Outdoor Learning through the school day – the National Curriculum in a tent.

This paper is concerned with creating an Outdoor Learning day within the grounds of a Primary school, but with the aim of reducing perceived barriers to Learning Outside of the Classroom. The phenomenological study aimed to capture the teacher’s and children’s perspectives towards the day that involved practical activities around tent building, making cross-curricular links to Maths Science and English. Problem solving, working in a team and developing numeracy and literacy skills were also core learning outcomes. Data collection for the study was through a questionnaire, in-class observations and an interview with the teacher as well as a focus group with four pupils. The data suggested that learning had taken place and that learning outdoors made a positive contribution to pupils’ engagement. Also that the teacher’s overall view of Outdoor Learning was a positive one, the study closing with a growing sense of confidence regarding the teacher’s freedom to construct their own Outdoor Learning experiences for pupils in the future

Variation of the Vibration and Electronic States at Ion Irradiation of TiO2 Nanofilms with Ag and Au Nanoparticles

The nonmonotonic dependence of the intensities of vibrational lines in the Raman scattering of TiO2 nanofilms, including Ag and Au nanoparticles, from the irradiation dose D by Ti+ (140 keV) ions was estab-lished. The increase of the intensity in 1.3-1.5 times for TiO2 films at D 1012 - 1013 ions/cm2 related with improved of films structure at low doses. The enhancement of low-frequency electronic bands with dose in-creasing was study. It was shown that the effect of plasmon is not a major and the vibrational-electronic interaction plays the main function. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3529

IVOA Recommendation: Simple Spectral Access Protocol Version 1.1

The Simple Spectral Access (SSA) Protocol (SSAP) defines a uniform interface to remotely discover and access one dimensional spectra. SSA is a member of an integrated family of data access interfaces altogether comprising the Data Access Layer (DAL) of the IVOA. SSA is based on a more general data model capable of describing most tabular spectrophotometric data, including time series and spectral energy distributions (SEDs) as well as 1-D spectra; however the scope of the SSA interface as specified in this document is limited to simple 1-D spectra, including simple aggregations of 1-D spectra. The form of the SSA interface is simple: clients first query the global resource registry to find services of interest and then issue a data discovery query to selected services to determine what relevant data is available from each service; the candidate datasets available are described uniformly in a VOTable format document which is returned in response to the query. Finally, the client may retrieve selected datasets for analysis. Spectrum datasets returned by an SSA spectrum service may be either precomputed, archival datasets, or they may be virtual data which is computed on the fly to respond to a client request. Spectrum datasets may conform to a standard data model defined by SSA, or may be native spectra with custom project-defined content. Spectra may be returned in any of a number of standard data formats. Spectral data is generally stored externally to the VO in a format specific to each spectral data collection; currently there is no standard way to represent astronomical spectra, and virtually every project does it differently. Hence spectra may be actively mediated to the standard SSA-defined data model at access time by the service, so that client analysis programs do not have to be familiar with the idiosyncratic details of each data collection to be accessed

Iris: an Extensible Application for Building and Analyzing Spectral Energy Distributions

Iris is an extensible application that provides astronomers with a user-friendly interface capable of ingesting broad-band data from many different sources in order to build, explore, and model spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Iris takes advantage of the standards defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance, but hides the technicalities of such standards by implementing different layers of abstraction on top of them. Such intermediate layers provide hooks that users and developers can exploit in order to extend the capabilities provided by Iris. For instance, custom Python models can be combined in arbitrary ways with the Iris built-in models or with other custom functions. As such, Iris offers a platform for the development and integration of SED data, services, and applications, either from the user's system or from the web. In this paper we describe the built-in features provided by Iris for building and analyzing SEDs. We also explore in some detail the Iris framework and software development kit, showing how astronomers and software developers can plug their code into an integrated SED analysis environment.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Computin

A variability study of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6300 with XMM-Newton

