2,048 research outputs found
Efficient and automatic methods for flexible regression on spatiotemporal data, with applications to groundwater monitoring
Fitting statistical models to spatiotemporal data requires finding the right balance between imposing smoothness and following the data. In the context of P-splines, we propose a Bayesian framework for choosing the smoothing parameter which allows the construction of fully-automatic data-driven methods for fitting flexible models to spatiotemporal data. An implementation, which is highly computationally efficient and which exploits the sparsity of the design and penalty matrices, is proposed. The findings are illustrated using a simulation study and two examples, all concerned with the modelling of contaminants in groundwater. This suggests that the proposed strategy is more stable that competing methods based on the use of criteria such as GCV and AIC
Incorporating Chiral Symmetry in Extrapolations of Octet Baryon Magnetic Moments
We explore methods of extrapolating lattice calculations of hadronic
observables to the physical regime, while respecting the constraints of chiral
symmetry and heavy quark effective theory. In particular, we extrapolate
lattice results for magnetic moments of the spin-1/2 baryon octet to the
physical pion mass and compare with experimental measurements. The success
previously reported for extrapolations of the nucleon magnetic moments carries
over to the Sigma baryons. A study of the residual discrepancies in the Xi
baryon moments suggests that it is important to have new simulation data with a
more realistic strange quark mass.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Chemical signatures of the Anthropocene in the Clyde Estuary, UK: sediment hosted Pb, 207/206 Pb, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH), Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) and Polychlorinated Bipheny (PCB) pollution records
The sediment concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Pb and 207/206Pb isotope ratios were measured in seven cores from the middle Clyde estuary (Scotland, UK) with an aim of tracking the late Anthropocene. Concentrations of TPHs ranged from 34 to 4386âmgâkgâ1, total PAHs from 19 to 16â163âÎŒgâkgâ1 and total PCBs between less than 4.3 to 1217âÎŒgâkgâ1. Inventories, distributions and isomeric ratios of the organic pollutants were used to reconstruct pollutant histories. Pre-Industrial Revolution and modern non-polluted sediments were characterized by low TPH and PAH values as well as high relative abundance of biogenic-sourced phenanthrene and naphthalene. The increasing industrialization of the Clyde gave rise to elevated PAH concentrations and PAH isomeric ratios characteristic of both grass/wood/coal and petroleum and combustion (specifically petroleum combustion). Overall, PAHs had the longest history of any of the organic contaminants. Increasing TPH concentrations and a concomitant decline in PAHs mirrored the lessening of coal use and increasing reliance on petroleum fuels from about the 1950s. Thereafter, declining hydrocarbon pollution was followed by the onset (1950s), peak (1965â1977) and decline (post-1980s) in total PCB concentrations. Lead concentrations ranged from 6 to 631âmgâkgâ1, while 207/206Pb isotope ratios spanned 0.838â0.876, indicative of various proportions of âbackgroundâ, British ore/coal and Broken Hill type petrol/industrial lead. A chronology was established using published Pb isotope data for aerosol-derived Pb and applied to the cores
Hadron Mass Extraction from Lattice QCD
The extraction of quantities from lattice QCD calculations at realistic quark
masses is of considerable importance. Whilst physical quark masses are some way
off, the recent advances in the calculation of hadron masses within full QCD
now invite improved extrapolation methods. We show that, provided the correct
chiral behaviour of QCD is respected in the extrapolation to realistic quark
masses, one can indeed obtain a fairly reliable determination of masses, the
sigma commutator and the J parameter. We summarise these findings by presenting
the nonanalytic behaviour of nucleon and rho masses in the standard Edinburgh
plot.Comment: Talk presented by S. V. Wright at the Workshop on Lattice Hadron
Physics (LHP2001), Cairns, Australia, 9-18 July 2001, 8 pages, requires
espcrc2.sty (included
Energy Efficiency Improvements in Dry Drilling with Optimised Diamond-Like Carbon Coating
We demonstrate enhancements of performance and energy efficiency of cutting tools by deposition of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings on machine parts. DLC was deposited on steel drill bits, using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) with the acetylene precursor diluted with argon, to produce a surface with low friction and low wear rate. Drill bit performance in dry drilling of aluminium was quantified by analysis of power consumption and swarf flow. Optimised deposition conditions produced drill bits with greatly enhanced performance over uncoated drill bits, showing a 25% reduction in swarf clogging, a 36% reduction in power consumption and a greater than five-fold increase in lifetime. Surface analysis with scanning electron microscopy shows that DLC coated drills exhibit much lower aluminium build up on the trailing shank of the drill, enhancing the anti-adhering properties of the drill and reducing heat generation during operation, resulting in the observed improvements in efficiency. Variation of drilling efficiency with argon dilution of precursor is related to changes in the microstructure of the DLC coating
Statistical modelling of groundwater contamination monitoring data: a comparison of spatial and spatiotemporal methods
