The Luminosity Functions of Old and Intermediate-Age Globular Clusters in NGC 3610

The WFPC2 Camera on board HST has been used to obtain high-resolution images of NGC 3610, a dynamically young elliptical galaxy. These observations supersede shorter, undithered HST observations where an intermediate-age population of globular clusters was first discovered. The new observations show the bimodal color distribution of globular clusters more clearly, with peaks at (V-I)o = 0.95 and 1.17. The luminosity function (LF) of the blue, metal-poor population of clusters in NGC 3610 turns over, consistent with a Gaussian distribution with a peak Mv ~= -7.0, similar to old globular-cluster populations in ellipticals. The red, metal-rich population of clusters has a LF that is more extended toward both the bright and faint ends, as expected for a cluster population of inter-mediate age. It is well fit by a power law with an exponent of alpha = -1.78 +-0.05, or -1.90+-0.07 when corrected for observational scatter. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test confirms the significant difference between the LFs of the red and blue clusters, with a probability of less than 0.1% that they come from the same population. A comparison with the Fall & Zhang cluster disruption models shows marginal agreement with the observed LF, although there are differences in detail. In particular, there is no clear evidence of the predicted turnover at the faint end. A by-product of the analysis is the demonstration that, at any given metallicity, the peak of the LF should remain nearly constant from 1.5 Gyr to 12 Gyr, since the effect of the disruption of faint clusters is almost perfectly balanced by the fading of the clusters. This may help explain the apparent universality of the peak of the globular cluster luminosity function. (Abridged)Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX, 13 PS figures, 1 table; to appear in AJ (July 2002

Environmental and related interest groups in South Africa

Bibliographical references.This study was undertaken to provide information on interest groups or voluntary organisations which involve themselves in environmental conservation. The primary aim was to identify and list all those groups which together make up the environmental lobby in South Africa. Further aims were to determine the environmental orientation and characteristics of the groups, and to determine the degree of involvement they offer to the general public. The groups which were identified as comprising the environmental lobby are listed in a detailed form in part 2 of this study. They appear to concentrate largely on the conservation of the natural environment. The results of the study suggest that the environmental lobby contains a relatively small number of groups which register limited support. This support is drawn largely from the white section of the population. The groups themselves are well organised, but in general display a low financial base. A greater reliance appears to be made on the development of specialist skill than on the promotion of group cohesion and the generation of public support. It is believed that this may have led to the restriction of opportunities for general public involvement in group activities. It is suggested that groups in the lobby need to expand their interests to include conservation of the built environment, and so increase their appeal to the public. The opportunities for public involvement in group activities at all levels also need to be increased

Mode-coupling theory for structural and conformational dynamics of polymer melts

A mode-coupling theory for dense polymeric systems is developed which unifyingly incorporates the segmental cage effect relevant for structural slowing down and polymer chain conformational degrees of freedom. An ideal glass transition of polymer melts is predicted which becomes molecular-weight independent for large molecules. The theory provides a microscopic justification for the use of the Rouse theory in polymer melts, and the results for Rouse-mode correlators and mean-squared displacements are in good agreement with computer simulation results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. in pres

The dynamical mass of the young cluster W3 in NGC 7252: Heavy-Weight globular cluster or ultra compact dwarf galaxy ?

We have determined the dynamical mass of the most luminous stellar cluster known to date, i.e. object W3 in the merger remnant galaxy NGC 7252. The dynamical mass is estimated from the velocity dispersion measured with the high-resolution spectrograph UVES on VLT. Our result is the astonishingly high velocity dispersion of sigma=45 +- 5 km/s. Combined with the large cluster size R_eff=17.5 +-1.8 pc, this translates into a dynamical virial mass for W3 of 8 +- 2 x 10^7 Msun. This mass is in excellent agreement with the value 7.2 x 10^7 Msun we previously estimated from the cluster luminosity M_V=-16.2 by means of stellar M/L ratios predicted by Simple Stellar Population models (with a Salpeter IMF) and confirms the heavy-weight nature of this object. This results points out that the NGC 7252-type of mergers are able to form stellar systems with masses up to ~ 10^8 Msun. We find that W3, when evolved to ~ 10 Gyr, lies far from the typical Milky Way globular clusters, but appears to be also separated from omegaCen in the Milky Way and G1 in M31, the most massive old stellar clusters of the Local Group, because it is too extended for a given mass, and from dwarf elliptical galaxies because it is much more compact for its mass. Instead the aged W3 is amazingly close to the compact objects named ultracompact dwarf galaxies (UCDGs) found in the Fornax cluster (Hilker et al. 1999; Drinkwater et al. 2000), and to a miniature version of the compact elliptical M32. These objects start populating a previously deserted region of the fundamental plane.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, A&A in pres

