Ultrastable lasers based on vibration insensitive cavities

We present two ultra-stable lasers based on two vibration insensitive cavity designs, one with vertical optical axis geometry, the other horizontal. Ultra-stable cavities are constructed with fused silica mirror substrates, shown to decrease the thermal noise limit, in order to improve the frequency stability over previous designs. Vibration sensitivity components measured are equal to or better than 1.5e-11 per m.s^-2 for each spatial direction, which shows significant improvement over previous studies. We have tested the very low dependence on the position of the cavity support points, in order to establish that our designs eliminate the need for fine tuning to achieve extremely low vibration sensitivity. Relative frequency measurements show that at least one of the stabilized lasers has a stability better than 5.6e-16 at 1 second, which is the best result obtained for this length of cavity.Comment: 8 pages 12 figure

INTEGRAL observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud region

We present the preliminary results of the INTEGRAL survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The observations have been carried out in January 2003 (about 10^6 s) and January 2004 (about 4x10^5 s). Here we concentrate on the bright sources LMC X-1, LMC X-2, LMC X-3 located in our satellite galaxy, and on the serendipitous detections of the Galactic Low Mass X-ray Binary EXO 0748-676 and of the Seyfert 2 galaxy IRAS 04575-7537.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. To be published in the Proceedings of the 5th INTEGRAL Workshop: "The INTEGRAL Universe", February 16-20, 2004, Munic

The<i> Nustar </i>Extragalactic Surveys: The Number Counts of Active Galactic Nuclei and the Resolved Fraction of the Cosmic X-Ray Background

We present the 3–8 keV and 8–24 keV number counts of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) identified in the NuclearSpectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) extragalactic surveys. NuSTAR has now resolved 33%–39% of the X-raybackground in the 8–24 keV band, directly identifying AGNs with obscuring columns up to ~1025 cm-2. In the softer 3–8 keV band the number counts are in general agreement with those measured by XMM-Newton and Chandra over the flux range 5 x 10-15 ≤ S(3–8 keV)/erg s-1 cm-2 ≤10-12 probed by NuSTAR. In the hard 8–24 keV band NuSTAR probes fluxes over the range 2 x 10-14 ≤ S(8–24 keV)/erg s-1 cm-2 ≤ 10-12, a factor ∼100 fainter than previous measurements. The 8–24 keV number counts match predictions from AGN populationsynthesis models, directly confirming the existence of a population of obscured and/or hard X-ray sources inferredfrom the shape of the integrated cosmic X-ray background. The measured NuSTAR counts lie significantly abovesimple extrapolation with a Euclidian slope to low flux of the Swift/BAT 15–55 keV number counts measured at higher fluxes (S(15–55 keV) ≤ 10−11 erg s-1 cm-2), reflecting the evolution of the AGN population between the Swift/BAT local (z &lt; 0.1) sample and NuSTAR’s z ~ 1 sample. CXB synthesis models, which account for AGNevolution, lie above the Swift/BAT measurements, suggesting that they do not fully capture the evolution of obscured AGNs at low redshifts

Accuracy Evaluation of an Optical Lattice Clock with Bosonic Atoms

We report the first accuracy evaluation of an optical lattice clock based on the 1S0 - 3P0 transition of an alkaline earth boson, namely 88Sr atoms. This transition has been enabled using a static coupling magnetic field. The clock frequency is determined to be 429 228 066 418 009(32) Hz. The isotopic shift between 87Sr and 88Sr is 62 188 135 Hz with fractional uncertainty 5.10^{-7}. We discuss the conditions necessary to reach a clock accuracy of 10^{-17} or less using this scheme.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, uses ol.sty fil

Using Neural Networks for Relation Extraction from Biomedical Literature

Using different sources of information to support automated extracting of relations between biomedical concepts contributes to the development of our understanding of biological systems. The primary comprehensive source of these relations is biomedical literature. Several relation extraction approaches have been proposed to identify relations between concepts in biomedical literature, namely, using neural networks algorithms. The use of multichannel architectures composed of multiple data representations, as in deep neural networks, is leading to state-of-the-art results. The right combination of data representations can eventually lead us to even higher evaluation scores in relation extraction tasks. Thus, biomedical ontologies play a fundamental role by providing semantic and ancestry information about an entity. The incorporation of biomedical ontologies has already been proved to enhance previous state-of-the-art results.Comment: Artificial Neural Networks book (Springer) - Chapter 1

Making optical atomic clocks more stable with 10−1610^{-16} level laser stabilization

The superb precision of an atomic clock is derived from its stability. Atomic clocks based on optical (rather than microwave) frequencies are attractive because of their potential for high stability, which scales with operational frequency. Nevertheless, optical clocks have not yet realized this vast potential, due in large part to limitations of the laser used to excite the atomic resonance. To address this problem, we demonstrate a cavity-stabilized laser system with a reduced thermal noise floor, exhibiting a fractional frequency instability of $2 \times 10^{-16}$. We use this laser as a stable optical source in a Yb optical lattice clock to resolve an ultranarrow 1 Hz transition linewidth. With the stable laser source and the signal to noise ratio (S/N) afforded by the Yb optical clock, we dramatically reduce key stability limitations of the clock, and make measurements consistent with a clock instability of $5 \times 10^{-16} / \sqrt{\tau}$

Liquid racism and the Danish Prophet Muhammad cartoons

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 The Author.This article examines reactions to the October 2005 publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. It does so by using the concept of ‘liquid racism’. While the controversy arose because it is considered blasphemous by many Muslims to create images of the Prophet Muhammad, the article argues that the meaning of the cartoons is multidimensional, that their analysis is significantly more complex than most commentators acknowledge, and that this complexity can best be addressed via the concept of liquid racism. The article examines the liquidity of the cartoons in relation to four readings. These see the cartoons as: (1) a criticism of Islamic fundamentalism; (2) blasphemous images; (3) Islamophobic and racist; and (4) satire and a defence of freedom of speech. Finally, the relationship between postmodernity and the rise of fundamentalism is discussed because the cartoons, reactions to them, and Islamic fundamentalism, all contain an important postmodern dimension.ESR

Living for the weekend: youth identities in northeast England

Consumption and consumerism are now accepted as key contexts for the construction of youth identities in de-industrialized Britain. This article uses empirical evidence from interviews with young people to suggest that claims of `new community' are overstated, traditional forms of friendship are receding, and increasingly atomized and instrumental youth identities are now being culturally constituted and reproduced by the pressures and anxieties created by enforced adaptation to consumer capitalism. Analysis of the data opens up the possibility of a critical rather than a celebratory exploration of the wider theoretical implications of this process

The APEX framework: prototyping of ubiquitous environments based on Petri Nets

The user experience of ubiquitous environments is a determining factor in their success. The characteristics of such systems must be explored as early as possible to anticipate potential user problems, and to reduce the cost of redesign. However, the development of early prototypes to be evaluated in the target environment can be disruptive to the ongoing system and therefore unacceptable. This paper reports on an ongoing effort to explore how model-based rapid prototyping of ubiquitous environments might be used to avoid actual deployment while still enabling users to interact with a representation of the system. The paper describes APEX, a framework that brings together an existing 3D Application Server with CPN Tools. APEX-based prototypes enable users to navigate a virtual world simulation of the envisaged ubiquitous environment. The APEX architecture and the proposed CPN-based modelling approach are described. An example illustrates their use.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - bolsa de doutoramento SFRH/BD/41179/200