7,636 research outputs found
Revised Pacific-Antarctic plate motions and geophysics of the Menard Fracture Zone
A reconnaissance survey of multibeam bathymetry and magnetic anomaly data of the Menard Fracture Zone allows for significant refinement of plate motion history of the South Pacific over the last 44 million years. The right-stepping Menard Fracture Zone developed at the northern end of the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge within a propagating rift system that generated the Hudson microplate and formed the conjugate Henry and Hudson Troughs as a response to a major plate reorganization ∼45 million years ago. Two splays, originally about 30 to 35 km apart, narrowed gradually to a corridor of 5 to 10 km width, while lineation azimuths experienced an 8° counterclockwise reorientation owing to changes in spreading direction between chrons C13o and C6C (33 to 24 million years ago). We use the improved Pacific-Antarctic plate motions to analyze the development of the southwest end of the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. Owing to a 45° counterclockwise reorientation between chrons C27 and C20 (61 to 44 million years ago) this section of the ridge became a long transform fault connected to the Macquarie Triple Junction. Following a clockwise change starting around chron C13o (33 million years ago), the transform fault opened. A counterclockwise change starting around chron C10y (28 millions years ago) again led to a long transform fault between chrons C6C and C5y (24 to 10 million years ago). A second period of clockwise reorientation starting around chron C5y (10 million years ago) put the transform fault into extension, forming an array of 15 en echelon transform faults and short linking spreading centers
Cenozoic evolution of Neotethys and implications for the causes of plate motions
Africa-North America-Eurasia plate circuit rotations, combined with Red Sea rotations and new estimates of crustal shortening in Iran define the Cenozoic history of the Neotethyan ocean between Arabia and Eurasia. The new constraints indicate that Arabia-Eurasia convergence has been fairly constant at 2 to 3 cm/yr since 56 Ma with slowing of Africa-Eurasia motion to <1 cm/yr near 25 Ma, coeval with the opening of the Red Sea. Ocean closure occurred no later than 10 Ma, and could have occurred prior to this time only if a large amount of continental lithosphere was subducted, suggesting that slowing of Africa significantly predated the Arabia-Eurasia collision. These kinematics imply that Africa's disconnection with the negative buoyancy of the downgoing slab of lithosphere beneath southern Eurasia slowed its motion. The slow, steady rate of northward subduction since 56 Ma contrasts with strongly variable rates of magma production in the Urumieh-Dokhtar arc, implying magma production rate in continental arcs is not linked to subduction rate
Building validation tools for knowledge-based systems
The Expert Systems Validation Associate (EVA), a validation system under development at the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center for more than a year, provides a wide range of validation tools to check the correctness, consistency and completeness of a knowledge-based system. A declarative meta-language (higher-order language), is used to create a generic version of EVA to validate applications written in arbitrary expert system shells. The architecture and functionality of EVA are presented. The functionality includes Structure Check, Logic Check, Extended Structure Check (using semantic information), Extended Logic Check, Semantic Check, Omission Check, Rule Refinement, Control Check, Test Case Generation, Error Localization, and Behavior Verification
Astrometry with "Carte du Ciel" plates, San Fernando zone. I. Digitization and measurement using a flatbed scanner
We present an original method of digitizing and astrometrically reducing
"Carte du Ciel" plate material using an inexpensive flatbed scanner, to
demonstrate that for this material there is an alternative to more specialized
measuring machines that are very few in number and thus not readily available.
The sample of plates chosen to develop this method are original "Carte du Ciel"
plates of the San Fernando zone, photographic material with a mean epoch
1903.6, and a limiting photographic magnitude ~14.5, covering the declination
range of -10 < dec < -2. Digitization has been made using a commercial flatbed
scanner, demonstrating the internal precision that can be attained with such a
device. A variety of post-scan corrections are shown to be necessary. In
particular, the large distortion introduced by the non-uniform action of the
scanner is modelled using multiple scans of each plate. We also tackle the
specific problems associated with the triple-exposure images on some plates and
the grid lines present on all. The final measures are reduced to celestial
coordinates using the Tycho-2 Catalogue. The internal precision obtained over a
single plate, 3microns ~ 0.18" in each axis, is comparable to what is realized
with similar plate material using slower, less affordable, and less widely
available conventional measuring machines, such as a PDS microdensitometer. The
accuracy attained over large multi-plate areas, employing an overlapping plate
technique, is estimated at 0.2".Comment: 16 pages, 19 figures and 3 tables. Accepted for publication in A&
Neutron scattering study of a quasi-2D spin-1/2 dimer system Piperazinium Hexachlorodicuprate under hydrostatic pressure
We report inelastic neutron scattering study of a quasi-two-dimensional S=1/2
dimer system Piperazinium Hexachlorodicuprate under hydrostatic pressure. The
spin gap {\Delta} becomes softened with the increase of the hydrostatic
pressure up to P= 9.0 kbar. The observed threefold degenerate triplet
excitation at P= 6.0 kbar is consistent with the theoretical prediction and the
bandwidth of the dispersion relation is unaffected within the experimental
uncertainty. At P= 9.0 kbar the spin gap is reduced to 0.55 meV from 1.0 meV at
ambient pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Effects of Dietary Fat Source on Performance of Lactating Dairy Cows Fed a Pre-mixed Concentrate
Inclusion of a pre-blended concentrate (OneTrak®, Cargill Inc., Blair, NE) in the total mixed ration (TMR) for dairy cows can simplify the daily mixing of dietary ingredients. A cow’s response to fat supplementation can be affected by other dietary ingredients; however, little is known about production responses to dietary fat in diets with high concentrations of non-forage fiber. This study evaluated cow performance in response to fat sources when the ration contained a pre-blended concentrate composed largely of a non-forage fiber source. Six pens of mid-lactation cows were studied; the addition of saturated fat (Energy Booster 100) and rumen-protected unsaturated fat (Megalac) were compared to a control diet with no added fat. Milk yield tended to increase with both fat sources. Protein concentration decreased with fat supplementation but protein yield did not differ. Efficiency of conversion of feed to milk tended to increase for Megalac compared with Energy Booster. These responses to dietary fat are comparable to those for diets without OneTrak®, suggesting that no unusual dietary interactions with fat supplements are apparent with OneTrak® feeding programs
Understanding ratio distribution in the mixed events
The event mixing method is analyzed for the study of the event-by-event
ratio distribution. It is shown that there exists some correlation
between the kaon and pion multiplicities in the mixed events. The ratio
distributions in the mixed events for different sets of real events are shown.
