Vista D2.1 Supporting Data for Business and Regulatory Scenarios Report

Vista examines the effects of conflicting market forces on European performance in ATM, through the evaluation of impact metrics on four key stakeholders, and the environment. The review of regulatory and business factors is presented. Vista will model the current and future (2035, 2050) framework based on the impact of regulatory and business factors. These factors are obtained from a literature review of regulations, projects and technological and operational changes. The current value of those factors and their possible evolution are captured in this deliverable

Spitzer 24 micron Survey of Debris Disks in the Pleiades

We performed a 24 micron 2 Deg X 1 Deg survey of the Pleiades cluster, using the MIPS instrument on Spitzer. Fifty four members ranging in spectral type from B8 to K6 show 24 micron fluxes consistent with bare photospheres. All Be stars show excesses attributed to free-free emission in their gaseous envelopes. Five early-type stars and four solar-type stars show excesses indicative of debris disks. We find a debris disk fraction of 25 % for B-A members and 10 % for F-K3 ones. These fractions appear intermediate between those for younger clusters and for the older field stars. They indicate a decay with age of the frequency of the dust-production events inside the planetary zone, with similar time scales for solar-mass stars as have been found previously for A-stars.Comment: accepted to Ap

Debris Disks in NGC 2547

We have surveyed the 30 Myr-old cluster NGC 2547 for planetary debris disks using Spitzer. At 4.5-8 um we are sensitive to the photospheric level down to mid-M stars (0.2 Msol) and at 24 um to early-G stars (1.2 Msol). We find only two to four stars with excesses at 8 um out of ~400-500 cluster members, resulting in an excess fraction <~1 percent at this wavelength. By contrast, the excess fraction at 24 um is ~40 percent (for B-F types). Out of four late-type stars with excesses at 8 um two marginal ones are consistent with asteroid-like debris disks. Among stars with strong 8 um excesses one is possibly from a transitional disk, while another one can be a result of a catastrophic collision. Our survey demonstrates that the inner 0.1-1 AU parts of disks around solar-type stars clear out very thoroughly by 30 Myrs of age. Comparing with the much slower decay of excesses at 24 and 70 um, disks clear from the inside out, of order 10 Myr for the inner zones probed at 8 um compared with a hundred or more Myr for those probed with the two longer wavelengths.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 29 pages, 13 figs. A Note in Proof concerning cluster's age was added in the original submission of 2007 July 19. Full Tables 1 and 2 in the electronic form together with the article with full resolution figures are available at http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~ngorlova/disksNGC2547

Tycho 2 stars with infrared excess in the MSX Point Source Catalogue

Stars of all evolutionary phases have been found to have excess infrared emission due to the presence of circumstellar material. To identify such stars, we have positionally correlated the infrared MSX point source catalogue and the Tycho 2 optical catalogue. A near/mid infrared colour criteria has been developed to select infrared excess stars. The search yielded 1938 excess stars, over half (979) have never previously been detected by IRAS. The excess stars were found to be young objects such as Herbig Ae/Be and Be stars, and evolved objects such as OH/IR and carbon stars. A number of B type excess stars were also discovered whose infrared colours could not be readily explained by known catalogued objects.Comment: Added Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

A Phase II Basket Trial of Dual Anti-CTLA-4 and Anti-PD-1 Blockade in Rare Tumors (DART SWOG 1609) in Patients with Nonpancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors.

PurposeImmune checkpoint blockade has improved outcomes across tumor types; little is known about the efficacy of these agents in rare tumors. We report the results of the (nonpancreatic) neuroendocrine neoplasm cohort of SWOG S1609 dual anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 blockade in rare tumors (DART).Patients and methodsWe performed a prospective, open-label, multicenter phase II clinical trial of ipilimumab plus nivolumab across multiple rare tumor cohorts, with the (nonpancreatic) neuroendocrine cohort reported here. Response assessment by grade was not prespecified. The primary endpoint was overall response rate [ORR; RECIST v1.1; complete response (CR) and partial response (PR)]; secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), stable disease &gt;6 months, and toxicity.ResultsThirty-two eligible patients received therapy; 18 (56%) had high-grade disease. Most common primary sites were gastrointestinal (47%; N = 15) and lung (19%; N = 6). The overall ORR was 25% [95% confidence interval (CI) 13-64%; CR, 3%, N = 1; PR, 22%, N = 7]. Patients with high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma had an ORR of 44% (8/18 patients) versus 0% in low/intermediate grade tumors (0/14 patients; P = 0.004). The 6-month PFS was 31% (95% CI, 19%-52%); median OS was 11 months (95% CI, 6-∞). The most common toxicities were hypothyroidism (31%), fatigue (28%), and nausea (28%), with alanine aminotransferase elevation (9%) as the most common grade 3/4 immune-related adverse event, and no grade 5 events.ConclusionsIpilimumab plus nivolumab demonstrated a 44% ORR in patients with nonpancreatic high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma, with 0% ORR in low/intermediate grade disease

Discovery of Reflection Nebulosity Around Five Vega-like Stars

Coronagraphic optical observations of six Vega-like stars reveal reflection nebulosities, five of which were previously unknown. The nebulosities illuminated by HD 4881, HD 23362, HD 23680, HD 26676, and HD 49662 resemble that of the Pleiades, indicating an interstellar origin for dust grains. The reflection nebulosity around HD 123160 has a double-arm morphology, but no disk-like feature is seen as close as 2.5 arcsec from the star in K-band adaptive optics data. We demonstrate that uniform density dust clouds surrounding HD 23362, HD 23680 and HD 123160 can account for the observed 12-100 micron spectral energy distributions. For HD 4881, HD 26676, and HD 49662 an additional emission source, such as from a circumstellar disk or non-equilibrium grain heating, is required to fit the 12-25 micron data. These results indicate that in some cases, particularly for Vega-like stars located beyond the Local Bubble (>100 pc), the dust responsible for excess thermal emission may originate from the interstellar medium rather than from a planetary debris system.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal, in press for March, 2002 (32 pages, 13 figures

