1,036 research outputs found
Dealing with Uncertainties in Asteroid Deflection Demonstration Missions: NEOTwIST
Deflection missions to near-Earth asteroids will encounter non-negligible
uncertainties in the physical and orbital parameters of the target object. In
order to reliably assess future impact threat mitigation operations such
uncertainties have to be quantified and incorporated into the mission design.
The implementation of deflection demonstration missions offers the great
opportunity to test our current understanding of deflection relevant
uncertainties and their consequences, e.g., regarding kinetic impacts on
asteroid surfaces. In this contribution, we discuss the role of uncertainties
in the NEOTwIST asteroid deflection demonstration concept, a low-cost kinetic
impactor design elaborated in the framework of the NEOShield project. The aim
of NEOTwIST is to change the spin state of a known and well characterized
near-Earth object, in this case the asteroid (25143) Itokawa. Fast events such
as the production of the impact crater and ejecta are studied via cube-sat
chasers and a flyby vehicle. Long term changes, for instance, in the asteroid's
spin and orbit, can be assessed using ground based observations. We find that
such a mission can indeed provide valuable constraints on mitigation relevant
parameters. Furthermore, the here proposed kinetic impact scenarios can be
implemented within the next two decades without threatening Earth's safety.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of the IAUS 318 -
Asteroids: New Observations, New Models, held at the IAU General Assembly in
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA 201
Shell Structure of Exotic Nuclei
Theoretical predictions and experimental discoveries for neutron-rich,
short-lived nuclei far from stability indicate that the familiar concept of
nucleonic shell structure should be considered as less robust than previously
thought. The notion of single-particle motion in exotic nuclei is reviewed with
a particular focus on three aspects: (i) variations of nuclear mean field with
neutron excess due to tensor interactions; (ii) importance of many-body
correlations; and (iii) influence of open channels on properties of weakly
bound and unbound nuclear states.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Progress in Particle and Nuclear
Physics, Proc. of the International School of Nuclear Physics 28th Course,
Radioactive Beams, Nuclear Dynamics and Astrophysics, Erice-Sicily: 16 - 24
September 200
Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Fall 2011
Paper on impacts of Mojave wildfires through time published, possibilities of catastrophic Mt. Charleston forest fires, vegetation mapping at three national parks, UNLV library’s special collections, and the benefits of scientific publications to managers and stakeholder
Rapid growth of HFC-227ea (1,1,1,2,3,3,3-Heptafluoropropane) in the atmosphere
We report the first measurements of 1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane (HFC-227ea), a substitute for ozone depleting compounds, in remote regions of the atmosphere and present evidence for its rapid growth. Observed mixing ratios ranged from below 0.01 ppt in deep firn air to 0.59 ppt in the northern mid-latitudinal upper troposphere. Firn air samples collected in Greenland were used to reconstruct a history of atmospheric abundance. Year-on-year increases were deduced, with acceleration in the growth rate from 0.026 ppt per year in 2000 to 0.057 ppt per year in 2007. Upper tropospheric air samples provide evidence for a continuing growth until late 2009. Fur- thermore we calculated a stratospheric lifetime of 370 years from measurements of air samples collected on board high altitude aircraft and balloons. Emission estimates were determined from the reconstructed atmospheric trend and suggest that current "bottom-up" estimates of global emissions for 2005 are too high by more than a factor of three
Priorities for Africa's food and nutrition security post-covid-19. A contribution from the Task Force Rural Africa (TFRA) to the AU-EU Summit, October 2020
A deep sense of concern about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and
livelihoods of Africa’s people has inspired the writing of this contribution. As members of the
Task Force Rural Africa (TFRA), we produced a report in March 2019 on what we thought was needed to transform Africa’s agriculture and rural economy. Less than one year later, COVID-19 struck Africa and the rest of the world with devastating effect.
Another important change since March 2019 has been the shift on climate policy, represented by the EU Commission proposal in December 2019 of the European Green Deal (EGD). This ambitious vision, aimed at making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, will have implications for Africa – Europe relations.
The combination of COVID-19’s impact on Africa and the EU’s climate policy change has led us to re-examine the analysis and the recommendations in our original report. We have drawn one central conclusion from our work: that food and nutrition security has become of such fundamental political, economic and social importance that it must be at the centre of all future policy and planning. We have built our report on this conclusion and produced a set of short and long-term recommendations we believe are relevant to the new world shaped by the COVID-19
pandemic.
