Digital Commons Network^™

The Acs Fornax Cluster Survey. Ii. The Central Brightness Profiles Of Early-Type Galaxies: A Characteristic Radius On Nuclear Scales And The Transition From Central Luminosity Deficit To Excess, Patrick Côté, Laura Ferrarese, Andrés Jordán, David Merritt, Et Al.

Articles

We analyse brightness profiles for 143 early-type galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax Clusters, observed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. S´ersic models are found to provide accurate representations of the global profiles with a notable exception: the observed profiles deviate systematically inside a characteristic “break” radius of Rb ≈ 0.02+0.025 −0.01 Re, where Re is the effective radius of the galaxy. The sense of the deviation is such that bright galaxies (MB . −20) typically show central light deficits with respect to the inward extrapolation of the S´ersic model, while the great majority of …

Long-Term Evolution Of Massive Black Hole Binaries. Iii. Binary Evolution In Collisional Nuclei, David Merritt, Seppo Mikkola, Andras Szell

Articles

In galactic nuclei with sufficiently short relaxation times, binary supermassive black holes can evolve beyond their stalling radii via continued interaction with stars. We study this “collisional” evolutionary regime using both fully self-consistent N-body integrations and approximate Fokker-Planck models. The N-body integrations employ particle numbers up to 0.26×106 and a direct-summation potential solver; close interactions involving the binary are treated using a new implementation of the Mikkola-Aarseth chain regularization algorithm. Even at these large values of N, two-body scattering occurs at high enough rates in the N-body simulations that the binary is never fully in the diffusively-repopulated (i.e. large-N) loss …

Prevention Of Staphylococcus Epidermidis Biofilm Formation Using A Low-Temperature Processed Silver-Doped Phenyltriethoxysilane Sol–Gel Coating, Niall Stobie, Brendan Duffy, Declan Mccormack, John Colreavy, Martha Hidalgo, Patrick Mchale, Steven Hinder

Articles

Sol–gel coatings which elute bioactive silver ions are presented as a potential solution to the problem of biofilm formation on indwelling surfaces. There is evidence that high-temperature processing of such materials can lead to diffusion of silver away from the coating surface, reducing the amount of available silver. In this study, we report the biofilm inhibition of a Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm using a low-temperature processed silver-doped phenyltriethoxysilane sol–gel coating. The incorporation of a silver salt into a sol–gel matrix resulted in an initial high release of silver in de-ionised water and physiological buffered saline (PBS), followed by a lower sustained …

A Coupled Fluid-Structure Model Of A Therapeutic Ultrasound Angioplasty Wire Waveguide, Graham Gavin, Finbar Dolan, M.S. Hashmi, Garrett Mcguinness

Articles

Ultrasonic longitudinal displacements, delivered to the distal tips of small diameter wire waveguides, have been shown to be capable of disrupting complicated atherosclerotic plaques during vascular interventions. These ultrasonic displacements can disrupt plaques by direct contact ablation but also by pressure waves, associated cavitation and acoustic streaming developed in the surrounding blood and tissue cavities. The pressure waves developed within the arterial lumen appear to play a major role but are complex to predict as they are determined by the distal tip output of the wire waveguide (both displacement and frequency), the geometric features of the waveguide tip and the …

The Importance Of Ideas: An A Priori Critical Juncture Framework, John Hogan

Articles

This paper sets out an improved framework for examining critical junctures. This framework, while rigorous and broadly applicable and an advance on the frameworks currently employed, primarily seeks to incorporate an a priori element. Until now the frameworks utilized in examining critical junctures were entirely postdictive. Adding a predictive element to the concept will constitute a significant advance. The new framework, and its predictive element, termed the “differentiating factor,” is tested here in examining macro-economic crises and subsequent changes in macro-economic policy, in America and Sweden.

Practical Sensor For Measurement Of Nitrogen, Dusan Popovic, Vladimir Milosavljevic, Steven Daniels

Articles

This paper presents a method for precise measurement of atomic and molecular nitrogen in an oxygen-nitrogen dc plasma. This is achieved by monitoring the intensities of the atomic nitrogen spectral line at 821.6 nm and the molecular nitrogen bandhead at 337.1 nm, relative to the atomic oxygen spectral line at 844.7 nm. Oxygen is one of the most frequently used gases for surface chemical treatment, including deposition and etching, therefore the ability to measure and control the process and chemical composition of the process is essential. To validate this oxygen actimometry method for N2-xO2 (where x varies from 0 to …

Food And Morality: To Eat Or Not To Eat?, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Articles

This article reviews the 2007 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery where the theme was Food and Morality. It asks whether we are morally obliged to know where our food comes from, how it is produced, what its carbon footprint is, and whether it is traded fairly?

