4,165 research outputs found
A synthesis of sand seas throughout the world
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
Industrial Benefits of Controlling Saltwater Intrusion in the Neches River
Environmental Economics and Policy,
A Census of Rotating Radio Transients at 150 MHz with the Irish LOFAR Station
Rotating radio transients (RRATs) are neutron stars that emit detectable
radio bursts sporadically. They are statistically distinct in the neutron star
population, in many observable properties, but by their nature are practically
difficult to study in depth. In this paper, we present the results from 1408 h
of observations of RRAT candidates using the Irish station of the Low Frequency
Array (LOFAR) at 150 MHz. As of October 2022, this census involved observing
113 sources, leading to 29 detections which were then followed up
systematically. Single-pulse emission was detected from 25 sources, and
periodic emission from 14 sources. 18 sources were found to have emission
behaviour that is not discussed in prior works using LOFAR instruments. Four
novel or modified source periods have been determined, ranging from 1.5-3.9 s,
and 8 new or updated phase-coherent pulsar timing ephemerides have been
produced using detected bursts. One unexpected single-pulse with a
clearly-Galactic dispersion measure was detected as a part of this work, but
has not been re-detected in follow-up observations. Observations are ongoing to
expand the number of observed sources and further characterise and improve
ephemerides for the detected sources. This census has demonstrated the
capability for international LOFAR stations to detect, monitor and characterise
a significant fraction of these unique sources.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 24 pages, 7 figures, 8 table
Variability in H9N2 haemagglutinin receptor-binding preference and the pH of fusion
H9N2 avian influenza viruses are primarily a disease of poultry; however, they occasionally infect humans and are considered a potential pandemic threat. Little work has been performed to assess the intrinsic biochemical properties related to zoonotic potential of H9N2 viruses. The objective of this study, therefore, was to investigate H9N2 haemagglutinins (HAs) using two well-known correlates for human adaption: receptor-binding avidity and pH of fusion. Receptor binding was characterized using bio-layer interferometry to measure virus binding to human and avian-like receptor analogues and the pH of fusion was assayed by syncytium formation in virus-infected cells at different pHs. We characterized contemporary H9N2 viruses of the zoonotic G1 lineage, as well as representative viruses of the zoonotic BJ94 lineage. We found that most contemporary H9N2 viruses show a preference for sulphated avian-like receptor analogues. However, the ‘Eastern’ G1 H9N2 viruses displayed a consistent preference in binding to a human-like receptor analogue. We demonstrate that the presence of leucine at position 226 of the HA receptor-binding site correlated poorly with the ability to bind a human-like sialic acid receptor. H9N2 HAs also display variability in their pH of fusion, ranging between pH 5.4 and 5.85 which is similar to that of the first wave of human H1N1pdm09 viruses but lower than the pH of fusion seen in zoonotic H5N1 and H7N9 viruses. Our results suggest possible molecular mechanisms that may underlie the relatively high prevalence of human zoonotic infection by particular H9N2 virus lineages
Microstructure Effects for Casimir Forces in Chiral Metamaterials
We examine a recent prediction for the chirality-dependence of the Casimir
force in chiral metamaterials by numerical computation of the forces between
the exact microstructures, rather than homogeneous approximations. We compute
the exact force for a chiral bent-cross pattern, as well as forces for an
idealized "omega"-particle medium in the dilute approximation and identify the
effects of structural inhomogeneity (i.e. proximity forces and anisotropy). We
find that these microstructure effects dominate the force for separations where
chirality was predicted to have a strong influence. To get observations of
chirality free from microstructure effects, one must go to large separations
where the effect of chirality is at most of the total force.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
On the Geometry and Entropy of Non-Hamiltonian Phase Space
We analyze the equilibrium statistical mechanics of canonical, non-canonical
and non-Hamiltonian equations of motion by throwing light into the peculiar
geometric structure of phase space. Some fundamental issues regarding time
translation and phase space measure are clarified. In particular, we emphasize
