233 research outputs found
Standstill
This is a short story about a girl getting in touch with life at a concert
Essays on sustainable agriculture: Studies on water, deforestation and family farming
This cumulative dissertation comprises three independent studies concerning fundamental topics of sustainable agriculture. Chapter 2 draws from the absence of water data, which limits the development of economic models gauging water scarcity impacts. The paper makes a central contribution by developing an in-depth description of national statistics, international and global water databases. Chapter 3 concerns the relationship between deforestation data and widely used institutional indices. The paper offers empirical-based evidence about the relationship between governmental performance, public corruption perception and forest resources. Moreover, computer-intensive data management was employed to convert georeferenced raster data into a format compatible with economic statistical software and enable sample replications of large original data. Chapter 4 investigates the presence of spatial spillovers as providing beneficial opportunities to family farming credit in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit rationing is argued to target wealthier farmers engaged in livestock production while neglecting those producing crops. The paper employs a spatial Durbin error model of credit acquisition for husbandry and agricultural systems in 103 microregions. To enhance the paperâs discussion, 35 semi-structured interviews with key informants were conducted
The Solar Neighborhood XIII: Parallax Results from the CTIOPI 0.9-m Program -- Stars with mu >= 1"/year (MOTION Sample)
We present the first set of definitive trigonometric parallaxes and proper
motions from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Parallax Investigation
(CTIOPI). Full astrometric reductions for the program are discussed, including
methods of reference stars selection, differential color refraction
corrections, and conversion of relative to absolute parallax. Using data
acquired at the 0.9-m at CTIO, full astrometric solutions and
photometry are presented for 36 red and white dwarf stellar systems with proper
motions faster than 1\farcs0/yr. Of these, thirty three systems have the first
ever trigonometric parallaxes, which comprise 41% of MOTION systems (those with
proper motions greater than 1\farcs0/yr) south of 0 that have no
parallaxes. Four of the systems are new members of the RECONS 10 pc sample for
which the first accurate trigonometric parallaxes are published here: DENIS
J1048-3956 (4.04 0.03 pc), GJ 1128 (LHS 271, 6.53 0.10 pc), GJ 1068
(LHS 22, 6.97 0.09 pc), and GJ 1123 (LHS 263, 9.02 0.16 pc). In
addition, two red subdwarf-white dwarf pairs, LHS 193AB and LHS 300AB, are
identified. The white dwarf secondaries fall in a previously uncharted region
of the HR diagram.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, accepted to The Astronomical Journal (scheduled
for April 2005 issue), Re-submit, Table 2 running off the bottom of the page
has been fixe
IGUANA Architecture, Framework and Toolkit for Interactive Graphics
IGUANA is a generic interactive visualisation framework based on a C++
component model. It provides powerful user interface and visualisation
primitives in a way that is not tied to any particular physics experiment or
detector design. The article describes interactive visualisation tools built
using IGUANA for the CMS and D0 experiments, as well as generic GEANT4 and
GEANT3 applications. It covers features of the graphical user interfaces, 3D
and 2D graphics, high-quality vector graphics output for print media, various
textual, tabular and hierarchical data views, and integration with the
application through control panels, a command line and different
multi-threading models.Comment: Presented at the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
(CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 6 pages LaTeX, 4 eps figures. PSN
MOLT008 More and higher res figs at
http://iguana.web.cern.ch/iguana/snapshot/main/gallery.htm
The Solar Neighborhood XLII. Parallax Results from the CTIOPI 0.9-m Program --- Identifying New Nearby Subdwarfs Using Tangential Velocities and Locations on the H-R Diagram
Parallaxes, proper motions, and optical photometry are presented for 51
systems made up 37 cool subdwarf and 14 additional high proper motion systems.
