Near-infrared integral field spectroscopy of the Homunculus nebula around eta Carinae using Gemini/CIRPASS

This work presents the first integral field spectroscopy of the Homunculus nebula around eta Carinae in the near-infrared spectral region (J band). We confirmed the presence of a hole on the polar region of each lobe, as indicated by previous near-IR long-slit spectra and mid-IR images. The holes can be described as a cylinder of height (i.e. the thickness of the lobe) and diameter of 6.5 and 6.0 x 10(16) cm, respectively. We also mapped the blue-shifted component of He I lambda 10830 seen towards the NW lobe. Contrary to previous works, we suggested that this blue-shifted component is not related to the Paddle but it is indeed in the equatorial disc. We confirmed the claim of N. Smith and showed that the spatial extent of the Little Homunculus matches remarkably well the radio continuum emission at 3 cm, indicating that the Little Homunculus can be regarded as a small H II region. Therefore, we used the optically thin 1.3 mm radio flux to derive a lower limit for the number of Lyman-continuum photons of the central source in eta Car. In the context of a binary system, and assuming that the ionizing flux comes entirely from the hot companion star, the lower limit for its spectral type and luminosity class ranges from O5.5 III to O7 I. Moreover, we showed that the radio peak at 1.7 arcsec NW from the central star is in the same line-of-sight of the `Sr-filament` but they are obviously spatially separated, while the blue-shifted component of He I lambda 10830 may be related to the radio peak and can be explained by the ultraviolet radiation from the companion star.

COMPARISONS OF THE INTERSTELLAR MAGNETIC FIELD DIRECTIONS OBTAINED FROM THE IBEX RIBBON AND INTERSTELLAR POLARIZATIONS

Variations in the spatial configuration of the interstellar magnetic field (ISMF) near the Sun can be constrained by comparing the ISMF direction at the heliosphere found from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft observations of a ""Ribbon"" of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs), with the ISMF direction derived from optical polarization data for stars within similar to 40 pc. Using interstellar polarization observations toward similar to 30 nearby stars within similar to 90 degrees of the heliosphere nose, we find that the best fits to the polarization position angles are obtained for a magnetic pole directed toward ecliptic coordinates of lambda, beta similar to 263 degrees, 37 degrees (or galactic coordinates of l, b similar to 38 degrees, 23 degrees), with uncertainties of +/- 35 degrees based on the broad minimum of the best fits and the range of data quality. This magnetic pole is 33 degrees from the magnetic pole that is defined by the center of the arc of the ENA Ribbon. The IBEX ENA ribbon is seen in sight lines that are perpendicular to the ISMF as it drapes over the heliosphere. The similarity of the polarization and Ribbon directions for the local ISMF suggests that the local field is coherent over scale sizes of tens of parsecs. The ISMF vector direction is nearly perpendicular to the flow of local interstellar material (ISM) through the local standard of rest, supporting a possible local ISM origin related to an evolved expanding magnetized shell. The local ISMF direction is found to have a curious geometry with respect to the cosmic microwave background dipole moment.

Constraining the orbital orientation of eta Carinae from H Paschen lines

During the past decade, several observational and theoretical works have provided evidence of the binary nature of eta Carinae. Nevertheless, there is still no direct determination of the orbital parameters, and the different current models give contradictory results. The orbit is, in general, assumed to coincide with the Homunculus equator although the observations are not conclusive. Among all systems, eta Car has the advantage that it is possible to observe both the direct emission of line transitions in the central source and its reflection by the Homunculus, which is dependent on the orbital inclination. In this work, we studied the orbital phase-dependent hydrogen Paschen spectra reflected by the south-east lobe of the Homunculus to constrain the orbital parameters of eta Car and determine its inclination with respect to the Homunculus axis. Assuming that the emission excess originates in the wind-wind shock region, we were able to model the latitude dependence of the spectral line profiles. For the first time, we were able to estimate the orbital inclination of eta Car with respect to the observer and to the Homunculus axis. The best fit occurs for an orbital inclination to the line of sight of i similar to 60 degrees +/- 10 degrees, and i* similar to 35 degrees +/- 10 degrees with respect to the Homunculus axis, indicating that the angular momenta of the central object and the orbit are not aligned. We were also able to fix the phase angle of conjunction as similar to -40 degrees, showing that periastron passage occurs shortly after conjunction.

