Low-disturbance wind tunnels

During the past years, there was an extensive program under way at the Langley Research Center to upgrade the flow quality in several of the large wind tunnels. This effort has resulted in significant improvements in flow quality in these tunnels and has also increased the understanding of how and where changes in existing and new wind tunnels are most likely to yield the desired improvements. As part of this ongoing program, flow disturbance levels and spectra were measured in several Langley tunnels before and after modifications were made to reduce acoustic and vorticity fluctuations. A brief description of these disturbance control features is given for the Low-Turbulence Pressure Tunnel, the 4 x 7 Meter Tunnel, and the 8 Foot Transonic Pressure Tunnel. To illustrate typical reductions in disturbance levels obtained in these tunnels, data from hot-wire or acoustic sensors are presented. A concept for a subsonic quiet tunnel designed to study boundary layer stability and transition is also presented. Techniques developed at Langley in recent years to eliminate the high intensity and high-frequency acoustic disturbances present in all previous supersonic wind tunnels are described. In conclusion, the low-disturbance levels present in atmospheric flight can now be simulated in wind tunnels over the speed range from low subsonic through high supersonic

Millimeter imaging of HD 163296: probing the disk structure and kinematics

We present new multi-wavelength millimeter interferometric observations of the Herbig Ae star HD 163296 obtained with the IRAM/PBI, SMA and VLA arrays both in continuum and in the 12CO, 13CO and C18O emission lines. Gas and dust properties have been obtained comparing the observations with self-consistent disk models for the dust and CO emission. The circumstellar disk is resolved both in the continuum and in CO. We find strong evidence that the circumstellar material is in Keplerian rotation around a central star of 2.6 Msun. The disk inclination with respect to the line of sight is 46+-4 deg with a position angle of 128+-4 deg. The slope of the dust opacity measured between 0.87 and 7 mm (beta=1) confirms the presence of mm/cm-size grains in the disk midplane. The dust continuum emission is asymmetric and confined inside a radius of 200 AU while the CO emission extends up to 540 AU. The comparison between dust and CO temperature indicates that CO is present only in the disk interior. Finally, we obtain an increasing depletion of CO isotopomers from 12CO to 13CO and C18O. We argue that these results support the idea that the disk of HD 163296 is strongly evolved. In particular, we suggest that there is a strong depletion of dust relative to gas outside 200 AU; this may be due to the inward migration of large bodies that form in the outer disk or to clearing of a large gap in the dust distribution by a low mass companion.Comment: Accepted for publication on A&A, 16 page

Large dust particles in disks around T Tauri stars

We present 7-mm continuum observations of 14 low-mass pre-main-sequence stars in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region obtained with the Very Large Array with ~1.5" resolution and ~0.3 mJy rms sensitivity. For 10 objects, the circumstellar emission has been spatially resolved. The large outer disk radii derived suggest that the emission at this wavelength is mostly optically thin. The millimetre spectral energy distributions are characterised by spectral indices alpha = 2.3 to 3.2. After accounting for contribution from free-free emission and corrections for optical depth, we determine dust opacity indices beta in the range 0.5 to 1.6, which suggest that millimetre-sized dust aggregates are present in the circumstellar disks. Four of the sources with beta > 1 may be consistent with submicron-sized dust as found in the interstellar medium. Our findings indicate that dust grain growth to millimetre-sized particles is completed within less than 1 Myr for the majority of circumstellar disks.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

A short-term longitudinal study of correlates and sequelae of attachment security in autism

In this short-term longitudinal study, thirty preschool-aged children with autism were first observed in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure and, separately, interacting with the primary caregiver in the home. One year later, each child completed both a developmental assessment and an observational assessment of empathic responding. Behaviors typical for children with autism were distinguished from behaviors suggestive of relationally based attachment disorganization. Forty five percent of the children were classified as securely attached. The secure group demonstrated language skills superior to those of the insecurely attached group, concurrently and during the follow-up. Compared to parents of children who were insecurely attached, parents of securely attached children were rated as more sensitive. Compared to both organized insecure and disorganized children, secure children were rated as more responsive to an examiner’s apparent distress during the follow-up relative to their ratings at intake, whereas empathy ratings of children with insecure classifications did not increase. Importantly, attachment security was associated with empathy above and beyond the contribution of children’s language level. These results indicate that the sequelae of attachment security in autism may be similar to those documented for typically developing children.This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, as part of the Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism: [Program Project Grant Number HD-DCD35470] and Wellcome Trust: [Grant Number WT103343MA]

Long-lived space observatories for astronomy and astrophysics

NASA's plan to build and launch a fleet of long-lived space observatories that include the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the Advanced X Ray Astrophysics Observatory (AXAF), and the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) are discussed. These facilities are expected to have a profound impact on the sciences of astronomy and astrophysics. The long-lived observatories will provide new insights about astronomical and astrophysical problems that range from the presence of planets orbiting nearby stars to the large-scale distribution and evolution of matter in the universe. An important concern to NASA and the scientific community is the operation and maintenance cost of the four observatories described above. The HST cost about $1.3 billion (1984 dollars) to build and is estimated to require$160 million (1986 dollars) a year to operate and maintain. If HST is operated for 20 years, the accumulated costs will be considerably more than those required for its construction. Therefore, it is essential to plan carefully for observatory operations and maintenance before a long-lived facility is constructed. The primary goal of this report is to help NASA develop guidelines for the operations and management of these future observatories so as to achieve the best possible scientific results for the resources available. Eight recommendations are given

