1. |
- Mishra, A, et al.
(author)
-
Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents' growth and development
- 2023
-
In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 615:7954, s. 874-883
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.
|
|
2. |
- Barnes, Ashley T., et al.
(author)
-
Mother of dragons: A massive, quiescent core in the dragon cloud (IRDC G028.37+00.07)
- 2023
-
In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 675
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context. Core accretion models of massive star formation require the existence of massive, starless cores within molecular clouds. Yet, only a small number of candidates for such truly massive, monolithic cores are currently known. Aims. Here we analyse a massive core in the well-studied infrared-dark cloud (IRDC) called the dragon clouda'(also known as G028.37+00.07 or Cloud Ca). This core (C2c1) sits at the end of a chain of a roughly equally spaced actively star-forming cores near the center of the IRDC. Methods. We present new high-angular-resolution 1 mm ALMA dust continuum and molecular line observations of the massive core. Results. The high-angular-resolution observations show that this region fragments into two cores, C2c1a and C2c1b, which retain significant background-subtracted masses of 23 M· and 2 M· (31 M· and 6 M· without background subtraction), respectively. The cores do not appear to fragment further on the scales of our highest-angular-resolution images (0.2 , 0.005 pc ∼ 1000 AU). We find that these cores are very dense (nH2 > 106 cm-3) and have only trans-sonic non-thermal motions ( 3s ∼ 1). Together the mass, density, and internal motions imply a virial parameter of
|
|
3. |
- Cosentino, Giuliana, 1990, et al.
(author)
-
Deuterium fractionation across the infrared-dark cloud G034.77-00.55 interacting with the supernova remnant W44
- 2023
-
In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 675
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Supernova remnants (SNRs) may regulate star formation in galaxies. For example, SNR-driven shocks may form new molecular gas or compress pre-existing clouds and trigger the formation of new stars. Aims. To test this scenario, we measured the deuteration of N2H+, DNfrac 2H+- a well-studied tracer of pre-stellar cores - across the infrared-dark cloud (IRDC) G034.77-00.55, which is known to be experiencing a shock interaction with the SNR W44. Methods. We use N2H+ and N2D+ J = 1-0 single pointing observations obtained with the 30m antenna at the Instituto de Radioastronomia Millimetrica to infer DN2H+ frac towards five positions across the cloud, namely a massive core, different regions across the shock front, a dense clump, and ambient gas. Results. We find DN2H+ frac in the range 0.03-0.1, which is several orders of magnitude larger than the cosmic D/H ratio (∼10-5). The DN2H+ frac across the shock front is enhanced by more than a factor of 2 (DNfrac 2H+∼ 0.05-0.07) with respect to the ambient gas (=0.03) and similar to that measured generally in pre-stellar cores. Indeed, in the massive core and dense clump regions of this IRDC we measure DN2H+ frac ∼ 0.1.
|
|
4. |
- Megias, A., et al.
(author)
-
The complex organic molecular content in the L1517B starless core
- 2023
-
In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 519:2, s. 1601-1617
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent observations of the pre-stellar core L1544 and the younger starless core L1498 have revealed that complex organic molecules (COMs) are enhanced in the gas phase towards their outer and intermediate-density shells. Our goal is to determine the level of chemical complexity towards the starless core L1517B, which seems younger than L1498, and compare it with the other two previously studied cores to see if there is a chemical evolution within the cores. We have carried out 3 mm high-sensitivity observations towards two positions in the L1517B starless core: the core's centre and the position where the methanol emission peaks (at a distance of similar to 5000 au from the core's centre). Our observations reveal that a lower number of COMs and COM precursors are detected in L1517B with respect to L1498 and L1544, and also show lower abundances. Besides methanol, we only detected CH3O, H2CCO, CH3CHO, CH3CN, CH3NC, HCCCN, and HCCNC. Their measured abundances are similar to 3 times larger towards the methanol peak than towards the core's centre, mimicking the behaviour found towards the more evolved cores L1544 and L1498. We propose that the differences in the chemical complexity observed between the three studied starless cores are a consequence of their evolution, with L1517B being the less evolved one, followed by L1498 and L1544. Chemical complexity in these cores seems to increase over time, with N-bearing molecules forming first and O-bearing COMs forming at a later stage as a result of the catastrophic depletion of CO.
|
|