Characteristics of Recycled Concrete Aggregates from Precast Slab Block Buildings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venkrbec, Václav; Nováková, Iveta; Henková, Svatava

2017-10-01

Precast slab block buildings (PSBB) typically and frequently occur in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as elsewhere in the world. Some of these buildings are currently used beyond their service life capacity. The utilization of recycled materials from these buildings with regard to applying the principles of sustainable construction and using recycled materials will probably be significant in the following years. Documentation from the manufacturing processes of prefabricated blocks for precast slab block buildings is not available, and also it is difficult to declare technological discipline during the construction of these buildings. Therefore, properties of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) produced from construction and demolition waste (C&DW) of precast slab block buildings build between 1950s to 1990s are not sufficiently known. The demolition of these buildings is very rare today, but it can be assumed an increase in demolitions of these buildings in the future. The use of RCA in new concrete requires verification/testing of the geometrical and physical properties of RCA according to the EN 12 620+A1 standard. The aim of the contribution is to present a case study of the demolition of slab block building with emphasis on RCA usage. The paper presents the results of the tests according to European standards for determining selected geometrical and physical properties of the RCA. The paper describes and evaluates tests such as determination of particle size distribution - Sieve Analysis, content of fine particles, determination of density and water absorption. The results of the properties testing of RCA are compared with the properties of natural aggregate. The general boundary conditions of RCA particular tests are presented.

SRA Real Math Building Blocks PreK. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

2007-01-01

"SRA Real Math Building Blocks PreK" (also referred to as "Building Blocks for Math") is a supplemental mathematics curriculum designed to develop preschool children's early mathematical knowledge through various individual and small- and large-group activities. It uses "Building Blocks for Math PreK" software,…

Strategies for Controlled Placement of Nanoscale Building Blocks

PubMed Central

2007-01-01

The capability of placing individual nanoscale building blocks on exact substrate locations in a controlled manner is one of the key requirements to realize future electronic, optical, and magnetic devices and sensors that are composed of such blocks. This article reviews some important advances in the strategies for controlled placement of nanoscale building blocks. In particular, we will overview template assisted placement that utilizes physical, molecular, or electrostatic templates, DNA-programmed assembly, placement using dielectrophoresis, approaches for non-close-packed assembly of spherical particles, and recent development of focused placement schemes including electrostatic funneling, focused placement via molecular gradient patterns, electrodynamic focusing of charged aerosols, and others. PMID:21794185

Development of Test Article Building Block (TABB) for deployable platform systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenberg, H. S.; Barbour, R. T.

1984-01-01

The concept of a Test Article Building Block (TABB) is described. The TABB is a ground test article that is representative of a future building block that can be used to construct LEO and GEO deployable space platforms for communications and scientific payloads. This building block contains a main housing within which the entire structure, utilities, and deployment/retraction mechanism are stowed during launch. The end adapter secures the foregoing components to the housing during launch. The main housing and adapter provide the necessary building-block-to-building-block attachments for automatically deployable platforms. Removal from the shuttle cargo bay can be accomplished with the remote manipulator system (RMS) and/or the handling and positioning aid (HAPA). In this concept, all the electrical connections are in place prior to launch with automatic latches for payload attachment provided on either the end adapters or housings. The housings also can contain orbiter docking ports for payload installation and maintenance.

COMPRESSOR BUILDING, TRA626. ELEVATIONS. WINDOWS. WALL SECTIONS. PUMICE BLOCK BUILDING ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

COMPRESSOR BUILDING, TRA-626. ELEVATIONS. WINDOWS. WALL SECTIONS. PUMICE BLOCK BUILDING HOUSED COMPRESSORS FOR AIRCRAFT NUCLEAR PROPULSION EXPERIMENTS. MTR-626-IDO-2S, 3/1952. INL INDEX NO. 531-0626-00-396-110535, REV. 2. - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Test Reactor Area, Materials & Engineering Test Reactors, Scoville, Butte County, ID

Big Questions: The Ultimate Building Blocks of Matter

ScienceCinema

Lincoln, Don

2018-01-16

The Standard Model of particle physics treats quarks and leptons as having no size at all. Quarks are found inside protons and neutrons and the most familiar lepton is the electron. While the best measurements to date support that idea, there is circumstantial evidence that suggests that perhaps the these tiny particles might be composed of even smaller building blocks. This video explains this circumstantial evidence and introduces some very basic ideas of what those building blocks might be.

Adolescent Boys' and Girls' Block Constructions Differ in Structural Balance: A Block-Building Characteristic Related to Math Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casey, Beth M.; Pezaris, Elizabeth E.; Bassi, Julie

2012-01-01

Two studies were conducted on block building in adolescents, assessing middle school (Study 1) and high school students (Study 2). Students were asked to build something interesting with blocks. In both samples, the same pattern of gender differences were found; boys built taller structures than girls, and balanced a larger number of blocks on a…

Building Blocks: Enmeshing Technology and Creativity with Artistic Pedagogical Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janzen, Katherine J.; Perry, Beth; Edwards, Margaret

2017-01-01

Using the analogy of children's building blocks, the reader is guided through the results of a research study that explored the use of three Artistic Pedagogical Technologies (APTs). "Building blocks" was the major theme that emerged from the data. Sub-themes included developing community, enhancing creativity, and risk taking. The…

Tops as building blocks for G 2 manifolds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braun, Andreas P.

2017-10-01

A large number of examples of compact G 2 manifolds, relevant to supersymmetric compactifications of M-Theory to four dimensions, can be constructed by forming a twisted connected sum of two building blocks times a circle. These building blocks, which are appropriate K3-fibred threefolds, are shown to have a natural and elegant construction in terms of tops, which parallels the construction of Calabi-Yau manifolds via reflexive polytopes. In particular, this enables us to prove combinatorial formulas for the Hodge numbers and other relevant topological data.

Large space erectable structures - building block structures study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Armstrong, W. H.; Skoumal, D. E.; Straayer, J. W.

1977-01-01

A modular planar truss structure and a long slender boom concept identified as building block approaches to construction of large spacecraft configurations are described. The concepts are compatible in weight and volume goals with the Space Transportation System, use standard structural units, and represent high on-orbit productivity in terms of structural area or beam length. Results of structural trade studies involving static and dynamic analyses of a single module and rigid body deployment analyses to assess kinetics and kinematics of automatic deployment of the building block modules are presented.

The Metallicity of Void Dwarf Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kreckel, K.; Croxall, K.; Groves, B.; van de Weygaert, R.; Pogge, R. W.

2015-01-01

The current ΛCDM cosmological model predicts that galaxy evolution proceeds more slowly in lower density environments, suggesting that voids are a prime location to search for relatively pristine galaxies that are representative of the building blocks of early massive galaxies. To test the assumption that void galaxies are more pristine, we compare the evolutionary properties of a sample of dwarf galaxies selected specifically to lie in voids with a sample of similar isolated dwarf galaxies in average density environments. We measure gas-phase oxygen abundances and gas fractions for eight dwarf galaxies (Mr > -16.2), carefully selected to reside within the lowest density environments of seven voids, and apply the same calibrations to existing samples of isolated dwarf galaxies. We find no significant difference between these void dwarf galaxies and the isolated dwarf galaxies, suggesting that dwarf galaxy chemical evolution proceeds independent of the large-scale environment. While this sample is too small to draw strong conclusions, it suggests that external gas accretion is playing a limited role in the chemical evolution of these systems, and that this evolution is instead dominated mainly by the internal secular processes that are linking the simultaneous growth and enrichment of these galaxies.

Two innovative solutions based on fibre concrete blocks designed for building substructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pazderka, J.; Hájek, P.

2017-09-01

Using of fibers in a high-strength concrete allows reduction of the dimensions of small precast concrete elements, which opens up new ways of solution for traditional construction details in buildings. The paper presents two innovative technical solutions for building substructure: The special shaped plinth block from fibre concrete and the fibre concrete elements for new technical solution of ventilated floor. The main advantages of plinth block from fibre concrete blocks (compared with standard plinth solutions) is: easier and faster assembly, higher durability and thanks to the air cavity between the vertical part of the block, the building substructure reduced moisture level of structures under the waterproofing layer and a comprehensive solution to the final surface of building plinth as well as the surface of adjacent terrain. The ventilated floor based on fibre concrete precast blocks is an attractive structural alternative for tackling the problem of increased moisture in masonry in older buildings, lacking a functional waterproof layer in the substructure.

The Development of Spatial Skills through Interventions Involving Block Building Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casey, Beth M.; Andrews, Nicole; Schindler, Holly; Kersh, Joanne E.; Samper, Alexandra; Copley, Juanita

2008-01-01

This study investigated the use of block-building interventions to develop spatial-reasoning skills in kindergartners. Two intervention conditions and a control condition were included to determine, first, whether the block building activities themselves benefited children's spatial skills, and secondly, whether a story context further improved…

Giant Double Radio Source DA 240: Purveyor of Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Ru-Rong; Strom, Richard; Peng, Bo

2018-05-01

Galaxies of stars are building blocks of the baryonic universe. Their composition, structure, and kinematics have been well studied, but details of their origins remain sketchy. The collapse of gas clouds, induced by external forces whereby gravity overcomes internal pressure to form stars, is the likely starting point. Among the perturbing initiators of galaxy formation, radio source beams (jets) are quite effective. Typically, a beam may spawn one galaxy, though instances of several aligned with the radio axis are known. Recently, we found an impressive 14 companions in the lobes of the giant radio galaxy DA 240, which we argue formed as the result of jet instigation. This conclusion is bolstered by the fact that the galaxy groups display Z-shaped symmetry with respect to the radio axis. There is some evidence for star formation among the aligned companions. We also conclude that galaxy alignments at low redshift may derive from line-emitting gas observed in radio components of high-redshift galaxies.

Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities: Assistance from Grantees

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA awarded Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities grants to four nonprofit organizations with extensive expertise in community sustainability. These organizations deliver technical assistance to communities.

A possible formation scenario for dwarf spheroidal galaxies - III. Adding star formation histories to the fiducial model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alarcón Jara, A. G.; Fellhauer, M.; Matus Carrillo, D. R.; Assmann, P.; Urrutia Zapata, F.; Hazeldine, J.; Aravena, C. A.

2018-02-01

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are regarded as the basic building blocks in the formation of larger galaxies and are the most dark matter dominated systems in the Universe, known so far. There are several models that attempt to explain their formation and evolution, but they have problems modelling the formation of isolated dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Here, we will explain a possible formation scenario in which star clusters form inside the dark matter halo of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy. These star clusters suffer from low star formation efficiency and dissolve while orbiting inside the dark matter halo. Thereby, they build the faint luminous components that we observe in dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In this paper, we study this model by adding different star formation histories to the simulations and compare the results with our previous work and observational data to show that we can explain the formation of dwarf spheroidal galaxies.

Hydration effects on the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Assis Oliveira, Leonardo Bruno; Departamento de Física - CEPAE, Universidade Federal de Goiás, 74690-900 Goiânia, GO; Escola de Ciências Exatas e da Computação, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, 74605-010 Goiânia, GO

2016-08-28

Theoretical results for the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks in the gas phase and water are presented. The building blocks presently investigated include the monomeric species DHI (5,6-dihydroxyindole) or hydroquinone (HQ), DHICA (5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid), indolequinone (IQ), quinone methide (MQ), two covalently bonded dimers [HM ≡ HQ + MQ and IM ≡ IQ + MQ], and two tetramers [HMIM ≡ HQ + IM, IMIM ≡ IM + IM]. The electronic properties in water were determined by carrying out sequential Monte Carlo/time dependent density functional theory calculations. The results illustrate the role played by hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions in themore » electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks in a polar environment. In water, the dipole moments of monomeric species are significantly increased ([54–79]%) relative to their gas phase values. Recently, it has been proposed that the observed enhancement of the higher-energy absorption intensity in eumelanin can be explained by excitonic coupling among eumelanin protomolecules [C.-T. Chen et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 3859 (2014)]. Here, we are providing evidence that for DHICA, IQ, and HMIM, the electronic absorption toward the higher-energy end of the spectrum ([180–220] nm) is enhanced by long-range Coulombic interactions with the water environment. It was verified that by superposing the absorption spectra of different eumelanin building blocks corresponding to the monomers, dimers, and tetramers in liquid water, the behaviour of the experimental spectrum, which is characterised by a nearly monotonic decay from the ultraviolet to the infrared, is qualitatively reproduced. This result is in keeping with a “chemical disorder model,” where the broadband absorption of eumelanin pigments is determined by the superposition of the spectra associated with the monomeric and oligomeric building blocks.« less

Hydration effects on the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks.

PubMed

Assis Oliveira, Leonardo Bruno; L Fonseca, Tertius; Costa Cabral, Benedito J; Coutinho, Kaline; Canuto, Sylvio

2016-08-28

Theoretical results for the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks in the gas phase and water are presented. The building blocks presently investigated include the monomeric species DHI (5,6-dihydroxyindole) or hydroquinone (HQ), DHICA (5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid), indolequinone (IQ), quinone methide (MQ), two covalently bonded dimers [HM ≡ HQ + MQ and IM ≡ IQ + MQ], and two tetramers [HMIM ≡ HQ + IM, IMIM ≡ IM + IM]. The electronic properties in water were determined by carrying out sequential Monte Carlo/time dependent density functional theory calculations. The results illustrate the role played by hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions in the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks in a polar environment. In water, the dipole moments of monomeric species are significantly increased ([54-79]%) relative to their gas phase values. Recently, it has been proposed that the observed enhancement of the higher-energy absorption intensity in eumelanin can be explained by excitonic coupling among eumelanin protomolecules [C.-T. Chen et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 3859 (2014)]. Here, we are providing evidence that for DHICA, IQ, and HMIM, the electronic absorption toward the higher-energy end of the spectrum ([180-220] nm) is enhanced by long-range Coulombic interactions with the water environment. It was verified that by superposing the absorption spectra of different eumelanin building blocks corresponding to the monomers, dimers, and tetramers in liquid water, the behaviour of the experimental spectrum, which is characterised by a nearly monotonic decay from the ultraviolet to the infrared, is qualitatively reproduced. This result is in keeping with a "chemical disorder model," where the broadband absorption of eumelanin pigments is determined by the superposition of the spectra associated with the monomeric and oligomeric building blocks.

Hydration effects on the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assis Oliveira, Leonardo Bruno; L. Fonseca, Tertius; Costa Cabral, Benedito J.; Coutinho, Kaline; Canuto, Sylvio

2016-08-01

Theoretical results for the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks in the gas phase and water are presented. The building blocks presently investigated include the monomeric species DHI (5,6-dihydroxyindole) or hydroquinone (HQ), DHICA (5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid), indolequinone (IQ), quinone methide (MQ), two covalently bonded dimers [HM ≡ HQ + MQ and IM ≡ IQ + MQ], and two tetramers [HMIM ≡ HQ + IM, IMIM ≡ IM + IM]. The electronic properties in water were determined by carrying out sequential Monte Carlo/time dependent density functional theory calculations. The results illustrate the role played by hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions in the electronic properties of eumelanin building blocks in a polar environment. In water, the dipole moments of monomeric species are significantly increased ([54-79]%) relative to their gas phase values. Recently, it has been proposed that the observed enhancement of the higher-energy absorption intensity in eumelanin can be explained by excitonic coupling among eumelanin protomolecules [C.-T. Chen et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 3859 (2014)]. Here, we are providing evidence that for DHICA, IQ, and HMIM, the electronic absorption toward the higher-energy end of the spectrum ([180-220] nm) is enhanced by long-range Coulombic interactions with the water environment. It was verified that by superposing the absorption spectra of different eumelanin building blocks corresponding to the monomers, dimers, and tetramers in liquid water, the behaviour of the experimental spectrum, which is characterised by a nearly monotonic decay from the ultraviolet to the infrared, is qualitatively reproduced. This result is in keeping with a "chemical disorder model," where the broadband absorption of eumelanin pigments is determined by the superposition of the spectra associated with the monomeric and oligomeric building blocks.

Molecular Clusters: Nanoscale Building Blocks for Solid-State Materials.

PubMed

Pinkard, Andrew; Champsaur, Anouck M; Roy, Xavier

2018-04-17

The programmed assembly of nanoscale building blocks into multicomponent hierarchical structures is a powerful strategy for the bottom-up construction of functional materials. To develop this concept, our team has explored the use of molecular clusters as superatomic building blocks to fabricate new classes of materials. The library of molecular clusters is rich with exciting properties, including diverse functionalization, redox activity, and magnetic ordering, so the resulting cluster-assembled solids, which we term superatomic crystals (SACs), hold the promise of high tunability, atomic precision, and robust architectures among a diverse range of other material properties. Molecular clusters have only seldom been used as precursors for functional materials. Our team has been at the forefront of new developments in this exciting research area, and this Account focuses on our progress toward designing materials from cluster-based precursors. In particular, this Account discusses (1) the design and synthesis of molecular cluster superatomic building blocks, (2) their self-assembly into SACs, and (3) their resulting collective properties. The set of molecular clusters discussed herein is diverse, with different cluster cores and ligand arrangements to create an impressive array of solids. The cluster cores include octahedral M 6 E 8 and cubane M 4 E 4 (M = metal; E = chalcogen), which are typically passivated by a shell of supporting ligands, a feature upon which we have expanded upon by designing and synthesizing more exotic ligands that can be used to direct solid-state assembly. Building from this library, we have designed whole families of binary SACs where the building blocks are held together through electrostatic, covalent, or van der Waals interactions. Using single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) to determine the atomic structure, a remarkable range of compositional variability is accessible. We can also use this technique, in tandem with vibrational

Early assembly of the most massive galaxies.

PubMed

Collins, Chris A; Stott, John P; Hilton, Matt; Kay, Scott T; Stanford, S Adam; Davidson, Michael; Hosmer, Mark; Hoyle, Ben; Liddle, Andrew; Lloyd-Davies, Ed; Mann, Robert G; Mehrtens, Nicola; Miller, Christopher J; Nichol, Robert C; Romer, A Kathy; Sahlén, Martin; Viana, Pedro T P; West, Michael J

2009-04-02

The current consensus is that galaxies begin as small density fluctuations in the early Universe and grow by in situ star formation and hierarchical merging. Stars begin to form relatively quickly in sub-galactic-sized building blocks called haloes which are subsequently assembled into galaxies. However, exactly when this assembly takes place is a matter of some debate. Here we report that the stellar masses of brightest cluster galaxies, which are the most luminous objects emitting stellar light, some 9 billion years ago are not significantly different from their stellar masses today. Brightest cluster galaxies are almost fully assembled 4-5 billion years after the Big Bang, having grown to more than 90 per cent of their final stellar mass by this time. Our data conflict with the most recent galaxy formation models based on the largest simulations of dark-matter halo development. These models predict protracted formation of brightest cluster galaxies over a Hubble time, with only 22 per cent of the stellar mass assembled at the epoch probed by our sample. Our findings suggest a new picture in which brightest cluster galaxies experience an early period of rapid growth rather than prolonged hierarchical assembly.

Early chemo-dynamical evolution of dwarf galaxies deduced from enrichment of r-process elements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirai, Yutaka; Ishimaru, Yuhri; Saitoh, Takayuki R.; Fujii, Michiko S.; Hidaka, Jun; Kajino, Toshitaka

2017-04-01

The abundance of elements synthesized by the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process elements) of extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Local Group galaxies gives us clues to clarify the early evolutionary history of the Milky Way halo. The Local Group dwarf galaxies would have similarly evolved with building blocks of the Milky Way halo. However, how the chemo-dynamical evolution of the building blocks affects the abundance of r-process elements is not yet clear. In this paper, we perform a series of simulations using dwarf galaxy models with various dynamical times and total mass, which determine star formation histories. We find that galaxies with dynamical times longer than 100 Myr have star formation rates less than 10-3 M⊙ yr-1 and slowly enrich metals in their early phase. These galaxies can explain the observed large scatters of r-process abundance in EMP stars in the Milky Way halo regardless of their total mass. On the other hand, the first neutron star merger appears at a higher metallicity in galaxies with a dynamical time shorter than typical neutron star merger times. The scatters of r-process elements mainly come from the inhomogeneity of the metals in the interstellar medium whereas the scatters of α-elements are mostly due to the difference in the yield of each supernova. Our results demonstrate that the future observations of r-process elements in EMP stars will be able to constrain the early chemo-dynamical evolution of the Local Group galaxies.

Automate Your Physical Plant Using the Building Block Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michaelson, Matt

1998-01-01

Illustrates how Mount Saint Vincent University (Halifax), by upgrading the control and monitoring of one building or section of the school at a time, could produce savings in energy and operating costs and improve the environment. Explains a gradual, "building block" approach to facility automation that provides flexibility without a…

Probing the Build-Up of Quiescent Galaxies at z>3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finkelstein, Steven

We propose to perform the most robust investigation to date into the evolution of massive quiescent and star-forming galaxies at z > 3, at a time when the universe was less than two billion years old. The build-up of quiescent galaxies in particular is poorly understood, primarily due to large Poisson and cosmic variance issues that have plagued previous studies that probed small volumes, leading to a disagreement on the quiescent fraction by a factor of >3 in the literature. Our proposed work is only now possible due to a new legacy survey led by our team: the Spitzer-HETDEX Exploratory Large Area Survey (SHELA), which is imaging a 23 deg^2 area of the sky at optical, and near, mid and far-infrared, and X-ray wavelengths. In particular, the wide area coverage of the Spitzer/IRAC data allows us to be sensitive to massive galaxies at very high redshifts, the Herschel data allows us to rule out lower-redshift counterparts, and the XMM-Newton data allows us to remove quasar contaminants from our sample. This survey covers a volume >14X that of the largest previous survey for quiescent galaxies at z=3.5, and ~6X larger than that of the largest previous survey for star-forming galaxies at z=4. All of these data exist in the region soon to be observed by the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), which will provide high-precision measures of halo masses and local density at z~3. Using this exquisite multi-wavelength dataset, we will measure the abundance of massive quiescent galaxies at z ~ 3-5, and, combining with measures of the halo masses and environment, compare properties of quiescent galaxies to star-forming galaxies to investigate the physical cause behind the quenching. We will also investigate the onset of quenching in star-forming galaxies in two ways, first by studying the relation between star formation rate and stellar mass, to search for a break in the typically-linear relation at high masses, and second by constraining the feedback

Mission building blocks for outer solar system exploration.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herman, D.; Tarver, P.; Moore, J.

1973-01-01

Description of the technological building blocks required for exploring the outer planets with maximum scientific yields under stringent resource constraints. Two generic spacecraft types are considered: the Mariner and the Pioneer. Following a discussion of the outer planet mission constraints, the evolutionary development of spacecraft, probes, and propulsion building blocks is presented. Then, program genealogies are shown for Pioneer and Mariner missions and advanced propulsion systems to illustrate the soundness of a program based on spacecraft modification rather than on the development of new spacecraft for each mission. It is argued that, for minimum costs, technological advancement should occur in an evolutionary manner from mission to mission. While this strategy is likely to result in compromises on specific missions, the realization of the overall objectives calls for an advance commitment to the entire mission series.

Metabolomics analysis: Finding out metabolic building blocks

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

In this paper we propose a new methodology for the analysis of metabolic networks. We use the notion of strongly connected components of a graph, called in this context metabolic building blocks. Every strongly connected component is contracted to a single node in such a way that the resulting graph is a directed acyclic graph, called a metabolic DAG, with a considerably reduced number of nodes. The property of being a directed acyclic graph brings out a background graph topology that reveals the connectivity of the metabolic network, as well as bridges, isolated nodes and cut nodes. Altogether, it becomes a key information for the discovery of functional metabolic relations. Our methodology has been applied to the glycolysis and the purine metabolic pathways for all organisms in the KEGG database, although it is general enough to work on any database. As expected, using the metabolic DAGs formalism, a considerable reduction on the size of the metabolic networks has been obtained, specially in the case of the purine pathway due to its relative larger size. As a proof of concept, from the information captured by a metabolic DAG and its corresponding metabolic building blocks, we obtain the core of the glycolysis pathway and the core of the purine metabolism pathway and detect some essential metabolic building blocks that reveal the key reactions in both pathways. Finally, the application of our methodology to the glycolysis pathway and the purine metabolism pathway reproduce the tree of life for the whole set of the organisms represented in the KEGG database which supports the utility of this research. PMID:28493998

Origami-inspired building block and parametric design for mechanical metamaterials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Wei; Ma, Hua; Feng, Mingde; Yan, Leilei; Wang, Jiafu; Wang, Jun; Qu, Shaobo

2016-08-01

An origami-based building block of mechanical metamaterials is proposed and explained by introducing a mechanism model based on its geometry. According to our model, this origami mechanism supports response to uniaxial tension that depends on structure parameters. Hence, its mechanical properties can be tunable by adjusting the structure parameters. Experiments for poly lactic acid (PLA) samples were carried out, and the results are in good agreement with those of finite element analysis (FEA). This work may be useful for designing building blocks of mechanical metamaterials or other complex mechanical structures.

Multi-shape memory polymers achieved by the spatio-assembly of 3D printable thermoplastic building blocks.

PubMed

Li, Hongze; Gao, Xiang; Luo, Yingwu

2016-04-07

Multi-shape memory polymers were prepared by the macroscale spatio-assembly of building blocks in this work. The building blocks were methyl acrylate-co-styrene (MA-co-St) copolymers, which have the St-block-(St-random-MA)-block-St tri-block chain sequence. This design ensures that their transition temperatures can be adjusted over a wide range by varying the composition of the middle block. The two St blocks at the chain ends can generate a crosslink network in the final device to achieve strong bonding force between building blocks and the shape memory capacity. Due to their thermoplastic properties, 3D printing was employed for the spatio-assembly to build devices. This method is capable of introducing many transition phases into one device and preparing complicated shapes via 3D printing. The device can perform a complex action via a series of shape changes. Besides, this method can avoid the difficult programing of a series of temporary shapes. The control of intermediate temporary shapes was realized via programing the shapes and locations of building blocks in the final device.

Determining Possible Building Blocks of the Earth and Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burbine, T. H.; OBrien, K. M.

2004-01-01

One of the fundamental questions concerning planetary formation is exactly what material did the planets form from? All the planets in our solar system are believed to have formed out of material from the solar nebula. Chondritic meteorites appear to sample this primitive material. Chondritic meteorites are generally classified into 13 major groups, which have a variety of compositions. Detailed studies of possible building blocks of the terrestrial planets require samples that can be used to estimate the bulk chemistry of these bodies. This study will focus on trying to determine possible building blocks of Earth and Mars since samples of these two planets can be studied in detail in the laboratory.

The Cellular Building Blocks of Breathing

PubMed Central

Ramirez, J.M.; Doi, A.; Garcia, A.J.; Elsen, F.P.; Koch, H.; Wei, A.D.

2013-01-01

Respiratory brainstem neurons fulfill critical roles in controlling breathing: they generate the activity patterns for breathing and contribute to various sensory responses including changes in O2 and CO2. These complex sensorimotor tasks depend on the dynamic interplay between numerous cellular building blocks that consist of voltage-, calcium-, and ATP-dependent ionic conductances, various ionotropic and metabotropic synaptic mechanisms, as well as neuromodulators acting on G-protein coupled receptors and second messenger systems. As described in this review, the sensorimotor responses of the respiratory network emerge through the state-dependent integration of all these building blocks. There is no known respiratory function that involves only a small number of intrinsic, synaptic, or modulatory properties. Because of the complex integration of numerous intrinsic, synaptic, and modulatory mechanisms, the respiratory network is capable of continuously adapting to changes in the external and internal environment, which makes breathing one of the most integrated behaviors. Not surprisingly, inspiration is critical not only in the control of ventilation, but also in the context of “inspiring behaviors” such as arousal of the mind and even creativity. Far-reaching implications apply also to the underlying network mechanisms, as lessons learned from the respiratory network apply to network functions in general. PMID:23720262

How Crossover Speeds up Building Block Assembly in Genetic Algorithms.

PubMed

Sudholt, Dirk

2017-01-01

We reinvestigate a fundamental question: How effective is crossover in genetic algorithms in combining building blocks of good solutions? Although this has been discussed controversially for decades, we are still lacking a rigorous and intuitive answer. We provide such answers for royal road functions and OneMax, where every bit is a building block. For the latter, we show that using crossover makes every ([Formula: see text]+[Formula: see text]) genetic algorithm at least twice as fast as the fastest evolutionary algorithm using only standard bit mutation, up to small-order terms and for moderate [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Crossover is beneficial because it can capitalize on mutations that have both beneficial and disruptive effects on building blocks: crossover is able to repair the disruptive effects of mutation in later generations. Compared to mutation-based evolutionary algorithms, this makes multibit mutations more useful. Introducing crossover changes the optimal mutation rate on OneMax from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]. This holds both for uniform crossover and k-point crossover. Experiments and statistical tests confirm that our findings apply to a broad class of building block functions.

Ultracompact Blue Dwarfs: Galaxy Formation in the Local Universe?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corbin, Michael

2004-07-01

Recent observations suggest that very low-mass galaxies in the local universe are still in the process of formation. To investigate this issue we propose to obtain deep ACS HRC images in the U, V and I bands of a sample of 11 "ultracompact" blue dwarf galaxies {UCBDs} identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These objects are nearby {z < 0.009}, actively star-forming, and have extremely small angular and physical sizes {d < 6" and D < 1 kpc}. They also tend to reside in voids. Our WFPC2 images of the prototype object of this class, POX 186, reveal this tiny object to have a highly disturbed morphlogy indicative of a recent {within 10^8 yr} collision between two small { 100 pc} clumps of stars that could represent the long-sought building blocks predicted by the Press-Schechter model of hierarchical galaxy formation. This collision has also triggered the formation of a "super" star cluster {SSC} at the object's core that may be the progenitor of a globular cluster. POX 186 thus appears to be a very small dwarf galaxy in the process of formation. This exciting discovery strongly motivates HST imaging of a full sample of UCBDs in order to determine if they have morphologies similar to POX 186. HST images are essential for resolving the structure of these objects, including establishing the presence of SSCs. HST also offers the only way to determine their morphologies in the near UV. The spectra of the objects available from the SDSS will also allow us to measure their star formation rates, dust content and metallicities. In addition to potentially providing the first direct evidence of Press-Schechter building blocks, these data could yield insight into the relationship between galaxy and globular cluster formation, and will serve as a test of the recent "downsizing" model of galaxy formation in which the least massive objects are the last to form.

An Approach for On-Board Software Building Blocks Cooperation and Interfaces Definition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pascucci, Dario; Campolo, Giovanni; Candia, Sante; Lisio, Giovanni

2010-08-01

This paper provides an insight on the Avionic SW architecture developed by Thales Alenia Space Italy (TAS-I) to achieve structuring of the OBSW as a set of self-standing and re-usable building blocks. It is initially described the underlying framework for building blocks cooperation, which is based on ECSSE-70 packets forwarding (for services request to a building block) and standard parameters exchange for data communication. Subsequently it is discussed the high level of flexibility and scalability of the resulting architecture, reporting as example an implementation of the Failure Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) function which exploits the proposed architecture. The presented approach evolves from avionic SW architecture developed in the scope of the project PRIMA (Mult-Purpose Italian Re-configurable Platform) and has been adopted for the Sentinel-1 Avionic Software (ASW).

Composition of clusters and building blocks in amylopectins from maize mutants deficient in starch synthase III.

PubMed

Zhu, Fan; Bertoft, Eric; Seetharaman, Koushik

2013-12-18

Branches in amylopectin are distributed along the backbone. Units of the branches are building blocks (smaller) and clusters (larger) based on the distance between branches. In this study, composition of clusters and building blocks of amylopectins from dull1 maize mutants deficient in starch synthase III (SSIII) with a common genetic background (W64A) were characterized and compared with the wild type. Clusters were produced from amylopectins by partial hydrolysis using α-amylase of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and were subsequently treated with phosphorylase a and β-amylase to produce φ,β-limit dextrins. Clusters were further extensively hydrolyzed with the α-amylase to produce building blocks. Structures of clusters and building blocks were analyzed by diverse chromatographic techniques. The results showed that the dull1 mutation resulted in larger clusters with more singly branched building blocks. The average cluster contained ~5.4 blocks in dull1 mutants and ~4.2 blocks in the wild type. The results are compared with previous results from SSIII-deficient amo1 barley and suggest fundamental differences in the cluster structures.

Effective Light Directed Assembly of Building Blocks with Microscale Control.

PubMed

Dinh, Ngoc-Duy; Luo, Rongcong; Christine, Maria Tankeh Asuncion; Lin, Weikang Nicholas; Shih, Wei-Chuan; Goh, James Cho-Hong; Chen, Chia-Hung

2017-06-01

Light-directed forces have been widely used to pattern micro/nanoscale objects with precise control, forming functional assemblies. However, a substantial laser intensity is required to generate sufficient optical gradient forces to move a small object in a certain direction, causing limited throughput for applications. A high-throughput light-directed assembly is demonstrated as a printing technology by introducing gold nanorods to induce thermal convection flows that move microparticles (diameter = 40 µm to several hundreds of micrometers) to specific light-guided locations, forming desired patterns. With the advantage of effective light-directed assembly, the microfluidic-fabricated monodispersed biocompatible microparticles are used as building blocks to construct a structured assembly (≈10 cm scale) in ≈2 min. The control with microscale precision is approached by changing the size of the laser light spot. After crosslinking assembly of building blocks, a novel soft material with wanted pattern is approached. To demonstrate its application, the mesenchymal stem-cell-seeded hydrogel microparticles are prepared as functional building blocks to construct scaffold-free tissues with desired structures. This light-directed fabrication method can be applied to integrate different building units, enabling the bottom-up formation of materials with precise control over their internal structure for bioprinting, tissue engineering, and advanced manufacturing. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Incorporating GIS building data and census housing statistics for sub-block-level population estimation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, S.-S.; Wang, L.; Qiu, X.

2008-01-01

This article presents a deterministic model for sub-block-level population estimation based on the total building volumes derived from geographic information system (GIS) building data and three census block-level housing statistics. To assess the model, we generated artificial blocks by aggregating census block areas and calculating the respective housing statistics. We then applied the model to estimate populations for sub-artificial-block areas and assessed the estimates with census populations of the areas. Our analyses indicate that the average percent error of population estimation for sub-artificial-block areas is comparable to those for sub-census-block areas of the same size relative to associated blocks. The smaller the sub-block-level areas, the higher the population estimation errors. For example, the average percent error for residential areas is approximately 0.11 percent for 100 percent block areas and 35 percent for 5 percent block areas.

The importance of satellite quenching for the build-up of the red sequence of present-day galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van den Bosch, Frank C.; Aquino, Daniel; Yang, Xiaohu; Mo, H. J.; Pasquali, Anna; McIntosh, Daniel H.; Weinmann, Simone M.; Kang, Xi

2008-06-01

According to the current paradigm, galaxies initially form as disc galaxies at the centres of their own dark matter haloes. During their subsequent evolution, they may undergo a transformation to a red, early-type galaxy, thus giving rise to the build-up of the red sequence. Two important, outstanding questions are (i) which transformation mechanisms are most important and (ii) in what environment do they occur. In this paper, we study the impact of transformation mechanisms that operate only on satellite galaxies, such as strangulation, ram-pressure stripping and galaxy harassment. Using a large galaxy group catalogue constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we compare the colours and concentrations of satellites galaxies to those of central galaxies of the same stellar mass, adopting the hypothesis that the latter are the progenitors of the former. On average, satellite galaxies are redder and more concentrated than central galaxies of the same stellar mass, indicating that satellite-specific transformation processes do indeed operate. Central-satellite pairs that are matched in both stellar mass and colour, however, show no average concentration difference, indicating that the transformation mechanisms operating on satellites affect colour more than morphology. We also find that the colour and concentration differences of matched central-satellite pairs are completely independent of the mass of the host halo (not to be confused with the subhalo) of the satellite galaxy, indicating that satellite-specific transformation mechanisms are equally efficient in host haloes of all masses. This strongly rules against mechanisms that are thought to operate only in very massive haloes, such as ram-pressure stripping or harassment. Instead, we argue that strangulation is the main transformation mechanism for satellite galaxies. Finally, we determine the relative importance of satellite quenching for the build-up of the red sequence. We find that roughly 70 per cent of

Encapsulation of an interpenetrated diamondoid inorganic building block in a metal-organic framework.

PubMed

Zhang, Huabin; Lin, Ping; Chen, Erxia; Tan, Yanxi; Wen, Tian; Aldalbahi, Ali; Alshehri, Saad M; Yamauchi, Yusuke; Du, Shaowu; Zhang, Jian

2015-03-23

The first example of an inorganic-organic composite framework with an interpenetrated diamondoid inorganic building block, featuring unique {InNa}n helices and {In12 Na16 } nano-rings, has been constructed and structurally characterized. This framework also represents a unique example of encapsulation of an interpenetrated diamondoid inorganic building block in a metal-organic framework. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

University Education in Ontario: Shared Goals & Building Blocks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Council of Ontario Universities, Toronto.

This brochure suggests five goals that are likely to be shared by the people of Ontario, their government, and the province's publicly funded universities for a strong university system, and identifies the building blocks and resource-related commitments that would enable Ontario universities to achieve these goals. The goals are: (1) all…

Building Blocks of Psychology: on Remaking the Unkept Promises of Early Schools.

PubMed

Gozli, Davood G; Deng, Wei Sophia

2018-03-01

The appeal and popularity of "building blocks", i.e., simple and dissociable elements of behavior and experience, persists in psychological research. We begin our assessment of this research strategy with an historical review of structuralism (as espoused by E. B. Titchener) and behaviorism (espoused by J. B. Watson and B. F. Skinner), two movements that held the assumption in their attempts to provide a systematic and unified discipline. We point out the ways in which the elementism of the two schools selected, framed, and excluded topics of study. After the historical review, we turn to contemporary literature and highlight the persistence of research into building blocks and the associated framing and exclusions in psychological research. The assumption that complex categories of human psychology can be understood in terms of their elementary components and simplest forms seems indefensible. In specific cases, therefore, reliance on the assumption requires justification. Finally, we review alternative strategies that bypass the commitment to building blocks.

Understanding the build-up of SMBH and Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carrera, Francisco; Georgakakis, Antonis; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Akylas, Thanassis; Lanzuisi, Giorgio; Castello, N.

2015-09-01

. The excellent survey capabilities of Athena/WFI (effective area, angular resolution, field of view) will allow to measure the incidence of feedback in the shape of warm absorbers and Ultra Fast Outflows among the general population of AGN, as well as to complete the census of black hole growth by detecting and characterising significant samples of the most heavily obscured (including Compton thick) AGN, to redshifts z~3-4. The outstanding spectral throughput and resolution of Athena/X-IFU will permit measuring the energetics of those outflows to assess their influence on their host galaxies. The demographics of the heavily obscured and outflowing populations relative to their hosts are fundamental for understanding how major black hole growth events relate to the build-up of galaxies.

Properties of Galaxies and Groups: Nature versus Nurture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niemi, Sami-Matias

2011-09-01

Due to the inherently nonlinear nature of gravity cosmological N-body simulations have become an invaluable tool when the growth of structure is being studied and modelled closer to the present epoch. Large simulations with high dynamical range have made it possible to model the formation and growth of cosmic structure with unprecedented accuracy. Moreover, galaxies, the basic building blocks of the Universe, can also be modelled in cosmological context. However, despite all the simulations and successes in recent decades, there are still many unanswered questions in the field of galaxy formation and evolution. One of the longest standing issue being the significance of the formation place and thus initial conditions to a galaxy's evolution in respect to environment, often formulated simply as "nature versus nurture" like in human development and psychology. Unfortunately, our understanding of galaxy evolution in different environments is still limited, albeit, for example, the morphology-density relation has shown that the density of the galaxy's local environment can affect its properties. Consequently, the environment should play a role in galaxy evolution, however despite the efforts, the exact role of the galaxy's local environment to its evolution remains open. This thesis introduction discusses briefly the background cosmology, cosmological N-body simulations and semi-analytical models. The second part is reserved for groups of galaxies, whether they are gravitationally bound, and what this may imply for galaxy evolution. The third part of the thesis concentrates on describing results of a case study of isolated field elliptical galaxies. The final chapter discusses another case study of luminous infra-red galaxies.

Fuel-Mediated Transient Clustering of Colloidal Building Blocks.

PubMed

van Ravensteijn, Bas G P; Hendriksen, Wouter E; Eelkema, Rienk; van Esch, Jan H; Kegel, Willem K

2017-07-26

Fuel-driven assembly operates under the continuous influx of energy and results in superstructures that exist out of equilibrium. Such dissipative processes provide a route toward structures and transient behavior unreachable by conventional equilibrium self-assembly. Although perfected in biological systems like microtubules, this class of assembly is only sparsely used in synthetic or colloidal analogues. Here, we present a novel colloidal system that shows transient clustering driven by a chemical fuel. Addition of fuel causes an increase in hydrophobicity of the building blocks by actively removing surface charges, thereby driving their aggregation. Depletion of fuel causes reappearance of the charged moieties and leads to disassembly of the formed clusters. This reassures that the system returns to its initial, equilibrium state. By taking advantage of the cyclic nature of our system, we show that clustering can be induced several times by simple injection of new fuel. The fuel-mediated assembly of colloidal building blocks presented here opens new avenues to the complex landscape of nonequilibrium colloidal structures, guided by biological design principles.

Fault-tolerant building-block computer study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rennels, D. A.

1978-01-01

Ultra-reliable core computers are required for improving the reliability of complex military systems. Such computers can provide reliable fault diagnosis, failure circumvention, and, in some cases serve as an automated repairman for their host systems. A small set of building-block circuits which can be implemented as single very large integration devices, and which can be used with off-the-shelf microprocessors and memories to build self checking computer modules (SCCM) is described. Each SCCM is a microcomputer which is capable of detecting its own faults during normal operation and is described to communicate with other identical modules over one or more Mil Standard 1553A buses. Several SCCMs can be connected into a network with backup spares to provide fault-tolerant operation, i.e. automated recovery from faults. Alternative fault-tolerant SCCM configurations are discussed along with the cost and reliability associated with their implementation.

Synthesis of Triamino Acid Building Blocks with Different Lipophilicities

PubMed Central

Maity, Jyotirmoy; Honcharenko, Dmytro; Strömberg, Roger

2015-01-01

To obtain different amino acids with varying lipophilicity and that can carry up to three positive charges we have developed a number of new triamino acid building blocks. One set of building blocks was achieved by aminoethyl extension, via reductive amination, of the side chain of ortnithine, diaminopropanoic and diaminobutanoic acid. A second set of triamino acids with the aminoethyl extension having hydrocarbon side chains was synthesized from diaminobutanoic acid. The aldehydes needed for the extension by reductive amination were synthesized from the corresponding Fmoc-L-2-amino fatty acids in two steps. Reductive amination of these compounds with Boc-L-Dab-OH gave the C4-C8 alkyl-branched triamino acids. All triamino acids were subsequently Boc-protected at the formed secondary amine to make the monomers appropriate for the N-terminus position when performing Fmoc-based solid-phase peptide synthesis. PMID:25876040

The Impact of Individual Differences, Types of Model and Social Settings on Block Building Performance among Chinese Preschoolers.

PubMed

Tian, Mi; Deng, Zhu; Meng, Zhaokun; Li, Rui; Zhang, Zhiyi; Qi, Wenhui; Wang, Rui; Yin, Tingting; Ji, Menghui

2018-01-01

Children's block building performances are used as indicators of other abilities in multiple domains. In the current study, we examined individual differences, types of model and social settings as influences on children's block building performance. Chinese preschoolers ( N = 180) participated in a block building activity in a natural setting, and performance was assessed with multiple measures in order to identify a range of specific skills. Using scores generated across these measures, three dependent variables were analyzed: block building skills, structural balance and structural features. An overall MANOVA showed that there were significant main effects of gender and grade level across most measures. Types of model showed no significant effect in children's block building. There was a significant main effect of social settings on structural features, with the best performance in the 5-member group, followed by individual and then the 10-member block building. These findings suggest that boys performed better than girls in block building activity. Block building performance increased significantly from 1st to 2nd year of preschool, but not from second to third. The preschoolers created more representational constructions when presented with a model made of wooden rather than with a picture. There was partial evidence that children performed better when working with peers in a small group than when working alone or working in a large group. It is suggested that future study should examine other modalities rather than the visual one, diversify the samples and adopt a longitudinal investigation.

The accelerated build-up of the red sequence in high-redshift galaxy clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cerulo, P.; Couch, W. J.; Lidman, C.; Demarco, R.; Huertas-Company, M.; Mei, S.; Sánchez-Janssen, R.; Barrientos, L. F.; Muñoz, R. P.

2016-04-01

We analyse the evolution of the red sequence in a sample of galaxy clusters at redshifts 0.8 < z < 1.5 taken from the HAWK-I Cluster Survey (HCS). The comparison with the low-redshift (0.04 < z < 0.08) sample of the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS) and other literature results shows that the slope and intrinsic scatter of the cluster red sequence have undergone little evolution since z = 1.5. We find that the luminous-to-faint ratio and the slope of the faint end of the luminosity distribution of the HCS red sequence are consistent with those measured in WINGS, implying that there is no deficit of red galaxies at magnitudes fainter than M_V^{ast } at high redshifts. We find that the most massive HCS clusters host a population of bright red sequence galaxies at MV < -22.0 mag, which are not observed in low-mass clusters. Interestingly, we also note the presence of a population of very bright (MV < -23.0 mag) and massive (log (M*/M⊙) > 11.5) red sequence galaxies in the WINGS clusters, which do not include only the brightest cluster galaxies and which are not present in the HCS clusters, suggesting that they formed at epochs later than z = 0.8. The comparison with the luminosity distribution of a sample of passive red sequence galaxies drawn from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field in the photometric redshift range 0.8 < zphot < 1.5 shows that the red sequence in clusters is more developed at the faint end, suggesting that halo mass plays an important role in setting the time-scales for the build-up of the red sequence.

The Impact of Individual Differences, Types of Model and Social Settings on Block Building Performance among Chinese Preschoolers

PubMed Central

Tian, Mi; Deng, Zhu; Meng, Zhaokun; Li, Rui; Zhang, Zhiyi; Qi, Wenhui; Wang, Rui; Yin, Tingting; Ji, Menghui

2018-01-01

Children’s block building performances are used as indicators of other abilities in multiple domains. In the current study, we examined individual differences, types of model and social settings as influences on children’s block building performance. Chinese preschoolers (N = 180) participated in a block building activity in a natural setting, and performance was assessed with multiple measures in order to identify a range of specific skills. Using scores generated across these measures, three dependent variables were analyzed: block building skills, structural balance and structural features. An overall MANOVA showed that there were significant main effects of gender and grade level across most measures. Types of model showed no significant effect in children’s block building. There was a significant main effect of social settings on structural features, with the best performance in the 5-member group, followed by individual and then the 10-member block building. These findings suggest that boys performed better than girls in block building activity. Block building performance increased significantly from 1st to 2nd year of preschool, but not from second to third. The preschoolers created more representational constructions when presented with a model made of wooden rather than with a picture. There was partial evidence that children performed better when working with peers in a small group than when working alone or working in a large group. It is suggested that future study should examine other modalities rather than the visual one, diversify the samples and adopt a longitudinal investigation. PMID:29441031

Oligomers and Polymers Based on Pentacene Building Blocks

PubMed Central

Lehnherr, Dan; Tykwinski, Rik R.

2010-01-01

Functionalized pentacene derivatives continue to provide unique materials for organic semiconductor applications. Although oligomers and polymers based on pentacene building blocks remain quite rare, recent synthetic achievements have provided a number of examples with varied structural motifs. This review highlights recent work in this area and, when possible, contrasts the properties of defined-length pentacene oligomers to those of mono- and polymeric systems.

The Building Blocks of Life Move from Ground to Tree to Animal and Back to Ground

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davidson, E. A.

2015-12-01

I generally use combinations of big words to describe my science, such as biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, nutrient cycling, stoichiometry, tropical deforestation, land-use change, agricultural intensification, eutrophication, greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainable development. I didn't expect to use any of these words, but I was surprised that I couldn't use some others that seem simple enough to me, such as farm, plant, soil, and forest. I landed on "building blocks" as my metaphor for the forms of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements that I study as they cycle through and among ecosystems. I study what makes trees and other kinds of life grow. We all know that they need the sun and that they take up water from the ground, but what else do trees need from the ground? What do animals that eat leaves and wood get from the trees? Just as we need building blocks to grow our bodies, trees and animals also need building blocks for growing their bodies. Trees get part of their building blocks from the ground and animals get theirs from what they eat. When animals poop and when leaves fall, some of their building blocks return to the ground. When they die, their building blocks also go back to the ground. I also study what happens to the ground, the water, and the air when we cut down trees, kill or shoo away the animals, and make fields to grow our food. Can we grow enough food and still keep the ground, water, and air clean? I think the answer is yes, but it will take better understanding of how all of those building blocks fit together and move around, from ground to tree to animal and back to ground.

Studies in the X-Ray Emission of Clusters of Galaxies and Other Topics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vrtilek, Jan; Thronson, Harley (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The paper discusses the following: (1) X-ray study of groups of galaxies with Chandra and XMM. (2) X-ray properties of point sources in Chandra deep fields. (3) Study of cluster substructure using wavelet techniques. (4) Combined study of galaxy clusters with X-ray and the S-Z effect. Groups of galaxies are the fundamental building blocks of large scale structure in the Universe. X-ray study of the intragroup medium offers a powerful approach to addressing some of the major questions that still remain about almost all aspects of groups: their ages, origins, importance of composition of various galaxy types, relations to clusters, and origin and enrichment of the intragroup gas. Long exposures with Chandra have opened new opportunities for the study of X-ray background. The presence of substructure within clusters of galaxies has substantial implications for our understanding of cluster evolution as well as fundamental questions in cosmology.

Silicene Flowers: A Dual Stabilized Silicon Building Block for High-Performance Lithium Battery Anodes.

PubMed

Zhang, Xinghao; Qiu, Xiongying; Kong, Debin; Zhou, Lu; Li, Zihao; Li, Xianglong; Zhi, Linjie

2017-07-25

Nanostructuring is a transformative way to improve the structure stability of high capacity silicon for lithium batteries. Yet, the interface instability issue remains and even propagates in the existing nanostructured silicon building blocks. Here we demonstrate an intrinsically dual stabilized silicon building block, namely silicene flowers, to simultaneously address the structure and interface stability issues. These original Si building blocks as lithium battery anodes exhibit extraordinary combined performance including high gravimetric capacity (2000 mAh g -1 at 800 mA g -1 ), high volumetric capacity (1799 mAh cm -3 ), remarkable rate capability (950 mAh g -1 at 8 A g -1 ), and excellent cycling stability (1100 mA h g -1 at 2000 mA g -1 over 600 cycles). Paired with a conventional cathode, the fabricated full cells deliver extraordinarily high specific energy and energy density (543 Wh kg ca -1 and 1257 Wh L ca -1 , respectively) based on the cathode and anode, which are 152% and 239% of their commercial counterparts using graphite anodes. Coupled with a simple, cost-effective, scalable synthesis approach, this silicon building block offers a horizon for the development of high-performance batteries.

White dwarfs in the building blocks of the Galactic spheroid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Oirschot, Pim; Nelemans, Gijs; Starkenburg, Else; Toonen, Silvia; Helmi, Amina; Zwart, Simon Portegies

2017-11-01

Aims: The Galactic halo likely grew over time in part by assembling smaller galaxies, the so-called building blocks (BBs). We investigate if the properties of these BBs are reflected in the halo white dwarf (WD) population in the solar neighbourhood. Furthermore, we compute the halo WD luminosity functions (WDLFs for four major BBs of five cosmologically motivated stellar haloes). We compare the sum of these to the observed WDLF of the Galactic halo, derived from selected halo WDs in the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey, aiming to investigate if they match better than the WDLFs predicted by simpler models. Methods: We couple the SeBa binary population synthesis model to the Munich-Groningen semi-analytic galaxy formation model applied to the high-resolution Aquarius dark matter simulations. Although the semi-analytic model assumes an instantaneous recycling approximation, we model the evolution of zero-age main sequence stars to WDs, taking age and metallicity variations of the population into account. To be consistent with the observed stellar halo mass density in the solar neighbourhood (ρ0), we simulate the mass in WDs corresponding to this density, assuming a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF) and a binary fraction of 50%. We also normalize our WDLFs to ρ0. Results: Although the majority of halo stars are old and metal-poor and therefore the WDs in the different BBs have similar properties (including present-day luminosity), we find in our models that the WDs originating from BBs that have young and/or metal-rich stars can be distinguished from WDs that were born in other BBs. In practice, however, it will be hard to prove that these WDs really originate from different BBs, as the variations in the halo WD population due to binary WD mergers result in similar effects. The five joined stellar halo WD populations that we modelled result in WDLFs that are very similar to each other. We find that simple models with a Kroupa or Salpeter IMF fit the observed luminosity

GalaxyGAN: Generative Adversarial Networks for recovery of galaxy features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schawinski, Kevin; Zhang, Ce; Zhang, Hantian; Fowler, Lucas; Krishnan Santhanam, Gokula

2017-02-01

GalaxyGAN uses Generative Adversarial Networks to reliably recover features in images of galaxies. The package uses machine learning to train on higher quality data and learns to recover detailed features such as galaxy morphology by effectively building priors. This method opens up the possibility of recovering more information from existing and future imaging data.

Geospatial-enabled Data Exploration and Computation through Data Infrastructure Building Blocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, C. X.; Biehl, L. L.; Merwade, V.; Villoria, N.

2015-12-01

Geospatial data are present everywhere today with the proliferation of location-aware computing devices and sensors. This is especially true in the scientific community where large amounts of data are driving research and education activities in many domains. Collaboration over geospatial data, for example, in modeling, data analysis and visualization, must still overcome the barriers of specialized software and expertise among other challenges. The GABBs project aims at enabling broader access to geospatial data exploration and computation by developing spatial data infrastructure building blocks that leverage capabilities of end-to-end application service and virtualized computing framework in HUBzero. Funded by NSF Data Infrastructure Building Blocks (DIBBS) initiative, GABBs provides a geospatial data architecture that integrates spatial data management, mapping and visualization and will make it available as open source. The outcome of the project will enable users to rapidly create tools and share geospatial data and tools on the web for interactive exploration of data without requiring significant software development skills, GIS expertise or IT administrative privileges. This presentation will describe the development of geospatial data infrastructure building blocks and the scientific use cases that help drive the software development, as well as seek feedback from the user communities.

Alq3 nanorods: promising building blocks for optical devices.

PubMed

Chen, Wei; Peng, Qing; Li, Yadong

2008-07-17

Monodisperse Alq3 nanorods with hexagonal-prism-like morphology are produced via a facile, emulsion based synthesis route. The photoluminescence of individual nanorods differs from the bulk material. These nanorods are promising building blocks for novel optical devices. Copyright © 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Relation between star formation and AGN activity in typical elliptical galaxies: Analysis of the 2MASS K-band galaxy images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierce, Katherine

2014-01-01

We are carrying out a program of aperture photometry on typical elliptical galaxies. While there are many ways to calculate the and magnitude, we are going to use the Aperture Photometry Tool (APT) GUI and the program IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility). By looking at a sample of 236 galaxies from the 2MASS survey k-band, it was determined that 68 of the galaxies needed some sort of a pixel blocking technique due to unwanted background stars or galaxies that may interfere with our readings. My job is to determine a way to block out these pixels while not compromising the true from the galaxy.

Structure of clusters and building blocks in amylopectin from African rice accessions.

PubMed

Gayin, Joseph; Abdel-Aal, El-Sayed M; Marcone, Massimo; Manful, John; Bertoft, Eric

2016-09-05

Enzymatic hydrolysis in combination with gel-permeation and anion-exchange chromatography techniques were employed to characterise the composition of clusters and building blocks of amylopectin from two African rice (Oryza glaberrima) accessions-IRGC 103759 and TOG 12440. The samples were compared with one Asian rice (Oryza sativa) sample (cv WITA 4) and one O. sativa×O. glaberrima cross (NERICA 4). The average DP of clusters from the African rice accessions (ARAs) was marginally larger (DP=83) than in WITA 4 (DP=81). However, regarding average number of chains, clusters from the ARAs represented both the smallest and largest clusters. Overall, the result suggested that the structure of clusters in TOG 12440 was dense with short chains and high degree of branching, whereas the situation was the opposite in NERICA 4. IRGC 103759 and WITA 4 possessed clusters with intermediate characteristics. The commonest type of building blocks in all samples was group 2 (single branched dextrins) representing 40.3-49.4% of the blocks, while groups 3-6 were found in successively lower numbers. The average number of building blocks in the clusters was significantly larger in NERICA 4 (5.8) and WITA 4 (5.7) than in IRGC 103759 and TOG 12440 (5.1 and 5.3, respectively). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computational strategies for the automated design of RNA nanoscale structures from building blocks using NanoTiler.

PubMed

Bindewald, Eckart; Grunewald, Calvin; Boyle, Brett; O'Connor, Mary; Shapiro, Bruce A

2008-10-01

One approach to designing RNA nanoscale structures is to use known RNA structural motifs such as junctions, kissing loops or bulges and to construct a molecular model by connecting these building blocks with helical struts. We previously developed an algorithm for detecting internal loops, junctions and kissing loops in RNA structures. Here we present algorithms for automating or assisting many of the steps that are involved in creating RNA structures from building blocks: (1) assembling building blocks into nanostructures using either a combinatorial search or constraint satisfaction; (2) optimizing RNA 3D ring structures to improve ring closure; (3) sequence optimisation; (4) creating a unique non-degenerate RNA topology descriptor. This effectively creates a computational pipeline for generating molecular models of RNA nanostructures and more specifically RNA ring structures with optimized sequences from RNA building blocks. We show several examples of how the algorithms can be utilized to generate RNA tecto-shapes.

Computational strategies for the automated design of RNA nanoscale structures from building blocks using NanoTiler☆

PubMed Central

Bindewald, Eckart; Grunewald, Calvin; Boyle, Brett; O’Connor, Mary; Shapiro, Bruce A.

2013-01-01

One approach to designing RNA nanoscale structures is to use known RNA structural motifs such as junctions, kissing loops or bulges and to construct a molecular model by connecting these building blocks with helical struts. We previously developed an algorithm for detecting internal loops, junctions and kissing loops in RNA structures. Here we present algorithms for automating or assisting many of the steps that are involved in creating RNA structures from building blocks: (1) assembling building blocks into nanostructures using either a combinatorial search or constraint satisfaction; (2) optimizing RNA 3D ring structures to improve ring closure; (3) sequence optimisation; (4) creating a unique non-degenerate RNA topology descriptor. This effectively creates a computational pipeline for generating molecular models of RNA nanostructures and more specifically RNA ring structures with optimized sequences from RNA building blocks. We show several examples of how the algorithms can be utilized to generate RNA tecto-shapes. PMID:18838281

Synthesis of most polyene natural product motifs using just twelve building blocks and one coupling reaction

PubMed Central

Woerly, Eric M.; Roy, Jahnabi; Burke, Martin D.

2014-01-01

The inherent modularity of polypeptides, oligonucleotides, and oligosaccharides has been harnessed to achieve generalized building block-based synthesis platforms. Importantly, like these other targets, most small molecule natural products are biosynthesized via iterative coupling of bifunctional building blocks. This suggests that many small molecules also possess inherent modularity commensurate with systematic building block-based construction. Supporting this hypothesis, here we report that the polyene motifs found in >75% of all known polyene natural products can be synthesized using just 12 building blocks and one coupling reaction. Using the same general retrosynthetic algorithm and reaction conditions, this platform enabled the synthesis of a wide range of polyene frameworks covering all of this natural product chemical space, and first total syntheses of the polyene natural products asnipyrone B, physarigin A, and neurosporaxanthin β-D-glucopyranoside. Collectively, these results suggest the potential for a more generalized approach for making small molecules in the laboratory. PMID:24848233

Statistical analysis of atmospheric turbulence about a simulated block building

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steely, S. L., Jr.

1981-01-01

An array of towers instrumented to measure the three components of wind speed was used to study atmospheric flow about a simulated block building. Two-point spacetime correlations of the longitudinal velocity component were computed along with two-point spatial correlations. These correlations are in good agreement with fundamental concepts of fluid mechanics. The two-point spatial correlations computed directly were compared with correlations predicted by Taylor's hypothesis and excellent agreement was obtained at the higher levels which were out of the building influence. The correlations fall off significantly in the building wake but recover beyond the wake to essentially the same values in the undisturbed, higher regions.

Interlocking Toy Building Blocks as Hands-On Learning Modules for Blind and Visually Impaired Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melaku, Samuel; Schreck, James O.; Griffin, Kameron; Dabke, Rajeev B.

2016-01-01

Interlocking toy building blocks (e.g., Lego) as chemistry learning modules for blind and visually impaired (BVI) students in high school and undergraduate introductory or general chemistry courses are presented. Building blocks were assembled on a baseplate to depict the relative changes in the periodic properties of elements. Modules depicting…

A building block for hardware belief networks.

PubMed

Behin-Aein, Behtash; Diep, Vinh; Datta, Supriyo

2016-07-21

Belief networks represent a powerful approach to problems involving probabilistic inference, but much of the work in this area is software based utilizing standard deterministic hardware based on the transistor which provides the gain and directionality needed to interconnect billions of them into useful networks. This paper proposes a transistor like device that could provide an analogous building block for probabilistic networks. We present two proof-of-concept examples of belief networks, one reciprocal and one non-reciprocal, implemented using the proposed device which is simulated using experimentally benchmarked models.

Multi-scale, Hierarchically Nested Young Stellar Structures in LEGUS Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thilker, David A.; LEGUS Team

2017-01-01

The study of star formation in galaxies has predominantly been limited to either young stellar clusters and HII regions, or much larger kpc-scale morphological features such as spiral arms. The HST Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS) provides a rare opportunity to link these scales in a diverse sample of nearby galaxies and obtain a more comprehensive understanding of their co-evolution for comparison against model predictions. We have utilized LEGUS stellar photometry to identify young, resolved stellar populations belonging to several age bins and then defined nested hierarchical structures as traced by these subsamples of stars. Analagous hierarchical structures were also defined using LEGUS catalogs of unresolved young stellar clusters. We will present our emerging results concerning the physical properties (e.g. area, star counts, stellar mass, star formation rate, ISM characteristics), occupancy statistics (e.g. clusters per substructure versus age and scale, parent/child demographics) and relation to overall galaxy morphology/mass for these building blocks of hierarchical star-forming structure.

Photoelectroreduction of Building-Block Chemicals.

PubMed

Chen, Fengjiao; Cui, Wei; Zhang, Jie; Wang, Yeyun; Zhou, Junhua; Hu, Yongpan; Li, Yanguang; Lee, Shuit-Tong

2017-06-12

Conventional photoelectrochemical cells utilize solar energy to drive the chemical conversion of water or CO 2 into useful chemical fuels. Such processes are confronted with general challenges, including the low intrinsic activities and inconvenient storage and transportation of their gaseous products. A photoelectrochemical approach is proposed to drive the reductive production of industrial building-block chemicals and demonstrate that succinic acid and glyoxylic acid can be readily synthesized on Si nanowire array photocathodes free of any cocatalyst and at room temperature. These photocathodes exhibit a positive onset potential, large saturation photocurrent density, high reaction selectivity, and excellent operation durability. They capitalize on the large photovoltage generated from the semiconductor/electrolyte junction to partially offset the required external bias, and thereby make this photoelectrosynthetic approach significantly more sustainable compared to traditional electrosynthesis. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A Working Model of Protein Synthesis Using Lego(TM) Building Blocks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Templin, Mark A.; Fetters, Marcia K.

2002-01-01

Uses Lego building blocks to improve the effectiveness of teaching about protein synthesis. Provides diagrams and pictures for a 2-3 day student activity. Discusses mRNA, transfer RNA, and a protein synthesis model. (MVL)

π-Extended Isoindigo-Based Derivative: A Promising Electron-Deficient Building Block for Polymer Semiconductors.

PubMed

Xu, Long; Zhao, Zhiyuan; Xiao, Mingchao; Yang, Jie; Xiao, Jian; Yi, Zhengran; Wang, Shuai; Liu, Yunqi

2017-11-22

The exploration of novel electron-deficient building blocks is a key task for developing high-performance polymer semiconductors in organic thin-film transistors. In view of the situation of the lack of strong electron-deficient building blocks, we designed two novel π-extended isoindigo-based electron-deficient building blocks, IVI and F 4 IVI. Owing to the strong electron-deficient nature and the extended π-conjugated system of the two acceptor units, their copolymers, PIVI2T and PF 4 IVI2T, containing 2,2'-bithiophene donor units, are endowed with deep-lying highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels and strong intermolecular interactions. In comparison to PIVI2T, the fluorinated PF 4 IVI2T exhibits stronger intra- and intermolecular interactions, lower HOMO/LUMO energy levels up to -5.74/-4.17 eV, and more ordered molecular packing with a smaller π-π stacking distance of up to 3.53 Å, resulting in an excellent ambipolar transporting behavior and a promising application in logic circuits for PF 4 IVI2T in ambient with hole and electron mobilities of up to 1.03 and 1.82 cm 2 V -1 s -1 , respectively. The results reveal that F 4 IVI is a promising and strong electron-deficient building unit to construct high-performance semiconducting polymers, which provides an insight into the structure-property relationships for the exploration and molecular engineering of excellent electron-deficient building blocks in the field of organic electronics.

Solvent mediated hybrid 2D materials: black phosphorus - graphene heterostructured building blocks assembled for sodium ion batteries.

PubMed

Li, Mengya; Muralidharan, Nitin; Moyer, Kathleen; Pint, Cary L

2018-06-07

Here we demonstrate the broad capability to exploit interactions at different length scales in 2D materials to prepare macroscopic functional materials containing hybrid black phosphorus/graphene (BP/G) heterostructured building blocks. First, heterostructured 2D building blocks are self-assembled during co-exfoliation in the solution phase based on electrostatic attraction of different 2D materials. Second, electrophoretic deposition is used as a tool to assemble these building blocks into macroscopic films containing these self-assembled 2D heterostructures. Characterization of deposits formed using this technique elucidates the presence of stacked and sandwiched 2D heterostructures, and zeta potential measurements confirm the mechanistic interactions driving this assembly. Building on the exceptional sodium alloying capacity of BP, these materials were demonstrated as superior binder-free and additive-free anodes for sodium batteries with specific discharge capacity of 2365 mA h gP-1 and long stable cycling duration. This study demonstrates how controllable co-processing of 2D materials can enable material control for stacking and building block assembly relevant to broad future applications of 2D materials.

Building Blocks for Transport-Class Hybrid and Turboelectric Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jankovsky, Amy; Bowman, Cheryl; Jansen, Ralph

2016-01-01

NASA has been investing in research efforts to define potential vehicles that use hybrid and turboelectric propulsion to enable savings in fuel burn and carbon usage. This paper overviews the fundamental building blocks that have been derived from those studies and details what key performance parameters have been defined, what key ground and flight tests need to occur, and highlights progress toward each.

Efficient Risk Determination of Risk of Road Blocking by Means of MMS and Data of Buildings and Their Surrounding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nose, Kazuhito; Hatake, Shuhei

2016-06-01

Massive earthquake named "Tonankai Massive earthquake" is predicted to occur in the near future and is feared to cause severe damage in Kinki District . "Hanshin-Awaji Massive Earthquake" in 1995 destroyed most of the buildings constructed before 1981 and not complying with the latest earthquake resistance standards. Collapsed buildings blocked roads, obstructed evacuation, rescue and firefighting operations and inflicted further damages.To alleviate the damages, it is important to predict the points where collapsed buildings are likely block the roads and to take precautions in advance. But big cities have an expanse of urban areas with densely-distributed buildings, and it requires time and cost to check each and every building whether or not it will block the road. In order to reduce blocked roads when a disaster strikes, we made a study and confirmed that the risk of road blocking can be determined easily by means of the latest technologies of survey and geographical information.

Recent advances in synthesis of bacterial rare sugar building blocks and their applications.

PubMed

Emmadi, Madhu; Kulkarni, Suvarn S

2014-07-01

Covering: 1964 to 2013. Bacteria have unusual glycans on their surfaces which distinguish them from the host cells. These unique structures offer avenues for targeting bacteria with specific therapeutics and vaccine. However, these rare sugars are not accessible in acceptable purity and amounts by isolation from natural sources. Thus, procurement of orthogonally protected rare sugar building blocks through efficient chemical synthesis is regarded as a crucial step towards the development of glycoconjugate vaccines. This Highlight focuses on recent advances in the synthesis of the bacterial deoxy amino hexopyranoside building blocks and their application in constructing various biologically important bacterial O-glycans.

Engineering multifunctional protein nanoparticles by in vitro disassembling and reassembling of heterologous building blocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Unzueta, Ugutz; Serna, Naroa; Sánchez-García, Laura; Roldán, Mónica; Sánchez-Chardi, Alejandro; Mangues, Ramón; Villaverde, Antonio; Vázquez, Esther

2017-12-01

The engineering of protein self-assembling at the nanoscale allows the generation of functional and biocompatible materials, which can be produced by easy biological fabrication. The combination of cationic and histidine-rich stretches in fusion proteins promotes oligomerization as stable protein-only regular nanoparticles that are composed by a moderate number of building blocks. Among other applications, these materials are highly appealing as tools in targeted drug delivery once empowered with peptidic ligands of cell surface receptors. In this context, we have dissected here this simple technological platform regarding the controlled disassembling and reassembling of the composing building blocks. By applying high salt and imidazole in combination, nanoparticles are disassembled in a process that is fully reversible upon removal of the disrupting agents. By taking this approach, we accomplish here the in vitro generation of hybrid nanoparticles formed by heterologous building blocks. This fact demonstrates the capability to generate multifunctional and/or multiparatopic or multispecific materials usable in nanomedical applications.

Highly crystalline covalent organic frameworks from flexible building blocks.

PubMed

Xu, Liqian; Ding, San-Yuan; Liu, Junmin; Sun, Junliang; Wang, Wei; Zheng, Qi-Yu

2016-03-28

Two novel 2D covalent organic frameworks (TPT-COF-1 and TPT-COF-2) were synthesized from the flexible 2,4,6-triaryloxy-1,3,5-triazine building blocks on a gram scale, which show high crystallinity and large surface area. The controllable formation of highly ordered frameworks is mainly attributed to the self-assembly Piedfort unit of 2,4,6-triaryloxy-1,3,5-triazine.

Dendronized Metal Nanoparticles-Self-Organizing Building Blocks for the Design of New Functional Materials

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-01

characterization has just started.       The hybrids that we have synthesized are based on plasmonic gold and  silver   nanoparticles  (NPs) but  the concept  is...AFRL-AFOSR-UK-TR-2016-0010 Dendronized metal nanoparticles - self-organizing building blocks for the design of new functional materials Bertrand...2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Dendronized metal nanoparticles - self-organizing building blocks for the design of new functional materials 5a. CONTRACT

CHEMICAL SIGNATURES OF THE FIRST GALAXIES: CRITERIA FOR ONE-SHOT ENRICHMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Frebel, Anna; Bromm, Volker, E-mail: afrebel@mit.edu, E-mail: vbromm@astro.as.utexas.edu

We utilize metal-poor stars in the local, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs; L {sub tot} {<=} 10{sup 5} L {sub Sun }) to empirically constrain the formation process of the first galaxies. Since UFDs have much simpler star formation histories than the halo of the Milky Way, their stellar populations should preserve the fossil record of the first supernova (SN) explosions in their long-lived, low-mass stars. Guided by recent hydrodynamical simulations of first galaxy formation, we develop a set of stellar abundance signatures that characterize the nucleosynthetic history of such an early system if it was observed in the present-day universe.more » Specifically, we argue that the first galaxies are the product of chemical 'one-shot' events, where only one (long-lived) stellar generation forms after the first, Population III, SN explosions. Our abundance criteria thus constrain the strength of negative feedback effects inside the first galaxies. We compare the stellar content of UFDs with these one-shot criteria. Several systems (Ursa Major II, and also Coma Berenices, Bootes I, Leo IV, Segue 1) largely fulfill the requirements, indicating that their high-redshift predecessors did experience strong feedback effects that shut off star formation. We term the study of the entire stellar population of a dwarf galaxy for the purpose of inferring details about the nature and origin of the first galaxies 'dwarf galaxy archaeology'. This will provide clues to the connection of the first galaxies, the surviving, metal-poor dwarf galaxies, and the building blocks of the Milky Way.« less

Transportable Payload Operations Control Center reusable software: Building blocks for quality ground data systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mahmot, Ron; Koslosky, John T.; Beach, Edward; Schwarz, Barbara

1994-01-01

The Mission Operations Division (MOD) at Goddard Space Flight Center builds Mission Operations Centers which are used by Flight Operations Teams to monitor and control satellites. Reducing system life cycle costs through software reuse has always been a priority of the MOD. The MOD's Transportable Payload Operations Control Center development team established an extensive library of 14 subsystems with over 100,000 delivered source instructions of reusable, generic software components. Nine TPOCC-based control centers to date support 11 satellites and achieved an average software reuse level of more than 75 percent. This paper shares experiences of how the TPOCC building blocks were developed and how building block developer's, mission development teams, and users are all part of the process.

Utilization of the Building-Block Approach in Structural Mechanics Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouse, Marshall; Jegley, Dawn C.; McGowan, David M.; Bush, Harold G.; Waters, W. Allen

2005-01-01

In the last 20 years NASA has worked in collaboration with industry to develop enabling technologies needed to make aircraft safer and more affordable, extend their lifetime, improve their reliability, better understand their behavior, and reduce their weight. To support these efforts, research programs starting with ideas and culminating in full-scale structural testing were conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center. Each program contained development efforts that (a) started with selecting the material system and manufacturing approach; (b) moved on to experimentation and analysis of small samples to characterize the system and quantify behavior in the presence of defects like damage and imperfections; (c) progressed on to examining larger structures to examine buckling behavior, combined loadings, and built-up structures; and (d) finally moved to complicated subcomponents and full-scale components. Each step along the way was supported by detailed analysis, including tool development, to prove that the behavior of these structures was well-understood and predictable. This approach for developing technology became known as the "building-block" approach. In the Advanced Composites Technology Program and the High Speed Research Program the building-block approach was used to develop a true understanding of the response of the structures involved through experimentation and analysis. The philosophy that if the structural response couldn't be accurately predicted, it wasn't really understood, was critical to the progression of these programs. To this end, analytical techniques including closed-form and finite elements were employed and experimentation used to verify assumptions at each step along the way. This paper presents a discussion of the utilization of the building-block approach described previously in structural mechanics research and development programs at NASA Langley Research Center. Specific examples that illustrate the use of this approach are

Ribozyme-catalysed RNA synthesis using triplet building blocks.

PubMed

Attwater, James; Raguram, Aditya; Morgunov, Alexey S; Gianni, Edoardo; Holliger, Philipp

2018-05-15

RNA-catalyzed RNA replication is widely believed to have supported a primordial biology. However, RNA catalysis is dependent upon RNA folding, and this yields structures that can block replication of such RNAs. To address this apparent paradox we have re-examined the building blocks used for RNA replication. We report RNA-catalysed RNA synthesis on structured templates when using trinucleotide triphosphates (triplets) as substrates, catalysed by a general and accurate triplet polymerase ribozyme that emerged from in vitro evolution as a mutualistic RNA heterodimer. The triplets cooperatively invaded and unraveled even highly stable RNA secondary structures, and support non-canonical primer-free and bidirectional modes of RNA synthesis and replication. Triplet substrates thus resolve a central incongruity of RNA replication, and here allow the ribozyme to synthesise its own catalytic subunit '+' and '-' strands in segments and assemble them into a new active ribozyme. © 2018, Attwater et al.

Understanding the build-up of supermassive black holes and galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carrera, Francisco; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Georgakakis, Antonis

2016-07-01

. The excellent survey capabilities of Athena/WFI (effective area, angular resolution, field of view) will allow to measure the incidence of feedback in the shape of warm absorbers and Ultra Fast Outflows among the general population of AGN, as well as to complete the census of black hole growth by detecting and characterising significant samples of the most heavily obscured (including Compton thick) AGN, to redshifts z~3-4. The outstanding spectral throughput and resolution of Athena/X-IFU will permit measuring the energetics of those outflows to assess their influence on their host galaxies. The demographics of the heavily obscured and outflowing populations relative to their hosts are fundamental for understanding how major black hole growth events relate to the build-up of galaxies.

Probing stellar mass build-up in galaxies at z=4-7 with CANDELS and S-CANDELS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Mimi; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Ashby, Matthew; Merlin, Emiliano

2015-01-01

Over the last few years the advent of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 has enabled us to build statistically significant samples of galaxies out to z=8. We have subsequently witnessed remarkable progress in our understanding of galaxy evolution in the early universe. However, our understanding of the galaxy stellar mass growth in this era has been limited due to the lack of rest-frame optical data at a comparable depth as the HST data. Here we present results on the galaxy stellar mass function at z=4-7 from a sample of ~7500 galaxies over an area of ~280 square arcmin in the CANDELS GOODS-South and North fields, as well as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Utilizing deep IRAC data from the S-CANDELS and IUDF10 programs to robustly constrain the stellar masses of galaxies in our sample, we measure the stellar-mass to rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) luminosity trends in each of our redshift bins. We convolve these trends with recent measurements of the rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity function to derive the stellar mass functions. Contrary to initial studies at these redshifts, we find steeper low-mass-end slopes (-1.6 at z=4, and -2.0 at z=7), similar to recent simulations. Our results provide the most accurate estimates to date of the cosmic stellar mass density over the first two billion years after the Big Bang.

Building blocks for correlated superconductors and magnets

DOE PAGES

Sarrao, J. L.; Ronning, F.; Bauer, E. D.; ...

2015-04-01

Recent efforts at Los Alamos to discover strongly correlated superconductors and hard ferromagnets are reviewed. While serendipity remains a principal engine of materials discovery, design principles and structural building blocks are beginning to emerge that hold potential for predictive discovery. In addition, successes over the last decade with the so-called “115” strongly correlated superconductors are summarized, and more recent efforts to translate these insights and principles to novel hard magnets are discussed. While true “materials by design” remains a distant aspiration, progress is being made in coupling empirical design principles to electronic structure simulation to accelerate and guide materials designmore » and synthesis.« less

Total synthesis of TMG-chitotriomycin based on an automated electrochemical assembly of a disaccharide building block.

PubMed

Isoda, Yuta; Sasaki, Norihiko; Kitamura, Kei; Takahashi, Shuji; Manmode, Sujit; Takeda-Okuda, Naoko; Tamura, Jun-Ichi; Nokami, Toshiki; Itoh, Toshiyuki

2017-01-01

The total synthesis of TMG-chitotriomycin using an automated electrochemical synthesizer for the assembly of carbohydrate building blocks is demonstrated. We have successfully prepared a precursor of TMG-chitotriomycin, which is a structurally-pure tetrasaccharide with typical protecting groups, through the methodology of automated electrochemical solution-phase synthesis developed by us. The synthesis of structurally well-defined TMG-chitotriomycin has been accomplished in 10-steps from a disaccharide building block.

Enantiopure heterobimetallic single-chain magnets from the chiral Ru(III) building block.

PubMed

Ru, Jing; Gao, Feng; Wu, Tao; Yao, Min-Xia; Li, Yi-Zhi; Zuo, Jing-Lin

2014-01-21

A pair of one-dimensional enantiomers based on the versatile chiral dicyanoruthenate(III) building block have been synthesized and they are chiral single-chain magnets with the effective spin-reversal barrier of 28.2 K.

High-performance thermoelectric nanocomposites from nanocrystal building blocks

PubMed Central

Ibáñez, Maria; Luo, Zhishan; Genç, Aziz; Piveteau, Laura; Ortega, Silvia; Cadavid, Doris; Dobrozhan, Oleksandr; Liu, Yu; Nachtegaal, Maarten; Zebarjadi, Mona; Arbiol, Jordi; Kovalenko, Maksym V.; Cabot, Andreu

2016-01-01

The efficient conversion between thermal and electrical energy by means of durable, silent and scalable solid-state thermoelectric devices has been a long standing goal. While nanocrystalline materials have already led to substantially higher thermoelectric efficiencies, further improvements are expected to arise from precise chemical engineering of nanoscale building blocks and interfaces. Here we present a simple and versatile bottom–up strategy based on the assembly of colloidal nanocrystals to produce consolidated yet nanostructured thermoelectric materials. In the case study on the PbS–Ag system, Ag nanodomains not only contribute to block phonon propagation, but also provide electrons to the PbS host semiconductor and reduce the PbS intergrain energy barriers for charge transport. Thus, PbS–Ag nanocomposites exhibit reduced thermal conductivities and higher charge carrier concentrations and mobilities than PbS nanomaterial. Such improvements of the material transport properties provide thermoelectric figures of merit up to 1.7 at 850 K. PMID:26948987

High-performance thermoelectric nanocomposites from nanocrystal building blocks.

PubMed

Ibáñez, Maria; Luo, Zhishan; Genç, Aziz; Piveteau, Laura; Ortega, Silvia; Cadavid, Doris; Dobrozhan, Oleksandr; Liu, Yu; Nachtegaal, Maarten; Zebarjadi, Mona; Arbiol, Jordi; Kovalenko, Maksym V; Cabot, Andreu

2016-03-07

The efficient conversion between thermal and electrical energy by means of durable, silent and scalable solid-state thermoelectric devices has been a long standing goal. While nanocrystalline materials have already led to substantially higher thermoelectric efficiencies, further improvements are expected to arise from precise chemical engineering of nanoscale building blocks and interfaces. Here we present a simple and versatile bottom-up strategy based on the assembly of colloidal nanocrystals to produce consolidated yet nanostructured thermoelectric materials. In the case study on the PbS-Ag system, Ag nanodomains not only contribute to block phonon propagation, but also provide electrons to the PbS host semiconductor and reduce the PbS intergrain energy barriers for charge transport. Thus, PbS-Ag nanocomposites exhibit reduced thermal conductivities and higher charge carrier concentrations and mobilities than PbS nanomaterial. Such improvements of the material transport properties provide thermoelectric figures of merit up to 1.7 at 850 K.

Total synthesis of TMG-chitotriomycin based on an automated electrochemical assembly of a disaccharide building block

PubMed Central

Isoda, Yuta; Sasaki, Norihiko; Kitamura, Kei; Takahashi, Shuji; Manmode, Sujit; Takeda-Okuda, Naoko; Tamura, Jun-ichi

2017-01-01

The total synthesis of TMG-chitotriomycin using an automated electrochemical synthesizer for the assembly of carbohydrate building blocks is demonstrated. We have successfully prepared a precursor of TMG-chitotriomycin, which is a structurally-pure tetrasaccharide with typical protecting groups, through the methodology of automated electrochemical solution-phase synthesis developed by us. The synthesis of structurally well-defined TMG-chitotriomycin has been accomplished in 10-steps from a disaccharide building block. PMID:28684973

Cosmic "Dig" Reveals Vestiges of the Milky Way's Building Blocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2009-11-01

Peering through the thick dust clouds of our galaxy's "bulge" (the myriads of stars surrounding its centre), and revealing an amazing amount of detail, a team of astronomers has unveiled an unusual mix of stars in the stellar grouping known as Terzan 5. Never observed anywhere in the bulge before, this peculiar "cocktail" of stars suggests that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulge's primordial building blocks, most likely the relic of a proto-galaxy that merged with the Milky Way during its very early days. "The history of the Milky Way is encoded in its oldest fragments, globular clusters and other systems of stars that have witnessed the entire evolution of our galaxy," says Francesco Ferraro from the University of Bologna, lead author of a paper appearing in this week's issue of the journal Nature. "Our study opens a new window on yet another piece of our galactic past." Like archaeologists, who dig through the dust piling up on top of the remains of past civilisations and unearth crucial pieces of the history of mankind, astronomers have been gazing through the thick layers of interstellar dust obscuring the bulge of the Milky Way and have unveiled an extraordinary cosmic relic. The target of the study is the star cluster Terzan 5. The new observations show that this object, unlike all but a few exceptional globular clusters, does not harbour stars which are all born at the same time - what astronomers call a "single population" of stars. Instead, the multitude of glowing stars in Terzan 5 formed in at least two different epochs, the earliest probably some 12 billion years ago and then again 6 billion years ago. "Only one globular cluster with such a complex history of star formation has been observed in the halo of the Milky Way: Omega Centauri," says team member Emanuele Dalessandro. "This is the first time we see this in the bulge." The galactic bulge is the most inaccessible region of our galaxy for astronomical observations: only infrared light can

PBF Reactor Building (PER620). Detail of arrangement of highdensity blocks ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

PBF Reactor Building (PER-620). Detail of arrangement of high-density blocks and other basement shielding. Date: February 1966. Ebasco Services 1205 PER/PBF 620-A-7. INEEL index no. 761-0620-00-205-123070 - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, SPERT-I & Power Burst Facility Area, Scoville, Butte County, ID

Application of soil block without burning process and calcium silicate panels as building wall in mountainous area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noerwasito, Vincentius Totok; Nasution, Tanti Satriana Rosary

2017-11-01

Utilization of local building materials in a residential location in mountainous area is very important, considering local material as a low-energy building material because of low transport energy. The local building materials used in this study are walls made from soil blocks. The material was made by the surrounding community from compacted soil without burning process. To maximize the potential of soil block to the outdoor temperature in the mountains, it is necessary to add non-local building materials as an insulator from the influence of the outside air. The insulator was calcium silicate panel. The location of the research is Trawas sub-district, Mojokerto regency, which is a mountainous area. The research problem is on applying the composition of local materials and calcium silicate panels that it will be able to meet the requirements as a wall building material and finding to what extent the impact of the wall against indoor temperature. The result from this research was the application of soil block walls insulated by calcium silicate panels in a building model. Besides, because of the utilization of those materials, the building has a specific difference between indoor and outdoor temperature. Thus, this model can be applied in mountainous areas in Indonesia.

A mixed molecular building block strategy for the design of nested polyhedron metal-organic frameworks.

PubMed

Tian, Dan; Chen, Qiang; Li, Yue; Zhang, Ying-Hui; Chang, Ze; Bu, Xian-He

2014-01-13

A mixed molecular building block (MBB) strategy for the synthesis of double-walled cage-based porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is presented. By means of this method, two isostructural porous MOFs built from unprecedented double-walled metal-organic octahedron were obtained by introducing two size-matching C3 -symmetric molecular building blocks with different rigidities. With their unique framework structures, these MOFs provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first examples of double-walled octahedron-based MOFs. Copyright © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

De novo design of molecular architectures by evolutionary assembly of drug-derived building blocks.

PubMed

Schneider, G; Lee, M L; Stahl, M; Schneider, P

2000-07-01

An evolutionary algorithm was developed for fragment-based de novo design of molecules (TOPAS, TOPology-Assigning System). This stochastic method aims at generating a novel molecular structure mimicking a template structure. A set of approximately 25,000 fragment structures serves as the building block supply, which were obtained by a straightforward fragmentation procedure applied to 36,000 known drugs. Eleven reaction schemes were implemented for both fragmentation and building block assembly. This combination of drug-derived building blocks and a restricted set of reaction schemes proved to be a key for the automatic development of novel, synthetically tractable structures. In a cyclic optimization process, molecular architectures were generated from a parent structure by virtual synthesis, and the best structure of a generation was selected as the parent for the subsequent TOPAS cycle. Similarity measures were used to define 'fitness', based on 2D-structural similarity or topological pharmacophore distance between the template molecule and the variants. The concept of varying library 'diversity' during a design process was consequently implemented by using adaptive variant distributions. The efficiency of the design algorithm was demonstrated for the de novo construction of potential thrombin inhibitors mimicking peptide and non-peptide template structures.

Using the World Health Organization health system building blocks through survey of healthcare professionals to determine the performance of public healthcare facilities.

PubMed

Manyazewal, Tsegahun

2017-01-01

Acknowledging the health system strengthening agenda, the World Health Organization (WHO) has formulated a health systems framework that describes health systems in terms of six building blocks. This study aimed to determine the current status of the six WHO health system building blocks in public healthcare facilities in Ethiopia. A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted in five public hospitals in central Ethiopia which were in a post-reform period. A self-administered, structured questionnaire which covered the WHO's six health system building blocks was used to collect data on healthcare professionals who consented. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20. The overall performance of the public hospitals was 60% when weighed against the WHO building blocks which, in this procedure, needed a minimum of 80% score. For each building block, performance scores were: information 53%, health workforce 55%, medical products and technologies 58%, leadership and governance 61%, healthcare financing 62%, and service delivery 69%. There existed a significant difference in performance among the hospitals ( p  < .001). The study proved that the WHO's health system building blocks are useful for assessing the process of strengthening health systems in Ethiopia. The six blocks allow identifying different improvement opportunities in each one of the hospitals. There was no contradiction between the indicators of the WHO building blocks and the health sustainable development goal (SDG) objectives. However, such SDG objectives should not be a substitute for strategies to strengthen health systems.

A Library of Rad Hard Mixed-Voltage/Mixed-Signal Building Blocks for Integration of Avionics Systems for Deep Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mojarradi, M. M.; Blaes, B.; Kolawa, E. A.; Blalock, B. J.; Li, H. W.; Buck, K.; Houge, D.

2001-01-01

To build the sensor intensive system-on-a-chip for the next generation spacecrafts for deep space, Center for Integration of Space Microsystems at JPL (CISM) takes advantage of the lower power rating and inherent radiation resistance of Silicon on Insulator technology (SOI). We are developing a suite of mixed-voltage and mixed-signal building blocks in Honeywell's SOI process that can enable the rapid integration of the next generation avionics systems with lower power rating, higher reliability, longer life, and enhanced radiation tolerance for spacecrafts such as the Europa Orbiter and Europa Lander. The mixed-voltage building blocks are predominantly for design of adaptive power management systems. Their design centers around an LDMOS structure that is being developed by Honeywell, Boeing Corp, and the University of Idaho. The mixed-signal building blocks are designed to meet the low power, extreme radiation requirement of deep space applications. These building blocks are predominantly used to interface analog sensors to the digital CPU of the next generation avionics system on a chip. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Building blocks toward contemporary trauma theory: Ferenczi 's paradigm shift.

PubMed

Mészáros, Judit

2010-12-01

In laying down the building blocks of contemporary trauma theory, Ferenczi asserted that trauma is founded on real events and that it occurs in the interpersonal and intersubjective dynamics of object relations. He stressed the significance of the presence or lack of a trusted person in the post-traumatic situation. After the trauma, the loneliness and later the isolation of the victim represent a serious pathogenic source. In the traumatic situation, the victim and the persecutor/aggressor operate differing ego defense mechanisms. Ferenczi was the first to describe the ego defense mechanism of identification with the aggressor. Ferenczi pointed out the characteristic features of the role of analyst/therapist with which (s)he may assist the patient in working through the trauma, among them being the development of a therapeutic atmosphere based on trust, so that the traumatic experiences can be relived, without which effective therapeutic change cannot be achieved. For the analyst, countertransference, as part of authentic communication, is incorporated into the therapeutic process. These are the key building blocks that are laid down by Ferenczi in his writings and appear in later works on trauma theory.

Synthesis of most polyene natural product motifs using just 12 building blocks and one coupling reaction.

PubMed

Woerly, Eric M; Roy, Jahnabi; Burke, Martin D

2014-06-01

The inherent modularity of polypeptides, oligonucleotides and oligosaccharides has been harnessed to achieve generalized synthesis platforms. Importantly, like these other targets, most small-molecule natural products are biosynthesized via iterative coupling of bifunctional building blocks. This suggests that many small molecules also possess inherent modularity commensurate with systematic building block-based construction. Supporting this hypothesis, here we report that the polyene motifs found in >75% of all known polyene natural products can be synthesized using just 12 building blocks and one coupling reaction. Using the same general retrosynthetic algorithm and reaction conditions, this platform enabled both the synthesis of a wide range of polyene frameworks that covered all of this natural-product chemical space and the first total syntheses of the polyene natural products asnipyrone B, physarigin A and neurosporaxanthin b-D-glucopyranoside. Collectively, these results suggest the potential for a more generalized approach to making small molecules in the laboratory.

Synthesis of most polyene natural product motifs using just 12 building blocks and one coupling reaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woerly, Eric M.; Roy, Jahnabi; Burke, Martin D.

2014-06-01

The inherent modularity of polypeptides, oligonucleotides and oligosaccharides has been harnessed to achieve generalized synthesis platforms. Importantly, like these other targets, most small-molecule natural products are biosynthesized via iterative coupling of bifunctional building blocks. This suggests that many small molecules also possess inherent modularity commensurate with systematic building block-based construction. Supporting this hypothesis, here we report that the polyene motifs found in >75% of all known polyene natural products can be synthesized using just 12 building blocks and one coupling reaction. Using the same general retrosynthetic algorithm and reaction conditions, this platform enabled both the synthesis of a wide range of polyene frameworks that covered all of this natural-product chemical space and the first total syntheses of the polyene natural products asnipyrone B, physarigin A and neurosporaxanthin β-D-glucopyranoside. Collectively, these results suggest the potential for a more generalized approach to making small molecules in the laboratory.

2016 Summer Series - Kenneth Cheung: Building Blocks for Aerospace Structures

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-06-16

Strong, ultra-lightweight materials are expected to play a key role in the design of future aircraft and space vehicles. Lower structural mass leads to improved performance, maneuverability, efficiency, range and payload capacity. Dr. Kenneth Cheung is developing cellular composite building blocks, or digital materials, to create transformable aerostructures. In his presentation, Dr. Cheung will discuss the implications of the digital materials and morphing structures.

Using Interlocking Toy Building Blocks to Assess Conceptual Understanding in Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geyer, Michael J.

2017-01-01

A current emphasis on teaching conceptual chemistry via the particulate nature of matter has led to the need for new, effective ways to assess students' conceptual understanding of this view of chemistry. This article provides a simple, inexpensive way to use interlocking toy building blocks (e.g., LEGOs) in both formative and summative…

Building blocks for social accountability: a conceptual framework to guide medical schools.

PubMed

Preston, Robyn; Larkins, Sarah; Taylor, Judy; Judd, Jenni

2016-08-26

This paper presents a conceptual framework developed from empirical evidence, to guide medical schools aspiring towards greater social accountability. Using a multiple case study approach, seventy-five staff, students, health sector representatives and community members, associated with four medical schools, participated in semi-structured interviews. Two schools were in Australia and two were in the Philippines. These schools were selected because they were aspiring to be socially accountable. Data was collected through on-site visits, field notes and a documentary review. Abductive analysis involved both deductive and inductive iterative theming of the data both within and across cases. The conceptual framework for socially accountable medical education was built from analyzing the internal and external factors influencing the selected medical schools. These factors became the building blocks that might be necessary to assist movement to social accountability. The strongest factor was the demands of the local workforce situation leading to innovative educational programs established with or without government support. The values and professional experiences of leaders, staff and health sector representatives, influenced whether the organizational culture of a school was conducive to social accountability. The wider institutional environment and policies of their universities affected this culture and the resourcing of programs. Membership of a coalition of socially accountable medical schools created a community of learning and legitimized local practice. Communities may not have recognized their own importance but they were fundamental for socially accountable practices. The bedrock of social accountability, that is, the foundation for all building blocks, is shared values and aspirations congruent with social accountability. These values and aspirations are both a philosophical understanding for innovation and a practical application at the health systems and

PUS Services Software Building Block Automatic Generation for Space Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Candia, S.; Sgaramella, F.; Mele, G.

2008-08-01

The Packet Utilization Standard (PUS) has been specified by the European Committee for Space Standardization (ECSS) and issued as ECSS-E-70-41A to define the application-level interface between Ground Segments and Space Segments. The ECSS-E- 70-41A complements the ECSS-E-50 and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) recommendations for packet telemetry and telecommand. The ECSS-E-70-41A characterizes the identified PUS Services from a functional point of view and the ECSS-E-70-31 standard specifies the rules for their mission-specific tailoring. The current on-board software design for a space mission implies the production of several PUS terminals, each providing a specific tailoring of the PUS services. The associated on-board software building blocks are developed independently, leading to very different design choices and implementations even when the mission tailoring requires very similar services (from the Ground operative perspective). In this scenario, the automatic production of the PUS services building blocks for a mission would be a way to optimize the overall mission economy and improve the robusteness and reliability of the on-board software and of the Ground-Space interactions. This paper presents the Space Software Italia (SSI) activities for the development of an integrated environment to support: the PUS services tailoring activity for a specific mission. the mission-specific PUS services configuration. the generation the UML model of the software building block implementing the mission-specific PUS services and the related source code, support documentation (software requirements, software architecture, test plans/procedures, operational manuals), and the TM/TC database. The paper deals with: (a) the project objectives, (b) the tailoring, configuration, and generation process, (c) the description of the environments supporting the process phases, (d) the characterization of the meta-model used for the generation, (e) the

OPPL-Galaxy, a Galaxy tool for enhancing ontology exploitation as part of bioinformatics workflows

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Biomedical ontologies are key elements for building up the Life Sciences Semantic Web. Reusing and building biomedical ontologies requires flexible and versatile tools to manipulate them efficiently, in particular for enriching their axiomatic content. The Ontology Pre Processor Language (OPPL) is an OWL-based language for automating the changes to be performed in an ontology. OPPL augments the ontologists’ toolbox by providing a more efficient, and less error-prone, mechanism for enriching a biomedical ontology than that obtained by a manual treatment. Results We present OPPL-Galaxy, a wrapper for using OPPL within Galaxy. The functionality delivered by OPPL (i.e. automated ontology manipulation) can be combined with the tools and workflows devised within the Galaxy framework, resulting in an enhancement of OPPL. Use cases are provided in order to demonstrate OPPL-Galaxy’s capability for enriching, modifying and querying biomedical ontologies. Conclusions Coupling OPPL-Galaxy with other bioinformatics tools of the Galaxy framework results in a system that is more than the sum of its parts. OPPL-Galaxy opens a new dimension of analyses and exploitation of biomedical ontologies, including automated reasoning, paving the way towards advanced biological data analyses. PMID:23286517

Single-trabecula building block for large-scale finite element models of cancellous bone.

PubMed

Dagan, D; Be'ery, M; Gefen, A

2004-07-01

Recent development of high-resolution imaging of cancellous bone allows finite element (FE) analysis of bone tissue stresses and strains in individual trabeculae. However, specimen-specific stress/strain analyses can include effects of anatomical variations and local damage that can bias the interpretation of the results from individual specimens with respect to large populations. This study developed a standard (generic) 'building-block' of a trabecula for large-scale FE models. Being parametric and based on statistics of dimensions of ovine trabeculae, this building block can be scaled for trabecular thickness and length and be used in commercial or custom-made FE codes to construct generic, large-scale FE models of bone, using less computer power than that currently required to reproduce the accurate micro-architecture of trabecular bone. Orthogonal lattices constructed with this building block, after it was scaled to trabeculae of the human proximal femur, provided apparent elastic moduli of approximately 150 MPa, in good agreement with experimental data for the stiffness of cancellous bone from this site. Likewise, lattices with thinner, osteoporotic-like trabeculae could predict a reduction of approximately 30% in the apparent elastic modulus, as reported in experimental studies of osteoporotic femora. Based on these comparisons, it is concluded that the single-trabecula element developed in the present study is well-suited for representing cancellous bone in large-scale generic FE simulations.

Block Play and Mathematics Learning in Preschool: The Effects of Building Complexity, Peer and Teacher Interactions in the Block Area, and Replica Play Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trawick-Smith, Jeffrey; Swaminathan, Sudha; Baton, Brooke; Danieluk, Courtney; Marsh, Samantha; Szarwacki, Monika

2017-01-01

Block play has been included in early childhood classrooms for over a century, yet few studies have examined its effects on learning. Several previous investigations indicate that the complexity of block building is associated with math ability, but these studies were often conducted in adult-guided, laboratory settings. In the present…

Assessing the Potential of Folded Globular Polyproteins As Hydrogel Building Blocks

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The native states of proteins generally have stable well-defined folded structures endowing these biomolecules with specific functionality and molecular recognition abilities. Here we explore the potential of using folded globular polyproteins as building blocks for hydrogels. Photochemically cross-linked hydrogels were produced from polyproteins containing either five domains of I27 ((I27)5), protein L ((pL)5), or a 1:1 blend of these proteins. SAXS analysis showed that (I27)5 exists as a single rod-like structure, while (pL)5 shows signatures of self-aggregation in solution. SANS measurements showed that both polyprotein hydrogels have a similar nanoscopic structure, with protein L hydrogels being formed from smaller and more compact clusters. The polyprotein hydrogels showed small energy dissipation in a load/unload cycle, which significantly increased when the hydrogels were formed in the unfolded state. This study demonstrates the use of folded proteins as building blocks in hydrogels, and highlights the potential versatility that can be offered in tuning the mechanical, structural, and functional properties of polyproteins. PMID:28006103

Quantitative NMR Approach to Optimize the Formation of Chemical Building Blocks from Abundant Carbohydrates.

PubMed

Elliot, Samuel G; Tolborg, Søren; Sádaba, Irantzu; Taarning, Esben; Meier, Sebastian

2017-07-21

The future role of biomass-derived chemicals relies on the formation of diverse functional monomers in high yields from carbohydrates. Recently, it has become clear that a series of α-hydroxy acids, esters, and lactones can be formed from carbohydrates in alcohol and water solvents using tin-containing catalysts such as Sn-Beta. These compounds are potential building blocks for polyesters bearing additional olefin and alcohol functionalities. An NMR approach was used to identify, quantify, and optimize the formation of these building blocks in the Sn-Beta-catalyzed transformation of abundant carbohydrates. Record yields of the target molecules can be achieved by obstructing competing reactions through solvent selection. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Design and synthesis of unnatural heparosan and chondroitin building blocks

PubMed Central

Bera, Smritilekha; Linhardt, Robert J.

2011-01-01

Triazole linked heparosan and chondroitin disaccharide and tetrasaccharide building blocks were synthesized in a stereoselective manner by applying a very efficient Copper Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloadditions (CuAAC) reaction of appropriately substituted azido-glucuronic acid and propargyluted N-acetyl glucosamine and N-acetyl galactosamine derivative respectively. The resulting suitably substituted tetrasaccharide analogs can be easily converted into azide and alkyne unit for further synthesis of higher oligosaccharide analogs. PMID:21438620

Stereoselective total synthesis of Oxylipin from open chain gluco-configured building block.

PubMed

Borkar, Santosh Ramdas; Aidhen, Indrapal Singh

2017-04-18

Total synthesis of naturally occurring Oxylipin has been achieved from open chain gluco-configured building block which is readily assembled from inexpensive and commercially available D-(+)-gluconolactone. Grignard reaction and Wittig olefination reactions are key steps for the requisite CC bond formation. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Gaussian curvature analysis allows for automatic block placement in multi-block hexahedral meshing.

PubMed

Ramme, Austin J; Shivanna, Kiran H; Magnotta, Vincent A; Grosland, Nicole M

2011-10-01

Musculoskeletal finite element analysis (FEA) has been essential to research in orthopaedic biomechanics. The generation of a volumetric mesh is often the most challenging step in a FEA. Hexahedral meshing tools that are based on a multi-block approach rely on the manual placement of building blocks for their mesh generation scheme. We hypothesise that Gaussian curvature analysis could be used to automatically develop a building block structure for multi-block hexahedral mesh generation. The Automated Building Block Algorithm incorporates principles from differential geometry, combinatorics, statistical analysis and computer science to automatically generate a building block structure to represent a given surface without prior information. We have applied this algorithm to 29 bones of varying geometries and successfully generated a usable mesh in all cases. This work represents a significant advancement in automating the definition of building blocks.

Microwave spectroscopy of biomolecular building blocks.

PubMed

Alonso, José L; López, Juan C

2015-01-01

Microwave spectroscopy, considered as the most definitive gas phase structural probe, is able to distinguish between different conformational structures of a molecule, because they have unique spectroscopic constants and give rise to distinct individual rotational spectra.Previously, application of this technique was limited to molecular specimens possessing appreciable vapor pressures, thus discarding the possibility of studying many other molecules of biological importance, in particular those with high melting points, which had a tendency to undergo thermal reactions, and ultimately degradation, upon heating.Nowadays, the combination of laser ablation with Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy techniques, in supersonic jets, has enabled the gas-phase study of such systems. In this chapter, these techniques, including broadband spectroscopy, as well as results of their application into the study of the conformational panorama and structure of biomolecular building blocks, such as amino acids, nucleic bases, and monosaccharides, are briefly discussed, and with them, the tools for conformational assignation - rotational constants, nuclear quadrupole coupling interaction, and dipole moment.

Determining Possible Building Blocks of the Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burbine, T. H.; O'Brien, K. M.

2003-01-01

Introduction: One of the fundamental questions concerning the formation of the Earth is what is it made out of. The Earth appears to have condensed out of material from the solar nebula. We sample this "primitive" material in the form of chondritic meteorites. One of the most important constraints on possible building blocks for the Earth is the Earth#s oxygen iso-topic composition. Rocks from the Earth and Moon plot along a line (the terrestrial fractionation line) in diagrams of delta(sup 17)O (% relative to Standard Mean Ocean Water or SMOW) versus delta(sup 18)O (% relative to SMOW). Chondritic meteorites fall above and below this line. Distances from this line are given as Delta(sup 17)O (%) (= delta(sup 17)O - 0.52 x delta(sup 18)O).

EXPLAINING THE OBSERVED VELOCITY DISPERSION OF DWARF GALAXIES BY BARYONIC MASS LOSS DURING THE FIRST COLLAPSE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gritschneder, Matthias; Lin, Douglas N. C., E-mail: gritschneder@ucolick.org

2013-03-01

In the widely adopted {Lambda} cold dark matter ({Lambda}CDM) scenario for galaxy formation, dwarf galaxies are the building blocks of larger galaxies. Since they formed at relatively early epochs when the background density was relatively high, they are expected to retain their integrity as satellite galaxies when they merge to form larger entities. Although many dwarf spheroidal galaxies are found in the galactic halo around the Milky Way, their phase-space density (or velocity dispersion) appears to be significantly smaller than that expected for satellite dwarf galaxies in the {Lambda}CDM scenario. In order to account for this discrepancy, we consider themore » possibility that they may have lost a significant fraction of their baryonic matter content during the first infall at the Hubble expansion turnaround. Such mass loss arises naturally due to the feedback by relatively massive stars that formed in their centers briefly before the maximum contraction. Through a series of N-body simulations, we show that the timely loss of a significant fraction of the dSphs initial baryonic matter content can have profound effects on their asymptotic half-mass radius, velocity dispersion, phase-space density, and the mass fraction between residual baryonic and dark matter.« less

From synthesis to function via iterative assembly of N-methyliminodiacetic acid boronate building blocks.

PubMed

Li, Junqi; Grillo, Anthony S; Burke, Martin D

2015-08-18

The study and optimization of small molecule function is often impeded by the time-intensive and specialist-dependent process that is typically used to make such compounds. In contrast, general and automated platforms have been developed for making peptides, oligonucleotides, and increasingly oligosaccharides, where synthesis is simplified to iterative applications of the same reactions. Inspired by the way natural products are biosynthesized via the iterative assembly of a defined set of building blocks, we developed a platform for small molecule synthesis involving the iterative coupling of haloboronic acids protected as the corresponding N-methyliminodiacetic acid (MIDA) boronates. Here we summarize our efforts thus far to develop this platform into a generalized and automated approach for small molecule synthesis. We and others have employed this approach to access many polyene-based compounds, including the polyene motifs found in >75% of all polyene natural products. This platform further allowed us to derivatize amphotericin B, the powerful and resistance-evasive but also highly toxic last line of defense in treating systemic fungal infections, and thereby understand its mechanism of action. This synthesis-enabled mechanistic understanding has led us to develop less toxic derivatives currently under evaluation as improved antifungal agents. To access more Csp(3)-containing small molecules, we gained a stereocontrolled entry into chiral, non-racemic α-boryl aldehydes through the discovery of a chiral derivative of MIDA. These α-boryl aldehydes are versatile intermediates for the synthesis of many Csp(3) boronate building blocks that are otherwise difficult to access. In addition, we demonstrated the utility of these types of building blocks in accessing pharmaceutically relevant targets via an iterative Csp(3) cross-coupling cycle. We have further expanded the scope of the platform to include stereochemically complex macrocyclic and polycyclic molecules

Linked supramolecular building blocks for enhanced cluster formation

DOE PAGES

McLellan, Ross; Palacios, Maria A.; Beavers, Christine M.; ...

2015-01-09

Methylene-bridged calix[4]arenes have emerged as extremely versatile ligand supports in the formation of new polymetallic clusters possessing fascinating magnetic properties. Metal ion binding rules established for this building block allow one to partially rationalise the complex assembly process. The ability to covalently link calix[4]arenes at the methylene bridge provides significantly improved control over the introduction of different metal centres to resulting cluster motifs. Clusters assembled from bis-calix[4]arenes and transition metal ions or 3d-4f combinations display characteristic features of the analogous calix[4]arene supported clusters, thereby demonstrating an enhanced and rational approach towards the targeted synthesis of complex and challenging structures.

Synthesis of orthogonally protected bacterial, rare-sugar and D-glycosamine building blocks.

PubMed

Emmadi, Madhu; Kulkarni, Suvarn S

2013-10-01

Bacterial glycoconjugates comprise atypical deoxy amino sugars that are not present on the human cell surface, making them good targets for drug discovery and carbohydrate-based vaccine development. Unfortunately, they cannot be isolated with sufficient purity in acceptable amounts, and therefore chemical synthesis is a crucial step toward the development of these products. Here we describe a detailed protocol for the synthesis of orthogonally protected bacterial deoxy amino hexopyranoside (2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxyhexose (DATDH), D-bacillosamine, D-fucosamine, and 2-acetamido-4-amino-2,4,6-trideoxy-D-galactose (AAT)), D-glucosamine and D-galactosamine building blocks starting from β-D-thiophenylmannoside. Readily available β-D-thiophenylmannoside was first converted into the corresponding 2,4-diols via deoxygenation or silylation at C6, followed by O3 acylation. The 2,4-diols were converted into 2,4-bis-trifluoromethanesulfonates, which underwent highly regioselective, one-pot, double-serial and double-parallel displacements by azide, phthalimide, acetate and nitrite ions as nucleophiles. Thus, D-rhamnosyl- and D-mannosyl 2,4-diols can be efficiently transformed into various rare sugars and D-galactosamine, respectively, as orthogonally protected thioglycoside building blocks on a gram scale in 1-2 d, in 54-85% overall yields, after a single chromatographic purification. This would otherwise take 1-2 weeks. D-Glucosamine building blocks can be prepared from β-D-thiophenylmannoside in four steps via C2 displacement of triflates by azide in 2 d and in 66-70% overall yields. These procedures have been applied to the synthesis of L-serine-linked trisaccharide of Neisseria meningitidis and a rare disaccharide fragment of the zwitterionic polysaccharide (ZPS) A1 (ZPS A1) of Bacteroides fragilis.

LEGO® bricks as building blocks for centimeter-scale biological environments: the case of plants.

PubMed

Lind, Kara R; Sizmur, Tom; Benomar, Saida; Miller, Anthony; Cademartiri, Ludovico

2014-01-01

LEGO bricks are commercially available interlocking pieces of plastic that are conventionally used as toys. We describe their use to build engineered environments for cm-scale biological systems, in particular plant roots. Specifically, we take advantage of the unique modularity of these building blocks to create inexpensive, transparent, reconfigurable, and highly scalable environments for plant growth in which structural obstacles and chemical gradients can be precisely engineered to mimic soil.

QWIP products and building blocks for high performance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Costard, E.; Bois, Ph.; Marcadet, X.; Nedelcu, A.

2005-10-01

Standard GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIP) are coming out from the laboratory. In this paper we demonstrate that production and research cannot be dissociated in order to make the new generation of thermal imagers benefit as fast as possible from the building blocks developed by researchers. Since 2002, the THALES group has been manufacturing sensitive arrays using QWIP technology based on GaAs techniques through THALES Research and Technology Laboratory. This QWIP technology allows the realization of large staring arrays for thermal imagers (TI) working in the IR band III (8-12 μm). A review of the current QWIP products is presented. In the past researchers claimed many advantages of QWIPs. Uniformity was one of these and was the key parameter for the production initiation. Another advantage widely claimed also for QWIPs was the so-called band-gap engineering, allowing the custom design of quantum structure to fulfill the requirements of specific applications like very long wavelength or multispectral detection. In this paper, we present the performances for Middle Wavelength InfraRed (MWIR) detections and demonstrate the ability of QWIP's to cover the two spectral ranges (3-5 μm and 8-20 μm). Last but not least, the versatility of the GaAs processing appeared for QWIPs as an important gift. This assumption was well founded. We give here some results achieved on building blocks for two color QWIP pixels. We also report the expected performances of focal plane arrays that we are currently developing with the CEA-LETI-SLIR.

Engineering cell factories for producing building block chemicals for bio-polymer synthesis.

PubMed

Tsuge, Yota; Kawaguchi, Hideo; Sasaki, Kengo; Kondo, Akihiko

2016-01-21

Synthetic polymers are widely used in daily life. Due to increasing environmental concerns related to global warming and the depletion of oil reserves, the development of microbial-based fermentation processes for the production of polymer building block chemicals from renewable resources is desirable to replace current petroleum-based methods. To this end, strains that efficiently produce the target chemicals at high yields and productivity are needed. Recent advances in metabolic engineering have enabled the biosynthesis of polymer compounds at high yield and productivities by governing the carbon flux towards the target chemicals. Using these methods, microbial strains have been engineered to produce monomer chemicals for replacing traditional petroleum-derived aliphatic polymers. These developments also raise the possibility of microbial production of aromatic chemicals for synthesizing high-performance polymers with desirable properties, such as ultraviolet absorbance, high thermal resistance, and mechanical strength. In the present review, we summarize recent progress in metabolic engineering approaches to optimize microbial strains for producing building blocks to synthesize aliphatic and high-performance aromatic polymers.

PBF Reactor Building (PER620). After lowering reactor vessel onto blocks, ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

PBF Reactor Building (PER-620). After lowering reactor vessel onto blocks, it is rolled on logs into PBF. Metal framework under vessel is handling device. Various penetrations in reactor bottom were for instrumentation, poison injection, drains. Large one, below center "manhole" was for primary coolant. Photographer: Larry Page. Date: February 13, 1970. INEEL negative no. 70-736 - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, SPERT-I & Power Burst Facility Area, Scoville, Butte County, ID

Dual-mode MOS SOI nanoscale transistor serving as a building block for optical communication between blocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bendayan, Michael; Sabo, Roi; Zolberg, Roee; Mandelbaum, Yaakov; Chelly, Avraham; Karsenty, Avi

2017-02-01

We developed a new type of silicon MOSFET Quantum Well transistor, coupling both electronic and optical properties which should overcome the indirect silicon bandgap constraint, and serve as a future light emitting device in the range 0.8-2μm, as part of a new building block in integrated circuits allowing ultra-high speed processors. Such Quantum Well structure enables discrete energy levels for light recombination. Model and simulations of both optical and electric properties are presented pointing out the influence of the channel thickness and the drain voltage on the optical emission spectrum.

LEGO® Bricks as Building Blocks for Centimeter-Scale Biological Environments: The Case of Plants

PubMed Central

Lind, Kara R.; Sizmur, Tom; Benomar, Saida; Miller, Anthony; Cademartiri, Ludovico

2014-01-01

LEGO bricks are commercially available interlocking pieces of plastic that are conventionally used as toys. We describe their use to build engineered environments for cm-scale biological systems, in particular plant roots. Specifically, we take advantage of the unique modularity of these building blocks to create inexpensive, transparent, reconfigurable, and highly scalable environments for plant growth in which structural obstacles and chemical gradients can be precisely engineered to mimic soil. PMID:24963716

Mussel-inspired nano-building block assemblies for mimicking extracellular matrix microenvironments with multiple functions.

PubMed

Wang, Zhenming; Jia, Zhanrong; Jiang, Yanan; Li, Pengfei; Han, Lu; Lu, Xiong; Ren, Fuzeng; Wang, Kefeng; Yuan, Huiping

2017-08-03

The assembly of nano-building blocks is an effective way to produce artificial extracellular matrix microenvironments with hierarchical micro/nano structures. However, it is hard to assemble different types of nano-building blocks, to form composite coatings with multiple functions, by traditional layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly methods. Inspired by the mussel adhesion mechanism, we developed polydopamine (PDA)-decorated bovine serum albumin microspheres (BSA-MS) and nano-hydroxyapatite (nano-HA), and assembled them to form bioactive coatings with micro/nano structures encapsulating bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2). First, PDA-decorated nano-HA (nano-pHA) was obtained by oxidative polymerization of dopamine on nano-HA. Second, BMP-2-encapsulated BSA microspheres were prepared through desolvation, and then were also decorated by PDA (pBSA-MS). Finally, the nano-pHA and pBSA-MS were assembled using the adhesive properties of PDA. Bone marrow stromal cell cultures and in vivo implantation, showed that the pHA/pBSA (BMP-2) coatings can promote cell adhesion, proliferation, and benefited for osteoinductivity. PDA decoration was also applied to assemble various functional nanoparticles, such as nano-HA, polystyrene, and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles. In summary, this study provides a novel strategy for the assembly of biofunctional nano-building blocks, which surpasses traditional LbL self-assembly of polyelectrolytes, and can find broad applications in bioactive agents delivery or multi-functional coatings.

Real World of Industrial Chemistry: Ethylene: The Organic Chemical Industry's Most Important Building Block.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernelius, W. Conrad, Ed.; And Others

1979-01-01

The value of ethylene, as the organic chemical industry's most important building block, is discussed. The discussion focuses on the source of ethylene, its various forms and functions, and the ways in which the forms are made. (SA)

Probing the Building Blocks of Galactic Disks: An Analysis of Ultraviolet Clumps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soto, Emmaris

The universe is filled with a diversity of galaxies; however, despite these diversities we are able to group galaxies into morphological categories, such as Hubble types, that may indicate different paths of evolution. In order to understand the evolution of galaxies, such as our own Milk Way, it is necessary to study the underlying star formation over cosmic time. At high redshift (z>2) star-forming galaxies reveal asymmetric and clumpy morphologies. However, the evolutionary process which takes clumpy galaxies from z>2 to the smooth axially symmetric Hubble-type galaxies in place at z˜0.5 is still unknown. Therefore, it is vital to make a connection between the morphologies of galaxies at the peak epoch of cosmic star formation at z˜2 with the galaxies observed in the local universe to better understand the mechanisms that led to their evolution. To address this and chronicle the progression of galaxy evolution, deep high resolution multi-wavelength data is used to study galaxies across cosmic time. This dissertation provides a detailed study of clumpy star-forming galaxies at intermediate redshifts, 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 1.5, focusing on sub-galactic regions of star formation which provide a mechanism to explain the evolution of clumpy galaxies to the spiral galaxies we observe today. We developed a clump-finding algorithm to select a sample of clumpy galaxies from the Ultraviolet Ultra Deep Field (UVUDF). The UVUDF was the first deep image (˜28 AB mag) ever taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) showing the rest-frame far-ultraviolet (FUV, 1500A) at intermediate-z. The rest-frame FUV probes the young star-forming regions which are often seen in clumpy galaxies at high redshift. We identified 209 clumpy galaxies (hereafter host galaxies) from 1,404 candidates at intermediate redshifts. We used the HST Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) broadband images from the UVUDF with observed near-ultraviolet, optical, and near

Trainer's Guide to Building Blocks for Teaching Preschoolers with Special Needs [CD-ROM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Gail E.; Sandall, Susan R.; Schwartz, Ilene S.

2010-01-01

An essential teaching companion for instructors of pre-K educators, this convenient CD-ROM is a vivid blueprint for effective inclusive education using the popular "Building Blocks" approach. Following the structure of the bestselling textbook, this comprehensive guide helps teacher educators provide effective instruction on the three types of…

Effects of a Preschool Mathematics Curriculum: Summative Research on the "Building Blocks" Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clements, Douglas H.; Sarama, Julie

2007-01-01

This study evaluated the efficacy of a preschool mathematics program based on a comprehensive model of developing research-based software and print curricula. Building Blocks, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a curriculum development project focused on creating research-based, technology-enhanced mathematics materials for pre-K…

Multifunctional Nanoparticles Self-Assembled from Small Organic Building Blocks for Biomedicine.

PubMed

Xing, Pengyao; Zhao, Yanli

2016-09-01

Supramolecular self-assembly shows significant potential to construct responsive materials. By tailoring the structural parameters of organic building blocks, nanosystems can be fabricated, whose performance in catalysis, energy storage and conversion, and biomedicine has been explored. Since small organic building blocks are structurally simple, easily modified, and reproducible, they are frequently employed in supramolecular self-assembly and materials science. The dynamic and adaptive nature of self-assembled nanoarchitectures affords an enhanced sensitivity to the changes in environmental conditions, favoring their applications in controllable drug release and bioimaging. Here, recent significant research advancements of small-organic-molecule self-assembled nanoarchitectures toward biomedical applications are highlighted. Functionalized assemblies, mainly including vesicles, nanoparticles, and micelles are categorized according to their topological morphologies and functions. These nanoarchitectures with different topologies possess distinguishing advantages in biological applications, well incarnating the structure-property relationship. By presenting some important discoveries, three domains of these nanoarchitectures in biomedical research are covered, including biosensors, bioimaging, and controlled release/therapy. The strategies regarding how to design and characterize organic assemblies to exhibit biomedical applications are also discussed. Up-to-date research developments in the field are provided and research challenges to be overcome in future studies are revealed. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Molecular Building Block-Based Electronic Charges for High-Throughput Screening of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Adsorption Applications.

PubMed

Argueta, Edwin; Shaji, Jeena; Gopalan, Arun; Liao, Peilin; Snurr, Randall Q; Gómez-Gualdrón, Diego A

2018-01-09

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous crystalline materials with attractive properties for gas separation and storage. Their remarkable tunability makes it possible to create millions of MOF variations but creates the need for fast material screening to identify promising structures. Computational high-throughput screening (HTS) is a possible solution, but its usefulness is tied to accurate predictions of MOF adsorption properties. Accurate adsorption simulations often require an accurate description of electrostatic interactions, which depend on the electronic charges of the MOF atoms. HTS-compatible methods to assign charges to MOF atoms need to accurately reproduce electrostatic potentials (ESPs) and be computationally affordable, but current methods present an unsatisfactory trade-off between computational cost and accuracy. We illustrate a method to assign charges to MOF atoms based on ab initio calculations on MOF molecular building blocks. A library of building blocks with built-in charges is thus created and used by an automated MOF construction code to create hundreds of MOFs with charges "inherited" from the constituent building blocks. The molecular building block-based (MBBB) charges are similar to REPEAT charges-which are charges that reproduce ESPs obtained from ab initio calculations on crystallographic unit cells of nanoporous crystals-and thus similar predictions of adsorption loadings, heats of adsorption, and Henry's constants are obtained with either method. The presented results indicate that the MBBB method to assign charges to MOF atoms is suitable for use in computational high-throughput screening of MOFs for applications that involve adsorption of molecules such as carbon dioxide.

Key Building Blocks via Enzyme-Mediated Synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, Thomas; Pietruszka, Jörg

Biocatalytic approaches to valuable building blocks in organic synthesis have emerged as an important tool in the last few years. While first applications were mainly based on hydrolases, other enzyme classes such as oxidoreductases or lyases moved into the focus of research. Nowadays, a vast number of biotransformations can be found in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries delivering fine chemicals or drugs. The mild reaction conditions, high stereo-, regio-, and chemoselectivities, and the often shortened reaction pathways lead to economical and ecological advantages of enzymatic conversions. Due to the enormous number of enzyme-mediated syntheses, the present chapter is not meant to be a complete review, but to deliver comprehensive insights into well established enzymatic systems and recent advances in the application of enzymes in natural product synthesis. Furthermore, it is focused on the most frequently used enzymes or enzyme classes not covered elsewhere in the present volume.

Automated electrochemical assembly of the protected potential TMG-chitotriomycin precursor based on rational optimization of the carbohydrate building block.

PubMed

Nokami, Toshiki; Isoda, Yuta; Sasaki, Norihiko; Takaiso, Aki; Hayase, Shuichi; Itoh, Toshiyuki; Hayashi, Ryutaro; Shimizu, Akihiro; Yoshida, Jun-ichi

2015-03-20

The anomeric arylthio group and the hydroxyl-protecting groups of thioglycosides were optimized to construct carbohydrate building blocks for automated electrochemical solution-phase synthesis of oligoglucosamines having 1,4-β-glycosidic linkages. The optimization study included density functional theory calculations, measurements of the oxidation potentials, and the trial synthesis of the chitotriose trisaccharide. The automated synthesis of the protected potential N,N,N-trimethyl-d-glucosaminylchitotriomycin precursor was accomplished by using the optimized building block.

The brightest galaxies in the first 700 Myr: Building Hubble's legacy of large area IR imaging for JWST and beyond

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trenti, Michele

2017-08-01

Hubble's WFC3 has been a game changer for the study of early galaxy formation in the first 700 Myr after the Big Bang. Reliable samples of sources to redshift z 11, which can be discovered only from space, are now constraining the evolution of the galaxy luminosity function into the epoch of reionization. Unexpectedly but excitingly, the recent spectroscopic confirmations of L>L* galaxies at z>8.5 demonstrate that objects brighter than our own Galaxy are already present 500 Myr after the Big Bang, creating a challenge to current theoretical/numerical models that struggle to explain how galaxies can grow so luminous so quickly. Yet, the existing HST observations do not cover sufficient area, nor sample a large enough diversity of environments to provide an unbiased sample of sources, especially at z 9-11 where only a handful of bright candidates are known. To double this currently insufficient sample size, to constrain effectively the bright-end of the galaxy luminosity function at z 9-10, and to provide targets for follow-up imaging and spectroscopy with JWST, we propose a large-area pure-parallel survey that will discover the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG[4JWST]). We will observe 580 arcmin^2 over 125 sightlines in five WFC3 bands (0.35 to 1.7 micron) using high-quality pure-parallel opportunities available in the cycle (3 orbits or longer). These public observations will identify more than 80 intrinsically bright galaxies at z 8-11, investigate the connection between halo mass, star formation and feedback in progenitors of groups and clusters, and build HST lasting legacy of large-area, near-IR imaging.

Rapid and annealing-free self-assembly of DNA building blocks for 3D hydrogel chaperoned by cationic comb-type copolymers.

PubMed

Zhang, Zheng; Wu, Yuyang; Yu, Feng; Niu, Chaoqun; Du, Zhi; Chen, Yong; Du, Jie

2017-10-01

The construction and self-assembly of DNA building blocks are the foundation of bottom-up development of three-dimensional DNA nanostructures or hydrogels. However, most self-assembly from DNA components is impeded by the mishybridized intermediates or the thermodynamic instability. To enable rapid production of complicated DNA objects with high yields no need for annealing process, herein different DNA building blocks (Y-shaped, L- and L'-shaped units) were assembled in presence of a cationic comb-type copolymer, poly (L-lysine)-graft-dextran (PLL-g-Dex), under physiological conditions. The results demonstrated that PLL-g-Dex not only significantly promoted the self-assembly of DNA blocks with high efficiency, but also stabilized the assembled multi-level structures especially for promoting the complicated 3D DNA hydrogel formation. This study develops a novel strategy for rapid and high-yield production of DNA hydrogel even derived from instable building blocks at relatively low DNA concentrations, which would endow DNA nanotechnology for more practical applications.

Cosmological constraints from a combination of galaxy clustering and lensing - III. Application to SDSS data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cacciato, Marcello; van den Bosch, Frank C.; More, Surhud; Mo, Houjun; Yang, Xiaohu

2013-04-01

We simultaneously constrain cosmology and galaxy bias using measurements of galaxy abundances, galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We use the conditional luminosity function (which describes the halo occupation statistics as a function of galaxy luminosity) combined with the halo model (which describes the non-linear matter field in terms of its halo building blocks) to describe the galaxy-dark matter connection. We explicitly account for residual redshift-space distortions in the projected galaxy-galaxy correlation functions, and marginalize over uncertainties in the scale dependence of the halo bias and the detailed structure of dark matter haloes. Under the assumption of a spatially flat, vanilla Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology, we focus on constraining the matter density, Ωm, and the normalization of the matter power spectrum, σ8, and we adopt 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP7) priors for the spectral index, n, the Hubble parameter, h, and the baryon density, Ωb. We obtain that Ωm = 0.278+ 0.023- 0.026 and σ8 = 0.763+ 0.064- 0.049 (95 per cent CL). These results are robust to uncertainties in the radial number density distribution of satellite galaxies, while allowing for non-Poisson satellite occupation distributions results in a slightly lower value for σ8 (0.744+ 0.056- 0.047). These constraints are in excellent agreement (at the 1σ level) with the cosmic microwave background constraints from WMAP. This demonstrates that the use of a realistic and accurate model for galaxy bias, down to the smallest non-linear scales currently observed in galaxy surveys, leads to results perfectly consistent with the vanilla ΛCDM cosmology.

Spectrum from Faint Galaxy IRAS F00183-7111

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected the building blocks of life in the distant universe, albeit in a violent milieu. Training its powerful infrared eye on a faint object located at a distance of 3.2 billion light-years, Spitzer has observed the presence of water and organic molecules in the galaxy IRAS F00183-7111. With an active galactic nucleus, this is one of the most luminous galaxies in the universe, rivaling the energy output of a quasar. Because it is heavily obscured by dust (see visible-light image in the inset), most of its luminosity is radiated at infrared wavelengths.

The infrared spectrograph instrument onboard Spitzer breaks light into its constituent colors, much as a prism does for visible light. The image shows a low-resolution spectrum of the galaxy obtained by the spectrograph at wavelengths between 4 and 20 microns. Spectra are graphical representations of a celestial object's unique blend of light. Characteristic patterns, or fingerprints, within the spectra allow astronomers to identify the object's chemical composition and to determine such physical properties as temperature and density.

The broad depression in the center of the spectrum denotes the presence of silicates (chemically similar to beach sand) in the galaxy. An emission peak within the bottom of the trough is the chemical signature for molecular hydrogen. The hydrocarbons (orange) are organic molecules comprised of carbon and hydrogen, two of the most common elements on Earth. Since it has taken more than three billion years for the light from the galaxy to reach Earth, it is intriguing to note the presence of organics in a distant galaxy at a time when life is thought to have started forming on our home planet.

Additional features in the spectrum reveal the presence of water ice (blue), carbon dioxide ice (green) and carbon monoxide (purple) in both gas and solid forms. The magenta peak corresponds to singly ionized neon gas, a spectral line often used by

Extended Source/Galaxy All Sky 1

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-03-27

This panoramic view of the entire sky reveals the distribution of galaxies beyond our Milky Way galaxy, which astronomers call extended sources, as observed by Two Micron All-Sky Survey. The image is constructed from a database of over 1.6 million galaxies listed in the survey's Extended Source Catalog; more than half of the galaxies have never before been catalogued. The image is a representation of the relative brightnesses of these million-plus galaxies, all observed at a wavelength of 2.2 microns. The brightest and nearest galaxies are represented in blue, and the faintest, most distant ones are in red. This color scheme gives insights into the three dimensional large-scale structure of the nearby universe with the brightest, closest clusters and superclusters showing up as the blue and bluish-white features. The dark band in this image shows the area of the sky where our Milky Way galaxy blocks our view of distant objects, which, in this projection, lies predominantly along the edges of the image. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04252

Building Trades. Block II. Foundations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas A and M Univ., College Station. Vocational Instructional Services.

Twelve informational lessons and eleven manipulative lessons are provided on foundations as applied to the building trades. Informational lessons cover land measurements; blueprint reading; level instruments; building and site planning; building site preparation; laying out building lines; soil preparation and special evacuation; concrete forms;…

Biomimetic, Strong, Tough, and Self-Healing Composites Using Universal Sealant-Loaded, Porous Building Blocks.

PubMed

Hwang, Sung Hoon; Miller, Joseph B; Shahsavari, Rouzbeh

2017-10-25

Many natural materials, such as nacre and dentin, exhibit multifunctional mechanical properties via structural interplay between compliant and stiff constituents arranged in a particular architecture. Herein, we present, for the first time, the bottom-up synthesis and design of strong, tough, and self-healing composite using simple but universal spherical building blocks. Our composite system is composed of calcium silicate porous nanoparticles with unprecedented monodispersity over particle size, particle shape, and pore size, which facilitate effective loading and unloading with organic sealants, resulting in 258% and 307% increases in the indentation hardness and elastic modulus of the compacted composite. Furthermore, heating the damaged composite triggers the controlled release of the nanoconfined sealant into the surrounding area, enabling moderate recovery in strength and toughness. This work paves the path towards fabricating a novel class of biomimetic composites using low-cost spherical building blocks, potentially impacting bone-tissue engineering, insulation, refractory and constructions materials, and ceramic matrix composites.

α-Haloaldehydes: versatile building blocks for natural product synthesis.

PubMed

Britton, Robert; Kang, Baldip

2013-02-01

The diastereoselective addition of organometallic reagents to α-chloroaldehydes was first reported in 1959 and occupies a historically significant role as the prototypical reaction for Cornforth's model of stereoinduction. Despite clear synthetic potential for these reagents, difficulties associated with producing enantiomerically enriched α-haloaldehydes limited their use in natural product synthesis through the latter half of the 20th century. In recent years, however, a variety of robust, organocatalytic processes have been reported that now provide direct access to optically enriched α-haloaldehydes and have motivated renewed interest in their use as building blocks for natural product synthesis. This Highlight summarizes the methods available for the enantioselective preparation of α-haloaldehydes and their stereoselective conversion into natural products.

Catalytic allylic oxidation of internal alkenes to a multifunctional chiral building block

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayeh, Liela; Le, Phong Q.; Tambar, Uttam K.

2017-07-01

The stereoselective oxidation of hydrocarbons is one of the most notable advances in synthetic chemistry over the past fifty years. Inspired by nature, enantioselective dihydroxylations, epoxidations and other oxidations of unsaturated hydrocarbons have been developed. More recently, the catalytic enantioselective allylic carbon-hydrogen oxidation of alkenes has streamlined the production of pharmaceuticals, natural products, fine chemicals and other functional materials. Allylic functionalization provides a direct path to chiral building blocks with a newly formed stereocentre from petrochemical feedstocks while preserving the olefin functionality as a handle for further chemical elaboration. Various metal-based catalysts have been discovered for the enantioselective allylic carbon-hydrogen oxidation of simple alkenes with cyclic or terminal double bonds. However, a general and selective allylic oxidation using the more common internal alkenes remains elusive. Here we report the enantioselective, regioselective and E/Z-selective allylic oxidation of unactivated internal alkenes via a catalytic hetero-ene reaction with a chalcogen-based oxidant. Our method enables non-symmetric internal alkenes to be selectively converted into allylic functionalized products with high stereoselectivity and regioselectivity. Stereospecific transformations of the resulting multifunctional chiral building blocks highlight the potential for rapidly converting internal alkenes into a broad range of enantioenriched structures that can be used in the synthesis of complex target molecules.

Microbial production of building block chemicals and polymers.

PubMed

Lee, Jeong Wook; Kim, Hyun Uk; Choi, Sol; Yi, Jongho; Lee, Sang Yup

2011-12-01

Owing to our increasing concerns on the environment, climate change, and limited natural resources, there has recently been considerable effort exerted to produce chemicals and materials from renewable biomass. Polymers we use everyday can also be produced either by direct fermentation or by polymerization of monomers that are produced by fermentation. Recent advances in metabolic engineering combined with systems biology and synthetic biology are allowing us to more systematically develop superior strains and bioprocesses for the efficient production of polymers and monomers. Here, we review recent trends in microbial production of building block chemicals that can be subsequently used for the synthesis of polymers. Also, recent successful cases of direct one-step production of polymers are reviewed. General strategies for the production of natural and unnatural platform chemicals are described together with representative examples. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advances in metabolic pathway and strain engineering paving the way for sustainable production of chemical building blocks.

PubMed

Chen, Yun; Nielsen, Jens

2013-12-01

Bio-based production of chemical building blocks from renewable resources is an attractive alternative to petroleum-based platform chemicals. Metabolic pathway and strain engineering is the key element in constructing robust microbial chemical factories within the constraints of cost effective production. Here we discuss how the development of computational algorithms, novel modules and methods, omics-based techniques combined with modeling refinement are enabling reduction in development time and thus advance the field of industrial biotechnology. We further discuss how recent technological developments contribute to the development of novel cell factories for the production of the building block chemicals: adipic acid, succinic acid and 3-hydroxypropionic acid. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Theoretical and technological building blocks for an innovation accelerator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Harmelen, F.; Kampis, G.; Börner, K.; van den Besselaar, P.; Schultes, E.; Goble, C.; Groth, P.; Mons, B.; Anderson, S.; Decker, S.; Hayes, C.; Buecheler, T.; Helbing, D.

2012-11-01

Modern science is a main driver of technological innovation. The efficiency of the scientific system is of key importance to ensure the competitiveness of a nation or region. However, the scientific system that we use today was devised centuries ago and is inadequate for our current ICT-based society: the peer review system encourages conservatism, journal publications are monolithic and slow, data is often not available to other scientists, and the independent validation of results is limited. The resulting scientific process is hence slow and sloppy. Building on the Innovation Accelerator paper by Helbing and Balietti [1], this paper takes the initial global vision and reviews the theoretical and technological building blocks that can be used for implementing an innovation (in first place: science) accelerator platform driven by re-imagining the science system. The envisioned platform would rest on four pillars: (i) Redesign the incentive scheme to reduce behavior such as conservatism, herding and hyping; (ii) Advance scientific publications by breaking up the monolithic paper unit and introducing other building blocks such as data, tools, experiment workflows, resources; (iii) Use machine readable semantics for publications, debate structures, provenance etc. in order to include the computer as a partner in the scientific process, and (iv) Build an online platform for collaboration, including a network of trust and reputation among the different types of stakeholders in the scientific system: scientists, educators, funding agencies, policy makers, students and industrial innovators among others. Any such improvements to the scientific system must support the entire scientific process (unlike current tools that chop up the scientific process into disconnected pieces), must facilitate and encourage collaboration and interdisciplinarity (again unlike current tools), must facilitate the inclusion of intelligent computing in the scientific process, must facilitate

Observed Faraday Effects in Damped Lyα Absorbers and Lyman Limit Systems: The Magnetized Environment of Galactic Building Blocks at Redshift = 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farnes, J. S.; Rudnick, L.; Gaensler, B. M.; Haverkorn, M.; O'Sullivan, S. P.; Curran, S. J.

2017-06-01

Protogalactic environments are typically identified using quasar absorption lines and can manifest as Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers (DLAs) and Lyman Limit Systems (LLSs). We use radio observations of Faraday effects to test whether these galactic building blocks host a magnetized medium, by combining DLA and LLS detections with 1.4 GHz polarization data from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). We obtain a control, a DLA, and an LLS sample consisting of 114, 19, and 27 lines of sight, respectively. Using a Bayesian framework and weakly informative priors, we are unable to detect either coherent or random magnetic fields in DLAs: the regular coherent fields must be ≤slant 2.8 μG, and the lack of depolarization suggests the weakly magnetized gas in DLAs is non-turbulent and quiescent. However, we find a mild suggestive indication that LLSs have coherent magnetic fields, with a 71.5% probability that LLSs have higher | {RM}| than a control, although this is sensitive to the redshift distribution. We also find a strong indication that LLSs host random magnetic fields, with a 95.5% probability that LLS lines of sight have lower polarized fractions than a control. The regular coherent fields within the LLSs must be ≤slant 2.4 μG, and the magnetized gas must be highly turbulent with a typical turbulent length scale on the order of ≈5-20 pc. Our results are consistent with the standard dynamo paradigm, whereby magnetism in protogalaxies increases in coherence over cosmic time, and with a hierarchical galaxy formation scenario, with the DLAs and LLSs exploring different stages of magnetic field evolution in galaxies.

"Looking through the Eyes of the Learner": Implementation of Building Blocks for Student Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Annolfo, Suzanne Cordier; Schumann, Jeffrey A.

2012-01-01

The Building Blocks for Student Engagement (BBSE) protocol was designed to provide a consistent framework of common language and a visual point of reference shared among students, teachers and school leaders to keep a laser-like focus on the instructional core and student engagement. Grounded in brain-based learning and implemented in urban,…

Flexible Fabrication of Shape-Controlled Collagen Building Blocks for Self-Assembly of 3D Microtissues.

PubMed

Zhang, Xu; Meng, Zhaoxu; Ma, Jingyun; Shi, Yang; Xu, Hui; Lykkemark, Simon; Qin, Jianhua

2015-08-12

Creating artificial tissue-like structures that possess the functionality, specificity, and architecture of native tissues remains a big challenge. A new and straightforward strategy for generating shape-controlled collagen building blocks with a well-defined architecture is presented, which can be used for self-assembly of complex 3D microtissues. Collagen blocks with tunable geometries are controllably produced and released via a membrane-templated microdevice. The formation of functional microtissues by embedding tissue-specific cells into collagen blocks with expression of specific proteins is described. The spontaneous self-assembly of cell-laden collagen blocks into organized tissue constructs with predetermined configurations is demonstrated, which are largely driven by the synergistic effects of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. This new strategy would open up new avenues for the study of tissue/organ morphogenesis, and tissue engineering applications. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

RNA and RNP as Building Blocks for Nanotechnology and Synthetic Biology.

PubMed

Ohno, Hirohisa; Saito, Hirohide

2016-01-01

Recent technologies that aimed to elucidate cellular function have revealed essential roles for RNA molecules in living systems. Our knowledge concerning functional and structural information of naturally occurring RNA and RNA-protein (RNP) complexes is increasing rapidly. RNA and RNP interaction motifs are structural units that function as building blocks to constitute variety of complex structures. RNA-central synthetic biology and nanotechnology are constructive approaches that employ the accumulated information and build synthetic RNA (RNP)-based circuits and nanostructures. Here, we describe how to design and construct synthetic RNA (RNP)-based devices and structures at the nanometer-scale for biological and future therapeutic applications. RNA/RNP nanostructures can also be utilized as the molecular scaffold to control the localization or interactions of target molecule(s). Moreover, RNA motifs recognized by RNA-binding proteins can be applied to make protein-responsive translational "switches" that can turn gene expression "on" or "off" depending on the intracellular environment. This "synthetic RNA and RNP world" will expand tools for nanotechnology and synthetic biology. In addition, these reconstructive approaches would lead to a greater understanding of building principle in naturally occurring RNA/RNP molecules and systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture's building blocks: investigating cultural evolution in a LEGO construction task.

PubMed

McGraw, John J; Wallot, Sebastian; Mitkidis, Panagiotis; Roepstorff, Andreas

2014-01-01

ONE OF THE MOST ESSENTIAL BUT THEORETICALLY VEXING ISSUES REGARDING THE NOTION OF CULTURE IS THAT OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION AND TRANSMISSION: how a group's accumulated solutions to invariant challenges develop and persevere over time. But at the moment, the notion of applying evolutionary theory to culture remains little more than a suggestive trope. Whereas the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory has provided an encompassing scientific framework for the selection and transmission of biological adaptations, a convincing theory of cultural evolution has yet to emerge. One of the greatest challenges for theorists is identifying the appropriate time scales and units of analysis in order to reduce the intractably large and complex phenomenon of "culture" into its component "building blocks." In this paper, we present a model for scientifically investigating cultural processes by analyzing the ways people develop conventions in a series of LEGO construction tasks. The data revealed a surprising pattern in the selection of building bricks as well as features of car design across consecutive building sessions. Our findings support a novel methodology for studying the development and transmission of culture through the microcosm of interactive LEGO design and assembly.

Galaxy collisions and shocks in compact groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Sullivan, Ewan

2017-09-01

Evidence from IR, X-ray and HI studies suggests that low mass compact groups represent a key evolutionary stage in which shocks caused by galaxy interactions drive both the transformation of gas-rich spirals into early-type galaxies, and the build-up of the hot IGM. We have selected five groups where extensive multi-wavelength data shows violent ongoing galaxy interactions. We now propose to observe them with Chandra and XMM, searching for or confirming the presence of shocks in the X-ray IGM, measuring their strength and ability to heat cold gas, and examining the impact of galaxy/IGM interactions on galaxy transformation. Combined with our IR, CO, HI and optical IFU data, these observations will provide an exceptionally detailed view of this critical stage of galaxy and group evolution.

VLT Smashes the Record of the Farthest Known Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2004-03-01

record showed a four-year toddler. With the present observations, we have a picture of the child when he was two and a half years old. From the images of this galaxy obtained in the various wavebands, the astronomers deduce that it is undergoing a period of intense star formation. But the amount of stars formed is estimated to be "only" 10 million times the mass of the sun, approximately ten thousand times smaller than the mass of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. In other words, what the astronomers see is the first building block of the present-day large galaxies. This finding agrees well with our current understanding of the process of galaxy formation corresponding to a successive build-up of the large galaxies seen today through numerous mergers of "building blocks", smaller and younger galaxies formed in the past. It is these building blocks which may have provided the first light sources that lifted the fog over the Universe and put an end to the Dark Ages. For Roser Pelló, from the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (France) and co-leader of the team, "these observations show that under excellent sky conditions like those at ESO's Paranal Observatory, and using strong gravitational lensing, direct observations of distant galaxies close to the Dark Ages are feasible with the best ground-based telescopes." The other co-leader of the team, Daniel Schaerer from the Geneva Observatory and University (Switzerland), is excited: "This discovery opens the way to future explorations of the first stars and galaxies in the early Universe."

Diffuse light and building history of the galaxy cluster Abell 2667

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Covone, G.; Adami, C.; Durret, F.; Kneib, J.-P.; Lima Neto, G. B.; Slezak, E.

2006-12-01

Aims.We searched for diffuse intracluster light in the galaxy cluster Abell 2667 (z=0.233) from HST images in three broad band-filters. Methods: .We applied an iterative multi-scale wavelet analysis and reconstruction technique to these images, which allows to subtract stars and galaxies from the original images. Results: .We detect a zone of diffuse emission southwest of the cluster center (DS1) and a second faint object (ComDif) within DS1. Another diffuse source (DS2) may be detected at lower confidence level northeast of the center. These sources of diffuse light contribute to 10-15% of the total visible light in the cluster. Whether they are independent entities or part of the very elliptical external envelope of the central galaxy remains unclear. Deep VLT VIMOS integral field spectroscopy reveals a faint continuum at the positions of DS1 and ComDif but do not allow a redshift to be computed, so we conclude if these sources are part of the central galaxy or not. A hierarchical substructure detection method reveals the presence of several galaxy pairs and groups defining a similar direction to the one drawn by the DS1 - central galaxy - DS2 axis. The analysis of archive XMM-Newton and Chandra observations shows X-ray emission elongated in the same direction. The X-ray temperature map shows the presence of a cool core, a broad cool zone stretching from north to south, and hotter regions towards the northeast, southwest, and northwest. This might suggest shock fronts along these directions produced by infalling material, even if uncertainties remain quite large on the temperature determination far from the center. Conclusions: .These various data are consistent with a picture in which diffuse sources are concentrations of tidal debris and harassed matter expelled from infalling galaxies by tidal stripping and undergoing an accretion process onto the central cluster galaxy; as such, they are expected to be found along the main infall directions. Note, however

The ages and baryonic masses of clumps in turbulent, clumpy disk galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, David

2017-08-01

We propose to measure the stellar populations and masses of massive star forming clumps at the resolution of the Jeans' length in a sample of massive, turbulent disk galaxies. Massive star-forming clumps are a critical component of the morphogical transformation of galaxies and the build-up of bulges. If, however, clumps dissipate quickly bulges may not form through clump phase, then clumps would build thick disks. Different feedback prescriptions have drastically different effects on clumps. Some feedback models (e.g. Hopkins et al 2012, FIRE simulations) completely destroy clumps whereas other feedback models allow clumps to persist (e.g. Bournaud et al. 2014). Therefore, to build accurate models of galaxy evolution we must know how long the lives of clumps are. The problem is that both due to resolution and available wavelength coverage it is impossible to precisely measure the ages and stellar masses of individual clumps in high-z galaxies. We have discovered a sample of extremely rare galaxies at z 0.1 that are extremely gas rich, turbulent and have a clumpy distribution of ionized gas. In all ways they are identical to those of the high-redshift Universe. We propose to employ UV-optical-near IR imaging with WFC3 to measure the stellar masses and mean ages of a set of 6 clumpy galaxies, containing 80 giant star forming clumps. This data complements our ALMA CO(1-0) maps of the same targets, and we will thus make the first maps of the full baryonic mass in turbulent disk galaxies. This work builds on our previous HST Halpha imaging program, and validates massive investments of HST time on high-z surveys of galaxies.

Building Blocks for Reliable Complex Nonlinear Numerical Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yee, H. C.

2005-01-01

This chapter describes some of the building blocks to ensure a higher level of confidence in the predictability and reliability (PAR) of numerical simulation of multiscale complex nonlinear problems. The focus is on relating PAR of numerical simulations with complex nonlinear phenomena of numerics. To isolate sources of numerical uncertainties, the possible discrepancy between the chosen partial differential equation (PDE) model and the real physics and/or experimental data is set aside. The discussion is restricted to how well numerical schemes can mimic the solution behavior of the underlying PDE model for finite time steps and grid spacings. The situation is complicated by the fact that the available theory for the understanding of nonlinear behavior of numerics is not at a stage to fully analyze the nonlinear Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The discussion is based on the knowledge gained for nonlinear model problems with known analytical solutions to identify and explain the possible sources and remedies of numerical uncertainties in practical computations.

The Development of Logico-Mathematical Knowledge in a Block-Building Activity at Ages 1-4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamii, Constance; Miyakawa, Yoko; Kato, Yasuhiko

2004-01-01

To study the developmental interrelationships among various aspects of logico-mathematical knowledge, 80 one- to 4-year-olds were individually asked to build "something tall" with 20 blocks. Percentages of new and significant behaviors increased with age and were analyzed in terms of the development of logico-mathematical relationships. It was…

Functional Perfluoroalkyl Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (F-POSS): Building Blocks for Low Surface Energy Materials

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-10-21

Technical Paper 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Functional Perfluoroalkyl Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (F...long chain fluorinated alkyl groups ranging from 6-12 carbon atoms in length. Herein, a disilanol perfluoroalkyl polyhedral oligomeric...FUNCTIONAL PERFLUOROALKYL POLYHEDRAL OLIGOMERIC SILSESQUIOXANES (F-POSS): BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LOW SURFACE ENERGY MATERIA LS Sean M Rami,.e:, Yvonne Dia

Galaxy Zoo: secular evolution of barred galaxies from structural decomposition of multiband images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kruk, Sandor J.; Lintott, Chris J.; Bamford, Steven P.; Masters, Karen L.; Simmons, Brooke D.; Häußler, Boris; Cardamone, Carolin N.; Hart, Ross E.; Kelvin, Lee; Schawinski, Kevin; Smethurst, Rebecca J.; Vika, Marina

2018-02-01

We present the results of two-component (disc+bar) and three-component (disc+bar+bulge) multiwavelength 2D photometric decompositions of barred galaxies in five Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) bands (ugriz). This sample of ∼3500 nearby (z < 0.06) galaxies with strong bars selected from the Galaxy Zoo citizen science project is the largest sample of barred galaxies to be studied using photometric decompositions that include a bar component. With detailed structural analysis, we obtain physical quantities such as the bar- and bulge-to-total luminosity ratios, effective radii, Sérsic indices and colours of the individual components. We observe a clear difference in the colours of the components, the discs being bluer than the bars and bulges. An overwhelming fraction of bulge components have Sérsic indices consistent with being pseudo-bulges. By comparing the barred galaxies with a mass-matched and volume-limited sample of unbarred galaxies, we examine the connection between the presence of a large-scale galactic bar and the properties of discs and bulges. We find that the discs of unbarred galaxies are significantly bluer compared to the discs of barred galaxies, while there is no significant difference in the colours of the bulges. We find possible evidence of secular evolution via bars that leads to the build-up of pseudo-bulges and to the quenching of star formation in the discs. We identify a subsample of unbarred galaxies with an inner lens/oval and find that their properties are similar to barred galaxies, consistent with an evolutionary scenario in which bars dissolve into lenses. This scenario deserves further investigation through both theoretical and observational work.

Building blocks for protein interaction devices

PubMed Central

Grünberg, Raik; Ferrar, Tony S.; van der Sloot, Almer M.; Constante, Marco; Serrano, Luis

2010-01-01

Here, we propose a framework for the design of synthetic protein networks from modular protein–protein or protein–peptide interactions and provide a starter toolkit of protein building blocks. Our proof of concept experiments outline a general work flow for part–based protein systems engineering. We streamlined the iterative BioBrick cloning protocol and assembled 25 synthetic multidomain proteins each from seven standardized DNA fragments. A systematic screen revealed two main factors controlling protein expression in Escherichia coli: obstruction of translation initiation by mRNA secondary structure or toxicity of individual domains. Eventually, 13 proteins were purified for further characterization. Starting from well-established biotechnological tools, two general–purpose interaction input and two readout devices were built and characterized in vitro. Constitutive interaction input was achieved with a pair of synthetic leucine zippers. The second interaction was drug-controlled utilizing the rapamycin-induced binding of FRB(T2098L) to FKBP12. The interaction kinetics of both devices were analyzed by surface plasmon resonance. Readout was based on Förster resonance energy transfer between fluorescent proteins and was quantified for various combinations of input and output devices. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of parts-based protein synthetic biology. Additionally, we identify future challenges and limitations of modular design along with approaches to address them. PMID:20215443

Elfin: An algorithm for the computational design of custom three-dimensional structures from modular repeat protein building blocks.

PubMed

Yeh, Chun-Ting; Brunette, T J; Baker, David; McIntosh-Smith, Simon; Parmeggiani, Fabio

2018-02-01

Computational protein design methods have enabled the design of novel protein structures, but they are often still limited to small proteins and symmetric systems. To expand the size of designable proteins while controlling the overall structure, we developed Elfin, a genetic algorithm for the design of novel proteins with custom shapes using structural building blocks derived from experimentally verified repeat proteins. By combining building blocks with compatible interfaces, it is possible to rapidly build non-symmetric large structures (>1000 amino acids) that match three-dimensional geometric descriptions provided by the user. A run time of about 20min on a laptop computer for a 3000 amino acid structure makes Elfin accessible to users with limited computational resources. Protein structures with controlled geometry will allow the systematic study of the effect of spatial arrangement of enzymes and signaling molecules, and provide new scaffolds for functional nanomaterials. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Distinct Build-Up Of Dense And Normal Massive Passive Galaxies In Vipers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gargiulo, Adriana; Vipers Team

2017-06-01

At fixed stellar mass, the population of passive galaxies has increased its mean effective radius < Re > by a factor 5 in the last 10 Gyr, decreasing its mean stellar mass density (S = Mstar/(2πRe 2 ) by a factor >> 10. Whether this increase in < Re > is mainly due to the size-growth of individual galaxies through dry mergers, or to the fact that newly quenched galaxies have a larger size, is still matter of debate. A promising approach to shed light on this issue is to investigate the evolution of the number density of passive galaxies as a function of their mass density. In this context, massive (Mstar >10^11 Msun) passive galaxies are the most intriguing systems to study, since, in a hierarchical scenario, they are expected to accrete their stellar mass mainly by mergers. The wide area (˜ 16 sq. deg) and high sampling rate (˜ 40%) of the spectroscopic survey VIPERS allowed us to collect a sample of ˜ 2000 passive massive galaxies over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.0 and to study, with unprecedented statistics, the evolution of their number density as function of their mean stellar mass density in this redshift range. Taking advantage of both spectroscopic (D4000) and photometric (SED fitting) data available, we studied the age of the stellar population of passive galaxies as function both of redshift and mass density. This information, combined with the evolution of the number density allowed us to put constraints on the mass accretion scenarios of passive galaxies. In this talk I will present our results and conclusions and how they depend on the environment in which the galaxies reside.

STScI-PRC02-11a FARAWAY GALAXIES PROVIDE A STUNNING 'WALLPAPER' BACKDROP FOR A RUNAWAY GALAXY

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

galaxies represent twice the number of those discovered in the legendary Hubble Deep Field, the orbiting observatory's 'deepest' view of the heavens, taken in 1995 by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The ACS picture, however, was taken in one-twelfth the time it took to observe the original Hubble Deep Field. In blue light, ACS sees even fainter objects than were seen in the 'deep field.' The galaxies in the ACS picture, like those in the deep field, stretch back to nearly the beginning of time. They are a myriad of shapes and represent fossil samples of the universe's 13-billion-year evolution. The ACS image is so sharp that astronomers can identify distant colliding galaxies, the 'building blocks' of galaxies, an exquisite 'Whitman's Sampler' of galaxies, and many extremely faraway galaxies. ACS made this observation on April 1 and 9, 2002. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in near-infrared, orange, and blue filters. Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (USCS/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA The ACS Science Team: (H. Ford, G. Illingworth, M. Clampin, G. Hartig, T. Allen, K. Anderson, F. Bartko, N. Benitez, J. Blakeslee, R. Bouwens, T. Broadhurst, R. Brown, C. Burrows, D. Campbell, E. Cheng, N. Cross, P. Feldman, M. Franx, D. Golimowski, C. Gronwall, R. Kimble, J. Krist, M. Lesser, D. Magee, A. Martel, W. J. McCann, G. Meurer, G. Miley, M. Postman, P. Rosati, M. Sirianni, W. Sparks, P. Sullivan, H. Tran, Z. Tsvetanov, R. White, and R. Woodruff)

A polynomial-chaos-expansion-based building block approach for stochastic analysis of photonic circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waqas, Abi; Melati, Daniele; Manfredi, Paolo; Grassi, Flavia; Melloni, Andrea

2018-02-01

The Building Block (BB) approach has recently emerged in photonic as a suitable strategy for the analysis and design of complex circuits. Each BB can be foundry related and contains a mathematical macro-model of its functionality. As well known, statistical variations in fabrication processes can have a strong effect on their functionality and ultimately affect the yield. In order to predict the statistical behavior of the circuit, proper analysis of the uncertainties effects is crucial. This paper presents a method to build a novel class of Stochastic Process Design Kits for the analysis of photonic circuits. The proposed design kits directly store the information on the stochastic behavior of each building block in the form of a generalized-polynomial-chaos-based augmented macro-model obtained by properly exploiting stochastic collocation and Galerkin methods. Using this approach, we demonstrate that the augmented macro-models of the BBs can be calculated once and stored in a BB (foundry dependent) library and then used for the analysis of any desired circuit. The main advantage of this approach, shown here for the first time in photonics, is that the stochastic moments of an arbitrary photonic circuit can be evaluated by a single simulation only, without the need for repeated simulations. The accuracy and the significant speed-up with respect to the classical Monte Carlo analysis are verified by means of classical photonic circuit example with multiple uncertain variables.

On the formation redshift of Low-Mass Star-Forming Galaxies at intermediate redshifts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallego, Jesus; Rodriguez-Muñoz, Lucía; Pacifici, Camilla; Tresse, Laurence; Charlot, Stéphane; Gil de Paz, Armando; Barro, Guillermo; Gomez-Guijarro, Carlos; Villar, Víctor

2015-08-01

Dwarf galaxies play a key role in galaxy formation and evolution: (1) hierarchical models predict that low-mass systems merged to form massive galaxies (building block paradigm; Dekel & Silk 1986); (2) dwarf systems might have been responsible for the reionization of the Universe (Wyithe & Loeb 2006); (3) theoretical models are particularly sensitive to the density of low-mass systems at diferent redshifts (Mamon et al. 2011), being one of the key science cases for the future E-ELT (Evans et al. 2013). While the history of low-mass dark matter halos is relatively well understood, the formation history of dwarf galaxies is still poorly reproduced by the models due to the distinct evolution of baryonic and dark matter.We present constraints on the star formation histories (SFHs) of a sample of low-mass Star-Forming Galaxies (LMSFGs; 7.3 < log M∗/Mo < 8.0, at 0.3 < zspec < 0.9) selected by photometric stellar mass and apparent magnitude. The SFHs were obtained through the analysis of their spectral energy distributions using a novel approach (Pacifici et al. 2012) that (1) consistently combines photometric (HST and ground-based multi-broadband) and spectroscopic (equivalent widths of emission lines from VLT and GTC spectroscopy) data, and (2) uses physically motivated SFHs with non-uniform variations of the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of time.The median SFH of our LMSFGs appears to form 90% of the median stellar mass inferred for the sample in the ˜0.5-1.8 Gyr immediately preceding the observation. These results suggest a recent stellar mass assembly for dwarf SFGs, consistent with the cosmological downsizing trends. We find similar median SFH timescales for a slightly more massive secondary sample 8.0 < log M∗/Mo < 9.1).This is a pilot study for future surveys on dwarf galaxies at high redshift.

Rapid formation of complexity in the total synthesis of natural products enabled by oxabicyclo[2.2.1]heptene building blocks.

PubMed

Schindler, Corinna S; Carreira, Erick M

2009-11-01

This critical review showcases examples of rapid formation of complexity in total syntheses starting from 7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene derivatives. An overview of methods allowing synthetic access to these building blocks is provided and their application in recently developed synthetic transformations to structurally complex systems is illustrated. In addition, the facile access to a novel oxabicyclo[2.2.1]heptene derived building block is presented which significantly enlarges the possibilities of previously known chemical transformations and is highlighted in the enantioselective route to the core of the banyaside and suomilide natural products (107 references).

Concept analysis and the building blocks of theory: misconceptions regarding theory development.

PubMed

Bergdahl, Elisabeth; Berterö, Carina M

2016-10-01

The purpose of this article is to discuss the attempts to justify concepts analysis as a way to construct theory - a notion often advocated in nursing. The notion that concepts are the building blocks or threads from which theory is constructed is often repeated. It can be found in many articles and well-known textbooks. However, this notion is seldom explained or defended. The notion of concepts as building blocks has also been questioned by several authors. However, most of these authors seem to agree to some degree that concepts are essential components from which theory is built. Discussion paper. Literature was reviewed to synthesize and debate current knowledge. Our point is that theory is not built by concepts analysis or clarification and we will show that this notion has its basis in some serious misunderstandings. We argue that concept analysis is not a part of sound scientific method and should be abandoned. The current methods of concept analysis in nursing have no foundation in philosophy of science or in language philosophy. The type of concept analysis performed in nursing is not a way to 'construct' theory. Rather, theories are formed by creative endeavour to propose a solution to a scientific and/or practical problem. The bottom line is that the current style and form of concept analysis in nursing should be abandoned in favour of methods in line with modern theory of science. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Public Opinion on Youth, Crime and Race: A Guide for Advocates. Building Blocks for Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soler, Mark

This guide summarizes public opinion research on youth and juvenile justice issues from the Building Blocks for Youth focus groups and various national polls. Overall, the public is less fearful about crime than in the past but believes juvenile crime is increasing. There is serious public concern about the effectiveness of the juvenile justice…

Plasmid Vectors and Molecular Building Blocks for the Development of Genetic Manipulation Tools for Trypanosoma cruzi

PubMed Central

Bouvier, León A.; Cámara, María de los Milagros; Canepa, Gaspar E.; Miranda, Mariana R.; Pereira, Claudio A.

2013-01-01

The post genomic era revealed the need for developing better performing, easier to use and more sophisticated genetic manipulation tools for the study of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease. In this work a series of plasmids that allow genetic manipulation of this protozoan parasite were developed. First of all we focused on useful tools to establish selection strategies for different strains and which can be employed as expression vectors. On the other hand molecular building blocks in the form of diverse selectable markers, modifiable fluorescent protein and epitope-tag coding sequences were produced. Both types of modules were harboured in backbone molecules conceived to offer multiple construction and sub-cloning strategies. These can be used to confer new properties to already available genetic manipulation tools or as starting points for whole novel designs. The performance of each plasmid and building block was determined independently. For illustration purposes, some simple direct practical applications were conducted. PMID:24205392

Exploring the building blocks of social cognition: spontaneous agency perception and visual perspective taking in autism.

PubMed

Zwickel, Jan; White, Sarah J; Coniston, Devorah; Senju, Atsushi; Frith, Uta

2011-10-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders have highly characteristic impairments in social interaction and this is true also for those with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome (AS). These social cognitive impairments are far from global and it seems likely that some of the building blocks of social cognition are intact. In our first experiment, we investigated whether high functioning adults who also had a diagnosis of AS would be similar to control participants in terms of their eye movements when watching animated triangles in short movies that normally evoke mentalizing. They were. Our second experiment using the same movies, tested whether both groups would spontaneously adopt the visuo-spatial perspective of a triangle protagonist. They did. At the same time autistic participants differed in their verbal accounts of the story line underlying the movies, confirming their specific difficulties in on-line mentalizing. In spite of this difficulty, two basic building blocks of social cognition appear to be intact: spontaneous agency perception and spontaneous visual perspective taking.

Building up the spin - orbit alignment of interacting galaxy pairs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moon, Jun-Sung; Yoon, Suk-Jin

2018-01-01

Galaxies are not just randomly distributed throughout space. Instead, they are in alignment over a wide range of scales from the cosmic web down to a pair of galaxies. Motivated by recent findings that the spin and the orbital angular momentum vectors of galaxy pairs tend to be parallel, we here investigate the spin - orbit orientation in close pairs using the Illustris cosmological simulation. We find that since z ~ 1, the parallel alignment has become progressively stronger with time through repetitive encounters. The pair Interactions are preferentially in prograde at z = 0 (over 5 sigma significance). The prograde fraction at z = 0 is larger for the pairs influenced more heavily by each other during their evolution. We find no correlation between the spin - orbit orientation and the surrounding large-scale structure. Our results favor the scenario in which the alignment in close pairs is caused by tidal interactions later on, rather than the primordial torquing by the large-scale structures.

Single crystalline Ge(1-x)Mn(x) nanowires as building blocks for nanoelectronics.

PubMed

van der Meulen, Machteld I; Petkov, Nikolay; Morris, Michael A; Kazakova, Olga; Han, Xinhai; Wang, Kang L; Jacob, Ajey P; Holmes, Justin D

2009-01-01

Magnetically doped Si and Ge nanowires have potential application in future nanowire spin-based devices. Here, we report a supercritical fluid method for producing single crystalline Mn-doped Ge nanowires with a Mn-doping concentration of between 0.5-1.0 atomic % that display ferromagnetism above 300 K and a superior performance with respect to the hole mobility of around 340 cm(2)/Vs, demonstrating the potential of using these nanowires as building blocks for electronic devices.

Autonomously Self-Adhesive Hydrogels as Building Blocks for Additive Manufacturing.

