43 research outputs found
Impact of gaps in the asteroseismic characterization of pulsating stars. I. On the efficiency of pre-whitening
It is known that the observed distribution of frequencies in CoRoT and Kepler
{\delta} Scuti stars has no parallelism with any theoretical model.
Pre-whitening is a widespread technique in the analysis of time series with
gaps from pulsating stars located in the classical instability strip such as
{\delta} Scuti stars. However, some studies have pointed out that this
technique might introduce biases in the results of the frequency analysis. This
work aims at studying the biases that can result from pre-whitening in
asteroseismology. The results will depend on the intrinsic range and
distribution of frequencies of the stars. The periodic nature of the gaps in
CoRoT observations, just in the range of the pulsational frequency content of
the {\delta} Scuti stars, is shown to be crucial to determine their oscillation
frequencies, the first step to perform asteroseismolgy of these objects. Hence,
here we focus on the impact of pre-whitening on the asteroseismic
characterization of {\delta} Scuti stars. We select a sample of 15 {\delta}
Scuti stars observed by the CoRoT satellite, for which ultra-high quality
photometric data have been obtained by its seismic channel. In order to study
the impact on the asteroseismic characterization of {\delta} Scuti stars we
perform the pre-whitening procedure on three datasets: gapped data, linearly
interpolated data, and ARMA interpolated data. The different results obtained
show that at least in some cases pre-whitening is not an efficient procedure
for the deconvolution of the spectral window. therefore, in order to reduce the
effect of the spectral window to the minimum it is necessary to interpolate
with an algorithm that is aimed to preserve the original frequency content, and
not only to perform a pre-whitening of the data.Comment: 27 pages, 47 figures Tables and typos fixe
Intoxicación por paraquat : revisión
En este trabajo se revisan las caracterÃsticas de la intoxicación por paraquat, y se presentan 15 casos clÃnicos altamente sugestivos de dicha intoxicación. El paraquat es un compuesto bipiridilo ampliamente usado en agricultura. Debido a que la intoxicación tiene efectos progresivos e irreversibles, es importante conocer la posibilidad de acceso al tóxico, pero ello muchas veces no es posible. Dado que el diagnóstico muchas veces es difÃcil para el clÃnico, la observación de un distress respiratorio severo, que empeora progresivamente en ausencia de signos radiológicos significativos, justifica un diagnóstico presuntivo de intoxicación por paraquat.In this work, we review the characteristics of paraquat poisoning and compare it with 15 clinical cases highly suggestive of this poisoning. Paraquat is a bipyridzlium compound, widely used as a contact herbicide in agriculture. Because the poisoning has progressive and irreversible effects, it's important to know a definitive history of acces to paraquat, but it 's difficult. Because the problem of diagnosis remains difficult for the practitioner; a clinical features of progressively worsening respiratory distress, in absence of radiógraphic demonstration of adequate cause of dyspnoea, justify a pressumptive diagnosis of paraquat poisoning
A phase I pharmacokinetic and safety study of cabazitaxel in adult cancer patients with normal and impaired renal function
Limited data are available on cabazitaxel pharmacokinetics in patients with renal impairment. This open-label, multicenter study assessed cabazitaxel in patients with advanced solid tumors and normal or impaired renal function.
Cohorts A (normal renal function: creatinine clearance [CrCL]Â >80Â mL/min/1.73Â m), B (moderate renal impairment: CrCL 30 to <50Â mL/min/1.73Â m) and C (severe impairment: CrCLÂ <30Â mL/min/1.73Â m(2)) received cabazitaxel 25Â mg/m (A, B) or 20Â mg/m(2) (C, could be escalated to 25Â mg/m), once every 3Â weeks. Pharmacokinetic parameters and cabazitaxel unbound fraction (F) were assessed using linear regression and mixed models. Geometric mean (GM) and GM ratios (GMRs) were determined using mean CrCL intervals (moderate and severe renal impairment: 40 and 15Â mL/min/1.73Â m) versus a control (90Â mL/min/1.73Â m).
