3,850 research outputs found
Photometry of the Magnetic White Dwarf SDSS 121209.31+013627.7
The results of 27 hours of time series photometry of SDSS 121209.31+013627.7
are presented. The binary period established from spectroscopy is confirmed and
refined to 0.061412 d (88.43 minutes). The photometric variations are dominated
by a brightening of about 16 mmag, lasting a little less than half a binary
cycle. The amplitude is approximately the same in V, R and white light. A
secondary small brightness increase during each cycle may also be present. We
speculate that SDSS 121209.31+013627.7 may be a polar in a low state.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
New Periodic Variables from the Hipparcos Epoch Photometry
Two selection statistics are used to extract new candidate periodic variables
from the epoch photometry of the Hipparcos catalogue. The primary selection
criterion is a signal to noise ratio. The dependence of this statistic on the
number of observations is calibrated using about 30 000 randomly permuted
Hipparcos datasets. A significance level of 0.1% is used to extract a first
batch of candidate variables. The second criterion requires that the optimal
frequency be unaffected if the data are de-trended by low order polynomials. We
find 2675 new candidate periodic variables, of which the majority (2082) are
from the Hipparcos "unsolved" variables. Potential problems with the
interpretation of the data (e.g. aliasing) are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
BRAIN-CENTERED HAZARDS: RISKS & REMEDIES
PresentationKnowing that risk is created by exposure to hazards, all members of the workforce have been enlisted to become âhazard recognizers.â Front-line workers and leaders alike are taught to observe their work environments for physical, technological, and behavioral elements that can cause or contribute to personal injuries and/or organizational accidents. The purpose of hazard identification is to determine the right hierarchy of controls, beginning with elimination of the hazard or substitution of materials and processes. A great deal of progress in personal and process safety has been made through the effective identification and control of these hazards. But what if the potential hazards and associated safety and business risks are housed in the human brain? And, what if these brain-centered hazards are exacerbated by the fact that critical organizational elementsâincluding work environments, technological interfaces, operating procedures, work schedules and even work culturesâare not aligned with how the human brain actually works
Period-doubling events in the light curve of R Cygni: evidence for chaotic behaviour
A detailed analysis of the century long visual light curve of the long-period
Mira star R Cygni is presented and discussed. The data were collected from the
publicly available databases of the AFOEV, the BAAVSS and the VSOLJ. The full
light curve consists of 26655 individual points obtained between 1901 and 2001.
The light curve and its periodicity were analysed with help of the O-C diagram,
Fourier analysis and time-frequency analysis. The results demonstrate the
limitations of these linear methods. The next step was to investigate the
possible presence of low-dimensional chaos in the light curve. For this, a
smoothed and noise-filtered signal was created from the averaged data and with
help of time delay embedding, we have tried to reconstruct the attractor of the
system. The main result is that R Cygni shows such period-doubling events that
can be interpreted as caused by a repetitive bifurcation of the chaotic
attractor between a period 2T orbit and chaos. The switch between these two
states occurs in a certain compact region of the phase space, where the light
curve is characterized by ~1500-days long transients. The Lyapunov spectrum was
computed for various embedding parameters confirming the chaotic attractor,
although the exponents suffer from quite high uncertainty because of the
applied approximation. Finally, the light curve is compared with a simple one
zone model generated by a third-order differential equation which exhibits
well-expressed period-doubling bifurcation. The strong resemblance is another
argument for chaotic behaviour. Further studies should address the problem of
global flow reconstruction, including the determination of the accurate
Lyapunov exponents and dimension.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&A (some figures
are of reduced quality
Bubble formation during the collision of a sessile drop with a meniscus
The impact of a sessile droplet with a moving meniscus, as encountered in
processes such as dip-coating, generically leads to the entrapment of small air
bubbles. Here we experimentally study this process of bubble formation by
looking through the liquid using high-speed imaging. Our central finding is
that the size of the entrapped bubble crucially depends on the location where
coalescence between the drop and the moving meniscus is initiated: (i) at a
finite height above the substrate, or (ii) exactly at the contact line. In the
first case, we typically find bubble sizes of the order of a few microns,
independent of the size and speed of the impacting drop. By contrast, the
bubbles that are formed when coalescence starts at the contact line become
increasingly large, as the size or the velocity of the impacting drop is
increased. We show how these observations can be explained from a balance
between the lubrication pressure in the air layer and the capillary pressure of
the drop
Fitting power-law distributions to data with measurement errors
If X, which follows a power-law distribution, is observed subject to Gaussian measurement
error e, thenX+e is distributed as the convolution of the power-lawand Gaussian distributions.
Maximum-likelihood estimation of the parameters of the two distributions is considered.
Large-sample formulae are given for the covariance matrix of the estimated parameters, and
implementation of a small-sample method (the jackknife) is also described. Other topics dealt
with are tests for goodness of fit of the posited distribution, and tests whether special cases (no
measurement errors or an infinite upper limit to the power-law distribution) may be preferred.
The application of the methodology is illustrated by fitting convolved distributions to masses
of giant molecular clouds in M33 and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and to HI cloud
masses in the LMC.Web of Scienc
Two candidate brown dwarf companions around core helium-burning stars
Hot subdwarf stars of spectral type B (sdBs) are evolved, core helium-burning
objects. The formation of those objects is puzzling, because the progenitor
star has to lose almost its entire hydrogen envelope in the red-giant phase.
Binary interactions have been invoked, but single sdBs exist as well. We report
the discovery of two close hot subdwarf binaries with small radial velocity
amplitudes. Follow-up photometry revealed reflection effects originating from
cool irradiated companions, but no eclipses. The lower mass limits for the
companions of CPD-64481 () and PHL\,457
() are significantly below the stellar mass limit. Hence
they could be brown dwarfs unless the inclination is unfavourable. Two very
similar systems have already been reported. The probability that none of them
is a brown dwarf is very small, 0.02%. Hence we provide further evidence that
substellar companions with masses that low are able to eject a common envelope
and form an sdB star. Furthermore, we find that the properties of the observed
sample of hot subdwarfs in reflection effect binaries is consistent with a
scenario where single sdBs can still be formed via common envelope events, but
their low-mass substellar companions do not survive.Comment: accepted to A&
Adaptive end-to-end optimization of mobile video streaming using QoS negotiation
Video streaming over wireless links is a non-trivial problem due to the large and frequent changes in the quality of the underlying radio channel combined with latency constraints. We believe that every layer in a mobile system must be prepared to adapt its behavior to its environment. Thus layers must be capable of operating in multiple modes; each mode will show a different quality and resource usage. Selecting the right mode of operation requires exchange of information between interacting layers. For example, selecting the best channel coding requires information about the quality of the channel (capacity, bit-error-rate) as well as the requirements (latency, reliability) of the compressed video stream generated by the source encoder. In this paper we study the application of our generic QoS negotiation scheme to a specific configuration for mobile video transmission. We describe the results of experiments studying the overall effectiveness, stability, and dynamics of adaptation of our distributed optimization approach
Uterine torsion in the mare: a review and three case reports
When a mare exhibits signs of colic during the last trimester of gestation, uterine torsion should always be part of the differential diagnosis. Uterine torsion is an infrequently occurring but serious complication in pregnant mares. In this article a review is given of the appearance, causes, symptoms, diagnostic examinations, treatment options and prognosis for the mare, as well as for her foal. At the end, three unusual cases are described
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