1,145 research outputs found
Improving bank erosion modelling at catchment scale by incorporating temporal and spatial variability
Bank erosion can contribute a significant portion of the sediment budget within temperate catchments, yet few catchment scale models include an explicit representation of bank erosion processes. Furthermore, representation is often simplistic resulting in an inability to capture realistic spatial and temporal variability in simulated bank erosion. In this study, the sediment component of the catchment scale model SHETRAN is developed to incorporate key factors influencing the spatio-temporal rate of bank erosion, due to the effects of channel sinuosity and channel bank vegetation. The model is applied to the Eden catchment, north-west England, and validated using data derived from a GIS methodology. The developed model simulates magnitudes of total catchment annual bank erosion (617 - 4063 t yr-1) within the range of observed values (211 - 4426 t yr-1). Additionally the model provides both greater inter-annual and spatial variability of bank eroded sediment generation when compared with the basic model, and indicates a potential 61% increase of bank eroded sediment as a result of temporal flood clustering. The approach developed within this study can be used within a number of distributed hydrologic models and has general applicability to temperate catchments, yet further development of model representation of bank erosion processes is required
Dynamic response of land use and river nutrient concentration to long-term climatic changes
The combined indirect and direct impacts of land use change and climate change on river water quality were assessed. A land use allocation model was used to evaluate the response of the catchment land use to long-term climatic changes. Its results were used to drive a water quality model and assess the impact of climatic alterations on freshwater nitrate and phosphorus concentrations. Climatic projections were employed to estimate the likelihood of such response. The River Thames catchment (UK) was used as a case-study. If land use is considered as static parameter, according to the model results, climate change alone should reduce the average nitrate concentration, although just by a small amount, by the 2050s in the Lower Thames, due to reduced runoff (and lower export of nitrate from agricultural soils) and increased instream denitrification, and should increase the average phosphorus concentration by 12% by the 2050s in the Lower Thames, due to a reduction of the effluent dilution capacity of the river flow. However, the results of this study also show that these long-term climatic alterations are likely to lead to a reduction in the arable land in the Thames, replaced by improved grassland, due to a decrease in agriculture profitability in the UK. Taking into account the dynamic co-evolution of land use with climate, the average nitrate concentration is expected to be decreased by around 6% by the 2050s in both the upper and the lower Thames, following the model results, and the average phosphorus concentration increased by 13% in the upper Thames and 5% in the lower Thames. On the long term (2080s), nitrate is expected to decrease by 9% and 8% (upper and lower Thames respectively) and phosphorus not to change in the upper thames and increase by 5% in the lower Thames
Noncanonical quantum optics
Modification of the right-hand-side of canonical commutation relations (CCR)
naturally occurs if one considers a harmonic oscillator with indefinite
frequency. Quantization of electromagnetic field by means of such a non-CCR
algebra naturally removes the infinite energy of vacuum but still results in a
theory which is very similar to quantum electrodynamics. An analysis of
perturbation theory shows that the non-canonical theory has an automatically
built-in cut-off but requires charge/mass renormalization already at the
nonrelativistic level. A simple rule allowing to compare perturbative
predictions of canonical and non-canonical theories is given. The notion of a
unique vacuum state is replaced by a set of different vacua. Multi-photon
states are defined in the standard way but depend on the choice of vacuum.
Making a simplified choice of the vacuum state we estimate corrections to
atomic lifetimes, probabilities of multiphoton spontaneous and stimulated
emission, and the Planck law. The results are practically identical to the
standard ones. Two different candidates for a free-field Hamiltonian are
compared.Comment: Completely rewritten version of quant-ph/0002003v2. There are
overlaps between the papers, but sections on perturbative calculations show
the same problem from different sides, therefore quant-ph/0002003v2 is not
replace
The spatial distribution of coronae on Venus
Coronae on Venus are large, generally circular surface features that have distinctive tectonic, volcanic, and topographic expressions. They range in diameter from less than 200 km to at least 1000 km. Data from the Magellan spacecraft have now allowed complete global mapping of the spatial distribution of coronae on the planet. Unlike impact craters, which show a random (i.e., Poisson) spatial distribution, the distribution of coronae appears to be nonrandom. We investigate the distribution here in detail, and explore its implications in terms of mantle convection and surface modification processes
XO-2b: Transiting Hot Jupiter in a Metal-rich Common Proper Motion Binary
We report on a V=11.2 early K dwarf, XO-2 (GSC 03413-00005), that hosts a
Rp=0.98+0.03/-0.01 Rjup, Mp=0.57+/-0.06 Mjup transiting extrasolar planet,
XO-2b, with an orbital period of 2.615857+/-0.000005 days. XO-2 has high
metallicity, [Fe/H]=0.45+/-0.02, high proper motion, mu_tot=157 mas/yr, and has
a common proper motion stellar companion with 31" separation. The two stars are
nearly identical twins, with very similar spectra and apparent magnitudes. Due
to the high metallicity, these early K dwarf stars have a mass and radius close
to solar, Ms=0.98+/-0.02 Msolar and Rs=0.97+0.02/-0.01 Rsolar. The high proper
motion of XO-2 results from an eccentric orbit (Galactic pericenter, Rper<4
kpc) well confined to the Galactic disk (Zmax~100 pc). In addition, the phase
space position of XO-2 is near the Hercules dynamical stream, which points to
an origin of XO-2 in the metal-rich, inner Thin Disk and subsequent dynamical
scattering into the solar neighborhood. We describe an efficient Markov Chain
Monte Carlo algorithm for calculating the Bayesian posterior probability of the
system parameters from a transit light curve.Comment: 14 pages, 10 Figures, Accepted in ApJ. Negligible changes to XO-2
system properties. Removed Chi^2 light curve analysis section, and simplified
MCMC light curve analysis discussio
XO-3b: A Massive Planet in an Eccentric Orbit Transiting an F5V Star
We report the discovery of a massive (Mpsini = 13.02 +/- 0.64 Mjup; total
mass 13.25 +/- 0.64 Mjup), large (1.95 +/- 0.16 Rjup) planet in a transiting,
eccentric orbit (e = 0.260 +/- 0.017) around a 10th magnitude F5V star in the
constellation Camelopardalis. We designate the planet XO-3b, and the star XO-3,
also known as GSC 03727-01064. The orbital period of XO-3b is 3.1915426 +/-
0.00014 days. XO-3 lacks a trigonometric distance; we estimate its distance to
be 260 +/- 23 pc. The radius of XO-3 is 2.13 +/- 0.21 Rsun, its mass is 1.41
+/- 0.08 Msun, its vsini = 18.54 +/- 0.17 km/s, and its metallicity is [Fe/H] =
-0.177 +/- 0.027. This system is unusual for a number of reasons. XO-3b is one
of the most massive planets discovered around any star for which the orbital
period is less than 10 days. The mass is near the deuterium burning limit of 13
Mjup, which is a proposed boundary between planets and brown dwarfs. Although
Burrows et al. (2001) propose that formation in a disk or formation in the
interstellar medium in a manner similar to stars is a more logical way to
differentiate planets and brown dwarfs, our current observations are not
adequate to address this distinction. XO-3b is also unusual in that its
eccentricity is large given its relatively short orbital period. Both the
planetary radius and the inclination are functions of the spectroscopically
determined stellar radius. Analysis of the transit light curve of XO-3b
suggests that the spectroscopically derived parameters may be over estimated.
