Scientific study of animals in situ requires vigilant observation of detailed animal behavior over weeks or months. When animals live in remote and/or inhospitable locations, observation can be an arduous, expensive, dangerous, and lonely experience for scientists. Emerging advances in robot cameras, long-range wireless networking, and distributed sensors make feasible a new class of portable r...

CMS experiment will use Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) as dedicated muon trigger detectors. The first 24 RPCs for the barrel muon system of the CMS experiment have been assembled and tested. A brief description of the cosmic muon telescope used for the tests is given. The preliminary results for the chamber performance are presented.

Detecting and investigating intrusive Internet activity is an ever-present challenge for network administrators and security researchers. Network monitoring can generate large, unmanageable amounts of log data, which further complicates distinguishing between illegitimate and legitimate traffic. Considering the above issue, this article has two aims. First, it describes an investigative methodo...

Aims. A study of 12 ultracompact HII regions was conducted to probe the physical conditions and kinematics in the inner envelopes of the molecular clumps harboring them. Methods. The APEX telescope was used to observe the sources in the CO (4–3) and 13 CO (8–7) lines. Line intensities were modeled with the RATRAN radiative transfer code using power laws for the density and temperature to descri...

This paper describes the LEMUR GuitarBot, a robotic musical instrument composed of four independent MIDI controllable single-stringed movable bridge units. Design methodology, development and fabrication process, control specification and results are discussed.

The first VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) telescope has been in operation at the basecamp of the Whipple Observatory since January 2005. Here we present initial observations of AGN made using this telescope. Although this is engineering data, significant detections of Markarian 421 and Markarian 501 have been achieved.

Gamma-ray burst are thought to be produced by highly relativistic outflows. Although upper and lower limits for the outflow initial Lorentz factor Γ0 are available, observational efforts to derive a direct determination of Γ0 have so far failed or provided ambiguous results. As a matter of fact, the shape of the early-time afterglow light curve is strongly sensitive on Γ0 which determines the t...