Evidence for a companion to BM Gem, a silicate carbon star

Balmer and Paschen continuum emission as well as Balmer series lines of P Cygni-type profile from H_gamma through H_23 are revealed in the violet spectra of BM Gem, a carbon star associated with an oxygen-rich circumstellar shell (`silicate carbon star') observed with the high dispersion spectrograph (HDS) on the Subaru telescope. The blue-shifted absorption in the Balmer lines indicates the presence of an outflow, the line of sight velocity of which is at least 400 km s^-1, which is the highest outflow velocity observed to date in a carbon star. We argue that the observed unusual features in BM Gem are strong evidence for the presence of a companion, which should form an accretion disk that gives rise to both an ionized gas region and a high velocity, variable outflow. The estimated luminosity of ~0.2 (0.03-0.6) L_sun for the ionized gas can be maintained by a mass accretion rate to a dwarf companion of ~10^-8 M_sun yr^-1, while ~10^-10 M_sun yr^-1 is sufficient for accretion to a white dwarf companion. These accretion rates are feasible for some detached binary configurations on the basis of the Bond-Hoyle type accretion process. We concluded that the carbon star BM Gem is in a detached binary system with a companion of low mass and low luminosity. However, we are unable to determine whether this companion object is a dwarf or a white dwarf. The upper limits for binary separation are 210 AU and 930 AU for a dwarf and a white dwarf, respectively. We also note that the observed features of BM Gem mimic those of Mira (omi Cet), which may suggest actual similarities in their binary configurations and circumstellar structures.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Ap

Orbital Evolution of Algol Binaries with a Circumbinary Disk

It is generally thought that conservative mass transfer in Algol binaries causes their orbits to be wider, in which the less massive star overflows its Roche-lobe. The observed decrease in the orbital periods of some Algol binaries suggests orbital angular momentum loss during the binary evolution, and the magnetic braking mechanism is often invoked to explain the observed orbital shrinkage. Here we suggest an alternative explanation, assuming that a small fraction of the transferred mass forms a circumbinary disk, which extracts orbital angular momentum from the binary through tidal torques. We also perform numerical calculations of the evolution of Algol binaries with typical initial masses and orbital periods. The results indicate that, for reasonable input parameters, the circumbinary disk can significantly influence the orbital evolution, and cause the orbit to shrink on a sufficiently long timescale. Rapid mass transfer in Algol binaries with low mass ratios can also be accounted for in this scenario.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

The Linkage Between Neighborhood and Voluntary Association Patterns: a Comparison of Black and White Urban Populations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68314/2/10.1177_089976407400300201.pd

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

The dominant ethnic moment: towards the abolition of 'whiteness'?

International audienc

Empirical Legal Studies Before 1940: A Bibliographic Essay

The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper is an extensive bibliographic essay that surveys the English language empirical legal research from approximately 1940 and earlier. The essay is arranged around the themes in the research: criminal justice, civil justice (general studies of civil litigation, auto accident litigation and compensation, divorce, small claims, jurisdiction and procedure, civil juries), debt and bankruptcy, banking, appellate courts, legal needs, legal profession (including legal education), and judicial staffing and selection. Accompanying the essay is an extensive bibliography of research articles, books, and reports

Genetic causes of hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis

Renal stone disease (nephrolithiasis) affects 3–5% of the population and is often associated with hypercalciuria. Hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis is a familial disorder in over 35% of patients and may occur as a monogenic disorder that is more likely to manifest itself in childhood. Studies of these monogenic forms of hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis in humans, e.g. Bartter syndrome, Dent’s disease, autosomal dominant hypocalcemic hypercalciuria (ADHH), hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis with hypophosphatemia, and familial hypomagnesemia with hypercalciuria have helped to identify a number of transporters, channels and receptors that are involved in regulating the renal tubular reabsorption of calcium. Thus, Bartter syndrome, an autosomal disease, is caused by mutations of the bumetanide-sensitive Na–K–Cl (NKCC2) co-transporter, the renal outer-medullary potassium (ROMK) channel, the voltage-gated chloride channel, CLC-Kb, the CLC-Kb beta subunit, barttin, or the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR). Dent’s disease, an X-linked disorder characterized by low molecular weight proteinuria, hypercalciuria and nephrolithiasis, is due to mutations of the chloride/proton antiporter 5, CLC-5; ADHH is associated with activating mutations of the CaSR, which is a G-protein-coupled receptor; hypophosphatemic hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis associated with rickets is due to mutations in the type 2c sodium–phosphate co-transporter (NPT2c); and familial hypomagnesemia with hypercalciuria is due to mutations of paracellin-1, which is a member of the claudin family of membrane proteins that form the intercellular tight junction barrier in a variety of epithelia. These studies have provided valuable insights into the renal tubular pathways that regulate calcium reabsorption and predispose to hypercalciuria and nephrolithiasis

Maternal exposure to air pollution before and during pregnancy related to changes in newborn's cord blood lymphocyte subpopulations. The EDEN study cohort

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Toxicants can cross the placenta and expose the developing fetus to chemical contamination leading to possible adverse health effects, by potentially inducing alterations in immune competence. Our aim was to investigate the impacts of maternal exposure to air pollution before and during pregnancy on newborn's immune system.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Exposure to background particulate matter less than 10 μm in diameter (PM₁₀) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) was assessed in 370 women three months before and during pregnancy using monitoring stations. Personal exposure to four volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was measured in a subsample of 56 non-smoking women with a diffusive air sampler during the second trimester of pregnancy. Cord blood was analyzed at birth by multi-parameter flow cytometry to determine lymphocyte subsets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among other immunophenotypic changes in cord blood, decreases in the CD4+CD25+ T-cell percentage of 0.82% (p = 0.01), 0.71% (p = 0.04), 0.88% (p = 0.02), and 0.59% (p = 0.04) for a 10 μg/m³increase in PM₁₀levels three months before and during the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy, respectively, were observed after adjusting for confounders. A similar decrease in CD4+CD25+ T-cell percentage was observed in association with personal exposure to benzene. A similar trend was observed between NO₂exposure and CD4+CD25+ T-cell percentage; however the association was stronger between NO₂exposure and an increased percentage of CD8+ T-cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that maternal exposure to air pollution before and during pregnancy may alter the immune competence in offspring thus increasing the child's risk of developing health conditions later in life, including asthma and allergies.</p

Culture, government, and spatiality: re-assessing the 'Foucault effect' in cultural-policy studies

This article critically discusses the reconceptualization of culture and governmentality in recent Australian ‘cultural–policy studies’. It argues that the further development of this conceptualization requires a more careful consideration of the complex relations between culture, power and the different spatialities of social practices. The assumptions of this literature regarding social-democratic public institutions and the nation-state are critically addressed in the light of contemporary processes of globalization. It is argued that the use made of Foucault in this paradigm privileges a model of disciplinary power which is dependent on a particular spatialization of social subjects and technologies of the self. As a result, an uncritical application of this model to all cultural practices supports a far too coherent image of practices of ‘government’ in producing sought-after subject-effects. It is suggested that the different articulations of spatio-temporal presence and absence in cultural technologies require a less totalizing understanding of the forms of power exercised through governmental practices