744 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Exploring the Role of Natural Gas in U.S. Trucking (Revised Version)
The recent emergence of natural gas as an abundant, inexpensive fuel in the United States could prompt a momentous shift in the level of natural gas utilized in the transportation sector. The cost advantage of natural gas vis-à-vis diesel fuel is particularly appealing for vehicles with a high intensity of travel and thus fuel use. Natural gas is already a popular fuel for municipal and fleet vehicles such as transit buses and taxis. In this paper, we investigate the possibility that natural gas could be utilized to provide fuel cost savings, geographic supply diversity and environmental benefits for the heavy-duty trucking sector and whether it can enable a transition to lower carbon transport fuels. We find that a small, cost-effective intervention in markets could support a transition to a commercially sustainable natural gas heavyduty fueling system in the state of California and that this could also advance some of the state’s air quality goals. Our research shows that an initial advanced natural gas fueling system in California could facilitate the expansion to other U.S. states. Such a network would enable a faster transition to renewable natural gas or biogas and waste-to-energy pathways. Stricter efficiency standards for natural gas Class 8 trucks and regulation of methane leakage along the natural gas supply chain would be necessary for natural gas to contribute substantially to California’s climate goals as a trucking fuel. To date, industry has favored less expensive technologies that do not offer the highest level of environmental performance
Radiation from Excited Vortex in the Abelian Higgs Model
Excitation of a vortex in the Abelian Higgs model is investigated with the
help of a polynomial approximation. The excitation can be regarded as a
longitudinal component of the vector field trapped by the vortex. The energy
and profile of the excitation are found. Back-reaction of the excitation on the
vortex is calculated in the small limit. It turns out that in the
presence of the excitation the vortex effectively becomes much wider - its
radius oscillates in time and for all times it is not smaller than the radius
of the unexcited vortex. Moreover, we find that the vector field of the excited
vortex has long range radiative component. Bound on the amplitude of the
excitation is also found.Comment: Latex, 20 pages. 2 figures attached as .uu file to be decoded and
used as input for epsfbox command which is already included in the main Latex
fil
Pasireotide Long-Acting Release Treatment for Diabetic Cats with Underlying Hypersomatotropism
BACKGROUND: Long‐term medical management of hypersomatotropism (HS) in cats has proved unrewarding. Pasireotide, a novel somatostatin analogue, decreases serum insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF‐1) and improves insulin sensitivity in cats with HS when administered as a short‐acting preparation. OBJECTIVES: Assess once‐monthly administration of long‐acting pasireotide (pasireotide LAR) for treatment of cats with HS. ANIMALS: Fourteen cats with HS, diagnosed based on diabetes mellitus, pituitary enlargement, and serum IGF‐1 > 1000 ng/mL. METHODS: Uncontrolled, prospective cohort study. Cats received pasireotide LAR (6–8 mg/kg SC) once monthly for 6 months. Fructosamine and IGF‐1 concentrations, and 12‐hour blood glucose curves (BGCs) were assessed at baseline and then monthly. Product of fructosamine concentration and insulin dose was calculated as an indicator of insulin resistance (Insulin Resistance Index). Linear mixed‐effects modeling assessed for significant change in fructosamine, IGF‐1, mean blood glucose (MBG) of BGCs, insulin dose (U/kg) and Insulin Resistance Index. RESULTS: Eight cats completed the trial. Three cats entered diabetic remission. Median IGF‐1 (baseline: 1962 ng/mL [range 1051–2000 ng/mL]; month 6: 1253 ng/mL [524–1987 ng/mL]; P < .001) and median Insulin Resistance Index (baseline: 812 μmolU/L kg [173–3565 μmolU/L kg]; month 6: 135 μmolU/L kg [0–443 μmolU/L kg]; P = .001) decreased significantly. No significant change was found in mean fructosamine (baseline: 494 ± 127 μmol/L; month 6: 319 ± 113.3 μmol/L; P = .07) or MBG (baseline: 347.7 ± 111.0 mg/dL; month 6: 319.5 ± 113.3 mg/dL; P = .11), despite a significant decrease in median insulin dose (baseline: 1.5 [0.4–5.2] U/kg; 6 months: 0.3 [0.0–1.4] U/kg; P < .001). Adverse events included diarrhea (n = 11), hypoglycemia (n = 5), and worsening polyphagia (n = 2). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Pasireotide LAR is the first drug to show potential as a long‐term management option for cats with HS
Modelling the spectral evolution of classical double radio sources
The spectral evolution of powerful double radio galaxies (FR II's) is thought
to be determined by the acceleration of electrons at the termination shock of
the jet, their transport through the bright head region into the lobes and the
production of the radio emission by synchrotron radiation in the lobes. Models
presented to date incorporate some of these processes in prescribing the
electron distribution which enters the lobes. We have extended these models to
include a description of electron acceleration at the relativistic termination
shock and a selection of transport models for the head region. These are
coupled to the evolution of the electron spectrum in the lobes under the
influence of losses due to adiabatic expansion, by inverse Compton scattering
on the cosmic background radiation and by synchrotron radiation. The
evolutionary tracks predicted by this model are compared to observation using
the power/source-size (P-D) diagram. We find that the simplest scenario, in
which accelerated particles suffer adiabatic losses in the head region which
become more severe as the source expands produces P-D-tracks which conflict
with observation, because the power is predicted to decline too steeply with
increasing size. Agreement with observation can be found by assuming that
adiabatic losses are compensated during transport between the termination shock
and the lobe by a re-acceleration process distributed throughout the head
region.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
A multifrequency study of giant radio sources I. Low-frequency Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations of selected sources
We present low-frequency observations with the Giant Metrewave Radio
Telescope (GMRT) of a sample of giant radio sources (GRSs), and high-frequency
observations of three of these sources with the Very Large Array (VLA). From
multifrequency observations of the lobes we estimate the magnetic field
strengths using three different approaches, and show that these differ at most
by a factor of 3. For these large radio sources the inverse-Compton
losses usually dominate over synchrotron losses when estimates of the classical
minimum energy magnetic field are used, consistent with earlier studies.
