Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

We revisited the quantum Zeno paradox, which claims that a generic quantum system prepared in a state which is not an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian operator and is continuously observed never decays. Since any perfectly isolated quantum system always interact with a vacuum field, we analyze the possibility of using this fact to solve the above mentioned conceptual problem. Therefore we discuss a two-level system or qubit-Bose field interaction Hamiltonians. We consider the quantum dynamics of this two-level system, prepared in the excited state interacting with a Bose field prepared in the Poincare invariant vacuum state. Using a first-order approximation in time-dependent perturbation theory, we evaluate the probability of spontaneous decay of the two-level system driven by the vacuum field. This probability is evaluated for a finite time interval. Using the standard argument to obtain the quantum Zeno ...

CERN Document Server

Information technology and the productivity paradox

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The author attempts to clear up the causal 'paradox' often associated with the existence of tacyons. This leads to a discussion of the nature of tachyon messages and the problems involved in their interpretation. (W.D.L.).

CERN Document Server

In this work we study the dephasing mechanism of a double quantum-dot system, which includes two electrons and a nearby quantum point contact (QPC) as a measurement device. We obtain that the QPC-induced decoherence is on time scales of microseconds. We also find that the electrons will be delocalized after continuous measurement, irrespectively of the initial conditions, and the frequent repeated measurements will localize the system, which is consistent with the quantum Zeno effect. Further, we consider the situation that the double quantum-dot system is irradiated by a microwave field.

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

ObjectivesTo assess the magnitude of cigarette smuggling after the market opened in Taiwan.MethodsReview of tobacco industry documents for references...Full Text Available

Science.gov (United States)

... WHS- Washington Headquarters Service. ... The standing Joint Task Force concept should be used more to provide warfighter forces and ...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

This note outlines the economic theory behind the theory of uncovered interest parity and some of the econometric issues involved in testing and interpretation. I illustrate some of the issues involved by estimating a rolling regression of the forward premium regression from 22 years of eight major currencies. I also conclude that Pippenger's model is not consistent with the theory of UIP and that furthermore there are severe econometric problems in estimating his model. The forward premium anomaly remains a paradox in international finance that is important and worthwhile to understand more fully.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The author answers and briefly and comment upon a paper on tachyons by J.K. Kowalczynski. Suitable answers are already contained in the recent literature about extended relativity (ER), apparently unknown to that author. His answer is threefold. (1) About causality: No paradoxes can be sensible discussed without studying in detail the tachyon-exchange dynamics; but once one knows tachyon mechanics, the solution of the paradox is straightforward. As an example, he exploits and solves the Tolman-Regge paradox. (2) About superluminal frames and transformations: I agrees that (as I has noted elsewhere) in four dimensions such language is unfortunate; it was borrowed from two dimensions, where it is completely justified. Formulations in terms of a new language can be found in my recent papers on ER. (3) The statement that the pseudo-Euclidean space-time is a particular Riemannian manifold is wrong. It is pseudo-Riemannian, or ...

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) are potentially devastating, and due to their asymptomatic behavior, pose a serious health risk characterized by the lack of medical treatment options and high...Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

1. We have studied determinants of outcome of 7 day courses of treatment in 77 middle aged and elderly patients, in whom the general practitioner's diagnosis of urinary tract infections had been confirmed...Full Text Available

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

It is shown that a relativistic point kinematics with one independent dilation of (scalar) proper time for each spatial freedom degree would give a really rigorous physical significance to the ordinary logical resolution of the clock paradox between systems in relative motion.

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

Increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mitochondria underlies major systemic diseases, and this clinical problem stimulates a great scientific interest in the mechanism of ROS generation....Full Text Available

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

We report a case of 38-year-old male, who presented with a large pulsatile swelling on the left side of the anterior chest wall of 4 months’ duration with a gradual increase in size. He gave...Full Text Available

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

This paper opens with a critical analysis of a paradox in contemporary educational research in and about Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC): the assumption that national boundaries coincide with those of a distinct and homogeneous culture, which consistently renders a rather homogenous set of educational phenomena, and collides against a more widely accepted discourse - culture transcends geographical frontiers and is ever evolving in character. It is claimed that this paradox is due to the fact that a thin conception of CHC competes neck-and-neck with a thick conception of it. This paper also addresses the possibility of an ad hoc education research methodology in and about CHC and its compliance issues regarding the mainstream Western research dynamics and philosophy of science. Confucian ...

