U.S. Inhibitor Pilot Project: Study Design And Methods Validation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106090/1/jth01876.pd

Observations and analysis of the 10-11 June 1994 coastally trapped disturbance

A coastally trapped disturbance (CTD), characterized by southerly flow at the surface on 10-11 June 1994, was observed from the California Bight to Bodega Bay during a field experiment along the California coast. (North-south approximates the coast-parallel direction.) Data from a special observational network of wind profilers, radio acoustic sounding systems, special surface data, balloon ascents, and a research aircraft were used with satellite and synoptic data to explore both the CTD structure and the regional-scale changes before the event. The disruption of the climatological northerly flow along the central California coast, which preconditioned the area for the development of a CTD, began with the eastward movement of a surface high into Washington and Oregon and the amplification of a thermal low in northern California. As with most CTDs in the region, this occurred over the 2-3 days preceding the CTD's initiation. These large-scale changes caused westward advection of warm continental air across much of the California coast, which increased temperatures by 10°-12°C in the layer from 0.4 to 2.0 km above mean sea level (MSL) during the 48 h before southerly flow appeared offshore at the surface. The warming reversed the alongshore sea level pressure gradients near the coast by creating a region of pressure falls extending along 600-1000 km of the coast. This also modified the cross-shore pressure gradient and thus the geostrophic alongshore flow. The warming along the coast also increased the strength of the temperature inversion capping the marine boundary layer (MBL) by a factor of 2-4 over 48 h. The synoptic-scale changes also moved the axis of the climatological near-surface, northerly jet much farther offshore from central California and strengthened this jet near the headlands of Capes Mendocino and Blanco, The development and decay of southerly flow at the surface along the coast coincided roughly with the evolution of a mesoscale low 200 km offshore, and of a coastal ridge roughly 100 km wide. However, the CTD initiation also followed a 500-m thickening of the MBL inversion in the California Bight region where a Catalina eddy was initially present. At surface sites, the CTD was marked by the passage of a pressure trough, followed by a gradual shift to southerly flow and the appearance of clouds. The area of low cloud was not coincident with the region of southerly flow. The transition to southerly flow propagated northward along shore at 1 1.9 ± 0.3 m s-1 on 10 June, stalled for 11-12 h during the part of the diurnal cycle normally characterized by enhanced northerly flow, and then continued propagating northward along shore at 11.6 m s-1. Both the geostrophic wind and the isallobaric component of the ageostrophic wind were consistent with southerly flow at the surface. Southerly flow was observed up to 5 km MSL in this event and in others, which indicates that the synopticscale environment of many CTDs in this region may include a deep tropospheric cyclonic circulation or trough offshore. Both cross-shore and alongshore flights performed by a research aircraft documented the CTD structure and showed that the southerly flow extended at least 100 km offshore and appeared first within the MBL inversion as the inversion thickened upward. While the top of the inversion rose, the height of the inversion's base remained almost unchanged. The thickening of the inversion decreased with distance offshore, and there was no significant change in the MBL depth (i.e., the inversion base height), until 12-14 h after the surface wind shift. Thus, it is suggested that two-layer, shallow water idealizations may be unable to represent this phenomenon adequately. Nonetheless, the gradual wind shift, the thickening inversion, and the correlation between southerly flow and a mesoscale coastal pressure ridge are consistent with a coastally trapped Kelvin wave, albeit one with a higher-order vertical structure that can exist in a two-layer model. However, the semipermanent nature of the changes in the MBL and its inversion is more characteristic of a shallowly sloped internal bore. The temperature increase and lack of southerly flow exceeding the northward phase speed are inconsistent with gravity current behavior

An estimate of the flavour singlet contributions to the hyperfine splitting in charmonium

We explore the splitting between flavour singlet and non-singlet mesons in charmonium. This has implications for the hyperfine splitting in charmonium

First results on the search for chameleons with the KWISP detector at CAST

We report on a first measurement with a sensitive opto-mechanical force sensor designed for the direct detection of coupling of real chameleons to matter. These dark energy candidates could be produced in the Sun and stream unimpeded to Earth. The KWISP detector installed on the CAST axion search experiment at CERN looks for tiny displacements of a thin membrane caused by the mechanical effect of solar chameleons. The displacements are detected by a Michelson interferometer with a homodyne readout scheme. The sensor benefits from the focusing action of the ABRIXAS X-ray telescope installed at CAST, which increases the chameleon flux on the membrane. A mechanical chopper placed between the telescope output and the detector modulates the incoming chameleon stream. We present the results of the solar chameleon measurements taken at CAST in July 2017, setting an upper bound on the force acting on the membrane of 80pN at 95% confidence level. The detector is sensitive for direct coupling to matter 104 = ßm = 108, where the coupling to photons is locally bound to ß¿ = 1011

Improved search for solar chameleons with a GridPix detector at CAST

We report on a new search for solar chameleons with the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST). A GridPix detector was used to search for soft X-ray photons in the energy range from 200 eV to 10 keV from converted solar chameleons. No significant excess over the expected background has been observed in the data taken in 2014 and 2015. We set an improved limit on the chameleon photon coupling, beta(gamma) less than or similar to 5.7 x 10(10) for 1 < beta(m) < 10(6) at 95% C.L. improving our previous results by a factor two and for the first time reaching sensitivity below the solar luminosity bound for tachocline magnetic fields up to 12.5 T

O período da contaminação com petróleo influencia a rebrota de Echinochloa polystachya (H.B.K.) Hitchcock em solo de várzea da Amazônia central?

Several factors may influence the impact of oil on the environment. However, although it is understood that the effect of pollutants may change throughout the year according to seasonal variations in environmental parameters, this effect is poorly studied in the tropical region. The effects of Urucu's crude oil on the vegetative propagation and growth of Echinochloa polystachya were evaluated in a 63 days period, in two experiments, "A" (July-September) and "B" (September-November) planting the species in a greenhouse. In both experiments parts of stems were placed in 2 L of várzea soil contaminated by 6 oil doses, ranging from 0 to 0.231 L oil m-2 soil. In response to dosage increase there was a decrease of total biomass, ratio of live /total biomass, the leaf length and number of leaves. The period of planting influenced the response of plants to the dosage applied due to climate change, with negative effects in the "B" period of higher temperatures. We concluded that the exposure period influence the vegetative propagation and growth of the seedlings, being a spill in the period of the higher temperatures more dangerous for this specie

Search for the Chiral Magnetic Effect in Au+Au collisions at sNN=27\sqrt{s_{_{\rm{NN}}}}=27 GeV with the STAR forward Event Plane Detectors

A decisive experimental test of the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) is considered one of the major scientific goals at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) towards understanding the nontrivial topological fluctuations of the Quantum Chromodynamics vacuum. In heavy-ion collisions, the CME is expected to result in a charge separation phenomenon across the reaction plane, whose strength could be strongly energy dependent. The previous CME searches have been focused on top RHIC energy collisions. In this Letter, we present a low energy search for the CME in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm{NN}}}}=27$ GeV. We measure elliptic flow scaled charge-dependent correlators relative to the event planes that are defined at both mid-rapidity $|\eta|<1.0$ and at forward rapidity $2.1 < |\eta|<5.1$. We compare the results based on the directed flow plane ($\Psi_1$) at forward rapidity and the elliptic flow plane ($\Psi_2$) at both central and forward rapidity. The CME scenario is expected to result in a larger correlation relative to $\Psi_1$ than to $\Psi_2$, while a flow driven background scenario would lead to a consistent result for both event planes[1,2]. In 10-50\% centrality, results using three different event planes are found to be consistent within experimental uncertainties, suggesting a flow driven background scenario dominating the measurement. We obtain an upper limit on the deviation from a flow driven background scenario at the 95\% confidence level. This work opens up a possible road map towards future CME search with the high statistics data from the RHIC Beam Energy Scan Phase-II.Comment: main: 8 pages, 5 figures; supplementary material: 2 pages, 1 figur

Liver transplantation for patients with human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus coinfection with special reference to hemophiliac recipients in Japan.

Liver transplantation for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains challenging. The advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV has reduced mortality from opportunistic infection related to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome dramatically, while about 50% of patients die of end-stage liver cirrhosis resulting from HCV. In Japan, liver cirrhosis frequently develops after HCV-HIV coinfection resulting from previously transfused infected blood products for hemophilia. The problems of liver transplantation for those patients arise from the need to control calcineurin inhibitor with HAART drugs, the difficulty of using interferon after liver transplantation with HAART, and the need to control intraoperative coagulopathy associated with hemophilia. We review published reports of liver transplantation for these patients in the updated world literature