Dust growth in the interstellar medium: How do accretion and coagulation interplay?

Dust grains grow in interstellar clouds by accretion and coagulation. In this paper, we focus on these two grain growth processes and numerically investigate how they interplay to increase the grain radii. We show that accretion efficiently depletes grains with radii a\la 0.001 \micron on a time-scale of \la 10 Myr in solar-metallicity molecular clouds. Coagulation also occurs on a similar time-scale, but accretion is more efficient in producing a large bump in the grain size distribution. Coagulation further pushes the grains to larger sizes after a major part of the gas phase metals are used up. Similar grain sizes are achieved by coagulation regardless of whether accretion takes place or not; in this sense, accretion and coagulation modify the grain size distribution independently. The increase of the total dust mass in a cloud is also investigated. We show that coagulation slightly 'suppresses' dust mass growth by accretion but that this effect is slight enough to be neglected in considering the grain mass budget in galaxies. Finally we examine how accretion and coagulation affect the extinction curve: The ultraviolet slope and the carbon bump are \textit{enhanced} by accretion, while they are flattened by coagulation.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

A Longitudinal Study

Adverse experiences interact with individual vulnerability in the etiology of mental disorders, but due to the paucity of longitudinal studies, their precise interplay remains unclear. Here, we investigated how individual differences in threat responsiveness modulated adjustments in negative affect during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (N = 441) underwent a fear conditioning and generalization experiment between 2013 and 2020 and were reassessed regarding anxiety and depression symptoms after the pandemic outbreak. Participants showed increased levels of negative affect following pandemic onset, which were partly modulated by laboratory measures of threat responsiveness. Decreased differentiation of threat and safety signals in participants with higher prepandemic depression and anxiety scores in the laboratory assessment were most predictive of increased symptom levels after the onset of the pandemic. However, effects were small and should be replicated in independent samples to further characterize how individual differences in threat processing interact with adverse experiences in the development of psychopathology.Peer Reviewe

SN 2022oqm: A Multi-peaked Calcium-rich Transient from a White Dwarf Binary Progenitor System

We present the photometric and spectroscopic evolution of SN 2022oqm, a nearby multi-peaked hydrogen- and helium-weak calcium-rich transient (CaRT). SN 2022oqm was detected 19.9 kpc from its host galaxy, the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 5875. Extensive spectroscopic coverage reveals a hot (T >= 40,000 K) continuum and carbon features observed ~1 day after discovery, SN Ic-like photospheric-phase spectra, and strong forbidden calcium emission starting 38 days after discovery. SN 2022oqm has a relatively high peak luminosity (MB = -17 mag) for CaRTs, making it an outlier in the population. We determine that three power sources are necessary to explain SN 2022oqm's light curve, with each power source corresponding to a distinct peak in its light curve. The first peak of the light curve is powered by an expanding blackbody with a power law luminosity, consistent with shock cooling by circumstellar material. Subsequent peaks are powered by a double radioactive decay model, consistent with two separate sources of photons diffusing through an optically thick ejecta. From the optical light curve, we derive an ejecta mass and 56Ni mass of ~0.89 solar masses and ~0.09 solar masses, respectively. Detailed spectroscopic modeling reveals ejecta that is dominated by intermediate-mass elements, with signs that Fe-peak elements have been well-mixed. We discuss several physical origins for SN 2022oqm and favor a white dwarf progenitor model. The inferred ejecta mass points to a surprisingly massive white dwarf, challenging models of CaRT progenitors.Comment: 33 pages, 17 figures, 5 tables, Submitted to Ap

Sediment source fingerprinting: benchmarking recent outputs, remaining challenges and emerging themes

Abstract: Purpose: This review of sediment source fingerprinting assesses the current state-of-the-art, remaining challenges and emerging themes. It combines inputs from international scientists either with track records in the approach or with expertise relevant to progressing the science. Methods: Web of Science and Google Scholar were used to review published papers spanning the period 2013–2019, inclusive, to confirm publication trends in quantities of papers by study area country and the types of tracers used. The most recent (2018–2019, inclusive) papers were also benchmarked using a methodological decision-tree published in 2017. Scope: Areas requiring further research and international consensus on methodological detail are reviewed, and these comprise spatial variability in tracers and corresponding sampling implications for end-members, temporal variability in tracers and sampling implications for end-members and target sediment, tracer conservation and knowledge-based pre-selection, the physico-chemical basis for source discrimination and dissemination of fingerprinting results to stakeholders. Emerging themes are also discussed: novel tracers, concentration-dependence for biomarkers, combining sediment fingerprinting and age-dating, applications to sediment-bound pollutants, incorporation of supportive spatial information to augment discrimination and modelling, aeolian sediment source fingerprinting, integration with process-based models and development of open-access software tools for data processing. Conclusions: The popularity of sediment source fingerprinting continues on an upward trend globally, but with this growth comes issues surrounding lack of standardisation and procedural diversity. Nonetheless, the last 2 years have also evidenced growing uptake of critical requirements for robust applications and this review is intended to signpost investigators, both old and new, towards these benchmarks and remaining research challenges for, and emerging options for different applications of, the fingerprinting approach