CERN Document Server

The management and combination of uncertain, imprecise, fuzzy and even paradoxical or high conflicting sources of information has always been, and still remains today, of primal importance for the development of reliable modern information systems involving artificial reasoning. In this introduction, we present a survey of our recent theory of plausible and paradoxical reasoning, known as Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT), developed for dealing with imprecise, uncertain and conflicting sources of information. We focus our presentation on the foundations of DSmT and on its most important rules of combination, rather than on browsing specific applications of DSmT available in literature. Several simple examples are given throughout this presentation to show the efficiency and the generality of this new approach.

UK PubMed Central (United Kingdom)

BackgroundDespite the diffusion into practice of percutaneous closure of a patent foramen ovale (PFO) in patients with cryptogenic stroke (CS), the benefits have not been demonstrated,...Full Text Available

Wastenet

...] Responsibility and the Big Society by Antje Bednarek [Downloadable!] Friendship Dynamics Between Emotions and Trials by Paola Rebughini [Downloadable!] On Friendship, Equality and Introductions: Comparing English and German Regimes of Manners and Emotions by Cas Wouters [Downloadable!] Fees, Funding and Overseas Study: Mobile UK Students and Educational Inequalities by Rachel Brooks & Johanna Waters [Downloadable!] The Subject of Functional Foods: Accounts of Using Foods Containing Phytosterols by Kate Weiner [Downloadable!] Paradoxes and Pitfalls in ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

An apparently significant result in an experiment to search for tachyons in the interval of time immediately preceding in the arrival of air showers of energy approximately 10"1"5 eV is considered. Several similar experiments have been completed, all of which have yielded null results. The original data of the foregoing reference have been re-examined and it is shown that an artifact of the apparatus was contributing to the original apparently significant results. (orig./BJ).

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

The ?new variant famine? hypothesis posits links between HIV/AIDS and new patterns of impoverishment, food insecurity and hunger, in southern and eastern Africa. This paper explores the relevance of the NVF hypothesis to understanding Swaziland?s recurrent food crises and high HIV prevalence. Evidence exists that all four markers of NVF are present in Swaziland. The national government and the international community will have to contend with this phenomenon in future planning for the wellbeing of Swazi citizens.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

By revisiting previous definitions, we show that one can define an energy current operator that satisfies the continuity equation for a general Hamiltonian in one dimension. This expression is useful for studying electronic, phononic and photonic energy flow in linear systems and in hybrid structures. The definition allows us to deduce the necessary conditions that result in current conservation for general-statistics systems. The discrete form of the Fourier's law of heat conduction naturally emerges in the present definition.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Violation of correspondence principle may occur for very macroscopic byt isolated quantum systems on rather short timescales as illustrated by the case of Hyperion, the chaotically tumbling moon of Saturn, for which quantum and classical predictions are expected to diverge on a timescale of approximately 20 years. Motivated by Hyperion, we review salient features of ``quantum chaos`` and show that decoherence is the essential ingredient of the classical limit, as it enables one to solve the apparent paradox caused by the breakdown of the correspondence principle for classically chaotic systems.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

In this book the notion of time in classical physics and relativity theory is discussed. After a criticism of the absolute time some alternative measures of time in mechanics are considered. Thereafter the problem of equal time at different points of the space as well as the time in different inertial systems are considered. In this framework the clock paradox is discussed. Then the Lorentz transformation is considered. Thereafter the reconstruction of the absolute time in relativity theory is described. Finally the notion of time in general relativity theory is considered.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

An outcrop-based study combining detailed lithofacies analysis with high-resolution sequence stratigraphy in the Paradox Basin, southwestern United States. has shown that complex lateral and vertical facies variations occur in relatively consistent and predictable patterns. Large-scale facies shifts of several kilometers occur across major sequence boundaries whereas small-scale lateral and vertical variations develop from stacking of individual cycles. Understanding of vertical stacking patterns and lateral distribution of facies in outcrop can be directly applied to both three-dimensional distribution of reservoir facies in the subsurface as well as the evaluation of heterogeneity within individual reservoirs. The Desert Creek and Ismay intervals of the Paradox Formation (Pennsylvanian) exposed along the San Juan River in southeastern Utah are characterized by high-frequency cyclic repetition of carbonate and siliciclastic facies controlled ...

