Analysis of ultraviolet spectrophotometric data from Copernicus

Ultraviolet spectral data from the OAO 3 satellite are being used to study interstellar absorption lines and stellar and circumstellar lines in hot stars. The interstellar data are beneficial in analyzing the depletions of heavy elements from the gas phase and in elucidating how these depletions depend on physical conditions. Abundances in separate velocity components were determined from line profiles. Observations were carried out for interstellar abundances, both atomic and molecular, towards a number of stars. The better quality data are being analyzed for profile information and the lesser data are being used in curve-of-growth analyses. Molecular observations were carried out as well, N2 was sought; interstellar C2 was detected and its rotational excitation utilized to establish limits in interstellar cloud temperatures. An extensive search for H2O resulted in a tentative identification which will produce new information on chemical reaction rates. Interstellar depletions and grain properties in the rho Ophiuchi cloud, stellar wind variability, and circumstellar lines are also under study

The ultraviolet extinction in M-supergiant circumstellar envelopes

Using International Ultraviolet (IUS) archival low-dispersion spectra, ultraviolet spectral extinctions were derived for the circumstellar envelopes of two M supergiants: HD 60414 and HD 213310. The observed stellar systems belong to a class of widely-separated spectroscopic binaries that are called VV Cephei stars. The total extinction was calculated by dividing the reddened fluxes with unreddened comparison fluxes of similar stars (g B2.5 for HD 213310 and a normalized s+B3 for HD 60414) from the reference atlas. After substracting the interstellar extinctions, which were estimated from the E(B-V) reddening of nearby stars, the resultant circumstellar extinctions were normalized at about 3.5 inverse microns. Not only is the 2175 A extinction bump absent in the circumstellar extinctions, but the far-ultraviolet extinction rise is also absent. The rather flat, ultraviolet extinction curves were interpreted as signatures of a population of noncarbonaceous, oxygen-rich grains with diameters larger than the longest observed wavelength

Interstellar abundance determination using IUE data

Analysis of the silicon interstellar abundances was made for more heavily reddened lines of sight than were accessible to the Copernicus satellite. Silicon rarely had accurate column densities determined from Copernicus data because the available lines all lie on the flat portion of the curve of growth. With International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) it is possible to reach color excesses of E(B-V) approximately 0.5-0.7, and in addition obtain data on the weak SiII line at 1808 A, so that a wide range of oscillator strengths is available. The lower resolving power of the IUE causes difficulties in that several of the SiII lines are blended with strong lines of other species. Data on the lines of sight analyzed suggested that some of the absorption lines fall on the damped portion of the curve of growth, implying that silicon may not be as highly depleted as expected

Copernicus observational searches for OH and H2O in diffuse clouds

An intensive search for OH and H2O in the directions of sigma Sco, alpha Cam, and micron Per was undertaken with the Copernicus satellite. Multiple scans were carried out over the wavelength region for the expected absorption features due to the OH D-X and H2O C-X transitions. The feature due to OH was detected marginally towards sigma Sco, and only an upper limit can be given towards alpha Cam. H2O was not detected in any of the stars at the signal level accumulated. The OH abundance towards sigma Sco and the respective lower limits for the OH/H2O ratios are discussed with regard to the extant models for the steady state abundances of OH and H2O, and shown not to be inconsistent with ion-molecule schemes

The rate of mass loss and variations in the wind from the Be star delta Centauri

Copernicus ultraviolet scans of the Be star delta Centauri obtained in 1976 and 1979, show a significant variation in the Si III lambda 1206 profile, The strong asymmetry that was present in 1976 had disappeared by 1979. The Si IV lambda 1400 doublet was also asymmetric in 1976, but was not observed in 1979. A quantitative fit of the line shapes to theoretical wind profiles shows that the mass-loss rate in 1976 was 2 x 10 to the minus 8th power/yr, and that the rate of mass loss in Si III was at least one order of magnitude less in 1979. It is not possible to determine whether the variation represented an overall change in the lass-loss rate, or whether it was due to a change in the ionization balance. The profile fitting procedure resulted in the adoption of assumed underlying photospheric Si III and Si IV profiles, and the equivalent widths measured from these profiles are most consistent with T sub eff between 30,000 and 35,000 K, somewhat hotter than implied by the spectral classification normally assigned to this star. The ultraviolet photospheric line widths, coupled wit published theoretical analyses of rotational gravitational darkening, imply an intrinsic equatorial velocity of about 310 km/sec and an angle of inclination of the rotational axis to the line of sight of i is less than or equal to 44 deg