Visual angle modulates affective responses to audiovisual stimuli

In this repository, you find all the data and scripts for the experiment we reported in the following publication: Gall, D., & Latoschik, M. E. (2020). Visual angle modulates affective responses to audiovisual stimuli. Computers in Human Behavior, 106346. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.10634

Data Repository for: Gall D, Roth D, Stauffert J-P, Zarges J and Latoschik ME (2021) Embodiment in Virtual Reality Intensifies Emotional Responses to Virtual Stimuli. Front. Psychol. 12:674179.

This repository contains data and analysis scrips for the open-access publication Gall D, Roth D, Stauffert J-P, Zarges J and Latoschik ME (2021) Embodiment in Virtual Reality Intensifies Emotional Responses to Virtual Stimuli. Front. Psychol. 12:674179. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.67417

Steigerung der Effektivität von Mensch-Computer-Schnittstellen für Interventionen im Bereich der psychischen Gesundheit

Human-computer interfaces have the potential to support mental health practitioners in alleviating mental distress. Adaption of this technology in practice is, however, slow. We provide means to extend the design space of human-computer interfaces for mitigating mental distress. To this end, we suggest three complementary approaches: using presentation technology, using virtual environments, and using communication technology to facilitate social interaction. We provide new evidence that elementary aspects of presentation technology affect the emotional processing of virtual stimuli, that perception of our environment affects the way we assess our environment, and that communication technologies affect social bonding between users. By showing how interfaces modify emotional reactions and facilitate social interaction, we provide converging evidence that human-computer interfaces can help alleviate mental distress. These findings may advance the goal of adapting technological means to the requirements of mental health practitioners.Mensch-Computer-Schnittstellen haben das Potenzial, psychosoziale Fachkräfte bei der Linderung von psychischen Problemen zu unterstützen. Die Adaption solcher Technologien in der Praxis verläuft jedoch langsam. Wir stellen Mittel zur Verfügung, um den Gestaltungsraum von Mensch-Computer-Schnittstellen zur Linderung von psychischen Belastungen zu erweitern. Zu diesem Zweck schlagen wir drei komplementäre Ansätze vor: die Verwendung von Präsentationstechnologie, die Verwendung virtueller Umgebungen und die Verwendung von Kommunikationstechnologie zur Erleichterung sozialer Interaktion. Wir liefern neue Belege dafür, dass elementare Aspekte der Präsentationstechnologie die emotionale Verarbeitung virtueller Stimuli beeinflussen, dass die Wahrnehmung unserer Umgebung die Art und Weise beeinflusst, wie wir unsere Umgebung bewerten, und dass Kommunikationstechnologien die soziale Bindung zwischen Nutzern beeinflussen. Indem wir zeigen, wie Benutzerschnittstellen emotionale Reaktionen modifizieren und soziale Interaktion erleichtern, liefern wir konvergierende Hinweise dafür, dass Mensch-Computer-Schnittstellen die Linderung von psychischen Belastungen unterstützen können. Diese Erkenntnisse können das Vorhaben unterstützen, technologische Möglichkeiten an die Bedürfnisse von psychosozialen Fachkräften anzupassen

Emotional Activation – Does It Really Work Over the Screen?

In this study, we investigate whether there is a difference in emotional activation between face-to-face psychotherapeutic imagination exercises and video phone calls via the screen

Bifrost - supporting continuous deployment with automated enactment of multi-phase live testing strategies

Live testing is used in the context of continuous delivery and deployment to test changes or new features in the production environment. This includes canary releases, dark launches, A/B tests, and gradual rollouts. Oftentimes, multiple of these live testing practices need to be combined (e.g., running an A/B test after a dark launch). Manually administering such multi-phase live testing strategies is a daunting task for developers or release engineers. In this paper, we introduce a formal model for multi-phase live testing, and present Bifrost as a prototypical Node.js based middleware that allows developers to define and automatically enact complex live testing strategies. We extensively evaluate the runtime behavior of Bifrost in three rollout scenarios of a microservice-based case study application, and conclude that the performance overhead of our prototype is at or below 8 ms for most scenarios. Further, we show that more than 100 parallel strategies can be enacted even on cheap public cloud instances