PubMed

Deng, Xudong; Attalla, Rana; Sadowski, Lukas P; Chen, Mengsu; Majcher, Michael J; Urosev, Ivan; Yin, Da-Chuan; Selvaganapathy, P Ravi; Filipe, Carlos D M; Hoare, Todd

2018-01-08

We report a simple method of preparing autonomous and rapid self-adhesive hydrogels and their use as building blocks for additive manufacturing of functional tissue scaffolds. Dynamic cross-linking between 2-aminophenylboronic acid-functionalized hyaluronic acid and poly(vinyl alcohol) yields hydrogels that recover their mechanical integrity within 1 min after cutting or shear under both neutral and acidic pH conditions. Incorporation of this hydrogel in an interpenetrating calcium-alginate network results in an interfacially stiffer but still rapidly self-adhesive hydrogel that can be assembled into hollow perfusion channels by simple contact additive manufacturing within minutes. Such channels withstand fluid perfusion while retaining their dimensions and support endothelial cell growth and proliferation, providing a simple and modular route to produce customized cell scaffolds.

An Imide-Based Pentacyclic Building Block for n-Type Organic Semiconductors

DOE PAGES

Wu, Fu-Peng; Un, Hio-Ieng; Li, Yongxi; ...

2017-10-09

For this study a new electron-deficient unit with fused 5-heterocyclic ring was developed by replacing a cyclopenta-1,3-diene from electron-rich donor indacenodithiophene (IDT) with cyclohepta-4,6-diene-1,3-diimde unit. The imide bridging endows BBI with fixed planar configuration and both low the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) (-6.24 eV) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit (LUMO) (-2.57 eV) energy levels. Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) based on BBI polymers exhibit electron mobility up to 0.34 cm 2 V -1 s -1, which indicates that the BBI is a promising n-type building block for optoelectronics.

An Imide-Based Pentacyclic Building Block for n-Type Organic Semiconductors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Fu-Peng; Un, Hio-Ieng; Li, Yongxi

For this study a new electron-deficient unit with fused 5-heterocyclic ring was developed by replacing a cyclopenta-1,3-diene from electron-rich donor indacenodithiophene (IDT) with cyclohepta-4,6-diene-1,3-diimde unit. The imide bridging endows BBI with fixed planar configuration and both low the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) (-6.24 eV) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit (LUMO) (-2.57 eV) energy levels. Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) based on BBI polymers exhibit electron mobility up to 0.34 cm 2 V -1 s -1, which indicates that the BBI is a promising n-type building block for optoelectronics.

Building Quality Report Cards for Geriatric Care in The Netherlands: Using Concept Mapping to Identify the Appropriate "Building Blocks" from the Consumer's Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groenewoud, A. Stef; van Exel, N. Job A.; Berg, Marc; Huijsman, Robbert

2008-01-01

Purpose: This article reports on a study to identify "building blocks" for quality report cards for geriatric care. Its aim is to present (a) the results of the study and (b) the innovative step-by-step approach that was developed to arrive at these results. Design and Methods: We used Concept Mapping/Structured Conceptualization to…

Culture’s building blocks: investigating cultural evolution in a LEGO construction task

PubMed Central

McGraw, John J.; Wallot, Sebastian; Mitkidis, Panagiotis; Roepstorff, Andreas

2014-01-01

One of the most essential but theoretically vexing issues regarding the notion of culture is that of cultural evolution and transmission: how a group’s accumulated solutions to invariant challenges develop and persevere over time. But at the moment, the notion of applying evolutionary theory to culture remains little more than a suggestive trope. Whereas the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory has provided an encompassing scientific framework for the selection and transmission of biological adaptations, a convincing theory of cultural evolution has yet to emerge. One of the greatest challenges for theorists is identifying the appropriate time scales and units of analysis in order to reduce the intractably large and complex phenomenon of “culture” into its component “building blocks.” In this paper, we present a model for scientifically investigating cultural processes by analyzing the ways people develop conventions in a series of LEGO construction tasks. The data revealed a surprising pattern in the selection of building bricks as well as features of car design across consecutive building sessions. Our findings support a novel methodology for studying the development and transmission of culture through the microcosm of interactive LEGO design and assembly. PMID:25309482

Galaxy Mission Completes Four Star-Studded Years in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2007-01-01

developed.'

'Four years after GALEX's launch, the spacecraft is performing magnificently. The mission results have been simply amazing as it helps us to unlock the secrets of galaxies, the building blocks of our universe,' says Kerry Erickson, GALEX project manager.

M81 and Holberg IX are located approximately 12 million light-years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In addition to leading the GALEX observations of M81, Huchra and his team also took observations of the region with NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes. By combining all these views of M81, Huchra hopes to gain a better understanding about how M81 has developed into the spiral galaxy we see today.

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., leads the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission and is responsible for science operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, manages the mission and built the science instrument. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers from South Korea and France collaborated on this mission.

nIFTY galaxy cluster simulations - III. The similarity and diversity of galaxies and subhaloes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elahi, Pascal J.; Knebe, Alexander; Pearce, Frazer R.; Power, Chris; Yepes, Gustavo; Cui, Weiguang; Cunnama, Daniel; Kay, Scott T.; Sembolini, Federico; Beck, Alexander M.; Davé, Romeel; February, Sean; Huang, Shuiyao; Katz, Neal; McCarthy, Ian G.; Murante, Giuseppe; Perret, Valentin; Puchwein, Ewald; Saro, Alexandro; Teyssier, Romain

2016-05-01

We examine subhaloes and galaxies residing in a simulated Λ cold dark matter galaxy cluster (M^crit_{200}=1.1× 10^{15} h^{-1} M_{⊙}) produced by hydrodynamical codes ranging from classic smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH), newer SPH codes, adaptive and moving mesh codes. These codes use subgrid models to capture galaxy formation physics. We compare how well these codes reproduce the same subhaloes/galaxies in gravity-only, non-radiative hydrodynamics and full feedback physics runs by looking at the overall subhalo/galaxy distribution and on an individual object basis. We find that the subhalo population is reproduced to within ≲10 per cent for both dark matter only and non-radiative runs, with individual objects showing code-to-code scatter of ≲0.1 dex, although the gas in non-radiative simulations shows significant scatter. Including feedback physics significantly increases the diversity. Subhalo mass and Vmax distributions vary by ≈20 per cent. The galaxy populations also show striking code-to-code variations. Although the Tully-Fisher relation is similar in almost all codes, the number of galaxies with 109 h- 1 M⊙ ≲ M* ≲ 1012 h- 1 M⊙ can differ by a factor of 4. Individual galaxies show code-to-code scatter of ˜0.5 dex in stellar mass. Moreover, systematic differences exist, with some codes producing galaxies 70 per cent smaller than others. The diversity partially arises from the inclusion/absence of active galactic nucleus feedback. Our results combined with our companion papers demonstrate that subgrid physics is not just subject to fine-tuning, but the complexity of building galaxies in all environments remains a challenge. We argue that even basic galaxy properties, such as stellar mass to halo mass, should be treated with errors bars of ˜0.2-0.4 dex.

Supermassive Black Hole Fueling and Feedback in Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Comerford, Julia M.

2018-06-01

Over the last few decades, observations have revealed surprisingly tight correlations between the properties of galaxies and their supermassive black holes. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) have emerged as key drivers of this coevolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes, by two primary mechanisms: AGN fueling and AGN feedback. Supermassive black holes build up mass by accreting gas during AGN fueling, while AGN feedback is a crucial regulator of star formation that controls the mass growth of the galaxies. In this talk, I will present multiwavelength studies of both AGN fueling and feedback. I will discuss results that address AGN fueling in galaxy mergers, the connection between AGN and star formation, and the effect of AGN outflows on their host galaxies.

Wrapping cytochrome c around single-wall carbon nanotube: engineered nanohybrid building blocks for infrared detection at high quantum efficiency

PubMed Central

Gong, Youpin; Liu, Qingfeng; Wilt, Jamie Samantha; Gong, Maogang; Ren, Shenqiang; Wu, Judy

2015-01-01

Biomolecule cytochrome c (Cty c), a small molecule of a chain of amino acids with extraordinary electron transport, was helically wrapped around a semiconductive single-wall carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) to form a molecular building block for uncooled infrared detection with two uniquely designed functionalities: exciton dissociation to free charge carriers at the heterojunction formed on the s-SWCNT/Cty c interface and charge transport along the electron conducting chain of Cty c (acceptor) and hole conducting channel through s-SWCNT (donor). Such a design aims at addressing the long-standing challenges in exciton dissociation and charge transport in an SWCNT network, which have bottlenecked development of photonic SWCNT-based infrared detectors. Using these building blocks, uncooled s-SWCNT/Cyt c thin film infrared detectors were synthesized and shown to have extraordinary photoresponsivity up to 0.77 A W−1 due to a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) in exceeding 90%, which represents a more than two orders of magnitude enhancement than the best previously reported on CNT-based infrared detectors with EQE of only 1.72%. From a broad perspective, this work on novel s-SWCNT/Cyt c nanohybrid infrared detectors has developed a successful platform of engineered carbon nanotube/biomolecule building blocks with superior properties for optoelectronic applications. PMID:26066737

Wrapping cytochrome c around single-wall carbon nanotube: engineered nanohybrid building blocks for infrared detection at high quantum efficiency.

PubMed

Gong, Youpin; Liu, Qingfeng; Wilt, Jamie Samantha; Gong, Maogang; Ren, Shenqiang; Wu, Judy

2015-06-11

Biomolecule cytochrome c (Cty c), a small molecule of a chain of amino acids with extraordinary electron transport, was helically wrapped around a semiconductive single-wall carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) to form a molecular building block for uncooled infrared detection with two uniquely designed functionalities: exciton dissociation to free charge carriers at the heterojunction formed on the s-SWCNT/Cty c interface and charge transport along the electron conducting chain of Cty c (acceptor) and hole conducting channel through s-SWCNT (donor). Such a design aims at addressing the long-standing challenges in exciton dissociation and charge transport in an SWCNT network, which have bottlenecked development of photonic SWCNT-based infrared detectors. Using these building blocks, uncooled s-SWCNT/Cyt c thin film infrared detectors were synthesized and shown to have extraordinary photoresponsivity up to 0.77 A W(-1) due to a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) in exceeding 90%, which represents a more than two orders of magnitude enhancement than the best previously reported on CNT-based infrared detectors with EQE of only 1.72%. From a broad perspective, this work on novel s-SWCNT/Cyt c nanohybrid infrared detectors has developed a successful platform of engineered carbon nanotube/biomolecule building blocks with superior properties for optoelectronic applications.

Tackling The Dragon: Investigating Lensed Galaxy Structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fortenberry, Alexander; Livermore, Rachael

2018-01-01

Galaxies have been seen to have a rapid decrease in star formation beginning at a redshift of around 1-2 up to the present day. To understand the processes underpinning this change, we need to observe the inner structure of galaxies and understand where and how the stellar mass builds up. However, at high redshifts our observable resolution is limited, which hinders the accuracy of the data. The lack of resolution at high redshift can be counteracted with the use of gravitational lensing. The magnification provided by the gravitational lens between us and the galaxies in question enables us to see extreme detail within the galaxies. To begin fine-tuning this process, we used Hubble data of Abell 370, a galaxy cluster, which lenses a galaxy know as “The Dragon” at z=0.725. With the increased detail proved by the gravitational lens we provide a detailed analysis of the galaxy’s spatially resolved star formation rate, stellar age, and masses.

Building Blocks for Reliable Complex Nonlinear Numerical Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yee, H. C.; Mansour, Nagi N. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

This talk describes some of the building blocks to ensure a higher level of confidence in the predictability and reliability (PAR) of numerical simulation of multiscale complex nonlinear problems. The focus is on relating PAR of numerical simulations with complex nonlinear phenomena of numerics. To isolate sources of numerical uncertainties, the possible discrepancy between the chosen partial differential equation (PDE) model and the real physics and/or experimental data is set aside. The discussion is restricted to how well numerical schemes can mimic the solution behavior of the underlying PDE model for finite time steps and grid spacings. The situation is complicated by the fact that the available theory for the understanding of nonlinear behavior of numerics is not at a stage to fully analyze the nonlinear Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The discussion is based on the knowledge gained for nonlinear model problems with known analytical solutions to identify and explain the possible sources and remedies of numerical uncertainties in practical computations. Examples relevant to turbulent flow computations are included.

Origami building blocks: Generic and special four-vertices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waitukaitis, Scott; van Hecke, Martin

2016-02-01

Four rigid panels connected by hinges that meet at a point form a four-vertex, the fundamental building block of origami metamaterials. Most materials designed so far are based on the same four-vertex geometry, and little is known regarding how different geometries affect folding behavior. Here we systematically categorize and analyze the geometries and resulting folding motions of Euclidean four-vertices. Comparing the relative sizes of sector angles, we identify three types of generic vertices and two accompanying subtypes. We determine which folds can fully close and the possible mountain-valley assignments. Next, we consider what occurs when sector angles or sums thereof are set equal, which results in 16 special vertex types. One of these, flat-foldable vertices, has been studied extensively, but we show that a wide variety of qualitatively different folding motions exist for the other 15 special and 3 generic types. Our work establishes a straightforward set of rules for understanding the folding motion of both generic and special four-vertices and serves as a roadmap for designing origami metamaterials.

Origami building blocks: Generic and special four-vertices.

PubMed

Waitukaitis, Scott; van Hecke, Martin

2016-02-01

Four rigid panels connected by hinges that meet at a point form a four-vertex, the fundamental building block of origami metamaterials. Most materials designed so far are based on the same four-vertex geometry, and little is known regarding how different geometries affect folding behavior. Here we systematically categorize and analyze the geometries and resulting folding motions of Euclidean four-vertices. Comparing the relative sizes of sector angles, we identify three types of generic vertices and two accompanying subtypes. We determine which folds can fully close and the possible mountain-valley assignments. Next, we consider what occurs when sector angles or sums thereof are set equal, which results in 16 special vertex types. One of these, flat-foldable vertices, has been studied extensively, but we show that a wide variety of qualitatively different folding motions exist for the other 15 special and 3 generic types. Our work establishes a straightforward set of rules for understanding the folding motion of both generic and special four-vertices and serves as a roadmap for designing origami metamaterials.

The Building Blocks of Digital Media Literacy: Socio-Material Participation and the Production of Media Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dezuanni, Michael

2015-01-01

This article outlines the knowledge and skills students develop when they engage in digital media production and analysis in school settings. The metaphor of "digital building blocks" is used to describe the material practices, conceptual understandings and production of knowledge that lead to the development of digital media literacy.…

Automated Morphological Classification in Deep Hubble Space Telescope UBVI Fields: Rapidly and Passively Evolving Faint Galaxy Populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odewahn, Stephen C.; Windhorst, Rogier A.; Driver, Simon P.; Keel, William C.

1996-11-01

We analyze deep Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) images in U, B, V, I using artificial neural network (ANN) classifiers, which are based on galaxy surface brightness and light profile (but not on color nor on scale length, rhl). The ANN distinguishes quite well between E/S0, Sabc, and Sd/Irr+M galaxies (M for merging systems) for BJ <~ 27 mag. We discuss effects from the cosmological surface brightness (SB) dimming and from the redshifted UV morphology on the classifications, and we correct for the latter. We present classifications in UBVI from (a) four independent human classifiers; (b) ANNs trained on V606 and I814 images; and (c) an ANN trained on images in the rest-frame UBV according to the expected redshift distribution as a function of BJ. For each of the three methods, we find that the fraction of galaxy types does not depend significantly on wavelength, and that they produce consistent counts as a function of type. The median scale length at BJ ~= 27 mag is rhl ~= 0."25--0."3 (1--2 kpc at z ~ 1--2). Early- and late-type galaxies are fairly well separated in BVI color-magnitude diagrams for B <~ 27 mag, with E/S0 galaxies being the reddest and Sd/Irr+M galaxies generally blue. We present the B-band galaxy counts for five WFPC2 fields as a function of morphological type for BJ <~ 27 mag. E/S0 galaxies are only marginally above the no-evolution predictions, and Sabc galaxies are at most 0.5 dex above the nonevolving models for BJ >~ 24 mag. The faint blue galaxy counts in the B band are dominated by Sd/Irr+M galaxies and can be explained by a moderately steep local luminosity function (LF) undergoing strong luminosity evolution. We suggest that these faint late-type objects (24 mag <~ BJ <~ 28 mag) are a combination of low-luminosity lower redshift dwarf galaxies, plus compact star-forming galaxies and merging systems at z ~= 1--3, possibly the building blocks of the luminous early-type galaxies seen today.

Evolutionary paths among different red galaxy types at 0.3 < z < 1.5 and the build-up of massive E-S0's

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallego, Jesús; Prieto, Mercedes; Eliche-Moral, M. Carmen; Balcells, Marc; Cristóbal-Hornillos, David; Erwin, Peter; Abreu, David; Domínguez-Palmero, Lilian; Hempel, Angela; López-Sanjuan, Carlos; Guzmán, Rafael; Pérez-González, Pablo G.; Barro, Guillermo; Zamorano, Jaime

2013-07-01

Some recent observations seem to disagree with hierarchical theories of galaxy formation on the role of major mergers in a late build-up of massive early-type galaxies. We re-address this question by analysing the morphology, structural distortion level, and star formation enhancement of a sample of massive galaxies (M* > 5 × 1010M⊙) lying on the Red Sequence and its surroundings at 0.3 < z < 1.5. We have used an initial sample of ~1800 sources with Ks < 20.5 mag over an area ~155 arcmin2 on the Groth Strip, combining data from the Rainbow Extragalactic Database and the GOYA Survey. Red galaxy classes that can be directly associated to intermediate stages of major mergers and to their final products have been defined. For the first time we report observationally the existence of a dominant evolutionary path among massive red galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.5, consisting in the conversion of irregular disks into irregular spheroids, and of these ones into regular spheroids. This result points to: 1) the massive red regular galaxies at low redshifts derive from the irregular ones populating the Red Sequence and its neighbourhood at earlier epochs up to z ~ 1.5; 2) the progenitors of the bulk of present-day massive red regular galaxies have been blue disks that have migrated to the Red Sequence majoritarily through major mergers at 0.6 < z < 1.2 (these mergers thus starting at z ~ 1.5); 3) the formation of E-S0's that end up with M* > 1011M⊙ at z = 0 through gas-rich major mergers has frozen since z ~ 0.6. Our results support that major mergers have played the dominant role in the definitive build-up of present-day E-S0's with M* > 1011M⊙ at 0.6 < z < 1.2, in good agreement with the hierarchical scenario proposed in the Eliche-Moral et al. (2010a) model (see also Eliche-Moral et al. 2010b). This study is published in Prieto et al. (2012). Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) under projects AYA2009-10368, AYA2006-12955, AYA2010-21887-C04

Conjugated block copolymers: A building block for high-performance organic photovoltaics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Changhe

State-of-the-art organic photovoltaics rely on kinetically trapped, partially phase-separated structures of donor/acceptor mixtures to create a high interfacial area for exciton dissociation and networks of bicontinuous phases for charge transport. Nevertheless, intrinsic structural disorder and weak intermolecular interactions in polymer blends limit the performance and stability of organic electronic devices. We demonstrate a potential strategy to control morphology and donor/acceptor heterojunctions through conjugated block copolymer poly(3-hexylthiophene)- block-poly((9,9-dioctylfluorene)-2,7-diyl-alt-[4,7-bis(thiophen-5-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole]-2',2''-diyl) (P3HT-b-PFTBT). Block copolymers can self-assemble into well-ordered nanostructures ideal for photovoltaic applications. When utilized as the photovoltaic active layer, P3HT-b-PFTBT block copolymer devices demonstrate thermal stability and photoconversion efficiency of 3% well beyond devices composed of the constituent polymer blends. Resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSOXS) is used to elucidate the structural origin for efficient block copolymer photovoltaics. Energy tuning in soft X-ray ranges gives RSOXS chemical sensitivity to characterize organic thin films with compositionally similar phases or complicated multiphase systems. RSOXS reveals that the remarkable performance of P3HT-b-PFTBT devices is due to self-assembly into nanoscale in-plane lamellar morphology, which not only establishes an equilibrium microstructure amenable for exciton dissociation but also provides pathways for efficient charge transport. Furthermore, we find evidence that covalent control of donor/acceptor interfaces in block copolymers has the potential to promote charge separation and optimize the photoconversion process by limiting charge recombination. To visualize the nanostructure in organic thin films, we introduce low energy-loss energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) as an important alternative

The assessment of professional competence: building blocks for theory development.

PubMed

van der Vleuten, C P M; Schuwirth, L W T; Scheele, F; Driessen, E W; Hodges, B

2010-12-01

This article presents lessons learnt from experiences with assessment of professional competence. Based on Miller's pyramid, a distinction is made between established assessment technology for assessing 'knows', 'knowing how' and 'showing how' and more recent developments in the assessment of (clinical) performance at the 'does' level. Some general lessons are derived from research of and experiences with the established assessment technology. Here, many paradoxes are revealed and empirical outcomes are often counterintuitive. Instruments for assessing the 'does' level are classified and described, and additional general lessons for this area of performance assessment are derived. These lessons can also be read as general principles of assessment (programmes) and may provide theoretical building blocks to underpin appropriate and state-of-the-art assessment practices. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nanoporous Gold as a Platform for a Building Block Catalyst

DOE PAGES

Wittstock, Arne; Wichmann, Andre; Baeumer, Marcus

2012-09-25

The porous bulk materials are of great interest in catalysis because they can be employed in heterogeneous gas and liquid phase catalysis, electrocatalysis, and in electrocatalytic sensing. Nanoporous gold gained considerable attraction in this context because it is the prime example of a corrosion-derived nanoporous bulk metal. Moreover, the material was shown to be a very active and selective Au type catalyst for a variety of oxidation reactions. In leveraging the functionalization of the surface of the material with various additives, its catalytic applications can be extended and tuned. In this review, we will summarize recent developments in using nanoporousmore » gold as the platform for the development of high performance catalytic materials by adding metals, metal oxides, and molecular functionalities as building blocks.« less

The Building Blocks for JWST I and T (Integrations and Test) to Operations - From Simulator to Flight Units

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fatig, Curtis; Ochs, William; Johns, Alan; Seaton, Bonita; Adams, Cynthia; Wasiak, Francis; Jones, Ronald; Jackson, Wallace

2012-01-01

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project has an extended integration and test (I&T) phase due to long procurement and development times of various components as well as recent launch delays. The JWST Ground Segment and Operations group has developed a roadmap of the various ground and flight elements and their use in the various JWST I&T test programs. The JWST Project s building block approach to the eventual operational systems, while not new, is complex and challenging; a large-scale mission like JWST involves international partners, many vendors across the United States, and competing needs for the same systems. One of the challenges is resource balancing so simulators and flight products for various elements congeal into integrated systems used for I&T and flight operations activities. This building block approach to an incremental buildup provides for early problem identification with simulators and exercises the flight operations systems, products, and interfaces during the JWST I&T test programs. The JWST Project has completed some early I&T with the simulators, engineering models and some components of the operational ground system. The JWST Project is testing the various flight units as they are delivered and will continue to do so for the entire flight and operational system. The JWST Project has already and will continue to reap the value of the building block approach on the road to launch and flight operations.

Self-assembling peptide-based building blocks in medical applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Acar, Handan; Srivastava, Samanvaya; Chung, Eun Ji

Peptides and peptide-conjugates, comprising natural and synthetic building blocks, are an increasingly popular class of biomaterials. Self-assembled nanostructures based on peptides and peptide-conjugates offer advantages such as precise selectivity and multifunctionality that can address challenges and limitations in the clinic. In this review article, we discuss recent developments in the design and self-assembly of various nanomaterials based on peptides and peptide-conjugates for medical applications, and categorize them into two themes based on the driving forces of molecular self-assembly. First, we present the self-assembled nanostructures driven by the supramolecular interactions between the peptides, with or without the presence of conjugates. Themore » studies where nanoassembly is driven by the interactions between the conjugates of peptide-conjugates are then presented. Particular emphasis is given to in vivo studies focusing on therapeutics, diagnostics, immune modulation and regenerative medicine. Finally, challenges and future perspectives are presented.« less

Aminobenzoates as building blocks for natural product assembly lines.

PubMed

Walsh, Christopher T; Haynes, Stuart W; Ames, Brian D

2012-01-01

The ortho-, meta-, and para- regioisomers of aminobenzoate are building blocks for a wide range of microbial natural products. Both the ortho-isomer (anthranilate) and PABA derive from the central shikimate pathway metabolite chorismate while the meta-isomer is not available by that route and starts from UDP-3-aminoglucose. PABA is largely funnelled into folate biosynthesis while anthranilate is the scaffold for biosynthetic elaboration into many natural heterocycles, most notably with its role in indole formation for tryptophan biosynthesis. Anthranilate is also converted to benzodiazepinones, fumiquinazolines, quinoxalines, phenoxazines, benzoxazolinates, quinolones, and phenazines, often with redox enzyme participation. The 5-hydroxy form of 3-aminobenzaote is the starter unit for ansa-bridged rifamycins, ansamitocins, and geldanamycins, whereas regioisomers 2-hydroxy, 4-hydroxy and 2,4-dihydroxy-3-aminobenzoate are key components of antimycin, grixazone, and platencin and platensimycin biosynthesis, respectively. The enzymatic mechanisms for generation of the aminobenzoate regioisomers and their subsequent utilization for diverse heterocycle and macrocycle construction are examined.

Biophysical properties of dermal building-blocks affects extra cellular matrix assembly in 3D endogenous macrotissue.

PubMed

Urciuolo, F; Garziano, A; Imparato, G; Panzetta, V; Fusco, S; Casale, C; Netti, P A

2016-01-29

The fabrication of functional tissue units is one of the major challenges in tissue engineering due to their in vitro use in tissue-on-chip systems, as well as in modular tissue engineering for the construction of macrotissue analogs. In this work, we aim to engineer dermal tissue micromodules obtained by culturing human dermal fibroblasts into porous gelatine microscaffold. We proved that such stromal cells coupled with gelatine microscaffolds are able to synthesize and to assemble an endogenous extracellular matrix (ECM) resulting in tissue micromodules, which evolve their biophysical features over the time. In particular, we found a time-dependent variation of oxygen consumption kinetic parameters, of newly formed ECM stiffness and of micromodules self-aggregation properties. As consequence when used as building blocks to fabricate larger tissues, the initial tissue micromodules state strongly affects the ECM organization and maturation in the final macrotissue. Such results highlight the role of the micromodules properties in controlling the formation of three-dimensional macrotissue in vitro, defining an innovative design criterion for selecting tissue-building blocks for modular tissue engineering.

A project to unveil the population of Low-Mass Star-Forming Galaxies of the Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallego, Jesus; Rodriguez-Muñoz, Lucía; Tresse, Laurence; Pacifici, Camilla; Charlot, Stéphane; Gil de Paz, Armando; Gomez-Guijarro, Carlos; Villar, Víctor; Barro, Guillermo

2015-08-01

Dwarf galaxies play a key role in galaxy formation and evolution: (1) hierarchical models predict that low-mass systems merged to form massive galaxies (building block paradigm; Dekel & Silk 1986); (2) dwarf systems might have been responsible for the reionization of the Universe (Wyithe & Loeb 2006); (3) theoretical models are particularly sensitive to the density of low-mass systems at diferent redshifts (Mamon et al. 2011), being one of the key science cases for the future E-ELT (Evans et al. 2013). While the history of low-mass dark matter halos is relatively well understood, the formation history of dwarf galaxies is still poorly reproduced by the models due to the distinct evolution of baryonic and dark matter.We present constraints on the star formation histories (SFHs) of a sample of low-mass Star-Forming Galaxies (LMSFGs; 7.3 < log M∗/Mo < 8.0, at 0.3 < zspec < 0.9) selected by photometric stellar mass and apparent magnitude. The SFHs were obtained through the analysis of their spectral energy distributions using a novel approach (Pacifici et al. 2012) that (1) consistently combines photometric (HST and ground-based multi-broadband) and spectroscopic (equivalent widths of emission lines from VLT and GTC spectroscopy) data, and (2) uses physically motivated SFHs with non-uniform variations of the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of time.The median SFH of our LMSFGs appears to form 90% of the median stellar mass inferred for the sample in the ˜0.5-1.8 Gyr immediately preceding the observation. These results suggest a recent stellar mass assembly for dwarf SFGs, consistent with the cosmological downsizing trends. We find similar median SFH timescales for a slightly more massive secondary sample 8.0 < log M∗/Mo < 9.1).This is a pilot study for future surveys on dwarf galaxies at high redshift.

Rotation-invariant convolutional neural networks for galaxy morphology prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dieleman, Sander; Willett, Kyle W.; Dambre, Joni

2015-06-01

Measuring the morphological parameters of galaxies is a key requirement for studying their formation and evolution. Surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have resulted in the availability of very large collections of images, which have permitted population-wide analyses of galaxy morphology. Morphological analysis has traditionally been carried out mostly via visual inspection by trained experts, which is time consuming and does not scale to large (≳104) numbers of images. Although attempts have been made to build automated classification systems, these have not been able to achieve the desired level of accuracy. The Galaxy Zoo project successfully applied a crowdsourcing strategy, inviting online users to classify images by answering a series of questions. Unfortunately, even this approach does not scale well enough to keep up with the increasing availability of galaxy images. We present a deep neural network model for galaxy morphology classification which exploits translational and rotational symmetry. It was developed in the context of the Galaxy Challenge, an international competition to build the best model for morphology classification based on annotated images from the Galaxy Zoo project. For images with high agreement among the Galaxy Zoo participants, our model is able to reproduce their consensus with near-perfect accuracy (>99 per cent) for most questions. Confident model predictions are highly accurate, which makes the model suitable for filtering large collections of images and forwarding challenging images to experts for manual annotation. This approach greatly reduces the experts' workload without affecting accuracy. The application of these algorithms to larger sets of training data will be critical for analysing results from future surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

How Do Galaxies Grow?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2008-08-01

Astronomers have caught multiple massive galaxies in the act of merging about 4 billion years ago. This discovery, made possible by combining the power of the best ground- and space-based telescopes, uniquely supports the favoured theory of how galaxies form. ESO PR Photo 24/08 ESO PR Photo 24/08 Merging Galaxies in Groups How do galaxies form? The most widely accepted answer to this fundamental question is the model of 'hierarchical formation', a step-wise process in which small galaxies merge to build larger ones. One can think of the galaxies forming in a similar way to how streams merge to form rivers, and how these rivers, in turn, merge to form an even larger river. This theoretical model predicts that massive galaxies grow through many merging events in their lifetime. But when did their cosmological growth spurts finish? When did the most massive galaxies get most of their mass? To answer these questions, astronomers study massive galaxies in clusters, the cosmological equivalent of cities filled with galaxies. "Whether the brightest galaxies in clusters grew substantially in the last few billion years is intensely debated. Our observations show that in this time, these galaxies have increased their mass by 50%," says Kim-Vy Tran from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, who led the research. The astronomers made use of a large ensemble of telescopes and instruments, including ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Hubble Space Telescope, to study in great detail galaxies located 4 billion light-years away. These galaxies lie in an extraordinary system made of four galaxy groups that will assemble into a cluster. In particular, the team took images with VIMOS and spectra with FORS2, both instruments on the VLT. From these and other observations, the astronomers could identify a total of 198 galaxies belonging to these four groups. The brightest galaxies in each group contain between 100 and 1000 billion of stars, a property that makes them comparable

POX 186: A Dwarf Galaxy in the Process of Formation?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corbin, Michael R.; Vacca, William D.

2002-12-01

We present deep U-, V-, and I-band images of the ``ultracompact'' blue dwarf galaxy POX 186 obtained with the Planetary Camera 2 of the Hubble Space Telescope. We have also obtained a near-ultraviolet spectrum of the object with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and combine this with a new ground-based optical spectrum. The images confirm the galaxy to be extremely small, with a maximum extent of only 300 pc, a luminosity of ~10-4L*, and an estimated mass of ~107 Msolar. Its morphology is highly asymmetric, with a tail of material on its western side that may be tidal in origin. The U-band image shows this tail to be part of a stream of material in which stars have recently formed. Most of the star formation in the galaxy is, however, concentrated in a central, compact (d~10-15 pc) star cluster. We estimate this cluster to have a total mass of ~105 Msolar, to be forming stars at a rate of less than 0.05 yr-1, and to have a maximum age of a few million years. The outer regions of the galaxy are significantly redder than the cluster, with V-I colors consistent with a population dominated by K and M stars. From our analysis of the optical spectrum we find the galaxy to have a metallicity Z~=0.06 Zsolar and to contain a significant amount of internal dust [E(B-V)~=0.28] both values agree with previous estimates. While these results rule out earlier speculation that POX 186 is a protogalaxy, its morphology, mass, and active star formation suggest that it represents a recent (within ~108 yr) collision between two clumps of stars of subgalactic size (~100 pc). POX 186 may thus be a very small dwarf galaxy that, dynamically speaking, is still in the process of formation. This interpretation is supported by the fact that it resides in a void, so its morphology cannot be explained as the result of an encounter with a more massive galaxy. Clumps of stars this small may represent the building blocks required by hierarchical models of galaxy formation, and these results

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at z < 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rowlands, K.; Wild, V.; Bourne, N.; Bremer, M.; Brough, S.; Driver, S. P.; Hopkins, A. M.; Owers, M. S.; Phillipps, S.; Pimbblet, K.; Sansom, A. E.; Wang, L.; Alpaslan, M.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Colless, M.; Holwerda, B. W.; Taylor, E. N.

2018-01-01

One key problem in astrophysics is understanding how and why galaxies switch off their star formation, building the quiescent population that we observe in the local Universe. From the Galaxy And Mass Assembly and VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph Public Extragalactic Redshift surveys, we use spectroscopic indices to select quiescent and candidate transition galaxies. We identify potentially rapidly transitioning post-starburst (PSB) galaxies and slower transitioning green-valley galaxies. Over the last 8 Gyr, the quiescent population has grown more slowly in number density at high masses ({M}_\\ast >10^{11}{M_{⊙}) than at intermediate masses ({M}_\\ast >10^{10.6}{M_{⊙}). There is evolution in both the PSB and green-valley stellar mass functions, consistent with higher mass galaxies quenching at earlier cosmic times. At intermediate masses ({M}_\\ast >10^{10.6}{M_{⊙}), we find a green-valley transition time-scale of 2.6 Gyr. Alternatively, at z ∼ 0.7, the entire growth rate could be explained by fast-quenching PSB galaxies, with a visibility time-scale of 0.5 Gyr. At lower redshift, the number density of PSBs is so low that an unphysically short visibility window would be required for them to contribute significantly to the quiescent population growth. The importance of the fast-quenching route may rapidly diminish at z < 1. However, at high masses ({M}_\\ast >10^{11}{M_{⊙}), there is tension between the large number of candidate transition galaxies compared to the slow growth of the quiescent population. This could be resolved if not all high-mass PSB and green-valley galaxies are transitioning from star forming to quiescent, for example if they rejuvenate out of the quiescent population following the accretion of gas and triggering of star formation, or if they fail to completely quench their star formation.

Systems thinking in practice: the current status of the six WHO building blocks for health system strengthening in three BHOMA intervention districts of Zambia: a baseline qualitative study.

PubMed

Mutale, Wilbroad; Bond, Virginia; Mwanamwenge, Margaret Tembo; Mlewa, Susan; Balabanova, Dina; Spicer, Neil; Ayles, Helen

2013-08-01

The primary bottleneck to achieving the MDGs in low-income countries is health systems that are too fragile to deliver the volume and quality of services to those in need. Strong and effective health systems are increasingly considered a prerequisite to reducing the disease burden and to achieving the health MDGs. Zambia is one of the countries that are lagging behind in achieving millennium development targets. Several barriers have been identified as hindering the progress towards health related millennium development goals. Designing an intervention that addresses these barriers was crucial and so the Better Health Outcomes through Mentorship (BHOMA) project was designed to address the challenges in the Zambia's MOH using a system wide approach. We applied systems thinking approach to describe the baseline status of the Six WHO building blocks for health system strengthening. A qualitative study was conducted looking at the status of the Six WHO building blocks for health systems strengthening in three BHOMA districts. We conducted Focus group discussions with community members and In-depth Interviews with key informants. Data was analyzed using Nvivo version 9. The study showed that building block specific weaknesses had cross cutting effect in other health system building blocks which is an essential element of systems thinking. Challenges noted in service delivery were linked to human resources, medical supplies, information flow, governance and finance building blocks either directly or indirectly. Several barriers were identified as hindering access to health services by the local communities. These included supply side barriers: Shortage of qualified health workers, bad staff attitude, poor relationships between community and health staff, long waiting time, confidentiality and the gender of health workers. Demand side barriers: Long distance to health facility, cost of transport and cultural practices. Participating communities seemed to lack the capacity

Building merger trees from cosmological N-body simulations. Towards improving galaxy formation models using subhaloes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tweed, D.; Devriendt, J.; Blaizot, J.; Colombi, S.; Slyz, A.

2009-11-01

Context: In the past decade or so, using numerical N-body simulations to describe the gravitational clustering of dark matter (DM) in an expanding universe has become the tool of choice for tackling the issue of hierarchical galaxy formation. As mass resolution increases with the power of supercomputers, one is able to grasp finer and finer details of this process, resolving more and more of the inner structure of collapsed objects. This begs one to revisit time and again the post-processing tools with which one transforms particles into “invisible” dark matter haloes and from thereon into luminous galaxies. Aims: Although a fair amount of work has been devoted to growing Monte-Carlo merger trees that resemble those built from an N-body simulation, comparatively little effort has been invested in quantifying the caveats one necessarily encounters when one extracts trees directly from such a simulation. To somewhat revert the tide, this paper seeks to provide its reader with a comprehensive study of the problems one faces when following this route. Methods: The first step in building merger histories of dark matter haloes and their subhaloes is to identify these structures in each of the time outputs (snapshots) produced by the simulation. Even though we discuss a particular implementation of such an algorithm (called AdaptaHOP) in this paper, we believe that our results do not depend on the exact details of the implementation but instead extend to most if not all (sub)structure finders. To illustrate this point in the appendix we compare AdaptaHOP's results to the standard friend-of-friend (FOF) algorithm, widely utilised in the astrophysical community. We then highlight different ways of building merger histories from AdaptaHOP haloes and subhaloes, contrasting their various advantages and drawbacks. Results: We find that the best approach to (sub)halo merging histories is through an analysis that goes back and forth between identification and tree building

A crown-like heterometallic unit as the building block for a 3D In-Ge-S framework.

PubMed

Han, Xiaohui; Wang, Zhenqing; Xu, Jin; Liu, Dan; Wang, Cheng

2015-12-14

Supertetrahedral clusters are the most common building blocks in constructing Group 13/14/16 microporous metal chalcogenide materials while other types of clusters are yet scarcely explored. Herein, a new crown-like building unit [In3Ge3S16] has been obtained. The units assemble into a 3D framework [C6H14NO]4[In6Ge3S17]·1.5H2O (1) via a dual-connection mode and a SrSi2 (srs)-type topology could be achieved by treating each unit as a tri-connected node.

Environment‐Adaptive Coassembly/Self‐Sorting and Stimulus‐Responsiveness Transfer Based on Cholesterol Building Blocks

PubMed Central

Xing, Pengyao; Tham, Huijun Phoebe; Li, Peizhou; Chen, Hongzhong; Xiang, Huijing

2017-01-01

Abstract Manipulating the property transfer in nanosystems is a challenging task since it requires switchable molecular packing such as separate aggregation (self‐sorting) or synergistic aggregation (coassembly). Herein, a unique manipulation of self‐sorting/coassembly aggregation and the observation of switchable stimulus‐responsiveness transfer in a two component self‐assembly system are reported. Two building blocks bearing the same cholesterol group give versatile topological structures in polar and nonpolar solvents. One building block (cholesterol conjugated cynanostilbene, CCS) consists of cholesterol conjugated with a cynanostilbene unit, and the other one (C10CN) is comprised of cholesterol connected with a naphthalimide group having a flexible long alkyl chain. Their assemblies including gel, crystalline plates, and vesicles are obtained. In gel and crystalline plate phases, the self‐sorting behavior dominates, while synergistic coassembly occurs in vesicle phase. Since CCS having the cyanostilbene group can respond to the light irradiation, it undergoes light‐induced chiral amplification. C10CN is thermally responsive, whereby its supramolecular chirality is inversed upon heating. In coassembled vesicles, it is interestingly observed that their responsiveness can be transferred by each other, i.e., the C10CN segment is sensitive to the light irradiation, while CCS is thermoresponsive. This unprecedented behavior of the property transfer may shine a light to the precise fabrication of smart materials. PMID:29375976

Search for water and life's building blocks in the Universe: An Introduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kwok, Sun

Water and organics are commonly believed to be the essential ingredients for life on Earth. The development of infrared and submillimeter observational techniques has resulted in the detection of water in circumstellar envelopes, interstellar clouds, comets, asteroids, planetary satellites and the Sun. Complex organics have also been found in stellar ejecta, diffuse and molecular clouds, meteorites, interplanetary dust particles, comets and planetary satellites. In this Focus Meeting, we will discuss the origin, distribution, and detection of water and other life's building blocks both inside and outside of the Solar System. The possibility of extraterrestrial organics and water on the origin of life on Earth will also be discussed.

The Chemical Evolution of the Bootes I Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frebel, Anna; Norris, John E.; Gilmore, Gerard; Wyse, Rosemary F. G.

2016-08-01

We present chemical abundance measurements of two metal-poor red giant stars in the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Boötes I, based on Magellan/MIKE high-resolution spectra. For Boo-980, with {{[Fe/H]}}=-3.1, we present the first elemental abundance measurements, while Boo-127, with {{[Fe/H]}}=-2.0, shows abundances in good agreement with previous measurements. Light and iron-peak element abundance ratios in the two Boötes I stars, as well as those of most other Boötes I members, collected from the literature, closely resemble those of regular metal-poor halo stars. Neutron-capture element abundances Sr and Ba are systematically lower than the main halo trend and also show a significant abundance spread. Overall, this is similar to what has been found for other ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. We apply corrections to the carbon abundances (commensurate with stellar evolutionary status) of the entire sample and find 21% of stars to be carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars, compared to 13% without using the carbon correction. We reassess the metallicity distribution functions for the CEMP stars and non-CEMP stars, and confirm earlier claims that CEMP stars might belong to a different, earlier population. Applying a set of abundance criteria to test to what extent Boötes I could be a surviving first galaxy suggests that it is one of the earliest assembled systems that perhaps received gas from accretion from other clouds in the system, or from swallowing a first galaxy or building block type object. This resulted in the two stellar populations observable today. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

Interactions of galaxies outside clusters and massive groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yadav, Jaswant K.; Chen, Xuelei

2018-06-01

We investigate the dependence of physical properties of galaxies on small- and large-scale density environment. The galaxy population consists of mainly passively evolving galaxies in comparatively low-density regions of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We adopt (i) local density, ρ _{20}, derived using adaptive smoothing kernel, (ii) projected distance, r_p, to the nearest neighbor galaxy and (iii) the morphology of the nearest neighbor galaxy as various definitions of environment parameters of every galaxy in our sample. In order to detect long-range interaction effects, we group galaxy interactions into four cases depending on morphology of the target and neighbor galaxies. This study builds upon an earlier study by Park and Choi (2009) by including improved definitions of target and neighbor galaxies, thus enabling us to better understand the effect of "the nearest neighbor" interaction on the galaxy. We report that the impact of interaction on galaxy properties is detectable at least up to the pair separation corresponding to the virial radius of (the neighbor) galaxies. This turns out to be mostly between 210 and 360 h^{-1}kpc for galaxies included in our study. We report that early type fraction for isolated galaxies with r_p > r_{vir,nei} is almost ignorant of the background density and has a very weak density dependence for closed pairs. Star formation activity of a galaxy is found to be crucially dependent on neighbor galaxy morphology. We find star formation activity parameters and structure parameters of galaxies to be independent of the large-scale background density. We also exhibit that changing the absolute magnitude of the neighbor galaxies does not affect significantly the star formation activity of those target galaxies whose morphology and luminosities are fixed.

Biopolymers Containing Unnatural Building Blocks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schultz, Peter G.

2013-06-30

Although the main chain structure of polymers has a profound effect on their materials properties, the side groups can also have dramatic effects on their properties including conductivity, liquid crystallinity, hydrophobicity, elasticity and biodegradability. Unfortunately control over the side chain structure of polymers remains a challenge – it is difficult to control the sequence of chain elongation when mixtures of monomers are polymerized, and postpolymerization side chain modification is made difficult by polymer effects on side chain reactivity. In contrast, the mRNA templated synthesis of polypeptides on the ribosome affords absolute control over the primary sequence of the twenty aminomore » acid monomers. Moreover, the length of the biopolymer is precisely controlled as are sites of crosslinking. However, whereas synthetic polymers can be synthesized from monomers with a wide range of chemically defined structures, ribosomal biosynthesis is largely limited to the 20 canonical amino acids. For many applications in material sciences, additional building blocks would be desirable, for example, amino acids containing metallocene, photoactive, and halogenated side chains. To overcome this natural constraint we have developed a method that allows unnatural amino acids, beyond the common twenty, to be genetically encoded in response to nonsense or frameshift codons in bacteria, yeast and mammalian cells with high fidelity and good yields. Here we have developed methods that allow identical or distinct noncanonical amino acids to be incorporated at multiple sites in a polypeptide chain, potentially leading to a new class of templated biopolymers. We have also developed improved methods for genetically encoding unnatural amino acids. In addition, we have genetically encoded new amino acids with novel physical and chemical properties that allow selective modification of proteins with synthetic agents. Finally, we have evolved new metal-ion binding sites in

HUBBLE'S ULTRAVIOLET VIEWS OF NEARBY GALAXIES YIELD CLUES TO EARLY UNIVERSE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

, NGC 3310, shows young and old stars evenly distributed. If this were the case with most galaxies, astronomers would be able to recognize faraway galaxies fairly easily. In most galaxies, however, the stars are segregated by age, making classifying the distant ones more difficult. NGC 3310 is 46 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. The image was taken Sept. 12-13, 2000. The middle image is an example of a tiny, youthful spiral galaxy. ESO 418-008 is representative of the myriad of dwarf galaxies astronomers have seen in deep surveys. These galaxies are much smaller than typical ones like our Milky Way. In this galaxy, the population of stars is more strongly segregated by age. The older stars [red] reside in the center; the younger [blue], in the developing spiral arms. These small, young galaxies may be the building blocks of galaxy formation. ESO 418-008 is 56 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Fornax. The image was taken Oct. 10, 2000. The picture at right shows a cosmic collision between two galaxies, UGC 06471 and UGC 06472. These collisions occurred frequently in the early universe, producing galaxies of unusual shapes. The Hubble telescope has spied many such galaxies in the deep field surveys. The ultraviolet images of this galaxy merger suggest the presence of large amounts of dust, which were produced by massive stars that formed before or during this dramatic collision. This dust reddens the starlight in many places, just like a dusty atmosphere reddens the sunset. Studying the effects of this nearby collision could help astronomers explain the peculiar shapes seen in some of the distant galaxies. UGC 06471 and UGC 06472 are 145 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. The image was taken July 11, 2000. Photo credits: NASA, Rogier Windhorst (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ), and the Hubble mid-UV team

Hydrotalcite catalysis for the synthesis of new chiral building blocks.

PubMed

Rodilla, Jesus M; Neves, Patricia P; Pombal, Sofia; Rives, Vicente; Trujillano, Raquel; Díez, David

2016-01-01

The use of hydrotalcites for the synthesis of two chiral building blocks in a simple way is described as a new and green methodology. The synthesis of these compounds implies a regioselective Baeyer-Villiger reaction in a very selective way with ulterior opening and lactonisation. This methodology should be considered green for the use of hydrogen peroxide as the only oxidant and hydrotalcites as the catalyst, and because no residues are produced apart from water. The procedure is very adequate for using in gram scale, in order to increase the value of the obtained compounds. The conditions are excellent and can be applied for nonstable compounds, as they are very mild. The synthesised compounds are magnific starting materials for the synthesis of biologically active or natural compounds. The use of a cheap, commercial and chiral compound as carvone disposable in both enantiomeric forms adds an extra value to this methodology.

C–H arylation of unsubstituted furan and thiophene with acceptor bromides: access to donor–acceptor–donor-type building blocks for organic electronics.

PubMed

Matsidik, Rukiya; Martin, Johannes; Schmidt, Simon; Obermayer, Johannes; Lombeck, Florian; Nübling, Fritz; Komber, Hartmut; Fazzi, Daniele; Sommer, Michael

2015-01-16

Pd-catalyzed direct arylation (DA) reaction conditions have been established for unsubstituted furan (Fu) and thiophene (Th) with three popular acceptor building blocks to be used in materials for organic electronics, namely 4,7-dibromo-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTBr2), N,N′-dialkylated 2,6-dibromonaphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide) (NDIBr2), and 1,4-dibromotetrafluorobenzene (F4Br2). Reactions with BTBr2, F4Br2, and NDIBr2 require different solvents to obtain high yields. The use of dimethylacetamide (DMAc) is essential for the successful coupling of BTBr2 and F4Br2, but detrimental for NDIBr2, as the electron-deficient NDI core is prone to nucleophilic core substitution in DMAc as solvent but not in toluene. NDIFu2 is much more planar compared to NDITh2, resulting in an enhanced charge-transfer character, which makes it an interesting building block for conjugated systems designed for organic electronics. This study highlights direct arylation as a simple and inexpensive method to construct a series of important donor–acceptor–donor building blocks to be further used for the preparation of a variety of conjugated materials.

Intrinsic Folding Proclivities in Cyclic β-Peptide Building Blocks: Configuration and Heteroatom Effects Analyzed by Conformer-Selective Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemistry.

PubMed

Alauddin, Mohammad; Gloaguen, Eric; Brenner, Valérie; Tardivel, Benjamin; Mons, Michel; Zehnacker-Rentien, Anne; Declerck, Valérie; Aitken, David J

2015-11-09

This work describes the use of conformer-selective laser spectroscopy following supersonic expansion to probe the local folding proclivities of four-membered ring cyclic β-amino acid building blocks. Emphasis is placed on stereochemical effects as well as on the structural changes induced by the replacement of a carbon atom of the cycle by a nitrogen atom. The amide A IR spectra are obtained and interpreted with the help of quantum chemistry structure calculations. Results provide evidence that the building block with a trans-substituted cyclobutane ring has a predilection to form strong C8 hydrogen bonds. Nitrogen-atom substitution in the ring induces the formation of the hydrazino turn, with a related but distinct hydrogen-bonding network: the structure is best viewed as a bifurcated C8/C5 bond with the N heteroatom lone electron pair playing a significant acceptor role, which supports recent observations on the hydrazino turn structure in solution. Surprisingly, this study shows that the cis-substituted cyclobutane ring derivative also gives rise predominantly to a C8 hydrogen bond, although weaker than in the two former cases, a feature that is not often encountered for this building block. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Systems thinking in practice: the current status of the six WHO building blocks for health system strengthening in three BHOMA intervention districts of Zambia: a baseline qualitative study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The primary bottleneck to achieving the MDGs in low-income countries is health systems that are too fragile to deliver the volume and quality of services to those in need. Strong and effective health systems are increasingly considered a prerequisite to reducing the disease burden and to achieving the health MDGs. Zambia is one of the countries that are lagging behind in achieving millennium development targets. Several barriers have been identified as hindering the progress towards health related millennium development goals. Designing an intervention that addresses these barriers was crucial and so the Better Health Outcomes through Mentorship (BHOMA) project was designed to address the challenges in the Zambia’s MOH using a system wide approach. We applied systems thinking approach to describe the baseline status of the Six WHO building blocks for health system strengthening. Methods A qualitative study was conducted looking at the status of the Six WHO building blocks for health systems strengthening in three BHOMA districts. We conducted Focus group discussions with community members and In-depth Interviews with key informants. Data was analyzed using Nvivo version 9. Results The study showed that building block specific weaknesses had cross cutting effect in other health system building blocks which is an essential element of systems thinking. Challenges noted in service delivery were linked to human resources, medical supplies, information flow, governance and finance building blocks either directly or indirectly. Several barriers were identified as hindering access to health services by the local communities. These included supply side barriers: Shortage of qualified health workers, bad staff attitude, poor relationships between community and health staff, long waiting time, confidentiality and the gender of health workers. Demand side barriers: Long distance to health facility, cost of transport and cultural practices. Participating

Building Blocks of Contemporary HRD Research: A Citation Analysis on Human Resource Development Quarterly between 2007 and 2013

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mehdiabadi, Amir Hedayati; Seo, Gaeun; Huang, Wenhao David; Han, Seung-hyun Caleb

2017-01-01

Human resource development is known to encapsulate a collection of social science disciplines including communications, psychology, and economics. Since these and other similar areas are the cornerstones of HRD, the changing nature of HRD demands constant reflections on the value and building blocks of contemporary HRD inquiries. This article…

SiC Multi-Chip Power Modules as Power-System Building Blocks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lostetter, Alexander; Franks, Steven

2007-01-01

The term "SiC MCPMs" (wherein "MCPM" signifies "multi-chip power module") denotes electronic power-supply modules containing multiple silicon carbide power devices and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) control integrated-circuit chips. SiC MCPMs are being developed as building blocks of advanced expandable, reconfigurable, fault-tolerant power-supply systems. Exploiting the ability of SiC semiconductor devices to operate at temperatures, breakdown voltages, and current densities significantly greater than those of conventional Si devices, the designs of SiC MCPMs and of systems comprising multiple SiC MCPMs are expected to afford a greater degree of miniaturization through stacking of modules with reduced requirements for heat sinking. Moreover, the higher-temperature capabilities of SiC MCPMs could enable operation in environments hotter than Si-based power systems can withstand. The stacked SiC MCPMs in a given system can be electrically connected in series, parallel, or a series/parallel combination to increase the overall power-handling capability of the system. In addition to power connections, the modules have communication connections. The SOI controllers in the modules communicate with each other as nodes of a decentralized control network, in which no single controller exerts overall command of the system. Control functions effected via the network include synchronization of switching of power devices and rapid reconfiguration of power connections to enable the power system to continue to supply power to a load in the event of failure of one of the modules. In addition to serving as building blocks of reliable power-supply systems, SiC MCPMs could be augmented with external control circuitry to make them perform additional power-handling functions as needed for specific applications: typical functions could include regulating voltages, storing energy, and driving motors. Because identical SiC MCPM building blocks could be utilized in a variety of ways, the cost

Nanobiotechnology with S-layer proteins as building blocks.

PubMed

Sleytr, Uwe B; Schuster, Bernhard; Egelseer, Eva M; Pum, Dietmar; Horejs, Christine M; Tscheliessnig, Rupert; Ilk, Nicola

2011-01-01

One of the key challenges in nanobiotechnology is the utilization of self- assembly systems, wherein molecules spontaneously associate into reproducible aggregates and supramolecular structures. In this contribution, we describe the basic principles of crystalline bacterial surface layers (S-layers) and their use as patterning elements. The broad application potential of S-layers in nanobiotechnology is based on the specific intrinsic features of the monomolecular arrays composed of identical protein or glycoprotein subunits. Most important, physicochemical properties and functional groups on the protein lattice are arranged in well-defined positions and orientations. Many applications of S-layers depend on the capability of isolated subunits to recrystallize into monomolecular arrays in suspension or on suitable surfaces (e.g., polymers, metals, silicon wafers) or interfaces (e.g., lipid films, liposomes, emulsomes). S-layers also represent a unique structural basis and patterning element for generating more complex supramolecular structures involving all major classes of biological molecules (e.g., proteins, lipids, glycans, nucleic acids, or combinations of these). Thus, S-layers fulfill key requirements as building blocks for the production of new supramolecular materials and nanoscale devices as required in molecular nanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, biomimetics, and synthetic biology. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Evolution of Dwarf-Irregular Galaxy NGC 1569: A Kinematic Study of the Stars and Gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Megan C.

