314 research outputs found
Orbital Parameter Determination for Wide Stellar Binary Systems in the Age of Gaia
The orbits of binary stars and planets, particularly eccentricities and
inclinations, encode the angular momentum within these systems. Within stellar
multiple systems, the magnitude and (mis)alignment of angular momentum vectors
among stars, disks, and planets probes the complex dynamical processes guiding
their formation and evolution. The accuracy of the \textit{Gaia} catalog can be
exploited to enable comparison of binary orbits with known planet or disk
inclinations without costly long-term astrometric campaigns. We show that
\textit{Gaia} astrometry can place meaningful limits on orbital elements in
cases with reliable astrometry, and discuss metrics for assessing the
reliability of \textit{Gaia} DR2 solutions for orbit fitting. We demonstrate
our method by determining orbital elements for three systems (DS Tuc AB, GK/GI
Tau, and Kepler-25/KOI-1803) using \textit{Gaia} astrometry alone. We show that
DS Tuc AB's orbit is nearly aligned with the orbit of DS Tuc Ab, GK/GI Tau's
orbit might be misaligned with their respective protoplanetary disks, and the
Kepler-25/KOI-1803 orbit is not aligned with either component's transiting
planetary system. We also demonstrate cases where \textit{Gaia} astrometry
alone fails to provide useful constraints on orbital elements. To enable
broader application of this technique, we introduce the python tool
\texttt{lofti\_gaiaDR2} to allow users to easily determine orbital element
posteriors.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Boyajian's Star B::The co-moving stellar companion to KIC 8462852 A
The light curve of KIC 8462852, a.k.a Boyajian's Star, undergoes deep dips
the origin of which remains unclear. A faint star 2\arcsec to the east
was discovered in Keck/NIRC2 imaging in Boyajian et al. (2016), but its status
as a binary, and possible contribution to the observed variability, was
unclear. Here, we use three epochs of Keck/NIRC2 imaging, spanning five years,
in JHK near-infrared bands to obtain 1-mas precision astrometry. We show that
the two objects exhibit common proper motion, measure a relative velocity of
mas yr ( km s) and conclude
that they are a binary pair at AU projected separation. There is
marginal detection of possible orbital motion, but our astrometry is
insufficient to characterize the orbit. We show that two other point sources
are not associated with KIC 8462852. We recommend that attempts to model KIC
8462852 A's light curve should revisit the possibility that the bound stellar
companion may play a role in causing the irregular brightness variations, for
example through disruption of the orbits of bodies around the primary due to
long-term orbital evolution of the binary orbit.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables Accepted for publication in Ap
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Inducing a Stroop Effect
We examine the conditions that lead to Stroop interference for a meaningless linguistic label. Tiffany's cognitive model of drug abuse implies that individuals will respond more slowly to drug-related words compared to neutral words in an emotional Stroop task, because the former have many automatic associations (e.g. positive expectancies). To examine this proposal, we trained participants to associate a meaningless label with either one other word or several other words and examined the induced Stroop interference for these meaningless labels. In two experiments, and contrary to expectations from Tiffany's work, we observed greatest Stroop interference for the meaningless label with just one association. These results are discussed in terms of associative learning theory
orbitize!: A Comprehensive Orbit-fitting Software Package for the High-contrast Imaging Community
orbitize! is an open-source, object-oriented software package for fitting the orbits of directly imaged objects. It packages the Orbits for the Impatient (OFTI) algorithm and a parallel-tempered Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm into a consistent and intuitive Python API. orbitize! makes it easy to run standard astrometric orbit fits; in less than 10 lines of code, users can read in data, perform one fit using OFTI and another using MCMC, and make two publication-ready figures. Extensive pedagogical tutorials, intended to be navigable by both orbit-fitting novices and seasoned experts, are available on our documentation page. We have designed the orbitize! API to be flexible and easy to use/modify for unique cases. orbitize! was designed by members of the exoplanet imaging community to be a central repository for algorithms, techniques, and know-how developed by this community. We intend for it to continue to expand and change as the field progresses and new techniques are developed, and call for community involvement in this process. Complete and up-to-date documentation is available at orbitize.info, and the source code is available at github.com/sblunt/orbitize
A Core Outcome Set for Preventive Intervention Trials in Chronic and Episodic Migraine (COSMIG):an international, consensus-derived and multistakeholder initiative
Objective Typically, migraine prevention trials focus on reducing migraine days. This narrow focus may not capture all that is important to people with migraine. Inconsistency in outcome selection across trials limits the potential for data pooling and evidence synthesis. In response, we describe the development of core outcome set for migraine (COSMIG).
Design A two-stage approach sought to achieve international, multistakeholder consensus on both the core domain set and core measurement set. Following construction of a comprehensive list of outcomes, expert panellists (patients, healthcare professionals and researchers) completed a three-round electronic-Delphi study to support a reduction and prioritisation of core domains and outcomes. Participants in a consensus meeting finalised the core domains and methods of assessment. All stages were overseen by an international core team, including patient research partners.
