3,756 research outputs found
Periodic Variation of Stress in Sputter Deposited Si/WSi2 Multilayers
A tension increment after sputter deposition of 1 nm of WSi2 onto sputtered
Si was observed at low Ar gas pressures. Wafer curvature data on multilayers
were found to have a periodic variation corresponding to the multilayer period,
and this permitted statistical analyses to improve the sensitivity to small
stresses. The observation of tension instead of compression in the initial
stage of growth is new and a model invoking surface rearrangement is invoked.
The data also bear on an unusual surface smoothing phenomena for sputtered Si
surfaces caused by the sputter deposition of WSi2 . We furthermore report that
for low Ar pressures the Si layers are the predominant source of built-up
stress
Between Philosophy and Art
Similarity and difference, patterns of variation, consistency and coherence: these are the reference points of the philosopher. Understanding experience, exploring ideas through particular instantiations, novel and innovative thinking: these are the reference points of the artist. However, at certain points in the proceedings of our Symposium titled, Next to Nothing: Art as Performance, this characterisation of philosopher and artist respectively might have been construed the other way around. The commentator/philosophers referenced their philosophical interests through the particular examples/instantiations created by the artist and in virtue of which they were then able to engage with novel and innovative thinking. From the artistsâ presentations, on the other hand, emerged a series of contrasts within which philosophical and artistic ideas resonated. This interface of philosopher-artist bore witness to the fact that just as art approaches philosophy in providing its own analysis, philosophy approaches art in being a co-creator of artâs meaning. In what follows, we discuss the conception of philosophy-art that emerged from the Symposium, and the methodological minimalism which we employed in order to achieve it. We conclude by drawing out an implication of the Symposiumâs achievement which is that a counterpoint to Institutional theories of art may well be the point from which future directions will take hold, if philosophy-art gains traction
Simultaneous multi-band detection of Low Surface Brightness galaxies with Markovian modelling
We present an algorithm for the detection of Low Surface Brightness (LSB)
galaxies in images, called MARSIAA (MARkovian Software for Image Analysis in
Astronomy), which is based on multi-scale Markovian modeling. MARSIAA can be
applied simultaneously to different bands. It segments an image into a
user-defined number of classes, according to their surface brightness and
surroundings - typically, one or two classes contain the LSB structures. We
have developed an algorithm, called DetectLSB, which allows the efficient
identification of LSB galaxies from among the candidate sources selected by
MARSIAA. To assess the robustness of our method, the method was applied to a
set of 18 B and I band images (covering 1.3 square degrees in total) of the
Virgo cluster. To further assess the completeness of the results of our method,
both MARSIAA, SExtractor, and DetectLSB were applied to search for (i) mock
Virgo LSB galaxies inserted into a set of deep Next Generation Virgo Survey
(NGVS) gri-band subimages and (ii) Virgo LSB galaxies identified by eye in a
full set of NGVS square degree gri images. MARSIAA/DetectLSB recovered ~20%
more mock LSB galaxies and ~40% more LSB galaxies identified by eye than
SExtractor/DetectLSB. With a 90% fraction of false positives from an entirely
unsupervised pipeline, a completeness of 90% is reached for sources with r_e >
3" at a mean surface brightness level of mu_g=27.7 mag/arcsec^2 and a central
surface brightness of mu^0 g=26.7 mag/arcsec^2. About 10% of the false
positives are artifacts, the rest being background galaxies. We have found our
method to be complementary to the application of matched filters and an
optimized use of SExtractor, and to have the following advantages: it is
scale-free, can be applied simultaneously to several bands, and is well adapted
for crowded regions on the sky.Comment: 39 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in A
Malaria Control in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
War, famine, civil conflict, and political
persecution displacing large populations
often leads to severe disruptions
in health services, disease control
programs, food distribution systems,
and loss of shelter. When the dimensions
of the crisis overwhelm the local and international
communities' ability to
respond quickly and effectively, significant
morbidity and mortality result in
what is termed a complex humanitarian
emergency. The public health consequences
have been most severe in underdeveloped
nations where most deaths are
caused by communicable diseases, which
include malaria. This paper describes
and analyses the factors that contribute to
malaria morbidity and mortality and
proposes effective measures to combat
them.Les conflits armés, les famines, les guerres
civiles, les persécutions politiques
déplaçant de grandes portions de la population
provoquent souvent de graves
perturbations dans les services de santé, les programmes de contrÎles sanitaires,
les structures de distributions alimentaires,
et entraßnent fréquemment la perte
du gĂźte ou de l'abris. Quand l'ampleur de
la crise submerge les capacités locales et