The dependence of the distributions on the mean ratio, mean and
variance of multiplicity distribution in the real events is investigated
systematically. The effect of imperfect particle identification on the
ratio distribution in the mixed event is also considered.Comment: 11 pages in revtex, 8 eps figures include
Herschel PACS and SPIRE spectroscopy of the Photodissociation Regions associated with S 106 and IRAS 23133+6050
Photodissociation regions (PDRs) contain a large fraction of all of the
interstellar matter in galaxies. Classical examples include the boundaries
between ionized regions and molecular clouds in regions of massive star
formation, marking the point where all of the photons energetic enough to
ionize hydrogen have been absorbed. In this paper we determine the physical
properties of the PDRs associated with the star forming regions IRAS 23133+6050
and S 106 and present them in the context of other Galactic PDRs associated
with massive star forming regions. We employ Herschel PACS and SPIRE
spectroscopic observations to construct a full 55-650 {\mu}m spectrum of each
object from which we measure the PDR cooling lines, other fine- structure
lines, CO lines and the total far-infrared flux. These measurements are then
compared to standard PDR models. Subsequently detailed numerical PDR models are
compared to these predictions, yielding additional insights into the dominant
thermal processes in the PDRs and their structures. We find that the PDRs of
each object are very similar, and can be characterized by a two-phase PDR model
with a very dense, highly UV irradiated phase (n 10^6 cm^(-3), G
10^5) interspersed within a lower density, weaker radiation field phase
(n 10^4 cm^(-3), G 10^4). We employed two different numerical
models to investigate the data, firstly we used RADEX models to fit the peak of
the CO ladder, which in conjunction with the properties derived yielded
a temperature of around 300 K. Subsequent numerical modeling with a full PDR
model revealed that the dense phase has a filling factor of around 0.6 in both
objects. The shape of the CO ladder was consistent with these components
with heating dominated by grain photoelectric heating. An extra excitation
component for the highest J lines (J > 20) is required for S 106.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, A&A Accepte
A guideline for planning and implementing an action-based and transnational course in higher engineering education: A Case for Sustainable Value Creation
This paper outlines a generic guideline for planning and implementing an action-based and transnational course in higher education for training the engineering competencies required in a future dynamic European workplace and economy. This guidance is intended for universities, research and teaching institutes, as well as for companies interested in establishing novel teaching concepts by closing the gap between know-how and experience. The guideline will provide suggestions and lessons learned for the realization of an efficient and effective implementation. Important development phases of the guideline are explained through a use case based on a master course, which has been jointly established in cooperation by four European universities. Learning objectives for this course aim at raising the awareness about sustainable value creation by focusing on the development of sustainable and technological innovations with entrepreneurial objectives
Online Pattern Recognition for the ALICE High Level Trigger
The ALICE High Level Trigger has to process data online, in order to select
interesting (sub)events, or to compress data efficiently by modeling
techniques.Focusing on the main data source, the Time Projection Chamber (TPC),
we present two pattern recognition methods under investigation: a sequential
approach "cluster finder" and "track follower") and an iterative approach
("track candidate finder" and "cluster deconvoluter"). We show, that the former
is suited for pp and low multiplicity PbPb collisions, whereas the latter might
be applicable for high multiplicity PbPb collisions, if it turns out, that more
than 8000 charged particles would have to be reconstructed inside the TPC.
Based on the developed tracking schemes we show, that using modeling techniques
a compression factor of around 10 might be achievableComment: Realtime Conference 2003, Montreal, Canada to be published in IEEE
Transactions on Nuclear Science (TNS), 6 pages, 8 figure
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