321 research outputs found
Ocean forcing of glacier retreat in the western Antarctic Peninsula
In recent decades, hundreds of glaciers draining the Antarctic Peninsula (63° to 70°S) have undergone systematic and progressive change. These changes are widely attributed to rapid increases in regional surface air temperature, but it is now clear that this cannot be the sole driver. Here, we identify a strong correspondence between mid-depth ocean temperatures and glacier-front changes along the ~1000-kilometer western coastline. In the south, glaciers that terminate in warm Circumpolar Deep Water have undergone considerable retreat, whereas those in the far northwest, which terminate in cooler waters, have not. Furthermore, a mid-ocean warming since the 1990s in the south is coincident with widespread acceleration of glacier retreat. We conclude that changes in ocean-induced melting are the primary cause of retreat for glaciers in this region
Dynamics of evaporative cooling in magnetically trapped atomic hydrogen
We study the evaporative cooling of magnetically trapped atomic hydrogen on
the basis of the kinetic theory of a Bose gas. The dynamics of trapped atoms is
described by the coupled differential equations, considering both the
evaporation and dipolar spin relaxation processes. The numerical time-evolution
calculations quantitatively agree with the recent experiment of Bose-Einstein
condensation with atomic hydrogen. It is demonstrated that the balance between
evaporative cooling and heating due to dipolar relaxation limits the number of
condensates to 9x10^8 and the corresponding condensate fraction to a small
value of 4% as observed experimentally.Comment: 5 pages, REVTeX, 3 eps figures, Phys. Rev. A in pres
On the Global Existence of Bohmian Mechanics
We show that the particle motion in Bohmian mechanics, given by the solution
of an ordinary differential equation, exists globally: For a large class of
potentials the singularities of the velocity field and infinity will not be
reached in finite time for typical initial values. A substantial part of the
analysis is based on the probabilistic significance of the quantum flux. We
elucidate the connection between the conditions necessary for global existence
and the self-adjointness of the Schr\"odinger Hamiltonian.Comment: 35 pages, LaTe
Mean-field description of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates
We perform numerical simulation based on the time-dependent mean-field
Gross-Pitaevskii equation to understand some aspects of a recent experiment by
Donley et al. on the dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein
condensates of Rb atoms. They manipulated the atomic interaction by an
external magnetic field via a Feshbach resonance, thus changing the repulsive
condensate into an attractive one and vice versa. In the actual experiment they
changed suddenly the scattering length of atomic interaction from positive to a
large negative value on a pre-formed condensate in an axially symmetric trap.
Consequently, the condensate collapses and ejects atoms via explosion. We find
that the present mean-field analysis can explain some aspects of the dynamics
of the collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 9 Latex pages, 10 ps and eps files, version accepted in Physical
Review A, minor changes mad
Emissive spin-0 triplet-pairs are a direct product of tripletâtriplet annihilation in pentacene single crystals and anthradithiophene films
Singlet fission and tripletâtriplet annihilation represent two highly promising ways of increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. Both processes are believed to be mediated by a biexcitonic triplet-pair state, 1(TT). Recently however, there has been debate over the role of 1(TT) in tripletâtriplet annihilation. Here we use intensity-dependent, low-temperature photoluminescence measurements, combined with kinetic modelling, to show that distinct 1(TT) emission arises directly from tripletâtriplet annihilation in high-quality pentacene single crystals and anthradithiophene (diF-TES-ADT) thin films. This work demonstrates that a real, emissive triplet-pair state acts as an intermediate in both singlet fission and tripletâtriplet annihilation and that this is true for both endo- and exothermic singlet fission materials
Meeting reports: Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS): Approach, Challenges, and Strategies
Understanding the complexity of humanânature interactions is central to the quest for both human well-being and global sustainability. To build an understanding of these interactions, scientists, planners, resource managers, policymakers, and communities increasingly are collaborating across wide-ranging disciplines and knowledge domains. Scientists and others are generating new integrated knowledge on top of their requisite specialized knowledge to understand complex systems in order to solve pressing environmental and social problems (e.g., Carpenter et al. 2009). One approach to this sort of integration, bringing together detailed knowledge of various disciplines (e.g., social, economic, biological, and geophysical), has become known as the study of Coupled Human and Natural Systems, or CHANS (Liu et al. 2007a, b).
