6,229 research outputs found
First Evidence of a Precessing Jet Excavating a Protostellar Envelope
We present new, sensitive, near-infrared images of the Class I protostar,
Elias 29, in the Ophiuchus cloud core. To explore the relationship between the
infall envelope and the outflow, narrowband H2 1-0 S(1), Br-gamma, and
narrowband K-continuum filters were used to image the source with the
Wide-Field Infrared Camera on the Hale 5m telescope and with Persson's
Auxiliary Nasmyth Infrared Camera on the Baade 6.5 m telescope. The source
appears as a bipolar, scattered light nebula, with a wide opening angle in all
filters, as is typical for late-stage protostars. However, the pure H2
emission-line images point to the presence of a heretofore undetected
precessing jet. It is argued that high-velocity, narrow, precessing jets
provide the mechanism for creating the observed wide-angled outflow cavity in
this source.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl
A Dusty Disk Around GD 362, a White Dwarf With a Uniquely High Photospheric Metal Abundance
Eighteen years after an infrared excess was discovered associated with the
white dwarf G29-38, we report ground-based measurements (JHKL'N') with
mJy-level sensitivity of GD 362 that show it to be a second single white dwarf
with an infrared excess. As a first approximation, the excess around GD 362,
which amounts to about 3% of the total stellar luminosity, can be explained by
emission from a passive, flat, opaque dust disk that lies within the Roche
radius of the white dwarf. The dust may have been produced by the tidal
disruption of a large parent body such as an asteroid. Accretion from this
circumstellar disk could account for the remarkably high abundance of metals in
the star's photosphere.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. ApJ Letters, in pres
Network Lasso: Clustering and Optimization in Large Graphs
Convex optimization is an essential tool for modern data analysis, as it
provides a framework to formulate and solve many problems in machine learning
and data mining. However, general convex optimization solvers do not scale
well, and scalable solvers are often specialized to only work on a narrow class
of problems. Therefore, there is a need for simple, scalable algorithms that
can solve many common optimization problems. In this paper, we introduce the
\emph{network lasso}, a generalization of the group lasso to a network setting
that allows for simultaneous clustering and optimization on graphs. We develop
an algorithm based on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) to
solve this problem in a distributed and scalable manner, which allows for
guaranteed global convergence even on large graphs. We also examine a
non-convex extension of this approach. We then demonstrate that many types of
problems can be expressed in our framework. We focus on three in particular -
binary classification, predicting housing prices, and event detection in time
series data - comparing the network lasso to baseline approaches and showing
that it is both a fast and accurate method of solving large optimization
problems
Stochastic Gene Expression in a Lentiviral Positive Feedback Loop: HIV-1 Tat Fluctuations Drive Phenotypic Diversity
Stochastic gene expression has been implicated in a variety of cellular
processes, including cell differentiation and disease. In this issue of Cell,
Weinberger et al. (2005) take an integrated computational-experimental approach
to study the Tat transactivation feedback loop in HIV-1 and show that
fluctuations in a key regulator, Tat, can result in a phenotypic bifurcation.
This phenomenon is observed in an isogenic population where individual cells
display two distinct expression states corresponding to latent and productive
infection by HIV-1. These findings demonstrate the importance of stochastic
gene expression in molecular "decision-making."Comment: Supplemental data available as q-bio.MN/060800
Electrical transport properties of bulk NiFe alloys and related spin-valve systems
Within the Kubo-Greenwood formalism we use the fully relativistic,
spin-polarized, screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method together with the
coherent-potential approximation for layered systems to calculate the
resistivity for the permalloy series NiFe. We are able to
reproduce the variation of the resistivity across the entire series; notably
the discontinuous behavior in the vicinity of the structural phase transition
from bcc to fcc. The absolute values for the resistivity are within a factor of
two of the experimental data. Also the giant magnetoresistance of a series of
permalloy-based spin-valve structures is estimated; we are able to reproduce
the trends and values observed on prototypical spin-valve structures.Comment: 6 pages, ReVTeX + 4 figures (Encapsulated Postscript), submitted to
PR
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