Microscopic / telescopic (universes unfold)

This exhibition was inspired by lens based observation; what is observed through the microscope – plankton and single cell organisms – finds its origin in what is observed through the telescope – stars and galaxies. The project explores two spatially divergent contexts. Artist, Melinda Capp explores the micro-scopic with porcelain objects, artist books and images derived microscopes and Daniel Armstrong references the macro-scopic with video, photography, lens based objects and installation of interactive sculpture / optical instruments to create an experiential connection between celestial phenomena/images and the viewer.

Artworks : Water Table and Rain Table : presented as part of the Periscope Exhibition, Castlemaine State Festival

Rain Table and Water Table: Delicate splashes and droplets of water act like primitive lenses bringing transparency to the diffused images of celestial bodies. These two installation pieces are inspired by the beauty of the night sky and invite the viewer to consider the cosmos in relation to ones self and to contemplate the discoveries which have changed our understanding of the universe. Water Table and Rain Table are the two works being presented as part of Periscope. Through the form of the science bench or museum cabinet, luminous and projected images play against glass and water invoking the sublime sense of wonder that we have when we look to the starry night sky. Water Table - In 1912 the astronomer, Vesto Slipher made the discovery that “Nebula” were moving at incredible velocities due to the expansion of space itself. This discovery revealed these “Nebula” to be vastly remote and independent galaxies. Water Table speculates on the understanding that when we look into deep space, we also look into deep time. Rain Table is a new work produced for the festival and makes reference to the first telescopic observations of the Moon made by the mathematician, philosopher and astronomer, Galileo Galilei in 1610. The implication of Galileo’s observations gave rise to a radical new understanding of the heavens and our place in it and the final acceptance that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe.

Castlemaine State Festival 2013: Periscope Exhibition: Artwork No 1: "Water Table"

Rian Table and Water Table: Delicate splashes and droplets of water act like primitive lenses bringing transparency to the diffused images of celestial bodies. These two installation pieces are inspired by the beauty of the night sky and invite the viewer to consider the cosmos in relation to ones self and to contemplate the discoveries which have changed our understanding of the universe. Water Table and Rain Table are the two works being presented as part of Periscope. Through the form of the science bench or museum cabinet, luminous and projected images play against glass and water invoking the sublime sense of wonder that we have when we look to the starry night sky. Water Table In 1912 the astronomer, Vesto Slipher made the discovery that “Nebula” were moving at incredible velocities due to the expansion of space itself. This discovery revealed these “Nebula” to be vastly remote and independent galaxies. Water Table speculates on the understanding that when we look into deep space, we also look into deep time. Rain-Table is a new work produced for the festival and makes reference to the first telescopic observations of the Moon made by the mathematician, philosopher and astronomer, Galileo Galilei in 1610. The implication of Galileo’s observations gave rise to a radical new understanding of the heavens and our place in it and the final acceptance that the Earth was not the center of the Universe.

Castlemaine State Festival 2013: Periscope Exhibition: Artwork No 2: "Rain Table"

Rian Table and Water Table: Delicate splashes and droplets of water act like primitive lenses bringing transparency to the diffused images of celestial bodies. These two installation pieces are inspired by the beauty of the night sky and invite the viewer to consider the cosmos in relation to ones self and to contemplate the discoveries which have changed our understanding of the universe. Water Table and Rain Table are the two works being presented as part of Periscope. Through the form of the science bench or museum cabinet, luminous and projected images play against glass and water invoking the sublime sense of wonder that we have when we look to the starry night sky. Water Table In 1912 the astronomer, Vesto Slipher made the discovery that “Nebula” were moving at incredible velocities due to the expansion of space itself. This discovery revealed these “Nebula” to be vastly remote and independent galaxies. Water Table speculates on the understanding that when we look into deep space, we also look into deep time. Rain-Table is a new work produced for the festival and makes reference to the first telescopic observations of the Moon made by the mathematician, philosopher and astronomer, Galileo Galilei in 1610. The implication of Galileo’s observations gave rise to a radical new understanding of the heavens and our place in it and the final acceptance that the Earth was not the center of the Universe.