Thirty-seven systems have parallaxes reported for the first time, 15 of which
have proper motions of at least 1"/yr. The sample includes 22 newly identified
cool subdwarfs within 100 pc, of which three are within 25 pc, and an
additional five subdwarfs from 100-160 pc. Two systems --- LSR 1610-0040 AB and
LHS 440 AB --- are close binaries exhibiting clear astrometric perturbations
that will ultimately provide important masses for cool subdwarfs.
We use the accurate parallaxes and proper motions provided here, combined
with additional data from our program and others to determine that effectively
all nearby stars with tangential velocities greater than 200 km s are
subdwarfs. We compare a sample of 167 confirmed cool subdwarfs to nearby main
sequence dwarfs and Pleiades members on an observational Hertzsprung-Russell
diagram using vs.~ to map trends of age and metallicity. We
find that subdwarfs are clearly separated for spectral types K5--M5, indicating
that the low metallicities of subdwarfs set them apart in the H-R diagram for
= 3--6. We then apply the tangential velocity cutoff and the
subdwarf region of the H-R diagram to stars with parallaxes from {\it Gaia}
Data Release 1 and the MEarth Project to identify a total of 29 new nearby
subdwarf candidates that fall clearly below the main sequence.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomical Journa
Feasibility of an Infrared Parallax Program Using the Fan Mountain Tinsley Reflector
Despite the continuing importance of ground-based parallax measurements, few
active programs remain. Because new members of the solar neighborhood tend
towards later spectral types, infrared parallax programs are particularly
desirable. Consequently, the astrometric quality of the new infrared camera,
FanCam, developed by the Virginia Astronomical Instrumentation Laboratory
(VAIL) for the 31-in (0.8-m) Tinsley reflector at Fan Mountain Observatory was
assessed using 68 J-band exposures of an open cluster, NGC 2420, over a range
of hour angles during 2005. Positions of 16 astrometric evaluation stars were
measured and the repeatability of those positions was evaluated using the mean
error in a single observation of unit weight. Overall, a precision of 1.3 +/-
0.7 microns in x (RA) and 1.3 +/- 0.8 microns in y (Dec) was attained, which
corresponds to 0.04" +/- 0.02" in each axis. Although greater precision is
expected from CCDs in the visual and near-infrared, this instrument can achieve
precision similar to that of the ESO NTT infrared parallax program. Therefore,
measuring parallaxes in the infrared would be feasible using this equipment. If
initiated, such a program could provide essential distances for brown dwarfs
and very low mass stars that would contribute significantly to the solar
neighborhood census.Comment: accepted by New Astronomy, minor revisions per refere
Learning By Living: Empathy Learned Through An Extended Medical Education Immersion Project
Introduction: Medical student training and experiences in nursing homes are often viewed as negative; however, long-term care services represent a growing aspect of our medical system that receives little attention in medical education. The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine Learning by Living Nursing Home Immersion Project accelerates students learning about older adult care and the importance of empathy. Methods: Learning by Living applies qualitative ethnographic/autobiographic research methods to answer the question: âWhat is it like for me to live the life of an older adult nursing home resident?â Two first year medical students (female, 25 y/o & male, 27 y/o) were âadmittedâ into two different nursing homes for 11 days each. The students were wheelchair reliant from their assigned diagnoses of dominant-side paralysis secondary to stroke and aspiration pneumonia; requiring standard procedures of care experienced by older adults residents with similar conditions. Data were collected in the form of journal notes for pre-fieldwork, fieldwork, and post-fieldwork and included subjective and objective reporting of observations, experiences, and resident encounters. Analyses included journal review and thematic categorization and coding through content analysis. Results: Four themes of significance intersected for the two medical students: 1) control; 2) quality of life; 3) communication; and 4) isolation. Being immersed in nursing home life provided the students with firsthand experiences of loss and challenges faced by nursing home residents. This aided studentsâ learning about empathy and communication as key components of providing health care. Conclusion: This experience imparted knowledge to the medical studentsâ about aging, dignity, and the importance of making meaningful connections in order to thrive. These insights provided a gateway to establish a model of patient-centered care that is comprehensive and empathic for the older adult population
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