The radial pulsation of AI Aurigae

We present an analysis of eleven years of Stromgren by photometry of the red semiregular variable star AI Aurigae. An early period determination of 63.9 days is confirmed by the long-term light curve behaviour. The light curve shows semi-regular changes with a mean period of 65 days reaching an amplitude of 0.6 mag in some cycles. The b-y colour changes perfectly parallel the V light curve, suggesting radial oscillation to be the main reason for the observed variations. We estimate the main characteristics of the star (mass, radius, effective temperature) that suggest radial pulsation in fundamental or first overtone mode.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&

On the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from dark matter annihilation or decay in galaxy clusters

We revisit the prospects for detecting the Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) effect induced by dark matter (DM) annihilation or decay. We show that with standard (or even extreme) assumptions for DM properties, the optical depth associated with relativistic electrons injected from DM annihilation or decay is much smaller than that associated with thermal electrons, when averaged over the angular resolution of current and future experiments. For example, we find: $\tau_{\rm DM} \sim 10^{-9}-10^{-5}$ (depending on the assumptions) for \mchi = 1 GeV and a density profile $\rho\propto r^{-1}$ for a template cluster located at 50 Mpc and observed within an angular resolution of $10"$, compared to $\tau_{\rm th}\sim 10^{-3}-10^{-2}$. This, together with a full spectral analysis, enables us to demonstrate that, for a template cluster with generic properties, the SZ effect due to DM annihilation or decay is far below the sensitivity of the Planck satellite. This is at variance with previous claims regarding heavier annihilating DM particles. Should DM be made of lighter particles, the current constraints from 511 keV observations on the annihilation cross section or decay rate still prevent a detectable SZ effect. Finally, we show that spatial diffusion sets a core of a few kpc in the electron distribution, even for very cuspy DM profiles, such that improving the angular resolution of the instrument, e.g. with ALMA, does not necessarily improve the detection potential. We provide useful analytical formulae parameterized in terms of the DM mass, decay rate or annihilation cross section and DM halo features, that allow quick estimates of the SZ effect induced by any given candidate and any DM halo profile.Comment: 27 p, 6 figs, additional section on spatial diffusion effects. Accepted for publication in JCA

Knowledge formalization in experience feedback processes : an ontology-based approach

Because of the current trend of integration and interoperability of industrial systems, their size and complexity continue to grow making it more difficult to analyze, to understand and to solve the problems that happen in their organizations. Continuous improvement methodologies are powerful tools in order to understand and to solve problems, to control the effects of changes and finally to capitalize knowledge about changes and improvements. These tools involve suitably represent knowledge relating to the concerned system. Consequently, knowledge management (KM) is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage for organizations. Particularly, the capitalization and sharing of knowledge resulting from experience feedback are elements which play an essential role in the continuous improvement of industrial activities. In this paper, the contribution deals with semantic interoperability and relates to the structuring and the formalization of an experience feedback (EF) process aiming at transforming information or understanding gained by experience into explicit knowledge. The reuse of such knowledge has proved to have significant impact on achieving themissions of companies. However, the means of describing the knowledge objects of an experience generally remain informal. Based on an experience feedback process model and conceptual graphs, this paper takes domain ontology as a framework for the clarification of explicit knowledge and know-how, the aim of which is to get lessons learned descriptions that are significant, correct and applicable

Peculiarities and variations in the optical spectrum of the post-AGB star V448Lac=IRAS22223+4327

Repeated observations with high spectral resolution acquired in 1998-2008 are used to study the temporal behavior of the spectral line profiles and velocity field in the atmosphere and circumstellar envelope of the post-AGB star V448Lac. Asymmetry of the profiles of the strongest absorption lines with low-level excitation potentials less 1eV and time variations of these profiles have been detected, most prominently the profiles of the resonance lines of BaII, YII, LaII, SiII. The peculiarity of these profiles can be explained using a superposition of stellar absorption line and shell emission lines. Emission in the (0;1) 5635A Swan band of the C2 molecule has been detected in the spectrum of V448Lac for the first time. The core of the Halpha line displays radial velocity variations with an amplitude ~8 km/s. Radial velocity variations displayed by weakest metallic lines with lower amplitudes, 1-2 km/s, may be due to atmospheric pulsations. Differential line shifts, 0 -- 8 km/s, have been detected on various dates. The position of the molecular spectrum is stationary in time, indicating a constant expansion velocity of the circumstellar shell, Vexp=15.2 km/s, as derived from the C2 and NaI lines.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Методическая работа в дошкольной образовательной организации как условие развития профессионально-педагогической культуры педагогов

Тема работы актуальна. В ВКР представлена методическая работа с педагогами ДОУ, по формирования профессионально-педагогической культуры. Работа имеет практическую значимост

Post-AGB stars with hot circumstellar dust: binarity of the low-amplitude pulsators

