Comparative performance of double-focus and quadrupole mass spectrometers

Light-weight flight type double focus and quadruple mass spectrometer models were compared. Data cover size, weight, and power sensitivity required to achieve same resolution sensitivity at given mass number. Comparison was made using mathematical relationships. Analysis was confined to equal ion source area sensitivity variations not more than 40% over mass range

Commentary: Are National Parks Still Relevant?

On the occasion of the National Parks centennial comes an irreverent question: Are the parks still relevant? Famously christened as America\u27s best idea by writer Wallace Stegner and reaffirmed in Ken Burns\u27 2009 PBS documentary, it seems brazen, if not blasphemous, to pose the question. [excerpt

Marketing library services to children and young people

This paper discusses the future of Schools Library Services in the North West region of England based on a research project recently undertaken by the Centre for the Public Library and Information in Society at the University of Sheffield on behalf of MLA North West. The research has revealed somewhat of an identity crisis for Schools Library Services in the region, encouraged by educational policy, changing public library service priorities and subsequent issues surrounding service perceptions, awareness and ownership. The research has revealed a desire within the sector for a more visible alignment of Schools Library Services within the empirical services to children and young people agenda. Particular opportunities exist within the literacy development remit, building upon best practice examples in the region concerning reader development projects and family learning initiatives. Recommendations include the formation of a regional professional network designed to promote a seamless library service to children from early years to young adulthood including staff training, advocacy and proactive service marketing under a strong and identifiable regional brand

Faith and the Asylum Crisis: The role of religion in responding to displacement (Policy Paper)

This briefing paper is a distillation of the main points and recommendations that arose during two two-day workshops held in Washington DC in May 2014 and Brussels in June 2014. The workshops, funded by the British Council USA Bridging Voices program, assembled scholars, policymakers and practitioners focused on issues of asylum, refuge and protection in contemporary global politics and the current and potential future roles of faith and faith actors across the US and Europe

Comparative performance of double focused and quadrupole mass spectrometers

Comparative performance analysis of double focused and quadrupole mass spectrometer

LDEF archival system plan

The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) has provided the first significant opportunity to extensively study the space environment and its effects upon spacecraft systems and materials. The long-term value of the data obtained from LDEF, which is applicable to a wide range of areas including space environment definition, space environmental effects, and spacecraft design, will depend upon the system developed to archive and retrieve the data. Therefore, in addition to the large effort undertaken to analyze LDEF data, a substantial effort is also necessary in order to retain and disseminate LDEF resources for future research and design. W. J. Schafer Associates, Inc., has a task subcontract to develop the LDEF archival system. The LDEF resources include data, hardware, photographic records, and publications which cover the 20-year history of LDEF from concept design through data analysis. Chronologically, prelaunch resources include documentation of facility and experiment development, testing integration, and operation. Post-retrieval resources are the observations, testing, analysis, and publications since the January 1990 retrieval of LDEF. A third set of resources is the experiment and facility hardware and specimens, including more than 10,000 test specimens flown on LDEF and subsequently divided and distributed among investigators at numerous laboratories. Many valuable science and technology investigations were undertaken with LDEF experiments and hardware, and many more investigations are being identified in areas not yet explored. LDEF data applications encompass primarily low-Earth orbit spacecraft and structures. The nearly six-year space exposure of LDEF has provided data to evaluate materials, systems, and living specimens exposed to radiation, meteoroids, debris, and other constituents of the low-Earth environment. Structural, mechanical, electrical, optical, and thermal systems were studied, and materials with applications in all aspects of space systems were exposed to the space environment. The objectives of the LDEF archival system are to maintain the existing LDEF hardware, data, analysis, publications, and photographs as a long term resource, and to provide a quick and simple mechanism by which LDEF resources can be identified, located, and applied

Collision frequency dependence of polarization current in neoclassical tearing modes

The neoclassical polarization current, generated when a magnetic island propagates through a tokamak plasma, is believed to influence the initial stage of the neoclassical tearing mode evolution. Understanding the strength of its contribution in the relevant plasma collision frequency regimes for future tokamaks such as ITER is crucial for the successful control and/or avoidance of the neoclassical tearing mode. A nonlinear drift kinetic theory is employed to determine the full collision frequency dependence of the neoclassical polarization current in the small island limit, comparable to the trapped ion orbit width. Focusing on the region away from the island separatrix (where a layer with a complex mix of physics processes exists), we evaluate for the first time the variation of the neoclassical ion polarization current in the transition regime between the analytically tractable collisionless and collisional limits. In addition, the island propagation frequency-dependence of the neoclassical polarization current and its contribution to the island evolution is revealed. For a range of propagation frequencies, we find that the neoclassical polarization current is a maximum in the intermediate collision frequency regime analyzed here - a new and unexpected result.Comment: Accepted by Physics of Plasmas, 18 pages, 7 figure

Party-system institutionalization and democracy: the case of Russia

Party-system institutionalization and its implications for democratic consolidation is an important sub-field in the study of political parties. The conventional view is that an institutionalized party system is better for democracy than an under-institutionalized one. This article considers the case of party-system institutionalization and democracy in Russia, and its implications for our understanding of the relationship between party-system institutionalization and democracy. The analysis finds, contrary to the expectations of the literature, that this relationship has been inverse in Russia i.e. as the party system has institutionalized democracy has declined. The Russian case shows that the link between party-system institutionalization and democracy does not necessarily hold and suggests that the conditions in which party-system institutionalization has democratizing effects need to be specified more precisely

Vacuum structure of gauge theory on lattice with two parallel plaquette action

We perform Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice gauge system with an action which contains two parallel plaquettes. The action is defined as a product of gauge group variables over two parallel plaquettes belonging to a given three-dimensional cube. The peculiar property of this system is that it has strong degeneracy of the vacuum state inherited from corresponding gonihedric $Z_2$ gauge spin system. These vacuua are well separated and can not be connected by a gauge transformation. We measure different observables in these vacuua and compare their properties.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, Late