We present the results of timing analysis of the XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6300. The hard X-ray spectrum above 2 keV consists of a Compton-thin-absorbed power law, as is often seen in Seyfert 2 galaxies. We clearly detected rapid time variability on a time scale of about 1000 s from the light curve above 2 keV. The excess variance of the time variability (sigma2_RMS) is calculated to be ~0.12, and the periodogram of the light curve is well represented by a power law function with a slope of 1.75. In contrast with previous results from Seyfert 2 nuclei, these variability characteristics are consistent with those of Seyfert 1 galaxies. This consistency suggests that NGC 6300 has a similar black hole mass and accretion properties as Seyfert 1 galaxies. Using the relation between time variability and central black hole mass by Hayashida et al. (1998), the black hole mass of NGC 6300 is estimated to be ~2.8x10^5 Mo. Taking uncertainty of this method into account, the black hole mass is less than 10^7 Mo. Taking the bolometric luminosity of 3.3x10^43 erg/s into consideration, this yields an accretion rate of > 0.03 of the Eddington value, and comparable with estimates from Seyfert 1 galaxies using this method. The time variability analysis suggests that NGC 6300 actually has a Seyfert 1 nucleus obscured by a thick matter, and more generally provides a new pillar of support for the unified model of Seyfert galaxies based on obscuration.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Omniview motionless camera orientation system

An apparatus and method is provided for converting digital images for use in an imaging system. The apparatus includes a data memory which stores digital data representing an image having a circular or spherical field of view such as an image captured by a fish-eye lens, a control input for receiving a signal for selecting a portion of the image, and a converter responsive to the control input for converting digital data corresponding to the selected portion into digital data representing a planar image for subsequent display. Various methods include the steps of storing digital data representing an image having a circular or spherical field of view, selecting a portion of the image, and converting the stored digital data corresponding to the selected portion into digital data representing a planar image for subsequent display. In various embodiments, the data converter and data conversion step may use an orthogonal set of transformation algorithms

On the Age and Binarity of Fomalhaut

The nearby (d = 7.7 pc) A3V star Fomalhaut is orbited by a resolved dusty debris disk and a controversial candidate extrasolar planet. The commonly cited age for the system (200+-100 Myr) from Barrado y Navascues et al. (1997) relied on a combination of isochronal age plus youth indicators for the K4V common proper motion system TW PsA. TW PsA is 1.96 deg away from Fomalhaut, and was first proposed as a companion by Luyten (1938), but the physicality of the binarity is worth testing with modern data. I demonstrate that TW PsA is unequivocally a physical stellar companion to Fomalhaut, with true separation 0.280+0.019-0.012 pc (57.4+3.9-2.5 kAU) and sharing velocities within 0.1+-0.5 km/s -- consistent with being a bound system. Hence, TW PsA should be considered "Fomalhaut B". Combining modern HR diagram constraints with four sets of evolutionary tracks, and assuming the star was born with protosolar composition, I estimate a new isochronal age for Fomalhaut of 450+-40 Myr and mass of 1.92+-0.02 Msun. Various stellar youth diagnostics are re-examined for TW PsA. The star's rotation, X-ray emission, and Li abundances are consistent with approximate ages of 410, 380, and 360 Myr, respectively, yielding a weighted mean age of 400+-70 Myr. Combining the independent ages, I estimate a mean age for the Fomalhaut-TW PsA binary of 440+-40 Myr. The older age implies that substellar companions of a given mass are approximately one magnitude fainter at IR wavelengths than previously assumed.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press, 5 pages in emulateapj, 1 figure. Minor edits. Difference in velocity between Fomalhaut and TW PsA corrected to be 0.1+-0.5 km/

The Black Hole Mass - Galaxy Bulge Relationship for QSOs in the SDSS DR3

We investigate the relationship between black hole mass and host galaxy velocity dispersion for QSOs in Data Release 3 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We derive black hole mass from the broad Hbeta line width and continuum luminosity, and the bulge stellar velocity dispersion from the [OIII] narrow line width. At higher redshifts, we use MgII and [OII] in place of Hbeta and [OIII]. For redshifts z < 0.5, our results agree with the black hole mass - bulge velocity dispersion relationship for nearby galaxies. For 0.5 < z < 1.2, this relationship appears to show evolution with redshift in the sense that the bulges are too small for their black holes. However, we find that part of this apparent trend can be attributed to observational biases, including a Malmquist bias involving the QSO luminosity. Accounting for these biases, we find ~0.2 dex evolution in the black hole mass-bulge velocity dispersion relationship between now and redshift z ~ 1.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, 15 pages, 9 figure

