23,685 research outputs found
Star formation rates and chemical abundances of emission line galaxies in intermediate-redshift clusters
We examine the evolutionary status of luminous, star-forming galaxies in
intermediate-redshift clusters by considering their star formation rates and
the chemical and ionsiation properties of their interstellar emitting gas. Our
sample consists of 17 massive, star-forming, mostly disk galaxies with
M_{B}<-20, in clusters with redshifts in the range 0.31< z <0.59, with a median
of =0.42. We compare these galaxies with the identically selected and
analysed intermediate-redshift field sample of Mouhcine et al. (2006), and with
local galaxies from the Nearby Field Galaxy Survey of Jansen et al. (2000).
From our optical spectra we measure the equivalent widths of OII, Hbeta and
OIII emission lines to determine diagnostic line ratios, oxygen abundances, and
extinction-corrected star formation rates. The star-forming galaxies in
intermediate-redshift clusters display emission line equivalent widths which
are, on average, significantly smaller than measured for field galaxies at
comparable redshifts. However, a contrasting fraction of our cluster galaxies
have equivalent widths similar to the highest observed in the field. This
tentatively suggests a bimodality in the star-formation rates per unit
luminosity for galaxies in distant clusters. We find no evidence for further
bimodalities, or differences between our cluster and field samples, when
examining additional diagnostics and the oxygen abundances of our galaxies.
This maybe because no such differences exist, perhaps because the cluster
galaxies which still display signs of star-formation have recently arrived from
the field. In order to examine this topic with more certainty, and to further
investigate the way in which any disparity varies as a function of cluster
properties, larger spectroscopic samples are needed.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, MNRAS in pres
Ammonia emissions from deciduous forest after leaf fall
The understanding of biochemical feedback mechanisms in the climate system is lacking knowledge in relation to bi-directional ammonia (NH3) exchange between natural ecosystems and the atmosphere. We therefore study the atmospheric NH3 fluxes during a 25-day period during autumn 2010 (21 October to 15 November) for the Danish beech forest Lille Bøgeskov to address the hypothesis that NH3 emissions occur from deciduous forests in relation to leaf fall. This is accomplished by using observations of vegetation status, NH3 fluxes and model calculations. Vegetation status was observed using plant area index (PAI) and leaf area index (LAI). NH3 fluxes were measured using the relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method. The REA-based NH3 concentrations were compared to NH3 denuder measurements. Model calculations of the atmospheric NH3 concentration were obtained with the Danish Ammonia MOdelling System (DAMOS). The relative contribution from the forest components to the atmospheric NH3 flux was assessed using a simple two-layer bi-directional canopy compensation point model. A total of 57.7% of the fluxes measured showed emission and 19.5% showed deposition. A clear tendency of the flux going from deposition of −0.25 ± 0.30 μg NH3-N m−2 s−1 to emission of up to 0.67 ± 0.28 μg NH3-N m−2 s−1 throughout the measurement period was found. In the leaf fall period (23 October to 8 November), an increase in the atmospheric NH3 concentrations was related to the increasing forest NH3 flux. Following leaf fall, the magnitude and temporal structure of the measured NH3 emission fluxes could be adequately reproduced with the bi-directional resistance model; it suggested the forest ground layer (soil and litter) to be the main contributing component to the NH3 emissions. The modelled concentration from DAMOS fits well the measured concentrations before leaf fall, but during and after leaf fall, the modelled concentrations are too low. The results indicate that the missing contribution to atmospheric NH3 concentration from vegetative surfaces related to leaf fall are of a relatively large magnitude. We therefore conclude that emissions from deciduous forests are important to include in model calculations of atmospheric NH3 for forest ecosystems. Finally, diurnal variations in the measured NH3 concentrations were related to meteorological conditions, forest phenology and the spatial distribution of local anthropogenic NH3 sources. This suggests that an accurate description of ammonia fluxes over forest ecosystems requires a dynamic description of atmospheric and vegetation processes
Top-down controlled alpha band activity in somatosensory areas determines behavioral performance in a discrimination task
The brain receives a rich flow of information which must be processed according to behavioral relevance. How is the state of the sensory system adjusted to up- or downregulate processing according to anticipation? We used magnetoencephalography to investigate whether prestimulus alpha band activity (8 - 14 Hz) reflects allocation of attentional resources in the human somatosensory system. Subjects performed a tactile discrimination task where a visual cue directed attention to their right or left hand. The strength of attentional modulation was controlled by varying the reliability of the cue in three experimental blocks (100%, 75%, or 50% valid cueing). While somatosensory prestimulus alpha power lateralized strongly with a fully predictive cue (100%), lateralization was decreased with lower cue reliability (75%) and virtually absent if the cue had no predictive value at all (50%). Importantly, alpha lateralization influenced the subjects' behavioral performance positively: both accuracy and speed of response improved with the degree of alpha lateralization. This study demonstrates that prestimulus alpha lateralization in the somatosensory system behaves similarly to posterior alpha activity observed in visual attention tasks. Our findings extend the notion that alpha band activity is involved in shaping the functional architecture of the working brain by determining both the engagement and disengagement of specific regions: the degree of anticipation modulates the alpha activity in sensory regions in a graded manner. Thus, the alpha activity is under top-down control and seems to play an important role for setting the state of sensory regions to optimize processing
Self-organized Criticality and Absorbing States: Lessons from the Ising Model
We investigate a suggested path to self-organized criticality. Originally,
this path was devised to "generate criticality" in systems displaying an
absorbing-state phase transition, but closer examination of the mechanism
reveals that it can be used for any continuous phase transition. We used the
Ising model as well as the Manna model to demonstrate how the finite-size
scaling exponents depend on the tuning of driving and dissipation rates with
system size.Our findings limit the explanatory power of the mechanism to
non-universal critical behavior.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX
The Tully-Fisher relation of intermediate redshift field and cluster galaxies from Subaru spectroscopy
We have carried out spectroscopic observations in 4 cluster fields using
Subaru's FOCAS multi-slit spectrograph and obtained spectra for 103 bright disk
field and cluster galaxies at . Seventy-seven of these
show emission lines, and 33 provide reasonably-secure determinations of the
galaxies' rotation velocity. The rotation velocities, luminosities, colours and
emission-line properties of these galaxies are used to study the possible
effects of the cluster environment on the star-formation history of the
galaxies. Comparing the Tully-Fisher relations of cluster and field galaxies at
similar reshifts we find no measurable difference in rest-frame -band
luminosity at a given rotation velocity (the formal difference is mag). The colours of the cluster emission line galaxies are only marginally
redder in rest-frame (by mag) than the field galaxies in
our sample. Taken at face value, these results seem to indicate that bright
star-forming cluster spirals are similar to their field counterparts in their
star-formation properties. However, we find that the fraction of disk galaxies
with absorption-line spectra (i.e., with no current star formation) is larger
in clusters than in the field by a factor of --5. This suggests that the
cluster environment has the overall effect of switching off star formation in
(at least) some spiral galaxies. To interpret these observational results, we
carry out simulations of the possible effects of the cluster environment on the
star-formation history of disk galaxies and thus their photometric and
spectroscopic properties. Finally, we evaluate the evolution of the rest-frame
absolute -band magnitude per unit redshift at fixed rotation velocity.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Factors affecting degradation of barley straw in sacco and microbial activity in the rumen of cows fed fibre-rich diets. JI: The level of supplemental fishmeal
A diet composed of 76.2% untreated barley straw + 23.8% rye grass hay was given to three nonlactating cows at 90% of ad libitum intake. The cows were supplemented via cannulae with three differents levels of fishmeal in arder to make the ration up to 8%, 10% and 14% crude protein on a dry-matter basis. Treatments were arranged in a Latin Square design. Nylon bags containing untreated barley straw were incubated in the rumen 01 the cows for up to 72 h. Degradability of dry matter, total organic matter and the individual components of the cell wall of barley straw were affected by the protein level of the dlel. The Inclusion of fishmeal to a Ievel of 14% dietary protein produced the highest degradability of all parameters measured. The protein level also affected ammonia and total VFA concentrations; both fermentation products were highest in the treatment with the high fishmeal level. Rumen pH and rumen outflow rate of Iiquid and particulate phases were not affected by protein level. The ATP concentration found in the solid residue, remaining after removal of the liquid phase from the rumen content, Increases with increasing fishmeal level., while ATP in the Iiquid phase remained unchanged. This indicates that, under the conditions of this study, fishmeal exerts its effects on the microbes intimately associated lo the fibre, and not upon the whole microbial population. The microbial DNA concentration of digesta nylon bags increased during the first 24 h of incubation and then decreased until the end of incubation, indicating a process of colonization and depletion of degradable substrates.Resúmenes de Trabajos presentados en otras publicaciones (por docentes de la UNLPam.), Publicado en Animal Feed Science Technology, 70: 11-22, 1998
Spitzer bright, UltraVISTA faint sources in COSMOS: the contribution to the overall population of massive galaxies at z=3-7
We have analysed a sample of 574 Spitzer 4.5 micron-selected galaxies with
[4.5]24 (AB) over the UltraVISTA ultra-deep COSMOS field. Our
aim is to investigate whether these mid-IR bright, near-IR faint sources
contribute significantly to the overall population of massive galaxies at
