An Improved Model for Relativistic Solar Proton Acceleration applied to the 2005 January 20 and Earlier Events

This paper presents results on modelling the ground level response of the higher energy protons for the 2005 January 20 ground level enhancement (GLE). This event, known as GLE 69, produced the highest intensity of relativistic solar particles since the famous event on 1956 February 23. The location of recent X-ray and gamma-ray emission (N14 W61) was near to Sun-Earth connecting magnetic field lines, thus providing the opportunity to directly observe the acceleration source from Earth. We restrict our analysis to protons of energy greater than 450 MeV to avoid complications arising from transport processes that can affect the propagation of low energy protons. In light of this revised approach we have reinvestigated two previous GLEs: those of 2000 July 14 (GLE 59) and 2001 April 15 (GLE 60). Within the limitations of the spectral forms employed, we find that from the peak (06:55 UT) to the decline (07:30 UT) phases of GLE 69, neutron monitor observations from 450 MeV to 10 GeV are best fitted by the Gallegos-Cruz & Perez-Peraza stochastic acceleration model. In contrast, the Ellison & Ramaty spectra did not fit the neutron monitor observations as well. This result suggests that for GLE 69, a stochastic process cannot be discounted as a mechanism for relativistic particle acceleration, particularly during the initial stages of this solar event. For GLE 59 we find evidence that more than one acceleration mechanism was present, consistent with both shock and stochastic acceleration processes dominating at different times of the event. For GLE 60 we find that Ellison & Ramaty spectra better represent the neutron monitor observations compared to stochastic acceleration spectra. The results for GLEs 59 and 60 are in agreement with our previous work.Comment: 42 pages, 10 figures, 10 tables, published in ApJ, August 200

The Effect Of International Financial Reporting Standards Convergence On U. S. Accounting Curriculum

Major changes are coming to U.S. financial accounting and accounting education as U. S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS) converge within the next few years. In 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a proposed road map for the potential convergence of U. S. companies to IFRS beginning with large filers for fiscal years ending on or after December 15, 2014. On February 24, 2010, the SEC issued a new timeline which would require IFRS for U.S. reporting in 2015 or 2016 at the earliest (Derstine and Bremser, 2010). Obviously, this change to IFRS requires an adjustment in U. S. accounting education. The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of accounting curricula and IFRS. An examination was made of both required and elective international accounting courses offered to students in the top 20 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. These programs were identified by the Public Accounting Report in its October 31, 2009 issue. It was conjectured that the top programs would take the lead in IFRS education. The universities online websites and catalogues were examined for program requirements and course titles. The results show a paucity of accounting coursework related to international accounting and IFRS

Estimating the change in asymptotic direction due to secular changes in the geomagnetic field

The concept of geomagnetic optics, as described by the asymptotic directions of approach, is extremely useful in the analysis of cosmic radiation data. However, when changes in cutoff occur as a result of evolution in the geomagnetic field, there are corresponding changes in the asymptotic cones of acceptance. A method is introduced of estimating the change in the asymptotic direction of approach for vertically incident cosmic ray particles from a reference set of directions at a specific epoch by considering the change in the geomagnetic cutoff

Fractal-like Distributions over the Rational Numbers in High-throughput Biological and Clinical Data

Recent developments in extracting and processing biological and clinical data are allowing quantitative approaches to studying living systems. High-throughput sequencing, expression profiles, proteomics, and electronic health records are some examples of such technologies. Extracting meaningful information from those technologies requires careful analysis of the large volumes of data they produce. In this note, we present a set of distributions that commonly appear in the analysis of such data. These distributions present some interesting features: they are discontinuous in the rational numbers, but continuous in the irrational numbers, and possess a certain self-similar (fractal-like) structure. The first set of examples which we present here are drawn from a high-throughput sequencing experiment. Here, the self-similar distributions appear as part of the evaluation of the error rate of the sequencing technology and the identification of tumorogenic genomic alterations. The other examples are obtained from risk factor evaluation and analysis of relative disease prevalence and co-mordbidity as these appear in electronic clinical data. The distributions are also relevant to identification of subclonal populations in tumors and the study of the evolution of infectious diseases, and more precisely the study of quasi-species and intrahost diversity of viral populations

Accounting Editorial Board Membership And Research Output

The primary purpose of this article is to examine whether the university affiliation of  faculty members on the editorial boards of three  top academic accounting journals is related to the university affiliation of the faculty that publish in these journals.  The journals selected – The Accounting Review (AR); The Journal of Accounting Research (JAR); and, Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS), were identified by Chan, et al. (2009) as the top three accounting research journals. The board members (as of January 1, 2007) of these three journals were categorized by university affiliation (both current employer and doctoral-degree granting), and cross referenced with the authors (including co-authors) of all main articles published in these three journals during the calendar years of 2007-2009.  The results indicate that the majority of the authors at JAR and AOS had academic affiliations different from the editorial board members. In the AR, however, over 60% of the authors had the same academic affiliations as the 101 members of the AR editorial review board.  Secondary results provide that a small handful of university affiliations dominate the U.S.-based journal boards, however this connection was not as strong in the non-U.S. AOS.   Overall, less than 11% of AACSB accredited business programs are represented on these collective boards, although AACSB accounting specific accreditation does increase this ratio to a 14% representation.

Calculating the Sun\u27s Photospheric Temperature, an Undergraduate Physics Laboratory

We provide physics students and teachers with a simple technique for measuring the solar spectrum and a method for analyzing that spectrum through popular computer software. We discuss modern physics concepts related to blackbody radiation while modeling the sun\u27s spectrum to determine the temperature of the sun\u27s photosphere. We provide a reliable method to determine the sun\u27s photospheric temperature with a typical error of less than 10%, primarily dependent on atmospheric conditions. The focus of this work is on data analysis, not acquisition