The quantum Casimir operators of \Uq and their eigenvalues

We show that the quantum Casimir operators of the quantum linear group constructed in early work of Bracken, Gould and Zhang together with one extra central element generate the entire center of \Uq. As a by product of the proof, we obtain intriguing new formulae for eigenvalues of these quantum Casimir operators, which are expressed in terms of the characters of a class of finite dimensional irreducible representations of the classical general linear algebra.Comment: 10 page

THE MARKET FOR E-COMMERCE SERVICES IN AGRICULTURE

We report results of a survey of 608 Ohio agribusinesses in 1999 and show them to be divided in their attitudes and acceptance of e-commerce. Half of the respondents report that their business has a web site, although many had taken a negative stance toward such a move. Nearly all say that the internet will significantly change their sector, and the majority of managers report that e-commerce has significantly affected the way they view their business.Marketing,

A position sensitive phoswich hard X-ray detector system

A prototype position sensitive phoswich hard X-ray detector, designed for eventual astronomical usage, was tested in the laboratory. The scintillation crystal geometry was designed on the basis of a Monte Carlo simulation of the internal optics and includes a 3mm thick NaI(T1) primary X-ray detector which is actively shielded by a 20 mm thick CsI(T1) scintillation crystal. This phoswich arrangement is viewed by a number two inch photomultipliers. Measured values of the positional and spectral resolution of incident X-ray photons are compared with calculation

Engineering Geognosy of Boyd County

Engineering soils and geologic maps are proving to be invaluable tools of engineers, industrial leaders, community planners, and administrators during tbe preliminary stages of planning and site selection for major construction projects and the development of plans to use nature\u27s basic resource--the land. Quantitative engineering data for soils and geological formations, and the interpretation of tbese data, are important factors to consider in the best land-use plans and in providing stable foundations and proper usage of earth materials for highways, buildings, and other earth structures. Engineering soils and geologic maps can be used to great advantage by planners and engineers to 1) make soil and geological reconnaissance surveys, 2) organize and check field surveys, 3) correlate and predict performances of soil and geological materials, and 4) locate construction material and resource deposits. Recognizing the need and demand for this type of information, the Research Division of the Kentucky Department of Highways has undertaken a pilot study to report tbe engineering geognosy of a selected area in Kentucky. The area reported herein is located in the vicinity of Ashland. This report discusses the engineering properties and behavior of unconsolidated surficial deposits and consolidated bedrock materials in Boyd County, Kentucky. It is based mainly on an interpretation of engineering test data retrieved and summarized from Kentucky Department of Highways\u27 design and construction plans for routes I 64, KY 3, and US 60, which pass tbrough the area; a soils report (1) prepared by the Soil Conservation Service for the city of Ashland; and published geologic reports and maps (2, 4, 5). Engineering soils and geologic maps and interpretations presented in this report should be viewed from a standpoint of rapidly providing generalized engineering information of the different soil and rock materials in the subject area. For important earthwork and foundation engineering purposes and for detailed and specific data, it is recommended that the soil and rock materials at a particular site be explored and tested thoroughly

Engineering Geognosy of Warren County

Engineering soils and geologic maps are proving to be invaluable to engineers, industrial leaders, community planners, and administrators during the preliminary stages of planning and site selection. Quantitative engineering data on soils and geological formations, and the interpretation of these data, are important factors to consider in developing the best land-use plans and providing stable foundations for highways, buildings, and other structures, such as dams. Information of this type, when available, is being used by public and private organizations in planning urban development. Engineering soils and geologic maps can be used to great advantage in four major ways by planners and engineers to 1) make soil and geological recmmaissance surverys, 2) organize and check field surveys, 3) correlate performance with soil and geological types, and 4) locate construction material deposits. Reorgnizing the need and demand for this type of information, the Research Division of the Kentucky Department of Highways has undertaken a pilot study to develop the engineering geognosy of a selected area in Kentucky. The area reported herein is located in the vicinity of Bowling Green. This report discusses the engineering and geologic properties of unconsolidated surfical deposits and consolidated bedrock materials in Warren County, Kentucky. It is based on an interpretation of engineering test data retrieved and summarized from Kentucky Department of Highways\u27 design and oonstruction plans for routes I 65, US 31 W, KY 67, and the Bowling Green-Owensboro Parkway and published geologic and soil reports (3, 5, 6, 7). Engineering soils and geologic maps and interpretations presented in this report should be viewed from a standpoint of rapidly providing generalized engineering and geologic information of the different soil and rock materials in the subject area. For important earthwork and foundation engineering purposes and for detailed and specific data, it is recommended that the soil and rock materials at a particular site be explored and tested thoroughly

Advanced dendritic web growth development and development of single-crystal silicon dendritic ribbon and high-efficiency solar cell program

Efforts to demonstrate that the dendritic web technology is ready for commercial use by the end of 1986 continues. A commercial readiness goal involves improvements to crystal growth furnace throughput to demonstrate an area growth rate of greater than 15 sq cm/min while simultaneously growing 10 meters or more of ribbon under conditions of continuous melt replenishment. Continuous means that the silicon melt is being replenished at the same rate that it is being consumed by ribbon growth so that the melt level remains constant. Efforts continue on computer thermal modeling required to define high speed, low stress, continuous growth configurations; the study of convective effects in the molten silicon and growth furnace cover gas; on furnace component modifications; on web quality assessments; and on experimental growth activities

Adaptive Optics Imaging of QSOs with Double-Peaked Narrow Lines: Are they Dual AGNs?

