2,577 research outputs found
Trends in the Sea Ice Cover Using Enhanced and Compatible AMSR-E, SSM/I and SMMR Data
Arguably, the most remarkable manifestation of change in the polar regions is the rapid decline (of about -10 %/decade) in the Arctic perennial ice cover. Changes in the global sea ice cover, however, are more modest, being slightly positive in the Southern Hemisphere and slightly negative in the Northern Hemisphere, the significance of which has not been adequately assessed because of unknown errors in the satellite historical data. We take advantage of the recent and more accurate AMSR-E data to evaluate the true seasonal and interannual variability of the sea ice cover, assess the accuracy of historical data, and determine the real trend. Consistently derived ice concentrations from AMSR-E, SSM/I, and SMMR data were analyzed and a slight bias is observed between AMSR-E and SSM/I data mainly because of differences in resolution. Analysis of the combine SMMR, SSM/I and AMSR-E data set, with the bias corrected, shows that the trends in extent and area of sea ice in the Arctic region is -3.4 +/- 0.2 and -4.0 +/- 0.2 % per decade, respectively, while the corresponding values for the Antarctic region is 0.9 +/- 0.2 and 1.7 .+/- 0.3 % per decade. The higher resolution of the AMSR-E provides an improved determination of the location of the ice edge while the SSM/I data show an ice edge about 6 to 12 km further away from the ice pack. Although the current record of AMSR-E is less than 5 years, the data can be utilized in combination with historical data for more accurate determination of the variability and trends in the ice cover
Static and Dynamic Phases for Vortex Matter with Attractive Interactions
Exotic vortex states with long range attraction and short range repulsion
have recently been proposed to arise in superconducting hybrid structures and
multi-band superconductors. Using large scale simulations we examine the static
and dynamic properties of such vortex states interacting with random and
periodic pinning. In the absence of pinning this system does not form patterns
but instead completely phase separates. When pinning is present there is a
transition from inhomogeneous to homogeneous vortex configurations similar to a
wetting phenomenon. Under an applied drive, a dynamical dewetting process can
occur from a strongly pinned homogeneous state into pattern forming states. We
show that a signature of the exotic vortex interactions under transport
measurements is a robust double peak feature in the differential conductivity
curves.Comment: 5 pages, 4 postscript figure
Quasi-Particle Spectra, Charge-Density-Wave, Superconductivity and Electron-Phonon Coupling in 2H-NbSe2
High-resolution photoemission has been used to study the electronic structure
of the charge density wave (CDW) and superconducting (SC) dichalcogenide, 2H-
NbSe2. From the extracted self-energies, important components of the
quasiparticle (QP) interactions have been identified. In contrast to previously
studied TaSe2, the CDW transition does not affect the electronic properties
significantly. The electron-phonon coupling is identified as a dominant
contribution to the QP self-energy and is shown to be very anisotropic
(k-dependent) and much stronger than in TaSe2.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, minor changes, to appear in PR
Telenoid android robot as an embodied perceptual social regulation medium engaging natural human–humanoid interaction
The present paper aims to validate our research on human–humanoid interaction (HHI) using the
minimalist humanoid robot Telenoid. We conducted the human–robot interaction test with 142 young people who had no prior interaction experience with this robot. The main goal is the analysis of the two social dimensions (‘‘Perception’’ and ‘‘Believability’’) useful for increasing the natural behaviour between users and Telenoid.Weadministered our custom questionnaire to human subjects in association with a well defined experimental setting (‘‘ordinary and goal-guided task’’). A thorough analysis of the questionnaires has been carried out and reliability and internal consistency in correlation between the multiple items has been calculated. Our experimental results show that the perceptual behaviour and believability, as implicit social competences, could improve the meaningfulness and the natural-like sense of human–humanoid interaction in everyday life task-driven activities. Telenoid is perceived as an autonomous cooperative agent for a shared environment by human beings
A dynamical model of surrogate reactions
A new dynamical model is developed to describe the whole process of surrogate
reactions; transfer of several nucleons at an initial stage, thermal
equilibration of residues leading to washing out of shell effects and decay of
populated compound nuclei are treated in a unified framework. Multi-dimensional
Langevin equations are employed to describe time-evolution of collective
coordinates with a time-dependent potential energy surface corresponding to
different stages of surrogate reactions. The new model is capable of
calculating spin distributions of the compound nuclei, one of the most