While the first binary post-AGB stars were serendipitously discovered, the distinct characteristics of their Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) allowed us to launch a more systematic search for binaries. We selected post-AGB objects which show a broad dust excess often starting already at H or K, pointing to the presence of a gravitationally bound dusty disc in the system. We started a very extensive multi-wavelength study of those systems and here we report on our radial velocity and photometric monitoring results for six stars of early F type, which are pulsators of small amplitude. To determine the radial velocity of low signal-to-noise time-series, we constructed dedicated auto-correlation masks. The radial velocity variations were subjected to detailed analysis to differentiate between pulsational variability and variability due to orbital motion. Finally orbital minimalisation was performed to constrain the orbital elements. All of the six objects are binaries, with orbital periods ranging from 120 to 1800 days. Five systems have non-circular orbits. The mass functions range from 0.004 to 0.57 solar mass and the companions are likely unevolved objects of (very) low initial mass. We argue that these binaries must have been subject to severe binary interaction when the primary was a cool supergiant. Although the origin of the circumstellar disc is not well understood, the disc is generally believed to be formed during this strong interaction phase. The eccentric orbits of these highly evolved objects remain poorly understood. With the measured orbits and mass functions we conclude that the circumbinary discs seem to have a major impact on the evolution of a significant fraction of binary systems.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, accepted for Astronomy and Astrophysic

A global spectral library to characterize the world's soil

Soil provides ecosystem services, supports human health and habitation, stores carbon and regulates emissions of greenhouse gases. Unprecedented pressures on soil from degradation and urbanization are threatening agro-ecological balances and food security. It is important that we learn more about soil to sustainably manage and preserve it for future generations. To this end, we developed and analyzed a global soil visible-near infrared (vis-NIR) spectral library. It is currently the largest and most diverse database of its kind. We show that the information encoded in the spectra can describe soil composition and be associated to land cover and its global geographic distribution, which acts as a surrogate for global climate variability. We also show the usefulness of the global spectra for predicting soil attributes such as soil organic and inorganic carbon, clay, silt, sand and iron contents, cation exchange capacity, and pH. Using wavelets to treat the spectra, which were recorded in different laboratories using different spectrometers and methods, helped to improve the spectroscopic modelling. We found that modelling a diverse set of spectra with a machine learning algorithm can find the local relationships in the data to produce accurate predictions of soil properties. The spectroscopic models that we derived are parsimonious and robust, and using them we derived a harmonized global soil attribute dataset, which might serve to facilitate research on soil at the global scale. This spectroscopic approach should help to deal with the shortage of data on soil to better understand it and to meet the growing demand for information to assess and monitor soil at scales ranging from regional to global. New contributions to the library are encouraged so that this work and our collaboration might progress to develop a dynamic and easily updatable database with better global coverage. We hope that this work will reinvigorate our community's discussion towards larger, more coordinated collaborations. We also hope that use of the database will deepen our understanding of soil so that we might sustainably manage it and extend the research outcomes of the soil, earth and environmental sciences towards applications that we have not yet dreamed of

SIRTA, a ground-based atmospheric observatory for cloud and aerosol research

Ground-based remote sensing observatories have a crucial role to play in providing data to improve our understanding of atmospheric processes, to test the performance of atmospheric models, and to develop new methods for future space-borne observations. Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, a French research institute in environmental sciences, created the Site Instrumental de Recherche par Télédétection Atmosphérique (SIRTA), an atmospheric observatory with these goals in mind. Today SIRTA, located 20km south of Paris, operates a suite a state-of-the-art active and passive remote sensing instruments dedicated to routine monitoring of cloud and aerosol properties, and key atmospheric parameters. Detailed description of the state of the atmospheric column is progressively archived and made accessible to the scientific community. This paper describes the SIRTA infrastructure and database, and provides an overview of the scientific research associated with the observatory. Researchers using SIRTA data conduct research on atmospheric processes involving complex interactions between clouds, aerosols and radiative and dynamic processes in the atmospheric column. Atmospheric modellers working with SIRTA observations develop new methods to test their models and innovative analyses to improve parametric representations of sub-grid processes that must be accounted for in the model. SIRTA provides the means to develop data interpretation tools for future active remote sensing missions in space (e.g. CloudSat and CALIPSO). SIRTA observation and research activities take place in networks of atmospheric observatories that allow scientists to access consistent data sets from diverse regions on the globe

Numerical simulations of complex fluid-fluid interface dynamics

Interfaces between two fluids are ubiquitous and of special importance for industrial applications, e.g., stabilisation of emulsions. The dynamics of fluid-fluid interfaces is difficult to study because these interfaces are usually deformable and their shapes are not known a priori. Since experiments do not provide access to all observables of interest, computer simulations pose attractive alternatives to gain insight into the physics of interfaces. In the present article, we restrict ourselves to systems with dimensions comparable to the lateral interface extensions. We provide a critical discussion of three numerical schemes coupled to the lattice Boltzmann method as a solver for the hydrodynamics of the problem: (a) the immersed boundary method for the simulation of vesicles and capsules, the Shan-Chen pseudopotential approach for multi-component fluids in combination with (b) an additional advection-diffusion component for surfactant modelling and (c) a molecular dynamics algorithm for the simulation of nanoparticles acting as emulsifiers.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figure