Nova Aquilae 1918 (V603 Aql) Faded by 0.44 mag/century from 1938-2013

We present the light curve of the old nova V603 Aql (Nova Aql 1918) from 1898-1918 and 1934-2013 using 22,721 archival magnitudes. All of our magnitudes are either in, or accurately transformed into, the Johnson $B$ and $V$ magnitude systems. This is vital because offsets in old sequences and the visual-to-$V$ transformation make for errors from 0.1-1.0 magnitude if not corrected. Our V603 Aql light curve is the first time that this has been done for any nova. Our goal was to see the evolution of the mass accretion rate on the century time scale, and to test the long-standing prediction of the Hibernation model that old novae should be fading significantly in the century after their eruption is long over. The 1918 nova eruption was completely finished by 1938 when the nova decline stopped, and when the star had faded to fainter than its pre-nova brightness of $B=11.43 \pm 0.03$ mag. We find that the nova light from 1938-2013 was significantly fading, with this being seen consistently in three independent data sets (the Sonneberg plates in $B$, the AAVSO $V$ light curve, and the non-AAVSO $V$ light curve). We find that V603 Aql is declining in brightness at an average rate of $0.44 \pm 0.04$ mag per century since 1938. This work provides remarkable confirmation of an important prediction of the Hibernation model.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 2 electronic online data tables, Accepted for publication ApJLet

Comment on : 'multi-element signatures of stream sediments and sources under moderate to low flow conditions' by M.I. Stutter, S.J. Langan, D.G. Lumsdon, L.M. Clark

In a recent paper on ‘Multi-element signatures of stream sediments and sources under moderate to low flow conditions’, Stutter et al., 2009 M.I. Stutter, S.J. Langan, D.G. Lumsdon and L.M. Clark, Multi-element signatures of stream sediments and sources under moderate to low flow conditions, Appl. Geochem. 24 (2009), pp. 800–809. Article | PDF (392 K) | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (2)Stutter et al. (2009) presented results of a simple sediment source tracing method based on major and trace elements for a small agricultural catchment in NE Scotland. The authors reported statistically significant, larger concentrations of four trace elements (Ce, Nd, Th and Y) in bank subsoils (n = 5) and stream bed sediments (n = 3) compared to topsoils from both pasture (n = 5) and arable (n = 5) land. They used these differences to aid discrimination between topsoil and subsoil (stream bank erosion) contributions to bed sediment. These elements may be more depleted in topsoil compared to subsoil because the former have been subject to more intense weathering over a longer period. If these naturally occurring trace elements could be used to understand the relative proportions of topsoil and subsoil contributions to headwater bed sediments this approach might be applied more widely to elucidate transport pathways for the transfer of agricultural contaminants such as particulate phosphorus to streams (Walling et al., 2008). This approach warrants further investigation across a range of catchments at different scales with contrasting land use and bedrock types. This can be undertaken using data from regional-scale geochemical surveys (Johnson et al., 2005) which include analyses of both stream bed sediments and subsoil samples. Previous studies have shown that much of lowland central England is at risk of topsoil transfer to watercourses via land drains (Chapman et al., 2003). A geochemical survey across part of central England covering 15 400 km2 was recently undertaken and these data are well-suited to testing whether three of the four trace elements identified by Stutter et al. (2009) might be used to discriminate between topsoil and subsoil in sediments more widely. Specifically, if the concentrations of these elements are significantly smaller in stream bed sediments than in the subsoil, this may be due to mixing with topsoils which have lower concentrations of these elements. Below the regional-scale survey, the methods the author used to compare the geochemical data in subsoil and bed sediments described, and the findings and their implications discussed

