European retrievable carrier (Eureca) and evolutionary space carrier for microgravity, Earth observation and technology demonstration

The Spacelab relatively short stay-time in orbit has led to consideration of the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) concept as a reusable carrier. The EURECA concept is a free-flying carrier of experiments which is launched and recovered by the space shuttle. It is commensurate with the size of payloads that can be economically developed in Europe and combines the advantages of Spacelab (high mass and power capability, recovery) with those of a free flyer (extended operating time in a non-polluted environment). The launch of the first EURECA mission is scheduled for October 1987. The Eureca spacecraft will be deployed from the Shuttle cargo bay in orbit, will operate in a free-flying mode for about six months, and will then be retrieved, together with its payloads, returned to Earth by the Space Shuttle and prepared for the next mission. The first mission of EURECA is dedicated to research in the fields of life sciences and material sciences. The experimental hardware of the first mission consist of a variety of processin chambers for crystal growth and equipment for biological investigations viz plant growth and protein crystallization, and there is the possibility to perform experiments in the field of exobiology

Label Placement in Road Maps

A road map can be interpreted as a graph embedded in the plane, in which each vertex corresponds to a road junction and each edge to a particular road section. We consider the cartographic problem to place non-overlapping road labels along the edges so that as many road sections as possible are identified by their name, i.e., covered by a label. We show that this is NP-hard in general, but the problem can be solved in polynomial time if the road map is an embedded tree.Comment: extended version of a CIAC 2015 pape

An Algorithmic Framework for Labeling Road Maps

Given an unlabeled road map, we consider, from an algorithmic perspective, the cartographic problem to place non-overlapping road labels embedded in their roads. We first decompose the road network into logically coherent road sections, e.g., parts of roads between two junctions. Based on this decomposition, we present and implement a new and versatile framework for placing labels in road maps such that the number of labeled road sections is maximized. In an experimental evaluation with road maps of 11 major cities we show that our proposed labeling algorithm is both fast in practice and that it reaches near-optimal solution quality, where optimal solutions are obtained by mixed-integer linear programming. In comparison to the standard OpenStreetMap renderer Mapnik, our algorithm labels 31% more road sections in average.Comment: extended version of a paper to appear at GIScience 201

Pre-equilibrium dileptons look thermal

The dilepton mass distribution from pre-equilibrium matter in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions is indistinguishable from a thermally produced distribution.Comment: CERN-TH.6813/93, 3 pages (latex) plus 1 figure (uuencoded postscript file

The vagaries of violence and power in post-colonial Mozambique

Renamo fought a bloody war from 1976 to 1992 against the socialist Frelimo government that devastated the country, but since Renamo had been created by Rhodesia and subsequently supported by South Africa, the internal dimensions of the conflict were played down. However, the resistance of large sections of Mozambican society against the authoritarian politics of the Frelimo regime explains why Renamo did not remain a small guerrilla force but finally controlled entire regions of the country. The excessive violence against civilians by Renamo obscured the fact that in certain regions the movement enjoyed popular support. The conflict in Mozambique was both a modern war with sophisticated weapons and an armed conflict where ritual powers played a role. After the war, collective and individual rituals contributed to the reconciliation of the warring parties and the reintegration of individuals into their local communities. Notes, ref., sum. [Book abstract

The Calibration of the WISE W1 and W2 Tully-Fisher Relation

In order to explore local large-scale structures and velocity fields, accurate galaxy distance measures are needed. We now extend the well-tested recipe for calibrating the correlation between galaxy rotation rates and luminosities -- capable of providing such distance measures -- to the all-sky, space-based imaging data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) W1 ($3.4\mu$m) and W2 ($4.6\mu$m) filters. We find a linewidth to absolute magnitude correlation (known as the Tully-Fisher Relation, TFR) of $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W1} = -20.35 - 9.56 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (0.54 magnitudes rms) and $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W2} = -19.76 - 9.74 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (0.56 magnitudes rms) from 310 galaxies in 13 clusters. We update the I-band TFR using a sample 9% larger than in Tully & Courtois (2012). We derive $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k}_I = -21.34 - 8.95 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (0.46 magnitudes rms). The WISE TFRs show evidence of curvature. Quadratic fits give $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W1} = -20.48 - 8.36 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5) + 3.60 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)^2$ (0.52 magnitudes rms) and $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W2} = -19.91 - 8.40 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5) + 4.32 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)^2$ (0.55 magnitudes rms). We apply an I-band -- WISE color correction to lower the scatter and derive $\mathcal{M}_{C_{W1}} = -20.22 - 9.12 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ and $\mathcal{M}_{C_{W2}} = -19.63 - 9.11 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (both 0.46 magnitudes rms). Using our three independent TFRs (W1 curved, W2 curved and I-band), we calibrate the UNION2 supernova Type Ia sample distance scale and derive $H_0 = 74.4 \pm 1.4$(stat) $\pm\ 2.4$(sys) kms$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ with 4% total error.Comment: 22 page, 21 figures, accepted to ApJ, Table 1 data at http://spartan.srl.caltech.edu/~neill/tfwisecal/table1.tx

Technical note: The Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART version 6.2

International audienceThe Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART was originally (about 8 years ago) designed for calculating the long-range and mesoscale dispersion of air pollutants from point sources, such as after an accident in a nuclear power plant. In the meantime FLEXPART has evolved into a comprehensive tool for atmospheric transport modeling and analysis. Its application fields were extended from air pollution studies to other topics where atmospheric transport plays a role (e.g., exchange between the stratosphere and troposphere, or the global water cycle). It has evolved into a true community model that is now being used by at least 25 groups from 14 different countries and is seeing both operational and research applications. A user manual has been kept actual over the years and was distributed over an internet page along with the model's source code. In this note we provide a citeable technical description of FLEXPART's latest version (6.2)

Novel Methodology for Measuring the Coefficient of Restitution from Various Types of Balls and Surfaces

Abstract The determination of the coefficient of restitution is of major interest in the design of balls and surfaces. Tennis courts are required to be resurfaced every five years. Players that slide on the court trust the surface to be uniform. Tennis court surfaces change as the ball fluff builds up, the heavily used playing areas are compacted more, the surface on clay is scuffed, and the sun and rain degrades the surface. Injuries can be caused by a player losing footing because of surface variability. With bouncing balls, the ball type and pressure are variable and depend on temperature and age. An investigation on the bounce of various balls (diameter less than 150 mm) from surfaces using an accelerometer on a novel, low cost, portable apparatus is presented. The mechanical structure holds both the moving ball and an inertial sensor. The quality and age of balls and the wear on playing surfaces is particularly important for reflex actions of elite athletes. Courts, pitches and other sports surfaces can be routinely quantified using sport specific balls and this simple, low cost method. Good agreement was observed between the coefficient of restitution using the portable device and a vertical drop test using a high speed camera. The error obtained using the portable device on various types of sports balls with the variation in CoR ≤ 0.01 which falls within the standards of the International Tennis Federation. There is a significant difference ( p = 0.0003) between a hardcourt tennis CoR and a synthetic grass tennis court