Results There was a good representation of patients (episodic migraine (n=34) and chronic migraine (n=42)) and healthcare professionals (n=33) with high response and retention rates. The initial list of domains and outcomes was reduced from >50 to 7 core domains for consideration in the consensus meeting, during which a 2-domain core outcome set was agreed.
Conclusion International and multistakeholder consensus emerged to describe a two-domain core outcome set for reporting research on preventive interventions for chronic and episodic migraine: migraine-specific pain and migraine-specific quality of life. Intensity of migraine pain assessed with an 11-point Numerical Rating Scale and the frequency as the number of headache/migraine days over a specified time period. Migraine-specific quality of life assessed using the Migraine Functional Impact Questionnaire
Core outcome set for preventive intervention trials in chronic and episodic migraine (COSMIG): an international, consensus-derived and multistakeholder initiative
OBJECTIVE: Typically, migraine prevention trials focus on reducing migraine days. This narrow focus may not capture all that is important to people with migraine. Inconsistency in outcome selection across trials limits the potential for data pooling and evidence synthesis. In response, we describe the development of core outcome set for migraine (COSMIG). DESIGN: A two-stage approach sought to achieve international, multistakeholder consensus on both the core domain set and core measurement set. Following construction of a comprehensive list of outcomes, expert panellists (patients, healthcare professionals and researchers) completed a three-round electronic-Delphi study to support a reduction and prioritisation of core domains and outcomes. Participants in a consensus meeting finalised the core domains and methods of assessment. All stages were overseen by an international core team, including patient research partners. RESULTS: There was a good representation of patients (episodic migraine (n=34) and chronic migraine (n=42)) and healthcare professionals (n=33) with high response and retention rates. The initial list of domains and outcomes was reduced from >50 to 7 core domains for consideration in the consensus meeting, during which a 2-domain core outcome set was agreed. CONCLUSION: International and multistakeholder consensus emerged to describe a two-domain core outcome set for reporting research on preventive interventions for chronic and episodic migraine: migraine-specific pain and migraine-specific quality of life. Intensity of migraine pain assessed with an 11-point Numerical Rating Scale and the frequency as the number of headache/migraine days over a specified time period. Migraine-specific quality of life assessed using the Migraine Functional Impact Questionnaire
Reversal of left-right asymmetry induced by aberrant nodal signaling in the node of mouse embryos
The node at the anterior tip of the primitive streak serves as an initial generator of the left-right (L-R) axis in mammalian embryos. We now show that a small disturbance in molecular signaling at the node is responsible for the L-R reversal of visceral organs in the inv mutant mouse. In the node of wild-type embryos, the expression of Nodal and Cerl2 (Dand5), which encodes an inhibitor of Nodal, is asymmetric, with the level of Nodal expression being higher on the left side and that of Cerl2 expression higher on the right. In inv/inv embryos, however, a localized reduction in the level of Cerl2 expression results in upregulation of the Nodal signal and a consequent induction of Lefty expression in the node. The ectopic expression of Lefty1 delays the onset of Nodal expression in the lateral plate mesoderm. L-R asymmetry of Cerl2 expression in the node also becomes reversed in a manner dependent on the Nodal signal. Nodal expression in the lateral plate mesoderm then appears on the right side, probably reflecting the balance between Nodal and Cerl2 in the node. The inhibition of Cerl2 expression by the Nodal signal suggests a mechanism for amplification of the cue for L-R asymmetry provided by nodal flow and for stabilization of asymmetric gene expression around the node. In inv/inv embryos, this system may function in reverse as a result of ectopic production of Lefty, which inhibits the Nodal signal on the left side in a manner dependent on leftward nodal flow.Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan; CREST; Kyushu University; Naito Foundationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Improved companion mass limits for Sirius A with thermal infrared coronagraphy using a vector-apodizing phase plate and time-domain starlight-subtraction techniques
We use observations with the infrared-optimized MagAO system and Clio camera
in 3.9 m light to place stringent mass constraints on possible undetected
companions to Sirius A. We suppress the light from Sirius A by imaging it
through a grating vector-apodizing phase plate coronagraph with 180-degree dark
region (gvAPP-180). To remove residual starlight in post-processing, we apply a
time-domain principal-components-analysis-based algorithm we call PCA-Temporal
(PCAT), which uses eigen-time-series rather than eigen-images to subtract
starlight. By casting the problem in terms of eigen-time-series, we reduce the
computational cost of post-processing the data, enabling the use of the fully
sampled dataset for improved contrast at small separations. We also discuss the
impact of retaining fine temporal sampling of the data on final contrast
limits. We achieve post-processed contrast limits of to
outside of 0.75 arcsec which correspond to planet masses
of 2.6 to 8.0 . These are combined with values from the recent literature
of high-contrast imaging observations of Sirius to synthesize an overall
completeness fraction as a function of mass and separation. After synthesizing
these recent studies and our results, the final completeness analysis rules out
99% of planets from 2.5-7 AU.Comment: 19 pages, 22 figures, accepted to A
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