549 research outputs found
Socially stable matchings in the hospitals / residents problem
In the Hospitals/Residents (HR) problem, agents are partitioned into hospitals and residents. Each agent wishes to be matched to an agent in the other set and has a strict preference over these potential matches. A matching is stable if there are no blocking pairs, i.e., no pair of agents that prefer each other to their assigned matches. Such a situation is undesirable as it could lead to a deviation in which the blocking pair form a private arrangement outside the matching. This however assumes that the blocking pair have social ties or communication channels to facilitate the deviation. Relaxing the stability definition to take account of the potential lack of social ties between agents can yield larger stable matchings.
In this paper, we define the Hospitals/Residents problem under Social Stability (HRSS) which takes into account social ties between agents by introducing a social network graph to the HR problem. Edges in the social network graph correspond to resident-hospital pairs in the HR instance that know one another. Pairs that do not have corresponding edges in the social network graph can belong to a matching M but they can never block M. Relative to a relaxed stability definition for HRSS, called social stability, we show that socially stable matchings can have different sizes and the problem of finding a maximum socially stable matching is NP-hard, though approximable within 3/2. Furthermore we give polynomial time algorithms for three special cases of the problem
How does star formation proceed in the circumnuclear starburst ring of NGC 6951?
Gas inflowing along stellar bars is often stalled at the location of
circumnuclear rings, that form an effective reservoir for massive star
formation and thus shape the central regions of galaxies. However, how exactly
star formation is proceeding within these circumnuclear starburst rings is
subject of debate. Two main scenarios for this process have been put forward:
In the first the onset of star formation is regulated by the total amount of
gas present in the ring with star forming starting once a mass threshold has
reached in a `random' position within the ring like `popcorn'. In the second
star formation preferentially takes place near the locations where the gas
enters the ring. This scenario has been dubbed `pearls-on-a-string'. Here we
combine new optical IFU data covering the full stellar bar with existing
multi-wavelength data to study in detail the 580 pc radius circumnuclear
starburst ring in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 6951. Using HST archival data
together with Sauron and Oasis IFU data, we derive the ages and stellar masses
of star clusters as well as the total stellar content of the central region.
Adding information on the molecular gas distribution, stellar and gaseous
dynamics and extinction, we find that the circumnuclear ring in NGC 6951 is
~1-1.5 Gyr old and has been forming stars for most of that time. We see
evidence for preferred sites of star formation within the ring, consistent with
the `pearls-on-a-string' scenario, when focusing on the youngest stellar
populations. Due to the ring's longevity this signature is washed out when
older stellar populations are included in the analysis.Comment: accepted for publication in A&A, 15 page
Late-type galaxies observed with SAURON. Two-dimensional stellar and emission-line kinematics of 18 spirals
We present the stellar and gas kinematics of a sample of 18 nearby late-type
spiral galaxies (Hubble types ranging from Sb to Sd), observed with the
integral-field spectrograph SAURON at the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope.
SAURON covers the spectral range 4800-5380 A, allowing us to measure the Hbeta,
Fe, Mgb absorption features and the emission in the Hbeta line and the [OIII],
and [NI] doublets over a 33x41 arcsec field of view. The maps cover the nuclear
region of these late-type galaxies and in all cases include the entire bulge.
In many cases the stellar kinematics suggests the presence of a cold inner
region, as visible from a central drop in the stellar velocity dispersion. The
ionised gas is almost ubiquitous and behaves in a complicated fashion: the gas
velocity fields often display more features than the stellar ones, including
wiggles in the zero-velocity lines, irregular distributions, ring-like
structures. The line ratio [OIII]/Hbeta often takes on low values over most of
the field, probably indicating a wide-spread star formation.Comment: 34 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. A version
with full resolution figures is available at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/sauron/papers/ganda2005_late_types.pd
SAURON Observations of Disks in Spheroids
The panoramic integral-field spectrograph SAURON is currently being used to
map the stellar kinematics, gaseous kinematics, and stellar populations of a
large number of early-type galaxies and bulges. Here, we describe SAURON
observations of cold stellar disks embedded in spheroids (NGC3384, NGC4459,
NGC4526), we illustrate the kinematics and ionization state of large-scale
gaseous disks (NGC4278, NGC7742), and we show preliminary comparisons of SAURON
data with barred galaxy N-body simulations (NGC3623).Comment: 8 pages including 5 figures. To appear in Galaxies: The Third
Dimension, eds. M. Rosado, L. Binnette, & L. Arias (ASP: San Francisco
Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism
“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas.Final Published versio
SAURON: An Innovative Look at Early-Type Galaxies
A summary of the SAURON project and its current status is presented. SAURON
is a panoramic integral-field spectrograph designed to study the stellar
kinematics, gaseous kinematics, and stellar populations of spheroids. Here, the
sample of galaxies and its properties are described. The instrument is detailed
and its capabilities illustrated through observational examples. These includes
results on the structure of central stellar disks, the kinematics and
ionization state of gaseous disks, and the stellar populations of galaxies with
decoupled cores.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. To appear in "The Dynamics, Structure & History
of Galaxies", eds. G. S. Da Costa & E. M. Sadler (San Francisco: ASP).
Version with full resolution images available at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~dynamics/Instruments/Sauron/pub_list.htm
A SAURON look at galaxy bulges
Kinematic and population studies show that bulges are generally rotationally
flattened systems similar to low-luminosity ellipticals. However, observations
with state-of-the-art integral field spectrographs, such as SAURON, indicate
that the situation is much more complex, and allow us to investigate phenomena
such as triaxiality, kinematic decoupling and population substructure, and to
study their connection to current formation and evolution scenarios for bulges
of early-type galaxies. We present the examples of two S0 bulges from galaxies
in our sample of nearby galaxies: one that shows all the properties expected
from classical bulges (NGC5866), and another case that presents kinematic
features appropriate for barred disk galaxies (NGC7332).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publishing in AN (refereed conf.
proc. of the Euro3D Science workshop, IoA Cambridge, May 2003
A SAURON study of dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo Cluster: kinematics and stellar populations
Dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) are the most common galaxy type in nearby
galaxy clusters; even so, many of their basic properties have yet to be
quantified. Here we present the results of our study of 4 Virgo dwarf
ellipticals obtained with the SAURON integral field unit on the William
Herschel Telescope (La Palma, Spain). While traditional long-slit observations
are likely to miss more complicated kinematic features, with SAURON we are able
to study both kinematics and stellar populations in two dimensions, obtaining a
much more detailed view of the mass distribution and star formation histories.
What is visible even in such a small sample is that dEs are not a uniform
group, not only morphologically, but also as far as their kinematic and stellar
population properties are concerned. We find the presence of substructures,
varying degrees of flattening and of rotation, as well as differences in age
and metallicity gradients. We confirm that two of our galaxies are
significantly flattened, yet non-rotating objects, which makes them likely
triaxial systems. The comparison between the dwarf and the giant groups shows
that dEs could be a low-mass extension of Es in the sense that they do seem to
follow the same trends with mass. However, dEs as progenitors of Es seem less
likely as we have seen that dEs have much lower abundance ratios.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the JENAM 2010
Symposium on Dwarf Galaxies (Lisbon, September 9-10, 2010); minor edits and
references adde
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