Airborne thermography of temperature patterns in sugar beet piles

An investigation was conducted to evaluate the use of thermography for locating spoilage areas (chimneys) within storage piles and to subsequently use the information for the scheduling of their processing. Thermal-infrared quantitative scanner data were acquired initially on January 16, 1975, over the storage piles at Moorhead, Minnesota, both during the day and predawn. Photographic data were acquired during the day mission to evaluate the effect of uneven snow cover on the thermal emittance, and the predawn thermography was used to locate potential chimneys. The piles were examined the day prior for indications of spoilage areas, and the ground crew indicated that no spoilage areas were located using their existing methods. Nine spoilage areas were interpreted from the thermography. The piles were rechecked by ground methods three days following the flights. Six of the nine areas delineated by thermography were actual spoilage areas

Beam Performance and Luminosity Limitations in the High-Energy Storage Ring (HESR)

The High-Energy Storage Ring (HESR) of the future International Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI in Darmstadt is planned as an antiproton synchrotron and storage ring in the momentum range from 1.5 to 15 GeV/c. An important feature of this new facility is the combination of phase space cooled beams with dense internal targets (e.g. pellet targets), resulting in demanding beam parameter of two operation modes: high luminosity mode with peak luminosities up to 2*10^32 cm-2 s-1, and high resolution mode with a momentum spread down to 10^-5, respectively. To reach these beam parameters very powerful phase space cooling is needed, utilizing high-energy electron cooling and high-bandwidth stochastic cooling. The effect of beam-target scattering and intra-beam interaction is investigated in order to study beam equilibria and beam losses for the two different operation modes.Comment: 8 pages, based on a talk presented at COULOMB'05, Accepted for publication by Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipmen

Evaluating neural networks as a method for identifying students in need of assistance

© 2017 ACM. Course instructors need to be able to identify students in need of assistance as early in the course as possible. Recent work has suggested that machine learning approaches applied to snapshots of small programming exercises may be an effective solution to this problem. However, these results have been obtained using data from a single institution, and prior work using features extracted from student code has been highly sensitive to differences in context. This work provides two contributions: first, a partial reproduction of previously published results, but in a different context, and second, an exploration of the efficacy of neural networks in solving this problem. Our findings confirm the importance of two features (the number of steps required to solve a problem and the correctness of key problems), indicate that machine learning techniques are relatively stable across contexts (both across terms in a single course and across courses), and suggest that neural network based approaches are as effective as the best Bayesian and decision tree methods. Furthermore, neural networks can be tuned to be reliably pessimistic, so they may serve a complementary role in solving the problem of identifying students who need assistance

Light flash phenomenon seen by astronauts

The results from experiments conducted to characterize and elucidate light flashes seen by astronauts on Apollo 11, 12, 13, and 14 during transluna or transearth orbit are presented. The data show cosmic nuclei interacting with the visual apparatus causes the light flash phenomenon. The data also suggest that slow protons and helium ions with a stopping power greater than 10 KeV/micron will cause light flashes and streaks in the partially dark adapted eye. The effects of galactic cosmic nuclei interacting with man during long term missions are discussed

Positron-neutrino correlation in the 0^+ \to 0^+ decay of ^{32}Ar

The positron-neutrino correlation in the $0^+ \to 0^+ \beta$ decay of $^{32}$Ar was measured at ISOLDE by analyzing the effect of lepton recoil on the shape of the narrow proton group following the superallowed decay. Our result is consistent with the Standard Model prediction. For vanishing Fierz interference we find $a=0.9989 \pm 0.0052 \pm 0.0036$, which yields improved constraints on scalar weak interactions

