Humans, Fires, and Forests: Social science applied to fire management: workshop summary, Tucson, Arizona, January 28-31, 2003.

This summary of the January 26-28, 2003 workshop held in Tucson, Arizona, presents the record of the meeting. It includes the full text of the invited theme papers, the managerial and policy talks, annotated outlines of the breakout sessions and the closing, wrap-up presentation. It also includes a reflective after-the-workshop summary and synthesis paper. This record, however, is only one product of the meeting. In addition to the networking that occurred, researchers attending the workshop also committed to several on-going activities designed both to foster communications among scholars as well as to maximize the utility of social science research applied to fire management. Examples of such activities include: preparation of a social science expertise directory, development of a research framework to demonstrate how various work nodes are relating to one another and where there are still significant gaps, and planning for sessions at the July 2003 Natural Hazards workshop in Boulder, Colorado, and the 2004 ISSRM conference in Keystone, Colorado

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Molecular Hydrogen Emission in Four Reflection Nebulae: NGC 1333, NGC 2023, NGC 2068, and NGC 7023

We present near-infrared spectroscopy of fluorescent molecular hydrogen (H_2) emission from NGC 1333, NGC 2023, NGC 2068, and NGC 7023 and derive the physical properties of the molecular material in these reflection nebulae. Our observations of NGC 2023 and NGC 7023 and the physical parameters we derive for these nebulae are in good agreement with previous studies. Both NGC 1333 and NGC 2068 have no previously-published analysis of near-infrared spectra. Our study reveals that the rotational-vibrational states of molecular hydrogen in NGC 1333 are populated quite differently from NGC 2023 and NGC 7023. We determine that the relatively weak UV field illuminating NGC 1333 is the primary cause of the difference. Further, we find that the density of the emitting material in NGC 1333 is of much lower density, with n ~ 10^2 - 10^4 cm^-3. NGC 2068 has molecular hydrogen line ratios more similar to those of NGC 7023 and NGC 2023. Our model fits to this nebula show that the bright, H_2-emitting material may have a density as high as n ~ 10^5 cm^-3, similar to what we find for NGC 2023 and NGC 7023. Our spectra of NGC 2023 and NGC 7023 show significant changes in both the near-infrared continuum and H_2 intensity along the slit and offsets between the peaks of the H_2 and continuum emission. We find that these brightness changes may correspond to real changes in the density and temperatures of the emitting region, although uncertainties in the total column of emitting material along a given line of sight complicates the interpretation. The spatial difference in the peak of the H_2 and near-infrared continuum peaks in NGC 2023 and NGC 7023 shows that the near-infrared continuum is due to a material which can survive closer to the star than H_2 can.Comment: Submitted for publication in ApJ. 34 pages including 12 embedded postscript figures. Also available at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~martini/pub

qqqbar to qqqbar and qqbarqbar to qqbarqbar Elastic Scatterings and Thermalization of Quark Matter and Antiquark Matter

Thermalization of quark matter and antiquark matter is studied with quark-quark-antiquark as well as quark-antiquark-antiquark elastic scatterings. Squared amplitudes of qqqbar to qqqbar and qqbarqbar to qqbarqbar at order alpha_s^4 are derived in perturbative QCD. Solved by a new technique, solutions of transport equations with the squared amplitudes indicate that the scatterings qqqbar to qqqbar and qqbarqbar to qqbarqbar shorten the thermalization time of quark matter and antiquark matter. It is emphasized that three-parton and other multi-parton scatterings become important at the high parton number density achieved in RHIC Au-Au collisions.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Late

1/f noise from correlations between avalanches in self-organized criticality

We show that large, slowly driven systems can evolve to a self-organized critical state where long range temporal correlations between bursts or avalanches produce low frequency $1/f^{\alpha}$ noise. The avalanches can occur instantaneously in the external time scale of the slow drive, and their event statistics are described by power law distributions. A specific example of this behavior is provided by numerical simulations of a deterministic ``sandpile'' model.Comment: Completely revised version: 4 pages (revtex), 3 eps figure

