Autoimmune diseases develop in selected normal mouse strains when thymectomy (Tx) is performed at 3 days of age (d3-Tx). Insufficient T cell regulation after Tx may result from a defect in regulatory T (Treg) cells or from an augmented effector T (Teff) cell number/pathogenicity. We have previously shown that Tx at 3 wk (wk3-Tx), the age of massive islet Ag release, accelerates diabetes onset. ...

High-resolution optical spectra of eighteen blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars in the globular cluster M15 indicate that their stellar rotation rates and photospheric compositions vary strongly as a function of effective temperature. Among the cooler stars in the sample, at Teff ∼ 8500K, metal abundances are in rough agreement with the canonical cluster metallicity, and the v sin i rotations ap...

In Africa a variety of indigenous cereals, legumes and tubers are cultivated as starchy food crops. These include sorghum, millet species including pearl millet, finger millet, teff and white and black fonio, and African rice as cereals; cowpea, Bambara groundnut, African yambean and West African locust bean as legumes; and Zulu round potato and the Livingstone potato as tubers. Many of these p...

We have identified five new R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars in the Galactic bulge using the MACHO Project photometry database, raising the total number of known Galactic RCB stars to about 40. We have obtained spectra to confirm the identifications. The fact that four out of the five newly identified RCB stars are “cool” (Teff < 6000 K) rather than “warm” (Teff > 6000 K) suggests that the prepon...

A systematic approach for fish shelf life modelling and Time Temperature Integrator (TTI) selection in order to plan and apply an effective quality monitoring scheme for the fish chill chain was developed. The temperature behaviour of the natural microflora of the Mediterranean fish boque (Boops boops) was studied and growth of the specific spoilage bacteria Pseudomonas spp. and Shewanella putr...

We present Hand K-band NIRSPEC spectroscopy of super star clusters (SSCs) in the irregular starburst galaxy NGC 1569, obtained at the Keck Observatory. We fit these photospheric spectra to NextGen model atmospheres to obtain effective spectral types of clusters, and find that the information in both Hand K-band spectra is necessary to remove degeneracy in the fits. The light of SSC B is unambig...

Systematic differences in photometric stellar surface gravity determination are studied by means of the comparison with empirical values derived from detached double-lined eclipsing binaries. Photometric gravities were computed using Moon&Dworetsky (1985) grids based onKurucz (1979) atmosphere models, and empirical gravities were taken from Andersen (1991). Individual Strömgren colours and β in...

The lithium abundance in 62 halo dwarfs is determined from accurate equivalent widths reported in the literature and an improved infrared flux method (IRFM) temperature scale. The Li abundance of 41 plateau stars (those with Teff > 6000 K) is found to be independent of temperature and metallicity, with a star-to-star scatter of only 0.06 dex over a broad range of temperatures (6000 K < Teff < 6...

We present the results of a search for cool subdwarfs for which our candidates were drawn from a V − J reduced proper-motion diagram constructed by Salim & Gould (2002). Kinematic (U, V, and W) and self-consistent stellar parameters (Teff , log g, [Fe/H], and ξt) are derived for 91 candidate subdwarfs based on high resolution spectra. The observed stars span 3900K < Teff < 6200K and −2.63 < [Fe...

A new model atmosphere analysis for the peculiar DQ white dwarf discovered by Carollo et al. (2002) is presented. The effective temperature and carbon abundance have been estimated by fitting both the photometric data (UBJVRFINJHK) and a low resolution spectrum (3500 < λ < 7500 Å) with a new model grid for helium-rich white dwarfs with traces of carbon (DQ stars). We estimate Teff ' 5120±200 K ...