Data Points And Duration For Estimating Fuel Consumption Of A Lpg Engine, John A. Hogan, Dennis G. Watson, Tony V. Harrison

Articles

Accurate measurement of fuel consumption is critical in quantifying the efficiency of an engine or predicting emissions. As part of a larger project, accurate instantaneous fuel consumption data was needed for a Ford LPG engine. A detailed review of literature did not provide clear recommendations on the number of data points or time duration for data collection. To provide a research basis for the number of data points and the duration of data collection, fuel consumption tests were conducted using up to 15 data points of percent fuel rate and up to 12 minutes of data collection. Based on analysis …

Indistinguishability Limit For Off-Axis Vortex Beams In Uniaxaial Crystals, T. Fadeyeva, Yu. Egorov, A. Rubass

Articles

The circular polarization components of a vortex beam in a uniaxial crystal exhibit complex propagation characteristics. We demonstrate how the amount of splitting may be distinguished by use of a vortex beam. We predict and experimentally verify a threshold angle subtending the crystal and beam axes, below which the splitting is indistinguishable.

A Cosmic Ray Current-Driven Instability In Partially Ionised Media, Brian Reville, John Kirk, Peter Duffy, Stephen O'Sullivan

Articles

We investigate the growth of hydromagnetic waves driven by streaming cosmic rays in the precursor environment of a supernova remnant shock. It is known that transverse waves propagating parallel to the mean magnetic field are unstable to anisotropies in the cosmic ray distribution, and may provide a mechanism to substantially amplify the ambient magnetic field. We quantify the extent to which temperature and ionisation fractions modify this picture. Using a kinetic description of the plasma we derive the dispersion relation for a collisionless thermal plasma with a streaming cosmic ray current. Fluid equations are then used to discuss the effects …

Created Facts And The Flawed Ontology Of Copyright Law, Justin Hughes

Articles

It is black letter doctrine that facts are not copyrightable: facts are discovered, not created—so they will always lack the originality needed for copyright protection. As straightforward as this reasoning seems, it is fundamentally flawed. Using the “social facts” theory of philosopher John Searle, this Article explores a variety of “created facts” cases—designation systems, systematic evaluations, and privately written laws—in which original expression from private individuals is adopted by social convention and generates facts in our social reality. In the course of this discussion, the paper places facts in their historical and philosophical context, explores how courts conflate facts with …

The Black Hole Mass Of Ngc 4151: Comparison Of Reverberation Mapping And Stellar Dynamical Measurements, Christopher A. Onken, Monica Valluri, Bradley M. Peterson, David Merritt, Et Al.

Articles

We present a stellar dynamical estimate of the black hole (BH) mass in the Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC 4151. We analyze ground-based spectroscopy as well as imaging data from the ground and space, and we construct 3-integral axisymmetric models in order to constrain the BH mass and mass-to-light ratio. The dynamical models depend on the assumed inclination of the kinematic symmetry axis of the stellar bulge. In the case where the bulge is assumed to be viewed edge-on, the kinematical data give only an upper limit to the mass of the BH of ∼ 4 × 107 M⊙ (1 ). …

Second-Order Quasinormal Mode Of The Schwarzschild Black Hole, Hiroyuki Nakano, Kunihito Ioka

Articles

We formulate and calculate the second order quasi-normal modes (QNMs) of a Schwarzschild black hole (BH). Gravitational wave (GW) from a distorted BH, so called ringdown, is well understood as QNMs in general relativity. Since QNMs from binary BH mergers will be detected with high signal-to-noise ratio by GW detectors, it is also possible to detect the second perturbative order of QNMs, generated by nonlinear gravitational interaction near the BH. In the BH perturbation approach, we derive the master Zerilli equation for the metric perturbation to second order and explicitly regularize it at the horizon and spatial infinity. We numerically …

Quasi-Local Linear Momentum In Black-Hole Binaries, Badri Krishnan, Carlos O. Lousto, Yosef Zlochower

Articles

We propose a quasi-local formula for the linear momentum of black-hole horizons inspired by the formalism of quasi-local horizons. We test this formula using two complementary configurations: (i) by calculating the large orbital linear momentum of the two black holes in an unequal-mass, zero-spin, quasi-circular binary and (ii) by calculating the very small recoil momentum imparted to the remnant of the head-on collision of an equal-mass, anti-aligned-spin binary. We obtain results consistent with the horizon trajectory in the orbiting case, and consistent with the net radiated linear momentum for the much smaller head-on recoil velocity.

