| 1. |
- Joshi, Peter K, et al.
(författare)
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Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 523:7561, s. 459-462
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders, and Darwin was one of the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness that is common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power. Here we use runs of homozygosity to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts, and find statistically significant associations between summed runs of homozygosity and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in one second, general cognitive ability and educational attainment (P < 1 × 10(-300), 2.1 × 10(-6), 2.5 × 10(-10) and 1.8 × 10(-10), respectively). In each case, increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months' less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing evidence that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.
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| 2. |
- DiJulio, Douglas, et al.
(författare)
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Electromagnetic properties of vibrational bands in Er-170
- 2011
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Ingår i: European Physical Journal A. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6001 .- 1434-601X. ; 47:2, s. 25-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Excited states of the nucleus Er-170 have been studied by Coulomb excitation using the GASP gamma-ray detector system at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro. The ground-state band along with a low-lying K-pi = 0(+) band and gamma-vibrational band were populated during the experiment. Based on the measured gamma-ray yields, a set of interband and intraband matrix elements has been extracted using the Coulomb excitation code GOSIA. The resulting E2 matrix elements are compared to collective model predictions.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Dell'Agli, F., et al.
(författare)
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Are extreme asymptotic giant branch stars post-common envelope binaries?
- 2021
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966 .- 1745-3925 .- 1745-3933. ; 502:1, s. L35-L39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modelling dust formation in single stars evolving through the carbon-star stage of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) reproduces well the mid-infrared colours and magnitudes of most of the C-rich sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), apart from a small subset of extremely red objects (EROs). An analysis of the spectral energy distributions of EROs suggests the presence of large quantities of dust, which demand gas densities in the outflow significantly higher than expected from theoretical modelling. We propose that binary interaction mechanisms that involve common envelope (CE) evolution could be a possible explanation for these peculiar stars; the CE phase is favoured by the rapid growth of the stellar radius occurring after C/O overcomes unity. Our modelling of the dust provides results consistent with the observations for mass-loss rates (M) over dot similar to 5 x 10(-4) M-circle dot yr(-1), a lower limit to the rapid loss of the envelope experienced in the CE phase. We propose that EROs could possibly hide binaries with orbital periods of about days and are likely to be responsible for a large fraction of the dust production rate in galaxies.
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| 5. |
- Marini, E., et al.
(författare)
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Understanding the evolution and dust formation of carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud via the JWST
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP SCIENCES S A. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 647
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. Carbon stars have been, and still are, extensively studied. Given their complex internal structure and their peculiar chemical composition, they are living laboratories in which we can test stellar structure and evolution theories of evolved stars. Furthermore, they are the most relevant dust manufacturers, thus playing a crucial role in the evolution of galaxies. Aims. We aim to study the dust mineralogy of the circumstellar envelope of carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to achieve a better understanding of the dust formation process in the outflow of these objects. We intend to investigate the expected distribution of carbon stars in the observational planes built with the filters of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) mounted onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to select the best planes allowing an exhaustive characterisation of the stars. Methods. We compared the synthetic spectral energy distributions, obtained by modelling asymptotic giant branch stars and the dust formation process in the wind, with the spectra of carbon stars in the LMC, taken with the Infrared Spectrograph onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. From the detailed comparison between synthetic modelling and observation we characterise the individual sources and derive the detailed mineralogy of the dust in the circumstellar envelope. Results. The sample of stars considered here is composed of stars of diverse mass, formation epoch, degree of obscuration, and metallicity. We find that precipitation of MgS on SiC seeds is common to all non-metal-poor carbon stars. Solid carbon is the dominant dust component, with percentages above 80% in all cases; a percentage between 10% and 20% of carbon dust is under the form of graphite, the remaining being amorphous carbon. Regarding the observational planes based on the MIRI filters, the colour-magnitude ([F770W]-[F1800W], [F1800W]) plane allows the best understanding of the degree of obscuration of the stars, while the ([F1800W]- [F2550W], [F1800W]) diagram allows better discrimination among stars of different metallicities.
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| 6. |
- Marini, E., et al.
