883 research outputs found
Bostonia: v. 63, no. 3
Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs
Lucky Imaging survey for southern M dwarf binaries
While M dwarfs are the most abundant stars in the Milky Way, there is still
large uncertainty about their basic physical properties (mass, luminosity,
radius, etc.) as well as their formation environment. Precise knowledge of
multiplicity characteristics and how they change in this transitional mass
region, between Sun-like stars on the one side and very low mass stars and
brown dwarfs on the other, provide constraints on low mass star and brown dwarf
formation. In the largest M dwarf binary survey to date, we search for
companions to active, and thus preferentially young, M dwarfs in the solar
neighbourhood. We study their binary/multiple properties, such as the
multiplicity frequency and distributions of mass ratio and separation, and
identify short period visual binaries, for which orbital parameters and hence
dynamical mass estimates can be derived in the near future. The observations
are carried out in the SDSS i' and z' band using the Lucky Imaging camera
AstraLux Sur at the ESO 3.5 m New Technology Telescope. In the first part of
the survey, we observed 124 M dwarfs of integrated spectral types M0-M6 and
identified 34 new and 17 previously known companions to 44 stars. We derived
relative astrometry and component photometry for these systems. More than half
of the binaries have separations smaller than 1 arcsec and would have been
missed in a simply seeing-limited survey. Correcting our sample for selection
effects yields a multiplicity fraction of 32+/-6% for 108 M dwarfs within 52 pc
and with angular separations of 0.1-6.0 arcsec, corresponding to projected
separation 3-180 AU at median distance 30 pc. Compared to early-type M dwarfs
(M>0.3M_Sun), later type (and hence lower mass) M dwarf binaries appear to have
closer separations, and more similar masses.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Minor corrections and changes. Revised to match
accepted A&A versio
A new benchmark T8-9 brown dwarf and a couple of new mid-T dwarfs from the UKIDSS DR5+ LAS
Benchmark brown dwarfs are those objects for which fiducial constraints are
available, including effective temperature, parallax, age, metallicity. We
searched for new cool brown dwarfs in 186 sq.deg. of the new area covered by
the data release DR5+ of the UKIDSS Large Area Survey. Follow-up optical and
near-infrared broad-band photometry, and methane imaging of four promising
candidates, revealed three objects with distinct methane absorption, typical of
mid- to late-T dwarfs, and one possibly T4 dwarf. The latest-type object,
classified as T8-9, shares its large proper motion with Ross 458 (BD+13o2618),
an active M0.5 binary which is 102" away, forming a hierarchical low-mass
star+brown dwarf system. Ross 458C has an absolute J-band magnitude of 16.4,
and seems overluminous, particularly in the K band, compared to similar field
brown dwarfs. We estimate the age of the system to be less than 1 Gyr, and its
mass to be as low as 14 Jupiter masses for the age of 1 Gyr. At 11.4 pc, this
new late T benchmark dwarf is a promising target to constrain the evolutionary
and atmospheric models of very low-mass brown dwarfs. We present proper motion
measurements for our targets and for 13 known brown dwarfs. Two brown dwarfs
have velocities typical of the thick disk and may be old brown dwarfs.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures and 6 tables. Accepted by MNRAS. Uses mn2e.cls
and aas_macr
Superconducting properties of [BaCuO_x]_2/[CaCuO_2]_n artificial structures with ultrathick CaCuO_2 blocks
The electrical transport properties of [BaCuO_x]_2/[CaCuO_2]_n
(CBCCO-2xn)underdoped high temperature superconducting superlattices grown by
Pulsed Laser Deposition have been investigated. Starting from the optimally
doped CBCCO-2x2 superlattice, having three CuO_2 planes and T_c around 80 K, we
have systematically increased the number n up to 15 moving toward the
underdoped region and hence decreasing T_c. For n>11 the artificial structures
are no longer superconducting, as expected, for a uniformly distributed charge
carriers density inside the conducting block layer. The sheet resistance of
such artificial structures (n nearly equal to 11) turns out to be quite
temperature independent and close to the 2D quantum resistance 26 kOhm. A
further increase of the number of CuO_2 planes results in an insulator-type
dependence of R(T) in the wide range of temperatures from room temperature to 1
K. The value of the sheet resistance separating the Superconducting and the
Insulating regimes supports the fermionic scenario of the
Superconductor-Insulator transition in these systems.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Corresponding author: [email protected]
Improved Effective Potential in Curved Spacetime and Quantum Matter - Higher Derivative Gravity Theory
\noindent{\large\bf Abstract.} We develop a general formalism to study the
renormalization group (RG) improved effective potential for renormalizable
gauge theories ---including matter--gravity--- in curved spacetime. The
result is given up to quadratic terms in curvature, and one-loop effective
potentials may be easiliy obtained from it. As an example, we consider scalar
QED, where dimensional transmutation in curved space and the phase structure of
the potential (in particular, curvature-induced phase trnasitions), are
discussed. For scalar QED with higher-derivative quantum gravity (QG), we
examine the influence of QG on dimensional transmutation and calculate QG
corrections to the scalar-to-vector mass ratio. The phase structure of the
RG-improved effective potential is also studied in this case, and the values of
the induced Newton and cosmological coupling constants at the critical point
are estimated. Stability of the running scalar coupling in the Yukawa theory
