Characterization and washability studies of raw coal from the Little Tonzona Field, Alaska

Coal occurs in an isolated exposure of Tertiary, non-marine sedimentary rocks along the southwest bank of the Little Tonzona River, near Farewell, Alaska. The Little Tonzona River coal field is located approximately 150 air miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska, and 210 air miles southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska; near the boundaries of Denali National Park. The Alaska Railroad and the Parks Highway are approximately 100 air miles from the coal field at their nearest point. The village of McGrath, on the Kuskokwim River, is located approximately 90 miles to the west (1). An impressive outcrop of coal-bearing Tertiary sediments is exposed for a distance of more than 275 feet on the west bank of the Little Tonzona River (Figure 1). More than seven coal beds, ranging in thickness from 3 feet ta 30 feet, with a cumulative thickness of over 134 feet, are interbedded with clay beds up to 40 feet thick. The clays are fine textured, extremely plastic, light grey to nearly white bentonites andlor tonsteins. Doyon Ltd., an ANSCA Native Corporation, holds land selections covering the inferred limits of the coal field. During 1980 and 1981, Doyon entered into exploration agreements with McIntyre Mines Inc. of Nevada. The two season exploration program took place from June 1,1980 through August 22,1980 and from May 27,1981 through August 22, 1981. During the 1980 field season, geologic mapping, prospecting, stratigraphy, trenching and bulk sampling of all coal outcrops were performed. This produced a total of 34 samples, which were taken for analysis. In 1981, six diamond drill holes with a cumulative length of 2,935 feet were completed. Core recovery was close to 90%, and a total of 147 coal samples, which represented 802.8 cumulative feet of coal, were taken for analysis. The exploration program confirmed a strike length of over 3 miles to the southwest from the main river bank exposure. Northward extension is unknown at this time. Although outcrop exposure is poor away from the river banks, burnout zones resulting from past coal bed fires form a resistant, recognizable on strike feature in the relatively unindurated Tertialy sequence. The appearance of these burnout zones along strike is often the only surface indication of the buried coal-bearing strata. Well preserved plant fossil impressions in the baked clays date the deposit as probable Miocene (2). Coal characterization and washability studies were performed on all coal samples by the Mineral Industry Research Laboratory of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This work was conducted under the direction of Dr. P.D. Rao, Professor of Coal Technology.This study was conducted under the sponsorship of McIntyre Mines Ltd

An ansatz for the nonlinear Demkov-Kunike problem for cold molecule formation

We study nonlinear mean-field dynamics of ultracold molecule formation in the case when the external field configuration is defined by the level-crossing Demkov-Kunike model, characterized by a bell-shaped coupling and finite variation of the detuning. Analyzing the fast sweep rate regime of the strong interaction limit, which models a situation when the peak value of the coupling is large enough and the resonance crossing is sufficiently fast, we construct a highly accurate ansatz to describe the temporal dynamics of the molecule formation in the mentioned interaction regime. The absolute error of the constructed approximation is less than 3*10^-6 for the final transition probability while at certain time points it might increase up to 10^-3. Examining the role of the different terms in the constructed approximation, we prove that in the fast sweep rate regime of the strong interaction limit the temporal dynamics of the atom-molecule conversion effectively consists of the process of resonance crossing, which is governed by a nonlinear equation, followed by atom-molecular coherent oscillations which are basically described by a solution of the linear problem, associated with the considered nonlinear one.Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Contemp. Phys. (Armenian National Academy of Sciences) 8 pages, 4 figure

The importance of animal welfare science and ethics to veterinary students in Australia and New Zealand

The study of animal welfare and ethics (AWE) as part of veterinary education is important due to increasing community concerns and expectations about this topic, global pressures regarding food security, and the requirements of veterinary accreditation, especially with respect to Day One Competences. To address several key questions regarding the attitudes to AWE of veterinary students in Australia and New Zealand (NZ), the authors surveyed the 2014 cohort of these students. The survey aimed (1) to reveal what AWE topics veterinary students in Australia and NZ consider important as Day One Competences, and (2) to ascertain how these priorities align with existing research on how concern for AWE relates to gender and stage of study. Students identified triage and professional ethics as the most important Day One Competences in AWE. Students ranked an understanding of triage as increasingly important as they progressed through their program. Professional ethics was rated more important by early and mid-stage students than by senior students. Understanding the development of animal welfare science and perspectives on animal welfare were rated as being of little importance to veterinary graduates as Day One Competences, and an understanding of “why animal welfare matters” declined as the students progressed through the program. Combined, these findings suggest that veterinary students consider it more important to have the necessary practical skills and knowledge to function as a veterinarian on their first day in practic

