2,676 research outputs found
Transmutation of radioactive waste
The present work is devoted to the problem of radioactive waste transmutation, i.e. transformation of long-lived and toxic radionuclides into less toxic isotopes with shorter half-lives. While storage and burial cannot completely prevent radioactivity from getting into the environment, transmutation is a potential way to resolve the problem of radioactive waste. Different types of nuclear transmutation taking place under different conditions are described and analyzed. They include transmutation of long-lived fission products in a neutron field, generation of neutrons for providing transmutation of long-lived fission products, electronuclear method of neutron generation and controlled nuclear fusion. A review of literature devoted to the above-mentioned techniques is done
On order policies with pre-specified order schedules for a perishable product in retail.
This paper studies a retail inventory system for a perishable product, based on a practical setting in Dutch retail. The product has a fixed shelf life of three days upon delivery at the store and product demand has a weekly pattern, which is stationary over the weeks, but varies over the days of the week. Items of varying age occur in stock. However, in retail practice, the age-distribution is often unknown, which complicates order decisions. Depending on the type of product or the size of the supermarket, replenishment cycle lengths may vary. We study a situation where a store is replenished either three or four times a week on pre-specified days. The research aim is to find practical and efficient order policies that can deal with the lack of information about the age distribution of items in stock, considering mixed LIFO and FIFO withdrawal. Reducing potential waste goes along with cost minimization, while the retailer aims at meeting a cycle service level requirement. We present four new heuristics that do not require knowledge of the inventory age-distribution. A heuristic, based on a constant order quantity for each order moment, often generates least waste and lowest costs. However, this requires a few minutes of computation time. A new base stock policy appears second best
Comparing various multi-component global heliosphere models
Modeling of the global heliosphere seeks to investigate the interaction of
the solar wind with the partially ionized local interstellar medium. Models
that treat neutral hydrogen self-consistently and in great detail, together
with the plasma, but that neglect magnetic fields, constitute a sub-category
within global heliospheric models. There are several different modeling
strategies used for this sub-category in the literature. Differences and
commonalities in the modeling results from different strategies are pointed
out. Plasma-only models and fully self-consistent models from four research
groups, for which the neutral species is modeled with either one, three, or
four fluids, or else kinetically, are run with the same boundary parameters and
equations. They are compared to each other with respect to the locations of key
heliospheric boundary locations and with respect to the neutral hydrogen
content throughout the heliosphere. In many respects, the models' predictions
are similar. In particular, the locations of the termination shock agree to
within 7% in the nose direction and to within 14% in the downwind direction.
The nose locations of the heliopause agree to within 5%. The filtration of
neutral hydrogen from the interstellar medium into the inner heliosphere,
however, is model dependent, as are other neutral results including the
hydrogen wall. These differences are closely linked to the strength of the
interstellar bow shock. The comparison also underlines that it is critical to
include neutral hydrogen into global heliospheric models.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to a special section at A&A of an ISSI
team "Determination of the physical Hydrogen parameters of the LIC from
within the Heliosphere
Orbital evolution of P\v{r}\'{i}bram and Neuschwanstein
The orbital evolution of the two meteorites P\v{r}\'{i}bram and
Neuschwanstein on almost identical orbits and also several thousand clones were
studied in the framework of the N-body problem for 5000 years into the past.
The meteorites moved on very similar orbits during the whole investigated
interval. We have also searched for photographic meteors and asteroids moving
on similar orbits. There were 5 meteors found in the IAU MDC database and 6
NEAs with currently similar orbits to P\v{r}\'{i}bram and Neuschwanstein.
However, only one meteor 161E1 and one asteroid 2002 QG46 had a similar orbital
evolution over the last 2000 years.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 table
Steps toward the power spectrum of matter. II. The biasing correction with sigma_8 normalization
A new method to determine the bias parameter of galaxies relative to matter
is suggested. The method is based on the assumption that gravity is the
dominating force which determines the formation of the structure in the
Universe. Due to gravitational instability the galaxy formation is a threshold
process: in low-density environments galaxies do not form and matter remains in
primordial form. We investigate the influence of the presence of void and
clustered populations to the power spectrum of matter and galaxies. The power
spectrum of galaxies is similar to the power spectrum of matter; the fraction
of total matter in the clustered population determines the difference between
amplitudes of fluctuations of matter and galaxies, i.e. the bias factor. To
determine the fraction of matter in voids and clustered population we perform
numerical simulations. The fraction of matter in galaxies at the present epoch
is found using a calibration through the sigma_8 parameter.Comment: LaTex (sty files added), 31 pages, 4 PostScript figures embedded,
Astrophysical Journal (accepted
Analytic solutions and Singularity formation for the Peakon b--Family equations
Using the Abstract Cauchy-Kowalewski Theorem we prove that the -family
equation admits, locally in time, a unique analytic solution. Moreover, if the
initial data is real analytic and it belongs to with , and the
momentum density does not change sign, we prove that the
solution stays analytic globally in time, for . Using pseudospectral
numerical methods, we study, also, the singularity formation for the -family
equations with the singularity tracking method. This method allows us to follow
the process of the singularity formation in the complex plane as the
singularity approaches the real axis, estimating the rate of decay of the
Fourier spectrum
The Mid-Infrared Colors of the ISM and Extended Sources at the Galactic Center
A mid-infrared (3.6-8 um) survey of the Galactic Center has been carried out
with the IRAC instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope. This survey covers the
central 2x1.4 degree (~280x200 pc) of the Galaxy. At 3.6 and 4.5 um the
emission is dominated by stellar sources, the fainter ones merging into an
unresolved background. At 5.8 and 8 um the stellar sources are fainter, and
large-scale diffuse emission from the ISM of the Galaxy's central molecular
zone becomes prominent. The survey reveals that the 8 to 5.8 um color of the
ISM emission is highly uniform across the surveyed region. This uniform color
is consistent with a flat extinction law and emission from polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs). Models indicate that this broadband color should not be
expected to change if the incident radiation field heating the dust and PAHs is
<10^4 times that of the solar neighborhood. The few regions with unusually red
emission are areas where the PAHs are underabundant and the radiation field is
locally strong enough to heat large dust grains to produce significant 8 um
emission. These red regions include compact H II regions, Sgr B1, and wider
regions around the Arches and Quintuplet Clusters. In these regions the
radiation field is >10^4 times that of the solar neighborhood. Other regions of
very red emission indicate cases where thick dust clouds obscure deeply
embedded objects or very early stages of star formation.Comment: 37 pages, 15 Postscript figures (low resolution). Accepted for
publication in the Ap
Neutral H density at the termination shock: a consolidation of recent results
We discuss a consolidation of determinations of the density of neutral
interstellar H at the nose of the termination shock carried out with the use of
various data sets, techniques, and modeling approaches. In particular, we focus
on the determination of this density based on observations of H pickup ions on
Ulysses during its aphelion passage through the ecliptic plane. We discuss in
greater detail a novel method of determination of the density from these
measurements and review the results from its application to actual data. The H
density at TS derived from this analysis is equal to 0.087 \pm 0.022 cm-3, and
when all relevant determinations are taken into account, the consolidated
density is obtained at 0.09 \pm 0.022 cm-3. The density of H in CHISM based on
literature values of filtration factor is then calculated at 0.16 \pm 0.04
cm-3.Comment: Submitted to Space Science Review
On the isoperimetric problem in the Heisenberg group \u210dn
It has been recently conjectured that, in the context of the Heisenberg groupHn endowed with its Carnot\u2013Carath\ue9odory metric and Haar measure, the isoperimetricsets (i.e., minimizers of the H-perimeter among sets of constant Haar measure) couldcoincide with the solutions to a \u201crestricted\u201d isoperimetric problem within the class ofsets having finite perimeter, smooth boundary, and cylindrical symmetry. In this paper,we derive new properties of these restricted isoperimetric sets, which we call Heisenbergbubbles. In particular, we show that their boundary has constant mean H-curvature and, quitesurprisingly, that it is foliated by the family of minimal geodesics connecting two specialpoints. In view of a possible strategy for proving that Heisenberg bubbles are actuallyisoperimetric among the whole class of measurable subsets of Hn, we turn our attentionto the relationship between volume, perimeter, and -enlargements. In particular, we provea Brunn\u2013Minkowski inequality with topological exponent as well as the fact that the Hperimeterof a bounded, open set F 82 Hn of class C2 can be computed via a generalizedMinkowski content, defined by means of any bounded set whose horizontal projection is the2n-dimensional unit disc. Some consequences of these properties are discussed
Properties of the H-alpha-emitting Circumstellar Regions of Be Stars
Long-baseline interferometric observations obtained with the Navy Prototype
Optical Interferometer of the H-alpha-emitting envelopes of the Be stars eta
Tauri and beta Canis Minoris are presented. For compatibility with the
previously published interferometric results in the literature of other Be
stars, circularly symmetric and elliptical Gaussian models were fitted to the
calibrated H-alpha observations. The models are sufficient in characterizing
the angular distribution of the H-alpha-emitting circumstellar material
associated with these Be stars. To study the correlations between the various
model parameters and the stellar properties, the model parameters for eta Tau
and beta CMi were combined with data for other Be stars from the literature.
After accounting for the different distances to the sources and stellar
continuum flux levels, it was possible to study the relationship between the
net H-alpha emission and the physical extent of the H-alpha-emitting
circumstellar region. A clear dependence of the net H-alpha emission on the
linear size of the emitting region is demonstrated and these results are
consistent with an optically thick line emission that is directly proportional
to the effective area of the emitting disk. Within the small sample of stars
considered in this analysis, no clear dependence on the spectral type or
stellar rotation is found, although the results do suggest that hotter stars
might have more extended H-alpha-emitting regions.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
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