2003 State of the State Addresses: Governors\u27 Discussions of Budget and Health Care Issues

A series of tables examines State of the State addresses nationwide to examine the frequency and content of Governors\u27 discussions of budget and health care issues

VEGAS: a VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey. IV. NGC 1533, IC 2038 and IC 2039: an interacting triplet in the Dorado group

This paper focuses on NGC 1533 and the pair IC 2038 and IC 2039 in Dorado a nearby, clumpy, still un-virialized group. We obtained their surface photometry from deep OmegaCAM@ESO-VST images in g and r bands. For NGC 1533, we map the surface brightness down to $\mu_g \simeq 30.11$ mag/arcsec$^{2}$ and $\mu_r \simeq 28.87$ mag/arcsec$^{2}$ and out to about $4R_e$. At such faint levels the structure of NGC 1533 appear amazingly disturbed with clear structural asymmetry between inner and outer isophotes in the North-East direction. We detect new spiral arm-like tails in the outskirts, which might likely be the signature of a past interaction/merging event. Similarly, IC 2038 and IC 2039 show tails and distortions indicative of their ongoing interaction. Taking advantages of deep images, we are able to detect the optical counterpart to the HI gas. The analysis of the new deep data suggests that NGC 1533 had a complex history made of several interactions with low-mass satellites that generated the star-forming spiral-like structure in the inner regions and are shaping the stellar envelope. In addition, the VST observations show that also the two less luminous galaxies, IC 2038 and IC 2039, are probably interacting each-other and, in the past, IC 2038 could have also interacted with NGC 1533, which stripped away gas and stars from its outskirts. The new picture emerging from this study is of an interacting triplet, where the brightest galaxy NGC 1533 has ongoing mass assembly in the outskirts.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. High-resolution version of paper is available at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/preview/VEGAS_IV.pdf?role=persona

Hypoxia promotes noncanonical autophagy in nucleus pulposus cells independent of MTOR and HIF1A signaling

Nucleus pulposus (NP) cells reside in the avascular and hypoxic microenvironment of intervertebral discs. Importantly, many activities related to survival and function of NP cells are controlled by the HIF-family of transcription factors. We hypothesize that NP cells adapt to their hypoxic niche through modulation of macroautophagy/autophagy. In various cell types, hypoxia induces autophagy in a HIF1A-dependent fashion; however, little is known about hypoxic regulation of autophagy in NP cells. Hypoxia increases the number of autophagosomes as seen by TEM analysis and LC3-positive puncta in NP cells. Hypoxic induction of autophagy was also demonstrated by a significantly higher number of autophagosomes and smaller change in autolysosomes in NP cells expressing tandem-mCherry-EGFP-LC3B. Increased LC3-II levels were not accompanied by a concomitant increase in BECN1 or the ATG12-ATG5 complex. In addition, ULK1 phosphorylation at Ser757 and Ser777 responsive to MTOR and AMPK, respectively, was not affected in hypoxia. Interestingly, when MTOR activity was inhibited by rapamycin or Torin1, LC3-II levels did not change, suggesting a novel MTOR-independent regulation. Noteworthy, while silencing of HIF1A affected hypoxic induction of BNIP3, it did not affect LC3-II levels, indicating hypoxia-induced autophagy is HIF1-independent. Importantly, there was no change in the number of LC3-positive autophagosomes in NP-specific Hif1a null mice. Finally, inhibition of autophagic flux did not affect the glycolytic metabolism of NP cells, suggesting a possible nonmetabolic role of autophagy. Taken together, our study for the first time shows that NP cells regulate autophagy in a noncanonical fashion independent of MTOR and HIF1A signaling

Polynomial evaluation over finite fields: new algorithms and complexity bounds

An efficient evaluation method is described for polynomials in finite fields. Its complexity is shown to be lower than that of standard techniques when the degree of the polynomial is large enough. Applications to the syndrome computation in the decoding of Reed-Solomon codes are highlighted.Comment: accepted for publication in Applicable Algebra in Engineering, Communication and Computing. The final publication will be available at springerlink.com. DOI: 10.1007/s00200-011-0160-