Optical/IR from ground

Optical/infrared (O/IR) astronomy in the 1990's is reviewed. The following subject areas are included: research environment; science opportunities; technical development of the 1980's and opportunities for the 1990's; and ground-based O/IR astronomy outside the U.S. Recommendations are presented for: (1) large scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for large O/IR telescopes); (2) medium scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for high angular resolution; Priority 2: a new generation of 4-m class telescopes); (3) small scale programs (Priority 1: near-IR and optical all-sky surveys; Priority 2: a National Astrometric Facility); and (4) infrastructure issues (develop, purchase, and distribute optical CCDs and infrared arrays; a program to support large optics technology; a new generation of large filled aperture telescopes; a program to archive and disseminate astronomical databases; and a program for training new instrumentalists

General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of the Hard State as a Magnetically-Dominated Accretion Flow

(Abridged) We present one of the first physically-motivated two-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) numerical simulations of a radiatively-cooled black-hole accretion disk. The fiducial simulation combines a total-energy-conserving formulation with a radiative cooling function, which includes bremsstrahlung, synchrotron, and Compton effects. By comparison with other simulations we show that in optically thin advection-dominated accretion flows, radiative cooling can significantly affect the structure, without necessarily leading to an optically thick, geometrically thin accretion disk. We further compare the results of our radiatively-cooled simulation to the predictions of a previously developed analytic model for such flows. For the very low stress parameter and accretion rate found in our simulated disk, we closely match a state called the "transition" solution between an outer advection-dominated accretion flow and what would be a magnetically-dominated accretion flow (MDAF) in the interior. The qualitative and quantitative agreement between the numerical and analytic models is quite good, with only a few well-understood exceptions. According to the analytic model then, at significantly higher stress or accretion, we would expect a full MDAF to form. The collection of simulations in this work also provide important data for interpreting other numerical results in the literature, as they span the most common treatments of thermodynamics, including simulations evolving: 1) the internal energy only; 2) the internal energy plus an explicit cooling function; 3) the total energy without cooling; and 4) total energy including cooling. We find that the total energy formulation is a necessary prerequisite for proper treatment of radiative cooling in MRI accretion flows.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Ap

Accuracy of photometric redshifts for future weak lensing surveys from space

Photometric redshifts are a key tool to extract as much information as possible from planned cosmic shear experiments. In this work we aim to test the performances that can be achieved with observations in the near-infrared from space and in the optical from the ground. This is done by performing realistic simulations of multi-band observations of a patch of the sky, and submitting these mock images to software usually applied to real images to extract the photometry and then a redshift estimate for each galaxy. In this way we mimic the most relevant sources of uncertainty present in real data analysis, including blending and light pollution between galaxies. As an example we adopt the infrared setup of the ESA-proposed Euclid mission, while we simulate different observations in the optical, modifying filters, exposure times and seeing values. Finally, we consider directly some future ground-based experiments, such as LSST, Pan-Starrs and DES. The results highlight the importance of u-band observations, especially to discriminate between low (z < 0.5) and high (z ~ 3) redshifts, and the need for good observing sites, with seeing FWHM < 1. arcsec. The former of these indications clearly favours the LSST experiment as a counterpart for space observations, while for the other experiments we need to exclude at least 15 % of the galaxies to reach a precision in the photo-zs equal to $$ < 0.05.Comment: 11 pages, to be published in MNRAS. Minor changes to match the published versio

Combining the α1-Adrenergic Receptor Antagonist, Prazosin, with the β-Adrenergic Receptor Antagonist, Propranolol, Reduces Alcohol Drinking More Effectively Than Either Drug Alone

Background Evidence suggests that activation of the noradrenergic system may contribute to alcohol drinking in animals and humans. Our previous studies demonstrated that blocking α1-adrenergic receptors with the antagonist, prazosin, decreased alcohol drinking in rats under various conditions. Since noradrenergic activation is also regulated by β-adrenergic receptors, we now examine the effects of the β-adrenergic receptor antagonist, propranolol, alone or in combination with prazosin, on alcohol drinking in rats selectively bred for high voluntary alcohol intake and alcohol preference (P line). Methods Two studies were conducted with male P rats. In study one, rats were allowed to become alcohol-dependent during 14 weeks of ad libitum access to food, water and 20% alcohol and the effect of propranolol (5–15 mg/kg, IP) and prazosin (1–2 mg/kg, IP) on alcohol intake during withdrawal were assessed. In study two, the effect of propranolol (5 mg/kg, IP) and prazosin (2 mg/kg, IP) on alcohol intake following prolonged imposed abstinence was assessed. Results Alcohol drinking following propranolol treatment was variable, but the combination of propranolol + prazosin consistently suppressed alcohol drinking during both alcohol withdrawal and following prolonged imposed abstinence, and the combination of these two drugs was more effective than was treatment with either drug alone. Conclusions Treatment with prazosin + propranolol, or a combination of other centrally active α1- and β-adrenergic receptor antagonists, may assist in preventing alcohol relapse in some individuals