An improved soft X-ray photoionization detector

Photoionization detector with an alumina shell, a beryllium foil window, and a xenon gas fill measures small incident photon fluxes from soft X rays. It has high spectral selectivity and quantum efficiencies, and a long shelf life. It minimizes electrical leakage and recontamination, and will hold a high vacuum

A soft X-ray photoionization detector

Direct current xenon-filled ceramic ionization chamber used as radiation detector in solar and astrophysical observations from rockets and satellite

The swiss army knife of job submission tools: grid-control

Grid-control is a lightweight and highly portable open source submission tool that supports virtually all workflows in high energy physics (HEP). Since 2007 it has been used by a sizeable number of HEP analyses to process tasks that sometimes consist of up 100k jobs. grid-control is built around a powerful plugin and configuration system, that allows users to easily specify all aspects of the desired workflow. Job submission to a wide range of local or remote batch systems or grid middleware is supported. Tasks can be conveniently specified through the parameter space that will be processed, which can consist of any number of variables and data sources with complex dependencies on each other. Dataset information is processed through a configurable pipeline of dataset filters, partition plugins and partition filters. The partition plugins can take the number of files, size of the work units, metadata or combinations thereof into account. All changes to the input datasets or variables are propagated through the processing pipeline and can transparently trigger adjustments to the parameter space and the job submission. While the core functionality is completely experiment independent, integration with the CMS computing environment is provided by a small set of plugins.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings for the 22nd International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physic

Scent Deterrence to Reduce Southern Flying Squirrel Kleptoparasitism of Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Cavities

When establishing new populations of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers (RCW; Picoides borealis), cavity kleptoparasites can pose a considerable obstacle to successful restoration. Southern flying squirrels (SFS; Glaucomys volans) are the principal kleptoparasite of RCW roost and nest cavities. Managers restoring RCW populations primarily use labor-intensive, direct removal to mitigate cavity competition by SFS. We fi eld tested the use of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) urine and rat snake (Elaphe spp.) musk as predator scents to examine if SFS could be deterred from using RCW cavities and to observe RCW roost behavior at cavities treated with red fox urine. Scent deterrence proved ineffective in preventing SFS use of RCW cavities, while RCWs showed no behavioral response to scent treatment. Managers should continue using squirrel excluder devices, and direct removal to mitigate SFS kleptoparasitism of RCW cavities when restoring critically endangered populations

Mesospheric anomalous diffusion during noctilucent clouds

The Andenes specular meteor radar shows meteor-trail diffusion rates increasing on average by ~ 20% at times and locations where a lidar observes noctilucent clouds (NLCs). This high-latitude effect has been attributed to the presence of charged NLC but this study shows that such behaviors result predominantly from thermal tides. To make this claim, the current study evaluates data from three stations, at high-, mid-, and low-latitudes, for the years 2012 to 2016, comparing diffusion to show that thermal tides correlate strongly with the presence of NLCs. This data also shows that the connection between meteor-trail diffusion and thermal tide occurs at all altitudes in the mesosphere, while the NLC influence exists only at high-latitudes and at around peak of NLC layer. This paper discusses a number of possible explanations for changes in the regions with NLCs and leans towards the hypothesis that relative abundance of background electron density plays the leading role. A more accurate model of the meteor trail diffusion around NLC particles would help researchers determine mesospheric temperature and neutral density profiles from meteor radars.Public versio