82,798 research outputs found
Hydrodynamic Thermonuclear Runaways in Superbursts
We calculate the thermal and dynamical evolution of the surface layers of an
accreting neutron star during the rise of a superburst. For the first few hours
following unstable 12C ignition, the nuclear energy release is transported by
convection. However, as the base temperature rises, the heating time becomes
shorter than the eddy turnover time and convection becomes inefficient. This
results in a hydrodynamic nuclear runaway, in which the heating time becomes
shorter than the local dynamical time. Such hydrodynamic burning can drive
shock waves into the surrounding layers and may be the trigger for the normal
X-ray burst found to immediately precede the onset of the superburst in both
cases where the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer was observing.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (emulateapj), accepted to ApJ Letter
Teaching for 3 Cs: centering imagination in teacher education
In view of globalization, bureaucratization, marketization and commercialization, the context of education has changed. In response, the critical capacities of student teachers need to be developed so that they better understand and empathize with one-another and are able to see the complexities of the world through multiple perspectives. This, in turn, necessarily requires nurturing of imagination, which we consider in relation to the 3Cs: Care, Critique and Creativity. We commence with an overview of current developments affecting education and review existing practices in teacher education. We then provide the context of a practicebased enquiry that used metaphors and objects to explore student teachers’ understanding of personal experiences. We conclude with connecting the reflective process of the enquiry to the nurturing of imagination and the 3Cs
Orbital approach to microstate free entropy
Motivated by Voiculescu's liberation theory, we introduce the orbital free
entropy for non-commutative self-adjoint random variables (also for
"hyperfinite random multi-variables"). Besides its basic properties the
relation of with the usual free entropy is shown. Moreover,
the dimension counterpart of is discussed, and we
obtain the relation of with the original free entropy
dimension with applications to itself.Comment: 38 pages; Section 5 was largely improved and Section 6 was adde
Non-Cointegration and Econometric Evaluation of Models of Regional Shift and Share
This paper tests for cointegration between regional output of an industry and national output of the same industry. An equilibrium economic theory is presented to argue for the plausibility of cointegration, however, regional economic forecasting using the shift and share framework often acts as if cointegration does not exist. Data analysis on broad industrial sectors for 20 states finds very little evidence for cointegration. Forecasting models with and without imposing cointegration are than constructed and used to forecast out of sample. The simplest, non-cointegrating models are the best.
Polarimetric variations of binary stars. II. Numerical simulations for circular and eccentric binaries in Mie scattering envelopes
We present numerical simulations of the periodic polarimetric variations
produced by a binary star placed at the center of an empty spherical cavity
inside a circumbinary ellipsoidal and optically thin envelope made of dust
grains. Mie single-scattering is considered along with pre- and post-scattering
extinction factors which produce a time-varying optical depth and affect the
morphology of the periodic variations. We are interested in the effects that
various parameters will have on the average polarization, the amplitude of the
polarimetric variations, and the morphology of the variability. We show that
the absolute amplitudes of the variations are smaller for Mie scattering than
for Thomson scattering. Among the four grain types that we have studied, the
highest polarizations are produced by grains with sizes in the range 0.1-0.2
micron. In general, the variations are seen twice per orbit. In some cases,
because spherical dust grains have an asymmetric scattering function, the
polarimetric curves produced also show variations seen once per orbit.
Circumstellar disks produce polarimetric variations of greater amplitude than
circumbinary envelopes.
Another goal of these simulations is to see if the 1978 BME (Brown, McLean, &
Emslie, ApJ, 68, 415) formalism, which uses a Fourier analysis of the
polarimetric variations to find the orbital inclination for Thomson-scattering
envelopes, can still be used for Mie scattering. We find that this is the case,
if the amplitude of the variations is sufficient and the true inclinations is
i_true > 45 deg. For eccentric orbits, the first-order coefficients of the
Fourier fit, instead of second-order ones, can be used to find almost all
inclinations.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Astronomical Journa
A novel approach for quality control system using sensor fusion of infrared and visual image processing for laser sealing of food containers
This paper presents a new mechatronic approach of using infrared thermography combined with image processing for the quality control of a laser sealing process for food containers. The suggested approach uses an on-line infrared system to assess the heat distribution within the container seal in order to guarantee the integrity of the process. Visual image processing is then used for quality assurance to guarantee optimum sealing. The results described in this paper show examples of the capability of the condition monitoring system to detect faults in the sealing process. The results found indicate that the suggested approach could form an effective quality control and assurance system
Teaching for 3 Cs: centring imagination in teacher education
In view of globalization, bureaucratization, marketization and commercialization, the context of education has changed. In response, the critical capacities of student teachers need to be developed so that they better understand and empathize with one-another and are able to see the complexities of the world through multiple perspectives. This, in turn, necessarily requires nurturing of imagination, which we consider in relation to the 3Cs: Care, Critique and Creativity. We commence with an overview of current developments affecting education and review existing practices in teacher education. We then provide the context of a practice-based enquiry that used metaphors and objects to explore student teachers’ understanding of personal experiences. We conclude with connecting the reflective process of the enquiry to the nurturing of imagination and the 3Cs
The Degrees of Freedom of Partial Least Squares Regression
The derivation of statistical properties for Partial Least Squares regression
can be a challenging task. The reason is that the construction of latent
components from the predictor variables also depends on the response variable.
