The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest facility in the world to study ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. It has a hybrid detection technique that combines the observation of the longitudinal ...development of extensive air showers and the measurement of their particles at the ground. This capability has opened the possibility to probe hadronic interactions taking place at energies well beyond those accessible by human-made accelerators. In this report, we present a selection of the latest results on hadronic interactions with measurements from the Pierre Auger Observatory. These data span over three decades in energy, showing the tension between data from the muon component of air showers and predictions based on the most updated hadronic interaction models.
The work investigates a small full-scale wastewater treatment system comprised by the following units in series: UASB reactor, three polishing ponds and one coarse rock filter. The overall ...performance of the system is analyzed based on three years of monitoring using physical-chemical and biological parameters. Good organic matter, suspended solids and ammonia removal is achieved, together with excellent coliform removal (5.70 log units). Mean effluent concentrations of the main parameters are: BOD: 39 mg/L; COD: 109 mg/L; SS = 41 mg/L; ammonia: 10 mg/L; E. coli: 540 MPN/100 mL, indicating compliance with many regulations for effluent discharge and reuse. Main algal classes found in the ponds and final effluent were chlorophyta and euglenophyta. The system is completely unmechanized and has a relatively small total hydraulic retention time (less than 13 days), compared with most natural treatment processes. No sludge removal from the ponds and filter has been necessary so far.
Organizational approaches to physician burnout are limited. Training physician leaders to influence the organizational environment is a growing area of study. This study explored perceived physician ...leadership behaviors in response to burnout from the viewpoint of faculty physicians not in formal leadership positions. Understanding physician leadership behaviors from the viewpoint of those faculty being led can inform organizational strategy and leadership training to address physician burnout.
Interview requests were sent to 70 randomly identified faculty physicians from a roster containing all 1145 physician faculty that excluded the Pediatric Department, at an academic health care institution in Southern California. The first ten respondents were asked to participate in a 30-to-40-minute semi-structured virtual interview via Zoom. The interviewees were asked two questions pertaining to burnout and their perception of how leadership responded. The two questions were "What has leadership done to address burnout?" and "If you had five minutes to advise your leaders on burnout, what would you say?" The recorded interviews were transcribed, redacted, and then sent to two reviewers. Thematic analysis through iterative coding was completed, and categories were constructed that aligned with the two interview questions.
Overall, five themes were identified. These themes were organized according to the interview questions and broadly categorized as physician leadership behaviors observed that corresponded to the interview question of what leadership had done to address burnout and physician leadership behaviors desired corresponding to the second interview question of what advice should be given. Leadership behaviors observed in the context of burnout included three themes; referral to individual wellness programs, increased number of meetings and events, and a lack of agency in addressing wellness issues. The two themes of leadership behaviors desired were the obtainment of more resources and the granting of greater appreciation and recognition for work done through enhanced communication.
This small study of faculty physician perceptions of leadership behaviors identified several themes that had been identified in previous studies of leadership and burnout; need for relationship building through communication, need for resources to address work issues, and referral to wellness programs. However, the identification of a lack of agency in addressing factors in the wellness environment has not been identified in the previous burnout and physician leadership literature. Further study into the causes of this perceived lack of agency should be explored. Understanding the root causes of physician leaders' lack of agency can further inform physician leadership education as an organizational approach to burnout.
El género Plectranthus L'Hér. (Familia Lamiaceae) posee alrededor de 300 especies, distribuidas en regiones cálidas y tropicales del mundo. Algunos representantes se destacan por los aceites ...esenciales presentes en hojas, tallos y brotes, de uso medicinal. Citogenéticamente, se reportó previamente un x=8 para el género. El objetivo de este trabajo es informar los avances citogenéticos de tres especies: Plectranthus madagascariensis (Pers.) Benth, con dos formas morfológicas marcadas: una de hoja chica y otra de hoja grande; Plectranthus verticillatus (L.f.) Druce y Plectranthus barbatus Andrews; su relación con grado de ploidía y forma de difusión. Se trabajó con colecciones de Tucumán, mantenidas por los autores de este trabajo. Para lograr las placas de mitosis y de meiosis se usaron meristemas radiculares y flores jóvenes, con técnicas convencionales. Los resultados determinaron para P. verticillatus, P. barbatus y P. madagascariensis forma hoja chica, un 2n=32, mientras que P. madagascariensis forma hoja grande, un 2n=48. El tamaño cromosómico es pequeño, variando de 1,5 a 2,5 µ. Considerando el número básico de x=8, P. verticillatus, P. barbatus y P. madagascariensis forma hoja chica son tetraploides, mientras que P. madagascariensis forma hoja grande, hexaploide. Las meiosis fueron irregulares en todos los casos, con escasa formación de semillas fértiles, por lo que se recurre a la multiplicación vegetativa para su propagación, asegurando así la provisión de material con uniformidad genética para su cultivo.
We report a multi-resolution search for anisotropies in the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with local zenith angles up to 80{sup o} and energies in excess ...of 4 EeV (4 × 10{sup 18} eV). This search is conducted by measuring the angular power spectrum and performing a needlet wavelet analysis in two independent energy ranges. Both analyses are complementary since the angular power spectrum achieves a better performance in identifying large-scale patterns while the needlet wavelet analysis, considering the parameters used in this work, presents a higher efficiency in detecting smaller-scale anisotropies, potentially providing directional information on any observed anisotropies. No deviation from isotropy is observed on any angular scale in the energy range between 4 and 8 EeV. Above 8 EeV, an indication for a dipole moment is captured; while no other deviation from isotropy is observed for moments beyond the dipole one. The corresponding p -values obtained after accounting for searches blindly performed at several angular scales, are 1.3 × 10{sup −5} in the case of the angular power spectrum, and 2.5 × 10{sup −3} in the case of the needlet analysis. While these results are consistent with previous reports making use of the same data set, they provide extensions of the previous works through the thorough scans of the angular scales.
We present a combined fit of a simple astrophysical model of UHECR sources to both the energy spectrum and mass composition data measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The fit has been performed ...for energies above 5 ⋅ 10{sup 18} eV, i.e. the region of the all-particle spectrum above the so-called 'ankle' feature. The astrophysical model we adopted consists of identical sources uniformly distributed in a comoving volume, where nuclei are accelerated through a rigidity-dependent mechanism. The fit results suggest sources characterized by relatively low maximum injection energies, hard spectra and heavy chemical composition. We also show that uncertainties about physical quantities relevant to UHECR propagation and shower development have a non-negligible impact on the fit results.
UASB reactors followed by polishing ponds comprise simple and economic wastewater treatment systems, capable of reaching very high removal efficiencies of pathogenic organisms, leading to the ...potential use of the effluent for unrestricted irrigation. However, for other types of reuse (urban and industrial), ponds are limited in the sense of producing effluents with high suspended solids (algae) concentrations. The work investigates a system with coarse rock filters for polishing the pond effluent. The overall performance of the system is analyzed, together with the potential for different types of reuse. The excellent results obtained (mean effluent concentrations: BOD: 27 mg/L; SS: 26 mg/L; E. coli: 450 MPN/100 mL) indicate the possibility of unrestricted use of the effluent for agriculture and restricted urban and industrial uses, according to WHO and USEPA.
A system comprising a UASB reactor, shallow polishing ponds and shallow coarse filters, treating actual wastewater from the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has been evaluated. The main focus of the ...research was to compare grain sizes and hydraulic loading rates in the coarse filters. Two filters operating in parallel were investigated, with the following grain sizes: Filter 1: 3 to 10 cm; Filter 2: 8 to 20 cm. Two hydraulic loading rates were tested: 0.5 and 1.0 m3/m3.d. The filter with the lower rock size had a better performance than the filter with the larger rock size in the removal of SS and, as a consequence, BOD and COD. A better performance was obtained with the hydraulic loading rate of 0.5 m3/m3.d, as compared to the rate of 1.0 m3/m3.d. The effluent quality during the period with the lower loading rate was very good for discharge into water bodies or for agricultural reuse (median effluent concentrations from Filter 1: BOD: 20 mg/L; COD: 106 mg/L; SS: 28 mg/L; E. coli: 528 MPN/100 mL).
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