853 research outputs found
What are the costs and benefits of using aerial photography to survey habitats in 1km squares?
Undertaking a field survey, such as the Countryside Survey (Carey et al., 2008) or the Welsh Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) (Emmett and GMEP team, 2014), is a relatively expensive and time consuming way of collecting habitat data in comparison with remotely sensed techniques. In order to assess the information gained from a field survey in relation to the information that can be gained from aerial photography, a short project has been undertaken with the following objectives:
âą To measure the time taken to survey a 1km square using aerial photography (for a range of different and UK representative landscape types)
âą To measure the accuracy and level of detail of data derived using this method relative to data collected using field survey
âą To provide an idea of time costs associated with each of the methods
âą To determine the extent to which Priority Habitats can be assessed using remotely sensed methods in addition to Broad Habitats
Experimental determination of the 6s^2 ^1S_0 -> 5d6s ^3 D_1 magnetic-dipole transition amplitude in atomic ytterbium
We report on a measurement of the highly forbidden 6s^2 ^1S_0 \to 5d6s ^3
D_1 magnetic-dipole transition in atomic ytterbium using the
Stark-interference technique. This amplitude is important in interpreting a
future parity nonconservation experiment that exploits the same transition. We
find , where the larger uncertainty comes from the previously
measured vector transition polarizability . The amplitude is small
and should not limit the precision of the parity nonconservation experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures Paper resubmitted with minor corrections and
additions based on comments from referee
Parity Violation in Astrophysics
Core collapse supernovae are gigantic explosions of massive stars that
radiate 99% of their energy in neutrinos. This provides a unique opportunity
for large scale parity or charge conjugation violation. Parity violation in a
strong magnetic field could lead to an asymmetry in the neutrino radiation and
recoil of the newly formed neutron star. Charge conjugation violation in the
neutrino-nucleon interaction reduces the ratio of neutrons to protons in the
neutrino driven wind above the neutron star. This is a problem for r-process
nucleosynthesis in this wind. On earth, parity violation is an excellent probe
of neutrons because the weak charge of a neutron is much larger than that of a
proton. The Parity Radius Experiment (PREX) at Jefferson Laboratory aims to
precisely measure the neutron radius of Pb with parity violating
elastic electron scattering. This has many implications for astrophysics,
including the structure of neutron stars, and for atomic parity nonconservation
experiments.}Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of PAVI04 conference in Grenoble,
Franc
The weak strangeness production reaction in a one-boson-exchange model
The weak production of Lambdas in nucleon-nucleon scattering is studied in a
meson-exchange framework. The weak transition operator for the reaction is identical to a previously developed weak
strangeness-changing transition potential that describes the
nonmesonic decay of hypernuclei. The initial and final state
interaction has been included by using realistic baryon-baryon forces that
describe the available elastic scattering data. The total and differential
cross sections as well as the parity-violating asymmetry are studied for the
reaction . These observables are found to be sensitive to the
choice of the strong interaction potential and the structure of the weak
transition potential.Comment: 25 pages, 8 postscript figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Epidemiology of MethicillinâResistant \u3cem\u3eStaphylococcus aureus\u3c/em\u3e Bacteremia in Gaborone, Botswana
This crossâsectional study at a tertiaryâcare hospital in Botswana from 2000 to 2007 was performed to determine the epidemiologic characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. We identified a high prevalence (11.2% of bacteremia cases) of methicillinâresistant S. aureus (MRSA) bacteremia. MRSA isolates had higher proportions of resistance to commonly used antimicrobials than did methicillinâsusceptible isolates, emphasizing the need to revise empiric prescribing practices in Botswana
Low maternal vitamin B12 status is associated with lower cord blood HDL cholesterol in white Caucasians living in the UK
Background and Aims:
Studies in South Asian population show that low maternal vitamin B12 associates with insulin resistance and small for gestational age in the offspring. Low vitamin B12 status is attributed to vegetarianism in these populations. It is not known whether low B12 status is associated with metabolic risk of the offspring in whites, where the childhood metabolic disorders are increasing rapidly. Here, we studied whether maternal B12 levels associate with metabolic risk of the offspring at birth.
