8,106 research outputs found
Pressure and heat flux results from the space shuttle/external fuel tank interaction test at Mach numbers 16 and 19
Heat transfer rates and pressures were measured on a 0.0175-scale model of the space shuttle external tank (ET), model MCR0200. Tests were conducted with the ET model separately and while mated with a 0.0175-scale model of the orbiter, model 21-OT (Grumman). The tests were conducted in the AEDC-VKF Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel (F) at Mach numbers 16 and 19. The primary data consisted of the interaction heating rates experienced by the ET while mated with the orbiter in the flight configuration. Data were taken for a range of Reynolds numbers from 50,000 to 65,000 under laminar flow conditions
Antigen depot is not required for alum adjuvanticity
Alum adjuvants have been in continuous clinical use for more than 80 yr. While the prevailing theory has been that depot formation and the associated slow release of antigen and/or inflammation are responsible for alum enhancement of antigen presentation and subsequent T- and B-cell responses, this has never been formally proven. To examine antigen persistence, we used the chimeric fluorescent protein EαGFP, which allows assessment of antigen presentation in situ, using the Y-Ae antibody. We demonstrate that alum and/or CpG adjuvants induced similar uptake of antigen, and in all cases, GFP signal did not persist beyond 24 h in draining lymph node antigen-presenting cells. Antigen presentation was first detectable on B cells within 6–12 h of antigen administration, followed by conventional dendritic cells (DCs) at 12–24 h, then finally plasmacytoid DCs at 48 h or later. Again, alum and/or CpG adjuvants did not have an effect on the magnitude or sequence of this response; furthermore, they induced similar antigen-specific T-cell activation in vivo. Notably, removal of the injection site and associated alum depot, as early as 2 h after administration, had no appreciable effect on antigen-specific T- and B-cell responses. This study clearly rules out a role for depot formation in alum adjuvant activity
Late-Type Stars in M31. I.: A Photometric Study of AGB Stars and Metallicity Gradients.
We have imaged five 7\arcmin \x 7\arcmin\ fields in M31 spanning
galactocentric radii from 4 to 32 kpc along the SW-major axis. The fields were
observed through two broad-band (\V\ and \I) and two narrow-band (\CN\ and
\TiO) filters. The broad-band data were used to construct \IvsVI\
color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and, in some of our fields, we found
significant numbers of stars in the Cepheid instability strip. A distance
modulus for the Cepheids in the middle field was found that agreed well with
other values in the literature values. The width of the giant branch (GB) in
the \IvsVI\ CMD of all 5 fields was investigated, and we show that in four of
the fields a likely explanation for the GB width is a combination of {\it both}
metallicity and mass variations. Using the broad-band data, the asymptotic
giant branch (AGB) luminosity functions (LFs) were measured in the five fields,
and we show that differences exist between these LFs. We speculate on how the
different star forming histories in the fields may lead to the observed AGB LFs
and GB widths. Using the narrow-band data along with the broad-band data we
separated the AGB stars into carbon-rich (C) and oxygen-rich (M) types. The
carbon stars LFs were used to obtain an estimate for the distance modulus of
M31 which agrees with the value derived from Cepheids. The ratio of C- to
M-stars (C/M) is believed to be an indicator of gaseous chemical abundance at
the time of formation of these stars. We show that the C/M ratio increases
smoothly with galactocentric distance, suggesting an inverse correlation with
metallicity. This is the first demonstration of this effect within a single
extragalactic system. We find that differences in the width of the GB and the
AGB LFs do not significantly affect the C/M ratio. We consider the effect of
the increasing C/M ratio on the ISM in M31, and cite evidence in favor of a
model where the grain composition in M31 is a function of galactocentric
distance.Comment: UUencoded compressed postscript, 3 Figs. available on request.
(Contact [email protected]
Thermodynamically consistent equilibrium properties of normal-liquid Helium-3
The high-precision data for the specific heat C_{V}(T,V) of normal-liquid
Helium-3 obtained by Greywall, taken together with the molar volume V(T_0,P) at
one temperature T_0, are shown to contain the complete thermodynamic
information about this phase in zero magnetic field. This enables us to
calculate the T and P dependence of all equilibrium properties of normal-liquid
Helium-3 in a thermodynamically consistent way for a wide range of parameters.
The results for the entropy S(T,P), specific heat at constant pressure
C_P(T,P), molar volume V(T,P), compressibility kappa(T,P), and thermal
expansion coefficient alpha(T,P) are collected in the form of figures and
tables. This provides the first complete set of thermodynamically consistent
values of the equilibrium quantities of normal-liquid Helium-3. We find, for
example, that alpha(T,P) has a surprisingly intricate pressure dependence at
low temperatures, and that the curves alpha(T,P) vs T do not cross at one
single temperature for all pressures, in contrast to the curves presented in
the comprehensive survey of helium by Wilks.
Corrected in cond-mat/9906222v3: The sign of the coefficient d_0 was
misprinted in Table I of cond-mat/9906222v1 and v2. It now correctly reads
d_0=-7.1613436. All results in the paper were obtained with the correct value
of d_0. (We would like to thank for E. Collin, H. Godfrin, and Y. Bunkov for
finding this misprint.)Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures, 9 tables; published version; note added in
proof; v3: misprint correcte
Professional Manual for the Parent Reaction to Autism Diagnosis Scales (PRADS-2) with Guidance for Tailoring Parent Supports
The Parent Reaction to Autism Diagnosis Scales (PRADS-2) is a 60-item survey, which provides 15 scale scores to measure a parent’s specific areas of strengths and difficulties in raising their child with autism. The measure allows researchers to obtain objective data on parent responses, and it allows service providers to tailor specific supports for parents. This peer-reviewed professional manual describes our research, statistical development, and validation of the scales, and then describes the steps for applications in service work, specifying how our measure may be used accurately, ethically, and compassionately, for the benefit of parents and families. The manual includes the informed consent form, the survey, scoring sheet, profile graph form, guide for tailoring services, a tailored worksheet, steps for follow-up interviewing, and a complete illustration for an example parent.https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/textbooks/1011/thumbnail.jp
Dissecting magnetar variability with Bayesian hierarchical models
Neutron stars are a prime laboratory for testing physical processes under
conditions of strong gravity, high density, and extreme magnetic fields. Among
the zoo of neutron star phenomena, magnetars stand out for their bursting
behaviour, ranging from extremely bright, rare giant flares to numerous, less
energetic recurrent bursts. The exact trigger and emission mechanisms for these
bursts are not known; favoured models involve either a crust fracture and
subsequent energy release into the magnetosphere, or explosive reconnection of
magnetic field lines. In the absence of a predictive model, understanding the
physical processes responsible for magnetar burst variability is difficult.
Here, we develop an empirical model that decomposes magnetar bursts into a
superposition of small spike-like features with a simple functional form, where
the number of model components is itself part of the inference problem. The
cascades of spikes that we model might be formed by avalanches of reconnection,
or crust rupture aftershocks. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling
augmented with reversible jumps between models with different numbers of
parameters, we characterise the posterior distributions of the model parameters
and the number of components per burst. We relate these model parameters to
physical quantities in the system, and show for the first time that the
variability within a burst does not conform to predictions from ideas of
self-organised criticality. We also examine how well the properties of the
spikes fit the predictions of simplified cascade models for the different
trigger mechanisms.Comment: accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; code available
at https://bitbucket.org/dhuppenkothen/magnetron, data products at
http://figshare.com/articles/SGR_J1550_5418_magnetron_data/129242
Carbon Stars and other Luminous Stellar Populations in M33
The M33 galaxy is a nearby, relatively metal-poor, late-type spiral. Its
proximity and almost face-on inclination means that it projects over a large
area on the sky, making it an ideal candidate for wide-field CCD mosaic
imaging. Photometry was obtained for more than 10^6 stars covering a 74' x 56'
field centered on M33. Main sequence (MS), supergiant branch (SGB), red giant
branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) populations are identified and
classified based on broad-band V and I photometry. Narrow-band filters are used
to measure spectral features allowing the AGB population to be further divided
into C and M-star types. The galactic structure of M33 is examined using star
counts, colour-colour and colour-magnitude selected stellar populations. We use
the C to M-star ratio to investigate the metallicity gradient in the disk of
M33. The C/M-star ratio is found to increase and then flatten with increasing
galactocentric radius in agreement with viscous disk formation models. The
C-star luminosity function is found to be similar to M31 and the SMC,
suggesting that C-stars should be useful distance indicators. The ``spectacular
arcs of carbon stars'' in M33 postulated recently by Block et al. (2004) are
found in our work to be simply an extension of M33's disk.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical
Journa
A decidable policy language for history-based transaction monitoring
Online trading invariably involves dealings between strangers, so it is
important for one party to be able to judge objectively the trustworthiness of
the other. In such a setting, the decision to trust a user may sensibly be
based on that user's past behaviour. We introduce a specification language
based on linear temporal logic for expressing a policy for categorising the
behaviour patterns of a user depending on its transaction history. We also
present an algorithm for checking whether the transaction history obeys the
stated policy. To be useful in a real setting, such a language should allow one
to express realistic policies which may involve parameter quantification and
quantitative or statistical patterns. We introduce several extensions of linear
temporal logic to cater for such needs: a restricted form of universal and
existential quantification; arbitrary computable functions and relations in the
term language; and a "counting" quantifier for counting how many times a
formula holds in the past. We then show that model checking a transaction
history against a policy, which we call the history-based transaction
monitoring problem, is PSPACE-complete in the size of the policy formula and
the length of the history. The problem becomes decidable in polynomial time
when the policies are fixed. We also consider the problem of transaction
monitoring in the case where not all the parameters of actions are observable.
We formulate two such "partial observability" monitoring problems, and show
their decidability under certain restrictions
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