Effect of Greening Trees on Thermal Comfort of the Pedestrian Streets in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Regions in China

The thermal environment problems of pedestrian streets space are becoming increasingly important with the growing rate of urbanization, especially in regions with hot summers and cold winters. Taking Cinnamomum camphora as an example, several urban design scenarios with dynamic setting parameters of streets orientation (N-S, E-W), aspect ratio (0.5, 1,1.5, 2) are simulated by ENVI-met to analyze the impact of the green coverage on the thermal comfort of the street canyons in Shanghai. Results showed that: (1) green coverage has an impact on the thermal comfort of the street both in summer and winter and the significance of this effect is affected by the orientation and aspect ratio of the streets. (2) In summer, with the increase in aspect ratio, N-S orientation streets need more and more green coverage to bring a significant impact on thermal comfort, while E-W orientation streets only need 24 % green coverage. (3) In winter, with the increase in aspect ratio, N-S orientation streets also need more green coverage to significantly reduce thermal comfort. For E-W orientation, only when the aspect ratio is 1/2, the green coverage can effectively reduce the thermal comfort of the street. (4) The planting layout had no significant effect on the thermal comfort effect of trees. Based on the above conclusions, the greening strategy was proposed for pedestrian streets in the hot summer and cold winter region in China

Magnetic Properties of Ab initio Model for Iron-Based Superconductors LaFeAsO

By using variational Monte Carlo method, we examine an effective low-energy model for LaFeAsO derived from an ab initio downfolding scheme. We show that quantum and many-body fluctuations near a quantum critical point largely reduce the antiferromagnetic (AF) ordered moment and the model not only quantitatively reproduces the small ordered moment in LaFeAsO, but also explains the diverse dependence on LaFePO, BaFe2As2 and FeTe. We also find that LaFeAsO is under large orbital fluctuations, sandwiched by the AF Mott insulator and weakly correlated metals. The orbital fluctuations and Dirac-cone dispersion hold keys for the diverse magnetic properties.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Mean Interplanetary Magnetic Field Measurement Using the ARGO-YBJ Experiment

The sun blocks cosmic ray particles from outside the solar system, forming a detectable shadow in the sky map of cosmic rays detected by the ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet. Because the cosmic ray particles are positive charged, the magnetic field between the sun and the earth deflects them from straight trajectories and results in a shift of the shadow from the true location of the sun. Here we show that the shift measures the intensity of the field which is transported by the solar wind from the sun to the earth.Comment: 6 papges,3 figure

Swine-Origin Influenza A Outbreak 2009 at Shinshu University, Japan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A worldwide outbreak of swine flu H1N1 pandemic influenza occurred in April 2009. To determine the mechanism underlying the spread of infection, we prospectively evaluated a survey implemented at a local university.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between August 2009 and March 2010, we surveyed 3 groups of subjects: 2318 children in six schools attached to the Faculty of Education, 11424 university students, and 3344 staff members. Subjects with influenza-like symptoms who were diagnosed with swine flu at hospitals or clinics were defined as swine flu patients and asked to make a report using a standardized form.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After the start of the pandemic, a total of 2002 patients (11.7%) were registered in the survey. These patients included 928 schoolchildren (40.0%), 1016 university students (8.9%), and 58 staff members (1.7%). The incidence in schoolchildren was significantly higher than in the other 2 groups (<it>P </it>< 0.0001) but there were no within group differences in incidence rate between males and females. During the period of the survey, three peaks of patient numbers were observed, in November 2009, December 2009, and January 2010. The first peak consisted mainly of schoolchildren, whereas the second and third peaks included many university students. Staff members did not contribute to peak formation. Among the university students, the most common suspected route of transmission was club activity. Interventions, such as closing classes, schools, and clubs, are likely to affect the epidemic curves.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Schoolchildren and university students are vulnerable to swine flu, suggesting that avoidance of close contact, especially among these young people, may be effective way in controlling future severe influenza pandemics, especially at educational institutions.</p

Stacked Search for Gravitational Waves from the 2006 SGR 1900+14 Storm

We present the results of a LIGO search for short-duration gravitational waves (GWs) associated with the 2006 March 29 SGR 1900+14 storm. A new search method is used, "stacking'' the GW data around the times of individual soft-gamma bursts in the storm to enhance sensitivity for models in which multiple bursts are accompanied by GW emission. We assume that variation in the time difference between burst electromagnetic emission and potential burst GW emission is small relative to the GW signal duration, and we time-align GW excess power time-frequency tilings containing individual burst triggers to their corresponding electromagnetic emissions. We use two GW emission models in our search: a fluence-weighted model and a flat (unweighted) model for the most electromagnetically energetic bursts. We find no evidence of GWs associated with either model. Model-dependent GW strain, isotropic GW emission energy E_GW, and \gamma = E_GW / E_EM upper limits are estimated using a variety of assumed waveforms. The stacking method allows us to set the most stringent model-dependent limits on transient GW strain published to date. We find E_GW upper limit estimates (at a nominal distance of 10 kpc) of between 2x10^45 erg and 6x10^50 erg depending on waveform type. These limits are an order of magnitude lower than upper limits published previously for this storm and overlap with the range of electromagnetic energies emitted in SGR giant flares.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA

We present possible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron star systems, which are the most promising targets for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90% credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5– 20 deg2 requires at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of ∼2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. When all detectors, including KAGRA and the third LIGO detector in India, reach design sensitivity, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone

Constraints on cosmic strings using data from the first Advanced LIGO observing run

Cosmic strings are topological defects which can be formed in grand unified theory scale phase transitions in the early universe. They are also predicted to form in the context of string theory. The main mechanism for a network of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings to lose energy is through the production of loops and the subsequent emission of gravitational waves, thus offering an experimental signature for the existence of cosmic strings. Here we report on the analysis conducted to specifically search for gravitational-wave bursts from cosmic string loops in the data of Advanced LIGO 2015-2016 observing run (O1). No evidence of such signals was found in the data, and as a result we set upper limits on the cosmic string parameters for three recent loop distribution models. In this paper, we initially derive constraints on the string tension Gμ and the intercommutation probability, using not only the burst analysis performed on the O1 data set but also results from the previously published LIGO stochastic O1 analysis, pulsar timing arrays, cosmic microwave background and big-bang nucleosynthesis experiments. We show that these data sets are complementary in that they probe gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loops during very different epochs. Finally, we show that the data sets exclude large parts of the parameter space of the three loop distribution models we consider

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Spatial analysis of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in China

BACKGROUND: Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is endemic in many provinces with high incidence in mainland China, although integrated intervention measures including rodent control, environment management and vaccination have been implemented for over ten years. In this study, we conducted a geographic information system (GIS)-based spatial analysis on distribution of HFRS cases for the whole country with an objective to inform priority areas for public health planning and resource allocation. METHODS: Annualized average incidence at a county level was calculated using HFRS cases reported during 1994–1998 in mainland China. GIS-based spatial analyses were conducted to detect spatial autocorrelation and clusters of HFRS incidence at the county level throughout the country. RESULTS: Spatial distribution of HFRS cases in mainland China from 1994 to 1998 was mapped at county level in the aspects of crude incidence, excess hazard and spatial smoothed incidence. The spatial distribution of HFRS cases was nonrandom and clustered with a Moran's I = 0.5044 (p = 0.001). Spatial cluster analyses suggested that 26 and 39 areas were at increased risks of HFRS (p < 0.01) with maximum spatial cluster sizes of ≤ 20% and ≤ 10% of the total population, respectively. CONCLUSION: The application of GIS, together with spatial statistical techniques, provide a means to quantify explicit HFRS risks and to further identify environmental factors responsible for the increasing disease risks. We demonstrate a new perspective of integrating such spatial analysis tools into the epidemiologic study and risk assessment of HFRS

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30