11,259 research outputs found
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data evaluation for use in monitoring vegetation. Volume 1: Channels 1 and 2
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite system (NOAA-6 satellite) were analyzed to study their nonmeteorological uses. A file of charts, graphs, and tables was created form the products generated. It was found that the most useful data lie between pixel numbers 400 and 2000 on a given scan line. The analysis of the generated products indicates that the Gray-McCrary Index can discern vegetation and associated daily and seasonal changes. The solar zenith-angle correction used in previous studies was found to be a useful adjustment to the index. The METSAT system seems best suited for providing large-area analyses of surface features on a daily basis
Probing the topological structure of the QCD vacuum with overlap fermions
Overlap fermions implement exact chiral symmetry on the lattice and are thus
an appropriate tool for investigating the chiral and topological structure of
the QCD vacuum. We study various chiral and topological aspects on
Luescher-Weisz-type quenched gauge field configurations using overlap fermions
as a probe. Particular emphasis is placed upon the analysis of the spectral
density and the localisation properties of the eigenmodes as well as on the
local structure of topological charge fluctuations.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, talk given at the Workshop on Computational
Hadron Physics, Nicosia, Cyprus, September 14-17, 2005; v2: Fig.6 corrected,
statistics in Fig. 4-6 increased, minor text change
Extension of Tycho catalog for low-extinction windows in the galactic bulge
We present in this work secondary catalogs up to based on
the Tycho reference frame (ESA, 1997) for 12 selected low-extinction fields
towards the galactic bulge. The observations have been performed with the
Askania-Zeiss Meridian Circle equiped with a CCD camera, located at the
Abrah\~ao de Moraes Observatory (Valinhos, Brazil) and operated by the
Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, S\~ao Paulo University. The presented
catalog, though not complete, has been designed to help in intensive search
programmes (e.g. microlensing and variable searches) and therefore the selected
standards have a high astrometric and photometric ( band, approximately)
quality. The mean precisions obtained were in , 0.013'' in
, 0.030 for the standard deviation in magnitude and 0.0042 for the
magnitude when weighted with the error bars in each night (in the mean, 42
stars for the catalog of each window). Tables B.1 to B.12 are also available in
eletronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr
(130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, A&A Latex style. Published in A&A
Stellar variability in low-extinction regions towards the Galactic Bulge
Intensive monitoring of low-extinction windows towards the galactic bulge has
provided in the last years valuable information for studies about the dynamics,
kinematics and formation history of this part of the galaxy, mainly by
characterizing the bulge stellar populations (Paczy\'nski, 1996). Since 1997,
we have been conducting an intensive photometric-astrometric survey of the
galactic bulge, with the monitoring of about 120000 stars in 12 windows
uniformly distributed in galactic latitude and longitude (Blanco & Terndrup,
1989 e Blanco, 1988) never before submitted to this kind of survey. For this
purpose, we have used the IAG/USP CCD Meridian Circle of the Abrah\~ao de
Moraes Observatory. The main objective of this work is the identification and
classification of variable objects. In this work we present the set up and
development of the necessary tools for a project like this and the posterior
analysis of our data. We briefly describe the construction of a program to
organize and detect variables among the observed stars, including real time
alerts (for variations greater than 0.3 magnitudes). The preliminary analysis
after the processing of 76 nights of observation yielded 479 variable stars,
from which 96.7 % of them are new. We discuss the preliminary classification of
this variables, based on: a) the observed amplitude of variation; b) the shape
of light curve; c) the expected variable classes among our data and d) the
calculated periods, whenever possible. Finally, we discuss the future
perspectives for the project and for the applications and analysis of the
discovered variable stars.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures. Accepted by A&A
Use of NOAA-N satellites for land/water discrimination and flood monitoring
A tool for monitoring the extent of major floods was developed using data collected by the NOAA-6 advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR). A basic understanding of the spectral returns in AVHRR channels 1 and 2 for water, soil, and vegetation was reached using a large number of NOAA-6 scenes from different seasons and geographic locations. A look-up table classifier was developed based on analysis of the reflective channel relationships for each surface feature. The classifier automatically separated land from water and produced classification maps which were registered for a number of acquisitions, including coverage of a major flood on the Parana River of Argentina
Influence of an Internal Magnetar on Supernova Remnant Expansion
Most of the proposed associations between magnetars and supernova remnant
suffer from age problems. Usually, supernova remnants ages are determined from
an approximation of the Sedov-Taylor phase relation between radius and age, for
a fixed energy of the explosion ~ 10^{51} erg. Those ages do not generally
agree with the characteristic ages of the (proposed) associated magnetars. We
show quantitatively that, by taking into account the energy injected on the
supernova remnant by magnetar spin-down, a faster expansion results, improving
matches between characteristic ages and supernova remnants ages. However, the
magnetar velocities inferred from observations would inviabilize some
associations. Since characteristic ages may not be good age estimators, their
influence on the likelihood of the association may not be as important.
