55,061 research outputs found
Far Field Deposition Of Scoured Regolith Resulting From Lunar Landings
As a lunar lander approaches a dusty surface, the plume from the descent engine impinges on the ground, entraining loose regolith into a high velocity dust spray. Without the inhibition of a background atmosphere, the entrained regolith can travel many kilometers from the landing site. In this work, we simulate the flow field from the throat of the descent engine nozzle to where the dust grains impact the surface many kilometers away. The near field is either continuum or marginally rarefied and is simulated via a loosely coupled hybrid DSMC - Navier Stokes (DPLR) solver. Regions of two-phase and polydisperse granular flows are solved via DSMC. The far field deposition is obtained by using a staged calculation, where the first stages are in the near field where the flow is quasi-steady and the outer stages are unsteady. A realistic landing trajectory is approximated by a set of discrete hovering altitudes which range from 20m to 3m. The dust and gas motions are fully coupled using an interaction model that conserves mass, momentum, and energy statistically and inelastic collisions between dust particles are also accounted for. Simulations of a 4 engine configuration are also examined, and the erosion rates as well as near field particle fluxes are discussed.Astronom
Lie symmetries of (1+2) nonautonomous evolution equations in Financial Mathematics
We analyse two classes of evolution equations which are of special
interest in Financial Mathematics, namely the Two-dimensional Black-Scholes
Equation and the equation for the Two-factor Commodities Problem. Our approach
is that of Lie Symmetry Analysis. We study these equations for the case in
which they are autonomous and for the case in which the parameters of the
equations are unspecified functions of time. For the autonomous Black-Scholes
Equation we find that the symmetry is maximal and so the equation is reducible
to the Classical Heat Equation. This is not the case for the
nonautonomous equation for which the number of symmetries is submaximal. In the
case of the two-factor equation the number of symmetries is submaximal in both
autonomous and nonautonomous cases. When the solution symmetries are used to
reduce each equation to a equation, the resulting equation is of
maximal symmetry and so equivalent to the Classical Heat Equation.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Mathematics in the Special
issue "Mathematical Finance
The Near-Infrared Broad Emission Line Region of Active Galactic Nuclei -- I. The Observations
We present high quality (high signal-to-noise ratio and moderate spectral
resolution) near-infrared (near-IR) spectroscopic observations of 23 well-known
broad-emission line active galactic nuclei (AGN). Additionally, we obtained
simultaneous (within two months) optical spectroscopy of similar quality. The
near-IR broad emission line spectrum of AGN is dominated by permitted
transitions of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and calcium, and by the rich spectrum
of singly-ionized iron. In this paper we present the spectra, line
identifications and measurements, and address briefly some of the important
issues regarding the physics of AGN broad emission line regions. In particular,
we investigate the excitation mechanism of neutral oxygen and confront for the
first time theoretical predictions of the near-IR iron emission spectrum with
observations.Comment: 45 pages, 17 figures, accepted by ApJ
Preferences for Prenatal Tests for Cystic Fibrosis: A Discrete Choice Experiment to Compare the Views of Adult Patients, Carriers of Cystic Fibrosis and Health Professionals
As new technologies enable the development of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) for cystic fibrosis (CF), research examining stakeholder views is essential for the preparation of implementation strategies. Here, we compare the views of potential service users with those of health professionals who provide counselling for prenatal tests. A questionnaire incorporating a discrete choice experiment examined preferences for key attributes of NIPD and explored views on NIPD for CF. Adult patients (n = 92) and carriers of CF (n = 50) were recruited from one children’s and one adult NHS specialist CF centre. Health professionals (n = 70) were recruited via an e-mail invitation to relevant professional bodies. The key attribute affecting service user testing preferences was no miscarriage risk, while for health professionals, accuracy and early testing were important. The uptake of NIPD by service users was predicted to be high and includes couples that would currently decline invasive testing. Many service users (47%) and health professionals (55.2%) thought the availability of NIPD for CF would increase the pressure to undergo prenatal testing. Most service users (68.5%) thought NIPD for CF should be offered to all pregnant women, whereas more health professionals (68.2%) thought NIPD should be reserved for known carrier couples. The implications for clinical practice are discussed
Psychological Issues in Online Adaptive Task Allocation
Adaptive aiding is an idea that offers potential for improvement over many current approaches to aiding in human-computer systems. The expected return of tailoring the system to fit the user could be in the form of improved system performance and/or increased user satisfaction. Issues such as the manner in which information is shared between human and computer, the appropriate division of labor between them, and the level of autonomy of the aid are explored. A simulated visual search task was developed. Subjects are required to identify targets in a moving display while performing a compensatory sub-critical tracking task. By manipulating characteristics of the situation such as imposed task-related workload and effort required to communicate with the computer, it is possible to create conditions in which interaction with the computer would be more or less desirable. The results of preliminary research using this experimental scenario are presented, and future directions for this research effort are discussed
Nature Versus Nurture: Luminous Blue Variable Nebulae in and near Massive Stellar Clusters at the Galactic Center
Three Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are located in and near the Quintuplet
Cluster at the Galactic Center: the Pistol star, G0.120-0.048, and qF362. We
present imaging at 19, 25, 31, and 37 {\mu}m of the region containing these
three LBVs, obtained with SOFIA using FORCAST. We argue that the Pistol and
G0.120-0.048 are identical ``twins" that exhibit contrasting nebulae due to the
external influence of their different environments. Our images reveal the
asymmetric, compressed shell of hot dust surrounding the Pistol Star and
provide the first detection of the thermal emission from the symmetric, hot
dust envelope surrounding G0.120-0.048. Dust and gas composing the Pistol
nebula are primarily heated and ionized by the nearby Quintuplet Cluster stars.
The northern region of the Pistol nebula is decelerated due to the interaction
with the high-velocity (2000 km/s) winds from adjacent Wolf-Rayet Carbon (WC)
stars. With the DustEM code we determine that the Pistol nebula is composed of
a distribution of very small, transiently-heated grains (10-~35 {\AA}) and that
it exhibits a gradient of decreasing grain size from the south to the north due
to differential sputtering by the winds from the WC stars. Dust in the
G0.120-0.048 nebula is primarily heated by the central star; however, the
nebular gas is ionized externally by the Arches Cluster. Unlike the Pistol
nebula, the G0.120-0.048 nebula is freely expanding into the surrounding
medium. Given independent dust and gas mass estimates we find that the Pistol
and G0.120-0.048 nebulae exhibit similar gas-to-dust mass ratios of ~310 and
~290, respectively. Both nebulae share identical size scales (~ 0.7 pc) which
suggests that they have similar dynamical timescales of ~10^5 yrs, assuming a
shell expansion velocity of v_exp 60 km/s.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted to Ap
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