The Design of the Monitoring System for the Thermal Effect of the Surry Nuclear Power Plant on the James River

The demand for electric power in the United States is expected to double every 10 years. As hydroelectric power plant sites reach their full capacity, the demand for electricity will be met by the development of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. The average thermal efficiency of nuclear power plants is presently about 32%. Therefore, a significant amount of heat is not utilized. For large power plants, the once-through cooling method, in which water is withdrawn from an adjacent body of water and returned after being heated, is the most common one. However, the great amount of heat discharged into the water may result in changes in the physical and chemical properties as well as in the ecology due to the rise in temperature of the water. The objectives of this study is to determine the region of the James River estuary which will be affected by the thermal discharges of the Surry nuclear power plant located at Hog Island and the temperature distribution within that region. The area under study is shown in figure 1. The cooling water is pumped in from the James River at the right side of Hog Island and returned at the left side. The following is a progress report of the first year\u27s work on this project

Effects of chronic exposure to low doses of trichloroethylene on steroid hormone and insulin levels in normal men.

The aim of this study was to examine the serum levels of insulin and some adrenal steroid hormones in men chronically exposed to low doses of trichloroethylene (TCE). A total of 85 workers participated in this study. Each worker had urine collected and analyzed for trichloroacetic acids (UTCA) on the same day that a blood sample was taken for analyses of serum testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), androstenedione, cortisol, aldosterone, and insulin. The mean concentration of environmental TCE was 29.6 ppm and the mean UTCA was 22.4 mg/g creatinine (range 0.8-136.4). TCE exposure did not cause any significant changes to the adrenal steroid hormone productions. The results showed that UTCA was significantly correlated to serum insulin levels. Insulin and SHBG responded in tandem, with the highest levels found in workers exposed to TCE for less than 2 years; levels of both parameters were significantly lowered in those exposed for more than 2 years. A triphasic response in insulin levels to TCE, which depended on the duration of exposure, was noted. Initial exposure caused an acute rise in insulin levels. This was followed by a fall to normal levels in those exposed 2-4 years and then a slight rise in those exposed for more than 6 years. The mechanism for this pattern of response to TCE exposure is yet unknown

Entangled-State Cycles of Atomic Collective-Spin States

We study quantum trajectories of collective atomic spin states of $N$ effective two-level atoms driven with laser and cavity fields. We show that interesting ``entangled-state cycles'' arise probabilistically when the (Raman) transition rates between the two atomic levels are set equal. For odd (even) $N$, there are $(N+1)/2$ ($N/2$) possible cycles. During each cycle the $N$-qubit state switches, with each cavity photon emission, between the states $(|N/2,m>\pm |N/2,-m>)/\sqrt{2}$, where $|N/2,m>$ is a Dicke state in a rotated collective basis. The quantum number $m$ ($>0$), which distinguishes the particular cycle, is determined by the photon counting record and varies randomly from one trajectory to the next. For even $N$ it is also possible, under the same conditions, to prepare probabilistically (but in steady state) the Dicke state $|N/2,0>$, i.e., an $N$-qubit state with $N/2$ excitations, which is of particular interest in the context of multipartite entanglement.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Little Hierarchy, Little Higgses, and a Little Symmetry

Little Higgs theories are an attempt to address the little hierarchy problem, i.e., the tension between the naturalness of the electroweak scale and the precision measurements showing no evidence for new physics up to 5-10 TeV. In little Higgs theories, the Higgs mass-squareds are protected to the one-loop order from the quadratic divergence. This allows the cutoff to be raised up to \~10 TeV, beyond the scales probed by the precision data. However, strong constraints can still arise from the contributions of the new TeV scale particles and hence re-introduces the fine-tuning problem. In this paper we show that a new symmetry, denoted as T-parity, under which all heavy gauge bosons and scalar triplets are odd, can remove all the tree-level contributions to the electroweak observables and therefore makes the little Higgs theories completely natural. The T-parity can be manifestly implemented in a majority of little Higgs models by following the most general construction of the low energy effective theory a la Callan, Coleman, Wess and Zumino. In particular, we discuss in detail how to implement the T-parity in the littlest Higgs model based on SU(5)/SO(5). The symmetry breaking scale f can be even lower than 500 GeV if the contributions from the unknown UV physics at the cutoff are somewhat small. The existence of $T$-parity has drastic impacts on the phenomenology of the little Higgs theories. The T-odd particles need to be pair-produced and will cascade down to the lightest T-odd particle (LTP) which is stable. A neutral LTP gives rise to missing energy signals at the colliders which can mimic supersymmetry. It can also serve as a good dark matter candidate.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX; v2: Yukawa sector in the SU(5)/SO(5) model slightly modified. Also added comments on the Dirac mass term for the fermionic doublet partner; v3: clarifying comments on the modified Yukawa sector. version to appear on JHE

