1,413 research outputs found
On the relation between the IR continuum and the active galactic nucleus in Seyfert galaxies
A sample of the brightest known Seyfert galaxies from the CfA sample is
analyzed on the basis of ISO photometric and spectroscopic data.
Regardless of the Seyfert type, the mid-IR continuum emission from these
galaxies is found to be correlated with the coronal line emission arising in
the nuclear active region. Conversely, the correlation degrades progressively
when moving from the mid- to the far-IR emission, where it ends to vanish. It
is concluded that the mid-IR emission is largely dominated by dust heated by
processes associated with the active nucleus whereas the far-IR is a different
component most probably unrelated with the active region. We suggest that the
far-IR component is due to dust heated by the stellar population in the disks
of these galaxies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures To be published in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Direct steam generation in parabolic trough collectors
Existing commercial parabolic trough power plants use thermal oil as a heat transfer fluid, with working temperatures in the region of 400ºC. In order to achieve more efficient generating systems, a second generation of parabolic troughs that operate at temperatures higher than 400ºC is being developed. One possibility, Abengoa Solar is assessing, it is the use of direct steam generation (DSG) inside parabolic troughs in order to achieve higher temperatures; the first stage heating up to 450 ºC and the second stage heating up to 550 ºC. There is, however, a certain degree of complexity in the use of DSG technology that has resulted in it not yet being utilized in commercial plant designs. Due to the presence of saturated steam inside the parallel loops the required control system is more complex, particularly during transitory periods of radiation. Also the higher operating pressures and temperatures in the solar field mean that the receiver tubes and interconnections between collectors are very critical components. For this reason, typical systems utilize an intermediate fluid for energy transfer. In order to overcome these challenges, Abengoa Solar has built a demonstration plant of 8 MWht. The plant is composed of an evaporator field with three parallel loops and a superheater field with two loops in order to work at 85 bar and 450ºC. The demonstration plant has been operated and evaluated for one year. During this test period, the following have been evaluated and validated: An innovative control strategy system that guarantees the stability of the plant even under transient conditions. Receiver tube design able to achieve 450ºC, analyzing the mechanical behavior, optical performance, and heat losses. Different configurations of interconnections between collectors with ball joints and flexible rotation joints. A theoretical model has been developed for commercial scale DSG plants and validated with experimental data obtained from the demonstration plant
VLT diffraction-limited imaging at 11 and 18 micron of the nearest active galactic nuclei
Mid-infrared imaging at resolutions of 300 mas of the central kpc region of
13 nearby, well-known active galaxies is presented. The bulk of the mid-IR
emission is concentrated on an unresolved central source within a size of less
than 5 to 130 pc, depending on the object distance. Further resolved emission
is detected in 70% of the sample in the form of circumnuclear star-forming
rings or diffuse nuclear extended emission. In the three cases with
circumnuclear star formation, the stellar contribution is at least as important
as that of the AGN. In those with extended nuclear emission -- a third of the
sample -- this emission represents a few per cent of the total measured;
however, this contribution may be underestimated because of the chopped nature
of these observations. This extended emission is generally collimated in a
preferential direction often coinciding with that of the extended ionized gas
or the jet.
In all cases, the nuclear fluxes measured at 11.8 and 18.7 micron represent a
minor contribution of the flux levels measured by large aperture IRAS data at
the nearest energy bands of 12 and 25 micron. This contribution ranges from 30%
to less than 10%. In only three cases do the AGN fluxes agree with IRAS to
within a factor of 2. In the AGNs with strong circumnuclear star formation,
this component can well account for most of the IRAS flux measured in these
objects. But in all other cases, either a low surface brightness component
extending over galactic scales or strong extra-nuclear IR sources -- e.g. HII
regions in spiral arms -- have to be the main source of the IRAS emission. In
either case, the contribution of these components dwarfs that of the AGN at
mid-IR wavelengths.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
PMCTrack: Delivering performance monitoring counter support to the OS scheduler
Hardware performance monitoring counters (PMCs) have proven effective in characterizing application performance. Because PMCs can only be accessed directly at the OS privilege level, kernellevel tools must be developed to enable the end-user and userspace programs to access PMCs. A large body of work has demonstrated that the OS can perform effective runtime optimizations in multicore systems by leveraging performance-counter data. Special attention has been paid to optimizations in the OS scheduler. While existing performance monitoring tools greatly simplify the collection of PMC application data from userspace, they do not provide an architecture-agnostic kernel-level mechanism that is capable of exposing high-level PMC metrics to OS components, such as the scheduler. As a result, the implementation of PMC-based OS scheduling schemes is typically tied to specific processor models. To address this shortcoming we present PMCTrack, a novel tool for the Linux kernel that provides a simple architecture-independent mechanism that makes it possible for the OS scheduler to access per-thread PMC data. Despite being an OSoriented tool, PMCTrack still allows the gathering of monitoring data from userspace, enabling kernel developers to carry out the necessary offline analysis and debugging to assist them during the scheduler design process. In addition, the tool provides both the OS and the user-space PMCTrack components with other insightful metrics available in modern processors and which are not directly exposed as PMCs, such as cache occupancy or energy consumption. This information is also of great value when it comes to analyzing the potential benefits of novel scheduling policies on real systems. In this paper, we analyze different case studies that demonstrate the flexibility, simplicity and powerful features of PMCTrack.Facultad de InformáticaInstituto de Investigación en Informátic
PMCTrack: Delivering performance monitoring counter support to the OS scheduler
Hardware performance monitoring counters (PMCs) have proven effective in characterizing application performance. Because PMCs can only be accessed directly at the OS privilege level, kernellevel tools must be developed to enable the end-user and userspace programs to access PMCs. A large body of work has demonstrated that the OS can perform effective runtime optimizations in multicore systems by leveraging performance-counter data. Special attention has been paid to optimizations in the OS scheduler. While existing performance monitoring tools greatly simplify the collection of PMC application data from userspace, they do not provide an architecture-agnostic kernel-level mechanism that is capable of exposing high-level PMC metrics to OS components, such as the scheduler. As a result, the implementation of PMC-based OS scheduling schemes is typically tied to specific processor models. To address this shortcoming we present PMCTrack, a novel tool for the Linux kernel that provides a simple architecture-independent mechanism that makes it possible for the OS scheduler to access per-thread PMC data. Despite being an OSoriented tool, PMCTrack still allows the gathering of monitoring data from userspace, enabling kernel developers to carry out the necessary offline analysis and debugging to assist them during the scheduler design process. In addition, the tool provides both the OS and the user-space PMCTrack components with other insightful metrics available in modern processors and which are not directly exposed as PMCs, such as cache occupancy or energy consumption. This information is also of great value when it comes to analyzing the potential benefits of novel scheduling policies on real systems. In this paper, we analyze different case studies that demonstrate the flexibility, simplicity and powerful features of PMCTrack.Facultad de InformáticaInstituto de Investigación en Informátic
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