5,181 research outputs found
The news model of asset price determination: An empirical examination of the Danish football club Brøndby IF
According to the news model of asset price determination, only the unexpected component of an information should drive the stock price. We use the Danish publicly listed football club Brøndby IF to analyze how match outcome impacts the stock price. To disentangle gross news from net news, betting odd information is used to control for the expected match outcome. --news model,football industry,betting odds,stock market,market efficiency,event study
Gas phase mean opacities for varying [M/H], N/O, and C/O
We present a set of gas-phase Planck mean and Rosseland mean opacity tables
applicable for simulations of star and planet formation, stellar evolution,
disk modelling at various metallicities in hydrogen-rich environments. The
tables are calculated for gas temperatures between 1000K and 10000K and total
hydrogen number densities between 10^2 cm^-3 and 10^17 cm^-3. The
carbon-to-oxygen ratio is varied from 0.43 to well above 2.0, the
nitrogen-to-oxygen ration between 0.14 and 100.0. The tables are calculated for
a range of metallicities down to [M/H]'= log N_M/N_H=-7.0. We demonstrate how
the mean opacities and the abundances of the opacity species vary with C/O,
N/O, and [M/H]'. We use the element abundances from Grevesse, Asplund & Sauval
(2007), and we provide additional tables for the oxygen-abundance value from
Caffau et al.(2008). All tables will be available online under
http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/ch80/datasources.htmlComment: 10 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA
High Frame-rate Imaging Based Photometry, Photometric Reduction of Data from Electron-multiplying Charge Coupled Devices (EMCCDs)
The EMCCD is a type of CCD that delivers fast readout times and negligible
readout noise, making it an ideal detector for high frame rate applications
which improve resolution, like lucky imaging or shift-and-add. This improvement
in resolution can potentially improve the photometry of faint stars in
extremely crowded fields significantly by alleviating crowding. Alleviating
crowding is a prerequisite for observing gravitational microlensing in main
sequence stars towards the galactic bulge. However, the photometric stability
of this device has not been assessed. The EMCCD has sources of noise not found
in conventional CCDs, and new methods for handling these must be developed.
We aim to investigate how the normal photometric reduction steps from
conventional CCDs should be adjusted to be applicable to EMCCD data. One
complication is that a bias frame cannot be obtained conventionally, as the
output from an EMCCD is not normally distributed. Also, the readout process
generates spurious charges in any CCD, but in EMCCD data, these charges are
visible as opposed to the conventional CCD. Furthermore we aim to eliminate the
photon waste associated with lucky imaging by combining this method with
shift-and-add.
A simple probabilistic model for the dark output of an EMCCD is developed.
Fitting this model with the expectation-maximization algorithm allows us to
estimate the bias, readout noise, amplification, and spurious charge rate per
pixel and thus correct for these phenomena. To investigate the stability of the
photometry, corrected frames of a crowded field are reduced with a PSF fitting
photometry package, where a lucky image is used as a reference.
We find that it is possible to develop an algorithm that elegantly reduces
EMCCD data and produces stable photometry at the 1% level in an extremely
crowded field.Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic
Enhancing System Realisation in Formal Model Development
Software for mission-critical systems is sometimes analysed using formal specification to increase the chances of the system behaving as intended. When sufficient insights into the system have been obtained from the formal analysis, the formal specification is realised in the form of a software implementation. One way to realise the system's software is by automatically generating it from the formal specification -- a technique referred to as code generation. However, in general it is difficult to make guarantees about the correctness of the generated code -- especially while requiring automation of the steps involved in realising the formal specification. This PhD dissertation investigates ways to improve the automation of the steps involved in realising and validating a system based on a formal specification. The approach aims to develop properly designed software tools which support the integration of formal methods tools into the software development life cycle, and which leverage the formal specification in the subsequent validation of the system. The tools developed use a new code generation infrastructure that has been built as part of this PhD project and implemented in the Overture tool -- a formal methods tool that supports the Vienna Development Method. The development of the code generation infrastructure has involved the re-design of the software architecture of Overture. The new architecture brings forth the reuse and extensibility features of Overture to take into account the needs and requirements of software extensions targeting Overture. The tools developed in this PhD project have successfully supported three case studies from externally funded projects. The feedback received from the case study work has further helped improve the code generation infrastructure and the tools built using it
Automated translation of VDM-SL to JML-annotated Java
When a system specified using the Vienna Development Method (VDM) is realised using code-generation, no guarantees are currently made about the correctness of the generated code. In this technical report, we improve code-generation of VDM models by taking contract-based elements such as invariants and pre- and postconditions into account during the code-generation process. The contract-based elements of the Vienna Development Method Specification Language (VDM-SL) are translated into corresponding constructs in the Java Modelling Language (JML) and used to validate the generated code against the properties of the VDM model. VDM-SL and JML are both Design-by-Contract (DbC) languages, with the difference that VDM-SL supports abstract modelling and system specification, while JML is used for detailed specification of Java classes and interfaces. We describe the semantic differences between the contract-based elements of VDM-SL and JML and formulate the translation as a set of rules. We further demonstrate how dynamic JML assertion checks can be used to ensure the consistency of VDM’s subtypes when a model is code-generated. The translator is fully automated and produces JML-annotated Java programs that can be checked for correctness using JML tools. Specifically, it is shown how such analysis can be performed using the OpenJML runtime assertion checker. The translation is demonstrated using a case study example of an Automated Teller Machine and several other VDM-SL models, which have been used to validate and asses the translation
