Experimental study of spectral and spatial distribution of solar X-rays

The study of the physical conditions within the solar corona and the development of instrumentation and technical expertise necessary for advanced studies of solar X-ray emission are reported. Details are given on the Aerobee-borne-X-ray spectrometer/monochromator and also on the observing program. Preliminary discussions of some results are presented and include studies of helium-like line emission, mapping O(VII) and Ne(IX) lines, survey of O(VII) and Ne(IX) lines, study of plage regions and small flares, and analysis of line emission from individual active regions. It is concluded that the use of large-area collimated Bragg spectrometers to scan narrow wavelength intervals and the capability of the SPARCS pointing control to execute a complex observing program are established

Protocol for a national monthly survey of alcohol use in England with 6-month follow-up: 'The Alcohol Toolkit Study'.

Timely tracking of national patterns of alcohol consumption is needed to inform and evaluate strategies and policies aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm. Between 2014 until at least 2017, the Alcohol Toolkit Study (ATS) will provide such tracking data and link these with policy changes and campaigns. By virtue of its connection with the 'Smoking Toolkit Study' (STS), links will also be examined between alcohol and smoking-related behaviour

Serum fibroblast growth factor 23, serum iron and bone mineral density in premenopausal women

Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) circulates as active protein and inactive fragments. Low iron status increases FGF23 gene expression, and iron deficiency is common. We hypothesized that in healthy premenopausal women, serum iron influences C-terminal and intact FGF23 concentrations, and that iron and FGF23 associate with bone mineral density (BMD). Serum iron, iron binding capacity, percent iron saturation, phosphorus, and other biochemistries were measured in stored fasting samples from healthy premenopausal white (n=1898) and black women (n=994), age 20-55years. Serum C-terminal and intact FGF23 were measured in a subset (1631 white and 296 black women). BMD was measured at the lumbar spine and femur neck. Serum phosphorus, calcium, alkaline phosphatase and creatinine were lower in white women than black women (p<0.001). Serum iron (p<0.0001) and intact FGF23 (p<0.01) were higher in white women. C-terminal FGF23 did not differ between races. Phosphorus correlated with intact FGF23 (white women, r=0.120, p<0.0001; black women r=0.163, p<0.01). However, phosphorus correlated with C-terminal FGF23 only in black women (r=0.157, p<0.01). Intact FGF23 did not correlate with iron. C-terminal FGF23 correlated inversely with iron (white women r=-0.134, p<0.0001; black women r=-0.188, p<0.01), having a steeper slope at iron <50mcg/dl than ≥50mcg/dl. Longitudinal changes in iron predicted changes in C-terminal FGF23. Spine BMD correlated with iron negatively (r=-0.076, p<0.01) in white women; femur neck BMD correlated with iron negatively (r=-0.119, p<0.0001) in black women. Both relationships were eliminated in weight-adjusted models. BMD did not correlate with FGF23. Serum iron did not relate to intact FGF23, but was inversely related to C-terminal FGF23. Intact FGF23 correlated with serum phosphorus. In weight-adjusted models, BMD was not related to intact FGF23, C-terminal FGF23 or iron. The influence of iron on FGF23 gene expression is not important in determining bone density in healthy premenopausal women

Exploring the Structure of Distant Galaxies with Adaptive Optics on the Keck-II Telescope

We report on the first observation of cosmologically distant field galaxies with an high order Adaptive Optics (AO) system on an 8-10 meter class telescope. Two galaxies were observed at 1.6 microns at an angular resolution as high as 50 milliarcsec using the AO system on the Keck-II telescope. Radial profiles of both objects are consistent with those of local spiral galaxies and are decomposed into a classic exponential disk and a central bulge. A star-forming cluster or companion galaxy as well as a compact core are detected in one of the galaxies at a redshift of 0.37+/-0.05. We discuss possible explanations for the core including a small bulge, a nuclear starburst, or an active nucleus. The same galaxy shows a peak disk surface brightness that is brighter than local disks of comparable size. These observations demonstrate the power of AO to reveal details of the morphology of distant faint galaxies and to explore galaxy evolution.Comment: 5 pages, Latex, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in P.A.S.

Energy Conservation Constraints on Multiplicity Correlations in QCD Jets

We compute analytically the effects of energy conservation on the self-similar structure of parton correlations in QCD jets. The calculations are performed both in the constant and running coupling cases. It is shown that the corrections are phenomenologically sizeable. On a theoretical ground, energy conservation constraints preserve the scaling properties of correlations in QCD jets beyond the leading log approximation.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 5 figures, .tar.gz version avaliable on ftp://www.inln.unice.fr

Generalised Factorial Moments and QCD Jets

{ In this paper we present a natural and comprehensive generalisation of the standard factorial moments (\clFq) analysis of a multiplicity distribution. The Generalised Factorial Moments are defined for all $q$ in the complex plane and, as far as the negative part of its spectrum is concerned, could be useful for the study of infrared structure of the Strong Interactions Theory of high energy interactions (LEP multiplicity distribution under the ${\cal Z}_0$). The QCD calculation of the Generalised Factorial Moments for negative $q$ is performed in the double leading log accuracy and is compared to OPAL experimental data. The role played by the infrared cut-off of the model is discussed and illustrated with a Monte Carlo calculation. }Comment: 11pages 4 figures uuencode, LATEC, INLN 94/

Cassini ISS mutual event astrometry of the mid-sized Saturnian satellites 2005-2012

Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics, © ES

Higgs Search : Present and Future

In this talk I review theoretical bounds on mass of the Higgs scalar in the Standard Model(SM) and then summarise current experimental limits from the LEP experiments. Following this I discuss the search strategies for the SM Higgs at LEP 200 and the TeV energy \eplem\ colliders which are under discussion. This will be followed by a summary of the Higgs search potential of the pp supercolliders such as SSC/LHC. I then close with a brief discussion of a `Dark Higgs' whose dominant decay modes are into invisible channels.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, available on request. Latex, needs equation.sty, added at the end of manuscript. BU-TH-93/

Pion and Kaon Production in e+e−e^+e^- and epep Collisions at Next-to-Leading Order

We present new sets of fragmentation functions for charged pions and kaons, both at leading and next-to-leading order. They are fitted to data on inclusive charged-hadron production in $e^+e^-$ annihilation taken by TPC at PEP ($\sqrt s=29$~GeV) and to similar data by ALEPH at LEP, who discriminated between events with charm, bottom, and light- flavour fragmentation in their charged-hadron sample. We treat all partons independently and to properly incorporate the charm and bottom thresholds. Due to the sizeable energy gap between PEP and LEP, we are sensitive to the scaling violation in the fragmentation process, which allows us to extract a value for the asymptotic scale parameter of QCD, $\Lambda$. Recent data on inclusive charged-hadron production in tagged three-jet events by OPAL and similar data for longitudinal electron polarization by ALEPH allow us to pin down the gluon fragmentation functions. Our new fragmentation functions lead to an excellent description of a multitude of other $e^+e^-$ data on inclusive charged-hadron production, ranging from $\sqrt s=5.2$~GeV to LEP energy. In addition, they agree nicely with the transverse-momentum spectra of single charged hadrons measured by H1 and ZEUS in photoproduction at the $ep$ collider HERA, which represents a nontrivial check of the factorization theorem of the QCD-improved parton model.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 13 compressed ps figures in separate fil