Long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow observations offer cutting-edge opportunities to characterise the star formation history of the Universe back to the epoch of reionisation, and to measure the chemical composition of interstellar and intergalactic gas through absorption spectroscopy. The main barrier to progress is the low efficiency in rapidly and confidently identifying which bursts are high redshift ($z > 5$) candidates before they fade, as this requires low-latency follow-up observations at near-infrared wavelengths (or longer) to determine a reliable photometric redshift estimate. Since no current or planned gamma-ray observatories carry near-infrared telescopes on-board, complementary facilities are needed. So far this task has been performed by instruments on the ground, but sky visibility and weather constraints limit the number of GRB targets that can be observed and the speed at which follow-up is possible. In this work we develop a Monte Carlo simulation framework to investigate an alternative approach based on the use of a rapid-response near-infrared nano-satellite, capable of simultaneous imaging in four bands from $0.8$ to $1.7\,\unicode{x03BC}$m (a mission concept called SkyHopper). Using as reference a sample of 88 afterglows observed with the GROND instrument on the MPG/ESO telescope, we find that such a nano-satellite is capable of detecting in the H-band (1.6 $\unicode{x03BC}$m) $72.5\% \pm 3.1\%$ of GRBs concurrently observable with the Swift satellite via its UVOT instrument (and $44.1\% \pm 12.3\%$ of high redshift ($z>5$) GRBs) within 60 min of the GRB prompt emission. This corresponds to detecting ${\sim}55$ GRB afterglows per year, of which 1–3 have $z > 5$. These rates represent a substantial contribution to the field of high-z GRB science, as only 23 $z > 5$ GRBs have been collectively discovered by the entire astronomical community over the last ${\sim}24$ yr. Future discoveries are critically needed to take advantage of next generation follow-up spectroscopic facilities such as 30m-class ground telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope. Furthermore, a systematic space-based follow-up of afterglows in the near-infrared will offer new insight on the population of dusty (‘dark’) GRBs which are primarily found at cosmic noon ($z\sim 1-3$). Additionally, we find that launching a mini-constellation of 3 near-infrared nano-satellites would increase the detection fraction of afterglows to ${\sim}83\%$ and substantially reduce the latency in the photometric redshift determination.

Probabilistic approaches to phylogenetic inference have recently gained traction in paleontological studies. Because they directly model processes of evolutionary change, probabilistic methods facilitate a deeper assessment of variability in evolutionary patterns by weighing evidence for competing models. Although phylogenetic methods used in paleontological studies have generally assumed that evolution proceeds by splitting cladogenesis, extensions to previous models help explore the potential for morphological and temporal data to provide differential support for contrasting modes of evolutionary divergence. Recent methodological developments have integrated ancestral relationships into probabilistic phylogenetic methods. These new approaches rely on parameter-rich models and sophisticated inferential methods, potentially obscuring the respective contributions of data and models. In this study, we describe a simple likelihoodist approach that combines probabilistic models of morphological evolution and fossil preservation to reconstruct both cladogenetic and anagenetic relationships. By applying this approach to a data set of fossil hominins, we demonstrate the capability of existing models to unveil evidence for anagenesis presented by morphological and temporal data. This evidence was previously recognized by qualitative assessments, but largely ignored by quantitative phylogenetic analyses. For example, we find support for directly ancestral relationships in multiple lineages: Sahelanthropus is ancestral to later hominins; Australopithecus anamensis is ancestral to Australopithecus afarensis; Australopithecus garhi is ancestral to Homo; Homo antecessor is ancestral to Homo heidelbergensis, which in turn is ancestral to both Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. By accommodating direct ancestry in phylogenetics, quantitative results align more closely with previous qualitative expectations.

In 2003/2004 a field trial was conducted in Northern Ireland to assess the diagnostic accuracy of six serological tests for bovine brucellosis caused by Brucella abortus. Whereas between-test comparisons have been used to calculate test performances so far, the present study used a latent class approach to estimate diagnostic test accuracy parameters in the absence of a gold standard for these six tests simultaneously and to estimate the true prevalence, while accounting for clustering in the study population and risk factors for true prevalence. Results obtained in this study with regard to prevalence, sensitivity and specificity were largely in accordance with previous findings. Screening tests (SAT and EDTA) appeared to be the most sensitive; however, at low prevalences the EDTA and CFT showed the highest positive predictive values of all investigated tests. The specificities and negative predictive values of all diagnostic tests were found to be very high. Differences of prevalence between three groups of the study population with different risk of exposure could be attributed to the mode of sampling indicating that a more risk-based sampling will result in a higher prevalence than a cross-sectional sampling mode. Age, dairy status and history of abortion were shown to influence the prediction of the latent true infection status.

Gamma-ray burst host galaxies are deficient in molecular gas, and show anomalous metal-poor regions close to GRB positions. Using recent Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) Hi observations we show that they have substantial atomic gas reservoirs. This suggests that star formation in these galaxies may be fuelled by recent inflow of metal-poor atomic gas. While this process is debated, it can happen in low-metallicity gas near the onset of star formation because gas cooling (necessary for star formation) is faster than the Hi-to-H2 conversion.

We report on follow-up observations of 20 short-duration gamma-ray bursts(T90 < 2s) performed ing′r′i′z′JHKswith the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Near-Infrared Detector (GROND) between mid-2007 and theend of 2010. This is the most homogeneous and comprehensive data set on GRB afterglowobservations of short bursts. In three cases, GROND was on target within less than 10 minafter the trigger, leading to the discovery of the afterglow of GRB 081226A and its faintunderlying host galaxy. In addition, GROND was able to image the optical afterglow andfollow the light curve evolution in five further cases: GRBs 090305, 090426, 090510,090927, and 100117A. Three of the aforementioned six bursts with optical light curves showa break: GRBs 090426 and 090510 as well as GRB 090305. For GRB 090927, no break is seen inthe optical/X-ray light curve until about 150 ks/600 ks after the burst. A decay slope ofthe optical afterglow of GRB 100117A could be measured. Using these data supplemented byabout ten events taken from the literature, we compare the jet half-opening angles of longand short bursts. We find a tentative evidence that short bursts have wider opening anglesthan long bursts. However, the statistics are still very poor and follow-up observationsof these events are therefore very important to gain as much observational data aspossible.

Seven species of Culicoides were collected from aerial sweeps about man or from aspiration of biting midges from man in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Hourly sweep netting indicated C. biguttatus was diurnal in this region and was apparently limited in its dispersion. Culicoides sanguisuga was the most widely distributed species of those collected in the region. A checklist of the 15 species of Culicoides now known from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is included.

We report on the simultaneous g′,r′,i′,z′ multiband, high time sampling (18-24s) ground-based photometric observations, which we use to measure the planetary radius and orbital inclination of the extrasolar transiting hot Jupiter WASP-4b. We recorded 987 images during three complete transits with the GROND instrument, mounted on the MPG/ESO-2.2m telescope at La Silla Observatory. Assuming a quadratic law for the stellar limb darkening we derive system parameters by fitting a composite transit light curve over all bandpasses simultaneously. To compute uncertainties of the fitted parameters we employ the Bootstrap Monte Carlo Method. The three central transit times are measured with precision down to 6 s. We find a planetary radius Rp = 1.413 ± 0.020RJup, an orbital inclination i = 88.°57 ± 0.45° and calculate new ephemeris, a period P = 1.33823144 ± 0.00000032 days and reference transit epoch T0 = 2454697.798311 ± 0.000046 (BJD). The analysis of the new transit mid-times in combination with previous measurements imply a constant orbital period and no compelling evidence for TTVs due to additional bodies in the system.

The immensely bright and intrinsically simple afterglow spectra of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have proven to be highly effective probes of the interstellar dust and gas in distant, star-forming galaxies. Despite significant progress, many aspects of the host galaxy attenuating material are still poorly understood. There is considerable discrepancy between the amount of X-ray and optical afterglow absorption, with the former typically an order of magnitude higher than what would be expected from the optical line absorption of neutral element species. Similar inconsistencies exist between the abundance of interstellar dust derived from spectroscopic and photometric data, and the relation between the line-of-sight and integrated host galaxy interstellar medium (ISM) remains unclear. In these proceedings we present our analysis on both spectroscopic and photometric multi-wavelength GRB afterglow data, and summarise some of the more recent results on the attenuation properties of the ISM within GRB host galaxies.

We collected X-ray and optical images for a X-ray flux-limited, complete sample of 93 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at z<0.1, selected from the ROSAT Bright Survey. By modeling the host galaxy and the central AGN, we decompose the optical emission into nuclear, bulge and disk components. We cross-correlated our sample with the NVSS and FIRST radio catalogs, and, due to their limited sky coverage, 53 matches were found. We find that the nuclear optical luminosity, thought to be associated with the accretion disk surrounding the active black hole, correlates with the X-ray luminosity, the radio luminosity, and the black hole mass.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

The eclipsing supersoft X-ray binary CAL 87 has been observed with Chandra on August 13/14, 2001 for nearly 100 ksec, covering two full orbital cycles and three eclipses. The shape of the eclipse light curve derived from the zeroth-order photons indicates that the size of the X-ray emission region is about 1.5 R⊙. The ACIS/LETG spectrum is completely dominated by emission lines without any noticeable continuum. The brightest emission lines are significantly redshifted and double-peaked, suggestive of emanating in a 2000 km/s wind. We model the X-ray spectrum by a mixture of recombination and resonant scattering. This allows us to deduce the temperature and luminosity of the ionizing source to be kT ~ 50 — 100 eV and Lx ~ 5 x 1037 erg/s.

A species of Besnoitia from naturally infected rabbits from Argentina was propagated experimentally in mice, gerbils, rabbits, cats, and cell cultures. Cats fed tissue cysts from rabbits shed oocysts with a prepatent period of nine to 13 days. Sporulated oocysts were infective to gerbils, rabbits, outbred Swiss Webster and interferon gamma gene knockout mice. Bradyzoites were infective orally to gerbils and cats. Tachyzoites were successfully cultivated and maintained in vitro in bovine monocytes and African green monkey kidney cells. Schizonts were seen in the lamina propria of the small intestine of cats fed tissue cysts; the largest ones measured 52×45 μm. Schizonts were also present in mesenteric lymph nodes, livers, and other extra-intestinal organs of cats fed tissue cysts. Oocysts were 10–14×10–13 μm in size. This rabbit-derived species of Besnoitia resembled B. darlingi of the North American opossum, Didelphis virginiana with an opossum-cat cycle, but it was not transmissible to D. virginiana, and B. darlingi of opossums was not transmissible to rabbits. Based on biological, serological, antigenic, and molecular differences between the rabbit and the opossum Besnoitia, a new name, B. oryctofelisi is proposed for the parasite from domestic rabbits from Argentina.

Since the discovery of fading X-rays from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with BeppoSAX (Piro et al. 1997, Costa et al. 1997), world-wide follow-up observations in optical band have achieved the fruitful results. The case of GRB 970228, there was an optical transient, coincides with the BeppoSAX position and faded (Paradijs et al. 1997, Sahu et al. 1997). These optical observations also confirmed the extended component, which was associated with the optical transient. The new transient are fading with a power-law function in time and the later observation of HST confirmed the extended emission is stable (Fruchter et al. 1997). This extended object seems to be a distant galaxy and strongly suggests to be the host.

The goal of this round-table discussion is to bring up issues which may be of mutual interest to those working on specific flare and variable stars and those performing wide-field searches for, among other things, counterparts to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Admittedly, however, trying to unify the interests of the flare people and the GRB people will be an interesting task. Many of the presentations this week have been devoted to future instrumentation and future modes of observations, but there have been also interesting discussions of specific questions regarding flare stars, variable stars and GRBs. Certainly, wide-field observations of the night sky will continue for the foreseeable future: there are a lot of instruments running now, and there are many instruments being planned. Most of these observations cover many square degrees of sky for long periods with a reasonable magnitude limit. How could these observations could be modified or improved to also allow useful data on on variable stars or flare stars to be taken? What sort of information, statistics, periodicities could be gleaned from wide-field searches that will be happening in the future and searches that are going on today? Are there methods in common use by one group of observers that may be useful to the other?

The speakers in this session have volunteered to give a short presentation on issues which may benefit from discussion within this group.

This status report presents details on the project to search for serendipitous time-correlated optical photographic observations of γ-ray bursters. The ongoing photographic observations at nine observatories are used to look for plates which have been exposed simultaneously with a γ-ray burst detected by BATSE and contain the burst position. The results for the third year of BATSE operation are presented.

The potential of rapid thermal processing for applications in silicon integrated circuit technology, silicon microwave bipolar technology and GaAs FET technology is explored.In addition, two novel applications for GaAs processing are described.

Thermal pulse annealing has been used to modify the near surface of Hg1−xCdxTe. Using anneals of approximately 260°C for seven seconds, the crystal quality of epitaxial HgCdTe surfaces can be improved as observed by MeV He+ ion channeling. Similar anneals have also been used to repair the damage resulting from a 250 keV, 101511 B/cm2 implant into HgCdTe held at LN2. For higher temperatures and/or longer anneals, surface Hg loss is observed. Rutherford Backscattering measurements are used to measure this loss. The resulting loss rate data is described by No= A exp (−ΔE/kT) where A and ΔE depend on the material composition with A = 1029, ΔE = 1.8 eV and A = 1036, ΔE = 2.6 eV for x = 0.23 and 0.4, respectively.

The diffusion of Si into GaAs from a thin source has been investigated. Electron beam evaporated Si films were deposited on chromium–doped GaAs wafers. Pulsed irradiation from a Q–switched Nd:YAG laser resulted in the formation of n+ layers. After metal evaporation these layers displayed nonalloyed ohmic contact behavior of very low contact resistance (5×10−7 Ω−cm2 ) and good thermal stability at 300°C. SIMS analysis of these layers revealed a steplike Si profile and significant chromium redistribution within the laser induced molten layer. A major improvement in surface morphology was obtained using Si02 encapsulants.