URBAN RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION AND RENEWAL: MODELING BY GRAPHIC SYNTHESIS

Houses in inner-city areas, because of their age, suffer the depredations of functional obsolescence and decay. Some, however, have sound locations and are able to assemble economic forces that precipitate rehabilitation by both renters and owners. Accompanying restoration is a concomitant increase in market value and in population density, the corollary of which is a reduction in lot size. This process is modeled by graphically synthesizing elements of location theory, urban growth theory, and principles of economics.     

Superhumps in V348 Pup

The eclipsing nova-like cataclysmic variable star V348 Pup exhibits a persistent luminosity modulation with a period 6 per cent longer than its 2.44-h orbital period ( P _orb). This has been interpreted as a 'positive superhump' resulting from a slowly precessing non-axisymmetric accretion disc gravitationally interacting with the secondary. We find a clear modulation of mid-eclipse times on the superhump period, which agrees well with the predictions of a simple precessing eccentric disc model. Our modelling shows that the disc light centre is on the far side of the disc from the donor star when the superhump reaches maximum light. This phasing suggests a link between superhumps in V348 Pup and late superhumps in SU UMa systems. Modelling of the full light curve and maximum entropy eclipse mapping both show that the disc emission is concentrated closer to the white dwarf at superhump maximum than at superhump minimum. We detect additional signals consistent with the beat periods between the implied disc precession period and both and     

Preliminary results of the multisite time-series campaign on the sdB pulsator PG 1325+101

I present a model for the formation and evolution of a massive disk galaxy, within a growing dark halo whose mass evolves according to cosmological simulations of structure formation. The galactic evolution is simulated with a new 3D chemo-dynamical code, including dark matter, stars and a multi-phase ISM. We follow the evolution from redshift z = 4.85 until the present epoch. The energy release by massive stars and supernovae prevents a rapid collapse of the baryonic matter and delays the maximum star formation until redshift z ≈ 1. The galaxy forms radially from inside-out and vertically from top-to-bottom. The feedback of stars leads to turbulent motions and large-scale flows in the ISM. As one result the galactic disk is significantly enriched by chemical elements synthesized in bulge stars.     

Ca II K Emission Line Asymmetries Among Red Giants

In the spectra of red giants the chromospheric emission feature found in the core of the Ca II K line often exhibits an asymmetric profile. This asymmetry can be documented by a parameter V/R which is classified as > 1, 1, or < 1 if the violet wing of the emission profile is of greater, equal, or lower intensity than the redward wing. A literature search has been conducted to compile a V/R dataset which builds on the large survey of bright field giants made by Wilson (1976). Among stars of luminosity classes II–III–IV the majority of those with V/R > 1 are found to be bluer than B-V =1.3, while those with V/R < 1 are mostly redder than this colour. Stars with nearly symmetric profiles, V/R≈ 1, are found throughout the colour range 0.8 < B-V < 1.5. There is no sharp transition line separating stars of V/R > 1 and < 1 in the colour-magnitude diagram, but rather a ‘transition zone’ centered at B-V ≈ 1.3. The center of this zone coincides closely with a ‘coronal dividing line’ identified by Haish, Schmitt and Rosso (1991) as the red envelope in the H–R diagram of giants detected in soft x-ray emission by ROSAT. It is suggested that both the transition to a Ca II K emission asymmetry of V/R < 1 and the drop in soft x-ray activity across the coronal dividing line are related to changes in the dynamical state of the chromospheres of red giants. By contrast, the onset of photometric variability due to pulsation occurs among stars of early-M spectral type, that are redward of the mid-point of the Ca II V/R ‘transition zone’, suggesting that the chromospheric motions which produce an asymmetry of V/R < 1 are established prior to the onset of pulsation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The optical reflector system for the CANGAROO-II imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope

A new imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope with a light-weight reflector has been constructed. Light, robust, and durable mirror facets of containing carbon fiber reinforced plastic laminates were developed for the telescope. The reflector has a parabolic shape (f/1.1) with a 30 m² surface area, which consists of 60 spherical mirror facets. The image size of each mirror facet is 0°.08 (FWHM) on average. The attitude of each facet can be adjusted by stepping motors. After the first in situ adjustment, a point image of about 0°.14 (FWHM) over 3° field of view was obtained. The effect of gravitational load on the optical system was confirmed to be negligible at the focal plane. The telescope has been in operation with an energy threshold for γ-rays of 300 GeV since May 1999.     

A compromise aspect-adaptive cylindrical projection for world maps

There are two problems with current cylindrical projections for world maps. First, existing cylindrical map projections have a static height-to-width aspect ratio and do not automatically adjust their aspect ratio in order to optimally use available canvas space. Second, many of the commonly used cylindrical compromise projections show areas and shapes at higher latitudes with considerable distortion. This article introduces a new compromise cylindrical map projection that adjusts the distribution of parallels to the aspect ratio of a canvas. The goal of designing this projection was to show land masses at central latitudes with a visually balanced appearance similar to how they appear on a globe. The projection was constructed using a visual design procedure where a series of graphically optimized projections was defined for a select number of aspect ratios. The visually designed projections were approximated by polynomial expressions that define a cylindrical projection for any height-to-width ratio between 0.3:1 and 1:1. The resulting equations for converting spherical to Cartesian coordinates require a small number of coefficients and are fast to execute. The presented aspect-adaptive cylindrical projection is well suited for digital maps embedded in web pages with responsive web design, as well as GIS applications where the size of the map canvas is unknown a priori. We highlight the projection with a height-to-width ratio of 0.6:1, which we call the Compact Miller projection because it is inspired by the Miller Cylindrical projection. Unlike the Miller Cylindrical projection, the Compact Miller projection has a smaller height-to-width ratio and shows the world with less areal distortion at higher latitudes. A user study with 448 participants verified that the Compact Miller – together with the Plate Carrée projection – is the most preferred cylindrical compromise projection.     

A Review of “Policies for Sustainable Governance of Global Ecosystem Services”

The objectives are to (1) quantify, map, and analyze vegetation cover distributions and changes across Accra, Ghana, for 2002 and 2010; and (2) examine the statistical relationship between vegetation cover and a housing quality index (HQI) for 2000 at the neighborhood level. Pixel-level vegetation cover maps derived using threshold classification of 2002 and 2010 QuickBird normalized difference vegetation index images have very high overall accuracies and yield an estimate of 5.9 percent vegetation cover reduction over the study area between 2002 and 2010. A high degree of variance in vegetation cover for individual dates is explained by HQI at the neighborhood level, although minimal covariability between absolute or relative vegetation cover change and HQI for 2000 was observed.