The weakness of diffuse bands in nebular environments. Possible impact on thePAH+ hypothesis

It has been widely suggested that PAH cations (PAH+) may be the carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands, so it is of interest to probe diffuse behavior in regions suspected of having high abundances of PAHs. Here we examine the strengths of several of the visible-wavelength diffuse interstellar bands in two nebular environments where infrared emission and ultraviolet indicators show that PAHs are abundant. One might expect the PAHs to be predominantly positively ionized in these regions, yet the diffuse bands are systematically weak. This led us to examine the ionization balance for see whether the weakness of the diffuse bands might rule out PAH cations as the carriers. We find that this conclusion is ambiguous, however, due to the very rapid rates for recombination of PAHs: under conditions that may reasonably represent our observed nebulae, the PAHs might be in predominantly neutral form. If so, this would explain the weakness of the diffuse bands, but leaves open some very perplexing questions about where the PAHs might be dominantly in cation form, hence where the diffuse bands do arise if they are due to PAH+

The weakness of diffuse bands in nebular environments. Possible impact on thePAH+ hypothesis

It has been widely suggested that PAH cations (PAH+) may be the carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands, so it is of interest to probe diffuse behavior in regions suspected of having high abundances of PAHs. Here we examine the strengths of several of the visible-wavelength diffuse interstellar bands in two nebular environments where infrared emission and ultraviolet indicators show that PAHs are abundant. One might expect the PAHs to be predominantly positively ionized in these regions, yet the diffuse bands are systematically weak. This led us to examine the ionization balance for see whether the weakness of the diffuse bands might rule out PAH cations as the carriers. We find that this conclusion is ambiguous, however, due to the very rapid rates for recombination of PAHs: under conditions that may reasonably represent our observed nebulae, the PAHs might be in predominantly neutral form. If so, this would explain the weakness of the diffuse bands, but leaves open some very perplexing questions about where the PAHs might be dominantly in cation form, hence where the diffuse bands do arise if they are due to PAH+

Status of the UCNτ experiment

The neutron is the simplest nuclear system that can be used to probe the structure of the weak interaction and search for physics beyond the standard model. Measurements of neutron lifetime and β-decay correlation coefficients with precisions of 0.02% and 0.1%, respectively, would allow for stringent constraints on new physics. The UCNτ experiment uses an asymmetric magneto-gravitational UCN trap with in situ counting of surviving neutrons to measure the neutron lifetime, τ_n = 877.7s (0.7s)_(stat) (+0.4/−0.2s)_(sys). We discuss the recent result from UCNτ, the status of ongoing data collection and analysis, and the path toward a 0.25 s measurement of the neutron lifetime with UCNτ

SentiBench - a benchmark comparison of state-of-the-practice sentiment analysis methods

In the last few years thousands of scientific papers have investigated sentiment analysis, several startups that measure opinions on real data have emerged and a number of innovative products related to this theme have been developed. There are multiple methods for measuring sentiments, including lexical-based and supervised machine learning methods. Despite the vast interest on the theme and wide popularity of some methods, it is unclear which one is better for identifying the polarity (i.e., positive or negative) of a message. Accordingly, there is a strong need to conduct a thorough apple-to-apple comparison of sentiment analysis methods, \textit{as they are used in practice}, across multiple datasets originated from different data sources. Such a comparison is key for understanding the potential limitations, advantages, and disadvantages of popular methods. This article aims at filling this gap by presenting a benchmark comparison of twenty-four popular sentiment analysis methods (which we call the state-of-the-practice methods). Our evaluation is based on a benchmark of eighteen labeled datasets, covering messages posted on social networks, movie and product reviews, as well as opinions and comments in news articles. Our results highlight the extent to which the prediction performance of these methods varies considerably across datasets. Aiming at boosting the development of this research area, we open the methods' codes and datasets used in this article, deploying them in a benchmark system, which provides an open API for accessing and comparing sentence-level sentiment analysis methods