667 research outputs found
An extreme paucity of second population AGB stars in the normal globular cluster M4
Galactic Globular clusters (GCs) are now known to harbour multiple stellar
populations, which are chemically distinct in many light element abundances. It
is becoming increasingly clear that asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in GCs
show different abundance distributions in light elements compared to those in
the red giant branch (RGB) and other phases, skewing toward more primordial,
field-star-like abundances, which we refer to as subpopulation one (SP1). As
part of a larger program targeting giants in GCs, we obtained high-resolution
spectra for a sample of 106 RGB and 15 AGB stars in Messier 4 (NGC 6121) using
the 2dF+HERMES facility on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. In this Letter we
report an extreme paucity of AGB stars with [Na/O] > -0.17 in M4, which
contrasts with the RGB that has abundances up to [Na/O] =0.55. The AGB
abundance distribution is consistent with all AGB stars being from SP1. This
result appears to imply that all subpopulation two stars (SP2; Na-rich, O-poor)
avoid the AGB phase. This is an unexpected result given M4's horizontal branch
morphology -- it does not have an extended blue horizontal branch. This is the
first abundance study to be performed utilising the HERMES spectrograph.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables (full Table 1 online). Accepted for
publication in MNRAS Letter
Component release after exposure of Staphylococcus aureus cells to pulsed electric fields
The objective of this work was to get further insights on the mechanism of inactivation of bacterial cells by pulsed electric fields (PEF) through the study of the release of intracellular components after exposing Staphylococcus aureus cells in McIvlaine buffer (pH 7.0, 2 mS/cm) to PEF treatments of different intensity (18 and 25 kV/cm) and treatment times (from 20 to 400 mu s). Release of most compounds, except proteins, was almost immediate after the treatment, but the relative amount released depended on the molecule studied. A good correlation between the release of the smallest components studied (particularly ions) and membrane permeabilization (as measured by NaCl sensitization and PI entry) was observed. On the other hand, results obtained suggested that S. aureus inactivation by PEF would be related to the exit of cytoplasmic proteins of a molecular weight higher than 6 kDa. Results obtained in this work indicated that increasing PEF treatment time would reduce the capability of S. aureus cells to repair the electropores formed and suggested that this might be due to the formation of pores of a larger size, which S. aureus cells would be unable to reseal in a situation of homeostasis loss. Industrial relevance: Results reported here can help to design more effective treatments for microbial inactivation using PEF on food, and therefore facilitate its industrial implementation
AGB subpopulations in the nearby globular cluster NGC 6397
It has been well established that Galactic Globular clusters (GCs) harbour
more than one stellar population, distinguishable by the anti-correlations of
light element abundances (C-N, Na-O, and Mg-Al). These studies have been
extended recently to the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Here we investigate the
AGB of NGC 6397 for the first time. We have performed an abundance analysis of
high-resolution spectra of 47 RGB and 8 AGB stars, deriving Fe, Na, O, Mg and
Al abundances. We find that NGC 6397 shows no evidence of a deficit in Na-rich
AGB stars, as reported for some other GCs - the subpopulation ratios of the AGB
and RGB in NGC 6397 are identical, within uncertainties. This agrees with
expectations from stellar theory. This GC acts as a control for our earlier
work on the AGB of M 4 (with contrasting results), since the same tools and
methods were used.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 8 tables (2 online-only). Accepted for
publication in MNRA
Lithium abundances in globular cluster giants: NGC 1904, NGC 2808, and NGC 362
The presence of multiple populations in globular clusters has been well
established thanks to high-resolution spectroscopy. It is widely accepted that
distinct populations are a consequence of different stellar generations:
intra-cluster pollution episodes are required to produce the peculiar chemistry
observed in almost all clusters. Unfortunately, the progenitors responsible
have left an ambiguous signature and their nature remains unresolved. To
constrain the candidate polluters, we have measured lithium and aluminium
abundances in more than 180 giants across three systems: NGC~1904, NGC~2808,
and NGC~362. The present investigation along with our previous analysis of M12
and M5 affords us the largest database of simultaneous determinations of Li and
Al abundances. Our results indicate that Li production has occurred in each of
the three clusters. In NGC~362 we detected an M12-like behaviour, with first
and second-generation stars sharing very similar Li abundances favouring a
progenitor that is able to produce Li, such as AGB stars. Multiple progenitor
types are possible in NGC~1904 and NGC~2808, as they possess both an
intermediate population comparable in lithium to the first generation stars and
also an extreme population, that is enriched in Al but depleted in Li. A simple
dilution model fails in reproducing this complex pattern. Finally, the internal
Li variation seems to suggest that the production efficiency of this element is
a function of the cluster's mass and metallicity - low-mass or relatively
metal-rich clusters are more adept at producing Li.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 10 pages, 8 figure
Persistent or Recurrent Diabetic Macular Edema After Fluocinolone Acetonide 0.19 mg Implant: Risk Factors and Management
Purpose: To investigate baseline characteristics of patients undergoing additional antivascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections for residual or recurrent diabetic macular edema (DME) in the first year after 0.19-mg fluocinolone acetonide (FAc) implant. Design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: Ninety-four eyes of 66 patients received an FAc implant. Eyes with persistent or recurrent DME were managed with pro re nata anti-VEGF agents. Demographic data and medical history were collected at baseline. Best-corrected visual acuity and central macular thickness were measured every 2 months. The 3 outcomes explored were 1) the risk factors for administration of additional anti-VEGF agents, 2) the interval from FAc to first anti-VEGF injection; and 3) the number of anti-VEGF doses required to maintain regression of DME. Results: Eighteen eyes (19.1%) of 13 patients received 1.3 ± 0.6 anti-VEGF injections. These eyes had significantly thicker central macular thickness at baseline and over the entire follow-up period (P < .001); best-corrected visual acuity was similar at every time point to eyes that were not receiving extra DME treatments. Eyes without preexistent panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) had a higher risk to undergo supplemental treatments (hazard ratio 1.5 [95% confidence interval 1.1-2.5, P = .03). The interval between FAc implant and the first anti-VEGF had a significant linear positive relationship with the number of dexamethasone implants before FAc implant (P = .002, R2 = 0.47). No association was found between baseline factors and the number of injections given. Conclusion: Anti-VEGF agents are efficient treatment to maintain visual acuity in residual/recurrent DME after FAc. Patients with higher baseline central macular thickness and with no previous central macular thickness are more likely to require additional treatments to control DME
The Asymptotic Giant Branches of GCs: Selective Entry Only
The handful of available observations of AGB stars in Galactic Globular
Clusters suggest that the GC AGB populations are dominated by cyanogen-weak
stars. This contrasts strongly with the distributions in the RGB (and other)
populations, which generally show a 50:50 bimodality in CN band strength. If it
is true that the AGB populations show very different distributions then it
presents a serious problem for low mass stellar evolution theory, since such a
surface abundance change going from the RGB to AGB is not predicted by stellar
models. However this is only a tentative conclusion, since it is based on very
small AGB sample sizes. To test whether this problem really exists we have
carried out an observational campaign specifically targeting AGB stars in GCs.
