1,068 research outputs found
Observation and Prediction of Soil Water Under Different Types of Vegetation
Soil water trends were monitored during the 1971 growing season on the Anoka Sand Plain in east-central Minnesota. Soils were sampled under four vegetation densities, ranging from old field through increasing amounts of oak overstory. There was no difference over the sampled period in total soil water content (to 100 cm) on the four sites. Differences were found in water content of individual soil horizons, and especially in the surface horizon (0 to 10 cm). A model of evapotranspiration was used to simulate the observed trends and the prediction and observations were closely correlated (r2 ~ 0 .91)
Status of Chemical Equilibrium in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
Recent work on chemical equilibrium in heavy ion collisions is reviewed. The
energy dependence of thermal parameters is discussed. The centrality dependence
of thermal parameters at SPS energies is presented.Comment: 7 pages, 7 Postscript figure
The Luminosity Function of Magnitude and Proper-Motion Selected Samples. The case of White-Dwarfs
The luminosity function of white dwarfs is a powerful tool for studies of the
evolution and formation of the Milky Way. The (theoretical) white dwarf cooling
sequence provides a useful indicator of the evolutionary time scales involved
in the chronometry and star formation history of the galactic disk, therefore,
intrinsically faint (& old) white dwarfs in the immediate solar neighborhood
can be used to determine an upper limit for the age of the galactic disk.
In this paper we examine the faint-end () behavior of the disk
white dwarf luminosity function using the method, but fully
including the effects of realistic observational errors in the derived
luminosity function. We employ a Monte Carlo approach to produce many different
realizations of the luminosity function from a given data set with
pre-specified and reasonable errors in apparent magnitude, proper-motions,
parallaxes and bolometric corrections. These realizations allow us to compute
both a mean and an expected range in the luminosity function that is compatible
with the observational errors.
We find that current state-of-the art observational errors, mostly in the
bolometric corrections and trigonometric parallaxes, play a major role in
obliterating (real or artificial) small scale fluctuations in the luminosity
function. We also find that a better estimator of the true luminosity function
seems to be the median over simulations, rather than the mean. When using the
latter, an age for the disk of 10 Gyr or older can not be ruled out from the
sample of Leggett, Ruiz, and Bergeron (1998).Comment: Manuscript AAS Latex macro v4.0, 33 pages, 13 postscript figures
(Color in figs. 9 and 12). Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal. Replaced by two-column version & indication of acceptance by the Ap
Strange prospects for LHC energies
Strange quark and hadron production will be studied at the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) energies in order to explore the properties of both pp and
heavy-ion collisions. The ALICE experiment will be specifically efficient in
the strange sector with the identification of baryons and mesons over a wide
range of transverse momentum. Dedicated measurements are proposed for
investigating chemical equilibration and bulk properties. Strange particles can
also help to probe kinematical regions where hard processes and pQCD dominate.
We try to anticipate here several ALICE analyses to be performed as the first
Pb--Pb and pp data will be available.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Hot Quarks 2006,
Villasimius, Italy, 15-20 May 200
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The study design and rationale of the randomized controlled trial: translating COPD guidelines into primary care practice
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive, debilitating disease associated with significant clinical burden and is estimated to affect 15 million individuals in the US. Although a large number of individuals are diagnosed with COPD, many individuals still remain undiagnosed due to the slow progression of the disorder and lack of recognition of early symptoms. Not only is there under-diagnosis but there is also evidence of sub-optimal evidence-based treatment of those who have COPD. Despite the development of international COPD guidelines, many primary care physicians who care for the majority of patients with COPD are not translating this evidence into effective clinical practice. Method/Design This paper describes the design and rationale for a randomized, cluster design trial (RCT) aimed at translating the COPD evidence-based guidelines into clinical care in primary care practices. During Phase 1, a needs assessment evaluated barriers and facilitators to implementation of COPD guidelines into clinical practice through focus groups of primary care patients and providers. Using formative evaluation and feedback from focus groups, three tools were developed. These include a computerized patient activation tool (an interactive iPad with wireless data transfer to the spirometer); a web-based COPD guideline tool to be used by primary care providers as a decision support tool; and a COPD patient education toolkit to be used by the practice team. During phase II, an RCT will be performed with one year of intervention within 30 primary care practices. The effectiveness of the materials developed in Phase I are being tested in Phase II regarding physician performance of COPD guideline implementation and the improvement in the clinically relevant outcomes (appropriate diagnosis and management of COPD) compared to usual care. We will also examine the use of a patient activation tool - âMyLungAgeâ - to prompt patients at risk for or who have COPD to request spirometry confirmation and to request support for smoking cessation if a smoker. Discussion Using a multi-modal intervention of patient activation and a technology-supported health care provider team, we are testing the effectiveness of this intervention in activating patients and improving physician performance around COPD guideline implementation. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT0123756
The continuum limit of quark number susceptibilities
We report the continuum limit of quark number susceptibilities in quenched
QCD. Deviations from ideal gas behaviour at temperature T increase as the
lattice spacing is decreased from T/4 to T/6, but a further decrease seems to
have very little effect. The measured susceptibilities are 20% lower than the
ideal gas values, and also 10% below the hard thermal loop (HTL) results. The
off-diagonal susceptibility is several orders of magnitude smaller than the HTL
results. We verify a strong correlation between the lowest screening mass and
the susceptibility. We also show that the quark number susceptibilities give a
reasonable account of the Wroblewski parameter, which measures the strangeness
yield in a heavy-ion collision.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Soft Photoproduction Physics
Several topics of interest in soft photoproduction physics are discussed.
These include jet universality issues (particle flavour composition), the
subdivision into event classes, the buildup of the total photoproduction cross
section and the effects of multiple interactions.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2e, no figures, to appear in the proceedings of the
Durham Workshop on HERA Physics, ``Proton, Photon and Pomeron Structure'',
17--23 September 1995, Durham, U.
Heavy Flavor Hadrons in Statistical Hadronization of Strangeness-rich QGP
We study b, c quark hadronization from QGP. We obtain the yields of charm and
bottom flavored hadrons within the statistical hadronization model. The
important novel feature of this study is that we take into account the high
strangeness and entropy content of QGP, conserving strangeness and entropy
yields at hadronization.Comment: v2 expended: 20 pages, 23 figures, 5 tables, in press EPJ-
The X-ray spectra and spectral variability of intermediate type Seyfert galaxies: ASCA observations of NGC 4388 and ESO 103-G35
The X-ray spectra of two intermediate type Seyfert galaxies are investigated
using ASCA observations separated by more than a year. Both NGC 4388 and ESO
103-G35 exhibit strong, narrow Fe K alpha line emission and absorption by cold
neutral gas with a column density ~ 10^23 cm^-2, characteristic of the X-ray
spectra of type 2 Seyfert galaxies. The power law continuum flux has changed by
a factor of 2 over a time-scale of ~ 2 years for both objects, declining in the
case of NGC 4388 and rising in ESO 103-G35. No variation was observed in the
equivalent width of the Fe K alpha line in the spectra of NGC 4388, implying
that the line flux declined with the continuum. We find that the strength of
the line cannot be accounted for by fluorescence in line-of-sight material with
the measured column density unless a `leaky-absorber' model of the type favored
for IRAS 04575-7537 is employed. The equivalent width of the Fe K alpha
emission line is seen to decrease between the observations of ESO 103-G35 while
the continuum flux increased. The 1996 observation of ESO 103-G35 can also be
fitted with an absorption edge at 7.4 0.2 keV due to partially ionized
iron, and when an ionized absorber model is fitted to the data it is found that
the equivalent column of neutral hydrogen rises to 3.5 x 10^23 cm^-2. The Fe K
alpha line flux can be accounted by fluorescence in this material alone and
this model is also a good representation of the 1988 and 1991 Ginga
observations. There is then no requirement for a reflection component in the
ASCA spectra of ESO 103-G35 or NGC 4388.Comment: 45 pages, 5 tables, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
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