High-Entropy Polar Regions Around the First Protostars

We report on simulations of the formation of the first stars in the Universe, where we identify regions of hot atomic gas (fH2 < 10-6) at densities above 10-14 g/cc, heated to temperatures ranging between 3000 and 8000 K. Within this temperature range atomic hydrogen is unable to cool effectively. We describe the kinetic and thermal characteristics of these regions and investigate their origin. We find that these regions, while small in total mass fraction of the cloud, may be dynamically important over the accretion timescale for the central clump in the cloud, particularly as a chemical, rather than radiative, mechanism for clearing the polar regions of the accretion disk of material and terminating accretion along these directions. These inherently three-dimensional effects stress the need for multi-dimensional calculations of protostellar accretion for reliable predictions of the masses of the very first stars.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

“It’s Been a Hard Day’s Night” for Songwriters: Why the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees Must Undergo Reform

In order to guarantee reasonable fees for songwriters, composers, and publishers, the consent decrees must undergo critical reform to account for how music is licensed in new media. Part I of this Note will provide background on the mechanics of music licensing, both traditional and through modern mediums, in order to explain why the two largest PROs initially entered into governmental consent decrees. Part II will discuss recent judicial determinations of “reasonable” licensing rates for public performances in new media and demonstrate the discrepancy in compensation between songwriters and their sound recording counterparts, namely record companies and recording artists. Finally, Part III will argue that the solution to this problem is through consent decree reform. The decrees should be modified to allow songwriters to withdraw their digital rights in order to separately license songs in new media. A new PRO should then emerge in the market place to account solely for public performance rights in new media, leaving traditional licensing to the existing PROs. Additionally, the current judicial process for setting rates, known as the “rate court” system, should be replaced with expedited, binding arbitration. Making these important changes to the music-licensing system will work towards bridging the gap in compensation inequality between songwriters and recording artists

Fabrication of controlled-porosity metals Patent

Production method for manufacturing porous tungsten bodies from tungsten powder particle

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Linking participatory poverty assessments to policy and policymaking - experience from Vietnam

The year 1999 was important for poverty-related research, and policy development in Vietnam. The General Statistics Office had collected household data in the second Vietnam Living Standards Survey in 1998, and made it available for analysis in 1999. And four participatory poverty assessments (PPAs) were implemented during 1999. The author's case study describes how government agencies, donors, and nongovernmental organizations collaborated in implementing the PPAs. The considerable amount of qualitative information about poverty produced in Vietnam over the past eight to ten years has rarely grabbed the attention of policymakers, who tend to view such information as"unscientific"and lacking in credibility. By contrast, the PPAs implemented in 1999 have been widely circulated, used, and quoted. What was different about those PPAs that led their findings to be brought into local, and national policy debates, as previous findings had not been? Working partnerships among donors, and nongovernmental organizations were important, and helped build consensus on the research findings, but more crucial was the active engagement of government partners from the very early stages. Establishing a Poverty Working Group provided a structure for implementing the PPAs, for feeding analysis through to the poverty assessment, and for keeping government fully involved. The Poverty Working Group now supports the government in drafting its poverty reduction strategy. Strong World Bank leadership, financial support from the U.K. Department for International Development, the technical expertise, and commitment of the PPA partners agencies, and the availability of recent high-quality household survey data, played an important part in ensuring the PPAs'credibility.Poverty Assessment,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,ICT Policy and Strategies,Poverty Reduction Strategies

Prediction of subsidence due to underground mining by artificial neural networks

Alternatively to empirical prediction methods, methods based on influential functions and on mechanical model, artificial neural networks (ANNs) can be used for the surface subsidence prediction. In our case, the multi-layer feed-forward neural network was used. The training and testing of neural network is based on the available data. Input variables represent extraction parameters and coordinates of the points of interest, while the output variable represents surface subsidence data. After the neural network has been successfully trained, its performance is tested on a separate testing set. Finally, the surface subsidence trough above the projected excavation is predicted by the trained neural network. The applicability of ANN for the prediction of surface subsidence was verified in different subsidence models and proved on actual excavated levels and in levelled data on surface profile points in the Velenje Coal Mine. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Collins Effect from Polarized SIDIS and e+e−e^+e^- Data

The recent data on the transverse single spin asymmetry $A_{UT}^{\sin(\phi_h+\phi_S)}$ from HERMES and COMPASS Collaborations are analysed within LO parton model with unintegrated parton distribution and fragmentation functions. A fit of SIDIS data from HERMES Collaboration is performed leading to the extraction of favoured and unfavoured Collins fragmentation functions. A very good description of COMPASS data is obtained. BELLE $e^+e^-$ data are shown to be compatible with our estimates based on the extracted Collins fragmentation functions. Predictions for $A_{UT}^{\sin(\phi_h+\phi_S)}$ asymmetries at JLab and COMPASS operating on a proton target are given.Comment: Talk presented at SPIN2006, 4 pages, 6 figure