Integrated Infrastructure Modelling — Managing Interdependencies with a Generic Approach

Infrastructure provision is a highly challenging task, especially when accounting for climate change mitigation and adaptation needs. Efforts of making infrastructure more efficient and flexible result in an increasing number of sensitive infrastructure interdependencies. This enforces an integrated infrastructure assessment for planning purposes, in contrast to the traditional independent infrastructure-sector modelling. For the unification of the existing infrastructure-sector models, we propose the implementation of a generic communication interface, which allows the separate sector-models to communicate at the necessarily disaggregate level in order to account for interdependencies appropriately. This approach allows for infrastructure provision modelling under one unified umbrella in a minimally invasive way, while conserving crucial individualities of the separate models. This is achieved through a generic network description, in which we solve the resource allocation through a pragmatic network-flow algorithm that resembles market and consumer behaviour. The developed framework establishes the basis for fully integrated infrastructure evaluation and hence cross-sectorial infrastructure investment decision making — a crucial tool in times of tight governmental budgets

Recent palaeoenvironmental evidence for the processing of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in eastern England during the medieval period

[FIRST PARAGRAPH] Hemp (Cannabissativa L.)— whose origins as a domesticated plant probably lie in C.Asia — has been cultivated in England since at least a.d.800 (and before this perhaps in the Roman Period), mainly for its ¿bre, which was used to make sails, ropes, ¿shing nets and clothes, as well as for the oil from hempseed. Hemp cultivation may have reached a peak during the early 16th century, when Henry VIII decreed that increased hemp production was required to supply the expanding navy. Evidence for the locations where the crop was cultivated and processed is available in several different forms, including written evidence in parish records and government reports, place-name evidence (e.g.Hempholme and some instances of Hempstead), and features on old maps, such as Hempis¿eld (hemp¿eld)

Effective scraping in a scraped surface heat exchanger: some fluid flow analysis

An outline of mathematical models that have been used to understand the behaviour of scraped surface heat exchangers is presented. In particular the problem of the wear of the blades is considered. A simple model, exploiting known behaviour of viscous flow in corners and in wedges, and accounting for the forces on the blade is derived and solutions generated. The results shows initial rapid wear but that the wear rate goes to zero

Findings from a feasibility study of an adapted cognitive behavioral therapy group intervention to reduce depression among lgbtq (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer) young people

Depression disproportionately affects LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer) adolescents and young adults. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment approach; however, there has been limited work to adapt and evaluate CBT with LGBTQ young people. This study examined the feasibility of an intervention called Being Out With Strength (BOWS), which is an 8-session, small-group, CBT-based intervention to reduce depression among LGBTQ young people. We used a descriptive cross-sectional mixed-methods feasibility study design to evaluate the feasibility of BOWS. Survey data were collected from 79 LGBTQ young adults, and interview data were collected from nine mental health professionals. Almost half of the young adults had clinically significant depressive symptoms. All providers indicated depression as a problem facing this population and a need for BOWS. Two-thirds of young people were interested in participating in BOWS. Providers believed that BOWS would be acceptable for LGBTQ-identified individuals, those in late adolescence or early/young adulthood, and those with mild or moderate depression. Youth and providers also made implementation recommendations concerning settings to implement BOWS, times of day for BOWS sessions, number of sessions, group size, and facilitator composition. There is a demand for BOWS, and it is likely acceptable for the target population. Study findings can be used in the future to successfully implement BOWS and evaluate preliminary efficacy

Limitations of the heavy-baryon expansion as revealed by a pion-mass dispersion relation

The chiral expansion of nucleon properties such as mass, magnetic moment, and magnetic polarizability are investigated in the framework of chiral perturbation theory, with and without the heavy-baryon expansion. The analysis makes use of a pion-mass dispersion relation, which is shown to hold in both frameworks. The dispersion relation allows an ultraviolet cutoff to be implemented without compromising the symmetries. After renormalization, the leading-order heavy-baryon loops demonstrate a stronger dependence on the cutoff scale, which results in weakened convergence of the expansion. This conclusion is tested against the recent results of lattice quantum chromodynamics simulations for nucleon mass and isovector magnetic moment. In the case of the polarizability, the situation is even more dramatic as the heavy-baryon expansion is unable to reproduce large soft contributions to this quantity. Clearly, the heavy-baryon expansion is not suitable for every quantity.Comment: Accepted for publication in EPJ C. Made changes based on referee comments: clarifying sentences to conclusion 1. of Section IV, beginning of Section V, and new footnote in Section VI, page 8. Added more detailed explanation in paragraph 4 of Section III. Added citations of Phys.Rev. D60, 034014, and Phys.Lett. B716, 33

