Cost-effective reduction of eutrophication in the Gulf of Kalloni (Island of Lesvos, Greece)

This study presents a cost-effective analysis by comparing the costs of measures (options) to improve the quality of bathing waters in the Gulf of Kalloni (island of Lesvos, Greece) in order to reduce the anthropogenic eutrophication in the coastal water of the Kalloni Gulf.The Gulf of Kalloni is a semi-enclosed gulf (115 km2) which receives municipal wastewater, agricultural activity drainage, and at times sewage from olive oil plants processing the local olives harvest. The area of study consists of the coastal waters and the river basin of which water run-off drains into the gulf. Four options are comparable in their environmental effectiveness to reduce eurtophication damages which are: municipal wastewater treatment plant, construction of dams, organic farming plus training and olive oil wastewater treatment plant

The role of L1 use for L1 attrition

While the factor ‘language contact’ is often named among the most important for the development of individual language attrition, empirical validations of this claim are few and far between. This contribution argues that a bilingual’s use of the first language comprises very diverse situations which cannot be subsumed under one predictor variable. Grosjean’s (2001) framework of language modes is invoked as a useful way of structuring the use of the L1 by immigrants. A statistical investigation of these different types of L1 use on the one hand and language proficiency data on the other demonstrates that the impact of both active and passive exposure to the first language on attrition is anything but straightforward

Assessing nursing staff's competences in mobility support in nursing-home care: development and psychometric testing of the Kinaesthetics Competence (KC) observation instrument

Background: Between 75 and 89% of residents living in long-term care facilities have limited mobility. Nurses as well as other licensed and unlicensed personnel directly involved in resident care are in a key position to promote and maintain the mobility of care-dependent persons. This requires a certain level of competence. Kinaesthetics is a training concept used to increase nursing staff's interaction and movement support skills for assisting care-dependent persons in their daily activities. This study aims to develop and test an observation instrument for assessing nursing staff's competences in kinaesthetics. Methods: The Kinaesthetics Competence (KC) observation instrument was developed between January and June 2015 based on a literature review, a concept analysis and expert meetings (18). The pilot instrument was evaluated with two expert panels (n = 5, n = 4) regarding content validity, usability and inter-rater agreement. Content validity was assessed by determining the content validity index (CVI). The final instrument was tested in a cross-sectional study in three nursing homes in the German-speaking part of Switzerland between July 2015 and February 2016. In this study nursing staff (n = 48) was filmed during mobilization situations. Based on this video data two observers independently assessed nursing staff's competences in kinaesthetics with the KC observation instrument. Inter-rater reliability and inter-rater agreement was evaluated using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and percentage of agreement. Construct validity was assessed by a discriminating power analysis. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item analysis. Results: The final version of the KC observation instrument comprised of four domains (interaction, movement support of the person, nurses' movement, environment) and 12 items. The final instrument showed an excellent content validity index of 1.0. Video sequences from 40 persons were analysed. Inter-rater reliability for the whole scale was good (ICC 0.73) and the percentage of inter-rater agreement was 53.6% on average. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole instrument was 0.97 and item-total correlations ranged from 0.76 to 0.90. The construct validity of the instrument was supported by a significant discrimination of the instrument between nursing staff with no or basic and with advanced kinaesthetics training for the total score and 3 of 4 subscales. Conclusions: The KC observation instrument showed good preliminary psychometric properties and can be used to assess nursing staff's competences in mobility care based on the principles of kinaesthetics.</p

Study of the f2(1270)f_2(1270), f2′(1525)f_2'(1525), f0(1370)f_0(1370) and f0(1710)f_0(1710) in the J/ψJ/\psi radiative decays

In this paper we present an approach to study the radiative decay modes of the $J/\psi$ into a photon and one of the tensor mesons $f_2(1270)$, $f'_2(1525)$, as well as the scalar ones $f_0(1370)$ and $f_0(1710)$. Especially we compare predictions that emerge from a scheme where the states appear dynamically in the solution of vector meson--vector meson scattering amplitudes to those from a (admittedly naive) quark model. We provide evidence that it might be possible to distinguish amongst the two scenarios, once improved data are available.Comment: The large Nc argument improved; version published in EPJA

Direct CP violation in b -> d J/\psi decays

We investigate the possibility of observing direct CP violation in self-tagging B-meson decays of the type b -> d J/\psi. The CP asymmetry can be generated due to strong or electromagnetic scattering in the final state, or due to long distance effects. The first two contributions give asymmetries of a few 10^(-3), in the standard model. The long distance effects are hard to estimate, but it cannot be excluded that they yield asymmetries of about 1%.Comment: 10 pages, Fermilab-pub-93/307-

Study of the reaction pbar p -> phi phi from 1.1 to 2.0 GeV/c

A study has been performed of the reaction pbar p -> 4K using in-flight antiprotons from 1.1 to 2.0 GeV/c incident momentum interacting with a hydrogen jet target. The reaction is dominated by the production of a pair of phi mesons. The pbar p -> phi phi cross section rises sharply above threshold and then falls continuously as a function of increasing antiproton momentum. The overall magnitude of the cross section exceeds expectations from a simple application of the OZI rule by two orders of magnitude. In a fine scan around the xi/f_J(2230) resonance, no structure is observed. A limit is set for the double branching ratio B(xi -> pbar p) * B(xi -> phi phi) < 6e-5 for a spin 2 resonance of M = 2.235 GeV and Width = 15 MeV.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables, Latex. To be published in Phys. Rev.

J/psi->VP decays and the quark and gluon content of the eta and eta'

The $\eta$-$\eta^\prime$ pseudoscalar mixing angle and the gluonium content of the $\eta^\prime$ meson are deduced from an updated phenomenological analysis of $J/\psi$ decays into a vector and a pseudoscalar meson. In absence of gluonium, the value of the mixing angle in the quark-flavour basis is found to be $\phi_P=(40.7\pm 2.3)^\circ$. In presence of gluonium, the values for the mixing angle and the gluonic content of the $\eta^\prime$ wave function are $\phi_P=(44.6\pm 4.4)^\circ$ and $Z^2_{\eta^\prime}=0.29^{+0.18}_{-0.26}$, respectively. The newly reported values of $B(J/\psi\to\rho\pi)$ by the BABAR and BES Collaborations are crucial to get a consistent description of data.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, uses svjour style. Comments on the relationship between J/psi to VP and V to Pgamma decays and on the neglected contributions together with an asymmetric treatment of errors are include

Limits on diffuse fluxes of high energy extraterrestrial neutrinos with the AMANDA-B10 detector

Data from the AMANDA-B10 detector taken during the austral winter of 1997 have been searched for a diffuse flux of high energy extraterrestrial muon-neutrinos, as predicted from, e.g., the sum of all active galaxies in the universe. This search yielded no excess events above those expected from the background atmospheric neutrinos, leading to upper limits on the extraterrestrial neutrino flux. For an assumed E^-2 spectrum, a 90% classical confidence level upper limit has been placed at a level E^2 Phi(E) = 8.4 x 10^-7 GeV cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 (for a predominant neutrino energy range 6-1000 TeV) which is the most restrictive bound placed by any neutrino detector. When specific predicted spectral forms are considered, it is found that some are excluded.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Limits on the high-energy gamma and neutrino fluxes from the SGR 1806-20 giant flare of December 27th, 2004 with the AMANDA-II detector

On December 27th 2004, a giant gamma flare from the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater 1806-20 saturated many satellite gamma-ray detectors. This event was by more than two orders of magnitude the brightest cosmic transient ever observed. If the gamma emission extends up to TeV energies with a hard power law energy spectrum, photo-produced muons could be observed in surface and underground arrays. Moreover, high-energy neutrinos could have been produced during the SGR giant flare if there were substantial baryonic outflow from the magnetar. These high-energy neutrinos would have also produced muons in an underground array. AMANDA-II was used to search for downgoing muons indicative of high-energy gammas and/or neutrinos. The data revealed no significant signal. The upper limit on the gamma flux at 90% CL is dN/dE < 0.05 (0.5) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2). Similarly, we set limits on the normalization constant of the high-energy neutrino emission of 0.4 (6.1) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2).Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure