13,856 research outputs found
Evaluation of flexible barrier and sabo dam to control effects of debris flow in Santo Domingo Ravine
Coast of Peru is characterized for the presence of ephemeral creeks which drain water only on wet season. The extremely dry soil and pebble combined with precipitation produce debris flow in a seasonal geodynamic. This is the case of Santo Domingo ravine which is located at eastern Lima, and drains their water to Rimac River. In this article the vulnerability of villages near to Santo Domingo ravine by debris flow and use of flexible barrier and sabo dams are analyzed. In a first stage, the liquid hydrograph to a 100 years return period was built and a solid hydrograph, a relationship between volume concentration and time, was essayed. Then, both the liquid and the solid hydrograph are calibrated in a debris flow numerical model and the vulnerability map is built. Finally, this model is coupled to the Rimac River to analyze the possible damming effect. Calibration of numerical model was done in base to previous estimated volumes by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). These first results permit to define high vulnerability zones which will be a reference to evaluate efficiency of control measures. In a second stage, mitigation effects of flexible barriers application is simulated in base to Debris Flow Barrier from Geobrugg®. Also, application of sabo dams was evaluated to by using “Kanako” debris flow simulator from Laboratory of Erosion Control, Division of Forest Science, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, & SABO Technical Center. Results permit to evaluate efficiency and select the more economical option
The power of low-resolution spectroscopy: On the spectral classification of planet candidates in the ground-based CoRoT follow-up
Planetary transits detected by the CoRoT mission can be mimicked by a
low-mass star in orbit around a giant star. Spectral classification helps to
identify the giant stars and also early-type stars which are often excluded
from further follow-up.
We study the potential and the limitations of low-resolution spectroscopy to
improve the photometric spectral types of CoRoT candidates. In particular, we
want to study the influence of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the target
spectrum in a quantitative way. We built an own template library and
investigate whether a template library from the literature is able to reproduce
the classifications. Including previous photometric estimates, we show how the
additional spectroscopic information improves the constraints on spectral type.
Low-resolution spectroscopy (1000) of 42 CoRoT targets covering a
wide range in SNR (1-437) and of 149 templates was obtained in 2012-2013 with
the Nasmyth spectrograph at the Tautenburg 2m telescope. Spectral types have
been derived automatically by comparing with the observed template spectra. The
classification has been repeated with the external CFLIB library.
The spectral class obtained with the external library agrees within a few
sub-classes when the target spectrum has a SNR of about 100 at least. While the
photometric spectral type can deviate by an entire spectral class, the
photometric luminosity classification is as close as a spectroscopic
classification with the external library. A low SNR of the target spectrum
limits the attainable accuracy of classification more strongly than the use of
external templates or photometry. Furthermore we found that low-resolution
reconnaissance spectroscopy ensures that good planet candidates are kept that
would otherwise be discarded based on photometric spectral type alone.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomische Nachrichten; 12 pages, 4
figures, 7 table
QM/MM study of the taxadiene synthase mechanism
Combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations were used to investigate the reaction mechanism of taxadiene synthase (TXS). TXS catalyzes the cyclization of geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) to taxadiene (T) and four minor cyclic products. All these products originate from the deprotonation of carbocation intermediates. The reaction profiles for the conversion of GGPP to T as well as to minor products were calculated for different configurations of relevant TXS carbocation complexes. The QM region was treated at the M06‐2X/TZVP level, while the CHARMM27 force field was used to describe the MM region. The QM/MM calculations suggest a reaction pathway for the conversion of GGPP to T, which slightly differs from previous proposals regarding the number of reaction steps and the conformation of the carbocations. The QM/MM results also indicate that the formation of minor products via water‐assisted deprotonation of the carbocations is highly exothermic, by about −7 to −23 kcal/mol. Curiously, however, the computed barriers and reaction energies indicate that the formation of some of the minor products is more facile than the formation of T. Thus, the present QM/MM calculations provide detailed insights into possible reaction pathways and into the origin of the promiscuity of TXS, but they do not reproduce the product distribution observed experimentally
Rotating Superconductors and the London Moment: Thermodynamics versus Microscopics
Comparing various microscopic theories of rotating superconductors to the
conclusions of thermodynamic considerations, we traced their marked difference
to the question of how some thermodynamic quantities (the electrostatic and
chemical potentials) are related to more microscopic ones: The electron's the
work function, mean-field potential and Fermi energy -- certainly a question of
general import.
After the correct identification is established, the relativistic correction
for the London Moment is shown to vanish, with the obvious contribution from
the Fermi velocity being compensated by other contributions such as
electrostatics and interactions.Comment: 23 pages 4 fi
OB Stars in the Solar Neighborhood I: Analysis of their Spatial Distribution
We present a newly-developed, three-dimensional spatial classification
method, designed to analyze the spatial distribution of early type stars within
the 1 kpc sphere around the Sun. We propose a distribution model formed by two
intersecting disks -the Gould Belt (GB) and the Local Galactic Disk (LGD)-
defined by their fundamental geometric parameters. Then, using a sample of
about 550 stars of spectral types earlier than B6 and luminosity classes
between III and V, with precise photometric distances of less than 1 kpc, we
estimate for some spectral groups the parameters of our model, as well as
single membership probabilities of GB and LGD stars, thus drawing a picture of
the spatial distribution of young stars in the vicinity of the Sun.Comment: 28 pages including 9 Postscript figures, one of them in color.
Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, 30 January 200
Heavy flavor in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
We study charm production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions by using
the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The initial charm
quarks are produced by the PYTHIA event generator tuned to fit the transverse
momentum spectrum and rapidity distribution of charm quarks from Fixed-Order
Next-to-Leading Logarithm (FONLL) calculations. The produced charm quarks
scatter in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) with the off-shell partons whose masses
and widths are given by the Dynamical Quasi-Particle Model (DQPM), which
reproduces the lattice QCD equation-of-state in thermal equilibrium. The
relevant cross sections are calculated in a consistent way by employing the
effective propagators and couplings from the DQPM. Close to the critical energy
density of the phase transition, the charm quarks are hadronized into
mesons through coalescence and/or fragmentation. The hadronized mesons then
interact with the various hadrons in the hadronic phase with cross sections
calculated in an effective lagrangian approach with heavy-quark spin symmetry.
The nuclear modification factor and the elliptic flow of
mesons from PHSD are compared with the experimental data from the STAR
Collaboration for Au+Au collisions at =200 GeV and to the ALICE
data for Pb+Pb collisions at =2.76 TeV. We find that in the
PHSD the energy loss of mesons at high can be dominantly attributed
to partonic scattering while the actual shape of versus reflects
the heavy-quark hadronization scenario, i.e. coalescence versus fragmentation.
Also the hadronic rescattering is important for the at low and
enhances the -meson elliptic flow .Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 15th
International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2015), 6-11 July
2015, JINR, Dubna, Russi
Characterizing mixed mode oscillations shaped by noise and bifurcation structure
Many neuronal systems and models display a certain class of mixed mode
oscillations (MMOs) consisting of periods of small amplitude oscillations
interspersed with spikes. Various models with different underlying mechanisms
have been proposed to generate this type of behavior. Stochastic versions of
these models can produce similarly looking time series, often with noise-driven
mechanisms different from those of the deterministic models. We present a suite
of measures which, when applied to the time series, serves to distinguish
models and classify routes to producing MMOs, such as noise-induced
oscillations or delay bifurcation. By focusing on the subthreshold
oscillations, we analyze the interspike interval density, trends in the
amplitude and a coherence measure. We develop these measures on a biophysical
model for stellate cells and a phenomenological FitzHugh-Nagumo-type model and
apply them on related models. The analysis highlights the influence of model
parameters and reset and return mechanisms in the context of a novel approach
using noise level to distinguish model types and MMO mechanisms. Ultimately, we
indicate how the suite of measures can be applied to experimental time series
to reveal the underlying dynamical structure, while exploiting either the
intrinsic noise of the system or tunable extrinsic noise.Comment: 22 page
- …