Spin dynamics of a trapped spin-1 Bose Gas above the Bose-Einstein transition temperature

We study collective spin oscillations in a spin-1 Bose gas above the Bose-Einstein transition temperature. Starting from the Heisenberg equation of motion, we derive a kinetic equation describing the dynamics of a thermal gas with the spin-1 degree of freedom. Applying the moment method to the kinetic equation, we study spin-wave collective modes with dipole symmetry. The dipole modes in the spin-1 system are found to be classified into the three type of modes. The frequency and damping rate are obtained as functions of the peak density. The damping rate is characterized by three relaxation times associated with collisions.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figur

Family Unification in Five and Six Dimensions

In family unification models, all three families of quarks and leptons are grouped together into an irreducible representation of a simple gauge group, thus unifying the Standard Model gauge symmetries and a gauged family symmetry. Large orthogonal groups, and the exceptional groups $E_7$ and $E_8$ have been much studied for family unification. The main theoretical difficulty of family unification is the existence of mirror families at the weak scale. It is shown here that family unification without mirror families can be realized in simple five-dimensional and six-dimensional orbifold models similar to those recently proposed for SU(5) and SO(10) grand unification. It is noted that a family unification group that survived to near the weak scale and whose coupling extrapolated to high scales unified with those of the Standard model would be evidence accessible in principle at low energy of the existence of small (Planckian or GUT-scale) extra dimensions.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections, references adde

Extreme weather events modulate processing and export of dissolved organic carbon in the Neuse River Estuary, NC

As the interface between riverine and coastal systems, estuaries play a key role in receiving, transporting, and processing terrestrial organic carbon prior to export to downstream coastal systems. Estuaries can switch from terrestrial organic carbon reactors under low river flow to pipelines under high flow, but it remains unclear how estuarine terrestrial organic carbon processing responds to the full spectrum of discharge conditions, which are bracketed by these high and low discharge events. The amount of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon and colored dissolved organic matter imported, processed, and exported was assessed for riverine discharge events spanning from the 4th to 99th flow quantiles in the Neuse River Estuary, North Carolina, USA using spatially and temporally (July 2015–December 2016) resolved measurements. The extent of dissolved organic matter processing in the estuary under various flow conditions was estimated using a non-steady state box model to calculate estuary-wide terrestrial dissolved organic carbon and colored dissolved organic matter source & sink terms. Under mid-range riverine discharge conditions (4th to 89th flow quantiles), the Neuse River Estuary was a sink for terrestrial dissolved organic carbon, retaining and/or processing (i.e., flocculation; photochemical and microbial degradation) on average ∼29% of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon. Following floods due to extreme precipitation events (99th flow quantile), however, over 99% of the terrestrial dissolved organic carbon loaded from the riverine end-member was exported directly to the downstream coastal system. Following such extreme weather events, the estuary acts as a pipeline for direct export of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon, drastically altering the amount and quality of dissolved organic carbon loaded to downstream coastal systems. This has important implications under future climate scenarios, where extreme weather events are expected to increase

Collective dynamics of internal states in a Bose gas

Theory for the Rabi and internal Josephson effects in an interacting Bose gas in the cold collision regime is presented. By using microscopic transport equation for the density matrix the problem is mapped onto a problem of precession of two coupled classical spins. In the absence of an external excitation field our results agree with the theory for the density induced frequency shifts in atomic clocks. In the presence of the external field, the internal Josephson effect takes place in a condensed Bose gas as well as in a non-condensed gas. The crossover from Rabi oscillations to the Josephson oscillations as a function of interaction strength is studied in detail.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure