Thermal Energy Generation in the Earth

We show that a recently introduced class of electromagnetic composite particles can explain some discrepancies in observations involving heat and helium released from the earth. Energy release during the formation of the composites and subsequent nuclear reactions involving the composites are described that can quantitatively account for the discrepancies and are expected to have implications in other areas of geophysics, for example, a new picture of heat production and volcanism in the earth is presented.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

A Measure of Emotional Empathy for Adolescents and Adults

A new, multi-dimensional scale of emotional empathy is described. The scale consists of 30 items and was administered to 793 adolescents and adults. A principal components analysis yielded six meaningful factors. Alpha reliabilities for all scale scores were moderate to high, and the scales demonstrate significant relationships to a number of behavioral criteria. The new empathy scale measures emotional aspects of empathy and can be used by researchers interested in a general measure of emotional empathy as well as providing detailed sub-scales

Special coatings control temperature of structures

Special coatings in the form of paints that exhibit controlled ratios of sunlight absorptivity to grey-body emissivity control the temperature of structures in space flight. These finishes exhibit good resistance to ultraviolet radiation and do not discolor

The Multidimensional Emotional Empathy Scale (MDEES)

The Multidimesional Emotional Empathy Scale (Caruso & Mayer, 1998) is a scale of self-reported empathy

Automatic Processing of High-Rate, High-Density Multibeam Echosounder Data

Multibeam echosounders (MBES) are currently the best way to determine the bathymetry of large regions of the seabed with high accuracy. They are becoming the standard instrument for hydrographic surveying and are also used in geological studies, mineral exploration and scientific investigation of the earth\u27s crustal deformations and life cycle. The significantly increased data density provided by an MBES has significant advantages in accurately delineating the morphology of the seabed, but comes with the attendant disadvantage of having to handle and process a much greater volume of data. Current data processing approaches typically involve (computer aided) human inspection of all data, with time-consuming and subjective assessment of all data points. As data rates increase with each new generation of instrument and required turn-around times decrease, manual approaches become unwieldy and automatic methods of processing essential. We propose a new method for automatically processing MBES data that attempts to address concerns of efficiency, objectivity, robustness and accuracy. The method attributes each sounding with an estimate of vertical and horizontal error, and then uses a model of information propagation to transfer information about the depth from each sounding to its local neighborhood. Embedded in the survey area are estimation nodes that aim to determine the true depth at an absolutely defined location, along with its associated uncertainty. As soon as soundings are made available, the nodes independently assimilate propagated information to form depth hypotheses which are then tracked and updated on-line as more data is gathered. Consequently, we can extract at any time a “current-best” estimate for all nodes, plus co-located uncertainties and other metrics. The method can assimilate data from multiple surveys, multiple instruments or repeated passes of the same instrument in real-time as data is being gathered. The data assimilation scheme is sufficiently robust to deal with typical survey echosounder errors. Robustness is improved by pre-conditioning the data, and allowing the depth model to be incrementally defined. A model monitoring scheme ensures that inconsistent data are maintained as separate but internally consistent depth hypotheses. A disambiguation of these competing hypotheses is only carried out when required by the user. The algorithm has a low memory footprint, runs faster than data can currently be gathered, and is suitable for real-time use. We call this algorithm CUBE (Combined Uncertainty and Bathymetry Estimator). We illustrate CUBE on two data sets gathered in shallow water with different instruments and for different purposes. We show that the algorithm is robust to even gross failure modes, and reliably processes the vast majority of the data. In both cases, we confirm that the estimates made by CUBE are statistically similar to those generated by hand

The Hubble Sequence in Groups: The Birth of the Early-Type Galaxies

The physical mechanisms and timescales that determine the morphological signatures and the quenching of star formation of typical (~L*) elliptical galaxies are not well understood. To address this issue, we have simulated the formation of a group of galaxies with sufficient resolution to track the evolution of gas and stars inside about a dozen galaxy group members over cosmic history. Galaxy groups, which harbor many elliptical galaxies in the universe, are a particularly promising environment to investigate morphological transformation and star formation quenching, due to their high galaxy density, their relatively low velocity dispersion, and the presence of a hot intragroup medium. Our simulation reproduces galaxies with different Hubble morphologies and, consequently, enables us to study when and where the morphological transformation of galaxies takes place. The simulation does not include feedback from active galactic nuclei showing that it is not an essential ingredient for producing quiescent, red elliptical galaxies in galaxy groups. Ellipticals form, as suspected, through galaxy mergers. In contrast with what has often been speculated, however, these mergers occur at z>1, before the merging progenitors enter the virial radius of the group and before the group is fully assembled. The simulation also shows that quenching of star formation in the still star-forming elliptical galaxies lags behind their morphological transformation, but, once started, is taking less than a billion years to complete. As long envisaged the star formation quenching happens as the galaxies approach and enter the finally assembled group, due to quenching of gas accretion and (to a lesser degree) stripping. A similar sort is followed by unmerged, disk galaxies, which, as they join the group, are turned into the red-and-dead disks that abound in these environments.Comment: 12 pages, 12 Figures, 1 Table, accepted for publication in AP