The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. I. The extended and diffuse stellar halo of NGC~1399 out to 192 kpc

[Abrigded] We have started a new deep, multi-imaging survey of the Fornax cluster, dubbed Fornax Deep Survey (FDS), at the VLT Survey Telescope. In this paper we present the deep photometry inside two square degrees around the bright galaxy NGC1399 in the core of the cluster. We found a very extended and diffuse envelope surrounding the luminous galaxy NGC1399: we map the surface brightness out to 33 arcmin (~ 192 kpc) from the galaxy center and down to about 31 mag/arcsec^2 in the g band. The deep photometry allows us to detect a faint stellar bridge in the intracluster region between NGC1399 and NGC1387. By analyzing the integrated colors of this feature, we argue that it could be due to the ongoing interaction between the two galaxies, where the outer envelope of NGC1387 on its east side is stripped away. By fitting the light profile, we found that it exists a physical break radius in the total light distribution at R=10 arcmin (~58 kpc) that sets the transition region between the bright central galaxy and the outer exponential stellar halo. We discuss the main implications of this work on the build-up of the stellar halo at the center of the Fornax cluster. By comparing with the numerical simulations of the stellar halo formation for the most massive BCGs, we find that the observed stellar halo mass fraction is consistent with a halo formed through the multiple accretion of progenitors with a stellar mass in the range 10^8 - 10^11 M_sun. This might suggest that the halo of NGC1399 has also gone through a major merging event. The absence of a significant number of luminous stellar streams and tidal tails out to 192 kpc suggests that the epoch of this strong interaction goes back to an early formation epoch. Therefore, differently from the Virgo cluster, the extended stellar halo around NGC1399 is characterised by a more diffuse and well-mixed component, including the ICL.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 25 pages and 14 figures. An higher resolution file is available at the following link https://www.dropbox.com/s/fvltppduysdn6pb/NGC1399_fin_2c.pdf?dl=

The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. VIII. Connecting the accretion history with the cluster density

This work is based on deep multi-band (g, r, i) data from the Fornax Deep Survey with VST. We analyse the surface brightness profiles of the 19 bright ETGs inside the virial radius of the Fornax cluster. The main aim of this work is to identify signatures of accretion onto galaxies by studying the presence of outer stellar halos, and understand their nature and occurrence. Our analysis also provides a new and accurate estimate of the intra-cluster light inside the virial radius of Fornax. We performed multi-component fits to the azimuthally averaged surface brightness profiles available for all sample galaxies. This allows to quantify the relative weight of all components in the galaxy structure that contribute to the total light. In addition, we derived the average g-i colours in each component identified by the fit, as well as the azimuthally averaged g-i colour profiles, to correlate them with the stellar mass of each galaxy and the location inside the cluster. We find that in the most massive and reddest ETGs the fraction of light in, probably accreted, halos is much larger than in the other galaxies. Less-massive galaxies have an accreted mass fraction lower than 30%, bluer colours and reside in the low-density regions of the cluster. Inside the virial radius of the cluster, the total luminosity of the intra-cluster light, compared with the total luminosity of all cluster members, is about 34%. Inside the Fornax cluster there is a clear correlation between the amount of accreted material in the stellar halos of galaxies and the density of the environment in which those galaxies reside. By comparing this quantity with theoretical predictions and previous observational estimates, there is a clear indication that the driving factor for the accretion process is the total stellar mass of the galaxy, in agreement with the hierarchical accretion scenario.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

SUDARE-VOICE variability-selection of Active Galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field South and the SERVS/SWIRE region

