7,536 research outputs found
Analytical techniques of pilot scanning behavior and their application
The state of the art of oculometric data analysis techniques and their applications in certain research areas such as pilot workload, information transfer provided by various display formats, crew role in automated systems, and pilot training are documented. These analytical techniques produce the following data: real-time viewing of the pilot's scanning behavior, average dwell times, dwell percentages, instrument transition paths, dwell histograms, and entropy rate measures. These types of data are discussed, and overviews of the experimental setup, data analysis techniques, and software are presented. A glossary of terms frequently used in pilot scanning behavior and a bibliography of reports on related research sponsored by NASA Langley Research Center are also presented
The Influence of Metallicity on Star Formation in Protogalaxies
In cold dark matter cosmological models, the first stars to form are believed
to do so within small protogalaxies. We wish to understand how the evolution of
these early protogalaxies changes once the gas forming them has been enriched
with small quantities of heavy elements, which are produced and dispersed into
the intergalactic medium by the first supernovae. Our initial conditions
represent protogalaxies forming within a fossil H II region, a previously
ionized region that has not yet had time to cool and recombine. We study the
influence of low levels of metal enrichment on the cooling and collapse of
ionized gas in small protogalactic halos using three-dimensional, smoothed
particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations that incorporate the effects of the
appropriate chemical and thermal processes. Our previous simulations
demonstrated that for metallicities Z < 0.001 Z_sun, metal line cooling alters
the density and temperature evolution of the gas by less than 1% compared to
the metal-free case at densities below 1 cm-3) and temperatures above 2000 K.
Here, we present the results of high-resolution simulations using particle
splitting to improve resolution in regions of interest. These simulations allow
us to address the question of whether there is a critical metallicity above
which fine structure cooling from metals allows efficient fragmentation to
occur, producing an initial mass function (IMF) resembling the local Salpeter
IMF, rather than only high-mass stars.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, First Stars III conference proceeding
A common garden design reveals population-specific variability in potential impacts of hybridisation between populations of farmed and wild Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L
Released individuals can have negative impacts on native populations through various mechanisms; including competition, disease transfer and introduction of maladapted gene-complexes. Previous studies indicate that the level of farmed Atlantic salmon introgression in native populations is population-specific. However few studies have explored the potential role of population diversity or river characteristics, such as temperature, on the consequences of hybridisation. We compared freshwater growth of multiple families derived from two farmed, five wild, and two F1 hybrid salmon populations at three contrasting temperatures (7°C, 12°C, and 16°C) in a common garden experiment. As expected, farmed salmon outgrew wild salmon at all temperatures, with hybrids displaying intermediate growth. However, differences in growth were population-specific and some wild populations performed better than others relative to the hybrid and farmed populations at certain temperatures. Therefore, the competitive balance between farmed and wild salmon may depend both on the thermal profile of the river and the genetic characteristics of the respective farmed and wild strains. While limited to F1 hybridisation, the present study shows the merits in adopting a more complex spatially resolved approach to risk management of local populations
Supporting novel home network management interfaces with Openflow and NOX
The Homework project has examined redesign of existing home network infrastructures to better support the needs and requirements of actual home users. Integrating results from several ethnographic studies, we have designed and built a home networking platform providing detailed per-flow measurement and management capabilities supporting several novel management interfaces. This demo specifically shows these new visualization and control interfaces, and describes the broader benefits of taking an integrated view of the networking infrastructure, realised through our router's augmented measurement and control APIs.
Aspects of this work have been published: the Homework Database in Internet Management (IM) 2011 and implications of the ethnographic results are to appear at the SIGCOMM W-MUST workshop 2011. Separate, more detailed expositions of the interface elements and system performance and implications are currently under submission at other venues. A partial code release is already available and we anticipate fuller public beta release by Q4 2011
A length scale for the superconducting Nernst signal above T in NbSi
We present a study of the Nernst effect in amorphous superconducting thin
films of NbSi. The field dependence of the Nernst coefficient
above T displays two distinct regimes separated by a field scale set by
the Ginzburg-Landau correlation length. A single function , with the
correlation length as its unique argument set either by the zero-field
correlation length (in the low magnetic field limit) or by the magnetic length
(in the opposite limit), describes the Nernst coefficient. We conclude that the
Nernst signal observed on a wide temperature () and field () range is exclusively generated by short-lived Cooper pairs.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Open questions in the study of population III star formation
The first stars were key drivers of early cosmic evolution. We review the
main physical elements of the current consensus view, positing that the first
stars were predominantly very massive. We continue with a discussion of
important open questions that confront the standard model. Among them are
uncertainties in the atomic and molecular physics of the hydrogen and helium
gas, the multiplicity of stars that form in minihalos, and the possible
existence of two separate modes of metal-free star formation.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the conference proceedings for IAU
Symposium 255: Low-Metallicity Star Formation: From the First Stars to Dwarf
Galaxie
Black Hole Feedback On The First Galaxies
We study how the first galaxies were assembled under feedback from the accretion onto a central black hole (BH) that is left behind by the first generation of metal-free stars through self-consistent, cosmological simulations. X-ray radiation from the accretion of gas onto BH remnants of Population III (Pop III) stars, or from high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), again involving Pop III stars, influences the mode of second generation star formation. We track the evolution of the black hole accretion rate and the associated X-ray feedback starting with the death of the Pop III progenitor star inside a minihalo and following the subsequent evolution of the black hole as the minihalo grows to become an atomically cooling galaxy. We find that X-ray photoionization heating from a stellar-mass BH is able to quench further star formation in the host halo at all times before the halo enters the atomic cooling phase. X-ray radiation from a HMXB, assuming a luminosity close to the Eddington value, exerts an even stronger, and more diverse, feedback on star formation. It photoheats the gas inside the host halo, but also promotes the formation of molecular hydrogen and cooling of gas in the intergalactic medium and in nearby minihalos, leading to a net increase in the number of stars formed at early times. Our simulations further show that the radiative feedback from the first BHs may strongly suppress early BH growth, thus constraining models for the formation of supermassive BHs.Astronom
In vitro measurement of nucleus pulposus swelling pressure: A new technique for studies of spinal adaptation to gravity
Swelling of the intervertebral disc nucleus pulposus is altered by posture and gravity. We have designed and tested a new osmometer for in vitro determination of nucleus pulposus swelling pressure. The functional principle of the osmometer involves compressing a sample of nucleus pulposus with nitrogen gas until saline pressure gradients across a 0.45 microns Millipore filter are eliminated. Swelling pressure of both pooled dog and pooled pig lumbar disc nucleus pulposus were measured on the new osmometer and compared to swelling pressures determined using the equilibrium dialysis technique. The osmometer measured swelling pressures comparable to those obtained by the dialysis technique. This osmometer provides a rapid, direct, and accurate measurement of swelling pressure of the nucleus pulposus
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