Triton's global heat budget

Internal heat flow from radioactive decay in Triton's interior along with absorbed thermal energy from Neptune total 5 to 20 percent of the insolation absorbed by Triton, thus comprising a significant fraction of Triton's surface energy balance. These additional energy inputs can raise Triton's surface temperature between approx. 0.5 to 1.5 K above that possible with absorbed sunlight alone, resulting in a factor of approx. 1.5 to 2.5 increase in Triton's basal atmospheric pressure. If Triton's internal heatflow is concentrated in some areas, as is likely, local effects such as enhanced sublimation with subsequent modification of albedo could be quite large. Furthermore, indications of recent albedo change on Triton suggest that Triton's surface temperature and pressure may not now be in steady state, further suggesting that atmospheric pressure on Triton was as much as 10 times higher in the recent past

Gender, Professional Orientation, and Student Achievement: Elements of School Culture

This study explored the relationships between professional orientation (defined as how the principal sees his or her role in the organization) and school culture, the influence of gender on professional orientation, and the relationship between school culture and the academic achievement of students. One hundred principals were surveyed. Two instruments, the Professional Orientation and the School Culture Survey were completed. The results were analyzed using linear regression statistics to determine (a) gender and professional orientation effect on the factors of school culture, and (b) if factors of school culture had an effect on student success in the elementary school. Findings of this study suggested that the professional orientation of the principal does appear to have a significant effect on school culture. In addition, professional orientation choices do vary in ways that can be connected to gender. Of the six school culture factors, only learning partnership appears to have any significant effect on student achievement

The quantitative soil pit method for measuring belowground carbon and nitrogen stocks

Many important questions in ecosystem science require estimates of stocks of soil C and nutrients. Quantitative soil pits provide direct measurements of total soil mass and elemental content in depth-based samples representative of large volumes, bypassing potential errors associated with independently measuring soil bulk density, rock volume, and elemental concentrations. The method also allows relatively unbiased sampling of other belowground C and nutrient stocks, including roots, coarse organic fragments, and rocks. We present a comprehensive methodology for sampling these pools with quantitative pits and assess their accuracy, precision, effort, and sampling intensity as compared to other methods. At 14 forested sites in New Hampshire, nonsoil belowground pools (which other methods may omit, double-count, or undercount) accounted for upward of 25% of total belowground C and N stocks: coarse material accounted for 4 and 1% of C and N in the O horizon; roots were 11 and 4% of C and N in the O horizon and 10 and 3% of C and N in the B horizon; and soil adhering to rocks represented 5% of total B-horizon C and N. The top 50 cm of the C horizon contained the equivalent of 17% of B-horizon carbon and N. Sampling procedures should be carefully designed to avoid treating these important pools inconsistently. Quantitative soil pits have fewer sources of systematic error than coring methods; the main disadvantage is that because they are time-consuming and create a larger zone of disturbance, fewer observations can be made than with cores

A study of rotating globular clusters - the case of the old, metal-poor globular cluster NGC 4372

Aims: We present the first in-depth study of the kinematic properties and derive the structural parameters of NGC 4372 based on the fit of a Plummer profile and a rotating, physical model. We explore the link between internal rotation to different cluster properties and together with similar studies of more GCs, we put these in the context of globular cluster formation and evolution. Methods: We present radial velocities for 131 cluster member stars measured from high-resolution FLAMES/GIRAFFE observations. Their membership to the GC is additionally confirmed from precise metallicity estimates. Using this kinematic data set we build a velocity dispersion profile and a systemic rotation curve. Additionally, we obtain an elliptical number density profile of NGC 4372 based on optical images using a MCMC fitting algorithm. From this we derive the cluster's half-light radius and ellipticity as r_h=3.4'+/-0.04' and e=0.08+/-0.01. Finally, we give a physical interpretation of the observed morphological and kinematic properties of this GC by fitting an axisymmetric, differentially rotating, dynamical model. Results: Our results show that NGC 4372 has an unusually high ratio of rotation amplitude to velocity dispersion (1.2 vs. 4.5 km/s) for its metallicity. This, however, puts it in line with two other exceptional, very metal-poor GCs - M 15 and NGC 4590. We also find a mild flattening of NGC 4372 in the direction of its rotation. Given its old age, this suggests that the flattening is indeed caused by the systemic rotation rather than tidal interactions with the Galaxy. Additionally, we estimate the dynamical mass of the GC M_dyn=2.0+/-0.5 x 10^5 M_Sun based on the dynamical model, which constrains the mass-to-light ratio of NGC 4372 between 1.4 and 2.3 M_Sun/L_Sun, representative of an old, purely stellar population.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 12 pages, 14 figures, 2 table

General Practitioner Autism Training and Mandatory Medical Training: A Cross-Sectional Study of GPs’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices

Numerous physical conditions appear with increased frequency in autistic individuals in comparison to their non-autistic peers. These co-existing conditions are known to lead to higher morbidity, lower quality of life, and lower life expectancy in autisticadults. There is substantial evidence in the literature that many, if not most, General Practitioners (GPs) in the United Kingdom do not have the necessary understanding of autism to enable them to offer the same standard of service to their autistic patients that their non-autistic patients receive. This research project was set up, inter alia, to explore the attitudes of GPs to the introduction of autism training and the contentious issue of making GP training on any subject mandatory rather than voluntary. We wanted to better understand how autism training for GPs might be developed to maximise "take-up" and “buy-in” given that the demands on their time, including training demands, are such that autism is only one of many conditions vying for training time and mandatory training is anathema to many GPs. Key findings were that nearly three quarters of our respondents strongly agreed that training in autism is important for GPs, the same percentage of our participants had received little or no formal autismtraining, and there was a general dislike of any training being made mandatory. Training should be focused on barriers faced by autistic people in accessing healthcare as well as on autism as a medical condition. No respondent had received a significant level of training in autism although 40% of participants who had received training had been trained by an autistic individual

Public Price Reporting, Marketing Channel Selection, and Price Discovery: The Perspective of Cow/Calf Producers in the Dakotas

Cow/calf producers operating in the Dakotas were surveyed on their price discovery strategies, marketing channel preferences, and their perceptions of how regime change in the public price reporting system for fed cattle affected the beef industry in general and the cow/calf industry in particular. Survey results indicate cow/calf producers consider local institutions (auction barns, etc.) to be more reliable for price discovery than regional or national institutions (futures market, USDA public price reports, satellite auctions, etc.). The auction barn marketing channel is the preferred channel for marketing cattle and is considered the most reliable source of market information by producers. Dakota cow/calf producers perceive livestock mandatory price reporting as benefiting the beef industry in general, but consider public price reports to be less reliable than local sources of market information.beef supply chain, cow-calf marketing, marketing channel, price discovery, public price reporting, Livestock Production/Industries,

The Effect of Early vs. Normal Calf Weaning on Feedlot Performance and Herd Management: A Cross-Discipline Case Study

A study of early vs. normal weaning of calves concludes that early weaning improves feedlot production efficiency, reducing per day and per pound feedlot production costs. Early weaned steers finished higher thus feedlot profitability was not affected. Early weaning has a positive affect on cow health and pasture utilization rates.Livestock Production/Industries,

Efficient construction of maximally localized photonic Wannier functions: locality criterion and initial conditions

Wannier function expansions are well suited for the description of photonic- crystal-based defect structures, but constructing maximally localized Wannier functions by optimizing the phase degree of freedom of the Bloch modes is crucial for the efficiency of the approach. We systematically analyze different locality criteria for maximally localized Wannier functions in two- dimensional square and triangular lattice photonic crystals, employing (local) conjugate-gradient as well as (global) genetic-algorithm-based, stochastic methods. Besides the commonly used second moment (SM) locality measure, we introduce a new locality measure, namely the integrated modulus (IM) of the Wannier function. We show numerically that, in contrast to the SM criterion, the IM criterion leads to an optimization problem with a single extremum, thus allowing for fast and efficient construction of maximally localized Wannier functions using local optimization techniques. We also present an analytical formula for the initial choice of Bloch phases, which under certain conditions represents the global maximum of the IM criterion and, thus, further increases the optimization efficiency in the general case

Elastic contact between self-affine surfaces: Comparison of numerical stress and contact correlation functions with analytic predictions

Contact between an elastic manifold and a rigid substrate with a self-affine fractal surface is reinvestigated with Green's function molecular dynamics. Stress and contact autocorrelation functions (ACFs) are found to decrease algebraically. A rationale is provided for the observed similarity in the exponents for stress and contact ACFs. Both exponents differ substantially from analytic predictions over the range of Hurst roughness exponents studied. The effect of increasing the range of interactions from a hard sphere repulsion to exponential decay is analyzed. Results for exponential interactions are accurately described by recent systematic corrections to Persson's contact mechanics theory. The relation between the area of simply connected contact patches and the normal force is also studied. Below a threshold size the contact area and force are consistent with Hertzian contact mechanics, while area and force are linearly related in larger contact patches.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure