Solar irradiance models and measurements: a comparison in the 220 nm to 240 nm wavelength band

Solar irradiance models that assume solar irradiance variations to be due to changes in the solar surface magnetic flux have been successfully used to reconstruct total solar irradiance on rotational as well as cyclical and secular time scales. Modelling spectral solar irradiance is not yet as advanced, and also suffers from a lack of comparison data, in particular on solar-cycle time scales. Here we compare solar irradiance in the 220 nm to 240 nm band as modelled with SATIRE-S and measured by different instruments on the UARS and SORCE satellites. We find good agreement between the model and measurements on rotational time scales. The long-term trends, however, show significant differences. Both SORCE instruments, in particular, show a much steeper gradient over the decaying part of cycle 23 than the modelled irradiance or that measured by UARS/SUSIM.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, conference proceedings to appear in Surveys in Geophysic

You Planted A Rose : In The Garden Of Love

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4409/thumbnail.jp

The Total System Design (TSD) Framework: An Approach to the Development of Distributed Systems Design Methodologies

A methodological framework is an abstraction over a class of design methodologies. The framework characteristics the problem solving approach shared by the methodologies belonging to that class: it identifies the nature of their common design concerns and the fundamental logical interdependencies between these concerns. The paper proposes a particular framework called the Total System Design (TSD) Framework. It represents a specification for a class of design methodologies which view computer-based systems as potentially distributed hardware/software aggregates. As such, the TSD Framework consolidates under a unified perspective two traditionally separate concerns: software design and hardware design. Furthermore, it establishes the role played by hardware/software trade-offs in system design. A strategy for deriving methodologies from the TSD Framework is outlined and illustrated

Health Inequalities in British Nurses using Census derived databases linked to an adjusted UK Index of Multiple Deprivation

Introduction Scottish health outcomes are worse than in England and Wales. This variation remains after controlling for deprivation, which explains less excess mortality now than previously. Alternative cross-national deprivation measures have limitations which may explain some of this trend. Recent policy interventions to reduce inequalities have not been effective. Objectives and Approach This study aims to test a recently developed measure of area deprivation, the UK adjusted Index of Multiple Deprivation which has been linked to National Census derived Longitudinal Studies in England, Wales and Scotland. This adjusted measure is consistent across UK countries and addresses some limitations of previously utilised area measures of deprivation. This study also aims to test whether characteristics of Nurses are protective against inequalities in health. This study will test whether Nurses are more socio-economically homogenous and whether higher health literacy is protective against the social gradient in health outcomes. Results (1) Comparing Nurses to Non-Nurses in Scotland we found that they have systematically different demographic characteristics. Nurses are; older on average, more likely to be female, more likely to own their home, more likely to live in less deprived areas and they report better self-rated health. (1a) Correlation tests will examine the strength of relationship between health and Deprivation quintile for these groups. (2) Comparing Self-Rated Health of Scottish Nurses with English and Welsh Nurses will determine whether any ‘excess’ in worse health outcomes exists and (2a) if an excess does exist, whether the UK consistent deprivation measure can account for this. Analysis is currently ongoing and will be completed, with full results cleared for dissemination through disclosure control, prior to conference. Conclusion/Implications This study implements methods which provide a basis for cross-national comparison of inequalities using individual-level data and a consistent measure of area deprivation. Results from this study may also permit recommendations to improve the effectiveness of policy aimed at improving population health and reducing socio-economic inequalities in health

Hydrogen Peroxide Triggers a Dual Signaling Axis To Selectively Suppress Activated Human T Lymphocyte Migration

H2O2 is an early danger cue required for innate immune cell recruitment to wounds. To date, little is known about whether H2O2 is required for the migration of human adaptive immune cells to sites of inflammation. However, oxidative stress is known to impair T cell activity, induce actin stiffness, and inhibit cell polarization. In this study, we show that low oxidative concentrations of H2O2 also impede chemokinesis and chemotaxis of previously activated human T cells to CXCL11, but not CXCL10 or CXCL12. We show that this deficiency in migration is due to a reduction in inflammatory chemokine receptor CXCR3 surface expression and cellular activation of lipid phosphatase SHIP-1. We demonstrate that H2O2 acts through an Src kinase to activate a negative regulator of PI3K signaling, SHIP-1 via phosphorylation, providing a molecular mechanism for H2O2-induced chemotaxis deficiency. We hypothesize that although H2O2 serves as an early recruitment trigger for innate immune cells, it appears to operate as an inhibitor of T lymphocyte immune adaptive responses that are not required until later in the repair process

Understanding the faint red galaxy population using large-scale clustering measurements from SDSS DR7

We use data from the SDSS to investigate the evolution of the large-scale galaxy bias as a function of luminosity for red galaxies. We carefully consider correlation functions of galaxies selected from both photometric and spectroscopic data, and cross-correlations between them, to obtain multiple measurements of the large-scale bias. We find, for our most robust analyses, a strong increase in bias with luminosity for the most luminous galaxies, an intermediate regime where bias does not evolve strongly over a range of two magnitudes in galaxy luminosity, and no evidence for an upturn in bias for fainter red galaxies. Previous work has found an increase in bias to low luminosities that has been widely interpreted as being caused by a strong preference for red dwarf galaxies to be satellites in the most massive halos. We can recover such an upturn in bias to faint luminosities if we push our measurements to small scales, and include galaxy clustering measurements along the line-of-sight, where we expect non-linear effects to be the strongest. The results that we expect to be most robust suggest that the low luminosity population of red galaxies is not dominated by satellite galaxies occupying the most massive haloes.Comment: Matches version accepted by MNRA

Estimation of daily global solar radiation from measured temperatures at Cañada de Luque, Córdoba, Argentina

Solar radiation is the most important source of renewable energy in the planet; it's important to solar engineers, designers and architects, and it's also fundamental for efficiently determining irrigation water needs and potential yield of crops, among others. Complete and accurate solar radiation data at a specific region are indispensable. For locations where measured values are not available, several models have been developed to estimate solar radiation. The objective of this paper was to calibrate, validate and compare five representative models to predict global solar radiation, adjusting the empirical coefficients to increase the local applicability and to develop a linear model. All models were based on easily available meteorological variables, without sunshine hours as input, and were used to estimate the daily solar radiation at Cañada de Luque (Córdoba, Argentina). As validation, measured and estimated solar radiation data were analyzed using several statistic coefficients. The results showed that all the analyzed models were robust and accurate (R2 and RMSE values between 0.87 to 0.89 and 2.05 to 2.14, respectively), so global radiation can be estimated properly with easily available meteorological variables when only temperature data are available. Hargreaves-Samani, Allen and Bristow-Campbell models could be used with typical values to estimate solar radiation while Samani and Almorox models should be applied with calibrated coefficients. Although a new linear model presented the smallest R2 value (R2 = 0.87), it could be considered useful for its easy application. The daily global solar radiation values produced for these models can be used to estimate missing daily values, when only temperature data are available, and in hydrologic or agricultural applications

New physics reach of the decay mode Bˉ→Kˉ∗0ℓ+ℓ−\bar{B} \to \bar{K}^{*0}\ell^+\ell^-

We present a complete method to construct QCD-protected observables based on the exclusive 4-body $B$-meson decay $\bar{B} \to \bar{K}^{*0}\ell^+\ell^-$ in the low dilepton mass region. The core of the method is the requirement that the constructed quantities should fulfil the symmetries of the angular distribution. We have identified all symmetries of the angular distribution in the limit of massless leptons and explore: a new non-trivial relation between the coefficients of the angular distribution, the possibility to fully solve the system for the $K^{*}$ amplitudes, and the construction of non-trivial observables. We also present a phenomenological analysis of the new physics sensitivity of angular observables in the decay based on QCD factorisation. We further analyse the CP-conserving observables, $A_{T}^{(2)}$, $A_{T}^{(3)}$ and $A_{T}^{(4)}$. They are practically free of theoretical uncertainties due to the soft form factors for the full range of dilepton masses rather than just at a single point as for $A_{FB}$. They also have a higher sensitivity to specific new physics scenarios compared to observables such as $A_{FB}$. Moreover, we critically examine the new physics reach of CP-violating observables via a complete error analysis due to scale dependences, form factors and $\Lambda/m_b$ corrections. We have developed an ensemble method to evaluate the error on observables from $\Lambda/m_b$ corrections. Finally, we explore the experimental prospects of CP-violating observables and find that they are rather limited. Indeed, the CP-conserving (averaged) observables $A_{T}^{(i)}$ (with $i=2,3,4$) will offer a better sensitivity to large CP phases and may be more suitable for experimental analysis.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures, updated version to fix a few typo