Observations of stratospheric source gas profiles during the Arctic winter

An international campaign was performed at ESRANGE rocket base, near Kiruna, Sweden (68 N) from January 4 to February 15 in order to investigate the Chemistry of Ozone in the Polar Stratosphere (CHEOPS). Within the framework of this campaign two sets of large stratospheric air samples were collected by means of a balloon borne cryogenic air sampler. The two balloons were launched on February 1, and February 10, 1988. At present the samples are analyzed in our laboratory for their contents of several long lived trace gases such as CH4, N2O, H2, CO2, CO and the major halocarbons CH3Cl, CFCl3, CF2Cl2, CCl4, CH3CCl3, and C2F3Cl3. The vertical profiles derived from these samples will be presented and compared with previous observations made in February 1987. The data will be discussed in view of the dynamical evolution of the Arctic polar vortex during this winter

Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion at NLO with full top-quark mass dependence

We present the calculation of the cross section and invariant mass distribution for Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD. Top-quark masses are fully taken into account throughout the calculation. The virtual two-loop amplitude has been generated using an extension of the program GoSam supplemented with an interface to Reduze for the integral reduction. The occurring integrals have been calculated numerically using the program SecDec. Our results, including the full top-quark mass dependence for the first time, allow us to assess the validity of various approximations proposed in the literature, which we also recalculate. We find substantial deviations between the NLO result and the different approximations, which emphasizes the importance of including the full top-quark mass dependence at NLO.Comment: Version published in PRL, v2: results at 13 TeV (v1 was at 14 TeV), minor correction to virtual part included, conclusions unchange

Structural Change in Urban Systems

This paper outlines a conceptual background for understanding the dynamics of metropolitan regions and urban systems in general. An essential part of the paper reviews existing theoretical explanations of urban change processes with special attention being paid to long term cycles and waves as well as discontinuities and qualitative changes in the evolution of metropolitan regions. The paper introduces a distinction between constrained and structural dynamics. With reference to this distinction, the authors describe and classify various forms of urban oscillations and changes in urban structures. Relations between technological development and infrastructural change are also discussed

Prognostic factors in seminomas with special respect to HCG: Results of a prospective multicenter study

Objective: In a prospective multicenter trial, it was our intention to elucidate clinical prognostic factors of seminomas with special reference to the importance of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) elevations in histologically pure seminomas. Methods: Together with 96 participating urological departments in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, we recruited 803 seminoma patients between 1986 and 1991. Out of 726 evaluable cases, 378 had elevated, while 348 had normal HCG values in the cubital vein. Histology was reviewed by two reference pathologists. HCG levels were determined in local laboratories and in a study laboratory. Standard therapy was defined as radiotherapy in stages I (30 Gy) and IIA/B (36 Gy) to the paraaortal and the ispilateral (stage I) and bilateral (stage IIA/B) iliac lymph nodes; higher stages received polychemotherapy and surgery in case of residual tumor masses. Statistics included chi-square tests, linear Cox regression, and log-rank test. Results: The HCG elevation is associated with a larger tumor mass (primary tumor and/or metastases). HCG-positive and HCG-negative seminomas had no different prognostic outcome after standard therapy. The overall relapse rate of 6% and the survival rate of 98% after 36 months (median) indicate an excellent prognosis. The calculation of the relative risk of developing a relapse discovered only stage of the disease and elevation of the lactate dehydrogenase concentration and its prolonged marker decay as independent prognostic factors for seminomas. A more detailed analysis of the prognostic significance of the stage revealed that the high relapse rate in stage IIB seminomas after radiotherapy (24%) is responsible for this result. Conclusions: We conclude that HCG-positive seminomas do not represent a special entity. Provided standard therapy is applied, HCG has no influence on the prognosis. Patients with stage IIB disease should be treated with chemotherapy because of the demonstrated higher relapse rate outside the retroperitoneum. Copyright (C) 1999 S. Karger AG. Basel

Real-time observation of interfering crystal electrons in high-harmonic generation

Accelerating and colliding particles has been a key strategy to explore the texture of matter. Strong lightwaves can control and recollide electronic wavepackets, generating high-harmonic (HH) radiation which encodes the structure and dynamics of atoms and molecules and lays the foundations of attosecond science. The recent discovery of HH generation in bulk solids combines the idea of ultrafast acceleration with complex condensed matter systems and sparks hope for compact solid-state attosecond sources and electronics at optical frequencies. Yet the underlying quantum motion has not been observable in real time. Here, we study HH generation in a bulk solid directly in the time-domain, revealing a new quality of strong-field excitations in the crystal. Unlike established atomic sources, our solid emits HH radiation as a sequence of subcycle bursts which coincide temporally with the field crests of one polarity of the driving terahertz waveform. We show that these features hallmark a novel non-perturbative quantum interference involving electrons from multiple valence bands. The results identify key mechanisms for future solid-state attosecond sources and next-generation lightwave electronics. The new quantum interference justifies the hope for all-optical bandstructure reconstruction and lays the foundation for possible quantum logic operations at optical clock rates

Non-Perturbative Scales in Soft Hadronic Collisions at High Energies

We investigate the role of nonperturbative quark-gluon dynamics in soft high energy processes. In order to reproduce differential and total cross sections for elastic proton-proton and proton-antiproton-scattering at high energy and small momentum transfer it turns out that we need two scales, the gluonic correlation length and a confinement scale. We find a small gluonic correlation length, a = 0.2 fm, in accordance with recent lattice QCD results.Comment: 8 pages,latex, 2 figures uuencode

Mixed Silica Titania Materials Prepared from a Single-Source Sol-Gel Precursor: A Time-Resolved SAXS Study of the Gelation, Aging, Supercritical Drying, and Calcination Processes

The morphology of gels prepared from a silica/titania single-source precursor (1), obtained by reaction of 3-oxoethyl-6-trimethoxysilyl-hexan-2-one with Ti((OPr)-Pr-i)(4), was investigated by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) through all stages of the preparation process, that is, gelation, aging, drying, and calcination. The same investigations were performed for mixtures of 1 and Si(OEt)(4). Immediately after the start of the reaction small primary particles are formed, the size of which (r = 0.5 +/- 0.1 nm) remains constant through the gelation and aging process. Anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS) measurements strongly indicate that the primary particles are formed by hydrolysis and condensation of the titanium alkoxide moiety of 1. Condensation proceeds by a slower aggregation of the primary particles. Additional Si/O from Si(OEt)(4) is incorporated between the clusters. The size of the mass fractal secondary particles formed by aggregation of the primary particles increases approximately exponentially with the time. Drying by either solvent evaporation or supercritical extraction with CO2 results in a decrease of the primary particle size to r = 0.4 nm, and the secondary particles also become smaller. The primary particles disappear during calcination in air, that is, when the organic groups tethering the silicon and titanium atoms are destroyed. However, the general structure of the network is maintained