4,659 research outputs found
Investigation of Metal and Organic Contaminant Distributions and Sedimentation Rates in Backwater Lakes along the Illinois River
Systematic sub-sampling of sediment cores in sections of uniform thickness is necessary
in order to evaluate historic changes in sediment quality, to determine the vertical extent
of contamination, and to measure sedimentation rates. With these objectives in mind,
fourteen sediment cores were collected during March 2002 using the Illinois State Water
Survey vibracorer. Concentrations of metals and total organic carbon were measured
using standard techniques. Concentrations of chlorinated pesticides, phenolic compounds,
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were
measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The concentrations of
chlorinated pesticides, phenolic compounds and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were
below the method detection limit in all sediment samples analyzed. However, there was
a wide range in concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which were
detected in all sediment samples. Also, a wide range of metal concentrations was noted
in the sediments evaluated. Lower concentrations of metals were found in the upper 0.5
m of sediment but concentrations were elevated at depths ranging from 1.0 m to 1.5 m.
Sedimentation rates were estimated using cesium-137 radiometric dating on 14
vibracores. Sedimentation rates range from < 0.1 to 1.9 cm/yr, with an average of 0.9
cm/yr. These rates are comparable to those reported in previous studies.Illinois Sustainable Technology Centerpublished or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe
Lessons and Prospects from the pMSSM after LHC Run I: Neutralino LSP
We study SUSY signatures at the 7, 8 and 14 TeV LHC employing the
19-parameter, R-Parity conserving p(henomenological)MSSM, in the scenario with
a neutralino LSP. Our results were obtained via a fast Monte Carlo simulation
of the ATLAS SUSY analysis suite. The flexibility of this framework allows us
to study a wide variety of SUSY phenomena simultaneously and to probe for weak
spots in existing SUSY search analyses. We determine the ranges of the
sparticle masses that are either disfavored or allowed after the searches with
the 7 and 8 TeV data sets are combined. We find that natural SUSY models with
light squarks and gluinos remain viable. We extrapolate to 14 TeV with both 300
fb and 3 ab of integrated luminosity and determine the expected
sensitivity of the jets + MET and stop searches to the pMSSM parameter space.
We find that the high-luminosity LHC will be powerful in probing SUSY with
neutralino LSPs and can provide a more definitive statement on the existence of
natural Supersymmetry.Comment: 41 pages, 27 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1307.844
The VOICE Study: Valuing Opinions, Individual Communication and Experience: Building the evidence base for undertaking patient-centred family meetings in palliative care - a mixed methods study
Background: Despite family meetings being widely used to facilitate discussion among patients, families, and clinicians in palliative care, there is limited evidence to support their use. This study aims to assess the acceptability and feasibility of Patient-Centred Family Meetings in specialist inpatient palliative care units for patients, families, and clinicians and determine the suitability and feasibility of validated outcome measures from the patient and family perspectives.
Methods: The study is a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design with pre-planned Patient-Centred Family Meetings at the intervention site. The patient will set the meeting agenda a priori allowing an opportunity for their issues to be prioritised and addressed. At the control site, usual care will be maintained which may include a family meeting. Each site will recruit 20 dyads comprising a terminally ill inpatient and their nominated family member. Pre- and post-test administration of the Distress Thermometer, QUAL-EC, QUAL-E, and Patient Health Questionnaire-4 will assess patient and family distress and satisfaction with quality of life. Patient, family, and clinician interviews post-meeting will provide insights into the meeting feasibility and outcome measures. Recruitment percentages and outcome measure completion will also inform feasibility. Descriptive statistics will summarise pre- and post-meeting data generated by the outcome measures. SPSS will analyse the quantitative data. Grounded theory will guide the qualitative data analysis.
Discussion: This study will determine whether planned Patient-Centred Family Meetings are feasible and acceptable and assess the suitability and feasibility of the outcome measures. It will inform a future phase III randomised controlled trial.
Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12616001083482 on 11 August 201
Protons as the prime contributors to the storm time ring current
Following a large magnetic storm (17 June 1972), Explorer 45 measured the equatorial particle populations and magnetic field. Using data obtained during the symmetic recovery phase, it is shown that through a series of self-consistent calculations, the measured protons with energies from 1 to 872 keV, can account for the observed ring current magnetic effects within experimental uncertainities. This enables an upper limit to be set for the heavy ion contribution to the storm time ring current
Squeezed gluon vacuum and the global colour model of QCD
We discuss how the vacuum model of Celenza and Shakin with a squeezed gluon
condensate can explain the existence of an infrared singular gluon propagator
frequently used in calculations within the global colour model. In particular,
it reproduces a recently proposed QCD-motivated model where low energy chiral
parameters were computed as a function of a dynamically generated gluon mass.
We show how the strength of the confining interaction of this gluon propagator
and the value of the physical gluon condensate may be connected.Comment: 13 pages, LaTe
Gathering experience in trust-based interactions
As advances in mobile and embedded technologies coupled with progress in adhoc networking fuel the shift towards ubiquitous computing systems it is becoming increasingly clear that security is a major concern. While this is true of all computing paradigms, the characteristics of ubiquitous systems amplify this concern by promoting spontaneous interaction between diverse heterogeneous entities across administrative boundaries [5]. Entities cannot therefore rely on a specific control authority and will have no global view of the state of the system. To facilitate collaboration with unfamiliar counterparts therefore requires that an entity takes a proactive approach to self-protection. We conjecture that trust management is the best way to provide support for such self-protection measures
Separability of Two-Party Gaussian States
We investigate the separability properties of quantum two-party Gaussian
states in the framework of the operator formalism for the density operator.
Such states arise as natural generalizations of the entangled state originally
introduced by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen. We present explicit forms of
separable and nonseparable Gaussian states.Comment: Brief Report submitted to Physical Review A, 4 pages, 1 figur
From treebank resources to LFG F-structures
We present two methods for automatically annotating treebank resources with functional structures. Both methods define systematic patterns of correspondence between partial PS configurations and functional structures. These are applied to PS rules extracted from treebanks, or directly to constraint set encodings of treebank PS trees
Progress on the hybrid gun project at UCLA
UCLA/INFN-LNF/Univ. Rome has been developing the hybrid gun which has an RF gun and a short linac for velocity bunching in one structure. After the cavity was manufactured at INFN-LNF in 2012, tests of the gun was carried out at UCLA. The field in the standing wave part was 20 % smaller than the simulation but the phase advance was fine. The cavity was commissioned successfully up to 13 MW. The beam test was performed at 11.5 MW and demonstrated the bunch compression
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