MtDNA Analyses on Hair Samples Confirm Cougar, Puma concolor, Presence in Southern New Brunswick, Eastern Canada

For the last 40 years, the presence of Cougars (Puma concolor) in eastern Canada has been highly controversial. The purpose of this study was to collect physical evidence of Cougars using a passive detection method. Baited hair-traps combined with camera-traps were installed in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada. DNA analyses on two hair samples confirmed that the species was present in southern New Brunswick in 2003. A footprint photographed after an observation of a Cougar by reliable observers was examined by experts and was consistent with a Cougar footprint. Additional data are required to determine the status of Cougars in the northeastern part of its historical range

Recent STAR results in high-energy polarized proton-proton collisions at RHIC

The STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory is carrying out a spin physics program in high-energy polarized $\vec{p}+\vec{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200-500\,$GeV to gain a deeper insight into the spin structure and dynamics of the proton. One of the main objectives of the spin physics program at RHIC is the extraction of the polarized gluon distribution function based on measurements of gluon initiated processes, such as hadron and jet production. The STAR detector is well suited for the reconstruction of various final states involving jets, $\pi^{0}$, $\pi^{\pm}$, e$^{\pm}$ and $\gamma$, which allows to measure several different processes. Recent results will be shown on the measurement of jet production and hadron production at $\sqrt{s}=200\,$GeV. The RHIC spin physics program has recently completed the first data taking period in 2009 of polarized $\vec{p}+\vec{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=500\,$GeV. This opens a new era in the study of the spin-flavor structure of the proton based on the production of $W^{-(+)}$ bosons. Recent STAR results on the first measurement of $W$ boson production in polarized $\vec{p}+\vec{p}$ collisions will be shown.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Talk presented at the 26th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, January 2-9, 2010 to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS) The author may be contacted via: [email protected]

An Absolute Calibration of the p+d High-Energy Polarimeters

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

Efficient Helicopter Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Predictions on Parallel Computers

This paper presents parallel implementations of two codes used in a combined CFD/Kirchhoff methodology to predict the aerodynamics and aeroacoustics properties of helicopters. The rotorcraft Navier-Stokes code, TURNS, computes the aerodynamic flowfield near the helicopter blades and the Kirchhoff acoustics code computes the noise in the far field, using the TURNS solution as input. The overall parallel strategy adds MPI message passing calls to the existing serial codes to allow for communication between processors. As a result, the total code modifications required for parallel execution are relatively small. The biggest bottleneck in running the TURNS code in parallel comes from the LU-SGS algorithm that solves the implicit system of equations. We use a new hybrid domain decomposition implementation of LU-SGS to obtain good parallel performance on the SP-2. TURNS demonstrates excellent parallel speedups for quasi-steady and unsteady three-dimensional calculations of a helicopter blade in forward flight. The execution rate attained by the code on 114 processors is six times faster than the same cases run on one processor of the Cray C-90. The parallel Kirchhoff code also shows excellent parallel speedups and fast execution rates. As a performance demonstration, unsteady acoustic pressures are computed at 1886 far-field observer locations for a sample acoustics problem. The calculation requires over two hundred hours of CPU time on one C-90 processor but takes only a few hours on 80 processors of the SP2. The resultant far-field acoustic field is analyzed with state of-the-art audio and video rendering of the propagating acoustic signals

Measurement of the Absolute Differential Cross Section for np Elastic Scattering at 194 MeV

A tagged medium-energy neutron beam has been used in a precise measurement of the absolute differential cross section for np back-scattering. The results resolve significant discrepancies within the np database concerning the angular dependence in this regime. The experiment has determined the absolute normalization with 1.5% uncertainty, suitable to verify constraints of supposedly comparable precision that arise from the rest of the database in partial wave analyses. The analysis procedures, especially those associated with evaluation of systematic errors in the experiment, are described in detail so that systematic uncertainties may be included in a reasonable way in subsequent partial wave analysis fits incorporating the present results.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, submitted for publication in Physical Review

Measurement of the Absolute np Scattering Differential Cross Section at 194 MeV

We describe a double-scattering experiment with a novel tagged neutron beam to measure differential cross sections for np back-scattering to better than 2% absolute precision. The measurement focuses on angles and energies where the cross section magnitude and angle-dependence constrain the charged pion-nucleon coupling constant, but existing data show serious discrepancies among themselves and with energy-dependent partial wave analyses (PWA). The present results are in good accord with the PWA, but deviate systematically from other recent measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Test of a Density-Dependent Effective Interaction Using In-Plane 28-Si(p,p')28-Si Polarization Transfer Measurements

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

Measurements of the Spin Observables D_NN' and P in the Inelastic Proton Scattering from 12-C and 16-O at 200 MeV

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

Evidence for Fragmentation of "Stretched" 6- Strength in 28-Si(p,p')28-Si

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478