A comparison of land-use determinations using data from ERTS-1 and high altitude aircraft

A manual interpretation of ERTS-1 MSS system corrected imagery has been performed on a study area within the Houston Area Test Site to classify land use using the Level 1 categories proposed by the Department of the Interior. The two types of imagery used included: (1) black and white transparencies of each band enlarged to a scale of approximately 1:250,000 and (2) color transparencies composited from the computer compatible tapes using the film recorder on a multispectral data analysis station. The results of this interpretation have been compared with the 1970 land use inventory of HATS which was compiled using color ektachrome imagery from high altitude aircraft (scale 1:120,000). Urban data from the same scene was also analyzed using a computer-aided (clustering) technique. The resulting clusters, representing areas of similar content, were compared with existing land use patterns in Houston. A technique was developed to correlate the spectral clusters to specific urban features on aircraft imagery by the location of specific, high contrast objects in particular resolution elements. It was concluded that ERTS-1 data could be used to develop Level 1 and many Level 2 land use categories for regional inventories and perhaps to some degree on a local level

New solutions of the D-dimensional Klein-Gordon equation via mapping onto the nonrelativistic one-dimensional Morse potential

New exact analytical bound-state solutions of the D-dimensional Klein-Gordon equation for a large set of couplings and potential functions are obtained via mapping onto the nonrelativistic bound-state solutions of the one-dimensional generalized Morse potential. The eigenfunctions are expressed in terms of generalized Laguerre polynomials, and the eigenenergies are expressed in terms of solutions of irrational equations at the worst. Several analytical results found in the literature, including the so-called Klein-Gordon oscillator, are obtained as particular cases of this unified approac

Direct determination of the crystal field parameters of Dy, Er and Yb impurities in the skutterudite compound CeFe4_{4}P12_{12} by Electron Spin Resonance

Despite extensive research on the skutterudites for the last decade, their electric crystalline field ground state is still a matter of controversy. We show that Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) measurements can determine the full set of crystal field parameters (CFPs) for the Th cubic symmetry (Im3) of the Ce$_{1-x}$R$_{x}$Fe$_{4}$P$_{12}$ (R = Dy, Er, Yb, $x\lesssim 0.003$) skutterudite compounds. From the analysis of the ESR data the three CFPs, B4c, B6c and B6t were determined for each of these rare-earths at the Ce$^{3+}$ site. The field and temperature dependence of the measured magnetization for the doped crystals are in excellent agreement with the one predicted by the CFPs Bnm derived from ESR.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to appear in PR

Absorbing-state phase transitions with extremal dynamics

Extremal dynamics represents a path to self-organized criticality in which the order parameter is tuned to a value of zero. The order parameter is associated with a phase transition to an absorbing state. Given a process that exhibits a phase transition to an absorbing state, we define an ``extremal absorbing" process, providing the link to the associated extremal (nonabsorbing) process. Stationary properties of the latter correspond to those at the absorbing-state phase transition in the former. Studying the absorbing version of an extremal dynamics model allows to determine certain critical exponents that are not otherwise accessible. In the case of the Bak-Sneppen (BS) model, the absorbing version is closely related to the "$f$-avalanche" introduced by Paczuski, Maslov and Bak [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 53}, 414 (1996)], or, in spreading simulations to the "BS branching process" also studied by these authors. The corresponding nonextremal process belongs to the directed percolation universality class. We revisit the absorbing BS model, obtaining refined estimates for the threshold and critical exponents in one dimension. We also study an extremal version of the usual contact process, using mean-field theory and simulation. The extremal condition slows the spread of activity and modifies the critical behavior radically, defining an ``extremal directed percolation" universality class of absorbing-state phase transitions. Asymmetric updating is a relevant perturbation for this class, even though it is irrelevant for the corresponding nonextremal class.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figure

Physical Properties of OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 derived from Herschel, ESO-VISIR and Spitzer observations

In September 2011, the Herschel Space Observatory performed an observation campaign with the PACS photometer observing the asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 in the far infrared. The Herschel observations were analysed, together with ESO VLT-VISIR and Spitzer-IRS data, by means of a thermophysical model in order to derive the physical properties of 1999 RQ36. We find the asteroid has an effective diameter in the range 480 to 511 m, a slightly elongated shape with a semi-major axis ratio of a/b=1.04, a geometric albedo of 0.045 +0.015/-0.012, and a retrograde rotation with a spin vector between -70 and -90 deg ecliptic latitude. The thermal emission at wavelengths below 12 micron -originating in the hot sub-solar region- shows that there may be large variations in roughness on the surface along the equatorial zone of 1999 RQ36, but further measurements are required for final proof. We determine that the asteroid has a disk-averaged thermal inertia of Gamma = 650 Jm-2s-0.5K-1 with a 3-sigma confidence range of 350 to 950 Jm-2s-0.5K-1, equivalent to what is observed for 25143 Itokawa and suggestive that 1999 RQ36 has a similar surface texture and may also be a rubble-pile in nature. The low albedo indicates that 1999 RQ36 very likely contains primitive volatile-rich material, consistent with its spectral type, and that it is an ideal target for the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 9 pages, 7 figure

Nanotoxicity and life cycle assessment: First attempt towards the determination of characterization factors for carbon nanotubes

Carbon materials, whether at macro, micro or at nanoscale, play an important role in the battery industry, as they can be used as electrodes, electrode enhancers, bipolar separators, or current collectors. When conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of novel batteries manufacturing processes, we also need to consider the fate of potentially emitted carbon based nanomaterials. However, the knowledge generated in the last decade regarding the behavior of such materials in the environment and its toxicological effects has yet to be included in the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methodologies. Conventional databases of chemical products (e.g. ECHA, ECOTOX) offer little information regarding engineered nanomaterials (ENM). It is thus necessary to go one step further and compile physicochemical and toxicological data directly from scientific literature. Such studies do not only differ in their results, but also in their methodologies, and several calls have been made towards a more consistent approach that would allow us model the fate of ENM in the environment as well as their potentially harmful effects. Trying to overcome these limitations we have developed a tool based on Microsoft Excel® combining several methods for the estimation of physicochemical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNT). The information generated with this tool is combined with degradation rates and toxicological data consistent with the methods followed by the USEtox methodology. Thus, it is possible to calculate the characterization factors of CNTs and integrate them as a first proxy in future LCA of products including these ENM

Anomalous Higgs Couplings

We review the effects of new effective interactions on the Higgs boson phenomenology. New physics in the electroweak bosonic sector is expected to induce additional interactions between the Higgs doublet field and the electroweak gauge bosons leading to anomalous Higgs couplings as well as to anomalous gauge-boson self-interactions. Using a linearly realized $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$ invariant effective Lagrangian to describe the bosonic sector of the Standard Model, we review the effects of the new effective interactions on the Higgs boson production rates and decay modes. We summarize the results from searches for the new Higgs signatures induced by the anomalous interactions in order to constrain the scale of new physics in particular at CERN LEP and Fermilab Te vatron colliders.Comment: 35 pages, latex using epsfig.sty psfig.sty and axodraw.sty, 16 postscript figure

Eu2+ spin dynamics in the filled skutterudites EuM4Sb12 (M = Fe, Ru, Os)

We report evidence for a close relation between the thermal activation of the rattling motion of the filler guest atoms, and inhomogeneous spin dynamics of the Eu2+ spins. The spin dynamics is probed directly by means of Eu2+ electron spin resonance (ESR), performed in both X-band (9.4 GHz) and Q-band (34 GHz) frequencies in the temperature interval 4.2 < T < 300 K. A comparative study with ESR measurements on the Beta-Eu8Ga16Ge30 clathrate compound is presented. Our results point to a correlation between the rattling motion and the spin dynamics which may be relevant for the general understanding of the dynamics of cage systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.