Correlated forward-backward dissociation and neutron spectra as a luminosity monitor in heavy ion colliders

Detection in zero degree calorimeters of the correlated forward-backward Coulomb or nuclear dissociation of two colliding nuclei is presented as a practical luminosity monitor in heavy ion colliders. Complementary predictions are given for total correlated Coulomb plus nuclear dissociation and for correlated forward-backward single neutrons from the giant dipole peak.Comment: 16 pages, latex, revtex source, four postscript figure

Nonmeteorological Influences on Severe Thunderstorm Warning Issuance: A Geographically Weighted Regression-Based Analysis of County Warning Area Boundaries, Land Cover, and Demographic Variables

Studies have shown that the spatial distribution of severe thunderstorm warnings demonstrates variation beyond what can be attributed to weather and climate alone. Investigating spatial patterns of these variations can provide insight into nonmeteorological factors that might lead forecasters to issue warnings. Geographically weighted regression was performed on a set of demographic and land cover descriptors to ascertain their relationships with National Weather Service (NWS) severe thunderstorm warning polygons issued by 36 NWS forecast offices in the central and southeastern United States from 2008 to 2015. County warning area (CWA) boundaries and cities were predominant sources of variability in warning counts. Global explained variance in verified and unverified severe thunderstorm warnings ranged from 67% to 81% for population, median income, and percent imperviousness across the study area, which supports the spatial influence of these variables on warning issuance. Local regression coefficients indicated that verified and unverified warning counts increased disproportionately in larger cities relative to the global trend, particularly for NWS weather forecast office locations. However, local explained variance tended to be lower in cities, possibly due to greater complexity of social and economic factors shaping warning issuance. Impacts of thunderstorm type and anthropogenic modification of existing storms should also be considered when interpreting the results of this study

Introduction to the special issue : historical and projected climatic changes to Australian natural hazards

Australia’s size and varied climates mean that it is affected by a range of weather-related natural hazards, including tropical and extra-tropical storms and associated extreme wind and hail, coastal and inland floods, heatwaves and bushfires. These hazards cause multiple human and environmental impacts, and collectively account for 93 % of Australian insured losses (Schuster 2013). In addition, drought—often treated distinctly from other hazards due to its more gradual onset—can cause substantial reductions in agricultural productivity, and places stress on municipal and industrial water resources and natural ecosystems. Evidence is building that the frequency and cost of natural hazards are increasing both in Australia (Insurance Council of Australia 2013; Schuster 2013) and globally (Munich Re 2014). However, understanding the cause of these changes has proved to be difficult, with increases in reporting rates (Munich Re 2014), changes in societal exposure and vulnerability (Bouwer 2011; Neumayer and Barthel 2011) and anthropogenic climate change (IPCC 2013) all potentially playing a role in explaining the observed changes. Yet although the potential causes are many, correct attribution of the observed changes is necessary in order to identify appropriate policy responses, and to predict how the frequency and severity of natural hazards might change in the future. This Special Issue focuses on the specific role of large-scale climatic changes on the observed and future incidence of Australian natural hazards. The Special Issue is divided into seven papers, each covering a major class of climate-influenced natural hazard: floods, drought, storms (including wind and hail), coastal extremes, bushfires, heatwaves and frost. The work was initiated by the Working Group on Trends and Extremes from the Australian Water and Energy Exchanges (OzEWEX) initiative, which is a regional hydroclimate project run under the auspices of the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) initiative

Tests of the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey from Confirmation Observations for the ESO Distant Cluster Survey

The ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) is a photometric and spectroscopic study of the galaxy cluster population at two epochs, z~0.5 and z~0.8, drawn from the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey (LCDCS). We report results from the initial candidate confirmation stage of the program and use these results to probe the properties of the LCDCS. Of the 30 candidates targeted, we find statistically significant overdensities of red galaxies near 28. Of the ten additional candidates serendipitously observed within the fields of the targeted 30, we detect red galaxy overdensities near six. We test the robustness of the published LCDCS estimated redshifts to misidentification of the brighest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the survey data, and measure the spatial alignment of the published cluster coordinates, the peak red galaxy overdensity, and the brightest cluster galaxy. We conclude that for LCDCS clusters out to z~0.8, 1) the LCDCS coordinates agree with the centroid of the red galaxy overdensity to within 25'' (~150 h^{-1} kpc) for 34 out of 37 candidates with 3\sigma galaxy overdensities, 2) BCGs are typically coincident with the centroid of the red galaxy population to within a projected separation of 200 h^{-1} kpc (32 out of 34 confirmed candidates), 3) the red galaxy population is strongly concentrated, and 4) the misidentification of the BCG in the LCDCS causes a redshift error >0.1 in 15-20% of the LCDCS candidates. These findings together help explain the success of the surface brightness fluctuations detection method.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in the November 10 issue of Ap

Eficiência de biossólidos na produção de azevém baseado no conteúdo de nitrogênio

