74,086 research outputs found
Understanding Floristic Diversity Though a Database of Greene County Specimens
We present a floristic list of Greene County, Arkansas, based on accessioned collections from the Arkansas State University Herbarium (STAR). Currently, there are 1569 specimens representing 540 taxa from Greene County in STAR. Using the USDA Plants Database, plant species were analyzed according to whether or not they are native to the state as well as whether or not they have been previously documented as species occurring in the county. Having analyzed all the Greene County collections from STAR, we found 225 previously undocumented species. The data suggest that most of the specimens in the STAR collection were found in wooded areas and/or near water. This may be a reflection of sampling bias as two of the primary collectors of these specimens were primarily interested in bog habitats. For this reason, the Greene County collections may not fully represent all habitats in the county, but it is likely that they are a good representation of the county’s seeps and bogs. The STAR Herbarium is emerging as a critical resource for understanding botanical diversity in the eastern counties of Arkansas, but it is clear that additional collections are necessary to fully represent all habitats in these areas
GdRhSi: An exemplary tetragonal system for antiferromagnetic order with weak in-plane anisotropy
The anisotropy of magnetic properties commonly is introduced in textbooks
using the case of an antiferromagnetic system with Ising type anisotropy. This
model presents huge anisotropic magnetization and a pronounced metamagnetic
transition and is well-known and well-documented both, in experiments and
theory. In contrast, the case of an antiferromagnetic - system with weak
in-plane anisotropy is only poorly documented. We studied the anisotropic
magnetization of the compound GdRhSi and found that it is a perfect
model system for such a weak-anisotropy setting because the Gd ions in
GdRhSi have a pure spin moment of S=7/2 which orders in a simple AFM
structure with . We observed experimentally in a
continuous spin-flop transition and domain effects for field applied along the
- and the -direction, respectively. We applied a mean field model
for the free energy to describe our data and combine it with an Ising chain
model to account for domain effects. Our calculations reproduce the
experimental data very well. In addition, we performed magnetic X-ray
scattering and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements, which confirm
the AFM propagation vector to be and indicate the absence of
polarization on the rhodium atoms
A 6-12 GHz Analogue Lag-Correlator for Radio Interferometry
Aims: We describe a 6-12 GHz analogue correlator that has been developed for
use in radio interferometers. Methods: We use a lag-correlator technique to
synthesis eight complex spectral channels. Two schemes were considered for
sampling the cross-correlation function, using either real or complex
correlations, and we developed prototypes for both of them. We opted for the
``add and square'' detection scheme using Schottky diodes over the more
commonly used active multipliers because the stability of the device is less
critical. Results: We encountered an unexpected problem, in that there were
errors in the lag spacings of up to ten percent of the unit spacing. To
overcome this, we developed a calibration method using astronomical sources
which corrects the effects of the non-uniform sampling as well as gain error
and dispersion in the correlator.Comment: 14 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in A&
A 6-12 GHz Analogue Lag-Correlator for Radio Interferometry
Aims: We describe a 6-12 GHz analogue correlator that has been developed for
use in radio interferometers. Methods: We use a lag-correlator technique to
synthesis eight complex spectral channels. Two schemes were considered for
sampling the cross-correlation function, using either real or complex
correlations, and we developed prototypes for both of them. We opted for the
``add and square'' detection scheme using Schottky diodes over the more
commonly used active multipliers because the stability of the device is less
critical. Results: We encountered an unexpected problem, in that there were
errors in the lag spacings of up to ten percent of the unit spacing. To
overcome this, we developed a calibration method using astronomical sources
which corrects the effects of the non-uniform sampling as well as gain error
and dispersion in the correlator.Comment: 14 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in A&
A structure in the early Universe at z 1.3 that exceeds the homogeneity scale of the R-W concordance cosmology
A Large Quasar Group (LQG) of particularly large size and high membership has been identified in the DR7QSO catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It has characteristic size (volume^1/3) ~ 500 Mpc (proper size, present epoch), longest dimension ~ 1240 Mpc, membership of 73 quasars, and mean redshift = 1.27. In terms of both size and membership it is the most extreme LQG found in the DR7QSO catalogue for the redshift range 1.0 = 1.28, which is itself one of the more extreme examples. Their boundaries approach to within ~ 2 deg (~ 140 Mpc projected). This new, huge LQG appears to be the largest structure currently known in the early universe. Its size suggests incompatibility with the Yadav et al. scale of homogeneity for the concordance cosmology, and thus challenges the assumption of the cosmological principle
