1,898 research outputs found
Solomon Islands: Malaita Hub scoping report
The CGIAR Research Program (CRP) Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) will target five countries, including Solomon Islands. The proposed hubs for Solomon Islands were to cover most provinces, referencing the Western, Central and Eastern regions. Scoping of the initial ‘Central’ hub was undertaken in Guadalcanal, Malaita and Central Islands provinces and this report details findings from all three. As scoping progressed however, it was agreed that, based on the AAS context and priority needs of each province and the Program’s capacity for full implementation, the Central Hub would be restricted to Malaita Province only and renamed “Malaita Hub”. Consistent in each AAS country, there are four steps in the program rollout: planning, scoping, diagnosis and design. Rollout of the Program in Solomon Islands began with a five month planning phase between August and December 2011, and scoping of the first hub began in January 2012. This report, the second to be produced during rollout, describes the findings from the scoping process between January and June 2012. This report marks the transition from the scoping phase to the diagnosis phase in which output from scoping was used to develop a hub level theory of change for identifying research opportunities. Subsequent reports detail in-depth analyses of gender, governance, nutrition and partner activities and discuss Program engagement with community members to identify grass-roots demand for research
Tree root distribution modelling in different environmental conditions
The ability to predict the spatial distribution of tree root system variables (e.g., the Root system Area (RA), the maximum root diameter, the number of roots in diameter classes, the density of fine roots, etc.) under different environmental conditions is relevant to several scientific disciplines and to engineering practice. In this work, three well known analytical models from the literature are assembled into a unique framework called the Root Distribution Model (RDM). RDM models the expected vertical and horizontal distribution of coarse and fine root system variables for mature plants growing in different environmental conditions ranging from moderately humid to arid climates. All soil and moisture dynamic parameters are physically based, which make the model straightforward to calibrate via a single tuning parameter. At this investigative stage, it is shown that the model has the flexibility to represent a broad range of situations where soil moisture may result from precipitation inputs or from water level fluctuations due to either the presence of a water course or of deep aquifers or both. Accordingly, the distribution of the sectional RA may be either positively or negatively skewed, as well as show a peculiar bi-modal structure. The model can be used to study the impact of changing scenarios affecting precipitation, aquifer and channel hydrology
Symmetry-protected phases for measurement-based quantum computation
Ground states of spin lattices can serve as a resource for measurement-based
quantum computation. Ideally, the ability to perform quantum gates via
measurements on such states would be insensitive to small variations in the
Hamiltonian. Here, we describe a class of symmetry-protected topological orders
in one-dimensional systems, any one of which ensures the perfect operation of
the identity gate. As a result, measurement-based quantum gates can be a robust
property of an entire phase in a quantum spin lattice, when protected by an
appropriate symmetry.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, comments welcome; v2 fixed minor typographic
errors; v3 published versio
Direct reconstruction of the quintessence potential
We describe an algorithm which directly determines the quintessence potential
from observational data, without using an equation of state parametrisation.
The strategy is to numerically determine observational quantities as a function
of the expansion coefficients of the quintessence potential, which are then
constrained using a likelihood approach. We further impose a model selection
criterion, the Bayesian Information Criterion, to determine the appropriate
level of the potential expansion. In addition to the potential parameters, the
present-day quintessence field velocity is kept as a free parameter. Our
investigation contains unusual model types, including a scalar field moving on
a flat potential, or in an uphill direction, and is general enough to permit
oscillating quintessence field models. We apply our method to the `gold' Type
Ia supernovae sample of Riess et al. (2004), confirming the pure cosmological
constant model as the best description of current supernovae
luminosity-redshift data. Our method is optimal for extracting quintessence
parameters from future data.Comment: 9 pages RevTeX4 with lots of incorporated figure
Elemental Abundances in the Ejecta of Old Classical Novae from Late-Epoch Spitzer Spectra
We present Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared IRS spectra, supplemented by
ground-based optical observations, of the classical novae V1974 Cyg, V382 Vel,
and V1494 Aql more than 11, 8, and 4 years after outburst respectively. The
spectra are dominated by forbidden emission from neon and oxygen, though in
some cases, there are weak signatures of magnesium, sulfur, and argon. We
investigate the geometry and distribution of the late time ejecta by
examination of the emission line profiles. Using nebular analysis in the low
density regime, we estimate lower limits on the abundances in these novae. In
V1974 Cyg and V382 Vel, our observations confirm the abundance estimates
presented by other authors and support the claims that these eruptions occurred
on ONe white dwarfs. We report the first detection of neon emission in V1494
Aql and show that the system most likely contains a CO white dwarf.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
Gas Dynamics in the LINER Galaxy NGC 5005: Episodic Fueling of a Nuclear Disk
We report high-resolution CO(1-0) observations in the central 6 kpc of the
LINER galaxy NGC 5005 with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory millimeter array.
