On Be Star Candidates and Possible Blue Pre-Main Sequence Objects in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Recently the OGLE experiment has provided accurate light curves and colours for about 2 millions stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. We have examined this database for its content of Be stars, applying some selection criteria, and we have found a sample of $\sim$ 1000 candidates. Some of these stars show beautiful light curves with amazing variations never observed in any Galactic variable. We find outbursts in 13% of the sample (Type-1 stars), high and low states in 15%, periodic variations in 7%, and the usual variations seen in Galactic Be stars in 65% of the cases. The Galactic counterparts of Type-1 objects could be the outbursting Be stars found by Hubert & Floquet (1998) after the analysis of Hipparcos photometry. We discuss the possibility that Type-1 stars could correspond to Be stars with accreting white dwarf companions or alternatively, blue pre-main sequence stars surrounded by thermally unstable accretion disks. We provide coordinates and basic photometric information for these stars and some examples of light curves.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

The ossified interclinoid ligament

The paper presents an anatomical description of the ossified interclinoid ligament which was found in a male human skull. In the case studied the ossified ligament exists as a bony bridge between the anterior and posterior clinoid processes on the left side of the skull. The length of this connection was measured as 5.0 mm, while its thickness was 3.2 mm. We conjecture that the presence of a considerably thick bony trabecula within the sella region might have had an impact on the course of the internal carotid artery or the oculomotor nerve, causing compression of these structures