65,763 research outputs found
Local properties of patterned vegetation: quantifying endogenous and exogenous effects
Dryland ecosystems commonly exhibit periodic bands of vegetation, thought to
form due to competition between individual plants for heterogeneously
distributed water. In this paper, we develop a Fourier method for locally
identifying the pattern wavenumber and orientation, and apply it to aerial
images from a region of vegetation patterning near Fort Stockton, Texas. We
find that the local pattern wavelength and orientation are typically coherent,
but exhibit both rapid and gradual variation driven by changes in hillslope
gradient and orientation, the potential for water accumulation, or soil type.
Endogenous pattern dynamics, when simulated for spatially homogeneous
topographic and vegetation conditions, predict pattern properties that are much
less variable than the orientation and wavelength observed in natural systems.
Our local pattern analysis, combined with ancillary datasets describing soil
and topographic variation, highlights a largely unexplored correlation between
soil depth, pattern coherence, vegetation cover and pattern wavelength. It
also, surprisingly, suggests that downslope accumulation of water may play a
role in changing vegetation pattern properties
Highly-improved lattice field-strength tensor
We derive an O(a^4)-improved lattice version of the continuum field-strength
tensor. Discretization errors are reduced via the combination of several clover
terms of various sizes, complemented by tadpole improvement. The resulting
improved field-strength tensor is used to construct O(a^4)-improved topological
charge and action operators. We compare the values attained by these operators
as we cool several configurations to self-duality with a previously defined
highly-improved action and assess the relative scale of the remaining
discretization errors.Comment: 22 pages, 7 postscript figure
An Update on the 0Z Project
We give an update on our 0Z Survey to find more extremely metal poor (EMP)
stars with [Fe/H] < -3 dex through mining the database of the Hamburg/ESO
Survey. We present the most extreme such stars we have found from ~1550
moderate resolution follow up spectra. One of these, HE1424-0241, has highly
anomalous abundance ratios not seen in any previously known halo giant, with
very deficient Si, moderately deficient Ca and Ti, highly enhanced Mn and Co,
and low C, all with respect to Fe. We suggest a SNII where the nucleosynthetic
yield for explosive alpha-burning nuclei was very low compared to that for the
hydrostatic alpha-burning element Mg, which is normal in this star relative to
Fe. A second, less extreme, outlier star with high [Sc/Fe] has also been found.
We examine the extremely metal-poor tail of the HES metallicity distribution
function (MDF). We suggest on the basis of comparison of our high resolution
detailed abundance analyses with [Fe/H](HES) for stars in our sample that the
MDF inferred from follow up spectra of the HES sample of candidate EMP stars is
heavily contaminated for [Fe/H](HES) < -3 dex; many of the supposed EMP stars
below that metallicity are of substantially higher Fe-metallicity, including
most of the very C-rich stars, or are spurious objects.Comment: to appear in conference proceedings "First Stars III", ed. B. O'Shea,
A. Heger & T.Abel, 4 pages, 2 figure
Special Article: Physical Activity, Physical Fitness, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Childhood
In adults, physical activity and exercise training are associated with reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, a reduced likelihood of developing adverse cardiovascular risk factors, and improved insulin sensitivity. In childhood, participation in appropriate physical activity may prevent the development of cardiovascular risk factors in the future and complement treatment of existing cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, and overweight. Exercise in children can also significantly improve insulin sensitivity independent of weight loss. These e fects are mediated in overweight children by increases in lean body mass relative to fat mass and associated improvements in inflammatory mediators, endothelial function, and the associated adverse hormonal milieu
Reaction cross-section predictions for nucleon induced reactions
A microscopic calculation of the optical potential for nucleon-nucleus
scattering has been performed by explicitly coupling the elastic channel to all
the particle-hole (p-h) excitation states in the target and to all relevant
pickup channels. These p-h states may be regarded as doorway states through
which the flux flows to more complicated configurations, and to long-lived
compound nucleus resonances. We calculated the reaction cross sections for the
nucleon induced reactions on the targets Ca, Ni, Zr and
Sm using the QRPA description of target excitations, coupling to all
inelastic open channels, and coupling to all transfer channels corresponding to
the formation of a deuteron. The results of such calculations were compared to
predictions of a well-established optical potential and with experimental data,
reaching very good agreement. The inclusion of couplings to pickup channels
were an important contribution to the absorption. For the first time,
calculations of excitations account for all of the observed reaction
cross-sections, at least for incident energies above 10 MeV.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to INPC 2010 Conference Proceeding
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