Probing Primordial Non-Gaussianity with Large-Scale Structure

We consider primordial non-Gaussianity due to quadratic corrections in the gravitational potential parametrized by a non-linear coupling parameter fnl. We study constraints on fnl from measurements of the galaxy bispectrum in redshift surveys. Using estimates for idealized survey geometries of the 2dF and SDSS surveys and realistic ones from SDSS mock catalogs, we show that it is possible to probe |fnl|~100, after marginalization over bias parameters. We apply our methods to the galaxy bispectrum measured from the PSCz survey, and obtain a 2sigma-constraint |fnl|< 1800. We estimate that an all sky redshift survey up to z~1 can probe |fnl|~1. We also consider the use of cluster abundance to constrain fnl and find that in order to be sensitive to |fnl|~100, cluster masses need to be determined with an accuracy of a few percent, assuming perfect knowledge of the mass function and cosmological parameters.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

A retrospective evaluation of the impact of a dedicated obstetric and neonatal transport service on transport times within an urban setting

OBJECTIVE:To determine whether the establishment of a dedicated obstetric and neonatal flying squad resulted in improved performance within the setting of a major metropolitan area.DESIGN AND SETTING:The Cape Town metropolitan service of the Emergency Medical Services was selected for a retrospective review of the transit times for the newly implemented Flying Squad programme. Data were imported from the Computer Aided Dispatch programme. Dispatch, Response, Mean Transit and Total Pre-hospital times relating to the obstetric and neonatal incidents was analysed for 2005 and 2008. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement between 2005 and 2008 in all incidents evaluated. Flying Squad dispatch performance improved from 11.7% to 46.6% of all incidents dispatched within 4 min (p < 0.0001). Response time performance at the 15-min threshold did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement (p = 0.4), although the improvement in the 30-min performance category was statistically significant in both maternity and neonatal incidents. Maternity incidents displayed the greatest improvement with the 30-min performance increasing from 30.3% to 72.9%. The analysis of the mean transit times demonstrated that neonatal transfers displayed the longest status time in all but one of the categories. Even so, the introduction of the Flying Squad programme resulted in a reduction in a total pre-hospital time from 177 to 128 min. CONCLUSION: The introduction of the Flying Squad programme has resulted in significant improvement in the transit times of both neonatal and obstetric patients. In spite of the severe resource constraints facing developing nations, the model employed offers significant gains

Social Support and Health: A Theoretical Formulation Derived from King's Conceptual Framework

This article describes the development and initial empirical testing of a theoretical formulation of social support, family, health, and child health derived from Imogene King's conceptual framework for nursing. A correlational design was used to test the formulation with 103 families who have children with diabetes mellitus. Three hypotheses were sup ported : parents' social support had a direct and positive effect on family health, parents' social support and child's social support were positively related, and illness factors had a direct and negative effect on child health. Both the supported and unsupported hypotheses are discussed in terms of the present substantive knowledge base and evidence of validity for King's framework. Direction for further theory development and research are identified.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68995/2/10.1177_089431848900200309.pd

Optimal Cross-Wind Towing and Power Generation with Tethered Kites

Non-powered flight vehicles such as kites can provide a means of transmitting wind energy from higher altitudes to the ground via tethers. Although there have been many proposals for systems to extract wind energy from higher altitudes, this paper focuses on the use of a light lifting body at the end of a tether to generate useful power. Two major configurations are studied: 1) the kite is used to tow a ground vehicle in the cross-wind direction, 2) the kite is flown to generate power using a ground generator. In both cases, the useful work done by the kite is transmitted to the ground through the tether. Both applications require automatic control of the kite. A simplified system model is used to study the nature of the optimal trajectories of the system for different wind speeds. Numerical results illustrate that optimal power generation requires complex three-dimensional kite trajectories, whereas cross-wind towing requires much simpler trajectories. A feedback tracking controller is demonstrated for tracking the kite trajectories in the presence of unsteady winds

De Plenderleith a Al Gore: o ideário vigente na conservação de bens culturais móveis no século XXI

O texto discute idéias predominantes, hoje, nas práticas de conservação de bens culturais móveis no Ocidente. São apontadas, também, algumas tendências de pensamento em diferentes contextos de trabalho, identificando-se eventuais mudanças e semelhanças entre as idéias anteriormente vigentes e aquelas que muito provavelmente sejam, já, um legado para este novo século.This article discusses the prevailing concepts referring to the conservation of cultural heritage collections. Some trends such as some lines of thought are also indicated, identifying occasional changes and similarities among the ideas previously in force and those that, probably, are already a legacy for this new century

Measurement of (anti)deuteron and (anti)proton production in DIS at HERA

The first observation of (anti)deuterons in deep inelastic scattering at HERA has been made with the ZEUS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 300--318 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb-1. The measurement was performed in the central rapidity region for transverse momentum per unit of mass in the range 0.3<p_T/M<0.7. The particle rates have been extracted and interpreted in terms of the coalescence model. The (anti)deuteron production yield is smaller than the (anti)proton yield by approximately three orders of magnitude, consistent with the world measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider

This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the ϒ(4S), ϒ(3S), and ϒ(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-→e+e- and (for the ϒ(4S) only) e+e-→μ+μ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-→e+e- and e+e-→μ+μ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the ϒ(3S) and ϒ(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to ϒ→e+e-X background. For data collected off the ϒ resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the ϒ(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the ϒ(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the ϒ(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Forward jet production in deep inelastic ep scattering and low-x parton dynamics at HERA

Differential inclusive jet cross sections in neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering have been measured with the ZEUS detector. Three phase-space regions have been selected in order to study parton dynamics where the effects of BFKL evolution might be present. The measurements have been compared to the predictions of leading-logarithm parton shower Monte Carlo models and fixed-order perturbative QCD calculations. In the forward region, QCD calculations at order alpha_s^1 underestimate the data up to an order of magnitude at low x. An improved description of the data in this region is obtained by including QCD corrections at order alpha_s^2, which account for the lowest-order t-channel gluon-exchange diagrams, highlighting the importance of such terms in parton dynamics at low x.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure

Opportunities for evaluating chemical exposures and child health in the United States: the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program

The Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program will evaluate environmental factors affecting children’s health (perinatal, neurodevelopmental, obesity, respiratory, and positive health outcomes) by pooling cohorts composed of >50,000 children in the largest US study of its kind. Our objective was to identify opportunities for studying chemicals and child health using existing or future ECHO chemical exposure data. We described chemical-related information collected by ECHO cohorts and reviewed ECHO-relevant literature on exposure routes, sources, and environmental and human monitoring. Fifty-six ECHO cohorts have existing or planned chemical biomonitoring data for mothers or children. Environmental phenols/parabens, phthalates, metals/metalloids, and tobacco biomarkers are each being measured by ≥15 cohorts, predominantly during pregnancy and childhood, indicating ample opportunities to study child health outcomes. Cohorts are collecting questionnaire data on multiple exposure sources and conducting environmental monitoring including air, dust, and water sample collection that could be used for exposure assessment studies. To supplement existing chemical data, we recommend biomonitoring of emerging chemicals, nontargeted analysis to identify novel chemicals, and expanded measurement of chemicals in alternative biological matrices and dust samples. ECHO’s rich data and samples represent an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate environmental chemical research to improve the health of US children