CERN Document Server

The first quantitative evaluation of the quality of corporate firewall configurations appeared in 2004, based on Check Point FireWall-1 rule-sets. In general that survey indicated that corporate firewalls were often enforcing poorly written rule-sets, containing many mistakes. The goal of this work is to revisit the first survey. The current study is much larger. Moreover, for the first time, the study includes configurations from two major vendors. The study also introduce a novel "Firewall Complexity" (FC) measure, that applies to both types of firewalls. The findings of the current study indeed validate the 2004 study's main observations: firewalls are (still) poorly configured, and a rule-set's complexity is (still) positively correlated with the number of detected risk items. Thus we can conclude that, for well-configured firewalls, ``small is (still) beautiful''. However, unlike the 2004 study, we see no significant indication that later software versions ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Utah oil fields have produced over 1.2 billion barrels (191 million m{sup 3}). However, the 13.7 million barrels (2.2 million m{sup 3}) of production in 2002 was the lowest level in over 40 years and continued the steady decline that began in the mid-1980s. The Utah Geological Survey believes this trend can be reversed by providing play portfolios for the major oil-producing provinces (Paradox Basin, Uinta Basin, and thrust belt) in Utah and adjacent areas in Colorado and Wyoming. Oil plays are geographic areas with petroleum potential caused by favorable combinations of source rock, migration paths, reservoir rock characteristics, and other factors. The play portfolios will include: descriptions and maps of the major oil plays by reservoir; production and reservoir data; case-study field evaluations; summaries of the state-of-the-art drilling, completion, and secondary/tertiary techniques for each play; locations of major oil pipelines; descriptions of reservoir ...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Cytoreductive conditioning regimes designed to allow for successful allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) paradoxically are also detrimental to recovery of the immune system in general but lymphopoiesis in particular. Post-transplant immune depletion is particularly striking within the T cell compartment which is exquisitely sensitive to negative regulation, evidenced by the profound decline in thymic function with age. As a consequence, regeneration of the immune system remains a significant unmet clinical need. Over the past decade studies have revealed several promising therapeutic strategies to address ineffective lymphopoiesis and post-transplant immune deficiency. These include the use of cytokines such as IL-7, IL-12 and IL-15; growth factors and hormones li...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

There has been growing international consensus on issues related to child labour - evident in various declarations, platforms, conventions, programmes of action etc. Child labour is the economic exploitation of children, or performance of any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. Poverty is the principal cause of child labour. Mostly the children work to support their families and also for their own survival. Paradoxically, however, child labour further aggravates the poverty syndrome as it usually deprives the children of education and opportunity to acquire skills for developing earning potentials. Other causes of child labour include family indebtedness, the lack or poor quality of schooli...

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Science plays paradoxical roles in environmental planning. As a process for generating and adapting knowledge of the biophysical environment to human use, it is essential to achieving sustainability. As the socially contested evaluation of competing claims to truth, however, adversarial science often becomes the focus of conflict in the planning process. British Columbia's Central Coast Land and Resource Management Plan (CCLRMP) planning process took place amid industrial restructuring, market campaigns, and scientific disputes over the conservation of the world's largest remaining temperate rainforest. This article shows how adversarial science set the terms of the policy debate, as well as the means for compromise. A multisector interdisciplinary information team played a key role in arr...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Using the operator approach we reexamine the two-dimensional model describing a massive Fermi field interacting via derivative couplings with two massless Bose fields, one scalar and the other pseudoscalar. Performing a canonical transformation on the Bose field algebra, the Fermi field operator is written in terms of the Mandelstam soliton operator and the derivative-coupling (DC) model is mapped into the massive Thirring model with two vector-current-scalar-derivative interactions (Schroer-Thirring model). The DC model with massless fermions can be mapped into the massless Rothe-Stamatescu model with a Thirring interaction (massless Rothe-Stamatescu-Thirring model). Within the present approach the weak equivalence between the fermionic sector of the DC model and the massive Thirring model is exhibited compactly.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

