Impacts of Mobility Management and Human Service Transportation Coordination Efforts and End-User Quality of Life

This study developed an evaluation method to examine the effectiveness of mobility management and coordination programs in a community. A series of surveys were conducted of both transit users and stakeholders in communities across the country. Results from these surveys suggest improvements have occurred in efficiencies, ease of access, and quality of service. Most respondents to the stakeholder survey reported benefits that have been realized. Results from an ordered probit model demonstrate the positive impacts that improved mobility has on life satisfaction

Vortex Matter in Mesoscopic Superconducting Disks and Rings

Phase transitions between different (i.e. giant and multi-vortex) superconducting states and between the superconducting-normal state of mesoscopic disks and rings are studied in the presence of an external magnetic field by solving the two non-linear Ginzburg-Landau equations self-consistently. The flux through a circular disk with a hole in the middle is not quantized.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures; to appear in Physica C (proceedings of the conference on Vortex matter, Crete (september 1999

Kappa-symmetric deformations of M5-brane dynamics

We calculate the first supersymmetric and kappa-symmetric derivative deformation of the M5-brane worldvolume theory in a flat eleven-dimensional background. By applying cohomological techniques we obtain a deformation of the standard constraint of the superembedding formalism. The first possible deformation of the constraint and hence the equations of motion arises at cubic order in fields and fourth order in a fundamental length scale $l$. The deformation is unique up to this order. In particular this rules out any induced Einstein-Hilbert terms on the worldvolume. We explicitly calculate corrections to the equations of motion for the tensor gauge supermultiplet.Comment: 17 pages. Additional comments in section

Light and Life: Exotic Photosynthesis in Binary Star Systems

The potential for hosting photosynthetic life on Earth-like planets within binary/multiple stellar systems was evaluated by modelling the levels of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) such planets receive. Combinations of M and G stars in: (i) close-binary systems; (ii) wide-binary systems and (iii) three-star systems were investigated and a range of stable radiation environments found to be possible. These environmental conditions allow for the possibility of familiar, but also more exotic forms of photosynthetic life, such as infrared photosynthesisers and organisms specialised for specific spectral niches.Comment: Accepted for publication in: Astrobiolog

Charnel practices in medieval England: new perspectives

Studies of English medieval funerary practice have paid limited attention to the curation of human remains in charnel houses. Yet analysis of architectural, archaeological and documentary evidence, including antiquarian accounts, suggests that charnelling was more widespread in medieval England than has hitherto been appreciated, with many charnel houses dismantled at the sixteenth-century Reformation. The survival of a charnel house and its human remains at Rothwell, Northamptonshire permits a unique opportunity to analyse charnel practice at a medieval parish church. Employing architectural, geophysical and osteological analysis, we present a new contextualisation of medieval charnelling. We argue that the charnel house at Rothwell, a subterranean room constructed during the thirteenth century, may have been a particularly sophisticated example of an experiment born out of beliefs surrounding Purgatory. Our approach enables re-evaluation of the surviving evidence for charnel practice in England and enhances wider narratives of medieval charnelling across Europe

Thermal one- and two-graviton Green's functions in the temporal gauge

The thermal one- and two-graviton Green's function are computed using a temporal gauge. In order to handle the extra poles which are present in the propagator, we employ an ambiguity-free technique in the imaginary-time formalism. For temperatures T high compared with the external momentum, we obtain the leading T^4 as well as the subleading T^2 and log(T) contributions to the graviton self-energy. The gauge fixing independence of the leading T^4 terms as well as the Ward identity relating the self-energy with the one-point function are explicitly verified. We also verify the 't Hooft identities for the subleading T^2 terms and show that the logarithmic part has the same structure as the residue of the ultraviolet pole of the zero temperature graviton self-energy. We explicitly compute the extra terms generated by the prescription poles and verify that they do not change the behavior of the leading and sub-leading contributions from the hard thermal loop region. We discuss the modification of the solutions of the dispersion relations in the graviton plasma induced by the subleading T^2 contributions.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Revised version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Bitter gourd, Momordica charantia L., breeding lines differ in secondary metabolite content according to market type

Bitter gourd, Momordica charantia L., is an important commercial cucurbitaceous vegetable of enormous medicinal value in Asia because of its secondary metabolite content. We report here the characterization and evaluation of open-pollinated (OP) edible South Asian and Southeast Asian types of bitter gourd breeding lines, developed at the World Vegetable Center, for horticultural traits (11 OP) and secondary metabolites (10 OP) and their comparisons with commercial OP and F1 hybrid cultivars. Marketable yields of South Asian and Southeast Asian type breeding lines were comparable to the OP ‘BARI Karella 1’ and the hybrid ‘Benteng’, respectively.The bitter gourd cultivars and breeding lines included in this study exhibited specific patterns for five secondary metabolites (saponins, carotenoids, chlorophyll a and b, and vitamin C): in general the two cultivars and South Asian type breeding lines contained higher levels of secondary metabolites, e.g. carotenoids, than the Southeast Asian bitter gourd breeding lines.Some of these bitter gourd lines will be released to Asian home and school gardeners after conducting multi-location trials across Asia to improve vegetable consumption as a main task of bitter gourd breeding