1,843 research outputs found
The high-lying Li levels at excitation energy around 21 MeV
The H+He cluster structure in Li was investigated by the
H(,H He)n kinematically complete experiment at the incident
energy = 67.2 MeV. We have observed two resonances at =
21.30 and 21.90 MeV which are consistent with the He(H, )Li
analysis in the Ajzenberg-Selove compilation. Our data are compared with the
previous experimental data and the RGM and CSRGM calculations.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jp
Using species attributes to characterize late-glacial and early-Holocene environments at KrÄkenes, western Norway
Aim: We aim to use species attributes such as distributions and indicator values to reconstruct past biomes, environment, and temperatures from detailed plantâmacrofossil data covering the late glacial to the early Holocene (ca. 14â9 ka). Location: KrĂ„kenes, western Norway. Methods: We applied attributes for presentâday geographical distribution, optimal July and January temperatures, and Ellenberg indicator values for plants in the macrofossil dataâset. We used assemblage weighted means (AWM) to reconstruct past biomes, changes in light (L), nitrogen (N), moisture (F), and soil reaction (R), and temperatures. We compared the temperature reconstructions with previous chironomidâinferred temperatures. Results: After the start of the Holocene around 11.5 ka, the Arcticâmontane biome, which was stable during the lateâglacial period, shifted successively into the Boreoâarctic montane, Wideâboreal, Boreoâmontane, Boreoâtemperate, and Wideâtemperate biomes by ca. 9.0 ka. Circumpolar and Eurasian floristic elements characteristic of the lateâglacial decreased and the Eurosiberian element became prominent. Light demand (L), soil moisture (F), nitrogen (N), and soil reaction (R) show different, but complementary responses. Lightâdemanding plants decreased with time. Soil moisture was relatively stable until it increased during organic soil development during the early Holocene. Soil nitrogen increased during the early Holocene. Soil reaction (pH) decreased during the AllerĂžd, but increased during the Younger Dryas. It decreased markedly after the start of the Holocene, reaching low but stable levels in the early Holocene. Mean July and January temperatures show similar patterns to the chironomidâinferred mean July temperature trends at KrĂ„kenes, but chironomids show larger fluctuations and interesting differences in timing. Conclusion: Assigning attributes to macrofossil species is a useful new approach in palaeoecology. It can demonstrate changes in biomes, ecological conditions, and temperatures. The lateâglacial to earlyâHolocene transition may form an analogue for changes observed in the modern arctic and in mountains, with melting glaciers, permafrost thaw, and shrub encroachment into tundra.publishedVersio
Segmented scintillation detectors with silicon photomultiplier readout for measuring antiproton annihilations
The Atomic Spectroscopy and Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons (ASACUSA)
experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility of CERN constructed
segmented scintillators to detect and track the charged pions which emerge from
antiproton annihilations in a future superconducting radiofrequency Paul trap
for antiprotons. A system of 541 cast and extruded scintillator bars were
arranged in 11 detector modules which provided a spatial resolution of 17 mm.
Green wavelength-shifting fibers were embedded in the scintillators, and read
out by silicon photomultipliers which had a sensitive area of 1 x 1 mm^2. The
photoelectron yields of various scintillator configurations were measured using
a negative pion beam of momentum p ~ 1 GeV/c. Various fibers and silicon
photomultipliers, fiber end terminations, and couplings between the fibers and
scintillators were compared. The detectors were also tested using the
antiproton beam of the AD. Nonlinear effects due to the saturation of the
silicon photomultiplier were seen at high annihilation rates of the
antiprotons.Comment: Copyright 2014 American Institute of Physics. This article may be
downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of
the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article
appeared in Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol.85, Issue 2, 2014 and may
be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.486364
Macrofossils in Raraku Lake (Easter Island) integrated with sedimentary and geochemical records: Towards a palaeoecological synthesis for the last 34,000 years
