51,981 research outputs found
Consistency in statistical moments as a test for bubble cloud clustering
Frequency dependent measurements of attenuation and/or sound speed through clouds of gas bubbles in liquids are often inverted to find the bubble size distribution and the void fraction of gas. The inversions are often done using an effective medium theory as a forward model under the assumption that the bubble positions are Poisson distributed (i.e., statistically independent). Under circumstances in which single scattering does not adequately describe the pressure field, the assumption of independence in position can yield large errors when clustering is present, leading to errors in the inverted bubble size distribution. It is difficult, however, to determine the existence of clustering in bubble clouds without the use of specialized acoustic or optical imaging equipment. A method is described here in which the existence of bubble clustering can be identified by examining the consistency between the first two statistical moments of multiple frequency acoustic measurements
An Estimate of the Gas Transfer Rate from Oceanic Bubbles Derived from Multibeam Sonar Observations of a Ship Wake
Measurements of gas transfer rates from bubbles have been made in the laboratory, but these are difficult to extrapolate to oceanic bubbles where populations of surfactants and particulate matter that inhibit gas transfer are different. Measurements at sea are complicated by unknown bubble creation rates that make it difficult to uniquely identify and observe the evolution of individual bubble clouds. One method that eliminates these difficulties is to measure bubbles in a ship wake where bubble creation at any given location is confined to the duration of the passing ship. This method assumes that the mechanisms slowing the gas dissolution of naturally created bubbles act in a similar manner to slow the dissolution of bubbles in a ship wake. A measurement of the gas transfer rate for oceanic bubbles using this method is reported here. A high-frequency upward-looking multibeam echosounder was used to measure the spatial distribution of bubbles in the wake of a twin screw 61-m research vessel. Hydrodynamic forcing functions are extracted from the multibeam data and used in a bubble cloud evolution model in which the gas transfer rate is treated as a free parameter. The output of model runs corresponding to different gas transfer rates is compared to the time-dependent wake depth observed in the data. Results indicating agreement between the model and the data show that the gas transfer rate must be approximately 15 times less then it would be for surfactant-free bubbles in order to explain the bubble persistence in the wake
An Editor for Helping Novices to Learn Standard ML
This paper describes a novel editor intended as an aid in the learning of the functional programming language Standard ML. A common technique used by novices is programming by analogy whereby students refer to similar programs that they have written before or have seen in the course literature and use these programs as a basis to write a new program. We present a novel editor for ML which supports programming by analogy by providing a collection of editing commands that transform old programs into new ones. Each command makes changes to an isolated part of the program. These changes are propagated to the rest of the program using analogical techniques. We observed a group of novice ML students to determine the most common programming errors in learning ML and restrict our editor such that it is impossible to commit these errors. In this way, students encounter fewer bugs and so their rate of learning increases. Our editor, C Y NTHIA, has been implemented and is due to be tested on st..
Observations of Subarcsecond Bright Dots in the Transition Region above Sunspots with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph
Observations with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) have
revealed numerous sub-arcsecond bright dots in the transition region above
sunspots. These bright dots are seen in the 1400\AA{} and 1330\AA{} slit-jaw
images. They are clearly present in all sunspots we investigated, mostly in the
penumbrae, but also occasionally in some umbrae and light bridges. The bright
dots in the penumbrae typically appear slightly elongated, with the two
dimensions being 300--600 km and 250--450 km, respectively. The long sides of
these dots are often nearly parallel to the bright filamentary structures in
the penumbrae but sometimes clearly deviate from the radial direction. Their
lifetimes are mostly less than one minute, although some dots last for a few
minutes or even longer. Their intensities are often a few times stronger than
the intensities of the surrounding environment in the slit-jaw images. About
half of the bright dots show apparent movement with speeds of
10--40~km~s in the radial direction. Spectra of a few bright dots
were obtained and the Si~{\sc{iv}}~1402.77\AA{} line profiles in these dots are
significantly broadened. The line intensity can be enhanced by one to two
orders of magnitude. Some relatively bright and long-lasting dots are also
observed in several passbands of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the
Solar Dynamics Observatory, and they appear to be located at the bases of
loop-like structures. Many of these bright dots are likely associated with
small-scale energy release events at the transition region footpoints of
magnetic loops.Comment: 5 figures, will appear in ApJ
Analysis of aggregated tick returns: evidence for anomalous diffusion
In order to investigate the origin of large price fluctuations, we analyze
stock price changes of ten frequently traded NASDAQ stocks in the year 2002.