2011-12-01

The evolution and formation of dwarf galaxies has great importance to our knowledge of cosmological history from the Big Bang through the present day structure we observe in our local universe. Dwarf galaxies are believed to be the "building blocks" of larger galaxies, which implies that interactions and mergers of these small systems must have occurred frequently in the early universe. There is a population of starburst dwarf irregular (dIm) galaxies that seem to have characteristics indicative of interactions or mergers. One of these dIm galaxies is the nearby post-starburst NGC 1569. This dissertation project explores the stellar and gas kinematics of NGC 1569 as well as examines a deep neutral Hydrogen (HI) map made using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). From these observations, this dissertation analyzes the evolution of NGC 1569 by understanding the three-dimensional shape of this dIm system for the first time. The structure of dIm galaxies is an important fundamental, physical property necessary to understand the evolution and formation of these common systems. However, the intrinsic shape of dIm galaxies remains controversial. Projected minor-to-major axis ratios provide insufficient data to determine the shapes of dIm galaxies. Fortunately, there is another method by which accurate structures can be measured. The stellar velocity dispersion, coupled with the maximum rotational velocity derived from HI observations, gives a measure of how kinematically hot a system is, and, therefore, indicates its structure. In this dissertation, we present the stellar kinematics, including the stellar velocity dispersion, of NGC 1569 obtained using the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) Mayall 4-m+Echelle spectrograph. These data are combined with an in depth analysis of high resolution HI data and a discussion of the nature of this starburst dwarf system. The dissertation concludes with a deep HI map of NGC 1569 and three of its nearest neighbors in the

Galaxy bias from the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data: combining galaxy density maps and weak lensing maps

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chang, C.; Pujol, A.; Gaztañaga, E.

We measure the redshift evolution of galaxy bias from a magnitude-limited galaxy sample by combining the galaxy density maps and weak lensing shear maps for amore » $$\\sim$$116 deg$$^{2}$$ area of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification data. This method was first developed in Amara et al. (2012) and later re-examined in a companion paper (Pujol et al., in prep) with rigorous simulation tests and analytical treatment of tomographic measurements. In this work we apply this method to the DES SV data and measure the galaxy bias for a magnitude-limited galaxy sample. We find the galaxy bias and 1$$\\sigma$$ error bars in 4 photometric redshift bins to be 1.33$$\\pm$$0.18 (z=0.2-0.4), 1.19$$\\pm$$0.23 (z=0.4-0.6), 0.99$$\\pm$$0.36 ( z=0.6-0.8), and 1.66$$\\pm$$0.56 (z=0.8-1.0). These measurements are consistent at the 1-2$$\\sigma$$ level with mea- surements on the same dataset using galaxy clustering and cross-correlation of galaxies with CMB lensing. In addition, our method provides the only $$\\sigma_8$$-independent constraint among the three. We forward-model the main observational effects using mock galaxy catalogs by including shape noise, photo-z errors and masking effects. We show that our bias measurement from the data is consistent with that expected from simulations. With the forthcoming full DES data set, we expect this method to provide additional constraints on the galaxy bias measurement from more traditional methods. Furthermore, in the process of our measurement, we build up a 3D mass map that allows further exploration of the dark matter distribution and its relation to galaxy evolution.« less

Galaxy bias from the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data: Combining galaxy density maps and weak lensing maps

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chang, C.; Pujol, A.; Gaztañaga, E.

We measure the redshift evolution of galaxy bias for a magnitude-limited galaxy sample by combining the galaxy density maps and weak lensing shear maps for a ~116 deg 2 area of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification (SV) data. This method was first developed in Amara et al. and later re-examined in a companion paper with rigorous simulation tests and analytical treatment of tomographic measurements. In this work we apply this method to the DES SV data and measure the galaxy bias for a i < 22.5 galaxy sample. We find the galaxy bias and 1σ error bars inmore » four photometric redshift bins to be 1.12 ± 0.19 (z = 0.2–0.4), 0.97 ± 0.15 (z = 0.4–0.6), 1.38 ± 0.39 (z = 0.6–0.8), and 1.45 ± 0.56 (z = 0.8–1.0). These measurements are consistent at the 2σ level with measurements on the same data set using galaxy clustering and cross-correlation of galaxies with cosmic microwave background lensing, with most of the redshift bins consistent within the 1σ error bars. In addition, our method provides the only σ8 independent constraint among the three. We forward model the main observational effects using mock galaxy catalogues by including shape noise, photo-z errors, and masking effects. We show that our bias measurement from the data is consistent with that expected from simulations. With the forthcoming full DES data set, we expect this method to provide additional constraints on the galaxy bias measurement from more traditional methods. Moreover, in the process of our measurement, we build up a 3D mass map that allows further exploration of the dark matter distribution and its relation to galaxy evolution.« less

Galaxy bias from the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data: Combining galaxy density maps and weak lensing maps

DOE PAGES

Chang, C.; Pujol, A.; Gaztañaga, E.; ...

2016-04-15

We measure the redshift evolution of galaxy bias for a magnitude-limited galaxy sample by combining the galaxy density maps and weak lensing shear maps for a ~116 deg 2 area of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification (SV) data. This method was first developed in Amara et al. and later re-examined in a companion paper with rigorous simulation tests and analytical treatment of tomographic measurements. In this work we apply this method to the DES SV data and measure the galaxy bias for a i < 22.5 galaxy sample. We find the galaxy bias and 1σ error bars inmore » four photometric redshift bins to be 1.12 ± 0.19 (z = 0.2–0.4), 0.97 ± 0.15 (z = 0.4–0.6), 1.38 ± 0.39 (z = 0.6–0.8), and 1.45 ± 0.56 (z = 0.8–1.0). These measurements are consistent at the 2σ level with measurements on the same data set using galaxy clustering and cross-correlation of galaxies with cosmic microwave background lensing, with most of the redshift bins consistent within the 1σ error bars. In addition, our method provides the only σ8 independent constraint among the three. We forward model the main observational effects using mock galaxy catalogues by including shape noise, photo-z errors, and masking effects. We show that our bias measurement from the data is consistent with that expected from simulations. With the forthcoming full DES data set, we expect this method to provide additional constraints on the galaxy bias measurement from more traditional methods. Moreover, in the process of our measurement, we build up a 3D mass map that allows further exploration of the dark matter distribution and its relation to galaxy evolution.« less

Designer amphiphilic proteins as building blocks for the intracellular formation of organelle-like compartments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huber, Matthias C.; Schreiber, Andreas; von Olshausen, Philipp; Varga, Balázs R.; Kretz, Oliver; Joch, Barbara; Barnert, Sabine; Schubert, Rolf; Eimer, Stefan; Kele, Péter; Schiller, Stefan M.

2015-01-01

Nanoscale biological materials formed by the assembly of defined block-domain proteins control the formation of cellular compartments such as organelles. Here, we introduce an approach to intentionally ‘program’ the de novo synthesis and self-assembly of genetically encoded amphiphilic proteins to form cellular compartments, or organelles, in Escherichia coli. These proteins serve as building blocks for the formation of artificial compartments in vivo in a similar way to lipid-based organelles. We investigated the formation of these organelles using epifluorescence microscopy, total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The in vivo modification of these protein-based de novo organelles, by means of site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids, allows the introduction of artificial chemical functionalities. Co-localization of membrane proteins results in the formation of functionalized artificial organelles combining artificial and natural cellular function. Adding these protein structures to the cellular machinery may have consequences in nanobiotechnology, synthetic biology and materials science, including the constitution of artificial cells and bio-based metamaterials.

Shocked POststarbust Galaxy Survey. I. Candidate Post-starbust Galaxies with Emission Line Ratios Consistent with Shocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alatalo, Katherine; Cales, Sabrina L.; Rich, Jeffrey A.; Appleton, Philip N.; Kewley, Lisa J.; Lacy, Mark; Lanz, Lauranne; Medling, Anne M.; Nyland, Kristina

2016-06-01

SPOGs* further, including their morphologies, AGN properties, and environments, has the potential for us to build a more complete picture of the initial conditions that can lead to a galaxy evolving.

Equivalence of the EMD- and NEMD-based decomposition of thermal conductivity into microscopic building blocks.

PubMed

Matsubara, Hiroki; Kikugawa, Gota; Ishikiriyama, Mamoru; Yamashita, Seiji; Ohara, Taku

2017-09-21

Thermal conductivity of a material can be comprehended as being composed of microscopic building blocks relevant to the energy transfer due to a specific microscopic process or structure. The building block is called the partial thermal conductivity (PTC). The concept of PTC is essential to evaluate the contributions of various molecular mechanisms to heat conduction and has been providing detailed knowledge of the contribution. The PTC can be evaluated by equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) in different manners: the EMD evaluation utilizes the autocorrelation of spontaneous heat fluxes in an equilibrium state whereas the NEMD one is based on stationary heat fluxes in a non-equilibrium state. However, it has not been fully discussed whether the two methods give the same PTC or not. In the present study, we formulate a Green-Kubo relation, which is necessary for EMD to calculate the PTCs equivalent to those by NEMD. Unlike the existing theories, our formulation is based on the local equilibrium hypothesis to describe a clear connection between EMD and NEMD simulations. The equivalence of the two derivations of PTCs is confirmed by the numerical results for liquid methane and butane. The present establishment of the EMD-NEMD correspondence makes the MD analysis of PTCs a robust way to clarify the microscopic origins of thermal conductivity.

Formation of the first galaxies under Population III stellar feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeon, Myoungwon

2015-01-01

The first galaxies, which formed a few hundred million years after the big bang, are related to important cosmological questions. Given thatthey are thought to be the basic building blocks of large galaxies seen today, understanding their formation and properties is essentialto studying galaxy formation as a whole. In this dissertation talk, I will present the results of our highly-resolved cosmological ab-initio simulations to understand the assembly process of first galaxies under the feedback from the preceding generations of first stars, the so-called Population III (Pop III). The first stars formed at z≲30 in dark matter (DM) minihalos with M_{vir}=10^5-10^6Msun, predominately via molecular hydrogen (H_2) cooling. Radiation from Pop III stars dramatically altered the gas within their host minihalos, through photoionization, photoheating, and photoevaporation. Once a Pop III star explodes as a supernova (SN), heavy elements are dispersed, enriching the interstellar (ISM) and intergalactic medium (IGM), thus initiating the process of chemical evolution. I will begin by presenting how the SN explosion of the first stars influences early cosmic history, specifically assessing the time delay in further star formation and tracing the evolution of metal-enriched gas until the second episode star formation happens. These results will show the role of Pop III supernovae on the star formation transition from Pop III to Population II. Additionally, the more distant, diffuse IGM was heated by X-rays emitted by accreting black holes (BHs), or high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), both remnants of Pop III stars. I will present results of a series of simulations where we study the impact of X-ray feedback from BHs and HMXBs on the star formation history in the early universe, and discuss the resulting implications on reionization. I will also present the role of X-rays on the early BH growth, providing constraints on models for supermassive black hole formation. Finally, I

Building blocks for the development of an interface for high-throughput thin layer chromatography/ambient mass spectrometric analysis: a green methodology.

PubMed

Cheng, Sy-Chyi; Huang, Min-Zong; Wu, Li-Chieh; Chou, Chih-Chiang; Cheng, Chu-Nian; Jhang, Siou-Sian; Shiea, Jentaie

2012-07-17

Interfacing thin layer chromatography (TLC) with ambient mass spectrometry (AMS) has been an important area of analytical chemistry because of its capability to rapidly separate and characterize the chemical compounds. In this study, we have developed a high-throughput TLC-AMS system using building blocks to deal, deliver, and collect the TLC plate through an electrospray-assisted laser desorption ionization (ELDI) source. This is the first demonstration of the use of building blocks to construct and test the TLC-MS interfacing system. With the advantages of being readily available, cheap, reusable, and extremely easy to modify without consuming any material or reagent, the use of building blocks to develop the TLC-AMS interface is undoubtedly a green methodology. The TLC plate delivery system consists of a storage box, plate dealing component, conveyer, light sensor, and plate collecting box. During a TLC-AMS analysis, the TLC plate was sent to the conveyer from a stack of TLC plates placed in the storage box. As the TLC plate passed through the ELDI source, the chemical compounds separated on the plate would be desorbed by laser desorption and subsequently postionized by electrospray ionization. The samples, including a mixture of synthetic dyes and extracts of pharmaceutical drugs, were analyzed to demonstrate the capability of this TLC-ELDI/MS system for high-throughput analysis.

Dusty Sunrise at Core of Galaxy Artist Concept

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-05-21

This artist's concept depicts the current record holder for the most luminous galaxy in the universe. The galaxy, named WISE J224607.57-052635.0, is erupting with light equal to more than 300 trillion suns. It was discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The galaxy is smaller than the Milky Way, yet puts out 10,000 times more energy. Scientists think that a supermassive black hole at the center of this dusty galaxy is busily consuming gaseous material in a colossal growth spurt. As the gas is dragged toward the black hole, it heats up and blasts out visible, ultraviolet and X-ray light. The dust swaddling the galaxy absorbs this light and heats up, radiating longer-wavelength, infrared light. The dust also blocks our view of shorter, visible-light wavelengths, while letting longer-wavelengths through. This is similar to what happens when sunlight streams through our dusty atmosphere, producing a brilliant red sunrise. In fact, more than 99 percent of the light escaping from this dusty galaxy is infrared. As a result, it is much harder to see with optical telescopes. Because light from the galaxy hosting the black hole has traveled 12.5 billion years to reach us, astronomers are seeing the object as it was in the distant past. During this epoch, galaxies would have been more than five times closer together than they are now, as illustrated in the background of the artist's concept. This is due to the expansion of space -- space itself and the galaxies in it are stretching apart from each other at ever-increasing speeds. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19339

Revealing the Formation Mechanism of Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garmire, Gordon

2017-09-01

Recently a population of large, very low optical surface brightness galaxies, so called ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), were discovered in the outskirts of Coma clusters. Stellar line-of-sight velocity dispersions suggest large dark matter halo masses of 10^12 M_sun with very low baryon fractions ( 1%). The outstanding question waiting to be answered is: How do UDGs form and evolve? One theory is that UDGs are related to bright galaxies, however they are prevented from building a normal stellar population through various violent processes, such as gas stripping. We propose to observe Dragonfly 44, the most massive UDG known, for 100 ks with ACIS-I to test some of the formation theories.

Methylidynetrisphosphonates: Promising C1 building block for the design of phosphate mimetics

PubMed Central

Romanenko, Vadim D

2013-01-01

Summary Methylidynetrisphosphonates are representatives of geminal polyphosphonates bearing three phosphonate (PO3H2) groups at the bridged carbon atom. Like well-known methylenebisphosphonates (BPs), they are characterized by a P–C–P backbone structure and are chemically stable mimetics of the endogenous metabolites, i.e., inorganic pyrophosphates (PPi). Because of its analogy to PPi and an ability to chelate metal ions, the 1,1,1-trisphosphonate structure is of great potential as a C1 building block for the design of phosphate mimetics. The purpose of this review is to present a concise summary of the state of the art in trisphosphonate chemistry with particular emphasis on the synthesis, structure, reactions, and potential medicinal applications of these compounds. PMID:23766816

RR Lyrae Variables in M31 and its satellites: an analysis of the galaxy's population

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanakul, Nahathai; Sarajedini, Ata

2018-05-01

We present an analysis of M31 RR Lyrae stars in 6 different fields using archival imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope. Published data for M31, M33, and several M31 dwarf spheroidal galaxies are also used to study the global properties of RR Lyrae in these systems. From the properties of RR Lyrae stars, we found that the majority of M31 and M33 RRLs are of OoI while those in M31 dSphs are of Oosterhoff intermediate. The main parameter affecting these Oosterhoff types is likely to be metallicity. Metallicity also play a role in the lack of RRLs in the High Amplitude Short Period (HASP ,defined as those with P ≲ 0.48 and AV ≥ 0.75mag) variables in M31 dSphs. This difference in the properties of RRLs between their parent galaxy and satellites, as well as the lack of RRLs in the HASP region in dSphs can also be observed in the Milky Way. Therefore, systems like these dSphs are unlikely to be the main building blocks of the M31 and Milky Way halo.

Total synthesis of a CD-ring: side-chain building block for preparing 17-epi-calcitriol derivatives from the Hajos-Parrish dione.

PubMed

Michalak, Karol; Wicha, Jerzy

2011-08-19

An efficient synthesis of the key building block for 17-epi-calctriol from the Hajos-Parrish dione involving a sequence of diastereoselective transformation of the azulene core and the side-chain construction is presented.

Systematic approach to in-depth understanding of photoelectrocatalytic bacterial inactivation mechanisms by tracking the decomposed building blocks.

PubMed

Sun, Hongwei; Li, Guiying; Nie, Xin; Shi, Huixian; Wong, Po-Keung; Zhao, Huijun; An, Taicheng

2014-08-19

A systematic approach was developed to understand, in-depth, the mechanisms involved during the inactivation of bacterial cells using photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) processes with Escherichia coli K-12 as the model microorganism. The bacterial cells were found to be inactivated and decomposed primarily due to attack from photogenerated H2O2. Extracellular reactive oxygen species (ROSs), such as H2O2, may penetrate into the bacterial cell and cause dramatically elevated intracellular ROSs levels, which would overwhelm the antioxidative capacity of bacterial protective enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and catalase. The activities of these two enzymes were found to decrease due to the ROSs attacks during PEC inactivation. Bacterial cell wall damage was then observed, including loss of cell membrane integrity and increased permeability, followed by the decomposition of cell envelope (demonstrated by scanning electronic microscope images). One of the bacterial building blocks, protein, was found to be oxidatively damaged due to the ROSs attacks, as well. Leakage of cytoplasm and biomolecules (bacterial building blocks such as proteins and nucleic acids) were evident during prolonged PEC inactivation process. The leaked cytoplasmic substances and cell debris could be further degraded and, ultimately, mineralized with prolonged PEC treatment.

Galaxy evolution spectroscopic explorer: scientific rationale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heap, Sara; Ninkov, Zoran; Robberto, Massimo; Hull, Tony; Purves, Lloyd

2016-07-01

GESE is a mission concept consisting of a 1.5-m space telescope and UV multi-object slit spectrograph designed to help understand galaxy evolution in a critical era in the history of the universe, where the rate of star-formation stopped increasing and started to decline. To isolate and identify the various processes driving the evolution of these galaxies, GESE will obtain rest-frame far-UV spectra of 100,000 galaxies at redshifts, z 1-2. To obtain such a large number of spectra, multiplexing over a wide field is an absolute necessity. A slit device such as a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) or a micro-shutter array (MSA) enables spectroscopy of a hundred or more sources in a single exposure while eliminating overlapping spectra of other sources and blocking unwanted background like zodiacal light. We find that a 1.5-m space telescope with a MSA slit device combined with a custom orbit enabling long, uninterrupted exposures ( 10 hr) are optimal for this spectroscopic survey. GESE will not be operating alone in this endeavor. Together with x-ray telescopes and optical/near-IR telescopes like Subaru/Prime Focus Spectrograph, GESE will detect "feedback" from young massive stars and massive black holes (AGN's), and other drivers of galaxy evolution.

Galaxy Evolution Spectroscopic Explorer: Scientific Rationale

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heap, Sara; Ninkov, Zoran; Robberto, Massimo; Hull, Tony; Purves, Lloyd

2016-01-01

GESE is a mission concept consisting of a 1.5-m space telescope and UV multi-object slit spectrograph designed to help understand galaxy evolution in a critical era in the history of the universe, where the rate of star-formation stopped increasing and started to decline. To isolate and identify the various processes driving the evolution of these galaxies, GESE will obtain rest-frame far-UV spectra of 100,000 galaxies at redshifts, z approximately 1-2. To obtain such a large number of spectra, multiplexing over a wide field is an absolute necessity. A slit device such as a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) or a micro-shutter array (MSA) enables spectroscopy of a hundred or more sources in a single exposure while eliminating overlapping spectra of other sources and blocking unwanted background like zodiacal light. We find that a 1.5-m space telescope with a MSA slit device combined with a custom orbit enabling long, uninterrupted exposures (approximately 10 hr) are optimal for this spectroscopic survey. GESE will not be operating alone in this endeavor. Together with x-ray telescopes and optical/near-IR telescopes like Subaru/Prime Focus Spectrograph, GESE will detect "feedback" from young massive stars and massive black holes (AGN's), and other drivers of galaxy evolution.

The Secret Lives Of Galaxies Unveiled In Deep Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2003-06-01

Two of NASA's Great Observatories, bolstered by the largest ground-based telescopes around the world, are beginning to harvest new clues to the origin and evolution of galaxies. It's a bit like finding a family scrapbook containing snapshots that capture the lives of family members from infancy through adolescence to adulthood. "This is the first time the cosmic tale of how galaxies build themselves has been traced reliably to such early times in the universe's life," said Mauro Giavalisco, head of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) portion of the survey, and research astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore. The HST has joined forces with the Chandra X-ray Observatory to survey a relatively broad swath of sky encompassing tens of thousands of galaxies stretching far back into time. The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), scheduled for launch in August, will soon join this unprecedented survey. Called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), astronomers are studying galaxy formation and evolution over a wide range of distances and ages. The project is tracing the assembly history of galaxies, the evolution of their stellar populations, and the gusher of energy from star formation and active nuclei powered by immense black holes. HST astronomers report the sizes of galaxies clearly increase continuously from the time the universe was about 1 billion years old to an age of 6 billion years. This is approximately half the current age of the universe, 13.7 billion years. GOODS astronomers also find the star birth rate rose mildly, by about a factor of three, between the time the universe was about one billion years old and 1.5 billion years old, and remained high until about 7 billion years ago, when it quickly dropped to one-tenth the earlier "baby boomer" rate. This is further evidence major galaxy building trailed off when the universe was about half its current age. GOODS Chandra Deep Fields South Chandra Deep Field

Dwarf Galaxies: Laboratories for Nucleosynthesis and Chemical Evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirby, Evan N.

2018-06-01

The dwarf galaxies in the Local Group are excellent laboratories for studying the creation of the elements (nucleosynthesis) and the build-up of those elements over time (chemical evolution). The galaxies' proximity permits spectroscopy of individual stars, from which detailed elemental abundances can be measured. Their small sizes and, in some cases, short star formation lifetimes imprinted chemical histories that are easy to interpret relative to larger, more complex galaxies, like the Milky Way.I will briefly review some techniques for measuring elemental abundances from medium-resolution spectroscopy of individual stars. I will show how the metallicity distributions of dwarf galaxies reflect their gas content at the time they were forming stars. Then, I will show how the ratio of alpha elements (for example, magnesium) to iron reveals the star formation history. Finally, I will use certain elements to tease out details of nucleosynthetic events. For example, low manganese and cobalt abundances indicate that the typical Type Ia supernova in dwarf galaxies was a low-density white dwarf, and the evolution of barium suggests that neutron star mergers were most likely responsible for the majority of neutron-capture elements in smaller dwarf galaxies.

Resolved Star Formation in Galaxies Using Slitless Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirzkal, Norbert; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Larson, Rebecca L.; Malhotra, Sangeeta; Rhoads, James E.; Ryan, Russell E.; Tilvi, Vithal; FIGS Team

2018-06-01

The ability to spatially resolve individual star-formation regions in distant galaxies and simultaneously extract their physical properties via emission lines is a critical step forward in studying the evolution of galaxies. While efficient, deep slitless spectroscopic observations offer a blurry view of the summed properties of galaxies. We present our studies of resolved star formation over a wide range of redshifts, including high redshift Ly-a sources. The unique capabilities of the WFC3 IR Grism and our two-dimensional emission line method (EM2D) allows us to accurately identify the specific spatial origin of emission lines in galaxies, thus creating a spatial map of star-formation sites in any given galaxy. This method requires the use of multiple position angles on the sky to accurately derive both the location and the observed wavelengths of these emission lines. This has the added benefit of producing better defined redshifts for these sources. Building on our success in applying the EM2D method towards galaxies with [OII]. [OIII], and Ha emission lines, we have also applied EM2D to high redshift (z>6) Ly-a emitting galaxies. We are also able to produce accurate 2D emission line maps (MAP2D) of the Ly-a emission in WFC3 IR grism observations, looking for evidence that a significant amount of resonant scattering is taking place in high redshift galaxies such as in a newly identified z=7.5 Faint Infrared Galaxy Survey (FIGS) Ly-a galaxy.

Ghostly Halos in Dwarf Galaxies: a probe of star formation in the Early Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Hoyoung; Ricotti, Massimo

2016-01-01

We carry out numerical simulations to characterize the size, stellar mass, and stellar mass surface density of extended stellar halos in dwarf galaxies as a function of dark matter halo mass. We expect that for galaxies smaller than a critical value, these ghostly halos will not exist because the smaller galactic subunits that build it up, do not form any stars. The detection of ghostly halos around isolated dwarf galaxies is a sensitive test of the efficiency of star formation in the first galaxies and of whether ultra-faint dwarf satellites of the Milky Way are fossils of the first galaxies.

Nanosized Building Blocks for Customizing Novel Antibiofilm Approaches.

PubMed

Paula, A J; Koo, H

2017-02-01

Recent advances in nanotechnology provide unparalleled flexibility to control the composition, size, shape, surface chemistry, and functionality of materials. Currently available engineering approaches allow precise synthesis of nanocompounds (e.g., nanoparticles, nanostructures, nanocrystals) with both top-down and bottom-up design principles at the submicron level. In this context, these "nanoelements" (NEs) or "nanosized building blocks" can 1) generate new nanocomposites with antibiofilm properties or 2) be used to coat existing surfaces (e.g., teeth) and exogenously introduced surfaces (e.g., restorative or implant materials) for prevention of bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation. Furthermore, functionalized NEs 3) can be conceived as nanoparticles to carry and selectively release antimicrobial agents after attachment or within oral biofilms, resulting in their disruption. The latter mechanism includes "smart release" of agents when triggered by pathogenic microenvironments (e.g., acidic pH or low oxygen levels) for localized and controlled drug delivery to simultaneously kill bacteria and dismantle the biofilm matrix. Here we discuss inorganic, metallic, polymeric, and carbon-based NEs for their outstanding chemical flexibility, stability, and antibiofilm properties manifested when converted into bioactive materials, assembled on-site or delivered at biofilm-surface interfaces. Details are provided on the emerging concept of the rational design of NEs and recent technological breakthroughs for the development of a new generation of nanocoatings or functional nanoparticles for biofilm control in the oral cavity.

Bulgeless Galaxies Hosting 107 M⊙ AGN in Galaxy Zoo: The Growth of Black Holes via Secular Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simmons, Brooke; Lintott, C. J.; Schawinski, K.; Moran, E. C.; Han, A.; Kaviraj, S.; Masters, K. L.; Urry, C. M.; Willett, K.; Bamford, S. P.; Nichol, R.

2013-01-01

The growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) appears to proceed via multiple pathways including mergers and secular processes, but these are difficult to disentangle for most galaxies given their complex evolutionary histories. In order to understand the effects of secular galaxy evolution on black hole growth, we require a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in galaxies with a calm formation history free of significant mergers, a population that heretofore has been difficult to locate. Here we present a sample of 13 AGN in massive galaxies lacking the classical bulges believed inevitably to result from mergers; they also either lack or have extremely small pseudobulges, meaning they have had very calm accretion histories. This is the largest sample to date of massive, bulgeless AGN host galaxies selected without any direct restriction on the SMBH mass. The broad-line objects in the sample have black hole masses of 106-7 M⊙ Eddington arguments imply similar masses for the rest of the sample, meaning these black holes have grown substantially in the absence of mergers or other bulge-building processes such as violent disk instabilities. The black hole masses are systematically higher than expected from established bulge-black hole relations. However, these systems may be consistent with the correlation between black hole mass and total stellar mass. We discuss these results in the context of other studies and consider the implication that the details of stellar galaxy evolution and dynamics may not be fundamental to the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes.

Identifying the Evolutionary Building Blocks of the Cardiac Conduction System

PubMed Central

Jensen, Bjarke; Boukens, Bastiaan J. D.; Postma, Alex V.; Gunst, Quinn D.; van den Hoff, Maurice J. B.; Moorman, Antoon F. M.; Wang, Tobias; Christoffels, Vincent M.

2012-01-01

The endothermic state of mammals and birds requires high heart rates to accommodate the high rates of oxygen consumption. These high heart rates are driven by very similar conduction systems consisting of an atrioventricular node that slows the electrical impulse and a His-Purkinje system that efficiently activates the ventricular chambers. While ectothermic vertebrates have similar contraction patterns, they do not possess anatomical evidence for a conduction system. This lack amongst extant ectotherms is surprising because mammals and birds evolved independently from reptile-like ancestors. Using conserved genetic markers, we found that the conduction system design of lizard (Anolis carolinensis and A. sagrei), frog (Xenopus laevis) and zebrafish (Danio rerio) adults is strikingly similar to that of embryos of mammals (mouse Mus musculus, and man) and chicken (Gallus gallus). Thus, in ectothermic adults, the slow conducting atrioventricular canal muscle is present, no fibrous insulating plane is formed, and the spongy ventricle serves the dual purpose of conduction and contraction. Optical mapping showed base-to-apex activation of the ventricles of the ectothermic animals, similar to the activation pattern of mammalian and avian embryonic ventricles and to the His-Purkinje systems of the formed hearts. Mammalian and avian ventricles uniquely develop thick compact walls and septum and, hence, form a discrete ventricular conduction system from the embryonic spongy ventricle. Our study uncovers the evolutionary building plan of heart and indicates that the building blocks of the conduction system of adult ectothermic vertebrates and embryos of endotherms are similar. PMID:22984480

Molecular building blocks and their architecture in biologically/environmentally compatible soft matter chemical machinery.

PubMed

Toyota, Taro; Banno, Taisuke; Nitta, Sachiko; Takinoue, Masahiro; Nomoto, Tomonori; Natsume, Yuno; Matsumura, Shuichi; Fujinami, Masanori

2014-01-01

This review briefly summarizes recent developments in the construction of biologically/environmentally compatible chemical machinery composed of soft matter. Since environmental and living systems are open systems, chemical machinery must continuously fulfill its functions not only through the influx and generation of molecules but also via the degradation and dissipation of molecules. If the degradation or dissipation of soft matter molecular building blocks and biomaterial molecules/polymers can be achieved, soft matter particles composed of them can be used to realize chemical machinery such as selfpropelled droplets, drug delivery carriers, tissue regeneration scaffolds, protocell models, cell-/tissuemarkers, and molecular computing systems.

Quantification of urban structure on building block level utilizing multisensoral remote sensing data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wurm, Michael; Taubenböck, Hannes; Dech, Stefan

2010-10-01

Dynamics of urban environments are a challenge to a sustainable development. Urban areas promise wealth, realization of individual dreams and power. Hence, many cities are characterized by a population growth as well as physical development. Traditional, visual mapping and updating of urban structure information of cities is a very laborious and cost-intensive task, especially for large urban areas. For this purpose, we developed a workflow for the extraction of the relevant information by means of object-based image classification. In this manner, multisensoral remote sensing data has been analyzed in terms of very high resolution optical satellite imagery together with height information by a digital surface model to retrieve a detailed 3D city model with the relevant land-use / land-cover information. This information has been aggregated on the level of the building block to describe the urban structure by physical indicators. A comparison between the indicators derived by the classification and a reference classification has been accomplished to show the correlation between the individual indicators and a reference classification of urban structure types. The indicators have been used to apply a cluster analysis to group the individual blocks into similar clusters.

Dynamical Constraints On The Galaxy-Halo Connection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desmond, Harry

2017-07-01

Dark matter halos comprise the bulk of the universe's mass, yet must be probed by the luminous galaxies that form within them. A key goal of modern astrophysics, therefore, is to robustly relate the visible and dark mass, which to first order means relating the properties of galaxies and halos. This may be expected not only to improve our knowledge of galaxy formation, but also to enable high-precision cosmological tests using galaxies and hence maximise the utility of future galaxy surveys. As halos are inaccessible to observations - as galaxies are to N-body simulations - this relation requires an additional modelling step.The aim of this thesis is to develop and evaluate models of the galaxy-halo connection using observations of galaxy dynamics. In particular, I build empirical models based on the technique of halo abundance matching for five key dynamical scaling relations of galaxies - the Tully-Fisher, Faber-Jackson, mass-size and mass discrepancy-acceleration relations, and Fundamental Plane - which relate their baryon distributions and rotation or velocity dispersion profiles. I then develop a statistical scheme based on approximate Bayesian computation to compare the predicted and measured values of a number of summary statistics describing the relations' important features. This not only provides quantitative constraints on the free parameters of the models, but also allows absolute goodness-of-fit measures to be formulated. I find some features to be naturally accounted for by an abundance matching approach and others to impose new constraints on the galaxy-halo connection; the remainder are challenging to account for and may imply galaxy-halo correlations beyond the scope of basic abundance matching.Besides providing concrete statistical tests of specific galaxy formation theories, these results will be of use for guiding the inputs of empirical and semi-analytic galaxy formation models, which require galaxy-halo correlations to be imposed by hand. As

Learning and optimization with cascaded VLSI neural network building-block chips

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duong, T.; Eberhardt, S. P.; Tran, M.; Daud, T.; Thakoor, A. P.

1992-01-01

To demonstrate the versatility of the building-block approach, two neural network applications were implemented on cascaded analog VLSI chips. Weights were implemented using 7-b multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) synapse circuits, with 31 x 32 and 32 x 32 synapses per chip. A novel learning algorithm compatible with analog VLSI was applied to the two-input parity problem. The algorithm combines dynamically evolving architecture with limited gradient-descent backpropagation for efficient and versatile supervised learning. To implement the learning algorithm in hardware, synapse circuits were paralleled for additional quantization levels. The hardware-in-the-loop learning system allocated 2-5 hidden neurons for parity problems. Also, a 7 x 7 assignment problem was mapped onto a cascaded 64-neuron fully connected feedback network. In 100 randomly selected problems, the network found optimal or good solutions in most cases, with settling times in the range of 7-100 microseconds.

"Science SQL" as a Building Block for Flexible, Standards-based Data Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baumann, Peter

2016-04-01

We have learnt to live with the pain of separating data and metadata into non-interoperable silos. For metadata, we enjoy the flexibility of databases, be they relational, graph, or some other NoSQL. Contrasting this, users still "drown in files" as an unstructured, low-level archiving paradigm. It is time to bridge this chasm which once was technologically induced, but today can be overcome. One building block towards a common re-integrated information space is to support massive multi-dimensional spatio-temporal arrays. These "datacubes" appear as sensor, image, simulation, and statistics data in all science and engineering domains, and beyond. For example, 2-D satellilte imagery, 2-D x/y/t image timeseries and x/y/z geophysical voxel data, and 4-D x/y/z/t climate data contribute to today's data deluge in the Earth sciences. Virtual observatories in the Space sciences routinely generate Petabytes of such data. Life sciences deal with microarray data, confocal microscopy, human brain data, which all fall into the same category. The ISO SQL/MDA (Multi-Dimensional Arrays) candidate standard is extending SQL with modelling and query support for n-D arrays ("datacubes") in a flexible, domain-neutral way. This heralds a new generation of services with new quality parameters, such as flexibility, ease of access, embedding into well-known user tools, and scalability mechanisms that remain completely transparent to users. Technology like the EU rasdaman ("raster data manager") Array Database system can support all of the above examples simultaneously, with one technology. This is practically proven: As of today, rasdaman is in operational use on hundreds of Terabytes of satellite image timeseries datacubes, with transparent query distribution across more than 1,000 nodes. Therefore, Array Databases offering SQL/MDA constitute a natural common building block for next-generation data infrastructures. Being initiator and editor of the standard we present principles

Main-chain supramolecular block copolymers.

PubMed

Yang, Si Kyung; Ambade, Ashootosh V; Weck, Marcus

2011-01-01

Block copolymers are key building blocks for a variety of applications ranging from electronic devices to drug delivery. The material properties of block copolymers can be tuned and potentially improved by introducing noncovalent interactions in place of covalent linkages between polymeric blocks resulting in the formation of supramolecular block copolymers. Such materials combine the microphase separation behavior inherent to block copolymers with the responsiveness of supramolecular materials thereby affording dynamic and reversible materials. This tutorial review covers recent advances in main-chain supramolecular block copolymers and describes the design principles, synthetic approaches, advantages, and potential applications.

NASA's Fermi Telescope Resolves Radio Galaxy Centaurus A

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA release April 1, 2010 Fermi's Large Area Telescope resolved high-energy gamma rays from an extended region around the active galaxy Centaurus A. The emission corresponds to million-light-year-wide radio-emitting gas thrown out by the galaxy's supersized black hole. This inset shows an optical/gamma-ray composite of the galaxy and its location on the Fermi one-year sky map. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, Capella Observatory To learn more about these images go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/smokestack-plumes.html NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.

Spectroscopic investigation of some building blocks of organic conductors: A comparative study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mukherjee, V.; Yadav, T.

2017-04-01

Theoretical molecular structures and IR and Raman spectra of di and tetra methyl substituted tetrathiafulvalene and tetraselenafulvalene molecules have been studied. These molecules belong to the organic conductor family and are immensely used as building blocks of several organic conducting devices. The Hartree-Fock and density functional theory with exchange functional B3LYP have been employed for computational purpose. We have also performed normal coordinate analysis to scale the theoretical frequencies and to calculate potential energy distributions for the conspicuous assignments. The exciting frequency and temperature dependent Raman spectra have also presented. Optimization results reveal that the sulphur derivatives possess boat shape while selenium derivatives possess planner structures. Natural bond orbitals analysis has also been performed to study second order interaction between donors and acceptors and to compute molecular orbital occupancy and energy.

Pinenes: Abundant and Renewable Building Blocks for a Variety of Sustainable Polymers.

PubMed

Winnacker, Malte

2018-05-14

Pinenes - a group of monoterpenes containing a double bond - are very suitable renewable building blocks for a variety of sustainable polymers and materials. Their abundance from mainly non-edible parts of plants as well as the feasibility to isolate them render these compounds unique amongst the variety of biomass that is utilizable for novel materials. Accordingly, their use for the synthesis of biobased polymers has been investigated intensively, and strong progress has been made with this especially within the past 2-3 years. Direct cationic or radical polymerization via the double bonds as well as polymerization upon their further functionalization can afford a variety of sustainable polymers suitable for many applications, which is summarized in this article. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Membranes. Metal-organic framework nanosheets as building blocks for molecular sieving membranes.

PubMed

Peng, Yuan; Li, Yanshuo; Ban, Yujie; Jin, Hua; Jiao, Wenmei; Liu, Xinlei; Yang, Weishen

2014-12-12

Layered metal-organic frameworks would be a diverse source of crystalline sheets with nanometer thickness for molecular sieving if they could be exfoliated, but there is a challenge in retaining the morphological and structural integrity. We report the preparation of 1-nanometer-thick sheets with large lateral area and high crystallinity from layered MOFs. They are used as building blocks for ultrathin molecular sieve membranes, which achieve hydrogen gas (H2) permeance of up to several thousand gas permeation units (GPUs) with H2/CO2 selectivity greater than 200. We found an unusual proportional relationship between H2 permeance and H2 selectivity for the membranes, and achieved a simultaneous increase in both permeance and selectivity by suppressing lamellar stacking of the nanosheets. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Construction of three-dimensional DNA hydrogels from linear building blocks.

PubMed

Nöll, Tanja; Schönherr, Holger; Wesner, Daniel; Schopferer, Michael; Paululat, Thomas; Nöll, Gilbert

2014-08-04

A three-dimensional DNA hydrogel was generated by self-assembly of short linear double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) building blocks equipped with sticky ends. The resulting DNA hydrogel is thermoresponsive and the length of the supramolecular dsDNA structures varies with temperature. The average diffusion coefficients of the supramolecular dsDNA structures formed by self-assembly were determined by diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY NMR) for temperatures higher than 60 °C. Temperature-dependent rheological measurements revealed a gel point of 42±1 °C. Below this temperature, the resulting material behaved as a true gel of high viscosity with values for the storage modulus G' being significantly larger than that for the loss modulus G''. Frequency-dependent rheological measurements at 20 °C revealed a mesh size (ξ) of 15 nm. AFM analysis of the diluted hydrogel in the dry state showed densely packed structures of entangled chains, which are also expected to contain multiple interlocked rings and catenanes. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Building Blocks for Reliable Complex Nonlinear Numerical Simulations. Chapter 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yee, H. C.; Mansour, Nagi N. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

This chapter describes some of the building blocks to ensure a higher level of confidence in the predictability and reliability (PAR) of numerical simulation of multiscale complex nonlinear problems. The focus is on relating PAR of numerical simulations with complex nonlinear phenomena of numerics. To isolate sources of numerical uncertainties, the possible discrepancy between the chosen partial differential equation (PDE) model and the real physics and/or experimental data is set aside. The discussion is restricted to how well numerical schemes can mimic the solution behavior of the underlying PDE model for finite time steps and grid spacings. The situation is complicated by the fact that the available theory for the understanding of nonlinear behavior of numerics is not at a stage to fully analyze the nonlinear Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The discussion is based on the knowledge gained for nonlinear model problems with known analytical solutions to identify and explain the possible sources and remedies of numerical uncertainties in practical computations. Examples relevant to turbulent flow computations are included.

A chronicle of galaxy mass assembly in the EAGLE simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qu, Yan; Helly, John C.; Bower, Richard G.; Theuns, Tom; Crain, Robert A.; Frenk, Carlos S.; Furlong, Michelle; McAlpine, Stuart; Schaller, Matthieu; Schaye, Joop; White, Simon D. M.

2017-01-01

We analyse the mass assembly of central galaxies in the Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) hydrodynamical simulations. We build merger trees to connect galaxies to their progenitors at different redshifts and characterize their assembly histories by focusing on the time when half of the galaxy stellar mass was assembled into the main progenitor. We show that galaxies with stellar mass M* < 1010.5 M⊙ assemble most of their stellar mass through star formation in the main progenitor (`in situ' star formation). This can be understood as a consequence of the steep rise in star formation efficiency with halo mass for these galaxies. For more massive galaxies, however, an increasing fraction of their stellar mass is formed outside the main progenitor and subsequently accreted. Consequently, while for low-mass galaxies, the assembly time is close to the stellar formation time, the stars in high-mass galaxies typically formed long before half of the present-day stellar mass was assembled into a single object, giving rise to the observed antihierarchical downsizing trend. In a typical present-day M* ≥ 1011 M⊙ galaxy, around 20 per cent of the stellar mass has an external origin. This fraction decreases with increasing redshift. Bearing in mind that mergers only make an important contribution to the stellar mass growth of massive galaxies, we find that the dominant contribution comes from mergers with galaxies of mass greater than one-tenth of the main progenitor's mass. The galaxy merger fraction derived from our simulations agrees with recent observational estimates.

A Shifted Block Lanczos Algorithm 1: The Block Recurrence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grimes, Roger G.; Lewis, John G.; Simon, Horst D.

1990-01-01

In this paper we describe a block Lanczos algorithm that is used as the key building block of a software package for the extraction of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of large sparse symmetric generalized eigenproblems. The software package comprises: a version of the block Lanczos algorithm specialized for spectrally transformed eigenproblems; an adaptive strategy for choosing shifts, and efficient codes for factoring large sparse symmetric indefinite matrices. This paper describes the algorithmic details of our block Lanczos recurrence. This uses a novel combination of block generalizations of several features that have only been investigated independently in the past. In particular new forms of partial reorthogonalization, selective reorthogonalization and local reorthogonalization are used, as is a new algorithm for obtaining the M-orthogonal factorization of a matrix. The heuristic shifting strategy, the integration with sparse linear equation solvers and numerical experience with the code are described in a companion paper.

The assembly of stellar haloes in massive Early-Type Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buitrago, F.

2017-03-01

Massive (Mstellar >= 5×1010 M⊙) Early-Type Galaxies (ETGs) must build an outer stellar envelope over cosmic time in order to account for their remarkable size evolution. This is similar to what occurs to nearby Late-Type Galaxies (LTGs), which create their stellar haloes out of the debris of lower mass systems. We analysed the outer parts of massive ETGs at z < 1 by exploiting the Hubble Ultra Deep Field imaging. These galaxies store 10-30% of their stellar mass at distances 10 < R/kpc < 50, in contrast to the low percentages (< 5%) found for LTGs. We find evidence for a progressive outskirt development with redshift driven solely via merging.

Natural supramolecular building blocks: from virus coat proteins to viral nanoparticles.

PubMed

Liu, Zhi; Qiao, Jing; Niu, Zhongwei; Wang, Qian

2012-09-21

Viruses belong to a fascinating class of natural supramolecular structures, composed of multiple copies of coat proteins (CPs) that assemble into different shapes with a variety of sizes from tens to hundreds of nanometres. Because of their advantages including simple/economic production, well-defined structural features, unique shapes and sizes, genetic programmability and robust chemistries, recently viruses and virus-like nanoparticles (VLPs) have been used widely in biomedical applications and materials synthesis. In this critical review, we highlight recent advances in the use of virus coat proteins (VCPs) and viral nanoparticles (VNPs) as building blocks in self-assembly studies and materials development. We first discuss the self-assembly of VCPs into VLPs, which can efficiently incorporate a variety of different materials as cores inside the viral protein shells. Then, the self-assembly of VNPs at surfaces or interfaces is summarized. Finally, we discuss the co-assembly of VNPs with different functional materials (178 references).

Probing the Conformational Landscape of Polyether Building Blocks in Supersonic Jets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bocklitz, Sebastian; Hewett, Daniel M.; Zwier, Timothy S.; Suhm, Martin A.

2016-06-01

Polyethylene oxides (Polyethylene glycoles) and their phenoxy-capped analogs represent a prominent class of important polymers that are highly used as precursor molecules in supramolecular reactions. After a detailed study on the simplest representative (1,2-dimethoxyethane) [1], we present results on oligoethylene oxides with increasing chain lengths obtained by spontaneous Raman scattering in a supersonic jet. Through variation of stagnation pressure, carrier gas, nozzle distance and temperature we gain information on the conformational landscape as well as the mutual interconversion of low energy conformers. The obtained results are compared to state-of-the-art quantum chemical calculations. Additionally, we present UV as well as IR-UV and UV-UV double resonance studies on 1-methoxy-2-phenoxyethane in a supersonic jet. These complementary techniques allow for conformationally selective electronic and vibrational spectra in a closely related conformational landscape. [1] S. Bocklitz, M. A. Suhm, Constraining the Conformational Landscape of a Polyether Building Block by Raman Jet Spectroscopy, Z. Phys. Chem. 2015, 229, 1625-1648.

Dispersions of Aramid Nanofibers: A New Nanoscale Building Block

PubMed Central

Yang, Ming; Cao, Keqin; Sui, Lang; Qi, Ying; Zhu, Jian; Waas, Anthony; Arruda, Ellen M.; Kieffer, John; Thouless, M. D.; Kotov, Nicholas A.

2011-01-01

Stable dispersions of nanofibers are virtually unknown for synthetic polymers. They can complement analogous dispersions of inorganic components, such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanosheets, etc as a fundamental component of a toolset for design of nanostructures and metamaterials via numerous solvent-based processing methods. As such, strong flexible polymeric nanofibers are very desirable for the effective utilization within composites of nanoscale inorganic components such as nanowires, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and others. Here stable dispersions of uniform high-aspect-ratio aramid nanofibers (ANFs) with diameters between 3 and 30 nm and up to 10 μm in length were successfully obtained. Unlike the traditional approaches based on polymerization of monomers, they are made by controlled dissolution of standard macroscale form of the aramid polymer, i.e. well known Kevlar threads, and revealed distinct morphological features similar to carbon nanotubes. ANFs are successfully processed into films using layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly as one of the potential methods of preparation of composites from ANFs. The resultant films are transparent and highly temperature resilient. They also display enhanced mechanical characteristics making ANF films highly desirable as protective coatings, ultrastrong membranes, as well as building blocks of other high performance materials in place of or in combination with carbon nanotubes. PMID:21800822

Galaxy Cluster Abell 1689

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Image release August 19, 2010 An international team of astronomers using gravitational lensing observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken an important step forward in the quest to solve the riddle of dark energy, a phenomenon which mysteriously appears to power the Universe's accelerating expansion. Their results appear in the 20 August 2010 issue of the journal Science. This image shows the galaxy cluster Abell 1689, with the mass distribution of the dark matter in the gravitational lens overlaid (in purple). The mass in this lens is made up partly of normal (baryonic) matter and partly of dark matter. Distorted galaxies are clearly visible around the edges of the gravitational lens. The appearance of these distorted galaxies depends on the distribution of matter in the lens and on the relative geometry of the lens and the distant galaxies, as well as on the effect of dark energy on the geometry of the Universe. Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (JPL/LAM), P. Natarajan (Yale) and J-P. Kneib (LAM). To view a video of this image go to: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4909967467 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook To read more go to: www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1014/?utm_source=feedburn...

Establishing an Appropriate Level of Detail (LoD) for a Building Information Model (BIM) - West Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fai, S.; Rafeiro, J.

2014-05-01

In 2011, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) embarked on a comprehensive rehabilitation of the historically significant West Block of Canada's Parliament Hill. With over 17 thousand square meters of floor space, the West Block is one of the largest projects of its kind in the world. As part of the rehabilitation, PWGSC is working with the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) to develop a building information model (BIM) that can serve as maintenance and life-cycle management tool once construction is completed. The scale and complexity of the model have presented many challenges. One of these challenges is determining appropriate levels of detail (LoD). While still a matter of debate in the development of international BIM standards, LoD is further complicated in the context of heritage buildings because we must reconcile the LoD of the BIM with that used in the documentation process (terrestrial laser scan and photogrammetric survey data). In this paper, we will discuss our work to date on establishing appropriate LoD within the West Block BIM that will best serve the end use. To facilitate this, we have developed a single parametric model for gothic pointed arches that can be used for over seventy-five unique window types present in the West Block. Using the AEC (CAN) BIM as a reference, we have developed a workflow to test each of these window types at three distinct levels of detail. We have found that the parametric Gothic arch significantly reduces the amount of time necessary to develop scenarios to test appropriate LoD.

Matching Supernovae to Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-12-01

developed a new automated algorithm for matching supernovae to their host galaxies. Their work builds on currently existing algorithms and makes use of information about the nearby galaxies, accounts for the uncertainty of the match, and even includes a machine learning component to improve the matching accuracy.Gupta and collaborators test their matching algorithm on catalogs of galaxies and simulated supernova events to quantify how well the algorithm is able to accurately recover the true hosts.Successful MatchingThe matching algorithms accuracy (purity) as a function of the true supernova-host separation, the supernova redshift, the true hosts brightness, and the true hosts size. [Gupta et al. 2016]The authors find that when the basic algorithm is run on catalog data, it matches supernovae to their hosts with 91% accuracy. Including the machine learning component, which is run after the initial matching algorithm, improves the accuracy of the matching to 97%.The encouraging results of this work which was intended as a proof of concept suggest that methods similar to this could prove very practical for tackling future survey data. And the method explored here has use beyond matching just supernovae to their host galaxies: it could also be applied to other extragalactic transients, such as gamma-ray bursts, tidal disruption events, or electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave detections.CitationRavi R. Gupta et al 2016 AJ 152 154. doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/6/154

Do Galaxies Follow Darwinian Evolution?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2006-12-01

Using VIMOS on ESO's Very Large Telescope, a team of French and Italian astronomers have shown the strong influence the environment exerts on the way galaxies form and evolve. The scientists have for the first time charted remote parts of the Universe, showing that the distribution of galaxies has considerably evolved with time, depending on the galaxies' immediate surroundings. This surprising discovery poses new challenges for theories of the formation and evolution of galaxies. The 'nature versus nurture' debate is a hot topic in human psychology. But astronomers too face similar conundrums, in particular when trying to solve a problem that goes to the very heart of cosmological theories: are the galaxies we see today simply the product of the primordial conditions in which they formed, or did experiences in the past change the path of their evolution? ESO PR Photo 17/06 ESO PR Photo 45/06 Galaxy Distribution in Space In a large, three-year long survey carried out with VIMOS [1], the Visible Imager and Multi-Object Spectrograph on ESO's VLT, astronomers studied more than 6,500 galaxies over a wide range of distances to investigate how their properties vary over different timescales, in different environments and for varying galaxy luminosities [2]. They were able to build an atlas of the Universe in three dimensions, going back more than 9 billion years. This new census reveals a surprising result. The colour-density relation, that describes the relationship between the properties of a galaxy and its environment, was markedly different 7 billion years ago. The astronomers thus found that the galaxies' luminosity, their initial genetic properties, and the environments they reside in have a profound impact on their evolution. "Our results indicate that environment is a key player in galaxy evolution, but there's no simple answer to the 'nature versus nurture' problem in galaxy evolution," said Olivier Le Fèvre from the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

A generalized analog implementation of piecewise linear neuron models using CCII building blocks.

PubMed

Soleimani, Hamid; Ahmadi, Arash; Bavandpour, Mohammad; Sharifipoor, Ozra

2014-03-01

This paper presents a set of reconfigurable analog implementations of piecewise linear spiking neuron models using second generation current conveyor (CCII) building blocks. With the same topology and circuit elements, without W/L modification which is impossible after circuit fabrication, these circuits can produce different behaviors, similar to the biological neurons, both for a single neuron as well as a network of neurons just by tuning reference current and voltage sources. The models are investigated, in terms of analog implementation feasibility and costs, targeting large scale hardware implementations. Results show that, in order to gain the best performance, area and accuracy; these models can be compromised. Simulation results are presented for different neuron behaviors with CMOS 350 nm technology. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using OpenMP vs. Threading Building Blocks for Medical Imaging on Multi-cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kegel, Philipp; Schellmann, Maraike; Gorlatch, Sergei

We compare two parallel programming approaches for multi-core systems: the well-known OpenMP and the recently introduced Threading Building Blocks (TBB) library by Intel®. The comparison is made using the parallelization of a real-world numerical algorithm for medical imaging. We develop several parallel implementations, and compare them w.r.t. programming effort, programming style and abstraction, and runtime performance. We show that TBB requires a considerable program re-design, whereas with OpenMP simple compiler directives are sufficient. While TBB appears to be less appropriate for parallelizing existing implementations, it fosters a good programming style and higher abstraction level for newly developed parallel programs. Our experimental measurements on a dual quad-core system demonstrate that OpenMP slightly outperforms TBB in our implementation.

Shocks and metallicity gradients in normal star-forming galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, I.-Ting

Gas flow is one of the most fundamental processes driving galaxy evolution. This thesis explores gas flows in local galaxies by studying metallicity gradients and galactic-scale outflows in normal star-forming galaxies. This is made possible by new integral field spectroscopy data that provide simultaneously spatial and spectral information of galaxies. First, I measure metallicity gradients in isolated disk galaxies and show that their metallicity gradients are remarkably simple and universal. When the metallicity gradients are normalized to galaxy sizes, all the 49 galaxies studied have virtually the same metallicity gradient. I model the common metallicity gradient using a simple chemical evolution model to understand its origin. The common metallicity gradient is a direct result of the coevolution of gas and stellar disk while galactic disks build up their masses from inside-out. Tight constraints on the mass outflow rates and inflow rates can be placed by the chemical evolution model. Second, I investigate galactic winds in normal star-forming galaxies using data from an integral field spectroscopy survey. I demonstrate how to search for galactic winds by probing emission line ratios, shocks, and gas kinematics. Galactic winds are found to be common even in normal star-forming galaxies that were not expected to host winds. By comparing galaxies with and without hosting winds, I show that galaxies with high star formation rate surface densities and bursty star formation histories are more likely to drive large-scale galactic winds. Finally, lzifu, a toolkit for fitting multiple emission lines simultaneously in integral field spectroscopy data, is developed in this thesis. I describe in detail the structure of the toolkit and demonstrate the capabilities of lzifu.

