2,130 research outputs found
The discovery of a low mass, pre-main-sequence stellar association around gamma Velorum
We report the serendipitous discovery of a population of low mass, pre-main
sequence stars (PMS) in the direction of the Wolf-Rayet/O-star binary system
gamma^{2} Vel and the Vela OB2 association. We argue that gamma^{2} Vel and the
low mass stars are truly associated, are approximately coeval and that both are
at distances between 360-490 pc, disagreeing at the 2 sigma level with the
recent Hipparcos parallax of gamma^{2} Vel, but consistent with older distance
estimates. Our results clearly have implications for the physical parameters of
the gamma^{2} Vel system, but also offer an exciting opportunity to investigate
the influence of high mass stars on the mass function and circumstellar disc
lifetimes of their lower mass PMS siblings.Comment: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Letters - in pres
Hydrogen Dissociation and Diffusion on Ni and Ti -doped Mg(0001) Surfaces
It is well known, both theoretically and experimentally, that alloying
MgH with transition elements can significantly improve the thermodynamic
and kinetic properties for H desorption, as well as the H intake by Mg
bulk. Here we present a density functional theory investigation of hydrogen
dissociation and surface diffusion over Ni-doped surface, and compare the
findings to previously investigated Ti-doped Mg(0001) and pure Mg(0001)
surfaces. Our results show that the energy barrier for hydrogen dissociation on
the pure Mg(0001) surface is high, while it is small/null when Ni/Ti are added
to the surface as dopants. We find that the binding energy of the two H atoms
near the dissociation site is high on Ti, effectively impeding diffusion away
from the Ti site. By contrast, we find that on Ni the energy barrier for
diffusion is much reduced. Therefore, although both Ti and Ni promote H
dissociation, only Ni appears to be a good catalyst for Mg hydrogenation,
allowing diffusion away from the catalytic sites. Experimental results
corroborate these theoretical findings, i.e. faster hydrogenation of the Ni
doped Mg sample as opposed to the reference Mg or Ti doped Mg.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, to appear in Journal of Chemical Physic
Optimal self-stabilizing mobile byzantine-tolerant regular register with bounded timestamps
This paper proposes the first implementation of a self-stabilizing regular register emulated by n servers that is tolerant to both Mobile Byzantine Agents and transient failures in a round-free synchronous model. Differently from existing Mobile Byzantine Tolerant register implementations, this paper considers a weaker model where: (i) the computation of the servers is decoupled from the movements of the Byzantine agents, i.e., movements may happen before, concurrently, or after the generation or the delivery of a message, and (ii) servers are not aware of their failure state i.e., they do not know if and when they have been corrupted by a Mobile Byzantine agent. The proposed protocol tolerates (i) any finite number of transient failures, and (ii) up to f Mobile Byzantine agents. In addition, our implementation uses bounded timestamps from the Z13 domain and it is optimal with respect to the number of servers needed to tolerate f Mobile Byzantine agents in the given model (i.e., n>6f when Δ=2δ, and n>8f when Δ=δ, where Δ represents the period at which the Byzantine agents move and δ is the upper bound on the communication latency)
Melting line of calcium characterized by in situ LH-DAC XRD and first-principles calculations
In this work, the melting line of calcium has been characterized both experimentally, using synchrotron X-ray diffraction in laser-heated diamond-anvil cells, and theoretically, using first-principles calculations. In the investigated pressure and temperature range (pressure between 10 and 40 GPa and temperature between 300 and 3000 K) it was possible to observe the face-centred phase of calcium and to confirm (and characterize for the first time at these conditions) the presence of the body-centred cubic and the simple cubic phase of calcium. The melting points obtained with the two techniques are in excellent agreement. Furthermore, the present results agree with the only existing melting line of calcium obtained in laser-heated diamond anvil cells, using the speckle method as melting detection technique. They also confirm a flat slope of the melting line in the pressure range between 10 and 30 GPa. The flat melting curve is associated with the presence of the solid high-temperature body-centered cubic phase of calcium and to a small volume change between this phase and the liquid at melting. Reasons for the stabilization of the body-centered face at high-temperature conditions will be discussed
Shear-induced fractures and three-dimensional motions in an organogel
The flow behavior of a viscoelastic organogel is investigated using
ultrasonic velocimetry combined with rheometry. Our gel presents a decreasing
flow curve, i.e., the measured stress decreases as a function of the applied
shear rate. Strikingly, we note that the local flow curve calculated from the
velocity profiles also exhibits a decreasing part. We attribute this regime to
the presence of a fracturing process and three-dimensional motions in the bulk
of the sample.Comment: 13 pages, 19 figure
Relationship between perceived exertion and mean power frequency of the EMG signal from the upper trapezius muscle during isometric shoulder elevation
