Momentum transfer dependence of the proton's electric and magnetic polarizabilities

The Q^2-dependence of the sum of the electric and magnetic polarizabilities of the proton is calculated over the range 0 \leq Q^2 \leq 6 GeV^2 using the generalized Baldin sum rule. Employing a parametrization of the F_1 structure function valid down to Q^2 = 0.06 GeV^2, the polarizabilities at the real photon point are found by extrapolating the results of finite Q^2 to Q^2 = 0 GeV^2. We determine the evolution over four-momentum transfer to be consistent with the Baldin sum rule using photoproduction data, obtaining \alpha + \beta = 13.7 \pm 0.7 \times 10^{-4}\, \text{fm}^3.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Derivation of supply curves for catchment water effluents meeting specific salinity concentration targets in 2050: linking farm and catchment level models or “Footprints on future salt / water planes”

The salt burden in a stream reflects the blend of salty and fresh flows from different soil areas in its catchment. Depending not only on long-run rainfall, water yields from a soil are also determined by land cover: lowest if the area is forested and greatest if cleared. Water yields under agro-forestry, lucerne pasture, perennial grass pasture, and annual pasture or cropping options span the range of water yields between the extremes of forested and cleared lands. This study explores quantitative approaches for connecting the hydrologic and economic consequences of farm-level decisions on land cover (productive land uses) to the costs of attaining different catchment level targets of water volumes and salt reaching downstream users; environmental, agricultural, domestic, commercial and industrial. This connection is critical for the resolution of the externality dilemma of meeting downstream demands for water volume and quality. New technology, new products and new markets will expand options for salinity abatement measures in the dryland farming areas of watershed catchments. The development of appropriate policy solutions to address demands for water volumes and quality depends on the possibility of inducing targeted land use change in those catchments or parts of catchments where decreased saline flows or increased fresh water flows can return the best value for money. This study provides such a link.salinity, targets, opportunity cost, concentration, dilution, effluent, externality, supply, demand, policy, water quality, new technology, new markets, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Protocol for a mixed-methods exploratory investigation of care following intensive care discharge: the REFLECT study

© Author(s) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.INTRODUCTION: A substantial number of patients discharged from intensive care units (ICUs) subsequently die without leaving hospital. It is unclear how many of these deaths are preventable. Ward-based management following discharge from ICU is an area that patients and healthcare staff are concerned about. The primary aim of REFLECT (Recovery Following Intensive Care Treatment) is to develop an intervention plan to reduce in-hospital mortality rates in patients who have been discharged from ICU. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: REFLECT is a multicentre mixed-methods exploratory study examining ward care delivery to adult patients discharged from ICU. The study will be made up of four substudies. Medical notes of patients who were discharged from ICU and subsequently died will be examined using a retrospective case records review (RCRR) technique. Patients and their relatives will be interviewed about their post-ICU care, including relatives of patients who died in hospital following ICU discharge. Staff involved in the care of patients post-ICU discharge will be interviewed about the care of this patient group. The medical records of patients who survived their post-ICU stay will also be reviewed using the RCRR technique. The analyses of the substudies will be both descriptive and use a modified grounded theory approach to identify emerging themes. The evidence generated in these four substudies will form the basis of the intervention development, which will take place through stakeholder and clinical expert meetings. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been obtained through the Wales Research and Ethics Committee 4 (17/WA/0107). We aim to disseminate the findings through international conferences, international peer-reviewed journals and social media. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN14658054.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Quark-hadron duality constraints on \gamma Z box corrections to parity-violating elastic scattering

We examine the interference \gamma Z box corrections to parity-violating elastic electron--proton scattering in the light of the recent observation of quark-hadron duality in parity-violating deep-inelastic scattering from the deuteron, and the approximate isospin independence of duality in the electromagnetic nucleon structure functions down to Q^2 \approx 1 GeV^2. Assuming that a similar behavior also holds for the \gamma Z proton structure functions, we find that duality constrains the \gamma Z box correction to the proton's weak charge to be \Re e\, \square_{\gamma Z}^V = (5.4 \pm 0.4) \times 10^{-3} at the kinematics of the Q_{\text{weak}} experiment. Within the same model we also provide estimates of the \gamma Z corrections for future parity-violating experiments, such as MOLLER at Jefferson Lab and MESA at Mainz.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Final version to be published in Phys. Lett.

Improving Loss Estimation for Woodframe Buildings. Volume 2: Appendices

This report documents Tasks 4.1 and 4.5 of the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project. It presents a theoretical and empirical methodology for creating probabilistic relationships between seismic shaking severity and physical damage and loss for buildings in general, and for woodframe buildings in particular. The methodology, called assembly-based vulnerability (ABV), is illustrated for 19 specific woodframe buildings of varying ages, sizes, configuration, quality of construction, and retrofit and redesign conditions. The study employs variations on four basic floorplans, called index buildings. These include a small house and a large house, a townhouse and an apartment building. The resulting seismic vulnerability functions give the probability distribution of repair cost as a function of instrumental ground-motion severity. These vulnerability functions are useful by themselves, and are also transformed to seismic fragility functions compatible with the HAZUS software. The methods and data employed here use well-accepted structural engineering techniques, laboratory test data and computer programs produced by Element 1 of the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project, other recently published research, and standard construction cost-estimating methods. While based on such well established principles, this report represents a substantially new contribution to the field of earthquake loss estimation. Its methodology is notable in that it calculates detailed structural response using nonlinear time-history structural analysis as opposed to the simplifying assumptions required by nonlinear pushover methods. It models physical damage at the level of individual building assemblies such as individual windows, segments of wall, etc., for which detailed laboratory testing is available, as opposed to two or three broad component categories that cannot be directly tested. And it explicitly models uncertainty in ground motion, structural response, component damageability, and contractor costs. Consequently, a very detailed, verifiable, probabilistic picture of physical performance and repair cost is produced, capable of informing a variety of decisions regarding seismic retrofit, code development, code enforcement, performance-based design for above-code applications, and insurance practices