A Herschel [C II] Galactic plane survey II: CO-dark H2 in clouds

ABRIDGED: Context: HI and CO large scale surveys of the Milky Way trace the diffuse atomic clouds and the dense shielded regions of molecular hydrogen clouds. However, until recently, we have not had spectrally resolved C+ surveys to characterize the photon dominated interstellar medium, including, the H2 gas without C, the CO-dark H2, in a large sample of clouds. Aims: To use a sparse Galactic plane survey of the 1.9 THz [C II] spectral line from the Herschel Open Time Key Programme, Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+), to characterize the H2 gas without CO in a statistically significant sample of clouds. Methods: We identify individual clouds in the inner Galaxy by fitting [CII] and CO isotopologue spectra along each line of sight. We combine these with HI spectra, along with excitation models and cloud models of C+, to determine the column densities and fractional mass of CO-dark H2 clouds. Results: We identify 1804 narrow velocity [CII] interstellar cloud components in different categories. About 840 are diffuse molecular clouds with no CO, 510 are transition clouds containing [CII] and 12CO, but no 13CO, and the remainder are dense molecular clouds containing 13CO emission. The CO-dark H2 clouds are concentrated between Galactic radii 3.5 to 7.5 kpc and the column density of the CO-dark H2 layer varies significantly from cloud-to-cloud with an average 9X10^(20) cm-2. These clouds contain a significant fraction of CO-dark H2 mass, varying from ~75% for diffuse molecular clouds to ~20% for dense molecular clouds. Conclusions: We find a significant fraction of the warm molecular ISM gas is invisible in HI and CO, but is detected in [CII]. The fraction of CO-dark H2 is greatest in the diffuse clouds and decreases with increasing total column density, and is lowest in the massive clouds.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in A&A (2014

HiRes deconvolution of Spitzer infrared images

Spitzer provides unprecedented sensitivity in the infrared (IR), but the spatial resolution is limited by a relatively small aperture (0.85 m) of the primary mirror. In order to maximize the scientific return it is desirable to use processing techniques which make the optimal use of the spatial information in the observations. We have developed a deconvolution technique for Spitzer images. The algorithm, "HiRes" and its implementation has been discussed by Backus et al. in 2005. Here we present examples of Spitzer IR images from the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and MIPS, reprocessed using this technique. Examples of HiRes processing include a variety of objects from point sources to complex extended regions. The examples include comparison of Spitzer deconvolved images with high-resolution Keck and Hubble Space Telescope images. HiRes deconvolution improves the visualization of spatial morphology by enhancing resolution (to sub-arcsecond levels in the IRAC bands) and removing the contaminating sidelobes from bright sources. The results thereby represent a significant improvement over previously-published Spitzer images. The benefits of HiRes include (a) sub-arcsec resolution (~0".6-0".8 for IRAC channels); (b) the ability to detect sources below the diffraction-limited confusion level; (c) the ability to separate blended sources, and thereby provide guidance to point-source extraction procedures; (d) an improved ability to show the spatial morphology of resolved sources. We suggest that it is a useful technique to identify features which are interesting enough for follow-up deeper analysis

Group-level Emotion Recognition using Transfer Learning from Face Identification

In this paper, we describe our algorithmic approach, which was used for submissions in the fifth Emotion Recognition in the Wild (EmotiW 2017) group-level emotion recognition sub-challenge. We extracted feature vectors of detected faces using the Convolutional Neural Network trained for face identification task, rather than traditional pre-training on emotion recognition problems. In the final pipeline an ensemble of Random Forest classifiers was learned to predict emotion score using available training set. In case when the faces have not been detected, one member of our ensemble extracts features from the whole image. During our experimental study, the proposed approach showed the lowest error rate when compared to other explored techniques. In particular, we achieved 75.4% accuracy on the validation data, which is 20% higher than the handcrafted feature-based baseline. The source code using Keras framework is publicly available.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication at ICMI17 (EmotiW Grand Challenge

Analysis on knowledge level of recommended plant protection technologies in areca nut (Areca catechu) cultivation in Salem district of Tamil Nadu

Areca nut (Areca catechu) is one of the important cash crops in India. India ranks first in terms of area and production of areca nut and accounts of 54.07 per cent of its world production. The harvesting of nuts commence on the Tamil month of ‘Thai’ (Mid-January to Mid-February) and spread over six months in carrying out the post-harvest practices and marketing of nuts. This study was purposively conducted in Salem district 2018-2019 and occupies first position in area (2,421 hectares) of areca nut in Tamil Nadu. The Peddanackenpalyam, Valapddy, Gengavalli and Attur blocks were selected based on the 87.28 per cent of the area under areca nut in this district with a sample size of 120 areca nut farmers selected by using a proportionate random sampling technique. Most of the respondents (80.00 per cent) had knowledge level of medium to high level of knowledge on the recommended plant protection technologies in areca nut cultivation. It was mainly due to the medium to the high level of information seeking behaviour and social participation. The study revealed that the areca nut growers differed widely in their social characteristics. Most of the respondents had a medium to a high level of knowledge on recommended technologies in areca nut cultivation. This finding stressed the importance of formulating different extension strategies for different audiences by the change agency system.

Dynamic Scheduling of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

To date, group scheduling research has primarily focused on examining the performance of different group heuristics under various experimental conditions. However, the dynamic selection of group heuristics has not received sufficient attention from researchers. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate a mechanism for the dynamic selection of group heuristics from several candidate alternatives by exploiting real time information from the Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS). In this regard, two tools, viz., Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique Exploiting Ranks (SMARTER), are used to develop models for part type and family selection. The experimental results indicate that the performance of the proposed models are better than the common group scheduling heuristics under varied experimental conditions.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

A Generic Mechanism for Repairing Job Shop Schedules

Reactive repair of a disrupted schedule is a better alternative to total rescheduling, as the latter is a time consuming process and also results in shop floor nervousness. The schedule repair heuristics reported in the literature generally address only machine breakdown. This paper presents a modified Affected Operations Rescheduling (mAOR) approach, which deals with many of the disruptions that are frequently encountered in a job shop. The repair of these disruptions has been decomposed into four generic repair actions that can be applied singularly or in combination. These generic repair actions are evaluated through a simulation study with the performance measures of efficiency and stability. The results indicate the effectiveness of the mAOR heuristic in dealing with typical job shop disruptions.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Images of Vega Dust Ring at 350 and 450 microns: New Clues to the Trapping of Multiple-Sized Dust Particles in Planetary Resonances

We have used the SHARC II camera at Caltech Submillimeter Observatory to make 350 and 450 micron images of the Vega dust disk at spatial resolutions (FWHM) of 9.7" and 11.1", respectively. The images show a ring-like morphology (radius \~ 100 AU) with inhomogeneous structure that is qualitatively different from that previously reported at 850 microns and longer wavelengths. We attribute the 350/450 micron emission to a grain population whose characteristic size (~ 1 mm) is intermediate between that of the cm-sized grains responsible for emission longward of 850 microns and the much smaller grains (< 18 microns) in the extensive halo, visible at 70 microns, discussed by Su et al. (2005). We have combined our submillimeter images with Spitzer data at 70 microns to produce 2-d maps of line-of-sight optical depth (relative column density). These "tau maps" suggest that the mm-sized grains are located preferentially in three symmetrically-located concentrations. If so, then this structure could be understood in terms of the Wyatt (2003) model in which planetesimals are trapped in the mean motion resonances of a Neptune-mass planet at 65 AU, provided allowance is made for the spatial distribution of dust grains to differ from that of the parent planetesimals. The peaks of the tau maps are, in fact, located near the expected positions corresponding to the 4:3 resonance. If this identification is confirmed by future observations, it would resolve an ambiguity with regard to the location of the planet.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. ApJ Letters, in press (scheduled for 2006 July 20

Influence of season, age and breed on prevalence of haemoprotozoan diseases in cattle of Tamil Nadu, India

Aim: To assess the prevalence of haemoprotozoan diseases in cross-bred and indigenous cattle in relation to season, age and breed in Western part of Tamil Nadu, India. Materials and Methods: A total of 2637 blood smears were screened for haemoprotozoan diseases and samples were received from the college hospital and veterinary dispensaries in Western part of Tamil Nadu, India. Blood smears were stained using Giemsa's technique and examined under oil immersion. Results: Microscopic examination of blood smears revealed an overall prevalence of 16.64 %; of which theileriosis was 13 %, followed by anaplasmosis 2.64 % and then babesiosis 1.0%. Among the haemoprotozoan diseases, the prevalence of theileriosis was significantly (p<0.05) high during summer (14.4%), followed by moderate in monsoon (13.8%) and less in fair (11.5%) seasons. However, there was no significant seasonal influence on the prevalence of babesiosis and anaplasmosis. The data on influence of breed revealed that there was a significantly (p<0.05) high prevalence of haemoprotozoan diseases in Holstein Friesian (HF) and Jersey cross breeds than indigenous breed and the occurrence of these haemoprotozoan diseases was found to be high among the age groups of 2-7 years in cross-bred animals and below 2 years in indigenous animals. Conclusion: The present study suggests that Western part of Tamil Nadu is highly endemic for theileriosis and occurrence of the disease was high during summer. Cross-bred animals aged 2-7 years are highly susceptible to these haemoprotozoan diseases than indigenous animals

Image of Fomalhaut Dust Ring at 350 Microns: Relative Column Density Map Shows Pericenter-Apocenter Asymmetry

We have imaged the circumstellar disk of Fomalhaut at 350 microns wavelength, using SHARC II at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. The spatial resolution of the raw images (9 arcsec) has been enhanced by a factor of three using the HiRes deconvolution procedure. We find that at this wavelength and signal to noise ratio (~ 12), the observed morphology is that of a simple inclined ring (i ~ 70 deg), with little or no other apparent structure; this is the first observation that shows clearly the ring morphology of the disk. We have combined our 350 micron data with Spitzer Space Telescope images at 24, 70, and 160 microns in order to estimate the 2-dimensional spatial variation of relative column density ("tau map") using our DISKFIT procedure. The tau map is based on the following physical assumptions: (1) the wavelength variation of opacity is the same throughout the disk, (2) the radial variation of dust temperature is dictated by the energy balance of individual grains in the stellar radiation field, and (3) the vertical scale height of the disk follows a power-law radial variation. The results confirm the ring-like morphology, but also show that the geometric center is displaced from the star by about 8 AU and that the ring has an apocentric enhancement of approximately 14% in integrated column density. If we interpret the displacement in terms of elliptical orbital motion due to gravitational perturbation by an unseen planet, then the implied forced eccentricity is ~ 0.06; dynamical modeling then predicts an apocentric density enhancement consistent with that inferred from the tau map.Comment: 13 pages, 3 Postscript figures. To be published in ApJ Letters (accepted 12/23/04