| 1. |
- Tinetti, Giovanna, et al.
(författare)
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The EChO science case
- 2015
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Ingår i: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 40:2-3, s. 329-391
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The discovery of almost two thousand exoplanets has revealed an unexpectedly diverse planet population. We see gas giants in few-day orbits, whole multi-planet systems within the orbit of Mercury, and new populations of planets with masses between that of the Earth and Neptune-all unknown in the Solar System. Observations to date have shown that our Solar System is certainly not representative of the general population of planets in our Milky Way. The key science questions that urgently need addressing are therefore: What are exoplanets made of? Why are planets as they are? How do planetary systems work and what causes the exceptional diversity observed as compared to the Solar System? The EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) space mission was conceived to take up the challenge to explain this diversity in terms of formation, evolution, internal structure and planet and atmospheric composition. This requires in-depth spectroscopic knowledge of the atmospheres of a large and well-defined planet sample for which precise physical, chemical and dynamical information can be obtained. In order to fulfil this ambitious scientific program, EChO was designed as a dedicated survey mission for transit and eclipse spectroscopy capable of observing a large, diverse and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. The transit and eclipse spectroscopy method, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allows us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of at least 10(-4) relative to the star. This can only be achieved in conjunction with a carefully designed stable payload and satellite platform. It is also necessary to provide broad instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect as many molecular species as possible, to probe the thermal structure of the planetary atmospheres and to correct for the contaminating effects of the stellar photosphere. This requires wavelength coverage of at least 0.55 to 11 mu m with a goal of covering from 0.4 to 16 mu m. Only modest spectral resolving power is needed, with R similar to 300 for wavelengths less than 5 mu m and R similar to 30 for wavelengths greater than this. The transit spectroscopy technique means that no spatial resolution is required. A telescope collecting area of about 1 m(2) is sufficiently large to achieve the necessary spectro-photometric precision: for the Phase A study a 1.13 m(2) telescope, diffraction limited at 3 mu m has been adopted. Placing the satellite at L2 provides a cold and stable thermal environment as well as a large field of regard to allow efficient time-critical observation of targets randomly distributed over the sky. EChO has been conceived to achieve a single goal: exoplanet spectroscopy. The spectral coverage and signal-to-noise to be achieved by EChO, thanks to its high stability and dedicated design, would be a game changer by allowing atmospheric composition to be measured with unparalleled exactness: at least a factor 10 more precise and a factor 10 to 1000 more accurate than current observations. This would enable the detection of molecular abundances three orders of magnitude lower than currently possible and a fourfold increase from the handful of molecules detected to date. Combining these data with estimates of planetary bulk compositions from accurate measurements of their radii and masses would allow degeneracies associated with planetary interior modelling to be broken, giving unique insight into the interior structure and elemental abundances of these alien worlds. EChO would allow scientists to study exoplanets both as a population and as individuals. The mission can target super-Earths, Neptune-like, and Jupiter-like planets, in the very hot to temperate zones (planet temperatures of 300-3000 K) of F to M-type host stars. The EChO core science would be delivered by a three-tier survey. The EChO Chemical Census: This is a broad survey of a few-hundred exoplanets, which allows us to explore the spectroscopic and chemical diversity of the exoplanet population as a whole. The EChO Origin: This is a deep survey of a subsample of tens of exoplanets for which significantly higher signal to noise and spectral resolution spectra can be obtained to explain the origin of the exoplanet diversity (such as formation mechanisms, chemical processes, atmospheric escape). The EChO Rosetta Stones: This is an ultra-high accuracy survey targeting a subsample of select exoplanets. These will be the bright "benchmark" cases for which a large number of measurements would be taken to explore temporal variations, and to obtain two and three dimensional spatial information on the atmospheric conditions through eclipse-mapping techniques. If EChO were launched today, the exoplanets currently observed are sufficient to provide a large and diverse sample. The Chemical Census survey would consist of > 160 exoplanets with a range of planetary sizes, temperatures, orbital parameters and stellar host properties. Additionally, over the next 10 years, several new ground- and space-based transit photometric surveys and missions will come on-line (e.g. NGTS, CHEOPS, TESS, PLATO), which will specifically focus on finding bright, nearby systems. The current rapid rate of discovery would allow the target list to be further optimised in the years prior to EChO's launch and enable the atmospheric characterisation of hundreds of planets.
