4,442 research outputs found
Prospects for Extrasolar "Earths" in Habitable Zones
We have shown that Earth-mass planets could survive in variously restricted
regions of the habitable zones (HZs) of most of a sample of nine of the 102
main-sequence exoplanetary systems confirmed by 19 November 2003. In a
preliminary extrapolation of our results to the other systems, we estimate that
roughly a half of these systems could have had an Earth-mass planet confined to
the HZ for at least the most recent 1000 Ma. The HZ migrates outwards during
the main-sequence lifetime, and so this proportion varies with stellar age.
About two thirds of the systems could have such a planet confined to the HZ for
at least 1000 Ma at sometime during the main-sequence lifetime. Clearly, these
systems should be high on the target list for exploration for terrestrial
planets. We have reached this conclusion by launching putative Earth-mass
planets in various orbits and following their fate with mixed-variable
symplectic and hybrid integrators. Whether the Earth-mass planets could form in
the HZs of the exoplanetary systems is an urgent question that needs further
study.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Observing the Geometry of Warped Compactification via Cosmic Inflation
Using DBI inflation as an example, we demonstrate that the detailed geometry
of warped compactification can leave an imprint on the cosmic microwave
background (CMB). We compute CMB observables for DBI inflation in a generic
class of warped throats and find that the results (such as the sign of the tilt
of the scalar perturbations and its running) depend sensitively on the precise
shape of the warp factor. In particular, we analyze the warped deformed
conifold and find that the results can differ from those of other warped
geometries, even when these geometries approximate well the exact metric of the
warped deformed conifold.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. v2: References and clarifications adde
Renewable energy in remote communities
This article is the result of a competitively tendered University-funded project, this brings together two major Government Policy areas: sustainable communities and use of carbon fuels, and is aimed at influencing the policy debate on the difficulties of linking remote communities to renewable energy production because of poor distribution networks. Linkage with the Sustainable Communities agenda is an essential ingredient, as the proposal is that the renewable energy technologies will be installed and maintained by the communities themselves
Sharks of the order Carcharhiniformes from the British Coniacian, Santonian and Campanian (Upper Cretaceous).
Bulk sampling of phosphate-rich horizons within the British Coniacian to Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) yielded very large samples of shark and ray teeth. All of these samples yielded teeth of diverse members of the Carcharhiniformes, which commonly dominate the fauna. The following species are recorded and described: Pseudoscyliorhinus reussi (Herman, 1977) comb. nov., Crassescyliorhinus germanicus (Herman, 1982) gen. nov., Scyliorhinus elongatus (Davis, 1887), Scyliorhinus brumarivulensis sp. nov., ? Palaeoscyllium sp., Prohaploblepharus riegrafi (Müller, 1989) gen. nov., ? Cretascyliorhinus sp., Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 1, Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 2, Pteroscyllium hermani sp. nov., Protoscyliorhinus sp., Leptocharias cretaceus sp. nov., Palaeogaleus havreensis Herman, 1977, Paratriakis subserratus sp. nov., Paratriakis tenuis sp. nov., Paratriakis sp. indet. and ? Loxodon sp. Taxa belonging to the families ?Proscylliidae, Leptochariidae, and Carcharhinidae are described from the Cretaceous for the first time. The evolutionary and palaeoecological implications of these newly recognised faunas are discussed
Learning and interaction in groups with computers: when do ability and gender matter?
In the research reported in this paper, we attempt to identify the background and process factors influencing the effectiveness of groupwork with computers in terms of mathematics learning. The research used a multi-site case study design in six schools and involved eight groups of six mixed-sex, mixed-ability pupils (aged 9-12) undertaking three research tasks – two using Logo and one a database. Our findings suggest that, contrary to other recent research, the pupil characteristics of gender and ability have no direct influence on progress in group tasks with computers. However, status effects – pupils' perceptions of gender and ability – do have an effect on the functioning of the group, which in turn can impede progress for all pupils concerned
Visual saliency and semantic incongruency influence eye movements when inspecting pictures
Models of low-level saliency predict that when we first look at a photograph our first few eye movements should be made towards visually conspicuous objects. Two experiments investigated this prediction by recording eye fixations while viewers inspected pictures of room interiors that contained objects with known saliency characteristics. Highly salient objects did attract fixations earlier than less conspicuous objects, but only in a task requiring general encoding of the whole picture. When participants were required to detect the presence of a small target, then the visual saliency of nontarget objects did not influence fixations. These results support modifications of the model that take the cognitive override of saliency into account by allowing task demands to reduce the saliency weights of task-irrelevant objects. The pictures sometimes contained incongruent objects that were taken from other rooms. These objects were used to test the hypothesis that previous reports of the early fixation of congruent objects have not been consistent because the effect depends upon the visual conspicuity of the incongruent object. There was an effect of incongruency in both experiments, with earlier fixation of objects that violated the gist of the scene, but the effect was only apparent for inconspicuous objects, which argues against the hypothesis
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