The properties of Low Surface Brightness galaxies

A description is given of the samples of Low Surface Brightness galaxies (LSBs) used for comparison with models of their chemical and spectro-photometric evolution (Boissier et al., this Volume). These samples show the large variation and scatter in observed global properties of LSBs, some of which cannot be modeled without adding starbursts or truncations to their star formation history.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the Euroconference on The Evolution of Galaxies: III. From simple approaches to self-consistent models (Kluwer). 4 page

Untangling the X-ray Emission From the Sa Galaxy NGC1291 With Chandra

We present a Chandra ACIS-S observation of the nearby bulge-dominated Sa galaxy NGC1291. The X-ray emission from the bulge resembles the X-ray emission from a sub-class of elliptical and S0 galaxies with low L_X/L_B luminosity ratios. The X-ray emission is composed of a central point-like nucleus, ~50 point sources that are most likely low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), and diffuse gas detectable out to a radius of 120" (5.2 kpc). The diffuse gas has a global temperature of 0.32^{+0.04}_{-0.03} keV and metallicity of 0.06 +/- 0.02 solar, and both quantities marginally decrease with increasing radius. The hot gas fills the hole in the HI distribution, and the softening of the spectrum of the X-ray gas with radius might indicate a thermal coupling of the hot and cold phases of the interstellar medium as previously suggested. The integrated X-ray luminosity of the LMXBs, once normalized by the optical luminosity, is a factor of 1.4 less than in the elliptical galaxy NGC4697 or S0 galaxy NGC1553. The difference in L_{X,stellar}/L_B between the galaxies appears to be because of a lack of very bright sources in NGC1291. No sources above 3 x 10^38 ergs/s were found in NGC1291 when ~7 were expected from scaling from NGC4697 and NGC1553. The cumulative L_{X,stellar}/L_B value including only sources below 1.0 x 10^38 ergs/s is remarkably similar between NGC1291 and NGC4697, if a recent surface brightness fluctuation-determined distance is assumed for NGC4697. If this is a common feature of the LMXB population in early-type systems, it might be used as a distance indicator. Finally, a bright, variable (1.6-3.1 x 10^39 ergs/s) source was detected at the optical center of the galaxy. Its spectrum shows excess soft emission superimposed on a highly absorbed power law component, similar to what has been found in several other low luminosity AGN (ABRIDGED).Comment: 13 pages in emulateapj5 style with 11 embedded Postscript figures; minor revisions since last version; accepted by Ap

Influenza virus strains with a fusion threshold of pH 5.5 or lower are inhibited by amantadine. Brief report

Nineteen influenza virus strains were examined for susceptibility to amantadine-HCl (AMT) and for pH-thresholds of haemagglutinin-induced haemolysis. Whereas pH-thresholds below 5.5 were not seen in AMT-resistant strains, AMT-sensitive strains showed pH-thresholds either below or above 5.5

The Closest Damped Lyman Alpha System

A difficulty of studying damped Lyman alpha systems is that they are distant, so one knows little about the interstellar medium of the galaxy. Here we report upon a damped Lyman alpha system in the nearby galaxy NGC 4203, which is so close (v_helio = 1117 km/s) and bright (B_o = 11.62) that its HI disk has been mapped. The absorption lines are detected against Ton 1480, which lies only 1.9' (12 h_50 kpc) from the center of NGC 4203. Observations were obtained with the Faint Object Spectrograph on HST (G270H grating) over the 2222-3277 Angstrom region with 200 km/s resolution. Low ionization lines of Fe, Mn, and Mg were detected, leading to metallicities of -2.29, -2.4, which are typical of other damped Lyman alpha systems, but well below the stellar metallicity of this type of galaxy. Most notably, the velocity of the lines is 1160 +- 10 km/s, which is identical to the HI rotational velocity of 1170 km/s at that location in NGC 4203, supporting the view that these absorption line systems can be associated with the rotating disks of galaxies. In addition, the line widths of the Mg lines give an upper limit to the velocity dispersion of 167 km/s, to the 99% confidence level.Comment: 4 pages LaTeX, including 1 figure and 1 table, uses emulateapj.sty. Accepted for publication by Astrophysical Journal Letter

Facing Forward, Nine stories about being a survivor of human trafficking in a post-trafficking shelter in the Netherlands

This report describes nine stories of six women and three men who recently exited a human trafficking situation and, at the time of this research, resided in a shelter for foreign victims of trafficking in the Netherlands. It speaks about their hopes and dreams, their fears and frustrations, and describes how they feel social and health care might be improved. The report’s aim is to shed more light on service users’ views on post-trafficking service provision for everyone directly (e.g. social workers, psychologists and general practitioners) and indirectly (e.g. managers and policymakers) involved with providing care to this group. The main message from the report is that victims of human trafficking in a post-trafficking shelter can be expected to exhibit a strong desire to move forward and establish a meaningful life with a job, a family and friends. This is an important conclusion: it shows that besides the ‘trauma’-narrative that is often stressed in the literature as being important among trafficking survivors, the ‘future‘-narrative is as important and should be taken into account in developing social and health services for this group. Despite the importance of being able to pursue a meaningful life to them, service users in this study were often stunted in doing just that. Through barriers in finding work, education and a place to live, often caused by their residency status, a feeling of being ostracized in Dutch society and shelter policies, service users often felt ‘in limbo’: standing still, without being able to change that situation. Regardless of this, and seemingly against all odds, service users still pursued their goals, by engaging in Dutch language courses, participating in vocational skills training and engaging in volunteer work. These activities were described as useful by participants and therefore preferable over other activities. Service users found them useful because they provided them with opportunities to work towards their envisioned futures. Hoping for the fulfilment of their goals and pursuing them in these ways likely allowed service users to better cope with their problems in the present and improved their well-being. For this reason, it is essential that social and health provision for this group supports and facilitates service users’ forwards-facing, future-orientated views, in addition to providing trauma-informed services. But do not take our word for it: please read the stories in this report and get to know these men and women, and read about what they, in their own words, feel service provision ought to look like in a post-trafficking shelter

Generation of spin currents via Raman scattering

We show theoretically that stimulated spin flip Raman scattering can be used to inject spin currents in doped semiconductors with spin split bands. A pure spin current, where oppositely oriented spins move in opposite directions, can be injected in zincblende crystals and structures. The calculated spin current should be detectable by pump-probe optical spectroscopy and anomalous Hall effect measurement

Commission 10: Solar Activity

Commission 10 aims at the study of various forms of solar activity, including networks, plages, pores, spots, fibrils, surges, jets, filaments/prominences, coronal loops, flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), solar cycle, microflares, nanoflares, coronal heating etc., which are all manifestation of the interplay of magnetic fields and solar plasma. Increasingly important is the study of solar activities as sources of various disturbances in the interplanetary space and near-Earth “space weather”. Over the past three years a major component of research on the active Sun has involved data from the RHESSI spacecraft. This review starts with an update on current and planned solar observations from spacecraft. The discussion of solar flares gives emphasis to new results from RHESSI, along with updates on other aspects of flares. Recent progress on two theoretical concepts, magnetic reconnection and magnetic helicity is then summarized, followed by discussions of coronal loops and heating, the magnetic carpet and filaments. The final topic discussed is coronal mass ejections and space weather. The discussions on each topic is relatively brief, and intended as an outline to put the extensive list of references in context. The review was prepared jointly by the members of the Organizing Committee, and the names of the primary contributors to the various sections are indicated in parentheses