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| 2. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(författare)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3– 19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8– 144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Hopfner, M., et al.
(författare)
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Validation of MIPAS ClONO2 measurements
- 2007
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 7, s. 257-281
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Altitude profiles of ClONO2 retrieved with the IMK (Institut fur Meteorologie und Klimaforschung) science-oriented data processor from MIPAS/Envisat (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding on Envisat) mid-infrared limb emission measurements between July 2002 and March 2004 have been validated by comparison with balloon-borne (Mark IV, FIRS2, MIPAS-B), airborne (MIPAS-STR), ground-based (Spitsbergen, Thule, Kiruna, Harestua, Jungfraujoch, Izana, Wollongong, Lauder), and spaceborne (ACE-FTS) observations. With few exceptions we found very good agreement between these instruments and MIPAS with no evidence for any bias in most cases and altitude regions. For balloon-borne measurements typical absolute mean differences are below 0.05 ppbv over the whole altitude range from 10 to 39 km. In case of ACE-FTS observations mean differences are below 0.03 ppbv for observations below 26 km. Above this altitude the comparison with ACE-FTS is affected by the photochemically induced diurnal variation of ClONO2. Correction for this by use of a chemical transport model led to an overcompensation of the photochemical effect by up to 0.1 ppbv at altitudes of 30-35 km in case of MIPAS-ACE-FTS comparisons while for the balloon-borne observations no such inconsistency has been detected. The comparison of MIPAS derived total column amounts with ground-based observations revealed no significant bias in the MIPAS data. Mean differences between MIPAS and FTIR column abundances are 0.11 +/- 0.12 x 10(14) cm(-2) (1.0 +/- 1.1%) and -0.09 +/- 0.19 x 10(14) cm(-2) (-0.8 +/- 1.7%), depending on the coincidence criterion applied. chi(2) tests have been performed to assess the combined precision estimates of MIPAS and the related instruments. When no exact coincidences were available as in case of MIPAS-FTIR or MIPAS-ACE-FTS comparisons it has been necessary to take into consideration a coincidence error term to account for chi(2) deviations. From the resulting chi(2) profiles there is no evidence for a systematic over/underestimation of the MIPAS random error analysis.
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| 5. |
- Farnocchia, Davide, et al.
(författare)
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The Second International Asteroid Warning Network Timing Campaign: 2005 LW3
- 2023
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Ingår i: The Planetary Science Journal. - : Institute of Physics (IOP). - 2632-3338. ; 4:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Earth close approach of near-Earth asteroid 2005 LW3 on 2022 November 23 represented a good opportunity for a second observing campaign to test the timing accuracy of astrometric observation. With 82 participating stations, the International Asteroid Warning Network collected 1046 observations of 2005 LW3 around the time of the close approach. Compared to the previous timing campaign targeting 2019 XS, some individual observers were able to significantly improve the accuracy of their reported observation times. In particular, U.S. surveys achieved good timing performance. However, no broad, systematic improvement was achieved compared to the previous campaign, with an overall negative bias persisting among the different observers. The calibration of observing times and the mitigation of timing errors should be important future considerations for observers and orbit computers, respectively.
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| 6. |
- Huang, Mingfeng, et al.
(författare)
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A Low-Latency Communication Scheme for Mobile Wireless Sensor Control Systems
- 2019
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man & Cybernetics. Systems. - : IEEE. - 2168-2216 .- 2168-2232. ; 49:2, s. 317-332
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Millions of dedicated sensors are deployed in smart cities to enhance quality of urban living. Communication technologies are critical for connecting these sensors and transmitting events to sink. In control systems of mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs), mobile nodes are constantly moving to detect events, while static nodes constitute the communication infrastructure for information transmission. Therefore, how to communicate with sink quickly and effectively is an important research issue for control systems of MWSNs. In this paper, a communication scheme named first relay node selection based on fast response and multihop relay transmission with variable duty cycle (FRAVD) is proposed. The scheme can effectively reduce the network delay by combining first relay node selection with node duty cycles setting. In FRAVD scheme, first, for the first relay node selection, we propose a strategy based on fast response, that is, select the first relay node from adjacent nodes in the communication range within the shortest response time, and guarantee that the remaining energy and the distance from sink of the node are better than the average. Then for multihop data transmission of static nodes, variable duty cycle is introduced novelty, which utilizes the residual energy to improve the duty cycle of nodes in far-sink area, because nodes adopt a sleep-wake asynchronous mode, increasing the duty cycle can significantly improve network performance in terms of delays and transmission reliability. Our comprehensive performance analysis has demonstrated that compared with the communication scheme with fixed duty cycle, the FRAVD scheme reduces the network delay by 24.17%, improves the probability of finding first relay node by 17.68%, while also ensuring the network lifetime is not less than the previous researches, and is a relatively efficient low-latency communication scheme.