Though the influence of the trading frequency on the aggregate return in a
certain time interval is important, it cannot alone explain the heavy tailed
distribution of stock price changes. For this reason, we analyze intervals with
a fixed number of trades in order to eliminate the influence of the trading
frequency and investigate the relevance of other factors for the aggregate
return. We show that in tick time the price follows a discrete diffusion
process with a variable step width while the difference between the number of
steps in positive and negative direction in an interval is Gaussian
distributed. The step width is given by the return due to a single trade and is
long-term correlated in tick time. Hence, its mean value can well characterize
an interval of many trades and turns out to be an important determinant for
large aggregate returns. We also present a statistical model reproducing the
cumulative distribution of aggregate returns. For an accurate agreement with
the empirical distribution, we also take into account asymmetries of the step
widths in different directions together with crosscorrelations between these
asymmetries and the mean step width as well as the signs of the steps.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, typos correcte
Upper limits on stray force noise for LISA
We have developed a torsion pendulum facility for LISA gravitational
reference sensor ground testing that allows us to put significant upper limits
on residual stray forces exerted by LISA-like position sensors on a
representative test mass and to characterize specific sources of disturbances
for LISA. We present here the details of the facility, the experimental
procedures used to maximize its sensitivity, and the techniques used to
characterize the pendulum itself that allowed us to reach a torque sensitivity
below 20 fNm /sqrt{Hz} from 0.3 to 10 mHz. We also discuss the implications of
the obtained results for LISA.Comment: To be published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, special issue on
Amaldi5 2003 conference proceedings (10 pages, 6 figures
Notes and Discussion Piece: Status of the Topeka Shiner in Iowa
The Topeka shiner Notropis topeka is native to Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota and has been federally listed as endangered since 1998. Our goals were to determine the present distribution and qualitative status of Topeka shiners throughout its current range in Iowa and characterize the extent of decline in relation to its historic distribution. We compared the current (2016â2017) distribution to distributions portrayed in three earlier time periods. In 2016â2017 Topeka shiners were found in 12 of 20 HUC10 watersheds where they occurred historically. Their status was classified as stable in 21% of the HUC10 watersheds, possibly stable in 25%, possibly recovering in 8%, at risk in 33%, and possibly extirpated in 13% of the watersheds. The increasing trend in percent decline evident in earlier time periods reversed, going from 68% in 2010â11 to 40% in the most recent surveys. Following decades of decline, the status of Topeka shiners in Iowa appears to be improving. One potential reason for the reversal in the distributional decline of Topeka shiners in Iowa is the increasing number of oxbow restorations. Until a standardized monitoring program is established for Iowa, periodic status assessments such as this will be necessary to chronicle progress toward conserving this endangered fish species
Lie Symmetry Analysis for Cosserat Rods
We consider a subsystem of the Special Cosserat Theory of Rods and construct
an explicit form of its solution that depends on three arbitrary functions in
(s,t) and three arbitrary functions in t. Assuming analyticity of the arbitrary
functions in a domain under consideration, we prove that the obtained solution
is analytic and general. The Special Cosserat Theory of Rods describes the
dynamic equilibrium of 1-dimensional continua, i.e. slender structures like
fibers, by means of a system of partial differential equations.Comment: 12 Pages, 1 Figur
Four-terminal resistance of an interacting quantum wire with weakly invasive contacts
We analyze the behavior of the four-terminal resistance, relative to the
two-terminal resistance of an interacting quantum wire with an impurity, taking
into account the invasiveness of the voltage probes. We consider a
one-dimensional Luttinger model of spinless fermions for the wire. We treat the
coupling to the voltage probes perturbatively, within the framework of
non-equilibrium Green function techniques. Our investigation unveils the
combined effect of impurities, electron-electron interactions and invasiveness
of the probes on the possible occurrence of negative resistance.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Extended Recurrence Plot Analysis and its Application to ERP Data
We present new measures of complexity and their application to event related
potential data. The new measures base on structures of recurrence plots and
makes the identification of chaos-chaos transitions possible. The application
of these measures to data from single-trials of the Oddball experiment can
identify laminar states therein. This offers a new way of analyzing
event-related activity on a single-trial basis.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures; article for the workshop ''Analyzing and
Modelling Event-Related Brain Potentials: Cognitive and Neural Approaches``
at November 29 - December 01, 2001 in Potsdam, German
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