Double-lined M dwarf eclipsing binaries from Catalina Sky Survey and LAMOST

Eclipsing binaries provide a unique opportunity to determine fundamental stellar properties. In the era of wide-field cameras and all-sky imaging surveys, thousands of eclipsing binaries have been reported through light curve classification, yet their basic properties remain unexplored due to the extensive efforts needed to follow them up spectroscopically. In this paper we investigate three M2-M3 type double-lined eclipsing binaries discovered by cross-matching eclipsing binaries from the Catalina Sky Survey wtih spectroscopically classified M dwarfs from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope survey data release one and two. Because these three M dwarf binaries are faint, we further acquire radial velocity measurements using GMOS on the Gemini North telescope with R~40000, enabling us to determine the mass and radius of individual stellar components. By jointly fitting the light and radial velocity curves of these systems, we derive the mass and radius of the primary and secondary components of these three systems, in the range between 0.28-0.42 M_sun and 0.29-0.67 R_sun, respectively. Future observations with a high resolution spectrograph will help us pin down the uncertainties in their stellar parameters, and render these systems benchmarks to study m dwarfs, providing inputs to improving stellar models in the low mass regime, or establishing an empirical mass-radius relation for M dwarf stars.Comment: RAA accepted. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1701.0529

The Role of Speaker Identification in Taiwanese Attitudes Towards Varieties of English

No abstract available

A Retinex-based Image Enhancement Scheme with Noise Aware Shadow-up Function

This paper proposes a novel image contrast enhancement method based on both a noise aware shadow-up function and Retinex (retina and cortex) decomposition. Under low light conditions, images taken by digital cameras have low contrast in dark or bright regions. This is due to a limited dynamic range that imaging sensors have. For this reason, various contrast enhancement methods have been proposed. Our proposed method can enhance the contrast of images without not only over-enhancement but also noise amplification. In the proposed method, an image is decomposed into illumination layer and reflectance layer based on the retinex theory, and lightness information of the illumination layer is adjusted. A shadow-up function is used for preventing over-enhancement. The proposed mapping function, designed by using a noise aware histogram, allows not only to enhance contrast of dark region, but also to avoid amplifying noise, even under strong noise environments.Comment: To appear in IWAIT-IFMIA 201

Misc. Pub. 85-4

Paper copies in Archives, Acc #:2013-0059Soils have been surveyed in various parts of Alaska to meet resource -development needs since territorial days. These surveys have been conducted and published by the National Cooperative Soil Survey since 1952 and are a joint effort of the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service and the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station. Initially, government agencies were the major users of such soil surveys because land ownership was controlled almost entirely by government agencies. However, the demand for soils and geographic information increased substantially as population increased and urban areas grew following the discovery of oil on the Kenai Peninsula during the 1950s and on the North Slope in the late 1960s. Interest also heightened when the state gained titles to a large portion of land following statehood in 1959. The National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) published many soil surveys for areas of intensive land use or potential land development. These soil surveys often are underutilized or misused. This publication, "Soil Survey and Its Use in Alaska," was developed over three years based on my field reviews of NCSS activities in Alaska as well as on my discussions with users of soil surveys regarding questions and problems arising from using the reports. In this publication, soil surveys and their use in Alaska are reviewed and discussed.Preface -- Introduction: What is Soil? Early Works, Current Status, Table 1: Status of National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) in Alaska (Dec. 1984), National Cooperative Soil Survey -- How Soil Surveys are Made -- How Soils are Classified and Named: Soil Classification, Map Units -- The Use of Soil Survey: Soil: A Valuable Resources, General Resource Planning, Regional Land-Use or Watershed Planning, Community Planning, Agricultural Development, Engineering Interpretation, Environmental Protection, Recreation and Wildlife Management, Other Potential Uses in Alaska -- Problems and Questions About Soil Surveys: Map Scale and Order of Survey, Map Unit Inclusion, Table 2: General guidelines for identifying intensity of soil surveys, Land Capability Classification, Misuse of Soil Surveys, Over-Interpretation of Soil Surveys, Automated Data-Processing in Soil Survey, Taxonomic Unit vx. Map Unit, Soil Survey Report Format, Soil Mapping on the Arctic Slope -- Future Challenges of NCSS in Alaska -- Conclusions -- Reference