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| 7. |
- Liu, X. H., et al.
(författare)
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Investigation on unusual crystallization behavior in polyamide 6/montmorillonite nanocomposites
- 2002
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Ingår i: Macromolecular materials and engineering. - 1438-7492 .- 1439-2054. ; 287:8, s. 515-522
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The crystallization behavior and crystal structure of polyamide 6/montmorillonite (PA6/MMT) nanocomposites were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction, and an interesting behavior was observed. The material was prepared via melt compounding using an organophilic clay obtained by co-intercalation of epoxy resin and quaternary ammonium into Na-montmorillonite. A maximum in degree of crystallinity was obtained at 5 wt.-% MMT and the reasons for this, based on the MMT layer distribution, were discussed. The degree of crystallinity showed a strong dependence on the cooling rates. In contrast with typical behavior, a higher cooling rate resulted in a higher degree of crystallinity. In nanocomposites, the gamma-crystalline phase was dominant.
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| 8. |
- Liu, X. H., et al.
(författare)
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Polyamide 6/clay nanocomposites using a cointercalation organophilic clay via melt compounding
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Polymer Science. - : Wiley. - 0021-8995 .- 1097-4628. ; 88:4, s. 953-958
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Polyamide 6/clay nanocomposites (PA6CN) were prepared via the melt compounding method by using a new kind of organophilic clay, which was obtained through cointercalation of epoxy resin and quaternary ammonium into Na-montmorillonite. The dispersion effect of this kind of organophilic clay in the matrix was studied by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM); the silicate layers were dispersed homogeneously and nearly exfoliated in the matrix. This was probably the result of the strong interaction between epoxy groups and amide end groups of PA6. The mechanical properties and heat distortion temperature (HDT) of PA6CN increased dramatically. The notched Izod impact strength of PA6CN was 80% higher than that of PA6 when the clay loading was 5 wt%. Even at 10 wt% clay content, the impact strength was still higher than that of PA6. The finely dispersed silicate layers and the strong interaction between silicate layers and matrix decreased the water absorption. At 10 wt% clay content, PA6CN only absorbs half the amount of water compared with PA6. The dynamic mechanical properties of PA6CN were also studied.
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| 9. |
- Liu, X. H., et al.
(författare)
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Polyamide 6-clay nanocompositles/polypropylene-grafted-maleic anhydride alloys
- 2001
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Ingår i: Polymer. - 0032-3861 .- 1873-2291. ; 42:19, s. 8235-8239
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Polyamide 6-clay nanocomposites (PA6CN) based on montmorillonite typically show some brittleness with clay addition. In order to address this problem, PA6CN/PP-g-MAH alloys were prepared through blending PA6CN with polypropylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MAH). The mechanical properties, dynamic mechanical temperature spectra, morphology and water absorption of the alloys were studied. Compared with PA6CN, the notched impact strength of the alloys increased greatly while the alloys still maintained higher stiffness and strength than that of PA 6. The morphological studies via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed a PP-g-MAH toughen phase dispersed in PA6CN matrix. As the PP-g-MAH content was increased, reduced water absorption was observed.
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| 10. |
- Wang, Y.-D., et al.
(författare)
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Grain-to-grain stress interactions in an electrodeposited iron coating
- 2005
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Ingår i: Advanced Materials. - : Wiley. - 0935-9648 .- 1521-4095. ; 17:10, s. 1221-1226
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The distribution of residual stresses, in an iron electrolytic coating with the thickness of 1 mm, was discussed. It was found that the coating minimizes the influence of crystallographic texture and stress gradients. Scanning electron microscopy observations indicate that some cracks are produced in the direct current deposited layer. The results show that the grain size in the electrolytic coating observed by transmission electron microscopy is around 20 nm with an aspect ratio of 5:1
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