18,579 research outputs found
Science Verification Results from PMAS
PMAS, the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer, is a new integral field
instrument which was commissioned at the Calar Alto 3.5m Telescope in May 2001.
We report on results obtained from a science verification run in October 2001.
We present observations of the low-metallicity blue compact dwarf galaxy
SBS0335-052, the ultra-luminous X-ray Source X-1 in the Holmberg II galaxy, the
quadruple gravitational lens system Q2237+0305 (the "Einstein Cross"), the
Galactic planetary nebula NGC7027, and extragalactic planetary nebulae in M31.
PMAS is now available as a common user instrument at Calar Alto Observatory.Comment: 4 pages, 9 figures (attached in JPEG format), Euro3D Science Workshop
Proceedings, held in Cambridge May 21-23, 2003, to appear in AN (accepted
Stable marriage and roommates problems with restricted edges: complexity and approximability
In the Stable Marriage and Roommates problems, a set of agents is given, each of them having a strictly ordered preference list over some or all of the other agents. A matching is a set of disjoint pairs of mutually acceptable agents. If any two agents mutually prefer each other to their partner, then they block the matching, otherwise, the matching is said to be stable. We investigate the complexity of finding a solution satisfying additional constraints on restricted pairs of agents. Restricted pairs can be either forced or forbidden. A stable solution must contain all of the forced pairs, while it must contain none of the forbidden pairs.
Dias et al. (2003) gave a polynomial-time algorithm to decide whether such a solution exists in the presence of restricted edges. If the answer is no, one might look for a solution close to optimal. Since optimality in this context means that the matching is stable and satisfies all constraints on restricted pairs, there are two ways of relaxing the constraints by permitting a solution to: (1) be blocked by as few as possible pairs, or (2) violate as few as possible constraints n restricted pairs.
Our main theorems prove that for the (bipartite) Stable Marriage problem, case (1) leads to View the MathML source-hardness and inapproximability results, whilst case (2) can be solved in polynomial time. For non-bipartite Stable Roommates instances, case (2) yields an View the MathML source-hard but (under some cardinality assumptions) 2-approximable problem. In the case of View the MathML source-hard problems, we also discuss polynomially solvable special cases, arising from restrictions on the lengths of the preference lists, or upper bounds on the numbers of restricted pairs
p3d: a general data-reduction tool for fiber-fed integral-field spectrographs
The reduction of integral-field spectrograph (IFS) data is demanding work.
Many repetitive operations are required in order to convert raw data into,
typically a large number of, spectra. This effort can be markedly simplified
through the use of a tool or pipeline, which is designed to complete many of
the repetitive operations without human interaction. Here we present our
semi-automatic data-reduction tool p3d that is designed to be used with
fiber-fed IFSs. Important components of p3d include a novel algorithm for
automatic finding and tracing of spectra on the detector, and two methods of
optimal spectrum extraction in addition to standard aperture extraction. p3d
also provides tools to combine several images, perform wavelength calibration
and flat field data. p3d is at the moment configured for four IFSs. In order to
evaluate its performance we have tested the different components of the tool.
For these tests we used both simulated and observational data. We demonstrate
that for three of the IFSs a correction for so-called cross-talk due to
overlapping spectra on the detector is required. Without such a correction
spectra will be inaccurate, in particular if there is a significant intensity
gradient across the object. Our tests showed that p3d is able to produce
accurate results. p3d is a highly general and freely available tool. It is
easily extended to include improved algorithms, new visualization tools and
support for additional instruments. The program code can be downloaded from the
p3d-project web site http://p3d.sourceforge.netComment: 18 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in A&
Integer programming methods for special college admissions problems
We develop Integer Programming (IP) solutions for some special college
admission problems arising from the Hungarian higher education admission
scheme. We focus on four special features, namely the solution concept of
stable score-limits, the presence of lower and common quotas, and paired
applications. We note that each of the latter three special feature makes the
college admissions problem NP-hard to solve. Currently, a heuristic based on
the Gale-Shapley algorithm is being used in the application. The IP methods
that we propose are not only interesting theoretically, but may also serve as
an alternative solution concept for this practical application, and also for
other ones
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Dynamic interpersonal therapy for moderate to severe depression: A pilot randomized controlled and feasibility trial
Background: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services treat most patients in England who present to primary care with major depression. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is one of the psychotherapies offered. Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) is a psychodynamic and mentalization-based treatment for depression. 16 sessions are delivered over approximately 5 months. Neither DIT's effectiveness relative to low-intensity treatment (LIT), nor the feasibility of randomizing patients to psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioural treatments (CBT) in an IAPT setting has been demonstrated.
