The tension between fire risk and carbon storage: evaluating U.S. carbon and fire management strategies through ecosystem models

Fire risk and carbon storage are related environmental issues because fire reduction results in carbon storage through the buildup of woody vegetation, and stored carbon is a fuel for fires. The sustainability of the U.S. carbon sink and the extent of fire activity in the next 100 yr depend in part on the type and effectiveness of fire reduction employed. Previous studies have bracketed the range of dynamics from continued fire reduction to the complete failure of fire reduction activities. To improve these estimates, it is necessary to explicitly account for fire reduction in terrestrial models. A new fire reduction submodel that estimates the spatiotemporal pattern of reduction across the United States was developed using gridded data on biomass, climate, land-use, population, and economic factors. To the authors’ knowledge, it is the first large-scale, gridded fire model that explicitly accounts for fire reduction. The model was calibrated to 1° × 1° burned area statistics [Global Burnt Area 2000 Project (GBA-2000)] and compared favorably to three important diagnostics. The model was then implemented in a spatially explicit ecosystem model and used to analyze 1620 scenarios of future fire risk and fire reduction strategies. Under scenarios of climate change and urbanization, burned area and carbon emissions both increased in scenarios where fire reduction efforts were not adjusted to match new patterns of fire risk. Fuel reducing management strategies reduced burned area and fire risk, but also limited carbon storage. These results suggest that to promote carbon storage and minimize fire risk in the future, fire reduction efforts will need to be increased and spatially adjusted and will need to employ a mixture of fuel-reducing and non-fuel-reducing strategies

Effect of differences in proton and neutron density distributions on fission barriers

The neutron and proton density distributions obtained in constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations with the Gogny force along the fission paths of 232Th, 236U, 238U and 240Pu are analyzed. Significant differences in the multipole deformations of neutron and proton densities are found. The effect on potential energy surfaces and on barrier heights of an additional constraint imposing similar spatial distributions to neutrons and protons, as assumed in macroscopic-microscopic models, is studied.Comment: 5 pages in Latex, 4 figures in ep

A fitter code for Deep Virtual Compton Scattering and Generalized Parton Distributions

We have developped a fitting code based on the leading-twist handbag Deep Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) amplitude in order to extract the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPD) information from DVCS observables in the valence region. In a first stage, with simulations and pseudo-data, we show that the full GPD information can be recovered from experimental data if enough observables are measured. If only part of these observables are measured, valuable information can still be extracted, certain observables being particularly sensitive to certain GPDs. In a second stage, we make a practical application of this code to the recent DVCS Jefferson Lab Hall A data from which we can extract numerical constraints for the two $H$ GPD Compton Form Factors.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Fingermark age determinations: Legal considerations, review of the literature and practical propositions.

The question of the age of fingermarks is often raised in investigations and trials when suspects admit that they have left their fingermarks at a crime scene but allege that the contact occurred at a different time than the crime and for legal reasons. In the first part of this review article, examples from American appellate court cases will be used to demonstrate that there is a lack of consensus among American courts regarding the admissibility and weight of testimony from expert witnesses who provide opinions about the age of fingermarks. Of course, these issues are not only encountered in America but have also been reported elsewhere, for example in Europe. The disparity in the way fingermark dating cases were managed in these examples is probably due to the fact that no methodology has been validated and accepted by the forensic science community so far. The second part of this review article summarizes the studies reported on fingermark dating in the literature and highlights the fact that most proposed methodologies still suffer from limitations preventing their use in practice. Nevertheless, several approaches based on the evolution of aging parameters detected in fingermark residue over time appear to show promise for the fingermark dating field. Based on these approaches, the definition of a formal methodological framework for fingermark dating cases is proposed in order to produce relevant temporal information. This framework identifies which type of information could and should be obtained about fingermark aging and what developments are still required to scientifically address dating issues

The Heavy Photon Search beamline and its performance

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) is an experiment to search for a hidden sector photon, aka a heavy photon or dark photon, in fixed target electroproduction at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). The HPS experiment searches for the e$^+$e$^-$ decay of the heavy photon with bump hunt and detached vertex strategies using a compact, large acceptance forward spectrometer, consisting of a silicon microstrip detector (SVT) for tracking and vertexing, and a PbWO$_4$ electromagnetic calorimeter for energy measurement and fast triggering. To achieve large acceptance and good vertexing resolution, the first layer of silicon detectors is placed just 10 cm downstream of the target with the sensor edges only 500 $\mu$m above and below the beam. Placing the SVT in such close proximity to the beam puts stringent requirements on the beam profile and beam position stability. As part of an approved engineering run, HPS took data in 2015 and 2016 at 1.05 GeV and 2.3 GeV beam energies, respectively. This paper describes the beam line and its performance during that data taking

