πωρ\pi\omega\rho vertex in nuclear matter

Medium modifications of the $\pi \omega \rho$ vertex are analyzed in context of the $\omega \to \pi^0 \gamma^\ast$ and $\rho \to \pi \gamma^\ast$ decays in nuclear matter. A relativistic hadronic model with mesons, nucleons, and $\Delta(1232)$ isobars is applied. A substantial increase of the widths for the decays $\omega \to \pi^0 \gamma^\ast$ and $\rho \to \pi \gamma^\ast$ is found for photon virtualities in the range $0.3-0.6$GeV. This enhancement has a direct importance for the description of dilepton yields from dalitz decays in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 3 pages, 2 Postscript figures, uses appolb.cls (included). Presented at 7th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction, Krak\'ow, Poland, 24-28 May 200

Assessing River Ice Breakup Date, Coastal Tundra Vegetation And Climate Divisions In The Context Of Alaska Climate Variability

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012In Alaska, there exists a substantial knowledge gap of key climate drivers and filling these gaps is vital since life and the economy are inexorably linked with climate in the state. This thesis identifies and investigates three topics that advance the understanding of Alaska climate variability: the role of large-scale climate in Interior river ice breakup, the link between climate and arctic tundra vegetation, and climate divisions based on objective methods. River ice breakup in the Yukon-Kuskoswim watershed is occurring earlier by 1.3 days decade-1 1948-2008 and displays large year-to-year variability. April-May Interior Alaska air temperatures are the best predictor of river ice breakup and were linked to El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). During the warm phase of ENSO, fewer storms track into the Gulf of Alaska during Boreal Spring, resulting in reduced April-May cloudiness over Alaska, increased solar insolation at the land surface, warmer air temperatures and consequently earlier breakup. Northern Alaska tundra vegetation productivity has increased 1982-2011, based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a satellite measure of vegetation correlated with above ground biomass. Vegetation productivity was linked to the Beaufort High circulation as well as snowfall, in addition to land surface temperatures and coastal sea ice extent. NDVI has decreased from 1982-2011 over the coastal tundra along the Bering Sea and was correlated with delayed springtime warming due to enhanced coastal sea ice and a delayed snowmelt. Cluster analysis was applied to 2-meter air temperature data 1977-2010 at meteorological stations to construct climate divisions for Alaska. Stations were grouped together objectively based on similar homogeneous seasonal and annual climate variability and were refined using local expert knowledge to ultimately identify 13 divisions. Correlation analysis using gridded downscaled temperature and precipitation data validated the final division lines and documented that each division has similar a similar annual cycle in temperature and precipitation. Overall, this work documented substantial links and identified mechanisms joining the large-scale climate to that of Alaska. A better understanding of the role of large-scale climate variability in river ice breakup or tundra greening holds promise for developing seasonal and longer-term forecasts

Climate and predictability of Alaska wildfires

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2007Wildfires burn an average of 3,760km² each year in Alaska, but varies greatly from year to year. These fires, started by human and natural causes, can endanger life and property when they approach populated areas. The relationship between seasonal area burned and monthly and seasonal average mean sea level pressure, surface air temperature, total column precipitable water, 500hPa and 700hPa geopotential height, 700hPa specific humidity and 1000-500hPa layer thickness is examined. The assessment was done by examining the spring and summer seasonal composites associated with extreme high and low seasons. This showed the predominant anomalies from the climatology for seasons of both extremes. Point correlations were also made between seasonal area burned and the aforementioned climate variables for the entire Northern Hemisphere. Points of particularly high correlation with area burned were used in multiple regressions for both spring and summer, and for the preseason only to predict seasonal area burned. Results show correlations of about 0.78 for the preseason regression and 0.91 for the total period. The seasonal area burned in Alaska is intimately linked with the ongoing synoptic situation on monthly and seasonal scales before and during the fire season.1. Introduction -- 1.1. Wildfire in Alaska -- 1.2. Weather, climate and wildfires -- 1.3. Objectives -- 2. Data and methods -- 2.1. Data -- 2.1.1. Alaska area burned -- 2.1.2. Reanalysis data -- 2.2. Methods -- 2.2.1. Selection of extreme years -- 2.2.2. Composite anomalies -- 2.2.3. Selection of predictors -- 2.2.4. Multiple regression -- 2.2.5. Cross-validation and assessment -- 3. Results -- 3.1. Seasonal composite anomalies -- 3.1.1. MAM extreme high years -- 3.1.2. JJA extreme high years -- 3.1.3. MAM extreme low years -- 3.1.4. JJA extreme low years -- 3.2. Multiple regression -- 3.2.1. Spring and summer -- 3.2.2. Preseason -- 4. Discussion -- 4.1. Climatology of extreme years -- 4.2. Diagnosing and predicting area burned -- 5. Summary and conclusions -- 5.1. Extremes climatology -- 5.2. Prediction of area burned -- 5.3. Future work -- References -- Appendices

Modelling excited species and their role on kinetic pathways in the non-oxidative coupling of methane by dielectric barrier discharge