Investigation of flat spectrum radio sources by the interplanetary scintillation method at 111 MHz

Abstract. Interplanetary scintillation observations of 48 of the 55 Augusto et al. (1998) flat spectrum radio sources were carried out at 111 MHz using the interplanetary scintillation method on the Large Phased Array (LPA) in Russia. Due to the large size of the LPA beam (1◦ × 0.5◦) a careful inspection of all possible confusion sources was made using extant large radio surveys: 37 of the 48 sources are not confused. We were able to estimate the scintillating flux densities of 13 sources, getting upper limits for the remaining 35. Gathering more or improving extant VLBI data on these sources might significantly improve our results. This proof-of-concept project tells us that compact (<1 ) flat spectrum radio sources show strong enough scintillations at 111 MHz to establish/constrain their spectra (low-frequency end). Key words. galaxies: general – galaxies: active – galaxies: quasars: general

Implementação da rotina de unfolding para determinação de distribuição de tamanho de grãos esféricos via distribuição de interceptos lineares e de área de seção

Na unfolding method of linear intercept distributions and secction área distribution was implemented for structures with spherical grains. Although the unfolding routine depends on the grain shape, structures with spheroidal grains can also be treated by this routine. Grains of non-spheroidal shape can be treated only as approximation. A software was developed with two parts. The first part calculates the probability matrix. The second part uses this matrix and minimizes the chi-square. The results are presented with any number of size classes as required. The probability matrix was determined by means of the linear intercept and section area distributions created by computer simulation. Using curve fittings the probability matrix for spheres of any sizes could be determined. Two kinds of tests were carried out to prove the efficiency of the Technique. The theoretical tests represent ideal cases. The software was able to exactly find the proposed grain size distribution. In the second test, a structure was simulated in computer and images of its slices were used to produce the corresponding linear intercept the section area distributions. These distributions were then unfolded. This test simulates better reality. The results show deviations from the real size distribution. This deviations are caused by statistic fluctuation. The unfolding of the linear intercept distribution works perfectly, but the unfolding of section area distribution does not work due to a failure in the chi-square minimization. The minimization method uses a matrix inversion routine. The matrix generated by this procedure cannot be inverted. Other minimization method must be used

Palinotaxonomia de Besleria L. e Napeanthus Gardn. (Beslerieae/Napeantheae - Gesneriaceae) com ênfase nas espécies ocorrentes no Estado de São Paulo

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Efeito Peltier em estruturas semicondutoras quasiperiódicas

There is nowadays a growing demand for located cooling and stabilization in optical and electronic devices, haul of portable systems of cooling that they allow a larger independence in several activities. The modules of thermoelectrical cooling are bombs of heat that use efect Peltier, that consists of the production of a temperature gradient when an electric current is applied to a thermoelectrical pair formed by two diferent drivers. That efect is part of a class of thermoelectrical efcts that it is typical of junctions among electric drivers. The modules are manufactured with semiconductors. The used is the bismuth telluride Bi2Te3, arranged in a periodic sequence. In this sense the idea appeared of doing an analysis of a system that obeys the sequence of Fibonacci. The sequence of Fibonacci has connections with the golden proportion, could be found in the reproductive study of the bees, in the behavior of the light and of the atoms, as well as in the growth of plants and in the study of galaxies, among many other applications. An apparatus unidimensional was set up with the objective of investigating the thermal behavior of a module that obeys it a rule of growth of the type Fibonacci. The results demonstrate that the modules that possess periodic arrangement are more eficient

O enigmático problema das gigantes ricas em Lítio e as perspectivas com o satélite Kepler

