Effects of rare earth nanoparticles (M = Sm2O3, Ho2O3, Nd2O3) addition on the microstructure and superconducting transition of Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ ceramics

The effect of rare earth nanoparticles, M=Sm2O3, Nd2O3 and Ho2O3 added to (Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ)1-x(M)x, where x = 0.00 - 0.05, superconductor were studied by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), resistivity (R), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX). The volume fraction of high-Tc phase, Bi-2223, decreased from 84% for pure sample to 48, 30 and 23% at x = 0.05 for Sm2O3, Ho2O3 and Nd2O3 additions, respectively. The critical temperature Tc(R=0) that is 102 K for the pure sample decreased to 78, 73 and 69 K at x = 0.05 for samples with Sm2O3, Nd2O3 and Ho2O3 nanoparticles additions, respectively. The additions of rare earth nanoparticles decreased the grain size and increased the random orientation of the grains. The results showed that the phases’ formations, variations of lattice parameters and electrical properties are sensitive to the size of nanoparticles and magnetic properties of its ions

Analyzing windstorm pattern in Malaysia based on extracted Twitter data.

Wind-rain interactions often lead to severe windstorm events and consequently cause damages and fatal destructions. The increase in frequency of recent windstorm events overwhelmed the nation. Thus, efforts in obtaining and recording these events are intensified with the help of current technology. This study aims to analyze the pattern of recent windstorm events by utilizing big data and GIS. In this study, the reported windstorm events in Twitter application were extracted using R-programming. Prior to analyses, the extracted data were screened to remove any outliers found. The extracted data were selected based on the credibility of its sources to ensure the accuracy and quality. These selected data were extracted from trusted users such as Meteorological Department of Malaysia (MMD), Berita Harian, Bernama and others. This study has demonstrated the possibility of Twitter data as an alternative data source in windstorm studies based on its reasonable findings. It is exhibited that there is drastic increased of windstorm events frequency in years 2018-2020, especially in the northern and west-coast regions of Peninsular. The highest frequency was recorded in April (inter-monsoon season) while the lowest is in February and December (northeast monsoon). The increase of frequency in several locations in the Peninsular is very alarming especially in the Klang Valley since this region is highly populated and serves as Malaysia's important economic zones. Hence, risk control should be considered in this region to reduce the negative impacts as suggested in SDG11 and SDG13

Opportunistic nonorthogonal packet scheduling in fixed broadband wireless access networks

In order to mitigate high cochannel interference resulting from dense channel reuse, the interference management issues are often considered as essential part of scheduling schemes in fixed br

Erratum: "A Gravitational-wave Measurement of the Hubble Constant Following the Second Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo" (2021, ApJ, 909, 218)

[no abstract available

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society

Search for Tensor, Vector, and Scalar Polarizations in the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background

The detection of gravitational waves with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo has enabled novel tests of general relativity, including direct study of the polarization of gravitational waves. While general relativity allows for only two tensor gravitational-wave polarizations, general metric theories can additionally predict two vector and two scalar polarizations. The polarization of gravitational waves is encoded in the spectral shape of the stochastic gravitational-wave background, formed by the superposition of cosmological and individually unresolved astrophysical sources. Using data recorded by Advanced LIGO during its first observing run, we search for a stochastic background of generically polarized gravitational waves. We find no evidence for a background of any polarization, and place the first direct bounds on the contributions of vector and scalar polarizations to the stochastic background. Under log-uniform priors for the energy in each polarization, we limit the energy densities of tensor, vector, and scalar modes at 95% credibility to Ω0T<5.58×10-8, Ω0V<6.35×10-8, and Ω0S<1.08×10-7 at a reference frequency f0=25 Hz. © 2018 American Physical Society

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC-2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: A generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run

Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society