Gravitational Radiation from Two-Body Systems

Thanks to the new generation of gravitational wave detectors LIGO and VIRGO, the theory of general relativity will face new and important confrontations to observational data with unprecedented precision. Indeed the detection and analysis of the gravitational waves from compact binary star systems requires beforehand a very precise solution of the two-body problem within general relativity. The approximation currently used to solve this problem is the post-Newtonian one, and must be pushed to high order in order to describe with sufficient accuracy (given the sensitivity of the detectors) the inspiral phase of compact bodies, which immediately precedes their final merger. The resulting post-Newtonian ``templates'' are currently known to 3.5PN order, and are used for searching and deciphering the gravitational wave signals in VIRGO and LIGO.Comment: 19 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the Spanish Relativity Meeting ``A Century of Relativity Physics'' (ERE05), Edited by Lysiane Mornas and Joaquin Diaz-Alons

“Reread me backwards”: Deciphering the Past in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day

Set during the midst of the London Blitz, Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day revolves around a narrative of espionage, but unlike many novels from the spy genre, it refuses to disclose all of its secrets. Instead, the novel’s dense and complex language, which so effectively expresses the dislocating effects of a city under attack, resists an easy or uncomplicated reading. This article examines the motif of reading within the novel, which manifests when its protagonist, Stella Rodney, learns her lover Robert is a Nazi spy. In her efforts to locate proof of his defection, Stella becomes caught in a recurrent but indeterminable task of rereading past events, a movement which attempts to remember the past but also foregrounds a fundamental inability to ever wholly resolve its enigmas. When Stella fails to read her past for lost clues, she is prevented from viewing the events of her life as a coherent and meaningful narrative. The novel’s difficult language reflects this lack of resolution, refusing to assimilate the events it depicts into a straightforward account. With its wartime setting as a disorienting backdrop, The Heat of the Day undermines the purpose of reading as the discovery of sense and meaning, producing instead only more questions and mysteries

The Curvilinear Relationship between Age and Emotional Aperture : The Moderating Role of Agreeableness

The capability to correctly recognize collective emotion expressions (i.e., emotional aperture) is crucial for effective social and work-related interactions. Yet, little remains known about the antecedents of this ability. The present study therefore aims to shed new light onto key aspects that may promote or diminish an individual’s emotional aperture. We examine the role of age for this ability in an online sample of 181 participants (with an age range of 18 to 72 years, located in Germany), and we investigate agreeableness as a key contingency factor. Among individuals with lower agreeableness, on the one hand, our results indicate a curvilinear relationship between age and emotional aperture, such that emotional aperture remains at a relatively high level until these individuals’ middle adulthood (with a slight increase until their late 30s) and declines afterwards. Individuals with higher agreeableness, on the other hand, exhibit relatively high emotional aperture irrespective of their age. Together, these findings offer new insights for the emerging literature on emotional aperture, illustrating that specific demographic and personality characteristics may jointly shape such collective emotion recognition

Deciphering acoustic emission signals in drought stressed branches: the missing link between source and sensor

When drought occurs in plants, acoustic emission (AE) signals can be detected, but the actual causes of these signals are still unknown. By analyzing the waveforms of the measured signals, it should, however, be possible to trace the characteristics of the AE source and get information about the underlying physiological processes. A problem encountered during this analysis is that the waveform changes significantly from source to sensor and lack of knowledge on wave propagation impedes research progress made in this field. We used finite element modeling and the well-known pencil lead break source to investigate wave propagation in a branch. A cylindrical rod of polyvinyl chloride was first used to identify the theoretical propagation modes. Two wave propagation modes could be distinguished and we used the finite element model to interpret their behavior in terms of source position for both the PVC rod and a wooden rod. Both wave propagation modes were also identified in drying-induced signals from woody branches, and we used the obtained insights to provide recommendations for further AE research in plant science

The Curvilinear Relationship between Age and Emotional Aperture : The Moderating Role of Agreeableness

The capability to correctly recognize collective emotion expressions (i.e., emotional aperture) is crucial for effective social and work-related interactions. Yet, little remains known about the antecedents of this ability. The present study therefore aims to shed new light onto key aspects that may promote or diminish an individual’s emotional aperture. We examine the role of age for this ability in an online sample of 181 participants (with an age range of 18 to 72 years, located in Germany), and we investigate agreeableness as a key contingency factor. Among individuals with lower agreeableness, on the one hand, our results indicate a curvilinear relationship between age and emotional aperture, such that emotional aperture remains at a relatively high level until these individuals’ middle adulthood (with a slight increase until their late 30s) and declines afterwards. Individuals with higher agreeableness, on the other hand, exhibit relatively high emotional aperture irrespective of their age. Together, these findings offer new insights for the emerging literature on emotional aperture, illustrating that specific demographic and personality characteristics may jointly shape such collective emotion recognition

Phishing – the threat of internet banking

The attractiveness of Internet banking, the dynamics and the integration with e-business is still growing. The current use of electronic banking is defined by cyberspace and abused in the form of cyber terrorism as well. Therefore it is in the interest of all banks to focus on minimizing the real attacks. This article analyzes and compares the current possibilities against so-called phishing and identifies the area of the safe use of Internet banking in terms of the current potential threats in this area