Volatile organic compounds composition of merged and aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada

The NOAA WP-3 aircraft intercepted aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada during several flights of the NEAQS-ITCT 2k4 mission in 2004. Measurements of acetonitrile (CH3CN) indicated that the air masses had been influenced by biomass burning. The locations of the plume intercepts were well described using emissions estimates and calculations with the transport model FLEXPART. The best description of the data was generally obtained when FLEXPART injected the forest fire emissions to high altitudes in the model. The observed plumes were generally drier than the surrounding air masses at the same altitude, suggesting that the fire plumes had been processed by clouds and that moisture had been removed by precipitation. Different degrees of photochemical processing of the plumes were determined from the measurements of aromatic VOCs. The removal of aromatic VOCs was slow considering the transport times estimated from the FLEXPART model. This suggests that the average OH levels were low during the transport, which may be explained by the low humidity and high concentrations of carbon monoxide and other pollutants. In contrast with previous work, no strong secondary production of acetone, methanol and acetic acid is inferred from the measurements. A clear case of removal of submicron particle volume and acetic acid due to precipitation scavenging was observed. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union

Fast Photon Detection for Particle Identification with COMPASS RICH-1

Particle identification at high rates is an important challenge for many current and future high-energy physics experiments. The upgrade of the COMPASS RICH-1 detector requires a new technique for Cherenkov photon detection at count rates of several $10^6$ per channel in the central detector region, and a read-out system allowing for trigger rates of up to 100 kHz. To cope with these requirements, the photon detectors in the central region have been replaced with the detection system described in this paper. In the peripheral regions, the existing multi-wire proportional chambers with CsI photocathode are now read out via a new system employing APV pre-amplifiers and flash ADC chips. The new detection system consists of multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MAPMT) and fast read-out electronics based on the MAD4 discriminator and the F1-TDC chip. The RICH-1 is in operation in its upgraded version for the 2006 CERN SPS run. We present the photon detection design, constructive aspects and the first Cherenkov light in the detector.Comment: Proceedings of the Imaging 2006 conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 27-30 June 2006, 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in NIM A; corrected typo in caption of Fig.

Fast photon detection for the COMPASS RICH detector

The COMPASS experiment at the SPS accelerator at CERN uses a large scale Ring Imaging CHerenkov detector (RICH) to identify pions, kaons and protons in a wide momentum range. For the data taking in 2006, the COMPASS RICH has been upgraded in the central photon detection area (25% of the surface) with a new technology to detect Cherenkov photons at very high count rates of several 10^6 per second and channel and a new dead-time free read-out system, which allows trigger rates up to 100 kHz. The Cherenkov photons are detected by an array of 576 visible and ultra-violet sensitive multi-anode photomultipliers with 16 channels each. The upgraded detector showed an excellent performance during the 2006 data taking.Comment: Proceeding of the IPRD06 conference (Siena, Okt. 06

The Fast Read-out System for the MAPMTs of COMPASS RICH-1

A fast readout system for the upgrade of the COMPASS RICH detector has been developed and successfully used for data taking in 2006 and 2007. The new readout system for the multi-anode PMTs in the central part of the photon detector of the RICH is based on the high-sensitivity MAD4 preamplifier-discriminator and the dead-time free F1-TDC chip characterized by high-resolution. The readout electronics has been designed taking into account the high photon flux in the central part of the detector and the requirement to run at high trigger rates of up to 100 kHz with negligible dead-time. The system is designed as a very compact setup and is mounted directly behind the multi-anode photomultipliers. The data are digitized on the frontend boards and transferred via optical links to the readout system. The read-out electronics system is described in detail together with its measured performances.Comment: Proceeding of RICH2007 Conference, Trieste, Oct. 2007. v2: minor change

Airborne measurements of carbonaceous aerosol soluble in water over northeastern United States: Method development and an investigation into water-soluble organic carbon sources