Active galaxies hosting two accreting and merging super-massive black holes (SMBHs) -- dual Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) -- are predicted by many current and popular models of black hole-galaxy co-evolution. We present here the results of a program that has identified a set of probable dual AGN candidates based on near Infra-red (NIR) Laser Guide-Star Adaptive Optics (LGS AO) imaging with the Keck II telescope. These candidates are selected from a complete sample of radio-quiet Quasi-stellar Objects (QSOs) drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which show double-peaked narrow AGN emission lines. Of the twelve AGNs imaged, we find six with double galaxy structure, of which four are in galaxy mergers. We measure the ionization of the two velocity components in the narrow AGN lines to test the hypothesis that both velocity components come from an active nucleus. The combination of a well-defined parent sample and high-quality imaging allows us to place constraints on the fraction of SDSS QSOs that host dual accreting black holes separated on kiloparsec (kpc) scales: ~0.3%-0.65%. We derive from this fraction the time spent in a QSO phase during a typical merger and find a value that is much lower than estimates that arise from QSO space densities and galaxy merger statistics. We discuss possible reasons for this difference. Finally, we compare the SMBH mass distributions of single and dual AGN and find little difference between the two within the limited statistics of our program, hinting that most SMBH growth happens in the later stages of a merger process.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; accepted to the Astrophysical Journa

Furnace and support equipment for space processing

A core facility capable of performing a majority of materials processing experiments is discussed. Experiment classes are described, the needs peculiar to each experiment type are outlined, and projected facility requirements to perform the experiments are treated. Control equipment (automatic control) and variations of the Czochralski method for use in space are discussed

Testing Convolutional Neural Networks for finding strong gravitational lenses in KiDS

Convolutional Neural Networks (ConvNets) are one of the most promising methods for identifying strong gravitational lens candidates in survey data. We present two ConvNet lens-finders which we have trained with a dataset composed of real galaxies from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) and simulated lensed sources. One ConvNet is trained with single \textit{r}-band galaxy images, hence basing the classification mostly on the morphology. While the other ConvNet is trained on \textit{g-r-i} composite images, relying mostly on colours and morphology. We have tested the ConvNet lens-finders on a sample of 21789 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) selected from KiDS and we have analyzed and compared the results with our previous ConvNet lens-finder on the same sample. The new lens-finders achieve a higher accuracy and completeness in identifying gravitational lens candidates, especially the single-band ConvNet. Our analysis indicates that this is mainly due to improved simulations of the lensed sources. In particular, the single-band ConvNet can select a sample of lens candidates with $\sim40\%$ purity, retrieving 3 out of 4 of the confirmed gravitational lenses in the LRG sample. With this particular setup and limited human intervention, it will be possible to retrieve, in future surveys such as Euclid, a sample of lenses exceeding in size the total number of currently known gravitational lenses.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

On Sizes, Kinematics, M/L Gradients, and Light Profiles of Massive Compact Galaxies at z~2

We present a detailed analysis of the structure and resolved stellar populations of simulated merger remnants, and compare them to observations of compact quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2. We find that major merging is a viable mechanism to produce systems of ~ 10^11 Msun and ~ 1 kpc size, provided the gas fraction at the time of final coalescence is high (~ 40%), and provided that the progenitors are compact star-forming galaxies, as expected at high redshift. Their integrated spectral energy distributions and velocity dispersions are in good agreement with the observations, and their position in the (v_{maj}/sigma, ellipticity) diagram traces the upper envelope of the distribution of lower redshift early-type galaxies. The simulated merger remnants show time- and sightline-dependent M/L ratio gradients that result from a superposition of radially dependent stellar age, stellar metallicity, and extinction. The median ratio of effective radius in rest-frame V-band light to that in mass surface density is ~ 2 during the quiescent remnant phase. This is typically expressed by a negative color gradient (i.e., red core), which we expect to correlate with the integrated color of the system. Finally, the simulations differ from the observations in their surface brightness profile shape. The simulated remnants are typically best fit by high (n >> 4) Sersic indices, whereas observed quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2 tend to be less cuspy (median n ~ 2.3). Limiting early star formation in the progenitors may be required to prevent the simulated merger remnants from having extended wings.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 21 pages, 17 figure