907 research outputs found
Research and education in management of large- scale technical programs. Appendix A - Uses and misuses of computers in urban affairs. Appendix B - Build, a community development simulation game. Appendix C - Urban simulation and gaming, preliminary experience and perspectives. Appendix D - Public attitudes toward programs of large- scale technological change, some reflections and policy prescriptions Semiannual progress report
Research and education in management of large scale technical programs - computers in urban affair
Exploring cloudy gas accretion as a source of interstellar turbulence in the outskirts of disks
High--resolution 2D--MHD numerical simulations have been carried out to
investigate the effects of continuing infall of clumpy gas in extended HI
galactic disks. Given a certain accretion rate, the response of the disk
depends on its surface gas density and temperature. For Galactic conditions at
a galactocentric distance of ~20 kpc, and for mass accretion rates consistent
with current empirical and theoretical determinations in the Milky Way, the
rain of compact high velocity clouds onto the disk can maintain transonic
turbulent motions in the warm phase (~2500 K) of HI. Hence, the HI line width
is expected to be ~6.5 km/s for a gas layer at 2500 K, if infall were the only
mechanism of driving turbulence. Some statistical properties of the resulting
forcing flow are shown in this Letter. The radial dependence of the gas
velocity dispersion is also discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Circadian regulation of lipid mobilization in white adipose tissues.
In mammals, a network of circadian clocks regulates 24-h rhythms of behavior and physiology. Circadian disruption promotes obesity and the development of obesity-associated disorders, but it remains unclear to which extent peripheral tissue clocks contribute to this effect. To reveal the impact of the circadian timing system on lipid metabolism, blood and adipose tissue samples from wild-type, Clock Delta 19, and Bmall(-/-) circadian mutant mice were subjected to biochemical assays and gene expression profiling. We show diurnal variations in lipolysis rates and release of free fatty acids (FFAs) and glycerol into the blood correlating with rhythmic regulation of two genes encoding the lipolysis pacemaker enzymes, adipose triglyceride (TG) lipase and hormone-sensitive lipase, by self-sustained adipocyte clocks. Circadian clock mutant mice show low and nonrhythmic FFA and glycerol blood content together with decreased lipolysis rates and increased sensitivity to fasting. Instead circadian clock disruption promotes the accumulation of TGs in white adipose tissue (WAT), leading to increased adiposity and adipocyte hypertrophy. In summary, circadian modulation of lipolysis rates regulates the availability of lipid-derived energy during the day, suggesting a role for WAT clocks in the regulation of energy homeostasis
Diffuse HI Disks in Isolated Galaxies
In order to investigate the contribution of diffuse components to their total
HI emission, we have obtained high precision HI line flux densities with the
100m Green Bank Telescope for a sample of 100 isolated spiral and irregular
galaxies which we have previously observed with the 43m telescope. A comparison
of the observed HI line fluxes obtained with the two different telescopes,
characterized by half-power beam widths of 9 arcmin and 21 arcmin respectively,
exploits a ``beam matching'' technique to yield a statistical determination of
the occurrence of diffuse HI components in their disks. A simple model of the
HI distribution within a galaxy well describes ~75 % of the sample and accounts
for all of the HI line flux density. The remaining galaxies are approximately
evenly divided into two categories: ones which appear to possess a
significantly more extensive HI distribution than the model predicts, and ones
for which the HI distribution is more centrally concentrated than predicted.
Examples of both extremes can be found in the literature but little attention
has been paid to the centrally concentrated HI systems. Our sample has
demonstrated that galaxies do not commonly possess extended regions of low
surface brightness HI gas which is not accounted for by our current
understanding of the structure of HI disks. Eight HI-rich companions to the
target objects are identified, and a set of extragalactic HI line flux density
calibrators is presented.Comment: 26 page
Kinematics and morphology of ionized gas in Hickson Compact Group 18
We present new observations of emission in the Hickson Compact
Group 18 (HCG 18) obtained with a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer. The
velocity field does not show motions of individual group members but, instead,
a complex common velocity field for the whole group. The gas distribution is
very asymmetric with clumps of maximum intensity coinciding with the optically
brightest knots. Comparing and HI data we conclude that HCG 18 is
not a compact group but instead a large irregular galaxy with several clumps of
star formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal (13p 6 figures
The Tully-Fisher Relation and H_not
The use of the Tully-Fisher (TF) relation for the determination of the Hubble
Constant relies on the availability of an adequate template TF relation and of
reliable primary distances. Here we use a TF template relation with the best
available kinematical zero-point, obtained from a sample of 24 clusters of
galaxies extending to cz ~ 9,000 km/s, and the most recent set of Cepheid
distances for galaxies fit for TF use. The combination of these two ingredients
yields H_not = 69+/-5 km/(s Mpc). The approach is significantly more accurate
than the more common application with single cluster (e.g. Virgo, Coma)
samples.Comment: 10 pages, including 2 figures and 1 table; uses AAS LaTex. Submitted
to ApJ Letter
HI power spectrum of the spiral galaxy NGC628
We have measured the HI power spectrum of the nearly face-on spiral galaxy
NGC628 (M74) using a visibility based estimator. The power spectrum is well
fitted by a power law , with over the
length scale . The slope is found to be
independent of the width of the velocity channel. This value of the slope is a
little more than one in excess of what has been seen at considerably smaller
length scales in the Milky-Way, Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Large Magellanic
Cloud (SMC) and the dwarf galaxy DDO210. We interpret this difference as
indicating a transition from three dimensional turbulence at small scales to
two dimensional turbulence in the plane of the galaxy's disk at length scales
larger than galaxy's HI scale height.
The slope measured here is similar to that found at large scales in the LMC.
Our analysis also places an upper limit to the galaxy's scale height at $800\
{\rm pc}$ .Comment: 4 Pages, 2 Figures, 1 Table. Accepted for Publication in MNRAS
LETTER
Starburst Galaxies: Why the Calzetti Dust Extinction Law?
The empirical reddening function for starburst galaxies generated by Calzetti
and her co-workers has proven very successful, and is now used widely in the
observational literature. Despite its success, however, the physical basis for
this extinction law, or more correctly, attenuation law remains weak. Here we
provide a physical explanation for the Calzetti Law based on a turbulent
interstellar medium. In essence, this provides a log-normal distribution of
column densities, giving a wide range of column densities in the dusty
foreground screen. Therefore, extended sources such as starburst regions or HII
regions seen through it suffer a point-to-point stochastic extinction and
reddening. Regions of high column densities are "black" in the UV, but
translucent in the IR, which leads to a flatter extinction law, and a larger
value of the total to selective extinction, R_V. We fit the Calzetti Law, and
infer that the variance sigma of the log-normal distribution lies in the range
0.6<sigma<2.2. The absolute to selective extinction R_V is found to be in the
range 4.3 to 5.2 consistent with R_V=4.05+/-0.80 of the Calzetti Law.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ
The Estimation of Microtopographic Parametres of Fractographical Surfaces by Fourier−Hartley Mehods
Розглянуто питання стереомікротопографії (поверхонь металів, твердих тіл). Пропонується за даними
РЕМ-стереовимірювань апроксимувати цифрові моделі мікрорельєфу методами Фур’є−Хартлі з наступним
визначенням крутизни, кривини, спектральної щільності. ; The problems of stereomicrotopography (of metal surfaces, of solid body’s) are
considered. The approximation of microrelief digital models by Fourier−Hartley methods on the basis of REMstereomeasurements datas (a steepness, a curvature, spectral density) are proposed
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