2,073 research outputs found
X-ray Scattered Halo around IGR J17544-2619
X-ray photons coming from an X-ray point source not only arrive at the
detector directly, but also can be strongly forward-scattered by the
interstellar dust along the line of sight (LOS), leading to a detectable
diffuse halo around the X-ray point source. The geometry of small angle X-ray
scattering is straightforward, namely, the scattered photons travel longer
paths and thus arrive later than the unscattered ones; thus the delay time of
X-ray scattered halo photons can reveal information of the distances of the
interstellar dust and the point source. Here we present a study of the X-ray
scattered around IGR J17544-2619, which is one of the so-called supergiant fast
X-ray transients. IGR J17544-2619 underwent a striking outburst when observed
with Chandra on 2004 July 3, providing a near delta-function lightcurve. We
find that the X-ray scattered halo around IGR J17544-2619 is produced by two
interstellar dust clouds along the LOS. The one which is closer to the observer
gives the X-ray scattered at larger observational angles; whereas the farther
one, which is in the vicinity of the point source, explains the halo with a
smaller angular size. By comparing the observational angle of the scattered
halo photons with that predicted by different dust grain models, we are able to
determine the normalized dust distance. With the delay times of the scattered
halo photons, we can determine the point source distance, given a dust grain
model. Alternatively we can discriminate between the dust grain models, given
the point source distance.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 25 pages, 9 figures, 6 table
Fast Min-Sum Algorithms for Decoding of LDPC over GF(q)
In this paper, we present a fast min-sum algorithm for decoding LDPC codes
over GF(q). Our algorithm is different from the one presented by David Declercq
and Marc Fossorier in ISIT 05 only at the way of speeding up the horizontal
scan in the min-sum algorithm. The Declercq and Fossorier's algorithm speeds up
the computation by reducing the number of configurations, while our algorithm
uses the dynamic programming instead. Compared with the configuration reduction
algorithm, the dynamic programming one is simpler at the design stage because
it has less parameters to tune. Furthermore, it does not have the performance
degradation problem caused by the configuration reduction because it searches
the whole configuration space efficiently through dynamic programming. Both
algorithms have the same level of complexity and use simple operations which
are suitable for hardware implementations.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Information Theory Workshop, Chengdu, China, 200
Deep Semantic Role Labeling with Self-Attention
Semantic Role Labeling (SRL) is believed to be a crucial step towards natural
language understanding and has been widely studied. Recent years, end-to-end
SRL with recurrent neural networks (RNN) has gained increasing attention.
However, it remains a major challenge for RNNs to handle structural information
and long range dependencies. In this paper, we present a simple and effective
architecture for SRL which aims to address these problems. Our model is based
on self-attention which can directly capture the relationships between two
tokens regardless of their distance. Our single model achieves F on
the CoNLL-2005 shared task dataset and F on the CoNLL-2012 shared task
dataset, which outperforms the previous state-of-the-art results by and
F score respectively. Besides, our model is computationally
efficient, and the parsing speed is 50K tokens per second on a single Titan X
GPU.Comment: Accepted by AAAI-201
How Cooperation and Competition Affect Student Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Due to the emergence of positive psychology and education, increasing attention has been paid to student physical and mental development and character building in addition to their academic performance. Schools have made efforts to encourage cooperative learning behavior in students. Research also shows that students display better academic performance, more positive peer relationships, and stronger senses of belonging to the school in a cooperative learning environment. On the other hand, there are intense competitions among students in a school setting. A reasonable amount of competition is seen as a motivational factor in student learning, with positive effects on student academic achievements. Also, competitions with explicit, proper goals may bring excitements and enjoyment to individuals
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