259,003 research outputs found
Solar flare hard X-ray spikes observed by RHESSI: a statistical study
Context. Hard X-ray (HXR) spikes refer to fine time structures on timescales
of seconds to milliseconds in high-energy HXR emission profiles during solar
flare eruptions. Aims. We present a preliminary statistical investigation of
temporal and spectral properties of HXR spikes. Methods. Using a three-sigma
spike selection rule, we detected 184 spikes in 94 out of 322 flares with
significant counts at given photon energies, which were detected from
demodulated HXR light curves obtained by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar
Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). About one fifth of these spikes are also
detected at photon energies higher than 100 keV. Results. The statistical
properties of the spikes are as follows. (1) HXR spikes are produced in both
impulsive flares and long-duration flares with nearly the same occurrence
rates. Ninety percent of the spikes occur during the rise phase of the flares,
and about 70% occur around the peak times of the flares. (2) The time durations
of the spikes vary from 0.2 to 2 s, with the mean being 1.0 s, which is not
dependent on photon energies. The spikes exhibit symmetric time profiles with
no significant difference between rise and decay times. (3) Among the most
energetic spikes, nearly all of them have harder count spectra than their
underlying slow-varying components. There is also a weak indication that spikes
exhibiting time lags in high-energy emissions tend to have harder spectra than
spikes with time lags in low-energy emissions.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure
On the mechanism of ZDDP antiwear film formation
Zinc dialkyldithiophosphate additives are used to control wear and inhibit oxidation in almost all engine oils as well as many other types of lubricant. They limit wear primarily by forming a thick, protective, phosphate glass-based tribofilm on rubbing surfaces. This film formation can occur at low temperatures and is relatively indifferent to the chemical nature of the substrate. There has been considerable debate as to what drives ZDDP tribofilm formation, why it occurs only on surfaces that experience sliding and whether film formation is controlled primarily by temperature, pressure, triboemission or some other factor. This paper describes a novel approach to the problem by studying the formation of ZDDP films in full film EHD conditions from two lubricants having very different EHD friction properties. This shows that ZDDP film formation does not require solid-solid rubbing contact but is driven simply by applied shear stress, in accord with a stress-promoted thermal activation model. The shear stress present in a high pressure contact can reduce the thermal activation energy for ZDDP by at least half, greatly increasing the reaction rate. This mechanism explains the origins of many practically important features of ZDDP films; their topography, their thickness and the conditions under which they form. The insights that this study provides should prove valuable both in optimising ZDDP structure and in modelling ZDDP antiwear behaviour. The findings also highlight the importance of mechanochemistry to the behaviour of lubricant additives in general
Spike voltage topography in temporal lobe epilepsy
We investigated the voltage topography of interictal spikes in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) to see whether topography was related to etiology for TLE. Adults with TLE, who had epilepsy surgery for drug-resistant seizures from 2011 until 2014 at Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center were selected. Two groups of patients were studied: patients with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) on MRI and those with other MRI findings. The voltage topography maps of the interictal spikes at the peak were created using BESA software. We classified the interictal spikes as polar, basal, lateral, or others. Thirty-four patients were studied, from which the characteristics of 340 spikes were investigated. The most common type of spike orientation was others (186 spikes; 54.7%), followed by lateral (146; 42.9%), polar (5; 1.5%), and basal (3; 0.9%). Characteristics of the voltage topography maps of the spikes between the two groups of patients were somewhat different. Five spikes in patients with MTS had polar orientation, but none of the spikes in patients with other MRI findings had polar orientation (odds ratio = 6.98, 95% confidence interval = 0.38 to 127.38; p = 0.07). Scalp topographic mapping of interictal spikes has the potential to offer different information than visual inspection alone. The present results do not allow an immediate clinical application of our findings; however, detecting a polar spike in a patient with TLE may increase the possibility of mesial temporal sclerosis as the underlying etiology
The Carrington event not observed in most ice core nitrate records
