The role of atmospheric boundary layer-surface interactions on the development of coastal fronts

Frictional convergence and thermal difference between land and sea surface are the two surface conditions that govern the intensity and evolution of a coastal front. By means of the mesoscale model MM5, we investigate the influence of these two processes on wind patterns, temperature and precipitation amounts, associated with a coastal front, observed on the west coast of The Netherlands in the night between 12 and 13 August 2004. The mesoscale model MM5 is further compared with available observations and the results of two operational models (ECMWF and HIRLAM). HIRLAM is not capable to reproduce the coastal front, whereas ECMWF and MM5 both calculate precipitation for the coastal region. The precipitation pattern, calculated by MM5, agrees satisfactorily with the accumulated radar image. The failure of HIRLAM is mainly due to a different stream pattern at the surface and consequently, a different behaviour of the frictional convergence at the coastline. <br><br> The sensitivity analysis of frictional convergence is carried out with the MM5 model, by varying land surface roughness length (<I>z</I><sub>0</sub>). For the sensitivity analysis of thermal difference between sea and land surface, we changed the sea surface temperature (SST). Increasing surface roughness implies stronger convergence near the surface and consequently stronger upward motions and intensification of the development of the coastal front. Setting land surface roughness equal to the sea surface roughness means an elimination of frictional convergence and results in a diminishing coastal front structure of the precipitation pattern. The simulation with a high SST produces much precipitation above the sea, but less precipitation in the coastal area above land. A small increment of the SST results in larger precipitation amounts above the sea; above land increments are calculated for areas near the coast. A decrease of the SST shifts the precipitation maxima inland, although the precipitation amounts diminish. In the situation under study, frictional convergence is the key process that enhances the coastal front intensity. A thermal difference between land and sea equal to zero still yields the development of the coastal front. A lower SST than land surface temperature generates a reversed coastal front. <br><br> This study emphasizes the importance of accurate prescription of surface conditions as input of the numerical weather prediction model to improve coastal front predictability

Bodemindicatoren in BASIS : Identificatie van de belangrijkste biologische en chemische bodemparameters (“bodemindicatoren”) in het project BASIS over de periode 2009-2016

In deze studie is nagegaan welke gemeten chemische en biologische bodemparameters het beste onderscheid maken tussen de verschillende grondbewerkingssystemen en teeltsystemen in de systeemproef BASIS in Lelystad. Met variantieanalyse en multivariate statistische technieken zijn bodemparameters in BASIS geanalyseerd. Samenvattend blijkt potentieel mineraliseerbare stikstof (PMN) en de N-totaal de beste bodemindicatoren te zijn om verschillen tussen systemen van hoofdgrondbewerking (ploegen versus niet-kerende bewerkingen) en verschillen tussen teeltsystemen (biologisch versus gangbaar) weer te geven. Daarnaast zijn HWC, biomassa schimmels, biomassa bacteriën en borium- en magnesiumgehalte goede bodemindicatoren om deze verschillen te duiden. De correlatie tussen PMN en organische stof en de correlatie tussen HWC en organische stof blijkt goed te zijn. Vanwege de hoge correlatie tussen HWC en PMN en de hoge prijs van de PMN meting heeft HWC de voorkeur. Aanbevolen wordt de analyse te gebruiken in de ontwikkeling van de BLN en vergelijkbare analyses te doen voor andere maatregelen en andere systeemproeven

Ramified rectilinear polygons: coordinatization by dendrons

Simple rectilinear polygons (i.e. rectilinear polygons without holes or cutpoints) can be regarded as finite rectangular cell complexes coordinatized by two finite dendrons. The intrinsic $l_1$-metric is thus inherited from the product of the two finite dendrons via an isometric embedding. The rectangular cell complexes that share this same embedding property are called ramified rectilinear polygons. The links of vertices in these cell complexes may be arbitrary bipartite graphs, in contrast to simple rectilinear polygons where the links of points are either 4-cycles or paths of length at most 3. Ramified rectilinear polygons are particular instances of rectangular complexes obtained from cube-free median graphs, or equivalently simply connected rectangular complexes with triangle-free links. The underlying graphs of finite ramified rectilinear polygons can be recognized among graphs in linear time by a Lexicographic Breadth-First-Search. Whereas the symmetry of a simple rectilinear polygon is very restricted (with automorphism group being a subgroup of the dihedral group $D_4$), ramified rectilinear polygons are universal: every finite group is the automorphism group of some ramified rectilinear polygon.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

Physics of IED Blast Shock Tube Simulations for mTBI Research

Shock tube experiments and simulations are conducted with a spherical gelatin filled skull–brain surrogate, in order to study the mechanisms leading to blast induced mild traumatic brain injury. A shock tube including sensor system is optimized to simulate realistic improvised explosive device blast profiles obtained from full scale field tests. The response of the skull–brain surrogate is monitored using pressure and strain measurements. Fluid–structure interaction is modeled using a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for the air blast, and a finite element model for the structural response. The results help to understand the physics of wave propagation, from air blast into the skull–brain. The presence of openings on the skull and its orientation does have a strong effect on the internal pressure. A parameter study reveals that when there is an opening in the skull, the skull gives little protection and the internal pressure is fairly independent on the skull stiffness; the gelatin shear stiffness has little effect on the internal pressure. Simulations show that the presence of pressure sensors in the gelatin hardly disturbs the pressure field