One of the most peculiar characteristics of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is their variability over all wavelengths. This property has been used in the past to select AGN samples and is foreseen to be one of the detection techniques applied in future multi-epoch surveys, complementing photometric and spectroscopic methods. In this paper, we aim to construct and characterise an AGN sample using a multi-epoch dataset in the r band from the SUDARE-VOICE survey. Our work makes use of the VST monitoring program of an area surrounding the Chandra Deep Field South to select variable sources. We use data spanning a six month period over an area of 2 square degrees, to identify AGN based on their photometric variability. The selected sample includes 175 AGN candidates with magnitude r < 23 mag. We distinguish different classes of variable sources through their lightcurves, as well as X-ray, spectroscopic, SED, optical and IR information overlapping with our survey. We find that 12% of the sample (21/175) is represented by SN. Of the remaining sources, 4% (6/154) are stars, while 66% (102/154) are likely AGNs based on the available diagnostics. We estimate an upper limit to the contamination of the variability selected AGN sample of about 34%, but we point out that restricting the analysis to the sources with available multi-wavelength ancillary information, the purity of our sample is close to 80% (102 AGN out of 128 non-SN sources with multi-wavelength diagnostics). Our work thus confirms the efficiency of the variability selection method in agreement with our previous work on the COSMOS field; in addition we show that the variability approach is roughly consistent with the infrared selection.Comment: Published in A & A, 15 pages, 6 figure

The VOICE Survey : VST Optical Imaging of the CDFS and ES1 Fields

Indexación: Scopus.We present the VST Optical Imaging of the CDFS and ES1 Fields (VOICE) Survey, a VST INAF Guaranteed Time program designed to provide optical coverage of two 4 deg2 cosmic windows in the Southern hemisphere. VOICE provides the first, multi-band deep optical imaging of these sky regions, thus complementing and enhancing the rich legacy of longer-wavelength surveys with VISTA, Spitzer, Herschel and ATCA available in these areas and paving the way for upcoming observations with facilities such as the LSST, MeerKAT and the SKA. VOICE exploits VST's OmegaCAM optical imaging capabilities and completes the reduction of WFI data available within the ES1 fields as part of the ESO-Spitzer Imaging Extragalactic Survey (ESIS) program providing ugri and uBVR coverage of 4 and 4 deg2 areas within the CDFS and ES1 field respectively. We present the survey's science rationale and observing strategy, the data reduction and multi-wavelength data fusion pipeline. Survey data products and their future updates will be released at http://www.mattiavaccari.net/voice/ and on CDS/VizieR.https://pos.sissa.it/275/026/pd

The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. II. Fornax A: a two-phase assembly caught on act

As part of the Fornax Deep Survey with the ESO VLT Survey Telescope, we present new $g$ and $r$ bands mosaics of the SW group of the Fornax cluster. It covers an area of $3 \times 2$ square degrees around the central galaxy NGC1316. The deep photometry, the high spatial resolution of OmegaCam and the large covered area allow us to study the galaxy structure, to trace stellar halo formation and look at the galaxy environment. We map the surface brightness profile out to 33arcmin ($\sim 200$kpc $\sim15R_e$) from the galaxy centre, down to $\mu_g \sim 31$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$ and $\mu_r \sim 29$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. This allow us to estimate the scales of the main components dominating the light distribution, which are the central spheroid, inside 5.5 arcmin ($\sim33$ kpc), and the outer stellar envelope. Data analysis suggests that we are catching in act the second phase of the mass assembly in this galaxy, since the accretion of smaller satellites is going on in both components. The outer envelope of NGC1316 still hosts the remnants of the accreted satellite galaxies that are forming the stellar halo. We discuss the possible formation scenarios for NGC1316, by comparing the observed properties (morphology, colors, gas content, kinematics and dynamics) with predictions from cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. We find that {\it i)} the central spheroid could result from at least one merging event, it could be a pre-existing early-type disk galaxy with a lower mass companion, and {\it ii)} the stellar envelope comes from the gradual accretion of small satellites.Comment: Accepeted for publication in Ap