This paper reports the star count predictions of warped and flaring models of the outer Milky Way disk. These have been suggested as possible locations of the lenses responsible for the microlensing events towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Three such models are investigated in detail and the theoretical predictions are confronted with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) star count data in 7 lo...

We present evidence from BeppoSAX and XMM-Newton of extreme X-ray variability in the high luminosity radio-quiet quasar PDS 456, the most luminous known AGN at z < 0.3. Repeated X-ray flaring is found in PDS 456, over the duration of the 340 ksec long BeppoSAX observation. The X-ray flux doubles in just 30 ksec, whilst the total energy output of the flaring events is as high as 10 51 erg. Under...

A stochastic model for the energy of a flaring solar active region is presented, generalising and extending the approach of Wheatland & Glukhov (1998). The probability distribution for the free energy of an active region is described by the solution to a master equation involving deterministic energy input and random jump transitions downwards in energy (solar flares). It is shown how two obser...

In a previous paper (Olling 1995, AJ, 110, 591) a method was developed to determine the shapes of dark matter halos of spiral galaxies from an accurate determination of the rotation curve, the flaring of the gas layer and the velocity dispersion in the H I . Here this method is applied to the almost edge-on Scd galaxy NGC 4244 for which the necessary parameters are determined in the accompanyin...

We present a study of the long-term variability of Cyg X-1 using data from the RXTE/ASM and the RXTE/PCA during the time between the two soft states of 1996 and 2001/2002. This period has been characterized by many short ASM flaring episodes which we have identified as "failed state transitions". The 150 d period which has been seen before and shortly after the 1996 soft state is not obviously ...

The " current wisdom " regarding the structuring of the X-ray emitting corona in active stars (i.e. a corona dominated by extended coronal structures) is briefly reviewed, followed by a review of a new approach to flare analysis and the analysis of a significant number of newly observed and previously published large flares, all leading to a much more compactly structured corona. Recent observa...

In this article we present a technique for segmenting the affected tissue visible as white flaring in the ultrasound brain images of neonates with Leukomalacia (White Matter Damage). The technique combines both textural information of the investigated tissue as well as mathematical morphology in order to detect and delineate the boundaries of the affected parts of the brain. The reproducibility...

Long period longitudinal oscillations of a flaring coronal loop are studied numerically. In the recent work of Nakariakov et al. (2004) it has been shown that the time dependence of density and velocity in a flaring loop contain pronounced quasi-harmonic oscillations associated with the 2nd harmonic of a standing slow magnetoacoustic wave. In this work we investigate the physical nature of thes...