Macrofossil analysis of a composite 19m long sediment core from Rano Raraku Lake (Easter Island) wasrelated to litho-sedimentary and geochemical features of the sediment. Strong stratigraphical patterns are shown by indirect gradient analyses of the data. The good correspondence between the stratigraphical patterns derived from macrofossil (Correspondence Analysis) and sedimentary and geochemical data (Principal Component Analysis) shows that macrofossil associations provide sound palaeolimnological information in conjunction with sedimentary data. The main taphonomic factors influencing the macrofossil assemblages are run-off from the catchment, the littoral plant belt, and the depositional environment within the basin. Five main stages during the last 34,000 calibrated years BP (calyrBP) are characterised from the lithological, geochemical, and macrofossil data. From 34 to 14.6calkyrBP (last glacial period) the sediments were largely derived from the catchment, indicating a high energy lake environment with much erosion and run-off bringing abundant plant trichomes, lichens, and mosses into the centre of Raraku Lake. During the early Holocene the infilling of the lake basin and warmer conditions favoured the growth of a littoral plant belt that obstructed terrigenous input. Cladoceran remains and Solanaceae seeds are indicative of reduced run-off and higher values of N and organic C indicate increased aquatic and catchment productivity. From 8.7 to 4.5calkyrBP a swamp occupied the entire basin. The increase of Cyperaceae seeds reflects this swamp development and, with oribatid mites and coleopteran remains, indicates a peaty environment and more anoxic conditions in Raraku. At around 4.5calkyrBP dry conditions prevented peat growth and there is a sedimentary hiatus. About 800calyrBP, peat deposition resumed. Finally, in the last few centuries, a small lake formed within the surrounding swamp. Evidence of human activity is recorded in these uppermost sediments. Ă© 2011 Elsevier Ltd.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education through the projects LAVOLTER (CGL2004-00683/BTE), GEOBILA (CGL2007-60932/BTE) and CONSOLIDER GRACCIE (CSD2007-00067) and an undergraduate grant (BES-2008-002938 to N. Cañellas-BoltĂ ).Peer Reviewe
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Bearing witness and being bounded; the experiences of nurses in adult critical care in relation to the survivorship needs of patients and families
Aim: To discern and understand the responses of nurses to the survivorship needs of patients and family members in adult critical care units.
Background: The critical care environment is a demanding place of work which may limit nurses to immediacy of care, such is the proximity to death and the pressure of work.
Design: A constructivist grounded theory approach with constant comparative analysis.
Methods: As part of a wider study and following ethical approval, eleven critical care nurses working within a general adult critical care unit were interviewed with respect to their experiences in meeting the psychosocial needs of patients and family members. Through the process of constant comparative analysis an overarching selective code was constructed. EQUATOR guidelines for qualitative research (COREQ) applied.
Results: The data illuminated a path of developing expertise permitting integration of physical, psychological and family care with technology and humanity. Gaining such proficiency is demanding and the data presented reveals the challenges that nurses experience along the way.
Conclusion: The study confirms that working within a critical care environment is an emotionally charged challenge and may incur an emotional cost. Nurses can find themselves bounded by the walls of the critical care unit and experience personal and professional conflicts in their role. Nurses bear witness to the early stages of the survivorship trajectory but are limited in their support of ongoing needs.
Relevance to Clinical Practice: Critical care nurses can experience personal and professional conflicts when caring for both patients and families. This can lead to moral distress and may contribute to compassion fatigue. Critical care nurses appear bounded to the delivery of physiological and technical care, in the moment, as demanded by the patient's acuity. Consequentially this limits nursesâ ability to support the onward survivorship trajectory. Increased pressure and demands on critical care beds has contributed further to occupational stress in this care setting
Measurement of the quenching factor of Na recoils in NaI(Tl)
Measurements of the quenching factor for sodium recoils in a 5 cm diameter
NaI(Tl) crystal at room temperature have been made at a dedicated neutron
facility at the University of Sheffield. The crystal has been exposed to 2.45
MeV mono-energetic neutrons generated by a Sodern GENIE 16 neutron generator,
yielding nuclear recoils of energies between 10 and 100 keVnr. A cylindrical
BC501A detector has been used to tag neutrons that scatter off sodium nuclei in
the crystal. Cuts on pulse shape and time of flight have been performed on
pulses recorded by an Acqiris DC265 digitiser with a 2 ns sampling time.
