Synthesis of knowledge on the effects of fire and fire surrogates on wildlife in US dry forests

Summary: Dry forests throughout the United States are fire-dependent ecosystems, and much attention has been given to restoring their ecological function. As such, land managers often are tasked with reintroducing fire via prescribed fire, wildland fire use, and fire-surrogate treatments such as thinning and mastication. During planning, managers frequently are expected to anticipate effects of management actions on wildlife species. This document represents a synthesis of existing knowledge on wildlife responses to fire and fire-surrogate treatments, presented in a useful, management-relevant format. Based on scoping meetings and dialogue with public lands managers from throughout the United States, we provide detailed, species-level, summary tables for project biologists and fire managers trying to anticipate the effects of fire and fire-surrogate treatments on local wildlife species

Improvements in electrodeposited Cu2O as the wide bandgap cell for a tandem solar architecture

Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.Cuprous oxide is a well-known wide-bandgap material with Egap commonly reported around 2.0 eV, but with some reports ranging from 1.7eV to 2.5eV. With a bandgap around 2.0 eV it is a great candidate for the top cell of a stack tandem architecture paired with a bottom silicon cell. However the actual reported efficiencies of single junction devices are usually much lower than would be expected, probably rooted in possible defects, nonstoichiometry or microstructural flaws. We report on electrodeposited thin films and their growth modes under different conditions. Microstructural improvements have been made using seeding layers before electrodeposition; these are mainly focused on growing columnar shaped grains. Cu2O that has been electrodeposited has a flowering or dendritic microstructure. When the electrodeposition is seeded appropriately the dendrite arms from the flower no longer grow resulting in nicely faceted grains and a columnar shape. This well-crystallized columnar structure is meant to increase the hole collection length by avoiding recombination at grain boundary defects as a means of increasing the efficiency. Seeding the growth on the films has resulted in Cu2O films that are more controllable in the electrodeposition process, with a more consistent grain orientation. SEM and XRD analysis were performed to show these results.cf201

Magnetization-plateau state of the S=3/2 spin chain with single ion anisotropy

We reexamine the numerical study of the magnetized state of the S=3/2 spin chain with single ion anisotropy D(> 0) for the magnetization M=M_{S}/3, where M_{S} is the saturation magnetization. We find at this magnetization that for D<D_{c1}=0.387 the system is critical and the magnetization plateau does not appear. For D > D_{c1}, the parameter region is divided into two parts D_{c1} < D < D_{c2}=0.943 and D_{c2} < D. In each region, the system is gapful and the M=M_{S}/3 magnetization plateau appears in the magnetization process. From our numerical calculation, the intermediate region D_{c1} < D < D_{c2} should be characterized by a magnetized valence-bond-solid state.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

Relational Hidden Variables and Non-Locality

We use a simple relational framework to develop the key notions and results on hidden variables and non-locality. The extensive literature on these topics in the foundations of quantum mechanics is couched in terms of probabilistic models, and properties such as locality and no-signalling are formulated probabilistically. We show that to a remarkable extent, the main structure of the theory, through the major No-Go theorems and beyond, survives intact under the replacement of probability distributions by mere relations.Comment: 42 pages in journal style. To appear in Studia Logic

The spectral gap for some spin chains with discrete symmetry breaking

We prove that for any finite set of generalized valence bond solid (GVBS) states of a quantum spin chain there exists a translation invariant finite-range Hamiltonian for which this set is the set of ground states. This result implies that there are GVBS models with arbitrary broken discrete symmetries that are described as combinations of lattice translations, lattice reflections, and local unitary or anti-unitary transformations. We also show that all GVBS models that satisfy some natural conditions have a spectral gap. The existence of a spectral gap is obtained by applying a simple and quite general strategy for proving lower bounds on the spectral gap of the generator of a classical or quantum spin dynamics. This general scheme is interesting in its own right and therefore, although the basic idea is not new, we present it in a system-independent setting. The results are illustrated with an number of examples.Comment: 48 pages, Plain TeX, BN26/Oct/9

Digital technology and governance in transition: The case of the British Library

Comment on the organizational consequences of the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) is pervaded by a powerful imagery of disaggregation and a tendency for ?virtual? forms of production to be seen as synonymous with the ?end? of bureaucracy. This paper questions the underlying assumptions of the ?virtual organization?, highlighting the historically enduring, diversified character of the bureaucratic form. The paper then presents case study findings on the web-based access to information resources now being provided by the British Library (BL). The case study evidence produces two main findings. First, radically decentralised virtual forms of service delivery are heavily dependent on new forms of capacity-building and information aggregation. Second, digital technology is embedded in an inherently contested and contradictory context of institutional change. Current developments in the management and control of digital rights are consistent with the commodification of the public sphere. However, the evidence also suggests that scholarly access to information resources is being significantly influenced by the ?information society? objectives of the BL and other institutional players within the network of UK research libraries

Trends in autoionization of Rydberg states converging to the 4s threshold in the Kr-Rb⁺-Sr²⁺ isoelectonic sequence: theory and experiment

We have measured the photoabsorption spectra of the Kr-like ions Rb+ and Sr2+ at photon energies corresponding to the excitation of 4s-np resonances using, the dual laser plasma photoabsorption technique. Dramatic changes in the line profiles, with increasing ionization and also proceeding along the Rydberg series of each ion, are observed and explained by the trends in 4s-transition amplitudes computed within a framework of configuration-interaction Pauli-Fock calculations. Total photoionization cross sections show very good agreement with relative absorption data extracted from the measured spectra

Forward pi^0 Production and Associated Transverse Energy Flow in Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Deep-inelastic positron-proton interactions at low values of Bjorken-x down to x \approx 4.10^-5 which give rise to high transverse momentum pi^0 mesons are studied with the H1 experiment at HERA. The inclusive cross section for pi^0 mesons produced at small angles with respect to the proton remnant (the forward region) is presented as a function of the transverse momentum and energy of the pi^0 and of the four-momentum transfer Q^2 and Bjorken-x. Measurements are also presented of the transverse energy flow in events containing a forward pi^0 meson. Hadronic final state calculations based on QCD models implementing different parton evolution schemes are confronted with the data.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures and 3 table