Overall, 25 patients received cabazitaxel (median cycles: 3 [range 1-20]; Cohort A: 5 [2-13]; Cohort B: 3 [1-15]; and Cohort C: 5 [1-20]), of which 24 were eligible for pharmacokinetic analysis (eight in each cohort). For moderate and severe renal impairment versus normal renal function, GMR estimates were: clearance normalized to body surface area (CL/BSA) 0.95 (90% CI 0.80-1.13) and 0.89 (0.61-1.32); area under the curve normalized to dose (AUC/dose) 1.06 (0.88-1.27) and 1.14 (0.76-1.71); and F U 0.99 (0.94-1.04) and 0.97 (0.87-1.09), respectively. Estimated slopes of linear regression of log parameters versus log CrCL (renal impairment) were: CL/BSA 0.06 (-0.15 to 0.28); AUC/dose -0.07 (-0.30 to 0.16); and F U 0.02 (-0.05 to 0.08). Cabazitaxel safety profile was consistent with previous reports.
Renal impairment had no clinically meaningful effect on cabazitaxel pharmacokinetics.This study was supported by Sanofi. Javier Garcia-Corbacho acknowledges clinical fellowship support from SEOM. Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) funding is also acknowledged for the Cambridge Cancer Centre
Mapping the column density and dust temperature structure of IRDCs with Herschel
Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are cold and dense reservoirs of gas potentially
available to form stars. Many of these clouds are likely to be pristine
structures representing the initial conditions for star formation. The study
presented here aims to construct and analyze accurate column density and dust
temperature maps of IRDCs by using the first Herschel data from the Hi-GAL
galactic plane survey. These fundamental quantities, are essential for
understanding processes such as fragmentation in the early stages of the
formation of stars in molecular clouds. We have developed a simple
pixel-by-pixel SED fitting method, which accounts for the background emission.
By fitting a grey-body function at each position, we recover the spatial
variations in both the dust column density and temperature within the IRDCs.
This method is applied to a sample of 22 IRDCs exhibiting a range of angular
sizes and peak column densities. Our analysis shows that the dust temperature
decreases significantly within IRDCs, from background temperatures of 20-30 K
to minimum temperatures of 8-15 K within the clouds, showing that dense
molecular clouds are not isothermal. Temperature gradients have most likely an
important impact on the fragmentation of IRDCs. Local temperature minima are
strongly correlated with column density peaks, which in a few cases reach NH2 =
1 x 10^{23} cm^{-2}, identifying these clouds as candidate massive prestellar
cores. Applying this technique to the full Hi-GAL data set will provide
important constraints on the fragmentation and thermal properties of IRDCs, and
help identify hundreds of massive prestellar core candidates.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Herschel special issu
Measuring mean densities of delta Scuti stars with asteroseismology. Theoretical properties of large separations using TOUCAN
We aim at studying the theoretical properties of the regular spacings found
in the oscillation spectra of delta Scuti stars. We performed a multi-variable
analysis covering a wide range of stellar structure and seismic properties and
model parameters representative of intermediate-mass, main sequence stars. The
work-flow is entirely done using a new Virtual Observatory tool: TOUCAN (the VO
gateway for asteroseismic models), which is presented in this paper. A linear
relation between the large separation and the mean density is predicted to be
found in the low frequency frequency domain (i.e. radial orders spanning from 1
to 8, approximately) of the main-sequence, delta Scuti stars' oscillation
spectrum. We found that such a linear behavior stands whatever the mass,
metallicity, mixing length, and overshooting parameters considered in this
work. The intrinsic error of the method is discussed. This includes the
uncertainty in the large separation determination and the role of rotation. The
validity of the relation found is only guaranteed for stars rotating up to 40
percent of their break-up velocity. Finally, we applied the diagnostic method
presented in this work to five stars for which regular patterns have been
found. Our estimates for the mean density and the frequency of the fundamental
radial mode match with those given in the literature within a 20 percent of
deviation. Asteroseismology has thus revealed an independent direct measure of
the average density of delta Scuti stars, analogous to that of the Sun. This
places tight constraints on the mode identification and hence on the stellar
internal structure and dynamics, and allows a determination the radius of
planets orbiting around delta Scuti stars with unprecedented precision. This
opens the way for studying the evolution of regular patterns in pulsating
