1,720,959 research outputs found
Modeling Galactic Extinction with Dust and "Real" Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
No full textWe investigate the remarkable apparent variety of galactic extinction curves by modeling extinction profiles with core-mantle grains and a collection of single polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Our aim is to translate a synthetic description of dust into physically well-grounded building blocks through the analysis of a statistically relevant sample of different extinction curves. All different flavors of observed extinction curves, ranging from the average galactic extinction curve to virtually "bumpless" profiles, can be described by the present model. We prove that a mixture of a relatively small number (54 species in 4 charge states each) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can reproduce the features of the extinction curve in the ultraviolet, dismissing an old objection to the contribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to the interstellar extinction curve. Despite the large number of free parameters (at most the 54 × 4 column densities of each species in each ionization state included in the molecular ensemble plus the 9 parameters defining the physical properties of classical particles), we can strongly constrain some physically relevant properties such as the total number of C atoms in all species and the mean charge of the mixture. Such properties are found to be largely independent of the adopted dust model whose variation provides effects that are orthogonal to those brought about by the molecular component. Finally, the fitting procedure, together with some physical sense, suggests (but does not require) the presence of an additional component of chemically different very small carbonaceous grains
Observational evidence of dust evolution in galactic extinction curves
No full textAlthough structural and optical properties of hydrogenated amorphous carbons are known to respond to varying physical conditions, most conventional extinction models are basically curve fits with modest predictive power. We compare an evolutionary model of the physical properties of carbonaceous grain mantles with their determination by homogeneously fitting observationally derived Galactic extinction curves with the same physically well-defined dust model. We find that a large sample of observed Galactic extinction curves are compatible with the evolutionary scenario underlying such a model, requiring physical conditions fully consistent with standard density, temperature, radiation field intensity, and average age of diffuse interstellar clouds. Hence, through the study of interstellar extinction we may, in principle, understand the evolutionary history of the diffuse interstellar clouds
Modeling Galactic Extinction with dust and "real" PAHs
No full textWe elaborated an interstellar dust model assuming a distribution of core–mantle
grains and a collection of single polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Exploiting this model, we
are able to reproduce a very large sample of galactic extinction profiles with very different
flavours, proving that a polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons population can reproduce extinction
curve features in the ultraviolet range. Dust grains are composed by an hollow silicatic core and
a carbonaceous mantle (this description is mutuated by the cycle of carbon in the interstellar
medium); molecular population is represented by 54 molecules in four charged states and, despite
the large number of free parameters (we have 9 parameters to represent grain distribution and
54 × 4 column densities to reproduce the molecular contribution to the extiction), we are able
to determine some global properties for molecular ensemble and we found that these properties
are indipendent by specific species which we use in our model
Modeling peculiar extinction curves
No full textWe investigate the remarkable variety of IR-through-UV extinction curves by modelling
extinction profiles with core-mantle grains and a collection of single and stacked polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons. Such a model can closely reproduce the observed curves, by simply
assuming a different ratio of the molecular component to classical dust, while leaving relatively
unmodified the underlying global picture. In particular, we find that for extinction curve
morphologies differing significantly from the average Galactic extinction, dust grain sizes
exhibit a low-end cut-off at approximately 100 nm. An additional component of very small
grains of sizes around 10 nm is required to model lines of sight whose extinctions are similar to
the average Galactic curve. We conclude that to be accurately described, the so-called peculiar
extinction curves do not need dust grains with exotic properties
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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
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