This study revisits the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for water pollution by using a recent dynamic technique, which is the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach, for a board sample of 97 countries during the period 1980-2001. On a global scale, as we cannot obtain the EKC relationship between real income and biological oxygen demand (BOD) emissions, this paper further classifies these countries into four regional groups - Africa, Asia and Oceania, America, and Europe - to explore whether the different regions have different ECK relationships. The empirical results show evidence of the inverted U-shaped EKC relationships' existence in America and Europe, but not in Africa and Asia and Oceania. Thus, the regional difference of EKC for water pollution is supported. Furthermore, the estimated turning points are, approximately, US$13,956 and US$38,221 for America and Europe, respectively.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

This study revisits the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for water pollution by using a recent dynamic technique, which is the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach, for a board sample of 97 countries during the period 1980-2001. On a global scale, as we cannot obtain the EKC relationship between real income and biological oxygen demand (BOD) emissions, this paper further classifies these countries into four regional groups - Africa, Asia and Oceania, America, and Europe - to explore whether the different regions have different ECK relationships. The empirical results show evidence of the inverted U-shaped EKC relationships' existence in America and Europe, but not in Africa and Asia and Oceania. Thus, the regional difference of EKC for water pollution is supported. Furthermore, the estimated turning points are, approximately, US$13,956 and US$38,221 for America and Europe, respectively. (author)

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

We revisit a recently proposed agent-based model of active biological motion and compare its predictions with own experimental findings for the speed distribution of bacterial cells, Salmonella typhimurium. Agents move according to a stochastic dynamics and use energy stored in an internal depot for metabolism and active motion. We discuss different assumptions of how the conversion from internal to kinetic energy d(v) may depend on the actual speed, to conclude that d 2 v ? with either ? = 2 or 1 ? < 2 are promising hypotheses. To test these, we compare the model?s prediction with the speed distribution of bacteria which were obtained in media of different nutrient concentration and at different times. We find that both hypotheses are in line with the experimental observations, with ? bet...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The optical spectroscopy measurements of gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) crystals doped with Yb show evidence of the presence of non-equivalent optical centers with very similar radiative decay rates. The energy level schemes of those centers have been determined on the basis of optical absorption, luminescence and Raman experiments. Crystal field fitting resulted in two sets of slightly different crystal field parameters for two non-equivalent Yb centers. Both sets of parameters describe perfectly the experimentally detected Y b3+ energy levels. Correlation between systematic trends in the experimental energy level schemes and crystal field parameters is discussed.

CERN Document Server

This thesis describes hadron reconstruction at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva. The focus is on the particle flow reconstruction of these objects. This thesis revisits the subject of the CMS calorimeters' non-linear response to hadrons. Data from testbeam experiments conducted in 2006 & 2007 is compared with simulations and substantial differences are found. A particle flow calibration to correct the energy response of the testbeam data is evaluated. The reconstructed jet response is found to change by ~ 5% when a data-driven calibration is used in place of the calibration derived from simulation. Collision data taken at the early stage of CMS' commissioning is also presented. The hadron response in data is determined to be compatible with testbeam results presented in this thesis. This thesis also details the use of neural networks to improve the energy measurement of hadrons at CMS. The networks ...

CERN Document Server

The historical background of the 19th century electromagnetic theory is revisited from the standpoint of the opposition between alternative approaches in respect to the problem of interactions. The 19th century electrodynamics became the battle-field of a paramount importance to test existing conceptions of interactions. Hertz's experiments were designed to bring a solid experimental evidence in favor of one of them. The modern scientific method applied to analyze Hertz's experimental approach as well as the analysis of his laboratory notes, dairy and private letters show that Hertz's "\\textit{crucial}" experiments cannot be considered as conclusive at many points as it is generally implied. We found that alternative Helmholtz's electrodynamics did not contradict any of Hertz's experimental observations of transverse components as Maxwell's theory predicted. Moreover, as we now know from recently published Hertz's dairy and private notes, his first experimental ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

A detailed comparison of the softness of gold and silver has been reported in the light of hard soft acid base (HSAB) principle. Gold and silver nanoparticles in organic media (i.e., organosol) have been exploited individually to establish the principle. Sulfur and nitrogen were employed as soft and borderline donating atoms to examine the metal-ligand interactions. In this regard, thiols and amines have been considered as interacting ligands with sulfur and nitrogen donor atoms respectively. The stronger affinity of gold towards softer sulfur donor as compared to nitrogen and conversely a reasonable interaction of silver nanoparticles with both the atoms authenticate the softer nature of gold nanoparticle as compared to silver one.

British Library Electronic Table of Contents (United Kingdom)

Circadian rhythms affect several processes in the body physiology. This commentary revisits the topic of `metabolic basis of diseases' with a view to shed light on how cellular energy requirements feed-forward to a sequential signaling of hormonal response, blood glucose metabolism, antioxidant activities, and pathophysiology. Attempt is made to explain how diseases that may not appear to be closely related, such as bone metabolism and vasculopathy, have an increase in oxidative damage as a common underlying biochemistry. Importantly, this article identifies oxidative damage as an outcome of sleep disturbance and hypothesize that sleep complaint is not merely one of many resulting symptoms of PTSD, but a core feature that arise from trauma and gives rise to the stress biochemistry, which i...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Very often in many textbooks the formalism of the general theory of relativity is applied to gravitational problems. We think that it would be didactically useful to show how it can be adopted also for describing physical situations in accelerated frames of reference by working out in detail a particular case. This choice will also offer an opportunity to discuss a classical topic of relativistic physics. Indeed, we deal analytically with a version of the so-called clock paradox in which the moving clock performs a circular motion. The rest clock is denoted as (1), the rotating clock is (2), the inertial frame in which (1) is at rest and (2) moves is I and, finally, the accelerated frame in which (2) is at rest and (1) rotates is A. By using the general theory of relativity in order to describe the motion of (1) as seen in A we will show the following features. (I) A differential ageing between (1) and (2) occurs at their reunion and it has an absolute character, ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

To illustrate frequently encountered anatomic variations on PNS computed tomography(CT) and to assess their clinical significance. CT findings of 1523 patients, who underwent PNS CT with no history of sinus surgery, were reviewed, and prevalence of each anatomic variation and its relationship with mucociliary clearance pathway was evaluated. Two categories of anatomic variations were encountered. The first group included variations of the turbinates, such as concha bullosa(28.6%), paradoxical middle turbinate(31.5%), of the uncinate process, such as medially bent or folded(36.3%), laterally bent(3.7%) or uncinate bulla(0.5%), of the ethmoidal sinus, such as Haller's cell(28.2%), large agger nasi cell(9.6%) or large ethmoidal bulla(23.5%) and nasal septal deviation(24.1%), which might cause obstruction of mucociliary clearance pathway and thus give rise to secondary obstructive sinusitis. The second group included Onodi cell(1.4%) and medial depression of the lamina ...

Environmental Research Database

ObjectivesThe key testing-grounds for theories concerning the origin of helping are primitively eusocial taxa in which the option of independent reproduction still exists. Co-foundress associations of Polistes paper wasps are the best studied primitively eusocial system, yet it remains unclear why many foundresses choose to become helpers. Especially paradoxical are populations of P. dominulus, in which >30% of helpers are unrelated to the dominant egg-layer in the group. The proposed research will use [continued...]DescriptionThe evolution of sociality is one of the major transitions in evolutionary biology. The key testing-grounds for theories concerning the origin of helping are primitively eusocial taxa in which the option of independent reproduction still exists. Social groups of Polistes paper wasps comprise groups of females in which one 'dominant' female lays most or all of the eggs while the others ( 'helpers') forage to feed the dominant's larvae. Yet ...

