397 research outputs found
Polarimetry of an Intermediate-age Open Cluster: NGC 5617
We present polarimetric observations in the UBVRI bands of 72 stars located
in the direction of the medium age open cluster NGC 5617. Our intention is to
use polarimetry as a tool membership identification, by building on previous
investigations intended mainly to determine the cluster's general
characteristics rather than provide membership suitable for studies such as
stellar content and metallicity, as well as study the characteristics of the
dust lying between the Sun and the cluster. The obsevations were carried out
using the five-channel photopolarimeter of the Torino Astronomical Observatory
attached to the 2.15m telescope at the Complejo Astron\'omico El Leoncito
(CASLEO; Argentina. We are able to add 32 stars to the list of members of NGC
5617, and review the situation for others listed in the literature. In
particular, we find that five blue straggler stars in the region of the cluster
are located behind the same dust as the member stars are and we confirm the
membership of two red giants. The proposed polarimetric memberships are
compared with those derived by photometric and kinematical methods, with
excellent results. Among the observed stars, we identify 10 with intrinsic
polarization in their light. NGC 5617 can be polarimetrically characterized
with and . The spread in polarization
values for the stars observed in the direction of the cluster seems to be
caused by the uneven distribution of dust in front of the cluster's face.
Finally, we find that in the direction of the cluster, the interstellar medium
is apparently free of dust, from the Sun's position up to the
Carina-Sagittarius arm, where NGC 5617 seems to be located at its farthest
border
A fixed point formula for the index of multi-centered N=2 black holes
We propose a formula for computing the (moduli-dependent) contribution of
multi-centered solutions to the total BPS index in terms of the
(moduli-independent) indices associated to single-centered solutions. The main
tool in our analysis is the computation of the refined index Tr(-y)^{2J_3} of
configurational degrees of freedom of multi-centered BPS black hole solutions
in N=2 supergravity by localization methods. When the charges carried by the
centers do not allow for scaling solutions (i.e. solutions where a subset of
the centers can come arbitrarily close to each other), the phase space of
classical BPS solutions is compact and the refined index localizes to a finite
set of isolated fixed points under rotations, corresponding to collinear
solutions. When the charges allow for scaling solutions, the phase space is
non-compact but appears to admit a compactification with finite volume and
additional non-isolated fixed points. We give a prescription for determining
the contributions of these fixed submanifolds by means of a `minimal
modification hypothesis', which we prove in the special case of dipole halo
configurations.Comment: 61 pages, 3 figure
Notes on Stein-Sahi representations and some problems of non harmonic analysis
We discuss one natural class of kernels on pseudo-Riemannian symmetric
spaces.Comment: 40p
Optical polarization observations of NGC 6231: evidence for a past SN fingerprint
We present the first linear multicolor polarization observations for a sample
of 35 stars in the direction of the Galactic cluster NGC 6231. We have found a
complex pattern in the angles of the polarimetric vectors. Near the core of
this cluster the structure shows a semi-circular pattern that we have
interpreted as a re-orientation of the dust particles, showing the morphology
of the magnetic field. We propose that a supernova event has occurred some time
ago and produced a shock on the local ISM. We discuss in this paper independent
confirmations othis event, both from the studies on the diffuse interstellar
absorptions Crawford (2001) and the results of the pre-main sequence stars
(PMS) given by Sung et al. (1998). We also show that a supernova is supported
by the evolutive status of the cluster.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, ApJ Accepte
Mid-term effects on ecosystem services of quarry restoration with Technosols under Mediterranean conditions : 10-year impacts on soil organic carbon and vegetation development
Ajuts : This study was funded by the Department of Territory and Sus-tainability of the Government of Catalonia through the project"Research and innovation on the control and the restoration ofextractive activities.The use of Technosols for the restoration of limestone quarries overcomes the usual "in situ" scarcity of soil and/or its poor quality. The use of mine spoils, improved with mineral and/or organic amendments, could be an efficient and environmentally friendly option. Properly treated sewage sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants could be a suitable organic amendment and fertilizer (rich in N and P) whenever its pollutant burden is low (heavy metals and/or organic pollutants). Its appropriate use could improve essential soil physical and chemical properties and, therefore, promote key ecosystem services of restored areas, such as biomass production and carbon sequestration, as well as biodiversity and landscape recovery. However, the mid-term impacts of these restoration practices on soil functioning and their services have rarely been reported in the available literature. In this study we assess the mid-term effects (10 years) of the use of sewage sludge as a Technosol amendment on soil organic carbon (SOC), nutrient status, and plant development in several restored quarries. Soils restored using sewage sludge showed a threefold increase in SOC compared to the corresponding unamended ones, despite the moderate sludge dosage applied (below 50 tonnes/ha). Plant cover was also higher in amended soils, and recruitment was not affected by sludge amendment at these doses. This study demonstrates that, used at an appropriate rate, sewage sludge is a good alternative for the valorization of mine spoils in quarry restoration, improving some important regulatory ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, without compromising woody plant encroachment
Quantum Attractor Flows
Motivated by the interpretation of the Ooguri-Strominger-Vafa conjecture as a
holographic correspondence in the mini-superspace approximation, we study the
radial quantization of stationary, spherically symmetric black holes in four
dimensions. A key ingredient is the classical equivalence between the radial
evolution equation and geodesic motion of a fiducial particle on the moduli
space M^*_3 of the three-dimensional theory after reduction along the time
direction. In the case of N=2 supergravity, M^*_3 is a para-quaternionic-Kahler
manifold; in this case, we show that BPS black holes correspond to a particular
class of geodesics which lift holomorphically to the twistor space Z of M^*_3,
and identify Z as the BPS phase space. We give a natural quantization of the
BPS phase space in terms of the sheaf cohomology of Z, and compute the exact
wave function of a BPS black hole with fixed electric and magnetic charges in
this framework. We comment on the relation to the topological string amplitude,
extensions to N>2 supergravity theories, and applications to automorphic black
hole partition functions.Comment: 43 pages, 6 figures; v2: typos and references added; v3: published
version, minor change
Probing host pathogen cross-talk by transcriptional profiling of both Mycobacterium tuberculosis and infected human dendritic cells and macrophages
This study provides the proof of principle that probing the host and the microbe transcriptomes simultaneously is a valuable means to accessing unique information on host pathogen interactions. Our results also underline the extraordinary plasticity of host cell and pathogen responses to infection, and provide a solid framework to further understand the complex mechanisms involved in immunity to M. tuberculosis and in mycobacterial adaptation to different intracellular environments
The Effects of Interactions on the Structure and Morphology of Elliptical/Lenticular galaxies in Pairs
We present a photometric and structural analysis of 42 E/S0 galaxies in (E/S0
+ S) pairs observed in the BVRI color bands. We empirically determine the
effects of interactions on their morphology, structure and stellar populations
as seen from the light concentration (C), asymmetry (A), and clumpiness (S)
parameters. We further compare these values to a control sample of 67 mostly
isolated, non-interacting E/S0 galaxies. The paired E/S0 galaxies occupy a more
scattered loci in CAS space than non-interacting E/S0's, and the structural
effects of interactions on E/S0's are minor, in contrast to disk galaxies
involved in interactions. This suggests that observational methods for
recognizing interactions at high z, such the CAS methodology, would hardly
detect E/S0's involved in interactions (related to early phases of the so
called `dry-mergers'). We however find statistical differences in A when
comparing isolated and interacting E/S0s. In the mean, paired E/S0 galaxies
have A values 2.96+-0.72 times larger than the ones of non-interacting E/S0's.
For the subset of presumably strongly interacting E/S0's, A and S can be
several times larger than the typical values of the isolated E/S0's. We show
that the asymmetries are consistent with several internal and external
morphological distortions. We conclude that the interacting E/S0s in pairs
should be dense, gas poor galaxies in systems spaning a wide range of
interaction stages, with typical merging timescales >~ 0.1-0.5 Gyr. We use the
observed phenomenology of these galaxies to predict the approximate loci of
`dry pre-mergers' in the CAS space.(Abridged)Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures included. To appear in The Astronomical Journa
High Content Phenotypic Cell-Based Visual Screen Identifies Mycobacterium tuberculosis Acyltrehalose-Containing Glycolipids Involved in Phagosome Remodeling
The ability of the tubercle bacillus to arrest phagosome maturation is considered one major mechanism that allows its survival within host macrophages. To identify mycobacterial genes involved in this process, we developed a high throughput phenotypic cell-based assay enabling individual sub-cellular analysis of over 11,000 Mycobacterium tuberculosis mutants. This very stringent assay makes use of fluorescent staining for intracellular acidic compartments, and automated confocal microscopy to quantitatively determine the intracellular localization of M. tuberculosis. We characterised the ten mutants that traffic most frequently into acidified compartments early after phagocytosis, suggesting that they had lost their ability to arrest phagosomal maturation. Molecular analysis of these mutants revealed mainly disruptions in genes involved in cell envelope biogenesis (fadD28), the ESX-1 secretion system (espL/Rv3880), molybdopterin biosynthesis (moaC1 and moaD1), as well as in genes from a novel locus, Rv1503c-Rv1506c. Most interestingly, the mutants in Rv1503c and Rv1506c were perturbed in the biosynthesis of acyltrehalose-containing glycolipids. Our results suggest that such glycolipids indeed play a critical role in the early intracellular fate of the tubercle bacillus. The unbiased approach developed here can be easily adapted for functional genomics study of intracellular pathogens, together with focused discovery of new anti-microbials
Identification of a Novel Gene Product That Promotes Survival of Mycobacterium smegmatis in Macrophages
BACKGROUND: Bacteria of the suborder Corynebacterineae include significant human pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. leprae. Drug resistance in mycobacteria is increasingly common making identification of new antimicrobials a priority. Mycobacteria replicate intracellularly, most commonly within the phagosomes of macrophages, and bacterial proteins essential for intracellular survival and persistence are particularly attractive targets for intervention with new generations of anti-mycobacterial drugs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have identified a novel gene that, when inactivated, leads to accelerated death of M. smegmatis within a macrophage cell line in the first eight hours following infection. Complementation of the mutant with an intact copy of the gene restored survival to near wild type levels. Gene disruption did not affect growth compared to wild type M. smegmatis in axenic culture or in the presence of low pH or reactive oxygen intermediates, suggesting the growth defect is not related to increased susceptibility to these stresses. The disrupted gene, MSMEG_5817, is conserved in all mycobacteria for which genome sequence information is available, and designated Rv0807 in M. tuberculosis. Although homology searches suggest that MSMEG_5817 is similar to the serine:pyruvate aminotransferase of Brevibacterium linens suggesting a possible role in glyoxylate metabolism, enzymatic assays comparing activity in wild type and mutant strains demonstrated no differences in the capacity to metabolize glyoxylate. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: MSMEG_5817 is a previously uncharacterized gene that facilitates intracellular survival of mycobacteria. Interference with the function of MSMEG_5817 may provide a novel therapeutic approach for control of mycobacterial pathogens by assisting the host immune system in clearance of persistent intracellular bacteria
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