Test-Hole Exploration for Light-Firing Clay in Cloud and Ellsworth Counties, Kansas

In two areas in Kansas (Ellsworth County, sec. 25, T. 15 S., R. 7 W., and Cloud County, sec. 12, T. 8 S., R. 2 W.) the Dakota Formation was systematically drilled to determine the availability of light-color-burning clay. Beds of light-burning clay lack continuity in Cloud County in the upper part of the Dakota; however, in the Ellsworth County area the lower part of the formation contains well-defined, continuous layers of light-burning clay. The lack of continuity of one and the well-defined continuity of the other is not confined to the test localities but extends over areas of several square miles. These conditions are not typical of clays in these two stratigraphic positions, but they illustrate the extreme variations in extent and continuity of beds that can be expected in the commercial exploitation of clays in either the upper or lower beds of the formation. Both test areas have clay deposits suitable for structural clay products

Newtonian and General Relativistic Models of Spherical Shells

A family of spherical shells with varying thickness is derived by using a simple Newtonian potential-density pair. Then, a particular isotropic form of a metric in spherical coordinates is used to construct a General Relativistic version of the Newtonian family of shells. The matter of these relativistic shells presents equal azimuthal and polar pressures, while the radial pressure is a constant times the tangential pressure. We also make a first study of stability of both the Newtonian and relativistic families of shells.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Test-Hole Exploration for Light-Firing Clay in Cloud and Ellsworth Counties, Kansas

In two areas in Kansas (Ellsworth County, sec. 25, T. 15 S., R. 7 W., and Cloud County, sec. 12, T. 8 S., R. 2 W.) the Dakota Formation was systematically drilled to determine the availability of light-color-burning clay. Beds of light-burning clay lack continuity in Cloud County in the upper part of the Dakota; however, in the Ellsworth County area the lower part of the formation contains well-defined, continuous layers of light-burning clay. The lack of continuity of one and the well-defined continuity of the other is not confined to the test localities but extends over areas of several square miles. These conditions are not typical of clays in these two stratigraphic positions, but they illustrate the extreme variations in extent and continuity of beds that can be expected in the commercial exploitation of clays in either the upper or lower beds of the formation. Both test areas have clay deposits suitable for structural clay products

Collisional dynamics around binary black holes in galactic centers

We follow the sinking of two massive black holes in a spherical stellar system where the black holes become bound under the influence of dynamical friction. Once bound, the binary hardens by three-body encounters with surrounding stars. We find that the binary wanders inside the core, providing an enhanced supply of reaction partners for the hardening. The binary evolves into a highly eccentric orbit leading to coalescence well beyond a Hubble time. These are the first results from a hybrid ``self consistent field'' (SCF) and direct Aarseth N-body integrator (NBODY6), which combines the advantages of the direct force calculation with the efficiency of the field method. The code is designed for use on parallel architectures and is therefore applicable to collisional N-body integrations with extraordinarily large particle numbers (> 10^5). This creates the possibility of simulating the dynamics of both globular clusters with realistic collisional relaxation and stellar systems surrounding supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei.Comment: 38 pages, 13 figures, submitted to ApJ, accepted, revised text and added figure

The possible origin of the faint fuzzy star clusters in NGC 1023

In the lenticular galaxy NGC 1023 a new population of star clusters (``faint fuzzies'') was recently discovered by Larsen & Brodie. These clusters are found inside the disc and are faint (23 < V < 24 mag) and extended with effective radii of r_eff approx. 7 to 15 pc. We present here N-body calculations of a likely formation-scenario through merging star clusters in clusters of star clusters (super-clusters). Such super-clusters are observed to form in interacting galaxies. The resulting merger objects have masses comparable to the ``faint fuzzies'' and show large effective radii (r_eff > 7 pc). Even though these objects are suffering from strong tidal forces they are able to survive and reach the estimated ages of the extended star clusters in NGC 1023.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, accepted by A

The Orbiter Stability Experiment on STS-40

The Orbiter Stability Experiment (OSE) was developed to evaluate the steadiness of the STS Orbiter as a potential platform for instrumentation that would image the Sun in its extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray radiations. We were interested in any high frequency motions of the Orbiter's orientation due to normal operations and manned activities. Preliminary results are presented of the observations. Other than the expected slow motion of the Orbiter within the specified angular deadband of 0.1 degrees during the observations, it was found that high frequency (above 1 Hz) angular motions (jitter) were not detectable at the 0.25 arc sec detection limit of the most sensitive detector, for most of the period of observation. No high frequency motions were recorded during intervals that were identified with vernier thruster firings. However, one short interval with detectable spectral power to a frequency of 10 Hz has been found to date. It has not yet been correlated with a particular activity going on at the time. The results of the observations may also be of value in assessing perturbations to the Orbiter's micro-gravity environment produced by normal operations

Electron-phonon interaction at the Be(0001) surface

We present a first principle study of the electron-phonon (e-p) interaction at the Be(0001) surface. The real and imaginary part of the e-p self energy are calculated for the surface state in the binding energy range from the $\bar{\Gamma}$ point to the Fermi level. Our calculation shows an overall good agreement with several photoemission data measured at high and low temperatures. Additionally, we show that the energy derivative of real part of the self-energy presents a strong temperature and energy variation close to $E_{F}$, making it difficult to measure its value just at $E_{F}$.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett., 5 figure

Understanding uncertainty in temperature effects on vector-borne disease: A Bayesian approach

Extrinsic environmental factors influence the distribution and population dynamics of many organisms, including insects that are of concern for human health and agriculture. This is particularly true for vector-borne infectious diseases, like malaria, which is a major source of morbidity and mortality in humans. Understanding the mechanistic links between environment and population processes for these diseases is key to predicting the consequences of climate change on transmission and for developing effective interventions. An important measure of the intensity of disease transmission is the reproductive number $R_0$. However, understanding the mechanisms linking $R_0$ and temperature, an environmental factor driving disease risk, can be challenging because the data available for parameterization are often poor. To address this we show how a Bayesian approach can help identify critical uncertainties in components of $R_0$ and how this uncertainty is propagated into the estimate of $R_0$. Most notably, we find that different parameters dominate the uncertainty at different temperature regimes: bite rate from 15-25$^\circ$ C; fecundity across all temperatures, but especially $\sim$25-32$^\circ$ C; mortality from 20-30$^\circ$ C; parasite development rate at $\sim$15-16$^\circ$C and again at $\sim$33-35$^\circ$C. Focusing empirical studies on these parameters and corresponding temperature ranges would be the most efficient way to improve estimates of $R_0$. While we focus on malaria, our methods apply to improving process-based models more generally, including epidemiological, physiological niche, and species distribution models.Comment: 27 pages, including 1 table and 3 figure