2,364 research outputs found
Blazar Flaring Rates Measured with GLAST
We derive the minimum observing time scales to detect a blazar at a given
flux level with the LAT on GLAST in the scanning and pointing modes. Based upon
Phase 1 observations with EGRET, we predict the GLAST detection rate of blazar
flares at different flux levels. With some uncertainty given the poor
statistics of bright blazars, we predict that a blazar flare with integral flux
>~ 200e-8 ph(> 100 MeV) cm^{-2} s^{-1}, which are the best candidates for
Target of Opportunity pointings and extensive temporal and spectral studies,
should occur every few days.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, in 2nd VERITAS Symposium on TeV Astrophysiscs,
ed. L. Fortson and S. Swordy, in press, New Astronomy Review
Modelling the Linkage Between Landscape Metrics and Water Quality Indices of Hydrological Units in Sihu Basin, Hubei Province, China: An Allometric Model
AbstractStudying quantitative relationships between landscape pattern and water quality is a fundamental step to assess the impacts of non-point source pollution. Many hydrological models with multi-functionality have been developed as useful tools to study several key mechanisms in non-point source pollution. In landscape ecological studies, however, the empirical modelling approaches have been dominated with emphasis on the relationships between the landscape metrics and water quality indices. The main techniques for developing those models of landscape-water quality are statistical regression analysis based on linear models. In this article, Allometric models and the traditional multiple linear regression models for estimating the linkage between landscape metrics and water quality were tested in Sihu Basin, Hubei Province, China. The models at patch class level were established in 24 hydrological units of the basin, which took nine water quality indices (EC, pH, SS, DO, COD, TN, TP, NO3--N, NH4+-N) as the dependent variables and eighteen landscape metrics calculated in FRAGSTATS 3.3 as independent variables. The results suggested that, compared with the traditional multiple linear regression models, Allometric models were more suitable for SS, DO, TP, TN, NH4+-N, in which landscape pattern metrics could explain the 80.5%, 77.7%, 58.2%, 43.9%, 67.6% of total variation, respectively. There had little difference between multiple linear regression models and Allometric models for EC and NO3--N. The coefficients of determination in Allometric models were not as strong as that obtained in the multiple linear regression models for pH and COD. The above results indicated that using Allometric model may potentially provide a new way to study the linkage between landscape metrics and water quality indices, which will help protect our regional water resources
Understanding the relationship between breastfeeding and postnatal depression: the role of pain and physical difficulties
AIMS: To examine the relationship between specific reasons for stopping breastfeeding and depressive symptoms in the postnatal period. BACKGROUND: Difficulty breastfeeding has been connected to postnatal depression although it is unclear whether difficulty breastfeeding precedes or succeeds a diagnosis. However, the concept of âbreastfeeding difficultyâ is wide and includes biological, psychological and social factors. DESIGN: A crossâsectional selfâreport survey. METHODS: Data were collected between December 2012 and February 2013. 217 women with an infant aged 0â6Â months who had started breastfeeding at birth but had stopped before 6Â months old completed a questionnaire examining breastfeeding duration and reasons for stopping breastfeeding. They further completed a copy of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. RESULTS: A short breastfeeding duration and multiple reasons for stopping breastfeeding were associated with higher depression score. However, in a regression analysis only the specific reasons of stopping breastfeeding for physical difficulty and pain remained predictive of depression score. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding women's specific reasons for stopping breastfeeding rather than breastfeeding duration is critical in understanding women's breastfeeding experience and providing women with emotional support. Issues with pain and physical breastfeeding were most indicative of postnatal depression in comparison to psychosocial reasons highlighting the importance of spending time with new mothers to help them with issues such as latch
The phase relation between sunspot numbers and soft X-ray flares
To better understand long-term flare activity, we present a statistical study
on soft X-ray flares from May 1976 to May 2008. It is found that the smoothed
monthly peak fluxes of C-class, M-class, and X-class flares have a very
noticeable time lag of 13, 8, and 8 months in cycle 21 respectively with
respect to the smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. There is no time lag between
the sunspot numbers and M-class flares in cycle 22. However, there is a
one-month time lag for C-class flares and a one-month time lead for X-class
flares with regard to sunspot numbers in cycle 22. For cycle 23, the smoothed
monthly peak fluxes of C-class, M-class, and X-class flares have a very
noticeable time lag of one month, 5 months, and 21 months respectively with
respect to sunspot numbers. If we take the three types of flares together, the
smoothed monthly peak fluxes of soft X-ray flares have a time lag of 9 months
in cycle 21, no time lag in cycle 22 and a characteristic time lag of 5 months
in cycle 23 with respect to the smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. Furthermore,
the correlation coefficients of the smoothed monthly peak fluxes of M-class and
X-class flares and the smoothed monthly sunspot numbers are higher in cycle 22
than those in cycles 21 and 23. The correlation coefficients between the three
kinds of soft X-ray flares in cycle 22 are higher than those in cycles 21 and
23. These findings may be instructive in predicting C-class, M-class, and
X-class flares regarding sunspot numbers in the next cycle and the physical
processes of energy storage and dissipation in the corona.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space
Scienc
Enhancement of nonclassical properties of two qubits via deformed operators
We explore the dynamics of two atoms interacting with a cavity field via
deformed operators. Properties of the asymptotic regularization of entanglement
measures proving, for example, purity cost, regularized fidelity and accuracy
of information transfer are analyzed. We show that the robustness of a
bipartite system having a finite number of quantum states vanishes at finite
photon numbers, for arbitrary interactions between its constituents and with
cavity field. Finally it is shown that the stability of the purity and the
fidelity is improved in the absence of the deformation parameters
Reversed Drifting Quasi-periodic Pulsating Structure in an X1.3 Solar Flare on 2005 July 30
Based on the analysis of the microwave observations at frequency of 2.60 --
3.80 GHz in a solar X1.3 flare event observed at Solar Broadband
RadioSpectrometer in Huairou (SBRS/Huairou) on 2005 July 30, an interesting
reversed drifting quasi-periodic pulsating structure (R-DPS) is confirmed. The
R-DPS is mainly composed of two drifting pulsating components: one is a
relatively slow very short-period pulsation (VSP) with period of about 130 --
170 ms, the other is a relatively fast VSP with period of about 70 -- 80 ms.
The R-DPS has a weak left-handed circular polarization. Based on the synthetic
investigations of Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imaging
(RHESSI) hard X-ray, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)
soft X-ray observation, and magnetic field extrapolation, we suggest the R-DPS
possibly reflects flaring dynamic processes of the emission source regions
Large scale quantum simulations: C_60 impacts on a semiconducting surface
We present tight binding molecular dynamics simulations of C_60 collisions on
the reconstructed diamond(111) surface, carried out with an O(N) method and
with cells containing 1140 atoms. The results of our simulations are in very
good agreement with experiments performed under the same impact conditions.
Furthermore our calculations provide a detailed characterization of the
microscopic processes occuring during the collision, and allow the
identification of three impact regimes, as a function of the fullerene incident
energy. Finally, the study of the reactivity between the cluster and the
surface gives insight into the deposition mechanisms of C_60 on semiconducting
substrates
Baryon Tri-local Interpolating Fields
We systematically investigate tri-local (non-local) three-quark baryon fields
with U_L(2)*U_R(2) chiral symmetry, according to their Lorentz and isospin
(flavor) group representations. We note that they can also be called as
"nucleon wave functions" due to this full non-locality. We study their chiral
transformation properties and find all the possible chiral multiplets
consisting J=1/2 and J=3/2 baryon fields. We find that the axial coupling
constant |g_A| = 5/3 is only for nucleon fields belonging to the chiral
representation (1/2,1)+(1,1/2) which contains both nucleon fields and Delta
fields. Moreover, all the nucleon fields belonging to this representation have
|g_A| = 5/3.Comment: 8 pages, 3 tables, accepted by EPJ
Magneto-transport in periodic and quasiperiodic arrays of mesoscopic rings
We study theoretically the transmission properties of serially connected
mesoscopic rings threaded by a magnetic flux. Within a tight-binding formalism
we derive exact analytical results for the transmission through periodic and
quasiperiodic Fibonacci arrays of rings of two different sizes. The role played
by the number of scatterers in each arm of the ring is analyzed in some detail.
The behavior of the transmission coefficient at a particular value of the
energy of the incident electron is studied as a function of the magnetic flux
(and vice versa) for both the periodic and quasiperiodic arrays of rings having
different number of atoms in the arms. We find interesting resonance properties
at specific values of the flux, as well as a power-law decay in the
transmission coefficient as the number of rings increases, when the magnetic
field is switched off. For the quasiperiodic Fibonacci sequence we discuss
various features of the transmission characteristics as functions of energy and
flux, including one special case where, at a special value of the energy and in
the absence of any magnetic field, the transmittivity changes periodically as a
function of the system size.Comment: 9 pages with 7 .eps figures included, submitted to PR
Thiopurine pharmacogenomics: association of SNPs with clinical response and functional validation of candidate genes
Aim: We investigated candidate genes associated with thiopurine metabolism and clinical response in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Materials & methods: We performed genome-wide SNP association studies of 6-thioguanine and 6-mercaptopurine cytotoxicity using lymphoblastoid cell lines. We then genotyped the top SNPs associated with lymphoblastoid cell line cytotoxicity, together with tagSNPs for genes in the âthiopurine pathwayâ (686 total SNPs), in DNA from 589 Caucasian UK ALL97 patients. Functional validation studies were performed by siRNA knockdown in cancer cell lines. Results: SNPs in the thiopurine pathway genes ABCC4, ABCC5, IMPDH1, ITPA, SLC28A3 and XDH, and SNPs located within or near ATP6AP2, FRMD4B, GNG2, KCNMA1 and NME1, were associated with clinical response and measures of thiopurine metabolism. Functional validation showed shifts in cytotoxicity for these genes. Conclusion: The clinical response to thiopurines may be regulated by variation in known thiopurine pathway genes and additional novel genes outside of the thiopurine pathway
- âŠ