Measured quenching factors of Na nuclei range from 19% to 26% in good agreement
with other experiments, and a value of 25.2 \pm 6.4% has been determined for 10
keV sodium recoils. From pulse shape analysis, the mean times of pulses from
electron and nuclear recoils have been compared down to 2 keVee. The
experimental results are compared to those predicted by Lindhard theory,
simulated by the SRIM Monte Carlo code, and a preliminary curve calculated by
Prof. Akira Hitachi.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figure
Propagation of Light in Photonic Crystal Fibre Devices
We describe a semi-analytical approach for three-dimensional analysis of
photonic crystal fibre devices. The approach relies on modal transmission-line
theory. We offer two examples illustrating the utilization of this approach in
photonic crystal fibres: the verification of the coupling action in a photonic
crystal fibre coupler and the modal reflectivity in a photonic crystal fibre
distributed Bragg reflector.Comment: 15 pages including 7 figures. Accepted for J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Op
Detection of the Natural Alpha Decay of Tungsten
The natural alpha decay of 180W has been unambiguously detected for the first
time. The alpha peak is found in a (gamma,beta and neutron)-free background
spectrum. This has been achieved by the simultaneous measurement of phonon and
light signals with the CRESST cryogenic detectors. A half-life of T1/2 = (1.8
+- 0.2) x 10^18 y and an energy release of Q = (2516.4 +- 1.1 (stat.) +- 1.2
(sys.)) keV have been measured. New limits are also set on the half-lives of
the other naturally occurring tungsten isotopes.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review C Revised versio
Quantitative reconstruction of precipitation changes on the NE Tibetan Plateau since the Last Glacial Maximum – extending the concept of pollen source area to pollen-based climate reconstructions from large lakes
Pollen records from large lakes have been used for quantitative
palaeoclimate reconstruction, but the influences that lake size (as a result
of species-specific variations in pollen dispersal patterns that smaller
pollen grains are more easily transported to lake centre) and taphonomy have
on these climatic signals have not previously been systematically
investigated. We introduce the concept of pollen source area to pollen-based
climate calibration using the north-eastern Tibetan
Plateau as our study area. We present a pollen data set collected from large
lakes in the arid to semi-arid region of central Asia. The influences that
lake size and the inferred pollen source areas have on pollen compositions
have been investigated through comparisons with pollen assemblages in
neighbouring lakes of various sizes. Modern pollen samples collected from
different parts of Lake Donggi Cona (in the north-eastern part of the
Tibetan Plateau) reveal variations in pollen assemblages within this large
lake, which are interpreted in terms of the species-specific dispersal and
depositional patterns for different types of pollen, and in terms of fluvial
input components. We have estimated the pollen source area for each lake
individually and used this information to infer modern climate data with
which to then develop a modern calibration data set, using both the
multivariate regression tree (MRT) and weighted-averaging partial least
squares (WA-PLS) approaches. Fossil pollen data from Lake Donggi Cona have
been used to reconstruct the climate history of the north-eastern part of
the Tibetan Plateau since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The mean annual
precipitation was quantitatively reconstructed using WA-PLS: extremely dry
conditions are found to have dominated the LGM, with annual precipitation of
around 100 mm, which is only 32% of present-day precipitation. A
gradually increasing trend in moisture conditions during the Late Glacial is
terminated by an abrupt reversion to a dry phase that lasts for about 1000 yr
and coincides with "Heinrich event 1" in the North Atlantic
region. Subsequent periods corresponding to the BĂžlling/AllerĂžd
interstadial, with annual precipitation (<i>P</i><sub>ann</sub>) of about 350 mm, and the
Younger Dryas event (about 270 mm <i>P</i><sub>ann</sub>) are followed by moist
conditions in the early Holocene, with annual precipitation of up to 400 mm.
A drier trend after 9 cal. ka BP is followed by a second wet phase in the
middle Holocene, lasting until 4.5 cal. ka BP. Relatively steady conditions
with only slight fluctuations then dominate the late Holocene, resulting in
the present climatic conditions. The climate changes since the LGM have been
primarily driven by deglaciation and fluctuations in the intensity of the
Asian summer monsoon that resulted from changes in the Northern Hemisphere
summer solar insolation, as well as from changes in the North Atlantic
climate through variations in the circulation patterns and intensity of the
westerlies
Spatial structure of the 8200 cal yr BP event in northern Europe
A synthesis of well-dated high-resolution pollen records suggests a spatial structure in the 8200 cal yr BP event in northern Europe. The temperate, thermophilous tree taxa, especially Corylus, Ulmus, and Alnus, decline abruptly between 8300 and 8000 cal yr BP at most sites located south of 61° N, whereas there is no clear change in pollen values at the sites located in the North-European tree-line region. Pollen-based quantitative temperature reconstructions and several other, independent palaeoclimate proxies, such as lacustrine oxygen-isotope records, reflect the same pattern, with no detectable cooling in the sub-arctic region. The observed patterns challenges the general view of the wide-spread occurrence of the 8200 cal yr BP event in the North Atlantic region. An alternative explanation is that the cooling during the 8200 cal yr BP event took place mostly during the winter and spring, and the ecosystems in the south responded sensitively to the cooling during the onset of the growing season. In contrast, in the sub-arctic area, where the vegetation was still dormant and lakes ice-covered, the cold event is not reflected in pollen-based or lake-sediment-based records
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