Environmental Research Database

ObjectivesThe main objectives of this project are: 1. To determine whether nest-drifting behaviour allows helpers to maximise their indirect fitness in the paper wasp Polistes canadensis. Specifically, I will test a) whether nest-drifters apportion helping effort in relation to the productivity benefits of different nests (hypothesis 1a), and b) whether nest-drifters can adjust their investment in response to changes in the productivity payoffs of different nests (hypothesis 1b). 2. To determine [continued...]DescriptionDarwin's theory of natural selection predicts that organisms should act selfishly in order to pass on as many of their genes to the next generation as possible. The evolution of social behaviour is a paradox because it requires that some individuals forgo reproduction in order to help raise the offspring of others. Explaining the evolution of helping behaviour in animal societies has been a major focus for evolutionary biologists ever since Darwin. ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

A photoaffinity derivative of the local anesthetic trimethisoquin, 5-azido-["3H]trimethisoquin (5-A["3H]T) labelled bands of app. mol. wt 50 k and 66 k. To explain the rather paradoxical labelling by 5-A["3H]T of two polypeptide chains instead of one, three possibilities were considered: (i) The site for non-competititve blockers is not carried by the 50 k or 66 k chain; however, these chains lie in the vicinity of the binding site and become preferentially labelled since they present chemical groups with which the nitrene group of 5-A["3H]T reacts. (ii) The 50 k and 66 k chains are different but carry binding sites for non-competitive blockers with similar reactivities. (iii) The 50 k chain labelled by 5-A["3H]T derives from the 66 k chain by proteolysis. These results show that the third alternative is the correct one. Under conditions which limit proteolysis, 5-A["3H]T selectively labels the 66 k polypeptide chain. (Auth.).

CERN Document Server

Aims: To provide a significantly improved probability distribution for the H-test for periodicity in X-ray and $\\gamma$-ray arrival times, which is already extensively used by the $\\gamma$-ray pulsar community. Also, to obtain an analytical probability distribution for stacked test statistics in the case of a search for pulsed emission from an ensemble of pulsars where the significance per pulsar is relatively low, making individual detections insignificant on their own. This information is timely given the recent rapid discovery of new pulsars with the Fermi-LAT t $\\gamma$-ray telescope. Methods: Approximately $10^{14}$ realisations of the H-statistic ($H$) for random (white) noise is calculated from a random number generator for which the repitition cycle is $\\gg 10^{14}$. From these numbers the probability distribution $P(>H)$ is calculated. Results: The distribution of $H$ is is found to be exponential with parameter $\\lambda=0.4$ so that the cumulative probability ...

CERN Document Server

We revisit the production of a single Higgs boson from direct \\gamma \\gamma -scattering at a photon collider. We compute the total cross section \\sigma(\\gamma \\gamma \\to h) (for h=h0, H0, A0), and the strength of the effective g_{h \\gamma \\gamma} coupling normalized to the Standard Model (SM), for both the general Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM) and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). In both cases the predicted production rates for the CP-even (odd) states render up to 10^4 (10^3) events per 500 \\invfb of integrated luminosity, in full consistency with all the theoretical and phenomenological constraints. Depending on the channel the maximum rates can be larger or smaller than the SM expectations, but in most of the parameter space they should be well measurable. We analyze how these departures depend on the dynamics underlying each of the models, supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric, and highlight the possible distinctive phenomenological ...

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Experimental observations related to the initiation of plastic deformation in metals and alloys irradiated with fission neutrons have been analyzed. The experimental results, showing irradiation-induced increase in the upper yield stress followed by a yield drop and plastic instability, cannot be explained in terms of conventional dispersed-barrier hardening because (a) the grown-in dislocations are not free, and (b) irradiation-induced defect clusters are not rigid indestructible Orowan obstacles. A new model called 'cascade-induced source hardening' is presented where glissile loops produced directly in cascades are envisaged to decorate the grown-in dislocations so that they cannot act as dislocation sources. The upper yield stress is related to the breakaway stress which is necessary to pull the dislocation away from the clusters/loops decorating it. The magnitude of the breakaway stress has been estimated and is found to be in good agreement with the measured increase in the ...