important quantity in the surrogate technique. Furthermore, various observables
of surrogate reactions can be calculated, e.g., energy and angular distribution
of ejectile, and mass distributions of fission fragments. These features are
important to assess validity of the proposed model itself, to understand
mechanisms of the surrogate reactions and to determine unknown parameters of
the model. It is found that spin distributions of compound nuclei produced in
O+U O+U and O+U
O+U reactions are equivalent and much less than
10, therefore satisfy conditions proposed by Chiba and Iwamoto (PRC 81,
044604(2010)) if they are used as a pair in the surrogate ratio method.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
An android architecture for bio-inspired honest signalling in Human-Humanoid Interaction
This paper outlines an augmented robotic architecture to study the conditions of successful Human-Humanoid Interaction (HHI). The architecture is designed as a testable model generator for interaction centred on the ability to emit, display and detect honest signals. First we overview the biological theory in which the concept of honest signals has been put forward in order to assess its explanatory power. We reconstruct the application of the concept of honest signalling in accounting for interaction in strategic contexts and in laying bare the foundation for an automated social metrics. We describe the modules of the architecture, which is intended to implement the concept of honest signalling in connection with a refinement provided by delivering the sense of co-presence in a shared environment. Finally, an analysis of Honest Signals, in term of body postures, exhibited by participants during the preliminary experiment with the Geminoid Hi-1 is provided
Thin Sea-Ice Thickness as Inferred from Passive Microwave and In Situ Observations
Since microwave radiometric signals from sea-ice strongly reflect physical conditions of a layer near the ice surface, a relationship of brightness temperature with thickness is possible especially during the early stages of ice growth. Sea ice is most saline during formation stage and as the salinity decreases with time while at the same time the thickness of the sea ice increases, a corresponding change in the dielectric properties and hence the brightness temperature may occur. This study examines the extent to which the relationships of thickness with brightness temperature (and with emissivity) hold for thin sea-ice, approximately less than 0.2 -0.3 m, using near concurrent measurements of sea-ice thickness in the Sea of Okhotsk from a ship and passive microwave brightness temperature data from an over-flying aircraft. The results show that the brightness temperature and emissivity increase with ice thickness for the frequency range of 10-37 GHz. The relationship is more pronounced at lower frequencies and at the horizontal polarization. We also established an empirical relationship between ice thickness and salinity in the layer near the ice surface from a field experiment, which qualitatively support the idea that changes in the near-surface brine characteristics contribute to the observed thickness-brightness temperature/emissivity relationship. Our results suggest that for thin ice, passive microwave radiometric signals contain, ice thickness information which can be utilized in polar process studies
Sub-barrier capture with quantum diffusion approach: actinide-based reactions
With the quantum diffusion approach the behavior of capture cross sections
and mean-square angular momenta of captured systems are revealed in the
reactions with deformed nuclei at subbarrier energies. The calculated results
are in a good agreement with existing experimental data. With decreasing
bombarding energy under the barrier the external turning point of the
nucleusnucleus potential leaves the region of short-range nuclear interaction
and action of friction. Because of this change of the regime of interaction, an
unexpected enhancement of the capture cross section is expected at bombarding
energies far below the Coulomb barrier. This effect is shown its worth in the
dependence of mean-square angular momentum of captured system on the bombarding
energy. From the comparison of calculated and experimental capture cross
sections, the importance of quasifission near the entrance channel is shown for
the actinide-based reactions leading to superheavy nuclei.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures, Regular Articl
Fabrication and thermal stability of arrays of Fe nanodots
This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.We have fabricated arrays of 60-nm-size magnetic Fe nanodots over a 1-cm2 -size area using nanoporous alumina membranes as shadow masks. The size and size distribution of the nanodots correlate very well with that of the membrane pores. By placing an antiferromagnetic FeF2 layer underneath the Fe nanodots, an exchange anisotropy can be introduced into the Fe/FeF2 system. We have observed an increase in the magnetic hysteresis loop squareness in biased nanodots, suggesting that exchange bias may be used as a tunable source of anisotropy to stabilize the magnetization in such nanodots
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