While this typically leads to good performance and interpretable models in
practice, it makes the statistical analysis more involved. In this work, we
study the intrinsic complexity of Partial Least Squares Regression. Our
contribution is an unbiased estimate of its Degrees of Freedom. It is defined
as the trace of the first derivative of the fitted values, seen as a function
of the response. We establish two equivalent representations that rely on the
close connection of Partial Least Squares to matrix decompositions and Krylov
subspace techniques. We show that the Degrees of Freedom depend on the
collinearity of the predictor variables: The lower the collinearity is, the
higher the Degrees of Freedom are. In particular, they are typically higher
than the naive approach that defines the Degrees of Freedom as the number of
components. Further, we illustrate how the Degrees of Freedom approach can be
used for the comparison of different regression methods. In the experimental
section, we show that our Degrees of Freedom estimate in combination with
information criteria is useful for model selection.Comment: to appear in the Journal of the American Statistical Associatio
An X-ray-UV correlation in Cen X-4 during quiescence
Quiescent emission from the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Cen X-4 is
seen to be variable on timescales from hundreds of seconds to years, suggesting
that at least in this object, low-level accretion is important during
quiescence. Here we present results from recent XMM-Newton and Swift
observations of Cen X-4, where the X-ray flux (0.5 - 10 keV) varies by a factor
of 6.5 between the brightest and faintest states. We find a positive
correlation between the X-ray flux and the simultaneous near-UV flux, where as
there is no significant correlation between the X-ray and simultaneous optical
(V, B) fluxes. This suggests that while the X-ray and UV emitting regions are
somehow linked, the optical region originates elsewhere. Comparing the
luminosities, it is plausible that the UV emission originates due to
reprocessing of the X-ray flux by the accretion disk, with the hot inner region
of the disk being a possible location for the UV emitting region. The optical
emission, however, could be dominated by the donor star. The X-ray/UV
correlation does not favour the accretion stream-impact point as the source of
the UV emission.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
X-ray and UV correlation in the quiescent emission of Cen X-4, evidence of accretion and reprocessing
We conducted the first long-term (60 days), multiwavelength (optical,
ultraviolet, and X-ray) simultaneous monitoring of Cen X-4 with daily Swift
observations, with the goal of understanding variability in the low mass X-ray
binary Cen X-4 during quiescence. We found Cen X-4 to be highly variable in all
energy bands on timescales from days to months, with the strongest quiescent
variability a factor of 22 drop in the X-ray count rate in only 4 days. The
X-ray, UV and optical (V band) emission are correlated on timescales down to
less than 110 s. The shape of the correlation is a power law with index gamma
about 0.2-0.6. The X-ray spectrum is well fitted by a hydrogen NS atmosphere
(kT=59-80 eV) and a power law (with spectral index Gamma=1.4-2.0), with the
spectral shape remaining constant as the flux varies. Both components vary in
tandem, with each responsible for about 50% of the total X-ray flux, implying
that they are physically linked. We conclude that the X-rays are likely
generated by matter accreting down to the NS surface. Moreover, based on the
short timescale of the correlation, we also unambiguously demonstrate that the
UV emission can not be due to either thermal emission from the stream impact
point, or a standard optically thick, geometrically thin disc. The spectral
energy distribution shows a small UV emitting region, too hot to arise from the
accretion disk, that we identified as a hot spot on the companion star.
Therefore, the UV emission is most likely produced by reprocessing from the
companion star, indeed the vertical size of the disc is small and can only
reprocess a marginal fraction of the X-ray emission. We also found the
accretion disc in quiescence to likely be UV faint, with a minimal contribution
to the whole UV flux.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Proc. Int. Conf. Physics at the
Magnetospheric Boundary, Geneva, Switzerland (25-28 June, 2013
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