[1] A particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) was coupled to a total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer for 3 s integrated measurements of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) in PM 1 ambient particles. The components of the instrument are described in detail. The PILS-TOC was deployed on the NOAA WP-3D aircraft during the NEAQS/ITCT 2004 program to investigate WSOC sources over the northeastern United States and Canada. Two main sources were identified: biomass burning emissions from fires in Alaska and northwestern Canada and emissions emanating from urban centers. Biomass burning WSOC was correlated with carbon monoxide (CO) and acetonitrile (r 2 > 0.88). These plumes were intercepted in layers at altitudes between 3 and 4 km and contained the highest fine particle volume and WSOC concentrations of the mission. Apart from the biomass burning influence, the lowest WSOC concentrations were recorded in rural air masses that included regions of significant biogenic emissions. Highest concentrations were at low altitudes in distinct plumes from urban centers. WSOC and CO were highly correlated (r 2 > 0.78) in these urban plumes. The ratio of the enhancement in WSOC relative to CO enhancement was found to be low ($3 mg C/m 3 /ppmv) in plumes that had been in transit for a short time, and increased with plume age, but appeared to level off at$32 ± 4 mg C/m 3 /ppmv after $1 day of transport from the sources. The results suggest that the production of WSOC in fine particles depends on compounds coemitted with CO and that this process is rapid with a time constant of$1 day. Citation: Sullivan, A. P., R. E. Peltier, C. A. Brock, J. A. de Gouw, J. S. Holloway, C. Warneke, A. G. Wollny, and R. J. Weber (2006), Airborne measurements of carbonaceous aerosol soluble in water over northeastern United States: Method development and an investigation into water-soluble organic carbon sources

Reducing unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics for acute cough: Adaptation of a leaflet aimed at Turkish immigrants in Germany

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The reduction in the number of unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics has become one of the most important objectives for primary health care. German GPs report that they are under "pressure to prescribe" antibiotics particularly in consultations with Turkish immigrants. And so a qualitative approach was used to learn more about the socio-medical context of Turkish patients in regard to acute coughs. A German leaflet designed to improve the doctor-patient communication has been positively tested and then adapted for Turkish patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The original leaflet was first translated into Turkish. Then 57 patients belonging to 8 different GPs were interviewed about the leaflet using a semi-standardised script. The material was audio recorded, fully transcribed, and analysed by three independent researchers. As a first step a comprehensive content analysis was performed. Secondly, elements crucial to any Turkish version of the leaflet were identified.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The interviews showed that the leaflets' messages were clearly understood by all patients irrespective of age, gender, and educational background. We identified no major problems in the perception of the translated leaflet but identified several minor points which could be improved. We found that patients were starting to reconsider their attitudes after reading the leaflet.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The leaflet successfully imparted relevant and new information to the target patients. A qualitative approach is a feasible way to prove general acceptance and provides additional information for its adaptation to medico-cultural factors.</p

Observation of a J^PC = 1-+ exotic resonance in diffractive dissociation of 190 GeV/c pi- into pi- pi- pi+

The COMPASS experiment at the CERN SPS has studied the diffractive dissociation of negative pions into the pi- pi- pi+ final state using a 190 GeV/c pion beam hitting a lead target. A partial wave analysis has been performed on a sample of 420000 events taken at values of the squared 4-momentum transfer t' between 0.1 and 1 GeV^2/c^2. The well-known resonances a1(1260), a2(1320), and pi2(1670) are clearly observed. In addition, the data show a significant natural parity exchange production of a resonance with spin-exotic quantum numbers J^PC = 1-+ at 1.66 GeV/c^2 decaying to rho pi. The resonant nature of this wave is evident from the mass-dependent phase differences to the J^PC = 2-+ and 1++ waves. From a mass-dependent fit a resonance mass of 1660 +- 10+0-64 MeV/c^2 and a width of 269+-21+42-64 MeV/c^2 is deduced.Comment: 7 page, 3 figures; version 2 gives some more details, data unchanged; version 3 updated authors, text shortened, data unchange

Transverse spin effects in hadron-pair production from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

First measurements of azimuthal asymmetries in hadron-pair production in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on transversely polarised ^6LiD (deuteron) and NH_3 (proton) targets are presented. The data were taken in the years 2002-2004 and 2007 with the COMPASS spectrometer using a muon beam of 160 GeV/c at the CERN SPS. The asymmetries provide access to the transversity distribution functions, without involving the Collins effect as in single hadron production. The sizeable asymmetries measured on the NH_ target indicate non-vanishing u-quark transversity and two-hadron interference fragmentation functions. The small asymmetries measured on the ^6LiD target can be interpreted as indication for a cancellation of u- and d-quark transversities.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, updated to the published versio