3,984 research outputs found
Flares in Open Clusters with K2. I. M45 (Pleiades), M44 (Praesepe) and M67
The presence and strength of a stellar magnetic field and activity is rooted
in a star's fundamental parameters such as mass and age. Can flares serve as an
accurate stellar "clock"?
To explore if we can quantify an activity-age relation in the form of a
flaring-age relation, we measured trends in the flaring rates and energies for
stars with different masses and ages.
We investigated the time-domain photometry provided by Kepler's follow-up
mission K2 and searched for flares in three solar metallicity open clusters
with well-known ages, M45 (0.125 Gyr), M44 (0.63 Gyr), and M67 (4.3 Gyr). We
updated and employed the automated flare finding and analysis pipeline
Appaloosa, originally designed for Kepler. We introduced a synthetic flare
injection and recovery subroutine to ascribe detection and energy recovery
rates for flares in a broad energy range for each light curve. We collected a
sample of 1 761 stars, mostly late-K to mid-M dwarfs and found 751 flare
candidates with energies ranging from erg to
erg, of which 596 belong to M45, 155 to M44, and none to M67.
We find that flaring activity depends both on , and age. But
all flare frequency distributions have similar slopes with , supporting a universal flare generation process. We discuss
implications for the physical conditions under which flares occur, and how the
sample's metallicity and multiplicity affect our results.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, appendix. Accepted to A&
Sbf/MTMR13 coordinates PI(3)P and Rab21 regulation in endocytic control of cellular remodeling.
Cells rely on the coordinated regulation of lipid phosphoinositides and Rab GTPases to define membrane compartment fates along distinct trafficking routes. The family of disease-related myotubularin (MTM) phosphoinositide phosphatases includes catalytically inactive members, or pseudophosphatases, with poorly understood functions. We found that Drosophila MTM pseudophosphatase Sbf coordinates both phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PI(3)P) turnover and Rab21 GTPase activation in an endosomal pathway that controls macrophage remodeling. Sbf dynamically interacts with class II phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and stably recruits Mtm to promote turnover of a PI(3)P subpool essential for endosomal trafficking. Sbf also functions as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that promotes Rab21 GTPase activation associated with PI(3)P endosomes. Of importance, Sbf, Mtm, and Rab21 function together, along with Rab11-mediated endosomal trafficking, to control macrophage protrusion formation. This identifies Sbf as a critical coordinator of PI(3)P and Rab21 regulation, which specifies an endosomal pathway and cortical control
Deciduous enamel 3D microwear texture analysis as an indicator of childhood diet in medieval Canterbury, England
This study conducted the first three dimensional microwear texture analysis of human deciduous teeth to reconstruct the physical properties of medieval childhood diet (age 1-8yrs) at St Gregory's Priory and Cemetery (11th to 16th century AD) in Canterbury, England. Occlusal texture complexity surfaces of maxillary molars from juvenile skeletons (n=44) were examined to assess dietary hardness. Anisotropy values were calculated to reconstruct dietary toughness, as well as jaw movements during chewing. Evidence of weaning was sought, and variation in the physical properties of food was assessed against age and socio-economic status. Results indicate that weaning had already commenced in the youngest children. Diet became tougher from four years of age, and harder from age six. Variation in microwear texture surfaces was related to historical textual evidence that refers to lifestyle developments for these age groups. Diet did not vary with socio-economic status, which differs to previously reported patterns for adults. We conclude, microwear texture analyses can provide a non-destructive tool for revealing subtle aspects of childhood diet in the past
- …