24,444 research outputs found
Sensing circuits for multiwire proportional chambers
Integrated sensing circuits were designed, fabricated, and packaged for use in determining the direction and fluence of ionizing radiation passing through a multiwire proportional chamber. CMOS on sapphire was selected because of its high speed and low power capabilities. The design of the proposed circuits is described and the results of computer simulations are presented. The fabrication processes for the CMOS on sapphire sensing circuits and hybrid substrates are outlined. Several design options are described and the cost implications of each discussed. To be most effective, each chip should handle not more than 32 inputs, and should be mounted on its own hybrid substrate
Development of thermally stable phosphonitrile elastomers for advanced aerospace structures
Both high and low molecular weight, curable poly(fluoroalkoxy phosphazene) terpolymers were prepared. These terpolymers resulted from reaction of (Cl2PNn) polymer with alkoxides derived from CF3CH2OH and C3F7CH2OH, and an alkoxide derived from CH3CH(OH)C2H4OH. The terpolymers were crosslinked with polyisocyanates at room temperature. High molecular weight materials were converted into isocyanate prepolymers which as films underwent moisture cures at room temperature. Prepolymer solutions were stable for several days, and showed good adhesion. Also the effects of polymerization of (Cl2PN)3 were studied. Purified octachlorophosphazene, thiocyanate salts, or hydrogen chloride were employed in attempts to decrease molecular weight. Hydrogen chloride was found to be a good agent for preparation of low molecular weight poly(dichloro phosphazene)
Brand Information Mitigating Negative Shocks on Animal Welfare: Is It More Effective to “Distract†Consumers or Make Them Aware?
To create and sustain a competitive advantage in markets that increasingly value animal welfare attributes, meat companies need to meet public and private production standards while communicating to final consumers through their brands. Data are collected from a representative sample of 460 U.S. residents through an on-line experiment on McDonald’s chicken breast sandwiches and analyzed with Latent Growth Modeling. This study assesses which content of positive brand information effectively mitigates the risk of negative information shocks on animal welfare. On average, brand information has the same positive impact on consumers’ beliefs and attitudes, regardless of whether it is related or unrelated to animal welfare. However, there is strong market segmentation in terms of consumers’ response when exposed to brand information, suggesting that brand managers would benefit from tailoring brand information according to consumers’ age, education, gender and income.animal welfare, brand, information, consumer behavior, multivariate statistics, Agribusiness, Livestock Production/Industries, Q1,
Principal sources and dispersal patterns of suspended particulate matter in nearshore surface waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean and the Hawaiian Islands
The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 multispectral scanner imagery of the nearshore surface waters of the Northeast Pacific Ocean is proving to be a useful tool for determining source and dispersal of suspended particulate matter. The principal sources of the turbid water, seen best on the green and red bands, are river and stream effluents and actively eroding coastlines; secondary sources are waste effluents and production of planktonic organisms, but these may sometimes be masked by the very turbid plumes of suspended sediment being discharged into the nearshore zone during times of high river discharge. The configuration and distribution of the plumes of turbid water also can be used to infer near-surface current directions. Comparison of imagery of the nearshore water off the northern California coast from October 1972 and January 1973 shows a reversal of the near-surface currents, from predominantly south-setting in the fall (California Current) to north-setting in the winter (Davidson Current)
A Variational Approach for Minimizing Lennard-Jones Energies
A variational method for computing conformational properties of molecules
with Lennard-Jones potentials for the monomer-monomer interactions is
presented. The approach is tailored to deal with angular degrees of freedom,
{\it rotors}, and consists in the iterative solution of a set of deterministic
equations with annealing in temperature. The singular short-distance behaviour
of the Lennard-Jones potential is adiabatically switched on in order to obtain
stable convergence. As testbeds for the approach two distinct ensembles of
molecules are used, characterized by a roughly dense-packed ore a more
elongated ground state. For the latter, problems are generated from natural
frequencies of occurrence of amino acids and phenomenologically determined
potential parameters; they seem to represent less disorder than was previously
