561 research outputs found
The climate change risk management matrix for the grazing industry of northern Australia
The complexity, variability and vastness of the northern Australian rangelands make it difficult to assess the risks associated with climate change. In this paper we present a methodology to help industry and primary producers assess risks associated with climate change and to assess the effectiveness of adaptation options in managing those risks. Our assessment involved three steps. Initially, the impacts and adaptation responses were documented in matrices by ‘experts’ (rangeland and climate scientists). Then, a modified risk management framework was used to develop risk management matrices that identified important impacts, areas of greatest vulnerability (combination of potential impact and adaptive capacity) and priority areas for action at the industry level. The process was easy to implement and useful for arranging and analysing large amounts of information (both complex and interacting). Lastly, regional extension officers (after minimal ‘climate literacy’ training) could build on existing knowledge provided here and implement the risk management process in workshops with rangeland land managers. Their participation is likely to identify relevant and robust adaptive responses that are most likely to be included in regional and property management decisions. The process developed here for the grazing industry could be modified and used in other industries and sectors.
By 2030, some areas of northern Australia will experience more droughts and lower summer rainfall. This poses a serious threat to the rangelands. Although the impacts and adaptive responses will vary between ecological and geographic systems, climate change is expected to have noticeable detrimental effects: reduced pasture growth and surface water availability; increased competition from woody vegetation; decreased production per head (beef and wool) and gross margin; and adverse impacts on biodiversity. Further research and development is needed to identify the most vulnerable regions, and to inform policy in time to facilitate transitional change and enable land managers to implement those changes
Healthy hardwoods. A field guide to pests, diseases and nutritional disorders in subtropical hardwoods.
Healthy hardwoods: A field guide to pests, diseases and nutritional disorders in subtropical hardwoods can be used to help identify the common damaging insects, fungi and nutritional disorders in young eucalypt (Eucalyptus and Corymbia species) plantations in subtropical eastern Australia.
This guide includes photographs of each insect, fungus and nutritional disorder and the damage they cause, along with a brief description to aid identification. A brief host list for insects and fungi, including susceptibility and occurrence, is provided as a guide only. A hand lens will be useful, especially to identify fungi. Although it is possible to identify insects and fungi from these photographs, laboratory examination will sometimes be necessary. For example, microscopes and culturing media might be used to identify fungi.
Information about four exotic pests and diseases has also been included in the Biosecurity threats chapter. Potentially, these would have a severe impact on plantation and natural forests if introduced into Australia. To prevent establishment of these pests, early detection and identification is crucial. If an exotic insect or disease is suspected, then an immediate response is required. Usually, the first response will be to contact the nearest Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service office or forestry agency to seek advice
Definitions and methodology for the grayscale and radiofrequency intravascular ultrasound and coronary angiographic analyses
Objectives: In a prospective study of the natural history of coronary atherosclerosis using angiography and grayscale and radio
Abelian Magnetic Monopole Dominance in Quark Confinement
We prove Abelian magnetic monopole dominance in the string tension of QCD.
Abelian and monopole dominance in low energy physics of QCD has been confirmed
for various quantities by recent Monte Carlo simulations of lattice gauge
theory. In order to prove this dominance, we use the reformulation of continuum
Yang-Mills theory in the maximal Abelian gauge as a deformation of a
topological field theory of magnetic monopoles, which was proposed in the
previous article by the author. This reformulation provides an efficient way
for incorporating the magnetic monopole configuration as a topological
non-trivial configuration in the functional integral. We derive a version of
the non-Abelian Stokes theorem and use it to estimate the expectation value of
the Wilson loop. This clearly exhibits the role played by the magnetic monopole
as an origin of the Berry phase in the calculation of the Wilson loop in the
manifestly gauge invariant manner. We show that the string tension derived from
the diagonal (abelian) Wilson loop in the topological field theory (studied in
the previous article) converges to that of the full non-Abelian Wilson loop in
the limit of large Wilson loop. Therefore, within the above reformulation of
QCD, this result (together with the previous result) completes the proof of
quark confinement in QCD based on the criterion of the area law of the full
non-Abelian Wilson loop.Comment: 33 pages, Latex, no figures, version accepted for publication in
Phys. Rev. D (additions of sec. 4.5 and references, and minor changes
Accretion, Outflows, and Winds of Magnetized Stars
Many types of stars have strong magnetic fields that can dynamically
influence the flow of circumstellar matter. In stars with accretion disks, the
stellar magnetic field can truncate the inner disk and determine the paths that
matter can take to flow onto the star. These paths are different in stars with
different magnetospheres and periods of rotation. External field lines of the
magnetosphere may inflate and produce favorable conditions for outflows from
the disk-magnetosphere boundary. Outflows can be particularly strong in the
propeller regime, wherein a star rotates more rapidly than the inner disk.
Outflows may also form at the disk-magnetosphere boundary of slowly rotating
stars, if the magnetosphere is compressed by the accreting matter. In isolated,
strongly magnetized stars, the magnetic field can influence formation and/or
propagation of stellar wind outflows. Winds from low-mass, solar-type stars may
be either thermally or magnetically driven, while winds from massive, luminous
O and B type stars are radiatively driven. In all of these cases, the magnetic
field influences matter flow from the stars and determines many observational
properties. In this chapter we review recent studies of accretion, outflows,
and winds of magnetized stars with a focus on three main topics: (1) accretion
onto magnetized stars; (2) outflows from the disk-magnetosphere boundary; and
(3) winds from isolated massive magnetized stars. We show results obtained from
global magnetohydrodynamic simulations and, in a number of cases compare global
simulations with observations.Comment: 60 pages, 44 figure
Residual plaque burden in patients with acute coronary syndromes after successful percutaneous coronary intervention
Objectives: The aim of this study was to characterize and evaluate the clinical impact of untreated atherosclerotic disease after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Background: Residual atherosclerotic disease after successful PCI may predispose future major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), angiography underestimates the presence and severity of coronary artery disease. Methods: Following successful PCI of all clinically significant lesions in 697 patients with ACS, 3-vessel grayscale and radiofrequency IVUS was performed. Lesions were prospectively characterized, and patients were followed for a median of 3.4 years. A total of 3,229 untreated lesions (4.89 ± 1.98 lesions/patient) were identified by IVUS, with mean plaque burden (PB) of 49.6 ± 4.2%. Results: By angiography these nonculprit lesions were mild, with mean diameter stenosis of 38.9 ± 15.3%. At least 1 lesion with a PB <70% (PB70 lesion) was found in 220 (33%) patients. By multivariable analysis, a history of prior PCI and angiographic 3-vessel disease were independent predictors of PB70 lesions. Patients with PB70 lesions had greater total percent plaque volume, normalized PB, fibroatheromas, thin-cap fibroatheromas, and normalized volumes of necrotic core and dense calcium. Patients with PB70 lesions had greater 3-year rates of MACE due to untreated nonculprit lesions (20.8% vs. 7.7%, p < 0.0001). Among imaged nonculprit lesions, the proportion of PB70 lesions causing MACE was significantly greater than non-PB70 lesions (8.7% vs. 1.0%, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: After successful PCI of all angiographically significant lesions, overall untreated atherosclerotic burden remains high, and PB70 lesions are frequently present in the proximal and mid-coronary tree. Patients with PB70 lesions have greater atherosclerosis throughout the coronary tree, have more thin-cap fibroatheromas, and are at increased risk for future cardiovascular events. (PROSPECT: An Imaging Study in Patients With Unstable Atherosclerotic Lesions; NCT00180466
Production and Decay of D_1(2420)^0 and D_2^*(2460)^0
We have investigated and final states and
observed the two established charmed mesons, the with mass
MeV/c and width MeV/c and
the with mass MeV/c and width
MeV/c. Properties of these final states, including
their decay angular distributions and spin-parity assignments, have been
studied. We identify these two mesons as the doublet predicted
by HQET. We also obtain constraints on {\footnotesize } as a function of the cosine of the relative phase of the two
amplitudes in the decay.Comment: 15 pages in REVTEX format. hardcopies with figures can be obtained by
sending mail to: [email protected]
Measurement of the branching fraction for
We have studied the leptonic decay of the resonance into tau
pairs using the CLEO II detector. A clean sample of tau pair events is
identified via events containing two charged particles where exactly one of the
particles is an identified electron. We find . The result is consistent with
expectations from lepton universality.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, two Postscript figures available upon request, CLNS
94/1297, CLEO 94-20 (submitted to Physics Letters B
Observation of a Narrow Resonance of Mass 2.46 GeV/c^2 Decaying to D_s^*+ pi^0 and Confirmation of the D_sJ^* (2317) State
Using 13.5 inverse fb of e+e- annihilation data collected with the CLEO II
detector we have observed a narrow resonance in the Ds*+pi0 final state, with a
mass near 2.46 GeV. The search for such a state was motivated by the recent
discovery by the BaBar Collaboration of a narrow state at 2.32 GeV, the
DsJ*(2317)+ that decays to Ds+pi0. Reconstructing the Ds+pi0 and Ds*+pi0 final
states in CLEO data, we observe peaks in both of the corresponding
reconstructed mass difference distributions, dM(Dspi0)=M(Dspi0)-M(Ds) and
dM(Ds*pi0)=M(Ds*pi0)-M(Ds*), both of them at values near 350 MeV. We interpret
these peaks as signatures of two distinct states, the DsJ*(2317)+ plus a new
state, designated as the DsJ(2463)+. Because of the similar dM values, each of
these states represents a source of background for the other if photons are
lost, ignored or added. A quantitative accounting of these reflections confirms
that both states exist. We have measured the mean mass differences
= 350.0 +/- 1.2 [stat] +/- 1.0 [syst] MeV for the DsJ*(2317) state, and
= 351.2 +/- 1.7 [stat] +/- 1.0 [syst] MeV for the new DsJ(2463)+
state. We have also searched, but find no evidence, for decays of the two
states via the channels Ds*+gamma, Ds+gamma, and Ds+pi+pi-. The observations of
the two states at 2.32 and 2.46 GeV, in the Ds+pi0 and Ds*+pi0 decay channels
respectively, are consistent with their interpretations as (c anti-strange)
mesons with orbital angular momentum L=1, and spin-parities of 0+ and 1+.Comment: 16 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, version to be published in Physical
Review D; minor modifications and fixes to typographical errors, plus an
added section on production properties. The main results are unchanged; they
supersede those reported in hep-ex/030501
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