Spatial Analysis of Surveyed Perceptions of Safety, Crime, and Lighting: A College Campus Case Study

With recent crime incidents at universities highlighted through the media, campus safety is of increasing importance to universities today. This research examines spatiotemporal relationships between surveyed perceptions of safety, reported incidents of crime, and exterior lighting. A GIS was used to digitize data from student surveys into digital points. Spatial analysis tools were used to convert these points into an enhanced campus perception of safety density surface. These point data were analyzed with spatial statistics tools in the CrimeStat application to examine relationships between daytime, nighttime, sexes, and other spatiotemporal characteristics. The perception points were compared with actual campus crime locations and the spatial extent of exterior illumination. The daytime perception data yielded results primarily and unexpectedly related to foot-traffic and transportation safety while the nighttime data related to more classic safety concerns. Results from this study suggest a high level of clustering of perceptions of unsafe areas but these do not necessarily correlate with areas in which crime actually occurs. However, there were similarities between poor lighting conditions and unsafe perceptions. Results from this study may potentially be used to create a safer real and perceived environment for students as well as offer a more focused crime prevention régime

Probing the face-on disc-corona system of the bare AGN Mrk 110 from UV to hard X-rays: A moderate changing-state AGN?

Context. The X-ray broadband spectra of the bare active galactic nucleus (AGN) Mrk 110, obtained by simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations performed in November 2019 and April 2020, are characterised by the presence of a prominent and absorption-free smooth soft X-ray excess, moderately broad O VII and Fe Kα emission lines, and a lack of a strong Compton hump. The disc-corona system is almost viewed face-on as inferred from the O VII accretion disc lines. While relativistic reflection as the sole emission is ruled out, a simplified combination of soft and hard Comptonisation (using COMPTT) from a warm and a hot corona, plus mild relativistic disc reflection (occuring at a few 10 s Rg) reproduces the data very well.Aims. We aim to confirm the physical origin of the soft X-ray excess of Mrk 110 and to determine its disc-corona system properties from its energetics using two new sophisticated models: REXCOR and RELAGN, respectively.Methods. We applied these models to the 0.3–79 keV X-ray broadband spectra and to the spectral energy distribution (SED) from UV to hard X-rays, respectively.Results. At both epochs, the inferred high values of the warm-corona heating from the X-ray broadband spectral analysis using REXCOR confirm that the soft X-ray excess of Mrk 110 mainly originates from a warm corona rather than relativistic reflection. The intrinsic best-fit SED determined at both epochs using RELAGN show a high X-ray contribution relative to the UV and are very well reproduced by a warm and hot corona plus mild relativistic reflection. The outer radii of the hot and warm corona are located at a few 10 s and ∼100 Rg, respectively. Moreover, combining the inferred low Eddington ratio (approximatively a few percent) from this work, and previous multi-wavelength spectral and timing studies suggest that Mrk 110 could be classified as a moderate changing-state AGN.Conclusions. Our analysis confirms the existence of a warm corona as a significant contribution to the soft X-ray excess and UV emission in Mrk 110, adding to growing evidence that AGN accretion deviates from standard disc theory. This strengthens the importance of long-term multi-wavelength monitoring on both single targets and large AGN surveys to reveal the real nature of the disc-corona system in AGNs

Probing the face-on disc-corona system of the bare AGN Mrk 110 from UV to hard X-rays: a moderate changing-state AGN?