Gene sh e ginandromorfia em inflorescências masculinas de híbridos F1 entre o caiaué e o dendezeiro.

Neste estudo, foi analisada a relação entre o gene sh (gene da espessura do endocarpo) e a ocorrência da ginadromorfia nos HIE. Foram analisados três tipos de cruzamentos: 12 cruzamentos de caiaué com dendezeiro-dura, homozigoto sh+sh+ (C × D); 11 de caiaué com dendezeiro pisífera, homozigoto sh-sh-(C × P), e 15 de caiaué com dendezeiro-tenera, heterozigoto sh+sh- (C × T), com 10 a 13 plantas por cruzamento. A ocorrência de inflorescências ginandromorfas foi avaliada durante um ano

Socio-economic Determinants of Cassava Production in Benue State, Nigeria.

The study examined the determinants of cassava production in Benue State Nigeria. A total of 180 farmers were selected across the state using multi-stage sampling technique. Data, which comprised information on the socio-economic characteristics and other quantitative variables relevant to the study, were collected using a well structured questionnaire and personal interviews. The social- economic characteristics were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies; simple multiple regression technique was used to analyze the production functions of cassava farmers. The results obtained revealed that R2 value was 0.419 indicating that 41.9% of variation in cassava production was accounted for by the variables considered in the study. Specifically, age of the farmers, occupation, household size, farming experience, level of education of farmers, farms size and fertilizer input where all significant and are important variables that affected the production of cassava in the study area. Given the enormous potential of cassava production in the study area, it has become so imperative that youths be encourage to participate effectively in cassava production, seeing that majority of the farmers are aged and will retire from active farming. This is to ensure food security. Effective structure should be put in place for the input and credit facilities provided by the government, this will ensure that these facilities get to those who need it and will in turn help the farmers expand their production. This study, although base in Benue State, may have implications for other States with similar situation. This will help the state meet self-sufficiency in food production and so be able to feed her teeming population

Magnetothermopower and Magnetoresistivity of RuSr2Gd1-xLaxCu2O8 (x=0, 0.1)

We report measurements of magnetothermopower and magnetoresistivity as a function of temperature on RuSr2Gd1-xLaxCu2O8 (x = 0, 0.1). The normal-state thermopower shows a dramatic decrease after applying a magnetic field of 5 T, whereas the resistivity shows only a small change after applying the same field. Our results suggest that RuO2 layers are conducting and the magnetic field induced decrease of the overall thermopower is caused by the decrease of partial thermopower decrease associated with the spin entropy decrease of the carriers in the RuO2 layers.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Continuum Superpartners

In an exact conformal theory there is no particle. The excitations have continuum spectra and are called "unparticles" by Georgi. We consider supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model with approximate conformal sectors. The conformal symmetry is softly broken in the infrared which generates a gap. However, the spectrum can still have a continuum above the gap if there is no confinement. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence this can be achieved with a soft wall in the warped extra dimension. When supersymmetry is broken the superpartners of the Standard Model particles may simply be a continuum above gap. The collider signals can be quite different from the standard supersymmetric scenarios and the experimental searches for the continuum superpartners can be very challenging.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, talk at SCGT09 Workshop, Nagoya, Japan, 8-11 Dec, 200