Quantum Diffusion-Limited Aggregation

Though classical random walks have been studied for many years, research concerning their quantum analogues, quantum random walks, has only come about recently. Numerous simulations of both types of walks have been run and analyzed, and are generally well-understood. Research pertaining to one of the more important properties of classical random walks, namely, their ability to build fractal structures in diffusion-limited aggregation, has been particularly noteworthy. However, nobody has yet pursued this avenue of research in the realm of quantum random walks. The study of random walks and the structures they build has various applications in materials science. Since all processes are quantum in nature, it is very important to consider the quantum variant of diffusion-limited aggregation. Quantum diffusion-limited aggregation is an important step forward in understanding particle aggregation in areas where quantum effects are dominant, such as low temperature chemistry and the development of techniques for forming thin films. Recognizing that the Schrödinger equation and a classical random walk are both dissusion equations, it is possible to connect and compare them. Using similar parameters for both equations, we ran various simulations aggregating particles. Our results show that the quantum diffusion process can create fractal structures, much like the classical random walk. Furthermore, the fractal dimensions of these quantum diffusion-limited aggregates vary between 1.43 and 2, depending on the size of the initial wave packet

Experimental and Numerical Studies on the Projective Dye Visualization Velocimetry in a Squared Vertical Tube

In fluid flow experiments, there have been numerous techniques developed over the years to measure velocity. Most popular techniques are non-intrusive such as particle image velocimetry (PIV), but these techniques are not suitable for all applications. For instance, PIV cannot be used in examining in-vivo measurements since the laser is not able to penetrate through the patient, which is why medical applications typically use X-rays. However, the images obtained from X-rays, in particular digital subtraction angiography, are projective images which compress 3D flow features onto a 2D image. Therefore, when intensity techniques, such as optical flow method (OFM), are applied to these images the accuracy of the velocity measurements suffer from 3D effects. To understand the error introduced in using projective images, a vertical square tube chamber was constructed to achieve various water flow rates with variable dye injection points to perform dye visualization velocimetry (DVV). The results from DVV were compared with PIV measurements to quantify the error associated with DVV. Results from DVV were comparable with PIV, but a machine learning correction method, more specifically multilayer perceptron (MLP), was needed to adjust the DVV results. To train the MLP model, CFD simulations were conducted to generate detailed velocity distributions in the tube and projected dye images which would be used for DVV analysis and thus used as input for training. These CFD simulations were compared with PIV measurements and dye visualization images to validate proper boundary conditions and meshing. For the laminar case, MLP reduces the error associated with DVV from 35% down to 6.9%. When MLP was used to correct instantaneous DVV measurements for the turbulence cases, the error decreased from 22% to 9.8% for measurements 20 mm downstream of the dye inlet. For a time-averaged turbulent case, MLP was able to decrease the v-velocity error down to 5% and reduce the error of DVV by 50% for shear stress near the dye inlet

The form and function of Mark 1:1-15

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1867/thumbnail.jp

The character of Theology : Herman Melville and the masquerade of Faith

My task in this thesis is to assess the theological implications of Herman Melville’s aesthetic understanding of the modern Subject as a duplicitous self-creation. Although Melville is obviously not a theologian, either by discipline or confession, I will argue we find in the complex theatricality of his life and fiction a means of articulating the potential of a truly radical theological thinking. Such a thinking, I argue, ‘unthinks’ all previous grounds, in order then to recast them imaginatively. For Melville, we shall see, that which identifies theology ‘as theology’ is not simply an unattainable, transcendent Thing-in-Itself. It is, on the contrary, the active emergence of unthinkable excess from the materialistic immanence of its self-characterisation. The aesthetico-theological thinking in view here highlights the necessity of a repositioning of theological discourse from the binary perspective that inevitably leads to self present identification, be it in a discipline or a confession, to the radically decentered / desacralized interdisciplinarity of theology becoming-itself. I seek to achieve this end by situating Melville close to the Germanic philosophical climate that was sweeping across the American literary landscape of the mid-19th century. Melville’s ambivalent attitude toward his own desire for self-destruction, and thus, too, his desire for a non-subjective common pool of artistic genius, is strictly parallel to his misgivings about Transcendentalism and Romanticism. It is, I argue, in the dialectical materialism of Friedrich Schelling that we find Melville’s philosophical analogue, in their respective efforts to understand the self-becoming of the Absolute / God / Truth. Here we find an aesthetico-theological thinking attuned to the creative inadequacy of self-becoming, whereby the finite inadequacy and perspectival duplicity of theological self-presentation carry the potential of a self-creativity that makes all things new. As such, for aesthetico-theological thinking there is truly nothing behind or beyond the materiality of experience - i.e., no Ding an sich or transcendental determination of being. And precisely for this reason the awareness and actualisation of something new, indeed something miraculous because it was previously impossible, is made possible

