Water production models for Comet Bradfield (1979 l)

The IUE observations of Comet Bradfield (1979 l) made 10 January 1980 to 3 March 1980 permit a detailed study of water production for this comet. Brightness measurements are presented for all three water dissociation products, H, O, and OH, and comparisons are made with model predictions. The heliocentric variation of the water production rate was derived

How to Find More Supernovae with Less Work: Object Classification Techniques for Difference Imaging

We present the results of applying new object classification techniques to difference images in the context of the Nearby Supernova Factory supernova search. Most current supernova searches subtract reference images from new images, identify objects in these difference images, and apply simple threshold cuts on parameters such as statistical significance, shape, and motion to reject objects such as cosmic rays, asteroids, and subtraction artifacts. Although most static objects subtract cleanly, even a very low false positive detection rate can lead to hundreds of non-supernova candidates which must be vetted by human inspection before triggering additional followup. In comparison to simple threshold cuts, more sophisticated methods such as Boosted Decision Trees, Random Forests, and Support Vector Machines provide dramatically better object discrimination. At the Nearby Supernova Factory, we reduced the number of non-supernova candidates by a factor of 10 while increasing our supernova identification efficiency. Methods such as these will be crucial for maintaining a reasonable false positive rate in the automated transient alert pipelines of upcoming projects such as PanSTARRS and LSST.Comment: 25 pages; 6 figures; submitted to Ap

Warm absorber, reflection and Fe K line in the X-ray spectrum of IC 4329A

Results from the X-ray spectral analysis of the ASCA PV phase observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy IC 4329A are presented. We find that the 0.4 - 10 keV spectrum of IC 4329A is best described by the sum of a steep ($\Gamma \sim 1.98$) power-law spectrum passing through a warm absorber plus a strong reflection component and associated Fe K line, confirming recent results (Madejski et al. 1995, Mushotsky et al. 1995). Further cold absorption in excess of the Galactic value and covering the entire source is also required by the data, consistent with the edge-on galactic disk and previous X-ray measurements. The effect of the warm absorber at soft X-ray energies is best parameterized by two absorption edges, one consistent with OVI, OVII or NVII, the other consistent with OVIII. A description of the soft excess in terms of blackbody emission, as observed in some other Seyfert 1 galaxies, is ruled out by the data. A large amount of reflection is detected in both the GIS and SIS detectors, at similar intensities. We find a strong correlation between the amount of reflection and the photon index, but argue that the best solution with the present data is that given by the best statistical fit. The model dependence of the Fe K line parameters is also discussed. Our best fit gives a slightly broad ($\sigma \simeq 0.11 \pm 0.08$ keV) and redshifted (E $\simeq 6.20 \pm 0.07$ keV) Fe K line, with equivalent width $\simeq$ 89 $\pm$ 33 eV. The presence of a weak Fe K line with a strong reflection can be reconciled if one assumes iron underabundances or ionized reflection. We also have modeled the line with a theoretical line profile produced by an accretion disk. This yields results in better agreement with the constraints obtained from the reflection component.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 10th February 1996 issue; 24 pages and 8 figures + 1 table tared, compressed and uuencoded (with uufiles

A comparison of roughages for milk production

Altho dairy cows are especially adapted to the consumption of various roughages and tho they utilize more profitably than other livestock many such feeds which cannot be marketed directly, yet there is a marked difference in the values of roughages when considered from the standpoint of milk and butterfat production. That fact is emphasized in the results of the dairy feeding trials with Iowa’s standard roughages, corn silage, corn fodder and timothy and legume hays, reported in this bulletin. In the three tests, alfalfa was the legume hay used, tho clover could have been used in its place. Corn silage has a decided advantage over corn fodder in the ration, and its dry matter seems to be worth about again as much as that of the fodder. Alfalfa hay was shown to have 20 times greater feeding value than timothy hay

Milk Goats

Greater use is made of milk goats in many European countries than in the United States. Italy, France, Germany and some of the Balkan countries have from 20 to 75 percent as many milk goats as dairy cows. In the United States census of 1920 milk goats were classified with common American goats under the heading of goats not kept for fleece. As the number included in this classification was 6 percent as great as the number of dairy cows in this country, it is obvious that the relative number of strictly milk goats is small

Pulsed Doppler lidar for the detection of turbulence in clear air

A pulsed C02 Doppler lidar system is described and demonstration tests in ground-based and airborne flight operations are discussed. As a ground-based system, it can detect wind shears in thunderstorm gust fronts to a range of 6 km. When in the airborne configuration, the lidar can detect clear air turbulence in advance of the aircraft encountering clear air turbulence. The data provided by the lidar included turbulence location and intensity with intensity being indicated by the measured spectral width which is proportional to the wind gust velocity