12,263 research outputs found
Portable light detection system for the blind
System can be used to detect "ready" light on automatic cooking device, to tell if lights are on for visitors, or to tell whether it is daylight or dark outside. Device is actuated like flashlight. Light impinging on photo cell activates transistor which energizes buzzer to indicate presence of light
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory beam tube component and module leak testing
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a joint project of the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology funded by the National Science Foundation. The project is designed to detect gravitational waves from astrophysical sources such as supernova and black holes. The LIGO project constructed observatories at two sites in the U.S. Each site includes two beam tubes (each 4 km long) joined to form an "L" shape. The beam tube is a 1.25 m diam 304 L stainless steel, ultrahigh vacuum tube that will operate at 1×10^–9 Torr or better. The beam tube was manufactured using a custom spiral weld tube mill from material processed to reduce the outgassing rate in order to minimize pumping costs. The integrity of the beam tube was assured by helium mass spectrometer leak testing each component of the beam tube system prior to installation. Each 2 km long, isolatable beam tube module was then leak tested after completion
ALMA observations of the debris disk around the young Solar Analog HD 107146
We present ALMA continuum observations at a wavelength of 1.25 mm of the
debris disk surrounding the 100 Myr old solar analog HD 107146. The
continuum emission extends from about 30 to 150 AU from the central star with a
decrease in the surface brightness at intermediate radii. We analyze the ALMA
interferometric visibilities using debris disk models with radial profiles for
the dust surface density parametrized as i) a single power-law, ii) a single
power-law with a gap, and iii) a double power-law. We find that models with a
gap of radial width AU at a distance of AU from the central
star, as well as double power-law models with a dip in the dust surface density
at AU provide significantly better fits to the ALMA data than single
power-law models. We discuss possible scenarios for the origin of the HD 107146
debris disk using models of planetesimal belts in which the formation of
Pluto-sized objects trigger disruptive collisions of large bodies, as well as
models which consider the interaction of a planetary system with a planetesimal
belt and spatial variation of the dust opacity across the disk. If future
observations with higher angular resolution and sensitivity confirm the
fully-depleted gap structure discussed here, a planet with a mass of
approximately a few Earth masses in a nearly circular orbit at AU
from the central star would be a possible explanation for the presence of the
gap.Comment: (38 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Tungsten resonance integrals and Doppler coefficients Third quarterly report, Jan. - Mar. 1966
Reactivities, Doppler coefficients, and resonance integrals for tungsten isotope
ALMA Observations of the Young Substellar Binary System 2M1207
We present ALMA observations of the 2M1207 system, a young binary made of a
brown dwarf with a planetary-mass companion at a projected separation of about
40 au. We detect emission from dust continuum at 0.89 mm and from the rotational transition of CO from a very compact disk around the young brown
dwarf. The small radius found for this brown dwarf disk may be due to
truncation from the tidal interaction with the planetary-mass companion. Under
the assumption of optically thin dust emission, we estimated a dust mass of 0.1
for the 2M1207A disk, and a 3 upper limit of for dust surrounding 2M1207b, which is the tightest upper
limit obtained so far for the mass of dust particles surrounding a young
planetary-mass companion. We discuss the impact of this and other
non-detections of young planetary-mass companions for models of planet
formation, which predict the presence of circum-planetary material surrounding
these objects.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A
Unstable and Stable Classifications of Scombroid Fishes
Many cladists believe that a classification should strictly reflect a cladistic hypothesis. Consequently, they propose classifications that often differ markedly from existing ones and are potentially unstable due to phylogenetic uncertainty. This is problematic for economically or ecologically important organisms since changing classifications can cause confusion in their management as resources. The classification of the 44 genera of scombroid fishes (the mackerels, tunas, billfishes, and their relatives) illustrates this problem of instability. Previous cladistic analyses and analyses presented in this paper, using different data sets, result in many different cladistic hypotheses. In addition, the inferred cladograms are unstable because of different plausible interpretations of character coding. A slight change in coding of a single character, the presence of splint-like gill rakers, changes cladistic relationships substantially. These many alternative cladistic hypotheses for scombroids can be converted into various cladistic classifications, all of which are substantially different from the classification currently in use. In contrast, a quantitative evolutionary systematic method produces a classification that is unchanged despite variations in the cladistic hypothesis. The evolutionary classification has the advantage of being consistent with the classification currently in use, it summarizes anagenetic information, and it can be considered a new form of cladistic classification since a cladistic hypothesis can-be unequivocally retrieved from an annotated form of the classification
Estimating Community Stability and Ecological Interactions from Time-Series Data
Natural ecological communities are continuously buffeted by a varying environment, often making it difficult to measure the stability of communities using concepts requiring the existence of an equilibrium point. Instead of an equilibrium point, the equilibrial state of communities subject to environmental stochasticity is a stationary distribution, which is characterized by means, variances, and other statistical moments. Here, we derive three properties of stochastic multispecies communities that measure different characteristics associated with community stability. These properties can be estimated from multispecies time-series data using first-order multivariate autoregressive (MAR(1)) models. We demonstrate how to estimate the parameters of MAR(1) models and obtain confidence intervals for both parameters and the measures of stability. We also address the problem of estimation when there is observation (measurement) error. To illustrate these methods, we compare the stability of the planktonic communities in three lakes in which nutrient loading and planktivorous fish abundance were experimentally manipulated. MAR(1) models and the statistical methods we present can be used to identify dynamically important interactions between species and to test hypotheses about stability and other dynamical properties of naturally varying ecological communities. Thus, they can be used to integrate theoretical and empirical studies of community dynamics
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