We have obtained medium resolution spectra for about 250 AGB stars across 9
Galactic GCs using the multi-object spectrograph on the AAT (2df/AAOmega). We
present some of the preliminary findings of the study for the second parameter
trio of GCs: NGC 288, NGC 362 and NGC 1851. The results indeed show that there
is a deficiency of stars with strong CN bands on the AGB. To confirm that this
phenomenon is robust and not just confined to CN band strengths and their
vagaries, we have made observations using FLAMES/VLT to measure elemental
abundances for NGC 6752.We present some initial results from this study also.
Our sodium abundance results show conclusively that only a subset of stars in
GCs experience the AGB phase of evolution. This is the first direct, concrete
confirmation of the phenomenon.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in conference proceedings of "Reading the book of
globular clusters with the lens of stellar evolution", Rome, 26-28 November
201
A Search for Nitrogen-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars
Theoretical models of very metal-poor intermediate-mass Asymptotic Giant
Branch (AGB) stars predict a large overabundance of primary nitrogen. The very
metal-poor, carbon-enhanced, s-process-rich stars, which are thought to be the
polluted companions of now-extinct AGB stars, provide direct tests of the
predictions of these models. Recent studies of the carbon and nitrogen
abundances in metal-poor stars have focused on the most carbon-rich stars,
leading to a potential selection bias against stars that have been polluted by
AGB stars that produced large amounts of nitrogen, and hence have small [C/N]
ratios. We call these stars Nitrogen-Enhanced Metal-Poor (NEMP) stars, and
define them as having [N/Fe] > +0.5 and [C/N] < -0.5. In this paper, we report
on the [C/N] abundances of a sample of 21 carbon-enhanced stars, all but three
of which have [C/Fe] < +2.0. If NEMP stars were made as easily as
Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) stars, then we expected to find between two
and seven NEMP stars. Instead, we found no NEMP stars in our sample. Therefore,
this observational bias is not an important contributor to the apparent dearth
of N-rich stars. Our [C/N] values are in the same range as values reported
previously in the literature (-0.5 to +2.0), and all stars are in disagreement
with the predicted [C/N] ratios for both low-mass and high-mass AGB stars. We
suggest that the decrease in [C/N] from the low-mass AGB models is due to
enhanced extra-mixing, while the lack of NEMP stars may be caused by
unfavorable mass ratios in binaries or the difficulty of mass transfer in
binary systems with large mass ratios.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Ap
The Large Magellanic Cloud globular cluster NGC 1866: new data, new models, new analysis
We present a new deep (down to V ~ 24) photometry of a wide region (6'x 6')
around the LMC globular cluster NGC1866: our sample is complete, down to 3 mag
below the brightest MS star. Detailed comparisons with various theoretical
scenarios using models computed with the evolutionary code FRANEC have been
done reaching the following conclusions: both standard models (i.e. computed by
adopting the Schwarzschild criterion to fix the border of the convective core)
and models with an enlarged convective core (overshooting) lead to a fair fit
of the MS but are not able to reproduce the luminosity and/or the number of He
burning giants. Models including a fraction of 30% of binaries leads to a good
fit both to the MS luminosity function and to the He clump, if standards models
are considered, for a visual distance modulus (m-M)v = 18.8, age t ~ 100 Myr
and mass function slope alpha ~ 2.4, thus largely removing the "classical"
discrepancy between observed and predicted number of stars in the He burning
clump. The fit obtained with models computed with an enlarged convective core
gets worse when a binary component is taken into account, because the presence
of binary systems increases the existing discrepancy between the observed and
predicted clump luminosity. As a consequence of this analysis, we conclude that
the next step towards a proper understanding of NGC 1866, and similar clusters,
must include the accurate determination of the frequency of binary systems that
will be hopefully performed with the incoming Cycle 8 HST observations of
NGC~1866.Comment: AASTEX 5.0, 33 pages, 35 figures. Two tables of photometry and full
resolution figures available on request from the first author
([email protected]). Accepted on A
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