Ferromagnetic Liquid Thin Films Under Applied Field

Theoretical calculations, computer simulations and experiments indicate the possible existence of a ferromagnetic liquid state, although definitive experimental evidence is lacking. Should such a state exist, demagnetization effects would force a nontrivial magnetization texture. Since liquid droplets are deformable, the droplet shape is coupled with the magnetization texture. In a thin-film geometry in zero applied field, the droplet has a circular shape and a rotating magnetization texture with a point vortex at the center. We calculate the elongation and magnetization texture of such ferromagnetic thin film liquid droplet confined between two parallel plates under a weak applied magnetic field. The vortex stretches into a domain wall and exchange forces break the reflection symmetry. This behavior contrasts qualitatively and quantitatively with the elongation of paramagnetic thin films.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Study of the Fully Frustrated Clock Model using the Wang-Landau Algorithm

Monte Carlo simulations using the newly proposed Wang-Landau algorithm together with the broad histogram relation are performed to study the antiferromagnetic six-state clock model on the triangular lattice, which is fully frustrated. We confirm the existence of the magnetic ordering belonging to the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) type phase transition followed by the chiral ordering which occurs at slightly higher temperature. We also observe the lower temperature phase transition of KT type due to the discrete symmetry of the clock model. By using finite-size scaling analysis, the higher KT temperature $T_2$ and the chiral critical temperature $T_c$ are respectively estimated as $T_2=0.5154(8)$ and $T_c=0.5194(4)$. The results are in favor of the double transition scenario. The lower KT temperature is estimated as $T_1=0.496(2)$. Two decay exponents of KT transitions corresponding to higher and lower temperatures are respectively estimated as $\eta_2=0.25(1)$ and $\eta_1=0.13(1)$, which suggests that the exponents associated with the KT transitions are universal even for the frustrated model.Comment: 7 pages including 9 eps figures, RevTeX, to appear in J. Phys.

Normohomocysteinaemia and vitamin-treated hyperhomocysteinaemia are associated with similiar risks of cardiovascular events in patients with premature peripheral arterial occlusive disease. A prospective cohort study

Objectives. Mild hyperhomocysteinaemia (HHC), fasting or after methionine loading, is associated with an increased risk and severity of atherosclerotic vascular disease. Post-methionine and fasting HHC are responsive to treatment with vitamin

Knot localization in adsorbing polymer rings

We study by Monte Carlo simulations a model of knotted polymer ring adsorbing onto an impenetrable, attractive wall. The polymer is described by a self-avoiding polygon (SAP) on the cubic lattice. We find that the adsorption transition temperature, the crossover exponent $\phi$ and the metric exponent $\nu$, are the same as in the model where the topology of the ring is unrestricted. By measuring the average length of the knotted portion of the ring we are able to show that adsorbed knots are localized. This knot localization transition is triggered by the adsorption transition but is accompanied by a less sharp variation of the exponent related to the degree of localization. Indeed, for a whole interval below the adsorption transition, one can not exclude a contiuous variation with temperature of this exponent. Deep into the adsorbed phase we are able to verify that knot localization is strong and well described in terms of the flat knot model.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures. Submitter to Phys. Rev.

Children's daily travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa: geography and school choice in the Birth to Twenty cohort study

This paper has two aims: to explore approaches to the measurement of children’s daily travel to school in a context of limited geospatial data availability, and to provide data regarding school choice and distance travelled to school in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa. The paper makes use of data from the Birth to Twenty cohort study (n=1428) to explore three different approaches to estimating school choice and travel to school. Firstly, straight-line distance between home and school is calculated. Secondly, census geography is used to determine whether a child's home and school fall in the same area. Thirdly, distance data are used to determine whether a child attends the nearest school. Each of these approaches highlights a different aspect of mobility, and all provide valuable data. Overall, primary school aged children in Soweto-Johannesburg are shown to be travelling substantial distances to school on a daily basis. Over a third travel more than 3km, one-way, to school, 60% attend schools outside of the suburb in which they live, and only 18% attend their nearest school. These data provide evidence for high levels of school choice in Johannesburg-Soweto, and that families and children are making substantial investments in pursuit of high quality educational opportunities. Additionally, these data suggest that two patterns of school choice are evident: one pattern involving travel of substantial distances and requiring a higher level of financial investment, and a second pattern, involving choice between more local schools, requiring less travel and a more limited financial investment

Invariant Correlations in Simplicial Gravity

Some first results are presented regarding the behavior of invariant correlations in simplicial gravity, with an action containing both a bare cosmological term and a lattice higher derivative term. The determination of invariant correlations as a function of geodesic distance by numerical methods is a difficult task, since the geodesic distance between any two points is a function of the fluctuating background geometry, and correlation effects become rather small for large distances. Still, a strikingly different behavior is found for the volume and curvature correlation functions. While the first one is found to be negative definite at large geodesic distances, the second one is always positive for large distances. For both correlations the results are consistent in the smooth phase with an exponential decay, turning into a power law close to the critical point at $G_c$. Such a behavior is not completely unexpected, if the model is to reproduce the classical Einstein theory at distances much larger than the ultraviolet cutoff scale.Comment: 27 pages, conforms to published versio