The HI Environment of Nearby Lyman-alpha Absorbers

We present the results of a VLA and WSRT search for HI emission from the vicinity of seven nearby clouds, which were observed in Lya absorption with HST toward Mrk335, Mrk501 and PKS2155-304. We searched a volume of 40' x 40' x 1000 km/s. The HI mass sensitivity (5 sigma) varies from 5x10^6 to 5x10^8 Msun. We detected HI emission in the vicinity of four out of seven absorbers. The closest galaxy is a small dwarf galaxy at a projected distance of 68/h kpc from the sight line toward Mrk335. It has the same velocity (V=1970 km/s) as one of the absorbers, and has an HI mass of only 4x10^7 Msun. We found a more luminous galaxy at the velocity (V=5100 km/s) of one of the absorbers toward PKS2155-304, 230/h kpc from the sight line. Two other, stronger absorbers toward PKS2155-304 at V=17,000 km/s are associated with a loose group of three bright spiral galaxies, at projected distances of 300 to 600/h kpc. These results support the conclusion that most nearby Lya forest clouds trace the large-scale structures outlined by optically luminous galaxies. We do not find any evidence for a physical association between an absorber and its closest galaxy.Comment: 4 Tables, 11 Figures, to be published in Astron J. (Oct 1996) Vol 11

How Do Consumers Use Nutrition Labels on Food Products in the United States?

This study examined how consumers use food labels in the United States. Based on the results from the cluster analysis, eight nutrition label questions from the Health and Diet Survey fell into 2 categories of label usage: for shopping or for dietary decisions. Survey respondents reported equal or more consideration of nutrition-label information for dietary choices than for shopping decisions in 2008 compared with prior survey years. Female consumers, frequent label users, well-educated, consumers aged 50 to 59, or consumers with any health issues were significantly more likely to use food labels for all kinds of purposes than their corresponding counterparts

Ladder operators and coherent states for continuous spectra

The notion of ladder operators is introduced for systems with continuous spectra. We identify two different kinds of annihilation operators allowing the definition of coherent states as modified "eigenvectors" of these operators. Axioms of Gazeau-Klauder are maintained throughout the construction.Comment: Typos correcte