Chromosomal Microdeletions And Genes' Functions: A Cluster Of Chromosomal Microdeletions And The Deleted Genes' Functions, David Tilstra Md, Kevin Martens, Inge Heulens, Sandra Meulemans

Articles

Hypotonia-cystinuria syndrome (HCS) is a recessive disorder caused by microdeletions of SLC3A1 and PREPL on chromosome 2p21. Patients present with generalized hypotonia at birth, failure to thrive, growth retardation and cystinuria type I. While the initially described HCS families live in small regions in Belgium and France, we have now identified HCS alleles in patients and carriers from the Netherlands, Italy, Canada and United States of America. Surprisingly, among the nine deletions detected in those patients, only one novel deletion was found. Furthermore, one previously described deletion was found six times, another twice. Finally, we have investigated the frequency of …

The Protean Career: Exemplified By First World Foreign Residents In Western Europe?, Marian Crowley-Henry

Articles

This article presents findings from a qualitative study exploring the career-related motivations and experiences of a sample of 20 expatriates living and working on a permanent basis in the South of France (Sophia Antipolis) and in Germany (Munich). By virtue of their having established local links in the host country, either in having local working contracts or being installed in the area on a permanent basis (home owners; children born/being schooled in the host country), these expatriates could also be termed foreign residents in the host country. The study’s sample of highly educated workers originating from the United States of …

Thin-Film Evolution Equation For A Strained Solid Film On A Deformable Substrate: Numerical Steady States, Wondimu T. Tekalign, Brian J. Spencer

Articles

We consider the nonlinear behavior of the thin-film evolution equation for a strained solid film on a substrate. The evolution equation describes morphological changes to the film by surface diffusion in response to elastic energy, surface energy, and wetting energy. Due to the thin-film approximation, the elastic response of the film is determined analytically, resulting in a self-contained evolution equation which does not require separate numerical solution of the full three-dimensional elasticity problem. Using a pseudospectral predictor-corrector method we numerically determine the family of steady state solutions to this evolution equation which correspond to quantum dot and quantum ridge morphologies.

Is Financial Reporting Shaped By Equity Markets Or By Debt Markets? An International Study Of Timeliness And Conservatism, Ray Ball, Ashok Robin, Gil Sadka

Articles

We hypothesize debt markets – not equity markets – are the primary influence on “association” metrics studied since Ball and Brown (1968). Debt markets demand high scores on timeliness, conservatism and Lev’s (1989) R2, because debt covenants utilize reported numbers. Equity markets do not rate financial reporting consistently with these metrics, because (among other things) they control for the total information incorporated in equity process. Single-country studies shed little light on the relative influences of debt and equity, because their firms operate under a homogeneous reporting regime. International data are consistent with our hypothesis. This is a fundamental issue in …

Regulating Lobbyists: A Comparative Analysis Of The Usa, Canada, Germany And The European Union, Raj Chari, Gary Murphy, John Hogan

Articles

Lobbying is central to the democratic process. Yet, only four political systems have lobbying regulations: the United States, Canada, Germany and the EU (European Parliament). Despite works offering individual country analysis of lobbying legislation, a two-fold void exists in the literature. Firstly, no study has offered a comparative analysis classifying the laws in these four political systems, which would improve understanding of the different regulatory environments. Secondly, few studies have analysed the views of key agents - politicians, lobbyists and regulators - and how these compare and contrast across regulatory environments. We firstly utilise an index measuring how strong the …

The Green’S Function Of The Sturm-Liouville Operator Acting On Graphs, Matthew Coppenbarger

Articles

Given the Green’s function of a Sturm-Liouville operator defined on a graph. Form a new graph by identifying vertices. The Green’s function of the Sturm-Liouville operator defined on the new graph is derived. A few basic examples are constructed.

A Short Constructive Proof That Nonsingular Flows Only Exist On Manifolds Of Zero Euler Characteristic, William Basener

Articles

It is a well-known result that a closed manifold that admits a nonsingular flow (ie a flow without fixed points) only if its Euler Characteristic is zero. We provide a short proof of this by constructing a cell complex on the ambient manifold that is induced by the flow and showing that this complex has zero Euler Characteristic. We use the method of a global transverse disk with the hope that this method will be useful in studying global topological properties of nonsingular flows.

Exceptional Sets And Antoine's Necklace, William Basener

Articles

We study Cantor sets which occur as minimal sets for homeomorphisms of R^n. The minimality is modelled on an infinite product of finite cyclic groups and on a generalized adding machine. An interesting example is a homeomorphisms on R^3 which has Antoine’s Necklace as a minimal set. We also discuss some open problems concerning homeomorphism that have a Cantor set as a minimal set (Refer to PDF file for exact formulas).

Second And Higher-Order Quasinormal Modes In Binary Black Hole Mergers, Kunihito Ioka, Hiroyuki Nakano

Articles

Black hole (BH) oscillations known as quasi-normal modes (QNMs) are one of the most important gravitational wave (GW) sources. We propose that higher perturbative order of QNMs, generated by nonlinear gravitational interaction near the BHs, are detectable and worth searching for in observations and simulations of binary BH mergers. We calculate the metric perturbations to second-order and explicitly regularize the master equation at the horizon and spatial infinity. We find that the second-order QNMs have frequencies twice the first-order ones and the GW amplitude is up to ∼ 10% that of the first-order one. The QNM frequency would also shift …

Pandemic Bibliography, S. Ray Granade

Articles

A bibliography of pandemic disease compiled for a class.

Reduced Atrial Tachyarrhythmia Susceptibility After Upgrade Of Conventional Implanted Pulse Generator To Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy In Patients With Heart Failure, Demetris Yannopoulos, Keith Lurie Md, Scott Sakaguchi, Simon Milstein Md

Articles

OBJECTIVES:

We sought to identify the impact of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) on atrial tachyarrhythmia (AT) susceptibility in patients with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction in whom worsening heart failure (HF) resulted in upgrade from conventional dual-chamber pulse generator to cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D).

BACKGROUND:

Cardiac resynchronization therapy with a defibrillator improves survival rates and symptoms in patients with LV systolic dysfunction but little is known about its effects on AT incidence in the same patient population.

METHODS:

Twenty-eight consecutive HF patients who underwent device upgrade to CRT-D were included. Patients had > or =2 device interrogations in the 1 year …

Wideband Printed Monopole Design Using A Genetic Algorithm, Matthias John, Max Ammann

Articles

A method for the design and optimisation of wide-band printed planar monopoles using a genetic algorithm is presented. This novel technique employs overlapping sub-patches which ensures electrical contact in such constellations where two sub-patches are touching only at the corner, hence re-ducing losses. The method was usd optimisation of wide-band printed planar monopoles using a genetic algorithm is presented. This novel technique employs overlapping sub-patches which ensures electrical contact in such constellations where two sub-patches are touching only at the corner, hence re-ducing losses. The method was used to design a wideband monopole antenna with application in higher cellular, WLAN …

A Stolchastic Analysis Of The Holling Resilience Of An Orchard, Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Seung Yoo

Articles

Recently, Batabyal and Yoo (2007) have proposed a new probabilistic approach to orchard management. In this approach, a manager minimizes an economic criterion function, namely, the long run expected net cost of orchard management subject to an ecological constraint which says that the probability that an orchard is not Holling resilient is at most as large as an exogenously given value. In this note, we continue this line of inquiry and shed additional light on an orchard’s Holling resilience. First, we model an orchard as a stochastic ecological-economic system. Second, we compute this orchard’s Holling resilience in a general way. …

Experimental Determination Of The Insulating Ability Of Corn By-Products, Anna Dowling, James A. Mathias

Articles

This article proposes and experimentally tests a way to better utilize renewable agricultural products that, if successful, will increase revenue for agricultural producers, decrease the amount and cost of disposal of non-renewable products, and decrease the amount of non-renewable products that need to be produced. In this article the insulating ability of ground corn cobs is compared, by experimental tests, to typical fiberglass, cellulose, and Rock Wool insulation. The study found that the insulating ability of ground corn cobs is not as great when compared to typical insulations, but using a greater thickness of insulation made from ground corn cobs …

Open Angle Glaucoma Effects On Preattentive Visual Search (Pavs) Efficiency For Flicker, Motion Displacement And Orientation Pop-Out Tasks, James Loughman, Peter Davison, Daniel Ian Flitcroft

Articles

Background/aim: Preattentive visual search (PAVS) describes rapid and efficient retinal and neural processing capable of immediate target detection in the visual field. Damage to the nerve fibre layer or visual pathway might reduce the efficiency with which the visual system performs such analysis. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that patients with glaucoma are impaired on parallel search tasks, and that this would serve to distinguish glaucoma in early cases. Methods: Three groups of observers (glaucoma patients, suspect and normal individuals) were examined, using computer-generated flicker, orientation, and vertical motion displacement targets to assess PAVS efficiency. …

Treating Water Contamination Using Ultraviolet Radiation To Control Cryptosporidium And E.Coli, Michael O'Hehir, David Kennedy, Thomas Dunphy

Articles

Concerns about the quality of drinking water in Ireland have come into sharp focus with the recent Cryptosporidium outbreak in Galway City. This article looks at how ultraviolet radiation can offer a potential solution in the control of Cryptosporidium contamination.