In 2007 a formal standing program in Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems was created by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Recently, the program supported the launch of an International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS-Net.org). A major kick-off event of the network was a symposium on Complexity in HumanâNature Interactions across Landscapes, which brought together leading CHANS scientists at the 2009 meeting of the U.S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology in Snowbird, Utah. The symposium highlighted original and innovative research emphasizing reciprocal interactions between human and natural systems at multiple spatial, temporal, and organizational scales. The presentations can be found at âčhttp://chans- net.org/Symposium_2009.aspxâș. The symposium was accompanied by a workshop on Challenges and Opportunities in CHANS Research. This article provides an overview of the CHANS approach, outlines the primary challenges facing the CHANS research community, and discusses potential strategies to meet these challenges, based upon the presentations and discussions among participants at the Snowbird meeting
At what scale should we assess the health of pelagic habitats? Trade-offs between small-scale manageable pressures and the need for regional upscaling
Publication history: Accepted - 26 June 2023; Published online - 13 July 2023.Major planktonic lifeforms such as diatoms, dinoflagellates, meroplankton and holoplankton have recently shown significant and alarming changes in abundance - mainly downwards trends - around the northwest European shelf. This has major implications for food web connections and for ecosystem services including seafood provision and carbon storage. We have quantified these changes in abundance for 2006â2019/20 using a Plankton Index (PI) and show that the scale of spatial aggregation is critical to the ability of the PI to detect change, understand causal mechanisms, and provide advice to policymakers. We derived PI statistics in the Celtic and North Seas from data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey offshore and Englandâs Environment Agency inshore using three sets of spatial units: (i) Ecohydrodynamic (EHD) units based on hydro-biogeochemical modelling, (ii) âCOMP4âČ areas based on cluster analysis of satellite data for chlorophyll a and primary productivity, and (iii) English coastal and estuarine Water Framework Directive (WFD) waterbodies. For the largest scale areas, the EHD units (median size 87,000 km2), we find greater change in plankton communities than previously reported, suggesting that these shifts have continued and possibly intensified in recent years. The smaller-scale COMP4 areas (median size 6,700 km2) appear to encompass more spatially coherent changes in plankton community structure than EHD units; at this scale PI values indicate community shifts of greater magnitude. These COMP4 areas provide a reasonable compromise scale for linking offshore plankton communities to large-scale drivers of change such as climate warming. For inshore plankton communities, larger changes are detected at the smaller WFD waterbody scale (median size 11 km2). This scale allows direct links to coastal management measures and is more suitable for linking to land-sourced pressures. Recent integration of the UKâs OSPAR and WFD plankton monitoring data management enables the exploration of changes across spatial scales to develop a holistic understanding of ecosystem health. Regional-sea scale derivation of the PI for coastal waters provides a clear indication that changes are occurring, at least in phytoplankton communities, while localised PI statistics offer an additional layer of information which can be an important tool for linking to localised drivers of change including coastal anthropogenic pressures. Broadscale inshore zooplankton monitoring is needed to evaluate the coastal plankton community holistically; zooplankton communities offshore are also changing but these changes cannot currently be linked to coastal processes. Layering information across spatial scales provides a breadth of system-level understanding beyond what any one typology can provide.This work was supported by the Defra/HBDSEG project ME414135 âDDIPA: Next-level pelagic habitat analysis: Making use of improved data flows to Delve Deeper into Integrated UK Plankton Assessmentâ, and Cefasâ Environment and People science theme. AAâs contribution was also funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through its National Capability Long-term Single Centre Science Programme, Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science, grant number NE/R015953/1, contributing to Theme 3.1âBiological dynamics in a changing Atlantic. EB and MM were additionally supported by the Scottish Governmentâs Schedule of Service ST02GH
Fragmentation processes of ionized 5-fluorouracil in the gas phase and within clusters
We have measured mass spectra for positive ions produced from neutral 5-fluorouracil by electron impact at energies from 0 to 100 eV. Fragment ion appearance energies of this (radio-)chemotherapy agent have been determined for the first time and we have identified several new fragment ions of low abundance. The main fragmentations are similar to uracil, involving HNCO loss and subsequent HCN loss, CO loss, or FCCO loss. The features adjacent to these prominent peaks in the mass spectra are attributed to tautomerization preceding the fragmentation and/or the loss of one or two additional hydrogen atoms. A few fragmentions are distinct for 5-fluorouracil compared to uracil, most notably the production of the reactive moiety CF+. Finally, multiphoton ionization mass spectra are compared for 5-fluorouracil from a laser thermal desorption source and from a supersonic expansion source. The detection of a new fragment ion at 114 u in the supersonic expansion experiments provides the first evidence for a clustering effect on the radiation response of 5-fluorouracil. By analogy with previous experiments and calculations on protonated uracil, this is assigned to NH3 loss from protonated 5-fluorouracil
E-retailing ethics in Egypt and its effect on customer repurchase intention
The theoretical understanding of online shopping behaviour has received much attention. Less focus has been given to the formation of the ethical issues that result from online shopper interactions with e-retailers. The vast majority of earlier research on this area is conceptual in nature and limited in scope by focusing on consumersâ privacy issues. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model explaining what factors contribute to online retailing ethics and its effect on customer repurchase intention. The data were analysed using variance-based structural equation modelling, employing partial least squares regression. Findings indicate that the five factors of the online retailing ethics (security, privacy, non- deception, fulfilment/reliability, and corporate social responsibility) are strongly predictive of online consumersâ repurchase intention. The results offer important implications for e-retailers and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of e-ethics from the consumersâ perspective
- âŠ