Forestry timber typing. Tanana demonstration project, Alaska ASVT

The feasibility of using LANDSAT digital data in conjunction with topographic data to delineate commercial forests by stand size and crown closure in the Tanana River basin of Alaska was tested. A modified clustering approach using two LANDSAT dates to generate an initial forest type classification was then refined with topographic data. To further demonstrate the ability of remotely sensed data in a fire protection planning framework, the timber type data were subsequently integrated with terrain information to generate a fire hazard map of the study area. This map provides valuable assistance in initial attack planning, determining equipment accessibility, and fire growth modeling. The resulting data sets were incorporated into the Alaska Department of Natural Resources geographic information system for subsequent utilization

An evaluation of thematic mapper simulator data for the geobotanical discrimination of rock types in Southwest Oregon

Rock type identification may be assisted by the use of remote sensing of associated vegetation, particularly in areas of dense vegetative cover where surface materials are not imaged directly by the sensor. The geobotanical discrimination of ultramafic parent materials was investigated and analytical techniques for lithologic mapping and mineral exploration were developed. The utility of remotely sensed data to discriminate vegetation types associated with ultramafic parent materials in a study area in southwest Oregon were evaluated. A number of specific objectives were identified, which include: (1) establishment of the association between vegetation and rock types; (2) examination of the spectral separability of vegetation types associated with rock types; (3) determination of the contribution of each TMS band for discriminating vegetation associated with rock types and (4) comparison of analytical techniques for spectrally classifying vegetation

Higgs Boson Exempt No-Scale Supersymmetry with a Neutrino Seesaw: Implications for Lepton Flavor Violation and Leptogenesis

Motivated by the observation of neutrino oscillations, we extend the Higgs boson exempt no-scale supersymmetry model (HENS) by adding three heavy right-handed neutrino chiral supermultiplets to generate the light neutrino masses and mixings. The neutrino Yukawa couplings can induce new lepton flavor violating couplings among the soft terms in the course of renormalization group running down from the boundary scale. We study the effects this has on the predictions for low-energy probes of lepton flavor violation(LFV). Heavy right-handed neutrinos also provide a way to generate the baryon asymmetry through leptogenesis. We find that consistency with LFV and leptogenesis puts strong requirements on either the form of the Yukawa mass matrix or the smallness of the Higgs up soft mass. In all cases, we generically expect that new physics LFV is non-zero and can be found in a future experiment.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures; Added a referenc

Microwave Backscatter and Attenuation Dependence of Leaf Area Index for Flooded Rice Fields

Wetlands are important for their role in global climate as a source of methane and other reduced trace gases. As part of an effort to determine whether radar is suitable for wetland vegetation monitoring, we have studied the dependence of microwave backscatter and attenuation on leaf area index (LAI) for flooded rice fields. We find that the radar return from a flooded rice field does show dependence on LAI. In particular, the C-band VV cross section per unit area decreases with increasing LAI. A simple model for scattering from rice fields is derived and fit to the observed HH and VV data. The model fit provides insight into the relation of backscatter to LAI and is also used to calculate the canopy path attenuation as a function of LAI

Analysis of the Tanana River Basin using LANDSAT data

Digital image classification techniques were used to classify land cover/resource information in the Tanana River Basin of Alaska. Portions of four scenes of LANDSAT digital data were analyzed using computer systems at Ames Research Center in an unsupervised approach to derive cluster statistics. The spectral classes were identified using the IDIMS display and color infrared photography. Classification errors were corrected using stratification procedures. The classification scheme resulted in the following eleven categories; sedimented/shallow water, clear/deep water, coniferous forest, mixed forest, deciduous forest, shrub and grass, bog, alpine tundra, barrens, snow and ice, and cultural features. Color coded maps and acreage summaries of the major land cover categories were generated for selected USGS quadrangles (1:250,000) which lie within the drainage basin. The project was completed within six months

Immunolocalization of KATP channel subunits in mouse and rat cardiac myocytes and the coronary vasculature.

BACKGROUND: Electrophysiological data suggest that cardiac KATP channels consist of Kir6.2 and SUR2A subunits, but the distribution of these (and other KATP channel subunits) is poorly defined. We examined the localization of each of the KATP channel subunits in the mouse and rat heart. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry of cardiac cryosections demonstrate Kir6.1 protein to be expressed in ventricular myocytes, as well as in the smooth muscle and endothelial cells of coronary resistance vessels. Endothelial capillaries also stained positive for Kir6.1 protein. Kir6.2 protein expression was found predominantly in ventricular myocytes and also in endothelial cells, but not in smooth muscle cells. SUR1 subunits are strongly expressed at the sarcolemmal surface of ventricular myocytes (but not in the coronary vasculature), whereas SUR2 protein was found to be localized predominantly in cardiac myocytes and coronary vessels (mostly in smaller vessels). Immunocytochemistry of isolated ventricular myocytes shows co-localization of Kir6.2 and SUR2 proteins in a striated sarcomeric pattern, suggesting t-tubular expression of these proteins. Both Kir6.1 and SUR1 subunits were found to express strongly at the sarcolemma. The role(s) of these subunits in cardiomyocytes remain to be defined and may require a reassessment of the molecular nature of ventricular KATP channels. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our data demonstrate unique cellular and subcellular KATP channel subunit expression patterns in the heart. These results suggest distinct roles for KATP channel subunits in diverse cardiac structures

Single shot measurement of a silicon single electron transistor

We have fabricated a custom cryogenic Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit that has a higher measurement bandwidth compared with conventional room temperature electronics. This allowed implementing single shot operations and observe the real-time evolution of the current of a phosphorous-doped silicon single electron transistor that was irradiated with a microwave pulse. Relaxation times up to 90 us are observed, suggesting the presence of well isolated electron excitations within the device. It is expected that these are associated with long decoherence time and the device may be suitable for quantum information processing

The phases of the Moon : modelling crystallisation of the lunar magma ocean through equilibrium thermodynamics

Funding: TEJ acknowledges support from the State Key Laboratory for Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan (Open Fund GPMR201903 ). We thank J. B. Balta and T. Prissel for their challenging reviews that led to significant improvements in the final version.Despite some 50 years of intense research on samples returned from the Apollo missions and lunar meteorites, along with remote-sensing and Earth-based observations, many questions regarding the formation and evolution of the Moon persist. These include the detailed compositional and density structure of the lunar mantle and the source and petrogenesis of the diverse suite of extrusive and intrusive igneous rocks. There is broad agreement that the primary internal structure of the Moon reflects crystallisation of a lunar magma ocean (LMO), and that an inverted density gradient within the mantle cumulates led to some reorganisation of layers by partial convective overturn. Experimental studies have provided invaluable constraints on crystallisation of the LMO, but are limited by the relatively small number of experiments that can practically be undertaken. Here we use recently-developed thermodynamic models for minerals and melt in the K2O–Na2O–CaO–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–TiO2–Cr2O3 system to model crystallisation of a full-moon LMO based on two existing end-member bulk compositions—Taylor Whole-Moon (TWM), and Lunar Primitive Upper Mantle, LPUM—on which many experimental studies have been based. We follow several recent studies in considering equilibrium crystallisation of the first 50 vol.% and fractional crystallisation thereafter. Our results match well with experimental studies, and provide detailed constraints on the major oxide composition, mineralogy and density structure based on the two starting compositions that, while exhibiting some similarities, show important differences. The more fertile TWM composition contains significant quantities of garnet in the deep mantle, whereas the LPUM composition has none. By contrast, prior to any gravitational overturn, the uppermost mantle cumulates for TWM are strongly silica-undersaturated and contain abundant aluminous spinel, whereas those for LPUM are silica-saturated. For both starting compositions, with the exception of TiO2 and Na2O, our modelled compositions of the final dregs of fractionated melt show a reasonable match with existing estimates on the composition of urKREEP. Modelled partial melts of the upper-mantle cumulates at low to moderate melt fractions have major oxide compositions that match well with low- and intermediate-Ti lunar basalts. The correspondence is particularly good for picritic (green) glasses that likely represent melts derived from deeper levels within the upper mantle. The wide spread in TiO2 concentrations in lunar basalts and basaltic glasses is consistent with density-driven reorganisation involving ilmenite. Our simulations provide thermodynamically-robust estimates of the compositional, mineralogical and density structure of the lunar interior that are unprecedented in their detail, and which provide the foundation for several lines of future research addressing the origin and secular evolution of the Moon.PostprintPeer reviewe

Enhanced Production of Neutron-Rich Rare Isotopes in Peripheral Collisions at Fermi Energies

A large enhancement in the production of neutron-rich projectile residues is observed in the reactions of a 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr beam with the neutron rich 124Sn and 64Ni targets relative to the predictions of the EPAX parametrization of high-energy fragmentation, as well as relative to the reaction with the less neutron-rich 112Sn target. The data demonstrate the significant effect of the target neutron-to-proton ratio (N/Z) in peripheral collisions at Fermi energies. A hybrid model based on a deep-inelastic transfer code (DIT) followed by a statistical de-excitation code appears to account for part of the observed large cross sections. The DIT simulation indicates that the production of the neutron-rich nuclides in these reactions is associated with peripheral nucleon exchange. In such peripheral encounters, the neutron skins of the neutron-rich 124Sn and 64Ni target nuclei may play an important role. From a practical viewpoint, such reactions between massive neutron-rich nuclei offer a novel and attractive synthetic avenue to access extremely neutron-rich rare isotopes towards the neutron-drip line.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let