ToxGen: An improved reference database for the identification of type B-trichothecene genotypes in Fusarium

Type B trichothecenes, which pose a serious hazard to consumer health, occur worldwide in grains. These mycotoxins are produced mainly by three different trichothecene genotypes/chemotypes: 3ADON (3-acetyldeoxynivalenol), 15ADON (15-acetyldeoxynivalenol) and NIV (nivalenol), named after these three major mycotoxin compounds. Correct identification of these genotypes is elementary for all studies relating to population surveys, fungal ecology and mycotoxicology. Trichothecene producers exhibit enormous strain-dependent chemical diversity, which may result in variation in levels of the genotype´s determining toxin and in the production of low to high amounts of atypical compounds. New high-throughput DNA-sequencing technologies promise to boost the diagnostics of mycotoxin genotypes. However, this requires a reference database containing a satisfactory taxonomic sampling of sequences showing high correlation to actually produced chemotypes. We believe that one of the most pressing current challenges of such a database is the linking of molecular identification with chemical diversity of the strains, as well as other metadata. In this study, we use the Tri12 gene involved in mycotoxin biosynthesis for identification of Tri genotypes through sequence comparison. Tri12 sequences from a range of geographically diverse fungal strains comprising 22 Fusarium species were stored in the ToxGen database, which covers descriptive and up-to-date annotations such as indication on Tri genotype and chemotype of the strains, chemical diversity, information on trichothecene-inducing host, substrate or media, geographical locality, and most recent taxonomic affiliations. The present initiative bridges the gap between the demands of comprehensive studies on trichothecene producers and the existing nucleotide sequence databases, which lack toxicological and other auxiliary data. We invite researchers working in the fields of fungal taxonomy, epidemiology and mycotoxicology to join the freely available annotation effort.Fil: Kulik, Tomasz. Uniwersytet Warminsko-mazurski W Olsztynie;Fil: Abarenkov, Kessy. University Of Tartu.; EstoniaFil: Busko, Maciej. Poznań University of Life Sciences; PoloniaFil: Bilska, Katarzyna. University of Warmia and Mazury; PoloniaFil: van Diepeningen, Anne D.. University of Amsterdam; Países BajosFil: Ostrowska-Kolodziejczak, Anna. Poznań University of Life Science; PoloniaFil: Krawczyk, Katarzyna. University of Warmia and Mazur; PoloniaFil: Brankovics, Balázs. CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre; Países Bajos. University of Amsterdam; Países BajosFil: Stenglein, Sebastian Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnolológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Biotecnología. Laboratorio de Biología Funcional y Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Sawicki, Jakub. University of Warmia and Mazury; PoloniaFil: Perkowski, Juliusz. Poznań University of Life Sciences; Poloni

Statistical Properties of Radio Emission from the Palomar Seyfert Galaxies

We have carried out an analysis of the radio and optical properties of a statistical sample of 45 Seyfert galaxies from the Palomar spectroscopic survey of nearby galaxies. We find that the space density of bright galaxies (-22 mag <= M_{B_T} <= -18 mag) showing Seyfert activity is (1.25 +/- 0.38) X 10^{-3} Mpc^{-3}, considerably higher than found in other Seyfert samples. Host galaxy types, radio spectra, and radio source sizes are uncorrelated with Seyfert type, as predicted by the unified schemes for active galaxies. Approximately half of the detected galaxies have flat or inverted radio spectra, more than expected based on previous samples. Surprisingly, Seyfert 1 galaxies are found to have somewhat stronger radio sources than Seyfert 2 galaxies at 6 and 20 cm, particularly among the galaxies with the weakest nuclear activity. We suggest that this difference can be accommodated in the unified schemes if a minimum level of Seyfert activity is required for a radio source to emerge from the vicinity of the active nucleus. Below this level, Seyfert radio sources might be suppressed by free-free absorption associated with the nuclear torus or a compact narrow-line region, thus accounting for both the weakness of the radio emission and the preponderance of flat spectra. Alternatively, the flat spectra and weak radio sources might indicate that the weak active nuclei are fed by advection-dominated accretion disks.Comment: 18 pages using emulateapj5, 13 embedded figures, accepted by Ap