848 research outputs found
Abundances of Suprathermal Heavy Ions in CIRs during the Minimum of Solar Cycle 23
In this paper we examine the elemental composition of the 0.1-1 MeV/nucleon
interplanetary heavy ions from H to Fe in corotating interaction regions (CIRs)
measured by the SIT (Suprathermal Ion Telescope) instrument. We use
observations taken on board the STEREO spacecraft from January 2007 through
December 2010, which included the unusually long solar minimum following solar
cycle 23. During this period instruments on STEREO observed more than 50 CIR
events making it possible to investigate CIR ion abundances during solar
minimum conditions with unprecedented high statistics. The observations reveal
annual variations of relative ion abundances in the CIRs during the 2007-2008
period as indicated by the He/H, He/O and Fe/O elemental ratios. We discuss
possible causes of the variability in terms of the helium focusing cone passage
and heliolatitude dependence. The year 2009 was very quiet in CIR event
activity. In 2010 the elemental composition in CIRs were influenced by sporadic
solar energetic particle (SEP) events. The 2010 He/H and He/O abundance ratios
in CIRs show large event to event variations with values resembling the
SEP-like composition. This finding points out that the suprathermal SEPs could
be the source population for CIR acceleration.Comment: accepted for publication in Solar Physic
3He-rich SEP Events Observed by STEREO-A
Using the SIT (Suprathermal Ion Telescope) instrument on STEREO-A we have
examined the abundance of the rare isotope 3He during the rising activity phase
of solar cycle 24 between January 2010 and December 2011. We have identified
six solar energetic particle (SEP) events with enormous abundance enhancements
of 3He (3He/4He >1). The events were short lasting, typically ~0.5-1 day and
most of them occurred in association with high-speed solar wind streams and
corotating interaction regions. With one exception the events were not
associated with ~100 keV solar electron intensity increases. The events showed
also enhanced NeS/O and Fe/O ratios. The solar images indicate that the events
were generally associated with the active regions located near a coronal hole.Comment: accepted for publication in AIP Conference Proceedings for
'Thirteenth International Solar Wind Conference
Multi-Spacecraft Observations of Recurrent 3He-Rich Solar Energetic Particles
We study the origin of 3He-rich solar energetic particles (<1 MeV/nucleon)
that are observed consecutively on STEREO-B, ACE, and STEREO-A spacecraft when
they are separated in heliolongitude by more than 90{\deg}. The 3He-rich period
on STEREO-B and STEREO-A commences on 2011 July 1 and 2011 July 16,
respectively. The ACE 3He-rich period consists of two sub-events starting on
2011 July 7 and 2011 July 9. We associate the STEREO-B July 1 and ACE July 7
3He-rich events with the same sizeable active region producing X-ray flares
accompanied by prompt electron events, when it was near the west solar limb as
seen from the respective spacecraft. The ACE July 9 and STEREO-A July 16 events
were dispersionless with enormous 3He enrichment, lacking solar energetic
electrons and occurring in corotating interaction regions. We associate these
events with a small, recently emerged active region near the border of a
low-latitude coronal hole that produced numerous jet-like emissions temporally
correlated with type III radio bursts. For the first time we present
observations of 1) solar regions with long-lasting conditions for 3He
acceleration and 2) solar energetic 3He that is temporary
confined/re-accelerated in interplanetary space.Comment: accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa
Growing Beagles and Foxhound-Boxer-Ingelheim Labrador Retriever mixed breeds show a forelimb-dominated gait and a cranial shift in weight support over time during a kinetic gait analysis
OBJECTIVETo collect kinetic gait reference data of dogs of 2 breeds in their growth period during walking and trotting gait, to describe their development, and to investigate the weight support pattern over time.ANIMALS8 Foxhound-Boxer-Ingelheim Labrador Retriever mixed breeds and 4 Beagles.PROCEDURESGround reaction force variables (GRFs), peak vertical force and vertical impulse, and temporal variables (TVs) derived therefrom; time of occurrence; and stance times were collected. Body weight distribution (BWD) was evaluated. Six measurements, each containing 1 trial in walking and 1 trial in trotting gait, were taken at age 10, 17, 26, 34, 52, and 78 weeks. The study period started July 17, 2013 and lasted until October 7, 2015. Area under the curve with respect to increase was applied. The difference of area under the curve with respect to increase values between breeds and gaits was analyzed using either the t test or the Mann-Whitney test. Generalized mixed linear models were applied.R E SU LTSSignificant differences in gait and breed comparisons were found. Growing dogs showed a forelimb-dominated gait. The development of GRF and TV values over the study period were described.CLINICAL RELEVANCEReference values for GRFs, TVs, and BWDs in growing dogs were given. A cranial shift in weight support over time was found during trotting gait. Smaller, younger dogs walked and trotted more inconsistently
Kernel Spectral Clustering and applications
In this chapter we review the main literature related to kernel spectral
clustering (KSC), an approach to clustering cast within a kernel-based
optimization setting. KSC represents a least-squares support vector machine
based formulation of spectral clustering described by a weighted kernel PCA
objective. Just as in the classifier case, the binary clustering model is
expressed by a hyperplane in a high dimensional space induced by a kernel. In
addition, the multi-way clustering can be obtained by combining a set of binary
decision functions via an Error Correcting Output Codes (ECOC) encoding scheme.
Because of its model-based nature, the KSC method encompasses three main steps:
training, validation, testing. In the validation stage model selection is
performed to obtain tuning parameters, like the number of clusters present in
the data. This is a major advantage compared to classical spectral clustering
where the determination of the clustering parameters is unclear and relies on
heuristics. Once a KSC model is trained on a small subset of the entire data,
it is able to generalize well to unseen test points. Beyond the basic
formulation, sparse KSC algorithms based on the Incomplete Cholesky
Decomposition (ICD) and , , Group Lasso regularization are
reviewed. In that respect, we show how it is possible to handle large scale
data. Also, two possible ways to perform hierarchical clustering and a soft
clustering method are presented. Finally, real-world applications such as image
segmentation, power load time-series clustering, document clustering and big
data learning are considered.Comment: chapter contribution to the book "Unsupervised Learning Algorithms
Corporate Governance, Opaque Bank Activities, and Risk/Return Efficiency: Pre- and Post-Crisis Evidence from Turkey
Does better corporate governance unambiguously improve the risk/return efficiency of banks? Or does either a re-orientation of banks' revenue mix towards more opaque products, an economic downturn, or tighter supervision create off-setting or reinforcing effects? The authors relate bank efficiency to shortfalls from a stochastic risk/return frontier. They analyze how internal governance mechanisms (CEO duality, board experience, political connections, and education profile) and external governance mechanisms (discipline exerted by shareholders, depositors, or skilled employees) determine efficiency in a sample of Turkish banks. The 2000 financial crisis was a wakeup call for bank efficiency and corporate governance. As a result, better corporate governance mechanisms have been able to improve risk/return efficiency when the economic, regulatory, and supervisory environments are more stable and bank products are more complex.corporate governance;bank risk;noninterest income;crisis;frontier
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