[Abridged] The X-ray broadband spectra of the bare AGN Mrk 110, obtained by simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations (Nov 2019 and April 2020), are characterised by the presence of a prominent and absorption-free smooth soft X-ray excess, moderately broad OVII and Fe Kalpha emission lines, and a lack of a strong Compton hump. While relativistic reflection as the sole emission is ruled out, a simplified combination of soft and hard Comptonisation from a warm and a hot coronae, plus mild relativistic disc reflection reproduces the data very well. We aim to confirm the physical origin of the soft X-ray excess of Mrk 110 and to determine its disc-corona system properties from its energetics using two new sophisticated models: reXcor and relagn, respectively. At both epochs, the inferred high-values of the warm-corona heating from the X-ray broadband spectral analysis using reXcor confirm that the soft X-ray excess originates mainly from a warm corona rather than relativistic reflection. The intrinsic best-fit SED determined at both epochs using relagn show a high X-ray contribution relative to the UV and are very well reproduced by a warm and hot coronae plus mild relativistic reflection. The outer radii of the hot and warm coronae are located at a few 10s and ~100 Rg, respectively. Moreover, combining the inferred low Eddington ratio (~ a few %) from this work, and previous multi-wavelength spectral and timing studies suggests that Mrk 110 could be classified as a moderate changing-state AGN. Our analysis confirms the existence of a warm corona as a significant contribution to the soft X-ray excess and UV emission in Mrk 110, adding to growing evidence that AGN accretion deviates from standard disc theory. This strengthens the importance of long-term multi-wavelength monitoring on both single targets and large AGN surveys to reveal the real nature of disc-corona system in AGN.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Smartening the bridge

Treball desenvolupat en el marc del programa "European Project Semester".This report explains the process the team went through when designing and developing a smart bridge that integrates into a smart city. It was proposed by the CRAAX lab which is a research group based in UPC Vilanova. It consists of both students and researchers studying computer science and telecommunications. In the CRAAX lab, there is a smart city testbed, which is a miniature model of a smart city. A smart city uses a framework of information and communication technologies to create, deploy and promote development practices to address urban challenges and create a joined-up technologically enabled, and sustainable infrastructure. Our goal is to create a smart bridge concept and show its integration into the smart city and the benefits it has towards improving traffic flow. Simulations will be conducted using an online program called Flexsim to compare traffic flow in different street layouts; an intersection, a four-lane bridge, and a two-lane bridge. From these calculations, we can decide which bridge will be most suited for the smart city. In the smart bridge, there will be many smart features incorporated to enhance the bridge further. These include smart sensors, big data, VMS, and other smart features. The bridge’s concept will be communicated through the simulation programs and with detailed design sketches describing each smart feature’s layout and function.Incomin

X-ray Reverberation Mapping of Ark 564 using Gaussian Process Regression

Ark 564 is an extreme high-Eddington Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy, known for being one of the brightest, most rapidly variable soft X-ray AGN, and for having one of the lowest temperature coronae. Here we present a 410-ks NuSTAR observation and two 115-ks XMM-Newton observations of this unique source, which reveal a very strong, relativistically broadened iron line. We compute the Fourier-resolved time lags by first using Gaussian processes to interpolate the NuSTAR gaps, implementing the first employment of multi-task learning for application in AGN timing. By fitting simultaneously the time lags and the flux spectra with the relativistic reverberation model RELTRANS, we constrain the mass at $2.3^{+2.6}_{-1.3} \times 10^6M_\odot$, although additional components are required to describe the prominent soft excess in this source. These results motivate future combinations of machine learning, Fourier-resolved timing, and the development of reverberation models.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Home Security: The Psychological Threshold

Home Security: The Psychological Threshold, explores how a thoughtful, intelligent product design solution can psychologically affect two user groups (homeowners and intruders) into opposing emotional states; safety and intimidation. Using available statistical data and research on home burglaries, as well as inspiration from nature, present day solutions, and the environment, a conceptual security system was designed to meet the needs of suburban homeowners. The central product, a security system, employs the use of lighting notifications to create a variety of reactive states and monitor individuals who approach a home. Based on the users intentions the monitor can; notify surrounding people about a potential threat, signal authorized or unauthorized entry to the home, and alert others to a crime in progress. The resulting system is titled, Threshold. The Threshold system provides a variety of emotional responses for users. A sense of comfort to the occupant of the home and community, and a warning to perpetrators considering committing a crime through the system\u27s universally understood visible functions