64 research outputs found
Comparing galaxy populations in compact and loose groups of galaxies
We perform a comparison of the properties of galaxies in compact groups,
loose groups and in the field to deepen our understanding of the physical
mechanisms acting upon galaxy evolution in different environments. We select
samples of galaxies in compact groups identified by McConnachie et al., loose
groups identified by Zandivarez and Martinez, and field galaxies from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey. We compare properties of the galaxy populations in these
different environments: absolute magnitude, colour, size, surface brightness,
stellar mass and concentration. We also study the fraction of red and early
type galaxies, the luminosity function, the colour-luminosity and
luminosity-size relations. The population of galaxies in compact groups differ
from that of loose groups and the field. The fraction of read and early type
galaxies is higher in compact groups. On average, galaxies in compact groups
are systematically smaller, more concentrated and have higher surface
brightness than galaxies in the field and in loose groups. For fixed absolute
magnitude, or fixed surface brightness, galaxies in compact groups are smaller.
The physical mechanisms that transform galaxies into earlier types could be
more effective within compact groups given the high densities and low velocity
dispersion that characterise that particular environment, this could explain
the large fraction of red and early type galaxies we found in compact groups.
Galaxies inhabiting compact groups have undergone a major transformation
compared to galaxies that inhabit loose groups.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysics (A&A
The bimodality of the 10k zCOSMOS-bright galaxies up to z ~ 1: a new statistical and portable classification based on the optical galaxy properties
Our goal is to develop a new and reliable statistical method to classify
galaxies from large surveys. We probe the reliability of the method by
comparing it with a three-dimensional classification cube, using the same set
of spectral, photometric and morphological parameters.We applied two different
methods of classification to a sample of galaxies extracted from the zCOSMOS
redshift survey, in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.3. The first method is the
combination of three independent classification schemes, while the second
method exploits an entirely new approach based on statistical analyses like
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Unsupervised Fuzzy Partition (UFP)
clustering method. The PCA+UFP method has been applied also to a lower redshift
sample (z < 0.5), exploiting the same set of data but the spectral ones,
replaced by the equivalent width of H. The comparison between the two
methods shows fairly good agreement on the definition on the two main clusters,
the early-type and the late-type galaxies ones. Our PCA-UFP method of
classification is robust, flexible and capable of identifying the two main
populations of galaxies as well as the intermediate population. The
intermediate galaxy population shows many of the properties of the green valley
galaxies, and constitutes a more coherent and homogeneous population. The
fairly large redshift range of the studied sample allows us to behold the
downsizing effect: galaxies with masses of the order of Msun
mainly are found in transition from the late type to the early type group at
, while galaxies with lower masses - of the order of Msun -
are in transition at later epochs; galaxies with Msun did not
begin their transition yet, while galaxies with very large masses ( Msun) mostly completed their transition before .Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Improved constraints on the expansion rate of the Universe up to z~1.1 from the spectroscopic evolution of cosmic chronometers
We present new improved constraints on the Hubble parameter H(z) in the
redshift range 0.15 < z < 1.1, obtained from the differential spectroscopic
evolution of early-type galaxies as a function of redshift. We extract a large
sample of early-type galaxies (\sim11000) from several spectroscopic surveys,
spanning almost 8 billion years of cosmic lookback time (0.15 < z < 1.42). We
select the most massive, red elliptical galaxies, passively evolving and
without signature of ongoing star formation. Those galaxies can be used as
standard cosmic chronometers, as firstly proposed by Jimenez & Loeb (2002),
whose differential age evolution as a function of cosmic time directly probes
H(z). We analyze the 4000 {\AA} break (D4000) as a function of redshift, use
stellar population synthesis models to theoretically calibrate the dependence
of the differential age evolution on the differential D4000, and estimate the
Hubble parameter taking into account both statistical and systematical errors.
We provide 8 new measurements of H(z) (see Tab. 4), and determine its change in
H(z) to a precision of 5-12% mapping homogeneously the redshift range up to z
\sim 1.1; for the first time, we place a constraint on H(z) at z \neq 0 with a
precision comparable with the one achieved for the Hubble constant (about 5-6%
at z \sim 0.2), and covered a redshift range (0.5 < z < 0.8) which is crucial
to distinguish many different quintessence cosmologies. These measurements have
been tested to best match a \Lambda CDM model, clearly providing a
statistically robust indication that the Universe is undergoing an accelerated
expansion. This method shows the potentiality to open a new avenue in constrain
a variety of alternative cosmologies, especially when future surveys (e.g.
Euclid) will open the possibility to extend it up to z \sim 2.Comment: 34 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables, published in JCAP. It is a companion
to Moresco et al. (2012b, http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.6658) and Jimenez et al.