Dead layer on silicon p-i-n diode charged-particle detectors

Semiconductor detectors in general have a dead layer at their surfaces that is either a result of natural or induced passivation, or is formed during the process of making a contact. Charged particles passing through this region produce ionization that is incompletely collected and recorded, which leads to departures from the ideal in both energy deposition and resolution. The silicon \textit{p-i-n} diode used in the KATRIN neutrino-mass experiment has such a dead layer. We have constructed a detailed Monte Carlo model for the passage of electrons from vacuum into a silicon detector, and compared the measured energy spectra to the predicted ones for a range of energies from 12 to 20 keV. The comparison provides experimental evidence that a substantial fraction of the ionization produced in the "dead" layer evidently escapes by diffusion, with 46% being collected in the depletion zone and the balance being neutralized at the contact or by bulk recombination. The most elementary model of a thinner dead layer from which no charge is collected is strongly disfavored.Comment: Manuscript submitted to NIM

A Monte Carlo simulation of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory proportional counters

The third phase of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment added an array of 3He proportional counters to the detector. The purpose of this Neutral Current Detection (NCD) array was to observe neutrons resulting from neutral-current solar neutrino-deuteron interactions. We have developed a detailed simulation of the current pulses from the NCD array proportional counters, from the primary neutron capture on 3He through the NCD array signal-processing electronics. This NCD array Monte Carlo simulation was used to model the alpha-decay background in SNO's third-phase 8B solar-neutrino measurement.Comment: 38 pages; submitted to the New Journal of Physic

Lattice-based Group Signature Scheme with Verifier-local Revocation

International audienceSupport of membership revocation is a desirable functionality for any group signature scheme. Among the known revocation approaches, verifier-local revocation (VLR) seems to be the most flexible one, because it only requires the verifiers to possess some up-to-date revocation information, but not the signers. All of the contemporary VLR group signatures operate in the bilinear map setting, and all of them will be insecure once quantum computers become a reality. In this work, we introduce the first lattice-based VLR group signature, and thus, the first such scheme that is believed to be quantum-resistant. In comparison with existing lattice-based group signatures, our scheme has several noticeable advantages: support of membership revocation, logarithmic-size signatures, and weaker security assumption. In the random oracle model, our scheme is proved to be secure based on the hardness of the SIVP_{SoftO(n^{1.5})}$ problem in general lattices - an assumption that is as weak as those of state-of-the-art lattice-based standard signatures. Moreover, our construction works without relying on encryption schemes, which is an intriguing feature for group signatures

Studies of di-jet survival and surface emission bias in Au+Au collisions via angular correlations with respect to back-to-back leading hadrons

We report first results from an analysis based on a new multi-hadron correlation technique, exploring jet-medium interactions and di-jet surface emission bias at RHIC. Pairs of back-to-back high transverse momentum hadrons are used for triggers to study associated hadron distributions. In contrast with two- and three-particle correlations with a single trigger with similar kinematic selections, the associated hadron distribution of both trigger sides reveals no modification in either relative pseudo-rapidity or relative azimuthal angle from d+Au to central Au+Au collisions. We determine associated hadron yields and spectra as well as production rates for such correlated back-to-back triggers to gain additional insights on medium properties.Comment: By the STAR Collaboration. 6 pages, 2 figure

Observation of D0D^0 meson nuclear modifications in Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}} = 200 GeV

We report the first measurement of charmed-hadron ($D^0$) production via the hadronic decay channel ($D^0\rightarrow K^- + \pi^+$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}}$ = 200\,GeV with the STAR experiment. The charm production cross-section per nucleon-nucleon collision at mid-rapidity scales with the number of binary collisions, $N_{bin}$, from $p$+$p$ to central Au+Au collisions. The $D^0$ meson yields in central Au+Au collisions are strongly suppressed compared to those in $p$+$p$ scaled by $N_{bin}$, for transverse momenta $p_{T}>3$ GeV/$c$, demonstrating significant energy loss of charm quarks in the hot and dense medium. An enhancement at intermediate $p_{T}$ is also observed. Model calculations including strong charm-medium interactions and coalescence hadronization describe our measurements.Comment: 7 pages including author list, 4 figures, submit to PRL with revised versio