1,721,077 research outputs found

    Galactic cosmic-ray recurrent and transient short-term variations: advanced data analysis and modeling

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    A particle detector (PD) on board the European Space Agency LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission allowed for the detection of galactic-cosmic rays (GCRs) above 70 MeV/n. The LPF spacecraft (S/ C) orbited around the L1 Lagrangian point from February 2016 through July 2017. Proton and helium nuclei (constituting roughly 98% of the GCR bulk in the inner heliosphere) were sampled at 0.067 Hz and hourly-averaged data allowed for the study of long-term and short-term GCR flux variations with a statistical uncertainty of 1%. Since LPF was in orbit for one year and a half during the descending phase of the solar cycle N. 24 in a positive polarity period, a corresponding long-term increase in the mean GCR count-rate during the mission elapsed time was observed. Short-term GCR flux variations observed by LPF are studied in detail. Some of those variations are found to be recurrent in time since they are associated with solar wind disturbances originated from long-living structure on the Sun surface. The quasi-periodicities related to Sun rotation are investigated through the Hilbert spectral analysis, using the Hilbert-Huang transform. The association of GCR recurrent short-term variations with solar wind disturbances is discussed. Another class of short-term variations consists of depressions or peaks in the GCR count rate associated with transient solar wind disturbances. The most intense transient phenomena of solar origin are represented by the interplanetary counterparts of coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). The typical signature on GCR observations of an ICME transit is a sudden intensity decrease and a gradual recovery, called Forbush decrease (FD). Three FDs were observed during the LPF mission elapsed time. The second part of this work focuses on the characterization of a FD observed on board LPF on August 2, 2016. A near-Earth ICME transit was observed in correspondence of this FD and a smooth rotating magnetic field accompanied by low values of temperature and plasma-beta allowed for the identification of a clear magnetic cloud (MC) structure. The Grad-Shafranov (GS) reconstruction is applied in order to retrieve the large-scale magnetic field configuration within the ICME. The GS reconstruction is an advanced data-analysis technique aiming to recover the configuration of a magnetic closed structure starting from single S/C in a quasi-3-D geometry. After performing the GS reconstruction, we combined this technique with a suited Monte Carlo simulation, in the test-particle approximation, in order to investigate the effect of the MC passage in terms of cosmic-ray modulation. In this simulation, the only physical process able to modulate the isotropic particle flux is the particle drift associated with gradient and curvature of the magnetic field. The simulation results show an excellent agreement with LPF data during the FD and a study of the energy dependence of the simulated decrease is found to be in agreement with ground-based observations. Our result suggests that for the analyzed MC a fraction of low-energy particles do leak into the MC, remaining trapped and/or pushed out by external closed field lines. Moreover, the small magnetic field fluctuations observed inside the MC does not favor a large-scale cross-field transport through diffusion process or random walk. Hence, we suggest that gradient and curvature drifts are mainly responsible for GCR FDs originated by large-scale closed MC structure

    Solar granulation: properties of velocity fields from THEMIS-IPM observations

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    The structure and evolution of the photospheric velocity and intensity field, lying in the convective overshooting region, are investigated on the basis of monochromatic and large bandwidth solar granulation images. The time series of a quiet granulation field, at the Sun center, have been acquired with the IPM Monochromator mounted at the THEMIS telescope in Tenerife (Spain) in July 1999. In specific we investigate both the stratification of relative temperature fluctuations and the evolution of fragmenting granules. The main results that the present analysis seem to suggest are: a) The presence of two photospheric heights at which the intensity (then the temperature) change sign. b) The existence of a deceleration of upward flow, and the following upset of a downflow, in the center of exploding granules near the peak of corresponding large bandwidth intensity profiles

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    A New Method to Model Magnetic Cloud-driven Forbush Decreases: The 2016 August 2 Event

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    nterplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), generally containing magnetic clouds (MCs), are associated with galactic-cosmic ray (GCR) intensity depressions known as Forbush decreases (FDs). An ICME was observed at L1 between 2016 August 2 at 14:00 UT and August 3 at 03:00 UT. The MC region was identified and its magnetic configuration was retrieved by using the Grad-Shafranov (GS) reconstruction. A weak FD in the GCR count-rate was observed on 2016 August 2 by a particle detector on board the European Space Agency LISA Pathfinder mission. The spacecraft orbited around L1 and the particle detector allowed us to monitor the GCR intensity at energies above 70 MeVn(-1). A 9% decrease in the cosmic-ray intensity was observed during the ICME passage. The first structure of the ICME caused a 6.4% sharp decrease, while the MC produced a 2.6% decrease. A suited full-orbit test-particle simulation was performed on the MC configuration obtained through the GS reconstruction. The FD amplitude and time profile obtained through the simulation show an excellent agreement with observations. The test-particle simulation allows us to derive the energy dependence of the MC-driven FD providing an estimate of the amplitude at different rigidities, here compared with several neutron monitor observations. This work points out the importance of the large-scale MC configuration in the interaction between GCRs and ICMEs and suggests that particle drifts have a primary role in modulating the GCR intensity within the MC under study and possibly in at least all slowly expanding ICMEs lacking a shock/sheath region

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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