Global properties of `ordinary` early-type galaxies: photometry and spectroscopy of stars and globular clusters in NGC 4494

We present a comprehensive analysis of the spatial, kinematic and chemical properties of stars and globular clusters (GCs) in the `ordinary` elliptical galaxy NGC 4494 using data from the Keck and Subaru telescopes. We derive galaxy surface brightness and colour profiles out to large galactocentric radii. We compare the latter to metallicities derived using the near-infrared Calcium Triplet. We obtain stellar kinematics out to similar to 3.5 effective radii. The latter appear flattened or elongated beyond similar to 1.8 effective radii in contrast to the relatively round photometric isophotes. In fact, NGC 4494 may be a flattened galaxy, possibly even an S0, seen at an inclination of similar to 45 degrees. We publish a catalogue of 431 GC candidates brighter than i(0) = 24 based on the photometry, of which 109 are confirmed spectroscopically and 54 have measured spectroscopic metallicities. We also report the discovery of three spectroscopically confirmed ultra-compact dwarfs around NGC 4494 with measured metallicities of -0.4 less than or similar to [Fe/H] less than or similar to -0.3. Based on their properties, we conclude that they are simply bright GCs. The metal-poor GCs are found to be rotating with similar amplitude as the galaxy stars, while the metal-rich GCs show marginal rotation. We supplement our analysis with available literature data and results. Using model predictions of galaxy formation, and a suite of merger simulations, we find that many of the observational properties of NGC 4494 may be explained by formation in a relatively recent gas-rich major merger. Complete studies of individual galaxies incorporating a range of observational avenues and methods such as the one presented here will be an invaluable tool for constraining the fine details of galaxy formation models, especially at large galactocentric radii.

Probing the 2D kinematic structure of early-type galaxies out to three effective radii

We detail an innovative new technique for measuring the two-dimensional (2D) velocity moments (rotation velocity, velocity dispersion and Gauss-Hermite coefficients h(3) and h(4)) of the stellar populations of galaxy haloes using spectra from Keck DEIMOS (Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph) multi-object spectroscopic observations. The data are used to reconstruct 2D rotation velocity maps. Here we present data for five nearby early-type galaxies to similar to three effective radii. We provide significant insights into the global kinematic structure of these galaxies, and challenge the accepted morphological classification in several cases. We show that between one and three effective radii the velocity dispersion declines very slowly, if at all, in all five galaxies. For the two galaxies with velocity dispersion profiles available from planetary nebulae data we find very good agreement with our stellar profiles. We find a variety of rotation profiles beyond one effective radius, i.e. rotation speed remaining constant, decreasing and increasing with radius. These results are of particular importance to studies which attempt to classify galaxies by their kinematic structure within one effective radius, such as the recent definition of fast- and slow-rotator classes by the Spectrographic Areal Unit for Research on Optical Nebulae project. Our data suggest that the rotator class may change when larger galactocentric radii are probed. This has important implications for dynamical modelling of early-type galaxies. The data from this study are available on-line.

Is there any risk in a symbiotic species associating with an endangered one? A case of a phoronid worm growing on a Ceriantheomorphe tube

The conservation of emblematic threatened species is in highlight nowadays. Interestingly, few invertebrate groups attract scientific attention on this issue while they constitute the vast majority of animal biodiversity. Nevertheless, many invertebrate species are nowadays at risk of extinction. This means that plenty of species are currently disappearing out of sight. During a survey in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean tubes of an endangered species of cerianthid were sampled. This study reports for the very first time the occurrence of the species Phoronis australis in southwestern Atlantic waters and the association of phoronids with the genus Ceriantheomorphe. This raises questions on mutual extinction risks for symbiotic species and also on the criteria for their inclusion on Red Lists.

Comparing methods for sampling large- and medium-sized mammals: camera traps and track plots

Activities involving fauna monitoring are usually limited by the lack of resources; therefore, the choice of a proper and efficient methodology is fundamental to maximize the cost-benefit ratio. Both direct and indirect methods can be used to survey mammals, but the latter are preferred due to the difficulty to come in sight of and/or to capture the individuals, besides being cheaper. We compared the performance of two methods to survey medium and large-sized mammal: track plot recording and camera trapping, and their costs were assessed. At Jatai Ecological Station (S21 degrees 31`15 ``- W47 degrees 34`42 ``-Brazil) we installed ten camera traps along a dirt road directly in front of ten track plots, and monitored them for 10 days. We cleaned the plots, adjusted the cameras, and noted down the recorded species daily. Records taken by both methods showed they sample the local richness in different ways (Wilcoxon, T=231; p;;0.01). The track plot method performed better on registering individuals whereas camera trapping provided records which permitted more accurate species identification. The type of infra-red sensor camera used showed a strong bias towards individual body mass (R(2)=0.70; p=0.017), and the variable expenses of this method in a 10-day survey were estimated about 2.04 times higher compared to track plot method; however, in a long run camera trapping becomes cheaper than track plot recording. Concluding, track plot recording is good enough for quick surveys under a limited budget, and camera trapping is best for precise species identification and the investigation of species details, performing better for large animals. When used together, these methods can be complementary.

PedVis: A Structured, Space-Efficient Technique for Pedigree Visualization

Public genealogical databases are becoming increasingly populated with historical data and records of the current population`s ancestors. As this increasing amount of available information is used to link individuals to their ancestors, the resulting trees become deeper and more dense, which justifies the need for using organized, space-efficient layouts to display the data. Existing layouts are often only able to show a small subset of the data at a time. As a result, it is easy to become lost when navigating through the data or to lose sight of the overall tree structure. On the contrary, leaving space for unknown ancestors allows one to better understand the tree`s structure, but leaving this space becomes expensive and allows fewer generations to be displayed at a time. In this work, we propose that the H-tree based layout be used in genealogical software to display ancestral trees. We will show that this layout presents an increase in the number of displayable generations, provides a nicely arranged, symmetrical, intuitive and organized fractal structure, increases the user`s ability to understand and navigate through the data, and accounts for the visualization requirements necessary for displaying such trees. Finally, user-study results indicate potential for user acceptance of the new layout.

Beteendestudier och miljöberikning av gnagare

It is often challenging to create a new enrichment program for any animal. This is especially true with the additional challenge that I wanted to use only naturalistic enrichment, and I’m working with animals some of which are nocturnal. Even with a many hurdles, a little bit of enrichment can do a big difference and make a big difference in activity levels of the animals. Eskilstuna parkens zoo have a house called the MUSeum housing four kinds of rodents. Rodents are generally much more active at night and spend much of the day sleeping out of sight of the public. One of the goals of starting an enrichment program was to increase the animal’s activity throughout the day to provide an improved guest experience. Many of the guests would stop briefly at the exhibit only seeing the empty exhibit, unaware of that there were animals there. Before starting an enrichment program, I wanted to determine how the rodent was spending their time. By observing the animals’ behaviour for 15 minutes a day at various times throughout the day, for a total of 15 observations, I was able to construct an activity budget for their behaviour. The results obtained were, as expected, that the rodents spent a lot of time resting. By enrichment both with food and the temperature we were able to take the activity to another level, and several new behaviours were observed.