redshifts z>=3. By performing a spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis
using up to 30 photometric bands, we have determined that the redshift
distribution of our sample peaks at redshifts z~2.5-3.0, and ~32% of the
galaxies lie at z>=3. We have studied the contribution of these sources to the
galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) at high redshifts. We found that the
[4.5]24 galaxies produce a negligible change to the GSMF
previously determined for Ks_auto<24 sources at 3=<z<4, but their contribution
is more important at 4=~50% of the galaxies with stellar
masses Mst>~6 x 10^10 Msun. We also constrained the GSMF at the highest-mass
end (Mst>~2 x 10^11 Msun) at z>=5. From their presence at 5=<z<6, and virtual
absence at higher redshifts, we can pinpoint quite precisely the moment of
appearance of the first most massive galaxies as taking place in the ~0.2 Gyr
of elapsed time between z~6 and z~5. Alternatively, if very massive galaxies
existed earlier in cosmic time, they should have been significantly
dust-obscured to lie beyond the detection limits of current, large-area, deep
near-IR surveys.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. Updated to match version in press at
the Ap
Fish schooling as a basis for vertical axis wind turbine farm design
Most wind farms consist of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) due to the
high power coefficient (mechanical power output divided by the power of the
free-stream air through the turbine cross-sectional area) of an isolated
turbine. However when in close proximity to neighbouring turbines, HAWTs suffer
from a reduced power coefficient. In contrast, previous research on vertical
axis wind turbines (VAWTs) suggests that closely-spaced VAWTs may experience
only small decreases (or even increases) in an individual turbine's power
coefficient when placed in close proximity to neighbours, thus yielding much
higher power outputs for a given area of land. A potential flow model of
inter-VAWT interactions is developed to investigate the effect of changes in
VAWT spatial arrangement on the array performance coefficient, which compares
the expected average power coefficient of turbines in an array to a
spatially-isolated turbine. A geometric arrangement based on the configuration
of shed vortices in the wake of schooling fish is shown to significantly
increase the array performance coefficient based upon an array of 16x16 wind
turbines. Results suggest increases in power output of over one order of
magnitude for a given area of land as compared to HAWTs.Comment: Submitted for publication in BioInspiration and Biomimetics. Note:
The technology described in this paper is protected under both US and
international pending patents filed by the California Institute of Technolog
Next Generation Network Real-Time Kinematic Interpolation Segment to Improve the User Accuracy
This paper demonstrates that automatic selection of the right interpolation/smoothing method in a GNSS-based network realtime
kinematic (NRTK) interpolation segment can improve the accuracy of the rover position estimates and also the processing
time in the NRTK processing center. The methods discussed and investigated are inverse distance weighting (IDW); bilinear and
bicubic spline interpolation; kriging interpolation; thin-plate splines; and numerical approximation methods for spatial processes.
The methods are implemented and tested using GNSS data from reference stations in the Norwegian network RTK service called
CPOS.Data sets with an average baseline between reference stations of 60–70 kmwere selected. 12 prediction locations were used to
analyze the performance of the interpolation methods by computing and comparing different measures of the goodness of fit such
as the root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error, and mean absolute error, and also the computation time was compared.
Results of the tests show that ordinary kriging with theMat´ern covariance function clearly provides the best results. The thin-plate
spline provides the second best results of the methods selected and with the test data used
Simulation of GNSS reflected signals and estimation of position accuracy in GNSS-challenged environment
Abstract
The paper describes the development and testing
of a simulation tool, called QualiSIM. The tool estimates
GNSS-based position accuracy based on a simulation
of the environment surrounding the GNSS antenna,
with a special focus on city-scape environments with large
amounts of signal reflections from non-line-of-sight satellites.
The signal reflections are implemented using the extended
geometric path length of the signal path caused by
reflections from the surrounding buildings.
Based on real GPS satellite positions, simulated Galileo
satellite positions, models of atmospheric effect on the
satellite signals, designs of representative environments
e.g. urban and rural scenarios, and a method to simulate
reflection of satellite signals within the environment we
are able to estimate the position accuracy given several
prerequisites as described in the paper.
The result is a modelling of the signal path from satellite
to receiver, the satellite availability, the extended pseudoranges
caused by signal reflection, and an estimate of the
position accuracy based on a least squares adjustment of
the extended pseudoranges. The paper describes the models
and algorithms used and a verification test where the
results of QualiSIM are compared with results from collection
of real GPS data in an environment with much signal
reflection.</jats:p
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