The identification of physical close galaxy pairs

A classification scheme for close pairs of galaxies is proposed. The scheme is motivated by the fact that the majority of apparent close pairs are in fact wide pairs in three-dimensional space. This is demonstrated by means of numerical simulations of random samples of binary galaxies and the scrutiny of the resulting projected and spatial separation distributions. Observational strategies for classifying close pairs according to the scheme are suggested. As a result, physical (i.e., bound and spatially) close pairs are identified.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, added text corrections on proof

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This study is on how leg utilisation may affect skiing efficiency and performance in double-poling ergometry. Three experiments were conducted, each with a different style of the double-poling technique: traditional with small knee range-of-motion and fixed heels (TRAD); modern with large knee range-of-motion and fixed heels (MOD1) and modern with large knee range-of-motion and free heels (MOD2). For each style, motion data were extracted with automatic marker recognition of reflective markers and applied to a 3D full-body musculoskeletal simulation model. Skiing efficiency (skiing work divided by metabolic muscle work) and performance (forward impulse) were computed from the simulation output. Skiing efficiency was 4.5%, 4.1% and 4.1% for TRAD, MOD1 and MOD2, respectively. Performance was 111, 143 and 149Ns for TRAD, MOD1 and MOD2, respectively. Thus, higher lower body utilisation increased the performance but decreased the skiing efficiency. These results demonstrate the potential of musculoskeletal simulations for skiing efficiency estimations.This study was sponsored in part by the Swedish National Centre for Research in Sports (Grant No. 168/09). The Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre provided laboratory resources.Beräkningsbaserad biomekanik inom längdskidåkning - möjligheter och begränsninga

Transonic aerodynamic characteristics of a wing/body combination incorporating jet flaps

A 0.25-scale semispan wing/body model with two types of jet flaps was tested in the Ames 11- by 11-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel. The objective of that testing was to measure the static aerodynamic forces and moments and wing pressure distributions on six configurations differentiated by wing camber, jet flap type, and jet flap angle. Maximum thrust coefficients were limited to 0.12. Angle of attack was varied from -4 deg to 15 deg for Mach numbers between 0.6 and 0.95 at a constant unit Reynolds number of 18.0 million/m (5.5 million/ft). More refined designs and considerably more testing will be required to establish the practicability of the total-exhausting jet flap concept

Body weight and colorectal cancer risk in a cohort of Swedish women: relation varies by age and cancer site

The relation between relative body weight and colorectal cancer among women is unclear. In a large prospective cohort study, we found a positive association only for distal cancers among younger women that became attenuated at older ages. These results support previous reports in which results were stratified by age or colorectal cancer site. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Spectral Classification of Galaxies

We investigate the integrated spectra of a sample of 24 normal galaxies. A principal component analysis suggests that most of the variance present in the spectra is due to the differences in morphology of the galaxies in the sample. We show that spectroscopic parameters extracted from the spectra, like the amplitude of the 4000 \AA~ break or of the CN band, correlate well with Hubble types and are useful for quantitative classification.Comment: 7 pages uuencoded compressed PostScript file. To appear in Vistas in Astronomy, special issue on Artificial Neural Networks in Astronom

A Hubble Space Telescope Snapshot Survey of Dynamically Close Galaxy Pairs in the CNOC2 Redshift Survey

We compare the structural properties of two classes of galaxies at intermediate redshift: those in dynamically close galaxy pairs, and those which are isolated. Both samples are selected from the CNOC2 Redshift Survey, and have redshifts in the range 0.1 < z <0.6. Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images were acquired as part of a snapshot survey, and were used to measure bulge fraction and asymmetry for these galaxies. We find that paired and isolated galaxies have identical distributions of bulge fractions. Conversely, we find that paired galaxies are much more likely to be asymmetric (R_T+R_A >= 0.13) than isolated galaxies. Assuming that half of these pairs are unlikely to be close enough to merge, we estimate that 40% +/- 11% of merging galaxies are asymmetric, compared with 9% +/- 3% of isolated galaxies. The difference is even more striking for strongly asymmetric (R_T+R_A >= 0.16) galaxies: 25% +/- 8% for merging galaxies versus 1% +/- 1% for isolated galaxies. We find that strongly asymmetric paired galaxies are very blue, with rest-frame B-R colors close to 0.80, compared with a mean (B-R)_0 of 1.24 for all paired galaxies. In addition, asymmetric galaxies in pairs have strong [OII]3727 emission lines. We conclude that close to half of the galaxy pairs in our sample are in the process of merging, and that most of these mergers are accompanied by triggered star formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. 40 pages, including 15 figures. For full resolution version, please see http://www.trentu.ca/physics/dpatton/hstpairs