Internet Access and Use by Farm Households

The Internet is a strategic technology because it has found application across virtually all sectors of the economy. The Internet has become an everyday part of rural life and is an important new technology in U.S. agriculture. This study uses information collected through the 2004 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) to explore the adoption of computers with Internet access and Internet use by farm households. Results from this study suggest that adoption of computers with Internet access is positively related to age and educational level of the operator, off-farm business income, presence of a spouse, and regional location of the farm. Further, large farms and part-owner farms are more likely to adopt computers with Internet access. Internet use for the farm, household, or both is strongly related to the educational level of the operator and spouse, presence of teenagers in the household, farm size, and regional location of the farm.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

SDSS J142625.71+575218.3: the First Pulsating White Dwarf With A Large Detectable Magnetic Field

We report the discovery of a strong magnetic field in the unique pulsating carbon- atmosphere white dwarf SDSS J142625.71 + 575218.3. From spectra gathered at the MMT and Keck telescopes, we infer a surface field of B(s) similar or equal to 1.2 MG, based on obvious Zeeman components seen in several carbon lines. We also detect the presence of a Zeeman- splitted He I lambda 4471 line, which is an indicator of the presence of a nonnegligible amount of helium in the atmosphere of this "hot DQ" star. This is important for understanding its pulsations, as nonadabatic theory reveals that some helium must be present in the envelope mixture for pulsation modes to be excited in the range of effective temperature where the target star is found. Out of nearly 200 pulsating white dwarfs known today, this is the first example of a star with a large detectable magnetic field. We suggest that SDSS J142625.71 + 575218.3 is the white dwarf equivalent of a rapidly oscillating Ap star.NSERCNSF AST 03-07321Reardon FoundationAstronom

Neutrino Electromagnetic Form Factor and Oscillation Effects on Neutrino Interaction With Dense Matter

The mean free path of neutrino - free electron gas interaction has been calculated by taking into account the neutrino electromagnetic form factors and the possibility of neutrino oscillation. It is shown that the form factor effect becomes significant for a neutrino magnetic moment \mu_\nu > 10^{-10} mu_B and for a neutrino radius R > 10^{-6} MeV^{-1}. The mean free path is found to be sensitive to the nu_e-nu_mu and nu_e-nu_e^R transition probabilities.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Neutron Fraction and Neutrino Mean Free Path Predictions in Relativistic Mean Field Models

The equation of state (EOS) of dense matter and neutrino mean free path (NMFP) in a neutron star have been studied by using relativistic mean field models motivated by effective field theory (ERMF). It is found that the models predict too large proton fractions, although one of the models (G2) predicts an acceptable EOS. This is caused by the isovector terms. Except G2, the other two models predict anomalous NMFP. In order to minimize the anomaly, besides an acceptable EOS, a large M* is favorable. A model with large M* retains the regularity in the NMFP even for a small neutron fraction.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Portable random number generators

Computers are deterministic devices, and a computer-generated random number is a contradiction in terms. As a result, computer-generated pseudorandom numbers are fraught with peril for the unwary. We summarize much that is known about the most well-known pseudorandom number generators: congruential generators. We also provide machine-independent programs to implement the generators in any language that has 32-bit signed integers-for example C, C++, and FORTRAN. Based on an extensive search, we provide parameter values better than those previously available.Programming (Mathematics) ; Computers

Corrosion resistant coating

A method of coating a substrate with an amorphous metal is described. A solid piece of the metal is bombarded with ions of an inert gas in the presence of a magnetic field to provide a vapor of the metal which is deposited on the substrate at a sufficiently low gas pressure so that there is formed on the substrate a thin, uniformly thick, essentially pinhole-free film of the metal

Mapping biodiversity value worldwide: combining higher-taxon richness from different groups

Maps of large-scale biodiversity are urgently needed to guide conservation, and yet complete enumeration of organisms is impractical at present. One indirect approach is to measure richness at higher taxonomic ranks, such as families. The difficulty is how to combine information from different groups on numbers of higher taxa, when these taxa may in effect have been defined in different ways, particularly for more distantly related major groups. In this paper, the regional family richness of terrestrial and freshwater seed plants, amphibians, reptiles and mammals is mapped worldwide by combining: (i) absolute family richness; (ii) proportional family richness; and (iii) proportional family richness weighted for the total species richness in each major group. The assumptions of the three methods and their effects on the results are discussed, although for these data the broad pattern is surprisingly robust with respect to the method of combination. Scores from each of the methods of combining families are used to rank the top five richness hotspots and complementary areas, and hotspots of endemism are mapped by unweighted combination of range-size rarity scores

New HiggsBounds from LEP and the Tevatron

We review the program HiggsBounds that tests theoretical predictions of models with arbitrary Higgs sectors against the exclusion bounds obtained from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. We explicitly list the bounds that have been added after the first release of HiggsBounds.Comment: 4 pages, talk given at SUSY09, Boston, June 200