992 research outputs found
Ozone exposure assessment in a southern California community.
An ozone exposure assessment study was conducted in a Southern California community. The Harvard ozone passive sampler was used to monitor cohorts of 22 and 18 subjects for 8 weeks during the spring and fall of 1994, respectively. Ozone exposure variables included 12-hr personal O3 measurements, stationary outdoor O3 measurements from a continuous UV photometer and from 12-hr Harvard active monitors, and time-activity information. Results showed that personal O3 exposure levels averaged one-fourth of outdoor stationary O3 levels, attributable to high percentages of time spent indoors. Personal O3 levels were not predicted well by outdoor measurements. A random-effect general linear model analysis indicated that variance in personal exposure measurements was largely accounted for by random error (59-82%), followed by inter-subject (9-18%) and between-day (9-23%) random effects. The microenvironmental model performs differently by season, with the regression model for spring cohorts exhibiting two times the R2 of the fall cohorts (R2 = 0.21 vs. 0.09). When distance from the stationary monitoring site, elevation, and traffic are taken into account in the microenvironmental models, the adjusted R2 increased almost twofold for the fall personal exposure data. The low predictive power is due primarily to the apparent spatial variation of outdoor O3 and errors in O3 measurements and in time-activity records (particularly in recording the use of air conditioning). This study highlights the magnitude of O3 exposure misclassification in epidemiological settings and proposes an approach to reduce exposure uncertainties in assessing air pollution health effects
Optimal infinite scheduling for multi-priced timed automata
This paper is concerned with the derivation of infinite schedules for timed automata that are in some sense optimal. To cover a wide class of optimality criteria we start out by introducing an extension of the (priced) timed automata model that includes both costs and rewards as separate modelling features. A precise definition is then given of what constitutes optimal infinite behaviours for this class of models. We subsequently show that the derivation of optimal non-terminating schedules for such double-priced timed automata is computable. This is done by a reduction of the problem to the determination of optimal mean-cycles in finite graphs with weighted edges. This reduction is obtained by introducing the so-called corner-point abstraction, a powerful abstraction technique of which we show that it preserves optimal schedules
Metallic spin-glasses beyond mean-field: An approach to the impurity-concentration dependence of the freezing temperature
A relation between the freezing temperature () and the exchange
couplings () in metallic spin-glasses is derived, taking the
spin-correlations () into account. This approach does not involve a
disorder-average. The expansion of the correlations to first order in
leads to the molecular-field result from
Thouless-Anderson-Palmer. Employing the current theory of the spin-interaction
in disordered metals, an equation for as a function of the
concentration of impurities is obtained, which reproduces the available data
from {\sl Au}Fe, {\sl Ag}Mn, and {\sl Cu}Mn alloys well.Comment: 4 figures. This is a strongly revised version, where several aspects
have been improved, and the equation for the freezing temperature has been
refined. It is equivalent to the published version in J. Phys.: Condens.
Matter 25 (2013) 13600
Angle-resolved photoemission study and first principles calculation of the electronic structure of GaTe
The electronic band structure of GaTe has been calculated by numerical atomic
orbitals density-functional theory, in the local density approximation. In
addition, the valence-band dispersion along various directions of the GaTe
Brillouin zone has been determined experimentally by angle-resolved
photoelectron spectroscopy. Along these directions, the calculated valence-band
structure is in good concordance with the valence-band dispersion obtained by
these measurements. It has been established that GaTe is a direct-gap
semiconductor with the band gap located at the Z point, that is, at Brillouin
zone border in the direction perpendicular to the layers. The valence-band
maximum shows a marked \textit{p}-like behavior, with a pronounced anion
contribution. The conduction band minimum arises from states with a comparable
\textit{s}- \textit{p}-cation and \textit{p}-anion orbital contribution.
Spin-orbit interaction appears to specially alter dispersion and binding energy
of states of the topmost valence bands lying at . By spin-orbit, it is
favored hybridization of the topmost \textit{p}-valence band with deeper
and flatter \textit{p}-\textit{p} bands and the valence-band minimum at
is raised towards the Fermi level since it appears to be determined by
the shifted up \textit{p}-\textit{p} bands.Comment: 7 text pages, 6 eps figures, submitted to PR
Hypermoduli Stabilization, Flux Attractors, and Generating Functions
We study stabilization of hypermoduli with emphasis on the effects of
generalized fluxes. We find a class of no-scale vacua described by ISD
conditions even in the presence of geometric flux. The associated flux
attractor equations can be integrated by a generating function with the
property that the hypermoduli are determined by a simple extremization
principle. We work out several orbifold examples where all vector moduli and
many hypermoduli are stabilized, with VEVs given explicitly in terms of fluxes.Comment: 45 pages, no figures; Version submitted to JHE
Selective-logging and oil palm: Multitaxon impacts, biodiversity indicators, and trade-offs for conservation planning
Strong global demand for tropical timber and agricultural products has driven large-scale logging and subsequent conversion of tropical forests. Given that the majority of tropical landscapes have been or will likely be logged, the protection of biodiversity within tropical forests thus depends on whether species can persist in these economically exploited lands, and if species cannot persist, whether we can protect enough primary forest from logging and conversion. However, our knowledge of the impact of logging and conversion on biodiversity is limited to a few taxa, often sampled in different locations with complex land-use histories, hampering attempts to plan cost-effective conservation strategies and to draw conclusions across taxa. Spanning a land-use gradient of primary forest, once- and twice-logged forests, and oil palm plantations, we used traditional sampling and DNA metabarcoding to compile an extensive data set in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo for nine vertebrate and invertebrate taxa to quantify the biological impacts of logging and oil palm, develop cost-effective methods of protecting biodiversity, and examine whether there is congruence in response among taxa. Logged forests retained high species richness, including, on average, 70% of species found in primary forest. In contrast, conversion to oil palm dramatically reduces species richness, with significantly fewer primary-forest species than found on logged forest transects for seven taxa.Using a systematic conservation planning analysis, we show that efficient protection of primary-forest species is achieved with land portfolios that include a large proportion of logged-forest plots. Protecting logged forests is thus a cost-effective method of protecting an ecologically and taxonomically diverse range of species, particularly when conservation budgets are limited. Six indicator groups (birds, leaf-litter ants, beetles, aerial hymenopterans, flies, and true bugs) proved to be consistently good predictors of the response of the other taxa to logging and oil palm. Our results confidently establish the high conservation value of logged forests and the low value of oil palm. Cross-taxon congruence in responses to disturbance also suggests that the practice of focusing on key indicator taxa yields important information of general biodiversity in studies of logging and oil palm
Non-Equilibrium Dynamics in Two-Color, Few-Photon Dissociative Excitation and Ionization of D
D molecules, excited by linearly cross-polarized femtosecond extreme
ultraviolet (XUV) and near-infrared (NIR) light pulses, reveal highly
structured D ion fragment momenta and angular distributions that originate
from two different 4-step dissociative ionization pathways after four photon
absorption (1 XUV + 3 NIR). We show that, even for very low dissociation
kinetic energy release ~240~meV, specific electronic excitation pathways
can be identified and isolated in the final ion momentum distributions. With
the aid of {\it ab initio} electronic structure and time-dependent
Schr\"odinger equation calculations, angular momentum, energy, and parity
conservation are used to identify the excited neutral molecular states and
molecular orientations relative to the polarization vectors in these different
photoexcitation and dissociation sequences of the neutral D molecule and
its D cation. In one sequential photodissociation pathway, molecules
aligned along either of the two light polarization vectors are excluded, while
another pathway selects molecules aligned parallel to the light propagation
direction. The evolution of the nuclear wave packet on the intermediate \Bstate
electronic state of the neutral D molecule is also probed in real time.Comment: 11 pages including 6 figure
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