Tracer techniques for urine volume determination and urine collection and sampling back-up system

The feasibility, functionality, and overall accuracy of the use of lithium were investigated as a chemical tracer in urine for providing a means of indirect determination of total urine volume by the atomic absorption spectrophotometry method. Experiments were conducted to investigate the parameters of instrumentation, tracer concentration, mixing times, and methods for incorporating the tracer material in the urine collection bag, and to refine and optimize the urine tracer technique to comply with the Skylab scheme and operational parameters of + or - 2% of volume error and + or - 1% accuracy of amount of tracer added to each container. In addition, a back-up method for urine collection and sampling system was developed and evaluated. This back-up method incorporates the tracer technique for volume determination in event of failure of the primary urine collection and preservation system. One chemical preservative was selected and evaluated as a contingency chemical preservative for the storage of urine in event of failure of the urine cooling system

Really Cool Stars and the Star Formation History at the Galactic Center

We present R=550 to 1200 near infrared H and K spectra for a magnitude limited sample of 79 asymptotic giant branch and cool supergiant stars in the central ~ 5 pc (diameter) of the Galaxy. We use a set of similar spectra obtained for solar neighborhood stars with known Teff and Mbol that is in the same range as the Galactic center (GC) sample to derive Teff and Mbol for the GC sample. We then construct the Hertzsprung--Russell (HRD) diagram for the GC sample. Using an automated maximum likelihood routine, we derive a coarse star formation history of the GC. We find (1) roughly 75% of the stars formed in the central few pc are older than 5 Gyr; (2) the star formation rate (SFR) is variable over time, with a roughly 4 times higher star formation rate in the last 100 Myr compared to the average SFR; (3) our model can only match dynamical limits on the total mass of stars formed by limiting the IMF to masses above 0.7 M$_\odot$. This could be a signature of mass segregation or of the bias toward massive star formation from the unique star formation conditions in the GC; (4) blue supergiants account for 12 % of the total sample observed, and the ratio of red to blue supergiants is roughly 1.5; (5) models with isochrones with [Fe/H] = 0.0 over all ages fit the stars in our HRD better than models with lower [Fe/H] in the oldest age bins, consistent with the finding of Ramirez et al. (2000) that stars with ages between 10 Myr and 1 Gyr have solar [Fe/H].Comment: ApJ, accepted. Latex, 65 pages including 19 figure

Comment on "Feynman Effective Classical Potential in the Schrodinger Formulation"

We comment on the paper "Feynman Effective Classical Potential in the Schrodinger Formulation"[Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3303 (1998)]. We show that the results in this paper about the time evolution of a wave packet in a double well potential can be properly explained by resorting to a variational principle for the effective action. A way to improve on these results is also discussed.Comment: 1 page, 2eps figures, Revte

The Effect of Ru substitution for Ni on the superconductivity in MgCNi3-xRux

The superconductor MgCNi3 has been chemically doped by partial substitution of Ru for Ni in the solid solution MgCNi3-xRux for 0<x<0.5. Magnetic and specific heat measurements show that the Sommerfeld parameter (gamma_exp) and TC decrease immediately on Ru substitution, but that a TC above 2K is maintained even for a relatively large decrease in gamma_exp. Ferromagnetism is not observed to develop through Ru substitution, and the normal state magnetic susceptibility is suppressed.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure

Two-dimensional solitons at interfaces between binary superlattices and homogeneous lattices

We report on the experimental observation of two-dimensional surface solitons residing at the interface between a homogeneous square lattice and a superlattice that consists of alternating "deep" and "shallow" waveguides. By exciting single waveguides in the first row of the superlattice, we show that solitons centered on deep sites require much lower powers than their respective counterparts centered on shallow sites. Despite the fact that the average refractive index of the superlattice waveguides is equal to the refractive index of the homogeneous lattice, the interface results in clearly asymmetric output patterns.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Physical Review