assumed in synthetic protein studies. For the dense-packed problems in
particular, the variational algorithm clearly outperforms a gradient descent
method in terms of minimal energies. Although it cannot compete with a careful
simulating annealing algorithm, the variational approach requires only a tiny
fraction of the computer time. Issues and results when applying the method to
polyelectrolytes at a finite temperature are also briefly discussed.Comment: 14 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript fil
Optical to Near-IR Spectrum of a Massive Evolved Galaxy at z = 1.26
We present the optical to near-infrared (IR) spectrum of the galaxy TSPS
J1329-0957, a red and bright member of the class of extremely red objects
(EROs) at z = 1.26. This galaxy was found in the course of the Tokyo-Stromlo
Photometry Survey (TSPS) which we are conducting in the southern sky. The
spectroscopic observations were carried out with the Gemini Multi-Object
Spectrograph (GMOS) and the Gemini Near Infra-Red Spectrograph (GNIRS) mounted
on the Gemini-South telescope. The wide wavelength coverage of 0.6 - 2.3 um
provides useful clues as to the nature of EROs while most published spectra are
limited to a narrower spectral range which is dictated by the need for
efficient redshift determination in a large survey. We compare our spectrum
with several optical composite spectra obtained in recent large surveys, and
with stellar population synthesis models. The effectiveness of using near-IR
broad-band data, instead of the spectral data, in deriving the galaxy
properties are also investigated. We find that TSPS J1329-0957 formed when the
universe was 2 - 3 Gyr old, and subsequently evolved passively to become one of
the most massive galaxies found in the z = 1 - 2 universe. Its early type and
estimated stellar mass of M* = 10^{11.5} Msun clearly point to this galaxy
being a direct ancestor of the brightest elliptical and spheroidal galaxies in
the local universe.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
The Growth of Black Holes and Bulges at the Cores of Cooling Flows
Central cluster galaxies (cDs) in cooling flows are growing rapidly through
gas accretion and star formation. At the same time, AGN outbursts fueled by
accretion onto supermassive black holes are generating X-ray cavity systems and
driving outflows that exceed those in powerful quasars. We show that the
resulting bulge and black hole growth follows a trend that is roughly
consistent with the slope of the local (Magorrian) relation between bulge and
black hole mass for nearby quiescent ellipticals. However, a large scatter
suggests that cD bulges and black holes do not always grow in lock-step. New
measurements made with XMM, Chandra, and FUSE of the condensation rates in
cooling flows are now approaching or are comparable to the star formation
rates, alleviating the need for an invisible sink of cold matter. We show that
the remaining radiation losses can be offset by AGN outbursts in more than half
of the systems in our sample, indicating that the level of cooling and star
formation is regulated by AGN feedback.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "Heating vs.
Cooling in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies," edited by H. Boehringer, P.
Schuecker, G. W. Pratt, and A. Finogueno
X-Ray Properties of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies with Very Small Broad-Line Widths
Narrow-line Seyfert\,1 galaxies (NLS1s) with very small broad-line widths
(say, FWHM(\hb) \la 1200\,\kms) represent the extreme type of Seyfert\,1
galaxies that have small black hole masses (\mbh) and/or high Eddington ratios
(\redd). Here we study the X-ray properties of a homogeneously and optically
selected sample of 13 such objects, termed as very narrow line Seyfert\,1
galaxies (VNLS1s), using archival \xmm\ data. It is found that the Fe K
emission line is at most weak in these objects. A soft X-ray excess is
ubiquitous, with the thermal temperatures falling within a strict range of
0.1--0.2\,keV. Our result highlights the puzzling independence of the thermal
temperature by extending the relations to even smaller FWHM(\hb), i.e., smaller
\mbh\ ( \msun) and/or higher \redd. The excess emission can be
modeled by a range of viable models, though the disk reflection and
Comptonization models generally give somewhat better fits over the smeared
absorption and the -free models. At the Eddington ratios around unity and
above, the X-ray spectral slopes in the 2--10\,keV band are systematically
flatter than the Risaliti et al.'s predictions of the relationship with \redd\
suggested previously. Short timescale (1--2 hours) X-ray variability is common,
which, together with the variability amplitude computed for some of the
objects, are supportive of the scenario that NLS1s are indeed AGN with
relatively small \mbh.Comment: 11 figures and 4 table. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
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