CERN Document Server

Aims. We attempt to detect starlight reflected from a hot Jupiter, orbiting the main-sequence star HD 75289Ab. We report a revised analysis of observations of this planetary system presented previously by another research group. Methods. We analyse high-precision, high-resolution spectra, collected over four nights using UVES at the VLT/UT2, by way of data synthesis. We try to interpret our data using different atmospheric models for hot Jupiters. Results. We do not find any evidence for reflected light, and, therefore, establish revised upper limits to the planet-to-star flux ratio at the 99.9% significance level. At high orbital inclinations, where the best sensitivity is attained, we can limit the relative reflected radiation to be less than e = 6.7 x 10-5 assuming a grey albedo, and e = 8.3 x 10-5 assuming an Class IV function, respectively. This implies a geometric albedo smaller than p = 0.46 and p = 0.57, for the grey albedo and the Class IV albedo shape, respectively, assuming ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) represents about 170 crude oil and natural gas exploration, development and production companies in regulatory hearings and legal proceedings. Its principal role is to enhance the economic well-being and sustainability of the Canadian upstream petroleum industry. This presentation explores the role that information technology (IT) plays in knowledge and information management and how this role relates to meeting Canada`s target for greenhouse gas emissions reductions set by the Kyoto Protocol. Actions such as the Voluntary Challenge Registry (VCR) and emissions reductions trading are re-visited and the information requirements associated with these actions are highlighted. It is shown that among others, emissions databases between jurisdictions (provincial, national, international) have to be integrated, reduction claims must be tracked, verified and cross-referenced to eliminate double counting, comprehensive ...

Science.gov (United States)

BackgroundNatural disasters result in significant numbers of disabling impairments. Paradoxically, however, the traditional health system response to natural disasters largely neglects health-related rehabilitation as a strategic intervention.ObjectivesTo examine the role of health-related rehabilitation in natural disaster relief along three lines of inquiry: (1) epidemiology of injury and disability, (2) impact on health and rehabilitation systems, and (3) the assessment and measurement of disability.DesignQualitative literature review and secondary data analysis.ResultsAbsolute numbers of injuries as well as injury to death ratios in natural disasters have increased significantly over the last 40 years. Major impairments requiring health-related rehabilitation include amputations, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries (SCI), and long bone fractures. Studies show that persons with pre-existing disabilities are more likely to die in a natural disaster. ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mass shift of accelerated charges-sources of a massive vector and massive scalar fields, are considered in an approximation which is classical with respect to the charge motion but quantum with respect to their interaction with their proper field. For uniformly accelerated charges the mass shifts are expressed in terms of cylindrical functions of the quantum parameter ..mu..c/sup 3//h/2..pi..w/sub 0/ which is the ratio of the mass ..mu.. of the proper field quanta to the charge acceleration w/sub 0/. For finite positive values of the parameter both the imaginary and real parts of the shifts are nonvanishing and negative. For ..mu -->..0 the real part of the mass shift of a vector charge tends to the classical value -..cap alpha..h/2..pi..w/sub 0//2c/sup 3/ obtained earlier, thereas that of the scalar charge tends to zero. These and other properties of the shifts as functions of ..mu.. are studied by taking into account the locality of interaction, unitarity and causality. Dispersion ...

Science.gov (United States)

Adenine DNA glycosylase catalyzes the glycolytic removal of adenine from the promutagenic A {center_dot} oxoG base pair in DNA. The general features of DNA recognition by an adenine DNA glycosylase, Bacillus stearothermophilus MutY, have previously been revealed via the X-ray structure of a catalytically inactive mutant protein bound to an A:oxoG-containing DNA duplex. Although the structure revealed the substrate adenine to be, as expected, extruded from the DNA helix and inserted into an extrahelical active site pocket on the enzyme, the substrate adenine engaged in no direct contacts with active site residues. This feature was paradoxical, because other glycosylases have been observed to engage their substrates primarily through direct contacts. The lack of direct contacts in the case of MutY suggested that either MutY uses a distinctive logic for substrate recognition or that the X-ray structure had captured a noncatalytically competent state in lesion ...