Lithium (Li) is a chemical element with atomic number 3 and it is among the lightest known elements in the universe. In general, the Lithium is found in the nature under the form of two stable isotopes, the 6Li and 7Li. This last one is the most dominant and responds for about 93% of the Li found in the Universe. Due to its fragileness this element is largely used in the astrophysics, especially in what refers to the understanding of the physical process that has occurred since the Big Bang going through the evolution of the galaxies and stars. In the primordial nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang moment (BBN), the theoretical calculation forecasts a Li production along with all the light elements such as Deuterium and Beryllium. To the Li the BNB theory reviews a primordial abundance of Log log ǫ(Li) =2.72 dex in a logarithmic scale related to the H. The abundance of Li found on the poor metal stars, or pop II stars type, is called as being the abundance of Li primordial and is the measure as being log ǫ(Li) =2.27 dex. In the ISM (Interstellar medium), that reflects the current value, the abundance of Lithium is log ǫ(Li) = 3.2 dex. This value has great importance for our comprehension on the chemical evolution of the galaxy. The process responsible for the increasing of the primordial value present in the Li is not clearly understood until nowadays. In fact there is a real contribution of Li from the giant stars of little mass and this contribution needs to be well streamed if we want to understand our galaxy. The main objection in this logical sequence is the appearing of some giant stars with little mass of G and K spectral types which atmosphere is highly enriched with Li. Such elevated values are exactly the opposite of what could happen with the typical abundance of giant low mass stars, where convective envelops pass through a mass deepening in which all the Li should be diluted and present abundances around log ǫ(Li) ∼1.4 dex following the model of stellar evolution. In the Literature three suggestions are found that try to reconcile the values of the abundance of Li theoretical and observed in these rich in Li giants, but any of them bring conclusive answers. In the present work, we propose a qualitative study of the evolutionary state of the rich in Li stars in the literature along with the recent discovery of the first star rich in Li observed by the Kepler Satellite. The main objective of this work is to promote a solid discussion about the evolutionary state based on the characteristic obtained from the seismic analysis of the object observed by Kepler. We used evolutionary traces and simulation done with the population synthesis code TRILEGAL intending to evaluate as precisely as possible the evolutionary state of the internal structure of these groups of stars. The results indicate a very short characteristic time when compared to the evolutionary scale related to the enrichment of these stars

Efeitos não-gaussianos em astrofísica e cosmologia

The recent astronomical observations indicate that the universe has null spatial curvature, is accelerating and its matter-energy content is composed by circa 30% of matter (baryons + dark matter) and 70% of dark energy, a relativistic component with negative pressure. However, in order to built more realistic models it is necessary to consider the evolution of small density perturbations for explaining the richness of observed structures in the scale of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The structure formation process was pioneering described by Press and Schechter (PS) in 1974, by means of the galaxy cluster mass function. The PS formalism establishes a Gaussian distribution for the primordial density perturbation field. Besides a serious normalization problem, such an approach does not explain the recent cluster X-ray data, and it is also in disagreement with the most up-to-date computational simulations. In this thesis, we discuss several applications of the nonextensive q-statistics (non-Gaussian), proposed in 1988 by C. Tsallis, with special emphasis in the cosmological process of the large structure formation. Initially, we investigate the statistics of the primordial fluctuation field of the density contrast, since the most recent data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) indicates a deviation from gaussianity. We assume that such deviations may be described by the nonextensive statistics, because it reduces to the Gaussian distribution in the limit of the free parameter q = 1, thereby allowing a direct comparison with the standard theory. We study its application for a galaxy cluster catalog based on the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (hereafter HIFLUGCS). We conclude that the standard Gaussian model applied to HIFLUGCS does not agree with the most recent data independently obtained by WMAP. Using the nonextensive statistics, we obtain values much more aligned with WMAP results. We also demonstrate that the Burr distribution corrects the normalization problem. The cluster mass function formalism was also investigated in the presence of the dark energy. In this case, constraints over several cosmic parameters was also obtained. The nonextensive statistics was implemented yet in 2 distinct problems: (i) the plasma probe and (ii) in the Bremsstrahlung radiation description (the primary radiation from X-ray clusters); a problem of considerable interest in astrophysics. In another line of development, by using supernova data and the gas mass fraction from galaxy clusters, we discuss a redshift variation of the equation of state parameter, by considering two distinct expansions. An interesting aspect of this work is that the results do not need a prior in the mass parameter, as usually occurs in analyzes involving only supernovae data.Finally, we obtain a new estimate of the Hubble parameter, through a joint analysis involving the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE), the X-ray data from galaxy clusters and the baryon acoustic oscillations. We show that the degeneracy of the observational data with respect to the mass parameter is broken when the signature of the baryon acoustic oscillations as given by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) catalog is considered. Our analysis, based on the SZE/X-ray data for a sample of 25 galaxy clusters with triaxial morphology, yields a Hubble parameter in good agreement with the independent studies, provided by the Hubble Space Telescope project and the recent estimates of the WMAP

Evolução de estruturas primordiais

Understanding the way in which large-scale structures, like galaxies, form remains one of the most challenging problems in cosmology today. The standard theory for the origin of these structures is that they grew by gravitational instability from small, perhaps quantum generated, °uctuations in the density of dark matter, baryons and photons over an uniform primordial Universe. After the recombination, the baryons began to fall into the pre-existing gravitational potential wells of the dark matter. In this dissertation a study is initially made of the primordial recombination era, the epoch of the formation of the neutral hydrogen atoms. Besides, we analyzed the evolution of the density contrast (of baryonic and dark matter), in clouds of dark matter with masses among 104M¯ ¡ 1010M¯. In particular, we take into account the several physical mechanisms that act in the baryonic component, during and after the recombination era. The analysis of the formation of these primordial objects was made in the context of three models of dark energy as background: Quintessence, ¤CDM(Cosmological Constant plus Cold Dark Matter) and Phantom. We show that the dark matter is the fundamental agent for the formation of the structures observed today. The dark energy has great importance at that epoch of its formation

Geologia e geomorfologia dos recifes de Maracajaú-RN e plataforma rasa adjacente

This work focuses the geological and geomorphological characterization of the inner shelf in the West Coast of the Rio Grande do Norte state, particularly the reef coral barrier offshore of Maracajaú (Maxaranguape district). If developed without the necessary concerns, tourism and entertainment activities that have been widely increased during the last five years can lead to irreversible environmental damages to the biotic and abiotic ecosystems of the region. Regarding these aspects, it is crucial the realization of a detailed study to envisage the achievement of a self-sustainable development, especially with respect to the possibilities of a rational usage of the region. This is the aim of this manuscript, which consisted of an initial stage of digital modeling of the terrain with basis on digitalization and vectorization of the Nautical map number 803 (Naval Service of Brazil, 1971). Information obtained in this phase was improved with the digital processing of small format aerial photos acquired from six flights, which were integrated to form a photomosaic of the area. The refined maps produced with the data from Nautical and aerial photo-interpretations aided to locate 9 bathymetric profiles, which provided information about the sea floor relief of the whole area. This later aided in the choosing of areas to bottom sampling that, in its turn, helped to characterize sediments present in floor of the inner shelf. Sixty-four samples collected during this work were studied by granulometrical and chemical analysis; with the later one developed in order to measure carbonate and organic matter contents. Forty-two of these samples showed carbonate content higher than 80% and organic matter in the range of 0.58% to 24.06%. With respect to grain size, these samples are in the interval between fine- to mid-grained sands. Sands with grain sizes higher than this one are also composed by carbonate carapaces such as pale yellow to red rhodolites with ellipsoidal and spheroidal shapes. During determination of the submerse features, the small format aerial photos demonstrated to be a useful methodology to aid the delineation of the sea floor topography through shallow deep waters. The bathymetry, for its turn, revealed several features at the bottom of the platform, in which the most conspicuous are undulations and morphological details of the São Roque Channel. Examination of bottom, aside from sand, yielded the identification of bivalves, ostracods, fragments of bryozoans, spikes of sponges, spines of echinoderms, operculum of gastropods and foraminifers. From the above it is concluded that the multi-methodological approach developed in this study worked efficiently, permitting the geomorphological and environmental characterization of the inner shelf of the North Maracajaú

Anther and pollen development in some species of Poaceae (Poales)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Determining the shape of the universe using discrete sources

Suppose we have identified three clusters of galaxies as being topological copies of the same object. How does this information constrain the possible models for the shape of our universe? It is shown here that, if our universe has flat spatial sections, these multiple images can be accommodated within any of the six classes of compact orientable three-dimensional flat space forms. Moreover, the discovery of two more triples of multiple images in the neighbourhood of the first one would allow the determination of the topology of the universe, and in most cases the determination of its size.

GALACTIC NONLINEAR DYNAMIC MODEL

We develop a model for spiral galaxies based on a nonlinear realization of the Newtonian dynamics starting from the momentum and mass conservations in the phase space. The radial solution exhibits a rotation curve in qualitative accordance with the observational data.