Though relatively noisy, the light curves favor a smaller radius in order to
better match the steepness of the ingress and egress. The light curve fits
imply a planetary radius of 1.25 +/- 0.15 Rjup, which would correspond to a
mass of 12.03 +/- 0.46 Mjup.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures. Accepted by ApJ. Current version has several
small corrections as a result of a bug in the fitting softwar
The structure and dynamics of young star clusters: King 16, NGC 1931, NGC 637 and NGC 189
In this paper, using 2MASS photometry, we study the structural and dynamical
properties of four young star clusters viz. King 16, NGC 1931, NGC 637 and NGC
189. For the clusters King 16, NGC 1931, NGC 637 and NGC 189, we obtain the
limiting radii of 7', 12', 6' and 5' which correspond to linear radii of 3.6
pc, 8.85 pc, 3.96 pc and 2.8 pc respectively. The reddening values
obtained for the clusters are 0.85, 0.65--0.85, 0.6 and 0.53 and their true
distances are 1786 pc, 3062 pc, 2270 pc and 912 pc respectively. Ages of the
clusters are 6 Myr, 4 Myr, 4 Myr and 10 Myr respectively. We compare their
structures, luminosity functions and mass functions () to the parameter to study the star
formation process and the dynamical evolution of these clusters. We find that,
for our sample, mass seggregation is observed in clusters or their cores only
when the ages of the clusters are comparable to their relaxation times (). These results suggest mass seggregation due to dynamical effects. The
values of , which characterise the overall mass functions for the
clusters are 0.96 0.11, 1.16 0.18, 0.55 0.14 and 0.66
0.31 respectively. The change in as a function of radius is a good
indicator of the dynamical state of clusters.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Olfactory swab sampling optimization for α-synuclein aggregate detection in patients with Parkinson’s disease
Background: In patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) detection of pathological α-synuclein (α-syn) in olfactory mucosa (OM) is not as accurate as in other α-synucleinopathies. It is unknown whether these variable results might be related to a different distribution of pathological α-syn in OM. Thus, we investigated whether nasal swab (NS) performed in areas with a different coverage by olfactory neuroepithelium, such as agger nasi (AN) and middle turbinate (MT), might affect the detection of pathological α-syn. Methods: NS was performed in 66 patients with PD and 29 non-PD between September 2018 and April 2021. In 43 patients, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was also obtained and all samples were analyzed by RT-QuIC for α-syn. Results: In the first round, 72 OM samples were collected by NS, from AN (NSAN) or from MT (NSMT), and 35 resulted positive for α-syn RT-QuIC, including 27/32 (84%) from AN, 5/11 (45%) from MT, and 3/29 (10%) belonging to the non-PD patients. Furthermore, 23 additional PD patients underwent NS at both AN and MT, and RT-QuIC revealed α-syn positive in 18/23 (78%) NSAN samples and in 10/23 (44%) NSMT samples. Immunocytochemistry of NS preparations showed a higher representation of olfactory neural cells in NSAN compared to NSMT. We also observed α-syn and phospho-α-syn deposits in NS from PD patients but not in controls. Finally, RT-QuIC was positive in 22/24 CSF samples from PD patients (92%) and in 1/19 non-PD. Conclusion: In PD patients, RT-QuIC sensitivity is significantly increased (from 45% to 84%) when NS is performed at AN, indicating that α-syn aggregates are preferentially detected in olfactory areas with higher concentration of olfactory neurons. Although RT-QuIC analysis of CSF showed a higher diagnostic accuracy compared to NS, due to the non-invasiveness, NS might be considered as an ancillary procedure for PD diagnosis
Luminosity and mass function of galactic open clusters: I. NGC 4815
We present deep V and I photometry for the open cluster NGC 4815 and four
surrounding Galactic fields down to a limiting magnitude . These data
are used to study cluster spatial extension by means of star counts, and to
derive the luminosity (LF) and mass function (MF). The radius turns out to be
at V=19.0 level, whereas the mass amounts at down to V=20.8. From the color-magnitude diagram, we obtain the LFs
in the V and I bands, using both the standard histogram and an adaptive kernel.
After correction for incompleteness and field star contamination, the LFs have
been transformed into the present day mass functions (PDMF). The PDMFs from the
V and I photometry can be represented as a power-law with a slope and (the \cite{salp55} MF in this notation has
a slope ) respectively, in the mass range . Below this mass, the MF cannot be considered as
representative of the cluster IMF, as it is the result of the combined effect
of strong irregularities in the stellar background, probable internal dynamical
evolution of the cluster and/or interaction of the cluster with the dense
Galactic field. Unresolved binaries and mass segregation can only flatten the
apparent derived IMF, so we expect that the real IMF must be steeper than the
quoted slope by an unknown amount.Comment: 12 pages, 10 eps figures, in press in Astronomy and Astrophysic
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