Thermal Dileptons from Hot and Dense Strongly Interacting Matter

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied muon-pair production in 158A GeV In-In collisions. The unprecedented precision of the data has allowed to isolate a strong excess of pairs above the known sources in the whole invariant mass region 0.2<M<2.6 GeV. The (mostly) Planck-like shape of the mass spectra, exponential m_T spectra, zero polarization and the general agreement with thermal-model results allow for a consistent interpretation of the excess dimuons as thermal radiation from a randomized system. For M<1 GeV, the process pi+pi- -> rho -> mu+mu- dominates. The associated space-time averaged rho spectral function shows a nearly diverging width in approaching chiral symmetry restoration, but essentially no shift in mass. Some in-medium effects are also seen for the omega, but not for the phi. For M>1 GeV, the average temperature associated with the mass spectrum is about 200 MeV, considerably above T_c=170 MeV, implying a transition to dominantly partonic emission sources in this region. The transition itself is mirrored by a large jump-like drop in the inverse slope of the transverse mass spectra around 1 GeV.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of Chiral 2010 (Valencia, June 21-24, 2010

Experimental Conference Summary

Experimental summary talk given at International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2001), Stony Brook, New York, 15-20 Jan 2001.Comment: Proceedings of a summary talk given at International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2001), Stony Brook, New York, 15-20 Jan 200

Teaching vicarious trauma in the journalism classroom: an examination of educational provision in UK Universities

The connections between vicarious trauma and the viewing of violent User-Generated Content are becoming an increasingly important topic in journalism. As more journalist work begins to rely, or at least incorporate UGC, the risks to journalists have been shown to increase. This can lead to short, unpleasant careers, and in some cases, serious, long lasting mental health risks. Yet while this discussion is beginning to unfold in the newsroom, universities are lagging behind in their understanding of the topic. This paper, through content analysis of undergraduate course materials, and through interviews with lecturers and journalists, found that almost no course in the UK is teaching the risks of vicarious trauma or UGC. It was found that while some educators wish to make more of the topic, a number of institutional factors, such as lack of training and time, worries over duty of care, and available resources make this a difficult, if not impossible task. The paper recommends a new emphasis is placed on vicarious trauma, coupled with training and interdepartmental support

Helminth infections: enabling the World Health Organization road map

Helminthiases are considered among the most persistent public health problems. Control and/or elimination remains a global health challenge and the World Health Organization Road Map highlights critical gaps and actions required to reach the 2030 targets, among them the need for new and more effective treatment options. Stronger collaborations across different fields are required to reach these goals. The helminth elimination platform is one example of how knowledge of two different disease areas can be aligned to fuse expertise and break disease silos

Research Notes: Evaluation of some soybean isolines in irrigation culture

About 9% of the total soybean acreage and about 50% of the total corn acreage in Nebraska was irrigated at least once during the growing season in 1975. The 1975 state averages for irrigated soybeans and irrigated corn were 2220 and 7605 kg/ha respectively. Obviously, this yield differential (in relation to the price and production cost differentials) accounts for the reason most farmers utilize their irrigated acreage for corn rather than soybeans

Local texture and percolative paths for long-range conduction in high critical current density TlBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O₈₊ₓ deposits

©1994 American Institute of Physics. The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/64/106/1DOI:10.1063/1.110908A possible microstructural origin of the high critical current densities which have been obtained in c-axis-aligned, polycrystalline TlBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O₈₊ₓdeposits has been identified. The results of x-ray diffraction determinations of basal plane texture of Tl-1223 deposits prepared by spray pyrolysis are observed to depend on the size of the x-ray beam. Furthermore, most grain boundaries were found from transmission electron microscopy to have small misorientation angles. It is concluded that although overall the basal plane orientations are nearly random, there is a high degree of local texture indicative of colonies of similarly oriented grains. The spread in a-axis orientation within a colony is ~10°–15°. Intercolony conduction, it is suggested, may be enhanced by a percolative network of small-angle grain boundaries at colony interfaces

Photon-Photon Entanglement with a Single Trapped Atom

An experiment is performed where a single rubidium atom trapped within a high-finesse optical cavity emits two independently triggered entangled photons. The entanglement is mediated by the atom and is characterized both by a Bell inequality violation of S=2.5, as well as full quantum-state tomography, resulting in a fidelity exceeding F=90%. The combination of cavity-QED and trapped atom techniques makes our protocol inherently deterministic - an essential step for the generation of scalable entanglement between the nodes of a distributed quantum network.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Agricultural Communications: A National Portrait of Undergraduate Courses

Considerable research has been conducted regarding competencies needed by agricultural communication program graduates during the past four decades. However, no studies have considered actual program offerings. This study used a qualitative approach to analyze courses offered in agricultural communication programs in the United States. Using content analysis methods, researchers analyzed published course descriptions and discovered 21 categories among 172 courses. Most popular were writing courses, followed by courses introducing students to the major, internship courses, and writing for publication and graphic design courses. Categories with the fewest offerings included research, study abroad, and international focused courses. Findings from this analysis are consistent with previous literature noting the variety existing in agricultural communication programs at the national level. With the current growth of agricultural communication as an academic discipline and the fundamental role agricultural communicators play in sharing information about key societal issues at a time when agriculture has never been under greater pressure, this study is a first step in creating a national portrait of curricular offerings in agricultural communication programs