1,596 research outputs found
Encephalocele â A Single Institution African Experience
Objective: This study seeks to find out the presentation, management and complications of encephaloceles in an African setting.Design: a retrospective study reviewing the age and sex of the patients, type and contents of encephaloceles, associated anomalies, preoperative evaluation and investigations, surgical approaches, intra- and post-operative complications as well as follow-up outcomes.Setting: Bethany Crippled Childrenâs centre and Bethanykids at Kijabe Hospital (BKKH), between January 1998 and August 2006.Patients: Of the 53 patients seen, 23 were males and 30 females. The median age at presentation was four months.Results: The follow-up period extended to eight years. Twenty nine patients had occipital encephaloceles, and 39 were operated using the direct external approach. Cererobrospinal fluid leak was the most common post-operative complication. Recurrence occurred in four patients and death in six.Conclusions: Most of the encephalocele patients managed at BKKH had good outcomes and proceeded to live normal or near-normal lives. Our study confirms that even in resource-constrained areas, children with encephaloceles can be successfully managed with acceptable outcomes
The HI and Ionized Gas Disk of the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 1144 = Arp 118: A Violently Interacting Galaxy with Peculiar Kinematics
We present observations of the distribution and kinematics of neutral and
ionized gas in NGC 1144, a galaxy that forms part of the Arp 118 system.
Ionized gas is present over a huge spread in velocity (1100 km/s) in the disk
of NGC 1144, but HI emission is detected over only 1/3 of this velocity range,
in an area that corresponds to the NW half of the disk. In the nuclear region
of NGC 1144, a jump in velocity in the ionized gas component of 600 km/s is
observed. Faint, narrow HI absorption lines are also detected against radio
sources in the SE part of the disk of NGC 1144, which includes regions of
massive star formation and a Seyfert nucleus. The peculiar HI distribution,
which is concentrated in the NW disk, seems to be the inverse of the molecular
distribution which is concentrated in the SE disk. Although this may partly be
the result of the destruction of HI clouds in the SE disk, there is
circumstantial evidence that the entire HI emission spectrum of NGC 1144 is
affected by a deep nuclear absorption line covering a range of 600 km/s, and is
likely blueshifted with respect to the nucleus. In this picture, a high
column-density HI stream is associated with the nuclear ionized gas velocity
discontinuity, and the absorption effectively masks any HI emission that would
be present in the SE disk of NGC 1144.Comment: manuscript, arp118.ps: 28 pages; 1 Table: arp118.tab1.ps; 16 Figures:
arp118.fig1-16.ps; Accepted to Ap
HII Shells Surrounding Wolf-Rayet stars in M31
We present the results of an ongoing investigation to provide a detailed view
of the processes by which massive stars shape the surrounding interstellar
medium (ISM), from pc to kpc scales. In this paper we have focused on studying
the environments of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in M31 to find evidence for WR
wind-ISM interactions, through imaging ionized hydrogen nebulae surrounding
these stars.
We have conducted a systematic survey for HII shells surrounding 48 of the 49
known WR stars in M31. There are 17 WR stars surrounded by single shells, or
shell fragments, 7 stars surrounded by concentric limb brightened shells, 20
stars where there is no clear physical association of the star with nearby
H-alpha emission, and 4 stars which lack nearby H-alpha emission. For the 17+7
shells above, there are 12 which contain one or two massive stars (including a
WR star) and that are <=40 pc in radius. These 12 shells may be classical WR
ejecta or wind-blown shells. Further, there may be excess H-alpha point source
emission associated with one of the 12 WR stars surrounded by putative ejecta
or wind-blown shells. There is also evidence for excess point source emission
associated with 11 other WR stars. The excess emission may arise from
unresolved circumstellar shells, or within the extended outer envelopes of the
stars themselves.
In a few cases we find clear morphological evidence for WR shells interacting
with each other. In several H-alpha images we see WR winds disrupting, or
punching through, the walls of limb-brightened HII shells.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures (in several parts: some .jpg and others .ps),
accepted to AJ (appearing Oct, 1999
Stellar disks of Collisional Ring Galaxies I. New multiband images, Radial intensity and color profiles, and confrontation with N-body simulations
We present new multi-band imaging data in the optical (BVRI and Halpha) and
near infrared bands (JHK) of 15 candidate ring galaxies from the sample of
Appleton & Marston (1997). We use these data to obtain color composite images,
global magnitudes and colors of both the ring galaxy and its companion(s), and
radial profiles of intensity and colors. We find that only nine of the observed
galaxies have multi-band morphologies expected for the classical collisional
scenario of ring formation, indicating the high degree of contamination of the
ring galaxy sample by galaxies without a clear ring morphology. The radial
intensity profiles, obtained by masking the off-centered nucleus, peak at the
position of the ring, with the profiles in the continuum bands broader than
that in the Halpha line. The images as well as the radial intensity and color
profiles clearly demonstrate the existence of the pre-collisional stellar disk
outside the star-forming ring, which is in general bluer than the disk internal
to the ring. The stellar disk seems to have retained its size, with the disk
outside the ring having a shorter exponential scale length as compared to the
values expected in normal spiral galaxies of comparable masses. The rings in
our sample of galaxies are found to be located preferentially at around
half-way through the stellar disk. The most likely reason for this preference
is bias against detecting rings when they are close to the center (they would
be confused with the resonant rings), and at the edge of the disk the gas
surface density may be below the critical density required for star formation.
