Saint Mary's University

About: Saint Mary's University is a education organization based out in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Stars. The organization has 1931 authors who have published 4993 publications receiving 143226 citations.

Developing a temperature‐dependent Kersten function for soil thermal conductivity

Abstract: This paper describes the development of the Kersten function (Ke), which depends on soil temperature and the degree of saturation. The new Kersten function enables the prediction of thermal conductivities of moist soils also including high temperatures. The eight soils used in this paper represent three distinct textural groups, each having a comparable shape of Kersten function. The soil thermal conductivity is obtained from a linear interpolation between the dryness and saturation states with the Ke as the slope. The new Kersten function is valid when the degree of saturation (Sr) is greater than 0.125 and soil temperature is between 30 and 90°C. At a lower degree of saturation (i.e. 0

Market Fundamentals, Risk and the Canadian Property Cycle: Implications for Property Valuation and Investment Decisions

Abstract: The dramatic decline in commercial property values in recent years has changed popular perception about real estate investment risk. This paper aims to generate new insights into real estate investment risk and its implications for real estate valuation. It shows that the risk premium on unsecuritized commercial real estate varies over time and is strongly related to general economic conditions. A vector autoregressive model developed to forecast real estate returns reveals that time variation in real estate risk is partly predictable, and thus can help us to forecast future movements in commercial property values. The analysis suggests that in periods surrounding major market movements, changes in commercial property prices are driven more by changes in expected (required) returns than by changes in current and expected future property income. Changing expected returns may reflect rational revisions of real estate investment risk, or alternatively investor psychology or sentiment.

X-Ray Spectral Variability of the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4051 Observed with Suzaku

Abstract: We report results from a Suzaku observation of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 NGC 4051 Broad-band X-ray light curves and spectra in the 04–40 keV band are examined During our observation, large amplitude rapid variability is seen and the averaged 2–10 keV flux is 81× 10 erg s cm, which is several times lower than the historical average The X-ray spectrum hardens when the source flux becomes lower, confirming the trend of spectral variability known for many Seyfert 1 galaxies The broad-band averaged spectrum and spectra in high and low flux intervals are analyzed The spectra are first fitted with a model consisting of a power-law component, a reflection continuum originating in cold matter, a blackbody component, two zones of ionized absorber, and several Gaussian emission lines The amount of reflection is rather large (R ∼ 7, where R = 1 corresponds to reflection by an infinite slab), while the equivalent width of the Fe-K line at 64 keV is modest (140 eV) for the averaged spectrum We then model the overall spectra by introducing partial covering for the power-law component and reflection continuum independently The column density for the former is 1× 10 cm, while it is fixed at 1× 10 cm for the latter By comparing the spectra in different flux states, we identify the causes of spectral variability At high energies (>35 keV) the primary cause of the spectral variability is the change of the normalization of the power-law component with a constant photon index (Γ = 204) overlaid on a nearly constant hard component The constant hard component is interpreted as partially covered reflection At lower energies, variations in the covering fraction of the power-law continuum is an additional cause of spectral variability

New galactic star clusters discovered in the VVV survey. Candidates projected on the inner disk and bulge

Abstract: VISTA Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea (VVV) is one of six ESO Public Surveys using the 4 meter Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VVV survey covers the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the disk, and one of the principal objectives is to search for new star clusters within previously unreachable obscured parts of the Galaxy. The primary motivation behind this work is to discover and analyze obscured star clusters in the direction of the inner Galactic disk and bulge. Regions of the inner disk and bulge covered by the VVV survey were visually inspected using composite JHKs color images to select new cluster candidates on the basis of apparent overdensities. DR1, DR2, CASU, and PSF photometry of 10x10 arcmin fields centered on each candidate cluster were used to construct color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. Follow-up spectroscopy of the brightest members of several cluster candidates was obtained in order to clarify their nature. We report the discovery of 58 new infrared cluster candidates. Fundamental parameters such as age, distance, and metallicity were determined for 20 of the most populous clusters.