (1) Department of Physics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire,
ST5 5BG (2) Department of Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Keble
Road, Oxfo rd, OX1 3RH Accepted, to appear in MNRAS 8 pages, 5 figure
Faint star counts in the near-infrared
We discuss near-infrared star counts at the Galactic pole with a view to
guiding the NGST and ground-based NIR cameras. Star counts from deep K-band
images from the CFHT are presented, and compared with results from the 2MASS
survey and some Galaxy models. With appropriate corrections for detector
artifacts and galaxies, the data agree with the models down to K~18, but
indicate a larger population of fainter red stars. There is also a significant
population of compact galaxies that extend to the observational faint limit of
K=20.5. Recent Galaxy models agree well down to K19, but diverge at
fainter magnitudes.Comment: 14 pages and 4 diagrams; to appear in PAS
Last glacial maximum biomes reconstructed from pollen and plant macrofossil data from northern Eurasia
Detection of broad 21-cm absorption at z = 0.656 in the complex sight-line towards 3C336
We report the detection of 21-cm absorption at z = 0.656 towards 1622+238
(3C336). The line is very broad with a Full-Width Half Maximum (FWHM) of 235
km/s, giving a velocity integrated optical depth of 2.2 km/s. The centroid of
the line is offset from that of the known damped Lyman-alpha absorption (DLA)
system by 50 km/s, and if the Lyman-alpha and 21-cm absorption are due to the
same gas, we derive a spin temperature of < 60 K, which would be the lowest yet
in a DLA. The wide profile, which is over four times wider than that of any
other DLA, supports the hypothesis that the hydrogen absorption is occurring
either in the disk of a large underluminous spiral or a group of dim
unidentified galaxies, associated with the single object which has been
optically identified at this redshift.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MNRAS Letter
Unveiling Palomar 2: The Most Obscure Globular Cluster in the Outer Halo
We present the first color-magnitude study for Palomar 2, a distant and
heavily obscured globular cluster near the Galactic anticenter. Our (V,V-I)
color-magnitude diagram (CMD), obtained with the UH8K camera at the CFHT,
reaches V(lim) = 24 and clearly shows the principal sequences of the cluster,
though with substantial overall foreground absorption and differential
reddening. The CMD morphology shows a well populated red horizontal branch with
a sparser extension to the blue, similar to clusters such as NGC 1261, 1851, or
6229 with metallicities near [Fe/H] = -1.3, placing it about 34 kpc
from the Galactic center. We use starcounts of the bright stars to measure the
core radius, half-mass radius, and central concentration of the cluster. Its
integrated luminosity is M_V = -7.9, making it clearly brighter and more
massive than most other clusters in the outer halo.Comment: 25 pages, aastex, with 8 postscript figures; accepted for publication
in AJ, September 1997. Also available by e-mail from
[email protected]. Please consult Harris directly for (big)
postscript files of Figures 1a,b (the images of the cluster
Professionalism and the Millbank Tendency: The Political Sociology of New Labour's employees
This article analyses party employees, one of the most under-researched subjects in the study of British political parties. We draw on a blend of quantitative and qualitative data in order to shed light on the social and political profiles of Labour Party staff, and on the question of their professionalisation. The latter theme is developed through a model derived from the sociology of professions. While a relatively limited proportion of party employees conform to the pure ideal-type of professionalism, a considerably greater number manifest enough of the core characteristics of specialisation, commitment, mobility, autonomy and self-regulation to be reasonably described as 'professionals in pursuit of political outcomes'
Generation and measurement of nonstationary random processes technical note no. 3
Generation and measurement of nonstationary stochastic processes related to Monte Carlo studies with analog compute
DNA methylation associated with postpartum depressive symptoms overlaps findings from a genome-wide association meta-analysis of depression
Background Perinatal depressive symptoms have been linked to adverse maternal and infant health outcomes. The etiology associated with perinatal depressive psychopathology is poorly understood, but accumulating evidence suggests that understanding inter-individual differences in DNA methylation (DNAm) patterning may provide insight regarding the genomic regions salient to the risk liability of perinatal depressive psychopathology.
Results Genome-wide DNAm was measured in maternal peripheral blood using the Infinium MethylationEPIC microarray. Ninety-two participants (46% African-American) had DNAm samples that passed all quality control metrics, and all participants were within 7 months of delivery. Linear models were constructed to identify differentially methylated sites and regions, and permutation testing was utilized to assess significance. Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were defined as genomic regions of consistent DNAm change with at least two probes within 1 kb of each other. Maternal age, current smoking status, estimated cell-type proportions, ancestry-relevant principal components, days since delivery, and chip position served as covariates to adjust for technical and biological factors. Current postpartum depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Ninety-eight DMRs were significant (false discovery rate \u3c 5%) and overlapped 92 genes. Three of the regions overlap loci from the latest Psychiatric Genomics Consortium meta-analysis of depression.
Conclusions Many of the genes identified in this analysis corroborate previous allelic, transcriptomic, and DNAm association results related to depressive phenotypes. Future work should integrate data from multi-omic platforms to understand the functional relevance of these DMRs and refine DNAm association results by limiting phenotypic heterogeneity and clarifying if DNAm differences relate to the timing of onset, severity, duration of perinatal mental health outcomes of the current pregnancy or to previous history of depressive psychopathology
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