Socio-Psychological Determinants of Physical Fitness and a Value System of a Reference Group Based on the Case of the Polish Handball Federation's Referees

Abstract This paper deals with determinants of physical fitness and of a value system of the Polish Handball Federation's [Polski Związek Piłki Rę -cznej] referees (N=6

Black hole mass estimation from X-ray variability measurements in AGN

We propose a new method of estimation of the black hole masses in AGN based on the normalized excess variance, sigma_{nxs}^2. We derive a relation between sigma_{nxs}^2, the length of the observation, T, the light curve bin size, Delta t, and the black hole mass, assuming that (i) the power spectrum above the high frequency break, f_{bf}, has a slope of -2, (ii) the high frequency break scales with black hole mass, (iii) the power spectrum amplitude (in 'frequency x power' space) is universal and (iv) sigma_{nxs}^2 is calculated from observations of length T < 1/f_{bf}. Values of black hole masses in AGN obtained with this method are consistent with estimates based on other techniques such as reverberation mapping or the Mbh-stellar velocity dispersion relation. The method is formally equivalent to methods based on power spectrum scaling with mass but the use of the normalized excess variance has the big advantage of being applicable to relatively low quality data.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter. Added minor change on page 5 - corrected mistake (1/T 1/T > nu

On the orbital and physical parameters of the HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1 binary system

In this paper we explore the consequences of the recent determination of the mass m=(8.7 +/- 0.8)M_Sun of Cygnus X-1, obtained from the Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO)-photon index correlation scaling, on the orbital and physical properties of the binary system HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1. By using such a result and the latest spectroscopic optical data of the HDE 226868 supergiant star we get M=(24 +/- 5)M_Sun for its mass. It turns out that deviations from the third Kepler law significant at more than 1-sigma level would occur if the inclination i of the system's orbital plane to the plane of the sky falls outside the range 41-56 deg: such deviations cannot be due to the first post-Newtonian (1PN) correction to the orbital period because of its smallness; interpreted in the framework of the Newtonian theory of gravitation as due to the stellar quadrupole mass moment Q, they are unphysical because Q would take unreasonably large values. By conservatively assuming that the third Kepler law is an adequate model for the orbital period we obtain i=(48 +/- 7) deg which yields for the relative semimajor axis a=(42 +/- 9)R_Sun. Our estimate for the Roche's lobe of HDE 226868 is r_M = (21 +/- 6)R_Sun.Comment: Latex2e, 7 pages, 1 table, 4 figures. To appear in ApSS (Astrophysics and Space Science

EEG Correlates of Attention Concentration in Successful Amateur Boxers

Parameters of EEG activities that could be related to a better attention concentration were compared in two groups of young men, one of which included adequately coached amateur boxers and another consisted of students that were not involved in boxing. The EEG signals were registered from the Cz point in accordance with the 10-20 system; the theta/beta and theta/sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) ratios proved to be especially important for purposes of analysis. Research media included a FlexComp Infinity coder and an EEG-Z sensor with an automatic impedance function. The results were evaluated by means of BioGraph Infinity. The obtained results allow us to conclude that adequately coached amateur boxers who are successful achieve lower theta/beta ratio and theta/SMR ratios than control group students not involved in boxing. One can suggest this is due to the better attention concentration in the boxers (despite posible head injuries) compared to the control group.Ми порівнювали показники ЕЕГ-активності, які могли мати відношення до кращої концентрації уваги, в двох групах молодих чоловіків. Одна з груп складалася з боксерівлюбителів із високими спортивними показниками, а друга – із студентів-спортсменів, які не займалися боксом. ЕЕГсигнали відводилися від локусу Cz (відповідно системі 10–20); особливу увагу при аналізі приділяли відношенням потужностей тета/бета та тета/сенсомоторного (СМР) ритмів. До комплексу апаратури входили кодер FlexComp Infinity та сенсор EEG-Z із функцією автоматичного контролю імпедансу. Результати оцінювали за допомогою програми „BioGrapf Infinity”. Отримані результати дозволяють дійти висновку, що в адекватно тренованих боксерів-любителів (котрі досягали високих результатів на змаганнях) значення відношень тета/бета та тета/СМР у середньому є вищими, ніж такі у студентів з іншою спортивною спеціалізацією (група контролю). Незважаючи на можливі наслідки неминучих травм голови, для студентів-боксерів, вірогідно, є характерною краща концентрація сенсомоторної уваги, ніж для суб’єктів групи контролю

Consistency of the black hole mass determination in AGN from the reverberation and the X-ray excess variance method

Values of black hole masses are frequently determined with the help of the reverberation method. This method requires a specific geometrical factor related to the distribution of the orbits of the Broad Line Region clouds. Onken et al. determined the value f^2= 1.37+/-0.45 from the black hole mass - dispersion relation. In this paper we determine this factor using an independent mass determination from the X-ray variance method for a number of Seyfert 1 galaxies and comparing them with the reverberation results by Peterson et al. We obtain mean value f^2 = 1.12 +/- 0.54, consistent with Onken et al. Both values are larger than the value 0.75 corresponding to a spherical geometry. It indicates that most probably all values of the black hole masses obtained with the use of the Kaspi et al. formulae should be multiplied by a factor of \sim 1.7. This also shows that the Broad Line Region is rather flat, and hints for a dependence of the factor f^2 on a source inclination seem to be present in the data.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in MNRA

NLS1 galaxies and estimation of their central black hole masses from the X-ray excess variance method

Black hole mass determination in active galaxies is a key issue in understanding various luminosity states. In the present paper we try to generalise the mass determination method based on the X-ray excess variance, successfully used for typical broad line Seyfert 1 galaxies (BLS1) to Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies. NLS1 galaxies differ from BLS1 with respect to several properties. They are generally more variable in 2-10 keV energy band so the natural expectation is the need to use a different scaling coefficient between the mass and the variance in these two types of sources. However, we find that such a simple approach is not enough. Although for majority of the 21 NLS1 galaxies in our sample a single scaling coefficient (larger by a factor 20) provided us with a satisfactory method of mass determination, in a small subset of NLS1 galaxies this approach failed. Variability of those objects appeared to be at the intermediate level between NLS1 and BLS1 galaxies. These exceptional NLS1 galaxies have much harder soft X-ray spectra than majority of NLS1 galaxies. We thus postulate that the division of Seyfert 1 galaxies into BLS1 and NLS1 according to the widths of the Hbeta line is less generic than according to the soft X-ray slope.Comment: print in MNRAS, 12 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables; final version -> minor language mistakes are corrected, added 1 sentence and 2 references Mathur & Grupe (2005a,b