1,578 research outputs found
Tidal Evolution of Close-in Extra-Solar Planets
The distribution of eccentricities e of extra-solar planets with semi-major
axes a > 0.2 AU is very uniform, and values for e are relatively large,
averaging 0.3 and broadly distributed up to near 1. For a < 0.2 AU,
eccentricities are much smaller (most e < 0.2), a characteristic widely
attributed to damping by tides after the planets formed and the protoplanetary
gas disk dissipated. Most previous estimates of the tidal damping considered
the tides raised on the planets, but ignored the tides raised on the stars.
Most also assumed specific values for the planets' poorly constrained tidal
dissipation parameter Qp. Perhaps most important, in many studies, the strongly
coupled evolution between e and a was ignored. We have now integrated the
coupled tidal evolution equations for e and a over the estimated age of each
planet, and confirmed that the distribution of initial e values of close-in
planets matches that of the general population for reasonable Q values, with
the best fits for stellar and planetary Q being ~10^5.5 and ~10^6.5,
respectively. The accompanying evolution of a values shows most close-in
planets had significantly larger a at the start of tidal migration. The earlier
gas disk migration did not bring all planets to their current orbits. The
current small values of a were only reached gradually due to tides over the
lifetimes of the planets. These results may have important implications for
planet formation models, atmospheric models of "hot Jupiters", and the success
of transit surveys.Comment: accepted to Ap
Tides and the Evolution of Planetary Habitability
Tides raised on a planet by its host star's gravity can reduce a planet's
orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity. This effect is only relevant for
planets orbiting very close to their host stars. The habitable zones of
low-mass stars are also close-in and tides can alter the orbits of planets in
these locations. We calculate the tidal evolution of hypothetical terrestrial
planets around low-mass stars and show that tides can evolve planets past the
inner edge of the habitable zone, sometimes in less than 1 billion years. This
migration requires large eccentricities (>0.5) and low-mass stars (<0.35
M_Sun). Such migration may have important implications for the evolution of the
atmosphere, internal heating and the Gaia hypothesis. Similarly, a planet
detected interior to the habitable zone could have been habitable in the past.
We consider the past habitability of the recently-discovered, ~5 M_Earth
planet, Gliese 581 c. We find that it could have been habitable for reasonable
choices of orbital and physical properties as recently as 2 Gyr ago. However,
when we include constraints derived from the additional companions, we see that
most parameter choices that predict past habitability require the two inner
planets of the system to have crossed their mutual 3:1 mean motion resonance.
As this crossing would likely have resulted in resonance capture, which is not
observed, we conclude that Gl 581 c was probably never habitable.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, accepted to Astrobiology. A version with full
resolution figures is available at
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rory/publications/brjg07.pd
Understanding arsenic dynamics in agronomic systems to predict and prevent uptake by crop plants
This review is on arsenic in agronomic systems, and covers processes that influence the entry of arsenic into the human food supply. The scope is from sources of arsenic (natural and anthropogenic) in soils, biogeochemical and rhizosphere processes that control arsenic speciation and availability, through to mechanisms of uptake by crop plants and potential mitigation strategies. This review makes a case for taking steps to prevent or limit crop uptake of arsenic, wherever possible, and to work toward a long-term solution to the presence of arsenic in agronomic systems. The past two decades have seen important advances in our understanding of how biogeochemical and physiological processes influence human exposure to soil arsenic, and this must now prompt an informed reconsideration and unification of regulations to protect the quality of agricultural and residential soils
The impact of biofilms upon surfaces relevant to an intermediate level radioactive waste geological disposal facility under simulated near field conditions.
The ability of biofilms to form on a range of materials (cementious backfill (Nirex Reference Vault Backfill (NRVB)), graphite and stainless steel) relevant to potential UK intermediate level radioactive waste (ILW) disposal concepts was investigated by exposing these surfaces to alkaliphilic flocs generated by mature biofilm communities. Flocs are aggregates of biofilm material that are able to act as a transport vector for the propagation of biofilms.. In systems where biofilm formation was observed there was also a decrease in the sorption of isosaccharinic acids to the NRVB. The biofilms were composed of cells, extracellular DNA (eDNA), proteins and lipids with a smaller polysaccharide fraction, which was biased towards mannopyranosyl linked carbohydrates. The same trend was seen with the graphite and stainless steel surfaces at these pH values, but in this case the biofilms associated with the stainless steel surfaces had a distinct eDNA basal layer that anchored the biofilm to the surface. At pH 13 no structured biofilm was observed, rather all the surfaces accumulated an indistinct organic layer composed of biofilm materials. This was particularly the case for the stainless steel coupons which accumulated relatively large quantities of eDNA. The results demonstrate that there is the potential for biofilm formation in an ILW-GDF provided an initiation source for the microbial biofilm is present. They also suggest that even when conditions are too harsh for biofilm formation, exposed surfaces may accumulate organic material such as eDNA
The Off-Shell Electromagnetic T-matrix: momentum-dependent scattering from spherical inclusions with both dielectric and magnetic contrast
The momentum- and frequency-dependent T-matrix operator for the scattering of
electromagnetic waves by a dielectric/conducting and para- or diamagnetic
sphere is derived as a Mie-type series, and presented in a compact form
emphasizing various symmetry properties, notably the unitarity identity. This
result extends to magnetic properties one previously obtained for purely
dielectric contrasts by other authors. Several situations useful to
spatially-dispersive effective-medium approximations to one-body order are
examined. Partial summation of the Mie series is achieved in the case of
elastic scattering.Comment: 22 pages. Preprint of a paper to appear in `Waves in Complex And
Random Media' ((c) Taylor and Francis, 2011
Spatial and vertical distribution of mercury in upland forest soils across the northeastern United States
Assessing current Hg pools in forest soils of the northeastern U.S. is important for monitoring changes in Hg cycling. The forest floor, upper and lower mineral horizons were sampled at 17 long-term upland forest sites across the northeastern U.S. in 2011. Forest floor Hg concentration was similar across the study region (274 +/- 13 mu g kg(-1)) while Hg amount at northern sites (39 +/- g ha(-1)) was significantly greater than at western sites (11 +/- 4 g ha(-1)). Forest floor Hg was correlated with soil organic matter, soil pH, latitude and mean annual precipitation and these variables explained approximately 70% of the variability when multiple regressed. Mercury concentration and amount in the lower mineral soil was correlated with Fe, soil organic matter and latitude, corresponding with Bs horizons of Spodosols (Podzols). Our analysis shows the importance of regional and soil properties on Hg accumulation in forest soils. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Association between furosemide in premature infants and sensorineural hearing loss and nephrocalcinosis: a systematic review
Abstract
Furosemide is a potent loop diuretic commonly and variably used by neonatologists to improve oxygenation and lung compliance in premature infants. There are several safety concerns with use of furosemide in premature infants, specifically the risk of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), and nephrocalcinosis/nephrolithiasis (NC/NL). We conducted a systematic review of all trials and observational studies examining the association between these outcomes with exposure to furosemide in premature infants.
We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and
clinicaltrials.gov
. We included studies reporting either SNHL or NC/NL in premature infants (< 37 weeks completed gestational age) who received at least one dose of enteral or intravenous furosemide. Thirty-two studies met full inclusion criteria for the review, including 12 studies examining SNHL and 20 studies examining NC/NL. Only one randomized controlled trial was identified in this review. We found no evidence that furosemide exposure increases the risk of SNHL or NC/NL in premature infants, with varying quality of studies and found the strength of evidence for both outcomes to be low. The most common limitation in these studies was the lack of control for confounding factors.
The evidence for the risk of SNHL and NC/NL in premature infants exposed to furosemide is low. Further randomized controlled trials of furosemide in premature infants are urgently needed to adequately assess the risk of SNHL and NC/NL, provide evidence for improved FDA labeling, and promote safer prescribing practices.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146523/1/40748_2018_Article_92.pd
Classical 5D fields generated by a uniformly accelerated point source
Gauge fields associated with the manifestly covariant dynamics of particles
in spacetime are five-dimensional. In this paper we explore the old
problem of fields generated by a source undergoing hyperbolic motion in this
framework. The 5D fields are computed numerically using absolute time
-retarded Green-functions, and qualitatively compared with Maxwell fields
generated by the same motion. We find that although the zero mode of all fields
coincides with the corresponding Maxwell problem, the non-zero mode should
affect, through the Lorentz force, the observed motion of test particles.Comment: 36 pages, 8 figure
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