internationales à y répondre promptementet
efficacement, le résultat de ce que
l'on appelle une urgence humanitaire
complexe est un accroissement significatif
de la condition maladive et de la
mortalité des populations en cause. Les
conséquences en termes de santé publique
sont particuliĂšrement graves dans les
nations sous-dĂ©veloppĂ©es, oĂč un plus
grand nombre de pertes de vie sont dues
Ă des maladies transmissibles, incluant
notamment la malaria. Cet article décrit
et analyse la série de facteurs contribuant
à la condition maladive et à la mortalité
liés à la malaria, et propose des mesures
effectives pour combattre ces facteurs
Experimental test of higher-order LaguerreâGauss modes in the 10 m Glasgow prototype interferometer
Brownian noise of dielectric mirror coatings is expected to be one of the limiting noise sources, at the peak sensitivity, of next generation ground based interferometric gravitational wave (GW) detectors. The use of higher-order LaguerreâGauss (LG) beams has been suggested to reduce the effect of coating thermal noise in future generations of gravitational wave detectors. In this paper we describe the first test of interferometry with higher-order LG beams in an environment similar to a full-scale gravitational wave detector. We compare the interferometric performance of higher-order LG modes and the fundamental mode beams, injected into a 10 m long suspended cavity that features a finesse of 612, a value chosen to be typical of future gravitational wave detectors. We found that the expected mode degeneracy of the injected LG3, 3 beam was resolved into a multiple peak structure, and that the cavity length control signal featured several nearby zero crossings. The break up of the mode degeneracy is due to an astigmatism (defined as |Rcy â Rcx|) of 5.25 ± 0.5 cm on one of our cavity mirrors with a radius of curvature (Rc) of 15 m. This observation agrees well with numerical simulations developed with the FINESSE software. We also report on how these higher-order mode beams respond to the misalignment and mode mismatch present in our 10 m cavity. In general we found the LG3, 3 beam to be considerably more susceptible to astigmatism and mode mismatch than a conventional fundamental mode beam. Therefore the potential application of higher-order LaguerreâGauss beams in future gravitational wave detectors will impose much more stringent requirements on both mode matching and mirror astigmatism
Experimental demonstration of coupled optical springs
Optical rigidity will play an important role in improving the sensitivity of future generations of gravitational wave (GW) interferometers, which employ high laser power in order to reach and exceed the standard quantum limit. Several experiments have demonstrated the combined effect of two optical springs on a single system for very low-weight mirror masses or membranes. In this paper we investigate the complex interactions between multiple optical springs and the surrounding apparatus in a system of comparable dynamics to a large-scale GW detector. Using three 100âg mirrors to form a coupled cavity system capable of sustaining two or more optical springs, we demonstrate a number of different regimes of opto-mechanical rigidity and measurement techniques. Our measurements reveal couplings between each optical spring and the control loops that can affect both the achievable increase in sensitivity and the stability of the system. Hence this work establishes a better understanding of the realisation of these techniques and paves the way to their application in future GW observatories, such as upgrades to Advanced LIGO
The islandâmainland species turnover relationship
Many oceanic islands are notable for their high endemism, suggesting that islands may promote unique assembly processes. However, mainland assemblages sometimes harbour comparable levels of endemism, suggesting that island biotas may not be as unique as is often assumed. Here, we test the uniqueness of island biotic assembly by comparing the rate of species turnover among islands and the mainland, after accounting for distance decay and environmental gradients. We modelled species turnover as a function of geographical and environmental distance for mainland (MâM) communities of Anolis lizards and Terrarana frogs, two clades that have diversified extensively on Caribbean islands and the mainland Neotropics. We compared mainlandâisland (MâI) and islandâisland (IâI) species turnover with predictions of the MâM model. If island assembly is not unique, then the MâM model should successfully predict MâI and IâI turnover, given geographical and environmental distance. We found that MâI turnover and, to a lesser extent, IâI turnover were significantly higher than predicted for both clades. Thus, in the first quantitative comparison of mainlandâisland species turnover, we confirm the long-held but untested assumption that island assemblages accumulate biodiversity differently than their mainland counterparts
The Tully-Fisher Relation of Barred Galaxies
We present new data exploring the scaling relations, such as the Tully-Fisher
relation (TFR), of bright barred and unbarred galaxies. A primary motivation
for this study is to establish whether barredness correlates with, and is a
consequence of, virial properties of galaxies. Various lines of evidence
suggest that dark matter is dominant in disks of bright unbarred galaxies at
2.2 disk scale lengths, the point of peak rotation for a pure exponential disk.