stars, and its relation with stellar structure and evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, A&A in pres
Water in massive star-forming regions: HIFI observations of W3 IRS5
We present Herschel observations of the water molecule in the massive
star-forming region W3 IRS5. The o-H17O 110-101, p-H18O 111-000, p-H2O 22
202-111, p-H2O 111-000, o-H2O 221-212, and o-H2O 212-101 lines, covering a
frequency range from 552 up to 1669 GHz, have been detected at high spectral
resolution with HIFI. The water lines in W3 IRS5 show well-defined
high-velocity wings that indicate a clear contribution by outflows. Moreover,
the systematically blue-shifted absorption in the H2O lines suggests expansion,
presumably driven by the outflow. No infall signatures are detected. The p-H2O
111-000 and o-H2O 212-101 lines show absorption from the cold material (T ~ 10
K) in which the high-mass protostellar envelope is embedded. One-dimensional
radiative transfer models are used to estimate water abundances and to further
study the kinematics of the region. We show that the emission in the rare
isotopologues comes directly from the inner parts of the envelope (T > 100 K)
where water ices in the dust mantles evaporate and the gas-phase abundance
increases. The resulting jump in the water abundance (with a constant inner
abundance of 10^{-4}) is needed to reproduce the o-H17O 110-101 and p-H18O
111-000 spectra in our models. We estimate water abundances of 10^{-8} to
10^{-9} in the outer parts of the envelope (T < 100 K). The possibility of two
protostellar objects contributing to the emission is discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication in the A&A HIFI special issu
ALMA Long Baseline Observations of the Strongly Lensed Submillimeter Galaxy HATLAS J090311.6+003906 at z=3.042
We present initial results of very high resolution Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the =3.042
gravitationally lensed galaxy HATLAS J090311.6+003906 (SDP.81). These
observations were carried out using a very extended configuration as part of
Science Verification for the 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign, with baselines
of up to 15 km. We present continuum imaging at 151, 236 and 290 GHz, at
unprecedented angular resolutions as fine as 23 milliarcseconds (mas),
corresponding to an un-magnified spatial scale of ~180 pc at z=3.042. The ALMA
images clearly show two main gravitational arc components of an Einstein ring,
with emission tracing a radius of ~1.5". We also present imaging of CO(10-9),
CO(8-7), CO(5-4) and H2O line emission. The CO emission, at an angular
resolution of ~170 mas, is found to broadly trace the gravitational arc
structures but with differing morphologies between the CO transitions and
compared to the dust continuum. Our detection of H2O line emission, using only
the shortest baselines, provides the most resolved detection to date of thermal
H2O emission in an extragalactic source. The ALMA continuum and spectral line
fluxes are consistent with previous Plateau de Bure Interferometer and
Submillimeter Array observations despite the impressive increase in angular
resolution. Finally, we detect weak unresolved continuum emission from a
position that is spatially coincident with the center of the lens, with a
spectral index that is consistent with emission from the core of the foreground
lensing galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures and 3 tables, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal Letter
An Overview of the 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign
A major goal of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to
make accurate images with resolutions of tens of milliarcseconds, which at
submillimeter (submm) wavelengths requires baselines up to ~15 km. To develop
and test this capability, a Long Baseline Campaign (LBC) was carried out from
September to late November 2014, culminating in end-to-end observations,
calibrations, and imaging of selected Science Verification (SV) targets. This
paper presents an overview of the campaign and its main results, including an
investigation of the short-term coherence properties and systematic phase
errors over the long baselines at the ALMA site, a summary of the SV targets
and observations, and recommendations for science observing strategies at long
baselines. Deep ALMA images of the quasar 3C138 at 97 and 241 GHz are also
compared to VLA 43 GHz results, demonstrating an agreement at a level of a few
percent. As a result of the extensive program of LBC testing, the highly
successful SV imaging at long baselines achieved angular resolutions as fine as
19 mas at ~350 GHz. Observing with ALMA on baselines of up to 15 km is now
possible, and opens up new parameter space for submm astronomy.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal Letters; this version with small changes to
affiliation