2,582 research outputs found
Dependence of Maximum Trappable Field on Superconducting Nb3Sn Cylinder Wall Thickness
Uniform dipole magnetic fields from 1.9 to 22.4 kOe were permanently trapped,
with high fidelity to the original field, transversely to the axes of hollow
Nb3Sn superconducting cylinders. These cylinders were constructed by helically
wrapping multiple layers of superconducting ribbon around a mandrel. This is
the highest field yet trapped, the first time trapping has been reported in
such helically wound taped cylinders, and the first time the maximum trappable
field has been experimentally determined as a function of cylinder wall
thickness.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. PACS numbers: 74.60.Ge, 74.70.Ps,
41.10.Fs, 85.25.+
Ameliorating Orthographic Errors in Middle School Writing
Curriculum and Instructio
Radar detection of a localized 1.4 Hz pulsation in auroral plasma, simultaneous with pulsating optical emissions, during a substorm
Many pulsating phenomena are associated with the auroral substorm.
It has been considered that some of these phenomena involve kilometer-scale
Alfvén waves coupling the magnetosphere and ionosphere. Electric field
oscillations at the altitude of the ionosphere are a signature of
such wave activity that could distinguish it from other sources of
auroral particle precipitation, which may be simply tracers of magnetospheric
activity. Therefore, a ground based diagnostic of kilometer-scale
oscillating electric fields would be a valuable tool in the study
of pulsations and the auroral substorm. In this study we attempt to
develop such a tool in the Poker Flat incoherent scatter radar (PFISR).
The central result is a statistically significant detection of a 1.4 Hz
electric field oscillation associated with a similar oscillating
optical emission, during the recovery phase of a substorm. The optical
emissions also contain a bright, lower frequency (0.2 Hz) pulsation
that does not show up in the radar backscatter. The fact that higher
frequency oscillations are detected by the radar, whereas the bright,
lower frequency optical pulsation is not detected by the radar, serves
to strengthen a theoretical argument that the radar is sensitive to
oscillating electric fields, but not to oscillating particle precipitation.
Although it is difficult to make conclusions as to the physical mechanism,
we do not find evidence for a plane-wave-like Alfvén wave; the detected
structure is evident in only two of five adjacent beams. We emphasize
that this is a new application for ISR, and that corroborating results
are needed
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Worth the wait: effects of age of onset of marijuana use on white matter and impulsivity
Rationale: Marijuana (MJ) use continues to rise, and as the perceived risk of using MJ approaches an all-time historic low, initiation of MJ use is occurring at even younger ages. As adolescence is a critical period of neuromaturation, teens and emerging adults are at greater risk for experiencing the negative effects of MJ on the brain. In particular, MJ use has been shown to be associated with alterations in frontal white matter microstructure, which may be related to reports of increased levels of impulsivity in this population. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between age of onset of MJ use, white matter microstructure, and reported impulsivity in chronic, heavy MJ smokers. Methods: Twenty-five MJ smokers and 18 healthy controls underwent diffusion tensor imaging and completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. MJ smokers were also divided into early onset (regular use prior to age 16) and late onset (age 16 or later) groups in order to clarify the impact of age of onset of MJ use on these variables. Results: MJ smokers exhibited significantly reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) relative to controls, as well as higher levels of impulsivity. Earlier MJ onset was also associated with lower levels of FA. Interestingly, within the early onset group, higher impulsivity scores were correlated with lower FA, a relationship that was not observed in the late onset smokers. Conclusions: MJ use is associated with white matter development and reported impulsivity, particularly in early onset smokers
Greater Sage-Grouse Select Nest Sites to Avoid Visual Predators but Not Olfactory Predators
Birds can hide from visual predators by locating nests where there is cover and from olfactory predators where habitat features create updrafts, high winds, and atmospheric turbulence, but sites optimal for hiding from visual and olfactory predators often differ. We examined how Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) balance the dual needs of hiding from both visual and olfactory predators on Parker Mountain, Utah, where the Common Raven (Corvus corax) is the main visual predator and the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) and American badger (Taxidea taxus) are the main olfactory predators. By comparing nest sites to random sites during 2005 and 2006, we found that sage-grouse nest at sites where their nests were obscured from visual predators but were exposed to olfactory predators. To validate these findings, we replicated the study in southwest Wyoming during 2008. Again, we found that visual obscurity at nest sites was greater than at control sites but olfactory obscurity was less. Our results indicate that Greater Sage-Grouse select nest sites where they will be concealed from visual predators but at the cost of locating nests where they are exposed to olfactory predators. In southwest Wyoming, we found that olfactory predators (mammals) and visual predators (birds) depredated an equal number of nests. By selecting nest sites with visual obscurity, Greater Sage-Grouse have reduced the threat from visual predators to where it was similar to the threat posed by olfactory predators
Albedos of Small Jovian Trojans
We present thermal observations of 44 Jovian Trojan asteroids with diameters
(D) ranging from 5 to 24 km. All objects were observed at a wavelength of 24
microns with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Measurements of the thermal emission
and of scattered optical light, mostly from the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter
telescope, together allow us to constrain the diameter and geometric albedo of
each body. We find that the median R-band albedo of these small Jovian Trojans
is about 0.12, much higher than that of "large" Trojans with D > 57 km (0.04).