Molecular gas is distributed in three components - a ring at a radius of about
3 kpc, a strong central condensation, and a stream to the northwest of the
nucleus but inside the 3 kpc ring. The central condensation is a disk of about
1 kpc radius with a molecular gas mass of 2 x 10^9 M_sun. The stream between
the 3 kpc ring and the nuclear disk lies on a straight dust lane seen in the
optical. If this material moves in the plane of the galaxy, it has a velocity
offset by up to ~ 150 km/s from galactic rotation. We suggest that an optically
inconspicuous stellar bar lying within the 3 kpc ring can explain the observed
gas dynamics. This bar is expected to connect the nuclear disk and the ring
along the position angle of the northwest stream. A position-velocity cut in
this direction reveals features which match the characteristic motions of gas
in a barred potential. Our model indicates that gas in the northwest stream is
on an x_1 orbit at the bar's leading edge; it is falling into the nucleus with
a large noncircular velocity, and will eventually contribute about 2 x 10^8
M_sun to the nuclear disk. If most of this material merges with the disk on its
first passage of pericenter, the gas accretion rate during the collision will
be 50 M_sun/yr. We associate the nuclear disk with an inner 2:1 Lindblad
resonance, and the 3 kpc ring with an inner 4:1 Lindblad resonance. The high
rate of bar-driven inflow and the irregular appearance of the northwest stream
suggest that a major fueling event is in progress in NGC 5005. Such episodic
(rather than continuous) gas supply can regulate the triggering of starburst
and accretion activity in galactic nuclei. (abridged)Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, AASTeX, ApJ in press (Feb. 10, 2000). For
full-resolution figures, see
http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/mm/science/science.htm
Exploiting simultaneous observational constraints on mass and absorption to estimate the global direct radiative forcing of black carbon and brown carbon
Atmospheric black carbon (BC) is a leading climate warming agent, yet uncertainties on the global direct radiative forcing (DRF) remain large. Here we expand a global model simulation (GEOS-Chem) of BC to include the absorption enhancement associated with BC coating and separately treat both the aging and physical properties of fossil-fuel and biomass-burning BC. In addition we develop a global simulation of brown carbon (BrC) from both secondary (aromatic) and primary (biomass burning and biofuel) sources. The global mean lifetime of BC in this simulation (4.4 days) is substantially lower compared to the AeroCom I model means (7.3 days), and as a result, this model captures both the mass concentrations measured in near-source airborne field campaigns (ARCTAS, EUCAARI) and surface sites within 30%, and in remote regions (HIPPO) within a factor of 2. We show that the new BC optical properties together with the inclusion of BrC reduces the model bias in absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD) at multiple wavelengths by more than 50% at AERONET sites worldwide. However our improved model still underestimates AAOD by a factor of 1.4 to 2.8 regionally, with the largest underestimates in regions influenced by fire. Using the RRTMG model integrated with GEOS-Chem we estimate that the all-sky top-of-atmosphere DRF of BC is +0.13 Wm[superscript −2] (0.08 Wm[superscript −2] from anthropogenic sources and 0.05 Wm[superscript −2] from biomass burning). If we scale our model to match AERONET AAOD observations we estimate the DRF of BC is +0.21 Wm[superscript −2], with an additional +0.11 Wm[superscript −2] of warming from BrC. Uncertainties in size, optical properties, observations, and emissions suggest an overall uncertainty in BC DRF of −80%/+140%. Our estimates are at the lower end of the 0.2–1.0 Wm[superscript −2] range from previous studies, and substantially less than the +0.6 Wm[superscript −2] DRF estimated in the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. We suggest that the DRF of BC has previously been overestimated due to the overestimation of the BC lifetime (including the effect on the vertical profile) and the incorrect attribution of BrC absorption to BC.United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Office of Research and Development National Center for Environmental Research Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program (Grant RD-83503301
Reducing - duality to - duality
The infrared limit of Yang-Mills theory with compact gauge group
compactified on a two-torus is governed by an effective superconformal
field theory. We conjecture that this is a certain orbifold involving the
maximal torus of . Yang-Mills -duality makes predictions for all
correlators of this effective conformal field theory. These predictions are
shown to be implied by the standard -duality of the conformal field theory.
Consequently, Montonen-Olive duality between electric and magnetic states
reduces to the standard two-dimensional duality between momentum and winding
states.Comment: 13 pages, harvmac, no figures. (Some Comments added. Some references
added.
Intravital FRAP imaging using an E-cadherin-GFP mouse reveals disease- and drug-dependent dynamic regulation of cell-cell junctions in live tissue
E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell junctions play a prominent role in maintaining the epithelial architecture. The disruption or deregulation of these adhesions in cancer can lead to the collapse of tumor epithelia that precedes invasion and subsequent metastasis. Here we generated an E-cadherin-GFP mouse that enables intravital photobleaching and
quantification of E-cadherin mobility in live tissue without affecting normal biology. We demonstrate the broad applications of this mouse by examining
E-cadherin regulation in multiple tissues, including mammary, brain, liver, and kidney tissue, while specifically monitoring E-cadherin mobility during
disease progression in the pancreas. We assess E-cadherin stability in native pancreatic tissue upon genetic manipulation involving Kras and p53
or in response to anti-invasive drug treatment and gain insights into the dynamic remodeling of E-cadherin during in situ cancer progression. FRAP in the E-cadherin-GFP mouse, therefore, promises to be a valuable tool to fundamentally expand our understanding of E-cadherin-mediated events in native microenvironments
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