Present Limits on the Precision of SM Predictions for Jet Energies

We investigate the impact of theoretical uncertainties on the accuracy of measurements involving hadronic jets. The analysis is performed using events with a Z boson and a single jet observed in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.96 TeV in 4.6 $\mathrm{fb^{-1}}$ of data from the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). The transverse momenta (\pt) of the jet and the boson should balance each other due to momentum conservation in the plane transverse to the direction of the $p$ and $\bar{p}$ beams. We evaluate the dependence of the measured \pt-balance on theoretical uncertainties associated with initial and final state radiation, choice of renormalization and factorization scales, parton distribution functions, jet-parton matching, calculations of matrix elements, and parton showering. We find that the uncertainty caused by parton showering at large angles is the largest amongst the listed uncertainties. The proposed method can be re-applied at the LHC experiments to investigate and evaluate the uncertainties on the predicted jet energies. The distributions produced at the CDF environment are intended for comparison to those from modern event generators and new tunes of parton showering.Comment: Submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Axial vector form factor of nucleons in a light-cone diquark model

The nucleon axial vector form factor is investigated in a light-cone quark spectator diquark model, in which Melosh rotations are applied to both the quark and vector diquark. It is found that this model gives a very good description of available experimental data and the results have very little dependence on the parameters of the model. The relation between the nucleon axial constant and the anomalous magnetic moment of nucleons is also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, Revtex4, 1 figure, version to be published in Phys. Rev.

The Frequency Dependence of Critical-velocity Behavior in Oscillatory Flow of Superfluid Helium-4 Through a 2-micrometer by 2-micrometer Aperture in a Thin Foil

The critical-velocity behavior of oscillatory superfluid Helium-4 flow through a 2-micrometer by 2-micrometer aperture in a 0.1-micrometer-thick foil has been studied from 0.36 K to 2.10 K at frequencies from less than 50 Hz up to above 1880 Hz. The pressure remained less than 0.5 bar. In early runs during which the frequency remained below 400 Hz, the critical velocity was a nearly-linearly decreasing function of increasing temperature throughout the region of temperature studied. In runs at the lowest frequencies, isolated 2 Pi phase slips could be observed at the onset of dissipation. In runs with frequencies higher than 400 Hz, downward curvature was observed in the decrease of critical velocity with increasing temperature. In addition, above 500 Hz an alteration in supercritical behavior was seen at the lower temperatures, involving the appearance of large energy-loss events. These irregular events typically lasted a few tens of half-cycles of oscillation and could involve hundreds of times more energy loss than would have occurred in a single complete 2 Pi phase slip at maximum flow. The temperatures at which this altered behavior was observed rose with frequency, from ~ 0.6 K and below, at 500 Hz, to ~ 1.0 K and below, at 1880 Hz.Comment: 35 pages, 13 figures, prequel to cond-mat/050203

Student gambling, erroneous cognitions, and awareness of treatment in Scotland

Rates of probable pathological gambling in colleges and universities across Scotland were investigated with a nationally distributed sample consisting of students (n = 1,483) and members of staff (n = 492). Gambling-related erroneous cognitions (Gambling Beliefs Questionnaire [GBQ]) and gambling severity (South Oaks Gambling Screen [SOGS]) were measured, with additional questions enquiring about awareness of treatments available for gambling problems. Rates of past-year problem and probable pathological gambling for students were 4.0% and 3.9%, respectively. An exploratory factor analysis of the GBQ resulted in a 24-item five-factor model, with gambling severity (as indicated by SOGS scores), indices of increasing gambling involvement (gambling frequency and number of gambling activities), and male gender being positively correlated with higher levels of erroneous cognitions, suggesting erroneous cognitions may not be prominent for females with gambling problems. Less than a fifth of students were aware of where to go to receive help for gambling-related problems

Compact jets as probes for sub-parsec scale regions in AGN

Compact relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei offer an effective tool for investigating the physics of nuclear regions in galaxies. The emission properties, dynamics, and evolution of jets in AGN are closely connected to the characteristics of the central supermassive black hole, accretion disk and broad-line region in active galaxies. Recent results from studies of the nuclear regions in several active galaxies with prominent outflows are reviewed in this contribution.Comment: AASLaTeX, 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

An alternative electric-field spectrum for laser-driven atomic systems

We adopt an open systems perspective to calculate the power spectrum associated with the electric field generated by an atomic dipole moment undergoing resonant laser-driving. This spectrum has a similar triplet shape to the Mollow spectrum and contains a similar amount of information. This is surprising, since the Mollow triplet derives from the Glauber two-time correlation function, which represents the average energy-intensity of a superposition of waves taken at different times. In contrast, our spectrum derives from a correlation function defined in terms of single-time expectation values of the electric source-field. Although they are derived from very different correlation functions, both spectra reflect the quantum-mechanical level-structure of the atomic source