Acknowledgments We acknowledge and greatly appreciate the assistance from Dr. Mihailova from Plasma Matters B.V. in working with the software Plasimo and from Dr Marcus Campbell Bannerman from the University of Aberdeen for providing access to the computational cluster used for carrying out the simulations in this work. The work was supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) New Investigator Award, grant no. EP/R031800/1.Peer reviewedPostprin

Stability of coordination polymers in water: state of the art and towards a methodology for nonporous materials

A mini review on the study concerning water stability of coordination polymers (CPs) is presented. Next, following the procedure proposed recently by Gelfand and Shimizu (Dalton Trans 45:3668-3678, 2016) the stability of three cysteine (Cys)containing CPs is investigated. The stability of studied CPs decreases in the order: Zn(Cys)(2)>Mg(Cys)(2)>Ca(Cys)(2) H2O. For the latternever reported before, the structure is additionally determined and it is proved that water is located in the first coordination sphere. It is shown that for nonporous CPs, in contrast to the porous ones, the immersion in water at 20 degrees C is more drastic for studied solids than the harsh humid conditions (80 degrees C at 90% R.H.). Finally all materials are assigned to the hydrolytic stability groups and it is concluded that the stability of studied CPs correlates well with the standard reduction potentials. This leads to the conclusion that the application of more inert metal as a node causes larger stability of studied CPs

Numerical simulations of stellar SiO maser variability. Investigation of the effect of shocks

A stellar hydrodynamic pulsation model has been combined with a SiO maser model in an attempt to calculate the temporal variability of SiO maser emission in the circumstellar envelope (CE) of a model AGB star. This study investigates whether the variations in local physical conditions brought about by shocks are the predominant contributing factor to SiO maser variability because, in this work, the radiative part of the pump is constant. We find that some aspects of the variability are not consistent with a pump provided by shock-enhanced collisions alone. In these simulations, gas parcels of relatively enhanced SiO abundance are distributed in a model CE by a Monte Carlo method, at a single epoch of the stellar cycle. From this epoch on, Lagrangian motions of individual parcels are calculated according to the velocity fields encountered in the model CE during the stellar pulsation cycle. The potentially masing gas parcels therefore experience different densities and temperatures, and have varying line-of-sight velocity gradients throughout the stellar cycle, which may or may not be suitable to produce maser emission. At each epoch (separated by 16.6 days), emission lines from the parcels are combined to produce synthetic spectra and VLBI-type images. We report here the results for v=1, J=1-0 (43-GHz) and J=2-1 (86-GHz) masers.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&

The first NINDS/NIBIB consensus meeting to define neuropathological criteria for the diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegeneration characterized by the abnormal accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein within the brain. Like many other neurodegenerative conditions, at present, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed by post-mortem examination of brain tissue. As the first part of a series of consensus panels funded by the NINDS/NIBIB to define the neuropathological criteria for CTE, preliminary neuropathological criteria were used by 7 neuropathologists to blindly evaluate 25 cases of various tauopathies, including CTE, Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, argyrophilic grain disease, corticobasal degeneration, primary age-related tauopathy, and parkinsonism dementia complex of Guam. The results demonstrated that there was good agreement among the neuropathologists who reviewed the cases (Cohen's kappa, 0.67) and even better agreement between reviewers and the diagnosis of CTE (Cohen's kappa, 0.78). Based on these results, the panel defined the pathognomonic lesion of CTE as an accumulation of abnormal hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) in neurons and astroglia distributed around small blood vessels at the depths of cortical sulci and in an irregular pattern. The group also defined supportive but non-specific p-tau-immunoreactive features of CTE as: pretangles and NFTs affecting superficial layers (layers II-III) of cerebral cortex; pretangles, NFTs or extracellular tangles in CA2 and pretangles and proximal dendritic swellings in CA4 of the hippocampus; neuronal and astrocytic aggregates in subcortical nuclei; thorn-shaped astrocytes at the glial limitans of the subpial and periventricular regions; and large grain-like and dot-like structures. Supportive non-p-tau pathologies include TDP-43 immunoreactive neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions and dot-like structures in the hippocampus, anteromedial temporal cortex and amygdala. The panel also recommended a minimum blocking and staining scheme for pathological evaluation and made recommendations for future study. This study provides the first step towards the development of validated neuropathological criteria for CTE and will pave the way towards future clinical and mechanistic studies

Toward a simulation approach for alkene ring-closing metathesis : scope and limitations of a model for RCM

A published model for revealing solvent effects on the ring-closing metathesis (RCM) reaction of di-Et diallylmalonate 7 has been evaluated over a wider range of conditions, to assess its suitability for new applications. Unfortunately, the model is too flexible and the published rate consts. do not agree with exptl. studies in the literature. However, by fixing the values of important rate consts. and restricting the concn. ranges studied, useful conclusions can be drawn about the relative rates of RCM of different substrates, precatalyst concn. can be simulated accurately and the effect of precatalyst loading can be anticipated. Progress has also been made toward applying the model to precatalyst evaluation, but further modifications to the model are necessary to achieve much broader aims