Methods:
This is a cross-sectional study of 91 mother-infant pairs (n = 182), of white Caucasian origin living in the UK. Blood samples were collected from white pregnant women at delivery and their newborns (cord blood). Serum vitamin B12, folate, homocysteine as well as the relevant metabolic risk factors were measured.
Results:
The prevalence of low serum vitamin B12 (<191 ng/L) and folate (<4.6 ÎŒg/L) were 40% and 11%, respectively. Maternal B12 was inversely associated with offspringâs Homeostasis Model Assessment 2-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), triglycerides, homocysteine and positively with HDL-cholesterol after adjusting for age and BMI. In regression analysis, after adjusting for likely confounders, maternal B12 is independently associated with neonatal HDL-cholesterol and homocysteine but not triglycerides or HOMA-IR.
Conclusions:
Our study shows that low B12 status is common in white women and is independently associated with adverse cord blood cholesterol
Calculation of nuclear spin-dependent parity-nonconserving amplitude for (7s,F=4) --> (7s,F=5) transition in Fr
Many-body calculation of nuclear spin-dependent parity-nonconserving
amplitude for (7s,F=4) --> (7s,F=5) transition between hyperfine sublevels of
the ground state of Fr is carried out. The final result is <7s,F=5
||d_PNC|| 7s,F=4> = -0.49 10^{-10} i kappa a.u., where kappa is the
dimensionless coupling constant. This is approximately an order of magnitude
larger than similar amplitude in Cs. The dominant contribution to kappa is
associated with the anapole moment of the nucleus.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Phys.Rev.
Is the Sun Embedded in a Typical Interstellar Cloud?
The physical properties and kinematics of the partially ionized interstellar
material near the Sun are typical of warm diffuse clouds in the solar vicinity.
The interstellar magnetic field at the heliosphere and the kinematics of nearby
clouds are naturally explained in terms of the S1 superbubble shell. The
interstellar radiation field at the Sun appears to be harder than the field
ionizing ambient diffuse gas, which may be a consequence of the low opacity of
the tiny cloud surrounding the heliosphere. The spatial context of the Local
Bubble is consistent with our location in the Orion spur.Comment: "From the Outer Heliosphere to the Local Bubble", held at
International Space Sciences Institute, October 200
Off-Diagonal Hyperfine Interaction and Parity Non-conservation in Cesium
We have performed relativistic many-body calculations of the hyperfine
interaction in the and states of Cs, including the off-diagonal
matrix element. The calculations were used to determine the accuracy of the
semi-empirical formula for the electromagnetic transition amplitude
induced by the hyperfine interaction. We have found that even
though the contribution of the many-body effects into the matrix elements is
very large, the square root formula remains valid to the accuracy of a fraction of .
The result for the M1-amplitude is used in the interpretation of the
parity-violation measurement in the transition in Cs which claims a
possible deviation from the Standard model.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX, Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Nuclear Spin-Isospin Correlations, Parity Violation, and the Problem
The strong interaction effects of isospin- and spin-dependent nucleon-nucleon
correlations observed in many-body calculations are interpreted in terms of a
one-pion exchange mechanism. Including such effects in computations of nuclear
parity violating effects leads to enhancements of about 10%. A larger effect
arises from the one-boson exchange nature of the parity non-conserving nucleon-
nucleon interaction, which depends on both weak and strong meson-nucleon
coupling constants. Using values of the latter that are constrained by
nucleon-nucleon phase shifts leads to enhancements of parity violation by
factors close to two. Thus much of previously noticed discrepancies between
weak coupling constants extracted from different experiments can be removed.Comment: 8 pages 2 figures there should have been two figures in v
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