Most of the observed characteristics point to relatively recent collisions (<80
Myr ago) according to the N-body simulations of Gerber et al. (1996).Comment: To appear in AJ issue of September 2008. High resolution color image
of Figure 2 and other supplementary images are available at
http://www.inaoep.mx/~ydm/rings
Radio-Luminous Southern Seyfert Galaxies. I. Radio Images and Selected Optical/Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
This is the first of two papers in which a study is made of a sample of 12
southern radio-luminous Seyfert galaxies. Our aim is to investigate possible
correlations between radio morphology and nuclear/circumnuclear emission-line
properties. In this paper we present radio images at 13, 6, and 3 cm taken with
the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), global far-infrared (FIR)
properties for the whole sample, and optical and near-infrared (NIR)
spectroscopy of an interesting subset. We find a mixture of radio morphologies,
including linear, diffuse and compact sources. When the FIR colors of the
galaxies are considered there is an indication that the compact radio sources
have warmer FIR colors than the diffuse sources, whereas the linear sources
span a wide range of FIR colors. There is a wide variation in radio
spectral-indices, suggesting that free-free absorption is significant in some
systems, particularly IRAS 11249-2859, NGC 4507, and NGC 7213. Detailed
emission-line studies are presented of 4 galaxies IC 3639, NGC 5135, NGC 3393 &
IRAS 11249-2859. In IC 3639 we present evidence of vigorous, compact star
formation enclosed by very extended [OI]6300 emission, suggestive of the
boundary between a diffuse outflow and the surrounding ISM. In another galaxy,
IC 5063, we see evidence for the possible interaction of a highly collimated
outflow and the surrounding rotating inner disk. Of the 5 galaxies which show
compact radio emission, 4 have radio/FIR flux ratios consistent with an
energetically dominant AGN, whereas IC 4995 exhibits evidence for a very
compact starburst.Comment: 42 pages, including 7 tables, latex, 19 jpeg figures, Accepted to
ApJ. Replacement updates coordintes of galaxies in Table
Using graphical and pictorial representations to teach introductory astronomy students about the detection of extrasolar planets via gravitational microlensing
The detection and study of extrasolar planets is an exciting and thriving
field in modern astrophysics, and an increasingly popular topic in introductory
astronomy courses. One detection method relies on searching for stars whose
light has been gravitationally microlensed by an extrasolar planet. In order to
facilitate instructors' abilities to bring this interesting mix of general
relativity and extrasolar planet detection into the introductory astronomy
classroom, we have developed a new Lecture-Tutorial, "Detecting Exoplanets with
Gravitational Microlensing." In this paper, we describe how this new
Lecture-Tutorial's representations of astrophysical phenomena, which we
selected and created based on theoretically motivated considerations of their
pedagogical affordances, are used to help introductory astronomy students
develop more expert-like reasoning abilities.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the American
Journal of Physic
Powerful H Emission and Star Formation on the Interacting Galaxy System Arp 143: Observations with Spitzer and GALEX
We present new mid-infrared (m) and ultraviolet (1539 -- 2316 \AA)
observations of the interacting galaxy system Arp 143 (NGC 2444/2445) from the
Spitzer Space Telescope and GALEX. In this system, the central nucleus of NGC
2445 is surrounded by knots of massive star-formation in a ring-like structure.
We find unusually strong emission from warm H associated with an expanding
shock wave between the nucleus and the western knots. At this ridge, the flux
ratio between H and PAH emission is nearly ten times higher than in the
nucleus. Arp 143 is one of the most extreme cases known in that regard. From
our multi-wavelength data we derive a narrow age range of the star-forming
knots between 2 Myr and 7.5 Myr, suggesting that the ring of knots was formed
almost simultaneously in response to the shock wave traced by the H
emission. However, the knots can be further subdivided in two age groups: those
with an age of 2--4 Myr (knots A, C, E, and F), which are associated with
m emission from PAHs, and those with an age of 7-8 Myr (knots D and G),
which show little or no m emission shells surrounding them. We attribute
this finding to an ageing effect of the massive clusters which, after about 6
Myr, no longer excite the PAHs surrounding the knots.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, including tables at the end; accepted by Ap
Conceptual learning : the priority for higher education
The common sense notion of learning as the all-pervasive acquisition of new behaviour and knowledge, made vivid by experience, is an incomplete characterisation, because it assumes that the learning of behaviour and the learning of knowledge are indistinguishable, and that acquisition constitutes learning without reference to transfer. A psychological level of analysis is used to argue that conceptual learning should have priority in higher education
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