However, this is often not true if the magnetic fields are close to the values
estimated using the formalism of Beck & Krause. We also examine the spectral
indices of the cores and any evidence of recurrent activity in these sources.
We probe the environment using the symmetry parameters of these sources and
suggest that their environments are often asymmetric on scales of 1 Mpc,
consistent with earlier studies.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables, one appendix; accepted for publication
in MNRA
Determination of the intrinsic velocity field in the M87 jet
A new method to estimate the Doppler beaming factor of relativistic
large-scale jet regions is presented. It is based on multiwaveband fitting to
radio-to-X-ray continua with synchrotron spectrum models. Combining our method
with available observational data of proper motions, we derive the intrinsic
velocity as well as the viewing angles to the line of sight for eight knotty
regions down the M87 jet. The results favor the 'modest beaming' scenario along
the jet, with Doppler factors varying between 2-5. The inner jet of M87 suffers
sharp deceleration, and the intrinsic speed remains roughly constant down the
outer jet. The orientation of the inner jet regions is fully consistent with
the result of 10deg-19deg to the line of sight suggested by previous Hubble
Space Telescope (HST) proper motion studies of the M87 jet. The outer jet,
however, shows systematic deflection off the inner jet to much smaller
inclination (<<10deg). Further calculation of knot A suggests this deflection
can be regarded as evidence that the outer jet suffers some departure from
equipartition. The nucleus region of the M87 jet should have a viewing angle
close to its first knot HST-1, i.e. ~15deg, which favors the idea that M87 may
be a misaligned blazar. This work provides some hints about the overall
dynamics of this famous extragalactic jet.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, MNRAS, 2009, in pres
A Radio Census of Binary Supermassive Black Holes
Using archival VLBI data for 3114 radio-luminous active galactic nuclei, we
searched for binary supermassive black holes using a radio spectral index
mapping technique which targets spatially resolved, double radio-emitting
nuclei. Only one source was detected as a double nucleus. This result is
compared with a cosmological merger rate model and interpreted in terms of (1)
implications for post-merger timescales for centralisation of the two black
holes, (2) implications for the possibility of "stalled" systems, and (3) the
relationship of radio activity in nuclei to mergers. Our analysis suggests that
the binary evolution of paired supermassive black holes (both of masses >= 1e8
Msun) spends less than 500 Myr in progression from the merging of galactic
stellar cores to within the purported stalling radius for supermassive black
hole pairs. The data show no evidence for an excess of stalled binary systems
at small separations. We see circumstantial evidence that the relative state of
radio emission between paired supermassive black holes is correlated within
orbital separations of 2.5 kpc.Comment: 11 Pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
A multifrequency study of giant radio sources III. Dynamical age vs. spectral age of the lobes of selected sources
The dynamical ages of the opposite lobes of selected giant radio sources are
estimated using the DYNAGE algorithm of Machalski et al., and compared with
their spectral ages estimated and studied by Jamrozy et al. in Paper II. As
expected, the DYNAGE fits give slightly different dynamical ages and other
model's parameters for the opposite lobes modelled independently each other,
e.g. the age ratios are found between ~1.1 to ~1.4. Demanding similar values of
the jet power and the radio core density for the same source, we look for a
self-consistent solution for the opposite lobes, which results in different
density profiles along them found by the fit. We also show that a departure
from the equipartition conditions assumed in the model, justified by X-ray
observations of the lobes of some nearby radio galaxies, and a relevant
variation of the magnetic-field strengths may provide an equalisation of the
lobes' ages. A comparison of the dynamical and spectral ages shows that a ratio
of the dynamical age to the spectral age of the lobes of investigated giant
radio galaxies is between ~1 and ~5, i.e. is similar to that found for smaller
radio galaxies (e.g. Parma et al. 1999). Supplementing possible causes for this
effect already discussed in the literature, like uncertainty of assumed
parameters of the model, an influence of a possible departure from the energy
equipartition assumption, etc. Arguments are given to suggest that DYNAGE can
better take account of radiative effects at lower frequencies than the
spectral-ageing analysis.The DYNAGE algorithm is especially effective for
sources at high redshifts, for which an intrinsic spectral curvature is shifted
to low frequencies.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 12 pages, 6 figures, 4 table
A rare case of pigmented villonodular synovitis after unicompartmental knee replacement: a case report
Pigmented villonodular synovitis is a benign proliferative disease involving the synovium. Pigmented villonodular synovitis is rare after replacement arthroplasty and has not been recognised and reported as a cause of failure of unicompartmental knee replacement in the literature
A multifrequency study of the large radio galaxies 3C46 and 3C452
We present low-frequency observations starting from ~150 MHz with the Giant
Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), and high-frequency observations with the Very
Large Array (VLA) of two large radio galaxies 3C46 and 3C452. These
observations were made with the objectives of estimating their spectral ages
and examining any evidence of diffuse extended emission at low radio
frequencies due to an earlier cycle of activity. While no evidence of extended
emission due to an earlier cycle of activity has been found, the spectral ages
have been estimated to be ~15 and 27 Myr for the oldest relativistic plasma
seen in the regions close to the cores for 3C46 and 3C452 respectively. The
spectra in the vicinity of the hotspots are consistent with a straight spectrum
with injection spectral indices of ~1.0 and 0.78 respectively, somewhat steeper
than theoretical expectations.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 8 figures and 4 table
- …