8,738 research outputs found
Sulfur and carbon cycling in organic-rich marine sediments
Nearshore, continental shelf, and slope sediments are important sites of microbially mediated carbon and sulfur cycling. Marine geochemists investigated the rates and mechanisms of cycling processes in these environments by chemical distribution studies, in situ rate measurements, and steady state kinetic modeling. Pore water chemical distributions, sulfate reduction rates, and sediment water chemical fluxes were used to describe cycling on a ten year time scale in a small, rapidly depositing coastal basin, Cape Lookout Bight, and at general sites on the upper continental slope off North Carolina, U.S.A. In combination with 210 Pb sediment accumulation rates, these data were used to establish quantitative carbon and sulfur budgets as well as the relative importance of sulfate reduction and methanogeneis as the last steps in the degradation of organic matter
A Quick Mind with Letters Can Be a Slow Mind with Natural Scenes: Individual Differences in Attentional Selection
Background
Most people show a remarkable deficit in reporting the second of two targets (T2) when presented 200–500 ms after the first (T1), reflecting an ‘attentional blink’ (AB). However, there are large individual differences in the magnitude of the effect, with some people, referred to as ‘non-blinkers’, showing no such attentional restrictions.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Here we replicate these individual differences in a task requiring identification of two letters amongst digits, and show that the observed differences in T2 performance cannot be attributed to individual differences in T1 performance. In a second experiment, the generality of the non-blinkers' superior performance was tested using a task containing novel pictures rather than alphanumeric stimuli. A substantial AB was obtained in non-blinkers that was equivalent to that of ‘blinkers’.
Conclusion/Significance
The results suggest that non-blinkers employ an efficient target selection strategy that relies on well-learned alphabetic and numeric category sets.University of Groningen. Research School Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience
Chromofields of Strings and Baryons
We calculate color electric fields of quark/antiquark () and 3
quark () systems within the chromodielectric model (CDM). We explicitly
evaluate the string tension of flux tubes in the --system and analyze
their profile. To reproduce results of lattice calculations we use a bag
pressure from which an effective strong coupling constant
follows. With these parameters we get a shaped
configuration for large --systems.Comment: Contributions to QNP 2002, Quarks and Nuclear Physics, Juelich,
Germany 3 pages, 10 eps figure
Macroscopic effects in attosecond pulse generation
We examine how the generation and propagation of high-order harmonics in a
partly ionized gas medium affect their strength and synchronization. The
temporal properties of the resulting attosecond pulses generated in long gas
targets can be significantly influenced by macroscopic effects, in particular
by the intensity in the medium and the degree of ionization. Under some
conditions, the use of gas targets longer than the absorption length can lead
to the generation of self-compressed attosecond pulses. We show this effect
experimentally, using long argon-filled gas cells as generating medium.Comment: 5 pages 4 figure
Statistical properties of energy levels of chaotic systems: Wigner or non-Wigner
For systems whose classical dynamics is chaotic, it is generally believed
that the local statistical properties of the quantum energy levels are well
described by Random Matrix Theory. We present here two counterexamples - the
hydrogen atom in a magnetic field and the quartic oscillator - which display
nearest neighbor statistics strongly different from the usual Wigner
distribution. We interpret the results with a simple model using a set of
regular states coupled to a set of chaotic states modeled by a random matrix.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex 3.0 + 4 .ps figures tar-compressed using uufiles
package, use csh to unpack (on Unix machine), to be published in Phys. Rev.
Let
Development and operation of a pixel segmented liquid-filled linear array for radiotherapy quality assurance
A liquid isooctane (CH) filled ionization linear array for
radiotherapy quality assurance has been designed, built and tested. The
detector consists of 128 pixels, each of them with an area of 1.7 mm
1.7 mm and a gap of 0.5 mm. The small pixel size makes the detector ideal for
high gradient beam profiles like those present in Intensity Modulated Radiation
Therapy (IMRT) and radiosurgery. As read-out electronics we use the X-Ray Data
Acquisition System (XDAS) with the Xchip developed by the CCLRC.
Studies concerning the collection efficiency dependence on the polarization
voltage and on the dose rate have been made in order to optimize the device
operation.
In the first tests we have studied dose rate and energy dependences, and
signal reproducibility. Dose rate dependence was found lower than 2.5 % up to 5
Gy min, and energy dependence lower than 2.1 % up to 20 cm depth in
solid water. Output factors and penumbras for several rectangular fields have
been measured with the linear array and were compared with the results obtained
with a 0.125 cm air ionization chamber and radiographic film,
respectively. Finally, we have acquired profiles for an IMRT field and for a
virtual wedge. These profiles have also been compared with radiographic film
measurements. All the comparisons show a good correspondence. Signal
reproducibility was within a 2% during the test period (around three months).
The device has proved its capability to verify on-line therapy beams with
good spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures Submitted to Phys. Med. Bio
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