Ocean Chlorophyll Studies from a U-2 Aircraft Platform

Chlorophyll gradient maps of large ocean areas were generated from U-2 ocean color scanner data obtained over test sites in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The delineation of oceanic features using the upward radiant intensity relies on an analysis method which presupposes that radiation backscattered from the atmosphere and ocean surface can be properly modeled using a measurement made at 778 nm. An estimation of the chlorophyll concentration was performed by properly ratioing radiances measured at 472 nm and 548 nm after removing the atmospheric effects. The correlation between the remotely sensed data and in-situ surface chlorophyll measurements was validated in two sets of data. The results show that the correlation between the in-situ measured chlorophyll and the derived quantity is a negative exponential function and the correlation coefficient was calculated to be -0.965

Diagnostic Laparoscopy and Adhesiolysis: Does It Help with Complex Abdominal and Pelvic Pain Syndrome (CAPPS) in General Surgery?

This study was conducted to determine if lysis of bowel adhesions has a role in the surgical management of adhesions for treating complex abdominal and pelvic pain syndrome

Levodopa/carbidopa/entacapone 200/50/200 mg (Stalevo® 200) in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease: a case series

Levodopa continues to be the most efficacious and widely used treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Levodopa dosing is understood to be critical for the optimal control of symptoms, and increasing the levodopa dose is a common method to treat advancing disease. Escalating levodopa dosages coupled with disease progression is associated with increasing likelihood of developing levodopa-induced dyskinesia. Moreover, frequent and complicated dosing schemes, combined with limited dose availability, leads to increasing pill burden and its associated impairment of patient adherence issues. Levodopa/carbidopa/entacapone has been shown to improve the pharmacokinetic profile of levodopa and provide superior symptomatic control compared with conventional levodopa/dopa decarboxylase inhibitor therapy. We report four case histories describing clinical experience of using levodopa/carbidopa/entacapone 200/50/200 mg, one of the latest doses of this formulation, in a range of patients with Parkinson’s disease. These cases illustrate that levodopa/carbidopa/entacapone 200/50/200 mg provides improvements in symptomatic control and convenience, and that switching to this dose was not associated with safety concerns

Phases saturation control on mixing driven reactions in 3D porous media

Transported chemical reactions in unsaturated porous media are relevant across a range of environmental and industrial applications. Continuum scale dispersive models are often based on equivalent parameters derived from analogy with saturated conditions, and cannot appropriately account for processes such as incomplete mixing. It is also unclear how the third dimension controls mixing and reactions in unsaturated conditions. We obtain 3$D$ experimental images of the phases distribution and of transported chemical reaction by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) using an immiscible non-wetting liquid as a second phase and a fast irreversible bimolecular reaction. Keeping the P\'eclet number (Pe) constant, we study the impact of phases saturation on the dynamics of mixing and the reaction front. By measuring the local concentration of the reaction product, we quantify temporally resolved effective reaction rate ($R$). We describe the temporal evolution of $R$ using the lamellar theory of mixing, which explains faster than Fickian ($t^{0.5}$) rate of product formation by accounting for the deformation of mixing interface between the two reacting fluids. For a given Pe, although stretching and folding of the reactive front are enhanced as saturation decreases, enhancing the product formation, this is larger as saturation increases, i.e., volume controlled. After breakthrough, the extinction of the reaction takes longer as saturation decreases because of the larger non-mixed volume behind the front. These results are the basis for a general model to better predict reactive transport in unsaturated porous media not achievable by the current continuum paradigm

Divergences in Kaluza-Klein Models and their String Regularization

Effective field theories with (large) extra dimensions are studied within a physical regularization scheme provided by string theory. Explicit string calculations then allow us to consistently analyze the ultraviolet sensitivity of Kaluza--Klein theories in the presence or absence of low energy supersymmetry.Comment: 50 pages, LaTe

The measurement of the winds near the ocean surface with a radiometer-scatterometer on Skylab

The author has identified the following significant results. There were a total of twenty-six passes in the ZLV mode that yielded useful data. Six were in the in-track noncontiguous mode; all others were in the cross-track noncontiguous mode. The wind speed and direction, as effectively determined in a neutral atmosphere at 19.5 m above the sea surface, were found for each cell scanned by S193. It is shown how the passive microwave measurements were used both to compute the attenuation of the radar beam and to determine those cells where the backscatter measurement was suspect. Given the direction of the wind from some independent source, with the typical accuracy of measurement by available meteorological methods, a backscatter measurement at a nadir angle of 50, 43, or 32 deg can be used to compute the speed of the wind averaged over the illuminated area

Stability of the Higgs mass in theories with extra dimensions

We analyze the ultraviolet stability of the Higgs mass in recently proposed Kaluza-Klein models compactified on S_1/Z_2 or S_1/(Z_2\times Z_2'), both at the field theory and string theory level. Fayet-Iliopoulos terms of U(1) hypercharge are shown to be of vital importance for this discussion. Models with a single Higgs doublet seem to be generically affected by quadratic divergences.Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of Durham IPPP meeting May 2001.(12 pages, LaTeX

Hadronic Density of States from String Theory

Exactly soluble string theories describing a particular hadronic sector of certain confining gauge theories have been obtained recently as Penrose-Gueven limits of the dual supergravity backgrounds. The effect of taking the Penrose-Gueven limit on the gravity side translates, in the gauge theory side, into an effective truncation to hadrons of large U(1) charge (annulons). We present an exact calculation of the finite temperature partition function for the hadronic states corresponding to a Penrose-Gueven limit of the Maldacena-Nunez embedding of N=1 SYM into string theory. It is established that the theory exhibits a Hagedorn density of states. Motivated by this exact calculation we propose a semiclassical string approximation to the finite temperature partition function for confining gauge theories admitting a supergravity dual, by performing an expansion around classical solutions characterized by temporal windings. This semiclassical approximation reveals a hadronic energy density of states of Hagedorn type, with the coefficient determined by the gauge theory string tension as expected for confining theories. We argue that our proposal captures primarily information about states of pure N=1 SYM, given that this semiclassical approximation does not entail a projection onto states of large U(1) charge.Comment: 15 page