The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between a fatigue-induced increase of perceived exertion in the neck with a decrease of mean power frequency (MPF) in the surface electromyography (sEMG) signal during repeated shoulder elevation endurance tasks. About Thirty-two healthy women (age range 20-62) performed two maximum 6-min shoulder elevation endurance tasks at 30% of their maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) level, separated by a rest of 6min. During these exercises, perceived exertion was estimated using the Borg scale (range 0-10), whereas the MPF of the sEMG signal from the upper trapezius was simultaneously detected. Linear regression analysis was applied over time for each trial and subject for both MPF and Borg scale rating values. The MPF was normalized by the intercept of the linear regression analysis. The resulting slopes of normalized mean power frequency (nMPF) and Borg scale rating were correlated with each other by linear regression for both trials. In order to investigate the individual behavior of fatigue effects between trials, Δ trial 2-trial 1 slopes of nMPF and Borg scale ratings were calculated for each subject. These slopes of nMPF and Borg scale ratings were correlated with each other as well by linear regression. The increase of Borg scale ratings, as well as the decrease of nMPF, were significantly higher in trial 2 than trial 1 (P<0.01). The results show a linear correlation between slopes of nMPF and Borg scale ratings for both trials 1 and 2 (r=0.76, P<0.01). Trial-to-trial slopes (Δ trial 2-trial 1) of nMPF and Borg scale rating, were also significantly correlated (r=0.68, P<0.05). Thus, the individually sensed increase of perceived exertion in the neck during trial 2 was accompanied by a simultaneously higher detected decrease of nMPF. These findings indicate a close relationship between subjective perception of exertion in the neck and objectively assessed muscle fatigue of the upper trapeziu
Use of biodegradable materials as alternative packaging of typical Calabrian Provola cheese
Calabrian Provola cheese is typically manufactured in the Southern Italy. The request of a more suitable expansion in the national market has promoted this research, based on the evaluation of biodegradable packaging on its qualitative characteristics as alternative of the conventional plastic multilayer film. The tested materials were: Polyethylene/Ethylene vinyl alcohol/Polyamide/Polyethylene (PE/EVOH/PA/PE), Polylactic acid (PLA), coated with a silicon oxide barrier, and Cellophane, coated with resins. The results of this study evidenced that the material based on PLA can be considered a valid alternative packaging because of the quality maintenance of Calabrian Provola cheese and its sustainable characteristics
A Mock Data Challenge for the Einstein Gravitational-Wave Telescope
Einstein Telescope (ET) is conceived to be a third generation
gravitational-wave observatory. Its amplitude sensitivity would be a factor ten
better than advanced LIGO and Virgo and it could also extend the low-frequency
sensitivity down to 1--3 Hz, compared to the 10--20 Hz of advanced detectors.
Such an observatory will have the potential to observe a variety of different
GW sources, including compact binary systems at cosmological distances. ET's
expected reach for binary neutron star (BNS) coalescences is out to redshift
and the rate of detectable BNS coalescences could be as high as one
every few tens or hundreds of seconds, each lasting up to several days. %in the
sensitive frequency band of ET. With such a signal-rich environment, a key
question in data analysis is whether overlapping signals can be discriminated.
In this paper we simulate the GW signals from a cosmological population of BNS
and ask the following questions: Does this population create a confusion
background that limits ET's ability to detect foreground sources? How efficient
are current algorithms in discriminating overlapping BNS signals? Is it
possible to discern the presence of a population of signals in the data by
cross-correlating data from different detectors in the ET observatory? We find
that algorithms currently used to analyze LIGO and Virgo data are already
powerful enough to detect the sources expected in ET, but new algorithms are
required to fully exploit ET data.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review D -- 18 pages, 8 figure
Structure of nanoparticles embedded in micellar polycrystals
We investigate by scattering techniques the structure of water-based soft
composite materials comprising a crystal made of Pluronic block-copolymer
micelles arranged in a face-centered cubic lattice and a small amount (at most
2% by volume) of silica nanoparticles, of size comparable to that of the
micelles. The copolymer is thermosensitive: it is hydrophilic and fully
dissolved in water at low temperature (T ~ 0{\deg}C), and self-assembles into
micelles at room temperature, where the block-copolymer is amphiphilic. We use
contrast matching small-angle neuron scattering experiments to probe
independently the structure of the nanoparticles and that of the polymer. We
find that the nanoparticles do not perturb the crystalline order. In addition,
a structure peak is measured for the silica nanoparticles dispersed in the
polycrystalline samples. This implies that the samples are spatially
heterogeneous and comprise, without macroscopic phase separation, silica-poor
and silica-rich regions. We show that the nanoparticle concentration in the
silica-rich regions is about tenfold the average concentration. These regions
are grain boundaries between crystallites, where nanoparticles concentrate, as
shown by static light scattering and by light microscopy imaging of the
samples. We show that the temperature rate at which the sample is prepared
strongly influence the segregation of the nanoparticles in the
grain-boundaries.Comment: accepted for publication in Langmui
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