Evaluation of fate of added copper and zinc in prairie soils using chemical speciation and XANES spectroscopy

Non-Peer Reviewe

Water facilities in retrospect and prospect: An illuminating tool for vehicle design

Water facilities play a fundamental role in the design of air, ground, and marine vehicles by providing a qualitative, and sometimes quantitative, description of complex flow phenomena. Water tunnels, channels, and tow tanks used as flow-diagnostic tools have experienced a renaissance in recent years in response to the increased complexity of designs suitable for advanced technology vehicles. These vehicles are frequently characterized by large regions of steady and unsteady three-dimensional flow separation and ensuing vortical flows. The visualization and interpretation of the complicated fluid motions about isolated vehicle components and complete configurations in a time and cost effective manner in hydrodynamic test facilities is a key element in the development of flow control concepts, and, hence, improved vehicle designs. A historical perspective of the role of water facilities in the vehicle design process is presented. The application of water facilities to specific aerodynamic and hydrodynamic flow problems is discussed, and the strengths and limitations of these important experimental tools are emphasized

The Second Virial Coefficient of Spin-1/2 Interacting Anyon System

Evaluating the propagator by the usual time-sliced manner, we use it to compute the second virial coefficient of an anyon gas interacting through the repulsive potential of the form $g/r^2 (g > 0)$. All the cusps for the unpolarized spin-1/2 as well as spinless cases disappear in the $\omega \to 0$ limit, where $\omega$ is a frequency of harmonic oscillator which is introduced as a regularization method. As $g$ approaches to zero, the result reduces to the noninteracting hard-core limit.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figs include

Tungsten nuclear rocket, phase I, part 1 Final report

Tungsten water moderated nuclear rocket reactor experiments and analyse

Properties of the Interstitial in the Diamond-Type Lattice

Linear combination of atomic orbital—molecular orbital cluster calculations using extended Hückel theory suggest that the interstitial carbon atom in diamond prefers an interstitialcy configuration. The predicted minimum-energy configuration changes with charge state, providing a possible example of the Bourgoin mechanism for athermal migration of the interstitial in the presence of ionizing radiation

Quantisation without Gauge Fixing: Avoiding Gribov Ambiguities through the Physical Projector

The quantisation of gauge invariant systems usually proceeds through some gauge fixing procedure of one type or another. Typically for most cases, such gauge fixings are plagued by Gribov ambiguities, while it is only for an admissible gauge fixing that the correct dynamical description of the system is represented, especially with regards to non perturbative phenomena. However, any gauge fixing procedure whatsoever may be avoided altogether, by using rather a recently proposed new approach based on the projection operator onto physical gauge invariant states only, which is necessarily free on any such issues. These different aspects of gauge invariant systems are explicitely analysed within a solvable U(1) gauge invariant quantum mechanical model related to the dimensional reduction of Yang-Mills theory.Comment: 22 pages, no figures, plain LaTeX fil

Risky driving or risky drivers? Exploring driving and crash histories of illegal street racing offenders

Illegal street racing has received increased attention in recent years from road safety professionals and the media as jurisdictions in Australia, Canada, and the United States have implemented laws to address the problem, which primarily involves young male drivers. Although some evidence suggests that the prevalence of illegal street racing is increasing, obtaining accurate estimates of the crash risk of this behavior is difficult because of limitations in official data sources. Although crash risk can be explored by examining the proportion of incidents of street racing that result in crashes, or the proportion of all crashes that involve street racing, this paper reports on the findings of a study that explored the riskiness of involved drivers. The driving histories of 183 male drivers with an illegal street racing conviction in Queensland, Australia, were compared with a random sample of 183 male Queensland drivers with the same age distribution. The offender group was found to have significantly more traffic infringements, license sanctions, and crashes than the comparison group. Drivers in the offender group were more likely than the comparison group to have committed infringements related to street racing, such as speeding, "hooning," and offenses related to vehicle defects or illegal modifications. Insufficient statistical capacity prevented full exploration of group differences in the type and nature of earlier crashes. It was concluded, however, that street racing offenders generally can be considered risky drivers who warrant attention and whose risky behavior cannot be explained by their youth alone

Soil Buffering Capacity Can Be Used To Optimize Biostimulation of Psychrotrophic Hydrocarbon Remediation

Effective bioremediation of hydrocarbons requires innovative approaches to minimize phosphate precipitation in soils of different buffering capacities. Understanding the mechanisms underlying sustained stimulation of bacterial activity remains a key challenge for optimizing bioremediation—particularly in northern regions. Positron emission tomography (PET) can trace microbial activity within the naturally occurring soil structure of intact soils. Here, we use PET to test two hypotheses: (1) optimizing phosphate bioavailability in soil will outperform a generic biostimulatory solution in promoting hydrocarbon remediation and (2) oligotrophic biostimulation will be more effective than eutrophic approaches. In so doing, we highlight the key bacterial taxa that underlie aerobic and anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation in subarctic soils. In particular, we showed that (i) optimized phosphate bioavailability outperformed generic biostimulatory solutions in promoting hydrocarbon degradation, (ii) oligotrophic biostimulation is more effective than eutrophic approaches, and (iii) optimized biostimulatory solutions stimulated specific soil regions and bacterial consortia. The knowledge gleaned from this study will be crucial in developing field-scale biodegradation treatments for sustained stimulation of bacterial activity in northern regions

A systematic review of current knowledge of HIV epidemiology and of sexual behaviour in Nepal

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review information on HIV epidemiology and on sexual behaviour in Nepal with a view to identifying gaps in current knowledge. METHODS: Systematic review covering electronic databases, web-based information, personal contact with experts and hand searching of key journals. RESULTS: HIV-1 seroprevalence has been rising rapidly in association with high-risk behaviours, with current levels of 40% amongst the nation's injecting drug users and approaching 20% amongst Kathmandu's female commercial sex workers (FCSWs). HIV seroprevalence remains low in the general population (0.29% of 15–49 year olds). There are significant methodological limitations in many of the seroprevalence studies identified, and these estimates need to be treated with caution. There are extensive migration patterns both within the country and internationally which provide the potential for considerable sexual networking. However, studies of sexual behaviour have focused on FCSWs and the extent of sexual networks within the general population is largely unknown. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst some of the ingredients are present for an explosive HIV epidemic in Nepal, crucial knowledge on sexual behaviour in the general population is missing. Research on sexual networking is urgently required to guide HIV control in Nepal. There is also a need for further good-quality epidemiological studies of HIV seroprevalence