A Small Town Drug Problem: The Socio-Economy of Malindi’s Heroin-Using Population

Research was conducted in Malindi focusing on the social and economic characteristics of heroin-users. A survey of users’ ages, employment, education level, future ambitions, family status, and attitudes towards rehabilitation was undertaken with the assistance of The Omari Project, a local non-governmental organization specializing in rehabilitation services. The findings reveal a community mired in the throes of poverty and unemployment, which exacerbates the community’s drug problem. Recommendations are offered suggesting how best to meet the economic and social challenges presented by the heroin-using community

Local equilibrium of the quark-gluon plasma

Within kinetic theory, we look for local equilibrium configurations of the quark-gluon plasma by maximizing the local entropy. We use the well-established transport equations in the Vlasov limit, supplemented with the Waldmann-Snider collision terms. Two different classes of local equilibrium solutions are found. The first one corresponds to the configurations that comply with the so-called collisional invariants. The second one is given by the distribution functions that cancel the collision terms, representing the most probable binary interactions with soft gluon exchange in the t-channel. The two sets of solutions agree with each other if we go beyond these dominant processes and take into account subleading quark-antiquark annihilation/creation and gluon number non-conserving processes. The local equilibrium state appears to be colorful, as the color charges are not locally neutralized. Properties of such an equilibrium state are analyzed. In particular, the related hydrodynamic equations of a colorful fluid are derived. Possible neutralization processes are also briefly discussed.Comment: 20 pages; minor changes, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Whitening of the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Parton-parton collisions do not neutralize local color charges in the quark-gluon plasma as they only redistribute the charges among momentum modes. We discuss color diffusion and color conductivity as the processes responsible for the neutralization of the plasma. For this purpose, we first compute the conductivity and diffusion coefficients in the plasma that is significantly colorful. Then, the time evolution of the color density due to the conductivity and diffusion is studied. The conductivity is shown to be much more efficient than the diffusion in neutralizing the plasma at the scale longer than the screening length. Estimates of the characteristic time scales, which are based on close to global equilibrium computations, suggest that first the plasma becomes white and then the momentum degrees of freedom thermalize.Comment: 9 pages, revised, to appear in Phys. Rev.

A High-Throughput Screening Assay for Pyruvate Carboxylase

Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to oxaloacetate (OAA), an important metabolic reaction in a wide range of organisms. Small molecules directed against PC would enable detailed studies on the metabolic role of this enzyme and would have the potential to be developed into pharmacological agents. Currently, specific and potentsmall molecule regulators of PC are unavailable. To assist in efforts to find, develop, and characterize small molecule effectors of PC, a novel fixed-time assay has been developed based on the reaction of OAA with the diazonium salt, Fast Violet B (FVB), which produces a colored adduct with an absorbance maximum at 530 nm. This fixed time assay is reproducible, sensitive and responsive to known effectors of Rhizobium etli PC, Staphylococcus aureus PC, and Listeria monocytogenes PC, and is highly amenable to high-throughput screening. The assay was validated using a plate uniformity assessment test and a pilot screen of a library of 1280 compounds. The results indicate that the assay is suitable for screening small molecule libraries to find novel small molecule effectors of PC

Hard-Loop Effective Action for Anisotropic Plasmas

We generalize the hard-thermal-loop effective action of the equilibrium quark-gluon plasma to a non-equilibrium system which is space-time homogeneous but for which the parton momentum distribution is anisotropic. We show that the manifestly gauge-invariant Braaten-Pisarski form of the effective action can be straightforwardly generalized and we verify that it then generates all n-point functions following from collisionless gauge-covariant transport theory for a homogeneous anisotropic plasma. On the other hand, the Taylor-Wong form of the hard-thermal-loop effective action has a more complicated generalization to the anisotropic case. Already in the simplest case of anisotropic distribution functions, it involves an additional term that is gauge invariant by itself, but nontrivial also in the static limit.Comment: 12 pages. Version 3: typo in (15) corrected, note added discussing metric conventions use

Liquid Hydrogen Target Experience at SLAC

Liquid hydrogen targets have played a vital role in the physics program at SLAC for the past 40 years. These targets have ranged from small "beer can" targets to the 1.5 m long E158 target that was capable of absorbing up to 800 W without any significant density changes. Successful use of these targets has required the development of thin-wall designs, liquid hydrogen pumps, remote positioning and alignment systems, safety systems, control and data acquisition systems, cryogenic cooling circuits and heat exchangers. Detailed operating procedures have been created to ensure safety and operational reliability.This paper surveys the evolution of liquid hydrogen targets at SLAC and discusses advances in several of the enabling technologies that made these targets possible

Chaos and quantum-nondemolition measurements

The problem of chaotic behavior in quantum mechanics is investigated against the background of the theory of quantum-nondemolition (QND) measurements. The analysis is based on two relevant features: The outcomes of a sequence of QND measurements are unambiguously predictable, and these measurements actually can be performed on one single system without perturbing its time evolution. Consequently, QND measurements represent an appropriate framework to analyze the conditions for the occurrence of ‘‘deterministic randomness’’ in quantum systems. The general arguments are illustrated by a discussion of a quantum system with a time evolution that possesses nonvanishing algorithmic complexity

Stratigraphic Column of the Kope and Fairview Formations, Kentucky 445, Brent, Kentucky

The Upper Ordovician Kope Formation is exposed over a broad area of southwestern Ohio, southeastern Indiana, and northern Kentucky (Weir and others, 1984). Roadcuts along Ky. 445 near Brent (Figs. 2-3) and adjacent roadcuts along Interstate 275 expose a nearly complete section of the Kope Formation as well as the overlying Fairview Formation

Small‐Scale Mechanical Testing of Nuclear Structural Materials

Material property changes due to harsh reactor environment conditions, such as neutron irradiation and high temperature, may limit the performance and the safe operating envelopes of all reactor types. Quantitative information on the material properties changes is needed to support ongoing life extension/ life management efforts of the existing global reactor fleet, as well as for design and development of future advanced reactor concepts. Testing of larger radioactive test specimens is challenging and expensive, as it requires their handling and testing in shielded facilities. Testing smaller sized specimens has an advantage in terms of their reduced activity that allows for safer handling and cost effective testing processes. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract