Very high energy gamma rays from the Crab Nebula

Observations of the Crab pulsar using the atmospheric Cerenkov technique were conducted for 22 hours. The light curve obtained shows a single peak at approximately the position of the expected main peak with a significance level of 3.2 sigma. The pulsed flux above 200 GeV is 2.5 + or - 0.8 x 10 to the 11th power cm(-2)s(-1)

Windsurfing : an extreme form of material and embodied interaction?

This paper makes reference to the development of water based board sports in the world of adventure or action games. With a specific focus on windsurfing, we use Parlebas (1999) and Warnier's (2001) theoretical interests in the praxaeology of physical learning as well as Mauss' (1935) work on techniques of the body. We also consider the implications of Csikzentimihalyi's notion of flow (1975). We argue that windsurfing equipment should not merely be seen as protection but rather as status objects through which extreme lifestyles are embodied and embodying

Questioning policy, youth participation and lifestyle sports

Young people have been identified as a key target group for whom participation in sport and physical activity could have important benefits to health and wellbeing and consequently have been the focus of several government policies to increase participation in the UK. Lifestyle sports represent one such strategy for encouraging and sustaining new engagements in sport and physical activity in youth groups, however, there is at present a lack of understanding of the use of these activities within policy contexts. This paper presents findings from a government initiative which sought to increase participation in sport for young people through provision of facilities for mountain biking in a forest in south-east England. Findings from qualitative research with 40 young people who participated in mountain biking at the case study location highlight the importance of non-traditional sports as a means to experience the natural environments through forms of consumption which are healthy, active and appeal to their identities. In addition, however, the paper raises questions over the accessibility of schemes for some individuals and social groups, and the ability to incorporate sports which are inherently participant-led into state-managed schemes. Lifestyle sports such as mountain biking involve distinct forms of participation which present a challenge for policy-makers who seek to create and maintain sustainable communities of youth participants

The Great American Series Robert E. Lee Commemorative Decanter

The green hued decanter features an embossed portrait of Robert E. Lee. On its reverse, the decanter features an image of a Confederate flag.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-artifacts/4818/thumbnail.jp

Gamma ray monitoring of a AGN and galactic black hole candidates by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

The Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory's Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) has a powerful capability to provide nearly uninterrupted monitoring in the 25 keV-10 MeV range of both active galactic nuclei (AGN) and galactic black hole candidates (GBHC) such as Cygnus X-1, using the occultation of cosmic sources by the Earth. Since the Crab is detected by the BATSE Large Area Detectors with roughly 25(sigma) significance in the 15-125 keV range in a single rise or set, a variation by a factor of two of a source having one-tenth the strength of Cygnus X-1 should be detectable within a day. Methods of modeling the background are discussed which will increase the accuracy, sensitivity, and reliability of the results beyond those obtainable from a linear background fit with a single rise or set discontinuity

Successful acclimatization of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) translocated to Conkouati-Douli National Park, Republic of Congo, as measured by fecal glucocorticoid metabolites

Translocation and reintroduction are common tools in conservation management and can be very successful. However, translocation can be stressful for the animals involved, and stress is implicated as a major cause of failure in release programs. Conservation managers should therefore seek to understand how the stages of translocation impact stress physiology in the animals involved. We quantified fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCMs) as a noninvasive measure of response to potential stressors during a translocation of 15 mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) into Conkouati-Douli National Park, Republic of Congo. The mandrills were initially housed in a sanctuary, transferred to a pre-release enclosure in the National Park and then released into the forest. We collected repeated fecal samples (n = 1101) from known individuals and quantified fGCMs using a previously validated enzyme immunoassay. Transfer from the sanctuary to the pre-release enclosure correlated with a significant 1.93-fold increase in fGCMs, suggesting that transfer was a stressor for the mandrills. fGCM values decreased over time in the pre-release enclosure, suggesting that the mandrills recovered from the transfer and acclimatized to the enclosure. Release to the forest was not linked to a significant increase in fGCMs over the final values in the enclosure. Following release, fGCMs continued to decrease, fell below sanctuary values after just over a month and were about half the sanctuary values after 1 year. Overall, our results suggest that the translocation, although initially presenting a physiological challenge to the animals, was not detrimental to the well-being of the animals over the timescale of the study and, in fact, may have been beneficial. Our findings show the value of non-invasive physiology in monitoring, evaluating and designing wildlife translocations and, ultimately, contributing to their success

Estimating Increased Transient Water Storage With Increases in Beaver Dam Activity

Dam building by beaver (Castor spp.) slows water movement through montane valleys, increasing transient water storage and the diversity of residence times. In some cases, water storage created by beaver dam construction is correlated to changes in streamflow magnitude and timing. However, the total amount of additional surface and groundwater storage that beaver dams may create (and, thus, their maximum potential impact on streamflow) has not been contextualized in the water balance of larger river basins. We estimate the potential transient water storage increases that could be created at 5, 25, 50, and 100% of maximum modeled beaver dam capacity in the Bear River basin, USA, by adapting the height above nearest drainage (HAND) algorithm to spatially estimate surface water storage. Surface water storage estimates were combined with the MODFLOW groundwater model to estimate potential increases in groundwater storage throughout the basin. We tested four scenarios to estimate potential transient water storage increases resulting from the construction of 1179 to 34,897 beaver dams, and estimated surface water storage to range from 57.5 to 72.8 m3 per dam and groundwater storage to range from 182.2 to 313.3 m3 per dam. Overall, we estimate that beaver dam construction could increase transient water storage by up to 10.38 million m3 in the Bear River basin. We further contextualize beaver dam-related water storage increases with streamflow, reservoir, and snowpack volumes

Near-thermal equilibrium with Tsallis distributions in heavy ion collisions

Hadron yields in high energy heavy ion collisions have been fitted and reproduced by thermal models using standard statistical distributions. These models give insight into the freeze-out conditions at varying beam energies. In this paper we investigate changes to this analysis when the statistical distributions are replaced by Tsallis distributions for hadrons. We investigate the appearance of near-thermal equilibrium state at SPS and RHIC energies. We obtain better fits with smaller chi^2 for the same hadron data, as applied earlier in the thermal fits for SPS energies but not for RHIC energies. This result indicates that at RHIC energies the final state is very well described by a single freeze-out temperature with very little room for fluctuations.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure