The 1979 Southeastern Virginia Urban Plume Study (SEV-UPS): Surface and airborne studies

The operation of two surface monitoring stations (one in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, one south of the city near the Great Dismal Swamp) and the collection of 40 hours of airborne measurements is described. Surface site measurements of ozone, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, temperature, dew point, b sub seat, and condensation nuclei were made. Instrument calibrations, quality assurance audits, and preliminary data analysis in support of the Urban Plume Study were also made. The air pollution problems that were addressed are discussed. Data handling procedures followed for the surface stations are presented. The operation of the aircraft sampling platform is described. Aircraft sampling procedures are discussed. A preliminary descriptive analysis of the aircraft data is given along with data or plots for surface sites, airborne studies, hydrocarbon species, and instrument performance audits. Several of the aircraft flights clearly show the presence of an urban ozone plume downwind of Norfolk in the direction of the mean wind flow

Preclinical Cushing's syndrome in adrenal incidentalomas

Adrenal tumors are usually diagnosed by clinical symptoms of hormone excess. The increasing use of ultrasound and computed tomography results in the detection of a substantial number of incidentally discovered adrenal tumors. Most of these tumors are nonfunctional adrenocortical adenomas, but a few cases of subclinical cortisol production in "incidentalomas" have been reported. We investigated prospectively the prevalence of autonomous cortisol production in 68 patients (44 females and 24 males, aged 25-90 yr) with adrenal incidentalomas at our institution. As a screening procedure all patients with incidentalomas underwent an overnight dexamethasone suppression test (1 mg). Patients who failed to suppress serum cortisol below 140 nmol/L (5 micrograms/dL) underwent more comprehensive studies (prolonged dexamethasone suppression test, determination of the diurnal rhythm of cortisol secretion in saliva, and CRH stimulation test). Eight patients (12% of all patients with incidentalomas; 5 females and 3 males, aged 25-71 yr) were finally identified as having cortisol- producing tumors, and the findings in these patients were compared with those of overt Cushing's syndrome in 8 patients (8 females, aged 26-50 yr) suffering from cortisol-producing adrenal adenomas. The tumor size of patients with cortisol-producing incidentalomas ranged from 2-5 cm. No specific signs and symptoms of hypercortisolism were present, but arterial hypertension (seven of eight subjects), diffuse obesity (four of eight subjects), and noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM; two of eight subjects) were frequently observed. Baseline cortisol levels were in the normal to upper normal range, whereas baseline ACTH levels were suppressed in five of the eight patients. In none of the patients was serum cortisol suppressible by low dose or high dose dexamethasone. The ACTH and cortisol responses to CRH were normal in two, blunted in one, and suppressed in four patients. Unilateral adrenalectomy was performed in seven patients and resulted in temporary adrenal insufficiency in four of them. After surgery, improvement of arterial hypertension, a permanent weight loss in obese subjects, and a better metabolic control of NIDDM were noted in the majority of patients. The following conclusions were reached. Incidentally diagnosed adrenal tumors with pathological cortisol secretion in otherwise clinically asymptomatic patients are more frequently observed than previously assumed. Adrenocortical insufficiency is a major risk in these patients after adrenalectomy. After surgery, hypertension, obesity, and NIDDM may improve. Patients with asymptomatic adrenal incidentalomas, therefore, should be screened for cortisol production by means of an overnight dexamethasone suppression test

In situ sensors for measurements in the global trosposphere

Current techniques available for the in situ measurement of ambient trace gas species, particulate composition, and particulate size distribution are reviewed. The operational specifications of the various techniques are described. Most of the techniques described are those that have been used in airborne applications or show promise of being adaptable to airborne applications. Some of the instruments described are specialty items that are not commercially-available. In situ measurement techniques for several meteorological parameters important in the study of the distribution and transport of ambient air pollutants are discussed. Some remote measurement techniques for meteorological parameters are also discussed. State-of-the-art measurement capabilities are compared with a list of capabilities and specifications desired by NASA for ambient measurements in the global troposphere

A Comprehensive Economic Stimulus for our Failing Economy

This paper presents a comprehensive plan to fix the ailing American economy, through a five-step approach. First, the Federal Reserve must continue to broaden the scope of monetary policy, by purchasing and selling long-term securities. Manipulating expectations through FOMC statements is another tool at the Federal Reserve’s disposal. Secondly, the government must enact fiscal stimulus to stabilize the economy in the short and medium runs, through investment in infrastructure projects, green technology, fusion technology, and science education. Additionally, the new fiscal policy must tackle the mortgage meltdown, which is weighing down the entire economy. Third, the regulatory system must be changed to reduce the likelihood of another financial collapse, starting with the nationalization of the ratings agencies. Ratings should be updated faster, with a numeric grading system rather than the pre-existing letter grades. Fourth, our globalized economy insures that a coordinated globalized response is necessary to recover. Global cooperation to reduce inflation and avoid protectionist policies is vital. Finally, the American bailout policy must be made clear, only giving bailouts to companies that are sound but financially strapped and those that are too big to fail

Projective Fourier Duality and Weyl Quantization

The Weyl-Wigner correspondence prescription, which makes large use of Fourier duality, is reexamined from the point of view of Kac algebras, the most general background for noncommutative Fourier analysis allowing for that property. It is shown how the standard Kac structure has to be extended in order to accommodate the physical requirements. An Abelian and a symmetric projective Kac algebras are shown to provide, in close parallel to the standard case, a new dual framework and a well-defined notion of projective Fourier duality for the group of translations on the plane. The Weyl formula arises naturally as an irreducible component of the duality mapping between these projective algebras.Comment: LaTeX 2.09 with NFSS or AMSLaTeX 1.1. 102Kb, 44 pages, no figures. requires subeqnarray.sty, amssymb.sty, amsfonts.sty. Final version with text improvements and crucial typos correction

Fourier Duality as a Quantization Principle

The Weyl-Wigner prescription for quantization on Euclidean phase spaces makes essential use of Fourier duality. The extension of this property to more general phase spaces requires the use of Kac algebras, which provide the necessary background for the implementation of Fourier duality on general locally compact groups. Kac algebras -- and the duality they incorporate -- are consequently examined as candidates for a general quantization framework extending the usual formalism. Using as a test case the simplest non-trivial phase space, the half-plane, it is shown how the structures present in the complete-plane case must be modified. Traces, for example, must be replaced by their noncommutative generalizations - weights - and the correspondence embodied in the Weyl-Wigner formalism is no more complete. Provided the underlying algebraic structure is suitably adapted to each case, Fourier duality is shown to be indeed a very powerful guide to the quantization of general physical systems.Comment: LaTeX 2.09 with NFSS or AMSLaTeX 1.1. 97Kb, 43 pages, no figures. requires subeqnarray.sty, amssymb.sty, amsfonts.sty. Final version with (few) text and (crucial) typos correction

Transport properties of heterogeneous materials derived from Gaussian random fields: Bounds and Simulation

We investigate the effective conductivity ($\sigma_e$) of a class of amorphous media defined by the level-cut of a Gaussian random field. The three point solid-solid correlation function is derived and utilised in the evaluation of the Beran-Milton bounds. Simulations are used to calculate $\sigma_e$ for a variety of fields and volume fractions at several different conductivity contrasts. Relatively large differences in $\sigma_e$ are observed between the Gaussian media and the identical overlapping sphere model used previously as a `model' amorphous medium. In contrast $\sigma_e$ shows little variability between different Gaussian media.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure

Biological Valuation Map of Flanders: A Sentinel-2 Imagery Analysis

In recent years, machine learning has become crucial in remote sensing analysis, particularly in the domain of Land-use/Land-cover (LULC). The synergy of machine learning and satellite imagery analysis has demonstrated significant productivity in this field, as evidenced by several studies. A notable challenge within this area is the semantic segmentation mapping of land usage over extensive territories, where the accessibility of accurate land-use data and the reliability of ground truth land-use labels pose significant difficulties. For example, providing a detailed and accurate pixel-wise labeled dataset of the Flanders region, a first-level administrative division of Belgium, can be particularly insightful. Yet there is a notable lack of regulated, formalized datasets and workflows for such studies in many regions globally. This paper introduces a comprehensive approach to addressing these gaps. We present a densely labeled ground truth map of Flanders paired with Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. Our methodology includes a formalized dataset division and sampling method, utilizing the topographic map layout 'Kaartbladversnijdingen,' and a detailed semantic segmentation model training pipeline. Preliminary benchmarking results are also provided to demonstrate the efficacy of our approach