Parity-violating neutron spin rotation in hydrogen and deuterium

We calculate the (parity-violating) spin rotation angle of a polarized neutron beam through hydrogen and deuterium targets, using pionless effective field theory up to next-to-leading order. Our result is part of a program to obtain the five leading independent low-energy parameters that characterize hadronic parity-violation from few-body observables in one systematic and consistent framework. The two spin-rotation angles provide independent constraints on these parameters. Using naive dimensional analysis to estimate the typical size of the couplings, we expect the signal for standard target densities to be 10^-7 to 10^-6 rad/m for both hydrogen and deuterium targets. We find no indication that the nd observable is enhanced compared to the np one. All results are properly renormalized. An estimate of the numerical and systematic uncertainties of our calculations indicates excellent convergence. An appendix contains the relevant partial-wave projectors of the three-nucleon system.Comment: 44 pages, 17 figures; minor corrections; to be published in EPJ

Low-Temperature Specific Heat of an Extreme-Type-II Superconductor at High Magnetic Fields

We present a detailed study of the quasiparticle contribution to the low-temperature specific heat of an extreme type-II superconductor at high magnetic fields. Within a T-matrix approximation for the self-energies in the mixed state of a homogeneous superconductor, the electronic specific heat is a linear function of temperature with a linear-$T$ coefficient $\gamma_s(H)$ being a nonlinear function of magnetic field $H$. In the range of magnetic fields H\agt (0.15-0.2)H_{c2} where our theory is applicable, the calculated $\gamma_s(H)$ closely resembles the experimental data for the borocarbide superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Categorizing Different Approaches to the Cosmological Constant Problem

We have found that proposals addressing the old cosmological constant problem come in various categories. The aim of this paper is to identify as many different, credible mechanisms as possible and to provide them with a code for future reference. We find that they all can be classified into five different schemes of which we indicate the advantages and drawbacks. Besides, we add a new approach based on a symmetry principle mapping real to imaginary spacetime.Comment: updated version, accepted for publicatio

The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function at the Dawn of Gaia

The [O III] 5007 Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) is an excellent extragalactic standard candle. In theory, the PNLF method should not work at all, since the luminosities of the brightest planetary nebulae (PNe) should be highly sensitive to the age of their host stellar population. Yet the method appears robust, as it consistently produces < 10% distances to galaxies of all Hubble types, from the earliest ellipticals to the latest-type spirals and irregulars. It is therefore uniquely suited for cross-checking the results of other techniques and finding small offsets between the Population I and Population II distance ladders. We review the calibration of the method and show that the zero points provided by Cepheids and the Tip of the Red Giant Branch are in excellent agreement. We then compare the results of the PNLF with those from Surface Brightness Fluctuation measurements, and show that, although both techniques agree in a relative sense, the latter method yields distances that are ~15% larger than those from the PNLF. We trace this discrepancy back to the calibration galaxies and argue that, due to a small systematic error associated with internal reddening, the true distance scale likely falls between the extremes of the two methods. We also demonstrate how PNLF measurements in the early-type galaxies that have hosted Type Ia supernovae can help calibrate the SN Ia maximum magnitude-rate of decline relation. Finally, we discuss how the results from space missions such as Kepler and Gaia can help our understanding of the PNLF phenomenon and improve our knowledge of the physics of local planetary nebulae.Comment: 12 pages, invited review at the conference "The Fundamental Cosmic Distance Scale: State of the Art and Gaia Perspective", to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Forward pi^0 Production and Associated Transverse Energy Flow in Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Deep-inelastic positron-proton interactions at low values of Bjorken-x down to x \approx 4.10^-5 which give rise to high transverse momentum pi^0 mesons are studied with the H1 experiment at HERA. The inclusive cross section for pi^0 mesons produced at small angles with respect to the proton remnant (the forward region) is presented as a function of the transverse momentum and energy of the pi^0 and of the four-momentum transfer Q^2 and Bjorken-x. Measurements are also presented of the transverse energy flow in events containing a forward pi^0 meson. Hadronic final state calculations based on QCD models implementing different parton evolution schemes are confronted with the data.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures and 3 table

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated