Reissner-Nordstrom Black Holes and Strings with Rescaled Tension

We show that extreme and nonextreme Reissner--Nordstrom black holes in five dimensions can be described by closed fundamental strings with two charges in a magnetic five brane. Due to the five brane background the string oscillator number and tension are rescaled whereas the mass remains fixed. The black hole mass is given by the sum of the five brane and string masses. Its entropy however is given by only that of the string with the tension rescaling taken into account. We also show that the emission of a low energy scalar from the slightly nonextreme string matches the Hawking radiation expected from the black hole.Comment: 20 pages in phyzz

Early Archean stromatolites: Paleoenvironmental setting and controls on formation

The earliest record of terrestrial life is contained in thin, silicified sedimentary layers within enormously thick, predominantly volcanic sequences in South Africa and Western Australia. This record includes bacteria-like microfossils, laminated carbonaceous structures resembling flat bacterial mats and stromatolites, and a morphologically diverse assemblage of carbonaceous particles. These structures and particles and their host sediments provide the only direct source of information on the morphology, paleoecology, and biogeochemistry of early life; the nature of interactions between organisms and surface systems on the early earth; and possible settings within which life might have evolved. The three known occurrences of 3.5 to 3.2 billion-year-old stromalites were evaluated in terms of depositional setting and biogenicity

Remote sensing of wetlands, marshes, and shorelines in Michigan including St. John's Marsh

Remote sensing data are used to show the strategic relationship of the endangered marsh to population centers of SE Michigan. The potential ecological consequences and the impact of past development and changing lake levels are discussed. Applications of remote sensing are presented showing its usefulness for preparing statewide infrared wetland and forest mapping

Developing Future UK Energy Performance Standards: The St Nicholas Court project, Final Report

The St Nicholas Court Project was set up to explore the implications of an enhanced energy performance standard for new housing for the design, construction and performance of timber framed dwellings. The energy performance standard, EPS08, is modelled on proposals made by the DETR in June 2000 for a possible review of Part L of the Building Regulations in the second half of the present decade. The overall goal of the project was to support the next revision of Part L through an enhanced body of qualitative and quantitative evidence on options and impacts. The seeds of the project were contained in a report – Towards Sustainable Housing - commissioned by Joseph Rowntree Foundation at the start of the last review of this part of the Building Regulations. The project itself has been based on the St Nicholas Court Development which involves the design and construction of a group of 18 low energy and affordable dwellings on a brown field site in York (see site plan below). The research project was established in two stages. Initial funding was provided by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the spring of 1999. This ensured the involvement of the research team from the outset of the development process. Additional funding was provided from late 2000 by the Housing Corporation and by the DETR through the Partners in Innovation programme (responsibility for which now lies with the DTI). The research project was originally divided into five phases – project definition, design, construction, occupation, and communication and dissemination. Delays in site acquisition initially allowed the design phase to be extended, but ultimately forced the abandonment of the construction and occupation phases, and the scaling down of the communication and dissemination phase. Despite the delays, the development itself will now go ahead, with construction starting in mid-2003

Lakes

Lakes have always held an aesthetic fascination for people; they figure prominently in both art and literature and have even been endowed with spiritual qualities. For example, the nineteenth century American writer Henry D. Thoreau (1854) considered a lake to be 'the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is the earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature'. More prosaically, lakes are also of considerable geomorphological interest as dynamic landfonns originating in varied and often complex ways

Determination of species

There are no author-identified significant results in this report