Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1959. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 33).

In cattle, base color is attributed to activity at the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), historically termed the extension locus, with alleles coding for black (ED), red (e), and wild-type (E+). These alleles, in most mammals, are presumed to follow the dominance model ED > E+ > e, although exceptions are often seen. In Bos indicus x Bos taurus F2 cattle, EDE+ heterozygotes observed were discordant with the dominance series for the MC1R alleles and displayed various degrees of reddening on an otherwise predicted black background. The objective of this study was to identify loci modifying black coat color in these individuals. The hypothesis was that degree of reddening was a quantitative trait controlled by multiple genes of small effect. Reddening was classified utilizing photographs for 5 subjective scoring systems and analyzed by general linear model procedures of SAS with fixed effects of sex, sire, family nested within sire, season of photo, and spotted status. Residuals from these models were utilized for interval analyses to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL). Analyses of 19 bovine autosomal chromosomes, identified chromosome-wise suggestive (P < 0.05) and significant (P < 0.01) QTL on bovine chromosomes (BTA) 4, 5, 15, 18, 21, 27, and 29. Unexpectedly, there was evidence of a major gene (F = 67.88) affecting reddening at 71 Mb of BTA 6 (based on build Btau4.0 of the bovine genome sequence) that accounted for 61.1% of the variation in reddening. This QTL coincided closely with a cluster of tyrosine kinase receptor genes (PDGFRA, KIT and KDR). Fitting SNP haplotypes for a 1 Mb region containing all 3 genes and centered on KIT accounted for all the variation attributed to this QTL. These data suggested that one of these 3 genes, or a gene in high linkage disequilibrium with them, was responsible for the majority of variation in degree of reddening. Two recombinants within this region identified PDGFRA as the strongest candidate gene. Functional analyses will be required to verify the role of PDGFRA and its interaction with MC1R to modify black coat color of Bos indicus influenced cattle.

No description available.

The mystery of Canis Major overdensity is addressed. We discuss concurrent methods and their limitations on the determination of interstellar reddening. We establish a new way to determine line of sight interstellear reddening by observing stellar spectral lines and UBV colors. We observe and analyze spectra of 22 stars in different open clusters. We find that Hydrogen Balmer line at 4861 angstrom can predict the stellar atmospheric parameters and intrinsic colors with reasonable accuracy. Comparing with observed colors we derive the reddening of the stars. We compare our results with standard database WEBDA and find that within 90% probability limit the standard deviation of the error is 0.102798. This is improved by taking the absolute maximum probabilities and the scatter becomes 0.0688865.

We have used broad-band near infrared photometry in combination with optical Johnson-Cousins photometry to study the dust properties in the line of sight to the Galactic globular cluster M4. These data have been used to investigate the reddening effects in terms of absolute strength, distribution and variations across the cluster field, as well as the shape of the reddening law defined by the type of dust. All three aspects were poorly defined for this system and therefore there has been controversy about the absolute distance to the globular cluster which is closest to the sun. Here, we introduce a new method to determine the ratio of absolute to selective extinction (RV ) in the line of sight toward resolved stellar populations, which is known to be a useful indicator for the type of dust and therefore characterizes the applicable reddening law. This method is independent of age assumptions and appears to be significantly more precise and accurate than existing approaches. In a first application, we determine AV /E(B − V ) = 3.76 ± 0.07 (random error) for the dust in the line of sight to M4 for our set of filters. That corresponds to a dust-type parameter RV = 3.62 ± 0.07 in the Cardelli, Clayton & Mathis (1989) reddening law. With this value, the distance to M4 is found to be d = 1.80 ± 0.05 kpc, corresponding to a true distance modulus of (m − M)0 = 11.28 ± 0.06. These uncertainties do not include possible systematic errors in the theoretical isochrones. A reddening map for M4 has been created which reveals a spatial differential reddening of δE(B − V ) ≥ 0.2 mag across the field within 10′ around the cluster centre; this is about 50% of the total mean reddening, which has been determined to be E(B − V ) = 0.37 ± 0.01. In order to provide accurate zero points for the extinction coefficients of our photometric filters, a computer code has been written to investigate the impact of stellar parameters such as temperature, surface gravity and metallicity on the extinction properties and the necessary corrections in different bandpasses. Using both synthetic ATLAS9 spectra and observed spectral energy distributions, we found similar sized effects for the range of temperature and surface gravity typical of globular cluster stars: both cause a change of about 3% in the necessary correction factor for each filter combination. Interestingly, variations in the metallicity cause effects of the same order when the assumed value is changed from the solar metallicity ([Fe/H] = 0.0) to [Fe/H]=-2.5. Our analysis showed that the systematic differences between the flux of a typical main-sequence turnoff star in a metal poor globular cluster and a Vega-like star are even stronger (∼ 5%). We compared the results from synthetic spectra to those obtained with observed spectral energy distributions and found significant differences in detail for temperatures lower than 5 000 K. We have attributed these discrepancies to the inadequate treatment of molecular bands in the B filter within the ATLAS9 models. Accordingly, for those cooler temperatures we obtained corrections for temperature, gravity and metallicity primarily from the observed spectra. Fortunately, these differences do not affect our principal astrophysical conclusions in this study, which are based on stars hotter than 5 000 K. / Graduate

White dwarfs are among the most common objects in the stellar halo; however, due to their low luminosity and low number density compared to the stars in the discs of the Milky Way, they are scarce in the observable volume. Hence, they are still poorly understood one hundred years after their discovery as relatively few have been observed. They are crucial to the understanding of several fundamental properties of the Galaxy – the geometry, kinematics and star formation history, as well as to the study of the end-stage of stellar evolution for low- and intermediate-mass stars. White dwarfs were traditionally identified by their ultraviolet (UV) excess, however, if they have cooled for a long time, they become so faint in that part of the spectrum that they cannot be seen by the most sensitive modern detectors. Proper motion was then used as a means to identify white dwarf candidates, due to their relatively large space motions compared to other objects with the same colour. The use of proper motion as a selection criterion has proven effective and has yielded large samples of candidates with the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In this work I will further increase the sample size with the Panchromatic Synoptic Telescope And Rapid Response System 1 (Pan–STARRS1). To construct luminosity functions for the study of the local white dwarfs, I require a density estimator that is generalised for a proper motion-limited sample. My simulations show that past works have underestimated the density when the tangential velocity was assumed to be a constant intrinsic parameter of an object. The intrinsically faint objects which are close to the upper proper motion limits of the surveys are most severely affected because of the poor approximation of a fixed tangential velocity. The survey volume is maximised by considering the small/intermediate scale variations in the observation properties at different epochs. This type of volume maximisation has not been conducted before because previous surveys did not have multi-epoch data over a footprint area of this size. The tessellation of the 3π Steradian Survey footprint is so complex that the variations are strong functions of position. I continue to demonstrate how a combination of a galactic model and the photometric limits as a function of position can give a good estimate of the completeness limits at different colour and different line-of-sight directions. Finally, I compare the derived white dwarf luminosity function with previous observational and theoretical work. The effect of interstellar reddening on the luminosity functions is also investigated.

Interstellar extinction and reddening are inescapable sources of uncertainty in the study of astronomical objects. Many creative ways to measure its effects have been developed, two of them being evaluated in this study. I apply two recently improved methods to estimate extinction toward individual stars, one based on interstellar absorption of sodium and the other based on opacity maps of the interstellar medium. The methods are applied to 14 stars in the local neighborhood, all within a distance of 250 pc from the Sun, and their results are compared. I find that both methods have severe limitations and large uncertainties, but can still be useful under the right conditions. I also provide suggestions on how the methods can be improved. / Interstellär extinktion och rödfärgning är oundvikliga osäkerhetskällor i studiet av astronomiska objekt. Många kreativa sätt att mäta dess effekter har utvecklats, av vilka två utvärderas i denna studie. Jag tillämpar två nyligen förbättrade metoder för att uppskatta utsläckning mot enskilda stjärnor, en baserad på interstellär absorption av natrium och den andra baserad på opacitetskartor över det interstellära mediet. Metoderna tillämpas på 14 stjärnor i solens närområde, alla inom ett avstånd av 250 pc, och deras resultat jämförs. Jag finner att båda metoderna har allvarliga begränsningar och stora osäkerheter, men ändå kan vara användbara under rätt förutsättningar. Jag ger också förslag på hur metoderna kan förbättras.

No description available.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / In order to determine distances of Southern Galactic HII regions, we carried out spectroscopic and photometric observations of the stellar content of a set of these objects. We have chosen objects only visible in the South hemisphere, with no published or uncertain distances. In this work, we present spectral classification based on intermediate dispersion spectra with a very high signal to noise ratio and on stellar UBV photometry, so that the distances have been determined using the usual method, the spectroscopic parallax. We picked up the 2MASS infrared photometry and assessed the reddening individually for each star, using the color-difference method. This way, we have estimated the totalto-selective extinction ratio for the most of the classified stars, and so, we have found a mean value 21% higher than the mean value of RV calculated on the whole directions of the Galaxy. As a result, we have found distances in general smaller than those already published on the literature, although confirming several spectral classifications. Besides that, large fluctuations around the values normally adopted were also observed, which would result in larger discrepancies between the stellar distances. At last, we have also extracted nebulae spectra in order to estimate the kinematics distances, so that we could compare the distance measurement results by different methods. In general, we have found reasonably compatible distances. However, in some cases large differences was found, suggesting that some objects present deviations of the circular motion. / Com o objetivo de determinar distâncias de regiões HII Galácticas observáveis no Hemisfério Sul, realizamos observações espectroscópicas e fotométricas do conteúdo estelar de um conjunto desses objetos. Demos preferência para aqueles objetos cuja observação só é possível no Hemisfério Sul, sem publicações de distância encontrada ou com grande dispersão entre os valores publicados. Neste trabalho, apresentamos classificação espectral baseada em espectros de dispersão intermediária, com elevada razão sinal / ruído e, também, classificação espectral via fotometria UBV , ambas com o objetivo de determinar as distâncias das regiões HII via paralaxe espectroscópica de suas estrelas ionizantes. Nós também extraímos as magnitudes dessas estrelas no infravermelho próximo diretamente do catálogo 2MASS e calculamos o avermelhamento individualmente para cada estrela usando o método das diferenças de cores. Assim, a razão entre a extinção total e a seletiva a banda V (RV ) foi estimada para a maior parte das estrelas, de forma que encontramos um valor médio 21% maior que o valor médio de RV calculado sobre todas as direções da Galáxia e, por este motivo, nós encontramos distâncias heliocêntricas, em geral, menores do que aquelas encontradas na literatura, mesmo confirmando a maior parte das classificações espectrais dadas por esses autores. Além disso, grandes flutuações em torno do valor médio foram encontradas, o que acarretaria maiores discrepâncias entre as distâncias estelares. Por fim, extraímos espectros nebulares dos objetos, com o objetivo de estimar suas distâncias cinemáticas e comparar os resultados obtidos com diferentes métodos. Em geral, encontramos distâncias razoavelmente compatíveis. Contudo, em alguns casos, grandes diferenças foram encontradas, sugerindo que alguns objetos como RCW 88 e NGC 3503 apresentam desvios do movimento circular.