Deep Luminosity Functions of Old and Intermediate-Age Globular Clusters in NGC 1316: Evidence for Dynamical Evolution of Second-Generation Globular Clusters

The Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to obtain deep high-resolution images of the giant early-type galaxy NGC 1316 which is an obvious merger remnant. These observations supersede previous, shallower observations which revealed the presence of a population of metal-rich globular clusters of intermediate age (~ 3 Gyr). We detect a total of 1496 cluster candidates, almost 4 times as many as from the previous WFPC2 images. We confirm the bimodality of the color distribution of clusters, even in V-I, with peak colors 0.93 and 1.06. The large number of detected clusters allows us to evaluate the globular cluster luminosity functions as a function of galactocentric radius. We find that the luminosity function of the inner 50% of the intermediate-age, metal-rich (`red') population of clusters differs markedly from that of the outer 50%. In particular, the luminosity function of the inner 50% of the red clusters shows a clear flattening consistent with a turnover that is about 1.0 mag fainter than the turnover of the blue clusters. This constitutes the first direct evidence that metal-rich cluster populations formed during major mergers of gas-rich galaxies can evolve dynamically (through disruption processes) into the red, metal-rich cluster populations that are ubiquitous in `normal' giant ellipticals.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 4 pages in emulateapj style. 3 figure

Data-driven Bicycle Network Analysis Based on Traditional Counting Methods and GPS Traces from Smartphone

This research describes numerical methods to analyze the absolute transport demand of cyclists and to quantify the road network weaknesses of a city with the aim to identify infrastructure improvements in favor of cyclists. The methods are based on a combination of bicycle counts and map-matched GPS traces. The methods are demonstrated with data from the city of Bologna, Italy: approximately 27,500 GPS traces from cyclists were recorded over a period of one month on a volunteer basis using a smartphone application. One method estimates absolute, city-wide bicycle flows by scaling map-matched bicycle flows of the entire network to manual and instrumental bicycle counts at the main bikeways of the city. As there is a fairly high correlation between the two sources of flow data, the absolute bike-flows of the entire network have been correctly estimated. Another method describes a novel, total deviation metric per link which quantifies for each network edge the total deviation generated for cyclists in terms of extra distances traveled with respect to the shortest possible route. The deviations are accepted by cyclists either to avoid unpleasant road attributes along the shortest route or to experience more favorable road attributes along the chosen route. The total deviation metric indicates to the planner which road links are contributing most to the total deviation of all cyclists. In this way, repellant and attractive road attributes for cyclists can be identified. This is why the total deviation metric is of practical help to prioritize bike infrastructure construction on individual road network links. Finally, the map-matched traces allow the calibration of a discrete choice model between two route alternatives, considering distance, share of exclusive bikeway, and share of low-priority roads

Support of a laboratory-hosted Athlete Biological Passport Management Unit (APMU) to the anti-doping organisations

The athlete biological passport (ABP) is an established means for longitudinal monitoring of selected individual biomarkers of an athlete to obtain indirect but potentially long-term indications of the use of substances or methods prohibited in sport. Along the change from population-based reference values to individual profiling, the ABP aims at triggering follow-up investigations concerning the potential use of endogenous substances with doping potential, which might be difficult either to identify with the existing analytical methods or to interpret based only on the results of a single biological sample. The ABP program has been on-going within the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) management since 2009, when the hematological module was officially established to discover blood doping practices, such as administration of erythropoietin (EPO) or application of blood transfusion. Since 2014, the ABP has been complemented by the steroid module, with the aim of targeting the prohibited use of testosterone and other endogenous anabolic androgenic steroids with performance enhancing or masking capability. Although the main objective is to guide and assist the anti-doping organizations in their test distribution plans, the ABP may also be used to proceed with a case to an anti-doping rule violation. Evaluation of biological markers, especially in distinguishing between doping from other confounding factors, requires high level and diversity of expertise, which is coordinated by the athlete biological passport management unit (APMU). Since 2019, the WADA accredited anti-doping laboratories are defined as the host organizations for the APMUs. The benefit of such a structure is to obtain a fully anonymous evaluation process for the passports and an additional level of expertise for the interpretation of analytical results as well as to have a fluent communication line with the analyzing laboratories when further details are needed for the analytical testing and documentation