21,674 research outputs found
Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation
Radio astronomy observational facilities are under constant upgradation and
development to achieve better capabilities including increasing the time and
frequency resolutions of the recorded data, and increasing the receiving and
recording bandwidth. As only a limited spectrum resource has been allocated to
radio astronomy by the International Telecommunication Union, this results in
the radio observational instrumentation being inevitably exposed to undesirable
radio frequency interference (RFI) signals which originate mainly from
terrestrial human activity and are becoming stronger with time. RFIs degrade
the quality of astronomical data and even lead to data loss. The impact of RFIs
on scientific outcome is becoming progressively difficult to manage. In this
article, we motivate the requirement for RFI mitigation, and review the RFI
characteristics, mitigation techniques and strategies. Mitigation strategies
adopted at some representative observatories, telescopes and arrays are also
introduced. We also discuss and present advantages and shortcomings of the four
classes of RFI mitigation strategies, applicable at the connected causal
stages: preventive, pre-detection, pre-correlation and post-correlation. The
proper identification and flagging of RFI is key to the reduction of data loss
and improvement in data quality, and is also the ultimate goal of developing
RFI mitigation techniques. This can be achieved through a strategy involving a
combination of the discussed techniques in stages. Recent advances in high
speed digital signal processing and high performance computing allow for
performing RFI excision of large data volumes generated from large telescopes
or arrays in both real time and offline modes, aiding the proposed strategy.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, Chinese version accepted for publication in
Acta Astronomica Sinica; English version to appear in Chinese Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Nucleon-nucleon cross sections in neutron-rich matter and isospin transport in heavy-ion reactions at intermediate energies
Nucleon-nucleon (NN) cross sections are evaluated in neutron-rich matter
using a scaling model according to nucleon effective masses. It is found that
the in-medium NN cross sections are not only reduced but also have a different
isospin dependence compared with the free-space ones. Because of the
neutron-proton effective mass splitting the difference between nn and pp
scattering cross sections increases with the increasing isospin asymmetry of
the medium. Within the transport model IBUU04, the in-medium NN cross sections
are found to influence significantly the isospin transport in heavy-ion
reactions. With the in-medium NN cross sections, a symmetry energy of
was found most acceptable
compared with both the MSU isospin diffusion data and the presently acceptable
neutron-skin thickness in Pb. The isospin dependent part of isobaric nuclear incompressibility was further narrowed down to
MeV. The possibility of determining simultaneously the in-medium
NN cross sections and the symmetry energy was also studied. The proton
transverse flow, or even better the combined transverse flow of neutrons and
protons, can be used as a probe of the in-medium NN cross sections without much
hindrance from the uncertainties of the symmetry energy.Comment: 32 pages including 14 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Sulforaphane induces adipocyte browning and promotes glucose and lipid utilization
Scope: Obesity is closely related to the imbalance of white adipose tissue storing excess calories, and brown adipose tissue dissipating energy to produce heat in mammals. Recent studies revealed that acquisition of brown characteristics by white adipocytes, termed “browning,” may positively contribute to cellular bioenergetics and metabolism homeostasis. The goal was to investigate the putative effects of natural antioxidant sulforaphane (1-isothiocyanate-4-methyl-sulfonyl butane; SFN) on browning of white adipocytes. Methods and Results: 3T3-L1 mature white adipocytes were treated with SFN for 48 h, and then the mitochondrial content, function, and energy utilization were assessed. SFN was found to induce 3T3-L1 adipocytes browning based on the increased mitochondrial content and activity of respiratory chain enzymes, whereas the mechanism involved the upregulation of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2/ sirtuin1/ peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha signaling. SFN enhanced uncoupling protein 1 expression, a marker for brown adipocyte, leading to the decrease in cellular ATP. SFN also enhanced glucose uptake and oxidative utilization, lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Conclusion: SFN-induced browning of white adipocytes enhanced the utilization of cellular fuel, and the application of SFN is a promising strategy to combat obesity and obesity-related metabolic disorder
Determination of the stiffness of the nuclear symmetry energy from isospin diffusion
With an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model, we find that the
degree of isospin diffusion in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies is
affected by both the stiffness of the nuclear symmetry energy and the momentum
dependence of the nucleon potential. Using a momentum dependence derived from
the Gogny effective interaction, recent experimental data from NSCL/MSU on
isospin diffusion are shown to be consistent with a nuclear symmetry energy
given by at
subnormal densities. This leads to a significantly constrained value of about
-550 MeV for the isospin-dependent part of the isobaric incompressibility of
isospin asymmetric nuclear matter.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, revised version, to appear in PR
Differential isospin-fractionation in dilute asymmetric nuclear matter
The differential isospin-fractionation (IsoF) during the liquid-gas phase
transition in dilute asymmetric nuclear matter is studied as a function of
nucleon momentum. Within a self-consistent thermal model it is shown that the
neutron/proton ratio of the gas phase becomes {\it smaller} than that of the
liquid phase for energetic nucleons, although the gas phase is overall more
neutron-rich. Clear indications of the differential IsoF consistent with the
thermal model predictions are demonstrated within a transport model for
heavy-ion reactions. Future comparisons with experimental data will allow us to
extract critical information about the momentum dependence of the isovector
strong interaction.Comment: Rapid Communication, Phys. Rev. C (2007) in pres
Detection of a methanol megamaser in a major-merger galaxy
We have detected emission from both the 4_{-1}-3_{0} E (36.2~GHz) class I and
7_{-2}-8_{-1} E (37.7~GHz) class II methanol transitions towards the centre of
the closest ultra-luminous infrared galaxy Arp 220. The emission in both the
methanol transitions show narrow spectral features and have luminosities
approximately 8 orders of magnitude stronger than that observed from typical
class I methanol masers observed in Galactic star formation regions. The
emission is also orders of magnitude stronger than the expected intensity of
thermal emission from these transitions and based on these findings we suggest
that the emission from the two transitions are masers. These observations
provides the first detection of a methanol megamaser in the 36.2 and 37.7 GHz
transitions and represents only the second detection of a methanol megamaser,
following the recent report of an 84 GHz methanol megamaser in NGC1068. We find
the methanol megamasers are significantly offset from the nuclear region and
arise towards regions where there is Ha emission, suggesting that it is
associated with starburst activity. The high degree of correlation between the
spatial distribution of the 36.2 GHz methanol and X-ray plume emission suggests
that the production of strong extragalactic class I methanol masers is related
to galactic outflow driven shocks and perhaps cosmic rays. In contrast to OH
and H2O megamasers which originate close to the nucleus, methanol megamasers
provide a new probe of feedback (e.g. outflows) processes on larger-scales and
of star formation beyond the circumnuclear starburst regions of active
galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ
Nuclear symmetry energy and its density slope at normal density extracted from global nucleon optical potentials
Based on the Hugenholtz-Van Hove theorem, it is shown that both the symmetry
energy E and its density slope at normal density
are completely determined by the global nucleon optical potentials
that can be extracted directly from nucleon-nucleus scatterings, (p,n) charge
exchange reactions and single-particle energy levels of bound states. Adopting
a value of for the nucleon effective k-mass in symmetric nuclear
matter at and averaging all phenomenological isovector nucleon
potentials constrained by world data available in the literature since 1969,
the best estimates of MeV and MeV are
simultaneously obtained. Uncertainties involved in the estimates are discussed.Comment: 4 pages including 2 figure
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