480 research outputs found
Deriving Basic Principles in Sustainable Management from Local Knowledge: Modelling Himba\u27s Grazing Regime (Namibia)
Development Toward a Ground-Based Interferometric Phased Array for Radio Detection of High Energy Neutrinos
The in-ice radio interferometric phased array technique for detection of high
energy neutrinos looks for Askaryan emission from neutrinos interacting in
large volumes of glacial ice, and is being developed as a way to achieve a low
energy threshold and a large effective volume at high energies. The technique
is based on coherently summing the impulsive Askaryan signal from multiple
antennas, which increases the signal-to-noise ratio for weak signals. We report
here on measurements and a simulation of thermal noise correlations between
nearby antennas, beamforming of impulsive signals, and a measurement of the
expected improvement in trigger efficiency through the phased array technique.
We also discuss the noise environment observed with an analog phased array at
Summit Station, Greenland, a possible site for an interferometric phased array
for radio detection of high energy neutrinos.Comment: 13 Pages, 14 Figure
The bioavailability of oral GI147211 (GG211), a new topoisomerase I inhibitor.
Topoisomerase I inhibitors are new compounds of interest for cancer chemotherapy. We performed a study with GI147211, a new semisynthetic camptothecin analogue, to determine the absolute bioavailability of the drug given orally. Patients with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of a solid tumour refractory to standard forms of therapy were eligible for the study. GI147211 was given orally on day 1 and as a 30-min infusion daily on days 2-5. The treatment course was repeated every 3 weeks. In subsequent patient cohorts, the dose of the oral formulation was escalated from 1.5 mg m(-2) to 6.0 mg m(-2); the dose for i.v. administration was fixed at 1.2 mg m(-2). Plasma pharmacokinetics was performed on day 1 and 2 of the first course and on day 1 of the second course using a validated high-performance liquid chromatographic assay. Nineteen patients were entered into the study; one patient was not evaluable because the treatment course was stopped prematurely. Eighteen patients received a total of 47 treatment courses. The absolute bioavailability of GI147211 averaged 1.3 +/- 5.2%. Drug appeared quickly in plasma with a median Tmax at 0.5 h. Fasting or fed state had no significant influence on the bioavailability of GI147211. The terminal half-life after administration of oral GI147211 was 6.85 +/- 3.13 h, similar to the half-life after intravenous administration. The major toxicities were neutropenia and thrombocytopenia. Nadirs for neutropenia and thrombocytopenia occurred on day 8 and day 15 respectively. Other toxicities predominantly consisted of mild and infrequent nausea and vomiting, and fatigue. The oral administration of the drug is well tolerated. Oral administration of topoisomerase I inhibitor GI147211 results in a low bioavailability with relatively wide interpatient variation. The intravenous route of administration is advised for further development of this promising topoisomerase I inhibitor
Efficient Dynamic Importance Sampling of Rare Events in One Dimension
Exploiting stochastic path integral theory, we obtain \emph{by simulation}
substantial gains in efficiency for the computation of reaction rates in
one-dimensional, bistable, overdamped stochastic systems. Using a well-defined
measure of efficiency, we compare implementations of ``Dynamic Importance
Sampling'' (DIMS) methods to unbiased simulation. The best DIMS algorithms are
shown to increase efficiency by factors of approximately 20 for a
barrier height and 300 for , compared to unbiased simulation. The
gains result from close emulation of natural (unbiased), instanton-like
crossing events with artificially decreased waiting times between events that
are corrected for in rate calculations. The artificial crossing events are
generated using the closed-form solution to the most probable crossing event
described by the Onsager-Machlup action. While the best biasing methods require
the second derivative of the potential (resulting from the ``Jacobian'' term in
the action, which is discussed at length), algorithms employing solely the
first derivative do nearly as well. We discuss the importance of
one-dimensional models to larger systems, and suggest extensions to
higher-dimensional systems.Comment: version to be published in Phys. Rev.
Meson screening masses from lattice QCD with two light and the strange quark
We present results for screening masses of mesons built from light and
strange quarks in the temperature range of approximately between 140 MeV to 800
MeV. The lattice computations were performed with 2+1 dynamical light and
strange flavors of improved (p4) staggered fermions along a line of constant
physics defined by a pion mass of about 220 MeV and a kaon mass of 500 MeV. The
lattices had temporal extents Nt = 4, 6 and 8 and aspect ratios of Ns / Nt \geq
4. At least up to a temperature of 140 MeV the pseudo-scalar screening mass
remains almost equal to the corresponding zero temperature pseudo-scalar (pole)
mass. At temperatures around 3Tc (Tc being the transition temperature) the
continuum extrapolated pseudo-scalar screening mass approaches very close to
the free continuum result of 2 \pi T from below. On the other hand, at high
temperatures the vector screening mass turns out to be larger than the free
continuum value of 2 \pi T. The pseudo-scalar and the vector screening masses
do not become degenerate even for a temperature as high as 4Tc. Using these
mesonic spatial correlation functions we have also investigated the restoration
of chiral symmetry and the effective restoration of the axial symmetry. We have
found that the vector and the axial-vector screening correlators become
degenerate, indicating chiral symmetry restoration, at a temperature which is
consistent with the QCD transition temperature obtained in previous studies. On
the other hand, the pseudo-scalar and the scalar screening correlators become
degenerate only at temperatures larger than 1.3Tc, indicating that the
effective restoration of the axial symmetry takes place at a temperature larger
than the QCD transition temperature.Comment: Published versio
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