Methods: 147 patients were randomized in a 3:2:1 ratio to DIT (n = 73), LIT (control intervention; n = 54) or CBT (n = 20) in four IAPT treatment services in a combined superiority and feasibility design. Patients meeting criteria for major depressive disorder were assessed at baseline, mid-treatment (3 months) and post-treatment (6 months) using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD-17), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and other self-rated questionnaire measures. Patients receiving DIT were also followed up 6 months post-completion.
Results: The DIT arm showed significantly lower HRSD-17 scores at the 6-month primary end-point compared with LIT (d = 0.70). Significantly more DIT patients (51%) showed clinically significant change on the HRSD-17 compared with LIT (9%). The DIT and CBT arms showed equivalence on most outcomes. Results were similar with the BDI-II. DIT showed benefit across a range of secondary outcomes.ConclusionsDIT delivered in a primary care setting is superior to LIT and can be appropriately compared with CBT in future RCTs
Synergism of Chemical and Microbial Additives on Sugarcane (\u3ci\u3eSaccharum Officinaruml.\u3c/i\u3e) Silage Fermentation
Sugarcane has a high productive potential (30 t DM/year) and it is commonly used in its fresh form. The ensiling of sugarcane is increasing but little research has been carried out to reduce nutrient losses during fermentation
Hartree-Fock and Many-Body Perturbation Theory with Correlated Realistic NN-Interactions
We employ correlated realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions for the
description of nuclear ground states throughout the nuclear chart within the
Hartree-Fock approximation. The crucial short-range central and tensor
correlations, which are induced by the realistic interaction and cannot be
described by the Hartree-Fock many-body state itself, are included explicitly
by a state-independent unitary transformation in the framework of the unitary
correlation operator method (UCOM). Using the correlated realistic interaction
V_UCOM resulting from the Argonne V18 potential, bound nuclei are obtained
already on the Hartree-Fock level. However, the binding energies are smaller
than the experimental values because long-range correlations have not been
accounted for. Their inclusion by means of many-body perturbation theory leads
to a remarkable agreement with experimental binding energies over the whole
mass range from He-4 to Pb-208, even far off the valley of stability. The
observed perturbative character of the residual long-range correlations and the
apparently small net effect of three-body forces provides promising
perspectives for a unified nuclear structure description.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, using REVTEX
Magnetic properties of single-crystalline CeCuGa3
The magnetic behavior of single-crystalline CeCuGa3 has been investigated.
The compound forms in a tetragonal BaAl4-type structure consisting of
rare-earth planes separated by Cu-Ga layers. If the Cu-Ga site disorder is
reduced, CeCuGa3 adopts the related, likewise tetragonal BaNiSn3-type
structure, in which the Ce ion are surrounded by different Cu and Ga layers and
the inversion symmetry is lost. In the literature conflicting reports about the
magnetic order of CeCuGa3 have been published. Single crystals with the
centrosymmetric structure variant exhibit ferromagnetic order below approx. 4 K
with a strong planar anisotropy. The magnetic behavior above the transition
temperature can be well understood by the crystal-field splitting of the 4f
Hund's rule ground-state multiplet of the Ce ions
An analysis of eye-tracking data in foveated ray tracing
We present an analysis of eye tracking data produced during a quality-focused user study of our own foveated ray tracing method. Generally, foveated rendering serves the purpose of adapting actual rendering methods to a userâs gaze. This leads to performance improvements which also allow for the use of methods like ray tracing, which would be computationally too expensive otherwise, in fields like virtual reality (VR), where high rendering performance is important to achieve immersion, or fields like scientific and information visualization, where large amounts of data may hinder real-time rendering capabilities. We provide an overview of our rendering system itself as well as information about the data we collected during the user study, based on fixation tasks to be fulfilled during flights through virtual scenes displayed on a head-mounted display (HMD). We analyze the tracking data regarding its precision and take a closer look at the accuracy achieved by participants when focusing the fixation targets. This information is then put into context with the quality ratings given by the users, leading to a surprising relation between fixation accuracy and quality ratings.We would like to thank NVIDIA for providing us with two Quadro K6000 graphics cards for the user study, the Intel Visual Computing Institute, the European Union (EU) for the co-funding as part of the Dreamspace project, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for funding the MATEDIS ZIM project (grant no KF2644109) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for funding the project OLIVE
A 31T split-pair pulsed magnet for single crystal x-ray diffraction at low temperature
We have developed a pulsed magnet system with panoramic access for
synchrotron x-ray diffraction in magnetic fields up to 31T and at low
temperature down to 1.5 K. The apparatus consists of a split-pair magnet, a
liquid nitrogen bath to cool the pulsed coil, and a helium cryostat allowing
sample temperatures from 1.5 up to 250 K. Using a 1.15MJ mobile generator,
magnetic field pulses of 60 ms length were generated in the magnet, with a rise
time of 16.5 ms and a repetition rate of 2 pulses/hour at 31 T. The setup was
validated for single crystal diffraction on the ESRF beamline ID06
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