The Frequency of Mid-Infrared Excess Sources in Galactic Surveys

We have identified 230 Tycho-2 Spectral Catalog stars that exhibit 8 micron mid-infrared extraphotospheric excesses in the MidCourse Space Experiment (MSX) and Spitzer Space Telescope Galactic Legacy MidPlane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) surveys. Of these, 183 are either OB stars earlier than B8 in which the excess plausibly arises from a thermal bremsstrahlung component or evolved stars in which the excess may be explained by an atmospheric dust component. The remaining 47 stars have spectral classifications B8 or later and appear to be main sequence or late pre-main-sequence objects harboring circumstellar disks. Six of the 47 stars exhibit multiple signatures characteristic of pre-main-sequence circumstellar disks, including emission lines, near-infrared K-band excesses, and X-ray emission. Approximately one-third of the remaining 41 sources have emission lines suggesting relative youth. Of the 25 GLIMPSE stars with SST data at >24 microns, 20 also show an excess at 24 microns. Three additional objects have 24 micron upper limits consistent with possible excesses, and two objects have photospheric measurements at 24 microns. Six MSX sources had a measurement at wavelengths >8 microns. We modeled the excesses in 26 stars having two or more measurements in excess of the expected photospheres as single-component blackbodies. We determine probable disk temperatures and fractional infrared luminosities in the range 191 < T < 787 and 3.9x10^-4 < L_IR/L_* < 2.7x10^-1. We estimate a lower limit on the fraction of Tycho-2 Spectral Catalog main-sequence stars having mid-IR, but not near-IR, excesses to be 1.0+-0.3%.Comment: Accepted to Ap

Frequency of Debris Disks around Solar-Type Stars: First Results from a Spitzer/MIPS Survey

We have searched for infrared excesses around a well defined sample of 69 FGK main-sequence field stars. These stars were selected without regard to their age, metallicity, or any previous detection of IR excess; they have a median age of ~4 Gyr. We have detected 70 um excesses around 7 stars at the 3-sigma confidence level. This extra emission is produced by cool material (< 100 K) located beyond 10 AU, well outside the ``habitable zones'' of these systems and consistent with the presence of Kuiper Belt analogs with ~100 times more emitting surface area than in our own planetary system. Only one star, HD 69830, shows excess emission at 24 um, corresponding to dust with temperatures > 300 K located inside of 1 AU. While debris disks with Ld/L* > 10^-3 are rare around old FGK stars, we find that the disk frequency increases from 2+-2% for Ld/L* > 10^-4 to 12+-5% for Ld/L* > 10^-5. This trend in the disk luminosity distribution is consistent with the estimated dust in our solar system being within an order of magnitude, greater or less, than the typical level around similar nearby stars.Comment: 11 figure

Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (FEPS): Properties of Debris Dust around Solar-type Stars

We present Spitzer photometric (IRAC and MIPS) and spectroscopic (IRS low resolution) observations for 314 stars in the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (FEPS) Legacy program. These data are used to investigate the properties and evolution of circumstellar dust around solar-type stars spanning ages from approximately 3 Myr to 3 Gyr. We identify 46 sources that exhibit excess infrared emission above the stellar photosphere at 24um, and 21 sources with excesses at 70um. Five sources with an infrared excess have characteristics of optically thick primordial disks, while the remaining sources have properties akin to debris systems. The fraction of systems exhibiting a 24um excess greater than 10.2% above the photosphere is 15% for ages < 300 Myr and declines to 2.7% for older ages. The upper envelope to the 70um fractional luminosity appears to decline over a similar age range. The characteristic temperature of the debris inferred from the IRS spectra range between 60 and 180 K, with evidence for the presence of cooler dust to account for the strength of the 70um excess emission. No strong correlation is found between dust temperature and stellar age. Comparison of the observational data with disk models containing a power-law distribution of silicate grains suggest that the typical inner disk radius is > 10 AU. Although the interpretation is not unique, the lack of excess emission shortwards of 16um and the relatively flat distribution of the 24um excess for ages <300~Myr is consistent with steady-state collisional models.Comment: 85 pages, 18 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ

EXPORT: optical photometry and polarimetry of Vega-type and pre-main sequence stars

This paper presents optical UBVRI broadband photo-polarimetry of the EXPORT sample obtained at the 2.5m Nordic Optical Telescope. The database consists of multi-epoch photo-polarimetry of 68 pre-main-sequence and main-sequence stars. An investigation of the polarization variability indicates that 22 objects are variable at the 3sigma level in our data. All these objects are pre-main sequence stars, consisting of both T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be objects while the main sequence, Vega type and post-T Tauri type objects are not variable. The polarization properties of the variable sources are mostly indicative of the UXOR-type behaviour; the objects show highest polarization when the brightness is at minimum. We add seven new objects to the class of UXOR variables (BH Cep, VX Cas, DK Tau, HK Ori, LkHa 234, KK Oph and RY Ori). The main reason for their discovery is the fact that our data-set is the largest in its kind, indicating that many more young UXOR-type pre-main sequence stars remain to be discovered. The set of Vega-like systems has been investigated for the presence of intrinsic polarization. As they lack variability, this was done using indirect methods, and apart from the known case of BD +31.643, the following stars were found to be strong candidates to exhibit polarization due to the presence of circumstellar disks: 51 Oph, BD +31.643C, HD 58647 and HD 233517.Comment: A&A accepte