We test the hypothesis that the TF plane of barred high surface brightness
galaxies is offset from the mean TFR of unbarred galaxies, as might be expected
if barred galaxies are ``maximal'' in their inner parts. We use existing and
new TF data to search for basic structural differences between barred and
unbarred galaxies. Our new data consist of 2-dimensional Halpha velocity fields
derived from SparsePak integral field spectroscopy (IFS) and V,I-band CCD
images collected at the WIYN Observatory for 14 strongly barred galaxies. We
use WIYN/SparsePak (2-D) velocity fields to show that long-slit (1-D) spectra
yield reliable circular speed measurements at or beyond 2.2 disk scale lengths,
far from any influence of the bar. This enables us to consider line width
measurements from extensive TF surveys which include barred and nonbarred disks
and derive detailed scaling relation comparisons. We find that for a given
luminosity, barred and unbarred galaxies have comparable structural and
dynamical parameters, such as peak velocities, scale lengths, or colors. In
particular, the location of a galaxy in the TF plane is independent of
barredness. In a global dynamical sense, barred and unbarred galaxies behave
similarly and are likely to have, on average, comparable fractions of luminous
and dark matter at a given radius. (abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ (September 1, 2003 issue, v594).
Appendix figures with I-band image and superimposed 2-D velocity field plus
rotation curves must be downloaded separately (due to size constraints) from
http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/courteau/public/courteau03_TFbars.ps.g
M31's Heavy Element Distribution and Outer Disk
Hubble Space Telescope imaging of 11 fields in M31 were reduced to
color-magnitude diagrams. The fields were chosen to sample all galactocentric
radii to 50 kpc. Assuming that the bulk of the sampled stellar populations are
older than a few Gyr, the colors of the red giants map to an abundance
distribution with errors of order 0.1 dex in abundance. The radially sampled
abundance distributions are all about the same width, but show a mild abundance
gradient that flattens outside ~20 kpc. The various distributions were weighted
and summed with the aid of new surface brightness profile fits to obtain an
abundance distribution representative of the entirety of M31. M31 is a system
near chemical maturity. This ``observed closed box'' is compared to analytical
closed box models. M31 suffers from a lack of metal-poor stars and metal-rich
stars relative to the simplest closed-box model in the same way as the solar
neighborhood.Comparing to several simple chemical evolution models, neither
complete mixing of gas at all times nor zero mixing, inhomogeneous models give
the most convincing match to the data. As noted elsewhere, the outer disk of
M31 is a factor of ten more metal-rich than the Milky Way halo, ten times more
metal-rich than the dwarf spheroidals cospatial with it, and more metal-rich
than most of the globular clusters at the same galactocentric radius.
Difficulties of interpretation are greatly eased if we posit that the M31 disk
dominates over the halo at all radii out to 50 kpc. In fact, scaling from
current density models of the Milky Way, one should not expect to see halo
stars dominating over disk stars until beyond our 50 kpc limit. A corollary
conclusion is that most published studies of the M31 "halo" are actually
studies of its disk.Comment: 28 pages, 11 black-and-white figures, in press, Astrophysical Journa
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