Dugong stranding and suggestions for conservation: a tool to support endangered marine resource conservation

February 23-25, 2010, Phuket, ThailandThe study aimed to (a) provide record of dugong stranding and mortality, (b) conduct necropsy of dugong, (c) characterize the circumstantial causes of mortality and stranding and (d) determine the threats that impede dugong conservation.Secondary data available on strandings and mortality of dugong were utilized to confirm validity of data obtained from interview of fishfarmers. Record of logged and reported incidents of dugong strandings and mortality were also retrieved. Necropsy was done every time dugong mortality occurred. Information and data were kept in dugong data sheets. Preliminary results showed that from 2001 – 2008, six strandings of dugongs have been documented in Malita, Davao del Sur. All the six strandings occurred within an approximate 10 km stretch of coastline (from Brgy. Lacaron to Brgy. Tingolo) of Malita, Davao del Sur. One out of the six strandings was a female baby dugong. The other four were male adult dugong with a length of not less than 2m. The probable causes of death were mostly anthropogenic: victim of spear fishing, blasting, entangled in net and intentionally caught for food. Parasitism was also observed in one of the dugongs that was examined where the gut, stomach, intestine were heavily infested with round worms

HI observations of the nearest starburst galaxy NGC 253 with the SKA precursor KAT-7

We present HI observations of the Sculptor Group starburst spiral galaxy NGC 253, obtained with the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7). KAT-7 is a pathfinder for the SKA precursor MeerKAT, under construction. The short baselines and low system temperature of the telescope make it very sensitive to large scale, low surface brightness emission. The KAT-7 observations detected 33% more flux than previous VLA observations, mainly in the outer parts and in the halo for a total HI mass of $2.1 \pm 0.1$ $\times 10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$. HI can be found at large distances perpendicular to the plane out to projected distances of ~9-10 kpc away from the nucleus and ~13-14 kpc at the edge of the disk. A novel technique, based on interactive profile fitting, was used to separate the main disk gas from the anomalous (halo) gas. The rotation curve (RC) derived for the HI disk confirms that it is declining in the outer parts, as seen in previous optical Fabry-Perot measurements. As for the anomalous component, its RC has a very shallow gradient in the inner parts and turns over at the same radius as the disk, kinematically lagging by ~100 km/sec. The kinematics of the observed extra planar gas is compatible with an outflow due to the central starburst and galactic fountains in the outer parts. However, the gas kinematics shows no evidence for inflow. Analysis of the near-IR WISE data, shows clearly that the star formation rate (SFR) is compatible with the starburst nature of NGC 253.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures, 8 Tables. Accepted for publication to MNRA

The McKinsey-Tarski theorem for locally compact ordered spaces

We prove that the modal logic of a crowded locally compact generalized ordered space is S4. This provides a version of the McKinsey–Tarski theorem for generalized ordered spaces. We then utilize this theorem to axiomatize the modal logic of an arbitrary locally compact generalized ordered space

Exoesqueleto bípedo: revisión del estado del arte

El presente documento muestra las diferentes etapas que implica la marcha como tal, un análisis sobre las distintas etapas que se tiene al realizar la caminata, sus diferentes reacciones sobre las articulaciones de las extremidades inferiores tales como cadera,rodilla y tobillo

Molecular-orbital-free algorithm for excited states in time-dependent perturbation theory

A non-linear conjugate gradient optimization scheme is used to obtain excitation energies within the Random Phase Approximation (RPA). The solutions to the RPA eigenvalue equation are located through a variational characterization using a modified Thouless functional, which is based upon an asymmetric Rayleigh quotient, in an orthogonalized atomic orbital representation. In this way, the computational bottleneck of calculating molecular orbitals is avoided. The variational space is reduced to the physically-relevant transitions by projections. The feasibility of an RPA implementation scaling linearly with system size, N, is investigated by monitoring convergence behavior with respect to the quality of initial guess and sensitivity to noise under thresholding, both for well- and ill-conditioned problems. The molecular- orbital-free algorithm is found to be robust and computationally efficient providing a first step toward a large-scale, reduced complexity calculation of time-dependent optical properties and linear response. The algorithm is extensible to other forms of time-dependent perturbation theory including, but not limited to, time-dependent Density Functional theory.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Radio Continuum and Star Formation in CO-rich Early Type Galaxies

In this paper we present new high resolution VLA 1.4 GHz radio continuum observations of five FIR bright CO-rich early-type galaxies and two dwarf early-type galaxies. The position on the radio-FIR correlation combined with striking agreements in morphology between high resolution CO and radio maps show that the radio continuum is associated with star formation in at least four of the eight galaxies. The average star formation rate for the sample galaxies detected in radio is approximately 2 solar masses per year. There is no evidence of a luminous AGN in any of our sample galaxies. We estimate Toomre Q values and find that the gas disks may well be gravitationally unstable, consistent with the above evidence for star formation activity. The radio continuum emission thus corroborates other recent suggestions that star formation in early type galaxies may not be uncommon.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, to be published in the Astronomical Journa