Also the range of albedos among the small Trojans is wider. We attribute the
Trojan albedos to an evolutionary effect: the small Trojans are more likely to
be collisional fragments and so their surfaces would be younger. A younger
surface means less cumulative exposure to the space environment, which suggests
that their surfaces would not be as dark as those of the large, primordial
Trojans. In support of this hypothesis is a statistically significant
correlation of higher albedo with smaller diameter in our sample alone and in a
sample that includes the larger Trojans.Comment: 41 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, AASTe
Tropical coastal habitats as surrogates of fish community structure, grazing, and fisheries value
Habitat maps are frequently invoked as surrogates of biodiversity to aid the design of networks of marine reserves. Maps are used to maximize habitat heterogeneity in reserves because this is likely to maximize the number of species protected. However, the technique's efficacy is limited by intra-habitat variability in the species present and their abundances. Although communities are expected to vary among patches of the same habitat, this variability is poorly documented and rarely incorporated into reserve planning. To examine intra-habitat variability in coral-reef fishes, we generated a data set from eight tropical coastal habitats and six islands in the Bahamian archipelago using underwater visual censuses. Firstly, we provide further support for habitat heterogeneity as a surrogate of biodiversity as each predefined habitat type supported a distinct assemblage of fishes. Intrahabitat variability in fish community structure at scales of hundreds of kilometers (among islands) was significant in at least 75% of the habitats studied, depending on whether presence/absence, density, or biomass data were used. Intra-habitat variability was positively correlated with the mean number of species in that habitat when density and biomass data were used. Such relationships provide a proxy for the assessment of intra-habitat variability when detailed quantitative data are scarce. Intra-habitat variability was examined in more detail for one habitat (forereefs visually dominated by Montastraea corals). Variability in community structure among islands was driven by small, demersal families (e. g., territorial pomacentrid and labrid fishes). Finally, we examined the ecological and economic significance of intra-habitat variability in fish assemblages on Montastraea reefs by identifying how this variability affects the composition and abundances of fishes in different functional groups, the key ecosystem process of parrotfish grazing, and the ecosystem service of value of commercially important finfish. There were significant differences in a range of functional groups and grazing, but not fisheries value. Variability at the scale of tens of kilometers (among reefs around an island) was less than that among islands. Caribbean marine reserves should be replicated at scales of hundreds of kilometers, particularly for species-rich habitats, to capture important intra-habitat variability in community structure, function, and an ecosystem process
Estudios de impacto de observaciones satelitales con el algoritmo de asimilaciĂłn HIRLAM-4DVar
Ponencia presentada en: 6Âș Simposio de Meteorologia e Geofisica da APMG celebrado del 16 al 18 de marzo de 2009 en Costa Caparica, Portugal.We have carried out a number of observation impact studies with the aim to determine the individual and joint
contributions of different space-based observing systems on the skill of short-range forecasts (up to 48 hours)
over the Northern Atlantic and European regions. These studies are an essential part of the current HIRLAM
data assimilation plan to include in the near future a bigger set of satellite observations than currently used in the
operational runs of the different meteorological services within the HIRLAM consortium. In our experiments
with data from up to 8 different satellites and the HIRLAM 4D-Var scheme running with a 6-hours long
assimilation window, we have detected a significant positive impact on the forecast skill. The satellite
observations not only help to better characterize the initial state, they reduce the mean size of increments and so
contribute to filter numerical noise generated by the advection scheme in the assimilation algorithm. Analysing
the geographical distribution of this impact, we have found some dependency on the type of observation in line
with expectations, but we have ascertained too a good level of synergism among them. We recognise the need to
consider more experiments with longer periods before more sound conclusions can be drawn and we are working
on them
WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Hilda Population: Preliminary Results
We present the preliminary analysis of 1023 known asteroids in the Hilda
region of the Solar System observed by the NEOWISE component of the Wide-field
Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The sizes of the Hildas observed range from
km. We find no size - albedo dependency as reported by other
projects. The albedos of our sample are low, with a weighted mean value , for all sizes sampled by the NEOWISE survey. We observed a
significant fraction of the objects in the two known collisional families in
the Hilda population. It is found that the Hilda collisional family is
brighter, with weighted mean albedo of , than the general
population and dominated by D-type asteroids, while the Schubart collisional
family is darker, with weighted mean albedo of (). Using
the reflected sunlight in the two shortest WISE bandpasses we are able to
derive a method for taxonomic classification of of the Hildas
detected in the NEOWISE survey. For the Hildas with diameter larger than 30km
there are D-type asteroids and C-/P-type
asteroids (with the majority of these being P-types).Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal. Electronic table
to be published on the publishers websit
Preferences of Hungarian consumers for quality, access and price attributes of health care services â result of a discrete choice experiment
In 2010, a household survey was carried out in Hungary among 1037 respondents to study consumer preferences and willingness to pay for health care services. In this paper, we use the data from the discrete choice experiments included in the survey, to elicit the preferences of health care consumers about the choice of health care providers. Regression analysis is used to estimate the effect of the improvement of service attributes (quality, access, and price) on patientsâ choice, as well as the differences among the socio-demographic groups. We also estimate the marginal willingness to pay for the improvement in attribute levels by calculating marginal rates of substitution. The results show that respondents from a village or the capital, with low education and bad health status are more driven by the changes in the price attribute when choosing between health care providers. Respondents value the good skills and reputation of the physician and the attitude of the personnel most, followed by modern equipment and maintenance of the office/hospital. Access attributes (travelling and waiting time) are less important. The method of discrete choice experiment is useful to reveal patientsâ preferences, and might support the development of an evidence-based and sustainable health policy on patient payments
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