that a phase space measure should be defined by means of the Jacobian of the
transformation between different types of coordinates since such a determinant
is different from zero in the non-canonical case even if the phase space
compressibility is null. Instead, the Jacobian determinant associated with
phase space flows is unity whenever non-canonical coordinates lead to a
vanishing compressibility, so that its use in order to define a measure may not
be always correct. To better illustrate this point, we derive a mathematical
condition for defining non-Hamiltonian phase space flows with zero
compressibility. The Jacobian determinant associated with time evolution in
phase space is altogether useful for analyzing time translation invariance. The
proper definition of a phase space measure is particularly important when
defining the entropy functional in the canonical, non-canonical, and
non-Hamiltonian cases. We show how the use of relative entropies can circumvent
some subtle problems that are encountered when dealing with continuous
probability distributions and phase space measures. Finally, a maximum
(relative) entropy principle is formulated for non-canonical and
non-Hamiltonian phase space flows.Comment: revised introductio
Importance of Tests for the Complete Lorentz Structure of the t --> W+ b vertex at Hadron Colliders
The most general Lorentz-invariant decay-density-matrix for , or for , is expressed in terms
of eight helicity parameters. The parameters are physically defined in terms of
partial-width-intensities for polarized-final-states in decay.
The parameters are the partial width, the quark's chirality parameter
, the polarimetry parameter , a "pre-SSB" test parameter
, and four - interference parameters , ,
, which test for violation. They can be
used to test for non-CKM-type CP violation, anomalous 's, top
weak magnetism, weak electricity, and second-class currents. By stage-two
spin-correlation techniques, percent level statistical uncertainites are
typical for measurements at the Tevatron, and several mill level uncertainites
are typical at the LHC.Comment: Minor clarifications. Expression for r_{+-} corrected. 19 pages LaTex
+ Tables + 1 Figur
Kansas environmental and resource study: A Great Plains model, tasks 1-6
There are no author identified significant results in this report. Environmental and resources investigations in Kansas utilizing ERTS-1 imagery are summarized for the following areas: (1) use of feature extraction techniqued for texture context information in ERTS imagery; (2) interpretation and automatic image enhancement; (3) water use, production, and disease detection and predictions for wheat; (4) ERTS-1 agricultural statistics; (5) monitoring fresh water resources; and (6) ground pattern analysis in the Great Plains
Casimir micro-sphere diclusters and three-body effects in fluids
Our previous article [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 060401 (2010)] predicted that
Casimir forces induced by the material-dispersion properties of certain
dielectrics can give rise to stable configurations of objects. This phenomenon
was illustrated via a dicluster configuration of non-touching objects
consisting of two spheres immersed in a fluid and suspended against gravity
above a plate. Here, we examine these predictions from the perspective of a
practical experiment and consider the influence of non-additive, three-body,
and nonzero-temperature effects on the stability of the two spheres. We
conclude that the presence of Brownian motion reduces the set of experimentally
realizable silicon/teflon spherical diclusters to those consisting of layered
micro-spheres, such as the hollow- core (spherical shells) considered here.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Searching for the Slater Transition in the Pyrochlore CdOsO with Infrared Spectroscopy
Infrared reflectance measurements were made on the single crystal pyrochlore
CdOsO in order to examine the transformations of the
electronic structure and crystal lattice across the boundary of the metal
insulator transition at . All predicted IR active phonons are
observed in the conductivity over all temperatures and the oscillator strength
is found to be temperature independent. These results indicate that charge
ordering plays only a minor role in the MIT and that the transition is strictly
electronic in nature. The conductivity shows the clear opening of a gap with
. The gap opens continuously, with a temperature
dependence similar to that of BCS superconductors, and the gap edge having a
distinct dependence. All of these
observables support the suggestion of a Slater transition in CdOsO.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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