Lasing on a narrow transition in a cold thermal strontium ensemble
Highly stable laser sources based on narrow atomic transitions provide a
promising platform for direct generation of stable and accurate optical
frequencies. Here we investigate a simple system operating in the
high-temperature regime of cold atoms. The interaction between a thermal
ensemble of Sr at mK temperatures and a medium-finesse cavity produces
strong collective coupling and facilitates high atomic coherence which causes
lasing on the dipole forbidden SP transition. We
experimentally and theoretically characterize the lasing threshold and
evolution of such a system, and investigate decoherence effects in an
unconfined ensemble. We model the system using a Tavis-Cummings model, and
characterize velocity-dependent dynamics of the atoms as well as the dependency
on the cavity-detuning.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Approximate Minimum Diameter
We study the minimum diameter problem for a set of inexact points. By
inexact, we mean that the precise location of the points is not known. Instead,
the location of each point is restricted to a contineus region (\impre model)
or a finite set of points (\indec model). Given a set of inexact points in
one of \impre or \indec models, we wish to provide a lower-bound on the
diameter of the real points.
In the first part of the paper, we focus on \indec model. We present an
time
approximation algorithm of factor for finding minimum diameter
of a set of points in dimensions. This improves the previously proposed
algorithms for this problem substantially.
Next, we consider the problem in \impre model. In -dimensional space, we
propose a polynomial time -approximation algorithm. In addition, for
, we define the notion of -separability and use our algorithm for
\indec model to obtain -approximation algorithm for a set of
-separable regions in time
Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities : Application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation
The impact of environmental change on the reproduction and survival of wildlife is often behaviourally mediated, placing behavioural ecology in a central position to quantify population- and community-level consequences of anthropogenic threats to biodiversity. This theme issue demonstrates how recent conceptual and methodological advances in the discipline are applied to inform conservation. The issue highlights how the focus in behavioural ecology on understanding variation in behaviour between individuals, rather than just measuring the population mean, is critical to explaining demographic stochasticity and thereby reducing fuzziness of population models. The contributions also show the importance of knowing the mechanisms by which behaviour is achieved, i.e. the role of learning, reasoning and instincts, in order to understand how behaviours change in human-modified environments, where their function is less likely to be adaptive. More recent work has thus abandoned the 'adaptationist' paradigm of early behavioural ecology and increasingly measures evolutionary processes directly by quantifying selection gradients and phenotypic plasticity. To support quantitative predictions at the population and community levels, a rich arsenal of modelling techniques has developed, and interdisciplinary approaches show promising prospects for predicting the effectiveness of alternative management options, with the social sciences, movement ecology and epidemiology particularly pertinent. The theme issue furthermore explores the relevance of behaviour for global threat assessment, and practical advice is given as to how behavioural ecologists can augment their conservation impact by carefully selecting and promoting their study systems, and increasing their engagement with local communities, natural resource managers and policy-makers. Its aim to uncover the nuts and bolts of how natural systems work positions behavioural ecology squarely in the heart of conservation biology, where its perspective offers an all-important complement to more descriptive 'big-picture' approaches to priority setting. This article is part of the theme issue 'Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities: application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation'
Dynamical structure of the inner 100 AU of the deeply embedded protostar IRAS 16293-2422
A fundamental question about the early evolution of low-mass protostars is
when circumstellar disks may form. High angular resolution observations of
molecular transitions in the (sub)millimeter wavelength windows make it
possible to investigate the kinematics of the gas around newly-formed stars,
for example to identify the presence of rotation and infall. IRAS 16293-2422
was observed with the extended Submillimeter Array (eSMA) resulting in
subarcsecond resolution (0.46" x 0.29", i.e. 55 35~AU) images
of compact emission from the CO (3-2) and CS (7-6) transitions at
337~GHz (0.89~mm). To recover the more extended emission we have combined the
eSMA data with SMA observations of the same molecules. The emission of
CO (3-2) and CS (7-6) both show a velocity gradient oriented
along a northeast-southwest direction with respect to the continuum marking the
location of one of the components of the binary, IRAS16293A. Our combined eSMA
and SMA observations show that the velocity field on the 50--400~AU scales is
consistent with a rotating structure. It cannot be explained by simple
Keplerian rotation around a single point mass but rather needs to take into
account the enclosed envelope mass at the radii where the observed lines are
excited. We suggest that IRAS 16293-2422 could be among the best candidates to
observe a pseudo-disk with future high angular resolution observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 18 pages, 10 figure
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