Biossólidos têm sido citados como capazes de aumentar a produção de culturas e suprir nutrientes para plantas. Questões sanitárias e ambientais demandam que eles sejam estabilizados para que sejam usados na agricultura. Os efeitos dos processos de estabilização sobre as propriedades agronômicas de biossólidos não são completamente conhecidos, apesar de essenciais para o seu manejo. Baseado em um modelo equivalente à equação de Mitscherlich, este trabalho avaliou os efeitos dos processos mais comuns para a estabilização de lodos de esgotos (compostagem, caleação, secagem térmica e irradiação solar) sobre a eficiência agronômica de biossólidos na produção de Lolium perenne L. em um Esposossolo Carbico órtico arenoso e um Latossolo Vermelho perférrico argiloso, usando NH4H2PO4 como referência. Os processos de estabilização afetaram a eficiência agronômica do lodo de esgoto, sendo freqüentemente mais alta que o tratamento com NH4H2PO4 em um solo arenoso, e mais baixa que a referência em um solo argiloso. O lodo irradiado por sol mostrou a mais alta eficiência agronômica entre os biossólidos testados nos dois solos, e o azevém alcançou a produção de pico com a menor dose de aplicação. Os biossólidos puderam substituir fertilizantes e produzir mais matéria seca que o NH4H2PO4, a depender do tipo de biossólido e do solo.Biosolids have been reported to increase yields and supply plant nutrients. However, complying with health and environmental standards is necessary before applying biosolids to land. Thus, sludge stabilization is required to make biosolids safe enough for their agricultural use. Side effects of stabilization processes on agronomic features of sewage sludge are not quite known, although their understanding is essential for biosolids management. Based on a model equivalent to the Mitscherlich equation, effects of the most common processes for sludge stabilization were evaluated (composting, liming, heat-drying and solar irradiation) in relation to the agronomic effectiveness of biosolids to yield Lolium perenne L. on two tropical soils, with NH4H2PO4 as a reference. Sewage stabilization processes have affected the ability of biosolids to promote plant growth. Their effectiveness was usually higher than fertilizer in a Spodosol and lower in an Oxisol. Solar-irradiated sludge presented the highest effectiveness among the biosolids and reached peak yields at the lowest application rate independent on soil type. Biosolids could efficiently substitute fertilizers and even yield more plant dry matter than the NH4H2PO4 reference, depending on the biosolid and soil type

The 2010 Field Demonstration of the Solar Carbothermal Reduction of Regolith to Produce Oxygen

The Moon and other space exploration destinations are comprised of a variety of oxygen-bearing minerals, providing a virtually unlimited quantity of raw material which can be processed to produce oxygen. One attractive method to extract oxygen from the regolith is the carbothermal reduction process, which is not sensitive to variations in the mineral composition of the regolith. It also creates other valuable resources within the processed regolith, such as iron and silicon metals. Using funding from NASA, ORBITEC recently built and tested the Carbothermal Regolith Reduction Module to process lunar regolith simulants using concentrated solar energy. This paper summarizes the experimental test results obtained during a demonstration of the system at a lunar analog test site on the Mauna Kea volcano on Hawaii in February 2010

Hepatocyte growth factor regulates neovascularization in developing fat pads

In this study, we used lentiviral-delivered shRNA to generate a clonal line of 3T3-F442A preadipocytes with stable silencing of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) expression and examined the long-term consequence of this modification on fat pad development. HGF mRNA expression was reduced 94%, and HGF secretion 79% (P < 0.01), compared with preadipocytes treated with nontargeting shRNA. Fat pads derived from HGF knockdown preadipocytes were significantly smaller (P < 0.01) than control pads beginning at 3 days postinjection (0.022 ± 0.003 vs. 0.037 ± 0.004 g), and further decreased in size at day 7 (0.015 ± 0.004 vs. 0.037 ± 0.003 g) and day 14 (0.008 ± 0.002 vs. 0.045 ± 0.007 g). Expression of the endothelial cell genes TIE1 and PECAM1 increased over time in control fat pads (1.6 ± 0.4 vs. 11.4 ± 1.7 relative units at day 3 and 14, respectively; P < 0.05) but not in HGF knockdown fat pads (1.1 ± 0.5 vs. 5.9 ± 2.2 relative units at day 3 and 14). Contiguous vascular structures were observed in control fat pads but were much less developed in HGF knockdown fat pads. Differentiation of preadipocytes to mature adipocytes was significantly attenuated in HGF knockdown fat pads. Fat pads derived from preadipocytes with knockdown of the HGF receptor c-MET were smaller than control pads at day 3 postinjection (0.034 ± 0.002 vs. 0.049 ± 0.004 g; P < 0.05), and remained the same size through day 14. c-MET knockdown fat pads developed a robust vasculature, and preadipocytes differentiated to mature adipocytes. Overall these data suggest that preadipocyte-secreted HGF is an important regulator of neovascularization in developing fat pads

Lensed CMB power spectra from all-sky correlation functions

Weak lensing of the CMB changes the unlensed temperature anisotropy and polarization power spectra. Accounting for the lensing effect will be crucial to obtain accurate parameter constraints from sensitive CMB observations. Methods for computing the lensed power spectra using a low-order perturbative expansion are not good enough for percent-level accuracy. Non-perturbative flat-sky methods are more accurate, but curvature effects change the spectra at the 0.3-1% level. We describe a new, accurate and fast, full-sky correlation-function method for computing the lensing effect on CMB power spectra to better than 0.1% at l<2500 (within the approximation that the lensing potential is linear and Gaussian). We also discuss the effect of non-linear evolution of the gravitational potential on the lensed power spectra. Our fast numerical code is publicly available.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. Changes to match PRD version including new section on non-linear corrections. CAMB code available at http://camb.info