(författare)
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Characterization of M-stars in the LMC in the JWST era
- 2020
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Abeysekara. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 493:2, s. 2996-3013
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We study the M-type asymptotic giant branch (AGB) population of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by characterizing the individual sources in terms of the main properties of the progenitors and of the dust present in the circumstellar envelope. To this aim we compare the combination of the spectroscopic and photometric data collected by Spitzer, complemented by additional photometric results available in the literature, with results from AGB modelling that include the description of dust formation in the wind. To allow the interpretation of a paucity stars likely evolving through the post-AGB phase, we extended the available evolutionary sequences to reach the PN phase. The main motivation of the present analysis is to prepare the future observations of the evolved stellar populations of Local Group galaxies that will be done by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), by identifying the combination of filters that will maximize the possibilities of characterizing the observed sources. The present results show that for the M-star case the best planes to be used for this purpose are the colour magnitude ([F770W]-[F2550W], [F770W]) and (K-S-[F770W], [F770W]) planes. In these observational diagrams the sequences of low-mass stars evolving in the AGB phases before the achievement of the C-star stage and of massive AGBs experiencing hot bottom burning are clearly separated and peculiar sources, such as post-AGB, dual-dust chemistry, and iron-dust stars can be easily identified.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Mattsson, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Clustering and dynamic decoupling of dust grains in turbulent molecular clouds
- 2019
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 483:4, s. 5623-5641
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present high-resolution (1024 3) simulations of super-/hypersonic isothermal hydrodynamic turbulence inside an interstellar molecular cloud (resolving scales of typically 20-100 au), including a multidisperse population of dust grains, i.e. a range of grain sizes is considered. Due to inertia, large grains (typical radius a ≳ 1.0μm) will decouple from the gas flow, while small grains (al∼ 0.1μm) will tend to better trace the motions of the gas. We note that simulations with purely solenoidal forcing show somewhat more pronounced decoupling and less clustering compared to simulations with purely compressive forcing. Overall, small and large grains tend to cluster, while intermediate-size grains show essentially a random isotropic distribution. As a consequence of increased clustering, the grain-grain interaction rate is locally elevated; but since small and large grains are often not spatially correlated, it is unclear what effect this clustering would have on the coagulation rate. Due to spatial separation of dust and gas, a diffuse upper limit to the grain sizes obtained by condensational growth is also expected, since large (decoupled) grains are not necessarily located where the growth species in the molecular gas is.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Marini, E., et al.
(författare)
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The intense production of silicates during the final AGB phases of intermediate mass stars
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 670
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. The formation of silicates in circumstellar envelopes of stars evolving through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) is still highly debated given the uncertainties affecting stellar evolution modelling, the description of the dust formation process, and the capability of silicate grains to accelerate stellar outflows via radiation pressure.Aims. We study the formation of dust in the winds of intermediate mass (M ≥ 4 M⊙) stars of solar metallicity while evolving through the AGB phase. We tested the different treatments of the mass-loss mechanism by this class of stars, with the aim of assessing their contribution to the general enrichment of silicates of the interstellar medium of galaxies and, on more general grounds, to the silicates budget of the Universe.Methods. We consider a sub-sample of AGB stars, whose spectral energy distribution (SED) is characterised by deep absorption features at 10 μm and 18 μm, which can be regarded as the class of stars providing the most relevant contribution to the silicates’ production across the Universe. Results from stellar evolution and dust formation modelling were used to fit the observed SED and to reproduce, at the same time, the detected pulsation periods and the derived surface chemical composition. This analysis leads to the derivation of tight constraints on the silicates’ production rates experienced by these sources during the final AGB stages.Results. Two out of the four sources investigated are interpreted as stars currently undergoing hot bottom burning (HBB), evolving through phases close to the stage when the mass-loss rate is largest. The remaining two stars are likely evolving through the very final AGB phases, after HBB was turned off by the gradual consumption of the convective mantle. Mass-loss rates of the order of 1 × 10−4 M⊙ yr−1 to 2 × 10−4 M⊙ yr−1 are required when looking for consistency with the observational evidence. These results indicate the need for a revision of the silicate yields by intermediate mass stars, which are found to be ∼3 times higher than previously determined.
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