Building Numbers from Primes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burkhart, Jerry

2009-01-01

Prime numbers are often described as the "building blocks" of natural numbers. This article shows how the author and his students took this idea literally by using prime factorizations to build numbers with blocks. In this activity, students explore many concepts of number theory, including the relationship between greatest common factors and…

Blockbusters: Ideas for the Block Center.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Polly K.; Nesmith, Jaynie

1996-01-01

Goals of block building in early childhood classrooms focus on physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development. Reports survey results of the value teachers place on block play. Offers illustrations of task cards to use with blocks in math, language arts, social studies, and science. Discusses guidelines and suggests idea cards and sentence…

The Spitzer/Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxy Extended Legacy Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perley, Daniel; Berger, Edo; Butler, Nathaniel; Cenko, S. Bradley; Chary, Ranga-Ram; Cucchiara, Antonino; Ellis, Richard; Fong, Wen-fai; Fruchter, Andrew; Fynbo, Johan; Gehrels, Neil; Graham, John; Greiner, Jochen; Hjorth, Jens; Hunt, Leslie; Jakobsson, Pall; Kruehler, Thomas; Laskar, Tanmoy; Le Floc'h, Emerich; Levan, Andrew; Levesque, Emily; Littlejohns, Owen; Malesani, Daniele; Michalowski, Michal; Prochaska, J. Xavier; Salvaterra, Ruben; Schulze, Steve; Schady, Patricia; Tanvir, Nial; de Ugarte Postigo, Antonio; Vergani, Susanna

2014-12-01

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts act as beacons to the sites of star-formation in the distant universe. GRBs reveal galaxies too faint and star-forming regions too dusty to characterize in detail using any other method, and provide a powerful independent constraint on the evolution of the cosmic star-formation rate density at high-redshift. However, a full understanding of the GRB phenomenon and its relation to cosmic star-formation requires connecting the observations obtained from GRBs to the properties of the galaxies hosting them. The large majority of GRBs originate at moderate to high redshift (z>1) and Spitzer has proven crucial for understanding the host population, given its unique ability to observe the rest-frame NIR and its unrivaled sensitivity and efficiency. We propose to complete a comprehensive public legacy survey of the Swift GRB host population to build on our earlier successes and push beyond the statistical limits of previous, smaller efforts. Our survey will enable a diverse range of GRB and galaxy science including: (1) to quantitatively and robustly map the connection between GRBs and cosmic star-formation to constrain the GRB progenitor and calibrate GRB rate-based measurements of the high-z cosmic star-formation rate; (2) to constrain the luminosity function of star-forming galaxies at the faint end and at high redshift; (3) to understand how the ISM properties seen in absorption in high-redshift galaxies unveiled by GRBs - metallicity, dust column, dust properties - connect to global properties of the host galaxies such as mass and age. Building on a decade of experience at both observatories, our observations will create an enduring joint Swift-Spitzer legacy sample and provide the definitive resource with which to examine all aspects of the GRB/galaxy connection for years and possibly decades to come.

The Theoretical Astrophysical Observatory: Cloud-based Mock Galaxy Catalogs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernyk, Maksym; Croton, Darren J.; Tonini, Chiara; Hodkinson, Luke; Hassan, Amr H.; Garel, Thibault; Duffy, Alan R.; Mutch, Simon J.; Poole, Gregory B.; Hegarty, Sarah

2016-03-01

We introduce the Theoretical Astrophysical Observatory (TAO), an online virtual laboratory that houses mock observations of galaxy survey data. Such mocks have become an integral part of the modern analysis pipeline. However, building them requires expert knowledge of galaxy modeling and simulation techniques, significant investment in software development, and access to high performance computing. These requirements make it difficult for a small research team or individual to quickly build a mock catalog suited to their needs. To address this TAO offers access to multiple cosmological simulations and semi-analytic galaxy formation models from an intuitive and clean web interface. Results can be funnelled through science modules and sent to a dedicated supercomputer for further processing and manipulation. These modules include the ability to (1) construct custom observer light cones from the simulation data cubes; (2) generate the stellar emission from star formation histories, apply dust extinction, and compute absolute and/or apparent magnitudes; and (3) produce mock images of the sky. All of TAO’s features can be accessed without any programming requirements. The modular nature of TAO opens it up for further expansion in the future.

Rebuilding Spiral Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2005-01-01

of distant galaxies at various redshifts taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The central panel displays the star formation rate as a function of time. The numbers coincide with the numbers shown on the images. The story revealed by these observations is in agreement with the so-called "hierarchical merging of galaxies" scenario, present in the literature since about 20 years. According to this model, small galaxies merge to build larger ones. As François Hammer however points out: "In the current scenario, it was usually assumed that galaxy merging almost ceased 8,000 million years ago. Our complete set of observations show that this is far from being the case. In the following 4,000 million years, galaxies still merged to form the large spirals we observe in the local Universe." To account for all these properties, the astronomers thus devised a new galaxy formation scenario, comprising three major phases: a merger event, a compact galaxy phase and a "growth of the disc" phase (see PR Photo 02b/05). Because of the unique aspects of this scenario, where big galaxies get first disrupted by a major collision to be born again later as a present-day spiral galaxy, the astronomers rather logically dubbed their evolutionary sequence, the "spiral galaxy rebuilding". Although being at odds with standard views which assert that galaxy mergers produce elliptical galaxies instead of spiral ones, the astronomers stress that their scenario is consistent with the observed fractions of the different types of galaxies and can account for all the observations. The new scenario can indeed account for the formation of about three quarters of the present-day spiral galaxies, those with massive central bulge. It would apply for example to the Andromeda Galaxy but not to our own Milky way. It seems that our Galaxy somehow escaped major collisions in the last thousands of million years. Further observations, in particular with the FLAMES instrument on the VLT, will show if spiral

Are starburst galaxies proton calorimeters?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xilu; Fields, Brian D.

2018-03-01

Several starburst galaxies have been observed in the GeV and TeV bands. In these dense environments, gamma-ray emission should be dominated by cosmic ray (CR) interactions with the interstellar medium (pcrpism → π0 → γγ). Indeed, starbursts may act as proton `calorimeters' where a substantial fraction of CR energy input is emitted in gamma-rays. Here, we build a one-zone, `thick-target' model implementing calorimetry and placing a firm upper bound on gamma-ray emission from CR interactions. The model assumes that CRs are accelerated by supernovae (SNe), and all suffer nuclear interactions rather than escape. Our model has only two free parameters: the CR proton acceleration energy per SN ɛcr, and the proton injection spectral index s. We calculate the pionic gamma-ray emission from 10 MeV to 10 TeV, and derive thick-target parameters for six galaxies with Fermi, H.E.S.S., and/or VERITAS data. Our model provides good fits for the M82 and NGC 253, and yields ɛcr and s values suggesting that SN CR acceleration is similar in starbursts and in our Galaxy. We find that these starbursts are indeed nearly if not fully proton calorimeters. For NGC 4945 and NGC 1068, the models are consistent with calorimetry but are less well-constrained due to the lack of TeV data. However, the Circinus galaxy and the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy Arp 220 exceed our pionic upper-limit; possible explanations are discussed.

Keck Spectroscopy of Redshift z ~ 3 Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lowenthal, James D.; Koo, David C.; Guzmán, Rafael; Gallego, Jesús; Phillips, Andrew C.; Faber, S. M.; Vogt, Nicole P.; Illingworth, Garth D.; Gronwall, Caryl

1997-05-01

0 = 0.05 and q0 = 0.5, respectively. These rates overlap those for local spiral and H II galaxies today, although they could be more than twice as high if dust extinction in the UV is significant. If the objects at z = 3 were simply to fade by 5 mag (assuming a 107 yr burst and passive evolution) without mergers in the 14 Gyr between then and now (for q0 = 0.05, h50 = 1.0), they would resemble average dwarf elliptical/spheroidal galaxies in both luminosity and size. However, the variety of morphologies and the high number density of z = 3 galaxies in the HDF suggest that they represent a range of physical processes and stages of galaxy formation and evolution, rather than any one class of object, such as massive ellipticals. A key issue remains the measurement of masses. These high-redshift objects are likely to be the low-mass, starbursting building blocks of more massive galaxies seen today. Based on observations obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the University of California and the California Institute of Technology, and with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under contract with NASA.

The Extended Northern ROSAT Galaxy Cluster Survey (NORAS II). I. Survey Construction and First Results

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Böhringer, Hans; Chon, Gayoung; Trümper, Joachim

As the largest, clearly defined building blocks of our universe, galaxy clusters are interesting astrophysical laboratories and important probes for cosmology. X-ray surveys for galaxy clusters provide one of the best ways to characterize the population of galaxy clusters. We provide a description of the construction of the NORAS II galaxy cluster survey based on X-ray data from the northern part of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. NORAS II extends the NORAS survey down to a flux limit of 1.8 × 10{sup −12} erg s{sup −1} cm{sup −2} (0.1–2.4 keV), increasing the sample size by about a factor of two. The NORAS IImore » cluster survey now reaches the same quality and depth as its counterpart, the southern REFLEX II survey, allowing us to combine the two complementary surveys. The paper provides information on the determination of the cluster X-ray parameters, the identification process of the X-ray sources, the statistics of the survey, and the construction of the survey selection function, which we provide in numerical format. Currently NORAS II contains 860 clusters with a median redshift of z  = 0.102. We provide a number of statistical functions, including the log N –log S and the X-ray luminosity function and compare these to the results from the complementary REFLEX II survey. Using the NORAS II sample to constrain the cosmological parameters, σ {sub 8} and Ω{sub m}, yields results perfectly consistent with those of REFLEX II. Overall, the results show that the two hemisphere samples, NORAS II and REFLEX II, can be combined without problems into an all-sky sample, just excluding the zone of avoidance.« less

Knowledge Gateways: The Building Blocks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Donald T.; And Others

1988-01-01

Discusses the need for knowledge gateway systems to provide access to scattered information and the use of technologies in gateway building, including artificial intelligence and expert systems, networking, online retrieval systems, optical storage, and natural language processing. The status of four existing gateways is described. (20 references)…

Synthesis of borylated porphyrin and bromo- porphyrin as building blocks for light harvesting antenna molecule

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radzuan, Nuur Haziqah Mohd; Hassan, Nurul Izzaty; Bakar, Muntaz Abu

2018-04-01

The building blocks for synthesis of light harvesting antenna which are 5-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolane)-10,20-diphenylporphyrin, 5-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolane)-10,20-dihexylporphyrin and 5,10,15,20-tetra-(bromophenyl)porphyrin were synthesized. Borylated porphyrin was synthesized by Suzuki coupling reaction between A2BC bromo-porphyrin and pinacolborane. Whereas 5,10,15,20-tetra-(bromophenyl) porphyrin was synthesized by Lindsey condensation reaction between pyrrole and 4-bromobenzaldehyde. 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR spectroscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy confirmed the successful formation of all compounds.

Stellar populations in spiral galaxies: Broadband versus spectroscopic viewpoints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacArthur, Lauren Anne

This thesis addresses the stellar population content in the bulges and disks of spiral galaxies using broad-band and spectroscopic data. The results can be used to constrain models of galaxy formation in addition to establishing a comprehensive, model-independent, picture of colour and line-index gradients in spiral galaxies. Building upon my Masters study of structural parameters in spiral galaxies, I use the largest collection of multi-band (optical and IR) surface brightness profiles for face-on and moderately-tilted galaxies to extract radial colour profiles. The colour gradients are then translated into age and metallicity gradients by comparison with stellar population synthesis (SPS) models considering a range of star formation histories, including recent bursts. Based on their integrated light, we find that high surface brightness (SB) regions of galaxies formed their stars earlier than lower SB ones, or at a similar epoch but on shorter timescale. At a given SB level, the star formation histories are modulated by the overall potential of the galaxy such that brighter/higher rotational velocity galaxies formed earlier. This formation "down-sizing" implied by our results is inconsistent with current implementations of semi-analytic structure formation models. In order to alleviate concerns that our colour gradients could be affected by dust reddening, we designed a similar spectroscopic investigation and explored the dust sensitivity of absorption-line indices. The latter test makes use of the latest SPS, models incorporating a multi-component model for the line and continuum attenuation due to dust. For quiescent stellar populations (e.g. spheroids and globular clusters), dust extinction effects are small for most indices with the exception of the 4000 Å break. For models with current star formation, many indices may suffer from dust reddening and any departures depend on age, dust distribution, and the effective optical depth. However, a number of useful

Stellar populations in spiral galaxies: broadband versus spectroscopic viewpoints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacArthur, Lauren Anne

2006-06-01

This thesis addresses the stellar population content in the bulges and disks of spiral galaxies using broad-band and spectroscopic data. The results can be used to constrain models of galaxy formation in addition to establishing a comprehensive, model-independent, picture of colour and line-index gradients in spiral galaxies. Building upon my Masters study of structural parameters in spiral galaxies, I use the largest collection of multi-band (optical and IR) surface brightness profiles for face-on and moderately-tilted galaxies to extract radial colour profiles. The colour gradients are then translated into age and metallicity gradients by comparison with stellar population synthesis (SPS) models considering a range of star formation histories, including recent bursts. Based on their integrated light, we find that high surface brightness (SB) regions of galaxies formed their stars earlier than lower SB ones, or at a similar epoch but on shorter timescale. At a given SB level, the star formation histories are modulated by the overall potential of the galaxy such that brighter/higher rotational velocity galaxies formed earlier. This formation "down-sizing" implied by our results is inconsistent with current implementations of semi-analytic structure formation models. In order to alleviate concerns that our colour gradients could be affected by dust reddening, we designed a similar spectroscopic investigation and explored the dust sensitivity of absorption-line indices. The latter test makes use of the latest SPS, models incorporating a multi-component model for the line and continuum attenuation due to dust. For quiescent stellar populations (e.g. spheroids and globular clusters), dust extinction effects are small for most indices with the exception of the 4000 Å break. For models with current star formation, many indices may suffer from dust reddening and any departures depend on age, dust distribution, and the effective optical depth. However, a number of useful

Globular clusters and environmental effects in galaxy clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sales, Laura

2016-10-01

Globular clusters are old compact stellar systems orbiting around galaxies of all types. Tens of thousands of them can also be found populating the intra-cluster regions of nearby galaxy clusters like Virgo and Coma. Thanks to the HST Frontier Fields program, GCs are starting now to be detected also in intermediate redshift clusters. Yet, despite their ubiquity, a theoretical model for the formation and evolution of GCs is still missing, especially within the cosmological context.Here we propose to use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of 18 galaxy clusters coupled to a post-processing GC formation model to explore the assembly of galaxies in clusters together with their expected GC population. The method, which has already been implemented and tested, will allow us to characterize for the first time the number, radial distribution and kinematics of GCs in clusters, with products directly comparable to observational maps. We will explore cluster-to-cluster variations and also characterize the build up of the intra-cluster component of GCs with time.As the method relies on a detailed study of the star-formation history of galaxies, we will jointly constrain the predicted quenching time-scales for satellites and the occurrence of starburst events associated to infall and orbital pericenters of galaxies in massive clusters. This will inform further studies on the distribution, velocity and properties of post-starburst galaxies in past, ongoing and future HST programs.

Low-Surface-Brightness Galaxies: Hidden Galaxies Revealed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bothun, G.; Impey, C.; McGaugh, S.

1997-07-01

In twenty years, low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies have evolved from being an idiosyncratic notion to being one of the major baryonic repositories in the Universe. The story of their discovery and the characterization of their properties is told here. Their recovery from the noise of the night sky background is a strong testament to the severity of surface brightness selection effects. LSB galaxies have a number of remarkable properties which distinguish them from the more familiar Hubble Sequence of spirals. The two most important are 1) they evolve at a significantly slower rate and may well experience star formation outside of the molecular cloud environment, 2) they are embedded in dark matter halos which are of lower density and more extended than the halos around high surface brightness (HSB) disk galaxies. Compared to HSB disks, LSB disks are strongly dark matter dominated at all radii and show a systematic increase in $M/L$ with decreasing central surface brightness. In addition, the recognition that large numbers of LSB galaxies actually exist has changed the form of the galaxy luminosity function and has clearly increased the space density of galaxies at z =0. Recent CCD surveys have uncovered a population of red LSB disks that may be related to the excess of faint blue galaxies detected at moderate redshifts. LSB galaxies offer us a new window into galaxy evolution and formation which is every bit as important as those processes which have produced easy to detect galaxies. Indeed, the apparent youth of some LSB galaxies suggest that galaxy formation is a greatly extended process. While the discovery of LSB galaxies have lead to new insights, it remains unwise to presume that we now have a representative sample which encompasses all galaxy types and forms. (SECTION: Invited Review Paper)

The Influence of Building Block Play on Mathematics Achievement and Logical and Divergent Thinking in Italian Primary School Mathematics Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pirrone, Concetta; Tienken, Christopher H.; Pagano, Tatiana; Di Nuovo, Santo

2018-01-01

In an experimental study to explain the effect of structured Building Block Play with LEGO™ bricks on 6-year-old student mathematics achievement and in the areas of logical thinking, divergent thinking, nonverbal reasoning, and mental imagery, students in the experimental group scored significantly higher (p = 0.05) in mathematics achievement and…

Galaxy bias from galaxy-galaxy lensing in the DES Science Verification Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Prat, J.; et al.

We present a measurement of galaxy-galaxy lensing around a magnitude-limited (more » $$i_{AB} < 22.5$$) sample of galaxies selected from the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification (DES-SV) data. We split these lenses into three photometric-redshift bins from 0.2 to 0.8, and determine the product of the galaxy bias $b$ and cross-correlation coefficient between the galaxy and dark matter overdensity fields $r$ in each bin, using scales above 4 Mpc/$h$ comoving, where we find the linear bias model to be valid given our current uncertainties. We compare our galaxy bias results from galaxy-galaxy lensing with those obtained from galaxy clustering (Crocce et al. 2016) and CMB lensing (Giannantonio et al. 2016) for the same sample of galaxies, and find our measurements to be in good agreement with those in Crocce et al. (2016), while, in the lowest redshift bin ($$z\\sim0.3$$), they show some tension with the findings in Giannantonio et al. (2016). Our results are found to be rather insensitive to a large range of systematic effects. We measure $$b\\cdot r$$ to be $$0.87\\pm 0.11$$, $$1.12 \\pm 0.16$$ and $$1.24\\pm 0.23$$, respectively for the three redshift bins of width $$\\Delta z = 0.2$$ in the range $0.2« less

A distortion of very-high-redshift galaxy number counts by gravitational lensing.

PubMed

Wyithe, J Stuart B; Yan, Haojing; Windhorst, Rogier A; Mao, Shude

2011-01-13

The observed number counts of high-redshift galaxy candidates have been used to build up a statistical description of star-forming activity at redshift z ≳ 7, when galaxies reionized the Universe. Standard models predict that a high incidence of gravitational lensing will probably distort measurements of flux and number of these earliest galaxies. The raw probability of this happening has been estimated to be ∼0.5 per cent (refs 11, 12), but can be larger owing to observational biases. Here we report that gravitational lensing is likely to dominate the observed properties of galaxies with redshifts of z ≳ 12, when the instrumental limiting magnitude is expected to be brighter than the characteristic magnitude of the galaxy sample. The number counts could be modified by an order of magnitude, with most galaxies being part of multiply imaged systems, located less than 1 arcsec from brighter foreground galaxies at z ≈ 2. This lens-induced association of high-redshift and foreground galaxies has perhaps already been observed among a sample of galaxy candidates identified at z ≈ 10.6. Future surveys will need to be designed to account for a significant gravitational lensing bias in high-redshift galaxy samples.

Selections from 2016: A Very Dark Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-12-01

Editors note:In these last two weeks of 2016, well be looking at a few selections that we havent yet discussed on AAS Nova from among the most-downloaded paperspublished in AAS journals this year. The usual posting schedule will resume after the AAS winter meeting.A High Stellar Velocity Dispersion and 100 Globular Clusters for the Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy Dragonfly 44Published August2016Main takeaway:Using the Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, a team led by Pieter van Dokkum (Yale University) discovered the very dim galaxy Dragonfly 44, located in the Coma cluster. The team estimated the center of this galaxys disk to be a whopping 98% dark matter.Why its interesting:Dragonfly 44, though dim, was discovered to host around 100 globular clusters. Measuring the dynamics of these clusters allowed van Dokkum and collaborators to estimate the mass of Dragonfly 44: roughly a trillion times the mass of the Sun. This is similar to the mass of the Milky Way, and yet the Milky Way has over a hundred times more stars than this intriguing galaxy. Its very unexpected to find a galaxy this massive that has a dark-matter fraction this high.What we can learn from this:How do ultra-faint galaxies like these form? One theory is that theyre failed normal galaxies: they have the sizes, dark-matter content, and globular cluster systems of much more luminous galaxies, but they were prevented from building up a normal stellar population. So far, Dragonfly 44s properties seem consistent with this picture.CitationPieter van Dokkum et al 2016 ApJL 828 L6. doi:10.3847/2041-8205/828/1/L6

Radio Galaxies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Downes, Ann

1986-01-01

Provides background information on radio galaxies. Topic areas addressed include: what produces the radio emission; radio telescopes; locating radio galaxies; how distances to radio galaxies are found; physics of radio galaxies; computer simulations of radio galaxies; and the evolution of radio galaxies with cosmic time. (JN)

Impact: a low cost, reconfigurable, digital beamforming common module building block for next generation phased arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paulsen, Lee; Hoffmann, Ted; Fulton, Caleb; Yeary, Mark; Saunders, Austin; Thompson, Dan; Chen, Bill; Guo, Alex; Murmann, Boris

2015-05-01

Phased array systems offer numerous advantages to the modern warfighter in multiple application spaces, including Radar, Electronic Warfare, Signals Intelligence, and Communications. However, a lack of commonality in the underlying technology base for DoD Phased Arrays has led to static systems with long development cycles, slow technology refreshes in response to emerging threats, and expensive, application-specific sub-components. The IMPACT module (Integrated Multi-use Phased Array Common Tile) is a multi-channel, reconfigurable, cost-effective beamformer that provides a common building block for multiple, disparate array applications.

Expedient Route To Access Rare Deoxy Amino l-Sugar Building Blocks for the Assembly of Bacterial Glycoconjugates.

PubMed

Sanapala, Someswara Rao; Kulkarni, Suvarn S

2016-04-13

Bacterial glycoproteins and oligosaccharides contain several rare deoxy amino l-sugars which are virtually absent in the human cells. This structural difference between the bacterial and host cell surface glycans can be exploited for the development of carbohydrate based vaccines and target specific drugs. However, the unusual deoxy amino l-sugars present in the bacterial glycoconjugates are not available from natural sources. Thus, procurement of orthogonally protected rare l-sugar building blocks through efficient chemical synthesis is a crucial step toward the synthesis of structurally well-defined and homogeneous complex glycans. Herein, we report a general and expedient methodology to access a variety of unusual deoxy amino l-sugars starting from readily available l-rhamnose and l-fucose via highly regioselective, one-pot double serial and double parallel displacements of the corresponding 2,4-bistriflates using azide and nitrite anions as nucleophiles. Alternatively, regioselective monotriflation at O2, O3, and O4 of l-rhamnose/l-fucose allowed selective inversions at respective positions leading to diverse rare sugars. The orthogonally protected deoxy amino l-sugar building blocks could be stereoselectively assembled to obtain biologically relevant bacterial O-glycans, as exemplified by the first total synthesis of the amino linker-attached, conjugation-ready tetrasaccharide of O-PS of Yersinia enterocolitica O:50 strain 3229 and the trisaccharide of Pseudomonas chlororaphis subsp. aureofaciens strain M71.

Old Galaxies in the Young Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2004-07-01

Very Large Telescope Unravels New Population of Very Old Massive Galaxies [1] Summary Current theories of the formation of galaxies are based on the hierarchical merging of smaller entities into larger and larger structures, starting from about the size of a stellar globular cluster and ending with clusters of galaxies. According to this scenario, it is assumed that no massive galaxies existed in the young universe. However, this view may now have to be revised. Using the multi-mode FORS2 instrument on the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, a team of Italian astronomers [2] have identified four remote galaxies, several times more massive than the Milky Way galaxy, or as massive as the heaviest galaxies in the present-day universe. Those galaxies must have formed when the Universe was only about 2,000 million years old, that is some 12,000 million years ago. The newly discovered objects may be members of a population of old massive galaxies undetected until now. The existence of such systems shows that the build-up of massive elliptical galaxies was much faster in the early Universe than expected from current theory. PR Photo 21a/04: Small Part of the K20 Field Showing the z=1.9 Elliptical Galaxy (ACS/HST). PR Photo 21b/04: Averaged Spectrum of Old Galaxies (FORS2/VLT). Hierarchical merging Galaxies are like islands in the Universe, made of stars as well as dust and gas clouds. They come in different sizes and shapes. Astronomers generally distinguish between spiral galaxies - like our own Milky Way, NGC 1232 or the famous Andromeda galaxy - and elliptical galaxies, the latter mostly containing old stars and having very little dust or gas. Some galaxies are intermediate between spirals and ellipticals and are referred to as lenticular or spheroidal galaxies. Galaxies are not only distinct in shape, they also vary in size: some may be as "light" as a stellar globular cluster in our Milky Way (i.e. they contain about the equivalent of a few million Suns) while others

Inversion method applied to the rotation curves of galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Márquez-Caicedo, L. A.; Lora-Clavijo, F. D.; Sanabria-Gómez, J. D.

2017-07-01

We used simulated annealing, Montecarlo and genetic algorithm methods for matching both numerical data of density and velocity profiles in some low surface brigthness galaxies with theoretical models of Boehmer-Harko, Navarro-Frenk-White and Pseudo Isothermal Profiles for galaxies with dark matter halos. We found that Navarro-Frenk-White model does not fit at all in contrast with the other two models which fit very well. Inversion methods have been widely used in various branches of science including astrophysics (Charbonneau 1995, ApJS, 101, 309). In this work we have used three different parametric inversion methods (MonteCarlo, Genetic Algorithm and Simmulated Annealing) in order to determine the best fit of the observed data of the density and velocity profiles of a set of low surface brigthness galaxies (De Block et al. 2001, ApJ, 122, 2396) with three models of galaxies containing dark mattter. The parameters adjusted by the inversion methods were the central density and a characteristic distance in the Boehmer-Harko BH (Boehmer & Harko 2007, JCAP, 6, 25), Navarro-Frenk-White NFW (Navarro et al. 2007, ApJ, 490, 493) and Pseudo Isothermal Profile PI (Robles & Matos 2012, MNRAS, 422, 282). The results obtained showed that the BH and PI Profile dark matter galaxies fit very well for both the density and the velocity profiles, in contrast the NFW model did not make good adjustments to the profiles in any analized galaxy.

A giant stream of metal-rich stars in the halo of the galaxy M31.

PubMed

Ibata, R; Irwin, M; Lewis, G; Ferguson, A M; Tanvir, N

2001-07-05

Recent observations have revealed streams of gas and stars in the halo of the Milky Way that are the debris from interactions between our Galaxy and some of its dwarf companion galaxies; the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and the Magellanic clouds. Analysis of the material has shown that much of the halo is made up of cannibalized satellite galaxies, and that dark matter is distributed nearly spherically in the Milky Way. It remains unclear, however, whether cannibalized substructures are as common in the haloes of galaxies as predicted by galaxy-formation theory. Here we report the discovery of a giant stream of metal-rich stars within the halo of the nearest large galaxy, M31 (the Andromeda galaxy). The source of this stream could be the dwarf galaxies M32 and NGC205, which are close companions of M31 and which may have lost a substantial number of stars owing to tidal interactions. The results demonstrate that the epoch of galaxy building still continues, albeit at a modest rate, and that tidal streams may be a generic feature of galaxy haloes.

Galaxy properties in clusters. II. Backsplash galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muriel, H.; Coenda, V.

2014-04-01

Aims: We explore the properties of galaxies on the outskirts of clusters and their dependence on recent dynamical history in order to understand the real impact that the cluster core has on the evolution of galaxies. Methods: We analyse the properties of more than 1000 galaxies brighter than M0.1r = - 19.6 on the outskirts of 90 clusters (1 < r/rvir < 2) in the redshift range 0.05 < z < 0.10. Using the line of sight velocity of galaxies relative to the cluster's mean, we selected low and high velocity subsamples. Theoretical predictions indicate that a significant fraction of the first subsample should be backsplash galaxies, that is, objects that have already orbited near the cluster centre. A significant proportion of the sample of high relative velocity (HV) galaxies seems to be composed of infalling objects. Results: Our results suggest that, at fixed stellar mass, late-type galaxies in the low-velocity (LV) sample are systematically older, redder, and have formed fewer stars during the last 3 Gyrs than galaxies in the HV sample. This result is consistent with models that assume that the central regions of clusters are effective in quenching the star formation by means of processes such as ram pressure stripping or strangulation. At fixed stellar mass, LV galaxies show some evidence of having higher surface brightness and smaller size than HV galaxies. These results are consistent with the scenario where galaxies that have orbited the central regions of clusters are more likely to suffer tidal effects, producing loss of mass as well as a re-distribution of matter towards more compact configurations. Finally, we found a higher fraction of ET galaxies in the LV sample, supporting the idea that the central region of clusters of galaxies may contribute to the transformation of morphological types towards earlier types.

Core-Shell Particles as Building Blocks for Systems with High Duality Symmetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahimzadegan, Aso; Rockstuhl, Carsten; Fernandez-Corbaton, Ivan

2018-05-01

Material electromagnetic duality symmetry requires a system to have equal electric and magnetic responses. Intrinsically dual materials that meet the duality conditions at the level of the constitutive relations do not exist in many frequency bands. Nevertheless, discrete objects like metallic helices and homogeneous dielectric spheres can be engineered to approximate the dual behavior. We exploit the extra degrees of freedom of a core-shell dielectric sphere in a particle optimization procedure. The duality symmetry of the resulting particle is more than 1 order of magnitude better than previously reported nonmagnetic objects. We use T -matrix-based multiscattering techniques to show that the improvement is transferred onto the duality symmetry of composite objects when the core-shell particle is used as a building block instead of homogeneous spheres. These results are relevant for the fashioning of systems with high duality symmetry, which are required for some technologically important effects.

Galaxies Collide to Create Hot, Huge Galaxy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2009-01-01

This image of a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 shows them in a rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy. The prolonged, violent collision has drastically altered the appearance of both galaxies and created huge amounts of heat turning NGC 6240 into an 'infrared luminous' active galaxy.

A rich variety of active galaxies, with different shapes, luminosities and radiation profiles exist. These galaxies may be related astronomers have suspected that they may represent an evolutionary sequence. By catching different galaxies in different stages of merging, a story emerges as one type of active galaxy changes into another. NGC 6240 provides an important 'missing link' in this process.

This image was created from combined data from the infrared array camera of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope at 3.6 and 8.0 microns (red) and visible light from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (green and blue).

Cyclodextrins as versatile building blocks for regenerative medicine.

PubMed

Alvarez-Lorenzo, Carmen; García-González, Carlos A; Concheiro, Angel

2017-12-28

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are one of the most versatile substances produced by nature, and it is in the aqueous biological environment where the multifaceted potential of CDs can be completely unveiled. CDs form inclusion complexes with a variety of guest molecules, including polymers, producing very diverse biocompatible supramolecular structures. Additionally, CDs themselves can trigger cell differentiation to distinct lineages depending on the substituent groups and also promote salt nucleation. These features together with the affinity-driven regulated release of therapeutic molecules, growth factors and gene vectors explain the rising interest for CDs as building blocks in regenerative medicine. Supramolecular poly(pseudo)rotaxane structures and zipper-like assemblies exhibit outstanding viscoelastic properties, performing as syringeable implants. The sharp shear-responsiveness of the supramolecular assemblies is opening new avenues for the design of bioinks for 3D printing and also of electrospun fibers. CDs can also be transformed into polymerizable monomers to prepare alternative nanostructured materials. The aim of this review is to analyze the role that CDs may play in regenerative medicine through the analysis of the last decade research. Most applications of CD-based scaffolds are focussed on non-healing bone fractures, cartilage reparation and skin recovery, but also on even more challenging demands such as neural grafts. For the sake of clarity, main sections of this review are organized according to the architecture of the CD-based scaffolds, mainly syringeable supramolecular hydrogels, 3D printed scaffolds, electrospun fibers, and composites, since the same scaffold type may find application in different tissues. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

SEMI-ANALYTIC GALAXY EVOLUTION (SAGE): MODEL CALIBRATION AND BASIC RESULTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Croton, Darren J.; Stevens, Adam R. H.; Tonini, Chiara

2016-02-15

This paper describes a new publicly available codebase for modeling galaxy formation in a cosmological context, the “Semi-Analytic Galaxy Evolution” model, or sage for short.{sup 5} sage is a significant update to the 2006 model of Croton et al. and has been rebuilt to be modular and customizable. The model will run on any N-body simulation whose trees are organized in a supported format and contain a minimum set of basic halo properties. In this work, we present the baryonic prescriptions implemented in sage to describe the formation and evolution of galaxies, and their calibration for three N-body simulations: Millennium,more » Bolshoi, and GiggleZ. Updated physics include the following: gas accretion, ejection due to feedback, and reincorporation via the galactic fountain; a new gas cooling–radio mode active galactic nucleus (AGN) heating cycle; AGN feedback in the quasar mode; a new treatment of gas in satellite galaxies; and galaxy mergers, disruption, and the build-up of intra-cluster stars. Throughout, we show the results of a common default parameterization on each simulation, with a focus on the local galaxy population.« less

Statistical molecular design of building blocks for combinatorial chemistry.

PubMed

Linusson, A; Gottfries, J; Lindgren, F; Wold, S

2000-04-06

The reduction of the size of a combinatorial library can be made in two ways, either base the selection on the building blocks (BB's) or base it on the full set of virtually constructed products. In this paper we have investigated the effects of applying statistical designs to BB sets compared to selections based on the final products. The two sets of BB's and the virtually constructed library were described by structural parameters, and the correlation between the two characterizations was investigated. Three different selection approaches were used both for the BB sets and for the products. In the first two the selection algorithms were applied directly to the data sets (D-optimal design and space-filling design), while for the third a cluster analysis preceded the selection (cluster-based design). The selections were compared using visual inspection, the Tanimoto coefficient, the Euclidean distance, the condition number, and the determinant of the resulting data matrix. No difference in efficiency was found between selections made in the BB space and in the product space. However, it is of critical importance to investigate the BB space carefully and to select an appropriate number of BB's to result in an adequate diversity. An example from the pharmaceutical industry is then presented, where selection via BB's was made using a cluster-based design.

Probing Magnetic Fields of Early Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-06-01

How do magnetic fields form and evolve in early galaxies? A new study has provided some clever observations to help us answer this question.The Puzzle of Growing FieldsDynamo theory is the primary model describing how magnetic fields develop in galaxies. In this picture, magnetic fields start out as weak seed fields that are small and unordered. These fields then become ordered and amplified by large-scale rotation and turbulence in galaxy disks and halos, eventually leading to the magnetic fields we observe in galaxies today.Schematic showinghow to indirectly measure protogalactic magnetic fields. The measured polarization of a background quasar is altered by the fields in a foreground protogalaxy. Click for a closer look! [Farnes et al. 2017/Adolf Schaller/STSCI/NRAO/AUI/NSF]To test this model, we need observations of the magnetic fields in young protogalaxies. Unfortunately, we dont have the sensitivity to be able to measure these fields directly but a team of scientists led by Jamie Farnes (Radboud University in the Netherlands) have come up with a creative alternative.The key is to find early protogalaxies that absorb the light of more distant background objects. If a protogalaxy lies between us and a distant quasar, then magnetic fields of the protogalaxy if present will affect the polarization measurements of the background quasar.Observing Galactic Building BlocksTop: Redshift distribution for the background quasars in the authors sample. Bottom: Redshift distribution for the foreground protogalaxies the authors are exploring. [Farnes et al. 2017]Farnes and collaborators examined two types of foreground protogalaxies: Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers (DLAs) and Lyman Limit Systems (LLSs). They obtained polarimetric data for a sample of 114 distant quasars with nothing in the foreground (the control sample), 19 quasars with DLAs in the foreground, and 27 quasars with LLSs in the foreground. They then used statistical analysis techniques to draw conclusions about

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies: Keystones of galaxy evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gallagher, John S., III; Wyse, Rosemary F. G.

1994-01-01

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the most insignificant extragalactic stellar systems in terms of their visibility, but potentially very significant in terms of their role in the formation and evolution of much more luminous galaxies. We discuss the present observational data and their implications for theories of the formation and evolution of both dwarf and giant galaxies. The putative dark-matter content of these low-surface-brightness systems is of particular interest, as is their chemical evolution. Surveys for new dwarf spheroidals hidden behind the stars of our Galaxy and those which are not bound to giant galaxies may give new clues as to the origins of this unique class of galaxy.

Mononuclear, trinuclear, and hetero-trinuclear supramolecular complexes containing a new tri-sulfonate ligand and cobalt(II)/copper(II)-(1,10-phenanthroline) 2 building blocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Yunfang; Wei, Yongqin; Broer, Ria; Sa, Rongjian; Wu, Kechen

2008-03-01

Novel mononuclear, trinuclear, and hetero-trinuclear supermolecular complexes, [Co(phen) 2(H 2O)(HTST)]·2H 2O ( 1), [Co 3(phen) 6(H 2O) 2(TST) 2]·7H 2O ( 2), and [Co 2Cu(phen) 6(H 2O) 2(TST) 2]·10H 2O ( 3), have been synthesized by the reactions of a new tri-sulfonate ligand (2,4,6-tris(4-sulfophenylamino)-1,3,5-triazine, H 3TST) with the M2+ ( M=Co, Cu) and the second ligand 1,10-phenanthroline (phen). Complex 1 contains a cis-Co(II)(phen) 2 building block and an HTST as monodentate ligand; complex 2 consists of two TST as bidentate ligands connecting one trans- and two cis-Co(II)(phen) 2 building blocks; complex 3 is formed by replacing the trans-Co(II)(phen) 2 in 2 with a trans-Cu(II)(phen) 2, which is the first reported hetero-trinuclear supramolecular complex containing both the Co(II)(phen) 2 and Cu(II)(phen) 2 as building blocks. The study shows the flexible multifunctional self-assembly capability of the H 3TST ligands presenting in these supramolecular complexes through coordinative, H-bonding and even π- π stacking interactions. The photoluminescent optical properties of these complexes are also investigated and discussed as well as the second-order nonlinear optical properties of 1.

Galaxy bias from galaxy-galaxy lensing in the DES science verification data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prat, J.; Sánchez, C.; Miquel, R.; Kwan, J.; Blazek, J.; Bonnett, C.; Amara, A.; Bridle, S. L.; Clampitt, J.; Crocce, M.; Fosalba, P.; Gaztanaga, E.; Giannantonio, T.; Hartley, W. G.; Jarvis, M.; MacCrann, N.; Percival, W. J.; Ross, A. J.; Sheldon, E.; Zuntz, J.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Abdalla, F. B.; Annis, J.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bertin, E.; Brooks, D.; Burke, D. L.; Carnero Rosell, A.; Carrasco Kind, M.; Carretero, J.; Castander, F. J.; da Costa, L. N.; DePoy, D. L.; Desai, S.; Diehl, H. T.; Doel, P.; Eifler, T. F.; Evrard, A. E.; Fausti Neto, A.; Flaugher, B.; Frieman, J.; Gerdes, D. W.; Goldstein, D. A.; Gruen, D.; Gruendl, R. A.; Gutierrez, G.; Honscheid, K.; James, D. J.; Kuehn, K.; Kuropatkin, N.; Lahav, O.; Lima, M.; Marshall, J. L.; Melchior, P.; Menanteau, F.; Nord, B.; Plazas, A. A.; Reil, K.; Romer, A. K.; Roodman, A.; Sanchez, E.; Scarpine, V.; Schubnell, M.; Sevilla-Noarbe, I.; Smith, R. C.; Soares-Santos, M.; Sobreira, F.; Suchyta, E.; Swanson, M. E. C.; Tarle, G.; Thomas, D.; Walker, A. R.

2018-01-01

We present a measurement of galaxy-galaxy lensing around a magnitude-limited (iAB < 22.5) sample of galaxies from the dark energy survey science verification (DES-SV) data. We split these lenses into three photometric-redshift bins from 0.2 to 0.8, and determine the product of the galaxy bias b and cross-correlation coefficient between the galaxy and dark matter overdensity fields r in each bin, using scales above 4 h-1 Mpc comoving, where we find the linear bias model to be valid given our current uncertainties. We compare our galaxy bias results from galaxy-galaxy lensing with those obtained from galaxy clustering and CMB lensing for the same sample of galaxies, and find our measurements to be in good agreement with those in Crocce et al., while, in the lowest redshift bin (z ∼ 0.3), they show some tension with the findings in Giannantonio et al. We measure b · r to be 0.87 ± 0.11, 1.12 ± 0.16 and 1.24 ± 0.23, respectively, for the three redshift bins of width Δz = 0.2 in the range 0.2 < z < 0.8, defined with the photometric-redshift algorithm BPZ. Using a different code to split the lens sample, TPZ, leads to changes in the measured biases at the 10-20 per cent level, but it does not alter the main conclusion of this work: when comparing with Crocce et al. we do not find strong evidence for a cross-correlation parameter significantly below one in this galaxy sample, except possibly at the lowest redshift bin (z ∼ 0.3), where we find r = 0.71 ± 0.11 when using TPZ, and 0.83 ± 0.12 with BPZ.

Building block diode laser concept for high brightness laser output in the kW range and its applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrario, Fabio; Fritsche, Haro; Grohe, Andreas; Hagen, Thomas; Kern, Holger; Koch, Ralf; Kruschke, Bastian; Reich, Axel; Sanftleben, Dennis; Steger, Ronny; Wallendorf, Till; Gries, Wolfgang

2016-03-01

The modular concept of DirectPhotonics laser systems is a big advantage regarding its manufacturability, serviceability as well as reproducibility. By sticking to identical base components an economic production allows to serve as many applications as possible while keeping the product variations minimal. The modular laser design is based on single emitters and various combining technics. In a first step we accept a reduction of the very high brightness of the single emitters by vertical stacking several diodes in fast axis. This can be theoretically done until the combined fast axis beam quality is on a comparable level as the individual diodes slow axis beam quality without loosing overall beam performance after fiber coupling. Those stacked individual emitters can be wavelength stabilized by an external resonator, providing the very same feedback to each of those laser diodes which leads to an output power of about 100 W with BPP of <3.5 mm*mrad (FA) and <5 mm*mrad (SA). In the next steps, further power scaling is accomplished by polarization and wavelength multiplexing yielding high optical efficiencies of more than 80% and resulting in a building block module with about 500 W launched into a 100 μm fiber with 0.15 NA. Higher power levels can be achieved by stacking those building blocks using the very same dense spectral combing technique up to multi kW Systems without further reduction of the BPP. The 500 W building blocks are consequently designed in a way that they feature a high flexibility with regard to their emitting wavelength bandwidth. Therefore, new wavelengths can be implemented by only exchanging parts and without any additional change of the production process. This design principal theoretically offers the option to adapt the wavelength of those blocks to any applications, from UV, visible into the far IR as long as there are any diodes commercially available. This opens numerous additional applications like laser pumping, scientific

Biorefineries for the production of top building block chemicals and their derivatives.

PubMed

Choi, Sol; Song, Chan Woo; Shin, Jae Ho; Lee, Sang Yup

2015-03-01

Due to the growing concerns on the climate change and sustainability on petrochemical resources, DOE selected and announced the bio-based top 12 building blocks and discussed the needs for developing biorefinery technologies to replace the current petroleum based industry in 2004. Over the last 10 years after its announcement, many studies have been performed for the development of efficient technologies for the bio-based production of these chemicals and derivatives. Now, ten chemicals among these top 12 chemicals, excluding the l-aspartic acid and 3-hydroxybutyrolactone, have already been commercialized or are close to commercialization. In this paper, we review the current status of biorefinery development for the production of these platform chemicals and their derivatives. In addition, current technological advances on industrial strain development for the production of platform chemicals using micro-organisms will be covered in detail with case studies on succinic acid and 3-hydroxypropionic acid as examples. Copyright © 2015 International Metabolic Engineering Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Structural insight into RNA recognition motifs: versatile molecular Lego building blocks for biological systems.

PubMed

Muto, Yutaka; Yokoyama, Shigeyuki

2012-01-01

'RNA recognition motifs (RRMs)' are common domain-folds composed of 80-90 amino-acid residues in eukaryotes, and have been identified in many cellular proteins. At first they were known as RNA binding domains. Through discoveries over the past 20 years, however, the RRMs have been shown to exhibit versatile molecular recognition activities and to behave as molecular Lego building blocks to construct biological systems. Novel RNA/protein recognition modes by RRMs are being identified, and more information about the molecular recognition by RRMs is becoming available. These RNA/protein recognition modes are strongly correlated with their biological significance. In this review, we would like to survey the recent progress on these versatile molecular recognition modules. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Synthetic polycations with controlled charge density and molecular weight as building blocks for biomaterials.

PubMed

Kleinberger, Rachelle M; Burke, Nicholas A D; Zhou, Christal; Stöver, Harald D H

2016-01-01

A series of polycations prepared by RAFT copolymerization of N-(3-aminopropyl)methacrylamide hydrochloride (APM) and N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide, with molecular weights of 15 and 40 kDa, and APM content of 10-75 mol%, were tested as building blocks for electrostatically assembled hydrogels such as those used for cell encapsulation. Complexation and distribution of these copolymers within anionic calcium alginate gels, as well as cytotoxicity, cell attachment, and cell proliferation on surfaces grafted with the copolymers were found to depend on composition and molecular weight. Copolymers with lower cationic charge density and lower molecular weight showed less cytotoxicity and cell adhesion, and were more mobile within alginate gels. These findings aid in designing improved polyelectrolyte complexes for use as biomaterials.

Recurrence of 49-base decamers, nonomers, and octamers within mouse C mu gene of Ig heavy chain and its primordial building block.

PubMed Central

Yazaki, A; Ohno, S

1983-01-01

Within the published 2,168-base-long mouse C mu gene of Ig heavy chain consisting of four coding and four noncoding segments, 2 base decamers, 8 nonomers, and 39 octamers recurred. Recurring base heptamers (about 100) and hexamers (about 350) were simply too numerous to merit individual identification. In spite of extensive overlaps between these recurring base decamers to hexamers, they occupied nearly the entire length of mouse Ig C mu gene. As with other genes of the beta-sheet-forming beta 2-microglobulin family, the Ig C mu gene (flanking and intervening noncoding sequences included) is not a unique sequence but rather it is degenerate repeats of the 45-base-long primordial building-block sequence uniquely its own. This primordial building block must originally have specified the 15-amino-acid-residue-long primordial arm of beta-sheet-forming loops, the characteristics of the beta 2-microglobulin family of polypeptides. PMID:6403948

Remote Stabilization of Copper Paddlewheel Based Molecular Building Blocks in Metal-Organic Frameworks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gao, Wen-Yang; Cai, Rong; Pham, Tony

Copper paddlewheel based molecular building blocks (MBBs) are ubiquitous and have been widely employed for the construction of highly porous metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). However, most copper paddlewheel based MOFs fail to retain their structural integrity in the presence of water. This instability is directly correlated to the plausible displacement of coordinating carboxylates in the copper paddlewheel MBB, [Cu₂(O₂C-)₄], by the strongly coordinating water molecules. In this comprehensive study, we illustrate the chemical stability control in the rht-MOF platform via strengthening the coordinating bonds within the triangular inorganic MBB, [Cu₃O(N 4–x(CH) xC-)₃] (x = 0, 1, or 2). Remotely, the chemicalmore » stabilization propagated into the paddlewheel MBB to afford isoreticular rht-MOFs with remarkably enhanced water/chemical stabilities compared to the prototypal rht-MOF-1.« less

Photoelectron spectra of some antibiotic building blocks: 2-azetidinone and thiazolidine-carboxylic acid.

PubMed

Ahmed, Marawan; Ganesan, Aravindhan; Wang, Feng; Feyer, Vitaliy; Plekan, Oksana; Prince, Kevin C

2012-08-23

X-ray photoelectron spectra of the core and valence levels of the fundamental building blocks of β-lactam antibiotics have been investigated and compared with theoretical calculations. The spectra of the compounds 2-azetidinone and the 2- and 4-isomers of thiazolidine-carboxylic acid are interpreted in the light of theoretical calculations. The spectra of the two isomers of thiazolidine-carboxylic acid are rather similar, as expected, but show clear effects due to isomerization. Both isomers are analogues of proline, which is well-known to populate several low energy conformers in the gas phase. We have investigated the low energy conformers of thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid theoretically in more detail and find some spectroscopic evidence that multiple conformers may be present. The measured valence levels are assigned for all three compounds, and the character of the frontier orbitals is identified and analyzed.

GalaxyTBM: template-based modeling by building a reliable core and refining unreliable local regions.

PubMed

Ko, Junsu; Park, Hahnbeom; Seok, Chaok

2012-08-10

Protein structures can be reliably predicted by template-based modeling (TBM) when experimental structures of homologous proteins are available. However, it is challenging to obtain structures more accurate than the single best templates by either combining information from multiple templates or by modeling regions that vary among templates or are not covered by any templates. We introduce GalaxyTBM, a new TBM method in which the more reliable core region is modeled first from multiple templates and less reliable, variable local regions, such as loops or termini, are then detected and re-modeled by an ab initio method. This TBM method is based on "Seok-server," which was tested in CASP9 and assessed to be amongst the top TBM servers. The accuracy of the initial core modeling is enhanced by focusing on more conserved regions in the multiple-template selection and multiple sequence alignment stages. Additional improvement is achieved by ab initio modeling of up to 3 unreliable local regions in the fixed framework of the core structure. Overall, GalaxyTBM reproduced the performance of Seok-server, with GalaxyTBM and Seok-server resulting in average GDT-TS of 68.1 and 68.4, respectively, when tested on 68 single-domain CASP9 TBM targets. For application to multi-domain proteins, GalaxyTBM must be combined with domain-splitting methods. Application of GalaxyTBM to CASP9 targets demonstrates that accurate protein structure prediction is possible by use of a multiple-template-based approach, and ab initio modeling of variable regions can further enhance the model quality.

An Organolanthanide Building Block Approach to Single-Molecule Magnets.

PubMed

Harriman, Katie L M; Murugesu, Muralee

2016-06-21

and experimental chemistry allows us to shed light on the mechanisms and electronic properties that govern the slow relaxation dynamics inherent to this unique set of SMMs, thus providing insight into the role by which both symmetry and crystal field effects contribute to the magnetic properties. As we look to the future success of such materials in practical devices, we must gain an understanding of how the 4f elements communicate magnetically, a subject upon which there is still limited knowledge. As such, we have described our work on coupling mononuclear metallocenes to generate new dinuclear SMMs. Through a building block approach, we have been able to gain access to new double,- triple- and quadruple-decker complexes that possess remarkable properties; exhibiting TB of 12 K and Ueff above 300 K. Our goal is to develop a fundamental platform from which to study 4f coupling, while maintaining and enhancing the strict axiality of the anisotropy of the 4f ions. This Account will present a successful strategy employed in the production of novel and high-performing SMMs, as well as a clear overview of the lessons learned throughout.

Extragalactic Astrophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Webb, James R.

2016-09-01

This book is intended to be a course about the creation and evolution of the universe at large, including the basic macroscopic building blocks (galaxies) and the overall large-scale structure. This text covers a broad range of topics for a graduate-level class in a physics department where students' available credit hours for astrophysics classes are limited. The sections cover galactic structure, external galaxies, galaxy clustering, active galaxies, general relativity and cosmology.

Plastic Fibre Reinforced Soil Blocks as a Sustainable Building Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasad, C. K. Subramania; Nambiar, E. K. Kunhanandan; Abraham, Benny Mathews

2012-10-01

Solid waste management, especially the huge quantity of waste plastics, is one of the major environmental concerns nowadays. Their employability in block making in the form of fibres, as one of the methods of waste management, can be investigated through a fundamental research. This paper highlights the salient observations from a systematic investigation on the effect of embedded fibre from plastic waste on the performance of stabilised mud blocks. Stabilisation of the soil was done by adding cement, lime and their combination. Plastic fibre in chopped form from carry bags and mineral water bottles were added (0.1% & 0.2% by weight of soil) as reinforcement. The blocks were tested for density, and compressive strength, and observed failure patterns were analysed. Blocks with 0.1% of plastic fibres showed an increase in strength of about 3 to 10%. From the observations of failure pattern it can be concluded that benefits of fibre reinforcement includes both improved ductility in comparison with raw blocks and inhibition of crack propogation after its initial formation.

Galaxy Morphology Revealed By SDSS: Blue Elliptical Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ann, Hong Bae

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) reveals many new features of galaxy morphologies. Among others, the discovery of blue elliptical galaxies provides some insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies. There seems to be two types of blue elliptical galaxies. One type shows globally blue colors suggesting star formations over the entire galaxy whereas the other type shows blue core that indicates enhanced star formation in the nuclear regions. The former seems to be currently forming galaxies, while the latter is thought to be in transition stage from the blue cloud to the red sequence due to AGN feedback.

Synthesis of histone proteins by CPE ligation using a recombinant peptide as the C-terminal building block.

PubMed

Kawakami, Toru; Yoshikawa, Ryo; Fujiyoshi, Yuki; Mishima, Yuichi; Hojo, Hironobu; Tajima, Shoji; Suetake, Isao

2015-11-01

The post-translational modification of histones plays an important role in gene expression. We report herein on a method for synthesizing such modified histones by ligating chemically prepared N-terminal peptides and C-terminal recombinant peptide building blocks. Based on their chemical synthesis, core histones can be categorized as two types; histones H2A, H2B and H4 which contain no Cys residues, and histone H3 which contains a Cys residue(s) in the C-terminal region. A combination of native chemical ligation and desulphurization can be simply used to prepare histones without Cys residues. For the synthesis of histone H3, the endogenous Cys residue(s) must be selectively protected, while keeping the N-terminal Cys residue of the C-terminal building block that is introduced for purposes of chemical ligation unprotected. To this end, a phenacyl group was successfully utilized to protect endogenous Cys residue(s), and the recombinant peptide was ligated with a peptide containing a Cys-Pro ester (CPE) sequence as a thioester precursor. Using this approach it was possible to prepare all of the core histones H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 with any modifications. The resulting proteins could then be used to prepare a core histone library of proteins that have been post-translationally modified. © The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Japanese Biochemical Society. All rights reserved.

Environments of z~0.2 Star Forming Galaxies: Building on the Citizen Science Discovery of the Green Peas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardamone, Carolin; Cappelluti, Nico; Powell, Meredith; Urry, Meg; Galaxy Zoo Science Team

2018-01-01

‘Green Pea’ galaxies, discovered in the Galaxy Zoo citizen science project, are rare low-mass (M < 1 x 1010 M⊙) galaxies, experiencing an episode of compact, relatively low-metalicity (z ≈ 1/5 z⊙), intense starformation (3-60 M⊙/yr). While their spectra have been investigated in a wide-array of follow-up studies, a detailed study of their environments is missing. Two-point correlation functions have been used to show the environmental dependence of an array of galaxy properties (eg., mass, luminosity, color, star formation, and morphology). In this study, we present a cross-correlation analysis between the Green Peas and the Luminous Red Galaxies throughout the SDSS footprint, and we find that the population of Green Peas at 0.11

The metal-poor knee in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hendricks, Benjamin; Koch, Andreas; Lanfranchi, Gustavo A.

2014-04-20

We present α-element abundances of Mg, Si, and Ti for a large sample of field stars in two outer fields of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy, obtained with Very Large Telescope/GIRAFFE (R ∼ 16, 000). Due to the large fraction of metal-poor (MP) stars in our sample, we are able to follow the α-element evolution from [Fe/H] ≈ –2.5 continuously to [Fe/H] ≈ –0.7. For the first time we are able to resolve the turnover from the Type II supernovae (SNe) dominated, α-enhanced plateau down to subsolar [α/Fe] values, due to the onset of SNe Ia, and thus tomore » trace the chemical enrichment efficiency of the galaxy. Our data support the general concept of an α-enhanced plateau at early epochs, followed by a well-defined 'knee' caused by the onset of SNe Ia, and finally a second plateau with sub-solar [α/Fe] values. We find the position of this knee to be at [Fe/H] ≈ –1.9 and therefore significantly more MP than expected from comparison with other dSphs and standard evolutionary models. Surprisingly, this value is rather comparable to the knee in Sculptor, a dSph ∼10 times less luminous than Fornax. Using chemical evolution models, we find that the position of the knee and the subsequent plateau at the sub-solar level can hardly be explained unless the galaxy experienced several discrete star formation (SF) events with a drastic variation in SF efficiency, while a uniform SF can be ruled out. One possible evolutionary scenario is that Fornax experienced one or several major accretion events from gas-rich systems in the past, so that its current stellar mass is not indicative of the chemical evolution environment at ancient times. If Fornax is the product of several smaller buildings blocks, this may also have implications for the understanding of the formation process of dSphs in general.« less

A generalized locomotion CPG architecture based on oscillatory building blocks.

PubMed

Yang, Zhijun; França, Felipe M G

2003-07-01

Neural oscillation is one of the most extensively investigated topics of artificial neural networks. Scientific approaches to the functionalities of both natural and artificial intelligences are strongly related to mechanisms underlying oscillatory activities. This paper concerns itself with the assumption of the existence of central pattern generators (CPGs), which are the plausible neural architectures with oscillatory capabilities, and presents a discrete and generalized approach to the functionality of locomotor CPGs of legged animals. Based on scheduling by multiple edge reversal (SMER), a primitive and deterministic distributed algorithm, it is shown how oscillatory building block (OBB) modules can be created and, hence, how OBB-based networks can be formulated as asymmetric Hopfield-like neural networks for the generation of complex coordinated rhythmic patterns observed among pairs of biological motor neurons working during different gait patterns. It is also shown that the resulting Hopfield-like network possesses the property of reproducing the whole spectrum of different gaits intrinsic to the target locomotor CPGs. Although the new approach is not restricted to the understanding of the neurolocomotor system of any particular animal, hexapodal and quadrupedal gait patterns are chosen as illustrations given the wide interest expressed by the ongoing research in the area.

2. EXTERIOR VIEW OF BUILDING 25B (TEST CHAMBER BUILDING) AND ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

2. EXTERIOR VIEW OF BUILDING 25B (TEST CHAMBER BUILDING) AND WIND TUNNEL, LOOKING NORTHWEST (1991). - Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Area B, Buildings 25 & 24,10-foot & 20-foot Wind Tunnel Complex, Northeast side of block bounded by K, G, Third, & Fifth Streets, Dayton, Montgomery County, OH

Polar ring galaxies in the Galaxy Zoo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finkelman, Ido; Funes, José G.; Brosch, Noah

2012-05-01

We report observations of 16 candidate polar-ring galaxies (PRGs) identified by the Galaxy Zoo project in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data base. Deep images of five galaxies are available in the SDSS Stripe82 data base, while to reach similar depth we observed the remaining galaxies with the 1.8-m Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. We derive integrated magnitudes and u-r colours for the host and ring components and show continuum-subtracted Hα+[N II] images for seven objects. We present a basic morphological and environmental analysis of the galaxies and discuss their properties in comparison with other types of early-type galaxies. Follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations will allow a kinematic confirmation of the nature of these systems and a more detailed analysis of their stellar populations.

Block Play: Practical Suggestions for Common Dilemmas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tunks, Karyn Wellhousen

2009-01-01

Learning materials and teaching methods used in early childhood classrooms have fluctuated greatly over the past century. However, one learning tool has stood the test of time: Wood building blocks, often called unit blocks, continue to be a source of pleasure and learning for young children at play. Wood blocks have the unique capacity to engage…

The Host Galaxies Of UV-selected AGNs At z 2-3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hainline, Kevin; Shapley, A.; Greene, J.; Steidel, C.

2012-01-01

An important goal for studies of galaxy formation consists of tracing a direct evolutionary connection between the growth of supermassive black holes powering active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the build-up of stellar mass in their host galaxies. In the local universe, AGNs are preferentially found in bulge-dominated galaxies, but the AGN demographics at earlier epochs are not as well understood. We present a rest-frame UV composite spectrum for a sample of 33 z 2-3 AGNs drawn from the UV-selected Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) survey. This spectrum shows many emission and absorption features, such as HI Lyman-alpha, NV 1240, NIV] 1483, 1486, CIV 1548, 1550, HeII 1640, and CIII] 1907, 1909. Redshifted SiIV 1394 absorption provides evidence for outflowing high-ionization gas in these objects at speeds of 103 km/s. Finally, using optical, near-IR, and mid-IR photometry, which cover the rest-frame UV to near-IR portions of the galaxies' spectral energy distributions, we perform stellar population synthesis modeling of the sample. Based on these results, we explore the relationship in the host galaxy between AGN activity, maturity of the stellar population, and regulation of star formation.

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography-multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry method for basic building block analysis of low molecular weight heparins prepared through nitrous acid depolymerization.

PubMed

Sun, Xiaojun; Guo, Zhimou; Yu, Mengqi; Lin, Chao; Sheng, Anran; Wang, Zhiyu; Linhardt, Robert J; Chi, Lianli

2017-01-06

Low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) are important anticoagulant drugs that are prepared through depolymerization of unfractionated heparin. Based on the types of processing reactions and the structures of the products, LMWHs can be divided into different classifications. Enoxaparin is prepared by benzyl esterification and alkaline depolymerization, while dalteparin and nadroparin are prepared through nitrous acid depolymerization followed by borohydride reduction. Compositional analysis of their basic building blocks is an effective way to provide structural information on heparin and LMWHs. However, most current compositional analysis methods have been limited to heparin and enoxaparin. A sensitive and comprehensive approach is needed for detailed investigation of the structure of LMWHs prepared through nitrous acid depolymerization, especially their characteristic saturated non-reducing end (NRE) and 2,5-anhydro-d-mannitol reducing end (RE). A maltose modified hydrophilic interaction column offers improved separation of complicated mixtures of acidic disaccharides and oligosaccharides. A total of 36 basic building blocks were unambiguously identified by high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (MS). Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) MS/MS quantification was developed and validated in the analysis of dalteparin and nadroparin samples. Each group of building blocks revealed different aspects of the properties of LMWHs, such as functional motifs required for anticoagulant activity, the structure of heparin starting materials, cleavage sites in the depolymerization reaction, and undesired structural modifications resulting from side reactions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The dark nemesis of galaxy formation: why hot haloes trigger black hole growth and bring star formation to an end

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bower, Richard G.; Schaye, Joop; Frenk, Carlos S.; Theuns, Tom; Schaller, Matthieu; Crain, Robert A.; McAlpine, Stuart

2017-02-01

Galaxies fall into two clearly distinct types: `blue-sequence' galaxies which are rapidly forming young stars, and `red-sequence' galaxies in which star formation has almost completely ceased. Most galaxies more massive than 3 × 1010 M⊙ follow the red sequence, while less massive central galaxies lie on the blue sequence. We show that these sequences are created by a competition between star formation-driven outflows and gas accretion on to the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's centre. We develop a simple analytic model for this interaction. In galaxies less massive than 3 × 1010 M⊙, young stars and supernovae drive a high-entropy outflow which is more buoyant than any tenuous corona. The outflow balances the rate of gas inflow, preventing high gas densities building up in the central regions. More massive galaxies, however, are surrounded by an increasingly hot corona. Above a halo mass of ˜1012 M⊙, the outflow ceases to be buoyant and star formation is unable to prevent the build-up of gas in the central regions. This triggers a strongly non-linear response from the black hole. Its accretion rate rises rapidly, heating the galaxy's corona, disrupting the incoming supply of cool gas and starving the galaxy of the fuel for star formation. The host galaxy makes a transition to the red sequence, and further growth predominantly occurs through galaxy mergers. We show that the analytic model provides a good description of galaxy evolution in the EAGLE hydrodynamic simulations. So long as star formation-driven outflows are present, the transition mass scale is almost independent of subgrid parameter choice.

Low Ionization Absorbing Gas Kinematics Around Z ~ 1 Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Churchill, C. W.; Steidel, C. C.; Vogt, S. S.

1996-12-01

Absorption profiles of the Mg II lambda lambda 2796,2803 doublet arising from gas associated with 48 ``normal'' intermediate redshift (0.4 < z < 1.7) galaxies have been resolved in QSO spectra at 6 km s(-1) resolution using HIRES on Keck I. We have found evidence for pronounced redshift evolution in the subcomponent velocity two--point correlation function, suggestive that the gas surrounding galaxies has settled over a 5--10 Gyr look--back time. Based upon a sub--sample of 15 galaxies at z<1, we found no evidence for correlations between the absorbing gas kinematics and the projected galactocentric distance of the gas, galaxy luminosities, or galaxy rest--frame colors (though trends between galaxy properties and absorption properties are apparent from a larger low resolution absorption line sample). The implication is that low ionization gas surrounding early epoch galaxies was not smoothly distributed either spatially or kinematically out to a galactocentric distance ~ 40 kpc. Directly from the profiles, we have measured the number of separate absorbing ``kinematic subsystems'' associated with each galaxy, and each subsystem's profile velocity width, asymmetry (skew), and integrated column density. The distribution in these subsystem properties with velocity is highly peaked at zero, and does not exhibit a bimodality. The lack of a bimodality is suggestive that the gas kinematics is not dominated by quasi--symmetric infall into galactic potential wells. In view of absorption line studies of local galaxies, it appears that extended regions of low ionization gas surrounding galaxies represent a dynamical and active epoch of ``normal'' galaxy evolution. The reservoirs of gas for these extended ``halos'' were probably residual infalling fragments (from earlier formation processes and on--going dynamical events) whose evolution first included a settling in velocity dispersion and then more recently a decline in number. The build up of thick and/or extended gaseous

Andromeda Galaxy

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-12-10

This image is from NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer is an observation of the large galaxy in Andromeda, Messier 31. The Andromeda galaxy is the most massive in the local group of galaxies that includes our Milky Way.

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): ugriz galaxy luminosity functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loveday, J.; Norberg, P.; Baldry, I. K.; Driver, S. P.; Hopkins, A. M.; Peacock, J. A.; Bamford, S. P.; Liske, J.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Brown, M. J. I.; Cameron, E.; Conselice, C. J.; Croom, S. M.; Frenk, C. S.; Gunawardhana, M.; Hill, D. T.; Jones, D. H.; Kelvin, L. S.; Kuijken, K.; Nichol, R. C.; Parkinson, H. R.; Phillipps, S.; Pimbblet, K. A.; Popescu, C. C.; Prescott, M.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Sharp, R. G.; Sutherland, W. J.; Taylor, E. N.; Thomas, D.; Tuffs, R. J.; van Kampen, E.; Wijesinghe, D.

2012-02-01

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) is a project to study galaxy formation and evolution, combining imaging data from ultraviolet to radio with spectroscopic data from the AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Using data from Phase 1 of GAMA, taken over three observing seasons, and correcting for various minor sources of incompleteness, we calculate galaxy luminosity functions (LFs) and their evolution in the ugriz passbands. At low redshift, z < 0.1, we find that blue galaxies, defined according to a magnitude-dependent but non-evolving colour cut, are reasonably well fitted over a range of more than 10 magnitudes by simple Schechter functions in all bands. Red galaxies, and the combined blue plus red sample, require double power-law Schechter functions to fit a dip in their LF faintwards of the characteristic magnitude M* before a steepening faint end. This upturn is at least partly due to dust-reddened disc galaxies. We measure the evolution of the galaxy LF over the redshift range 0.002 < z < 0.5 both by using a parametric fit and by measuring binned LFs in redshift slices. The characteristic luminosity L* is found to increase with redshift in all bands, with red galaxies showing stronger luminosity evolution than blue galaxies. The comoving number density of blue galaxies increases with redshift, while that of red galaxies decreases, consistent with prevailing movement from blue cloud to red sequence. As well as being more numerous at higher redshift, blue galaxies also dominate the overall luminosity density beyond redshifts z≃ 0.2. At lower redshifts, the luminosity density is dominated by red galaxies in the riz bands, and by blue galaxies in u and g.

Super-Eight: The brightest z~8 Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holwerda, Benne; Bouwens, R.; Bradley, L.; Calvi, V.; Illingworth, G.; Labbe, I.; Magee, D.; Oesch, P.; Roberts-Borsani, G.; Smit, R.

2016-08-01

What are the properties of the most massive z~8 galaxies ('Super-Eights') and how luminous can these galaxies become at that epoch? Answering these questions is challenging due to the rarity of luminous z~8 galaxies and the large field-to-field variations in their volume densities. Indeed, the full wide-area CANDELS program only shows 3 z~8 galaxy candidates brighter than 25.5 mag and all of these candidates conspicuously lie in the same CANDELS field (EGS). One of our strongest new probes for particularly luminous z~8 galaxies are the WFC3 Pure-Parallel (PP) programs. Particularly intriguing are 8 bright z~8 candidates in these observations. These candidates have similar luminosities as the 3 brightest z~8 candidates from CANDELS (all spectroscopically confirmed). However, the uncertain contamination levels at extreme bright end of z~8 selection mean that follow-up observations are critical. We propose highly-efficient pointed HST and Spitzer/IRAC observations to determine if these candidates are indeed at z~8. We estimate that anywhere from 50 to 100% of the targeted sources will be confirmed to be at z~8 based on our results from CANDELS. The estimate is very uncertain due to very large cosmic variance in the CANDELS result and contamination from rare low-redshift sources. When combined with CANDELS, our observations would provide us the strongest current constraints on the volume density of bright, massive galaxies in the early Universe (serving as a guide to models of their build-up) and also provide valuable targets for future spectroscopy (e.g. with JWST), useful for probing the ionization state of the IGM.

Super-Eight: The brightest z 8 Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holwerda, Benne

2016-10-01

What are the properties of the most massive z 8 galaxies (Super-Eights) and how luminous can these galaxies become at that epoch? Answering these questions is challenging due to the rarity of luminous z 8 galaxies and the large field-to-field variations in their volume densities. Indeed, the full wide-area CANDELS program only shows 3 z 8 galaxy candidates brighter than 25.5 mag and all of these candidates conspicuously lie in the same CANDELS field (EGS). One of our strongest new probes for particularly luminous z 8 galaxies are the WFC3 Pure-Parallel (PP) programs. Particularly intriguing are 8 bright z 8 candidates in these observations. These candidates have similar luminosities as the 3 brightest z 8 candidates from CANDELS (all spectroscopically confirmed). However, the uncertain contamination levels at extreme bright end of z 8 selection mean that follow-up observations are critical. We propose highly-efficient pointed HST and Spitzer/IRAC observations to determine if these candidates are indeed at z 8. We estimate that anywhere from 50 to 100% of the targeted sources will be confirmed to be at z 8 based on our results from CANDELS. The estimate is very uncertain due to very large cosmic variance in the CANDELS result and contamination from rare low-redshift sources.When combined with CANDELS, our observations would provide us the strongest current constraints on the volume density of bright, massive galaxies in the early Universe (serving as a guide to models of their build-up) and also provide valuable targets for future spectroscopy (e.g. with JWST), useful for probing the ionization state of the IGM.

New Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies in Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-02-01

How do ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) galaxies that are especially small and dense form and evolve? Scientists have recently examined distant galaxy clusters, searching for more UCDs to help us answer this question.Origins of DwarfsIn recent years we have discovered a growing sample of small, very dense galaxies. Galaxies that are tens to hundreds of light-years across, with masses between a million and a billion solar masses, fall into category of ultra-compact dwarfs (UCDs).An example of an unresolved compact object from the authors survey that is likely an ultra-compact dwarf galaxy. [Adapted from Zhang Bell 2017]How do these dense and compact galaxies form? Two possibilities are commonly suggested:An initially larger galaxy was tidally stripped during interactions with other galaxies in a cluster, leaving behind only its small, dense core as a UCD.UCDs formed as compact galaxies at very early cosmic times. The ones living in a massive dark matter halo may have been able to remain compact over time, evolving into the objectswe see today.To better understand which of these formation scenarios applies to which galaxies, we need a larger sample size! Our census of UCDs is fairly limited and because theyare small and dim, most of the ones weve discovered are in the nearby universe. To build a good sample, we need to find UCDs at higher redshifts as well.A New SampleIn a recent study, two scientists from University of Michigan have demonstrated how we might find more UCDs. Yuanyuan Zhang (also affiliated with Fermilab) and Eric Bell used the Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH) to search 17 galaxy clusters at intermediate redshifts of 0.2 z 0.6, looking for unresolved objects that might be UCDs.The mass and size distributions of the UCD candidates reported in this study, in the context of previously known nuclear star clusters, globular clusters (GCs), UCDs, compact elliptical galaxies (cEs), and dwarf galaxies. [Zhang Bell 2017]Zhang and

The formation and build-up of the red-sequence over the past 9 Gyr in VIPERS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fritz, Alexander; Abbas, U.; Adami, C.; Arnouts, S.; Bel, J.; Bolzonella, M.; Bottini, D.; Branchini, E.; Burden, A.; Cappi, A.; Coupon, J.; Cucciati, O.; Davidzon, I.; De Lucia, G.; de la Torre, S.; Di Porto, C.; Franzetti, P.; Fumana, M.; Garilli, B.; Granett, B. R.; Guzzo, L.; Ilbert, O.; Iovino, A.; Krywult, J.; Le Brun, V.; Le Fèvre, O.; Maccagni, D.; Małek, K.; Marchetti, A.; Marinoni, C.; Marulli, F.; McCracken, H. J.; Mellier, Y.; Moscardini, L.; Nichol, R. C.; Paioro, L.; Peacock, J. A.; Percival, W. J.; Polletta, M.; Pollo, A.; Scodeggio, M.; Tasca, L. A. M.; Tojeiro, R.; Vergani, D.; Zamorani, G.; Zanichelli, A.; VIPERS Team

2015-02-01

We present the Luminosity Function (LF) and Colour-Magnitude Relation (CMR) using ~45000 galaxies drawn from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Using different selection criteria, we define several samples of early-type galaxies and explore their impact on the evolution of the red-sequence (RS) and the effects of dust. Our results suggest a rapid build-up of the RS within a short time scale. We find a rise in the number density of early-type galaxies and a strong evolution in LF and CMR. Massive galaxies exist already 9 Gyr ago and experience an efficient quenching of their star formation at z = 1, followed by a passive evolution with only limited merging activity. In contrast, low-mass galaxies indicate a different mass assembly history and cause a slow build-up of the CMR over cosmic time.

The formation of Local Group planes of galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shaya, Ed J.; Tully, R. Brent

2013-12-01

The confinement of most satellite galaxies in the Local Group to thin planes presents a challenge to the theory of hierarchical galaxy clustering. The Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS) collaboration has identified a particularly thin configuration with kinematic coherence among companions of M31 and there have been long-standing claims that the dwarf companions to the Milky Way lie in a plane roughly orthogonal to the disc of our galaxy. This discussion investigates the possible origins of four Local Group planes: the plane similar, but not identical to that identified by the PAndAS collaboration, an adjacent slightly tilted plane and two planes in the vicinity of the Milky Way: one with very nearby galaxies and the other with more distant ones. Plausible orbits are found by using a combination of Numerical Action methods and a backward in time integration procedure. This investigation assumes that the companion galaxies formed at an early time in accordance with the standard cosmological model. For M31, M33, IC10 and Leo I, solutions are found that are consistent with measurements of their proper motions. For galaxies in planes, there must be commonalities in their proper motions, and this constraint greatly limits the number of physically plausible solutions. Key to the formation of the planar structures has been the evacuation of the Local Void and consequent build-up of the Local Sheet, a wall of this void. Most of the M31 companion galaxies were born in early-forming filamentary or sheet-like substrata that chased M31 out of the void. M31 is a moving target because of its attraction towards the Milky Way, and the result has been alignments stretched towards our galaxy. In the case of the configuration around the Milky Way, it appears that our galaxy was in a three-way competition for companions with M31 and Centaurus A. Only those within a modest band fell our way. The Milky Way's attraction towards the Virgo Cluster resulted in alignment along the

Chiral thiazoline and thiazole building blocks for the synthesis of peptide-derived natural products.

PubMed

Just-Baringo, Xavier; Albericio, Fernando; Alvarez, Mercedes

2014-01-01

Thiazoline and thiazole heterocycles are privileged motifs found in numerous peptide-derived natural products of biological interest. During the last decades, the synthesis of optically pure building blocks has been addressed by numerous groups, which have developed a plethora of strategies to that end. Efficient and reliable methodologies that are compatible with the intricate and capricious architectures of natural products are a must to further develop their science. Structure confirmation, structure-activity relationship studies and industrial production are fields of paramount importance that require these robust methodologies in order to successfully bring natural products into the clinic. Today's chemist toolbox is assorted with many powerful methods for chiral thiazoline and thiazole synthesis. Ranging from biomimetic approaches to stereoselective alkylations, one is likely to find a suitable method for their needs.

Exploring the Chemistry of Bicyclic Isoxazolidines for the Multicomponent Synthesis of Glycomimetic Building Blocks.

PubMed

Hoogenboom, Jorin; Lutz, Martin; Zuilhof, Han; Wennekes, Tom

2016-10-07

Starting from a chiral furanone, the nitrone-olefin [3 + 2] cycloaddition can be used to obtain bicyclic isoxazolidines for which we report a set of reactions to selectively modify each functional position. These synthetically versatile bicyclic isoxazolidines allowed us to obtain complex glycomimetic building blocks, like iminosugars, via multicomponent chemistry. For example, a library of 20 pipecolic acid derivatives, a recurring motif in various prescription drugs, could be obtained via a one-pot Staudinger/aza-Wittig/Ugi three-component reaction of a bicyclic isoxazolidine-derived azido-hemiacetal. Notably, specific pipecolic acids in this library were obtained via hydrolysis of an unique tricyclic imidate side product of the Ugi reaction. The azido-hemiacetal was also converted into an aza-C-glycoside iminosugar via an unprecendented one-pot Staudinger/aza-Wittig/Mannich reaction.

Fast and Facile Synthesis of 4-Nitrophenyl 2-Azidoethylcarbamate Derivatives from N-Fmoc-Protected α-Amino Acids as Activated Building Blocks for Urea Moiety-Containing Compound Library.

PubMed

Chen, Ying-Ying; Chang, Li-Te; Chen, Hung-Wei; Yang, Chia-Ying; Hsin, Ling-Wei

2017-03-13

A fast and facile synthesis of a series of 4-nitrophenyl 2-azidoethylcarbamate derivatives as activated urea building blocks was developed. The N-Fmoc-protected 2-aminoethyl mesylates derived from various commercially available N-Fmoc-protected α-amino acids, including those having functionalized side chains with acid-labile protective groups, were directly transformed into 4-nitrophenyl 2-azidoethylcarbamate derivatives in 1 h via a one-pot two-step reaction. These urea building blocks were utilized for the preparation of a series of urea moiety-containing mitoxantrone-amino acid conjugates in 75-92% yields and parallel solution-phase synthesis of a urea compound library consisted of 30 members in 38-70% total yields.

What Can Galaxies Tell Us About The Epoch of Reionization?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mason, Charlotte; GLASS, BoRG

2018-01-01

The reionization of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the universe's first billion years (z>6) was likely driven by the first stars and galaxies, and its history encodes information about their properties. But the timeline of reionization is not well-measured and it is still unclear whether galaxies alone can produce the required ionizing photons. I will describe two key ways in which galaxies at our current observational frontiers can constrain reionization.One tool is the UV luminosity function (LF), which traces the evolution of star-forming galaxies and their ionizing photons. I will describe a Bayesian technique to account for gravitational lensing magnification bias in galaxy surveys to produce accurate LFs. I will then describe a simple, but powerful, model for LF evolution and its implications for reionization and z>10 galaxy surveys with JWST. Secondly, Lyman alpha (Lya) emission from galaxies is a potential probe of the IGM ionization state as Lya photons are strongly attenuated by neutral hydrogen, but requires disentangling physics on pc to Gpc scales. I will introduce a new forward-modeling Bayesian framework which combines cosmological IGM simulations with models of interstellar medium conditions to infer the IGM neutral fraction from observations of Lya emission. I will present our new measurement of the neutral fraction at z~7 and place it in the context of other constraints of the reionization history. I will describe ongoing efforts to build larger samples of Lya emitting galaxies for more accurate measurements with the HST survey GLASS, and will describe future prospects with JWST.

Mapping stellar content to dark matter haloes - III. Environmental dependence and conformity of galaxy colours

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zu, Ying; Mandelbaum, Rachel

2018-05-01

Recent studies suggest that the quenching properties of galaxies are correlated over several megaparsecs. The large-scale `galactic conformity' phenomenon around central galaxies has been regarded as a potential signature of `galaxy assembly bias' or `pre-heating', both of which interpret conformity as a result of direct environmental effects acting on galaxy formation. Building on the iHOD halo quenching framework developed in Zu and Mandelbaum, we discover that our fiducial halo mass quenching model, without any galaxy assembly bias, can successfully explain the overall environmental dependence and the conformity of galaxy colours in Sloan Digital Sky Survey, as measured by the mark correlation functions of galaxy colours and the red galaxy fractions around isolated primaries, respectively. Our fiducial iHOD halo quenching mock also correctly predicts the differences in the spatial clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing signals between the more versus less red galaxy subsamples, split by the red-sequence ridge line at fixed stellar mass. Meanwhile, models that tie galaxy colours fully or partially to halo assembly bias have difficulties in matching all these observables simultaneously. Therefore, we demonstrate that the observed environmental dependence of galaxy colours can be naturally explained by the combination of (1) halo quenching and (2) the variation of halo mass function with environment - an indirect environmental effect mediated by two separate physical processes.

Resolving writer's block.

PubMed Central

Huston, P.

1998-01-01

PROBLEM BEING ADDRESSED: Writer's block, or a distinctly uncomfortable inability to write, can interfere with professional productivity. OBJECTIVE OF PROGRAM: To identify writer's block and to outline suggestions for its early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. MAIN COMPONENTS OF PROGRAM: Once the diagnosis has been established, a stepwise approach to care is recommended. Mild blockage can be resolved by evaluating and revising expectations, conducting a task analysis, and giving oneself positive feedback. Moderate blockage can be addressed by creative exercises, such as brainstorming and role-playing. Recalcitrant blockage can be resolved with therapy. Writer's block can be prevented by taking opportunities to write at the beginning of projects, working with a supportive group of people, and cultivating an ongoing interest in writing. CONCLUSIONS: Writer's block is a highly treatable condition. A systematic approach can help to alleviate anxiety, build confidence, and give people the information they need to work productively. PMID:9481467

Resolving the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies with WFIRST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalirai, Jasonjot

High-resolution studies of nearby stellar populations have served as a foundation for our quest to understand the nature of galaxies. Today, studies of resolved stellar populations constrain fundamental relations -- such as the initial mass function of stars, the time scales of stellar evolution, the timing of mass loss and amount of energetic feedback, the color-magnitude relation and its dependency on age and metallicity, the stellar-dark matter connection in galaxy halos, and the build up of stellar populations over cosmic time -- that represent key ingredients in our prescription to interpret light from the Universe and to measure the physical state of galaxies. More than in any other area of astrophysics, WFIRST will yield a transformative impact in measuring and characterizing resolved stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. The proximity and level of detail that such populations need to be studied at directly map to all three pillars of WFIRST capabilities - sensitivity from a 2.4 meter space based telescope, resolution from 0.1" pixels, and large 0.3 degree field of view from multiple detectors. Our WFIRST GO Science Investigation Team (F) will develop three WFIRST (notional) GO programs related to resolved stellar populations to fully stress WFIRST's Wide Field Instrument. The programs will include a Survey of the Milky Way, a Survey of Nearby Galaxy Halos, and a Survey of Star-Forming Galaxies. Specific science goals for each program will be validated through a wide range of observational data sets, simulations, and new algorithms. As an output of this study, our team will deliver optimized strategies and tools to maximize stellar population science with WFIRST. This will include: new grids of IR-optimized stellar evolution and synthetic spectroscopic models; pipelines and algorithms for optimal data reduction at the WFIRST sensitivity and pixel scale; wide field simulations of MW environments and galaxy halos; cosmological simulations

Analogues of primeval galaxies two billion years after the Big Bang

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amorín, Ricardo; Fontana, Adriano; Pérez-Montero, Enrique; Castellano, Marco; Guaita, Lucia; Grazian, Andrea; Le Fèvre, Olivier; Ribeiro, Bruno; Schaerer, Daniel; Tasca, Lidia A. M.; Thomas, Romain; Bardelli, Sandro; Cassarà, Letizia; Cassata, Paolo; Cimatti, Andrea; Contini, Thierry; de Barros, Stephane; Garilli, Bianca; Giavalisco, Mauro; Hathi, Nimish; Koekemoer, Anton; Le Brun, Vincent; Lemaux, Brian C.; Maccagni, Dario; Pentericci, Laura; Pforr, Janine; Talia, Margherita; Tresse, Laurence; Vanzella, Eros; Vergani, Daniela; Zamorani, Giovanni; Zucca, Elena; Merlin, Emiliano

2017-03-01

Deep observations are revealing a growing number of young galaxies in the first billion years of cosmic time1. Compared to typical galaxies at later times, they show more extreme emission-line properties2, higher star formation rates3, lower masses4, and smaller sizes5. However, their faintness precludes studies of their chemical abundances and ionization conditions, strongly limiting our understanding of the physics driving early galaxy build-up and metal enrichment. Here we study a rare population of ultraviolet-selected, low-luminosity galaxies at redshift 2.4 < z < 3.5 that exhibit all the rest-frame properties expected from primeval galaxies. These low-mass, highly compact systems are rapidly forming galaxies able to double their stellar mass in only a few tens of millions of years. They are characterized by very blue ultraviolet spectra with weak absorption features and bright nebular emission lines, which imply hard radiation fields from young hot massive stars6,7. Their highly ionized gas phase has strongly sub-solar carbon and oxygen abundances, with metallicities more than a factor of two lower than that found in typical galaxies of similar mass and star formation rate at z≤2.58. These young galaxies reveal an early and short stage in the assembly of their galactic structures and their chemical evolution, a vigorous phase that is likely to be dominated by the effects of gas-rich mergers, accretion of metal-poor gas and strong outflows.

Illuminating the star clusters and satellite galaxies with multi-scale baryonic simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maji, Moupiya; Zhu, Qirong; Li, Yuexing; Marinacci, Federico; Charlton, Jane; Hernquist, Lars; Knebe, Alexander

2018-01-01

Over the past decade, advances in computational architecture have made it possible for the first time to investigate some of the fundamental questions around the formation, evolution and assembly of the building blocks of the universe; star clusters and galaxies. In this talk, I will focus on two major questions: What is the origin of the observed universal lognormal mass function in globular clusters? What is the statistical distribution of the properties of satellite planes in a large sample of satellite systems?Observations of globular clusters show that they have universal lognormal mass functions with a characteristic peak at 2X105 MSun, although the origin of this peaked distribution is unclear. We investigate the formation of star clusters in interacting galaxies using baryonic simulations and found that massive clusters preferentially form in extremely high pressure gas clouds which reside in highly shocked regions produced by galaxy interactions. These massive clusters have quasi-lognormal initial mass functions with a peak around ~106MSun which may survive dynamical evolution and slowly evolve into the universal lognormal profiles observed today.The classical Milky Way (MW) satellites are observed to be distributed in a highly-flattened plane, called Disk of Satellites (DoS). However the significance, coherence and origin of DoS is highly debated. To understand this, we first analyze all MW satellites and find that a small sample size can artificially produce a highly anisotropic spatial distribution and a strong clustering of their angular momentum. Comparing a baryonic simulation of a MW-sized galaxy with its N-body counterpart we find that an anisotropic DoS can originate from baryonic processes. Furthermore, we explore the statistical distribution of DoS properties by analyzing 2591 satellite systems in the cosmological hydrodynamic simulation Illustris. We find that the DoS becomes more isotropic with increasing sample sizes and most (~90%) satellite

The effects of assembly bias on the inference of matter clustering from galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McEwen, Joseph E.; Weinberg, David H.

2018-07-01

The combination of galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering is a promising route to measuring the amplitude of matter clustering and testing modified gravity theories of cosmic acceleration. Halo occupation distribution (HOD) modelling can extend the approach down to non-linear scales, but galaxy assembly bias could introduce systematic errors by causing the HOD to vary with the large-scale environment at fixed halo mass. We investigate this problem using the mock galaxy catalogs created by Hearin & Watson (2013, HW13), which exhibit significant assembly bias because galaxy luminosity is tied to halo peak circular velocity and galaxy colour is tied to halo formation time. The preferential placement of galaxies (especially red galaxies) in older haloes affects the cutoff of the mean occupation function ⟨Ncen(Mmin)⟩ for central galaxies, with haloes in overdense regions more likely to host galaxies. The effect of assembly bias on the satellite galaxy HOD is minimal. We introduce an extended, environment-dependent HOD (EDHOD) prescription to describe these results and fit galaxy correlation measurements. Crucially, we find that the galaxy-matter cross-correlation coefficient, rgm(r) ≡ ξgm(r) . [ξmm(r)ξgg(r)]-1/2, is insensitive to assembly bias on scales r ≳ 1 h-1 Mpc, even though ξgm(r) and ξgg(r) are both affected individually. We can therefore recover the correct ξmm(r) from the HW13 galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-matter correlations using either a standard HOD or EDHOD fitting method. For Mr ≤ -19 or Mr ≤ -20 samples the recovery of ξmm(r) is accurate to 2 per cent or better. For a sample of red Mr ≤ -20 galaxies, we achieve 2 per cent recovery at r ≳ 2 h-1 Mpc with EDHOD modelling but lower accuracy at smaller scales or with a standard HOD fit. Most of our mock galaxy samples are consistent with rgm = 1 down to r = 1 h-1 Mpc, to within the uncertainties set by our finite simulation volume.

The effects of assembly bias on the inference of matter clustering from galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McEwen, Joseph E.; Weinberg, David H.

2018-04-01

The combination of galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL) and galaxy clustering is a promising route to measuring the amplitude of matter clustering and testing modified gravity theories of cosmic acceleration. Halo occupation distribution (HOD) modeling can extend the approach down to nonlinear scales, but galaxy assembly bias could introduce systematic errors by causing the HOD to vary with large scale environment at fixed halo mass. We investigate this problem using the mock galaxy catalogs created by Hearin & Watson (2013, HW13), which exhibit significant assembly bias because galaxy luminosity is tied to halo peak circular velocity and galaxy colour is tied to halo formation time. The preferential placement of galaxies (especially red galaxies) in older halos affects the cutoff of the mean occupation function for central galaxies, with halos in overdense regions more likely to host galaxies. The effect of assembly bias on the satellite galaxy HOD is minimal. We introduce an extended, environment dependent HOD (EDHOD) prescription to describe these results and fit galaxy correlation measurements. Crucially, we find that the galaxy-matter cross-correlation coefficient, rgm(r) ≡ ξgm(r) . [ξmm(r)ξgg(r)]-1/2, is insensitive to assembly bias on scales r ≳ 1 h^{-1} Mpc, even though ξgm(r) and ξgg(r) are both affected individually. We can therefore recover the correct ξmm(r) from the HW13 galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-matter correlations using either a standard HOD or EDHOD fitting method. For Mr ≤ -19 or Mr ≤ -20 samples the recovery of ξmm(r) is accurate to 2% or better. For a sample of red Mr ≤ -20 galaxies we achieve 2% recovery at r ≳ 2 h^{-1} Mpc with EDHOD modeling but lower accuracy at smaller scales or with a standard HOD fit. Most of our mock galaxy samples are consistent with rgm = 1 down to r = 1h-1Mpc, to within the uncertainties set by our finite simulation volume.

Dark Matter or Modified Dynamics? Hints from Galaxy Kinematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gentile, G.

2010-12-01

I show two observational projects I am involved in, which are aimed at understanding better the existence and nature of dark matter, and also aimed at testing alternatives to galactic dark matter such as MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics). I present new HI observations of the nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 3741. This galaxy has an extremely extended HI disc (42 B-band exponential scalelengths). The distribution and kinematics are accurately derived by building model data cubes, which closely reproduce the observations. Mass modelling of the rotation curve shows that a cored dark matter halo or MOND provide very good fits, whereas Cold Dark Matter density profiles fail to fit the data. I also show new results about tidal dwarf galaxies, which within the CDM framework are expected to be dark matter-free but whose kinematics instead show a mass discrepancy, exactly of the magnitude that is expected in MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics).

Building the Peanut: Simulations and Observations of Peanut-shaped Structures and Ansae in Face-on Disk Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saha, Kanak; Graham, Alister W.; Rodríguez-Herranz, Isabel

2018-01-01

Peanut/x-shaped features observed in a significant fraction of disk galaxies are thought to have formed from vertically buckled bars. Despite being three-dimensional structures, they are preferentially detected in near edge-on projection. Only a few galaxies are found to have displayed such structures when their disks are relatively face-on—suggesting that either they are generally weak in face-on projection or many may be hidden by the light of their galaxy’s face-on disk. Here, we report on three (collisionless) simulated galaxies displaying peanut-shaped structures when their disks are seen both face-on and edge-on—resembling a three-dimensional peanut or dumbbell. Furthermore, these structures are accompanied by ansae and an outer ring at the end of the bar—as seen in real galaxies such as IC 5240. The same set of quantitative parameters used to measure peanut structures in real galaxies has been determined for the simulated galaxies, and a broad agreement is found. In addition, the peanut length grows in tandem with the bar, and is a maximum at half the length of the bar. Beyond the cutoff of these peanut structures, toward the end of the bar, we discover a new positive/negative feature in the B 6 radial profile associated with the isophotes of the ansae/ring. Our simulated, self-gravitating, three-dimensional peanut structures display cylindrical rotation even in the near-face-on disk projection. In addition, we report on a kinematic pinch in the velocity map along the bar minor axis, matching that seen in the surface density map.

Galaxy NGC 55

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

This image of the nearby edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 55 was taken by Galaxy Evolution Explorer on September 14, 2003, during 2 orbits. This galaxy lies 5.4 million light years from our Milky Way galaxy and is a member of the 'local group' of galaxies that also includes the Andromeda galaxy (M31), the Magellanic clouds, and 40 other galaxies. The spiral disk of NGC 55 is inclined to our line of sight by approximately 80 degrees and so this galaxy looks cigar-shaped. This picture is a combination of Galaxy Evolution Explorer images taken with the far ultraviolet (colored blue) and near ultraviolet detectors, (colored red). The bright blue regions in this image are areas of active star formation detected in the ultraviolet by Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The red stars in this image are foreground stars in our own Milky Way galaxy.

Retainment of r-process material in dwarf galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beniamini, Paz; Dvorkin, Irina; Silk, Joe

2018-04-01

The synthesis of r-process elements is known to involve extremely energetic explosions. At the same time, recent observations find significant r-process enrichment even in extremely small ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies. This raises the question of retainment of those elements within their hosts. We estimate the retainment fraction and find that it is large ˜0.9, unless the r-process event is very energetic (≳ 1052erg) and / or the host has lost a large fraction of its gas prior to the event. We estimate the r-process mass per event and rate as implied by abundances in UFDs, taking into account imperfect retainment and different models of UFD evolution. The results are consistent with previous estimates (Beniamini et al. 2016b) and with the constraints from the recently detected macronova accompanying a neutron star merger (GW170817). We also estimate the distribution of abundances predicted by these models. We find that ˜0.07 of UFDs should have r-process enrichment. The results are consistent with both the mean values and the fluctuations of [Eu/Fe] in galactic metal poor stars, supporting the possibility that UFDs are the main 'building blocks' of the galactic halo population.

Building a Case for Blocks as Kindergarten Mathematics Learning Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinzer, Cathy; Gerhardt, Kacie; Coca, Nicole

2016-01-01

Kindergarteners need access to blocks as thinking tools to develop, model, test, and articulate their mathematical ideas. In the current educational landscape, resources such as blocks are being pushed to the side and being replaced by procedural worksheets and academic "seat time" in order to address standards. Mathematics research…

Luminous Blue Compact Galaxies: Probes of galaxy assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newton, Cassidy Louann

The life cycles of galaxies over cosmic time is yet to be fully understood. How did galaxies evolve from their formative stages to the structures we observe today? This dissertation details the identification and analysis of a sample of Luminous Blue Compact Galaxies (LBCGs), a class of galaxy in the local (z < 0.05) universe exhibiting blue colors, high surface brightness, and high star formation rates. These systems appear to be very similar in their global properties to the early evolutionary phases of most galaxies, however their locality permits detailed investigation over a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum in contrast to the smaller angular sizes and extreme faintness of distant galaxies. We use a combination of optical, ultraviolet, and infrared data to investigate a sample of LBCGs utilizing space and ground-based data.

Galaxy NGC 55

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-12-10

This image of the nearby edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 55 was taken by Galaxy Evolution Explorer on September 14, 2003, during 2 orbits. This galaxy lies 5.4 million light years from our Milky Way galaxy and is a member of the "local group" of galaxies that also includes the Andromeda galaxy (M31), the Magellanic clouds, and 40 other galaxies. The spiral disk of NGC 55 is inclined to our line of sight by approximately 80 degrees and so this galaxy looks cigar-shaped. This picture is a combination of Galaxy Evolution Explorer images taken with the far ultraviolet (colored blue) and near ultraviolet detectors, (colored red). The bright blue regions in this image are areas of active star formation detected in the ultraviolet by Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The red stars in this image are foreground stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04923

A relation between the characteristic stellar ages of galaxies and their intrinsic shapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van de Sande, Jesse; Scott, Nicholas; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Brough, Sarah; Bryant, Julia J.; Colless, Matthew; Cortese, Luca; Croom, Scott M.; d'Eugenio, Francesco; Foster, Caroline; Goodwin, Michael; Konstantopoulos, Iraklis S.; Lawrence, Jon S.; McDermid, Richard M.; Medling, Anne M.; Owers, Matt S.; Richards, Samuel N.; Sharp, Rob

2018-06-01

Stellar population and stellar kinematic studies provide unique but complementary insights into how galaxies build-up their stellar mass and angular momentum1-3. A galaxy's mean stellar age reveals when stars were formed, but provides little constraint on how the galaxy's mass was assembled. Resolved stellar dynamics4 trace the change in angular momentum due to mergers, but major mergers tend to obscure the effect of earlier interactions5. With the rise of large multi-object integral field spectroscopic surveys, such as SAMI6 and MaNGA7, and single-object integral field spectroscopic surveys (for example, ATLAS3D (ref. 8), CALIFA9, MASSIVE10), it is now feasible to connect a galaxy's star formation and merger history on the same resolved physical scales, over a large range in galaxy mass, morphology and environment4,11,12. Using the SAMI Galaxy Survey, here we present a combined study of spatially resolved stellar kinematics and global stellar populations. We find a strong correlation of stellar population age with location in the (V/σ, ɛe) diagram that links the ratio of ordered rotation to random motions in a galaxy to its observed ellipticity. For the large majority of galaxies that are oblate rotating spheroids, we find that characteristic stellar age follows the intrinsic ellipticity of galaxies remarkably well.

A relation between the characteristic stellar ages of galaxies and their intrinsic shapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van de Sande, Jesse; Scott, Nicholas; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Brough, Sarah; Bryant, Julia J.; Colless, Matthew; Cortese, Luca; Croom, Scott M.; d'Eugenio, Francesco; Foster, Caroline; Goodwin, Michael; Konstantopoulos, Iraklis S.; Lawrence, Jon S.; McDermid, Richard M.; Medling, Anne M.; Owers, Matt S.; Richards, Samuel N.; Sharp, Rob

2018-04-01

Stellar population and stellar kinematic studies provide unique but complementary insights into how galaxies build-up their stellar mass and angular momentum1-3. A galaxy's mean stellar age reveals when stars were formed, but provides little constraint on how the galaxy's mass was assembled. Resolved stellar dynamics4 trace the change in angular momentum due to mergers, but major mergers tend to obscure the effect of earlier interactions5. With the rise of large multi-object integral field spectroscopic surveys, such as SAMI6 and MaNGA7, and single-object integral field spectroscopic surveys (for example, ATLAS3D (ref. 8), CALIFA9, MASSIVE10), it is now feasible to connect a galaxy's star formation and merger history on the same resolved physical scales, over a large range in galaxy mass, morphology and environment4,11,12. Using the SAMI Galaxy Survey, here we present a combined study of spatially resolved stellar kinematics and global stellar populations. We find a strong correlation of stellar population age with location in the (V/σ, ɛe) diagram that links the ratio of ordered rotation to random motions in a galaxy to its observed ellipticity. For the large majority of galaxies that are oblate rotating spheroids, we find that characteristic stellar age follows the intrinsic ellipticity of galaxies remarkably well.

Isolated galaxies, pairs, and groups of galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuneva, I.; Kalinkov, M.

1990-01-01

The authors searched for isolated galaxies, pairs and groups of galaxies in the CfA survey (Huchra et al. 1983). It was assumed that the distances to galaxies are given by R = V/H sub o, where H sub o = 100 km s(exp -1) Mpc(exp -1) and R greater than 6 Mpc. The searching procedure is close to those, applied to find superclusters of galaxies (Kalinkov and Kuneva 1985, 1986). A sphere with fixed radius r (asterisk) is described around each galaxy. The mean spatial density in the sphere is m. Let G (sup 1) be any galaxy and G (sup 2) be its nearest neighbor at a distance R sub 2. If R sub 2 exceeds the 95 percent quintile in the distribution of the distances of the second neighbors, then G (sup 1) is an isolated galaxy. Let the midpoint of G (sup 1) and G (sup 2) be O sub 2 and r sub 2=R sub 2/2. For the volume V sub 2, defined with the radius r sub 2, the density D sub 2 less than k mu, the galaxy G (sup 2) is a single one and the procedure for searching for pairs and groups, beginning with this object is over and we have to pass to another object. Here the authors present the groups - isolated and nonisolated - with n greater than 3, found in the CfA survey in the Northern galactic hemisphere. The parameters used are k = 10 and r (asterisk) = 5 Mpc. Table 1 contains: (1) the group number, (2) the galaxy, nearest to the multiplet center, (3) multiplicity n, (4) the brightest galaxy if it is not listed in (2); (5) and (6) are R.A. and Dec. (1950), (7) - mean distance D in Mpc. Further there are the mean density rho (8) of the multiplet (galaxies Mpc (exp -3), (9) the density rho (asterisk) for r (asterisk) = 5 Mpc and (10) the density rho sub g for the group with its nearest neighbor. The parenthesized digits for densities in the last three columns are powers of ten.

Galaxy bachelors, couples, spouses: Star formation in interacting galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Jing; Barger, Kathleen; Richstein, Hannah; SDSS-IV/MaNGA

2017-01-01

We investigate the star formation activity in three galaxy systems in different stages of interaction to determine how the environment of galaxies affects their star forming ability and potential. These systems include an isolated galaxy, a pair of interacting galaxies, and a pair of merging galaxies. All of the target galaxies in these systems have similar stellar masses and similar radii and are at similar redshifts. We trace the star formation activity over the past 1-2 Gyr using spatially and kinematically resolved H-alpha emission, H-alpha equivalent width, and 4000-Angstrom break maps. This work is based on data from the fourth-generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV)/Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA), and is part of the Project No.0285 in SDSS-IV.

Anisotropic Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing in the Illustris-1 Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brainerd, Tereasa G.

2017-06-01

In Cold Dark Matter universes, the dark matter halos of galaxies are expected to be triaxial, leading to a surface mass density that is not circularly symmetric. In principle, this "flattening" of the dark matter halos of galaxies should be observable as an anisotropy in the weak galaxy-galaxy lensing signal. The degree to which the weak lensing signal is observed to be anisotropic, however, will depend strongly on the degree to which mass (i.e., the dark matter) is aligned with light in the lensing galaxies. That is, the anisotropy will be maximized when the major axis of the projected mass distribution is well aligned with the projected light distribution of the lens galaxies. Observational studies of anisotropic galaxy-galaxy lensing have found an anisotropic weak lensing signal around massive, red galaxies. Detecting the signal around blue, disky galaxies has, however, been more elusive. A possible explanation for this is that mass and light are well aligned within red galaxies and poorly aligned within blue galaxies (an explanation that is supported by studies of the locations of satellites of large, relatively isolated galaxies). Here we compute the weak lensing signal of isolated central galaxies in the Illustris-1 simulation. We compute the anisotropy of the weak lensing signal using two definitions of the geometry: [1] the major axis of the projected dark matter mass distribution and [2] the major axis of the projected stellar mass. On projected scales less than 15% of the virial radius, an anisotropy of order 10% is found for both definitions of the geometry. On larger scales, the anisotropy computed relative to the major axis of the projected light distribution is less than the anisotropy computed relative to the major axis of the projected dark matter. On projected scales of order the virial radius, the anisotropy obtained when using the major axis of the light is an order of magnitude less than the anisotropy obtained when using the major axis of the

Blooming Trees: Substructures and Surrounding Groups of Galaxy Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Heng; Diaferio, Antonaldo; Serra, Ana Laura; Baldi, Marco

2018-06-01

We develop the Blooming Tree Algorithm, a new technique that uses spectroscopic redshift data alone to identify the substructures and the surrounding groups of galaxy clusters, along with their member galaxies. Based on the estimated binding energy of galaxy pairs, the algorithm builds a binary tree that hierarchically arranges all of the galaxies in the field of view. The algorithm searches for buds, corresponding to gravitational potential minima on the binary tree branches; for each bud, the algorithm combines the number of galaxies, their velocity dispersion, and their average pairwise distance into a parameter that discriminates between the buds that do not correspond to any substructure or group, and thus eventually die, and the buds that correspond to substructures and groups, and thus bloom into the identified structures. We test our new algorithm with a sample of 300 mock redshift surveys of clusters in different dynamical states; the clusters are extracted from a large cosmological N-body simulation of a ΛCDM model. We limit our analysis to substructures and surrounding groups identified in the simulation with mass larger than 1013 h ‑1 M ⊙. With mock redshift surveys with 200 galaxies within 6 h ‑1 Mpc from the cluster center, the technique recovers 80% of the real substructures and 60% of the surrounding groups; in 57% of the identified structures, at least 60% of the member galaxies of the substructures and groups belong to the same real structure. These results improve by roughly a factor of two the performance of the best substructure identification algorithm currently available, the σ plateau algorithm, and suggest that our Blooming Tree Algorithm can be an invaluable tool for detecting substructures of galaxy clusters and investigating their complex dynamics.

The building blocks of drinking experience across men and women: A case study with craft and industrial beers.

PubMed

Gómez-Corona, Carlos; Escalona-Buendía, Héctor B; Chollet, Sylvie; Valentin, Dominique

2017-09-01

In today's market, every product seems to be marked by the label of "experience". It is expected that successful products give the consumer "extraordinary experiences". The research in consumption experience is growing, but much work still needs to be done to understand the food and beverage experience. A qualitative study was conducted using contextual focus groups to explore the building blocks of consumers' drinking experience of industrial and craft beers. The results show that drinking experience is shaped by our cognitive, sensory or affective systems, especially during the core consumption experience. Elements such as attitudes, consumption habits, and individual versus social consumption, shopping experience and product benefits are also responsible for shaping the experience, but are more relevant during the pre-consumption or post-consumption experience. Gender differences occur more frequently in the affective experience, as women search more for relaxation while men for excitement and stimulation while drinking beer. When comparing industrial users versus craft, in the latter the cognitive and shopping experiences are more relevant. Overall, the results showed that the drinking experience of beers can be studied as a function of the salient human system used during product interaction, and this systems act as the building blocks of the drinking experience of beer. This information can be applied in consumer research studies to further study the experiential differences across products and consumers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Bayesian Hierarchical Approach to Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sonnenfeld, Alessandro; Leauthaud, Alexie

2018-04-01

We present a Bayesian hierarchical inference formalism to study the relation between the properties of dark matter halos and those of their central galaxies using weak gravitational lensing. Unlike traditional methods, this technique does not resort to stacking the weak lensing signal in bins, and thus allows for a more efficient use of the information content in the data. Our method is particularly useful for constraining scaling relations between two or more galaxy properties and dark matter halo mass, and can also be used to constrain the intrinsic scatter in these scaling relations. We show that, if observational scatter is not properly accounted for, the traditional stacking method can produce biased results when exploring correlations between multiple galaxy properties and halo mass. For example, this bias can affect studies of the joint correlation between galaxy mass, halo mass, and galaxy size, or galaxy colour. In contrast, our method easily and efficiently handles the intrinsic and observational scatter in multiple galaxy properties and halo mass. We test our method on mocks with varying degrees of complexity. We find that we can recover the mean halo mass and concentration, each with a 0.1 dex accuracy, and the intrinsic scatter in halo mass with a 0.05 dex accuracy. In its current version, our method will be most useful for studying the weak lensing signal around central galaxies in groups and clusters, as well as massive galaxies samples with log M* > 11, which have low satellite fractions.

A Bayesian hierarchical approach to galaxy-galaxy lensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sonnenfeld, Alessandro; Leauthaud, Alexie

2018-07-01

We present a Bayesian hierarchical inference formalism to study the relation between the properties of dark matter haloes and those of their central galaxies using weak gravitational lensing. Unlike traditional methods, this technique does not resort to stacking the weak lensing signal in bins, and thus allows for a more efficient use of the information content in the data. Our method is particularly useful for constraining scaling relations between two or more galaxy properties and dark matter halo mass, and can also be used to constrain the intrinsic scatter in these scaling relations. We show that, if observational scatter is not properly accounted for, the traditional stacking method can produce biased results when exploring correlations between multiple galaxy properties and halo mass. For example, this bias can affect studies of the joint correlation between galaxy mass, halo mass, and galaxy size, or galaxy colour. In contrast, our method easily and efficiently handles the intrinsic and observational scatter in multiple galaxy properties and halo mass. We test our method on mocks with varying degrees of complexity. We find that we can recover the mean halo mass and concentration, each with a 0.1 dex accuracy, and the intrinsic scatter in halo mass with a 0.05 dex accuracy. In its current version, our method will be most useful for studying the weak lensing signal around central galaxies in groups and clusters, as well as massive galaxies samples with log M* > 11, which have low satellite fractions.

Starburst galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weedman, Daniel W.

1987-01-01

The infrared properties of star-forming galaxies, primarily as determined by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS), are compared to X-ray, optical, and radio properties. Luminosity functions are reviewed and combined with those derived from optically discovered samples using 487 Markarian galaxies with redshifts and published IRAS 60 micron fluxes, and 1074 such galaxies in the Center for Astrophysics redshift survey. It is found that the majority of infrared galaxies which could be detected are low luminosity sources already known from the optical samples, but non-infrared surveys have found only a very small fraction of the highest luminosity sources. Distributions of infrared to optical fluxes and available spectra indicate that the majority of IRAS-selected galaxies are starburst galaxies. Having a census of starburst galaxies and associated dust allow severl important global calculations. The source counts are predicted as a function of flux limits for both infrared and radio fluxes. These galaxies are found to be important radio sources at faint flux limits. Taking the integrated flux to z = 3 indicates that such galaxies are a significant component of the diffuse X-ray background, and could be the the dominant component depending on the nature of the X-ray spectra and source evolution.

Andromeda Galaxy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

[figure removed for brevity, see original site]

This image is a Galaxy Evolution Explorer observation of the large galaxy in Andromeda, Messier 31. The Andromeda galaxy is the most massive in the local group of galaxies that includes our Milky Way. Andromeda is the nearest large galaxy to our own. The image is a mosaic of 10 separate Galaxy Evolution Explorer images taken in September, 2003. The color image (with near ultraviolet shown by red and far ultraviolet shown by blue) shows blue regions of young, hot, high mass stars tracing out the spiral arms where star formation is occurring, and the central orange-white 'bulge' of old, cooler stars formed long ago. The star forming arms of Messier 31 are unusual in being quite circular rather than the usual spiral shape. Several companion galaxies can also be seen. These include Messier 32, a dwarf elliptical galaxy directly below the central bulge and just outside the spiral arms, and Messier 110 (M110), which is above and to the right of the center. M110 has an unusual far ultraviolet bright core in an otherwise 'red,' old star halo. Many other regions of star formation can be seen far outside the main body of the galaxy.

The dwarf galaxy population of nearby galaxy clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lisker, Thorsten; Wittmann, Carolin; Pak, Mina; Janz, Joachim; Bialas, Daniel; Peletier, Reynier; Grebel, Eva; Falcon Barroso, Jesus; Toloba, Elisa; Smakced Collaboration, Focus Collaboration

2015-01-01

The Fornax, Virgo, Ursa Major and Perseus galaxy clusters all have very different characteristics, in terms of their density, mass, and large-scale environment. We can regard these clusters as laboratories for studying environmental influence on galaxy evolution, using the sensitive low-mass galaxies as probes for external mechanisms. Here we report on recent and ongoing observational studies of the said clusters with imaging and spectroscopy, as well as on the interpretation of present-day cluster galaxy populations with the aid of cosmological simulations.Multicolor imaging data allow us to identify residual star formation in otherwise red early-type dwarf galaxies, which hold clues to the strength of gas stripping processes. Major-axis spectra and 2D kinematical maps provide insight regarding the amount of rotational support and how much dynamical heating a dwarf galaxy may have experienced. To this end, dedicated N-body simulations that follow the evolution of galaxies since early epochs reveal their path through parameter space, and can be compared to observations in order to understand the time-integrated effect of environmental influence.

The Dynamical Properties of Virgo Cluster Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouellette, Nathalie N.-Q.

By virtue of its proximity, the Virgo Cluster is an ideal laboratory for us to test our understanding of the formation of structure in our Universe. In this spirit, we present a dynamical study of 33 gas-poor and 34 gas-rich Virgo galaxies as part of the Spectroscopic and H-band Imaging of Virgo survey. Our final spectroscopic data set was acquired at the 3.5-m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory. Halpha rotation curves for the gas-rich galaxies were modelled with a multi-parameter fit function from which various velocity measurements were inferred. Analog values were measured off of the observed rotation curves, but yielded noisier scaling relations, such as the luminosity-velocity relation (also known as the Tully-Fisher relation). Our best i -band Tully-Fisher relation has slope alpha = --7.2 +/- 0.5 and intercept Mi(2.3) = --21.5 +/- 1.1 mag, matching similar previous studies. Our study takes advantage of our own, as well as literature, data; we plan to continue expanding our compilation in order to build the largest Tully-Fisher relation for a cluster to date. Following extensive testing of the IDL routine pPXF , extended velocity dispersion profiles were extracted for our gas-poor galaxies. Considering the lack of a common standard for the measurement of a fiducial galaxy velocity dispersion in the literature, we have endeavoured to rectify this situation by determining the radius at which the measured velocity dispersion, coupled with the galaxy luminosity, yields the tightest Faber-Jackson relation. We found that radius to be 1.5 R e, which exceeds the extent of most dispersion profiles in other works. The slope of our Faber-Jackson relation is alpha = --4.3 +/- 0.2, which closely matches the virial value of 4. This analysis will soon be applied to a study of the Virgo Cluster Fundamental Plane. Rotation correction of our dispersion profiles will also permit the study of galaxies' velocity dispersion profile shapes in an attempt to refine our

The Impact of Starbursts on the Gaseous Halos of Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heckman, Timothy

2009-07-01

Perhaps the most important {yet uncertain} aspects of galaxy evolution are the processes by which galaxies accrete gas and by which the resulting star formation and black hole growth affects this accreting gas. It is believed that both the form of the accretion and the nature of the feedback change as a function of the galaxy mass. At low mass the gas comes in cold and the feedback is provided by massive stars. At high mass, the gas comes in hot, and the feedback is from an AGN. The changeover occurs near the mass where the galaxy population transitions from star-forming galaxies to red and dead ones. The population of red and dead galaxies is building with cosmic time, and it is believed that feedback plays an imporant role in this process: shutting down star formation by heating and/or expelling the reservoir of cold halo gas. To investigate these ideas, we propose to use COS far-UV spectra of background QSOs to measure the properties of the halo gas in a sample of galaxies near the transition mass that have undergone starbursts within the past 100 Myr to 1 Gyr. The galactic wind associated with the starburst is predicted to have affected the properties of the gaseous halo. To test this, we will compare the properties of the halos of the post-starburst galaxies to those of a control sample of galaxies matched in mass and QSO impact parameter. Do the halos of the post-starburst galaxies show a higher incidence rate of Ly-Alpha and metal absorption-lines? Are the kinematics of the halo gas more disturbed in the post-starbursts? Has the wind affected the ionization state and/or the metallicity of the halo? These data will provide fresh new insights into the role of feedback from massive stars on the evolution of galaxies, and may also offer clues about the properties of the QSO metal absorption-line systems at high-redshift.

The rapid formation of a large rotating disk galaxy three billion years after the Big Bang.

PubMed

Genzel, R; Tacconi, L J; Eisenhauer, F; Schreiber, N M Förster; Cimatti, A; Daddi, E; Bouché, N; Davies, R; Lehnert, M D; Lutz, D; Nesvadba, N; Verma, A; Abuter, R; Shapiro, K; Sternberg, A; Renzini, A; Kong, X; Arimoto, N; Mignoli, M

2006-08-17

Observations and theoretical simulations have established a framework for galaxy formation and evolution in the young Universe. Galaxies formed as baryonic gas cooled at the centres of collapsing dark-matter haloes; mergers of haloes and galaxies then led to the hierarchical build-up of galaxy mass. It remains unclear, however, over what timescales galaxies were assembled and when and how bulges and disks--the primary components of present-day galaxies--were formed. It is also puzzling that the most massive galaxies were more abundant and were forming stars more rapidly at early epochs than expected from models. Here we report high-angular-resolution observations of a representative luminous star-forming galaxy when the Universe was only 20% of its current age. A large and massive rotating protodisk is channelling gas towards a growing central stellar bulge hosting an accreting massive black hole. The high surface densities of gas, the high rate of star formation and the moderately young stellar ages suggest rapid assembly, fragmentation and conversion to stars of an initially very gas-rich protodisk, with no obvious evidence for a major merger.

Cosmological parameter constraints from galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering with the SDSS DR7

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mandelbaum, Rachel; Slosar, Anže; Baldauf, Tobias; Seljak, Uroš; Hirata, Christopher M.; Nakajima, Reiko; Reyes, Reinabelle; Smith, Robert E.

2013-06-01

Recent studies have shown that the cross-correlation coefficient between galaxies and dark matter is very close to unity on scales outside a few virial radii of galaxy haloes, independent of the details of how galaxies populate dark matter haloes. This finding makes it possible to determine the dark matter clustering from measurements of galaxy-galaxy weak lensing and galaxy clustering. We present new cosmological parameter constraints based on large-scale measurements of spectroscopic galaxy samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 7. We generalize the approach of Baldauf et al. to remove small-scale information (below 2 and 4 h-1 Mpc for lensing and clustering measurements, respectively), where the cross-correlation coefficient differs from unity. We derive constraints for three galaxy samples covering 7131 deg2, containing 69 150, 62 150 and 35 088 galaxies with mean redshifts of 0.11, 0.28 and 0.40. We clearly detect scale-dependent galaxy bias for the more luminous galaxy samples, at a level consistent with theoretical expectations. When we vary both σ8 and Ωm (and marginalize over non-linear galaxy bias) in a flat Λ cold dark matter model, the best-constrained quantity is σ8(Ωm/0.25)0.57 = 0.80 ± 0.05 (1σ, stat. + sys.), where statistical and systematic errors (photometric redshift and shear calibration) have comparable contributions, and we have fixed ns = 0.96 and h = 0.7. These strong constraints on the matter clustering suggest that this method is competitive with cosmic shear in current data, while having very complementary and in some ways less serious systematics. We therefore expect that this method will play a prominent role in future weak lensing surveys. When we combine these data with Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7-year (WMAP7) cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, constraints on σ8, Ωm, H0, wde and ∑mν become 30-80 per cent tighter than with CMB data alone, since our data break several parameter

A class of compact dwarf galaxies from disruptive processes in galaxy clusters.

PubMed

Drinkwater, M J; Gregg, M D; Hilker, M; Bekki, K; Couch, W J; Ferguson, H C; Jones, J B; Phillipps, S

2003-05-29

Dwarf galaxies have attracted increased attention in recent years, because of their susceptibility to galaxy transformation processes within rich galaxy clusters. Direct evidence for these processes, however, has been difficult to obtain, with a small number of diffuse light trails and intra-cluster stars being the only signs of galaxy disruption. Furthermore, our current knowledge of dwarf galaxy populations may be very incomplete, because traditional galaxy surveys are insensitive to extremely diffuse or compact galaxies. Aware of these concerns, we recently undertook an all-object survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster. This revealed a new population of compact members, overlooked in previous conventional surveys. Here we demonstrate that these 'ultra-compact' dwarf galaxies are structurally and dynamically distinct from both globular star clusters and known types of dwarf galaxy, and thus represent a new class of dwarf galaxy. Our data are consistent with the interpretation that these are the remnant nuclei of disrupted dwarf galaxies, making them an easily observed tracer of galaxy disruption.

Galaxy NGC 247

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

This image of the dwarf spiral galaxy NGC 247 was taken by Galaxy Evolution Explorer on October 13, 2003, in a single orbit exposure of 1600 seconds. The region that looks like a 'hole' in the upper part of the galaxy is a location with a deficit of gas and therefore a lower star formation rate and ultraviolet brightness. Optical images of this galaxy show a bright star on the southern edge. This star is faint and red in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer ultraviolet image, revealing that it is a foreground star in our Milky Way galaxy. The string of background galaxies to the North-East (upper left) of NGC 247 is 355 million light years from our Milky Way galaxy whereas NGC 247 is a mere 9 million light years away. The faint blue light that can be seen in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer image of the upper two of these background galaxies may indicate that they are in the process of merging together.

A Spitzer/glimpse Search For Galaxies: What Zone Of Avoidance?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parsons, Lamarr; Benjamin, R. A.; GLIMPSE Team

2007-12-01

We report the results of a visual search for galaxy candidates in an area of twelve square degrees covered by the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire-3D (GLIMPSE-3D) Spitzer Legacy programs. The areas searched consisted of three 2x2 degree blocks, with galactic coordinates centered at (330, -02), (330, +02) and (331, -02). All three regions were imaged for 2.4 seconds in the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 µm bands using IRAC on the Spitzer Space Telescope. We report a total of 114 galaxy candidates, yielding an average of 9.5 candidates per square degree. We also show that the galaxy detection rate is dependent on galactic latitude, probably due to the lower diffuse 8 micron background at high latitudes. We have found that the detection rate increases from 4 per square degree (at b=1º) to 12 per square degree (at b=3º). We present the physical parameters of these galaxies, discuss their clustering, and note which have been previously detected in other wavebands/surveys. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation's REU program and the Department of Defense's ASSURE program through NSF Award AST-0453442.

Clusters of Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huchtmeier, W. K.; Richter, O. G.; Materne, J.

1981-09-01

The large-scale structure of the universe is dominated by clustering. Most galaxies seem to be members of pairs, groups, clusters, and superclusters. To that degree we are able to recognize a hierarchical structure of the universe. Our local group of galaxies (LG) is centred on two large spiral galaxies: the Andromeda nebula and our own galaxy. Three sr:naller galaxies - like M 33 - and at least 23 dwarf galaxies (KraanKorteweg and Tammann, 1979, Astronomische Nachrichten, 300, 181) can be found in the evironment of these two large galaxies. Neighbouring groups have comparable sizes (about 1 Mpc in extent) and comparable numbers of bright members. Small dwarf galaxies cannot at present be observed at great distances.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the signatures of galaxy interactions as viewed from small scale galaxy clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunawardhana, M. L. P.; Norberg, P.; Zehavi, I.; Farrow, D. J.; Loveday, J.; Hopkins, A. M.; Davies, L. J. M.; Wang, L.; Alpaslan, M.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Holwerda, B. W.; Owers, M. S.; Wright, A. H.

2018-06-01

Statistical studies of galaxy-galaxy interactions often utilise net change in physical properties of progenitors as a function of the separation between their nuclei to trace both the strength and the observable timescale of their interaction. In this study, we use two-point auto, cross and mark correlation functions to investigate the extent to which small-scale clustering properties of star forming galaxies can be used to gain physical insight into galaxy-galaxy interactions between galaxies of similar optical brightness and stellar mass. The Hα star formers, drawn from the highly spatially complete Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, show an increase in clustering on small separations. Moreover, the clustering strength shows a strong dependence on optical brightness and stellar mass, where (1) the clustering amplitude of optically brighter galaxies at a given separation is larger than that of optically fainter systems, (2) the small scale clustering properties (e.g. the strength, the scale at which the signal relative to the fiducial power law plateaus) of star forming galaxies appear to differ as a function of increasing optical brightness of galaxies. According to cross and mark correlation analyses, the former result is largely driven by the increased dust content in optically bright star forming galaxies. The latter could be interpreted as evidence of a correlation between interaction-scale and optical brightness of galaxies, where physical evidence of interactions between optically bright star formers, likely hosted within relatively massive halos, persist over larger separations than those between optically faint star formers.

The remnants of galaxy formation from a panoramic survey of the region around M31.

PubMed

McConnachie, Alan W; Irwin, Michael J; Ibata, Rodrigo A; Dubinski, John; Widrow, Lawrence M; Martin, Nicolas F; Côté, Patrick; Dotter, Aaron L; Navarro, Julio F; Ferguson, Annette M N; Puzia, Thomas H; Lewis, Geraint F; Babul, Arif; Barmby, Pauline; Bienaymé, Olivier; Chapman, Scott C; Cockcroft, Robert; Collins, Michelle L M; Fardal, Mark A; Harris, William E; Huxor, Avon; Mackey, A Dougal; Peñarrubia, Jorge; Rich, R Michael; Richer, Harvey B; Siebert, Arnaud; Tanvir, Nial; Valls-Gabaud, David; Venn, Kimberly A

2009-09-03

In hierarchical cosmological models, galaxies grow in mass through the continual accretion of smaller ones. The tidal disruption of these systems is expected to result in loosely bound stars surrounding the galaxy, at distances that reach 10-100 times the radius of the central disk. The number, luminosity and morphology of the relics of this process provide significant clues to galaxy formation history, but obtaining a comprehensive survey of these components is difficult because of their intrinsic faintness and vast extent. Here we report a panoramic survey of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We detect stars and coherent structures that are almost certainly remnants of dwarf galaxies destroyed by the tidal field of M31. An improved census of their surviving counterparts implies that three-quarters of M31's satellites brighter than M(v) = -6 await discovery. The brightest companion, Triangulum (M33), is surrounded by a stellar structure that provides persuasive evidence for a recent encounter with M31. This panorama of galaxy structure directly confirms the basic tenets of the hierarchical galaxy formation model and reveals the shared history of M31 and M33 in the unceasing build-up of galaxies.

The formation of Dwarf Spheroidal galaxies by the dissolving star cluster model.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alarcon, Alex; Theory and Star Formation Group

2018-01-01

Dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies are regarded as key object in the formation of larger galaxies and are believed to be the most dark matter dominated systems known. There are several model that attempt to explain their formation, but they have problems to model the formation of isolated dSph. Here we will explain a possible formation scenario in which star clusters form in the dark matter halo of a dSph. these cluster suffer from low star formation efficiency and dissolve while orbiting inside the halo. Thereby they build the faint luminous components that we observe in dSph galaxies. Here we will show the main results of this simulations and how they would be corroborated using observational data.

An easy access to 2-Amino-5,6-dihydro-3H-pyrimidin-4-one building blocks: the reaction under conventional and microwave conditions.

PubMed

Ostras, Konstantin S; Gorobets, Nikolay Yu; Desenko, Sergey M; Musatov, Vladimir I

2006-08-01

A new one-stage fast multicomponent synthesis of title compounds leads to products in 21-55% isolated yields under both conventional and microwave conditions. The primary amino group in the building blocks can be easily acylated by various usual electophilic agents that can be utilized in the synthesis of diverse heterocylic compounds libraries.

Building Trades. Block III. Floor Framing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas A and M Univ., College Station. Vocational Instructional Services.

This document contains three units of a course on floor framing to be used as part of a building trades program. Each unit consists, first, of an informational lesson, with complete lesson plan for the teacher's use. Included in each lesson plan are the lesson aim; lists of teaching aids, materials, references, and prerequisites for students;…

Peering Into an Early Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2018-04-01

reports on what weve learned peering into CR7s interior with ALMA.ALMA observations of [C II] (white contours) are overlaid on an ultraviolet image of the galaxy CR7 taken with Hubble (background image). The presence of [C II] throughout the galaxy indicate that CR7 does not primarily consist of metal-free gas, as had been previously proposed. [Matthee et al. 2017]Metals yet No Dust?Matthee and collaborators deep spectroscopic observations of CR7 targeted the far-infrared dust continuum emission and a gas emission line, [C II]. The authors detected [C II] emission in a large region in and around the galaxy, including near the ultraviolet clumps. This clearly indicates the presence of metals in these star-forming regions, and it rules out the possibility that CR7s gas is mostly primordial and forming metal-free Pop III stars.The authors do not detect far infrared continuum emission from dust, which sets an unusually low upper limit on the amount of dust that may be present in this galaxy. This limit allows them to better interpret their measurements of star formation rates in CR7, providing more information about the galaxys properties.Lastly, Matthee and collaborators note that the [C II] emission is detected in multiple different components that have different velocities. The authors propose that these components are accreting satellite galaxies. If this is correct, then CR7 is not only a target to learn about early sources of light in the universe its also a rare opportunity to directly witness the build-up of a central galaxy in the early universe.CitationJ. Matthee et al 2017 ApJ 851 145. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa9931

SSMNG Software Service Manager: A Scalable Building Blocks Architecture for PUS Services & FDIR Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lisio, Giovanni; Candia, Sante; Campolo, Giovanni; Pascucci, Dario

2011-08-01

Thales Alenia Space Italy has carried out the definition of a configurable (on mission basis) PUS ECSS-E_70- 41A see [3] Centralised Services Layer, characterised by:- a mission-independent set of 'classes' implementing the services logic.- a mission-dependent set of configuration data and selection flags.The software components belonging to this layer implement the PUS standard services ECSS-E_70-41A and a set of mission-specific services. The design of this layer has been performed by separating the services mechanisms (mission-independent execution logic) from the services configuration information (mission-dependent data). Once instantiated for a specific mission, the PUS Centralised Services Layer offers a large set of capabilities available to the CSCI's Applications Layer. This paper describes the building blocks PUS architectural solution developed by Thales Alenia Space Italy, emphasizing the mechanisms which allow easy configuration of the Scalable PUS library to fulfill the requirements of different missions. This paper also focus the Thales Alenia Space solution to automatically generate the mission-specific "PUS Services" flight software based on mission specific requirements. Building the PUS services mechanisms, which are configurable on mission basis is part of the PRIMA (Multipurpose Spacecraft Bus ) 'missionisation' process improvement. PRIMA Platform Avionics Software (ASW) is continuously evolving to improve modularity and standardization of interfaces and of SW components (see references in [1]).

An actively accreting massive black hole in the dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10.

PubMed

Reines, Amy E; Sivakoff, Gregory R; Johnson, Kelsey E; Brogan, Crystal L

2011-02-03

Supermassive black holes are now thought to lie at the heart of every giant galaxy with a spheroidal component, including our own Milky Way. The birth and growth of the first 'seed' black holes in the earlier Universe, however, is observationally unconstrained and we are only beginning to piece together a scenario for their subsequent evolution. Here we report that the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10 (refs 5 and 6) contains a compact radio source at the dynamical centre of the galaxy that is spatially coincident with a hard X-ray source. From these observations, we conclude that Henize 2-10 harbours an actively accreting central black hole with a mass of approximately one million solar masses. This nearby dwarf galaxy, simultaneously hosting a massive black hole and an extreme burst of star formation, is analogous in many ways to galaxies in the infant Universe during the early stages of black-hole growth and galaxy mass assembly. Our results confirm that nearby star-forming dwarf galaxies can indeed form massive black holes, and that by implication so can their primordial counterparts. Moreover, the lack of a substantial spheroidal component in Henize 2-10 indicates that supermassive black-hole growth may precede the build-up of galaxy spheroids.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: LITTLE THINGS dwarf irregular galaxies FUV regions (Hunter+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hunter, D. A.; Elmegreen, B. G.; Gehret, E.

2018-03-01

The sample of galaxies is taken from LITTLE THINGS (Local Irregulars That Trace Luminosity Extremes, The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey, Hunter et al. 2012, J/AJ/144/134). This is a multi-wavelength survey of nearby (<10.3 Mpc) dIrr galaxies and BCDs, which builds on the THINGS project, whose emphasis was on nearby spirals (Walter et al. 2008, J/AJ/136/2563). The galaxies and a few key parameters are listed in Table 1. We used FUV (1516 Å) images obtained by GALEX (Melena et al. 2009, J/AJ/138/1203; Hunter et al. 2010AJ....139..447H, 2011AJ....142..121H; Zhang et al. 2012AJ....143...47Z) to identify knots of emission in the outer disks of each galaxy. In order to better distinguish knots from the wide-spread diffuse emission, we subtracted the stellar continuum from each FUV image using the V-band image. (2 data files).

Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Terrestrial Planets: Building Blocks and Differentiation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

The session "Terrestrial Planets: Building Blocks and Differentiation: included the following topics:Magnesium Isotopes in the Earth, Moon, Mars, and Pallasite Parent Body: High-Precision Analysis of Olivine by Laser-Ablation Multi-Collector ICPMS; Meteoritic Constraints on Collision Rates in the Primordial Asteroid Belt and Its Origin; New Constraints on the Origin of the Highly Siderophile Elements in the Earth's Upper Mantle; Further Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd Isotopic Data on Planetary Materials and Consequences for Planetary Differentiation; A Deep Lunar Magma Ocean Based on Neodymium, Strontium and Hafnium Isotope Mass Balance Partial Resetting on Hf-W System by Giant Impacts; On the Problem of Metal-Silicate Equilibration During Planet Formation: Significance for Hf-W Chronometry ; Solid Metal-Liquid Metal Partitioning of Pt, Re, and Os: The Effect of Carbon; Siderophile Element Abundances in Fe-S-Ni-O Melts Segregated from Partially Molten Ordinary Chondrite Under Dynamic Conditions; Activity Coefficients of Silicon in Iron-Nickel Alloys: Experimental Determination and Relevance for Planetary Differentiation; Reinvestigation of the Ni and Co Metal-Silicate Partitioning; Metal/Silicate Paritioning of P, Ga, and W at High Pressures and Temperatures: Dependence on Silicate Melt Composition; and Closure of the Fe-S-Si Liquid Miscibility Gap at High Pressure and Its Implications for Planetary Core Formation.

Ultraflat Au nanoplates as a new building block for molecular electronics.

PubMed

Jeong, Wooseok; Lee, Miyeon; Lee, Hyunsoo; Lee, Hyoban; Kim, Bongsoo; Park, Jeong Young

2016-05-27

We demonstrate the charge transport properties of a self-assembled organic monolayer on Au nanoplates with conductive probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM). Atomically flat Au nanoplates, a few hundred micrometers on each side, that have only (111) surfaces, were synthesized using the chemical vapor transport method; these nanoplates were employed as the substrates for hexadecanethiol (HDT) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). Atomic-scale high-resolution images show (√3 x √3) R30° molecular periodicity, indicating a well-ordered structure of the HDT on the Au nanoplates. We observed reduced friction and adhesion forces on the HDT SAMs on Au nanoplates, compared with Si substrates, which is consistent with the lubricating nature of HDT SAMs. The electrical properties, such as I-V characteristics and current as a function of load, were measured using CP-AFM. We obtained a tunneling decay constant (β) of 0.57 Å(-1), including through-bond (βtb = 0.99 Å(-1)) and through-space (βts = 1.36 Å(-1)) decay constants for the two-pathway model. This indicates that the charge transport properties of HDT SAMs on Au nanoplates are consistent with those on a Au (111) film, suggesting that SAMs on nanoplates can provide a new building block for molecular electronics.

Filamentous phages as building blocks for reconfigurable and hierarchical self-assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gibaud, Thomas

2017-12-01

Filamentous bacteriophages such as fd-like viruses are monodisperse rod-like colloids that have well defined properties of diameter, length, rigidity, charge and chirality. Engineering these viruses leads to a library of colloidal rods, which can be used as building blocks for reconfigurable and hierarchical self-assembly. Their condensation in an aqueous solution with additive polymers, which act as depletants to induce attraction between the rods, leads to a myriad of fluid-like micronic structures ranging from isotropic/nematic droplets, colloid membranes, achiral membrane seeds, twisted ribbons, π-wall, pores, colloidal skyrmions, Möbius anchors, scallop membranes to membrane rafts. These structures, and the way that they shape-shift, not only shed light on the role of entropy, chiral frustration and topology in soft matter, but also mimic many structures encountered in different fields of science. On the one hand, filamentous phages being an experimental realization of colloidal hard rods, their condensation mediated by depletion interactions constitutes a blueprint for the self-assembly of rod-like particles and provides a fundamental foundation for bio- or material-oriented applications. On the other hand, the chiral properties of the viruses restrict the generalities of some results but vastly broaden the self-assembly possibilities.

Dual-Functional Hydrazide-Reactive and Anhydride-Containing Oligomeric Hydrogel Building Blocks.

PubMed

Kascholke, Christian; Loth, Tina; Kohn-Polster, Caroline; Möller, Stephanie; Bellstedt, Peter; Schulz-Siegmund, Michaela; Schnabelrauch, Matthias; Hacker, Michael C

2017-03-13

Biomimetic hydrogels are advanced biomaterials that have been developed following different synthetic routes. Covalent postfabrication functionalization is a promising strategy to achieve efficient matrix modification decoupled of general material properties. To this end, dual-functional macromers were synthesized by free radical polymerization of maleic anhydride with diacetone acrylamide (N-(1,1-dimethyl-3-oxobutyl)acrylamide) and pentaerythritol diacrylate monostearate. Amphiphilic oligomers (M n < 7.5 kDa) with anhydride contents of 7-20% offered cross-linking reactivity to yield rigid hydrogels with gelatinous peptides (E = 4-13 kPa) and good cell adhesion properties. Mildly reactive methyl ketones as second functionality remained intact during hydrogel formation and potential of covalent matrix modification was shown using hydrazide and hydrazine model compounds. Successful secondary dihydrazide cross-linking was demonstrated by an increase of hydrogel stiffness (>40%). Efficient hydrazide/hydrazine immobilization depending on solution pH, hydrogel ketone content as well as ligand concentration for bioconjugation was shown and reversibility of hydrazone formation was indicated by physiologically relevant hydrazide release over 7 days. Proof-of-concept experiments with hydrazido-functionalized hyaluronan demonstrated potential for covalent aECM immobilization. The presented dual-functional macromers have perspective as reactive hydrogel building blocks for various biomedical applications.

Galaxy NGC 247

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-12-10

This image of the dwarf spiral galaxy NGC 247 was taken by Galaxy Evolution Explorer on October 13, 2003, in a single orbit exposure of 1600 seconds. The region that looks like a "hole" in the upper part of the galaxy is a location with a deficit of gas and therefore a lower star formation rate and ultraviolet brightness. Optical images of this galaxy show a bright star on the southern edge. This star is faint and red in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer ultraviolet image, revealing that it is a foreground star in our Milky Way galaxy. The string of background galaxies to the North-East (upper left) of NGC 247 is 355 million light years from our Milky Way galaxy whereas NGC 247 is a mere 9 million light years away. The faint blue light that can be seen in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer image of the upper two of these background galaxies may indicate that they are in the process of merging together. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04922

Galaxy NGC 300

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-12-10

This image of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300 was taken by Galaxy Evolution Explorer in a single orbit exposure of 27 minutes on October 10, 2003. NGC 300 lies 7 million light years from our Milky Way galaxy and is one of a group of galaxies in the constellation Sculptor. NGC 300 is often used as a prototype of a spiral galaxy because in optical images it displays flowing spiral arms and a bright central region of older (and thus redder) stars. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer image taken in ultraviolet light shows us that NGC 300 is an efficient star-forming galaxy. The bright blue regions in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer image reveal new stars forming all the way into the nucleus of NGC 300. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04924

Nickel ferrite aerogels with monodisperse nanoscale building blocks--the importance of processing temperature and atmosphere.

PubMed

Pettigrew, Katherine A; Long, Jeffrey W; Carpenter, Everett E; Baker, Colin C; Lytle, Justin C; Chervin, Christopher N; Logan, Michael S; Stroud, Rhonda M; Rolison, Debra R

2008-04-01

Using two-step (air/argon) thermal processing, sol-gel-derived nickel-iron oxide aerogels are transformed into monodisperse, networked nanocrystalline magnetic oxides of NiFe(2)O(4) with particle diameters that can be ripened with increasing temperature under argon to 4.6, 6.4, and 8.8 nm. Processing in air alone yields poorly crystalline materials; heating in argon alone leads to single phase, but diversiform, polydisperse NiFe(2)O(4), which hampers interpretation of the magnetic properties of the nanoarchitectures. The two-step method yields an improved model system to study magnetic effects as a function of size on the nanoscale while maintaining the particles within the size regime of single domain magnets, as networked building blocks, not agglomerates, and without stabilizing ligands capping the surface.

The Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies Survey. II. Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies near the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 5485

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merritt, Allison; van Dokkum, Pieter; Danieli, Shany; Abraham, Roberto; Zhang, Jielai; Karachentsev, I. D.; Makarova, L. N.

2016-12-01

We present the unexpected discovery of four ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in a group environment. We recently identified seven extremely low surface brightness galaxies in the vicinity of the spiral galaxy M101, using data from the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The galaxies have effective radii of 10″-38″ and central surface brightnesses of 25.6-27.7 mag arcsec-2 in the g-band. We subsequently obtained follow-up observations with HST to constrain the distances to these galaxies. Four remain persistently unresolved even with the spatial resolution of HST/ACS, which implies distances of D\\gt 17.5 Mpc. We show that the galaxies are most likely associated with a background group at ˜27 Mpc containing the massive ellipticals NGC 5485 and NGC 5473. At this distance, the galaxies have sizes of 2.6-4.9 kpc, and are classified as UDGs, similar to the populations that have been revealed in clusters such as Coma, Virgo, and Fornax, yet even more diffuse. The discovery of four UDGs in a galaxy group demonstrates that the UDG phenomenon is not exclusive to cluster environments. Furthermore, their morphologies seem less regular than those of the cluster populations, which may suggest a different formation mechanism or be indicative of a threshold in surface density below which UDGs are unable to maintain stability.

Galaxy Cluster Smashes Distance Record

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2009-10-01

between the galaxies, as expected for a true galaxy cluster rather than one that has been caught in the act of forming. Also, without the X-ray observations, the possibility remained that this object could have been a blend of different groups of galaxies along the line of sight, or a filament, a long stream of galaxies and gas, viewed front on. The mass and temperature of the hot gas detected estimated from the Chandra observations rule out both of those alternatives. The extent and shape of the X-ray emission, along with the lack of a central radio source argue against the possibility that the X-ray emission is caused by scattering of cosmic microwave background light by particles emitting radio waves. It is not yet possible, with the detection of just one extremely distant galaxy cluster, to test cosmological models, but searches are underway to find other galaxy clusters at extreme distances. "This discovery is exciting because it is like finding a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil that is much older than any other known," said co-author Ben Maughan, from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. "One fossil might just fit in with our understanding of dinosaurs, but if you found many more, you would have to start rethinking how dinosaurs evolved. The same is true for galaxy clusters and our understanding of cosmology." The previous record holder for a galaxy cluster was 9.2 billion light years away, XMMXCS J2215.9-1738, discovered by ESA's XMM-Newton in 2006. This broke the previous distance record by only about 0.1 billion light years, while JKCS041 surpasses XMMXCS J2215.9 by about ten times that. "What's exciting about this discovery is the astrophysics that can be done with detailed follow-up studies," said Andreon. Among the questions scientists hope to address by further studying JKCS041 are: What is the build-up of elements (such as iron) like in such a young object? Are there signs that the cluster is still forming? Do the temperature and X-ray brightness of

Molecular modeling of the elastomeric properties of repeating units and building blocks of resilin, a disordered elastic protein.

PubMed

Khandaker, Md Shahriar K; Dudek, Daniel M; Beers, Eric P; Dillard, David A; Bevan, David R

2016-08-01

The mechanisms responsible for the properties of disordered elastomeric proteins are not well known. To better understand the relationship between elastomeric behavior and amino acid sequence, we investigated resilin, a disordered rubber-like protein, found in specialized regions of the cuticle of insects. Resilin of Drosophila melanogaster contains Gly-rich repetitive motifs comprised of the amino acids, PSSSYGAPGGGNGGR, which confer elastic properties to resilin. The repetitive motifs of insect resilin can be divided into smaller partially conserved building blocks: PSS, SYGAP, GGGN and GGR. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we studied the relative roles of SYGAP, and its less common variants SYSAP and TYGAP, on the elastomeric properties of resilin. Results showed that SYGAP adopts a bent structure that is one-half to one-third the end-to-end length of the other motifs having an equal number of amino acids but containing SYSAP or TYGAP substituted for SYGAP. The bent structure of SYGAP forms due to conformational freedom of glycine, and hydrogen bonding within the motif apparently plays a role in maintaining this conformation. These structural features of SYGAP result in higher extensibility compared to other motifs, which may contribute to elastic properties at the macroscopic level. Overall, the results are consistent with a role for the SYGAP building block in the elastomeric properties of these disordered proteins. What we learned from simulating the repetitive motifs of resilin may be applicable to the biology and mechanics of other elastomeric biomaterials, and may provide us the deeper understanding of their unique properties. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Galaxies Detected by the Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxies Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivers, A. J.; Henning, P. A.; Kraan-Korteweg, R. C.

1999-04-01

The Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxies Survey (DOGS) is a 21-cm blind survey for galaxies hidden in the northern `Zone of Avoidance' (ZOA): the portion of the optical extragalactic sky which is obscured by dust in the Milky Way. Like the Parkes southern hemisphere ZOA survey, the DOGS project is designed to reveal hidden dynamically important nearby galaxies and to help `fill in the blanks' in the local large scale structure. To date, 36 galaxies have been detected by the Dwingeloo survey; 23 of these were previously unknown [no corresponding sources recorded in the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED)]. Among the interesting detections are three nearby galaxies in the vicinity of NGC 6946 and 11 detections in the Supergalactic plane crossing region. VLA follow-up observations have been conducted for several of the DOGS detections.

Hubble Looks in on a Galactic Nursery

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This dramatic image shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s view of dwarf galaxy known as NGC 1140, which lies 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. As can be seen in this image NGC 1140 has an irregular form, much like the Large Magellanic Cloud — a small galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. This small galaxy is undergoing what is known as a starburst. Despite being almost ten times smaller than the Milky Way it is creating stars at about the same rate, with the equivalent of one star the size of our sun being created per year. This is clearly visible in the image, which shows the galaxy illuminated by bright, blue-white, young stars. Galaxies like NGC 1140 — small, starbursting and containing large amounts of primordial gas with far fewer elements heavier than hydrogen and helium than are present in our sun — are of particular interest to astronomers. Their composition makes them similar to the intensely star-forming galaxies in the early Universe. And these early Universe galaxies were the building blocks of present-day large galaxies like our galaxy, the Milky Way. But, as they are so far away these early Universe galaxies are harder to study so these closer starbursting galaxies are a good substitute for learning more about galaxy evolution. The vigorous star formation will have a very destructive effect on this small dwarf galaxy in its future. When the larger stars in the galaxy die, and explode as supernovae, gas is blown into space and may easily escape the gravitational pull of the galaxy. The ejection of gas from the galaxy means it is throwing out its potential for future stars as this gas is one of the building blocks of star formation. NGC 1140’s starburst cannot last for long. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

A galactic nursery

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-07-20

This dramatic image shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s view of dwarf galaxy known as NGC 1140, which lies 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. As can be seen in this image NGC 1140 has an irregular form, much like the Large Magellanic Cloud — a small galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. This small galaxy is undergoing what is known as a starburst. Despite being almost ten times smaller than the Milky Way it is creating stars at about the same rate, with the equivalent of one star the size of the Sun being created per year. This is clearly visible in the image, which shows the galaxy illuminated by bright, blue-white, young stars. Galaxies like NGC 1140 — small, starbursting and containing large amounts of primordial gas with way fewer elements heavier than hydrogen and helium than present in our Sun — are of particular interest to astronomers. Their composition makes them similar to the intensely star-forming galaxies in the early Universe. And these early Universe galaxies were the building blocks of present-day large galaxies like our galaxy, the Milky Way. But, as they are so far away these early Universe galaxies are harder to study so these closer starbursting galaxies are a good substitute for learning more about galaxy evolution . The vigorous star formation will have a very destructive effect on this small dwarf galaxy in its future. When the larger stars in the galaxy die, and explode as supernovae, gas is blown into space and may easily escape the gravitational pull of the galaxy. The ejection of gas from the galaxy means it is throwing out its potential for future stars as this gas is one of the building blocks of star formation. NGC 1140’s starburst cannot last for long.

A tribo-mechanical analysis of PVA-based building-blocks for implementation in a 2-layered skin model.

PubMed

Morales Hurtado, M; de Vries, E G; Zeng, X; van der Heide, E

2016-09-01

Poly(vinyl) alcohol hydrogel (PVA) is a well-known polymer widely used in the medical field due to its biocompatibility properties and easy manufacturing. In this work, the tribo-mechanical properties of PVA-based blocks are studied to evaluate their suitability as a part of a structure simulating the length scale dependence of human skin. Thus, blocks of pure PVA and PVA mixed with Cellulose (PVA-Cel) were synthesised via freezing/thawing cycles and their mechanical properties were determined by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and creep tests. The dynamic tests addressed to elastic moduli between 38 and 50kPa for the PVA and PVA-Cel, respectively. The fitting of the creep compliance tests in the SLS model confirmed the viscoelastic behaviour of the samples with retardation times of 23 and 16 seconds for the PVA and PVA-Cel, respectively. Micro indentation tests were also achieved and the results indicated elastic moduli in the same range of the dynamic tests. Specifically, values between 45-55 and 56-81kPa were obtained for the PVA and PVA-Cel samples, respectively. The tribological results indicated values of 0.55 at low forces for the PVA decreasing to 0.13 at higher forces. The PVA-Cel blocks showed lower friction even at low forces with values between 0.2 and 0.07. The implementation of these building blocks in the design of a 2-layered skin model (2LSM) is also presented in this work. The 2LSM was stamped with four different textures and their surface properties were evaluated. The hydration of the 2LSM was also evaluated with a corneometer and the results indicated a gradient of hydration comparable to the human skin. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Shape asymmetry: a morphological indicator for automatic detection of galaxies in the post-coalescence merger stages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pawlik, M. M.; Wild, V.; Walcher, C. J.; Johansson, P. H.; Villforth, C.; Rowlands, K.; Mendez-Abreu, J.; Hewlett, T.

2016-03-01

We present a new morphological indicator designed for automated recognition of galaxies with faint asymmetric tidal features suggestive of an ongoing or past merger. We use the new indicator, together with pre-existing diagnostics of galaxy structure to study the role of galaxy mergers in inducing (post-) starburst spectral signatures in local galaxies, and investigate whether (post-) starburst galaxies play a role in the build-up of the `red sequence'. Our morphological and structural analysis of an evolutionary sample of 335 (post-) starburst galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 with starburst ages 0 < tSB < 0.6 Gyr, shows that 45 per cent of galaxies with young starbursts (tSB < 0.1 Gyr) show signatures of an ongoing or past merger. This fraction declines with starburst age, and we find a good agreement between automated and visual classifications. The majority of the oldest (post-) starburst galaxies in our sample (tSB ˜ 0.6 Gyr) have structural properties characteristic of early-type discs and are not as highly concentrated as the fully quenched galaxies commonly found on the `red sequence' in the present day Universe. This suggests that, if (post-) starburst galaxies are a transition phase between active star-formation and quiescence, they do not attain the structure of presently quenched galaxies within the first 0.6 Gyr after the starburst.

Intrinsic Optical Activity and Environmental Perturbations: Solvation Effects in Chiral Building Blocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lemler, Paul M.; Vaccaro, Patrick

2016-06-01

The non-resonant interaction of electromagnetic radiation with an isotropic ensemble of chiral molecules, which causes the incident state of linear polarization to undergo a signed rotation, long has served as a metric for gauging the enantiomeric purity of asymmetric syntheses. While the underlying phenomenon of circular birefringence (CB) typically is probed in the condensed phase, recent advances in ultrasensitive circular-differential detection schemes, as exemplified by the techniques of Cavity Ring-Down Polarimetry (CRDP), have permitted the first quantitative analyses of such processes to be performed in rarefied media. Efforts to extend vapor-phase investigations of CB to new families of chiral substrates will be discussed, with particular emphasis directed towards the elucidation of intrinsic (e.g., solvent-free) properties and their mediation by environmental perturbations (e.g., solvation). Specific species targeted by this work will include the stereoselective building blocks phenylpropylene oxide and α-methylbenzyl amine, both of which exhibit pronounced solvent-dependent changes in measured optical activity. The nature of chiroptical response in different environments will be highlighted, with quantum-chemical calculations serving to unravel the structural and electronic provenance of observed behavior.

First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the galaxy colour bimodality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, Dylan; Pillepich, Annalisa; Springel, Volker; Weinberger, Rainer; Hernquist, Lars; Pakmor, Rüdiger; Genel, Shy; Torrey, Paul; Vogelsberger, Mark; Kauffmann, Guinevere; Marinacci, Federico; Naiman, Jill

2018-03-01

We introduce the first two simulations of the IllustrisTNG project, a next generation of cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulations, focusing on the optical colours of galaxies. We explore TNG100, a rerun of the original Illustris box, and TNG300, which includes 2 × 25003 resolution elements in a volume 20 times larger. Here, we present first results on the galaxy colour bimodality at low redshift. Accounting for the attenuation of stellar light by dust, we compare the simulated (g - r) colours of 109 < M⋆/M⊙ < 1012.5 galaxies to the observed distribution from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find a striking improvement with respect to the original Illustris simulation, as well as excellent quantitative agreement with the observations, with a sharp transition in median colour from blue to red at a characteristic M⋆ ˜ 1010.5 M⊙. Investigating the build-up of the colour-mass plane and the formation of the red sequence, we demonstrate that the primary driver of galaxy colour transition is supermassive black hole feedback in its low accretion state. Across the entire population the median colour transition time-scale Δtgreen is ˜1.6 Gyr, a value which drops for increasingly massive galaxies. We find signatures of the physical process of quenching: at fixed stellar mass, redder galaxies have lower star formation rates, gas fractions, and gas metallicities; their stellar populations are also older and their large-scale interstellar magnetic fields weaker than in bluer galaxies. Finally, we measure the amount of stellar mass growth on the red sequence. Galaxies with M⋆ > 1011 M⊙ which redden at z < 1 accumulate on average ˜25 per cent of their final z = 0 mass post-reddening; at the same time, ˜18 per cent of such massive galaxies acquire half or more of their final stellar mass while on the red sequence.

Characterization of low loss microstrip resonators as a building block for circuit QED in a 3D waveguide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zoepfl, D.; Muppalla, P. R.; Schneider, C. M. F.; Kasemann, S.; Partel, S.; Kirchmair, G.

2017-08-01

Here we present the microwave characterization of microstrip resonators, made from aluminum and niobium, inside a 3D microwave waveguide. In the low temperature, low power limit internal quality factors of up to one million were reached. We found a good agreement to models predicting conductive losses and losses to two level systems for increasing temperature. The setup presented here is appealing for testing materials and structures, as it is free of wire bonds and offers a well controlled microwave environment. In combination with transmon qubits, these resonators serve as a building block for a novel circuit QED architecture inside a rectangular waveguide.

Galaxy Zoo: Major Galaxy Mergers Are Not a Significant Quenching Pathway

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weigel, Anna K.; Schawinski, Kevin; Caplar, Neven; Carpineti, Alfredo; Hart, Ross E.; Kaviraj, Sugata; Keel, William C.; Kruk, Sandor J.; Lintott, Chris J.; Nichol, Robert C.; Simmons, Brooke D.; Smethurst, Rebecca J.

2017-08-01

We use stellar mass functions to study the properties and the significance of quenching through major galaxy mergers. In addition to SDSS DR7 and Galaxy Zoo 1 data, we use samples of visually selected major galaxy mergers and post-merger galaxies. We determine the stellar mass functions of the stages that we would expect major-merger-quenched galaxies to pass through on their way from the blue cloud to the red sequence: (1) major merger, (2) post-merger, (3) blue early type, (4) green early type, and (5) red early type. Based on their similar mass function shapes, we conclude that major mergers are likely to form an evolutionary sequence from star formation to quiescence via quenching. Relative to all blue galaxies, the major-merger fraction increases as a function of stellar mass. Major-merger quenching is inconsistent with the mass and environment quenching model. At z˜ 0, major-merger-quenched galaxies are unlikely to constitute the majority of galaxies that transition through the green valley. Furthermore, between z˜ 0-0.5, major-merger-quenched galaxies account for 1%-5% of all quenched galaxies at a given stellar mass. Major galaxy mergers are therefore not a significant quenching pathway, neither at z˜ 0 nor within the last 5 Gyr. The majority of red galaxies must have been quenched through an alternative quenching mechanism that causes a slow blue to red evolution. .

Aerial Imagery and LIDAR Data Fusion for Unambiguous Extraction of Adjacent Level-Buildings Footprints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mola Ebrahimi, S.; Arefi, H.; Rasti Veis, H.

2017-09-01

Our paper aims to present a new approach to identify and extract building footprints using aerial images and LiDAR data. Employing an edge detector algorithm, our method first extracts the outer boundary of buildings, and then by taking advantage of Hough transform and extracting the boundary of connected buildings in a building block, it extracts building footprints located in each block. The proposed method first recognizes the predominant leading orientation of a building block using Hough transform, and then rotates the block according to the inverted complement of the dominant line's angle. Therefore the block poses horizontally. Afterwards, by use of another Hough transform, vertical lines, which might be the building boundaries of interest, are extracted and the final building footprints within a block are obtained. The proposed algorithm is implemented and tested on the urban area of Zeebruges, Belgium(IEEE Contest,2015). The areas of extracted footprints are compared to the corresponding areas in the reference data and mean error is equal to 7.43 m2. Besides, qualitative and quantitative evaluations suggest that the proposed algorithm leads to acceptable results in automated precise extraction of building footprints.

Building Up the Milky Way's Skeleton

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-09-01

designed to identify long filaments that are coherent both in physical and velocity space.Using this method, Wang and collaborators found a total of 54 large-scale filaments that met all of their criteria. The survey covered nearly half of the galactic plane, and the team estimates that there may be a total of ~200 large-scale filaments like these in the Milky Way.Histograms of the mass and length of the newly discovered filaments (N=54). The distributions for the filaments that are bones (N=13) are overplotted in red. [Adapted from Wang et al. 2016]A Catalog of Bones and MoreThe authors generated a catalog of the newly discovered filaments, determining properties like their masses (1,000100,000 solar masses), lengths (30900 light-years), aspect ratios, temperatures, and more. They then used this catalog to make several statistical observations:The filaments are widely distributed across the galactic disk, with roughly 50% located within 65 light-years of the galactic plane (for reference, the Sun is 82 light-years above the galactic plane).Roughly a 1/3 of the filaments are part of the Milky Ways skeleton, lying along the centers of our galaxys spiral arms.Around 1% of the molecular interstellar medium in our galaxy is confined in large filaments like these.The formation of massive stars occurs more favorably in large filaments, compared to elsewhere in our galaxy.This catalog is an important building block in our understanding of the structure of the interstellar medium of our galaxy. The authors next plan to extend this census to the rest of our galaxy, providing us with the best picture yet of the skeleton of the Milky Way.BonusCheck out all 54 of the filaments discovered by Wang and collaborators in the gif below (or follow the link to the article to view the original images)! Submillimeter dust emission is shown in red, and Spitzer/WISE 24/22 m emission is shown in cyan. The connected dots show how the filament was identified by the minimum spanning tree algorithm

What the Local Group can tell us about the first stars and first galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jablonka, Pascale

2018-06-01

I will present a series of new observational results on the most pristine stellar population in some of the Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies, with particular focus on the level of homogeneity of their abundance ratios. I will draw comparisons with the Milky Way halo and discuss the very specific question of the neutron capture elements. Our understanding of the formation of dwarf galaxies strongly rely on our ability to model them. I will present the status of our recent high resolution chemo-dynamical simulations, describe our latest results on galaxy build-up processes, and discuss the challenges that modeling has to face, in particular in the mass range of the ultra-faint dwarfs.

Galaxy-galaxy weak gravitational lensing in f(R) gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Baojiu; Shirasaki, Masato

2018-03-01

We present an analysis of galaxy-galaxy weak gravitational lensing (GGL) in chameleon f(R) gravity - a leading candidate of non-standard gravity models. For the analysis, we have created mock galaxy catalogues based on dark matter haloes from two sets of numerical simulations, using a halo occupation distribution (HOD) prescription which allows a redshift dependence of galaxy number density. To make a fairer comparison between the f(R) and Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) models, their HOD parameters are tuned so that the galaxy two-point correlation functions in real space (and therefore the projected two-point correlation functions) match. While the f(R) model predicts an enhancement of the convergence power spectrum by up to ˜ 30 per cent compared to the standard ΛCDM model with the same parameters, the maximum enhancement of GGL is only half as large and less than 5 per cent on separations above ˜1-2 h-1 Mpc, because the latter is a cross-correlation of shear (or matter, which is more strongly affected by modified gravity) and galaxy (which is weakly affected given the good match between galaxy autocorrelations in the two models) fields. We also study the possibility of reconstructing the matter power spectrum by combination of GGL and galaxy clustering in f(R) gravity. We find that the galaxy-matter cross-correlation coefficient remains at unity down to ˜2-3 h-1 Mpc at relevant redshifts even in f(R) gravity, indicating joint analysis of GGL and galaxy clustering can be a powerful probe of matter density fluctuations in chameleon gravity. The scale dependence of the model differences in their predictions of GGL can potentially allows us to break the degeneracy between f(R) gravity and other cosmological parameters such as Ωm and σ8.

Galaxy NGC5474

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-07-25

NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer took this ultraviolet color image of the galaxy NGC5474 on June 7, 2003. NGC5474 is located 20 million light-years from Earth and is within a group of galaxies dominated by the Messier 101 galaxy. Star formation in this galaxy shows some evidence of a disturbed spiral pattern, which may have been induced by tidal interactions with Messier 101. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04634

Distributions of Gas and Galaxies from Galaxy Clusters to Larger Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patej, Anna

2017-01-01

We address the distributions of gas and galaxies on three scales: the outskirts of galaxy clusters, the clustering of galaxies on large scales, and the extremes of the galaxy distribution. In the outskirts of galaxy clusters, long-standing analytical models of structure formation and recent simulations predict the existence of density jumps in the gas and dark matter profiles. We use these features to derive models for the gas density profile, obtaining a simple fiducial model that is in agreement with both observations of cluster interiors and simulations of the outskirts. We next consider the galaxy density profiles of clusters; under the assumption that the galaxies in cluster outskirts follow similar collisionless dynamics as the dark matter, their distribution should show a steep jump as well. We examine the profiles of a low-redshift sample of clusters and groups, finding evidence for the jump in some of these clusters. Moving to larger scales where massive galaxies of different types are expected to trace the same large-scale structure, we present a test of this prediction by measuring the clustering of red and blue galaxies at z 0.6, finding low stochasticity between the two populations. These results address a key source of systematic uncertainty - understanding how target populations of galaxies trace large-scale structure - in galaxy redshift surveys. Such surveys use baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) as a cosmological probe, but are limited by the expense of obtaining sufficiently dense spectroscopy. With the intention of leveraging upcoming deep imaging data, we develop a new method of detecting the BAO in sparse spectroscopic samples via cross-correlation with a dense photometric catalog. This method will permit the extension of BAO measurements to higher redshifts than possible with the existing spectroscopy alone. Lastly, we connect galaxies near and far: the Local Group dwarfs and the high redshift galaxies observed by Hubble and Spitzer. We

Quantifying the impact of mergers on the angular momentum of simulated galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lagos, Claudia del P.; Stevens, Adam R. H.; Bower, Richard G.; Davis, Timothy A.; Contreras, Sergio; Padilla, Nelson D.; Obreschkow, Danail; Croton, Darren; Trayford, James W.; Welker, Charlotte; Theuns, Tom

2018-02-01

We use EAGLE to quantify the effect galaxy mergers have on the stellar specific angular momentum of galaxies, jstars. We split mergers into dry (gas-poor)/wet (gas-rich), major/minor and different spin alignments and orbital parameters. Wet (dry) mergers have an average neutral gas-to-stellar mass ratio of 1.1 (0.02), while major (minor) mergers are those with stellar mass ratios ≥0.3 (0.1-0.3). We correlate the positions of galaxies in the jstars-stellar mass plane at z = 0 with their merger history, and find that galaxies of low spins suffered dry mergers, while galaxies of normal/high spins suffered predominantly wet mergers, if any. The radial jstars profiles of galaxies that went through dry mergers are deficient by ≈0.3 dex at r ≲ 10 r50 (with r50 being the half-stellar mass radius), compared to galaxies that went through wet mergers. Studying the merger remnants reveals that dry mergers reduce jstars by ≈30 per cent, while wet mergers increase it by ≈10 per cent, on average. The latter is connected to the build-up of the bulge by newly formed stars of high rotational speed. Moving from minor to major mergers accentuates these effects. When the spin vectors of the galaxies prior to the dry merger are misaligned, jstars decreases by a greater magnitude, while in wet mergers corotation and high orbital angular momentum efficiently spun-up galaxies. We predict what would be the observational signatures in the jstars profiles driven by dry mergers: (i) shallow radial profiles and (ii) profiles that rise beyond ≈10 r50, both of which are significantly different from spiral galaxies.

Implications of Barium Abundances for the Chemical Enrichment of Dwarf Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duggan, Gina; Kirby, Evan N.

2018-06-01

There are many candidate sites of the r-process: core-collapse supernovae (including rare magnetorotational core-collapse supernovae), neutron star mergers (NSMs), and neutron star/black hole mergers. The chemical enrichment of galaxies—specifically dwarf galaxies—helps distinguish between these sources based on the continual build-up of r-process elements. The existence of several nearby dwarf galaxies allows us to measure robust chemical abundances for galaxies with different star formation histories. Dwarf galaxies are especially useful because simple chemical evolution models can be used to determine the sources of r-process material. We have measured the r-process element barium with Keck/DEIMOS medium-resolution spectroscopy. We will present the largest sample of barium abundances (more than 200 stars) in dwarf galaxies ever assembled. We measure [Ba/Fe] as a function of [Fe/H] in this sample and compare with existing [alpha/Fe] measurements. We have found that a large contribution of barium needs to occur at timescales similar to Type Ia supernovae in order to recreate our observed abundances, namely the flat or slightly rising trend of [Ba/Fe] vs. [Fe/H]. We conclude that neutron star mergers are the main contribution of r-process enrichment in dwarf galaxies.