Flow probe of symmetry energy in relativistic heavy-ion reactions

Flow observables in heavy-ion reactions at incident energies up to about 1 GeV per nucleon have been shown to be very useful for investigating the reaction dynamics and for determining the parameters of reaction models based on transport theory. In particular, the elliptic flow in collisions of neutron-rich heavy-ion systems emerges as an observable sensitive to the strength of the symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities. The comparison of ratios or differences of neutron and proton flows or neutron and hydrogen flows with predictions of transport models favors an approximately linear density dependence, consistent with ab-initio nuclear-matter theories. Extensive parameter searches have shown that the model dependence is comparable to the uncertainties of existing experimental data. Comprehensive new flow data of high accuracy, partly also through providing stronger constraints on model parameters, can thus be expected to improve our knowledge of the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures, review to appear in EPJA special volume on nuclear symmetry energ

Codeless GPS Applications to Multi-Path: CGAMP

Cordless Global Positioning System (GPS) Applications to Multi-Path (CGAMP) is meeting the challenge of exploiting the L-band signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites for the measurement of the impulse response of radio transmission channels over space-Earth paths. This approach was originally suggested by E. K. Smith and has been pursued by J. Lemmon, without an affordable implementation being identifiable. In addition to the high cost of a suitable P code correlating GPS receiver, there is also the major impediment of the often announced Department of Defense policy of selective availability/anti-spoof (SA/AS) that clouds reliable access to the wideband (20 MHz) P channel of the GPS signals without cryptographic access. A technique proposed by MacDoran utilizes codeless methods for exploiting the P channel signals implemented by the use of a pair of antennas and cross correlation signal detection

Statistical Mechanics of Membrane Protein Conformation: A Homopolymer Model

The conformation and the phase diagram of a membrane protein are investigated via grand canonical ensemble approach using a homopolymer model. We discuss the nature and pathway of $\alpha$-helix integration into the membrane that results depending upon membrane permeability and polymer adsorptivity. For a membrane with the permeability larger than a critical value, the integration becomes the second order transition that occurs at the same temperature as that of the adsorption transition. For a nonadsorbing membrane, the integration is of the first order due to the aggregation of $\alpha$-helices.Comment: RevTeX with 5 postscript figure

Structure of 12Be: intruder d-wave strength at N=8

The breaking of the N=8 shell-model magic number in the 12Be ground state has been determined to include significant occupancy of the intruder d-wave orbital. This is in marked contrast with all other N=8 isotones, both more and less exotic than 12Be. The occupancies of the 0 hbar omega neutron p1/2-orbital and the 1 hbar omega, neutron d5/2 intruder orbital were deduced from a measurement of neutron removal from a high-energy 12Be beam leading to bound and unbound states in 11Be.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Effects of Prescribed Fire Timing on Stocker Cattle Performance, Native Plant Composition, Forage Biomass, and Root Carbohydrate Reserves in the Kansas Flint Hills: Year One of Six

Objective: Our objective was to document the effects of prescribed fire timing on yearling beef cattle performance, native plant composition, and forage biomass ac­cumulation in the Kansas Flint Hills. Study Description: Our study took place at the Kansas State Beef Stocker Unit located northwest of Manhattan, KS. Pastures were assigned to one of three prescribed burn treatments: early spring (April), mid-summer (August), or early fall (October). Treatments were applied and yearling heifers (n = 360) were subsequently grazed from May to August. Native plant composition and forage biomass were evaluated annually in late June and early July. The Bottom Line: The first year of data from a six-year study indicated that prescribed fire timing affected stocker cattle performance and forage biomass availability but not basal cover of forage grasses and forbs

The martian dust chronicle: Eight years of reconstructed climatology from spacecraft observations

We have reconstructed the climatology of airborne dust from Martian years (MY) 24 to 31 using multiple datasets of retrieved or estimated column optical depth. The datasets are based on observations of the Martian atmosphere from March 1999 to July 2013 by different orbiting instruments: the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) on board Mars Global Surveyor, the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on board Mars Odyssey, and the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The procedure we have adopted consists in gridding the available retrievals of column dust optical depth (CDOD) from TES and THEMIS nadir observations, as well as the estimates of this quantity from MCS limb observations. Our gridding method calculates weighted averages on a regular but likely incomplete spatial grid, using an iterative procedure with weights in space, time, and retrieval uncertainty. The derived product consists of daily synoptic gridded maps of CDOD at a resolution of 6 degree longitude x 3 degree latitude for MY 24-26, and 6 degree longitude x 5 degree latitude for MY 27-31. We have statistically analyzed the gridded maps to present an overview of the dust climatology on Mars over eight years, specifically in relation to its intraseasonal and interannual variability. Finally, we have produced complete daily maps of CDOD by spatially interpolating the available incomplete gridded maps using a kriging method. These complete maps are used as dust scenarios in the Mars Climate Database (MCD) version 5, and should be useful for many other applications. The maps for the eight available Martian years are publicly available and distributed with open access, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The current version and future updates can be downloaded from the MCD website at the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique: http://wwwmars. lmd.jussieu.fr/mars/dust_climatology