2,883 research outputs found
Detection of x-rays from galaxy groups associated with the gravitationally lensed systems PG 1115+080 and B1422+231
Gravitational lenses that produce multiple images of background quasars can
be an invaluable cosmological tool. Deriving cosmological parameters, however,
requires modeling the potential of the lens itself. It has been estimated that
up to a quarter of lensing galaxies are associated with a group or cluster
which perturbs the gravitational potential. Detection of X-ray emission from
the group or cluster can be used to better model the lens. We report on the
first detection in X-rays of the group associated with the lensing system PG
1115+080 and the first X-ray image of the group associated with the system
B1422+231. We find a temperature and rest-frame luminosity of 0.8 +/- 0.1 keV
and 7 +/- 2 x 10^{42} ergs/s for PG 1115+080 and 1.0 +infty/-0.3 keV and 8 +/-
3 x 10^{42} ergs/s for B1422+231. We compare the spatial and spectral
characteristics of the X-ray emission to the properties of the group galaxies,
to lens models, and to the general properties of groups at lower redshift.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes
to tex
Physical conditions in the gas phases of the giant HII region LMC-N11 unveiled by Herschel - I. Diffuse [CII] and [OIII] emission in LMC-N11B
(Abridged) The Magellanic Clouds provide a nearby laboratory for metal-poor
dwarf galaxies. The low dust abundance enhances the penetration of UV photons
into the interstellar medium (ISM), resulting in a relatively larger filling
factor of the ionized gas. Furthermore, there is likely a hidden molecular gas
reservoir probed by the [CII]157um line. We present Herschel/PACS maps in
several tracers, [CII], [OI]63um,145um, [NII]122um, [NIII]57um, and [OIII]88um
in the HII region N11B in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Halpha and [OIII]5007A
images were used as complementary data to investigate the effect of dust
extinction. Observations were interpreted with photoionization models to infer
the gas conditions and estimate the ionized gas contribution to the [CII]
emission. Photodissociation regions (PDRs) are probed through polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We first study the distribution and properties of
the ionized gas. We then constrain the origin of [CII]157um by comparing to
tracers of the low-excitation ionized gas and of PDRs. [OIII] is dominated by
extended emission from the high-excitation diffuse ionized gas; it is the
brightest far-infrared line, ~4 times brighter than [CII]. The extent of the
[OIII] emission suggests that the medium is rather fragmented, allowing far-UV
photons to permeate into the ISM to scales of >30pc. Furthermore, by comparing
[CII] with [NII], we find that 95% of [CII] arises in PDRs, except toward the
stellar cluster for which as much as 15% could arise in the ionized gas. We
find a remarkable correlation between [CII]+[OI] and PAH emission, with [CII]
dominating the cooling in diffuse PDRs and [OI] dominating in the densest PDRs.
The combination of [CII] and [OI] provides a proxy for the total gas cooling in
PDRs. Our results suggest that PAH emission describes better the PDR gas
heating as compared to the total infrared emission.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Fixed
inverted line ratio in Sect. 5.
An in vivo evaluation of Brilliant Blue G in animals and humans
Background/Aims: To evaluate the retinal toxicity of Brilliant Blue G (BBG) following intravitreal injection in rat eyes and examine the biocompatibility and the staining properties in humans.Methods: BBG was injected into the 11 rat eyes to evaluate toxic effects with balanced salt solution (BSS) serving as control. Retinal toxicity was assessed by retinal ganglion cell (RGC) counts and by light microscopy 7 days later. In addition, BBG was applied during vitrectomy for macular hole (MH) (n = 15) or epiretinal membranes (ERM) (n = 3) in a prospective, non-comparative consecutive series of patients. Before and after surgery, all patients underwent a complete clinical examination including measurement of best corrected visual acuity (VA) and intraocular pressure, perimetry, fundus photography and optical coherence tomography. Patients were seen 1 day before surgery and then in approximately four weeks intervals.Results: No significant reduction in RGC numbers and no morphological alterations were noted. A sufficient staining of the internal limiting membrane (ILM) was seen in patients with MH, while the staining pattern in ERM cases was patchy, indicating that parts of the ILM were peeled off along with the ERM in a variable extent. All MHs could be closed successfully. VA improved in 10 eyes (56%; 8/15 MH patients, 2/3 ERM patients), was unchanged in four eyes (22%; all MH patients) and was reduced in four eyes (22%; 3/15 MH, 1/3 ERM). No toxic effects attributable to the dye were noted during patient follow-up. The ultrastructure of tissue harvested during surgery was unremarkable.Conclusion: Brilliant Blue provides a sufficient and selective staining of the ILM. No retinal toxicity or adverse effects related to the dye were observed in animal and human studies. The long-term safety of this novel dye will have to be evaluated in larger patient series and a longer follow-up
Effect of Fe intermetallics on microstructure and properties of Al-7Si alloys
The present work deals with the effect of iron intermetallics on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-7% Si alloys. Two different iron additions were made, 0.6% Fe and 2% Fe, to study the effect of iron intermetallics on Al-Si alloys. Microstructure property correlations were carried out using SEM-EDS and tensile testing of alloys. Microstructure results show that the rise in iron content significantly increased the average size, thickness and number of intermetallic particles in the alloys. Nano-indentation study shows that the iron intermetallics are too brittle compared with the primary aluminium. Moreover, the hardness and Young’s modulus of iron intermetallics are higher than those of primary aluminium. Tensile test results show that there is no significant difference in strength levels between Al-7%Si and Al-7Si-0.6Fe alloys. However, an increase in iron from 0.6% to 2% resulted in a significant decrease in tensile strength and elongation of the alloys. Two-dimensional SEM studies suggest that the increased number of needle-shaped β-phase intermetallic particles formed because of increased amounts of Fe could be the reason for early failure of the alloy. To further understand the early failure of iron-containing alloys, the fractured tensile specimens were studied using the 3D x-ray tomography technique. XCT results show that the failure in tensile testing of 2% Fe alloy was not mainly due to breaking of brittle β-phase intermetallic particles, but due to the morphology and particle-matrix interface debonding. XCT shows that the needle-shaped particles are long, sharp-edged platelets in 3D, which act as stress raisers for crack initiation and propagation along the interphase
Speeding up Simplification of Polygonal Curves using Nested Approximations
We develop a multiresolution approach to the problem of polygonal curve
approximation. We show theoretically and experimentally that, if the
simplification algorithm A used between any two successive levels of resolution
satisfies some conditions, the multiresolution algorithm MR will have a
complexity lower than the complexity of A. In particular, we show that if A has
a O(N2/K) complexity (the complexity of a reduced search dynamic solution
approach), where N and K are respectively the initial and the final number of
segments, the complexity of MR is in O(N).We experimentally compare the
outcomes of MR with those of the optimal "full search" dynamic programming
solution and of classical merge and split approaches. The experimental
evaluations confirm the theoretical derivations and show that the proposed
approach evaluated on 2D coastal maps either shows a lower complexity or
provides polygonal approximations closer to the initial curves.Comment: 12 pages + figure
Cold Dust but Warm Gas in the Unusual Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4125
Data from the Herschel Space Observatory have revealed an unusual elliptical galaxy, NGC 4125, which has strong and extended submillimeter emission from cold dust but only very strict upper limits to its CO and Hi emission. Depending on the dust emissivity, the total dust mass is 2-5 x 10(6) M-circle dot. While the neutral gas-to-dust mass ratio is extremely low (= 10(4) K faster than the dust is evaporated. If galaxies like NGC 4125, where the far-infrared emission does not trace neutral gas in the usual manner, are common at higher redshift, this could have significant implications for our understanding of high redshift galaxies and galaxy evolution.Canadian Space AgencyNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaAgenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) I/005/11/0BMVIT (Austria)ESA-PRODEX (Belgium)CEA/CNES (France)DLR (Germany)ASI/INAF (Italy)CICYT/MCYT (Spain)CSA (Canada)NAOC (China)CEA, (France)CNES (France)CNRS (France)ASI (Italy)MCINN (Spain)SNSB (Sweden)STFC (UK)NASA (USA)National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationAstronom
Nine years of experimental warming did not influence the thermal sensitivity of metabolic rate in the medaka fish Oryzias latipes
A pressing challenge is to determine whether and how global-change drivers influence species physiology and survival. Recently, researchers have proposed the metabolic theory of ecology, defending the hypothesis of a universal thermal dependence of metabolic rate or, alternatively, the metabolic cold adaptation theory, stating that local adaptation can influence the thermal sensitivity of metabolic rate. However, the long-term (i.e. multigenerational) consequences of warming for the thermal sensitivity of metabolic rate remain largely unexplored although it determines energy use and is crucial for species response to climate change.
In this study, we used an evolutionary experiment with medaka fishes Oryzias latipes maintained for more than 12 generations at warm and cold temperatures (30 and 20°C, respectively) to address this issue. Our objective was to investigate whether thermal adaptation influences the relationship between temperature and mass-corrected metabolic rate and how this may occur.
In agreement with the universal thermal dependence hypothesis, we found that warming did not significantly influence the thermal sensitivity of mass-corrected metabolic rate: neither the intercept nor the slope of the temperature–metabolic rate relationship differed among fish lineages. Our small-scale laboratory experiment thus indicated that there is limited potential for evolutionary change in medaka fish metabolic rate in response to warmer temperatures.
Overall, we provide evidence that 9 years of experimental warming did not influence the thermal sensitivity of metabolic rate. Our results highlight the invariability of the thermal dependence of metabolic rate, which has important implications for adaptation to climate warming. This finding suggests a limited potential for metabolic adaptations in response to long-term temperature changes, which may have negative consequences for the persistence of fish populations under climate change
Spitzer IRAC observations of newly-discovered planetary nebulae from the Macquarie-AAO-Strasbourg H-alpha Planetary Nebula Project
We compare H-alpha, radio continuum, and Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) images
of 58 planetary nebulae (PNe) recently discovered by the Macquarie-AAO-Strasbo-
urg H-alpha PN Project (MASH) of the SuperCOSMOS H-alpha Survey. Using InfraRed
Array Camera (IRAC) data we define the IR colors of PNe and demonstrate good
isolation between these colors and those of many other types of astronomical
object. The only substantive contamination of PNe in the color-color plane we
illustrate is due to YSOs. However, this ambiguity is readily resolved by the
unique optical characteristics of PNe and their environs. We also examine the
relationships between optical and MIR morphologies from 3.6 to 8.0um and
explore the ratio of mid-infrared (MIR) to radio nebular fluxes, which is a
valuable discriminant between thermal and nonthermal emission. MASH emphasizes
late evolutionary stages of PNe compared with previous catalogs, enabling study
of the changes in MIR and radio flux that attend the aging process. Spatially
integrated MIR energy distributions were constructed for all MASH PNe observed
by the GLIMPSE Legacy Project, using the H-alpha morphologies to establish the
dimensions for the calculations of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), IRAC,
and radio continuum (from the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope and the
Very Large Array) flux densities. The ratio of IRAC 8.0-um to MSX 8.3-um flux
densities provides a measure of the absolute diffuse calibration of IRAC at 8.0
um. We independently confirm the aperture correction factor to be applied to
IRAC at 8.0um to align it with the diffuse calibration of MSX. The result
agrees with the recommendations of the Spitzer Science Center and with results
from a parallel study of HII regions. These PNe probe the diffuse calibration
of IRAC on a spatial scale of 9-77 arcsec.Comment: 48 pages, LaTeX (aastex), incl. 18 PostScript (eps) figures and 3
tables. Accepted by Astrophysical Journa
A resolved analysis of cold dust and gas in the nearby edge-on spiral NGC 891
We investigate the connection between dust and gas in the nearby edge-on
spiral galaxy NGC 891. High resolution Herschel PACS and SPIRE 70, 100, 160,
250, 350, and 500 m images are combined with JCMT SCUBA 850 m
observations to trace the far-infrared/submillimetre spectral energy
distribution (SED). Maps of the HI 21 cm line and CO(J=3-2) emission trace the
atomic and molecular hydrogen gas, respectively. We fit one-component modified
blackbody models to the integrated SED, finding a global dust mass of
8.510 M and an average temperature of 232 K. We
also fit the pixel-by-pixel SEDs to produce maps of the dust mass and
temperature. The dust mass distribution correlates with the total stellar
population as traced by the 3.6 m emission. The derived dust temperature,
which ranges from approximately 17 to 24 K, is found to correlate with the 24
m emission. Allowing the dust emissivity index to vary, we find an average
value of = 1.90.3. We confirm an inverse relation between the dust
emissivity spectral index and dust temperature, but do not observe any
variation of this relationship with vertical height from the mid-plane of the
disk. A comparison of the dust properties with the gaseous components of the
ISM reveals strong spatial correlations between the surface mass densities of
dust and the molecular hydrogen and total gas surface densities. Observed
asymmetries in the dust temperature, and the H-to-dust and total
gas-to-dust ratios hint that an enhancement in the star formation rate may be
the result of larger quantities of molecular gas available to fuel star
formation in the NE compared to the SW. Whilst the asymmetry likely arises from
dust obscuration due to the geometry of the line-of-sight projection of the
spiral arms, we cannot exclude an enhancement in the star formation rate in the
NE side of the disk.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 21 pages, including 13 figures and 4
table
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