The Carrington Event of 1859 is considered to be among the largest space weather events of the last 150 years. We show that only one out of 14 well-resolved ice core records from Greenland and Antarctica has a nitrate spike dated to 1859. No sharp spikes are observed in the Antarctic cores studied here. In Greenland numerous spikes are observed in the 40 years surrounding 1859, but where other chemistry was measured, all large spikes have the unequivocal signal, including co-located spikes in ammonium, formate, black carbon and vanillic acid, of biomass burning plumes. It seems certain that most spikes in an earlier core, including that claimed for 1859, are also due to biomass burning plumes, and not to solar energetic particle (SEP) events. We conclude that an event as large as the Carrington Event did not leave an observable, widespread imprint in nitrate in polar ice. Nitrate spikes cannot be used to derive the statistics of SEPs
Solar flare hard X-ray spikes observed by RHESSI: a case study
In this paper, we analyze hard X-ray spikes observed by RHESSI to understand
their temporal, spectral, and spatial properties. A recently developed
demodulation code was applied to hard X-ray light curves in several energy
bands observed by RHESSI. Hard X-ray spikes were selected from the demodulated
flare light curves. We measured the spike duration, the energy-dependent time
delay, and count spectral index of these spikes. We also located the hard X-ray
source emitting these spikes from RHESSI mapping that was coordinated with
imaging observations in visible and UV wavelengths. We identify quickly varying
structures of <1 s during the rise of hard X-rays in five flares. These hard
X-ray spikes can be observed at photon energies over 100 keV. They exhibit
sharp rise and decay with a duration (FWHM) of less than 1 s. Energy-dependent
time lags are present in some spikes. It is seen that the spikes exhibit harder
spectra than underlying components, typically by 0.5 in the spectral index when
they are fitted to power-law distributions. RHESSI clean maps at 25-100 keV
with an integration of 2 s centered on the peak of the spikes suggest that hard
X-ray spikes are primarily emitted by double foot-point sources in magnetic
fields of opposite polarities. With the RHESSI mapping resolution of ~ 4 arsec,
the hard X-ray spike maps do not exhibit detectable difference in the spatial
structure from sources emitting underlying components. Coordinated
high-resolution imaging UV and infrared observations confirm that hard X-ray
spikes are produced in magnetic structures embedded in the same magnetic
environment of the underlying components. The coordinated high-cadence TRACE UV
observations of one event possibly reveal new structures on spatial scales <1-2
arsec at the time of the spike superposed on the underlying component. They are
probably sources of hard X-ray spikes.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figure
Low-frequency local field potentials and spikes in primary visual cortex convey independent visual information
Local field potentials (LFPs) reflect subthreshold integrative processes that complement spike train measures. However, little is yet known about the differences between how LFPs and spikes encode rich naturalistic sensory stimuli. We addressed this question by recording LFPs and spikes from the primary visual cortex of anesthetized macaques while presenting a color movie.Wethen determined
how the power of LFPs and spikes at different frequencies represents the visual features in the movie.Wefound that the most informative LFP frequency ranges were 1– 8 and 60 –100 Hz. LFPs in the range of 12– 40 Hz carried little information about the stimulus, and may primarily reflect neuromodulatory inputs. Spike power was informative only at frequencies <12 Hz. We further quantified “signal
correlations” (correlations in the trial-averaged power response to different stimuli) and “noise correlations” (trial-by-trial correlations in the fluctuations around the average) of LFPs and spikes recorded from the same electrode. We found positive signal correlation between high-gamma LFPs (60 –100 Hz) and spikes, as well as strong positive signal correlation within high-gamma LFPs, suggesting that high-gamma LFPs and spikes are generated within the same network. LFPs<24 Hz shared strong positive noise correlations, indicating that they are influenced by a common source, such as a diffuse neuromodulatory input. LFPs<40 Hz showed very little signal and noise correlations with LFPs>40Hzand with spikes, suggesting that low-frequency LFPs reflect neural processes that in natural conditions are fully decoupled from those giving rise to spikes and to high-gamma LFPs
Spikes Monitors for FPGAs, an Experimental Comparative Study
In this paper we present and analyze two VHDL components for
monitoring internal activity of spikes fired by silicon neurons inside FPGAs.
These spikes monitors encode each spike according to the Address-Event Representation,
sending them through a time multiplexed digital bus as discrete
events, using different strategies. In order to study and analyze their behavior
we have designed an experimental scenario, where diverse AER systems have
been used to stimulate the spikes monitors and collect the output AER events,
for later analysis. We have applied a battery of tests on both monitors in order
to measure diverse features such as maximum spike load and AER event loss
due to collisions.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2009-10639-C04-02Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-0
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