324 research outputs found
2D gel probes for Fe2+, ∑PO4 and S(-II). Distribution studies in aquatic sediments
Date du colloque : 01/2009International audienc
The KX method for producing K-band flux-limited samples of quasars
The longstanding question of the extent to which the quasar population is
affected by dust extinction, within host galaxies or galaxies along the line of
sight, remains open. More generally, the spectral energy distributions of
quasars vary significantly and flux-limited samples defined at different
wavelengths include different quasars. Surveys employing flux measurements at
widely separated wavelengths are necessary to characterise fully the spectral
properties of the quasar population. The availability of panoramic
near-infrared detectors on large telescopes provides the opportunity to
undertake surveys capable of establishing the importance of extinction by dust
on the observed population of quasars. We introduce an efficient method for
selecting K-band, flux-limited samples of quasars, termed ``KX'' by analogy
with the UVX method. This method exploits the difference between the power-law
nature of quasar spectra and the convex spectra of stars: quasars are
relatively brighter than stars at both short wavelengths (the UVX method) and
long wavelengths (the KX method). We consider the feasibility of undertaking a
large-area KX survey for damped Ly-alpha galaxies and gravitational lenses
using the planned UKIRT wide-field near-infrared camera.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in MNRA
Fast-neutron induced background in LaBr3:Ce detectors
The response of a scintillation detector with a cylindrical 1.5-inch LaBr3:Ce
crystal to incident neutrons has been measured in the energy range En = 2-12
MeV. Neutrons were produced by proton irradiation of a Li target at Ep = 5-14.6
MeV with pulsed proton beams. Using the time-of-flight information between
target and detector, energy spectra of the LaBr3:Ce detector resulting from
fast neutron interactions have been obtained at 4 different neutron energies.
Neutron-induced gamma rays emitted by the LaBr3:Ce crystal were also measured
in a nearby Ge detector at the lowest proton beam energy. In addition, we
obtained data for neutron irradiation of a large-volume high-purity Ge detector
and of a NE-213 liquid scintillator detector, both serving as monitor detectors
in the experiment. Monte-Carlo type simulations for neutron interactions in the
liquid scintillator, the Ge and LaBr3:Ce crystals have been performed and
compared with measured data. Good agreement being obtained with the data, we
present the results of simulations to predict the response of LaBr3:Ce
detectors for a range of crystal sizes to neutron irradiation in the energy
range En = 0.5-10 MeVComment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 4 Table
EROS Variable Stars : Discovery of Beat Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud and the effect of metallicity on pulsation
We report the discovery of eleven beat Cepheids in the Small Magellanic
Cloud, using data obtained by the EROS microlensing survey. Four stars are
beating in the fundamental and first overtone mode (F/1OT), seven are beating
in the first and second overtone (1OT/2OT). The SMC F/1OT ratio is
systematically higher than the LMC F/1OT, while the 1OT/2OT period ratio in the
SMC Cepheids is the same as the LMC one.Comment: 4 pages, Latex file with 4 .ps figures. accepted for publication in A
A Letter
The effect of metallicity on the Cepheid distance scale and its implications for the Hubble constant () determination
Recent HST determinations of the expansion's rate of the Universe (the Hubble
constant, H_0) assumed that the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation at V and I
are independent of metallicity (Freedman, et al., 1996, Saha et al., 1996,
Tanvir et al., 1995). The three groups obtain different vales for H_0. We note
that most of this discrepancy stems from the asumption (by both groups) that
the Period-Luminosity relation is independent of metallicity. We come to this
conclusion as a result of our study of the Period-Luminosity relation of 481
Cepheids with 3 millions two colour measurements in the Large Magellanic Cloud
and the Small Magellanic Cloud obtained as a by-product of the EROS
microlensing survey. We find that the derived interstellar absorption
corrections are particularly sensitive to the metallicity and when our result
is applied to recent estimates based on HST Cepheids observations it makes the
low-H_0 values higher and the high-H_0 value lower, bringing those discrepant
estimates into agrement around .Comment: 4 pages, Latex, with 2 .ps accepted for publication astronomy and
astrophysics Letter
Reddening law and interstellar dust properties along Magellanic sight-lines
This study establishes that SMC, LMC and Milky Way extinction curves obey the
same extinction law which depends on the 2200A bump size and one parameter, and
generalizes the Cardelli, Clayton and Mathis (1989) relationship. This suggests
that extinction in all three galaxies is of the same nature. The role of linear
reddening laws over all the visible/UV wavelength range, particularly important
in the SMC but also present in the LMC and in the Milky Way, is also
highlighted and discussed.Comment: accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science. 16 pages,
12 figures. Some figures are colour plot
Observation of periodic variable stars towards the galactic spiral arms by EROS II
We present the results of a massive variability search based on a photometric
survey of a six square degree region along the Galactic plane at (, ) and (, ). This
survey was performed in the framework of the EROS II (Exp\'erience de Recherche
d'Objets Sombres) microlensing program. The variable stars were found among
1,913,576 stars that were monitored between April and June 1998 in two
passbands, with an average of 60 measurements. A new period-search technique is
proposed which makes use of a statistical variable that characterizes the
overall regularity of the flux versus phase diagram. This method is well suited
when the photometric data are unevenly distributed in time, as is our case.
1,362 objects whose luminosity varies were selected. Among them we identified 9
Cepheids, 19 RR Lyrae, 34 Miras, 176 eclipsing binaries and 266 Semi-Regular
stars. Most of them are newly identified objects. The cross-identification with
known catalogues has been performed. The mean distance of the RR Lyrae is
estimated to be kpc undergoing an average absorption of
magnitudes. This distance is in good agreement with the one
of disc stars which contribute to the microlensing source star population.Our
catalogue and light curves are available electronically from the CDS,
Strasbourg and from our Web site http://eros.in2p3.fr.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted in A&A (april 2002
Towards an online-coupled chemistry-climate model: evaluation of trace gases and aerosols in COSMO-ART
Peer reviewe
Semi-automatic enrichment of crowdsourced synonymy networks: the WISIGOTH system applied to Wiktionary
International audienceSemantic lexical resources are a mainstay of various Natural Language Processing applications. However, comprehensive and reliable resources are rare and not often freely available. Handcrafted resources are too costly for being a general solution while automatically-built resources need to be validated by experts or at least thoroughly evaluated. We propose in this paper a picture of the current situation with regard to lexical resources, their building and their evaluation. We give an in-depth description of Wiktionary, a freely available and collaboratively built multilingual dictionary. Wiktionary is presented here as a promising raw resource for NLP. We propose a semi-automatic approach based on random walks for enriching Wiktionary synonymy network that uses both endogenous and exogenous data. We take advantage of the wiki infrastructure to propose a validation "by crowds". Finally, we present an implementation called WISIGOTH, which supports our approach
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