We hope our contribution may help in the preparation of the AU-EU Summit in October 2020. The Summit will seek to agree the long-term basis for partnership between Africa and the EU. It will meet at a crucially important time, shortly before the US Presidential election, when the world will be looking to see how Africa and Europe, separately and in partnership, can contribute to an effective multilateral response to global challenges and the current COVID-19 crisis. We wish the leaders well in their efforts
The contribution of age structure to cell population responses to targeted therapeutics
Cells grown in culture act as a model system for analyzing the effects of
anticancer compounds, which may affect cell behavior in a cell cycle
position-dependent manner. Cell synchronization techniques have been generally
employed to minimize the variation in cell cycle position. However,
synchronization techniques are cumbersome and imprecise and the agents used to
synchronize the cells potentially have other unknown effects on the cells. An
alternative approach is to determine the age structure in the population and
account for the cell cycle positional effects post hoc. Here we provide a
formalism to use quantifiable age distributions from live cell microscopy
experiments to parameterize an age-structured model of cell population
response
Large-Scale Self-Consistent Nuclear Mass Calculations
The program of systematic large-scale self-consistent nuclear mass
calculations that is based on the nuclear density functional theory represents
a rich scientific agenda that is closely aligned with the main research
directions in modern nuclear structure and astrophysics, especially the
radioactive nuclear beam physics. The quest for the microscopic understanding
of the phenomenon of nuclear binding represents, in fact, a number of
fundamental and crucial questions of the quantum many-body problem, including
the proper treatment of correlations and dynamics in the presence of symmetry
breaking. Recent advances and open problems in the field of nuclear mass
calculations are presented and discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, submitted to International Journal of Mass
Spectrometr
Validation and data characteristics of methane and nitrous oxide profiles observed by MIPAS and processed with Version 4.61 algorithm
The ENVISAT validation programme for the atmospheric instruments MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS is based on a number of balloon-borne, aircraft, satellite and ground-based correlative measurements. In particular the activities of validation scientists were coordinated by ESA within the ENVISAT Stratospheric Aircraft and Balloon Campaign or ESABC. As part of a series of similar papers on other species [this issue] and in parallel to the contribution of the individual validation teams, the present paper provides a synthesis of comparisons performed between MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles produced by the current ESA operational software (Instrument Processing Facility version 4.61 or IPF v4.61, full resolution MIPAS data covering the period 9 July 2002 to 26 March 2004) and correlative measurements obtained from balloon and aircraft experiments as well as from satellite sensors or from ground-based instruments. In the middle stratosphere, no significant bias is observed between MIPAS and correlative measurements, and MIPAS is providing a very consistent and global picture of the distribution of CH4 and N2O in this region. In average, the MIPAS CH4 values show a small positive bias in the lower stratosphere of about 5%. A similar situation is observed for N2O with a positive bias of 4%. In the lower stratosphere/upper troposphere (UT/LS) the individual used MIPAS data version 4.61 still exhibits some unphysical oscillations in individual CH4 and N2O profiles caused by the processing algorithm (with almost no regularization). Taking these problems into account, the MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles are behaving as expected from the internal error estimation of IPF v4.61 and the estimated errors of the correlative measurements
Comprehensive multimodality characterization of hemodynamically significant and non-significant coronary lesions using invasive and noninvasive measures
Background
There is limited knowledge about morphological molecular-imaging-derived parameters to further characterize hemodynamically relevant coronary lesions.
Objective
The aim of this study was to describe and differentiate specific parameters between hemodynamically significant and non-significant coronary lesions using various invasive and non-invasive measures.
Methods
This clinical study analyzed patients with symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease (CAD) who underwent native T1-weighted CMR and gadofosveset-enhanced CMR as well as invasive coronary angiography. OCT of the culprit vessel to determine the plaque type was performed in a subset of patients. Functional relevance of all lesions was examined using quantitative flow reserve (QFR-angiography). Hemodynamically significant lesions were defined as lesions with a QFR <0.8. Signal intensity (contrast-to-noise ratios; CNRs) on native T1-weighted CMR and gadofosveset-enhanced CMR was defined as a measure for intraplaque hemorrhage and endothelial permeability, respectively.
Results
Overall 29 coronary segments from 14 patients were examined. Segments containing lesions with a QFR 0.8; n = 19) (5.32 (4.47–7.02) vs. 2.42 (1.04–5.11); p = 0.042). No differences in signal enhancement were seen on native T1-weighted CMR (2.2 (0.68–6.75) vs. 2.09 (0.91–6.57), p = 0.412). 66.7% (4 out of 6) of all vulnerable plaque and 33.3% (2 out of 6) of all non-vulnerable plaque (fibroatheroma) as assessed by OCT were hemodynamically significant lesions.
Conclusion
The findings of this pilot study suggest that signal enhancement on albumin-binding probe-enhanced CMR but not on T1-weighted CMR is associated with hemodynamically relevant coronary lesion
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