Planet Hunters IX. KIC 8462852 – where's the flux? Boyajian, T. S; LaCourse, D. M; Rappaport, S. A ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
04/2016, Letnik:
457, Številka:
4
Journal Article
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Over the duration of the Kepler mission, KIC 8462852 was observed to undergo irregularly shaped, aperiodic dips in flux of up to ∼20 per cent. The dipping activity can last for between 5 and 80 d. We ...characterize the object with high-resolution spectroscopy, spectral energy distribution fitting, radial velocity measurements, high-resolution imaging, and Fourier analyses of the Kepler light curve. We determine that KIC 8462852 is a typical main-sequence F3 V star that exhibits no significant IR excess, and has no very close interacting companions. In this paper, we describe various scenarios to explain the dipping events observed in the Kepler light curve. We confirm that the dipping signals in the data are not caused by any instrumental or data processing artefact, and thus are astrophysical in origin. We construct scenario-independent constraints on the size and location of a body in the system that are needed to reproduce the observations. We deliberate over several assorted stellar and circumstellar astrophysical scenarios, most of which have problems explaining the data in hand. By considering the observational constraints on dust clumps in orbit around a normal main-sequence star, we conclude that the scenario most consistent with the data in hand is the passage of a family of exocomet or planetesimal fragments, all of which are associated with a single previous break-up event, possibly caused by tidal disruption or thermal processing. The minimum total mass associated with these fragments likely exceeds 10−6 M⊕, corresponding to an original rocky body of >100 km in diameter. We discuss the necessity of future observations to help interpret the system.
The antiplatelet drug clopidogrel is a new thienopyridine derivative whose mechanism of action and chemical structure are similar to those of ticlopidine. The estimated incidence of ...ticlopidine-associated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is 1 per 1600 to 5000 patients treated, whereas no clopidogrel-associated cases were observed among 20,000 closely monitored patients treated in phase 3 clinical trials and cohort studies. Because of the association between ticlopidine use and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and other adverse effects, clopidogrel has largely replaced ticlopidine in clinical practice. More than 3 million patients have received clopidogrel. We report the clinical and laboratory findings in 11 patients in whom thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura developed during or soon after treatment with clopidogrel.
The 11 patients were identified by active surveillance by the medical directors of blood banks (3 patients), hematologists (6), and the manufacturer of clopidogrel (2).
Ten of the 11 patients received clopidogrel for 14 days or less before the onset of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Although 10 of the 11 patients had a response to plasma exchange, 2 required 20 or more exchanges before clinical improvement occurred, and 2 had relapses while not receiving clopidogrel. One patient died despite undergoing plasma exchange soon after diagnosis.
Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura can occur after the initiation of clopidogrel therapy, often within the first two weeks of treatment. Physicians should be aware of the possibility of this syndrome when initiating clopidogrel treatment.
The NASA Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) aircraft mission was conducted in February-April 2001 over the NW Pacific (1) to characterize the Asian chemical outflow and ...relate it quantitatively to its sources and (2) to determine its chemical evolution. It used two aircraft, a DC-8 and a P-3B, operating out of Hong Kong and Yokota Air Force Base (near Tokyo), with secondary sites in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, Okinawa, and Midway. The aircraft carried instrumentation for measurements of long-lived greenhouse gases, ozone and its precursors, aerosols and their precursors, related species, and chemical tracers. Five chemical transport models (CTMs) were used for chemical forecasting. Customized bottom-up emission inventories for East Asia were generated prior to the mission to support chemical forecasting and to serve as a priori for evaluation with the aircraft data. Validation flights were conducted for the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) satellite instrument and revealed little bias (6 plus or minus 2%) in the MOPITT measurements of CO columns. A major event of transpacific Asian pollution was characterized through combined analysis of TRACE-P and MOPITT data. The TRACE-P observations showed that cold fronts sweeping across East Asia and the associated warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are the dominant pathway for Asian outflow to the Pacific in spring. The WCBs lift both anthropogenic and biomass burning (SE Asia) effluents to the free troposphere, resulting in complex chemical signatures. The TRACE-P data are in general consistent with a priori emission inventories, lending confidence in our ability to quantify Asian emissions from socioeconomic data and emission factors. However, the residential combustion source in rural China was found to be much larger than the a priori, and there were also unexplained chemical enhancements (HCN, CH3Cl, OCS, alkylnitrates) in Chinese urban plumes. The Asian source of CCl4 was found to be much higher than government estimates. Measurements of HCN and CH3CN indicated a dominant biomass burning source and ocean sink for both gases. Large fractions of sulfate and nitrate were found to be present in dust aerosols. Photochemical activity in the Asian outflow was strongly reduced by aerosol attenuation of UV radiation, with major implications for the concentrations of HOx, radicals. New particle formation, apparently from ternary nucleation involving NH3, was observed in Chinese urban plumes.
