Dedication to Ole Due

It is a great pleasure for me to write a few words in tribute to my former colleague and friend Ole Due. Over the past three decades, as a civil servant, a teacher, a judge, and President of the EC Court of Justice, Ole Due has strived and succeeded in making a substantial and valuable contribution to the development and understanding of European Community law

Time-resolved photometry of the nova remnants DM Gem, CP Lac, GI Mon, V400 Per, CT Ser and XX Tau

We present the first results of a photometric survey of poorly studied nova remnants in the Northern Hemisphere. The main results are as follows: DM Gem shows a modulation at 0.123 d (probably linked to the orbit) and rapid variations at ∼22 min. A moderate resolution spectrum taken at the time of the photometric observations shows intense He II λ4686 and Bowen emission, characteristic of an intermediate polar or a SW Sex star. Variability at 0.127 d and intense flickering (or quasi-periodic oscillations) are the main features of the light curve of CP Lac. A 0.1-mag dip lasting for ∼45 min is observed in GI Mon, which could be an eclipse. A clear modulation (probably related to the orbital motion) either at 0.179 d or 0.152 d is observed in the B-band light curve of V400 Per. The results for CT Ser point to an orbital period close to 0.16 d. Intense flickering is also characteristic of this old nova. Finally, XX Tau shows a possible periodic signal near 0.14 d and displays fast variability at ∼24 min. Its brightness seems to be modulated at ∼5 d. We relate this long periodicity to the motion of an eccentric/tilted accretion disc in the binary

Evolution of the spherical cavity radius generated around a subsurface emitter

The emitter discharge in subsurface drip irrigation can be affected by soil properties. A positive pressure develops at the emitter outlet where a spherical cavity is assumed to form. In steady-state conditions, the pressure in the soil relates to soil hydraulic 5 properties, the emitter discharge, and the cavity radius. This pressure in the soil is very sensitive to the cavity radius. In this paper, the development of the cavity around the emitter outlet was measured for various emitter discharges in laboratory tests carried out in containers with uniform loamy soils. A trend between soil pressure and emitter discharge was established that illustrates the performance of buried emitters in the 10 field. Its application to the prediction of water distribution in subsurface drip irrigation units and its effect on the estimation of irrigation performance is also show

Colour Constancy: Biologically-inspired Contrast Variant Pooling Mechanism

Pooling is a ubiquitous operation in image processing algorithms that allows for higher-level processes to collect relevant low-level features from a region of interest. Currently, max-pooling is one of the most commonly used operators in the computational literature. However, it can lack robustness to outliers due to the fact that it relies merely on the peak of a function. Pooling mechanisms are also present in the primate visual cortex where neurons of higher cortical areas pool signals from lower ones. The receptive fields of these neurons have been shown to vary according to the contrast by aggregating signals over a larger region in the presence of low contrast stimuli. We hypothesise that this contrast-variant-pooling mechanism can address some of the shortcomings of max-pooling. We modelled this contrast variation through a histogram clipping in which the percentage of pooled signal is inversely proportional to the local contrast of an image. We tested our hypothesis by applying it to the phenomenon of colour constancy where a number of popular algorithms utilise a max-pooling step (e.g. White-Patch, Grey-Edge and Double-Opponency). For each of these methods, we investigated the consequences of replacing their original max-pooling by the proposed contrast-variant-pooling. Our experiments on three colour constancy benchmark datasets suggest that previous results can significantly improve by adopting a contrast-variant-pooling mechanism

Water distribution in laterals and units of subsurface drip irrigation. II: Field evaluation.

The performance of drip irrigation and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) laterals has been compared. Two emitter models (one compensating and the other noncompensating) were assessed. Field tests were carried out with a pair of laterals working at the same inlet pressure. A procedure was developed that recorded head pressures at both lateral extremes and inlet flow during irrigation. Both models showed similar behavior and soil properties affected their discharge. On the other hand, the performance of a field SDI unit of compensating emitters was characterized by measuring pressures at different points and inlet flow. Finally, the distribution of water and soil pressure in the laterals and the unit were predicted and irrigation uniformity and soil pressure variability were also determined. Predictions agreed reasonably well with the experimental observations. Thus, the methodology proposed could be used to support the decision making for the design and management of SDI system

HS 0139+0559, HS 0229+8016, HS 0506+7725, and HS 0642+5049 : four new long-period cataclysmic variables

We present time-resolved optical spectroscopy and photometry of four relatively bright (V ∼ 14.0−15.5) long-period cataclysmic variables(CVs) discovered in the Hamburg Quasar Survey: HS 0139+0559, HS 0229+8016, HS 0506+7725, and HS 0642+5049. Their respective orbital periods, 243.69 ± 0.49 min, 232.550 ± 0.049 min, 212.7 ± 0.2 min, and 225.90 ± 0.23 min are determined from radial velocity and photometric variability studies. HS 0506+7725 is characterised by strong Balmer and He emission lines, short-period (∼10−20 min) flickering, and weak X-ray emission in the ROSAT All Sky Survey. The detection of a deep low state (B 18.5) identifies HS 0506+7725 as a member of the VY Scl stars. HS 0139+0559, HS 0229+8016, and HS 0642+5049 display thick-disc like spectra and no or only weak flickering activity. HS 0139+0559 and HS 0229+8016 exhibit clean quasi-sinusoidal radial velocity variations of their emission lines but no or very little orbital photometricvariability. In contrast, we detect no radial velocity variation in HS 0642+5049 but a noticeable orbital brightness variation. We identify all three systems either as UX UMa-type novalike variables or as Z Cam-type dwarf novae. Our identification of these four new systems underlines that the currently known sample of CVs is rather incomplete even for bright objects. The four new systems add to the clustering of orbital periods in the 3−4 h range found in the sample of HQS selected CVs, and we discuss the large incidence of magnetic CVs and VY Scl/SW Sex stars found in this period range among the known population of CVs

The fight for accretion: discovery of intermittent mass transfer in BB Doradus in the low state

Our long-term photometric monitoring of southern nova-like cataclysmic variables with the 1.3-m SMARTS telescope found BB Doradus fading from V ~ 14.3 towards a deep low state at V ~ 19.3 in April 2008. Here we present time-resolved optical spectroscopy of BB Dor in this faint state in 2009. The optical spectrum in quiescence is a composite of a hot white dwarf with Teff = 30000 +- 5000 K and a M3-4 secondary star with narrow emission lines (mainly of the Balmer series and HeI) superposed. We associate these narrow profiles with an origin on the donor star. Analysis of the radial velocity curve of the H-alpha emission from the donor star allowed the measurement of an orbital period of 0.154095 +- 0.000003 d (3.69828 +- 0.00007 h), different from all previous estimates. We detected episodic accretion events which veiled the spectra of both stars and radically changed the line profiles within a timescale of tens of minutes. This shows that accretion is not completely quenched in the low state. During these accretion episodes the line wings are stronger and their radial velocity curve is delayed by ~ 0.2 cycle, similar to that observed in SW Sex and AM Her stars in the high state, with respect to the motion of the white dwarf. Two scenarios are proposed to explain the extra emission: impact of the material on the outer edge of a cold, remnant accretion disc, or the combined action of a moderately magnetic white dwarf (B1 <~ 5 MG) and the magnetic activity of the donor star.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRA

Presentación [de Interpretatio Nº 09 (2003)]

La directora, en este periodo, de la revista, indica la importancia de analizar y estudiar el derecho romano vulgar occidental para completar las investigaciones sobre la historia del derecho español.The review director, in this period, indicates the importance of analyzing and studying western vulgar Roman law to complete investigations about the history of Spanish law.peerReviewe