By Its Fruits Shall Ye Know; \u3cem\u3eAxson-Flynn v. Johnson\u3c/em\u3e: More Rotted Fruit from \u3cem\u3eEmployment Division v. Smith\u3c/em\u3e

The Supreme Court\u27s decision in Employment Division v. Smith has been widely criticized for decimating the Free Exercise Clause and leaving free exercise rights vulnerable. Critics maintained that the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Smith to shift protection of free exercise rights to primarily the political process would have devastating consequences for religious individuals. In Axson-Flynn v. Johnson, decided fifteen years after Smith, one of those consequences has become clear: a state university can constitutionally require an individual to swear as part of an acting program, even if swearing violates that individual\u27s deeply held religious beliefs. This result of compelled swearing is striking considering that for most of America\u27s history, swearing has actually been prohibited by law. This Note examines whether there is any principled argument for contending that there is still sufficient constitutional protection after Smith to avoid the result of allowing a state to require an individual to swear against his religious belief. The Note argues that there is not, and concludes that the only way to prevent the odd result of compelled swearing implicated in Axson-Flynn is to reinterpret or overrule Smith

By Its Fruits Shall Ye Know; \u3cem\u3eAxson-Flynn v. Johnson\u3c/em\u3e: More Rotted Fruit from \u3cem\u3eEmployment Division v. Smith\u3c/em\u3e

The Supreme Court\u27s decision in Employment Division v. Smith has been widely criticized for decimating the Free Exercise Clause and leaving free exercise rights vulnerable. Critics maintained that the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Smith to shift protection of free exercise rights to primarily the political process would have devastating consequences for religious individuals. In Axson-Flynn v. Johnson, decided fifteen years after Smith, one of those consequences has become clear: a state university can constitutionally require an individual to swear as part of an acting program, even if swearing violates that individual\u27s deeply held religious beliefs. This result of compelled swearing is striking considering that for most of America\u27s history, swearing has actually been prohibited by law. This Note examines whether there is any principled argument for contending that there is still sufficient constitutional protection after Smith to avoid the result of allowing a state to require an individual to swear against his religious belief. The Note argues that there is not, and concludes that the only way to prevent the odd result of compelled swearing implicated in Axson-Flynn is to reinterpret or overrule Smith

Variability of Optical Counterparts to X-ray Sources within the Galactic Bulge Survey

The Chandra Galactic Bulge Survey (GBS) is a shallow, wide field survey to search for and classify X-ray sources in the Galactic Bulge. Specifically, we are looking for Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs): systems containing either a neutron star or black hole that is accreting matter from a roughly stellar mass companion via Roche-Lobe overflow. My research uses optical, time-series photometry from the DECam instrument on the Blanco 4.0 m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory to identify counterparts to new X-ray sources in the GBS. For the systems that are variable in brightness in the optical, I use the morphology of the light curves and the relative proportion of optical and X-ray light, to identify high inclination systems through eclipses, and to determine what periodicity, if any, is present in the optical light. Combining these properties with optical spectroscopic campaigns, I can partially or fully classify the X-ray sources and their counterparts. The GBS contains a variety of X-ray sources, including Low Mass X-ray Binaries, Cataclysmic Variables, Intermediate Polars, Active Galactic Nuclei, W Ursa Majoris stars, RS Canum Venaticorum stars, active stars, flare stars, slowly pulsating B stars, and intermediate polars. Only a handful of sources are identified as potential new Low Mass X-ray Binaries in quiescence, which places limits on the number of such systems in the Galaxy. In addition to the GBS work, I have done work on Cataclysmic Variables, focusing on archival and historical light curves to get a glimpse at the evolution of these systems. In the case of classical novae, one popular evolutionary model suggests that post-eruption the system should fade in brightness over a timescale of 50-100 years between 0.2-1.0 mag/century. I make use of the Harvard College Observatory Plate Archives to search for photographic plates containing the target systems and manually extract magnitudes and dates to look for trends in the long term light curve