The relative perceptual weight of two Swedish prosodic contrasts

Abstract. In addition to 9 vowel and 18 consonant phonemes, Swedish has three prosodic phonemic contrasts: word stress, quantity and tonal word accent. There are also examples of distinctive phrase or sentence stress, where a verb can be followed by either an unstressed preposition or a stressed particle. This study focuses on word level and more specifically on word stress and tonal word accent in disyllabic words. When making curriculums for second language learners, teachers are helped by knowing which phonetic or phonological features are more or less crucial for the intelligibility of speech and there are some structural and anecdotal evidence that word stress should play a more important role for intelligibility of Swedish, than the tonal word accent. The Swedish word stress is about prominence contrasts between syllables, mainly signaled by syllable duration, while the tonal word accent is signaled mainly by pitch contour. The word stress contrast, as in armen [´arːmən] ‘the arm’ - armén [ar´meːn] ‘the army’, the first word trochaic and the second iambic, is present in all regional varieties of Swedish, and realized with roughly the same acoustic cues, while the tonal word accent, as in anden [´anːdən] ‘the duck’ - anden [`anːdən] ‘the spirit’ is absent in some dialects (as well as in singing), and also signaled with a variety of tonal patterns depending on region. The present study aims at comparing the respective perceptual weight of the two mentioned contrasts. Two lexical decision tests were carried out where in total 34 native Swedish listeners should decide whether a stimulus was a real word or a non-word. Real words of all mentioned categories were mixed with nonsense words and words that were mispronounced with opposite stress pattern or opposite tonal word accent category. The results show that distorted word stress caused more non-word judgments and more loss, than distorted word accent. Our conclusion is that intelligibility of Swedish is more sensitive to distorted word stress pattern than to distorted tonal word accent pattern. This is in compliance with the structural arguments presented above, and also with our own intuition.

Egenföretagande kvinnors försörjningsvillkor och strategier för att minimera försörjningsrisker

Conditions and strategies for economic security for self-employed women in Sweden Although political parties are singing praises of entrepreneurship, welfare systems do not recognize the self-employees’ rights to decent conditions of basic economic safety and oftheir access to social security. This means that self-employed are forced to find their own way to reduce the risks of losing the possibility to support them self economically. This article examines twelve self-employed women’s daily conditions to support themselves and their strategies to deal with risks. The study shows that the interviewed have more freedom to find their own support strategies than wage-employed but on (the other side) their position on the labour market and the systems for social security doesn’t recognize their vulnerability towards risk in the same manner as wage-employed.

The Björling 'Opera' : A children's Nursery Academy and an Italian Conservatory in Miniature

The aim in this chapter is to develop a deeper understanding about the informal Björling 'School' in Sweden. Contextually the example is related to the micro history of opera education contributing to the macro perspective illuminating a provincial example of the concept of domestic opera schooling. The specific focus was on Karl David Björling (1873-1926), the teaching parent of the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling (1911-1960) and his brothers Gösta and Olle.   The Björling family model of opera schooling belongs to the classical canon of domestic home education which was common during the epoch. The phenomenon is also within the field of opera singing an important reference to the historical context of the Nordic opera history of vocal education.   The uniqueness concerning the Björling School seems to be the rigorous and exceptionally early training. David Björling’s pedagogy was rooted in earlier German theories of musical upbringing. It's clear from his results that he was familiar with the neo-humanistic ideal on which reformed music education was based. Of a specific interest is the term Gesang als Unterricht as a concept for developing childrens musical and memorising capacities.   Conceptually the roots of the Björling model are in the eighteenth-century Romantic view of prodigies and their abilities. The extensive touring is connected to the promotion of wonder-children, and David Björling’s educational style to the conservative Master-pupil tradition.   David Björling's vocal ideal was a part of the contemporary debate about “The decadence of the singing art”, and seems to have its roots in an older Italian tradition. There are recurring similarities between his educational methods and the didactic principles of the Lamperti School: Enjoying a revival around the late 1800s and early 1900s, it has been called the natural or the national school. Nevertheless, through authentic experiences and gramophone recordings the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso became David Björling’s pedagogical role model.

Can humming caregivers´ facilitate feeding during mealtime situations with persons with dementia? A qualitative study

Background. ‘Music Therapeutic Caregiving’, defined as when caregivers’ sing for or together with persons with dementia care situations, has been shown to facilitate the caring situation, and enhance positive and decrease negative expressions in persons with dementia. No studies about singing during mealtimes have been conducted, and this project was designed to elucidate this. However, since previous studies have shown that there is a risk that persons with dementia will start to sing along with the caregiver, the caregiver in this study hummed such that the person with dementia did not sing instead of eat. Aim. To describe professional caregivers’ experiences of humming during meal time while feeding persons with dementia. Method. An intervention with caregivers humming was implemented during lunch time. Focus group interviews were conducted to fetch the caregivers experiences. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Results. The caregivers described that humming disseminated relaxation and joy, and awakened memories about the songs hummed which encouraged the persons with the dementia to join in the songs. They also described that humming seemed to make the persons with dementia associate with mealtime and could make them eat more. However it also revealed suspiciousness and agitation from the persons with dementia. Conclusion. Humming during mealtime revealed mainly positive as well as some negative influences. More and larger studies are needed to be able to draw general conclusions.

Humming as a mean of communicating during meal time situations : A Single Case study involving a women with severe dementia and her caregiver

Objective: ‘Music Therapeutic Caregiving’, when caregivers sing for or together with persons with dementia during morning care situations, has been shown to increase verbal and nonverbal communication between persons with dementia and their caregivers, as well as enhance positive and decrease negative emotions in persons with dementia. No studies about singing during mealtimes have been conducted, and this pilot project was designed to elucidate this. However, since previous studies have shown that there is a risk that persons with dementia will start to sing along with the caregiver, the caregiver in this study hummed such that the person with dementia did not sing instead of eat. The aim of this pilot project was threefold: to describe expressed emotions in a woman with severe dementia, and describe communication between her and her caregivers without and with the caregiver humming. The aim was also to measure food and liquid intake without and with humming. Method: The study was constructed as a Single Case ABA design in which the ordinary mealtime constituted a baseline which comprised a woman with severe dementia being fed by her caregivers in the usual way. The intervention included the same woman being fed by the same caregiver who hummed while feeding her. Data comprised video observations that were collected once per week over 5 consecutive weeks. The Verbal and Nonverbal Interaction Scale and Observed Emotion Rating Scale were used to analyze the recorded interactions. Results: A slightly positive influence of communication was shown for the woman with dementia, as well as for the caregiver. Further, the women with dementia showed a slight increase in expressions of positive emotions, and she ate more during the intervention. Conclusion: Based on this pilot study no general conclusions can be drawn. It can be concluded, however, that humming while feeding persons with dementia might slightly enhance communication, and positive expressed emotions in persons with dementia. To confirm this, more studies on group levels are needed. Because previous studies have found that caregiver singing during caring situations influences persons with dementia positively it might be desirable to test the same during mealtime.

Filmes finos dielétricos para dispositivos microeletrônicos avançados

Apresentamos mecanismos de formação e de degradação térmica de filmes fi- nos (espessura da ordem de 10 nm) de diferentes dielétricos sobre substrato de silício monocristalino. Tendo em vista a aplicação dessas estruturas em MOSFETs (transistores de efeito de campo metal-óxido-semicondutor), estudamos o consagrado óxido de silício (SiO2), os atuais substitutos oxinitretos de silício (SiOxNy) e o possível substituto futuro óxido de alumínio (Al2O3). Nossos resultados experimentais baseiam-se em técnicas preparativas de substituição isotópica e de caracterização física com feixes de íons (análise com reações nucleares) ou raios- X (espectroscopia de fotoelétrons). Observamos que: (a) átomos de silício não apresentam difusão de longo alcance (além de ~ 2 nm) durante o crescimento de SiO2 por oxidação térmica do silício em O2; (b) nitretação hipertérmica é capaz de produzir filmes finos de oxinitreto de silício com até dez vezes mais nitrogênio que o resultante do processamento térmico usual, sendo que esse nitrogênio tende a se acumular na interface SiOxNy/Si; e (c) átomos de oxigênio, alumínio e silício migram e promovem reações químicas durante o recozimento térmico de estruturas Al2O3/SiO2/Si em presença de O2. Desenvolvemos um modelo de difusão-reação que poderá vir a permitir o estabelecimento de condições ótimas de processamento térmico para filmes finos de Al2O3 sobre silício a serem empregados na fabricação de MOSFETs.