Young\u27s modulus of [111] germanium nanowires
This paper reports a diameter-independent Young’s modulus of 91.9 ± 8.2 GPa for [111] Germaniumnanowires (Ge NWs). When the surface oxide layer is accounted for using a core-shell NW approximation, the YM of the Ge core approaches a near theoretical value of 147.6 ± 23.4 GPa. The ultimate strength of a NW device was measured at 10.9 GPa, which represents a very high experimental-to-theoretical strength ratio of ∼75%. With increasing interest in this material system as a high-capacity lithium-ion battery anode, the presented data provide inputs that are essential in predicting its lithiation-induced stress fields and fracture behavior
Deep learning with convolutional neural networks for decoding and visualization of EEG pathology
We apply convolutional neural networks (ConvNets) to the task of
distinguishing pathological from normal EEG recordings in the Temple University
Hospital EEG Abnormal Corpus. We use two basic, shallow and deep ConvNet
architectures recently shown to decode task-related information from EEG at
least as well as established algorithms designed for this purpose. In decoding
EEG pathology, both ConvNets reached substantially better accuracies (about 6%
better, ~85% vs. ~79%) than the only published result for this dataset, and
were still better when using only 1 minute of each recording for training and
only six seconds of each recording for testing. We used automated methods to
optimize architectural hyperparameters and found intriguingly different ConvNet
architectures, e.g., with max pooling as the only nonlinearity. Visualizations
of the ConvNet decoding behavior showed that they used spectral power changes
in the delta (0-4 Hz) and theta (4-8 Hz) frequency range, possibly alongside
other features, consistent with expectations derived from spectral analysis of
the EEG data and from the textual medical reports. Analysis of the textual
medical reports also highlighted the potential for accuracy increases by
integrating contextual information, such as the age of subjects. In summary,
the ConvNets and visualization techniques used in this study constitute a next
step towards clinically useful automated EEG diagnosis and establish a new
baseline for future work on this topic.Comment: Published at IEEE SPMB 2017 https://www.ieeespmb.org/2017
Deep ROSAT-HRI observations of the NGC 1399/NGC 1404 region: morphology and structure of the X-ray halo
We present the analysis of a deep (167 ks) ROSAT HRI observation of the cD
galaxy NGC 1399 in the Fornax cluster. Using both HRI and, at larger radii,
archival PSPC data, we find that the radial behavior of the X-ray surface
brightness profile is not consistent with a simple Beta model and suggests
instead three distinct components. We use a multi-component bidimensional model
to study in detail these three components that we identify respectively with
the cooling flow region, the galactic and the cluster halo. From these data we
derive a binding mass distribution in agreement with that suggested by optical
dynamical indicators, with an inner core dominated by luminous matter and an
extended dark halo differently distributed on galactic and cluster scales. The
HRI data and a preliminary analysis of Chandra public data, allow us to detect
significant density fluctuations in the halo. We discuss possible
non-equilibrium scenarios to explain the hot halo structure, including tidal
interactions with neighboring galaxies, ram stripping from the intra-cluster
medium and merging events. In the innermost region of NGC 1399, the comparison
between the X-ray and radio emission suggests that the radio emitting plasma is
displacing and producing shocks in the hot X-ray emitting gas. We found that
the NGC 1404 halo is well represented by a single symmetric Beta model and
follows the stellar light profile within the inner 8 kpc. The mass distribution
is similar to the `central' component of the NGC 1399 halo. At larger radii ram
pressure stripping from the intra-cluster medium produces strong asymmetries in
the gas distribution. Finally we discuss the properties of the point source
population finding evidence of correlation between the source excess and NGC
1399.Comment: 34 pages in aastex5.0 format, including 28 B&W and 4 color figures.
Uses LaTex packages: subfigure, lscape and psfig. Accepted for publication in
ApJ. High resolution version can be found at:
http://www.na.astro.it/~paolillo/publications.htm
High efficiency photon counting using stopped light
Single-photon detection and photon counting play a central role in a large
number of quantum communication and computation protocols. While the efficiency
of state-of-the-art photo-detectors is well below the desired limits, quantum
state measurements in trapped ions can be carried out with efficiencies
approaching 100%. Here, we propose a method that can in principle achieve ideal
photon counting, by combining the techniques of photonic quantum memory and
ion-trap fluorescence detection: after mapping the quantum state of a
propagating light pulse onto metastable collective excitations of a trapped
cold atomic gas, it is possible to monitor the resonance fluorescence induced
by an additional laser field that only couples to the metastable excited state.
Even with a photon collection/detection efficiency as low as 10%, it is
possible to achieve photon counting with efficiency approaching 100%.Comment: 4 page
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