623 research outputs found
Relativistic Proton Production During the 14 July 2000 Solar Event: The Case for Multiple Source Mechanisms
Protons accelerated to relativistic energies by transient solar and
interplanetary phenomena caused a ground-level cosmic ray enhancement on 14
July 2000, Bastille Day. Near-Earth spacecraft measured the proton flux
directly and ground-based observatories measured the secondary responses to
higher energy protons. We have modelled the arrival of these relativistic
protons at Earth using a technique which deduces the spectrum, arrival
direction and anisotropy of the high-energy protons that produce increased
responses in neutron monitors. To investigate the acceleration processes
involved we have employed theoretical shock and stochastic acceleration
spectral forms in our fits to spacecraft and neutron monitor data. During the
rising phase of the event (10:45 UT and 10:50 UT) we find that the spectrum
between 140 MeV and 4 GeV is best fitted by a shock acceleration spectrum. In
contrast, the spectrum at the peak (10:55 UT and 11:00 UT) and in the declining
phase (11:40 UT) is best fitted with a stochastic acceleration spectrum. We
propose that at least two acceleration processes were responsible for the
production of relativistic protons during the Bastille Day solar event: (1)
protons were accelerated to relativistic energies by a shock, presumably a
coronal mass ejection (CME). (2) protons were also accelerated to relativistic
energies by stochastic processes initiated by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)
turbulence.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal, January, 200
Assigning Collaborative Learning Pairs Based on Personality Testing
This study, conducted at Buford Middle School, examined the effects of using personality tests to create student learning pairs. Four seventh grade classes were examined. The content, instruction, and instructor were the same for all classes. Three of four classes had students grouped in learning pairs based on the results of personality tests. The control group consisted of students grouped randomly into learning pairs. A teacher developed exam similar to the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) for Life Science was used as the pretest and the CRCT was used as the posttest. No significant differences were found; however, specific student populations did exhibit gains in their posttest scores
Predicting Dust Distribution in Protoplanetary Discs
We present the results of three-dimensional numerical simulations that
include the effects of hydrodynamical forces and gas drag upon an evolving
dusty gas disk. We briefly describe a new parallel, two phase numerical code
based upon the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique in which the gas
and dust phases are represented by two distinct types of particles. We use the
code to follow the dynamical evolution of a population of grains in a gaseous
protoplanetary disk in order to understand the distribution of grains of
different sizes within the disk. Our ``grains'' range from metre to
submillimetre in size.Comment: 2 pages, LaTeX with 1 ps figure embedded, using newpasp.sty
(supplied). To appear in the proceedings of the XIXth IAP colloquium
"Extrasolar Planets: Today and Tomorrow" held in Paris, France, 2003, June 30
-- July 4, ASP Conf. Se
Bright source of spectrally uncorrelated polarization-entangled photons with nearly single-mode emission
We present results of a bright polarization-entangled photon source operating
at 1552 nm via type-II collinear degenerate spontaneous parametric
down-conversion in a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal. We
report a conservative inferred pair generation rate of 123,000 pairs/s/mW into
collection modes. Minimization of spectral and spatial entanglement was
achieved by group velocity matching the pump, signal and idler modes and
through properly focusing the pump beam. By utilizing a pair of calcite beam
displacers, we are able to overlap photons from adjacent down-conversion
processes to obtain polarization-entanglement visibility of 94.7 +/- 1.1% with
accidentals subtracted.Comment: 4 pages, 7 color figures. Revised manuscript includes the following
changes: corrected pair generation rate from 44,000/s/mW pump to 123,000/s/mW
pump; replaced Fig. 1b to enhance clarity; minor alterations to the title,
abstract and introduction; grammatical correction
A Nanosatellite Mission to Investigate Equatorial Ionospheric Plasma Depletions: The U. S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-2
An overview of the United States Air Force Academy’s (USAFA’s) FalconSat-2, a nanosatellite designed to investigate F region ionospheric plasma depletions, is presented. Instruments aboard FalconSat-2 will sample in situ plasma density and temperature at a rate of 10 Hz and 1.0 Hz, respectively. The choice of sampling rate provides for resolution of 2-10 km plasma depletions, important since plasma anisotropies of this scale size are known to disrupt Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio transmissions. A novel sensor, the Miniature Electrostatic Analyzer (MESA), is presently under development by USAFA faculty and will be used to measure plasma density with its heritage flight aboard FalconSat-2. In addition, a traditional electron Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA) will be used to measure plasma temperature and density, the latter of which will be used to validate the MESA performance on orbit. The mission’s scientific objectives require a low altitude (300-500 km), medium inclination (45 degrees) orbit; these requirements, coupled with the availability of launch opportunities through the Space Shuttle’s Hitchhiker Program, provide motivation to develop the FalconSat-2 mission for launch via the Hitchhiker’s Palette Ejection System (PES). The satellite bus design consists of a mixture of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and original design by USAFA cadets and faculty. Details of the mission and satellite design, as well as key challenges uniquely pertinent to undergraduate satellite programs, are addressed
Migrating to Cloud-Native Architectures Using Microservices: An Experience Report
Migration to the cloud has been a popular topic in industry and academia in
recent years. Despite many benefits that the cloud presents, such as high
availability and scalability, most of the on-premise application architectures
are not ready to fully exploit the benefits of this environment, and adapting
them to this environment is a non-trivial task. Microservices have appeared
recently as novel architectural styles that are native to the cloud. These
cloud-native architectures can facilitate migrating on-premise architectures to
fully benefit from the cloud environments because non-functional attributes,
like scalability, are inherent in this style. The existing approaches on cloud
migration does not mostly consider cloud-native architectures as their
first-class citizens. As a result, the final product may not meet its primary
drivers for migration. In this paper, we intend to report our experience and
lessons learned in an ongoing project on migrating a monolithic on-premise
software architecture to microservices. We concluded that microservices is not
a one-fit-all solution as it introduces new complexities to the system, and
many factors, such as distribution complexities, should be considered before
adopting this style. However, if adopted in a context that needs high
flexibility in terms of scalability and availability, it can deliver its
promised benefits
A stacking-fault based microscopic model for platelets in diamond
We propose a new microscopic model for the planar defects in
diamond commonly called platelets. This model is based on the formation of a
metastable stacking fault, which can occur because of the ability of carbon to
stabilize in different bonding configurations. In our model the core of the
planar defect is basically a double layer of three-fold coordinated
carbon atoms embedded in the common diamond structure. The properties of
the model were determined using {\it ab initio} total energy calculations. All
significant experimental signatures attributed to the platelets, namely, the
lattice displacement along the direction, the asymmetry between the
and the directions, the infrared absorption peak
, and broad luminescence lines that indicate the introduction of
levels in the band gap, are naturally accounted for in our model. The model is
also very appealing from the point of view of kinetics, since naturally
occurring shearing processes will lead to the formation of the metastable
fault.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Submitted for publication on August 2nd, 200
Cosmic ray short burst observed with the Global Muon Detector Network (GMDN) on June 22, 2015
We analyze the short cosmic ray intensity increase ("cosmic ray burst": CRB)
on June 22, 2015 utilizing a global network of muon detectors and derive the
global anisotropy of cosmic ray intensity and the density (i.e. the
omnidirectional intensity) with 10-minute time resolution. We find that the CRB
was caused by a local density maximum and an enhanced anisotropy of cosmic rays
both of which appeared in association with Earth's crossing of the heliospheric
current sheet (HCS). This enhanced anisotropy was normal to the HCS and
consistent with a diamagnetic drift arising from the spatial gradient of cosmic
ray density, which indicates that cosmic rays were drifting along the HCS from
the north of Earth. We also find a significant anisotropy along the HCS,
lasting a few hours after the HCS crossing, indicating that cosmic rays
penetrated into the inner heliosphere along the HCS. Based on the latest
geomagnetic field model, we quantitatively evaluate the reduction of the
geomagnetic cut-off rigidity and the variation of the asymptotic viewing
direction of cosmic rays due to a major geomagnetic storm which occurred during
the CRB and conclude that the CRB is not caused by the geomagnetic storm, but
by a rapid change in the cosmic ray anisotropy and density outside the
magnetosphere.Comment: accepted for the publication in the Astrophysical Journa
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