Nookaler Ambitions: A Social-Psychological Analysis of Persuasive Speech

This study proposes a general model of persuasion based in social-psychology and cognitive information processing theory and is composed of an ideal listener/speaker/environment interaction. Drawing upon research conducted by Lowenthal and Guterman (1950), Erich Hoffer (1952), and Prakanis and Aranson (1992), the model is oriented towards post-911 presidential communications for testing. Presidential rhetoric is organized into seventeen themes, and these themes are analyzed so as to determine what effect, if any, said persuasive trends have on the individual listener. Insight into the characteristics and effects of persuasive communiqués is essential to the development of rational, critical psyches within persuasively-dense environments

Unary Primitive Recursive Functions

In this article, we study some new characterizations of primitive recursive functions based on restricted forms of primitive recursion, improving the pioneering work of R. M. Robinson and M. D. Gladstone in this area. We reduce certain recursion schemes (mixed/pure iteration without parameters) and we characterize one-argument primitive recursive functions as the closure under substitution and iteration of certain optimal sets

Observations of ultraluminous X-ray sources

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), first observed ~30 years ago, have been argued as extreme stellar mass black hole binaries or a new class intermediate mass black hole. In order to settle this debate, scientists have utilised a wide range of telescopes, exploiting large sections of the electro-magnetic spectrum. Here we review some of the insight gained from these observational studies, collating an overview of our current position in ULX research.Comment: Review talk given at the meeting Mykonos-2010:"Binary Star Evolution: Mass Loss, Accretion, and Mergers". Submitted for publication in the proceeding

A search for radio counterparts to Chandra ULX candidates

We present a systematic search for radio counterparts to Ultra Luminous X-ray (ULX) source candidates based on a cross-correlation of the Swartz et al. (2004) ULX catalogue based on Chandra data and the FIRST radio survey. We find seven cases of conspiscuous peaks of radio emission that could be associated to ULX sources. Among these seven ULX radio candidates, three X-ray sources are located within 5" of the FIRST radio peaks. These three cases are shown and discussed individually.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomische Nachrichten, to appear in the proceedings of the conference "Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources and Middle Weight Black Holes" (Madrid, May 24-26, 2010). Resubmission corrects the Authors list and the acknowledgement

Latest results on Jovian disk X-rays from XMM-Newton

We present the results of a spectral study of the soft X-ray emission (0.2-2.5 keV) from low-latitude (`disk') regions of Jupiter. The data were obtained during two observing campaigns with XMM-Newton in April and November 2003. While the level of the emission remained approximately the same between April and the first half of the November observation, the second part of the latter shows an enhancement by about 40% in the 0.2-2.5 keV flux. A very similar, and apparently correlated increase, in time and scale, was observed in the solar X-ray and EUV flux. The months of October and November 2003 saw a period of particularly intense solar activity, which appears reflected in the behaviour of the soft X-rays from Jupiter's disk. The X-ray spectra, from the XMM-Newton EPIC CCD cameras, are all well fitted by a coronal model with temperatures in the range 0.4-0.5 keV, with additional line emission from Mg XI (1.35 keV) and Si XIII (1.86 keV): these are characteristic lines of solar X-ray spectra at maximum activity and during flares. The XMM-Newton observations lend further support to the theory that Jupiter's disk X-ray emission is controlled by the Sun, and may be produced in large part by scattering, elastic and fluorescent, of solar X-rays in the upper atmosphere of the planet.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in a special issue of Planetary and Space Scienc

An updated hydrocarbon photochemical model for the Jovian atmosphere from the troposphere through the homopause: A prelude to Galileo

A photochemical model for the atmosphere of Jupiter, including 1-D vertical eddy diffusive transport, was developed. It extends from the upper troposphere through the homopause. The hydrocarbon chemistry involves species containing up to four carbon atoms (and polyynes through C8H2). The calculations show that a large fraction of photochemical carbon may be contained in molecules with more than two carbon atoms. At the tropopause, C2H6 is the major photochemical species and C2H2, C3H8, and C4H10 are of comparable abundance and down from C2H6 by a factor of ten. These species may be detectable with the mass spectrometer of the Galileo Probe. The vertical distributions of the photochemical species are sensitive to the magnitude of eddy diffusive mixing in the troposphere and stratosphere and the details of the interface region