27,875 research outputs found
Sustainable Soesterkwartier
The municipality of Amersfoort wants to construct an endurable and sustainable eco-town in the Soesterkwartier neighbourhood, by taking future climate change into account. The impact of climate change at the location of the proposed eco-town was studied by a literature review
The Central Region in M100: Observations and Modeling
We present new high-resolution observations of the center of the late-type
spiral M100 (NGC 4321) supplemented by 3D numerical modeling of stellar and gas
dynamics, including star formation (SF). NIR imaging has revealed a stellar
bar, previously inferred from optical and 21 cm observations, and an
ovally-shaped ring-like structure in the plane of the disk. The K isophotes
become progressively elongated and skewed to the position angle of the bar
(outside and inside the `ring') forming an inner bar-like region. The galaxy
exhibits a circumnuclear starburst in the inner part of the K `ring'. Two
maxima of the K emission have been observed to lie symmetrically with respect
to the nucleus and equidistant from it slightly leading the stellar bar. We
interpret the twists in the K isophotes as being indicative of the presence of
a double inner Lindblad resonance (ILR) and test this hypothesis by modeling
the gas flow in a self-consistent gas + stars disk embedded in a halo, with an
overall NGC4321-like mass distribution. We have reproduced the basic morphology
of the region (the bar, the large scale trailing shocks, two symmetric K peaks
corresponding to gas compression maxima which lie at the caustic formed by the
interaction of a pair of trailing and leading shocks in the vicinity of the
inner ILR, both peaks being sites of SF, and two additional zones of SF
corresponding to the gas compression maxima, referred usually as `twin peaks').Comment: 31 pages, postscript, compressed, uuencoded. 21 figures available in
postscript, compressed form by anonymous ftp from
ftp://asta.pa.uky.edu/shlosman/main100 , mget *.ps.Z. To appear in Ap.
Within- and between-pen transmission of Classical Swine Fever Virus: a new method to estimate the basic reproduction ratio from transmission experiments
We present a method to estimate basic reproduction ratio R0 from transmission experiments. By using previously published data of experiments with Classical Swine Fever Virus more extensively, we obtained smaller confidence intervals than the martingale method used in the original papers. Moreover, our method allows simultaneous estimation of a reproduction ratio within pens R0w and a modified reproduction ratio between pens R'0b. Resulting estimates of R0w and R'0b for weaner pigs were 100 (95% CI 54.4-186) and 7.77 (4.68-12.9), respectively. For slaughter pigs they were 15.5 (6.20-38.7) and 3.39 (1.54-7.45), respectively. We believe, because of the smaller confidence intervals we were able to obtain, that the method presented here is better suited for use in future experiments
Altered brainstem responses to modafinil in schizophrenia: implications for adjunctive treatment of cognition.
Candidate pro-cognitive drugs for schizophrenia targeting several neurochemical systems have consistently failed to demonstrate robust efficacy. It remains untested whether concurrent antipsychotic medications exert pharmacodynamic interactions that mitigate pro-cognitive action in patients. We used functional MRI (fMRI) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject crossover test of single-dose modafinil effects in 27 medicated schizophrenia patients, interrogating brainstem regions where catecholamine systems arise to innervate the cortex, to link cellular and systems-level models of cognitive control. Modafinil effects were evaluated both within this patient group and compared to a healthy subject group. Modafinil modulated activity in the locus coeruleus (LC) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) in the patient group. However, compared to the healthy comparison group, these effects were altered as a function of task demands: the control-independent drug effect on deactivation was relatively attenuated (shallower) in the LC and exaggerated (deeper) in the VTA; in contrast, again compared to the comparison group, the control-related drug effects on positive activation were attenuated in LC, VTA and the cortical cognitive control network. These altered effects in the LC and VTA were significantly and specifically associated with the degree of antagonism of alpha-2 adrenergic and dopamine-2 receptors, respectively, by concurrently prescribed antipsychotics. These sources of evidence suggest interacting effects on catecholamine neurons of chronic antipsychotic treatment, which respectively increase and decrease sustained neuronal activity in LC and VTA. This is the first direct evidence in a clinical population to suggest that antipsychotic medications alter catecholamine neuronal activity to mitigate pro-cognitive drug action on cortical circuits
Critical currents for vortex defect motion in superconducting arrays
We study numerically the motion of vortices in two-dimensional arrays of
resistively shunted Josephson junctions. An extra vortex is created in the
ground states by introducing novel boundary conditions and made mobile by
applying external currents. We then measure critical currents and the
corresponding pinning energy barriers to vortex motion, which in the
unfrustrated case agree well with previous theoretical and experimental
findings. In the fully frustrated case our results also give good agreement
with experimental ones, in sharp contrast with the existing theoretical
prediction. A physical explanation is provided in relation with the vortex
motion observed in simulations.Comment: To appear in Physical Review
Intelligent multimedia indexing and retrieval through multi-source information extraction and merging
This paper reports work on automated meta-data\ud
creation for multimedia content. The approach results\ud
in the generation of a conceptual index of\ud
the content which may then be searched via semantic\ud
categories instead of keywords. The novelty\ud
of the work is to exploit multiple sources of\ud
information relating to video content (in this case\ud
the rich range of sources covering important sports\ud
events). News, commentaries and web reports covering\ud
international football games in multiple languages\ud
and multiple modalities is analysed and the\ud
resultant data merged. This merging process leads\ud
to increased accuracy relative to individual sources
Defect Motion and Lattice Pinning Barrier in Josephson-Junction Ladders
We study motion of domain wall defects in a fully frustrated
Josephson-unction ladder system, driven by small applied currents. For small
system sizes, the energy barrier E_B to the defect motion is computed
analytically via symmetry and topological considerations. More generally, we
perform numerical simulations directly on the equations of motion, based on the
resistively-shunted junction model, to study the dynamics of defects, varying
the system size. Coherent motion of domain walls is observed for large system
sizes. In the thermodynamical limit, we find E_B=0.1827 in units of the
Josephson coupling energy.Comment: 7 pages, and to apear in Phys. Rev.
Field efficacy of new compounds to replace copper for scab control in organic apple production
Efficacy of compounds was investigated in field experiments in Denmark and the Netherlands according to EPPO guidelines. Some Yucca extracts and potassium bicarbonate had an efficacy similar to sulphur on leaves. Addition of sulphur to Yucca 1 and to potassium bicarbonate increased the level of efficacy to that of copper. This confirms results from earlier years. Although a dose increase resulted in better efficacy, this was more prominent for Yucca1 than for potassium bicarbonate
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