687 research outputs found
Effectiveness of Fluid Milk Advertising Since the Dairy and Tobacco Adjustment Act of 1983
Tidal Barrier and the Asymptotic Mass of Proto Gas-Giant Planets
Extrasolar planets found with radial velocity surveys have masses ranging
from several Earth to several Jupiter masses. While mass accretion onto
protoplanetary cores in weak-line T-Tauri disks may eventually be quenched by a
global depletion of gas, such a mechanism is unlikely to have stalled the
growth of some known planetary systems which contain relatively low-mass and
close-in planets along with more massive and longer period companions. Here, we
suggest a potential solution for this conundrum. In general, supersonic infall
of surrounding gas onto a protoplanet is only possible interior to both of its
Bondi and Roche radii. At a critical mass, a protoplanet's Bondi and Roche
radii are equal to the disk thickness. Above this mass, the protoplanets' tidal
perturbation induces the formation of a gap. Although the disk gas may continue
to diffuse into the gap, the azimuthal flux across the protoplanets' Roche lobe
is quenched. Using two different schemes, we present the results of numerical
simulations and analysis to show that the accretion rate increases rapidly with
the ratio of the protoplanet's Roche to Bondi radii or equivalently to the disk
thickness. In regions with low geometric aspect ratios, gas accretion is
quenched with relatively low protoplanetary masses. This effect is important
for determining the gas-giant planets' mass function, the distribution of their
masses within multiple planet systems around solar type stars, and for
suppressing the emergence of gas-giants around low mass stars
Tidal evolution of close-in giant planets : Evidence of Type II migration?
It is well accepted that 'hot Jupiters' did not form in situ, as the
temperature in the protoplanetary disc at the radius at which they now orbit
would have been too high for planet formation to have occurred. These planets,
instead, form at larger radii and then move into the region in which they now
orbit. The exact process that leads to the formation of these close-in planets
is, however, unclear and it seems that there may be more than one mechanism
that can produce these short-period systems. Dynamical interactions in
multiple-planet systems can scatter planets into highly eccentric orbits which,
if the pericentre is sufficiently close to the parent star, can be tidally
circularised by tidal interactions between the planet and star. Furthermore,
systems with distant planetary or stellar companions can undergo Kozai cycles
which can result in a planet orbiting very close to its parent star. However,
the most developed model for the origin of short period planets is one in which
the planet exchanges angular momentum with the surrounding protoplanetary disc
and spirals in towards the central star. In the case of 'hot Jupiters', the
planet is expected to open a gap in the disc and migrate through Type II
.migration. If this is the dominant mechanism for producing `hot Jupiters' then
we would expect the currect properties of observed close-in giant planets to be
consistent with an initial population resulting from Type II migration followed
by evolution due to tidal interactions with the central star. We consider
initial distributions that are consistent with Type II migration and find that
after tidal evolution, the final distributions can be consistent with that
observed. Our results suggest that a modest initial pile-up at a ~ 0.05 au is
required and that the initial eccentricity distribution must peak at e \sim 0.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Societ
BIMP‐Catalyzed 1,3‐Prototropic Shift for the Highly Enantioselective Synthesis of Conjugated Cyclohexenones
A bifunctional iminophosphorane (BIMP)‐catalysed enantioselective synthesis of α,β‐unsaturated cyclohexenones through a facially selective 1,3‐prototropic shift of β,γ‐unsaturated prochiral isomers, under mild reaction conditions and in short reaction times, on a range of structurally diverse substrates, is reported. α,β‐Unsaturated cyclohexenone products primed for downstream derivatisation were obtained in high yields (up to 99 %) and consistently high enantioselectivity (up to 99 % ee). Computational studies into the reaction mechanism and origins of enantioselectivity, including multivariate linear regression of TS energy, were carried out and the obtained data were found to be in good agreement with experimental findings
An Automated Methodology for Non-targeted Compositional Analysis of Small Molecules in High Complexity Environmental Matrices Using Coupled Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry
The life-critical matrices of air and water are among the most complex chemical mixtures that are ever encountered. Ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometers, such as the Orbitrap, provide unprecedented analytical capabilities to probe the molecular composition of such matrices, but the extraction of non-targeted chemical information is impractical to perform via manual data processing. Automated non-targeted tools rapidly extract the chemical information of all detected compounds within a sample dataset. However, these methods have not been exploited in the environmental sciences. Here, we provide an automated and (for the first time) rigorously tested methodology for the non-targeted compositional analysis of environmental matrices using coupled liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric data. First, the robustness and reproducibility was tested using authentic standards, evaluating performance as a function of concentration, ionization potential, and sample complexity. The method was then used for the compositional analysis of particulate matter and surface waters collected from worldwide locations. The method detected >9600 compounds in the individual environmental samples, arising from critical pollutant sources, including carcinogenic industrial chemicals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals among others. This methodology offers considerable advances in the environmental sciences, providing a more complete assessment of sample compositions while significantly increasing throughput
