Fischer-Tropsch Catalysts

Catalyst compositions and methods for F-T synthesis which exhibit high CO conversion with minor levels (preferably less than 35% and more preferably less than 5%) or no measurable carbon dioxide generation. F-T active catalysts are prepared by reduction of certain oxygen deficient mixed metal oxides

Equivalence of histogram equalization, histogram matching and the Nyul algorithm for intensity standardization in MRI

Intensity standardization is an important preprocessing step in automatedanalysis of MRI. A popular method by Nyul et al. uses apiece-wise linear approximation of histogram matching. We showthat this method is a non-uniform trapezoidal Riemann approximationof the ideal histogram matching operation, and suggest thathistogram matching is no better than histogram equalization for intensitystandardization in MRI. Experimental results are derived usingsynthetic data

Prescribed Fire Alters Structure and Composition of a Mid-Atlantic Oak Forest up to Eight Years After Burning

Background Prescribed fire in Eastern deciduous forests has been understudied relative to other regions in the United States. In Pennsylvania, USA, prescribed fire use has increased more than five-fold since 2009, yet forest response has not been extensively studied. Due to variations in forest composition and the feedback between vegetation and fire, Pennsylvania deciduous forests may burn and respond differently than forests across the eastern US. We measured changes in forest structure and composition up to eight years after prescribed fire in a hardwood forest of the Ridge and Valley region of the Appalachian Mountains in central Pennsylvania. Results Within five years post fire, tree seedling density increased more than 72% while sapling density decreased by 90%, midstory density decreased by 46%, and overstory response varied. Following one burn in the mixed-oak unit, overstory tree density decreased by 12%. In the aspen–oak unit, where pre-fire harvesting and two burns occurred, overstory tree density increased by 25%. Not all tree species responded similarly and post-fire shifts in species relative abundance occurred in sapling and seedling size classes. Abundance of red maple and cherry species decreased, whereas abundance of sassafras, quaking aspen, black oak, and hickory species increased. Conclusions Forest composition plays a key role in the vegetation–fire relationship and localized studies are necessary to measure forest response to prescribed fire. Compositional shifts in tree species were most pronounced in the aspen–oak unit where pre-fire overstory thinning and two prescribed fires were applied and significant structural changes occurred in all stands after just one burn. Increases in fire-tolerant tree species combined with reductions in fire-intolerant species highlight the role of prescribed fire in meeting management objectives such as altering forest structure and composition to improve game habitat in mid-Atlantic hardwood forests

Vertebral Tortuosity Is Associated With Increased Rate of Cardiovascular Events in Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Background Arterial tortuosity is associated with adverse events in Marfan and Loeys-Dietz syndromes but remains understudied in Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Methods and Results Subjects with a pathogeni

Swift follow-up observations of candidate gravitational-wave transient events

We present the first multi-wavelength follow-up observations of two candidate gravitational-wave (GW) transient events recorded by LIGO and Virgo in their 2009-2010 science run. The events were selected with low latency by the network of GW detectors and their candidate sky locations were observed by the Swift observatory. Image transient detection was used to analyze the collected electromagnetic data, which were found to be consistent with background. Off-line analysis of the GW data alone has also established that the selected GW events show no evidence of an astrophysical origin; one of them is consistent with background and the other one was a test, part of a "blind injection challenge". With this work we demonstrate the feasibility of rapid follow-ups of GW transients and establish the sensitivity improvement joint electromagnetic and GW observations could bring. This is a first step toward an electromagnetic follow-up program in the regime of routine detections with the advanced GW instruments expected within this decade. In that regime multi-wavelength observations will play a significant role in completing the astrophysical identification of GW sources. We present the methods and results from this first combined analysis and discuss its implications in terms of sensitivity for the present and future instruments.Comment: Submitted for publication 2012 May 25, accepted 2012 October 25, published 2012 November 21, in ApJS, 203, 28 ( http://stacks.iop.org/0067-0049/203/28 ); 14 pages, 3 figures, 6 tables; LIGO-P1100038; Science summary at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S6LVSwift/index.php ; Public access area to figures, tables at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p110003

First Low-Latency LIGO+Virgo Search for Binary Inspirals and their Electromagnetic Counterparts

Aims. The detection and measurement of gravitational-waves from coalescing neutron-star binary systems is an important science goal for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. In addition to emitting gravitational-waves at frequencies that span the most sensitive bands of the LIGO and Virgo detectors, these sources are also amongst the most likely to produce an electromagnetic counterpart to the gravitational-wave emission. A joint detection of the gravitational-wave and electromagnetic signals would provide a powerful new probe for astronomy. Methods. During the period between September 19 and October 20, 2010, the first low-latency search for gravitational-waves from binary inspirals in LIGO and Virgo data was conducted. The resulting triggers were sent to electromagnetic observatories for followup. We describe the generation and processing of the low-latency gravitational-wave triggers. The results of the electromagnetic image analysis will be described elsewhere. Results. Over the course of the science run, three gravitational-wave triggers passed all of the low-latency selection cuts. Of these, one was followed up by several of our observational partners. Analysis of the gravitational-wave data leads to an estimated false alarm rate of once every 6.4 days, falling far short of the requirement for a detection based solely on gravitational-wave data.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. For a repository of data used in the publication, go to: http://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=P1100065 Also see the announcement for this paper on ligo.org at: http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S6CBCLowLatency

Search for gravitational waves associated with the InterPlanetary Network short gamma ray bursts

We outline the scientific motivation behind a search for gravitational waves associated with short gamma ray bursts detected by the InterPlanetary Network (IPN) during LIGO's fifth science run and Virgo's first science run. The IPN localisation of short gamma ray bursts is limited to extended error boxes of different shapes and sizes and a search on these error boxes poses a series of challenges for data analysis. We will discuss these challenges and outline the methods to optimise the search over these error boxes.Comment: Methods paper; Proceedings for Eduardo Amaldi 9 Conference on Gravitational Waves, July 2011, Cardiff, U

A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007

We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy, particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access area to figures, tables at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000