Science.gov (United States)

The classical Stefan problem describes the motion of a solidification front through a uniform half-space in response to a step change in temperature on its boundary. The predictions of such a model can be applied quite accurately to the freezing of water in a porous medium so long as the pore geometry remains unaltered by the passing solidification front. It is observed, however, that in fine-grained porous media, ice has a tendency to form in segregated horizontal bands, known as ice lenses, that disrupt the regular pattern of heat flow through their enhanced consumption of latent heat. This process, known as frost heave, causes significant ground deformation in regions subject to prolonged freezing, and is one of the most important weathering processes in polar and alpine regions. Recent improvements to our understanding of the mechanics of ice lens nucleation and growth are applied here to predict the conditions and characteristics of frost heave in a step-freezing configuration. ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

It is clarified that the so-caned 'helicity conservation law' is never the conservation equation of the helicity K itself', but is merely 'the time change rate equation of K', which is passively and resultantly determined by the mutually independent volume and surface integral terms. It is shown that since the total helicity K can never be conserved in the real experimental systems, the conjecture of the total helicity invariance is not physically available to real magnetized plasmas in an exact sense. The well-known relaxation theory by Dr. J. B. Taylor is clarified to be neither the variational principle nor the energy principle, but be merely a mathematical calculation, using the variational calculus in order to find the minimum magnetic energy solution from the set of solutions having the same value of K. With the use of auto-correlations for physical quantities, it is presented that a novel basic formulation of an extended generalized ...

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

The current specifications of the LLNL fusion-fission hybrid proposal, namely LIFE, impose severe constraints on materials, and in particular on the nuclear fissile or fertile nuclear fuel and its immediate environment. This constitutes the focus of the present report with special emphasis on phase formation and phase transformations of the transmutation fuel and their consequences on particle and pebble thermal, chemical, and mechanical integrities. We first review the work that has been done in recent years to improve materials properties under the Gen-IV project, and with in particular applications to HTGR and MSR, and also under GNEP and AFCI in the USA. Our goal is to assess the nuclear fuel options that currently exist together with their issues. Among the options, it is worth mentioning TRISO, IMF, and molten salts. The later option will not be discussed in details since an entire report (Volume 8 - Molten-salt Fuels) is dedicated to it. Then, in a second part, with the specific ...

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The Kyoto Protocol attempts through political negotiations to guide participating industrialized countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a positive growing trend, to reach a peak point (or turning point), and then be reduced to a negative growth. That means the relationship between decreasing GHG emissions and economic growth may be described by an inverted-U curve (or called a bell-shaped curve), which is consistent with the concept of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. This research observed that the economic development and GHG emissions in Economies in Transition (EITs) exhibit a hockey-stick curve trend (or called quasi-L-shape curve), that also generates a lot of 'hot air' which is significant to the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. In addition, through the analysis of single-country time series data and GDP data, this research demonstrated that statistical data for most of the Annex II countries do not possess evidence that ...

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This article is divided in five parts, the first one having nothing to do with tachyons. In fact, to prepare the ground, in part I (sect.2) we shall merely show that special relativity - even without tachyons - can be given a form such to describe both particles and antiparticles. Part II is the largest one: initially, after some historical remarks and having revisited the postulates of special relativity, we presnt a review of the elegant ''model theory'' of tachyons in two dimensions; passing then to four dimensions, we review the main results of the classical theory of tachyons that do not depend on the existence of Superluminal reference frames (or that are at least independent of the explicit form of the Superluminal Lorentz ''transformations''). In particular, we discuss how tachyons would look like, i.e. their apparent ''shape''. Last but not least, ...

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This report presents a probabilistic safety assessment of radioactive doses as consequences from accident scenarios to complement the deterministic assessment presented in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Safety Analysis Report (SAR). The International Council of Radiation Protection (ICRP) recommends both assessments be conducted to ensure that ''an adequate level of safety has been achieved and that no major contributors to risk are overlooked'' (ICRP 1993). To that end, the probabilistic assessment for the WIPP accident scenarios addresses the wide range of assumptions, e.g. the range of values representing the radioactive source of an accident, that could possibly have been overlooked by the SAR. Routine releases of radionuclides from the WIPP repository to the environment during the waste emplacement operations are expected to be essentially zero. In contrast, potential accidental releases from postulated accident scenarios during waste ...