Two-Loop Correction to Bhabha Scattering
We present the two-loop virtual QED corrections to e^+ e^- to mu^+ mu^- and
Bhabha scattering in dimensional regularization. The results are expressed in
terms of polylogarithms. The form of the infrared divergences agrees with
previous expectations. These results are a crucial ingredient in the complete
next-to-next-to-leading order QED corrections to these processes. A future
application will be to reduce theoretical uncertainties associated with
luminosity measurements at e^+ e^- colliders. The calculation also tests
methods that may be applied to analogous QCD processes.Comment: Latex, 22 pages, 1 figur
Do Synesthetes Have a General Advantage in Visual Search and Episodic Memory? A Case for Group Studies
BACKGROUND: Some studies, most of them case-reports, suggest that synesthetes have an advantage in visual search and episodic memory tasks. The goal of this study was to examine this hypothesis in a group study. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, we tested thirteen grapheme-color synesthetes and we compared their performance on a visual search task and a memory test to an age-, handedness-, education-, and gender-matched control group. The results showed no significant group differences (all relevant ps>.50). For the visual search task effect sizes indicated a small advantage for synesthetes (Cohen's d between .19 and .32). No such advantage was found for episodic memory (Cohen's d<.05). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results indicate that synesthesia per se does not seem to lead to a strong performance advantage. Rather, the superior performance of synesthetes observed in some case-report studies may be due to individual differences, to a selection bias or to a strategic use of synesthesia as a mnemonic. In order to establish universal effects of synesthesia on cognition single-case studies must be complemented by group studies
Children with cancer: a survey on the experience of Italian primary care pediatricians
State space modelling and data analysis exercises in LISA Pathfinder
LISA Pathfinder is a mission planned by the European Space Agency to test the
key technologies that will allow the detection of gravitational waves in space.
The instrument on-board, the LISA Technology package, will undergo an
exhaustive campaign of calibrations and noise characterisation campaigns in
order to fully describe the noise model. Data analysis plays an important role
in the mission and for that reason the data analysis team has been developing a
toolbox which contains all the functionalities required during operations. In
this contribution we give an overview of recent activities, focusing on the
improvements in the modelling of the instrument and in the data analysis
campaigns performed both with real and simulated data.Comment: Plenary talk presented at the 9th International LISA Symposium, 21-25
May 2012, Pari
Micrometeoroid Events in LISA Pathfinder
The zodiacal dust complex, a population of dust and small particles that
pervades the Solar System, provides important insight into the formation and
dynamics of planets, comets, asteroids, and other bodies. Here we present a new
set of data obtained using a novel technique: direct measurements of momentum
transfer to a spacecraft from individual particle impacts. This technique is
made possible by the extreme precision of the instruments flown on the LISA
Pathfinder spacecraft, a technology demonstrator for a future space-based
gravitational wave observatory that operated near the first Sun-Earth Lagrange
point from early 2016 through Summer of 2017. Using a simple model of the
impacts and knowledge of the control system, we show that it is possible to
detect impacts and measure properties such as the transferred momentum (related
to the particle's mass and velocity), direction of travel, and location of
impact on the spacecraft. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic
search for impacts during 4348 hours of Pathfinder data. We report a total of
54 candidates with momenta ranging from 0.2 to
230. We furthermore make a comparison of these candidates
with models of micrometeoroid populations in the inner solar system including
those resulting from Jupiter-family comets, Oort-cloud comets, Hailey-type
comets, and Asteroids. We find that our measured population is consistent with
a population dominated by Jupiter-family comets with some evidence for a
smaller contribution from Hailey-type comets. This is in agreement with
consensus models of the zodiacal dust complex in the momentum range sampled by
LISA Pathfinder.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, accepted in Ap
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