4,762 research outputs found
A quasi-time-dependent radiative transfer model of OH104.9+2.4
We investigate the pulsation-phase dependent properties of the circumstellar
dust shell (CDS) of the OH/IR star OH104.9+2.4 based on radiative transfer
modeling (RTM) using the code DUSTY. Our previous study concerning simultaneous
modeling of the spectral energy distribution (SED) and near-infrared (NIR)
visibilities (Riechers et al. 2004) has now been extended by means of a more
detailed analysis of the pulsation-phase dependence of the model parameters of
OH104.9+2.4. In order to investigate the temporal variation in the spatial
structure of the CDS, additional NIR speckle interferometric observations in
the K' band were carried out with the 6 m telescope of the Special
Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). At a wavelength of 2.12 micron the
diffraction-limited resolution of 74 mas was attained. Several key parameters
of our previous best-fitting model had to be adjusted in order to be consistent
with the newly extended amount of observational data. It was found that a
simple rescaling of the bolometric flux F_bol is not sufficient to take the
variability of the source into account, as the change in optical depth over a
full pulsation cycle is rather high. On the other hand, the impact of a change
in effective temperature T_eff on SED and visibility is rather small. However,
observations, as well as models for other AGB stars, show the necessity of
including a variation of T_eff with pulsation phase in the radiative transfer
models. Therefore, our new best-fitting model accounts for these changes.Comment: 7 pages, including 5 postscript figures and 3 tables. Published in
Astronomy and Astrophysics. (v1: accepted version; v2: published version,
minor grammatical changes
The transport, effective half-lives and age distributions of radioactive releases in the northern Indian Ocean
A Lagrangian model which describes radionuclide transport in the northern Indian Ocean is described. Water
circulation is obtained from HYCOM ocean model for year 2017. The model includes advection by currents,
turbulent mixing and radionuclide interactions between water and sediments, described in a dynamic way using
kinetic transfer coefficients. Hypothetical releases from five coastal nuclear power plants operating in the
northern Indian Ocean were simulated. Releases were supposed to start both during the winter and summer
monsoons, to study reversing circulation effects. Age distributions of releases were calculated, which adds information
about circulation and radionuclide pathways. It was found that, for some of the NPPs, radionuclide
distributions resulting from releases starting in both seasons were not as different as could be expected from the
opposed circulation schemes during each monsoon. Effective 137Cs half-lives in the ocean surface were calculated
and results were two orders of magnitude below previous estimations.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PGC2018-094546-B-I00Junta de Andalucía US-126336
Relationship between sport website quality and consumption intentions: Application of a bifactor model
This study investigated the cognitive structure of sport website quality constructs by comparing a bifactor model (a.k.a., a general-specific model) to a second-order model. The models are two alternative approaches for representing general constructs consisting of several highly related but distinct domains. In addition, the link between sport website quality and the revisitation and media consumption intentions was empirically tested. Data (N=272) were collected through an online survey, and the majority of respondents were men (66.3%) between 21 and 30 years old (63.0%). The bifactor and second-order models of sport website quality were also assessed and compared, and a simultaneous equation modeling analysis was used. The bifactor model fit the data significantly better than the second-order model, indicating that the five sub-constructs revealed both the specific dimensions of sport website quality and the holistic nature of sport website quality. Results from the simultaneous equation model indicated that sport website quality explained 70.2% of the variance in revisitation and 58.7% of intention to consume sports media. © The Author(s) 2016
Interplay between carrier and impurity concentrations in annealed GaMnAs intrinsic anomalous Hall Effect
Investigating the scaling behavior of annealed GaMnAs anomalous
Hall coefficients, we note a universal crossover regime where the scaling
behavior changes from quadratic to linear, attributed to the anomalous Hall
Effect intrinsic and extrinsic origins, respectively. Furthermore, measured
anomalous Hall conductivities when properly scaled by carrier concentration
remain constant, equal to theoretically predicated values, spanning nearly a
decade in conductivity as well as over 100 K in T. Both the qualitative
and quantitative agreement confirms the validity of new equations of motion
including the Berry phase contributions as well as tunablility of the intrinsic
anomalous Hall Effect.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Analysis of White Dwarfs with Strange-Matter Cores
We summarize masses and radii for a number of white dwarfs as deduced from a
combination of proper motion studies, Hipparcos parallax distances, effective
temperatures, and binary or spectroscopic masses. A puzzling feature of these
data is that some stars appear to have radii which are significantly smaller
than that expected for a standard electron-degenerate white-dwarf equations of
state. We construct a projection of white-dwarf radii for fixed effective mass
and conclude that there is at least marginal evidence for bimodality in the
radius distribution forwhite dwarfs. We argue that if such compact white dwarfs
exist it is unlikely that they contain an iron core. We propose an alternative
of strange-quark matter within the white-dwarf core. We also discuss the impact
of the so-called color-flavor locked (CFL) state in strange-matter core
associated with color superconductivity. We show that the data exhibit several
features consistent with the expected mass-radius relation of strange dwarfs.
We identify eight nearby white dwarfs which are possible candidates for strange
matter cores and suggest observational tests of this hypothesis.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. G: Nucl.
Part. Phy
Skills Learning in Robot-Assisted Surgery Is Benefited by Task-Specific Augmented Feedback
Background: Providing augmented visual feedback is one way to enhance robot-assisted surgery (RAS) training. However, it is unclear whether task specificity should be considered when applying augmented visual feedback. Methods: Twenty-two novice users of the da Vinci Surgical System underwent testing and training in 3 tasks: simple task, bimanual carrying (BC); intermediate task, needle passing (NP); and complex task, suture tying (ST). Pretraining (PRE), training, and posttraining (POST) trials were performed during the first session. Retention trials were performed 2 weeks later (RET). Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 feedback training groups: relative phase (RP), speed, grip force, and video feedback groups. Performance measures were time to task completion (TTC), total distance traveled (D), speed (S), curvature, relative phase, and grip force (F). Results: Significant interaction for TTC and curvature showed that the RP feedback training improved temporal measures of complex ST task compared to simple BC task. Speed feedback training significantly improved the performance in simple BC task in terms of TTC, D, S, curvature, and F even after retention. There was also a lesser long-term effect of speed feedback training on complex ST task. Grip force feedback training resulted in significantly greater improvements in TTC and curvature for complex ST task. For the video feedback training group, the improvements in most of the outcome measures were evident only after RET. Conclusions: Task-specific augmented feedback is beneficial to RAS skills learning. Particularly, the RP and grip force feedback could be useful for training complex tasks
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