(2012, http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.3608). The H(z) data can be downloaded at
http://www.physics-astronomy.unibo.it/en/research/areas/astrophysics/cosmology-with-cosmic-chronometer
Black hole accretion and host galaxies of obscured quasars in XMM-COSMOS
We explore the connection between black hole growth at the center of obscured
quasars selected from the XMM-COSMOS survey and the physical properties of
their host galaxies. We study a bolometric regime ( 8 x 10^45 erg/s)
where several theoretical models invoke major galaxy mergers as the main
fueling channel for black hole accretion. We confirm that obscured quasars
mainly reside in massive galaxies (Mstar>10^10 Msun) and that the fraction of
galaxies hosting such powerful quasars monotonically increases with the stellar
mass. We stress the limitation of the use of rest-frame color-magnitude
diagrams as a diagnostic tool for studying galaxy evolution and inferring the
influence that AGN activity can have on such a process. We instead use the
correlation between star-formation rate and stellar mass found for star-forming
galaxies to discuss the physical properties of the hosts. We find that at z ~1,
~62% of Type-2 QSOs hosts are actively forming stars and that their rates are
comparable to those measured for normal star-forming galaxies. The fraction of
star-forming hosts increases with redshift: ~71% at z ~2, and 100% at z ~3. We
also find that the the evolution from z ~1 to z ~3 of the specific
star-formation rate of the Type-2 QSO hosts is in excellent agreement with that
measured for star-forming galaxies. From the morphological analysis, we
conclude that most of the objects are bulge-dominated galaxies, and that only a
few of them exhibit signs of recent mergers or disks. Finally, bulge-dominated
galaxies tend to host Type-2 QSOs with low Eddington ratios (lambda<0.1), while
disk-dominated or merging galaxies have at their centers BHs accreting at high
Eddington ratios (lambda > 0.1).Comment: Accepted by A&A. 20 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables. A version with
higher resolution figures and SED fits of Appendix A is available at
http://www.eso.org/~vmainier/QSO2/qso2.pd
Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries
Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely
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Steam Pretreatment for Coal Liquefaction. Second Quarterly Report, 1 January 1991--31 March 1991
Steam pretreatment is the reaction of coal with steam at temperatures well below those usually used for solubilization. The objective of the proposed work is to test the application of steam pretreatment to coal liquefaction. This quarter, a 300 ml stirred autoclave for liquefaction tests was received and installation initiated. Four coal samples were obtained from the Penn State Sample Bank. Continuous flow pretreatment procedures were reestablished. Extraction yields after pretreatment of the new sample of Illinois No. 6 coal are in agreement with previous results even though the particle size is considerably larger. Purification of the model compound B-naphthylmethyl phenyl ether has been completed. However, {alpha}-naphthylmethyl phenyl ether has been found to undergo acid catalyzed rearrangement during purification on silica. An alternative method for purification is being examined
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Steam pretreatment for coal liquefaction. Third quarterly report, 1 April 1991--30 June 1991
Steam pretreatment is the reaction of coal with steam at temperatures well below those usually used for solubilization. The objective of the proposed work is to test the application of steam pretreatment to coal liquefaction. A 300 ml stirred autoclave for liquefaction tests is being installed. A nonflow steam pretreatment procedure has been established for work with model compounds. Pretreatment tests with Blind Canyon coal, a coal similar to Illinois No. 6 but containing no sulfur, have been started. These initial tests show only a slight increase in yield resulting from pretreatment. A method for purifying {alpha}napthylmethyl phenyl ether has been found which avoids its acid catalyzed rearrangement. Alpha-benzylnaphthyl ether has been pretreated and the products tentatively identified
Recommended from our members
Steam pretreatment for coal liquefaction
Steam pretreatment is the reaction of coal with steam at temperatures well below those usually used for solubilization. The objective of the proposed work is to test the application of steam pretreatment to coal liquefaction. This quarter, a 300 ml stirred autoclave for liquefaction tests was received and installation initiated. Four coal samples were obtained from the Penn State Sample Bank. Continuous flow pretreatment procedures were reestablished. Extraction yields after pretreatment of the new sample of Illinois No. 6 coal are in agreement with previous results even though the particle size is considerably larger. Purification of the model compound {beta}-naphthylmethyl phenyl ether has been completed. However, {alpha}-naphthylmethyl phenyl ether has been found to undergo acid catalyzed rearrangement during purification on silica. An alternative method for purification is being examined. 4 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab
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Steam Pretreatment for Coal Liquefaction. Fourth Quarterly Report, 1 July 1991--30 September 1991
Steam pretreatment is the reaction of coal with steam at temperatures well below those usually used for solubilization. The objective of the proposed work is to test the application of steam pretreatment to coal liquefaction. A 300 ml stirred autoclave for liquefaction tests is being installed. Pretreatment and extraction tests were made with Blind Canyon coal alone, mixed with Illinois No. 6 coal, impregnated with iron, and impregnated with iron and sulfided using phenyl disulfide. Measurements show an increase in volatiles yield and a decrease in extraction yield with catalyst addition. These results are not yet definitive, because both yields may be artificially decreased by insoluble residue from phenyl disulfide. About one ram of purified {alpha}-naphthylmethyl phenyl ether was prepared and an additional 0. 8 gram were synthesized. Steam pretreatment of the model compound {alpha}-benzylnaphthyl ether was repeated with a Pyrex liner for the reactor tube. No differences have yet appeared as a result of using this liner (compared to bare stainless steel), evidence against any catalytic wall effect
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