Stable Algorithm for Extraction of Asymmetries from the Data on Polarized Lepton-Nucleon Scattering

A new algorithm for extraction of asymmetries from polarized lepton-nucleon scattering data is proposed. The algorithm is stable to set-up acceptance and/or luminosity monitor acceptance variations. A statistical test for checking the data quality is proposed.Comment: 10 pages, latex + 4 eps figure

Contribution of street food to dietary intake of habitual urban consumers: a cross-sectional study in Kampala city, Uganda

Background: Street food has continued to be a popular food source in the urban settings of developing countries and is proving to be a vital urban dietary source. However, its dietary contribution among urban populations is yet to be comprehensively understood. Aim: To assess how street food contributes to the dietary intake of habitual street food consumers. Methods: We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study among habitual street food consumers in Kampala city. We defined habitual intake as consumption of a serving of any street food for ≥2 days/week regardless of the food group and number of times it was consumed in a particular day. Questionnaires were used to capture quantitative data on sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometry, 24-hour diet intake and 2-month street food consumption frequency. The Nutritics® diet analysis software version 4.3 and STATA version 13.0 were used for nutrient and statistical analyses respectively. Results: Street food contributed considerably to the daily intake of fat (49.1%), sodium (38.4%) and calcium (36.5%) and least towards the daily intake of vitamin A (11.3%). The majority of consumers opted for street food at breakfast (50%) whereas lunch and snacks featured the least for overall street food inclusion (all 20%). Overall, men demonstrated more dietary intake and inclusion at meals from street food than women. Conclusions: This study indicates a significant contribution of street food for urban consumers but men derive more benefit than women in terms of nutrient intake and inclusion of street food in meals

The construction of saturated 2Rk-p designs

Combinatorial and sequential analyses for optimization of saturated design

The Case for UHP Conditions in the Cuaba Terrane, Río San Juan Metamorphic Complex, Dominican Republic

From the Cuaba terrane in northern Dominican Republic. Ultrahigh pressure (UHP) conditions are indicated for the Cuaba terrane on the basis of phase relationships in garnet-bearing ultramafic rock. Dikes and orthocumulate textures indicate a magmatic origin. Mineral assemblages define a line of descent controlled by fractional crystallization. The original estimate of the magmatic conditions (P>3.4GPa, T>1550°C) was inferred previously from available high-P melting experiments in the CMAS system and high-P experimental determination of the sapphirine-out reaction in the MAS system. Revised estimates of magmatic conditions (P>3.2GPa, T>1500°C) take into account the influence of other components, especially Fe. We propose an origin in the mantle-wedge above a subduction zone. The rock was delivered to the subduction zone by forced convection in the mantle wedge (corner-flow), coupled with erosion of the hanging wall. Thermobarometry indicates >850°C and >3.4GPa when the ultramafic rock was incorporated into eclogite (deep-subducted oceanic crust). Evidence for UHP conditions in the retrograded eclogite is not obvious. Two types of symplectic intergrowths, plagioclase + clinopyroxene (Sym-I) and plagioclase + epidote (Sym-II), are interpreted as the products of the decomposition of two types of omphacite, Omp-I and Omp-II. Theoretically, Omp-II formed as the result of a retrograde reaction of the form, Omp-II + coesite = Omp-I + kyanite + /- garnet, according to which the maximum pressure for Omp-II is between ~2.8GPa (~850°C) and ~4.2GPa (~950°C), consistent with subsolidus conditions for the garnet-bearing ultramafic rocks. For eclogite, the highest-pressure mineral assemblage would have been Omp-I + kyanite + garnet + coesite

Atmospheric fungal nanoparticle bursts.

Aerosol nanoparticles play an important role in the climate system by affecting cloud formation and properties, as well as in human health because of their deep reach into lungs and the circulatory system. Determining nanoparticle sources and composition is a major challenge in assessing their impacts in these areas. The sudden appearance of large numbers of atmospheric nanoparticles is commonly attributed to secondary formation from gas-phase precursors, but in many cases, the evidence for this is equivocal. We report the detection of a mode of fungal fragments with a mobility diameter of roughly 30 nm released in episodic bursts in ambient air over an agricultural area in northern Oklahoma. These events reached concentrations orders of magnitude higher than other reports of biological particles and show similarities to unclarified events reported previously in the Amazon. These particles potentially represent a large source of both cloud-forming ice nuclei and respirable allergens in a variety of ecosystems

Consolidated fuel reprossing program: The implications of force reflection for teleoperation in space

Previous research on teleoperator force feedback is reviewed and results of a testing program which assessed the impact of force reflection on teleoperator task performance are reported. Force relection is a type of force feedback in which the forces acting on the remote portion of the teleoperator are displayed to the operator by back-driving the master controller. The testing program compared three force reflection levels: 4 to 1 (four units of force on the slave produce one unit of force at the master controller), 1 to 1, and infinity to 1 (no force reflection). Time required to complete tasks, rate of occurrence of errors, the maximum force applied to tasks components, and variability in forces applied to components during completion of representative remote handling tasks were used as dependent variables. Operators exhibited lower error rates, lower peak forces, and more consistent application of forces using force relection than they did without it. These data support the hypothesis that force reflection provides useful information for teleoperator users. The earlier literature and the results of the experiment are discussed in terms of their implications for space based teleoperator systems. The discussion described the impact of force reflection on task completion performance and task strategies, as suggested by the literature. It is important to understand the trade-offs involved in using telerobotic systems with and without force reflection

A feasibility study of signed consent for the collection of patient identifiable information for a national paediatric clinical audit database

Objectives: To investigate the feasibility of obtaining signed consent for submission of patient identifiable data to a national clinical audit database and to identify factors influencing the consent process and its success. Design: Feasibility study. Setting: Seven paediatric intensive care units in England. Participants: Parents/guardians of patients, or patients aged 12-16 years old, approached consecutively over three months for signed consent for submission of patient identifiable data to the national clinical audit database the Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet). Main outcome measures: The numbers and proportions of admissions for which signed consent was given, refused, or not obtained (form not returned or form partially completed but not signed), by age, sex, level of deprivation, ethnicity (South Asian or not), paediatric index of mortality score, length of hospital stay (days in paediatric intensive care). Results: One unit did not start and one did not fully implement the protocol, so analysis excluded these two units. Consent was obtained for 182 of 422 admissions (43%) (range by unit 9% to 84%). Most (101/182; 55%) consents were taken by staff nurses. One refusal (0.2%) was received. Consent rates were significantly better for children who were more severely ill on admission and for hospital stays of six days or more, and significantly poorer for children aged 10-14 years. Long hospital stays and children aged 10-14 years remained significant in a stepwise regression model of the factors that were significant in the univariate model. Conclusion: Systematically obtaining individual signed consent for sharing patient identifiable information with an externally located clinical audit database is difficult. Obtaining such consent is unlikely to be successful unless additional resources are specifically allocated to training, staff time, and administrative support

Topological Charge Fluctuations and Low-Lying Dirac Eigenmodes

We discuss the utility of low-lying Dirac eigenmodes for studying the nature of topological charge fluctuations in QCD. The implications of previous results using the local chirality histogram method are discussed, and the new results using the overlap Dirac operator in Wilson gauge backgrounds at lattice spacings ranging from a~0.04 fm to a~0.12 fm are reported. While the degree of local chirality does not change appreciably closer to the continuum limit, we find that the size and density of local structures responsible for chiral peaking do change significantly. The resulting values are in disagreement with the assumptions of the Instanton Liquid Model. We conclude that the fluctuations of topological charge in the QCD vacuum are not locally quantized.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Lattice2001(confinement

Neutron skin of 208Pb, nuclear symmetry energy, and the parity radius experiment

A precise determination of the neutron skin thickness of a heavy nucleus sets a basic constraint on the nuclear symmetry energy (the neutron skin thickness is the difference of the neutron and proton rms radii of the nucleus). The parity radius experiment (PREX) may achieve it by electroweak parity-violating electron scattering (PVES) on 208Pb. We investigate PVES in nuclear mean field approach to allow the accurate extraction of the neutron skin thickness of 208Pb from the parity-violating asymmetry probed in the experiment. We demonstrate a high linear correlation between the parity-violating asymmetry and the neutron skin thickness in successful mean field forces as the best means to constrain the neutron skin of 208Pb from PREX, without assumptions on the neutron density shape. Continuation of the experiment with higher precision in the parity-violating asymmetry is motivated since the present method can support it to constrain the density slope of the nuclear symmetry energy to new accuracy.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, some changes in text and references, version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let