Future Climate of the Continental United States

Environmental Economics and Policy, Q54,

Mission 73 - Summary and data catalog

Earth resources program geographic applications program summary, recommendations, and data catalog for remote sensor mission 7

Furuncular myiasis of the foot caused by the tumbu fly, Cordylobia anthropophaga: Report in a Medical Student Returning from a Medical Mission trip to Tanzania.

Cutaneous myiasis in humans is a temporary parasitic infestation of the skin by fly larvae or maggots of a variety of Dipteran families. In the United States, autochthonous cases of myiasis are infrequently seen. Most cases of cutaneous myiasis are acquired when traveling to tropical areas of Africa, Central America or South America. This case report involves a 26-year-old male medical student who visited Tanzania on a medical mission trip. Three weeks following his return to the United States he developed a furuncular lesion on the side of the fifth digit on his right foot, which contained the larva of the tumbu fly, Cordylobia anthropophaga

Climate Fluctuations and Climate Sensitivity

Some evidence is presented that the main part of the atmospheric climate system is such that small forcings in the heat balance lead to linear responses in the surface temperature field. By examining first a noise forced energy-balance climate model and then comparing it with a long run of a highly symmetrical general circulation model, one finds a remarkable connection between spatial autocorrelation statistics and the thermal influence function for a point heat source. These findings are brought together to indicate that this particular climatological field may be largely governed by linear processes

KPD1930+2752 - a candidate Type Ia supernova progenitor

We present spectra of the pulsating sdB star KPD1930+2752 which confirm that this star is a binary. The radial velocities measured from the H-alpha and HeI6678 spectral lines vary sinusoidally with the same period (2h 17m) as the ellipsoidal variability seen by Billeres et al. (2000). The amplitude of the orbital motion (349.3+-2.7 km/s) combined with the canonical mass for sdB stars (0.5 solar masses) implies a total mass for the binary of 1.47+-0.01 solar masses The unseen companion star is almost certainly a white dwarf star. The binary will merge within about 200 million years due to gravitational wave radiation. The accretion of helium and other elements heavier than hydrogen onto the white dwarf which then exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass (1.4 solar masses) is a viable model for the cause of Type Ia supernovae. KPD1930+2752 is the first star to be discovered which is a good candidate for the progenitor of a Type Ia supernova of this type which will merge on an astrophysically interesting timescale.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 4 pages, 2 figures. Added Institutio

Stochastic Perturbations of Periodic Orbits with Sliding

Vector fields that are discontinuous on codimension-one surfaces are known as Filippov systems and can have attracting periodic orbits involving segments that are contained on a discontinuity surface of the vector field. In this paper we consider the addition of small noise to a general Filippov system and study the resulting stochastic dynamics near such a periodic orbit. Since a straight-forward asymptotic expansion in terms of the noise amplitude is not possible due to the presence of discontinuity surfaces, in order to quantitatively determine the basic statistical properties of the dynamics, we treat different parts of the periodic orbit separately. Dynamics distant from discontinuity surfaces is analyzed by the use of a series expansion of the transitional probability density function. Stochastically perturbed sliding motion is analyzed through stochastic averaging methods. The influence of noise on points at which the periodic orbit escapes a discontinuity surface is determined by zooming into the transition point. We combine the results to quantitatively determine the effect of noise on the oscillation time for a three-dimensional canonical model of relay control. For some parameter values of this model, small noise induces a significantly large reduction in the average oscillation time. By interpreting our results geometrically, we are able to identify four features of the relay control system that contribute to this phenomenon.Comment: 44 pages, 9 figures, submitted to: J Nonlin. Sc

Solvent Deactivation of Mimosa Webworm Larval Webbing (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae)

Untreated larval webbing of the mimosa webworm, Homadaula anisocentra stimulated oviposition. Six-week-old webbing was as active as two-day-old webbing. Stimulatory activity of webbing was lost after rinsing with highly polar solvents, but not after rinsing with nonpolar solvents. Addition of the polar solvent rinses did not induce activity in other substrates nor restore activity to rinsed webbing. No differences in structure were found in a scanning electron microscope examination of unrinsed webbing and webbing rinsed with solvents of varying polarity

CNONa and 12C/13C in giants of 10 open clusters

Evolved low-mass stars of a wide range of metallicity bear signatures of a non-standard mixing event in their surface abundances of Li, C, and N, and in their 12C/13C ratio. A Na overabundance has also been reported in some giants of open clusters but remains controversial. The cause of the extra-mixing has been attributed to thermohaline convection that should take place after the RGB bump for low-mass stars and on the early-AGB for more massive objects. To track the occurrence of this process over a wide mass range, we derive in a homogeneous way the abundances of C, N, O, and Na, as well as the 12C/13C ratio in a sample of 31 giants of 10 open clusters with turn-off masses from 1.7 to 3.1 Msun. A group of first ascent red giants with M/Msun \leq 2.5 exhibits lower [N/C] ratios than those measured in clump giants of the same mass range, suggesting an additional increase in the [N/C] ratio after the first dredge-up. The sodium abundances corrected from NLTE are found to be about solar. [Na/Fe] shows a slight increase of 0.10 dex as a function of stellar mass in the 1.8 to 3.2 Msun range covered by our sample, in agreement with standard first dredge-up predictions. Our results do not support previous claims of sodium overabundances as high as +0.60 dex. An anti-correlation between 12C/13C and turn-off mass is identified and interpreted as being caused by a post-bump thermohaline mixing. Moreover, we find low 12C/13C ratios in a few intermediate-mass early-AGB stars, confirming that an extra-mixing process also operates in stars that do not experienced the RGB bump. In this case, the extra-mixing possibly acts on the early-AGB, in agreement with theoretical expectations for thermohaline mixing. [abridged]Comment: A&A accepted, revised versio