The rapid changes of magnetic fields associated with nighttime magnetic perturbations with amplitudes |ΔB| of hundreds of nanoteslas and 5‐ to 10‐min periods can induce bursts of geomagnetically ...induced currents that can harm technological systems. This paper presents three cases of intervals of intense and complex nighttime magnetic perturbations in eastern Arctic Canada in 2015, augmented by observations from auroral imagers and high‐altitude spacecraft in the nightside magnetosphere. Each case occurred within 1 hr after substorm onsets. None occurred during the main phase of a geomagnetic storm, and only the first during the early recovery phase (of a moderate storm). The cases were similar in that two or three intervals occurred in this region over a span of ~1 hr; these showed a spatial progression, in that successive intervals occurred later at more western and northern stations. During several intervals, individual peak Bx impulses occurred nearly simultaneously (within 1–2 min) at several stations, while during others the impulses occurred later at more western and northern stations, and during one interval they occurred later at southern stations. During both of the cases for which auroral images were available, a westward traveling surge and a poleward auroral expansion and/or poleward boundary intensification occurred, and during two events auroral streamers coincided in time and location with magnetic perturbations. These observations appear to be consistent with several earlier studies connecting nighttime magnetic perturbation events to localized auroral structures and to dipolarizing flux bundles and bursty bulk flows in the magnetotail.
Key Points
In each case study, two or three perturbation intervals occurred within a span of less than 1 hr; later intervals appeared to the north and west
Individual perturbation events typically had a horizontal radius (center to half maximum amplitude) of ~275 km
Events were closely associated with auroral streamers and less closely associated with substorm onsets and magnetotail dipolarizations
The rapid changes of magnetic fields associated with large, isolated magnetic perturbations with amplitudes |ΔB| of hundreds of nanotesla and 5‐ to 10‐min periods can induce bursts of geomagnetically ...induced currents that can harm technological systems. This paper presents statistical summaries of the characteristics of nightside magnetic perturbation events observed in Eastern Arctic Canada from 2014 through 2017 using data from stations that are part of four magnetometer arrays: MACCS, AUTUMNX, CANMOS, and CARISMA, covering a range of magnetic latitudes from 68 to 78°. Most but not all of the magnetic perturbation events were associated with substorms: roughly two thirds occurred between 5 and 30 min after onset. The association of intense nighttime magnetic perturbation events with magnetic storms was significantly reduced at latitudes above 73°, presumably above the nominal auroral oval. A superposed epoch study of 21 strong events at Cape Dorset showed that the largest |dB/dt| values appeared within an ~275‐km radius that was associated with a region of shear between upward and downward field‐aligned currents. The statistical distributions of impulse amplitudes of both |ΔB| and |dB/dt| fit well the log‐normal distribution at all stations. The |ΔB| distributions are similar over the magnetic latitude range studied, but the kurtosis and skewness of the |dB/dt| distributions show a slight increase with latitude. Knowledge of the statistical characteristics of these events has enabled us to estimate the occurrence probability of extreme impulsive disturbances using the approximation of a log‐normal distribution.
Key Points
Most intense events were associated with substorms; their association with magnetic storms was much lower above 73° MLAT
Largest |dB/dt| values appeared within an ~275‐km radius associated with a region of shear between upward and downward field‐aligned currents
The statistical distributions of impulse amplitudes of both |ΔX| and |dX/dt| fit well the log‐normal distribution but varied with latitude
Derivation of Predicted No Effect Concentrations (PNECs) for aquatic systems is the primary deterministic form of hazard extrapolation used in environmental risk assessment. Depending on the data ...availability, different regulatory jurisdictions apply application factors (AFs) to the most sensitive measured endpoint to derive the PNEC for a chemical. To assess differences in estimated PNEC values, two PNEC determination methodologies were applied to a curated public database using the EnviroTox Platform (www.EnviroToxdatabase.org). PNECs were derived for 3647 compounds using derivation procedures based on example US EPA and a modified European Union chemical registration procedure to allow for comparisons. Ranked probability distributions of PNEC values were developed and 5th percentile values were calculated for the entire dataset and scenarios where full acute or full chronic data sets were available. The lowest PNEC values indicated categorization based on chemical attributes and modes of action would lead to improved extrapolations. Full acute or chronic datasets gave measurably higher 5th percentile PNEC values. Algae were under-represented in available ecotoxicity data but drove PNECs disproportionately. Including algal inhibition studies will be important in understanding chemical hazards. The PNEC derivation logic flows are embedded in the EnviroTox Platform providing transparent and consistent PNEC derivations and PNEC distribution calculations.
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•Transparent logic for PNEC derivation would improve environmental risk assessment.•EnviroTox (www.EnviroToxdatabase.org) was used to develop PNECs for two example assessment systems and ~3500 compounds.•PNECs are driven disproportionately by algal and invertebrate toxicity.•Ecological thresholds of toxicologic concern can be developed on a regional basis using explicit PNEC logics.
► Outdated predictive accident models may not adequately represent recent conditions. ► Re-fitting of the existing models is a suitable updating strategy. ► Calibration of the models using a scale ...factor can be a practical alternative.
Reliable predictive accident models (PAMs) (also referred to as safety performance functions (SPFs)) are essential to design and maintain safe road networks however, ongoing changes in road and vehicle design coupled with road safety initiatives, mean that these models can quickly become dated. Unfortunately, because the fitting of sophisticated PAMs including a wide range of explanatory variables is not a trivial task, available models tend to be based on data collected many years ago and seem unlikely to give reliable estimates of current accidents. Large, expensive studies to produce new models are likely to be, at best, only a temporary solution. This paper thus seeks to develop a practical and efficient methodology to allow currently available PAMs to be updated to give unbiased estimates of accident frequencies at any point in time. Two principal issues are examined: the extent to which the temporal transferability of predictive accident models varies with model complexity; and the practicality and efficiency of two alternative updating strategies. The models used to illustrate these issues are the suites of models developed for rural dual and single carriageway roads in the UK. These are widely used in several software packages in spite of being based on data collected during the 1980s and early 1990s. It was found that increased model complexity by no means ensures better temporal transferability and that calibration of the models using a scale factor can be a practical alternative to fitting new models.
The super Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment (sPHENIX) at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider will perform high-precision measurements of jets and heavy flavor observables for a ...wide selection of nuclear collision systems, elucidating the microscopic nature of strongly interacting matter ranging from nucleons to the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma. A prototype of the sPHENIX calorimeter system was tested at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility as experiment T-1044 in the spring of 2016. The electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) prototype is composed of scintillating fibers embedded in a mixture of tungsten powder and epoxy. The hadronic calorimeter (HCal) prototype is composed of tilted steel plates alternating with the plastic scintillator. Results of the test beam reveal the energy resolution for electrons in the EMCal is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">2.8\%\oplus 15.5\%/\sqrt {E} </tex-math></inline-formula> and the energy resolution for hadrons in the combined EMCal plus HCal system is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">13.5\%\oplus 64.9\%/\sqrt {E} </tex-math></inline-formula>. These results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed calorimeter system satisfies the sPHENIX specifications.
Magnetotail processes and structures related to substorm growth phase/onset auroral arcs remain poorly understood mostly due to the lack of adequate observations. In this study we make a comparison ...between ground‐based optical measurements of the premidnight growth phase/onset arcs at subauroral latitudes and magnetically conjugate measurements made by the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) at ~780 km in altitude and by the Van Allen Probe B (RBSP‐B) spacecraft crossing L values of ~5.0–5.6 in the premidnight inner tail region. The conjugate observations offer a unique opportunity to examine the detailed features of the arc location relative to large‐scale Birkeland currents and of the magnetospheric counterpart. Our main findings include (1) at the early stage of the growth phase the quiet auroral arc emerged ~4.3° equatorward of the boundary between the downward Region 2 (R2) and upward Region 1 (R1) currents; (2) shortly before the auroral breakup (poleward auroral expansion) the latitudinal separation between the arc and the R1/R2 demarcation narrowed to ~1.0°; (3) RBSP‐B observed a magnetic field signature of a local upward field‐aligned current (FAC) connecting the arc with the near‐Earth tail when the spacecraft footprint was very close to the arc; and (4) the upward FAC signature was located on the tailward side of a local plasma pressure increase confined near L ~5.2–5.4. These findings strongly suggest that the premidnight arc is connected to highly localized pressure gradients embedded in the near‐tail R2 source region via the local upward FAC.
Key Points
Conjugate space‐ground observations of growth phase/onset arcs are examined
AMPERE allows us to compare the arc location with dynamic large‐scale FACs
RBSP‐B provides in situ measurements from the magnetospheric source region
Highlights • Practitioners reported enthusiasm for preconception care and knowledge of guidelines. • Practitioners aimed to offer opportunistic preconception care despite limited instances. • ...Cross-cultural communication and a team-based approach were reported as fundamental.
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