In this work we present simple numerical simulations of supernova remnants
expansion with internal magnetars, and apply it to the observed objects. A
short initial spin period, thought to be important for the very generation of
the magnetic field, is also relevant for the modified expansion of the remnant.
We next analyze all proposed associations case-by-case, addressing the
likelyhood of each one, according to this perspective. We consider a larger
explosion energy and reasses the characteristic age issue, and conclude that
about 50% of the associations can be true ones, provided SGRs and AXPs are
magnetars.Comment: 30 pages, AAStex, 5 figures, format fixe
Color-flavor locked strange matter
We analyze how the CFL states in dense matter work in the direction of
enhancing the parameter space for absolutely stable phases (strange matter). We
find that the "CFL strange matter" phase can be the true ground state of
hadronic matter for a much wider range of the parameters of the model (the gap
of the QCD Cooper pairs , the strange quark mass and the Bag
Constant ) than the state without any pairing, and derive a full equation of
state and an accurate analytic approximation to the lowest order in
and which may be directly used for applications. The effects of pairing
on the equation of state are found to be small (as previously expected) but not
negligible and may be relevant for astrophysics.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Optimizing ribavirin dose in HIV/hepatitis C (HCV) co-infected individuals treated for HCV
Hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV share common transmission pathways and the acquisition of both viruses are relatively common. Concurrent treatment for HCV with highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) should be considered in HIV co-infected individuals to decrease the progression of liver damage. Adverse effects and less satisfactory treatment outcomes are often concerns when treating co-infected individuals. Although, direct acting antivirals (DAAs) may increase SVR, they may not be possible because of drug-drug interactions. he objective of this study is to investigate the difference in response rates of HCV treatment in HIV co-infected inmates with varying doses of ribavirin. Retrospective medical chart reviews of 52 HCV/HIV co-infected inmates who underwent HCV therapy between 2003 and 2010. All received standard doses of pegylated interferon alpha 2a or 2b and 800–1600 mg of ribavirin depending on weight. The recommended dosage for genotypes 2 and 3 is 800 mg/day. For other genotypes, if weight is<75 kg, the recommended ribavirin dose is 1000 mg/day or 1200 mg/day if>75 kg. Efficacy was defined as attaining sustained virological response (SVR) six months post treatment. Univariate analyses was performed using SPSS-18; Chi-square test with p-value<0.05 was defined significant. 52 co-infected (3 females & 49 males) were identified. Mean age was 40±7 years. Caucasians accounted for 84.6%; First Nations for 13.5% and Asians 1.9%. 36 were concurrently on HAART. The genotype distribution was: geno 1, 66.0%; geno 2, 7.5%; geno 3, 26.4%. SVR by ribavirin dosage ratio (actual dosage/recommended dosage):=1.0; 41.2% (14/34),>1.0; 58.8% (20/34). Doses greater than 1.5 times were associated with higher adverse events and lower SVR. Suboptimal doses of weight-based ribavirin may be contributing to a lower treatment response in HCV/HIV co-infectants. In our experience, the optimal dose of ribavirin is between 1 and 1.2 times the current recommended dose. We recommend that ribavirin dose be individualized in co-infected in order to enhance the likelihood of achieving SVR. Dual therapy is more practical in many of our population because of chaotic lifestyle. Therefore optimizing the ribavirin dose should be initially undertaken
Locality and topology with fat link overlap actions
We study the locality and topological properties of fat link clover overlap
(FCO) actions. We find that a small amount of fattening (2-4 steps of APE or 1
step of HYP) already results in greatly improved properties compared to the
Wilson overlap (WO). We present a detailed study of the localisation of the FCO
and its connection to the density of low modes of . In contrast to
the Wilson overlap, on quenched gauge backgrounds we do not find any dependence
of the localization of the FCO on the gauge coupling. This suggests that the
FCO remains local in the continuum limit. The FCO also faithfully reproduces
the zero mode wave functions of typical lattice instantons, not like the Wilson
overlap. After a general discussion of different lattice definitions of the
topological charge we also show that the FCO together with the Boulder charge
are likely to satisfy the index theorem in the continuum limit. Finally, we
present a high statistics computation of the quenched topological
susceptibility with the FCO action.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe
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