with conformally invariant higher-derivative QG, and in the Standard Model with
the same addition, is numerically analyzed. We show that, in these models, QG
tends to make the scalar sector less unstable.Comment: 23 pages, Oct 17 199
Sedimentation and Flow Through Porous Media: Simulating Dynamically Coupled Discrete and Continuum Phases
We describe a method to address efficiently problems of two-phase flow in the
regime of low particle Reynolds number and negligible Brownian motion. One of
the phases is an incompressible continuous fluid and the other a discrete
particulate phase which we simulate by following the motion of single
particles. Interactions between the phases are taken into account using locally
defined drag forces. We apply our method to the problem of flow through random
media at high porosity where we find good agreement to theoretical expectations
for the functional dependence of the pressure drop on the solid volume
fraction. We undertake further validations on systems undergoing gravity
induced sedimentation.Comment: 22 pages REVTEX, figures separately in uudecoded, compressed
postscript format - alternatively e-mail '[email protected]' for
hardcopies
Bifurcations of a driven granular system under gravity
Molecular dynamics study on the granular bifurcation in a simple model is
presented. The model consists of hard disks, which undergo inelastic
collisions; the system is under the uniform external gravity and is driven by
the heat bath. The competition between the two effects, namely, the
gravitational force and the heat bath, is carefully studied. We found that the
system shows three phases, namely, the condensed phase, locally fluidized
phase, and granular turbulent phase, upon increasing the external control
parameter. We conclude that the transition from the condensed phase to the
locally fluidized phase is distinguished by the existence of fluidized holes,
and the transition from the locally fluidized phase to the granular turbulent
phase is understood by the destabilization transition of the fluidized holes
due to mutual interference.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figures, to be published in PR
Oppilaitten eettinen toimijuus videotutkimuksessa
The rapid development of various recording technologies in recent years has created appealing opportunities for researchers to document and study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in ways which previously were either impossible, high-priced, or impractical. The potential access that low-cost and ever-smaller recorders provide us has been wisely tempered with cautions that researchers critically reflect on whether the benefits of the research outweigh the invasion of participants’ privacy, especially in research with children. These cautions rightfully place the burden of ethical deliberation on the researcher. However, by so doing they also direct attention away from the ethical work done by study participants and overshadow their agency in relation to the research. In effect, the cautions join and reinforce dominant narratives of participant, especially children’s, vulnerability in research and the researcher as the main ethical actor during the research process. This study seeks to balance such narratives by drawing attention to how children demonstrate their awareness of the audience of nearby recorders to each other and, through such actions, also create spaces for private, out-of-view interaction they do not wish to be recorded. With demonstrative vignettes from a yearlong ethnographic study of children’s learning in an alternative STEM learning infrastructure, the study argues that such moments highlight children’s ethical agency in research.The rapid development of various recording technologies in recent years has created appealing opportunities for researchers to document and study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in ways which previously were either impossible, high-priced, or impractical. The potential access that low-cost and ever-smaller recorders provide us has been wisely tempered with cautions that researchers critically reflect on whether the benefits of the research outweigh the invasion of participants’ privacy, especially in research with children. These cautions rightfully place the burden of ethical deliberation on the researcher. However, by so doing they also direct attention away from the ethical work done by study participants and overshadow their agency in relation to the research. In effect, the cautions join and reinforce dominant narratives of participants’, especially children’s, vulnerability in research and the researcher as the main ethical actor during the research process. This study seeks to balance such narratives by drawing attention to how children demonstrate their awareness of the audience of nearby recorders to each other and, through such actions, also create spaces for private, out-of-view interaction they do not wish to be recorded. With demonstrative vignettes from a yearlong ethnographic study of children’s learning in an alternative STEM learning infrastructure, the study argues that such moments highlight children’s ethical agency in research.Peer reviewe
MR and CT techniques
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed
tomography (CT) are routinely used in
female pelvis imaging. MRI is primarily useful
for locoregional characterization of benign
and malignant diseases. CT is less accurate in
locoregional evaluation, but remains useful in
the follow-up of treated gynecological malignancies,
as well as in the setting of emergency
and in the guidance of biopsies. Although
transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasonography
(US) is not under the scope of this chapter,
it remains the first-line imaging method
for most gynecological conditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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