Vegetation Management in Ontario's Forests: Survey Research of Public and Professional Perspectives

108 pagesOntario Ministry of Natural Resource

The Effect of Shear on Phase-Ordering Dynamics with Order-Parameter-Dependent Mobility: The Large-n Limit

The effect of shear on the ordering-kinetics of a conserved order-parameter system with O(n) symmetry and order-parameter-dependent mobility \Gamma({\vec\phi}) \propto (1- {\vec\phi} ^2/n)^\alpha is studied analytically within the large-n limit. In the late stage, the structure factor becomes anisotropic and exhibits multiscaling behavior with characteristic length scales (t^{2\alpha+5}/\ln t)^{1/2(\alpha+2)} in the flow direction and (t/\ln t)^{1/2(\alpha+2)} in directions perpendicular to the flow. As in the \alpha=0 case, the structure factor in the shear-flow plane has two parallel ridges.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Tapping the nucleotide pool of the host: novel nucleotide carrier proteins of Protochlamydia amoebophila

Protochlamydia amoebophila UWE25 is related to the Chlamydiaceae comprising major pathogens of humans, but thrives as obligate intracellular symbiont in the protozoan host Acanthamoeba sp. The genome of P. amoebophila encodes five paralogous carrier proteins belonging to the nucleotide transporter (NTT) family. Here we report on three P. amoebophila NTT isoforms, PamNTT2, PamNTT3 and PamNTT5, which possess several conserved amino acid residues known to be critical for nucleotide transport. We demonstrated that these carrier proteins are able to transport nucleotides, although substrate specificities and mode of transport differ in an unexpected manner and are unique among known NTTs. PamNTT2 is a counter exchange transporter exhibiting submillimolar apparent affinities for all four RNA nucleotides, PamNTT3 catalyses an unidirectional proton-coupled transport confined to UTP, whereas PamNTT5 mediates a proton-energized GTP and ATP import. All NTT genes of P. amoebophila are transcribed during intracellular multiplication in acanthamoebae. The biochemical characterization of all five NTT proteins from P. amoebophila in this and previous studies uncovered that these metabolically impaired bacteria are intimately connected with their host cell’s metabolism in a surprisingly complex manner

d-alpha Correlation functions and collective motion in Xe+Au collisions at E/A=50 MeV

The interplay of the effects of geometry and collective motion on d-$\alpha$ correlation functions is investigated for central Xe+Au collisions at E/A=50 MeV. The data cannot be explained without collective motion, which could be partly along the beam axis. A semi-quantitative description of the data can be obtained using a Monte-Carlo model, where thermal emission is superimposed on collective motion. Both the emission volume and the competition between the thermal and collective motion influence significantly the shape of the correlation function, motivating new strategies for extending intensity interferometry studies to massive particles.Comment: Accepted for publication on Physics Letters

Polynomial modeling for time-varying systems based on a particle swarm optimization algorithm

In this paper, an effective particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed for polynomial models for time varying systems. The basic operations of the proposed PSO are similar to those of the classical PSO except that elements of particles represent arithmetic operations and variables of time-varying models. The performance of the proposed PSO is evaluated by polynomial modeling based on various sets of time-invariant and time-varying data. Results of polynomial modeling in time-varying systems show that the proposed PSO outperforms commonly used modeling methods which have been developed for solving dynamic optimization problems including genetic programming (GP) and dynamic GP. An analysis of the diversity of individuals of populations in the proposed PSO and GP reveals why the proposed PSO obtains better results than those obtained by GP

First Measurement of Z/gamma* Production in Compton Scattering of Quasi-real Photons

We report the first observation of Z/gamma* production in Compton scattering of quasi-real photons. This is a subprocess of the reaction e+e- to e+e-Z/gamma*, where one of the final state electrons is undetected. Approximately 55 pb-1 of data collected in the year 1997 at an e+e- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP have been analysed. The Z/gamma* from Compton scattering has been detected in the hadronic decay channel. Within well defined kinematic bounds, we measure the product of cross-section and Z/gamma* branching ratio to hadrons to be (0.9+-0.3+-0.1) pb for events with a hadronic mass larger than 60 GeV, dominated by (e)eZ production. In the hadronic mass region between 5 GeV and 60 GeV, dominated by (e)egamma* production, this product is found to be (4.1+-1.6+-0.6) pb. Our results agree with the predictions of two Monte Carlo event generators, grc4f and PYTHIA.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 5 eps figures included, submitted to Physics Letters

Search for Higgs Bosons in e+e- Collisions at 183 GeV

The data collected by the OPAL experiment at sqrts=183 GeV were used to search for Higgs bosons which are predicted by the Standard Model and various extensions, such as general models with two Higgs field doublets and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 54pb-1. None of the searches for neutral and charged Higgs bosons have revealed an excess of events beyond the expected background. This negative outcome, in combination with similar results from searches at lower energies, leads to new limits for the Higgs boson masses and other model parameters. In particular, the 95% confidence level lower limit for the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson is 88.3 GeV. Charged Higgs bosons can be excluded for masses up to 59.5 GeV. In the MSSM, mh > 70.5 GeV and mA > 72.0 GeV are obtained for tan{beta}>1, no and maximal scalar top mixing and soft SUSY-breaking masses of 1 TeV. The range 0.8 < tanb < 1.9 is excluded for minimal scalar top mixing and m{top} < 175 GeV. More general scans of the MSSM parameter space are also considered.Comment: 49 pages. LaTeX, including 33 eps figures, submitted to European Physical Journal

A Measurement of the Product Branching Ratio f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) in Z0 Decays

The product branching ratio, f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X), where Lambda_b denotes any weakly-decaying b-baryon, has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. Lambda_b are selected by the presence of energetic Lambda particles in bottom events tagged by the presence of displaced secondary vertices. A fit to the momenta of the Lambda particles separates signal from B meson and fragmentation backgrounds. The measured product branching ratio is f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) = (2.67+-0.38(stat)+0.67-0.60(sys))% Combined with a previous OPAL measurement, one obtains f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) = (3.50+-0.32(stat)+-0.35(sys))%.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 3 eps figs included, submitted to the European Physical Journal

Measurement of the Michel Parameters in Leptonic Tau Decays

The Michel parameters of the leptonic tau decays are measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. The Michel parameters are extracted from the energy spectra of the charged decay leptons and from their energy-energy correlations. A new method involving a global likelihood fit of Monte Carlo generated events with complete detector simulation and background treatment has been applied to the data recorded at center-of-mass energies close to sqrt(s) = M(Z) corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 155 pb-1 during the years 1990 to 1995. If e-mu universality is assumed and inferring the tau polarization from neutral current data, the measured Michel parameters are extracted. Limits on non-standard coupling constants and on the masses of new gauge bosons are obtained. The results are in agreement with the V-A prediction of the Standard Model.Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX, 9 eps figures included, submitted to the European Physical Journal

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters