Numerical simulation of solar coronal magnetic fields

Many aspects of solar activity are believed to be due to the stressing of the coronal magnetic field by footpoint motions at the photosphere. The results are presented of a fully spectral numerical simulation which is the first 3-D time dependent simulation of footpoint stressing in a geometry appropriate for the corona. An arcade is considered that is initially current-free and impose a smooth footpoint motion that produces a twist in the field of approx 2 pi. The footprints were fixed and the evolution was followed until the field relaxes to another current-free state. No evidence was seen for any instability, either ideal or resistive and no evidence for current sheet formation. The most striking feature of the evolution is that in response to photospheric motions, the field expands rapidly upward to minimize the stress. The expansion has two important effects. First, it suppresses the development of dips in the field that could support dense, cool material. For the motions assumed, the magnetic field does not develop a geometry suitable for prominence formation. Second, the expansion inhibits ideal instabilities such as kinking. The results indicate that simple stearing of a single arcade is unlikely to lead to solar activity such as flares or prominences. Effects are discussed that might possibly lead to such activity

The Mersey Estuary : sediment geochemistry

This report describes a study of the geochemistry of the Mersey estuary carried out between April 2000 and December 2002. The study was the first in a new programme of surveys of the geochemistry of major British estuaries aimed at enhancing our knowledge and understanding of the distribution of contaminants in estuarine sediments. The report first summarises the physical setting, historical development, geology, hydrography and bathymetry of the Mersey estuary and its catchment. Details of the sampling and analytical programmes are then given followed by a discussion of the sedimentology and geochemistry. The chemistry of the water column and suspended particulate matter have not been studied, the chief concern being with the geochemistry of the surface and near-surface sediments of the Mersey estuary and an examination of their likely sources and present state of contamination

First Scientific Results From The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS)

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was successfully launched on 25 January 1983 and terminated science data acquisition on 22 November 1983. The in-orbit performance of the telescope has been described in two previous papers in these proceedings. A previous description of very preliminary scientific results from the mission has been given in these proceedings, while far more extensive reports have been given elsewhere. In this paper we will summarize some of the results obtained to date from the IRAS data. The work to date has sampled only a small fraction of the IRAS data; the study of the data from the IRAS survey will continue for many years to come

Nuclear Resonance Vibrational Spectroscopy of Iron Sulfur Proteins

Nuclear inelastic scattering in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) calculations has been applied for the identification of vibrational modes of the high-spin ferric and the high-spin ferrous iron-sulfur center of a rubredoxin-type protein from the thermophylic bacterium Pyrococcus abysii

A kapwa-infused paradigm in teaching Catholic theology/catechesis in a multireligious classroom in the Philippines

The increasing religious diversity in educational space has raised a legitimate question on how Catholic theology/ catechesis must be taught in Philippine Catholic universities given the institutional mandate to educate students “into the faith of the Church through teaching of Christian doctrine in an organic and systematic way” (Wuerl, 2013, 1). On this note, the paper makes reference to “centered plural- ism” (CP), a positional posture espoused by Georgetown University in dealing with this predicament. In an attempt to (re) appropriate CP into local context, there is a need to explore the Filipino conception of self/others as enveloped within the indigenous concept of kapwa. Hereon, the paper finds that CP is not just feasibly suitable in local context but with kapwa's more inclusive description of the relationship of self and others, a CP‐based teaching paradigm in theology/ catechesis is a promising project in the educational scene of the Philippines

Super-Poincare' algebras, space-times and supergravities (I)

A new formulation of theories of supergravity as theories satisfying a generalized Principle of General Covariance is given. It is a generalization of the superspace formulation of simple 4D-supergravity of Wess and Zumino and it is designed to obtain geometric descriptions for the supergravities that correspond to the super Poincare' algebras of Alekseevsky and Cortes' classification.Comment: 29 pages, v2: minor improvements at the end of Section 5.

Observational Limits on Machos in the Galactic Halo

We present final results from the first phase of the EROS search for gravitational microlensing of stars in the Magellanic Clouds by unseen deflectors (machos: MAssive Compact Halo Objects). The search is sensitive to events with time scales between 15 minutes and 200 days corresponding to deflector masses in the range 1.e-7 to a few solar masses. Two events were observed that are compatible with microlensing by objects of mass of about 0.1 Mo. By comparing the results with the expected number of events for various models of the Galaxy, we conclude that machos in the mass range [1.e-7, 0.02] Mo make up less than 20% (95% C.L.) of the Halo dark matter.Comment: 4 pages, 3 Postscript figures, to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Direct determination of the solar neutrino fluxes from solar neutrino data

We determine the solar neutrino fluxes from a global analysis of the solar and terrestrial neutrino data in the framework of three-neutrino mixing. Using a Bayesian approach we reconstruct the posterior probability distribution function for the eight normalization parameters of the solar neutrino fluxes plus the relevant masses and mixing, with and without imposing the luminosity constraint. This is done by means of a Markov Chain Monte Carlo employing the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. We also describe how these results can be applied to test the predictions of the Standard Solar Models. Our results show that, at present, both models with low and high metallicity can describe the data with good statistical agreement.Comment: 24 pages, 1 table, 7 figures. Acknowledgments correcte

Regularity of Kobayashi metric

We review some recent results on existence and regularity of Monge-Amp\`ere exhaustions on the smoothly bounded strongly pseudoconvex domains, which admit at least one such exhaustion of sufficiently high regularity. A main consequence of our results is the fact that the Kobayashi pseudo-metric k on an appropriare open subset of each of the above domains is actually a smooth Finsler metric. The class of domains to which our result apply is very large. It includes for instance all smoothly bounded strongly pseudoconvex complete circular domains and all their sufficiently small deformations.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures - The previously announced main result had a gap. In this new version the corrected statement is given. To appear on the volume "Geometric Complex Analysis - Proceedings of KSCV 12 Symposium

On Spacetimes with Constant Scalar Invariants

We study Lorentzian spacetimes for which all scalar invariants constructed from the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives are constant ($CSI$ spacetimes). We obtain a number of general results in arbitrary dimensions. We study and construct warped product $CSI$ spacetimes and higher-dimensional Kundt $CSI$ spacetimes. We show how these spacetimes can be constructed from locally homogeneous spaces and $VSI$ spacetimes. The results suggest a number of conjectures. In particular, it is plausible that for $CSI$ spacetimes that are not locally homogeneous the Weyl type is $II$, $III$, $N$ or $O$, with any boost weight zero components being constant. We then consider the four-dimensional $CSI$ spacetimes in more detail. We show that there are severe constraints on these spacetimes, and we argue that it is plausible that they are either locally homogeneous or that the spacetime necessarily belongs to the Kundt class of $CSI$ spacetimes, all of which are constructed. The four-dimensional results lend support to the conjectures in higher dimensions.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure, v2: minor changes throughou