Mapping a knowledge-based malaria hazard index related to landscape using remote sensing : application to the cross-border area between French Guiana and Brazil

Malaria remains one of the most common vector-borne diseases in the world and the definition of novel control strategies can benefit from the modeling of transmission processes. However, data-driven models are often difficult to build, as data are very often incomplete, heterogeneous in nature and in quality, and/or biased. In this context, a knowledge-based approach is proposed to build a robust and general landscape-based hazard index for malaria transmission that is tailored to the Amazonian region. A partial knowledge-based model of the risk of malaria transmission in the Amazonian region, based on landscape features and extracted from a systematic literature review, was used. Spatialization of the model was obtained by generating land use and land cover maps of the cross-border area between French Guiana and Brazil, followed by computing and combining landscape metrics to build a set of normalized landscape-based hazard indices. An empirical selection of the best index was performed by comparing the indices in terms of adequacy with the knowledge-based model, intelligibility and correlation with P. falciparum incidence rates. The selected index is easy to interpret and successfully represents the current knowledge about the role played by landscape patterns in malaria transmission within the study area. It was significantly associated with P. falciparum incidence rates, using the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients (up to 0.79 and 0.75, respectively; p-value <0.001), and the linear regression coefficient of determination (reaching 0.63; p-values <0.001). This study establishes a spatial knowledge-driven, landscape-based hazard malaria index using remote sensing that can be easily produced on a regular basis and might be useful for malaria prediction, surveillance, and control

Systematics of collective correlation energies from self-consistent mean-field calculations

The collective ground-state correlations stemming from low-lying quadrupole excitations are computed microscopically. To that end, the self-consistent mean-field model is employed on the basis of the Skyrme-Hartre-Fock (SHF) functional augmented by BCS pairing. The microscopic-macroscopic mapping is achieved by quadrupole-constrained mean-field calculations which are processed further in the generator-coordinate method (GCM) at the level of the Gaussian overlap approximation (GOA). We study the correlation effects on energy, charge radii, and surface thickness for a great variety of semi-magic nuclei. A key issue is to work out the influence of variations of the SHF functional. We find that collective ground-state correlations (GSC) are robust under change of nuclear bulk properties (e.g., effective mass, symmetry energy) or of spin-orbit coupling. Some dependence on the pairing strength is observed. This, however, does not change the general conclusion that collective GSC obey a general pattern and that their magnitudes are rather independent of the actual SHF parameters.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure

The Heavy Photon Search Beamline and Its Performance

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) is an experiment to search for a hidden sector photon, aka a heavy photon or dark photon, in fixed target electroproduction at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). The HPS experiment searches for the e+e- decay of the heavy photon with bump hunt and detached vertex strategies using a compact, large acceptance forward spectrometer, consisting of a silicon microstrip detector (SVT) for tracking and vertexing, and a PbWO4 electromagnetic calorimeter for energy measurement and fast triggering. To achieve large acceptance and good vertexing resolution, the first layer of silicon detectors is placed just 10cm downstream of the target with the sensor edges only 500 μm above and below the beam. Placing the SVT in such close proximity to the beam puts stringent requirements on the beam profile and beam position stability. As part of an approved engineering run, HPS took data in 2015 and 2016 at 1.05GeV and 2.3GeV beam energies, respectively. This paper describes the beam line and its performance during that data taking

From the stable to the exotic: clustering in light nuclei

A great deal of research work has been undertaken in alpha-clustering study since the pioneering discovery of 12C+12C molecular resonances half a century ago. Our knowledge on physics of nuclear molecules has increased considerably and nuclear clustering remains one of the most fruitful domains of nuclear physics, facing some of the greatest challenges and opportunities in the years ahead. The occurrence of "exotic" shapes in light N=Z alpha-like nuclei is investigated. Various approaches of the superdeformed and hyperdeformed bands associated with quasimolecular resonant structures are presented. Evolution of clustering from stability to the drip-lines is examined: clustering aspects are, in particular, discussed for light exotic nuclei with large neutron excess such as neutron-rich Oxygen isotopes with their complete spectroscopy.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, Presented at the International Symposium on "New Horizons in Fundamental Physics - From Neutrons Nuclei via Superheavy Elements and Supercritical Fields to Neutron Stars and Cosmic Rays" held at Makutsi Safari Farm, South Africa, December 23-29, 2015. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1402.6590, arXiv:1303.0960, arXiv:1408.0684, arXiv:1011.342