Field monitoring of groundwater contamination plumes is an important component of managing risks for downgradient receptors and remedial strategies that rely on monitored natural attenuation. Collection of groundwater quality data can however take a considerable effort and be associated with high cost. Here, we investigated the relative merits of analyzing groundwater quality data using spatial compared to spatiotemporal statistical modelling and assessed the accuracy of both methods and implications for data collection requirements. The aim of this was to determine whether the quantity of data collected can be reduced, while retaining the same level of estimation accuracy, by analyzing groundwater contamination data using a spatiotemporal model which âborrows strengthâ across time, rather than a spatial model for individual sampling events. To capture the variability encountered under field conditions, we used three hypothetical groundwater contamination plumes with increasing complexity, and site data for a large groundwater gasoline additive plume. The results show that spatiotemporal methods can increase efficiency markedly so that, in comparison with repeated spatial analysis, spatiotemporal methods can achieve the same level of performance but with smaller sample sizes
The Cryogenic Target for the G Experiment at Jefferson Lab
A cryogenic horizontal single loop target has been designed, built, tested
and operated for the G experiment in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. The target
cell is 20 cm long, the loop volume is 6.5 l and the target operates with the
cryogenic pump fully immersed in the fluid. The target has been designed to
operate at 30 Hz rotational pump speed with either liquid hydrogen or liquid
deuterium. The high power heat exchanger is able to remove 1000 W of heat from
the liquid hydrogen, while the nominal electron beam with current of 40 A
and energy of 3 GeV deposits about 320 W of heat into the liquid. The increase
in the systematic uncertainty due to the liquid hydrogen target is negligible
on the scale of a parity violation experiment. The global normalized yield
reduction for 40 A beam is about 1.5 % and the target density fluctuations
contribute less than 238 ppm (parts per million) to the total asymmetry width,
typically about 1200 ppm, in a Q bin.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure
The Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS)
This paper describes the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) under construction
at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) of the Australian
National University (ANU) for the ANU 2.3m telescope at the Siding Spring
Observatory. WiFeS is a powerful integral field, double-beam, concentric,
image-slicing spectrograph designed to deliver excellent thoughput, wavelength
stability, spectrophotometric performance and superb image quality along with
wide spectral coverage throughout the 320-950 nm wavelength region. It provides
a 25x38 arcsec. field with 0.5 arcsec. sampling along each of twenty five 38X1
arcsec slitlets. The output format is optimized to match the 4096x4096 pixel
CCD detectors in each of two cameras individually optimized for the blue and
the red ends of the spectrum, respectively. A process of "interleaved
nod-and-shuffle" will be applied to permit quantum noise-limited sky
subtraction. Using VPH gratings, spectral resolutions of 3000 and 7000 are
provided. The full spectral range is covered in a single exposure at R=3000,
and in two exposures in the R=7000 mode. The use of transmissive coated optics,
VPH gratings and optimized mirror coatings ensures a throughput (including
telescope atmosphere and detector) > 30% over a wide spectral range. The
concentric image-slicer design ensures an excellent and uniform image quality
across the full field. To maximize scientific return, the whole instrument is
configured for remote observing, pipeline data reduction, and the accumulation
of calibration image libraries.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science, 16 pages,
14 figure
Social and cultural origins of motivations to volunteer a comparison of university students in six countries
Although participation in volunteering and motivations to volunteer (MTV) have received substantial attention on the national level, particularly in the US, few studies have compared and explained these issues across cultural and political contexts. This study compares how two theoretical perspectives, social origins theory and signalling theory, explain variations in MTV across different countries. The study analyses responses from a sample of 5794 students from six countries representing distinct institutional contexts. The findings provide strong support for signalling theory but less so for social origins theory. The article concludes that volunteering is a personal decision and thus is influenced more at the individual level but is also impacted to some degree by macro-level societal forces
Dissipation of Magnetohydrodynamic Waves on Energetic Particles: Impact on Interstellar Turbulence and Cosmic Ray Transport
The physical processes involved in diffusion of Galactic cosmic rays in the
interstellar medium are addressed. We study the possibility that the nonlinear
MHD cascade sets the power-law spectrum of turbulence which scatters charged
energetic particles. We find that the dissipation of waves due to the resonant
interaction with cosmic ray particles may terminate the Kraichnan-type cascade
below wavelengths 10^13 cm. The effect of this wave dissipation has been
incorporated in the GALPROP numerical propagation code in order to asses the
impact on measurable astrophysical data. The energy-dependence of the
cosmic-ray diffusion coefficient found in the resulting self-consistent model
may explain the peaks in the secondary to primary nuclei ratios observed at
about 1 GeV/nucleon.Comment: 15 pages, 20 figures, 1 table, emulateapj.cls; To be published in ApJ
10 May 2006, v.64
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